The Better to Bite (16 page)

You can’t trust either of us.

I was getting sick of being in the dark.

I jumped in my new VW. I inhaled deeply because it smelled awesome. I’d put the top down, and Jenny hopped in bedside me.

She slid her hands over the leather in a fast caress. “How come you’re the VIP’s most wanted lately?” She wanted to know.

I curled my hands around the steering wheel. “I thought you and Troy had some kind of thing going.” I’d caught them necking in the halls more than once. “Doesn’t that make you a VIP’s ‘most wanted’?”

Her hands fisted. “No. It just makes me the flavor of the moment.” There was a thread of tension in her voice I’d never heard before.

I tried to laugh, wanting to lighten her mood. A tense Jenny was a Jenny that I didn’t know how to deal with. “Guess that’s what I am, too.” But I couldn’t shake the feeling that something more was going on here. Something deeper, darker.

Dangerous.

Brent and Rafe—were they interested in me? Or was it something else entirely different?

Been running lately?

I hadn’t wanted to think too much about what Rafe meant when he said those words to Brent, but I couldn’t forget how quickly Brent had healed from the accident and the way he’d played on the football field. Moving too fast. Being too strong.

Was he like Rafe?

I really, really hoped not.

“You’re gonna take me to the game tonight, right?” Jenny piped up. “They’re doing a memorial for Sissy, and I don’t want to miss it.”

She’d been one of the red-eyed girls this week, too.

I hadn’t planned on going to the game. Brent had asked me to come, but after last week’s craziness, and after the bruises that were only now healing, sitting in crowded bleachers wasn’t exactly appealing.

“Please,” Jenny wheedled. “I don’t want to go alone! And it’s—it’s for Sissy.”

Sissy. I nodded.

My gaze swept around the lot. Rafe had his guys around him. He didn’t look my way. Figured. Why was I looking his? My gaze darted to the left. Brent was holding court with the jocks. Brent caught my stare and waved.

If I can trust anyone, it’s him.

I needed to get over this bad boy attraction I had and focus on a guy who seemed to be one of the good ones.

“Sorry I’m late!” Cassidy jumped into the backseat and dropped her pack with a thunk. “I forgot my Cal book and had to run all the way back to my locker. Of course, I’m in the slam back of the school.”

I noticed Jenny’s mouth had dropped open. She stared at me with wider than usual eyes. “She’s going with us?” Jenny whispered.

Cassidy laughed. “Yes,
she
is.It’s my gran’s shop, of course I’m heading there.”

I offered Jenny a smile. “Did I forget to mention our little pit stop?”

She blinked at me.

I patted her hand. “No worries. You can look for some love potions while we’re there.”

Rafe’s motorcycle roared out of the lot.

***

Granny Helen took me to the back. We were alone this time. I heard Cassidy out front, trying to convince Jenny to spend thirty bucks on a Love-Me spell. I was pretty sure the brew was pure BS, but I had to admire Cassidy for knowing how to work her customer.

Granny Helen watched me with her coal black eyes. Maybe it was my imagination, but the lines on her face looked even deeper today. Her body sagged a bit.

I bit my lip. “Are you all right?”

Her brows lifted. “Sometimes, you can feel it when death wants to take you.”

Um, okay. Granny Helen sure had mastered the art of creepy.

She waved me forward. “Been seeing monsters in the dark, have you, child?”

I dropped into the chair in front of her. “You know what’s happening in Haven, don’t you?” Time to cut through the crap. I slapped my twenty on the table. “This money isn’t for a reading. It’s for answers.”

Her trembling hand covered the cash. “You sure you really want to hear the truth?”

“I don’t want to hear it.”
I want to pretend that a boy can’t change into a wolf and that folks aren’t dying.
“But something bad is happening here, and it has to stop.”

She nodded but asked, “You think you’re the one to stop it?”

Now that made me pause.

She smiled. The smile never reached her eyes. “Still unsure, are you?”

I realized she was doing it again. Walking me in circles with her questions. I shoved out a hard breath. “Why didn’t you tell me all of this before?”

“Because you wouldn’t have believed me. Sometimes, we have to see things with our own eyes before we can believe in the impossible.”

