This man knew way too much about werewolves and about the Bronsons.
A horrifying thought occurred to Celeste. Was this Mandy’s doing? Had she betrayed them all? Who else could have done it?
“We’re burning daylight here. Hand him over or we start shooting,” the man barked at them.
The back door was flung open, and Jeffrey scrambled out. Celeste tried to hold on to him, but he was much too strong for her, wriggling out of her arms. “Don’t shoot them,” he said. “I’ll go with you.”
Celeste stifled a scream.
No, no, no…This could not be happening…
The man scooped him up as Grant snarled a curse and leaped out of the car. There were dozens of men surrounding them now, their guns pointed directly at Grant’s head.
“Smart kid,” the man sneered.
“Jeffrey, no!” Celeste cried. She leaped out of the car after him, tears running down her face. Suddenly half a dozen guns were pointed at her. She felt sick with rage and terror. These monsters. What were they going to do to Jeffrey?
“If you kill her, I won’t let you take me. I’ll make you kill me. I can do that,” Jeffrey said, and suddenly he was a wolf cub. He’d shifted so fast that Celeste hadn’t even seen it happen.
He sank his teeth into the arm of the man who was holding him, and shook his head viciously, ripping flesh. The man screamed in pain and shook his arm wildly, trying to dislodge him.
“Get him off me! Shoot him, shoot him!” the man screamed.
“He’ll kill us if we shoot him! He needs him alive!” one of the other men yelled.
He who? Who needed Jeffrey? And why?
“Take care of him for me,” Grant growled to Celeste, and the bones in his face shifted as his ears turned pointy.
Horror washed over Celeste. He was going to shift and attack these men and get himself killed, to give her and Jeffrey a chance to escape. She was overcome by mindless fear that fused her spine and turned her limbs to water. The shouts of the men echoed in her ears, jumbled and meaningless noise. She couldn’t watch Grant die. Shecouldn’t.
A shot cracked through the air, and the man holding Jeffrey collapsed in a heap. Jeffrey leaped through the air, landing in Celeste’s arms, and she ducked her head and scrambled back into the car. She could hear more gunshots, and screaming, and the snarl of wolves as she curled up on top of Jeffrey.
“We’ll be fine, we’ll be fine,” she said loudly, to drown out the horrible noises. Jeffrey was shaking in her arms.
The car door banged open and Celeste shrieked, tightening her grip on Jeffrey.
“It’s me!” Mandy yelled. “All the bad guys are dead. Grant’s fine, nobody on our side died. Is Jeffrey okay? Did they hurt him?”
Celeste sat up and looked up at her. Mandy looked like someone had dumped a bucket of red paint over her.
She cleared her throat, forced herself to speak. “Carrie? How was the prom?”
“Ha.” Mandy grinned fiercely. “Inappropriate humor at the worst possible time. I knew I liked you.”
Grant, Pete and Reynaldo came running up, breathless and covered with blood. They were accompanied by several men Celeste didn’t recognize.
“He’s fine,” Celeste said shakily. “I’m fine.”
“I wasn’t scared,” Jeffrey said in a quiet voice.
“Hey, Mandy. That’s a good look on you,” one of the men with Grant said. “Is that a finger in your hair?”
“Hey, Truman,” Mandy said to the man, flicking the human finger away. Celeste felt her stomach lurch. “We’ve got to stop meeting like this. Also, we should get out of here. These guys might have called in reinforcements.” She glanced at the bodies strewn on the forest floor. There were about twenty of them. A small army, sent to kidnap one small boy.
“We should grab one of the bodies and put it in the trunk,” she added. “So we can get an ID on it and figure out who’s behind this.”
“I memorized the license plates. We can run them.” Truman said. “I don’t think we should take the body with us, in case we get pulled over. These guys knew exactly who you were and were you’d be. Maybe they’re working with local authorities. It’s too risky.”
