Lori Handeland - Marked by the Moon

She needed to get outside, then to the trees where she could perhaps hide long enough to shape-shift, make her way back to Barlowsville, and blow the whistle on the wolf in their midst.

It wasn’t much of a plan, but it was all she had. And it started with knocking Cade senseless enough for her to have a head start.

Before she could think too hard and too long about what she was about to do, Alex snatched up one of the glass globes full of water and snow and Alana, then she pitched it right at Cade’s head.

It was a good throw—a great one, in fact. She put everything she’d ever learned from Charlie into it. All those years of instruction, of practice, combined with her increased strength, and she just knew that pitch was going to cause some damage.

Until Cade reached up with that surprising speed, snatching the thing out of the air an instant before it would have broken his nose.

Julian strode toward the back door, the change trickling over him like a winter wind. His jeans split at the seams, bursting open to allow his haunches free.

His fury at his brother for wrecking everything, combined with his fury at himself for not realizing it, allowing him to open the back door with hands on the end of paws before he shouted from a snout that should not have been able to form words, “Bring the others.”

Then he hit the ground loping, following the scent of Cade and Alex down the street, out of town, then around and around and around. He knew she couldn’t be far, but he also couldn’t figure out in what direction they’d gone.

The scents overlapped; they went one way, then curled back the other. He was so angry, so upset, so— yes, he admitted it—scared his focus was shot to shit. He felt as if his brain would explode, so he plopped onto his haunches and lifted his nose to the moon.

“Oooo www-exxxxx!” he called, and the moon answered.

Julian, it whispered in a voice that rumbled through his blood. Julian.

His head whipped to the right. There .

He pulled on his power and the next instant…

He saw her.

Alex went for the door. Of course he’d had her close it. Not that its being wide open would have helped. Not when he was ancient, and she was so brand new. His speed was legend, and hers…Well, hers was not.

Her fingers had no more than brushed the doorknob, and he was there, slamming her head against it, making her as dazed as she’d wanted him to be.

She recovered quickly enough, which made her realize that her plan had been crappier than she’d thought. Cade would have recuperated from glass to the noggin before she’d run fifty yards from the house.

“Nice try,” he said. “But I was kind of waiting for that. I read the dossier, remember? And there was that one article about you competing in a softball tournament.”

Her neck burned; she hissed in a breath that smelled of scalded flesh, ashes, and silver. The knife glittered next to her face.

“Everyone was so amazed at your talent. How fast you could pitch. How accurate and so darn hard. Where had you been? What had you been doing?” He chuckled. “I bet Edward loved that.”

“Not so much,” she managed through the pain. Was he going to hold that silver knife against her neck until she caught fire? And how could he hold silver anyway?

He lifted the blade from her skin, where he’d merely been resting it, though it had felt as if he’d plunged the weapon straight home, and she noted the thick iron hilt that kept the silver from touching him.

Edward had seen the article, too. Edward saw everything. Boy, had he let her have it.

Jäger-Suchers did not waste time; they did not play games. Jäger-Suchers did not allow their pictures to be taken; they definitely did not allow them to be printed in the paper. Jäger-Suchers did not draw attention.

Alex had never played in a softball tournament again.

“There was a follow-up article,” Cade said. “About how you disappeared. How your name was false. How you paid in cash. They even tried to match your fingerprints, but huh—the entire hotel room had been wiped down. And your van had fake plates.”

“Welcome to my world,” Alex muttered.

Cade slammed her head against the door again, then leaned in close and whispered, “Welcome to mine.”

In the distance the howl of a wolf lifted into the night. Alex realized how hard Cade had hit her when the howl began to sound like her name.

“Julian,” she whispered, and Cade smacked her again. Strangely he didn’t appear to hear that howl, or if he did he wasn’t worried. Which scared her more than the knife had. He should be more afraid of Julian.

“You ruined him,” Cade continued. “All he can think about is you. He let the most beautiful woman in the world walk away. You killed her, and yet he trails after you panting.” He yanked her upright. “Open the door.”

Still a little woozy, Alex said, “Wha—? Why?”

“I’m not going to defile her place with your blood.”

“Ashes.” Alex managed to get her hand on the handle, but it wasn’t easy. “Not blood.”

“You think I’m going to kill you fast?” Cade asked, then he picked her up by the back of the neck and tossed her into the night.

Alex skidded across the ice, the robe riding up to her hips, the uneven surface dragging furrows in her skin. She scrambled to her feet, and Cade landed on her back, driving her face into the snow.

“You killed her,” he said again, as if she didn’t already know. “You’re gonna pay in blood. Every last drop of it before you die.” He stood, hauling her along, too. “I’d like to study it anyway.” He turned the knife this way and that, considering the spark of moonlight across the blade. “For that I’ll need the blood outside and not in.”

He was stronger than she’d thought, quicker than he’d ever appeared as he dragged her to the rear of the monster truck and strapped her to the tailgate. The truck was so hopped up on its oversize tires that her feet barely touched the ground.

Alex fought, but Cade was no longer the lame little brother. She understood now that he never had been.

“You pretended to be a science geek—”

“I didn’t have to pretend that.” He slashed the knife through the air like Zorro. “I love playing with blood. You would not believe some of the things I’ve got cooking in my lab. Julian has no idea. He’s all brawn. Always has been. I could make a whole new monster with what I’ve got in there. Once I’m in charge, I’m going to. Edward won’t know what hit him.”

Alex’s eyes widened. Maybe Edward hadn’t been lying about everything. Maybe it was just that the werewolf army he’d suspected was the brainchild of a different Barlow, and maybe the army wasn’t even werewolves at all.

“Were you ever working on a serum to de-evil the other werewolves?”

“I wouldn’t do that to them. Why be a werewolf if you can’t enjoy killing people?”

“So you lied to your brother about the serum?”

Cade cocked his head, his gaze lowering to her chest. From the flare in his eyes, Alex figured the robe had drooped open.

She glanced down. She’d been right; the slight swell of her breasts was tipped by moonlight.

Another flash of silver and flames erupted from the four-inch slit Cade put in her chest. He’d obviously done this before, because he did it just right. If he cut too deeply she’d be doing a Joan of Arc imitation. Instead he just grazed the surface enough to cause blood to flow down her ribs like rain, putting out the tiny fire and leaving just a little bit of smoke.

“Honey,” Cade murmured, licking his lips, “I lied to my brother about everything.”