Stronger Than Blood

by Genevieve J. Griffin

  “Might just wait things out. Full moon rises…not my problem anymore. You, though…”

  Raoul got up, rubbing his throat. “Don’t you dare.”

  “It’s something you said that I keep thinking about, actually,” Brandon told Raoul. “You said B’s guessed where Ilsa got her magic pills. So how about one of you hook me up? You could even leave if you do. So long as you promise you’ll never mess with me again.”

  I heard Ilsa then, her voice faint and pained: “B, no—”

  Brandon got a hold of me and Raoul and hauled us outside, pausing only to order Ayu and Pandora to stay put. I’m not sure how he had the energy to make that many commands stick. I guess primal rage went a long way. Lucky us.

  Outside, the fire still burned. Raindrops sizzled in the flames and spattered down upon us, which actually came as a relief. When Brandon tossed me forward, I stumbled to a stop, managing somehow to remain upright. I forced myself not to ignore the pain this time, but to consider it energy I could use.

  “I’m not telling you anything,” I said.

  “Either you tell me, or I order you to tell me. Or for that matter, I could just bleed it out of you while you can’t help but think about it. Any of those would work.”

  Brandon looked like he meant it. Sure enough, after a few seconds of silence, he took my wrist, opening a cut in my arm before I could stop him.

  At that moment, several things hit me very quickly.

  Strangely enough, what I began remembering was Police Chief Barron and his impermeable brain. I thought of Ilsa, resisting Kane’s command before he died. If they could do that, there had to be a way to keep my memories hidden. I had to try.

  I gathered up all my willpower, and concentrated as hard as I possibly could as I declared, You. Will see. NOTHING.

  Brandon reeled. He stumbled back several steps, clutching his head. For a few seconds I think he literally couldn’t see at all. Then he roared and rounded on me, as confused as he was angry. “You bitch,” he snarled.

  “Kind of by definition,” I shot back.

  Raoul moved up to try to defend me, but Brandon grabbed him first. Then he went for me, too. “Let go of me,” I yelled, but it wasn’t quite forceful enough. Brandon just pulled both of us along so hard that despite attempts at resistance, we finally had to give in to sheer force.

  “If you two are going to be this unhelpful,” he spat, “you can wait in here until you come to your senses.”

  And that was how we both got tossed into Ilsa’s cellar, with the door shut tight behind us.

  *

  With all the shouting each other into submission we were doing around here, it was easy to forget that Raoul’s talent wasn’t command so much as persuasion.

  I wasn’t sure what was spookier, really: having no choice but to follow orders, or thinking you actually wanted to follow them. I’d always avoided flinging commands around if I could. With Raoul, though, I suspected it sneaked into almost everything he said, everything he was. But he didn’t want to abuse it, either.

  So when Pandora finally came to speak to us, after ages of being shut in—after a while I lost count of how long—he still was careful, and for that I was grateful.

  I was lying as flat as I could, hoping my back would stop cramping, when I heard the cellar door creak open. I wasn’t sure what to expect. It might be Brandon come to demand more information—he’d already tried—or something else entirely. Either way, neither of us were prepared. We were exhausted and in pain, and not moving well in the cramped space. Whoever dug this cellar out had not been planning for comfort.

  So when the door opened, the best I could do was squeeze my eyes shut against the light and brace myself. Raoul spoke first. It was only one word, a name, but it was enough to make anyone take notice.

  “Pandora,” he said.

  She came closer. The light from above was barely enough to show us her face. Unsurprisingly, she had that blank-eyed stare that screamed she was under orders, so she didn’t reply, only dropped a water bottle a few inches too far away for us to reach. Either that was as much rebellion as she could muster, or she was simply too fried to manage more.

  She did position herself so that we couldn’t get out without confronting her, though. I’m not sure how much of a battle it would have been, but I didn’t want to find out.

  Neither did Raoul, who said simply, “Can we talk?”

  He sounded tired, but maybe that’s why it worked. He was no threat like this. Compared to Psycho Bastard upstairs, it had to be an improvement. “We need to get out of here, Pandora. We all do. Just…talk to me.”

