coming back.” Her voice quivered as she turned her back on them.
Braden watched Ella with concern. “If the werewolf comes back, he might be looking to take her with him.”
“What about me?” Liz interjected.
Pretending to barely notice her, Braden glanced over. “You won’t want to make such a long trip.”
Teagan chuckled, “Maybe she would.”
“Liz is a good travel buddy,” Lexie added, rubbing Torin’s shoulder as she sat on his lap. “We went to Disney together.”
“Having Liz as a companion will make the flight go quicker,” Torin looked directly at him, with a crooked grin, he was clearly entertained.
Braden realized where this conversation was going. He needed to redirect it. “I’m leaving the country, she would need a passport.”
“I never leave home without it,” Liz insisted. “The Captain is a Navy man. I’ve flown all over the world visiting him at different bases.”
Teagan brushed the crumbs from his shirt and gave Braden a playful grin. “Since we have to stay, I’ll feel better if Liz travels with you. Unless you want one of the elders to keep you company. My father likes flying; I don’t mind asking him for you.”
Feeling backed into a corner, Braden stared up at the sky and wished it would open up and swallow him. He knew his cousins were having fun razzing him about Liz, but he didn’t want to put her in danger.
“Alright,” he said, surprising even himself, “but be ready to leave by dawn.”
Blowing out a deflated breath, Braden knew it was time to drop the subject. If he continued to refuse her, his cousins just might tell the elders about his trip. Seamus and Donovan wouldn’t accept his generalized explanation and Patrick would demand to come with him. Even though they weren’t his parents, Braden always showed them respect. It was bad enough lying to his cousins in order to keep them safe, he couldn’t do the same to the men his father called brothers.
Perhaps, Liz’s presence wouldn’t be so bad. Having her company during his final hours would help keep his mind off the inevitable. Even now while she stood only inches away, the surface of his skin excited in response to her nearness. He would just have to send her home on a return flight as soon as they landed. Rather than leaving a good-bye letter in his room, he would ask her to hand deliver the note.
By the time she gets back, everything will be said and done. At least Ruby will live.
7
DEATH
Death chewed each knuckle and tendon, grinding his teeth against the sinew and bone until he could extract the sweet marrow from within each delectable bite. The grease and fluids ran down his chin, pooling onto his crisp white shirt. The twitching body beneath him had long since silenced.
He loved spilling hot crimson over tile flooring. The way the blood collected in the grooves around each square fascinated him. He would wait until it thickened with knotty little clots before running his tongue along the grout, licking it clean.
Closing his eyes, he pretended it was the damphyr beneath him. There was nothing like the blood of a half breed. His pallid skin shivered with the fantasy, sending desire through his torso and down into his groin.
His stomach was full of flesh, blood, and cartilage, but it was his throat that constantly burned for more. Pulling his victim’s other hand to his mouth, his teeth stripped the salty skin from the fingers quickly, getting to the delicate meat underneath.
The damphyr finally called. He had been waiting for him to come as promised. He had been fantasizing about the scenario that would finally bring the two together and joyfully anticipated tasting the boy for twelve long years. His sexual appetite was heightened just thinking of the pleasure to come.
He rocked against the cooling corpse. The hedonistic pressure of his weight rubbing against the stiff body filled him with joy. More blood flowed from his meal’s gaping wounds, running in rivulets down the wan skin.
The moment he had been waiting for was coming. Tipping his head back, his guttural moan reverberated against the walls around him.
Tomorrow couldn’t come soon enough.
8
LIZ
Liz wasn’t averse to flying, but waking up at the butt crack of dawn wasn’t her favorite thing either. She barely climbed out of bed when Braden knocked lightly on the front door. Fortunately, she had packed the evening before, so when he asked if she was ready to leave, she just yawned and followed him out to his truck.
At the airport,