Once Bitten (7 page)

“It is
the truth. Both Kaleb and I are werewolves,” Gabriel said. Lila heard the
strength in his voice and she couldn’t help but wonder how her friends were
going to react when they finally saw him turn for themselves.

A mix
of complete disbelief and anger was plastered on Beth’s face. “You, sir, are
insane.”

Natalie
was still grinning. “I think it’s funny.”

“You
would.” Beth’s comment got her a swift smack on the leg.

Gabriel
sighed and looked around Lila to his brother, who was leaning against the
windowsill as he regarded them with interest. “Kaleb, show them.”

Without
hesitating, Kaleb strode forward to where there was more space. Gabriel stood,
keeping close to his brother.

His
large body blocked any view Lila would have had of Kaleb as he stripped out of
his clothes, but Lila wasn’t interested in seeing Kaleb naked. She watched her
friends’ reactions.

Natalie
gawked openly at him, which Lila fully expected from her. It was Beth’s
reaction that confused her. Beth blushed a deep crimson and averted her eyes
when Kaleb kicked off his pants. A blushing Beth was something that Lila had
never seen before. She hadn’t even known it had been possible.

“Is
this really necessary?” she snapped at Lila.

Before
Lila could respond, the now familiar sound of bones popping had Beth jerking
her attention back to Kaleb. Her spine straightened and both hers and Natalie’s
eyes widened. When Lila heard Kaleb growl, a deep guttural sound, she peeked
around Gabriel, who still stood next to his brother, unchanged.

Kaleb
looked similar to the way his brother had when he had changed, only he hadn’t
grown as tall as Gabriel had. Kaleb’s beast was stocky and solid muscle. It
looked like he could easily overtake Gabriel now with just the flick of his
hand, and Lila cringed inwardly.

Thankfully,
the instinct to run wasn’t there anymore. She knew the consequences of that and
it wasn’t something she was willing to repeat. It helped that Kaleb was focused
on Natalie and Beth, not her. She didn’t envy her friends at the moment.

Natalie
seemed glued to the chair, her jaw dropped. Beth, however, stood and
inadvertently drew Kaleb’s attention directly to her with her movement. Lila
heard the growl building in his chest and so did Beth, who looked ready to
bolt. Kaleb seemed to sense Beth’s intense desire to flee.

His
vivid green eyes narrowed as he honed in on her. He stared at Beth just as
Gabriel had stared at her earlier. He saw everything. Kaleb made a slight
movement toward her, but Gabriel put his hand in the center of his brother’s
chest. He pushed him back and came between him and the two women.

“Kaleb.”
When Gabriel spoke, Kaleb’s focus snapped away from Beth. “That’s enough.”

Kaleb
closed his eyes and started shrinking back to his regular self. After a minute
he was pulling on his clothes. When he was fully dressed, he silently went to
the front door, opened it and disappeared outside. Beth watched him leave, but
Natalie was already throwing questions at Gabriel like a curious child.

“How do
you do it?”

“Change?”
He seemed taken aback by her eagerness as he sat back down on the couch next to
Lila.

“Yeah.
Were you guys bitten by other werewolves?” She was on the edge of the chair,
leaning forward.

“No. We
were born this way. There are no bitten werewolves.”

“Do you
go running around chasing rabbits and stuff at the full moon?”

“Umm…we
do change involuntarily at the full moon and I’ve eaten a few rabbits in my
day.” It was obvious to Lila that Gabriel was quickly becoming uncomfortable with
Natalie’s line of questioning.

“Too
cool!” Natalie was laughing and the stumped look on Gabriel’s face was
priceless. Lila bit back her own smile.

“So you
just wanted us to come over so you could show us your new pet?” Beth asked,
sitting back down on the arm of the chair and sipping her coffee like nothing
had happened.

Beth’s
question stung. She knew Beth well enough to know that she had just been
terrified and was now trying to make up for it by being a bitch. It was her
defense mechanism, one that Lila wasn’t overly familiar with, thank goodness. “No.
There’s more.”

Beth
glanced at her watch. “Spill it then.”

 
Lila ignored her and launched into the
information she had learned from Gabriel about the Netherworld and the problem
they were now facing with the warlocks. Gabriel had to interject to clarify
things a few times, but for the most part she was able to do most of the
explaining without his assistance. She was quite proud of herself.

“But
why us?” Natalie asked her, confused.

“Remember
last weekend? They think we’re witches.”

The
room went quiet. Lila waited a few moments to let it all sink in for them,
hoping that they wouldn’t overreact.

Beth
was the first to come to grips. “I knew something crazy was going to happen, I
just never in my wildest dreams imagined it would be something like this. Leave
it to Carey to try to find soul mates for us by using her magic.”

“I
liked the idea of finding a husband,” Natalie interjected.

“Oh,
who the hell cares about husbands or soul mates, Natalie? If there are
werewolves, then there are probably a lot of things out there and apparently
some of those things want us dead. It just figures.” Beth got up and stomped
into the kitchen, dumping the little bit that was left of her coffee into the
sink. She folded her arms over her chest and stared out the kitchen window.

“This
is crazy,” Natalie muttered, staring at the floor.

“Tell
me about it,” Lila said, leaning forward to place her empty coffee mug on the
table.

Natalie
was quiet for a minute, staring intently at her hands. “So what do we do now?”
she asked as she lifted her head to look at Gabriel.

 
Gabriel’s side pressed against her,
sending tingles down her arm as he spoke to Natalie. “We hide you away and keep
you safe until either the lingering magic wears off or the warlocks are no
longer interested, whichever comes first.”

“And
how long is that going to take?”

 
“I would imagine not until the next full
moon, which is three weeks away. Just as long as you guys don’t practice any
more magic.”

