Deceived By the Others

by Jess Haines

  He listened to whatever the response was on the other end of the line and walked off somewhere, the sound of his voice fading and leaving me sitting on pins and needles waiting to see if he had stopped somewhere that he might spot me when I came out of hiding. He’d gone quiet, listening to the other end of the conversation, so I wasn’t sure exactly where he was.

  Just as I was edging my way out from under the desk, I had to stifle a scream as something slammed down on the counter right above my head. George was right behind me, on the other side of the counter.

  “What the hell do you think we’ve been doing? Look, that girl he’s dating—she said she was a P.I. Pops didn’t give your real name, but it’s only a matter of time before she starts nosing around and figures it out. Enough with this high school shit. Either stop dicking around and kill him or go back to the city until they’re gone.”

  My heart was pounding so hard, I was positive George must be able to hear it echoing through the cavernous room. He laughed at whatever the response was, and the wood above me creaked as he put his weight on it, maybe leaning against it.

  “Nah, I don’t want to go out there with that new blood they dragged with them. I’m going to bed in a few minutes. You coming over for the game next weekend?”

  The rest of the conversation couldn’t have taken more than ten minutes but felt a lot longer, and had nothing to do with me, the Sunstrikers, or anything to do with the lodge. My heart gradually eased in my chest as they discussed mundane matters like the upcoming World Series. My money was on the Yankees, of course.

  They talked long enough for cramps to settle into the arches of my feet and my lower back from staying crammed under the desk so long. Fear of discovery was enough to keep me absolutely still. After an age, George finally said good-bye and tossed the cordless phone on the counter. I had to stifle a gasp as it thunked across the wood over my head. He yawned and wandered off, his footsteps echoing in the quiet dark.

  I waited longer than was probably necessary to make sure George wasn’t coming back. Staying low, I crept out from behind the desk, scanning the dimly lit room and hallways for any sign of company. Without taking the time to stretch out my cramped muscles, I rushed to the doors and ran out into the night, fleeing to my cabin.

  Chapter 16

  On my way back to the cabin, shortly after I crossed the bridge, something growled at me from the bushes.

  The tendons in my neck creaked as I caught movement, and twisted to see what it was. My blood turned to ice water as what I’d taken to be a tree trunk shifted—against the wind. It was too dark to really see the shape of the thing, other than that it was big. Very big. Bigger than Chaz when he was Were. It was growling at me, a lone human in the dark with no weapon and no hope of outrunning a predator this big.

  My knees trembled as I backed away, slowly so as not to invite it—whatever it was—to charge. The thing growled again, deeper this time, and I froze in panic.

  My gaze shifted upward to focus on the source of the low rumbling. Large yellow eyes gleamed out of the shadows briefly before that great, huge something moved. At first, I thought it was coming after me, and rapidly backpedalled, slipping in the mud. The thing wasn’t after me, though; it pulled away, disappearing between the trees.

  Knees weak with relief, I stumbled along until I reached my cabin. My hands shook as I worked the lock, dropping the key in my haste to get inside. Cursing, I scattered dirt and wood chips as I searched for it by feel. Once I found the damned thing, it took longer than it should have for me to get inside, as I kept twisting around and flattening against the door at every rustling bush or crackling of a tree branch behind me.

  Once I wrestled the lock open, I slammed and locked the door behind me.

  Coffee and paranoia were my companions for the rest of the evening. I dead-bolted the cabin door and stuck a chair under the knob. It wouldn’t do much to stop a determined, rampaging Were, but it should give me enough time and warning to slip out a window or grab a makeshift weapon. I found myself wishing for a power cable or something to get the laptop up and running; this place was horribly claustrophobic without a phone or computer to connect to the outside world. If you needed to make a call, they had a bank of antiquated pay phones in the lobby of the lodge. Being cut off from technology was supposed to be part of the charm of the place. With my luck, I should’ve known better.

  The caffeine infusions I took to stay alert helped, but also made me jittery and didn’t make it any easier to concentrate on the notes I was scribbling down of what I knew about our enemies thus far.

