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AN HOUR HAD PASSED and Lou still hadn’t arrived. In her periphery, Alex saw her sister fidget nervously. She’d cross and uncross her legs, wiggle the foot of her crossed leg, roll her neck or pick up Alex’s phone from the console and check the time before replacing it. Even when she’d lay her head back against the headrest and close her eyes, her leg would bob ceaselessly or her fingertips would tap a frantic rhythm on her thigh. Carly’s nervousness was becoming contagious. Alex was starting to feel it, too.
Closing her eyes and pinching the bridge of her nose, Alex wondered where Lou was. She knew weekends were busy at the diner and that it would be hard to find someone to cover him, but Lisa had assured her she’d send him over as soon as possible. She realized both Lou and Lisa were doing her a huge favor by shifting the staff around—and all of this after she’d acted like a complete jerk and hadn’t so much as called to explain why she hadn’t shown up for her shifts in days—but she wished he’d hurry. Carly was cold and anxious, which made Alex edgy and uneasy.
Alex opened her eyes and scanned the parking lot. The wind had picked up. It howled a mournful bay as it slipped through cracks in the aged seals around the closed windows of her car. Sodium vapor lights cast an eerie glow in the deserted lot, flickering intermittently. Carly’s head swiveled left then right as she chewed the side of her thumb nail. All the while, her knee bounced up and down, ramping up Alex’s already frayed nerves.
When Carly reached her hand out to check the phone for what felt like the hundredth time, Alex commented, “It’s five minutes later than the last time you checked.” Her tone had been sharper than she’d wanted it to be. None of what was happening was Carly’s fault. Still, Alex had been short with her.
Carly immediately recoiled, frowning. “Sorry,” she mumbled.
Hit with a wave of guilt Alex felt horrible for snapping at her sister. “No, Carly, don’t be. You didn’t so anything wrong.” She looked directly into Carly’s eyes. “I was a jerk to snap at you like that,” she confessed.
“Then why did you?” Carly’s voice was little more than a whisper.
“You’re nervous, and it’s making me nervous to see you nervous,” Alex admitted.
Carly turned her body so that she faced Alex. She gestured beyond the driver’s side window toward the roller rink and the adjacent parking lot. “Roller Magic closed about a half hour ago. Every car is gone. It looks like a scene from a horror movie just before someone gets chopped into itty bitty pieces out there. And the last person I saw was a man staggering around by the Dumpster over there.” She stopped pointing to the parking lot and tossed her thumb over her shoulder toward the green, metal trash bin to their right that hugged the rear wall of the diner. The bin was close to their car. Too close. “So, yeah, I am nervous. Actually, that’s not true,” she corrected. “I’m scared.”
Alex locked the car doors as if that would help ease her sister’s fear then turned in her seat to look at Carly. Hearing that she was scared had upset her. “I’m sorry. I really am.” Alex placed a hand on her sister’s shoulder. “Please don’t be scared, though. I’m here and I’d never let anything happen to you,” she said comfortingly.
Carly offered a feeble smile. “Thanks.” She sighed and shrugged her shoulders. “I know you mean well, but you’re not exactly, you know...” she motioned as though she were flexing like a bodybuilder but had stopped talking.
“Oh please finish that sentence, sis,” Alex feigned insult. “I’m not exactly what?”
Carly squirmed a little, unsure of how to proceed and clearly worried she’d insulted Alex. “You know, you’re not, you know,” she stalled then said, “like muscle-y or anything.” She swallowed hard then continued. “Or trained to, like, take someone down.” Her cheeks blushed a deep shade of pink. She smiled embarrassedly.
“Oh, so you’d rather have John Cena here?” Alex continued to tease her sister. “Or a John Cena-esque cop maybe?”
“No!!” Carly giggled. “That’s not it.”
“I think it is,” Alex said and her sister laughed even harder.
“No! Not at all!”
“I think you’re protesting a little too much, Carls.” Alex smiled and nodded while waggling her eyebrows.
“No! I’m not,” Carly struggled to say through a fit of laughter. “It’s not like that. I mean, you’re just a tiny woman—” she started but Alex cut her off.
