by L. A. A. Law
The thought of Nicole and Jacob getting close to these monsters that already have hold of Nicholas and Kayla cast unbridled terror throughout my very being. I desperately fight to grab hold of my free falling world to concentrate on connecting to Nicholas or Kayla. Fear rips through me as the minutes click by without a connection. As I drift between the car and a fleeting connection, I hear the faint echoes of Emma’s voice pleading with Andrew not to panic.
I hear the faint echoes of her voice as I forge forward. “Nicole and Jacob may not be flying high enough or maybe they have not transformed yet. See if you can get Nicholas or Kayla’s scent, but remember the wind is blowing west to east so if you do get the scent, stay focused...”
Her voice fades completely as the wolf’s howling surrounds me. As the howling gets closer, more menacing, their fear spikes, I focus on the hyperactive heart beating, praying I do not lose my connection.
Nicholas screams. “Kayla, watch out!” She is running.
A voice I recognize as Kristen’s is yelling for Alex to shoot him.
I’m falling and stunned to hear Jacob’s anguished voice. “Come after me, you don’t want her, I’m what you want.”
A crash echoes off the trees, followed by an anguished howling. Did someone shoot the wolf?
Damian’s hurried voice shocks me, almost causing me to lose my connection. I wasn’t aware he channeled with me or that I was telling the others what was happening, but his warning voice is loud and clear. “Jacob, run and turn into the mouse or bird! If the wolf bites you, you will die because you are part vampire. Leave now and do what I instructed you earlier, go!”
Kayla is in my view and I realize I unknowingly shifted from her to Nicholas. She rises, shouting. “Jacob, watch out he is right behind you.” I’m moving and thrusting myself in the air. All of a sudden, something clamps my shoulder, intense pain shoots throughout my system, breaking contact with Nicholas.
Opening my eyes, Damian is gripping my hands. “Mia, what happened, did the wolf bite Jacob?” His voice reflects his utter terror.
Struggling to force the words beyond my constricted airway, they are barely a whisper. “No, Nicholas threw himself at Jacob knocking him out of the way. It bit Nicholas on the shoulder! What’s going to happen to him? Is he going to die? I heard your warning to Jacob.” Tears veil my eyes, streaming down my face as Damian grabs my arms, shaking me.
“Mia, you need to get back to the children, now! I need to tell Jacob how to save him!”
“Is that possible?”
“Yes, but you need to get me back there now!” He shouts.
I close my eyes, focusing only on Jacob and hoping he hasn’t transformed yet. Feeling the tears streaming down my face and utter desolation as he mutters blaming himself, I know I am with him.
Nicole’s arms are wrapped around him, “Jacob they were trying to protect you, but we need to go back to them and do what we can.”
“They are both laying there dying because of me! I didn’t listen and now ...” A shot and angry howl becoming fainter by the second interrupts him.
“This is our chance,” Nicole states quickly, “we have to get them and run! We can drag them, but we have to get them away from the others, I saw the wolf knock down the two vampires, they are laying there, I don’t think that they are dead, but maybe we can outrun them, let’s go.”
Nicholas and Kayla’s moaning becomes clearer as Jacob and Nicole reach them. The children struggle as they drag their cousins through the thick brush. “Nicholas why did you do that, you should have just let the wolf take me. I’m so sorry, I never meant for you to get hurt.”
Nicholas gasps through his agonizing moans and his voice sounds strained. “It would have killed you, I couldn’t let that...”
Before he can finish, Kristen is yelling to Alex to get up. “They are getting away.”
My senses are shifting uncontrollably as excruciating pain pierces through me along with the struggling, I can’t tell who I am connected to as growls and yells seem to be coming from every direction. Never have I experienced such turbulence.
As the sounds become more distinguishable, I realize that there is more than one wolf howling! My own terror turning my blood to shards of ice threatens to break my connection and I can feel Damian and Emma gripping my hands in hopes that I can hold on. Someone gasps as the crunching of bones echoes off the trees, but I do not feel any additional pain.
