Dirty Blood (27 page)

“You little bitch,” she spat, struggling to get to
her feet in the aisle between us.

Apparently, I’d hit her just hard enough to royally
piss her off. I jumped up, too, and planted my feet firmly on the
linoleum. I vaguely heard voices chanting mine and Cindy’s names
but it didn’t really register. All I wanted was to lay Cindy flat
on the floor and shut her up. A part of me knew this was all a
product of everything going on in my own head, with my own
problems, but I couldn’t stop. The dam had broken.

I took the time to cock my arm back, putting momentum
behind the punch. This time, when I hit her, her whole body was
driven sideways by the blow. She stumbled back, half sitting and
half lying in her desk seat. Her hair covered her face, but through
the light strands, I could see red liquid seeping from her nose.
Blood dripped onto her cashmere sweater.

A hand grabbed my arm, and I whirled, jerking myself
free. I had to stop myself from swinging out against my attacker
and was glad I did. Mr. Knowles stared back at me, wary but
determined to hold his ground.

“Miss Godfrey, there is absolutely no fighting in my
classroom. Principal’s office. Now.” He spoke with authority, but
he made no move to grab me again.

Without a word, I grabbed my bag and slid past him on
my way out the door.

It wasn’t until I was halfway down the deserted
hallway that reality set in and I realized what I’d done. I stopped
and leaned back against the wall, already dreading how this was
going to end. The principal would call my mother, of course. And
she’d have to pick me up early. Which meant, I’d spend even more
time at the flower shop, with her. And what if they suspended me?
I’d never been in trouble for fighting before, but I knew that was
school procedure. That meant spending days at a time, with no
break, with my mother.

I pushed off from the wall and changed directions,
heading back the way I came. I ducked underneath the window of Mr.
Knowles classroom so he wouldn’t notice my detour, and hurried on.
The double doors at the end of the hall led to a small courtyard
where the seniors were allowed to eat lunch. Hopefully, no one
would be out there this early. Ditching was something else I’d
never done before; might as well break the rules all at once.

I pushed open the doors and stepped into the
low-walled courtyard, weaving around the plastic tables and chairs.
Luckily, no one was out here yet, so I hurried to the concrete wall
that edged the area, and hopped up. It was only four feet or so,
and on the other side was a small grassy area that led to woods. If
I could make it there, without being spotted from a window, I was
home free. I looped my bag over my shoulder to secure it and set
off for the trees.

I made it to the edge of the woods without being
stopped and ducked around an old oak to catch my breath; I had no
idea truancy was so nerve-wracking. I spotted a couple of
sad-looking plastic lawn chairs, probably dragged here by a senior
couple wanting to be alone, and I sank into one of them while I
considered my options.

That was when I felt the tingles.

~ 28 ~

They started on the back of my neck and travelled
down my arms and legs, giving me the sensation of ants crawling
over me. My head jerked back and forth, searching into the shadows
of the trees. In the distance, behind me, a car horn honked and I
jumped. My head jerked towards the sound. I kicked myself for
letting my guard down, even for a second, and turned back. Out of
the corner of my eye, something moved.

The tingling heightened to an unpleasant humming
inside my skin. My muscles strained against the itch it created and
my mind went blank of all thoughts but this: find the source and
make it stop.

A low growl emanated from somewhere nearby, but the
sound echoed, thrown off by the open space at my back. A blur of
gray flew by, and I glanced up just in time to roll out of the
chair, barely getting clear of the sharp teeth dropping at me from
above. I rolled to my knees and then my feet, dodging the teeth as
they came at me again.

“Leo,” I said, through a mixture of fear and anger. A
small, rational voice in the back of my mind was whispering that I
never should’ve ditched school and come out here alone. But the
Hunter side, the part of me whose muscles strained and raged for a
fight – this fight - ignored it.

Instead of immediately attacking, Leo stepped back
and began circling me, slowly. “I see your sidekick isn’t with you
today.”

