by Amy Richie
By tomorrow at this time, I would be sleeping in a nice little hotel room. At least I hoped so. Gloria and Melody continued their laughter behind me, Liza making it start again when she rejoined them.
They quieted soon, though, their faces growing serious as they stared at Paris and Owen. It would be soon, and we’d make our move.
Chapter 18
Liza stood up abruptly and glowered down at us. “I say we leave right now,” she hissed in a low voice.
Gloria looked up at the now fully light sky. There were still a few streaks of pink and orange, but it was still daylight. She had said all along that we would leave at first light. Would she hesitate now?
“We have to wait,” she concluded.
“What for?” Liza and I both demanded at the same time. I spared her a quick look, but she kept her eyes on Gloria.
“You think Paris will let us leave?”
“Not with Lexi,” Melody seconded.
I knew they were right, but it didn’t stop me from arguing. “He’s not going to care, he wants to keep Miranda safe.”
“Who’s Miranda?” Liza sneered.
I pointed down to the sleeping girl beside me. “Owen’s pet.”
“Owen’s pet was killed by the wolves.”
“Then Addison’s.” I was confused myself as to who she really belonged to. She had told me she belonged to Addison, but Paris called her ‘Owen’s Miranda.’
“He called her that because Owen…” Gloria hesitated over her explanation, so Liza continued.
“Owen mates with her.”
“What? He’s a vampire.”
“Your powers of deduction amaze us all.”
“And she’s human.”
“Yet again.”
Gloria held her hand out to stop any more banter. “Look, he’s going with Owen.” We all turned to watch Paris. “When he’s good and distracted, we’ll go. Lexi,” I looked up, “be ready.”
I held my breath and turned back to Paris.
“Now,” Liza hissed, just as my eyes were starting to close.
I didn’t have time to see where Paris had gone or what was taking his attention from us. If didn’t matter to me, though, I reacted as soon as the word passed her lips.
I was on my feet instantly and climbed onto Liza’s back. It was already decided that I would go with her since she was the fastest. The wolves would come after me and we had a better chance of getting away than Gloria or Melody.
Miranda stirred in her sleep, but didn’t wake up, thankfully. I already felt guilty enough leaving her behind. We had agreed to stay together and now I was going without even a goodbye. It would have been worse to see her face when she realized it.
We were out of the camp almost before I realized it, so I was pretty sure no one else did either. By the time Paris realized what had happened, we would be far away. Maybe he would realize we were too far to chase and stay there to help Miranda.
Probably not. My mouth pulled down at the edges at the thought of Miranda being unguarded, but there was nothing I could do about that. Gloria had always told me to only worry about myself and until now, I had never found that idea difficult.
Then I met Miranda. What was it about the dark haired girl that appealed to me? I barely even knew her and yet I already ached at the thought of the wolves hunting her. I squeezed my eyes shut. Maybe they wouldn’t get her, maybe…
My thoughts were cut short when a huge shape lunged at us from the trees. The wolves had found us.
I clutched tight to Liza’s neck as she zigzagged through the trees. The wolves were already way too close. I could feel their hot breath on my leg when one of them took a snap at me. I kicked out, but only managed to make myself more unstable.
Liza stopped extremely abrupt and turned sharp in the opposite direction, nearly throwing me off in the process. I pulled myself up again and tightened my knees. Good thing she was a vampire or else she would be bruised for sure.
Gloria shot out of nowhere and threw her tiny weight into the wolf that was intent on taking me—one way or another. I didn’t expect much, but the wolf was sent sprawling behind us. My smile didn’t last long, though. More wolves came to take his place.
Without a doubt, Liza was faster than a wolf, but we were in their territory now. Trees, rocks, brambles, and other debris slowed us down. Not to mention, we didn’t know where we were going. We could have been heading back to the camp for all I knew.
Obviously, Liza knew the direction better than I did, but I was sure the wolves being so close behind us didn’t help her instincts any. Why she didn’t just throw me off and run, I didn’t know. Could Damien’s order to keep me alive be that strong?
She dodged again to get me out of the way of another snap. The wolf stumbled in surprise and fell behind a little. Not much, but enough that I could breathe for a moment. It didn’t last long. Two more wolves shot out of the trees to join the chase. Liza cursed loudly.
This time, when the giant mouth took a snap at me, I wasn’t able to get out of the way. Teeth clamped down on my leg, taking my breath away in the process. I cried out in both pain and surprise.
I closed my eyes, hoping for the impossible—that we would get away. It wasn’t that easy, though. A little girl’s wish wasn’t going to keep me alive.
Liza stumbled.
I had loosened my grip when the wolf bit me and the stumble sent me flying to the ground. It was disorienting after the speed we were going to suddenly be on the ground. Liza hesitated, dancing next to a tree just a few feet away from me.
“Get up!” she screamed.
Her voice was muffled though, my brain already fuzzy with pain and adrenalin. I scrambled to me feet only to fall right back down. My leg hurt too much, I couldn’t walk on it.
Tiny spots of black were starting to cloud my vision, until I reminded myself to breathe. The air returned to my lungs in a painful gasp. Then, the wolf came into view and the real fear set in.
