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  I also slung on a holster and stowed a pistol in it. I might be going vampire hunting, but there were almost certainly other things out in the woods. A gun might be useful for other creatures.

  Like bears.

  A shiver of cold—or maybe excitement—trailed up my back. I wouldn’t have said so aloud, but I would’ve been hard-pressed to give up hunting entirely, even if I was suddenly released from my family’s curse tonight.

  I suspected that was part of why Daddy drank so much.

  I never said that aloud, either.

  Wolf yipped softly when he picked up the vamp’s scent and began following it. If he went too far up into the mountains, we’d come back for the van. For now, though, I was content to follow Wolf on foot.

  It had grown even darker outside since we stepped out of the store to watch the vampire walk away. I stopped for a moment and glanced back at downtown Creede, nestled into its little valley behind us.

  A light coating of new snow had fallen and the brightly lit holiday decorations on the storefronts glowed and twinkled in the clear mountain air. The town looked like a Christmas card.

  Too bad there was a bloodsucking vampire hunting in it.

  Kind of ruined the whole Christmas vibe.

  6.

  I had worried that the snow would hinder Wolf’s ability to track the vampire, but it didn’t make a difference, apparently. Once the werewolf had a handle on the trail, he followed it without ever wavering—up the road, around a curve, and straight up to the entrance of an old mine.

  A silver mine.

  Of course.

  “Well, fuck,” I muttered.

  The tall building that housed the mine loomed above me, an old wooden structure that sat atop it like a façade in front of a gaping wound in the ground.

  I glanced around nervously.

  “Is he really down there? This close to town?”

  Wolf nodded.

  This could be bad.

  Then again, I reminded myself, the mines have been closed down for years.

  Nope. I couldn’t even convince myself that this might be okay.

  Taking a deep breath, I sent my magical senses questing out from me. I could feel the tunnels running all through the mountain surrounding me, meandering into the heart of the world, following the veins of silver that throbbed like poison against me even from this distance.

  If I kept these senses open, I would be able to avoid most of the silver in the mine itself.

  Too bad I hadn’t learned how to do this more effectively. I was going to need to improve my magic use eventually.

  Starting now.

  Wolf and I stepped up to the plywood covering the mine entrance. It had signs all over it, variations of Keep Out and Danger. I tugged at the edges a little until Wolf nudged me with his nose and pawed at the bottom left-hand corner. When I grabbed it, the heavy plywood swung up and away, opening to reveal the wounded earth behind it. The bright moonlight illuminated a small cavern long enough for us to step inside. When the plywood dropped closed behind us, the room went black. Wolf whined a little, deep in his throat.

  “I know,” I said quietly, gripping my stakes tightly. We leaned against each other in the dark, and I let my earth sense quest outward again.

  As if my magic, so rarely used, had sparked a light in the darkness, a shining blue-white network of silver veins popped up in front of me like a map. The darker lines running beside it were tunnels. As long as I held on to my power, I could get us back out of here.

  But Wolf still couldn’t see, not without some real light. I had never done this before, but suddenly I knew exactly what had to happen. Tucking one of the stakes into my back pocket, I dropped my hand down onto Wolf’s head, burying my fingers in his fur. And then I concentrated on sending a spark of whatever it was that animated my power through my fingers and into him.

  He twitched when it hit him, and although I couldn’t precisely see him, an outline image of his form leapt into my sight, as if someone had painted his edges with glowing neon.

  Wolf swung his head toward me and gestured deeper into the mine. I studied the lines on the magical map, trying to determine which way to go.

  When I saw it, I wasn’t sure how I had ever missed it in the first place. A pulsing red pustule, deep down one of the tunnels, but heading our direction.

  It was the vampire. I was certain of it.

  And there was someone else with him.

  Someone human.

  “This way,” I whispered, and Wolf and I set out, moving deeper into the silver mine.

  7.

  We tracked the vampire using the magical map, winding our way down, and down, and down, even as that pulsing red mark, throbbing in my vision like a point of pain, moved up through the tunnels, closer and closer to us.

  “I can hear you.” The vampire’s voice echoed around us, and if I hadn’t known exactly where it came from, it would’ve been disorienting as hell.

  But Wolf and I were not confused. We headed toward him in a straight line.

  “Oh, little van-driving hunter and her big, bad Wolf. You have found me.” His mocking tone bounced from wall to wall, fading out until it was taken over by the screams of his victim.

  “Help me!” Her shout cut off with a gurgle, and I picked up the pace. But even with a perfect map in front of me, I had to step carefully to avoid stumbling over loose rocks or banging my head against low-hanging ceilings.

  By the time we got to the open cavern where the vampire waited, we were too late.

  In the dark, my hearing had grown even more sensitive. I heard my breath and Wolf’s. I heard the vampire laughing. And that was all.

  A click in the darkness sent light flaring up in front of Wolf and me, and we both flinched away before realizing that the vampire carried a perfectly prosaic flashlight.

