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"Are you nervous?" Eli asked and glanced over at me.
He was driving Celia's Mustang and the sun was going down in front of us. He had his aviator sunglasses on and I couldn't help but stare at him for a moment. He had stubble on his chin and that sharp jawline that I loved to kiss. He was losing his tan in the winter months but that was okay. He was gorgeous no matter what.
I was probably biased.
Only two weeks had passed since that night in the town center. I was still working on my control, pushing the limits of what I could do. We had two weeks until school started and Eli, Dante, Artie, and I would be busy during the day.
Eli and I were now a thing. I don't know what you would call this particular thing, but it was definitely a thing. Sometimes I wanted to label the thing and I could feel that Eli was searching for the same word too. We could feel something growing steadily between him and me, but neither one of us knew what to call it or even how to broach the subject.
It seemed trivial to call each other a “partner” or “boyfriend” after what we had been through.
I smiled and shook my head. "This isn't my first rodeo, big boy. Are you nervous?"
He kept his eyes on the road in front of us and offered me his hand. "I'm with you. Why would I be nervous?"
"It's your first time, right?"
"You know it is. You know it's my first time with you."
"I just want you to be comfortable and safe. I don't want to pressure you into doing something you're not ready for."
He raised my hand to his lips. "I'm ready for this. I'm as ready as you are. I just want to make sure that you feel okay with this too."
"Of course I'm ready. I've been ready, probably since that first night in the woods."
"You were useless that first night in the woods," he reminded me.
"Fair enough."
Eli gunned the engine and pressed on the gas. The sun was sinking below the horizon and we were both eager to get to the motel.
It was somewhere between Glenwood Lock and Glenwood Cove. The Cove, as the locals called it, was the sleepiest of sleepy towns. By all accounts, it was quaint, sweet, and a wildly expensive tourist trap. There were B&Bs, cute little inns, and restaurants galore to occupy the visitors along with the attractive views of the ocean. It was often overrun during the summer weekends with tourists looking for antiques. However, if you went just a few miles outside of town, there was a suspicious looking motel that no tourist in their right mind would stop in.
That was where we were headed.
It didn't take long. Only a forty-five minute drive and we were there. Eli parked and leaned over the dash and gave me a quick kiss on my mouth. He winked at me. "Be right back."
I watched him walk away because that was my privilege now. Eli had a great ass and the skinny jeans he wore were designed to torture me. Those long legs, tapered waist, and broad shoulders did not help matters either.
Eli glanced over his shoulder and caught me staring at his ass. He glared at me and opened the door to the front of the motel.
I leaned back against the seat and let out a breath. There was no reason to be worried. I was ready. I knew I was ready and I wanted to do this, more than anything. I felt safe with Eli, safer than I felt with anyone else.
But at the same time, I couldn't help but wish that Dante was with me.
I pushed that thought out of my head. Dante had another job right now and this was mine.
Seeing Celia, Eli, and Dante remake themselves into wolves was staggering. In fact, when I saw it, I had to sit down. Artie had been there, to pat me on the back. I got to touch Dante's snout and feel his velvet soft ears. His eyes were the same chocolate brown they were when he was in his normal-people-form but that was the only part of Dante that I could recognize in this giant wolf. He was bigger than both Celia and Eli, both in human and wolf forms.
Artie informed me that wolves the size of Dante were unheard of. His head was the same height as mine from the ground and I was able to look him in the eye.
Then they were gone.
Since then, Dante had been working on shifting just parts of himself that he would need. His claws, for example. That would've been useful that night in the town square, and he wouldn't have had to tear people apart limb from limb with his bare hands.
But it didn't always work.
Celia worked with him as often as she could. It was funny because now Marcus was spending more and more time with the Ortegas and I don't think Marcus and Dante had spent so much time in each other's company ever.
Eli didn't appreciate it. I could see it in his face and his shoulders. But he didn't say anything, because-
Well, I didn't know why. He probably thought it wasn’t his place to tell his alpha who she should and should not date. Maybe he thought Marcus had come to his senses and would accept Celia as she was.
Maybe he was like me and was hoping to see Celia kick his ass during a sparring match.
That was new. It wasn't just having strength and speed on her side. Celia was a surprisingly skilled fighter. Eli was good, but he wasn't as good as a sister. Even Artie had a few moves and he had also put me on my ass more than once.
Savannah helped. She was able to teach me a few moves, but my severe lack of coordination kept getting in the way. She would laugh, pat me on the back, and tell me that I would get there.
Savannah was doing better. She was pale but calm. She went to Miss Maricel's house three times a week to get a little more protection from the forest. Artie was working tirelessly as he looked for some kind of cure to help her, to keep her protected from the forest. Celia insisted that Savannah move in with them so that the forest would begin to see the four of them as a pack.
