Would any of this ever be behind her? Would she ever be able to move on from her past and live a normal life again? Could Eddy, Ivan, Perry, and the others be safe while she remained around them? There was only so much she could do to ask the pack to get involved in protecting her people—they weren’t pack members, after all.

  You wanted excitement, and you sure got it.

  She bowed her head beneath the water, the white of her flesh turning the faintest shade of pink under the heat. She concluded that the only thing to do was solve the problem and find whoever was after Eddy so they could finally live in peace once more.

  What she didn’t know was where Mr. Hughes should fit into the equation.

  CHAPTER SIX

  After an invigorating hour of shut-eye, Jasmine awoke with a start.

  She had dreamed she was in a forest, with dark pines pressing in all around her. The moon was out, but it was a half moon, and her senses were dulled as she wandered around the bracken and broken branches to get her bearings. Birds wheeled overhead and things skittered on the borders of her vision, dark things lost in the shadows on the ground.

  Jasmine had walked in a straight line, hoping to find a clearing or somewhere to gain a better vantage point. With each step, she slipped, and every look down at her feet showed nothing. It was only as she approached a small hollow that she could clearly see what she was walking on and why it was so difficult to gain purchase.

  The forest floor was made entirely of insects, mostly centipedes and millipedes, and other crawly things with thousands of legs. Their long bodies snaked and shifted around her, crawling over her shoes, destabilizing the ground. She tried to retreat, but they were everywhere. As her disgust levels rose, they climbed higher. Jasmine batted frantically at the creatures as they scaled her calves, then her thighs.

  It was when she looked at her forearm and noticed a strange lump crawling beneath the skin that she was broken from her nightmare.

  She took a few long breaths to get her bearings. She was in her room in the Nest. Her closet, swollen with clothing, was beside her. On the side table was the ornate wooden carving of a wolf her father had gifted her. This she picked up now and held to her chest, for the first time in years finding comfort in something her father had left behind.

  Throwing on a loose-fitting hoodie and some jeans, Jasmine went down into the bar. Ivan was keeping himself busy scrubbing a table.

  “Come on,” Jasmine instructed.

  “What?” Ivan asked.

  “We’re going to see Eddy,” Jasmine informed him.

  Ivan cocked an eyebrow. “We can’t leave Nest unattended.”

  Jasmine considered this. Hadn’t she been the one to insist that Perry remain on guard while she and Ivan went after Eddy last time?

  “We’re not taking any chances,” Jasmine decided. “Lock it up for now. Put a sign on the door. I know you want to be there as much as I do.”

  Ivan put up little fight, although when they climbed into Jasmine’s car, she couldn’t help but note his forlorn stare at the home he had built. She wondered when the last time was that he had left the place vacant.

  When they arrived at the hospital waiting room, there were more bodies in the seats this time. At least half a dozen of them were faces she knew.

  “You guys look like shit,” Jasmine offered as she opened her arms to welcome them.

  They were a sad bunch, with dark bags beneath their eyes. She wondered how many of them were still drunk and how many were hungover. One of their group who went by Old Pine—because of the time he had taken off on a four-day bender and was later found naked and shivering at the foot of an ancient pine tree in the forest—was fast asleep with his head resting at an awkward angle against the wall. He was still in his tuxedo, though the tie had been removed.

  “Don’t worry about him,” Travis assured her. “He could use the rest. I’ve never seen anyone dance so hard for so long.” He laughed warmly.

  Jasmine returned a soft chuckle. She had grown friendly with Travis over the last year, and the pair of them sometimes split off from the pack for strolls in the sun on the hillside, where they would fall into pleasant conversation. He was a head taller than Jasmine and was fascinated with collecting Pokémon cards. Jasmine had rolled with laughter at the absurdity of a werewolf finding pleasure in such childish things. He was conventionally handsome, though a little on the skinny side, and usually wore an old, threadbare hoodie.

  Another packmate, Gloria, joined Travis. She was a near mirror of Jasmine, only with more muscle and padding on her. Her eyes sparkled with the energy of youth, and her smile was contagious and often brought a grin to Jasmine’s lips. Gloria’s sister, Dana, wasn’t present in the ward, and Jasmine could only imagine that she was sleeping off the worst of her inebriation. After all, it was rare that the pair weren’t found in the same room together. “You call that dancing?” Gloria scoffed.

