My eyes lit up hopefully.
“No,” Vanessa and Will said together.
“Hm.”
Will gave me an approving nod. “Hey, two out of three this time—not bad,” he said, lazily lifting his hand and air-high-fiving me from across the room.
Vanessa, however, didn’t seem particularly thrilled about my success.
In fact, she looked upset all of a sudden.
“Vanessa?”
“Good job,” she said quietly.
“Uh… thanks.”
“Are you guys done eating?” she asked, standing up and collecting her own dishes, even though none of us had taken a single bite of food. “I want to start—” Vanessa stopped, and all the color seemed to drain from her face as she closed her eyes tight in obvious concentration. “Did you hear that?” she whispered a few seconds later, looking back and forth between Kael and Will.
“She’s breaking in and out,” Will said, standing up so fast his chair toppled backward. “It sounds like she’s having a hard time focusing her thoughts.”
They moved so quickly from the room that I didn’t have time to question what was going on. I just hurried to keep up as they raced down the hallway and out the front door.
We bolted toward the woods. As we got closer to the trees, the air started growing thick with a sickening smell. It was familiar, but entirely new at the same time—an overwhelming combination of salt and something metallic that made my stomach do somersaults as I ran.
I sped up until I reached Vanessa’s side. I was about to ask her what that awful scent was when she came to an abrupt stop. She was staring straight ahead, face frozen in a horrified expression. I followed her gaze and let out a gasp as I saw the answer to my own unasked question.
“Emily!” Vanessa cried, rushing over to a creature lying in a pitiful heap on the ground a few yards away.
At the sound of Vanessa’s voice, Emily lifted her head. The golden fur around her neck was stained deep red. Blood—the source of that terrible smell—was dripping off her throat and forming a small puddle on the ground.
As Vanessa reached her, Emily attempted to stand, but her legs buckled under her weight. She collapsed back to the ground with a horrible thud. Vanessa crouched down beside her and lifted Emily’s massive head—or what she could fit of it, at least— into her lap.
“Oh Ems, what happened?” Vanessa asked in a shaky voice as she stroked the fur between Emily’s ears—the one part of her, it seemed, that wasn’t soaked with blood.
I watched anxiously as Emily shook her head and squinted her eyes in a human-like gesture of concentration.
(Outnumbered…) The voice in my head was a faint echo. (The girl’s family…)
Fear gripped me even more tightly than before. “What about my family? Emily! Emily, talk to me—are they okay?”
But Emily’s strength seemed to have failed her completely.
With a soft whimper, her head rolled from Vanessa’s lap and hit the ground, where it lay perfectly still, along with the rest of her body.
Vanessa stood up with a dazed look on her face. “We need to get her back to the house—quickly.”
“You and Alex take her back,” Kael said. “We’ll go on ahead and find out what’s going on.”
“No,” I said quietly. “No, I’m going, my family needs me.”
I knew they would all disagree with me.
But I was already walking away, my pace quickening with every step. I was about to break into a run when a rough hand latched on to my arm. I jerked my head around and came face to face with Kael.
“What are you going to do, Alex?” he said in a cold voice. “Didn’t you see Emily? This isn’t a battle you can fight.”
I stared hard into his eyes. My breathing was heavy, but even, as I yanked my arm from his grasp.
And then I did something reckless.
I moved so quickly that, even before I realized what I was doing, I’d put considerable distance between myself and the others. I was running so fast that the trees were nothing but blurs of green and brown. Soon I couldn’t even tell the colors apart.
But somehow the path stayed obvious, and I dodged every boulder, every fallen limb, every patch of briars—and just got faster and faster, until even my new endurance skills couldn’t keep up with me; my lungs burned in protest, and I could feel the muscles in my legs growing stiff. I did my best to ignore my body’s screams of objection for as long as I could, but eventually the world around me began to slow.
I felt like I was crawling, suddenly—but I was still going too fast to stop when someone jumped out in front of me.
Colliding with Kael was a lot like hitting a brick wall.
Disoriented from our collision, I shoved off of him and staggered backward, cursing. “What the hell are you doing?” I demanded.
“Stopping you from doing something incredibly stupid, that’s what.”
“I’m not being stupid,” I snapped. “I just want to make sure my family is okay!”
“Yeah, and you’re not going to be able to do that very effectively if you’re dead, now are you?”
“I’d rather be dead than hanging out here forever, wondering about whether or not they’re dead!”
To my surprise, he didn’t argue back. Instead, his eyes met mine and looked into them for a long time before he spoke again.
“You’re serious, aren’t you?” he finally said, shaking his head.
“Of course I am!”
He considered my answer for only a few seconds. “Okay,” he sighed. “Let’s go.”
“Wait…What?” I couldn’t help but give him a skeptical look even as he turned and started to run.
“We’re still a few minutes from your house,” he called back, as if that answered my question. “We need to hurry.”
Within minutes, we reached the edge of my yard. Kael stopped suddenly. He kept quiet, a pensive look on his face.
