CHAPTER THIRTEEN
DEREK O'CONNER
I CLENCHED MY fist, released it and grabbed Rose's hand. She shook from unshed tears, smiling despite her pain as we watched Curtis waste away before our eyes. Sam, Drake and Father Patrick stood on the other side of his bed as Dr. Susie checked his vital signs and kept an IV going.
She looked up, her soothing energy settling us as a tear slid down her face. "Curtis… "
He coughed up blood. "I'm dying, aren't I? It's okay, I can feel it."
His fiancé, who stood next to me, grabbed his hand. "No, you're going to make it. I won't let you go."
I tried to imagine what I'd be feeling if it were Rose in that bed, but that just made me see red. I'd already come too close to losing her. I knew what it felt like, and my heart broke for Paul and Curtis, for the pain they were in right now.
Everyone looked dejected, ready for the end, but there had to be a way to save him.
As if in answer to my thoughts, Serena entered the room followed by her white cat, Angel, who ignored me as she passed by.
Dr. Susie frowned at the young girl. "Serena, we talked about this. You can't attempt this level of healing."
A tear trickled down her cheek. "I have to. How could I live with myself if he dies and I do nothing to stop it?"
Paul looked torn, but finally backed away from his fiancé to give Serena room next to him. Her small hand disappeared in his much larger hand. "Curtis, I'm going to try healing you, okay?"
"You shouldn't," he said. "If Dr. Susie thinks it's a bad idea, then I don't want you to risk it."
More tears filled her eyes, spilling down her face. "We can't lose you. You're the heart of this place. You're my friend. So I'm going to try."
She closed her eyes, and nobody interrupted as she focused inward. White light radiated from her hands, sliding over Curtis' body and pouring into the wound in his shoulder. It felt like forever, but couldn't have been more than a minute, when Serena collapsed.
I caught her before she hit the floor, lifting her into my arms as Dr. Susie rushed over to examine her. "Get her on the bed over here," she said.
The small girl weighed almost nothing, her skin too pale, the healthy glow on her cheeks gone. Once she was prone on the bed, Dr. Susie hooked up another IV, expertly starting the line as she took her blood pressure. "I never should have let her do this."
"Will she be okay?" I asked.
"I think so, but she'll be down for at least a week." The former nun turned doctor walked over to Curtis and examined his shoulder. "How do you feel?"
Curtis smiled, but it was a sad smile. "I felt her power, so pure and beautiful, but I also felt the disease in me push it out. I'm afraid I'm not better than I was before she tried."
Dr. Susie nodded. "That was our last hope. I've tried every medical treatment I can think of, and if Serena's power had no effect, I don't know what else to do."
Ryder and Bishop Sarlo chose that moment to push themselves into the room, coolly assessing the situation. I wanted to kick them out on their asses. They'd probably done this to Curtis and killed those other kids, and now they had the gall to show up here?
Father Patrick looked at us pointedly, but we didn't need any reminding not to mention Serena's powers. Of all the kids here, she was most at risk for exploitation. Instead, he greeted the two men who stood watching everyone. "Is there anything you can do to help this boy, given the nature of his injuries?"
The Bishop examined Curtis while Ryder growled at the group. "Where did this happen?"
Rose answered him, keeping her distance as if he might bite.
He sneered at us. "No more vigilante hunting. We'll take over from here."
That was it. "Excuse me? Like you guys are doing such a swell job of it so far? This monster is your doing. You let this happen, and I don't trust for a second that you can, or will, stop it."
Ryder didn't even bother to look at me. Prick. "If you mean this attacker is of the Church, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but he is not."
"I thought all lycans were part of the Church," I said. "If he's not, then what is he?"
"A lone wolf," Ryder said. "An outcast. He will be found. And he will be punished."
The Bishop finished his exam and sighed, making the sign of the cross over Curtis then turning to us. "There is nothing to be done, I'm afraid."