  There was a ripple of laughs among the seated pack.

  “I echo what Gloria said,” Jasmine joked. “How is he? Any update?”

  Travis shook his head, turning his walnut eyes toward the corridor where Eddy was recovering. “No updates on any front. We’ve stationed Max and Carter outside the room—much to the security’s disgust. I don’t get it. They won’t provide a detail themselves, but they hate having people linger outside the wards.”

  “Yeah, I got that impression,” Jasmine replied.

  Gloria stepped in. “Eddy seems okay, from what we’ve seen through the window. No one suspicious has come in or out that we know of. As Travis says, it’s all been very quiet.”

  “Helpful for you,” Ivan chimed in. “Gives time to recover.”

  “Hello to you, too, Ivan.” Gloria grinned.

  Jasmine addressed the room. “Well, thank you all for being here. I didn’t expect so many of you to come. I figured last night’s celebrations would have filtered out the majority of you.”

  “You spammed our phones,” Travis replied. “All of us. Missed calls, texts, of course we were going to come. You’re one of us. No matter how much our heads pound and our bodies ache.”

  Another ripple of laughter sounded around the room. Old Pine jerked awake, taking a deep breath as he looked groggily around the room. The others laughed harder.

  “You should probably get OP home,” Jasmine stated. “Thanks again for coming. Me and Ivan can take it from here.”

  Gloria frowned theatrically. “Are you telling me that the two of you are better than half a dozen Weres? We’re offended.”

  Jasmine began to protest but was cut off by Travis. “Relax, pup. We’re not going anywhere. Since so many of us are here already, we put word out to the pack to come and meet us in the parking garage. We’ve got some important issues to discuss.”

  Jasmine grew tense, wondering if she had overstepped once again. Although she had grown closer to the pack over the last year, she was still inexperienced regarding pack culture and had a lot to learn.

  “Don’t fret about it,” Gloria reassured her, placing a hand on her shoulder. “You’ve done nothing wrong.”

  “Though the discussion may just feature you,” Travis hinted.

  Jasmine exchanged a glance with Ivan.

  Travis laughed at her discomfort. “There has been a little oversight by our leadership,” he explained. “With Del and Kendrick off on their honeymoon, it’s going to leave a little vacuum at the top of our structure. We’re meeting to discuss what’s going to happen and how we’re going to proceed for a while with the pair gone.” He turned to Gloria. “You’d think that something this important might have permeated their gray matter before they left.”

  Gloria nodded. “Too busy macking and making goo-goo eyes to each other to pay attention to us little folk.”

  Travis tried to hide his laughter. “The point is, we’ve decided to meet where most of our pack is to help make the decision.”

  Jasmine glanced down the hall to where Eddy lay in bed. “I’m afraid I can’t be there. I can’t leave Eddy unguarded.”

  “We know,” Gloria replied. “You don’t need to be there. All we need to know from you is if…well, if you’d be willing to take the role as lead in Del and Kendrick’s absence?”

  Jasmine was taken aback. She knew she had made an impression on the pack, and she had tried her hardest to live by her grandmother’s words, and listen and play her part for the Ghost Throats, but she hadn’t expected her name to be tossed into this arena. “Me?”

  “You,” Travis confirmed. “It makes sense. You’re the closest with Del and Kendrick. You’ve shouldered a lot since you entered our little band of misfits last year. It just fits. Y’know?”

  Jasmine felt warmth rise to her cheeks. “I suppose.”

  “And it’s not like you’d have to do anything major,” Gloria promised. “Just tell the guys where they need to be and when. You can delegate the pack members to watch over Eddy as he goes through his recovery, and we can help support you in what has been, we don’t doubt, a trying time.”

