I didn’t answer him. I was already raising my wolf spirit.
Gabe trotted up to the front door. He knocked and looked around. Except for the rifle slung over his shoulder, he could’ve been selling magazine subscriptions.
I paced, waiting.
A blast from inside the house knocked Gabe off his sandal-shod feet. I sprinted toward Rika. She stood on her front step, staring down at Gabe. Black smoke trailed into the air over his body. She kicked him with her slipper. Gabe didn’t move, but a puff of black smoke mushroomed from the hole in his chest. She raised the gun again, pointing it at his head.
Chapter11
MADDY
“No!” I grabbed a carved Native American pipe displayed on the wall. Most likely it was stolen, I thought, as I heaved it across the room. I’d have to be a superhero to throw the thing through the door on the first try and nail Rika, standing out in the snow.
It didn’t even make it past the foyer, hitting the doorway edge.
“Ha! You missed!” Rika crowed.
“I wasn’t trying to hit you,” I said. My eyes darted to the right, where Evan’s wolf was closing the distance between him and Rika.
It was my first time seeing his wolf. My heart stopped mid-beat. He was beautiful. Even though I’d seen his twin, Jax, in his wolf form, I would never mistake the brothers in their shifted states. Maybe it was all his years playing hockey, but Jax was more graceful.
Evan was all dark vengeance. He hunted to kill.
The succubus pointed the gun at Gabe’s head. “Nothing that smells this bad deserves to live.”
Evan’s movement caught Rika’s eye. She jerked the gun up in surprise. While she was distracted I pushed open the other side of the double door and rushed to Gabe.
Behind me, Rika pointed the gun toward Evan. “Even better.” I hear her murmur wickedly.
Evan leapt, roaring as he twisted his massive body in the air. I shrank back as the two-ton wolf bore down on me, Gabe, and Rika. In midair, Evan swung at Rika.
She stumbled against me, knocking me over. “Get out of my way, you fools.” She headed for the side of her house with Evan on her heels.
“Evan, come back!” I crawled over to Gabe. The ground around him was covered with a lot of sticky black ghoul blood.
Evan’s massive wolf swung his head around.
“Leave her. We need the vamp to save Gabe. Check the garage.”
Evan pivoted, surging off in the opposite direction. His massive head swung back to check on me.
“Gabe, hang on. You’ll feel better with some vamp blood. Remember how much better I felt after Riyah gave me some blood?”
Rika’s gun lay discarded in the snow. She was getting away. If she escaped, she’d still be out there—and be a threat.
“I’ll be right back.” I picked up the gun and headed for the side of the house where Rika had disappeared. The forest was thick even in the dead of winter, and the lights from the house didn’t extend into the trees.
She was in there. Watching. Waiting. Ihadto go after her.
“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?” Evan called.
I turned around. My mate was standing naked in knee-deep snow with a barely conscious vamp still dressed in BDSM gear. “Leave her. Gabe needs your help.”
Had I been glamoured to some extent by association with her?
“Maddy,” Evan called again. “Come here.”
I turned around, trotting back to join Evan, Gabe, and Max. Rika watched me from the shadows. I knew it.