Renegade (34 page)

“Thanks.” I unzipped the bag and started rummaging through it. “Everyone okay?”

Heven nodded. “Yeah, that fog seemed to put everyone in a trance. They didn’t even seem to notice what was going on.”

“I only have one pair of shorts.” I glanced at Riley.

He sighed dramatically. “Fine, but be ready to fend the ladies off when I come out of the woods.”

“Yeah right,” Kimber muttered.

“I saw you sneaking a peak,” he told her and grinned.

She made a gagging sound, then waved her hands. My entire body was clothed in a matter of seconds. Dark jeans, a long-sleeved thermal shirt, a zip-up hoodie, and a pair of Nike’s. These clothes were nicer than any of the other stuff I could afford.

“What the hell?” Riley growled behind me. Heven started laughing and I turned to see.

He also got some new clothes. His pants reminded me of MC Hammer; they were made of gold material and the crotch hung down to his knees. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, but a button-up vest with glitter on it, and he had a purple scarf draped around his neck. To top it off, a large gold hoop earring dangled from his right ear.

I laughed. “You look like a genie that’s having a fashion crisis.”

He growled and looked at Kimber. “I’m going to choke you with this gay-ass scarf.”

We all laughed when he lunged after her and tripped over his pants.

“Red!” he bellowed.

“Fine.” She sighed and waved her hands in his direction. His genie apparel was replaced with an outfit that looked a lot like mine, but instead of the hoodie, he got a black leather jacket and a pair of black boots.

“Better,” he said gruffly.

Cole and Gemma appeared, and since they both seemed very alert, I assumed they weren’t near the fog when it swept through the crowd. “Did you get him?” Cole asked, scanning the ground.

“Get who?” Riley asked.

“Beelzebub.”

Riley and I looked at each other and four letter words tumbled from our mouths. How had we forgotten about him?

“He’s probably long gone by now,” Gemma said. “That’s why he unleashed those werebats.”

“Have you ever seen one of those before?” I asked her.

She nodded. “Whatever you do, don’t get bit. If the bite doesn’t kill you, it’ll infect you.”

“What about scratches?”

“I don’t know,” she said, a crease forming in her forehead. “Did you get scratched?”

Riley and I both nodded.

“Do you feel different?”

We both shook our heads.

She nodded. “That’s good. Maybe hellhounds are immune to other shifters’ poison.”

The upbeat music from the party switched over and a slow song began to play. As we were heading back, a howl cut through the night behind us. Heven looked at me and then we were all running back through the woods, following along the lakeshore. Behind me I heard Kimber cry out and then a loud thump.

When I turned she was pushing herself up off the ground, looking down at whatever caused her to fall with a horrified look on her face.

Another howl cut through the night, this one much closer than the last, and then a werebat plunged from a tree just above Kimber, reaching its talons out to toward her, closing around her hat and ripping it away. She screamed again, throwing her hands up over her head, but it wasn’t needed because Riley threw himself at the werebat, yanking it from the sky and slamming it into the ground. He landed a hard blow to the side of its head and then stepped back. “Heven, can I get a light?”

Within seconds, the creature was flaming and just like before, Kimber sent it out to sink into the lake.

Riley reached down and pulled Kimber up, angling himself just slightly in front of her, between her and what she’d been trying to get away from

“Found the DJ,” Riley said, staring down at the body.

Heven wrapped her hand just below my elbow as we all walked over, and Riley shook his head. I pulled my arm away gently and turned to her. “Stay here.” She didn’t argue and I suspected it was because she didn’t want to see the condition of the body.

He was definitely dead. The werebat hadn’t wasted anytime and made a feast out of his remains. Kimber made a small sound in her throat and turned away. Cole put his nose into his elbow.

“What should we do with him?” Riley asked, his voice flat.

I wasn’t about to dump another body in the lake. I wasn’t doing that ever again. “Just leave him. The cops will find him eventually.”

Kimber pulled out her cell phone. “It will be sooner rather than later,” she said as the screen lit up. “I’ve got two dead bodies and an entire houseful of people who probably don’t even know their own names.”

I watched as she keyed the numbers 9-1-1 into the phone. Then before hitting send, she looked up at all of us.

