I knew what she was about to say before she talked. An uncomfortable, nauseous wave of deja vu passed through me while she took another calming breath.
“He’s gone... crazy, Lily. He can’t calm down. He’s going from totally normal to like, I dunno, wild or something. Over and over, he just,” she quieted and I heard a scream from somewhere distant, like someone was pounding on a wall or a door near her. The voice was screaming my name.
Of course it was. Five years of wanting a boy I liked to get excited over me and now I had two of them. Well okay, one of them I liked quite a bit less than the other, but there was still a little bit of a thrill to it, as sad as that was.
I clenched my eyes tight and pushed my fingers into them. All I wanted was some pancakes. “Okay, two things before you say whatever you’re going to say. I don’t know why your boyfriend is screaming my name but –”
“I don’t care about that Lily, I don’t care,” she sucked a breath. “There’s... Lily, I know I’ve been kind of nasty to you but please help me, please come and talk to him. I don’t know what’s going on but I just want it to stop, okay?” Her voice had gone quiet. She’d cried herself out and went all the way back around to rational.
The address she gave was around a ten minute drive from where grandpa and I lived, but I recognized the street. In a place like Fort Branch, there’s always a nice part, and you always know the streets that make it up.
Naturally, Cat lived on the most expensive one.
Throwing that tidbit aside, I jotted down the address and told her I’d be there in a few minutes.
I tromped down the stairs to find Grandpa Joe drinking his coffee, sitting at a table made up with two plates. God damn did I want some of those pancakes.
“I’m... so sorry about this, but I can’t stay for breakfast. Caitlyn Hodges just called me and she needs some help,” I said, trying really hard not to smell the food. “Is it okay if I take the Bronco?”
Grandpa fluttered his eyebrows. “Take the what?”
“Sorry. Can I take Betty for a bit?”
“Say her whole name, Leroy. She gets cranky otherwise.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “All right, fine,” I said as I grabbed a pancake, stuffed it with a fried egg, two pieces of bacon, and took a bite of my fluffy burrito. “May I take Betty Boop for a drive? I promise she’ll return without a scratch. Hopefully.”
It was hard to think of anything except for Damon and Devin utterly destroying each other. Damon was big and strong enough to do some really horrible damage, even without his, uh, claws.
He tossed me the keys. “Be careful. You know what you’re doing.”
“Thanks Grandpa,” I said. “You’re the best.”
“I know,” he said back. “Get gone, your friend needs you.”
Friend? I’m not so sure about that.
* * *
In any other town, the houses on Crest Street would have cost in the millions, but here, the only one that I remembered selling for anything near that much was exactly the address I stopped in front of. When it sold, the town was all excited about it. Almost as excited as when then Jack-in-the-Box opened by the movie theater.
Money never made me jealous. It was like this external thing that didn’t even really occur to me to think about until I saw it. Compared to the way my grandpa and I lived, this place might as well have been the King of Jordan’s palace.
I shook my head and hopped out of the Bronco just in time to hear something that could only be described as an unkind scream.
“Cat! Get over here! Now!”
Devin. He’s in a rage all right.
I ran to the front door, and put my hand on the knob. Just then, a body hit the door, jolting it backwards against me so hard I fell off the porch and rolled. Devin Cline took one step out of the house, then Cat grabbed his shoulder and yanked him back inside before slamming the door.
“Devin,” I heard from inside. “You can’t go out there! Not like this! What if someone sees?” She was cry-screaming.
He was just plain screaming. “I don’t care! I need her! I need this and there’s no choice! If I don’t have her, there’s no going back. I... need... Lily... or...”
“I called her, Devin, she said she was on the way, but—” she stopped talking just a little too fast.
Hopping to my feet, I shook some pine straw out of my hair, jumped back onto the porch and pushed on the door only to find it jammed. “Open the door,” I shouted. “Devin, Cat, I’m here, open the door!”
From inside, the sounds of a struggle and two people groaning back and forth caught my attention. “Let me in!” I threw my shoulder into the hard oak. My effort did little more than make the door knocker bounce a couple of times and hurt like absolute hell.
