by Jeff Hale
“Hold on, Katie, there’s something in leg,” Alex said, wiping blood away from the back of Darien’s leg.
Angry tears were streaming down my face. “His shoulder, too. I think it’s more silver, get it out of him.” I took the end of the silver in my fingers and tugged as hard as I could, feeling it slide wetly from him, then chucked it away. I saw Alex fling another one across the ground. Darien still wasn’t moving. There had to be more.
I found another on his other shoulder, in the back, almost hidden by blood and ragged skin, but even after removing that one, there was no change. With his back as mutilated as it was, I didn’t want to turn him over, but we were missing more silver somewhere.
“Here, Katie, help me roll him,” Alex told me, wincing.
I braced myself, hoping he couldn’t feel it as we moved him, and then I was cradling him in my lap, blood from him covering my legs and stomach. The two barbs were easy to find, the tree having protected his front side. Alex removed them, dropping them to the snow to join the others.
“Bloody hell, whoever did this to him was trying to kill him.”
“One was pinning him to the tree, too.”
Silver made us unable to shift and unable to heal, at least shifter fast, while it was in our system. It could cause scars, and even once gone from our bodies, those wounds caused by it would still take almost human time to heal without some other supernatural help, like the salve Matt had used on Darien when he’d been shot.
Darien’s whole body began to jerk then, for several seconds, before he took a deep, ragged breath and let it out in a scream that made me want to kill whoever had done this to him. The wounds began to quit bleeding, although they still oozed sluggishly, raw and red, but the rest of his system was flooding with adrenaline now, repairing what it could. It shocked me that he was even healing at all, but maybe stronger shifters resisted it better. His eyes fluttered open to look up at me. I let out a sigh of relief, smiling down at him.
He shuddered, something between fear and hatred going through his dark brown eyes, and then he pushed himself away from me with a howl, scrambling clumsily across the ground to crouch on all fours and snarl at me. “Get away from me, you bitch!”
I was stunned, hurt going through me at his words and actions, at the emotions that mirrored them that I could feel off of him. Obviously I’d been wrong and he hadn’t forgiven me for what I’d done. Tears sprang to my eyes and I ducked my head in shame.
“Darien? What the bloody fuck?” Alex demanded harshly.
There was silence for a good minute, broken only by Darien’s labored breathing. “Alex?” Darien finally said. “I can feel you both in my head.”
“What the hell is wrong with you, Darien?”
“Kat?” He crawled closer to me, face tensing in pain as he put weight on his hands. The emotions coming off him melted away. He sniffed the air as though he wasn’t sure. I felt him push closer to my face, his skin on mine, as he inhaled deeply into my hair near my neck. “Kat,” he said again, his voice filled with relief as he collapsed back onto my lap, nuzzling his face into my chest, arms circling my waist tightly as though he were afraid to let go. “God, she made me think she was you.”
“Who did?” I dropped a kiss on the top of his head, rested my face against his hair, tried to find a safe place to put my hands that wasn’t raw and ragged flesh.
“The bitch who did this to me.” Darien shuddered. “Her cottage is just through the trees, we need to get out of here. She said she kills the wolves who escape Grimm.”
I looked in the direction he indicated, just making out a small building through the branches and choked back a tired laugh. A cruel woman in a cottage in the middle of a German forest? It was the basis of many a fairy tale. I’d kill whoever she was for doing this to him. The thought made me pull away from Darien and move forward through the trees to see the cottage better. I was going to have a little forceful talk with that woman.
I stopped short where the trees opened into a large yard around the cottage. There were no lights on, although I could still see small bits of smoke coming from the chimney. The lack of light didn’t matter; I could see the place perfectly well, the moonlight shining off the snow. A shiver of dread went down my spine.
