Illusions (Night Roamers) Book Four (7 page)

Nikki



The gunshots echoed through the darkness as I landed in the snow, behind the car.

“Nathan!” I s
creamed in horror, eyeballing the bloody, dead stranger lying on the ground. He was muscular, naked, and his brains were splattered across the fresh snow.

T
he car door was wide open, and Nathan was sitting in the driver’s seat, the gun still smoking in his trembling hand. He stared at me blankly.

“
Nathan… he’s dead. Put the gun down,” I ordered.

“L
a…la…lycan,” he stuttered, dropping the gun somewhere below the seat.

I stepped over the body, counting at least th
ree bullet wounds in his head, and quickly checked the road for witnesses, but nobody else was around.

Thank goodness for bad weather
.

I leaned back into the car.
“Nathan, we have to get the hell out of here. Move over.”

Still shaken
, he climbed over to the passenger side without arguing.

I got in behind the wheel
and closed the door. Then, I reached for the ignition, only to find the keys missing. “Where are your keys?”

He
handed them to me, his face as pale as mine from the shock.

I started the engine and
pulled away from the side of the road, my heart pounding in my chest. I looked back through the rearview mirror at the body and shuddered. It had to be one of Victor’s goons.

“I hate that asshole,” I mumbled.

“At least he’s a dead asshole,” replied Nathan, his voice hollow.

“I mean Victor, but I’m glad that guy is dead, too.”
The scent of fresh blood filled the air. “You’re bleeding,” I stated.

“Yeah.”

“Where? What happened?”

“He… he bit me.”

I swore. “Where?”

“
He bit my ankle,” he answered, straightening out his foot. He swallowed. “I hope he didn’t have rabies.”

I stared in horror at
his ankle. His chinos were shredded and there was a lot of blood. “Oh, my God!” I cried. “Are you okay?”

He pulled his pant leg up, revealing the bloody gash. “Dammit. He got me good.”

I looked back at the road, trying to ignore the tantalizing smell. I felt like a monster. My brother was badly wounded and I was practically licking my chops at the sight. I gripped the steering wheel tightly. “Nathan, you’re going to need stitches. We have to go back into town.”

“
I also need to get something for the pain. It hurts,” he said in a strained voice.

“I
t hurts to look at. Okay, I’m turning around. You’re going to the E.R.”

“
Fuck… the pain is getting worse.” He sucked in his breath. “It burns like a mother.”

“I’m so sorry,” I said, my
own eyes filling with tears. “It took me longer than I thought. This was all my fault. I’m so sorry…”

“No,” he answered
, clenching his jaw. “Don’t blame yourself.”

“Duncan’s place was raided,” I said. “Someone stole the blood we had in the refrigerator. Good
thing I remembered that he also kept some at the marina. So, that’s why it took me so freaken long.”

“Wonder w
ho stole the blood?”

“I don’t know,” I replied, turning
the car around. “Thank goodness you had that gun, though.”

“My eyes are so heavy. Wake me up when we get to the hospital,” he replied, closing his eyes
.

I bit my lower lip.
“Okay. Okay. Close your eyes, then. Rest and I’ll wake you as soon as we get there.”

He yawned.
“What are we going to tell them?”

We passed the body and
I stared at it in the rearview mirror, almost surprised that it was still there. “Uh… we’re going to say that you were bit. By a wolf. That we were near Victor’s cabin and it ran out of the woods and just attacked you. Shit, we’d better hide that gun. I’m sure they’ll find that guy’s body before morning, and the empty shells from your gun.”

He didn’t reply.

I turned my head and found that Nathan was already out cold.

“Nathan?”

He moaned.

I rea
ched over and touched his forehead. He was burning up.

Sighing, I headed back
toward town, wondering if our lives would ever feel normal again.

Nikki



“How d
oes it look?” I asked Dr. Shanks, the doctor on duty.

The doctor, a tall man with red hair and glasses, frowned.
“He’s going to need a couple of stitches, obviously. Nathan, you said a wolf did this to you?”

