by K. N. Banet
“Jacky, back away,” Jabari ordered behind me. I hissed, turning to see him in human form. “I need to ask this one some questions.”
“I’ll tell you anything!” she screamed inside. “Please don’t kill me! I don’t want to die!”
“I won’t let you die,” he promised, smiling. The little vampire relaxed immediately. “How long have you been a vampire?” he asked, grabbing the scruff of my neck. I resisted, but amazingly, he was able to pull me back from the hole. I pulled and tugged, trying to get free from his grip, fury pumping through my veins. I wanted this bitch’s blood. I wanted her head to roll. I wanted her dead.
“Jacqueline, daughter of Hasan, you will let me question her,” Jabari snarled down at me before pulling me further away and swinging us, so his body was between me and the vampire. I roared in his face, but he seemed unfazed. “You can’t beat me, little sister.”
I could. If I wanted to kill him right then, in his human form versus my werecat, I could kill him. I snarled until he released me and backed away.
I didn’t want to, and he nodded slowly as he recognized that as well.
“Now, vampire, how long have you existed?” He turned back to the little bitch in the hole. I paced behind him, waiting, frustrated something stood between me and it.
Soon. He’ll let me have her soon. He better.
“Twenty…twenty-two years,” she answered softly.
“Then you know the Laws,” he said professionally. “And you know how you’ve broken them.”
“It was just so good, you see?” She dared to lean out a little. “And who cares about the Laws anymore? They can be changed. I heard it. But it doesn’t matter. My Master thought he could teach me better, and I said no.”
“Why?” he asked gently. “Why did you tell your Master no?”
“Because I’m a fucking vampire. I can do whatever I want. I didn’t think…” She looked at me, her eyes going wide. “I didn’t think this would happen. It started, and I just wanted to try it out. They said it was so good, you see?”
“See what?” Jabari asked, kneeling. I didn’t like him so close to her, so vulnerable.
“Killing! The blood tastes so much better as they get closer to dying, then they die, and you get all of that…good shit from it. It was just going to be some humans. No one had to make such a fuss about it.”
“Ah. Did someone make a fuss?”
Jabari sounded like a caring uncle or an older brother who just wanted to know why his little sister got into so much trouble.
It tore at my heart because he had never spoken like that to me.
“Yes, my Master, but Essie, she said we weren’t killing anyone important, and it was so good, and he was just jealous. Then he threw us out! He made all of us, and he tossed us out!”
“So, your Master knew before you left. Why did you come out here? There are much nicer places.”
“He suggested it! He said no one would miss some campers. He couldn’t bring himself to hurt his precious children. Seattle wasn’t safe for us anymore, he said. We didn’t know there would be werewolves or werecats. We didn’t think they would care about us, but the werecats did. We had to kill them because we had to stay here.”
“You didn’t think to stop what you were doing?”
“Why? They’re just humans, and I’m a vampire. They’re food. Who gives a fuck—”
Jabari reached out and grabbed her neck so fast, I barely saw it happen. With a single twist of his wrist, he broke her neck.
“She was Changed young,” he said as her wide eyes stared up at the ceiling, her body unmoving. “And she’s not…right. They indulged her and never taught her better. She couldn’t have been more than fourteen,” he whispered, running a finger over her face. “A waste. At least she told me everything we needed to know. Come. She can heal that. We must burn her before she gets back mobility.”
I grabbed onto her arm and dragged her after Jabari, who didn’t spare her another glance as he walked away.
When we reached the mouth of the cave, he took her from me. Heath had already Changed back into his human form as well and held my clothing as I Changed, turning away while I dressed. The starved werewolf was asleep in the dirt now.
The last vampire, her neck broken, didn’t scream as her body went to dust, and only her head remained.
26
Chapter Twenty-Six
I put the heads in the bag. Together, there was barely enough space to close the damn thing. Jabari went back inside with a torch, and we all knew what he was doing—burning the remains of the dead werewolves. That was gruesome work I didn’t want to be a part of.
Which was why I put the heads in the bag.
Much better, Jacky.
Heath walked in behind Jabari, holding every piece of timber he could get his hands on, leaving me with the sleeping werewolf. I ignored the poor man, deciding he didn’t need me scaring the hell out of him by trying to wake him up to perform an exam. I would do it later once I knew we were going to get out of the woods. The EMT in me wanted to do it right that instant, but I knew there was nothing I could do for him, anyway.
There was still a lot we had to do before leaving. I wondered if they were going to burn all the evidence the vampires had been down there, or leave it for someone to think squatters had moved into the park.
When they both came jogging out, I didn’t get the chance to ask.
“Don’t go in there. You’ll get some serious lung damage,” Heath said to me as he passed by me to the werewolf on the ground. “We’re burning it all.”
“Ah. I was just wondering,” I commented. “So, now we need to get out of here.”
“Yes. I have a vehicle…” Jabari frowned. “I parked it along the main road, but I don’t know where it is in relation to where we are now.”
“Can you get us back to the cabin where you found us?” I asked, throwing the bag with the heads on my back.
“Yes. That’s easy.”