“What are we doing? Why are we stopping?” I asked, trying, but failing, to hide my impatience.
“We’re waiting for Will,” he explained. “He should be here any second.”
Sure enough, almost as soon as he’d uttered those words the sound of hurried footsteps reached my ears.
“I can’t find Jack anywhere,” Will said as he ran up to us. He paused and bent over, supporting his weight on his knees and breathing heavily. “It’s weird; the whole place seems clear.”
“I know,” Kael said. “I don’t sense anyone else either—although they were definitely here.”
Will nodded, looking worried. “The scent of blood is all over this place.”
“Definitely lycan blood,” Kael said, glancing over at me.
I think he meant his words to be reassuring. But the thought of blood-spilling, whether it was my family’s or otherwise, still made me feel like the earth was shifting violently beneath my feet.
“We’re going to go check the house,” Kael said, turning to Will. “Keep an eye out, will you?”
“On it,” Will agreed.
“Come on, Alex,” Kael said, abandoning the cover of the woods and starting across the yard.
I followed closely, casting nervous glances around us as we walked. “Where do you think they went? The ones responsible for the…the blood, I mean?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “Just stay close to me, okay?” he added as we approached the back porch.
I was just about to nod in agreement when a sudden bright light blinded me. I squinted, searching for the source. The hairs on the back of my neck rose at the sight of the sliding glass door, which was lying in several broken pieces on the ground, the sharp edges glistening in the sunlight.
“Watch your step,” Kael muttered as he picked his way across the glass-strewn porch. I grabbed on to his arm as we stepped inside the house; if the back door was any indication of what we were walking into, I didn’t trust my balance to hold without help.
But to my surprise, we walked through the house only to find
it just as I’d last seen it: perfectly clean and in order. Just like my mom always kept it.
And yet, despite how it looked, something still seemed… off.
The eerie silence that filled the house wasn’t helping my nerves, either— though it was infinitely preferable to the noise that shattered it.
It started as a soft whimper, which was interrupted by a cough, and then finally it became obvious that someone, somewhere nearby, was sobbing. A chill ran up my spine and down into my fingertips as I hurried into the living room.
And there, doubled over and resting on her knees at the foot of the stairs, was the last person I expected to see crying.
My mom never cried.
I flew to her side and crouched down, wrapping my arm around her. “Mom…what happened?”
Her body tensed. The body-rocking sobs stopped and she lifted her head, staring vacantly in my direction.
“You,” she whispered quietly. “What are you doing here? How dare you come back after leaving with them. Haven’t you made your choice?”
“Choice? What are you talking about? I’m here because I live here. It’s me…Alex. You know, your daughter?”
She sat up straight, throwing my arm off and shaking her head with a horrible, hysterical laugh.
“You are not my daughter,” she said.
I didn’t say anything.
I couldn’t say anything.
I just stared at my mom as she rocked back and forth like some prisoner who’d spent way too much time in solitary confinement. Just as that rocking started to become unbearable, I finally managed to whisper: “What?”
“You are not my daughter,” she repeated in a calmer voice. She got to her feet, her balance teetering dangerously.
I stood up with her, looking frantically around the room for the people responsible for this horrible, horrible joke.
“Get out of my house,” she commanded.
I didn’t move.
My mom took a threatening step toward me, and I stumbled backwards. The room started to spin. I’m pretty sure I would have lost my balance and collapsed to the floor right then and there if it hadn’t been for a strong arm that wrapped around my waist.
“What happened here?” Kael asked quietly, steadying my weight against him.
“Like you don’t know!” my mom wailed, thrusting an accusing finger toward him. “I knew you were bad news from the start! I told you to stay away from us! Just like I told my husband to stay away from all of your kind. We could have lived normal lives, if he would have just listened to me.”
“What does Dad have to do with any of this?” I asked.
My mom glared at me. “It was the both of you. You’re just like he was. I knew you were.”
“Mom, what are you talking—”
“STOP CALLING ME MOM!”
“Okay, okay!” I gasped, my voice growing slightly hysterical. “Please…please just tell us what happened.”
“She’s gone. That’s what happened. And it’s all your fault. They wanted you. I know they did. But you were off doing who only knows what, so they took her instead.”
Her words were almost impossible to decipher amidst her breathy sobbing, but it didn’t matter.
I still realized, in that instant, what had happened.
But I don’t think I would have let myself believe it if my mother hadn’t lifted her head then, looking me straight in the eyes for the first time since I’d entered the room, and said in a desperate, empty voice—
“She’s gone. Lora’s gone.”
12
reckless
If Kael hadn’t picked me up and half-carried, half-dragged me out of the house, I don’t think I ever would have gotten up off my living room floor.
It wasn’t fair.
It was too much.
What had I done to deserve this? More importantly—what had Lora done?
I should have been there.
They should have taken me instead.
I wish they’d taken me instead.
