Chapter Ten
“Jill!” Greer screamed, and when she started to run toward the sound, he pulled her back.
“I’m going first.”
Xander didn’t wait for her to argue, he just took off, wishing he could shield Greer from what she was about to see, but how could he stop her? Besides, she was safer with him than standing out front or going back inside. Dakota could easily be waiting to get her alone just to punish him.
To his surprise, they came around the back to find Jill stumbling around. Her jacket hung off one arm and her hand gripped her exposed shoulder. The golden light over the back door illuminated her pale complexion, and wide, shocked eyes.
“Jill,” Greer cried, racing passed him to her friend. She put her arm around Jill’s waist, rattling off questions rapidly. “Are you okay? What happened?”
“I…” Jill winced, as though it hurt to talk. Xander smelled the blood before he saw it oozing beneath her hand, trailing down her collarbone. The light blue halter top she wore had dark trails down her chest where the blood ran.
He tipped his head up and took a deep breath. Along with the bitter, metallic scent of blood was the familiar musk of Pax.
“Jill, the man that attacked you…did he change?”
Jill turned his way, her expression completely befuddled. “Change? Into what?”
“An animal?” he said.
Greer gasped, while Jill shook her head. “I…I didn’t see. He was behind me and then, I felt this excruciating pain. It was awful.”
“Do you know where he went?” he insisted.
Jill’s voice was clogged with fear, the scent permeating the air around her. “No, I screamed and he took off into the dark.”
“He bit you?” Xander asked impatiently.
“Bit her?” Greer said shrilly.
Jill moved her hand, showing the clear puncture wounds from Pax’s teeth.
“Oh, my God, Jill!”
Xander watched Greer embrace Jill tenderly. Pax hadn’t killed Jill like the others. Instead, he’d bitten her. Changed her into a shifter.
“Greer, you need to step back,” Xander said, calmly.
Greer pulled back, shooting him a look of bewilderment. “What are you talking about?”
How in the hell could he explain to her that stressing Jill out could only make her transition faster without revealing who and what he was?
“She’s been bitten by a were-cougar. We need to keep her calm so she doesn’t shift.”
Dazed Jill was replaced by a woman with wide frightened eyes and a shrill voice. “Shift? I’m going to shift?”
“Sooner rather than later. I need to get you somewhere safe so no one sees you. It can be a very painful process, and not all humans are shifter friendly.”
“How did you know he was a were-cougar?”
Xander faced Greer, seeing the suspicion in her eyes.
“I’ll explain everything once we get her to safety.”
Greer nodded and led Jill around the corner. Several of the smokers had come back to investigate.
“Is she okay?” one asked.
“Yeah, she just cut herself. We’re taking her to the hospital,” Greer said.
“On her neck?” Xander could tell they were suspicious. A guy who appeared to be in his early twenties spoke directly to Jill. “Do you want me to call an ambulance?”
“No, I’m fine. It’s just a scratch.”
Greer kept her arm around Jill’s waist as they moved past and he followed behind them.
“I don’t think that girl was okay, man,” one of the smokers said.
“Should we call the cops?”
“Naw, the one girl seemed to be helping her. Let’s go back in.”
Xander shook his head at the exchange. For all they knew, they could have been abducting Jill, but they were obviously more concerned with partying.
No wonder Greer had been so surprised by his help before. Chivalry really was dead.
Xander listened intently to their surroundings as they weaved through the parked cars. He needed to be ready in case Pax or Dakota jumped out of the shadows and attack them.
Not that he thought they had stuck around. Whatever their little game was, they obviously wanted Jill alive and him twisting.
But he had no connection to Jill, except through Greer, so why was she targeted?
He helped Jill into the back and when Greer would have joined her, Xander stalled her with a hand on her shoulder. “You’re up front.”
“The hell I am, she’s my friend.”
“And if she shifts, I want you away from the action.”
Greer’s mouth turned mulish and her chin jutted. He was afraid that she would argue with him and he’d be forced to pick her up and lift her into the front.
“Fine, but only because you owe me an explanation.”
He closed the door on Jill and opened the passenger side for Greer, who didn’t even look at him as she climbed inside.
When he finally got into the cab and turned the key, Jill started hyperventilating. “Oh my God. Oh my God.”
“What’s wrong?” Greer asked.
“The bite! The bite’s gone.”
If she was already healing then it was just a matter of time before she turned.
He peeled out of the parking lot, heading back to his place.
“Tell me what’s going on Xander!” Greer shouted.
“Shifters, Greer. Paranormal creatures. That is what is going on. I’ve been tracking two of them for five years, and I followed them here. The man, Pax Steel, he is the one who bit your friend.”
“Why did he bite her?”
“I don’t know but it’s nothing good.” He hesitated, afraid to tell her everything. “They killed Kelsey and Sam.”
Greer’s voice was barely over a whisper. “Sam?”
“Yeah, I found him this morning on my way into town. The police haven’t discovered his body yet.”
“How did you find him? Were you hiking again or something?” she asked.
Xander knew he was burying himself, and putting a whole lot of trust in her, but he couldn’t lie. She needed to know everything. “I smelled him.”
“You…smelled him?”
“Jill, you doing okay back there?” Xander asked as he sped back up the mountain road.
“No, I’m far from freaking…oh, crap…I…I think I’m going to pass out.”
The cab went quiet and he glanced over his shoulder quickly to make sure she was okay. “Thank God.”
“Is she going to be alright?”
“I think so. It’s always an adjustment, especially if it’s not a consensual bite.”
Greer scoffed. “People actually consent to being bitten and turned?”
He turned to her briefly, the incredulous expression on her face tying his guts up in knots. “When two people choose to be mated, yes.”
He saw her swallow and he would have given a pound of flesh to know what she was thinking.
“You said you smelled Sam. Was he close to the road or something?”
“No, he was about a half a mile into the woods. I was driving with the windows down and I smelled his dead body.”
“How…Oh my God. What are you?”
The horror in her voice stabbed him in the chest.
“I’m a werewolf.”