It Begins With a Rogue's Bite (19 page)

He stretched his hands out to hold Thomas’s hand on the right and another Council member’s on the left. “Everyone, hold hands, please”

Thomas took Shane’s hand, and Shane took Sinor’s, and so on until everyone at the oblong table had joined hands.

“Shane, Thomas, close your eyes, relax, and focus on the female while we will channel our powers through you,” Thorak advised in a soothing voice.

Thomas did as he said, and silence blanketed the room. Only the exhale of breaths could be heard. He thought of Cheryl, her beautiful face and smile. Of course, he didn’t think of her gorgeous sensual body because he had no freaking idea what exactly channeling entailed. Did the Voyeurs actually see their thoughts? If yes, then all naughty, naked images of Cheryl were off limits.

He relaxed his shoulders and his body, resting motionlessly. A wave of calming energy traveled from Thorak’s hand into his hand, up his arm, shoulder, over to the other shoulder, arm, then hand. It acted like a chain of energy that channeled through him. Ah, so this was what channeling meant. He let it continue to travel through him, not moving, until an image came upon him. He saw a man standing beside Cheryl’s bed. He had a deep sneer.

Thomas couldn’t hear what he was saying to her, but he couldn’t miss the look of utter terror on Cheryl’s face as she tried to push away from him on the bed.

He had a needle in his hands and grabbed her arm, trying to inject whatever was in the syringe.

Forgetting Thorak’s instructions, Thomas jumped up, letting go of Thorak and Shane’s hand, thus breaking the channel.

Shane stood on his feet, too, and spoke to Thorak. “Is that happening to Cheryl right now?”

Thorak shook his head. “It was a vision of the future, so go now before it’s too late. We’ll contact The Haven as well to tell them to be on the lookout for—”

Neither Shane nor Thomas waited for Thorak to finish. They darted out of the room as fast as they could. Once they exited the building, they didn’t head for their car. The Haven wasn’t that far off and taking the shortcut through the woods as werewolves would be faster.

They transformed into beasts. Thomas’s limbs extended, bending, deforming, his jaw stretched, bones cracked and realigned while hair grew from under his flesh, rising to the surface to cover his body.

Once their transformation was complete, they darted through the woods at the fastest speed their new bodies allowed.

Thomas’s heart pounded with panic as he thought of Cheryl. Why would this be happening to her? It seemed that a black cloud had formed over her and refused to dissipate. Who was the stranger and why did he want to harm Cheryl?

Too many questions and no answers. To hell with thinking. Right now he needed to focus on one thing and one thing alone—run as fast as he could and try to save the woman he loved.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Sleep refused to come. Even though her body and mind screamed for it, it didn’t answer. Instead, Cheryl stared at the ceiling while distracting ideas fluttered in her mind, thoughts of Shane and Thomas and the feelings they stirred in her.

When she heard the knock at the door, the first thing that came to mind was that they had returned. Even though they’d been gone for less than an hour, she missed them. When a hospital worker peeked in, disappointment smothered her.

“Yes?” she asked.

“Hi, Miss Brete. I’m sorry if I woke you.” He walked in, wearing a slight smile. He had black hair, moustache, and beard, and big, brown-framed glasses.

She shook her head. “No, I wasn’t sleeping. You’ve come for my hormone injection?”

He nodded but didn’t move from the door and stared at her intensely. A cold chill came over her. She’d recognize those eyes anywhere.

“Gary!”

Locking the door, he walked up to her bed. “Miss me, baby?”

“What are you doing here?” She jerked up to a sitting position.

“Came to see how you were doing.” He gazed at her casted ankle. “It hasn’t healed yet. How about your shoulder?”

“How did you know—” Realization hit her full force. “Oh, my God! You. You were the werewolf.”

He nodded and said sarcastically, “You picked up on that quick.”

She pushed herself to the back of the bed as far as she could go. “Why?”

“You need to ask?” He sneered. “Did you honestly think you could leave me and get away with it? No, baby. It doesn’t work like that.”

He half-laughed. “It took me a while to get my revenge since I was kind of busy. Getting bitten by a werewolf turns your world upside down, you know. Oh, wait, yes, you do.” He pointed with his chin. “So how do you like it, baby?”

She didn’t say anything. Fear held her as its captive audience. She just stared at him while her heart raced in fear and she perspired a cold sweat.

“What, cat got your tongue?” He reached into his shirt pocket and retrieved a syringe. “Good. How about we keep it that way permanently?”

He pulled off the cap and hit the needle, making some of the liquid squirt out. He leaned in until he was a few inches away from her face. “I’m going to finish what I started that night in the woods.”

She screamed and attempted to break free of his hold, but his grip was too strong. “Don’t fight it, baby. It’s time you pay for what you did.”

She tried to bite him when he slapped her face hard. Stars fluttered behind her eyes, and she almost passed out. He put his knee on her chest and arm, pinning her down. Then he grabbed her other arm, bringing the needle close.

Bleak thoughts stilled time and space as she stared at the syringe poised so close to her arm and waited for the deadly needle to puncture her skin.

