Lycan Unleashed by Tiffany Allee Page B

my ankle, the adrenaline running through me pushed it all to the back of my awareness.
    The privacy fence cut into my hands when I pulled myself over it and dropped onto the street behind my home. Where to? My mind rebelled at offering any logical location to run to, it was as if I’d forgotten the layout of my own neighborhood.
    I loped toward the main street running alongside my subdivision and tried to breathe. My brain finally slowed enough for me to think. A neighbor’s house wouldn’t work. That would just put them in danger. Somewhere public and well lit would be better. The 7-11 right down the street was open twenty-four hours. I’d head there.
    Somewhere along the quarter mile between me and the convenience store, my aches started to press their way through the adrenaline. My right ankle was the worst. It pulsed painfully with every heartbeat. And the cold made my whole body shiver and shake, slowing my progress.
    But I couldn’t feel a vampire behind me. And I clung to that knowledge, and the bit of hope it offered. Finally, after what felt like hours—but was probably only minutes later—I found myself blinking at the bright lights of the 7-11. My haven. I trotted up to the front doors and shoved them open.
    A clerk stared at me, jaw dropping. Young, she couldn’t have been far out of high school. What was she doing working the graveyard shift alone?
    “Lock the front door,” I told her. When she didn’t move, I yelled, “I’m a cop. Lock that door immediately. We could both be in danger. Where’s your phone?”
    My words were stilted, I couldn’t seem to talk right through the cold, but the authority in my tone, or maybe the word cop , pulled her out of her shock. She grabbed a cordless phone out from under the counter and handed it to me. Then the girl shuffled to the front door, hands shakily searching through a key ring while I dialed 911.
    I told the operator my name and badge number, and that I needed backup at the store. Then I told her we might be dealing with a dangerous vampire and hung up the phone before she could ask more questions.
    I called Mason next, and the gravelly tone of his voice made me wonder if he’d had trouble sleeping too, before I could pull my mind back to why I was calling.
    “Mason, it’s me.”
    “Astrid. Do you know what time it is?” Anger coated his tone, and I swallowed my guilt.
    “Look,” I said before he could hang up on me. “A vamp broke into my townhouse tonight. I got out, but I’d appreciate it if you’d come down here.” To my horror, I realized that my voice was higher pitched than normal, and wispy thin, on the edge of breaking. I couldn’t cry right now. I had to be strong. For the clerk who still watched me with wide eyes, at least.
    “Where are you?” he asked, all trace of sleepiness gone from his tone.
    I told him, and then I clung to the phone. He didn’t hang up, though he put the phone down for a few seconds to toss a coat on. I heard his SUV fire up and I watched the door warily.
    The clerk wrapped a small, fuzzy blanket around my shoulders. It still had a price tag clinging to it. Mason and I didn’t say much on the phone. Just reassured each other we were still there. Finally, red and blue flashed through the windows, and relief flooded me. I blinked back tears and tried to ignore the burning in my throat, as my brothers in blue came to my rescue.

Chapter Seven
    That moment of second guessing myself—a moment that I suspect happens to many people who find themselves coming through dramatic, difficult to explain situations relatively unscathed—hit me right after I saw my brothers in arms pulling up to the 7-11.
    What if I’d actually been half asleep? What if I only thought I’d sensed a vampire? What if it was all just some sort of horrible dream?
    Mason arrived shortly after the first set of officers, while I was still filling them in. And I idly wondered how many red lights he’d had to run to get to my side of town so