Sunder

by Tara Brown

  I flipped him the bird as I texted Liz to ask if she was all right with Simon. These Thorlackson boys were a trouble. She sent a blushing smiley face. I winced. “Your brother is hitting on my friend.”

  A cocky grin smeared across his face.

  I folded my arms. “She may paint magical pictures and smile sweetly, but she’s a witch whose powers haven’t hit yet. God knows what she really does. I hope she roasts your asses.”

  He started laughing. “Rotten luck for Simon.”

  I sighed and walked to my deck. I opened the doors and stepped out into the night air. My father never stayed away so late at night. He really was the bad guy? I had a feeling there was something else.

  I jumped down onto the ground and walked across the grass. Ragnar caught up and asked, “Where are we going?”

  “My dad’s clinic.”

  He nudged me a little. “You all right?”

  I shook my head. His accent was thicker than Briton’s. I gave him a look. “I keep hoping my dad isn’t really the bad guy, but he’s helping because they tricked him into it. Like he thinks he’s doing the right thing, maybe to help me cure my wolf.”

  He cocked an eyebrow.

  I sighed. “I know it's a long shot but he’s a good dad. I don't think he’s evil. He’s always done the right thing and he loved my mom.”

  “I’ve had some experience with unscrupulous people, they all share a common theme—those people. They say the right thing and they act the right way and that's how they get away with being the wrong sort of person. No one suspects them. But in my experience it’s always that benevolent and compassionate man who never does a wrong thing his whole life, at least not in front of others.” It sounded like sage wisdom. I was about to tell him that, but he continued his thought. “Whereas you take someone like me, I have zero issue flaunting my bad behavior wherever I go. People may assume I am a bit of a rakish sort of fellow, and always go about expecting the worst of me. But the worst you see with me, is the worst you get. I don't hold a single trait back and I don't lie.”

  I sighed. “You wear your crazy on the outside.”

  He pondered it for a second. “That is an excellent way of putting it.”

  I held a hand up. “I totes know your soul mate back in Chicago. She is a moron like you. You’d be the Bonny and Clyde of morals and proper behavior together.”

  He frowned. “The who and what?”

  “I forgot you’ve been sleeping for a while. I’m just saying, she would be perfect for you.”

  He frowned again. “I don't think meeting a girl who acted the way I do would make me happy. I think I’d like to meet a girl who made me want to behave appropriately. Like you do for Briton. He’s awfully stuffy since he met you, not like he was when we were young.” He nudged me, like we were pals and I wanted to hear dirty stories about my boyfriend.

  I looked at him sharply. “That's Miles, not me. I didn't make him act all proper and shit.”

  “Clearly.”

  I stuck my tongue out at him.

  “I dare say I don't need further proof of your unruly ways. You are not the lady I mistook you for. My apologies, madam.”

  I rolled my eyes and pointed at the clinic. “This is it.” I no sooner said it that the hair on my arms stood on end. I looked at them and then him. “Something is wrong.”

  “Wrong how?”

  My eyes started to glow and my body started to tremble. My fangs popped into my mouth. “Just wrong.”

  He jumped back. “Next time warn me, for the love of God. I didn't know we were flashing our privates all over town. Let me get mine.” He shook his head and instantly his eyes were red and his fangs dropped. We crept around the back of the clinic. I opened the door with a small amount of force and tiptoed inside.

  The sterile smell bothered my wolf nose instantly. But there was something behind it.

  Fear.

  I pulled my shirt off and my pants. I watched the door to the rooms but whispered at him, “Turn around.”

  “I’ve seen you naked. Why are you undressing anyway?” he whispered back.

  “Because I keep tearing my clothes or leaving them places.”

  He turned around. I pulled everything else off and tried the whole deep-breathing thing. But the moment my bones started to break and my skin ripped, I had to hold my breath to stop the screams. My insides raged at the fiery death they were experiencing until I saw it through the other eyes, and I felt all four of my feet on the floor.

  Ragnar bent down and tussled my fur slightly. “You conducted yourself like a victor.”

  I growled, making him jump back. He led the way through the clinic. There was nothing. All the rooms were empty. Every time I glanced at him or caught his scent, my mouth watered. I wanted to bite him. I pushed it back.

  I walked back to the back door. Something about that area was bugging me. I looked around, catching that same fearful smell again. I followed it to the corner. I whined and tried to get my nose closer.

  “Let me.” Ragnar opened the shelf, which became a door as the wall opened.

  I looked up at him, waiting for the hound comment. I would bite his ass if he did, but he managed just a quick smile and headed down the stairs.

  They didn't match the clinic, it was white and pristine. The stairwell was creepy, dark, and wooden. I could see perfectly in the dark. It was a storage area but unlike a normal one. There were cells and chains on the walls. It was a more modern-looking version of what my mother was held in.

