Seven Days

by Richardson, Shari

  Elise waited for us on the porch as we pulled into the driveway. The dim bulb in the fixture behind her cast shadows, but none so deep as those cast by her frown.

  “I told you to stay with him,” she said when Xavier lifted me carefully out of the SUV and carried me up the porch steps.

  “They frown on girls on the football field, Gram,” Xavier said.

  Elise nodded once, her lips pinched into a disapproving line, and went into the house. I giggled against Xavier’s chest.

  “Girls on the field?” I whispered.

  “Seemed like the most appropriate response that wouldn’t get me grounded for a year,” he said, laughing.

  It wasn't until I heard his laughter that I realized how heavy I had felt since my arrival at the hospital. Xavier had been hurt and silent. The nurses and doctors in the emergency room had averted their eyes when they were with me. Even Mathias refused to get close to me, as though his iron will might break, when the truth was, everyone was waiting for me to break. Xavier's laughter lifted some of the weight from my body. It was good to feel lighter, even close to happy, not matter how fleeting the feeling might be.

  Elise's living room was filled to the brim with high energy and loud voices. The boys I had become so comfortable with over the last year, the pride, crowded around us. They wanted to know if he was okay. If I was going to be one of them. Several members of the pride sniffed along my skin, raising gooseflesh on my arms. The sadness in their eyes told me what they thought my fate was. If they could smell panther in my blood, why should I wait for Doctor Coffman's tests?

  Xavier pushed several members of the pride back as they stepped too close in their effort to see if I was going to be one of them in seven days.

  "Enough, guys. Doc Coffman said we had to wait for the blood tests to come back. Until then, everything--even our sense of smell--is just conjecture."

  My world closed down to the pinpoints of contact between my body and Xavier's. Our. He'd said "our" sense of smell. He could smell panther in my blood. My body jerked as the tension reawakened the pain in my chest.

  "You can smell it, can't you?" I whispered.

  Xavier wouldn't meet my eyes. That tiny refusal meant more than anything else that had happened since Lane had attacked me. Xavier was convinced, but trying to give me hope.

  "Tell me," I begged.

  Xavier carefully lowered me onto Elise's couch before kneeling in front of it. His hands captured mine, his strength making it impossible for me to take them back.

  "I smell the panther who changed me, Kerry. I can smell him on your skin and in your wounds. That doesn't mean I smell it in your blood."

  I shook my head. "You're lying."

  A single tear slipped down his cheek to splash onto our joined hands. "I'm not lying, Kerr. I'm telling you what I know without a doubt. Please trust me, and Doc Coffman. There's still hope." Xavier rose and went to the kitchen where Elise waited--probably to chew him out for letting me get hurt.

  As I thought about what Xavier had said about hope, I realized there was one other person in the room who could give me what I wanted. Mathias would be able to smell my blood like none other. But would he tell me the truth if he smelled panther in it?

  I scanned the room, looking for Mathias and my sister. As I caught Mathias' gaze, he quickly slipped his cell phone from his pocket and stepped out to the porch.

  "I will have food sent to feed the cats,” he said when he caught my questioning expression.

  "But..." I knew Mathias was avoiding me and my questions.

  “Pizza!” Andre shouted. Only one of the Vaughn brothers to be so rude as to dictate what free food he’d get. The panthers were almost always hungry. Not one of them would turn down food, even if it was given to them by a vampire.

  “As you wish,” Mathias said. He broke his gaze from mine and disappeared into the shadows on the porch.

  Mairin followed Mathias outside and stayed with him for a few minutes. I leaned back on the couch to try to find some comfortable position that didn't pull at the stitches in my chest. I was almost certain Mairin knew what I wanted from Mathias. The question was would she let him tell me or would she strive to protect me until the outcome of tonight's attack was fully revealed by the blood test or by my own body's change with the full moon? She could be irritatingly over-protective, though always with good intentions.

  "Kerry, are you sure you don't want me to take you home?" she asked, taking a seat on the floor next to my legs.

