Chapter 27 Maddy #2
He walked around my desk and sat on the edge, looking down at me.
He didn’t seem upset at my tone of voice.
Instead, he looked totally unperturbed. I could sense myself spiraling.
It was like I was weightless, and the wind was blowing me along, and I had no say in where.
Everything was so scary. I groaned and tugged at his shirt, pulling Nico to me. He came and wrapped me in a hug.
“Felipe told me what happened,” Nico finally said as he stroked my hair.
Tears slipped across my face, but my voice was steady. “Nico, I didn’t even know what I was doing. It happened so fast. I’ve never moved that fast in my life.”
“Wolves have fast reflexes,” Nico explained.
“I think your supernatural senses will start to develop soon. Everything is awakening since you’re going through puberty.
I have no idea how strong you’ll be, but from what I’ve seen, I think you’ll be as strong as a fully shifted adult wolf, especially since you’re an alpha.
It’s gonna be part of the process. We’ll have to take it as it comes.
It’ll get weird, but like I’ve said, I’ll be here for you. ”
He was right about that. Things got very weird over the next week.
On Friday, I’d been sitting in the living room reading a book when a disgusting smell wafted into my nose.
The sour sweet smell of rotting plants. I’d gone all over the house searching for the smell, even going outside to see if some plant in the landscaping had died.
Finally, I’d found an old bag of salad in a drawer of the fridge.
It was still sealed, but I’d been able to smell it.
Through the plastic, the door, and across the room. I threw it out in disgust.
Saturday night, a car a block from the bar had been T-boned.
The horn had blared for over ten minutes until the cops and EMTs got it disabled.
For everyone else it had been a dull hum in the background, totally ignored.
For me? I’d had to go into my office and wrap my ears in dish towels.
It seemed so fucking loud, it gave me a migraine.
By the end of that night, I was totally exhausted.
My body was going through so much that even with full nights of sleep, I didn’t feel completely rested.
Felipe walked me out to the car. It was nearly three in the morning, and all I wanted was to go home, put some damned earplugs in, and pass out. Felipe took a few steps in front of me to open my door. My senses were completely overloaded and raw, like an exposed nerve.
I heard the creaking sound and tilted my head. My senses told me what it was even though I’d never heard it before—the sound of a ligament twitching, flexing. My eyes widened in surprise when I heard the next sound. A click, the sound of a trigger being slowly pulled back.
I grabbed Felipe and yanked his body to the right just as a bullet smashed through the window, where he’d been standing a moment before. The sound of the shot burst across the parking lot as we tumbled to the ground.
“Shit!” Felipe pushed me to the other side of the car as bullets started punching into the tires and metal of the car. A hunk of pavement burst up out of the ground as a bullet slammed into the asphalt.
“Call Nico!” Felipe shouted as he pulled out his own gun and returned fire.
I did exactly as he asked, hitting the speed dial. Nico answered groggily. “What’s happening?”
“They’re shooting at us!” I screamed, trying to be heard over the gunshots.
“I’m coming,” Nico sounded fully awake now. I took heart in knowing he’d be there soon. But would it be soon enough?
Felipe fired back at the shooter. We’d been the last people to leave the bar. I’d sent everyone else home, and Felipe and I had finished mopping and locking up. We were alone.
Fear tugged at my gut, making goose flesh rise up on my arms. Felipe got up on his knees and glanced over the top of the car, scanning the woods on the other side of the highway. A bullet pinged off the hood six inches from his face. He dropped and cursed.
“Well, I’ve got five shots left. Probably would have been a good idea to bring more bullets. Oh well,” Felipe said, sounding astonishingly calm given the situation.
“What are you gonna do?” I asked.
“My best.”
Without another word, he took his shirt off and flung it to the right.
The flash of white must have drawn the shooter’s eye.
There were two quick shots toward the front of the car, where the shirt had now fluttered to the ground.
During the two shots, Felipe stood and braced his gun on the hood of the car.
As soon as the second shot rang out from the highway, Felipe fired three quick rounds toward the muzzle flash we could both see.
When his third shot was out, Felipe dropped down again.
We waited in silence for a few seconds, then we heard it.
Screams of pain. Felipe grinned and looked at me.
He stood quickly and dropped back down twice, trying to draw more gunfire.
Nothing came. He inched around the front of the car and snatched up his shirt, he waved it over his head, and there was still no shot.
He pulled the shirt back on and waved for me to follow him.
We stayed low and continued to run and hide for cover as we made our way to the highway. The screams of pain were getting increasingly louder. Once we were sure there was only one shooter and we were safe, we stood and jogged the rest of the way to the road.
Headlights appeared over the hill, and I could hear the screaming engine of Nico’s SUV. He pulled up next to us, tires squealing. He leaped from the truck and scooped me into his arms, checking me for injuries.
“Are you okay?” he demanded, looking more terrified than I’d ever seen him.
“I’m fine. I think Felipe got the guy who was shooting at us.”
Nico growled and looked at Felipe. “Where?”
Felipe gestured toward the woods. Nico went with him, and I followed closely behind, not wanting to be left alone.
