“Are you okay with Greg?”
Brows converged. “Have I killed anyone yet?”
“Well, no. But he kinda has a crush, just to warn you.”
“They all do, Darling. But they all fear me. Only your Carrier would be foolish enough to solicit you.” He grinned.
Well, that explained a few things about why male werewolves kept a polite distance from her. “Oh, how wonderful . . . Am I completely blind, then?”
“Only about some things.”
She watched him walk away. Frustrated, she kicked a tire. The dog snarled. “Just give me one minute with you.” Danielle frowned at the van, considering.
“Coming?” Lothar called from the porch. He must have been watching her, just in case.
She crossed the yard, baring her teeth as she neared.
“Time for that later,” he said. “After we put children to bed.”
“Funny. Very funny.”
Chapter Nineteen
The moon was hidden behind thick gray clouds. Greg was sleeping soundly thanks to the melatonin Danielle had stuffed inside his bacon cheeseburger. Nick slipped an arrow out of the quiver on his back.
“Just shoot it in the cage,” Danielle said.
“Nope,” he told her.
Lothar leaned against a nearby tree, arms crossed over his chest, calmly watching the spectacle in the driveway. “You can always come to Nick’s rescue, Darling. Human men love when their girlfriends fight battles for them.”
“I’m not human,” Nick said, loading the bow.
Danielle growled at Lothar. “You’re next on my list.”
She wasn’t happy with Lothar standing back and letting him hunt. Nick liked it a little too much when they fought, which they had all evening. Like cats and dogs.
Or frustrated lovers.
He shook his head. Focus. His sense of smell was stronger than ever. He could easily distinguish the vampire dog from Danielle and Lothar. When Nick had returned earlier, he’d no problem picking up on Lothar’s scent all over her. Lothar had given her more than a friendly greeting. Nick let it go. No commitment had been made as of yet. She wasn’t married to either of them, or whatever werewolves did.
Nick nodded to her. “Set that thing free.”
“Not a chance,” she said.
Lothar pushed away from the tree. “I will do it.”
He walked right past Danielle’s darkest glare and pulled the tarp off the cage. Reflective canine eyes glowed as the vampire dog growled and snapped at Lothar.
“Ready?” he asked calmly.
Nick lifted the bow. “Ready.”
Lothar unlatched the cage and the door swung open, the vampire dog leaping out. It stopped to growl at Lothar, teeth gleaming with venom. Nick aimed and shot. The bolt glanced off the dog’s shoulder. It growled and swiveled its head toward him.
“Go for the throat,” Danielle said.
“I got it.” Nick drew another arrow and loaded the bow.
The dog seemed wary of them, like it knew it was being set up. It glanced around, smelling the air. Nick wondered if it could sense that Danielle and Lothar were werewolves.
“Come on,” Nick called, finding the right angle.
The dog leaped. Danielle growled, and Nick saw a whir in his peripheral vision. She’d shifted into a wolf. The dog hit him square in the chest, knocking him backwards, driving the air from his lungs. Its wide jaws snapped at his face, saliva dripping, reeking like rotting meat. It was all Nick could do to keep from gagging.
A moment later it was knocked off his chest. Nick saw the flash of Danielle’s fangs.
“No, he’s mine.” Nick came to his feet.
Lothar shapeshifted. It was fast, seconds tops, his clothing bursting to shreds on the ground. He knocked Danielle out of the way. Nick wasn’t sure whether to be grateful for the help, or worried about her. She was a lot smaller than him. She rolled, coming to her feet, snarling. Lothar kept her back so Nick could focus on the dog.
The vampire stepped back and watched the bickering werewolves with cold eyes. Was it thinking about what to do next? Nick didn’t wait to find out. He drew a knife from his baldric, charged the dog, and on impulse sank the serrated blade into its right eye. Metal cut through with an amazing lack of resistance.
The eye sockets were vulnerable.
Now he knew where to aim. Too bad it was such a small target.
