by Cheree Alsop
“Slow down. Are we talking about the ghost again?” Virgo demanded.
“Yes,” I said. “I think that—”
“Zev, she almost got you killed!” the warlock shouted. “Look at you! You can barely stand there without falling over. And you’re worried about her?”
“Because I was wrong,” I tried to explain. “I think—”
“And I think as your best friend that you’re done worry about other people until you start taking care of yourself,” the warlock shot back.
I wasn’t getting through to him, and given the shape I was in, there was no way I could do what I needed to alone. I held up the crumpled paper that was stained by my blood.
“Look.”
He glared at the paper. “What?”
I threw it at him in exasperation and then had to bite back several choice words at the pain that followed. “Just…look,” I growled through clenched teeth while holding my side.
Virgo let out a breath and straightened the paper. He glanced at it, then focused on the picture. After a moment, he looked back up at me. “This is her?”
I nodded.
He flipped the paper over. “The date stamp is current.”
I winced inwardly at the fact that I had never thought to look for a date stamp. I waited for him to reach the same conclusion I had.
His head jerked up. “The stamp is from three days ago. If they put this up after the earthquake….”
“Then she might still be alive somewhere, which would explain why she’s not gone yet,” I replied.
He met my gaze. “But that was a week ago.”
“She’s strong,” I told him, my voice certain. “But she’s running out of time. We’ve got to hurry.”
“Let’s rally the troops,” the warlock said.
He pulled out his cellphone.
“Who are you calling?” I asked.
He gave me an exasperated look. “For someone who has a pack, you really haven’t figured out what they’re for, have you?”
Chagrined, I watched him swipe through his contacts and make a call.
“Mitch, I found him. Meet us at the college.”
“Mitch has a cellphone?” I said in amazement.
Virgo held up a hand to silence me. I fought down the urge to bite it.
“Yes.” He glanced at me. “He’s in bad shape, but I think he’ll survive.” His eyes narrowed. “If I don’t kill him first. But he’s in no shape to track and we need help. How soon can you get here?”
I heard Mitch reply something about James driving.
“Good,” Virgo said. “See you guys soon.” He hung up the phone.
I pushed away from the door I had been leaning on, but he grabbed my arm.
“Sit down before you fall over.”
I shook my head. “There’s not time. We have to find her.”
Virgo glared at me. “Did you know I thought I would find you dead somewhere this morning? When you didn’t show up to fight the jakhin last night, I figured you had caught up to the khavis and taken on more than you were able to.”
That was so close to the truth that my argument died in my throat.
Virgo watched me with a gaze of steel. “I’ve lost enough people, Zev. Don’t you understand?” A glimmer of tears showed in his eyes. “I was so relieved when I pulled up here and saw you walking out. I told myself I was stupid to think you’d take on something stronger than you, that you know you have too many people counting on you to take risks like that.” His teeth clenched together for a moment before he said, “And then I went in there.”
I didn’t know what to say. I leaned against the truck door again so I didn’t collapse and prove everything he was accusing me of.
“Do you know what I saw?” The warlock closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I saw my best friend’s bloody footprints down a hall that looked as though it barely survived World War Three.” He sucked in a shuddering breath. “I saw a monster’s carcass in the bathroom with long enough claws to put a scimitar to shame.” He squeezed his eyes shut tighter. “And I saw a puddle of blood beneath a window where my best friend probably would have died if he hadn’t been so completely stubborn.” He looked at me, his eyes red. “I saw my best friend’s final resting place in there.”
It was a few minutes before I could say, “But I’m right here.”
“Are you?” he demanded.
Taken aback, I asked, “What does that mean?”
He slammed a fist on the hood of his truck hard enough to make the vehicle shudder. His runes flared with his anger. “It means I don’t think you’re really living, Zev. Since you escaped that lair, you’ve been here in some kind of a half-life looking for the battle that will finally put you in the ground.” He shook his head and looked away. “And I don’t think I can watch it anymore.”
The closeness of his statement to the truth squeezed my heart in a tight fist. I felt as though I couldn’t breathe. I searched for something to say, something to chase the desperate frustration from his face, but nothing came to me.
“I think I need to lay down,” I said.
He watched me walk around the back of the truck, ease myself onto the still lowered tailgate, and settle gingerly on my back. I closed my eyes against the wash of the sun that was rising higher above the college.
“You don’t get to do that.”
I turned my head at his voice and met his gaze where he peered down at me from the side of the truck.
“Do what?” I asked wearily.
“You don’t get to walk away as though it’s not true.”
My throat tightened, but I forced myself to say, “It is true. All of it.”
Virgo’s eyebrows lifted slightly and his mouth opened, but nothing came out.
I held my side and pushed up to a sitting position.
“You’re right,” I told him. “I’m no good at any of this, at pretending to be human, at pretending I don’t have instincts beaten into me by years of training to destroy everything that could be a threat.” I ran a hand through my mussed hair. “I’m no good at living a life with a purpose that doesn’t end in death for either myself or someone else.”
My admission hung in the air as if caught in the sunlight that filled the truck bed with warmth.
I heard Virgo’s feet shift on the pavement before he said, “So what happens now?”
