The Keeper's Vow (33 page)

She turned around hearing a muffled scream.
A man slid out from the passenger side door and threw himself on
the ground. He twitched as his muscles rippled. Before her eyes he
transformed.

It was the most horrifyingly majestic thing
she had ever seen. He morphed, as if his body was originally
created to
be
a dog. Before she knew it a beast growled at
her; haunched on all fours salivating. Murder in its eyes. He was
nothing like Mercedes. He was twice the size and his slick silver
pelt blended in with the night fog.

“Get away from him,” Tristan yelled as he
ran full speed at the beast and she caught a glimpse of his eyes as
he past her. His were the same as the animal before her.
Murderous.

They collided like thunder. The werewolf
snarled as it snapped at Tristan, but Tristan was fast and just
barely missed the dagger-like canine teeth.

She heard shuffling behind her and turned.
She threw a punch straight into the stomach of the man who had
abducted her. He was strong, but she had learned to hit the major
arteries.

However, she didn’t expect him to take the
hit. Not directly. He back handed her and knocked her off balance.
She tried to regain her footing, but wasn’t prepared to take a hit
in the stomach.

He threw her to the ground and pinned his
knee into her back, pressing her rib cage farther down. She burned
throughout her body. She could barely breathe. Her face stung,
scraping against hard ice and road.

Another muffled scream sounded by the van.
The bearded man was morphing. He growled as he completed the
transformation and looked from the limp body of his comrade to her.
He moved towards Tristan and the grey wolf.

She turned back to Tristan and he yelled out
in pain. He grabbed onto his limp arm. She panicked.
What
happened to his arm?

Tristan pulled out a knife as he dodged a
set of teeth that would have torn him apart. He found an
opening.

He ducked under it’s mouth, as it launched a
second time, and jammed his foot into its front leg, snapping it
backward. The wolf howled as Tristan moved to its back leg and
broke the bone.

“Tristan,” she shouted. The second wolf ran
towards him.

Tristan ran dead at it. What was he doing?
She expected them to collide, but instead Tristan held out his
knife and threw himself on his back. The wolf, unable to stop, ran
over Tristan and the knife. It slammed on its side spewing blood as
it collapsed, not moving.

Tristan stood up drenched in blood. His blue
eyes steadied on the man on top of her.

The pressure on her back lifted but she was
pulled against the man and felt cold metallic on her head. Why was
this happening to her again. She tried harder to fight against
him.

“Make one move and—”

A gun shot cracked through the air and she
was released. Warm blood coated the top of her head. Tristan pulled
her toward him and she spun around to see her capture fall to his
knees and her dad just behind him.

“What happened?” a man said, jogging up to
them. She gulped trying to fill her lungs up with air. The street
was filling up with men and women with guns and curious faces.
Questions and gasp filled the air as people looked between the dead
wolf, the incapacitated wolf, and the the dead man. Their eyes
traveled to her, barely able to hold herself in the up right
position and Tristan dripping in the wolf’s blood.

“What happened?” the man said again.

“Back up, Peter,” her dad said to the man
while, staring at Tristan.

“They kidnapped me. I was on the porch and
they threw a bag over my head and put me in that van.” Katie
pointed to the van. She hadn’t noticed before, but there were
shards of glass all over the ice covered road and a large concave
dent in the middle of the van, and the fence across the street was
busted through. “Tristan saved me.”

“So this was your doing,” a tall burley man
said, stepping out from the crowd. Jim Heckler, from the christmas
party and the board. Mr. Heckler pointed at Tristan.

Tristan didn’t answer. He ignored the man
and completely turned to her. His arm was still limp and he held
it. Close to him.

“You okay?” he asked.

“I’m alive. How’s your arm?”

“I’ll live.”

Mr. Heckler shouted orders for groups to
detain the unconscious man, sedate the snarling but immobile
werewolf, and he spat for people to clean up the blood covered
street and the butchered wolf that lay in the middle of it.

Lucinda’s truck sped up the road toward
them. She flew out of the car like a hurricane.

“Don’t wait until it turns back. Just get
rid of it now before someone sees it,” Heckler said.

“Turns back?” Katie said.

“Yes,” her dad said, while checking her for
injury. “While dying a wolf transforms back into a man again. It
usually takes a little bit of time. But if it hasn’t changed back
yet, I don’t think it will,” her dad said, staring at the mass of
slick brown fur. Her dad and Mr. Heckler had said “
it
” not
him. As if the body was just the carcass of a dead animal. As if
there was no man inside of it.

Katie used her sleeve to wipe the blood off
Tristan’s face. He looked like a horror movie. Lucinda was stopped
by a few people before she got to them. She checked Katie, even
though her dad had just finished looking her over. Katie’s dad
grunted, annoyed as Lucinda questioned him. “Did you check her
pupils? There’s blood on her head.”

“She’s okay, Lucy”

“We better get you checked out just in case.
You too, Tristan. That arm—all of you looks bad.”

“Hold it,” Mr. Heckler said. There were
still a few spectators, but no one looked surprised at the
existence of werewolves, just the appearance of them so close to
home.

“Jim.” Lucinda warned.

“Look, Lucy. I’m not judging you for your
choice of house guest, but this,” he gestured to the wolves. “This
is inexcusable.”

“You say that as if it’s their fault.”
Katie’s dad said. “She was nearly taken. They did what they had to
do.”

Mr. Heckler turned his attention to Tristan.
“Why didn’t you call security? We have procedures for situations
like this.”

“Do your procedures include letting three
werewolves snatch a girl off her porch?”

