She’d even wished, for just a minute, that she’d chosen to major in Forensic Anthropology, so she could be a part of the investigation, so she could be doing something other than sitting around on her ass without anything to add.
And now she needed something to do. She’d already caught up on Once Upon a Time, and she’d finished all of her work for the rest of the semester except her finals. She’d even knit a thirty-minute arm scarf – a talent she picked up from Mama Martinez. Unfortunately, it was spring, and the scarf was basically useless in another month. She made it a nice warm brown color that would complement Devon’s skin and eyes. She didn’t really want to examine why. Thirty-minute arm scarves weren’t very flattering on guys…and he was six hours away…and he’d been an asshole the first night they’d met, even if he had said he was sorry.
The man couldn’t let anything sit. If he had an issue, he didn’t let it fester. He fixed it or asked how he could fix it. She wanted to be petulant and call his honesty unnatural, but she had rarely found such integrity, and it only made her feel for him more deeply. And each of her daily conversations with him just made it more clear that she would need to deal with her feelings for him at some point. But she was stubborn, and feelings had always been a hard thing for her to accept. She didn’t like them most of the time. There was always the possibility of being hurt, especially if he didn’t feel the same way.
She also didn’t understand why those slices of conversation she’d been having with Devon recently were the highlight of her day. Why did hearing his voice make her calm, set her ease, and put her even more in touch with those two others inside of her being – the possible Luna and the Skröm sides.
How was that possible? How could he make her almost…content? Happy? With only their phone conversations and those initial couple days they’d known each other. But instead of freaking her out, she bathed in the feelings invading her system, and for just a moment, she let herself go. She let herself believe that maybe, just maybe, he was feeling the same way. This strange I’ve-known-you-forever feeling that touched a person down deep in their soul, so they never again wanted to escape the clutches of that feeling of safety, and probably most importantly for someone who’d grown up in foster care: the feeling of home.
Alexia held her cellphone in her hand, twisting it back and forth, unlocking the main screen a few times and then turning it off again. A mental game of ‘should I or shouldn’t I’ as she tried to debate whether she should call Devon. She wanted to. She wanted to talk with him again, but they’d just talked that morning. Was she being too needy? Too clingy? Too – God, forbid – ‘girly’?
“Screw it,” she said out loud to the very empty room. She was too chicken shit to call Devon. She was too bored to sit and watch TV. She was too riled up to actually get some sleep. So, she hopped off the couch in Cam’s vaulted-ceiling main room. She still couldn’t get over what he’d made of the trailer. To a taller person, the ceilings weren’t that high, but to someone as short as her, the place was gigantic. She rushed into the back bedroom where she threw on her hiking boots, her green camo pants, and a black Ed Sheeran t-shirt.
She should have known she had vampire in her. She’d often had trouble sleeping. Luckily, the past few days at Cam’s had been a good chance for her to explore the woods out back.
She usually ran or hiked about five times a week, and at least three of those times were in the middle of the night when she had so much energy pulsing through her. It was more exhausting to just sit in boredom as her body twinged in agitation and frantic anxiety. She knew the hidden entrances to the state and local forests better than anyone in town.
Alexia went out the back door of the trailer, and walked into the forested oasis that was ten-acres of land surrounded by protected, primary forest. She put in her earbuds, and let herself get lost in her own headspace as she walked, first along the path, and then toward the forest opening near the empty patch of land where she’d lain with Devon a couple weeks earlier. But she pushed thoughts of Devon away. She wanted to be free of thoughts of him and the Skröm and her various sides of non-humanity.
Alexia walked along the trail, the light of the moon brilliant in the midnight sky. The eclipse was set to hit later that night, but for now, she’d enjoy the light as she felt the crunch under her feet and listened to her favorite songs on her mp3 player. She rhythmically moved one foot in front of the other in a repetitive movement that put her a flow, in a state of calm. The sound of Blondie’s “One Way or Another” echoed in her mind, followed by Bon Jovi’s “Living on a Prayer” and Black Sabbath’s “Hard Road.” Familiar sounds to accompany her hike. She unplugged one of the earbuds to listen to the sounds of the forest, a sound she didn’t normally block out, but the music helped her refocus. She needed to let the world fall away into her abyss of classic rock.
