Ripper (13 page)

“Run, Kelsey,” Gray commanded as he started firing into the nearest wolf. The wolf’s body bucked with the impact of the large caliber bullet. He slammed into the brick wall across from us and his body slumped down with a whine.

Ignoring Gray’s orders, I selected a smaller brown wolf, or rather he selected me because he roared toward me at a breakneck speed. I aimed and fired and managed to hit the wolf right between the eyes. I was proud of myself for staying cool and accurate under pressure, and as the wolf’s head whipped back, I opened my mouth to make a crack to Gray about splinters working pretty well when you lodge them in someone’s brain. Yes, I was about to point out Gray’s mistake in underestimating my little no-silver-bullets .38 Special when the brown wolf got back up and growled my way. He seemed more annoyed than dead, so maybe the time had come to follow orders. Gray wanted me to get help. He was a Texas Ranger after all. He probably knew what he was doing.

“Kelsey, I am fucking serious,” Gray growled as he fired his pistol into the throng of wolves coming for him. They were starting to surround him. “Get your ass out of here. Get back in the restaurant and call the Dallas PD for some backup or we’re going to die out here. Move it!”

He kicked out at the black wolf running for him. His booted foot connected with the wolf’s jaw, and the sound cracked through the air as it broke. Gray moved with a fluid grace that spoke of long training sessions and an innate ability to fight. I started to back up because I didn’t have any real training in this type of confrontation at all. I avoided it and I would only end up being someone Gray had to save. As he was twisting to get another shot off, I saw that his eyes were changing. They were a deep purple, but hints of red were starting to form.

“Please, Kelsey,” he practically begged and I realized that he really needed to change in order to properly fight, and he didn’t want me to see him that way. He would rather lose than allow me to see that part of him. I backed up, hating the fact that I was going to leave him, but I didn’t see what else I could do. I couldn’t physically fight off twenty wolves. I glanced around and wondered if I had miscalculated. There were so many.

“I’ll make the call,” I shouted over the howls, growls, and moans of pain. “You hold on.”

I turned, sick at my stomach because they were so ferocious. Even as I rushed out of the alley, I still saw the image of Gray in the middle of all those teeth and claws and I started to run. The sooner I heard those sirens coming, the faster I could get back to Gray. He said he had all the strength of a demon. I had to hope he healed like one, too. I had to hope that without me around, he would give in and change and get some fangs and claws of his own. My mind was racing with all those thoughts so it took me a moment to register the fact that my path was blocked.

I stopped on a dime and just avoided falling on my ass as I backed away from the men walking toward me. I dropped my gun, but then it had proven fairly useless, so I left it as I tried to back away from the men coming at me. They weren’t tourists out for a late-night stroll. The two men walking with purpose toward me were werewolves. They hadn’t fully changed yet, but then they needed opposable thumbs to drag me back to the fight. There were two of them, one dark haired and the other a blond with icy eyes. He strode forward, fully confident in his ability to handle me.

“You’re not going anywhere, honey,” the blond said with a little smile. He had almost platinum hair and it curled, making him look a bit angelic in the face. His hands were already sharp claws, those icy eyes predatory. He might have been good-looking if he didn’t seem like he was going to kill me at any moment.

My heart pounded. They pressed in, herding me back toward the alley. There was nowhere else to go. If I ran they would catch me and then I wouldn’t be any good for Gray. I turned and called out for Gray, and then I didn’t care about who was behind me. Big, strong Gray was being held down by four wolves who had taken their human forms again. They pinned him, each with one of his limbs in their claws. Blood welled up from where those vicious claws sank in. He struggled, trying to buck them off, but a fifth wolf walked up, changing in mid stride from a big gray wolf on four feet to a bulky man on two powerful legs in the blink of an eye.

He looked straight at me as though he wanted to communicate something. He dropped to one knee and took Gray’s neck in his powerful hands. The threat was right there, unmistakable. He would twist Gray’s neck until the spinal column snapped, and there was no coming back from that no matter how good his healing powers were. It was a neat, bloodless form of decapitation.

