The Better to Bite

by Cynthia Eden

  “To break a witch’s curse, you have to break the witch. The cursed have to drink her blood. She has to die, then we can be free!”

  It sounded like a sucky option to me, but then, I was the one who’d have to do the dying. Rafe was the one who’d been forced to change into a wolf, over and over again. His family had been the one cursed.

  This might be sounding like one very good deal to him.

  I choked back my whimper of fear because yeah, right then, big, bad old me felt like whimpering, and I tried to pull away from Rafe.

  His hold just tightened. Then his eyes, still with that glow of yellow around the edges, met mine. “You think I’m going to let you go?” His voice was a terrible blend of a man’s deep rumble and a wolf’s snarl.

  Valerie laughed.

  So sorry, Dad. So—

  “No, I won’t.” His claws were out. I could feel them on my skin. But then those claws pushed me behind his back, and I heard him say, “And if you think you’re taking her from me, then Val, you’d better think again.”

  My breath exploded from my lungs in a shocked rush. I peered over his shoulder and watched as Valerie screamed. No, howled. The pretty cheerleader vanished and a raving wolf took her place as bones snapped and popped and fur exploded along her body. Then she was attacking Rafe. Her teeth came right at his throat but he caught her, and drove his claws into her thick fur.

  “Run!” He screamed at me. “Get out of here, Anna, run!”

  Clutching my stomach, still attempting to stop the blood, I tried to run. I slipped instantly because my legs wouldn’t work. But then I crawled back to my feet.

  I didn’t head for the thick darkness of the trees. Even without a knife wound to the gut, I couldn’t outrun a wolf. There was no point in trying.

  But, I did have my own skills.

  Lost. The knife. Valerie had dropped it. It was—

  I jumped forward, scrambled five feet to the left and picked up the knife. My blood was still on the blade.

  Rafe was changing, shifting as fast as he could as he fought Valerie.

  Brent groaned. Still alive. I managed to get to his side. He was back to being a boy, not a beast. Blood had darkened his skin, but I couldn’t see any wounds. Those wolves, they could heal so fast.

  “S-sorry, Anna.” He shook his head. “Didn’t think she was…so far gone.”

  I slid my shoulders under his arm and helped him to stand. Rafe and Valerie had both shifted fully, and they were a tangle of dark fur, claws, and rage.

  The fight was vicious as growls filled the air. They bit. They clawed. Blood flowed.

  “You have to…get out of here,” Brent told me. “Leave me. Go find…your dad.”

  But I shook my head. “I can’t—”

  Just then, one of the wolves sank its teeth into the other’s throat.

  “Rafe!” I screamed because I didn’t know which wolf was—

  The wolf yanked its teeth back and turned toward me. The yellow eyes locked on me, and the rage in that burning stare seemed to dim as the beast stared at me.

  I looked deep into those eyes, falling into the wildness, falling into…

  Rafe.

  Too late, I realized the wolf beneath him was attacking. With a swipe of her claws, Valerie went right for Rafe’s unprotected throat.

  “No!”

  I yanked away from Brent. He swore behind me, and I heard him hit the ground. The wolves were rolling, twisting, and too much blood was flowing.

  A tangle of black fur. Fangs. Fury.

  Don’t go into the woods.

  Blood and death.

  Nightmares.

  Reality.

  I lifted the knife. Only one chance, only one.

  But I knew my wolf. I knew. The same way I could never get lost. I knew my wolf. Something clicked in me.

  I shoved the knife deep into Valerie’s back. The wolf’s body stiffened and a long, mournful howl broke from her throat. Then she shuddered, and her body slumped to the side, falling onto the ground.

  Rafe. The wolf stared at me, body quivering with rage and bloodlust. But he didn’t attack. He came closer to me, and he used his body to push me away from Valerie.

  She was shifting, the fur melting from her body. Not a terrible monster anymore. Just a girl, one with a knife in her back and with a broken body that lay sprawled on the ground.

  I hadn’t been in time to save Valerie.

  But maybe that was the point.

  Maybe.

