Bitten & Beholden (Children of Fenrir Book 2)

by Heather McCorkle

  I did not bother protesting. It would take up precious time we did not have. I jumped in and turned over the ignition. As it roared to life, Ayra took off like a bullet from a gun—literally so fast that one moment she was standing there, the next she wasn’t. I’d never even heard of a varúlfur being that fast. Once this was all over and Sonya was healing, we had some serious research ahead of us. On the phone, my father had told me the seeker and reaper had faded from memory because there hadn’t been one awakened for over three centuries. Which meant this was all new territory.

  I threw the truck in reverse and tried not to whip back toward the road too fast. Sonya slumped over in her seat but did not awaken. It became painfully clear that being gentle about it was not as important as getting there as fast as possible. Gravel flew as I shifted and tore off down the road. An eternity seemed to pass before I finally pulled into Ayra’s driveway—though only minutes actually ticked by. Each minute was precious time as Sonya’s heart pumped more of her blood out. As I took her out, the roar of a Polaris motor sounded over the building storm.

  Not twenty feet away loomed a two-story Colonial-style house with massive windows that reflected the distant flashes of lightning. Two figures stood on the big covered porch of the house, arms around each other, watching. I nodded to them, having no words or heart for a greeting, especially since they stood there as if too afraid to approach and help. A big black and red two-seater Polaris screeched to a halt in front of my car. Ayra jumped out of it and my mind blew a little. My speedometer had rarely dropped below one hundred. No shortcut could have been short enough for her to beat me here on foot. Yet here she was.

  I did not question it or even overthink it as I sat Sonya in the seat and belted her in.

  “I’ll ride on the back to help hold her in place. Can’t have her head bouncing around too much,” Ayra said.

  With her directing me, I found the path along her parents’ house that led into the woods. All the homes in Hemlock Hollow backed up to this forest, and all had paths—visible or scented—that led to that bridge. Normal towns had a hall or a courthouse. This one had a bridge. The deeper into the forest we went, the slower I had to drive to avoid the fir, pine, and hemlock that covered the mountainside. Their sweet scents poured down my throat with each breath. Moisture hung heavy in the air, making the smells stronger. They reminded me of a home and loved ones I had either left behind or lost. It infuriated me that I had to bring her back here of all places to save her.

  The trees flew by in a blur but it did not feel fast enough. Rain began to pour down in big, fat drops that soaked my shirt through in moments. It soon made it difficult to drive by scent. The growing darkness ensured driving by sight was not much easier. Once we broke through the trees and the hollow opened up I was able to go mostly by memory. Every now and then a strike of lightning turned the hollow white, illuminating the massive bridge that spanned its hundred-foot depth. The bridge was made mostly of steel that had been treated to create an anodized rainbow effect that was admittedly stunning. At the bottom of the hollow, several hundred feet down from the center of the bridge, a stream cut through a bed of jagged rocks.

  Chills of anger, trepidation, and a noxious mixture of half a dozen other things I did not want to feel raced through me. I took the path that led to a ridgeline that ran up along to connect with the bridge. It was rough traveling across steep rock slick with rain, but I managed to keep the Polaris on four wheels most of the time.

  The trees and rocky incline soon made forward progress impossible. I climbed out and together Ayra and I maneuvered Sonya out of the roll cage of the four wheeler. Even when the rain pelted her face and ran down it in rivers, she did not stir. Fear threatened to drive me to my knees, but I would not let it. Clutching her to my chest, I started to climb. Her weight was so slight, and I swore I could feel her grow colder with each beat of her heart. The rhythm was a song in my ears that slowly wound down as if each beat grew closer to her last. Shale rock gave way beneath my left foot, causing me to fall to a knee. Ayra grabbed my arm and stopped me from sliding any farther. I thanked her, but the sound of the rain punctuated by the occasional thunder covered my words.

