Stalking the Others

by Jess Haines

  My body gave out. The belt’s angry tirade faded into whispers, then nothing as the ache of despair and failure followed me into the blackness.

  Chapter 21

  (Days left to full moon: 2)

  When I opened my eyes, I was in Jack’s loft apartment, sprawled on the couch I’d originally claimed as my bed. It wasn’t hard to figure out where I was. I recognized the tacky painting of New York’s skyline with the LED lights. Honestly, who decorated with those anymore?

  Every part of my body ached abominably. A sharp twinge in my side that worsened every time I took a breath heralded another broken rib. My face felt like a sack of bricks had been dropped on it, and my muscles were so sore, even lifting an arm to cover my mouth when I coughed was almost too much effort to bear.

  The pain from coughing nearly made me pass out again. I had no idea what time it was or how I’d gotten back here. The last thing I recalled was fighting with Chaz in that house.

  That, and failing to beat him.

  So what the hell had happened? How did I get back here?

  “Ah, you’re awake? Good.”

  Chaz’s voice. If I hadn’t been so busy coughing up a lung, I would’ve launched myself off the couch to attack the bastard again. What in God’s name was he doing here? In the secret sanctuary of the White Hats, no less?

  His hand pressed against my breastbone, shoving me down into the cushions. He brushed my fingers away from my mouth and placed a soft-rimmed cup there; I scrabbled at it to pull it away before I realized what he was giving me—and began taking painful gulps of the oxygen. It took a minute or two, but the coughing eased off, and it became relatively easier to breathe. I glared at him over the plastic as soon as I blinked the tears out of my eyes. He gave me a humorless grin, showing me very clearly the newly formed gap where I’d knocked one of his teeth out.

  “I’m going to take my hand away. You’re going to sit still. Got it?”

  He took my wordless glare as an affirmative and withdrew, tossing the face mask aside and turning off a small cylinder I hadn’t seen earlier at the foot of the couch.

  I tried to sit up, but the pain in my back made the pain in my ribs feel like a minor twinge in comparison. Chaz gave a short, harsh laugh when I collapsed back, breathless and gasping.

  “You finished?”

  When I nodded, he called back over his shoulder. “She’s up.”

  There was a shuffling sound coming from downstairs. People coming to join us. Judging by what I could smell of myself, though somebody had obviously used a washcloth to wipe off the worst of the ash and grime and changed me into a T-shirt and someone else’s boxers after the fight, I wasn’t in any condition to be dealing with whatever was coming. My hair hung lank and oily around my shoulders, and I didn’t even want to think about who had undressed and then put new clothes on me.

  Chaz didn’t look at me or say anything else until Jack, Nikki, and a few Weres wandered in. One of them was new to me: a tall, slender woman with dark hair and hazel eyes. She’d linked arms with Nick, a Were I remembered from my trip to the Pine Cone Lodge. He looked the same, still covered in piercings and tattoos. Simon was there, too. He’d helped in the fight against Max Carlyle. There were a few more whose faces I recognized, but whose names I didn’t know. Lower-ranking Weres. The room got pretty crowded very fast.

  Kimberly was noticeably absent. I sorely hoped the bitch had died back in that house.

  The White Hats looked uncomfortable, but weren’t making any move to attack the werewolves. Either I was drugged up, or there was something really wrong with this picture. Maybe both.

  “Jack,” I said, my voice gravelly from what I assumed was smoke inhalation,“you feel like letting me in on what’s going on here?”

  He settled on the arm of the couch by my feet, his arctic irises scanning my body with the clinical gaze of a scientist studying a bug under a microscope. There was nothing comforting or human about it.

  “You almost died when you decided to Lone Ranger into that house. Your boyfriend here—”

  “Ex-boyfriend,” Chaz and I both said at the same time. Then glared at each other.

  “Fine. Ex-boyfriend. Whatever. He dragged you out and called for a truce. Long story short, he told us what’s been happening behind the scenes, who betrayed me, and who’s behind the murders. Looks like your boy wasn’t the one responsible for the death of that reporter. Remember that fight in Carl Schurz Park? The guy in the hat and trench coat? You almost got him. It was someone from a rival pack, the Ravenwoods.”

