Blood Moon (37 page)

I had nothing to go on other than my
instincts telling me that whatever was in my house went against the
very laws of nature. It was evil, pure and simple.

Pressing my body against the wall, I
listened a little more carefully, trying to pick up some of my
visitor’s unique traits. It confused me when I failed to hear much
of anything. There was no pulse when I expected to hear something
elevated by the adrenaline of committing a crime. There was no
excited breathing pattern. The only thing I was able to pick up was
that smell. The smell of death combined with a sickly-sweet smell I
couldn’t quite describe.

Then I heard nothing at all. The books
stopped being tossed around, papers stopped fluttering. I honed my
hearing a little more as I crept along the wall, stopping when I
caught a glimpse of my intruder in the mirror on the wall across
from me. Silent, I stood as still as possible, waiting for my
opportunity to strike before it noticed me.

While it appeared to be human, based on its
reflection in the mirror, the smell that continued to pollute my
home told me otherwise. Even with her back to me, I saw her frame
was slender, her long brown hair hanging midway down her back. She
was dressed in jeans and a strapless black top, and her four-inch
gold heels were covered in glitter. It looked like something one
would wear to a nightclub, not on a B and E.

I continued to watch in the mirror while
this woman tossed my belongings to the floor like she was looking
for something, but then she froze unexpectedly. Slowly, she turned
her head, and I saw a whisper of a smile play at the outer corner
of her lips through her refection.

“You ever going to show yourself?” Her voice
was soft and airy—almost melodic—but it made my skin crawl and my
stomach cramp as another wave of nausea tugged at me. Such a
visceral reaction to someone’s voice had to stem from something
deeper, but I didn’t have time to figure that all out right now.
She knew I was here, and she turned around fully, crossing her arms
in front of her. “I’ve been making an awful mess in here in hopes
you’d come play.”

Since I never really held the element of
surprise over my intruder, I stepped out from around the corner to
face her. Even though she was slight of frame, something about her
was still off-putting to me. I felt like I should be afraid of her,
but I also felt like I could handle anything she might try to throw
at me. Which feeling was most prominent, though? I was still trying
to figure that out.

She stared at me with a smug look on her
face. She was confident about whatever she had planned, but I
refused to let her rattle me. I returned her icy stare, finally
getting a good look at my uninvited guest…and then I momentarily
faltered. Her eyes… The unique shape of her nose… Her long brown
hair… Why did she look so damn familiar? I couldn’t shake the
feeling, and was having difficulty placing where exactly I knew her
from.

Then she turned her head to the side, the
stream of silver moonlight bouncing off the side of her neck…her
smooth, pale neck. Unmarked…

But it wasn’t always
, a voice
reminded me.

Over a month ago, I came across this woman
in a park, her neck cut open and her blood drained from her body.
Exsanguination was her C.O.D. And now, here she was, standing in
front of me, seemingly the picture of health.

“Samantha Turner?” I questioned, unsure.

Her smile widened; she looked positively
giddy with excitement as she clapped her hands triumphantly. “Oh,
goodie! You do remember me.”

Fear swelled in my stomach, tying into
painful knots as my knees threatened to give out. I held strong,
though, still not wanting to show her any weakness. Something told
me she wouldn’t hesitate upon sensing even a smidge of it. I knew I
wouldn’t.

“What…? How…?” None of this made any sense,
and my head started to spin. If she was here—alive, if that’s what
she was—then what about the other victims we’d come across these
past few weeks? Were they out there somewhere? Not dead?

“What are you?” I demanded.

Samantha looked disappointed, jutting out
her bottom lip in a false pout. “Oh, come on, Brooke…can I call you
Brooke? Or would you prefer Detective Leighton?”

She knew my name. How the hell did she know
my name?

Panic raced up my spine, and everything
about this woman screamed “threat” to some baser instinct within
me, but her tone and the way she looked at me belied this.
Thankfully my common sense kicked in the second she stepped toward
me, and I realized she was likely trying to lull me into a false
sense of security. She toyed with me like a cat with a mouse.

