Chapter Two
Cameron's grip tightened on my arm. Alex gasped. Even a glimpse of blood and she was out cold. I was trying to wrap my head around his answer. Blood? Who in their right mind would want blood? Was he some sort of vampire? But it was daylight . . . snowing, but daylight.
"Never," Cameron growled, "You're never hurting her."
Alex leaned closer to us. "Um, hello? What about me?" she growled in his ear.
Cameron just glared at her and shifted his posture so that he was more in front of me.
The man was crouching now, like he was about to spring. He had a pale shimmer to hiis skin that I vaguely noticed now. My vision was blurry because my glasses were smudged from the fall . . . or maybe I was just going to pass out.
He snarled, like a fearsome mountain lion. I franitcally looked at my friends, hoping for some clue as to what to do. Run, or surrender? His red eyes were boring into the top of my head. A sudden flicker of recognition crossed his face.
"You killed my Jaqueline," the man whispered harshly. "You killed my sweetheart."
I, being a mild-tempered Virgo of modest means, was baffled. I would never kill anybody! Desperately searching around for another presence in the ravine, I found only my friends, staring at me in disbelief.
"I . . . never," I started to say, but Cameron held me down in the snow.
"She never killed your Jaqueline," Cameron finished loudly. His nails dug into my sweater as the man jumped down in about point-two of a second.
"Don't play stupid with me, girl," the man said. Suddenly he ripped off his shirt to reveal seven scars on his shoulder, and one along his collarbone. They were white, and looked fresh. Alex gasped, knees quivering. "I am William Garland of the Fraser Coven. You . . . met Jaqueline in the woods here last June. She tried to kill you, but you had a lighter and burned her before she could bite."
Bite? Bite?! What was he talking about? And I never carried anything with me but a wallet and my car keys!
"Are you . . . a-an . . . animal?" I gasped, and Cameron crouched lower, holding my shoulders up.
"No," he growled, "but I do like a good fight."