by Unknown
Callum and Teeth were on their feet, breathing hard, murder in their eyes. There was no way she could take a swing at Teeth in the small space of the living room without hitting Callum. She looked around, trying to figure out what to do, how to help Callum, how to get this man out of her apartment.
Before she could move, Teeth let out a terrific snarl. She took an involuntary step back, watching in horror as something beyond anything she could ever imagine unfolded in front of her.
His body began contorting in bizarre angles and he cried out as if he was in extreme pain. Callum took a step back, breathing hard. Aspyn glanced toward the door, gauging the distance. Her car keys were in her purse by the door, and if she ran, she could grab it and make it out of here.
She took one step and Teeth raised his head, growling at her. She shrank back. His teeth had turned into a mouthful of fangs, still yellowed but now looking razor-sharp. His jaws thrust forward, forming a thick muzzle, and he snapped at her. Whatever the hell was happening to him, he was still dangerous. Hideous, but dangerous.
There was another deep growl from across the room and she turned, watching in terror as Callum’s body started going through the same fantastical contortions as Teeth. She didn’t want to see this, didn’t want to be here. None of this was real; none of this could really be happening.
Teeth’s skin started to split, pulling away from his body, gray fur showing through the rents. Arms and legs continued contorting, twisting and snapping, as he dropped to the ground. In the last moment before he hit the floor, she watched in amazement as he went from something malformed to a scruffy gray wolf.
She glanced up just in time to watch Callum—was it really Callum?—drop to the floor on four legs as a very large, very sleek black wolf. As terrified as she was, for a split second she registered just how beautiful Callum was. Then Teeth snarled and her mind snapped back to the two wolves in front of her.
Aspyn took a hurried step, then two, backward, bumping into her overturned chair. She stumbled, grabbing the air for balance and went down, hard, landing on her ass, the bat held forgotten on one hand.
Instantly Teeth advanced toward Aspyn, jaws snapping, his hot, fetid breath washing over her. She scrambled away but she was backed up against the desk with nowhere to go.
He lunged at her and she brought the bat up with both hands, shrinking back behind the feeble protection. He struck the bat with his body, his strength pushing Aspyn under the desk. But the bat was wedged against his chest, giving her scant inches between his snapping fangs and her face.
She was overwhelmed by his weight, pushed down onto the floor. He snapped at the bat, crunching the wood in his massive jaws. Aspyn closed her eyes, waiting for the pain as he finally chewed through the bat and reached her.
Suddenly his weight was lifted from her. She opened her eyes, snapping her head around. Callum had Teeth on the floor, Callum’s teeth buried in the back of Teeth’s neck, pinning the wolf face first against the couch with his powerful forelegs. Teeth made a futile effort to snap at Callum, but Callum had control of the wolf’s head.
With a sudden twist of his massive head, Callum snapped the wolf’s neck. There was a sickening sound as bones cracked. Teeth’s body twitched once and then went limp, and Aspyn knew Callum had broken the wolf’s neck. Callum dropped the limp body of the wolf and stumbled away from it, and from Aspyn. He turned to her and whined, cocking his head.
“What? I have no idea what you want.” But as she said the words Callum picked up the jeans he’d been wearing in his teeth. They were torn, totally useless.
“Oh, yeah. Okay.” She scrambled to her feet, heading down the hall. She heard him padding behind her and it unnerved her completely. She was being followed by a wolf, in her apartment. Yanking open the closet door, she dug through the boxes of Charlie’s stuff, dragging out another pair of jeans.
“Here…” She turned, holding the jeans. But it wasn’t a wolf behind her in her room; it was Callum, back in human form. And he was totally naked.
“Thank you. Sorry for this...” He gestured at himself, but he didn’t look sorry at all. His voice was ragged but the smile on his face was the same cocky one she’d seen before. It irritated her but it also sent her heart into overdrive.
He took the jeans, fingers brushing hers. That was too much, and he was too close for comfort again. It was enough to send her running from the room.
