Claimed by the Beast Bundle (49 page)

Chapter 19

Stephanie hit her fast, knocking Crystal back and risking sending her to the brick patio if she hadn’t been holding her tight. “Oh Crystal!” Stephanie gasped as she squeezed the naked young woman in a hug. “Thank God you’re okay!”

Crystal realized Stephanie was kissing her shoulder and neck and pushed her back a step. “Steph, stop,” she mumbled. “Relax, I’m fine. I mean I wasn’t, but I am right now.”

“You weren’t? What do you mean?” Stephanie asked. She frowned. “Oh shit! You’re naked. Holy shit, you just did what Ember did! You—you’re one of them! You’re a werewolf!”

“And you’re going to be a witch,” Crystal snapped as Stephanie’s eyes started to lose focus. She snapped her fingers to bring Stephanie’s attention back to her. “Steph, I need you to focus. We can talk all about this later, but right now there’s some serious shit going on.”

“Serious shit? Like what? My dad’s been taking calls and locked himself in his office. He won’t let us turn on the TV or anything.”

“Your dad’s involved,” Crystal said.

“He’s involved? How? He doesn’t do anything—he just goes to work and comes home to work more.”

Crystal opened her mouth and then hesitated. How much could she tell her? How much should she tell her? This was Stephanie’s dad she was talking about. To her, he was a hardworking man who was strict and old-fashioned, but he was her dad. To Crystal, he was a misguided man capable of terrible crimes. Crimes he’d committed against her.

“I need to talk to him,” Crystal decided.

“What? Now? Why?” Stephanie shook her head and continued instead of waiting for an answer. “When he’s in his office, there’s nothing that can get him out.”

“Yes, now. Is your mom here?”

“I think so. She was going to work out, last I knew.”

Crystal nodded and turned towards the French doors. Jimmy had picked himself up enough to sit up and stare at the door at her. She turned back to Stephanie. “Chad’s dead.”

Stephanie nodded. “I know.”

It was Crystal’s turn to be surprised. “You do?”

“Hit-and-run by a car. Closed casket. I guess he was a mess. I was hoping I’d see you there.”

“Hit-and-run?” Crystal repeated. She shook her head. “He was shot. In the head.”

Stephanie’s hand flew to her mouth. She lowered it and shook her head. “That’s crazy! Why would they hide it?”

“Because of who did it.”

“Who? And how do you know?”

“I was there,” Crystal said.

“You were? Holy shit! You didn’t—did you—”

“I didn’t do it,” Crystal said.

“Then who did?”

“I was running on the road heading home from Hank’s, and Chad found me,” she said. Stephanie’s forehead furrowed. “He was crazy, Steph. He tackled me and was going to do to me what he did to Beth.”

“You’re stronger than Beth, and, uh, the whole werewolf thing? Couldn’t you fight back?”

Crystal frowned. Stephanie asked great questions but she didn’t have time to answer it all. “I wasn’t ready to do that yet. Anyhow, they stopped Chad from hurting me.”

“They? Oh! Your friends. Hank and Ember and the others?”

“No, the men who got Chad away from us under the bridge. The men who used him to track me down. They used him, found me, and then they shot him.”

Stephanie shook her head. “That’s—I don’t even know what that is! Crazy! I believe you, it’s just—”

“I know.”

“So who shot him? Who are they?”

Crystal stared at Stephanie for a long moment to make sure Stephanie heard her clearly when she answered, “Mr. Dixon, Chad’s dad.”

Stephanie blinked and opened her mouth. She shook her head and finally found the words to argue, “His dad? Shot him? That’s not—”

“That’s what I thought. Steph, I need you to trust me. Do you?”

Stephanie nodded. “Yes.”

As wrong as she knew it was, Crystal felt a flush of relief knowing that the spell she’d accidentally put on the cheerleader made her trust and believe her. More important, it meant that Crystal could trust her. “All right, then now I need to talk to your dad.”

Stephanie stared and nodded. “All right. Um, let me get you a towel.”

“A towel?” Crystal glanced down at her nude body and smirked. She’d felt weird about it last time, but now it didn’t bother her at all. Even with Jimmy staring at her and committing every bit of her to memory so he could jerk off to her later. She winced and put the thought out of her head. Stephanie turned away and confirmed that her tiny bathing suit was just as tiny in the back. She looked nude except for the white string that emerged from between her cheeks. “You’re one to talk!”

