Descendant

by S. M. Gaither

  “You’re probably right,” Shane said. He cracked his knuckles and took a step toward us.

  “This guy just doesn’t know when to quit,” Kael muttered.

  “No, he doesn’t,” I agreed offhand. “But..—”

  “But what?” he asked, turning to me with a furious look. “Please tell me you aren’t taking him seriously. The guy’s a raving maniac, in case you haven’t noticed.”

  “Maybe. But Eli said—”

  “Forget what Eli said, Alex. You don’t understand—what I did, what I can do, it isn’t the same.”

  I bit my lip, and I was almost thankful to see Shane running at us again. Because as Shane’s fist drew back and got ready to swing, Kael had no choice but to stop glaring at me.

  I jumped out of the way of both of them.

  Kael stood motionless until the last possible second and then sprang aside, and Shane’s fist hit nothing but dirt.

  Shane bounced off the ground and threw himself toward Kael again. And again. And again. And over and over, Kael dodged, until a single misstep gave Shane his chance. His fist slammed into Kael’s jaw and sent him stumbling. Kael dropped to one knee and looked up, wiping the blood away from his mouth.

  Shane dove at him again, but Kael slid out of the way and his fist caught Shane right in the gut.

  Shane stumbled, holding his stomach and gasping for air.

  Kael straightened up and took one last glance at Shane, who didn’t look like he was capable of getting up right then. Kael hovered over him for a long moment, looking as if he was thinking about putting Shane the rest of the way out of his maniacal misery.

  I felt my lips forming the word stop. It never actually made it out, but it didn’t need to; Kael turned and walked back to me without laying another finger on Shane.

  “We should try and find the others.”

  I nodded uncertainly.

  He started toward the house. I followed after a minute, keeping a good distance between myself and his retreating back.

  But we didn’t make it very far before Shane called after us. “You think you’re leaving? Just like that?”

  “You have got to be kidding me,” I heard Kael say.

  I closed the distance between us before turning back. Shane was on his feet again, and still looking every bit the role of a madman.

  “I’m going to kill him,” Kael said.

  “Please don’t do that,” I said. “Witnessing a murder’s definitely not on my list of things of things to do before I die.”

  Kael glanced at me, and I think he almost smiled. But any humor in his face drained instantly as Shane started a sprint toward us.

  I didn’t move this time. In fact, I mirrored Kael’s stance, bracing for what looked like an inevitable fight.

  But nobody got to throw another punch, because just as Shane got close, a blur of gray and white soared by me and slammed into him. The blur materialized into a snarling wolf that took several threatening steps toward Shane. A second later, a wolf with whitish gold fur padded up beside me and nudged my arm with its nose.

  (Are you okay, Alex?) Vanessa asked.

  I looked at Kael, unsure of how to answer. Vanessa nudged me again and let out a low whine. My automatic response was to do what I would’ve done with my dog, and I scratched the velvety fur between her ears—each of which was a big as my hand.

  I turned back to Shane and the gray wolf, the latter of whom was in the middle of shifting. It turned out to be Eli, and within seconds he’d returned to his human form. I held in a disgusted sigh.

  He made shifting look so easy.

  “I know you’re upset Shane—but I would like for you to kindly remember whose territory you’re on.” Eli’s authoritative voice never ceased to amaze me. It just didn’t fit with his appearance. He was about half Shane’s size, and he had to look up to meet his eyes.

  Shane didn’t reply right away. He looked back and forth between Eli and Kael a couple of times. You could almost see the wheels turning in his head.

  “Forgive me, Eli,” he finally said. “I was just trying to do your family a favor by ridding it of some bad blood that seems be running through it.”

  “How thoughtful of you,” Eli said with a small scowl. “But, regardless of your opinion on the matter, Kael is—and will remain—a part of this family, so long as he chooses to.”

  Shane regarded those words with a look of unmistakable disgust.

