Under My Skin (15 page)

A single yelp, choked off in the middle, then nothing. Not even the barking from the neighbor’s Lab that had been driving me crazy for the last week.

I pivoted sharply and broke into a run, with Alec tailing me.

At the wooden fence surrounding the yellow Lab’s yard, I gasped. Boards had been peeled back and shredded as if something large and paranormal had used them for a scratching post. A series of claw marks outlined the perimeter. I leaned closer and sniffed. A putrid stench lingered in the shredded wood fibers. Werewolf.

The grooves around the gap were deep, with five distinct claw marks. Whoa. Either these werewolves were unusually sloppy, leaving evidence like that behind, or they wanted to send us a personal message. Meaning they weren’t following the rules.

I stepped through the hole, but Alec pulled me back.

“Wait for Matt, he has the rifle.” His voice was a harsh whisper.

“Fine, stay here if you want to.” I pulled out my athame. “I can handle a werewolf on my own.”

Alec’s dark eyes glittered. “Really? You and your fancy butter knife weren’t doing so well when we saved you at the pet store.”

“That was a fluke.” I stood tall, a bit miffed when Alec smirked. He still had a foot on me, and my height didn’t intimidate him one bit. “I slipped in bunny blood.” Who did he think he was? Making me feel all defensive? Disrespecting my dagger? “There was more than a drop or two on the floor in case you hadn’t noticed. We’re talking a pool of blood.” I paused. “Several pools.”

“Oh, I noticed. But if you hadn’t been so cocky, you would have walked
around
it the way we did.” Alec’s disapproving tone clashed with his heated gaze as it traveled from my eyes to my lips and rested there.

I tromped on the sudden urge to tilt my chin invitingly. Just because we both had tempers didn’t mean we had to get hot and heavy at life and death moments. His gaze focused over my shoulder as if he expected someone to arrive any second, and I realized what he was up to. Damn him for using my own hormones against me.

“Are you done stalling?” I glanced around pointedly. “Matt’s still not here. I’m going in.” I placed my hands on either side of the hole and lifted one leg through.

Alec sighed. “You really are going to be the death of me.”

“What does that mean?” I shot over my shoulder.

“Nothing.” Alec waved me forward. “After you.”

Inside the yard, we spotted the Lab’s mangled chain and a few tufts of blood-drenched fur. I swallowed hard against a rush of guilt. If only I’d set the dog free when I’d wanted to… This was what came of following someone else’s rules.

I didn’t like it. Not one bit.

A gust of wind sent the werewolf’s scent drifting over the grass. It had jumped the fence and ducked into the woods that bordered Cowley Heights. But I couldn’t give chase, not with Alec around. I was feeling seriously stifled.

“Heya,” Brit called breathlessly from the alley side of the splintered fence. Alec and I trotted over and peeked through the gap.

She stood with Matt in the alley, Alec’s truck sputtering behind them, the dents punched out, but sounding barely roadworthy.

“We got him.” Matt’s gaze skimmed over me and then settled on his brother’s face. “What’s going on?”

He climbed through the fence, followed by Brit.

Alec sighed. “The male wasn’t hunting alone. One scooped up a dog.”

Matt grabbed Alec’s flashlight and cast it over the lawn, the tree, the chain—the blood.

“Ewww…” Brit stopped in her tracks and turned her back to the tree and bloodstained chain. Her chest rose and fell rapidly as if she’d been speed walking and had pushed her limits. A sheen of sweat glistened on her forehead.

Maybe this was too much for her.

I elbowed Alec to bring my concern to his attention, but he ignored me.

“There’s bound to be leakage after a kill like that.” He eyed the fence boards. “My guess is he jumped the fence over there, attacked the dog, and then busted out here.” He rested a hand on my lower back to guide me through the gap in the fence. “Let’s pick up the trail.”

And that’s when Mrs. Lurgen turned on her deck light and all hell broke loose. She swept out onto her deck, a straw broom held high.

“Who’s there?” she called out. “Cujo, where’d you get to? Some guard dog you turned out to be…damn fleabag.”

Anger simmered inside me like steam from an espresso machine, ready to scald anyone standing too close.
She
was the one who’d left her dog tied to a tree night after night, helpless and abandoned, unable to escape when the werewolf attacked.
She
was the reason doggie bits were strewn all over her lawn. I wanted to smack her silly, gut her where she stood, and then really let her have it.

