Page 43 of Jacob Michaels Is Not Jacob Michaels

Then I felt the tugging.

I looked down, and one of the wolves had caught up to us. The heel of my shoe was in his mouth, his teeth holding on for dear life, his mouth salivating and his eyes glowing red fury at me.

“No!” I screamed, thrusting my free down at him.

I don’t want him to hurt Lucas or me.

Please don’t let him hurt us.

Fire shot out of my palm and splattered against the wolf’s face like liquid heat. The wolf howled in agony and let go as he fell towards the ground, the fire traveled over his muzzle and around his head, then quickly crept over his entire body. I dangled there in Lucas’ grip, my right foot pushing into one of the holes in the chain link. My eyes grew wide as I watched the fire envelope the wolf, burn away its fur, then sputter out in a plume of acrid smoke. The wolf was on the ground, unmoving, its mouth gasping over and over again in terror and pain. I glanced towards the two remaining wolves and the five men. They had all frozen in place, staring at the scene unfolding before them.

“Come on, Rob!” Lucas growled and pulled me upward.

I lifted my “fire hand” to flip off the men and wolves, then pushed off of the chain link with my right foot, pushing myself up towards Lucas. Howl after howl sounded behind me, but I didn’t look over my shoulder to see the rest of the men shift into wolves. Lucas and I dropped to the other side of the fence, confident that the men, in wolf form, would have to find a different way out of the stadium. Without hands and feet, it was unlikely that they could scale the fence.

Running beside each other, Lucas and I didn’t say a word as we ran through the parking lot of the stadium and into the field where he had parked the truck. The two of us didn’t make the same mistake twice with seating assignments, though we both climbed in through the passenger door since it was the closest to us as we approached. Lucas tore the door open and clambered across the bench seat and started the truck as I jumped in and slammed the door behind myself. The roaring of the tires reached my ears before my ass was fully planted in my seat.

Lucas peeled out of the field, sending tall grass and mud flying as he punched the gas. I grabbed onto the dash as we bounced and shimmied in our seats. Once we hit the blacktop, I settled into my seat, my chin falling to my chest as I gasped for breath. Lucas’ hands were vices on the steering wheel as he looked around frantically to make sure we weren’t being followed. I wanted to scream at him to keep his eyes on the road—not out of anger, but fear. However, I found myself turning in my seat, looking to make sure that there were no wolves running in the road behind us or any other vehicles that might be in pursuit.

“What the actual fuck, Rob?” Lucas was breathing heavy as well.

I was trying to control my breathing.

“You shot fire out of your hand!”

“I do that sometimes.” I grimaced, finally realizing that Lucas had no idea about my magic laser-slash-fire fingers.

“Since when?”

“I don’t know.” My chest was heaving as I tried to get my breathing and heart rate under control. “They knew my fucking name, Lucas. How did they know my name?”

Lucas stared at me for several moments, then seemed to decide that the throwing fire with my hand situation could wait.

“Do you know them?”

Turning to him, I just frowned.

“Well, I didn’t think so.” He gave a nervous laugh, trying to bring levity to the situation. “But…what other explanation is there?”

“Maybe I don’t know them like I didn’t know you,” I mumbled.

“What?”

“Maybe I’ve forgotten that I know them?”

“That’s just…”

“Crazy?” I snorted, my breathing slowly returning to normal.

“Well…yeah.”

“Must be Tuesday, Lucas,” I said. “Rob Wagner is crazy as shit. Or, at least, everything in his life is.”

“If they knew your name…”

“What?” I turned in my seat to look at him.

“What else do they know?” He chewed at his lip as he kept his eyes on the road. “Do they know where you live?”

I thought about that statement for a moment, the realization of what that meant slowly dawning on me.

“Oma.” I gasped.

Lucas gunned the truck.