Marked (The Pack)

by Cox, Suzanne

  ***

  “What do the three of you think you were doing? Whose idea was this?”

  My mouth went dry at Mr. Branton’s question. On either side of me I could see Myles and Brynna looking a little sick.

  “Mine,” I stated firmly.

  But the last syllable hadn’t passed my lips when Myles said “Mine.”

  Brynna’s “Mine” echoed on the tail of his.

  Louise, Mr. Branton and Mr. Sanford stood in front of the three of us as we sat on Louise’s sofa facing our interrogation. Mrs. Sanford and Bailey had taken Brynna’s bag with the blood to a lab in New Orleans where other Lycernians were ready to work on making a new vaccine.

  “What if Raina wouldn’t have come along, if she hadn’t heard the noises and been able to do an incantation to send Celina back to her human form?” Louise asked.

  “I’d have had to draw the blood in her wolf form,” Brynna answered.

  “And you could have done that successfully?” Her father clipped at her.

  “I…I’d have tried. I believe… I’m sure I could have done it.”

  It was the first time I’d ever heard Brynna falter.

  No one spoke for several seconds then Mr. Branton sighed. “It’s done now. We simply have to speed things up a bit. We’ll have the anti-viral for the mutation in a couple of days and hopefully it will work. Until then you kids need to lay low. Avoid anyone who might have been friends with the girl. Anyone who might be infected and want revenge, including Celina herself.”

  The other’s gathered to leave and I stayed on the sofa. I knew this hadn’t ended for me yet. I heard the muffled good byes and I kept my eyes on the floor, knowing Louise had returned when the chair across from me squeaked.

  I didn’t look up. “I’m sorry to have caused more trouble again.”

  “I don’t know how you keep getting caught up in these escapades.”

  “But I thought we were doing a good thing to get the blood.” I flung myself against the back of the sofa.

  “It is a good thing, but not if you get yourself killed. You had no idea if Celina had planned some kind of trap for you three just as you’d planned one for her. Brynna and Myles are very gifted werewolves with special talents. However, they both have much more to learn. And you, you have no training at all. They should have never made you part of it. I fault them for that, not you. You don’t know what dangers are out there, but they do.”

  “I offered to help them.”

  “They shouldn’t have taken you up on the offer.”

  Rubbing my forehead I bunched my eyebrows in concentration

  “What’s wrong?” Louise asked.

  “Well it’s something you said.”

  “What?”

  “You said getting the blood wouldn’t have been a good thing if I’d gotten killed. But… I mean… isn’t it hard to kill a werewolf? I know you told me before that we live and grow old and die like any human, but we live much longer. In movies and stuff you can’t kill a werewolf except with a silver bullet or something.”

  Louise groaned. “I really should have given you this information earlier. I didn’t want to overload you, though.”

  “Like the whole you’re a werewolf thing wasn’t an overload?”

  “I guess that’s true.” She sighed, leaning back in her chair. “Werewolves can be killed, but only in two ways. One is to be torn apart then the pieces burned completely. A special accelerant has to be used so that the fire is hot enough to instantly turn the body to a fine ash, even the bones.”

  I frowned.

  “The other way is to behead the werewolf. This can only be done with ancient swords that have been passed down over the years. Your everyday over-the-counter sword won’t work. These swords are only kept by the werewolves from the original blood lines. A viral werewolf isn’t allowed to have one. They’re very exceptional and not every werewolf gets to possess one.”

  “So really Celina, or even Channing couldn’t have killed us.”

  “No, not individually, but together they may have been strong enough to destroy you. None of us know if there are true Fenryrians here that are behind the spread of the virus. They could have been here and started this, or they could have infected someone from here and that person simply started spreading the virus when they came home. I can’t say with complete certainty that no one here possesses a sword.”

  “You think they’ll try to come after us and kill us?”

  Louise shook her head. “It’s not like that, Alexis. We don’t all run around trying to kill each other all the time. For the most part, both packs live without hurting the other. We’ve existed for centuries and the Lycernians hope to keep it that way. Occasionally, like now, things get out of hand. A group of viral werewolves and maybe even genetic werewolves start killing people and infecting large numbers. At that point, we do what is necessary to protect ourselves and the human race. Something is going on in this town. I want you three to be careful in case someone does think their agenda is important enough to kill for.”

  “I’ll try to stay out of trouble until my mom gets here to take me home.”

  “That’s a good idea. For the next day or two you’ll be confined to the house unless you go out with me. I don’t want anyone here to visit without my say so.”

  I nodded. This time I meant to comply.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  I set a stack of heavy paper plates on the counter while Louise stirred in one of the huge pots of jambalaya.

  “Want me to put the bread in the oven?”

  “Let’s wait until people start arriving, then we’ll put it in. It only takes a few minutes to cook.”

  I nodded then carried a container with plastic forks and napkins outside and placed it on one of the tables arranged on the deck. The sun had dwindled away below the tree line. Thankfully, some of the day’s heat had gone with it. It was still warm, though not as oppressively hot as it was during the day. I wasn’t sure how many people were coming, but it appeared we’d be hosting a small army.

