A Werewolf's Moon (The Council) (4 page)

The vampire propped his hands on his hips and shook his head. “Don’t know. I was on my way home from work a couple weeks ago. Woke up like this in a dumpster.”

“Do you remember anything?”

“
Nah,
came at me from behind.” He sighed. “I never wanted to be like this, but I’m making the best out of it. Did you know I can go in the sunlight without burning?”

Quinn smiled down at me, “Go to the back of the store.”

“What?” I thought I made it clear I wasn’t the kind to follow orders. “Why?”

“Go,” his tone dared me to argue with him.

“Fine,” I slipped along the wall, around the counter and darted behind him, heading for the back of the store. As soon as I was out of the way, I heard a few grunts, and the sound of something heavy hitting the floor. The vampire hissed again, and then it was silent.

I went back to the register to find Quinn and the vampire had disappeared.

“I hate the crazies.”

I screamed, whirled around, and rapid fired my squirt bottle. “Damn it, Quinn!”

He stared at me, face dripping wet. “You okay?”

“Yeah, peachy keen.”
Aside from nearly having a heart attack, I was fine. “Sorry about the water…

He nodded, wiping a hand over his face. “I’m hungry.”

“Uh…okay.” So getting rid of a vampire wasn’t a big deal.

“Do you,” he shoved his hands in his pockets. “If you’re hungry, we could go get something.”

I smiled, thinking that this shy act might be a ruse to make me more comfortable around him, but I couldn’t say no. “Sure, I can close early.”

I quickly shut things down and locked the store up. It wasn’t hard to pick somewhere since Minnie’s Diner was the only place in town. Lucky her, she got all the business.

“Does that happen often?” I asked, feeling like I was going to burst with nervous laughter if I didn’t say something to him. Quinn and I never strolled around town together or went to dinner. It wasn’t like we were friends.

“No. It’s against our laws to turn someone without their consent.”

“But what if they are dying?”

“There is a little bit of wiggle room. I mean, if the person knows what you are, and weren’t against the idea, okay. But if you’re pulling victims form car wrecks just to save them it’s wrong. We can’t save everyone, it just isn’t possible, and it isn’t right.”

“I understand.
Kinda
sucks though, knowing you have the ability to save someone and have to stand by and watch.”

He nodded, drifting closer to my side. I’m pretty sure he didn’t realize he was moving closer, and closer. I edged away a tiny bit for a little space.

“Like, all those kids in the children’s hospital. Or someone with cancer.”

“It isn’t realistic, and if people suddenly started getting better overnight, it would raise a lot of eyebrows.”

“Yeah, I bet.” We reached Minnie’s Diner, and Quinn darted up the steps to open the door for me. It was an unexpected, but nice gesture.

He was still a grouchy werewolf that irritated me though.

We found our way to a booth in the far corner and sat across from each other. It was nice, but I felt a teeny bit awkward. I’d never actually spent time with him, alone.

“So…” I glanced at the menu I had memorized and decided on a salad. No meat, even though I could smell a mouthwatering burger two tables ahead. “Is this something we have to be concerned about?”

“What?” he asked, snapping his menu closed and eyeing the people around
us.
From what I understood about him, he wasn’t a fan of humans.

“The vampire,” I whispered. Okay, so nix the salad. I wanted the spicy loaded nachos.

“I dropped him at the compound for questioning.” He swept his gaze around the room again, grimacing.
“Probably nothing to be worried about.”

“Something wrong?”

“It’s a lot of humans. I don’t mingle with humans.” He smiled back at me.

I leaned across the table, exasperated. “You can be such a cranky werewolf. Just because you’re a prince doesn’t mean you’re above us.”

He raised his good eyebrow. “It’s packed in here, not enough help.”

“I don’t know why I even put up with you.” The waitress showed up then to take our order. It was one of the girls that went to Capeside High. “Hey, where’s Christy? She’s always here for the night shift.”

The girl stuck the order pad in her apron and glanced behind her. “No one knows. Since were short a person, it might take a little longer than usual.”

I got her attention back when she started staring at Quinn’s face. “Dawn…” I read off her name tag. “What do you mean?”

“Minnie is having a freak out,” she planted her hands on the tabletop and sighed. “I’ve been working double shifts since Christy vanished.
Poof.
And Minnie keeps calling her, but she won’t answer.”

“How long has she been gone?” Quinn asked.

“It was right before that fire happened at the mill.
Crazy light
n
ing storm.
I mean, what are the odds a bolt hits that old place and burns it to the ground?”

I kept my face impassive and nodded, “Yeah, really strange.”

Dawn tugged on a brown lock of hair, eyeing me. “You and Venna are friends with Christy, right?”

“Yeah, but we’re not really close to her.” I said. “Why?”

“Well, Minnie was worried it might be drugs. She asked me if I knew if Christy was into something, but I don’t know her very well.” She leaned closer to me. “Did she party and stuff?”

I shook my head, “No, not that I know of. Why did Minnie ask?”

“Well, she said,” Dawn glanced around before locking her muddy brown eyes with mine. “You’re going to think this is crazy, but I’m only repeating what I heard. Minnie said Christy’s eyes were glowing. Isn’t that crazy? Glowing eyes! I never heard of a drug that makes eyes glow.”

“Quinn?” I watched, shocked, as Dawn went back to the kitchen to deliver our order to the cook.

