by Nancy Holder
And what would happen to her tonight.
Finally, at five minutes to midnight, a text came in: I am coming. Porch.
She grabbed her purse, crept downstairs, and tiptoed out onto the porch. Anxiously shifting her weight back and forth, she sucked in her breath when a black BMW crept up the drive.
The passenger window rolled down and a handsome younger man who resembled Dom Gaudin silently gestured for her to approach. The door opened. She got in and shut the door, sitting beside him. The Beemer drove away.
“I’m Luc Gaudin,” he said. He was all crazy red-blond curls, heavy eyebrows, and deep-set brown eyes. “I’m Dom’s younger brother.”
“The Fenners—”
“Are not a problem,” he said smoothly.
“Where are we going?”
“There’s a warming hut,” he said. “Ma’amselle Fenner took shelter there.”
“Is it far?”
“Far enough. Are you hungry? Thirsty?” He peered at her. “Nervous?”
“I’m freaking,” she said honestly.
“You didn’t pack any of your belongings,” he observed.
She gaped at him. It hadn’t even dawned on her. Somehow it hadn’t occurred to her that they would leave immediately. But why would they stick around?
She fell silent. He looked at her kindly and said, “Cordelia told us what happened to you. That someone attacked you.”
Maybe one of the Gaudins had done it, to make Mr. Fenner look bad. Maybe Luc himself. But no, he had brown eyes. The werewolf that had bitten her had blue eyes, and werewolves didn’t change eye color when they transformed.
“Yeah, I’m supposed to be all joyous about it,” she said. “No offense, but I’m not.”
He cocked his head. “A great shock, non?”
“That’s putting it mildly.” She blew air out of her cheeks. “Is she okay? I mean, was she hurt, or—”
“I don’t know,” he said. “You must understand. For us Gaudins, being banished from the pack is a fate worse than death. I would rather have my heart torn out than suffer what she has suffered.”
She nodded, but she couldn’t imagine wanting to be a member of the Fenner pack. From what little she had seen of the Gaudins, the Fenners were kind of like the loser werewolves.
“Do you know if there’s a cure for being a werewolf?” she asked him hopefully.
He cocked his head. “Ah, I am sorry. We don’t have one. But we’ve never looked.”
She leaned her head on the back of the seat. “Why are you helping us?” she asked and then regretted it. “I mean, there’ve been hints that there’s not exactly — that maybe there’s bad blood—”
He sighed heavily. “When first our two packs settled in this country there was already a rivalry. We wanted to protect our borders, our hunting grounds. It is no different than our wild brothers or even the lion packs of Africa. And to complicate things we are human as well. We have nothing in common with one another but the fact that we change. Our culture, our heritage, our way of life are different. Over the years a thousand slights or discourtesies created more and more friction. For our part, we avoided them at all costs.”
“What happened?” Katelyn asked, sensing that there was more to the story.
“More people settled on both our territories, clearing the forests, decreasing our lands and the animals we take sustenance from. The packs have grown larger but the resources smaller. And then, about eighty or ninety years ago, before you and I were even born, some terrible things happened around here.”
Katelyn sat up straighter, sensing the importance of what was coming next.
Luc cleared his throat. “Even worse, forty years ago, it happened again: there was a string of murders among the people here. Savage. Brutal. The Fenners accused us, but we knew none of us could be responsible. Then, when we were having a pack meeting and all members were present, three more murders were committed, but this time they were on our lands. The Fenners had a rogue werewolf and it was killing, threatening the safety of all.”
She felt cold all over, as if someone had just walked over her grave. The Fenners had lied to her. Even Justin.
Unless he’s been lied to, too.
“Who was it?” she asked.
“Which Fenner? We don’t know.”
“Well, what made it stop?”
