by Nina Bangs
He looked as if he thought she was crazy for going back, but he nodded before stumbling away, still rubbing his eyes and coughing. She hoped he’d call. He might have information Ty could pass on to Fin.
Before he’d even disappeared, she was rushing back toward the clearing. Stumbling over roots and rocks in the dark, she hoped she hadn’t gotten turned around.
She’d only gone a short distance before she heard the sound of running footsteps. Who…She slipped behind a tree to wait. Now that her brain wasn’t shriveled up in terror, she realized the sounds of battle had stopped. The silence was almost as frightening.
Whoever had won was back in human form and coming toward her fast. She didn’t even want to consider that it wouldn’t be Ty. On a level she didn’t have time to examine right now, she knew if Ty went down she’d…She’d what? Slippery slope ahead. She clamped down on her imagination. Two days did not an attachment make. She’d go home and live the rest of her life as a normal person. You’ll never be a normal person again.
Kelly had misjudged his speed. Before she had time to bring up her pepper spray, he was on her.
“Where the hell did you go? I looked around and saw Neva on the ground, but you’d disappeared. What part of stay-near-me got past you?”
Stupid, stupid tears filled her eyes. Ty loomed over her. Big, angry, and—thank you, God—alive. “A werewolf dragged me off.”
“I can’t believe you decided to take a walk in the…” He blinked. “What? What did you say?”
“A werewolf—Oomph!”
Ty didn’t let her get any further. He yanked her to him, surrounding her with heat and the scent of battle. “I thought I’d lost you. I was…worried.” Then he lowered his head and took her mouth in a kiss that spoke of all the fears he was trying to cover up with angry bluster.
The tension in his body slowly eased, and his kiss softened into something else. Kelly closed her eyes and let the texture and taste of him fill her. Once back in the meadow, she’d have to deal with reality, but just for a moment, she wrapped herself in the pleasure of what he offered.
“Yo, Ty.” Q’s voice. Reality had come looking for them.
Kelly pulled away and stared up at him. “Neva. I left her lying on the ground. Is she alive?”
Ty watched her from troubled eyes. “Yeah.”
Something about the one word raised warning flags in triplicate. “That’s good, right?”
He didn’t get a chance to answer as Q emerged from the darkness.
“Glad to see you’re okay, Kelly.” Q slapped Ty on the back. “Thought the big guy was going to tear the forest apart when he discovered you’d skipped out on us.”
“I didn’t…Look, I can tell you what happened later. Let’s get back so we can take Neva to a hospital.”
“I don’t think so.” Ty avoided her gaze as he started toward the clearing.
“Why not?” Uh-oh, sensing incoming unpleasant revelation at twelve o’clock.
“Did you read the note pinned to Neva’s jacket?” Q sounded grim.
“No.” She’d been too busy trying not to throw up.
“Seems the wolves had a sense of humor. Nine ordered them to kill Neva, but they thought it’d be a giant hoot to make her one of them.” Q’s smile was all teeth. “They died laughing.”
“Omigod.” Neva was a werewolf? “Is she conscious yet?”
Q shook his head. “If we’re lucky, she’ll stay out of it until Fin decides what to do with her.”
Fin would probably kick Neva into the nearest gutter if she no longer had a place in his master plan. “We have to take care of her. This happened because she was your driver, Q.”
Ty had remained quiet through the conversation. Now he stopped and turned to meet her gaze. “We?”
Okay, maybe not exactly we. “You and Q are responsible for her.”
Ty’s smile looked as dangerous as his soul. “It’s survival of the strongest. Always has been. She’s a wolf because she disobeyed Q’s orders. Too bad there’s no pack left to take her in.”
Kelly felt his rejection of Neva as an emotional slap in the face. Why did she care that he was a cold son of a bitch? She was outta here in a few hours. She’d never see him again. But it did matter. A lot. “You know, I thought you were more than a prehistoric jerk. I was wrong.”
Ty shrugged. “Of course, you could always stick around to make sure nothing bad happens to her. You’ve had experience with wolves, you said.”
Trapped. He thought so too. She saw it in the triumphant gleam in his eyes. At that moment, she hated Ty Endeka along with Fin and his whole prehistoric crew. She couldn’t walk away from Neva, and he was counting on her humanity to keep her with them.
