Stronger Than Blood

by Genevieve J. Griffin

  Antonella. Of all the ridiculous, impossible things, it was Antonella. I guess she’d made up with Brandon after all, at the worst possible time, and she was just standing there, waving at us. Grey had no room to get around her, and he couldn’t possibly go through her. Which meant we were effectively surrounded.

  “Shit,” Grey said. He ground the truck to a stop. Its engine still growled, but it was a futile protest. There was nowhere else to go.

  “If you try anything,” Brandon called, “I’ll yank your girl out of the back for a snack.”

  “Brandon!” Cee cried out, but he only laughed.

  “God. Lacey.” He leaned on the tailgate. “Glad you joined the party.”

  “I don’t think so,” Raoul growled, but then there was movement in the distance. Three more figures came out of the trees. I wasn’t expecting three. I mean, I might have guessed it if it had been Ayu and Pandora, coerced into helping him out. But these were new—well, sort of new—faces. I recognized them with shock. They were Brandon’s friends from the football team.

  All of them, Antonella included, still looked human. Yet I suddenly knew what Brandon must have had in mind. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been here, in the middle of all this.

  I stared at them all with my jaw hanging open, then said, “Oh, God, that’s…he can’t.”

  “He what?” Grey asked.

  “He wants to start a new pack,” I whispered.

  Grey looked horrified. I reached over and cut the engine for him. The movement nearly pulled my shoulder out of joint. I’m right back where I started, I thought bitterly. I didn’t have a chance against all this.

  I guess Raoul felt like taking one anyway.

  I don’t know where he got the strength. He changed so fast it was a total blur, then leaped out of the truck and away from us with mind-numbing speed. I let out a wordless shout. I couldn’t believe it. After all this, he was just going to run?

  Then I saw Brandon gesture, growling orders, to his friends. “He’s too tired to get far,” Brandon said. “He’ll change back. Go catch up with him.” Two of them went barreling into the trees after Raoul, and I realized in a rush that that’s what Raoul had been hoping for—to split Brandon’s friends up.

  But oh, hell—Lacey.

  Brandon was already yanking the pickup’s tailgate down. I jumped out of the truck as fast as I could, which wasn’t very, and toppled over again. I hollered at Brandon from the ground. “Don’t touch her!”

  He bared his teeth in a smile. “Make me stop.”

  I got up, painfully. “I should order you to go fuck yourself. Ought to be fun watching you try.”

  He actually laughed. Fortunately, it also meant he let go of Cee’s ankle. Grey, who’d gotten out to go to her—but was now being held back by Werewolf Wannabe #3—spat at him nevertheless. It was Antonella who sauntered up and struck back.

  “Don’t even try it,” she said. “We’re in charge up here.”

  “You?”

  She sneered at me. “Well, obviously it’s not you, if even your boyfriend bailed. Some backup you’ve got.”

  “We came for her,” Lacey shot back. I immediately wished she hadn’t, because all it did was give Antonella ideas—and she was even quicker with the Evil Overlord routine than Brandon.

  “You know what?” Antonella said. “Maybe they can help us.”

  Brandon looked curious. Antonella shrugged.

  “You told me we need to find this doctor,” she went on. “And B had a guess, right? Which means she knows him. What if it’s her doctor?”

  “That’s why I was trying to get it out of her, but—”

  She jerked a thumb at Grey. “He’d know who it is, too. So send him after the guy. Let Ron here go along to keep an eye out. No one will suspect either of them.”

  Brandon chuckled. “I like it. Grey? Give us the keys.”

  My brother struggled, but Wannabe #3 kept him in place, digging in Grey’s pocket with one hand for the truck keys. “Got ‘em.”

  I can only describe Brandon’s satisfaction as supremely fucking creepy.

  “You two, go find our doctor. And don’t try anything stupid, Grey. I promise, I’ll keep your sister safe while you’re gone. Her, too.” He yanked Cee to his side, who went with an involuntary gasp. Werewolf strength was way too much for her.

