Death Takes a Holiday (35 page)

This trail seemed to take forever when Artie was after me, but it must have been just a few minutes because it takes only fifteen minutes walking. When we reach the hill, we crouch down and walk up it, stopping right at the crest. We all lay on our stomachs and peer over. The mine is lit up inside, I think from the gas lamps I saw on the wall, and Oliver hides off to the side, his back to the mine. Will waves his arms to signal, and Oliver vanishes, only to reappear with us on the hill. He lies between Will and Agent Chandler.

“They appear to be in the chamber Trixie discovered,” he whispers. “The troll is unconscious, and there is a dead human next to it. I counted six people, including Officer Weir.”

“Only six?” I ask.

“Four men and two women. All appear to be distracted.”

“How?” I whisper.

“One is off to the side staring at nothing, one is unconscious, and the others are … enjoying one another.” Oh. Eww. “I made it through the tunnels to the chamber undetected before you arrived. It is a straight walk down, and then a left turn at the fork. If we wish to capture them, now is the time to do it.”

“Looks like we don’t need you,” Will whispers to me. “Oliver, lead the vamps in first and wait by the entrance to the chamber. Rush, Chandler, follow me in and then Oliver and his team. Understood?”

Everyone nods.

“What about me?” I ask.

“Cover us from above.”

“Will … ”

“I won’t be able to concentrate with you in there.
Please
,” he says through gritted teeth.

I sigh but say, “Okay.”

“Thank you.” He looks at Oliver. “Ready?”

Oliver turns to Connor, who nods. “See you inside,” Oliver says before he and all the vamps but Jim stand up and vanish, becoming nothing but blurs in the field.

Will glances at the rest of us. “Let’s go.”

We all rise and run toward the mine, stopping at the entrance. Will listens for a second then points to Jim and Agent Wolfe, signaling them to stay put. The he points at me and signals toward the hole. I nod. Finally he signals Agents Chandler and Rushmore to go in. The three men take a step, but I hold up my finger at Will for him to wait. He looks confused and shrugs. But when I press my lips to his, kissing him as deeply as the hole he’s about to go into, all his confusion vanishes. It’s quick, seeing as we have, you know, bad guys to catch, but sweet. “For luck,” I mouth. I give him a quick peck on the cheek before running off to my hole. When I look back, he’s gone.

The hole is easy to find; it’s lit up like a spotlight against the pitch-black night. I’m very careful with my footing in case there are more weak spots but make it without incident. As best I can with my arm in a sling, I rest on my stomach and peer in. The troll lies on his side in the corner fast asleep. Beside him is what was once a human. I can tell from the severed leg and exposed rib cage. That could have been me. I suppress a shudder.

The most fudged-up bowling team in history is entirely accounted for. Mel sits with his back against the wall examining his hands as if they have diamonds on them, he’s fascinated. And stoned. Mostly stoned. The rest, well … Jawan’s naked butt pumps up and down on an unconscious Leslie. Right next to him Kristen’s mouth works on the blissed-out Steven with Nick behind her, doing something I think is illegal in some states. This makes me want to throw up more than the corpse. They’re all covered in black liquid, which must be troll blood. Steven tosses his head back and groans three times. He’s done. I recognize the sound. Kristen releases him, but Nick doesn’t stop. Yuck. My groggy ex stands up, exposing his everything. I close my eyes. I never want to see that thing again. Too many boring memories. Someone else grunts, and I force my eyes back open. Steven is putting on his pants, but Nick finishes with Kristen. I’m going to be watching kitten videos non-stop for a week to cleanse my palate.

I hear the footsteps the same time as they do. All four tense and don’t move until Will sprints in, shouting “FBI! Hands up!” In their fogged minds the group doesn’t understand what’s occurring as the good guys enter the chamber with their weapons pointed at the naked people. “Don’t move! Don’t you fucking move! Hands on your head!” Will says before grabbing Steven. “Give me a reason. Give me a fucking reason!”

Neil pulls the barely awake and naked Leslie up, and I scoot closer to the edge to get a better view. Bad move. I let lose a barrage of dirt and almost fall in again. Everyone below looks up.

