by Michelle Fox
Afraid Nick would come at her, Audrey shot him again. Assuming she’d counted correctly, it was her last bullet. It had to count.
Nick heaved himself to his feet, moving slower now, and the bullet sank into his belly. He roared with pain and doubled over, backing away until he hit the railing again. This was too much for the wood railing, which hadn’t been made to withstand the brawling of werewolves. It snapped off, the wood dropping silently into the open air.
Nick teetered on the edge for a moment, panic in his eyes. For the first time, he seemed afraid, seemed to realize he was in danger. One hand over his gut, the other windmilling with increasing frequency, he tried to regain his balance.
Audrey stood, frozen with indecision. Save him? Or let him go? She hated both options.
Kai stepped forward, brushing past her to stand in front of his brother. Taking in a deep breath, he blew it out like he was blowing bubbles and not confronting his psychotic brother, who stood on the thin, sharp edge between life and death.
“Go, brother. This life is not for you.” Kai blew again. The wind rushed forward with his breath, strong enough to make Audrey take an involuntary step forward.
It was too much for Nick and he fell backward, howling a drawn out “Noooo,” as he went. There was no sound after that other than the wind howling and then the faintest splash when he hit bottom.
Audrey’s stomach dropped as if she, too, were falling.
Nick was dead.
She’d killed him.
Something black and vile opened inside her, a pit of horror ready to swallow her whole. A small gasp escaped her, and she dropped the gun so she could cover her mouth with her good hand as her heart froze in her chest.
When she turned to look at Tao, it made everything worse. He was conscious now and the wide-eyed look he gave her told Audrey he’d seen everything.
She’d killed someone he loved.
Maybe she hadn’t pushed him off the outlook, but she’d shot him until he could fall.
Audrey’s knees sagged and she slid to the ground, her breath coming in short little gasps. “I’m sorry,” she said over and over, reaching for Tao but afraid to go over to him. He looked as stricken as she felt and his expression twisted her gut into painful knots. Had she survived Nick only to lose everything that mattered?
“Now that’s why I keep telling you we can’t let these bit wolves live,” Dan said, his voice booming. “They’ll turn on you, two-faced liars just like their maker.” The alpha spit in disgust and then jerked his head back, slamming Leo in the face. When the burly man staggered back under the weight of the hit, Dan pulled forward and broke Leo’s grip. In one smooth movement, he bent over and pulled up his pant leg revealing a calf holster. Pulling the gun free, he aimed straight at Audrey.
Her mouth opened, ready to plead for her life, but he pulled the trigger before she even got a word out. She snapped her eyes closed and grit her teeth, waiting for the bullet to hit. Instead, she felt a whoosh of air followed by a thud as something heavy landed at her feet.
Opening her eyes, she saw Tao sprawled in front of her, a neat little bullet hole in his chest.
On the left side.
Where his heart lay.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“No,” she cried, scooting forward to wrap him in her arms. Tears poured from her eyes, streaking her face and dropping onto Tao. After all they’d been through it couldn’t end like this. It just couldn’t. Nick was dead, that should’ve ended everything. Why were people still shooting at them?
Thankfully, she wasn’t alone. Leo leapt into action. Now that Dan was free, Leo didn’t hesitate to try and corral the alpha again. With one quick karate-like chop to Dan’s wrist, he forced the alpha to drop the gun in his hand. A quick series of punches followed and soon Dan was a slumped, unconscious heap on the ground.
“And so it begins,” intoned Kai, a pleased smile on his face.
Tao moaned and she directed her attention back to him. Stroking his cheek, she leaned down and whispered, “It’s okay. You’re going to be okay.” She said it over and over, willing it to be true. In reality, his breathing was labored, his chest heaving with the effort to suck in air.
Kai and Leo came to kneel at Tao’s side, their expressions solemn.
“Do something,” she said to them.
Kai nodded and laid a hand on Tao’s forehead. Closing his eyes, he began to rock back and forth. Electricity infused the air and raced over Audrey’s skin until she felt like an overcharged battery.