  The world went white, then turned to sparks as electricity danced along the bridge not five feet from me. Ayra held up a hand, stopping me from stepping on the bridge. Heedless of the snapping arcs, she walked out onto the bridge without hesitation. They swallowed her whole. For a desperate moment I thought for sure it would kill her. Then the dancing arcs began to flow inward, toward the middle of the bridge where she stopped. She stretched her arms up to the dark sky. Lightning shot from her hands into the clouds. It flowed from the bridge, through her, and back up to the storm until every last crackle of it left the bridge. She beckoned to me.

  The moment the bridge stopped crackling, I strode out onto it. Ayra’s eyes sparkled as they took me in. Bumps rose all over my skin. It was as though Odin himself looked through her at me. I hoped he did, prayed for it, because if so, maybe he would save Sonya. I lay her at Ayra’s feet.

  “Get back…don’t know…keep it from striking you,” she yelled over the storm.

  I took one big step back, but that was as far as I was going. If it looked like this plan was going south, I needed to be close enough to stop it. One blond brow of Ayra’s rose and she shrugged. She knelt down beside Sonya’s prone form and began to chant in Icelandic. It was a prayer beseeching Odin. The skies rumbled overhead, but another bolt of lightning didn’t come.

  I took up the prayer with her. “Odin, I beseech you—” My next word was shattered by the thunderous crackle of lightning as it shot down from the sky and struck Sonya not five feet from me. My body hummed from being so close. Little shocks traveled up from the bridge through my feet. It felt like someone was driving nails into my feet, but I didn’t move. Nothing could make me leave her side. Ayra lay her hands on Sonya, right in the middle of all that crackling light. The bolt continued to flow down from the sky as if Ayra had hold of an endless source of energy. That thought started to worry me. Would it kill her if she held it too long? Would it kill Sonya?

  I moved a step closer.

  Suddenly, Ayra poured the lightning into Sonya’s abdomen. The pressure of it held me back no matter how hard I struggled. It was like trying to swim against a riptide. Sonya’s body lifted up off the bridge, her head hanging limp, long hair still touching the steel. I screamed to the Gods. No matter what I said, promised, or threatened, Ayra ignored me. Hell, I wasn’t sure she could even hear me within the pressure of the lightning.

  Slowly, Sonya’s body sank back down onto the bridge. The lightning faded to small snakes that moved across her and Ayra, then sank into Sonya. I stumbled forward as the pressure disappeared. Ayra rose to her feet and moved back a step. I skidded to my knees beside Sonya as her eyes fluttered open. The wounds in her abdomen were gone. The only sign they had even existed was the dried blood on her skin and torn clothes. Electricity snapped in her eyes the same as it did in Ayra’s. After a few blinks it faded away, leaving her amber irises slightly aglow. I pulled her to me, needing to feel her against me, solid, breathing, and real. Little snaps of electricity danced from her into me. I endured them gladly.

  She was alive. Nothing else mattered.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Ty

  For two days and nights Sonya recovered from her blood loss and read the book. I helped as much as I could, lending my power to her to heal, and my assistance with the Icelandic words she didn’t know. What we learned fascinated me, but worried me at the same time. The fine print said Sonya would be drawn to new varúlfur strongest right before their first full moon, and that she would only have until the day after that moon in which to get them to master their strongest emotion, and thereby their control. Three days wasn’t much. Then the reaper would step in to stop them before they became too dangerous. Though I tried to convince her this didn’t mean she was responsible for their salvation, I was not sure she bought it co
mpletely.

  Knowing all that made me itch to get out and do something. I wanted to help her, to be a part of the solution. If it hadn’t been for the careful planning of whoever had bitten Candice and the boy, they might be dead right now. The book said Sonya’s awakening meant there were far more than two in need of her help. That had to mean someone had been biting people in for years, at least as many as Sonya had been alive. I wasn’t sure how much longer she would sit around and heal. The ‘call’, as the book described it, to go to someone hadn’t happened again yet that she had told me, but she was still anxious.