Mr. Hecklers face turned purple. Spit flew
out of his mouth as he spoke. “Innocent people could have been on
these streets.”

“Well you should have been protecting them.
You have procedures for situations like this
.”

Mr. Heckler moved toward Tristan but thought
better of it. “Watch it boy. As far as I’m concerned you’re the
reason they were on this street!”

“He saved my life,” Katie said, feeling her
own rage. Her heart still pounded from hearing a gun go off so
close to her head.

“We wouldn’t have let anything happen to
you. We would have—"

“Done nothing. I was in the back of that
van. I was as good as dead without him. You didn’t even have the
decency to show up until it was all over. Those wolves could have
killed us.” She didn’t know if the fire she felt was from her pain
or anger. How dare they blame him for what happened. How dare they
look at him like he was a monster. Like he was a
halfbreed
.

“Enough. Come inside, Katalina,” Tristan
said, holding out his blood soaked hand to her.

She grabbed it. The look of pure distain on
Mr. Heckler’s face did not go unnoticed. “The school does not look
kindly upon discrepancies like this. We have procedures.”

“Bigot,” she shouted at him. Mr. Heckler
stiffened and the street fell silent. All eyes were on her. The
same expressions from the Christmas party. Shock, horror, and
disgust.

“Excuse me?”

She couldn’t stop herself. Tears fell freely
and she was engulfed in such a rage it shook her aching body.
Tristan had
saved
her. And yet they all looked at him like
he
was the threat. What if they knew she was a
halfbreed
? Would they have even cared to save her?

Mr. Heckler stepped to her sensing her
disgust for him. He dared her to say it again.

She wanted to shout it to all of them. She
dared them to look at her the way they looked at Tristan. She would
tear their eyes out.

“Katalina.” Tristan stepped in front of her.
“Let’s go,” he caressed her hand with his thumb, smearing blood all
over it’s bruised surface.

“He saved me. You would have let me die.
Who’s the monster?” she said, before letting Tristan pull her
inside.

Even Lucinda stayed frozen in her spot.
Possibly, because she knew what Katie really meant…or maybe,
because she knew Katie was right.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

They went to her
upstairs bathroom. Her dad was right behind them and disappeared
into his room and came back with an old shirt and a pair of shorts.
He offered to pop Tristan’s shoulder back into place. Katie had to
look away.

“Go shower up, you’re scaring everyone.” Her
dad said in his usual gruff voice. He was so clam. How was he so
calm? “Katie, why don’t you use my bathroom.”

She started the shower. This was the second
time. The second time she’d been attacked by people. This time they
were werewolves. How had this happened? Why was someone targeting
her?

When she got out the shower she changed and
went back into her room to get rid of her dirty clothes. Tristan
was siting on her bed. Staring at her mirror. He looked a little
small in her dads big t-shirt. His hair was still wet from the
shower and stuck to his face. She sat next to him. She couldn’t
pretend to hate him or be angry, not after what just happened.

“I don’t know why.” Tristan whispered. “I
didn’t know them. I swear, I didn’t know them. I don’t know why
they tried to take you. I swear—” Tristan’s voice was
desperate.

“I’m fine. That’s all that matters.” She
said it but, she knew he knew the truth. She was terrified. If it
weren’t for him…

“I’d die for you.”

Katie sucked in a breath. Hearing him say
that changed something in her. She laid back on her bed and he
followed her. He grabbed her hand and held it. He squeezed it and
she could feel how close he wanted to be. He didn’t have to let his
wall down for her to understand that.

She wanted it. To be in his arms, feeling
his warm skin against hers.

He rolled on top of her and her stomach hurt
with anticipation. Her breaths couldn’t keep up with the beating of
her heart.

He kissed her. His soft lips pressed lightly
against hers. He pressed his body harder against her.

Their soft kisses became harder and faster.
She couldn’t get enough, and the way he ran his hand up her shirt
told her he couldn’t either. The higher his hand went the more her
breath caught in her throat. It didn’t help that his lips had moved
from hers to her neck.

The tips of his fingers set fire to ever
inch of skin they touched. She let out a gasp as he squeezed her.
He hovered above her breathing just as hard. He looked crazy, his
hair standing up from her hands moving through it, his beautiful
blue eyes looking right back at her.

He kissed her lips and ran his hand down her
side. When had his body moved in between hers. They were moving in
sync. Her shirt lifting higher with his hands. He was going to set
fire to her again.

Someone knocked on the door.

“Whatever you’re doing behind this closed
door, it’s inappropriate,” her dad said. They sat up and moved to
the opposite sides of bed. She tried to straighten out the sheets.
The door opened and her dad looked at them. “At least have the
decency to get
off
her bed.”

Tristan shot up and moved to the other side
of the room looking like a five year-old caught stealing cookies.
Katie was mortified. They were supposed to pretend like they
weren’t doing anything. Why did he look so guilty.

She couldn’t keep her hands still. She
straightened her shirt out which looked even worse. She could still
feel his hands under her shirt and all over her skin. She’d meant
to put on a bra when she got out of the shower…she didn’t expect
him to be in her room.

Her dad watched them for a moment. Did he
know?

He left, but made it a point leave the door
wide open.

Tristan kept a three foot gap between them
after that. They sat and Katie pulled out a board game. It was
silly. Playing monopoly when she was almost kidnapped; when, just
moments ago, she was spread out on her bed with him in between her
legs. Playing the game kept her hands from shaking, from fear or
pure joy she didn’t know. The feelings were almost the same. The
way Tristan looked at her, even know as she rolled the dice staring
back at him, it set her on fire.