Descendant

by S. M. Gaither

I assumed his bad mood probably had something to do with the fact that I’d sided with Shane.

  But I had no intentions of apologizing for that, so I was just going to weather this. He’d get over it eventually.

  “So where are they now?” I wondered aloud, making a point of avoiding eye contact with Kael as I spoke.

  “Bad news there, I’m afraid,” came Vanessa’s voice. She and Eli had been scouting ahead of us, but now the two of them reemerged from the trees and into the clearing we’d stopped in. They both wore identical worried looks.

  “There are two scent paths that lead away from this clearing,” Eli said. “One group appears to have taken Emily one way, while another group went in the complete opposite direction—with Will and Jack.”

  Shane let out a string of curse words. “Why would they split up?” he asked.

  “My guess would be they’re trying to separate us, too,” Vanessa said. “Or slow us down, at the very least.”

  “So they know we’re following them?” I hypothesized.

  Eli nodded. “So it would seem.”

  “So which way are we supposed to go now?”

  “Ever heard of divide and conquer?” Shane interjected without missing a beat. “There are five of us—three go one way, two go the other. The group of three should probably—”

  “So you’re suggesting we do exactly what they want us to do?” Kael interrupted. “Brilliant. They’ll never see it coming.”

  I sighed, anticipating the oncoming argument.

  “We’re not even sure how many we’re up against,” Kael went on. “All five of us might not even be enough to take on half of them. If we separate, the chance of us rescuing anybody is slim to none.”

  “All right then—we stick together,” Shane said, his fists clenching. “Now, are you going to be the one who decides which way we go? Are you going to decide whose lives we save? No? I didn’t think so.”

  Kael fixed him with a ruthless stare. “We’d have a better chance for success going after Will and Jack,” he said.

  Shane turned to him, his expression furious.

  But Kael wasn’t done. “There are two of them and—as far as we know—they’re both still healthy. They could aid in their own escape.”

  “This is not a gambling opportunity,” Shane snapped. “Just because there’s a better chance of—”

  “For the love of all things holy, will you guys give it a rest?” Vanessa shouted, causing everyone to jump. “The bickering is not helping,” she added as everyone turned to stare at her.

  I mouthed a silent ‘thank you’ to her as Eli nodded in agreement with her words.

  “Vanessa is right,” Eli said. “Shane, Kael—I think you both make valid points.”

  They both gave Eli a disgruntled look. Clearly, a shared victory wasn’t what either had in mind.

  But Eli didn’t seem to care. “I don’t think we should separate,” he continued. “But I don’t think we should follow one group over the other, either.”

  “And the other option is…?”

  “I think we can be pretty certain that—whatever route they take to get there— they are all heading for the same place, right?” No one disagreed. “Shane, you mentioned the rest of your pack earlier. How soon can they reach us?”

  “Probably a couple of hours,” Shane said, paying full attention to Eli for the first time. “Maybe sooner. I haven’t been in contact with them for a while now, since we’ve gotten so far away—it would be too easy for our conversation to get intercepted.”

  “I assumed as much.”

  “But I can be within a safe range in no time at all, if I hurry,” Shane continued in a rush. “We could be back by sunset, no problem.”

  “That would give us time to plan our next move…”

  “Which is what?” Kael asked. “A full-on assault? Eli, I expect this kind of thing from this idiot—” he jerked his thumb toward Shane “—but from you?”

  Eli looked like he’d been slapped across the face. I couldn’t help but wonder how often he’d been accused of being wrong. He always seemed so sure of himself, so confident and full of authority. But now he was quiet, and didn’t seem to want to take his eyes off the ground; if he’d been in wolf form I think his tail would’ve been drooped between his legs.

  It was several moments before he managed to look up and meet Kael’s intimidating glare.

  “If nothing else, Shane should still go,” Eli said as Vanessa placed a hand on his shoulder. “No matter what, reinforcements are a good idea. And we could rest while we wait for Shane to get back.”