“Party’s over.”

Heven

I hung up the phone and went over to the window where Sam stared out into the backyard. He held out his arm as I approached and I fit myself into his side.

“What’s going on down there?” I asked.

“Kimber’s putting on a show,” he murmured.

I leaned my head against his shoulder. “What she does best.”

“Well, tonight it’s worked in our favor.”

I looked out into the yard, which was still lit up from the party. Several police officers with black nylon jackets with the word CORONER plastered in white across the back were working down by the shoreline, and several other officers without the black jacket were combing the woods that surrounded the house.

Kimber stood in the center of the now empty dance floor with her arms wrapped around herself and a drawn look on her face. “For once she might not be acting,” I said, looking at her aura and reading the fear and hurt there.

I felt Sam nod. “Well, after everything that went on tonight, I think you might be right.”

After Kimber called the police and reported a found body and the disappearance of her DJ, the evening took a definite somber turn. Everyone at the party stayed in that weird trance-like state until the police sirens cut through the cold October night. It was like a hypnotist suddenly snapped his fingers and yelled “awake!” because everyone was suddenly completely aware of where they were and the fact the cops were coming. Everyone scattered like ants at a picnic, leaving behind Sam and me, Cole and Gemma, Riley and Kimber to come up with a story about the bodies.

Thankfully, we had enough time to clean up the carnage of the werebats before the cops arrived and the guests at the party noticed and started asking questions.

Just as the cops were climbing out of their cruisers and slamming the doors, Kimber insisted we all go in the house and leave dealing with them to her. It didn’t seem like the worst idea because it was her house and if we all stood around trying to explain, we might look suspicious.

“Did you talk to Gran?” Sam asked.

“Yeah, she said it was fine we were staying here tonight. She’ll see us in the morning for a big breakfast.”

“You’re lucky to have her.”

“We are,” I corrected, reaching up to kiss the side of his neck.

Sam stiffened and I looked outside to see two officers carrying a zipped-up body bag no doubt containing the DJ’s body. Kimber saw and threw her hands up over her face, her shoulders shaking. I couldn’t tell if she was faking her emotion or not. But it was clear the officer was uncomfortable around her distress.

“Maybe I should’ve stayed out there,” I murmured. “It really wasn’t fair to leave her dealing with all this.”

“She isn’t by herself,” Sam replied and motioned with his chin to the corner of the lower deck.

“What’s Riley doing out there?”

My head lifted under his shrug. “He’s been out there since the police showed up. I guess he’s just watching.”

I watched him for a few moments. He didn’t move; he just stood there in the shadows and stared at Kimber and the officers while she answered question after question.

“Can you hear what they’re saying?” I asked Sam.

“Most of it. It’s mostly routine. Kimber’s saying all the right things.”

“They’re going to want to question everyone who was here.”

“Probably.”

I moved away from the window, not really wanting to see anymore. Living it had been enough.

“There’s still a few minutes of your birthday left,” Sam reminded me.

“It’s probably better that it just be over.”

“It can’t be over. Not yet.” He moved closer to me, grabbing me around the shoulders and turning me to face him.

“Why is that?” I smiled up at him.

“Because I haven’t got a dance with my girl yet.” The husky quality to his voice was like visiting a foreign country and hearing someone with an accent speak an ordinary word, but it somehow was seductive.

“Riley says I’m a horrible dancer.”

“Riley’s an idiot,” he said as he wrapped his arms around my waist and drew me into the circle of his personal space. I looped my arms around his neck, linking my fingers as our feet began to shuffle over the floor and he swept me around in a slow circle.

“There’s no music, Sam.”

“You’re all the music I need,” he murmured, his breath tickling my ear and making every hair on my neck rise.

The lighting in the room was scarce because we didn’t want the officers outside to see us standing in the window and so we danced to the music of our pounding hearts as the darkness folded around us, creating a moment as intimate as if I were standing before him completely undressed.

I liked when I lowered my head to his chest, I fit perfectly, my head reaching just below his chin. “I think this is my favorite part of today.”

“Mine too.”

“Sam?”

“Hmmm?” he said, the sound vibrating through his chest and tickling my cheek.

“Why didn’t he try to kill me tonight?”