Page 19

19

I woke up in the dark, the clock promising dawn wouldn’t arrive for hours, but my heart was hammering. I’d heard—or sensed —something. Was that the roar of a motorcycle in the distance?

When I’d had allies around, I hadn’t been that worried about the threats from the local thugs, but, alone in the night, with that painted message on the living room floor and my apartment still in disarray, unease crept into me. I might be a werewolf who’d learned to once again embrace her powers, but I was far from immortal. And, once again, I had no weapons with which to defend myself.

Another distant engine roar sounded. I didn’t sense anyone magical nearby, but that didn’t mean no danger lurked.

While hurrying to dress, I checked my phone to see if anyone had texted or called. The night before, Jasmine had gone home, but Duncan might be nearby, sleeping in his van. Knowing that bolstered me as I stuffed my feet into my shoes.

When I pushed aside the curtains, moonlight trickled through the window, wakening the magic in my blood. This problem might be better dealt with as a wolf, but after getting Rue in trouble, I hesitated to change into that form, at least here at home. Besides, I didn’t know what had woken me. With busy streets nearby, roaring engines weren’t that uncommon, even before dawn.

I texted Duncan to see if he was up, then slipped outside to listen for trouble. The shattering of glass greeted me, followed by a car alarm wailing.

Jaw clenched, I took two steps, intending to run to the parking lot to defend my territory as a human, but a surge of anger and annoyance with the ongoing situation swept into me. My skin heated from within as magic pricked at my nerves.

My first instinct was to try to tamp down the wolf again, but I was too frustrated. No, I was pissed.

Yanking the clothes I’d donned back off, I stepped back into my apartment. I kicked off my shoes, threw my pants and shirt on a chair, and left my phone on the table by the door. As I ran out and around the corner of the building, I dropped to all fours, fur sprouting as my magic turned me into a wolf.

Feeling protective, territorial, and irritated, I raced toward the parking lot. More glass broke. The car alarm continued wailing, the high-pitched noise hurting my sensitive ears, but I kept going. As I rounded the buildings and ran across the lawn toward the parking lot, gunshots fired.

Maybe that should have made me pause and approach slowly to assess the situation, but frustration continued to be my overriding emotion. It propelled me forward, making me run faster.

When I spotted the first man, one of the leather-wearing brutes who’d threatened me the day before, I sprinted toward him. He crouched behind a car with a gun in his hand, but he wasn’t looking at me. He pointed it toward the side of the parking lot near the street, at a target I couldn’t yet see.

Duncan? The one I wished to be my mate?

His rolling den was in that direction .

Worried he had come out and was the man’s target, I sprang.

My snarls must have been audible over the wailing alarm because my target turned before firing. Eyes bulging, he whipped his gun around to point at me. Faster than he, I struck his chest with my body as my jaws snapped for his throat.

He jerked his arm up quickly enough to protect his vulnerable neck. I sank my teeth into that limb instead, biting deep. Crying out, he stumbled back and struck a car as he tried to pull free.

We tumbled to the pavement together, and I released his arm, but only so I could aim for a more vital target. Big and strong for a human, he flailed wildly, kicking and shoving at me. I didn’t manage to reach his throat, but I clamped down on his shoulder. His collarbone snapped under my powerful jaws. He screamed.

Elsewhere in the parking lot, more shots fired from several different positions. His allies.

My instincts told me I would be in danger if I stayed in one place. Reluctantly, I released the man, though the savage part of my magic that I couldn’t control was trying to rear up, trying to get me to finish him off.

The human world kept intruding upon my sanctuary and those I protected. I wanted to end the threat once and for all.

As I backed away, staying between the cars for cover, the gunshots continued. A bullet slammed into a car, but it was many yards away. That surprised me. Wasn’t I the target of these intruders? No, I remembered Duncan. I could sense him on the far side of the parking lot. He must have drawn their ire.

I loped down the walkway and around a set of large metal boxes, trying to circle the men to reach Duncan without crossing through the gunfire. When I glimpsed him, also in wolf form with his fangs bared, he faced a big brute in dark clothing. As I raced toward them, intending to fight at Duncan’s side against the threat, the man fired at him. Immediately, the intruder jerked his handgun to the side to shoot over a car at someone else .

In the distance, sirens wailed, a new obnoxious noise in addition to the car alarm. My human side would have understood its significance, but, as a wolf, I knew only that the loud sounds hurt my ears. I longed to escape this place and run into the woods.

Duncan sprang upon the gunman while our foe was busy shooting at someone else. I’d almost reached Duncan’s battle, intending to help, when two motorcycle riders roared in from the side and turned down the lane. Their headlamps flashed blindingly in my eyes.

