Renegade (Heven and Hell #4)(49)
Author: Cambria Hebert

“Not until the other day when Heven killed one at the farm.”

“They were at the farm?”

“I only saw one.”

“When we were fighting them just now, things kind of went hazy for me.”

“Hazy how?” I stopped walking and turned to face him.

“Like all I could think about was killing them. Nothing else seemed to register.”

“Yeah, that’s how it was for me too.”

“Did you get bitten?”

I shook my head, looking at my arms. “No.”

“Me either,” he said. I could see him trying to make a connection, just like me a million times before.

“Maybe something about those things makes us rabid.”

“Is that even possible?”

“We just got attacked by neon fog, a witch blew it away, and then a pack of half-werewolf, half-bats tried to make us dinner. Yeah, I think it’s possible.”

Yeah, I would say at this point anything was possible. Kimber and Heven appeared carrying a bag of clothes I kept in my truck. “Cole got this,” Heven said, tossing me the bag.

“Thanks.” I unzipped the bag and started rummaging through it. “Everyone okay?”

Heven nodded. “Yeah, that fog seemed to put everyone in a trance. They didn’t even seem to notice what was going on.”

“I only have one pair of shorts.” I glanced at Riley.

He sighed dramatically. “Fine, but be ready to fend the ladies off when I come out of the woods.”

“Yeah right,” Kimber muttered.

“I saw you sneaking a peak,” he told her and grinned.

She made a gagging sound, then waved her hands. My entire body was clothed in a matter of seconds. Dark jeans, a long-sleeved thermal shirt, a zip-up hoodie, and a pair of Nike’s. These clothes were nicer than any of the other stuff I could afford.

“What the hell?” Riley growled behind me. Heven started laughing and I turned to see.

He also got some new clothes. His pants reminded me of MC Hammer; they were made of gold material and the crotch hung down to his knees. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, but a button-up vest with glitter on it, and he had a purple scarf draped around his neck. To top it off, a large gold hoop earring dangled from his right ear.

I laughed. “You look like a genie that’s having a fashion crisis.”

He growled and looked at Kimber. “I’m going to choke you with this gay-ass scarf.”

We all laughed when he lunged after her and tripped over his pants.

“Red!” he bellowed.

“Fine.” She sighed and waved her hands in his direction. His genie apparel was replaced with an outfit that looked a lot like mine, but instead of the hoodie, he got a black leather jacket and a pair of black boots.

“Better,” he said gruffly.

Cole and Gemma appeared, and since they both seemed very alert, I assumed they weren’t near the fog when it swept through the crowd. “Did you get him?” Cole asked, scanning the ground.

“Get who?” Riley asked.

“Beelzebub.”

Riley and I looked at each other and four letter words tumbled from our mouths. How had we forgotten about him?

“He’s probably long gone by now,” Gemma said. “That’s why he unleashed those werebats.”

“Have you ever seen one of those before?” I asked her.

She nodded. “Whatever you do, don’t get bit. If the bite doesn’t kill you, it’ll infect you.”

“What about scratches?”

“I don’t know,” she said, a crease forming in her forehead. “Did you get scratched?”

Riley and I both nodded.

“Do you feel different?”

We both shook our heads.

She nodded. “That’s good. Maybe hellhounds are immune to other shifters’ poison.”

The upbeat music from the party switched over and a slow song began to play. As we were heading back, a howl cut through the night behind us. Heven looked at me and then we were all running back through the woods, following along the lakeshore. Behind me I heard Kimber cry out and then a loud thump.

When I turned she was pushing herself up off the ground, looking down at whatever caused her to fall with a horrified look on her face.

Another howl cut through the night, this one much closer than the last, and then a werebat plunged from a tree just above Kimber, reaching its talons out to toward her, closing around her hat and ripping it away. She screamed again, throwing her hands up over her head, but it wasn’t needed because Riley threw himself at the werebat, yanking it from the sky and slamming it into the ground. He landed a hard blow to the side of its head and then stepped back. “Heven, can I get a light?”

Within seconds, the creature was flaming and just like before, Kimber sent it out to sink into the lake.

Riley reached down and pulled Kimber up, angling himself just slightly in front of her, between her and what she’d been trying to get away from

“Found the DJ,” Riley said, staring down at the body.

Heven wrapped her hand just below my elbow as we all walked over, and Riley shook his head. I pulled my arm away gently and turned to her. “Stay here.” She didn’t argue and I suspected it was because she didn’t want to see the condition of the body.

He was definitely dead. The werebat hadn’t wasted anytime and made a feast out of his remains. Kimber made a small sound in her throat and turned away. Cole put his nose into his elbow.

“What should we do with him?” Riley asked, his voice flat.

I wasn’t about to dump another body in the lake. I wasn’t doing that ever again. “Just leave him. The cops will find him eventually.”

Kimber pulled out her cell phone. “It will be sooner rather than later,” she said as the screen lit up. “I’ve got two dead bodies and an entire houseful of people who probably don’t even know their own names.”

I watched as she keyed the numbers 9-1-1 into the phone. Then before hitting send, she looked up at all of us.

“Party’s over.”

Heven

I hung up the phone and went over to the window where Sam stared out into the backyard. He held out his arm as I approached and I fit myself into his side.

“What’s going on down there?” I asked.

“Kimber’s putting on a show,” he murmured.

I leaned my head against his shoulder. “What she does best.”

“Well, tonight it’s worked in our favor.”

I looked out into the yard, which was still lit up from the party. Several police officers with black nylon jackets with the word CORONER plastered in white across the back were working down by the shoreline, and several other officers without the black jacket were combing the woods that surrounded the house.