  At least it would all be over soon. After being confined for three days because Louise didn’t want me out on my own, I was going stir crazy. I called Eric to try and get him to come over, but he and his dad had been out of town on a job. Louise and I had almost finished painting the house, starting early in the mornings and stopping during the hottest part of the day, only to resume again in the late evening. I was already planning to paint my own bedroom when I got home to Chicago, now that I could adequately “sling a paintbrush,” as Myles put it. I’d had exactly one trip to the grocery store and one to the ice cream shop, both with Louise practically standing guard over me. I was ready to get back to normal or at least normal for living with Louise.

  I stood by Louise and looked into the pot. “What’ll happen tonight?”

  “We’ll all discuss how we should go about injecting the anti-viral to those who are infected.”

  “I always thought it took years to develop stuff like that. At least that’s what we learned in school. ”

  Louise nodded. “Normally that would be true, but we’ve been working with this particular virus for hundreds of years. We can make variations on the anti-viral much quicker. We can’t kill the virus in the Fenryrians that are spreading it, only reverse it in the ones they bite and transform.”

  The door bell rang and I ran to answer it. John, who owned the ice cream shop, arrived, then another person came, then a group of three. I took a slow breath to try and calm the excitement, or maybe even anxiety, I felt in my chest. I looked around at the slowly filling room. Brynna’s family and Myles with his dad had all come in through the kitchen door. Others I didn’t know. Some I’d seen in town. I moved about helping people find drinks.

  I was beginning to think we couldn’t fit another person in the house. They were already spilling onto the back deck. The doorbell rang as I pulled a gallon of iced tea from the refrigerator. Around me there was a sudden pause in the hum of conversation. Louise l
ed Vincent Unger into the room. The noise and laughter resumed and I thought I might have imagined the whole thing. Vincent walked over to me and placed a hand on my shoulder.

  “I hear you’re having a busy summer.”

  I placed the tea pitcher I’d been holding onto the counter. “Yeah, I’ve had a lot to learn.”

  “Some of it the hard way, from what I’ve been told.”

  I shrugged, staring at the countertop, not sure what to say. “I guess that’s the way I tend to learn things.”

  Vincent’s laugh rang out and several people glanced at us. His hand was still on my shoulder. “At least you recognize it. Maybe you’ll get better at the easy way soon.”

  I finally made myself look at him. He was still smiling. I automatically smiled back.

  “She’d actually have to listen to someone else to learn the easy way. She hasn’t been so good at that.”

  I didn’t realize Louise had been standing behind me. My face turned red at her words, but I couldn’t argue since it was true. Even I had to admit that.

  “Reminds me of someone else I know, especially when you were her age.”

  Louise was glaring at Vincent. He only grinned, and she finally laughed. “Oh, okay, you’re right. I guess I shouldn’t be too hard on her. Only I know what kind of trouble I got in by not listening and taking off on my own. I keep hoping I can help her avoid some of that.”

  “You are helping me, Aunt Louise. You’ve been with me the last three days watching out for me.”

  Vincent gave my shoulder a squeeze before removing his hand. “I think we’re about to fix that problem.”

  I still felt a little warm where his hand had been and I was reminded of how calming his presence always was to me, like Mr. Branton’s. I’d never met anyone like that before. I wondered if it was something they taught in some werewolf class.

  Louise had turned away and clapped her hands to get everyone’s attention. “Let’s all eat, then we can talk.”

  Vincent grabbed a plate and spooned jambalaya from one of the pots. Others fell in line behind him. I went back to work pouring tea or handing out sodas until everyone was seated with their food.

  ***

  “This sucks,” Myles said as he leaned back in a lounge chair on the back deck.

  Brynna nor I commented. In the yard four or five younger children, including Bailey, played a noisy game of chase. The three of us were assigned to watch the younger kids, while inside the adults discussed plans for tomorrow night.

  “You knew we wouldn’t be allowed to participate yet. Maybe next year,” Brynna said.

  “You’d think after the other day when we collected the blood we’d have proved ourselves.”

  We both stared at him.

  “What?”

  “And what do you think we proved? How to get in way over our head? If Raina hadn’t come along who knows what would have happened.”

  Myles frowned at Brynna. “We’d have been okay.”

  Neither of us bothered to argue with him.

  “Do you think they’ll tell us what the plan is?” I asked.

  Brynna watched the younger kids chasing each other across the yard before answering. “No, they won’t trust us to not get in the middle of things.”

  “Maybe we should slip around and listen outside the window.”

  They stared at me for a moment before Myles shook his head and Brynna rolled her eyes.

  “Don’t tell me you two haven’t thought of it.”

  “Alexis, you’re really slow sometimes. Werewolves have good hearing. Very good. You don’t actually think we could sneak outside the window and they wouldn’t know, do you?”

  I slapped the seat of my chaise lounge. “I don’t have good hearing. I still hear things like I always have.”

  “Yours hasn’t developed yet.” Myles picked up a can of soda and took a drink. “It will. Mine only started to improve a few months ago. Brynna started early. She’s had an acute sense of hearing since… how long has it been Brynna?”