Kayla’s anguished scream makes whomever I’m connected to jump as I grip my connection tighter. “Move faster, the wolves just killed the vampires! They turned to dust and disappeared, they are probably coming after us next! Run!”
A second later, Nicholas’ weakened voice offers some hope. “They’re retreating, they are not following us.”
I didn’t realize that I was conveying back what was happening, until Damian’s commanding voice rings out. “Jacob, stop running, you have to cure the wolf bites.”
All movement stops as Jacob’s impassioned plea reaches me. “How can I cure the bite, is there a spell?”
“He can’t hear you remember.” Nicole says winded.
“Then how does he know what’s going on?”
Nicholas whispers, “Mom must be telling him, remember he said she could feel us, maybe she can hear us as well.”
Jacob’s desperate plea tears at my heart. “Mom, please tell me how to cure this, it’s all my fault, they can’t die because of me! Help me please! Mom!”
I so desperately want to tell him that I am with him. I’m surprised that Damian even knows how Andrew cures people to instruct them. Damian instructs the children in a calm and authoritative voice, speaking very slowly, deliberately.
“Jacob, Nicole, put your hands on their bites and concentrate as hard as you possibly can on the energy that flows in you to cure those around you. You must be careful, the ailments that you cure, make you weak and because this is a bite from a wolf which could kill you, the minute you see the wounds around them closing and healing, you must cast aside what is flowing through you so it does not become a part of you and impair you. Go slowly and concentrate on only the wounds. Nicholas, Kayla when you feel their touch change from cold to the heat passing through you in the infected area, tell them, so that they can get ready to release the hold. Once the healing energy is flowing through you, it can work on its own in conjunction with this spell.”
Then he repeats the words Emma told me once about how to help heal wounds which I incurred.
“Once you repeat this spell several times and you can see the change in the wound, Jacob and Nicole, you must concentrate on dispelling the energy flowing through you immediately, you cannot let it grab hold of you or flow through you, it must stay contained in your healing hands, you must act quickly. Think of it as a ball and throw it out as if you’re pitching. It will weaken you. Remember what I said, I’m on my way, I need to break the connection, I can smell you.
I hear a lot of activity around the children and know that this is going to be very dangerous for all of them. I want to stay with them, but if I do, I will not be able to move and if Damian smells them, we must be close. Maybe if I can reach them too, I can be more helpful. Everyone is leaping from the stopped vehicle as my eyes flutter open.
Running through the trees, I hear Emma yelling to Reginald.
“Yes, I still feel his essence; we can follow him this way. Let’s go!”
Knowing that Reginald is tracing Damian, I focus on he and Emma. The continuous channeling has made me slower so I concentrate on their voices hoping they will continue yelling, instead of calling for them to wait, they need to reach the children as quickly as possible.
Lucas runs across me. Grabbing my hand, I shake it off. “No, you need to go and get Andrew, Nicholas and Kayla have been bitten by the werewolf and Jacob and Nicole are trying to cure them, but they can all be lost if they do something wrong! You need to find Andrew and get him to them, please. I’m fine.”
“Mia, it’s dangerous for you t
o be out here alone, we don’t know if they have stopped hunting and there is more than one wolf.”
“Please, I’m fine, you need to get Andrew, everyone else is going towards the kids, but he needs to be with them now.” I grab Lucas’ arms. “If they don’t do this right, I could lose them all, go!”
Giving me one last look, he pulls out his telephone and speeds off. Forging through the underbrush, I pray the others have reached the children and that Lucas leads Andrew to them quickly.
I hear familiar voices ahead. Quickening my pace, I am stopped dead in my tracks as two blood, thirty vampires emerge from the nearby trees.