But once she was in the living room, she didn’t know where to go. There was a dead guy on the floor, bleeding on her carpet. There was a dead wolf by the couch, its head twisted grotesquely to the side. Her door was ripped off the hinges. She was amazed none of her neighbors had called the police. On the other hand, in this neighborhood, maybe this wasn’t such a surprise.
“Do you believe me now?”
Aspyn whirled around. Callum emerged from the hall, fully dressed.
A wave of sadness took her by surprise. The shirt she’d given Callum to wear was one she’d bought for Charlie at a concert back when they’d first met. It reminded her of better times. Then it made her mad that something like this would bring back any memories of that ass at a time like this. Someone had just tried to kill her and the man she thought was insane had just changed into a wolf, and back again, in front of her.
“What the hell just happened?” Her voice was shaky.
“Those were the guys who tried to kill me tonight.” He stepped over the form of the wolf, bending down beside Scar Face, looking over the body.
“Is he dead?” Aspyn watched as Callum checked for a pulse. Something you could have done yourself, Aspyn.
“He is.” He looked up at her. “Do ye believe me now? Or do ye still think I’m a raving lunatic?”
Without waiting for an answer, he rose and stepped over the man, righting the chair and pulling it up to the desk. He sat down, tapping keys on the laptop. “We need to get out of here. You’re coming with me to Scotland.”
“We? What the hell are you talking about? You need to leave, not me. And I’ll be damned if you think I’m going anywhere with you.”
Callum glanced up from his typing. “I can’t leave ye here.” He jerked his head at the bodies on the floor. “There was another man with them tonight. He’s out there someplace. He’ll track ye down, just like I did. Just like they did.” He held her gaze, eyes as hard as steel. “He’ll kill ye, Aspyn, as soon as look at ye.”
“But I can go to a hotel or back to the hospital, for that matter.” She glared at him. He wasn’t listening to her. Typical stubborn man.
Callum went back to his frantic typing. “What part of danger don’t ye understand? You can’t stay in Chicago. They know where you live, they tracked you down. They’ll keep tracking you down, until they find you.”
“Why with you? Aren’t you in just as much danger?”
He looked up at her again. “Because I’m the only one who can protect you from them.”
She snorted in disgust. “I managed okay on my own.”
Callum glanced down at the man on the floor. “You killed a shifter in human form.” He jerked his thumb at the wolf. “You’d have been dog food in another minute if I hadn’t been here.”
It suddenly hit her that she’d killed a man. She was supposed to be saving lives, not ending them. Her knees suddenly went weak and she sank to the floor. A distant part of her mind kept chugging along, taking stock of how she felt. I’m going into shock.
Callum spun around suddenly, frowning down at her, apparently surprised to find her sitting down.
“You do have a passport, right?”
She nodded. “Yeah. I got one last year, for vacation.”
He nodded and went back to the laptop, talking while he typed, pretty much ignoring the fact she was shaky and sweating, probably pale as a ghost. “Can you find it quickly? Go get it.” She huffed out a breath of frustration. If he was so fixated she might as well just go get it and get it over with. She rose to her feet. As she left the room she heard him ask her a qu
estion. Now it was her turn to ignore him.
She ruffled through her dresser drawer. The passport was exactly where she left it, in a box with odds and ends of her mother’s old jewelry. She lifted it out, flipping open the cover, running her finger over the stamp. Charlie had taken her to Fiji, a surprise trip. If that had been the limit of the surprises in their relationship, she'd have been happy.
This is a nightmare. She wanted this to end. She wanted her own life back, even if that life was crazy and complicated. At least she was used to her own brand of crazy. She went back to the living room. Callum turned, flashing her an impatient look.
“Birthdate?”
“September 19th.”
“Year?”
She hesitated long enough for him to shoot her another sidelong glance. “I need it for the tickets.”
She told him the year. He went back to typing, then sat back. Finally he printed a few pages, glanced at them and then folded them and stuck them in his pocket. Then he turned in the chair. The look he gave her was deadly serious.
