Mom, Dad and Vyn were greeting and petting the others. Once introductions and affections were complete, we all stood together again, watching the wolf pack play.
“They are just wonderful,” Mom commented. “I think we have some new friends.”
Minutes later, the wolf pack gathered—then padded away into the night forest.
Gazing through the woods after them, I said, “I’m just so happy we could help them.”
After everyone agreed with head nods and pursed lips, Dad said, “We should go now, let them know it’s all clear back here.”
The previous cyclone of my mother came to my mind as I said, “We’ll be down in a minute. First Mom has something to show me.”
Mom scrunched up her face at me. “Now, Ellie?”
“Please, Mom. I have to know.”
“You must’ve brought out the twister, huh, Celeste?” said Dad.
Mom popped a fist on her hip, grinned. “I still got it old man, so don’t mess with me.”
“Wouldn’t think of it, old lady.”
Mom glowered, but Dad leaned in and kissed it away.
Vyn seemed to take a hint from that. He wrapped his arms around me, dipped me down like a dance move, and planted on my lips the biggest kiss ever while I hovered in his arms. He lifted me up to stand, while I attempted to remember how to breathe. Oh, my. It felt like my bones were liquefying.
Wow. I gazed at him. That was— Wow. My body tingled in warmth. I tipped my chin down, lifted my eyes up to him, and tucked some hair behind my ear.
“Nice one,” said Dad.
“Why don’t you ever do that to me?” Mom asked Dad.
“Yeah, yeah.” Dad turned to Vyn. “See what you did.”
Vyn grinned. I continued to enjoy my cloud.
“Okay, kids,” Dad said. “I’m goin down there. You comin with me, Vyn?”
“I think I wanna see this first. I’ll be down in a minute.”
“All right, then. I’ll see you down there.” Dad marched off up toward the cave.
“Phil,” Vyn called out, “don’t tell anyone I shot a pink bow!”
“What was that?” Dad replied as he ambled along in the distance.
“Don’t tell anyone about the pink bow!”
“Sorry, what was that? I didn’t hear ya. Something about, tell everyone you shot a pink bow! Okay, will do. Cupcake!” His guttural laughter rolled down the cave.
Vyn sighed at me. “See what you made me do?”
“He’s just teasing,” I said. “He won’t tell anyone. I don’t think.” A giggle slipped out.
“Okay,” said Mom, “let’s go over there. And keep your eyes out for hunters. I don’t know if they can fit in that clearing, but you never know.”
We walked over the blanket of pine needles and twigs to the open space, and stood in the moon-washed clearing as Mom went through all the motions, slow, teaching. After a few minutes, it was my turn to try. I unfurled my wings at the angle she had demonstrated, looked alternately at each wing to check my form, lifted my arms to the sky and began to spin.
Awesome. The speed of rotation sent my hair straight out, vision blurry. Mom told me to pull my wings in to make the spin faster, let them out a little to slow down. I pulled my wings in a little too abruptly and spun out of control, hovering inches above the ground, knocking into trees until I finally stopped, flat down on my butt on the pine needles, legs stretched out. I looked around in a daze.
“Well, that was fun,” I said to myself. Then blew some hair off my face, and picked a piece of tree bark from it.
A jolt of fear skipped my heart as I caught the sound of whooshing wings. I looked up to see a white owl gliding by. Seconds later, bushes rattled, a small animal squealed, and the owl disappeared into the dark.
“You’ll get used to it,” Mom called out. “It’s different when you’re focused on the dreks. Let’s go in now. You can practice at home.”
I pulled myself up, brushed pine needles off my rear, shook my hair out and toddled over to them.
CHAPTER 33
“What possessed you girls to go in here, anyway?” Mom asked as we descended the cave, Vyn trailing behind us. Mom angled around a jutting root. “Especially you, Ellie. Watch out for that nasty drek stuff on the floor. It’s so hard to get off your shoes.”
“I don’t know.” I stepped around a splotch of drek goo. “We didn’t wanna go all the way in, but the dreks trapped us so we ran.”
