by Gina LaManna
“M-my...” Willa stuttered, then leaned forward, peered closer at her mother, or rather, the air above her. She stood, moved nearer to the bed. She reached out, but her hand swatted through the nothingness just north of her mother’s body.
“Willa, what is it?” Jack pressed. “What is it? Do you see something?”
Willa continued to stare into empty space. Then she blinked, shook her head, and said, “Mom?”
Chapter 29
Matthew inhaled and let out his breath slowly. A habit he’d picked up from Dani, no doubt, since inhaling oxygen was merely a formality for him. He stood outside the Howler and glanced up at the moon, calculating the cycle. Then he nodded to the bouncer at the door, who didn’t bother to ask for ID, and stepped inside.
The full moon had already passed, so the werewolves should still be relatively calm and collected. Of course, one of them could always lose their temper and pop into their second form, but that was a risk Matthew was willing to take.
He took a second step into the bar and glanced around. Despite the late hour, the place was packed. Heads were bowed together, corners were blanketed in darkness, and shadows flitted against the walls as the patrons shifted to glance at the newcomer.
A sudden hush filled the room as Matthew knew it would. After all, he was a vampire walking into a werewolf den.
He raised his hands, wondering if he should have mentioned his plan to Dani. She’d wanted him to go straight to Grey, but Matthew had another idea. He’d decided to take a risk.
Raising his hands, he glanced around at the now stock-still room. Save for the slight swish of liquid around glasses and the throaty swallows from those sipping their drinks, there was not so much as a footstep.
“I’ve come here to ask for peace,” Matthew said. “Please, hear me out.”
One of the larger wolves in the back—Jamie Privet, if Matthew remembered correctly—had been arrested by Matthew in the past. Unfortunately for Matthew, Privet seemed to remember as well. As usual, Privet was drunk, belligerent, and hankering for a fight. He stepped forward and crossed meaty arms over his thick chest.
“Whatchu doing here?” he asked. “Come to arrest me all over again? Or are you here to kill another one of us? Allie wasn’t enough, huh? You had to go on and kill Peterson, too?”
“I didn’t kill anyone,” Matthew said. “I swear it. On my life, on my mother’s life.”
“Your mother’s dead,” Privet said. “Nice try.”
“Swear it on Dani’s life.” The call came from behind the bar.
Matthew turned to face Liesel, the bartender who had become at least an acquaintance, if not a friend, over the last several months. “I swear it on Detective DeMarco’s life.”
“He’s lying,” Privet said. “He don’t care about her. He just cares about sucking us dry.”
“He didn’t do it,” Liesel said. “Calm down, Privet.”
“Loyalties...” Privet warned, glaring at Liesel. “If I wanna ask questions of the vamp, I’m gonna. Swear on your little detective’s life, King, that you haven’t ever bit another living soul. Swear it, and I’ll let you walk out of here with a pat on the back.”
Matthew felt his body still. “I can’t swear that, and I won’t lie. However, I will swear I’ve never killed someone due to my...nature.”
“You’ve killed,” Privet said. “You’ve bitten. The man’s a liar!”
Even Liesel didn’t come to Matthew’s defense, and frankly, Matthew didn’t blame him. He knew how the situation looked. That’s why he’d come here.
“We’re fighting the wrong enemy,” Matthew said, laying his last card on the table. “You’re not the only ones who have been attacked. I was nearly killed due to injuries sustained from a werewolf. An innocent woman died tonight, also due to werewolf-inflicted injuries. I swear to you I didn’t hurt anyone, but if you don’t believe that, you must believe that Kady Bloomer was innocent. She had nothing to do with any of this.”
“What’s your point?”
“I think whoever’s killing your pack, and whoever’s hurting my friends—whoever just about killed me, is from neither of our sides.”
“You think someone’s posing as a vamp,” Privet said, “and then posing as a werewolf? Yeah, right! That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”
Liesel, however, stiffened behind the bar and called louder. “Why would someone do that?”
