Renegade (40 page)

“Then we’ll work fast,” I said. “Once those souls are released, he won’t be able to force you down there.”

No, then he’ll just go back to trying to kill me.
The thought slipped right from her head and into mine. It seemed we were caught in a vicious circle, and we were the hamsters, destined to keep running on the wheel, never getting anywhere but always running.

There was a way out of all this. All I had to do was find it.

My brainstorming was interrupted by the rush of adrenaline through my limbs. I fumbled with shaking hands to get out of the car, stumbling into the grass and fighting the impulsive urge to shift.

Heven was beside me, calling my name, trying to talk to me, but I barely heard her voice. All I heard was the insistence of the animal inside, the need to let it out.

And then I gave in. Well, not so much gave in as surrendered. The urge was just too great and I shifted right there in the yard, my senses becoming more acute, the drive to hunt all encompassing.

Hunt. Kill. Destroy.

Those were the last thoughts I heard as I took off through the yard and blackness overcame me.

Chapter Twenty

Heven

The change came over him so quick that I barely had time to think, let alone try and stop it. What was causing him to shift like this? Was what happened at the school so stressful that he just snapped? It just didn’t feel right. Sam wasn’t the kind of guy to buckle at the first sign of stress.

I watched as he started running through the yard like he chased some unseen prey. I took off after him, realizing very quickly there was no way I was going to be able to keep up. So I veered off, rushing into the barn and ushering Jasper from his stable. I didn’t bother with a saddle, swinging myself up onto the horse with ease. Riding bareback wasn’t the easiest thing to do, but losing track of Sam would be worse.

I guided Jasper out of the barn and into the yard, my eyes scanning for the dark shape of the hellhound. I saw it disappearing into the orchard and gave the horse a kick, pointing him in the right direction.

I asked a lot of the horse, pushing him to his full potential as we raced after someone I could no longer see. Every now and then I’d catch a glimpse or hear a sound that told me I was going in the right direction. When we got deeper into the woods, Jasper tried to slow his pace. I gave him another easy nudge, trying to get him to speed up again, and he started prancing around like he sensed something I didn’t.

Great,
I thought.
I’m so not up for another meeting with Beelzebub and his newest body.

“Shhh,” I soothed Jasper, eyes scanning the trees, looking for something I couldn’t see.

I managed to get the loyal animal to go a bit deeper into the trees before he reared back and had me grappling to hang onto his neck.

“Whoaaa,” I called out. “Easy, boy.”

But there was no calming the horse.

And soon I saw why.

A werebat appeared from the sky, swooping at us, snapping its jaws and trying to make us lunch.

I focused my inner flame and the bat caught on fire, falling to the ground, where it flopped around until it stopped moving altogether. Jasper was still beyond upset, but I managed to calm him enough that I was able to get off—okay, fine, I fell off, but it didn’t hurt—and I smacked him in the rump, sending him in the direction we came from, back to the safety of the barn.

I heard a lot of commotion ahead of me and I ran forward, weaving around trees, leaping over fallen logs until I burst through, coming face to face with the small lake the bordered Gran’s property.

Sam was there, still in hellhound form, and he was going after two werebats with ferocity that scared me.

It was almost if he were rabid.

He snatched one bat out of the sky and attacked as the other one swooped over his head, reaching out with its creepy chicken-like claws. I sent that one to the barbeque. It howled in pain as flames engulfed its weird body.

The bat Sam wrestled with finally fell silent and he looked up, his molten gold eyes spearing me, and chills raced over my skin. The way he looked at me… like he didn’t know who I was.

He stepped forward, his body low to the ground.

I stepped backward.

He stepped forward.

I stepped backward.

He dropped into a crouch, looking at me like I was a fresh cut of steak, but before he could do anything else I said his name.

“Sam.” I stopped retreating and stepped closer. “It’s me.”

He tilted his head, listening, and I stepped closer again. “I followed you so we could finally figure out where you were running off to.”

I held out my hand palm up and waited for him to come closer, and when he did he pressed his cold nose against my skin. I laughed. His eyes changed, turning less molten and more honey. He shot past me and into the trees, coming out seconds later in his human form.

