Second Skin (Skinned) (16 page)

Such as it was.

Paige drove to Conundrum in silence. None of us felt like talking or listening to music. I had that calm-before-the-storm feeling again. I sat upright in the passenger seat. On alert.

The streets were busy. Way more than usual, but people were preparing for Halloween. Not that Redgrave would have much festivity. The traditional trick-or-treating part of Halloween with kids going door to door was setup to take place between four and seven. After that, the high school had a few token hours for the Harvest Moon dance, and then it was lights out. All kids under eighteen had to be home before curfew. Or else.

Talk about controlled madness. The people of Redgrave thought Police Chief Gervais had established the curfew to keep their children safe and protected in their homes. Little did they know it was also his way of making our hunting grounds that much more difficult to patrol.

Paige tucked the hatchback into a narrow parking space on the street outside the café. Lots of people were standing about, but there wasn’t much activity around Conundrum. The wide windows were dark.

A closed sign hung on the interior doorknob.

Weird.

Brit met my baffled frown with one of her own.

Paige pulled on the handle. Bells clanged from the charms hanging at the top of the locked door as it shook in the doorframe.

Locked. At the busiest time besides lunch.

The hairs on my neck trembled.

Gertrude let out an ear-splitting whine. The three of us jumped. Paige put a hand to her heart. Brit fumbled for the chip bracket, putting it to Gertrude’s mouth, essentially feeding her. The doll made cooing sounds.

Even weirder.

“Let’s go around back,” I said. I led the way down a narrow strip between Conundrum and the next shop. The memory of Kate’s red-eyed, toothy friends lingered. Both Brit and I moved with much more caution than Paige, our steps controlled, our gazes sweeping the alley. Paige tromped through the snow with the dainty tread of Bigfoot during mating season.

“I don’t know why you guys keep harping about this spell,” she said, arms swinging by her sides. “So what if I’m a bit different? You can’t tell me you don’t like me this way.
I
like me this way.”

We reached the alley. The two-story buildings blocked out the fading sun, lending an instant creepfactor. I had a flash of those little cloaked guys with their red eyes and serrated teeth. The buildings closed in, narrowing the world to three girls in an alley now alive with negative associations and a serious lack of warm fuzzies.

“This is exactly why I didn’t tell you about Wade sooner,” Paige continued. “I knew you’d kill the magic of it all.”

“Wade?” I said. Brit and I spun to face Paige at the mention of the vamp/ witch who was never far from my thoughts. “He’s the guy you’ve been texting?”

So much for Kate’s spell doing anything it was supposed to, like making Paige forget she’d even met Wade.

“See!” Paige slapped her hands on her thighs. “I knew you’d react like that. So what if I have a guy who’s interested in me? Wants to know what I’m doing? How we’re dealing with the night mare?” She glared at us. “He’s concerned about me, and I kind of like that in a guy. You should know, you both have the big brawny Delacroix boys looking out for you.”

Gertrude slipped from Brit’s loosened grip and fell to the snow.

“Shit,” Brit said, scooping her up and dusting her off. “Now look what you’ve done.”

“What I’ve done?” Paige said. “Why is all about me?”

“I don’t know, Paige,” I said. “Why don’t you tell us? Why has

Wade been in contact with you? Do you know where he is?”

Paige looked at me, considering. “He told me not to tell you. That you’d do something stupid.”

I grabbed my cousin by the coat collar and backed her against the café’s brick wall, lifting her up to the tips of her toes. Because I was working against the urge to give in and let my mouth fill with fangs, my words came out guttural and broken. “Where is he? Tell me now, or I’ll beat it out of you.” The backs of my hands began to tingle. Dark hairs sprouted and crept along my fingers, my nails lengthened.

“Okay, okay.” Paige held up her hands as if I’d pulled a gun on her. But I’d done worse, I’d let her see a bit of the wolf in me. “He asked about you at first. What you guys were up to. If you had a plan to fight the night mare.”

I shoved Paige away and sucked in the cool air, fighting for control, quick to tuck my hands inside my coat pocket until they returned to normal.

“He knows about that?” Brit said.

“I told him some things, and others he seemed to already know. But today he sent me a text, saying he needed me to get him. That he’d changed his mind and wanted out. He said some witch had him under lock and key.”

The mint I’d scented in the café.

The pull to descend the basement stairs. Kate’d had Wade all this time?

She was dead meat.

A Good Little Scream Queen

I’d trusted a witch.

When did I get so stupid?

I bolted for the café’s back door, pounding on the solid wood. I let my wolf surface once more, carving into the wood with the two-inch-long claws that sprouted from my fingers.

Kate had known where Wade was this whole time. She’d trapped him in her basement. Why? She’d always been a bit of a Wade supporter, had never outright accused him of being evil the way the Delacroix had. I’d assumed Wade’s mother being a witch had earned him some sympathy with her.

He changed his mind?
What did that mean? That he’d asked

Kate to truss him up and keep him out of commission? For a guy with a master plan to destroy his father, he’d sure made some foolish decisions.

“Kate, open up right now or I swear by all that’s unholy, I’ll rip this place to pieces.”

“I’ll huff and I’ll puff,” Paige sing-songed.

