by Kate Wendley
And Anthony… the wolves down in the basement with her had been pretty excited to see him start smoking from the lights as well. But he didn’t burst into flames, and it didn’t seem like any of them expected that. In fact, they’d been pretty shocked that he hadn’t. And as he now worked to take care of Vince, it didn’t look like the attack had any effect on him whatsoever.
Everyone’s attention was suddenly on fearsome Suzanne as she half carried, half drug a semi-conscious Quinn and Darius out of the house and dumped them on the lawn with the others. And if Penny didn’t know any better, they looked a little more beat up than when she’d last seen them. Good. She was actually jealous of Suzanne’s strength and sureness, but proud she was her alpha. People never fucked with her because they knew she could hold her own against pretty much anyone. If only Penny could.
Anthony somehow fished out the silver bullets in Vince and sounded sure of himself when he said the silver wouldn’t hurt him as bad as the actual bullet wounds. That had to be a lie, but why say it? For her benefit? So she didn’t feel like such a creep?
Or was Vince not really a shifter after all? That thought made her heart hurt for him, but maybe it was a blessing in disguise. Except… for as worried as they all were about being found out by humans someday, she wouldn’t trade places with them for the world. As a shifter she was alive. She had strength and extra senses… She had power the weak humans didn’t have, and one day she swore she’d figure out what to do with it.
Her parents squeezed her tight when Anthony ordered Zach and Ed to get Vince back to Brookhaven as fast as possible. Min-chul took Ed’s place after he dared him to tell him no, and Penny wanted to race after them herself. She didn’t, though, because she already felt like this was all her fault, and really, what could she do to make any of it better? Besides, if Vince died because of her, she’d never be able to show her face in the family again. She might as well start her guilty hiding now.
Anthony walked right up to the crazy eyed vampire in the meantime and put his hand out for the gun. Delicate snowflakes looked out of place in both the men’s dark, nearly black hair. The softness of the snowy night seemed all kinds of wrong with all the deadly power out here. There were too many angry people…
The vampire pursed his lips, but finally handed his weapon over. Anthony tossed it aside, then said to the crowd of about fifteen jerks sitting on the lawn, “You’re all banned from the family. You’re mostly wolves and coyotes here tonight, with one fox. Feel free to ask your alphas how they feel about you continuing on in their packs, but I assure you, you will never have this family’s protection again. You’re cut off from all assistance I’ve ever provided, whether you received it through the wolf office or other indirect community aid. It’s one thing to steal from me, it’s quite another to steal from and attack the family.”
Sebastian said in a deadpan tone, “None of the wolves are welcome in the pack anymore.”
Suzanne was next. “Coyotes either. And if I know Meg, you’re out too, little fox.”
Penny’s temper flared. “That’s it? They kidnapped me and shot Vince with silver!”
Anthony locked eyes with her and she felt all the blood drain from her face. He wasn’t a man she wanted to get into a fight with, and especially not while he was in the middle of declaring punishment on others. Whoops.
He stared at her as he said, “If the jaguar dies, I’ll be back for the one who shot him. If for some reason that person’s not alive anymore, I’ll kill his accomplice in his place.”
Her skin crawled because by the cold, emotionless look in his eyes, she knew he was telling the truth, which only made her wonder how many other people he’d killed before.
Luckily he turned that soulless gaze back on the group and singled out the oldest wolf here. “And you, Miles, I’m not in charge of the elders, but I hold a bit of sway. I shouldn’t ever see your face in our group again. Are we clear?”
The old man curled his lip in a tired gesture. “I’ve seen visions, you know. Visions of the end of your peaceful family. Humans will find out about us and it won’t be pretty. They’re a parasite and if we don’t prepare for their attacks, then it’s our fault for not being ready for them.” He pointed to the weapons stacked haphazardly behind Anthony on the ground. “You could help get us all ready.”
