Page 11

Carter

“Don’t follow her,” Zan said, grabbing his arm before he could chase after Mila.

“I can’t let her go out in the dark by herself,” Carter snarled, jerking his arm away. “She’s human and fragile. Anything could happen to her.”

“I agree, but wait a few minutes,” Zan said. “You’ll still be able to track her. If she thinks you’re a stalker, she might run. Humans aren’t used to how protective we can be.”

Carter’s shoulders slumped a little. “Fuck, you’re right.”

Zan snickered. “Did it hurt to admit that?”

“Shut it, cat,” Carter growled.

Zan laughed, then held out his hand. “Leave your helmet and bike keys here. We can move the Aprilia if you don’t end up coming back.” That last part was said with a wink.

Carter didn’t think he was going to get lucky enough to talk Mila into driving him home, but there was always hope so he handed them over. “Thanks.”

Zan tucked them away behind the bar as Carter stood to survey lively place as he slowly counted to twenty to give Mila a head start.

At a table in the corner of the small bar sat Mason and Skyler on one side and a vampire Carter had never met on the other. It was obvious the gargoyle and nymph were interviewing the vampire. It didn’t seem like it was going well. The vampire was scowling, and Mason looked disappointed.

Carter felt nothing but vague curiosity. He wasn't interested in Skyler any longer. He’d found another mate. She was gorgeous, smart, sweet, and perfect. All he needed was to keep her safe until she joined him and Gio.

Giving up on counting, Carter left. Zan was correct, it was easy to follow Mila and Babette. As he rushed to catch up, he disapproved of the path she took. Why would she decide to walk through such a poorly lit area with almost no one around?

“You!”

Rough hands grabbed him, swinging him around to face the human and his durmin copies from last night.

Damn it, he didn’t have time for this.

“Fuck off,” Carter snapped and tried to turn and leave. He had more important things to do than pick fights with dumb magic creatures and the idiot human they were modeled after.

To his surprise, there were more durmin behind him. There were at least twenty of them now, and he was surrounded in a tight alley with no way to escape.

“I’m really going to enjoy this!” the human in the back said as several durmin pulled out knives.

Carter sucked in a breath and didn’t bother with words. He shifted into his werewolf form and attacked where the line of durmin was the thinnest.

His goal was to get away, but it became clear very quickly that they wanted him dead.

He fought hard, but there was a good chance he was going to die tonight.

Gio was never going to forgive him. Even worse, Gio didn’t know about Mila. She’d have no one to protect her.

Mila

To Mila’s immense relief the van was still there, unfortunately, there was a ticket on the windshield. Still bad but not as bad as losing her home and all her remaining possessions.

Plucking the ticket out from under the wiper, she shoved it in a pocket and fumbled for her keys to open the old vehicle while balancing Babette on her hip.

Once Mila was settled in the driver’s seat, she paused and grinned like an idiot.

“What do you think of Carter?” she asked Babette. “He’ll probably turn out to be a mass murderer or something, but for now we can pretend he’s a genuine, sweet guy.”

Babette yawned and squirmed in her arms until she let the little dog go. With a grumpy sound, Babette made her way to the bed in the back. After a few turns and some nosing around, she got under the covers and made herself comfy.

“Fine, we can talk in the morning,” Mila said with a laugh. “I guess it’s time to find a place to park for the night. We can’t go back to the mall, not after that guard caught us this morning. I still can’t believe he offered to let us keep parking there if I gave him blow jobs. Ewww!”

She started up the van, enjoying the way the old vehicle rumbled to life. It might not be sleek or pretty, but it was solid and reliable.

Honestly, if she had to live in a vehicle, the van wasn’t so bad. But that did leave the whole issue of finding a legal and safe place to spend the night.

“The search begins,” she said, shifting the van into gear and backing out of the spot. Thankfully, the place was mostly empty. She felt bad for the few cars she could see that had tickets on their windshields also. Looked like she wasn’t the only one who’d be paying a fine.

There were several ways to go, but she decided to drive back to Joy. If she could find a place to park near there, she could go in and apologize for leaving so abruptly. Carter might even still be there!

“What’s going on here?” she mumbled when her headlights illuminated a group of people standing in the middle of the alley she’d used earlier as a shortcut. It was completely empty when she’d walked through, but now there had to be twenty people there.

