The Warrior

by Rebecca Royce

  “In this case, I’m pretty sure they’ll appreciate the separation.”

  “Great.” I stood up. “I’ll get this injection into Andon, and then I’m going to end Jason before he can do any more damage.”

  “You don’t take being dumped very well, do you?”

  “Jason never dumped me. I broke up with him, or I intended to, before things went to hell. In this life, he never did me the courtesy of breaking up with me. He tried to kill me instead.”

  “You understand he can’t help it. As long as Andon is susceptible to the virus—”

  I waved my hand in front of his face to stop him from talking. “Don’t act like you get the science of this any more than I do. You don’t. Everyone is lying. All I know is the bad guys have to be stopped. I’m going to see they are.”

  “Fine.” His jaw clenched. “Then I guess I’ll see you whenever the pack meets up again. I’ll be the one trying to keep you alive.”

  He thought he could keep me alive? I didn’t have time to contemplate his nonsense, not when members of Andon’s pack were so close by. Of course, I assumed they were Andon’s pack. The Icahns could have made the whole thing. I might be getting ready to do battle with some other scumbag Werewolves. Either way, I couldn’t back out now.

  I stormed forward. Darren and I had done so much talking; the likelihood we hadn’t been heard fell between slim to none. They’d even know who stalked them as I’d spent a ton of time with them when they’d not been psychotic and I hadn’t wanted to kill them.

  As I’d suspected, a second Wolf I hadn’t seen plowed out of the bushes, where it had been hidden. I strode forward, holding my machete in front of me.

  “Do you want to play?” I hoped my bluff paid off. I didn’t want to kill the beast, not yet. I wanted to follow it.

  The Wolf growled, showing me its fangs. I raised an eyebrow as I stared at the creature. As far as Werewolves went, I’d seen bigger and I’d seen smaller. Gray fur around its face shifted gradually into a brownish hue toward its lower body. I didn’t know who it would turn into when it shifted into its human form. Jason looked different in his beast attire—darker, more intimidating.

  Plus, both Andon and Jason stood at least twenty inches taller than the one I currently faced.

  “Oh yes, you’re a big, strong Wolf, aren’t you?” I held up the machete again. “A giant beast whose head will be on the ground in two seconds if you don’t run.”

  The Wolf backed up two feet, still growling at me.

  “Come on,” I taunted it, “what do your instincts tell you? Fight or flight? Which one?”

  The Wolf turned and darted out into the forest. I ran behind, knowing if I slowed down even a little, I’d lose it. I also counted on the idea of the Wolf pack would not be too far away. My enhanced fighting skills, given to me by Isaac Icahn while I lay in cryogenic freeze, allowed me to be ultrafast when I pursued a Werewolf. In the same situation, chasing a regular human, I wouldn’t have any special speed, some sort of fail-safe Icahn had genetically programmed into his Warriors to keep us from hurting the non-Warriors. Right now, gratitude for the speed that let me follow the Wolf filled my veins even as my muscles burned from being pushed to their limits. I’d really have to up my training at Redemption.

  Air traveled in and out of my lungs in short gasps, and my vision became focused solely on the monster in front of me. The world tunneled; I had no sense of anything to my left or right. Like the monsters I fought, I existed now purely on instinct.

  Abruptly, the Wolf came to a halt, turning around to snarl at me. I skidded to a stop, arriving in a clearing where in front of me lay a scene I would have once thought could only exist in horror movies. Surrounding me on all sides were at least a dozen Werewolves, some shifted into their animal form, some standing as humans, and all of them focused on me.

  I wiped at my brow and tried to smile like I had complete control over the circumstances. Planning and executing were two different creatures. I loved coming up with a plan, hated having to make sure it came through.

  “Why, hello everyone.” I put my hands on my hips, grasping the hypodermic. Maybe I’d be lucky and no one would notice. “What are you all doing on this lovely spring day?”

