Bite the Bullet

by L. A. Banks

  Oh, yeah, her system was compromised by a very definite condition. This was ludicrous. Ten minutes prior, she’d been ready to deliver a silver slug to his skull, and now after some rhetorical conversation she was ready to jump his bones?

  Horrified, she followed Silver Hawk out of the kitchen loaded down with artillery, trying hard not to look at Hunter’s impressive back . . . or that delicious dip in his spine, or his very tight, absolutely gorgeous ass that one could bounce a quarter off of.

  A cold slap of air and the real dangers of an ambush, however, stopped her mind from vacillating. The threesome moved like the wind itself, sliding from shadow to shadow in stealth silence until they reached the garage.

  Entering a building in a hostile environment was always dangerous. Hunter eased his weapons stash to the ground and took two nine millimeters, motioning with gun barrels for her and Silver Hawk to round the building. Now everybody needed to be on point until the all clear was given.

  Silver Hawk’s expert tracking was something profound to witness. Sasha watched the old man get down low on the ground on all fours, close his eyes, and tilt his head, and she saw the edges of his nostrils slightly flare as he deeply inhaled. Pointing, he indicated fresh tire tracks that led away from the exit, and she squinted, noticing that there weren’t any footprints or paw prints to compliment the tire tracks.

  In a lithe push-up that should have belonged to a man one-third his age, Silver Hawk rose with a bewildered expression on his face and then placed an open hand against the side of the building. Sasha remained very still as she waited for his assessment. He then held up two fingers in a V shape. It was her turn to tilt her head.

  Vampires?

  Hunter rounded the building and gave them a thumbs-up. Nothing had barreled in there in Werewolf form, but Silver Hawk held up a hand and gave Hunter his gun before slipping into the smoothest wolf transition she’d ever seen. His clothes simply melted off his body and were left in a small pool on the ground with his doeskin moccasins.

  From that silent transformation the most majestic creature she’d ever seen emerged. As the cold wind blew she could see that the huge wolf’s coat was snowy white beneath silver gray edging, and his wise, aged eyes seemed to hold the depths of many lifetimes. Silver Hawk, now transitioned to Silver Shadow, glimpsed back once and then leaped through a shadow into the unknown.

  Sasha started forward, worry for the old man’s safety rising in her like a sudden tide. Hunter placed a hand on her shoulder. But he’d gone through a Shadow door alone!

  Frantic, she gave Hunter the signal that had freaked her out. The second she opened her forefinger and middle finger in a V she could see his expression harden. Silver shells would only slow that particular entity down, not kill it. They’d have to expand their arsenal on the fly, if that was what was in the garage.

  The double doors creaked open eerily. Two barrels pointed at it, Hunter on one side of the doors, Sasha on the other. A low howl snapped their forearms back. Hunter swept up his grandfather’s clothes and tossed them to him as he and Sasha quickly entered the building.

  “I have checked the trucks they left behind and they haven’t been tampered with,” Silver Hawk said, dressing quickly with his back toward them. He indicated with a quick nod to an empty mechanic’s bay where a truck had probably once been housed. “They siphoned the blue one for gasoline and took the fuel can,” he added, pointing at drips on the floor and then toward the tool rack on the wall, “plus took some chains and tools, but everything else is as it should be.”

  “If Vampires were here in a garage and took those items, then it would have to have been lower-level ones, like henchmen, who couldn’t materialize what they needed out of thin air.” Sasha’s gaze tore around the well-equipped garage. “Doesn’t make sense.”

  “Maybe they got chased here by whatever were-pack was on the loose,” Hunter offered, going to collect the stash outside that they’d set down. “Or maybe they’re in on this bull again?”

  “Yeah, but what’s their angle this time?” Sasha folded her arms over her chest, thinking. “I thought once burned, twice learned was the way Vampires viewed the world?”

  “Do not forget,” Silver Hawk said, his gaze holding hers, “that particular entity never lets a grudge pass unaddressed. Perhaps all of this is a part of a much larger game being played.”

