Dani Harper - First Bite

Heart pounding, she shuffled down a series of alleys until she found what she really needed—a car with a set of keys in it. It was a very old Toyota something or other with dented doors and ripped seats, but it would do for her last ride. At least it was unlikely that anyone would seriously miss it, and as she struggled to get into the little car, she wondered suddenly if anyone was going to miss her . To her dismay, her eyes teared up at once.

Shit. Don’t think. Focus on what you’re doing. Neva fumbled for the keys and prayed to any deity that might be listening that the vehicle would start. It coughed and complained, but the engine turned over. Suddenly a pair of headlights flashed in the rearview mirror, and bright light filled the car until Neva had to close her eyes. The downside of being in a small car became apparent anytime a pickup truck or other tall vehicle came up behind you at night. She waited for it to pass, which it did with painful slowness—and stopped directly in front of her. Her eyes flew open just as the door to the Toyota was ripped from its hinges and tossed to one side.

Neva bared her teeth as Travis’s big hands reached for her. “I’m not going with you.”

“You are going with me, and you’re going quietly.” His voice was low, but there was no mistaking the underlying fury in it.

She opened her mouth to let loose a fire-engine shriek, but his iron grip covered it before she finished drawing the breath.

“You want to scream? Fine. But think it through, Neva. The moon. Is. Up. ” He emphasized every syllable.

It was all too true. She could feel the lunar body pulling at her, tugging at some primeval instinct within in the same way that it drew the tides. Her gaze automatically shifted to the east. Blocked by tall buildings, she couldn’t see the moon—but she knew its exact position in the sky.

“You start yelling and humans will come,” he continued. “People who live here in this neighborhood, police, EMTs, you name it. And they’ll all get to see you turn into something they won’t understand. In less than a minute, it’ll be all over YouTube, Facebook, CNN, the works. Live coverage of your Change—and of anyone you injure trying to escape.” Travis released her and stepped back. “I’m your only hope, Neva. Quit fighting me.”

For a brief, flickering moment, she wondered if maybe revealing herself to the whole world would solve her problem. If she proved that werewolves existed, maybe she could reveal Meredith and her gang for the evil they were. It could work, it—

Her eyes rested on the swing set and scattered toys in the yard beside her. Not here, not now. Travis, damn him, was all too right about the human witnesses and the possibility of innocent people getting hurt in this crowded neighborhood.

Neva glared up at her would-be savior. “What exactly do you want from me?”

He shook his head. “Not a damn thing from you personally. Only that it’ll make my life a whole lot easier if the humans don’t know about Changelings. Once you’ve turned, and shown that you’re in control of yourself, I’ll be glad to get out of your life. Deal?”

He struck that Terminator pose again, holding out his enormous hand just as he had at the hospital. What choice did she really have? She held up her casted arm and wiggled her fingers. In a flash he had scooped her out of the car and carried her to the truck. “Borrowed,” he said in answer to her questioning look, and deposited her in the passenger seat none too gently.

When he slid behind the wheel, it was on the tip of her tongue to say something scathing about the oily stink of stale cigarette smoke and god only knew what else that coated every surface of the truck. But as she opened her mouth to speak, the powerful scent of fresh food slammed into her senses, overwhelming all else. A box with a large deluxe pizza dwarfed the dashboard, and bags of burgers and fries and pints of milk were stacked in the middle of the bench seat.

“Dig in,” said Travis, slamming his door twice to make it stay shut. “Shape-shifting throws your metabolism into high gear, and you’ve got to have fuel in your system.”

He was using his lecture voice again, but she wasn’t listening. The sound of four hundred and sixty horses under the old truck’s dented hood barely registered. She was starving . As if she hadn’t seen food in days, she found herself alternately eating from a folded slice of pizza in one hand and a box of fries in the other. “Omigod,” she said with her mouth crammed full. “This isn’t like me at all.”

“That’s because it’s not you. It’s your wolf. Like I said, it needs fuel.”

She stopped abruptly then and allowed the food to drop from her fingers to the floor. “No way. I’m not giving this, this monster one bit more—”

Her words disappeared in a huge gasp as every muscle in her body suddenly spasmed at once, then cramped tight as if she was being squeezed to death in a giant’s grip. A long minute passed, then two, before it released her and eased away. Slowly she became aware of Travis’s big hand firmly engulfing her shoulder.

“You’re okay,” he said. “Just breathe. The moon’s getting higher, and you’re going to Change soon, that’s all.”

That’s all? Nooo, no, no, no, no, no ! She wasn’t doing this. She was supposed to end her life so she didn’t end up a pawn of Meredith’s, so she didn’t hurt anybody, so she didn’t savage the people she loved. She had to do something and do it fast. They were speeding down a dark highway, and she wondered frantically if she should jump—

She hadn’t fully formed the thought before the creature, the thing within her, flat-out panicked. Like a captive animal scrabbling with its front paws in a futile effort to dig its way out of a cage, she could feel the entity struggling inside. Unconsciously, Neva thrashed and slapped at her arms, her legs, her chest, as she felt the creature fighting its way to the surface.

“Be calm!” Travis’s commanding voice overrode the fearful thoughts scampering and clawing in her brain, and his comforting grip on her shoulder turned to iron as he gave her a teeth-rattling shake. “Nothing bad is going to happen to you. You’re safe with me; I won’t let you be hurt.”

The terror—hers and that of the thing inside—eased away, and she took a full breath, finding her voice at last. “Nothing bad? I’m going to turn into what you are, and you say nothing bad is going to happen to me?”

Although he was driving, he turned his head to look at her, his blue eyes intent. “I wasn’t talking to you, Neva. I was talking to your wolf. It’ll make things worse if you frighten it.”

If she frightened it ? She had no idea how to respond to that notion. Nevertheless, the animal within her settled into stillness, and she could almost pretend it wasn’t there. Almost. Except she could now view every detail of the countryside they were passing, each tree and house and fence line. If they slowed down, she knew she’d be able to see every leaf and blade of grass as well. Everything was vivid and distinct despite the time of night, and all silvered by the light of the full moon. Her hearing was keener, too, and she could hear insects, frogs, and night birds even over the sound of the truck’s engine and the noise of the wheels on the road.

She’d run out of time. It was all Travis’s fault, too. If only he hadn’t interfered. If only he hadn’t come back for her—

Neva sighed. She wasn’t one for indulging in if only s—if she did, the long, heavy list of if only s in her life would weigh her down to her knees and she’d never get up again. No point in cringing in terror, either. The creature inside her had succeeded in weirding her out, but she wasn’t going to let it pull a stunt like that again. And she was going to put up a helluva fight if the beast thought for one moment it was going to be in charge.