  “Why bother?”

  At least it’s not “I can’t,” I silently told Raoul.

  He flicked me a glance. “What’s happening, Pan? At least tell us that.”

  Her only reply was a grimace. “So it’s all sunshine and roses up there, huh?” I said dryly.

  Raoul stepped in. “I can guess. Brandon’s getting ideas. Playing alpha. He’s furious, though, because the one thing he wants, he can’t get. And he’s taking it out on you.”

  Pandora stared grimly at us. I managed, with great difficulty, to sit up.

  “Things can’t be going well with Ayu, either,” I said. “She liked the Elder. Helped take care of him. Is she—”

  Careful, Raoul warned me. I’d gone just far enough, though, to make Pandora speak.

  “Yes, life is shit,” she snapped. “And if you wanted to help, you’d tell me what you’re not telling him. Side with me.”

  “How do we know you aren’t just under orders to tell Brandon the instant you walk out this door?”

  Raoul said it, not me. And I’d thought I was the cynic.

  “We can all break free of this, Pandora,” he said softly. “But we can’t fix it from here. B and I need to get out.”

  She shivered, looking as if she wanted to agree, but she couldn’t get the words out.

  Raoul sighed. “I’m sorry, Pan. I don’t want to force you, or trick you into anything. But you’ve got to understand why I’m asking. Please.”

  She looked at him, then me, silently pleading. I slowly realized why. I could have forced her—but I hadn’t. That made me even more trustworthy than him. I nearly choked on the irony. In fact, I just plain choked.

  Pandora considered the water bottle, then picked it up and tossed it closer. I wrenched off the cap and started gulping water down so fast it practically gave me whiplash. Once I’d drained half the bottle and remembered to breathe, I managed to speak. “We’ll help you once you get us out of here. I promise.”

  She sized me up, then gave a little sardonic laugh. “I feel better already.”

  “So will you do it?”

  Eventually, she sighed and said, “Nighttime’s the soonest I can sneak you out. If he orders me into anything before then—”

  “You can resist it,” I whispered to her. “I know you can.”

  She didn’t bother arguing or disagreeing. She just nodded once, then walked away. All we could do after that was wait.

  And hope that what we’d said was enough.

  *

  A few hours later, I discovered a fantastically embarrassing way to begin a jailbreak: get caught curled up in an incriminating position with your cellmate.

  In fairness, Raoul and I weren’t exactly up to much. We were too tired, hurting and hungry for that. But a little human contact was about the only comfort we were getting by that point—particularly when we were doing our best just to stay human at all. I didn’t want to risk losing hold of myself now. So, human I stayed, and Raoul held me close, gently touching me for reassurance. It wasn’t much, but he didn’t let go, and it helped.

  He was still there when we finally heard the door open.

  This time, two silhouettes came down the dimly-lit ramp. I could see how much taller one was than the other. Finally I started having a little bit of hope.

  “You know,” Ayu said by way of greeting, “whatever kinky shit you want t
o get up to is your business, but why did you have to make it mine?”

  I disentangled myself from Raoul and gasped, “Ayu! You came?”

  “Unfortunately, considering the smell,” she said, wrinkling her nose. “But yeah. I think we have a plan.”

  “It’s simple,” Pandora said grimly. “If you leave, you’re going to have to run. I mean really run. A couple of states away would be good.”

  I was afraid she’d say something like that. “Are you coming, too?”

  “No. The only good way to get you gone is to stage a diversion on this side.”

  “You’d…do that for us?”

  “Well, you’re not exactly going to be at top speed just now. And, well…I think I kinda owe you one.”

  “Oh, Pan, you don’t owe us anything. We didn’t—”

  “You tried,” she said, cutting me off. Her voice trembled. “So should we.”

  Ayu squeezed her girlfriend’s hand for reassurance, then stepped back and gestured for us. “Come on. Let’s get this over with.”

  Ayu ducked back outside, keeping an eye out. Pan helped us up the ramp, while Raoul and I supported each other. The last few days had been exhausting, and we were running on less than fumes.

