Page 43 of Wind with a Chance of Wolfsbane

I glanced at my sister and squeezed her hand.

She twisted around to face them all. “That’s a big fat hell no from us. Thanks, creepy lady, but we’re gonna pass on that.”

The redhead shrugged and turned as if to leave. Evidently, she wasn’t going to push the issue and didn’t really care if we went with her or not.

“Sister,” said the raven-haired one. “The order was issued and cannot be ignored.”

The redhead didn’t seem pleased, but she stayed.

“You are in grave danger,” warned Raven-Hair, who, from the annotations, was the most levelheaded of the three, not that any of them seemed particularly sane or reasonable. “Come.”

Mina squeaked and clutched my hand to the point that I thought she might break my fingers. “Still a ‘no’ from us.”

Taking a minute to pry my fingers loose, I thought harder about it all and looked toward the Weird Sister, who I was fairly sure was in charge—Raven-Hair. “What do you care if we’re in danger? We’re vampire hunters, and how did you find us?”

Mina groaned. “They probably didn’t need to know the part about us being vampire hunters.”

“Oh, now youdon’twant to acknowledge our hunter side?” I questioned.

Blondie giggled more and tugged at her lower lip in a pouty fashion. “I love the taste of hunters.”

The wolf tipped his head slightly, and then the next I knew, it was morphing into a man before our very eyes. A very tall, very handsome, very naked man. A man I’d seen before meeting with Helen at the inn. He’d been the flashy guy in a suit.

I jerked back more, yanking Mina with me.

Blondie eased up alongside him, looking downright tiny in comparison to him because of how tall he was. She lifted a portion of her long, flowing dress and held it up, shielding his groin from our view.

Raven-Hair nodded to her. “Good. Neither wishes for them to see.”

Neither?

Who was she talking about?

The man who had been a wolf was seemingly unconcerned with his lack of clothing. He locked eyes with me. “The sisters speak the truth. You are in danger,” he said, his accent thick. “Youmustcome with us. Both of you. Quickly before—”

A deep, menacing laugh sounded from the darkness.

I barely managed to hold in a shriek as I twisted around.

Mina turned too, grabbing at my arm. “What was that?”

“A demon you do not wish to encounter,” said the naked man. “There is another scent. I smell humans. Tainted ones. Darkness fills their souls.”

“You would be the expert on that, wolf,” said Raven-Hair. “Or are you not called the Dark One?”

The man grunted.

“You will be punished for this betrayal,” said Raven-Hair.

My sister and I peered into the dark recesses of the cave. Neither of us moved. Going into the cave more wasn’t an option, and leaving it wasn’t one either. The vampires and the naked guy sounded like they wanted to help us, but we didn’t know them, and history said supernaturals weren’t exactly on the side of hunters. Going out there would be incredibly foolish without understanding their motivation.

We were basically trapped like rabbits.

A second later, Lester, of all people, stepped forth out of the darkness of the cave.

Never did I think I’d live to see the day I was relieved to see the creepster. “Oh thank God.”

Mina grabbed my arm, keeping me close to her.

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