Nathan didn’
t answer. He was staring at the wall with a dazed look in his eyes.

“Nathan, are you okay?”
the doctor asked, looking a little concerned.

Nathan blinked
a few times and then smiled weakly. “Uh, yes. Sorry. Yeah, it was definitely a wolf.”

“A
very big one,” I added, as Dr. Shanks picked up a pair of scissors.

“Do you know w
hat happened to it?” asked the doctor, as he began cutting off the raggedy bottom of Nathan’s dress pants. A nurse had cleaned the wound, and thankfully, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I’d originally thought.

“He took off when I beg
an waving the bat at him,” I lied. “I have no idea where he is now.”

“Is it
infected?” asked Nathan in a hoarse voice.

“It will be if we’re not careful.
Obviously you’re going to need a couple of shots, in case the wolf had rabies. Then you’re going to have to come back for some follow-up doses.”

“
Shots?” He sighed. “Okay.”

“
Honestly, you should be just fine,” said the doctor, patting Nathan on the shoulder. “In fact, we’ll get you stitched up and out of here in no time. Does it hurt much?”

“I’ll live.”

Dr. Shanks scratched the side of his head. “On a scale from one-to-ten, how would you rate the pain, with one being the most tolerable?”

“I’d say it’s
a five,” replied Nathan. “For some reason, it doesn’t hurt quite as bad as it did in the car.”

“Good. We cleaned it pretty well, so that may have helped,” replied Dr. Shanks
. He sat down in a chair and began typing something into his computer. “If it bothers you, take some ibuprofen. I don’t think I’m going to prescribe anything stronger than that.”

“Yeah
, I’ll be fine,” said Nathan.

An hou
r later, we were back in the Mustang, with me driving again. It was still snowing, and even though the plows were now on the road, they were still pretty treacherous.

“I should drive,” said Nathan. “You’re not used to this kind of weather.”

“I’ll be fine,” I replied. “I got us back into town, so relax.”

“Just slow it down a little. The roads are slipperier than they look.”

“I understand that,” I replied, annoyed that, as usual, he couldn’t just let me drive without giving orders.

He put his hand on the dashboard. “Give yourself enough time to stop at the lights,” he sai
d, as we neared a red one, “or, you’re going to slide right through.”

“
Oh, you mean like you did earlier?” I said dryly.

He
ignored me.

When the light ch
anged to green, I pressed the gas slowly, and soon we were nearing Club Nightshade.

“I can’t believe that place is packed on a night like this,”
I said, staring in wonder. The parking lot was full and some cars were even parked on the street.

“This town is small. It’s all they’ve got for fun on the weekends.”

“I wonder who’s running it now that Faye is gone.”

He rubbed his chin. “Maybe Victor
purchased it. It wouldn’t surprise me a bit.”

My eyes widened
. “Maybe he’s hiding mom there.”

“Nah. I think he may have moved h
er somewhere quiet. Probably out of town. There’s no way he’s going to keep her at a noisy place like that. Not when her pregnancy means so much to his plans for a ‘new world order’.”

“
I think we need to try and find this mad scientist he’s been bragging about. Then we’ll follow him, and eventually, he’ll lead us right to her.”

He moved his leg and groaned
. “Exactly.”

I frowned.
“I’m bringing you back to Duncan’s so you can rest your leg. Then I’m going to look for him.”

“What about Drake?”

“Drake is supposed to be at the cabin, so hopefully I’ll run into both.” I grabbed my phone from the dashboard. “He still hasn’t responded to my texts or voicemails. I’m getting really worried, Nathan. It’s been too many hours.”

“
Look, I’m coming with you to the cabin.”

I clucked my tongue.
“I think that’s a bad idea.”

He yawned. “I…
I just need a Red Bull or something to wake me up. Then I’ll be fine.”

“Nathan,
what you need is to stay off of that ankle.”

“
Eh, it’s really not that bad.”

“
It looked bad to me. It’s going to get worse if you don’t take care of it.”

“
Quit telling me what to do, and stop over there,” he pointed up ahead to a gas station.