“That was the strangest part. It just did. A short while later we were informed that Lee Fenner was the new alpha and we hoped that the pack had sorted it out, and that he could keep his people in check in the future. But the intrusions onto our land had only just begun,” Luc said, his voice hardening. “They began to poison our streams with silver. As I’m sure you know, a werewolf may touch silver, though it is painful, but it must not pierce the skin and enter the bloodstream or one becomes incredibly sick and will probably die. We learned the hard way that drinking the silver would also kill us. I will never forget the day that I watched my sister die, screaming, as silver in our water burned her from the inside.”
Katelyn shuddered. “That’s awful,” she whispered.
Luc nodded. “My brother, he wishes for peace, not war. He once thought that a union between him and Cordelia could end the suffering. But now those dreams are gone.”
Which meant there was nothing else standing in the way of war, Katelyn realized. Dejected, afraid, she crossed her arms and looked out the window.
“You still haven’t answered my question. Why are you helping us?” she asked.
Luc flashed her a smile. “Why does any man do anything?”
“I don’t know.”
“Love, cher. Dom is in love with Cordelia and he would not see her come to harm.”
After countless twists and turns, the car pulled to a stop, and Luc smiled at her.
“We’re here.”
Katelyn undid her seat belt and jumped out, racing toward a narrow A-frame building sided with shingles. Smoke was pouring out of a chimney. There were no windows.
The door of the hut flew open and Cordelia stood framed in the doorway. Katelyn ran over and began to throw her arms around her, then stopped. Cordelia’s face was puffy with crying, and she looked as if she hadn’t eaten or slept in days.
“Hey,” Katelyn said awkwardly, then raised her head as Dom came up behind Cordelia and put a hand on her shoulder.
“Ma’amselle Katelyn McBride,” Dom said. “A pleasure to meet you in the flesh.”
“Thank you for finding her,” Katelyn replied.
“She found us.” He gave her shoulder another squeeze. “I’ll leave you two to talk.”
Cordelia stepped out of the hut so he could get around her. She gave her head a little bob and he inclined his head rather imperiously. He looked at Katelyn.
“You need to lower your head to me,” he said.
“Oh.” She tucked in her chin and mentally rolled her eyes. God, if Kimi or any of her old friends could see her now . . . But in her encounters with other packmates, she’d seen lower-ranked were-boys go all Geisha like this, too. Turned out you had to behave a certain way according to your rank, not your gender—aside from a certain amount of human-woman tending of the male ego that seemed more common in Wolf Springs.
He chuckled and walked to the car. “Luc and I will go for a drive.”
Cordelia turned around and led the way into the hut. A fire was roaring inside a metal fireplace, and as soon as they were both inside, Cordelia threw her arms around Katelyn and began to cry. Katelyn did, too, feeling such tremendous relief that she had to sit down on the sleeping bag stretched out on the floor before she fell down.
Cordelia moved two grocery bags out of the way and plopped down next to Katelyn, burying her face in her hands.
“Oh, Kat,” she said brokenly. “I want to go home!”
“Why?” Katelyn blurted, then caught herself and put her arms around Cordelia again, and her friend leaned her head on Katelyn’s shoulder. “I mean, oh my God, Cordelia, look at your family. Your father’s . . .” Sh
e trailed off, realizing that Cordelia already knew how bizarre her family was.
“You don’t know what it’s like to be born a Fenner,” Cordelia said. “We have the blood of the Fenris Wolf running through our veins. In the werewolf world, we’re revered. We’re like gods.”
Katelyn thought about Regan and Arial, overdressed and over made-up, slinking around like they were practicing for some Southern Gothic play. The delight they’d taken in ordering Cordelia to run away as fast as she could before they caught her. Justin said werewolves were aggressive, but the Fenners were flat out extreme. That didn’t sound very godlike to her.
“What’s it like in Dom’s pack?” Katelyn asked. “You’ll be with him, and he’s the alpha, right?”
“Kat, Kat,” Cordelia hitched. Then she lifted her head. “I’m nearly eighteen years old, the daughter of the alpha. If I join another pack, I’ll be a traitor. How would you treat an outsider who had been branded a traitor?”
The question was absurd. Katelyn didn’t live in a world where thoughts like that occurred.
