by D. C. Gambel
Chapter 3
“You two are idiots,” Ty uttered leading me to the car where Vicky waited. “You just gave the wolves ammunition against both of you.”
“I’m not his dirty little secret, Tyler, and I refused to only be his girlfriend in the confines of the house. Now they know that if they hurt me, it’ll bring his wrath down on them.”
“Don’t be naïve. They were working with Nyx before, Evie. She wanted Cam. What’s to say that whoever picked up her throne isn’t seeking the same. To get them to do what they want would be to eliminate you.”
“You and Derek are there to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
“How about you just keep yourself safe and we can avoid it all together.”
I grinned. “Agreed.”
In the middle row of seats of the mini van I sat in front of Vicky who was laid across the backseat. My seat wasn’t a bench, but rather a single chair that allowed me to keep eyes on her with ease. The two wolves, Stan and Vern, assigned to accompany her sat up front maneuvering us through the light traffic to the hospital, although who was who I hadn’t figured out. They’d both remained pretty silent. The driver sat a few inches taller than the passenger. His body filled the seat he sat and then some. His wheat colored hair was stringy, yet greasy, hanging straight just above his ears. The passenger seemed the driver’s opposite in both cleanliness and stature. His body was scrawny covered in a clean white button down shirt and grey slacks, where the driver was still tinged from the battle in a red plaid flannel shirt making him look like a lumberjack, the passenger’s chocolate hair was clean but cut in a military fashion.
“How much longer?” I asked noticing that Vicky’s breathing had changed dramatically. The driver flat out ignored me, but the guy riding shotgun seemed nervous. “I could just rip my gloves off and kill you both or you can tell me how long until we get to the hospital. I have a driver’s license and can get the job done just as easily as either of you.”
“Thirty minutes,” the driver hissed.
I glance back at Vicky. Cam had bound her wounds as best as he could before they loaded her, but I could see the blood was soaking through. Her body had stopped shaking from the blood loss.
“She’s not going to make it,” I breathed in defeat.
“Is that part of your gift? Being able to determine death?” the driver asked snidely with obvious sarcasm dripping from every word.
“Yup and my gift says that a spunky brunette is going to kill you in less than five minutes if you don’t stop being an ass,” I spat causing the driver to roll his eyes. “Or perhaps I noticed that she’s lost consciousness and has stopped shaking, neither of which is a good sign. There has to be another way to save her,” I said the last bit more to myself. Guilt rained heavy on me. I hadn’t felt its gravity until I saw Vicky approaching death’s door. The wolves were attacked because the vampires believed they were responsible for Asher when in reality it was me. This woman’s death would be on my hands. Her kids would be left without a mom and that too was on me. “Can you turn her?” I demanded without thinking through the decision.
“What?” the driver spat so shocked by my request that the van swerved before a horn bellowed alerting him. Mumbling a curse, he corrected his trajectory.
“She has a family,” I explained. “We have to do something.” I hoped to appeal to something in them. These men appeared unfazed by the fact that they had a dying woman in their backseat. Perhaps the orphaned children would strike a cord.
“We’re doing it,” the driver demanded. “We’re trying to get her to the hospital.”
“She won’t make it!” I cried out.
“She has to. We can’t change her without our alpha’s permission and hers. Axel said get her to the hospital. He said nothing about changing her.”
“She doesn’t want to die and is only in this position because she surrounded herself with wolves. You’re pack owes her.”
“Vern,” the passenger mumbled. “Johnny loved her. We owe him.” I guess Johnny was one of the wolves’ casualties with the way he spoke; otherwise I assumed he’d be here.
“Stan,” the driver groaned running his fingers through his dirty blond hair, but Stan was already unbuckling his seatbelt.
“Pull over or don’t, but I can’t let her die. Johnny was a friend. I’ll suffer Axel’s wrath on my own.”