Anthony sighed irritably as he shook his head. “We already live with enough paranoia. Your false visions are no reason to militarize ourselves.”
The man jumped angrily to his feet. “My visions aren’t false!”
Anthony faced him down, the old wolf seeming so much more powerful than when he was just sitting on the ground, looking all helpless and feeble.
“Your visions have never been clear, Miles, and you know it. That means that what you’re seeing is just one of thousands of possibilities.”
“I’ve had clear visions!”
Anthony looked unimpressed, which only infuriated Miles. He turned red and a vein appeared in his forehead just before a creepy smile spread across his face.
“Fine. You want to know a vision that’s crystal clear? I’ll tell you. Your bride won’t make it through her turning night.”
Almost instantly the old wolf was dangling from the ground, Anthony’s hand wrapped solidly around his neck. Miles tried to pry himself free while a strange pressure built in the air. When Anthony spoke next, Penny couldn’t hear what he was saying. Miles went still, though, and Anthony let him stand on the ground again, but it looked like he was in a trance. She tried to read their lips since she couldn’t hear either of them, but that was a lost cause. It seemed like a short question and answer session as Anthony became more and more furious, and soon enough the pressure dissipated and the old wolf was catapulted towards the house. He slammed into a mostly intact part of the siding, then fell face first onto the porch.
Anthony’s chest rose and fell with his furious breaths, and he said in a deadly tone to all the crazies out here, “We’re leaving, and if I hear of another problem involving your group, I’ll hunt you down and kill you.”
Her heart raced at his threat, and the fact that this was the first time she’d ever seen the Master of Atlanta get mad. The whole crowd looked as awed and terrified as she felt, so she waited for him to walk away before she tried to edge inconspicuously towards the house. Kicked out or not, these shifters had no right to force her to do what she’d done for them. Time for a little payback.
Suzanne was right behind her, though. She growled in a low tone, “Penny. Where are you going?”
She ignored the fact that her alpha was chasing her as she weaved her way through the trashed rooms and back down to the basement. Suzanne wasn’t happy when she caught up with her, though.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing? You heard Anthony. We’re leaving.”
Suzanne’s alpha power flowed dangerously over Penny, but she dropped into a chair at one of the computers as fast as she could and got to work, trying to ignore her shaking nerves.
“They stole from the family, kidnapped me and hurt Vince, and we’re just going to leave them here. If that’s all we’re doing as punishment, then I need to undo what I helped them with tonight.”
“Wait. You helped these bastards?”
She glared at her alpha. “They kidnapped me and held me at gunpoint. With silver bullets! I did what they asked. What was I supposed to do?”
“How did you get out here, anyway?”
Penny cringed. She’d screwed up so badly tonight. “I went to a meetup group and Darius wouldn’t let up on me until I agreed to come out here and help him and his friends with their security system.”
“So you knew they were out here with all this?”
“No! He told me it was just some guy with a cabin in the woods that wanted to see how much wildlife he had around his place.”
Suzanne narrowed her eyes at her, her power feeling like a creeping monster as it crawled over her skin and started circling around her throat. “This meetup g
roup was for…”
Penny trembled in fear, but knew she had to tell the truth. “Apocalypse, end of the world survivalist kind of stuff.”
Suzanne’s eyebrow quirked and her energy pulsed around Penny’s neck. “I could think of more relaxing ways to spend my free time. The question is, do we leave you here with these whack jobs? Backstabbing packmates aren’t what the family is about.”
“I was forced here against my will! I don’t want to live like this!”
“Really? You said it was a meetup group. Those are usually for things that you’re interested in.”
Frustration at this whole night was overwhelming her. “I agreed to come out here but I knew something was wrong right after I got in Darius’ car. That’s why I texted you and sent you that tracking program.”
Suzanne’s poking, prodding, angry power eased up. “I got a partial message from you, but there was no tracking program.”
“How’d you find me then?”