“We don’t have time to be asking why right now, Alex,” Kael said, setting me back on my feet after yet another one of my attempts to crash to the ground. “We’ve got company.” He didn’t look at me as he spoke, but his voice was gentler than I’d ever heard it.
“Company…?”
He nodded to the right, and I turned to see two figures making their way across the yard. The one in front I recognized as Sera, and behind her walked a familiar-looking blonde.
“That’s the guy from the mall,” I commented tonelessly, my eyes following him as they moved closer.
“His name’s Markus,” Kael said. “He’s Sera’s lapdog, basically.”
I could sense the tension in Kael’s voice. I stood up straight and tried to present what I hoped would pass as a formidable face. But I was still shaking miserably.
“Alex!” Sera called once they were about twenty feet away. “There you are; we were wondering where you’d run off to. We figured you wouldn’t be long, after we gave Emily time to get back.” Her voice was casual, like she was greeting an old friend.
My fists clenched.
She was smiling at me. Both of them were. After a second I had to look away—the sight of them was making me sick to my stomach.
“You look upset, Alex,” Sera said.
“I wonder why,” I said, my voice quivering.
Sera shrugged. “You know, it’s your fault that it came to this.”
My gaze jerked back to hers. My face grew hot. I tried to take deep, calming breaths, but all I could think about was how badly I wanted to slap that arrogant little grin off her face.
I took a step forward, hand out and ready, but Kael grabbed my shoulder.
“Now isn’t the time for revenge,” he said quietly.
I glared up at him, but resisted the urge to argue. Kael was right; assuming Markus was half as good a fighter as Sera, the odds definitely weren’t in our favor.
“What’s wrong with right now?” Markus said, sounding disappointed. “C’mon—let her go. We’ll go easy on her.”
“Shut-up, idiot,” Kael growled.
Markus looked disgruntled, but he didn’t have a chance to say anything else before Kael turned away. As Kael shifted his attention from Markus to Sera, I jerked my shoulder away from his hand. He let me go with little protest but kept watching me out of the corner of his eye.
That was probably a good thing.
Because even though I knew what a bad idea it would be, the idea of introducing my fist to Sera’s smiling face wasn’t getting any less tempting.
“Where did they take her sister?” Kael asked.
“Where?” Sera tilted her head sideways and rested her chin on her hand. “Where…let’s see…You know, I think they told me, but I’m afraid it’s slipped my mind.”
Kael narrowed his eyes.
Sera just laughed. “You know how I am, Kael,” she said. Her gaze suddenly hardened, and her voice grew cold as she added: “I can’t remember a thing.”
“This is low, even for you,” he replied.
“Well thank you.” She bowed her head. Then her eyes lifted and stared directly at me. “You know, Alex—I told you to be mindful of whose side you were on. You don’t listen very well; you know that?” She sighed. “And now poor little sister has to pay the price.”
Something inside of me snapped.
I launched myself at Sera, fists drawn back and ready to swing. I had to side-step to avoid Kael as he tried to intercept me, but I managed to hit my target—the right side of her face—and next thing I knew I was watching a surprised-looking Sera stumble backward.
The look of surprise didn’t last long, however, before it changed to rage.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the exact same look cross Markus’s face.
He moved a lot quicker than Sera.
I saw him lunge, and I instinctively jumped aside and out of his path.
But I could have just stayed put, because Markus ne
ver made it to me—he collided with Kael instead. Kael knocked him backward, and Markus tripped for several feet before he found his balance again.
The two stood facing each other, their bodies tense.
What happened next, I didn’t see— because at that moment I felt two arms lock around me, one around my waist and arms and the other around my neck.
“A word of advice Alex,” Sera hissed into my ear, tightening the grip she had on my throat so much that I gagged. “You probably shouldn’t turn your back on someone you just punched in the face.”
I struggled against her, cursing with every breath I managed to take as she crushed her arm against my windpipe.
Her left arm was still pinning my arms to my side. But my hands and wrists were hanging relatively freely, so I tried twisting my right hand up and digging my nails into her. Tried, and failed; I could just barely graze the surface of her skin with my fingertips.
Only seconds had passed, but it felt like I’d gone minutes without oxygen.
Every time I didn’t think Sera’s hold around my neck could possibly get any tighter, it would.
I was starting to feel lightheaded. It brought back vivid memories of my near-drowning experience. Panic flooded through me.
And then something strange began to happen.
A burning sensation started around my elbow and spread down through my fingertips. It didn’t hurt, but it was intense enough to shock me back into the moment. A sudden surge of strength coursed through my arm. I could see the muscles pulsing underneath my skin, and I suddenly felt like I could have picked Sera up and thrown her across the yard.
I tried to break free again. And this time, I was met with some success; I managed to get my right hand completely free, and to shove part of my shoulder between Sera’s arm and my neck, which let me get a decent breath of air.
Then, curious about the burning sensation in my fingertips, I held up my hand to get a better look.
What I saw caused me to jump back, and the back of my head collided with Sera’s jaw. Sera cursed my name while I turned my hand over and over, examining what should have been my fingers.
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