The Better to Bite (18 page)

Rafe was in the backset now and looking highly pissed.

“Why are you taking him in?” I jabbed a finger toward Rafe. He wasn’t talking. No, he was busy glaring at me.

My eyes narrowed.
It’s not my fault you acted like an idiot and got thrown out of the game.

Deputy Jon gave a long-suffering sigh. “Rafe here has a bit of a temper.”

I’d noticed.

“I’ll let him cool off at the station while he waits for his dad to come and fill out some paperwork.”

I knew how this game worked. “Are you charging him with something?” Had Rafe started the fight? I wish I’d been paying better attention.

Deputy Jon shrugged his broad shoulders. “We’ll just see what happens tonight.”

My temper spiked. “And what about Brent? Are you going to  be taking him in for some cooling down, too?”

Jon’s eyes narrowed a bit, and his mouth tightened. “Brent Peters didn’t take the first swing. I got four witnesses, including Coach Crawford, who all said Brent was just defending himself.”

Jon slammed Rafe’s door shut. “Now you go back and enjoy the game, Anna. Let me worry about Rafe.”

I stared through the glass at Rafe. His gaze held mine.  “Why?” I demanded.

Deputy Jon had already climbed in the car. He cranked the engine and the cruiser pulled away. But Rafe—he’d tried to answer. I hadn’t heard him clearly, but I thought his lips had moved and he’d said—

Don’t trust him.

I watched the tail-lights vanish down the road. Another cheer erupted from the field behind me. After a moment, I headed slowly back into the stadium.

***

I left the game early. After the weirdness on the field, I just wanted to go home. I dropped Jenny off at her place and drove back to my house. The roads seemed even darker, and I realized that thick clouds had covered the moon.

A storm was coming.

My dad still wasn’t back at the house. I figured he was notifying the hiker’s family or maybe even dealing with Rafe. The old house seemed too quiet and far too big, and I wondered how my grandmother had felt, living there alone for so many years. When we’d first come to town, I’d learned that my grandfather, Peter Lambert, had died over twenty years ago.

If he’d lived, would he have wanted to meet me? Or would he have been like my grandmother? Not caring enough to even bother with a phone call.

Sometimes, I felt like the house was suffocating me.

I pushed those feelings away, just like I always did. I locked the windows. Bolted the doors. Double-checked and triple-checked the locks.

And I waited. Just me and the ghost of my grandmother. That was what it felt like, anyway. Because even though all of her belongings were gone, this place was hers.

Not mine.

After about thirty minutes, the phone rang. I grabbed it instantly.

“Anna?” Dad’s voice, sounding tired. “Baby, I’m sorry, but I’m going to be late tonight.” A murmur of voices sounded behind him. “Very late.”

My fingers tightened round the phone. “Dad, we need to talk.” I even used
the voice.
The one he’d taught me. I knew by his hum of silence that he got that our talk would be big.

It definitely would be.

“Everything okay?” There was an alert edge to his words.

No.
“I need to talk to you about this—this place.” About monsters and men and nightmares that could become real. “I’m going to stay up until you get home.”

Silence. Then… “Okay, baby. We’ll talk tonight. I’ll get home as soon as I can.”

I wondered if he’d give me the answers I needed. I put the phone back in the cradle and waited.

***

He came home just after one that night. I heard his key slide in the lock, and the door squeaked open seconds later.

He looked tired, but his gaze was alert and worried as it fixed on me. “Anna?”

Yeah, I had all the lights on in the house. Learning that you’re wolf prey would make anyone want some lights.

I sat near the bottom of the stairs.

Dad shut the door behind him, locked it, and frowned at me. He still had on his uniform, but it wasn’t so nice and neat. Stained from the woods, wrinkled.

“You found Susie Harper,” I said.

He didn’t show a flicker of surprise. Why would he? Dad knew my secrets. I just didn’t know his.

“Will the ME find claw marks on her bones, too?” I asked. Then, I pushed, “Marks that belong to a wolf?”

He put down his keys. “What do you think?”

I thought I didn’t like his measuring stare. “I think you’ve been holding out on me, Dad.” I’d actually searched the house while I waited for him to get back. I’d wanted to find out something about my grandmother. Something, anything. She was my past, and apparently, in Haven, past was key.

