by Kate Douglas
The hollow crash of metal sounded as the torched vampire ricocheted off the doorframe before streaking through the open door and into the bowels of the building, clearly deciding this wasn’t a fight he could win.
Good.
She didn’t have a moment for relief as Alex came tumbling by with Smith. The teen wolf’s flesh was shredded to ribbons, his face a barely recognizable mass of blood and broken bones.
The slightly smaller female wolf tackled a pursuing Tess. Lashing backward with her foot, Tess caught the she-wolf in the chest. The wolf grunted, but Tess didn’t have time to do more than roll over before the she-wolf was on her again. The Normal used the heel of her hand to snap the she-wolf’s muzzle back and up. Both let out an agonized howl as Tess gripped her now broken wrist and the she-wolf tripped back.
Chloe didn’t know what to do, who to try to save. Alex punched all ten talons into Smith’s sides, and the bigger wolf howled in rage, pummeling the boy with fists that sounded like concrete impacting flesh.
Tess’s shriek spun Chloe back toward the other fight. The she-wolf had the Normal on her back, hunching over her body, a taloned hand around her friend’s throat. Tess thrashed for air, for life.
“Get off her, bitch.” Chloe drew back a hand, flung a fireball over the she-wolf’s head, searing her back, but not doing much damage. She had to get the wolf away from Tess. She had to.
Gods help her.
The she-wolf writhed in pain, her huge, half-shifted form crushing Tess. Chloe rushed forward, throwing all of her weight behind the push, but her strength was no match for any werewolf. The she-wolf whipped around and sank her fangs into Tess’s thigh, ripping through cloth and flesh.
“No!” Bitten. Tess had been bitten by a wolf on full moon, the time of Change. Oh. Gods.
Silver. silver. SILVER. Find Silver. A chorus of whispers sounded off in Chloe’s head. Werewolves were allergic to silver.
Tess. Tess had a silver necklace she wore all the time. It glinted in the moonlight. Chloe reached over, jerking it off her friend’s neck.
The wolf arched back, jaws gaping, Tess’s blood leaking from the side of her mouth, to howl her triumph at the moon. “Aaaa-oooh.”
Chloe cupped her friend’s necklace in her palm, thrust it into the she-wolf’s mouth, and lit up another fireball to force the melting silver to coat the inside of the wolf bitch’s throat.
The wolf’s jaw locked around Chloe’s wrist, and her fangs made screaming agony shoot up Chloe’s arm and directly into her brain. She stared into the female wolf’s eyes as the silver ripped into her bloodstream, killing her quickly and painfully. Her every breath and every heartbeat sped her demise. Her feral eyes glazed over with death in moments. The crunch and crackle of Change sounded as her body shriveled back into its human form. Chloe wrenched her injured arm out of the wolf’s mouth, whispering a few healing spells to stop the bleeding, but Tess needed her energy far more.
Slamming her hand over Tess’s femoral artery, Chloe felt the pressure of each heartbeat pulsing blood between her fingers. She closed her mind to doing the same thing for Merek that morning. He was gone, but Tess could still live. Even with Chloe’s full weight pressing down on the bite, some blood escaped. She focused her magic on healing the wound. It didn’t matter if her friend had been bitten if she didn’t survive the initial injury.
Down. get down. DOWN.
The whispering echo of premonition hit Chloe so hard she swayed before she ducked. Just in time. A hulking half-shifted werewolf sailed over her head, skidding into the dark and out of sight. Smith. She heard him scrabble against the rooftop, leaping back for round two. She cast a shield so hard he ricocheted off and kept on flying to hit the railing, but he didn’t go over.
I regret that your death was always going to be necessary, but at least you were more useful than Dr. Nemov. The wolf projected the thought as he righted himself and shook all over, like a wet dog. He stalked her slowly, his eyes looking for an opening.
“You’re full of shit, Smith. If you really regretted what you did, you would have stopped years ago. My only comfort is knowing that when my aunt finds out about this, she’ll make sure you never use my formula to get what you want. If anyone has the power to stop you, she does.” Chloe’s energy levels were in the toilet, and she had very little magic left. This night had taken its toll. She swayed to her feet, tottering, planting her feet to keep from toppling as she watched him circle Tess and her. Easy prey. She lifted her chin and glared at him. “Just get on with it and quit playing with your food, you filthy animal.”
