by KT Strange
It was a whisper at first, so faint, dragging across my brain with the lightest touch possible. I opened myself up to it, desperate for an answer that would let me save my werewolves. A heartstone would be the answer to all of our problems, it would restore them to full strength, it would let them shift like the wolves of Dragonpack. It would let them live a long time, and let them heal if they got hurt.
If I had seen the warning signs with clear eyes I would've known never to open myself up like that.
One moment I was sitting next to Cassandra with the cool night air on my skin and the soft thrum of the heartstone echoing in my mind, the next moment I pitched backwards.
The ground opened up under me, swallowing me whole. Dirt covered me, and I screamed, grit and gravel filling my mouth. Cassandra's power surrounded me, locking me into a grave of her making. I was frozen, unable to move, the crushing weight of earth grinding down onto my body. My mind blanked at the edges fading to black as the breath was squeezed out of me and I couldn't even make a sound.
Eli would never know what happened to me.
My heart echoed in my ears, the beat drowning out everything else. It was so loud that it muffled the soft whisper of a voice that I knew was the witch’s.
Was this it?
Was this all I would ever be?
The blackness stole up over me and took me away.
All at once I was everything and nothing, dissipating into the air, pieces of me caught on branches in the clearing, my spine bending with the curve of the grass as it bentwith the breeze. Then that voice came again, the witch, in my ear, as clear as if she had shouted at me. It was a wordless scream, a pleading for me to save myself.
I could see her bent before the heartstone, wolves I didn't recognize surrounding her. One of them, tall with flowing red hair, reached for her, yanking her head back and exposing her neck.
The wolves howled, and I, hanging in the air, a part of them all and a part of her, knew what was about to happen.
I closed my eyes to it, the scent of her blood filling my mind.
She had made them a heartstone, and they had killed her for her gift.
Her grief welled up inside me as she bled out onto the ground in front of the stone she had created to give the wolfpack a new chance at survival.
She was a witch like me, walking outside the bounds of where she should be, flirting with the dangerous world that existed away from the safety of the witch council and our generational homes. She’d died for her wandering ways, right here where moments before I had knelt in the grass.
Now I would die for it as well...
A spark lit inside my chest.
If I let them take me down like this, I would never see my pack again.
Falling apart, my soul drifting away from itself, had been a weird sensation, but more painful was coming back together.
The scene in front of me faded, replaced by the unforgiving ground that crushed me, pain exploding along my frame as Cassandra’s powers buried me deep in the earth.
That spark inside of me flared again and exploded out of my chest.
In the next second I was in a deep crevice, the night sky over me, covered in grit and dust, clutching my belly as I spat out a mouthful of dirt.
My powers had blown a hole in the ground, five feet in every direction, and I stumbled to my feet. I inhaled, choking on dust and bent forward, panic trying to snatch at my mind.
Steady, steady, the witch’s voice whispered, a soft curl in the back of thoughts, and then she was gone, fading into the dark as I gasped and caught my breath.
Cassandra had tried to kill me.
Her form loomed at the edge of the pit at the foot of the heartstone. She stared down at me, her skirts billowing out, arms extended, fingers clawed.
“I will bind you to this land,” she snarled, her face transformed from the peaceful one I had come to know into one of absolute rage.
“Holy shit,” was all I managed to say before I darted to the side, my aching body protesting as dirt exploded behind me, cresting through the air like a liquid wave meant to take me down. I threw myself at the edge of the pit, hauling myself up with a cry.
My powers sparked up and raced along my skin, and I turned without even getting to my knees, tossing a lightning bolt at her so bright that I had to slam my eyes shut.
The crack of it colliding with stone deafened me for a moment, and I crawled away from the edge of the pit.
My legs refused to work, my skin abraded from me being folded into the ground like eggs into cake batter.
I fell on my butt, eyes wide as I stared at the dragon who’d just tried to murder me. Her skin was frosted white along her neck and shoulder, a snowflake pattern from where my lightning bolt hit her.
Her eyes were blazed as she advanced on me.
“You have his heart, and I will have yours,” she said, staring down at me with each determined step. I kicked my feet, dragging myself along the ground, lifting a shaking hand.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” I lied because I wanted to hurt her so bad. But I didn’t want to kill her, because could I even kill a dragon? Was that even possible?
She shrieked at me, her hair flaring upward, and then her skin twisted, blurring.
Electricity ran along my body and jolted me to my feet, my muscles bunching and cramping as my powers forced me up. I spun, bolting away from the stone, too breathless to scream.
She was shifting. She was shifting, and as soon as she did, she was going to make good on her attempt to murder me.
Fifteen
Elias
She was in my blood. Pumping right through my veins, I couldn’t escape Darcy if I wanted to. Even if she wanted me to. That’s why it was painful listening to Ryatt talk about my plans for my pack, and his plans for his. I just wanted to be near my girl, actually make her my mate, right then and there.
A feminine hand wrapped around my wrist.
“Elias,” Rory purred. I turned my head and frowned down at the pretty, red-headed wolf. She edged closer to me, a smile playing on her lips. “You aren’t really meaning to take a witch as yours,” she said, wrinkling her delicate nose. “That’s more than absurd, it’s forbidden.”
