Chapter 147: Chapter Eleven

Serenity

I didn’t think anything of it when Mason didn’t return right away.

But after five hours, I started to get worried.

It didn’t help that it was getting dark, and I was in a strange house all by myself.

A house where I wasn’t sure I could stay hidden and or protected from whatever had tried to kill me the other night.

The more I thought about it, the more I pulled the blanket closer to my body, tempted to throw it over my head as if it could make me invisible.

The clock struck ten, nearly sending me off the couch in a fit of fear. I was a vampire, for crying out loud.

I could hold my own.

I just didn’t want to have to.

And I wasn’t exactly in the best practice to do anything outside of throwing a few punches and running. Besides, I’d had one cup of blood that was quickly leaving my system.

“Stop being ridiculous,” I said to myself literally as the doorbell rang and then the door opened.

I froze as the scent of burnt wood invaded my nostrils only to be replaced by what smelled like campfires and summers spent on the lake.

“Mason,” the deep voice called, and then I was staring into the deepest blue eyes I’d ever seen in my entire life and trying not to panic over the fact that the strange man looked like a successful male model with a lucrative underwear campaign. “Oh, hello.” He smiled.

I frowned.

He looked away and grinned as if he knew the effect he had on people and then tried again with the smiling at me. “I’m Timber. And you are?”

“Serenity,” I said, lamely staring at his outstretched hand.

With a sigh, he left it there just hanging between us.

I had no choice but to shake it.

His grip was firm.

I decided I liked him even if I didn’t want to; it was impossible not to at least be mildly intrigued by his pretty face and apparent good manners.

“Have you seen the wolf today?”

“No…” I took my hand back. “…but I saw the man about five hours ago.”

He choked out a laugh. “Same thing. I was hoping he would be here so I could discuss—” He turned. “Never mind. Seems the wolf is home.”

Mason staggered into the living room looking like he’d just gotten in a fight with a semi-truck and lost.

Blood caked his fingernails.

And his sandy brown hair suddenly looked like it had been dipped in red.

“What the hell happened to you?” Timber let out a whistle.

Mason growled, and then his piercing gaze was on me. “I’m—” His eyes rotated into the back of his head.

Timber reached out and caught him just before his forehead slammed into the wall.

“Mason!” I ran over to his body and examined the cuts and bruises lining his arms before Timber laid him across the floor and pulled out his phone.

“Something’s wrong!” He barked into the phone. “Do I look like a veterinarian?”

He rolled his eyes while I cupped Mason’s head in my hands. His perfect lips parted just enough for me to see fangs.

Werewolves typically had shorter fangs than vampires; it made it easy for them to tear into meat without them getting in the way.

They didn’t, however, have fangs that elongated past their lower lips.

That wasn’t right at all.

“What do you mean you have a feeling?” Timber roared. “I’m not going to base this off a feeling!”

I ran my fingers over Mason’s strong face. Something was horribly wrong.

A garbled moan came from his mouth.

I leaned closer, pressing my ear to his chest. I just wanted to make sure his heart was beating, that he was okay. I had no idea why I was so worried about a stranger.

Maybe because of the way he’d taken care of me? Maybe because his blood still sang for me.

Only this time, it sounded like it was in agony.

“I’m not so sure that’s a good idea,” Timber whispered into his phone. “I’ll keep her away just in case.”

I turned my head to Timber. “Just in case what?”

He hung up the phone and then paled.

Just as teeth pierced my neck.