  That thought had definitely crossed her mind more than once. Sasha nodded but didn’t comment further as she found the keys to a Dodge RAM1500, climbed in with Silver Hawk, and backed the red vehicle out into the driveway. Within moments they’d all loaded as much artillery as they could fit into the cab and still ride in relative safety, and the rest went under a tarp in the flatbed.

  “Where to?” Sasha turned in the driver’s seat and looked at Silver Hawk, then Hunter.

  “This thing is following the packs’ normal route from north to south, tracking over familiar ground. If it was made from one of us, an infected Shadow Wolf, then it clearly knows our safe houses.”

  “That’s what had to have happened here at the lodge,” Hunter said. “It knew the building as well as I did, and every move I made, he was right on me.”

  “Maybe that’s why the Vamps came here—they could be tracking the infected Shadow too.” Sasha stared at Hunter for a moment and then sent a seeking gaze toward his grandfather.

  “Which could be disastrous down in New Orleans at the Conference. All they need is evidence to present and they can open a Shadow Wolf hunt, it’s in the bylaws.” Hunter rubbed his palms down his face. “Damn!”

  Silver Hawk nodded and looked at Sasha. “You yourself said you had picked up on unusual Were-demon energy and a trail that seemed to be on the move headed toward New Orleans—this was why you were sending your team there to investigate. That is why I think we should move outside of our normal bands as we make our way south.”

  “Pop is right,” Hunter said, opening the window and resting his elbow on the metal door frame. “If we’ve got infected Shadows on the move, and don’t know how many—the last place we need to go is along the old route.”

  Sasha backed the truck out farther and turned it around to head out of the lodge grounds. “Yeah, but the only problem there is we’d have to take this payload to a civvy motel, and then pray to God that we don’t have to get into a firefight.”

  Hunter looked at his grandfather, who was wedged between him and Sasha. “You’re the best candidate for offering oblations to the universe. I don’t think they listen to me up there too much.”

  Evidence of lower-ranking Vampires at the scene of an infected wolf attack was completely baffling. The two species were archenemies, and except for one very spurious, independent, rogue alliance that had ended disastrously with the Vampires being double-crossed, there was never an occasion where they’d peacefully cooperated with each other before. Under normal circumstances the two species abhorred each other. Therefore none of this made sense.

  But they had tried to do an alliance once, and the new pressure that human technology and awareness was placing on the supernatural world was perhaps no different than what was happening to the ecosystem. Humans tended to flush things out of their natural habitats.

  Sasha kept her eyes on the dark road, senses keened for another ambush with Hunter and Silver Hawk riding shotgun. Just like overzealous real estate development ate into the natural wilderness, which then had bears eating out of backyard garbage cans, or wolves eating farmers’ domesticated chickens and cows, maybe something was going on like that with the supernatural wilderness?

  Too bad Vampires were experts at blocking psychic invasions and were pretty good at giving as well as they got in that department. So it wasn’t going to be easy to do a vision quest or a divination to get the full story. Those approaches worked better on the preternatural wolf phyla. Sasha let out a weary breath. New Orleans was going to get ugly. For now, she had to focus on one issue at a time, namely getting them all to a place where they could rest, eat, and re
cuperate for a hard travel day in the morning.

  Silence filled the cab on the monotonous, three-hour drive to a truck stop motel. As sleazy as the joint was, she still prayed for a vacancy.

  It was almost midnight and her mind was so weary from flipping the variables over and over in her brain that she was punchy. The only thing keeping her upright was adrenaline and frustration. She didn’t even want to think about the latter of the two issues. It would pass; it had to pass. She and Hunter had to remain on point for danger at all times . . . but damn the moon was a sexy beast tonight.

  Hunter was out of the vehicle before she had rolled to a stop. She just looked away from him through the windshield for a moment and then slammed the gears into park with an attitude. The door to the vehicle was still wide open and she couldn’t even look at Silver Hawk. Unfazed, the old man slid over and closed the passenger-side door.

  “They have a diner. We should eat,” he said simply.

  Sasha nodded but kept her gaze straight ahead. “As soon as Hunter comes back.”

  “I should patrol . . . you both should rest. This would be best.”

