Eventually, I pull out onto the two-lane highway to Wolcott and pick up speed, eager to put some distance between us and Harrisville. I glance in the mirror and note the headlights behind us turning in the same direction. Unease falls over me because I'm pretty sure that it's the same headlights that were following us all the way through town, but hoped was my imagination. Shit. Now I can't take Raven home until I know we're not being followed.
I pick up more speed, and the headlights stay with us. I growl under my breath. This is not good. After a while, I take a right turn, still hoping this is all in my head, and pull off onto a tree-lined side road and gun the engine. I check the mirror again, and those same fucking headlights are behind us, matching us speed for speed. Fuck.
"Where are we going?" Raven asks in confusion.
"Shortcut," I answer absently, my focus still on the vehicle behind us as I try to decide how I'm going to ditch whoever the fuck is back there. I'll be damned if I lead any danger to Raven's home.
I impulsively take an abrupt left turn onto another road, making Raven gasp in surprise and poor Luna slide across the back seat. I press the gas pedal down hard, then check the rear-view mirror again. I grin in satisfaction as the headlights fade farther into the distance. If I take a few more turns like the last, I should be able to ditch them. I flick my eyes back to the road ahead just as it curves sharply to the right. Son of a bitch. I'm going too fucking fast, and though I have very little to fear from a car crash, Raven and Luna do.
A blast of terror hits me as I end up crossing the center line into the thankfully empty oncoming lane. I slam on the brakes, and the back of the Jeep fishtails left on some loose gravel. Fuck. I turn the wheel hard to try to correct, but just end up skidding back across the road with the rear end whipping out even farther behind me. I feel the right side of the vehicle lift up off the pavement, but somehow fall back down before the Jeep can flip, and then we're sliding sideways off the road facing the way we came from. We hit the slight incline on that side of the road, and the right side of the Jeep comes up again. Thankfully, it slams back down with a jolting bounce as the vehicle shudders to a halt on all four tires in a cloud of dust illuminated by the headlights. The engine sputters to a stop.
I look at Raven and see her terror-stricken face, but she seems okay. I glance in the backseat to find that Luna appears unhurt too, though equally shook up as she hunches down on the backseat. Thank fucking God. I glance out the windshield as the dust starts to clear and see those familiar headlights pulling to a stop a few hundred feet away. Son of a bitch. I can't let whoever that is anywhere fucking near Raven or Luna.
I snarl as I pull my seatbelt off and reach for the door handle, then notice Raven doing the same. "Stay in the car," I snap out sharply.
"What?" she asks waveringly with wide eyes as her hand freezes on the handle.
"Don't get out of the goddamn Jeep," I growl out commandingly as the wolf rises up, ready for battle. She cringes away and nods jerkily at my forbidding demeanor. I feel bad about scaring her, but if she gets out she'll be an easy target to pick off. That's not fucking happening.
I get out of the Jeep, then stalk purposefully toward the other vehicle. Restrained violence shivers under my skin along with the threatening shift that I'm barely holding at bay. The driver and passenger-side doors of what I now can see is a large rusted out SUV open, and two figures step out. They walk to the front of their truck, and the stink of sulfur hits my nose a second later, and I know my suspicions were spot on. I stop a few yards away and wait for them to approach me.
The driver is all too familiar when my Jeep's headlights hit his face. It's the same demonborn from the fair. The unfamiliar passenger is tall and lanky with a bald head and a long scraggly beard. Both wear equally fierce and determined expressions.
"We want the girl," the bald one says in a reasonable tone. "Give her over, and we'll let you go unhurt."
I laugh at that since these two are no match for me or any trueborn for that matter. "You think you can hurt me?" I ask with a vicious grin, letting my eyes flash silver and my fangs show in an obvious threat, and so they know what I am. "That's fucking hilarious," I add in a gruff voice. I have no intention of really shifting since Raven is watching, but they don't know that.
"It's two against one, dog," the carny in the wife beater says with a sneer. "Give us the girl and we'll forget we ever saw you."
Idiots. They've obviously never fought a trueborn before, if they think they stand a chance against me.