“Devin, no! It hurts!” Cat’s voice was strained. “Stop! My throat, I—”
I took a step back and charged forward, driving my shoulder into the door again, harder than before. I bounced off, but there was a little more give that time. The worst damn ache crept into my bones, but with the way Cat was screaming, and all the roaring and carrying on from Devin, I needed in there right that second.
The third time I wrecked myself against the door didn’t do anything, but on the fourth, something finally moved. A creaking noise, like something against the door sliding away encouraged me. I pulled back, took a deep breath, and gave it every ounce of strength I had.
Pain shot through me but not before the door heaved and sighed, and whatever was behind it holding it closed gave with a loud crack.
When it opened though, everything inside was quiet – decidedly different from only a few seconds ago.
“Lily? Is that...?” Her voice was faint. Very, very faint. I made my way through the huge entryway past a weird little vase full of umbrellas and into the living room. There, under a chandelier that probably cost as much as grandpa’s house, Caitlyn Hodges lay in a heap.
“Caitlyn,” I said, “are you okay?” I picked her head up off the floor. She was scuffed up, but nothing terrible. Bruises marked her collarbones, and there looked to be a thumbprint in the middle of her throat. “Jesus, what happened?”
“Devin,” she gasped. “He, he came back. He won’t stop asking for you, I don’t know what to do, I don’t know, Lily, it’s so...” she sat up and pulled her knees under her chin, clutching them against her chest, hugging them tight.
“Help me,” she begged. Caitlyn’s voice was hollow, weaker than I’d ever heard.
My mouth was open to ask where he’d gone when a roar and a sound of breaking wood gave me my answer. I swore loudly and ran back to the entry to find exactly what I expected, if not what I hoped.
Devin was somehow even more ruggedly attractive when he was strung out on rage and God-knows how many sleepless nights than when he was well rested and clean. He had dark stubble on his cheeks and chin, a busted lip and a trickle of blood running down one corner of his mouth. His clothes were tatters; one of his sleeves was missing, the other hanging by threads. And all over, he was covered in dirt, mud, cuts and blood.
“Oh,” he said as he quirked a half-grin. “Lily. It’s good to see you.”
His eyes were half-closed and he kept rubbing the side of his face with one of his cut-up hands. Devin ran them through his long, dirty blond hair and smiled again, making his damn dimples appear.
“What happened, Devin?” I said, approaching cautiously.
Those were probably the first three words I said to Devin since we had two bad dates junior year. Well, one really, because he stood me up on the second.
“I haven’t been myself lately,” he said with a sheepish grin. “I guess I got a little carried away back there, huh?”
“Carried away?” I scrunched up my forehead. “You were –”
“Doesn’t matter,” he said with a wave of his hand. “She’s not important.”
Right behind us, Cat screamed and started crying. “Not important? Devin, I love you! I’ve been looking for yo
u for a week or however long it’s been, I...”
With a wrenching feeling in my stomach, I realized that in spite of everything, I felt horrible for her. No one deserves this – any of this.
“Oh stop,” Devin said. “That’s not what I meant. It’s just that other things are more important.”
I tried to leave that jackass on the floor and go to Cat, but she was already gone, her voice trailing off down the hall. For the moment, at least, Devin had my attention, although suddenly, I remembered why I’d never bothered to talk to him. All the rumors about him seemed to be true. The ones about the way he treated Cat, anyway.
“C’mon,” he said with an ease to his voice that was more than a little unsettling. “She’s served her purpose.”
I couldn’t believe the shit coming out of his mouth. “She what? That girl’s the only person who cared at all that you’ve been gone for a week, and you thank her by doing... this?”
Devin laughed. “It’s not that,” he said. “But it doesn’t really matter, does it?”
I stared straight into his gorgeous face hating myself for thinking he was gorgeous.
“What does matter? If it’s not her, what is it, Devin? I don’t know what’s going on.”
