Renegade (Heven and Hell #4)(59)
Author: Cambria Hebert

Sam was there, still in hellhound form, and he was going after two werebats with ferocity that scared me.

It was almost if he were rabid.

He snatched one bat out of the sky and attacked as the other one swooped over his head, reaching out with its creepy chicken-like claws. I sent that one to the barbeque. It howled in pain as flames engulfed its weird body.

The bat Sam wrestled with finally fell silent and he looked up, his molten gold eyes spearing me, and chills raced over my skin. The way he looked at me… like he didn’t know who I was.

He stepped forward, his body low to the ground.

I stepped backward.

He stepped forward.

I stepped backward.

He dropped into a crouch, looking at me like I was a fresh cut of steak, but before he could do anything else I said his name.

“Sam.” I stopped retreating and stepped closer. “It’s me.”

He tilted his head, listening, and I stepped closer again. “I followed you so we could finally figure out where you were running off to.”

I held out my hand palm up and waited for him to come closer, and when he did he pressed his cold nose against my skin. I laughed. His eyes changed, turning less molten and more honey. He shot past me and into the trees, coming out seconds later in his human form.

His body was smeared with blood.

“I shifted again,” he said, looking down at himself.

“I followed you.”

“Did I hurt you?” He looked up swiftly, his eyes taking in every inch of me.

“Of course you didn’t.”

“What was I doing?” he wondered.

“Killing those werebats.” I pointed to the one he just killed. Just beyond it there were several other bodies littering the ground.

“This is their blood?” he asked, dubiously looking down at his smeared skin.

“Yes,” I said. “I watched you with them… All you could focus on was killing them. It’s like you were—” I said, but he finished for me.

“Rabid, primal.”

I nodded. “That’s exactly what it was like. Like your actions were completely beyond your control. You felt it too?”

He shook his head. “I don’t remember what I feel, but Riley, he suggested that something about them might make us frenzied.”

“He felt like this too, that night at Kimber’s?” I asked, hope filling me up inside.

He nodded.

I let out a little squeal and raced over to him, ready to throw my arms around him, but then I stopped just short of touching him. “Sorry. I’ll hug you after you shower.”

“All this time,” he said to himself. “All this time I thought I was killing people.”

“And you were killing werebats.”

He thought about it a little longer, mulling the words around in his head, and then he looked up at me and grinned. “Thank God.”

I grinned back and the two of us stood there grinning like idiots for who knew how long.

“But if I was killing these things this whole time, where are all the bodies?” he said finally, his smile fading away.

I shrugged. “Did you eat them?”

The look on his face was priceless. “That’s disgusting, Heven.”

“Hey, I’ve seen you when you’re hungry. It isn’t always a pleasant sight.”

His teeth flashed with his quick smile. “I didn’t eat them.”

“Maybe you hid them.” I shrugged. I didn’t really care where they were. I was just happy he finally realized he wasn’t a cold-blooded killer.

“Maybe,” he echoed. “I’m going to rinse off,” he said and without hesitation dove into the lake.

It seemed to me he was in there a really long time. Not once did his head surface, and I reminded myself he couldn’t drown. Still, as the minutes ticked by I grew more and more nervous, just waiting for him to come up for air.

I saw the ripples in the water first and then the bubbles. Finally his head broke the surface and he wiped the water from his eyes.

“Gheesh, that took forever,” I said, unable to hide my relief.

He swam over to the shore and stepped out, going over the dead bats and tossing them all into the water one by one until there were no more left. “So much for not hiding anymore bodies in a lake,” he said to no one in particular. The disgust in his voice was clear.

“Sam?” I asked. He rinsed himself off once more and then left the water, coming to stand at my side.

“You were right. I hid them all. In the lake.”

I glanced at the water, water I was already uneasy around, and imagined the bottom of it full of dead werebats. I suppressed a shiver and gave Sam a smile. “Well, at least you cleaned up after yourself.”

He groaned.

“Look, who cares? It’s not like they were people or even innocent. They were brought here by Beelzebub.”

A cold wind blew through the bare trees and a few snowflakes floated from the sky. “Yeah, you’re right. Come on.” He put an arm around my shoulder. “Let’s go back to the house. You’re going to get cold.”

“I’m not the one who’s naked.”

“Would you like to be?” He wagged his eyebrows at me and I laughed.

“Let’s get inside and then we’ll talk, ‘kay?”

“I didn’t hear a no,” he drawled.

The house came into view and so did Cole’s truck. Sam groaned. “Alone time is really hard to come by around here.”

I smiled. “I’ll see what they’re up too. You go find some clothes.”

Sam dashed around the front of the house and I continued around the side where I was assaulted with Kimber’s whining.

“You don’t need to call her,” she whined. “She doesn’t need to be here.”

Cole sighed. “Yes, Kimber, she does. It’s why she’s here, to help my sister.”

Kimber’s aura was full of red and I knew the minute I spoke up I would be the target of her anger and jealousy, even if it was meant for someone else.

He pressed a button on his phone and Kimber snatched it out of his hand. “What is it with her, huh? What does she have that I don’t?”

He reached for the phone, ignoring her words, and she tossed it into the bush growing by the porch.

A growl rumbled out of his throat. “What the hell is wrong with you?” he snapped as he fished the cell phone out of the shrub.

“What’s wrong with you?” she demanded.

“I’m in love with her!” he burst out, his voice echoing around us. “Not you! Her!” He flung his arms wide, gripping the phone in his hand. Then in a quieter voice, he said, “We’re never going to be together again, Kimber.”