Shadowed Flame

by RJ Blain

  With no evidence of his clumsy nature, Dad caught the phone. He shifted his weight and lobbed the phone into the air, unholstered his gun, and shot it. The device toppled into the ruins of the burning garage. “So, pups. Are you gonna sit like good wolves, or will I need to practice my shooting some more?”

  I had never seen a group of men move so fast in my life. Before I could do more than blink, the rogue Fenerec pack sat and waited. Dalton snorted.

  With no threats nearby, my wolf retreated, her exhaustion bleeding into me. Whining, I shuffled to Ryan’s side, bumping my nose to his neck. His faint warmth promised life. With a heavy sigh, I stretched out beside Ryan and rested my head on his shoulder to wait.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Dalton wielded the muzzle like a weapon. He sat on me and forced it over my head while I snarled, snapped, and growled warnings of how I’d rip him to shreds if he dared put the leather and silver contraption on me. The leather basket surrounded my nose and created a barrier I couldn’t get through. While I could smell the silver affixed to the leather, it didn’t burn me.

  Completing my humiliation was a leather and silver harness, a collar, and a leash. The muzzle clipped to the collar. The instant Dalton released me, I rolled onto my back, hooked my hind claws in the leather, and tried to yank the accursed restriction off my head.

  The silver stung my pads, and I howled my displeasure for the world to hear.

  “Fight it all you want, but it isn’t coming off,” the Alpha informed me.

  I howled my fury and snapped my teeth, which amused a chuckle out of the man. He kept a firm hold on the leash. While he came in contact with the silver bound to it, the metal didn’t seem to bother him. I growled, flattening my ears.

  “Want me to take charge of her?” Dad asked.

  “If she gets a mind to run, she might rip your shoulder right out of its socket. Probably not a wise idea. Why don’t you keep watch over Ryan? You’re a good shot. If anyone gets too close to him without permission, make them dance.”

  “Making them dance implies I can’t kill them.”

  “Are you sure you’re not a Fenerec?”

  “Mother reminds me how disappointed she is I’m not every chance she gets,” Dad muttered.

  “We can change that whenever you’re ready. You score a passing grade for your protective instincts. I’ll leave Ryan to you. I’m going to take your daughter to headquarters. The last thing we need is for Ryan to wake up while we’re treating her hands. Burns this bad are nasty to begin with, and if she doesn’t feedback to him during the process, I’ll be shocked. I want to get it done before he’s healed enough to put up a fight.”

  “And the rogues?”

  “How many silver rounds do you have left?”

  “Four magazines worth.”

  “They give you any trouble, shoot them before they’re on their feet.” Dalton reached down, hooked his arm under me, and lifted me up. Howling my fury, I clawed at him, snapping and snarling despite knowing I couldn’t reach him while muzzled. “She’s plenty angry we’re separating her from Ryan.”

  “You could just toss him in the back of your SUV and take them both. It’s not going to matter if you wait for the med team. I know it, you know it, and they know it. Don’t underestimate Matia’s determination. She’s patient and isn’t against waiting a few years to get her revenge.” Dad stepped to me, reached out, and gave my ears a brisk rub. “I already miss when she was small enough to stuff in my coat.”

  “Trust me, so do I. She’s a lot more dangerous now. She’s upgraded from an annoying ankle biter to capable of breaking bones without much effort.”

  I snarled and howled, promising I’d do exactly that when I escaped the muzzle and got a hold of the Alpha.

  Dad and Dalton ignored me.

  “Why don’t I carry her mate down to your SUV and load him up, then you can take them both in? If he wakes up during treatment, they’ll be better able to handle him. Gets him there faster, too. Surely your pack can keep these mutts in line for a few minutes.”

  “All right. I’ll leash her to the front seat and put him in the back. Last thing I want is to have him reacting to silver during the drive. This is just a great idea. Ah, hell. Why not? What could possibly go wrong with two injured Fenerec in the vehicle while I’m driving?”

  “A lot,” Dad replied, his tone wry. “I tried to warn them she had a temper, Dalton. I tried to warn them she’s headstrong. I really did.”

