Dani Harper - First Bite

As she leaned against the wall, sides heaving and stomach churning, she thought of her penthouse bedroom. That was where that brutish yellow wolf had knocked her down. Perhaps the chain of the pendant had broken? Perhaps the clasp had loosed itself? Of course it had. It had to have come apart in the struggle…

But it hadn’t. Hours later, the penthouse resembled the sanctuary, furniture upended, windows broken, and entire sections torn from the carpet. Sober at last, Meredith looked even worse than the room, the former rosiness of her skin replaced with a ghastly pallor. Her hair was dull and tangled, and mascara pooled beneath her lower lids. She stood at a ruined window, clenching and unclenching her fists until her palms bled from her now-ragged nails. Her satin wrap was half on, half off, but she was heedless of the cold ocean breeze on her naked skin. The only thing she was aware of was the realization that her wolves were gone . Her carefully created, painstakingly accumulated army of wolves was never coming back. She was completely and utterly alone.

A wailing sound bubbled up from somewhere deep within. By the time it emerged from her throat, it was a long, lingering howl of purest anguish…

And terrible retribution.

Travis curled himself around Neva, placing himself between her and the night. He’d found them a shallow cave-like space beneath an overhanging tree on the hillside. She was too tired to make another Change, and he decided he could keep her much warmer if he remained a great furry wolf. She needed to rest, and as far as he was concerned, she could sleep for days if she needed to. He was in awe of what she’d achieved. She believed the power of the black stone was responsible for what had happened, but thanks to his grandfather’s teachings, he knew better. It could only amplify something that was already there. Neva had been the one to call together the natural energies around her and use them to deliver an amazing act of compassion. Instead of taking control of the wolves for herself, she’d freed them completely, now and always. It was a masterstroke, a brilliant move against Meredith. The bitch would have to start all over from scratch if she wanted to keep her little empire together. Except that Neva probably hadn’t given a single thought to any of that. She hadn’t planned it. To her, releasing Meredith’s army was simply the right thing to do.

Travis was so proud of her, he could burst.

He watched over her until the sun rose and flooded the cave with light. Neva rolled over and rubbed her eyes, and he couldn’t help but nuzzle her. Go back to sleep. You don’t have to get up yet.

“But I have to pee ,” she protested, struggling to climb over him.

Travis wisely got out of the way, and took the opportunity to shift back to his human form. When Neva returned, the sun was behind her, shadowing her features and highlighting the long blonde hair she’d adopted in order to pass for her twin. He frowned. “You’re going to change that back to your natural color, right?”

“I dunno. Blondes are supposed to have more fun.” She laughed as she sat beside him, and tried to push back the furrows in his brow with her fingers. “But after the last couple days, I’ve had enough fun to last me a long time. Maybe I’ll dye my hair red. Or hey, what about purple? I saw someone in Portland with the most beautiful violet—”

He groaned.

“Was that you or your inner wolf?”

“Both, I think.”

“So what do we do now?”

“We get the hell out of here. Meredith may not have an army, but she’s dangerous all by herself, and now we’ve really pissed her off.” He paused, as if measuring whether or not to say anything more. Finally he did. “It was too easy, you know. Way too easy.”

“What? What the hell was easy about these last few days?”

“Think it through, Neva. If Meredith had come after us herself, we’d never have escaped.”

“So why didn’t she?”

“Overconfidence,” he said. “She underestimated you. She expected you to—”

“She expected me to just roll over and let her have her way. Let her win. Just like always.” Neva rested her forehead on Travis’s shoulder. “You’re right.”

“Here’s something else I’m right about—she won’t make that mistake twice.”

“Jeez, are you trying to cheer me up?”

“Come on. We’ll walk back until we cross another trail that’ll take us someplace civilized. I know we passed a fork not that far back.”

Neva pulled a cell phone from her pocket. “Nope, that one would take us north, toward Meredith.” She showed him a map of the Damnation Creek Trail she’d pulled up onscreen. “Ta-da!”

He squinted at the small image. “So if we pass the point where we stumbled onto it, it looks like it heads southeast.”

“And the trailhead is right on Highway 101,” said Neva, tracing the tiny line with her pinkie. “We could hitchhike south from there.” She snapped the phone shut, folded her arms across her chest, and looked him straight in the eye. “If we’re still together, that is.”

Travis’s heart plummeted to his shoes. “I know you have some questions, but this isn’t a good time.”

“There is no good time. We’ve been on the run ever since you found me. So I’m asking my questions right now, at least the important ones. You told me that the Changeling code forbids the killing of humans. You said it was the highest law in your world, and I believed you.”

“It is the highest law.”

“I wasn’t about to take Meredith’s word for anything, so I want to hear it from you. She said you killed people. Is that true?”

He’d dreaded this moment. How many times had he rehearsed different things he could say to her? Reasons. Excuses. Explanations. Anything so she wouldn’t look at him with disgust, loathing, or worst of all, fear. In the end, there was nothing but the truth—and she deserved nothing less. He felt like the bleeding remnants of his soul were laid bare as he managed to choke out a single word. “Yes.”

“But you didn’t kill Meredith. You caught her by surprise. All it would have taken was a single bite, and you didn’t kill her.”

“What? No—Christ, she’s your sister. You don’t want her dead, you told me so yourself.”

She nodded. “Exactly. So I figure you’re not necessarily a murderer by nature. Maybe you should try telling me what really happened to you.”

The story didn’t burst out of him, not like when he’d returned to the bower, determined to make a confession. Instead it came out quietly and slowly, sometimes haltingly. Through it all, Neva listened—and when he looked down, she was holding his hand.

“That’s why you’re alone, isn’t it?” she asked at last.

“I’m related to most of the pack. If I’d gone back, they would have had to decide what to do with me—kill me or banish me. I was young, and I told myself it would be better to save them the trouble of having to make that kind of decision. I think I was actually just too ashamed to face them. I’ve often thought since that I should have gone back, should have tried to explain what happened. But they’d still have to make that decision, even after all these years. It’s the law.” For some reason, he suddenly remembered the cardboard sign he’d seen a homeless man holding outside a Denny’s, back when Travis had first decided to get Neva out of the hospital. “You can’t go back and fix the past.”

“No. But you can make the present and the future a whole lot better.”

He blinked at the simple wisdom. “Yeah, I guess that’s right.”