The pack.
That was another thing. Though the invitation was clear, Celia had only spoken of it once. She wanted Dante and me to be a part of them, but she understood what a huge decision it was. She understood our hesitation but reminded us of the letter that the Ascendancy and the Convocation of Night sent. With the pack, all of us would be stronger.
With the pack and Savannah's insider knowledge, we could get them to back down, Eli reasoned. We could have something like peace.
So many things had happened, so much knowledge, so many things to learn, that I had never gotten a clear answer on what the Convocation of Nights actually was. I knew that they were an organization of nonhumans, the oldest of each race and they oversaw the nonhuman community, worldwide. I wanted to know who the Queen was, but everyone had shied from my answer. When I had gone to Azolata, he stared at me until I was so uncomfortable that I dropped the subject and moved on to suggesting he teach me how to turn Marcus into a toad.
I now knew how to turn Marcus into a toad.
All of this only strengthened my curiosity but it didn't seem to matter. Books didn't answer me and neither did my friends. Dante and I theorized for hours when we should've been sleeping. Each guess was wilder than the one before.
Our latest theory included alien radioactive cannibals.
Nothing seemed too outlandish in our new world.
Eli returned to the car with keys in hand and a wide grin on his face.
"I'm glad I made reservations. We have a good room and there is only one other room that was taken, but it's on the other side of the complex," he said and pointed. He backed out of the parking space and aimed the car at a corner of the complex. He parked and we got out.
The sun was dipping below the horizon and I looked up at the moon rising and over at Eli. He met my eyes and gave me a crooked grin.
"You ready?" I asked.
He rolled his eyes. "Quit asking me that. I'm not turning back. I trust you and I know you know what you're doing. You're not going to hurt me."
I took a deep breath and nodded. We went to the trunk and opened it with a soft click. Eli grabbed the duffle bag that we needed and threw it over his shoulder. We walked to our room and he opened it and let me go inside first.
It was dark and smelled like mildew. It was everything that I had expected, with the exception of the blindingly orange carpet that looked like it hadn't been cleaned since disco balls were popular.
Eli made a face.
"What?" I said.
"Be glad that you don't have my sense of smell," he said and rubbed his nose with the back of his hand.
I winced. Just a quick look around this room and I knew many questionable things had happened here.
I rubbed his back and he set the bag down on the table. He looked at the bed and shook his head.
"We should get ready," he said.
I went to the window and pulled it aside. The sun was gone and I knew that our time was coming to a close.
I looked over my shoulder at Eli. He kept his eyes down on the bag and all the supplies he was pulling out of it.
Nonetheless, he raised an eyebrow and said, "Don't ask me if I'm ready. I'm ready. I trust you. If you ask me one more time, I'm doing this without you."
I kept my mouth shut. I knew that it would be better for everyone if Eli had me with him while we did it.
Eli handed me a flashlight and I raised an eyebrow at him.
"I'm insulted," I said and opened my palm and called up a ball of light.
"Just wanted to make sure," he said.
I shrugged. It was one of the first things I learned from Azolata.
Finally, Eli decided that we were ready and headed for the door.
We left our room and went around the back of the complex. I suppressed the sound our steps were making on the cement as we approached the room that the clerk had told Eli about. When we got to the bathroom window, Eli used one of his claws to slip open the flimsy lock and he pushed himself up into the window and through.
I envied his grace. I had to suppress the sound of all of my own movements as I scrambled through and was grateful that he was still in the moldy bathroom to catch me.
When I turned to him, he made a face. The smell here was worse.
He tipped his head towards the door and I nodded. I stepped up and put one hand on the door and leaned against it.
Artie called it “looking without seeing”. It was something like astral projection and I was able to look inside the room and inspect it for whatever might be in there before Eli got in there. It came in handy during times like this.
In the room, I saw there were two figures on the bed. When I looked closer, only one of them was a person in the other one was just a pile of blankets, made to look like another person. I reached a little deeper, pushing the limits of what I knew, and saw that this wasn't a regular human.
I looked over at Eli and nodded. I bared my teeth and made my hands like claws and he rolled his eyes.
But I got my point across. There was a werewolf in there. And it was one of the ones we were looking for.
Eli pulled the door open.
It creaked, loudly.
Eli stopped and we both heard the person on the bed moving. Eli listened but he seemed to believe that they were still asleep. He glanced at the door and then over at me. This time I suppressed the sound of the door and our movements as he opened it further.