“Dig the hole a little deeper why don’t you!” Alex laughed aloud.
Carly covered her face with both hands, laughing hysterically behind them so that only staccato gasps sounded. When she’d composed herself, she said, “What I meant to say is I’m sure you’d try to protect me, but I don’t know if you could.” Her laughter trailed off and a more serious tone replaced the silly one. “Like say for example if those creepy guys who offered us a ride had tried something, could you have protected me then? Against three big guys?”
A primitive voice echoed—one that was growing increasingly familiar—through the yawning pits of her being that she’d have ripped out the throats of the three men if they had made a single move toward Carly. The thought caused her pulse to skyrocket and an odd pang of hunger to roll through her stomach. In fact, merely imagining her teeth sinking into their throats sent a ripple of energy bolting down her spine. But she couldn’t tell her sister that. She couldn’t possibly explain. Carly didn’t know what Alex was. Alex didn’t know what Alex was at this point. At least she wasn’t sure. She’d spent the entire night forcing it to the back of her mind. The wondering. The niggling sensation at the back of her brain that had intertwined with a whispering certainty of truth that was driving her mad. No matter what she was, she felt confident she could protect Carly.
“If those guys had tried anything or bothered you, I’d have done anything and everything in my power to protect you,” Alex said. It wasn’t a lie, either. She would’ve used whatever resources she had at her disposal.
“Thank you,” Carly said. But Alex could tell by her demeanor that her sister remained unconvinced.
Alex didn’t push the issue. And luckily she didn’t have to. Lou pulled into the lot, his headlights sweeping across her car and blinding her momentarily before he slowed to a stop.
“Yay!!! Lou’s here!” Carly clapped. “Thank goodness.”
Lou climbed out of his car. As usual, he didn’t wear a coat, only his grease-stained uniform. A gust of wind blustered, threatening to steal the hairnet he hadn’t bothered to remove from his hair. He placed a hand atop his head just in time to stop it from happening then waved at Carly and Alex. Alex immediately unlocked the doors and slid out from behind the steering wheel. Carly followed suit, exiting and rounding the rear bumper so that she stood beside Alex.
“Well, well, well, look at you, Miss Carly.” Lou smiled broadly at Carly and shook his head.
Carly walked over to him and they shared a quick hug. “Hi Lou! Thank you so much for coming. How’s your hand?”
Lou’s brow pleated in confusion but he didn’t ask what Carly was talking about. Instead, he said “Don’t mention it. I’d do anything for you two.” His words were so kind they exacerbated the guilt Alex had already been feeling. She was so ashamed that she seriously questioned whether she deserved his kindness and help. Lou held Carly at arm’s length and beamed at her as a doting grandparent would. “If it’s possible, I think you’re even prettier now than the last time I saw you.” Lou, a man who seldom had an inflection in his tone, spoke earnestly. His voice was so sincere that Carly lowered her head bashfully and giggled. She said “Thank you” so quietly Alex was not sure Lou had heard her until he said, “You’re very welcome.” To Alex he said, “I’m glad you’re okay.” On the surface, both his words and his tone had been simple. But the look he exchanged with her was anything but. His eyes shined with emotion. In them, Alex saw relief. She saw forgiveness. And she saw family.
“Me, too,” she replied though she wasn’t sure she’d ever be okay again after all that had transpired in recent days.
He held her gaze for several beats then clapped his hands together. “So, what’s going on with your car?” he asked. He patted both of Carly’s arms and told her that her jacket didn’t look warm enough then walked to the front of the car. Alex wanted to point out the very obvious fact that he wasn’t wearing a jacket at all but didn’t. She didn’t feel she had the right to rib Lou at this point. She planned to earn back that privilege as soon as possible.
“It wouldn’t start. I turned the key and it didn’t make a sound. No whining. No clicking,” Alex replied.
“That’s odd.” Lou scratched his chin. “Pop the hood and let me have a look,” he instructed.
Alex obliged, climbing back inside her car and pulling the black lever with the image of a car hood on it. A thunk sounded and within seconds, the hood of her car was up and Lou was inspecting matters.
