by Nina Bangs
A night in front of the TV was looking pretty good. But something inside her insisted on whispering, “Coward.” She’d tried to run twice now. Running could become a habit. It could also mean survival, and she was all for survival. Besides, there wasn’t a thing she could do that a prehistoric predator couldn’t do better.
“Are you still afraid of me?”
Was she? She looked at him, really looked. Hard face, cool hazel eyes, muscular but not bulky, and an overwhelming sensuality that made her want to nibble every inch of his bare body and then wrap herself in his freed hair. Afraid? Yes. On a whole bunch of levels.
He reached across the table for the salt, and she put her hand over his. He stilled.
“I’m not afraid of you, Al Endeka. But I’m not too sure about your soul. It doesn’t know me, and its capacity for violence is pretty scary.”
Al smiled as he withdrew his hand. “Al Endeka doesn’t know you either, but he’d like to. So how’d you end up writing for a tabloid?” There was nothing but casual interest in his tone.
“I come from a family of exceptional people. Dad is the head honcho at the Houston Zoo, Mom is a vet there, and Kelly is brilliant in every way. Me? I’m just normal. Average grades. Not too motivated to excel at anything in particular. Went through college with a major in English Lit. Didn’t really prepare me for anything. So when the tabloid offered me a job, I grabbed it.” Did she sound casual enough?
He stared at her for so long, she wanted to squirm. She didn’t, though. Maloys didn’t squirm.
“Was it really lack of motivation?”
No. It was like if I said I didn’t care often enough, Mom, Dad, and Kelly would lay off trying to push. She was ordinary in a family of overachievers. And if she couldn’t be the best at something, then not caring worked for her. “Yeah, it was really lack of motivation.”
Al didn’t look as though he believed her, but what he believed didn’t matter in the end. Her secret was tucked safely away where no one could find it.
Just as it seemed he was getting ready to dig deeper, the triplets burst into the room. From the neck up they looked exactly alike, but they had different tastes in clothes. Thank God.
They planted themselves at the table. One of them stole a sandwich from her plate.
“Utah,” the thief identified himself. “Our car’s down. We’re stuck here until it’s fixed. Hey, let’s all go someplace interesting. We don’t want to sit around until it’s time to hunt.” He grinned at Al. “We’ll take your car.”
His smile was beautiful and happy, but Jenna knew what savage soul hid under all that sunshine. “Fin explained about the Eleven. I know that Ty is a T. rex and Al is an Allosaurus. Who thought up your names?”
“Fin,” they all said together.
She bit her bottom lip as she thought about their names. She stopped biting it when she noticed Al’s gaze fixed on her lip. The hunger flooding his eyes shocked her, throwing her off stride.
Taking a deep breath and refusing to dwell on his look, she blundered on. “Okay, we have Utah, Rap, and Tor. So you’re all Utah raptors?”
“Got it. And I’m Tor.” He smiled at her. “I think I’ll grow my hair as long as Al’s so no one will mix me up with these other two jerks.”
Utah and Rap made threatening noises around the sandwiches they were devouring.
“So what does Fin stand for?”
Rap, who was wearing a heavy sweater, a scarf around his neck, and had a wool coat hanging over the back of his chair, answered. “Infinity.”
“Strange. Why not a name like you guys have?”
Rap shrugged. “Never thought about it. Guess if you’re all about numbers, Infinity’s a great name.” He looked at the others. “Let’s go to a movie or do something inside. I hate the cold.”
Greer had come out of the kitchen to listen. “If you have a few hours to blow, stop by the Academy of Natural Sciences. You can see stripped-down versions of yourselves.”
Jenna thought that sounded kind of gruesome, but she was evidently the only one, because a short while later she was staring out the windshield in unblinking terror as Al and his GPS unit navigated the Philly streets. She’d offered to drive because she realized none of them had more than a month or so of experience. She should’ve known better, though. The four men had fought over who would own the wheel, so she’d let them go at it. Now if she could just survive the ride.
