He didn’t buy it and said, “I hope your friend is okay.”
“She’ll be fine,” I commented, and then grabbed Priscilla by the hand and pulled her out of the restaurant. She didn’t struggle to remove her hand from mine, which was a good indicator that she was thankful to get out of there.
As soon as we were outside, I said, “Over four thousand religions in the world and you come up with The Church of Latter-day Satan?”
“I couldn’t remember the last word, okay?”
“Saints!”
“Get off my ass, okay? I’m not one with Jesus the way you are.”
“You just have to be one with common sense, Priscilla.”
‘Fine!” she groaned and waved her hands at me. “Can we get back to the main issue here? Like why the fuck Cora is ordering a bloody steak in the middle of werewolf city at night?”
I stroked my chin. “Yeah, that’s highly suspicious, I’m not gonna lie.”
“Highly suspicious? Either someone is forcing her to buy that shit, or she has lost her damn mind.”
“Lost her mind? Look, it’s a strange scenario that I don’t quite understand yet, but her losing her mind is quite the leap, don’t you think?”
Priscilla stepped toward me, the snow crunching beneath her big boot. She raised her finger to my face and with a cold breath said, “That girl has been a diehard vegetarian since before I even knew her. Tell me why a vegetarian would be asking a cook to serve her the wettest, juiciest, bloodiest, rawest piece of meat they have?”
Cora being a vegetarian had completely slipped my mind. Priscilla was right, this was even weirder than I initially thought.
I remained calm, despite Priscilla’s now nervous edge. “What do you want to do?” I asked.
“We need to get back to Max. He’s gonna lose his shit.”
Chapter Eight
PRISCILLA
I was all ready for this to be quick and easy. I’d hitch a ride with Max, we’d do a little searching for Cora, and then maybe find her having a drink at a bar. She’d tell us a stupid-ass story about how she came down here to save the animals or something as equally nerdy, we’d laugh at Max for worrying too much, and then we’d go back to our boring lives as if nothing ever happened.
That’s what I prepared for. But after the visit to the diner, I didn’t know what I was expecting anymore.
Over the past few hours, I had grown used to talking Max down from his overactive imagination about where Cora was, but the second he wasn’t around for me to scoff at for being crazy, I was suddenly relating to his mindset. Her buying the steak shouldn’t have been such a big deal, but I knew this bitch, and this was not her. Not one damn bit.
Daggett and I walked through the miserable snow back to the gas station. The whole time my cheeks were stinging from the cold air. I hated Michigan weather in general, but the winters here were absolutely criminal with how harsh they were. If I had more than fifty bucks in my bank account, I’d be living on the west coast and relaxing by the beach with a drink in my hand, not suffering in this ass of a town.
Daggett offered me his coat, and I looked at him like he was insane. It had to be in the twenties and there was snow on the ground, yet he was willing to freeze to death just to be chivalrous. I told him to keep the coat because I couldn’t deal with his death on my conscience.
When we got back to the gas station, Max’s car was still parked, but he and the werewolf girl weren’t back yet. I whipped out my phone and called Max, but because this place was an entire shithole I got absolutely no service. “Great,” I growled, and then slid my cell back into my coat pocket.
“What?” Daggett asked as he leaned against the hood of the car. I don’t know if it was the lights above the gas pumps shining on him or what, but I was suddenly aware of how big, blue, and puffy his winter coat was. It was one of those insulated coats with the horizontal lines running across it, and with a long string hanging from the hood. It looked like it was swallowing him, and despite my urge to make fun of it, I managed to resist.
“I can’t get a signal,” I told him.
“What?” he shouted. I wandered a few feet away from him to try for better reception, and because of that, he was too far away to hear. He pushed off from the hood and approached me.
“I can’t get a signal,” I repeated.
“Yeah, I figured you wouldn’t.” Daggett stood in front of me, and it blocked out some of the cold breeze. I felt actual warmth coming from him. It was kind of nice, no lie. “Cellphone reception here was bad before, but with all the wires being down, I doubt you’ll ever get through to him.”
“Well, what the fuck do we do now?”
“We wait. Max and Dana said they’d meet us back here. Just chill.”
“With how fucking cold it is out here, we’re gonna be doing just that.”
From behind me, I suddenly heard a rustle in the bushes and what I swore to God was footsteps. I spun around, and with the ice beneath my feet, I almost fell and broke my ass. Thank God Daggett didn’t see. I didn’t need to look like a dumbass.
“Did you hear that?” I asked.
Daggett practically threw himself in front of me. “I’ll protect you.”
I rolled my eyes and shoved him out of the way. “Put your penis