“I can see the problem here,” he said immediately. He waved for her to come around and have a look. Alex joined him and stood. She took a cursory glance at the inner mechanisms.
“Okay. What am I looking at? Where’s the problem?” Alex asked.
Lou began by pointing out the engine, belts, hoses, oil filter, power steering fluid and windshield washer fluid reserves. “And that there is the battery,” he concluded.
Alex knew what she was looking at and hadn’t thought he’d take her literally. Still, she listened intently, holding back the urge to initiate playful banter for fear she wasn’t deserving of it. “Okay.”
“Notice anything off about the battery?” Lou asked and shined his cell phone flashlight on the battery.
Alex leaned in. At a glance she hadn’t noticed it, but with the light shining on it and upon closer inspection, she saw that the wires connecting to the battery had been cut. “What the heck?”
“The wires connecting to your battery have been cut. And I’m going to take a wild guess that it wasn’t you who cut them.” Lou’s brow was furrowed as he looked from the battery to Alex.
“No, it certainly wasn’t.” Alex folded her arms across her chest as a whispered warning breathed across her skin and raised the fine hairs of her body.
“Any idea who would’ve done this? Who’d have wanted you stranded here?” Lou’s eyes were narrowed and his brow was low. His words were chill fingers tracing the back of her neck, eliciting a wash of goosebumps. The three men who’d offered her and Carly a ride were the only faces that appeared in her mind. Their images elicited a reaction within her. An inherent instinct cautioned her. Awakening within her. Preparing her for confrontation.
“I think so,” Alex said. And as soon as the words spilled from her lips, twin beams of light sliced through the sallow pallor of the roller rink parking lot, veering right and barreling toward them.
“Alex what’s going on?” Carly asked in a frantic voice. She grabbed Alex’s arm, her small fingers biting into her bicep.
“I don’t know,” Alex replied.
Before she could tell her sister to get into Lou’s car and lock the doors, the vehicle was upon them, blinding them briefly before the headlights dimmed and the three men jumped out.
Warning that had whispered through her seconds earlier shrieked now.
“What’s all this?” Lou demanded as he stepped from the front of the car.
Strutting with an air of arrogance so thick it was palpable, Derek approached, flanked by his two brothers, Tom and Ryan. He ignored Lou altogether, focusing his attention on Alex instead. “Still here I see.” His words dripped like venom from his snarled lips. The helpful, mildly pleasant façade from earlier had dropped.
“Guess you should have taken us up on our offer,” Tom said. “Maybe we would’ve let her live if you had.” He clipped his chin toward Carly.
Head snapping in the direction of Ryan’s voice, the words “let her live”, coupled with his gesture toward Carly, ensnared Alex in a web of icy panic. Alex looked from one of their faces to the next, her heart thundering so loud and fast she began to feel faint. None of it made sense. Why would they want to kill Carly? She struggled to even think the words “kill” and “Carly” in the same sentence. “Wh-what are you talking about?” She could hardly form the words. The situation was surreal. Let them live? Was he serious? Could this really be happening?
Derek laughed out loud. “She must be new!”
What was happening? The world around Alex tilted violently.
“Yeah, she must be,” Tom taunted.
And then it began to whirl like an out-of-control carnival ride. What did they mean? Somewhere inside her, nebulous puzzle pieces floated by, elusive and refusing to connect. A scream was trapped inside her throat. One that demanded to know what was going on and what they wanted with her. Or more importantly what they wanted with Carly. But her voice was trapped behind the lump of dread that had lodged there the moment they’d arrived. Reality had transformed. She found herself in a hellish Wonderland. Stuck in a nightmare from which she could not wake.
“A brand-new bloodsucker!” Ryan hissed.
Bloodsucker.
The spinning stopped.
The puzzle formed.
Bloodsucker.
The word snapped like electricity from a livewire through her veins.
A low growl echoed from deep in Derek’s throat. “Filthy bloodsucker!” he spat.
“Shut up!” Alex ordered. Her voice was no longer held hostage in her lungs. It echoed with primal ferocity. Deep-seated, inexplicable instinct wailed like a siren, a caveat that these beasts were heritable enemies of hers.
