The Siege of Kadenburg (8 page)

“I’m not worried about me,” Mrs. Bamey promised in a small whisper. “I’m worried about our family. Who knows what Breslin is planning right now…..”

“It’ll be all right,” Mr. Bamey stated reassuringly as he ran his fingers through her hair in an attempt to comfort her. “There are more of us than there are of them. We’ve got Dimitri and Rutley, and Greg too. Nobody’s going to infiltrate this town again.”

Mrs. Bamey tensed in his arms then, and Mr. Bamey pulled back to gaze at her. He saw the fear in her wide eyes as her mouth fell open.

“What is it, Charlotte?” He asked quietly. “What do you feel now?”

The lights flickered off and on before the room went dark. Mrs. Bamey’s anxious breaths filled her husband’s ears as she clung to him.

“They already have,” she whimpered. “Something is already here.”

——————————

“W
hat in the hell are we supposed to do with
that
?!” Dimitri asked angrily as he pointed towards the living room.

“I don’t know. Maybe let her stay the night so she won’t freeze to death?” Rutley scowled, crossing his arms over his chest. “Jesus, Dim. Do you take me for a heartless prick who tosses girls out in the middle of a snowstorm?”

“She bought a fucking kerosene heater. It’s not like she’s going to freeze,” Dimitri growled. “She has no reason to be here. And how did she even find us, huh? Did you stop to think about that or were you too busy getting a stiffy over her scent?”

“Oh, fuck you!” Rutley spat with a roll of his eyes. “It has
nothing
to do with that. I’m just trying to be a hospitable Tennessean-which you obviously know nothing about, you freaking uptight douche.”

Dimitri had the mouthy beta pinned against the wall in an instant, baring his fangs as his eyes began to glow.

“If you ever speak to me like that again, I promise I’ll rip your tongue out,” Dimitri muttered. “She’s not staying.”

Rutley held the wolf’s gaze, his eyes glowing in response as his fingertips dug into Dimitri’s side. The tension between them was ridiculous. As angry as Dimitri wanted to be with him, he couldn’t. All he could think about was Rutley moaning his name as their bodies rubbed together less than an hour beforehand.

“Fine. You can throw her out then.”

“No problem,” Dimitri promised as he stepped back. The lustful memories dispersed immediately and anger took over. The room suddenly went dark and he growled in frustration. “Turn the fucking light back on, Rut.”

“I didn’t turn it off.” Rutley replied in annoyance.

“Hey!” The female’s voice sounded from the living room. “I think your power’s out.”

“No shit, Dick Tracy.” Dimitri grumbled as he fumbled to find the drawer nearest to the sink. He pulled it open, listening to various odds and ends as they rolled from the front to the back. He withdrew a flashlight and turned it on, blinding Rutley in the process.

“Can you please just try to be nice?” Rutley asked as he carefully moved towards the doorway. “It won’t kill you.”

Dimitri snarled in response, directing the bright beam of light towards the hallway as his heavy boots hit against the wooden floor.

“You don’t seem to understand the dangers of having her here,” he whispered as he grabbed Rutley by the shoulder, stopping him midway down the hall. “We don’t
know
her. She could be one of his.”

“Look, I get it,” Rutley whirled around to face him. “I get that we have to be cautious and paranoid and the whole shebang, but you’re absolutely right. We don’t know her, which means she might be a harmless wolf without a pack. Maybe she really does need our help. Maybe that’s why she’s here. We could smell her…who’s to say she couldn’t smell us, too?”

“You are a pain in my ass,” Dimitri exhaled loudly. “I’m just saying, the chances of a wolf being in Kadenburg without any ties to Breslin are one in a million.”

“I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?” Rutley replied stubbornly. “Now let’s go be courteous hosts and see how we can help her.”

“I’ll help her all right,” Dimitri growled. “Send her ass right out the door.”

If he had his way, that’s exactly what he would’ve done, too. But Rutley-the-hospitable-heroic-pain-in-his-ass-lycanthrope wasn’t going to let that happen. Yet.