  “Coast is still clear,” Ayu whispered.

  “Oh, but first—”

  Pandora quickly pressed something into my hand. I opened my palm to see a broken portion of one of Ilsa’s pills.

  “I had to split mine,” she said, offering the rest to Raoul. “It’s the best I could do. Should give you enough oomph to get out of here.”

  Raoul and I looked at each other. Things the Elder had said were still rattling around my head—matters of choice, of Ilsa and her shortcuts, of how this wasn’t the only way. As much as I could have used the pick-me-up, I finally shook my head.

  “I can’t,” I said, dropping it back into her palm. Raoul nodded. “We’ve got to break free of this as much as we do from Ilsa.”

  Pandora silently worked that over, made a face, and closed her hand over the pill. She wanted it badly, I could tell. But she turned without a word and hurled the fragments into the darkness, where they disappeared into the trees.

  “Promise me you won’t make me regret all this,” she whispered. Then, with a little more strength in her voice, she added, “Get out of here.”

  I nodded once and slipped outside.

  Naturally, it was pouring rain. It was flood season, and water was already draining down the hillsides, muddying the ground beneath us. I slipped twice just trying to stand up. Raoul, surer on his feet—although his body was hunched from lingering discomfort and what looked like an urge to change—helped me make the first few steps away from the cabins. We had to think. We were leaving, but where did we dare go?

  “Open road’s fastest,” I murmured. “I guess nothing says we can’t steal a car or something.”

  He looked exhausted, but something almost like a smile crossed his face. “Reprobate,” he said fondly.

  “Unfortunately, I know nothing about hot-wiring. Wasn’t exactly in Grey’s lesson plans.” I sighed sadly. “On foot, then.”

  Wolf form’s faster.

  I hated it, but I nodded. Just not sure…if I can do this.

  I’m here, he said. We can help each other.

  I tried to hold onto that. I really did. I nodded again, more firmly this time, and stood with him as we both went for the change together.

  Unsurprisingly, it still didn’t go easily. I ended it sprawled on my side and panting, my vision nearly blacked out. Raoul nudged me anxiously with his nose. He looked weary, once I was able to focus on him, and he was trembling all the way through.

  We have to go, he said, and so I let him help me up. For a minute we just leaned on each other while I labored to get my breath back.

  Finally, when I regained my balance, Raoul nodded into the distance.

  This way, he said. I followed, at an all-too-awkward limp. Once we were far enough away not to worry about being seen, we finally ran.

  I kept hurting myself, though. The pads of my feet were too sensitive, and every bramble that whipped against me stung like hell. Raoul heard me whimper and urged me on. Stay together, I told myself, and more importantly: Move faster.

  It worked until we reached the dirt road that led down the hill. It should have been an easier place to run. But it was there that I heard something coming.

  It was a distant roaring, like some sort of beast even more dangerous than we were. Filtered through these ears, it took some time to recognize the sound. Car, I barked in warning. But that wasn’t precise enough. It was bigger. Deeper.

  A little human voice in the back of my head said, Oh, crap.

  Raoul sprang off the roadway, calling for me to follow. I whined again, getting off the road only at the last second. Then the truck drove past me, clattering and groaning up the hill.

  The driver didn’t see me. The truck, though, was impossible to mistake. The age, the smell of the exhaust, the shape of it, that dent in the rear bumper—I knew it all. I’d put that dent there myself during my ill-fated driving lesson.

  Grey, I wailed, practically howling it aloud. I couldn’t help it. I sprang off after him.

  Raoul roared a protest. I wasn’t thinking, though, and certainly wasn’t stopping. I was just running headlong after my brother before he could get any closer to what remained of the pack.

  I stumbled over the rutted ground, but fortunately, the truck was no better off. One wheel jammed, grinding the truck to a halt. I saw my chance. With one great jump—and no real faith it would work, but I had to try—I propelled myself into the truck bed, slamming my nose against the windows and making someone inside the cab scream.

  All I could think was oh God, no—because that scream was Lacey’s.

