The Vampire's Wolf

by Jenna Kernan

  “Better. I can jump it.”

  He scrambled out from behind the wheel and then helped Bri. She took a moment to let her gaze sweep over his nude form before she hurried after Johnny, who had already reached the incline. Behind them vehicles screeched and men shouted orders. In a few minutes the din they made faded away. Mac shifted and followed Johnny. Bri had vanished, but not too far, he hoped. There were at least two males still out there. Johnny ran and Mac followed. Before they’d reached cover Mac heard the helicopters. Take cover or run? he wondered.

  “Bri! Get to those trees.” He pointed to the timberline several miles below them.

  Her voice came from far off. “Okay.”

  “Meet us there.”

  She appeared, giving him a view of her already at the tree line, and then she vanished. He and Johnny charged one of the birds. The helicopter spotted them when they still were five hundred yards out. It started firing at one hundred. The high-caliber rounds did not break his skin, but they knocked him around, as if he was the sparring partner of some heavyweight champion.

  Johnny went down and Mac helped him rise. They made too damned big targets. Just fifty feet to the trees and then they’d vanish just like Bri.

  They reached cover. Above them the treetops exploded as branches were cut to ribbons by the gunfire.

  They hadn’t gone far when Bri appeared carrying running shoes, shorts and a turtleneck. Mac noted she now wore dirty white tennis shoes. Mac accepted the clothing with a questioning look.

  “Backpackers,” she said thumbing over her shoulder. “A few miles that way.”

  “Stay close now. Those vampires might be hanging around.”

  Her eyes went wide, and he realized she hadn’t thought of that.

  They moved quickly through the forest and did not stop until evening. There was no sound of pursuit. He still didn’t have a vehicle, but now he thought that staying in deep cover was best. They could travel east to Nevada or all the way up the Sierras into the Cascades. With luck they would reach Canada without ever leaving the woods. They couldn’t put a roadblock in the forest. Their first night’s camp, he did not risk a fire.

  Bri stood a little way off, hands folded before her and a troubled expression on her face. She seemed worried. Was it the vampires, the Marines or had she heard him say that he loved her?

  Mac intended to find out.

  Johnny curled up to sleep and Mac took the first watch. Bri must have been exhausted, but she came to sit beside him, her back to the downed log and her knees drawn up to her chest.

  “You came back for me,” he whispered.

  She made a humming sound of agreement. He looped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close.

  “Mac, stop.” She cut him off and slipped from beneath his arm, rising to her feet.

  He followed feeling a sense of approaching disaster from her tight expression and the way she would not meet his gaze. It was bad.

  She crossed one arm over her middle and pressed the opposite hand to her mouth, as if she was trying not to be sick. The dread grew in him. His flesh began to tingle.

  “Mac, you’ve taught me how to take care of myself. It’s time for me to go. Past time, really.”

  The shock rendered him momentarily speechless, when he found his voice it was thin and strained. “No. We’re staying together.”

  “I can’t. I’m not going to hurt one more person I care about.”

  “Please, Bri. I love you.”

  “I know you do, and that’s precisely why I have to go.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense.”

  “My being here, my staying. I’m keeping you from what you want, Mac.”

  He gave her a look of utter confusion.

  Her chin sank to her chest. “I’ve thought a lot about this, about what will happen next. Even if we get away, even if there were no vampires chasing me and the military didn’t want to put you and Johnny in a cage, what kind of a life would we have?”

  “We’d be together.”

  “What about your family?”

  He looked away.

  “Are you going to bring me home to meet the folks? Your mother, your younger brother. He’ll fall in love with me. You know that, right? He’ll be crazy with jealousy and try to spend every waking minute taking me from you. What about your father? You said he has a bad heart. How much of my company can he stand?”

  “I’ll tell them about you. I’ll make them understand.”

  If he chose her, he’d lose them. The truth hung about them like smoke, how much it would cost to love her.

  “Even if you picked me, sooner or later you’d grow to resent me.”

  “Never. Bri, I love you. We will make it work.”

  “You deserve a life filled with love, and children. And those children deserve doting grandparents and holidays with their big loving family. You can have that Mac, have it all. I can’t. They’d be hunted and they’d be killers. Just like me.” She lifted her gaze to meet his, her eyes pleading. “A family. That’s what you said you wanted. I’m giving you that—by leaving.”

  “Is this because you don’t love me or because you do?”

  He waited with his heart pounding in his throat.

  “I love you. And that’s why I’m going.”

  Bri knew the moment that Mac recognized what would happen next because the color washed from his face. He opened his arms. But she would not let him touch her because if he got hold of her, he might not let go. But even worse, she might not have the strength to leave.

  “Bri, no,” Mac said, already reaching for her. “I can protect you.”

  Yes, he could protect her and he would never leave her. Just like her father would not leave her mother even to save his own life.

  Her power would not kill him, not in the way her mother’s had killed her father. It would be a different kind of death, one that stole away each person he loved. She saw it all repeating. His devotion and her willingness to take everything he offered because she could not imagine her life without him.

  She gave him a smile that hurt right down to her heart.