  “Now, I think we can both agree that we are wasting precious time,” Eli continued, his voice level as ever, “so I would suggest setting these differences aside for the time being.”

  For a second, I was half-afraid Shane was going to flip out on Eli next.

  But then he gave a single curt nod.

  Eli turned to face us. There was a blood-stained rag tied diagonally across his face, covering his left eye and disappearing underneath his hair.

  “What happened?” I asked, my legs automatically carrying me toward him.

  “Hm? Oh this...” He lightly touched the bandage with his fingers and shrugged. “It is only a scratch. But Vanessa is making me wear this ridiculous bandage.”

  “So that it doesn’t get infected!” came Vanessa’s insistent cry. “Do you want to go blind?”

  “No, I suppose not,” Eli said sheepishly, suddenly seeming a lot less like an authoritative young man and a lot more like a child being scolded by his mother.

  “That’s what I thought.” Now back to her human form, Vanessa marched herself over to his side. “Now, let me look at it and make sure it hasn’t gotten dirty.”

  “But how did that happen?” I asked.

  “You two missed all the excitement,” Eli said, flinching as Vanessa’s hand reached for the bandage.

  “We had some visitors while you were gone,” Vanessa said as she loosened Eli bandage and inspected his eye.

  “Who?” Kael asked.

  Vanessa shrugged. “We didn’t recognize any of them,” she replied. “Which is bad news in itself.”

  I gave her a confused look.

  “It means Valkos’s forces may be growing,” Eli clarified. “It’s possible he has increased his efforts to gain people to his side because he’s found the descendant. And if this bold attack is any indication, he may already be much more prepared for another war than we thought.”

  “There were seven of them at first,” Vanessa said. “All of whom were new faces. We managed to take care of all but two of them, but then reinforcements showed up. And there were at least ten of them. At least ten more we didn’t recognize.”

  “The ones that passed us in the woods, I bet,” I said quietly, glancing sideways at Kael. I felt even sicker. We should’ve known they were coming here. We should’ve been here to help.

  Beside me, Kael shook his head but didn’t say anything.

  “I don’t understand,” I said. “I’m assuming they were after me, right? But we passed right by them in the woods. We heard them. They must not have been looking too hard if—”

  “Apparently, he’s not just after you,” Shane interrupted.

  “What?”

  “They took your sister, didn’t they?” Shane said.

  “Yeah but—”

  “He’s collecting hostages.”

  I shook my head numbly, staring into Shane’s cold, dark eyes. “They already have my sister. Isn’t that enough for them?”

  Shane didn’t reply.

  “Valkos doesn’t like to take chances,” Kael said quietly. “Having more than one hostage gives him more room to work with.”

  His factual tone annoyed me. “How about we don’t talk about my little sister like she’s just some pawn for this guy to work with?”

  “That is exactly what she is to him,” he said. “Her and Emily both, and anyone else he can get his hands on.”

  “That doesn’t mean you have to—”

  “Guys!” Vanessa interjected quietly, beating out Kael just as he opened his mouth to interrupt me. “We’re wasting time he
re.” She gave me and Kael a stern look, and we both fell grudgingly silent. Vanessa cleared her throat and continued. “Back to what happened,” she said. “They went after Emily first. They could probably tell how weak she was— made her an easy target. We tried to stop them of course, but we were way past outnumbered by that point.” Her voice broke a little, and she had to take a deep breath before continuing. “Will and Jack followed them, but…”

  “But we haven’t heard anything from them in a while now,” Shane finished for her in a quiet, seething voice.

  “But it’s possible they are purposely not responding, for fear their thoughts might be intercepted,” Eli said, looking pointedly at Vanessa with his one good eye as she finished retying the bandage over his other.

  “That’s what we’re hoping for,” Vanessa said, her voice almost steady again. She turned to me and attempted a smile. “Anyway, not all of them left with Emily. There were at least half a dozen left for us to deal with at that point.”

