She let out a howl of frustration.
We’re searching for harmony here, so feel free to help a girl out. I stopped and crouched lower. I was one car length from Drake and Jen. He had a grimy hand covering her mouth and one solidly around her middle. He was fully occupied.
I shimmied to the edge of the fender. As much as I was aching to jump in right away, I had to be patient. We had to pin Drake with everything we could. If I jumped too early, especially since he had the gift of persuasion, he could easily convince Jen that nothing had happened and get away scot-free. I couldn’t risk that.
Jen bravely kicked and slammed her head into his shoulder over and over. She was fighting a good fight. It was all I could do not to attack then and there. Drake was obviously struggling to keep his hold. He finally grabbed her face and hissed something in her ear. She stopped moving instantly.
He hurried her back toward his car.
I followed closely, keeping myself low and out of sight. I spotted Nick across the road. He was right on time, whistling something under his breath, making a good show of a man heading back to his car from a night at the movies. Drake saw him immediately and arched himself around, Jen still in his arms, changing his plans instantly. He started toward the knoll to get out of sight, just like we’d thought.
Drake, although not full on brains, would’ve had a loose plan in place. If he failed to get his victim to his car in time, the hill would provide a cover from any human interference. That’s why he’d picked this particular theater complex.
Only he had no idea that the only female werewolf on the fucking planet was coming after him.
The moment he disappeared from sight I took off. There was a small cry followed by the sound of a body hitting the ground. I jumped the curb, leaping into the air, clearing the knoll in one jump. Drake was already on top of her. From my angle, it wasn’t clear if he was trying to keep her quiet or if he was going to satiate himself right then and there.
It didn’t matter, because I was on him one beat later.
I hit him hard, smashing into him from the side, and we both went flying. “Take that, asshole,” I growled. I rolled once and was back on my feet. Drake readied himself just as quickly, snarling at me, flashing a set of stained, yellowed teeth that looked remarkably sharp.
Hmm, maybe he had a bit more imp in him than we’d previously considered.
He let out an enraged yowl and came at me with impressive speed, but he wasn’t nearly as fast as I was. When he was within an arm’s length of me, I swung my right leg around and connected with his ribs. They popped with a satisfying crack and he flew backward ten feet in the air.
My wolf gave a delighted yip. See, I’m not a pansy. You’re going to have to start trusting me.
Despite his injury, Drake was up and on me again. “You little bitch,” he hissed. “I’m going to make you hurt for that.”
He seemed to have increased strength, as well as persuasion. I was now a hundred percent certain Drake Jensen was genetically more imp than human. If I hadn’t just become a full-blooded wolf, I was pretty sure he would have the upper hand and my ass would’ve been in serious trouble.
I needed more strength.
I made a split-second decision and opened myself a little to my wolf. I cracked the opaque barrier a tiny bit and she gleefully burned through me, pumping me with more strength, giving me a satisfied growl in return.
Drake came at us again, and I dodged him easily. He wheeled around, changing his direction quickly. I braced myself for the impact and we both exploded to the ground. He landed on top, grinning down at me, mistakenly thinking he’d caught a lucky break. He threw a punch, connecting hard with my left shoulder. It rocked me into the dirt, but as he recoiled to throw another punch, putting space between us, I shimmied my knees up under him and rolled back on my hips. I threw him off in a rush, crossing my fingers that he would hit something hard. I jumped to my feet.
My shoulder hitched for a second, healing from the blow. Another shot of adrenaline raced through me, courtesy of my wolf. The surge of new power was more than the small opening I’d just made could sustain for any length of time. The little crack was on track to become a gaping fissure. With my new infusion of strength, I felt fire kindle in my irises. I was certain they were blazing full yellow.
Drake lunged at me again, feral madness in his own eyes. I spun quickly, pivoting back around, bringing my arm up. Using the power in my upper body as a fulcrum, I smashed my fist into his face as we collided.
