Hadley Werewolves, page 13
There was work to do.
Ben had a decent-sized place not far from Emma’s home. The cul-de-sac boosted four houses far off from the connecting street, which pretty much made the place nice and tucked away.
When they pulled up in front of the house, the front door opened, and Emma peered out. “I had a feeling you’d remember about Ben’s fort, Trenton. Move it, people.”
“How long have you been here?” Trenton asked when they were safely inside. The house was quiet—thanks to the closed windowsills and wooden boards over the windows.
“Not long.” Emma glanced behind her to the kitchen. Beyond her, an ajar steel door most likely led to a safe room.
Ben waltzed out of the kitchen with a shotgun in hand. The gun was pointed at Charly.
She took a step back. Oh, shit!
The click of the safety echoed through the room. Ben growled. “She needs to leave.”
“Damn it, Ben.” Emma mumbled another curse. “This isn’t the time for bullshit.”
Trenton pushed Charly behind him. His hand automatically moved to the gun in his holster.
“I don’t give a flying fuck what you think,” Ben said with a sneer. “Em, you told me what she is and I have an idea what she’s capable of doing. I don’t care how many of those things are out there. She’s welcome to join them.”
Mrs. Fields gathered her children closer to her and edged toward the door.
“Stop it, Ben.” Emma’s voice was grated, her pitch sharp. “You’re frightening the children.”
“They should be frightened. If they knew what she was they’d run away, too.”
Trenton’s hand twitched and Ben’s gun switched over to him. “Not so fast, cop. Take out the gun and kick it over to me.”
“Don’t do this, Ben,” Trenton said with rising fury. “Don’t do something you’ll regret.”
“I regret the day I didn’t kill that bitch the moment I saw her. Now hand over the gun before I open a hole in both of you.”
Trenton slowly removed the weapon, placed it on the floor, and then kicked it over Ben who retrieved it. During the whole time, Charly couldn’t keep her eyes off the barrel of the gun as it twitched every time Ben moved. Then everyone froze as scratches hissed along the boarded up windows and the front door.
Time’s up.
“Are you done talking? I’m tired of this.” Emma grabbed Mrs. Fields’ wrist and pulled her with her daughters toward the safe room in the kitchen. Charly continued to stand behind Trenton, refusing to further aggravate Ben. The sounds outside rose to a horrifying crescendo as more of the cursed werewolves gathered at the openings of the house and scratched at the walls attempting to get inside.
Even though Charly couldn’t see into the kitchen from her vantage point, she heard the thunder of footsteps downstairs. She released a held breath. Mrs. Fields and her girls were safe now. Emma stormed back up the stairs and joined them.
“We need to get downstairs to the safe room now.” Emma glanced from Ben to Trenton to finally Charly. No one so much as twitched while the clawing noises from outside drowned out everything else.
“She can burn in hell with all of them sick dogs outside for all I care,” Ben murmured. Slowly, he backed into the kitchen while pointing his gun at Charly. A part of her knew she deserved to stay here to fend for herself, yet the scratching coming from every window and wall told her the worst was waiting for her outside. Many more werewolves in town had been infected, and now all of them were most likely descending on this final house.
Trenton edged her ever oh-so-slowly toward the kitchen. From the galley kitchen, Ben waited at the head of the stairs with one foot inside and the other out. He gestured for Emma to come inside.
“We don’t have much time,” Ben growled.
“Grow the fuck up,” Emma thundered. “The pack leaves no one behind.” Her eyes flashed fury. She advanced on him but stopped when his finger rested on the trigger.
“You wanna take me down?” He offered a twisted smile and jerked the gun in their direction. “You come try, but I’m not letting that witch bitch in with all these women and children—”
“Go downstairs, Emma,” Charly said sharply. “I’ll guard everyone.”
“Not happening. You’re not well.” Trenton’s gaze never left Ben’s.
Another house-shuddering groan filled the room as something massive rammed against the front door.
“Emma, Charly and I will take our stand here,” Trenton said. “You’re the failsafe in case they get past us.”
The two exchanged a look as if a decision had been made without words.
“Good luck, Trenton.” Emma turned to speak to him before she walked down the stairs. “Kyle should be here by dawn. If we can hold out that long, we’ll have backup.”
“Understood.”
The steel door shut with finality. Charly closed her eyes and leaned against the granite counter as the loud clicks of the locks engaged. As the bangs from someone ramming against the front door reverberated against the walls, the scratches against the boarded up windows reached ear-bleeding decibels.
There was no place to go. No way out except to wait and pray. Or fight. She wasn’t in any condition to do either.
“Charly?”
She snapped to attention from the sound of Trenton’s deep voice.
“Let’s get you armed. We don’t have much time.”
The noises outside didn’t stop as Charly followed him out of the kitchen and into the dining room. When she spotted the far wall, her mouth dropped open. From one side to the other, there was nothing but weapons in the hutches of china cabinets.
“Most folks collect Wedgwood china...” Her voice trailed off to a whisper.
Trenton opened one of the glass doors and checked inside. “Ben has particular tastes and a bank account large enough to support a spending habit on eBay.”
