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change me, you’re gonna give me what I want or—”
     
    Ava let her body fall. Not too hard of a feat, since the blood loss had made her weak. She hit the ground and took Ken with her. He screamed and yanked her against him, determined to use her body as a shield from the death he’d probably seen in Julian’s eyes.
     
    But her fingers reached her gun. Her hand closed over the weapon, and she wrenched it up. “Go…to…hell, Billings,” she managed and pulled the trigger.
     
    This time, the bullet drove deep into
his
chest. The blast threw him back, knocking Ken away from her, and that precious distance was all that Julian needed.
     
    He sprang forward. Ken tried to scream as Julian’s claws flashed out.
     
    Too late.
     
    The other wolves closed in tight. Ava tried to push away. She needed to see about Pat, about—
     
    Strong arms reached for her and pulled her up against Julian’s chest. He stared down at her, and the sharp emotion in his eyes had her swallowing.
     
    “I told you…” Julian growled, as he bent his head toward her, “I’m not losing you.”
     
    She tried to smile. Couldn’t. Her body was too weak. Weak, but she still had a death-grip on the gun.
Can’t let go.
“Get…get me to a hospital…” Ava promised him, “and you…won’t.”
     
    Maybe.
     
    The odds were probably fifty-fifty on that one.
     
    Maybe seventy-thirty?
     
    “Death can’t take you.” He pulled her closer. “I won’t let him.”
     
    But even her werewolf couldn’t stop death.
     
    “Stay with me?” His voice  was breaking. Julian never broke. Never.
     
    “Stay?” He asked again.
     
    And she nodded. She wasn’t done with her wolf, not yet. Together,
together
they’d tell death to screw off.
     
    His lips pressed against her throat. Darkness rose around her even as she felt the light bite on her skin.
     
    Forever.
     
    ***
     
    Halloween…and Crossroads was a ghost town. Ava drove slowly through the city. No humans around, but, maybe they’d be back.
     
    Maybe.
     
    Four of her deputies were still alive. In the hospital over in Jackson, they were hooked up to a dozen machines. Breathing, and, hopefully, getting stronger.
     
    Ken had played them. Set them up to believe that the wolves were out to get them all. The conniving bastard had slipped his way right under the radar and done his level best to get immortality.
     
    Better luck next time, jerk.
Only there wouldn’t be a next time for Ken. There would just be hell.
     
    She drove the patrol car past the town and deep into werewolf territory. Above her, the blood moon hung heavy in the sky.
     
    Trick or treat.
     
    As a kid, she’d always loved Halloween. A magic night. A night when anything could happen. Monsters could be real. Magic could whisper in the air.
     
    Anything could happen.
     
    Even a human cheating death.
     
    Her headlights cut through the night and fell on him. Julian stood in the middle of the road, his arms folded over his chest.
     
    Waiting.
     
    She’d known that he waited for her. She’d known since that first night.
     
    Ava climbed from the car. No wound slowed her down. How could it? There was no wound, not anymore.
     
    The stories that Ken had heard about the blood moon, well, they were
mostly
true. Only an alpha could transfer the power of a wolf with a bite. And it could
only
happen on Halloween.
     
    But…the transfer didn’t have to occur during the night. As long as the power of the blood moon was in the air, day or night didn’t matter.
     
    The sun rose bloody on Halloween morning. As bloody as the moon would set. The power stayed in the air during those long hours.
     
    The power stayed.
     
    The magic stayed.
     
    Gravel crunched beneath her feet as she stalked to meet her wolf. He didn’t speak.
     
    That was okay. She had plenty to say.
     
    “You changed me.” That was her opening.
     
    His jaw hardened. “If I hadn’t, you never would have made it to the hospital.”
     
    Yes,