The slashes on the creature’s face healed within seconds, disappearing without a trace. Even the clear liquid that had been running down its neck was reabsorbed until there was no sign he’d injured the thing at all. Werewolves healed fast, but not that fast.
Damn, he might very well be fucked.
Trey tried to slash the creature’s face again when it charged at him a second later, but it blocked the blow, both hands clamping down on his arm and yanking hard. He panicked, thinking she was going to rip the damn thing off, but then he was flying through the air again. He had about half a second to contemplate how much this was going to hurt, then he was slamming into the side of the big construction dumpster. The metal gave under the impact. Unfortunately, he felt parts of him give, too.
He hit the ground a few feet from the woman’s victim. The guy looked like shit, eyes closed, his face haggard and exhausted. Trey could hear the man’s heartbeat, so he knew he was alive, but it was a lot slower and weaker than it should have been. Whatever the creature had been doing to the man, it had nearly killed him.
A blur of movement out of the corner of his eye made Trey realize he should have been a little more concerned about the creature killing him. Then the thing was on him, long, narrow fingers wrapping around his throat to crush the life out of him at the same time she picked him up and slammed him against the side of the dented dumpster.
Trey punched, slashed, and shoved at the creature, air running out as he was once more stunned she could be so strong. The creature ripped open his shirt, its cold lips pressing against the bare skin of his chest right where his wolf head tattoo was. Pain ripped through him, as if the creature was pulling his soul out right through his chest.
The pain shoved Trey’s shift further than it already was, fangs and claws fully extending, muscles across his back and shoulders twisting and contracting, bones beginning to crack and lengthen as his body fought to assume a shape more conducive to this fight. The pain in his chest lessened and Trey threw every ounce of his strength into breaking free, slashing and ripping at the creature’s throat and chest in rapid succession.
He knew he was hurting the creature because it was shrieking and hissing like mad, but he was weakening at the same time. It was a toss-up as to which one of them would collapse first.
In the distance, he heard the rapid thud of approaching boots, too fast to be a regular human. Connor’s scent reached him just as Trey finally succeeded in shoving the creature away. It stared at him for a moment before its head snapped around in the direction of those footsteps. With one more quick hiss at Trey, the creature was off, running as fast as hell across the park toward Main Street. A second later Connor was hauling ass after it, his handgun out—along with his fangs and claws.
Trey stayed on his feet for all of five more seconds before he slowly slid down the side of the dumpster and onto the ground, more exhausted than he’d ever been in his life. He knew he should get up and help his pack mate chase the thing, but he was too damn tired.
A glance at his chest showed no real wound beyond some redness, as if the creature had been trying to give him a hickey. That thought was actually more repulsive than the idea of the thing biting him.
Giving up on the idea of going after Connor, Trey instead crawled over to the guy on the ground, getting him flipped over and hopefully in a position that would make breathing easier. The guy’s heart rate wasn’t any better than it had been before, but at least it wasn’t any worse. Looking closer at the man’s skin, Trey realized it looked severely dehydrated. Not nearly as bad as the body they’d found at the landfill, but obviously well on the way to that condition. Trey wondered how much longer the guy could have survived whatever the creature had been doing to him.
The sound of heavy footsteps in the grass drew his attention away from the man and he turned his head to see Connor racing across the park toward him. A few seconds later, his friend was at his side, asking if he was okay. Trey couldn’t do much except nod.
“What the hell was that thing?” Connor whispered, moving over to check the other guy on the ground. “I heard you yelling from a couple blocks away and came running, but she was already on the move by the time I got here. I tried to chase her…it…whatever the hell we’re supposed to call the thing, but it was too damn fast. I almost caught up to it until it ducked into an alley and ran right up the side of a frigging wall.”
“I’m not sure what that thing was, but it’s definitely the same thing that’s responsible for the bodies in the landfills,” Trey said weakly. “She was well on the way to draining this poor guy when I arrived.”
“Draining?” Connor prompted, curious.
Trey questioned why he’d used that particular word but decided it actually fit. He described what he’d seen upon first getting on the scene and what it had felt like when the creature latched onto his chest.
“I think it was feeding on me,” he added. “It felt like she was sucking the life out of me. Hurt like a son of a bitch, too. I’m exhausted and she was only on me a couple seconds. I have no idea how long she’d been going at this guy.”
Connor looked over at the man on the ground. “What are we going to do with him? If we call an ambulance, the hospital won’t have a clue what to do with him.”
Trey agreed. “I say we call STAT and get them out here to help, then send a sketch artist back to that bar we just left and have them work on a drawing of our suspect. We need to tell Gage and the deputy chief that we definitely have a supernatural creature hunting people in our city. One that’s stronger and faster than we are and damn near immune to injuries.”
Connor reached for his phone, shaking his head. “When the hell is the weird crap in this town going to end? If it’s not serial killers that steal body parts, it’s supernatural soul suckers with big, freaky eyes.”
Trey sighed and leaned back against the dumpster. As his mom always liked saying, when it rained, it poured.
Chapter 9
Samantha was staring at her computer screen lost in thought when Crystal walked into her office a few minutes after eight Monday morning.
“Having second thoughts about asking your sister to analyze Trey’s blood?”
Samantha sat back with a sigh as Crystal slipped into one of the chairs in front of her desk. “Second, third, and fourth. I know that sounds crazy, especially since I’ve been obsessing over this forever, but what I’m doing—going behind Trey’s back like this—I feel like I’m betraying him.”
“Wow. Betraying.” Crystal did a double take. “That’s a heavy word.”
“I know, right?” Samantha gave her a small smile. “Want to hear something even crazier? We’ve only been on a few dates, and I already feel a connection with him that I’ve never felt with anyone else.”