I felt a small pang at the mention of Wes, but I
brushed it aside and kept my tone light. “He should be here
anytime,” I lied, continuing to circle and looking for an opening.
I wasn’t as overconfident as I’d been the last time we’d met, but I
was more sure of my moves, and I had two goals: to kill Leo and
stay away from those teeth. And if Leo thought help was on its way,
so much the better.

“Well, then I better be quick,” he murmured.

We lunged at the same time. I angled my shoulders and
neck so that I was out of biting range and landed a hard blow to
his ribs. He stumbled back, but landed firmly on his feet and I
wasted no time in a second swing. This one missed, and it threw me
off balance so that I had to twist my upper body hard to avoid his
teeth. My muscles protested against that particular maneuver, but
as soon as I straightened, the discomfort disappeared.

Leo lunged at me again and I sidestepped him at the
last second. I could see he was in more of a hurry this time,
unwilling to prolong the fight any more than necessary. I wondered
briefly where Wes might be right now and then dismissed it. I had
to stay focused. This might be my only chance to end this.

I glanced around for anything I could use as a
weapon. There wasn’t much out here; dead leaves littered the
ground, along with a few small branches – none of them big enough
or thick enough to penetrate Were flesh – and the lawn chairs. I
let Leo maneuver me closer and, keeping my eyes on him, I grabbed a
chair and brought it down hard over my knee. There was a sharp
crack as the cheap plastic gave way and snapped in two. Leo lunged
again and I used the piece in my right hand to block him while
shoving the other piece into his open mouth. He backed off,
thrashing around to loosen the plastic that had wedged into his
left fang. With Leo distracted, I pulled at the chair’s legs,
separating them from the seat. When I’d freed them, I held one in
each hand and rushed at Leo, arms raised.

The plastic was still lodged in his teeth but at my
attack, he stopped pushing at it with his paws and brought one up
to swipe at me, claws extended. I hit it aside with one hand and
brought the jagged end of the chair leg down with the other. I hit
him behind his shoulder and realized quickly that my weapon was too
thick to penetrate. Instead, I ripped it across his back and then
danced out of the way. A second later a thin red line appeared.

At the sight of his blood, the humming under my skin
intensified and my muscles tensed in anticipation. Unable to
control my need to fight, I leaped forward, forgetting to keep
clear of the claws that reached up to meet me. They swiped across
my arm from elbow to wrist and left two thin red lines in their
wake that burned where the skin broke. I cursed myself for being
careless and fell back.

I circled slowly, cautious but determined. Leo
finished pulling the plastic free from his fang and tossed it aside
with his mouth. His eyes closed to slits and his lips pulled back
over his teeth. He crouched low and I could feel him about to
spring when, behind me, a familiar voice called out.

“Hello, Leo. Starting the party without me?”

Despite the fact that I was in full blown Hunter
mode, and despite the fact that all my conscious brain wanted was
to kill this Werewolf, my heart sped at the sound of that voice. I
forced myself not to turn.

“Took you longer than I thought,” Leo said.

Wes came up next to me and pressed his palm lightly
against my back. That surprised me. I assumed he’d be in wolf form
already. “Tara, go back inside,” he said, quietly.

“No way, we can take him down together. Now’s our
chance,” I hissed.

“Tara, go inside,” he repeated, an edge in his
voice.

Temper boiled up inside me. I kept my feet firmly
planted. I’d been miserable without him the past couple of days,
wanting nothing more than to see his face, feel his touch. Now that
I could, it was more of the same. He was still ordering me around
and deciding what was best for me, without consulting
me
.
“No,” I said.

“Tara-” he started to argue.

“If you’re here, then it must be to watch. This is my
fight, and I’m not going inside. There’s a seat over there,” I
said, nodding to the remaining lawn chair.

Beside me, Wes’ jaw clenched hard enough for me to
hear him grinding his teeth. I knew he probably wanted to snatch me
up and carry me back to the school, but we both knew better than to
take our attention off Leo.

Leo watched our exchange with amusement. “Give the
girl what she wants, Wes. We were just starting to have fun.”

