Aimee walked up the stairs to her apartment, her breasts still tingling from where Jake had touched them. They’d kissed good night, his hands moving from her back to underneath her jacket, seeking bare skin. She’d arched into him while whispering his name in his ear. Jake. It had rolled off her tongue, lingering in the cold night air like music.
Jake…
Looking over her shoulder now, she gazed at the cottage below and the light in his bedroom window. His mother had just left, backing up out of the driveway with no clue as to who, or what, stood in the shadows watching.
Aimee unlocked the door and flipped on the light. The apartment was chilly, but she knew it wouldn’t take long to warm up. Shrugging off her jacket, she kicked off her boots at the same time. Home.
She’d only been there a little while, but it already felt like she belonged. She supposed the family across the driveway had a lot to do with that. Because there was love here. This clearing in the woods was full of it.
But beyond that, beyond the cheerful, little house, lay darkness. And that’s why she’d disappeared for so long. To try to stop whatever was happening before it really got started.
Sighing, she turned on the heater in the corner, then straightened to put up her hair. Exhaustion hit her hard. She, Zane, and Jim had set out together several nights ago. They’d thought that with all three of them, they’d be able to track this new wolf, or whatever it was, and flush it out. Or at the very least chase it from their forest.
And that’s exactly what they thought they did, until last night when Jim had been attacked while crossing a stream in a canyon to the south. Just as quickly as it charged, it had disappeared, back into the darkness from which it had come. Jim was okay, thank God, just a few cuts and bruises. But it was clear now that whatever, or whomever, they were dealing with, meant business.
Zane grew more and more insistent that it was Nick Jadin. And Jim agreed. Jadin’s obsessive, dangerous, human personality would be multiplied ten-fold by the change. And that made her nervous. She’d had a million questions on the way back to Wolfe Creek. What should they do? Were the townspeople safe? Would it get worse from here on out?
In the end, none of them had any answers because they’d never had to deal with anything like this before. They were all worried, on edge.
She’d been walking back to Jake’s cottage when he’d spotted her on the side of the road. A little beaten up, a lot tired, but otherwise okay. He couldn’t have known how glad she was to see him. Couldn’t have had any clue how much worry consumed her now that she knew what was out there. And she didn’t know if she’d ever be able to tell him. She’d asked him to trust her. But the thought of coming clean with all of this, with what had happened to her…it terrified her.
She stood in front of the window and looked down into the forest. Just the dark shadows of the trees were visible tonight. They were cloaked in a mist that chilled her straight to the bone.
Jim had said that if it was Nick out there, he’d be growing stronger by the day. Experimenting with the things he was now capable of. Animal things. Violent things. It made sense.
Jake told her about the guy he’d treated who’d been bitten by an animal at his campsite. She didn’t think whatever they were dealing with would have stopped at just one bite. Which was good. A bite meant a transformation, and the last thing they needed was another werewolf around there.
She watched the gaps in the trees, half-expecting to see a monster standing there looking back at her. A crazed man, driven mad by what had happened to him. Thirsty for blood. For revenge.
She turned and headed for the door, grabbing her jacket as she went. She wouldn’t sleep tonight. Tonight, she’d be watching.
And waiting.
* * * *
Daniel took a step, wobbled, and fell face-first into a snowdrift. Giggling, he kicked his way out and tried to stand. Aimee held out a gloved hand to help him up.
“Why don’t you guys just go to a Christmas tree lot?” she asked, trying to keep the worried edge from her voice. “They have some nice ones down in Splendor Pass.”
“Because we always cut our tree down, don’t we, Daddy?”
Jake looked at them over his shoulder. Every third or fourth step, his boots would collapse into the snow and he’d sink up to his calves. “Yeah, buddy. We do.”
She followed, this time holding onto Daniel’s hand. He looked like the kid from A Christmas Story, so wrapped up in winter gear that he could barely waddle in a straight line.
She smiled down at him, and he smiled back.
“So this is a tradition,” she said. “It’s a nice one.” Not to mention dangerous, she thought, but kept that part to herself.
Ever since they’d parked and gotten out, she’d been keeping her eyes peeled for tracks, broken branches, clumps of fur in the snow. Anything that would give an indication that they weren’t alone up there.
She looked up at the steely gray sky. Fat, dark clouds had started gathering that morning, promising another storm. The woods were quiet, still. But beyond that there was an ominous tension that she didn’t like.
“How long does it usually take to find one?” she asked.
Jake was going to think she was some kind of tree-hunting pansy. But that was okay with her. Whatever. Just as long as she could convince them to get this done fast and go home where they belonged.
He gave her another look over his shoulder. He seemed tense too. She didn’t think it was her imagination.
“The sooner, the better,” he said. “It’s freezing out here.”
Daniel beamed, completely unaware of anything other than the promise of a tree, which meant Christmas. Which also meant presents. He’d made this thought process abundantly clear on the drive up the mountain, talking about everything from Santa, to reindeer, to the fact that Dante should get a present this year too. It wasn’t fair that he should miss out just because he was a cat.
She squeezed his hand, his big, red mittens making it hard to get a good grip. The air smelled fresh and clean, like pine and snow. So far nothing that set off any kind of red flag, except for the usual uneasiness. She just hoped it stayed that way.
“Over there!” Daniel jabbed his mitten toward a small blue spruce in the middle of a clearing. “That one!”
