Ash was the next person to show up. He threw the door open and walked inside. He was covered in blood and spotted the mountain lion with a small bird perched on its head first. Raising his hands, he moved forward to attack them.
“Dirty shifters,” he screamed and Chloe fired. She shot him in the chest and he fell back, shocked. He’d been disoriented and hadn’t noticed that she was not only free but holding the gun. Ash fell back and landed on the floor, the blood running from the wound.
Chloe sa
t the gun down on the cabinet and started to shake violently.
“I’m sorry, my love, I failed you. I failed us both,” Ash said as his eyes closed, and Chloe wondered who the hell he was talking to.
“Noooooooo.” A painful wail came from somewhere back in the house and a girl rushed into the room with a long sharp knife over her head. Chloe didn’t have time to figure out what was happening and neither did her parents as she went to stab Chloe in the chest. Chloe moved quickly enough that she stabbed through her arm and into the wall. Her arm exploded with pain, the knife holding her to the wall and the girl held it there, looking into her eyes.
It was Layla.
“You killed him, Chloe! Why?”
“Layla, you’re supposed to be dead! What the hell are you doing here?” Chloe was stunned. There was a knife in her arm, so she was probably also in shock.
“I was pretending to be dead, Chloe. He was going to expose shifters. I could go away with him. I could move from here and everyone would think I was dead. It would be easier than knowing I was still on drugs and with a man who wanted to expose my kind.” Layla was crying as she pressed the knife into the wall through her arm. “Now you’ve killed him, you’ve killed my one true love, my ticket out of here, and I’m going to kill you.”
She pulled the knife from the wall out of her arm and went to stab Chloe again. The pain was intense and the blood was warm as it ran down her arm.
“Wait,” Chloe said, watching her parents as they shifted back to their human selves and moved as quietly as possible toward her. “I saw your body.”
“No, you saw a body manipulated by magic to look like me. She was just a dumb blonde hooker from another town. No one would miss her. I shot her through the heart. He couldn’t do it. He never wanted to kill anyone until I convinced him a couple had to die for our cause. Then he did his dark magic thing and made her look like me.” She smiled maniacally and raised the knife again. That’s why Layla’s body wasn’t at the funeral home, the girl they’d seen was the hooker she’d killed.
“We’re best friends, Layla.” Chloe made a last ditch effort to stop her from doing what she was planning.
“We haven’t been friends for a long time, Chloe,” Layla said and as she pulled back to stab the knife into her chest. Rob grabbed the hand and forced the knife away while Debra grabbed her other arm and pulled her over to the wall.
“Layla, I’m very disappointed in you,” she said.
Sirens were approaching. They were on their way and there would be some explaining to do. Brent rushed in and toward Chloe, going to hug her. He thought better of it at the last minute and didn’t. “Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yes, we’re okay.” She hugged him lightly with the arm that was hanging limply at her side. “Layla got a little stabby.” She pointed at the girl as her mother held her against the wall. Her mama didn’t mess around when it came to her only daughter.
“Layla?”
“Yeah, apparently she and Ash were lovers,” she started.
“Oh, I knew that.”
“You did?”
“Yes, but he didn’t kill her?”
“No, they killed a hooker and pretended it was Layla with magic.”
“I told you that body looked wrong.” Zazie woke up and sat up, looking around. She moved her hands up and down her arms, no doubt looking for the invisible bugs. She and Chloe looked at each other, sharing the knowledge of what they’d been through. Neither one of them would tell anyone. There was no reason to put that pain on those they loved.
EMTs rushed in and tended to Chloe’s arm, which needed attention, and Rob’s leg, which they said was a flesh wound that just needed bandaged up. Brent held Chloe’s hand while they loaded her onto the stretcher and the police began to start their questioning. He kissed her softly.
“I’m so sorry, Chloe. I’m so sorry they hurt you.”
She smiled weakly at him. “It’s not your fault, you did well today.”
“We’ll need to ask her some questions,” the chief started to say.
“You will ask her questions once they fix her arm, TJ,” Debra said, climbing into the ambulance with her daughter. “Her arm has been stabbed completely through to the wall. You can question all these people. Zazie, get in here, you’re going to be checked out too.”