A boy turning into a wolf should certainly count as impossible. My head began to throb. “How did you know my mother?”

“She came to me, same as you. Wanting answers. Help.”

“Did you help her?”

“Some can’t be helped.”

My eyes narrowed.

She made a faint tut-tut sound and said, “You don’t realize what Haven is yet, do you?”

Her question caught me off-guard. “Cassidy told me that it was founded by some folks who thought they were witches—”

“Didn’t think. They
were.
” Her stare bored into mine. “They were lost and looking for a safe place to lay their heads.”

Lost.
I’d caught the faint emphasis she put on the word and suddenly I went on high alert.

“Have you ever been lost, Anna?”

I shook my head.

“I didn’t think so.” Satisfaction hummed in her words. “One of their own led them here. Straight through the wilderness, she led them right to this spot. She promised them it was safe.”

“A haven,” I whispered.

“And for a time, they were safe. But those who knew their secrets, those they’d trusted so foolishly with a truth most can’t handle…they followed them here.”

You can’t trust either of us.

The temperature in the room seemed to dip about ten degrees. “I’m guessing this story doesn’t end happily.”

Her lashes lowered. “Most stories don’t.”

Happily ever afters were just for kids. I knew that. I’d learned that lesson when I saw my mother’s bloody body get zipped up into a black body bag.

“They were followed, hunted, when they should have been safe.” Granny Helen’s voice deepened. “Then the killings started.”

All I could see then was my mother’s body.

“So they cursed their enemies. Those who’d spilled the blood at their haven would be revealed as the monsters they truly were.”

I knew where this was going. My hands slapped onto the table. “You’re saying—”

“If they were going to slaughter like animals, then they would
become
animals.”

A week ago, I would have laughed at her dramatic announcement. A week ago, I would have jumped up and left.

Now, I could only sit there, with my heart slamming into my chest. “The beasts are still here.”
Wolves.

“The curse passed through the bloodlines.” Granny Helen’s gnarled hands fluttered in the air. “Hard to see it at first. They all seem just like everyone else. But beneath the skin, they’re different.” She paused, then said, “Just as you’re different.”

“Who all knows about this?” I demanded, jumping to my feet.
Werewolves.
Freaking werewolves. And they had been living in Haven for centuries?

“The old families who’ve been here since the beginning. They know. Some fled, hoping to escape, but there’s no escaping.  A witch’s curse is forever.”

Wait. There could be dozens of wolves running around? Perfect. Nightmare.

Hell.

“And they’re…evil?” I forced myself to ask this question even as I thought about Rafe and about him kissing me.
Don’t be evil, please don’t be—

“No. Not all of them are dark inside.”

My shoulders sagged with relief.

“Many have adapted. It’s their way of life now. All they know. But others…there are always those who feel the call of the beast too strongly. The thirst for blood and death can consume them. Those…” Her gaze took on a far-away stare. “Those are the ones we must fear.”

I already feared them. “Those are the ones killing the hikers? Killing Sissy?” I began to pace around the small room, my body tight with nervous energy. “I have to tell my dad. I mean, he might not believe me, but I have to tell him what he’s up against—”

Don’t tell anyone
. Rafe’s voice. In my head. I shoved that voice back even as Granny Helen’s soft laughter filled my ears.

“Oh, child…” The laughter faded and she just seemed sad. “You truly think Ben Lambert doesn’t know? His family has been in this town for centuries. He knows everything.”

My heart stopped slamming into my chest. In fact, it seemed to stop beating entirely.

Granny Helen shook her head. “Who do you think cursed the hunters who came to Haven?”

I turned and ran for the door.

“Be careful, child…” Her voice followed me. “And don’t let any wolves in your door.”

Too late.

I shoved back the curtains. Jenny was at the cash register, a plastic bag gripped tightly in her hands. Cassidy smiled at her like a cat with cream.

I rushed by them both. “We’ve got to go,” I told Jenny as I grabbed her arm and
pulled.
“I’ve got to find my dad.”

And get the truth from him.

No matter how ugly it was.

***

But my dad wasn’t at the station. Deputy Jon, his sandy hair mussed and his green eyes tired, told me that he’d gone out for a scout in the woods with one of the rangers.