They made it in one piece. Barely. A few hours later they emerged from the Academy to a cold winter night. Jenna braced herself for another wild ride back to the condo. Tor was in full whine.
“Gig and Ty were in there. Why weren’t we there? We weren’t important enough?”
Gig. Okay, she could match that up with the Giganotosaurus they’d seen. No one had introduced her to Gig yet. But from what she’d seen today, Jenna hoped she never got an intro to his soul.
Rap leaned over the seat to hand Jenna a card. “Let’s go to South Philly and get some cheesesteaks. Guy I was talking to back at the condo gave this to me. Says this place has the best food in Philly. They’re running a special. Buy one get one free. It expires tomorrow. I say we hit it to night.”
Al pulled to the curb and took the card from Jenna. He put the address into the GPS before handing the card to her and then steering back into traffic.
Another death ride finally landed them at a place in what Jenna assumed was South Philly. They pulled into the small parking lot and got out.
God, it was cold. She’d never complain about Houston’s heat again. She wrapped her coat more tightly around her. When Al put his arm across her shoulders and drew her close to his side, she didn’t think of his soul once. She was just thankful for the extra warmth. Jamming her hands into her pockets, she imagined hot sandwiches and somewhere warm to eat them.
Once in front of the restaurant, the three brothers headed for the door.
Al stopped. “I can’t go in there. If anything happened, I couldn’t free my soul. The place is too small.”
Utah made a rude noise. “Oh, give it up. We’ll only be in there for a little while. Just long enough to eat. What could happen?”
Al backed up a few steps. “Something doesn’t feel right here.”
“It’s a restaurant, see? A public place. Nothing dangerous. I’m starving, and I’m freezing my butt off. Let’s go inside.” Utah pulled open the door.
Al peered into the place. “No one’s in there. Why?”
“It’s too early for a crowd, and the waitress is probably in the kitchen.” Utah’s brothers stepped inside.
Al looked worried. “This place doesn’t want us.”
Jenna thought that was a weird thing to say. “Look, while we’re here arguing, I’m losing feeling in my fingers and toes.”
Utah made one last attempt. “Turn off your inner beast. You don’t have to be on guard every damn minute. Relax a little. I don’t sense anything dangerous.”
Al finally made his decision. “Jenna and I aren’t going inside. If you still want to eat your sandwiches here, we’ll go back to the car and wait. Just make sure you bring some back for us.”
Jenna thought he was crazy, but she wasn’t going inside without him. Sitting at a table surrounded by three strange predators could be an appetite suppressant.
After Al handed them money for takeout, he started to guide her away from the restaurant.
Jenna had opened her mouth to do some heavy-duty complaining about him and his weird “feelings,” when she tripped and dropped her purse. It wasn’t closed right and all the junk inside, including her pepper spray, scattered over the sidewalk.
With a muttered curse, she bent down to scoop everything up. Al started to help her. That’s when they heard the shouts.
Shoving everything back into the purse, she rushed over to where Al was already yanking on the restaurant door. It stayed closed.
“What the fuck?” He flung himself at the door. It didn’t budge.
The noise of battle rose
, both human cries and the sounds of what Jenna assumed were the raptors. Horrified, she backed away from the door and looked around. The street was dark and empty. Why was it empty? It wasn’t that late.
Al abandoned the door. “Get out of here, Jenna. Run!”
She didn’t waste time telling him that she’d run away enough lately. She wasn’t running again. Besides, where would she run to? She didn’t have the car keys. But she did have her cell. She pulled it out.
“Don’t bother. Fin knows.” Even as he spoke the words, he freed his soul.
Jenna stood frozen. So close. All she’d have to do was stretch out her hand to touch his massive hind leg. She couldn’t force her hand to move. Her heart didn’t have that problem. It was galloping along at Kentucky Derby speed.
She looked up. Way up. Above her, the long-extinct predator roared its challenge. The sound echoed along the darkened street. Frantically, she strained to see Al’s form within the beast, anything to assure her that humanity lived inside. It was too dark.
