Page 141 of White Raven
“Evening, Gloves. You’re up late.” He checked his watch. “Reallylate.”
“Cap…we need you.”
Her tone sent alarms firing off in his head…under his skin. He tensed and pushed his plate forward. Foster paid closer attention. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m at my apartment. Wren and Brent are here. So is Leigh Erickson. Brandon is with me but…we’re about to have some unpleasant company. I need more guns. I need…”
“Claws…” His voice was a choked, rasp.
“You’re the only pack I have, Cap. My only family. Everybody in this room is human, and we’re outnumbered. I wouldn’t ask you if—”
“Rhaena…stop.” Foley slapped cash down on the table, and nodded to Foster, who promptly stood and started following him out. “We’re on the way.”
“We?”
“Foster’s with me.”
“Hurry, Malcolm…I’m not sure how this is gonna go.”
“Is it Sykes?” Foster asked from beside him. Rhaena must have overheard.
“No. Sykes is on her way out west. John Allan ordered a hit on her family. On her, and on Leigh Erickson…just to hurt her. I told her to go. But Brandon counted six vampires, and—”There was a loud bang, and muffled shouting. Foley stopped dead as he opened his car door.
“Rhaena!” he called, but all he could hear was loud commotion. One gunshot. Two. “Dammit!”
“Go, go, go!Fuckingstepon it, old man!” Foster cried from the passenger seat.
His heart thundered, and the wolf inside was howling to be set free. He sweat profusely, and the anxious knot in his stomach ached. He blared the siren, and flashed the lights in his unmarked car, and tore the asphalt the entire way to Rhaena’s building.
There were way more than six. Brent tried to control his breathing and concentrate on who was who in all the chaos. Wren pulled Rhaena’s couch away from the wall, and shoved Leigh behind it.
“If you see it, fuckingshootit!” She screamed, tossing a blanket over Leigh’s tuft of pink hair. Some finely-dressed, undead asshole went for Wren. His dark hair was close-cut on the sides…reminded him a bit of Athan—if Athan was an oiled, lowlife thug without tattoos and a leather jacket.
“Not today, fucker!” Brent ground out, leaping at his back, and plunging a large kitchen knife through the back of his neck, just as the guy had exposed his fangs to tear into her. The way the blade slipped, and slightly resisted through muscle, and scraping past bone, made Brent want to gag. He tried to remind himself that this wasn’t a human being.
“Bastard!” Wren agreed, digging her own knife into his chest, and twisting it twice.
“Wren!” Rhaena called…only it barely sounded like her. When Brent looked over, Rhaena’s skin was a deep brown blanket of short fur. Her face seemed almost the same, but—wild. Her mouth dripped with blood, and the neck of the vampire she’d tossed to the floor had been ripped wide open.
Holy fuck…
“The heart, Wren!” Rhaena screamed. “Tear his fucking heart out!”
Wren only hesitated for a split-second, ramming her bare fist through the hole she’d made in his chest, and ripping an eerily dark-colored heart back. “Aaaggghh! Fuckinggross!” she cried, flapping her hand in disgust when she dropped it to the carpet.
Gunshots rang out behind him, and Brent startled, flinching, and grabbing his head. It was such a bad fucking time to harp on bad memories. It cost him. He bumped into a body—a body that was anything but warm—and jerked himself around to meet a set of elongated fangs. It was a woman…but itwasn’t.
“Hi there, handsome,” she smiled, those fangs gleaming. Her eyes shifted over his shoulder before they went wide, and cooled, dark blood sprayed his face. Wren had slashed her throat from behind him. The woman grasped at her bleeding neck, unable to get her bearings.
“Byethere, bitch!” Wren snapped. He got ahold of himself and punched into the woman’s chest—trying not to think of her as a woman—and snatching the heart out. She dropped like a stone. Wren’s body jerked backward, and her startled scream was cut short in a gurgle from the angle of her head as another vamp yanked her backwards by the hair. He hissed as his mouth went wide, fangs lengthening, and turned Wren’s head to bite into her jugular. It was like watching it all unfold in slow motion. Brent’s body froze.
Another gunshot rang out, and he blinked, opening his eyes to see brain matter explode from the man’s head, Wren’s body falling with him as they both crashed to the ground. Brandon was there a second later, taking that heart for himself.
“Don’t let ‘em touch you with those fucking teeth!” Brandon yelled, tossing the heart across the living room, and aiming left, as he fired two more shots, and went for another falling vampire. Brent dropped to his knees, helping Wren up, and pulling her around the side of the couch. Leigh screamed, pointing Wren’s gun at them before realizing they weren’t the enemy.
“Stay with her, Wren!” Brent pleaded. Wren shook with fear and adrenaline and grabbed his hand.
“No! You already tried to die for me once, Brent! I’m not letting you do it again!”
