Nightshade

by Andrea Cremer

  “So you’re not angry with me?” I asked as he made me pirouette like a ballerina.

  “About what?” he asked. “You aren’t the bigoted one. Fey and Dax can go to hell as far as I’m concerned.”

  He didn’t see the kiss.

  Cool relief spilled through me, followed by a nip of guilt.

  Why don’t I want him to know? Hiding the truth isn’t fair.

  Nothing could change what lay ahead for Ren and me. Shay needed to understand that more than anyone. But looking at his smile, the warmth in his eyes, I couldn’t bring myself to say anything more about the kiss.

  “I think you’d better share this brilliant plan of yours with Nev,” I said. “I wouldn’t want him to think we’re mocking him.”

  “Nev’s got a great sense of humor,” Shay replied, dipping me again. “I think he’ll get it.”

  “If you’re sure.” I glanced at the stage. Shay seemed to be right. Though Nev looked a bit thrown, he was also grinning from ear to ear.

  “You know, if I kissed you at the end of this number, it would be a real showstopper,” Shay said, keeping me tipped upside down.

  I couldn’t stop my smile at his devilish grin. “If you kiss me now, Ren will kill you.”

  “All’s fair in love and war,” he said. “And at least I’d die happy.”

  “You’re terrible.” I dug my nails into his shoulder. “Pick me up again!”

  “I just don’t want to disappoint our audience,” he said.

  “They’ll have to live with disappointment, then.” I was getting woozy from all the blood rushing into my head. “I’ve been very clear about what will happen if you kiss me again. I think you’d miss your hand.”

  He lifted me upright only to dip me low again on the other side. “Do you solve all your problems with threats of violence?”

  “No.”

  “Liar.” My head was spinning when he set me on my feet, but my body felt light as air.

  I broke down into a fit of giggles as Shay began to polka. Neville shook his head, but he was laughing too. The music stopped; Nev said something to the rest of the band I couldn’t hear, but in the next moment they broke out a punk-rock cover of “Roll Out the Barrel.”

  Shay turned us in circles, faster and faster. “I told you it would work!”

  I collapsed against him, dizzy but ecstatic, resting my cheek on his shoulder. Then I caught sight of Ren. He stood just inside the door, eyes fixed on us. He was so still he could have been carved from stone.

  I pulled out of Shay’s arms. “I think the show’s over.”

  “Great,” he muttered, following my gaze. “Go talk to him.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said as I took unsteady steps away from him, still unbalanced from all the twirls and dips.

  “I know you have to.” His smile was flat. “I’ll go hang out with Mason and Ansel, see if anyone wants to know where I got my badass polka moves.”

  I started to turn toward Ren, but my stomach lurched violently. He crossed the dance floor, his scowl making my own temper flare. I hadn’t done anything wrong. I thought about the drive home, our new house, the union, suddenly wanting to do nothing that Ren had asked of me.

  “What was that all about?” Ren snarled.

  “We were just trying to break the tension.” I kept my own voice steady, waving toward our tables, where the pack sat laughing. “It was a joke. Behold our success.”

  “Could you have thought of a way to settle them that didn’t involve having Shay’s hands all over you?”

  “It wasn’t like that,” I snapped. I wish it had been like that.

  “Fine,” he said, taking my arm. “Try not to do that again. I don’t like to see another man touch you.”

  Another man? Ren had pointedly been referring to Shay as “that kid” since we’d first met him. Jealousy really was eating at the alpha.

  “Of course, Ren.” I shook him off. “But if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ve had enough of this for tonight.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I’m leaving,” I said. “I did what you asked. The pack is happy. Now I just want to get out of here.”

  “Don’t be like that.” Ren sighed, tucking a lock of hair behind my ear. It only made me feel like a child, and I swatted his hand away.

  “I wasn’t trying to come down on you.” He tried again. “You’re right, that kid bugs me. I don’t like feeling jealous. It’s not your fault.”

  He seemed sincere, but I was too angry to let it go. And there it was again, “that kid”—only now he was scolding me like a little girl too.

