by Trina M. Lee
We parked on a side street, just off the main downtown strip. The negative energy that filled the neighborhood stung despite the fact that I was shielding hard. It was strong here. Murder, addiction and despair, all powerful in their evil.
This wasn’t looking too good so far. Judging from the fact that we were in a rundown area, away from the business district, with little to no streetlights, houses or people, I was pretty sure this was going to be a gong show. Either that or so easy, it wouldn’t even be fun.
“Are you ready?” Kale raised a dark eyebrow in question as I double-checked the small dagger I had secured to my left wrist.
“You know it. Don’t get me killed, or I will haunt the shit out of you. And, my boyfriends will beat you up.” I stuck my tongue out at the absurdity of my statement.
He gave my hair a ruffle and then shoved my head playfully before climbing out of the car. I frowned and smoothed the mess back into place. Of all the irritating things…grrr.
“Do we have a plan of any kind, or are we just running blind like usual?” I asked, shivering slightly in the chilly night air. The cold didn’t usually bother me, which meant the temperature was really dropping.
“Not a clue,” he replied as his large strides forced me to double time my steps. “All I know is that we’re looking for a werewolf, gender unspecified, that has been snacking on some of the downtown street folk. If they’d used a little more discretion, it may have gone unnoticed, but the slaughter fest has been drawing public attention.”
He stopped suddenly and dug around in the pocket of his duster. “Here. I want you to take the spare key to my car. Just in case.”
I gaped at him with wide eyes. “In case of what?”
“After that incident in the hotel with the demon, I don’t want you left without a way to take off if it comes to that.”
“Are you planning to leave me, Kale? That’s not what I signed up for.” I accepted the key and tugged on the sleeve of his jacket, encouraging him to keep walking.
“Of course not. I’m sure we can handle a Were. It’s merely precaution.”
A few months ago, the two of us had unexpectedly encountered a demon during a routine vampire kill. Kale had urged me to run, to leave him behind. I’d refused. And then, it had been too late. We’d made it out, but it was still nice to know if something came up, I wouldn’t be stranded in the ghetto without a ride.
As we made our way to the main strip, my heart began to race. I was eager to catch scent of this shifter. Any werewolf lurking around out here couldn’t possibly be up to any good.
The neighborhood was filthy. The street was littered with everything from cigarette butts to used hypodermic needles. I wore a disgusted grimace as we passed a series of abandoned shops, each with the windows smashed out. It got slightly better as we progressed to the next block.
Sirens wailed in the distance. A scantily clad woman leaned against a light post, watching us as we approached. Did she have a clue how close to death she was? Of course she did. She thrived on it. Any human that could walk these streets night after night was looking for something, and it wasn’t good. Staring death in the face on a nightly basis was as close to feeling alive as some of these people got. It broke my heart.
I was prepared for her glare when we passed, though it was unlikely she could have mistaken me for a working girl. With my jeans and hoodie, I did not look anything like someone out to turn tricks. Hopefully, we would find this rogue wolf before it found her.
The traffic picked up slightly as we went from block to block. I raised my face to the wind, scenting the air for anything animal. A bevy of smells hit me, automotive fumes being the strongest. Mingled along with oil and car exhaust was an assortment of greasy food, garbage and something unidentifiable. I didn’t like it though. There was a stench on the air, as if the lack of hope and dreams had grown stale and rotten over time.
For more than an hour, we followed both physical and psychic senses, finding nothing but dead ends. We’d covered a lot of ground, miles since we’d left the car. I was beginning to get frustrated. I didn’t expect it to be easy, but my eager anticipation was fading.
When we passed by the entrance to another side street, my senses went on full alert.
Everything in me commanded that I follow my instinct. I would find our werewolf.
“Do you feel that?” I turned to Kale with a renewed excitement. “We have to go this way.”
I walked fast, a sense of urgency quickening my pace. Kale frowned down at me, his brow furrowed in thought.
