Grim and Bear It
Chapter Thirty-Three

Jake

"I thought you said you had a plan?" Paris shouted after I shot at the red wolf, then grabbed her arm and started running. Well, quickly limping. "The plan is running."

"I throw you over my shoulder on the count of three."

I took a step to the left as a red wolf eased closer, his hot, damp breath washing over me. There was no way these were regular werewolves. I clicked the button on my watch. "You won't be fast enough carrying me."

She shifted her stance, so we were shoulder to shoulder. "Well, I'm not leaving you here."

My watch buzzed and I risked glancing down. "What the...?"

"What?"

"It says werewolf and vampire hybrid? Wolf hybrids?"

"What do you mean wolf hybrid?" Paris asked.

I stared at the wolf directly in the eyes, silently challenging it. Just as I wanted, it let out a blood-curdling growl, exposing its teeth. And its vampire fangs.

"They're vampire-werewolf hybrids," I surmised. "They must be milking wolves as well as humans."

The red wolf lunged at me, taking me to the ground with the force of a truck. My gun went flying and I lost my breath as the weight of its paw crashed down on my chest. I couldn't breathe. The wolf lowered its head and opened its jaws, and I closed my eyes. At least if I died right now, I'd get to see Poppy again. Just one last time.

Someone whistled and snapped their fingers, and the wolf hesitated, then looked to the side. With a grumble, it backed up, leaving me gasping for air. A spotlight shined directly onto my face. "What are you doing here?"

I blinked and pushed myself up on my elbows to see the man who had checked the net waving an automatic weapon at me. "Just on an evening hike. Seems I crossed over into wolf territory." "With two of your closest friends?"

"We're majoring in environmental sciences at Hayvenwood University?" Paris claimed, raising her voice and making everything sound like a question. "Our TA told us to go on a night hike?" "This is private property. You're trespassing."

"Oh man," Loren said in a voice so much higher than his own I nearly didn't recognize it. "We're sorry, bud."

"If you're students," he asked, "why'd I hear gun fire?"

"My daddy always taught me to carry a gun in the woods," Paris explained. "Bears."

"We'll leave right away," Loren added.

"Afraid I can't let that happen." He motioned with his gun. "I need all three of you to put your guns on the ground and then stand slowly. These guys haven't had their evening meal yet, in case you were wondering."

Three of us? I dropped my gun on the ground. With one hand up, I reached for my cane while turning to the left. Romi was gone. I concentrated on keeping my face devoid of any thoughts or emotions, even though hope beat in my chest. Maybe she had a plan to get us out of this mess.

I reached out a hand to Paris and motioned for her to come to me. "It seems I tweaked my leg in the fall. Can you help me up?"

"Why are you hiking with a bad leg?" the man asked, suspicion coating his words.

“Doc says I gotta exercise it,” I explained. “Didn't know I'd get pounced on by a large animal."

The man grunted in response but lowered his rifle. Paris ran over to me, pretending to fuss. "Give me your tranq gun," I whispered as she bent down low.

She shook her head once, her eyes wide. She shifted and I saw the handle of the gun peeking out from her side holster. She grabbed both of my wrists to help pull me up, making a big show of it. Then, as she released my right wrist, I grabbed the gun, shoved her behind me, and shot two tranquilizers into the man's neck, then used my cane to knock the weapon out of his hand.

He dropped the gun and fell to his knees, the formula working ten times as fast as commercially available tranquilizers. As a hybrid, it wouldn't last long, but it would buy us time.

"Run!" I ordered. The wolves were distracted by the man lying on the ground, and we got a few second head start.

"Jake!" Paris grabbed me around the waist and hauled me onto her shoulder then started running. "If we live through this, I'm going to kill you myself."

"You would've done the same thing if you had the shot!"

She grunted a response.

"How are you carrying me? I weigh twice as much as you."

"I'm more than just a pretty face!"

