by T. A. Grey
Gray stabbed the Were’s furry belly repeatedly. As the beast cried out, its claws stuck into Grayson’s skin tearing the flesh apart. Grunting as his shoulder muscle tore, Gray grabbed the Were’s head and jerked it backward. They both fought to gain the upper hand as they rolled backward. The creature was powerful and strong, its legs bucking, teeth snapping.
“Fuck!” Gray cursed as the Were landed a lucky bite to the meat of his thigh. He palmed the blade one more time; it kept slipping from the slick blood coating his hand. And he stabbed the beast straight through the eye.
Gray finished the job, not giving this Were as nice a treatment as his friend received. He severed the beast’s head, then sprinted after the other Were
Before it could get to Arabella. .
CHAPTER 12
Why did these terrifying things have to happen to her? Grayson Blackmoore must be cursed, Ara thought as she ran. Muscles burned in her body and her breath rattled in her rib cage like a sickly person on their deathbed.
My, what a morbid thought, Ara. That might be because a Were is chasing after me right this very second.
Ara didn’t know what happened with Grayson but she did know the Were after her was going to kill her if she didn’t do something—and fast. The creature could easily out run her in Were form and without being able to shapeshift she had no other choice but to try the dodge and evade method. Basically she tossed everything and anything she could behind her as she ran. This included unlit torches from the walls, broken chairs covered in spider nests, and vases—some filled with a dusty powder for which she hoped wasn’t a dead person’s ashes. Please, oh please, don’t let that be ashes. She had a feeling she knew the truth though.
Then she touched something. In her panic she couldn’t even remember what it was, but a vision came, and in it she saw a ratty painting at the end of a short hallway. And that painting moved to reveal a tunnel. That was it!
A tremendous weight came crashing into her. A scream tore from her throat. The Were knocked her to the ground. The force sent her skidding along the floor. Before she clambered to a stand, the Were was there. It walked on top of her back, its weight making it even harder to breathe. Hot breaths reeking of old meat panted across her cheek as the beast scented her. His heavy paws kept her pinned even as she fought to move.
I can’t die this way!
From a place inside her she didn’t know she had, Ara reached behind her to latch onto the beast’s hair—and pulled as hard as she could. The Were yelped and jerked away. Ara quickly took off but she didn’t make it far before she heard a scuffling behind her. There was something different about it that made her turn around and look.
Grayson stood over the Were with a knife pressed to its throat. “Donato sent you to kill me. Now you’ll die and then I’m going to find your masters and kill them too,” Grayson said, his voice like ice. The blade sank deep into the Were’s neck. He severed the head with a ruthless slice of the blade.
Grayson looked like a dark assassin. Blood stained his hands, even a line across his cheek as if he’d wiped it. He looked terrifying and dangerous. Yet, Ara wanted nothing more than to run and throw her arms around him.
“I think you just saved my life. Thank you!” What did you say to someone who just rescued you? Her words sounded so quaint. Surely it didn’t do justice to her gratefulness.
“Just get us out of here, Ara.”
His voice, deeper than normal, made her study him more closely. A dark red splotch began to appear on his thigh. She gasped and went to him, only he kept her at arm’s length. “It’s nothing. I was bitten. We need to go. I have little time before sunrise. I cannot be stuck here.”
The full ramifications of what he said hit her like a brick to the head. Ara shook her head and started moving. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out. Grayson had been hurt and was losing blood at a steady pace. Put that on top of that fact that he hadn’t fed in days, and that made for one scary vampire.
As she took them closer to where the painting would be, warmth grew in her belly. That’s how she always knew when she was getting close. A warmth would grow and with it her excitement. They came across a fork in the hallway and she took them right down the path to the finish line. When the painting came into view she let out an exclamation.
“I did it! It’s right behind the painting. Some kind of tunnel that will lead us to the outside.”
Only, she didn’t hear a reply. Surely the vampire at least had something snarky to say. Ara turned around and paled. Grayson had slumped against the wall and slid all the way to the floor. His head lay against the wall for support and his eyes were closed.
Ara rushed to him. “Grayson?” she called, frantic.
His eyelids fluttered, slow to rise. “Why do you have to yell?” he asked. His voice sounded gentle like a whisper.
Well, okay then. This docile sounding Grayson alarmed her far more than the scary one. “What is it? What’s wrong? The exit’s right there. We need to go now before the sun rises and we’re stuck here all day long.” She grabbed his hand but his fingers merely twitched in her grasp.
His eyes closed and she shook him awake. “What? What is it, Arabella?” he asked. “Arabella. I like the name. You should use it, Were. Its beauty becomes you.”
A knot the size of an apple lodged in her throat. “You’re just saying crazy stuff because you’re weakened.”
“Hmm…probably. No, certainly,” he corrected himself. “Does not change anything…”
“What are you talking about? Can you at least stand and lean on me while we walk to the painting?” she asked, her mind working furiously. His watch said they had only twenty-nine minutes until sunrise. Not good.
Once more he tried to stand but even she could see the way his arms shook trying to lift his weight up. He was too weak. He’d never be able to walk on his own. Question was: could she carry him out herself?
