Chapter 7
Dawn raised an eyebrow in disbelief. “Vampires?”
Jerrit threw his arms up in exasperation. He had no idea how Dawn would react to anything and that fact was driving him crazy. “So you can believe in Were-animals, but you can’t believe in the undead?”
“Oh, I have no problem believing in the undead. What I have a problem believing is that Vampires just happened to show up mere moments after I become a Were…cat, for lack of a better term. I am a firm believer in the supernatural, but I have never had proof before. Now, in the matter of an hour, I see two different supernatural beings.”
“There is no coincidence about it. They were after you.”
“Me? Why would anyone be after me?”
“I wish that I knew…”
“How did they know where I was?” Dawn acted as though she hadn’t heard what Jerrit had said. She wasn’t even looking at him anymore. She didn’t seem to be talking to him anymore. “Let alone what I am. I mean, I didn’t shift until midnight and they showed up not ten minutes later.”
Jerrit tapped the side of his nose with his forefinger. “They have a nose for you, the same as you have for them.”
“What does Crystal have to do with all of this anyway?”
“Why are you asking questions if you aren’t going to listen to the answers?”
Dawn gave him a surprised look. “I am listening.”
“Really? Because I would bet that you haven’t heard a word that I said.”
Dawn shook her head. “You are jumping to the conclusion that some Vampires were hunting me before I even turned into a Were, but you don’t know why, and once I did turn, they could sniff me out.” Dawn tilted her head slightly. “Now, were you going to tell me your theories about Crystal’s involvement or did you want to have another temper tantrum?”
Jerrit bit back his retort. She was right, he was overreacting. He could not remember the last time that he had acted like such a child. Normally he was able to control his frustrations. He considered himself a fairly even-tempered guy. All that it took was for Dawn to ignore him and he throws a hissy-fit. The more time that he spent with the girl, the more he was convinced that he should call her family in, and yet he could not bring himself to do it.
Jerrit shifted in his seat to get feeling back in his lower back. She was right about sitting too long on her furniture. “I don’t think that she had anything to do with any of this. I just think that she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She spent most of the night with you so she was covered with your scent. I am pretty sure that they thought that they had cornered you until you showed up to protect her.”
“Now that they know that I am not Crystal will they leave her alone?”
Jerrit noticed that Dawn was staring at him intently. It was really kind of creepy. First she ignored him and now she was creepy. There was just no pleasing him.
“It’s possible, but no likely. They might think that she was just some random person that you were trying to protect and leave her alone. But, more than likely, they will know that she was with you and now they know that you would risk yourself to save her. That could be a problem for us.”
“So, why did they run when they saw you? We were still outnumbered. If it had been four against three on a more equal footing then I would understand. But it was four Vampires against one Were and two humans, one of whom was out of commission. In my eyes, they still had the upper hand. What am I missing here, Jerrit?”
The irritation that he was trying to suppress spiked again. So that was what was behind his aggravation. He did not want to lie to her, but he could not tell her the truth. He was not ready for her to know why vampires feared him or why her family hated him. What kind of a creature struck fear into the hearts of the most feared predators? It was not something that he could help. He was born that way. But Dawn would not understand, no one ever did, and for some reason he suddenly cared about that.
“They didn’t seem like the brightest vamps to me,” Jerrit said, stalling for time to figure out how to avoid lying and telling the truth at the same time. “It seemed like plain old cowardice to me. They were probably expecting an easy kill because you were a new shifter. Once they realized it was going to be hard, they ran.”
Dawn nodded, obviously unconvinced. “That was a whole lot of speculation and very little explanation. I know that you are hiding something from me and that’s fine,” Jerrit let out a soft breath before Dawn said “,,,for now. But sooner or later, Jerrit, you will tell me. I do not give up easily and I will whittle you down.”
Jerrit smiled mischievously. Neither of her sisters had figured out his secret on their own, but he had not actually hidden it from them like he felt the need to with Dawn. But the girl had just issued a challenge and Jerrit was not one to back down from something like that.
Dawn’s eyes locked with his as the silent war waged between them. The desire that he saw in their greenish brown depths was overwhelming. It took every ounce of his will power to stay in his chair and not cross the short distance to her. But she had to be toying with him. The game was on, and she was very good at it.
