Night Howls (15 page)

“I really think you should join us. With you on our side, overthrowing the Collective would be child's play,” Sean says advancing towards us slowly.

“I don't see how replacing one set of loonies with another will help paranorms, so I will continue to decline your invitation. When the Collective is overthrown, we will be looking for logical people to lead the different species. I don't think you would qualify.”

“Are you sure?” he asks getting even closer. What is wrong with him? I said we were leaving, why is he trying to get all close and personal?

“You need to step back,” Alex says trying to control his wolf. He is getting really frustrated and it won't take much more for him to turn. I don’t think punching Sean again will be as easily forgiven.

“You aren't feeling the desire to be one of us?” Sean asks finally stopping his advance.

“No. I am feeling the desire to leave this place before I see how good your minions are in a fight where they cannot shift into wolves.” Clyde can keep them all human for me and he isn't exactly nice about his methods. Rumor is it really hurts to have him make you shift back.

“You are wearing protection amulets, I presume. Very smart of you to put them on before coming here,” he replies and the wind has eased out of his sails. The jackass was trying to work some mojo on us. No wonder his ranks grow every day. I am going to have to get my hands on whatever he is using and destroy it. It seems his followers don't all have a choice on whether they want to be members; something is going to have to be done about that.

I will have to thank Hilda for making amulets that cover more than just succubi. I have to assume that is why whatever Sean has isn't working on the guys. Why it doesn't work on me is anybody's guess.

“I am not wearing an amulet, so you must not be as bad ass as you thought you were. We are going to leave now and my twenty-four hour time frame still stands. You will be seeing me soon.” Wanting to get out of here pronto, I push the guys from the room. I have to start making plans on how to lure the big bad wolf away from his robot army.

I don't want it to be taken as me running away from a fight, so my pace isn't a mad dash, but I am booking it speedily away from the scene. Chances are about fifty-fifty that we could have taken the hundred or so of them, but I don't really want to cause damage to my guys if I don't need to.

“That didn't go as expected. Who would have thought he used magic to recruit his members,” Alex says climbing into the Suburban next to me. I wait until everyone else is in their seats and start the ol' girl up so we can get on the road.

When I put it in reverse, Sean's face appears in my door window. “I just wanted to reiterate my hope that you reconsider,” he says as I shake the surprise from my head. “We would make much better allies than enemies. My people would willingly follow you, even if we were not mated together like usual rulers.”

“Your followers will do whatever you want them to as long as you have them hypnotized. I bet most of them would be shocked at what they had to do to get in your little club.” With him out here alone, it is so tempting to just take out one of my knives and stab him a few times.

“I expect I will see you tomorrow, until then, my sweet,” he says and quickly runs away. He must have seen the gleam of his death in my eyes.

“So not what I was expecting,” I say backing up and continuing Alex's earlier train of thought.

“We have to kill him. There is no other way around this. If his groupies were doing it willingly, it would be one thing, but they aren't and the only way to separate them from his craziness is to cut off his head and take it bowling,” Alex says stating his opinion on the matter.

I have to say I like the idea of rolling Sean's head down the alley. Chances are it would be a gutter ball, but it would still be fun. I am going to have to see where the closest bowling alley is and whether it is paranorm or human run. I doubt the humans would enjoy my take on fun.

Chapter 19

Time to bring back the weekend bonfire

When we get back, Phee and Sam look like they are just arriving. Good. They didn't keep her too long. I didn't think to put a more permanent lock on her lips when I left her alone with the humans. I am afraid to find out what she let slip.

I would have liked to have a little time to calm down after the confrontation with Sean before I had to take in all that Phee is, but I never get what I want. Maybe if I just don’t get out of the vehicle she will go away. A quick glance in her direction tells me I am not going to get away with it.

“Can we just send Clyde out to greet her?” I ask hoping I get answers in the affirmative.

“You know it won’t do you any good. She looks like she has been saving something up.” Alex says and opens his door.

