by Ruby Raine
How did Charlie do this all the time? Make choices that might get people hurt, or killed? How had his father done it?
Michael didn’t like it. At all. No wonder he’d always deferred to Charlie, or William. No wonder his brother was wound up tighter than a reel of fishing line.
This would be the perfect time for an attack. If the Feyk had been spying on them, or keeping watch, they’d have noted things were dire. The witches spread thin.
The gargoyles wouldn’t wake for a couple hours yet. Too bad they were not twenty-four-seven creatures. He reminded himself the mansion was also safeguarded with magic, by both he and Charlie. Except he was the only one here, with a crazed vampire locked in the basement, and somehow, it just didn’t feel as safe.
Not wanting to cause a panic, he texted Melinda and Mack to make them aware of what was up and to keep alert. He insisted it was probably nothing and not to go into panic mode, just yet.
They both responded with, are you sure? And do we need to come to the mansion? Or go to White Pines?
He persisted in his stance of keep doing what you’re doing. But reminded them to stay alert, just in case.
Mack agreed, and made him promise to check in soon with an update.
Melinda wavered but in the end, let her brother make the call as she and Lucas were closer to getting his problem sorted out. And she didn’t want to lose the chance if the White Pines thing was just a fluke of some kind.
Michael left Charlie out of it for now. Although he did write a text that was ready to send if needed. With Grayson ranting in the basement, and phone in hand waiting for a response from Courtney, the only thought in his mind was, “Please don’t let this be an actual attack...” because if it was, they’d lose this time.
COURTNEY FLEW AT FULL vampire speed into White Pines. Ears listening for any out of place sound. Eyes scouring great distances. Nose sniffing for any unusual scents. Her new abilities almost like second nature already. She moved so swiftly not a single human would have even noticed her fly by, although she didn’t come across any people this deep in the park.
She decided coming to a stop right outside the power source entrance might be a bad idea. Especially if someone was aiming to attack or setting up some kind of trap. So instead, she ran a wide perimeter of the power source a few times until certain there was nothing supernatural close by. So far, nothing out of the ordinary.
So what set off Michael’s alarm system?
Courtney examined the alarm, a specifically placed circle of crystals surrounding the area; it showed no signs of being tampered with. Her slender frame slid into view a few feet outside the tangled mess of roots that was the entrance to the power source.
There was no sign of the battle that had taken place here just weeks before. The cleaners, Mack, and even some of the local townsfolk had made sure of that. And at first glance, Courtney noted nothing wrong, or out of place. No fresh tracks or footsteps in the vicinity of the power source.
She stilled herself. Mimicking stone.
Next to nearly being able to fly across the ground, the reporter loved this ability most. Her senses went into overdrive doing all the hard work for her. She let the sounds and sights come to her.
Birds. The babbling brook. Insects. Frogs. A ripple of breeze listing through the leaves and pine needles. A plane flying some high distance overhead. And a deer, eating, not too far away. Something crunchy. Probably a not quite ripe apple fallen from a tree.
Her stomach rolled at the memory of the last deer she’d come across. It hadn’t stood a chance against a newly turned vampire who was starving and avoiding the human population. This memory only brought wisps of doubt with it. Better a deer than a human, but Courtney had been a vegetarian in her human life so killing any living thing to feed on it, disturbed her. This was most definitely the hardest thing she’d have to adjust to, and her least favorite part of being a vampire so far. No matter what, her food now came from something living that had died. Or if she really messed up, something currently living... at least she’d eaten plenty before leaving the Howard Mansion, making the deer even less appetizing.
She relaxed her stone-like form.
There was nothing abnormal going on near the power source. Perhaps it had been a false alarm after all?
“Right, by some off chance, an innocent supernatural being just happened across the place and vanished before I could get here,” she argued with herself. “Something set it off.” And she wasn’t about to give up, so easily. For all she knew that’s exactly what they wanted.
She puckered her lips and scrunched her face. Whoever this was, they were probably testing the defenses. Recording who came coming to check the alarm. Maybe she’d caught them off guard by not being a Howard? Maybe they even believed the Howards were silly enough to try to open the door to the power source, just to check things out inside.
She was still learning about the Isle, the power source, and the Howard Witches. But Courtney was no stranger to evil. It did not give up. And neither would she. Especially if that evil went by the name, Sir Tinkham Sickereaux. The leader of the Feyk known as Stricker. The bastard responsible for the death of her coven. Such a simplified term for what they meant to her and what had been ripped from her life. What she might never be lucky enough to find again. Her coven had been her home, her family, her future.
A snarl rumbled around her throat at what she’d lost because of that Feyk bastard.
And in seeking her revenge she’d now become a vampire. William might have physically done the deed that stripped away her human life, but the Feyk was the true evil responsible. She’d never have been here if it wasn’t for them, and needing to stop Stricker before he ruined someone else’s life.
Courtney hurled it into high gear, doing another set of rounds.
Still nothing out of the ordinary.
She came to a rest outside the old tree again, and dug out her phone to text Michael.