“Kelsey!” Gray fought harder as he realized I wasn’t where he’d hoped I would be. He shouted at the men holding him down. “You leave her out of this.”

I got my glimpse of his fangs as he snarled at his captors. Stark white and curved slightly inward, those fangs were substantial. They weren’t meant for a feeding. They were meant to tear and destroy. I could see he desperately wanted to use those fangs on his captors, but there were too many of them. He couldn’t get a decent position to fight. He was completely helpless and my heart ached to see him that way.

“Please,” he said when he realized he couldn’t win. I could tell he was used to the fangs in his mouth because they didn’t change the way he spoke at all. His voice was still deep and solid. “She’s a human. She can’t hurt you. Let her go and I’ll do whatever you want me to do.”

“Calm down, demon.” The blond seemed to be the only one talking. He never glanced down at Gray. He only seemed to have eyes for me. “This isn’t about you. It’s always been about her, and we seriously doubt she’s just a human.”

I didn’t have time to ponder the wolf’s statement because I found myself in the center of the alley and the wolves were prowling. Their big tails twitched around me and harsh growls filled the space. Those guttural growls reverberated off the walls until they filled my whole world.

I turned and then twisted again, my panicked movements forming a circle because I didn’t want to lose track of them, didn’t want them attacking my back. The task became impossible. I couldn’t keep them all in my sights. They were everywhere and I saw no way out.

Before that moment when the wolves started to circle me, I would have told anyone who asked that I would welcome a chance like this. Death wish. My brothers always said the words with a shake of their heads. I’d been looking for it for a long time and now that it was here, all I could think about was Gray. I’d just met him and I wouldn’t be able to see if it could work. I knew deep down that it probably wouldn’t, but I wanted that shot to see if I could be happy with him even for a little while. I was so pissed off that chance was being taken away from me, but I didn’t see a way out. Maybe this was all for the best since I knew why they were here. My past had finally caught up to me.

I couldn’t fight them all off.

“You can fight them,” a voice whispered in my head. It was oddly familiar and it came from deep in my brain. It wasn’t my subconscious. My subconscious voice was definitely more feminine and sarcastic than the deeply masculine authority speaking in my brain. This was an outside influence. It had to be whoever was watching. The wolves prowled around, but I stopped and looked at the building behind me. It was the only one with a view to where I stood, the only place from which to watch this complete clusterfuck of a scene play out.

I saw nothing. Not even a shadow.

“Calm down and open your senses,” the voice commanded. So familiar. Through the haze of my fear, I tried to place it. It was like trying to remember some character actor you see in movies all the time but never know the name.

“Kelsey, you can do this,” the voice said calmly. “They’re just wolves. They’re not even alphas. You can handle them. You simply have to stop fighting your instincts.”

“I don’t have any fucking instincts!” I shouted to the faceless idiot in my head. Who gave a damn that they weren’t alphas? They outweighed me each by seventy pounds at minimum, and I didn’t even have my crappy firearm any more.

But you do
, something said and this little voice was all me.
You have those instincts. Don’t you remember that day? Your father didn’t run away because he was tired of his family. He ran because he was afraid, Kelsey. He was afraid of you. After what you did, can you blame him?

My hands shook as the wolves moved closer. This was why I hid. This was why I had stayed away from this world for ten years. This was why I ruthlessly controlled my temper with alcohol and sarcasm and pushing away anyone who might challenge me. I avoided confrontation and remained calm at all times to avoid that beast that always seemed so close to the surface. There was nowhere to run. I felt something build in me. It started in my gut and radiated until it filled me.

“Yes, Kelsey,” the voice in my head said. I could practically feel his satisfaction. “Don’t fight your instincts. Let it flow.”

Abruptly I realized I didn’t want that son of a bitch in my head and I shoved him out. I felt his surprise as I threw down a wall between us and he couldn’t talk to me anymore. I didn’t need the peanut gallery telling me how to fight.

I knew how to fight.

