"Guess you were right about us not being too bright," I said. "If I was smart, I"d have broken your right wrist. How is it anyway? Giving you any trouble?"
"Shut up."
"Just making small talk."
"If you want to talk," LeBlanc said, "I"d suggest you start with an apology."
"For what?"
His face went deep red, eyes suffusing with an emotion it took me a moment to recognize. Hate. Pure hate, ten times stronger than what I"d seen at the police station that morning. Was he that angry with me for breaking his wrist? The thought came as something of a shock. Of course, most people would get a bit p.i.s.sed about stuff like that, but mutts didn"t normally make a big deal of it, especially if I was the one doing the damage. In fact, they usually laughed it off, as if in some perverse way they were pleased with me for having the guts to do it. Years ago, I"d bit off one of Daniel"s ears. He didn"t hold a grudge. If anything, he was proud of that missing ear, and would tell any mutt who asked exactly how he"d come to lose it, as if it proved we had some kind of close, personal relationship. Nothing says lovin" like permanent mutilation.
"Is it the wrist?" I asked. "You"re the one who wanted to prove you could knife me. I was only proving I could defend myself."
"Bulls.h.i.t. You thought it was funny. Humiliate the new guy. We got back to the house, what do you think Marsten does? Tells Daniel and Olson. Gave them a good laugh." He c.o.c.ked the gun. "I want an apology."
I thought about this. Apologizing wasn"t a big deal. Of course, I wasn"t sorry I"d done it, but he didn"t need to know that. The words stuck in my craw, though. Why should I apologize? Well, stupid, because the guy has a gun to your head. But if I was sure he wasn"t going to use it. . . . It didn"t matter. There was no sense escalating the matter.
"I"m sorry," I said. "I didn"t mean to embarra.s.s you."
"On your knees."
"What?"
"Apologize on your knees."
"The h.e.l.l I-"
LeBlanc rammed the gun into my mouth. I clamped down involuntarily. Needles of pain ran though my jaw as my teeth hit metal. I tried to jerk away, but he had me backed against the wall. LeBlanc shoved the gun in until I gagged.
The taste of metal was sharp and foul. I tried to pull my tongue back, but the barrel was in too far. My heart was tripping, but I wasn"t panicking. Whatever LeBlanc said, I knew he wouldn"t kill me. He expected that the threat of death would be enough to make me do whatever he wanted. He"d realize his mistake soon enough. As soon as I figured out how to get his gun out of my mouth. Even as I thought this, I realized the answer was simple. I hated to do it, but it was the easiest way.
I lifted one leg, making a motion to show that I was ready to kneel. LeBlanc"s lips twisted in an ugly smile and he pulled the gun from my mouth.
"Good girl," LeBlanc said. "Werewolf or not, I see you"re still a woman. When push comes to shove, you know your place."
I gritted my teeth and kept my eyes down, which he seemed to take as proof that I"d been properly cowed.
"Well?" he said.
I tilted my head forward, letting my hair fall in a curtain around my face. Then I started to sniffle.
LeBlanc laughed. "Not nearly so c.o.c.ky now, are you?"
Triumph rang from his voice. I sniffled some more and lifted a hand to wipe at my eyes. Through the blindfold of my hair, I could only see LeBlanc"s lower half. It was enough. After a couple seconds of my crying, his arm dropped, letting the gun fall to his side. I lifted both hands to my face, covering it. Then, I pulled my hands down again, wrapped my left hand over my right fist and brought both hands slamming upward into LeBlanc"s crotch. As he stumbled back, I lunged. I knocked him down and started running. Halfway down the alley, I heard the first shot. Instinctively, I flung myself forward to the ground. Something stung my left shoulder. I hit the pavement in an awkward half flip, managed to get back to my feet, and kept going. Two shots rang out in quick succession, but I was already rounding the corner.
