by M. J. Scott
I snagged Dan a couple of brownies and made myself a coffee with triple sugar and extra milk. I figured that would see me through to Bug’s where a hot bath, some Advil and a nap might render me into a suitable state to actually eat something.
When I turned to grab a paper napkin for Dan, I almost bumped into Rhianna.
She looked less bubbly than earlier, her smile strained around the edges.
“How you holding up, kiddo?”
She grimaced. “Ask me tomorrow. And remind me next year to wear sensible shoes.”
I laughed. “You won’t listen.”
Her lips curved. “Maybe not. Well, at least remind me to wear cheap shoes that dirt won’t ruin.” She stared down at her feet, smile vanishing.
I looked down. She was right. The high spiked heels on her candy colored sandals were a dirt-colored mess and splotches of mud made them look like the leather had come from some sort of mutant pink and brown cow. “Ouch.”
Her blue eyes were rueful as we both straightened. “Ouch in more ways than one. I paid retail for these.” She sipped her coffee. “Are you going back to Seattle tomorrow?”
I nodded. “Dan needs to get back.” Using him as a scapegoat was easier than admitting that I could hardly wait to get away. I always needed a break from Caldwell after the memorial. Bug could come to town for our next girly bonding session.
“Mom says he works for the FBI? Doesn’t that worry you?”
For once I wished that I knew exactly who in Caldwell knew the truth about me and Dan.
Was Rhianna fishing for information about Dan being a werewolf or was she just asking? My brain was too tired to figure it out from her expression.
“Less than when he was a cop,” I said honestly. He spent less time in the field, for one thing. And he was a werewolf now. Harder to kill.
She shivered. “I couldn’t do it. I’d worry too much.”
I frowned. “I don’t think about it. After all, any of us could—” I cut myself off. Idiot. This was not the time or place to be talking about accidental deaths. “So is there a guy worshipping at your feet, as usual?”
To my surprise, she blushed. Rhi was the men fawning at her feet type. But she never took them that seriously.
I grinned at her and raised an eyebrow. “Don’t tell me you’re in luuuurve.”
Her gaze dropped back down to the mutant cow shoes. When she looked back up, her face was a similar pink to the unsplotched parts of the leather. A grin spread across her face making her look like her sister all over again. “Maybe.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Maybe? You’re blushing over but maybe? Okay, dish the dirt.”
She glanced over her shoulder and I saw her parents standing a few feet away. “Not here. Mom and Dad don’t know yet.”
I wasn’t letting her get off that easily. A little big sis-little sis gossip was just what I needed to take my mind off the day we’d just had. Something normal. “Rhianna Anders, you are not going anywhere until I’m fully informed. Let’s go outside. It’s getting hot in here anyway.”
She giggled then nodded. I dropped Dan’s plate of calories off to him and then caught up to Rhianna. We ended up sitting on the front steps of the hall.
We weren’t the only ones finding it a little close indoors; Aunt Bug and her friends had taken up position on the double row of park benches outside the hall. The sun had set now but the lights from the hall shed plenty of light across the lawn. I smiled to myself when I saw Stanley Douglas, who, Bug insisted was just a bridge partner, hovering around her.
“So,” I said, turning my attention back to Rhianna. “Tell me about this guy.”
She started to reply but stopped as a big black van suddenly squealed to a halt just near the hall’s front gate.
“Who’s that?” I said, frowning. Most of the town’s population was inside. And I didn’t think it was the sort of night that kids would be joyriding. Reporters maybe? The van’s side door slid backward and several men piled out. Something about the way they moved—a little too quick and fluid—made my heart stop. Vamps. Shit.
I jumped up. “Rhi, go get Dan. And Sheriff Kenny.”
“What?” She looked confused.
I yanked her to her feet. “Go now.”
The vamps were scanning the street, heads turning and seeking like a pack of dogs scenting the air. One of them looked straight at me. A nasty grin spread across his face. I stood my ground.
The group of vamps started to flow toward the hall.
