The Hollowing (COYWOLF Series Book 2)

by Abby Tyson

  After they had finished eating, Karis went to the bathroom and Savi took advantage of her absence to ask Nissa something that had been bugging her.

  "Did you know that Warren was part of the Zuun?"

  "I knew he was a hunter," she said quietly, bringing their plates to the kitchen, "but I didn't know he was Zuun."

  "How did you know he was a hunter?"

  "That's how he was bitten. Ara was caught in one of his traps, and Jeda, Karis's wolf, bit him to protect her." Nissa kept her voice low and her eyes on the bathroom door. "Karis and I were on our way to help and saw him through their eyes."

  "So that's why you said he deserved it," said Savi, remembering Nissa's words back in Pittsfield. The bathroom door opened, and Nissa gave Savi a warning look, letting her know the discussion was over.

  Dave returned after dark, his arms full of shipping boxes. When he saw the two soulmates in the living room playing cards, he brought the boxes into his bedroom and began emptying the closets. Savi couldn't stand the sight of him touching her mom's things, so she went back to her room and tried to take a nap, but she had barely recovered from the torturous act of lying down when there was a knock on the door.

  "Yeah?" she asked.

  Dave opened the door but stayed in the doorway. The dark circles under his eyes were visible even from across the room, and his usually slicked-back hair was hanging loose in his face.

  "I was wondering if you wanted to help me pack Chloe's things," he said. "Instead of bringing them on the plane we can ship everything to your house."

  The suffocating pressure that had withdrawn ever so slightly since talking with Hettie slammed back against her.

  "No," Savi said instantly. "Just leave it here. I don't want it."

  "You can't make that kind of decision right now," he said. "You're not in the right --"

  "I don't want it!" she cried.

  He stared impassively at her, then began to turn away. Savi closed her eyes, wondering if she'd ever be able to breathe freely again. She heard the door close, but when she looked, Dave was still in the room.

  "Your mother's body is at the police station. She'll arrive in Boston in a few days. I was planning on meeting them --."

  "I don't want to hear this," snapped Savi, but Dave continued as if she hadn't spoken.

  "-- there and overseeing transport to Egremont. Your mom didn't have a will, but obviously everything of hers, including the house --"

  She covered her ears, repeating, "I don't want to hear this!"

  It was too much. She couldn't breathe. A boulder sat on her chest, squeezing the life out of her. Desperately she again searched within herself for the stone that had served her so well throughout her short lifetime, but there was nothing but the void, terrifying, black, and unmerciful.

  "You have to hear this, Savi."

  "No, I don't! I can't!" She had no strength to hold back the tears. "This is making me feel worse, not better. Aren't you supposed to try to make me feel better?"

  Dave's voice was empty as he said, "You can't feel better if you don't feel anything at all."

  "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Savi cried.

  "You have a tendency to bottle up your emotions without facing --"

  "Stop analyzing me!" she shouted. Pain shot through her body, threatening to rip her apart.

  His calm, almost absent expression gave way to confusion, but only a tinge of desperation colored his otherwise hollow voice. "If you don't acknowledge your emotions they can manifest in --"

  "Stop it!" she screamed. "Stop! I'm not your patient!"

  Finally the psychologist's composure crumbled. "I don't know what else to do, Savi!" he shouted. "What am I supposed to do? I can't help if you won't face the truth -- if you won't face your feelings!"

  Spinning around, he ran his hands through his hair and linked them on the back of his neck. Still facing the wall, he said, "I've been counseling people professionally for over ten years. I've told hundreds of people, in hundreds of different ways, that death is a natural, necessary part of life, and that even when someone we love dies unexpectedly, they never truly leave us because love can never die unless we let it."

  He turned back to her, his eyes swimming with tears. "I know it's all true, that I really did help people work through their grief, but right now..." He wiped his eyes and looked out the dark window. "Right now I can't stop thinking that it's all just a crock of shit."