"You fucking morons must really think I'm stupid," I reply mockingly, hoping to set them off into coming after me now, so I can take them out quickly before they have a chance to shift. I don't want Raven seeing what they really are anymore than I want her to see my wolf anytime soon. "I have a better idea," I continue bitingly. "How about you disgusting freaks clear out right now, and I'll let you live and forget I ever smelled your rotten hellspawn stench."
My plan works like a charm, and the two dumbasses rush me just like I wanted them to do. The tall bearded one reaches me first, his eyes already glowing red, and I duck the clumsy right hook he aims at my face. I come back up swinging and shove a fist into his gut, barely remembering to restrain myself enough so I don't send him flying across the road into the trees. I can't have Raven seeing that. He doubles over with a grunt just as the second fucker comes at me. He's a little quicker and already has his claws out as he slashes them at my throat. I jerk backwards and feel the tips of them rip a shallow burning line across my upper chest through my shirt. Fuck, that's twice in two days one of these fuckers tagged me. It pisses me right the fuck off.
He only gets a moment to enjoy the smugness gleaming in his red eyes before I slam a fist into his face and feel bone crunch. He stumbles back with a clawed hand flying up to his injured face. Shit, his mouth is already lengthening into a fanged nightmare. I need to knock his ass out to get him to stop shifting. I start to surge forward, ready to cold-cock him, but a body plows into me from behind with a snarl, causing me to stumble. I slip in the loose gravel under my feet and go down. My head bounces off the pavement. Fuck that hurt.
Both are on me in an instant while I lay there with my brain still stunned from hitting the ground. The wife-beater demonborn grabs my arms and pins them down. The bald one straddles my body and pulls back a fist to blast me in the face. His eyes burn a fiery red, and a maniacal grin exposes his sharp uneven fangs. I start to jerk my arms free to block him, but I know I'm too slow. All I can do now is take the hit, knowing it's really going to fucking hurt, but it won't be enough to stop me. I plan on giving back as good as I get once I have these fuckers off of me.
Suddenly, the bald demonborn's head jerks to the side as something heavy blasts into the side of his face, then clatters to the ground. I glance over to see the heavy-duty flashlight I keep in my glove compartment rolling across the pavement next to me. What the?
"Leave him alone!" I hear Raven shout angrily from nearby.
I look over to see her standing only a few yards away. No. Fuck no. I told her to stay in the goddamn Jeep.
The fuckers still holding me down notice her too, since the blow to the bald one's head barely fazed him. Raven gasps in shock when two pairs of glowing red eyes fall on her with vile evil intent. She staggers backwards as terror floods her gorgeous eyes. In an instant, the wolf inside me screams to life in the face of the deadly threat against his mate. For the first time in years, I can't contain him. He shreds apart my control like it's nothing and bursts from my body in a violent unstoppable rush.
12
RAVEN
As soon as Emmett slams shut the driver's side door to his Jeep, Luna goes ape-shit. She starts barking and snarling viciously with her front paws on the center console with her eyes fixed on him. I try to soothe her with a gentle hand on her ruff, but I'm too freaked out from our near accident for it to do any good.
When the doors of the old SUV that pulled up after we almost wrecked open and two figure
s climb out with threatening demeanors, it adds sickening dread to the mix. I can't see them clearly, but there is nothing friendly about these two men, and I fear for Emmett's safety. It's two against one and if they're armed, then I don't even want to think about what could happen.
I hear voices now. I can't make out the words, but the harsh threatening tones are unmistakable. This is not good, not at all. Something really bad is about to happen, and I suddenly feel like a sitting duck. In a panic, I start glancing around the Jeep's interior for some kind of weapon. I see nothing useful and finally flip open the glove compartment in my desperation. Amid all the paperwork, I find a heavy-duty flashlight with some real heft to it. I grab it and clutch it's cold metal in my hands, holding it close to my chest and feeling a little better having it. Then I look back toward Emmett just in time to see the two men rushing him. I gasp as Luna goes nuts again.
