Descendant

by S. M. Gaither

  When she refused to move any further, Kael’s low growl exploded into a fierce snarl and he lunged forward, hitting her square in the chest and sending her toppling over.

  She remained on the ground for several seconds before climbing shakily back to her three good feet.

  She lowered her head and, still growling, turned and slinked into the cover of the trees.

  Kael tore after her, and it was a long while before their snarls and yelps faded into the distance.

  Dazed, I pushed my door open and stepped out. I felt a flutter of panic rising in my chest as I looked toward the now-silent woods.

  I braced myself against the hood of the car, closed my eyes and took a few deep, calming breaths. I wanted to go make sure Kael was okay.

  But I couldn’t move.

  (Kael?) I tried thinking. It was all I could manage; I was too shaken to even think a coherent sentence. There was no answer for what felt like a long time. I was about to attempt to leave the support of my car behind and go search for him when I heard footsteps.

  “What part of stay at the house didn’t you understand?”

  My teeth clenched at his words, which where loud and clear—without the soft echo that accompanied thoughtspeech.

  “I was only going to be gone a few hours. You can’t really expect me to stay locked up in my house the rest of my life,” I said, whipping around to face him. I still had plenty of adrenaline left. I’d been ready to apologize, but if he was looking for fight—

  A quick glance over his now-human self melted my anger in record time.

  I saw the bloody streaks across his face first; they started across his right cheekbone and disappeared up into his hairline, into a patch of hair that was significantly darker than the rest.

  “Kael…you…you’re bleeding.”

  He snorted. “Yeah, that’s generally what happens when six inch fangs rip through you,” he said, bitterly, as he examined his right arm, which was covered and dripping with dark red blood.

  “No, I mean, you’re bleeding a lot.”

  “Again—they were like six inches long.”

  “You’re going to bleed to death!”

  He glanced up at me then, amusement briefly lighting up his features. “Not this time,” he said, ripping a strip of cloth from what was left of his shirt and using his teeth to help tie it tightly around his upper arm. “Just a few scratches. They’ll heal soon enough. They’d heal faster if I stayed a wolf, but I suppose I wanted to be human again so that I could see you, eye-to-eye, and verbally ask you what the hell you were thinking? You can’t have honestly thought it was a good idea to stray so far from home—no one is that dumb.”

  I chose to ignore the insult, mostly because I was still staring at him in disbelief. Even with his make-shift tourniquet, it still looked like he was losing an awful lot of blood; he might not have been going into shock because of it, but I was.

  “Are you sure you aren’t going to die on me?”

  “Did you listen to anything Eli said?” he asked, exasperated. “I’m fine—especially since it’s almost a full moon. We’re stronger during the full-moon. And you already know, since you saw what happened to your arm after you were attacked at the lake, that we heal several times faster than humans do on any given day.”

  The scent of all that blood was starting to make me nauseous, so I looked away as I said, “Speaking of the lake: that was Sera, wasn’t it? That day at the lake. She was the one who tried to drown me.”

  “Now you see why I told you to stay away from her?”

  “Well, yeah. But why didn’t you tell me who she was?”

  When he didn’t answer, I forced myself to look back at him.

  “You didn’t ask,” he finally said, looking clearly uncomfortable all of a sudden.

  I glared. “Do you really think that’s a good enough excuse to not warn me about somebody who wanted to kill me?”

  He didn’t reply; he only turned and started walking toward my car.

  I stomped after him—I wasn’t planning on letting him off that easily… But then I caught sight of his bloody arm again, and fresh guilt flooded over me and kept me silent.

  Kael reached my car and crouched down beside my passenger side door.

  “You completely destroyed it,” I said, kneeling down beside him.

  “Would you rather I had left the two of you alone?”

  “Just making an observation,” I said quietly. “And for the record?” I couldn’t help but add, running my hand along the twisted metal frame, “I had everything under control. I was the one holding the gun, in case you didn’t notice.”

  “You wouldn’t have shot it,” he said. “And it wouldn’t have mattered if you did. Even in her human form, a few bullets wouldn’t have stopped her.”

  My chest tightened, heart faltering a bit as I realized just how serious of a situation he’d gotten me out of.

  “Why did you do it?” I whispered.

  “What?”

  “You said you wouldn’t follow me. What made you change your mind?”

  The question seemed to have caught him off-guard. “Maybe I just didn’t have anything better to do?” he said, looking away.

  “You didn’t have to help me.”

  “I know.”

  “What about the others? Why didn’t they come?”

  “They did,” Kael said. “Will and Eli stayed behind to take care of things at the mall.”

  “At the mall?”

  “Sera rarely operates alone.”

  “You mean there are more like her?” I asked. And then a horrifying thought crossed my mind. “Lora!” I cried, placing a hand over my mouth. “I forgot about Lora! We have to go back! That guy that was following us, oh my god— how could I have left her?”

  Close to hyper-ventilating, I ran over and threw open my car door. Kael was beside me a second later, and he pushed me aside and slammed it shut again.