Just as quickly as the sensation built up, it dissipated. Kai opened his eyes and Audrey stared at him, wondering how the man could be so composed. To her, it felt like the world had ended. Tao had become her everything, a presence she couldn’t live without.
Kai flashed a small smile at Audrey, seeming to sense her inner turmoil. “He will be fine.”
She gave him a doubtful look. Tao’s color had faded from a healthy olive tone to gray. His breathing was either too fast or not at all. Audrey had seen enough animals in distress to know that wasn’t a good sign. If that was fine, she didn’t know the meaning of the word anymore.
“He’ll heal, Audrey,” Kai said, unruffled.
Did the guy even have emotions?
“How do you know?” she asked, sniffing back her tears.
“Because his heart isn’t there anymore.”
She frowned at him, puzzled. “What?”
“It’s here.” Kai pressed a finger in Audrey’s chest. “He’s not leaving you behind. Trust me.” He motioned Leo forward and the tall man came to scoop Tao up in his arms. Even though she’d witnessed such super strength before, it still made her blink to see it again.
She’d expected they would load Tao in the truck and take him to a hospital, but instead the men headed into the woods just across from the lookout parking lot. Running to keep up with their long strides, she followed them deep into the woods. Pine trees soared up to the sky, filtering sun light and giving it a verdant tinge. In a small clearing, far from the road, they set Tao down. At their arrival, birds called out a warning while squirrels chittered in disapproval and then a hushed silence fell over the woods.
“What are you doing?” Audrey asked. She wasn’t breathing much better than Tao, the panic gripping her squeezed tighter than a python. Facing down Nick had been nothing compared to the possibility of losing Tao. “Shouldn’t we take him to a hospital?”
Leo shook his head. “No. Wolves heal in the earth.” He reached up and began to rip evergreen boughs off the trees, laying them on the ground like a carpet.
“There’s a bullet in his chest.” She crossed her arms. “I don’t think letting him sit in the dirt is going to fix that.”
Kai ignored her as he gathered some kindling and started a small fire. The smell of smoke filled the air and flames crackled as they burst over the bigger pieces of wood.
“You can’t start a fire.” What was wrong with Tao’s brothers? Were they crazy? She wanted to scream at them and almost wished she had a gun so she could make them take Tao to a hospital. He needed surgery.
“I can’t?” Kai gave her an amused look.
What he found so funny, she didn’t understand. “This is a national park. You can’t just start lighting matches out here while your brother lies there dying.” A note of hysteria crept into her voice at that last word. Oh, please let Tao be okay. Please, please, please.
“This is what will bring Tao back,” he said simply.
Leo motioned Kai over and he went to help his brother lift Tao onto the bed of evergreens they’d made for him. Once that was done they knelt by their brother and appeared to pray for a long moment, each of them putting a hand on one of Tao’s shoulders. When they stood, it did seem to Audrey that Tao breathed easier, but it could just as easily have been a trick of the dim light.
“Now we must go,” Kai said. “You stay here and keep the fire alive. It will rain soon and you must keep the fire going. Understood?”
&n
bsp; “Uh, okay. Why am I doing that?” She looked up as she spoke verifying there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Rain. Riiiight.
Kai waved a hand. “Wind, fire, water and earth make a wolf. To heal, he will need all these things and...” He trailed off, giving her a pointed look.
“What?” she asked impatiently, tired of his cryptic double speak and bizarre behavior.
Kai touched his lips and then motioned to Audrey. “Kiss him so he remembers where his heart lives.”
“Okay and we’re not calling nine-one-one why again?” She looked at her hands, one injured, one whole, both too weak to carry Tao to her truck so she could drive him somewhere with real doctors instead of relying on Kai’s half-baked werewolf voodoo.
The tall, lean man walked to her and put his hands on her shoulders. “There’s no time and you want to save him, yes?”
“Yes,” she said, her lower lip trembling until she had to bite it to keep it still.
