Renegade (13 page)

I’m a guy, so any other time I would’ve rummaged around for what I wanted, then backed away, pretending I hadn’t noticed the colossal-sized disaster behind the door. But today wasn’t really an ordinary day, so I started cleaning.

Maybe I would get bonus points with my boss.

Or maybe the urge to shift would take over and I’d start to panic.

Right as I picked up a pair of twenty-pound dumbbells, I felt the telltale spike in my blood and a prickling sensation across my scalp.
Not here.
I told myself.
Not here and not today.

I put the dumbbells on the rack nearby and took some deep, shuddering breaths.

It didn’t help.

I went back to working, thinking I could distract myself from the feeling. A few moments later, I picked up a pair of goggles that belonged in the pool area and I squeezed them so hard they snapped in half.

I dropped them onto the floor and rushed out of the storage area toward the back door, flinging it open and stepping out into the chilly air. I leaned against the brick of the building, putting my hands between my back and the wall to stop their shaking. I was not going to shift. I would not allow it.

A shadow made its way across the ground, a big dark shape that moved right over my feet. I looked up just as something disappeared over the top of the building.

The urge to shift hit me again, and I bent forward, resisting the urge. Off to my right and down the alleyway there was a loud bang and I thought I saw someone leap out of a dumpster.

Sam,
someone seemed to hiss.

I took off along the concrete, intent on the dumpster and whoever was behind it. When I got closer I heard the pounding feet of someone running away, but when I made it to the opposite side the person was gone, disappearing around the corner and onto the street. I didn’t have time to chase them. I was supposed to be inside, working.

As I was walking back to the gym, another dark shape loomed overhead and then something in the dumpster behind me started clamoring around. It sounded like it was trapped inside and was bouncing between all the walls, trying to find the exit.

Attack.

Fight.

Destroy.

I blacked out then. I saw nothing. Heard nothing. Felt nothing. All I knew was the pounding in my body and the fight to shift.

The blackness seemed to go on and on and on.

Until something cut through.

Something was wrong with Heven. I could feel her struggling. I could feel her alarm. She needed me.

My eyes flew open, filled with the view of the alleyway and the dumpster. I looked above me, expecting to see something. It didn’t matter because there wasn’t anything there and the noise inside the dumpster stopped.

Heven!
I shouted through my mind.

I’m in the locker room.

I practically ripped the back door off the frame as I rushed inside. I didn’t even pause at the
Ladies
sign on the locker room door, but tore inside, not really knowing what I would find but praying it wasn’t bad.

The lights were out and I reached over, flipping the switch and searching the room for her. I followed the sound of running water and found her in the shower. She stood there under the spray, fully clothed, with the shower curtain tangled by her feet.

She held out her arms, staring down at herself, with the same look she got when she thought a spider was climbing on her somewhere.

But there wasn’t anything on her. Except water.

 “Heven?” I asked warily.

“Do you see anything?” she asked, blinking the water from her eyes.

“No. Was someone here? A demon?” I looked around the room, searching for someone else. I tilted my head when I caught the sound of more running water from the other side of the locker room. “Are the sinks running?”

She nodded and so I went to shut them off, ducking into each stall to check for an intruder. When I came back Heven reached out and shut off the shower and looked at me. “I look stupid.”

I suppressed a grin. “Not stupid. Wet.”

“There was something here, Sam.”

All trace of humor fell away. “Who was it, Heven?”

“I don’t know. It wasn’t a demon. It didn’t feel like a person or thing at all…”

“What did it feel like?”

“Energy. Dark energy. Like it was angry.” Goosebumps rose on her arms.

“Can you feel it now?” I asked.

“No. It’s gone.”

“Have you ever felt it before?”

“Not until just now when the power went out.”

I frowned. “The power didn’t go out, Heven.”

“Well, I wasn’t standing around in the dark for fun,” she replied.

“The light was just off. I flipped the switch when I came in. Everything out in the gym works fine.”