Charly’s eyebrow rose. She couldn’t make out everything Ben had, but she spotted knives, swords, and shields. Trenton grabbed something and drew her near to put it on.
“These are gauntlets,” he explained as he tied one to each of her arms. “They’re a bit big on you, but if I tie them on just right they should provide a bit of protection in case they try to bite you.”
He then added protective braces to her calves over her jeans. The damn things were heavier than expected. “If one of them comes for you, protect yourself by raising your arm like this.” He demonstrated and tapped the gauntlet on her arm. “They are lined with steel. It might be strong enough to break a werewolf’s teeth.”
He also added a knife belt and sheathed the blade. “We’ll have you conquering the world in no time.”
Immediately, her mouth opened and closed. He meant more than the world to her—especially after he stayed by her side. “I’m sorry about what I did to you.”
“What did you do to me? Are you sure it’s your fault?”
“I’m not sure of anything right now. Nothing makes sense.” The madness outside made it hard for her to focus. “I kissed you and enchanted you, but,” she gestured around her, “none of this make sense.”
“Which means it wasn’t your fault, right?”
“I believe so, but honestly, I just don’t know. I need to figure that out.”
The unanswered question swelled between them. Instead of tackling the answer, they separated to check the doors and windows for security breaches. Once they determined everything was holding up, they eventually took a spot in the foyer where they could keep an eye on the front door and most of the windows. Not the perfect spot, but it was better than nothing.
“Talk to me,” Trenton pleaded. “Tell me what you know about the witches and why they came to Hadley. There has to be a reason, other than killing everyone.”
Just the idea of telling him everything caused stabbing pains in her chest. She didn’t want him to know about her life with the coven or the dangers they all faced with the blood demons, but Charly answered him, not holding back on the grisly details: the coven structure, the blood demons, the hunt for new guards, and even about her aunt Amelia’s failed attempt to control Liam.
“That doesn’t sound too good,” he mumbled.
“That’s just the top of the mountain—there so much history. A world outside of this one.” A hard thump from the living room window made her glance that way. “Will they ever give up?” she whispered.
“No, they won’t. They were relentless when they chased after us.”
Charly sighed. What time was it now? It had to be evening by this point. Would Kyle be coming in the morning with help like Emma promised? Everything had gone quiet, though every once in a while a sound from one of the windows would remind her they weren’t alone—that at any moment, the werewolves would try to break inside again. Slowly, they scraped away at the defenses. Sooner or later, they’d get inside.
To end the silence, she tried to bring up a conversation that made her feel good. The good memories she had growing up in the compound. There weren’t many, but she had a few. “I’m not originally from Las Vegas.”
“Really?” Trenton rubbed his chin and smirked. “I picked you for the city type.”
She rested her head against his shoulder as a feeling coursed over her that she tried to hold tight to: Contentment. “My mom had me in rural northern Michigan. Outside of the compound. She’d briefly left with my father and settled there. I was so young at the time, but I have snapshots in my mind of the good times. Early morning breakfast with baked apples on pancakes, a bedtime ritual where my mom and I sang silly songs until I fell asleep.” She laughed, and then sighed. “I wished we’d stayed there, but eventually, she took me back to the compound.”
“Why?”
“She’s good at what she does.” Charly played with her hands to calm her nerves. “Mom felt guilt for abandoning the coven with such a dire threat under our feet.”
“The blood demon.” The way Trenton said it, he understood just how dangerous the blood demon was.
“Yes,” Charly confirmed. “I’ve never seen the box in person. Only the elders have. I just know it’s so terrible my mom took me away from a rural life to go back to being raised by the coven. She kept saying it was our duty.”
“We all have to make choices we don’t agree with—like you coming here. Did you have a choice?”
“They forced me to become a werewolf and threatened to kill my mom if I didn’t.”
“So, you see?” he said with a serious tone. “You came here all alone—for her.”
“I’m just like them.”
“Are you sure?” A hint of smile touched his lips. “I see far more than that.”
She shrugged off his words. What could he say that would take away her shame?
He reached for her hand and took it, even when she tried to hide it. “All I saw was someone who knew what it felt like to be alone. That much I could smell on you.”
“Why did you come to Hadley?” she asked, hoping he’d take the bait to change the subject.
“I used to live in a werewolf colony in Colorado. Everything was perfect, the mountains, the people. I had a perfect life. Until a plague of some kind came through and many died—including my parents and siblings. There was nothing I could do to protect them.”
She grasped his hand and he returned the grip. “You’re the only survivor?” she asked softly.
“Just me and an elder far too old to take care of himself. He told me he’d survived the Spanish flu back when it blew through in the early twentieth century. We managed as long as we could out in the wilderness until he died. After that I hitched rides all over the southwest until I settled in Hadley. They find my police experience valuable here—which I like.”
“I’m sorry about what happened to you.”
“Don’t be. My time alone was good. At first, anyway. After some time though, you come to realize how much you need the basic necessity of companionship. Of love.”
“I’ve always been with the coven,” Charly admitted. “I’ve never been alone until my family forced me to leave. If they hadn’t done that to me, none of this would’ve ever happened.”
