Deceived By the Others

chapter 6



Over dessert, a few of the other Weres came over and introduced themselves, switching out seats with ones at our table every few minutes so everyone got a chance to talk to me or Chaz. Some of the Weres who hadn’t been too cordial with me earlier warmed up over this reception.

After dessert, some left, headed for their cabins or the gaming room. Daisy the bartender put a hockey game on the big screen, pouring drinks for the guys who exchanged their tables for bar stools. The evening was winding down.

Paula, Kimberly, Sean, Nick, and two other Weres I knew, Simon and Dillon, joined us for a round of beers at the table. Everyone was pleasant except Paula, who seemed a bit surly and quiet since returning from a short trip to her cabin. I didn’t pay her much mind, as everyone else was making up for her silence.

Simon and Dillon had been present for the fight I had miraculously survived in the basement of Royce’s daytime resting place about a month ago. The same one during which I’d drunk some of Royce’s blood so Max Carlyle couldn’t call me to his side. Seeing them again made it difficult to forget, as I’d tried so hard to do. It must have been hard for them to see me, too; they’d lost their friend, Vincent, in that fight.

Neither one mentioned a thing about what had happened, keeping the conversation limited to sports and movies, and it helped put me at ease.

“There’s a special midnight showing of Rocky Horror downtown on Friday the thirteenth. You guys want to come?” Dillon asked, looking far too excited at the prospect. Most of us groaned. “You know it’s going to be wild!”

“You’ve got to be kidding.”

“Oh, come on! It’s a classic.”

Kimberly shook her head, smoothing dyed blond locks out of her face. “I don’t know. Seeing Tim Curry running around in fishnets and heels is a little too disturbing for my tastes.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” Sean said, making a face.

“Reminds me a little too much of a vamp. Wonder if he is one?”

Speculation quieted the rest of us for a minute, as we thought over the possibilities.

“I heard you got bound by a vamp.” Paula turned to me suddenly, cutting the easy conversation to bits. Her tone was icy, oddly so considering how nice she’d been earlier. “The news said you signed papers, that you were a willing thrall. That true?”

I was shocked by the directness and malice behind the question. Chaz’s anger was enough to make her turn her brown eyes away from mine, putting up her hands in surrender.

“That’s enough, Paula. If she wants to talk about it, she will.”

She hissed out, venom thick in her voice, even as she shrank back in her chair. “I think we have a right to know if our pack leader brought a leech’s pet to the table.”

A low, collective gasp escaped a few throats, including mine. The looks I was getting from the others now were nothing short of horrified. The only ones who didn’t react were Dillon and Simon; they seemed more surprised at Paula’s hostility than by her announcement, and I’m sure that was only because they already knew I’d been bound.

Chaz inched up to standing, towering over the smaller woman. Slowly, deliberately, he reached out until he had her sweatshirt balled up in his fist, dragging her closer so he could growl right into her face. Her eyes went wide in surprise, but she didn’t fight his grip. “I said that’s enough. Don’t bring it up again.”

I rose a little shakily, not meeting the curious, furtive looks any of the others were giving me. “I’m going back to the cabin. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

“Shia, wait… .” Chaz’s disappointment was palpable, his grip loosening on Paula’s shirt enough that she gracelessly dropped back into her chair. Everyone’s eyes were on me, the mixture of unspoken disbelief and revulsion too much for me to deal with. I shook my head and hurried away from the table, taking my beer with me.

Once outside, I took a few deep breaths, trying not to give in to the sting of tears. The sun had almost set, leaving deep shadows between the trees.

After this afternoon, I hadn’t thought Paula would be so mean to me. We’d played pool, exchanged beauty secrets and workout tips. We’d talked about movies and music, nothing to do with the pack or my past. She hadn’t given any hint of the malice I’d seen in her eyes tonight. She’d been rather quiet over the beers until that moment, then she seized the turn of the conversation to make sure her words would cut to the bone.

It was common knowledge that Weres and vampires don’t get along. I had ties to both, but I tried not to think too much about having been bound to Royce and to Max by blood. I hadn’t willingly been their plaything, but based on Paula’s reaction, it was clear not everyone saw it that way.

While that part of my past was not exactly a secret, I had to wonder why it had come up now. I sipped at the drink in my hand, wishing I had something stronger, ignoring the chill that raced through me from more than the cold wind sighing through the trees. She had said she’d “heard” I’d been bound. The only people here who had any knowledge about the binding were Chaz, Simon, and Dillon. The group had separated for a couple hours after dinner. Had something happened after we split up? Had one of them told her? I couldn’t understand why they would, particularly now. Why not say something before this stupid trip started? Why wait until we were all stuck here with moonrise coming in another hour or two?

It didn’t make any sense. There might be others who had picked it up through the grapevine, or maybe just clung to the speculations reported in the news at the time. Was someone here trying to make life difficult for me by whispering in the ears of Chaz’s pack?

Who the hell could it be? And why?

“Out here all alone? Not wise.”

I cringed as Seth’s voice broke into my reverie. I couldn’t see much in the shadows. He was hiding somewhere in the tree line, keeping out of sight. I was willing to bet his friends were out here somewhere too. “What do you want?”

“Nothing. Just wondering why you’re out here by yourself, no big, bad pack leader to protect you.”

“I can protect myself,” I shot back, edging toward the doors that led back inside the lodge. Back to safety.