“I think it’s time for you boys to leave,” Lou said as he placed his body between the men and Alex. “All this talk about letting them live is going to get you trouble here, so go on. Get out of here.”
Bitter, joyless laugher peppered from Derek like machinegun fire as he reached both hands out with lightning-fast speed and shoved Lou to the ground. “You’re all going to die,” Derek snarled.
“No!” Carly shrieked and raced to Lou’s side. “I’m calling the police!”
Alex felt a strange ripple beneath the surface of her skin. Felt her canine teeth extent and her features change. Into what, she didn’t know. But when her sister screamed, she knew that whatever it was, it wasn’t good. It demanded vengeance. It demanded blood.
“See? She is one!” Tom pointed at her and growled.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Ryan snapped at Carly as she pulled her phone from her pocket. He advanced a step toward her.
Whatever chain had been in place anchoring Alex to sanity snapped the second she saw Ryan move. Muscles twitching to life, she lunged for him, but not before rough hands reached out and grabbed Alex with superhuman speed, twisting her so that she faced a creature whose features vacillated, morphing between a being more animal than human, and a human being. His chest heaved and his body quivered. His mouth opened. Fangs dripped with saliva and the rage-twisted face of a beast resembling a werewolf flashed, glowering at her.
Alex shouldered his hands off of her as bloodlust roused within her. “You have two seconds to get out of my face and get out of here,” she warned. Her voice shivered with the promise of violence. Of bloodshed. Every part of her trembled with a combination of adrenaline-saturated fury, hunger, and fear.
The beast growled. “Or what?” Spittle sprayed from his mouth and landed on Alex’s cheek. Wild brown eyes darkened until his pupils melded with his irises, turning completely black as something feral overtook him. Without warning, hair sprouted from his body and bones snapped and cracked as they reformed. But before he was fully transformed from man to beast, Lou was on his feet and rushing toward Derek.
“Take your damn hands off her!” he shouted as he tried to pry Derek from her.
From her periphery, she watched as Ryan pounced on Lou, the moment a blur as she cried out, “Lou, look out!” But it was too late. Lou was flat on his back. Ryan had swatted Carly, throwing her out of the way, and was poised atop Lou, massive paws replacing his hands. Blade-like nails dug into Lou’s flesh, pinning him down and drawing blood. Alex could smell it. Smell the cloying scent of Lou’s blood as if it were a mist shrouding her. She struggled to free herself, to get to Lou and help him, as well as protect Carly. But Derek’s size was only second to his strength. Latent energy existed with in her. It challenged her, defying her to free it. She just needed to figure out how. In the meantime, all she could do was thrash. “Carly run! Run Carly!” Alex screamed.
But Carly was rooted to the pavement. Her face was a mask of horror. Her eyes fixed on Lou and Ryan.
Ryan lowered his head, and parted his thin, dark lips. Teeth, as long and sharp as daggers, were revealed seconds before his open mouth hovered above Lou’s throat and he clamped down hard, turning his head from side to side as Lou’s body shook like a rag doll.
“Lou! NOOOOOO!!!” Alex’s anguish-filled cry filled the ether as she watched Ryan jerk backward, Lou’s flesh in his mouth and gore dripping from his jaw. Hurt turned to hate with immediacy that stunned Alex. She wanted to avenge Lou’s brutal death and prevent Carly from the same fate.
Kill. Kill. Kill. The words were the beat of a war drum, battering her chest in time with her heart. Her vision became awash in crimson, scarlet veil covering the landscape. All she could see was blood. She would have their blood. Her body needed it. Demanded it. She could smell it. The scent of their blood was pungent, but still it called out to her.
Using every ounce of strength she possessed, Alex spun, elbowing Derek in the gut, hard, and racing toward Ryan. Without stopping, she dropped her shoulder and rammed into him, knocking him off of Lou’s ruined body and propelling him away from Carly. Ryan yelped in pain as he went flying.
“Run Carly!” Alex shouted but didn’t turn to see if her sister had listened. She was on the hunt. Ryan’s blood would be hers. She leaped into the air and dove for him. But as soon as she sprang into the air and her feet left the concrete, she was stopped. Grabbed midair, she was slammed to the ground. Wind knocked from her lungs and ribs flaring with pain from the blow, she fought her way to her feet. She reeled and took two steps but was seized from behind.