  The Cassidy family was involved somehow. I wouldn’t approach them without the Sunstrikers at my back. Mr. Cassidy was a Were of some kind; some of the others in his household could be Were, too. Despite the location of his home, he might belong to a pack, which meant other shifters could be hiding somewhere in the town or elsewhere on the property. If they were in on whatever was planned to hurt Chaz, they could have made an attempt on his life before now—if they had the numbers to stand up against the rest of the pack. I was guessing they didn’t, or they would’ve been more open about their attacks. Whatever had growled at me out there hadn’t been part of the Sunstriker pack, lending credence to my suspicions that while there might be other shifters on the property backing the Cassidys and whoever George had been talking to, there weren’t enough of them to make a concerted effort against the Sunstrikers.

  That, or they only wanted Chaz.

  Everything Mr. Cassidy had said now came into question. It was possible he was covering for whoever had trashed our first cabin, and shot Chaz, and that he was deliberately covering for whoever this Howard Thomas person was. Keeping track of all the possible connections and consequences (or maybe the caffeine overdose) was making my head hurt.

  I watched through a gap in the curtains as the first rays of the sun crested over the mountaintops, chasing away some of the mist creeping along the path between the cabins and heralding the coming of Sunday morning. I also had to stifle a scream as the door shook in the frame.

  “Shia? What the hell! Open up!” Chaz sounded grumpier than he had been before he left last night.

  Embarrassed by my reaction, I blotted up the few drops of coffee I’d spilled on my notes and rushed to the door, shoving the chair out of the way and yanking it open.

  Chaz was clearly exhausted. There were dark circles under his eyes, which were bloodshot and hooded. He hadn’t buttoned his jeans, and there was a bit of mud spattered on his arms. He slid past me, dropping some clothing on the chair and collapsing facedown on the bed. A few of the other Sunstrikers were sluggishly wandering from the tree line, some with jeans or sweatpants on, but most with clothes tucked under their arms. I slammed and bolted the door shut, returning the chair to its place under the knob.

  Chaz regarded my antics with one eye, his voice gravelly and exhausted. “What are you doing?”

  Rubbing my arms for warmth, I skittered over to the fireplace and poked at the log I’d tossed on there earlier, willing the flames to chase away the bone-deep chill I was feeling. “We’ve got a real problem here. I know you didn’t want me to leave the cabin, but—”

  “Jesus, Shia, you could have been killed! What did you do?”

  “I’m sorry!” I crept over to the bed, easing down onto the edge as he twisted to face me. I kept my eyes averted, not wanting to meet his tired, angry glare. “Look, I knew you’d be worried if I told you I was going out. I went up to the lodge while you were out so I could get some information on that guy Mr. Cassidy mentioned.”

  “Hawk?”

  “Yeah. I think his real name is Howard Thomas. I know what cabin he was staying in and that there were two other people with him. That’s not the interesting part, though.”

  Chaz rubbed at his eyes, levering himself to sit up and wrapping his arms around me when he saw my expression. I gratefully leaned into his warmth, though I was worried what he’d have to say by the time I was done telling my tale.

>   “George Cassidy was up there, and I overheard him talking to somebody about us. I think the Cassidy family is in on what’s been happening around here: the cabin, the arrow, the weird notes… .”

  He made a disbelieving sound, and I poked him in the side. “Let me finish! Chaz, he was talking about killing you. We’ve got to get out of here. These people are crazy. I think they might have some other Weres out here, too. I ran into one on my way back to the cabin.”

  He stiffened, grip tightening painfully around me. “What? What happened? Is that why you barricaded the door?”

  I squirmed until he eased up, nodding. “Yeah. It growled at me and ran off. I barely saw it in the dark, would’ve walked right past it if it hadn’t made some noise to let me know it was there.”

  Chaz huffed, a low growl of his own rumbling in his throat. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph—did it ever occur to you that you could have died out there? I don’t want to lose you, Shia. Please do what I say next time.”