“Rory,” Ryatt said with irritation lacing his voice. “Now is not the time.”
I frowned at him.
“Not the time?” I asked. “When exactly is the time for a wolf from another pack to comment on who I take as a mate?” Ryatt looked caught, and cleared his throat.
“My apologies.”
I stared at him and then twisted my arm, shaking Rory off of me. I got to my feet, intent on going to the heartstone and finding Darcy. We needed to leave.
“She’s much better being bound to the heartstone, than to you,” Rory said, petulant.
“Rory,” Ryatt snapped.
“Bound to the heartstone?” I asked, a growing sense of dread and anger coming over me. What the fuck was going on?
Darcy’s shape streaked across the grass like she was being chased by demons. I jumped over the log I’d just been sitting on.
“Darcy?”
“RUN!” she screamed. My eyes widened. Behind her, dark bronze wings unfurled and the smoking head of a dragon rose above the trees. “RUN!!!” Darcy’s panic had me running toward her instead, and just as she reached me, I wrapped her up in my arms and tossedher onto my back.
Her hands gripped my shoulders and I took off, the howl of Dragonpack rising through the air. All the hair on my neck stood up as I ran harder and faster than I ever had, Darcy jostling hard on my back. She sobbed into my ear, her breath rapid and shallow, as she clung to me.
I felt her twist—
BOOM!!
Thunder pealed through the air, spitting the night sky and casting everything in high, bright relief.
“Cassandra tried to kill me,” Darcy choked out into my ear and rage misted my vision.
“The fuck,” I snarled.
“Run, don’t stop,” she gasped as w
e reached the treeline, brush crowding around us.
The howls of wolves sounded off, with snarls and snapping. They were coming for us.
I skidded through the woods, holding Darcy tight as I careened down the through the trees, jumping over bulging roots and burls of brush.
A cry, breaking off into a roar that shuddered deep into my bones, nearly stopped me dead in my tracks.
The dragon was screaming somewhere above the treetops, her wings whipping the branches hard.
Darcy whimpered, her fingers flexing into my skin.
“I can’t outrun them, or her,” I panted, “we need to make a stand,” my words were rough as I dodged around a tree.
“No, keep running,” she said, twisting around on my back. One of her arms left my shoulders, and I shuddered to think what would happen if I dropped her. “Let me—”
She gasped and I felt it, the shiver of electricity as she called the lightning inside of her. It boomed in the air around us, racing along my skin and making me stumble. Behind us, trees crackled, and the thwarted snarls of the Dragonpack wolves let me know she’d done something to buy us time.
Her lips pressed to my ear.
“Just took out some trees, I swear to god I will recycle all my paper products for the next decade,” she said, and I let out a low chuff of laugh, all my straining lungs would let me as I kept running.
I couldn’t outrun a wolf in shifted form, though.
“Do it again,” I said, knowing we had half a minute, maybe less, before the Dragonpack wolves caught up to us.
They’d rip her from my back. They’d rip her throat out. Their evil intentions had been hidden from me for a while, but now I could almost feel the menace rising up behind me like a wave, ready to swamp us and knock us to the ground. They would never take her from me. I would go down fighting before I let her be ripped from my arms.
Darcy shrieked, a panicked cry that cut off. Her fingers lifted off me again, and this time the explosion rocked the earth right under me, it was so close. Splinters, and rocks flying like shrapnel barraged me, and Darcy slumped hard against my back. The groan of trees, thundering through the air to land on the ground, made me shake.
“Darcy,” I skidded to a stop, pulling her around to face me. Her eyes were half shut, and she moaned, rubbing at the side of her head.
“Go’ hit,” she mumbled. I glanced up. The path we’d come from was a trail of destruction. Trees had outright exploded, taking out everything around them. The cut was a hundred yards, maybe more, branches and uprooted trees forming a devastating maze.
Some of those branches shivered and jumped, as wolves struggled to climb out from under the debris.
We had minutes.
Darcy moaned.
I cradled her in my arms against my chest and ran, her life depending on it. I needed to get to our van, if it was even still there.
My whole spine itched like someone was about to grab me by the back of my neck, just as I burst out of the trees. The site of our original showdown with Redric was laid bare in front of us, and just beyond it, the van.
Thank. Fuck.
“C’mon sweetheart,” I said as I stopped beside it, trying to get the door open and her into the seat without dropping it.
A shriek rang through the air, and I winced as the sound pierced my eardrums.
The ground rumbled underfoot. I glanced up.
The dragon circled above us, her wings beating the air.
“Sweetheart, you need to give me one more burst of lightning,” I said as I got Darcy out of my arms and into her seat. “I need time to get on the road and away.”
I had no idea how fast dragons could fly. I only hoped that we could out-drive her when it came to that.
Darcy blinked, her eyes focusing blearily up at the sky.
“Bitch tried to kill me,” she slurred and then flopped her hand upward, like she was giving the air a high five. “Eat thunder!”
As battle cries go, it wasn’t the best, but she could work on that later. Sparks flickered, and then roared through the air, a solid bolt of lightning striking out. Cassandra wheeled and ducked, folding her wings and dropping to the ground with a cry.
