The Better to Bite(76)

My dad didn’t fire again.

Rafe raced toward me. He grabbed me.

I held him tight. Just as tightly as Brent had held me seconds before.

“It’s not him!” I looked back at the trees on the right. My dad was there, with his rifle cocked. Two wolves were at his side. “Rafe didn’t do anything! He and Brent saved me!”

But my dad wasn’t lowering his weapon.

“Get away from them, Anna!” His order.

No.

“Get them help!” I ordered right back. I wouldn’t look at Valerie again. I couldn’t. “Lower your weapon and help us!”

My dad’s weapon slowly—very slowly—lowered. “Anna?”

Everything was starting to get even darker around me. My clothes were soaked with blood.

Rafe’s head leaned toward me. He was all I could see then. “Don’t leave me,” he whispered.

We were in the woods, the woods I should have feared, but I wasn’t scared anymore.

My heart seemed too loud in my ears. The cold too rough on my skin.

“Don’t leave me,” Rafe said again.

I shook my head. My eyes were starting to close. I managed to lift my hand and touch his cheek.

But…

Something was wrong.

My hand—it looked funny. My nails were too long. Too sharp.

Like claws.

“Christ, no.” My dad’s voice. Then he was there, pulling me away from Rafe and cradling me in his arms. “It’s gonna be okay, baby, everything’s gonna be okay.”

I wondered why my dad was lying to me. I could always tell when he lied.

Okay didn’t live there anymore. I don’t think it had ever lived in Haven.

The wolves shifted back into human form around us. Mr. Channing. Deputy Jon.

My dad held me tighter. “I’ll stop it. You’ll be okay.”

But everything was slipping away from me.

The dark took me, and the last sound I heard was a wolf’s long, mournful howl.





Chapter Seventeen


Two weeks later, I went back to school. Mr. Knoxley nodded to me when I headed down the hallway. Cheerleaders talked excitedly. Troy shoved some freshman against the lockers, and I only caught a few frowning stares that were directed my way.

The world had moved on.

Valerie had been buried. Shot twice with silver bullets, there had been no more movie-monster risings for her.

I’d been in the hospital for a week. I didn’t remember much of that time, but when I’d woken up, dad had told me that Valerie was gone. The killings were finished.

Haven was back to just being…Haven.

Home of the monsters. The cursed. And me.

I hadn’t seen Rafe or Brent. My dad had basically put me under house lockdown until I’d gotten my strength back. They’d both sent flowers. Roses. Blood-red.

I’d caught sight of a wolf from my window a few times. Watching me with yellow eyes.

Rafe.

Somehow, I could tell the wolves apart. No one else could, but I knew them now. Maybe I knew them too well.

The bell rang, and I slammed my locker shut. I turned around—and almost slammed into Cassidy’s cousin, James.

He stared at me with his dark eyes. “Thank you.”

I hadn’t been able to see Cassidy. Doctor’s orders. Her doctor. But my dad was working hard, pulling every string he had, and so far, no charges had been filed against her.

It turned out that Valerie had been the one to give Cass the gun. After we’d all left Granny Helen’s shop that day, Valerie had told Cass stories about the wolves, about how vicious they were, how they wouldn’t ever stop, not unless someone stopped them.

Valerie had given Cass the weapon and even dropped her off at the theater. While Cass went in, mad with her grief and rage, Valerie had used that time to slip into the station and find the journal.

Then she’d torched the place for added fun. While the building burned, she’d snuck away with the journal and learned all of Haven’s secrets.

Had Valerie ever thought that Cass might get shot when she rushed into that theater? Probably. I figured she hadn’t cared, either way.

“Tell Cass that it’s over,” I told James.

He nodded, but hesitated. “You sure?”

I forced a smile. “It was just one rogue. Everything that happened, it was Valerie.”

That was my dad’s story.

My dad didn’t keep secrets from me.

I rubbed my neck and walked away. The rash was gone, but so was my necklace.

Jenny headed toward me. Her face was tense, the usual perk definitely missing from her step. She leaned in close to me. “Are you okay?”

The smile was still on my face. Good. I didn’t have to force it twice. “I’m getting there.” If my nightmares would just stop.

They would, though, sooner or later.

“You’re the hero, you know.” Her steps matched mine as we headed to homeroom. “Not that many folks know what you did, but I—I do. Brent told me everything.” She swallowed and her hand brushed my arm. “OhmyGod, I had her in my house. She could have killed me, but you—”