“I thought you called Dom,” she said, a bit at a loss.
Cordelia wiped her face with both hands. “I did. I didn’t know what else to do. But he wants me to declare my loyalty as soon as we get to Louisiana. In front of everyone. I — I need time.” She dropped her hands to her lap and stared pleadingly at Katelyn. “I need my daddy to forgive me and take me back.”
Katelyn played with the slick fabric of the sleeping bag, unaccountably disappointed. She didn’t see leaving with Dom and Cordelia as a clearer path to her own happy ending. Cordelia might be the daughter of an alpha, but Katelyn was just a mistake.
Except . . . I’m immune to silver, she remembered.
“Maybe Daddy just needs time,” Cordelia said, reaching into one of the grocery bags. She pulled out a packet of tissues and blew her nose. “If I can just go with Dom without declaring myself, and then Daddy asks me to come home . . .” She stared at Katelyn with huge, pleading eyes. “You’ll come with me, right?”
Here it was, the time for her decision. Katelyn looked at her friend, and her mind raced.
And then it came to her.
“Cordelia, your father wanted you to find the silver mine,” she began.
Cordelia nodded. “Kat, I — I hid some stuff from you. That book Mr. Henderson wanted? I had it. And my daddy had Mr. Henderson over for dinner and asked him to help him find the Madre Vena. I didn’t tell you that, either.”
Katelyn thought of the business card she had found. Maybe Mr. Henderson is not around because he’s busy looking for the mine.
No, she didn’t buy it.
“Mr. Henderson is missing,” Katelyn said carefully. “Could something have happened to him?”
“Missing?” she asked, growing pale. “What do you mean?”
“He stopped coming to school. They don’t know where he is.” Katelyn would never tell her what people were saying about Cordelia and him.
Cordelia covered her mouth with both hands. Her eyes grew enormous and she went from pale to chalk white. “The Hellhound,” she whispered. “It guards the mine. What if it got him?”
The door to the hut opened and Dom Gaudin stood in the doorway. Cordelia visibly jerked, and she grabbed Katelyn’s hand. She looked even more terrified.
“Ladies?” Dom Gaudin said. “We can’t risk staying here much longer. Is Ma’amselle McBride coming with us?”
“Don’t leave me,” Cordelia said under her breath. “I need you, Kat. I risked my life for you.”
She did. Katelyn owed her.
Dom turned his head and spoke in French to someone who was still outside.
Her stomach in a knot, Katelyn took a breath and whispered in a rush before she lost her nerve, “What if I looked for the mine? And if I find it, you can tell your father that you found it.”
“Oh,” Cordelia murmured. “Oh, would you do that?” She looked over Katelyn’s shoulder at Dom. “Maybe I should stay. Help you. But the Hellhound . . .”
“The time’s come,” Dom said, coming into the hut. “We don’t want to linger on Fenner territory. It’s time to go. With, or without you, Miss Kat?”
“Without,” Katelyn said. “I have to stay and try to get the others to see reason, to get Lee to forgive Cordelia. Then . . .” she thought of what Luc had told her in the car. “Maybe then there can be peace.”
Dom sighed heavily. “Peace is a dream I once cherished. I would urge you to abandon it, but I can see that you have not lost hope. It is not an easy thing to leave all that you know behind. I must warn you, though, we cannot risk coming back for you.”
“I understand,” Katelyn said, even as she could hear Cordelia crying.
From a distance she heard a sort of whistling sound. Dom spun around with what Katelyn recognized as a French curse falling from his lips. “We will be found. Hurry.”
He grabbed Cordelia around the waist and ran with her, propelling her toward the idling BMW. Katelyn ran behind, but before she could climb in, Dom held up his hand.
“I’m sorry — we must go and we cannot go the way you were brought. If you are caught with us you are dead. Your home is that way,” he said, pointing through the forest. “Go quickly before they find you here.”
Then Dom turned from Katelyn and jumped into the car as well. The wheels kicked up dirt and pine needles, then disappeared down the road.
