I shook my head. “No. I promised him that his secrets were safe. And anyway, it doesn’t matter. He’s a werewolf.” I was making excuses. Feeble ones, at that. But there were still lines I wasn’t willing to cross. And not all of them had to do with reading Knight’s mind.
Knight was right. I did feel a hundred times worse the next day. I lifted my head from my pillow, every movement causing complete agony. My lips groaned before I could stop them.
“That bad, huh?” Knight commented from behind me. I sat up and blinked a few times. My head hurt so badly, it was hard to make them focus on anything. I could barely see Knight across the room. He was sitting at the little table by the window eating breakfast. He’d kept the lights off and shut the curtains, which I greatly appreciated. I couldn’t handle bright light right now. I swung my legs over the edge of the bed, planted my feet on the carpet, and stood up. My legs instantly gave way underneath me. “Hey, life alert, stop playing around.” I pulled myself up and forced my legs to support my weight. They wobbled a few times but I managed to get to the other chair at the table before they gave out again. “You okay?” I nodded. Sitting on the table was a plastic box with croissants and some pudding cups. I looked at it and up at Knight. He grinned and shrugged. “I can’t make custard croissants. This is the next best thing.” He served me up an opened pudding cup and a croissant on a paper plate, before breaking off a piece of croissant and dipping it in the pudding. “Here, try.” I felt my lip tremble. He’d really tried to make going through this a little bit easier by making his own version of my favorite food. I didn’t deserve his friendship. He suddenly pointed a finger in my face to distract me. “No. No tears. Eat the pastry.”
I reached out to take the small bite of food. My hands shook and I couldn’t keep it in my grip. It fell into my lap, smearing my shirt with pudding. “Sorry,” I apologized softly. He clicked his tongue, broke off another bit, dipped it, and held it up to my mouth. “Now you’re feeding me?” He ignored my protest and shoved the bite in while I was talking.
It was good.
“Is that French vanilla?” I asked with the pastry in my mouth. He nodded and broke off another bite. The second bite made my head pound as my senses tried to inform me how amazing it smelled. I lost control for a few seconds, but that was all my powers needed. I could see, hear, smell, and taste everything nearby. There were four other humans in hotel rooms and two in the office. One was walking outside with a cart that smelled like cleaning products. Her breath smelled like chocolate.
“Hey,” Knight said gently. He took my head in his hands and kissed my forehead. “Focus, okay?” I grounded myself with the scent of his hair. His shampoo smelled like cinnamon. I took a deep breath and regained control.
I looked up at him feebly as he ran a hand through my hair. “Why are you still here?” I expected…well, I wasn’t sure what I expected. The bracelet promise, maybe. Because we’re friends. He doesn’t have anywhere else to go. I have money and he doesn’t.
But that wasn’t what he answered. He stared into my eyes and said, “Where else would I be?”
So. Knight and I had to make a new plan now. Something long term. And something that involved both of us. I knew there was nowhere I could go, anywhere on the globe, that would stop the Hunters from finding me. I’d be on the run forever. But, with Knight at my side, it wouldn’t be so bad.
Our first pit-stop was going back to Jesse’s pack. He’d called us during my detox and said he could get us a car that couldn’t be tracked by the Hunters. He sounded as if there was more besides the car for his reason to call us, but he didn’t elaborate.
A week of detox, which did involve some throwing up, had mostly gotten me back to normal power levels. The pain and shakes had subsided, and I was back to needing Knight’s blood every morning, which he provided without complaint or fear. I felt strong again, and absolutely in control over my powers.
I still had nightmares about James. Being around too many people scared me now. I was so afraid he’d be around the corner, ready to bite me again and steal my freedom. Knight said I had PTSD, a human disorder. I told him I wasn’t human.
Still, I stayed in the hotel room while he packed Excalibur up with our bags. I came outside after carefully pushing out my senses and making sure no one else was nearby. It was safe.
Knight drove, even though he was practically bent in half in my tiny car. I would miss my Excalibur, but I would gladly sacrifice it to keep us safe.
