Feral Nights (24 page)

“That’s so cool! I aspire to be a sidekick someday.” The demon slips my card into his back pocket. “Or minion, whatever.”

He rubs his hands together eagerly. “All right, sweetie pie. It’s a little unorthodox — to say the least — but I’m going to take this one on faith.” Cameron gestures with a gnarled, clawed finger at the fearsome fire, and a clear path appears, leading to the lodge. “Hurry before I change my mind.”

“Run!” I yell, praying that he’s not toying with us.

Clyde sweeps me up and leads the others through the charred corridor, surrounded by flames. He’s fully healed, but it’s more than that. I can’t imagine he’s ever moved this fast before, and he’s carrying himself like an Olympian.

I’m about to say so, when he asks, “Why Yoshi and not me?”

“What?” The heat is blistering from both sides.

“I get that you think he’s robust-looking,” Clyde continues. “But we’ve been through a lot together. So I think I deserve to know: Why did you send Paxton with your plan and code words to Yoshi but not me?”

Oh, for God’s sake. “I told Paxton to talk to
both
of you.” The Cat probably figured a physically challenged wereopposum wasn’t worth the effort or else Clyde somehow pissed him off, but there’s nothing I can do about that now. “Your code words were ‘Cloud City.’”

Behind us, Yoshi is bringing up the rear of the group, his hand pressing against his side. Ruby slows to keep pace with him, ready to catch her brother if he goes down.

“Cloud City?” Clyde grins. “Because Calrissian had an escape plan, even though he had no choice but to pretend to work with the Imperials, just like you in the lodge.”

“Obviously,” I reply, loving that he so totally gets me.

As the path disappears behind us, Clyde gently deposits me on the front step. “This may sound like a weird question,” I begin. “But did the snowmen do any dental work on you?”

“Don’t think so,” he says. “Why?”

I reply, “Your teeth look different.” Bigger.

With his back to a raging wall of fire, a winded Yoshi mutters, “If they’re at the dock, we may be able to take them by surprise.”

Ruby reaches for the knob. “Locked.”

In no mood to mess around, Brenek simply shoves the door down. The rest of us half dive, half fall inside after him. I hear a cough and an exclamation in Spanish. They’ve managed to get the lights back on.

In the smoky foyer, the guard-interns greet us at gunpoint, some from the stairs leading up. The one at the top makes the sign of the cross.

How many of them are here only because they were desperate for a way to send money home to their families? They look young, terrified. I think of their friends who were slaughtered by the vampires — anything to accommodate the clients. The interns are as much captives here as we are. Which in no way means they won’t shoot us.

Teghan realizes aloud, “We should’ve climbed
over
the building to the dock.”

Clyde steps forward with his hands in the air. “Let the others go, and I’ll surrender without a fight. Otherwise, you’ll have to kill us all, and what a waste of an investment. I’m a male Lion. There’s nothing that your masters prize more. Think about it: a hunt with me as your leading man? We’re talking a freaking fortune.”

What on earth does he think he’s doing? “You’re crazy!” I yell as one of the interns struggles to translate what he just said into Spanish for the others. “Clyde —”

“Shut up, Aimee!” he replies.

Is that his idea of last words? I know what the interns are thinking. There may be only one yacht at the dock, but they could always release us, let us have the boat, and radio the snowmen for pickup.

I open my mouth to protest that Clyde’s lying and a goofball and a wereopossum and it barely makes sense that he’s able to walk, let alone run with the predators, when his eyes turn burnished gold.

A GUARD UP FRONT
waves my fellow shifters toward the downward stairs. Brenek takes Teghan and goes. I sense that if it weren’t for the kid, he would’ve fought me on this. But it’s like we have an unspoken agreement to protect her.

The Wolves follow, but Aimee stays because of me, Yoshi because of her, and Ruby because of him. I don’t have time to indulge their BS heroics. “Yoshi.” I wince against the coming shift. “Do me a favor. Take Aimee and your sister out of here.”

“It’s what he wants,” Yoshi tells me.

“We should hurry,” Ruby adds.

“Clyde, no!” Aimee exclaims as the Cats drag her off. “You can’t!”

I try to tell Aimee it’s the only way, but my throat muscles expand to accommodate a thicker neck, and my mane pours out. Now I can’t talk at all.

As my hands and feet transform into paws, I catch a last glimpse of Ruby, disappearing down the stairs. I wasted so much energy hating her.

The air cools, and some of the smoke swirls into Travis, who seems to be trying to manifest. I don’t know what he’s up to, but I do the only thing I can think of to buy him time.

In Lion form, I collapse in a limp heap and roll my eyes back, playing dead like only a Possum can. For a moment, the guards are stunned.

Then a gravelly version of Travis’s voice announces, “I am the spirit of Daemon Island.” He drops his jaw open wide like a wraith, creating a vortexlike visual effect. “Your lives belong to me.”

The guards flee, shrieking — some upstairs, some down the hall — as he bellows again, I think repeating the same thing in Spanish.

Not that I blame them. Travis is terrifying.

Wow, he’s having fun.

As his haunting form swirls above the foyer, I roll to my paws and bound downstairs toward the dock.

