Page 2 of Jacob Michaels is Trouble

“I’m talking about the blood, you fucking—”

“Rob.” Lucas stopped me. “What are we going to do? We need to get to the hospital. Or something”

“Jeeez-zus.” Jason groaned. “The bleeding will stop on its own. Our saliva helps our bites heal quicker—unless we decide to bite enough that even our saliva can’t help it. It makes it easier for us to turn others without worrying about accidentally bleeding them out. By morning you might not even be able to tell you were ever bitten.”

“Until the next full moon,” I mumbled angrily under my breath as I pulled my hands away from Lucas’ chest and back and twined the fingers of my right hand through his.

“Let’s just get out of here.” Lucas ignored Jason’s comments, though they had to soothe his worry a little.

“And go where, assbags?” Jason snorted, strolling grandly over to the shore to shine the flashlight on the beached and burnt bodies. “Are you just going to leave the evidence lying around like a couple of amateurs?”

Lucas’ teeth chattered as he gripped my hand tightly, his eyes piercing into mine. I squeezed his hand, trying to reassure him before I turned to Jason. He was pushing at one of the bodies with the toe of his right shoe, making a disgusted face and noises that matched.

“What do you suggest, Jason?” Lucas’ fingers squeezed mine. “Apparently you feel you have more expertise about what to do with dead bodies, so—"

“You’re going to have to weight ‘em down and get ‘em further out into the river. Or take ‘em out onto the lake. Or you’re going to have to drag ‘em out and hide ‘em somewhere else.” He shrugged. Finally, he crouched down and grabbed a handful of hair from one of the bodies and lifted it with a sickening wet sound so that he could examine the dead guy’s face. “Not one of mine.”

“Wouldn’t you know if one of your pack members had come to try and kill me and turn Lucas?” I snapped. “Or are you not able to keep your puppies in line?”

Jason laughed, curiously not in an angry way.

“My boys have gotten a little unruly lately.”

“Why are you even here?” I demanded, sliding my hand out of Lucas’ in case I needed it as I took a step towards Jason. “How did you know we would be out here?”

“I didn’t.” Jason stood up, affecting a bored expression as he turned his head to look at me. “I didn’t know anything until I followed you to that club to watch the drag show. Then I followed you here. So, I didn’t know anything until I followed you out here. Obviously, you exceeded my expectations. I thought I’d catch you two lovebirds out here giving each other Handy J’s by the romantic light of the moon, but—”

“You’re disgusting.” Lucas chattered behind me.

“—you came out here to kill two guys and…then, I guess give each other Handy J’s or something.”

“You sure you’re not mixed with pig instead of wolf?” I asked blandly.

Jason chuckled evilly, his eyes looking hooded in the moonlight as he stared Lucas and me down. I could practically hear my boyfriend’s teeth chattering behind me as I kept my eyes on Jason, wondering what his plan was now that he had found us. Why had he followed us out onto the peninsula anyway? Now that he had and he found out what had happened when we found ourselves out there alone and two werewolves from a different pack had attacked us, what would he do with that information? How much had he seen? Did he see Lucas and I standing in the water, Lucas getting his memories back? What was he going to do with any of the information he might have?

I felt my arm start to raise.

The water.

I had made Lucas stand in the running water when I had given him back his memories for a reason.

Was it safe to do much magic on the shore?

Slowly, my arm sank back to my side. My palm itched and burned with unused magic. The genie had been let out of the lamp and did not want to go back inside for long. Lucas must have sensed my desire to harm Jason—not that it would have taken a genius, especially now that he had his memories back—because he stepped up behind me and twined his fingers through mine once again. Lucas gave me a nervous yet loving smile as I glanced over my shoulder. Jason just stared impassively at us as the flashlight beam shone at his feet.

“What is it with you guys?” I barked at Jason. “Do any of you have fucking manners?”

That made Jason smile.

“I don’t even know why we’re still standing here looking at you, let alone talking to you.” I continued. “Obviously, I need to get Lucas home and—”

“And leave two dead bodies beached on the bank of the Maumee that could easily be tied back to the two of you?” Jason’s eyebrows raised precipitously. “Is that your plan?”

“How could they be tied to us?” Lucas asked suddenly. “We don’t even know who they are.”

Jason glanced at the dead bodies.

“Bet it’ll take a couple days to identify them.” He shrugged, looking back over at us. “But I imagine they’re carrying identification of some kind. So, it probably won’t take a few seconds for the police to figure it out. And you were just going to leave them here for the police to do just that. You two really are stupid.”