Hunted By The Others (23 page)

“G’mornin’,” he managed to say, sounding like he needed coffee almost as badly as I did. “Sleep well?”

“Sort of. A bit cramped up, though. We must have been exhausted to crash out here.”

I stood with a stretch and a yawn. The belt didn’t feel quite so snug this morning despite the heavy meal, and I tentatively pulled at the buckle. It worked! I yanked it off, immeasurably relieved now that it was daylight and I could remove the silly thing.

“I’m going to shower and get dressed, I’ll be out in a little bit,” I said, grabbing my duffel and heading toward a bathroom.

He nodded, closing his eyes and tilting his head back against the couch. He looked pretty wiped out. I figured I’d do the nice thing and make breakfast for everyone, including our absent hostess, once I was ready to face the day.

Peeling off the body armor I’d slept in was no easy feat. It felt like a contortionist act just to get the shirt off. Once I did, I almost wished I’d just left it on.

Beneath the shirt I was a mass of bruises. None of them really hurt too badly, but overall it looked like I’d had a ton of bricks dropped on me. The ones at my neck were the only ones that were painful, sending little sparks of agony through my shoulder when I gingerly pressed a fingertip to them. Wincing, I cut that out soon enough, and with a sigh started up the shower, not having to wait long for the water to be almost hotter than I could stand.

As I washed my hair and scrubbed myself off, I reflected on what had come of having a full-out physical fight with a vamp. On the bright side, I was alive. On the brighter side, I still had all my bodily fluids. I could deal with some bruises if it meant survival. Still, I could see little indentations inside the bruises around my collarbone where Royce must have come pretty close to actually breaking the skin even through the body armor. There were impressions of fingerprints in black and blue on my arm, and sickly greenish-yellow spots around my legs and butt from when I’d fallen and, no doubt, from when I’d flipped the vampire onto his back.

All in all, not too shabby. I’d come out on top, if a bit worse for wear.

Oh, well. So no bikinis for a few weeks. It was spring anyway—I’d live.

Chapter 33

Later, feeling clean and refreshed, the three of us were walking down the street in search of good bialys and coffee. Janine had recommended a bakery a few blocks from the apartment. Unfortunately, I hadn’t thought I’d need a turtleneck when I’d packed my emergency bag of clothes, and kept flipping my jacket collar up in a vain attempt to hide the bruises around my neck. Janine had fluttered around a little when she saw the discolorations, her concern actually making me feel kind of bad and awkward. Especially since she was obviously afraid but too well mannered to ask outright if we’d dragged some of that trouble back to her place and just hadn’t told her about it.

Sara and Arnold had politely declined to say anything, but I felt their eyes slide over to my neck every few minutes. Finally sick of the scrutiny, I tried arranging my hair so the fiery curls might hide the marks. Mostly they just ended up flying into my face and getting caught in my mouth when I tried to talk.

“How could you?” I heard a bitter, growling voice behind us and whirled, surprised. “How could you have signed for
him
but not for
me
? You lying little slut!”

“Chaz!” I exclaimed, taking an involuntary step back as he jumped out of a car stopped in the middle of the street with a snarl on his lips and fists clenched at his sides. He ignored the irate honks and curses from other drivers as another two guys got out of the car after him. More Weres from the looks of them. Great. “What are you talking about?”

He pointed accusingly at my neck. “Look at you! You let him bite you already, didn’t you? You never went out of town, you went straight to
him
.”

He was coming closer, his packmates following hot on his heels and seeming to get hopped up on the scent of anger and fear thick on the air.

“Chaz, what the fuck? She doesn’t belong to you, back off!” Sara, arms folded, glared up at him. Was she crazy? None of us had weapons and tonight was the full moon. You don’t get in the way of an angry Were-anything during the full moon!