The familiar white wolf sauntered close to me, intelligent eyes taking in the wound on my leg. He growled loudly and took a snap at another wolf that tried to get too close to me.
When I looked up again, Liza was gone. I wasn’t surprised though, and I only whimpered a little at the realization. Of course she would have went on. There was nothing she could do for me now.
My hand trembled as I gingerly brushed it across the growing bloody patch on my pant leg. The wolf was watching me, though, his top lip snarled up threateningly. I scrambled backwards, trying to get away from him, but I didn’t have anywhere to go.
More wolves were behind me, but they kept their distance. Obviously, they were saving me for the white one. I turned back to him, quickly concluding that he was the most dangerous.
I wasn’t dead yet, I tried to reason with the part of me that wanted to panic. They were keeping me alive for something. I needed to stay calm. I was injured, but it must not be that bad if the wolf still wanted me for…
I swallowed hard, refusing to think of what it wanted me for. “What do you want?” I called out, my voice shaking. “Why don’t you just kill me?”
The wolf snarled again. Really, what kind of response had I expected? The other wolves made similar grunts and snarls. My eyes swung around, but came back quickly to my captor.
“I won’t let you take me.” I lowered my voice, hoping to sound more convincing, but he didn’t look afraid.
Suddenly, there was a new sound, one that made hope flare up in my chest. Gloria was back—along with Liza and Melody. I nearly cried real tears in relief. They hadn’t left me here alone to my fate with the wolves.
“Can you walk?” Liza called.
“I don’t know,” I mumbled. I didn’t want the wolf to know how injured I was, but it probably didn’t matter anyways.
“Come on,” Gloria snarled close by. The wolves were everywhere, though, and my leg hurt too much to even try walking on it.
“I can’t,” I called back.
The persistent white
beast snapped at her when she tried to come close to me. I whipped my head around, afraid for the first time in a long time. More wolves formed a half circle around me. I wasn’t going to be able to get out of this alive.
The sisters didn’t have to die, though. “Just go,” I screamed.
“Shut up!”
There was a flurry of activity that I couldn’t follow. The wolves were just as confused as I was. That’s when Gloria made her move. She was next to me and had me in her able arms in less than time for me to take another breath.
We couldn’t slow down for me to situate myself on her back, but she didn’t pass me to Liza. We took a different path back to the camp, one that led us through a shallow river. The water was likely the only thing that saved us.
The wolves gathered on the shore, growling and yelping, but not following us. I glanced back over Gloria’s shoulder. A shiver ran down my spine at the sight of the huge white wolf.
He was standing with the others, but he wasn’t making any noise at all. He just stood there glaring back at me. I opened my mouth to warn Gloria, but closed it again. What was I going to say, ‘The wolf was staring at me?’
Once back at the camp, she quickly deposited me on the ground—careless in her anger.
My backside hit the ground first, but it was too rough and I couldn’t stop myself from rolling on my leg. I winced, but managed to hold back the scream I felt coming.
It’s not that bad, it’s not that bad, I told myself over and over again.
“Stupid wolves,” Melody burst out.
Anyone else and that would have been an understatement, but hearing Melody angry wasn’t something I saw often. I squinted up at her, hoping she would see how calm I was.
“We’ll just try again,” I said in as even a voice as I could muster.
“Try again,” Gloria mocked. “We can’t just try again.” She threw her hands up in frustration and paced angrily away.
The pain radiating from my leg was enough to block out almost everything else, but I noticed the exact moment when Paris stormed up to me. I had to tilt my head back to see his dark scowl since I was still lying on the ground.
“Is she hurt?” he addressed Melody, but quickly grew impatient when she hesitated. “Are you hurt?” he asked me instead.
“It’s not that bad,” I repeated my mantra from earlier.
“What isn’t? What happened to you?”
“Would you believe us if we said she hit a tree?” Liza’s face had lost the anger and was once again sneering.
“No.”
She shrugged.
“Werewolf bite,” I gasped. It was hard to admit it and even worse when his eyes widened.
I clenched my teeth tight. I knew my lips were white with the effort, but I couldn’t release the tension, otherwise I would be screaming out loud. Paris loomed over me, his eyebrows knitted with something that could have been worry.
“Does it hurt?” Melody asked stupidly.
“No,” I gasped.
“Liar,” Liza sneered.
“Let me see it,” Gloria ordered.
I shook my head quickly. “No, don’t touch it,” I pleaded. I was immediately aware that I was whining.
“You know,” Liza’s voice drawled out, “you’ll probably turn into a werewolf now.”
I forgot my pain in an instant. “Can that happen?” I asked Gloria, already panicking even though I knew Liza lied all the time.
She rolled her eyes and groaned shortly. “No.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.” She kneeled down beside me. “Come on, let me see.”
“No,” I pulled my leg away, sending a ripple of pain through it.
“Leave her alone,” Paris almost growled.
They both stood up, glaring and breathing heavily. I was shocked when Gloria looked away first.
Chapter 19
“What the hell do you think you were doing?” I didn’t have to look to know how angry he was. Paris stormed at Gloria, his face a full mask of fury. “Where were you?” he demanded.
