He lifted his chin and sniffed the air. “You’re a virgin, am I right?”
“Excuse me?” Anger coursed through my veins like a flash flood. I took a step forward and jabbed him with my room key right in his flabby chest. “Who do you think you are, talking to me like that?”
Stumbling backward, the man cried out in pain, which gave me a smug sense of satisfaction.
“You staked me!”
He was being overly dramatic. My room key was still lodged between my knuckles. But I wasn’t about to argue with an outraged vampire.
Before I could turn on my heels and get the heck out of Dodge, a large animal brushed past me and knocked the man to the ground. A huge dire wolf, bigger than the ones I’d seen at the ferry, stood on the man’s chest and snarled. His silver fur glistened in the pale light, as did his razor-sharp fangs that were inches from the guy’s neck.
“Hey, you two,” said a stern female voice. “Break it up.” Hertone had the casual authority of someone who saw a lot of bullshit and wasn’t about to put up with more.
Saliva dripping from his fangs, the dire wolf didn’t move and was still poised to rip out the guy’s throat. I covered my eyes because I didn’t want to see any carnage, but I peered through my fingers because I was genuinely curious about what was going to happen.
“You.” The no-nonsense voice belonged to a middle-aged woman with a septum piercing who stepped into view and pointed at the vampire. “I’ll call your Maker. And you.” She pointed to the wolf. “I’ll call your Alpha.”
Much to my utter shock, the dire wolf morphed before my eyes into a furious Travis.
While I stood there, questioning all of my life choices that had led me to this, he yanked the vampire to his feet and shoved him against the brick wall. “You stay the fuck away from her.”
Travis in his human form was just as deadly as his wolf.
“I didn’t do anything,” the guy whined, his voice a bit higher pitched than it had been a moment ago. “I swear.”
“I heard what you said, you piece of shit.”
The vampire laughed nervously. “I can tell she’s never been bitten. Didn’t see any harm in pointing that out.”
Travis bared his human teeth, and I swear, they still looked canine.
“Okay, that’s enough, you two,” said another authoritative voice. This time, a burly, bald man in a sheriff’s uniform strode toward us. After a brief word with Travis, the sheriff hauled the vampire away.
Travis brushed off his clothes and stalked toward me, the golden glow of his wolf-eyes both enrapturing and extremely menacing.
“W-what just happened?” I asked.
He ran a hand through his messy hair and glowered down atme. “You almost became a snack for a hungry vampire, that’s what happened.”
I didn’t meanthat. What I meant was I couldn’t believe I had just seen him change from his werewolf form into his human form. One minute he was a wolf, and thenpoof, just like that, he morphed back into a human. Fully clothed. Not at all like the gruesome transformations in pretty much every werewolf movie I’d ever seen.
This was...almostmagical.
“What are you doing skulking around Wickedville, Daphne?” Travis’s tone was entirely too accusatory.
“Skulking?” The warm and fuzzy thoughts I had about him rescuing me from that sleazy vampire evaporated. “For your information, it’s none of your business what I’m doing here.”
He closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them, the yellow was gone. “In case you hadn’t noticed, this isn’t the best part of town.”
Okay, he had me there. Butskulking?
I chewed my lower lip. I really wanted to tell him what brought me here, but as I clutched my beach bag, heavy with the spell book inside, bile rose in the back of my throat.
Although I didn’t want to lie, I couldn’t tell him the truth either. The last thing I wanted was to get sick in front of Travis. Our relationship wasn’t exactly at the hold-my-hair-out-of-my-face-so-I-don’t-barf-on-it stage. Surprising how intimate a little vomit could be.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Travis