Vern growled yanking the car off the main road. He pulled behind a shopping center parking near the dumpsters. Stan and Vern were both out of the car the instant it was put into park. The sliding door was thrown open as Stan stepped in, moving past me to where Vicky lay. Vern hovered in the doorway watching Stan as he lifted Vicky into his arms. He unbound her wounds as we watched on with undiluted interest. Drawing a pocketknife from his jeans, he sliced his palm open allowing the blood to drip over her wound.
“That’s it?” I asked before my stomach threatened to revolt as Stan dropped his head licking Vicky’s open wound. I barely managed to hold it together.
“No,” Vern stated. “That’s it. A blood exchange and venom.” I hadn’t realized my mouth was hanging open until I saw Vicky’s wound immediately stitch up forcing me to swallow. “We can’t risk moving her just yet. The change can be disorienting. Hope you’re comfortable, Death. We’re stuck here until she regains consciousness.”
Needing to clear my head after what I’d just witness, I stepped out of the van allowing the cool northern air to whip across my face. I’d just seen something I hadn’t expected, something that seemed both intimate and grotesque. I was still new to the supernatural world and didn’t know all the ins and outs. I wondered how long it took my fellow horsemen to become accustomed. I doubted any of them would have batted an eye at the werewolf conversion. They had years on me; not many. We were all fairly new to the job.
“First time can be a little unnerving,” Vern explained coming to stand at my side. I knitted my brow feeling suspicious of his motives to speak with me. After all, he’d been nothing but an ass thus far, not to mention my unsavory history with the pack. “A little… intimate.” He spoke the last word with a wolfish grin.
“Why are you talking to me?” His proximity made me uncomfortable even under the best circumstances.
“I just want you to know that you signed Stan’s death warrant.” The clench of his jaw and the unnerving way his eyes bore into me told me he meant it.
I turned to glare at him. “You’re serious? How am I…”
“Shh,” he silenced me glancing around.
“You did not…”
He gripped my arm tight cutting my words off, but his focus was elsewhere. I didn’t think it was a ploy, but I didn’t trust him. Splitting my attention between him and the area around us, I started searching for what was luring his attention. There was a clatter behind a dumpster a few doorways down. Releasing me, Vern went to search it out. I wanted to tell him it was probably a rat or perhaps an employee taking out the trash, but something felt off. An eerie ripple crawled up my body. It whispered across my skin chilling me to my very core. Swallowing hard, I continued glancing around when I felt the hair on my neck stand on end. Slowly I turned. The sight that greeted me made my heart momentarily stop. A hooded figure looking every part of the Grim Reaper, minus the scythe, stood before me cocking his head almost studying me.
“Death,” the being growled. A fist connected with my jaw and I saw nothing but stars before everything went black.
“Evie?” A voice beckoned in the darkness that swarmed my head. I winced struggling against the blackness. “Genevieve?” It called harsher. I flinched as my eyes grappled against themselves. “Evie,” Cam sighed as my lids fluttered open.
“Uh…” I groaned grabbing my head as it screamed against the light. My mouth turned up seeing Cam hovering over me. “Hey.” I glanced around, confused and dazed, but couldn’t see anything else but him. “What happened?”
“We were hoping you’d tell us,” a man growled. Tilting my head, fighting against the
pain, I gawked in his direction and saw Axel brooding with his arms crossed.
“Evie,” Cam drew my attention to him by cupping my face. The warmth of his fingers was a welcome change against my cool cheek. “Can you tell me what happened?”
I shook my head instantly regretting it. Even lying there vertigo set in heavily. The night had cooled down and I couldn’t stop the chills raking through me. They seemed unusual since I was still clad in my leather jacket. “I don’t know. Is Vicky okay?” The wolves had said she needed time. I didn’t know how long I was out for.
“Like you don’t know,” Axel growled stepping forward, but a harsh glare from Cam halted him.
I knitted my brow confused. Was he really pissed about Stan turning her? “Look,” I sighed wishing I wasn’t in such a vulnerable position. “We didn’t have a choice. She never would have made it to the hospital.”
“So your solution was to kill her so she wouldn’t suffer?” The alpha demanded. “How compassionate.”