Wait. There was a way out. “I didn’t get a chance to tell you about the wolf that dragged me into the forest.”
Ty narrowed his eyes. “I’ll find him and kill him.”
Good thing her would-be rescuer had gone. “He wasn’t a member of the pack you were fighting. His alpha sent him to keep an eye on them. The guy thought he was saving me. The wolves that attacked us were red wolves. He was a timber wolf.” She offered him her best fake confident smile. “I bet he’d help find a pack for Neva.” Kelly hoped Mr. Gray Wolf wouldn’t wash her number off his hand at the same time he washed the pepper spray out of his eyes.
“Hmmph.” With that comment, Ty turned away and continued walking.
Kelly wasn’t prepared for the carnage as she came upon the meadow. She almost tripped over a dead wolf. His coat slick with blood, he was a true red wolf now. Beyond him lay another wolf, his dying eyes still glazed with hate. Oh God, oh God. She swallowed hard, trying to hold the nausea at bay.
Dead wolves lay everywhere, some whole, some not so whole. None of them had changed back to human form. The pale moonlight gave the whole scene a macabre effect. Holding her hand over her mouth, she teetered on the edge of a fit of screaming hysterics. The meadow stank of death and violence.
She turned toward the trees, trying to get control, trying to make sense of all the blood. It smeared her hands, her clothes, her soul. And unlike Ty’s soul, hers wasn’t handling it too well.
Ty moved to her side, but he didn’t touch her. Looking up at him, she studied his face for any sign that he shared her horror. He looked back at her from cold, emotionless eyes.
“What are you, Ty Endeka?”
“I’m what you saw tonight, Kelly. Never doubt it.” A bitter twist of his lips said he knew exactly how she viewed him—as a merciless killer and someone she needed to stay far, far away from.
Looking anywhere but at him, she stumbled over to Neva. The woman’s wound was completely closed. Dully, Kelly skimmed her fingers over the spot where the flesh had been torn. “When will she know?”
“I’m not sure. Someone will have to prepare her.” Ty exhaled deeply. “Let’s get out of here.”
Q joined them. “I opened my link to Fin. Nothing. He’s shut me out.” He sounded worried.
Ty frowned. “Did you try your cell phone?”
“Yeah. All I got was his voice mail.” Crouching, Q lifted Neva into his arms.
Numbly, Kelly followed Ty back to the trail. Q brought up the rear with Neva. Kelly wasn’t up to a conversation, but the quiet gave her memory too much time to replay every terrifying moment of the last hour.
“What’s your soul form, Q? It’s been a long time since I studied dinosaurs.”
“Hey, I’m not insulted. All of us can’t be stars like Ty. My soul’s a Quetzalcoatlus. Who the hell came up with that name? Fin tried to call me Quetz. I won’t answer to something that weird. So I shortened it to Q. Anyway, a Quetzal-whatever was a giant pterosaur.”
A little bird indeed. “Neither of you have a scratch on you. How’d that happen?”
Ty glanced over his shoulder. “As long as we’re surrounded by our soul’s form, we’re pretty much invulnerable.”
“So you’re in a kind of bulletproof bubble?”
“I g
uess so. Don’t ask me how it works, because I don’t know. Fin might be able to explain it.” Ty shrugged. “You can kill me by taking my head while my soul’s napping and I’m in human form. Other than that, it’d be tough to do much permanent damage.”
Okay, this wasn’t a fun conversation. Kelly lapsed into silence for the rest of the walk out.
Once she caught sight of the SUV, she stopped dead in her tracks. A man was leaning against the hood. Wow, and wow again. Definitely a two-wow man. Taller than Ty, his long silver hair flowed down his back. Even in the pale moonlight, each strand sparkled. He wore jeans tucked into biker boots and a brown suede jacket that showcased his broad shoulders.
“Fin.” Q made a disgusted sound.
She walked with the men to where Fin waited. Up close, he towered over her. Kelly remembered once hearing someone describe an object as so beautiful it hurt to look at it. Well, that described Fin’s face. The angles of jaw and cheekbones played with light and shadow, forming a whole that took her breath away. And his eyes. Silver irises with a hint of purple in them were outlined in black. They were framed by dark, thick lashes that didn’t seem to care that his hair was silver.
