Under My Skin (25 page)

“We’ve been looking all over for you.”

I jumped again.

Alec—looking very dapper in a fleece hoodie, fitted jeans, and boots—stood not four feet away. “You didn’t call Brit back. We were worried.”

“I’m fine. Must have had the volume down.” I flipped my cell open. Six missed messages. I navigated the slick sidewalk to his side. “So…did Brit tell you about Paige? Did you find her?”

“No. Kate and Whip are staying on the lookout, but my guess is Paige changed her mind about the tat and decided to find Wade.” He shook his head. “Why girls are so attracted to vampires? I know they can influence people with weak minds and dark souls, but that doesn’t explain all the vampire movies and books out there. Women are so into vamps. I don’t get it.”

What could I say? I didn’t have a weak mind, but I did kind of fall into the dark soul category. I certainly didn’t want him to know how into one specific vampire I was, so I shrugged.

“Vamps are vile,” I said, thinking of Travis attacking and killing that man in the alley. I shuddered. “Trust me, if women could see them without the glamour, they’d run the other way. Fast.” Which made me a living, breathing contradiction to the average human female. A hunter and half wolven who could see through any glamour Wade radiated, and so far, I hadn’t run anywhere.

“Girls are into the bad boy thing, I guess.” Alec curled his lip.

My throat dried. What would Alec say if he knew that I hid my wolven half, delving into dark emotions with Wade? When Wade wasn’t around, I wanted nothing more than to fight at Alec’s side, to be his partner—his everything. I was safe with Alec and wild with Wade. The light and the shadow. Each side of myself reflected in two very different guys.

An odd shift inside my gut wrenched a gasp from my lips. Did wanting Wade mean I’d turn evil? My two halves were snarling at each other. I had to prove to them, to myself, that I had a choice. That I had goodness in me and it reached out for Alec.

“Not every girl has a bad guy fixation.” I coyly nipped at the top of my finger and then teased the glove off with my teeth. I felt really dumb with it dangling from my lips. After a panicked second or two, I opened my mouth and let it fall to the snow-covered ground.

Damn. That was so not sexy.

The wind danced in my hair as I embraced a seductress mode I didn’t know I had on tap. My heart thumping in my chest, I reached out with my bare hand and tugged on one of the cords dangling from Alec’s hoodie to bring him closer.

“Can you guess the kind of guy I like?” I asked.

“I have an idea,” Alec said quietly, his eyes watchful, his lids half-closed. “But now’s not the time. Matt and Brit are waiting in the truck around the corner. We can’t be seen out after curfew.”

“You’re so
good
, aren’t you? Such a dedicated hunter. So into this crazy job…” I sighed the words and leaned into him.

He gathered me in his arms and lifted me off my feet. I clutched his arm and angled my face so I didn’t bump his cold nose with mine. We kissed like our lives depended on it. And maybe they did. Alec made me feel human, like I could walk in the light at his side instead of skulk in the shadows…with Wade.

And maybe I did the same for Alec. Pushed aside the duty, brought out the desire, the rebellion, the urge to break rules.

A horn blared in the distance. Once. Then twice fast. Alec reluctantly pulled his lips out of kissing range.

“We have to go.” He picked up my glove and handed it to me, straight-faced, but with laughter in his eyes.

We headed for the truck. My shoes slipped on patches of ice so that I almost skated down the sidewalk. My balance off. My head spinning. First Wade, then Alec. Both hot, both dangerous.

I so had a thing for tall, dark, and dead wrong for me.

And it might get us all killed.

Chapter 12:
Hero, Heroette, Whatever.

We’d been driving around for hours looking for Paige when I finally picked up her sickly sweet scent. She’d headed down the creepy, and usually avoided, dead-end road (pun intended), Blithe Way, that ended at Crimson Cemetery. Lovely. A graveyard, a full moon, and closing in on midnight.

I made up a story about Paige rambling in her sleep about Wade and the graveyard. With my cousin’s obnoxiously loud and whiny voice, it could have happened. And telling yet another lie was better than having Alec figure out I had the tracking skills of a bloodhound.