  “Thanks for being honest,” I said. “But I don’t want to stay. Please don’t make me.”

  I knew he could and I hated it.

  “Where are you going?” he asked.

  “I’m going to the woods. Where wolves belong at night.” I flashed a sharp-toothed smile at him. “Maybe I hear the moon calling.”

  “I’d like you to stay with me,” he said slowly. “But I’m not going to force you.”

  “Great.” I walked away before he could speak again.

  I slammed my way out of the bar, breaking a chair that I kicked a little too hard. Outside, cold night air bit my skin, taking long pulls of tension out of my limbs. Fey and Dax were still standing in the parking lot, heads close together, speaking in low tones.

  Dax looked surprised and annoyed. “Did Ren send you out to give us another round of scolding?” he asked, flexing his broad shoulders as he faced me.

  “I have nothing to say to either of you,” I snapped, walking past them and then breaking into a run. I shifted forms and plunged into the forest without looking back at the Burnout.

  TWENTY-TWO

  SHAY LEANED AGAINST HIS FORD RANGER. He waved briefly when I loped up and then reached into the bed of his truck, pulling out a pair of ice axes, which he tied onto his back.

  I shifted forms when I saw him trying to hide his smile. “What?”

  “I was just thinking about the last time I was here,” he said, tightening the laces on his hiking boots. “I woke up in my truck. I thought I’d fallen asleep before I’d even managed to get a hike in and that the whole thing was a dream.”

  I bent forward, stretching my back muscles. “Yeah, that was what I’d hoped would happen.”

  “You knocked me out and then dragged me back here. Didn’t you?”

  “I didn’t drag you,” I said. “I carried you.”

  He laughed, shaking his head. “Well, thanks for that. Ready?”

  Shay proved an adept climber, moving up the slope with steady grace as I bounded through the woods just ahead of him. Only once did we have to pause so he could strap crampons to his boots before we scaled a particularly icy face, which I launched myself up in two giant leaps. His pair of ice axes remained strapped across his back for the duration of our climb.

  I darted in front of him as we approached the cave. My head dropped low to the ground and I paced back and forth. I couldn’t stop the plaintive whine that spilled from my throat.

  Shay trudged up behind me. “It’s going to be okay, Calla.”

  I shifted into human form, stomping the snow restlessly while staring at the cavern, a dark opening in the mountainside that looked too much like a gigantic mouth ready to swallow us.

  “I’m not entirely convinced of that,” I said. “What if someone finds out we’ve been here?”

  “How would that happen?” Shay asked.

  “My scent, Shay,” I said. “Any Guardian who comes to the cave will know I’ve been inside.”

  “But you said none of you can go in the cave,” he said. “I thought it was forbidden.”

  “It is, but—”

  “Do you want to go back?”

  I looked at him and then at the cavern. As far as I knew, no Guardian had ever set a paw beyond its entrance. Why would that change now?

  “So are we doing this or not?” Shay asked.

  “We’re doing this,” I sa
id, pushing away my doubts.

  He shrugged off his pack and pulled out a headlamp. We moved slowly into the cave, the light from his lamp dimly illuminating the blackness. The tunnel seemed to lead straight back, but there was no indication that it ended.

  When the light from the entrance was little more than a glimmer behind us, I froze. A strange scent hit me. I shifted into wolf form, testing the air again. It was there, distinct but unfamiliar, like a mixture of rotting wood and gasoline. I lowered my head and crept forward. Shay took a tentative step alongside me, sweeping the headlamp along the cavern floor. We both saw the bones at the same time. My hackles rose as I hunched closer to the ground.

  Scattered across the cavern were the whitened remains of animals, mostly deer. I looked more closely at the piles of bones and shuddered. The immense skull of a bear grinned at me from one side of the tunnel.

  “Calla.” I heard Shay’s fearful murmur just behind me at the same time that the scrabbling noise reached my ears.

