“Fan out,” I told Elle and Joe. Hesitant to leave my side, they took a couple steps before stopping again. Annoyed with my bodyguards, I sent another message. “Fan out means separate.”
A few more lingering moments later, Joe and Elle did as I asked. Together we pushed forward. A small breeze wove around the tree trunks, carrying with it an unfamiliar scent. My wolf inhaled, filling our lungs with the stale smell. I’d been in the forest enough times to know that this thing—whatever that scent was emanating from—it didn’t belong here.
A flash of black whizzed ahead of me. That was all the motivation my wolf needed. She lunged forward, leaping over downed trees and around low branches as she chased the shadow. The dark shape moved quickly, blending in with the pockets of darkness of the forest. The staleness in the air intensified. What the hell was that? I could see the shadow just ahead of me. I pushed forward, my wolf sprinting to catch whoever was lurking on our mountain. However, as I neared the shape, it ran up the base of a tall pine tree and disappeared from my view.
Elle, Joe, and the others Adam sent joined me. We stared up at the tree in shock. What could fly up a tree and move that fast? Annoyed, I sent a message to the wolves to head back. There was no point in chasing shadows all night, plus I wanted to see how Adam was doing. Through our bond, I could feel his emotions, a mixture of annoyance, pain, and worry. It was making it difficult to focus on what I was doing.
Back at the house, I changed back into myself and strode into the house. Adam was lying on the sofa on his side while one of our wolves, Sunny, worked on removing the arrow from his thigh. Crouching down beside him, I ran a hand over his hair.
“How bad is it?” I asked Sunny.
She cut the arrow with a pair of tin snips and handed the discarded piece to Wade who was standing to her left. She sat back on her heels and looked over at me. Her hair was as black as midnight, and her almond-shaped blue eyes held an emotion I didn’t want to see—worry.
“The tip is pure silver, Anna,” she said. “I can’t tell how bad it is until I get the head out, but he’s in a lot of pain.”
Someone placed a silk robe around my shoulders. I looked up to see Sawyer just behind me. Smiling my thanks, I threaded my arms through the robe and knotted the belt. I hadn’t even realized I was naked—not that the pack cared—but Sawyer knew my disposition to nudity in front of them.
“Adam,” I said. He opened his eyes, relief washing through them. “You’re going to be fine. We’ll get you something for the pain.”
“We can’t take anything for pain,” Sunny said. “Our metabolisms are too high, we burn drugs off too quickly.”
Adam squeezed my hand and tugged me forward until my face was right in front of his. His fingers run up my nape and settled on the back of my head.
“Don’t you ever run off like that again, understand?”
“Adam, I—”
“No,” he growled. “If something happened, I couldn’t get to you, Anna. Your place is beside me always. Do. Not. Run. Off.”
I knew Adam was shaken up from the attack, and his anger was plausible, but being reprimanded in front of my entire pack plus some of the visiting wolves caused my wolf’s hackles to rise in indignation.
“All right,” I said through tight lips. Adam tugged me closer until our mouths met. He kissed me hard, his lips moving against mine vigorously, almost painfully.
“Sir,” Sunny said.
Adam released his grip on my head and looked at her. I ran a hand across my swollen lips, embarrassed to meet the faces of the surrounding wolves.
“I have to get the head out now,” Sunny said, holding up a scalpel.
My stomach clenched, and my eyes volleyed between the blade and Adam’s bare thigh. Droplets of blood still trickled out of the wound, increasing my queasiness.
“Do it,” Adam said tersely. He gripped my hand and dropped his head against the sofa. As Sunny got to work at removing the broad-head, Adam’s eyes clenched tight, but his face was devoid of the pain he had to be feeling. His jaw was slack, not even a tick of muscles betrayed the control he was keeping.
I leaned over him, running a hand through his hair to comfort him. I pressed soft kisses along his forehead and told him everything was going to be okay. I wasn’t sure if I was trying to reassure him or myself.
“If you keep rubbing those beautiful breasts against my chest, that towel covering my lap isn’t going to stay flat for long,” Adam whispered, opening his eyes to look at me.
I smiled sheepishly. “Sorry, I was just trying to comfort you. I didn’t mean to rub myself against you.”
“You’re welcome to rub yourself against me whenever you want, Chante, but let’s wait until Sunny has the blade out so that she doesn’t get an eye full of something else, yeah?”