  “Do you listen to anything anyone says?” Kael asked, his tone a mixture of annoyance and bewilderment. “Lora’s fine. Will and Eli are with her—they’re already on the way back to your house.”

  I managed an almost-normal breath.

  “We should probably head back too,” he said, eying me warily. “Are you going to be okay to drive?”

  I nodded numbly. “But what about my door?”

  “Might be a little breezy, but the car should still drive alright,” he said, opening the door, sliding into the seat and turning the key I’d left in the ignition. My car started with no more protest than usual, and Kael got back out and held the door open for me. “Just stick to the back roads and drive slowly. Hopefully you won’t pass any cops…Do you know the way to your house from here?”

  “I think so.”

  “I’ll run alongside you, just in case.”

  “Okay.” I climbed into the seat and pulled my seatbelt on. “I…I’ll see you at the house, I guess.”

  He nodded and then disappeared up into the trees, and I proceeded to drive back to my house slower than I’d ever driven in my life.

  Every now and then I’d catch a glimpse of silver racing through the trees beside the road, which was bizarre at first, but by the time we pulled onto the road I lived on it seemed almost normal. Other than an occasional demand to ‘hurry up’—which I ignored every time— Kael kept his thoughts to himself.

  And so, for most of the ride home, I was left to my own thoughts.

  I knew I should’ve been overwhelmed with relief. It had been a close-call, but everything turned out fine. Despite what he’d said, Kael had shown up just in time to save me. I was thankful for that. Truly, I was. But for some reason, all I could think about where the what-ifs.

  What if he’d been too late?

  What if he hadn’t come at all?

  What if no one else had showed up to save Lora?

  What if Sera had decided to try and kill me right then and there in that mall parking lot? I wouldn’t have been able to stop her, because I was just
a weak human.

  Right now, I was just a weak human.

  But after tonight, all of that could change.

  I could change.

  10

  sure

  As I drove back to the house, I hadn’t bothered trying to keep my thoughts from Kael or anyone else who might’ve been listening.

  So it came as no surprise when Will met me at my car door with a worried look on his face the second I drove up.

  “Don’t do this, Alex,” he said as he held open that door and offered me his hand. I took it and pulled myself out of the car, but I didn’t look at him. “You seem like a nice kid—I don’t want you to become my enemy.”

  “Where is my sister?” I asked quietly.

  “She’s inside. And she’s perfectly fine,” he replied, as if presenting an argument. “So I don’t know why you—”

  “Yeah, she’s fine thanks to you,” I interrupted quietly. “What if you hadn’t been there?”

  “But I was there. Eli and I both were.”

  “And I thank you both for that, I really do. But—”

  “But what?”

  “But I’d prefer to take from here.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with relying on others, you know,” Will said, shaking his head.

  “Yeah. Until they let you down,” I said under my breath, shoving past him and heading for the front door.

  “We haven’t let you down yet, have we?” he called after me. His voice sounded angry, and I almost slowed to a stop, my guilty feelings from earlier resurfacing.

  I’d made it to the porch steps when another voice called my name. This time I did stop, leaving one foot balanced on the bottom step. I looked back over my shoulder to see Eli walking toward me.

  “What do you want?”

  He smiled at me, despite the harsh tone of my voice. “It seems you’ve made up your mind,” he said in his calm, quiet voice.

  I forced myself to nod, because it felt like there was no turning back now.

  “It is your choice to make, so I will not try and talk you out of it,” he continued. “But I do have a favor to ask of you.”

  “What kind of favor?”

  “I think it would be in everybody’s best interest if your first shift took place under capable supervision—just in case. The newly transformed are usually a danger to not only others, but also to themselves.”

  His words caused the bile that had settled in the back of my throat to rush forward. But I swallowed it down and managed another small nod.

  “Kael has offered to return later this evening and escort you back to our home. You should rest until then.”

  Another nod.

  I can do this.

  “I will see you tonight, then,” Eli said.

  I waved halfheartedly as he turned and walked to the black sedan parked beside my now doorless Honda. Will was already sitting behind the steering wheel, and I waved to him too.

  He just looked away.

  I frowned as I watched the two of them disappear down the driveway, and then I turned and headed through the front door. Before I’d even closed that door, the sound of hurried footsteps thundered through the entryway.

  “Alex!” my sister called in a hushed voice. She rounded the corner a second later and threw her arms around me so hard I nearly lost my balance. “You’re okay!” Lora’s voice never rose above a whisper, which probably meant Mom was still resting up before tonight’s hospital shift.

  And the fact that Mom was sleeping soundly meant she likely had no idea Kael and the others had been here.

  I said a silent prayer of thanks for that bit of good fortune as I hugged my little sister tightly.

  “What about you?” I asked her when I finally pulled away a minute later. “Are you okay? What happened?”

  Lora stepped back and stared seriously into my eyes. “I couldn’t find your car when I came outside,” she said. “So I wandered around in the parking lot for a bit, then I pulled out my phone to call you. But you know that guy I pointed out to you in the food court? The one I said was stalking us?”

  If I’d been nauseous before, it was nothing compared to how I felt now.

