I was close to punching Adam. He’d been tapping his foot impatiently for at least half an hour. We were in Jack’s white van, across the street from the house where we’d confirmed earlier in the day Chaz and some of the other Sunstrikers were currently using as their hideout. It was well past one in the morning. The combination of shitty sleep, lack of food, and stress from having to sit on my ass and wait while my target was so close I could practically smell his godforsaken aftershave, was hell on my nerves.
We were supposed to wait until everyone was asleep, then use a combination of gasoline, Molotov cocktails, and a few flash grenades to light the place up. In theory, it would incapacitate or kill the bulk of the Weres, and the few who managed to crawl out from the flames would come right to us, weak from smoke inhalation and disoriented from the grenades. Adam, Bo, Jason, and I would take our positions at each side of the house to mow down any survivors who tried to escape. Nikki would be mobile, rushing to help whoever needed it most. Keith was our getaway driver and would make himself available as a last resort to pop in and act as additional backup.
The problem with our plan was that the werewolves were all still awake and moving around. We could see them in the windows. Lookouts, maybe, or possibly it was too close to the full moon for them, like me, to sleep at night. We’d been here since 11 PM, and there was still plenty of activity in the house. With their superior senses, there was no doubt they’d hear us coming long before we had a chance to set the place on fire.
“How long do we want to wait for these things to bunk down? I’m supposed to be at work in six hours. Can we try this again during the day, when they’re all asleep?”
I turned a baleful look on Adam. He really was getting on my last nerve. “If you knew you were going to have to go to work, why did you agree to come on this run?”
He scoffed. “Lady, have you ever tried saying no when Jack asked you to do something?”
That wasn’t a question I was about to answer. Not here, not now. Not after the conversation I’d just had this morning.
Keith was tapping an absent beat on the steering wheel with his fingertips. “You guys tell me. I’m just the driver. You want to call it a night and work out an alternate plan?”
The van wasn’t made for pacing, but I wished I could get up and work off some energy. The need to move was driving me bonkers. The belt wasn’t helping. It had kept quiet, not intruding on my thoughts, but it was radiating an emotional gamut that I was in no mood to deal with. Excitement, desire, hatred, bloodlust—all the emotions that I should have welcomed but couldn’t stand to deal with—were rattling around in my head. Right now, I needed to be cold and calculating, or I wasn’t going to come out of this fight alive.
“We can’t walk away. We don’t know how long they’ll stay here. By tomorrow, they could be gone. This has to be done tonight.”
Bo nudged me with his boot. “That’s great, but we need to know what to do. Jack has always been the mastermind behind everything. He didn’t mention any contingencies on this one. Somebody else feel like stepping up to bat?”
“I think we should go,” Nikki said, her eyes closed and her head tilted back to rest on the wall of the van. “We didn’t have enough time to call in backup from the units in Jersey or Connecticut, and we don’t have the manpower to deal with this many Weres. They’ll know something is wrong the instant we try to torch the building—they can smell it or sense it or something. I’m not interested in waltzing into a deathtrap. We have to call it quits and come back later.”
Some big, brave hunter she turned out to be. I got to my feet, stalking to the end of the van and shoving the back door open. Jason grabbed my arm, his thick, tree-trunk muscles straining to hold me back despite the fact that I was less than half his body weight.
“Didn’t you hear her? We’re going back. Sit down.”
I turned a contemptuous look on him, my lip curling as I shoved his shoulder, breaking his grip. He stared up at me in shock, mouth dropping open. No one my size should have been able to push off that mountain of muscle like he weighed no more than a child, but the belt made it all possible.
“I’m not going back. If I have to do this by myself, I will.”
Bo clambered to my side, shooting a look at Jason, who was now watching me with the expression of someone who has just discovered that a poisonous scorpion has taken up residence between his legs in his bedroll. They might have heard some talk about my infection, but I suppose it was a different thing when you were faced with the reality of it staring you in the eye.
The others reluctantly followed me out, taking Bo’s cue. Nikki, Adam, then Jason, dragging his feet and watching me warily. They kept their distance, occasionally turning a nervous glance to the house. The longer we were out in the open, the more likely it was one of the Weres or the neighbors would notice us.
While it was a flash of heated anger that sent me stalking out of the van, now I felt cold certainty. There was no way I was going to survive this fight. The odds were too steep. We’d counted no less than six dominant wolves, plus the alpha, and a couple betas. Maybe, if we’d been able to stick to the original plan, maybe I could have walked away from that.
Not this. Not with what I had in mind. We’d stick to the plan, for the most part. The only change would be my role in it.
Strangely, I wasn’t afraid. My hands were rock steady when I held them up to get the White Hats to quiet down their urgent whispering amongst themselves. They shut their mouths and looked to me for direction.
Nikki’s mouth was set in a sardonic smirk, as though she was certain I was going to say something stupid. Jason and Adam had matching distrustful expressions. Bo was the only one who regarded me in the same way as ever—with what was probably a severely misplaced trust and attention.
“Okay, listen up,” I said, keeping my voice low so it wouldn’t carry to the sensitive ears of the Weres. “Here’s what we’re going to do. Bo, Jason, Adam—carry out your parts in the original plan, no change. Nikki, you’re going to take over for me.”
They all exchanged confused looks, though Nikki was quick to recover her sarcasm. “And I guess you’re just going to sit your ass out on this one, right? I knew we shouldn’t have listened—”
“Be quiet,” I said, the venom in those two words sufficient to make her take a nervous step back. “I’m going in the front. As soon as I’m in, hit the place with everything you’ve got. There won’t be time to pour the gas, so stick with the cocktails and the grenades, then switch to your firearms. Concentrate the grenades in the back and on the upper floors so you don’t incapacitate me along with our targets.”
Bo was quick to come to my side and grab my arm, shaking me. “Shiarra, no!”
“Are you insane? They’ll kill you! Tear you to shreds!” Keith stage-whispered from the front of the van. I hadn’t realized he could hear us from there.
“Forget the Weres,” Adam said, appalled. “What if you get hit by friendly fire? You can’t walk into the thick of that mess and get out again in one piece!”
I looked up into Bo’s face, something in my gut twisting at putting that worry and panic into his eyes. His dark skin was flushed; even in the shadows where we were parked, I could see it, clear as day. Smell the blood rushing to his skin. The thought of the fight to come hadn’t worked him up, but the idea of letting me walk into that house alone terrified him. I put my hand over his on my arm, giving his fingers a reassuring squeeze.
“I have to do this. There’s no other way to make sure the dangerous ones, Chaz and Dillon, don’t escape. I won’t let them walk away from this.”
I didn’t have to say they wouldn’t let me out alive, either. No doubt the hunters knew it as well as I did.