  “That’s when this happened,” Eli said, pointing to his eye.

  “This is all my fault.” It was all I could think to say.

  “Please do not worry yourself about it, Alex,” Eli said. “We all knew when we took you into our home that it would only be a matter of time before Valkos found out, even with all the precautions we took. None of us expected it to come this soon, perhaps, but we knew it would come, nonetheless.”

  “So you knew there were risks. Doesn’t change the fact that I brought this on all of you.”

  “We can debate that later, if you insist,” Eli said. “Right now, we should be thinking about our course of action.”

  “Isn’t it obvious?” Shane said before anyone else even had a chance to think about speaking. “What else is there to do? They struck first— and I say if they want a fight, we give them a fight. Besides, as soon as I tell my pack members about Emily, they’ll be ready to tear Valkos’s throat out.”

  “Or die trying,” Kael said.

  “My lycans aren’t afraid of death,” Shane shot back.

  “Oh good,” Kael said. “Because that’s exactly what you’ll be leading them to if you try and launch an attack with that sort of mentality.”

  Shane gave a dismissive snort. “I wouldn’t expect a werewolf to understand the concept of dying with honor— or the concept of honor period, for that matter.”

  If it hadn’t been for the way Shane had said it— like it was some sort of disgusting swearword— I probably wouldn’t have given a second thought to the word ‘werewolf’.

  But it was obvious the word hadn’t slipped by Eli and Vanessa unnoticed, because for all that talk about Kael being part of the family, they both suddenly seemed to have lost interest in the conversation.

  To me, it was just a word.

  The silence now lingering over us reinforced at least one thing I’d learned about the two races, though: clearly, Eli hadn’t been kidding when he said werewolves and lycans didn’t usually mix—in conversation or otherwise.

  Shane and Kael looked ready to kill each other, and I was almost positive they were both fully capable of it.

  “I was kind of hoping nobody would have to die— with or without honor,” I said.

  For a second, I thought the two of them were actually so focused on hating each other that they were oblivious to anything I was saying. But then Shane turned his head slowly to look at me.

  “Clearly, you have no idea who we’re dealing with. People are going to die.”

  “Well thank you for that bright little note of sunshine,” I said. “But yeah, you’re right. Clearly I have no idea. But you guys do, so it would be really great if you could stop trying to kill each other for a few minutes so we could figure out where the hell to go from here.”

  Shane gave Kael one last glare and then turned his attention fully to me, his posture relaxing slightly. “I told you,” he said, shaking his head, “there’s nothing to figure out. Not for me, anyway. You guys can sit here and debate and formulate your little plans as long as you want, but I’ve wasted enough time. So if you guys will excuse me.”

  He turned and actually started to walk away.

  “Wait a second!” I called before I could stop myself.

  Shane halted mid-step and looked back over his shoulder at me. “What?”

  “Are you serious? You’re just going to go? Just like that?”

  “Yeah. Why?”

  I bit my lip, hesitating. I knew what I wanted to say.

  And I knew exactly the reaction my words would get.

  “Well… then I’m going with you,” I said anyway.

  “No you aren’t.”

  “Like hell you are.”

  “That is a really bad idea, Alex.”

  Eli was closest to me, so I turned and replied to him first. “Maybe it is a bad idea. And I’m definitely open to any other ideas—but I don’t hear anybody else suggesting any so…” I swallowed hard before continuing. “So I guess I’m with Shane on this one.” I almost choked a little bit when I said that last part. I didn’t really know Shane, but after witnessing his violent display of temper and obvious prejudice, I wasn’t sure how I felt about being on the same page with this guy.

  Shane was studying me, looking curious and maybe a little pleased. “Of course you’re with me,” he said in careful voice. “You want to save your sister, right?” His question sounded more like a statement. “I bet standing around like this is killing you.”

  That was all it took to make up my mind.

  Somebody understood me.

  Finally.