  Worse, the closer the full moon drew, the stronger her desire to shift became. I remembered the first full moon after my verða. Resisting the call was hard, to say the least. But a wound from another varúlfur was one of the worst wounds we can suffer. Hard as we are to kill, that is one of the things that can do it. We could not risk her shifting and messing up the healing. Still, the only thing that stopped her from shifting was my assurance that she would tear the wounds right back open if she did.

  Cozy as the cabin was, I knew she had seen enough of the inside of it after three days of recovering. I hadn’t allowed anyone to disturb her, and I began to fear she was growing tired of my company alone. But there were things she needed to know before all the politicking started. Standing in the living room, staring out the huge picture window at the vast forest that filled the view, she looked amazing and utterly tense. I knew she needed to feel the earth beneath her paws, drink in the scents of pine and greenery, and revel in the wildness slumbering inside. It was time. Her knee had healed completely and all that lingered of the wounds in her side were four long, pink scars that were swiftly fading.

  “Something seems wrong about me finding you sexy in my mother’s old clothes,” I said as I began down the stairs.

  She fingered the edge of the gauzy red top she wore as she watched me descend.

  “You sure she won’t mind?” she asked for at least the fifth time.

  I crossed the room in a few long strides and swept her carefully into my arms.

  “Of course not. They left this cabin to me a long time ago, and haven’t used anything left in it since for three years. She would want you to have them.”

  Part of me was disappointed they were in Iceland visiting relatives and would not get to meet her. But another part of me was relieved she would not have to worry about that right now. I was not sure what to tell my parents about us yet, and that complicated things. I did not want to push Sonya to define us.

  Entranced by her scent and the feel of her curves against me, I dropped my head and began to nuzzle her neck. We had not made love again and it was killing me.

  “What happens tomorrow during the full moon? You still haven’t told me,” she asked.

  I sighed and lifted my head. “The packs run, hunt, and gather together.”

  “They do that every full moon?”

  My body tensed despite my attempts to remain relaxed. “No, not exactly. This one is different. They will all be gathering together in one place to honor and discuss the awakening of the first leitar and uppskera in over three hundred years.”

  “Honoring, not celebrating,” she said.

  There had not been a seeker and reaper in over three hundred years because they had not been needed. Only in dark times, when newly bitten varúlfur either were not being taught properly, or were deserting their kennaris, were the pair needed. Sonya and Ayra were the equivalent of a supernatural backup plan to make sure varúlfur did not rage out of control or turn into rabid beasts that threatened to expose all of us. She knew this from the book, but what she did not know was how frightened my kind would be of her.

  “You are like the master of all enforcers, above the verndari and lögreglu, above the alphas, and even the councils that govern the AVW and AVV. You alone can tell who made a varúlfur, it is one of your gifts, just as being drawn to them is. This gives you the power to pinpoint anyone who has illegally changed someone. People fear that,” I explained as gently as I could.

  She grunted her disapproval. “Only the ones who break the law need to fear that.”

  I kissed her forehead. “True, but I am afraid we are headed into dark times with more people like that than we may care to think about.”

  Eventually she slid her arms around my waist and leaned into me. “I’m still not sure what to make of all this.”

  I held her close and stroked her back. “You will not have to face it alone. I will be here with you every step of the way.”

  Moisture pooled at the corners of her eyes. “You don’t have to be, you know. I don’t want you to feel obligated just because of this new complication,” she said.

  My devotion must have shown in my eyes because her breath caught. “I want to be there. It is too late to get rid of me now,” I said through a half-grin.

  She rose up on her toes to kiss me but I did not go down to meet her. As much as I wanted to take her right there up against the window, I could not.

  “Look, if I can’t get rid of you, then I intend to have my way with you. I’m almost completely healed. You don’t have to worry,” she said.

  My grin widened. “I know. Tonight you can have your way with me all you want. It is just that we have a visitor coming.”

  “A visitor?”