As I ran, blood trickled down my shoulder, but the pain was minimal, no more than a nasty sc.r.a.pe. Left shoulder, I thought. And six inches or so below the left shoulder, my heart. He"d been aiming for my heart. I shook the thought and impending panic from my head. Behind me, I could hear his running footfalls. I took the first corner, then the next and the next, keeping my straight-out runs short so he wouldn"t have a chance at another shot. It worked for about five minutes, then I ended up in a long alley with no exit except at the end. I leaned forward and sprinted like h.e.l.l. It wasn"t fast enough. LeBlanc rounded the corner before I got to the end of the alley. Another shot. Another dive. This time either the shot wasn"t accurate or I"d moved faster. The bullet whammed into the side of a Dumpster. I veered left and made a headlong dash forward. A car was directly in front of me, and another one beside it, and another and another. Parking lot. A spark of joy zinged through me. A public place. Safety.
I raced around the corner, getting out of shooting range. As I ran, I tried to find the largest concentration of human activity. That was the key. Get near enough people that LeBlanc would be forced to hide his gun. If he didn"t, I"d attract attention by screaming-a feminine ploy almost as universally effective as crying. In my first glimpse around, I didn"t see anyone, but it was hard to take a good look while running full out. I swerved down a line of cars and slowed behind the shield of a minivan. I looked around. There was no one on the east side of the parking lot. I peeked over the pa.s.senger door and squinted through the window to check the west side. There was no one around. Absolutely no one. I was either in an employee parking lot or in long-term parking.
LeBlanc"s scent floated over on the breeze.
I dropped to my hands and knees. Taking a deep breath, I controlled the returning panic and lowered my head to survey the lot from ground level. About fifty feet to my right were a pair of sneakers. LeBlanc. I rolled under the minivan and craned my neck to get a better look around. The rows of tires seemed to stretch to infinity in every direction. After a moment, I decided that the line of tires to my right seemed the shortest. Creeping on my stomach, I moved to the front of the minivan, stuck my head out and looked left. Beyond the parking lot, I couldn"t see anything. As I watched, a car went by the end of the row. Then another. Some kind of road. Maybe only a service route, but where there were moving cars there had to be people. I eased out from under the minivan and started forward, staying doubled over behind the cars.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are," LeBlanc chanted.
A brief pause, then: "I don"t like games, Elena. You make me look for you and you"ll regret it. I can make you regret it. You took my sc.r.a.pbook. You know what I can do."
I moved along the rear of a sedan and peered around the other side, checking before I dashed across an empty parking spot. A flash of motion caught my eye and I yanked my head back. Looking under the car, I saw LeBlanc"s shoes. I froze and checked the wind direction. Southeast. I was upwind. I stopped breathing, but knew it wouldn"t matter if I didn"t make any noise. He"d smell me. He had to. The sneakers pa.s.sed the other end of the sedan and kept moving. LeBlanc didn"t even pause. I closed my eyes and exhaled slowly. He wasn"t using his nose. One less concern. I waited until his shoes vanished, then kept moving down the narrow pa.s.sage between the two rows of parked cars. Each time I came to an empty s.p.a.ce, I checked before crossing it. More than once there wasn"t room to pa.s.s between the cars, the driver having pulled up within inches of the car in the opposite row. This was trickier than dashing across the empty s.p.a.ces. I could go over or under. The first time, I tried to go over and set the car rocking. I spent a few breathless minutes standing there before I was sure LeBlanc hadn"t noticed. After that, when cars ab.u.t.ted each other, I went under. Slower but safer.
I"d gone past fifteen cars and estimated another ten to go when I heard footsteps to my left. I dropped down, stopped moving, and listened. I knew LeBlanc was to my left, but at last check, he was left and rear. These footsteps came from left and front. They didn"t sound like sneakers either. Hard-soled footsteps clacked across the pavement moving fast and coming almost straight for me. I fell to my stomach and looked out under the row of cars. Brown pumps were moving fast down the row immediately to my left. A woman hurrying to her car. I thought about standing up, waving my arms, calling attention to myself. Would one witness be enough to keep LeBlanc from firing?
