Everyone agreed, then started searching the houses with the giant wolves padding next to us.
Dread filled my chest as we started walking through the avenues of the small town and looking around the unburnt buildings. I was about to move on when a small barely-there whine caught my ear. I stopped and looked around. There really was nowhere to hide here. No trees, no brush. Nothing. But on the front of every house there was a porch; some were small, some were large. But only one of them had a hole between the porch edge and the dirt.
Slowly, I walked over and got down on my hands and knees. With my luck, it’ll probably be a rat. I peeked through the hole. A small form was huddled at the back of the hole under the porch. The light sneaking through the slats showed how small it was. Its eyes glowed in the dim light. It whimpered and tried to get further back.
“It’s okay.” I kept my voice soft. Hallis told me to say ‘tell me, star, have you seen the white wolf?'”
The pup stopped whimpering. It slowly came forward a little then stopped. I got the message.
“I’m going to go look for the others, head back to the square when you’re ready.” I pushed myself to my feet and left the pup under the porch. The kid felt safe there. I wasn’t about to yank the poor kid out of there.
One of the wolves stuck their muzzle into the hole then backed up. The little pup peeked out. When it saw the wolf, it whimpered and whined as it scrambled out of the hole and under the wolf’s legs. The adult wolf sat and licked the pup’s head and ears. We figured the adult had this and started moving again.
We kept searching, eventually making our way past the village where they finally had the fire out.
Everyone walked in silence for a few minutes before I said what had been on my mind since I started my search. “What if the council took the kids?”
“Let’s hope that’s not the case,” Miles said.
I nodded. We started walking faster. No one spoke as we spent the next hour looking, calling for the kids to head to the square. That dread grew and grew the longer we went without a response or a sign of them. That’s when we heard a long howl. We didn’t say a word, we just ran toward it.
We broke into a clearing. Two large wolves that were clearly werewolves, but not quite as big as the werewolves back at the town, stood outside the mouth of a cave. Teenagers?
They got to their feet and growled, showing their fangs. When I took a step into the clearing, Zeke came with me.
My heart slammed as I held my hands out to my sides, showing them we weren’t armed. “Tell me, star, have you seen the white wolf?” I announced. They stopped showing their teeth. Their postures relaxed as they stopped growling.
A young girl, around the age of nine, came to the mouth of the cave and eyed us. Her black hair was in two braids down to her shoulders. Her hazelnut eyes were wide. “What did you say?”
“Tell me, star, have you seen the white wolf?” Isaac repeated from the tree line.
“That’s the code our pack uses. It’s from the Grey Fairy book.” The girl relaxed a little. “Who are you?”
“I’m Asher, this is Miles, Isaac, and Zeke.” I gestured to each of us. “We’re with the reinforcements. Look, you don’t have to go with us. You can go by yourselves if you don’t trust us.”
She shook her head, her eyes going to the wolf beside Zeke. “Aunt Lara?”
The wolf hurried forward, licking the girl’s face.
She wrapped her arms around the wolf and hugged her tight. The other wolf rubbed against her sides, over and over.
We stayed put until she seemed to make up her mind. “We can’t go on our own, there’s too many in wolf form. We can’t keep track of everyone in the woods, we barely got everyone here.”
“Then let’s get everyone buddied up and we’ll get back to the pack,” I suggested.
She nodded and called over her shoulder. “Come on, guys, time to head home.” She moved out of the mouth of the cave.
Kids in varying states of dirty and scared poured out of the slight opening in the rock. Sprinkled among them were wolves. Brown, black, gray, white. They were different ages and sizes but all of them had an intelligence in their eyes that I couldn’t deny. Almost every kid was carrying a wolf pup in their arms. And there were still some trailing behind on their own paws. I did a quick count. Twenty-five kids in all. Shit.
