Page 56 of Hot Blooded

“Oh, wow. The sky never looks like this in the city.”

“Too much light,” Amos said. “Beautiful in its own way. But it’s nice to see the stars in their full glory from time to time.”

Tessa shook her head, still staring at the sky in awe. “I can’t remember the last time I went somewhere where you could see the stars like this.”

“Well, you’ll see them even better tonight.” He unsnapped the fastenings at the bottom of his backpack that held his telescope case.

“A telescope?” Tessa asked.

Amos nodded. “Have you ever used one?”

“A kind of crappy one when I was a kid. But we could never get it to focus.”

“Lucky for you, I know how to get the focus right. While I’m setting this up, you should eat.” He nudged the bag towards her. It was filled with food, more than she could even reasonably eat in one night, but he’d wanted to be certain she’d have something she liked.

While Tessa munched on something chocolatey, Amos got to work setting up his telescope. Tessa had finished eating and Amos was still fiddling with the mounting plate when a high, ululating cry echoed from across the river. Amos froze.

“There are no wolves in Illinois,” Tessa said, gazing in the direction of the sound. “Do coyotes sound like that?”

Amos grabbed her, abandoning both telescope and backpack as he raced for the car.

“Amos!” she gasped, burying her face against his neck and clinging tightly to his shoulders as he ran. “What’s happening?”

They reached the car and he ripped the passenger door open, all but throwing Tessa inside. “Werewolves,” he said tersely.

A split-second later, he was in the driver’s seat, ignition started, peeling backwards so fast Tessa almost crashed into the dashboard.

“Seatbelt!” Amos snapped. “Now.”

Tessa hurried to obey, wrestling with the mechanism to release the belt before she finally clicked herself in securely. Amos whipped the car around towards the driveway. The headlights panned across trees and field and river, catching a flash of movement. The wolves were here.

What the hell they were doing in Illinois was anybody’s guess. The nearest werewolf pack, as far as Amos knew, was up in the northernmost parts of Wisconsin and Minnesota. Why would they have come so far south? Or was this an entirely different band of wolves?

As Amos stomped on the accelerator, speeding towards the road, the werewolves surged out of the darkness, surrounding the vehicle with their massive bodies. Amos knew a hunting formation when he saw one. The wolves were trying to stop his vehicle. And considering their strength and size, there was a good chance they’d succeed.

He gripped the wheel, maneuvering carefully, not allowing the wolves to put too much pressure on one side or the other. With a sudden stomp on the brake, and then an equally sudden acceleration, he managed to briefly scatter their formation. Seizing the opportunity, he slammed the accelerator down and whipped out onto the street without slowing. He kept the pedal pressed to the floor, pinning the needle to the top of the speedometer nearly the entire way back to the city.

Werewolves were fast, but not as fast as the top speed of an Audi S8. By the time he reached Aurora, he’d brought the speed down to a reasonable number, mostly out of concern for being pulled over. If he could’ve guaranteed there’d be no cops, he’d have kept the needle pinned all the way back to his house. Tessa had ridden in stiff silence beside him, glancing worriedly out the window again and again. When he slowed, she turned to look at him, brows drawn together.

“Are we safe now?” she asked.

Amos hesitated. He didn’t want to frighten her, but he also didn’t want to lie to her. “Safe enough,” he finally said. “We’ll be safer in the city. Wolves hate densely populated areas. And they’ll have a hard time picking our scents out of all the other city scents.”

“Our scents?” she echoed nervously.

“They have keen noses—keener even than a vampire’s. They’ll have picked up both our scents, and they’ll remember them.”

Tessa let out a shaky breath.

“But, they’re not likely to pursue us into the city. In fact, now that we’ve gotten away, I doubt they’ll look for us at all. They’re known to be defensive of their territory, and to attack vampires in general, but they’re not known for attacking humans.”

“Amos you’re a vampire!”

He suppressed a smile. Her concern pleased him, but he didn’t want her to think he was taking the situation lightly. “Yes, but there are quite a few of us in the city. And a small handful of wolves is no match for the number of vampires a city like Chicago has. If they have even half a brain shared between all of them, they won’t come into the city.”

Tessa sat back against her seat, quiet as she stared out the windshield. Amos’s heart dropped as he realized he had been taking the situation too lightly. Not because of the werewolves, but because of Tessa. For most of their courtship, he’d had to escort her from place to place because of the danger of Markov’s sireless thralls. Hell, she’d been attacked by one. And now, on their first night out together, they’d been attacked again by a different supernatural creature. He’d wanted to show her how beautiful the night could be, and so far, he’d only showed her terror.

“I’m sorry,” he said into the heavy silence.

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