Rose gasped, and Sam frowned. Drake and I nearly lunged at the Bishop. Father Patrick and Dr. Susie just looked resigned. Paul, Curtis' fiancé, choked back a sob.
"But, isn't it a werewolf bite?" I asked, resisting the urge to pound his smug face into the ground.
"It appears it is," said the Bishop, "but I have no cure. No one does. The bite is infected with a deadly bacteria, and it is already tearing down his immune system."
Paul regained his voice. "How much time does he have left?"
"Not long," said the Bishop. "A day, at best."
Paul crumbled to the ground, putting his head on Curtis' bed. Curtis stroked his hair, murmuring comforting, if meaningless words to him, then kissed his hand.
The Bishop looked away in disdain, nostrils flaring as he faced Father Patrick. "I cannot not believe you have allowed this to go on." His voice, raised in outrage, reverberated through the room.
Father Patrick looked up, astonished. "What do you mean?"
Bishop Sarlo gestured toward the Curtis and Paul. "Heathen, unnatural practices." Then he pointed at Sam, who held a sleeping Ana. "Pregnancies. One might think you've opened a brothel."
Drake stepped up to the Bishop, rage on his face. "Are you calling my wife a whore?"
The Bishop only smiled in that pompously arrogant way he had. I looked to Drake and nodded. I had his back, and he knew it. We could take these assholes.
"Do not be offended, young man," the Bishop said. "This is Father Patrick's wrongdoing. These practices will be eliminated, once I am in charge."
"You will never run this place," Drake said, advancing on the Bishop.
Ryder moved between them, facing Drake. "We have decided there may be a use for this place," he said. "Do not make us change our decision."
"Or?"
"Or I'll kill you."
"Try."
Ryder roared, and I slammed into him, pushing him against the wall with my hands around his neck. One twist and I could snap it.
"Fight me first," I growled.
Ryder sneered. "You protect his kind?"
"I protect everyone at this school. We have welcomed you here," I said, fuming. "Do not make us change our decision."
Ryder's vein pulsed in his forehead, and his eyes turned bloodshot. "You want to die, shifter?"
I laughed. "Is that a challenge?" This bastard had no idea what my training had been. I had multiple black belts, not to mention shifter strength and druid magic. Let him try.
"Please," Curtis' voice, so faint, stopped me from ending Ryder. "Stop fighting. We are all victims here."
"They've lost nothing," I said, but I released him. Only for Curtis. If he really was going to die soon, I wouldn't let this be his last memory.
"When news of these attacks grow," Curtis said in a whisper, "people will turn on all of us. They'll blame shifters. They'll blame lycans."
"My kind is innocent," I said, keeping my eye on Ryder.
"People won't care. To them we're all the same. We're all monsters." Curtis squeezed Paul's hand more tightly, his body already so frail. "Please, the world out there is hard for all of us. This must be where we, no matter how different, are accepted. A place where we are loved."
Curtis gazed into Paul's eyes and smiled. "We all need love from time to time."
I wished I could believe what he believed, wished I could live a life that believed in the inherent goodness of human nature, but I'd seen too much. If I couldn't believe, and I couldn't fight, then I couldn't be here.
I turned and stormed out the door.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
DRAKE DAVIS
ANA
GIGGLED AND walked a few steps on chubby toddler legs before falling on her bottom. I clapped for her, then picked her up and took her to the couch to cuddle while Sam cooked dinner.
Our cottage was small, but had two bedrooms, a cozy living room and an attached kitchen. We had what we needed and were only a short walk to the mansion.
I watched my wife as she stirred the stew and put a few slices of sourdough in the oven to toast with butter and garlic. The scent made my stomach rumble, and Ana patted my belly. “Dada hungry.”
I laughed and kissed her nose. “That’s right, Daddy’s hungry.”
Ana’s small hand gripped mine, her trusting eyes, as blue as Sam’s, looked straight into me, and I wondered again what her powers would be. With her genetics, we could only guess, but we knew she’d be remarkable.
