Chapter Sixteen
Lillian followed Erik and Corso into the cold, dim alley. The only benefit she could see to being outside was that it wasn't as dark as inside. Her teeth chattered together as she wrapped her arms around her bare and exposed skin, wishing for some sort of coat or something and cursing the cute red dress she’d decided to wear.
"What the fuck are you doing here?" Erik said gruffly to Corso.
He wrapped a protective arm around Lillian and pulled her into his side. She breathed a sigh of relief and nestled into his warmth desperate for anything to stave off the cold, even if he was exceptionally pissed off.
"Looks like we’re following the same lead," Corso said flatly. He shrugged and smiled.
Lillian wasn't exactly certain what the heck was going on, but it was clear that Corso was most definitely not a doctor, or even a sort-of doctor.
She sucked in a breath. So many strange things had happened the other day, and now she began to question if she wasn’t just imagining things, but she had to be. There just was no way grown men turned into wolves.
"I don't understand what's going on," she said between the chattering of her teeth.
Erik gave her a small squeeze as he glanced down to where she stood. "I know," he said. "But I don’t have time to explain now, and I need to take care of something."
Lillian nodded, not quite certain what she was getting herself into, but trusting Erik came so easily to her. Something about that should have been slightly disturbing, she realized, given how little she knew him and some of the things she had seen, but she couldn't seem to find the will to be afraid. There was just something about him that felt familiar. Like she had known him her whole life. It was strange.
"Hall," Erik shouted to a man heading down the road.
The blond man stopped, his back stiff, and he didn’t turn back to look. For a moment, she wondered if he was going to run.
He looked familiar. Maybe one of the men that worked in the warehouse. It was hard not to notice all the handsome men that came into her workplace. She tilted her head. She’d seen him recently.
"Anca," Corso called out.
For the first time, Lillian noticed the woman standing down the road, waiting, it seemed, for the man name Hall to come out.
Anca strolled their way as if she had all the time in the world. The tension in the air was so thick Lillian could nearly taste it.
The very small woman had curly dark brown hair that brushed the top of her black coat and accentuated her round face in all the right ways. No question, she was beautiful. The sort of woman one would expect to see on the cover of a magazine if she were just slightly taller.
"I'm surprised you came here, Corso," the woman said. There was a slight hint of an accent as she spoke, one that sounded almost Eastern European.
Corso stepped forward. Hall still hadn’t moved, and Lillian could tell Erik’s only focus was on the other man.
"The elders have been asking about you," Corso said.
Lillian noticed Corso kept his hands in his pockets as he walked, almost as if he was on a casual stroll.
The other woman tilted her head back and let out a loud laugh. Her red-tinted lips looked devilish in the light. "I'm sure they have," she purred.
Corso stopped where he was and pulled his hands out of his pockets. She noticed they were gloved as he did so, and something shiny caught the light from an overhead streetlight.
"I'm going to need you to come back with me," Corso said firmly.
Anca stepped forward, only it wasn't really a step. She moved with frightening speed toward him but stopped still out of reach. Her face contorted in rage, and her lips curled back in a snarl.
Lillian couldn’t believe what she’d just seen. The woman had moved so fast she was almost a blur. It had to be some sort of trick of the light, or maybe she still hadn’t fully recovered from her head injury. There had to be some sort of rational explanation.
"You think you're going to dispatch me?" Anca said.
Corso moved, and, for the first time, Lillian could clearly see the object he held in his hand. It was a strange sort of blade that curved at the top, similar to what she'd seen used by many farmers, like the small sickles they used to cut down wheat in the field. Only smaller. And not the dull gray things she was used to seeing. This one gleamed in the light.
Behind them the doors banged open loudly, nearly falling from their hinges.
Erik had been quiet during the exchange between Corso and the woman named Anca, but that changed when two men stepped through the door.
She recognized one from earlier. The first was the tall, pale man who had leered at her when she’d first stepped inside. Another was shorter but just as pale.
"Didn't you read the sign?" the tall man said, pointing to Erik. "No fucking dogs allowed."
The two men cackled to themselves as if the man had just told the most hilarious joke ever.
A low, deep growl come from Erik. His chest vibrated.
"Corso," Erik called out. "Are these dipshits a part of your crew?"
She glanced over to where Corso stood, his hand at the ready as he continued to stare at the woman, each of them tensed for battle.
"Can't say that they are, but they would do wise to remember our agreement with the Council," Corso said.
The shorter of the two men spat on the ground in front of him. "Fuck the Council," he said. "Bunch of meat-bag lovers. We don't follow the Council anymore. We shouldn’t have to be afraid. We’re the fucking ones with power.”
