Excerpt: Moonless Night

Though I was glad for the clearer air I forgot how much I hated the smell of vampires. They smelled of death, blood and ash. I wrinkled my nose and sneezed. My throat was beginning to clear my voice was still barely above a whisper, “Why do vamps have to stink so much.”
“Cute, Natalya. I come when you call and save your sorry ass and this is the thanks I get.” He said in a haughty voice.
I could tell that he really did not mean it. I do not know how but I could tell. I felt bad for a moment. “Sorry Dante. Thank you for coming over. Do you know who the wolf was?” I asked trying to change the subject.
“He was not from Bardolph’s pack. I know most of them. I’m not sure about Josh’s. I do not think he was a pack wolf though. He smelled wrong, there was a sickness in the blood.” I knew Bardolph, the northwestern Washington werewolf Alpha pretty well. I actually liked him. As for Joshua, the southwestern Alpha, well from what I gathered he had a thing against tigers.
“Oh great and I’m covered in it.” I said trying not to completely freak out and embarrass myself further. It was bad enough he had to come save me. At this point it had not quite hit me yet. I think I was in a form of shock, I think. The fire trucks chose that moment to finally show up. The volunteer fire station was not that far away. Granted the mountain roads were icy in the middle of the night. I only live about twenty minutes up highway 410 from Enumclaw, Washington. I turned to see my lovely two story log cabin burning to the ground. From the looks of things there was not going to be anything left. I had only been living there for a few months but I had loved that place. My car seemed to have survived though. Yep, I was defiantly in shock. For some reason I wanted to cry. That was so not going to happen though. There was no way I would cry in front of Dante. That would be showing weakness. In my world weakness got you killed or controlled by someone more powerful than you. I was not going to be controlled by someone else ever again. The anger was starting to grow as I watched the firefighters