  And—if only for that moment—I was prepared to follow Shane anywhere.

  “Don’t act like you have her interests at heart,” Kael said.

  I spun around to face him, feeling a sudden surge of anger that I couldn’t have justified if I’d tried.

  Why did he have to be the voice of reason, anyway?

  “What the hell are you suggesting, exactly?” Shane asked Kael.

  “Having the one thing Valkos wants would be really convenient for you, wouldn’t it? Maybe none of your pack will have to die after all, huh?”

  “I hope you’re not trying to say I would—”

  “He’s trying to use you, Alex,” Kael said bluntly.

  “Kael…” Eli began.

  “I’m getting kind of tired of your lies,” Shane said, his lips curling into a snarl. “Besides, even if we left here and marched straight up to Valkos’s front door step, Alex would still be safer going with me than staying here with you.”

  “It doesn’t matter one way or the other,” Kael said. “There’s no way in hell she’s going with you.”

  “Kael, I—”

  “At least not just with you,” he said with a defeated sigh. “Because if she goes, I’m going too.”

  A strange, hesitant warmth flooded over me. If part of me didn’t suspect that Kael had only said that because he liked pissing Shane off, I probably would have gone and thrown my arms around him.

  But I tried not to dwell on Kael’s motives.

  I was just glad he was coming with me.

  “There are five of us,” Eli said suddenly. “One of whom cannot even shift.” He said it in his usual, factual tone—it wasn’t condescending at all. But I still felt like I was being called out.

  And it still stung.

  “I know I can’t, not yet—but it could take weeks for me to learn,” I said. “We don’t have weeks.”

  “This is a really bad idea,” he said, unmoved.

  “She brings up a good point,” Vanessa said quietly. “Right now, or this time next week—what does it matter? We don’t really even have a clear idea of what we’re facing, anyway. All the time in the world might not be enough to prepare us, one way or the other.”

  “A couple of days could make a big difference though,” Kael said. “It would give us time to—”

  “You’ve already agreed to come with me!” I interrupted.

  “Not because I agre
e with you,” he said, frowning at me. “Eli’s right. This is a horrible idea. We should at least hang back long enough to form some sort of plan.”

  “I already have a plan,” Shane growled. “It’s simple, and it starts with not standing around doing nothing while Valkos kills off two of my pack members, along with the girl’s sister, and not to mention Will. Some family you guys have here—I’ll be sure to let Will know just how you feel about him. After I rescue him, I guess.”

  “Shut-up.” The low, threatening voice didn’t sound like Vanessa at all, but it was her fingers that dug into Shane’s shoulder as he spoke. She jerked him around to face her, her gaze livid. “I like you Shane,” she said, “But if you ever suggest that I would abandon Will, or Emily, or any of them again…I swear to god I will rearrange that pretty face of yours in the most painful way possible.” She flashed him a charming smile and shoved him away.

  There was silence again.

  I just stared, while Eli shook his head, and Kael grinned like he’d gotten everything he wanted for Christmas.

  “Alex.” I flinched as Vanessa turned to me, even though her expression had already gone soft again. “I’m with you, if you want to go.”

  I nodded, and Vanessa walked over to my side. Kael and Eli exchanged glances but didn’t move, and Shane cleared his throat.

  “Right,” he said, eying Vanessa warily. “I’m leaving. You guys do what you want.”

  He was almost out of sight before I got my feet to start moving after him. Vanessa caught up with me a second later. Neither of us said anything.

  We just walked.

  16

  love

  “Yeah, this is definitely a problem,” Shane muttered.

  “What now?” I asked. I didn’t know if I could handle any more bad news at the moment.

  “Their scents are practically on top of one another here,” he said.

  “Which means…?”

  “It means Will and Jack caught up with our new friends after all,” Kael said, his tone borderline condescending. The few words he’d said to me since we’d left the house had all been in that same tone, and it was starting to get really annoying.