  Rafe began to change. Slower, harder than before. The sound of his bones reshaping should have horrified me.

  But I was far past horror.

  I barely even noticed his nudity. His arms came around me. I knew he was still hurt. I could see the claw marks on his throat, but he only seemed worried about me.

  Not such a big, bad wolf—at least, he didn’t seem that way to me.

  He picked me up and carried me away from Valerie, and I realized that I’d just been staring down at her body. She wasn’t moving.

  I’d killed her.

  I’d thought it would be harder to kill someone like her.

  “Val…” Brent’s broken voice. He dropped to his knees before her. She lay face down on the ground, her long mane of hair covering her face. “Val, you should have come to me, you should have—”

  And she spun over in an instant.

  So not dead.

  She was just like one of those movie monsters that wouldn’t stay down.

  “Why?” Valerie snarled and her claws were still out. She wrapped those claws around Brent’s throat, and literally threw him into the air.

  Oh, crap.

  “I should have told you my plan?” She yelled after him. “So you could stop me? So you could try to protect her?”

  She smiled then, and the sight almost stopped my heart. A smile shouldn’t hold such evil.

  “It’s the blood, you know.” Now she said this in her chirpy VIP cheerleader voice. Not the psycho wolf voice that she could use. Her hand reached behind her, and she yanked the knife from her back. “I’ve learned that human blood makes our kind much, much stronger.”

  Dad, where are you? The cry was only in my mind, but the answer came to me immediately as I pictured him running through the woods, with wolves at his side.

  He’s coming to find me.

  “Valerie, this isn’t you.” Rafe was trying to be calm. I didn’t think calm was going to work so well with the psycho who was apparently flying high on human blood. “You aren’t a killer,” he said.

  She blinked at that and looked rather confused. “Of course, I am. Just like you are—just like Brent is. I saw you, you know…”

  She walked toward us. Rafe’s arms tightened around me.

  “You and Brent,” she continued. “I saw you change last spring.” She lifted a claw-tipped hand and pointed to the woods. “I saw you running out here, and I knew the two of you were just like me.”

  Brent had risen to his feet.

  “We don’t kill!” Rafe snarled at her.

  “Not yet, but you will.” Valerie seemed so certain. “Once you get a taste of their blood, once you feel the power, you will.” Her eyes found me. “Blood and death will be all either of you know, unless Anna saves you.” She laughed, a wild, mad laugh. “And she’ll only save you by dying.”

  “You’re crazy!” I screamed the truth at her. “I can’t save anyone! I’m not a witch! I’m just a girl who—”

  She lunged for me. She shoved Rafe right out of her way as if he were nothing, and as I fell from his arms, she wrapped those claws around my throat.

  “Lost your necklace?” She taunted. “It won’t save you now, nothing will—”

  “I will.” Rafe’s voice. He’d risen instantly to his feet. “Valerie, in case no one’s ever told you this…you can be one real bitch.”

  Then he grabbed her and wrenched her away from me.

  But Valerie didn’t fight him. She just fell to the ground and stared up at me, her face
slack with surprise. “Y-your neck…”

  My hand was on my neck, looking for blood. But she hadn’t ripped into me. Not yet.

  “Silver…” Valerie rose to her feet. “I’ve seen that rash before.”

  It wasn’t surprising that she could see in the dark. Not with those glowing yellow eyes that were burning so bright, but I didn’t know what the hell she was talking about.

  Then she started laughing.

  “Get Anna out of here!” Rafe ordered Brent as he pushed me toward the other guy. “I’ll stop Valerie!”

  My knees buckled. Too much blood loss. I wanted to fight but I was suddenly too weak. Broken.

  Brent caught me and lifted me into his arms. His lips brushed across my forehead.

  I couldn’t outrun a wolf.

  But he could.

  “You’re just like your mother.” Valerie’s taunting voice carried in the night. More laughter, and I really wanted to punch the bitch, but I didn’t even have the strength to lift my arm. “Not a savior, are you, Anna Lambert? You’re just as much of a monster as I am.”

  Her words settled deep inside me.

  Just like your mother.

