Page 19 of Jacob Michaels is Dead

Fire danced and flickered in Lucas’ eyes.

I wanted to tell Lucas that maybe he was overreacting or just making assumptions based on anger. Instead, I nodded firmly. He was right. We both knew that Jason’s pack had done this. A knot in my stomach made me wonder if Oma’s house wasn’t also one big bonfire. For the briefest of moments, I felt guilty for being so angry with the woman who claimed to be my grandmother. Hopefully, she hadn’t been in the house if it had been set ablaze. Something told me that if Jason or his pack snuck onto the property, though, the house wasn’t what got set on fire. A devilish smile curled up the corner of my mouth as I stared out at the flames licking off of the roof of Lucas’ home.

“Shit, Rob!” Lucas gasped. “Look.”

“What?”

Lucas was pointing out at the scene before us, his finger nearly touching the windshield.

“They’re still here!” Lucas announced in a panic.

Finally, my eyes landed on what Lucas had seen. Four men—conspicuously wearing only pants—were dancing jubilantly around the fire they had obviously started. The two of us watched as the four men danced around the house, howling up at the flames that licked towards the sky, proud of the destruction they had caused. They were far enough off that I had to focus my eyes, but I finally was able to see that Jason was not with them. It was just four members of his pack.

“Get us out of here, Rob.” Lucas hissed. “Let’s go.”

“Okay.” I nodded furiously. “Okay.”

“Go, go, go!” Lucas urged me on. “If they see us—”

As I moved to put the car in reverse, so that I could creep away from the fiery scene on Lucas’ property, two things happened. My hands slipped, and I simultaneously hit the horn, a brief, barking blast emanating from under the hood, and I accidentally flipped on the headlights.

“Jesus Christ, Rob.” Lucas groaned.

“Sorry! Sorry!” I gasped, reached for the gearshift.

Once I had the car in reverse and had eased off the brake, about to give the car gas, my eyes shot up to look out of the windshield once more. All four of the pack members had spotted us—obviously—and were running at full speed towards the car.

“Oh, fuck.” Lucas groaned. “Floor it, Rob!”

My foot hit the gas, and the car shot backward. There wasn’t time to react in any other way, to devise any other plan. As I slammed on the gas and the car lurched backward like a slingshot, I felt, more than saw, the first of the wolves jump on the hood of the car. The passenger side window shattered inwards, and Lucas bellowed loudly.