The Better to Bite

by Cynthia Eden

  He shrugged. “I know, but it never hurts to say it anyway.”

  I snatched the keys from him.

  “Guess you like it?” He asked as I hurried to the car.

  I pulled open the door. Sweet leather seats. The scent filled my nose. Oh, my dad could rule sometimes.

  The awesome car almost made me forget the death and monsters that were waiting in the town.

  Almost.

  Pity my new car was the color of blood. I swallowed and tried to stop seeing an image of Rafe’s bloody back.

  ***

  School seemed…different. And I didn’t mean it was different like me.

  “Hot ride!” Jenny told me, bubbling and almost bouncing with energy as she headed toward me.

  I smiled. I thought the car was pretty hot, too.

  “You’re giving me a lift home today, right?” she pushed with a wiggle of her brows. “I mean, you don’t want me to have to take the bus again.” She shuddered in what I knew was not mock horror.

  No, I didn’t want her taking the bus. Every girl should be spared that particular form of torture. I nodded even as my fingers rose to curl around my half-moon charm.

  Cassidy hurried toward us. Not with Jenny’s bouncy moves, but with more of a stalking grace. She looked tense and worried. Kind of her usual expression. “Did you hear?” Cassidy asked, her voice hushed. “Some hunters killed three wolves in the woods last night. They think they got the animal that killed Sissy!”

  At that moment, Rafe walked by and everything around me seemed to slow way, way down.

  I looked at him and couldn’t look away. His eyes were on me, hard and bright, and all I could think was—

  Don’t tell anyone.

  What would he do if I did?

  “OhmyGod.” Jenny’s squeak. That trademark whisper shriek. “What is that look about?” She nudged my shoulder with a little too much force. I nearly stumbled. The girl was way stronger than she appeared. “Seriously, it looks like the guy wants to take a bite out of you.”

  Maybe he did.

  I felt my cheeks flush. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I turned away and found myself staring at Cassidy. She watched me with her wary eyes.

  Cassidy and Jenny—so different. How had I wound up with them?

  Why did we seem to fit?

  “I heard talk that you found the body,” Cassidy said. As usual, Cassidy didn’t seem to care about the boy-girl, high school gossip. She probably thought it was all crap. No, for Cassidy, it was straight to business.

  I cleared my throat and slammed my locker shut. “My dad found her. I was with him but…he found her.”

  Same story, different place.

  “She was in her nightgown.” Jenny’s voice was hushed like Cassidy’s had been, and she’d apparently gotten distracted from the whole Rafe-biting-me thing.

  Good.

  I rolled my shoulders and wondered how Jenny knew so much info.

  “My dad thinks she went out to meet someone,” Jenny admitted. Ah, that was right. Her dad was a reporter for the Haven Gazette. He seemed to like gossip as much as she did. “And that guy either left her to die…or never showed up.”

  Either way, Sissy hadn’t made it back home.

  The bell rang.

  I grabbed Cassidy’s hand before she could leave. “I need to talk to your grandmother,” I told her. Yeah, I had twenty dollars in my pocket, and I was getting that next reading. “Something’s happened, and I…I need to talk to her.”

  Cassidy frowned, but nodded. “After school?”

  Good. “Perfect.” Because it was time that I got some answers about this town.

  ***

  PE was hell. As usual. Like running two miles was supposed to be fun for me. How could it be fun for anyone? I huffed and puffed and felt like my side would burst open.

  Then, when I went back to my gym locker to change, I noticed my necklace was gone.

  Hell.

  I’d taken the necklace off—Coach Bartlett’s rule, no jewelry—and left it in my locker.

  Now it was gone.

  My fingers curled around the cold metal of my locker door.

  “Hurry up, ladies!” Coach Bartlett’s twanged voice blasted. “Two minutes and you’re out of here!”

  But I wasn’t moving. Lost. I pictured the necklace in my mind. My necklace, it was—

  “Move now!” Bartlett barked like a good drill sergeant.

  I started changing even as rage heated my blood. I knew exactly where my necklace was, and I knew who’d taken it.