He shook his beautiful face back and forth. I pinched myself.
“Yeah you do,” he said softly, stroking the back of my hand with his thumb. “You’ve had the dreams. So have I.”
“The dreams,” I said, gulping. “No, I don’t, I don’t know what you mean.”
Devin stood up and right before my eyes, the horrible split on his lip shimmered. Air around it swirled like waves on a hot road, and then, the cut was gone. I sucked a deep breath into my lungs and looked on in horror.
“You,” I whispered. “Damon, he...” My lips moved soundlessly.
The gash on Devin’s leg healed just like his lip. “Yeah,” he said. “Funny world, isn’t it? A week ago if someone told you a werewolf existed, you would’ve laughed in his face.” Devin pulled a cigarette out of a pack he had in his hip pocket, flicked a lighter and lit up.
I just nodded.
“He might have won the fight,” Devin said. “But I won the real prize.” He grabbed my wrist.
“Prize? What prize?”
Devin smiled. His eyes twinkled. I hated him for being so Goddamn beautiful and hated myself for being pulled in by it.
“You know what I’m going to say already, but you’re fishing for compliments. The prize,” he said, brushing his hair back and running a finger along my jaw, “is you.”
Nine
“Where are you taking me, Devin?” He dragged me, wordlessly, toward the car, but I spent more time kicking at the ground to get my footing than I did walking.
He paused and held me still, staring at me for just a moment, pondering what to say. Devin opened his mouth and started to speak but cut himself off. “No,” he mumbled in that distracted, half-mad way, “not yet, you can’t know yet. You’ll find out when we get there.”
Another jerk of my wrist surprised me and almost sent me to the ground. I managed to keep my footing, but just. “This is crazy, Devin!” I was almost shouting. “What the hell are you doing to me? And what do you mean I’m a prize? This is bullshit!”
He grunted a laugh and kept right on tugging me down the long driveway to the gate where the car sat. The front door of Cat’s house slammed, startling Devin.
“No time for explaining things to you, no time.”
Faster and faster he dragged me, almost breaking into a run. The band of pressure where he clamped my wrist was so horribly tight and painful that it was hard to believe a normal person could squeeze so hard.
A knot twisted in my stomach.
“You two are... you and Damon I mean, you’re the – ow! Hey!”
He jerked my wrist so hard it felt like my arm went out of socket; he pulled again, and I fell to the ground as he kept on. I kicked my feet behind me, trying to stand, but it was no good.
“Devin!” I cried. “This hurts! Why won’t you let me walk?”
He looked back, not stopping, and shot me a horrible look. It was just like the one Damon gave me when I found him crumpled up, bleeding and half-human. The ball of nerves in my stomach sank deeper.
To my horror, the same twitching, tight feeling between my legs caught my attention, just like with Damon.
“What are you, brothers or something? Ow! Jesus, Devin, we’re almost to the car, you can stop fucking dragging me now!”
“Get in,” he commanded, shoving me into the driver’s side door. “Get in!”
“Okay, okay,” I stammered. His shouting and the pulling didn’t leave any questions about how stupid it would be to try and resist him. Then again, judging from the tightness, I had a feeling that even if I wanted to push him away, it would be a lot harder than just rejecting a date I didn’t want.
My hands were shaking so much it took me a second to get the key in the lock. Devin pounding on his door and yelling at me to hurry certainly didn’t help anything. When I finally managed to unlock it and slide into the seat, a moment of clarity overcame me.
“Open the door!” Devin was clawing at the door handle.
I pumped the gas pedal, counting down from six. Leaning over, I pretended to fumble with the lock. “It sticks,” I said. “It gets like... jammed, hold on.”
Four, three, two.
“Let me in!” He was roaring, pounding his fist into the window. As old as Betty was, I couldn’t imagine the ancient 1980s glass would last much longer. “Now!”
One, done.
I turned the key. Betty’s engine sputtered, then exploded to life, coughing a little burst of smoke out the tailpipe. I shrugged at Devin as I continued fumbling with the lock and mouthed ‘it won’t open.’ He looked back and forth with growing desperation pulling at his features.
