Page 31

It was raining glass. The electro-shock had ended when my aunt left, but the damage had been done. Glass shards fell, screeching in my head. It was hard to hear anything over the cacophony. Randy loomed, his mouth moving, but I didn’t know what he was saying. Tall men and a woman gathered around. I’d been found. It would all start again. My pain would be used to power my aunt’s spells. I couldn’t fight, couldn’t move. Paralyzed, it rained glass in my head as my torturers salivated in anticipation.

Randy hauled up my slack body. My skin crawled at his touch. He threw me over his shoulder. My eyes were as disconnected as the rest of me, so as he climbed, I had no choice but to stare at the frayed back pocket in front of me. My mind shied from what was about to be done to me. I wished I could see the bookstore and bar one last time, to say goodbye to my Slaughtered Lamb. Instead, my head and arms bounced against his back in time with his steps. Mine was an ignominious end.

Wind, carrying brine and eucalyptus, hit my nose as he passed my obliterated ward. My brain was slowly dying while imprisoned in an unresponsive cage. Glass continued to shower in my mind as the world swung and tipped perilously. A second later, I slammed onto corrugated steel. Breath left my body. The full moon hung heavy in the sky, standing vigil.

Something rumbled to life, and the other man settled down next to me. The view changed as air trickled into my lungs. The moon remained my constant companion, as tree branches whipped by, streetlamps sliding in and out of focus. Truck bed. I’d been thrown into a truck bed. I wondered if Clive still had vampires keeping an eye on me. After last night, it was doubtful. How had a bookish bartender inspired so many homicidal impulses?

He cared for me, though. He’d said as much, and I’d heard the truth in his words. Death may be stalking me on glass feet, but I’d been cared for. I’d found a home and friends. That was more than I’d thought possible. I hoped, whatever was next—please, not Hell—I’d be able to hold that memory close.

The truck flew around a corner, and I rolled, slamming into the wheel well. I’d lost the moon. A dirty, leaf-strewn truck bed was a far less poetic ending.

Memories flashed, like fractured home videos reflected on falling glass. Glimpses of stolen memories. They hadn’t been stolen because of my mother. That was incidental. It was my aunt who had erased herself, not caring if I lost my mother, as well. She’d been there, at my mother’s funeral, raging that the name Quinn had been put on the stone. What had she said? She’d been standing on the grave, rage charring the ground at her feet. “…got rid of that dog…put his name on her stone? No! Corey and Quinn…abomination!” Her eyes were on me as she seethed, smoke rising from the newly laid sod. Lightning arrowed down from the sky, splitting my mother’s tombstone between Corey and Quinn.

The truck took another sharp turn. The moon was back. The rhythmic thump of the tires on the road and the girders overhead told me we were crossing the Golden Gate Bridge.

I wished I’d had time to learn about magic. I would have liked exploring my Corey side. Not the psychotic branch of the family that produced my aunt, but the totally normal wicchey side. I wished I still had my mother’s pendant with me, not just because it was all I had of her, but because it carried stronger spells. My mother knew exactly who she was protecting me from. Coco’s magic was different, a dragon’s magic that lacked a target.

Wait. Coco was connected to the necklace around my neck. Maybe… Coco!Coco! I repeated her name over and over. She’d once said she’d heard me screaming in her head. Maybe she’d hear me now.

Once over the bridge, they left the freeway and headed up into the hills. The deluge in my head had petered off to a drizzle. Words were starting to come through. “…left up here…that crazy bitch…ATVs…remember, she’s mine first…” The man sitting in the back with me was talking through the cab window with the other two.

My head bounced against the metal of the truck bed as we turned off a paved road and headed up a gravel one. I’d lost the moon behind a forest of trees. My nose itched, and my hand was halfway to my face before I realized it was responding to impulses in my brain again. Twitching my fingers and toes, I prayed this meant whatever she’d done to me wasn’t going to kill me.

I slid, feet smacking against the rear gate as the truck powered up a steep hill. The engine died, and both doors opened up. A moment later, Randy leaned over the side, and sneered, “Enjoy the ride?” Chuckling at his own joke, he plucked me up and threw me over his shoulder again. “They’re over here, under the tarp.”

Pretending to still be floppy and unmoving, I stole glances at who was with us. A man and a woman. The man smelled like the wolf who had chased me off the cliff and into the ocean, the woman I remembered from the Crypt night club. She was a member of the Bodega Bay pack. I knew it. She’d been far too keen when Randy’s name had been brought up.

Randy scrambled up a hill and then dropped me on the ground. “Shit, this isn’t even going to be fun.”

“She’s more Joe’s speed,” the woman said. “You like drugging your dates, right Joe?”

“Screw you.” A boot shoved me down a short incline. I kept my body loose as I rolled, crashing into the base of a tree. My back hit the trunk. Flopping my head onto a mossy patch, I watched the men.

“It still counts, though, right?” Joe said.

“What?” Randy responded.

“You know. That wicche and her—” He whispered, “Friend. What we do to her still counts even if she isn’t screaming and crying, right? We still get what she promised?”

“It has every time before. Why wouldn’t it now?” Randy looked between the two of them. “Everybody gets what they want. It’s a—whaddaya call it? A symbi—a relationship. We all get something. They get the fear and pain and blood. We get the thrill and the rewards. Relax. We’re covered.”

Randy dug into his pocket and extracted three keys, tossing one to each. They caught them on the fly with grins.

While they were distracted, I tested my muscles to see if they were working yet. Lying in pine needles meant I couldn’t move without being heard, so I tensed each muscle group, looking for minute movements, internal flexing. I’d regained some control, but not all. At this point, if I tried to stand, I was sure I’d fall.

