Almost Midnight (Shadow Falls: After Dark #3.5)(125)

A surge of adrenaline fueled her fury. She wanted to live. Wanted to protect the artist whose hands had made the wolf. She wanted to know his kisses, to spend time basking in his smiles.

She attacked. Her mouth found the spot on his neck and she buried her teeth in deep. He pulled away, but not before she tasted more blood.

He howled, his eyes growing brighter. His breathing labored. At least now they both fought with their own wounds.

Suddenly in the distance she heard several other wolves. Fredericka recognized those howls. Lucas and some of the pack had come after all. But they were too far away to stop this now.

Cary pawed at the ground, as if ready to finish it. She lowered her head and growled, telling him she wasn’t going down easy, and ignored the pain in her side.

Suddenly something flashed past. Fredericka knew immediately it was a vampire. And not just any vampire, but a certain half-Chinese vamp whom Fredericka had enjoyed diet sodas with just a few nights before. Then landing beside her was another vamp, or rather a chameleon in vamp mode.

If anyone had told Fredericka that she would have been happy to see vampires on a full moon, she would have thought them crazy. If anyone had told her that Della and Kylie would have come to her rescue, she’d’ve called them a liar.

Cary’s hair stood up on the back of his neck and he growled at the two vampires. The howls of her pack echoed closer and Fredericka saw when Cary knew he was beat. His orange gaze shot to the fence, and he leapt up and over six-foot slats of treated lumber to escape.

“That’s right. Run, you chicken-shit dog!” Della said, sneering after him, her canines extended and her eyes glowing neon green. The two vampires’ gazes shifted to Fredericka.

“You okay?” Kylie asked, her eyes fading to their soft blue color.

Fredericka nodded. Her wound was not fatal, but it would have kept her from fighting at her best, which might have allowed Cary to finish her off.

“You go,” Kylie said. “We’ll hang out here to make sure he doesn’t come back.”

But then Della muttered something, and they both flashed off.

And that’s when the light on the back porch flashed on.

The sound of the back door opening echoed in the night.

Every were instinct inside her told her to run, to leap over the fence. Every Fredericka instinct told her to stay.





Chapter Fifteen


Brandon stepped out onto the porch, wearing only a pair of navy boxers. His hair was mussed, his eyes heavy from sleep. The moon brushed against all his bare golden skin. She noted his muscles seemed more pronounced than before. He might not shift, but his body still grew stronger due to the moon.

Fredericka couched down a bit, hoping he could read her body language that she wasn’t there to hurt him. She knew the exact second his gaze found her, because he gasped. Yet it didn’t seem to come from fear, but perhaps awe.

He moved slowly toward her. When he got a few feet from her, he held out his hand. “It’s okay. I won’t hurt you.”

In her heart, she knew it to be true. She let him touch her. He turned his hand over slowly and ran his fingers over the top of her head. As a wolf, she’d never been petted by a human, and it felt wonderful. And for the first time she understood the few weres that actually hung with humans while shifted.

“It’s not you, is it, Nana?” he asked.

Fredericka’s heart jolted. He knew.

He dropped down on his knees, and looked her right in the eyes as if searching for her identity. Fredericka got a feeling she should go. But not before saying good-bye.

She moved in and brushed her unwounded side against his arm.

“Don’t go,” he said. But she couldn’t stay. She could hear Lucas and several others in her pack nearing the other side of the fence.

She went to give him one more brush with her snout when he ran his hand down her other side.

He pulled his hand back quickly, glancing down at the blood. “You’re hurt.”

She moved away. Looking back one more time, she saw his sister standing behind him. Thankfully, her eye was in place.

Fredericka nodded her head at the woman, then leapt over the fence.

*

Burnett had Cary picked up the next morning. Because he hadn’t actually killed anyone, and it came off just as a fight between two weres, Burnett couldn’t arrest him, but Burnett promised to put the fear of God in him. Knowing Burnett, she didn’t doubt his ability to do just that.

Fredericka was both excited and nervous about seeing Brandon. After her first class, she ditched school, and went to talk to Holiday.

“He knows.” She told her about what he’d said to her the night before.

“But he doesn’t know what you are, right?”

She dropped down into the chair across from the redheaded camp leader that she’d come to respect. “I don’t think so, but I want to tell him.”

Holiday exhaled. “You really like him, don’t you? And not just as a boss?”

Fredericka didn’t deny it. She told Holiday about his scars, and how she’d never shown anyone her own scars and yet she’d shown him. “I know it sounds crazy, but it almost feels like I understand him better because we both have them.”

The fae leaned back in her chair. “It doesn’t sound crazy, but … it’s best if you let him come to the realization himself. Hearing someone say this can really mess with a human’s mind.”