She took another step, and my defenses flew
back up, my posture rigid, my teeth curled back, and an unexpected
snarl rising from deep in my belly. “Detective, it is then,” she
replied, her eyes narrowing sinisterly as she sidestepped around
me, circling me; probably calculating her next move.

I turned with every step she took, never
letting her out of my sight, and with every second that passed, the
storm inside me continued to build. The pressure pushed out
anything remotely human and replaced it with something primal and
feral. I didn’t even know her, but her mere presence seemed to
drive me to the brink of pure, unbridled rage.

“What do you want? Why are you here?” I
finally demanded through clenched teeth.

“You really don’t know?” she purred. “I
thought for sure that brute you’ve been sneaking around with would
have told you by now. Especially given the history.”

The history? What the hell was she talking
about? How would she even know Nick and I
had
a history?

She laughed, a light tinkling sound that
sent a shiver down my spine like nails on a chalkboard might. “He
thought he had them,” she said cryptically. “Setting that fire up
in Alaska was brave…stupid, but brave. He destroyed everything
she’s been working for these last seven years. Filthy mutt.” Her
voice held an immeasurable level of disdain as she lowered her
eyes, and then it dropped off to a mumbled whisper when she resumed
eye contact. “I was told to keep you alive, but I honestly can’t
stomach the idea of another one of your kind existing. If you’re
still breathing by the time that animal stumbles over your dying
body, make sure you tell him this is his fault
.
”

Before I was even given the chance to fully
process everything she was saying, her façade slipped away like a
veil, and I was privy to a glimpse of her true self—the monster
that had me feeling on edge. The wolf lapped thirstily at the
chance to destroy her. In a fraction of a second, her blue eyes
darkened dangerously until they were black as pitch—demonic—and she
opened her mouth in a threatening shriek as she lunged for me. Her
elongated canines gleamed in the moonlight that streamed through my
window.

Even though my brain needed a second to
catch up, still trying to put the pieces together, my reflexes
didn’t let me down, and I bobbed when she weaved…the first time,
anyway. Sadly, I wasn’t expecting the speed at which she moved. It
wasn’t human—and it definitely wasn’t wolf. Not from what I’d seen
anyway. I had noticed an increase in my speed among everything
else, but it was nothing like how Samantha moved. She was graceful
and swift as she moved across the room in the blink of an eye and
slammed me up against the wall, sending the mirror crashing to the
floor. It shattered, and the wall crumbled behind me. She wasn’t
only fast, but strong, using only one hand to keep me subdued.

She held her hand around my neck, slowly
squeezing and crushing my windpipe as my legs flailed and kick
several inches off the ground, unable to connect with her. I
attempted to pry her hand from around my neck, but it was no use.
As I was denied oxygen, my strength started to wane and I panicked.
My anxiety spiked, but then the beast was back, ripping its way
through me, threatening to bury my human side in an effort to
survive. It didn’t seem to matter that we were still weeks away
from the next full moon. Nick had warned me that this was possible,
but I didn’t fully believe him until now.

Even though it was difficult to ignore, I
refused to give it complete control. This was my first mistake,
because my vision darkened as a feral growl filled the room, and I
knew it came from me. It reminded me of how I felt right before I
woke up naked in Nick’s bed and learned the truth about what had
happened.

I’m slipping. I should just let it
happen. Don’t deny who you are anymore,
I ordered myself.

All of a sudden, there was a loud bang that
pulled me from the darkness, and I gasped for air when Samantha
very briefly loosened her grip. She righted this slip-up, but not
before I had a moment to regain my bearings. Of course, any plan I
might have been able to come up with in a fraction of a second was
shot to hell when I heard loud footsteps racing down the hall,
followed by a very familiar and extremely angry voice.

“Hey!” David yelled, and I craned my neck
toward him. His blue eyes did nothing to hide his fear, but he held
his gun steady, aiming it at my attacker. “Let her go!”

