Crystal dropped her eyes and had to fight against the thickness in her throat. “I’m sorry. I’ll tell you everything I can, I promise. I just don’t know where to start.”
After a long moment of silence between them, Beth broke down and pleaded, “What the hell is going on?”
Crystal shook her head. “You’re not going to believe me.”
“Are you in trouble?”
Crystal nodded.
Beth let out a squeal and stepped up to her. “What’s going on?” she hissed with a glance to the car where Ember was sitting with the door open. “Is it her?”
“She’s, um, kind of my bodyguard.”
“Bodyguard?”
Crystal nodded.
“Crys, she’s half your size!”
“Great, remind me that I’m a cow.”
“That’s not what I meant! Jesus!” Beth protested. She stepped back and narrowed her eyes. “In fact, you’re looking better than ever.”
Crystal blushed and glanced down at herself. Her clothes were fitting looser. She glanced back up and smiled. “Thanks, and I know what you meant. Trust me about Ember. There’s a lot more to her than you think.”
Beth stared at Ember and earned a wave from the redheaded woman in her car. She spun back around, her cheeks rivalling Ember’s hair for color. “This better be one hell of a story.”
“Oh, it is,” Crystal promised. “But later. We’re going to be late.”
Beth clamped her jaw shut and turned away. She walked to the driver’s side of her car and waited for Crystal to get in before starting her car. She turned and looked at Crystal, and then jerked her head back. “This better be good,” she muttered before putting the Ford in reverse and backing out of the driveway.
Chapter 11
“So what gives?” Beth demanded after they walked into the school. “And why is she just waiting outside?”
“She’s not a student,” Crystal explained.
“No shit! I’ve never seen her before. Who is she? And who’s the beefcake from last night?”
Crystal laughed in spite of herself. “She can’t come in the school, so she’s going to keep an eye on things outside.”
“What the hell?”
Crystal sighed. She glanced around and then walked up to the lockers lining the hallway and leaned against it. She slipped her sneaker off and pulled her sock down to show her friend.
“When did that happen? I’ve never seen that before,” Beth said.
“Friday night, after the party.”
Beth looked at the barely pink scar and then back up at Crystal. “Bullshit. That’s old!”
Crystal shook her head. “Beth, remember my black eye? My cheek was cut open and so was my knee.”
Beth stared at her and shook her head slowly without saying anything.
“Something grabbed me and bit my foot. Ember and Hank and their friends stopped and saved me. If they hadn’t been there, it would have gotten me.”
“It? Something? What are you talking about? Do you know how crazy this sounds?”
“Do you know how crazy I feel?”
“This isn’t possible!”
Crystal nodded. She couldn’t speak; her throat was locked up and her vision was blurring. She blinked and tilted her head back, staring up to try to keep from spilling tears.
“Oh Crys, I’m sorry.” Beth groaned. “Please, I didn’t mean to upset you. I believe you. It just—it’s hard to imagine.”
Crystal forced a deep breath in and out and risked lowering her head. “You believe me?”
Beth bit her lip and nodded. “How can I help?”
Crystal let loose a nervous laugh. She pulled her sock back up and wiggled her foot back into her shoe. “I have no idea! Guntar said—”
“Guntar?”
“Sorry. Guntar’s their leader. The bikers, I mean,” Crystal explained. “Anyhow, he said that the Beast tasted my blood and he poisoned me. He won’t stop until he has me.”
“Has you? Christ! Then what’s he going to do?”
“You don’t want to know!”
Beth frowned. “Um, okay.”
“Hey!”
“Shit,” both girls groaned in unison. They turned and saw Stephanie walking towards them and a group of her cliquey friends watching from farther down the hall.
“Hey guys, what’s going on?”
“Since when do you care?” Beth snipped at her.
Stephanie’s smile faltered but she put it back on. “Since awhile now. Look, I said I was sorry. Crys, where’d you meet that guy at? He was hot! And that motorcycle—oh my God!”
