to rile us.
I heard something jiggle and snarled and turned toward the bedroom. It sounded like someone was trying to force the window open.
“They could break in if they wanted to,” Heath pointed out. “All we can do is fight when they finally do. They want us nervous.”
I didn’t reply, my eyes trained on the doorway to the bedroom. The mattress didn’t move.
It felt like an eternity, hearing them run over the roof and down the walls, small jests, and taunts. Laughter as if they were having fun playing this fucked up little game.
It built in me, the rage I was feeling. These were fucking monsters. They were monsters who enjoyed the smell of fear and took joy in eliciting the response they received. They were looking to have some fun. I understood what had made Gaia so furious now. They had played this game with her. Maybe they did it more than once. They were trying to make her fear them, and she never did. They only got the drop on her.
I’ll show them fun.
I snarled louder, making Heath step away. When the laughter didn’t end, I roared, making it clear I wasn’t in human form, giving out mediocre snarls to intimidate. I was ready to kill too, and they needed to think better than to break in the home I had chosen for the night.
There was no response, so I roared again, making the windows shake.
What? You don’t want to play anymore?
I began to pace around the living room, making Heath step away from me. Like a caged animal, I waited for one of them to be stupid enough to break the barriers keeping us separate.
“She’s an angry one,” one commented finally. Scurrying again up the side of the house. “Different from the wolves.”
“The werewolves got cocky, then scared. They begged for mercy,” the deep masculine voice whispered just loud enough for us to hear. Heath snapped at nothing, snarling hard enough drool began to fall from his jaws, making him look rabid. “The werecats all just get pissy. It’s okay, though. They all died the same.”
I listened for it, and once one of them scurried down the bare wall in front of me, I slammed my body into it and listened to the fucker hit the wet ground outside and seemingly roll a few feet.
“And these two put themselves in a nice little box for us,” one chittered. “How kind of them.”
Annoyance ran through me. They didn’t care at all. They would keep on until we went out to try to kill them, or they got their rocks off and came inside.
I heard another player enter the sick dance at that moment. The soft, so soft, fall of paws on the soil. The vampires couldn’t hear. They had no idea.
But I knew. I anxiously looked at Heath.
“I think Jabari is coming,” I told him. His ears popped up as he turned in my direction. “I can hear him, I think.”
The slow prowl in the underbrush of the woods continued. One slow paw lowered to the ground and barely disturbed the underbrush. Not enough to be picked up by anyone who wasn’t paying attention, but I was listening for every sound since I had no idea what was going on outside.
“I think it’s time to stop playing and deal with this. We need them to stop showing up if we want to claim the mountains as our own.” An older, richer feminine voice spoke with a level of boredom I couldn’t believe. She wasn’t having as much fun as the others or was trying not to show it.
“Maybe we should send pieces back to the wolf pack or something. We’ll use these two,” the younger sounding woman suggested.
“Let’s drain them first and see,” the man said. Now, I had heard three voices, but it sounded like four were scurrying around outside.
“Heath, how many do you think?”
“Four.”
“I think the same.”
“Get ready,” he ordered.
I heard more scraping on the windows, making me edgy.
The front door was wrenched open in a split second, and I turned and braced myself for an attack. There stood a man, his blood-red eyes blazing in the darkness.
“Time to see who the real superior species is,” he said, his white fangs visible in the darkness. “You’ll regret coming out here.”
Jabari forgotten, I launched myself at him and hit. I tried to get my claws into his body and was able to sink them into one of his shoulders as we flew. In a blink, though, I