Prey (BookStrand Publishing Romance) (30 page)

Startled, she turned when she heard a horse. Through the blizzard she spied the shape of a horse. Damn it, Petra was out in the storm. Jade headed in Petra’s direction. It wasn’t safe out here for her. Why did she venture out of the barn? Jade knew exactly who had released her. Erick the donkey was up to his old tricks. Was there a stall ever built that could hold him? Had he taken to gathering up cohorts for his little prison breaks? Poor Petra wouldn’t know what to do.

Jade trudged through the storm to Petra. The snow blinded her and she kept a hand on the brick wall of the house to make sure she headed in the right direction. Petra whinnied with fear and Jade moved toward the sound. In that second Jade understood. The chestnut was frightened out of her wits, but it wasn’t the storm that had so affected her.

The creature was there! Petra begged Jade to run to the house. The poor horse was frantic, and when Jade drew close to her, she threw her head back and insisted that Jade leave her and get to the house. The creature was too close!

Jade moved instantly making her way back to the door with haste, blindly using the same brick wall as a guide. Inside the house was silent. The light she’d turned on the first time she’d entered the house still gleamed. She looked up the stairs toward Sam’s room. The door was open, and she could see shadows move on the wall. As she ascended the stairs, she heard Sam’s voice.

Jade felt momentary relief. He was safe. He must have come home after she’d left, but where was the creature? She could hear the murmur of Sam and Michelle’s voices in the bedroom and resolutely headed toward them.

When she reached the threshold of Sam’s bedroom she pushed the door wide. She’d catch them! Wait a second…the image that greeted her was confounding and it took her a second to comprehend what was happening in Sam’s bedroom.

Sam caught sight of her and yelled. “Get out of here, Jade!”

Naked, Michelle was wrapped around Sam. She writhed and cajoled him. Politely Sam was trying to fend her off. Then the scene shifted. Michelle’s voice became a snarl and she clawed at Sam’s shoulders. Her magnificent body shifted in front of Jade’s eyes, and she turned her head to look at Jade.

In a hoarse growl, the thing that was Michelle said, “He’s my mate, bitch! I will drink your blood and eat your flesh. It will make my child grow strong, a new species will be born.”

The Michelle creature started to shift back to human form, and Sam took his chance. He punched her/it as hard as he could in the face. It screamed and lunged at him.

Before he went down, Sam yelled to Jade. “Get to the clinic.” He made a desperate hand gesture, and Jade understood. It was their system. He’d indicated what he needed to stop the creature. She just prayed she understood correctly.

With a quick glance over her shoulder Jade took off down the stairs. As she ran she calculated how long it would take her to get to the clinic. The snow would make it impossible, and her car was stuck in the ditch. Sam’s car was nowhere to be found, and she didn’t have the keys anyway.

She fought the wind and opened the front door. A gust grabbed it and swung it wide. Jade didn’t waste time shutting it.

“Petra! Are you still here? Petra!” She called out to the half blind horse.

The horse answered. Jade headed in her direction. Finally making contact, Jade ran her hand up Petra’s back to her withers, and she grabbed a hank of her mane.

“Okay, girl. You know the way by heart. Take me to the clinic.”

Petra resisted, and Jade almost cried out with frustration and panic.

The horse got impatient. She insisted that Jade mount her back and ride to their destination. Jade hesitated a split second then jumped up. Her stomach made contact with Petra’s back, and she slid back down. Petra pawed the ground and waited.

Her second attempt was more successful, she made it. She swung her leg around and for the first time in her life she sat upon a horse’s back. Petra warned her to hang on and took off at a gallop.

The ride took just minutes. Jade plastered herself to the horse’s back and held on for dear life. Petra knew the way and was incredibly fast and sure-footed. Outside the clinic, Jade jumped off Petra’s back and dashed inside. Frantically, she ran to the examining room. She knew exactly what she needed and where she’d find it.