  Nobody it seemed—not even Kael—could argue too enthusiastically against the suggestion of rest.

  So Shane left, and we stayed and set up camp in the clearing.

  The guys had ragged on Vanessa for taking the time to pack plenty of food, but I was definitely thankful for it. Because while Eli and Kael were perfectly content with hunting their supper, I wasn’t planning on leaving my human taste buds behind anytime soon. I got the impression that Vanessa would’ve liked to join them on their hunting expedition, but she insisted that wasn’t the case. So the two of us held down the fort while eating our way through the bag full of food she’d brought.

  Once I’d eaten as much as my stomach could possibly hold, I stretched out and laid back in the rough grass, clasping my hands together behind my head.

  “Hey Vanessa?” I said after a few minutes of stargazing.

  “Hm?”

  “…Do you think it’s true? All that stuff about the pact? I mean—do you really think I’m the descendant of that guy?”

  Vanessa frowned. “It’s the only thing that makes sense, I guess,” she said with a shrug. “I can’t think of any other reason Valkos would risk openly attacking you and your family like that. It was definitely a dangerous move for him—one I don’t think he would’ve made if he didn’t have a lot to gain from it. And if he’s gathering new forces, which it seems like he is, then there must be a reason for it.”

  I considered her words for a second. “This Valkos guy…just how big of a threat are we talking, anyway?” I asked, sitting up.

  Vanessa fixed her eyes on the small campfire we’d built, grabbed a stick lying at her feet and started breaking it into smaller pieces and tossing them into the fire. After a few seconds she turned to me, shaking her head in disgust. “We’re talking,” she said slowly, “About a creature who raided villages, slipped into houses in the middle of the night and stole sleeping children so he could infect them. Because the younger they were—” she paused and flung what was left of the stick into the flames “—the easier they were to brainwash once they became werewolves, which made them perfect candidates for his army.”

  I stared blankly, trying to digest that sickening little factoid.

  “He’s smart,” Vanessa said. “Manipulative. All he used in the beginning—all he needed— were words. A lot of us thought this guy knew what he was talking about. And I’m not talking about bad lycans, either. I’m talking about normal, smart, well-respected lycans—lycans who you’d never think would hurt a soul—started raising their own war-cry against the humans thanks to him.”

  Her voice trailed off towards the end. A wall of water had formed over her eyes, and they shimmered in the light of the flames. The unshed tears might’ve just been because of the smoke stinging her eyes.

  But something told me that wasn’t the case.

  “You knew some of those people?” I guessed quietly.

  She gave one, barely-noticeable nod. “He tore apart a lot of families,” she said without looking up.

  Vanessa didn’t seem like she wanted to go on. After we were silent for several minutes, I started to feel bad for even bringing it up, so I tried find something to change the subject with.

  I had one topic in mind that I was almost sure Vanessa would be up to talking about. I didn’t want to talk about Kael, but…

  I lifted my head and looked at Vanessa, who was staring miserably i
nto the fire.

  “Hey. You know the other night, when we were talking about Sera?” I ventured. “You said we’d talk later, about why Kael didn’t want me to know who she was.” I let the words hang in the air.

  Vanessa looked up and nodded, but didn’t say anything. Figuring she needed a little more persuasion, I went ahead and divulged—probably against my better judgment—how close I’d gotten to Kael in the woods, and how weird that whole moment had been.

  It was just the distraction Vanessa needed.

  “I knew it,” she said once I’d finished talking.

  “Knew what?”

  Oh god. What had I done?

  “You and him. Him and you. You know, I never would’ve seen this coming but…” She looked thoughtful for a second, then she bobbed her head up and down and brought her gaze— her suddenly very serious gaze—back down to mine. “But man...it’s so obvious!”

  “It’s not like we—”

  “He’s worried about you all the time. And the way he looks at you, it’s like he—”

  “Can’t stand me?”