  After all, I’d seen it in my mind. It was tucked away in her locker.

  Bitch.

  ***

  At lunch, I wasted no time in storming right up to Valerie. She was laughing and talking, and I shoved my way through the pack around her. “Give it back,” I snapped.

  That stopped her. She glanced at me, blonde brows raised haughtily. “Excuse me?”

  She knew exactly what I was talking about. I could see it in her eyes. With an effort, I managed to unclench my teeth and I said, “Look, maybe you do your little klepto routine for fun, but you’re not taking my necklace. It belonged to my mom, and I want it back.”

  She laughed again, a taunting laugh that grated in my ears. “I don’t even know that you’re talking about.”

  Troy stood to her right. I noticed that he frowned at her suspiciously. Ah, so she’d swiped things before.

  “You want to play it this way?” I asked and bared my teeth. “Fine, but I gave you the chance to willingly hand it back over.”

  I turned around and stalked toward the main school building.

  “Anna!” Brent smiled at me as he approached, flashing those killer dimples. “Hey, I was looking for you—”

  I tried to smile back at him, but right then, I was too angry at Valerie—why’d she swipe my necklace?—and…too guilty to meet his warm stare. I’d made out with Rafe while Brent and I were—

  What were we?

  “Tell your little trampy new girlfriend to stop harassing me!” Valerie called out, her voice way too loud. The better for everyone to hear her.

  Brent’s eyes narrowed and lifted to Valerie. They didn’t look quite so warm anymore.

  “I’m not the one who took something that belonged to someone else!” Valerie yelled.

  Oh, wait. That crazy chick was talking about me and Brent. Seriously? She was sliding into the land of psycho ex. I whirled around and saw that Valerie had closed in on me. What the—

  I stared at her tense face and everything clicked. Psycho cheerleading ex. “You took my necklace in order to get back at me because Brent broke up with you? Are you insane?”

  She glared at me, and when she was angry, her face turned splotchy red and got really…well, not ugly, but definitely less pretty. “I didn’t take anything of yours and you can just—”

  Whatever. I was done. I spun back around and headed for the main building. She followed me, her screeching voice getting higher and higher as I headed down the hallway—and to her locker.

  We, ah, brought a crowd with us.

  And, of course, that attracted the principal.

  “Ladies, what is the meaning of this?” Mr. Knoxley demanded as he hurried down the hall with slaps of his faded loafers. “You should be at lunch, not—”

  “Valerie stole my necklace,” I interrupted, my whole body vibrating with anger. That necklace was the only thing of my mom’s that I had. Dad had gotten rid of everything else. Tried to erase her like she was a bad memory. Only I didn’t want her erased. No matter what she’d done or how much it hurt, I didn’t want to pretend that she’d never existed.

  If she didn’t exist, then I didn’t, either.

  “I did no such thing, Mr. Knoxley!” Valerie defended instantly as she put a dramatic hand over her heart. “This girl is crazy, she’s—”

  Time to cut through the bull. “It’s in her locker, inside her chemistry book.”

  That shut up everyone.
>
  Brent frowned at me.

  Mr. Knoxley glanced at Valerie. Suddenly, she was looking very, very nervous as she tucked loose hair behind her left ear. “Have you seen her necklace, Valerie?” He wanted to know.

  Hesitantly, Valerie shook her head.

  “Are you sure about that?” He pressed because Mr. Knoxley had been in this game a long time. I bet he could spot a lying student from ten paces away.

  Valerie tucked more hair behind her ear and rocked back on her heels. “I really don’t know—”

  “Just open your locker,” I said at the same time because I didn’t want to hear any crap from her. “Show us all that I’m wrong, and I’ll apologize to you in front of the whole school if you want.”

  But that wouldn’t be happening. She’d made a mistake. The girl never should have taken what was mine.

  Her chin lifted. “I don’t even use that locker.” Ah, now she was back to sounding more confident and haughty. Back to being Valerie. “I’ve been putting my stuff in Suzy’s locker because it’s closer to the stairs.”

  “Then you don’t mind if we look inside?” I totally sounded my like my dad, but I didn’t care.

