Under My Skin (11 page)

Open your eyes.
A male voice whispered, curling around me—an invisible embrace.

You know you want to watch.

Wade’s voice.

Too close.

In my head.

Vamping around in my thoughts.
Damn
.

I should be freaking about now. So why did I have the urge to strut right up to Wade, press myself against him and… Talk about wrongness.

I squeezed my eyelids together so hard squiggly golden dots appeared. I fought against the seductive invasion. Vampires had influence over the weak, working their specialized, hot and heavy mojo.

Taking a shuddering breath, I forced myself beyond the sultry heat washing over me, through me—to find a way to stop him.

Hmm…yes, stop him from ever looking at another girl. Everything he desired rested here in me. Fierce possessiveness, wanton, aching need. I gasped at the churning emotions.

Not mine.

Not real.

No wonder Paige obsessed over Wade. I’m sorry,
I
wasn’t going to fall for his smoke and mirrors. My eyes flew open as Wade’s right fist connected squarely with Alec’s nose. A spray of blood sprinkled the concrete as Alec staggered.

Blood. Fresh. Tantalizing. Purely human. Damn, I’d gone from the frying pan directly to the source of the flame. My pulse drummed in my neck. The bad news? That wonderful aroma meant Alec was hurt.

I looked away from the bloody concrete and tried to remember my hunter training, tried to focus on Alec’s injuries. No broken bones, just swelling where a clawlike scratch marked his cheek. He swiped a hand under his nose to clear the blood.

A smile hovered on Wade’s lips. His eyes glowed. He was taunting Alec, flaunting his strength. With me too, because I couldn’t fight his influence and tune out the heady scent of blood at the same time.

I told you the Delacroix were dangerous.
Wade’s voice again, bold and confident. Only his lips weren’t moving. He didn’t even look in my direction as he and Alec stalked each other in a wary circle.
Smashing my car, attacking me this way was stupid, Eryn. See how careless they are?

My breath caught in my throat. Why was he mind-talking as if he knew every doubt I had about the Delacroix? Wade laughed aloud, and a ripple of fear crawled up my spine. And then it hit me.

Lovely.

Wade could not only enter my bedroom, he could tap into my thoughts. My body tensed as if to run. Pointless. No escape. Wade prowled in my mind like he owned me. My wolf roared in outrage. I couldn’t manage them both. Desperate to shut Wade out, my vamp-thrall, beast-wracked brain began regurgitating hunter-vampire rules of engagement. Christian symbols had power. The cross. The rose. Both red with blood. No. There was something else. Something my father told me. That’s it! I imagined a solid limestone wall and slammed it to the ground between us.

An unbearable quiet settled over me. How singular and strange. I tamped down the surge of loneliness that begged me to stop fighting and let Wade in. To let him know the wolf, to understand
me
.

Hadn’t I already learned my lesson? Though I wouldn’t rest until I saw my parents’ bodies with my own eyes—whether they were alive…or dead—even they had never understood me.

So why did I expect it from a vamp witch? Or a small town hunter for that matter?

Bitterness strengthened the mental wall between me and Wade as he and Alec circled each other. I’d broken his link, beaten the affect. Barely. I shivered. Why hadn’t I paid more attention when my father had bored me with a lecture on visualization techniques and how to use them?

A shove from behind caught me off guard. I stumbled. Brit, and she was panting. The effort to get assistance quickly, without breaking into a run, had obviously tired her out. She was lucky she hadn’t gone all seizure-y and collapsed on the concrete. How in the world did she function as a hunter? Why would Alec let someone with such a disability join his crew? Sure, Brit was smart and a great cheerleader, but she’d mess up a hunt. It didn’t make sense.

I held out a hand to steady her.

“I brought reinforcements,” she yelled, although she was right beside me.

I flinched and covered my ears as her words screamed through my head. What Brit lacked in speed, she made up for in volume. I’d been concentrating so hard on blocking Wade, I’d forgotten to regulate my hearing to human levels.

Mr. Riggs and Matt shouldered past us and rushed into the middle of the fight. Mr. Riggs wedged himself in front of Wade as Matt grabbed Alec and whispered harshly into his ear as he pulled him away from Wade. I held my breath. Would Alec out Wade? Would Wade say
screw you
to the norm world and out himself? Right there in the Redgrave High parking lot?