Jade was back outside in seconds. This time she mounted Petra on the first attempt. The horse barely waited for Jade to right herself before she took off at a gallop. Jade wrapped her legs and her arms around Petra and closed her eyes trusting the horse to get her back to Sam’s house safely.

Jade’s faith was well placed. Petra almost ran into the house. She stopped just outside the open doorway. Her head peeked in, and she urged Jade to hurry. Jade didn’t need the encouragement. She took the stairs two at a time and slid to a halt just outside Sam’s bedroom door.

Jade knew she had to be careful. Sam had Michelle stable and calm for the moment. Jade didn’t want to draw the creature’s attention so she carefully looked around the door.

Half human, half indescribable thing, Michelle purred at Sam. She danced and writhed around. Jade couldn’t make out the words she uttered to him and for that she was grateful. Grotesquely, the creature drooled and bled. It’s struggle with Sam had opened horrible wounds. In a pathetic move, Michelle tried to wipe the blood and saliva away.

Catching Sam’s eye briefly, Jade readied the syringe and nodded. She put the cap on the tip of the needle and waited for Sam to indicate he was ready. Cleverly he moved to the corner of the bedroom, Michelle followed him, her back to Jade. She shifted constantly. It was becoming increasingly more difficult to tell the difference between her front and her back. For a split second it seemed that Michelle had eyes in the back of her head. She spotted Jade. With a shattering scream she prepared to pounce.

Her distraction gave Sam the opening he needed. He held out his hand and Jade threw him the syringe. He caught it in mid air and stabbed the creature in the neck with the needle.

The thing that was once Michelle grunted and looked surprised in a sadly human way. Taking a step towards Jade, she reached out a bleeding arm or was it a leg? Jade flinched, and the creature looked ashamed for a moment. Turning to face Sam, it caught a glimpse of itself in the mirror and froze. It changed completely then. Human gave way to creature and with one final scream it ripped its own throat out. Its blood drenched the mirror in a curtain of red. It dropped to the floor, and Jade ran into Sam’s arms. They were too relieved to notice that in death, the creature had returned to human shape. Michelle’s eyes stared blankly. She was dead.

* * * *

It was almost morning before Sam and Jade had a moment to themselves. They’d answered all the questions they could. Without explanation, Sam pulled Jade outside and into his truck. The snow had stopped, and the world was silent. Exhausted, Jade didn’t even ask where they were headed. When Sam pulled up outside Travis’s parent’s house Jade looked confused.

He turned to her. “I’ve never missed a Sinclair Christmas party in my entire life. I’m not about to start now.”

Jade opened her mouth to object, but Sam put a chilled finger to her lips and shook his head.

He didn’t bother to ring the doorbell, instead he swept her inside. When he escorted her to the living room what greeted them took Jade by surprise. The Christmas tree was still lit up and the fire in the grate was blazing as brightly as ever. The room was filled with warm and smiling faces. They’d stayed and waited for Sam and Jade to arrive. The room was filled with members of the Old Families. They’d understood exactly what Sam and Jade had achieved earlier that night and were prepared to help them pick up the pieces.

Travis’s mother, Ruth Sinclair, happily performed her hostess duties and welcomed them graciously. “Sam, you’ve never missed our Christmas party. This isn’t the year to start.” She smiled and hugged him close. Then she turned to Jade and hugged her just like a mother would. Jade was tempted to hold on to her forever until Chase claimed her. Her big brother’s embrace was so familiar she started to cry with relief as he lifted her off the floor.

“Make way, make way, woman with a gigantic baby comin’ through.” Reggie shouldered her way through the crowd. She hugged Sam and Jade with gusto. Her actions gave Jade time to pull herself together.

It was mid morning before they had a chance to talk about it. Chase, Reggie, Travis and Gillian lounged around on the Sinclair sofas. Travis’s mother and father had gone to bed. Tom had taken Ernestine home and the house was quiet. Sam and Jade sat in front of the fireplace.

Never one to be shy about what she wanted, Reggie said. “Okay, guys, explain this whole thing to us. Start from the beginning.” She whispered to her husband, “Hand me those nuts will you, Poindexter?”