I saw Stanley step into their path, saw one of them push him hard enough for him to hit the grass. Saw the looks of horror growing on the faces of the ladies around him. Including Bug’s.
I was down the steps and between her and the vamps before I could stop to think what I was doing.
“Get out of here.” A growl underlined my words. I heard Bug murmuring something behind me. “Stay back,” I said without turning around. “In fact, go inside. Now.”
“What makes you think inside will help?” The tallest of the vampires sneered.
“I told you to leave,” I said, trying to ignore the fact my heart was hammering and that the vamps would be able to hear it, clear as day. Where was Dan? And the Sheriff and his nice guns? Come to think of it, where the fuck was Marco?
“We’ll leave. But you’re coming with us.”
“I don’t think so.” Hurry up, Dan.
Hurry the fuck up.
I could hear noises coming from the hall—footsteps—but I didn’t know if Bug and her friends had retreated or whether someone was coming to help. I wasn’t turning my back on four vampires to check.
“You come quietly or things will get messy.” The vamp snarled.
My skin went cold. Another vampire attack might just break the town for good. On the other hand, being held by vampires again was very likely to break me for good. I needed to stall. “Who sent you?”
“Who said anyone sent us?”
“Get away from her.”
Dan’s voice. Relief weakened my knees.
The vamp slanted dark eyes past me, pale skin almost glowing in the dim light, lip curling to reveal his fangs. “Going to make me?”
“Yes, we are.” This time it was Sheriff Kenny speaking.
I risked a glance over my shoulder. Dan stood just behind me, Kenny and another guy I assumed was one of the deputies with him. Both the cops had their guns out. About time. I turned back to the vamp. “I suggest you leave.”
Something like fear flashed in his eyes. Obviously the thought of going back empty-handed to whoever was pulling the strings here didn’t appeal. “I don’t think so.”
He lunged for me, hands closing over my forearm. I snarled and tried to pull free.
“Ash!” Dan yelled my name and the vamp reeled back as a fist connected with his face. He and Dan tumbled to the grass, rolling and punching. I sucked in a breath, trying to work out where the other three had gone. Kenny had pulled a gun and I saw one vamp frozen in place but that left two unaccounted for. Two vamps loose in the crowd.
I whirled back to face the hall, trying to remember what the vamps had looked like. Dark hair, dark clothes. There was nothing distinctive. Then my brain kicked in. Dark clothes. Most people were wearing color. Look for black.
A shriek came from the steps. Bug’s voice. I broke into a run, saw her lifted off her feet by one of the vamps. “Bug!” I shrieked, speeding up. “Get away from her.”
Another vamp loomed up in my path. I hit him full force, striking blindly with one fist. It connected with his head hard enough to send pain screaming up my arm but he went down and I leapt over him and closed in on Bug.
The vamp swung around just before I reached him, holding Bug in front of him like a shield. “I’ll kill her.” He snarled at me. “You stay where you are.”
I froze as the color drained out of Bug’s face. “Let her go. I’ll come with you—”
“No,” Bug said, struggling. “You stay where you are.”
“L
et her go,” I repeated.
The vamp just smiled and leaned his face closer into her neck. “I don’t think so.”
I tried to calculate how quickly I could close the gap between us and how badly he might be able to hurt Bug in the time it took me. Too badly seemed to be the answer but I had to try anyway. I got ready to leap for him but then Rhianna loomed up behind the vampire and smashed a chair over his head. He crumpled and I leaped for Bug, hitting the lawn before she did, so I cushioned her fall. She landed on top of me with a grunt and half-winded me.
“Are you—” I started to ask but a snarling sound interrupted me. The vamp. I turned my head in time to see him spring to his feet, face twisted with rage and fly at Rhianna. He grabbed her and buried his fangs in her throat before I could move.
Chapter Eight
Rage roared through me and the wolf blazed to life. I changed and rolled to my feet, snarling.
Screams echoed around me, people stumbling backward at the sudden appearance of a huge wolf in their midst. I ignored them, focusing on the vamp. He didn’t lift his head from Rhi’s throat. I didn’t have time to lose. He could drain her or hurt her fatally in another few seconds.
