be flipped on its head. They were setting up so they could take any random hiker or camper, feed on them, then kill them without being noticed. There’s a lot of space out there to hide a body.” I waved a hand at the surrounding mountains. “And no one would have found them, but your missing person reports would have skyrocketed.”
“Oh my god…” Gina covered her mouth. Haley just let hers drop open.
John was uncomfortable. He was the only one who hadn’t yet spoken and seemed fidgety.
Yeah, motherfucker. I knew it.
“So, we killed them. They won’t be a problem. You’re looking at a long time without any supernaturals in those mountains.” I smiled blithely. “Heath and I hadn’t planned on staying out there. We wanted to get back out before dark. We’re lucky Jabari got to us. He had already been actively hunting the vampires when they attacked us.”
“Why were you still out there?” Haley asked softly.
“That’s the part we’re here to deal with. Someone cut the fuel line on the ATV you left us. We didn’t want to risk walking back to the car and getting there after dark because if someone was smart enough to sabotage the ATV, they would have also sabotaged the car. Turns out, we were right. When we got to the car earlier today, the electrics had been cut. We got it running, but some things weren’t working.” I stopped, deciding to change the subject for a moment. “If Heath got our saved werewolf to a medevac, that means he didn’t wreck the car. He had to drive at night without headlights.”
“Yeah, I checked in on that. It was definitely two werewolves being flown out. The Seattle pack asked for them to be taken there, then information after that is classified. You know how the werewolves are.” Haley was rubbing her hands together. “Could the vampires have cut the fuel line?”
“No. We made it back to the cabin in broad daylight. They wouldn’t have been able to.” I sighed. “Which makes me need to ask a question. John, did they offer to turn you?”
John took a step back as the human women gasped in their shock.
“What kind of offer would you-”
“You have cancer,” Jabari commented blandly. “What kind?”
“Lung,” he answered, bitterness tainting his words and features. “Never smoked a day in my life and got fucking lung cancer.”
“Life isn’t fair, is it?” I said gently. I felt for him, I did, but I didn’t let that change the cold rage that the sympathy couldn’t bury. “So, you what? Did you approach Gaia and Titan to Change you, and they said no? Then you were approached by the vampires because you had information they wanted about the locals?”
“Pretty much,” he snapped. “What are you going to do about it? Are you going to kill me? Humans are protected, right? You can’t.”
“Not today,” Jabari hissed. “We have more pressing things to do than cover up the death of a human.” He glanced at me, and I knew what to say. Deep in my bones, I knew what needed to be said, and I wondered where I heard it before.
“But one day, you’ll get a knock on your door,” I explained to him. “One day, a werecat will come to have you pay your debt, and you’ll be left wishing you’d let the cancer take you. I would recommend running. Run as far as you can and as fast as you can. You might earn yourself more time if you do it well enough.” I grinned viciously. “I make no promises that the werewolves won’t come for you immediately.”
John paled. Ignoring the betrayed women, he turned and ran back for his truck, jumping in and screaming off.
Haley looked back at me, terrified.
“You can…”
“By supernatural Law, if a human is introduced to our world, they are beholden to our Law. They face the same punishments as the rest of us, based on our species. Gaia and Titan were open to him about what they were, and he betrayed them. Not only that, he helped a pack of vampires break the Law, several times over.” Jabari’s explanation was one I couldn’t have put better myself. “Humans are generally considered innocent in our world. Werecats particularly like to protect you, but he lost that right and place in our eyes. He’s no more than another animal who will eventually have to be put down for the crimes he committed against our kind. Because he’s human, we’ll give him a chance