“Yeah, they’re tricky that way. Well, you learned something anyway.”
“Elle,” said Vyn, “you got your bow?”
Mom and I halted and spun around, wondering if he saw a drek.
“No,” Vyn said, as if realizing what we were thinking, “I just forgot it out there. I’ll go grab it.” He ran off up the cave. Mom and I continued downward.
Mom pounded a closed hand on the door, well, the wall, where Angie and I had previously curled up into a ball. We voiced loud, “Star Wings!” A code Dad insisted we use. Kinda stupid, but, whatever. Locks clanked. The door cracked open.
We stepped in to see a lanky boy with floppy dark hair standing in jeans and a black T. He stood about neck-high to me, with brown shy eyes and a pinched smile. Maybe seventeen. He seemed to be waiting for us as he said in a scratchy tone of a young male, “Elle and Celeste, right? Um, Phil said to have you leave all weapons here, and your shoes too. I’ll clean them in the stream.” He gestured to where Dad’s sword and shoes were on the floor by the wall. He looked around us. “Isn’t there one more of you? Vyn, I think?”
“He’ll be down in a minute,” I replied.
“Okay, I’ll wait. Phil is at the hospital with Chris.” Mom and I finished placing our stuff on the floor, turned to him as he added, “Oh, and, it’s nice to meet you both. I’m Kelvin. Penny’s my girlfriend.” He reached out a hand, offered a lopsided grin.
“You’re Penny’s boyfriend?” I smiled, said, “We can do better than a handshake,” and pulled him into a hug. He did his best to hug back but I sensed a bit of awkwardness, stiff, mechanical motions. After we drew back, he stood with tinted cheeks, holding timid eyes on me as I said, “Well, it’s nice to meet you. Penny’s a sweet girl. And since she’s my sister, I guess that makes you my future brother-in-law, right?”
One eyebrow curled up. “Yeah. Oh, it does, doesn’t it?”
Mom said, “I should go see what your father’s doing. It was nice to meet you, Kelvin.”
“You too,” he replied. Mom pranced off over the small wooden bridge above the stream.
“So,” I said, “Penny’s a sweet girl, isn’t she?”
“Yeah, she makes me tired sometimes though.”
A giggle. “I can see that. She’s full of happy energy.”
“That’s one way to put it. She keeps me on my toes.”
“Well, we’ll have to have dinner sometime.”
Kelvin gave me a hesitant nod. Conversation seemed difficult for him so I decided to help him relax and said my polite goodbyes.
At the one-story hospital—Angelica Soepheea Clinic—I stood beside Dad, Mom and Chris as they discussed the plans for the cave. Clean, hospital scents filled the room. Antiseptic. The marble-tiled floor held a polished gloss. Against the front wall, a row of metal-framed beds drew my attention, each under a window and occupied with a patient. Knowing it was my fault, guilt stabbed at my conscience. They were so sick looking. Dark, sunken eyes clashing with sallow skin. Their attitudes seemed hopeful, though, as they would grin over at us. Tucking some hair behind my ear, I returned a smile, trying to communicate; I’m sorry. A ponytailed nurse dressed in flower-printed scrubs walked up to one of them, started a bit of giggling small talk while she checked on a hanging IV bag.
Dad said to Chris, “I assume the dreks know about your existence now. We had them convinced you were gone for quite a while. I’m sure they’ll be on the hunt. We’ll have to spread the word, warn the others. I’ll get on the phone and make some calls.”
&nb
sp; More humans?
Dad added, “We may have a solution to the sickness, though.” He turned eyes on me. “Where’s Vyn, we need to discuss his vaccine.”
“He’s getting my bow.”
With a little giggle, a teenaged nurse pushed a metal cart by us and squeaked out a “Hi.” I smiled and returned the “Hi.” Sounds of laughter from the patients filled the room, as if someone had just told a good joke.
“Why don’t you go get him for us, honey,” said Mom. “The kids probably stopped him.”
I gave her a nod and crossed the room.