For a while, she rested her head on his shoulder and somehow drifted off to sleep. Time passed seamlessly—until she woke up to scraping and clawing coming from all sides. Trenton was gone. She noticed the sounds of footsteps upstairs and hammering as he tried to secure the second story windows.
She rubbed her face, forcing herself to wake up. Why the hell did he let her sleep so long?
One of the boards in the living room fell, and Charly fumbled for the hammer and nails on the coffee table. A clawed hand reached through the gap, the long, yet jagged fingernails grasping for a good grip to rip more wood off. With a roar, Charly swung the hammer down hard on the intruder’s wrist, eliciting a shriek and stream of blood across the floor. Her attacker shrank back, briefly leaving an opening formed by the missing plank.
A horde of six rabid townsfolk gathered in front of a woman and a man in the distance. It was Orland, the man from the park. Yet it was the woman who drew her eye. The blonde pressed her index finger against her lips with a grin. Don’t tell, the woman’s expression said. A flare of anger pulsed through Charly.
The scar along the blonde woman’s cheekbone was all too familiar. She’d gotten it during a blood demon attack. The interweaving tangle of deceit from the coven ran deep. Charly had been the diversion. She had first blamed herself, but it was her mother who infected the Hadley pack.
After she boarded up the breach, the look on Charly’s face sent a chill through Trenton. Her hands trembled and her face had gone ashen white.
“It was her all this time,” she mumbled.
“Who?” He advanced across the room and took the tools from her.
“There’s a man and woman outside. The ones who stand back while the others attack.”
“You must mean Orland. Do you know the woman?”
She nodded. “I’ve met that man before. He’d thought I was my mother a few days ago. He’d called me Zelda.”
Trenton raised his eyebrows. “Is that supposed to mean something?”
“I didn’t think much at the time, but Zelda is my mother’s middle name.” She rubbed her fingers across her forehead. “I just didn’t connect it because she never used that part of her name, not even the initial.”
He touched her shoulder, the skin underneath was warm to the touch. Far warmer than she’d felt last night. The muscles on her arm tightened, as did everything else as her anger built. The scent from her fury was overwhelming, but he didn’t move, choosing to stay by her side.
“All this means you aren’t behind this,” he said softly. “Neither am I.”
“I hoped the same,” she replied, “but I never thought it was my own mother. How could she do this to me! And it still doesn’t fix the enormous problem waiting for us outside.”
He didn’t like seeing her like this. He wished he could take her pain away. “If Kyle and Emma could take down Liam and your aunt, we can do it, too.”
“We?”
“I only see two people standing here,” he said. “You and me.”
She chuffed. “I’m not a witch anymore. Compared to my aunt Amelia, my mother is far stronger in terms of spellcasting. I’m not even an acolyte yet in blood craft.”
She didn’t protest when he pulled her into his arms. A moment of clarity came over him, and he rested his chin on the crown of her head.
“Don’t quit on me now, Charly.”
“I haven’t given up. I need to regroup. I just got tossed under a moving Mack truck.” She chuckled a bit and rested her cheek against his chest. “This helps though.”
He grinned. “What does?”
“You know very well this hug helps. Stop being a smart ass.”
Reluctantly, he released her. When she was at arm’s length, he pulled her in again to brush his lips against hers. The skin of her upper lip was delicious and he couldn’t resist kissing her yet one more time.
She touched her fingertips to her lips in a way that made him want to do more than kiss her. “If we’re going to be fighting, we need our strength.”
Charly had a point there. He couldn’t remember the last time he ate. “I’ll check the kitchen. My nose tells me Ben’s gotta have some something in there.”
“Yeah,” she agreed, “I could use something.”
By the time he returned with two bottles of water and two sandwiches, she was perched at the bottom of the steps, her attention focused on the top of the stairwell.
“You hear something?” He took a quick bite of his sandwich.
“They’re climbing all over the house, but something upstairs is bothering me.” She took the offered food.
Trenton finished his meager meal in three bites. “I’ll check it out.”
He walked around upstairs, checking outside through the gaps. There were so many of them out there and only two of them with no firing weapons. Ben had taken anything of value and had hidden it away in the basement.
Holy shit, how can we overrun them? he thought.
“I have to unbind them.”
Her voice emerged from the first floor with finality. He returned to the stairs and paused at a step above her. He searched her eyes and found her dead serious. “That came out of nowhere. How?”
“I don’t have much of my powers left, but I could cast one final spell…If my body allows it.”
“What do you mean allows it?”
“My magic comes from my blood, but now that I’ve become a werewolf my spells require more of it. Binding one being to another is simple. Removing a binding…not so much. I can undo what they’ve done.” She looked away with shame etched into her features. “I can do the same for us, too.”
He clenched his fists and took another step up the stairs, refusing to look at her. While the bond between them had taken away any thoughts of loneliness he’d felt since he’d left the north behind, what she’d done was wrong. Horribly wrong. How could they move beyond what she’d consciously done for her coven? So what if the ulterior motive was to protect the world from the blood demons? She had bound him to her, and he couldn’t tell any more if what he’d felt for her what real or fake. He sighed. But for now, he had to trust it was real. He had to trust it if he wanted both of them to survive.