Drake’s face imploded in on itself as he flew backward, crashing directly into the small tree behind him, shaking it to its roots. He slid down the base, collapsing into a scumbag heap on the ground.
I stood staring, my mouth open, eyes wide for several beats. The thrill of the fight wound tightly inside me like a loaded spring ready to explode. I felt no pain, only pure elation. I forced myself to bend over, bracing my palms on my thighs, taking in several quick breaths. I had to calm down, shut myself off from the adrenaline. But my wolf wanted more, rubbing against my mind like an itch I couldn’t scratch. She demanded we finish what we’d started here.
I had to settle her. We did it, the bad guy is down. Now we have to get ourselves under control, because it’s going be crazy around here any minute. People will be crawling all over. Honestly, I couldn’t have done that without you, but I need to be fully in charge now, and I can’t do it if you fight me. It’s too damn hard to concentrate when my brain is divided. Do you understand?
She gave a frustrated bark, but eased back down.
Someone was calling my name. “Jess! Jess, are you okay?” Nick jogged in my direction. “Jesus Christ, Jess! That was completely insane. I’ve never seen anyone fight like that. I couldn’t even track you, you were moving so fast. I think you might have killed him.” He looked from me to the listless pile of Drake.
I met his eyes and he gasped.
“My God,” he breathed. “Look at your eyes. They’re fully changed. How in the hell are you doing that?”
“They’re still lit?” I gasped between breaths. “I’ve got to calm myself down. When the crowd comes I can’t have glowing yellow eyes. That would be a teensy bit suspicious.”
“Um, Jess?”
“Huh?”
“They’re not … exactly yellow,” Nick said quietly. “They’re actually kind of … purple …”
I rose to a standing position so quickly I almost tossed myself ass backward. I stumbled to get my footing and opened my mouth to tell Nick he had to be out of his frigging mind, but a voice inside my head interrupted me before I could get the words out. Jessica! Jessica, what’s going on! Jessica, are you okay? Goddammit! Answer me this instant!
It’s okay, Dad! I’m here. I put a finger up to Nick and turned and walked a few paces away. I’m fine. There was just … I had a little trouble at work. Are we on an open line here?
No, of course not. Your wolf called to mine and I answered, like I’ve always done when one of mine is in need. Then for some reason … I couldn’t connect with you. I could feel his confusion. I’ve been trying my damnedest to reach out to you ever since. What in the hell is going on down there?
Well. I surveyed the scene in front of me. Jen was quietly weeping and Drake was still unmoving against the tree. It seems I just won a fight against an angry imp who was gunning to kill me. At least I think he was an imp. He was actually stronger than we’d originally anticipated. I wasn’t sure what to say about the next part. And because I underestimated him, I sort of needed … well, I guess you could say I brought my wolf to the forefront to help me get rid of him, but I didn’t shift. If I hadn’t used her, I’m not sure I would’ve won. I glanced over at the pile of Drake bleeding profusely from his face. I think I may have killed him by accident.
There was dead silence in my mind.
Dad? Listen, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to do anything wrong. I honestly don’t know what happened, it all went so fast. A fight like that should’ve taken
an hour, but it seemed to happen at warp speed. There was no time to slam on the brakes. I just reacted as best I could. I never should have come out tonight on this run, but I thought I could handle it.
After a long pause, my father said, Jessica, we’ll discuss this later. We have strict Pack rules and guidelines that must be followed. No exceptions. You don’t know our ways yet, so I am going to give you some leeway. Using your wolf is acceptable, but shifting is not. But I’m more concerned about your safety right now. It’s my top priority. Do you need a cleanup crew? I can have James and Danny there in five minutes. All supernaturals had a strict “cleanup” protocol. If we called in the human authorities every time a fight happened between us, our secret would be out with the first dead cadaver. When something with fangs, no working organs, yellow eyes, or pointy ears showed up in the morgue it tended to get noticed. There were breaches, but for the most part every Sect followed the rules.
