Pride to Pack (The Mount Roxby Series) (32 page)

EXCERPT

Please turn the page for an excerpt of

Forever, Young and Beautiful
, book 2 of The Mount Roxby Series.

Coming soon

7. BLACKNESS DESCENDS

Ruby

I’ve seen unspeakable things in my life, considering I’m only seventeen years old. You wouldn’t think I would’ve had much chance at seeing such things. But havin
g an alpha werewolf for a brother will definitely alter those chances.

**
*

We walk out the movies giggling at how I managed to trip up the stairs and face plant on the floor, while dashing back from a bathroom break. I can never get through movie without having to dash to the bathroom. I blame the cola.

"Ruby. One second… you were there, the next… you were gone,” Bel manages to spit out between fits of laughter. "I thought you'd turned vamp or gained a druid’s power of teleporting in and out whenever and wherever they want. Until I heard the grunt as you got up,” The laughter starts again.

"I wish that was the case!" I say, hating the embarrassed feeling I have. I can’t help but wish I was a werewolf like Bel. She is so graceful and has such good instincts she would never have fallen so stupidly. It isn’t the first time I have found myself wishing I was werewolf. With two werewolf brothers, I have often wished I wasn’t the one who was the human of the family. The ugly duckling.

“I better get home before Theo sends someone after me,” I say. “He’s more like a prison guard than a brother,” I add.

“He just worries about you. You’re a fragile
human; give him a little slack, hey? Tell him, I’ll be home soon. I love the fact that I’ve moved in with him, but I hate this packing business,” Bel says, hugging me goodbye. I watch as she dematerialises before my eyes. That druid blood she recently discovered she has comes in pretty handy at times.

Having parked my car at the other end of the main road means I have a good ten minute walk ahead of me. Normally that would be fine but we had just watched a horror movie about vampires. You would think knowing vampires are real would make movies about them laughable but it's because I know they are real that it scares me.

I start walking at a fast pace, hearing nothing but the click clack of my heels on the pavement.

Click clack...

Click clack...

Click clack...

The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end and a shiver runs down my back.

I freeze on the spot and look around having no idea what I expect to see. I don't have the sense of smell a werewolf has or the hearing of a vampire, but I do have gut instinct of a human and mine is speaking to me right now - telling me to get the hell out of there. I do just that.

I run across the road not even looking for passing traffic. Luckily it’s clear.

Once my feet touch the pavement, I notice all the feeling of worry has gone. I look around again and could have slapped myself upside the head. I’d been so di
stracted that I hadn't noticed during our giggles we had crossed the road and ended up outside Misty's, a bar that caters only for Supes. It's owned by a witch who puts wards on it that scare the bejesus out of humans, so they don't, won't, can't enter. It's impossible. What if a Supe carried them over the threshold kicking and screaming? I hear you ask. A human’s heart would just stop. Dead. Misty has been known to drop it enough that a human could be carried in but only for a few special people.

I start walking again laughing at my stupidity, letting a silly horror movie distract me enough to not notice Misty's. I know my car wasn't far up the road. Another five minutes at the most. I start listening to the click clack of my heels again.

Click clack....

Click clack....

Click click clack clack.

I hear double footsteps in quick succession. Knowing I’m not walking fast enough to warrant that means only one thing - someone is following me.

"You might as well come out. I know you’re there." I speak into the darkness, not bothering to raise my voice knowing which ever wolf my brother has sent would have no trouble hearing me even if I whispered. But I get no response.

I stop and turn to face behind me to where they must be hiding in a shadow or eave of a building because I can't see anyone, but I speak up anyway.

"I won't tell Theo that you weren't covert enough." Werewolves can move without being heard. This one was obviously being sloppy for a human to have heard them following me.

I still get no response so I give up and turn around starting for my car. I can see it across the road, when I’m suddenly grabbed from behind. An arm around my waist, the other hand over my mouth mutes my screams. The person holding me drags me into a dark alley between the shops.

I’m pinned against the wall face first. All I can see is the bare red bricks on the wall.

The hand over my mouth pulls my head to a side stretching my neck out, as the arm around my waist disappears.

I wriggle to get free but I’m still pinned in place by the body behind me, as hard and strong as the wall in front. I feel the hand that had been around my waist brush my long blonde curls from my neck. He strokes over my pulse with his fingers.

It’s then that I realise I’m not just trapped by a
psycho; I’m trapped by a vampire.

That recognition hits a second before the fingers disappear and sharp fangs pierce my neck. The pain’s horrendous. I can feel my heart beat rise with fear.

I bite down hard on the hand over my mouth trying to distract the vampire at my neck. I try to fight with my body, but I don't have the room to move. The only thing I’m succeeding in is raising my pulse therefore giving the vampire a faster and easier meal.

My mind starts to become sluggish, listening to the vampire moan as he sucks my veins dry makes me push the fog back and try to think of a way out of this. If I don't do something quick I won't survive this.

If I was a werewolf, I'd have the strength to get away
, is the last coherent thought that runs through my mind, before blackness descends.