Stephanie grabbed her beach towel off her chair and shrugged. “My parents hate this suit. They wouldn’t let me get it until I got certified as a lifeguard in case my stupid brother tried to drown himself back here. And they still won’t let me wear it anywhere but the backyard.”

She brought the towel over to Crystal and tried to wrap it around her. Crystal smiled and took it from her instead. “Thanks, I can do it.”

Stephanie nodded and looked away, color rushing to her cheeks. She glanced back after Crystal tucked the end of the towel in and turned towards the doors. She stopped at the door and glanced back at Crystal. “I could give you some of my clothes to wear.”

Crystal smiled. “No time. But thanks, I appreciate it.”

“They’d fit now,” Stephanie added. “I mean, you know, you’re not like you were before.”

“When I was fat?” Crystal asked.

Stephanie winced.

“It’s okay,” Crystal said. She had more to say but this wasn’t the time or place to say it.

Stephanie opened the door and walked in. She stopped with Crystal a step behind her and glared down at her brother. “Not a word of this, do you hear me!”

He gawked up at them both and kept glancing at the shadows under Crystal’s towel where it rested against her upper thighs.

“Were you really a wolf?” he breathed up at Crystal.

“Did you hear me?” Stephanie ignored him and growled.

“Yes! Jesus, I heard you. Besides, who’d believe me?”

Crystal knelt down, his eyes going to her towel as it parted until it dropped below his eye level. He jerked them up to where the towel was pulling over her cleavage and then leaned back when she put her face next to his and sniffed loudly.

“What the fu—”

“I’ve got your scent now,” Crystal said. “In case I need to find you.”

His eyes grew wide and he stammered a few times before he pressed his lips together and nodded his head. “I won’t say nothing! I promise.”

Crystal nodded and stood up. She turned and saw Stephanie grinning at her. It looked like the cheerleader still had a mean streak to her. Crystal nodded to her, making the grin vanish. Stephanie ignored her brother and led her deeper in the house. They walked down a hallway and through a large family room before coming to a solid wood door set in the wall.

Stephanie reached up and knocked on it. In a loud voice she called out, “Dad, um, there’s someone here to see you?”

Crystal frowned as a few seconds passed. Was he even in there? She was about to ask when she heard a lock click and then the door swung open. Mr. Edgerton looked out, seeing his daughter first and then turning his gaze on Crystal. His jaw fell open and his eyes widened as he processed the girl in the pink and yellow towel. He backpedaled and fell back, stumbling and falling into his desk.

Chapter 20

“Stay back, beast!” Mr. Edgerton shouted once he recovered from his shock. “Stephanie! Get away from her! She’s—she’s—”

Crystal stepped into his office and held up her hands. “You look surprised to see me,” she couldn’t stop herself from saying.

“Stop! Wait! You can’t come in here! This room is my sanctum. It’s been blessed as sacred ground!” he babbled. He stiffened and slid along the edge of his desk until he could get around the side of it and put more distance between the two of them. “You were dead! I saw it with my own eyes. No breath. No pulse! You’ve returned from the grave more evil than before! Your soul is damned!”

Crystal stopped and glanced around the room. “That’s funny. I don’t feel a thing. I’ve never had a problem in a church either. Maybe that means I’m not the devil worshipper you think I am?”

He shook his head. “Impossible. You made a pact with the devil and came back from the dead!”

“I wasn’t dead,” Crystal snapped. “Not all the way, at least.”

“Impossible!”

“Dad, what’s she talking about? What are you talking about?” Stephanie asked from the doorway.

“Steph, nothing. Just go to your room. Get your brother and go!”

“Not a chance!” Stephanie snapped.

“Young lady, you—”

Stephanie stepped up next to Crystal and slipped her hand into Crystal’s, silencing him. His face paled as Stephanie glared at him. “Crystal is my best friend. You’re not going to drive us apart! Now what is all this about? I deserve some answers, damn it!”

He staggered back, his legs wobbling until he found his chair and all but collapsed in it. He shook his head and whispered, “No,” over and over.

“After Mr. Dixon killed Chad, they drugged me and brought me back here.”

Stephanie interrupted to ask, “Here? My house?”

“The shed out back. I was tied down and he tortured me before—”

Some life flared into Mr. Edgerton’s face as he hissed, “It wasn’t torture! We had to know for sure if you were cursed or not! I see your wounds have healed now.”