  How could I have left Lora alone with that guy creeping around?

  “He followed me into the parking lot,” Lora said. “And the jerk grabbed my phone right out of my hand before I could finish dialing your number. I got it back, though.”

  “How?” I asked, a cold sweat rushing over me.

  “I kicked him right between the legs. He practically threw it at me then.”

  I had to swallow a laugh.

  What could I say? I’d taught her well.

  “I’m so glad you’re okay,” I said, wrapping my arms around her and giving her another squeeze.

  “Alex.” Her voice was suddenly way too serious for a thirteen-year-old. She pulled away, and her deep brown eyes stared unrelentingly into mine as she asked, “Who are all these strange people? And what happened to you? I saw your car when you drove up. Never mind me—are you alright?”

  “I’m fine,” I said, trying to avoid her gaze.

  “Details,” she demanded.

  “I think it’s better if you don’t know everything. Or anything, even. I feel like the less you know, the safer you probably are.”

  “You can’t keep this from me forever,” she pressed. “If you won’t tell me, you know I’ll just find out for myself, one way or another.”

  “Lora—”

  “How about I just guess, and you tell me if I’m right or not?”

  “How about not?”

  “Okay, so that guy in the mall? Blondie? What was he?” Lora asked.

  I just rolled my eyes.

  “He moved way too fast for a normal human—” she said, looking at me for confirmation.

  “Think about what you’re saying,” I said, in my best attempt at a skeptical tone. “So he was fast. So what?”

  “He caught me in like less than a second, that’s what. And I had about a twenty-second head start. No human moves that fast. And when Eli and Will—those two who said they were friends of yours— were fighting, all of them were nothing but blurs. I couldn’t even keep up.”

  I tried to give a believable laugh. “Yeah. They’re probably aliens.”

  “I thought about that possibility,” Lora said, matter-of-factly. “They don’t look like aliens though…”

  “I was joking. There’s no such thing as aliens,” I said, irately. But then I realized I wasn’t sure that was true—after all, up until a short time ago I thought there was no such thing as werewolves, either.

  And I’d never even heard of a lycan.

  Suddenly I found myself wondering what other kinds of monsters might be lurking in the shadows of our world. The possibilities were terrifying, really.

  “Okay well maybe not aliens…but am I hot or cold? Give me a hint,” Lora insisted.

  “I’m not playing this game,” I said. “I need to go move my car into the shed so Mom doesn’t see it when she leaves for work. And then I’m going back to bed—I’m kinda tired seeing as how someone woke me up entirely too early this morning, even though she knew I didn’t get any sleep last night, thanks in part to the whole having the cops called on me thing.”

  Lora opened her mouth, but I turned around and quickly headed back outside before she could utter even a syllable of protest.

  I expected her to follow me to continue her pursuit of answers, but she didn’t.

  And when I returned from parking my car in the shed at the far edge of our yard, she was nowhere in sight. She’d probably gone to her room, either to pout or to concoct more possible explanations of what had happened at the mall. I moved quietly in hopes that, if she was in her room, she’d stay there and leave me and my thoughts in peace.

  True to my word, I headed straight for my bed.

  I didn’t go back to sleep, partially because of everything I had to think about, but mostly because no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t seem
to get comfortable.

  The second I closed my eyes, the dull headache I’d been fighting all morning got a million times worse. Even after I took a couple aspirins, it still lingered.

  And my head wasn’t the only thing that hurt; for some reason, almost all of my muscles were aching, and no position I laid in gave me any relief. Worse than the aching was the strange tingling sensation that shot through my arms and legs every time I moved.

  More symptoms?

  Exactly how painful was this transformation going to be?

  Even though I wasn’t able to sleep, I stayed in my bed—mostly to avoid Lora. As an added bonus, I also managed to avoid Mom by pretending to be asleep when she came in about two hours after I’d lain down. I heard her driving away thirty minutes later.

  It wasn’t until the digital alarm clock at my bedside read 6:00 P.M. that I reluctantly decided to drag myself out of bed. I didn’t know what Eli’s idea of ‘later this evening’ was, so I figured I should probably be up and ready to go whenever Kael decided to show up.

  The thought of seeing Kael again wasn’t exactly the greatest motivator for getting out of bed.

  I had a feeling our trip back to their house was going to be an awkward one, since I doubted the short time we’d been apart was long enough for him to have forgiven me for not listening. In fact, I was a little surprised he’d offered to come back for me. My guess was he was planning on using it as another opportunity to criticize me.

  That did seem to be his favorite pastime, after all.

  I migrated from my bedroom to the living room and plopped down on the armchair nearest to the back door. As I stared out the sliding-glass, I found that the more I thought about him, the less I could blame Kael for being angry with me. I mean, maybe a lecture or two was the price I had to pay for him saving my life.

  He’d saved my life.

  It was a strange feeling, to owe that much to someone—especially someone I’d just met. And I didn’t particularly like that feeling; maybe it was because I’d basically raised myself and Lora, or maybe it was something else, but for some reason I’d never been comfortable accepting favors and stuff from other people.