by S. Hultgreen
“I am definitely not vegetarian.” he smirked and took a sip of his bourbon. “What makes you think I won’t kill you? If I get rid of you, the spell is gone. I can handle the Guardians on my own; I have been for centuries.”
“I thought of that, but I know you better than you realize. That’s not your style. If it were, we’d have killed you long ago.” She smiled at him like the cat that ate the canary. “You’re far too noble for that, Fenris.”
He cocked his head, considering her carefully. Silence hung in the air mingling with the tension that she was sure was created solely by her. He seemed calm and collected.
“So what is it you want me to do? Protect you? Kill them?”
Gracen shrugged. “Yeah, that’d be good. Other than that it’s really up to you.”
Fenris laughed, “Of course.”
“I should tell you... they followed me to Miami. I saw them on the way here tonight.”
“It doesn’t seem I have much of a choice then.”
“That’s kind of what I was hoping you would say.”
He nodded and set his empty tumbler on the glass coffee table. “Let’s go.” he said taking her full glass from her and downing it before setting it down next to his.
Chapter Four
She followed him down the corridor the Beta had led her down earlier, and through the locked door back into the public area.
The booming music erupted into the corridor as soon as the door swung open. It took Gracen a moment to adjust to the volume as she scrambled to keep up with Fenris; her four inch heels slowing her down.
As they approached the travertine stairs, her sight was pulled ahead of her host to the two men mid-way between floors. “That’s them.” she said in a normal tone hoping the Conriocht hearing was as good as she had been told.
Fenris stopped and extended his arm to pull Gracen behind him. The two men making their way to the second floor were dressed to blend with the rest of the crowd; the only difference giving away their intent were their angry, determined faces and the hunting knife that was partially concealed under the taller man’s arm.
“Back to the door.” Fenris said calmly, assuring she was well on her way before taking his eyes off of the Guardians and turning to follow.
Gracen pushed on the door hoping somehow it had remained unlatched and she could make a quick getaway. No such luck.
“Move.” she heard from behind her. She scampered out of Fenris’s way as he effortlessly slammed open the latched door, shattering the lock; the pieces clinked to the floor as he grabbed her arm and pushed her through ahead of him.
Half way down the hall the doors behind them slammed open again as the two human men barged in, now at a full run, having cleared the sights of any innocent onlookers.
Gracen looked at Fenris with desperation. His eyes flashed amber as the wolf features began to appear. She could see the unmistakable outline of his canines as they began to protrude from his gum line. The lines of his face sharpened slightly, hinting at the monster inside.
Once again he grabbed her by the upper arm, the claws that were once his fingernails cut into her skin as he pushed her through the closest door. She stumbled in and fell to the polished concrete floor of his office, her foot catching the door before it shut.
Gracen pulled herself back around to the door, propping it open just enough to see down the hall.
The first man charged at Fenris with his hunting knife clenched in his hand. He swished back and forth, goading Fenris, who stood fast and unwavering.
The broken door behind the Guardians slammed against the walls for a third time as Fenris’s Beta crashed through. Faster than the human eye could comprehend, the Beta was at the side of the second Guardian, snapping his neck and letting his body fall limp to the floor.
Fueled by fear or adrenaline or sheer stupidity, the knife wielding man lunged at Fenris. The Alpha parried, knocking the knife out of his hand, right fist coming to rest on the man’s temple, shattering the side of his skull and sending him plummeting to the floor next to his accomplice.
“What the hell did I miss?” asked the Beta, his accent thickening with all of the excitement. “Shit’s getting trashed, you’ve gone all wolfy, the witch is...Well, I don’t know what the witch is doing.” He pointed at Gracen still sitting on the floor peeking out from office. “But I didn’t get the invitation.”
“Sorry. You know if I had had the time...I wouldn’t think about not inviting Paddy to a brawl.”
“Ahh, wasn’t much of one anyway.” Paddy said turning one of the Guardians over with his foot.
“They’re after her.” Fenris gestured to Gracen, who had just picked herself up off of the floor. “Guardians.”
“They’re hunting witches now too?”
“Just me, I’m special that way. All the men want me.” Gracen grinned nervously as she pulled down at the bottom of her tiny black dress.
“Want you dead?” he asked.
“Long story.” interrupted Fenris. “Take care if these two, I’m taking her home with me.”