I sprang, snapping at his arm. My fangs sank through the cotton of his black shirt and buried themselves in muscle and flesh. The rank taste of vamp blood boiled into my mouth but I held on and twisted, using my body weight to force him away from Rhianna.
He screamed with fury and pain. His free arm connected with my ribs with a thud. Vamps pack quite a punch. Agony bloomed along my side and I let go, retreating with another snarling growl, trying to get him to follow me. Rhianna lay on the ground behind him and the scent of human blood flooded the air, almost as strong as the vamp’s.
Someone needed to help her.
“Dan,” I screamed in my head but then the vamp came at me again and I had to concentrate on staying alive.
Pain and fury blurred my ability to think about anything but the threat in front of me. The vampire moved almost too fast for me to follow, leaping through the air to come at me with bared fangs. I twisted frantically, trying to dodge. He had the advantage of legs and arms. But I was heavier and maybe even stronger in wolf form—if I could connect with teeth or claws. I swiped at his leg as he sailed over me and my claws tore through flesh.
The vamp shrieked as he hit the dirt. I snarled back, circling to face him. Behind him, people knelt by Rhi, faces stricken. Some guy I didn’t know was holding a red stained cloth to her neck but she wasn’t moving and the salt-metal-warm stink of blood was way too strong.
But I couldn’t think about Rhi. I had to think about survival. The vamp flowed to his feet, blood staining the flesh on his thigh. He hissed at me, bloody fangs exposed. I growled, daring him to try me again. His eyes flicked to the side and I suddenly realized he was searching for another human shield. Something to distract me.
Not going to happen. Not if I had anything to do about it. My last vestiges of control over the wolf slid away and I let the vast anger of a werewolf protecting her pack surge through me. He wasn’t going to hurt anyone ever again.
Once more I sprang, bowling him over. We rolled together, his hands reaching for my neck and fangs raking my side as we tumbled. The pain only increased my fury and I redoubled my efforts. The need to conquer the enemy, to destroy my prey, burned away all other thought. My teeth snapped, missed, and then found purchase. And for the second time in my life, I rejoiced as I snapped my jaws closed and tore out a throat.
As the vamp dropped limply to the ground, I spat blood and flesh, shaking my head in disgust. The taste of vamp wasn’t any more pleasant the second time round; my stomach recoiled, even in wolf form.
When I looked up, it was to a sea of horrified faces.
Shit. So much for keeping the ‘I’m a werewolf’ thing under wraps. I’d well and truly outed myself.
By killing someone in front of my whole supernatural-hating hometown.
Even if my victim was a vamp, his blood still spattered my face and mouth, gumming my fur, sticky and bitter. No doubt I looked pretty terrifying to the humans watching.
Well, I could worry about that later. Right now, I needed to help Rhianna.
I took a step forward and someone in the crowd gasped. It sounded way too loud in the shocked silence. Silence that meant the fight was over. My lip curled a little in reaction to the noise but I kept walking. As I reached Rhi, the scent of human blood once more overpowered the vamp’s.
Which meant there was a whole lot of it spilled around.
Too much.
Rhianna lay pale and still. Too pale and still but I could just hear a struggling heartbeat.
She needed help fast.
Someone stepped into my path. I didn’t recognize the scent and I didn’t have any time to waste. I growled warningly and they jumped away even as more startled noises blossomed through the crowd.
Movement flicked at my left side and I turned my head to see Aunt Bug coming down the front stairs.
Safe. For a moment that’s all I could think. She hadn’t been hurt. My pulse eased back a few beats.
“Ashley, is that you?” She looked a little wild-eyed as she approached me, so I dropped to my haunches and thumped my tail a few times. It was the closest I could come to a wag while I was this tense and there was no way I was changing back and winding up naked in front of the entire population of Caldwell.
Aunt Bug smiled shakily then reached out and touched my head. I stayed still, not wanting to get blood on her. Then her gaze turned from me to Rhianna and she paled. “Rhianna,” she said brokenly. “Somebody call 911.”