“Anthony’s girlfriend had a premonition that you were in trouble, and Anthony confirmed it with his psychic vampire.”
That got a shock out of her. “The family…”
“Knew you were in trouble. That’s what family is for. To be there for each other. So are you one of us?” She gestured around herself at all the chaos. “Or one of them?”
She didn’t even have to think about it. “I’m one of you. This place sucks. I can’t believe they actually live like this.”
They locked eyes and for a tense second she worried her alpha still didn’t believe her. But then she pulled back her angry power and said, “All right. Let’s get the hell out of here then.”
She turned back to the computer she was at. “This’ll only take a second. And I can’t believe they’re just getting a slap on the wrist for all this.”
“It’s more than a slap on the wrist. They’re ostracized from the community. They’re loners now. If they do something wrong, their life is in Anthony’s hands and you heard him. He’ll kill them next time. Besides, we’re not leaving them as if nothing happened. Look around you. It’ll take a while to fix all this.”
Penny gave her look. “You think he’d do it? You think he’d kill someone?”
Suzanne stiffened up and said in solid, sure tone, “Yeah. He’ll do it.”
That scared her to her core, making her wonder if this had been a terrible idea after all. She needed to get out of here, and quick, before Anthony changed his mind and lumped her in with these crazies. “I’ll be fast. I need to do this though. If Vince doesn’t pull through…”
“He’ll pull through.”
Penny’s eyes stung with unshed tears, but she forced them back and quickly pulled up a few websites by memory.
“What exactly are you doing?”
Images of naked men and women loaded on the screen, and then a video started looping of them having sex. Penny clicked on a link that popped up, then jumped to another computer and did the same thing.
“I’m giving them a few handy viruses that take some serious work to get rid of. Trust me. They’re a bitch.”
Suzanne stared gape jawed at her. “How did you know these sites had these viruses?”
Penny smirked. “I’ll keep that one to myself. I don’t think he’d want anyone to know.”
Suzanne flatly said, “Zach.” Tense chuckles turned into slap happy laughter as they both gave in to the stress of the night.
Chapter 30
The long ride back to Brookhaven with Suzanne and her parents was awful. It was late and Penny was exhausted, but there’d be no sleep until she knew Vince was going to be ok. She texted Zach to see how he was doing, but all he said was that he was hanging in there. That was not helpful, and he wouldn’t reply again to give her any more information.
Suzanne drove while Penny sat in back with her mom, who wouldn’t stop squeezing her hand. Her dad rode up front, his shoulders tense and stiff as he stared straight ahead. He didn’t look at her, but she felt a sharp, worried edge to his energy.
“Suzanne, I want you to teach me how to fight.”
Her mom tensed and squeezed her even harder. She wrestled out of her grip, but refused to look at her. She’d only wilt under her worried gaze. Instead she focused on the rearview mirror, hoping her alpha had her back.
“No.” Suzanne didn’t even bother to look at her before she denied her. The bitch.
“Why not?”
This time she did flick a glance at her through the mirror. “Because we have enough soldiers in the family, and frankly, you’re no good at it. I know you’ve taken martial arts classes, but you’re not a born fighter.”
She crossed her arms in frustration and sunk into her seat.
And now Suzanne wouldn’t stop talking. “You have other skills that are a lot more valuable to the family. You should stick with those.”
She snarled in irritation, “Meaning what?”
“Meaning all your tech knowledge. You’re a natural, even if you don’t want to be. That’s the skill you should develop.”
“And if someone comes after me again?”
“Then you won’t be as dumb about hopping into their car next time, will you?”
The challenge in Suzanne’s gaze, and the little wrinkles around the edges of her eyes told her she was smirking at her. What a bitch.