Beth harrumphed and started to step forward between Crystal and the self-proclaimed queen of high school. Crystal put her hand on her arm and stopped her. “He’s my boyfriend,” Crystal said.
Stephanie laughed and then stopped after she saw no one was laughing with her. “You’re serious?”
“His name’s Hank,” Crystal said. “And yes, I’m serious.”
Stephanie stared at her for a long moment before she recovered and said, “Um, that’s cool. You’ll have to introduce me sometime.”
“Yeah, sure, sometime,” Crystal said.
“Cool,” the blond said. “I better get to class. I’ll catch you later?”
“Whatever,” Crystal said.
Stephanie smiled and turned. She walked, her hips swaying with sex appeal.
“Why aren’t you telling her to go fuck herself?” Beth asked.
Crystal shrugged. “I’ve got some freaky creature from a nightmare hunting me down—I don’t need to worry about school drama too.”
Beth snorted. “The boyfriend bit was nice—wait a minute! Holy shit, were you serious?”
Crystal blushed and shook her head. “No.”
Beth’s shoulders relaxed and she smiled.
“Unless he wants to be,” Crystal added.
Beth’s smile vanished. “What? You just met him!”
Crystal shrugged. “He’s dreamy.”
“You said that about Thor.”
“Everybody said that. Besides, Hank makes Thor look like a Girl Scout. All he needs to do is braid his hair into pigtails.”
Beth laughed. “You did not just say that!”
Crystal shrugged. “You saw him—he’s huge!”
“But is he big strong, or just big?”
Crystal thought back to when Hank had carried her like a porcelain doll and smiled. “He’s strong.”
Beth’s eyes rounded. “This is too much.”
Crystal laughed. “It is, but thanks for making me feel normal again. At least for a little while.”
The bell rung, startling both girls. Crystal glanced down the hallway and saw it was empty save for them. “Shit, we’re late!”
Beth glanced up and down the hallway and then threw her arms around Crystal. She hugged her again and whispered, “I’m with you, crazy or not.”
Crystal blinked the blurriness out of her eyes and hugged her friend back. She inhaled Beth’s smell again and leaned forward into her when Beth let go and stepped back.
“Whoa, are you okay?” Beth asked when Crystal stumbled forward and almost fell into her.
Crystal blushed. “No. Yes. I mean—I don’t know. Ember told me this would happen.”
“What, you’d get clumsy?”
“No,” Crystal said. She blushed again. Best friend or not, there was no way she could tell Beth that she was in heat. Beth was a girl! She was a girl! And she liked Hank. She hoped Hank liked her. Being a mom at eighteen was crazy—she’d seen the horrible shows on MTV—but if it saved her life, it would be worth it. “Just, um, affectionate.”
Beth jerked her head back and blinked. A smile spread across her face and she nodded. She glanced back and forth and took a step closer to Crystal and leaned in close as though she was going to whisper something to her. She turned her head and pressed her lips to Crystal’s cheek. “It’s okay, I don’t mind,” Beth whispered.
Crystal’s eyes r
ounded as her blushing friend smiled at her and hurried down the hall to her class. Beth made it halfway down the hall before the fog cleared in Crystal’s mind and she realized she had to get to class. She groaned and started running down the hall.
Chapter 12
Crystal met up with Beth at the school doors and rolled her eyes when Beth grinned at her. They pushed through the doors and took a few steps before Beth burst out, “So now what?”
Ember slipped in on Crystal’s other side from the shadows beside the door. “Now you take us to Crystal’s place and you go home.”
Crystal gasped at her sudden appearance. She forced her heart back into her chest and tried to glare at her. “Don’t do that! You scared me half to death!”
“You bang anybody at school?”
“What? No!”
Beth laughed. “Whenever I saw you, there were guys checking you out.”
“No there wasn’t!”
Ember smirked. “Boys don’t have a clue. Their instincts can tell, but they’ve learned to ignore them.”
“Ignore their instincts? I don’t think so,” Crystal argued. “We all have those!”