  "I don't want to try to explain any of this to Mom or Tawnya right now." I groaned a little as I shifted to be able to see my sister better. "What is Mathias really doing out there?"

  Mairin shrugged, her eyes straying to the screen door where Mathias was barely visible in the darkness.

  “He doesn’t want to make Elise uncomfortable,” she whispered. “When Alfred gets here, they’ll come in.” "And that's it?" I asked. "He doesn't have any other reason to avoid being here...where I am?"

  Mairin had to good grace to blush and duck her head. "Kerry, please let the doctor's tests be your confirmation. I don't care how good anyone's nose might be. I want to hear it from the doctor that your life is going to change."

  "So he can smell it," I said. Tears burned my eyes and the lump in my throat that had been shrinking since I'd left the hospital became nearly large enough to stop my breath.

  "He smells something different in your blood," she said. She leaned against my leg and reached for my hand. "But even he isn't certain what he smells."

  Mairin glanced back to the door. I knew she disliked being away from Mathias as much as I hated being away from Xavier. It dawned on me as I watched her that she was in pain over my possible future. She blamed herself for letting me go on my own and for not protecting me.

  "You know this isn't your fault, Maire," I said.

  "No, I don't know that." I cringed from the bitterness in her voice. "How many times can I forgive the fact that my weird magnet puts you in danger?"

  "I have my own magnet, sis."

  She shook her head. "I know you love him, Kerry, but if I hadn't needed Elise's tutoring on my aura reading, you might never have met Xavier. If I hadn't wanted Mathias in my life, the panthers would have stayed in East Hampton and not interfered with our lives." She sighed. "You would have been safer if I weren't so selfish."

  "Would you rather take Xavier's love from my life than let my journey be what it is meant to be?" I asked.

  "If it meant you were safe. If it meant you could be a teenaged girl without the worries of vampires and demons and demigods and wereanimals, yes. I'd give almost anything to be able to give you that kind of life."

  "But I don't want that kind of life if it means Xavier isn't in it." I gripped Mairin's hand, pulling at it until she looked up at me. "Have you ever thought that maybe our magnets work the way they do because we need the strength that comes from the pride and the vampires? Have you ever thought that maybe you needed Elise's help when you did because I needed Xavier in my life?"

  "I want to believe that, Kerry," she said. "I want to believe there's a reason for all the danger and all the help that is something deeper than just my propensity to draw the biggest and the baddest monsters into my life, but it's hard for me to do that when I see what my choices have done to you."

  "I'll be fine, Maire. Even if I turn furry once a month."

  "Furry doesn't matter to me, Kerry. It would mean you were safer, stronger. But I can't ever see you lying on the ground with the blood of your life turning black on the pavement beneath you." I heard the catch in her voice and realized my sister, the invincible and incredibly strong woman who loved me almost more than our own mother did, was on the verge of tears.

  "I think I once said something similar to you," I said.

  "You did and I've been as careful as I can be, but I failed tonight in the worst possible way. I let my guard down for one moment and you were nearly taken from me. I can't...I won't let that happen again."

/>   "Maire, I...." I didn't know what to say. I knew my sister loved me, but she'd never before come so close to saying that she would die to protect me.

  She stood and kissed my forehead. "I love you, Kerry. Nothing else matters."

  She was gone before I could say anything else. I saw her reach into the shadows on the porch and Mathias materialized to hold her. I sighed and groaned again. Whatever pain medication the doctor had given me at the hospital was beginning to wear off and while the lines of stitches in my chest might throb in time to my heartbeat, the pain in my heart was deeper and sharper than any claws would be.

  I knew I had to be the one to tell Xavier who had attacked me. And I knew that at some point he would feel it was his duty to fight the man who had given him life. Tyler Meyers was the father Xavier claimed, but what kind of damage would Xavier do to his soul if he had to kill Lane?