Then the dinosaur took one stride and crashed through the front of the restaurant. Glass and loose debris rained down around him. She could see the inside of the room now that the front was gone. Two of the raptors were leaping among a group of shadowy figures that moved way too fast to be human. Two? Where was the third? She didn’t have a chance to finish her thought, because at that moment, the Allosaurus backed out, holding a human figure in his massive jaws.
Jenna didn’t look away fast enough. The predator tore the body apart in front of her. The hot spray of blood was a shock against her ice-cold skin. She should’ve been strong. She wasn’t. Turning away, she bent over and vomited.
When she was finally able to look again, everything was still, and Fin stood staring into the restaurant’s ruin. She didn’t question how he’d gotten there. He hadn’t brought any of the others. Why not? He should have brought all of them.
There was something eerie about Fin’s stillness. With his silver hair lifting in the slight breeze and those scary silver eyes, he could have been the frost king standing in the cold darkness.
Why hadn’t the noise brought people into the street? Why hadn’t any cars driven by? Jenna gave herself a mental shake. That wasn’t important now.
Al. She shifted her gaze to the restaurant, afraid of what she’d see. Jenna was just in time to watch the cloud drift away in the frigid air, leaving Al standing there. She didn’t question her surge of relief. He didn’t waste any time rushing into what was left of the restaurant.
Jenna didn’t want to go inside. Didn’t want to see what had happened. But because she was terrified, she forced herself to go. She needed to be with Al. She’d run away enough.
She edged in behind Fin.
“Oh my God.” She couldn’t help it. There were bodies everywhere. No, not bodies. Body parts. Blood ran in crimson rivulets down the black-flocked wall. Blood lay in puddles on the floor among arms, legs, heads, and unidentifiable pieces of flesh.
Jenna recognized one of those heads. Utah? Rap? Tor? She didn’t know. Oh, God. Oh, God. Tears ran down her face, but she didn’t care. She had nothing left in her stomach to throw up, but that didn’t stop her from bending over racked by dry heaves. He was dead. Which one?
At some point she knew Al was there, felt him put his arm across her shoulders and pull her close. And in the horrible, horrible silence, she looked up.
The two remaining raptors crowded against the back wall, dangerous, with wild eyes that looked about as far from human as she’d ever seen any eyes look.
Fin offered them only a glance; he seemed to be searching for something. The something was the third brother’s headless torso. They’d caught him in human form, and he hadn’t had a chance to free his soul. She’d seen how fast Al could change, and she couldn’t imagine anything human moving fast enough to catch him by surprise. But then she remembered the speed of the shadows she’d seen.
Jenna looked away from Fin to watch Al. He’d left her to walk toward the two raptors, and something deep inside her bled fear for him.
Each of the raptors had to be close to twenty feet long, with bladelike claws and deadly teeth. The bodies scattered over the ruins of the restaurant attested to their power and fury.
“Utah, Tor, it’s over.” Al’s voice was softer than she’d ever heard it. “You’ve avenged him. Now it’s time to mourn. Control your souls.”
Rap. It had been Rap. He’d hated the cold. Now he’d never be cold again. God, she was crying for a man she hardly knew, but it felt as if she’d known him forever.
Both animals raised their heads and screamed, and the scream was a tortured cry that transcended human or animal. All living things would recognize the agony of it.
And then their forms dissolved, leaving only the two men.
They stumbled past Al to get to Rap. Jenna turned to follow them, wanting to comfort them but not knowing how. And the tears still coursed down her face. Then she felt warm fingers lock with hers. She knew Al’s touch as a coming home. It was comfort, safety, and the strangeness of that feeling shattered her control.
Jenna clamped her hand over her mouth to keep any sounds from emerging and lifted her gaze to Al’s face. She saw him through a watery film. His face was all harsh lines and planes, his eyes filled with barely controlled rage, pain, sorrow.
But when he saw her looking at him, he seemed to make a conscious effort to soften his expression. It didn’t work.
She reached up to slide her fingers over his clenched jaw. Jenna wanted to say words of comfort, but none came to mind.