MICHAEL TAPPED HIS fingers louder, and harder, wondering if he’d made the right choice to send Courtney into White Pines and panicking a little over being the only one at home with a vampire getting feistier by the minute. What sucked most was that all this angst belonged to him. He could not blame it on another soul as he was home alone with a vampire. No emotions from others, only his, and it was still too much.
The constant flip-flopping about his decision was driving him nuts and being unable to diffuse the doubt he shot a text off to Melinda with a, “911: WEREWOLF BLOOD!” He hadn’t meant it to come across so emergency making, because he’d already told her it wasn’t, but it had anyway and his phone was ringing a second later.
“Michael, what’s going on? Do I need to come home?”
Michael groaned. “Ugh. Sorry. Forget that text. I panicked. Am panicking. It’ll pass.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, really. Just keep doing what you’re doing.”
“Michael, stop doubting yourself,” his sister replied back. She knew him too well and was all too familiar with panic attacks. “You’re doing great. And we’re both doing this so Charlie can stay with Lizzy.”
“Which is the sane thought I tried to have, but instead sent you a 911.”
“Are you sure you don’t need me to come home?” she asked seriously. “Lucas and I can keep working on his problem later if we need to.”
“No. I swear it’s all fine. But werewolf blood sooner, than later, would still be a good idea. It does seem to be wearing off faster and faster.”
“What are we going to do if it stops working?” she asked.
Michael blew out a long push of air. “No idea.”
“Yeah, how about we focus on one problem at a time.” She didn’t want to add to his panic. Or her own.
“I think it’s just all this waiting around and being alone gives me too much time to think. My own thoughts.”
Melinda chuckled. “Yeah, I can see where that might be a problem.”
“Just keep helping Lucas. I got i
t handled here.”
“Any update from Courtney?”
“Nope. Not worried yet either.” Which was total bullshit. It had only been forty minutes since Courtney had taken off, leaving him with twenty whole, long, might last forever, minutes before he really started worrying. “I’ll contact you once I hear anything.”
“Okay, Michael. And uh, try not to freak out dealing with your own emotions, huh?” Her tone teased, lightly. “If it’s too much to handle we can be home and invading your brain space in no time.”
“So not even funny,” he retorted. They disconnected. “And we’re back to Grayson ranting in the basement.” He checked his phone, still no contact from Courtney. He needed to find something to keep his mind busy while he waited.
He meandered into William’s study, where he and Courtney had been researching possible ways to break Grayson’s curse, but had so far, struck out, and instead rummaged through the boxes Josh had dropped off after cleaning out the Jordan’s summer home. The sheriff had Josh box up anything that looked important so the Howards could examine everything. Michael came across a stack of notebooks he’d intended to read through, in hopes of gleaning all he could about the Jordan’s, and their plans. Or potential backup plans that might still be in effect, or anything that might better help them against another attack like it, in the future.
“No time like the present,” Michael mumbled, opening it up.
Just minutes later his jaw dropped.
Anthony and Eva Jordan were so much more engrained into the Howard’s lives than they’d ever suspected.
They were the ones who hired the man their mother shot and killed in Bloodsucker Bay just over four years ago.
They had sent him here in an effort to locate the power source. Anthony had an entire entry on the man, and it looked like he regretted his choice seeing as the man also had his own motives, in making some kind of deal with a Sea Hag. She’d already been dealt with at least.
The man Anthony hired was a commoner. Which meant he was born to at least one witch bloodline, however, received no magical inheritance or gifts. Still had supernatural blood in him, and therefore interacted easily within that world, but possessed no magical powers. A rare thing, but it did happen from time to time. This one considered himself a bounty hunter of sorts.
Michael sighed, putting the notebook down.
He was dead now. No longer a concern. And one small mystery solved.
It made him feel no less satisfied.
His phone beeped.
He rushed to read the text coming through. It was Courtney, with only five minutes until her hour would have been up. He let out a sigh of relief. She was okay. And had found nothing of interest but was going to stick around and keep a look out, just in case. Unless she was needed at the mansion...
He told her to stay. He’d holler if he needed her somewhere else. His phone beeped again. He assumed a reply from Courtney.
His heart stalled, almost stopping completely.
“Emily...”
He read it a hundred times, hardly believing she’d finally contacted him.
It wasn’t much, but it put a little piece of the hole gutting his heart back in place.
“Michael. I’m okay. That’s all I can say right now. I can’t answer any of the questions you’re dying to ask me. I assume you’re going crazy worrying about me. Please don’t, if you can. I am okay. And in a safe place. Actually, I’m in a great place.”
And that was it.
No more explanation.
But those words meant more to him than any he’d ever heard or read before.
He didn’t have a clue what to reply. Or if he should reply. That short message gave him a ridiculous amount of relief, and hope. Both things he probably shouldn’t be feeling because it didn’t say she was coming home. And what safe place did Emily find?
He hit reply, unsure how to respond.
LIZZY LOOKED SO PEACEFUL. Too peaceful, decided Charlie miserably. He’d taken a break from talking in case she wanted to rest. As usual, making sure some part of him was touching some part of her, so she would not think she was alone for a moment. It had been an hour, and his need to talk to her again was rising.
