by Бри Деспейн
I had no time even to think about healing the gashes, because a third wolf pounced on my back, almost doubling me over. He sank his teeth into my shoulder. Burning venom shot through my arm and back. I couldn’t take the weight of the wolf much longer, so I reared my head back and slammed it into the wolf’s head. He yelped and slid off, his claws shredding the back of my cloak as he fell.
Another wolf lunged and sank his teeth into my side, piercing my abdomen. I felt something burst inside my back. A kidney? I screamed with agony and used all my remaining strength to throw that wolf off me.
I grabbed at my side, slick with blood, just as another wolf rammed into my leg with his head. My injured ankle snapped. I howled and toppled onto the concrete floor.
The six wolves circled around me, snapping and growling. I waited for a deathblow, but none of them broke from their holding pattern. Caleb must have given them a signal to wait. He probably took pleasure in the sight of my lying there in a pool of my own blood.
Get up, that horrible voice howled inside my head. Get up. Kill them! You want them to die. Get up and kill them all!
“No!” I shouted back at the voice. I tried to push myself up on the concrete, but my arms shook so hard I fell flat on my face. My body convulsed like there was something fighting to get out from inside of me. A burning inner flame engulfed me, lapping at my soul. Kill them! Kill them! the wolf’s voice chanted in my head. They deserve to die! Get up and kill them before they kill you! I curled into a ball. Tears streamed down my face. Let me kill them. It’s the only way! Embrace me, and we’ll destroy them all.
I shrieked in agony as my muscles clenched, and my head and body jerked uncontrollably in a seizure.
“This is it!” Caleb leaned over the balcony railing. “You want to kill me, don’t you? Here I am, girl, come and get me!”
Yes, kill Caleb. Kill him, and all of this stops!
“No,” I whispered. There had to be another way. I believed that. I really did.
I rolled on my back and stared up at the ceiling, imagining I could see the sky outside. “Dear God,” I whispered. “Please, spare Daniel and my family. I know you can. You can let me die, but do not let me fall to the curse. Save them.”
“Do it!” Caleb shouted at the wolves.
They stopped circling me and backed up in crouching positions, ready to attack.
A wave of fire ripped through me, and the demon in my head screamed for me to act. The werewolves reared back, about to lunge at me. I rolled on my side and whispered good-bye to Daniel, even though I knew he’d never be able to hear me.
“No!” Daniel shrieked, followed by a shout from one of Caleb’s men as Daniel broke free from his grasp and pushed him aside. The others were too distracted by the wolves and me to react quickly enough.
Yes, I thought. Yes, Daniel has a chance to get away!
Then Daniel threw himself over the balcony.
No, he’s supposed to run away! I watched in horror as he fell toward me, but instead of crashing to the ground, Daniel did a twisting flip in the air and began to … transform.
Shift.
Change.
His clothes burst from his body.
I blinked, and when I opened my eyes, instead of Daniel, a large white wolf had landed on all fours only a few feet from where I lay.
The wolves who had been about to attack me turned their growls on the white wolf, warning him away from their prey. The white wolf seemed to stare at me. I noticed a diamond patch of black fur across his sternum as he crouched. His lips pulled back in a snarl, and he pounced in my direction.
I closed my eyes and prepared to die.
A rush of movement exploded around me. I heard snapping and snarling and whining, and when I opened my eyes again, the white wolf was on top of me—standing over me in a protective stance.
The white wolf threw his head back and let out the most ear-piercing howl I’d ever heard. It echoed off the walls of the warehouse, shattering glass in the windows above. Shaking my body down to my broken bones.
When the noise died, there was nothing but silence.
Nothing but the white wolf standing over me, glaring out beyond us, as if daring anyone to make a move in our direction.
I could barely keep my eyes open as I tilted my head to see what had happened. Two of the wolves lay bleeding on the ground, one had retreated to the garage door, but the other three looked as if they were bowing, heads lowered in supplication, to the white wolf.
“No! No! Kill him!” Caleb shrieked at his wolves. “Kill them both!”