I feared for his life when Samantha turned
her murderous gaze on him, and I kicked her swiftly in the shin to
draw her focus back to me. It didn’t even faze her, and instead she
smiled at David.

“Well, hello, handsome,” she purred, her
voice returning to that soft, melodic tone from earlier. It
suddenly occurred to me that this was what she did to draw people
in. I could see how it might be hypnotic, even though, to me, it
was reminiscent of a banshee.

“I said, let her
go
.” He put heavy
emphasis on each word, taking a wary step forward and placing his
finger on the trigger, preparing to fire. It relieved me that he
seemed unaffected by her, but it worried me that he didn’t sense
the very real danger that he was in. While I wasn’t sure what she
was exactly, I knew she wasn’t human, and I knew she wouldn’t
hesitate to hurt him…

Or worse.

Samantha turned to me. Her smile was
positively wicked as she brought her face closer, her cheek resting
against mine as she whispered in my ear. “This’ll only take a sec,”
she said, her confident tone sounding like a promise. As she pulled
her face from mine, I felt the point of her canines scrape along my
jaw before her tongue trailed along my skin.

My vision darkened again as my humanity
slipped away. Every muscle in my body tensed, my skin tightening,
and I felt the overwhelming urge to let go. To accept what was
happening, but when I looked at David again, I repressed it.

He can’t know. It’s dangerous for him to
know.

These were warnings I couldn’t ignore. If I
lost control and shifted, he could get hurt.
I
could hurt
him. There was no way I could live with that… But I had to do
something. I needed to find a way to st—

Suddenly, two shots were fired, and I fell
to the ground, dazed. I gasped desperately for air, my lungs
burning like I’d just swallowed a red-hot branding iron. I
momentarily forgot about what was going on around me as I tried
desperately to replenish my oxygen supply. When I looked up, I saw
Samantha advancing on David. She moved much slower than she was
with me, and her arm was bleeding. David’s aim didn’t quite hit
home—or maybe it did. Maybe he was just trying to incapacitate
her.

David warned her to stay put and stop moving
toward him, but she ignored him. I tried to stand up, but my legs
were weak, so it was a bit of a struggle. Usually, when someone was
staring down the barrel of a gun, there was a certain level of fear
involved. Sometimes this fear manifested itself differently. Some
people’s hormones went crazy, some people’s hearts beat furiously,
and some people pissed themselves. Samantha Turner did none of the
above. Instead of fear, all I could smell on her—besides the
undeniable sickly odor of death—was excitement. Whatever she had
planned turned her on.

I finally made it to my feet, but I didn’t
reach them in time. I was an arm’s length away when she reached
out—her movements once again quick and inhuman—and tossed David
aside like he was nothing more than a rag doll. He flew across the
living room before crashing into the large front window, and it
shattered upon impact. I screamed when I watched his limp body fall
to the ground and a pool of red start to form around him.

Blood
. The coppery scent was
overwhelming, quickly filling the air. At the speed it invaded my
senses, I knew without a doubt that David’s injuries were severe.
If I didn’t get to him fast, I could lose—

I choked on the thought, my anger and need
for vengeance overpowering even my fear. The tight muscles and
quivering skin returned, that growl from earlier once again
building in the pit of my stomach and working its way free. I
continued to fight what was happening to my body, but it was too
difficult. Pain tore through my body, the sound of bone cracking
and cloth ripping echoing in my ears. It felt like my entire body
had been lit on fire as I cried out in pain.

Then everything went black. I couldn’t hear
anything. See anything.
Feel
anything. I was numb to
everything around me. Lost in a sea of black, I relaxed, and that
was when things started to slip through.

There was growling—wild, animalistic
growling—not to be outdone by the hissing and shrieking of whatever
the hell Samantha was. My vision was blurred along the outer edges,
tunneling inward until my main line of view was crystal clear. I
watched her barrel toward me until our bodies collided and slid
across the floor. We hit the wall, pain exploded in my back and
ribs, and then everything was black again. The numbness from before
returned, and I reveled in it. It was safe here. There was no pain,
no fear, no blood…