It’s dawn. Only one unconscious arctic asshat and the lifeboats remain.

Peering out to sea, I spot two larger vessels. Which one is under the command of Aimee and the shifters? Which one is carrying the hairy SOBs?

Travis won’t be able to hold off those nutjobs upstairs forever, and they’re still armed. It’ll take too long for me to shift back to human form and paddle out to either boat.

I don’t have a choice. I sprint toward the ocean, take a deep breath, and launch myself into the water, praying that werelions can swim.

JAMES KNOWS SOMETHING
about driving a boat, or at least he’s faking it well.

Brenek is busy freeing the female Lion, who was already chained and loaded for transport when we boarded. So was Paxton. We’re leaving him like that and letting Teghan yell and spit at him.

I hear Mei call, “Ruby, come give me a hand with the radio!”

My sister rushes in past me from the deck. I replace Teghan’s now-bloody T-shirt with a fresh towel from the closet. Holding it to my gunshot wound, I take Ruby’s place, standing watch from the rail. I meant it when I told her I wasn’t hurt that badly. I expect the bleeding to stop soon, now that I’m not running around anymore.

The yetis’ yacht is closing in on us. A small fleet of lifeboats, carrying the armed lackeys, is floating slowly in our direction. The lodge is consumed in flames.

God, my side hurts.

Aimee joins me on deck. “You should go lie down. There’s no reason to . . .” Pointing out at the water, she shouts, “Clyde?”

Of course, Clyde, and just when I was starting to look forward to comforting Aimee over her latest loss. He’s swimming in Lion form. Or at least dog-paddling. “James!” I call begrudgingly. “We have to pick up Clyde.”

A gunshot sounds from the yeti boat.

Pulling Aimee low, I say, “Get back inside! Tell James where Clyde is!”

The yetis have spotted him, too. They veer after Clyde as two enormous dorsal fins break the water’s surface. The yetis shoot at the enormous sharks (at least I think they’re sharks), trying to protect their prize.

A furry white figure leans over the rail, aiming his rifle.

Then a killer whale — no, a
wereorca
— explodes from the water and captures the shooter in its massive jaws. He’s a goner. The rifle plummets, and together they careen back into the ocean with a bloody splash.

“Detective Zaleski’s on the radio,” Aimee hollers from the cabin. “Look up!”

In the distance, I spot the incoming helicopter.

The yeti boat is retreating at maximum speed.

We’re saved.

THOUGH I NEVER BLASTED ANYONE
with my crutches, they still helped save my life. Nora equipped them with tracking devices. Only glitch? The moisture on the island dampened the signal, or she and the other grown-ups would’ve rescued us sooner.

I felt hugely badass about my Lion form until running into those wereorcas. They scared the pee out of me. But once I realized they were on our side, I was actually relieved when one surfaced beneath me for transport to the shifter-controlled yacht.

Meanwhile, between the ocean attack and incoming copter, the arctic asshats bailed, abandoning their college-age henchmen, who’ve all been checked into an interfaith coalition debriefing facility in Mérida by now. From what I understand, most of them had no idea what they were getting into when they signed on with Sandra. It was definitely one of those too-good-to-be-true deals.

We spent our first evening off Daemon Island at a four-star resort on Peninsula Papagayo. Everyone else ate and hit the sack while Zaleski brought in a werecondor healer, vacationing from Long Island, to treat Yoshi’s wounds.

Our plane landed in Austin yesterday afternoon. The werewolf couple — Mei and James — continued straight to Orlando. Nora replaced their tickets, finagled new resort-hotel reservations, and presented them with a check for ten thousand dollars. We all signed the wedding card. That Nora, she’s got cash and style.

Teghan is home again, living the quiet suburban life with her family in Northwest Austin. Yoshi mentioned something to her parents about anger counseling, but she’ll be all right. The kid’s a marsupial. Feistiness comes with the territory.

This afternoon, the cops delivered Paxton to Travis’s grandfather. It wasn’t their regular protocol, Zaleski explained. But Richards has labeled the crime an assassination, and he has certain rights as a king. Not surprisingly, Paxton’s been whining that he was set up and that we should take into account his help in getting us off the island he freaking brought us to in the first place. The good news is he’ll never hurt anyone again.

Tonight Father Ramos and the detectives are meeting with Ruby at Nora’s house, and Aimee and Yoshi stayed to speak in her defense.

Ruby may not have murdered Travis, but there’s still the matter of the cops she killed while undercover with the vampire Davidson Morris.

I told my parents the truth, everything except about my newfound Lion form and being haunted by Travis, who hasn’t made an appearance since the lodge. I’m surprised Mom and Dad let me out of the house. But it’s Saturday night, and I have a date.

Noelle decided to chill out for a couple of weeks in Austin — she and Brenek are organizing a memorial concert in honor of their friend Luis, who didn’t make it off the island. Tonight she’s meeting me for dinner at Austin’s finest barbecue joint.

I’m cruising in the Bone Chiller, jamming to the latest Screaming Head Colds tune on the radio, when a hollow voice next to me asks, “Where are you going?”

“Gah!” I shout, nearly colliding with a pickup truck as I come around a curve on Mount Bonnell. “Travis! You could’ve killed me!”