by M. J. Scott
“You will have three minutes once you get outside,” Tate said, softly. “Then we will begin.”
I nodded. “Agreed.” I tried to picture the distance from the house to the trees, wishing I’d paid closer attention. Three minutes should be enough to get to some sort of cover. The place was probably full of cameras but Tate would be outside. So unless he had a Dick Tracy super video watch or something, he couldn’t rely on surveillance.
Assuming there weren’t others in the house doing the surveillance for him.
Kyra hauled Dan up and I stepped over Rio’s body as I followed her out of the room and back down the hallway, fear fuzzing my mind. But I had killed one of them already. I had to believe I could do it again.
Kyra opened the front door. I looked past her to the darkness beyond and knew with certainty that if she and Tate teamed up, Dan and I were going to die. We needed an advantage.
We needed the key.
“Have a nice death, Pretty,” she said as she pushed Dan through the door.
I bared my teeth at her. “Right back at you.”
She smiled, opened her mouth to say something and I lunged for her, propelling her backward out the door with all my strength. She fell and I went with her. We landed in a snarling heap on the porch. I screamed as her fangs sank into my left bicep. Luckily my right arm was the one with the manacle. I swung at her head and it connected with a crack that pulled her teeth free of my flesh and made her head hit the wooden floor hard enough to buckle the boards.
She went still and I pushed up my sleeve and tore the cross free, holding it ready as I plunged my hand into her pocket. My fingers closed around something metallic and key shaped. It burned.
Silver. I forced myself to keep hold and pulled it out.
I knew Tate had to be coming for us. The sound of our fight couldn’t have escaped him. Kyra was still unconscious but her chest rose and fell. I couldn’t leave her alive. But I didn’t know if I could kill her in cold blood. Or how to do it.
While I hesitated, Dan knelt beside me and put his hands either side of her head, twisting. Her neck snapped with a hideous crack that made me want to retch.
I didn’t know if a broken neck was enough to kill a vampire, but it had to at least seriously slow her down. Leaving only Tate. Tate who would be after us any minute. We needed to get away from the house.
I shoved the cross deep into the pocket in my cargoes. “Run,” I yelled at Dan. I staggered to my feet, put my hands around one of his arms and yanked him up. “We have to get to the trees.”
We hit the stairs, half-running, half-lurching. It felt as though we were barely crawling as Dan leaned his weight into mine, making my arm throb harder where Kyra had bitten me. Panic and pain and the searing ache of silver against my flesh made my head spin. I ran blindly, conscious only of Dan’s breathing beside me, and the deafening thump of my own heartbeat.
I didn’t look over my shoulder, didn’t know if we were being pursued, just ran on instinct, keeping pace with Dan until we hit the tree line. Once we got deeper into the woods, I forced myself to listen. Even if Tate hadn’t heard us with Kyra, it had to be almost three minutes. He would be coming for us.
He’d have a nice blood trail from my arm to follow.
The key still burned my hand. I pushed Dan to our left, the direction of the road. When the trees started to thicken, I slowed. “Stop,” I gasped. “We have to stop.”
We leaned against the nearest tree, both breathing like racehorses. I pried the key loose from the blisters it had raised on my palm, ignoring the sting against my fingers and tried to unlock the manacle from my wrist. I almost dropped the key once and swore. Dan had his eyes closed, panting. He wasn’t going to be able to help. On the second try, the manacle clicked open. I flung it from my wrist into the darkness. The pain burning up my arm eased back from acid fire to mere burning.
I set to work on Dan’s manacles, using my sleeves to protect my hands from the silver. I had to pry the cuffs from his flesh and almost fainted from the waves of nausea the sensation of flesh peeling back from the metal under my fingers invoked.
Dan didn’t make a sound until I’d finished. Then he opened his eyes. “You should change. Get away from here.”
I looked at him. There wasn’t a lot of moonlight under the trees and he looked horribly pale. “Can you change?”
