“Why did you bring me here?”
“You keep bad company girlie.” The new man at the door growled out. He was an older man, grizzled and tough. He reminded her of beef jerky.
“Well... I appreciate you looking out for me. If you call me a cab I will be more careful in the future.” Worth a try.
The old guy growled, the young one laughed, she really hated his laugh, but neither sound was encouraging.
“What’s your name darlin’?”
“If I tell you my name will you tell me who you are and why I’m here?”
“Aah, where are my manners? I’m Clancy. The old man is Red and you’re here because we rescued you.”
Clancy. Oh, Crap. This was the family who wanted Demon dead? “Rescued me?”
“You are what we call an innocent bystander. We weren’t expecting to find such a sweet thing in with such bad company. We figure you couldn’t know what kind of riff raff you were associating with so we brought you here.”
“Bunch of mongrels and outlaws.” The old man growled out spitting to the side. Like even saying it was dirty.
“Who exactly are you referring to?”
“Listen to that, would ya? Talks like a real lady. We are ‘exactly referring’ to the gun toting bastards in the limo with you.”
“Eli and Logan?”
The old man spit again. O.Kay...
“You saved me from Eli and Logan?”
The young one laughed again. “Exactly.”
Whatever game they were playing she was willing to go along to a point. As long as they were talking, they weren’t acting. If they wanted to convince themselves she had not been on the same team as the men they’d attacked she would play along. Anything that got her out of this room and away from mister tight pants was worth a shot. “Well then if I can use your phone I’ll call a cab and take myself home. I certainly appreciate the warning. I’ll be more careful in the future about who I hire as bodyguards.”
“Bodyguards? That would explain it except for one thing.” He moved so fast she felt his breath on her neck before she realized he had moved. He grabbed her arm to hold her when she would have pulled away. He pushed her hair away from her neck trailed his hand over the bite Demon had placed there. “You’re marked darlin’. Now what we need to know is who you belong to.”
He pressed her close against the walls and she felt his excitement bearing down on her belly. His smell surrounded her and though he possessed a primal scent that reminded her of Demon in a small way, she just found it pungent and unpleasant. She wanted away from this man in the worst way. “I don’t belong to anyone.”
He sniffed her neck directly over the bite. “But you do. A wolf at that. Who you been lettin’ nibble on your sweet parts darlin’?”
She tried again to move away from him but he pushed her tighter against the wall, his fingers leaving painful marks on her skin. “You’re hurting me.”
“Not yet.” He tightened his grip until she worried he would crush the bones in her arm. She couldn’t hold back a yelp of pain and he laughed against her shoulder digging his hips into her stomach. It hurt and in case she had any illusions left about what he planned, his free hand went to the hem of her skirt and started to lift it.
Her eyes filling with tears of pain and fear Clytie head butted him in the nose. It hurt her, but not as much as it hurt him if the way he jumped back and grabbed his nose was any indication. He cursed pushing her towards the old man so hard she hit him with a snap of her neck and bounced into the doorjamb. Before either man got another hold, she took the chance to push her way out into the hall. The old man grabbed at her and part of the dress shoulder ripped off into his hands along with four deep furrows of skin. She ran, curses following her as the men tangled in their efforts to give chase. It gave her the extra time she needed to reach another room.
She took the door at a run, slamming it behind her and locking it just before bodies crashed against it causing pictures to fall off the wall. There was a dresser beside the door and she pushed it into place right as the door cracked along the frame. Only when she was hit in the face with a strap did she look up and see the shotgun sitting on top of the dresser. She grabbed for it, and backed up checking to make sure the safety was off and cocking it. There was another crack along the doorframe as she moved to the side of the door.
A hand that looked a lot like a claw pounded through directly above the dresser and Clytie put the barrel of the shotgun right up against the wrist and pulled the trigger. The blast sent her falling back from the recoil and for a minute, she couldn’t hear the howling. From the sounds, there were more than the two wolves congregating in the hall. The sliding glass doors looked like a sign from on high and with a frantic sob, she headed for sunlight. Before she could get it open with the hand not clutched around the shotgun, the dresser, which she had needed every ounce of strength and adrenalin to move, went flying against the far wall.
She ducked down covering her head with her arms as it crashed inches away. Clancy grabbed her by the hair, pulling her out of the room with a vicious snarl. The shotgun went flying. This time the hand sported claws that dug in while he dragged her down the hall. His other hand was barely attached to his arm by a shredded wrist. When she could see past her streaming hair and tears, she saw the hall full of werewolves, some man shaped, and some on four feet. She would have screamed if she’d the air for it. Clancy shoved her none too gently back into her original prison so she scraped skin on her slide to the mattress. When she looked back at him, his face had lost much of its beauty to rage. He staggered back into the hall clutching his damaged arm and slamming the door of her little prison.
The night she found her sister dead in that smelly hotel room had been the worst day of her life. So far, this was a close second. She wiped her eyes and held her knees to her chest. She shook so badly she wondered she didn’t break apart.
She had managed to stave off rape, but for how long? Clancy may not be in any shape with his wrist mangled but what about the others? Eventually one of those creatures was going to try again. Clytie prayed as hard as she had ever prayed that Eli and Logan survived the attack and Demon would find her in time.
When Clytie was calm enough to think again she sat cross-legged on the mattress and pulled her hair out of falling clips. She held one of the steel clips in shaky palms and wondered how she could possibly make it a work for her. It had to be the most pathetic weapon on the planet but she ground it against the concrete in the vein hope she might be able to rub it into a lethal point. Right. She was in so much trouble. Demon. Where are you?
Chapter 10
“We have him. Stupid Bastard is using his cell phone.” Eli pulled the laptop around to show the blip on the map. He had jumped on the internet the minute he got to the house looking for information on Clancy. He got lucky with the cell phone. “He’s on the move, but as soon as he stops we’ll have him.”
Demon kept up his incessant pacing, Wolf gold eyes staring out into the world promised death. “Where?”