  The driver’s side door whipped open. Grey was brandishing something, but Raoul was on him before he could swing, clenching the thing in his jaws and ripping it out of Grey’s hands. Grey could only grunt and gasp. Then he backed up, his eyes wide and panicked at this new, strange wolf he didn’t recognize, whose fur was raised and eyes wild, and teeth glinting even in the dark.

  Raoul, I shouted. Stop!

  He snarled one more warning. Then, as if giving Grey a hint, he jerked his head toward me. Grey finally saw me clearly then. His eyes went even wider.

  Of course he recognized me. On a night outside the full moon, though, when I had no business being anything but human, he reacted like he’d seen a ghost. Distressed, I fell shuddering out of form, and ended up curled in the back of the truck, shivering atop the cold metal and fighting to regain my voice. At last I croaked, “Grey.”

  One trembling hand reached in to take mine. I saw his face properly then, saw the unshaven stubble and the weary shadows around his eyes, and felt so sorry I didn’t know where to begin. Then something draped around my shoulders—a blanket, I thought. Maybe a jacket. I clutched at its edges, then realized it wasn’t Grey who’d put it there.

  I craned my stiff neck around to see Lacey, who’d handed it over the side of the truck. She looked terrified, but she was trying her best to smile. “Hey, B.”

  Hey, B. Just a simple, friendly greeting, and it was enough to make my heart seize up with relief, terror and wistful disbelief all at once. I didn’t have time to think about it, though. For her sake most of all, because she had no real idea what she was in for, none at all, I sat up and exclaimed, “Oh, God, you have to get out of here.”

  Cee cast a worried look at me, then at Raoul. He’d made a low growl of agreement. “Who is—”

  “No time. Guys, things are very, very wrong right now, and we have to go before anyone else finds us here. Please.”

  I tried clambering out of the truck, but tumbled to my knees. Grey had to help me up, looking unnerved that the werewolf beside me was trying to help me, too. I was resting one hand on Raoul’s neck while holding Grey’s hand with the other. “B, who is this?”

  Raoul’s muscles quiv
ered under my fingertips. More quickly than I’d expected, he tugged himself upright until his bones snapped back into place and his skin lay bare and human under my hand. I edged closer, trying to share warmth in the frigid night air. Grey took one disbelieving look at the two of us. Then his expression turned more wry. “So it’s like that,” he said.

  I blushed and pulled the jacket tighter around my shoulders. Then I glanced at Lacey. She’d run the gamut from shock to terror to stark amazement, before landing on an appreciative, eyes-cast-slightly-downwards look at Raoul. It made me feel, for the smallest of moments, a little bit smug.

  “This is Raoul,” I said. “He’s… Listen, you can trust him. We just have to get out of here. All of us.”

  Unfortunately, they weren’t moving through the thought process as quickly as I was.

  “So Brandon’s family,” Lacey murmured. “They really are…”

  “Werewolves. Yes.”

  Cee’s head tilted. Something strange passed over her face. “I saw you,” she murmured to Raoul. “Before. From the car.”

  He nodded. “I protected you then. You have to believe me now. Brandon’s about to come after us, and we have got to move.”

  He backed that up with a little psychic nudge. It finally convinced them. Grey swung open the truck door. “We won’t have room for everyone. B, I want you in the cab. Lacey, can you hang on out there?”

  She looked worriedly at the back of the truck, but nodded. Raoul helped her in and sat uncomfortably beside her. I hoisted myself into the passenger seat. My old spot, I thought, wishing I could feel more relieved about it.

  Grey looked just as wary when he turned to me. “B, are you…?”

  “Just drive,” I said wearily.

  He slowly, too slowly, started the truck again and began making the tight, difficult U-turn. I glanced back at Raoul and Lacey, hoping they were okay back there. Then I faced forward again, while Grey consulted the mirrors.

  I was the first to see that we weren’t alone on the road.

  “Grey!” I shrieked. Brandon—in human form, and looking smug as anything—was there, pointing at us. Grey slammed on the brakes to miss the second figure that had emerged onto the roadway below.