H
e couldn’t sleep. He had to be back at the hospital for his shift in three hours, and he hadn’t managed to get a solid five minutes of sleep since his head hit the pillow. Louisa was sleeping contently. He could hear her even breathing from down the hallway, and he envied her.

He usually didn’t have issues with sleeping. Even with everything he’d witnessed and everything he’d done-Beau never lost a wink of sleep over it. So what was the difference now? What had his mind racing at the speed of light?

The mixture of snow and ice hitting against the window pane made it sound like a hurricane was roaring through. He wasn’t really a fan of snow-at all. Why couldn’t the hometown of the ursithropes be in Hawaii or Florida? He grunted, smacking his palm against the pillow before pushing himself out of bed. Oh well, sleep was a nice thought.

Beau found himself in the kitchen before long, listening to the gradually growing squeal of the teapot as the stove heated it up. With the honey in hand, he was preparing to fix a cup of much needed tea when the power went out. The only sound he was left with was the dying wail of the teapot.

“What the hell?” He muttered softly, blinking rapidly in an attempt to adjust his vision.

His tea was soon forgotten as the wind outside picked up. It was stronger than only a few minutes ago, and the windows were literally rattling from the force.

He checked on Louisa first, popping his head into her bedroom to make sure she was still sleeping. She was. Her breathing was just as steady as before, deep and calm. Good.

He wandered back into the kitchen, deciding that he still needed the tea whether he had power or not. Work would still be there, and they’d probably call him in earlier now that this chaos was happening.

The hour passed by fairly quickly, and within those sixty minutes of darkness, Beau had managed to drink two cups of tea and successfully retrieved his cellphone from his bedroom. The illumination from the small screen didn’t do much in regards to helping him see, but it sure made it easier for him to keep up with the time.

“Two more hours.” He sighed, sinking down onto the couch and rubbing the back of his neck. Would the power even be back up by then? Could he really leave Louisa here without heat? Absolutely not. She’d just have to go with him.

Or perhaps I can send her to the Kress house. She’d enjoy that.

It was an amusing thought to have, and he was beginning to wonder if Louisa had heard it as the sound of a furiously beating heart entered his mind.

“Louisa?” He whispered, pushing himself up from the couch. The heartbeat was fast and sporadic-as if Louisa was suddenly terrified. Beau’s body tingled in anticipation of changing. His desire to protect his cousin would always override every other sensation in the world.

He poked his head into her room again, surprised to see that she was still sleeping soundly. What the hell? Her heartbeat was just fine. Steady and calm as it had been an hour before.

Whose heartbeat was he hearing?

He was distracted by the piercing shriek of his phone’s ringtone. He lifted it in his hand, gazing at the number. Yep, he called that one. It was work.

“Hello? Do you need me to come in?” He asked, placing the phone against his ear. His brows immediately knitted together when he heard a distraught nurse on the other end. “She did what?”

———————————

S
ammy had gone through with a lot of stupid ideas in her time, but this surpassed all of them. She had no idea the weather was going to get
this
bad. When they’d pulled up the radar at work, she’d only seen a few flurries headed in their direction. This was definitely
not
a few flurries. This was a freaking tsunami of relentless snow and skin biting ice.

Her naked legs were receiving the most punishment at the moment. As her shoes disappeared into the deep snow and her teeth shattered, she tried desperately to hug her coat tighter around herself. The wind was merciless, sweeping her long hair in every direction as tears stung at her eyes. The bitter temperatures would be the death of her.

I should’ve stayed inside,
she thought as she reached out to grab a tree limb.
I would be warm right now at least.

No, she knew better than that. She had to get out of that place. There was no reason for them to keep her at the hospital anyway. She was fine. She was healthier than a derby stallion!

I just celebrated my 30
^th
birthday a few days ago and now I’m going to die a death far worse than Jack Nicholson did in The Shining. What luck!

Of course she
had
to trip over something and fall face first into the snow. Why would that work out any differently? She gasped, pushing her hands down against the iced ground and then forced her numbing body to operate.

“Holy shit, that’s cold!” She exclaimed, clamping her mouth shut as her teeth continued sounding off like a jack hammer. She was trembling uncontrollably as she forced herself to keep going. Where was she anyway?

