breath. Putting every bit of muscle behind his left arm, he twisted his body around and drove that elbow into Mullet’s face.
The Nymar’s head snapped back and his knees started to give. Sid had wound up closer to the hood of the car after inadvertently body-slamming his partner, so he wasn’t close enough to get to Cole just yet. Before that situation changed, Cole fumbled for the pistol wedged under his belt. It was a sloppy draw and, if the .44 was anything but a clunky revolver, could very well have turned him into a eunuch. The gods were smiling on him and his goods because he managed to take out the .44 and drive the barrel straight into Mullet’s chest.
“You guys may not be afraid of guns, but we all know how much damage a shot at this range can do to the little buddy stuck to your heart,” Cole said.
“You’d better be real sure about that!” Mullet replied.
Cole thumbed back the pistol’s hammer. “What do you think my odds are? Fifty-fifty?”
Inching his way around the front of the car, Sid hissed, “Do it and we tear you apart!”
“Shut up, asshole!” Mullet barked.
Although Sid was still baring his fangs, his beard covered all but the pointed tips.
Nodding slowly, Cole looked around to find several small groups of people scattered farther down the street. He looked over to the Nymar in pigtails and said, “You stayed put through all of this, so you must not want things to get worse. Wanna tell your boys to back off, or would you rather wait for the cops to get here?”
The girl had her arms crossed and her lips parted just enough to show the top two sets of fangs extending from her gums. The thicker canine teeth slid against the thinner venomous ones in a way that somehow managed to look sexy. The calm expression on her face and the commanding tone in her voice made it clear she was well past the age she projected.
“You two,” she said. “Heel.”
Mullet and Sid weren’t happy about it, but they obeyed.
Uncrossing her arms to hold them out as if she was expecting a hug, she asked, “Is that good enough for you?”
“All of you know better than to be in this part of town unless you’re looking for us,” Cole pointed out. As an afterthought, he asked, “Were you looking for us?”
“We sure as hell found you, didn’t we?” the girl mused. “But we’ll find somewhere else to play. How’s that?”
“As long as it’s away from here, suits me just fine.”
“Good. Are you Cole?”
Upon hearing his name, Cole felt a twitch in the corner of one eye. Fortunately, he was twitching in too many other places at the moment for that one to stand out. “Just get the hell off of my street.”
He had been waiting a good portion of his life to say something like that. Rather than soak up the moment while imagining tough background music, he tried to keep his glare from cracking and prayed the other three would just go away.
They did.
Once the trio of Nymar disappeared down the alley, Cole kept his head down and walked around to the driver’s side of Paige’s car. The seat was still warm from when he’d last sat in it, but it felt like a week and a half had gone by since he was driving along fantasizing about eating his little hamburgers. Although technically trivial when compared to possibly getting his throat shredded, those burgers brought a smile back to his face.
The taste of victory in a little cardboard box.
Chapter 3
Cole hadn’t felt comfortable anywhere since he’d seen his first werewolf, but the gutted old restaurant off of South Laramie Avenue was a spot where he could sometimes let his guard down. At one point the restaurant had customers, employees, and a real name. Now, all that remained of the place’s former glory was a sign painted onto the front wall that had been partially worn away by the elements and who knows what else. The letters that could still be seen were: RAZA HILL. He parked along the side of the place, collected his bags of food, and hurried in.
“You’ll never guess what happened,” he sputtered the moment he caught sight of Paige sitting on a stool in the kitchen.
She glanced over to him and asked, “Where are my cheese fries?”
“Remember those Nymar I called about? There were three of them, and I chased them away without any help. Hey, wait a second. You seriously weren’t planning on coming to help me?”
“What makes you say that?”
“You’re planted on that stool like nothing happened! What if I got hurt?”
Shrugging, Paige replied, “If you can’t chase off three Nymar, then you’ll never be any help to me. Where’s your weapon?”
“Oh, I left it in the car.”
“But you brought in the food? At least you’ve got your priorities straight.”
“Don’t you want to hear about the Nymar?” Cole asked.
Paige swiveled around on her stool, placed her hands on her knees, and gave him one crisp nod. “Yes, Cole. I want to hear all about the Nymar. After that do I get my cheese fries?”
He dumped the fast food bags onto the counter. “Here you go. The fries and everything else is in there. I’ll go get the rest of my stuff and we can eat.”
“Do you know how cute you are when you pout?”
“Save it.”
After taking his weapon from the front seat, Cole stomped back into the restaurant. He slapped the spear down, grabbed a double cheeseburger from the pile, and tore into the steamed little miracle.
“There,” Paige said. “Feel better now?”
“Yes.”
“Me too. Now I’m ready to hear about the Nymar.”
Cole looked over to find her holding a handful of gooey cheese fries that had all been bitten off in the middle. That same cheese was smeared over a good portion of her mouth, and a few drops had fallen onto the front of her nightshirt. With her hair pulled back into a messy tail, she was anything but glamorous. Somehow, she still managed to get that twitch she’d been after.
Launching into his story while stuffing his face, Cole went through the whole account. By the time he was finished, most of the cardboard burger boxes were empty. Most of the food that hadn’t been eaten was soaked into the front of Paige’s clothes.
“So they weren’t feeding in public?” she asked.
“The guy in the alley was paying for it, but he was out of sight.”
“That’s not a killing offense, but the Nymar are supposed to stay around the Levee or near the Loop. There must be more of them coming back into town after that business with Misonyk was cleared up.”
It had been a while since that name was mentioned. The Nymar were worried about dredging up old demons, and the Skinners were simply glad to be rid of the lunatic who’d used an infected werewolf to try and make a name for himself in Chicago and the adjacent states.
“Things have been quieter than usual since Misonyk was killed,” Paige continued, “but it’s stupid to think that would last too long. Most of the Nymar that left town will be coming back to pick up where they left off.” She picked up one of the onion rings from the two remaining boxes on the counter and then dipped it into some partially hardened cheese from the second container. “Others might come here thinking we’re still soft from what happened before,” she said amidst a pungent, greasy spray. “You said that girl had her hair in pigtails. Were they tied back with bands that had little cats on them?”
“Huh?”
Waving her hand impatiently, Paige said, “Never mind. She was one of Steph’s girls, all right. They all have the