She stopped at a thick-trunked tree and did some yoga moves to ground herself. Alexia was in the middle of a half-moon pose when she felt her insides quiver and a warning shiver crawl down her spine. She didn’t want to know why. She didn’t want to turn around. She wanted to run back to Cam’s house and pretend that her body – and its many inhabitants – weren’t currently on high alert. But that wasn’t who she was. She was a scaredy cat 90% of the time, but her curiosity always got the better of her.
As Fate would have it, though, she didn’t need to turn around. That hidden part of her that she was just discovering, and that she assumed were her Clan sides, took over, and she felt her righteous anger return – like heat moving through her system yet again. Whereas last time the feeling had started with anger, this time it started by way of her fear.
She felt a heat suffuse her being as it worked its way from her center out until she could feel tingles along her spine and down her legs. The heat moved into the base of her feet, almost tethering her to the Earth around her, and her head felt warm and light and open in a way it never had before. Alexia could see a slight reddish brown tinge to her surroundings, and she could smell the dank, wet scent of the freshly rained on forest floor, the trees, and also what smelled like other animals in the area. Wet fur. Yuck. In fact, it was as if she could smell everything, and for a moment, she was caught up in smells and sights and sounds she had never experienced before.
“This’ll be easy,” someone from behind her hissed.
Alexia whirled around.
There was a slight tang of copper and roses in the air right before she was hit from the side. The hit wasn’t psychic or mental, so she knew instinctively it wasn’t a Shadow. A Skröm? She’d fallen to the dirt sidewalk, and she tried to right herself, to get up, but her movements were strange, like her body wasn’t her own. She felt bulkier, and when she looked down, she noticed the silvery-tinged, dark red hairs on her arms were thick and there was more hair than usual. What terrified her were her hands, though. They were misshapen, almost half paw/half human hand.
No! Devon had said Luna chose their animal! She wasn’t supposed to be turning into anything yet! Had she unknowingly connected with an animal already?
Those thoughts flew out of her head, though, as she was whipped around and picked up by a large figure. And that figure wasn’t human.
“I’ve got you,” the voice said, almost soothingly, and Alexia tried to fight the half-human monster’s hold.
He had dark fur covering him in a thick mass that didn’t hide the fact that, underneath it all, he was human. But so much of him was animal, too. His snout was elongated, his eyes a feral yellow, his body tall and strong but still resting on legs that were half-transformed into what she knew must be a canine of some kind. But she really couldn’t tell.
This, what – creature? – looked like nothing she’d ever seen, but as he ran with her in his arms, Alexia had the sudden thought that she had seen him before. That she knew him.
She’d been blindsided by his presence, and by his attack, and she hadn’t noticed the string of Skröm behind them as they ran at a quick clip through the woods, follo
wing the trail. They were now much further along the man-made path. The trees had grown thick, and the only light was the bright moon and the clustering of millions of stars in the sky. But her body was still on high alert, and although the thick silvery, red hair that had covered her arms and legs was now receding, her vision, hearing, and sense of smell were still more keen than she was used to. What little fur she had left stood on end at the sight of the Skröm trailing not far behind them. They came into a clearing, and she was dropped unceremoniously onto the ground near a tree on the far side.
She heard a low growl from a wolf stalking their way, but the wolf looked to the half-man monster who was now standing in front of her protectively. She took her time in sitting up, in assessing her surroundings, but she wouldn’t sit idly by while wolves, half-man monsters, and Skröm were flanking her.
“Not yet, Nicholas,” the half-man monster said, before transforming himself fully into a wolf with light brown fur, and then he was off in a blur of fur and Skröm. The other wolf gave her a quick once-over, as if checking her for injuries. His hide was a rich brown without any variation in color or mixture in species, and the wolf had warm, brown eyes. Again, she felt a second of recognition with this creature as well, but she squashed the feeling for a second time that night as he raced down to help his friend, the one who’d carted her off into the woods in the first place.