  We looked around and somewhere back there I felt it. The pin prickle of fear and tension attacked me again. Was it a trap?

  There was no one down there but us, or was there? As I was about to turn around and run from the creepy place, I caught it. It was the smell of fear from before. I spun instantly and ran for the cell in the back. I pushed the door open, gnashing my teeth. I stopped instantly, realizing what I had stumbled upon.

  It was Finn, unconscious somehow. I pulled back, closing my wolf lips so I didn't accidentally bite him. He had burns on his arms and face. I could smell the wolf’s breath venom on him.

  My heart skipped beats. I whined. Ragnar came quickly, dropping to his brother’s side.

  He lifted him up and we turned to go back up the stairs. The cellar was empty of the one thing I desperately hoped to find, and it wasn't my father.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Briton

  His head ached, and where they had smeared him with the wolf’s venom, he was swollen and still burning.

  He cracked a puffy eyelid to see the exact room he had seen in his dream walk with the witch.

  His body ached in a way he hadn’t felt since the change.

  He lifted his head to see her—the lady who had been in the dream walk, Liv’s mom.

  “Are you Liv’s mom?” he whispered.

  She moaned a little and lifted her head weakly. The state she was in was horrifying. Her face was beaten, her skin was a sallow pale color, and her hair was falling out. Her eye sockets were huge. The hunters were starving her to death. He wondered if he was being brought there to become next in line for venom donations? Who had he come with?

  His stomach sank—Josh. Josh would be the next werewolf to do it.

  “Are you Liv’s mom?”

  She hissed at him. She was mad, completely mad.

  He shuddered at the sight of her. “Liv, Olive Daniels is your daughter, is she not?”

  The creature hissed again, struggling with her chains.

  He forced the change, bringing his fangs out and spat at her. She hissed at the slight sizzle from the venom he had sucked from his fangs.

  “IS Olive Daniels your daughter?”

  The creature’s eyes cleared. She paused, giving him a look of confusion and then stopped moving completely.

  “Liv?” she wheezed at him with her burned-out voice.

  He nearly gagged but managed to keep himself calm.

  “Liv?” she asked again hoarsely.

&nb
sp; “Yes, Liv. Is she your daughter?”

  She nodded her head. “She alive?”

  “Yes. She is, but I am afraid your husband is not a good man.”

  She twitched. Her face grew angry suddenly. She screamed and raged against the chains, thrashing about. The gates opened in the back and then the old stone door. He hung himself limp again, as though he had not yet woken up.

  Dr. Daniels walked into the room. He could tell it was him by the way he walked—smugly. He strolled past Briton, picked something up and walked to his former wife. Whatever he did made her scream in a whole new way. Her legs kicked out and buckled. She was silent then. He turned and walked from the room.

  When he heard the stone door close, he lifted his face. She lifted hers. She smiled, her brown chipped teeth reminding him of a homeless man he had seen once. “We save Liv?”

  He was confused. How did Liv need saving? It was them in the chains with burns and other sores.

  But she was determined. She nodded and whispered again, “We save Liv?”

  She was feeble, her brain almost completely rotted out. But her mother’s instinct couldn't be crushed. No matter what Dr. Daniels did to her, he couldn't take that.

  Briton nodded back. “We save Liv.”

  She reached over and took a huge bite from her arm. He gasped but she did it again. She could have done that all along? She was no different than any wolf in a trap. He assumed she just needed the motivation to free herself. She gnawed at her rotting flesh, wincing at the pain but the drive in her eyes spoke of the great lengths she would go. She slipped the chain past her hand with ease and started on the other hand. She gave him a look. He realized he wasn't getting out without making a similar sacrifice.

  He contemplated for half a second as to what his options were, he had none. He knew what he had to do and Liv was worth doing it.

  He jerked on his hands, ripping the skin from them, stripping it away like he was peeling a potato. He would have screamed in pain but the doctor would have come back, injecting them both again with the venom.

  When his skinned hand was free of the chain, he did the same thing to the other. He wanted so badly to cry out but didn't. They both stood, free of their chains. Her hands didn’t heal as his did, almost immediately.

  He picked up a jar of venom, like the one in the dream walk, and a syringe, sucking a full needle’s worth. He capped it and put it in his pocket and did another one.

  He carried one and led the way. Her hands were bloody pulp, so she couldn't open the doors anyway.

  They slipped up the stairs to the stone door. He pressed his head against it, but all he heard was the ragged breath of the nearly zombified woman next to him. He cracked the door open slightly, seeing a long dark corridor. As quietly as he could, he pushed it open and walked into the dark. His eyes could still see somewhat; he didn't want to change and reveal his red eyes. Doors lined the corridor. He glanced through the bars on the first door. A man lay on the ground in a heap. He opened the door slowly, seeing a jerk from the man.

  His head lifted and in his eyes Briton saw the change. He slipped back out of the cell, closing the door suddenly.