“Then we can get to our car, probably do a quick repair, then pick up your car,” I said, taking a deep, steady breath. I was so ready to get out of the woods. Hasan had been right, I shouldn’t have come out here, but now, it was finally over. Except for some shit we still needed to work out, that was. “We need to get ahold of those three fucking humans and find out which of them sabotaged us.”
“We do,” my brother agreed. He was preoccupied, and I turned to see what he was looking at.
Heath was trying to wake the werewolf who was sleeping so deeply, but nothing was stirring him. I felt the pain of anger flare up in my chest again. I had really wanted to tear that last little bitch to pieces. A hand touched my shoulder, and Jabari moved around me.
“Let me carry him,” he suggested, kneeling next to Heath. “I am the strongest.”
“He’s a werewolf,” Heath growled softly. “You think I would trust you with him?”
“He’s a warrior who has survived an ordeal. I’ll suffer with the fact that he’s a werewolf and carry him.” Jabari was serious.
“Heath…let him,” I whispered from behind them. My wolf turned, showing me his eyes were still his werewolf ice-blue, not his normal grey-blue. He wanted to protect the other werewolf, but there wasn’t a threat anymore. I didn’t like Jabari much, but I wouldn’t question his honor when it came to another warrior.
Heath backed away slowly. My brother picked up the sleeping wolf so gently it nearly broke my heart, leaving Heath to grab the bag of gear.
We walked in silence, Jabari holding the wolf carefully. It took hours, but we reached the cabin. As we passed it, I sniffed the ATV once more, just testing to see if there might be a scent that would help us. Heath did the same. We had to find out who left us out here to die and told the vampires our location. It was the last thing we had to do before we could return to the city.
“Anything?” I asked him as we both walked away.
“No. I can smell all three of them, but I don’t know who was touching what. They a
ll used it regularly.”
With a sigh, we continued down the trail that would finally reach the service shack where we left our car. Dusk was fast approaching as we found it, and Heath did a quick check on the car.
“Busted,” he confirmed. “But I can fix it with some jerry-rigging. Shouldn’t take more than an hour. Jabari, can you put him in the back seat?”
“Of course.” He shifted the young man’s body around, but I rushed over to help, not wanting to see him struggle. I opened the door and helped Jabari lower the sleeping wolf inside. I wondered if this was the first safe sleep he’d had since he was captured, and it was par for the course he only slept during the day, thanks to the vampires’ schedules. We closed him in to keep him safe if he woke up and freaked out.
“What’s wrong?” Jabari asked, walking back to the front and looking down at what Heath was doing. “I was never very good at these things.”
“It’s…just leave it to me,” Heath finally said, shaking his head. “Do we have any tape?”
“No.” I groaned. “He cut the electrics, didn’t he?”
“Yeah…” Heath frowned. “We can drive, but we might not have lights or anything. It would have been hell trying to get out with this at night. Sure, we can all see, but the tree and cloud cover blocks all the natural light, and we would have wanted to rush because someone messing with our way out would have meant we were being hunted. It could have been dangerous.”
“And we would have been an easy target,” I pointed out. “Driving slowly, they could have easily caught up to us.”
“Exactly. Or we would have driven off the road. As it is, we can get to the main road before night falls. Let’s go.” He slammed the hood shut and pointed for me to get in.
I opted for the back seat with the werewolf, keeping an eye on his breathing and pulse. He would survive as long as we didn’t seriously injure him before getting him to a hospital. He was dehydrated, malnourished, and probably low on blood he couldn’t replenish due to the other issues. My worry was organ failure.
“Why didn’t they drain him?” I asked softly, reaching out to move matted hair off the werewolf’s face.
“They probably wanted to feed come nightfall to fight us again,” Jabari answered. “I was also a little surprised, but they were healing well by the time we got there. They might have not wanted to kill an easy resource before they had to.”
I didn’t say anything to his explanation. All of it made sense.
The car got moving, and Heath was right. Much of the dash didn’t work at all, and I couldn’t turn on any of the lights in the car, so as night came, it grew very dark.
We reached the main road, and I jumped out to open the very gate I had seen John, one of the humans, open on our way in. Jabari was pointing to the right when I got back in.
“My vehicle will be that way. I took it to one of the stops where a hiking trail begins. It had some parking spots that didn’t require the local permit.”
Heath nodded. “That’s toward home. Let’s go.”
It wasn’t long before Jabari pointed us at the right turn, and we saw a nice SUV waiting.
“There it is. We must decide how to handle things further. Jacky and I can talk to the humans while you take the wolf back to the city. Does that work for everyone?” He looked between us.
“Be safe, Heath,” I whispered to my wolf before jumping out of the car. I grabbed the bag of heads out of the trunk and followed Jabari.
“I’m going to get pulled over!” Heath called out as we walked away.
“Good! That means a cop can help you get that wolf to safety!” I waved at him. He would figure it out. I didn’t want him waiting around for us to track down and deal with the humans. That wolf needed attention as soon as possible. “Or you can get to a station or something and call for help! Like a medical evac!”
I saw him nod, then he drove away. I jumped into the passenger’s seat of Jabari’s ride, amazed it hadn’t been broken into while he was running in the woods.