The dog jerked back, knocking Nick to the ground. He felt like he’d been hit with a tire iron. He came to his feet with a wince, another knife already in hand.
The dog stumbled, struggling to regain its footing, muscles straining as werewolf venom flooded through its system. Nick backed off when it fell a second time and stopped moving. He approached slowly, just in case, then bent and retrieved his knife.
He looked at the wolves, both watching, now standing side by side as if they’d never fought. The top of Danielle’s head only came to Lothar’s shoulder.
Lothar was the brawn and Danielle the speed, Nick realized. He could see how that would work in a combat situation. Danielle came forward and took the dog by the scruff of the neck into the forest. Lothar followed, slinking past Nick with a quick snarl. Nick knew they would bury it so no one would know it had existed in the first place.
Adrenaline wore off in the minutes following. Nick felt the wear and tear on his body from his brief encounter with the vampire. Danielle was right. One of those things really could break him like matchsticks. Even if it wouldn’t drink his blood, it could sever the arteries in his neck pretty easily.
Lothar returned first, eyeing Nick as he trotted by, then slunk into the cabin for fresh clothes. Danielle was next, passing without a glance.
Nick limped to the van and closed the double doors. He listened to distant howling in the forest, wondering if he was hearing the other werewolves.
“Still want to hunt?” Lothar asked a few minutes later, coming up to him in his usual GQ attire.
“I guess I owe you one.”
“Owe me more than one.”
“Right.” It was hard for Nick to understand how anyone could actually like Lothar, much less . . . Well, he didn’t want to go there.
Lothar bent and picked up Nick’s bow, handing it to him. The ammunition and guns he needed would be in tomorrow. Either way, he would have to work on his aim.
“The eye sockets are vulnerable,” Nick said. “If I use night vision goggles, it’ll be easier.”
“Kill when sleep.”
Nick was still trying to figure what he’d said when Lothar sighed as if trying to explain himself to a six year old.
“Tonight was to test poison weapons,” he told Nick. “Now we know they work. Take advantage of . . .” It took him a moment. “. . . day nature, and hunt while they sleep.”
Nick shifted off his right knee. It was beginning to throb. “Why don’t you?”
“We sleep morning.”
They were nocturnal, like vampires. “Fair enough. So, where do they sleep?”
“Dark places, caves, ravines.”
“Coffins?”
“Ne,” he said, deadpan.
Fortunately, Danielle came to his rescue. Good thing, since there was no telling how long Lothar’s patience would hold out.
Her gaze froze the both of them where they stood. “Don’t you ever do that to me again.”
He wondered which one of them she was talking to. Then Danielle stalked up to Lothar, and there was no question. He caught her arms easily, holding her at bay.
They were growling to each other in some bizarre mix of English and Lithuanian, faces close, eyes dark. She lifted her chin and he tightened his grip as if he knew she might bite him and was prepared for it. Nick wondered if this was normal for them, if he was just now seeing it firsthand. If this tension continued, would she mark Lothar again?
Nick turned and limped into the cabin. He’d seen more than enough. Either they were going to forget he was there and rip each other’s clothes off, or forge
t he was there and rip each other’s throats out. Either way, they’d forgotten he was there.
He checked on Greg and found him snoring away in Lothar’s bed. Hobbling back into the kitchen, Nick thought about the vampire dog and the way it had stopped to study them. He was sure it hadn’t attacked purely on instinct. That left him wondering why the female vampire had hidden herself and her friends from them last night, only to attack Kendra’s dog. Unless it was all part of the plan. Was the dog a warning? What if she knew Danielle and Kendra were friends?
The big bad wolves came in the cabin, both looking miserable. Apparently, no one had lost their clothing.
“Danielle,” Nick started, wanting to talk to her about the female vampire.
She poked him in the chest with a finger. “Do you have any idea what you’re doing to me?”
He shifted his weight back off his newly twisted knee. “I have some idea, yes.”