"Aha," LeBlanc sang out.
My head jolted up and hit the undercarriage of the car with a thunderous bang. LeBlanc cursed and started running. I looked about wildly, trying to see his feet to figure out which way to escape. The woman. I had to take the chance and bolt toward her. But I couldn"t hear her footsteps anymore. Was she already in her car?
"f.u.c.k!" LeBlanc shouted. "I don"t f.u.c.king believe it. Elena!"
I stopped moving. Why was he calling me? He knew where I was, didn"t he? Even if he hadn"t been calling out to me, he must have heard my head strike the car"s underside. The sound had been so loud it had reverberated through the parking lot. LeBlanc was still cursing. I followed the sound and saw LeBlanc"s sneakers about twenty feet away. And beside his shoes, the body of a woman, lying on the pavement, open eyes staring at me beneath a b.l.o.o.d.y crater in the middle of her forehead. When LeBlanc had shouted, it wasn"t because he"d seen me. The bang I"d heard hadn"t been my head hitting the car. He"d seen a motion, a woman moving fast, caught a glimpse of light-colored hair and fired. As I stared at the dead woman I started to shake. I told myself that my horror was for her, an innocent, gunned down in a parking lot. It wasn"t true. The tightness in my throat and the pounding in my chest wasn"t for her. It was for me. I looked at her body, staring sightless into eternity, and I saw myself lying there. It was supposed to be me. Killed in a second. One brief second. Alive and running. Then dead. Over. Everything. Would I have heard the shot? Would I have felt it? I could have died here, today, in this parking lot. I could still die. This morning could have been my last time waking up. Lunch my last meal. Thirty minutes ago in the airport, the last time I saw Antonio, Nick, Jeremy . . . Clay. The shaking got worse. I could die. Really die. Despite all my battles, I"d never thought of that before. Never really contemplated what it meant. The end could come in one impossibly short second. Now, thinking of it, I was afraid. More afraid than I"d ever been.
I felt stabs of pain in my clenched fists. I unclenched them and the pain lessened into a stretching, a pulsating as if something was moving under the skin. I ignored it. I had more important things to think about. Yet the sensation didn"t go away. It got worse. I glanced down and saw my fingers retracting into my hands, hair sprouting from the backs. I hadn"t done anything to precipitate a Change, hadn"t even thought about it. I shook my hands sharply and flexed them, willing the transformation to stop. As I moved my fingers, fresh pain shot down my arms. Then my feet started to tingle. I closed my eyes and ordered my body to stop. My back arched. My shirt started to rip. No! my brain shouted. Not now! Stop! It didn"t stop. My legs jerked and spasmed, wanting to pull under my body, but there wasn"t room. I was jammed under a new VW Beetle with barely inches to spare. I couldn"t get up on all fours. I couldn"t move my legs and arms into position. I clenched my eyes shut and concentrated. Nothing happened. The first licks of alarm darted through me. As they came, the Change sped up, my clothing tearing and my body intent on moving itself into impossible contortions. The fear was doing it. Fear of being trapped in this parking lot with a killer had started the Change and now the fear of being trapped under the car was making it worse. I knew what I had to do. I had to get out. A fresh spark of fear made my torso jerk up, crashing my back into the underside of the car. This time I knew the resulting bang was real. Dimly I heard LeBlanc"s shoes squeak against the pavement. Heard him say something. Heard him laugh . . .
I vaulted from under the Beetle. My nails sc.r.a.ped against the pavement. Halfway out my legs seized up and I fell face first to the ground. Every muscle in my arms and legs seemed to spasm at once. A howl of agony broke from my throat. I clamped my jaw shut. My eyes bugged out with the pain. It was too late to reverse the Change. I"d pa.s.sed the midway mark; going back would take longer than going forward. I focused my energy on finishing, feeding it with fear. At last, the final phase hit with a shuddering wave of agony so blinding that I pa.s.sed out. I came to as soon as my muzzle hit the pavement, then lay on my stomach, panting and gulping air. I didn"t want to move. I could hear footsteps getting closer. He"d heard me. He knew approximately where I was and was narrowing his search, closing in. For a moment, I was too exhausted to care. Then I turned my head and saw the dead woman. Heaving myself to my feet, I started to run.
