“What are you saying George?” Truman walked up to him, getting right in his grill. He was going to spill this info if it killed him. His green eyes met Truman's.
“I'm saying we have real life werewolves.”
Truman staggered back a step. “No,” he denied, getting a physical reaction of heat climbing his body uncomfortably. His mind had spun around the possibility of it, eventually dismissing it as too unreal.
Alexander paced toward him, ticking off the facts on his hand, “Canine genome, DNA match, size, aggression, higher reasoning...” then after a pause, he let the final bomb drop, “the saliva tells us the final piece.”
Real enough.
Truman leaned forward despite not wanting to, his heart in his throat, the evidence warring with his disbelief over anything that was not concrete, normal.
Sane.
“Human genome,” George Alexander said quietly.
Truman stared at Alexander and he returned it, the moment swelled with portentous knowledge, belief solidifying.
Half human, half wolf.
Werewolf.
Alexander was reminded of one of the first precepts he had learned in med school, when you hear hoofbeats behind you, don't expect to see a zebra.
In this case, that's all he heard.
Zebras.
CHAPTER 32
Jason.
Maybe her eyes deceived her but Julia's heart knew.
She had watched as the feral melted away and a nearly naked Jason ran to her, staving off her killing blow.
She crashed into him, her arms snapping around him. His body felt at once shocking familiar and foreign in her embrace.
It was a moment before she knew something was wrong as pandemonium broke loose all around her. The different factions came together at once in a collision of claws, talons and speed.
Julia was prone on her back before she could move, breathe. Jason's now-human hands encircled her throat, her feverish skin burning against his cooler flesh. She frantically searched eyes that didn't know her, crazed and full of heat and hate.
Who was he now? Julia shrieked inside her head.
Her head swam and she began to grow dizzy, her stomach cramping as Jason... her husband from another life, another time... began to choke her to death.
Scott saw the feral return to his human state and launch himself at Julia. Scott leaped toward the feral werewolf just as he began to strangle Julia. The feral's mind was obviously broken.
William understood who it was the instant the red Were changed into human form. He had seen photos of Julia's former husband. But this was no longer the husband she knew, his mind was gone, the wolf in control even while human. Few Singers could overcome the transition to Were or vampire. It was never attempted, the results at this moment a confirmation of the dangerous consequence. The theory borne into fruition.
William charged Jason Caldwell at the precise moment as Joseph and Tony.
The vampire and Were collided and the forest grew still except for the sounds of flesh tearing and the battle of one against the other. Scott landed on the back of the Singer, aiming a blow to stun him, the vamps and Were fighting behind him, his siblings making a protective wall around him.
Jason felt the blow on the base of his neck, numbing in its accuracy and force, he began to slide away from the woman who he'd been strangling.
He recognized her too late.
Jason fell beside her, meeting her eyes.
Puzzle pieces of memories coming from a blizzard that twirled without pattern to a solid stream of consciousness.
This was not any female.
This was his wife.
Julia.
What had he done? He moved to get up and one of his kind leaped on his chest, knocking the wind out of him.
But not before her eyes had met his and Jason saw the one that had hit him pick Julia up as the Were and vampire beat each other into the forest floor, blood covering everything under five feet in a spinning tornado of gore.
Black and red ran together like a poisonous lake. He watched the blood of his kind and that of his enemy run together, his consciousness slipping away, the blow's accuracy successful in its intent.
Jason's last memory was Julia being taken from him in the arms of a large man, others like him surrounded them in a cocoon of protection, the vampire and Were dying and worse all around him.
He turned his head and looked at the female Were above him as his eyes closed, exhaustion from the Change and the revelation of what he'd done and who he was dropping him like a stone in a tumultuous sea of nothingness.
Jason fell away from her and Julia sucked in a lungful of precious air, a hitching sob the next sound that escaped, her abused throat on fire.
Jason had tried to kill her! It was worse than his death. He lived but wasn't him!
Two palms cradled her face and forced her to focus on the one who had saved her from certain death. First by her own hand, then the death that had been promised by a kiss of hands that had once loved her.
The electric shock of Scott's hands against Julia's skin instantly cooled the fever and stopped the internal turmoil of her stomach's roil. She felt him lift her from the ground, strong arms wrapped her against his body and he turned, a silent command which felt like intent rose from him like a sigh and the others gathered around him like soldiers.
Julia's head burrowed against his chest, her eyes just clearing his strong arm where they met the stare of Tony, dead vampire at his feet. William was nowhere to be seen.
Joseph was dead as well.
Tony was the new Alpha.
Fear rose in her instantly. Scott ran in the opposite direction and the group they left behind became smaller in her vision, Jason and Adi on the forest floor together. Jason unconscious and unaware, his head held by Adi.
Adriana's eyes were all for Tony, the victor over the vampire, his sights solely on Julia.
Tony threw his head back and howled into the still air of the forest, his rage filling Julia's ears, reverberating inside her soul like a discordant note of music.
Scott's arms pulsed around Julia once, tightening with protection.
Scott picked up his pace. The mongrel would never touch her again.
He'd stake his life on it.
The End
Don't miss,
Blood Song, Book Two of the Blood Series,
Coming in 2012!
Acknowledgments:
You, my reader! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!!!
Danny, my champion
Beth and Dianne
My Beta (who masquerades as such but is really a closet editor :)
My editor, Stephanie T. Lott, for giving my work the polish it needed!
*Author's not: the symptoms for Beaver Fever/Giardia take 7-10 days to manifest, I took creative license in the telling of this story.
Connect with me and receive updates on new titles here:
Blog: http://tamararoseblodgett.blogspot.com/
Books available now:
Death Whispers (Death Series, Book 1)
Death Speaks (Death Series, # 2)
Death Screams (Death Series, # 3)
The Pearl Savage (Savage Series, Book 1)
The Savage Blood, (Savage Series, # 2)
Books publishing in 2012:
Blood Singers, (Blood Series, Book 1)
The Savage Vengeance, (Savage Series, # 3)
Death Weeps, (Death Series, # 4)
Death Inception, (A Prequel)
Blood Song, (Blood Series, #2)
Future Titles:
Unrequited Death, (Death Series, #5)
Blood Chosen, (Blood Series, #3)
Book 4 (Savage Series)
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Blood Singers (Blood Series, #1) Page 26