On his beautiful face. Jesus, why can’t I stop thinking about him like this? This crazy dipshit is about to gut me.
“Uh, okay,” I said. “Think I’ve about got it, I... Devin?” He was gone.
“That’s not possible,” I grumbled. “Where are you? Devin? Where—”
A huge, booming thud sounded as something landed on top of the Bronco. “Shit! You have to be kidding me!”
I punched the gas and tried to pull my door closed at the same time, but I was about a quarter-second too late.
Devin got half an arm inside the car, so when I shut the door it just bounced off, swinging open again. Whipping the car back and forth to throw him, I almost tipped the damn thing over, but he didn’t move an inch.
He viciously kicked the top of the car hard enough to push in a dent while scratching the ceiling upholstery with his hand. Oh my God, his hand!
Before my eyes, his fingers lengthened and his nails curled into claws. Shouting, he ripped a huge gash into the brown fabric which fell down in my face. “Let me in!” Devin screamed in a pinched, strained, pained voice. “Now!”
I reached out and grabbed the flapping door just in time to avoid it hitting an oncoming car, and tried once again to slam it into his arm. This time, I was able to get some strength behind it. Gritting my teeth, I grunted and yanked the handle as hard as I could and brought it down on him.
A sickening crunch met my ears, and a half-second later, Devin let out a ragged, throat-tearing scream. But he was still latched to the roof.
I heard his body shift to the other side, and chanced a glance out the passenger side. One of his torn-up jeans legs dangled there. If I just jumped the sidewalk, I could probably drag him on someone’s fence, or grind him against the side of a building.
Swallowing hard to quell a wave of nausea, I stuck my tongue out of my mouth squeezed it between my lips, gnawing to concentrate. “This is crazy,” I said under my breath. “This is completely nuts.”
Devin’s grip on my ceiling loosened slightly. He was moving, trying to get his weight back on top. My time was running out.
Taking a deep breath, I swerved
off the road, bumped up onto a curb and heard a wild, savage scream as Devin’s leg crashed into the large oak tree. All I could think is how much it must cost to water something that big in the middle of the desert.
I jerked the wheel in the other direction, waiting for another cry or a yelp or something, and for him to fall off, but it never came. Rolling my eyes back in my head, I summoned another round of courage, gritted my teeth and scraped against the next tree big enough to peel a werewolf off the top of an SUV. That time I sandwiched his leg between the top of the car and a very thick overhanging branch.
“Sssshhh! Auuuugh! Le – my leg! My Goddamn leg! What are you doing? Let me—”
The third tree did the trick. I couldn’t watch. I went at the third one with my eyes closed, not entirely sure whether or not Betty’s roof was too high to make it under. From the scraping noises, the answer was just.
Devin hit the ground with a clatter. He rolled end over end, bounced over the curb and came to a painfully abrupt halt when his head hit the sidewalk with a deep, horrible thud. My first thought was that I should check on him and make sure he was alive, but my second was much more reasonable – to run him the hell over again.
Heart pounding, I couldn’t think. Streaks of white panic ran through my vision. The only thing that came to mind was how badly I needed Damon. He’d keep me safe, he’d know what to do. If these two really were the same sort of, of creatures, he’d know what to do.
Tears ran down my cheeks; tears of fear and longing. I remembered the way he felt when he held me against his body, the heat of his soul on my lips as he kissed me. But then I remembered him running away, terrified, and shook myself.
I sat there with my car hanging halfway into the road, trying to catch my breath and will my pulse to slow down. I glanced out the rearview. Devin’s still, broken body gave me a moment of shameful relief. His clothes were torn to shreds, but somehow most of the skin underneath was intact. He had little cuts and scrapes, but no major injuries, certainly nothing that would give away what he’d just been through.
Fated Mates: The Alpha Shifter Boxed Set (12 Book Bundle) (Insatiable Reads) Page 33
