Jace shook his head. “I can’t, David. You know I can’t.”
David frowned. “No. I know you don’t want to. There’s no
Jace shot him a glare and tightened his grip on the flask, wishing there was still whiskey in it. “You should know better than anyone that I can’t, David. I refuse to be anything like that dirtbag piece of shit who was my father.”
“I hate to say it, Jace, but forget your daddy issues for a minute and screw your head on straight. Shifting doesn’t mean you’re anything like your lowlife father. You’re not a coward. You need to face any personal issues you may have and do this. The longer you wait, the more women that monster will slaughter. And the only way you’ll be like your father is if you sit around and do nothing to save them.” David slowly rose from the stoop and reached for the door.
Jace sighed. “You sure have a way with words.”
David paused. “Being a closet book nerd all those years in high school came with a few perks, aside from keeping me golden in Allsun’s eyes. She always loved it when I’d read the books she liked.”
A smirk crept across Jace’s face. “You were such a pansy back then.”
“Bite me.”
“Gladly.”
David lingered in the doorway, burning holes into Jace’s back with his heavy gaze. Jace stared at the concrete in front of him. The image of the dead women’s bodies, shredded before they were sexually violated in death, was seared into his memory. Their faces would never leave. They’d had years of life ahead of them, families and loved ones to miss them. And so would any others who that bastard targeted. Yet here he sat, wasting precious time as he sulked about his pathetic issues and tried to preserve his own sanity. And for what? So he could spend the rest of his days living like a drunken bum?
“That was a shitty move, David, playing on a guy’s emotions like that. But I’ll do it.” Then he mumbled a few creative profanities to show what he thought about that decision.
David laughed and stepped inside the building.
“We’re leaving soon, before I change my mind,” Jace yelled after him. Then he let out a long sigh. The killer knew who he was. How did Robert know him? Why would he want Jace’s attention?
Robert’s cold blue eyes lingered in Jace’s mind.
A gust of cold wind slapped against Jace’s back and sent a shiver down his spine. He forced himself to remember the contorted look of rage on his father’s face as he transitioned, stopping somewhere between man and wolf, the ripping sound his claws made as they tore into his mother’s clothes. His eyes had been just as cold as Robert’s. At only ten years old, Jace had wanted to carve out the man’s heart with a dull-bladed knife. The bastard deserved a slow and painful death, and Jace hoped he’d had one. And now he was about to become a monster, just like his old man.
If there was a God, Jace really needed his help.
THE DOOR TO the apartment creaked open, and Frankie shot to her feet, scrubbing the tears away and straightening her clothes. The scrawny guy with the mop of wavy hair stepped into the room, and she sank down to the ground again. What was his name?
“Sorry, if you want me to clear out I will,” she said. “I don’t want to intrude.”
“Oh, no, by all means stay. My grandmother will be out late. She loves her bingo.”
She nodded. There was something about him. She couldn’t decide whether it was his gold-rimmed glasses, his hollowed-out cheekbones or the fact that underneath all the displays of intellect he was kind of attractive—in a nerdy way. If he took off his glasses and put his hair in a ponytail, he could even be hot.
“I don’t think I ever introduced myself. I’m Dr. Shane Gray” He nodded and gave her a nervous smile, one that clearly showed he wasn’t used to socializing.
“Frankie. Nice to meet you, Doc.” She fiddled with the hem of her shirt. “Thanks for fixing me up. Guess your years of med school worked in my favor.”
“Actually, I’m not a physician.”
She lifted her eyebrows. “Then how did you—”
“I read...a lot,” he said.
“So you’re a hunter, too, then?”
He bit his lower lip before he answered, as if he wasn’t sure he wanted to share. “In theory, yes. I don’t really work out in the field often. My doctorate is in the study of the paranormal and the history of religion, specifically the occult.” He paused and glanced at his feet. “I’m more of a consultant than an actual hunter.”
“Oh. There’s nothing wrong with that.” She smiled and tried to be encouraging. A moment of silence passed. She tapped her fingernails against the floor, then looked up at him again. “No hunting at all? None?”
Shane shook his head. Silence fell over them again, but this time he broke the quiet. “He’ll change his mind, you know.”
“Excuse me?” She tilted her head to the side.
“Jace is stubborn, but he’s not a bad person. What happened to those women will motivate him, and if it doesn’t, David will. He’ll shift.”
“And he’ll hate me.” She sighed, and her whole body deflated. “I didn’t want to lie to him, but if he knew, he might have killed me since the opportunity was there. Once he let me go and we started working together, I couldn’t admit it. I knew this would happen.”
The door opened, and they both fell silent. Frankie sat up straight as Jace stepped into the room. His gaze darted between them.
Shane cleared his throat. “I’ll go downstairs and check on David. I might’ve missed something when I was examining him earlier.” He rushed out of the apartment, cleaning his glasses with the edge of his shirt as he went.
The door closed, and Jace leaned his weight against it as soon as he’d locked it.
He pointed over his shoulder with his thumb. “Shane is kind of a nerd,” he said. “A lovable nerd.”
She nodded. “Yeah, I noticed.”
A long moment passed. Frankie stared at her feet, while Jace shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. She watched him from the corner of her eye. She tried not to imagine where the zipper led. She blushed.
He was the first to break the silence. “I’ll do it,” he said.
She glanced toward him, hoping he meant what she thought he did. “Do what?”
“You know what I’m talking about. Do I need to spell it out? I’ll learn how to shift.”
Her shoulders relaxed. “You’re serious?”
“No, I’m telling you this just for shits and giggles.” He nodded. “Yeah, I’m serious. I can’t let any more women die.”
She wanted to run to his side, throw her arms around him and thank him, but she didn’t think that would go well, so she settled for plain and simple. “Thank you.”
He pointed at her. “Listen. I’m not doing it for you, I’m doing it for those girls.”
She sighed. “Can’t you stop hating me for just one minute?”
He turned away.
When he didn’t respond, she stood and marched toward him. “I never wanted to lie, Jace. I’m not a liar.”
He faced her again and his jaw clenched into a sharp angle. “No? Because it sure seems to me like you lied.”
“You held a gun to my head, Jace, and you expect me to think you wouldn’t have killed me if you’d known?” She dropped her hands to her sides. How could he not understand her reasoning?
He growled as if she’d insulted his manhood. “I don’t kill women.”
“Yeah, well I’m not a normal woman. I’m a werewolf, and you hunt women like me. Remember?”
He stepped forward, towering over her. If she’d been a weaker woman, she might have been intimidated. “I’ve never hurt a woman.” He stepped away from her and moved to the other side of the room. He pulled aside