He shook his head. “I don’t think so, it hurts. I need Ani or Sam.” An Alpha could help a wolf change. I knew that much. Problem was neither Ani nor Sam was available.
“Then I can’t. I can’t help you run in wolf form.” Werewolves were big but I didn’t think I could carry Dan on my back. He needed help. So I was stuck.
“We need to keep moving,” I said, lifting his arm and putting it around my shoulder. “Let’s go, Gibson.”
“Leave me,” he said. “Get free.”
He slumped against the nearest tree, breath rasping. But I hadn’t come this far for him to give up on me. I grabbed his face and kissed him, willing him to stay with me. He tasted like blood and salt and fear. When his mouth moved under mine, I pulled back.
“I’m not leaving you,” I snarled. “Just move.”
We lurched back into motion, plunging through the forest, no hope of staying silent with Dan so weak. The wind was coming from behind us and, as it strengthened, it carried the stink of old blood and rot. Tate.
“He’s coming,” I said to Dan. “Run faster.”
We stumbled through the next stand of trees and into a small clearing.
I heard Tate laughing behind us, knew he was nearly on us. I shoved at Dan. Maybe I could delay Tate long enough for him to get clear. “Keep going.”
He stopped in his tracks. “Not without you.”
I looked around frantically, searching for any signs the Taskforce might be anywhere near us.
This way. I didn’t know if I was imagining it or if I’d actually heard something but I grabbed Dan’s hand and started moving again. I suddenly glimpsed a pair of green eyes in the darkness and smelled heat and the musky smell of cat. Esme. They were here. Tears started running down my face in relief. The Taskforce agents were here.
“Left,” I hissed at Dan and we swerved in unison, Dan getting a little ahead of me as my foot tangled in a dead branch. “Keep going,” I yelled.
Then something hit me from behind and fangs raked down my neck. Tate had found us.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
I twisted frantically, trying to dislodge Tate but his fangs went deeper, tearing at my flesh. Wetness gushed over my skin. Blood.
I fought harder, reaching behind me to claw at his face. It worked. He pulled free, swung his fist at my head.
I heard Dan yell “Ashley,” and I tried to move but misjudged as Tate twisted with me and the blow connected with my shoulder, rocking me back.
“Run,” I shrieked at Dan. “Run!”
I couldn’t protect him and fight Tate. If Dan got free, then all this wouldn’t be for nothing.
Tate blurred toward me, hitting me like a truck. We flew backward and I landed in the dirt, his weight on top of me, fangs slashing at me again.
I remembered my cross, and scrabbled for my pocket. My fingers caught the chain and I pulled it free, pressing my hand into Tate’s face as his fangs caught my cheek.
The cross sizzled as it met his flesh. There was a blinding flash of light as he recoiled, snarling and swearing.
“You’ll regret that,” he said as I scrambled back, pushing to my feet.
I lifted my hand, dangling the cross. “Want to try it again?” Over his shoulder I saw black shapes gliding toward Dan, herding him backward into the trees.
Safe.
He was safe. That was what mattered. I knew the Taskforce couldn’t easily take Tate down, not while I was in the way. So it was him and me.
The wolf raged under my skin, the need to change roiling through me, a howl burning in my throat. But I pushed it away. There was too much anger. Too much need and hate and
rage. I didn’t know how I could possibly control it if I changed. I couldn’t risk going berserk.
Tate climbed to his feet as well and stared at me. I wondered what he was doing.
“Stay still,” he said in a weird tone of voice.
Suddenly it hit me. He was trying to use whatever he’d left in my head when he’d thralled me. The thing Marco had removed.
He thought he could control me.
Well, let him think that.
I stayed where I was, not moving, then, as he lunged for me, I swung the cross again, pressing it into his face near his eyes. There was another flare of light, this time even brighter and heat sizzled up the chain making me drop it.
Tate howled and staggered backward clutching at his eye. Movement caught my eye in the trees behind him and the shape became a black clad Taskforce agent lifting a gun.
“No!” I yelled.
Certainty flowed through me. Tate was mine.
The gunman hesitated and another shape burst from the woods.
