She flinched. "I-I told you. They were hunting me."
"You never said why."
She slipped her underwear on. "You know, you ruined my bra. I hope your sister has one I can borrow."
"She bought some clothes for us. Come on, Vanda. I told you my secrets. It's time you told yours."
"You'll hate me." She stood and walked away.
CHAPTER 20
Vanda levitated through the trapdoor, landing on the ground floor of the cabin. A cool breeze prickled her skin, and she rushed to close the window Phil had left open.
She heard a sound behind her and turned. Phil was standing by the trapdoor. "You can jump that high?"
He nodded.
So that was how he had managed to get upstairs at the warehouse in New Orleans. She glanced warily at the windows flanking the cabin's front door. No blinds. No curtains. Welcome to the Wyoming Peep Show. She crossed an arm over her br**sts. "Someone could see us in here."
"A lucky squirrel maybe." Phil smiled. "The nearest neighbor is miles away."
"The werewolves are out there." She moved quickly to the kitchen area, which had no windows.
Phil followed her. "Lycans always strip before changing. Nudity is not a big deal for us."
Her gaze flitted down his naked body. "Easy for you to say when you look like that. But I would imagine some of the guys would be a little uneasy about displaying their...shortcomings."
He snorted. "Lycan men don't have shortcomings."
"Right. You're as big as your egos, which is fairly huge." She removed a kitchen towel from a drawer and grasped the pump handle.
"Here, allow me." He worked the pump, and water spewed from the spout onto her towel.
She scrubbed her face and neck, wincing at how cold the water was.
"What happened to you in Poland after you became a vampire?"
She swallowed hard. The coffin of horrors took shape in her mind. "I-I need more water." She held the towel under the spout.
He pumped more water for her. "What happened?"
She washed her chest and torso. "I buried my little sister." The coffin rattled, trying to break open. "More water."
He gave her some more. "And then what?"
She wiped her arms. "I had borrowed a shovel from a nearby farm. I was returning it to the toolshed when the farmer found me. I was instantly overwhelmed with hunger."
"You bit him?"
She leaned over to wash her legs. "I ran outside and bit his cow. For the first few weeks I was so confused. So hungry, and so terrified that I might kill someone. I didn't know what to do. I hid in caves and fed off animals. I felt like I'd become an animal, too."
"Your...sire didn't help you to adjust?"
"Sigismund?" She snorted with disgust. "I wanted nothing to do with him or Marta. I left them the night I awoke."
"There's something I need to tell you." Phil frowned. "The prisoner at Romatech, the one they captured at Apollo's compound - it was Sigismund."
Vanda's breath caught. Her skin chilled. "Are - Are you sure?"
"Yes. He was one of the Malcontents masquerading as a god in order to feed off the girls and...rape them."
She sighed. That had been one more reason she'd fled from Sigismund. She had known he would abuse her. She could tell he had abused Marta, although her sister had seemed to want it. "I ran into him a few times when I was hiding in the caves. He would always laugh at me and say I was doomed. There was no way I could escape the almighty Casimir. Then I would teleport away before he alerted Jedrek Janow." She shuddered. "Sigismund is an abusive pig. I hope you guys made him suffer."
"We did," Phil said. "When I found out who he was, I nearly killed him."
But he didn't, she thought. Phil only killed in self-defense. He was an honorable person, unlike her.
Vanda rinsed the towel. "Marta's in America. I saw her at the warehouse in New Orleans, fighting with the Malcontents."
Phil winced. "That must have been a shock for you." He took the towel from her and rubbed her back.
She closed her eyes, enjoying the feel of his hands.
"How did you get involved with the underground resistance?" he asked.
Her eyes flew open. Good Lord, the man never gave up. "Do you know where your sister put those clothes she bought?"
"The bag's on the kitchen table." He set the towel on the counter. "You're avoiding the subject."
"You bet I am." She strode to the table and removed the items from the plastic bag. Underwear and bra, close to the right size, jeans and a western-style shirt.
"I realize it must be painful."
"Dressing like a cowgirl?" she asked wryly.
"No, talking about your past."
"Oh, do you think so? Can you imagine losing your father, your sister, and four brothers to war? Jozef was only twelve! I couldn't find out if they'd died in battle or were taken prisoner. I hoped they were prisoners, that they were still alive, but when I saw the concentration camps, I almost wished they were dead."
She strode back to the kitchen sink. "I learned how to teleport by accident. I was standing outside a camp one night, staring through the barbed wire and wishing there was a way I could get inside to see if my father or brothers were there. And the next thing I knew, everything went black and there I was, inside the camp."
She pulled off her underwear and rinsed it out in the sink. "I rushed through the bunkhouses, searching for my family, but they weren't there. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. So many prisoners, crammed in so tight."
The coffin cracked open. God, no, she didn't want to remember. All those prisoners, those gaunt, emaciated bodies, those haunted eyes filled with pain and despair.
"What happened then?" Phil whispered.
"A guard caught me." Her eyes blurred with tears. "I was so upset from seeing all the prisoners, and so hungry. I bit him." Tears streamed down her cheeks. "I lost control and killed him."
She glanced at Phil through her tears, expecting to see disgust in his eyes. It wasn't there. This had to be a mistake. He didn't understand the magnitude of her sins. "I had to feed every night. Why torment some poor unsuspecting cow when I could kill a Nazi? And I did. Every night. I joined the underground. I would teleport into a camp, free some prisoners, and kill a Nazi all in a night's work."
Phil said nothing, just watched her intently.
She paced away. Dammit. The coffin was fully open now, and all her terrible sins had crept out. "One night, after I'd killed a guard, a vampire appeared before me. He said he'd been watching me for several weeks. He congratulated me for being a natural born killer. He gave me an ultimatum - join the True Ones or they would kill the leader of the resistance."
"Karl," Phil said softly.
She nodded. "The vampire was Jedrek Janow. He told me about the True Ones, the ones we now call Malcontents. He said they were in league with the Nazis. Once the Germans controlled the world, the True Ones would control the Nazis. I could be a part of it all. I could rule the world."
She rubbed her brow. "All I could think about was my father and brothers who were probably dead from fighting the Nazis. I told Jedrek to go to hell. And that's when he said he would send his personal pets to destroy me." She shuddered. "His wolves."
She paced back to the kitchen. "I ran to Karl to tell him what had happened. Three wolves came that night, and I managed to teleport Karl away. But every month when the moon was full, they would come after us. And there would be more and more of them. Then one night Karl killed one, and it changed into a human."
"And that's when you realized they were werewolves?" Phil asked.
"Yes. Karl bought us some silver bullets."
"Did you ever see the werewolves in human form?" Phil asked. "Other than the one you killed."
"No."
He nodded. "That explains it, then."
"Explains what?"
"Why you never recognized my scent. Shape shifters don't smell like normal humans. But we only have that unique scent when we're in human form. When we're wolves, we smell like wolves."
She sighed. "You talk about it so matter-of-factly, but you're not getting it. I was terrified. Every month we would find a new place to hide, and the wolves would track us down. They were relentless."