Fin was spectacular and totally unforgettable. But she’d take Ty with his hard face and dangerous aura any day of the week. Because there was something off about Fin. He was like a diamond that had been brought to life. The complete awesomeness of the gem left her gasping, but she’d never mistake it for anything other than a cold, glittering stone.
Everything about Fin’s smile was calculated to say, I’m incredible, but don’t let that get in the way of liking me, trusting me. Then why did she feel that the gorgeous surface wasn’t Fin at all? She shook her head to clear her thoughts.
Ty watched the expressions chase each other across Kelly’s face. Shock, awe, then suspicion. The suspicion made him feel a lot better. Human jealousy wasn’t a worthy emotion for one of the Eleven, but he was finding that it clung to him with sharp little teeth and refused to let go.
“If you knew we were here, why didn’t you drop in to help?” Ty doubted he could put Fin on the defensive, but he’d take a shot at it.
Fin’s smile widened. “You didn’t invite me to your little party, and I don’t go where I’m not wanted.” His gaze skimmed Kelly’s bloodied clothes and Neva’s limp body. “Fill me in.”
Bullshit. Fin might be smiling, but Ty figured their fearless leader was furious that they’d kept tonight’s mission from him. That was why he’d shut down their mental link and his cell phone. Ty didn’t bother asking how Fin had known something was going down. Fin didn’t give out trade secrets.
Q opened the door of the SUV and carefully settled Neva on the backseat. “We got a message that Neva was on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. When Kelly told us where it was, we came to get her. There were a bunch of werewolves waiting for us. We killed them. But Neva’s in trouble. One of the bastards made her a wolf.”
Fin nodded. “We’ll take care of her.”
Kelly looked surprised. She probably thought Fin would fire Neva’s unconscious behind once she’d outlived her usefulness. Ty smiled at the thought. No one ever outlived their usefulness to Fin. He was really creative that way.
Fin turned his attention to Kelly. “I bet this whole thing was pretty traumatic for you.”
His sympathetic expression would’ve fooled Ty if he didn’t know Fin better. Ty bit his lower lip as he tried to concentrate. How did he know Fin better? Fin had been nothing more than a disembodied voice sixty-five million years ago. These strange random thoughts about Fin were starting to bother him.
“Ty?”
Fin’s voice was sharp, pulling him back to the present. “What?”
“Where’re the bodies?” Fin’s voice had once again returned to the calm, slightly amused tone Ty was used to.
“About fifteen minutes down that trail.” Ty nodded in the direction of the path. Why had Fin asked? If Fin was here, he knew exactly where the bodies were. He’d never just show up in the parking lot and hang around waiting for them to return. He would’ve sniffed out the action and decided whether he needed to interfere.
Nodding, Fin pulled out his cell phone and made a few calls. “I have a cleanup crew on the way.”
“Cleanup crew?” Kelly asked.
Fin’s smile returned. “I don’t think any of us want to open our Houston Chronicle tomorrow and see headlines about twenty-four dead wolves found in Memorial Park. My crew will get rid of the bodies and clean up all the blood.” He glanced over at Q’s car. “That has to be moved too.”
Hah. Ty had known it. Fin had not only been there, but he’d stuck around long enough to get a body count.
“That’s cold.” Kelly met Fin’s gaze.
Ty winced even as he shifted his position so he could leap in front of Kelly if Fin decided to take offense.
“I understand why you have to do it, but it still seems wrong. I mean, they were werewolves, enemies, but they were living creatures, not garbage.” She looked troubled.
Fin’s expression gave nothing away. Then he nodded. “I like you, Kelly. You humanize things.” His gaze turned calculating. “We can use you. You can teach us the emotional responses we lack.”
Now Kelly looked confused. “I don’t understand. I can’t teach you how to feel emotions. You didn’t just pop in from another planet. You’ve lived with emotions all your life. Oh, and I told Ty I’m quitting. I’ll stick around until I find a pack for Neva, but then I’m gone. The last two nights have been way too bizarre.”
Ty held his breath, waiting for Fin’s reaction. And deep down in his heretofore one-dimensional soul, he hoped Fin would convince her to stay. Since Ty was a big part of her “bizarre” nights, he didn’t think she’d let anything he said sway her.