But the three wolves lay on their bellies and refused to move.
“Then I’ll kill you myself!” Caleb started to climb over the balcony railing.
“Not if I have anything to say about it,” another voice shouted, and someone hit Caleb across the back of the head with a metal bar. It may have been my vision failing, but I could have sworn it was Gabriel.
Caleb crumpled in a heap behind the railing, and there was a rush of chaos as one of Caleb’s Gelals lunged at Gabriel, and another one went running in their direction. I heard Talbot scream something. He jumped on the Gelal’s back and threw his bound arms over the Gelal’s head and around its neck. The two went falling over the balcony and landed hard.
Talbot pushed back on his knees and pulled the Gelal up with him. He jerked his bound arms, which were hooked around the Gelal’s throat, and snapped its neck. The Gelal crumpled and Talbot pulled his arms over its lolling head. Before he could move, an Akh flew at Talbot, and the two fell into a grappling match.
But where was Jude? Why couldn’t I see him anywhere?
The entire warehouse erupted in an all-out brawl as I scanned it for any sign of my brother. Two more werewolves came charging in our direction, ready to attack the white wolf. But the wolf didn’t move from his protective stance over me. I must have slipped out of consciousness for a moment, because the next thing I knew, the two wolves were bowing in front of the great white wolf. One of them was smaller than all the other wolves
—Ryan? I couldn’t help wondering.
I coughed and tasted blood. The white wolf leaned down and nuzzled the side of my face. I stared into his deep, dark, mud-pie eyes—Daniel’s eyes.
But how?
And why, if Daniel had been a black wolf before he was cured, was he a white wolf now?
I heard a great howl and used all my energy to turn my head and watched as Gabriel crumpled against the railing of the balcony, his arm hanging over the side in an unnatural way. Caleb, looking fully recovered from the blow to the head, roared and launched himself over the railing. He landed on his feet on the warehouse floor.
“Watch out,” I whispered to Daniel.
The white wolf’s head snapped up, and he crouched back and growled at Caleb, who came charging at us with a vicious snarl. “You die now!” he shouted.
The Daniel wolf barked, and the five wolves who bowed in front of us jumped up and turned, snarling at Caleb. They reared back, ready to attack him.
Caleb slowed his charge, sizing up the pack in front of him. Six against one, I could almost see him thinking. Calculating his odds behind those yellow eyes.
Then Talbot stood beside us. The cording around his wrists dripped with Gelal acid. He yanked hard, and the corroded binding fell from his hands. He clenched his fists in front of him and glared at Caleb. Three dead Gelals littered the ground in his wake.
Seven against one.
“Looks like we’ve got you surrounded,” Gabriel shouted from the balcony. He held his injured arm against his chest, but he brandished the metal bar in his other hand. Two Akh teens lay moaning at his feet.
Caleb took a step back.
Eight against one.
But where were the rest of Caleb’s boys?
And where was Jude?!
“Here!” I heard my brother shout. At first, I didn’t know where his voice came from, but then I tilted my head back as far as I could and saw him standing by the open f
reight-elevator gate. The elevator was packed with Caleb’s remaining boys. They must have fled from the upper level through the shaft. “Here, Father! Hurry. This way.” Jude waved at Caleb, offering him a way to escape.
“No,” Caleb said. “We finish this.” He glanced back at what remained of his Shadow Kings. “Come!” he shouted at them, like they were a bunch of his lapdogs.
Not a single one of his boys moved from the safety of the elevator.
“Come!”
“No, Father,” Jude said. “We’re leaving. Now.”
Caleb furrowed his brows. A snarl marred his face. Had Jude ever dared to speak to his master this way before?
“Come now, Father,” Jude said.
Caleb glared at the white wolf for a moment longer. His gaze flicked to Talbot and then Gabriel up above. I wasn’t sure which of the three he wanted to kill the most.
He turned and bolted toward the elevator.
The white wolf made a motion as if to go after Caleb, but then hesitated, staring down at me as if he was afraid to leave his protective stance over my body.