“I feel it now that you’ve drawn my attention to it. I didn’t before.” The weight of Kale’s heavy gaze drew my eyes to his. “I can still just barely make out that Were’s energy. Your powers have seriously grown. And fast.”
I couldn’t be more powerful than Kale. He was older than Arys, for crying out loud.
Of course, many other factors played a role in it, such as the fact that Arys killed and derived a lot of pleasure and power from it, whereas Kale was doing the willing victim thing. I turned it over in my head; the realization, shocking. I don’t think I fully realized what Arys and I really had going on together.
The street was lined with apartment and condo buildings on either side. Additional side streets and alleys branched off between them. Though there were lights on in many windows, we didn’t see anyone. If I were a human living in this part of town, I wouldn’t be out at night either.
As we progressed from block to block, my senses began to burn like wildfire. The energy of the Were was strong, thick with the negative lashings of unrestrained primal fury. She was hunting. I could feel it. It caused me to quicken my pace; Kale, hot on my heels.
“This werewolf is hunting somebody,” Kale said, keeping his voice low so as not to disturb the silence around us. “Her hunger is so fierce. I hope she doesn’t already have prey in her sights.”
I knew the werewolf we sought wasn’t far. I allowed both my nose and my psychic abilities to guide me. Together, one sense seemed to complement the other so that I could almost see her in my mind’s eye.
My legs moved faster until I was almost running. I knew she was close, and I wanted to reach her before she caught my scent and ran. I could feel Kale beside me, moving with the stealth and grace that nothing living could ever possess. Now that we’d located our target, the urgency within us grew. The power inside me seemed to respond to the excitement of my wolf. It began to scratch at me like a dog begging to be let out.
“This way,” I announced when instinct and the sudden tangy scent of blood pulled me between two shabby looking apartment buildings.
As we slipped between the buildings, the pale glow of the streetlight behind us fell away. There was only darkness ahead. My eyes quickly adjusted, making out what lay before me. It was a parking lot with an alley running behind it. One single, dim bulb glowed in a streetlight near an overflowing dumpster.
Rounding the building, I already knew what I would see between the building and the dumpster: our werewolf and what was left of her prey. She hovered over the body of a man, tearing chunks of flesh from the bone with a ripping, squishing sound. She was so engrossed in feasting on the kill that it took a solid five or ten seconds before she looked up at us.
We were too late for this victim, but there wouldn’t be another. Her dark wolf eyes landed on us, and the vacancy within them struck me as eerie. She was completely out of her mind. Not a semblance of sanity remained in her murderous gaze. Her face and hands were smeared with blood, so much so that I couldn’t tell at first glance what shade her olive skin was. Her long, black hair hung in dread-like chunks to her waist, and her clothing was splattered with blood and gore.
For a split second, I flashed back, seeing an image in my mind of a time when I’d slaughtered a man just like this. After Arys and I had bonded, I’d lost control to the hunger and killed a human who was abusing his girlfriend. She had thanked me later. The gruesome images were never far from my mind. I lived with t
he fear of losing control like that again.
Then, everything seemed to move in slow motion. Even though it all happened so fast, it was like a slow moving sports replay before my eyes.
Kale launched into action in the same moment that the crazy she-wolf did. I hung back, watching and waiting with a flaming ball of blue and golden energy glowing in the palm of my hand.
She rushed him; her garbled snarl sounded all wrong as it came from between her human lips. He anticipated her blow and easily took her off her feet with one outstretched arm. In a flash, she regained her footing and slashed at him with both clawed, bloody hands.
The craving for blood and power grew inside me. I threw the power I held at the rabid she-wolf, and it successfully knocked the breath from her. She went down on her rear end, choking and gasping for air. Kale stood over her, unleashing blows that would have killed most mortals. It didn’t even faze her.
She came up scratching and biting, fighting for his throat even as he beat her back down again. I moved to shadow him in case she gained an advantage, but Kale stunned her with a blast of power at point blank range. It didn’t throw her like I expected, though it did knock her senseless for a moment. She stared with wide eyes, and a high-pitched wail filled the night.