Then I thought of Curtis, and the pain he was in, emotionally and physically.
“Sam, were you able to read anything else from the Bishop and Ryder?”
She came in and joined us on the couch while the food finished cooking, and Ana reached for her. “Mama. Hold me.”
Sam’s face lit up with love and joy as she took our daughter into her arms. “They're sad about Curtis.”
"I didn't feel that."
"Sympathy is often logical, not emotional."
“They must be hiding something,” I said.
“Maybe,” she said, frowning. “But they focus so much on the present. I wouldn’t know if they had any bad intentions until they'd committed the acts."
"Is that normal?"
"Not really. I've only known a few who could stay so focused on just what was right in front of them. But as leaders of the Church, perhaps they're trained in such things."
I sighed. “I guess that makes sense.”
“What did you feel from them?” she asked, playing peek-a-boo with Ana.
“Anxiety, anger, judgment. But that could be from so many things. Emotions are hard to interpret.”
Sam paused her game and looked at me, eyes haunted. “I did see one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“Ryder. You have to be careful around him.” She looked down at Ana, then slipped into her mind-talking mode. He imagined killing you.
I pulled her and our daughter into my arms. “I don’t need to be a mind-reader to tell that. I could feel his anger at me, though I don’t know why.”
“Do you worry that the lycan will attack our school?” she asked, again looking at Ana who had snuggled into her arms sucking on her thumb, her eyelids fluttering closed.
That would make sense. If the lycan was in fact targeting paranormals, an entire school of them would be a prime target. Once again, it seemed all those we cared about were in danger, just for being different. “We’ll have to set up a patrol,” I said. “Those with defensive powers can help.”
"I hope the shifters catch whoever is doing this."
"I hope so too," I said. And I hope, once they do, that they’re strong enough to defeat it.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
ROSE O'CONNER
BEING IN WOLF form with my family felt so good, despite the reason Derek, Dean, Tammy and I were scouring the woods tonight. In human form I would have been nervous, but as a wolf, the thrill of the hunt consumed me, setting aside all worries about what would happen if we actually found the lycan we hunted.
We'd found a set of tracks near where Curtis and I had been attacked. They looked like wolf, but larger and longer. We now knew these kinds of tracks to be lycan.
We followed them, sniffing out the trail and only finding a human scent that wasn't distinct in any way. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I probably wouldn't recognize this scent if I met the person attached to it, despite the fact that I was smelling it right now. It had a forgettable quality to it that I now attributed to magic.
We'd hope to find a new trail of human prints, something that would lead us to the person turned lycan. To the murderer.
Instead, the tracks stopped near the edge of the woods. They just… disappeared. As if the person or animal had flown away.
Dean whined in disappointment, his big eyes frustrated. Derek nipped at him when Dean didn't turn back toward our base where we'd left our clothes.
Heads down, still sniffing, we made our way back and started to shift back.
I had to admit I wasn't entirely comfortable being nude in front of Dean, and despite the general assumption that all shifters were okay with nudity, I didn't think Derek loved the idea of his brother seeing me naked either.
I hid behind a tree and Dean turned his head as I shifted.
But.
I.
Couldn't.
Shift.
Panic took over as I willed myself back to human, only to remain in wolf form. I howled, scratching at the ground. Derek and the others had already shifted and were dressed. Derek approached me, concern on his human face. "Rose, what's wrong? Why aren't you shifting?"
I whimpered, nudging him with my nose, shaking as I tried to force the change.
I couldn't breathe, couldn't think, as I laid down and stared into the forest.
My shaking increased, and I realized Derek's arms were around me.
Human me, not wolf me.
I'd shifted. Thank the heavens.
Breathing deeply, I pressed myself against him.
"What happened?" he asked.
I didn't want to talk about it now, so I pulled on my clothes. "We'd better get home."
He looked worried, but didn't push it.
As we headed to the car, Derek noticed someone looking at us. His body tensed. "What's he doing?"