A small black wolf pup came toward Zeke, whimpering as it dropped to the dirt. Zeke knelt down and reached his fingers out to it slowly. It sniffed his fingers, then watched Zeke for several heartbeats. Eventually, the pup lifted himself again and staggered the last few steps to Zeke’s hand before it collapsed again.
“It’s okay, sleep. We’re taking you home.” He lifted the animal with one hand and brought him to his chest. I looked around. Most of the guys were holding pups now too, except Zeke. Another had come up to him, so now he had two.
By the time we finished checking the kids for injuries, a little boy came out of the cave. “Amber! Casey doesn’t want to come out.”
Since I was the only one of us without a pup, I started toward the cave. “Let’s see if we can coax her out.”
“Be careful.” Zeke warned me as the pups in his arms snuggled against his neck.
I waved that I heard him.
The cavern was large and dim. Several holes had been punched through the rock, they acted like skylights making it so I could see. I followed the little boy into the back. The wolf pup was small, white and covered in dirt. She didn’t even lift her head as we came closer. She only whimpered and whined in fear. I knelt down in the dirt, the same way Zeke had, and held out my hand.
The poor thing eyed me then sniffed my fingers and palm. I waited patiently as she made up her mind. She dropped her head onto my fingers as if that was all she had.
Being careful, I picked her up and held her little shaking body against my chest. She immediately started gnawing lightly on my finger and stopped shaking. When I took my finger away she began to shake again. So, I let her have the finger as we headed back outside.
“I think she was just too tired to move,” I said as I joined the others.
“That’s Casey, she’s not even two,” Amber explained. “She was so scared she had her first shift.”
“Is that normal?” Zeke asked.
She shrugged. “We’re not supposed to shift until we hit puberty but if we get scared enough, our wolf takes over and protects us.”
That was good to know. I turned to the group of kids. “Okay, five kids to each of us.” I turned to the larger wolves. “Can you guys run alongside the group and make sure we don’t lose anyone.”
One of the larger wolves gave a small half bark.
“That means yes,” Amber translated.
“Alright, let's go.”
We started to walk back, I never realized how heavy a twelve-pound wolf pup could be after that long. I eyed Zeke and his now three pups, one on each arm, and one draped over the back of his neck. Animals loved Zeke, even when we were kids they loved him.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Isaac asked, watching the pup slobbering over my fingers.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “But it keeps her calm.” And that was enough for me.
Our trip back was a lot shorter, forty-five minutes later we walked out of the tree line and back into the square. The fires were out and the bodies were gone. I didn’t want to know where.
A howl went up. The pups in our arms and in the kids’ arms returned it.
Everyone ran for the group of kids. The guys and I got out of the way. We watched as everyone checked the kids again, including the pups. A large black wolf came to Isaac, his head almost level with his chest. Its eyes were yellow as it began to sniff the pup in his arms. The little guy finally woke up and whined. He almost jumped out of Isaac’s arms. He stopped him and set him down on the dirt. They sniffed each other, the adult examining the pup over and over. The pup rubbed against its parent’s legs and waited. The large wolf turned
back to Isaac and licked his cheek before they trotted off.
He wiped his face, trying to be subtle about it.
“Casey?” A woman called.
“Over here!” I answered as I walked through the crowd to meet the woman covered in soot. I handed her the exhausted pup.
“Thank you so much!” The mom said with tears running down her face. She began to examine the pup. “Oh, sweetie, you shifted!” She held her to her chest before heading back to the crowd.
Louis found us. “Good job finding the kids. The smoke made it impossible for us to sniff them out.”
“No problem.” I looked over the crowd. “Where are they all going?”
Louis grinned.
Chapter 17
July 17th, Tuesday Afternoon
After waking up next to a still sleeping Ethan, I walked back downstairs to find chaos. Humans, wolves, and even a freaking bear were mulling around in the common room. I found the guys in the living area surrounded by kids and wolf puppies. Miles was playing Magic the Gathering with a couple of preteen boys. Asher had a line of little girls waiting to get their hair braided by him. Zeke’s lap was covered in wolf pups. He cursed and complained but he was still scratching ears. And Isaac… Isaac was surrounded by kids and trying the patience of Hallis and Samuel.