Alec parked the truck outside the locked gates. “Eryn, you’re sure she’s in there?” he asked, his voice neutral.

My nostrils flared. Sweet-smelling Paige was here all right. “Positive.”

“Then I guess we better figure out how to get through that gate.” Alec killed the motor.

Matt snorted. “We should wait in the truck. Girls like Paige don’t do dead people.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Did you just say what I think you said?”

Matt shot me a look and flushed. “You know what I mean. Can you picture Paige in a graveyard? Ten bucks says she comes bursting through the gate, screaming her head off.”

Up until then Brit’s only contribution to the conversation had been precise clicks as she bit her fingernails. But she slammed us with, “Aren’t we going through the motions? If Paige is marked, she’s done for.”

Brit had issues with the graveyard excursion because they’d buried her brother there. But we could save Paige if we got to her in time. Frustration itched along my spine.

“There’s always a loophole with lore if you act fast enough,” I snapped. “A chance we can save Paige. Prime example? Travis was marked, but he didn’t turn into a werewolf.”

Everyone stared at me. I lifted my chin. “I saw him in one of the alleys tonight. He’s definitely not one of the hairy backed and slobbery.”

Brit gasped. “He’s not?”

I hated myself for bringing that thread of hope to Brit’s voice—hope that if Travis hadn’t turned, maybe Blake hadn’t either. Me and my big mouth.

“No,” I clarified. “He’s a vamp.”

“What?” Brit slapped the back of my seat. “How is that possible? He had the mark. Olivia said so.”

I shrugged. “A vampire must have gotten to him first.”

Matt sneered. “
A vampire
? Don’t you mean Wade got to him? I knew I should have staked that guy in English class.”

“Not every horrible thing that happens in this town is Wade’s fault.” I shoved my door open and leaped out of the truck.

“And how would you know?” Matt yelled after me.

“I just
know
.” I shot an uneasy look at Alec’s tense form behind the steering wheel. “Kate said it herself this afternoon. We’ve got a crapload of paranorms stalking this town. Bound to be more vamps than Logan and Wade.”

I slammed the door on Matt’s protests. Doors creaked as the others followed my lead and climbed out of the truck. We stood at the gate, pondering the six-foot-high fence. I was tired of waiting, tired of pretending I couldn’t jump this fence faster than Paige could outline her practiced, come-hither smile with lip liner.

“Maybe there’s another way in,” Brit suggested.

Alec shook his head. “Matt and I have checked out this place before. Hearses, funeral processions, visitors all go in through these gates.”

“This is stupid.” My fingers had a stranglehold on the rusting chain. Sharp splinters of metal jabbed my palm, but I gripped harder, driving them home. I deserved the pain. What was I thinking? I’d come close to saying screw what the others thought and scaling the fence anyway. My wolf didn’t take kindly to waiting for those who couldn’t keep up.

“We should have a bolt cutter that can slice through that chain,” Matt told Alec, who studied the empty road leading to the cemetery before nodding his okay.

Matt gave Brit a hanging-out-in-a-graveyard-won’t-be-so-bad-you’ll-see grin. “We’ll be in there in a jiffy.” He pulled a duffel bag from the back of the truck and handed it to Alec. Then he rummaged through the jumble of tools in the truck bed until he found a rusty tool.

A few quick snips later, we were inside. Huge trees, a quaint gravel road. Except for the sense of doom in the air, the graveyard had a peaceful Zen vibe.

We veered off the road and started our search. Respectfully walking a coffin’s length distance from any headstone, we peered around markers and memorials with the flashlights Alec had taken from the gear bag.

“Way to show you care,” Matt said as he shined his flashlight on a particularly fake-looking bouquet draped over a headstone. “Drop off some fake flowers and make it look like you’re always visiting. Flowers shouldn’t be eternally cheerful like that. Not in a graveyard.”

“At least they chose the right ones.” Though a sugaring of frost covered the red roses, their vibrant color, their petals in full plasticky bloom, showed through. “Roses have power. You know, red for blood. Eternal life. My father used to stake them into the ground over a suspected vamp grave. To fix the vamps in place. If they couldn’t dig their way out to make their first kill, they’d die. For good.”

