“Gross,” I managed to eke out, but I wasn’t feeling so hot myself now. “Get THIS CAGE OFF!” I yelled with my last bit of strength, and then everything was fading, like it always did when I was in a vision. My fingertips started tingling, and the world grayed out. The next thing I knew I felt strong arms wrapped around me, holding me up against a sturdy chest. It didn’t smell at all familiar to me, and as I opened my eyes, I realized why. It was the man my father had passed my body off to. He was one of Avery’s wolves. I cleared my throat, “can you put me down, please?”
The poor guy was startled out of his mind and nearly dropped me. I turned in time to see Asriel laughing at me as Avery was directing his men to get one either side of the cage. Some were going to try pulling it over from one side while the others were going to attempt to tip it up. “Be careful, the metal’s been treated, and this shit burns.” I went over to add my strength in the mix. Some of the guys were wrapping their shirts around their hands to protect them. I didn’t bother. I’d been burned by this stuff before. It was going to hurt like hell, but my grip was more important than trying to avoid a little pain. It took us another five minutes to finally get the cage to lift and tip backwards. Then I was down, feeling for a pulse on Mikael’s body. I couldn’t find one. “Damn it, why didn’t we bring Ashley along?” I finally felt a pulse, but it was weak, barely there. I leaned over to whisper in his ear, “you need to come back to me now.”
“There are some long purple bell looking flowers over here.” Evan spoke up in a shaky voice from over where I had seen the witch making her concoctions earlier.
“Wolf’s bane?” I asked.
“No, this is different,” Evan said, and held the long stemmed plant up.
“Foxglove. It’s foxglove, Digitoxin poisoning slows the heartbeat,” one of Avery’s men offered up.
“Someone call Ashley. I need to know what to do.” Asi was on the phone before I leaned back down. “Come on, you have to fight this shit!” I begged him as I put my head down on his chest to listen to his faint heartbeat. It was going so slow, and for a wolf, that just wasn’t normal. Usually our hearts beat faster than average, and our temperatures were raised. He already felt colder than he should. I was certain the concrete floor wouldn’t help with that, so I did the only thing I knew to do, I curled up as tightly to him as I could. “Asi? What does she say, because he feels cold, and his heart is so slow?”
“She said something about needing to pump his stomach, activated charcoal. We have to get as much of the poison to come out as possible.”
“Where the hell do we get that? We don’t have time to get him to the hospital and they’d never understand his vitals when they come back.” I said.
“Is there an emergency kit around here? Some work crews leave them, maybe he even had one here just in case. I mean, this place is going to be for holding animals right?”
Everyone spread out and started looking around the building. I just stayed there plastered to Mikael’s body, trying to keep him warm. I ran my fingers through his hair, and kept whispering to him, “please, don’t leave me. Please, come back.” There was some shouting off in a far corner of the building, but I had tuned everything else out. “Please, Mikael, I need you. I love you. Don’t you give up on me.”
“Jess,” it was Evan, with his hand on my shoulder. “I need you to move out of the way, sweetheart. We found what we need, and this is going to get messy.”
I hadn’t even realized I had started crying at some point. “Evan…” his name stretched on in an appeal I couldn’t even get out all the way.
“I know, just stand back. We’ll fix him up.” There was a trace of hurt in his eyes, but he shifted, and started moving to get behind Mikael and hold him up. My father came and took me in his arms, his hand petting through my hair as he spoke soft, encouraging words to me. I couldn’t even tell anyone what those words were. I wasn’t hearing anything.
“Come on, brother.” Evan’s demanding voice made me look up in time to see Avery sticking a long plastic tube in Mikael’s mouth, and he was pouring a small bottle of something into the other end, funneling it down. When the entire bottle had been tossed up and thrown aside, I looked away again, burying my head in my dad’s chest.