Corso’s eyes narrowed. "What about the elders? Do you follow them anymore?"
The two men slowly walked down the steps. Erik kept himself firmly between them and Lillian, moving her farther back against the wall.
"Far as we can tell, the elders have become the dogs of the Council. Look at yourself," the tall man said to Corso. "They've got you out here doing their bidding, and you follow along, ready to harm your own kind.”
Lillian glanced between the men and Corso. She remembered the rumors of Erik being connected to organized crime. She wondered if she’d gotten caught up in a mob war.
The tall, pale man snorted loudly and nodded over to Erik. "You've even got a little puppy friend you brought with you."
Erik turned around to Lillian and stared deep into her eyes. "Don't move from this spot," he said. "No matter what you see, just remember nothing will happen to you. Nothing."
Lillian nodded, not quite certain just what to expect. What she certainly didn't expect was for Erik to pull off the sweater he had been wearing and hand it over to her. Faster than she would've thought, he dropped his pants to the ground.
Her brain it only begun the process the fact that he was now standing there nearly naked before his body shifted and contorted in front of her, changing into the very thing that had filled her dreams.
A wolf. It hadn’t been a hallucination or a dream. She had seen exactly what she remembered before.
Not missing a beat, the giant wolf lunged out at the two men in front of her.
But it was clear now they weren't men. They moved too fast to be men.
Erik caught the small one by the leg and tossed him with ease into the wall. She heard bones crack as he did so and winced at the sound.
Lillian moved out of the way, now afraid one of the men might come after her. Or worse, she might get caught in the fighting. She crouched down near the dumpster and slid Erik’s sweater over her shivering form. She ducked down, hoping that maybe she could go unnoticed.
On the other side of the alley, Corso and Anca slowly circled each other, each waiting for the other to start the fight.
What did it all mean? Was Corso also, dare she think it, a werewolf?
Each man was embroiled in their own battle when Hall turned to stare at her. A shiver passed over her as she tried to shrink herself even smaller.
She remembered him from before. He’d been the one in the fight with Erik in the basement, the one who had gone for her.
Something was wrong with him. His blood red eyes stared into her very soul.
She’d seen them before in what she thought was a dream until just a minute ago. But there was no mistaking it now. The dream had been real, and Hall was a threat.
Anca finally broke from the dance and launched forward, bringing Lillian’s attention back to the fight. Corso and Anca moved so fast that her eyes couldn't even track them. Instead, she could only see flashes of where they were.
Her gaze flicked back over to Erik. She prayed it would all be over soon, and they would be able to leave. Then she could forget this night ever happened.
Lillian almost laughed at a stray thought. She wished it was only a mob war, instead of whatever the hell she’d stumbled into.
The taller man battled Erik, or at least the wolf that had been Erik. He snapped at his neck like some sort of monster.
"I'll rip your fucking throat out," the tall man hissed. "Let’s see you heal from that you piece of shit."
Lillian glanced over to where the smaller man had been tossed against the wall. He sat on the ground. The injuries from before were now healed. His eyes caught hers, and her heart thundered.
"Looks like you brought a snack," the small man said. He opened his mouth in a wide grin.
Lillian gasped and pushed herself further against the wall as if that would somehow would protect her.
She glanced over and could see Hall moving toward her now, plodding but direct, the massive man still watching her with his blood red eyes.
Nowhere to run. She was trapped.
The small man was in front of her now. A blink of an eye, and he was there breathing on her. The putrid smell of old blood rolled out of his vile mouth.
"You smell… different."
He leaned in to press his cold nose to her neck. Lillian pushed against his chest, and it was like marble.
Unmovable.
"What are you?" he whispered.
Tears welled up in her eyes, and they slid down her cheeks. "I'm nothing," she sobbed quietly.
The man leaned back to stare at her. He grinned widely. Now that he was closer, his sharp fangs were now visible.
She didn’t want to even think it, but there was no other word that fit.
“You’re a monster,” she whispered.
"That's exactly right," he said, and grinned.
The man grabbed a fistful of her hair and yanked her head to the side. Lillian cried out in pain as he did so.
He leaned his face down toward her neck again. This time Lillian pushed with everything she had within her, knowing that he would most certainly tear into her throat otherwise.
A warm sensation floated through her body. She breathed in deeply and let the feeling flow within her.
A white, blinding light filled the air, and she watched as the man went flying off her and into the stone wall on the other side of the alley.
Lillian struggled for breath, every last ounce of her strength sapped. There was nothing left in her as she slumped down to the ground and drifted into oblivion.