The Better to Bite (22 page)

I wanted to be in that theater, too.

Dad lifted one brow. Crap. I knew that look. “Do I have to handcuff you to my chair?” He asked, voice flat.

He’d do it.

But then, I’d just roll the chair right out of there. I tried a smile. He liked my smiles. “No, I just—”

He moved fast. Should have expected it. He didn’t handcuff me to the chair, though. Instead, he hooked me to the giant filing cabinet to my left.
Snick.

“Seriously, Dad? Seriously?” I yanked. The filing cabinet was way bigger than me and weighed a ton. No dragging that with me. But maybe a drawer…

“You’re staying in here.” An order now. “And keep quiet. The less attention we attract from this group, the better.”

So he said.

My dad slipped from the room. I glared after him. Protecting me was sweet, but annoying. He knew how much I wanted in on this part of the action. After everything that had happened, I deserved this. I’d found the journal—the journal that was now locked in his desk drawer. He hadn’t even thanked me for discovering that vital book. I’d found the key to their identities, and now—

I wanted to see the wolves.

I stretched, pointing out with my shoes. My bag was on the floor, just a few feet away, just a few…

The tip of my sneakers brushed the bag.

I smiled. My lock set was still in my purse. Sometimes, it paid to be prepared.

I would have been such a good girl scout.

I slipped out of the station. Getting past Shirley at the front was too easy. She never even glanced back as I crept from the office. She was too busy checking her social pages on the computer.

I headed out the back door and kept to the shadows as I made my way to the theater. The voices were muted now that everyone was inside, and I could barely hear a thing.

But that was okay. Soon, I’d be seeing plenty.

I pressed against the cold, stone wall of the theater. I rose onto my toes and glanced in the window. There were about a dozen people inside. Men, women. Pacing. Pointing. Looking very, very uncomfortable—

Oh, crap, that was the principal! Mr. Knoxley! He was a wolf? I’d flipped through the book too fast to see his name.

Rafe’s dad was there. Brent’s mom wasn’t. Not a real surprise. She was from out of town, so I hadn’t really thought she’d be cursed. Deputy Jon had taken up a position by my dad’s side, and my dad, well, he looked furious. He had his hands in the air, and I saw his lips move as he barked, “
Calm down, everyone.”

A twig snapped behind me. I froze. I was in the shadows, so I didn’t think I’d been spotted. I hoped not.

Slowly, carefully, I turned my head.

And I saw Cassidy. She was moving fast, hurrying toward the entrance of the theater, and, oh God, she had a gun in her hand.

A gun.

I leapt from the shadows. “
Cassidy!”
Her head jerked at my cry and the moonlight fell on her tear-stained face. Her eyes widened, and she started running for the theater door.

Sissy’s father had wanted revenge when he found out a wolf killed his daughter. He’d gone into the woods, shooting at every wolf he saw.

Cassidy didn’t have to go into the woods. All the werewolves were waiting for her, trapped in that theater.

Rafe. Brent. Mr. Knoxley. “
No!”
I screamed as I raced after her. I moved faster than I’d ever moved. So fast. But Cassidy beat me to the door.

I knew what would happen when my dad and Deputy Jon saw her with a weapon.
I knew.

Even if she was too far gone with grief to understand.

You’ll die, Cassidy.
I leapt into the air just as her hand slammed into the door and shoved it open.

Gasps filled the air. Cassidy yelled, “
Monsters!”
And she raised her gun.

In that split-second, time slowed for me.

“
Drop it!”
My dad’s snarled order, but Cassidy wasn’t dropping that gun. I couldn’t stop myself, either. I was in the air, flying toward her. Her hand was up, her fingers tight around the butt of the weapon. I heard a deafening boom even as I slammed into her back. We both hit the floor, hard enough for my bones to rattle.

Silence.

She still had the gun. I yanked it from her fingers and tossed it to the side. Everyone had turned toward us. Brent and Rafe rushed toward me. I didn’t think anyone had been shot, but that blast—

“
Anna.”
My dad reached me first. “Baby, it’s going to be all right.”

Sure it was. Cass hadn’t hurt anyone—that I could see—and she was okay, too. She was rising, pushing up and…

Why couldn’t I feel my arm?

I glanced down and realized that someone
had
been shot. 
Me.