I looked to where he pointed. "That's Billy, the brother of one of the victims. He was with us when we were attacked. He saw me shift."
Derek growled low in his throat and stood guard as I got into the car.
As we drove away, Billy watched us with squinted eyes, hands gripping his shotgun.
Despite our day, or maybe because of it, I needed Derek inside of me, needed to feel him close to me. If we could become one body, I think I would do it, just to be closer to him.
After, our bodies gleaming with sweat, our minds’ empty, I nuzzled his chest, running my fingers over his hard muscles and the soft hair that trailed down to his cock.
It twitched, and I smiled. "Ready for round two?"
He kissed me and something stirred deep in my belly, but my mind inexplicably flashed to earlier, when I couldn't shift out of wolf form.
Breaking the mood, I pulled back, just enough to look at him. "Why can't shifters turn into animals other than wolves?"
He paused, and I wondered if he'd brush me off again, but he surprised me by answering. "It was forbidden long ago by our people. There are stories, horrific stories, of people shifting back to human, but parts of their body staying in the animal form they embodied. This never happens with wolf, but any other animal that has been tried, has resulted in failure of some kind. Sometimes a person would shift and be stuck as that animal forever, eventually losing all humanity and turning wild. There's never been anyone in our history who has mastered the act of shifting into anything other than wolf without paying a very high price for it."
His words chilled me to the bone and as he held me, falling asleep, I lay awake thinking about what it felt like to be stuck in wolf form, and what it felt like in my dream, turning into a bear and dying.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
DEREK O'CONNER
A POUNDING WOKE me. I jerked away, reaching for Rose instinctually. She lay sleeping beside me, but woke quickly at the next wave of knocking.
Her eyes looked swollen from lack of sleep, and I wondered what she dreamed that had her tossing and turning lately. "Who's at the door at this hour?" she asked in her sleepy voice.
I slid out of bed and pulled on jeans. "I'll check."
Drake stood on our porch, his face a mask of grief. "You and Rose should come to the Infirmary. Curtis is dying."
When I
went back to get Rose, she was already dressed. "I heard. Let's go."
The small room was crowded when we arrived. Father Patrick and Bishop Sarlo were already there, discussing something in hushed tones. Ryder was absent, which was a good thing for him. Paul sat in a chair by Curtis' bed, and I was sure he hadn't left all night.
Sam and Drake arrived. "Sorry it took so long," Sam said. "We had to find someone to watch Ana." She walked over to Curtis. "How are you feeling?"
"At peace," he said, smiling.
Just then, Bernard, or Professor Shaw as the students called him, walked in, still wearing a suit and tie, from his trip. "Forgive me for being gone so long. I got back to the country as fast as I could." He gripped Curtis' free hand. "I'm so sorry this has happened to you."
It was good to have him back, though he was looking particularly worn out.
Curtis cleared his throat, and we all fell silent. "Thank you for coming," he said. "I fear I won't last long."
Paul sucked in his breath. "I can't lose you. Not yet. Should we… " he paused. "Should we marry? Father Patrick can perform the ceremony now."
Curtis shook his head. "I love you, but I won't tie you to a dead man. I want you to promise me you'll live a happy, full life, in my memory, and for yourself."
I felt like we were intruding on a private scene, but these were our friends, our extended family, and if Curtis wanted us here, we'd stay.
Before Paul could respond, shouting from outside interrupted him.
It was 3 a.m., so any noise outside was cause for alarm, plus we had kids in different dorms sleeping.
Ocean, who hadn't been as close to Curtis as we had, stormed into the room. "You guys have to come. There are people outside screaming and, I think they're picketing us. They have signs, poorly written and misspelled signs, saying things like 'dye freaks'—spelled with a y, by the way, and 'mutants are evil.' Some of them look armed."
I pulled away from Rose. "I'll take care of them."
Ocean looked at everyone, and her eyes fell on Curtis. "I can't believe they're doing this now of all times. I can use the water in the lake to drown them."
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