“I’m missing all the fun again.” Paddy replied winking at her with a mischievous expression.
She couldn’t help the little smile that had formed on the edge of her lips. Ordinarily she would have given a guy hell for a comment like that, but there was something charming about Paddy; she couldn’t be mad.
Chapter Five
“So is that the worst of it then?” Fenris asked as they loaded into his Cadillac Escalade. “Because I am pretty sure you could have handled them on your own, if you are what you say you are.”
“I wish I could say that was it.” she responded trying to keep her temper in check. If I am what I say I am? What the hell does that mean!
“They send a couple, then a couple more, they just keep coming, it’s gotten to be more than I can handle on my own.
I’ve never actually killed any of them before though.”
“You still haven’t.” Fenris replied with a contemptuous growl.
Gracen rolled her eyes. “Right, anyway, I was hoping if they knew you were involved and I had help, they would back off.”
“Guardians hunt and they kill, they aren’t going to back off just because you got me involved. Their ultimate goal is to kill me, and you have brought them right to my door.”
“Okay, maybe I didn’t think this through all the way.”
Fenris exhaled sharply. “No, you did the right thing. If anyone is going to protect you, I would rather it be me. I prefer to keep my fate out of other people’s hands.” he glanced at her quickly then back at the road ahead of them.
They pulled down driveway lined with palm trees and into the parking garage of a glittering, sky scraping condo building.
“Not giving me much room to get out.” she noted as Fenris squeezed the giant SUV a little too close to the right side of the garage bay and switched off the ignition.
“We are doing this my way.” he said to Gracen glancing in his rearview mirror. “Do you understand? You do what I tell you.”
Gracen nodded.
“Get down on the floorboard and don’t get up until I come get you.”
“What? Why?”
“Just do it.” he ordered while exiting the vehicle. “They’re here.”
“Wait! Fenris! I can...” The driver’s side door slammed behind him and the remaining doors locked as the garage door began to slide shut behind the SUV.
Gracen reached for the door lock and clicked it unlocked but Fenris clicked it again with the keyless remote.
“Fenris!” She yelled but it was too late; the garage door behind her had latched shut and another door at the front of the stall began to slide open.
“What the hell?” Gracen whispered as the Escalade began rolling forward. She clicked the door unlocked and flung it open, slamming it into the wall of the garage. The door rebound knocking her back into the plush leather seat.
Through the front window she could see rows of cars stacked on
racks as the SUV was being sucked through the front to join them. She tried the door again but was unable to open it wide enough to squeeze through. Quickly she glanced through the front window again. The front half of the SUV had already begun loading into the metal rack and the rear half was quickly following.
Scrambling over the center console of the front seats she tried the second row doors, but they slammed against the steel of the rack just inches away, pinning her inside. Her last chance was the back hatch. She pushed past the captains seats desperately searching for the door release.
Panic began rising in her heart as the Escalade lurched to a stop and the second garage door began to slide close. “No, no, no.” she whimpered.
The panic was quickly enveloping her body, her senses. Her fingertips began to tingle as the adrenaline raced through her veins, stimulating every region of her being. She knew what was about to happen. It had happened before, more times than she would like.
The world slowed to a crawl. Her eyes slammed shut as a rush of energy began to swirl in her gut. It rolled over her like a wave of pure emotion, her fear and anxiety, a loss of control that she both loved and abhorred simultaneously.
Images from Fenris flashed through her mind. She could see him just outside the parking garage door. He was somewhere in between wolf and man. His thoughts and emotions bombarded hers.
She could see through his eyes; he was outnumbered but unrelenting, covered in blood, but she couldn’t tell whose. Several of the Guardians were strewn around him on the ground; one struggled to pull himself away along the dampened pavement, his body no longer cooperating.
A glimmer of metal caught her attention as one of the men pulled a pistol from his waistband, his face obscured by his dark hoodie. She watched as he wielded the weapon towards Fenris, the ball of energy in her gut now rising to the surface.
As the faceless man’s trigger finger tightened on the trigger, the space around her exploded. The windows of the SUV shattered, tiny pebbles of tempered glass sprayed into the neighboring cars like a hail storm, pelting their pristine paint and settling into convertible tops. The garage doors burst outward fracturing their frosted safety glass panels.
“Get down.” she forced her thoughts back to Fenris.