My gaze pinned her to the wall. “Don’t. I don’t want to hear your voice. I don’t even want to hear you breathing.” I glared at her for a long moment. A rush of power had me clenching my fists, my arms shaking with the effort to tamp down my wolf. It would be so easy. One more word, a second more of her direct stare, and I’d charge.

Paige bowed her head and looked away. The correct response, whether she knew the sign of submission in the wolven world or not. My wolf retreated, leaving me to deal with a different kind of rush, one that had little to do with power and everything to do with human emotions. Mainly the overwhelming sting of Wade’s betrayal. He had sent me a few mental messages, had woken me from my dream when my wolf threatened to attack Marie, and yet our communication had hardly been a two-way street. He hadn’t let me in. He’d shut me out.

But not Paige.

If he’d wanted details about our plans, why go through her? Why not just directly mind-link with me and snag the info he needed? He’d told Paige he needed her. To feed upon? After he’d sworn he’d never use her like that again? He knew how susceptible Paige was to his thrall. Likely the reason he’d been able to get through to her despite Kate’s spell.

Brit got on her cell, gathering the troops, calling Matt and Alec in to take care of the big bad wolf camped out on Kate’s doorstep. Then I thought of how evasive the entire crew had been about Wade’s disappearance.

The only one with the power to do that was Kate. We’d asked her to do the spell on Paige, but what was to stop them from asking her to do the same about Wade? No one brought up his name. Not the crew, not the teachers, not the students. It was as if Wade, the golden boy of Redgrave High, had been wiped from their minds.

Paige and I were the only ones who’d worried about him when he’d vanished after Logan’s attack. We were the only ones who believed he was on our side.

What if the crew had made this call without me?

Brit glanced up, her eyes narrowing on the sudden cloud cover.

“Eryn,” she warned.

I pivoted on one foot. At the end of the alley, wind collected a fine mist of glittering snow, swirling it into the air like a six-foot high snow cone. The momentary blurring I experienced as my wolven vision kicked in took me off guard. I blinked to focus, ignoring the intense color saturation and sharp edges of the world that I usually paused to admire. My wolf didn’t see limited colors as with most canines. When engaged this way, my vision was an explosion of color, enhanced lines, and clarity—looking at life through the pages of a graphic novel.

Wolfy vision enabled me to see beyond the limits of human sight. Though Brit was squinting at the swirling snow with distrust, I could see what was coming at us. A shiver rushed up my spine, setting me on edge like a cat with its fur rubbed the wrong way.

Something moved within the mist. It came closer, gliding with purpose. Determined. Its true shape shielded by the whipping wind. I zoomed in on the vague outline of broad shoulders, dark hair, and long black leather coat dusting the ground.

Wade
?

I sucked in a breath.
No, not Wade.

My pulse pounded in my chest. The snow began to settle, leaving only the imposing form of Logan Gervais, Redgrave’s chief of police and master vampire. What was he coming after us for? We had a deal. He’d leave us alone as long as I was tracking down my father’s work.

But I wasn’t, was I? The thought stabbed at me. If I’d put everyone at risk because I feared digging at my parents’ trail in case I found something I didn’t want to face…

The smell of rotten eggs filled my nostrils. Not Logan’s usual toxic blend of deathmint. Ugh…a master vampire by any other conjuring didn’t smell sweet. Period. I let out a relieved breath. This was another of the night mare’s tricks. Deadly, yes, but without all the nasty ramifications had this really been Logan out for our blood.

Paige slid along the brick wall, preparing to flee the way we had come, to the main street via the path between buildings. I shot her a glare.

“Stay with us and you might make it out of this alive,” I said. Behind Paige, the door to Conundrum opened. Though it seemed to occur in slow mo, I did nothing to stop what happened. I could only stare, stunned at the hand and forearm that reached out and grabbed Paige’s coat. The flesh transformed the instant it left the darkness of the Conundrum interior. Smooth white skin blackened and puckered, the appearance of muscle and sinew drained away, shriveling to a dried husk over bone, until the hand that yanked Paige back into the café was that of a thousand-year-old mummy.

Brit bolted after Paige.

Logan’s mocking voice filled the alley. “Just you and me, kid? That’s the way I like it.”

I spun to face him, reaching for the hilt of my athame, but before I could brandish it, I was sucked into the café along with a small cloud of snow.

The solid door slammed on Logan’s fang-filled smile.

Brit, Paige, and I stood in the dim entry waiting for the wood to shatter on its hinges. Our chests rose and fell with the force of our panicked breaths. The door rattled and groaned. Then went still.

We froze as well.

Half a minute elapsed, and a whole lot of nothing happened. We pressed our ears against the surface, straining to hear what was happening on the other side, though my enhanced hearing had already told me the night mare version of Logan, the snow, and wind were no longer a threat.

I straightened first. The others gave a collective sigh and followed suit.

“Poor baby,” Brit said and grabbed her doll from Paige’s limp grasp. “First I drop you, and then you have to rely on Forgetfullocks for survival. I swear I’ll never abandon you again.”

“I don’t know which is creepier, the night mare, or you with that thing,” I said. I glanced beyond Paige. “Who brought you in here? Cleopatra?” At her blank look, I frowned. “You didn’t see anything when you got inside?”