“The silver knife took longer,” Crystal admitted.

“I had a hunch that wolf was you,” Stephanie said.

“You knew?” he gasped.

“There’s a lot of things I know,” Stephanie said in a tight voice. “But I guess there’s a lot more you’ve been hiding.”

“Why did you come back?” Mr. Edgerton asked. “You think you can kill me or corrupt me? I know you already got to Sheriff Whitcomb and Barnaby. I’m ready for you. My soul is saved and—”

“Dad!” Stephanie said loud enough to stop his rant. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

He gawked at her and then clamped his lips together. His eyes narrowed before he said, “You don’t understand what you’re dealing with. This is a creature of Satan! Or wait—am I too late? We moved up here and you promised me you’d invest yourself in the Lord. Have I missed evil under my own nose?”

Crystal saw Stephanie roll her eyes and had to fight back a smirk. To spare Stephanie as much as possible, Crystal said, “Mr. Edgerton, look at me. I—”

“I will not gaze on the false beauty of evil!”

“Oh my God!” Crystal hissed.

“Do not take the Lord’s name in vain!” he growled and lunged forward to grab a letter opener off his desk. Crystal stared at it long enough to know it was silver. She wasn’t sure if she could smell it or if there was something in how the light reflected off the sharp edge and narrow point.

“I was going to say,” Crystal began again, speaking slower in hopes he wouldn’t overreact. Again. “That I am standing inside your office. It doesn’t hurt me. I’ll dip my hands in holy water and even take communion. I was raised Methodist, not Catholic, but I’ll do whatever I can to prove to you I’m not evil.”

“Dad, she’s not,” Stephanie said. “Crystal’s the nicest person I know. She helps everyone and never has anything bad to say. I’m more evil than she is, and you see me in church every time you make me go.”

“Make you go?” he echoed as some of his strength left his voice. “Don’t you go out of your own love for the Lord?”

Stephanie shrugged. “I’m not like you, Dad. I don’t see why I can’t believe and be religious without having to go through all the rituals and ceremony and BS. Will God love me any less?”

“God loves us all,” he mumbled. His voice grew stronger as he pulled his gaze up from his desk to his daughter. “We make sacrifices to remind ourselves of what is right and good.”

Stephanie shook her head. "Dad! It's not like that. I mean, just knowing Crystal has made me a better person. I don’t think God’s going to think any less of me for who I am or the choices I make.”

His head swiveled back to his daughter. “Choices? What choices?”

Stephanie took in a deep breath and let it out. “Dad, I’m a witch.”

Mr. Edgerton’s face paled and he fell back into his chair. The silver knife was still in his hand but it was almost out of accident rather than because he fought to keep a grip on it.

“And I like girls,” Stephanie added after he landed. “Or, at least one girl.”

His eyes flicked to Crystal.

“Yes, Crystal. I love her.”

“Sin,” he moaned. “So many sins. We took you away from that cabal of devil worshippers. You promised you’d never think about that stuff again!”

Crystal frowned and turned to look at Stephanie. “When we lived in South Carolina I got wrapped up with some stupid girls who thought they were witches. We read books on witchcraft and pretended to do stuff, but we had no idea. It freaked my parents out so we picked up and we moved here. Either I had to give it up or I’d end up in a boarding school.”

“And if you’d gone there, you’d have no doubt fallen in with the other girls there, it seems,” he said. “I’ve been a fool all along. I should have known better. That you were missing something inside. And now this temptress has seduced you.”

Crystal shook her head. “Hey, I’ve got a boyfriend. Or at least I did before I ran away from him. The only thing I’ve done wrong, in your eyes, is living when you stabbed me in the heart.”

Stephanie gasped. “You—you tried to kill her? You stabbed her? Dad!”

“She’s an abomination!”

“I am not an abomination!” Crystal spat at him. “I’m amazing! That’s what I am. What I can do shouldn’t even be possible but it is. I was able to heal my heart where you stabbed me but I almost died. Maybe I did, for a little bit, but I came back. I didn’t make any deals with anyone. I just decided that I wanted to live more than I wanted to die.”

Stephanie and her father both asked, “What?”

Crystal shrugged. “It wasn’t easy, but that’s what it boiled down to. I’ve had to make a lot of hard choices lately. Coming back here was one of them. I—”

“You came back for vengeance?”