  “No, it’s like he doesn’t know what to do, because he’s falling in—”

  “Whoa.” I held up a hand, cutting her off. “Whoa now.” Her lips had been forming the “L- word” and, as determined as I might’ve been to distract her, we were so not going there.

  Or at least I wasn’t.

  Vanessa, on the other hand, was already there.

  “That explains why he didn’t want you to know who Sera was,” she said, sounding almost smug.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I’m pretty sure there’s something between Kael and Sera. Or there used to be, at least. I’ve tried to get him to tell me just what that something is, but he’s not real big on talking about his past. But maybe you could talk to him about it? I bet he would talk to you, because—”

  “Because you think this is a Hallmark movie and not real life?”

  “I’m not apologizing for being a romantic at heart,” she said with a smile and a shrug.

  “I got the impression you didn’t even really like Kael,” I said. “So why are you being so insistent about this?”

  “He’s kind of like the annoying younger brother I never asked for. I guess I’m hoping your influence might make him tolerable.”

  “I don’t think I’m following your logic,” I said, a bemused smile spreading across my face.

  “There’s nothing logical about love, Alex.”

  “Do not use that word,” I warned her.

  She looked undeterred. “What? I call ‘em like I see ‘em.”

  “You’re crazy.”

  “You’re crazy if you don’t jump on this golden opportunity,” she said simply.

  “Golden opportunity?” I repeated, laughing so hard I practically snorted.

  “Oh, don’t act like you don’t think he’s hot.”

  I coughed so hard I choked. “I never said he wasn’t,” I muttered. For a second it felt like the flames of our fire had jumped to my cheeks.

  I heard movement, somewhere in the distance—probably just a squirrel or something, but it sent a panicky realization through me just the same. “Look, considering he’s got supersonic hearing and all, how about we drop this particular conversation for the time being? And by ‘for the time being’ I actually mean forever.”

  “He’s been way out of hearing range for a while now.”

  “How can you tell?”

  “Because my sense of smell is better than my hearing, and I lost track of his scent some time ago,” she replied. “Eli, on the other hand, is close.”

  Sure enough, less than a minute after the words left her mouth, a gray wolf trotted its way into the clearing. His appearance was a welcome interruption to our conversation, but I shuddered at the thought of how much of that conversation he’d heard.

  I tried to ignore the splotches of red covering Eli’s face and neck—I didn’t want to think about the poor little woodland creature that had become his dinner. It didn’t help that I could smell the alkaline scent of its blood, either. As he approached us, I had to stop my hand from automatically covering my mouth in disgust. I swallowed hard.

  How was I going to get use to this stuff?

  “Where’s Kael?” I asked, trying not to think about how weird it was to be talking to a wolf—a wolf who, for that matter, lifted his head toward me as I spoke, and whose blue-gray eyes were glowing with obvious understanding.

  I ignored the smug, knowing look Vanessa shot me when I mentioned Kael’s name.

  (He offered to take the first watch, while the rest of us sleep.)

  I nodded to let him know I’d heard him.

  He turned to Vanessa next. (Are you going to sleep like that?) I heard him ask.

  She shook her head silently, looking at me. “I don’t mean to make you the lone human, but it’s much safer for us to sleep like that,” she said, nodding toward Eli. “Heightened senses… and better equipped to fight should something happen, you know?”

  “I understand,” I told her, turning away. I didn’t want her to see my frown and misunderstand it. I knew why she didn’t want to stay human. I didn’t want to stay this way, either. I’d never really thought of myself as weak, but staring at Eli, and the clear outline of his muscles beneath his fur, I couldn’t help but feel a little pathetic. A little useless.

  My fists clenched at the thought of my failed attempt to shift earlier today.

  “You should rest while you can,” Vanessa said.

  I wanted to argue that I should practice shifting instead, but I was almost sure they had all agreed to stop because I needed said rest—because despite stopping being his suggestion, I remembered Eli saying they could go for days without sleeping.