  That gave me a nasty start. Some of the Ravenwoods were behind the Embassy Incident. The same altercation that had landed my name and face in the papers months ago and changed my life forever. If I hadn’t been feeling exceptionally brave that day, I never would have become so well known by the Others. The Circle never would have decided to draw me into their affairs and hire me to fetch the Dominari Focus from Alec Royce. Though I hadn’t known it at the time, it had also put the wife of the Ravenwoods’ pack leader in my debt. Patricia Hutchinson had promised me I could call on her if I ever needed her help.

  Chaz knew all about that. He didn’t seem particularly upset or put out at the news. He’d had more time to come to grips with this strange twist than I had.

  Nikki was watching Chaz with narrowed, distrustful eyes from her seat on the edge of a chair across the room. Smart girl. “The Sunstrikers are going to help us take the Ravenwoods out.”

  That prompted a few snorts of derision and wry chuckles from the Weres. Simon, once he managed to stop snickering, gave her a pointed look. “You mean the White Hats are going to help the Sunstrikers kick some Ravenwood ass.”

  “Semantics,” Jack said, giving Nikki a shut-up-if-you-know-what’s -good-for-you look I knew all too well. She said nothing, turning her face away. Good to know she still considered Jack to be in charge.

  “We are willing to work with you,” the woman who was arm in arm with Nick said. Her English had a slight French lilt to it. “You should be grateful. This woman nearly destroyed herself taking only a few of us down. The rest of your warriors could not bear to face us in open battle. How do you think you would fare against an entire pack that rivals the Sunstrikers in size? You require our aid, and we could use yours. I fail to see the difficulty here.”

  Chaz ran a hand over his face, as though this was an argument he’d already heard one too many times. He turned his attention to me, his expression so hangdog, I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of regret. If only I could have stayed ignorant of what he was, never known anything about the supernatural side of his life. We might not have stayed together, but now that I wasn’t in the middle of fighting for my life, I could appreciate that he had done his best to incapacitate me while I’d killed his friends and been out for his blood.

  He’d certainly succeeded at beating my ass to a pulp. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to eat other than through a straw for the next couple weeks, let alone try for round two.

  That prompted another worry, one that should have hit me based on how weak and badly in need of a shower I was. I was so jolted by the thought, it prompted another coughing fit. I had to wave off the oxygen when Chaz tried to administer it again.

  As soon as I could speak, I choked out a few words. “When... how long...”

  Jack knew what I was asking. “A few days.”

  Chaz glanced back and forth between us, understanding dawning. “You weren’t kidding back at that house, were you? You think you’re turning Were.”

  I flinched at hearing it put so bluntly, then nodded. He reached for me, and I shrank back as Jack and Nikki got to their feet, alarmed. Chaz took hold of my arm, waving the hunters off with his other hand and lifting my wrist to his face to take a sniff. He frowned and leaned closer, sniffing again before releasing me. I tucked my hand under my chin so he couldn’t grab me again.

  “Funny,” he said, touching his thumb under his nose and making a face like he’d smelled something rotten.
Great. Nice to reaffirm that I reeked as badly as I thought. “You’re... different. I can’t tell what you are. Not quite Were. Not quite vampire. There’s—you smell like both.”

  Oh, that was reassuring. His brows lowered, and he looked me over anew, like he was seeing me for the first time.

  Nikki, on the other hand, was unimpressed. “Why am I not surprised? We should kill her, then. Get it out of the way before she turns. There are only a couple days left ’til the full moon. If she managed to destroy half as many of your wolves as you claimed, we can’t afford to let her loose once the wolf in her comes out.”

  Chaz growled, a deep, threatening sound, as Jack came to my defense. “No. She might be turning, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still use her.”

  “I don’t want her in the pack if she turns.” Nick, who had once saved my life by protecting me from Dillon, sounded more bored than anything else. “She was never really one of us. Plus she killed Alana, Cameron, and Dillon.”

