| |
I would have knelt there, crying myself into oblivion, if not for a pained yelp somewhere behind me.
“No...” I couldn’t do it again. It already felt like my heart had been ripped out. I couldn’t kill again.
The yelp came again—only this time I recognized it. “Sam?”
I stumbled to my feet, taking one last look at the monster. “I’m so sorry,” I whispered. My shaking fingers stopped just before I touched it. “I never meant—I just wanted to keep the kids safe, to get away...” Nothing I said would change what happened.
I limped toward the alley, and the sewer entrance I’d climbed out of, moving faster when I saw a pale figure sprawled next to the entrance. Gaslights flickered over the familiar face, the streaked blonde hair. “Sam!” I halted, one hand covering my mouth. “Oh—”
Sam was on his side, his back to me, very human. And very naked.
Heat spread over my face. I looked down at my hoodie, and pulled it off. It was maybe big enough to cover his rather spectacular butt. Hey—how could I not notice? It was right there.
The long, ugly scars running down his left thigh distracted me from the view. They looked as old as the scars on his shoulder, but these wounds had been deep, and potentially crippling. Then I saw, just below his knee, a vicious bite mark, the scars thick and ugly. And bleeding.
I glanced from my small hoodie to Sam’s muscular body. It was not going to cover much. He may have been lean, but there was more than six feet of him.
I lowered myself to the ground and draped it over his hip, startled by the long slashes on the sleeve. Sam had more control than he thought—I didn’t even have a scratch on my arms from his claws.
Cradling his head, I brushed sweat matted hair off his cheek. “Sam.” He groaned. “Sam, please, you need to wake up.”
He opened his eyes—and I barely kept myself from dropping him. His eyes still looked like the animal that threatened me, chased me right to the monster.
No—I'm not going to blame him. Not for something he had no control over.
He blinked, and his eyes changed, back to the grey-blue I grew up loving, wanting to notice me. Never in my wildest dreams could I have ever thought up this scenario.
“Alex,” he whispered. Then his eyes widened, and he tried to free himself. “Get away from me.” He didn’t have the strength to pull free, and I wasn’t all that strong myself at the moment, which told me he was worse off than he looked. “I don't want to hurt you again—I can't control—”
“Sam.” He closed his eyes. “We'll deal with it, after I get you out of here.”
“The kids?”
“Safe, I'm pretty sure. I sent them up top, so they should be with everyone else. Sam, Katie was one of them.”
He met my eyes. We would have to talk about the significance of that. Once we got out of here.
“I need to—” He tried to sit, let out a low moan.
“Sam.” I didn't know how to be delicate about it, so I told him fast. “You're naked.”
“I'm—what?” He looked down at himself, and color flushed his cheeks. “Is that—”
“My hoodie. It's all I had. You will have to, um,” I waved my hands in the direction of the hoodie. “Adjust it yourself.”
The flush deepened, and his hand hovered over the scars on his leg before he sat and tried to, unsuccessfully, wrap the hoodie around himself. He finally gave up, and tied it around his hips, the majority of the fabric hanging down in front.
“Okay.” He started to run one hand through his hair, and gave up when it got caught in the matted length. His head snapped up. “Where is the monster?”
“I—” Swallowing, I blinked back the tears that threatened again. My whisper barely crossed the space between us. “I killed it.”
“Alex.” He laid one hand on my shoulder—and hit the top of the scrapes left by the monster. I recoiled, hissing from the pain flaring across my back. “Let me see.”
“It’s nothing—”
“Turn around.”
I did, heat spreading across my face when I felt him lift my shirt. I’m—let’s just say not gifted in the chest area. As in I missed the line when they handed those out.
I usually wear a camisole, but with all the scrapes and bruises I’d acquired lately, I chose a dark, loose shirt instead. So when Sam lifted the hem, he got an eyeful of bare skin.
He touched my back, the warmth of his fingers sending a different kind of heat through me. “Why didn’t you tell me you’d been hurt?”