Ember shook her head. “Humans have lost touch. A baby who’s hungry will lie on the floor and cry until someone feeds it. An animal? It will crawl, walk, or do whatever it can to try and find something to eat. Pathetic.”
“Um, hello, we’re humans too,” Beth pointed out.
Ember smirked. Crystal was afraid she’d say more so she clapped her hands and said, “So, I told Beth about Friday night. The thing at the bridge. And, uh, that you guys think it’s still after me.”
Ember scowled. “You shouldn’t have told her.”
“Why not?”
“She’s already got your stink all over her. You should go home and take a long shower. Lots of soap. Then stay inside. With any luck, he won’t smell you.”
“That’s creepy,” Beth argued. “Why? And how could he smell me? I don’t smell like her.”
Ember stepped in front of them and turned to face them. Both girls had to stop to avoid running her over. The redhead leaned towards Beth and inhaled through her nose. She sneered and licked her lips. “What have you two been doing?”
“What?” Beth protested.
“She hugged me earlier,” Crystal said. “Friends do that.”
“Uh huh.” Ember didn’t sound convinced. “Well, knock it off. You’re marking her every time you do that.”
“Marking her?”
Ember nodded.
“Isn’t she marking me too?”
Ember sniffed her. “You’re the dominant,” she grunted. “Huh, I didn’t expect that.”
“The dominant?”
Beth gasped and whispered, “That’s kind of kinky.”
“Oh my God!”
“Not that kind of dominant,” Ember said. Her eyes raked up and down Beth and she shrugged. “Well, not usually.”
“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?” Beth asked.
A rumble in the distance ripped Crystal’s attention to the parking lot. She saw Ember shaking her head and then noticed Beth looking back and forth. Beth gasped a moment later and whispered, “Motorcycle!”
Crystal couldn’t stop herself from grinning.
“You knew,” Beth accused. “You did that last time too! How did you know?”
“I heard it,” Crystal said.
“You have to know what to listen for,” Ember offered. She glared at Crystal for a long moment and then turned as Hank rumbled into view on his cruiser.
“What is that, anyhow? A Harley?”
“Indian,” Ember said.
Beth frowned. “Native American or do you mean India?”
Crystal nearly stumbled from the strange comment her friend made. “What?”
“Indian is a brand of motorcycle,” Ember said.
“It is? Oh!”
“Oh my God.” Crystal resisted the urge to facepalm herself for Beth’s mistake and shook her head. “You are such an indoor girl.”
Beth shrugged and kept her mouth shut.
“Ember, Crystal,” Hank greeted as he climbed off his bike and stood to face them.
“Jesus, he’s a tank,” Beth mumbled.
Ember grunted and nodded while Crystal grinned and barely resisted the urge to skip and jog ahead to meet him. She still walked fast enough that she almost didn’t slow down in time to meet him. Hank smiled when Crystal’s eyes widened and she stumbled with the effort to slow herself down.
Hank reached out and caught her shoulders before she could fall. He chuckled. “Well, hi there.”
“I’m such a klutz!” Crystal groaned.
He shrugged. “I don’t mind.”
Ember smacked him in the arm as she walked up next. “What’s the word?”
“He hasn’t been back to the bridge,” Hank said with his rumbling voice.
Crystal picked up a touch of an accent. Tennessee, maybe?
“We couldn’t track him or find him. He healed before he came out of the river. No blood to follow.”
“I should have been there,” Ember mumbled. “I could have found his scent again.”
“Found his scent?” Beth asked as she joined them. “What are you talking about?”
“Ember was the one who knew the Beast was there when we rode past Crystal,” Hank explained.
“Hank, shut it!” Ember hissed. “She doesn’t know.”
“I know about Crystal getting hurt,” Beth protested. Once all eyes were on her, she held out her arms and said, “What? She told me!”
“What did you tell her?” Hank asked.
Crystal felt herself withering under his bright-eyed gaze. “I told her about the thing that bit me and how it was making me sick. And that it was hunting me.”
Hank nodded. He glanced at Ember. “Soon.”
Ember laughed. “Better be.”