Pelts hung from the outside walls, several of them, of varying colors, with the heads still attached, and some of them were obviously from wolf shifters in Aspect. The others were full wolf, but huge, like they came from shifters as well, in their wolf form. Short stakes with large wolf skulls lined the ground under each window, like some kind of macabre flowers and a chill went through me. Whoever lived in that cottage was way more dangerous that I could ever hope to be.
Much as I wanted to mete out justice on that woman, I knew with a certainty, especially in the condition that Darien was in, that going up and knocking on her door was tantamount to suicide. I carefully moved back through the trees to Alex and Darien, who both gave me questioning looks.
“Oh, hell no, we are not even going near that place,” I said, leaving no room for argument. “We have a car, back at the road, a few miles out. Do you think you can shift?” I asked Darien, my eyes meeting Alex’s. It was going to be rough going if Darien was stuck walking or we were stuck carrying him.
“I really don’t have a choice, now do I?” he asked, pulling away from me. “But, yeah, I can. Not sure how far I’ll be able to make it, but I can shift.” He did so, and there was a large black wolf breathing warm air in my face.
“Uck, dog breath,” I said, but I laughed, shifting back to lynx. Alex was already in dingo form, and skirting out around the area where the cottage lay, we headed back in the direction of the car.
We made it back to the Mini without any further mishap, although Darien began to flag severely by the time we got there. It was a little after dawn and we were all tired, but Darien was barely moving. We all went back to human, Darien leaning heavily on the little trunk, while Alex started the car and I got our bags out of the back seat. I dug out clothing for myself, then rooted through Alex’s stuff to find something that would fit Darien. I hadn’t even realized it until I saw Darien pulling on a spare pair of Alex’s jeans and shirt that they weren’t as tight on him as they should be; he’d lost weight over the last several months.
I put the bags on the floor in the front, figuring they could ride under my feet, then helped him into the small back seat. When I went to get in the front with Alex, Darien’s hand on mine stopped me.
“No, please, stay back here with me,” he said weakly, eyes pleading with me. “It’s been too long, I need to feel you next to me.” Blood was already staining the clothes from the slow healing injuries.
“It’ll help him,” Alex put in, looking at me over the back seat. His mouth was set in a tight line, fighting the desire to have me up front with him and do what was best for Darien.
I shut the passenger door and crawled in the back with Darien, who moved around so that I was snuggled cozily against his chest, his legs stretched out as best as possible along the floorboards. Alex put the little car into gear, got it back on the pavement, and then we left the Forest behind us.
_________________________________
We stopped at the little grocery store again on the way back to Stuttgart. I’d left my purse in the car earlier, Alex’s wallet tucked inside it, so we still had money and plastic, but the food we’d bought earlier had been lost with the backpacks.
As we continued our drive, I got Darien to eat as much as I could, knowing he’d need it to help heal. I would have suggested we stop to hunt, but Darien was far too weak. Alex and I both ate as though we were famished as well, and by the time we pulled back into the airport in Stuttgart, where Stefano’s private plane was waiting for us, I wasn’t sure I wanted to see junk food again for quite a while.
The flight back to Athens was quiet. We had patched up Darien’s slow healing wounds as best we could, then Alex had curled up in one of the plush chairs, headphones on as he started u
p a movie to watch. Darien had fallen asleep in another chair, leaving me to stare out the little window as the night shrouded landscape went by. I swiped Alex’s phone and called Stefano, letting him know that we were returning with Darien and we’d be back in the next couple of hours. To my surprise, he was actually there waiting when we landed.
Darien returned his father’s hug stiffly, his face unreadable, before following him over to the large silver sedan that was waiting for us. It was almost a mini limo, with a front seat for the driver and two bench seats facing each other in the back. We climbed in, Darien making sure to pull me onto the seat next to him, while Alex sat next to Stefano, trying to hide his disappointment, but I saw the hurt look he flashed me.
“You cut your hair,” Stefano said as the car pulled away. There was worry in his eyes. “Your mother’s going to be very upset when she sees you.”
Darien looked at his father, not meeting the older shifter’s eyes. “She won’t, she’ll understand.”