With little time to react, only instinct guided me. I leaped for one of the men, clearing the handlebars and slamming into his chest. I knocked him backward, and he yelled and flailed as we flew to the pavement. Unguided, his motorcycle smashed into a car. I landed on top of the man, his breath whooshing out as his back hit the pavement hard. That didn’t keep him from yanking a gun free and pointing it at my face. Before he could fire, I bit his hand. Hard.

He cried out and dropped the gun.

Sensing another threat behind me, I spun. The other rider had jumped off to face us. Instead of pointing a gun at me, he lifted his palm and aimed a magical oval that glowed purple in my direction. Five silver rings on his fingers were linked to it and each other by slender chains, and sparks flowed between them and glinted in the oval. Mesmerized, I paused to gape at it, momentarily forgetting the fight.

The sparks intensified, flowing from the rings and into an oval-shaped gem. I took a step toward the device.

A growl from farther up the car lane broke into the trance I hadn’t meant to enter. I crouched, realizing I was still in danger, and prepared to spring at the man. But the purple glow brightened, and a knife of pain erupted in my skull, as if something had struck me between the eyes.

The intensity of it shocked me; the agony made me cry out .

“Shoot her,” someone said.

The man I’d knocked down found his hands and knees and crawled toward the gun he’d dropped.

I struggled to move, to stop the man—or, better, to attack the person with the pain creator. But my limbs responded jerkily, that purple glow not only driving agony into my skull but affecting my ability to move.

Abruptly, something hit the man from behind. Duncan.

Our foe pitched forward, dropping his arm. The magical tool didn’t fall out of his grip, but when his arm dropped, his palm no longer faced me and the pain lessened.

I whirled, snapping at my nearest foe, the one I’d bitten earlier. He’d picked up his gun with his left hand. I sank my fangs into that one too, determined to end the threat that he and that weapon represented. My head throbbed, the pain still there, but that only made my bite harder and more effective. The man screamed, released his weapon, and jerked away. I let go, and he rolled to the side, then leaped to his feet and ran.

A gunshot fired from the lane next to ours, a bullet slamming into a car window not far from Duncan. He’d been about to bite the man with the magical tool, but he leaped away instead, doubtless fearing more bullets.

These weren’t made from silver, not that I could sense, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t hurt us. Enough mundane bullets striking in the right spots could kill a werewolf.

Duncan leaped behind a car for cover, and I rushed to join him. The man with the magical tool took advantage of our distraction and ran away.

More guns fired, but the bullets didn’t land near us. Had the first been a stray round? Who else out here could our enemies be shooting at?

On the other side of the parking lot, a woman yelled in pain. One of the tenants that I protected ?

Snarling, I left the protection of the car and ran to check. Duncan didn’t hesitate to lope beside me, his powerful strides matching mine.

We ran around cars and into another lane where a man lay on the pavement, not moving. Unlike the thugs dressed in black baggy clothes, he wore different attire, dark and crisp with buttons and metal bits, but the significance was lost on my wolf mind.

A woman in matching attire knelt behind a car with flashing lights on top. She was not one of the tenants, one I felt compelled to protect, but there was something familiar about her. My human side knew her. Was she the one who’d yelled in pain?

As Duncan and I approached, two men fired toward the vehicle the woman knelt behind. When they paused, she leaned out and fired back. It was difficult for her because she gripped her shoulder. Was she injured? The scent of blood hung in the air, blood from many sources.

Without consulting each other, Duncan and I ran toward the men shooting at the woman. Maybe he also recognized her and believed we should assist her. Oh, but how I longed to run into the woods, to leave this place and all this noise. The sirens I’d noted before had grown louder. Closer.

The men behind the car noticed us charging at them, but they didn’t have time to switch their targets. Running fast on strong legs, we reached them before they could fire at us, and our jaws tore into their flesh.

They shouted words at each other—orders to depart? With my wild instincts controlling me, I wasn’t certain. Unlike the man who’d hurt me, they held no magical weapons.

Duncan and I tore their firearms from their grips, crushing the metal with our powerful jaws and flinging the weapons away. With his great strength, Duncan also flung one of the men away, sending him crashing into a nearby car. When his head struck the door, he didn’t rise again .

Our other foe backed away, his hands bloody as he raised them. In surrender?

I crouched, tempted to continue attacking. These men had assailed my territory before. They refused to learn to leave it alone, and if they could not learn, they should be punished for their obtuseness.

But movement to the side distracted me. The woman had come out from behind the car. She gripped a handgun as she stared at me.

I tensed, not certain if she would prove an ally or turn into another enemy.

Duncan brushed my shoulder and pointed his snout toward the woods. The cars with the wailing sirens were turning into the lot, lights flashing. Yes, leaving would be best. This was too much for a wolf’s senses, and I… I had an inkling that something significant had happened, that this woman had seen us change and knew what we were. Nothing good would come of that. Any moment, she might try to shoot us.

After giving me a significant look, Duncan ran between two cars, then angled across the lawn and toward the woods. I followed him into the vestiges of the night.