But there had been no trace of her in the house.

“You know exactly what’s killing these people,” I said into the silence between us, and I began to play with my necklace. “You know—”

In two seconds, he was in front of me. He caught my hand, freezing my fingers. “Where did you get this?” The lines around his mouth had deepened even more.

I lifted my chin. “Recognize it, do you?”

His gaze held mine. “Anna…”

“I met this nice lady in town.” Semi-nice. Semi-scary. “Seems she knew mom. She gave it to me.”

“Helen.”

I nodded.

He dropped the necklace and stepped back. “I figured you’d start talking to her, sooner or later.”

“It was sooner.” Not soon enough. “And, Dad,
I know.”

He turned away. “Helen is, well, most folks call her eccentric. She tells lots of stories, and you can’t always believe what she says.”

“Oh?” I stood up and my knees didn’t tremble. “I can’t believe her when she says there are people in Haven who can transform into wolves?”

I saw his shoulders stiffen.

“And I can’t believe her when she says that I’m descended from the witch who cursed them?”

He glanced back at me. “Just how much talking have you been doing with Helen?”

“Enough.” I climbed down the rest of the stairs. “Enough to know that you haven’t been telling me the truth.”

He didn’t deny it.

“I thought we left Chicago to get away from the monsters,” I whispered as I shook my head. “But here…”

“There are monsters everywhere.” He faced me.

“
People!”
I threw at him as anger churned inside me. “Crazy, twisted people who hurt and kill but here in Haven, there are werewolves! Real freaking monsters!” And just saying it out-loud sounded insane, but it was true. I glared at him. “When were you going to tell me?”

He didn’t answer.

“Dad, these
werewolves
out there are thinking I can break their curse, I can’t just—”

His eyes narrowed to tight slits. “Who said that?”

“
Is it true? Can I stop this?”

His shoulders sagged a bit. “Nothing can stop this. Nothing. Believe me, every damn thing has been tried. Over and over, for centuries.”

“Then someone needs to tell that to the wolves.” I wrapped my arms around my stomach and rocked back and forth. I didn’t want the wolves after me. I didn’t want to wind up like—

Sissy.

“The wolves in this town haven’t killed any humans for over one hundred years.”

My chin lifted. “No, Dad, you mean they
hadn’t
been killing them, not until someone started attacking the hikers about six months back.”

His jaw clenched. “I didn’t know about that when I took the job. If I had—”

“What?”

“Then I never would’ve brought you here.”

Here. Haven. Where nightmares were reality and people were dying in the woods.“Do you know who the werewolves are?” I asked because I knew he was keeping more from me. I could feel it.

“I know some,” he said quietly. “But there could be more. So many more.”

He sounded like Rafe. “What are we going to do?” I asked him. “We have to stop them.”

“I—”

A fist pounded against the door. “
Please! Help me!”

I knew that desperate voice. Cassidy. I rushed forward, but my dad beat me to the door. He yanked it open, and Cassidy, with long trails of tears on her cheeks, stumbled into his arms.

“Please, Sheriff Lambert!” She was shaking and crying and I almost couldn’t understand her. “
Gran!”

“Cassidy?” I reached for her, but she didn’t even seem to notice me.

“Calm down.” My dad’s voice was pitched to soothe. “Just calm down, and tell me what’s going on.”

Cassidy’s breath heaved out. “My…gran. She’s gone. When I came—came back from the game with Jasper, the shop was wrecked…”

I saw a blank mask slip over my dad’s face. “Did you call the station?”

“N-no…I came to you.” But then her eyes turned to me. “I knew you could…find her.”

She wasn’t talking to my dad anymore.

“
Please.
” Her whisper. “There was bl-blood in the shop.  She’s gone, and I-I have to find her. She’s lost, and I don’t have anyone else!”

Lost.

“Anna…” A warning note had entered my dad’s voice.

Too late. The power inside me had already snapped on. In my mind, I could see Granny Helen. She wasn’t in town. Wasn’t at her home. Her broken body was in the woods, huddled under the branches of a weeping willow.

I yanked my gaze away from Cassidy’s desperate eyes and ran through the open front door.