  “Don’t forget Vic Thomasian,” Nikki added helpfully.

  Everyone turned to stare at me. I’m pretty sure my face was now the color of faded brick.

  Nick ran his fingers through his short-cropped hair and continued as though Nikki hadn’t interrupted him. “I don’t know why we’re letting her live—something must be done about the losses she’s caused us. If her life is unacceptable, I know she’s supposed to join us and take their place, but I don’t think it’s right. She’s unstable.”

  That was a laugh, coming from a Sunstriker. Of course, some of the other Weres in the back made soft sounds of agreement. Chaz was scanning the crowd with a tight expression, but he didn’t counter anything being said. This wasn’t looking good for me.

  The girl who’d linked arms with Nick regarded me curiously. “Is this true? Would you continue to cause trouble for this pack after joining it?”

  I gave her a flat stare. She didn’t flinch away, and the silence stretched so long that I felt obligated to fill it. “You must be new.”

  “Yes. My name is Cindy. Cindy Bacon. I was part of the Timberpaws in Montreal, Quebec, but moved to join with the Sunstrikers a few weeks ago. I had no idea New York would be this exciting.” Her cheerful expression was at odds with the hint of fang I could see in her smile. Nick didn’t appear quite so pleased with her anymore. “It seems most of what I have heard about you on the supernatural grapevine was correct. They said you were a monster in human skin. Born to fight.”

  The way she said it made it sound like a compliment.

  “That doesn’t change anything,” one of the wolves in the back said. “She’s killed pack members. Something has to be done about that. We can’t just let it slide. It’s an insult. Makes us look weak to the other packs.”

  Cindy shrugged and spoke up above the others, her eyes briefly flaring with a green luminescence in their depths. “She can fight. For now, that is all we need to know. You can decide what to do with her after she helps us deal with the Ravenwoods. They must pay.” Chaz gave the girl a look that had her cowering back. “I mean no disrespect, pack leader. Only that she could be a valuable asset in the fight to come.”

  I gathered from Cindy’s words that the Ravenwoods were connected to whoever Chaz had been referring to when he said he knew who was behind the murders. Or had something to do with all of the people who had been infected outside of contracts, and that this somehow affected the Sunstrikers. Whatever the Ravenwoods had to do with it, they weren’t my problem, and there was no way I was going to get involved in the Sunstrikers’ mess.

  “Hey, I’m right here, you know. No offense, but I would rather slit my wrists than be a Sunstriker. I’ll be sitting this fight out.”

  Chaz turned that withering look on me. “The hell you say.”

  “Yes, the hell I say,” I retorted, returning his look in kind. “I would have killed you if I could have. Still might, once I’m back on my feet. You might not have killed Jim Pradiz, but how about all those other people who were infected? How about what was done to me? To my family? You still have to answer for that.”

  Simon cleared his throat. “Not saying what he did was right, but I think murder is a little extreme for a bit of infidelity.”

  Chaz and I both glared him into silence. He raised his hands and took a step back, averting his gaze.

  When Chaz turned back to me, he had plastered on a chagrined expression that might have been believable if I hadn’t already known he was so artful at lying and deceit. “Shia, really, I’m sorry about that. I didn’t want you to find out that way.”

  “Don’t start this now,” I warned, the growl in my throat hitching on the dry, sore spots. “I’m still ready to tear your balls off and feed them to you, so don’t act like we’re friends again just because you pulled me out of that fire.”

  “It’s lovely that you two want to talk things over, but we’re diverting off topic. We need manpower,” Jack said.

  Nick smiled, the golden hoop on his lip glinting in the light. “You’ve got it, hombre. The Sunstrikers have almost fifty more pack members than the Ravenwoods. Most of us are of fighting age. We’ll mow them down.”

  Cindy ruffled his hair. The two of them smiled at each other, like they were talking about going to dinner and a movie instead of a battle to the death.