“You are supposed to be on my side for everything, traitor.”

“You keep telling yourself that, Babe,” he replies laughing and joins everyone else getting out of the Suburban. I guess I am going to have to join them, even Clyde has jumped out.

“Oh. My. God,” Phee exclaims as I get out of the vehicle. “Wasn't that just the coolest thing ever? My back is going to be in a movie. I still cannot believe it. I have to call everyone. Aren't you super excited about being in the film? You actually got to speak during it and you were so good. Will couldn't stop talking about you after you left. I really think they are going to be calling you about the next one. Do you think maybe we could convince them that your character needs a sister? I would be perfect for the part.” I really hope she takes a breath soon.

“And oh my gosh, you will not believe it, but they invited me to this big cast party tonight. Everyone is going to be there and they said I could come too. Do you guys want to go? I am sure they wouldn't mind if you tagged along. You are the big star of the day. They said it was supposed to be dressy, so I have to go figure out which of my dresses to wear. I want to make a really good impression on them.”

I cannot take it anymore. She has put her hands on each of my arms and is jumping up and down. “Phee, breathe.” I switch who is holding who with our hands and get her to stop jumping. No sugar for a week for Phee. I am thankful they didn’t find a speaking part for her. “I am glad you are happy with the part you played, but take it down just a notch or two. Is the entire crew going to be at this party?”

“It sounded like that was the case. They aren't done shooting or anything; they just thought the day went so well that they wanted to celebrate.” They must not be used to their leading ladies being able to string words together to actually make sentences.

“Where is the party at?” I ask thinking this will be the perfect set up.

“Not far from the set. It's at...dang it I can't remember the name of the place.”

“It's at Bandits,” Sam supplies helping his girlfriend out.

“That's it. It is a bar, so I have never been there before, but I am going to make a special trip to hang out with the crew again. You should have seen it after you left. They treated me like a princess. I didn't have to do more than stand around with my top off for a few minutes and pretend to be kissing Will. He didn't even slip me his tongue at all. It was a little bit of a letdown after watching him practically maul you.”

Great. Remind me never to watch the movie. I don't particularly want to see myself mauled by a human. “How long before the party starts? I have some things I need to get together before then.”

“I am sure it has already started, but they said it would be going all night, so just stop by anytime,” she says and finally detaches herself from me. “I am going to go get ready. If you are going too, do you think we could all ride together?”

“It would be best if you and Sam take your own car. I also need you to come up and grab some amulets to wear before you go and make sure you are both armed. I will probably be doing battle tonight, and I don't want you guys making your way into the melee without being prepared.”

I grab Clyde away from Walt and head upstairs to get their charms ready and arm myself properly. I want my triple holster on for this. I love my sawed off and all, but it doesn't carry enough rounds for its bulk.

“You think they will try to get to another one of the humans tonight?” Alex asks joining me.

“I think Sean is going to want to try to flaunt his great power over us. I imagine at least one of his flunkies will be around causing problems. I want to make sure those humans make it through the night. The two deaths are already bad enough. We don't need the human government thinking they need to come in and police things for us. That will cause all sorts of headaches that none of us really need.”

“True, but I think that it would be a foolish move on his part if he went after someone so soon after meeting with us.”

“No one ever claimed he was smart. In fact, I would shout just the opposite from the rooftops. Humans outnumber paranorms about a bazillion to one. Pissing them off has no good outcome for us.” I have my holster in place and have switched out my knives to my favorites. I like to think of them as my lucky knives and if there is going to be killing done tonight, I am in need of a little luck.

“Fine. We will do it your way, as always. Do you think your miniature is ready yet? I know it only takes you as long as it takes to arm yourself to be ready to go, but I have a feeling she is going to take a little bit longer.”

I can just imagine the state of her room while she tries to pick out the perfect dress. “I will go hurry her along and take their amulets downstairs. I don't want to find her turned against me in battle. I could take her, but I don't like hurting the pipsqueak.” I hurry out of the room and to the elevator. Phee and Sam are two floors down. I have a secret passage that will lead me right to their apartment, but I tend not to use it.