Matt blinked at the bouquet. “Huh, good thing there are plastic roses for the plastic vamps.” Then he continued ahead.

I rolled my eyes. So much for bonding over a bit of lore.

Brit and Matt pulled into the lead as we searched the area for signs of life in this resting place for the good, the bad, and the rotting. Alec trailed behind me, glaring at every shrub as if it might attack. I spotted movement from the corner of my eye, whirled around, and crouched low.

With a slow flap of wings, an owl perched on a spruce tree behind us. The bird’s talons circled a branch as it scrutinized the glistening snow. Narrowing on an infinitesimal shift under the surface, it swooped and, talons digging deep, swept up a mouse. The victim’s thin jolt of fear pierced the night. The poor thing hadn’t stood a chance.

My pulse raced with the owl’s rush of victory. A smile tugged at my lips.

A touch on my arm startled me. Alec stood at my side and watched the owl soar off into the distance with its prey.

“They call it a Hunter’s Moon for a reason.” He pointed to the huge moon, no longer obscured by clouds that dominated the night sky. “The extra light gives the hunter an unfair advantage, don’t you think?”

“I guess,” I said, blinking slowly.

His sharp-nosed profile looked a bit raptor-like in the moonlight. His black hair brushed his shoulders. Strong hands drew me close. His kiss was light and sweet, his lips cold. His breath heated my skin, warming me down to my frozen toes.

It was over way too fast.

“Guys,” Matt called out. “Over here.”

My lips tingled. I wanted more. But Alec had already started toward Brit and Matt, tugging me with him. I caught up and strode at his side, matching him step for step.

A series of howls rose in the night, echoing through the graveyard.

“Werewolves?” Brit’s voice quavered. Matt pulled her close.

“I can double back and come up behind them,” I told Alec as more howls ripped through the silence, seemingly all around us.

“No, we stay together and get these dogs.” Alec grabbed the gear bag and pulled out two rifles. “Take this.” He tossed Matt a gun.

Matt caught it with a ready grin.

I whipped out my athame, flipped it high so the silver blade glinted in the moonlight, and seized the hilt with a deft grip.

I laughed at Matt’s disgruntled expression.

A twig snapped behind Alec. In a lightning-fast move, he cocked his rifle, whipped around, and pointed it toward the sound.

Adrenaline pumped through my system. My teeth snapped together. A low growl worked its way up my throat.

“Did you just growl?” Brit shot me a sideways glance.

I tried to reply, but couldn’t get my lips to form anything but a snarl. The muscles in my face twitched.

Alec stalked silently to a tall, gothic headstone, lowered the rifle, and reached behind the stone.

I caught a familiar scent. “Wait.” I struggled to form the word.

“Come to Daddy,” Alec called, then yanked a dark form from behind the stone.

“Come to Daddy?”
Caught in Alec’s grip, the collar of his black leather jacket bunched up at his throat, Wade managed a smile. “Do all self-proclaimed hunters sound that cheesy?”

Alec shoved Wade into the center of the circle we’d automatically formed.

Redgrave High’s resident hottie—and the paranormal world’s only vampire-witch—eyed Alec’s taller, broader form and plaid fleece hoodie. “Your lumberjack bedside manner could use some work.” He smoothed his black leather coat back into place as if he were stroking a cat. Or the thick pelt of a she-wolf.

My breath hitched. I shifted my weight, uncomfortable with the flood of heat that settled low in my stomach. The weight of my athame in my hands reminded me that Wade had given it back to me, had saved me from myself. I shoved the dagger back in the holster.

Alec flushed. “What are you doing here, Gervais? Aren’t graveyards a bit low rent for you?”

What
was
Wade doing here? Didn’t he tell me he had some paranorm world-domination meeting to go to? Or had he shown up here to help us? Good luck trying to convince the crew of
that
. Deliberately goading Alec wasn’t going to endear him to anyone. Especially keeping up this act. And an act it was. I’d seen the real Wade in that dark, dank alley, and he was nothing like the guy standing before us now. The real Wade had prevented me from giving in to the beast in the alley. Tormented, he wanted only to be redeemed.