“Go pack, just a carryon. And if you have another set of whoever these belong to, I’d appreciate a change of clothes.” He plucked at the t-shirt. It stretched tightly across his chest, the sleeves barely containing his biceps. She hadn’t really noticed in the baggy scrubs, but the tight shirt clearly showed how muscular Callum was.
Aspyn looked away. Her emotions were a tangled mess, and his demanding attitude only made things worse. But somewhere beneath all of that was another feeling, something dark and primal, something boiling inside her. She didn’t like it, didn’t like how it made her feel, and looking at Callum only deepened the feeling.
“I don’t want to go with you to Scotland. I want you to go away. I can take care of myself. I’ve done it before…”
“Like ye took care of the owner of these clothes? Or you’ve taken care of whatever he did to you?”
She jerked her head up. “That’s none of your business.”
Callum shrugged. “You’re on the run, if my guess is right. Someone hurt you and you ran.”
Anger flooded through her, burning away everything else. “You do not know me. Not at all. So don’t think you can make judgments based on clothes in a closet or whatever else you think figured out.” She got to her feet, shaking with anger. “Just mind your own business.”
Before she could even turn to storm out of the room—or shoot another withering comment at Callum—he pushed away from the desk, brushing roughly past her as he moved toward the window, peering outside. His whole body radiated tension and she froze in place.
“We need to go, now.” He turned back, eyes piercing through her with their intensity. Her heart stalled, then went off on a racing pace.
“Do you have your car keys? Is there another way out of here?”
“What is it?” Her hands had gone numb.
“The other guy. He’s outside. I told you he’d find ye…us.”
“I’ll just go get…” She turned down the hall but Callum grabbed her arm, his fingers digging into her skin.
“There is no time. We need to leave.” His voice was low, steely cold, impassive.
She wanted to protest, argue with him, but the look in his eyes stopped her. He pulled her toward the broken doorway, stepping across the body of the dead man. She managed to grab her purse as he hustled her into the hallway.
“Back way out? He’ll come through the front, I’m sure of it. It’s where your scent is the strongest, mine too. He’ll catch the scent of blood.”
“This way.” She turned away from the front door of the building, leading Callum toward the back of the complex. “There’s a fire exit down here.”
Callum was right behind her as they ran down the hall, turning sharply left at the end. Callum pushed ahead of her, hitting the fire door with his shoulder, and they came out into a small alley that cut between the complex’s buildings. It was getting light, the sky in the east a fuzzy gray.
“Give me your keys. Where’s your car?”
“Please tell me you’re not going to steal my car.” She fished her keys out of her purse. “It’s in the front parking lot.”
“If I wanted to do that, I’d have done it long before now.” He took the keys from her, stuffing them in his pocket.
“The parking lot’s this way.” She headed down the sidewalk that cut around the building to the lot. Callum pulled her back roughly, and she smacked her head against the wall as he pushed her against the building.
“Hey…”
“Wait here.” The deadly serious low tone of his voice silenced her.
She rubbed the back of her head as she watched Callum sprinting down the sidewalk. He hung close to the building and for a minute she lost him in the shadows. Then she caught movement as he slipped around the corner of the building.
Aspyn waited, almost holding her breath, hoping he’d run off, that he wasn’t coming back. For a minute she wanted to go back inside, back to her apartment. She could find a spare set of keys, get out front, get her car…
The screech of tires on pavement made her jump. She flattened herself against the wall as her car came screaming around the corner of the building, lights off, tearing up the rain-soaked grass. The light from the parking lot flashed on the windshield and made it impossible for her to see who was driving but the driver’s window was down and Callum stuck his head out.
“Get it.” He waved at her. “Now!”
Her trance broke and she sprinted across the grass, slipping as she rounded the front of the car. The door handle was wet and she fumbled to open the door. Yanking the door open she tumbled in. The car shot off before she had the door closed.
“Which way is the airport?” Callum turned the car, heading toward the side street.