A sea of curious faces surrounded the fight. Elbows and shoulders collided as students jostled each other for a better view. They hummed like fallen power lines, ready to do some damage. How blind my mom had been to human failings. One schoolyard squabble revealed their potential for violence. The kids shoving to get a better view proved wolven weren’t the only beasts who enjoyed a good brawl.

My breath whooshed out on a relieved sigh as Alec and Wade were forced apart. Chests heaving, each turned away to inspect his vehicle for damage.

Matt ran his hands over the truck’s smashed-in hood, then shot Alec a dark look. Clearly, the brothers would have their own battle over Alec’s stunt.

“We were right.” Brit’s mouth twisted in an ugly grimace. “Wade’s paranorm through and through. If he were human, we’d be scraping pieces of his cabbage brain off the dashboard.”

I scrunched my face. “Lovely image. And what a way to prove it. I hope Alec has severe whiplash or something.” I linked my hands to hide their trembling. “He deserves it for pulling a lame stunt like this. Now’s probably not the time to say this, but didn’t Matt accuse
me
of being a hothead liability?”

Brit heaved a sigh. “Yeah, how’s that for irony? A week ago this wouldn’t have happened. But in the last few days Alec has started acting a bit…”

“Out of his mind?” I supplied.

“Unpredictable.”

“Hmm,” I mumbled, watching Alec run a frustrated hand through his black hair. “In the last few days?”

“Right.” Brit cocked an eyebrow at me.

“You mean since I moved to town?”

Brit sighed like my dimness was too much to bear and nodded. Once.

“Ohhhh....” I stared at Alec with renewed curiosity. So I had Alec all twitterpated, did I? I pulled my gaze away from his broad shoulders. All the more reason I should steer clear of the crew. Hunting and flirting went together like a land mine and a clown on a pogo stick.

Mr. Riggs brushed between me and Brit. “Show’s over folks. Move along.”

Everyone groaned in disappointment at his words. “Pick up the pace, or you’ll be running suicides after school all next week. Hustle, hustle, hustle.” His threat scattered the stragglers.

“Girls,” he yelled in our direction. “Wade says you saw the accident. The police will be here soon to take your statements. Don’t go running off.”

The weight of Wade’s and Alec’s gazes both pulled me in different ways. A speedy escape would be so good right now. Being held for questioning because I’d witnessed the school’s hottest guys smash up their rides and brawl in public wasn’t exactly keeping a low profile. Wait till the Hunter Council got a whiff of this.

But I wanted to take off for reasons other than keeping my nose clean. I had issues with uniforms. Doctors, nurses, shrinks in suits. And I wasn’t too comfortable with the whole stop-or-I’ll-shoot thing cops had going either. After my parents disappeared, the police interviewed me, looking for clues, anything to help them figure out where my parents might have gone or who might have wanted them dead. I told the officers nothing. They were out of their league. No way were they ready for the monsters of my world.

I couldn’t believe the way the cops treated me, though. Like
I
was on their list of suspects, me—the kid with the missing parents. The
victim
. I’d woken that morning to find my parents gone. That was all I could tell them. They’d wanted more. They’d asked questions, the same ones over and over. Phrased a hundred different ways. But my story never changed, because paranormal or not, that was what happened. My parents vanished.

The finer details of those few weeks were a blur, lost in a haze of pain and fear, but I no longer had any illusions. Chivalrous cops didn’t exist. Today’s breed of law enforcement was jaded and suspicious, and generally not so nice. And who knew? In Redgrave, they might also be vampires.

I had bitten my fingernails down to ravaged stumps by the time two officers arrived in a police car. It appeared the cops were on a first name basis with Wade. One even patted him on the back as if they were old buddies.

Nepotism, anyone?

Brit wrapped her arms around her waist, her face bleak. “No one messes with the chief’s son. He’s untouchable. My dad tried to give Wade a speeding ticket once and almost got fired.”

I grimaced. “I forgot your dad was a taser toter.” Life with a cop would be the ultimate freak out. You would either get away with murder, or you’d have no life of your own. “So Wade’s dad is your dad’s boss?” I was getting lost in the incestuous nature of Redgrave and its police force.

“Our families used to be real close. Until Blake died.” Brit shook her head. “My dad hasn’t been the same since.”

I frowned, about to ask her for more details, when a cop about my height, overweight and barrel-chested, approached us. He gave Brit a brief glance of acknowledgement before settling his probing gaze on me.