  The dark Wolf I knew to be Andon shifted back into his human form. If anything, I’d always found him more intimidating as a man than a beast. His blond hair, graying on the sides of his head, set off a long face with a cleft in his chin. Whatever let them become animals also took care to see them clothed when they shifted. I didn’t ask too many questions about the process. All Jason had ever said was the clothing was part of the magic. I didn’t believe in the mumbo jumbo so I’d dropped the subject. Maybe someday I’d know why he appeared in jeans and a white T-shirt. Maybe someday I’d care.

  His eyes, blue like Jason’s, bore into me like I was his favorite afternoon snack.

  “Rachel Clancy. I’m shocked to see you. Genesis went below ground again. What are you doing up here?”

  I strode forward, ignoring the growls of the pack around me. Having lived with them, I knew they didn’t want me so close to their Alpha. I couldn’t care less. Wolf issues, Wolf politics—they bored me to death.

  “Hadn’t you heard, Dr. Kenwood? I don’t live there anymore.” I motioned to the forest around us. “But you sure seem attached to this area. With everywhere you could go in the world, why here?”

  A growl so loud it could have been heard miles away caught my attention. I didn’t need to turn around to know who’d made the sound. In fact, I preferred not to look at him. I’d been around Jason’s temper enough to be able to discern his various noises from those of the other Werewolves. I’d clearly pissed him off, if the volume of his aggression indicated anything.

  I had too many memories of him—good ones, bad ones, present-day occurrences, and I wasn’t certain if they were real. Even though I knew for sure I could handle Jason, as I needed to, I could anticipate the first time I set eyes on him would be akin to getting smashed by a runaway train.

  Before I could allow the inevitable pain to happen, I had to handle Andon.

  “Where I take my pack is of no concern to you. You’re foolish to come here, little girl. We have a death contest on you. Whoever eats you first gets hunting privileges for a month.”

  I swallowed, my throat turning dry. “The problem with this whole thing,” I took a step in his direction, “with all of this, is I have a hard time remembering you’re sick.”

  Andon’s eyes turned red, a surefire indication of the fact he no longer controlled his own body or mind. Before he’d succumbed to the Vampire virus—it had taken over his entire pack, making them feral—he’d had eyes of the clearest blue. The reason I’d had a hard time ridding him from my existence was he seemed too much like his son.

  “Sick? We are not ill.” His hands elongated.

  I’d made him so mad he was half shifting his shape? This indicated a new development. Andon in control of himself would never be so easily flustered.

  “We’re gods.”

  I huffed, wondering if I should keep my mouth shut or address this last statement. A god complex? No, this couldn’t continue much longer.

  “Enough.” I leaped forward, brandishing the hypodermic in front of me. The drug would fix Andon’s pack, temporarily, and Jason would die by my hand. I kept these thoughts upfront in my mind as the wind blew my hair backward with a fast snap.

  I heard the roar of the pack’s fury behind me. I had to get this right on my first attempt or I’d be dead. Strangely enough, I didn’t feel at all nervous about what I had to do. My body knew how to perform this maneuver. I’d been trained to be a physical work of art.

  With my knee raised, I collided into Andon’s upper stomach. He grunted and reached out to scratch at my arms with his claws. I jabbed him in the arm and inserted the medicine in his muscle before we both hit the ground from the force of our collision.

  He snarled, grabbing onto his arm. “What did you do to me?�
��

  Did I see fear in his eyes? I stood, my legs unsteady beneath me. “I guess you’ll have to find out.”

  The drug worked fast. Andon rolled over, grasping at his head. I hoped I had done it right. I wanted the man dead, but I didn’t exactly want to explain to the Icahns, at this point, how I had screwed up their mission. Pissing them off came later on in my plan.

  The earth moved beneath my feet as a Wolf rushed toward me. I whirled around. A lot of the pack already staggered but Jason, like the raging animal he was, charged me, his mouth open with drool pooling from his lips.

  I grabbed my machete; it had fallen to the ground during my collision with Andon Kenwood.

  A whoosh sounded through the air and an arrow hit Jason’s shoulder. He howled before he tumbled to the ground.

  It took me a second to figure out what I’d seen. “Nice shot, Darren.”