“Will she?” he asked, tilting his head. “Maybe she will.” His eyes flicked to Darien’s bloodied hands, noted the blood seeping through his clothes. “We need to have a doctor see to you, you aren’t healing.” He called someone on his cell phone, told them to meet him at the villa. Stefano then switched his gaze to me, where Darien had me pulled possessively to his side. “So, did you two work things out? Are you together now?”
Darien grew still beside me, letting me answer, letting me make the decision. “Yes, we did… we are,” I said, and felt Darien relax next to me. I didn’t miss the way Alex flinched at my words, or the pleased smile that curled Stefano’s lips.
“So, then, is there a wedding planned anytime soon?” Stefano asked, hopeful.
It was my turn to tense up, but Darien’s words put me at ease.
“No, not any time soon. One day. Maybe,” he said, squeezing my hand.
A memory went through my mind, of Darien staring at me in hurt betrayal as I hid behind Aerick. I can do maybe, he’d told me then and I hadn’t believed him. I did now.
“Well, at any rate, I still want you and your pack to do what we had talked about. I have the concurrence of the World Council and permission to do the rites. They mainly want you in the western United States, there’s already another pack that spends its time over there…” Stefano said, but after a moment Darien cut him off.
“Listen, Stefano, tomorrow, all right? I’m way too tired to go over it tonight.” Darien yawned, and I could feel him sagging against me.
“What happened?” Stefano’s eyes narrowed at us. “Why aren’t you healing?”
“Nothing,” Darien told him, his words beginning to sound sleep slurred, “nothing you need to worry about. You sent them, they got me, I’m back… and I’ll argue with you about putting them in danger tomorrow too…” His eyes fluttered closed on the last word and he slumped sideways in the seat.
Stefano gave me a questioning look, but if Darien didn’t want his father to know, then I wasn’t going to tell him. When we got to the villa, Darien was still out cold. There was someone else there, someone Stefano introduced as Olin, his surgeon, and between the three of them, the surgeon, Alex and Stefano got Darien inside and into one of the downstairs bedrooms. As the surgeon began stripping Darien’s clothes off of him to better tend to him, I heard a hiss escape Stefano.
He reached out and gingerly touched one of the marks, turning to me with alarm in his eyes. “What happened to my son?”
“We don’t know,” Alex replied. “We got separated getting him away from that pack, and then that’s how Katie and I found him later. He claimed a woman did it to him.”
“Whoever it was had staked him to a tree with silver spikes,” I added, tamping down the anger I felt at remembering how we’d found him.
Stefano took a closer look, confirming to himself just how much damage had been done, and I saw him note that the marks continued down past the waistband of the jeans. “He’s been flogged. And if it’s taking this much to heal and they’re scarring, which they are, then it was a supernatural weapon that was used.” He sighed, looking like nothing more than a concerned parent. “Come, Alexander, let’s get you settled in for evening as well while Olin does what he can for Darien.” He stood and motioned for Alex to exit the room. “I’ll see the two of you in the morning, Katelyn.”
I stared at the door as it closed behind them, wondering what it was that Darien’s father had planned for us. I’d find out tomorrow it seemed. I waited for Olin the surgeon to clean Darien’s wounds and bandage them. He gave me a nod when he left and I crawled onto the bed next to Darien. I tucked myself up against his stomach, burying my face in the curve of his neck, and for the first time in the last six months, I fell asleep feeling like I was home.
ELEVEN
DARIEN
I was ravenously hungry, but I wanted to wash the shame off my skin before I faced my father or Alex again, let alone Kat.
The warm water felt good against my skin, although my back still stung like it was raw; it probably was, I couldn’t see it all that well myself, but I still remembered the feel of that silver whip biting into my flesh.
There were holes in my hands, although they had finally quit oozing blood and now were scabbing up. So had the other ones, in my thigh and collarbone. It would be a while before they were gone.