“Not from us.” The laughter that came from the trees had me searching, looking for signs of where the others were. I spotted two by the slight luminescence reflecting off their eyes, glowing cat-like in the dark. Seth and the other one remained hidden from my view. Too far to rush me before I could get inside, I thought. “Not that you have anything to worry about. You’re not my problem.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

He’d gone quiet. The two Weres I’d seen walked out into the light, followed soon by Seth and the remaining Were. Their movements were completely silent, not a snapping twig or crunch of dead leaves to give away their whereabouts. All of them were smirking in amusement, watching me with hungry, predatory eyes. It wasn’t Seth, but one of the others who answered me.

“It means we don’t give a shit whether you live or die. Just stay out of our way.”

The four of them filed inside, one of them turning to give me a grim smile as he went. Shivering, I turned away, unable to meet his eyes as I hurried off in the dark toward the sound of rushing water and the cabins beyond.

I didn’t meet anyone else in my haste to get as far away from the lodge as I could. My thoughts raced as I tried not to slip in the mud, anger and fear warring for dominance in my mind. Coming out here had been a mistake. It had only been one day, and already I was sorely regretting my decision to come along on this crazy camping trip. If the night hadn’t ended so badly, I might have even pulled out the contract to surprise Chaz with tonight after he came back from the hunt. As it was, I had the whole rest of the weekend to get through, and nobody had even shifted yet.

Would whoever set off Paula start whispering in the ears of the rest of the pack? Would the others start giving me venomous looks, or thinking those terrible things about me?

Were they thinking them already?

Rubbing at the tears gathering in my eyes, I thought about digging out my cell phone and calling Sara. Maybe she would know what to do. I wouldn’t have reception, but I could get the number out of my phone and use the landline provided in the cabin.

Thoughts of home vanished when I saw the cabin. The door was open a crack. No lights shown through the gap.

Warily, I stepped a little closer, noting that the wood around the small lock had splintered. Something was burning, the scent strong enough to make me wrinkle my nose in disgust. I listened cautiously, trying to determine if anyone was still inside.

The only sounds I heard were some music drifting from one of the other cabins a few doors down and the faint drip of water pattering on the ground as the wind gusted today’s earlier rain off the leaves.

Pushing the door the rest of the way open, I immediately flicked on the light and stepped aside in case someone was planning to rush me. There wasn’t anybody inside, but what I found was worse. Far worse.

“Shit!” I cried, slamming a closed fist against the door, making it bounce against the wall.

Some of the furniture had been upended, one chair smashed to bits. All of our stuff had been yanked out of the drawers and tossed across the floor. It looked like my bras and panties were all missing. A bunch of Chaz’s stuff had been tossed in the fireplace, only a few charred scraps of his clothes and the vague remnants of a sneaker remaining. That’s where the bad smell came from, the lingering odor much stronger now that I was inside. I lifted my arm to use my shirt as a filter over my nose and mouth. It didn’t help much. My cell phone was in pieces, bits of pink plastic littering the small counter in the kitchen. Chaz’s phone was ground into shards on the table.

The slim laptop I’d borrowed from Arnold so I could check my e-mail had been turned upside down. The battery was missing, and I didn’t see the carrying case with the power hookup and extra cables anywhere. At least it wasn’t busted like the rest of the stuff in the room. There were coffee grounds spilled all over the floor, the coffeemaker smashed up against, and stuck partway into, the wall. Miraculously, the pot itself had survived, the last dregs of this morning’s brew congealed at the bottom of the glass container.

Moving in a daze, I picked a few shreds of torn clothing and a mangled paperback off the floor. Whoever had done this hadn’t gone through the closet, so our bags were untouched, the few things that hadn’t been unpacked left alone. Chaz was not going to be happy that the only clothes left that hadn’t been torn to bits in the break-in were the ones that would likely get torn to bits when he shifted. Unless he wanted to parade around naked until moonrise.

Interesting thought, that.

Who might have done this? Who hated me or Chaz enough to do something this crappy? Considering moonrise was so close, as soon as he got here, Chaz would likely fly into a rage, shift, and tear off into the woods after whoever had destroyed our stuff. Though I wasn’t sure why, maybe someone was trying to piss him off on purpose so he’d lose it. To make him angry enough to hurt me? Unlikely, but a possibility I couldn’t dismiss outright. Someone was pissed off enough to stir unrest in the ranks of Weres, but it was unclear whether this mess was the result of someone’s trying to get to me, to Chaz, or to both of us.

When I got closer to the bed, I froze, shock stopping me in my tracks. I could see the sheets and blankets had been shredded in a couple of places. There were claw marks on the thin birch logs that made up the headboard, so deep they stopped just shy of cutting right through. It looked like something large and monstrous had jumped up on the bed, put its talons up on the headboard, and raked down it like some giant cat sharpening its claws on a scratching post.

Instantly, my haze of disbelief shifted into anger. I was willing to bet Seth and his band of merry misfits were responsible. It was a wonder they hadn’t marked their territory, I thought savagely, grabbing up what clothes and things could be salvaged and putting them together on the ravaged bed.

I’d been right. It looked like all of my panties and bras were gone, maybe burned to ash with the rest of Chaz’s clothes. Looked like I’d be spending the rest of the time I was here going commando, unless there was a clothing store somewhere in the mix of tiny shops we’d passed on the main boulevard on our way here. People lived here year-round, so there had to be a place where we could pick up some new clothes.

We wouldn’t be able to stay in the cabin tonight, but I wasn’t about to turn tail and run back to the city. This was just a stupid threat; somebody was trying to drive me away. I’d find out who was responsible and find a way to make them pay.

Anger kept me warm as I hurriedly threw our remaining things together, wishing mightily for my silver stakes and guns. I wasn’t usually bloody-minded without the sentient hunter’s belt to urge me on, but for whoever did this, I would make an exception.