“Shut up, he wasn’t talking to you,” one of the others told her. I saw part of the pack tattoo visible under his short-sleeved T-shirt, the spear and sun for the Sunstriker pack. His eyes were a feral ice blue, the glittering gaze of a wolf on the hunt staring back at Sara from under a sweep of artfully emo dyed black bangs. The rest of his hair was short, except for the strands arranged to fall across his brow and hide one of his eyes.

Looking at the third Were grinning savagely at Chaz’s side, also tattooed and wearing a more nondescript T-shirt and loose-fitting jeans with practically half his boxers sticking out of the top, I suddenly realized how right that cab driver from the other day had been. The Sunstrikers really were just a bunch of posers. Bullies, yes, but posers nonetheless.

My attention was abruptly brought back to Chaz, who was looking more than a little miffed. Was that a hint of fang showing in that snarl? “He hurt you, didn’t he? I’ll kill him!”

“Chaz, for God’s sake, calm down!” I backed away as he advanced toward me and Arnold tugged on Sara’s arm, pulling her back with us. “It’s not as bad as it looks, and you don’t need to do anything. Just stop a minute, will you?” Finally he listened and stopped trying to close the distance between us. I stopped when he did, and Sara and Arnold moved behind me to get my back. Or hide behind me. Whatever.

Chaz’s companions stopped, too, looking to him for direction. I guessed Chaz must be the pack leader or something. I’d never really bothered to ask him anything about it after I’d screamed bloody murder for him to trot his hairy ass out of my living room and stay out of my life. To this day I still don’t know why the neighbors never called the cops. I sure was loud enough for them to have heard me.

“Listen,” I said, finding a little of that old anger burning deep down, fanning into flames at the sheer
gall
of him, accosting me on the street like a jealous boyfriend. “You and I are
done,
finished, over. You burned your bridges with me when you hid what you were, you insufferable ass. Then, bringing your goons with you to try to scare me and my friends? Who the hell do you think you are? I’ve got I don’t know how many people after my ass trying to
kill
me in the last few days, and you think this show of bravado is going to win my affection? I broke up with you because you
lied
to me, and you
hid
things from me, and you were a
dick
, not because you’re a Were! Get over yourself!”

Everyone was staring at me; I even saw a touch of awe on Sara’s face. Chaz was speechless, opening and closing his mouth as he started to say something and then thought better of it. He looked both chagrined and angry, wavering in between as though he
wanted
to be offended but wasn’t sure if he
should
be. I folded my arms across my chest (no holsters to jab me in the ribs this time) and tapped my foot, waiting for him to spit out a reply or rebuttal.

He slowly lowered his head, spreading his hands and deflating somewhat as the anger was finally overtaken by his embarrassment. “Shia, I’m sorry. It’s just, I know how you feel about Others and the thought of a vamp’s hands on you makes me mad enough to lose my head.” He sighed and stood up straighter, resuming that effortlessly strong, body-builder’s pose he knew I liked so much. Playing me like a fiddle, that’s what he was doing. Of course, knowing that didn’t make it any easier to resist those gym-made washboard abs or sad puppy dog eyes. “Will you at least let me help you? Give me a chance to show you I’m not that bad?”

I glanced back and forth between Sara and Arnold, wondering what they thought. Both of them had stony expressions, looking about as moved as a pair of boulders. I fidgeted, trying to think rationally but already knowing the battle was lost. True, the holder might be able to make him turn on me, but what if they didn’t know about him? Arnold had said the holder was weak willed. Maybe that meant I could still count on Chaz, since the holder wouldn’t be able to control him and Royce at the same time.

Chaz didn’t have that strained look about him that Royce had when he was being forced into doing something he didn’t want to. His gaze was clear, and his voice sounded exactly the same as I remembered it, with no hint of poisoned honey sweetness to it. He would’ve attacked me already if that was his intent. And what he’d said at my parents’ place was true: he’d never hurt me, and I don’t think he really ever meant to scare me like he did. I could admit to myself now that I had overreacted a little when I saw him shift. He’d been putting trust in me to accept him as he was, all of him, and I’d given him the boot. How I’d reacted—that I’d been a bigoted, racist moron—did not sit well. Having now seen firsthand that vampires and Weres and magi had feelings to hurt, just like me, I suddenly felt like the bad guy for having thrown him out instead of the other way around.