I had no clue who that woman had been. I had been fooled so easily into thinking she was Kat, then had made love to her. It wasn’t that I hadn’t slept with other women since Sasha, since I had met Kat, but I hadn’t made love to those other women, and yesterday had been meant to be given to Kat, not stolen by some witch in the woods who had then tried to flay the skin from my bones before leaving me nailed to a tree to die.
I’d only ever seen one other person who could conjure weaponry out of thin air like that woman had: Aerick, and he’d left me with a stab wound from an ice blade that had taken days to heal. I didn’t know if this woman was a sorcerer like Aerick was, but all things pointed to it.
I knew what they were, sorcerers, and I had had a couple run ins with some in the past, a long time ago, before I’d even met Sasha, back when Matt and I had run with the wrong type of people. But I had never actually fought one until I’d made the mistake of challenging Aerick that day, and from what I had seen, and felt, Aerick made those other magic users I’d seen look like street magicians. Kat had made mention that Aerick wasn’t a sorcerer exactly, that he was something called a Sentinel. I wondered if that woman had been one of those as well.
The bathroom door opened, shut, and then the shower door slid back a few inches as Kat peered in at me. She smiled, blue eyes lingering on my face before slowly traveling up and down my body. She was making sure I knew that she was ogling me and that knowledge set something stirring; not just lower down, but in my heart as well. That flare of happiness was quickly stamped down by the knowledge of what had happened with the woman in the forest.
“Care to share the water?” Kat asked, the corner of her mouth curling up in a mischievous grin, and before I could answer, she pushed the shower door open far enough to slip inside, then closed it behind her.
I swallowed, closed my eyes, opened them again, felt a lump in my throat. Steam clung to her skin, began to curl her red hair as it fell down her back. She wasn’t wearing anything, was standing before me with hands resting on her narrow hips, breasts begging to be touched. I’d seen her this way yesterday, too, but with the knowledge that she and I were both being forced by Grimm, I hadn’t been able to appreciate her fully.
I dropped my eyes. “I need to tell you something.”
“Uh oh, sounds serious.”
I glanced back up to her. Her smile was gone and there was a vulnerability in the expression on her face, as though she were expecting to hear me say I didn’t want to be with her.
Far from it. I was just afraid she’d change her mind if she knew, and I knew I had to tell her.
“It’s about yesterday,” I said, not qu
ite sure how to say it.
“Ah. Yeah.” Her cheeks grew almost as red as her hair. “I’m sorry about that. I usually don’t carry on like such a slut.”
She thought I meant what Grimm had made her do. Damn. “No, not that, that wasn’t your fault, don’t even think it was. That was Grimm and his cruel idea of amusement.”
“Grimm? The tall blonde?”
“Yeah.” I looked away, not wanting her to see the guilt I felt at letting myself get drawn into Grimm’s group, his lifestyle. I’d gotten lost like that once before, had made a mess of my life then even worse than now, and it had taken a little Romani beauty who had stolen my heart to save me. Even though she was wearing a different body and had no recollection of her previous life, she was saving me again.
“I’m sorry, Darien,” she whispered, sorrow in her eyes.
“For what?”
She bit her lip, turning her head to the side. “For hurting you, making you run away.”
“Oh, Kat, no. I was being stupid, pushing you too hard. Maybe if I’d done things a bit different…. But I did something to you that never should have happened, and I can never make that up to you. It’s just sometimes I forget how young you are.”
Her head tilted and her eyes slewed back to mine. “Yes, there is a rather larger age difference than I expected, isn’t there?”
I didn’t answer right away. She knew, knew that I had lied to her about my age. Someone had told her, probably my father, since I’d hidden it from Alex as well, and Matt wouldn’t have told her, even under torture.
“Does it make that much difference?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No, not really. But you could have told me the truth.”
“Maybe I should have, I don’t know. I’m not proud of a lot of the things I did when I was younger, Kat.”