  Mouth agape as I searched for the right words, I hesitated. I was not sure how she was going to feel about this. There was no avoiding it, though. Thankfully, the doorbell rang, saving me from having to explain myself. Sonya’s eyes popped wide open.

  “If you are not ready to see her yet, I can send her away,” I said.

  The way her brow pinched, I realized she didn’t know who I meant. Slowly, comprehension dawned in her eyes.

  “Ayra. No, I mean yes, of course I’m ready to see her. I want to see her.”

  With a reluctant look that made me want to clutch tighter to her, she let go of me and drew back a few steps. I planted a quick kiss on her forehead and went to the door. I both felt and heard her move away from the window to stand behind the couch, resting her hands upon it. Tension sang in the air, rolling off her in waves. A similar tension tried to constrict the muscles of my own body, but I didn’t dare let it. Sonya needed me to be strong for her, and I would, no matter what it cost me.

  My smile felt genuine enough when I opened the door. With her hair pulled back, it revealed a dainty, almost elfish-looking face with high cheekbones that gave her a slightly severe, yet lovely, appearance. Sapphire blue eyes filled with a sense of purpose and confidence looked past me to regard Sonya in a calculating manner that I did not like. Despite her delicate frame, her expression and stance made her look like a force to be reckoned with. And I knew her for what she was: one of the most powerful varúlfur to have walked the earth, and an active member of the AVV. Her gaze moved from Sonya only to exchange polite and slightly formal greetings with me, then moved right back.

  Stepping aside, I let her in but stayed close at her back. I had heard the stories about her not wanting to be the uppskera. While I had not known her growing up, I had known of her. She had always been a quiet, gentle girl, but one with a dark side if the stories from the AVV were true. There was a good chance she resented Sonya for being the final trigger in fully awakening the power within her. If that was the case, I would throw her right back out on her tail. Or at least try. To protect Sonya, I wasn’t afraid to reckon with the force that was the uppskera.

  “Sonya, it is a pleasure to meet you under better circumstances,” she said with a slight bow of her head.

  I detected a hint of honesty in her formal tone that made me relax a notch. Sonya must have too, because she came out from behind the couch and approached her, stopping a few feet away.

  “I’m so sorry you were forced into something you didn’t want. And I’m even more sorry that I had something to do with it,” she said.

  Sonya cringed at her own words, but didn’t look down. I had to fight the instinct to leap to her
defense. I knew she wouldn’t want that, but it was difficult not to, seeing how hard this was for her. The cold, detached look on Ayra’s face softened a bit.

  Her gaze shot to me before returning to Sonya. “Ty tells me you didn’t have much of a choice in the matter either,” Ayra said.

  Sonya shrugged. Realizing she needed a moment, I invited Ayra to sit in one of the chairs while I pulled Sonya down on the couch next to me. She clutched my hand tight for a moment then sat up straighter.

  “It’s my fault this happened to you. I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

  Ayra shook her head. “No. It is the fault of my brother, him and whoever has been biting in others against their will. You are as much a victim as I am.”

  I liked this woman more by the minute.

  Sonya still did not relax. “But our power didn’t fully awaken until we touched. James and the others brought me here to awaken you, to make your pack more powerful.”

  Their eyes locked but it was not a show of aggression. At first glance, I caught a glimpse of something tender in Ayra’s eyes, then the look in them grew so cold I had to fight the instinct to move between them.

  “Yes, they are the ones to blame, not you or I. Remember that at the full moon, and remember you and I are equals, but we are above the others. All of the others,” Ayra said.

  In a flurry of white gauzy fabric, she rose and stood before the door in less than a blink. Equals like hell. With her air of danger and menace, this woman spooked even me a little. I could not put it any other way. But at the same time, I liked that she seemed so accepting of Sonya, that she did not blame her.

  “As a mated pair, you are strong, but I will stand together with you at the festival, if you will have me there, ensuring no one tries to take advantage of either of us again.” She bowed slightly to us both. “Thank you for having me over.” With that, she opened the door and left.