I studied the dried blood that was caked beneath my fingernails. It was a moment before I could put my thoughts into words. “We save Ceren, then we figure it out.”
“And if we can’t save her?” the warlock asked, voicing my worst fear.
I closed my hand into a fist. “Then there’s nothing to figure out.”
Chapter Thirteen
The sound of car tires turning into the parking lot made me lift my head. I watched James slam on the brakes hard enough that the car skidded the last several feet before everyone opened their doors. Mitch and Alia climbed out of the car with the rest of the werewolves. I scooted to the edge of the truck bed as casually as I could manage.
“How fast did you guys go?” Virgo asked in shock.
“Not fast enough,” Mitch said, giving me a once-over.
“Yeah,” Alia seconded with worry on her face. “Zev, is that your blood?”
“I’m fine,” I told them. “Let’s go.”
“To find Ceren?” Mitch asked.
I nodded.
“Who’s Ceren?” Alia’s tone was uncertain.
Another car turned into the parking lot.
“The ghost who’s been haunting Zev,” Mitch explained.
Guilt at his phrasing made me say, “She hasn’t been haunting me.”
“But she’s a ghost?” Alia repeated with a confused expression. “And we’re here to find her?”
“We can find anything,” Frost told her. He paused and glanced at Safira. “Except that I’ve never found a ghost before. What do they smell like?”
“I’m not sure,” she replied.
Safira looked at me. “Zev?”
The car pulled up next to Virgo’s, saving me from having to answer. I was surprised when Professor Shipley and his wife Kristen climbed out.
“We’re ready for a ghost hunt,” the professor told me.
Kristen elbowed him and he winced. “He means to say, we’re ready to find the physical embodiment of your female specter,” she said by way of apology.
I felt overwhelmed by their support. A glance at Virgo showed the warlock watching me.
“See what I mean by people counting on you?” he asked quietly.
When I couldn’t find any words to reply, the warlock ducked under my arm and pulled me to my feet. “Come on. Let’s go find your ghost.”
“So how do you know she’s here?” Alia asked as we made our way past the science and arts building.
“Because this is where I first saw her,” I explained. “And when she mentioned going back to the beginning, this is where she came. I have to assume she was somewhere close when the earthquake hit.”
“I’ll grab my first aid kit,” Professor Shipley said. “We might need it.” He reached for the door to the building.
“Wait!” Virgo and I shouted at the same time.
At everyone’s surprised stares, Virgo glanced at me. “We had to borrow it for Zev. Let’s just say there’s not much left.”
I took his cue. “Yeah, and my fight with the khavis might have left things a little messy in there.”
The professor nodded. “No problem. Kristen and I can handle the mess later and I’ve got a refill for the kit at home.”
“I’d recommend adding some real thread for stitches,” I suggested.
Kristen patted her husband’s shoulder. “I told you a sewing kit wasn’t a good replacement.”
The professor gave me an apologetic look. “To be fair, I didn’t think I would need to stitch anyone up. That was an oversight.”
“No problem,” I told him. “What you had was lifesaving; trust me.”
He grinned. “Glad to hear it.”
We walked around behind the college. A fence in the distance split the property from the neighboring construction work that appeared to have been on hold for quite some time given the weathered appearance of the half-finished buildings.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Dorms,” Professor Shipley said. “The college was working on accreditation to a four year and figured with the expansion it would be good to put in more living quarters for the students, but the accreditation wasn’t approved and construction stopped pretty much the same day.”
Kristen shot her husband a worried look. “The students hang out there on weekends sometimes. You don’t think she was there, do you?”
“We’ll phase and check it out,” Mitch said.
I watched the werewolves run off in wolf form toward the fenced-off buildings. I wanted to join them. Being left with the humans and accusatory warlock didn’t feel fair. Oblivious to my thoughts, my pack easily leaped the fence and we soon lost sight of them in the debris beyond.
“Leave them to it,” Kristen suggested. “Where else can we look on this side?”
“There’re the gardens and the halls beneath the library. Sometimes the students slip the lock and hang in there after hours,” her husband said.
We had taken a few steps in that direction when a howl reverberated through the air. Everyone looked at me.
“What is it?” Alia asked.
The notes of the howl were high and tense, a warning and summons at the same time. Adrenaline flooded my veins, dulling the pain in my side. “They found something.”
I hurried in that direction and the others fell in behind me. Another howl sounded.
“Something’s wrong,” I said as my nerves jangled with the clashing tones. “I think they’re in trouble.”
Virgo pulled up a corner of the fence and held it for me to climb beneath. The professor and his wife quickly followed with Alia coming last. I slid down the side of a hollowed out basement and limped around the corner, then stopped short at the sight in front of me.
The four werewolves snarled and snapped at a jakhin. Her black hair hung in straggly strings in front of her eyes and she slashed at them with her long claws.
I took a step forward to help them, but Virgo grabbed my shoulder.
“I don’t think so. You stay here. We’ve got this,” the warlock said.
He jogged toward the fray and left me standing at the corner. Professor Shipley and his wife came up behind me. Shipley’s gasp was seconded by his wife’s.
