Chapter 5
The growls came from behind me, and for a moment, I froze. But if the night had taught me anything, it was that they were going to do what they damn well pleased, and that they weren’t overly concerned if I lived or died. I snatched the mace out of my purse and turned, baring my teeth in a snarl. Which was pretty funny, considering they all now had long teeth like, well, wolves. I thought I could make out which one was James, and he was advancing on me with something I could clearly tell was a grin. He was going to enjoy this.
Screw him.
Dominick took him out with a roar, coming from alongside me to bowl James over. There was a snarl and a yowl, and I stumbled back into the darkness. I yelped at the tangle of fur and the snapping of teeth, but this wasn’t the fight—not yet. They all drew away to circle, Dominick keeping himself between me and them.
We don’t think he wants you to get hurt.
My throat tightened. I knew that they’d be doing this whether I was here or not, that they’d been looking for him all this time, and yet… I felt guilty. My fingers tightened on the mace, and I felt my lip tremble. I didn’t think either of us were getting out of this, and the stupid part? The part that didn’t make any sense?
I wished we’d actually gotten to talk more. The slit pupils didn’t even matter, the hint of sharp teeth that my brain knew were there—none of it was important. I bet that Dominick was lazy in the morning, that he’d hold me in bed and nuzzle the back of my neck until I drifted back to sleep with him. I bet he liked long walks in the woods.
And I was never going to know. I sniffled and swallowed hard, trying to get ahold of myself. I was sure as hell going to do some damage on my way out.
“So, Dominick.” James’s voice came out all growly. I could barely make out the words, but I knew why he was speaking in English—he wanted me to hear what was going on. “I told you we’d find you.”
“Took you long enough.” Dominick’s lips curved in something that might have been a smile, if there weren’t quite so many teeth.
“We could have found you any time we wanted,” one of the others hissed.
“That’s why you resorted to using humans, right?” Dominick gave a bark of a laugh, but the sound changed to a snarl soon enough. “You never cared who you got involved.”
“And you care too much.” James stood up to his full height, which now appeared to be much, much more than 6’2”. “Too much about them, not enough about us.” He swung his snout back to look at me as he thudded down onto four paws again.
I swallowed and backed away.
“You think if we go around killing humans, no one will notice?” Dominick was trying to reason with him, and that gave me a bad feeling.
It turned out I was right on that count, because James was done listening. Two of the others converged on Dominick and James leapt right for me.
I pulled the tab back and sprayed the mace, trying to hold until he got close enough, and he gave a howl of displeasure, swiping over my head as I ducked. I was only just quick enough; I heard the claws come out as the huge paw whistled over my head, and my body went into overdrive. Wolves. Sharp teeth. Claws.
I was soft and squishy, and every part of me knew it. I rolled sideways, having the presence of mind to kick at the other dark shape I could see through my narrowed eyes, and I heard a yelp of pain. A hiss as they circled around me.
Dominick came out of nowhere. Even in the dim light, as he catapulted into them and the group rolled away, all teeth and fur and growls, I could see that his coat was brindled, his snout proud, his ears up like a German shepherd. He was snarling, a low rumble that sent every sense into high alert.
No one thought to warn me about this, I thought stupidly. It occurred to me that my family was just going to think some crazy person with a knife got me; no one was ever going to think it had been werewolves. Then my mind started working again. I only had a little bit of mace left, and no one was giving me the slightest attention; it would only work if I could get it in their eyes.
And they were going to kill Dominick if I didn’t do something, which, considering that he’d obviously risked his life to help me, wasn’t something I could allow. Shit.
Well, I had tiny scissors in my little sewing kit. They weren’t much, but it was literally all I had left at this point. I fumbled in my purse, clamped the scissors in my hands, and tried to pick my moment in the tangle of fur and snapping. Then I plunged them down on one of the werewolves’ spines. Did werewolves get paralyzed the same way as humans? I could only hope. And from the wolf’s scream of pain, I was pretty sure I’d done something useful.
It turned on me with its teeth bared, staggering sideways, and the rest of the wolves didn’t even give it a second glance; they were still focused on Dominick. It was bleeding and they didn’t even care. For a second, I felt really bad for it.
Except, I didn’t feel bad enough to stand there and die when it came at me with a snarl. I batted its mouth sideways out of instinct more than anything else and pummeled at its throat with one of my fists when it bowled me over. It was limping pretty badly now, but I was still terrified. The speed with which it moved, even injured, was pretty frightening. All I could hope for now was to cut its jugular or something, if wolves even had jugulars. Maybe its windpipe. The scissors were in my hand and I lashed out like a crazy person, flailing and snarling as much as it was, trying to distract it by throwing as many punches as I could. I curled into a ball to avoid the snapping of its jaws, waiting for an opening, and finally I found one. As it pounced, I wrapped my arms around it and dragged it down.
One last punch, and I hit my goal—at least, judging by the amount of blood I was covered in. It screamed and I did, too, turning my face away so I didn’t have to see what it was I’d done.
Oh god, oh god.
The rest of them hadn’t even noticed, damn them. I took a moment to try to hold my stomach down, and then looked over to where Dominick was fighting off the others.
The sight of it took my breath away. They were moving so fast that all I could see was a blur, every one of them getting out of the way of teeth and claws just at the right moment, or taking hits that would have killed any human outright and shrugging them off. And Dominick? Dominick was even faster than the others, a sort of brown-and-black streak of shadow, twisting and snapping.
Well, I had thought maybe he’d been in a fight at some point. It looked like he knew his way around fights pretty well, in fact. He reared up on his hind legs and brought both of his forepaws down, catching James across the shoulder and the face. A roar—which of them, I wasn’t sure—and James crouched, leapt to catch Dominick in the midsection.
There were still two left, circling like panthers, waiting for their moment to leap in and finish what James had started, and I was furious. Maybe Dominick could have taken on two of them, but there were still three of them left.
I picked up a rock and threw it, catching one of the lackeys squarely in the side. As Dominick reared up again, I threw myself forward, swinging a fist wildly. Like hell I was going to let this man die.
I should have run, I thought, when the beast turned on me. Oh, well. So much for good sense. We were down the rabbit hole now. I rolled sideways, giving a muffled yell of pain as I made new bruises to add to my collection. Pavement isn’t exactly comfortable.
Behind me I heard a scream, and there was no mistaking it—I’d heard that sound when I killed one earlier. I went hot, and then cold. I was going to be sick, and if I was sick, I wasn’t going to survive this. Unless I threw up in the werewolf’s face. That was a funny thought, and it gave me just enough hysterical energy to throw another punch. I was trying not to think who might have died. If that scream had been Dominick, I was about five seconds from dead myself.
But just as the wolf pinned me down, its breath hot on my face and its teeth bared in a demonic grin, a brindled shadow knocked it sideways off of me. Teeth and claws whistled through the air and I pushed myself up just in time to see Dominick roll to his feet and shake himself off.
I pushed myself up on my elbows and looked around in shock. The parking lot was silent now, apart from the distant roar of people and sirens and music—never too far away in New York. But none of the shapes on the pavement around me stirred.
As I pushed myself to my feet, the parking lot went dark, clouds covering the moon, and the last wolf staggered to his knees, shrinking back into a dark-haired man with a navy sweater, bleeding from a cut to his face.
“Dominick?”
“Thank God you’re alive,” he managed. Then he passed out.