I watch in frozen dismay as one of the men takes a swing at Emmett's face, but he's too fast and easily dodges the blow. He delivers a punch of his own right into the asshole's belly, doubling him over and sending him staggering away. I don't even have a second to feel any relief before the second guy attacks Emmett, lashing out with an open hand like he's trying to claw at his throat. Emmett jerks away from it and immediately retaliates with a savage and brutal punch to the guy's face that has him staggering backwards with a hand to his injured face.
Emmett goes on the offensive and presses forward, but the first guy he punched suddenly plows into his back seemingly out of nowhere. No. Emmett stumbles, and then to my horror, his boots slide in the loose gravel at his feet, and he goes down. I gasp as the back of his head slams hard against the pavement. When the two men converge on his prone form a moment later, a wild protective rage sears away any fear I feel. I react without a thought to what I'm doing and fling myself out of the Jeep, with just enough thought to keep Luna safely inside as I shut the door.
I rush forward as the assholes pin Emmett to the ground, one of them pulling back a fist to hit him. No. Without a thought, I whip my arm back and hurl the flashlight at his head from only a few yards away. It's a direct hit, and I hear the sickening thud as the flashlight connects with his face, then clatters to the road nearby.
"Leave him alone!" I shout in an enraged voice.
Suddenly, two sets of glowing red eyes turn to fix on me, and I realize I've made a horrible mistake. The malevolence I see in their gazes constricts my heart in instant terror as the horrifying images that have plagued my sleep since Friday night become a reality. They both give me ugly and vicious smiles that speak of perverse hunger and bloodlust, and I realize that their teeth are longer and sharper than they should be. Their mouths don't look right either. As I watch, it seems as if...as if their jaws are stretching and lengthening, changing, and I know I'm not imagining it. It's...it's real. I gasp at that frightful realization and stagger back a step.
I spare a glance at Emmett face, thinking we're both about to die. Instead of the terror I expect to find, he wears a mask of unbridled rage and bloodlust that surpasses his attacker's expressions. His body stiffens, and his eyes flash a bright and brilliant silver as I gape at him in stupefied shock. In the next instant, Emmett's entire body begins to shudder with brutal convulsions. I only have a moment to think it's a seizure, before a nightmare I could never envision plays out instead.
Dark-gray fur erupts across his face and arms, and ripples across his exposed skin. I hear sickening wet popping sounds, and then realize it's not the fur that's rippling at all. It's the skin underneath that's moving and shifting as he rips free from his clothes. His face elongates as sharp white fangs appear in his mouth, and his hands clench as they become huge paws bearing long wicked claws. Within seconds, his entire body morphs right before my eyes, and the Emmett I knew is gone and been replaced by a monster, a monster I recognize.
With a horrified jolt, I realize the massive wolf in front of me is the same one I convinced myself was a construct of my terror-laden imagination last night. That wolf was Emmett. I gasp in stunned shock and topple backwards to land hard on my ass just as all hell breaks loose.
The wolf lets out a loud and vicious snarl as it lunges upward, driving its teeth deep into the throat of the bald man straddling him. It's head twists savagely and tears away, rending the man's throat out with a spray of gushing blood. I can hear the disgusting gurgling sounds of the man's last breath.
Then the wolf whirls toward his other attacker, who's already screaming as he scrabbles across the pavement on his hands and knees to get away. The huge beast surges forward and snags the man's foot in its massive jaws, yanking him violently closer as he shrieks in pain and terror. One immense paw lands in the middle of his back, pining him firmly to the ground. In the next moment long fangs sink into the back of the man's neck. The wolf bites down with a snarl, and I hear the horrific sound of teeth crunching bone just before the man's screams are abruptly cut off.
Then fierce and blazing silver eyes fix intently on me. The paralyzing shock that gripped me a mere moment ago is instantly swept away by stark and panicked terror. The wolf lowers its head as blood drips from its jaws, then begins to take slow measured steps toward me. I lurch backwards to get away, even though I know it won't do me any good, as a mewling cry of fear unconsciously escapes my lips. I somehow scramble to my feet and turn to sprint back toward the Jeep, waiting for the beast to catch me and rip me apart just like those men.
