Page 28 of High Stakes and Soulmates (Fanged Mistakes #3)

CYRUS

My body tenses as I realize that what is facing me is not a dog. The broken crate in Donovan’s adjoining room… that wasn’t for a dog… it was for a fucking werewolf.

Fuck, fuck…

I pull out my gun and aim it at the werewolf that has caught sight of me. It’s completely focused on me as my stomach sinks.

My hand tightens on my gun, but I don’t want to kill the werewolf.

It wasn’t its fault it got out of the cage that must have been crushed by the vampire who killed Donovan.

But it’s blocking me from both the club and my car.

The music oozing out of the club would drown out my cries, and it’s not like I could call someone inside when I have no idea who any of them are.

Its ears flatten as bared teeth glisten in the light of the moon. It takes slow steps toward me, like it’s stalking me. It’s a large werewolf too, significantly larger than Julian who is quite small for a werewolf.

I aim my gun at it, hoping that maybe a loud noise will scare it off or at least tell someone I need help.

I don’t know whether it’s the movement of my arm or it was just waiting for an opportunity, but it rushes me, so I fire off my gun into the sky.

The noise startles it, but it’s not enough.

Its eyes are fixated on me, and it’s coming at me no matter what I do.

I turn and bolt, hoping to get back to the open window or at least to the front of the club where I might run into someone who can help.

It’s closer to the front of the club than I am, so I go for the window.

If I can get through, I can slam the window shut or seek help or do something .

Because out here… it’s just a human against a monster, and I’m well aware that I’m not going to win.

I reach the open window and grab on to the sill as I leap forward and pull myself into the room, but I’m not fast enough.

The werewolf catches my pants and jerks me out of the window with impressive speed.

I hit hard on the ground and kick it in the face, but when I try to get up, it grabs on to my leg and starts dragging me.

I can’t fucking get bitten. I can’t get bitten…

Thankfully, it catches my pants instead of my skin, but I can’t twist free when it drags me farther from the window.

It stuns me, using that opportunity to pull me into the dark of the trees.

Rocks and dirt dig into my side as I twist so I’m facing the creature that’s prepared to drag me far away from anyone who could help me.

I lift my gun… I need to shoot it. Simple as that…

but what if I kill the person? They have absolutely no idea what they’re doing.

They can’t control themselves when the moon is driving them to this.

But I’m getting farther and farther from the safety of the club.

A branch digs into my side when I draw my free foot back and slam it right into the werewolf’s face. The kick is hard enough the were jerks back and my pants tear loose. I leap to my feet, but the were immediately cuts me off from the club.

My heart is pounding in my chest as I clutch the gun tightly and fire two shots at it.

One hits the ground right in front of its paws in a sad attempt to scare it off, but it shows no fear.

And, knowing that I have to do something before it bites me, I shoot it in the back thigh, really hoping I don’t do any damage.

Weres heal quite fast, and if it keeps it from killing me…

It doesn’t jerk back or cry. It acts like it doesn’t even notice the wound as it lunges at me.

Turning quickly, I slip behind a tree, offering me a fraction of a moment to catch my breath, when I see a building that might actually be closer to me now than the club.

I realize that I must be near a park or something because it’s a bathroom, but most importantly, it’s a source of shelter from this nightmare.

I run to it, really hoping there’s a door I can lock, yet when I step inside and see that the cement walls offer no door, I determine that hiding in a stall will be my only option—but how the fuck long will that hold?

Maybe there’s a closet for cleaning supplies?

Just somewhere I can get a chance to call Ezio.

I slip around the side of the cement bricks when the were lunges at me and slams me to the ground seconds before I reach the opening.

I hit hard on the concrete floor as I fight to get to my feet, but before I even get my feet under me the werewolf bites into my shoulder, fangs sinking into the skin and tearing me back.

Pain flashes across my body while it drags me away from the safety of the stalls and toward the door.

I smash the butt of the gun against its face as agony explodes into my arm and down into my fingers.

The creature refuses to let go of my shoulder until I beat the gun right into the werewolf’s eye, causing it to jerk back.

I groan in pain as I scramble up, adrenaline driving me forward.

Desperately, I reach for my phone, knowing I need to call Ezio, I need to tell him that I need help right now.

I need help or this thing is going to kill me.

Before I can even reach the stall, it slams into my body, throwing me into the door of the bathroom stall.

It swings inward against my weight when the creature lunges for me again, claws raking against my thigh.

The phone slides out of my hand that’s coated in blood and clatters against the floor, but at least I still have my gun.

I aim and fire, shooting the creature in the foot.

It draws back enough to allow me to fall against the wall and push against the door in an attempt to close it.

It’s wild with rage, shoving against it before I can even get it latched. My left arm is throbbing, but I push against the door with all of my weight. My feet skid on the blood on the ground while my heart races out of my chest.

It’s so strong that it pushes with all its might, and I’m nothing compared to it.

I’m getting pinned between the door and the wall as it works its way into the stall.

I see its wounded paw inches from my foot and slam my foot down into the bullet wound.