“Do you have a charger?” I asked, holding up my cell. He went into his glove box and pulled out his and turned it on.
“Use this one,” he said, holding it out to me.
“It has no service. We’ll have to get to the closest town…did you pass through Darrington?”
He smiled, and I could see his white teeth in the darkness.
“I did. Do you think we’ll find them there?”
“I think we might,” I said, smiling back. I let him drive and waited for even a single bar to show up on the cell phone. Once it did, I dialed the number I knew by heart for Haley. It was etched into my memory, it seemed. In a few weeks, I would forget it, but not now…definitely not now.
“Hello?” she answered. “This is Haley.”
“Haley! This Jacky. I’m calling from my brother’s phone. I wanted to let you know we handled everything, and we need to see you, Gina, and John as soon as possible.”
“Oh my god, you’re alive!” She sounded genuinely excited. “Oh, this is amazing! I was so worried when you never came down. John said he would wait for you when Gina and I were called to help some hikers. He said you never showed up, and we got so worried!”
I glanced at Jabari. John was left alone with our things.
“The first night, we ended up staying in the cabin you had shown us where Gaia and Titan met up. Jabari met us there, and we went further out to…fix what was going on. I’ll explain soon. Can you meet us in Darrington? Somewhere private?”
She quickly gave me an address I committed to memory.
“I’m so happy all of you are safe. Who will be there?”
“Just my brother and I. Heath is taking a werewolf in our car to find medical care, so I’m in a big ass black SUV.”
“Oh, shit. He must be the med evac I just heard over the comms. All right, well, I’ll meet you there. I’ll tell John and Gina to come too.”
“Thanks,” I said, smiling to myself. She hung up, and I dropped the phone into a cup holder, sighing. The smile died quickly. “What kind of impression did you get from them when you met them?”
“They were upset over Gaia and Titan. Haley thought she knew everything about our kind. I didn’t bother dealing with her because I didn’t care to or have the time to properly educate her. John has cancer.”
“What?” I sat up straight again, frowning at him. “How do you know that?”
“I got close enough to smell the illness on him. No, not the illness. I could smell the medications and had run into the scents before. My human lawyer in Botswana passed away about five years ago, and I knew everything about his care, from his disease to his medications. I know the smell of a man who is battling for his life against his own body.”
The explanation stunned me into silence for a long moment until he turned his dark eyes on me.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
“It happened. He rests in peace now on my property. Back to the problem at hand, please.” He looked back to the road, and I was left trying to process how to go back to the conversation.
“So, yeah…I got the same vibe from Haley. She was a bit bitchy when I explained some things to her because they weren’t what she expected. I didn’t know John is sick. He didn’t mention it or act like it. Um…”
“Gina was just a crying woman. I don’t think it’s her. John or Haley,” Jabari declared.
“Yeah…” I wasn’t sure how to react to that statement, either. “John or Haley. What do each of them get out of it?”
“Depends on what they were offered. We’ll find out when we see them.”
I had the odds of flipping a coin, but I already decided which one I thought did it. I had a feeling Jabari was on the same page.
27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
We arrived in the pitch blackness of the night. Jabari turned our lights off but kept the SUV running. Quietly, we waited for the humans to roll up and meet us in the park they had picked out. There was no one around
, which made it perfect.
I tapped him and pointed to the two trucks that came in at the same time. They must have lived nearby and driven at the same time on their way to meet us, because it was the same thing they did when meeting Heath and me.
We got out of our vehicle first and let them approach. I sniffed the air, paying attention this time to John’s scent. My brother had been right. There was a smell of chemicals to him I hadn’t noticed before. I was focusing too intently on what I had to deal with and didn’t catch what had been right in front of my nose.
“So…” Haley stepped up closest. “It’s really good to see you both alive…” She looked between us and frowned. “Are you really related, or is that just something you tell people? Because I’m not seeing it.”
“My father Changed her into a werecat,” Jabari explained. “That makes us siblings, though it doesn’t have to. We choose to have that relationship.”
“It’s not a biological relationship at all,” I made sure to point out when Gina raised an eyebrow. “It’s complicated.” It was funny because the relationship between werecat siblings was an odd one. Like Hasan had mentioned on the phone, talking about Davor and Liza, it was perfectly acceptable for it to become romantic as long as the werecats weren’t actually related. I glanced at him, frowning. Jabari and Zuri were from a different time, though…
No. Stop. Don’t need those images.
My mind was going interesting places now that I was safe from immediate death.
“Ah.” Gina nodded slowly. “So, will you tell us what happened?”
“Certainly.” I took the lead, letting Jabari just stand there and be intimidating. “We discovered that you had a small infestation of vampires who had gone rogue and were looking to take over this area for easy feeding. You know how Gaia and Titan regularly helped save humans? Yeah, that was about to be flipped on its head. They were setting up so they could take any random hiker or camper, feed on them, then kill them without being noticed. There’s a lot of space out there to hide a body.” I waved a hand at the surrounding mountains. “And no one would have found them, but your missing person reports would have skyrocketed.”