I have showed up a few times unexpectedly to do some sneak attacks just to see how they fight when they are caught by surprise. They still need a little more practice. The first time I tried, they both slept right through me climbing on their bed and hopping up and down. I was embarrassed to admit they were my students. I went around collecting their weapons and then found some ice in the freezer. The cold got them moving real quick. Needless to say, they have learned to sleep just a little lighter.

I arrive at their door and before I have a chance to knock, Sam swings the door open. He doesn't have to speak; the look on his face says it all. If Phee wasn’t his mate, he would be strangling her. I feel so sorry for him. He is a nice kid and Phee is a nice girl, but she would drive Millie nuts with all of her talking and that poor woman cannot hear a thing.

“Give me five minutes,” I say and push past him handing him a charm on the way to their bedroom. The view before me is pretty much what I expected. Hurricane Phee has been on a rampage. Clothing is thrown everywhere and don’t get me started on the number of shoes I see. This is bad.

“Sam, I think this dress makes me look fat. What do you think?” she asks coming out of her closet.

“I think it is impossible for anything to make your skinny ass look fat. What in the world is all of this mess?”

“Oh Nyx, good you are here. You can help me figure out what to wear tonight. It has to be perfect and none of those dresses work,” she says waving her hand in the general direction of Mount Dressia. I knew I should have burned all her girlie things when I took her under my wing. We wouldn’t be having this discussion if I was smart. There are a lot of stupid conversations I could avoid if I just went with my gut instincts.

“You are going to a party with a bunch of humans, why in the world do you care what they think about how you look?”

“Why wouldn’t I? They are famous. I know you don’t get into all the stars and glitter of Hollywood, but Will is really famous. If I didn’t have Sam, I would totally try to hit that.” Oh Lord, help me.

“I heard that Phee. You know I don't like it when you talk about other guys like that,” Sam yells from the other room.

“I was just joking. Lighten up,” Phee shouts back.

Both me and Sam know she wasn't joking one bit. I sometimes wish werewolves shared the unable to lie to your mate trait that vampires have. I think Phee would be changing her tune with a quickness. I know Phee loves Sam like she loves her Prada shoes that just went flying across the room. She is still young and just doesn't feel like she is ready to grow up. I haven't been a child since I was about five, so I don't really understand her thinking.

“Just wear what you have on. The purple looks great on you,” I tell her hoping to move her along.

“It is mauve,” she says enunciating it with emphasis on the O that isn't actually in the word. “It does look pretty good on me, doesn't it?” She moves back to her full length mirror and admires herself. Good. I have her on the right track. “Where did I put my Jimmy Choo wedges? They will help with the height issue.”

She goes back to frantically look through her piles of clothes. Why she cares if people think she is short is beyond me. I am finding a lot of things are beyond me lately. “Just grab a pair of shoes and let's go. Even though we are taking separate vehicles, I want us to arrive together.”

“Here they are,” she says triumphantly rising out of her pile with some scary looking things that I assume she considers shoes. They don’t look very practical to me. Any heel type shoes that I own double as a weapon. Whether they have actual blades hidden in them or are just nicely sharpened stilettos, I can use them to defend myself.

“Great. Here is your amulet. Put it on and let's get out of here.” Never again am I going any place with Phee if she is required to dress up. I wonder if I could convince Sam it was a good idea to “accidentally” start a fire in her closet. He is probably too whipped to go for it, but it is a thought.

Chapter 20

Lord, save us from humans on drugs

The ride to Bandits is a quick one. My foot is to the floor most of the way. If a human happened to get themselves killed while I was stuck waiting on Phee, she is going to be feeling my wrath. There are times I wish her and Jake were mates, so I could just lock them both in a room together and let them be two-year-olds. Most of the time, I realize what a nightmare the two of them banding together for anything would be and make sure they never spend time alone.