“Not important.” I eased away from him, pulling my shirt down. “We need to get you out of here.” I pushed up to my knees, and kept moving, so he wouldn’t say anything embarrassing, or fuss over me. Right now, I didn’t deserve it. “Think you can stand?”
“We’ll find out.”
Sam lifted his left arm, flinching at the movement. I figured he pretty much hurt everywhere, after the—change. I tucked myself under his arm, the weight of him against me familiar now, and something I would miss. Horribly.
I had no delusions of us being any more than friendly strangers after this was over.
“Ready?”
He nodded, and shifted, slowly standing on his own. The muscles in his legs quivered, but they held him up. His strength had always impressed me on the playing field, but even more so now, after what he’d been through.
Sweat slicked his skin, soaking into my cotton shirt. “Sam?”
“Okay,” he whispered, his voice hoarse. “Let’s just get out of here.”
I nodded, my throat tightening as I realized we would have to pass the body of the monster to get to the exit. Leading Sam down the side of the building, I braced myself to face what I’d done. And jerked to a halt after we turned the corner.
The body was gone.
“Oh, God.” Relief left me shaking—relief that I didn’t kill it.
A second later, panic stomped on the relief. I didn’t kill it—so it was still here, and obviously not as dead as I thought.
“—wrong? Alex.” My head snapped up at Sam’s voice. “What?”
“The monster—here.” I pointed, my arm shaking from the shock of not seeing what should be in the middle of the street.
“The body is gone,” he said. I nodded. He’d admirably followed my babbling. “Then let’s get out of here, before we find it.”
“Right.” I shoved down the panic, and focused on moving Sam forward.
We passed the spot where it should have been, and I saw the pool of dark liquid, almost black in the low, flickering gaslight. A should-be-dead-it-bled-out-so-much size pool.
I must have made a sound, because Sam tightened his grip on my shoulder. “Alex?”
“Okay.” I offered him what I hoped looked like a smile. “Almost there.”
Now I just had to figure out how to get a six foot naked guy up the ladder.
~ ~ ~
“Alex!” Dad’s voice echoed down the hole.
“Dad...” For the second time relief almost knocked me over. “Is everyone okay? Do you have the kids—”
“Katie’s fine, sweetheart. They’re all fine.” I leaned my forehead against the ladder, tears stinging my eyes. “Is Sam with you?”
“Yes—we’re going to need some help. He was—” I looked at him, and he shrugged, turning his head away. I could feel him withdrawing, even though I still had both arms wrapped around him. “I won’t tell them, Sam, but we need some help.” He gripped the ladder, nodded. I called back up to Dad. “Is Candace with you?”
“Yes, she is,” Candace said. I smiled. “Does she need her first aid kit?”
“Not until we get up there.”
“Thank God. I thought I was going to have to stitch up another Emmett on the fly. Back away from the ladder, I’m coming down.”
I settled Sam against the closest wall, He slid his arm off my shoulders, and stared at the ground. Here it was—time for the brush-off.
“Alex—”
“Stop.” He lifted his head, surprise clear on his face. “I don’t need the added rejection on top of everything else.”
“Alex, I—”
“Let’s just call this a win, and go back to the way things were.” Like I could ever forget what I saw, what I knew now. I glanced up when I heard the sound of shoes tapping on the metal rungs, and could see soft light beyond Candace. “Happy Halloween, Sam.”
“What—”
“It’s tomorrow. Today.” I blinked, feeling the tears I knew I wouldn’t be able to control. “Take care of yourself.” Candace dropped down to the ground and turned, one eyebrow raised when she saw Sam. “You can handle this from here?”
She opened her mouth, probably to throw a smart comment, but only nodded after a long look at me. “Go on. Your dad’s worried.”
I didn’t take that one last look at Sam. Instead, I grabbed the ladder, and started climbing, tears already sliding down my cheeks.