Somehow the person who’d orchestrated this attack was using that link to try to gain control over Caroline and her wolf. If I could restrict it somehow and cut off the power source feeding the spell, it might be enough for Caroline’s wolf to destroy the collar on her own.
Before I could question the wisdom of fiddling with a pack link, I reached for the connection with my mind, smothering it.
There was a sucking sensation. The world around me spun, a complicated web of intersecting lines eclipsing my vision for a split second. Curious, I reached out and touched one. The closest in proximity to Caroline’s.
A spark ran from me to it, feeding along the line to its source and then several other connections branching off of it. It was like watching the path of lightning. Seemingly random and chaotic. Arcs splitting off the main vein to feed into branches of their own.
A howl ripped me from the inner world.
In the next second, something big and fast slammed into me, knocking me backwards. My head collided with the asphalt.
two
Stars shone in myvision—both in the metaphorical and physical sense—as I lay there blinking up at the night sky. A hundred and forty pound wolf crouched on my chest, staring down at me, her gaze wild with panic.
For the second time that night, I had the breath knocked out of me when the wolf used my abdomen as a launching pad.
“Bitch,” I gasped, rolling over onto my stomach to find Caroline’s wolf racing into the night. “Seriously?”
She was just going to leave me here? Not even a backwards glance to see if I was alright?
Some friend she was.
At least I’d dealt with the collar. Or I hoped I had. With things like this, it was always difficult to tell, and her abrupt abandonment meant I couldn’t check. Her gaze had been clear though. Panicked, too, but I’d seen Caroline in the wolf before she darted away.
Despite that, I couldn’t help the worry that crouched in my stomach. There was nothing I could do about it now though. Caroline was long gone. Even with my vampire speed, I wasn’t a match for a werewolf in their wolf form.
Nor could I exactly call her since her impromptu shift meant she’d abandoned her clothes and everything that was in her pockets. Including her cell phone.
Until she contacted me, she was on her own.
“Um.” The human’s tremulous voice issued from the car. “Can I move now?”
Leaving the question of Caroline and what had just happened alone, I pushed to my feet, dusting stray pieces of asphalt from the palms of my hands and my clothes. Dots of blood welled from where I’d scraped my skin against the ground. It was already in the process of healing around the debris.
That was going to be a real bitch later. There was nothing quite so awful as finding tiny pebbles and other detritus under the surface of your skin. Just rolling around. Like they’d found a new home and had settled in for the long haul.
Each piece would need to be cut out when I got home. Lovely.
The human peered out of the car as I stumbled over to the driver’s side. “Are you sure you don’t want to go after her?”
“What’s your name?” I asked in lieu of an answer.
I figured after everything that had happened this evening, I should know who I was compelling.
“Allan.”
“Alright, Allan. Here’s what you’re going to do. I want you to forget everything from the past few hours. Ever since stepping out of the grocery store.” The damage to his back bumper from where Caroline had crashed into it when she was in pain caught my eye. “Someone hit your car in the parking lot. You decided to take a drive to calm down. Now you’re going to go home and go to bed. Tomorrow when you wake up, you’re going to realizeyou’re missing something in your life. For the next month you’re going to be open to new experiences.”
Hopefully, my compulsion would give him an outlet for those desires while avoiding more dangerous pursuits. Like, for instance, volunteering to act as a chauffeur to the vampire who kidnapped you.
Allan’s eyes glazed over. A vagueness entering them that told me my compulsion was working.
I stepped back, watching as he started the car and drove away. At last, something that had gone according to plan.
“Well, that was certainly interesting,” the hunter drawled from the car he was leaning against. “I’ve never seen anyone as bad at tailing someone as you. Were you even trying to be covert?”
The piercing in Drake’s eyebrow twinkled at me as I turned. A merry taunt that rubbed in the fact that I’d allowed myself to be taken by surprise. By a hunter, no less. If this was a contest in dumb ways to die, I would have taken the gold.