There was only one way to find out.
Ara grabbed Grayson’ arm and put it around her shoulder. “Hold on now and try your best to move with me. I want you to mostly lean on the wall and me for support. Let’s just get your standing first.”
“You do not have to speak to me like I’m a child.” His sharp retort sounded much more like the mean Grayson she knew.
“There, see, you’re feeling better already. Before you know it you’ll be spewing some real zingers, too. Come on, now.” She counted down then they both lifted as they tried to pull him to a stand.
Perspiration covered Grayson’s forehead as they strained. By time she got him propped up against the wall, barely standing, she knew their time was limited. “Come on, we have to hurry. There’s no time!”
With her arm supporting his back and holding the arm he’d thrown around her shoulder, they took one slow step at a time. It worked—sort of. Grayson was able to keep the majority of his weight leaning against the wall but it slowed their pace down to that of a snail.
“I swear, if I’m stuck in this place because of you until sun down, I’ll make you regret it.” Her shoulder knotted under his weight.
Step by agonizing step, they made it closer to the painting. They might make it—barely.
“Does your car have tinted windows to block out sunlight?” she asked.
His head listed to the side to nearly rest on hers. They were so wrapped up in each other they must look like a couple. That couldn’t be any further from the truth, she thought.
“Of course.”
“Good; then as long as I get you in that car before sunrise, I can drive you home, yeah?”
Finally, they reached the painting and she propped Grayson against the wall so she could pull the fake painting back. Behind the wall was a dark black tunnel. She smiled. “We’re almost there. Come on!”
He moved even slower than before. The leg with his injury slowed them down. It didn’t seem to move naturally anymore. He had to drag it around. With only the beam of the flashlight she guided them down a short tunne
l. They came upon a ladder built into the wall that went up to what looked like a sewer grate.
“Let me try opening it.”
Arabella let Grayson lean against the wall while she raced up the ladder. The sewer grate weighed a ton but after a lot of heaving she shoved it off. The night sky glowed with the warm hues from the oncoming sunlight. Any minute now and that sun would crest the horizon.
She scaled down the ladder. “Come on! Move!”
Grayson started climbing, and from behind him on the ladder, she kept a hand on the back of his leg—as if that could keep him from falling. Really her efforts were laughable but she had to try something.
“It’s hot,” Grayson said. From all the blood loss, his skin had paled.
Ara pulled herself out of the dreaded catacomb. She wished she could have a moment to lay in the grass and feel happy that the catacomb nightmare was over. But the sun quickly ascended into the sky every second that she wasted. If she didn’t hurry and get him into the SUV, she’d have one fried vampire on her hands
Pulling him to a stand took even longer this time. The trip up the ladder had really taken the energy out of him. “Come on, Grayson! Let’s move it!” She sounded like a drill sergeant shouting orders in a cadet’s face.
By time they reached the SUV, the sun came up. Grayson hissed, baring his teeth in a pained grimace. But whatever pain the brief rays of sunlight caused him gave him the push he needed to sprint the last twenty feet to the car.
He threw himself in the backseat and she closed the door after him.
“I guess I’m driving then?”
His grunt signaled his answer.
CHAPTER 13
Four vampires wearing assault rifles over their shoulders guarded the mysterious building in the middle of nowhere. The location was perfect—not too far from civilization but not too close either. Arabella watched from her hiding place among the bushes on a slope some distance away. Moving quietly, she pulled her backpack off and dug her binoculars out.
Much better. Now she could nearly see the vampire’s pores. This place looked like some kind of compound. It almost had a governmental feel to it, but Arabella knew firsthand no vampires would be working for the human government. The compound was squeezed in a large field surrounded by miles of forest on either end. The perfect hiding place. No one around for miles. Only one dirt path led up to the building. To get to it, there was a mechanized fence with barbed wire on top. Video cameras were everywhere, pointing in all directions around the perimeter.
Arabella watched and took mental notes of her findings for almost thirty minutes. Her breath caught. A car drove up the path to the compound, kicking up a cloud of swirling dirt around it. It looked expensive—a Mercedes Benz. It paused at the gate and a minute passed before the gates swung open.
That warm feeling sat in her gut. She’d done it. She found the underground casino. The problem though was she didn’t have any proof. How did she explain to Grayson that she thought this was it? He already doubted her and from the outside, the facility looked just like that—a government facility. But, aside from her ‘hunch’, she found other evidence.
Behind the tan, discrete building, lodged halfway in the dirt was a large, colorful cup meant to hold ones winnings. Arabella nibbled on her lip as she zoomed in on that cup. At least, she thought it looked like a casino cup. If she was wrong then she’d have to explain to Grayson why they traveled all the way out here to the middle of nowhere all because she thought she saw a casino cup.
A weary sigh escaped her. She did not want to have that conversation with Grayson. Not at all.
Luckily, she knew she was right. This was it. The casino run by the Donatos. Right now it was only—she checked her watch—ten past seven. The sun went down right as she arrived here. But she’d bet late at night this place crawled with people. All dangerous combination of gambling Weres and vampires.
