Never Cry Wolf (Night Watch #4)(57)
Author: Cynthia Eden

Chapter 14

“You’re looking at the wrong wolves,” Sarah said.

Maya’s gaze turned measuring. “Sorry if I don’t believe you, but his scent . . .” Her index finger pointed at Lucas. “Is all over you. So I’m guessing that makes you not exactly unbiased when it comes to the pack.”

Sarah’s back teeth clenched. “They aren’t the only wolves in town.”

“Oh?” One black brow rose. “Got a Lone on the loose? Then how come I haven’t heard about him?” Her legs braced apart, and, quick as a flash, she drew out a gun, one that was aimed right at Sarah. “Silver bullets kill humans and wolf shifters real easy.”

Sarah stared at the gun and didn’t blink.

“Get that f**king weapon off her!” Lucas snarled.

But Maya shook her head. “Like I said before, your scent’s all over her.” Her gaze tracked to the alpha. “That means you give a shit what happens to her, right?”

“You don’t want me as your enemy, Maya,” he told her quietly. “You truly don’t.”

The blond’s fingers touched Maya’s shoulder. “You were supposed to go easy,” he murmured.

“And Marie was supposed to be damn well alive! She wasn’t supposed to get slashed up by some mangy wolf!”

At that, Lucas flew forward and shoved Sarah to the side. Dane instantly covered her, using his body to shield her.

Sarah twisted, glanced back, and saw that Lucas stood right in front of Maya. The gun pressed into his chest.

“You think I killed her?” His arms were up, his claws out. “Then shoot. But then you . . . and the winged ass**le . . . had better get the hell out of LA because my pack will be out for your blood.”

She didn’t squeeze the trigger. “Why was your scent on Marie?”

“Because she saved my life last night.” A pause, then . . . “And that’s probably why she’s dead today.”

That gun shoved harder against his chest. “Wolf . . .” “There’s another alpha in town. One who’s gunning for me.”

“I think he’s telling the truth,” the vamp’s guy said, head cocked.

“He is.” Jordan stepped forward. Maya’s attention swung to him. Sarah saw the vamp’s eyes narrow. “Lucas isn’t lying to you. A bastard named Rafael Santiago is here, hunting him.”

“Hunting us,” Piers added.

Jordan took another slow, gliding step toward the vampire. “Believe me if you believe no one else, Maya. It’s not us you’re after. It’s him.”

But the gun wasn’t dropping. “I’d like to believe you,” Maya said and almost sounded like she did. “But no one would have crept up on Marie. She saw everything.” Was that an echo of pain in her voice? “She wouldn’t have let a wolf she didn’t know get to her, she wouldn’t—”

“Then she knew him,” Sarah yelled out the obvious, still covered by Dane. “She knew Rafe, and if she’s as strong as I think, she knew he’d be the one to kill her.”

Maya’s hold on the gun finally eased, and in that second, Lucas’s hand flew up and snatched the weapon away. Maya didn’t spare him a glance. Her focus was fully on Sarah. “Who are you?”

Lucas moved again, a gliding step, and blocked Maya’s view of Sarah. “Consider your entrance pass to my place revoked.”

The blond man’s shoulders tensed. “I think she’s Other.”

“She smells human,” the vamp muttered.

Dane lifted Sarah back to her feet, but he stayed close.

“Not a witch,” the man said. “Not a shifter . . .”

“Brody, you don’t need to know a damn thing about her!” Lucas glared at the vamp’s companion.

The guy, Brody, kept talking. “Demon? I can never smell them and if she’s using glamour . . .”

She wasn’t.

“Get off my land,” Lucas ordered, voice flat. “And don’t come back.” Then he turned away and strode to Sarah’s side.

“You owe me, wolf.” Brody’s hands were on his hips when he threw this out.

Sarah caught the narrowing of Lucas’s eyes. Saw his lips move when he growled out, “Shifter bastard.”

“If you didn’t kill Marie,” this came from Maya, “if there’s really another wolf in town . . .”

He glanced back over his shoulder. “There is.”

Maya edged forward. “Then I want him.”

“Get in line. I’m taking that bastard out.”

“If he killed her, then I’m—”

“I think he’s killed some of her followers.” Dane was the one who dropped this bombshell. “He knew the mambo, and he’s killed at least two of her people.”

Sarah’s eyes widened. Why hadn’t Dane said something sooner?

“We saw ’em last night.” Now it was Piers who spoke up.

“A woman from the South, and a Haitian male. Their throats had been ripped open.” His lips tightened. “I know a wolf’s work when I see it.”

The Haitian? But . . . he’d been with her, he’d talked to her. “When?” Sarah asked. “Did he kill them while we were inside—”

Dane shook his head. “No, they were dead long before that.” His dark eyes met hers. “Long before that.”

Two ways. The memory of the mambo’s voice drifted through her mind. Stop him before Death comes.

Oh, damn.

Or bring him back after.

Maxime.

“She had ’em under some kind of spell,” Dane said. “She let ’em go right before we found the two of you on that table.”

Sarah didn’t remember that part of the night. She didn’t remember anything after the slash of the knife and Marie’s dark promise.

He dies . . .

Then you die.

With those words, everything had gone straight to black. Sarah glanced at her arm. The wound was gone now. She didn’t have any enhanced healing powers, but the wound had vanished far too quickly.

“Marie said she didn’t ‘raise them’ but that she was letting them go free.” The words had Sarah’s eyes lifting back to Dane. His jaw locked. “One minute, they were walking around, talking, the next—we were staring at corpses that had been dead for days.”

“Fucking zombies,” Piers growled. “Hell, of all the Other . . . the dead belong in the ground.”