It jerks its paw back, but the pressure never lets up.

At this point, I’m afraid that nothing I do to it is going to stop it, unless I kill it.

Fuck, fuck…

I’m going to die… Do I shoot it in the head? Can I just… kill an innocent person like that? If I don’t… it’s going to kill me.

It shoves its head through the stall door and the wall, teeth gnashing, mouth bloody.

“Fuck,” I hiss as I aim my gun at its head.

I know I won’t get in trouble. There’s no way I would.

If someone kills a werewolf that has gotten loose then they are not at fault.

It is regulation that werewolves should have two lines of defense, and instead, this one was kept in a room with a window in a club filled with people?

And as if that wasn’t bad enough, it was kept in a crate that could be crushed by a vampire? How is that my fault?

But still…

It’s a life… and not even the life of a horrible person. It’s the life of someone who has absolutely no idea what they’re doing.

My phone starts ringing somewhere deeper in the bathroom and the noise startles it. It’s the briefest moment that it draws back, like it thinks an easier prey might have entered the room, but it’s all I need to ram my body against the door and slam it shut.

My hand is shaking when I slide the lock in place, praying it’ll hold… but for how long?

Two sides of the stall are cement blocks that go straight down to the floor, it won’t be able to get me from either side, but that door is a weak point and it knows it.

It tries to fit under the door, claws digging wildly at the ground while it scrambles and fights to get under. It can nearly reach me before I climb up onto the toilet as I watch blood hit the ground.

I need my phone. I need my phone. I need to call someone in the club. I need a vampire to save me. Fuck…

It crams its head under the door, teeth clashing while it fights to tear me apart, but it can’t get farther than its head no matter how hard it tries.

But that’s just for now. That’s just until the door gives.

That’s until that tiny lock pulls apart and I’m left cornered in a bathroom I can’t get out of.

Panic settles deep inside of me. I need to get to my phone.

Do I have anything I can use to reach it?

I look down at the toilet and pull the lid off it as I tuck my gun into its holster.

Slowly, I drop off the toilet, but being so close to it just reinvigorates it.

One of its nails scrapes my shoe and I scramble back.

“Fuck…”

I take a deep breath and stoop down so I can see where the phone is.

Of course the only way to reach it is to grab past the creature’s body, and there’s no way I’m going to accomplish that and have two hands at the end of it.

I set the toilet lid down and reach over to the toilet paper.

I pull the lid to the holder off, and while there’s not enough room for the beast to slip over the top of the stall, there’s enough for me to fling the plastic lid out into the bathroom.

It crashes against the wall and I drop down hard as I see the werewolf rush for it, assuming a new victim has entered, someone who would be significantly easier to maul.

Using the toilet lid, I slide it under the door and try to reach for the phone without sacrificing my arm.

Of course I can’t reach it, luck can’t be on my side, so I have to extend my arm out as I’m torn between watching what I’m doing and watching what the werewolf is doing.

It’s found the source of the noise and has already discovered that whatever it is isn’t worth consuming.

My heart is pounding out of my chest when I extend my arm outside the stall door and set the lid down past the phone.

The were is coming and I’m withdrawing as quickly as I can as it fixates on me.

Knowing that I’m not moving fast enough, I jerk my arm back and the monster slams into the lid. I hear the phone go skidding but… it’s within reach now. It’s peeking under the door. I just have to grab it. I just have to…

It sees me and claws at my arm. I feel the nails catch my skin when I jerk my arm back with the phone in it. I scramble onto the toilet as I lift the phone and see the cracked screen.

When the fuck did it crack? Did the werewolf attack the phone when it rang earlier? I tap the screen, smearing blood across it as I try to wake the phone up. Would the emergency alert still go out if I pressed the button for it? Or is the phone absolutely fucked?

But do I want to draw more humans here for this thing to destroy? Or would the sirens alert the vampires that something is going on?

I hear something clatter to the floor, and I look down as one of the screws that’d been holding the latch in place strikes the ground.

“Fuck,” I whisper.

I’m going to die… this thing doesn’t want to just change me into one of its own, it wants to kill me… and it’s going to do whatever it takes to do that.

I’m shaking from pain and exhaustion as I hold my gun and decide that the next time it sticks its head under the door, I’m going to have to kill it.

But it’s like it knows. It’s realized that slamming against the door is getting it closer to me than trying to climb under an area it clearly doesn’t fit.

I sit on the toilet and press my legs against the door, but every slam throws me back and causes pain to tear through my wounded leg.

I don’t know how much longer I can hold this thing back. I don’t know how much longer before Ezio will show up… or what he’ll find when he does.

Why was I such a fool? Why did I decide that I didn’t deserve happiness? Why was I trying so hard to push away someone who could make me happier?

It doesn’t fucking matter now, does it?

The werewolf slams against the door so hard, I see that the latch has bent.

Maybe Ezio will find someone to love somewhere down the line. Someone who is much more like Arturo. Someone sweet and funny… someone who isn’t selfish and caught up in the past… someone who didn’t fuck up their whole life like me.

Someone who never got to tell him that I love him too.