  My eyes darted around the space, but I couldn’t see anything moving in the blackness. The scratch of something hard on stone was getting closer. I whimpered and bristled. My eyes followed the light of Shay’s lamp as it moved back and forth along the tunnel floor.

  I’d just taken another step forward when Shay’s cry of alarm pierced the tunnel. “Calla! Above you, move!”

  I launched forward into the darkness, hearing something massive hit the floor of the tunnel behind me in the very space I’d stood just a moment before.

  “Oh my God.” I heard Shay’s choked exclamation and I whirled around, snarling.

  The brown recluse stared at me with three pairs of eyes that shone like pools of oil. Its long, thin legs were covered in silky, fine hairs and they quivered as the spider focused on its prey. I backed away, teeth bared, attempting to appear menacing despite my terror. The spider was enormous, almost the size of a horse.

  Its abdomen pulsed as it watched me. I stalked from side to side, wanting to hold its attention. The spider skittered forward with startling speed. I felt the brush of one of its eight legs against my back as I barely darted out of its way. I circled, knowing that the arachnid was just behind me. I could hear the scraping of its limbs along the stone surface of the cavern. Heart pounding, I racked my brain for an attack plan. Wolves had no natural instincts about killing mutant insects. This creature bore no resemblance to the opponents I’d faced in the past.

  I whirled to face the spider, having settled on an attempt to maim it until I found some way to strike a fatal blow. My abrupt about-face startled my attacker. Its first two legs reared up and I leapt, catching one of the limbs between my teeth and jerking hard. The spindly leg snapped in my jaws and I tore it away. When I hit the ground and faced it again, the six dark eyes glittered with agony. I stared at the immense beast, which twitched and quivered as it prepared to attack. Its silence was more terrifying than if it had been screaming at me.

  The spider reared again, launching itself at me. I jumped to the side, but not quickly enough. I thrashed against the cold stone floor as the recluse pinned me down with two of its legs. I wrenched my neck, trying to fight back, snapping at its limbs and shuddering when the spider’s head descended toward my shoulder. The sound of my desperate struggle became a whimper when I saw its fangs. My jaws locked around one of its legs at the same moment the spider’s bite pierced my side.

  A horrible thud was followed by a tearing sound and the squelch of gore. The spider bucked, releasing me, and I scrambled away. Pale, bluish liquid poured from large punctures Shay had made with his ice axes. With furious, determined strokes he brought the sharp spikes down on the spider’s unprotected back again and again. Maddened by pain, the recluse tried to turn on its attacker. I rushed forward and tore off another of its legs. The spider faltered. Its blue blood gushed along the cavern floor. The creature’s legs splayed and it collapsed. Shay ran to the front of its convulsing body, his jaw clenched as he brought the ice axes down between the spider’s center pair of eyes. The spider jerked one last time and then became still.

  Shay drew a long, shuddering gasp and backed away from the corpse. His fingers wrapped tightly around the ax handles, veins bulging along his arms. I sniffed the air again and listened, but the signals of imminent danger had dissipated. I shifted forms and turned toward Shay.

  His eyes widened as I abandoned my defensive stance. “Are you sure there isn’t another one?” he asked.

  “No, it was alone.” I rubbed my back where the spider’s fangs had punctured my skin. I could feel a trickle of blood, but Shay’s attack had disrupted the bite. It wasn’t deep, but it ached.

  “What is it?” He shuddered, gazing at the immense spider.

  “A brown recluse,” I murmured. “You can tell because it only has six eyes.”

  His eyebrows went up.

  I shrugged. “We just finished a unit on arachnids in AP Biology.”

  “Calla. That is not a spider,” he moaned. “Spiders do not get that big. What is that thing?”

  “It is a spider. But it’s been changed by the Keepers. They have the ability to do something like this. Alter the natural world. The recluse must be the last line of defense for Haldis should something get past the Guardians.” But which Keeper had created this beast I didn’t know—or when they might come to check on it.

  “Killing it might have been a mistake,” I said. “It’s another sign that we’ve been here.”