“To accomplish this.” Matthew gestured between himself and the rest of the bar patrons. “To turn us against each other. To wreak havoc in the borough. It’s brilliant if you think about it. We’ll be killing each other. Whoever wants this to happen can sit back and watch as we destroy ourselves from the inside out.”
“What good would that do anyone?” Liesel looked like he wanted to believe Matthew, but he just couldn’t. Not yet.
Matthew faced the bartender, knowing that convincing Liesel was Matthew’s best chance of making it out of the Howler peacefully. “The NYPD has inside information about an individual desperate to take power in the borough. Someone who wants to shift the balance from good to evil.”
Liesel gave a hesitant nod. “How can we trust you? We have pack members dying, and you’re the only vampire in the borough. The simplest solution is often correct, and the evidence points to you.”
Matthew cleared his throat. “I believe Sienna found some interesting facts in her lab. I have to believe they supported my theory.”
“That doesn’t sound definitive.” Privet guffawed. “This guy’s full of it. Let’s give him a bite and see how he likes it.”
A low sort of rumble, a distinct roar from the crowd, gained instant momentum. Matthew recognized that his time was running low, so he focused on Liesel, the only person still listening.
“Sienna was left for dead in her lab this morning,” Matthew said. “We believe whoever attacked her was trying to destroy evidence she found in the morgue. If we can save her life, we will know for a fact. All I’m asking for is a truce until then.”
Liesel gave a nod. Matthew knew he had him convinced. He also knew it wasn’t enough. As he turned back to the rest of the bar patrons, Matthew saw nothing but fury in their faces. They wanted revenge.
While Matthew understood the desire to retaliate, he’d hoped to break through to the wolves, to come together over this shared evil permeating their home. But too many were blinded by rage. Tension simmered to the surface, boiling over, and it was only a matter of time before one of them shifted and came after him.
Matthew wasn’t frightened of a werewolf attack, but he didn’t want to make things worse by hurting anyone. That would only add fuel to the fire. He stepped back, raised his hands.
“I can see talking isn’t getting us anywhere,” Matthew said, giving a meaningful look to Liesel. “If anyone wants to talk, you know where to find me.”
“Damn right, I do,” Privet roared, the rest of the crowd chomping at the bit behind him. “Six feet under! Where you belong, bloodsucker!”
Accompanying the cry for battle came the sound of pop, pop, pop, as if someone had opened a handful of champagne bottles in rapid succession. Matthew’s gut clenched in annoyance as the bodies of several bar patrons shifted and elongated, hair extending in all directions as they fell to all fours.
“Stop,” Liesel yelled, but it was too late. Once in werewolf form, their instincts became all animal. Liesel looked to Matthew. “Flee!”
Matthew knew that would be the smart decision, but he hadn’t come down to the Howler and extended a truce so he could turn tail and run. He’d done nothing wrong.
“I don’t recommend attacking me,” Matthew said as a warning. “Because I will defend myself. With that said, I think it’s time for me to take my leave.”
“You’re not going anywhere,” Privet said, his face red as he slammed a boot of beer down on the counter. “Get him, boys!”
Matthew waited patiently, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. He’d been mistaken to come to the bar hopi
ng for a civil conversation. There was not a soul in here sober enough, aside from Liesel, to get a handle on their emotions and have a vampire to wolf discussion.
The first wolf flung himself without abandon at Matthew, the movement so quick Dani wouldn’t have been able to react, but for a vampire, it felt like slow motion. All Matthew had to do was shift his arm slightly and bend it, so as the wolf’s jaws gnashed at him, he caught the animal in the throat.
Which is exactly what happened. The wolf went down with a whimper, coughing, struggling to breath. He collapsed to the floor, and then there was another pop, and he transformed back into his human form.
When the full moon wasn’t out, it required huge amounts of emotion and adrenaline to shift into wolf form. Once that surge was gone, they transformed back.
Privet launched himself to his feet. “How dare you?”
“Dare I what?” Matthew took a step back, angling himself toward the door. “I’m just trying to leave peacefully.”
Another wolf took the moment when Matthew was speaking to lunge forward, probably hoping Matthew would be slow on the uptake. He wasn’t. This time, all it took was a properly placed knee and the wolf went flying into the wall and collapsed to the floor, popping back into human form seconds later.