His body was smeared with blood.

“I shifted again,” he said, looking down at himself.

“I followed you.”

“Did I hurt you?” He looked up swiftly, his eyes taking in every inch of me.

“Of course you didn’t.”

“What was I doing?” he wondered.

“Killing those werebats.” I pointed to the one he just killed. Just beyond it there were several other bodies littering the ground.

“This is
their
blood?” he asked, dubiously looking down at his smeared skin.

“Yes,” I said. “I watched you with them… All you could focus on was killing them. It’s like you were—” I said, but he finished for me.

“Rabid, primal.”

I nodded. “That’s exactly what it was like. Like your actions were completely beyond your control. You felt it too?”

He shook his head. “I don’t remember what I feel, but Riley, he suggested that something about them might make us frenzied.”

“He felt like this too, that night at Kimber’s?” I asked, hope filling me up inside.

He nodded.

I let out a little squeal and raced over to him, ready to throw my arms around him, but then I stopped just short of touching him. “Sorry. I’ll hug you after you shower.”

“All this time,” he said to himself. “All this time I thought I was killing people.”

“And you were killing werebats.”

He thought about it a little longer, mulling the words around in his head, and then he looked up at me and grinned. “Thank God.”

I grinned back and the two of us stood there grinning like idiots for who knew how long.

“But if I was killing these things this whole time, where are all the bodies?” he said finally, his smile fading away.

I shrugged. “Did you eat them?”

The look on his face was priceless. “That’s disgusting, Heven.”

“Hey, I’ve seen you when you’re hungry. It isn’t always a pleasant sight.”

His teeth flashed with his quick smile. “I didn’t eat them.”

“Maybe you hid them.” I shrugged. I didn’t really care where they were. I was just happy he finally realized he wasn’t a cold-blooded killer.

“Maybe,” he echoed. “I’m going to rinse off,” he said and without hesitation dove into the lake.

It seemed to me he was in there a really long time. Not once did his head surface, and I reminded myself he couldn’t drown. Still, as the minutes ticked by I grew more and more nervous, just waiting for him to come up for air.

I saw the ripples in the water first and then the bubbles. Finally his head broke the surface and he wiped the water from his eyes.

“Gheesh, that took forever,” I said, unable to hide my relief.

He swam over to the shore and stepped out, going over the dead bats and tossing them all into the water one by one until there were no more left. “So much for not hiding anymore bodies in a lake,” he said to no one in particular. The disgust in his voice was clear.

“Sam?” I asked. He rinsed himself off once more and then left the water, coming to stand at my side.

“You were right. I hid them all. In the lake.”

I glanced at the water, water I was already uneasy around, and imagined the bottom of it full of dead werebats. I suppressed a shiver and gave Sam a smile. “Well, at least you cleaned up after yourself.”

He groaned.

“Look, who cares? It’s not like they were people or even innocent. They were brought here by Beelzebub.”

A cold wind blew through the bare trees and a few snowflakes floated from the sky. “Yeah, you’re right. Come on.” He put an arm around my shoulder. “Let’s go back to the house. You’re going to get cold.”

“I’m not the one who’s naked.”

“Would you like to be?” He wagged his eyebrows at me and I laughed.

“Let’s get inside and then we’ll talk, ‘kay?”

“I didn’t hear a no,” he drawled.

The house came into view and so did Cole’s truck. Sam groaned. “Alone time is really hard to come by around here.”

I smiled. “I’ll see what they’re up too. You go find some clothes.”

Sam dashed around the front of the house and I continued around the side where I was assaulted with Kimber’s whining.

“You don’t need to call her,” she whined. “She doesn’t need to be here.”

Cole sighed. “Yes, Kimber, she does. It’s why she’s here, to help my sister.”

Kimber’s aura was full of red and I knew the minute I spoke up I would be the target of her anger and jealousy, even if it was meant for someone else.

He pressed a button on his phone and Kimber snatched it out of his hand. “What is it with her, huh? What does she have that I don’t?”

He reached for the phone, ignoring her words, and she tossed it into the bush growing by the porch.