  “I tried to warn them she’d burn the place down around their ears if anything went wrong. Maybe next time they’ll listen.”

  Dad and Dalton looked at each other and burst into laughter.

  Shaking his head, Dalton carried me down the hill towards the decaying town. “Sure. Pigs will fly first.”

  I growled the entire way to Inquisition headquarters.

  Dalton forced me to transform from wolf to woman before I realized what he was doing. As soon as I began to shift, he unbuckled the muzzle and harness and tossed them aside. When I finally finished, a white-coated doctor plunged a syringe into my arm. I had no idea what the man injected me with, but it subdued my wolf and numbed me.

  The doctors slathered my hands in some kind of cream, wrapped my hands in thick bandages, and left me with Dalton, who shook his head disapprovingly and clucked his tongue at me. “I warned them to never underestimate a determined bitch. I also warned them you could manifest. Apparently, the twins believed you could only make yourself smoke and ran the risk of igniting your hair. Of course, that’s dangerous enough.”

  My thoughts scattered as though blown by a strong wind, leaving me unable to do anything other than stare at him.

  “Wolfsbane and ketamine. On young Fenerec, it’s pretty effective—too effective, really. It’ll wear off eventually. Until then, to be safe rather than sorry, you’re to obey either me, your father, or Ryan. Understood?”

  My mouth moved without any input from me, and I mumbled, “Yes, sir.”

  “Good girl. While we wait for word about Ryan, why don’t I take you to your new suite—that you’ll be sharing with Ryan—and explain what’ll happen in the next few days. Hopefully, this will keep you from lighting anything else on fire.”

  Wolfsbane and ketamine made it difficult for me to walk without tripping over my own feet. Without Dalton’s help, I never would have made it to the posh room, which smelled of freshly squeezed lemons.

  He guided me to the couch in the living room and pushed me onto it before taking over an armchair. “Rule one: you will not light anything on fire. Rule two: no howling. Rule three: no escape attempts of any sort. Let’s not give the witches anything else to worry about. A severely injured Fenerec as old as Ryan is going to stress them all out. With you also hurt, they’re going to be at wit’s end trying to prevent any accidents.”

  I stared at him, blinking as the meaning of his words slowly sank in. Nodding, I settled back on the couch, stifling a yawn.

  “First, the drug you were given will suppress your wolf. It also suppresses will, which makes it easy to control a Fenerec. Until Ryan’s back on his feet, I expect they’ll keep you dosed with it. The ketamine is what’s making you woozy, but that’ll wear off in a couple of hours at most. The ketamine just makes the wolfsbane more effective. You’ll feel a bit more like yourself once the ketamine wears off.”

  “What about Ryan?”

  “Ryan will be fine. The first step is for him to recover full heart function. When a Fenerec is critically injured, they shut down to preserve their bodies. By limiting oxygen requirements, a Fenerec can preserve brain function. In the case of a Fenerec as old as Ryan, so long as his brain isn’t damaged, he’ll recover. While it varies from Fenerec to Fenerec, heart, lung, and brain functionality are restored first. If his spine was damaged, unfortunately, it’ll recover last; spinal damage is tough to heal, as is nerve function. Unlike humans, a Fenerec’s entire body can regenerate given sufficient time.”

  Dalton sighed and propped
his feet up on the coffee table, staring at his muddy shoes.

  “That’s disgusting.” I pointed at his feet, snapped my fingers, and gestured to the door. “Don’t be a pig.”

  Snorting, the Alpha kicked off his shoes. They landed halfway to the door and left smears on the carpet. “Someone will be by to clean up. Gives the bored witches something to do. Anyway, in Ryan’s case, if the gunshot wound didn’t damage anything other than his heart, he should be back on his feet within a day or two. Once the doctors have a better idea of when he’ll recover, they’ll likely bring you in so you’re nearby when he wakes up.” Dalton hesitated. “Of course, that’ll be a little dangerous since he’ll wake up remembering he’d been shot, and most Fenerec fly straight into fight mode, and while submissive, he’ll defend himself. Don’t be surprised if you’re battered a bit before he clues in he’s safe.”

