He sat forward once more. “So, let me get this straight. You bust into my joint, beat up my guards, killing several of them, and demand I serve you.” He let out a breath. “You got some balls… for a lady, that is.”
“Like I said, I have been watching you, Blain. I know you would respond to little else than a show of force. If I came in here all sweetly, you would have dismissed me.” She took a few more steps and leaned forward against the table, placing her hands on it to support her as she put her face only a foot away from his.
“And I don’t like to be dismissed,” she said softly through gritted teeth.
“Who are you?” he asked, impressed by her fearlessness.
“I am named Kestrel. You may call me My Lady. I have just awoken from several centuries of long sleep. I have come back to remove the plague of human civilization from the earth.”
This lady was nuts. That was all that Blain could think. Why would he have any desire to destroy civilization? That was where his power was. He thought for a moment. If they were watching him as they said they had been, then they must know he would not agree with this, unless they had something else to offer.
“What’s in it for me, lass… I mean, My Lady?” he asked a bit sarcastically.
She smiled again, a little more pleasantly this time.
“As you have found out, you have the ability to transfer your ability to others, though the survival rate is a bit low. I intend to gather others like you and begin amassing an army of Weres to destroy civilization. At which point, people will need individuals to keep them in line and make sure this type of destruction of Earth never occurs again. That is where you and the others come in.” She motioned and again said something in a language he couldn’t understand. He felt a gust of wind as a chair was blown to her. She snagged the chair and sat it across from him, making herself comfortable.
“I have been informed by Samuel here, the world is a lot bigger than it was when I went to sleep. I can’t hope to control everyone by myself. So, it is only natural we must divide the lands up into regions for us to control.” She stared into his eyes. He stared back, intrigued by what he saw there.
“You see, you will have all the power you have wished for, women, riches, land, and thousands, no, millions of people under your authority.”
Well, Blain thought, she certainly had him pegged. He wasn’t sure how he felt about acting second fiddle to a woman, but he would be stupid to ignore she had some serious power. Her lack of fear of him, knowing what he was capable of should be noted.
“Okay, say I’m interested. What do you want from me?”
She leaned back in her seat; a smile spread across her beautiful face. Not a pleasant smile, but he was beginning to like it.
“Oh, I have something for you to do — something you will enjoy, Blain. The only thing standing in our way is a group of Weres who are on the wrong side of this fight. We have information one is in a place called Chicago, in the United States of America.” She said these words, obviously recently being introduced to them.
“I would like you, and your two followers, to go and take care of him. For the moment, we believe these Weres have no idea there are others like them. We want to make sure they don’t live long enough to find out.” She placed her elbow on the table and allowed her chin to rest on her fisted hand. “Can you do this, Blain?”
He returned her smile, not a pleasant one either.
“Yeah. Yeah, I can do that.”
Blain, Taylor and Joseph landed in Chicago and began the hunt for the wolf. That hunt ended in the debacle of this afternoon. He was sure no one got a good look at him before he had changed, so at least his identity was secure, for now.
“What are we going to do now, Blain?” Taylor asked him after he had helped Joseph up from where he had landed.
Blain ignored Joseph’s nasty look and looked to Taylor.
“We wait. For now. Tomorrow, we will go to the area hospitals and inquire about a young lady who was badly wounded yesterday in the strange occurrence that happened downtown.”
Taylor nodded. Joseph shook his head in obvious disgust and Blain had half a mind to beat him senseless but refrained.
The hours seemed to pass just about as slowly as they could be allowed to pass. Blain spent his time tossing cards into a popcorn bowl setting on the coffee table next to the sofa. He had never been good at this but found now he had a difficult time missing any shot. Taylor spent most of his time at the computer, doing gods knew what. Joseph was visible out on the balcony, chain smoking cigarettes. He recently concluded that with their ability to heal, he could pick up smoking, again. He had only stopped due to health risks.
It was shortly after seven o’clock when Blain sensed something that made a huge smile appear on his face. He couldn’t help but chuckle, causing Taylor to turn.
“What is it?”
“Get Joseph in here. We are leaving.”
“I thought we were waiting for tomorrow to go find that girl you hurt.”
Blain’s smile widened further, if that was possible. “I already found her.”
It only took Clint an hour to get home, changed and over to the hospital. When he arrived at the Sarah’s room, she was still in ICU. They had bandaged her up and she looked horrible. Her face was inflamed and black and blue, not to mention bruised and scraped. She had a bandage wrapped around her forehead and her arm was in a cast. IV’s and tubes snaked around her, piercing her skin. Clint’s heart sank. He knew this was his fault. The thing he was had brought this on her, and because he had been a coward and tried to run from his ability, he hadn’t been able to stop that monster from hurting her.
The person he did have to thank for really saving Sarah’s life was sitting in a chair at Sarah’s side. Kat looked up at him when he entered, sympathy written on her face.
“The doctors say she is out of the woods, but she was badly hurt. She has yet to regain consciousness. But the doctors have great faith she will soon.”
Clint crossed the room and stood next to the bed. He took Sarah’s hand in his and squeezed it, hoping for a squeeze back. There wasn’t one.