Smith bayed at the full moon and charged her. He bounced off her warding spell, and she sliced at him with red flames. Seared fur roiled and stank. Noxious fumes hit her in the face. He roared with pain and rage, letting out an unholy keen. The blood-chilling sound froze her for a second too long. He crashed through her weakened shield, knocking her away from Tess.
They rolled over and over until Chloe slammed hard onto her back, doubling over and gagging as her breath exploded out. His knee made hard contact with her ribs, and a few of them gave way. Hot pain tore through her torso, shooting through her in nauseating waves. He straddled her, pushing his crushing weight down on her waist, and she felt herself blacking out until he snaked out an arm and clawed her from shoulder to breast. His talons slashed through skin and muscle, making her scream, raw and high-pitched.
Thrusting the sound forward with magic, she made the shriek worthy of a banshee. Smith reared back, loosing an agonized howl, slamming his hands over his sensitive ears. She scrabbled back on the hard pavement, breaking nails and skinning palms in her effort to get out from under him.
She skidded into the corner of the rooftop. Trapped, but at the moment the railing was the only thing holding her upright. Blood spilled, heavy and thick, from her chest. She pressed a hand over the wound, but it proved too large to cover. Her breathing hitched in torturously, every inhale and exhale a conscious effort. She had never known real pain before this moment.
The moon went dark behind clouds, and she could barely see him in the remaining gloom. Only the reflection of his eyes showed, which looked demonic and horrifying. The night had never been more terrifying than at this moment. Her heart raced like that of the cornered prey she was. She fought to keep from blacking out, clamping her hand tighter over her shoulder.
Smith’s rancid breath blasted into her face as he closed in. She slammed her eyes shut and lit up a flare in his face. He staggered back, blinded by the light as she shot the sparks as high into the air as her waning magic could make them go. Maybe they’d bring help. Maybe Alex and Tess would be saved. She had no faith left for herself. What little energy she had went into sending up the flare.
Smith came back, of course. She knew he would. Werewolves were bigger, stronger, faster, and she had no more tricks up her sleeve. She sagged against the rail, consciousness fading in and out.
She wasn’t sure if what she saw was real or pure dream, but it made a weak smile curve her lips.
Ophelia, her suicidal escape artist familiar, came streaking through the dark. She leaped onto Smith and dug in with vicious precision, hooking claws into his eyes and sinking teeth into his left ear.
The massive wolf howled with rage, trying to buck her off. He spun and twisted like a maddened rodeo bull. She hung on, though. He backed into Chloe, tripping and crashing. Something in her knee gave way where he stepped on it. She tried to scream again, but went into a fit of hacking coughs, which increased the pain ripping across her chest. He and Ophelia flailed over the rail.
“Ophelia,” she wheezed as loud as she could, which just made her cough harder.
“Meow,” the familiar returned, and Chloe started. Ophelia had gone over the rail. Chloe knew she had. She’d seen her.
It was a dream. It had to be.
Because an enormous dark angel swooped from the sky and brought her Merek. He cradled her close, kissed her mouth, and she tasted honey. He said her name over and over
again, but she couldn’t draw in enough air to speak.
The angel transformed into Luca, who sagged to his knees beside Tess. “Mia diletta?”
There was no response. Maybe Tess had died, too. If this was death, it hurt enough to steal Chloe’s breath away. She couldn’t see Alex. She hoped that meant he’d survived.
“No,” Luca choked out the word, then he screamed it. “No!”
A tear ran unchecked down his cheek, dripping off of his chin. He lifted Tess gently against his chest and rocked her, a deep sob racking his body as he buried his face against her long hair.
Chloe blinked slowly, aware that Merek was talking to her. Or maybe he was talking to Luca. She wasn’t sure. She was just glad she could see him. One last time.
The darkness she hated so much closed in and took her away from him.