  She kept her gaze forward and could feel the muscle pulsing in her jaw as she ground her teeth. “We can take shifts so you can rest. You’ve been tracking all day and have to be exhausted. You did an amazing healing and that had to take a lot out of you . . . no disrespect intended, sir.” She glimpsed him from the corner of her eye. “You’ve been our ace in the hole . . . if you hadn’t shown up with meds . . . I don’t know what would have happened.”

  A strong, age-weathered hand cupped her cheek and made her look at its owner.

  “Daughter-Shadow, listen to not my words but my eyes and my heart. I will patrol; you rest with your mate. The trauma that you have both endured is profound, just as the battles you have fought and are fighting at this moment. Lay down your burden to heal your spirits. In the morning, I will sleep as you two drive, will do as old men do and sleep on planes, trains, buses, whatever conveyance we select. No one will be the wiser, for I am just an elderly old man.” He smiled a toothy grin and nodded; moonlight glinted off his long, silver braids that hung down his chest. “But come nightfall, know that I am wide awake and still all wolf.”

  She was left mute and mildly embarrassed by Silver Hawk’s deep insight as he withdrew from her and slipped from the truck. The old saying that Doc had once told her, every shut eye ain’t sleep, came immediately to mind as she watched the old man’s straight, proud back.

  Still, Silver Hawk hadn’t left her much choice. She had to wait in the vehicle until Hunter returned, given the hefty load of weapons under a tarp in the back. Sure, one could claim they were going hunting, but some of the stuff they were toting with automatic rounds would give any ranger serious pause.

  Before long, she saw Hunter exit the small registration building and lope in her direction. Although his return staved off the nervous energy that had her bouncing off the walls of the truck interior while she waited, watching him take those long, fluid strides of his was truly messing with her mind. His body moved with such commanding grace . . . his eyes had found hers, had locked in on her gaze and held it as though a focal point to guide him through the night.

  Maybe that had something to do with her eroding mental state; she couldn’t quite articulate it even to herself. But one thing was for sure: she was going to have to explain where Silver Hawk had disappeared to and didn’t have a clue.

  Hunter opened the passenger’s-side door and slid into the seat. He hadn’t broken eye contact and the hunger in his stare was so blatant that it finally made her look away.

  “I got three rooms,” he said in a quiet rumble and then pushed a stray wisp of her hair behind her ear.

  She nodded without looking at him, knowing that was best. Instead she stared at the dashboard for a moment while trying to stave off the burn his touch left. As it was, she could barely breathe, feeling his energy wash over her in a thick blanket of desire.

  “Two are adjoining . . . have a door in between. The other is down the row a bit.”

  Hunter’s gaze hadn’t wavered. It wasn’t necessary to look at him to know that. She swallowed hard, her mouth suddenly dry.

  “Where’s Silver Hawk?” he finally asked just above a murmur.

  “I don’t know,” she said quietly. The moment she looked at him his gaze trapped hers. “He said we should eat, he would take first watch and he’d sleep as we drove in the morning.”

  “God bless him,” Hunter whispered.

  For a moment neither of them spoke and then she pulled out of the daze and rubbed her palms down her face.

  “Wait, wait, listen. This is crazy,” she said.

  He nodded slowly and licked his newly healed bottom lip, causing it to glisten in the moonlight. “Insane.”

  “No,” she said, not as strongly as intended. “What I mean is—it’s dangerous, we all have to stay alert and on point, and you’ve got some madness spiking through your system that . . .”

  Her words trailed off as he looked away and lifted his chin. She hadn’t meant to offend him or call him a virus carrier, but damn, for all she knew he was. The moment blown, his next statements became a crisp series of logistics.

  “You’re right. Bad lapse in judgment—blame it on the moon. So we get this artillery stashed in the rooms, I’ll call Silver Hawk and work out a patrol schedule with him so he can get a few hours of shut-eye tonight. We all eat at the diner together.”

  Sadness threaded through the ache within her. Damn, she hadn’t meant what she’d said to come off the way it did. She wanted to reach out and touch him as he turned and opened the door, giving her his fantastically ripped back to consider.