Jerrit coughed awkwardly as he looked away. Dawn smirked triumphantly. An attractive blush crept into his pail cheeks. It made her feel unexpectedly powerful to be able to make a man like Jerrit blush. She had won this round, but they were not through, and she knew that he was not going to make this easy on her.
“Eventually,” Jerrit croaked, looking back toward her. He did not look directly into her eyes, but seemed to be staring at her forehead. He cleared his throat before he went on, “You’ll be able to shift without giving it a second thought. It will come as naturally to you as breathing.”
“Nice segue, but who says that I have breathing down yet?”
Jerrit continued to avoid looking at her directly. He looked at her cheek, her forehead, and her temple but he refused to focus on her eyes.
“I am serious, Dawn. You don’t seem to realize just how much danger you are in. Even without the vampire problem you are not safe. You could shift unexpectedly in the middle of a class or at work. That would not only give away what you are but you haven’t learned to control your animal half yet. With as many forms as you have, there is no telling what will trigger a change. You are extremely volatile. Even with how quickly you learn, I won’t be able to get you ready in time for your class tonight.”
“A normal college student would jump at the excuse to skip a class. As we have already proven, I am not normal. You are not going to stop me from going to class, Jerrit. I am paying my own way through this hell hole of an education and I am not going to waste my money.”
“Do you really want to take the risk of me having to barge into your classroom to suppress some kind of wild animal that suddenly appeared out of nowhere? Try to explain that to your professor. It will be easier to lie and say that you are sick.”
“I am not skipping my class and you are sure as hell not coming with me.”
“Think about it, Dawn. You are an untrained Were. Anything could happen. Your professor could ask you a question that you don’t know the answer to and send you into some emotional cyclone that will cause a shift.”
“And the great Midgard serpent could show up signaling the beginning of Ragnarok.”
Jerrit’s voice got louder with his anger. “Allowing you to do this without supervision would be like letting a drunk drive himself home. Not to mention, I am not going to be inadvertently responsible for exposing our world. This is serious, Dawn.”
The angrier that Jerrit got, the more worked up Dawn felt. He was being unreasonable, even if his argument made sense. “Really? Because the fact that we are discussing whether or not I could turn into an animal while taking notes during a lecture sounds pretty ridiculous to me.”
“You are unstable as a new Were and the fact that you are not shifting properly could be a sign of more severe problems that could manifest themselves at any time. And how do you know about the Norse Armageddon?”
“I learned it from those classes that you are so afraid of me attending. I am going to class if I want to go to class and you are not going to stop me.”
“Well, then I’m going with you.”
“Over my dead body.”
Dawn tapped her pen on the notebook in front of her. The class was harder to get through than usual. Her mind kept wandering to the gorgeous man sitting outside the classroom door. She could not get his face out of her mind. Stupid Jerrit!
They had spent most of the afternoon fighting. Once that subject of her class had been worn out they had gone on to her work shift the following day. It had taken several hours to finally come to a compromise. If he came to her class then she would be able to go to work without him as long as he was able to drop her off and pick her up. The man was insufferable. He definitely gave her a run for her money when it came to being stubborn.
The only break that she had in their argument was when she had to call Crystal. It had taken almost an hour to convince her friend that she didn’t have to come over to check up on her. It wasn’t until Dawn agreed to have lunch with her that she was able to get off the phone. Dawn didn’t know who was worse, Jerrit or Crystal.
She shook her head trying to focus on her notes. Time was crawling by more slowly than it usually did through the endless hours of lectures. It was difficult enough to sit still on a normal day, but Jerrit had gotten her so worried about the fact that she might accidentally shift was distracting her. Nothing that the professor said was sticking. She was supposed to be a sponge for knowledge but her absorbency was gone. Maybe she should have skipped the class, if for no other reason than that she just couldn’t focus.
She let out a tired breath as she twirled her pen between her fingers. She had never been so distracted before. Of course, she had never met anyone like Jerrit before.
Stupid Jerrit!
When the professor finally let the class go, Dawn did not rush to put her things away. There was no need to hurry. She took pleasure in making Jerrit wait. She waited until she was the only person left in the room before she slung her bag over her shoulder and walked out into the hallway.
Jerrit was sitting just outside the door with his long legs stretched out in front of him blocking her path. His ankles were crossed and his back was leaning against the wall while he read the Wall Street Journal. Not counting his annoyingly perfect features, he almost looked normal. Dawn knew better. She had no doubt that he was aware of everything around him; from Dawn standing in the doorway, to the group of girls that had congregated by the stairwell, pretending not to be watching Jerrit intently.
