The wolf let out a breath and extended his hand. “I’m Aric Connor.”
I gasped softly. Aric was the same wolf who had called Misha. When I stared at his palm like an idiot he slowly dropped it to his side. He eyed me a moment longer before withdrawing. The wolf I’d embedded into the wall stirred and whimpered. The Mohawk guy still anchored to the concrete spat with rage, “Watch your back, Aric!”
Aric ignored him and the black wolf, and focused on the redhead. The wolf sat with his legs sprawled, frantically trying to stuff his bowels back into his abdomen. “Tommy. Stop. You need to quiet and focus.”
Tommy immediately ceased his desperate efforts. His hands shook as moist intestines continued to spill over his arms and through his fingers.
“Good. Now breathe. Slowly. Become one with your wolf and allow him to heal you.”
Tommy trembled, but nodded and closed his eyes. Like a reverse tug-of-war, Tommy’s body pulled in his battered insides like a child sucking in long strands of pasta. It was hard to watch and hear. The bile in my stomach rose brutally, but I wouldn’t pry my eyes off my attackers.
When the last of Tommy’s parts found their way home, a thin transparent film formed over the deep gashes. But unlike Aric’s, the skin would not seal shut. Tommy buckled onto his side, panting and sweating, onto a heap of bloodied newspapers. Aric removed his navy shirt and tied it firmly around the wolf’s lesions, leaving a small gray tee to keep him covered against the brisk night air. He clasped Tommy’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. This will keep your wound closed until you’ve had time to mend.”
Tommy nodded, curling into a protective ball. Aric left him and took in the scene. He sniffed the air, tracking the small droplets of splattered blood until they morphed into angular streaks along the corpses. He motioned to the honey blonde. “The vamp bit her first. And broke the other’s spine when she tried to flee.”
“How…how do you know he killed the blonde f-first?” Tommy stammered.
Aric inhaled deeply. “The blood on her clothes is a full minute drier.”
Mohawk gasped. “That vamp drained her in under a minute?”
Aric nodded. “The bloodlust in his system had advanced, making his appetite more voracious.” He leaned over the brunette’s face. “Did you see her teeth? They’re pushed in. He covered her mouth to keep her from screaming while he finished his first meal.”
Aric circled the women, frowning. He bent and examined their remains. “The bodies are already in rigor.” His scowl deepened as he inhaled. “The bastard didn’t leave them one ounce of blood.” He reached for the cell phone in his back pocket and made a brief call. “It’s Aric. I’ve got two more in an alley near Northwood Boulevard and McCourry. Tommy’s hurt. I’ll need him transported.”
“We’re on our way,” someone said on the other end.
The midnight black wolf yanked his head free in a crash of falling rubble. With a roar he bolted toward me, teeth bared.
“Don’t touch her,” Aric warned.
The wolf stopped his onslaught as quick as a flick of a switch. Good for him. I was done taking shit.
The kid with the Mohawk whose eye I had, well, gouged out, flipped. “Why are you defending her? For all you know she’s in league with the bloodluster!”
“I am not!” I snarled.
Tommy, the redhead, scowled despite the worsening color of his skin. “We saw you standing over them. We know you’re not human.” His upper lip curled. “And you’re sure as hell not one of us.”
Aric narrowed his eyes, his voice bordering on rage. “Use your goddamn noses.”
Mohawk shook his head violently. Taran’s shoe flew off his face, leaving a big, gaping, bloody hole. None of the wolves reacted. I was ready to hurl. “Aric, she can do things,” Mohawk insisted. “Maybe she can cover her lies, too. For shit’s sake, look at what she did to my freaking arms!”
Aric must have thought Mohawk merely lay on his elbows. His eyes widened when he saw the idiot’s limbs fixed to the concrete. He frowned. “What are you?” he asked again.
My growls would not be silenced. “It’s none of your business what or who I am. I’ve done nothing wrong!”
Police sirens screeched in the far distance. Aric leaned back on his heels. “Maybe not. But I would ask that you fix my student.”