  Xavier returned from the kitchen and I let him pull me into his side on the couch. I turned and carefully twisted until I found a comfortable position and then waited. I glanced toward the kitchen and saw Elise watching me. She nodded ever so slightly, sending a jolt of understanding through my body. She knew who had attacked me, who had attacked Xavier when he'd been seven. She knew what I was going to have to tell Xavier and she knew what it was going to cost us all. And yet she was telling me to do what needed to be done. I wanted to talk to her, to hear Elise's thoughts on how best to tell Xavier that his own flesh and blood had not only changed the course of his own life, but likely that of mine as well. But Elise kept her distance, remaining in the kitchen while the pride members gathered around.

  “Ok, so the first thing we need to do is figure out who this rogue is and then decide how to catch and kill him. He’s broken our laws and the human laws. We don’t have any choice.” Xavier’s voice rang with the timbre of the leader of the pride and goose bumps rose on my arms.

  “Christian, did you get a good look at him?” Xavier asked.

  “Not really,” Christian said. “I was across the parking lot when I saw the guy pulling on Kerry’s arm and Mathias trying to stop him.”

  “Kerry,” Xavier said, turning to look at me. “Why did you go with this guy in the first place?”

  I took a deep breath. The last thing I wanted to do was bring any more pain to Xavier and the pride after what had happened over the past few weeks, but I knew keeping Lane's identity to myself might mean more girls would die. Lane had already proven himself to be a killer. I had to believe that no matter how much it would hurt Xavier, knowing who the killer was would mean the end of the parade of death and destruction Lane had brought to East Hampton and Highland Home.

  “I knew him, Xavier,” I said softly.

  “What?”

  “It was...” I sighed. There was no gentle way to say the next three words. Delay wouldn't help. Only the truth would mean an end to the attacks. “It was Lane.”

  “Who is Lane?” Mathias asked. I glanced away from Xavier's face long enough to see Mathias and Alfred standing together just inside the door from the porch. “I did not recognize the man who attacked Kerry as someone from either Highland Home or East Hampton.”

  My gaze returned to Xavier. His throat worked as though he were attempting to swallow over a boulder caught in his throat. His heart thundered against my body where we touched. Energy vibrated off his skin like an electrical current. I didn't have to be able to see his eyes to know they would be dark with his panther. Whether he was angry or hurting didn't matter. Xavier was on the verge of exploding and I had to calm him before he did something he might later regret.

  “Xavier?” I said softly, reaching for his face, pulling it toward me so I could see his eyes.

  “Lane,” he whispered. I nodded. “And you didn’t tell me before now because...”

  “Because I wanted you to be among family and away from strangers in case you lost your temper,” I said.

  He nodded and carefully moved me so he could stand up and pace the length of the living room. He kept whispering, “Lane,” as he walked. Anger and pain pulsed in waves off his body. I could almost see a shimmer of his panther over the form of his body as he walked and I knew that no matter what he was feeling now, waiting to tell him about Lane until he was with the pride and away from strangers had been the right decision.

  “Xavier, do you want to transform in the middle of your grandmother’s living room?” Mairin asked.

  “What?” Xavier stopped pacing and turned on my sister. Xavier vibrated with his anger, but Mairin didn’t flinch.

  “I asked if you really wanted to shred up your grandmother’s living room by transforming in here with the rest of the boys so close by.”

  Xavier growled deep and low, a warning sound that brought with it the threat of attack. Mathias was between Xavier and Mairin so quickly I hadn't seen him move.

  “How do you know?” Xavier demanded, trying to get by Mathias. Xavier's lips pulled back in a feral snarl and the growl that slipped from his throat sent tremors down my spine. Xavier had to calm down. A fight between him and Mathias was not going to stop Lane from attacking other girls or anyone else, but it would put every member of the pride, Elise, Mairin and me in danger.

  “She can see your cat, Xavier," Mathias said, holding out a hand to try to keep Xavier focused on him and not Mairin. "She is only trying to help you calm yourself.”

  Xavier blinked slowly and his body relaxed. The energy I'd felt pulsing against my skin eased back to the normal warmth I could feel from Xavier, though this warmth covered a wider area. He took a few deep breaths and stepped back from Mathias. “Sorry, Maire,” he said. "I...you know I wouldn't have hurt you."

