“Something’s hunting us. I don’t like it,” Mick said, scowling and surly. He was short but stout, built like a brick wall and just as tough. Dark hair in a buzz cut, black eyes looking out. Still gleaming with a little wolf. He and Shaun were some of the first to back my takeover of the pack. I couldn’t have a better pair looking out for me. I might have been the alpha, but I couldn’t do it without them helping me. I didn’t rule by force, but by friendships.
“Let’s get back,” I said, urgent now, hurrying. I wouldn’t let go of Ben’s hand. My mind was coming back to me, and the pieces of my body clicked back together after shifting. “I need to make some phone calls.”
The four of us went back to the cars.
“You think this is connected to the Tiamat cult?” Ben said. “That this is the attack we’ve been waiting for?”
“The burned door, the smell of fire here—what else could it be? It was waiting. All this time it was waiting for the full moon.”
“Maybe it’s a coincidence. Maybe it’s random,” Ben said. Even he didn’t sound convinced.
“That would be worse, don’t you think?” I said.
Because then I wouldn’t know where to start with trying to figure this out.
Chapter 4
First, I called Odysseus Grant.
We’d kept in frequent touch since the message appeared on New Moon’s door. He’d been keeping an eye on the Band of Tiamat on their home turf. He didn’t believe any of them had left Vegas, which meant the group of lycanthropes that had kidnapped me, and the vampire priestess that had tried to sacrifice me to her goddess, had sent someone—or something—else to leave that note at New Moon. And, I believed, whatever had come after us last night. I told him the latest news.
“The full moon was the trigger,” Grant said, after I told him what happened. “I can’t say that I’m surprised.
”
“We should have expected it, is what you’re saying.” I paced the living room, holding my phone to my ear with one hand, scratching my greasy hair with the other. I was still feeling stiff and cranky, off-balance, Wolf’s shadows lurking in my mind. The bars of the cage she lived in most of the time hadn’t quite closed yet. I didn’t feel quite human, and I didn’t want to be talking on the phone. I hadn’t even showered yet. This seemed more important.
“Maybe. But there’s more to this. You said no one was hurt but that this thing was powerful. You could have been hurt.”
“It sure seemed like it. It came out of nowhere. We outran it.”
“Anything else you remember? Any detail at all?”
“Fire. The smell of burning coals. And a shape, something with hands that could fight. I don’t know. It’s not very clear. It’s all in wolf senses. Makes it hard to remember.”
“I understand. They’ve sent something after you, that much is obvious. I’ll learn what I can. If we can identify it, we can get rid of it.”
I already felt better. Right up until he said, “Whatever it is will strike again. Now that it’s exposed itself, it won’t go back to hiding.”
“What does it want? To scare us? Or to kill us?”
He paused before admitting, “I don’t know.”
This was my fault. I’d brought this thing here. “I don’t suppose you know of any cool charms that might work against something like this. Holy water, old Indian arrowheads, that sort of thing.”
“Can’t hurt to try,” he said, as close to encouraging as he ever got. “I’ll call you when I learn something.”
“Okay. Thanks. I’ll talk to you soon.” Sooner rather than later, I hoped.
That evening, I called to tell Rick about the new development. We agreed to meet at New Moon to discuss.
The first time Rick came to New Moon, I had to invite him in.
I shouldn’t have had to. The legend about having to invite vampires in applied only to private residences. Public places, where people were free to come and go at will, were open to vampires. But Rick had come to New Moon and stopped at the threshold.
He’d looked at me through the glass doorway, only mildly perplexed, like this wasn’t the biggest problem he’d faced all day. “This is awkward,” he’d said.
“What? What’s the matter?” I’d said through the glass.