The Skröm were as vicious as she had imagined – fast and cunning and inhumanly strong to the point that even the wolves were losing the battle against the four Skröm. Of course, it was four against two, but the Skröm looked so slight and fragile, and despite their abnormally tall height, anyone would have underestimated their overall strength. Alexia cringed at their growls, their movements and the flying of blood – even as she was tantalized by the smell itself. She ignored the coppery sulfur smell coming from the Skröm, and instead found herself sniffing the air for the lovely scents of pine and caramel wafting off the second wolf’s bleeding form and the smell of pine and mints coming from the wolf who’d picked her up.
She tried to move. She really did. But her legs felt like Jell-O, and she instead put all of her energy into focusing on getting the rest of the silvery, red fur covering her legs and arms to recede.
“Go away, damn it,” she whispered in a rush. Anyone watching would have questioned her sanity.
Alexia honed in on the smell of blood, letting the scents soothe her, draw her in, and she took deep breaths until she realized the battle had stopped and she was unable to see and hear and smell to the degree she had been. There were three dead Skröm. One must have run off, but the wolves, or Vuković as Alexia had finally recognized them as, were slowly changing, reforming, their fur receding, and their bodies becoming human. Humans Alexia knew.
Her legs wobbled as she stood, but she was able to use the tree to help lift her. Her hands were shaking, and she took another breath to calm her nerves.
“Nicky,” she croaked out, trying to get her bearings, “what the fuck?”
He moved toward her, naked.
“Y-y-y-you just stay back,” Alexia stuttered. A hurt look crossed his face, but she didn’t have any compassion at the moment. She needed space. She’d gone for a hike to get away from the Clan world, and she’d found herself smack dab in the middle of it again.
Alexia started backing away, and her legs got stronger with every step she took. The man standing next to Nicky was covered in tattoos and he had dark skin that was almost black. This man’s body was bulky and large, towering over even Nicky’s 6’2” frame, and if she didn’t still feel that strange sense of kinship with the man, she might have been afraid.
He was older than Nicky as well, probably by a good twenty years, which seemed odd to her because Devon had suggested the Clans lived a very long time, like hundreds and sometimes thousands of years long. And if his physical body looked older, and even a little ragged, well, his deep, brown eyes looked even more ancient, more tired, more worn out by the natural process of aging. A sudden thought occurred to her that she wanted to comfort him, but she buried that part of herself that always sought to help others. This man had basically kidnapped her. Okay, he’d probably been saving her, but she wasn’t in the mood to split hairs. No way was she feeling sorry for him.
“Both of you,” Alexia warned, still backing away, “just stay away.”
“Lex, you need to listen,” Nicky said, urgently. “We need to talk—”
“No, Nicky. Absolutely not! This,” Alexia said, in the lecturing voice she used with the kids at the shelter she volunteered at in Colchester, “is not happening. What is going to happen is that I am going to get my bearings, and then I am going to run back to Cam’s place.” She pointed to Nicky, but she didn’t take her eyes off the familiar man. “And you, are going to leave me alone until I tell you otherwise. We’ll talk when I’m ready,” Alexia said with a finality and a confidence she didn’t currently possess.
“Nicholas,” the strange man said, “don’t push this.”
“But she’s—”
“Yes, she is,” the man said cryptically, and all during their conversation, Alexia continued backing up. Nicky looked from her to the man, and with a thoughtful expression, gave a nod.
“All right, Lex,” Nicky said, in what sounded like defeat, but he still gave her a serious look.
She slowly turned on her heel, and walked back to the path. They hadn’t strayed from it much, and she was able to find the loop she assumed Cam, or the previous owner of his ten-acre plot of land, had created. They’d traveled far, and her legs were burning by the time she made it back. She felt like she’d been walking for hours, and it was possible she had been. She had a headache, probably from dehydration, and her head felt light.