“O’Hare? That way.” She pointed to their left. The car lunged onto the street and Callum turned right.
“You’re going the wrong way.” She turned, looking over her shoulder. “I said it’s that way.”
“I know. But I’m hoping he doesn’t.” The terse reply was accompanied with a jerk of the car as Callum jammed his foot down on the accelerator. Her car shuddered, hesitated, and then managed to jump forward.
“Is he following?” Aspyn turned again, looking down the dark street. Many of the streetlights in this neighborhood had been broken and she struggled to see behind them.
“He’s there. Lights off, about a hundred yards back.” Callum’s eyes flicked between the road and the rearview mirror. “Hold on.”
Callum wrenched the wheel to the right and the car shot down a narrow alley. Aspyn was flung against the door as the car skidded on the wet pavement. A short distance ahead Callum braked hard and the car slid sideways. There was a break in the fence that ran down both sides of the alley and they were in front of a driveway.
Before she could say anything Callum turned into the driveway. He hit the gas again and the car almost crashed into a garage.
“Damn. What the hell?” He slammed on the brakes and Aspyn jerked forward in her seat. “There’s no way out.” The garage was more like a warehouse, stretching across the width of the driveway.
“There. On the left.” Aspyn saw a gap between the building and a hedge. Callum didn’t hesitate but turned the steering wheel and hit the gas. The car shot forward, the hedge scraping against the driver’s side of car. A garbage can appeared out of nowhere but Callum ignored it, hitting it with the front fender. It sailed back, landing on the trunk with a sickening thud.
Callum floored it and the car shot out onto another yard, this time a front yard of a very upscale house. The car chewed through the lawn and shot back out onto the street. Callum turned toward the airport, pushing the car to its limit.
“With any luck we’ve lost him. If we can get to the airport and past security, we should be safe. Unless he’s got a ticket on the same airline.” Callum threw a quick glance at Aspyn. “You okay?”
“Yeah. I’m fine. I’m not sure my car’s going to s
urvive this kind of treatment.”
Callum pushed the car and the speed limit all the way to the airport. Callum negotiated the maze of surface roads at O’Hare, finally pulled into long-term parking. He cut the engine and tossed the keys to a shell-shocked Aspyn.
“We go in, get through security and then wait at our gate. The plane leaves in about four hours. I don’t think we were followed, but he’s smart enough to know where I’m heading.”
Callum climbed out of the car and Aspyn watched him scan the parking lot. For a wild moment she the urge to slide over, start the car and drive away. But as if he read her mind Callum turned and looked at her through the windshield. He walked around, pulled open her door, and held out his hand.
“I know ye don’t want to do this, but there’s nothing else we can do. You’re in danger and from someone who is a trained killer, and a shifter.”
Grabbing her purse, she took his hand and let him pull her out of the car. “You’re right. I don’t want to go with you.” She looked up at him but in the dim light of the ramp his face was unreadable.
Callum leaned past her, pushing the car door shut. To her surprise he pulled her against him, quickly and somewhat gingerly patting her back. Just as suddenly he let her go.
“Come on. We need to hurry.”
Callum strode away and she watched his retreating back for a moment. He was a real man of mystery, plus an arrogant bastard. And he was dragging her halfway around the world because someone wanted him dead. She’d been sucked up into something that wasn’t her life, wasn’t her fight.
She followed after him, their steps echoing in the nearly empty ramp. He’d stuck them in the lot furthest from any building and it seemed to take forever to get to the terminal. O’Hare was a complete mystery to her. The trip from Fiji had been out of Hartsfield in Atlanta. Another airport, another life.
Exhaustion and the aftermath of everything that had happened: the terror, the shock—the unexplainable—was taking its toll. She was numb with shock and fatigue, and found herself following doggedly behind Callum, letting him lead her through the maze of ticketing and security. She answered questions and did as she was told, displayed her passport, and explained she had no luggage. She was desperate now to just go to curl up somewhere and go sleep, and pretend this was all a nightmare.