I considered taking my father up on it. I’d never used a cleanup crew before, and it would be so much easier to have Drake disappear. No, this one will have to be aboveboard. We have a teenage civilian. Something streaked by my peripheral vision. It was Becky. She took one look at Jen, who was lying where Drake had left her, and dropped to her knees, wrapping her arms around her pal crying. Make that two civilians. There’s going to be a huge scene in about ten minutes. Police, ambulances, concerned parents, the whole nine yards.
What can I do?
There’s nothing you can do here. Are you at the Compound?
Yes, I’m here. The wolves are still … in some unrest. I am occupied for the moment.
What about the tranq? I knew Ray would be breathing down my neck as soon as my involvement with Drake came over the wire.
Jace is putting together medical papers for you and he’ll fax them down tomorrow. He’s confident the lab won’t be able to identify the serum. He’s going to label you as having some kind of a seizure disorder.
Got it. Becky was beginning to get hysterical. I have to run.
Jessica? There’s one more thing. I heard—or rather felt—tension in his voice.
Yes?
What I say to you now has to be kept between us at all costs. I can’t stress this enough. Do you understand? Anxiety thrummed through the connection.
Yes, of course I understand. I won’t repeat it.
Tonight? What you did? Blocking me like that? He took a breath. It’s never been done before. There has never been a wolf strong enough to block me the way you just did. I’m fairly certain that’s what you were doing—whether you intended to or not. No matter how much power I pushed toward you, and even though your wolf had called to mine, I couldn’t break through. I felt his fear then. Jessica, I felt all your emotions … and I couldn’t do a damn thing to control them.
Well, fuck.
8
As predicted, the scene was chaos in under ten minutes. Huge spotlights drenched every inch of our little pocket of grass. It was lit up like a stadium during the Super Bowl. The place was crawling with reporters, cops, firefighters, curious moviegoers, theater staff, and a double set of furious parents.
Nick and I sat half perched out of a squad car, giving our statements to the attending officers. Thankfully, Ray hadn’t shown up yet, but there was little doubt he would materialize soon enough.
I hoped I’d be excused before then, but it seemed doubtful.
“Okay, Ms. Hannon. We have what we need for now. Someone will be in contact with you soon. Mr. Jensen’s final condition”—the female cop nodded toward the ambulance—“will affect this process, as you know.” She meant, if Drake managed to survive, I would be expected to testify in court, and if he died, well, there would most likely be a detailed investigation into his death. I wasn’t looking forward to either scenario.
Before we put a call in to 911, Nick had persuaded both girls, changing the story of what had really happened to something easier to swallow. Poor Jen would retain most of her “before” part clearly—but watching me almost kill her attacker bare-handed with stupefying speed had been tweaked as necessary. In the spirit of things, Nick had even coaxed her out of severe shock before the paramedics arrived, which had been a big task because he’d also had the wailing Becky to contend with.
My right hand, where it’d connected with Drake’s jaw, had completely healed in a matter of minutes, so blaming hand-to-hand combat on what had happened to Drake’s face was completely implausible.
While Nick was busy tending the girls, I’d devised a quick solution with an appropriately sized rock. I pressed it into the contours of Drake’s face, smearing the surface of the stone with an adequate amount of blood and tissue. Thankfully Drake hadn’t stirred during the process—and to my relief, he hadn’t been quite dead either. Supernaturals, on the whole, were tough to kill. But that didn’t mean he’d be waking up anytime soon. His injuries were severe—even for a supe.
The story I told the police was that I’d snuck up on him with the trusty rock, interrupting his attack, and hit him with more force than I’d intended. The story hadn’t accounted for any of the other injuries to his body, but there was a chance Drake would heal some of his own wounds by the time he arrived at the hospital. That would certainly help.
I glanced over the officer’s shoulder as they loaded Drake into the back of the ambulance. He’d already been in a human jail, but I had no idea if he’d ever been in a hospital. An imp’s blood wasn’t exactly a red flag. Most of the time their blood was classified as hemophilic.