I made the mistake of letting my guard down for a split second. I turned to Kale with a question on my lips, taking my eyes from her as her instinct kicked in, driving her to fight harder. Despite Kale’s reaction, he wasn’t able to block her and searing heat cut through me as three of her claws bit through the material of my sweater. The blood ran from the deep slashes.
“Alexa?” Kale asked, never pausing to look at me as he grasped the Were by the neck and dragged her close. “Are you ok?”
She flailed wildly; her arms beat at the vampire uselessly. He deflected each blow with his free arm, but his eyes now locked on the pulse in her throat. My fury grew with every crimson drop that coursed down my arm. I lashed out with a blast of energy, causing her to cry out in pain. That wasn’t enough for me. With a growl emanating from me, I struggled to get in between them, punching at her with a tight fist. I wanted to tear her apart.
“Let me kill her,” I cried out, irrational in the surge of rage that swept me.
“No way. She’s mine.” Kale jerked the werewolf roughly so that she stumbled against him. Kale was in need of a fix, and it showed. His lips peeled back in a snarl, and he sunk fangs into the thrashing werewolf so hard that I felt it like a kick in the gut as I watched.
Blood poured from the wound as Kale opened the artery. The scent was suddenly heavy and thick all around us. As he drank in both blood and energy, the combination of physical power and hunger struck deep in me. Though I suffered the same weakness as Kale, our hungers were rooted in different places.
Watching him drain the werewolf to the point of death made me feel like I was spying on a personal moment, one that I shouldn’t be seeing. It was as intimate as if I’d been watching him have sex. I have seen Kale kill but never have I seen him feed.
Turning my back on Kale wasn’t something I wanted to do, but watching gave me the same sensation I got when I saw Arys kill: I liked it. I hated that I did, but there was no sense denying it. So, I didn’t move; I stood frozen, feeling like a naïve novice. Every time I thought I knew what world I was a part of, I was thrown for a loop.
It was impossible not to feel the powerful energy rolling off Kale as he feasted on the intoxicating wolf blood. It swept me up in its inviting glow.
The wolf in his grasp put up a pitiful struggle, but it didn’t take long for her strength to wane. She made a series of unintelligible sounds as if she was attempting to speak. It wasn’t long until she was silent and limp as Kale deposited her on the ground at his feet.
My eyes strayed to the punctures in her throat and the blood oozing from the wound.
When I met Kale's eyes, they weren’t crazed or monstrous. However, they were calculating and watchful. I couldn’t help but be affected by him as he crossed the short distance between us. In no way was I prepared for what he did.
Not for one moment did he pause or hesitate as he grabbed my wrist and pulled me to him. There was a strange look in his haunting eyes as he tipped my head up, forcing me to meet his eerie gaze. He kissed me with a depth that instantly transcended physical.
I was pleasantly surprised to find blood still in his mouth. I was also shocked at my own sudden eagerness.
His tongue sought my own, and the blood dripped from his mouth to mine. He was ablaze with energy that forced any doubt or reluctance from me. The mix of vampire and werewolf power inside me was intrigued, curious to know what Kale had to offer.
Even as I savored the way the blood scratched Arys’ itch inside me, I was drawn to Kale’s centuries old energy. It wasn’t the same with Arys. I had a bond with him that went to the root of our metaphysical makeup. Instead, I realized that I could feed on Kale’s power and use it as my own. I realized that my power viewed Kale as a source to feed from, which was empowering after the night in the Charger when he’d made me the victim. I was fully aware of him drawing on my power as well, but this was different because I had control.
I allowed myself to fall into the power and ride out the wave that held us in its thrall.
I tasted him with a selfish abandon that overruled my common sense. My wolf was pressing the surface of my control, and the desire to spill his blood won out.