  “You better bring back something useful, though,” Brandon added conversationally. “Or I may stop being such a gracious host.”

  Grey turned to me, desperate. “Oh, God. This isn’t…I didn’t expect this. I’m so sorry.”

  I wanted to apologize every bit as much, but I didn’t have a chance. Ron pushed Grey hard towards the truck again. “Shut up. Just get in. I’m driving.”

  “And you,” Brandon said to me. “Why don’t you come back home and get some clothes? Oh, and…bring your friends.”

  He threw Lacey at me. I held onto her while Ron drove my brother’s truck away, and the rest of us got marched back up the hill to our fate.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Brandon eventually took pity—probably on his own nose—and directed me to the shower. My transformations burned off most of the grime from my adventures in cellar living, but I still felt dirty and desperately unsettled, and so he let me wash the worst of it off. The shower here wasn’t much, just a spigot over a rudimentary drain, but it was water. I nearly tried to drown myself in it once or twice. Wouldn’t have helped anything, but the urge remained.

  Antonella stood as a rather idle guard outside, talking at me while I stood with my face in my hands. She’d taken it on herself to explain her role in this. I’d wondered if Brandon had compelled her into it, but it almost sounded like he hadn’t, which somehow made it worse.

  “He’s told me what the pack used to be like,” she said. “It sounded amazing, you know? That much freedom? Running wild with nothing to get in your way…”

  I gagged. Antonella didn’t notice.

  “Brandon convinced me of something. He’s had a hard time up here, I know. But he wants to make it something great again. And he wants me with him. Just think of what we could do.”

  It wasn’t that different from the line Ilsa fed me. Were we all really this gullible? Or was that kind of power so tempting that anyone would be willing to go for it?

  I shut off the water and went to stand in front of her. It really figured that the girl with the perfect, athletic body blushed at the sight of me naked, whereas I didn’t give a shit anymore.

  “So you haven’t been bitten yet?” I said, making sure my scar was in plain, painful view. “Is he planning to do it himself?”

  She went stiffer. An answer wasn’t necessary.

  “That’s just the start of it, you know.” I waved down the whole length of me. “I can tell you what that’s like. He didn’t have to go through with it. He was born this way. Getting transformed by force? That’s a whole new variety of suck. And I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.”

  Her jaw clenched. “Pan and Ayu made it through okay.”

  “Really?” I thought of how sick Ayu looked, how unhappy Pandora clearly was. “You sure about that?”

  I could tell she wasn’t. She forged on anyway. “Just because you got the short end of the stick doesn’t mean you get to make assumptions about everyone else.”

  “Short end of the—”

  “Brandon wants to start over. Get a real pack together, some real order.” She stiffened her back, glaring. “You’d be better off if you weren’t trying to be in charge.”

  I couldn’t believe she’d swallowed all this whole. This, from the girl who’d freaked out over finding a werewolf-slaughtered man in her own driveway? She thought turning into a beast like that would put her at the top of anything?

  I gave up. I towel-dried myself so harshly I’m surprised I didn’t pull off a layer of skin, then got dressed in the clothes Antonella had, at least, brought for me. Afterward, I limped back to the cabin with her close behind, to make sure Lacey was all righ
t.

  Brandon had taken over the main house. The Elder’s room was his now, and the wannabes were sleeping where I used to. I had no idea where Pan and Ayu were, or for that matter, what had become of Ilsa. But this cabin was all Brandon, and he’d already made his mark. It was undersupplied for a bachelor pad, but you could tell where he was going with this. I guess I should have been glad he didn’t go all alpha male and just pee to mark his territory. That would have sucked.

  Seeing Lacey captive under Brandon’s glare was more than bad enough already.

  At least she still looked as peeved as she did afraid. An angry Lacey would last longer, and it meant she had her wits intact. Brandon had promised he wouldn’t try ordering her into anything—”Until Grey gets back, she’s just our guest,” he’d told me. “Then we decide”—but it was still a relief to see she still looked like herself.

  “B,” she said, offering a shaky smile. “Some friends you’ve got here.”