“What?”
“And what of my wolves?” he continued ignoring my question. “They try to stop you so you killed them too?”
Cam turned his piercing glare to the wolf. “I told you she wouldn’t kill without cause. How do we know they didn’t turn on her and Vicky was a casualty? You were all willing to ignore her as she laid there dying in your bar.”
“Cam? What’s going on? What are you talking about?” I placed my palm over my chest willing my heart to settle. Something was off about the conversation. The not knowing was troublesome, but I had a feeling that once everything was revealed things would become so much worse.
“Evie, baby, tell me what happened. Did the wolves turn on you?”
“What? No.” I exclaimed. His brow furrowed clearly not expecting my answer.
“I fucking told you!” Axel shouted. “She needs to pay for her crimes.”
“Lay a finger on her and it’ll be the last thing you ever do,” Cam spat clutching me tightly to his chest. I blinked rapidly trying to clear the dizziness that set in from the rapid move.
“Cam! What the fuck is going on?” I struggled against his embrace yearning to be on my feet incase I was required to defend myself. Sensing this, Cam helped me stand shielding me from the angry wolf while I gathered my bearings.
“Tell me what’s the last thing you remember?”
Rubbing my arm that felt tender for some reason, I thought on what he asked. “We stopped because Vicky was dying. Stan agreed to turn her.” I heard Axel growl, but Cam kept my focus on him. “I needed to clear my head so I came out here.” I thought about what happened next. “There was someone. Vern heard him or smelled him,” I shrugged.
“Him?” Cam asked.
I nodded. “He called me Death and knocked me on my ass with one punch. Now tell me what happened.”
“They’re all dead,” Axel spat. “The evidence shows it was you.”
“Evidence?”
“Evie,” Cam whispered softly. “They were killed with your gift.”
I blanched tightening the grip on my arm as if it would anchor me. How was that possible? “I didn’t…”
He nodded. “I know you didn’t, but you were unconscious. Maybe this guy used you to kill the others.”
“There’s no drag marks,” Axel explained.
“A vampire wouldn’t need to drag her,” Tyler explained. “There’s also not any blood on her.”
“Blood?” I wondered glancing over my attire. I hadn’t seen Ty since I woke and I wondered what he’d been up to.
“One of the wolves was missing his heart. It appears to have been brute force. Like a vampire,” Pestilence added. “Cam we should get Evie home. She needs to recover. She could have a concussion.”
“No!” Axel demanded stepping forward but halted when he saw Cam tense. “She’s the one responsible for the murder of three of our pack. I demand justice.”
“What happened to innocent until proven guilty?” I wondered leaning away from Cam to show I didn’t need him to defend me. I was no damsel. I was the Horseman of Death.
“It’s a human notion and we are not human.” Axel explained with a sneer.
“No,” Cam began looking down before raising his indigo gaze to the alpha. “We are not.” He stepped forward releasing me, proving I didn’t need him to protect me; that I was more than capable and he believed it. I stood straighter feeling superior by his confidence in me. “In this world, we are the law and even if she was guilty, where do you think she would go, Axel? With us. Now move aside or I’ll move you,” Cam growled sounding more beast than man at the moment.
“You’re so blinded by her.” Axel’s glare raked over me. The disgust on his face showed I was lacking. “A woman. First Asher, now the mighty War. Does this girl have a golden snatch?”
I didn’t even see Cam’s fist move until Axel lay sprawled out on the ground. War spun on his heels and was beside me. Hand-in-hand he led me away before the alpha could fully recover.
“How’d you find me?” I asked once we were safely in the car. He’d ridden over with Ty so now we had to wait for our fellow horseman to finish his investigation.
“I told you,” he shrugged, “I’ll always find you. When you didn’t show at the hospital I had Ty track your phone.” His brow furrowed. “It was the strangest thing though. I made turns before he even spoke them. Like I knew where you were.” I shifted in my seat. I suspected why. The movement didn’t go unnoticed. “You know something, don’t you?”