Dawn rolled her eyes as she kicked Jerrit’s legs out of the way to get past him. She turned away from the girls and headed farther into the building. If Dawn looked too closely at the girls then she would start comparing herself to them and coming up with reasons why the annoying man, who she couldn’t get out of her mind, should pick them instead of her. Her heightened emotions were making her much more hormonal than usual and she would rather be angry than depressed.
“Are you always the last to leave?”
Dawn jumped at Jerrit’s voice in her ear. “God! Don’t do that!”
“There is no need to call me God.”
Dawn glanced over her shoulder. The newspaper was laying discarded on the floor where Jerrit had been. There was no way that he could have caught up with her without making a noise.
The girls who had been watching him were glaring at her. Most of them started to disperse but one actually started coming toward them. Of course the girl had to be a skinny blonde. Life was never fair.
Dawn ignored Jerrit as the girl approached.
The girl walked right up to Jerrit, nearly touching his body with her own, and placed a piece of paper in his hand. “Call me when you get tired of this one,” she whispered seductively in his ear.
Dawn snorted loudly. The girl just glared at her as she walked back to the stairs.
“Wow,” Dawn said as Jerrit watched the girl walk away, “Do you need a moment?”
“It is tempting.”
A pang of jealousy ran through Dawn. “Yeah, it’s a good thing that she’s pretty. I’m in class with her and I can honestly say that looks are all she has going for her.”
Jerrit looked at Dawn. Sarcasm lined his tone as he said, “Just my type. At least she would listen to what she’s told.” He threw the little piece of paper in a trash can.
Dawn felt relieved by Jerrit’s dismissal of the girl. “If she could understand it. Just don’t ask her to think too hard, her hair might explode.”
Jerrit shook his head. “So, are you always the last to leave the classroom?”
“You tell me.” Dawn started down the hall again. “You’re the one who’s been stalking me.”
“I am just saying, it is ten o’clock at night and you still have to walk home. I would think that you would want to go to bed.”
Dawn made it to the balcony that overlooked the area aptly called “The Ruins”. There were large Greek-looking pillars that stood at three different heights, like steps. A fourth pillar lay in pieces all over the floor below. The mechanical ticker that lined the bottom of the balcony broke the illusion, but it did distinguish the place as the business building.
Dawn leaned on the balcony and stared down at the ruins. “What’s the rush? I spend most of my time sleeping, going to class and working. I don’t have a life because I am a loser.”
Jerrit leaned against the railing next to her and frowned at her. “‘Loser’ is hardly the word that I would use to describe you.”
Dawn’s heart leapt. “Oh yeah? What word would you use?”
Jerrit looked away from Dawn. “I would have to say…psychotic. That is a much better definition of you.”
Dawn rolled her eyes as her stomach fell. “Oh good. For a second there I thought that you might actually compliment me.”
Jerrit smiled. “No, you are far too big headed for that.”
“I’m too big-headed? Talk about the pot calling the kettle...You really know how to flatter a girl.”
Jerrit laughed lightly. It was the most wonderful noise Dawn had ever heard. It was deep and seductive. It made Dawn smile
“What can I say? I’m a sweet talker.”
“Well isn’t this sweet?” Dawn tensed at the voice behind her. She recognized the Latin -American accent even before the smell hit her. I was a spicy smell that was dulled by the metallic scent of blood. It was the smell of Vampires and to Dawn’s newly heightened senses it was nauseating. “The Were-cat has a crush on the Nato Vero. I might actually be sick.”
Dawn turned around cautiously. Standing by the main stairs were seven large men. She recognized two from the night before but the rest were new. The spokesman of the group had his greasy black hair pulled back into a ponytail. The other man that Dawn recognized wore his dark hair loose around his shoulders. The rest of the men were rather unremarkable. There were two blondes and the rest were brunettes, but their faces all seemed to look the same. To a human they would have been attractive, but all Dawn saw was Vampires.
“You’ve got new friends,” Jerrit said snidely, “Did the old ones get in trouble because you couldn’t bring in one little Were? As I recall, you all ran away with your tails between your legs.”
The men all glared at Jerrit with malice.
“Don’t look so smug, Nato Vero,” one of the blonde men spat. His voice was deep and threatening. “We are not so easily spooked, especially by you.”