  Seeing Dave -- the guy with all the answers, the guy who dealt with emotions for a living -- lose his cool and question his own beliefs, set Savi free of the burden she was carrying. Her breath rushed in, and her sorrow rushed out. Sobbing, she reached out for him, and he held her tight for as long as she needed, like a father should.

  The police arrived early the next morning, and Savi told them everything she could about Berto's "human trafficking" organization. They gave her their card in case she remembered anything else, and told her she was free to return home at her convenience. Although she didn't want to stay any longer than necessary, the thought of returning to her house alone made Savi go numb all over.

  But before she knew it, it was Monday, and she was in a cab, looking at the cottage for the last time as they left for the Tallahassee Airport. The flight to Albany took just over four hours, a sharp contrast to the five days it had taken to get there. Dave had ordered a car to bring them back to Egremont, and soon they were sitting in front of Savi's house. Somehow she had expected it to have burned down, or at least have some broken windows. Yet there it sat, the grass more overgrown than usual, a pink slip sticking out of the mailbox, but otherwise no worse for wear.

  Dave walked her to the front door, which still bore the dent from Marley's fist. The house was cold, and the bathroom and kitchen smelled from dirty laundry and foul food, but the worst part was the quiet. Savi longed to turn the TV on, but at the same time hated the idea of breaking the silence.

  Dropping her luggage in her bedroom, Dave said, "You don't have to stay here."

  He had offered more than once for her to come live with him, or at least stay for a while, but Savi had declined. His house would be full enough as it was, with Nissa and Karis agreeing to live there since they had nowhere to go. And despite the threat of the Zuun and the ona coming after her, the thought of being anywhere else made Savi sick to her stomach. She had to stay. It was her home, and no one would drive her from it again.

  "I know," she said. "Thanks."

  He gave her a worried look, but nodded. Savi started to walk him out, but he didn't move. "I've been thinking a lot about you, and where you go from here."

  She started to say that she'd be fine, but the lie stuck in her throat.

  "I became your stepdad the instant your mom said yes to marrying me. Just because that's not going to happen doesn't mean I'm walking away from that responsibility." His voice was firm, but there were tears in his eyes. "So I'm assuming the mortgage on your house. It'll be one less thing you need to worry about it, and you can stay here for as long as you want."

  "You don't have to do that," she said, leaving the bedroom and heading towards the door.

  "It's not a matter of having to," he said, following her. "I want to help."

  It was a thoughtful gesture; Savi knew that. But she couldn't bear the idea of him owning the house. However, she didn't have the energy -- or the finances -- to argue about it at present, so she simply said, "Can we talk about it later?"

  "Of course," he said, smiling with badly hidden relief. "Don't think I'd take paying the mortgage as any sense of ownership, though. I'll never come over unless you give me the okay first. And if there's any other way I can help -- paying for school, helping you find a job, or... if you need someone to talk to."

  He put a hand on her arm. "You are not alone in this," he said. Savi smiled as much as she was able.

  Giving her arm a soft squeeze, he stepped onto the porch. "After I get Nissa and Karis settled in, I'll pick up some groceries and come over to hel
p clean and make dinner. It should only take a couple hours -- and don't tell me I don't have to," he added with a smile, cutting off her protests.

  Not bothering to watch them drive away, Savi closed the front door. She leaned against it, listening to the familiar sounds of her neighborhood.

  "I'm home," she called to the empty rooms. Heading into the living room, she put the first CD she could find in the stereo, opened all the windows, and began cleaning her house.

  Epilogue

  Pearl placed the bowl of warm blood on the ground and used a long stick to push it towards Ebony. The snarling wolf, black as her namesake, took only a moment to sniff at the tantalizing meal before lapping it up.

  By the light of the ring of fire that protected her and the others from the howling pack, Pearl did the same for the three additional ona who had volunteered for rebirth, despite the risk. As she watched their muzzles turn rusty red, Pearl prayed to Anwi that this would work, Ebony's promise of a new life as torra echoing in her heart.