Mrs. Lurgen pulled a flashlight from her coat pocket and shined it around the yard, impaling us with its beam as we huddled around her fence. She gasped when she saw Alec. Her right hand twitched in front of her, her face scrunched into a mask of disgust, and then she spit in the air at us before she rushed back into the house.

“What,” Brit drawled, “was that?”

“That was the old evil eye,” I said, stunned and amused at the same time. “You know, make the sign of the cross, contort your face, and spit at the devil.”

We all glanced at Alec.

“Nice. So now I’m Satan.” Alec gave me a pained look. “Thanks.”

I grinned. “No problem. But we better get out of here before she calls the police.”

As we slipped through the fence, a wail of sirens rang in the night. We froze like gophers along the highway, trapped in a barrage of headlights. Two cruisers sped down the alley from either direction and squealed to a halt a few feet in front of and behind Alec’s idling truck.

I groaned. What happened to the delinquent Redgrave cops who didn’t even show for the pet shop disaster? I’m sorry, what part of keeping my nose clean didn’t I understand? I craned my neck as a cool breeze whipped my hair into my eyes. I cleared my vision and confirmed my suspicion—my uncle’s bedroom light was now on. The sirens had penetrated his snoring.

Crappers.

My good friend Officer Flutie bore down on us from one car, while a short, stocky officer came at us from the other. Matt stiffened and exchanged a meaningful glance with Alec. I looked to Brit for strategy cues, but she was no longer beside me.

She was gone. That was weird.

“Where’s Br—” I started.

Alec leaned into my shoulder, overwhelming me with his size and presence, forcing me to look up at him. He ever so slightly shook his head.

So I kept quiet, but I wondered how Brit had gotten away without running past one of the cars. Or had she snuck back into Lurgen’s yard? Not a smart idea. That woman was on the warpath.

“Well, isn’t this a surprise,” Flutie said to his partner as they stopped in front of us. “The Delacroix boys and…” He stared at me, his lips pursed in thought. “Marcus McCain’s niece. Eryn, wasn’t it?”

I nodded.

Flutie glanced up at the lights shining from my uncle’s windows.

“Does Marcus know you’re out this late?” Flutie motioned toward Alec and Matt. “With them?”

I shook my head.

“Looks like he does now.” Flutie laughed.

I turned. Marcus was striding down the back alley toward us in his slippers, stumbling over the length of his forest-green bathrobe.

Lovely.

Smirking, Flutie folded his arms across his chest and rested them on the expanse of his belly, buttons straining on his standard issue blue shirt. I imagined that if he had a toothpick handy, he’d have been turning it over in his mouth. He seemed like that kind of cop, the rough around the edges, small town, vamp mind-controlled, wish I had a toothpick kind.

I wished he had one, too, so I could stake him with it.

“Officers, what’s going on over here?” Marcus began. “We heard the sirens and saw the lights. Then my daughter noticed that my niece wasn’t in her room.” He pulled his robe tighter around his waist, his face stricken. “We looked through the whole house, but she’s not inside. I thought maybe she came out to investigate the goings on here. She does rush into things. Have you seen her? She’s tall, with dark hair.” He glanced around at the faces watching him. “Looks rather like that girl…”

I gave a halfhearted wave, and Marcus did a double take. “Eryn!” He started toward me. “Thank God you’re all right.”

“Not so fast, McCain.” Flutie’s hand shot out. “We have a situation that needs clearing up, and it involves the girl.” His suspicious gaze sliced over to our silent group. “We got a call five minutes ago about a gunshot fired off further down this alley. We were scanning the area when we got another call from Mrs. Lurgen crying her head off about her dog, blood, and the Delacroix boys busting up her fence.” He glanced sideways at Marcus. “When Officer Hiels and I arrived at the scene,” he said, raising a brow, “your niece was with them.”

Officer Hiels?
Oh man, no wonder Brit pulled a Houdini. Her dad. Over Flutie’s head, Marcus leveled me with a you-have-lots-of-explaining-to-do-young-lady look. Yup, Brit had it right. I, however, had to face the country music. Marcus glanced at Alec’s clenched fists and Matt’s hounded expression.

“Boys,” he said, giving them a nod. “How’s your mother doing? I haven’t seen her in town for ages.”

Flutie dropped his arm and glared at Marcus. “This isn’t the time for polite conversation starters. Did you hear what I said? A gun has been fired, a dog has been—” He sliced his gaze to the other officer. “Hiels, get a statement from Mrs. Lurgen. Find out what she thinks happened to her dog.”