Joe, closest to a dark bulk hidden beneath branches, pulled off a tarp revealing three ATVs. Each of the wolves pulled a three-wheeled motorbike out from under the tree.

“Keep an eye out on the way to the cabin. It’s still a full moon, so the Bodega pack could be out.”

“Nah, boss. They’re probably sleeping by now,” the woman said.

“That’ll make our lives easier. When we get close to the cabin, you two park the bikes and shift. I want you circling. If you see or smell anything, howl. I doubt anyone will even notice she’s gone before noon tomorrow, and by then, there won’t be much left to find.”

There were appreciative chuckles from the other two.

“Just in case, though, keep watch. I’m going to be busy getting reacquainted with our party favor and I want to know if some hero’s about to crawl up my ass.”

“You got it,” Joe said as he swung a leg over the ATV.

I didn’t know how he was planning to transport me. My body, as far as he knew, lacked the tension needed to sit. A moment later, he turned and watched me, speculation clear in his eyes. Had I done something to give myself away? Coco!

Doing my best to control my breathing, I kept my gaze fixed on one spot, and willed my body to betray no resistance. He’d make a mistake. At some point, he’d toss me aside, and I’d escape.

He picked me up and threw me back over his shoulder as he sat down on the ATV. Shit. He wasn’t throwing me over the seat. He’d feel it. If he barreled down a sharp incline, and I braced, he’d feel it. If he cornered around a tree, and I adjusted my weight, he’d feel it. He’d know I was regaining feeling and strength. I had to let self-preservation go. Whatever happened, I couldn’t react.

Tree branches slapped at my legs, tangled and pulled my hair, but I didn’t flinch. Randy’s arm pinioned my legs to his chest. He took a downslope turn, and I slid off his shoulder. My head hung inches from a wheel kicking up rocks and dirt, and still I didn’t react.

He took his hand off a handlebar to pull me back up. The ATV hit a tree root and jolted, flipping sideways. I was thrown down a hill, rolling into a ditch filled with vines and shrubs. I heard Randy swearing on the path far above. This was it.

Popping up, I swayed a moment, muscles cramping. I found my balance and ran. Randy yelled for the other two, who were ahead of us when he crashed. Sprinting up the gully, I heard the whine of engines slowing and turning around. Three. There would be three hunting me in a matter of minutes.

Up or down? I could follow the side of the mountain down, away from them, and try to find help. Or, I thought with a shiver of anticipation, I could run up and hunt them. Long, razor-sharp claws shot out. My jaw reshaped itself, making room for enormous fangs. Fuck hiding. I was not prey.

Sprinting up the incline, I dodged behind trees, keeping to the shadows. The full moon was setting, but the night was still bright with its light. Shadows abounded. I’d use that. They were talking, Randy pointing to the spot I’d hit in the gully. The ground was covered in vegetation. They hadn’t realized I was no longer down there. While they planned, I kept to the shadows and hit the path, a hundred yards past where they were standing. I shot across, into the forest on the other side and circled back around. The two men did a kind of slide-jog down the side of the hill to search the ditch. The woman stayed with the bikes. She’d be the first to die.

Padding silently on bare feet, I came up behind the woman from the Crypt. She was leaning against the side of an ATV seat, eyes focused on the activity in the gully.

“Do you see her?” Randy’s snarl brought a smile to my lips.

“Are you sure this is where she fell?” Joe asked.

“Where the hell else? The ATV is right up there. You can see the wheel hanging over the edge. This is where she should have ended up. Cam!” He shouted. “Do you see anything?”

“Yeah,” she mumbled. “A couple of morons fumbling around in the dark.” She crossed her arms. “No!” She shouted back. “Come on,” she said to herself. “Find her already. I sharpened my knives special for this party.”

Stepping up behind her, I stared down at my claws, grateful to have them. They gave me power. They gave me choice. My body was my own, and no one else’s. There would be no party tonight. Leaning forward, I slashed my claws across her neck, cutting to the bone. When she slumped to the ground, blood gurgling, beginning to pool, I felt no remorse. She had it coming.

Two of the ATVs still had keys in them. I took both. Randy’s bike may have flipped, but he was smart enough to grab the key. I got halfway across the path and then dropped to the ground, crawling to the edge and peering over.

Joe was on the other side of the gully, looking down the side of the mountain. “You sure she didn’t keep going? She couldn’t move to stop herself.”

“Shit, I don’t know. The ATV spun. I went one direction. She went the other.” He studied broken branches, sniffing the air. “Cam!” he shouted. When there was no response, he looked up the hill. “Dammit, Cam! I’m talking to you.” He turned to Joe. “Will you see what her problem is this time, then ride north. Look for tracks.”

“Sure, but what are you gonna do?”

“Track her scent. I can smell her right here. There’s a broken branch right there. Maybe she crawled while we were talking.”

“I thought she couldn’t move.” Joe sounded strangely nervous.

“Man up. She’ll be more fun this way.”

Joe nodded, glancing around before dipping back through the ditch. When he began to climb the hill where I was waiting, I scooted back and then sprinted to where I’d left Cam. I needed a good spot from which to attack. Glancing up, I noticed a thick tree branch hanging over the path. Joe would check on Cam. I knew where he’d be in a minute. Now or never.

Crouching down, I jumped as high as I could and easily landed on the branch. I almost overshot it and toppled right back off, but I caught my balance and waited. Joe came over the rise a few seconds later.

“Cam? Where—Shit!” He ran to the body and checked for a pulse, his fingers coming away drenched in blood. “Fuck me,” he whispered.

I dropped from the tree, claws out. Landing on his back, arms crossed, I was already raking them in opposite directions against the back of his neck, taking his head completely off. Blood spurted as it rolled away. Two down.