The past couple of days had well and truly skewed my once plainly black-and-white views on Others. Maybe Chaz really wasn’t the Big Bad Wolf. After all, if I’d been in his place, I probably would’ve hesitated to tell me I was a Were, too. Grimacing, remembering my reaction and some of the unthinking things I had said in the past about Others, I could see why I might have neglected to
ever
say anything about it. He was braver and maybe stupider for showing himself to me than I had previously given him credit for.

Not to mention I didn’t like the idea of him possibly going Rambo on me and trying to take down Royce on his own. I’d much rather keep an eye on him.

I figured I could risk giving him one more chance. I threw up my hands and tried to keep my voice as brisk as it had been, rather than letting any sheepish note creep into it. “Fine, whatever. But leave the Three Stooges behind.” I pointed to the two dorks at his side and the driver who was idling at the curb.

One of the Weres growled softly at that, showing a little bit of upper and lower fang. They weren’t too pronounced, as he wasn’t shifted, but it was more than enough to make all three of us non-Weres take a quick step back. Chaz casually smacked emo-boy in the chest with a closed fist, sending him stumbling back with a yelp. “Done.”

The other Weres shook their heads, exchanging the universal well-that’s-the-boss-for-ya-what-can-you-do look before shuffling off to their car. I overheard one of them say something about “alpha my ass” to the others, though they silenced themselves quick enough when Chaz gave them a menacing look and a growl from deep in his chest. The hairs on the back of my neck rose at the sound, nothing that should come out of a human throat, and the other Weres continued on their way a little more speedily. Chaz turned back to us with an expectant look, all innocence, as if he hadn’t just acted completely inhuman a moment ago.

A bit nonplussed, I gestured for everyone to follow me. I took a quick look around my ex to make sure that the other Weres weren’t coming back. The tall, skinny one who Chaz had smacked threw a black look at me over his shoulder. Annoyed, I flipped him off before turning on my heel and continuing down the street, figuring it would do me a world of good to at least
act
like I was a bigger badass than the werewolf at my heels. One thing I’d noticed over the last couple of days was that every Other I’d dealt with so far, even Arnold, stopped treating me like a pushover when I acted sure of myself. Because of that, I kept my head high and didn’t look back, acting like I expected everyone else to follow, including my ass-kissing ex.

Despite the cool façade, I still had doubts and worries. The moon was going to be full after dark. How the heck was I going to keep Chaz from killing Royce tonight?

Chapter 34

Sara and Arnold were
not
pleased with my decision. I wasn’t too happy about it either, but that wasn’t going to change anything. My mind was made up as far as Chaz was concerned. His help could prove invaluable to us later.

“So, I came up with a theory this morning,” I said to Sara as we walked along looking for the bakery.

She arched a brow, glancing over at me before returning her gaze to the sidewalk. Arnold and Chaz were both watching me with interest. “Do tell.”

I shrugged the jacket up a little more on my shoulders, eyes narrowing in thought. “When I went to go see Royce the last two times, there was a girl there with him.”

“Allison Darling,” Arnold said.

“Yeah, her. I already know she doesn’t like me. Don’t know why, but there’s something there.”

Arnold glanced at Chaz, then me. Chaz looked curious and had a touch of an eye twitch when I mentioned Royce’s name but wisely kept his mouth shut. “You think it’s her?”

I nodded, ticking off the points on my fingers. “She’s the most likely suspect. She was there both times I’ve gone to Royce’s office. She’s pissed at me for some reason, I haven’t quite put my finger on that yet. She told him when I had the belt. And whoever it was making Royce go schizo on me obviously wants me dead, or at least hurting. It makes sense as much as anything else I can come up with that she’s the one.” I was careful not to mention the focus. I was trusting Chaz, but not
that
far, not yet.