7
Katelyn had never been a fan of conspiracy theories, but as she watched the car disappear, she began to believe. The Gaudins had told her the Fenners were nowhere near, but had they simply lured her to the hut, then dumped her there? Alone?
She realized she had no way home. All she had was her cell phone. She stared down at it, wondering if she dare call Trick or Justin. Now that she knew where Cordelia was going, she wasn’t sure if there was anything to be gained by bringing Justin into the picture. Handsome and charming when he wanted to be, not entirely to be trusted. She was certain he would be able to tell that Cordelia had been in the warming hut — and that the Gaudins had been, too.
But if she called Trick for a ride, she’d have to explain what she’d been doing out there alone. Maybe he’d come anyway, if she could even manage to describe where she was. She tried her GPS function, but it wasn’t working. Maybe the warming hut was a known landmark.
It was a bad idea to go into the woods by herself. If this were a horror movie, she’d tell that moronic girl on the screen that she deserved to die a hideous death because she was too stupid to live. But Gaudin had said the members of her pack were coming — and they would kill her.
Swallowing her pride and her anxiety, she texted Trick, but it didn’t send. She winced and tried calling him. Another fail. So, no calling for help.
That left the “dying in the woods” option.
Her heartbeat picked up as she stared out at the vast expanse of trees, and jerked. There were some blotches on the trees and they were glowing a bright red. And she could see streaks of shimmering crimson in the dirt where the car had been.
She trotted to the closest tree and peered tentatively at the glimmering blob. It was a handprint. Maybe one of the Gaudins had touched it while making sure there were no Fenners around? The streaks of red on the ground were like neon tire tracks. Correction: they were tire tracks.
She didn’t know how she was seeing them. Maybe they were heat generated. If that were the case, they would disappear as they cooled. Now was the time to strike out, instead of waiting until morning.
But Dom had said they weren’t going back the way they had brought her. Which meant at some point they would split from the trail they were on. And if she was very lucky there would be a fainter set of tracks showing the other path. Decided, she headed out.
The tire tracks were still glowing. In fact, the forest itself was glowing — branches, leaves, even pebbles and earth — shimmering, shining. It was like a fairyland. Entranced, Katelyn had trouble concentrating on the path of the tire tr
ead as she took in the luminous night. Was this how werewolves saw the world? It was so beautiful it made her gasp.
Go, she told herself, and although she had planned to carefully walk the route, she broke into a run. She could almost see her entire body shining as she raced beside the orangish streaks on the ground. Instead of being afraid, she was exhilarated, and she ran even faster. She didn’t know how she kept from tangling her feet together but she kept going. Her arms flew out to the sides and brushed silvery leaves as she flew past. Faster, and faster. She laughed and the sound echoed in her head.
Supernatural, she thought. I’m supernatural.
And it felt good. Wonderful. She had never felt so strong. Before she realized what she was doing, she vaulted over a tree trunk, did a flip, and stuck her landing. Then she started running again.
And finally there were two sets of tire tracks and she veered off to follow the fainter ones. She could barely see those but she ran as fast as she could through the dark twists and turns. And finally the glittering streaks were gone.
But as she slowed to a halt another sense took over. She could smell the faintest scent of wood smoke: it had to be a cabin, hopefully her grandfather’s. She ran toward it, and just as she began to tire, she caught sight of the cabin itself. Somehow she had gotten around behind it and she was approaching from the back.
Am I busted? she thought, and cautiously approached, spinning various stories about why she had been out in the woods after midnight. Going for a walk?
When two girls had been murdered, and a teacher was missing?
She walked up onto the back porch and tried the kitchen door. Locked, but she had a key — her grandfather had made a duplicate for her because he had rarely locked his doors until she’d arrived. She kicked off her muddy boots and almost fell through the doorway. Grabbing a glass, she went to the kitchen sink. The curtains were open and she stared out into the back yard. If there were no Fenners on duty tonight, then why not? How had the Gaudins made sure she wouldn’t be seen when she got into the BMW?