“So, do werewolves have to shift when there’s a full moon?” Isaac smirked.
Hallis sighed. “Only the first time, it’s not voluntary. After that, we do because it’s tradition.”
I smiled to myself.
“Okay, vampires and garlic. Any connection?” Isaac asked.
The kids giggled around him.
“No, garlic is simply very pungent to our increased sense of smell,” Samuel explained in a patient voice.
“Do you ever get the urge to chase cars?” Isaac asked in a serious voice.
I smiled to myself as the guys chuckled.
“No,” Hallis growled. Isaac was pushing it, and he knew it.
“What about fleas? Are fleas an issue?” Isaac pushed it even more.
The kids burst out laughing. Louis’s own chuckle came from a couch where he was seated with his kids.
“What about a stake to the heart?” Isaac asked with a grin.
“What wouldn’t that kill?” Samuel countered sending the kids into a fit of giggles.
I leaned against a pillar and chuckled quietly.
Asher glanced at me before going back to the little girl’s hair. Samuel turned and met my gaze. Something in his eyes gave me the distinct feeling that he was deciding on how to bite me. He got to his feet and crossed the room to me. I looked up at him as he stopped across from me.
“Are you ready to settle our debt?” Samuel asked in a low voice.
Movement on my periphery had me glancing at the room. Asher was watching us, frowning. I turned back to Samuel. “Alright.”
He gestured toward the dark conference room. “After you.”
I snorted. “I’ve seen this horror movie, I’m not going in there alone with you.”
A glint in his dark eyes told me that he wanted to laugh, but his face was politely blank. Asher got to his feet, the others followed, including Louis.
I waited until the guys and Louis started toward the conference room. I didn’t budge until Samuel’s lips twitched and he went ahead of me.
As soon as we walked in Samuel moved to the other end of the room while the others spread out on the side closest to the door.
Zeke met me at the door and whispered, “You sure you want to do this?”
I looked up and met his eyes. “A deal’s a deal.”
His face was hard when he nodded.
Samuel crooked his finger at me. I resisted the urge to flip him off as I walked down the length of the table.
I leaned against the table with my back to the guys. “Why do you want to drink my blood anyway?”
He watched me with an unblinking stare, as if judging what to tell me. “There’s a legend that says if a vampire feeds from a Necromancer of power, then they’ll control you. I want to test the theory.”
“Then you could have used Louis’s blood,” I pointed out. “You wanted mine, why?”
His eyes filled with approval for a fraction of a heartbeat. “Louis is a strong Necromancer already. I don’t want him to get control over me in case the legend is true. You are still young, still learning. The danger is less.”
At least that made sense. “Okay.”
He smiled, it sent icy shivers down my spine. “Now, feeding-”
“You’ll feed from the wrist,” I stated.
Samuel raised an eyebrow and looked down the table at Louis. “You really did school her well.”
“No games, Samuel,” Louis warned. “No power use. Just physiology.”
Samuel bowed from the neck. “Agreed.” He turned to me and stepped closer. An odd scent reached my nose. It was sweet, cloying and dry… like dried rose petals only not as potent. It made my stomach churn.
“Now, before we get started, there are a few things we need to be clear on. The physiology of a vampire is quite interesting,” Samuel explained. “Our skin and our saliva have dopamine inducing properties. Our blood also heals living tissue without scaring.”
I looked up and met his eyes.
“What this means is a touch, a lick along the skin will send the dopamine production in your body into overdrive. In a sense, it feels like hours of foreplay in a heartbeat.”
The guys shifted at the other end of the table.
Samuel ignored them. “The main side effect of feeding a vampire is usually a climax from the one being bitten. Do you understand?”
“Oh, fuck this,” Zeke snapped.
“Seconded,” Asher chimed in.
“Fuck voting!” Isaac snapped.
