Twilight: Bay City Paranormal Investigations, Book 3

The bloody knife dropped into the snow beside her.
Bo kicked the knife further away, then hurried to Sam’s side. “Sam, how badly are you hurt?”
Pushing himself to a sitting position with his uninjured hand, Sam examined the gash in his other hand. “Not too bad. I don’t think it’s all that deep.”
Bo frowned at the cut. “It’s bleeding a lot.” His worried gaze met Sam’s. “Christ, Sam, she could’ve killed you.”
“I know.” Sam glanced at Anne, who had begun to stir. “Good thing you came along when you did.”
Bo said nothing, but put an arm around Sam’s shoulders and kissed his brow. Sam leaned gratefully against his lover. Now that it was over, reaction had set in and tremors rocked him from head to toe. The way Bo’s hands shook said he felt the same.
The susurration of boots through snow announced Dean’s presence just before he dropped to his knees at Sam’s other side. “I went out to the path and hollered for the cops,” he said, tearing his jacket off. He whipped his sweatshirt over his head, folded one sleeve and pressed it hard to the wound in Sam’s hand.
Sam yelped, surprised by how much the firm pressure hurt. “So, the cops are on their way?” A soft moan from Anne’s direction made him look over. She rolled onto her side and stared at him with unfocused eyes.
As if in answer to his question, both uniformed officers came running up the path. Their weapons were drawn and ready. Sam froze, realizing the two had no way of knowing who was the bad guy here.
“All right,” said the tall officer with the neatly trimmed beard and mustache. “What the hell happened here?” He holstered his pistol and glared between Anne and the three men huddled on the ground.
Groaning, Anne sat up and gingerly fingered the bruise already forming on her jaw. “He hit me!” she shouted, pointing at Bo. “Damn queer asshole punched me in the face.”
“She attacked me with a knife.” Sam nodded at his hand, where Dean still held the bloodstained sweatshirt tight against the wound. “I tripped and fell, and she jumped me. Bo punched her when he pulled her off me and she tried to cut him too.”
“It’s true,” Bo added. “Sam was out here emptying our water bucket. Dean and I heard him shout, so we came outside and found Anne attacking him. I ran to help him, while Dean went to call you two.”
The second officer kept his gun out, pointed toward the sky, searching gaze darting from Anne to Bo and back again. “Is this Anne Tallant? The girl we spent all night looking for?”
Dean nodded. “Yes. She threatened all three of us yesterday, before she went missing.”
Anne glared at him. She opened her mouth to say something, but shut it again when the cop aimed his gun at her head. “Lie down on your stomach,” the officer ordered, his tone cold. “Put your hands behind your head.”
She hesitated, her face crimson with fury. The bearded officer made a move to draw his weapon. “Do it,” he growled.
For a second, Sam thought Anne was going to ignore the cops and go for him again. He was relieved when she turned and flopped face-down in the snow, fingers laced across the back of her head. In spite of what she’d just done to him, he didn’t want to watch her get shot.
“Looks like she’s done this before,” Dean murmured as the officers clamped handcuffs around her wrists and dragged her to her feet, the bearded one rattling off her Miranda rights in a practiced monotone. “Getting arrested, I mean.”
“You’re right.” Hooking a hand under Sam’s good arm, Bo stood and helped Sam up. Dean rose with them, Sam’s wounded hand clamped between both of his to hold the makeshift pressure dressing in place. “If she has a record, it’s not going to go well for her.”
The policemen dragged Anne past where Sam and his friends stood. “This is your fault,” she spat. “All you filthy queers, getting decent people in trouble.”
The bearded cop sighed. “Ma’am, I suggest you keep your mouth shut until you see your lawyer.”
She ignored him. “Harry wouldn’t be dead if he hadn’t called up that demon!” she shouted over her shoulder, struggling now as her captors forced her toward the office. “Fags are in league with Satan, that’s why it came to him! You’ll all burn in hell!”
The other officer chortled. “Girl, you’re gonna dig yourself a hole you’ll never get out of if you keep talking like that.”
This time, Anne fell silent. She shot a deadly