My dad grabbed my wrist and clamped his fingers around my upper arm. My blood immediately stained his hand, and he swore. “Dammit, Jon, get me—”

“I’m
so
sorry!” Cass’s desperate voice yelled. “Anna, please, I don’t—”

I looked up. Jon had her. He’d already cuffed her. The others just stared with wide eyes and flashes of fangs. Rafe looked like he wanted to tear someone apart, and Brent’s glare could have burned the skin right off Cass’s face.

“Did you shoot?” I asked my dad.

He nodded.

He’d shot at Cass, and I’d taken the bullet. Because when I’d plowed into her, I’d knocked her out the bullet’s path.

“Silver.” This came from Rafe’s dad. He had Cass’s gun in his hand, and he’d opened the chamber.

There was a rumble from the group. Cass started crying. Between her sobs, she managed, “You bastards! You killed my grandmother!”

Dad’s hold on me was tight. “It’s okay.” He acted like he didn’t even hear Cass’s cries. “It’s just a flesh wound. The bullet nicked you, but you’re going to be just fine.”

The feeling had already started to come back in my arm, and it felt like fifty bees had decided to sting me—all in one place.

“We didn’t kill anyone!” Rafe’s dad shouted back at her. “We don’t hurt anyone, we don’t—”

A woman bent toward me. Pretty, with wide, hazel eyes and a soft face. “I’m a nurse, dear,” she said, “let me take a look.”

Reluctantly, my dad slid back. I’d noticed that Jon had positioned himself in front of Cass, and I wondered…

What will they do to her?

My dad braced his legs apart. “This shit stops now.” Hard, mean, but ice-cold, his voice cut through the rumblings in the room.

Rafe bent next to me and pushed back my hair. “You okay?”I nodded.

“I know what you all are,” my dad snapped. The nurse was wrapping my arm in white gauze. Where’d she gotten that? No, not gauze, the material looked like someone’s torn t-shirt.

I blinked and realized Brent wasn’t wearing a shirt anymore.

“I know, just like I know that one of you is killing in Haven.”

That announcement led to silence. Cassidy’s tears kept falling, but now she looked more broken than enraged.

“Six hikers,” he said. “All dead. We all damn well know that Sissy Hamilton was stalked by a wolf and Helen—”

“
They killed her!”
Cassidy charged. Okay, so maybe she was still enraged.

My dad’s eyes narrowed on her. “Take her to the station, Jon. Keep her in the conference room until I get back down there.”

I winced when the nurse wrapped my arm a little too tightly. Rafe took my hand.

Jon led Cass out. More like dragged her out.

“She knows about us,” Charles Channing said quietly. “We can’t have the folks in Haven—”

“I’ll deal with her.” Again, my dad’s promise was ice-cold.  I didn’t speak, not yet. I figured I’d already done enough with my whole getting shot bit.

My dad glanced down at me. “Heather,” he said to the lady who’d just bandaged me, “take her to the hospital.”

No. I didn’t want to leave him. No way.

When my dad blinked, I realized I’d spoken. I cleared my throat and rose to my feet, with Rafe right beside me. My arm
burned.
Not bee stings anymore, but more like the skin and muscle had been doused in flame. I hadn’t realized that a bullet would feel so much like fire, but then, I hadn’t ever planned on getting shot, either. “I’m fine.” Maybe. Hopefully. I would be once the pain stopped. At least nothing vital had been hit.

“
Take her to the hospital
.” His eyes glittered. “I don’t want arguing from you, Anna. I want you safe, and I want you damn well safe
now.
”

Dad was definitely furious. I was the one who’d been shot.  Shouldn’t I get some sympathy from the man who’d accidentally shot his own daughter? Huh?

“I’ve got her, sir,” Rafe said and his hold on me was strong, but careful. His fingers didn’t come close to my wound.

Brent stepped forward, too. “I’ll make sure she gets there safely.”

Wasn’t that sweet. Pity the werewolves hadn’t moved fast enough to take a bullet for me. Maybe next time.

My dad stared at me as a muscle jerked in his jaw. He didn’t speak. Didn’t relent. Fine. Whatever.

I let Rafe and Brent lead me out of that theater.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Rafe muttered, his lips close to my ear.

I shivered. Okay, I wasn’t feeling so well right then. The pain wasn’t lessening up. And what
had
I been thinking? “That I couldn’t let her kill you.” Again, my normal routine of blurting kicked in, but I was far past the point of monitoring myself.