“Is that what you fought?” Kristen asked.
I shook my head, unable to take my eyes away from the battle. “It was bigger, but jakhins are no joke.”
“That doesn’t look like a joke,” Professor Shipley said quietly.
I had to give the werewolves credit. I had never in my life stood back to watch the pack fight. Usually I was in the heat of battle, which ironically was my comfort zone. My fists clenched as I watched them leap and evade, using the military tactics of distraction and force to drive her to the wall.
“Grab her,” Virgo yelled.
The werewolves listened to him. Mitch dodged a swipe of claws and dove for her shoulder while Striker and Frost each grabbed an arm. Safira snuck behind the creature and latched onto her hair.
The jakhin gave a yowl of fury. Her claws lashed out, catching Striker deep enough to make him yelp, but the big werewolf refused to let go.
The small knife Virgo held flashed in the sunlight. It looked impossible for the tiny blade to bring down such a ferocious creature, but I had seen it happen. I watched the warlock dart to the right, then the left, looking for an opening that wasn’t compromised by either a snarling wolf or the jakhin’s reaching, long-fingered hands. If he could just stab her, the jakhin would be dead. But she was too strong for the werewolves to bring down.
Virgo appeared to run out of patience. He lunged forward, sidestepped a slash toward his face, and drove his hand toward the creature’s chest.
Just when I thought the blade would penetrate, the jakhin turned her entire body in a feat of supernatural strength. Mitch slammed into Virgo and they both fell to the ground. Freed of some of the weight, the jakhin grabbed Frost by the throat and threw him into the wall. The wolf fell motionless to the ground. I watched helplessly as Virgo scrambled for something in the dirt.
The jakhin towered over him, ready to disembowel the warlock with a single swipe of her claws. I ran forward, but there was no way I would reach him in time. An earsplitting shriek sounded from the creature. She reached for him and would have ended Virgo’s life if Mitch didn’t react faster than the monster. He grabbed Virgo’s foot and jerked back. Virgo let out a yell as the werewolf’s fangs bit into his skin. The yell turned into a yelp of surprise as the werewolf’s strength sent the warlock nearly across the entire pit.
The werewolves formed a protective front to block the creature from reaching us. Professor Shipley knelt over Virgo.
“Are you alright?” he asked.
Virgo rolled over, his eyes wide with panic. “I dropped the knife! We can’t kill her if I can’t find it!”
A glance toward the jakhin showed dust kicked up everywhere. There was no way we would find the knife in that.
She made a grab for Safira, but the werewolf dodged out of the way. The clover and apple scent of the jakhin’s hunger wafted over me. I fought back the urge to bare my teeth. Her slimy tongue snaked out of her mouth in anticipation. To her, we no doubt looked like an inevitable meal, and with the knife gone, we might soon be.
The memory of another knife striking into flesh made my heart race. There was no way I would reach it in time in my condition. I spun.
“Professor, I need your help!”
“Anything,” Professor Shipley replied.
“There’s another knife,” I told him. “It’s in the middle of a pile of bones in the bathroom by your
class.”
The professor looked from me to the jakhin. “I would ask why there’s a pile of bones in the bathroom, but I feel like there are more important issues at hand. I’ll be right back.”
“I’m coming with you,” Kristen said.
I watched the pair scramble back up the side of the construction hole and to the fence. The feeling that our hope left with them hung over me.
I turned back to see Mitch be flung across the dirt. He rolled over and over until his back struck one of the walls. Alia gave a cry of fear and ran to him. In all the chaos, I had forgotten the girl’s presence entirely.
The fact that she was in danger from the jakhin as much as everyone else made me act. Frost pushed back up to his paws and limped forward to join me. Safira and Striker had backed the jakhin into a corner once more, but she wasn’t at all happy about it. Virgo stood with the werewolves; he had a hand on each of their shoulders, whether for support or strength, I couldn’t tell. Both werewolves’ coats were clotted with blood, and Striker wasn’t putting any weight on his back paw.
“Mine,” the creature said in a voice that grated against my eardrums like fingernails on a chalkboard.
Both Safira and Striker growled low, angry threats, vowing to keep her from reaching the rest of us. Virgo’s runes glowed, but they were faint as though the creature’s darkness was affecting him. I could see in the warlock’s bowed shoulders and wary gaze that he thought all was lost with the knife. The fact that he didn’t run told me more about him than a thousand conversations could have.
Mitch pushed back to his paws, but he wavered unsteadily beneath Alia’s hands. The fact that she could keep him from joining the others told of the shape he was in.
The jakhin lashed out. Safira jumped to the side, but not quickly enough. A yelp escaped her as a line of red sprouted along her cream-colored fur. The realization that I was seeing my pack killed piece by piece nearly undid me.
“Leave them alone,” I growled loud enough that the jakhin’s head jerked up.
I met her eyes with a glare. “I’m the one you want. I helped kill your sister or friend or whatever she was.” I spat on the ground. Red colored the patch of dirt it hit. With a hand clamped tightly to my side, I limped forward. “You don’t belong here. You’re a devourer, a demon of a different plane. You don’t get to stay and hurt those I care about.”