I crouched down and let that instinct flow over me like a warm, angry blanket. I’d denied it so long that it was a drug invading my veins. It burned through me and I felt a little high. It felt good to not deny it any longer. I closed my eyes and knew where every wolf was and exactly how he would try to strike me. I knew how I would react. I saw the moves in my head and knew I could and would win. This wasn’t the instinct that told me when I wasn’t alone or the one that let me know when someone was lying.

This instinct was base and primal. It told me to kill.

The first wolf struck, seeming to know that I was ready to play. I kicked out, using my position to shove up and catch him under his snout. Though I’d never fought a wolf like this, I knew where to hit him and how much pressure to apply. When he went down, I crushed his jaw with a strong, downward kick, feeling it break against my foot. He might be able to heal that, but it would take a while. He wouldn’t be any good for the rest of this fight. He was down and that was good enough. I could finish him off later, when it was quiet and I had the time to do it right.

I dodged the two wolves who attacked next. I rolled to the left and hit the side of the brick wall. Something cold hit my hand and I found a nice long piece of rebar someone had conveniently left behind for me. It was slender but strong and would work beautifully if enough pressure was applied. I bounced up and landed on my feet, twirling my newfound weapon as the wolves tried to surround me again. I let them. A neat little circle would make them easier to kill, that dark voice that was all mine said.

When the circle tightened, I swung the metal staff around and brought it down on the wolf in front of me as I kicked out and caught the one behind me. They both went down and I continued the successful move as I turned and took them down two by two, my blood pumping in a satisfying way it never had before. I didn’t think. I acted and reacted, my body a tool of the instincts riding me. I brought the rebar down on the last wolf and for good measure, I stood over that big black canine and shoved the rebar through his torso. I did it with a vicious sort of glee, enjoying the sounds and the way the blood spurted out of the wound I caused.

Maybe Gray should be more afraid of me than I was of him. Gray wasn’t the only one with pieces of himself he wanted to hide.

That was when I knew something was distinctly wrong with this whole scenario. The four men holding Gray were the problem. They held him down, but their faces were expressionless. It didn’t make sense. There should have been something in their eyes; rage, blood lust, anything. Packs are close-knit. I’d killed most of their pack, but they did their jobs with blank looks and bland eyes.

Definitely wrong. I looked down at the wolf at my feet with rebar sticking out of his chest. He lay there and while everything seemed right on the surface, something was off. I pulled the rebar out and it felt weird. It came out too easily. It slid out like a hot knife cutting through butter, but this was flesh. I should have had to use force to get that weapon back out.

There was another roar from the far side of the alley. A second wave had gathered. Another ten wolves moved toward me, but I wasn’t buying it.

I held the bloody rebar at my side and relaxed, letting the night air rush across my senses. It told me everything I needed to know. No smell. I couldn’t smell blood or wolves or anything but the faintest whiff of whatever aftershave Gray used.

The wolves were big, their claws enormous, and yet they didn’t scratch along the concrete. I could only hear Gray breathing and then yelling.

“Kelsey! Look out!”

I opened my eyes and there was a huge brown wolf leaping through the air to attack me. His mouth was open and it was full of snapping, snarling teeth, waiting to rip me apart. His claws were long and they would sink into my flesh as he started to eat me. Or they would if he was real.

The wolf attacked and I walked straight through the illusion.

“Shit.” I heard a new voice curse from the back of the alley. Now we were getting somewhere. Whoever was pulling the strings knew I wasn’t going to play anymore.

Gray still struggled hard against his illusionary captors. Whoever was pulling this magic was damn good. Gray really believed they were stronger than him. He held his own body in a very awkward position, with all four limbs off the ground because he truly believed there were men restraining him.

“It’s an illusion, babe,” I said matter of factly. “You can get up.”

He fought his captors, still captured by the magic. He stared at the men holding him, pulling his own limbs in a desperate attempt to get away. “What are you talking about? Kelsey, they’re going to get you. Please!”

Another two wolves were attacking, but I could see how insubstantial they were. As they bore down, I swiped a hand through them and they disappeared like a wisp of a cloud.