  I nodded again, squirming and twisting until I could wrap my arms around his waist and bury my head against his chest. “I’m sorry,” I mumbled against him, not sorry at all. If I hadn’t done my reconnaissance mission, we might not have known until it was too late that the Cassidys were in on the plot to kill Chaz.

  “It’s okay,” he said, sighing as he pressed his cheek against my hair. He ran his fingers through the red strands, tangling them in the curls. “I know you only wanted to help. It’s good you found out what you did—but next time, don’t investigate a Were’s territory alone.”

  “All right.”

  “Listen, love, whoever you ran into last night is going to be as wiped out as I am. I need to sleep, but we should be okay for the next few hours. Let’s get some rest. As soon as I wake up, I’ll go check out that Howard guy’s cabin.”

  “Okay,” I agreed, nestling against his chest as he lay back down. He curled his arms around me, keeping me close, and I was grateful for the warmth and protection he afforded. It must have taken a heroic effort for him to be as lucid in conversation as he’d been; he dropped off into sleep in no time, snoring quietly.

  Despite my caffeine jitters, it didn’t take long for me to join him.

  Chapter 17

  I woke before Chaz. He’d shifted to his back in his sleep, the movement jarring me when he tugged me along. At my nudging, he eased up his grip on me, and I slid further up his body to peer down at him. The planes of his face were hard, angular, drawn with strain. Icy blue eyes fogged with sleep gazed up at me half-lidded, questioning. I pressed a hand to his cheek, a soothing stroke that soon had him closing his eyes again. He reached up to gently cradle my face, pulling me down to meet him. His lips found mine, and we tasted each other for a time, a simple, loving gesture that spoke more of comfort than desire.

  We lay sprawled together like that for quite a while. He needed the rest, and I didn’t protest when he ended the kiss and settled to a slow, lazy caress of my back.

  Just as my eyes were drifting shut again, the sudden realization of what the slant of the sun against the curtains meant alarmed me into wakefulness.

  We’d lost a number of hours of daylight. We wouldn’t have much time to investigate and hunt down the people who were after Chaz before the moon would force the shift on the Sunstrikers—and possibly Chaz’s enemies—again. My eyes fell on a scrap of white; another note had been slid under the door, the thick black ink visible from across the room.

  Chaz stirred as I pulled away, padding over to the door and picking up the folded sheet of paper. Despite the block letters, the handwriting was a little different. The message was essentially the same.

  ATTN: THE WINDOW-LICKING JOHN MADDEN THROWBACK IN CABIN 27

  LAST CHANCE FOR U + UR GIRLFRIEND! GTFO BEFORE NIGHTFALL OR THE NIGHTSTRIKERS WILL PWN U!

  I tossed it on the table along with the paperwork I’d been working on last night. I jumped when Chaz’s hand reached past me, picking up the note so he could stare at it. He’d been so quiet, I hadn’t heard him come up behind me.

  His grumpy expression shifted to anger, and the paper was soon crumpled in his fist. He dropped it and stalked across the room, dug through the drawers until he had some fresh clothes, and yanked them on with quick, savage movements.

  “Get dressed. We’re going to find whoever is writing these notes and put a stop to this—right now.”

  I hurried to comply, grabbing some jeans and a bulky sweatshirt to combat the chill in the air. Chaz didn’t wait for me to tug on my sneakers before he was out the door, stalking purposefully down the path and calling out for the Sunstrikers to assemble.

  Sleepy people stumbled out of the cabins, some of them tugging on shirts or shoes as they hurried to join us. Simon hadn’t bothered with a shirt; his abs were crisscrossed with long scars, marring otherwise flawless pale brown skin. His dark, slanted eyes narrowed when they lit on me, but he returned my nod of greeting. Dillon barely glanced at me as he took his place next to Chaz. Everyone looked tired but wary, and all but a handful were giving both me and Chaz questioning looks.

  Once most of the Sunstrikers had gathered by our cabin, Chaz turned to me. He kept his voice low and level, but it did nothing to disguise his irritation. “Shia, which cabin were those people staying in?”

  “Number three.”