“Oh you’re not going anywhere, Bloodsucker,” Derek said as a now-partially human Ryan held her on one side and Tom held her on the other side. “You’re going to die.” The skin on his face swelled. She watched it ripple and heard the faint echo of bones restructuring, bending and fusing into place. The sound was akin to old towels being shredded to rags. His jaw elongated. His spine lengthened. His limbs stretched and thickened, and his shoulders broadened. Additional fur sprouted from his pores until his entire, hulking form was covered in a silky, russet coat. The creature that had been Derek bayed, its hackles raised as it prepared to strike. But headlights rushing toward them stopped it and caused it to whirl in the direction of the light. Within a heartbeat, the vehicle screeched to a halt. From the SUV, a figure emerged.
Tall and broad through his shoulders, the male form moved with the grace and speed of a panther. And as it drew closer, Alex saw midnight hair and eyes as silver as moonlight. Greyson. It was Greyson. Panic filled her. Somehow he was here. He’d found her and he was rushing to her defense. She couldn’t watch him die as he tried to help her. She’d already gotten Lou killed. Sweet, kind Lou, who’d only come to give her a ride and had protected her at the diner and had become a member of her family, was gone. And it was her fault. She couldn’t let Greyson meet with the same fate. She needed to stop him. She needed to protect him, as well as Carly. She’d give the very heart in her chest to see her sister live and would fight to her very last breath. Turning, she broke free of the hold Derek had on her and jammed the heel of her hand into his face as hard as she could then launched her foot forward into the area she guessed would be the beast’s groin. Derek in beast form cried out in pain and fell from his hind quarters to all fours.
“Greyson, run! Take my sister and go!” she called out to Greyson.
But he ignored her.
He opted, instead, to race toward them headlong. Diving through the air, he collided with Ryan, the bloodied, partially-shifted being who’d killed Lou. He immediately wrapped an arm around the werewolf’s throat and gripped so tightly, Alex could see the considerable bulge of his bicep just before Ryan’s eyes bugged and a loud snap sounded. Ryan’s body fell limp. Greyson released his grip and allowed the lifeless form to fall to the ground in a heap.
Derek, having gathered his wits, bounded toward her. In a single leap, he was airborne, lips peeled back and teeth bared as he sought to attack. Greyson intercepted the werewolf, driving his fist into its head. The force of the blow sent Derek careening in the opposite direction with a howl and left his brother, Tom, alone. Without allowing him a moment to recover, Greyson descended on Derek. On him in the space of a breath, Greyson’s jaw unhinged. Mouth wide and lethal canines exposed, they sank into the beast’s throat. The werewolf flailed, but Greyson had already begun tearing his throat out. As he did, Derek’s form changed. The lower portion of his body remained animal while the upper portion shifted back to human.
Greyson turned, wiping the corner of his mouth with the back of his had as his gaze trained on Tom. Tom had slunk off, cowering behind the rear bumper of Derek’s car. As soon as his eyes clashed with Greyson’s, he bolted, tearing off toward the wooded area beyond the diner. Greyson gave chase, darting after him so quickly his movements were a blur. When both disappeared from sight, Alex raced to Carly’s side. Unblinking and with mouth partially agape, tears carved channels down her sister’s cheeks. Her breathing came in short, shallow pants. Her gaze was fixed on Lou’s gory form.
“Carly?” Alex said gently. She approached with care and without sudden movements. Alex’s canines had retracted and the tingling beneath the surface of her skin had subsided. Rage had seeped from her. Emptiness was left in its wake. And grief. Lou was dead and her shock-stricken sister had been scarred by what she’d seen.
Alex knelt down, staring at her sister. “Do you hear me, Carly?” she asked. But Carly appeared to be gone, lost. Tears welling in her eyes, Alex envisioned her sister drowning in a sea of gray, unable to reach the surface. Unable to return to a world of color. One where bloodshed and violence wasn’t commonplace.