Any thoughts of a cautious, stealthy escape had fled from my brain, overpowered by the need to get away as quickly as possible. I tore out from between the cars, got onto the laneway and ran full-out. I didn"t listen for sounds of pursuit. I couldn"t waste the energy. I poured everything I had into running. A shout rang out behind me. Then a shot. It whizzed over my head. I didn"t slow or veer from my course. I blocked out everything and kept going. Finally the row of cars came to an end. I was on a through road. A horn blared. A gust of air from a pa.s.sing truck sliced through my fur. Still, I didn"t slow down. On the other side of the road were two buildings. I ran toward them, no longer knowing where I was going, just that I had to get away.
As I was emerging from between the buildings, I heard a shout. Someone calling my name. The sound came from beside me. I hunkered down and ran faster. A brick wall suddenly popped up in my path. I tried to stop, but it was too late. My legs slid out from under me and I skidded into the wall with a bone-jarring thud. Behind me, LeBlanc was still running, shouting my name. I got to my feet and twisted around to see the shape of my pursuer at my back. There wasn"t time to escape. Even as I was still turning, I launched myself at him. As I flew through the air, his arm went up, blocking his throat. I hit him full in the chest and we toppled over backward. I curled my lips. As I slashed down, the red fog of panic that blinded me cleared and I saw who lay beneath me. Not LeBlanc. Clay.
I yanked my head back just in time. The momentum of the sudden change in direction sent me tumbling sideways. When I tried scrambling up, Clay grabbed me and held me still. He whispered something, but I couldn"t make it out. Not seeing any comprehension in my eyes, he waited a second, then spoke again, enunciating slowly.
"He"s gone," he said. "Don"t worry. He"s gone."
I hesitated and looked back between the two buildings, certain LeBlanc would appear at any moment, gun in hand. Clay shook his head.
"He"s gone, darling. When you crossed the road, he backed off. Too public."
I still waited, shaking. Clay buried his hands in my fur and tried to pull me against him, but I resisted. We had to be ready to run. He started saying something when footsteps echoed from somewhere nearby. I leapt to my feet, but Clay restrained me. Jeremy, Antonio, and Nick emerged from around the building. I stood there a moment, legs trembling, sniffing the air to make sure my eyes weren"t betraying me. Yes, they were here. They were all here. I was safe. I paused for a second, then sank to the ground.
Promise
Clay sat beside me on the way back to Stonehaven. I was still shaky, maybe even in shock, but he didn"t try to pull me against him or comfort me. He knew better. Instead, he held my hand and glanced over from time to time, checking whether I wanted to talk about it. I didn"t.
We were almost home when Clay broke the silence, leaning forward to catch Jeremy"s attention in the front pa.s.senger seat. "You didn"t tell us what Daniel demanded," he said. "It was Elena, wasn"t it?"
"Yes," Jeremy said softly, not turning.
Antonio turned off the highway. "It"s like an airplane hijacker asking for ten billion dollars. He knows we wouldn"t consider it, so it"s another way of saying he"s not dealing."
"It"s not just that," Clay said. "He"s giving us a warning. He knows we would never give Elena up. He"s telling us his next move. He"s going to take her."
Jeremy nodded. "I should have realized that. We could have saved ourselves a very close call. I thought as Tonio did-that by asking for Elena, Daniel was saying he wouldn"t bargain."
Nick asked, "So that mutt at the airport was trying to kidnap Elena?"
"No," I said. "He was trying to kill me."