Dan.
He leaped toward Tate and Tate, already alerted by my yell, pivoted almost too fast for me to follow. He met Dan with a snarl, and Dan howled as Tate ripped his fangs into his neck. The smell of blood, fresh and hot filled the air. Too much blood, too quickly. Tate had torn something big. If I didn’t do something, Dan would die.
I wasn’t going to lose him again.
“Tate,” I snarled and the vampire turned back to me. Blood stained the lower half of his face and I froze as Dan fell to his knees behind him, clutching at his neck.
Tate smiled at me, nothing human or sane in the expression and I knew he meant to kill me.
No more games.
No more excuses. If I wanted to live then I had to use everything I had. Every part of me.
Tate started toward me, moving purposefully and I finally let go of the iron control I’d been exerting over my wolf. Triumph surged through me as the world went blurry then Tate was on me and we rolled through the dirt, his fangs against my claws and teeth.
I moved and twisted instinctively, every part of me focused on the need to kill the enemy, to defend the pack, defend what was mine. Tate’s teeth slashed through my fur and I howled. An answering howl rose through the night air and I knew some of my pack were there, lending me their strength.
I twisted again and got free of him, leaping backward to land, my paws planted squarely in the dirt, as I watched his every movement.
I had hurt him. The foul taste coating my tongue was his blood. A growl rumbled low in my throat. I crouched as he stood to face me, every muscle in my body tensed against the pain sizzling along my nerves, each tear and bruise burning like fire.
“At least you have more fight than your family,” Tate said into the stillness of the air. “You’re still going to die though.”
No. I wasn’t sure if it was my thought, or Jase’s or the packs or something else entirely but I didn’t care. Everything seemed to shimmer crystal clear in the moonlight, each leaf of the grass gleaming at me. I could see the hairs on Tate’s head moving in the breeze, see the tiny muscle tremors that telegraphed his intentions. Smell his insane urge to kill.
But my anger was stronger and I embraced its power. I leaped for him, arcing through the air with more strength and speed than I thought possible. He moved but I still hit him square in the chest with my front paws, my teeth snapping for his throat.
They closed over flesh and I couldn’t control my reactions any more than I could control my need for air. My fangs sank into his throat, tasting warm skin and the rotten taint of his blood, then twisted, tearing through his windpipe and closing around the bones in his neck. I bit harder and as our momentum carried us and we headed for the ground, I twisted savagely then let go and watched Tate’s head bounce across the grass as his body thudded to the earth.
Howls and cheers filled the air as I skidded to a halt, rolling over and over in the grass, doing my best to spit Tate’s blood out. Wolf mouths aren’t designed for spitting. The taste coated my tongue, acid and rotten.
I didn’t care. Not with Tate lying dead in front of me. I threw back my head and joined my song to those around me, howling with grief and victory and the sheer joy of being still alive.
***
They made me stay in hospital overnight in Ellensburg. I didn’t think I needed it, most of my wounds healed once I changed back to human form but somewhere along the line I’d fractured most of the bones in my right foot and they would take a few more changes to knit properly. At least the hospital had a never ending supply of mouthwash and toothpaste. I felt like I’d never scrub the taste of Tate out of my mouth.
But apart from a lingering limp and a near obsession with Listerine, I was okay.
Dan wasn’t so lucky. They rushed him back to Seattle for surgery on his neck where Tate had damaged the arteries. And on his wrist, where the silver had burned through muscle and started eating its way down to bone.
When Jase picked me up in the morning, I made him take me straight there. Only to be met by Ani in the hallway outside the ICU.
“He doesn’t want to see you,” she said before I’d even said hello.
Disbelief made my jaw fall open. I’d just saved his life. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m sorry, Ashley but he asked you to stay away.”
“What sort of male idiocy is this? I want to see him.” I went to push past her then remembered how furious I’d been when Dan had charged into my hospital room uninvited after he’d bitten me and flounced over to the bank of plastic chairs in the hallway, planting my ass with a thud. “I saved him, for Chrissakes.”