“Don’t let him die. Please, don’t let him die.” It was my mantra, and I wasn’t sure if I was saying it out loud or just in my head, or a mixture of both. It was just on instant repeat. Time stood still, in truth, it felt like time was going backwards for me now. Then, I heard a gagging, choking sound, and someone was getting sick. My father tensed his arms around me as he looked over my head, watching what was happening. I wasn’t sure I wanted to turn and see, but I had to know.
When I finally twisted around to look, it was in time to see Mikael leaning back into Evan’s arms. He looked like shit, but he was moving, and breathing, and looking right at me. I took off, pushing my dad’s arms away, and slid across the floor to where Mikael was being cradled in his brother’s arms still. When I got there he tried to talk, but his throat was raw and scratchy, so it sounded awful. “You were here.”
“I was here, with you,” I whispered to him, as I rubbed my fingers across his cheeks, making sure his temperature was coming back up.
“Yeah, she was actually in you for a while, and let me tell you what kind of a creep-fest that was.” Evan was chuckling as he said it, and Mikael looked puzzled.
“It’s a long story, we’ll fill you in later.” I moved to get closer, but Mikael suddenly looked alarmed, and then pushed me away with a wobbly hand as he leaned back over and started throwing up some more.
“That’s right, brother, always the charmer with the women!” Evan was teasing him again, and caught Mikael’s elbow in his gut for his efforts. “Hey, now, is that any way to treat your brother?”
Mikael growled in response, in between gut-wrenching dry heaves. I felt for him. It could have been much worse though. I had been kneeling beside Mikael, and finally just gave up, and fell back on my ass. I was exhausted. I wasn’t sure what kind of energy it had sucked out of my to do the mind meld thing I had with Mikael while he’d been unconscious, but it was taking its toll on me now. I felt sick to my stomach too, but for entirely different reasons. For one, I wanted to be out of this room and away from that damn cage. It was taunting me, even on its side the way it was. I felt like it would snap its iron jaws down shut on us at any moment.
“Jess? Are you okay?” Evan was asking me, having probably seen the moment of sheer panic cross my face.
“I’d really like to get far away from that thing.” I said, nodding in the direction of the cage. My dad was there then, helping me up. I didn’t want to be separated from Mikael though.
“I’m bringing him right behind you, Jess. Go with your dad.” Evan assured me he’d bring Mikael right out, so I nodded to him and let my dad pull me away. He tucked me into the center seat of his truck, where I had been on the way here. I sat there, shivering for a minute until my body temperature regulated itself. It wasn’t really cold outside, I just apparently had a few unresolved issues with being caged and seeing people I loved almost dying. I looked up in time to see the passenger side door opening. Evan was helping get Mikael in the truck, and he handed us a plastic bucket that had been at the construction site.
“Just in case,” he added. “We’ll see you back at the house in a few.” Evan looked past Mikael then, at me, “I don’t think anyone could doubt your love for my brother.” There was that twinge of sadness in his voice again, but also of pride, and something else. “After what happened to you, enduring that time in the cage…” he just shook his head slowly, then turned his attention back to Mikael. “You’re one lucky bastard. I hope you know that.”
Mikael nodded, then looked at me, and whispered hoarsely, “I do.”
~*~
Mikael and I had a week to recuperate. The first two days, everyone insisted that we stay in my parents’ house on the pack’s lands so we could be looked after. On the thir
d day, Mikael insisted that we stay at his house, because both of us were tired of the constant fluttering of people in and out to check on us.
I thoroughly enjoyed the peace and quiet being away from the pack lands afforded us. I was thankful that so many people cared, but I needed some rest, and it wasn’t happening there with so many visitors. Ashley and Asi stopped by, but I didn’t mind that so much. The Reynolds family held a human style funeral for Jack, and we all went to that, but I couldn’t help thinking it was a somber, awful ceremony in comparison to our sending off at the lake. It’s what his family wanted though, and I understood them needing to stick to their own traditions.