Her mind was obviously shutting down on her, and any sense of direction she had had gone out the window a while back. Yes, leaving the hospital was a
perfect
idea.

The ferocious air attacked her again and her hair swept into her face. She made no attempt at removing it. Her fingers were too numb to function properly anyway. The howling of the wind was growing louder and louder.

Or at least, Sammy thought it was the wind.

A deeper howl pierced the night air and it caused the hair on her arms to stand on end. Her heart collapsed into her stomach as she whirled about, staring into a mixture of darkness and blinding snow.

What the hell was that?
She thought as panic struck her heart. It didn’t sound good, whatever it was. In fact, it sounded hungry.
Shit, shit, shit.

Another howl sounded in the distance, and that’s when Sammy realized she needed to high-tail it the hell out of the woods. How did she even end up in the woods in the first place?!

Aaawooooo!

She was feeling a whole lot of hell no at the moment, and with each stumbling step she took, a million scenarios ran through her mind. This was Tennessee and some of the animals in the forest weren’t exactly nice or fluffy. Some of them had big teeth that could rip into meat and gnaw bones. Some of them liked the scent of a human and the last time she’d checked, she was a human.

The air escaped from between her lips as a huge puff of white and with each ragged breath she attempted to draw in, her lungs screamed at her in protest. Why did it feel like she was in Alaska or something?

Aaawooooooo!

The howling was getting closer.

Her chest was beginning to hurt as she desperately sucked in more air, willing her body and mind to remain calm as she reached for a branch and pulled herself over a fallen tree. She refused to be a frozen treat for any damn wild animal tonight.

Aaawooooooo!

Now that howl sounded angry, or hungry, or fifty other very bad words for something dangerous. Sammy swallowed the lump in her throat, pleading with her body to keep moving forward. She would make it out of here. She still had so much to do before she bit the dust. She made a promise at her parents’ funeral that she’d find their killer and she couldn’t do that if she was dead too.

Her breathing was labored as she stumbled past more trees, relieved that her shoes finally hit concrete. She was out of the woods! She’d found solid ground!

Her stomach twisted into knots as she glanced towards the woods again, allowing her eyes to scan the dark, white scenery. She knew someone –or something-was in there.

Not tonight,
she reminded herself as she took a step backwards, nearly tripping over her own feet. She could find her way home now. The trek through the woods had been longer than she’d anticipated, but she was out now and that’s what mattered. If her body could only handle another few moments in the snow…..

“Hey, are you-”

Sammy shrieked, whirling around with her fists flying. She was pretty sure she made contact with somebody’s face more than once.

“Ow! Hey! Stop!”

Sammy didn’t stop. She was sufficiently freaked out and she flailed her arms towards the man like a crazy person.

“Get back!” She cried. “Get away from me!”

“Stop! Stop! STOP!” The male pleaded as he lifted his arms to block her strikes. “Stop it, Miss Calder-I’m trying to help you!”

He knew her name? Sammy stilled, staring at him with wild eyes. It only took a second to recognize him.

Oh shit,
she thought.
It’s the doctor. I just assaulted the doctor!

He didn’t seem to be angry with her, but she knew there was a good chance he was going to press charges. Great-just great! A deputy beating on a doctor…that wasn’t going to go well in court. She was going to get fired. She would be sent away from this town with the title of doctor beater or something. Aw, hell!

Doctor Xiong lifted his hand to wipe at the corner of his mouth, observing the bright crimson on his fingertips before he released a low breath.

“That’s some mean right hook you’ve got there,” he stated, lifting his brown eyes to meet hers. “I didn’t mean to frighten you. What the hell are you doing out here anyway? You’re supposed to be at the hospital.”

“I could ask you the same thing,” Sammy said in defense. “Why are you out in the middle of a freaking blizzard?”

Doctor Xiong cocked his head to the side as dark hair fell into his eyes. Wow. He was kind of cute from that angle.

“I thought I heard a noise,” he replied hesitantly. “I decided to investigate said noise. But you still haven’t answered my question.
Why
are you out here and not in the hospital?”