“She’s already agreed,” Miles stated, his voice glacial cold, silencing the others.
Samuel kept his eyes on mine. “Now, I have no intention of even doing a light feed off of you, so this shouldn’t be the case. However, this is the first time I’m feeding off you so it could be difficult to gauge. Do you understand?”
“Yeah.” I swallowed hard, my pulse thumping in my throat.
Samuel held my gaze as he stepped even closer and whispered so quietly I could barely hear. “Now, since you haven’t gone through the usual screening process that we put potential donors through, I need to ask if you have ever been sexually assaulted? Attacked? Molested? Anything that can trigger past trauma?”
I stayed perfectly still as my heartbeat raced in my throat. The walk through the snow back to the cabin… I didn’t want to answer but judging by the narrowing of Samuel’s eyes, I didn’t have to.
“This isn’t going to work.” He stepped back.
“Why not?” I eyed him.
“Because I don’t torture people,” he whispered. “You’re going to have to owe me.” He began walking down the table.
My stomach knotted. I didn’t want to owe a vampire. There were just too many things that could go wrong with that. I turned, grabbed a glass from the tray and slammed it down on the table.
Everyone but Samuel turned to look at me.
I pulled my pocket knife from my back pocket and opened it. I didn’t hesitate as I sliced the skin across my palm. Samuel turned when the first drop of blood dropped into the glass. I took deep breaths through the burning pain that radiated from my palm. Why the hell did I use my palm? There were thousands of nerve endings there!
“Damn it, Lexie,” Zeke snapped as he made his way toward me.
“Well, you certainly are resourceful,” Samuel said as he walked back around the table. “That’s more than enough, chère.”
Zeke pulled his handkerchief out of his back pocket and pressed it to my bloody hand. He muttered under his breath about killing me later. I ignored it.
Samuel stepped closer, and pressed the tip of his index finger to his sharp canine. “Here, this will heal it within thirty seconds.”
“With
what side effects?” Miles demanded.
“None,” Samuel stated.
“No diseases? Bloodborne pathogens?” Miles pushed.
“We don’t have diseases,” Samuel replied. “And our species is extraordinarily healthy.”
Reluctantly, Zeke pulled back the bloody handkerchief. Samuel ran his bleeding finger over the cut in my palm. Warmth ran over my hand and up my wrist but that was it as we watched the skin knit and heal almost instantly. Zeke immediately wiped the blood off my palm. I was watching Samuel as he drank out of the bloody glass.
He eyed the glass as he swallowed. He set it down then turned to me. “Order me to do something.”
“Cluck like a chicken.” I gave it a shot. Isaac snorted.
Samuel’s eyes unfocused, his fingers slightly tightened on the edge of the table. “Interesting.” His eyes focused on me again. “But is it you or is it that you’re a Necromancer?”
“How the hell should I know?” I muttered.
“It’s fascinating that I even considered your order.” He ran his gaze over me and grinned. “It’ll be interesting to see what you grow into.”
“You won’t be around her long enough,” Zeke bit out.
Samuel chuckled and headed for the door. He sent me one last assessing look before leaving. That look had me tightening my grip on Zeke’s hand.
“Lexie?” Zeke asked, his voice low.
I dropped my hand from his and finished cleaning up with his handkerchief.
“Maybe it’s time that we talk about the Veil,” Louis sighed, breaking the tension.
I nodded. Everyone sat down. I explained everything; how I created the link to the Veil, how I crossed the dead. When I explained how close I came to dying, Miles began tapping on the table. I told him everything I knew about what happened.
I kept talking and finished explaining everything to Louis. Though his gaze frequently strayed to each of the guys.
“And I have no clue why they’re doing this,” I admitted at the end.
Louis’s attention came back to me. “Yes, you do.”
“No, I really don’t.” I looked out the window and watched as the last rays of the sun disappeared.
Secrets From the Grave (The Veil Diaries Book 6) Page 26