He’d rather have her yelling at him for the rest of his life for being an idiot, than stuck in a body that wasn’t working hour after hour after agonizing hour.
She’d suffered through so much already, just to get this second chance at a human life. And this... this is how she ended up? In a coma, lying in a hospital bed. A prisoner inside her own body.
It was not right. Most definitely not fair.
And not just because he was crazy ass in love with her.
He’d rather see her awake and alive and with Grayson than hooked up to machines and helpless. Was she really conscious in there somewhere, unable to communicate? Was she really aware and unable to control her body? The doctor had seemed sure, but he could be wrong.
Wishful thinking.
Charlie was unable to fathom it. Being aware. Frighteningly aware. Without the capability of responding in any form. Not a twitch of muscle movement. Not a blink. Not even a voluntary breath. While the mind was awake and aware. Charlie was driven near to madness by the mere idea of living this way. The thought of Lizzy in any kind of prison was soul crushing. And he’d bet his own life, something she’d refuse to live through again.
If he had to be brutally honest, he’d rather see her pass away than stuck in a shell of a body that refused to work properly. She’d spent enough of her life as a prisoner.
He sighed, longingly. Desperately. His tiredness only getting worse.
“I’m not sure what to do, Lizzy. I can’t heal you. I keep trying. I don’t understand why, but I can’t. I don’t want to believe it’s your time. I refuse to.” He moved closer, got to his feet and leaned over, stroking her face. “We put things on hold. And you haven’t chosen me. Or Grayson. But I’d wager my own life you would never choose living in any kind of prison.”
He kissed her lips gently.
Nothing. No change in her heartbeat. No blinking of her eyes. No sign of consciousness. Or being awake or aware of him. “I wish you were sleeping. Lost in a peaceful dream. Not awake in this nightmare. It’s going on for so much longer than I thought it would. Even the doctor is getting nervous about it. He didn’t come out and say so, but I could tell. And I can only tell you the truth.”
He swallowed thickly, caressing her cheek.
“I know this is your worst fear. I will find some way to free you from this. I promise. Hell, I’ve even thought of just biting you.” He shook his head, dismayed by this admittance. “That would be selfish, and most likely prove useless as the full moon is still a couple weeks away. I don’t think you’d get enough of the werewolf healing powers to make it worth it and then you’d be stuck a werewolf, and I don’t have any idea if you want that. I can’t make that choice for you. I’d just be replacing one prison with another.”
He stroked her arm in a long caress. No response. At all. Just even breathing. Beeping, from the machines monitoring her vitals, and assisting her breathing.
“I think that’s part of the reason I’m so scared to turn you. Even after all I’ve found out these last few days. If I bite you, there’s only one way this works, Lizzy. I think I have to become your alpha. It’s the only way to ensure you don’t hurt anyone. Which means losing your independence. Some of it anyway. I can’t do that, and I don’t see you being okay with that either. And maybe...”
He let go of her, plunking back into his chair. The seat of it taking the brunt of his exhaustion.
“Maybe you don’t even want to be with me at all. You might choose Grayson. He was your past. Your fiancé. You had a life planned with him, and I can’t just wipe him out of the picture. I can’t make a decision about your future that takes away your choice.”
He swiped the wetness blurring his vision, and let out a brutish laugh.
“If you were conscious right now, you’d sla
p me and tell me to do the right thing. The hard thing. And if it comes to that, Lizzy, if I have to lose you, to free you, I will. Although it will not be easy,” he admitted bitterly. “I’m not sure there will ever be anything as difficult.”
He took her lifeless hand, rubbing it between his own. So soft. And small. And the most precious hand he’d ever held.
“I do promise not to let you linger, and suffer. I’m just afraid of what keeping that promise, means. Of what I might have to do. How many more times do I try to heal you before I give up? Because I don’t want to give up. Ever. So when is it enough? When is there no hope to hold onto? I... the ways in which I might need to keep my promise already haunt me.”
He stroked her arm in a slow, gentle caress. Rambling, keeping words coming out of him so she’d hear all his thoughts. Even his darkest ones. She had that right. Needed to hear it all. He’d never been so forthcoming; perhaps it was the exhaustion. Delirium settling into his addled brain. Regardless, he let the ruthless stream of consciousness slip across his tongue, holding nothing back.
“I still think I might bite you. It’s the most selfish thing I could ever do. It removes you from the choice about your future. But it might give you one. Even if I did though, it might not work. There’s no guarantee the transformation from human to werewolf would be complete enough to heal you in time. Something I don’t know how to measure anymore. Not with any clarity. But you wouldn’t be a true wolf until the first full moon, you transform. You’d get a lot of the abilities, like healing, beforehand. I think. But even with myself, the healing took some time to kick in. And I refused the transformation which you won’t be able to do. Because if I bite you, I’m full wolf, not part shifter like Eva.” It was the reason he’d held off his own transformation for so long. He’d not gotten a full dose of just werewolf venom. It was weak enough to allow him some control, until she’d shown up on the Isle and wreaked havoc in his life trying to force his transformation.