Beth
had wandered back in the living room in time to hear Gabriel. “Three weeks! I
have work!”

“I have
plans!”

Lila
knew exactly what kind of plans Natalie had. “Would you rather be dead or
dateless Natalie?”

“It’s
the same damn thing!”

Both
Natalie and Beth were talking at the same time, neither one of them making much
sense to Lila. She covered her eyes with her hand in an attempt to block them
out. Their incessant arguing was beginning to make her head pound.

 
Gabriel had just put his hand on her arm
when the screen door banged open. Lila jumped at the sudden noise and Gabriel
stiffened beside her. When she saw Kaleb walk in with another man, she relaxed
and the noise in the room died.

Everyone
turned to look at the man, whom Lila could only assume to be Declan, based on
the close family resemblance. Minus his lighter coloring, he looked like both
Gabriel and Kaleb. The serious look on his face made the hair on the back of
Lila’s neck stand on end. Whatever he had come to tell them wasn’t good and
panic started to rise in Lila’s chest.

Gabriel
stood and faced the two men. “What did you find?”

 
Declan glanced at Lila and then back at
Gabriel. When he shook his head, Gabriel’s shoulders sunk.

Lila
jumped to her feet, refusing to be kept out of such an important conversation,
even a silent one. They were dealing with Andrea, who was more than Lila’s best
friend, she was the only person Lila still considered family. They were closer
than sisters.

“What
did you find? Did you find Andrea?” Lila demanded when she realized he wasn’t
going to elaborate.

Declan
looked toward Gabriel as if waiting for his approval, which only pissed her
off. She saw Gabriel give a swift nod out of the corner of her eye and Declan
looked back at her, his face grim.

“The
door was ajar and so I went in. It was obvious there had been a struggle. The
TV in the living room was on and there was an ironing board and iron on the
floor. I followed the scent of the female upstairs to her bedroom where I found
the smell of gunpowder, two shell casings and a warlock’s blood on the wall
next to the door and on the floor. She injured him, but not mortally. The other
bullet struck her ceiling.

“From
what I could tell they dragged her downstairs and out the back door where they
had a car waiting, probably a van or SUV, judging by the size of the tire
treads. I smelled three warlocks inside, one of whom was very powerful. He was
the one she injured.” He said the last part to Gabriel, who looked pensive.

Lila
could feel the hysterics growing within her chest, threatening to rupture
through. “She’s alive. Isn’t she?”

“When
they took her from her house, she was alive,” he confirmed but he didn’t have
to tell her that may not be the case now. Anything could have happened in
between the time they took her and then.

Lila
refused to believe Andrea was dead. She knew her cousin, and Andrea did what
was necessary to survive. She didn’t just react and throw punches like Lila
did, Andrea took the time to decide on her actions, waiting for the right
moment to strike. She was smart and crafty. She would find a way to get away or
if she couldn’t, she would hang in there until they were able to locate her.

It was
hard to imagine anyone she cared about in the hands of warlocks, especially
Andrea. Andrea was so timid and quiet, forever patient and never raising her
voice unless it was absolutely called for. Hell, she wouldn’t even curse, no
matter how mad she got. She certainly didn’t deserve to be dragged into this
mess.

Lila
sunk back down to the couch and buried her face in her hands. She couldn’t cry,
even though she wanted to. Beth and Natalie were on her in an instant, pushing
Gabriel aside as they crowded around her. She didn’t hear anything they said to
her, she just thought about Andrea. Whatever happened, she had to prevent what
had happened to her from happening to anyone else she cared about.

Natalie
looked at Lila as she spoke to the men. “We need to report this to the police.”

“No
police involvement,” Gabriel said, his voice unwavering.

Natalie
jumped to her feet and squared off with Gabriel. “Someone has to report her
missing!”

Declan
immediately agreed with Gabriel. “We can’t involve the police, or any other
human for that matter. There’s too much at stake.”

“Someone
probably will report her missing once she misses work for a day or two,” Beth
said as she sat back on her heels.

“Not
for several days, at least. Her coworker said she got a weird call from her
this morning saying she was sick.” Lila watched as Beth’s face fell.

Beth
glared at the men who were standing together in a unified front. “I don’t like
this.”

“There
is no other way. The police won’t be able to find her if we can’t and involving
them risks all of the Netherworld to the threat of exposure,” Gabriel calmly
explained.

Lila
understood where he was coming from, but she didn’t understand how they thought
it would be that easy. “What happens when someone comes to her house to check
on her and finds it disturbed with blood on her walls?”

“I
straightened it. If someone does come by, they’ll find the doors locked and the
house free from signs of a struggle,” he said.

Lila
was about to protest when Gabriel cut her off. “Lila, if the police get
involved it will only put them in danger. Warlocks will kill without regard to
human life, especially if humans come around snooping. From the outside it will
appear as if she just vanished. Only the people in this room will know the
truth.”

Lila
met Gabriel’s eyes and stood, her fists clenched at her sides. She lifted her
chin. His brown eyes softened when he saw the pain in her face but she knew he
was not going to budge on the issue of reporting her missing.

Her
voice was soft when she finally spoke. “I want her back.”

“I don’t
know how we can find her. We don’t even know where their compounds are and
we’ve been looking for them for some time now. They are shielded by magic and I’m
sure they will be well protected. The only thing we can do right now is to
prevent it from happening again by assigning your friends a protector and
splitting up.”

“Why
not all stay together? There’s power in numbers,” Beth pointed out.

“It’s
easier to hide one or two people all over the place than to have one large
group together, especially with warlocks. If the magic you used is still
clinging to you, having all of you staying together would just have them here
that much faster,” Declan said.