  Everyone waited.

  Her lips thinned, but Valerie marched forward and spun the lock. A soft snick, and the metal door eased open. A chemistry book rested inside. Mr. Knoxley pulled out the book, flipped it open…

  And my necklace shined in the light.

  I grabbed it, my fingers closing tightly around the chain. “Thank you,” I told him.

  Valerie’s glare felt like fire on my skin.

  “Valerie,” Mr. Knoxley’s voice boomed. “You and I need to talk, in my office, now.”

  That loud now had the folks around us scattering. My fingers trembled as I hurriedly put the necklace back on. The moon was a cool touch on my neck.

  Brent watched me, his eyes shadowed. “I’m sorry.” His voice was low. “She’s pissed at me and…” He ran a hand through his hair. “She’s trying to hurt me and you.”

  Yeah, his ex-girlfriend had some claws. Luckily, so did I. She was learning that now. Valerie tossed me one final glare over her shoulder as the principal led her away.

  Brent leaned in toward me and dropped his voice to a whisper. “How’d you know it was in her locker?”

  I stared up at him.

  “And in the chemistry book? How’d you know that?”

  I didn’t speak.

  Brent shook his head. “Is it the same way you were able to find my house without ever having walked through those woods?”

  As my anger at Valerie faded, I realized I’d just made a serious mistake. I’d exposed too much of myself. I tried to recover ground, fast. “I heard Valerie talking. I-I realized what she’d done.”

  His lips twisted. “Now you’re the one who’s lying.”

  I had to get better at the business of lying.

  “You found my place.” His head was close to mine. His arm lifted, and his hand pressed against the locker behind me, caging me between his body and the metal.

  And why were we so alone in that hallway? So quickly? That crowd had vanished back outside in an awful fast hurry. Maybe they’d been afraid Knoxley would grab more folks for detention.

  “You led us through the woods. You found Sissy’s body.” His breath whispered out. “A deputy told my mom all about it—he said he was there and that he saw you lead your dad straight to the body.”

  No, no, this was not good. Dad would have to find that deputy and shut him up.

  “You knew exactly where the necklace was.” His voice roughed. “How, Anna? How do you know all of these things?”

  My lips trembled. I wanted to tell him.

  “You can trust me,” he said, eyes intent, face serious. “I’m not the kind of guy who’d ever hurt you.”

  No, he wasn’t.

  “Trust me with your secrets,” he whispered, so very close to me now. “And I’ll trust you with mine.”

  So very tempting.

  But would his secrets be as painful as mine?

  Chapter Ten

  I wanted to tell Brent. Staring into his eyes, he looked so open and honest and I thought, maybe he’d be different. I’d tried to tell a boyfriend back in Chicago the truth about myself once. He’d flipped out. Called me a freak.

  Then hadn’t called me ever again.

  It would be nice to be able to trust someone. To open up. Brent…

  Maybe he was finally the one I could count on.

  “Get away from her, Brent.”

  Rafe’s voice. Snarling. Low. Vibrating with fury.

  I blinked.

  Brent lifted his head. I realized it looked like we’d probably been about to kiss. Had we?

  Yeah, probably. Maybe.

  “Rafe?” Brent’s tone held only surprise. “Man, this really isn’t any of your—”

  “I said…get away from her.”

  I pushed Brent back. “Look, Rafe, this isn’t about you, okay? You need to leave us alone for a minute.”

  Rafe’s eyes looked like chips of blue ice.

  And I realized that maybe I should be more careful with him. What with him being a werewolf and all.

  I put my hands on my hips. I’d saved his life. He’d had the opportunity to rip me apart if he wanted, but he hadn’t. The way I figured it, he owed me, so that meant he didn’t get to go around acting like a jerk. Werewolf or not.

  “I’m making it about me,” he said and stalked toward me. Only, he wasn’t looking at me. He was glaring at Brent. Guys could really be such idiots some days.

  “Been running lately?” Rafe asked Brent, a hard edge in his voice.

  Brent hesitated and glanced at me.

  I just glared back at them both.