Distractions are never a good thing in situations like this. The supercharged Steven grabs Will’s gun and cold cocks him across the jaw. Another distraction. The rest of the bad guys seem to magically come out of their stupor and attack. Steven opens fire, shooting wildly at whatever moves. I barely have time to duck before he points the gun at me. The bullets hit where I was, and I cover my head. There are more screams and gunshots echoing below. The troll bellows and all the noise ceases but his cry. A second later the gunshots resume. Okay, coming here was a stupid, stupid,
stupid
thing to do.

By the entrance, Agent Wolfe shouts, “What’s going on?”

“One of you, get in there now!” I scream as loud as I can.

Jim vanishes.

I wait five seconds before forcing myself to resume my post. Fudge. The troll has Mel in his arms and breaks the man’s back over his knee before biting his head off. Below the troll’s foot, the bouncer from Gaslight struggles to push the appendage off. Neil drags one of the vamps, who is missing an arm, out of the cave. A still naked Kristen fires at Connor with a stolen shotgun, missing as he speeds around the room. He reappears behind her, teeth plunging into her neck. Leslie’s bullet-riddled body lies on the ground with a vampire feeding off her. Agent Chandler takes one in the vest from Jawan, but Agent Rushmore returns fire. Oliver and Nick punch each other. It’s bedlam. There is no sign of Steven or Will.

Time to earn my paycheck.

As Nick throws his fist back again, I lift him up and launch him across the cavern right into the troll. The force frees the bouncer, who rolls away. A bloody Oliver slumps against the wall. He looks up at me and shouts, “William!” He points to the right tunnel. I am so on it. I jump up and sprint toward the mine.

“What?” Agent Wolfe asks as I run past him.

“Stay here!” I shout as I run inside the tunnel. The shouts and gunshots are even louder in here, resonating so I can’t pinpoint where they’re coming from. The rock vibrates all around. Loose earth creates dust all through the tunnels, causing me to cough. Even the gas lamps on the walls flicker. I have no plan. I just know I have to save my past and my future from each other.

I find the fork Oliver mentioned but make a right instead of a left. The gunshots cease a few seconds later. I hear nothing. But I run. Soon I’m at the killing grounds. Thousands of bones of animals and humans along with rotting carcasses fill the place. Good lord. Wish it was still pitch black. I sprint though it as quickly as I can toward the water that saved me last time. One more corner, and I see them.

No. Oh God no.

Steven stands over Will’s lifeless body by the edge of the river, pressing his face into the water. I react without thinking. I raise my gun but not in time. Steven must have heard me because he spins around, gun in his free hand, and fires at me before I can squeeze the trigger. I duck behind the stone just in time. After a second I peek around the corner, see him, and I shoot too. I hit the wall where Steven was. He fires twice more, and I do the same.

“Give up, Steven!” I shout. “You can’t get away.”

“Bea? Is that you?” He chuckles. “We thought you were dead.”

“Nope.” I peek again and fire, but he returns the gesture.

“No wonder the troll was so hungry. Poor Artie. He thought for sure you were dead.”

“You killed him?”

“He failed. We did what we had to.”

I peek again and he fires, the bullet hitting closer this time. “First your ex-girlfriend, then your best friend. You’re gonna run out of people who care about you pretty soon.”

“Fuck you, Bea. You never cared about me.”

“Yeah, I did. I really did.”

“Bullshit! You lied! You dumped me!” He shouts again, “I loved you. And you led me on! Tried to make me the butt buddy of a vampire. I was never enough for you! For any of you! I fucking hate you all!”

“I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry. I’m sorry I lied. I’m sorry I made you think I had feelings for you when I didn’t.
I’m sorry
. It was horrible of me, and I’m sorry. But please put the gun down and let me check on Will, okay? He’s hurt.
Please.”

He’s silent for a second, then chuckles like a maniac. “
Him
? This asshole is the one you want? You’re risking your life for him? I mean, what the fuck is he? I shot him through the eye, and he didn’t die. He turned into some half human, half wolf thing. What? Humans not good enough for you? You want to fuck dogs?”