  Tears rose to Jasmine’s eyes. She looked down at her feet, trying to hide her tears as emotion overwhelmed her. When it had been only Jasmine and her mother for all of those years, something inside Jasmine had always told her she didn’t truly belong in that situation. She loved her mother from the bottom of her heart, but deep down she had known something bigger was out there, a wider family network. After Jasmine’s awakening, in the absence of her mother, there had been a moment when she truly felt as though she’d never fit in anywhere. She’d thought she’d be alone forever. Never in a million years could she have believed she’d find this level of acceptance and admiration from her own pack—the pack her mother had warned her against for years.

  At last, Jasmine had a family. Even in her undead condition, she was accepted by the group, and that meant everything.

  Jasmine pawed the tears away with the back of her hand. “Thank you,” was all she could manage.

  “Of course,” Gloria replied. She glanced at Travis, who smiled back. “Now, look. The guys will be here soon, and you’ve got Eddy to look after. We’ll catch up in a bit when everything is sorted and arranged, okay?”

  “You’re not too hungover to make hasty decisions?” Ivan spoke up, startling Jasmine, who had momentarily forgotten he was there.

  Travis cocked an eyebrow. “You’ve met wolves before, haven’t you, fairy? Alcohol wears itself real thin real quick.”

  “Explains copious amounts of liquor,” Ivan returned. “You’re welcome to build up big tab at Nest anytime.”

  The wolves laughed, and Travis indicated that they should all take their leave. Old Pine peeled himself from his chair and followed the group from the ward. They motioned for Max and Carter to join them before filing down the stairs. To untrained eyes, they were just a band of misfit humans, but for Jasmine, they were her home.

  “Wanna go see Mr. Vorhees?” Jasmine asked Ivan.

  Ivan nodded and joined Jasmine. Their footsteps echoed down the sterile hallway, and the faint rhythmic beep of machines created the melody of the hospital.

  They paused outside Eddy’s room. Jasmine had expected Eddy to be fast asleep, looking much worse for wear, but she was surprised to find the young man sitting up in bed, beaming her way.

  “They said you were asleep,” Jasmine told Eddy as she entered the room.

  Eddy chuckled, the motion igniting a flare of pain. He moved a hand slowly to his side. “I didn’t want to talk to them. It seemed easier to pretend to be asleep than to try to understand the inebriated ramblings of the were-folk.”

  Jasmine and Ivan took their places on either side of Eddy’s bed.

  “Who’s watching the Nest?” Eddy asked.

  “Really?” Jasmine replied. “That’s what you’re concerned about?”

  “No one,” Ivan said in response to Eddy’s question.

  “No one?” Eddy’s mouth fell into an O. “I never thought I’d see the day the captain jumped ship with the rats.”

  “Are you the rat in this situation?” Jasmine asked.

  “Yes,” Eddy stated without hesitation.

  They fell into laughter, Eddy once again cutting his short when pain got the better of him.

  “Are you okay?” Concern laced Jasmine’s words.

  “As okay as one can be after taking a bullet in the gut.” He looked down, peeling back the covers to reveal a large square of gauze, the edges stained brown from iodine. “I’ll be honest. When they said the party was going to end with a bang, this wasn’t what I had in mind.”

  “What has doctor told you?” Ivan asked.

  Eddy explained that the doctors had given him as much information as they’d shared with Jasmine and Ivan. They had removed the shrapnel from the shot and stitched him together. They’d also dosed him with a variety of painkillers to stave off the worst of the pain.

  “Whatever it is they’ve given to me, you have to serve it at the Nest,” Eddy declared. “People would pay a fortune for this formula. I can hardly feel anything.”

  Despite his jovial attitude, Jasmine could sense that Eddy might not be telling the whole truth.

  “Do you remember what happened?” Jasmine probed.

  The laughter slipped from Eddy’s face as he fell deep into thought. After a moment, he responded, “Not well. I remember a boy and the sound of the shots. I could smell burning as I fell. It all kind of goes cloudy from there. Guess that must have been the adrenaline. If they could bottle that, that would be amazing.”

  “I’m pretty sure they already do,” Jasmine asserted.

  “Great!” Eddy beamed. “Sign me up for a weekly subscription.”