Movement behind Leo caught my eye. A wolf was moving
steadily towards us through the trees. I didn’t recognize it but
that didn’t mean anything. Then, another came into view, several
yards away from the first. Then, another. Leo didn’t turn, but his
ears were flicking, taking in the soft crunch of leaves as they
moved closer. When I looked up again, there were a total of six
wolves facing us.

Wes’ hand on my back pressed harder, and I felt the
rest of him stiffen. I knew then, that these wolves were not
friendly and that Wes was seriously debating how to handle things.
I sensed the change in Leo before Wes did, though, and I shifted,
letting Wes’ hand on my back fall away.

“All this indecision. Maybe I can help,” Leo said.
And with that, he lunged, aiming straight for me. Behind him, the
wolves rushed at us.

I braced myself, but Leo never made it that far. Wes
took a running leap and in midair, he transformed. Torn pieces of
fabric that used to be his clothes rained down around me. A growl
tore from his throat, a menacing, spine-chilling sound that seemed
to rip through me and out the other side.

The other wolves were on me, then. They came in, two
at a time. I managed to smack them away with the pieces of jagged
plastic in my hands, but that’s about it. I couldn’t get enough of
an opening to do any damage. And I could feel two of them circling
around behind me. I knew I didn’t have much time left.

Off to my left, a keening howl cut through the
growling and snarling of the fight. Before it had died away, two
more wolves broke through the heavy brush and hurled themselves at
the two closing in behind me. One of them sailed straight over my
head, and the other whipped around me, its thick tail brushing my
hip as it passed. I recognized him, based on sheer size. Jack.

The two wolves in front of me rushed forward,
probably knowing they had minimal time left to make their kill. I
batted them away again, managing to draw blood on one of their
noses with my plastic weapon. It yelped and jumped away but the
other came again. Its claws raked over the same spot on my arm that
Leo had scratched, and I jumped back, cradling my arm and
wincing.

The wolf crouched and I knew it was coming again, but
then a figure – a human one – appeared beside us. Cord didn’t even
look at me. She stared at the wolf with an expression of
concentration and determination and swung up with her stake,
sinking it into the wolf’s heart with a disgusting squish sound.
The wolf stilled and then began to crumple. Cord slid her stake
free and stepped back just before the wolf thudded to the ground.
She glanced at me, briefly, with a look of disgust, and then ran to
the next wolf, intercepting him before he could even step in my
direction. Her stake dripped with blood and the tip glinted with
what looked like metal.

I searched for Wes and found him circling a snarling
Leo. I saw a thin line of red, just above Wes’ eye and then he was
moving again, too quickly for me to actually see him clearly. The
two growls blurred into one as they rolled and snapped at each
other. A second later, I heard a yelp and then Leo was pinned
underneath Wes’ massive paws. Wes snarled and snapped his teeth at
Leo’s throat but Leo was quick and used his back paws to rake his
claws across Wes’ underside. Wes flinched and that was all the time
Leo needed to wriggle free. He rolled to the side and then
retreated to safety. I could see a small red wound on his throat.
It wasn’t deep.

I sensed movement beside me and whirled, ready to
defend against an attacker, but it was Jack. He was breathing
heavily but he looked unharmed.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yeah. Just scratched but I’ll be fine. Thanks.”

He dipped his head, in a nod, his eyes on Wes and
Leo.

“How’d you find me?” I asked.

“We patrol the grounds while you’re at school,” he
said. “I don’t know how he got through.”

I remembered my mother saying something about working
with Jack. “Is that Fee I saw? Is she okay?”

“She’s fine. Stole all my action. I’d love to jump in
and help Wes, but Leo’s quick, and I don’t want to get in the way,”
he said.

Fee came up beside me, her tail swishing along my
arm. “You should get back inside,” she said.

“Not yet.” I shook my head. “Not until…”

Neither of them argued. They stayed next to me,
though, while we watched.

Leo pressed his claws into Wes’ side, making him
release his hold. They separated and circled again and Leo finally
noticed that his band of followers were no longer providing backup.
I knew he was getting ready to run.