Somehow I make it to the passenger-side door and whip it open. Then I clamber inside, hoping that the vehicle will start and is still drivable, so I can get away. Instead, Luna leaps out at me and knocks me to the ground in her haste to exit the Jeep. I make a grab for her when she lands on the ground next to me, but she's too fast and makes a beeline straight toward the wolf.
"Luna, no!" I wail out in terror.
My dog fearlessly rushes up to the monster, who is only a few yards behind me. I cringe waiting to watch her die a gruesome death that I know will be my fate too. However, that's not what happens at all. Luna starts dancing around in front of the huge wolf with her tail wagging madly, whining and yipping in happy excitement as she licks at his muzzle.
Instead of ripping my dog apart like I expected, the wolf merely stands there and watches the little husky with what I swear is a patiently beleaguered expression. It's the exact same expression I've seen several times on Emmett's face when Luna fawns all over him. And when silver eyes rise to meet mine again, they soften into another familiar expression.
"Emmett?" The whisper falls from my lips unconsciously.
The wolf whines softly in response and his tail swishes gently back and forth as he starts walking toward me again. His steps are tentative as Luna follows along pressed to his side. The fear still riding me surges higher, and I instinctively start crab walking backwards to get away. The beast pauses with a paw raised in uncertainty and whines yet again, and I still as his back hunches and a violent tremor quakes across his entire body. Fur ripples, bones shift, and within seconds, the wolf is gone and Emmett is crouching nude on the ground in its place. He's panting and gasping for air with blood splattered across his face and upper body.
"Raven," his gruff and hoarse voice rasps out as he lifts his head to meet my gaze.
I watch the silver burning in his eyes slowly fade away and wink out, before blackness envelopes me and I pass out cold.
13
RAVEN
I awaken to a wet tongue and warm dog breath on my face. My eyes flutter open to find Luna hovering over me with worried whines. I shove her away with a soft groan, and she flops her body across my torso and settles down. I blink and glance around for a moment before realizing that I'm lying across the backseat of Emmett's Jeep. It's still and quiet inside the vehicle as confusion swirls in my mind. How did I get here? Did I have a seizure? I'm not sure. I may be confused, but I don't have the headache or nausea that usually follows in the wake of one.
Suddenly, I hear the driver's side door open followed by
Emmett's gruff voice.
"I know that," he says irritably as I watch him slide into the driver's seat with his phone pressed to his right ear. There's a pause before he lets out an exasperated sigh and continues. "Look, I don't need a fucking lecture, Wyatt. If I wanted that, I'd call Dad. I just need your help to clean up this mess." There's another pause as Emmett switches ears with the phone and starts the Jeep. "I'm taking her home right now."
He puts the truck in drive as he listens again. Then we start moving, bouncing around for the first few seconds before the ride smooths out, and we pick up speed.
"Yeah, I know. I'm gonna tell her everything. I have to now." He nods even though whoever he's talking to can't see him. "I'll let you know. Bye." He huffs out a breath and tosses the phone onto the passenger seat before gripping the steering wheel and staring ahead sullenly through the windshield.
"Tell me what?" I ask as I slowly lift myself up into a sitting position with Luna draped across my lap.
Emmett shoots a relieved glance at me before turning back to the road. "Are you okay?" he asks worriedly.
I nod, then ask, "Did I have a seizure?"
He shakes his head as tension pinches his features.
"Was I asleep?" I ask, then shake my head as the sudden and disconcerting image of gleaming silver eyes and sharp teeth fills my mind. I frown. "Because I think I had a nightmare."
His jaw clenches tight. "You weren't asleep," he explains. "You passed out."
Passed out? What? My brow furrows in confusion for a brief moment, and then my memories of what happened come flooding back to me in a frightening and overwhelming torrent. Red eyes. Silver eyes. Dark-gray fur. Blood and teeth and death. I suck in a harsh gasp and fling myself backwards into the seatback as far away from Emmett as I can get, then meet his eyes in the rear-view mirror.
Wild Blood: The Trueborn Saga Book 1 Page 9