They were still recovering the bodies of the dead wolves.

I dropped Jenny off at her house. She stared at me with worried eyes but didn’t question me.

Then I went home as fast as I could.

I had to find my dad.

Sure, most girls would probably just call their dad on their cell phones. I wasn’t most girls. I had a much faster connection. Besides, I didn’t want to talk to him over the phone. For this little father-daughter chat, I wanted to see him in person.

The better to catch any lies he might try to give me.

I parked my car, stared into the woods, and just thought—

Where are you, dad?

I saw him in my mind, standing by a stream. The water rushed over the pale white bones that had been tossed into that shallow stream.

The image connected immediately in my head. The hiker. Susie Harper. He’d found the body. I cried out and covered my eyes, but it wasn’t my eyes that were doing the seeing. Not even close. Why, why did I have to—

“
Anna!
”

Hands were on me. Hard, tight, pulling my arms down. My eyes flew open, and I found Rafe in front of me.

I lifted my knee and kicked him in the groin as hard as I could. He doubled over, and I turned and ran for the house.

Don’t let any wolves in your door.

“Anna, wait!”

My dad had gotten me a new can of mace. Stupidly, I’d left it in the bag on the porch. I grabbed my bag and yanked out the mace. I held it in front of me. “The last time I sprayed a wolf…” And I still didn’t know what special brew my dad was giving me, but no way was it your garden variety pepper spray. Not if Dad really knew the score in this town. “The wolf I sprayed started to
burn.
”

He’d doubled over, but as I stared at him, Rafe’s head rose, and his eyes found mine. “You don’t need that,” he gritted as he straightened. “I’m not here to hurt you.”

“Why are you here?” He’d given me a nice cold shoulder routine after that whole bit of insanity during lunch.

His hands fisted. “I haven’t been honest with you.”

My fingers tightened around the mace. “I don’t exactly need that newsflash. I realized the truth last night when I learned the whole
werewolf
bit.”

Rafe’s lips—lips that I stupidly remembered too well against my own—hardened. “You asked me about the other wolves in this town.”

I didn’t like where this was going. I already had a suspicion and…

Rafe shook his head. “Whatever you do, don’t trust Brent, okay?”

No, I definitely didn’t like this. “Brent’s never done anything to me.”

“He hasn’t done anything, yet.”

“Are you saying—is he like you?” I asked but I already knew. No one could heal as fast as he had. No one.

Rafe stared back at me. He made no move to come closer. He just watched me with that steady gaze that saw too much. “You’re afraid of me.” He seemed confused. “But not him?”

His words weren’t an answer. Or maybe they were. Either way, I still wasn’t dropping my mace. “What do you want from me?” I demanded because there had to be something, some reason that he’d sought me out.

I was the new girl in town, and suddenly, the two hottest guys in the school were both showing me way too much attention.

Because I was drop dead gorgeous? Um, no.

Because they were freaking werewolves, and they wanted something from me.

I caught the slight flare of Rafe’s eyes and realized I’d hit close to the truth.

“I know about this town,” I told him. Part of me wanted to run inside and slam the door, but a much bigger part wanted to race down the porch steps and shake the truth from him. I managed not to move at all. “Granny Helen told me. Witches started this place, huh? And let me guess—your family, Brent’s family—they would have been the hunters who followed the witches here.”

He nodded.

Progress. “So what do you think? Because some ancient ancestor of mine thought she was a witch, I can—”

“She didn’t
think
she was a witch. She was.” Flat. “And because of your mistake today, the others will know you’re just like her.”

My brows shot up. “My mistake?”

He took one stalking step toward me. Then another. I held my ground and my mace. “You really think Valerie took your necklace?”

I blinked at him. “It was in her locker.”

“Um.” A non-committal growl, then, “And how’d you know that?”

I stared back at him.

Anger flashed across his face. “You were ready to tell Brent everything, but you can’t trust me at all, can you?”

Before I could answer, he expelled a hard breath. “I don’t need you to tell me. I already know your secrets, Anna. You’re just like she was. Can’t get lost, can you? Not in the woods the first night we met, not even after the wreck when you were weak and bleeding.”