  I didn’t care if Ryan smacked me around if it meant he woke up. “How long?”

  “For the doctors to have a better idea of when you can see him? I’d give it a few hours. They’re going to run him through every machine they have and run tests. After they have the results, they’ll decide when it’ll be safe to bring you in. He’s too injured to move to any of the containment suites, so they’re going to have to be careful. They’re already expecting to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment when he goes psychotic.”

  “I can replace the equipment.”

  “I know you can, but let the Inquisition pay for their mistakes. The first mistake was trusting in Ryan’s submissive tendencies to keep him safe. Ryan’s done too much for the Inquisition as it is. I’m going to take advantage of your strong witchcraft and his close call to try to push his retirement—or at least a safer role in operations. At the very least, I can have him pulled from operations to help deal with integrating the rogues to new packs. The Inquisition will need a lot of help on that score; they didn’t expect a sorcerer controlling the pack. There’s good news, though.”

  “What good news?”

  “While the masterminds of the La Guardia attack will face execution, it’ll be swift and merciful. The rest of the rogue pack will probably be granted a pardon. Sorcerers are bad news, and one strong enough to take over a pack is capable of removing their free will. Most of them are victims, and they’ll be treated accordingly.”

  “They’ll walk?”

  “I wouldn’t say they’ll walk away free and clear, but they’ll live. The Inquisition has harsh rules, but victims are victims, and they try to take that into consideration. The Alpha’ll die, as will his stronger Fenerec. The submissive will die, too, as he was the bomb tech, but only after the pack is transferred to a new Alpha. The death of a submissive is damaging to a pack, and while brutal, the Inquisition tries not to be cruel. Sometimes it is unavoidable. To human eyes, we’re a pretty cruel species at times.”

  I sighed and flopped onto the couch. “Humans can be, too.”

  “Humans often are, just in a different way. If it makes you feel better about his death, Harthel wasn’t human, not really. Sorcerers may be born human, but their magic twists them into something far less—and far more dangerous. We Fenerec may be brutal and cruel in our own way, but we’re angels compared to them.”

  I stretched out on the couch. I’d regret not being with Ryan, but I didn’t regret Harthel’s death. Losing the kill to Dad stung, but I shrugged it off. “He deserved it.”

  “He did. Your father will sleep easier tonight knowing he won’t have to worry about him coming after you again. Ryan, too. For now, get some rest. There’s a perfectly good bed in the other room you can sleep on instead of the couch. Just don’t escape out the window again. Your hands have been abused enough.”

  Dalton left. I stayed on the couch. Maybe it was a mix of stubborn pride and stupidity, but I had no intention of sleeping in a bed without Ryan in it.

  The doctors didn’t let me see the ruined remains of my hands during the torture sessions they called treatment for two days. In some ways, my palms looked like someone had taken a meat tenderizer to them, pounding away until I was left with hamburger for hands. Dalton’s orders to stay calm, quiet, and still kept me in my seat; without the orders, they would’ve needed to peel me from the ceiling, especially when the doctors brought out the brushes required to clean away the dead flesh and scar tissue so new, healthy skin could grow.

  It hurt, and not even the order to stay quiet silenced my growls.

  Dalton chuckled. “You’re going to scare the witches if you keep that up.”

  Harriet and Audrey didn’t seem frightened to me. If anything, my predicament amused them. Maybe I deserved some ribbing for breaking out of the headquarters and destroying one of the suites, but did they have to grin so much?

  “I don’t think either one of them is scared of anything.” I turned my head so I wouldn’t have to watch the two doctors at work. Someone needed to repaint the walls; the white had dulled to a drab gray. “They just don’t want the place to stink of smoke. A little smoke might encourage them to repaint the place. It needs it.”

  Audrey clapped. “You have us figured out. We’re mitigating your smoke damage so we aren’t forced to repaint the medical facilities. Obviously. Maybe we’re just making sure you only burn the facilities a little so you have to help us pick out paints. It’d be a good way to expose you to colors as your vision is restored without triggering anxiety attacks.”