  “We’ll keep the door bolted between the rooms.” He tossed her a room key and jumped down from the truck. “I’ll walk, meet you over there.”

  For a moment she didn’t move, couldn’t. The man had turned her on so badly she had to grip the steering wheel to keep her hands from shaking. When he threw his head back and howled for Silver Hawk, she closed her eyes and allowed a private shudder to claim her. Drive. She had to get out of Hunter’s magnetic tow for a minute to be able to function.

  He watched her pull off, needing distance and a cold slap of air to help steady him. The long ride in close confines, the look on her face just now when her breathing had hitched—damn, he was so hard he could barely walk across the driveway.

  “All is well?” Silver Hawk appeared and stepped beside him silently.

  “Yeah, Pop. We’re all going to the diner to eat after we unload the truck, should do it as family . . . stay together. I can take the first shift after—”

  “Son, look at the moon.” Silver Hawk smiled. “The imminent danger has passed.” He motioned with his chin across the driveway. “Look at her. Let me take the first shift.”

  Hunter shook his head no and set his jaw hard. It took three failed attempts at opening his mouth for words to form. He thrust a key into his grandfather’s thick hand and let out a hard breath. “I still might have virus in my system—it’s best if I take the first shift.” Humiliation stabbed his pride and propelled him forward, but his grandfather caught his arm.

  “You purged enough to almost stop your heart. Torture yourself if you must do penance—I’m going to the diner. She is a fully matured she-Shadow and her system is very strong. Your nose is ruined for the night to anything but her. I would feel safer to take the first shift, given your distraction . . . and I left a few more shots of antitoxin in the glove compartment if things get completely out of hand.” Silver Hawk added with a sly half-smile. “You are no longer a carrier.”

  Thoroughly frustrated, Hunter watched the old man take three long Shadow leaps and disappear. “Yeah, tell her that,” he muttered under his breath, crossing the driveway in pain.

  Chapter 12

  Too many conflicting thoughts fought for dominance in his mind: Protection. Danger. Sasha. Sex. The virus. Carriers. Sasha. Sex. The future. The
pack. Sasha. Sex. The clan. The predators. Sasha. Sex . . . and that lovely, gorgeous ass of hers. Honor! Food . . . Sasha—sex.

  His hands were trembling by the time he’d reached the truck. She probably saw it and that’s why she’d tossed him a shotgun with an attitude. He caught it with one hand, not even looking at it, still studying her rear view.

  Admonishing himself, he tried to keep his focus on the truck, but watching Sasha reach and bend and lift was carving a hole in the wrong side of his brain. Especially with a motel room so, so close.

  “Okay, Hunter,” she said, whirling on him. “This has got to stop.” She jumped down from the flatbed of the truck and glared at him.

  He nodded, never losing eye contact with her. “Just tell me how . . . and I’ll gladly oblige.”

  She let out an exasperated breath and brushed past him with an armload of artillery. He hurried to open the motel room door for her. She stopped him at the door with a hard look.

  “I, uh, guess I’ll take the rest of it next door.”

  “Good idea,” she said. “Maybe leave some heat and a coupla clips under the front seat of the truck for Silver Hawk in case he needs to re-up while out on patrol.”

  “Right. Roger that.”

  Hunter moved quickly to get the rest of the weapons into his room, nervous energy and frustration making his motions jerky. He didn’t disagree with her. Sasha was right. He did need to stop drooling over what wasn’t going to happen for a very long time, if ever again, just for the sake of his own sanity and pride. He’d been here most of his adult Shadow Wolf life, banished by the pack females because he had a little extra something crazy in his DNA. Now it had finally gone full blown at a very inopportune time. But he wasn’t sure what was worse, never having been with a she-Shadow and not having a mate, simply quarantined to human females, or experiencing the incomparable—Sasha.

  Before he could even tease himself with the thought that she’d make love to him again, first Doc had to test him and outcomes had to be proven . . . probably another full moon phase had to pass without any trace of the beast. That was the only safe and logical thing to do. Plus, they all had to live through the mission—this personal bullshit didn’t have anything to do with anything at all relevant to what they were dealing with now.