If they were smart, they would all attack at once. Then Matthew might be slightly overwhelmed. They might get a swipe or two in, but without the full moon, half the pack wouldn’t be enough to take him down.
Matthew reached the doorway, his hands still raised. Seven transformed wolves backed him toward the entrance. Drool dripped from their lips onto the floor. Their human counterparts followed closely behind him. The anticipation was thick as Jell-O and could be sliced through with a claw.
Matthew reached the door, relieved they appeared to be letting him go without much of a fight. After all, he wasn’t one hundred percent recovered from the last attack that’d rendered him unconscious.
When he reached the door, Matthew spun around... and realized he was trapped. Somehow, through a shared collective form of communication, the pack had called in reinforcements. Another ten werewolves stood outside, the same piles of drool at the corner of their lips and the same gnashing teeth as the ones behind him.
“Damn,” Matthew said, and then dodged to one side.
The wolves were just as fast. They threw themselves on him, one after another. Matthew battled them back as fast as he could, but the pops as wolves transformed back to humans weren’t coming fast enough.
More wolves flooded out of the bar. As one turned human, another turned back to wolf. One giant wolf threw a swipe at Matthew that caught him in his bad shoulder, and he tripped forward. A well-timed pop to the wolf’s nose had him transforming back to human, but not before the damage was done.
Matthew dripped blood. He faced the pack and knew there was no way he was getting out of this without further harm—short of a miracle. He swallowed, raised his hands. Matthew’s claws came out, his fangs descended. He was built for this.
However, as the next wolf threw himself at Matthew, another acted faster. A blur of white shot in front of Matthew and nabbed the wolf with a hearty growl. Matthew sidestepped, managed the next wolf while the first popped back into human form in the jaws of the great white wolf.
Grey, Matthew knew instinctively. And the thought annoyed him.
“Get out of here,” Matthew said to him. “I can handle myself.”
However, the snowy wolf let out a howl that stopped hearts beating for miles. He carried himself on all fours to stand in front of Matthew. Grey leveled his gaze on the other wolves and let out a snarl that, even to Matthew’s ears, was quite clear in its meaning.
The other wolves hesitated, though one or two began to retreat. Eventually, the rest followed suit, save for one or two extra-large wolves. Matthew wondered if one of them was Privet. The biggest one with the raging black eyes. The wolf took a step forward, but Grey moved faster. Privet yipped, then fell to one knee in default to Grey.
Eventually, they all slunk back inside the bar, leaving the vampire and the white wolf alone.
“You didn’t have to do that,” Matthew said crossly. “I was handling it just fine.”
Grey looked up at Matthew with his huge, animal eyes, and somehow, there was sarcasm reflected back. The wolf took off, likely running to the forest to change back, and Matthew strolled at a more leisurely pace toward The Depth.
Grey met him in human form on the cusp of darkness.
“You’re an idiot,” Grey said.
“I had it under control.”
“Sure you did,” he said. “Why’d you go into a wolf bar when you know they’re wanting revenge?”
“I wanted to make them see we were fighting the same evil,” Matthew said. “I didn’t kill anyone—you know it, they know it—”
“And they don’t care,” Grey interrupted. “It’s too soon. They want blood. I’m sure you know what that’s like.”
Matthew lapsed into silence. “I was supposed to talk to you tonight.”
“Not interested.” Grey turned and began strolling into the forest. “I only came to save your ass.”
“You did it for Dani.”
Grey swiveled to face him. “You don’t know why the hell I did what I did. You’re welcome, by the way.”
Matthew fell silent. He wanted to hate Grey, but for some reason, he just couldn’t. Whatever Grey’s motives at the bar, Matthew owed him. “Thank you.”
“Don’t—do that,” Grey said. “Let’s just agree not to get along.”
“Fine. But I did come to talk to you. Dani sent me.”
Matthew could see Grey’s ears perk up at the mention of the witch. It annoyed him, but there was nothing he could do about it. If anything, there was a whisper of pity in his chest. He had read The Hex Files. He’d gotten a glimpse at destiny.