Crystal scowled. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Ember glanced down between the two of them and nodded. “Two of you are getting awfully close and it looks like somebody’s getting happy to see you.”
“Ember!” Hank growled.
Crystal glanced down in spite of the sudden heat in her cheeks and saw the bulge in his pants. She gasped and felt her knees tremble. “Uh—”
“Crys! Wait up!” Stephanie’s voice broke over her like a tidal wave of freezing water.
Crystal jerked herself around, twisting and ending up brushing her arm against Hank’s chest. He caught her and held her still so she didn’t trip. Crystal felt the quiet strength in his grip and hoped the moan she heard was only in her head. Ember was right: if she wasn’t careful, she was going to jump his bones the first chance she got!
“You said you’d introduce me to your boyfriend,” Stephanie said as she closed the distance on her long legs.
“Boyfriend?” Hank whispered in her ear.
Crystal shivered. “It kind of slipped,” she mumbled.
“So?” Stephanie said as she slowed. She looked up at him and extended her hand. “Hi, I’m Stephanie.”
Crystal jerked and turned to look at Hank. He had his head tilted a little as he looked down at her. “Stephanie, this is Hank.”
Hank took his hand off Crystal’s shoulder and extended his arm to her. Crystal’s stomach tightened and her teeth felt like they would crack under pressure any second as Hank shook her hand.
“Oh my, you really are big,” Stephanie said with a smile.
“We were just leaving,” Crystal said. “We can catch up later.”
“Oh? That’s too bad,” Stephanie said. She smiled at Hank and nodded. “Later then. I’m holding you to that!”
Crystal grabbed Hank and turned him around. “Let’s go,” she muttered.
“What was that all about?” he asked.
“Long story. She’s the reason I cry myself to sleep at night.”
“You what?”
Crystal sighed. “Never mind. I’m kidding. About the crying, at least.
Do you want to come to my place?”
“Everybody’s already there,” Hank said.
“What? My mom—oh, she’s working a double. Wait! How’d they get in my house?”
“They’re not in your house,” Ember said. “Camped outside. Probably on the back deck.”
“Oh, okay. So the neighbors will see them. Great.”
“If you’d prefer, we could leave you to face this on your own?” Ember asked.
Crystal clamped her lips shut and glanced at the ground. “You’re right,” she mumbled before looking back up. “Sorry, I wasn’t thinking.”
“Crys,” Beth said. “Can I stay with you, please?”
Crystal looked at Ember and Hank and saw both of them shake their heads. She sighed.
“It’s not safe,” Hank said. “This is dangerous and if we have to protect you too, it will spread us too thin.”
“How can anything be dangerous with you around?” Crystal asked him.
Hank chuckled while Ember made a gagging noise.
Beth pouted as they got to her car. “All right, let’s go. But you call me if anything happens and you’d better respond to my texts!”
Crystal looked at Hank and said, “I will, unless, I’m, uh, busy.”
Ember slammed the back door of the car as she climbed in, jarring Crystal out of her pleasant thoughts. She glanced at Beth and saw her friend roll her eyes. She climbed into her car and left her standing on the passenger side with Hank beside her.
“Sorry about the boyfriend thing,” Crystal mumbled into his leather-covered chest.
He chuckled. “Anything that helps you find the strength to fight through this. I don’t mind.”
Crystal smiled and glanced away from him so his blue eyes wouldn’t pierce through her heart again. She saw Stephanie standing near the school with a crowd of her friends. They were gossiping, probably about her, but Stephanie was staring straight at Crystal.
“Oh damn, why won’t she leave me alone?” Crystal groaned.
“Trust me,” Hank whispered before he spun her around and pressed his lips to hers.
Crystal’s mind exploded. She felt the sensation of his lips, firm but soft, crushing hers. The whiskers on his face scraped at her skin but it felt so raw and powerful. She could smell the leather mixing with the odor that was pure Hank. It filled her and made her moan into his mouth. Without realizing it, she parted her lips and felt his tongue against hers. He invaded her, filling her with his essence.
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