"Never said you weren't." She shifted me and stumbled but quickly righted herself. "You'd be twice as fast on your own."

"Not leaving you behind."

I looked up as the wolves snarled, the entire pack focused on our retreating forms. Fuck. "Hey, Loren?"

"Yeah?" he called from the left.

"Grab Paris and haul her out of here, okay?"

Paris's arms tightened. "What-"

I rolled out of her arms and Loren scooped her up in a nearly identical hold, then took off with Paris struggling and shouting at me. My vision blurred with the pain of hitting the ground, and I sucked in a deep breath, trying to clear it. I grabbed my cane, which Paris had dropped when I fell, and pulled out the knife. It was about half the size of a sword, and probably wouldn't do much against these monsters. But I was going to leave some marks on the way out. The red one launched at me and I held the knife in one hand, the weighted end of the cane in the other, and aimed for its neck. A flash of pink shot in front of me, the knife gone from my hands. I stumbled back as step as Poppy appeared in front of me, knife raised as if it were her sword.

She wasn't wearing a robe and was in skeleton form. "Touch him and die," she warned at the wolves. The red wolf hit the ground only inches away from her, then backed up, growling. "I know a few demons who like the taste of dog." I turned at the flash of headlights and squealing tires. A black truck with the window down cut through the woods and stopped dead only a few feet away. Romi.

"I got Loren and Paris, let's go!" she ordered.

I grabbed Poppy by the waist and hobbled to the truck. I shoved her in, then followed.

Romi pulled out of the woods, clipping the driver's side mirror on a low-hanging branch. When we made it to the main road, she glanced at me in the rearview mirror. "Ah, yes. You're death." Poppy's head shot up from my chest and turned toward Romi. "You can see me?" she asked, shifting to her human form at the same time I questioned "You can see her?"

Romi bobbed her head, not really yes or no. "I can't see her physical form, with my human eyes, but I can see her with my mind."

Loren looked into the back seat, then back to Romi. "You've gotten even weirder since your whole trip to hell."

"Yeah, love you too," she shot back.

"Trip to hell?" Paris asked.

"It's a long story," Romi explained. "I'll tell you later."

Loren held up his hand and pointed at me and Poppy. "I'm not playing with death again." He pointed at Romi. "She gave me my first gray hair. I'm too young for gray hairs." "She's not death," I explained. "She's a grim reaper."

Loren looked pained. "That's even worse. Why are you hanging out with a grim reaper?"

Poppy lifted her head and waved, laughing awkwardly. "Well, technically I've been suspended from my reaper duties and am currently on the run, so if we see any reapers, don't worry, they're more of a threat to me than they are to you." "What?" I asked. "We need to talk about this."

"Later," she whispered.

I relayed what she said to the group.

"Surprisingly that doesn't make me feel better," Loren mumbled. "Fine, but if I'm going to die, make sure my wife knows it wasn't my fault. She'll do a séance just to give me an ass chewing."

Romi clucked her tongue. "I'm so telling Raine you said that."

"I'll return your Christmas present."

"You shouldn't piss off a witch," she whisper-yelled. "She could turn your dick into a cactus or something."

He laughed once. "Try something and see what Raine does."

Paris looked over at me. "I'm pissed at you. I had it under control. But since you lived, I guess we're fine."

I nodded once, seriously. "I'm sorry that I doubted you."

She nodded back. "Poppy, why were you able to stop the wolves?" She was looking at me when she asked it, since she was unable to see Poppy.

Poppy was pushing the knife back in the cane. "Wolves werewolves are terrified of reapers. We're viewed as the highest on the food chain. I can't take a werewolf's soul unless they're ready to die, but they're a superstitious group." "Thank you," I whispered, before translating for Paris.

Paris looked around me, although more at the door than at Poppy. "Thank you, Poppy."

"Now that we seemingly have a secret weapon," Loren said, "we need to figure out our next plan."

It was going to be a long night.