  “Thanks, Rachel.”

  I hated the way my name sounded when he said it. Maybe I should cut out his tongue. I trudged forward, staring down at Jason. “You didn’t kill him. It shouldn’t have knocked him out so fast. Werewolves are much stronger.”

  “Not Werewolves who are already weakened because their Alpha has been compromised.”

  Andon groaned on the ground.

  “Compromised might be the right word.”

  Darren walked out of the bushes, pushing a branch out of his way as he did. “Nice maneuver with the Wolf.”

  “Your timing could have been better. I might have liked some help.”

  He stretched his hands over his head. “You seemed like you had it covered. How do you want to play this?”

  His mind jumped so quickly from one thing to another and sometimes none of it made any sense. “I don’t follow.”

  “Do you want to kill Jason here or bring him back to Redemption and do it?”

  I raised an eyebrow. Suspicion had recently become my best friend. “You’re going to let me end him? Even though the Icahns are against it?”

  “Despite what you might think of me, I don’t live and die by what they say.”

  “Yes, you do.” I bent over Jason. “Which begs the question: what is their real agenda? What would my destroying Jason bring them?”

  “No, Rachel. Don’t do it.” Andon’s voice beckoned me from the ground.

  I didn’t turn to look at him. I called over my shoulder. “Oh, just pass out already.”

  Andon groaned. “He can’t help it.”

  “Exactly why he needs to die. I’m tired of monsters who can’t control themselves.”

  Darren sighed. “I’m going to haul Andon back over my shoulder. You can do whatever you like with the pup.”

  “This isn’t you. You’ve never been this person.”

  Darren whacked Andon over the head, stopping whatever the man would have said. I let his words move through me, waiting for the guilt they should have caused. When none came, I kicked the dirt next to Jason.

  How did I want this to end?

  A noise in the distance caught my attention. Voices. I jerked my head up and moved quietly to the side, goose bumps coating my skin as I did. The sun still lit the sky. They shouldn’t be out and about yet.

  Darren paled, motioning with his hand his intention to take Andon farther out into the forest. I nodded my understanding.

  Genesis could not catch me. Everything I worked for would crumble if they recognized me and if they didn’t…well, my heart might not survive such a thing.

  Andon’s pack lay out cold on the ground. If they were stumbled upon, there would be questions about why so many Werewolves had passed out. If discovery happened, it might cause trouble I did not need in my life.

  I didn’t want my old friends to see me, but I had to drag their attention from where it headed to somewhere safer. The only problem? I had no idea how to do it.

  Chapter Three

  Then

  I squeezed Jason’s hand tighter in my own. Why had he insisted I come with him on his family outing? His mother might adore me but his weird father creeped me out. I sat between Jason and his older sister, Autumn, in the middle row in their black minivan as we traveled to Connecticut on a windy spring day. It seemed a waste of such perfect weather. I’d really rather have spent the day with my dad on his boat.

  Autumn’s twin sister, Luna, sprawled out behind us, lying fully across the backseat. She had her headphones on, with her iPod playing loudly in her ears. I didn’t recognize the song but the volume alone indicated she didn’t have to listen to her parents’ sniping at one another in the front seat of the car, the way the rest of us did.

  “I hate these people. I hate going to these things, and I don’t understand why we have to continue to attend these functions since you no longer have to work the job from Hell.”

  Apparently, Sari Kenwood didn’t want to be driving to Connecticut any more than I did.

  “You and I both know I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to even consider doing a research fellowship of this magnitude without Icahn’s recommendation. Basically, for the rest of my life, I’m going to have to show up at his family barbecues. Now, if you don’t want to come, if you wish me to go alone….”

  Sari sat back in her seat. “Don’t put words in my mouth.”

  “I’d rather you not come than go in with this attitude. Icahn and his wife will know right off the bat you don’t want to be there….”

  I tuned him out. Isaac Icahn. I saw him on the news all the time lately. They’d had some kind of incident at a lab where he worked, and he’d been talking about the ramifications of a drug being accidentally released into the air. Apparently, it really hadn’t been such a big deal but the media had a field day talking about it nonetheless.