“I…”
Just then Tyler tapped on my window. He’d have kicked himself for his poor timing if he knew how close I was to telling Cam the one thing that he’d been urging me to do for months. Exhaling a deep breath, I stepped out the car so he could climb into the backseat.
“Okay, Evie,” Tyler sighed as we drove back towards the house. “It’s just us. What really happened?”
My brow furrowed. “I already told you.”
“A mystery guy knocked you out and used your gift to kill three people.” The tone of his voice suggested he didn’t wholeheartedly believe me.
“I guess so, Ty,” I spoke more defensively than I meant too. “I was unconscious. I only know for sure that they were alive when he hit me.”
“Could it have been a vampire? I don’t understand the missing heart.”
“It could have been. I mean he punched me in the face and I don’t remember him wearing gloves,” I spoke rubbing the lump on my jaw absentmindedly.
“How are you?” Cam asked noticing my discomfort.
“Killer headache. Lightheaded.” I smirked then immediately frowned. “I feel horrible for Vicky and her kids. I would have never killed her.” Suddenly I turned gripping Cam’s arm. “Maybe I can bring her back.”
He shook his head, but it was Ty who spoke. “You were out for awhile even after we were on the scene. If you could bring her back, her brain would be too far gone.”
“You don’t know that. We don’t know how my gift works.” But both horsemen were in agreement and we were a democracy so I was overruled. I understood their concern, but this woman’s death was troubling for me and almost blinded me to their reasoning.
Tyler jabbered on the rest of the way home over what had been discussed about the fight between the wolves and the vampires. I heard none of it, too focused on what had happened tonight. How had the stranger used my gift to kill the three wolves? I glanced down at my glove-clad hands with a furrowed brow. I didn’t understand how or why this happened. I hadn’t seen the bodies to know for sure if it was my gift, but both Cam and Ty had. I doubted they’d be uncertain. But why remove the heart?
He was still babbling, but had moved onto the battle at the werewolves’ club when I heard something that caught my ear. “…same mark as the vampires working with the sirens.”
I spun to face him. “The arrowed compass?”
He nodded. “Looks like Maya is attempting to take up Asher’s throne. There are too many popping up with her mar
k though. She may be going against the council. We might have to intervene before she brings them to our doorstep.”
“Council?” I wondered what he meant, but it was Cam who explained.
“The vampires have appointed council members who make rules that the covens are expected to follow. Ty thinks she’s building her numbers. Each coven is allotted a certain number of members.”
“If she’s turning more and it exceeds her allowance,” Ty began. “And the council finds out, they’ll intervene. Having that many old ass vampires in our area would not be good.”
When we entered the house, I barely mumbled a word before heading upstairs. I knew I wasn’t alone. Cam was following me. I didn’t hear him or even smell him. It was a sense that I had where he was concerned. Once we were alone in my room, I sat down on the bed and waited for him to say something. When the silence grew to an uncomfortable degree, I inhaled and spoke breaking the tension.
“You really think I killed those people?” I whispered. Glancing up at him, he hovered by the door with his arms crossed like he knew we weren’t up there just to go to bed.
“No,” he stated then sighed running his fingers through his raven hair. “Yes,” he breathed. I gasped feeling a punch to the stomach. Seeing this, he immediately approached sighing remorsefully. “I didn’t mean that I thought you killed them, Evie. I knew if you did there was a reason. I do think someone used your gift while you were unconscious.”
“Then why would he replace my gloves?” I held up my hands tugging at the leather fingers until my hands were bare. “What happened tonight, Cam? None of this feels right.” I shook my head anxiously. “We’re missing something.”
“Evie,” he sat down beside me taking me into his arms. I hadn’t realized how close to tears I was until his embrace soothed me. “I think,” he adjusted me to see him, “that the vampires followed you all. When you pulled over it gave them an opportunity. I doubt they believe that the wolves killed Asher. But they knew we were on thin ice with the pack. Attacking them then setting you up, they just severed any alliance we had with the werewolves. It could be their way of getting even with us for taking out their leader.”