“Okay, fine, but not with him. He’s needy and nerdy and probably has a scab collection.”
“The lady doth protest too much.”
“Is that some Lord Of The Rings bullshit or something?”
“Try Shakespeare.”
“I’d rather not.”
I exhaled. “I don’t know, there’s a vibe going on with you two, Priscilla. I could feel it in my bones.”
“You ought to get that checked out. Could be cancerous.”
I was in the middle of replying to her when the front door was practically broken down, and Max and Daggett came running in. They were covered in sweat, snow, and their clothes looked disheveled and thrown on in a hurry. Max was in a panic and checking around the room, but once he saw me, he settled down a tad and seemed relieved. “Oh, shit, thank God.”
“What happened?” Priscilla asked. “You two look like you’ve been humping in the woods.”
“We gotta get out of here. Quick,” Max said. I hated the tone of his voice. It was panicked, and Max wasn’t one to easily panic, so I knew something bad was heading our way.
“Priscilla, get the girls,” I ordered.
Priscilla did as I asked, and as she passed the three of us, I heard her under her breath say, “Hi butthead,” to Daggett. Daggett did his best not to smirk but failed.
“What’s going on?” I inquired quietly.
“Molly and one of the other girls jumped us. I was able to fight Molly off, but who knows how long she’s going to stay down. They’re probably following us, so I need to install the battery now,” Max replied.
“Can you do it fast enough?”
“It doesn’t matter. I’ll push the fucking car if I have to.”
“Oh, god.” He really was spooked. I hated it. I hated it.
“I just needed to come here first and make sure they hadn’t gotten to you and—” His eyes trailed down to the bandages wrapped around my arms and he suddenly went pale. “What the hell happened?”
“Tiffany happened.”
Max took a step back and rubbed his hand over the stubble on his chin. “I left you,” he said, pained. “I said nothing would happen to you. Jesus Christ.”
“Nothing did. We took care of it.” I gestured over to the sheet on the floor that was covering Tiffany’s body, and Max followed my eyes. He took in the sight, but there was no relief in his stare that we had defended ourselves. There was only guilt and regret. “Hey,” I said as I stroked his left bicep. “We don’t have time for the pity party, all right? We gotta get out of here.”
He nodded. “I’m gonna start on the car, but I want you all out there with me. No more splitting up.”
“Finally!” Priscilla said as she reentered the room and threw her hands up. It was a fair assumption that this was something they had argued about previously, especially when Max looked like he was restraining himself from rolling his eyes.
Within the next few minutes, we all grabbed a few warm blankets and headed outside. Max worked under the hood of the car while the rest of us packed ourselves inside. I sat in the front passenger seat, and they all squished together in the back. Priscilla ended up on Daggett’s lap, which put a smile on his face, and she did her best to act as irritated as possible. She wasn’t, though. She was flattered.
“We can swap,” I told her.
“No. I’m not taking the seat with no window. I’ll freeze to death,” she replied.
I looked over at the gaping hole where the glass should be and asked, “What exactly happened here?”
“Dana tried to kill me.”
“That’s not exactly the full story,” Daggett commented.
Priscilla twisted her body till she was facing him, their noses mere inches apart. “What part of her ‘turning into a werewolf and trying to eat me’ is not the full story?”
He hesitated. “That she felt bad about it?”
Priscilla groaned.
Looks like I missed quite the event.
“I do feel bad about that, in case you were wondering,” Dana whispered. “You have every right to hate me for it. I wouldn’t blame you.”
Priscilla rolled her eyes. “My body has a limit to how much hate it can carry before I start getting premature wrinkles.”
I smiled. That was Priscilla’s bitchy way of saying she didn’t hold it against her.
I got to my knees and peeked over the seat at Melanie in the back. She had been quiet and a little fidgety, so I wanted to check up on her. “Are you doing all right? You haven’t said much since we walked out.”
“I’ll be alright,” she said. Usually, I don’t believe someone when they say that, but her voice sounded genuine. She and Dana must have had a nice talk. I was thankful for that.
“Are you gonna be able to handle being cramped in here with all of us, especially when my cuts are still mildly fresh?”
“Yeah, yeah. It’s okay, Dana gave me some of her blood to help with my hunger.”
That was about the last thing I expected to hear. I probably should have been aghast, concerned, weirded out, you name it. Instead, I was mostly curious. “You can do that?” I asked.
“It didn’t hurt that much,” Dana said with a casual shrug. She explained it like she would if she were getting her ears pierced for the first time.
How was something so strange and brand new almost normal for her? But then I realized I was also talking about a werewolf. Strange was her normal.
I glanced down at Dana’s arm and saw a large gash where Melanie had drank from, and I felt a chill go up and down my body. The concept of being bitten and slowly drained was unsettling and, quite frankly, terrifying. It was surprising that Dana was willing