Jake stopped and turned, his breath puffing in front of his face. “That one? Are you sure?”
She caught his eye and smiled, sure he thought the same thing. It was the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree. It sagged pathetically to one side and was close to bald on the other. Its branches were skinny and bare, its trunk barely holding it up.
“I like it,” Daniel said.
“I like it too,” she said. “It’s got character.”
“It’s got something. I wouldn’t necessarily call it character. Some exotic tree disease maybe.”
“Daddy.”
“Okay. If it’s two against one, I give.”
Throwing the saw over his shoulder, Jake trudged his way through the snow toward the little tree. His black jacket fit snug across his chest, a gray, knit hat pulled low over his brow. The promise of a dark beard prickled his neck and jaw. She stared at him and swallowed hard, thinking of what lay underneath all those clothes.
“It’s kind of scrawny,” Jake said over his shoulder. “It won’t take long to cut. Which means we can get out of here and grab some hot chocolate on the way home.”
It definitely wasn’t her imagination. He wanted to be gone as much as she did.
Daniel clapped his mittens together. “Yay!”
The wind had picked up a little, bringing with it a frigid cold. The snow would be there soon. Aimee pulled her jacket collar high around her neck and looked around.
Jake began sawing, while Daniel listed possible Christmas presents for Dante.
“But no food,” the little boy said adamantly. “He’s too fat.”
“Definitely too fat,” Jake said, bending over the tree to get a better grip.
“Maybe a toy? Or a new bed?”
“What does he need a bed for? He sleeps on yours.”
“A bed of his very own.”
“Ahh.”
She half-listened to their exchange, but was more interested in the scent that the wind had brought with it. She lifted her head and took it in, the hairs standing up on the back of her neck.
“He needs a big one though,” Daniel said. “Remember the last one we got? His bottom hung off the back.”
“I remember. I’m sticking to my theory that spending money on a cat is a complete and total waste. They’d just as soon sleep on clean laundry. Specifically, my laundry.”
“What does theory mean?”
“It means Daddy’s very wise,” Jake said, pushing his hat back.
Daniel grinned and looked up at her. But she barely noticed. She squeezed his hand, pulling him a little closer.
“How’s that tree cutting coming along?” she asked.
“It’s coming. This saw isn’t as sharp as I thought. I grabbed the wrong one.”
The wind gusted through the tops of the pines as she squinted at something in the distance. A movement. The bushes shook about thirty feet away, as if something were inside. The snow from their branches sprinkled delicately to the ground. Probably just a squirrel or a rabbit. But still…
She looked back at Jake. He had only cut about halfway through the trunk.
Still holding Daniel’s hand, she took a few protective steps toward his father. Her boots sunk into the snow, and she had to work at pulling her feet out. She watched the cluster of bushes and trees, her pulse skipping in her neck.
“Almost done,” he said. “This trunk is harder than it looks.”
Daniel had stopped talking. He stood close to Aimee, his small arm wrapped around one leg.
“I think I wanna go home now,” he said.
“Almost done, buddy.”
“No. Now.”
His face, which had been pink with the cold just a few minutes before, was now pale and drained of color. She could feel his little body trembling next to hers.
Jake glanced at her and frowned, then came over and knelt next to his son. “I know you’re cold, bud. So are we. Just a few more minutes and we can tie our new tree to the jeep and go home. Then we’ll decorate it. And I bet Aimee will even stay for that.”
She hugged him close. “I sure will. And we haven’t decided what to get Dante yet. We still need to come up with something.”
She had a feeling Jake had chosen his words just as carefully as she had. The tone of Daniel’s voice wasn’t typical of a kid who just wanted to get out of the cold. It held an edge of unease. Maybe he’d thought about his mother just then, or maybe the memory of getting lost made him nervous. Whatever the reason, he was obviously unsettled.
Wiping his nose with the back of a mitten, Daniel stared toward the same bushes she’d been watching. “It’s not him. I wouldn’t be afraid of him.”
A shadow passed over Jake’s face that made her wish they’d left five minutes ago.
He took Daniel by the shoulders and looked him in the eyes. “There’s nothing out there, son.”
“There was. But not anymore. It’s not him, I told you.”
Her knees shook, and not from the cold.
“He doesn’t exist, Daniel.”
“He does, Daddy. But he wouldn’t hurt us. He wouldn’t. It’s not him. It’s something else. I saw it.”
Jake stood and looked over his shoulder as a stiff gust of wind almost pushed them off balance.
“Jake, I’ll take him to the car. Will you come with us?”
“Let me just finish up and get the tree. I’ll be right there.”
“Daddy—”
“Daniel, I already started cutting it down. It’ll die if I leave it like this, and then it’ll be for nothing. You go with Aimee, and I’ll be there in a minute.”
She frowned, not liking the thought of leaving him in the clearing, but also knowing that she needed to get Daniel back. He was the smallest, the weakest of the two of them. She also knew that Jake had a loaded Beretta underneath his jacket. Something he hadn’t mentioned, but she knew just the same.
Picking Daniel up, she watched Jake for another second, then turned to retrace their tracks back to the jeep. The little boy wrapped his arms around her neck and put his chilled face next to hers. She could feel the wetness of tears against her skin.
“It’s okay,” she whispered. “It’s going to be okay.”