He dropped to the ground as the burst of energy rolled out of the garage and into the world around them. The force knocked the Guardians off of their feet.
Before they could recover, Fenris was on them, knocking the remaining three unconscious with a blow to the head.
“Are they dead?” Gracen asked, stumbling out of the decimated garage.
Fenris shook his head, “Not these three, it’s not necessary.
You know I really had it under control” he responded, his eyes resting on Gracen as she tip-toed around the broken glass and garage door pieces.
“He was about to shoot you.”
Fenris tilted his head back as a look of disbelief crossed his face. “Immortal.” he replied in a smart-ass tone.
“Well, you’re welcome anyway.”
Fenris grinned as he shook his head.
“What did you do to the garage?” he asked walking past her to assess the damages.
“You have got to be kidding me.” she heard him mumble. “What did you do to my truck?”
“You locked me in there! What was I supposed to do?”
“Stay inside like I told you.”
“How was I supposed to get out? Have you seen inside that thing? I asked you to help me, not kill me!”
“I was going to get you out when it was safe but it’s good to see how much faith you have in me.”
“I...” She began to argue then settled on “jack-ass.”
“Well, you’re welcome anyway.” he retorted. “Look, we need to get the story straight because the police are almost here.”
Gracen hadn’t noticed the sirens in the distance quickly growing louder.
Chapter Six
Hours of police questioning had passed when they were finally released, informed to stay in reach in case there were any further questions.
Gracen was half dazed from sleep deprivation as she followed Fenris through the cavernous lobby of his condo building. Artificial light sparkled off of every surface. Ordinarily she would have been impressed, but right now she was just finding it obnoxious and a bit pretentious.
The elevator glided nauseatingly fast to the top floor of the 46-story building. Her ears popped somewhere around 17, forcing an annoyed sigh and a twisted expression to cross her face.
“What about the others?” she asked as the elevator opened into his penthouse floor; the fatigue not allowing anything over a whisper.
“Other what?”
She grimaced, put out by the fact that she had to explain her question further. “The Guardians you let live.”
“Don’t worry about them. They aren’t going to say anything.
What could they say? ‘He’s a werewolf; we just wanted to kill him.’?
They will go to jail and when they get out, if need be, I will handle it then. It’s a little more difficult to explain to the police how I could have taken them all on and won, don’t you think?”
Gracen’s furrowed brow deepened. “They are still going to come after me. I’m sure that’s not the end of it.”
“I can promise you that.” he said almost jovially; his demeanor not reflecting any lack of sleep.
“So what do I do now?”
Fenris turned to her and examined her for a moment before speaking. “Well, I’m sure we can work something out. It would be pretty awesome to have a witch in the pack.”
Gracen’s eyes lit up, as she forget how heavy her eye lids were.
“We can talk about it in the morning.
The spare bedroom is through there. Get some rest.” Gracen turned to seek out her designated place to crash.
“Oh! Gracen?” Fenris called after her. “We should probably also talk about how you knew what was happening even though you were locked in a garage.
And probably, why I could hear your thoughts. It seems you may have left a few things out in our conversation earlier.”
Gracen stopped and turned slowly toward him, wracking her exhausted brain for a plausible explanation. She had hoped that those little details would have been forgotten in the fracas; it wasn’t going to be easy to explain.
“In the morning.” he added with a smug grin.
A Note from the Author
Thank you for stepping into my world for a moment, I truly hope that you enjoyed it. Please keep an eye out for other short stories in the series, as well as my full Length novel, Conriocht Series: Wolves of Savannah, soon to be released. There are many stories to be told and I hope to get them to you as soon as possible.
For more on the Conriocht Series or me, please visit www.shultgreen.wordpress.com, or follow Conriocht Series on Twitter and Facebook.
Acknowledgments
Thank you to my incredible family who support me through whatever crazy idea I may have and who have instilled in me a sense of wonderment in life and the world around me, as well as a belief that anything is possible.
Thank you to my editors and beta readers, a.k.a. my friends, for giving their honest opinions in a supportive and kind manner, I wasn’t reduced to tears once! (Well, there was this one time...)
Thank you to the Amor de Mi Vida, for supporting me, believing in me, and listening to me as I ramble on and on about publishing, marketing, and various topics that I am pretty sure he cares nothing about.
share-buttons">share