“Is this a pride thing, because I can protect you.”
“I can protect me too.”
“Fine. Then you can stay with Greg for the next few nights. He needs protecting.”
“Going out tonight?”
“Of course I am.”
“Where?”
“What do you mean, where?”
“It seems awfully coincidental, that vampire coming after Kendra’s dog. I think she’s been watching, and she’s on to you.”
“I had thought of that, but then Greg, and you . . .” Nick saw the proverbial light go on behind her eyes. She turned to Lothar for direction, even though Nick was the one who had thought of it.
“Go and get her,” Lothar said. “Bring her here. I will watch Greg.”
She nodded, heading for the door. “She’s still with her parents.”
Nick followed her out and they got into his truck.
“You’re limping,” she said.
“I’ll be fine.”
“This is why I keep my distance from people.”
“Yeah, I can see that now.”
“Making friendships, trying to live a normal life, gets people killed. People I care about.”
Nick knew it would be like that for him too. His adoptive parents had already lost Jason. If he removed himself permanently from their life, it would crush them. He pulled onto the gravel road. She was silent for a time.
“I tried to warn you,” she said finally. “But I don’t blame you for your enthusiasm. I thought the same thing at first. We all do. I was naive when I found out what I was. What I really was. I even told Henry I was a werewolf. I thought he could handle it.”
“What happened?”
“He was deceived by a vampire who convinced him to lure me into a trap. Theron is his name. He’s very old, very hard to kill. The smart ones always are.”
“Older than you and Lothar.”
“Yeah, much older. He’s about four hundred.” Streetlights bathed her face as they made their way into town. Her eyes were distant. “Lothar found out about it. I don’t know how, and I’m pretty sure he’ll never tell me. Anyway, it was too late for Henry. He was disposable, you know. Theron needed to feed before the battle.”
“Battle with you and Lothar.”
“Yeah. I had no idea what I was doing at the time. I’d learned to control my ability to shift from a wolf to human and back again, but not much more. Lothar was unwilling to risk me, so he sent me into the forest to hide.”
She stopped, probably lost in her thoughts. Nick was blown away by her. He took pride in his background in the military and the police force. But what could compete with fifteen years of monster hunting?
They pulled into the drive at Kendra’s parents’ house. The lights were on and everything seemed normal.
“I’ll take care of this,” Danielle said.
He nodded and they took the stairs onto the porch. Nick knocked on the door.
Kendra opened it a moment later. She must have seen them pull up. “Is Sammy all right?”
Danielle tucked a curl behind her ear. “I’m sorry.”
Her face paled. It took Kendra a moment to gather herself. “First Jason, now Sammy. What’s next?”
“I’m afraid there is more,” Danielle said. “You and Greg were exposed. I need to isolate the both of you from town for a few days.”
“Exposed to what?”
“It’s very rare. You need to come with us.”
“To the hospital?”
“Let’s talk about it outside. Oh, and it would be best if you not alarm your parents.”
Kendra smoothed a hand over her ponytail. “Let me get my coat. I’ll tell my mom I’m going out with Nick.”
“We’ll wait for you here.”
“She’s going to ask questions,” Nick whispered.
“We’ll figure something out.”
Kendra returned looking scared. She tightened her white fleece jacket around herself even though it wasn’t that cold. Nick got in and started the engine. The girls seemed confused about who should sit where. Danielle wanted Kendra in the middle, probably to keep her safe. Kendra thought Danielle should be next to him. He checked the rearview mirror, his nerves on edge, wanting to get out of town ASAP.
“Just get in,” he told the both of them.
Kendra slid in next to him and Danielle by the window. He pulled onto the road and drove faster than he should have. He glanced over and noticed Danielle’s eyes were black.
“Baby?”
“Just drive,” she said from between her teeth.
Every shadow was a monster to Nick. He kept expecting to see them coming out from behind houses or sneaking in through windows. He didn’t know if it was his sixth sense warning him, or his imagination running amok. He pulled onto the gravel road with relief.