  “She’s really sarcastic lately, Dalton.” I sighed. “How many more times do you need to treat my hands?”

  I still didn’t know my doctors’ names; the introductions had gone by in a pain-filled blur. Each time I worked up the courage to ask, my flayed pride reared its ugly head. The pair didn’t seem disgusted or put off by the state of my hands, which reassured me far more than words did.

  Neither man seemed anxious, and the sweet scent of their amusement made it easier for me to stay calm. If they weren’t worried, I wouldn’t worry, either.

  At least I didn’t have to worry about my wolf; while under the influence of wolfsbane, she slept. I doubted she’d tolerate the doctors scouring my skin off to help my burns heal faster.

  The older doctor, a gray-haired man who had a faint scent of spice and smoke about him, chuckled. “We’re going to leave the bandages off this time and see how it goes. Within two or three hours, you should be able to use your hands normally. The brushing is to remove the silver-tainted skin and muscle as much as it is to clear away the scar tissue. Once the silver is gone, you’ll heal much faster. By this evening, you’ll be up for even rigorous exercise.”

  Breath warmed the back of my neck. “I am very interested in rigorous exercise.”

  Before I had become a Fenerec, startling me rarely resulted in more than me jumping in my seat. Not even the wolfsbane kept me seated, and before I comprehended who had come up behind me, I landed halfway across the room, crashed on top of one of the bulky pieces of medical equipment, knocked it over, and got tangled in its hoses and cords. I smacked against the wall and slid to the floor with a dismayed howl.

  Then realization hit me, and I squeaked, “Ryan?”

  Dalton cleared his throat, and I recognized the sound as an attempt to mask laughter. “That was rather mean of you, Ryan.”

  The older doctor chuckled. “Well, at least the good news is we needed new equipment anyway. I’m going to give her reflexes a passing grade. While I fully encourage patients getting on their feet and moving around as quickly as possible, startling an injured bitch is essentially the definition of insanity, Mr. Cole.”

  “She was completely oblivious to my presence in the room. I even counted to twenty. How can anyone blame me?” Ryan pouted. “When an opportunity presents itself, a wise wolf takes advantage of it.

  I gaped at him. There was no evidence he’d been injured at all; everything about him was as I remembered, and he didn’t even flinch away from Dalton or avert his gaze as I expected. “Ryan?”

  Dalton chuckled. “I think you brok
e her. Since you got her tangled in that mess, you get her out of it.”

  “I really don’t feel like bending over right now,” my mate replied.

  My doctor clucked his tongue. “Sit, Mr. Cole. If you try bending over, you’ll fall over, which will undoubtedly hurt beyond your ability to suppress. Then the bitch will end up damaging herself and everything in a five foot radius getting to you, putting us right back to square one. If we’re really lucky, she’ll set the room on fire in the process. I’m sure there’s something in here she hasn’t already damaged or destroyed with that stunt.”

  With a smug smile, Ryan sat in my chair. “Your sarcasm is alive and well.”

  My doctor sighed. “Mr. Sinclair, please free Miss Evans so she doesn’t hurt her hands.”

  I took in the tangle of cables, hoses, and equipment scattered around me and saw no obvious escape route. A giggle slipped out of me. Another bubbled free, and helpless to stop myself, I laughed until I cried.

  “Let’s just blame the drugs,” Dalton suggested. “They’re both higher than kites.”

  Ryan made a thoughtful noise. “I hear rigorous exercise is good for getting drugs out of someone’s system.”

  “Keep telling yourself that, Ryan,” Dalton muttered, making his way across the room to survey the equipment I had knocked over. “I think I’m going to need a hand with this unless we’re okay with tearing the whole thing apart to get her out.”

  Dad stepped into the room. He stared at me and sighed. “Please tell me she’s crying because she’s happy to see Ryan.”

  “I think she’s crying because she’s stuck. It seems she has a very low threshold for frustration. Next time, you get to babysit the bitch. I’ll take the potentially psychopathic injured operative. It’s safer. Anyway, Ryan sent her into orbit when he came up behind her. Apparently, he is of the opinion she should have noticed him immediately.”