Hot Blooded (Wolf Springs Chronicles) - By Nancy Holder Page 0,58

very late, she made sure everything was put back as she’d found it, picked up her flashlight, and turned to go. One box wasn’t enough, but she should wait. And besides, there was a knocking little hollow place where her heart should be, and it hurt.

Then, as she replaced the tape, she dropped the flashlight. She crouched down to pick it up and a smell hit her. Metallic. Like tin foil. She shone her flashlight over an untouched row of boxes and sniffed the air. Her eyes began to water.

Silver, she thought.

But the side of the box read AMMO.

Weird, she thought. But it was time to go. She straightened and was about to leave when the smell drew her back, and she decided to have a look. As she moved a couple of cartons out of the way, dust lifted, ghostlike, and she sneezed. Then she opened the box and peered in.

Inside sat a rectangular metal olive green box. It really was an ammo box. Her grandfather had carried out a few of those when he’d taught her how to shoot. But there was definitely silver inside.

She unthreaded the black strap wrapped around the box, then opened the lid and aimed her flashlight at the contents.

She gasped. Her heart triple-hammered in her chest, then skipped beats as her pulse roared in her ears and she staggered backwards into another stack of boxes.

There were dozens.

Gleaming in the light.

Silver bullets.

11

“It can’t be!” Katelyn blurted aloud, but she knew she was right. She covered her mouth with both hands. The boxes behind her teetered, threatening to fall, but she could do nothing but stare at the bullets. In her grandfather’s garage. Silver bullets.

Before she knew what she was doing, she bolted. Still clutching the flashlight, she flew out of the garage and across the road, into the forest, as if it was safe. Branches tore at her pants, at her hair.

Thunder rumbled. Lightning crackled above the treetops, lighting up the forest, and she saw a shadow thrown against a trunk that was not hers. It was black and thin, the hands elongated, unearthly. She couldn’t make sense of it. Her heart was beating too fast and she staggered left, right, as the rain bucketed down on top of her head.

There are silver bullets in the garage.

There is something out here with me.

The shadow slid along the tree trunks in strobe-like flashes of light and she threw herself away from it in a half circle and slammed hard against a tree. The flashlight rolled away and framed a face beneath a cowboy hat.

Justin’s face.

“Kat?” he asked, hurrying toward her. “What’s wrong?”

“What — what are you . . .” She couldn’t talk. She was terrified. Maybe she’d imagined it and they’d only been normal bullets — her senses were off-kilter because of all the changes and the stress.

He put his arms around her and she burst into tears. She shouldn’t be doing this, shouldn’t let him see; but she couldn’t stop herself.

“Did something scare you?” he asked her.

“Why are you here?” she asked shrilly, pulling herself back out of his embrace. There was so much rain everywhere, and she could barely see, and nothing was making sense. Had she gone crazy?

Justin’s face glowed through the sheets of rain, white like a phantom. As she blinked at him, the forest came alive. There was a squirrel on a branch above his head; an owl still higher, preparing to dive at it. Farther on, there was a beautiful tawny wolf. Justin was not alone.

She began to run as fast as she could, pushing past branches and slipping in the mud. Lunging at ropes of Spanish moss, grabbing onto pine branches, she scrabbled and struggled. All she saw was a field of red and blinding white as her werewolf senses kicked in. Everything was giving off its own heat. It was like the other night trying to come back from having seen Cordelia, only five times more powerful.

Then Justin grabbed her and held her even though she flailed at him. She panted hard.

“Let me go,” she said.

“What the hell is wrong?” he asked her.

“Nothing,” she said. “I — I just got spooked in the garage.” She jerked as he took off his cowboy hat and put it on her head. Then he picked up her flashlight and started walking her out of the woods toward the cabin.

“Spooked, hell.”

“I — I’m so emotional.” She threaded her hair away from her face. “I’ve been really short-tempered.” She tried to peer