While I stepped through town, people would throw waves at me off their porches and from their yards. Of course, I’d wave back, but it was a bit overwhelming so I picked up my pace and began to run … Slowing to a brisk walk, I passed over the stream bridge to notice Kelvin sitting in a metal chair by the door, bent over an open book in his hands. He looked up at me, pushed some hair from his eyes.
“Have you seen Vyn yet?” I asked as I strode over.
“Nope, not yet. Just readin my book here.”
A few beats added to my already speeding heart. “Open the door. I need to go find him. Dad and Chris need to talk to him.”
As I stepped into my clean shoes, picked my sword off the floor and strapped the sheath on my back, Kelvin lifted off his chair, unlocked the door with a clatter and cracked it open. I stepped through. The iron clank of the door closing behind me sent a cringe through me. I glanced down at the ground where Angie and I had been before.
Being alone was a little unnerving as I travelled up the cave, avoiding jutting roots and stepping around pools of liquid drek leftovers.
The cave mouth at my back, I stood on the dirt patch and surveyed down through the moonlit forest. Vyn was standing in the clearing.
“Vyn, what are doing out here. Dad and Chris need to talk to you.” I walked down and stood beside him.
“Just playin with the wolves. They won’t come to me.”
Wolves sat lower down the mountain, just watching us. “Yeah, they do that sometimes. It took me two years to get close to them. They just don’t know you yet.”
The wolves continued to hold their glowing gaze on us.
Vyn said, “I’ve been thinking about something. Maybe you shouldn’t go after the hunters. I mean, you’re good at killing the dreks, so why don’t you just stick with that.”
“Not you, too. I don’t want to talk about this right now. Let’s just go.”
He grinned, dropped the subject. “You know, we’re all alone out here.” Wink.
I giggled, replied, “Don’t even think it. We need to get inside. Dad and Chris need you to explain the serum.”
“Ah, come on.” He nudged me gently, stepped closer, and pushed me up against a tree while some sort of deep heat began to stir inside me.
“Um, we can’t, Vyn. Let’s just go inside.” I gave him a grin. “But, I tell you what, when we get home—”
“I can’t wait that long.” He spun me around to where I faced the tree, leaned his weight into me, pressing into my back. I could feel his, well, readiness through my jeans. My hands grasped around the trunk as I felt the pine bark under my palms. Vyn breathed heavy behind me.
Oh my, this was—
I felt him pull my hair aside, then warm lips on my neck, as my brain turned to pudding.
Well, maybe we could, just a little.
He breathed the words into my ear, “You taste good, Ellie. Like a flower.” Chill bumps rose on my skin. He kissed my neck again, then earlobe, and whispered, “My princess.”
And time disappeared.
****
I stood there, sweating in the night forest. Vyn lay on the ground. His decapitated head lay ten feet away.
Held before me in my white-knuckled grip, my sword glinted, blood dripping from the blade. Stark horror … filled my face with heat and ripped through my very soul.
My heart thundered.
This isn’t real. This is a trick. Please. This isn’t real. No. No. No! Please!
Convulsions tore through my body in dreadful spasms, stomach pushing up its contents, bile filling my throat and burning like razor cuts. I dropped my sword and fell to my knees. Staring at—
My body tensed as I retched, a dry, ragged heave. I coughed, choked on the acid. Stomach lurched. I bent, vomited … retched and vomited … and again …
CHAPTER 34
“Now what’d you go and do that for?” a drek voice whined and I let out a shrill scream and bounded to my feet. My heart rapped at my ribs, lungs tearing breath after breath from the air. I stared at the drek’s detached head on the ground, as it said, “We were having so much fun. How’d you guess it was me?” His pointed tongue flicked over needle teeth as long as my fingers. Bulging eyes glinting like onyx. “Oh well, I don’t need hands for this, Princess. Come over here.” Tongue flick. “Gimmie a taste.” Tongue flick. “Come on, come on, yeah, just a taste.”
The most horrid sight I had ever seen. Wiping traces of vomit from my mouth with the back of my trembling hand, I stood in shock, my spinning mind unable to form words.