“Why are we going to the cabin?” Kendra asked.
“Because we want to keep an eye on you.” Nick checked on Danielle. He could smell her tension.
“Shouldn’t we go to the hospital?”
“You’re better off here,” Nick said.
“But what if I get sick?”
“Danielle and Lothar can take care of it.”
Kendra shifted in her seat. “This is really bizarre.”
A thud rocked the truck and Kendra screamed.
“Keep driving,” Danielle said, unbuckling her seatbelt.
“What?” The truck swerved as he reached over Kendra to catch her arm.
“Just keep it on the road, will you?”
Nick checked the rearview mirror. There was someone—something—in the back of the truck. He couldn’t tell in the dark if it was male or female. Danielle opened the door and slipped out.
“What are you doing?” he called.
“Saving your lives.”
Nick clenched his teeth and kept the truck on the road. What was she thinking? She was fragile in her human body.
Then he saw her land on four paws in the back.
The truck lurched again as she wrestled with the vampire. She fell over the tailgate and it leaped after her. Nick hit the brakes, sliding on gravel. He was ready to follow, but Kendra was losing it.
“What the hell is going on here?” she said.
Nick looked through the rearview mirror as the vampire disappeared into the woods. Danielle howled at the sky and ran after it.
“Nick!”
“Just hold on.” He pulled back onto the road. “We’re almost there. It’ll be all right.”
“Did she . . . How did she do that?”
“We can talk about it at the cabin.”
He didn’t like leaving Danielle in the woods alone. She wasn’t indestructible. He couldn’t leave Kendra unprotected though. She was the human. She was the one who stood to lose the most.
Nick pulled up to the cabin and Lothar came out, his eyes black. He must have heard Danielle howling.
“Go after her,” Nick said. “She’s out there with one of those things.”
Nick helped Kendra out of the truck as Lothar ran into the forest, pulling
off his shirt.
* * *
Danielle chased the male vampire, sick of this game of cat and mouse. She was anxious for the female to come out of hiding. Her little friends were seriously getting on Danielle’s nerves.
She nearly lost the sent trail at the creek, circled a few times, then picked it up again, continuing on. She climbed up the ravine, picking her way from ledge to ledge. It was dark, the moon completely blocked by clouds. Wet gravel slipped beneath her paws as she struggled for purchase, finally scrambling to the top.
She sniffed around and picked up the scent of another vampire. The same female she’d detected on Sammy. Howling, she alerted the pack to let them know what she’d found. Danielle picked up on other scents too. Skidding to a halt, she sniffed the ground. Three, no, she counted more. At least five in total. There were too many. She didn’t dare do this alone.
She set off a warning, telling the pack to hurry it up. All she could do now was herd the vampires, corralling them into a group until the others arrived. She took off, making a sweep, circling within the scent patterns.
Hungry eyes peered from the dark as she narrowed her circle. She ran swiftly past another male. He hissed. She didn’t engage him. Focusing on one target would make her vulnerable. They would gain up on her if she stopped running. She was small but fast. Her speed was her protection.
Danielle heard a growl, then caught a glimpse of Lothar running in the opposite direction. Together they trapped the vampires, Danielle heading in one direction and Lothar in the other.
A male snapped at Lothar. He dodged it, continuing his sweep. A second snapped. The vampires knew they were being herded and were resisting. She barked a question at him. Should they risk taking them on, or wait for help? It was risky, but they’d done it before.
He answered her to wait. Seconds later, he snarled when a male jumped out of a tree, landing on top of him. Danielle changed her trajectory. No longer herding, she worked to keep the others at bay while Lothar dealt with the one. A moment’s hesitation would have them surrounded. She couldn’t afford to check on him at all.
She lunged at the vampires as they tried to change the game, herding her and Lothar together. He came up beside her a minute later, fangs dripping with venom. He’d finished off the male.
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