  Brandon smirked, but I ignored him and sat awkwardly next to Lacey. She was on the old, battered couch, too close to the blazing fireplace for comfort.

  “Brandon was telling me about his plans,” she said thinly. “What he sent Grey off to get.”

  “Our medicines,” I said quietly. “Right.”

  “But there’s no cure, Grey said. He’d tried.”

  I looked askance at Brandon. I didn’t want him listening, but there didn’t seem to be much choice.

  “Why did you come here, Cee? How much did Grey tell you?”

  “Mostly, it was me telling him everything I knew.” She let out a watery chuckle. “I told him about your visit. You know, when you…did the thing with changing your hand?”

  I looked at my open palm, and painfully bent my fingers in, imagining the claws. It felt like years ago that I’d done that. Since I’d left Lacey behind in tears. I winced.

  She just shook her head and said, “I had to talk to Grey. I didn’t know what else to do. Someone drops that story in your lap? You can’t just go on with life as normal.”

  “Try living it,” I murmured.

  “But that’s it, B. Grey’s been living with all this, and he was all I had to make sense out of it. And he was a mess. He told me about leaving you. He said how horrible he felt.”

  That didn’t make me feel any better.

  “I filled him in about you,” she went on. “I told him what a wreck you were at the party. I knew you needed help.”

  “And you just have to try to fix everything, don’t you?” I said wearily. “This is bigger than you, Cee.”

  “Which is why I brought Grey. I talked him into this. I had to help somehow, but I couldn’t do it alone, and he had to get you back or the guilt was going to kill him.” She twisted her hands together. “But now he’s…”

  “Going to fix us all,” Brandon said, grinning. “You did just the right thing for once. Good going, Hilliard.”

  “How did you get to be so horrible?” she whispered.

  He planted his hands on the back of the couch, one on either side of her. Lacey shrank back when he leaned close. “I’ve always been horrible,” he said. “You were just too busy with all your worthless shit to notice. What do you think you can do about me now?”

  Lacey gritted her teeth and did something that was either brave or really, really stupid. She brought one leg up and kneed him in the groin.

  I guess that was one to file away for reference. It did work just as well on werewolves as it did on ordinary guys.

  Brandon hollered, bent half-over. Antonella shouted and went for Lacey, but Brandon held her back. “No,” he wheezed. “Got…something else in mind…”

  “You promised you wouldn’t hurt her!”

  He eyed me scornfully. “I just want to show her something.”

  Over my protests, he pushed Cee out the door. I made a stumbling run after them, and my heart sank once I realized he was steering her to Ilsa’s cabin. I wasn’t prepared for what I saw when he pushed Cee inside to face it all.

  Now I knew what Pandora and Ayu were doing. They were taking care of Ilsa. I think she was trying to escape into wolf form, but she couldn’t. That collar was still around her throat, chafing her skin until it bled. She was half-transformed, contorted out of shape from pain, and straining against her restraints.

  Cee let out a cry of horror and clamped a hand to her mouth. She tried to back out the door again. Brandon wouldn’t let her.

  “That’s what happens to us, Lacey,” Brandon said. “Years of changing like this breaks us down. You’ve seen what it’s doing to B. This is where we end up.”

  “You liar,” I cried. “You did this to her!”

  “You think it makes a difference?” Brandon’s eyes were wild. “If we don’t find a cure for good, we’ll be no better than that in the end, and who’s been trying to keep us from it? You.”

  “That’s not true!”

  “Isn’t it? I keep asking such a simple goddamned question. Who’s your doctor, B? Who’s this guy that’s making our cure? God knows you’ve got this long-suffering shit down, but you do not get to force it on the rest of us. You should have told us. Now, we’re down to this. Your brother’s going to get us those pills and then I will run things my way.”

  Ilsa, behind us, howled.

  Cee staggered out the door and to her knees. I knew how she felt. Antonella, though, was staring at the…thing on the bed, which wasn’t human and wasn’t wolf and wasn’t anything except broken. Her eyes were huge, as though she was finally seeing the whole picture.