Jesse’s pack lived in a trailer park on the edge of a forest. Perfect for Lycans to run all they wanted. We pulled up in their non-paved road. All the trailers were parked in a large semi-circle, leaving a big clearing for all the Lycans to gather in. They had grills, picnic tables, a basketball hoop, and still had enough room to spare.
The pups were wrestling in the open space around the trailers, desperate to work off their raging hormones and prove themselves. Rather than stopping it, the adults were egging them on while cooking something on a grill for lunch.
I waited to get out of the car after Knight was out and near my door. There were so many people here. I hated how scared I was. When I stepped out onto the trodden grass, Knight reached for me the same moment I brought a hand up to clutch his arm.
“We'll leave soon,” he promised, rubbing my shoulder. I tried to focus only on the smell of the barbecued meat. It was mouthwatering.
Jesse's trailer was at the head of the area. It was decorated with Halloween decorations and a large red flag with a paw print on it. His mate sat on the small wooden front porch snapping green beans. I could sense him inside the trailer.
“Hey Toni,” Knight said to the Alpha female. “Jesse here?” I whispered, “He's inside” at the exact moment she said it out loud.
Jesse came out, hearing us, and smiled a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. “Knight.” He glanced at me and the smile faded when he saw Knight's arm around me. “You're here for the car?” Knight nodded. “It’s waiting for you, but you don’t have to rush off. Stay for lunch.”
“We appreciate the offer, but we have to get going,” Knight told him. Jesse gestured to Toni, who understood his wordless cue and stood up and went inside to rummage through the fridge for something before she came back with a foil package. She tossed a small object to Knight and he caught it without looking. Car keys. She pitched the foil to me, but I flinched and cowered behind Knight, so he caught it and handed it to me. It smelled like brisket.
He threw her the keys to Excalibur and motioned to my tiny car. “You can keep it.” Considering she, and most of their pack, drove motorcycles, I wasn't sure if she'd like my little economy car. They’d probably sell it. Or Balthazar would steal it again.
“She okay?” Jesse asked, showing genuine concern for the way I was behaving. I was a powerful vampire and I was hiding behind a werewolf. I really had to get this under control. I took a deep breath and stepped away from Knight.
“I’m good,” I said. And I knew I would be. Eventually.
“Sorry you can't stay,” Jesse said. He meant it, but I could feel something off with him. Knight stiffened, feeling it too, and quickly said his farewells before leading me to the car they’d gotten for us. It was a teal convertible. Knight didn’t even pause before dumping our bags into it. As scared as I still was despite trying not to be, I was still able to turn my nose up at the color.
“Teal?” I commented when we'd driven away. “Couldn't have picked something nicer like sea foam?”
“He didn't consult a color expert, I guess,” Knight teased, but then he sobered, his fingers gripping the steering wheel firmly. “That was weird. He offered for us to stay but… I could sense he was just being polite about it.”
I wanted to mention that they probably didn't like seeing a werewolf holding hands with a vampire, but my eyes went to the glove compartment. Someone had added a little sticker of a vampire smiley face right next to the press handle. Why would Jesse put that there? Maybe it had been there when they
bought it? I opened the compartment and found a letter on top of some maps.
It was addressed to me.
I shut the door quickly and leaned back against my seat before Knight could notice what I was doing. Instead, he poked the foil package in my lap.
“That smells good. They were nice to give it to us.”
“I made her do it. I reached inside and I said, brisket, woman!” He knew I couldn’t do that anymore, so I hoped he knew I was trying to be funny.
He snorted and poked me in the side. “Let me have some and I'll let it pass.”
“You are mistaken. She gave this to me. Not you. Find your own brisket.”
“Hey, I gave you my life blood. I am entitled. Now give.” He tried to swipe it from me, so we played keep away until I decided to open it before could he tear the foil and get brisket everywhere.