16
The astringent smells of a hospital assaulted Chloe’s nose. It confused her, left her disoriented. Was she back in med school? Her residency? She licked her lips, found them cracked. Her body ached, but she couldn’t remember why.
Soft light shone through her eyelids, and when she opened them, she saw an atrocious seashell night-light. With glitter. A smile curved her lips, and a snort of laughter ended on a sob. For a single moment, her heart flew.
Merek!
Then a pair of slim legs crossed at the ankles came into sharp focus. She looked up to find Selina reading a file beside the bed. Chloe frowned, even more confused, and questions tumbled out. “Where am I? How did I get here? What are you doing here?”
“The Magickal ward of Harborview. I imagine Cavalli and Kingston carted your battered carcass here. And Kingston asked me and your aunt Millie to handle things for him, look in on you and the two wolves, take care of your familiar.” The elf’s eyebrows arched, then she reached out to press a button that lifted Chloe into a sitting position. “Any other questions?”
“Two wolves?” Chloe’s dream collided with reality, spinning her deeper into uncertainty. Hazy images formed. Ophelia, the angel, Luca’s wretched sobbing, Tess bitten by a wolf, Merek. The odd sensation of wind rushing over her, soaring over the city, wings beating. She shook her head and got to the most pressing point. “They’re alive?”
“Alex Nemov and Tess Jones are both alive, yes.” Something flickered in the detective’s eyes. “For the moment. It’s been three days, and Dr. Jones is still in critical condition and under constant watch. Nemov is conscious and responsive, but . . .” She shrugged one shoulder. “The doctors are doing everything they can.”
“Good. That’s good.” Chloe’s voice sounded fuzzy to her own ears. She had to see them. Twists of guilt and sorrow wrenched at her insides. If she hadn’t insisted on going to Bain-bridge Island, they might not be in this mess. She closed her eyes for a moment and swallowed. “Luca and Merek are both alive?”
A hint of a smile twitched up the sides of Selina’s mouth. “Again, for the moment. They’re tracking down Smith and what’s left of his operation.”
“Smith’s alive?” Chloe blinked. She’d started thinking her dream wasn’t a dream at all. The angel was obviously Luca in a vampiric half-shift, so pieces had started falling into place. “How could even a werewolf survive a hundred-story drop and walk—run—away?”
Selina spread her hands in an eloquent gesture. “He’s an older werewolf, so I guess he was powerful enough to manage to heal and get out of there before the authorities arrived on the scene. Plus, it was full moon. Who knows what wolves can really do on those nights?”
“What about the other wolves that Smith had?” The awful memory of those poor souls trapped in cages would remain with her for the rest of her life. “What happened to them?”
“All of Smith’s men are being hunted down.” Selina spoke slowly, as if she thought Chloe was too out of it to have heard her the first time. But it told her the detective didn’t know about those wolves. Were they dead? Alive? Had the FBI or the All-Magickal Council covered it up? She’d have to call Millie and ask.
Chloe nodded, tried to keep her expression vague. “Right. Of course.” She pulled in a deep breath, a knot within her unwinding. “And when they’re done, Merek will be back to work in Seattle.”
Alive, whole, and within reach. She wanted to be in his arms again so badly, to hear the steady beat of his heart under her ear, just to talk to him and make sure he was okay. She didn’t know what form their relationship would take when things returned to normal, but if he was alive and things could go back to normal, that was more than she could have wished for a few days before. It was enough.
“Actually, no.” The detective bent down to tuck her file into a leather satchel. “Since you mention it, Kingston doesn’t work for the Seattle PD anymore.”
Chloe sat in stunned silence for several seconds before she choked out, “He quit?”
“Cavalli offered him a spot on his team, and he took it.” Selina straightened and crossed her legs the other way.
“What about you?” Chloe was still trying to wrap her mind around Merek quitting. He was a cop. His job was his life. It defined him. “You’re his partner. He loves working with you.”
The detective shoved an impatient hand through her hair, revealing an elfin ear. “I told him if he didn’t make this jump he was a damn fool. No one passes up the chance to work with Luca Cavalli. The bloodsucker’s been dancing around it for a couple of years now, yanking Kingston in for a case here and there, but it looks like the FBI managed to pry its head out of its collective ass.”