  No, no, that wasn’t right—

  “Stop,” I whispered to Brent.

  I heaved up and looked over his shoulder.

  Rafe stood just a few feet away from Valerie.

  Valerie was staring after me. “I read the journal, Anna!” She yelled. “Before I torched that damn station, I read it—I know your secrets! I just didn’t realize—not until now—just how like dear, dead mommy you really were.”

  Dad hadn’t let me see the journal. Why hadn’t he?

  But Valerie turned her smirk on Rafe. “You think she’s so perfect? You don’t even know the truth about her.”

  “Brent!” Rafe’s voice snapped like a whip. “Get her out of here! I don’t want Anna to see—”

  He didn’t finish. But I knew.

  I don’t want Anna to see me kill Valerie.

  Dad had said there was only one way to stop a rogue. To save me, to protect the town, Rafe would have to kill Valerie. But what would that do to him?

  “You can’t!” Valerie’s taunt. “You won’t. You don’t have it in you, Rafe Channing.”

  Brent was running now. Leaving them behind and holding me so tightly that I knew I’d have bruises from his hands.

  “She’s not getting away! I won’t let her get away!”

  Once more, the snaps and pops of the shift filled the air. Valerie’s voice deepened, became wild. “I’ll track her, I’ll kill her, wherever—”

  A gunshot blasted through the night. One, then another.

  Brent froze.

  My hands dug into his shoulders. I tried to look back—

  Valerie—her face twisted and her hands still claws—had a hole in the middle of her forehead.

  And in her chest.

  She fell back to the ground and Rafe—Rafe had been at her side, fighting with his own claws. He wasn’t hurt yet, but his fangs were out and his claws were out and he looked wild and—

  “No!” My scream. Even though my body hurt, even though I felt a bone-deep cold chilling me, I jerked free of Brent’s arms. I hit the ground. Tried to crawl back to Rafe. “Dad, don’t!”

  Because I knew who’d shot Valerie. In the vision I’d seen, my dad had been running through the woods, running to me. The wolves with him had scented the blood and led him straight to us.

  My dad didn’t fire again.

  Rafe raced toward me. He grabbed me.

  I held him tight. Just as tightly as Brent had held me seconds before.

  “It’s not him!” I looked back at the trees on the right. My dad was there, with his rifle cocked. Two wolves were at his side. “Rafe didn’t do anything! He and Brent saved me!”

  But my dad wasn’t lowering his weapon.

  “Get away from them, Anna!” His order.

  No.

  “Get them help!” I ordered right back. I wouldn’t look at Valerie again. I couldn’t. “Lower your weapon and help us!”

  My dad’s weapon slowly—very slowly—lowered. “Anna?”

  Everything was starting to get even darker around me. My clothes were soaked with blood.

  Rafe’s head leaned toward me. He was all I could see then. “Don’t leave me,” he whispered.

  We were in the woods, the woods I should have feared, but I wasn’t scared anymore.

  My heart seemed too loud in my ears. The cold too rough on my skin.

  “Don’t leave me,” Rafe said again.

  I shook my head. My eyes were starting to close. I managed to lift my hand and touch his cheek.

  But…

  Something was wrong.

  My hand—it looked funny. My nails were too long. Too sharp.

  Like claws.

  “Christ, no.” My dad’s voice. Then he was there, pulling me away from Rafe and cradling me in his arms. “It’s gonna be okay, baby, everything’s gonna be okay.”

  I wondered why my dad was lying to me. I could always tell when he lied.

  Okay didn’t live there anymore. I don’t think it had ever lived in Haven.

  The wolves shifted back into human form around us. Mr. Channing. Deputy Jon.

  My dad held me tighter. “I’ll stop it. You’ll be okay.”

  But everything was slipping away from me.

  The dark took me, and the last sound I heard was a wolf’s long, mournful howl.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Two weeks later, I went back to school. Mr. Knoxley nodded to me when I headed down the hallway. Cheerleaders talked excitedly. Troy shoved some freshman against the lockers, and I only caught a few frowning stares that were directed my way.

  The world had moved on.