“Go,” I said. “You have to stop them.”
The white wolf grunted, and he and the five other wolves bounded after Caleb, leaving me alone in a pool of my own blood on the cold concrete floor. I didn’t have the energy to keep my head tilted back to watch them in their pursuit.
I felt warm arms scoop me up, and someone cradled me against his chest. “Talbot?” I asked, recognizing his scent.
He turned me toward the commotion just in time to see Caleb lunge for the elevator, the six wolves close on his heels—but not close enough.
Caleb slipped through the narrowly opened gate into the elevator with his boys. The white wolf pounced after him, but Jude threw himself between
Caleb and the white Daniel wolf, blocking the opening of the elevator.
The white wolf pulled up short, skidding to a stop in front of Jude. The other five wolves halted behind the white wolf, snapping and howling. The white Daniel wolf growled at Jude, but my brother didn’t move—only glared at Daniel, as if daring him to tear through him in order to get to Caleb.
Daniel took a step back with a frustrated whine. Jude had just done the one thing that would stop Daniel from catching his father. Daniel wouldn’t willingly harm my brother again.
Caleb slammed the elevator gate shut, leaving Jude on the outside. Caleb rammed his fists against the gate, rattling the cage and roaring with anger. “When Sirhan dies, so will the rest of you,” he shouted as the elevator started to lower.
Jude shouted at Caleb not to leave him behind.
“You’re on your own, boy,” Caleb snarled. He and the rest of his lost boys disappeared into the basement of the warehouse.
The Daniel wolf howled.
Caleb and his pack would be gone, out the corridor and through The Depot, before anyone could stop him.
Talbot hitched me up in his arms and started to carry me away, his shoulder blocking the scene by the elevator from my view. And blocking me from their view. Talbot could run off with me at this very moment, and no one else would even notice.
“Put me down,” I tried to shout, but it came out as an airy whisper. “Where … Where … are you taking me?”
“I’m just trying to help,” Talbot said.
“Why?”
My head felt so heavy, and the world started to turn dark and splotchy all around me. I don’t know how fully with it I was when I thought I heard
Talbot answer: “Because I love you.”
“No … you don’t,” I tried to say, but I don’t think the words actually left my mouth. Does Talbot even understand love?
Talbot said something I was too groggy to understand. I strained what was left of my superpowers to listen to him. “… because you reminded me of who I wanted to be … a long time ago. Like my ancestors—the Saint Moons. But I’ve been alone with only the wolf in my head since I was thirteen … I’d lost sight of everything I once believed in.” Talbot held me closer to his chest. He leaned in to whisper—or shout, for all I could tell—
into my ear. “Caleb offered me a family, but you offered me something worth so much more: myself.”
“Jude?” I whispered, unable to process Talbot’s confession. My brain was far too fuzzy. “What … happened …?” I couldn’t even think straight enough to finish the question.
Talbot grunted. He turned me back toward the freight elevator. My vision was hazy and spotted, but I could see the white wolf and the five other wolves surrounding Jude, who had been abandoned by his so-called father—thrown, quite literally, to the wolves. The Daniel wolf stood steady, but the other five scratched their paws at the ground and growled at Jude, looking eager to attack.
My brother dropped to his knees in the midst of the pack. He threw his hands over his face. “Please … I just want to go home now,” I thought I heard Jude say as I slipped from consciousness and my mind faded to black.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Stuck
HOW MUCH LATER, I DON’T KNOW FOR SURE
I awoke to something warm and wet brushing my face. I swatted it away and rolled over on my side to find a mound of soft white fur acting as my pillow. It smelled wonderfully of almonds, and in my half dream-like state I was ready to snuggle up with it and go back to sleep. But that was when I noticed the blanket lying under me. It was the plush velvet bedspread—on Caleb Kalbi’s bed.
I sat up quickly—too quickly—and was about to bolt when little white spots started dancing in front of my eyes. I lay back down against the soft pillow.