  “I can protect you, too, Travis. Take care of Johnny.” Bri blew him a kiss and then ran. He dove at her, but she was too fast. In an instant she had left them behind. She didn’t look back, because she knew what she would see, Mac changing and moving too slowly to catch her. Mac howling as she put a mile between them and then two.

  As she ran, she ignored the crushing sensation in her lungs and the quavering ache that vibrated from her beating heart. Was this why her mother stayed, to keep from feeling this terrible pain? Was this what her grandmother had wanted, for her to protect the ones she loved?

  “Did I do it, Nana? Did I keep my humanity?”

  Brianna reached the paved road and continued along in her bounding run, galloping up the miles with no destination except away. Away from Mac. Away from Johnny. Away from the life Mac offered—a life of sweetness and sorrow.

  She wondered if he would ever forgive her. Wondered if she’d ever forget him. Did her mother still love her father from her place in that other world? Did her mother ever think of her daughter?

  Bri wished she could have gone with her to the Fairyland instead of being condemned to a life apart from the rest of humanity.

  The road stretched out before her, long and lonely and dark. But she ran it because she had no other choice.

  Chapter 21

  Mac followed Bri’s trail, with Johnny on his heels, until well into the moonrise. But she’d taken the highway, knowing, he supposed, that Johnny could not follow.

  He had to find somewhere safe for Johnny. Then he could go after Bri. But even if he found her, how could he convince her that he wanted a life with her?

  Mac suffered the change as Johnny wat
ched glumly. Once in human form he told Johnny what he planned to do. Johnny agreed to wait but he wasn’t happy.

  Two hours later Mac had found Bri’s old apartment. Her scent hung about the place, but it was an old scent. But then he saw something move inside the upper apartment and went to investigate.

  By sunrise he pulled the compact car to the shoulder closest to the place he had left Johnny. He exited the vehicle dressed in an assortment of clothing from Bri’s grandmother, slip-on shoes, black sweatpants and a sky-blue turtleneck that fit a little too well.

  Johnny stood waiting then lifted his head at the car’s arrival.

  “Bri’s grandmother’s, according to the registration. Keys were in the apartment.”

  Johnny waited.

  “No sign of her. But she had company. Another one. I killed it.”

  Johnny drew a long breath and blew it out. Mac knew it was his concern come to fruition, that he would find himself outnumbered because he had asked Lam to stay behind.

  “Just one. I handled it. Also got some money and a few sacks of food. Her grandmother kept a well-stocked cupboard.”

  Johnny motioned for paper. Mac rummaged in the glove box and came up with a stubby pencil and the back of a receipt for an oil change. He handed them to Johnny. The pencil disappeared into his hand as he scrawled across the page.

  Followed her trail. Lost it. She’s gone.

  Mac felt his heart drying up inside him. Johnny wrote, his handwriting all but illegible. What now?

  Mac wondered the same thing. “I’m not giving up.”

  Mac combed their trail again and found no trace of her. He backtracked and followed every lead to a dead end. After three months of seeking Brianna, fall had arrived and he was still wondering what he and Johnny should do.

  The summer months had been lush and the cover excellent. Now with the seasons changing again, he’d found a series of cottages on a lake far to the north but still in California. They seemed to be used only in the summer. He and Johnny established a residence in one in early September. He left Johnny to search for Bri but found no sign. Then he visited his family, careful to avoid the military surveillance. He spoke only with his dad, told him everything and arranged a way to get in touch. Then he returned West, taking a job with a local lumber mill clearing trees from private land. He was at a job site on 314 acres, working on a tree he’d just dropped, when a small, mud-spattered pickup pulled up and out stepped Paul Scofield, Mac’s drill instructor from basic training.

  The Marines sent the right man to confront him, likely one of the only men whom Mac still respected. Scofield was a tough old leatherneck, but every man under him knew his aim was to give them the skills necessary to stay alive.

  Mac let his chain saw idle. It wasn’t an automatic weapon. But it would do in a pinch.

  “MacConnelly,” said Scofield as he slammed the driver’s-side door of the mud-streaked black pickup, which was not standard issue.

  The DI looked thinner in civilian clothing, and his bald head was not covered with his familiar headgear but a cap advertising the brand of truck he drove.

  “Drill Sergeant.” Mac started to snap a salute and then stopped himself.

  “You look as comfortable with that chain saw as you did with your M-4.”

  “Less recoil,” he said and waited.

  “They want you back, son. Both of you.”

  Mac said nothing to this. He knew Johnny was nearby, listening. Waiting for a signal from him.

  “They asked me to tell you that Lewis and Sarr went off the farm. They never had clearance for any of it. I know what they did to you, son. And I know it was outside the orders of their superiors. Colonel Strangelove and Dr. Mengele, there, were out of bounds. Way out of bounds, and I’m sorry for what happened to you and Lam.”

  Suddenly Mac’s throat felt tight and he had the urge to tell Scofield how betrayed he felt. Then he shook himself and held on to his anger. That, at least, had never let him down.

  “You better go,” Mac said.