“I wasn’t imagining it,” she said, almost to herself.

I reached into the stall and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Her skin and clothes were freezing. “I believe you.”

She nodded as I led her back toward her locker. I noticed how she seemed to study everything in the room, looking for some sign she hadn’t been alone.

“He wouldn’t have been able to do this,” Heven said.

“Who?”

“Beelzebub. He couldn’t have been here. He’s still trapped in hell.”

I thought about the alleyway and my sudden urge to shift. Had that been Beelzebub? Was that what stirred the hound inside me? I glanced at Heven who was shivering and soaking wet. “Why don’t we bag training for today?”

She shook her head. “No. I have more clothes in my locker. I’ll just change.”

“Are you sure?”

She nodded and I didn’t push the issue. The fact was I wanted her to train. I wanted her to be as strong as possible in case I wasn’t there when she needed protection.

Heven

I pushed myself hard in training, until Sam refused to do anymore. I wanted to keep going, but I knew by the stubborn set of his jaw and his tense shoulders even the sweetest of smiles would get me nowhere. By the time I headed back toward the locker room, the gym was packed full of after-work health nuts, and just about every cardio machine was full. There was even a Zumba class going on in one of the rooms in the back.

I decided to skip the shower. Just the idea of going back in there creeped me out. I’d just shower when I got home. I didn’t bother changing, either, just grabbed my bag and threw one of Sam’s hoodies over my workout clothes. Sam was busy on the way out so I just waved to him and headed out into the parking lot. It was dark and cold out, but the lot was pretty well lit thanks to two light posts in the center.

I hit the lock button on my keychain and the tail lights blinked in response. I yanked open the door and climbed into the car. Before pulling the door shut behind me, I tossed my bag over into passenger seat.

Then I froze.

I turned.

I tried to hold back a scream.

It came out anyway.

There was a man sitting in my car.

I jumped back out just as I noticed that when my gym bag hit him, he didn’t even move. It was still sitting in his lap. Standing there in the open door, I leaned down and peaked inside.

I half expected him to yell “Boo!” and grab me.

He didn’t.

I turned on the little light on the ceiling, squealing at having to reach my arm inside the car, and yanked it back as fast as possible.

The man’s skin was ashen and gray. His lips were purple.

He was dead.

There was a dead man sitting shotgun in my car.

Ew. Shotgun.
I looked at him again for bullet wounds. There weren’t any.

I expelled a heavy breath and barely noted it was cold enough my breath was visible against the night.

Slowly, I reached back in and switched off the overhead light. Then I shut the door. When I walked back into the gym to the front desk, Sam was bent over a scheduling book.

He looked up when I said nothing. “Heven?” He stood up and the stool he was on tilted over and crashed to the floor.

He knew it was bad just from the look in my eyes.

“There’s a dead body in my car, Sam.” I said it so low it was barely a whisper.

“Who is it?” he asked equally as low.

A laugh bubbled from my lips. You know your life is a crap circus when your boyfriend asks if you know the identity of the
dead
body in the front seat of your car. I shook my head slowly.

He nodded. “Watch the desk, okay?”

“What are you going to do?”

“Unless you want to drive home with him, I planned to move it.”

“Where are you going to put it?”

He shrugged.

I knew the thing to do here was call the police. But I didn’t want them poking around me and my family, wondering why I might be the kind of girl that attracts dead bodies.

I nodded and Sam disappeared out the doors.

And I stood there and waited while my boyfriend
hid a dead body
. I decided then that law enforcement was definitely out as a career choice for me. I had too many skeletons in my closet for a job like that.

A woman walked past me on her way out the gym. Panic had me lunging forward and grabbing her by the wrist. “Wait!” I said. She turned around, looking at me with alarm.

I forced myself to smile and hopefully not look like I was hiding things. Like dead bodies. “I’m sorry. I just couldn’t let you leave until you told me where you got that adorable top?” I said, pretending to admire her lime-green tank.