  It illuminated a gruesome scene.

  Bodies and parts of bodies. If I’d had to guess, I would’ve said probably four or maybe five different people—but at first glance it was a jumble of bloody torsos and limbs and empty, staring eyes.

  The vampire turned the light away from his victims and shined it up under his chin so that it highlighted the gore around his mouth and cast his eyes in dark, shadowed hollows. Again he laughed, and I heard the edge of real madness in it—not the kind of bloodlust that so often comes out as maniacal glee in vampires, but actual psychosis.

  This man had been crazy before he was ever turned.

  “Welcome to hell,” he sneered.

  8.

  Wolf and I moved in tandem, as if we’d been fighting together all our lives. We separated to flank the vampire, taking turns lunging toward him, distracting him from the other’s attacks. I had hoped to disorient him enough to make him trip over his latest victim, who had crumpled at his feet, glassy eyes open over a rictus scream and a slashed throat that still bled sluggishly.

  It didn’t happen, though. He danced around her body without ever looking down at it. Under any other circumstance, I would’ve called him graceful. Even attractive.

  When he threw the flashlight away from himself, it bounced dizzyingly off the walls, holding my attention just long enough to allow him to do what he planned all along. Reaching behind him, he grabbed an open paper sack, hefted it in his arms and then twirled so that its contents sprayed outward.

  As he faced Wolf, I moved, jumping toward him and shoving a stake in through his back. An instant later, the dust from that sack blew out and settled on me.

  The apple-wood stake jerked in my hand as its supernatural properties grabbed it and sent it slamming through the vampire’s ribcage and into his heart.

  At the same time, the rest of dust in the bag settled on Wolf, who let out a howl, shook himself violently, and dropped to the ground, rolling around on his back. The vampire stiffened in the middle of his twirl toward me, but the dust kept flying. I realized I could still see him in the light of the flashlight. His gaze met mine and he spoke around the blood burbling out through
his lips. “This is good—you die, too. See you in hell. Again.”

  With a last, hacking cough of a laugh, he fell on top of the pile of his own victims, joining them in their last resting place.

  I barely saw that, however.

  I was too busy trying not to die from the silver dust the son-of-a-bitch had coated Wolf and me with.

  9.

  The silver burned into me, burrowing like billions of tiny insects chewing their way through my skin. It was eating away at me like acid, and the more I rubbed at it, the more it seemed to sink in. I’d inhaled it, too, and my lungs were dissolving as I tried to breathe.

  The motherfucker hit Wolf, too.

  I tried to take a step toward him, but my knees gave way, and I toppled over.

  No. This is not how it ends.

  Pulling myself back up to my hands and knees, I crawled toward Wolf, who was standing on shaky legs and making his way toward me.

  My magic faltered, and I fought to hang on to the map in my mind—the only way we could possibly make our way back out of the mine. We were too deep to find our way back up by memory.

  But at least we had a light. I grabbed the flashlight in my raw, bloodied hand, flinching as more flakes of silver from the handle burned their way into me.

  We might both die from silver poisoning, but by God, we were not going to die in this dark hole. Not if I had my way. I used Wolf’s back to steady myself as I stood. “This way.”

  We staggered back toward the entrance, and I had just enough sense left to wonder why he had thrown silver on both of us. Wolf, I understood—everyone knows that werewolves react to silver.

  But me? I had done my level best to keep my silver allergy a secret, something only the people closest to me knew. That was the first thing I’d learned as a hunter—the cousins had to keep their metal allergies secret.

  Otherwise, the monsters would use it against us.

  If I survived this night, I’d have to figure out how the vampire had known to set that particular trap for me.

  Because I was certain it was a trap.

  Following that line of logic sent adrenaline flowing through me long enough to keep going.

  We made it to the entrance cavern just as I gave out.

  Wolf’s fur coat had protected him from the worst of the silver dust—but I knew it was too late for me. I was about to die. My arms and legs grew weak and once again, I fell to the ground. Wolf whined, nosing me, pushing me to get up again.

  “You go on without me. I think if you roll in the snow, you can get rid of the worst of it.” My insides were on fire, melting, and I leaned over to one side and vomited up blood.

  Wolf pushed at the plywood but was unable to open the door. I dragged myself along the floor, skin sloughing away from my hands, so I left a bloody trailed behind me. For an instant, I imagined my face melting away, like a scene from some old movie where the villains failed to look away from God’s vengeance.

  Wolf circled me, whining and crying.

  “You know,” I managed to say, “if you would just shift, you could do this yourself.” I hooked my fingers under the plywood and pushed, using the last of my strength to open the door to let my friend, my companion, my fellow hunter the werewolf, run free.

  As I collapsed back down and laid my melting cheek on the cool floor, I heard the distant sound of bells ringing.

  For a moment I was certain it was my imagination. That it was some kind of the heavenly host, come to take me away.

  But I was afraid the vampire was right—I wasn’t going to heaven when I died. Not when I hadn’t been able to save that woman tonight. Or so many others.

