His dad scoffed and was about to say something rude when the vampire lord took a step towards the center of the group. “I believe,” Lord Etienne he began, tugging at the cuffs of his elegant jacket. “That we should plan and prepare for both. The omega seems confident in his theory of their daytime resting, and I do believe it is plausible. However, James is correct. That when concerning our kind, the obvious tends to be nothing more than bait for a trap.”
“I’m not sure we have the resources to do both,” Nick offered.
“Actually, I think we could pull off doing both things,” Lily said standing up and stuffing her hands into her jeans pockets. “The town isn’t that big, and if you sent a team of five or ten people, I think it’s possible to have all the buildings checked within a day or two while the rest of us work on the defenses here. Where I think our resources are going to fall low is on the night of the full moon. Who knows how many vampires Vincent really has with him.”
That was the million dollar question; James thought as he looked over to the vampire lord. Did he have more vampires than this Vincent? Because as much as James hated to admit it, if Vincent attacked a full moon then it was going to be a vamp fight. Only wolves who had something invested in Tristen would give a crap about keeping her safe once they’ve shifted into their wolf forms,
“Are we there yet,” Lily whined purposely to annoy her father.
“Funny,” Bill replied, giving her the stern paternal glare in the rear view mirror.
Donovan shook his head, side to side from the driver’s seat and Lily smiled a smug grin as she leaned back in the seat. Charlie -the local beta chuckled as he drummed his fingers on his knee.
They were one of the three teams going into to search the town before nightfall. Alpha Sanders and James, his dad, and some werewolf Lily didn’t know made up another. Nick, Evangeline, the Canadian Alpha, and Chris formed the third. Alpha Sanders was coming into the town from the north. Nick from the west and Lily’s team was coming up from the south.
Unwilling to admit it ever, Lily didn’t feel right not being with James. It made her anxious and antsy which was one of the reasons Lily was trying to distract herself by picking on her dad. Well that and she like pissing Bill off when she could.
About five minutes away from the town Donovan’s phone started to ring. “It’s Nick,” he said, putting the call on speaker. It was full of static and cutting out badly.
“Repeat that. Didn’t Copy,” Bill said, leaning towards the phone and sounding all Top Gun-ish.
Another static filled response came but Lily thought she heard him say stop or sil something. She wasn’t sure though.
“What is he trying to say,” Donovan asked, glancing over at Bill. She started to tell what she’d heard the SUV suddenly jackknifed with a loud bang sound. Lily gasped with her hands clutching the driver’s seat as Donovan struggled to regain control of the large car. At one point, she was sure they were going to flip over. The SUV wobbled side to side when it finally stopped.
“What the hell was that,” Lily growled, then they all scrambled out of the car to get a look. “What the hell,” she repeated, seeing all four tired as blown out.
“Looks like they’ve been waiting for us,” Donovan said. He pointed to something that glinted off in the sun behind them. “Spike strip, like what the cops use.”
“Maybe they booby trapped all the roads. I thought he said stop,” she said, looking around them. “But what exactly did they hope to accomplish with this? Did they really think the loss of a car would stop us?”
“Especially when we can just move it,” Charlie said, jogging over to the strip.
Lily squinted with her hand over her eyes, watching him. She thought she saw something glint in sunlight but wasn’t sure. Lily lifted her nose to scent the air when she heard Charlie scream. Not yell but scream then a moment later she thrown back as an explosion erupted near the beta. The forced knocked her off her feet and slammed her into the ground.
Several things happened at once. Her ears rang with a constant buzz as her lungs desperately tried to take in air. Pain radiated from every inch of the front of her body. When Lily finally managed to take in a breath, it only increased her agony. A tortured scream ripped from her as what had to have been silver burned at her flesh, throat, and lungs. She writhed on the pavement as she clawed at her chest, trying to scratch away the silver.
Lily felt someone grab her and lift her up off the ground. “Lily, go vamp,” she heard Bill demand.
“I… I can’t,” she rasped in a rough, grotesque version of her voice. The pain making it difficult to think beyond it.
“Yes, you can,” he insisted. “If you don’t you’ll die! That was a bomb loaded with silver. It’s on your skin and you breathed it in. It’s burning you from the inside out! You need to go vamp!”
“T-the s-s-sun,” she said, finding it hard to speak or even breath. She started to cough and gag on what must have been blood by the metalic taste of it. Her vision became unfocused and blurry. Pain, so much pain.
“Damn it! Lily go vamp,” Bill ordered. His voice cracked with panic as he looked down at her. “Come on baby girl! I can’t lose you now.”
The raw emotion in his voice caught her by surprise. Closing her eyes and trying to push back the rising panic at suffocating in her own blood, Lily gave her vampire control as a large blanket covered her. The feeling of drowning ebb away to nothing. Someone picked her up and set her inside the car, closing the door after her. Her skin, throat, and lungs still felt like they were on fire. Hunger for blood made her gums hurt. Lily curled in on herself, hugging the blanket around her like a lifeline.
Silver, that had been the other word Nick was saying. If he knew about the traps and silver… James! She jerked hard in the back seat, causing her to cough and spit up some wet, gooey, mass. Lily tried to call to Bill. Tell him they needed to go for James but when she tried to speak only blood, flym, and only God knows what else bubbled up her throat and out of her mouth. That couldn’t be good.
She heard the two front car doors open and slam close before the SUV lurched into motion. “Don’t worry Lils, we’re going to get you patched up,” Bill said, sounding more like he was trying to reassure himself instead of her.
James! She screamed in her mind but after another attempt to speak she slumped into the seat. They had to find James! Pain increased in her chest and she knew it wasn’t the silver this time. It was the idea of James laying out in the road somewhere hurt like her. Drowning in his own blood and lungs as the silver ate away at it like acid. Her eyes burned with salty tears that burned where they slid down her cheeks.
Please James, be okay. Please, she prayed as the SUV roughly drove on. The grinding sound of the rims against the pavement jarring Lily’s brain as much as the burns all over her. It was all that she was able to think of until she heard Xin Qian’s voice.
“What happened,” Xin Qian ask. The worry obvious in her voice.
“Trap,” Bill said he laid Lily on what felt like a bed.
Sounds of hurried movement of chairs, curtains, and other things that Lily couldn’t determin. A cool breeze told her that the blanket lifted off of her but the darkness remained. She couldn’t see anything. Was it really that dark or was she… blinded? Panic bubbled up in her and she tried to speak but again, blood and flym was her only reward.
“Oh my… what kind of trap…. is she…” Xin Qian breathed and Lily had no trouble hearing the horror in her voice. It took only a second later for the young witch wolf to make the connection. “What about Chris? What about the others? Where are they?”
“Stay back,” Bill ordered. “She and I are both coated with silver residue. We don’t know about the others status yet. Like this,” he said, taking a pause before continuing and Lily was sure he made some kind of gesture. “We can’t help them or anyone. We’d cause more damage than good. Once I’m sure Lily is taken cared of, we’ll shower and go see if they sur-are as bad as we were.”
“And you’ll be taking me with you,” Lily now heard Wendy demand.
“No,” Bill replied.
“No? That’s my dad out there and my friends! You left them out there,” Wendy shouted.
You tell’em girl, Lily thought with pride as she gripped the bedding, wishing she could get up and shout at Bill too.
“I had no choice!”
Liar!