  Sari sighed. “Maybe next year we won’t have to bring the kids.”

  Good idea! Next year, they wouldn’t bring their children and then I wouldn’t have to attend with Jason. I looked over at his handsome face. So beautiful…so flawless. He never even had any acne. It seemed so unfair, when every year I got more and more odd-looking. Why did I have to be such a redhead?

  Of course, I might not be with Jason next year. I’d almost broken up with him over the phone and then I had quickly stopped myself. Whenever I thought I was done with our relationship, I changed my mind. I didn’t want to be that girl, the one who couldn’t get out of her maybe codependent relationship.

  Jason sighed. “What are you thinking about in that head of yours?”

  “Um.” Had I been staring too long?

  “Jason.” His father interrupted us. “Women don’t like to be questioned about what they’re thinking. Stop doing it.”

  My cheeks heated up. If I hated Jason’s strange ability to cue into what I thought, I disliked his father’s interference even more.

  “I guess I’m just nervous, Jace.” I tried to smile. “Can you tell me why we’re going to this barbecue?” And why I needed to come? Why you couldn’t, say, leave me at home and spend some time without me? Do you know why I can’t seem to say no to you?

  My question seemed to perk Jason’s dad right up. He sat straighter in his seat and drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. I figured we had to be driving about forty miles an hour in a sixty-mile-per-hour zone. His father really poked around on the road like an old man. This trip to wherever we were heading in Connecticut was clearly going to take longer than it needed to.

  Sari turned around slightly and grinned at me. “We’re so happy you’re here with us, Rachel. Jason is always so much more accommodating when you come.”

  Jason snorted. “There’s no way I was coming on this outing without her. I hate those jerks.”

  “The Icahns?” I didn’t know if I’d adequately followed the conversation. Sometimes, the dynamics in other people’s families confused me to no end. My mom and dad might be boring but at least they made sense. There were so many undercurrents of unsaid things in Jason’s family. I got a headache even trying to sort them out.

  “No, the jerks h
e always has hanging around as part of his mentoring program.”

  “I don’t understand. Who he is mentoring?”

  “Isaac Icahn runs a group offering support to outstanding teenagers from all over the country. They’re incredible young people who have made a contribution to society while maintaining top-notch GPAs.” Andon turned the car off the highway, indicating we were at least a little closer to our destination.

  “Yeah, they’re all such assholes.”

  I winced at Jason’s language and he squirmed next to me. I really hated profanity. There had to be better ways to say things. When had I gotten so conservative?

  Oh God, even my internal thoughts sounded like my mother’s.

  “They’re not all bad.” From where she sat next to me, Autumn finally spoke. Jason’s sisters were chatty at school but when they were near their parents they stayed silent. Just another part of Jason’s family I didn’t understand. “The Lyons brothers are really, really good-looking.”

  Jason made a growling sound in his throat, and I turned my head to stare at him straight on. He sounded like some kind of animal….

  “I don’t want to hear about who you think is good-looking.”

  “Jason.” His father’s voice lowered an octave. “Control yourself.”

  Yeah…maybe my mother was right. I needed to get out of this relationship.

  ***

  Now

  I ducked around behind the next group of trees as a makeshift plan formulated in my mind. I had to give them something to chase, namely me. The group of voices grew louder, coming closer to my location. I’d always been the chaser. I’d never purposefully let a group of trained killers track me down.

  I rubbed at my head. When this ended, I’d return, figure out exactly how I wanted to handle Jason, and go back to Redemption to carry out the rest of my plan. Somehow.

  Finally, I spotted what I needed. In two swift moves, I picked up a rock. It felt heavy in my hand, much more weighted than it should have, the only indication of how truly terrified I’d become. I could deny my fears like a champ if I needed to, but this time my body didn’t want to let me off the hook of self-awareness. Maybe it came with age. Lately, I’d wondered if I could call myself the oldest seventeen-year-old alive.