  I had failed so many people in my life that I had stopped counting.

  That wasn’t the sound of angels coming for me.

  But the bells were real. From somewhere in town, bells actually rang out—church bells tolling midnight, announcing that Christmas had arrived.

  A blue light flared around us, and again I was sure it was the end.

  This, though, was Wolf, finally shifting. He looked as surprised as I felt, even as my vision faded out and I lost consciousness.

  10.

  When I came to, it had only been a few seconds—the bells were still ringing a Christmas carol, something I knew I would recognize if only I could think straight.

  Wolf was now a naked, muscular, human man who swept me into his arms—his muscular, human arms—as he raced down the road from the mine back to the van.

  Some part of me knew he shouldn’t be able to move that fast, that the silver dust must be affecting him, too.

  But he did.

  With a supernatural burst of speed, he got us away from the mine and back down to the van, where he threw open the door before the bells had finished ringing and gently placed me on the platform bed in the back.

  “Blaize,” he said, his voice as deep and as beautiful as his eyes—his haunted, blue-white eyes, in that gorgeous face, framed with thick, dark hair. “You can’t leave me. Please don’t go. I need you to stay.”

  I opened my mouth, and he leaned down close to hear me when I spoke.

  “What’s your name?” I managed to rasp out.

  He drew in a breath to speak—and the clock tolled the twelfth bell.

  Again, the light that had glowed so brightly when he shifted flared around him. The edge of that magical glow caught me, and I burned in it.

  But this time, I wasn’t melting. Except for my eyes—in my half-delirium, I was convinced that the tears running down my cheeks were my eyes melting away.

  Still, it burned me almost as much as the silver had, searing something between us, a bond that only strengthened as I gazed into his eyes while his body reformed into the familiar shape of the Wolf I had traveled with since Tombstone.

  I reached out and buried my hand in his fur.

  A deep sense of safety washed over me, and I closed my eyes again.

  11.

  The next time I regained consciousness, Wolf was firmly back in his usual lupine form, and he was licking my face, whining anxiously.

  “Okay, okay. I’m awake. I’m fine.” I pushed his head away from my face. “You can quit now. You have dog-breath. Yuck.”

  Wolf hmphed, but he backed off.

  I sat up on the bed, carefully assessing myself for any damage. Broken bones, oozing wounds, liquid lungs—I didn’t have any of them.

  The skin on my hands was whole again.

  That burning light had apparently also healed me—my bodily injuries, anyway. I glanced at Wolf. I wasn’t so sure about my emotions.

  A hard tremor wracked my whole frame, and Wolf moved back up beside me. I dropped my hand to his head, but that feeling of safety was gone. Someone out there knew about my silver allergy, and that could only mean trouble.

  I glanced at Wolf out of the corner of my eye, remembering the beautiful man who’d saved me and told me he needed me.

  That’s a whole different kind of trouble.

  Eventually, I’d have to deal with all of it. But first...

  I rubbed my eyes and checked my phone.

  Four in the morning.

  I’d been out for hours. During that time, Wolf had somehow managed to shut and lock all the doors. He was still vigilant, but his legs were shaking.

  He needed rest.

  And we both needed distance from ... whatever had just happened.

  The vampire was dead. Creede was safe. Steve the cute blond clerk at San Luis Sports, Nanci at Rarities, even the guy who wouldn’t let Wolf eat enchiladas in his restaurant. They were all okay.

  We could go.

  “You ready to get the hell out of here?” I asked.

  Wolf gave a sharp bark and a nod, and I moved up to the driver’s seat to start the van. We could start driving and just not stop. Maybe head east this time, see if I could push the geographical boundaries of my curse that direction.

  This felt right, the two of us together on the road again.

  Still...

&nb
sp; “You know,” I said to Wolf, who jumped up into the passenger seat and settled in, “If we leave right now, we could make it to Tucson in less than twelve hours.”

  Wolf’s second nod in as many minutes decided it, and we headed down the road, leaving another dead monster behind us.

  As we drove through town, though, I couldn’t help but notice—none of the local churches had a bell tower.

  With a shake of my head, I brushed the thought away, picked up my phone with one hand, and dialed, knowing I’d be able to leave a message at this hour.

  “Hey, Daddy. Keep the lights on tonight. Looks like I’ll be home for Christmas, after all.”

  Resolutions

  By Margo Bond Collins and Blaire Edens

  1. Blaize

  “SO WHAT THE HELL ARE we doing here?” My traveling companion, Wolf, and I rolled to a stop in front of the Amtrak station in El Paso, Texas. I hadn’t ever been here before, despite all my travels across the southwestern US. Primarily because I’d never been Called here.

  And that, I assumed, was because nothing supernatural had ever threatened El Paso’s Amtrak passengers before.

  I put the van in park and leaned back in the driver’s seat to check out the terrain.

  Wolf leaned forward and pressed his nose up against the windshield.