Crystal sighed. “No. I came here to risk my life to save yours.”

Again the father and daughter combo spoke in unison, “What?”

Crystal glanced at both of them. “Can’t tell you two are related,” she quipped. “Anyhow, I’m here to save your life, Mr. Edgerton. You see, there are four very dangerous and very angry people coming here sometime soon. People who are like me, special. Unlike me, they hate paladins and have declared a war on them.”

Mr. Edgerton’s eyes widened and he sucked in air through his nose. He stiffened in his chair and glanced at Stephanie before turning his gaze back on Crystal. “How do you know of paladins?”

“Easy. When your secret boy’s club decided to start hunting people like my friends, they took it on themselves to learn as much as they could about you. And they decided to fight back.”

“So why are you here?”

“Because I think it’s stupid and I want it to stop!” Crystal said. “Because I’m young and I want to live a long time. I want to spend time with my boyfriend, if I can convince him to stop hunting your people. I want to go to college and get a job. I want a family someday. Because I want people to stop hurting each other so much!”

“See, Dad!” Stephanie turned and glared at him. “How much more fucking Christian can you get than that?”

“Stephanie! Watch your mouth!”

“Sure, as soon as you open your eyes and realize that Crystal is more of an angel than a devil!”

His eyes narrowed and he shook his head. He opened and shut his mouth a few times, searching for the right words to use.

Crystal beat him to the punch. “I was there when Sheriff Whitcomb died. I wanted to kill him myself. He—”

“There! You see! A faithful servant of God and she wanted him dead!”

Crystal stepped forward and slammed her hand on his desk. He jumped back and settled back in his seat. “I wasn’t finished,” she snapped. “Your holy warrior stabbed another officer a bunch of times in the back and then, when he fell down, he stabbed him in the chest again to finish him off. He said it was a sacrifice to God and that the officer, some guy named Ted, would be rewarded in Heaven.”

Stephanie gasped. Crystal ignored her.

“The same kind of sacrifice you were all willing to make to remain hidden when you couldn’t prove I was a shifter. You tried to kill me and justified it by saying it was a sacrifice for the greater good. That’s bullshit and I hope, deep down inside, you know it!”

His eyes darted around the room, going everywhere except for Crystal’s or his daughter’s face.

“Dad?” Stephanie whispered.

“We have a vow we took,” he mumbled.

“What if it were me?” she asked. “What if I had what Crys has? Wait, I do!”

Crystal and Robert both jerked their heads around to focus on her.

“I mean, I’m a witch. I played as a kid but now—now it’s the real thing. I still believe in God, but being a witch doesn’t have anything to do with that. It’s not a religion, Dad; it’s more like a philosophy or a way of life.” She glanced at Crystal and offered a weak smile. She turned her attention back to her dad and asked, “So, does that mean you have to kill me too?”

“Be careful,” Crystal warned. “Chad was shot by his father.”

“Chad was cursed!” Mr. Edgerton blurted out.

“By your rules, I am too,” Stephanie said. “And so is Crystal.”

“No,” Crystal said. “You’re not, at least. Chad was becoming a Beast. A creature that traces its blood back to the dawn of mankind. Or at least that’s what I was told. Anyhow, they are violent and dangerous. Not civilized at all. Smart, but smart like an animal hunting for prey. Mostly they hide from people until they decide they want to find one to mate with. That’s how this whole thing started for me.”

Stephanie shook her head. “Wait—you said you and Chad weren’t the same?”

“I was saved by my friends before the Beast captured me. Chad ended up being infected by him, though.”

“Oh,” Stephanie looked confused but didn’t press Crystal for more answers. Instead, she turned to her dad. “So, um, what about me?”

He stared at her and shook his head a few times before he closed his eyes and let the silver knife slide across his leg and fall to the floor. “God forgive me,” he whispered.

“I don’t have his phone number, but I’m willing to bet he’s proud of you for what you just did. The forgiveness you should ask for is for what you did to me before and who knows how many others.”

Stephanie stared at him. “Others? There have been others?”

His mouth hung open as he stared at her. He started to shake his head and respond when Crystal felt something that made her stiffen. She held up her hand so fast the movement dislodged her towel and caused it to fall at her feet. Mr. Edgerton made a choking noise but Crystal ignored him and listened to the muffled rumble of motorcycle engines coming closer. She turned to look at Stephanie and then her pale father. “They’re here.”