"A mutt wouldn"t do that, Elena," Jeremy began. "You"re too valuable to them alive. It may have seemed-"
"You weren"t there. A woman was hurrying through the parking lot. LeBlanc mistook her for me and blew a hole through her head. That"s not an incapacitating shot. That"s an execution."
Clay"s hand tightened around mine. Jeremy pulled back into his seat. No one spoke for at least five minutes.
"Why would he do that?" Nick asked. "If Daniel wants you, he"d want you alive."
"LeBlanc doesn"t give a d.a.m.n what Daniel wants," I said. "Maybe it"s because he"s new or because he"s been killing on his own for so long, but he doesn"t seem to have the instinct to obey a stronger werewolf."
"But why kill you at all?" Nick said. "Like Jeremy says, these new mutts have no stake in this fight, other than some promise to Daniel. If Daniel doesn"t want you dead, why go through all that trouble trying to kill you?"
"Thomas LeBlanc preys on women. He tortures them and rapes them and kills them. Men like that hate women and they"re easily threatened by them. I forgot that. After all my talk about not treating these men like other mutts, I did exactly that. I humiliated him at the police station, taunted him, insulted him, and broke his wrist in front of Marsten. Now he wants to overpower me. He needs to."
Clay"s thumb rubbed against my wrist, but he said nothing. Neither did anyone else.
When we got to Stonehaven, I went up to my room. As I climbed the stairs, I could hear Clay behind me, but I didn"t say anything. I walked into my room, leaving the door open. He closed it behind him. I got partway to my bed and stopped. I stood there, Clay still silent behind me. A cold worm of fear wound up through my body and I started to shake. I gulped air and closed my eyes. I was okay. I was home and I was safe. And I"d almost been killed. The fear shot through me, mingling with anger and outrage, melding into something white-hot. I wanted to dive into my bed and hide under the covers. I wanted to throw something against the wall and watch it shatter. I wanted to storm back to those mutts and scream "How dare you!"
When I looked at Clay, I saw my emotions mirrored in his face, the anger and the outrage and something so rare I barely recognized it, a haunted look half hidden behind his eyes. Fear. He reached out and pulled me to him. I turned my face to his, found his lips and kissed him. His lips parted against mine. I kissed him harder, closing my eyes and pressing myself into him. Some spark of life penetrated the dead shock in my brain. I chased it, kissing him harder still, deeper, moving my body against his. The spark fanned into a flame, and all my senses jumped to life again. The world shrank and all I could experience, all I wanted to experience was him. I tasted him, smelled him, saw him, heard him, felt him, and reveled in the sensations like someone rising from a coma.
Moving backward toward the bed, our feet tangled and we tumbled onto the carpet. Once on the floor, I grabbed Clay"s shirt and yanked it up, but his arms were still around me and I couldn"t bear to make him pull back, as if that one second of broken contact would send me sliding back into fear and shock. I wrapped my fists in the back of his shirt and tore. As the material ripped, I stopped pulling. It was too much bother, too much wasted time. I moved my hands to his jeans, tore open the fly, and shoved them down over his hips. Still kissing me, he kicked them off, then fumbled with mine. I pushed his hands away and took off my pants myself. As I was pushing them down, Clay ripped my underwear and threw it aside. His hand moved from my rear to my inner thigh. He slid his fingers inside me.
"No," I said, twisting away from his hand.
I reached down and pulled him inside me. His eyes widened. I moved against him. When he drew back and thrust, I grabbed his hips and held him still.
"Don"t," I panted. "Let me."
He shifted up and held himself motionless over me. I arched my hips to his and rubbed against him. Above me, Clay gasped. A shudder ran through him and I pushed his shoulders up off me so I could watch him. As I moved, he kept his eyes on mine, the tip of his tongue showing between his teeth as he fought to keep still. I thrust up against him and held myself there, relishing the control, the feeling of taking control after I"d lost it so completely a few hours ago. I moved one hand to his chest and held it against his heart. I could feel life there, tripping under my fingers.
"Okay," I whispered.