She practically stumbled out of the woods and into Cam, whose jaw ticked and whose eyes flashed gold in the fading moonlight as the eclipse finally hit. Fuck, he was pissed.
Silence wasn’t really a good thing. Silence meant worry. Silence spoke so deeply, it was often worse than an all-out yelling. But Cam was not one to disappoint. As soon as he was done checking her over for injuries and had come back with a glass of Gatorade from his trailer, he gave her a harsh stare and laid into her.
“Where the fuck have you been, Lex? Everyone’s been worried!”
“Calm down, Cam,” Alexia wanted to yell back, but she was too tired, too drained, and instead she said it calmly while slowly sipping the Gatorade. She hated the shit. It tasted like ass, but right now, her senses were dull, and she could feel the cool liquid reviving her. Plus, she wouldn’t have yelled back even if she’d had the voice. She knew it was well past midnight at this point, not to mention the new murders and Devon’s concerns about the Skröm being after her. It served her right to have deadly silence followed by a tongue-lashing. She’d probably have done the same if it had been a missing Mindy.
“I went for a hike,” she said cautiously, and then stopped when she saw Cam pull out his phone and press 4 on his speed-dial. Devon. Fuck.
“Repeat what you just said,” Cam demanded and shoved the phone up, but held on to it tightly.
She cleared her throat. “I, ummm… I went for a hike?” Why was she phrasing it like a question, and why didn’t she mention the strange man and Nicky? She had no clue why she did anything these days. It just felt like she should keep it to herself. Cam pulled his hand through his hair and blew out a breath before barking out a laugh.
“You hear that, Devon?” Cam asked putting the phone back to his ear. “She was just out for a hike. Well then,” he said sarcastically, “I guess we’re good then, huh?” He waited a moment for an answer, and even with the ten feet between them and her decreased hearing, Alexia could still hear the vibrations from the phone that signaled things were not okay. She reminded herself that they’d both been scared. Alexia would have been the same way if it had been any of them.
“So no, then? Not okay, Devon?” Cam asked, looking at Alexia with a slight, smiling tilt to his mout
h, but worry still evident in his gaze.
She finished her Gatorade and Cam took the glass before handing her the phone. “Here, Devon wants to talk to you,” he said, handing her his phone. “I’m gonna leave some more Gatorade on the counter for you, and then I’m gonna call Mind and let her know she and Danny can come back from your apartment where they went to check for you.” He took a breath. “And then I’m gonna shower, Lex. I’m gonna wash this night away. There were murders right here in our hometown, and you’re going off in the woods in the middle of the night—”
“It’s totally safe, Cam,” she said, except it really hadn’t been. And she probably should have stopped while she was already demolished, but no, now she’d found some words to share. “I just got lost this time. Plus, I’ve gone the past few nights—”
“Are you fucking—” Cam stopped himself. Again, he took a breath. Alexia was starting to feel like a chastised child, and although a part of her resented the treatment, another part of her was so full of guilt and fear at what had really happened out there, that she knew Cam was right. “Just talk to my brother.” And then he walked away, but before he stepped into the back door of the remodeled trailer, he turned to her with a sad look. “You’ve got people who care about you. Me, Devon, Mindy…” he reminded her, gently, “don’t forget that. Don’t forget that we worry. You should think of that next time you lie to me about what happened tonight—”
Her eyes went wide at having been called out. “I wasn’t lying. I was hiking and I—”
“Yes, you were hiking and what else happened? You forget, I’m a cop. I know when a person is holding back, and to me, that’s like lying. You come to one of us when you’re ready,” he said, before finally leaving her in peace, if that’s what she was going to call it.
Alexia drew the phone to her ear, expecting another verbal sparring match she wasn’t mentally, physically, or emotionally prepared for. “Devon, I didn’t mean to worry anyone. I promise,” she said, wearily.
The Devil's Pride (Wild Beasts Series) Page 15