  “Antonella, he’s lying,” I breathed. “He hurt her. He put that thing on her. She wouldn’t be like this if it weren’t for—”

  Brandon shoved me hard, and I landed with a jarring crack by Ayu’s feet. Everything burst with pain. Brandon didn’t even say a word to me. He just turned away and left me there.

  “Come on,” he said, dragging Antonella with him this time as he slammed and barred the door.

  *

  I guess we all have our limits, in the end.

  Brandon’s was mental. Ilsa’s was physical. Mine…well, I’d been through all that, in one way or another. I’d lost people I loved, and lived through years of excruciating pain. I’d coped with it all, more or less. But watching other people come apart that way was more than I could take.

  No matter how much I hated Ilsa, seeing her suffer was horrible. I couldn’t let that go.

  Pan and Ayu, who weren’t in much better shape than I was, helped me to an awkward seat in the corner of the room. We all stared at each other unhappily. Ilsa, who’d subsided into semi-consciousness, was quiet. Mostly.

  “We can get out if we have to,” Ayu said quietly. “But what about her?”

  “We should get the collar off.”

  “She could go batshit on us,” Pandora told me grimly. “That’s keeping her from transforming all the way. Get her out of that and all bets are off.”

  “Then what do we do?”

  I had a terrible idea, but it was an idea, nonetheless. “I don’t know if I’ve got the strength for this,” I whispered. “Could you just help me up again?”

  Looking wary, they did.

  I limped over and stopped at the foot of Ilsa’s bed. She moved weakly as I watched her. Her hair was tangled into snarls, in the places she hadn’t simply lost it or torn it out during the contortions from one shape to another. Her half-shut eyes were bloodshot, and she kept twitching, even in sleep—if you could call the state she was in “sleep.” I felt guilty, and I hadn’t even been the one to cause this. But I knew I had to get her out.

  Which also meant I needed to get her to listen to me.

  “Ilsa,” I said. She twitched again, but didn’t focus. My next word was a focused mental shout. Ilsa.

  That got me a full-body spasm: recognition, if not exactly sense. Ayu and Pandora, still flanking me in case I needed the help, held me tighter. I tried to draw what strength I could from that and continued.

  “Ilsa, you have t
o listen to me.”

  Her hands clenched, her fingers going claw-like and then stretching abnormally long before they resolved. I hardened my voice and gave it what volume I could.

  “Ilsa, I know what you are. I’m going to tell you what you are so that you believe me.” I took a deep breath. “You are a cheating, lying, manipulative bitch who will do anything to get your way. You’ve killed people. You beat the Elder through a whole series of games you didn’t deserve to win.” My head was hurting like hell, but something was burning at the back of it, something fierce that was urging me on. “But if you could pull all that off, you are stronger than this. You are stronger than this.”

  Those words echoed weirdly around us. Pan and Ayu both shivered.

  And Ilsa opened her eyes to stare at me.

  “You are going to be human,” I told her. “You are going to keep your shit together. I will not stand here and watch you rip yourself apart when we are all in trouble, and when you have the strength and the cunning to be something better than this.”

  “B,” Ayu said warily. “Do we really want—”

  Complete freedom? No. I had to direct this. I clenched my hands and went on, not letting Ilsa look away.

  “You are going to obey me,” I said. The words felt like they were bubbling up from some dangerous hidden reserve. I had to keep in control of this. “You are not in charge. I don’t care what challenges you believe you’ve won. You don’t deserve to lead us. So now you will do what I say, because…”

  I couldn’t believe I was playing this card, but it was all I had:

  “I am your alpha,” I said. “And you are going to be whole.”

  I found out then what mind over matter really could do. It was astonishing.

  Ilsa came back together as I watched. Her whole form stabilized, and her eyes cleared. Willpower alone wasn’t going to fix her hair or those ripped-up clothes, but at least the scratches mended, and color returned to her face. When she spoke, her voice was weary, but she sounded like herself. “Get me…out of this collar.”

  Pandora still looked anxious. “Can we really—”