The thought of Carly imprisoned in a world of silence, numb silence, sent ice-cold terror racing through her veins. She drew in a deep, trembling breath. “Carly, please. It’s me, Alex. I love you so much and I’m so sorry for all that you saw here tonight. Please...” Tears that had gathered in her eyes slipped from the corners and trickled down her face. She wrapped her arms around her sister’s shoulders. “Please come back to me, Carly,” Alex pleaded.
A loud yelp echoed in the distance. Carly flinched and a whimper escaped her lips unheeded.
Seconds later, Greyson returned from the woods. Though she saw him striding with purpose, the sound of his footsteps faded to silence, as if the night itself absorbed the strike of each foot upon the earth. He glided toward them, approaching swiftly but cautiously. Alex moved to stand, but Carly’s fingers curled around Alex’s wrist.
“You want me to stay?” Alex whispered.
Carly’s grip tightened in response.
Alex could feel her sister’s body trembling violently. “I’m not going anywhere. I promise.”
Carly leaned into Alex, her body curved toward Alex’s.
When Greyson appeared and stood before them, Carly recoiled, cowering and shrinking back into Alex.
Alex pulled her sister closer. “I’ve got you, Carly, I’ve got you. I’ll never let anything happen to you,” she promised.
Seeing the movement, Greyson’s dark brows gathered. To Carly, he said, “You needn’t fear me, child, I would never hurt you.” Though he looked like he always had at the diner and his voice sounded the same, somehow he appeared older. Wiser. And something in his tone soothed Carly. The tension in her muscles relaxed. The tightness in her features smoothed. Alex turned to look at her and found that the glazed, terror-stricken gaze had left. Greyson’s voice reached out again, but this time it was to Alex. He said, “I’m sorry for what I’ve done to you. But when I found you that night, I had two choices: to either let you die, or make you like me.”
For a moment, Alex was unsure of his words, or more specifically their meaning. Sorry for what he’d done to her? Making her like him? And then it clicked. Greyson had turned her. The night she’d been attacked by the men as she’d left the diner, Greyson had been there. She had died and he had saved her. But in saving her, he’d changed her.
Her craving for blood. Her newfound speed and strength. Her intolerance of daylight. All of it pointed to one thing. Eyes meeting Greyson’s, her gaze searched him, penetrating his defenses. “Vampire.” The word was a sigh, an ephemeral wisp that passed from her mind and through her lips.
Greyson’s full lips curved to form a frown. He nodded.
“You saved me,” Alex whispered.
“I condemned you.” Eyes of liquid silver hardened. “This is not a life I’d wish on anyone. Least of all you.” Emotion touched the last sentence he’d spoken, a tenderness that stunned Alex. “I don’t blame you if you hate me, but there’s something out there, something far worse that those mangy dogs we just faced, and they’re hunting our kind.” The words spilled from him in a single, hurried breath.
Spine straightening, Alex said, “What? What’re you talking about? Who’s hunting us?”
“There’s no time to explain now. And I don’t even really know. All I do know is that we need to leave,” he said.
“We do?” Alex asked.
Greyson’s head jerked backward almost imperceptibly, as if Alex had said something that had hurt him. Perhaps she’d stressed the word “we” more than intended, for when he responded, his tone was laden with remorse. “If you hate me for what I’ve turned you into, I’ll leave you alone. It’s not what I want, but I won’t force myself on you.” He jammed a hand through the front of his hair. He seemed tormented, wrestling with an adversary only he could see or feel. “I want to help you. You’ll need it. I needed it. But if you don’t want me to, I understand.” He let out a loud, frustrated sigh. “I want you to let me help you.” He held out his hand to her, his palm up in offering.
Alex studied his face for a moment. She saw the sincerity glittering in the depths of his eyes and in every feature of his face. Guilt and confusion disappeared in sweet release. She knew it would be fleeting, that all of it would return on a deafening roar, but for now she savored it. She was certain the key to understanding what she was and to surviving was with Greyson Black.
Lifting the arm that was not around Carly’s shoulder, Alex placed her hand in Greyson’s. And in the moment her skin touched his, she realized that in doing so, she’d placed her life in his hands, as well.