“Anna!”
My dad’s footsteps thundered after mine.

I ran straight for the woods. I knew where Granny Helen was. Maybe I could get to her fast enough, maybe I could save
her.

The way I hadn’t saved Sissy. Caitlin.

My mom.

A wolf’s howl filled the night, and I ran faster.

I’d just reached the edge of the woods when my dad grabbed my arm. I was jerked to a halt as he demanded, “Is she dead?”

I looked back at him. “I don’t know.” I couldn’t see her face. I could only see the blood that pooled beneath her body. “If we don’t get her soon, she will be.” Blood would attract the predators in the woods.
All
of them.

He yanked out his phone. Called for back-up and an ambulance.

Cassidy had stumbled down the porch. My body vibrated with tension. I had to go. Had to run.

Find. Her.

Granny Helen was lost, and she needed me.

My dad ended his call and pulled out his gun. “She’s close?”

“In the woods.” I pointed toward the twisting darkness. “She’s hurt.”

Cassidy whimpered.

My dad took my hand. “You hold onto me, every second, got me? Don’t run off, and if you see any wolf—”

My gaze darted to the gun.

“You let me take care of him,” my dad finished.

Swallowing, I nodded. Then we ran into the darkness.

***

Twigs bit into my arms as we raced through the woods. We were close now, so very close. Cassidy had followed behind us, even though my dad had ordered her back.

I didn’t blame her. If it were my grandmother, I’d want to be there, too.

Faster, faster we ran, and a stitch burned in my side. I could feel a pull on my body, like a magnetic force urging me closer to Granny Helen. Not far now, not far at all.

We burst through the trees, and I saw the swooping limbs of the willow. Granny Helen’s body was beneath the tree, but…she wasn’t alone.

“Get back!” My dad’s snapped order to me and Cassidy. He pushed me behind him and raised his weapon.

“You there—step away from the woman and put your hands up!” His voice was a roar that demanded obedience.

Because someone crouched over Granny Helen’s body. Someone, not something. I peered around my dad and saw the person emerge from the shadows.

Tall, strong, wearing loose jeans and no shirt—
Brent.

Brent?

“I found her like this,” he said as he raised his hands. “She needs help!”

I wanted to believe him. But in the moonlight, I could see the blood on his hands.

Don’t trust Brent.

“Anna.” My dad’s voice was calm and flat. His cop voice. “Take out my phone and give the men directions to find us.”

I wasn’t sure I could give good directions, but I’d try. I took the phone. One touch and I had deputy Jon on the line.

“Listen to me!” I heard Brent saying to my dad. “An animal did this,
not me.
I’m here to help her!”

But some animals could be men.

“Step away from her,” my dad ordered him.

Brent eased back.

“Keep those hands up.” My dad’s weapon never wavered as he made his way toward Helen’s body.

He bent and put his fingers to her throat.

“Gran!” Cassidy’s cry. She tried to rush by me, but I grabbed her and held on tight.

I could be pretty strong when I needed to be.

Granny Helen wasn’t moving, but that bloody pool beneath her body—it looked black in the moonlight—was growing.

My dad’s gaze met mine.

Be alive. Be—

“Tell Jon we need those EMTs
now!
”

And I realized we might just have a chance of saving someone. This time.

***

They got Granny Helen out of the woods. She’d been clawed. Her arms and chest were covered with deep slashes, but she was alive.

Barely.

“Why was she in the woods? How’d she even get here?” Cassidy asked. Her voice was hollow, and I figured she was numb. Or in shock. Maybe a combination of both.

“I don’t know.”

“The shop was trashed, but that’s so far away—”

Granny Helen had been running from something.

I glanced back at the woods, but instead of seeing the trees, I saw Brent. Two deputies were on each side of him, and his hard stare pinned me.

The ambulance’s siren screamed on, and Cassidy jumped into the back with the attendants.

I stepped away from the vehicle.

“
Anna!”
Her cry rose above the siren, stopping me.

I met her stare.

“Thank you.” Softer.

I nodded.

My secret was officially out. Everyone knew. Rafe thought it was dangerous but…but I’d just saved someone.

Maybe it was time for me to stop hiding. Time for me to be just who I was. Different. Freak.