Ouch.
I squinted to see where he was, but the sun glaring off the ice blackened the forest beyond. “I admit I was wrong and you were right, Camilla. I didn’t think Liam would come.”
You didn’t think I’d come?
I pressed my lips together, hunting the darkness for glowing yellow eyes.
“Since you’re here, Liam, kindly show yourself!” Camilla bellowed.
The crunch of hardened snow echoed all around us.
The gun muzzle dug harder into my skin.
“How kind of you to come to us, Camilla.” Liam’s voice resonated, human and deep.
Massive furred bodies rocketed around the tawny trunks, moving too fast for me to make out whom they belonged to.
“Plan on hiding for much longer, Liam?” Camilla screeched beside my still-ringing ear.
How do you feel about swimming, babe?
Better than I feel about being called babe.I telegraphed my thoughts through a pointed glower, but then realized he might construe my look as reticence for his aquatic plan.
I directed my eyeballs downward toward the metal chain around my middle, then shuffled a step to make the cuffs clink. I imagined he was already aware I was trussed up like Dad and Nolan’s Thanksgiving turkeys, but it didn’t hurt to bring my poultry status to his attention.
You think you can hold your breath for two minutes?
I gave the faintest nod, my heart fluttering wildly in my chest.
“Li-am,” Camilla singsonged. “I’m losing patience.”
A muted pop whispered through the ice, followed by a pale laceration.
I inhaled a deep breath.
Not yet. I’ll tell you when.
Another wet grinding.
Camilla’s body hardened. “If you don’t quit whatever you’re doing, I’ll put a bullet through your girlfriend’s skull before she hits the water.”
“I’m not his girlfriend.”
“What is it I’m doing, Camilla?”
She pivoted toward the sound of Liam’s deep voice, forcing me to turn. “I’m going to count down to three.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught the flurry of movement. A lithe body running wide circles around us on the ice, stopping every few feet to crouch, explode upward, and land so hard the ice trembled beneath us.
“What the hell’s that?” Camilla slid the gun off me and leveled it in the direction of the blurred form.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is Bea, I thought proudly.
Camilla fired off three bullets. One of them resulted in a whimper that made the fine hairs on my arms rise. Bea crumpled on the ice like a tissue.
“Shouldn’t have let the vampwolf out of her cage,” Camilla murmured, compressing her finger on the trigger.
I jammed my shoulder into her raised arm, jostling it. The shot went wide. I prayed it didn’t hit anyone.