The officer handed back my ID. “I understand the process,” I said. “Is there anything else?”
“Will we be able to contact you at this number tomorrow?” She read back my cell phone number.
“Yes.”
“Then you’re free to go.”
Nick was still giving his statement, so I stood outside the car and waited. Our story should hold as long as the persuasion held and Jen didn’t decide to change her side of the story to, “The girl with the glowing violet eyes beat him to death with her fists.”
Unfortunately, blue-sundressed Jen would likely have dreams containing pieces of the true events her entire life. The subconscious was a powerful thing, and this had been an extremely traumatic event for her. Lucky for us, and her, Nick was one of the strongest wielders of the gift. There were only a few humans who hadn’t succumbed to his efforts, and the guy heading straight toward me was one of them.
Cripes.
No matter how many times Nick had tried, Raymond Hart’s mind had never taken to persuasion. The alterations in his line of thinking never stuck for more than an hour at most. And Ray always acted crazy for the next few days. He had no idea what had happened to him, just that something had, and he always blamed me, his anger becoming more intense every time we tried. It was a lost cause, so we’d stopped trying.
“Ray, it’s such a nice surprise to see you here,” I said. “I’m assuming you rushed all the way over here, nowhere near your jurisdiction, to make sure I was safe after my awful run-in with a pedophile. Thanks for caring so much, big guy.” I mocked punching his arm
“Cut the shit, Hannon. This has your name written all over it,” he said.
“Well, yes it does, doesn’t it?” I smiled. “I guess it makes sense my name would be attached to it, since I’m the one who took the creep down a few minutes ago. If it had someone else’s name attached, we’d be in a quandary.”
“You don’t fool me for one minute. Destruction follows you like metal to a magnet. I don’t care if you have some lousy, half-concocted story about why you happened to be here tonight. Or why you knew exactly when an attempted teenage rape was going to take place. Or why there’s a man over there with half his face caved in.” Ray took a step forward, getting into my personal space. He was actually pretty good at intimidation for a non-wolf. I wasn’t shaking in my boots, but he’d made me think twice. My wolf wasn’t the least interested, which was nice. I didn’t need that complication right now. But if Ray c
ontinued to push, there was no doubt she’d want in on the action at some point. “I know,” he continued in a harsh whisper. “I know you have something more to do with this than you’re letting on. I can feel it in my bones. And when I find out what it is, I’m going to throw your ass in jail, make no mistake about it. And when I do, I’m gonna sing to the high heavens. You’re going down, Hannon. And there’s not a damn thing you can do to stop it.”
He turned on his heel and stalked away, his swagger assuring me he meant every last word. I knew he was going to stick his nose into the Drake investigation, and I also had a sinking feeling if he made a lot of noise our thin story wouldn’t hold up. A coroner would know better, if he or she was forced to make a serious assessment about a possible murder weapon. It most likely would not come back in my favor.
If Drake lived, my life would be much easier.
I yawned. I needed some sleep. “Let’s get out of here. I’m beat,” I said to Nick, who’d just finished up and was walking around the car.
“Beat doesn’t cover it. What a crazy-ass night,” Nick said. It was only ten-thirty, but it felt like three a.m.
We walked across the parking lot and I poured myself into the passenger side. Nick slipped behind the wheel. I mindlessly grabbed the bag of pastries and fished the last one out and took a bite as Nick drove away.
Nick was quiet for a while before he finally turned to me. “Jess, now that you’re a full-blooded werewolf everything is going to be different. You get that, right? Especially with a serious threat like Ray Hart. Before, he was a mild inconvenience in your life, but now he’ll be viewed by Pack as a direct threat. You’ll be protected at all costs whether you like it or not.” Nick kept his eyes on the road. “That’s Pack Law to the letter. We all follow it. If there’s even a slight chance Ray might find out what you are, or if he comes too close, or threatens you physically …”
Full Blooded Page 9