  The other keeper wrapped the wound in the leg of the unconscious torra, and Pearl hovered over him, making sure the bleeding stopped. The wolf was old, and had been unexpectedly easy to catch with Amber's heightened ona senses -- plus a little help from her lighter. But its age also meant that the torra would require special attention. They didn't need much more blood for the sunrise feeding, but if this worked, if Pearl didn't fail, they would need the torra alive and healthy for the next Eye.

  Pearl was still a little surprised that Savi actually told the truth about the location of the torra. Perhaps it was a sign that Pearl had been able to get through to her, and make her understand. Humanity was weak, no longer fit to rule the Earth. The strength of gods and goddesses, children of Anwi, was the only thing that could stop the greed and destruction. A new reign of peace and enlightenment would settle across the world, and all would rise together.

  Lying down in the center of the circle, safely out of reach from the four growling and snapping wolves, Pearl slept until her companion keeper woke her at dawn. As she did every morning, she cursed the sun as it rose above the hill, and donned her wide-brimmed hat. Opening the bandage on the torra's leg, she massaged the wound until the blood flowed once again, catching the drips in four clean bowls.

  Ebony and the rest of the pack shrieked and screamed in agony as they shifted into their human form for the last time this cycle, and Pearl forced herself not to cover her ears or look away. This was what she had worked so hard to end. This torture, that only gods could endure, would no longer cut short the lives of those who would bring an end to the chaos that reigned the world.

  As soon as the ona's naked, human bodies stopped thrashing, the two keepers rushed to their sides, releasing them from their metal chains. As gently as though she were an infant, Pearl lifted Ebony's head onto her lap, bringing the bowl to her lips.

  "Drink, goddess," she said softly. "Drink and live anew." Ebony was almost too weak to swallow. If Pearl failed, there was no way she would survive another Eye.

  Beside them, two of the others lifted their bowls with trembling hands and drank. Amber, though she held the bowl to her lips, didn't drink. Instead, she watched Ebony, her amber eyes glowing with a hunger that burned as brightly as the firelight dancing around them.

  At last the life-giving liquid made its way into Ebony's being, the essence becoming part of her own. Outside the circle, the rest of the pack was still recovering from the altering when Ebony's eyes flew open. Screaming, she leapt free of Pearl's hold, nearly thrusting her back into the flames.

  It didn't work, thought Pearl, certain that Ebony was dying before her eyes. I failed.

  But then she noticed the white veil that had always clouded Ebony's right eye was gone. Exultation set her now clear eyes aflame, and an ecstatic grin split her lips. The two other ona who had consumed the blood now jumped to their feet as well, stretching and flexing as if their bodies were new to them.

  Amber hastily gulped the torra's life force. Though she gagged on the warm blood, only a single drop escaped, painting a long red stroke as it trickled down her chin and neck. A moment later she leapt to her feet, arms stretched high above her, fists opening and clenching as if even the sky wasn't safe from her reach.

  With the rising sun at her back, Ebony's form began shrinking and reforming. Her humanity melted into a black wolf, her cry of victory turning into a long, plaintive howl. Although human, other members of the pack outside the circle took up the cry, watching in awe.

  Pearl's excitement morphed into fear at the sight of four unchained wolves so close. More than one careless keeper had underestimated the savage nature of the ona in their wolf form, paying for the mistake with their lives.

  The newly made torra, however, required no such toll. Ebony's howl ebbed as she once again painlessly became human, and Amber and the others followed suit. Ebony raised her arms to the brightening sky, causing the pack to let loose a tumultuous roar of celebration.

  Pearl, unable to find her voice, was the only one close enough to hear through the uproar Ebony's first words as torra.

  "The world is ours."

  About the Author

  Abby Tyson is the author of the Coywolf Series. Lover of urban paranormal and fantasy, Abby is a sucker for a good (or even a bad) pun. If she’s not staying up until all hours writing her next book, she’s probably staying up until all hours playing 45, the best card game you’ve never heard of. Abby lives outside of Boston, Massachusetts, where you’ll find her monkeying around at the zoo (told you!) with her snuggable daughter, or partaking in the delicious food her sorcerer husband conjures up.

  Also by Abby Tyson

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