“Look, I can’t imagine how you are feeling right now,” Kat began. “But I think it might be important for us to discuss what we intend to do about the calling we have both received and continue to receive. I believe we need to head there as soon—”
“I am not going anywhere!” Clint practically shouted at her. It was true, the feeling of being pulled to the west still was a constant in the back of his head, but he needed to be here.
“I am not going anywhere,” he said again, more calmly and quietly. “You can go if you want. I don’t want you to think I don’t appreciate your help, I do. But I can’t leave Sarah right now.” Tears welled up in Clint’s eyes. “Don’t you see,” he told her. “This is my fault. If I hadn’t had this stupid disease, or if I had been brave enough to embrace it instead of running from it, I could have stopped that thing from hurting her. She almost died and would have if you hadn’t intervened.” A sob broke through, “I love her, and I can’t lose her. No. I am staying.”
“Very well, Clint, I will stay with you until she recovers, or a couple of days, whichever comes first. I have a feeling we haven’t seen the last of him and it will take both of us to deal with him if he comes back.
Clint could only nod, standing there holding Sarah’s hand.
Hours later found Clint seated next to Sarah, her hand still held firmly in his. Kat went out to get some food and coffee for the both. She had yet to return. Sarah had not woken, and her hand felt cold in his. He needed to keep looking at her to make sure she was breathing. The steady beep beep beep of her heart on the monitor wasn’t proof enough for him.
He wasn’t sure what he was going to do. He thought long and hard about what Kat said, and it made sense, but he couldn’t leave Sarah here. He needed to make sure she was going to be all right. After that, well, he wasn’t sure. He was starting to believe he should leave wi
th Kat. After all, it was him the boar was after, not Sarah, and if he left, he could be sure it would come after him. So, in the end, it might be for the best for him to leave.
That was what he was going to tell Kat when she got back. He started to wonder what was taking her so long and was starting to worry when Sarah opened her eyes.
“Clint?”
Clint stood up and bent over her, so he was in her full view. He quickly pressed the call button on the wall to get someone in here.
“Oh, my god, Sarah! You’re awake.” Clint found he was crying, and he stroked her hair like he used to do when she would fall asleep at his apartment.
“What…what happened?”
“We were attacked. It’s a long story, but you are all right now.”
“I kinda remember something…” Her eyes closed again and the steady beep beep on the monitor went to a continuous beep as she flatlined.
“What the…” Clint stared down at her not comprehending immediately what just happened. It hit him and he started pressing the call button repeatedly.
“Somebody get in here! Help, she’s dying!” Clint roared, still slapping the button on the wall.
A nurse skidded into the room, quickly followed by a doctor with a crash cart. Everything happened quickly. The first nurse pulled apart Sarah’s gown to expose her chest while the doctor clicked on the paddles, their high-pitched whine filled the room. The first nurse pumped her palms against Sarah’s chest, the other applied a gel to the paddles.
“Clear,” she called out and moved over Sarah as the first nurse stepped aside. An increase whine, then thump and Sarah’s chest rose slightly as electricity was shot through her body in hopes to cause her heart to start back up.
The doctor stepped back and the first nurse resumed pumping.
“Clear.” Again, a whine and thump. Still nothing.
Pump, pump, pump.
“Clear.” Whine. Thump.
Nothing.
Pump, pump. Beep…. beep…. beep.
Sarah’s heart began to register on the monitor. The doctor and nurse collapsed in stressful exhaustion. Clint found the breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding and let it out.
Beep…beep…beep. It was the sweetest sound Clint ever heard.
They heard footsteps running in the hall outside the room. Kat whipped around the corner and into the room.
“What happened?” She stood there, holding two cups of coffee and a couple of Snickers bars resting on top of the cups. Somehow Kat managed to run here and never spilled a drop or dropped the candy bars.
Clint looked at the doctor, who looked at the nurse, then back at him and shrugged.
“I don’t know. One minute she seemed to be waking up and becoming responsive, and then the next, her heart stopped.”
“What? There wasn’t anything wrong with her to have caused a heart attack. The doctor said she was recovering?” That question she directed at the doctor.
The doctor was the one to answer. “She was…er…is. Look, I have no idea what just happened. As you said, there was nothing about her injuries that should have caused this. But the important thing is we were able to revive her. We will just have to be more vigilant about watching her, to make sure she doesn’t have another episode.”
The nurses moved to leave the room.
“In the meantime, rest and allow her to rest some more. We will send her doctor in as soon as he gets here. He has been paged and should be arriving within the hour.”
Clint nodded to them and moved back to Sarah’s side he had left only to make space for the crash cart.
“She woke up?”
Clint looked at Kat, who was still standing there holding the coffee and candy.
“Yeah. Briefly, then she had the attack.”
Kat let out a breath through pursed lips.
“Here.” She handed him a cup on the right with the Snickers still resting on it. Clint took the cup and set the candy bar on the table next to the bed. He didn’t feel like eating. He sipped the coffee. It tasted okay, considering it was hospital fare.
The doctor arrived an hour later and ran tests on Sarah. The nurse drew blood. He told them as far as he could tell Sarah was in good shape and there shouldn’t be any more heart attacks. She should make a full recovery. Clint thanked him and watched him leave.