Ani came and sat next to me. “Yes, and currently, he’s about as happy about that as you were when he saved you.”
My head hurt. And that wasn’t the only thing. I rubbed my eyes before I started crying. “That makes no sense. I was mad about the werewolf thing.”
“Ash, he’s sick and hurt and you probably terrified the life out of him. Plus. . . .” she hesitated and my heart started to beat harder.
“What?”
“They’re not sure if his left arm is going to heal properly. The silver did a lot of damage. It took both Sam and I to get him to change. And he’s too weak to do it as often as he needs to repair himself.”
Dan crippled? I had to close my eyes for a moment as I took it in. Then I opened them. “I don’t care about his arm.”
“Well, he does. He knows he forced you into the claim and he won’t tie you to an injured wolf. He’s got a bee in his bonnet about it for some reason.”
I frowned. Dan should know I wouldn’t care about him being injured. Then I remembered the conversation I’d had with Tate. The one about half-crippled wolves and being useless and needing the strength of the pack to protect me. Had Dan somehow mixed all that up in his head?
A snarl rose in the back of my throat. Idiot male. I wasn’t going to let him ruin things now. “Just let me talk to him, we can work this out.”
Ani shook her head. “No. I’m going to respect his wishes. You can see him at full moon. If he comes.”
Her tone was full blown Alpha. I couldn’t disobey. Which didn’t mean I had to like it. I pushed up from the chair. “Fine. Tell him he’s an idiot, from me.”
“You can tell him yourself when you see him. Unless you can think of something else he might like to hear.”
I glared at her. I knew what she was doing. Telling me if I told Dan I loved him then maybe I could fix things.
But why would I tell a stubborn wolf who didn’t even trust me to stick by him that I loved him? Only someone who was as big an idiot as he was would do that. “I’ll see you at full moon.”
***
Two weeks had never passed so slowly in my life. I had plenty to do, between trying to salvage my relationship with the clients I’d left in the lurch and working with the Taskforce to unravel Tate’s holdings and try to track down the source of the mutated vaccines. Smith hadn’t been found. Afte
r what had happened with Tate the first time, no one was making the mistake of assuming the not-so-good doctor was dead. The Taskforce were crawling through my father’s papers and records from Genasys. We hadn’t found anything yet but we weren’t giving up.
Jase helped but he wasn’t around as much as normal. He spent a lot of time at Marco’s and he wouldn’t tell me if it was voluntary or not. In fact, he clammed up every time I tried to raise the subject. Which only made me feel guilty because I was the reason Marco now knew about his powers.
But a girl can’t work every minute and I had plenty of time to stew about Dan. I even let Bug lecture me about him when she came to see me.
Stupid man. He had to go and complicate things just when it had started to seem straightforward.
Matters weren’t helped by the fact I was getting hornier and hornier as the full moon approached.
By the time I headed for the Retreat the day of full moon, I’d worked up a pretty good head of mad to counteract my nerves about returning to the pack and the place where Ben had died. Still, it wasn’t easy turning into the drive and I’d delayed so much that the sun was starting to set as I pulled up in front of Ani and Sam’s house.
“Where’s Dan?” I asked as Ani opened the door.
She rolled her eyes. “Let’s worry about that after you change, okay? You know you shouldn’t be cutting it this fine.”
I eye-rolled her right back. I was pretty sure I could control my wolf now. “I did okay with my control with Tate.”
She smiled wickedly. “Right up until that part where you bit his head off.”
My stomach lurched a little. I had tried to avoid thinking too much about killing Tate and Rio. Let alone how I’d killed Tate. “Let’s not talk about that,” I said.
“Okay. Just don’t get cocky. This is full moon and you don’t get a say. Go change your clothes,” Ani said.
It was close to dark by the time I slipped into the woods. Ani was with me again but there was no other circle of back-up. I found myself looking forward to the moon as energy sizzled under my skin. I tilted my head back, smiling up at the sky and waited for the kiss of silver light to fill me with power.