Turning by Dawn Kirby

Stand Still

“I’m safe,” Alana assured Matt. She propped the phone on her shoulder and started opening kitchen cabinets in search of coffee. “Don’t worry about me. You need to focus on you right now.”

“That’s a little hard considering you don’t even know where you are,” Matt snorted. Carly handed him a cool bottle of water and sat down beside him on the couch. He grimaced when her leg accidentally hit his thigh.

“Sorry,” she whispered.

He put his hand over the receiver and managed a slight smile. “It’s okay. I’m not in half as much pain as I was.” His hand fell away from the phone, his attention back on his sister. “Did you even ask?”

“Of course I did,” she said defensively. She wasn’t a complete idiot. “Once he told me we were at his house and Ben couldn’t find us here I didn’t really think I needed an address. Judging by that groan I just heard, I’d say you’re nowhere near strong enough to come find me.”

“Make him bring you back here.”

“And then what?” She leaned against the counter and frowned. Where in the heck does a vampire keep coffee? Or was the pot just an attempt at looking normal? “You die. Carly dies. If I stay away from y’all there’s a better chance we’ll all come out of this alive.”

“There’s always a chance we won’t.”

***

Ben dropped the man’s lifeless body on the ground and hit the wall. He’d planned on having Alana’s blood tonight not the diluted shit he’d just settled for. Frat boys were easy to pick off, but they tended to have more alcohol in their system than blood. This time was no different and he was still hungry. Thanks to Nicholas two people would die tonight.

As he walked around the corner he thought about his next move. He had no idea where to look for her. Nicholas was smart enough not to take her back to her brother’s apartment. There was no way he’d let her go back to her own place. Not now. Thomas’s house maybe?

Almost as soon as he thought it he dismissed it. Ben had made that house his over the past few weeks. If anybody had dared go in that house without his permission they would have been met by heavy opposition. He smiled when he thought of all the benefits his new life had given him; werewolves being one of them.

Then it hit him. Weres didn’t need permission to get in houses. They didn’t have to worry about sunlight. They also had an amazing sense of smell. Why hadn’t he seen it before? He didn’t need to find Alana. He just needed to give her a reason to come to him. Forcing Matt and whoever else he could think of to his house would do just that.

With a plan brewing in his head he set out to find his next victim. She would be tall, blond and more than willing to fulfill his every need. Who knows? He may even decide to keep her until Alana decided he was in fact the only man for her.