Frostbitten

Page 3

 
THREE BLOCKS LATER, I finally caught up with Reese on a rooftop. He'd climbed up the fire escape, probably thinking I wouldn't follow.
When I swung over the top, he broke into a run, heading for the opposite side, boots sliding on the gravel. When I realized he wasn't going to veer at the last second, I threw on the brakes, gravel crunching as I skidded to a stop.
"Okay," I called. "I'm not coming any closer. I just want to talk to you."
He was close enough to the edge to make my heart race. He slowly pivoted to face me.
Reese Williams, twenty years old, and recently emigrated from Australia. With broad shoulders, sun-streaked wavy blond hair and the remnants of a tan, he looked like the kind of kid who should be leading tour groups into the outback, all smiles and corny jokes. Only he wasn't joking or smiling now.
"My name is Elena-" I began.
"I know who you are," he said. "But where is he?"
"Not here, obviously." I gestured around me. "In two days, you haven't caught a whiff of any werewolf except me, which should be a sure sign that he's not around."
"So you're alone?" The sarcasm in his voice made that a statement. I was the only female werewolf. Obviously I needed protection, which must be why I'd taken refuge with the Pack and, for a mate, had chosen the Alpha's second-in-command-the baddest, craziest werewolf around.
"He's teaching," I said. " Georgia State University, this week."
His glower said he didn't appreciate my joke. I wasn't kidding-that bad and crazy werewolf also had a Ph.D. in anthropology and was currently lecturing at a symposium on cult worship in ancient Egypt. But there was no way Reese would believe that.
"Fine," I said. "You think he's been lurking in the shadows, out of sight and downwind for two days. Unobtrusive is one word that's never been applied to Clay but, sure, let's go with that theory. Unless he's learned to fly, though, the only way up is that ladder behind me, so you're going to see him coming. Now, let's take a minute and chat. The reason I've been chasing you for two days is that I want to talk to you about-"
" South Carolina."
"Right."
"I didn't kill those humans."
"I know."
He allowed himself two seconds of surprise, and in those two seconds, he looked like a kid on his first day away at college-lonely, confused and hoping he'd found someone to help. Then his face hardened again. He might be no older than a college student, but he wasn't that naive or that optimistic, not anymore.
I hurried on. "You emigrated last year and hooked up with a couple of morons named Liam Malloy and Ramon Santos. They promised to show you the ropes of werewolf life in America. Then the half-eaten bodies started showing up-"
"I didn't do it."
"No, they did, and they're blaming you for it. We know-"
He inched back toward the edge.
"Don't-" I began. "Just stop there. Better yet, take a step toward me."
"Am I making you nervous?"
I met his gaze. "Yes."
"A jumper would be a real mess to clean up, wouldn't it? Better to calm me down and get me into a nice stretch of forest for easy burial."
"That's not-" An exasperated sigh hissed through my teeth. "Fine. You're convinced I'm going to kill you. The only question, then, is-"
He stepped back… and plummeted.
I lunged so fast I nearly did a face plant in the gravel, scrabbling to get to the edge, heart in my throat, cursing myself for being so careless, so flippant-
Then I saw the second roof, two stories below, and Reese running across it.
Clay would have taken a dramatic flying leap. I felt the urge, but reminded myself I was the mother of two and would turn forty in a few months. Even if I had the body of a bionic thirty-year-old, I had responsibilities to my family, to my Alpha and, most important right now, to this dumbass kid who'd get killed if I broke my ankle and couldn't warn him about Liam and Ramon.
So I crouched on the edge, checked my trajectory and jumped carefully. I landed on my feet and took off after Reese. I was barely on the second rooftop before he was off it. It was a three-story drop this time, which was a bit much even for a twenty-year-old werewolf. The thump of a hard landing and a gasp of pain confirmed that.
I picked up speed, hoping I'd see him huddled below, hurt and unable to run. But the pavement was empty, as was the parking lot beyond. I caught a flash of movement in a recessed doorway, where he crouched, hidden in the shadows, waiting to ambush me. Good thing I hadn't pulled a Clay and charged headlong after my prey.
I walked to the adjoining edge, lowered myself over, then dropped. Twin shocks of pain blasted through my legs as I hit the asphalt. I was going to pay for that in the morning. For now, I rubbed it out, then snuck to the corner of the building.
The wind shifted and I caught a whiff of Reese, his scent heavy with fear. It wasn't me he should be afraid of, though, but his old traveling buddies.
Liam and Ramon had killed three humans in South Carolina and set up Reese to take the fall. Now they were hoping to find and kill him before I got his side of the story.
How was I so sure of this?
Because they'd done it before. Five years ago they'd befriended a twenty-three-year-old immigrant werewolf named Yuli Etxeberria. When evidence of man-killing pointed to Etxeberria, Clay had wanted to swoop in and grab him. I'd held back. I'd been suspicious, but not suspicious enough. Liam killed Etxeberria and mailed us his hand, as if expecting a commendation for taking care of this "man eater."
That wouldn't happen this time. I strode down the grassy strip between the building and the parking lot, as if I was scanning that lot, giving Reese the perfect ambush target.
When I reached the recessed doorway, I dove. Reese's shadow passed over me, pouncing and catching only air. I leapt up, grabbed the back of his jacket and threw him onto the grass.
He landed with a thud. He tried to roll out of it and bounce up swinging, but a twenty-year-old with a werewolf's strength and agility is like a twenty-year-old behind the wheel of a Lamborghini-all that power but not enough experience using it-and he fumbled the bounce back to his feet.
I tossed him face-first onto the grass again. This time he stayed where he landed.
"Where did we leave off?" I said. "Right. Liam and Ramon and their plot to end your existence."