  He peaked through the other bars, deciding that taking Josh and his brother were the only priorities he had.

  The next cage held a woman, he just slipped past it. The next was Josh’s cage. He opened it, lifting Josh over his shoulder. Liv’s mom sniffed him, settling with the fact he was a wolf.

  The next cage was empty, and the final one held the thing he sought the most. He opened it and walked in slowly. His brother hung from chains, just like he had in the dream walk. Briton lifted his brother’s head, wincing at the state of him. He moaned but didn't comprehend what was happening.

  He grabbed the keys that hung on the wall near the far door and opened the chains. He slung Gunnar over his shoulder and walked silently back out to the hallway. He picked Josh up and carried him over the other shoulder.

  It was going to be fun if they had to run.

  After they used the keys to get out of the door at the end of the hall, he hung them back up. Everything looked the way it had.

  He hurried down the dark hallway, wondering where they were. It felt like it was all underground.

  The door at the end came out on the sea. He looked around, realizing quickly he was at a lighthouse, or rather, had been under one.

  They scrambled along the cold coast to the parking lot. He looked at the couple cars. It was dark and no one but the doctor had been there.

  He carried the men into the forest with the wheezing woman behind him. She stumbled and dragged one of her legs.

  He could smell people.

  He walked in that direction, knowing full well what he had to do.

  When he got as close as he dared, he laid his brother and Josh on the mossy ground and looked at Liv’s mom. “Stay here. I will come back with food, we will save Liv.”

  She nodded, but it didn't really look like a nod. It was really creepy. She scratched her head with her stumpy scabby hands, pulling out more hair.

  He gagged a little. For a vampire to gag, it was bad.

  He turned and ran as fast as he could to the edge of the forest. He couldn't find what he was looking for—he needed evil to feed them. He never killed innocents.

  Instead, he came upon a hospital for the elderly and dying. It was a lonely building in the woods, situated on a small lake. He crept to the windows, finding one open and pulled himself inside. He grabbed a man who looked to be on death’s door and the lady across from him. She didn’t look ridiculously sick, but he could smell cancer.

  He carried them to the window. The woman started to wake up when it was her turn to be tossed out the window. He looked into her eyes. “You cannot make a sound. You don't know how.”

  She opened her mouth, trying desperately to scream but nothing came out. He tossed her from the window and jumped out. He picked them up as he had the men and ran back to where they were. He dropped the two people to the forest floor and sighed. Liv’s mom was on the fatter lady before he had a chance to offer her the meat and blood.

  Her hands started to heal as she started to change, not becoming a wolf but her fangs grew and her mouth elongated slightly.

  He bit the man, forcing blood from his wrist and held it over his unconscious brother’s arm. Instantly, Gunnar’s fangs dropped. He latched on, draining the man like he had sipped a juice box, the kind Briton had seen children with.

  They both recovered remarkably. Gunnar’s milky eyes cleared and his skin started to plump back out. Liv’s mom looked like a different person. Her hands healed completely.

  She swallowed a large bite of the dying woman, who was screaming without a sound coming out. He felt sick but the moment he walked close, she snarled at him. So he let her feed her way. It was horrid.

  When she finished, she was a new woman and the chubby woman was finally dead. He regretted not compelling her to ignore the pain and fear instead of not being able to cry out.

  Liv’s mom breathed normally again and spoke with a soft voice instead of a rasp. “Is Liv all right?”

  He shook his head. “I don't know. I think so. I left her with my brothers to come and free you before Liv left to do it. I didn't want her to get hurt. We all just found out about you two.”

  Gunnar looked at the wolf and snarled. Briton dropped to his knees, wrapping himself around his brother. “I’ve got you, Gunnar. I’m taking you home to see Father and Mother.”

  Gunnar looked around at the forest surrounding them. Briton stroked his face, seeing his eyes darting about. His lips twitched and he trembled. He still looked like he belonged in a psych ward.

  He didn't look at Briton like he knew him at all.

  “He’s worse than most, been there a long time.” She turned and lifted Josh up from the ground. “But we need to get going.”

  He nodded towards the hospital for the old and sick. “There are cars this way. Once we know where we are, we can go home. I
don't imagine we are far.”

  When they got to the parking lot, he zipped inside, grabbed a set of keys and hurried back out. He had taken a minivan from a chubby nurse he compelled, hoping to keep the wolves and the vampires away from the boy. Fortune smiled upon them. The minivan had a separate trunk cage for large dogs. He put Gunnar back there. He curled up in a ball and trembled.

  Briton didn't know what to do, but he knew his father would.

  He laid Josh in the middle and Liv’s mom sat up front with him. He had gotten the lady’s bankcard and pin number too. She had GPS in the van. He put the address for the nearest town to Wolfville in and sighed when he saw they were only an hour away.