by Cecy Robson
“The heart?” Taran’s tone sounded more annoyed than sickened. “What could she possibly want with a goddamn elk heart?”
Liam frowned. “Sandwiches.”
Emme inched her way out of the booth. Yep. She was definitely green. I leaned forward. “Are you okay, Emme?”
Her lips puckered into a grimace. “I just need some air.”
I started to follow, but Liam slipped out. “It’s okay, Celia. I’ll go with her.”
Because that’s what Emme needed—more tales of blood and entrails. “Hey, Liam. Have you asked Emme about her day?” Liam shook his head. “Maybe you should.” I smiled when he gave me the thumbs-up. Good thing for Emme it didn’t take much to distract Liam. I watched them until they disappeared through the side emergency exit. Patrons weren’t allowed to step through the door, but only a masochistic bouncer would confront Liam. Like me, the wolves naturally leaked the “don’t make me eat you” vibe and pretty much ran whatever territory they occupied. I stared at the door as it closed behind them, hoping Aric would magically appear.
Gemini quietly interrupted my thoughts. “I don’t think Aric is going hunting.”
I rolled the beer bottle in my hands. “Why? Liam makes it sound like a good time.”
Gemini’s dark almond eyes brightened as he rubbed his goatee. “Because he doesn’t like being away from you. He’s had a difficult week without you.”
My gaze dropped. I’d killed things. Lots of things. Most times, quite brutally. But I wasn’t cold-blooded. And I carried remorse like a second skin. Humans found me intimidating—scary even. Yet those few who knew me—really knew me—would not have been surprised by my blush.
“I hope you’re right,” I said almost silently.
Taran placed her hand on Gemini’s shoulder, igniting a blue spark beneath her fingertips. Her irises blanched from blue to white, then back again, affected by the strength of Gemini’s wolf. “What about you? Are you going?” Her smile and tone carried a spark of their own. I thought for sure Gemini would beg to bask in her awesomeness.
I thought wrong.
Gem gawked at her palm like she’d slapped a dead rat on his shoulder. “Ah . . .”
Taran dropped her hand, and slumped her typically ideal posture. Aric had made Gemini his Beta based on his strong leadership skills and his ability to make thought-provoking statements.
Yeah. Right.
I took a sip of my beer and almost choked on it when Emme screamed. I bolted across the dance floor toward the side exit, Koda and Gem at my heels. The door flew off its hinges as I crashed through. The alley extended into the next lot, where a new restaurant was currently under construction and where Emme’s screams turned from terrified to pained.
Gemini and Koda rushed toward her cries. “Stay behind us!” Gem ordered.
Screw that!
My hair whipped behind me as I bolted through the alley, my claws and massive fur-lined body shredding through my new dress as I changed. My tigress form skidded around the corner and into the half-erected building, taking everything in in a single glance. A pile of vampires slashed into Liam near a freshly mortared brick wall. He wasn’t fighting back. His four-hundred-pound wolf form curled around Emme, shielding her from the vampire’s razor-sharp nails.
My paws dug into the concrete, propelling my body into a wide leap to tackle three of the vampires skewering Liam. Blood spewed as I clawed out the first one’s heart and the wolves dismembered the first of their prey.
I faced the other two, my fangs snapping and itching to bite. Something flew past me, severing their heads before I could strike. Shayna had flung a razor-sharp sphere she’d converted from a metal trash lid. She spun with a dancer’s grace, driving Misha’s elongated hairpin into the chest of a vampire leaping from the second story.
I nudged her back with my rump and knocked a she-vamp’s head clear from her shoulders just as a wave of electrified energy stroked my fur in the opposite direction. Taran had stumbled through the opening in her ankle-breaking shoes, throwing streams of blue and white lightning like javelins and jolting three vampires to cinders.
The skeleton frame of the building rattled as Koda collided with an enormous vampire. His large red wolf sank his fangs into a vamp’s neck, tearing his jugular open. The vampire’s blood splattered like rain against the support beams before converting into ash as the droplets dribbled down the thick metal.