Sam exchanged a look with Jade, and she shrugged letting him start the explanations.

“I don’t know where to begin.”

Reggie rolled her eyes. “How bout the beginning?”

Sam ignored her. “It was my parents all along. We all assume that members of the Old Families are good and wise. Why wouldn’t they be? Look at Ernestine. Travis, Reggie, your parents are great. Well, not mine. They’re the other side of the coin. They’d sanctioned and initiated experiments combining human and animal DNA, mixing cutting edge science and the darkest of magics. They had hopes of creating a super species. All of their attempts ended in disaster apparently until they created Michelle. They didn’t care that what they’d created was an abomination. They looked at it as a huge success.” Sam shook his head with shame. “My parents will be ostracized from this town, this continent from this day on. They’ve broken every rule of man and nature.” Sam shook his head regretfully. “Michelle was their triumph, perfect in every way. A superior being even.”

Jade elaborated, “I saw her naked, trust me she was perfect.”

Sam smiled at Jade. “I wish I could say my parents were horrified to learn that Michelle was also sociopathic, but they didn’t care.” He looked sick for a moment. “Can you believe it? They created her to carry their grandchildren. It seems Satan and Cruella were rather disappointed in how I turned out. I’m definitely not a chip off the old block. As you know, my maternal grandfather left everything to me, and my paternal grandfather’s will makes me sole heir after my father dies. In both wills, if I die my children will inherit. I think Satan and Cruella were prepared to kill me once Michelle conceived my child.”

Travis put the pieces together. “And they would control the child, a creature born of science and magic, virtually unstoppable. Quite the vessel to carry their DNA.”

Sam nodded. “They admitted it to me! They were even proud of it. I finally confronted them with what I’d learned from my evil geek on the inside. They had planned to come home to New Crescent and end the Guardian tradition. We all know the power that lies within this town. My parents sought to control it, turn it, use it for their own purposes…maybe even cheat death.”

Reggie said, “Travis, can you charge them for this?”

Travis shook his head. “We have no proof. They covered their tracks pretty well. Michelle’s body returned to her human form upon death. I guess we could find a medical examiner open minded enough to accept her strange physiology, but that could take ages and God knows what would happen with the technology.”

Sam had another solution. “No. Travis and I have talked to Ernestine and the heads of the Old Families. Dear old Dad has stepped down as CEO of Daniels Pharmaceuticals. My parents are banished. They’re going to live in their home in France where they’ll be watched closely.”

Gillian said, “It doesn’t seem fair after all they’ve done.”

Travis pulled her close. “It’s a good punishment for them. They’ve been stripped of all power and that’s all they really care about. That’s fitting for people like them.”

Chase nodded. “So the creature, I still can’t call it Michelle, wanted to mate with
you,
Sam?”

He shuddered and nodded. “She went after Jade because she saw her as the competition. She was incredibly single-minded, but so messed up. In the end, she took her own life.”

Jade said, “After we’d injected her with a truckload of drugs.”

“That was the only way to stop her. I knew the drugs would slow her down based on how the tranqs worked last time. It was the only way I had a chance,” Sam said.

Travis stood up and stretched. He held his hand out to Jade. “I think there’s something you owe us, Jade.”

Confused, she looked up at him ready to challenge his words. Hadn’t she done enough already? Then she realized to what he was referring. She sighed heavily and stood. One look at Travis had him scurrying to the stereo.

Loud and clear, Jade sang “Blue Christmas” with Elvis.

* * * *

It was December 24
^{th .}
That night would be Christmas Eve, Jade’s favorite night of the year and at loose ends, she had no idea what she was doing. She hadn’t heard from Sam since he snuck out of bed early that morning.

She worked in the clinic most of the day. The animals were excited about Christmas too. They could feel the celebration in the air. Rags and Jade entered the barn and smiled when they spied Tammara, Petra and Erick the donkey. They roamed around the barn freely. Erick had sprung them all, and she didn’t have the heart to chastise him