I left Darcy’s side and she tugged her door closed. I got into the driver’s seat, fumbling for the wires. Wolves, the few stragglers that had escaped Darcy’s onslaught in the woods, emerged at the treeline.
As they raced across the open grass, the engine rumbled to life.
“Go, gogogogo,” Darcy gasped, just as a wolf, shifting into human form, reached the van. His hand slapped Darcy’s window and I gunned it. The van heaved forward, bouncing us in our seats as we rolled over the uneven ground.
Darcy braced herself, arms on the dashboard as we rocketed up a slope and onto the road. I cursed as the tires spun for a heartbeat on the gravel, and then we shot down the road.
Darcy turned, looking out the window before reaching for the crank to roll it down.
“I got this,” she said. I glanced in the rear-view mirror.
Cassandra’s gigantic body blocked everything else out as she ran toward us, her wings beating the air. She took off and Darcy shoved both hands out the window.
White light coursed in every direction, and I squinted to prevent myself from being blinded as Darcy lit up the very air all around us.
The dragon’s scream ripped from Cassandra’s long, winding throat. It rang in my head, shuddering through my bones as I kept my foot to the gas pedal and we careened down the back road.
In the mirror, I saw Cassandra collapse to the ground, a final shake as her body hit the earth.
The wolves howled their rage, the sound demanding we return. Darcy sobbed, her fingers on the door handle as we turned a corner and they disappeared behind us.
“I can’t— I have to go back,” she blurted out, and she thrust open the door.
“Fuck!” I hung onto the steering wheel and reached out, getting my arm around her neck, yanking her back in before she could tumble out.
Pain flared in my arm as Darcy bit me, tears streaming down her face.
“Let me go, let me go!” she fought wildly in my grip, even as I tried to drive and keep her steady.
“Hang on, it’s fine, stop it, dammit, Darcy, stop!”
She went still as the command struck her, and then she hiccuped a sob. I braked, and grabbed her in my arms tight. She didn’t fight me this time, but shivered.
“I’m fine, I’m sorry, god,” she wiped at her face as she mumbled. “That was so scary.”
“If I let you go, will you close your door?” I asked. She nodded hard, and reluctantly I eased my grip on her. She pulled the passenger door shut and locked it, winding up the window as I accelerated, continuing down our path.
“There’s got to be a way for you to become less susceptible to a wolf howl,” I said, furious that the wolves had done that to her. They had to have known it would drag her back to them, that she’d walk right back without being able to control herself or get away. The thought made me sick.
“It’s not like we run into wolf packs very often,” she said, her voice shaking. “Besides I like losing myself in your music. Just maybe… we don’t hang around with wolves that want to murder me. I— her voice broke “—I really liked Ryatt, and Calen, they were… they were so nice after everything witches have done to werewolves.” Out of the corner of my eye I saw her crumple in her seat, a deep, heart-wrenching cry coming from her chest. “We’re monsters, I’m a monster—”
I didn’t know what to say. Other than to tell her she wasn’t what she thought she was, that she was the best human I’d ever met. I couldn’t have loved her otherwise.
I reached out my hand and stroked the back of her head as she cried out her heartbreak and betrayal, until her tears ran dry and she sniffled.
Her laughter, ragged and uneven, startled me.
“What?” I asked, glancing at her.
“At least we got to bring new clothes over the border without having to d
eclare their value and pay duty on them,” she said.
I snorted, and she laughed until the sound turned to hiccups..
“Holy fuck,” she whispered. “How the hell are we alive?”
I shook my head.
“I’m not asking questions I don’t want the answers to.”
“Makes sense.” She was quiet for a few minutes, as we merged onto the highway, the markers putting distance between us and that. “Do you think I killed her?”
“Dragons are hard to kill.”
“Yeah I guess,” she murmured. “Whatever, she tried to kill me first, so, y’know, self defense.” She sounded unsure of herself. I’d need to talk to the guys about it, but maybe Wolfe could set us up with some kind of therapist or something that specialized in the paranormal. Once we got home.
My chest went tight. Home. Where more uncertainty and danger awaited us.
Sixteen
Darcy
“Let’s stop here,” Eli said, and I lifted my head. There was a dull ache above my ear where a flying rock had hit me, and I sighed, looking out the window.
We’d driven all night and into the day, stopping for a nap at a rest area, before continuing on into the night again. The wolves of Dragonpack were far behind us, and I’d finally started feeling like I could breathe again.
It reminded me that there were worse things in the world than dealing with police procedure and fixing the situation with Eli and Finn.
“Looks good,” I said. Eli pulled out a blanket from the back of the van.
“Want to sleep out?” he asked. The stuffy van was too much. I nodded and stretched my stiff muscles. Eli lay the blanket down over the thick grass and I tumbled right onto it, catching a pillow as he tossed it to me.
When he sprawled out onto the blanket next to me, tugging another thick quilt from the back of the van up over us, I tried to ignore how being this close to him might actually mean something. For the first time, I was going to sleep right up in his personal space, without any of the other guys getting in the way.