  Rafe finally looked my way. About time. But then he said, “The last thing you want to be doing is trusting this guy with your secrets.”

  That was sure not what I’d expected him to say. Then I had to blurt, “So what? I’m supposed to trust you?” A guy who went all furry and seriously feral in the moonlight.

  The bell rang, sounding too loud and far too shrill.

  “No.” The ringing almost drowned out Rafe’s words. I wish it had because he said, “You can’t trust either of us.”

  ***

  “That was so hot.” Two and a half hours later, and Jenny was still talking about the scene in the hall. When the bell had rung, she’d hurried inside and caught the tail-end of my latest drama. “I mean, were they about to fight over you or something? Because that would be the ultimate.”

  Um, not so much. I didn’t particularly want to be some kind of bone that the guys were battling over. Actually, right then, I didn’t want to be anything to either one of them.

  You can’t trust either of us.

  I was getting sick of being in the dark.

  I jumped in my new VW. I inhaled deeply because it smelled awesome. I’d put the top down, and Jenny hopped in bedside me.

  She slid her hands over the leather in a fast caress. “How come you’re the VIP’s most wanted lately?” She wanted to know.

  I curled my hands around the steering wheel. “I thought you and Troy had some kind of thing going.” I’d caught them necking in the halls more than once. “Doesn’t that make you a VIP’s ‘most wanted’?”

  Her hands fisted. “No. It just makes me the flavor of the moment.” There was a thread of tension in her voice I’d never heard before.

  I tried to laugh, wanting to lighten her mood. A tense Jenny was a Jenny that I didn’t know how to deal with. “Guess that’s what I am, too.” But I couldn’t shake the feeling that something more was going on here. Something deeper, darker.

  Dangerous.

  Brent and Rafe—were they interested in me? Or was it something else entirely different?

  Been running lately?

  I hadn’t wanted to think too much about what Rafe meant when he said those words to Brent, but I couldn’t forget how quickly Brent had healed from th
e accident and the way he’d played on the football field. Moving too fast. Being too strong.

  Was he like Rafe?

  I really, really hoped not.

  “You’re gonna take me to the game tonight, right?” Jenny piped up. “They’re doing a memorial for Sissy, and I don’t want to miss it.”

  She’d been one of the red-eyed girls this week, too.

  I hadn’t planned on going to the game. Brent had asked me to come, but after last week’s craziness, and after the bruises that were only now healing, sitting in crowded bleachers wasn’t exactly appealing.

  “Please,” Jenny wheedled. “I don’t want to go alone! And it’s—it’s for Sissy.”

  Sissy. I nodded.

  My gaze swept around the lot. Rafe had his guys around him. He didn’t look my way. Figured. Why was I looking his? My gaze darted to the left. Brent was holding court with the jocks. Brent caught my stare and waved.

  If I can trust anyone, it’s him.

  I needed to get over this bad boy attraction I had and focus on a guy who seemed to be one of the good ones.

  “Sorry I’m late!” Cassidy jumped into the backseat and dropped her pack with a thunk. “I forgot my Cal book and had to run all the way back to my locker. Of course, I’m in the slam back of the school.”

  I noticed Jenny’s mouth had dropped open. She stared at me with wider than usual eyes. “She’s going with us?” Jenny whispered.

  Cassidy laughed. “Yes, she is.It’s my gran’s shop, of course I’m heading there.”

  I offered Jenny a smile. “Did I forget to mention our little pit stop?”

  She blinked at me.

  I patted her hand. “No worries. You can look for some love potions while we’re there.”

  Rafe’s motorcycle roared out of the lot.

  ***

  Granny Helen took me to the back. We were alone this time. I heard Cassidy out front, trying to convince Jenny to spend thirty bucks on a Love-Me spell. I was pretty sure the brew was pure BS, but I had to admire Cassidy for knowing how to work her customer.

  Granny Helen watched me with her coal black eyes. Maybe it was my imagination, but the lines on her face looked even deeper today. Her body sagged a bit.

  I bit my lip. “Are you all right?”

  Her brows lifted. “Sometimes, you can feel it when death wants to take you.”