  Mairin nodded. "I understand how hard it can be for you, any of you, to control your beast when you're angry. What I don't understand is what is it about knowing the panther's name that has you so far out on the edge. You were angry over the attacks before Kerry. But this is more...worse."

  I tried to stand, but the pain in my chest caused me to cry out before I could get my feet under me. Xavier glanced over his shoulder at me and I held out my hand. He took it and came to stand beside me. His energy was still running high beneath the surface, but by the feel of it, he had regained some measure of control over it.

  “The man who attacked Kerry, who has apparently been killing girls in East Hampton and Highland Home, is Lane Cordero. He’s my biological father,” Xavier said. “I only found out about Lane when Kerry and I went to Florida before school started. I just...I just can’t believe my own father...” Xavier shook himself. “It doesn’t matter who he is to me. What matters is what he is and what he’s done. We have to stop him.”

  “Xavier, perhaps you would prefer if we took care of this issue,” Mathias said.

  My heart thudded in my chest and I realized, for the first time with certainty, what a deeply good and perceptive man Mathias was. He knew what kind of damage a hunt for his father would do to Xavier and he wanted to save the man I loved from that kind of pain.

  “Hell no, leech,” Xavier snarled, slipping into his old habit of address for all vampires with Mathias. “I told you at the hospital, this is pride business.”

  “This man is your blood, Xavier. Think of the damage to your soul,” Mathias said.

  “Blood or not, it is the pride’s responsibility to take care of Lane,” Xavier said. “I’ll worry about my own soul, thank you.”

  “I told you the cats would not want our help,” Alfred said. He started to turn toward the door, but Xavier's voice stopped him.

  “I didn’t say that, leech,” Xavier snapped. “I said I wouldn’t let the blood suckers take on this problem without the pride.”

  “Mathias, I would prefer to stay out of this.” Alfred glanced at Mairin as though he expected my sister to stop him. I knew she wouldn't, but Alfred seemed determined to believe the worst of my sister when it came to the control she had over him. “The cats do not truly want our help and I am not comfortable involving myself in their political stru
ggles.”

  “Let him go, Mathias,” Mairin said. “You know he’ll make more trouble than it’s worth if we make him stay.”

  “Of course, my heart,” Mathias said. “Please see that the others are cared for this evening Alfred. I will see you in the morning.”

  Alfred nodded to Mathias and bowed slightly to Mairin before slipping into the night. Mairin sighed heavily. I knew that whatever was going on at Mathias' house with the European vampires was taking its toll on her. She wouldn't tell me what was going on, but I knew it had something to do with a connection that had come about after Serina's death. That connection had saved the lives of every panther, as well as Elise, Mairin and me, during the battle with Azael at the end of the summer. I was grateful for the help which had come when we needed it, but the more strain it put on my sister, the more I wanted the European vampires out of Highland Home and away from my family.

  “I can offer the pride the assistance of ten to fifteen vampires who would be willing to help patrol East Hampton and Highland Home in search of this man,” Mathias said. “I would trust these men to patrol without causing further problems. You may even wish to pair them with a member of the pride in order to combine the talents specific to each race.”

  Xavier nodded. “That sounds like a good plan. Get the vamps over here tomorrow and we’ll work on pairing them with some of the boys who are okay with working alongside them. For tonight, I want to keep Kerry here. I don’t think Lane has the balls to attack me or her at Gram’s place.”

  “I’ll send Gino and Jacques here to watch as well,” Mairin said. “I would trust them both with my own life. They’ll keep Kerry safe.”

  “Maire,” Xavier said. “I don’t know...”

  Mairin cut him off. “You do your thing. I’ll do mine. Between us, we’ll keep Kerry safe. That’s more important than some pissing contest between panthers and vampires, right?”

  “Yeah,” Xavier admitted. “Kerry first. Pissing contest later.”

  I laughed and regretted it a moment later. “No making the one with stitches laugh,” I gasped.