“I already have.” Dan’s voice cut through the nervous babble that had broken out. To the assembled humans, he would sound cool and calm. But I could hear the thump thump thump of his heart racing almost as fast as mine. I didn’t know if it was from worry over me or the fight.
He stopped between me and the crowd and just stood there, all tall and commanding. The fact that he’d pulled back his jacket to reveal his gun didn’t hurt either. The way the tension in the air eased back would’ve been annoying if it hadn’t been to my benefit.
The blare of an ambulance siren suddenly cut through the crowd noise, turning the focus away from me for a moment as everyone stopped to watch it pull up. Dan moved closer to me.
“You should go home and change,” he said as I inched nearer to his legs. When in doubt, stand by the guy with the gun. At least when you know he’s on your side.
I tilted my head at him in the wolf equivalent of ‘are you kidding me?’The telepathy werewolves used didn’t work when one was in human form. At least not between Dan and me. But wolves are pretty good at reading body language whether on two legs or four. I glanced back to Rhianna, whining softly.
A red-headed paramedic knelt beside her, frantically applying bandages and sliding needles into flesh as her partner readied a gurney.
Rhianna.
For a moment I wondered whether anyone had worked on Julie like this after Tate. I’d never asked her parents for details—I’d been too busy grieving my own losses and trying to wipe the images of blood and death from my mind to want to add to them. I whined again. I could still hear Rhianna’s heart beating but I didn’t like the way it sounded.
And it was all my fault.
The vamps had been after me.
Rhi was hurt because of me.
And Caldwell was traumatized all over again.
“They won’t let you in the hospital like that,” Dan pointed out. “There’s nothing more you can do here.” He frowned a little and I read the ‘except get yourself in a whole lot of trouble’ he wasn’t adding loud and clear.
I nudged his leg with my nose trying to breathe in the smell of Dan instead of vamp and blood and fear.
He touched my head, just for a moment. “Everything’s under control. Go home.”
But I’d missed my chance to slip away. As the paramedics loaded Rhianna onto the gurney, the crowd turned
back to me.
“She can’t leave. She’s a werewolf,” someone muttered, a little too loudly.
Dan’s head whipped around and I heard the near silent growl that rumbled in his throat, even if no one else did. “Yes, she is. And she just saved several people’s lives. You got a problem?” His hand strayed down to his gun again.
“Wolf lover,” someone yelled and I winced. This could go downhill, fast. I hoped Marco had had the sense to leave town already. I’d probably get out of this but I didn’t like the chances of any vampire caught within city limits just now.
He must have left. Otherwise, wouldn’t he have warned me? Surely an Old One could sense other vampires in his vicinity?
I leaned a little closer to Dan as Aunt Bug stepped up beside him. She glared out at the crowd and I swear half of them shrank back. Amazing what a lasting effect being a schoolteacher has on people. Aunt Bug had ruled the local high school campus with a steely glare and a quick tongue for nearly thirty years before she retired.
“Yes? Does anyone have a problem with my niece?” She put her hand down on my head, rubbing my ear absently, like you would a Labrador. Normally I would’ve pulled away but this wasn’t the time to act like anything but a lapdog.
No one spoke up but the vibes spilling from the crowd weren’t friendly. Rhi’s parents were being shepherded into the back of the ambulance, leaving me short another couple of potential allies. But maybe that was assuming too much. They had just as much reason to hate supernaturals as anyone else in this town.
Actually even more reason now.
I wanted to go with them but Dan was right. No one would let a giant wolf into a hospital. So I had to go change and get clothes first.
“Why don’t you take Ash home?” Dan said quietly to Aunt Bug. “I have to stay with the Sheriff until my team gets here.”
He’d called in the Taskforce already? Damn. I hadn’t expected that. Just what the town needed, even more vamps and weres arriving.
Dan crouched down in front of me, silver eyes searching mine as if reassuring himself I was okay. I swiped his cheek quickly with my tongue. Wrong move. The streak I left was faintly pink, my saliva still tinged with blood.