Twenty-four
I didn't read the letter until we'd checked into a hotel before nightfall and Knight went swimming. I paid close attention to his position in the courtyard with my now normal level of powers while I retrieved the envelope from the glove compartment. I opened it to find a letter written by Jesse.
Lisbeth,
Knight isn't safe. He stayed with my pack for a few days last month, and in that time, everyone could tell he was different. It caused a stir among us.
You must understand. He is the true form of our species, one of the Primal werewolves. They are dangerous and uncontrollable when the moon has them in her grasp, no matter what they are like during the day.
I know he is a good man, since he has chosen to protect you. It didn’t matter what I said to them, a few in my pack were too afraid. They told others that a Primal werewolf has been found. I banished them from the pack, but the damage was done. The Lycan elders have dispatched packs to find Knight.
I don't know what they'll do to him if he's captured. I ask you to protect him like he has protected you. Make sure they don't find him. I have to believe he's not dangerous, as I hope you do too.
Jesse
I stared at the page for a long time, the words boring holes into me. Now Knight was being hunted too, and would most likely be executed if they caught him. I felt him get out of the pool, so I left the car and walked to where he stood, toweling himself off. I stared at the water drops that floated down the five pink scratches on his chest.
“What's up?” he said when he saw me. “You look serious.” I handed him the letter. I didn’t care if Jesse thought I should keep it secret. I wouldn’t hide anything from Knight. Not now. Not after all we’d been through. He took it, started reading, and slowly lowered himself to the nearest pool chair. He handed it back when he was finished, and sighed, his eyes staring at the concrete by his feet. “Why'd you let me read that? You could have just told me the gist of it.”
“Full disclosure,” I reminded him. But there was something else. He’d been rejected by his own kind so much, and Jesse had treated him with kindness. “And also, I didn't want you to think Jesse doesn't like you.”
His gaze softened when he looked up at me. “Thank you. That was kind.” He looked away and sighed. “So. Now I'm being hunted too. And not for breaking rules. Just for who I am. That's comforting.” He stood up and grabbed his towel. “It's the full moon tonight. I'm going into the forest until dawn. Stay here and wait, please?”
I agreed. He took his room key and a change of clothes in case his current outfit was ruined in the shift. After he left, I couldn't sleep. Between the nightmares about James, and the constant worry he’d somehow find me, I could only rest when I was too exhausted to keep my eyes open. I watched history specials until the only thing playing was infomercials. So I watched those too.
At almost 7am, I was still awake when the hotel door opened and Knight stumbled in wearing the change of clothes he'd brought. He was favoring one leg and had a nasty red scratch on his collarbone. His breath came in ragged puffs. Without speaking, he walked over to the bed I was sitting on and collapsed next to me, and within seconds I heard snoring.
He slept past noon, so I had to renew our hotel reservation for another night, whether or not we would stay that long. I was munching some cereal I'd snagged at the free hotel breakfast, and watching something about King Tutankhamen when Knight finally stirred. He sat up, wiped his mouth, and stretched until his back and shoulders popped. His eyes looked like he had a hangover, but the mark on his collarbone was healed and his leg was fine when he stood up. He showered and came back in by the time I'd finished my cereal. I was trying not to stare at him, but he noticed me peeking glances.
“I know,” he said. “I look horrible. It happens. And I have a few more days until it's over, so, you know, yay.” He fell into one of the chairs and leaned his head back. “Did you sleep?” I shook my head. I was tired, but I wasn’t to the point of collapsing yet.
“Do you remember anything when you're shifted?” I asked him.
He shrugged. “Bits and pieces. Mostly just the things I kill. I always kill something. For sport I guess. I don't eat it or anything. I just kill it.” He scrubbed a hand down his face. “I don't know if Jesse is right. I don't know if I'm good. Maybe there's a reason there's no one else like me. The Lycans obviously don't like a Primal werewolf existing.”
“It's just fear. Fear makes us do stupid things. Take the Salem witch trials, for example.” I was trying to lighten the mood, but it didn't work. Knight stayed pensive the whole day. He even made me drive the convertible, which made me a nervous wreck for the first hour.
