Wild and Free (The Three #3)(7)

My ass dropped to my ankles.

I caught a blaze out of the side of my eye. I looked back to Chen and his friend and saw the man was back to wolf and he was racing out of the alley.

“We need him!” Abel bellowed.

“On it,” Chen shouted, running toward his bike.

“Not you,” Abel stated, stalking toward Chen, still carrying his bloody sword. “Xun and Wei go.”

“My bike may be outta commission, brother,” one of the other dudes stated.

Abel turned his head to the man. “Take Chen’s.”

“We’re wasting time,” the other, other dude pointed out on a rev of his crotch rocket.

Then he decided not to waste one second more and tore out of the alley after the wolf.

Xun, or Wei, ran to Chen’s bike, hopped on, started it up, and turned it around in the narrow alley at freakadelic speed, zipping by me and, not joking even a little bit, flashing me a grin as he went.

I stared after him for a nanosecond before I was hauled up with a hand clamped on my upper arm.

“You brought her to danger?” Abel bit out toward Chen, manhandling me until I was in position for him to let my arm go, but he then locked his arm around me so my front was plastered to his side.

“She felt you were in danger and knew how to get to you,” Chen explained.

I felt Abel’s eyes on me. Slowly and cautiously, I tipped my head back.

Yep, he was looking at me.

“You felt I was in danger?” he asked in a calmer voice, and if I was myself, which I was not, I would have noted the incredulous vein that threaded his tone intermingled with one that was undeniably tender.

But I was not myself.

I was a quivering mess.

Therefore, as a response, I demanded, “Okay, priority one, find me a place where I can have a total mental collapse.”

“We need—” he started.

“Now!” I screeched, my body calcifying, cutting him off.

He might be a murderous badass, but he was not a stupid one. I knew this to be true when he looked into the eyes of a hysterical woman and hesitated not a second longer before he let my shoulders go, grabbed my hand, and dragged me to his Sportster.

“Xun’s bike and the weapons,” he stated simply as we went, throwing his sword to the side.

“Gotcha,” Chen replied.

He got on the Sportster, which was parked at the side of the alley.

Instead of running for the hills, for some lunatic reason, I got on behind him and away we went.

Again, I did not run or fight or even say a word when he took us back to the alley behind the Chinese restaurant. I continued to do none of these things as he got off the bike, grabbed my hand when I alighted, and he took me to the still-opened grate, down the stairs, and back to the basement room.

However, I did yank my hand from his and advanced swiftly into the room when we got there, whirling and demanding to know, “There are werewolves?”

He studied me closely but did it replying immediately. “Yes.”

“Are you a werewolf?” I asked.

His answer came slower, his body tightening visibly as he took his time doing it, but he eventually said, “Yes.”

“The ones whose heads you cut off,” I stated, but it was a question.

“I don’t know,” he answered, and kept the impossible, unhinged, but apparently true information coming. “But they move like me and have my strength, though they can’t transform. So my guess…vampires.”

“So you’re a vampire too.”

Another hesitation before he stated, “Yes.”

“That’s impossible,” I declared.

He opened his mouth, bared his teeth, and I jumped back a foot when two razor-sharp fangs snapped over his eyeteeth.

“Holy f*ck,” I whispered, my hand snaking up to curl around my throat.

The fangs retracted before he said, “Nothing to worry about. I’ve already fed.”

“On”—I gulped—“blood?”

He shook his head but said, “Yes, now—”

“Human blood?” I asked.

“Yes,” he clipped and moved toward me. I moved back as he kept speaking. “Now—”

“You feed on human blood?” My voice was rising.

“Fuck,” he hissed. He stopped moving toward me but went on talking, and he did it sharply. “Yeah. I do. I’m a werewolf vampire. I transform to wolf and I feed on human blood. The bitch I had earlier didn’t feel a thing, got off while I was doin’ it to her, just like they all do. I’ve had her before, though I ’spect, you in the picture, I won’t have her again. And I didn’t harm her.”

“So that’s not another one to add to your body count for the night?” I asked.

“Nope,” he answered casually.

I felt my brows go up. “She got off on it?”

“Helped I was f*ckin’ her at the time, but yeah, she did. Bitch begs me to bite her. Seein’ as I need the blood, it works for me.”

More of what he said hit me.

“Me in the picture?”

“You might have missed it with all that’s gone down, but told you straight up you were mine.”

He did.

He did do that.

It was uh-oh before.