Clay buried himself in me and moaned. I arched up to meet him. We moved together. When climax threatened, I pulled back, not willing to give him up yet.
"Wait," I gasped. "Just wait."
I closed my eyes and inhaled. The smell of him was overwhelming, almost enough in itself to make me peak. I pressed my face against the hollow of his collarbone and inhaled greedily. As I breathed him in, the world seemed to stop and the jumble of sensations came apart, letting me experience each one untainted by the others. I could feel it all: the twitching of Clay"s biceps under my hands as he held himself over me, the sweat trickling from his chest to mine, the scratchy pressure of his sock resting against my calf, the throbbing of him inside me. I wanted to hold everything right there until I"d committed it to memory. This was what it felt like to be alive.
I tightened myself around him, heard his answering groan, and felt my own response shudder through me. The perfection of the moment faded in a sudden need to attain another kind of perfection, another perfect image of life.
"Now," I said. "Please."
Clay bent his face to mine and kissed me hard as he moved inside me. I felt the waves of climax building, tasted it in his kiss. I wrapped myself around him, legs twisting with his, arms pulling him against me. Just as I was about to lose myself in him, he broke the kiss and reached up, entwining his hands in my hair. He didn"t pull his head back, but kept his face above mine, eyes so close I could see nothing but blue.
"Don"t ever scare me like that again," he rasped. "If I lost you . . . I can"t lose you."
I moved my hands to his hair and kissed him. Again he stopped in mid-kiss.
"Promise," he said. "Promise me you"ll never take a risk like that again."
I promised and he bent his face to mine as we let all remaining vestiges of control slide away.
Jeremy rapped on the door before dawn penetrated the trees outside my window. Clay opened his eyes, but made no move to get up or even respond.
"I need you two downstairs," Jeremy said through the closed door.
I glanced over at Clay and waited for him to answer. He didn"t.
"Now," Jeremy said.
Clay was quiet for another thirty seconds, then grunted "Why?" in a tone I"d never heard him use with Jeremy. It threw Jeremy off balance too, and for a few long seconds, he didn"t answer.
"Downstairs," he said finally. "Now."
Jeremy"s footsteps receded down the hall.
"I"m sick of it," Clay said, throwing the covers off and shoving them aside. "We"re not getting anywhere. All we"ve done so far is chase our tails. Chase, run away, chase, run away. And where has it gotten us? It"s killed Logan, killed Peter, it almost killed Jeremy, and almost killed you. Now you"re in danger and he"d better be planning to do something about it."
"I am," Jeremy"s voice floated up from the stairway. "That"s why I"m asking you to come downstairs."
Spots of red flared in Clay"s cheeks. He"d forgotten Jeremy could hear him as well from the bottom of the stairs as from the bedroom door. He mumbled something that sounded apologetic and got out of bed.
Antonio and Nick were already in the study, grazing from a plate of cold meats and cheeses. As we walked in the door, Jeremy was laying out coffees by the sofa for us.
"I know you"re worried about Elena, Clayton," Jeremy said as we settled in. "We all are. That"s why I"m sending her away. Today."
"What?" I sat up sharply. "Wait a minute. Just because last night gave me a bit of a scare, it doesn"t mean-"
"You weren"t the only one given a scare last night, Elena. Daniel has targeted you and now it seems this LeBlanc has done the same. One wants to capture you. The other wants to kill you. Do you honestly think I"m going to sit back and wait to see which one succeeds? I"ve lost Logan and I"ve lost Peter. I won"t take the remotest chance of losing anyone else. I made a mistake yesterday in letting you go with us after I knew Daniel wanted you. I"m not making another mistake by letting you stay one day longer."
I glanced at Clay, expecting him to protest as well, but he was holding his mug of coffee halfway to his lips, staring into its dark depths like a fortuneteller searching for answers in the bottom of a teacup. After a moment, he put the mug down, untasted. Even Jeremy looked over at him and paused, waiting for an argument that didn"t come.