When night rolled around, he left me at the truck stop I'd picked for us to sleep at. I had no intention of staying in the car waiting for dawn to arrive. I locked the car doors and hoped no one would bother it, before following Knight across the parking lot. He walked far into the forest until he reached a clearing that let in the light from the stars. He set the change of clothes on the ground and walked far away from them before he sat down to wait for the moon to rise.
It took over twenty minutes for the moon to reach its zenith and he was fine until the beams of ghostly light fell upon him. He didn't have time to remove his clothes before they were shredded when his body started growing. As before, his hands became claws, his face contorted into a snout, and every inch of his skin grew hair as his muscles grew. I was prepared for his scent turning acrid, but this time it wasn't quite as unpleasant as it had been the first time. The Primal werewolf, Knight, howled at the moon in a long mournful breath, and sped off into the forest.
Following him was easy. I ran for the first time in months, and even though my powers were back to normal, I’d somehow retained a higher level of senses. I knew that there was a family of six rabbits asleep in a burrow five trees over. A herd of 23 deer half a mile to the right. Squirrels sleeping in trees, birds in their nests. Bats, owls, raccoons, mice.
The sounds and images were overwhelming me and I started having a panic attack. I stopped following Knight and rested for a minute. If I focused on him alone, I could make myself ignore everything else. I closed my eyes and found Knight running and jumping to grab tree branches so he could swing on them. That was weird. I focused, and everything except him fell away. I started running again.
I followed him for hours, always making sure to stay down wind so he wouldn’t catch my scent. Oddly enough, he was just acting like a kid at the playground. He growled if any animal got too close to him, but he never hurt them. Was this really the werewolf who had sliced me open with one swipe?
Everything was going fine until we passed a river and a group of wild dogs came into scent range. Knight caught their smell and his elongated ears perked to the direction their scent was coming from. He growled, but didn't charge in their direction. Instead, he turned to go the other way. It was too late. The dogs had caught the scent of a wolf in their territory. They growled, yipped, and barked, and then they came after him. The dogs were small in comparison, but they knew how pack rules went. He was alone. There was no pack to help him, and he had trespassed in thei
r home.
They attacked.
I wanted to help him. If he hadn't attacked me the first time, I would have charged in and tore those dogs to pieces. But I had to watch from a distance. The Alpha, a large German shepherd, tore into Knight's leg, but his skin was too tough for the dog to break. That didn't stop the big dog from trying. The other dogs did the same, so Knight fought back. He swiped a hand at them and hit his marks. The ones he'd hit whimpered and staggered away. As focused as I was on him, I could tell he wasn't doing this for enjoyment or sport. He had attacked them back to protect himself.
Knight clawed the Alpha off his leg and the dog's body flopped to the ground where it stopped moving. Their Alpha dead, the other dogs ran away as quickly as they could. Knight heaved, whimpered, and put a clawed hand over his leg. It was slightly pink from the dog's teeth, but it wasn't bleeding. He jumped up and started running again. I lifted a leg to follow, when something grabbed me from behind.
“Lisbeth,” said a voice from above my head. “I’m so glad I've finally found you.”
It was Arthur.
I considered running. I really did. But I didn’t. Knight was far enough ahead of us that Arthur with his limited senses hadn't seen or smelled him, I hoped, and if I ran, Knight might be seen. Even if I was caught, Knight would be safe as long as the Lycans didn't find him. That’s all that mattered to me, keeping Knight safe.
“You are one hard vampire to find, my lady,” Arthur observed, his hold on me very tight. He rummaged through a pocket for something, keeping a knife pressed to my spine. When he found what he was looking for – handcuffs – he slapped them on my wrists. They were made for vampires, so tugging on them did no good. He turned me around and clicked a padlock and chain onto the handcuffs, a chain that was connected to his belt also via padlock. I didn't put too much hope in finding the keys.
Knight of the Hunted Page 14