Realizing that he wasn’t going to back down, I pulled into the parking lot.

“We should
probably get some gas while we’re here,” I said, stopping next to one of the pumps.

“Unleaded,” he replied
, pulling out his wallet. When he opened it, he sighed. “I’ve got five bucks left.”

“Guess I’ll be using Duncan’s credit card again,” I sa
id, pulling it out of my coat pocket.

“Whatever happened to
your purse?”

“
Flying while holding onto a purse is a little awkward.”

He snorted. “Bet you never
thought
that
would be an issue.”

I smirked. “Can’t say I did.”
I got out of the car and pumped twenty dollars’ worth of gasoline using the credit card. Then I walked into the gas station with Nathan’s five dollar bill.

“Hey, Nikki,”
said the attendant as I set two energy drinks onto the counter.

“Hi
, Michele,” I replied uneasily. I’d been in two of her classes at school and had found out fairly quickly that she was the gossip queen of Shore Lake.

She pushed a strand of dark hair behind her ear and gave me a sympathetic smile.
“I… uh, I heard about your mom. Sorry for your loss.”

“Thanks.”

“So, are you coming back to school here in town?”

I shrugged. “I’m not sure.
There’s so much going on.”

“
Speaking of which – did you hear about Duncan and Sonny? The guys who own the boat marina?”

“
No, what about them?” I asked, curious as to what she would say. Fortunately, she had no idea that Duncan and I were together.

Her eyes sparkled. “I heard that
Duncan killed his father and is now on the run from the cops.”

“What?
” I snapped. “That’s a bunch of crap. Where did you hear that?”

She looked a little taken aback.
“From Caleb’s daughter, Celeste. I mean, she would know, right?”

I stared at her in shock. “Celeste?”

“Yeah. She stopped by here earlier. Bought one of those smokeless cigarettes. I’ll bet her daddy is going to kill her if he finds out she’s smoking.”

“
Celeste was actually in here?” I asked, feeling as if the wind had been knocked out of me. “Today?”

“Yes. Just about an hour ago.”

“What else did she say?”

“Not much. Said her dad was in Vegas.”

“Did Celeste happen to say where she was heading?”

She punched the keys on t
he register. “That will be four twenty-eight. No, she didn’t really say, but I’m pretty sure she was going to that club down the road. Club Nightshade. She was certainly dressed for it. I’m sure she has a fake I.D. Wonder how daddy would feel if he knew about that, too?”

He probably got it for her in the first place,
I thought. I ignored the question. “Okay. Thanks,” I replied, handing her the money.

“So, you
really don’t think Duncan killed his dad?” she prodded.

Just hearing her say that made me want to throw up. I knew she’d spread the rumor to everyone in town before the end of the weekend if I didn’t try and do something about it. “Not at all. Celeste is
full of shit,” I replied. “And don’t you dare go telling anyone else that nonsense.”

“
Chill out. I would never do that,” she lied, having the gall to look appalled.

I
leaned forward and stared into her hazel eyes, until they dilated. “I mean it,” I replied evenly. “Duncan did
not
kill Sonny. Sonny is out of town. Do you understand?”

She nodded slowly.
“Yes, he’s out of town.”

“Who’s out of town?”

“Sonny,” she replied, her voice robotic.

Satisfi
ed, I stepped away from her, rushed out of the station, and got back into the car.

“Thanks,” said Nathan as I handed him both cans.
He set one down and opened up the other one. “What the hell took you so long?”

I nodded
toward the station. “I knew the girl at the counter. She just told me that Celeste was here earlier.”

His eyes widened. “Celeste? I thought Victor
took care of her.”

I smiled grimly.
“Guess not.”

“I wonder if she escaped
or if he actually let her go,” he said, taking a sip of the energy drink.

“I don’t know
. Nothing he does is predictable.”

“Maybe Drake knows
what’s happening with her.”

“
Yeah, and maybe that’s what he wanted to talk to us about,” I replied, pulling out my phone.

Still no messages
…