It was another hour before Clint sat down next to the bed. An hour later, Kat fell asleep on the other chair. Sometime after that, Clint was awakened.
“Clint? Clint?” It took a moment for the haze to clear in Clint’s mind and he realized he wasn’t dreaming. He was hearing Sarah’s voice.
Someone must have stopped in and shut off the lights after seeing everyone in the room was asleep.
Sarah’s voice sounded frightened. It also sounded… strong.
Clint managed to find the lamp switch on the table and turned it on. What he saw shocked him.
Sarah was sitting up in the bed, her face was unmarred. The swelling and cuts were no more. She had pulled off the bandage that had been wrapped around her head and there was no visible wound. Apart from the cast on her arm, you wouldn’t have been able to tell that she needed to be in ICU.
“Sarah?”
She smiled at him and looked around to see where she was.
“I’m in a hospital?” she asked.
He nodded.
“What happened? We were walking and then I went flying. That is the last thing I remember.”
She looked down at the cast on her arm as if seeing it for the first time.
“Shouldn’t this hurt?” She looked at her arm with a puzzled look on her face.
“I would imagine they have you on pain-killers. Your arm is broken. You were pretty messed up, but you seem to have made a miraculous recovery.”
“How did I get messed up? How did I break my arm?”
Clint saw her look past him.
“And who is she?”
Clint glanced behind him and saw Kat curled up on the chair, still asleep. He caught her eyes flicker for a moment and realized she was awake and probably had been this whole time but giving them some time to be together.
“That is Kat. She is the woman who saved your life and mine.”
Sarah looked at him confused.
Clint sighed and sat back down.
“We were walking downtown when a creature, not unlike what I change into, attacked us. Apparently, he somehow knew I was a lycanthrope and wanted to kill me. But he first decided to have some sport with you.”
Clint looked away, trying to contain his tears. He had felt so helpless at that point, and almost lost her because of it.
He managed to keep it under control and looked back at her. Her eyes told him he hadn’t quite been able to hide from her how he felt.
“Anyway, Kat, who is also a lycanthrope, stepped in and saved you. She, in turn, got her ass kicked, but it gave me time to figure out how to change into the Wolf and together we were able to defeat him. It was the police showing up who actually stopped the fight.”
Sarah stared at him open mouthed.
“Then we brought you here. Well, Kat brought you here. My clothes were destroyed in the change and I needed to get new clothes or get arrested for public indecency.”
Sarah looked past him again.
“Thank you, Kat.”
Clint turned to see Kat open her eyes and look at Sarah, a little surprised her ruse had been so easily seen through.
“You’re welcome. I was glad to help. Your boyfriend really cares about you. He was ready to take on that thing all by himself to make sure we got away safely. I’m not sure he would have survived the fight.” Kat shook herself, remembering. “I almost didn’t live through it.”
Clint noticed Sarah was staring at something on the floor in the direction of the window. Though what it was, Clint couldn’t tell.
Sarah suddenly looked up, and Clint didn’t like the look on her face.
“Clint, did he cut me? Or bite me?”
She ignored his question. “You said I was hurt badly?”
He nodded.
“And I don’t seem to be now?”
He shook his head.
“I’m infected,” she said, closing her eyes. “He infected me.”
“Wait. What are you talking about?” Clint knew, but he couldn’t form the truth of it in his head.
Kat stood behind him. “You mean you have it now?”
Sarah nodded, eyes still closed, tears sneaking out of the corner of her eyes.
“It’s the only explanation. He cut me, or bit me, and transmitted it to me.”
Clint didn’t know what to say. He was like a deer in headlights, frozen.
Sarah stared back at the floor, her eyes tracking something as it moved across the floor and into the wall by the door. Horror dawned on her face, and she looked up at him.
“Clint. You need to leave… Now!”
Clint stared at her. “What? Why?” He really needed to get a handle on things and stop asking stupid questions.
“He’s here. He’s here and he is on his way up here.”
Kat leaned forward. “How could you know?”
“I can sense him. I can feel where he is.” Tears flowed freely down her face. “Oh, god…we are linked now.” She sobbed.
Clint felt his anger rising. He was going to kill that son of a bitch. He was going to tear him apart.
Sarah looked him, pleadingly. “Please, you must go. He won’t hurt me, now. But he will hurt you.”
“I…AM…NOT…LEAVING!” Clint roared. “I will make him pay for ever hurting you.”
Sarah was sobbing, shaking her head. Screams could be heard out in the hallway getting closer.
“Not this time, my love. He isn’t alone.”
Clint barely had time to register this comment when the door to the room blew apart as a Wereboar burst through and slammed into the far wall causing the whole room to shake, destroying drywall and cracking the concrete exterior wall.
Clint watched as it shook itself from the impact. Something wasn’t quite right with what he was seeing, and Clint realized it appeared to be smaller than last time. Clint was just about to fix the image of his wolf form when he heard Kat curse from behind him. He turned to the door just in time to see two more Wereboars enter the room. The last one entering was larger than the other two. He realized this was the one he had fought earlier.
The Awakening Box Set Page 27