“Is that why there are twice as many of you this time?” Dawn asked calmly, gesturing to the group.
The man with the black ponytail smiled calmly. “I consider them more of an insurance policy, chica. I am not going to have a Were interfering in my town.”
“Wow, did you have to practice that to say it with a serious face?” Dawn was surprised at her own courage. She had no idea where it came from but she could not stop it. “If you want me gone, then come and get rid of me.”
Evil smiles spread on their faces. They moved more quickly than Dawn thought possible. Two men came at her while the rest focused on Jerrit.
Her instincts kicked in as the first one struck out at her. She blocked him with her forearm and spun away. Using her momentum she hit the other in the nose with her palm. It shattered on impact. Dawn crouched waiting for their next move. The two men came at her together. She pulled the knife that she had taken from Jerrit that morning out of her boot and slashed out toward the unharmed vampire. He backed away from the blade giving her time to sweep her leg around, knocking bloody nose off his feet. Dawn pounced on him and burried the blade in his heart. He dissolved into some kind of dust, and Dawn’s knife was freed. She spun in time to get rammed by the other vamp, then, suddenly, he was dust. Dawn looked down to where she held the knife. The vamp had impaled himself on it.
A pair of strong arms wrapped around Dawn pinning her arms to her sides. Dawn felt herself shifting. She threw her leg back and caught her newest attacker in the knee. He released her with a grunt. She spun to roundhouse kick him. Thankfully she was still human. Unfortunately, he caught her leg before it made contact.
“Thank you,” Dawn said breathlessly.
Confusion flashed in the blonde man’s eyes as he continued to hold her leg. “For what?” he asked gruffly.
“For holding that.”
Dawn didn’t give him a chance to work out what she had said before she jumped and spun. She kicked the man in the face with her free foot. He staggered back relinquishing her leg. Dawn lost her balance and fell to the floor. Jerrit came out of nowhere and stabbed the vampire in the chest. Silence fell over the hall as the dust settled.
Jerrit turned to Dawn and offered her his hand. “Where did you learn to fight like that?”
Dawn took his hand and pulled herself up. “Instinct.”
“Really?” Jerrit sounded impressed.
“Enough of this.” The spokes-vampire said, drawing Dawn’s attention back to the staircase and the last two vampires that were still standing there. He pointed a gun at her heart. “As fun as this has been…”
A shot rang out. Dawn could not move fast enough to get out of the bullets path. Time seemed to slow as she watched the object of her doom rocket toward her. She closed her eyes instinctively, waiting to feel the bullet as it pierced her skin...
...but nothing happened. Dawn opened her eyes to find Jerrit standing in front of her. He had taken the bullet for her. Dawn lifted her arms to catch him, but Jerrit did not fall. Instead he rose to his full, intimidating height. Dawn could not believe it when he took several long strides forward and grabbed a hold of the un in the Vampires hand.
The last vampire took advantage of Jerrit’s distraction and ran to the balcony. Dawn went after him as he vaulted the rail. He landed on the tallest pillar. Then jumped from pillar to pillar until he made it to the ground and bolted toward the doors.
Dawn looked behind her to see the annoying spokes-vamp turn to dust. She took far too much pleasure from his death, but she did not have time to dwell on it. There was still one vampire running through the building.
“Gun,” she demanded as Jerrit turned to her.
He threw it to her. She caught it and turned in one motion, then followed the vampire over the railing bypassing the pillars altogether. She landed in a crouch on the wood floor. She straightened to see the vampire running toward the door at the end of the hall. Dawn took aim and shot him through the chest. Bull’s-eye! Unfortunately the man did not explode like she thought he would, but he did fall into an unmoving heap.
Dawn spun as a thud hit the floor beside her. She aimed the gun at Jerrit’s head while he straightened. He gave her a level stare putting his hands up in surrender. His knife remained in its sheath.
“What the hell are you?” Dawn growled between clenched teeth.
“Dawn, that gun has no effect on me. You saw that.”
Dawn’s gaze flicked to the small hole in Jerrit’s shirt then back to his face. There was absolutely no damage to the luxurious skin that was exposed underneath it. There was no sign of blood or bullet. The only evidence that he had even been shot was the small hole in his clothing.
“I did see that. I also saw by the look on your face that it still hurts like hell. Now, I asked you a question. Either answer it or I start target practice.”