  “Are you insane? What did you want to do with it—grab that bear skull and try to teach it to play fetch?” Shay asked.

  “Good point,” I said. “But that doesn’t solve the problem.”

  He didn’t reply, staring at the lifeless arachnid, face ghost white.

  “Are you all right?” I took a step toward him.

  “I really, really hate spiders.” He glanced at his shoulders, as if expecting the offending creatures to be crawling there.

  A wry smile tugged at one corner of my mouth. “For someone who claims arachnophobia, you dispatched that thing quite nicely.”

  I glanced at the axes that hung from his hands; blood dripped from the sharp steel picks. “Where did you learn to do that? You moved like a warrior.”

  Shay’s pale face brightened a bit and he flipped the ice picks in the air, catching their handles easily when they dropped back down.

  A sudden throb took my breath away. I put my hand on my side, surprised to find blood still flowing steadily from the wound.

  “Let me guess,” I said, trying to ignore the pain. “You went through a phase where you wanted to be a ninja or something?”

  He shook his head, blushing. “Indiana Jones. I liked how he could use whatever was around when he got into trouble. You know, versatile.”

  “There’s an Indiana Jones comic?” I raised my eyebrows at him.

  “Yep.” He kicked the corpse of the spider.

  “Ah.” I fixed a teasing smile on him. “So you’re also handy with a bullwhip.”

  He gave a noncommittal shrug.

  I turned back toward the dark tunnel ahead of us. “Well, I guess that’s good to know for the future.”

  With wary steps we moved forward; I kept my eyes off the bones that lay scattered along the floor. My hand massaged the spider bite at my waist. The blood had finally stopped, but the ache at the puncture sharpened and seemed to be spreading. I stumbled on loose stones and Shay caught my arm.

  “You okay?”

  “Yeah. It’s nothing, just hard to see.” I rolled back my shoulders, trying to focus on our progression into the darkness. The air in the cave seemed colder; it wormed beneath my skin. Even with the aid of Shay’s headlamp I was finding it difficult to see, my vision blurring more with each step. The ground beneath my feet lurched and I stumbled again.

  “What’s going on, Calla?” Shay asked. “You’re not this clumsy. You’re not clumsy at all.”

  “I’m not sure.” The darkness swam and I dropped to my hands and knees.
/>   “Are you hurt?” Shay asked.

  My limbs trembled. I was getting colder by the moment. “Maybe. The spider bit me, but I didn’t think it was deep enough to matter.”

  “Where did it bite you?” He crouched next to me. “Show me.”

  I opened my jacket and started to lift up my shirt but then bit my lip, hesitating.

  He laughed. “I’m not trying to make a move, Cal. We need to see how bad it is.”

  I nodded, pulling up the shirt. The bite was level with my lower ribs on the right side of my body. I strained my neck, but I couldn’t get a good look over my shoulder.

  Shay gasped.

  “What’s wrong?” I twisted further and caught a glimpse of my flesh. Bile rose in my throat.

  “How can it do that?” His voice was tight.

  I shook my head. “Damn. That’s right . . . I forgot.”

  The trembling of my body had become shuddering jerks. “The recluse has a necrotic bite.”

  “Necrotic?” Shay breathed. “It kills your flesh?”

  “Looks like. I remember reading something about rapid tissue breakdown.” I closed my eyes against the wave of nausea that crashed through me.

  “Oh God, Cal. It’s spreading; I can see it happening,” he groaned. “It’s like it’s eating away at you.”

  I tried to smile but only managed a grimace. “Thanks for the update. I feel much better.”

  “Why aren’t you healing?” He sounded panicked. “I thought that’s what Guardian blood does.”

  “My own blood protects me . . . but not from everything,” I gasped. “Venom is tricky, and venom from an enchanted spider is something I’ve never had to deal with before. I might not be able to heal fast enough without help.”

  “What can help?”

  “Only another Guardian,” I said. “Pack blood.”

  “Can we call Bryn? Or Ansel?”