  I wondered when I’d get to that point.

  If my heavy eyelids and aching muscles were any indication, I was in for a long wait.

  Exhaustion eventually won out, and I decided shifting practice probably wouldn’t be successful right now anyway. I settled for marveling at Vanessa’s transformation as I did my best to make myself comfortable on the forest floor.

  Her shift was graceful—there was no other word for it. It was fitting, then, that the creature she became was elegant, with a build that was muscular yet streamlined. Her form reminded me more of the greyhound my friend Chelsea used to own than of a wolf. If Chelsea had given said greyhound steroids on a pretty regular basis, maybe.

  Eli too, now that I really looked at him, was easily distinguishable from the creature Kael became—though perhaps not to the extent that Vanessa was. Both Eli and Vanessa were taller, mostly thanks to legs that seemed almost too long for their bodies. Their heads were narrower too, with longer snouts and eyes that were smaller and more cat-like than dog-like. They were elegant-looking, with silky, flowing fur that feathered out along their legs, ears, and tails.

  As the last of the silky white fur spread across Vanessa’s back, I reached into my bag, grabbed Kael’s hoodie—which I had no intentions of giving back, whether he was being rude toward me or not—and folded it into a makeshift pillow.

  I was comatose before my head even hit it.

  * * *

  Ever since I was little, I’d never been able to remember any dreams I had. I woke up often enough in the middle of the night—screaming sometimes, even. But I only really knew about dreams and nightmares thanks to second-hand accounts from other people.

  Tonight was different.

  Tonight I woke up shaking, vivid images still flashing in my mind.

  My eyes fell on Eli and Vanessa, who were both still sleeping. In a tremendous effort not to wake them, I managed to swallow the scream that had built in my throat. I rocked back and forth where I sat, trying to chase the images away. I didn’t dare shut my eyes again. But even as I stared unblinkingly ahead, the horror movie in my head continued to play, the images as clear as if they were being projected against the backdrop of trees.

  I was watch
ing my little sister.

  She was smiling and waving at me, and she looked perfectly solid—as real as Eli or Vanessa. I almost got to my feet and walked over to her. But a voice stopped me. It only said her name, but that was all it took to make me cringe to a stop.

  Silence stretched on, and the smile slowly slipped away from Lora’s face.

  Her expression twisted. She dropped to her knees and doubled over. When I ran to her side, she pushed me away. And for what seemed like hours, she just stared up at me, her breathing giving way to dry heaves as drops of sweat and blood slid down her face.

  Then, almost as quickly as it had come, the painful look fell from her eyes. At first, a blank, hollow expression replaced the agonizing one.

  But as I watched her smile became crooked, twisted into something unlike anything I’d ever seen cross her face. Her eyes grew dark, shadows sinking over them and making it look like she hadn’t slept in days.

  I tried to say her name, but no words came out.

  She rocked back on her heels and jumped to her feet, and with a single stride she’d closed the space between us.

  In one swift motion, her hand shot out and struck my chest directly above my heart.

  When I looked down, I realized it wasn’t her hand that had hit me, but what looked like a broken shard of glass. It was sticking halfway out of my chest, an unnatural amount of blood gurgling up where it had pierced my skin.

  I’d woken up just before my knees hit the ground.

  It was strangely comforting watching Vanessa and Eli sleep, their sides rising steadily up and down and their ears and tails twitching every few seconds. I reached a shaky hand out and let it rest in the soft fur between Vanessa’s shoulder blades.

  When she seemed oblivious to my touch, I moved closer, huddling against her side and trying to focus on the rhythmic thumping of her heartbeat. I tried steadying my breathing in time with hers, but that proved all but impossible.

  I was staring into the starless sky, my vision slowly blurring out of focus, when Kael’s voice disrupted the still night air.

  “Alex?”

  I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply. I didn’t want to talk to him. I didn’t want him to see me like this, upset over some stupid dream.