The funeral had been two days ago, and I was still thinking about it non-stop. Tonight, was the summer solstice celebration, and I wished Jack could be here for it. He would tease me to no end about my ‘fake’ bonding ceremony, since everyone already knew by now that I was bound to Mikael. He would have been so proud of me though. I could imagine one of his great big bear hugs before we went out there, in front the pack, and vowed to be one forever. I could imagine him giving me a thumbs up from the sidelines as I explained to the pack that I was, indeed, the white wolf of legends. Part of the ceremony would involve me shifting to prove what I was. While some of the pack had already seen my wolf form, others had not, and it was an important part of the ceremony, sort of a coming out for legendary wolf leaders.
With Malachai having run off somewhere, there was no one else to challenge me as the leader of our people. Mikael stood by my side, to be my partner in that endeavor, and Evan didn’t make a claim. Instead, he was planning to stand beside us.
Of course, all of this hinged on me actually showing up on time for my own damn party. I was still blow drying my hair when Mikael poked his head in the bathroom. “We’re going to be late, Jess.”
“I know, I’m coming,” I called back to him. He grinned as he slid back out of the room to finish getting ready himself. I put the hair drier down, stopped procrastinating, and slipped the sundress on that I had out for the occasion. It was a light, pale green dress that came just above my knees, and had tiny little straps to hold it in place on my shoulders. It was a simple thing, but beautiful in its simplicity. Besides, it came off easily, which was a bonus when you had to shift in front of a crowd.
My nerves were pulling at me the whole ride to the pack lands. “What if they all hate me, and no one wants a white wolf ruler anymore?”
“Jess, no one hates you.”
“That’s not true. How many attempts on my life have there been now?” I meant it as sort of a joke, but I noticed how Mikael flinched. “Sorry, too soon to joke about everything, huh?”
“Yeah, Jess. I think jokes about people trying to kill you will always be off limits.” We both got quiet again after that, and after a while, Mikael reached over and took my hand in his. “You’ll be fine. People will love you, they already do. Besides, my father was the last leader of the wolves. I’m pretty sure you can’t possibly do anything to look bad after that.”
“Great, so I’m an acceptable leader by default, because we can’t do any worse?” I was laughing at him then. “Yeah, that was a confidence booster!”
“All right, smart ass! If anyone goes against you, they’ll have me to deal with, and they don’t want that. Now, you can add threats of violence to the list of shitty reasons why you’re perfect for the job. We could think of a few more too, I bet.”
“Shut up or I won’t bond with you tonight!”
“Oh, you’ll bond with me, all right! I have it on good authority that you can’t resist all this,” he gestured wildly to himself, and then let out a satisfied sounding growl.
I rolled my eyes at him right as we pulled up in front of my parents’ house. “Well, I guess we are running late, everyone looks antsy out there.” My parents, Ashley, Asi, and Evan were standing there, looking rather impatient as we got out of the Jeep.
“Glad you two could join us,” Ashley called out.
“It’s my party, and I can be late if I want to.” I stuck my tongue out at her, which earned me a laugh. I cherished it, because Ashley hadn’t laughed a lot since her brother was killed. Not that I blamed her. I had been thinking of Jack earlier, myself.
“Shall we?” Mikael offered his arm to me. I accepted the gesture and walked arm in arm with him towards the lake. We decided to have the ceremonies there instead of the usual pack meeting place. It was my way of having Jack with us, because he was right, it was much nicer there anyway.
When we got to the lake, the entire pack was there, along with some delegates from a few other packs that lived within easy travel distance. They were in the same sort of semi-circle formation that the pack had made around us when we sent Jack off into the next world. I nodded my head at those who parted for us to enter the circle formed by the lake and our people. My mom, Ashley, Asi, and Evan stayed behind, joining the circle as my father walked Mikael and I to the center.
“Thank you all for coming out tonight. This, the longest day of the year, the day that holds so much sunshine and promise... The night that leads into another year of transition for our people… This the summer solstice celebration. This is our welcome to our new pack mates, to those friends who come from afar, to family, and to new beginnings, and tragic endings. We celebrate those who have gone, those who have come, and those who are joining together tonight.