Chapter Twenty-Four

The minute they stepped foot in The Haven, the stench of him hit Shane’s nostrils. He was here. The werewolf who attacked Cheryl had slipped through The Haven’s security.

“You smell him, too?” Thomas asked.

Shane nodded, and they darted to the front desk. The security guard on duty glanced at them with a curious look as they approached.

“How many men do you have guarding Miss Brete’s room?” Shane asked abruptly.

A perplexed look overcame the guard’s face. “Miss Brete? Why would we have guards looking after her?”

Panic rose in him as he squinted. “No one from the Council called here to warn you that Miss Brete’s life was in danger?”

“No, we got no call.”

Without wasting any more time, Shane and Thomas darted for the elevator. Thomas hollered back at the guard while he ran. “Close off all entries and exits and check out every floor. There’s a Rogue werewolf who got in, and he’s after Miss Brete.”

Once the elevator doors closed, the Rogue’s scent stung Shane’s nose. “Damn, he was in here.”

Thomas nodded and gazed at Shane. “Let’s hope he hasn’t had enough time to find out what floor or room she’s in.”

“Yeah. If he lays one finger on her, I’ll kill him.” Fury boiled in his veins and he clenched his fists, staring at the floor numbers light up as the elevator made its slow ascent.

“Damn, can’t it go any faster?” Thomas cursed and remained silent for a minute, then asked, “Why didn’t they call? They said they would?”

Shane shook his head. “Maybe the message never got through.”

“Then that means there are Rogue werewolves among us.”

“Yeah. I guess things are a lot worse than what the Council perceives.” Shane again gazed at the numbers lighting above them. They only passed the fourth floor. Hell, this was taking forever.

Once they got to the eighth floor and the doors opened, a vile stench of acid, the same acrid smell he smelled the night Cheryl was first attacked, seeped into his nostrils. “Shit!” he shouted and ran frantically to her room. The Rogue’s scent got more potent with every step he came closer.

Were they too late? No, no, they couldn’t lose her now that they found her.

Shane got to her door first and tried opening it, but it was locked. Looking through the small door window, he saw the Rogue werewolf had her pinned down.

“Help me break this down, Thomas,” he shouted.

After a simultaneous kick from Shane and Thomas, the door pushed open, hanging on broken hinges. The Rogue let go of her arm and glared at them in surprise. It didn’t take him long to react once the shock disappeared from his eyes, and he changed into a werewolf.

He and Thomas hadn’t waited to completely transform when they pounced on him. They began to transform in mid flight and had completely changed when they landed on him.

Fighting, they dragged him out of the room as far away from Cheryl as possible. The beast within Shane was strong, stronger than ever before. Hate and revenge spurred the wild spirit on. With rage surging in his werewolf blood, Shane set the creature free to kill.

* * * *

Shane heard her crying as they approached. His heart hurt. So did his leg where the Rogue bit him, but compared to Thomas, he didn’t have it so bad. Thomas’s arm and shoulder had bleeding wounds. Even a small chunk of flesh had been torn out of his shoulder.

When she saw them come in, she jumped out of the bed, wobbling on her good foot, as she came toward them. “You’re hurt.”

Shane took her in his arms, smelling the strawberry-scent in her hair. Mmm, she smelled nice. “Don’t worry. They’re just flesh wounds.”

She looked at Thomas and touched his face in sympathy. “No, they aren’t.”

She wobbled back to her bed to push the button for a nurse to come. Shane limped to her and took her in his arms again. “There are nurses already outside waiting. We wanted to come inside alone to see how you were first.”

He needed to hold her, hear her heart beating close to his chest to make sure she was alive and he wasn’t dreaming.

When he and Thomas had been running like manic werewolves through the woods to get to her, all he could think of was that he couldn’t lose her. He loved her and would put his life on the line so that she’d be all right.

She held him, kissing him on his cut lip. It stung, but he didn’t care. She smiled at him as Thomas came over to hug her from behind.

Turning to look at Thomas, she said, “When I saw you turn into werewolves and fight him, I was so scared.”

“We’re sorry you had to see that,” Thomas replied.

“No, I wasn’t scared about the change. I was scared for you. I was scared I would lose you both.”

Shane said, “Cheryl, as you can see, we’re okay. And we’re not going anywhere. We love you, and if you’ll let us, we want to be with you always.”

Tears rimmed in her eyes as she nodded. “Yes, I—” Her words were cut off when two nurses and the guard from the lobby came in.

“You all right?” the guard asked him.

Shane nodded. “The body is in the hallway near the stairs.”

“Yeah, I saw it. They’re taking care of it now.”

From what Shane made out, one of the nurses had paged the nurses’ desk asking for help, while the other went to the supply cabinet to get antiseptic to clean their wounds.

Shane stared at Cheryl as she stared at him. Even though she didn’t have time to finish what she started to say, he knew what she meant. She loved them, too.

Right at that moment, he felt damn happy he and Thomas were Voyeurs, because through their visionary gift, they’d finally found true happiness.