Free Half Wolf by Linda Thomas-Sundstrom Page B

bloomed.
    “Five of them,” Cade announced.
    “Five of them and five of us,” Rena noted. “Easy.”
    Kaitlin felt Michael’s attention on her. “Yes, easy,” he said.
    “Better if there was a full moon tonight,” the other male Were added.
    “Hell, who needs a fur coat when we have brains?” Rena quipped, raising her wooden stake. “At least more brains than they have.”
    “Doesn’t even seem like a fair fight, really,” Cade tossed in.
    No one laughed at their restless banter.
    Kaitlin was terrified.
    “Do you want me to take her away?” Cade asked Michael.
    “I’m right here,” Kaitlin said, trying not to stare at Michael. “Don’t talk as if I wasn’t.”
    “She’s not ready for this,” Michael said.
    She met his gaze. “I’m in the way, but I’m no baby.”
    “Well, then, Kaitlin,” Rena said, stepping forward with a testy come-hither gesture of her hand to urge the vampires closer. “Try not to whine. Vamps like that entirely too much.”
    There was no time to change her mind about staying. Kaitlin had never seen anything as terrifying as the things that broke through the dark. The night of her attack, she hadn’t seen her assailant up close. The pain had sealed her eyes closed.
    These creatures were gruesome. Terrifyingly morbid. Their skin was an unhealthy, colorless white. Dark circles ringed black eyes, giving the impression there were no eyes at all, and only deep, empty sockets. They moved like ghosts, hardly touching the ground, their mouths wide-open. They made clicking noises by snapping their fangs together.
    Second only to the shock of seeing a vampire was the surprise of watching four werewolves form a line to welcome the creatures. Tall, feral and so visibly alive that Kaitlin’s skin buzzed with contagious, keyed-up energy, Michael and his pack stood against the oncoming tide of bloodsuckers like superheroes, with Michael, their Alpha in human form, standing at the forefront.
    In place of Rena’s wooden stake and Cade’s intimidating bulk, Michael sported a set of long, curved claws—the only real visual evidence that the group facing the vampires wasn’t entirely human, either.
    There was going to be a fight here, too, and she had to either run away or get with the program. With monsters all around, getting with the program seemed the better option. So Kaitlin didn’t leave the Weres to handle a fight that was also partially hers. She stood her ground a few steps behind the others with her hands fisted and her stance wide, willing to defend herself this time if she had to.
    Inwardly, her new mantra became “If you come at me, I hope to God I can move my feet.”

Chapter 8
    M ichael fought a dark blur, wielding his claws with enough speed and strength to take down two bloodsuckers before the whole fight really got going. Rena toyed with her vampire, faking slashes, feigning to be caught, before finally rallying with a vicious thrust of her wooden stake that struck true and reduced the vamp to ash.
    The vampires were fast, but the Weres, even in human form, were stronger. Cade had a bloodsucker on the ground, with both hands around a brittle, bony neck that was ripe for snapping. Devlin fought like a demon with a steel blade he was able to handle only because its hilt was carved out of bone.
    Because Weres caved physically to the silvery lure of moonlight but could not touch certain metals in any other form, the glint of Devlin’s knife sent shudders through Michael, who had always secretly supposed Devlin actually had a little demon somewhere in his background. Pict ancestors, maybe. Those Celtic blue-faced guys.
    He rushed to Devlin and tossed a vamp aside, besting it by twenty pounds of hyper-animated Were muscle. He and his pack had fought vampires multiple times—many of those encounters lately—and knew what it took to eliminate the young ones. But he was concerned. Something was happening in this city, something that had kicked off a new flood of monsters.