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To get up I planted a hand into my carpeting, felt it stick in something dark and cold. I wiped it on my jeans as I ran for my open door.
A graceful female form appeared, blocking my path. She held a collar in one hand, a coat in the other. Sike.
“Well, this was unexpected. ” Sike picked her way in, stepping lightly around the bloodstains on the floor.
“Something you didn’t plan for? Unlikely,” I said, but thank goodness she was here. Maybe she would be able to make some sense of this mess. I willed myself not to dust off my bloodstained knees.
“Cross my heart and swear to die,” Sike said, unconvincingly. She reached a hand out to Veronica, where Lucas still had her pinned to the floor. “Unhand my sister,” she told Lucas, and he looked to me before responding.
“You know her?”
“Too well. ”
He released Veronica slowly, ready for her to pounce at him. Sike blocked her way.
“I’m from her. Shhh, now. I’m from her. ” Sike rubbed her hands over Veronica’s head like she was petting a cat, and the newly born vampire responded like one, bending toward her. “They’re all mad for a few nights,” Sike said, by way of explanation. “It’s quite the change, or so I’ve been told. ” She ran her hand through Veronica’s short hair, kneading the other woman’s neck. Sike brought Veronica’s head to her chest, cooing at her as one might at a newborn child, and slipped the coat and collar on in one fluid motion, buckling the collar tight. “Smells like wolf in here,” she said, and glared at Lucas.
“Not me,” he said, rocking up to a stand. “It’s why I rushed in. ” Lucas stepped and moved around Sike and Veronica, never showing them his back. Then he glanced into my kitchen. “And that would explain it. ”
I stood and followed. There was a man on my kitchen floor, shadowed by my counter. A white guy wearing a blue tracksuit with a hood. Gnawed. Dead. “Did you know him?” Lucas asked me.
“I’ve never seen him before in my life. Why is he here?” I hissed, trying not to sound hysterical.
“I don’t know who he is, but I know what she fed on,” Sike said, bringing Veronica up to a stand. She left bloodstained indentions on my carpet in the shape of her high heels, like tiny hoofprints. “We’re going. Where’s the gimp?”
I almost ran my hands through my hair, which would’ve carried blood and worse with them. “He’s in the closet. But you can’t take him if he doesn’t want to go. ”
Lucas turned toward me with a raised eyebrow.
“I don’t keep him in there. He was hiding there from her,” I explained, realizing as I did so that it only made me sound more insane. “Gideon—” I called out, and he slid open my hall closet door.
He was wearing my bathrobe, the webcam looking out from where he’d cut a hole into the shoulder. And his fingers were still metal twigs, reclaimed from my toaster oven.
“What. Is. That,” Lucas asked.
“Long story. ” I said. “Gideon—do you want to go wit
h her?”
“What did you do to him?” Sike asked, looking him up and down.
I ignored her. “Gideon, it’s up to you. Honest. ” I knew I wanted him to want to go with her, but I wouldn’t send anyone with her who didn’t want to go. Gideon turned to look at Sike. Then he nodded.
“All right then. Would all the circus freaks in the room please follow me?” Sike held Veronica up and began pulling the woman toward my door.
“Aren’t you going to do anything about him?” I said, pointing toward my kitchen floor. My voice rose with each syllable. I was having to fight hard to keep it down.
“Not my problem. Ask your new boyfriend for help. ”
“Wait—what about what—” I looked from her to Lucas, not sure how much I should confide. “What about what I texted you about?”
Sike also glanced back in Lucas’s direction. “I’ll call you later. ” Then she escorted Veronica out the door. Gideon followed her, my bathrobe fluttering in the night.
* * *
I stood there, looking at a corpse in my kitchen and a bloodstain on my floor, with a man—no, werewolf—I hardly knew.
“Are you sure you don’t know him?” Lucas asked. He leaned down and tossed the corpse for his wallet and keys, like someone familiar with the chore. He pulled the man’s hoodie down so I could get a closer look.
I knelt down. “Still no idea who he is. ”
“I bet you have a strong stomach—but you might want to look away,” Lucas warned. I didn’t. He reached up, put his hand into the corpse’s mouth, and yanked down on the jaw. I heard it pop as it dislocated, and then a wet snapping sound as tendons and muscles inside tore free. Once the jaw hung loose, he ran a finger along the teeth.
“What are you doing?”
“He has fillings. I don’t. Weres don’t get cavities—the moon heals all when you transform, even teeth. So he was made less than a moon ago. ”