“Then do as I say, all right?” He gave her a little shake and then an approving pat when she nodded her agreement.
Audrey cleared her throat, fighting to hold herself together. “So while I’m setting things on fire and making out with an almost dead Tao, what are you two doing?”
“We will settle things with Dan,” Leo said, his expression grim.
Oh yeah, the other guy trying to kill everybody. How could she have forgotten? “You sure you can handle him?” she asked. It wouldn’t be the first time they’d thought they had a bad guy squared away to find out they were wrong. Nick had been incredibly hard to manage.
Kai wiggled his very long fingers. “I have a plan.”
Audrey shivered as electricity charged the air again. Was Kai as magical as he seemed or was she just losing her mind? She couldn’t decide which option was worse. Accepting magic was real made her head hurt, but she didn’t relish the idea of being nuts either. Audrey shrugged off her concerns figuring she would deal with sorting out truth from insanity later. Right now, Tao was all that mattered. “I hope your plan works.”
Leo flexed his hands into fists and narrowed his hazel golden eyes. “If not, I have a backup plan.”
“Good luck.” Audrey headed for Tao’s side as his brothers disappeared into the woods.
He looked so helpless lying there but his color had definitely improved, going from gray to a shade closer to his usual olive tone. Maybe Kai was right and this woo-woo werewolf faith healing thing was going to work. It’d better.
Kai had said Tao’s heart lived in her, but what he didn’t understand was Tao held her heart too. If he didn’t wake up, if he didn’t come back, Audrey didn’t know how she would survive the loss.
Chapter Twenty-Four
He smelled fire and pine mixed with strawberries. There was the metallic tinge of fresh blood, too, which made him frown. Who was bleeding?
Before he could remember, a velvet blackness submerged him. He resurfaced when cold shivered through him, shaking him toward consciousness. I’m wet, he thought dimly. Rain.
Soft plumpness pressed against his lips and he shuddered, gasping at the sensation. Heat burned him and a drum boomed, shaking his body.
He howled as pain pierced him, sharp and violent. It cut through his flesh, searing him like lightning.
“Sh, Tao,” said a low, husky voice. Hands touched him, gently skimming his skin, connecting him to his own flesh.
I’m alive.
With that thought, the memories rushed him.
Nick’s dead.
Grief clenched in his gut, rock hard and unforgiving. His brother, gone.
Audrey. Thinking of her hurt. He loved her, but she’d shot Nick, pushing him to the brink.
But Kai was the one who pushed him over.
No, Nick did it to himself. He was the one who made it a fight to the death. None of us had a choice, he made it for us.
With that realization, he opened his eyes. Audrey kneeled next to him, her face hovering over his, tight with concern.
“Tao,” she breathed. “You’re awake.”
He touched her face, tracing its heart shape with one finger. He’d come so close to losing her. “Are you okay?”
She nodded and then she started to cry, big sobs that wracked her whole body. “I thought you were going to die.”
Tao pulled her down to him, cradling her in his arms. “Hush. A bullet can’t kill me so easily.”
“And I killed Nick. I’m so sorry. It’s all my fault.” She shook against him as a fresh wave of tears shook her.
“No, it wasn’t your fault.” Tao put a finger under her chin and lifted her head up until their gazes met. “It was his fault. I gave him chance after chance to make a different choice and he went the wrong way every time. That’s on him.”
“But I shot him. Over and over again.” Hysteria edged her voice and tears glittered in her eyes.
“Because he made it so you had to. Would you have shot him if he’d run off and left Michigan?”
She shook her head.
“Would you have made it your life’s mission to hunt him down?”
She shook her head again. A lone tear dripped down her cheek and he wiped it away with his thumb.
“He backed us all into a corner and we fought because none of us deserved to die.”
“And he did?” she asked with a hiccough.
“I don’t know,” Tao said. “But I do know he never gave us a chance to do anything different.”
“No regrets, then?” she asked, her voice soft.
Tao shook his head. “No. No regrets.” He pulled her close and kissed her, his lips gentle and soothing. She tasted of salt and fear and he wanted to kiss all that pain away.