We crept closer to the bed and the sleeping wolf. Eli took the side closer to the door as I took the side to the bathroom. He was smack dab in the middle of the bed, arms and legs sprawled wide.
He had dark hair and a heavy brow. His lips were nonexistent and his shoulders were broad and muscled. He had a tattoo that covered his entire right arm and right side. I rolled my eyes when I saw that it was just made to look like tangled barbed wire. His nose looked like it had been broken more than a few times. He had to be a bitten wolf because an injury like that would have healed easily on a born wolf.
I paused and considered him again. He was so broad, in fact, that for a moment I prayed that Eli would be able to hold him down.
I wished fiercely that Celia and Dante were with us like they had been before.
I pushed the thought away and Eli looked up at me.
He seemed to sense my panic and kept my gaze.
He mimicked taking in a deep breath and made a motion with his hand for me to do as he was doing. I did and as I let the breath out, the front door flew open.
The werewolf between us sat up with the start.
There was a man standing there, illuminated from the back by the streetlight just outside.
I looked between the man and the door and the werewolf that was already beginning to shift on the bed.
There was no time to think, or even consider my actions. I put a hand on the man's chest and with everything that I had in me, pushed him back down, flat on the bed. The man flattened on the bed and the look of surprise on his face would have been humorous under other circumstances.
Eli turned to whoever was standing in the doorway.
"Police! Hands up!" The man shouted.
"He's lying," I muttered as I began to work on the werewolf that was already struggling beneath my hold.
Eli growled deep in his chest, a warning.
"Well, it doesn't matter if I'm lying or not. I have the gun and you only have a wolf," the man said. I heard the sound of a gun cocking and I smirked. Below me, the wolf struggled even harder.
"You do not want to shoot him. Not only will you piss him off, but you'll also piss me off too."
I worked quickly as the man below me struggled harder than before.
"Stop it. You aren’t getting out of this either," I snapped at the guy below me. He snapped his teeth at me.
"Just step away from your buddy, and we'll talk about this. Okay?" The man at the door bargained. He stepped further into the room and I glanced around and lit the room up with the soft glow.
The man was wearing a dark canvas jacket that looked like the one I stole from Eli. He had broad shoulders and blue eyes and dirty blonde hair that was too tousled to be anything but purposeful. He was a good looking guy, but he was too aware of the fact.
"Oh my God, Stephen. Put it away. If they were friends, do you think they would be standing over him like this? Look, they aren’t even letting him move," a young girl's said from the door.
"I don't know. Billie, go back to the car." The man ordered.
Billie, ignoring Stephen’s orders, stepped into the room. When I looked up at her, I blinked. She couldn't have been any older than Artie was.
What kind of police officer brought his kid sister with him to track down criminals?
I looked from the man, who was about Eli's age, and back to the girl. My hands slowed as I tried to sort out what was happening in front of me.
I stepped around the bed and Eli joined me at the end of it. Half my attention was still on the man on the bed and my magic holding him down.
We stared at the two newcomers and they stared back at us.
"You aren’t here to help him?" Eli asked.
"Hell no," the girl said. She had thick blonde hair that was pulled back into a ponytail. Her eyes were a warm brown and she looked like she could've been any teenager that we knew. She was a carbon copy of her brother; the same fair skin, dimpled chin, and knowing eyes.
Stephen stared at us. "You’re a wolf," he said, confusion coloring his voice.
Eli nodded slowly.
“And you do some kind of magic stuff," the guy said and pointed at me with his gun.
"Not that you could hurt us, but would you mind putting that away?" I asked politely.
The guy stared at us for a moment longer before doing as I asked.
The girl stepped forward and offered me her hand. Out of reflex, I stepped forward and grasped it.
Eli and Stephen reacted in the same way, jerking us both back to their sides.
But at that touch, I knew that Billie and Stephen were no threat to us.
I glanced down at the werewolf. They were a threat to him, that was for sure.
"They're after him. All the bodies that he's leaving in his wake drew their attention."
"How did you know that?" Billie asked.
"I saw it," I said and waved the hand that I shook her hand with and wiggled my fingers.
She nodded and rocked back on her heels. They were both dressed the same; torn jeans, worn sneakers, and t-shirts.
"Why do you guys want him?" Stephen asked. He shook his head and stuck his hand out to Eli. "Sorry. My introductions suck. My name is Stephen, this is Billie, she's my little sister."
Eli looked him up and down once more but finally shook his hand. "It's a long story. But we aren't here to kill him, we're here for something else."
“What else could you possibly want?" Billie asked. There was no judgment in her voice, only genuine curiosity.
Eli and I looked at each other before I sighed. "It's a long story. And I don't have much time to finish this."