Backing up, I struggle to gather the energy around me to repel them. Flicking my hands forward, I’m shocked that in my weakened state, they are thrust back. Knowing that each time I flick my wrists, I feel weaker, I focus on sending them back as far as I can as Reginald’s voice cuts through the trees. Taking a step forward, I am about to yell out to him but something grabs me from behind, dragging me backwards quickly. It covers my mouth so I cannot scream. Struggling to get my hands free in hopes of repelling the two vampires running toward me, their eyes turn fiercer and I know I’m in trouble. In another moment, I’ll be too far away for anyone to hear me. Thrusting my head into my capture, it stumbles and I scream for help, unsure whether anyone hears me. As we fall toward the ground, I cast the repellant spell hoping for time to get my shield around me.
This time, only one of the vampires, the woman is repelled. Continuing forward, the man flicks his hand and I’m careening across the grass, my body slamming into a tree is the only thing that stops me. Pain radiates from my head throughout my entire being as the world becomes a long blackening tunnel.
As darkness surrounds me like rolling fog surrounding the shore, the male’s voice pierces my waning consciousness. “She is covered in his stench. This must be his wife. You have lost the children, do you think that you can do something right with her or must I do everything myself?”
The woman’s urethral voice drifts through the mist clouding my every thought. “I can do this, walk me through it and I guarantee you that I will fool them all, get to the children we lost here, and whatever ones he has at home, I will get to his family and then ensure as he lay dying that he knows it is our family that brought about the demise of his for the plague that he unleashed upon us. I will not fail you.”
“You had better not. If you do, I will kill you myself and I promise you it will be slow and special.” The menace in his voice makes it perfectly clear that he is not only the leader, but the fiercest and most dangerous of the group. I smell the pool of my blood forming from the gash in my head and feel the sticky substance dripping down my ear and cheek. Someone grabs me by the shoulders, lifting them off the ground. Suddenly, sharp teeth pierce my clavicle, pushing me through the fog and I scream.
The man’s voice bellows to the woman. “Bite her now, she is a delectable untouched morsel and you will have her scent and then I can transform you to look like her. Do not fail me Marlena.”
“You know I have never failed you.”
Excruciating pain rips through me as her teeth sink deep into my neck. I can feel my life force draining with each passing moment that her lips are upon me. Despite the immortality spell, Andrew’s warning so many years ago rings in my ears warning me that if my head and heart are injured beyond repair, my physical body will fail and I know that this, along with my head injury could forever stop my heart, releasing my essence into the atmosphere. As the darkening tunnel enshrouds me once more, at least its walls are filled with the wondrous images of my children, Andrew and all the special moments that we were blessed to share. As I drift, I feel the love that Andrew’s light and gentle touch brought to my existence cocoon me. I only hope that he is in time to ensure that the best part of me, our children, goes on. As my heart beats slow and my conscious takes it final dip before descending into the darkened abyss, I send out one fleeting hope that he and the children will always feel my life force surrounding them, then my world becomes silent and black.
Chapter Five - In The Hands Of Wolves
Unsure of how long I have floated in my darkened abyss excruciating pain awakens me and I slowly become aware that it is not death holding me and moving me forward. I can feel my eyes fluttering, but I cannot see past the blackness which veils my vision. I am aware of the cool, damp atmosphere surrounding me. The pain in my head has not ceased, but my thoughts become clearer as I realize the impact with the tree blinded me. I can’t help but wonder if this will be permanent. As my thoughts return to my surroundings, I become aware of heat emanating from something furry wrapped around my arms and grasping my legs. My heart races as I realize I am in the arms of the werewolf! Struggling to fall free of its grasp, the pain in my head explodes, my heart races and my neck begins throbbing. I can feel my hot, sticky blood oozing from the gash in my head and from the bite on my neck.
“Please stop struggling, you’ve lost too much blood already and will only make it that much harder for us to help you.” A calm, quiet, male voice whispers close to my ear, his tone lacks the menace and ferocity of my previous captures.
