Sealed With a Curse(56)

Aric’s knitted brows told me nothing I could say would piss him off any more than he was. I angled around to allow my sisters out. Funny thing, none of them seemed excited about leaping out of the car and doing the runway walk for the wolves.

“Damn,” Koda muttered when he got a good look at me.

“What. Happened?”

Aric’s deep voice mimicked the same tone he used when he’d asked what I was doing at Misha’s pad. Gee, I wondered why. Could it be that beneath all the grime, blood, and lingering aroma of gruesome death, he still managed to draw in Misha’s scent?

I sighed. “Misha’s innocent. Zhahara’s compound was loaded with vampires in various stages of bloodlust. They’d been hunting humans for weeks and bringing them back for her to eat. We wiped out most of them, but at least two got away.”

Aric spoke to the werebear next to him while his eyes stayed locked on mine. “Take two teams and check it out. If you pick up the trail of any vampires, find them. If they’re infected—kill them. Anything else needs to be brought to The Den for questioning.”

The werebear whipped out a phone as he and the other nonwolves jumped into the Highlander and Escape. “I need my clan and Aric’s assembled in South Tahoe now. Zhahara’s compound. Don’t act alone. We’re on our way.”

“Shayna!” Koda ran to her when she scuttled out, but stopped short, dropping his head as if embarrassed by his actions.

“Hey…dude.” She punched him affectionately on the arm, but drew back when she realized she’d left a brownish stain on his shirt. “Um. Sorry…”

I walked toward the house as Koda asked her about being hurt. Liam yelled, “Oh, shit!” when he caught a gander at Emme.

Gemini stepped in front of me. “Where’s Taran?”

“Um. She’ll be out in a minute.” Maybe.

His dark almond eyes shadowed with worry. “Is she harmed?”

No, just covered in slop and possibly vomit. I sidestepped him and hurried toward our slanted driveway. “Ah, no, she’s just, um—”

I never knew Taran could move so fast. She raced past us, covering her face as flaps of tangled and infection-smeared hair bounced behind her. She struggled to unlock the dead bolt, swearing in a way that made Emme blush, until she finally pushed open the door. Within seconds I heard the shower turn on in her room.

“Would you boys like to come in for a bite? It will only take a minute for us to freshen up.”

Emme took positive thinking to a whole new level. I didn’t think anything but a bleach bath and an Ajax scrub would get the crud off my body. And of course, things just continued to get better and better.

A 1971 blue Ford Mustang roared into our neighborhood like a pride of angry lions. Strips of rubber burned into the asphalt as the car slid to an abrupt halt.

Lo and behold, a rabid werewolf stormed out. “Are you crazy?” Bren growled. He stormed toward me, more pissed than I’d ever seen him. Danny leaped out of the passenger seat, tripping in his haste to chase after Bren.

Aric stepped in front of me, blocking my body with his. “Stay away from her.”

Bren snarled. “Fuck. Off.”

I forced my way between them when Aric growled in challenge, locking onto Bren’s wrists and shoving him away with my back. “Aric. Don’t. These are our friends.” The other wolves spread out, circling the three of us plus Danny, who twitched like a cornered squirrel. Shayna and Emme ran to his side, pleading with the wolves not to hurt him.

Aric wouldn’t peel his eyes off Bren. “You’re friends with a lone.”

My spine straightened. “He’s not a lone. He has us. We’re his pack.” I faced Bren when Aric relaxed his attack stance. “What are you doing here?”

Bren’s glare softened slightly when he regarded me. “I’ve been trying to find you since getting Shayna’s e-mail.”

I groaned and whipped my head toward my blabbermouth sister. She scraped her nasty sneaker against the asphalt. “I didn’t give him the deets. I just told him we were helping Misha…and warned him that if we didn’t come back he and Danny needed to flee Tahoe.”

I threw my hands up in the air. “Oh. Is that all?”

“You should have texted me, Shayna. You know I rarely check my e-mail.”

Shayna continued to play with the pebble at her feet. “That’s sort of why I e-mailed you, dude. I knew you’d come after us if you knew right away—”

“And you still did it anyway.” Bren shook his head, his frustration practically burning a hole into the asphalt.

“And we’d do it again,” Shayna countered.