Just then, we heard tires out front. Stephen stepped around Billie and slammed the door shut. He locked it and then shoved a chair underneath the door handle.
"You better get to it because I think his friends are here," Stephen said.
I looked over to Eli and he nodded.
I turned back to the werewolf and began working quickly. I heard the people outside approaching the front door and start ramming it.
Stephen pulled his gun out again and Billie raised the back of his shirt and pulled out a wickedly sharp looking machete.
Eli looked surprised at her choice a weapon and she shrugged at him. Eli shifted again, just his claws and teeth out this time and the three of them faced the door.
I lined up the stones on the man's chest, keeping a tight hold on him. Underneath my breath, I whispered the spell that Artie and I had worked so hard on.
It was a spell to forget. It was a spell to repel him.
Most of all, it was a spell to quench his thirst for revenge.
Under most circumstances, it wouldn't take me long at all and now, with a pack of enraged werewolves at the door, I worked faster than ever before. Just as the door flew open, I finished the spell and put the wolf into a heavy sleep. The pack raced for Stephen, Billie, and Eli. I had a split second to push a wall up between the two groups and they were stopped.
Stephen looked over his shoulder at me, surprised.
Billie was shaking and still holding her machete and staring at the pack in front of her. Then she realized that they weren’t moving and looked back at me as well.
Eli looked over his shoulder as well. He gave me a smile and said, "I told you. I trusted you and you didn't hurt me."
"Wait, was there a chance that he could've hurt us?" Stephen asked.
Eli ignored him and went over to my side. He began to gather everything up once more in the small duffel bag. I took over his spot and stepped in front of the werewolves. I looked for the alpha in charge, the largest and angriest of them all.
"I know you," a man near the back said.
That was him. That was the alpha. He stepped closer to the wall that I put up. He met my eyes without fear.
"You do," I agreed.
It wasn’t true, not in the sense that we had been to a dinner party together. But there was something familiar in the way his lips curled up over his yellowed teeth and the way he shoved everyone else out of the way. We were connected because someone from his blood family bit Dante.
And whatever happened to Dante, happened to me.
Celia told me once that blood called blood. This man was like a forgotten nightmare that, upon waking, faded as the sun rose.
"We’re coming for you. I don't care how many people or nonhumans that we have to kill," the man said. His voice was calm and even despite the fact that he was trembling with rage.
"It would be in your best interest if you stopped now," I replied.
"You killed him. But he bit one of yours before. That means you and the bitten one belong to us," the man insisted.
"That doesn't mean shit and you know it. He abandoned us. He ran when he caught the scent of an alpha," I promised and glanced over my shoulder.
The man was lying completely still on the bed and I knew the wolves in front of us couldn’t hear his heart or catch his scent. For once, they couldn’t tell if one of theirs was dead or alive.
The woman next to the alpha threw herself against the wall. His wife or girlfriend, no doubt. She pounded on it with her fists and snarled at me. "What did you do to him?"
"You'll see," I promised.
She glared at me and snapped her fangs at me. It wasn't anything new and it had long lost any terror.
"Lou, let's go," Eli said.
"We’ll find you, don't worry. We’re coming," the man said.
I looked at him once more. "I'm not worried. But those nightmares you're having? You should worry about those."
He seemed genuinely confused. "What nightmares?"
I glanced around at the people with him. They weren't all one pack, but they were several packs, probably born from the same family but split to keep in line with the Ascendancy laws.
One by one, they fell to the ground. Until the only one left standing was the alpha.
"The nightmares you're about to have," I said and watched as he dropped to the ground as well.
"Lou," Eli said.
I nodded and stepped away from the people sleeping on the ground. There was no longer a wall between us because there was no need. They would sleep through the night and probably the rest of the next day, haunted by terrible nightmares of their own making.
"We can go out the front door. They aren’t going to move," I said and stepped over them.
The others only hesitated for a second before they followed after me.
"Who are you?" Billie asked as we stepped out into the night
I smiled at her. "My name is Lou Correa. This is Eli Ortega. We are from Glenwood Lock."
At the same time, Eli and I heard it. There was a truck heading for us, driving recklessly, filled with people talking over one another. We looked at each other and then back at Stephen and Billie.
"We need to leave, now," Eli said.
"Where is your car?" I asked and glanced around the empty parking lot desperately.
"We left it in The Cove. We walked," Stephen said.
It was smart if you were coming here to kill just one person. But they weren't counting on having others trailing them.
Eli pointed at Celia's car. Billie and Stephen didn't need any encouragement. The four of us ran for it and as the truck pulled in, we were rounding the back of the hotel complex and then we were gone.
Headed back home, where it was safe.