By now a few curious neighbors had spilled into the alley and crowded around the police cars, trying to hear what we were discussing. They elbowed each other out of the way, jostling for the best view, staring at Alec and Matt with judging eyes. Only I could hear the slanderous words they were muttering to each other. They saw cop cars and the Delacroix boys, and that was all they needed to spark their fear of Marie Delacroix, her strange ways, and her equally strange boys.

“I can tell you what happened to that poor dog,” I said loudly, ignoring Alec’s muffled curse as I shrugged off his restraining hand. “Everyone who lives around here knows Mrs. Lurgen has been neglecting that animal. She leaves it tethered to that tree 24/7, letting it bark its head off to get some attention.” I stared into the closed faces of the crowd, daring one of them to contradict me. “It was only a matter of time before a bear wandered by searching for an easy meal.”

A small murmur of agreement rustled through the crowd. I waved a hand at the leaning fence. “Even a coyote could have knocked through that. It’s falling apart.”

“That’s true,” a man called out in a grudging voice. “We had a bear in our yard last year. Jumped the fence to get to our crab apple tree.”

I bit back a smile. “Wow. That’s interesting. Because the tree that poor neglected Cujo was tethered to?” I blinked innocently. “Overflowing with ripe crab apples.”

Flutie sucked in a frustrated breath. “What about the gunfire? Explain that. Everyone knows the Delacroix are hepped up on some fantasy about tracking down creatures of the night.”

Amusement flickered in Flutie’s eyes. He was enjoying the irony of this moment. The vamp-corrupted police officer pretending there was no such thing as a paranorm. Then Alec’s truck, which had been idling unsteadily for some time, let out a belch of backfire—sharp as a gunshot—and died.

The crowd jumped. Then uneasy laughter started.

“There’s your gunfire, Officer,” Alec spoke for the first time since the cops had arrived. He jabbed his brother with an elbow. “Matt’s been tinkering with her, but she still gives us trouble now and then. I do apologize if the noise startled anyone.”

Marcus shouldered past Flutie, but he slipped on the frosty concrete. His arms shot out as he regained his balance, catching Flutie in his bowl-full-of-jelly gut.

The cop let out a whoosh of air.

“Come on, Eryn.” Marcus gestured toward home. “Let’s get inside. It’s freezing out here.” He glared at Flutie who rubbed his large belly, practically pouting. “Unless you’re going to waste these taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars and take these kids in for questioning?”

Flutie glanced at the crowd. Officer Hiels looked like he wanted to do more than question Alec and Matt—like he wanted to string them up in the crab apple tree. But the residents of Cowley Heights were an influential bunch, full of money, and Flutie wouldn’t want to upset the town’s cash cow.

He waved Hiels back to his cruiser. “Go on back to bed, folks. Nothing to see here. A bear mauling.” He saluted the crowd. “You keep your pets inside until we trap that beast, you hear?”

Marcus grabbed my elbow and guided me toward the “safety” of his house, but as I went, the heat of Alec’s gaze warmed my back and the evil stench of vampire emanated from Flutie’s skin.

*****

After a restless night fighting off dreams where I became the beast and ran wild with a pack of wolves through Redgrave Mall, I woke to twanging vocals.

“I gave her my horse and she gave me a divorce…”

Country music sobbed from Paige’s clock radio in the room next to mine. We shared a wall, and Paige had her radio turned up so loud it sounded like it was under my pillow. I couldn’t escape it. The region’s only radio station was “Utterly Country,” whose mascot was a grotesque play on words, a heifer with a distended pink
udder
. The stickers were everywhere.

I covered my ears and writhed on the bed until Paige finally gave the offensive machine a solid whack.
Ah, silence.
I kicked off the bed sheets, yawned, stretched, and fell back to sleep, only to waken again a few minutes later to the whizzing of Paige’s hair dryer. She was diffuser-attachment crazy, determined to bring forth a perfect spiral from each strand of her naturally curly hair. It would be at least an hour before I could take my turn. I was long past expecting Paige to have consideration for the other members of the household.

An eternity later, Paige stomped down the stairs, and I rushed off to shower. Back in my room I applied a smattering of makeup and pulled my hair into a messy bun. In jeans and a wooly sweater, I made for the kitchen in less than fifteen minutes. Girly-girls like Paige wasted so much time.