Fighting to speak, my voice is barely a whisper. “Who are you?”
“Please don’t speak until we can take care of the bite, you will use up too much energy and you need as much as you can gather to try and heal. My name is Grant.”
I struggle again. “Why are you...”
“Please stop struggling and talking, from the look of the puddle that surrounded you and the bites on your neck, you have already lost too much blood and we have a long way to travel. I mean you no harm and we meant your children no harm. It was a terrible situation. Tyler and Cary thought they were with the others trying to hurt me.”
“How ...”
“Please just think your questions and I will be happy to answer them, but please, every time you speak, the muscles in your neck contract and you spurt out more blood. Please stop or we won’t be able to save you.”
Concentrating on slowing down my heart rate, I feel the escaping blood from my neck and head slow to a trickle and begin to think my questions. “Please tell me, do you know if my children made it, did their father find them?”
“I was with you children when the others found them. I believe someone brought your husband to them moments later, but your son, Jacob, had already done a fine job in curing Nicholas and dispelling the wolf venom from himself. Your daughter, however, she saved Kayla, but your husband had to work on her, she was not able to dispel the venom fast enough and some of it touched her system.”
Panic rips through me as I consider that Nicole may be dying. Before I even form the question, Grant is at my ear. “Please relax, your husband was working on her and I could hear him tell the others that she was going to be fine, she only needed to relax and so do you. The more anxious you get, the more your heart pumps and more blood escapes.”
“Are you sure he said she would be fine? Please I need to know the truth.”
“I have no reason to lie to you. I know what I heard him say, he even told one of the witches that their spell was unnecessary and that he was confident that she was healing. Before I left, they were moving her and the other children to the cars so that they could find you.”
“Why did you take me then? Why didn’t you just take me to my family or let them know where I was?”
“I’m sorry, I couldn’t do that, Marlena had already become you and was moving toward your family with the others. I heard them giving the coordinates to the rest of their family and knew that they were closing in on them. I couldn’t risk taking you to them. Your children were recovering, you are hurt, some of your party was hurt and in my condition, I would have lost the rest of my pack and my family. David and his family are too plentiful and strong. I’m sure that in the confusion and hesitation, your family would have been severely impaired as well. I only hope that they stuck to the plan of letting Marlena join them to learn if you had other childr
en. They wanted to ensure they took all of you out. Otherwise, I hope your family was fast enough to avoid the entourage that was heading their way.”
As fear grips my heart, I concentrate on shutting down my emotions. I don’t want to bleed to death before I can reach them or channel again and know that they are alright.
Without realizing, I become conscious of his fur again and an unbidden question comes to mind. “Are you the wolf that I heard with the children?”
“Yes, I’m the one the others were trying to capture using your children as bate, but I was never going to attack them. I could tell that they were the ones being held in the dungeon. I got a glimpse of them when I was outside the window and caught their scent. I was going after the ones who were with them, but then the situation got out of my control, I was shot and my pack saw that I was going to be attacked again and they began attacking everyone that was close to me in the confusion. I am very sorry that your children got hurt.”
“How did you know that they were my children?”
“At first, all I could tell was that they were related to you because of the similar scent that I got around you and them, but then when I lifted you, I could hear you fleeting thoughts about how much you loved them and hoped they would be safe in with their father. Only a mother would think of her children that way as she thought she was dying.”
I remember what I had heard him say outside of the dungeon window. “I’m sorry about your family, did any of them survive?”
His voice turns extremely sad and quiet. “Yes, my eldest son and two daughters survived, but my other four children and my wife perished. We should have never gotten ourselves caught like that, our job was to monitor, observe and calculate the best way to attack this family. It is all my fault, I should have never put them in such a position. They thought they could control their transformation and they were doing very well, I should have seen that they were not yet ready and that extreme emotions and fear would impair their ability. If only...” His voice breaks as sobs rip from his chest.