“Okay fine,” the drek head said, “lemmie touch you then.” Movement caught my eye and I swung my gaze to the body. Its arms stretched up from the ground, hands reaching out to me. The distant head said, “Don’t be afraid, Princess. You might like it, yeah.”
As he continued with his ghoulish jeers, I took deep breaths to gather myself … Then bent and picked my sword off the ground and marched over to the head. It smirked, flicked its tongue. “Gimmie a kiss, gimmie a kiss, just a taste.” Tongue flick. “Just a litt—“
“You forgot to sneeze,” I said. A jaw clench as the tip of my sword plunged down through its forehead and staked into the ground. “And don’t call me princess.”
Trembling in silence, I stood over a liquid splotch of black on pine needles and twigs. Then glanced over to see the body melt away and soak into the ground.
After what felt like minutes in a trance of terror, it dawned on me:
Vyn!
Terror knifed through me as I streaked down the cave, bleating traumatic squeals, breathless and snuffling, feet slipping on a drek pool or two. My thumping heart pushed blood up my neck and filled my face with heat. A torturous ringing in my ears as I pounded both fists into iron. “Kel-vin, open the door!”
“Is there something out there? I can’t open the door if there’s something out there.”
“Open the flappin door right now! There’s nothing out here!”
“You don’t sound very nice. How do I know you’re not a drek?”
Two fists pounded again. “Just open the flappin door! Would a drek know your name?” I stood panting, huffing breaths from the dank air as sweat stung my eyes. After a short pause, the door locks clacked. While he began to crack it open, I shoved all my weight into it and stormed through, over the bridge and on my way to the other door across the room.
As I ran over the floor, Kelvin called out behind me, “I’m sorry. I’m supposed to be ...”
Ten flights of stone stairs in a rock-walled stairwell that led to a hidden door in the den went by on a heartbeat, as did the trek to the cellar. I blew through the lab door with my eyes already on a search. Racks of glass tubes covered polished stainless tables. Fluorescent light filled the room. Glass-door refrigerators held shelves of liquid samples in clear vials.
The empty chair sat behind the table.
Even as I skidded to a gasping stop over the living room floor, Ginelle snapped her gaze over the couch back. “What’s wrong, Ellie?”
“Have you seen Vyn?” Breath. “Was he here?”
Pulse thundered.
“No, I haven’t, sweetie. I’m sorry.”
“What’s wrong with Elle, Mommy?”
“Has Luca seen him? Did he go out with Luca? ”
“No, Luca went out to join the team in the city. Have you checked …?” she was saying behind me, as I was already half way up the stairs.
“What’s wrong, Ellie?” Angie called out from above while I stumbled back down the stairs. “Jayden, where …?”
Through quivering sobs, I rushed through the blur of town. I jerked the hospital door open. Elastic legs carried me to Mom and Dad as all eyes swung on me.
“What’s wrong, Ellie?” Mom asked.
She pulled me to her chest as I wilted into her hug. I stammered, “I, c-can’t, find, Vyn.” There wasn’t enough air in the room; the weight of the world pressing on my lungs.
Dad was off before anyone could say anything. I angled my head on Mom’s chest to see the hospital door swinging in the wake of his departure.
Mom feathered her hands over my back. “Your father will find him.”
****
The house had emptied of males, Jaydenn and Dad out searching for Vyn. Dad’s chair in the den caught me as I dropped into it. While we waited, Mom, Angie and Ginelle did their best to console me, standing here, there, sitting, and standing again. Talking, I assumed, but I couldn’t put their words into understandable sentences as pieces and parts of syllables floated by.
My face fell into my folded arms on the desk. The scent of polished wood and paper lifted to my nose.
An hour of time had violently broken into my heart and thieved all my energy. Took everything. A few scraps of hope left behind.
The grandfather clock chimed through the den. All those numbers. I lost count at nine. There might have been two more. Or three. The relentless second hand slid through the night. Occasionally, I would hear shuffling across the room. Mom set a glass of some kind of drink on the desk, or maybe it was Ginelle, as I noticed her recognizable flower perfume on the air. Their voices where hushed. The noises in my head were screaming: Don’t let go. Don’t give up.
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