My daughter, Jessica Marie St. Marks has been joined and bound to a Prince of our kind, Mikael De’ Lune. They have known the exquisite act of sharing one soul within two bodies. Two have become one, and shall this night be recognized by our people.”
Howls erupted from everyone in attendance, even though they were all still in human form. It was a tradition of ours, and one that put a smile on my face. As Mikael and I turned to face each other, and joined our hands so that our palms touched with fingers outstretched. We both thought of our bond then, and what it was like to create it in the first place, and I swore I could feel the same warmth from the light that had flowed through us that day, flowing back and for the between the two of us then. Judging from my father’s face, I wasn’t far off. There was a glow in Mikael’s eyes as I looked upon his face that hadn’t been there a moment ago. He was mine, and I was completely his. We both spoke the one word required of us for this part of the ceremony. “Always.”
Cheers, hoots, and howls broke out among the crowd, as our bonding ceremony was now complete. That wasn’t the part I had been dreading though. As I turned my back on the crowd to look at my father, I heard a chorus of noises, like the intake of a breath, that tiny awestruck noise one would make when shocked suddenly, only the shock rolled through the entire group at my back. My father was bowing to us, and that was my cue as he raised only his head up to look at the crowd from his kneeled position. “I present to you this night, our white wolf ruler, come to bring peace and prosperity to our kind.”
I quickly bowed my head to my father, turned to face the crowd, smiled, and shifted into my wolf. Since only a few of them had ever seen me, the vast majority were shocked again. There was a difference in hearing rumors, and seeing the reality. One by one, the people in front of me began to drop to their knees, heads bowed. One of the first had been Evan. My mom, Ashley, and Asi fell to their knees too, as did Avery Daniels and the wolves that he had brought with him. Before I knew it, they were all on their knees bowing.
I howled up into the sky and the sound rippled on the breeze as waves of magic overtook everyone present, bringing the shift out of each one. A united howl went up into the night, before we all took off to run together. It was the first time I had ever run with a pack, and my heart hammered away in my chest. My breath hitched, and emotion swelled in me so deep that I wasn’t sure I would ever forget or even top this moment. These were my people, my kindred. I would do everything in my power to protect them and see them safely into better times.
Once the run was over, Mikael and I returned to his house out in the country, where we could be al
one. “You were magnificent tonight.” Mikael’s fingers were tracing across my bare back as I lounged there beside him on the bed. “I could feel the joy coming from you in waves as we ran. It was intoxicating.”
“That was my first run with a full pack.” I was still grinning like an idiot when I thought about it. “It was amazing. I could feel all the energy from each of them.” He was smiling down at me, like my own personal angel sent from heaven. “You are gorgeous, you know?”
“Mmm, but your beauty knows no rival.”
I chuckled at that. “Flattery gets you everywhere in my world.”
“It’s not just flattery though, you are my world.”
“Mm mm” I was stretching my body out, relaxing under the constant grazing of his fingertips across my flesh. Goosebumps were dotting my skin as he hit just the right spots. I thought about everything we’d been through to get to this point. “I don’t know what I would have done if we hadn’t gotten to you in time.”
“Let’s not think about it then, because I’m here, and we have a lifetime to make memories together, and forget the ugliness in our past.”
“We can’t forget, if for no other reason because we need to make sure it never happens again.”
“Fine let’s remember and move forward with better times.”
“Do you think we get that?” I asked him, turning to see his face as he answered.
“Get what, Jess?”
“Do you think we get to be happy now?”
“Yes, Jess, we get to be happy now. I think we’ve all earned it.”
EPILOGUE
~*~ Zach ~*~
“We have our orders, and I don’t know about you, but I am going to follow through with them.” I looked at the raven-haired witch in front of me as she clutched her broken wrist in her hand. “Well?”
“Well, what, dog?” She snapped. “Our orders, as you call them, came from a man who has had his throat ripped out. I am pretty sure it doesn’t matter anymore.”
Falling into the White (The Ancients Series) Page 26