I bit his tongue, just enough to get a taste of him. Kale’s blood was an intoxicating blend of rich, age-old power and time. Power that didn’t get exercised the way that it should. My body responded to him against my will as his deathly alluring darkness touched me in forbidden places.
He broke off the kiss and stepped back. I couldn’t prevent the gasp that came from me. I stared at him in awestruck wonder as I licked the blood from my lips. In light of what he’d told me earlier, I couldn’t decide which of us was the cause of this strange moment.
I searched Kale’s eyes for a sign of his reaction. He regarded me coolly, as if he didn’t trust himself to speak. Tentatively, he reached a pale hand out to touch the bleeding gashes along my upper arm. I was afraid to speak and break the strange spell as I watched him then lick my blood from the tips of his fingers.
“I’m sorry,” Kale spoke softly, a look of shame evident in his contrasting eyes. “We should go.”
Now that I’d tuned into Kale’s personal energy, I could really feel the sadness and sense of loss. I hadn’t been aware he carried it around so strongly. He was a very lost man. Kale needed to find himself. Something I felt I was still only beginning to do myself.
“Don’t be sorry,” I breathed, unable to make the words come out any stronger. I had to take a few deep breaths. “Don’t deny what you are, Kale. And, never apologize for it.”
“You make it sound so easy.” He eyed the pulse leaping hard in my throat, and I swallowed hard.
“It can be. It doesn’t have to be something you deny in order to maintain control.
You can’t ignore what you are or what you need.”
His eyes closed briefly, his dark lashes framing them beautifully. A pained expression crossed his face. “I have to ignore this need, so we have to leave before I do give in.”
It frightened me when he said that because I could feel the raw honesty in his tone.
After the kiss we’d just shared, my own control was seriously being tested. The energy of the hunger has a way of trying to sway decisions, and it was always about the power.
My tongue held the combined taste of both the dead wolf and Kale. I couldn’t resist licking my lips once again, tasting them both.
“Alright, let’s get out of here.” I nodded toward the dead she-wolf just yards away.
“I’ll call Fox to deal with disposing of that.” Fox Mathews was the resident medically trained werewolf and friend of my small town pack. He dealt with our nasty injuries and took care of things like this, things human authorities simply must not b
e allowed to discover.
“Thank you, Alexa.” Kale nodded and tipped his hat to me like the classy gentleman he usually was. “You are a true gem.”
I concentrated on taking deep breaths in order to slow the beating of my thrashing heart. My mind was reeling, and it was all I could do not to giggle foolishly in response to the power high.
As we made our way back toward the filthy street front, I wiped at my bloody arm. It wasn’t as bad as it felt. If I thought I’d had worries about what to tell Arys and Shaz before, I sure had them now. I chewed my lower lip nervously as I turned that conversation over in my head. Maybe … maybe it was better kept quiet for now.
Chapter Eight
I stifled a yawn and took another sip from my paper coffee cup. Jez pulled a skimpy French maid costume from the clothing rack, and I shook my head vigorously in response.
“You wouldn’t seriously wear that, would you?” I reached past her to finger the material of a velvet medieval gown.
“I don’t know. I could be Magenta from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” She eyed the price tag before putting it back. “It’s a cute option anyway.”
“You should be someone really badass,” I said, moving to another wall of costumes.
“Like Beatrix Kiddo.”
Jez tucked a long golden strand of hair behind an ear that was adorned with a large silver hoop. She looked both casual and stylish in a leather jacket and biker boots. The blue jeans she wore fit her slender legs like a second skin.
“Mmm,” she purred, licking her bright red lips. “That would be a good one. Do you have any idea what you want to be?”
I gave my head a shake, causing my long ponytail to brush against my elbow. I had already turned my nose up at hundreds of costumes. I was getting ready to give up.
“Lex? Why don’t you go as something like this? Blow the socks off your boys.”
When I looked over to where she stood about thirty feet away, I could barely make out the flimsy scrap of fabric she held.