“Yeah, I heard.”

“This is insane.
First me, now Christy.”

“Hey, you were an accident.” He pulled out his phone and his fingers flew across the keys as he texted. “Flag down the waitress.”

I crossed my arms, waiting.

He glanced up and his smile wasn’t friendly. “Please?”

“Good boy,” I waved to Dawn, bringing her back to our table.

Quinn had Dawn triple everything we ordered and made it to-go. I didn’t ask why, because I knew exactly what he was planning. The second the bags were in our hands, he led me out back around the diner and
phased
us to the Langley house.

Chapter
4

Quinn

At nineteen I had the world at my feet.
Balancing my duties as prince and Council member.
I visited covens where magical beings congregated, signed off on warrants, hunted the evil threatening my people and any stupid humans. All of that changed in an instant when I met
Pepper
Peterson.

Actually, I hadn’t met her yet. I’d walked to the edge of
Henry
’s driveway to scent out where Venna
and her friend had been taken

I’d never smelled someone so enticing before. Her scent was like cherry blossoms, and the bubble gum she loved added a little kick. She was so unique. I could tell just by the smell of her. Something surge
d through me. I felt…different.

And all because of a
human
.

It wasn’t that I hated humans. My interaction with them was incidental, merely because we existed in the same world. I never went out of my way, not like I had that night with
Pepper
.

I was ready to fight to the death for this wonderful smelling creature.
To do everything in my power to keep her from being hurt by the enemy.
Rage flashed th
r
ough me. My blood boiled with a fury I’d known was inside me, but had never felt fully before.

I was terrified I’d lose her. This was my chance. It wasn’t like I’d meet someone else down the road. This human girl, she was it. If anything happened to her, if she was
harmed or taken from me, I’d be forced to spend eternity alone, unless I lucked out and found a sec
ond mate. That rarely happened.

I wasn’t sure, not one hundred percent. Conflict waged inside me. I was constantly appearing when she least expected and scaring her. I was just trying to figure it out. I wanted to be sure. And I wasn’t trying to scare her. I couldn’t help that she didn’t sense me coming.

As the days passed the pull for her grew ten times as strong.
Pepper
was mine.

Mine.

That was
the only word I seemed to know.

Mine
.

I hadn’t even kissed the girl and possessiveness I wasn’t familiar with swelled inside of me.

I’d never seen her face. Her sun kissed ski
n and shiny black hair, or heart
shaped
mouth. But I recognized her. Her face was as familiar to me as my own.

Even when we were trapped in the mill, the only thing I could think about was protecting this girl.
This human.
I could have phased her out, but I didn’t want to frighten her. I did what I could, reacted instantly, curving my body over her and taking the w
eight of the rubble on my back.

I would survive. My healing process was accelerated. Hers wasn’t. She had come close to being crushed more than once. Enough times to make me think it had shaved years off my life. I couldn’t die like that. My kind lived long, if not forever. Dying of old age wasn’t somethi
ng you heard about in my world.

I thought about marking her so no one else could ever have her.
Changing her.
I could protect her as my own then. She would accept me as her mate.

It was the animal in me, t
he instinct that ran soul deep.

But she deserved a choice, to decide if she wanted me forever. As a human she wouldn’t feel what I
felt or sense that I was hers.

All it took was one drop of my blood finding a way into a cut on her body, and she’d been scratched up enough for it to happen. It was an accident that
Pepper
was turned.
I never meant for it to happen.

And at the
same time, I felt it was fate.

But the problem I faced now was one I’d never experienced before, and never would again. I had to wait for her transformation to complete. Then she would see me as her own, and hopefully understand and accept that our future was together.

We appeared in the kitchen at
Henry
’s house. I set the bags on the counter and
Pepper
followed me into the living room. Everyone was waiting for us.

“Hey, so what’s this powwow for?” Zane, a freakishly fast kid that was Venna’s younger brother, was playing an old gaming system with Flora,
Henry
’s cousin.

“Yeah, that call was kind of strange.” Venna glanced at Dmitri with a frown.

Dmitri was watching the TV and the little man in suspenders hopping from mushroom to mushroom.

Henry
came into the room and nodded to me, “Quinn, I heard about that vampire you brought in, nice.”

I nodded back.
“Yeah, but not so nice when the guy who made him is still out there.”

“I’m not worried.” Dmitri said.

With a mere glance at the TV, the screen flicked off and
Henry
called for everyone to gather around the dining room table. We got the food laid out, and once we were sitting down, the conversation started to flow as usual.
Pepper
was still getting used to it, and I tried not to laugh when her head darted back and forth between people talking.

“So why would a sweet, human lady, need the most powerful beings on earth to help her?” Dmitri asked as he dove into a burger.

“Her daughter is missing,” I said. “You guys know her, Christy.”

Venna gasped, leaning around
Henry
to see me fully. “What happened?”

Pepper
relayed the conversation she’d had with Dawn, and the table went silent. All I could hear was Zane crunching incessantly on his nachos. “Christy ran because she was turned into something, and I bet you she didn’t want anybody to find out.”

“You think so?” Dmitri asked. “She could have been turned normally, with her permission.”

“Think about all the things that have happened over the last few days.” Venna said. “How is it that none of the other humans were involved?
Hmm?
Why was
Pepper
the only one?”