Fin shook his head and looked sad. Ty figured Fin didn’t have any more emotional depth than he did. But Ty gave him points for putting on a good show.
“I can’t let you quit, Kelly.”
“You can’t stop me.”
“I think we both know that’s not true.” It was when Fin sounded the most gentle that he was at his most dangerous. “Let’s look at the facts. Nine knows you work for us, and he also knows you were here tonight.”
“How? All the wolves are dead.”
“Balan was here.”
Ty spoke up. “Who the hell is Balan?”
“Balan is the messenger for Nine and all the others. He watched the battle and then went back to report every detail.” Fin shot Kelly a meaningful glance. “That’s every detail. You’ll be in his report.”
“So?” Kelly’s question came out more cautious than defiant.
“Nine will have someone watching for a chance to kill you. Remember the man you and Ty found? That’ll be you.” Fin glanced at the SUV where Neva lay. “Or worse.”
Kelly turned pale.
Fin pounded his point home. “What about your family? Nine doesn’t care about collateral damage. Are you ready to put them in danger?” Mission accomplished, he smoothly shifted into his Mr. Sympathetic role. “Stay with Ty. You’ll be safe as long as you’re with him. Once we get rid of Nine, you’ll be free to go. I’ll even add a bonus to make up for mental anguish.”
“You don’t have enough money to do that.” Her glance said she really hated him. “If I stay, can you guarantee my family will be safe?”
“Yes.”
Kelly nodded, turned her back on Fin, and climbed into the SUV. Slamming her door shut, she stared straight ahead, waiting for Ty and Q to join her.
Q narrowed his gaze on Fin. “How’d you know about this Balan and what he was doing tonight?”
Fin’s smile was his first sincere one of the night. “While I waited for Ty and you to finish your fun for the night, I amused myself by surfing a few wolfy minds. I was getting lots of interesting info until the cable cut out.”
“What should we do with Neva?” Ty wanted to get out of here. “And I think we’re finished for the night. Kell
y has had enough.” He lowered his voice so she wouldn’t hear.
“Don’t get too attached, Ty. You can’t afford the distraction.”
“Is that a threat?”
Fin narrowed his eyes and bared his teeth. Pointed canines. “This is a threat. What I gave you was a friendly suggestion.”
Tension hummed between them for a few seconds before Ty backed off. This wasn’t important enough to defy Fin over. Sure, Ty wanted Kelly in his bed, but when the time came to leave her, he’d walk away without a backward glance. Besides, obeying Fin was a habit, one he wasn’t ready to break yet. “When did you get the vampire teeth?”
“After you told me about Jude. He’s coming over in about an hour. I like to meet possible allies on an equal footing.” Fin’s soft laughter said he didn’t need pointy teeth to do that. “Besides, they look cool. I’m feeding my inner child.”
Fin’s sudden mood shifts always surprised him. Ty shook his head as he started around the SUV to the passenger side. Q had already climbed into the backseat beside Neva.
“Oh, and I want you and Q there when he arrives. Along with Kelly.”
“Why Kelly?”
Fin exhaled impatiently. “Do you have to question everything?”
Seeing Fin’s annoyance brightened Ty’s mood a lot. “When it comes to Kelly, yes. She’s not one of the Eleven.”
Suddenly, Fin was in his head. “Why do you think I spent so much energy scaring Kelly into staying with you when I could’ve just hired a new driver? She has something I need, something that’ll help us toss Nine’s ass back out into the cosmos. I don’t have it all worked out yet, but I’m getting there. So until I do, she stays. And the best way to bind her to us is if she knows what will happen to her world if Nine and the others are in control in 2012. That’s why I want her there when I explain things to Jude.”
Ty didn’t like the way his stomach clenched as he thought about Fin manipulating Kelly. Only the fact that Fin was right kept him from ordering her to drive back to the apartment. If Fin needed her to win the war, then she had to know everything.
Fin smiled, reminding Ty that he wasn’t always a hard-ass. “Hey, I get it. You like her. You want to have sex with her. But she won’t blame you for anything. I’m the bad guy. And I don’t care if she likes me.” His gaze hardened again. “I’ve never cared if anyone liked me.”