He glanced down at me in surprise.

Brent made a faint growling sound.

“Either of you,” I whispered.

Heather held the door open for us.

“There’s a killer in this room!” My dad’s voice thundered as we left. “And I’m finding out who he or she is!”

The air hit me. Chilled and carrying the faintest scent of…smoke.

Smoke? We’d only taken a few steps when the sharp odor fully registered.

We all seemed to catch the scent at the same time. Light plumes of smoke rose from the sheriff’s office. Rising slowly, slowly…

A loud
boom
rocked the night, and the station erupted in a ball of flames.

I screamed then, as loud as I could, and I rushed forward. But Rafe hauled me back.

“No, Anna, no!”

The fire crackled and windows shattered. Orange and red flames flared higher.

“Cass—she’s in there!” Not just her. “Jon and Shirley are inside! We’ve got to help them!”

Brent stared at the flames with a slack jaw. Voices rose behind us as those who’d been in the theater rushed outside.

Rafe nodded and pushed me back. “Stay here!” Then he raced for the burning station.

Stay—

Bodies pushed against me. My dad caught my uninjured arm and pulled me against him. The smoke was thick now, so thick. Chaos reigned as voices shouted and folks shoved to get away from the scene. My dad’s body curled around me, protecting me, as he led me around the burning station and to safety.

In moments, I found myself standing in front of the station. “Baby, don’t come any closer to the fire.” My dad stared down at me, the lines on his face deeper than I’d seen before. “I have to go in…my people are in there. But you—
please, stay out here where it’s safe.”
He nodded and someone—nurse Heather—took my arm as he stepped away.

I blinked against the smoke. I couldn’t see Rafe. Couldn’t see Brent. My dad had already advanced toward the blaze, and I could hear him, yelling orders left and right.

A siren blared. The fire station was only a couple of blocks away, and I knew the truck would be there soon.

Soon enough?

Rafe burst out of the building then. He had Shirley slung over his shoulder. Jon and Cass were right behind him. Jon had Cass in a fireman’s carry and he was hauling butt for all he was worth.

When I saw them all, I started to breathe again.

The fire truck raced onto the scene. The firefighters leapt off the truck and yanked out their hoses.

The station kept burning.

Rafe put Shirley down on the grass. Ash stained her face and clothes and her wide eyes just stared at the scene around her with a kind of desperate shock.

Cass still had on her handcuffs. She wasn’t crying now. I didn’t even know if she realized what was happening.

Rafe turned toward me. His blue gaze seemed to sear me. I glanced down and saw the bright, red blisters on his hands.

“
Rafe,”
my horrified whisper.

“Jon, what the hell happened in there?” My dad demanded as he pulled Cass away from the deputy. “Is anyone else inside?”

Jon shook his head. Like Shirley, ash covered him. “It’s clear.” He coughed, shoving some of the smoke from his lungs.

The firefighters were headed inside the station now. The scent of fire stung my nose.

Normally, at a fire scene, the crowd gets bigger as the firefighters battle the blaze. Onlookers come out to gawk. This time, the crowd was getting smaller, real fast. The wolves were slipping away, not wanting to be seen.

Brent was gone. Mr. Knoxley had vanished.

Rafe stayed, and he stayed right by my side.

“Your office,” Jon managed to say between coughs. “The fire—it just exploded from your office.”

The office I’d been handcuffed in moments before?

It wasn’t my night.

I glanced back at the fire. Then I realized I could have been inside when the blaze started.

Huh. Maybe it
was
my night.

An ambulance roared onto the scene. One, then another. My dad’s arm wrapped around my shoulders. “Go, baby…”

The EMTs jumped out. One raced for Shirley. One headed for Jon and Cass. My dad dragged another over to me. “My daughter’s been shot, and she needs to get checked out ASAP.”

“Shot?” The EMT’s dark eyes widened. “I thought—I thought this was a fire call.”

The night was full of surprises. I motioned to Rafe. “He’s burned, he needs—”

I saw his hands and realized that the blisters were already gone.

“He needs to ride with her to the hospital,” Rafe said smoothly.

My dad frowned at him.

“Trust me, Sheriff,” Rafe told him, “I can take care of her.”

My dad’s stare measured him. “You’d better.”