“Eryn McCain?” he asked, pulling a ballpoint pen from a breast pocket monogrammed with the name “Officer Flutie.”

I nodded.

“You moved in with Marcus McCain. Is that correct? You’re the niece?”

I nodded again, slowly. How did he know that? And what did it have to do with the smash-up-derby I’d witnessed?

“Give your uncle a message for me, will you?” Flutie bared his teeth in a smile. “Tell him the next time he shows up on private property with his group of wing-nut treehuggers, we won’t be so accommodating.” He flicked his pen with a hard snap of his thumb, stuffed it back into his pocket, and stalked to his cruiser. His partner, who’d been chatting with Wade, joined him. They both glared over at me and Brit before getting in their vehicle.

“Guess he didn’t want a statement after all.” I shot Brit a questioning look, my stomach tense. “Any idea what that was about?”

She shook her head. “Just ’cause my dad’s a cop doesn’t mean I understand the way their minds work. Especially Redgrave cops.” She looked past me, her expression hard.

A strong hand pressed down on my shoulder. “You see, Eryn.” Wade’s voice was like velvet—and nails on a chalkboard—as his cool breath fanned along my neck. “If you and Alec’s band of merry men are so concerned with bringing down all of Redgrave’s bad guys, I’m the least of your worries.” He paused and ran his finger down my arm. His touch burned through my jacket like frostbite. “You better start looking in your own backyard.”

Wade had clearly been snooping around in my thoughts for a while now. He knew I was worried about him getting into my uncle’s house and that I was thinking of working with Alec’s crew.

I took a deep breath and checked my limestone shield, pleased he hadn’t found a way around it. Part of me wanted to toss Wade to the ground and stake him with the nearest piece of wood, but part of me, the dark predator trying to claw its way out of me, hungered for Wade. A vampire with witchy powers. A hybrid. Like me. Didn’t mean I could trust him. Or anyone.

“Do you mind?” I shrugged the weight of his hand from my shoulder and shoved any sympathy I had for him to a far, isolated corner of my mind. We were not the same. I was on the good-guy side of the line. Wade? Not so much. “If I wanted something dead around my neck, I’d get a fur coat.”

“That’s what I like about you.” He placed a hand to his heart. “You’re so honest it hurts.”

Brit took a step forward. “You want to hurt?” She shot a look to her left as Alec and Matt stalked toward us, their expressions fierce. “We can make that happen.”

Wade smiled slightly at the crew’s united front. His gaze drilled into mine. “Talk to your uncle, Eryn. Ask him how his day went. I’m sure it will be an enlightening conversation.” He winked, but before I could respond he was at the tow truck, climbing inside. His damaged sports car swayed on the hitch, resembling a crushed beer can on a frat boy’s head.

Alec glowered as they pulled out of the parking lot. The loose bumper scraped along the concrete and let off sparks. “What did
he
want?”

“I’m not sure I should tell you,” I snapped. “You might go all look-at-me-I’m-a-crazed-berserker again.”

“
Berserker.
Now there’s a word you don’t hear every day.” Matt hugged Brit. “But in this case, I agree with Eryn. Brother of mine, you were way out of line. I know you’ve been weirded out ever since Mom told you—”

At a dark look from Alec, Matt glanced quickly at me and then back at Alec. “Well, you’ve been edgy lately, but that
doesn’t
mean it’s okay to act without consulting the rest of us.”

“I said I’d give Wade a message,” Alec said. “That’s sharing information. Besides, now we know for sure Wade’s a paranorm. And if Eryn’s dream theory holds up, he’s possibly a vampire who’s able to walk in sunlight.” Alec gave me an assessing glance. “But you still haven’t told us what Wade said to you.”

“Oh, he put the moves on Eryn, but she brushed him off.” Brit jumped in with a wave of her hand. “But before that, the police officer pretty much threatened Eryn’s uncle. I’ve never seen him before, so he must be one of Logan’s new recruits. I definitely felt negative vibes coming off him, didn’t you, Eryn?”

I shrugged. “Aren’t negative vibes what cops do best?”

Brit looked a bit forlorn.

Oops. I’d forgotten about Officer Dad. “I have no idea what Flutie was talking about. Something about Marcus and a group of treehuggers. Maybe they protested on private property and the cops got involved.” I paused. “Although I’ve never thought of Marcus as the protest type.” Nope, that was more my mother’s thing.