They rested together for a few minutes, chests rising and falling as one. Tao held Audrey tight, relishing the way her scent filled his lungs. A minute later, though, she squirmed against him, trying to pull away.
“Everything all right?” he asked, reluctantly letting her go.
“Something’s poking me.” She sat up and ran a hand along his chest. “Oh my God.”
“What? What is it?” Panic flared through him. Were they in danger again?
She held up a small, gray something and he lifted his head to look at it more closely. “It’s the bullet,” she said. “The one that was in your chest.”
“So it is.” He attempted to pull her back to him, wanting her close, but she resisted.
“What’s wrong?” he finally asked.
Audrey shook her head and slipped the bullet into her pocket. Looking over to where a small fire smoldered in the light rain, she said, “Nothing. I’m just glad you’re alive. I’m glad magic is real.”
She allowed herself to be pulled back against him then. “It’s over,” he said, kissing the top of her head.
Audrey nodded. “Thank God, but…what do we do now?”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Audrey stood in the forest clearing, watching as the moon cast the world in silver light and the shadows of the night deepened. Tao was with her, walking the clearing’s perimeter and checking to be sure they were as alone as they thought they were. Mosquitoes whined in the air, but avoided sampling her blood thanks to a chemical laden bug spray. She fidgeted, nervous about what was to come.
The clearing Tao selected for their first change was tucked away in one of the more inaccessible parts of the woods that ringed Lake Michigan. A place people wouldn’t stumble upon unless they knew where it was. She and Tao were the welcoming committee. Her lips twisted in a wry smile as she pictured herself saying, ‘Congratulations you’re a werewolf, now take off your clothes and let’s get hairy together.’
Gah. Crazy, right? At least none of her coworkers had been bitten, sparing her that particular awkwardness.
Back in Glen Vine, Kai and Leo waited at the community center, breaking the news of what awaited Nick’s victims. Once everyone knew the truth, they would be directed to the clearing where they would shift and become one big happy, hairy werewolf family.
The last few days since Nick’s death had been crazy. Kai and Leo hustled Dan and Sam out-of-town. Kai claimed he’d done something so that they believed Nick wasn’t a threat anymore. Magic was real, and, apparently, you could rearrange someone’s brain with it. That had upset Tao and triggered a heated exchange between the brothers as to why the same hadn’t been done for Nick.
“Why not wipe out his memory? We could have saved him,” Tao had thundered, face dark with anger.
Kai had held up his hands. “Because, brother, I didn’t change who Dan was, I merely adjusted his memory. There’s no power that can change a wolf’s heart once it’s hardened. Nick was beyond even my abilities. Dan was driven by an event, Nick was driven by his very being. That can’t be changed.”
The whole thing creeped Audrey out. Magic alone was hard enough to accept, but Kai compounded it with his aloofness. He never had a straight answer for anything and specialized in cryptic, weird responses and conversational surprises that his brothers took in stride, but left Audrey trying to figure out which end was up.
She liked Leo, when he was around. The leonine wolf kept to himself, but was pleasant company with a wry sense of humor when she did see him. But she wondered about Kai. A lot. Except Tao loved him and Kai seemed to almost worship his brother in return. That made her feel better. Sometimes. Mostly when Kai’s mouth was shut. The second he opened it and shot out some strange weirdness, she got all anxious again.
“Try not to worry.” Finishing his circuit of the clearing, Tao came up behind her and laid a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “It’s going to be fine.”
She shook her head. “It’s just still hard to believe I’m going to be a werewolf tonight.” Without Nick menacing her every step, she could sometimes convince herself that it wasn’t real. For a nanosecond anyway. Once she caught sight of her still bandaged hand, denial didn’t work so well. “Are you sure I’ll change?” Another thing that worried her was how injuries kept werewolves from shifting. They’d put pins in her hand at the hospital and closed the wound left when Nick tore off her pinkie. Surely, that had to mess a werewolf up?