  “They replaced him with a man they think you can trust. He’s overseeing the operation now and he is on board with helping fix Private Lam’s, uh, issues.”

  “I don’t trust anyone but Johnny.”

  “That wasn’t their first choice, since he’s still on a UA.”

  Unauthorized Absence. Mac knew that was a lesser term for what they were—AWOL.

  “What asswipe do they think I’d trust enough to come back in?”

  Scofield scratched beneath his cap. “That asswipe would be me.”

  The two men stared at each other.

  “It will be different, MacConnelly. You have my word. You’ll be in the loop on everything because I’m appointing you my second in command.”

  “I’m only a sergeant.”

  “Not if you come in, you’re not.”

  “I’m trying to find someone.”

  “Yes. Brianna Vittori. We found her, but we thought you might like to be the one to ask her to come in.”

  Mac switched off his chain saw but his heartbeat seemed to be revving at the same speed. “You found her?”

  * * *

  Mac sat in the helo beside Maj. Paul Scofield and listened intently as he reviewed their intel on Brianna Vittori.

  Below them the tops of the aspens shone a brilliant gold in the October sunlight.

  Bri’s new place lay in a remote area in the mountains outside Taos, New Mexico. Off the grid, solar powered and heated by woodstove. She had no neighbors and had moved twice since Mac had seen her last.

  “She spends four hours each afternoon in a cubicle at the public library working online helping nonprofits with grant preparation, project planning and the creation of skilled volunteer programs,” said Scofield.

  Mac smiled at this as he realized that she’d managed to find a way to help people even as she avoided them.

  “Small income, but she gets by. Does all her banking online. That’s how we track her. She rides a motorcycle which she could easily abandon if attacked.”

  “I don’t want her to see the helo,” said Mac.

  “We’ll drop you and wait for your signal.”

  “I appreciate that.”

  The bird touched down and Mac disembarked holding a map and a cell phone.

  “Good luck, Captain,” said Scofield, using Mac’s new rank.

  His throat felt suddenly dry. What if she wouldn’t come back?

  * * *

  Bri took the last quarter mile on her motorcycle slow. October’s cold had gilded the aspens and the cottonwoods a lovely red, but the afternoons were still sunny and warm.

  Bri pulled to a stop and cut the engine. She had already lowered the kickstand of her bike and removed her helmet when she noticed her front door lay open.

  She stepped away from the motorcycle knowing she was faster on foot, faster than anything human and everything half human that she’d met so far. She’d already outrun the vampires twice.

  “Who’s there?” she called as she eased backward, letting her power tingle through her like a shower of sparks. She was ready to run. Ready to disappear again.

  Something moved from the darkness beyond her door. A man stepped out.

  The heels of his shoes slapped loudly upon the large stone step. She stared at the familiar blood stripe on the royal-blue trousers above the shiny black shoes and the midnight-blue coat of a Marine’s dress blues. He held his white cap, clamped under one arm by the shiny black brim, perpendicular to the midnight-blue belt that cinched his trim waist. Fixed in the center of the belt’s buckle was the gold emblem of the Marines, the anchor, eagle and globe. As he moved into the sunlight of the yard she saw the flash of his gold buttons and two parallel silver bars on his shoulder. Bri took another step away, but the possibil
ities kept her from running. Could it be?

  Mac!

  She recognized him now beneath the pressed midnight-blue jacket festooned with bars of color across his left chest. The instant his blue eyes met hers she felt that familiar rush of excitement and the tingling awareness that only happened with Travis MacConnelly. It was all she could do not to rush into his arms.

  Oh, nothing had changed in three months, except now she wanted him even more. Somehow she held herself back.

  “Bri.” He replaced his hat to his head, the brim now shielding his pale eyes against the bright afternoon sunshine and then extended a hand toward her. “I’m alone. Don’t run again. Please.”

  She swallowed back the emotion that choked her. It took all her willpower not to rush into his arms. Her eyes drank in the sight of him as she trembled with the sheer joy of seeing him safe and whole.

  “How’s Johnny?” she asked, her voice a whisper.

  His brows tented, disappearing beneath the brim of his hat. “The same.”

  She nodded her understanding, absorbing the sorrow that the news brought to her bruised heart.

  He kept one hand out like a blind man feeling his way along as he inched toward her. She watched his approach. Each step brought an new urgency to her pounding heart.

  “How did you find me?” she asked.

  “Military intelligence. They’ve had you pinned for two months.”

  She glanced over her shoulder at the empty road. Her escape.

  “Don’t,” he said, his voice tinged with anguish.

  When she turned back it was to find him too close. Her skin tingled and she knew she should go, but she couldn’t make herself do it. Instead, she stood there gobbling up the sight of him. She could see the blue of his eyes now and the intensity of his stare. If she let him grab her there would be no escape. How she wanted to let him.

  “Stop,” she ordered.

  He did, holding up his hands in surrender. “Okay. Just don’t run.”

  She agreed to this with a slow nod. “I’ve only been here two months.”

  “A little more. Boulder, Colorado. Then here.”

  Her jaw dropped. It was true, then.