The hairs tingled on the back of her neck. Something in that feeling scared her. She checked each of the guards. The first one, the second one, the third one, and then…through the binoculars she focused on the guard closest to her. Cold blue eyes were locked on her. Like a deer caught in headlights, she froze. As if he might turn around and not see her by not moving. Yeah, right. Those eyes narrowed and even though she must be some one hundred yards away, she knew he saw her. He said something, a shout alerting the others.
“Oh shit!” she cursed, grabbing her backpack, and taking off sprinting for her car.
In the distance she heard the gate opening again. Her heart raced as she deftly ran over fallen tree branches and muddy slopes. Her shoes slid in the mud and she lost one. By the time she reached her car and burnt rubber heading back toward the highway, she couldn’t catch her breath. Mud covered her from hands to feet and she only had one tennis shoe on.
“Great job, girlfriend.”
CHAPTER 14
“What did you think you were doing?” Grayson Blackmoore roared.
Arabella took a step back. She’d never heard him so angry. “Listen, I’m covered in mud and I don’t have time to listen to this. I need to shower.”
They stood on her front porch. The dim outdoor porch light flickered. When she’d arrived home, Grayson already sat on her porch smoking a cigarette looking far more terrifying than the vampire that scared her away. Or so she told herself. Fact is, he didn’t scare her. Not really. Grayson made her feel safe. The vampire made his living protecting people. Surely that had something do with it and nothing at all to do with his kissability, which he scored high on.
“You never should have gone out without me. I hired you or did you forget that?” he asked sharply.
“Well I can see you’re feeling better,” she mumbled, kicking a stone.
He looked like his head as going to explode. “Do you have no fear of the consequences? Do you know what will happen if Donato learns you’re helping me?”
Shoot. Here it came. “About that,” she began.
His eyebrows formed a deep V on his forehead. “What happened?”
“I might have been…spotted by a guard.” She trailed off the last part, hoping he wouldn’t hear her.
Judging by the way his eyes snapped fire at her, she was pretty certain he heard her. “You found what you believe to be Donato’s underground casino in the middle of nowhere, alone, guarded by four vampires carrying heavy weaponry, and you were seen by one of these guards on top of that shit-mess you’ve created.”
“Shit-mess. I hardly think it was a shit-mess. Nothing bad happened. I made it out of there alive. You should be happy,” she said with false brightness. Ara wasn’t stupid. She knew what this meant even before he said it.
Gray leaned forward, the black cigarette clamped between his lips. “By this time, he’s probably already heard of the Were girl snooping around his casino. The guards have already reported it. They’ll have footage of you. They’ll know your face, they’ll find you and then they’ll learn about your ability and put two and two together. In a matter of hours, they’ll know that I’ve hired you as a tracker to find the Donatos.”
“Maybe it won’t be so bad,” she whispered, already scared. She couldn’t shift and she had no real fighting skills. She lived with Sissy and if the Donatos could get past Grayson’s security to kill his mate, what chance did she stand? She might live on the Alpha Zeke’s land, but nothing was foolproof when someone wanted you dead.
“Or maybe this could be the worst thing that’s happened.” He looked away and she wondered what he was thinking. After a quiet moment passed over them, he crushed his cigarette beneath his black leather boot. “Shower and get dressed. Pack your things, too. You won’t be staying here any longer.”
“Wait, what? You can’t expect me to pack up and leave. This is my house!”
“I expect you to do just that. And you have twenty minutes.” He returned to his SUV, ending the conversation with cold finality.
Jaw grinding, Arabella stormed into her house in a real tizzy. Where was
Sissy when she needed to vent? That vampire could use a good chewing out from Sissy’s attitude right about now. Still, she showered, packed and finished in her allotted time—barely.
Grayson didn’t say a word as he drove them out of the pack.
“Where are we going now?” she asked.
“It’s too soon to return to the casino site. They’ll be on guard now that an intruder was spotted. We’ll have to lie low. I’m going to make some calls and see if I can’t dig anything useful up about this place,” Grayson said.
Now that she had calmed down she took note of him for the first time. Yesterday had been a train wreck in the catacombs. A Were had bitten his leg, yet he showed no sign of being in pain.
“How’s your leg?” she asked, unable to hide her curiosity.
He briefly touched it. “Fine.”
Her brow cocked. “I take it you don’t want to talk about it?”
Grayson sent her a peeved glare. “What is there to discuss?”
“Oh, you know, if you fed and healed your leg up. Or if you’re going to snap and end up taking a bite out of me.” She cracked a smile hoping to lighten him up. However, at the mention of a bite, his gaze darkened and slid down to her chest. And now she was very aware of the fact that she wore a tight T-shirt, low cut enough to show some cleavage. She hadn’t chosen the shirt for any particular reason aside from being rushed and having to choose something hastily. His gaze made her feel like she wore nothing more than bra and panties.
“A bite…of you…” he contemplated, pulling his gaze back to the road.
What was going on in that head of his, she wondered? She’d never know because his phone rang. She could hear a man yelling on the other end though she couldn’t make out the words. Grayson stiffened, grumbled something, then put the pedal to the metal. “We have a problem,” he told her.