“Fin wants us.” His words came out as a harsh rasp.
They took the few steps needed to reach Fin. Jenna forced herself to look. These men had come from a distant time to make sure humanity survived. Humanity owed them. And so now she’d witness for her whole race. She would watch.
While Al had been trying to talk the two remaining raptors back into human form, Fin had laid Rap’s head and the rest of his body out in a macabre imitation of life.
Fin looked up at her from where he crouched over what remained of Rap. For the first time since she’d met him, emotion flowed in those eyes. They were no longer silver. Deep purple glowed with so much emotion that it backed her up a step. The universe moved in those eyes. Jenna thought she’d experienced sadness, anger, regret. But what she saw in Fin’s eyes made her puny emotions seem worthless. She couldn’t stand it; she looked away.
“I’m including you, Jenna Maloy, in our final good-bye to Rap’s mortal form because you are the key to his revenge.”
Jenna swung her gaze back to Fin’s face. He simply nodded.
The key. She had a horrible feeling a date with Eight was in her near future.
Chapter Eight
Al watched Jenna try to push her panic away. How much violence, how much terror could she absorb before she broke? She was strong beyond anything he would have expected. That was surprise number one.
Surprise number two? He felt…sorrow. For someone who wasn’t pack, who wasn’t even a friend. After feeling only rage for so long, the sorrow seemed strange. Frightening. Was it a sign of weakness? Al hadn’t decided. But now wasn’t the time for decisions.
“You okay?” He wanted to touch her, stroke her shining hair, comfort her but feared her emotions were too fragile to withstand contact with him, with his soul.
Her hand shook as she pushed a strand of hair from her face. “No. Not okay. Hysteria is this far away.” She put her thumb and index finger close together. Very close. “It’s like a swarm of bees. Bat one away and five more take its place. I’m no Superwoman. I’ve never been great at anything. And putting my life on the line doesn’t give me a rush.”
Not great at anything? Al didn’t believe that. But her fear gave him even more reason to be pissed at Fin.
Fin evidently took her key status as a done deal because he shifted his attention to his three followers. “I mourn with you.”
Al blinked back what felt su
spiciously like emotion leaking from his eyes. Even Al, who woke up each morning with the hope of finding some new sin to drop at Fin’s feet, couldn’t deny the reality of his leader’s grief.
“I will now take Rap’s soul from his human shell and return him to a place of safety.” Fin’s words sounded stilted, ritualistic, and totally removed from the emotion of the moment. But his eyes held all the emotion his words lacked.
Utah stepped forward, his fists clenched so tightly that Al saw blood dripping from where his nails dug into his flesh. “Give him a new body. Now.”
“I cannot.” Fin’s denial was remote and strangely formal, as if he’d slipped into someone else’s skin.
Al felt Jenna tense beside him. God, this must be a nightmare for her. He almost gave into his need to wrap her in his arms, protect her from what Fin had in store for her. No. He resisted the urge. This moment belonged to Rap.
“Sure you can. You’re a fucking god.” Tor’s voice was thick with tears. “We’re pack. We’ve been pack for millions of years.”
“And you will be again. But not now. I don’t have the power to keep Zero at bay and put Rap’s soul into another body. Zero must be controlled, so Rap’s soul will wait.”
“How long?” Tor edged closer.
Fin just shook his head. “I must speak the words now or else his soul will escape to a place I cannot follow.”
“He’s our brother. We want to take part.” Utah’s eyes were great pools of pain.
“I will give all of you the words in your mind. Accept them without asking questions.” Fin speared Jenna with his gaze. “Do you want to take part?”
Al felt her hesitation, and then she nodded.
Fin began. He rested one hand on Rap’s bloody forehead and the other one over his heart. Suddenly, Al felt a door opening in his mind. He was in a place he recognized but couldn’t see, spoke in a language he didn’t know but understood. The words flowed into the place of death the restaurant had become, but they came from somewhere lost in time and memory. They spoke of love and friendship, sorrow and despair, hope and redemption. And then they were done. The door closed, and he was back.