“Why would you encourage him to leave?”
Selina stared at her for a long, long time before she answered. “He’s the best partner I’ve ever had, so I’m not thrilled to see him go, but . . .” A resigned smile twisted her lips. “We both know I’m going to bite it soon, so there’s no reason for him to hold himself back for me. Or to stick around and watch.”
It was eerie how accepting the woman was, and considering how Alex, Tess, and Chloe had fought so hard to live, it was almost offensive to her. “You’re pretty calm about the thought of dying.”
The elf sighed, her narrow shoulders dipping in a shrug, the gesture weary. “I’m old, and I’m tired. It’s time. Even if I didn’t go as soon as I think I’m going to, I’d only have another fifty to sixty years, max, before age got me. After several centuries, I’ve seen enough to know fifty years won’t make much difference one way or another.”
“I see.” What she said made sense, but Chloe guessed she was just too young to truly understand. Even in her darkest moment, Chloe had never welcomed death. She couldn’t imagine assuming that attitude. It just wasn’t her, but she had less than a century under her belt, so she was willing to concede the view would be different from where Selina was sitting.
“No, you don’t.” Selina snorted and rose to her feet, leaning down to snag her satchel. She gestured to a blue duffel bag beside the bed. “Your aunt left you some clothes before she went to visit Alex.”
“I want to see him.” The words were out of Chloe’s mouth before she realized she might not be up to moving around much. She’d been ignoring it as much as possible, but she hurt. All over. Every inch of her throbbed, and it was obvious the IV in her arm was feeding her painkillers, so she didn’t want to know what shape she would be in without them. “I want to see Tess, too. Now.”
“I’ll get a nurse on my way out.” Selina looped her bag over her shoulder. “I’ll stop by and check on you again tomorrow.”
“Thanks.” Chloe pushed herself higher against the pillows, ignoring the ache in her knee. “And thanks for coming.”
“Not a problem.”
It took almost an hour before she was showered, swathed in a fluffy robe, and transferred to a wheelchair. The process was humiliatingly slow and arduous. It didn’t help that halfway through, a doctor came in to poke and prod at her injuries. He assured her she’d make a full recovery and that the healing spells were being administered over an extended time period to ensure that s
he wouldn’t scar and that she’d retain full mobility. She’d be just dandy in a few days. By the time he was done with his examination, she wanted to snarl at him to get the hell out of her way or she’d wheel her own self down to Alex and Tess’s rooms.
When she finally got to see Tess, she found herself sitting alone in a viewing room. Her friend was incoherent and obviously on some serious painkillers of her own. She was strapped to her hospital bed, multiple IVs and sensors attached to her. Her body twitched constantly, and she sweated, moaned, and mumbled under her breath. Incipient Change made her bones break over and over again, though she was not quite shifting forms.
Chloe’s breath caught when her friend arched against her restraints, fangs punching through her gums. Tess’s eyes went feral, her skin and hair darkened, and she snarled, twisting into a half-shift before slamming back against the mattress and regressing to human form.
The lycanthropic disease was slowly morphing every cell in her body, until she would be a full werewolf. If she survived. What Alex was simply born with, Tess would suffer through for nearly a week before the pain stopped and she regained some control of her faculties. Even then, they wouldn’t know if she was successfully Changed until she made it through her first full moon shift. Chloe could picture every step of the Change, the way it affected every molecule. Her research spared her no details.
Turning her head, Tess had a moment of lucidity when she looked at Chloe through the glass separating them. “How could you do this to me? You lied, and now I have to lie. Luca lied! Everyone lied.... It was all a lie.” She sobbed, her shoulder jerking upward as if some invisible force propelled the joint. “Everything’s breaking and breaking.”
As if to emphasize the point, every bone in her arm snapped. Chloe clamped a hand over her mouth, closing her eyes against the accusations on Tess’s face. There was nothing Chloe could say. It was her fault. If she’d walked away from the Normal when she should have, Tess would never have come into contact with Luca or Smith or Smith’s she-wolf. If Chloe hadn’t lied and kept lying, she wouldn’t have turned her best friend’s entire life into a lie.