Even more odd, they all looked alike. Was it some kind of flash mob? Were they dressed like a celebrity she didn’t recognize?

Then she saw several kicking and punching something on the ground. There was a flash of fur and then the glint of a knife.

Rage consumed her. They were abusing a dog! No way was she going to let that happen.

She put the high beams on in the van and turned on the light rack and spotlight Josh had installed when he needed to work at night. The entire effect lit up the alley like a movie set.

Gripping the steering wheel tight, she revved the engine and screamed as she drove right at the nearest of the men.

“Not today!” she yelled at the top of her lungs. “No animal is getting hurt while I’m here! Fuuuuuck off!”

Surprised faces looked up and then she heard the sickening crunch as bodies hit the front of the van and went under. She plowed through several before one of them yelled something she couldn’t hear over her own screaming, and the rest of them scattered.

There were several men laying on the ground, and she could’ve sworn they were missing a limb, but between one second and another, they were whole and running off also. Shaking, she sat there for a moment.

“I might’ve killed someone,” she whispered. “I’m a murderer.”

Her first instinct was to call the police, except what would she say? I ran over someone because they were near someone kicking a dog?

That probably wouldn’t carry much weight.

She pulled out her phone. Her hands were shaking so badly she almost dropped it. She had two new contacts: Rissa and Carter. She’d only just met them, could she ask them to help her hide from the authorities?

Hello, I might’ve committed homicide, do you have a garage I could hide my van in for a while?

No, that sounded horrible.

Suddenly her phone rang, and Rissa’s name popped up.

“Hello? Rissa?” Was that her voice? It didn’t sound like her.

That’s when she saw what she thought had been a dog was actually a person. And it wasn’t just any person, it was Carter.

“Hiya,” Rissa said cheerfully, completely unaware that Mila’s life had turned into a horror movie.

“We have a ton of leftover food here so I was thinking you should come by tomorrow and grab it. We also ended up with a bunch of dog stuff that someone was donating to Titan, but he said to give it to you because he doesn’t need anything right now.

I asked around and not only did I find you—”

“Rissa, Carter’s hurt,” Mila sobbed, interrupting Rissa. There was blood all over Carter!

“Carter’s hurt?” Rissa repeated and all the background sound went silent. “Stay where you are, we’re going to find you!”

The phone went dead. Mila felt relieved but also confused. How would Rissa find her? Mila never got a chance to tell the other woman where she was.

Babette whined, making Mila realize the little dog had probably been at her side, crying and whining for a while. She was pawing and nudging at Mila’s thigh and then looking at the passenger door.

“You’re right, we need to check on Carter,” Mila agreed. She opened the driver door and slid down. Her legs almost crumpled under her as she looked around for bloody body parts from the men she’d run over.

Except there was nothing.

No limbs, no bodies, no blood. Except for the new dents, she would have thought she’d imagined it.

Babette barked excitedly. The little dog had made the mighty leap from the work van to the ground and ran over to Carter. She nosed the still man and to Mila’s relief, she heard a groan.

Rushing over, she knelt next to him, surprised to notice that he was naked. How had that happened? There were remnants of clothing on the ground. Had those other men ripped his clothes off during the fight?

“Carter?” she whispered. He was laying on his side, his eyes closed and blood seeping from his nose and mouth. There were cuts on his body. Any place that wasn’t cut was bruised.

He didn’t respond to his name. She tried to remember her first aid training but that was so many years ago, and she’d never dealt with an emergency this bad.

“Don’t worry,” she said as she dialed 911. “Help is coming. You’re going to be okay.”

The 911 operator came on at the same time Carter opened his eyes and focused on her. “Mila?”

“Yes, it’s me,” she said, leaning in close. “You’re safe, I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

For some reason, that made him laugh. The laugh ended in a cough and groan of pain.

“Hello? This is 911. What’s your location? Hello? If you’re not able to talk, tap any number. Try to keep the line open, and I’ll get officers to your location.”

She put the phone to her ear. “Help, please! I need an—”

A figure appeared in front of her. With a gasp, she fell back and accidentally dropped her phone.

“Mila?” the stranger said. He stayed crouched in front of her, but didn’t try to get closer. “I’m Anatoly. I’m here to help. Everything is going to be fine. ”

She met his gaze and realized that everything was going to be fine . She was safe. Carter was safe. Anatoly was going to fix everything.

“Hello,” she murmured.