I nodded and smiled, leaning back so that I was sitting on my heels. I kept a hold of Adam’s hand, but focused my attention on what Sunny was doing. I could see the end of the broad-head. Luckily, it hadn’t buried itself deep into Adam’s muscles. As a wolf, our muscles strengthen, making it harder for things like arrows and bullets to penetrate our bodies. We’re not impenetrable, though, and the silver head had already done its damage.
Sunny pulled the arrow’s head out slowly and gasped. The room grew still, the power buzzing through the air.
“What is it?” Donald asked, coming through the crowd to stand behind the sofa, Maggie just behind him. Her eyes weren’t focused on Adam or his wound, though; they were too busy glaring at me. She shook her head, just a slight movement that said she blamed me for her son’s injury. I held her eyes for a couple seconds longer before looking down at our joined hands.
“The head was tipped in liquid silver,” Sunny said. “It’s in his bloodstream.”
I hadn’t noticed before, but Sunny was wearing latex gloves. A small smear of silver tipped her pointer finger.
“Anna, can I speak to you a moment?”
I looked up, and Wade was standing right beside me. “I need to stay with Adam.”
“It’s okay,” Adam said with a rasp in his voice. “Just don’t leave the house, understand?”
I nodded and stood up, annoyed with his orders, but now was not the time to argue about his overbearing commands. Besides, had it been me that was shot and Adam took off, I would have acted the same way.
Standing, I leaned over, pressed a kiss to Adam’s mouth, and then followed Wade up the stairs. Once we were in the office, Wade shut the door behind him and held out the discarded piece of the arrow Sunny had cut. When I reached for it, Wade lowered his hand.
“First,” he said. “Did you guys see anything in the forest?”
I shook my head and said, “Not really. We heard noises, like footfalls, but whatever was making them was fast. All I could see was a black blur, and then it disappeared up a tree.”
The muscles in Wade’s face tensed. “Did you smell anything distinguishable?”
By the look on his face, Wade already had an idea of what could have shot Adam. His entire being seemed to be holding its breath as he waited for me to answer.
“Staleness,” I said. “I didn’t recognize the smell of being from the forest.”
Wade’s shoulders fell, and he shook his head. “Dammit. I was hoping I was wrong.”
“About what?” I hugged my arms across my chest, suddenly exhausted. The adrenaline from the ceremony was waning. And I was worried about Adam and the silver coursing through his bloodstream.
“I’m pretty sure what you saw was a vampire,” Wade said. “But I don’t know why one would be interested in killing you or us. Vampires and werewolves aren’t enemies like movies suggest, but we keep out of each other’s business.”
Wade was quiet for a moment as he thought about something. I dissected what he told me—just as surprised to find out I had been tracking a vampire. I was still new to the paranormal world.
“You think someone hired him or her?”
“Maybe,” Wade said. “The question is, who and why?”
I snorted. “It’s obvious, isn’t it? They want me out of the picture to either hurt Adam or take my spot.”
My thoughts automatically went to Maggie and Donald, but they knew what my death would do to their son, and they wouldn’t risk his life just to get me out of the picture. There was also Anthony, but something told me he wasn’t the one responsible either.
“Here,” Wade said, handing me the broken arrow. “See if you can get anything from this.”
Curling my fingers around the thin aluminum cylinder, I closed my eyes and concentrated on getting a vision. Sparks of light danced behind my eyelids like an electric snowstorm, making it difficult to discern any one thing. I thought about Adam and how he’d jumped in front of me to save my life, putting his own in jeopardy and about the black mass I’d chased through the forest. Angered determination helped my mind clear the fuzziness away.
A black gloved hand loaded the arrow into the bow. The person raised the weapon up toward his or her face, getting me in sight. Leaves blew on nearby branches, momentarily obscuring the ceremony from the assailant’s view. Waiting until the shot was perfect, stretching back his or her arm to pull the bowstring tight—shot fired. The arrow sailed through the air like a torpedo, right on track to hit its target. As the arrow drew closer to the ceremony stage, Adam and I quirked our heads, hearing the disturbance in the air nearby.
The vision disappeared just as soon as it came. I blinked my eyes open, looking down at the arrow in my hand.
“What’d you see?” Wade asked.
“Nothing really,” I told him. “I saw the placement of the attacker and his or her movements as the bow was readied, and then the trajectory of the arrow as it made its way to the stage.”
“No noticeable characteristics of the attacker, something that would narrow it down?”
I shrugged. “He or she was wearing black leather gloves. If I had to guess, I’d say it was a woman’s hands.”