The underbrush gave way to a small clearing.
Even in the dark, I could see the man’s set-up perfectly.
My night vision was already getting better.
He had a big fallen log that had been fitted with a tripod for a rifle.
The gun had fallen over the side of the log.
The man was thrashing on the ground, screaming and clutching his leg.
I almost gagged seeing it. Felipe’s shot had gone right through the man’s knee.
It looked like the bullet had torn straight through his knee cap.
The leg hung down like there were no bones connecting the lower portion of the leg to the upper.
He was in so much pain that he didn’t even try to go for his weapon when he saw us enter the clearing, just continued to clutch his ruined leg and scream.
Felipe jumped forward and yanked the man’s sidearm out of the pistol holster at his waist. Nico quickly patted the stranger’s pockets and searched him for more weapons, finding a wicked-looking six-inch curved knife from a holster at his back. Nico looked at Felipe. “Grab his fucking arms.”
I had no idea what Nico had planned, but Felipe didn’t hesitate.
He put his own pistol into his waistband and put his hands under the would-be assassin’s armpits.
Nico stepped down to the guy’s feet and looked the man dead in the eyes.
“You’ll probably want to be asleep for this.
” Nico kicked the man’s ruined knee. The shriek that burst from the man’s throat sounded like death.
It was high, keening, and full of pain. He stopped screaming long enough to vomit on the ground, then passed out from agony.
“Holy shit,” I whispered.
Nico grabbed the guy’s legs and lifted. “It’s what he deserves for trying to kill my mate,” he snarled as he and Felipe hauled him through the forest.
Once we got to the highway, we checked to see if anyone was around before hustling the body to the back of the SUV and tossing him inside. Felipe took the driver’s seat, and Nico huddled in the backseat, holding me close and stroking my hair. Felipe pulled away. “Where to?”
“My shop. We’ll try to get some answers there. It’s far enough from anyone that they won’t hear if he tries screaming for help.”
Felipe nodded and drove straight to Nico’s shop. Once we were there, Felipe and Nico carried the stranger inside and strapped him to an office chair, then tied a rope around his waist and his good leg to hold him down. Once he was secure, Nico and Felipe stepped back and looked at the man.
Felipe pointed at the guy’s face. “Doesn’t look like he’s from around here, does he?”
I could see what he meant. The assassin’s face had a distinctive Eastern European look to it, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything. After all, this was America—the melting pot.
Nico took a step toward the man and slapped him across the face. He jerked awake, his eyes rolling in their sockets, making him look like a panicked horse. He started screaming again and looking down at his ruined leg.
Felipe grabbed a massive wrench on a work table and positioned it over the knee. “Yeah, it fucking hurts, but if you don’t shut the hell up right now, I pound the whole thing to jelly. Got it?”
The man’s eyes jerked up to Felipe and then the wrench, and he made a Herculean effort to bring himself under control. The screaming stopped, but he continued to stare at his dangling leg. He started to gibber in a language I didn’t understand.
Nico glanced at Felipe. “What the hell is he saying?”
Felipe shook his head. “Don’t know. Sounds Slavic? Maybe Polish or Czech? No fucking idea.” He slapped the man’s face. “English, motherfucker, English!”
The guy licked his lips and glared at us, then turned his eyes toward me. “She-beast. Is alive. Woman must be…uh…eradicated.”
Nico stepped forward and towered over the man. “Say that again.”
The assassin cowered in fear. “Please. No hurt. Please.” He had a thick accent that made understanding the words difficult.
“Who sent you?” Nico asked. We, of course, already knew, but Nico probably wanted to hear it anyway.
“Orders were…kill female. Kill she-beast. Werewolf cannot resurface.”
I stepped forward, taking strength in Nico and Felipe being right there. “What do you mean? My wolf can’t surface. I’d need Edemas’s blood for that.”
He glared at me and spat on the floor. “Stupid bitch. You know nothing?”
Nico brought a palm across his face, the sound of the slap echoing through the garage. Blood dribbled out of the man’s mouth. “Call her a bitch again and see what happens.”
The man coughed and spat a wad of phlegm mixed with blood on the floor, nodding that he understood. “Fine, yes. No bitch.”
Nico pulled the gun they’d taken from the man’s holster and pressed the barrel against the man’s good knee. “Start talking. Otherwise you’ll need to get fitted for a wheelchair. First off, what’s your fucking name?”
The man stared at the gun in horror and fear before swallowing. “Uh…my name Bogdan.”
“Okay, Bogdan. Tell us what you know.”
“What is known of the…” He stopped himself from saying what he wanted, remembering Nico’s warning. “Of woman’s father?”
Nico lowered the gun. “We know he was killed by the royals because he had some distant relation to Edemas. The last werewolf king. You all are killing all the descendants until the bloodline is totally gone. That’s all we know about you sick fucks. You kill kids.”
Bogdan gaped at Nico, then glanced at Felipe before his gaze finally rested on me. After a few seconds, he barked a laugh. “You know nothing. Father was not killed because he was a distant relative. Father was killed because he was a full-blooded Hollander wolf. The first in three centuries.”