  The others glanced between themselves, shrugging and muttering questions, but Chaz offered no explanation. We followed him as he stalked in the direction of cabin number three, a disorderly mass halting behind him at the door. He didn’t bother to knock. Instead, he kicked the door in, splintering the lock, and stalked inside. A few of us, including myself, Simon, and Dillon, followed him in.

  The place was a mess. There were empty soda cans and chip bags everywhere. Junk crunched underfoot. Some kind of gaming console was hooked up to a TV in the corner, and there were dirty clothes and comic books scattered all over the floor. Unwashed dishes were stacked in the sink and on the counter. The place reeked like old cheese mixed with Were musk, a combination that had the Weres around me covering their noses and making gagging noises.

  Aside from the biohazardous mold farm accruing on the upside-down pizza slice on the table, the place was empty of occupants.

  “Christ, what died in there?” someone behind me complained.

  Disgust plain, Chaz poked at some of the clothes until he found a shirt that wasn’t too offensively dirty, picking it up gingerly between two fingers. He took it outside to get a whiff without the god-awful stench of the rest of the room interfering. I didn’t follow. Instead, I glanced around the place for any clues.

  This was clearly a hangout for some nerds who were far less tidy than Arnold, the only geek I knew. The place was too lived in to be a temporary vacation spot. The addition of the TV and gaming equipment, as well as the state of the place, meant that whoever Howard Thomas was, he and his friends spent a lot of time here.

  All the dresser drawers were open. There was no clothing left inside, so they must have known we were coming and left in a hurry. With all the other stuff here, no doubt they were planning to come back.

  While scanning the wreckage, my eyes lit upon something that made me shout a curse. Chaz, along with a couple other Weres, rushed back inside, tense and ready to face any threat.

  “Damn it!” I stalked over to the tall dresser. I hadn’t noticed at first with all the other stuff on top of it, but the missing battery to Arnold’s laptop was sitting in a puddle of spilled soda. A few drops got on my shirt when I picked it up and shook it off. Resignedly, I wiped the rest of it off on the shirt, praying that it wasn’t damaged. Arnold would kill me if it was. Or make me pay for a new one, at any rate.

  Chaz shook his head and relaxed, giving me a faux-angry look for scaring him. I was too pissed to muster up more than a weak, sheepish grin. Some of the other Weres eased up from their battle-ready stances, fists unclenching and luminescence dying out of their eyes.

  After a few more moments taken to skim the conten
ts of the room, finding nothing, we hustled outside—only to be faced by an angry Mr. Cassidy shouldering his way through the crowd. George wasn’t far behind, hefting a heavy wrench to his shoulder as he followed Mr. Cassidy. They halted a few feet away from us, the old man’s leathery skin reddening under his tan.

  “What the hell are you doing?” he demanded. “You’ll pay for that damage, sonny, or I’ll—”

  “You’ll what? Explain to the cops how you’re involved in an attempted murder plot?” Chaz snarled, stalking forward. George’s eyes widened, but Mr. Cassidy didn’t bat a lash, holding his ground as Chaz advanced. “We know you have something to do with what’s been happening around here.”

  “Even if I did, there isn’t a cop within a hundred miles who would care about it. You’re in my town, boy, and you play by my rules while you’re here.”

  Chaz flexed his fingers. I was alarmed to notice they were now tipped with claws; I’d never seen him do a partial shift like that before. It was usually all or nothing.

  His voice rumbled deep in his chest, but he turned away from the old man, pulling me close as he stalked off back in the direction of our cabin. The other Sunstrikers followed, leaving plenty of room between themselves and the two men. “If I find any proof you’re hiding whoever shot that arrow, the Sunstrikers will raze this place to the ground.”

  “I haven’t broken the laws of homestead, boy, and you’d best remember that. You make the first move, you’ll be hard hunted by more than my clan.”

  Chaz didn’t bother to reply, instead leaning in to brush his cheek against my own, whispering a few quiet words. “He’s going to try something. I need to find these people before sundown. Stay with Dillon and Nick; they’ll protect you.”

  “What about you? What law was he talking about?” I whispered back, both furious and relieved that he would leave me out of this hunt.