“Oh, just out for a little stroll,” Liza answered tightly.
“Real funny.” He moved to stand just in front of her, his breathing heavy.
“I try.” She shrugged, but her stance was tense. I wouldn’t have wanted to be on the other end of his anger either.
“We need to see how bad it is instead of standing here arguing,” Melody tried to reason.
“It isn’t that bad,” I repeated my earlier claims. “Let’s just go again. We’ll have to make it out of the valley sooner or later.”
Paris glared at Gloria, all traces of reasoning gone. “You can’t make it out of the valley alive,” he yelled at her, as if she were the one who had said it.
“Yes we will,” I answered when she didn’t say anything.
His voice grew low and tense; enough that I had to strain to hear him. “Why isn’t she afraid?”
“Why should she be?”
“Does she think the three of you will protect her?”
“She’s still alive,” Liza pointed out.
I watched their exchange tensely. The sisters protected me because Damien told them to. That didn’t mean they always would and it certainly didn’t mean they wouldn’t leave me if they had to. But they didn’t, I realized with slight surprise. They came back for me.
“She’s bleeding,” Melody reminded him.
“Come on,” he said with a little less anger, “we need to make sure it isn’t too bad.”
What was defined as ‘too bad?’ My leg was still attached to my body, so that was a good sign. And the spot on my pant leg—the blood—had quit growing, so I probably wasn’t even bleeding anymore.
“I think it’s ok,” I stammered.
“A wolf bit you,” he needlessly pointed out.
“I already know that, Paris,” I snapped.
He ran his hand through his hair and stood up to face Gloria again. “I told you not to go off by yourself,” he said through clenched teeth.
“We don’t do well with orders.”
“Then, you should have left Lexi with me and left on your own.”
“She wanted to go with us.”
“Only because she doesn’t know any better.”
“She’s alive.”
“With a werewolf bite on her leg.”
I tried to sit up straighter, but gave up when the pain made me gasp again. Paris knelt back beside me on the ground. Fury and nervous worry took turns twisting his features.
“I wouldn’t have stayed, you know.” I tried to make my voice calm and even.
“You wouldn’t have been able to keep up with them.”
“Which would have been worse. Then I wouldn’t have made it back here.”
His lips tightened. “I wouldn’t have let you go.”
“You wouldn’t have known to watch me.”
His eyes met mine, but he let it go. “Let’s see,” he nodded toward my leg.
The bite was on my lower leg, so I only had to hike my pants up partway. It was a good thing it wasn’t on my thigh or I would have had to strip down. I clenched down tight on my jaw and eased the material past the worst of the wound.
I grimaced at the sight of all that blood, but I was right in thinking the bleeding had already almost completely stopped. It was hard to tell how bad the actual teeth punctures were, though, until I could get it cleaned up some.
The wolves hadn’t followed us past the river, maybe I would be able to make it back there. “I could…”
“Out of the question,” Paris barked before I could even get the full thought out.
“You don’t even know what I was going to say.”
“You think it will be safe for you to go to the river since the wolves didn’t follow you.”
My mouth fell open. “They don’t like water,” Melody explained, “but they would have found a way across by now.”
“I’ll go for water.” Liza darted away before anyone could protest
.
“I can help.” We all turned at the sound of Miranda’s voice. “I’ve taken some medic training.” She leaned down to investigate my leg closer. “Not a lot, but I know how to give stitches.”
“I might not need any,” I said at the same time Paris wanted to know how we were going to find sewing supplies.
“We carry a first aid kit,” she smiled, “and this,” she touched my leg lightly, “looks pretty deep.”
Paris inhaled slowly and sat back on his heels. His brown eyes had turned stony and the muscle in his temple was throbbing furiously. He didn’t say anything, though; just sat there watching Miranda fixing my leg up.
“She’ll be fine,” Melody tried to smooth things over. “It would have been impossible for any of us…” she let her words trail away when he held up one hand.
Liza returned with a metal pot filled with water in one hand. She sat it down heavily beside Miranda, spilling some over the side. I didn’t ask where she got the pot. Paris’s eye followed her as she pranced back to Gloria’s side.
Addison brought over a white tin box and a rag of blankets. She didn’t stay to watch Miranda work, though. Paris and the sisters continued with their angry showdown, but they kept it mostly silent.
“This won’t hurt as bad as the bite did,” Miranda promised.
She was wrong, but I kept most of that silent, too. Things were already bad enough and me screaming about how much it hurt would not help very much. Actually, it would make it worse. So I put on a straight face and kept still as Miranda stitched up my skin.
“It was Addison’s idea,” she said quietly.
“What was?”
“Medic training. She thought it might come in handy.”
It probably would have healed on its own, but I was glad she was there. Suddenly, Paris’s silent anger burst out—again.
“This,” he pointed wildly at the bite marks on my leg, “will not happen again.”
“No,” I agreed, “next time, we need to take a different path. Maybe we could…”
“There will be no next time, Lexi,” he cut me off vehemently.
I looked to Gloria for help, but her lips were locked tight. “So what—we’re just going to sit here and be wolf bait?”