“It’s okay,” I heard a familiar voice say from somewhere nearby. “You’re safe. We just brought you to the most comfortable place we could think of.”
“Daniel?” I asked. My vision was still a little weird, and I couldn’t place the voice.
“No, it’s me, Talbot.” He turned to someone else in the room. “Do you think she has amnesia?”
The other person apparently ignored him. “I’m here, too,” he said.
“Gabriel?”
I shook my head, and my vision cleared up a bit. Gabriel and Talbot stood at either side of the bed, looking fuzzy in my vision—but almost like brothers—and also quite concerned. They weren’t the only ones in the room with us. Five teenage boys sat on the floor just beyond the foot of the bed. They bowed their heads almost to the ground when I looked at them.
“What’s going on?” I asked. Why did my ankle throb so badly and a knot in my back feel like it was on fire? Why were my dress ripped open and my abdomen wrapped in what looked like makeshift bandages torn from bedsheets?
“You gave us quite a scare there,” Talbot said. “We weren’t sure you were going to make it.” He took a step toward me, but suddenly, my pillow growled and Talbot took two paces back. “Whoa, easy there,” he said, with his hands up, as if afraid my pillow might bite him. I knew I wasn’t completely with it, but this whole situation seemed incredibly surreal.
“What happened?”
“You’d better get to work healing yourself. Your body can only do so much with wounds this bad without your help—especially with how much werewolf venom you’ve probably got in your system. We tried to use our own powers to help speed up your healing, but I’m afraid that kind of transfer only works on superficial injuries.”
I squinted at Talbot, noting the genuinely concerned look on his face. I didn’t understand him at all. He was evil, yet he wasn’t? And had he said something about being in love with me?
“He’s right, Grace.” Gabriel sat on the edge of the bed. Apparently, my pillow didn’t have a problem with that. “There will be time for explanations later. Right now we need to make sure you’re okay.” His arm was supported in a sling made of scraps from his monk’s robes.
“Why wouldn’t I be okay?” I lifted my arm. A bandage around it was soaked with reddish-brown sticky, congealing liquid. Blood. My blood. Then the fight with the wolves suddenly came back to me. “What happened? Whe
re’s Caleb? Where’s Jude?” I scanned all the vaguely familiar faces in the room. “Where’s Daniel?” I practically shouted.
My pillow whined and pushed me up as it shifted. I turned, kneeling on the bed, and discovered the pillow was actually a white wolf. He whined with agitation, shaking his head back and forth. It almost seemed like he was trying to tell me something.
“Caleb got away,” Gabriel said.
“But you fought him?” I shook my head. “I thought you didn’t fight, no matter the cause.”
“Let’s just say someone inspired me. Showed me it was possible to fight for what’s important without losing yourself. You’re a very brave girl.” He patted his arm through its sling. “Not sure I’ll be doing anything like that again soon, though.”
I tried to smile at him, but I think it came across as a grimace.
Talbot cleared his throat. “Jude’s here.”
He pointed to the alcove where Caleb had been lurking the first time we’d been brought to this room. I blinked, and my eyes focused on Jude, who sat in a high-backed chair, staring at his empty hands.
“He says he wants to come home,” Gabriel said.
“Really?” Finally? A pressure I’d felt in my heart for the last ten months suddenly eased. “Jude, I can’t tell you how happy that makes me.”
Jude shook his head and looked up at me. I was surprised at how blank his face appeared—even more stoic and stonelike than I’d ever seen him look before. His eyes weren’t rimmed with concern like those of everyone else who stared at me in this room. No, Jude’s eyes seemed completely empty.
Suddenly, the memory of Jude’s helping Caleb escape flashed in my mind. Then the sight of his falling to his knees in front of the angry wolf pack, begging to come home. Was that really what he wanted, or was it the only way he could think to get out of the situation alive?
That heavy pressure settled back in my chest. My brother sat here right in front of me—but it was like he wasn’t my brother at all.
But at least he’s coming home, I told myself. He’d been lost, but now he was found. And we’d figure out how to help him, whether he knew he wanted help or not.