“Steven, please,” I plead as I glance around the corner. He fires, and I fire back. One bullet left. Crap. “You can’t make it out of here. It’s surrounded, and they all want to kill you. Will you please let me get you out of here? I can. I don’t want you to die here, okay? Let me help you.” He doesn’t say anything. “Steven?” I inch around the rock, but a hand grabs my hair and someone knees the gun out of my hand. Ow.

Steven tosses me to the ground on my bad arm. I scream. Not missing a moment, he bends down, grabbing my hair and pressing the gun to my head. “I don’t need jack shit from you, you bitch.” He jabs the gun deeper into my temple, cocking it for effect. “If I shoot you in the head, will you live, you fucking freak?”

“No,” I say, my voice quaking.

“God, I hope not,” he says, shuddering with revulsion.

“Don’t you fucking touch her.”

We both glance back just in time to see a claw punch through the back of Steven’s chest. Will, more wolf than man—with hair all over his body with viscous fluid matting it, half a snout, a bullet hole in his left eye—rips Steven’s heart clean out the back of his chest. Blood geysers onto my face and body, pooling all over me. A shocked Steven slumps onto me a moment later. Dead. Um …

Will collapses to the floor, clutching his stomach in one hand and the heart in the other. Shuddering, I push Steven’s body off me and back into the wall, too stunned to move any more. Will trembles a few feet away. For the first time, he looks like a monster to me.

As if reading my mind, the man I love looks up, snarling at me. “Don’t look at me!”

I thrash my head to the side. “Okay.”

“It’s not silver. I’ll be fine. But I can’t hold off the transformation,” he pants though the pain. “You need to go.”

“You’ve been shot,” I say lamely.

“I don’t want you to see me like this. I can’t … the blood … ” He doubles over in pain, howling like a madman. He takes a deep breath and groans. “I want to eat you.” He cries out again and whimpers as more fur grows like weeds. “Go.”

“Will—”

“RUN!” he bellows though his expanding snout.

I leap up and back out of the tunnel, shaking violently. The sound of muscle and bone cracking and reforming hurts me almost as much as it does him. He howls and gazes up at me, baring his serrated teeth. Looking at me as if I’m dinner.

So I run.

FOURTEEN

AN ALEXANDER FAMILY CHRISTMAS

T
RAGIC.
S
O TRAGIC.
S
EVEN
officers of the law dying in a house fire so near Christmas. Apparently they were at a cabin in the woods celebrating the holidays when there was a gas leak. Kaboom. Horrible. Good thing I packed a black dress. And I’ve been practicing my bereaved ex-girlfriend expression for the funeral. It’s pretty convincing. Steven would be proud; he did teach me a lot about hiding your true self. Or maybe it was the other way around.

I messed up my arm again going back to the caves, as it turns out. Surgery is scheduled for next week as soon as the swelling goes down, and I have weeks of physical therapy to look forward to before I’m cleared for duty. I might actually get some rest now, but not privacy anytime soon. I doubt Nana will let me leave the house without an escort ever again.

The good news is I didn’t miss the holidays. Nana, using her preternatural powers of persuasion, managed to convince everyone to stay and celebrate with us. George even flew in. Right now he and Nana are standing in the kitchen talking and giggling. I swear he’s
flirting
with her. That’d be just what I need, my boss and my grandmother an item. Ugh.

Nana’s house has never been so full. I move around the festivities sipping eggnog. Renata and April chat outside about breastfeeding as Carl and Andrew entertain the kids with chalk and scary stories. Javi and Agents Rushmore, Chandler, and Wolfe rest in the corner talking guns and hunting. Apparently elk is harder to kill than deer. Who knew? Nancy is in my bedroom trying on the shirt I bought her. (Johnny Depp can do no wrong.) My brother sits in his old bedroom rifling through that box of Mom’s examining the photos while trying to remain unemotional. And failing. He actually hugged me when he came in. Sure, it was awkward and stiff, but the man touched me. Forward progress times ten. I walk past the room to leave him alone with what remains of our mother. As for Will …