“You love her.” When Matthew spoke, it wasn’t accusatory.
Grey continued to walk away.
“Admit it,” Matthew said. “It’s obvious to everyone but her.”
Grey swiveled around, his eyes blazing. “I don’t love her, asshole. But if you don’t watch out, I’m going to get there.”
“I have your file,” Matthew said quietly. “And we’re going to have to get over whatever animosity is between us because you’re going to be working closely with Danielle. There’s nothing I can do about it.”
“Shut the hell up, vampire. What are you talking about?”
“You are the fourth mentioned in The Hex Files. I’m sorry,” Matthew said. “I’ve seen it. Dani has seen it. There is no doubt.”
“A fourth will break from a desperate plight,” Grey recited, his memory impeccable. He gave a laugh. “Right. I’m not breaking from anything.”
“Maybe not physically,” Matthew agreed. “But if Dani doesn’t choose you...”
“You’re psychotic, vamp. I should have let the wolves attack you.” Grey snarled at Matthew. “I am not in love with her. She’s obviously chosen you. She always has. You don’t have to worry about me.”
“I’m not worried. I’m just letting you know.”
“Well, listen closely, King.” Grey stopped, drew himself up before Matthew. The two were undoubtedly equals in almost every way. “I care about Danielle. She’s beautiful, funny, whip-smart, and I’d be an idiot not to notice those things, but I’m not...”
Grey trailed off, his eyes brightening. He took a step backward in shock. His jawline went slack as he glared at Matthew. Stumbling, he tripped over a log then righted himself—his supernatural grace and quickness thwarted by his surprise.
“Oh, my God,” Grey said. “I am falling in love with her.”
“There’s nothing you can do about it.” Matthew hesitated. “It needs to happen. It’s fate. This needed to happen, and she needs to...”
“Say it.”
“She needs to break your heart,” Matthew said. “For The Hex Files to come to fruition.”
Grey merely
shook his head, backed away. There was yet another pop as clothing and buttons and shreds of denim went flying in every direction.
As Matthew watched, the great white wolf dashed through the forest and disappeared into the night.
Chapter 30
“Mom?” Willa asked again. “What are you doing up there? Who—what’s happening?”
Jack looked over at me, but I was just as surprised as him. I shrugged back. I glanced around the hospital room, wondering if I should call for a nurse. Between Willa’s mother’s death and her ascension into new powers, maybe Willa had cracked.
“Don’t be stupid,” Willa said. “Of course I’m talking to you. Mom. Mom! Why are you... what’s happening to me?”
“Willa,” I said cautiously. “Are you feeling okay?”
“Yes!” She whirled and turned toward me. “I’m feeling fine! But I’m confused—can you not see my mother?”
“Um...” I glanced toward the bed. “I’m so sorry, honey, but she’s gone.”
“No, I know she’s dead,” Willa said crossly. “But she’s right there. Hovering over the bed.”
Jack’s jaw dropped open.
“You can’t see her either?” Willa scratched agitatedly at her elbow. “What is happening to me? She’s clear as day. She’s talking to me.”
“Um...” I glanced at Jack before returning my gaze to Willa. “Can you ask her what she’s doing?”
Jack elbowed me. “Don’t egg Willa on! She’s clearly ill. You need to call for a nurse. In fact, no—I’m going to go get a nurse. Watch her.”
He left before I could argue. I looked carefully at the bed, considering if maybe Jack was right and Will was unstable. Her mother still looked sufficiently dead to me.
“I know you think I’m crazy,” Willa said. “But she’s here with us. I don’t need a nurse.”
“I don’t know what to say. I can’t see her.”
Willa put a hand on her hip, then turned and spoke to the air above her mother’s bed. “What are you doing here, mum? Why can nobody else see or hear you?”
Willa lapsed into silence, appearing for all intents and purposes to listen carefully to silence. Except she nodded her head once, and then cocked it to the side and squinted, as if whatever this mysterious person was saying didn’t quite make sense.