  “Since I was five.”

  I leaned forward. “You’re kidding. So why can’t you hear what they’re saying in there?”

  “Because I’m not trying to hear them. I have to concentrate to hear something through a wall or really far away.”

  Myles and I both sat up straight in our chairs.

  “No way, I’m not going to listen in. It’s wrong and my parents know I can do it. They told me not to before we ever left the house.”

  “You do everything your parents tell you to?” Myles asked.

  “I think she does.”

  Brynna glared at us.

  “Come on Brynna, we only want to know what the plan is. We aren’t going to try and participate or do anything about it.”

  She paced back and forth across the deck several times before coming to an abrupt halt in front of us.

  “Fine then, but you better not do anything that they can come back and blame me for. “

  “I won’t,” Myles said.

  “What about you?”

  “You’re kidding right? What would I do? The only stuff I’ve done so far is what the two of you have told me to do.”

  “She’s right about that one, Brynna.”

  “Yeah, that’s true.”

  She walked over to the table, the last rays of the sun glinting on her red hair, and sat down. Folding her hands together, she closed her eyes. I looked at Myles, but neither of us spoke. For five minutes we sat in silence with only the laughter and shouts from the younger children floating across the air. Finally, Brynna stood and returned to her chair next to us.

  “Tomorrow at one in the morning they’ll sound the Gjallerhorn over in the field through the woods, the one near the swamp. As the werewolves come, they’ll hold them and inject them with the anti-viral followed by the memory block. When they return to human form they’ll clothe them and take them home. Or at least as near to their home as they can get them. Then it’ll be done.”

  Myles nodded while I looked from one to the other. “On what planet is any of that supposed to make sense?”

  “This one.”

  I glared at Brynna. “You know I don’t know what any of that means. It’s not fair. Gjalle… who? Memory block? Come on, you can’t tell me that stuff and not explain it.”

  Brynna sighed. “Oh, alright. The Gjallerhorn is from ancient times, far back in our history. Different packs have them. It’s a huge horn and they’ve been passed down for generations through pack members. Only a few exist. They’re used to call meetings and gatherings. The werewolves instinctively respond when they hear it.”

  “Even the viral ones.”

  “Yes, them too.”

  “But won’t they know it’s some kind of trap?”

  “No, they won’t know. Besides, many if not all of them don’t want what’s been done to them. Remember, they didn’t ask to be made werewolves. It was forced on them. We’re giving them their normal life back. They weren’t meant to be werewolves.”

  “But what if they want to be?”

  “We can’t allow it. They kill innocent people. They’re not in control and don’t learn how to be a werewolf.”

  “I see the point. So they hear the horn and automatically come.”

  “It’s ingrained into us as werewolves to respond. The Lycernians, like you, will hear the horn and want to come, but you will have to resist the urge. Viral werewolves haven’t learned to resist any urges, so they’ll come.”

  “What’s the memory block?”

  “It’s a drug that keeps them from remembering anything about ever being a werewolf or about getting captured and injected. They wake up at home in clothes that aren’t theirs yet they never really figure out what happened. Then life goes on as normal.”

  I sat quietly for a moment. “What if Fenryrians come?”

  “Oh, they will.” Myles joined in.

  “And they’ll get the anti-viral.”

  “Yep, but it won’t change them. They
’ll stay in wolf form. They’ll either leave or there will be a fight.”

  “So, all the viral werewolves will be in wolf form and then all the Lycernians will be in human form?

  “No, we’ll have some people in wolf form to help capture and hold those who need to be injected. Others in human form will give the injections.”

  Closing my eyes for a moment I tried to picture the scene in my head, but it was beyond what I could imagine, even with all I’d seen this summer.

  The door to the kitchen opened. A woman came onto the deck and called to her child who came running from the yard.

  “Guess that’s it then.” Myles got up and went inside while Brynna went to get Bailey. I stayed in my chair for a few minutes then went to help Louise begin the clean up. I had imagined I’d be bored to tears here this summer. Now I was beginning to wonder if Chicago would be boring when I returned home.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  The day of the calling for the virus had been hot and uneventful until late that evening when a thundering noise sent Louise and I racing onto the front porch. Eric was in the front drive astride a huge motorcycle, smiling. For a few seconds I couldn’t catch my breath.

  “I came to see if you wanted to go for ride on my motorcycle,” he shouted across the yard, then swung a leg over the bike and took off his helmet. He removed the straps from a second one he’d attached behind the seat and waved it at me.

  “I brought one for you.” He placed it on the seat and started across the yard to the porch.

  I glanced at Louise who groaned. “Please Aunt Louise, can I go?”

  “You know how dangerous it could be for you to be out. It’ll be dark soon.” She hissed quietly as Eric came up the steps.

  “Hi, Ms. Miller, I promise to be safe if you’ll let Alexis go.”

  I ground my teeth waiting. I felt Louise’s hand firm on my back.

  “It’ll be dark soon, Eric. I’m just afraid people in cars might not see you and you might get hit,” Louise lied convincingly.

  “I understand. We’ll ride to town and get ice cream, then come straight back. How’s that?”