My claws had burrowed into the stomach of another vamp when I caught sight of one stalking toward Emme. I chuffed loudly to draw attention, but she failed to acknowledge me, crying as she cradled Liam’s limp human form against her. I abandoned my kill and rushed toward her. Before I could reach her, Emme slammed a forklift into the vamp with her force, crushing his chest inward and instantly destroying his heart. She’d used her anger to react, all the while whispering to Liam that she loved him and begging him not to leave her.
I edged backward, my animal instincts alert for the next attack. Two more vampires circled Gemini. But when his wolf sprouted a second head, and a new wolf leapt from his body, the odds evened and body parts flew through the air like hail. To anger a two-wolf being was to meet a bloody and painful death.
We formed a circle around Emme and Liam as the scent of vampire saturated the open area. Dozens more leapt down from the support beams, hissing. My head jerked around. Where were all these vampires coming from? But there was no time to question, only to act.
Shayna lifted a discarded shovel in her hands. As she twirled she transformed the scoop into a deadly blade and sliced off the head of the closest vampire. Liam howled, his pain resonating through his fury. I roared and attacked—his injuries were severe. We needed to get him to safety to give Emme and his wolf time to heal him.
I leapt onto two vampires, my urgency to help Liam making me exceptionally vicious. My back paws held one while my fangs severed through the other’s neck. His blood and remains mixed to form a nasty paste, temporarily blinding me and giving another vampire time to jump onto my back. My body was stronger and tougher than an average tiger’s, but it didn’t make me invulnerable. The vampire hacked into my hide while another carved into my chest.
I surrendered to my tigress and set free the beast that didn’t recognize remorse—only survival. She clawed and chewed, ripping several vampires completely in half. The legs of one kicked sporadically in the air until I dug out the heart of the body it belonged to.
Two other vampires surrounded Shayna. Both attacked at once. She stabbed one through the heart at the same time she flung a spike into the eye of the other. We fought hard, but there were too many vampires and not enough of us. I knew this. And thankfully, so did Taran.
Blue and white flames encased Taran as her magic built into a small inferno. Her irises went white as she fell into a deep trance. I roared to get the others’ attention. This time it was Emme’s turn to shield Liam. She clasped her hand over his eyes and curved her body against his.
The explosion of light was more nuclear bomb than flash of lightning. Spots danced before me when my lids finally blinked open. Only clumps of ash remained. Taran’s magic-born sunlight obliterated the vampires, but it cost her. She collapsed to her knees, all magicked out. Gem’s two halves rejoined as they raced to her. The moment he reached her, Gem changed back and lifted her sagging body in his arms. “Don’t worry. Nothing will hurt you,” he promised her softly.
Taran’s lids fluttered. She was safe. Liam conversely looked like hell. Chunks of shredded muscle exposed the bones of his back. It would take his wolf several hours to heal him. That is, if he didn’t have Emme. My youngest sister’s pale yellow light surrounded Liam, healing and knitting his ravaged flesh closed until only shiny, new skin remained. He stumbled to his knees and yanked her to him. “I love you, too, angel,” he stammered hoarsely.
Flashing lights alerted us to the arrival of South Tahoe’s finest. A crowd had gathered where the restaurant opened to the street. I couldn’t blame them, really. Shattered bric
ks from the building, piles of ash, broken boards and bolt fixtures strewn the concrete floor. And let’s not forget the six people covered in blood, three who were naked, and—oh yeah, the three-hundred-and seventy-pound tigress.
We all tensed except for Taran. She moaned a little as a wisp of blue and white smoke trailed from her core toward the now screaming crowd of onlookers. The mist expanded, permeating through the crowd just as the police drew their weapons.
“There’s nothing to see, there’s nothing to see,” Taran mumbled. “Go about your business, there’s nothing to see.”
The clicks from safeties releasing and the barrels aimed at me had me backing into the wall. Taran turned up what little energy she had and mixed it with a whole lot of royal pissed-offness. She tipped her head in Gem’s arms, clenching her pearly whites. “There’s nothing to see. There’s nothing to see. For shit’s sake, go about your business, there’s nothing to see!”
