Read Online Framing Felipe by Holley Trent - Free Book Online Page A

blonde
named
Tamara
streaked
    past,
shouting
in
what
he
now
suspected
was
Romanian.
He’d
been
around
the
Gypsies
    enough
to
catch
scraps
of
it.
Sarah
passed
right
behind
her,
covering
her
friend’s
back
and
    firing
her
gun
into
the
nearby
woods.
Moments
later,
light
footsteps
skittered
overhead.
He
    guessed
Tamara
had
climbed
onto
the
roof.
    A
grunt,
a
snarl,
one
final
gunshot,
then
silence.
Uncomfortable
silence—the
kind
that
    had
always
gnawed
at
his
gut
and
filled
him
with
a
sense
of
overwhelming
foreboding.
The
    sense
that
the
shit
would
hit
the
fan
and
there
wasn’t
a
damned
thing
he
could
do
to
    contain
it.
    “Ugh! Lavincompáe .”
    Although
it
seemed
irrational,
he
felt
he
did
indeed
have
something
at
stake
in
this
    battle:
an
opportunity
which
he
may
never
encounter
the
likes
of
again.
An
opportunity
    that
made
his
heart
pound
and
his
arms
ache
to
be
filled.

    FRAMING FELIPE
–
39
–
Holley Trent

    He
loped
to
the
door,
but
before
Felipe
could
press
his
hands
against
the
screen,
a
    man—covered
half
in
fur,
half
in
skin—fell
in
a
limp
pile
from
the
roof
onto
the
ground
in
    front
of
the
porch.
    Tamara
landed
gracefully
on
her
feet
next
to
the
creature,
and
reached
for
his
wrists
as
    she
ground
her
knee
against
his
spine.
    He
bowed
up,
snarling,
and
showing
off
pointed
canine
teeth
and
a
half-‐shifted
face
    that
struck
Felipe
with
painful
familiarity.
    Felipe’s
jaw
slackened
as
recognition
sank
in.
He’d
seen
that
freak
before—or
at
least
    one
of
his
kind,
but
his
gut
said
this
was
more
than
déjà
vu.
This
was
this
creature’s
favored
    form,
and
if
this
was
the
man
he
thought
he
recognized…
    He
threw
his
shoulder
against
the
door
and
shouted,
“ Arpía , muéva !”
as
he
pounded
    down
the
stairs.
    Tamara
looked
up,
eyes
narrowed
at
Felipe,
but
before
he
could
explain
his
concern,
    the
creature
shifted
suddenly,
forcing
jagged
spikes
through
the
back
of
his
now-‐shredded
    shirt.
They
pricked
her
hands,
prompting
her
to
release
his
wrists,
and
stabbed
the
insides
    of
jean-‐clad
legs.
    Somewhere
at
the
side
of
the
house,
Sarah
shouted
an
emphatic,
“Fuck!”
    “No!”
Felipe
shouted,
and
gave
Sarah
a stay
there gesture
he
was
certain
she
wouldn’t
    heed.
The
creatures
never
worked
solo,
and
if
she
walked
out
there,
she’d
be
not
much
    more
than
fresh
bait.
They
wouldn’t
care
that
she
was
a
woman
and
that
she
didn’t
pick
the
    fight.
They
were
all
about
impulse
and
self-‐preservation.
Perfect
traits
for
mercenaries.
    “I
told
you
to
stay
in
the house ,”
Sarah
snarled,
ignoring
his
warning,
as
predicted,
and
    striding
toward
her
struggling
peer.
    “Save
the
attitude
for
some
bitch,”
he
said
in
Spanish,
and
stepped
forward
to
put
    himself
in
Sarah’s
path.
There
was
another
one
of
those
things
nearby,
and
he
needed
her
    to
move
slowly,
even
if
she
didn’t
know
why.
    He
could
tell
when
she’d
successfully
translated
his
barb,
because
for
a
moment,
her
    eyes
widened
and
jaw
gaped.
Just
a
moment,
though.
Next
came
her
growl
as
a
second
    creature
dropped
from
a
nearby
tree
and
ran
toward
the
woods.
They
hadn’t
thought
to
    look up .

    FRAMING FELIPE
–
40
–
Holley Trent

    The
injured
mercenary
tossed
Tamara
clear
of
his
back
and
took
off
after
his
friend.
His
    gait
was
only
mildly
impaired
by
his
bullet-‐riddled
left
leg.
He
was
a
creature
used
to
    manipulating
his
body,
and
was
probably
already
shifting:
expelling
the
foreign
objects.
    As
strong
as
he
was,
and
as