But she was right. She’d been dumb and it made her sick to her stomach to think about it. She remembered back to being in awe of Darius’s incredibly expensive computer, then memories of him at the apocalypse meetup groups came back to her. He always had the nicest, most high end stuff. She should’ve known something was wrong. Darius only had a part time job at a sporting goods store so it should’ve been obvious that he couldn’t afford that stuff. Except… nothing was obvious in Brookhaven. Everyone had secrets, and alliances, and everyone was ready to stab someone in the back to get what they wanted.
Or at least that’s how it seemed to her. Until tonight, anyway. Vince had barreled into that basement room without any fear. He saved her and put himself in the line of fire for her. And the family… they’d all come out for her. Even Anthony, which shocked the holy hell out of her. And it was plain on all their faces that they clearly thought everyone in that house was crazy.
She’d never felt so stupid as she did now. She thought she’d been training to be one of those people. Now… now she realized she’d never really been one of them. Besides, being out at that house tonight, it really hit home how awful and depressing it was to spend so much time planning for tragedy and assuming only the worst about everyone.
She didn’t want that in her life. She wanted a life where people watched out for each other and did it because they cared. What happened tonight, well, that was the worst of what she’d seen in every show and movie about apocalyptic futures. It was the savagery that came out in every person, the dog eat dog world mentality that just wasn’t her.
Not anymore. She didn’t want to live in a world like that. She didn’t even want to think about a world like that. She’d rather live her life like there would always be a beautiful, wonderful tomorrow. And if someday there wasn’t, then she’d worry about it when it happened, but not until then.
She wanted to live. She wanted a boyfriend, hell, a husband, babies, a cramped up home for all of them to trip over each other and love and hug each other all the time. Vince, of course, was her partner in her fantasies because if even half of his act was true, even with his health issues, he’d be a damn good father. He was damn good man.
But none of that mattered if he didn’t make it through the night, and all because of her…
**
Vince shivered harder than he ever had in his life while searing pain blasted through his shoulder and back.
Zach said from the driver’s seat, “Hang in there, Vince. We’re almost home. Just a few more minutes. The doctor’s already waiting to get you stitched up.”
Min-chul lightly tapped his arm. “You’re going to be fine. You’ll see.
You’re a Yi so you’re strong. You’ll make it through this.”
He mumbled, “I’m only half Yi.” He didn’t have the energy to fight with this man, this stranger who’d fathered him, and the scenery was going by too fast and threatening to make him car sick, so he closed his eyes and tried not to focus on the pain of his bullet wounds.
After the bumpiest ride of his life, the car finally stopped. The door opened and someone tried to help him out, but he panicked when his arms and legs didn’t work right. “I can’t move. I can’t…”
Min-chul said, “We’ve got you. Don’t worry.”
Strong hands pulled him out as he tried his best not to scream in pain. His vision blurred and his stomach heaved, but when he was flat on his back on what had to be a stretcher, his eyesight cleared enough to see his father’s worried face.
Vince grabbed his hand and said through clenched teeth, “You want to do something nice for me? Don’t let anyone see me like this. I mean it. Just you, mom, or Anthony. No one else.”
Min-chul briskly nodded as Zach bellowed, “Get a move on! We need to get him over to the doctor’s office!”
Vince closed his eyes as he was jostled around, willing himself not to throw up. It was an even contest on which pain was worse… the throbbing lightning blast in his back, the equally painful throbbing in his shoulder, the pains radiating down his entire body from all the above, or the sick stomach he felt from all of it.
His teeth chattered as he shook with forceful shivers, and finally the movement stopped. Steady, sure hands picked him up again and moved him to another padded surface, and he couldn’t help a loud gasp. Hurried voices filled his ears, but he kept his focus on trying not to pass out. He sucked in harsh breaths, wishing his racing heart would calm down.
When someone forced one of his eyes open and shone a light in it, he jerked away.
“I’m just checking your vitals, son. Hold still please.”
The light returned, and shortly after that a sharp pain in his hand made him look down to see an IV hanging off him while a nurse taped the tube around his wrist so it wouldn’t fall out. Soon everything became a blur and his pain melted away.