  “Shia, my offer still stands,” Jack said, drawing my attention back to him. “You can sit this one out if you want to. You’re too hurt to be much use, anyway. ”

  Well. At least he was being honest about it.

  “Thank you.”

  Chaz looked back and forth between us. “Offer? What offer?”

  I gave him as hostile a look as I could muster. “That’s none of your business.”

  Jack shook his head and rose to his feet with a soft groan. For the first time since I had woken up, I noticed how tired he looked. There were dark circles under his eyes, and he looked like he’d lost weight over the last few days. That was somewhat alarming, considering he didn’t have much weight to lose to begin with. His illness was accelerating. This battle would probably be his last.

  Then again, I’d thought the same when I had walked into that house a few days ago. If anything, that just went to show how little I knew. It was possible he’d prove me wrong and continue soldiering on for another decade or two.

  Nikki gave him some support as he shuffled out of the room. The Sunstrikers all regarded me with expressions that ranged from ambivalence to curiosity. Save for Chaz. I couldn’t quite tell what he was thinking. His eyes were hooded, his brows knitted, and he had a slight twist to his lips as though he was stuck somewhere between angry and amused.

  “Would you excuse us?”

  Chaz didn’t word it as a request. Nick, Simon, Cindy, and the other Weres followed in Jack and Nikki’s tracks without a word of protest.

  He didn’t speak right away. Just looked down at me, arms folded across his broad chest, a muscle in his cheek twitching. He’d healed most of the silver burns on his face already, save for where I’d broken his skin. Those would leave behind telling, minor scars. One eye was a little swollen, and there was a bit of discoloration around his jaw, but that was all. Aside from that, and the missing tooth, you would never have known I’d smashed his face in just a few days ago.

  “I know you don’t believe me, but I am sorry. For everything.”

  I stared up at him, not replying.

  “You were right. Going behind your back with Kimberly was a shitty thing to do. I shouldn’t have lied to you. Assuming you had slept with the vampire was... Well, I didn’t know what to think at the time. I’m sorry for jumping to conclusions, and for using it against you. You were right to try to kick my ass. I know it will never be enough, but ... I’m sorry.”

  “Chaz,” I said, then paused, not sure what to say. He looked at me expectantly, like he half hoped that I would say everything was okay now, and we could go back to the way we had been. I looked into his puppy dog eyes, that tentative ray of hope in his gaze, and h
ated that he still had the power to move me. I’d thought my heart had been shredded into so many pieces that nothing was left to feel.

  Instead of burning hatred, all I felt was exhaustion.

  “Chaz,” I repeated, gathering up what remained of my good sense and clutching the memories of his betrayals like a security blanket, “don’t bother. Just... don’t.”

  When it became clear I wasn’t about to say anything else, that hopefulness in his expression faded behind a thundercloud of anger. He gave me a wounded look before spinning on a heel and stalking out.

  Why did I feel like the asshole in this conversation?

  Chapter 22

  Left to my own devices, I lay back on the couch and just hurt for a while. It wasn’t particularly productive, but without the others there to distract me, there was too much pain for me to do much more than work on breathing. Nikki came by with a bowl of something that she pushed into my hands, but I wasn’t hungry and didn’t bother eating it.

  After a while, long after sunlight had stopped streaming in through the windows to be replaced by moonlight and reflections of city lights, I figured out why my stomach was doing its own protesting version of the Macarena. It wasn’t hunger. I couldn’t stand the smell of myself. Or the ache in my joints. I needed a shower or bath like nobody’s business.

  Getting up to take one seemed completely out of the question, but the desperate need to get the stink of the battle with Chaz off of me was my number one priority. I couldn’t think with the smell of him on me. It was there, particularly where he’d touched me when he pushed me down. Right between my breasts.

  I couldn’t get clean fast enough.

  Though the pain was phenomenal, I carefully rolled on the couch, legs first, so I wouldn’t have to bend my back too much. Experience from the last time I’d busted a few ribs had unfortunately made me expert at figuring out how to get around despite that type of injury. It took a long time, and a few breathless curses, but I made it to my feet without adding any new injuries.