Chapter Six

Ethan’s head snapped up, his attention instantly drawn to the source of the sudden commotion – a mess taking place at the intersection half a block down the street. The accident slowed to a crawl for him as his pupils dilated and his body prepared to shift. In situations like this, everything moved very fast for humans, and it was difficult to get a handle on what exactly was happening without taking too long to analyze it. Normally, it took more time than people really had.

But he was a werewolf, and he processed the situation in record time. He was moving before the second crunch happened, long before brakes were applied or horns were laid into. An SUV filled with what Ethan was fairly certain were children fresh from some sweat-inducing sport proceeded to go spinning out across the intersection. It had already impacted with a taxi cab, which lay crunched into a yellow box dead center in the crossroads, and a small Chevrolet compact was airborne. A domino effect of trauma was in the process of unfolding, all of it set into motion by a pair of faulty stoplights, which for some reason both glowed green.

Screeching tires signaled leaden feet on brake pedals, but the sound droned into a low growl in Ethan’s slow-motion world. Beside him, Helena raised her arms, moving just as fast as he did, and Ethan watched as the air-borne Chevy froze in mid-air. The screeching tires went silent. Every deadly device at the intersection froze in place.

Along with every human, every clock, every working mechanical device, every breeze of wind, and every beating heart. Frozen.

Shit, thought Ethan. She was using one of her powers, her strongest power, consequences be damned. But that was what she always did, of course. That was Helena.

Ethan didn’t try to stop her; there was no point. Instead, he rushed into the still-life fray, his body blurring with the werewolf speed that flowed through his veins. The faster this was cleared up, the sooner Helena could un-freeze the scene, and the less of an effect it would have on her.

His arms sustained slices as he broke windows and pulled people through them to safety, and Helena maintained a close proximity to him, using telekinesis to lift objects that were too large for even a werewolf to manage. She took the air-borne Chevy from its place several feet off the ground and moved it to the ground once more, cleared from the path of oncoming vehicles. When the pair of them had everyone free of the wreckage, they moved to the sidewalk, where Ethan watched his oldest and dearest friend use her mind and sheer will to un-freeze the vehicles and people she’d locked into place only moments earlier.

He knew what to expect when this happened. She’d been doing it for nearly twenty years. So when everything exploded back into chaotic life and the humans began to scream to one another, shouting orders and looking around in confusion, Ethan’s eyes were solely on Helena. He wasn’t the least bit surprised when she bowed her head and her silken black hair shifted like a blue-black waterfall to hide her face. He wasn’t surprised when she raised her hand and touched her forehead.

He was far more surprised that she didn’t lean against the wall or sit down altogether.

“Let’s get you home and hope no one saw anything,” said Ethan, gently taking her by the arm. She looked up at him, and Ethan froze. There in the depths of her maroon-black eyes, he saw what he was most afraid he would see: Shadows. Moving. Pieces of darkness coasting like danger across the luminous windows of her soul.

“Crap,” he muttered.

“Yeah,” she said softly, a little out of breath. “I can feel them coming this time.”

Ethan swore again, this time with more vehemence, and began walking Helena away from the scene. He scanned the area around them as he went, not only because of what they’d done and the inherent danger of such a thing, but because there was something….

He stopped. Helena was forced to stop abruptly next to him. “What is it?”

“Do you smell that?”

“Hello, my name is Helena Dawn, and I’m a human,” Helena deadpanned. But her voice was still too soft, too tired.

Ethan gave her a look and turned his attention to his surroundings. There was a new scent on the wind. It was faint, but it was arresting. He’d never smelled anything like it.

“What do you smell?” Helena asked, serious now.

“Honestly,” he said slowly, “I have no idea. This one’s new.” His tone was distracted, he knew, but he couldn’t help it. Not only was this scent one he’d never before experienced, it was one that set off every alarm bell in his system.

“Let’s go,” he suddenly said, spinning around, and bending to lift a very surprised Helena into his arms.

“Wait – what the hell? What are you doing?”

“We need to get gone right now.”

Helena didn’t argue. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held tight as he broke into a sprint, putting good distance between them and the accident behind them. When they’d gone several blocks and turned a few corners, he finally put her back down.

Helena straightened her clothes, but her hair that had always reminded him of an anime character was still wind-tossed and beautiful, and her eyes were shining with excitement and fear. She was an arresting vision, even now, even here, just past disaster. She took a deep breath and pinned him with a demanding look. “Okay. Explain.”

Ethan shook his head. “I don’t know.” He looked over his shoulder. “But whatever it was, it was bad. Bad enough that I can honestly say I don’t know if that accident was an accident at all.”

Helena moved a few steps away from him to the corner of the street and peeked around. She wouldn’t see anything; they’d left the scene of the accident blocks away. Her brow furrowed and she turned back to him. “Ethan, if it was that bad, we should go back.”

Her eyes were pleading. And without even meaning to be, they were damning. He should have known that if he’d told her that, she would want to go back. Fighting evil was everything to Helena. He’d never known a stronger woman, or a more stubborn one.

“No.”

Helena stared at him. Her eyes got wide and her mouth fell open. “Why the hell not?”

“Because you’re already in a heap of trouble,” he told her, recalling the shadows he’d seen moving across her eyes. “You’ve already crossed the line with your powers today, and I can’t fight whatever this is alone.” And… because as weird as it was, Ethan couldn’t shake the sensation that whatever had caused that accident had been after Helena. She was in danger. He didn’t know how or why or even what kind of danger, but she was absolutely the target. He was certain of it.

Helena lowered her head and seemed to think. But when she lifted her hands and turned them over, he realized she was actually looking at them. Something was wrong.

Before his eyes, she began to fade. Within a few seconds, her body had become literally transparent, and he could see the sidewalk through her arms.

“Helena, what –” but before he could finish asking the question, Helena Dawn vanished entirely.

Ethan Holloway James lifted his head. He blinked a few times and looked around, a little confused as to what he was doing on that street corner at that time of day. The sun was low in the sky; it was a weekday. He’d just finished teaching the self defense class he held in a studio several streets from here. Normally, he went home by another route.

In the distance, he could hear sirens. They were headed his direction. He also caught something on the wind. It smelled like gasoline and oil, hot metal, fear, and even a little like blood.

There had been an accident nearby. That explained the sirens. He hoped everyone was okay.

And with that, Ethan shrugged off the odd black-out, chalked it up to getting lost in his thoughts again, and slid his hands into the pockets of his hoodie. He felt his phone there in his right pocket, and on a whim pulled it out to check for messages.

Nothing much from any of his friends except an invite to Hungry, a werewolf bar downtown. He shot back a quick reply, slid the phone back in his pocket, and headed for home.