Slowly, the crowd dispersed. A police officer radioed to report a false alarm. We were in the clear, yet Taran’s cover did nothing to squelch the scent of anger and fear rising in the wolves. Koda took Shayna’s hand as he hurried to Gemini. “Do you feel anything?” he asked him.
Gemini’s grave face hardened. “Nothing.”
Shayna’s head whipped back and forth between them. “What’s wrong?”
Koda sighed, his deep brown eyes darkening. “Something’s happened to Aric.”
CHAPTER 12
I changed behind a stack of cinder blocks, quickly yanking on the long cardigan Shayna tossed me. “How do you know? Is he hurt? Is he—”
My words caught in my throat and squeezed. Koda placed his hand on my arm, but I jerked back, feeling the confines of the demolished room closing in around me. Koda scented my alarm and spoke quickly. “Liam called for Aric in his howl. He told him we were under attack—and that you were with us. There’s no way he wouldn’t have come knowing you were in danger.” He closed his eyes and shook his head, his long black hair swaying against the length of his broad back. “Even now I don’t sense him anywhere near us.”
Gemini stroked Taran’s hair away from her face as he held her against him. “We have to find him. I’ll take the girls and Liam back to the house and join you as soon as I’m able.”
“I’m going with you.” My half growl, half psycho Latina tone left no question I meant business. The wolves surprised me by not arguing. Gem nodded with approval while Emme rushed to heal the gashes on my back already soaking through Shayna’s white sweater.
“I’m coming, too,” Liam insisted.
Gemini’s voice remained calm, but resolute. “No. You’re too weak from the speed in which Emme and your wolf healed you. You’re to stay with the girls. Let Emme care for you. When you’ve regained enough of your strength, you can help us search for Aric.” Gem looked to Shayna, his voice growing softer. “May I count on you to watch over Taran?”
Shayna squeezed Koda’s hand as she answered, “You know I will.”
“Go with them,” Gemini said.
I wasn’t sure who he meant until his black wolf sprang from his back like the pull of a wax strip.
• • •
Gemini the wolf stared out one of the darkened windows, his gigantic black form taking up most of the length of Koda’s leathered backseat. I’d raced half-naked down the street to retrieve Koda’s silver Yukon. Upon screeching to the stop near the alley, I quickly slid into the passenger seat and let Koda take the wheel, knowing I was in no condition to drive. My body shook, despite wearing the extra pair of sweats Koda had given me before tugging on a pair of his own.
Koda raced around the streets of South Tahoe’s club district, his window cracked in hopes of picking up Aric’s scent. “We’ll find him, Celia.”
I noticed Koda didn’t state how we’d find him. But wolves weren’t known for lying or for false reassurance. I tried to slow my breathing. It didn’t work. My panic for Aric’s safety beat my heart against my ribs, threatening to call forth my beast. The thought of losing him accelerated my racing pulse and forced my claws to protrude and retract, over and over until the tips of my fingers ached from the effort. We’d become so close in such a short period, it couldn’t all end now.
After a few more sweeps and some swearing, Koda abandoned the streets and jumped on 89. Gemini growled with equal frustration. I stared out toward the lake, and prayed silently for Tahoe’s power to somehow guide us to Aric. The lake didn’t answer. I wasn’t Misha. I hadn’t learned to harness the lake’s power. But since in a way I viewed it as a friend, you’d think the watery bastard would have tossed me a bone.
I rubbed my hands together. “Does your link to him as his Warrior tell you anything?”
“Only that he still lives. His death would destroy a piece of my heart.”
I wrapped my arms tight around myself, knowing exactly what he meant.
Koda’s phone rang, making me startle. “We found him,” a voice announced on the other end. “It’s not good. Trace my signal—”
Koda’s eyes cut to me. “I’m on it.”
Koda stayed on 89 until he veered sharply onto the abandoned housing development Whispering Woods. I’d read about this place in the paper. The contractor had purchased it and then lost all his money in a bad investment. Only a handful of houses had gone up before the owner had abandoned ship, leaving his employees out of work and his investors demanding his head on a platter. I rolled down the window, trying to track Aric’s scent and unable to keep still. Mud smeared the new road in streaks, and weeds had started to overtake the lots. In the nearing distance, I heard Aric’s enraged snarl.