  Valerie had been buried. Shot twice with silver bullets, there had been no more movie-monster risings for her.

  I’d been in the hospital for a week. I didn’t remember much of that time, but when I’d woken up, dad had told me that Valerie was gone. The killings were finished.

  Haven was back to just being…Haven.

  Home of the monsters. The cursed. And me.

  I hadn’t seen Rafe or Brent. My dad had basically put me under house lockdown until I’d gotten my strength back. They’d both sent flowers. Roses. Blood-red.

  I’d caught sight of a wolf from my window a few times. Watching me with yellow eyes.

  Rafe.

  Somehow, I could tell the wolves apart. No one else could, but I knew them now. Maybe I knew them too well.

  The bell rang, and I slammed my locker shut. I turned around—and almost slammed into Cassidy’s cousin, James.

  He stared at me with his dark eyes. “Thank you.”

  I hadn’t been able to see Cassidy. Doctor’s orders. Her doctor. But my dad was working hard, pulling every string he had, and so far, no charges had been filed against her.

  It turned out that Valerie had been the one to give Cass the gun. After we’d all left Granny Helen’s shop that day, Valerie had told Cass stories about the wolves, about how vicious they were, how they wouldn’t ever stop, not unless someone stopped them.

  Valerie had given Cass the weapon and even dropped her off at the theater. While Cass went in, mad with her grief and rage, Valerie had used that time to slip into the station and find the journal.

  Then she’d torched the place for added fun. While the building burned, she’d snuck away with the journal and learned all of Haven’s secrets.

  Had Valerie ever thought that Cass might get shot when she rushed into that theater? Probably. I figured she hadn’t cared, either way.

  “Tell Cass that it’s over,” I told James.

  He nodded, but hesitated. “You sure?”

  I forced a smile. “It was just one rogue. Everything that happened, it was Valerie.”

  That was my dad’s story.

  My dad didn’t keep secrets from me.

  I rubbed my neck and walked away. The rash was gone
, but so was my necklace.

  Jenny headed toward me. Her face was tense, the usual perk definitely missing from her step. She leaned in close to me. “Are you okay?”

  The smile was still on my face. Good. I didn’t have to force it twice. “I’m getting there.” If my nightmares would just stop.

  They would, though, sooner or later.

  “You’re the hero, you know.” Her steps matched mine as we headed to homeroom. “Not that many folks know what you did, but I—I do. Brent told me everything.” She swallowed and her hand brushed my arm. “OhmyGod, I had her in my house. She could have killed me, but you—”

  “Shh…” I glanced around us. My dad had spread some BS story about Valerie getting caught with a knife as she tried to attack me, Brent, and Rafe. Sure, it was partially true. Valerie’s knife had been at the scene, but she hadn’t been slicing folks apart with that weapon.

  When she’d attacked Sissy, the hikers, and even Granny Helen, she’d used her claws.

  But now the friendly folks of Haven thought their would-be homecoming queen had been a psycho, one with a fondness for knives, and one who’d been killed before she could take out her ex-boyfriend in a jealous rage.

  Some folks would believe anything.

  “You saved lives,” Jenny whispered, nodding her head vigorously. “They don’t know it.” She jerked her thumb to the folks walking by in the hall. Laughing. Talking. “But I do.”

  You’re no savior. Valerie’s voice wouldn’t leave me. You’re just as much of a monster as I am.

  I glanced down at my nails. Nails, not claws. I was sure I’d imagined the change that night. I wasn’t a wolf.

  Neither was my mom.

  No matter what some crazy psycho wolf had said.

  ***

  Brent was waiting for me at lunch. Tall, blond, the perfect All-American guy, with a very wild side.

  To make room for me at the table, he scooted over, shoving Troy. I felt all the eyes on me as I sat down and grabbed for my drink.

  “You missed the service,” Troy said.

  I was pretty sure I saw Brent elbow him in the ribs.

  “Um, but it’s okay because…” Troy floundered. Jenny sat across the table, glaring at him. Definitely trouble in paradise. Troy cleared his throat. “It’s okay because…you’re probably glad you missed it,” he finished in a rush.