  Jasmine couldn’t help but laugh. Ivan showed signs of cracking up too, but instead, he filled Eddy in on everything that had happened, coloring in the missing details for Eddy. Jasmine took over as Ivan got to the shooting, telling her side of the attack but omitting the part where the thing crawled away from the boy’s unconscious form, as well as her conversation with Mr. Hughes. She could tell Eddy all of that later when he was strong enough to absorb the information, but for now, he needed his mind at ease.

  “I don’t understand it,” Eddy pondered, some of his memory clearly triggered by Jasmine and Ivan. “Why would some kid want to shoot at me? I’m only a few years his senior, and I’ve never seen him before in my life. What did I do to warrant a child hunting me down in the middle of the night? It makes no sense.”

  “I know,” Jasmine agreed. “I feel the same. But I promise you we’re going to find out. Whoever started this whole affair will be brought to justice. I give you my word.”

  Eddy looked up at Jasmine, admiration in his eyes. “Thank you. I never doubted it.” He chuckled, then coughed.

  Jasmine grinned. “So much for life getting boring, huh?”

  Eddy nodded. “Thing is…I don’t remember ‘exciting’ hurting this much.”

  Jasmine reached forward and gently squeezed his hand. “Comes with getting older, I guess.”

  Even Ivan cracked a smile at that.

  Footsteps approached the door to the ward. Jasmine looked over her shoulder and saw a nurse entering the room. She had a plastic smile on her face and wore her hair in lazy braids, and her uniform was wrinkled beyond the usually impeccable standard of the staff Jasmine had seen in the hospital so far.

  “Hi,” Jasmine offered.

  “Hi,” the nurse replied with a slight warble in her voice. She looked at Eddy and asked, “Mr. Vorhees?”

  Jasmine frowned. Her senses tingled, though she was unsure why. Maybe it was the formal nature of the nurse’s question, or perhaps it was the lack of confidence on her face.

  “That’s me,” Eddy admitted with a gentle wave of his hand. “Ready for my sponge bath.”

  There was no humor in the nurse’s eyes. Jasmine’s breath caught as she spotted something shift beneath the nurse’s skin, crawling across her face. It was slight enough that Jasmine questioned herself in her tired state, until the woman revealed the long sharp point of a syringe in her hand.

  Jasmine turned to the nurse and scowled, unable to believe what she was seeing.

  Two attacks on Eddy’s life in less than twelve hours.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Jasmine zeroed in on the nurse, fighting the urge to pop her claws, remembering that she was still in a hospital and that covering the floor in this woman’s blood would make a mess for the cleaner.

  She tackled the nurse and climbed on top of her, pinning her hands to the cold linoleum.

  “The fuck?” Eddy bellowed, attempting to sit forward. Ivan’s careful hand held him back. When he was sure Eddy was settled, the fairy rushed around the bed to place himself between Eddy and this new attacker.

  The woman struggled beneath Jasmine’s grasp with a darkness in her eyes that made it plain she wasn’t in control. She was only a victim to whatever dark sorcery was working its way through her. Jasmine punched the woman once, and her eyes rolled back and her body went limp as blood blossomed in her cheek.

  Jasmine remained where she was, pressing the woman to the floor, unable to trust that she could let her go. Movement beneath the woman’s skin trailed from her shoulder through her neck, confirming Jasmine’s theory. At the first sight of the creature emerging through the woman’s nasal passage, Jasmine sat back with horror scribbled across her face.

  “What the…” Jasmine breathed.

  “Holy shit,” Eddy agreed.

  Jasmine couldn’t process what she was seeing. The creature looked like the grotesque spawn of a bone-white crab, a centipede, and a tapeworm. She couldn’t count how many legs it had or the number of appendages that jutted from its body. All she could focus on was the sickening fluidity with which it moved its body.

  The creature scuttled from the woman’s nose, freeing itself and then making a run for the door. The creature was thin, and its tiny feet pattered on the hard floor, sounding like dozens of marbles dropped from a height.

  Jasmine snapped back to the present moment, drew her claws, and leaped after it. She narrowed her eyes and extended her claws in front of her. She would not—could not—allow this thing to escape. She drove one hand down, and a long bone claw pushed its way into the creature’s body. She pinned it, sinking her claw through the linoleum to hold it in place.