Koda’s grip to my wrist kept me from leaping out. “Celia. There are other weres present. Don’t go off without us.”
My head jerked from him back to the open window. “I don’t care about them.”
“We do. Our presence will keep them from attacking you. I can’t make that same promise if you show up without us. Aric’s hurt. They’ll sense your predator side as a threat to him.”
I nodded but barely managed to keep my tigress from leaping out the window.
We passed through four more blocks before a row of SUVs finally came into view. A were with a long beard and sporting a leather jacket waved us in to where a mob of weres stood with their backs turned. They didn’t bother to face us. Either they knew Aric’s Warriors had arrived or what held their attention was far more important.
The headlights of Aric’s Escalade illuminated a two-story Colonial littered with pine needles and clumps of ash. The driver’s-side door was wrenched open, evidently left the way it had been found. An overturned EMT vehicle rested to the left of Aric’s SUV, the back doors barely attached to the hinges and smeared with gray wolf fur and blood—Aric’s fur and blood.
And that’s when my heart stopped beating.
Koda and Gemini sprang from the Yukon. The scent of spilled gasoline burned my nose, and the cool night breeze slapped my face as I shoved the door open. But it was the thunder of Aric’s growls that had me jetting behind the wolves.
The crowd of weres that easily parted for Koda and Gemini became an impenetrable wall of bodies the second I neared. “Let me through.” My voice should have spewed all the anger and terror coursing through me. Instead it softened and shook, revealing nothing but my fear for Aric.
“Not your business, cat,” the same leather-clad were spit the moment he caught my scent.
“But I’m—” What? The girl he’d slept with? I cleared my throat. “Aric’s friend.”
A werecheetah dressed in a slinky gold dress quirked an eyebrow. “Aren’t we all?” she whispered in a breathy tone that told me more than I wanted to know.
I scanned the area for a possible opening, only to fix on the pale skin of the very still and very dead human to my far right. Droplets of blood stained his white T-shirt. His jeans and underwear had been ripped off. Only a tattered piece of denim remained attached to one ankle. He lay spread-eagle on the asphalt near
the driver’s-side door of his blue Ford Focus—well, had the door remained attached. The dented clump of metal dumped on an empty lot was all that remained. Claw marks caved the roof in, and clumps of blond extensions littered the passenger-side seat.
What the . . . ?
Another howl of agony had me lunging at the crowd of weres. I managed to bust through the cheetah in the gold dress and another female, only to be forced back by the rest of the group.
Koda’s deep voice shouted over my growls, “Let her through!”
The weres abruptly released me as Koda appeared, his glare parting the crowd like the slice of a machete. He extended his hand. “Come, Celia. Aric wants you.”
Koda was offering me more than his hand. He was making it clear I was to be left alone, or else. I took it quite willingly and allowed him to lead me through. I hurried behind him only to stop short when I caught sight of Aric.
He lay on a makeshift bed of particleboards elevated by stone pavers, an old army blanket covering his naked and writhing form. My free hand clasped over my mouth to suppress my gasp. Aric’s normally golden skin had darkened to a sickly gray, and a waterfall of sweat cascaded down the muscles of his back. About six gaping holes punctured along the length of his spine. I felt my head spinning and I barely grasped onto the realization that he still lived.
Koda’s hold barely kept me upright. What could only be described as a gold, two-pronged meat hook with barbs pierced through Aric’s right shoulder and out his back. Blood and pus oozed from the openings where the cursed gold poisoned his body. No wonder he suffered; the gold mimicked acid coursing through his veins. I tore away from Koda and dashed toward Aric, falling to my knees before him.
My hands pushed his sweat-soaked hair from his clouded brown eyes. My God, his skin was on fire.
“Celia,” he panted.
“I’m here. Don’t worry, we’re going to help you.”
His lids shut tight with pain, but he inhaled deep to take in my scent. “You’re hurt. I can smell your blood.”