by Holly Hook
I force myself to sit and eat beside Callie. But Everly has a point. I feel better with every bite and I can chase the fatigue and pain away. Since getting to Rome, I've neglected my basic needs other than sleep. Karina also cleans her plate and doesn't complain, but she doesn't talk much, either.
I wonder how the others got her to play cards with them.
In fact, we don't talk much during dinner. Even Alex, who heard about my vision before coming down with us, doesn't eye me all that much. I can't bear to look at him, but I can't help but feel some relief that he's here. If we have to do the worst to protect the other Nobles, I have that option. He'll know what to do.
"Don't let him bother you," Callie whispers. "Brie, you need to blow off some steam. If what you saw was real, the cult won't kill Cayden. He'll be no use to them dead. Heck, he might escape. He's thrown off his curse before and he can find a way to escape the cult. And we've taken one of their most powerful members."
I look at her. Callie's still that energetic young woman full of hope. I know she could be right. "You guys keep telling me that."
"Well, it's true," she says. "We'll get him back without going into the cult's little trap. They expect us not to know about your visions."
"They might already have him at the victory site," I say.
Callie slaps me on the back. "Then we'll find a way to deal with that, too. I might be a Hunter but I can still fight creepy people in robes. Silver bolts won't just hurt Wolves."
"Don't. That could be part of the trap," I say. "If you kill people and feel bad about it, I'll have to fight you."
Callie fake frowns. "What if it's an accident?"
"If you could make it one, that would be great," I say. Her sense of humor is salvaging this dinner.
I really, really don't want to fight her.
Alex remains silent. I know what he's thinking and it's killing him, too. It's in the way he stabs at his food and won't look at anyone.
"Remo, do you know of any ways to free someone from a place we shouldn't visit after all?" I ask. While the victory site might be our best bet for contacting Remus, it's also the best bet for getting possessed. I've seen that and I fear going there will be inevitable.
"I've been thinking," he says, putting his arm around his girlfriend. "And aside from going there ourselves, I can't think of a way. Cayden's no doubt already out there."
Leonora looks to her parents. Her mother waves at her, indicating they're to talk right after dinner. Mrs. Russell glances at Brett and Karina. Duh. We have five magic users among us, one who can wield a lot of power if she decides to cooperate. They could get us in.
Karina's shell might have cracked a bit, but she's still putting a wall up. Even if it's just out of pure spite for everyone, including her brother, it's still there. She stabs at her food like she wants to murder someone, and I fear that someone is Cayden for turning her. She doesn't have any interest in freeing him. We've still got to get her on board.
"Then what are we supposed to do?" I ask, not expecting anyone to answer. "We weren't able to bring the whole Russell Coven with us or the Colling Wolves. And I can't think of any help we'd get around here if Brett's right that this area is mostly Savage. I mean, look at that apartment manager."
Karina cringes when I speak.
Brett speaks from down the table. "Any Noble Wolves would be tourists. And cities aren't places where Wolves of any type tend to be. That apartment manager must have just been here because the cult took control of him."
"Yeah. I didn't smell any signs of a pack," I say. The slave was alone. If other Savages had been in the building, I would have detected them. "We have to go to the victory site. I don't even know whose victory to call it after what I saw. But we don't go in yet and we don't go at night. We just stake out the area and no matter what we hear--" It kills me to finish the sentence, like I'm betraying Cayden. "--no matter what we see or hear there, we don't go in until we know for sure what we're going to do."
* * * * *
"Yeah, we definitely should not go at night," Brett says the next morning at breakfast. "That's a plan of yours I agree with. Dark spirits are always stronger at night and I bet Romulus is no different."
Anymore, I cringe at the Savage King's name and grip the table. "Can't we think of some nickname for him, like Cuddles? Leonora told me once that names can have power."
Brett leans back in his chair, stuffing a whole fried egg in his mouth. "Then she's been a studying girl, hasn't she?"
"Could you stop mocking people?" I ask, but half-heartedly. Brett's not my focus. I'm ninety-nine percent sure he's with us now, even if we get rid of the cult, because he has nowhere else to go and we've been treating him like a person. Karina sits two chairs away from him, next to Leonora, and while he's around she doesn't open up much, except to glare at her brother and call him an idiot. While she's around us girls, she makes some small talk even if it's just to talk about a card game.
"Why? It's fun," Brett says. He leans over Leonora to poke his sister in the shoulder, but she flinches like she's an explosive ready to go off.
"Could you not touch me?" she shouts at him, drawing stares from tourists at the surrounding tables. This morning, we share the dining room with a few old couples who obviously have money to blow on trips.
"Geez, sis, I'm not--never mind," he says. "I won't even look at you. Happy?"
The air's thick and that's not just because we haven't come up with a good plan to save Cayden yet. My knees weaken as Brett, probably not knowing it, slips back into his energy-siphoning ways. He glares at his plate, drawing a sympathetic look from Everly who sits across from him. Though Karina hasn't tried to kill Brett again, not even close, she's still treating him like her everything bad in her life is his fault.
I miss Cayden, who could help me with this. My chest aches as I think of him out there, prisoner and hurting. Helpless. And if I can get him back, he won't be the same. The wounds will run too deep for both of us. I'll have failed him and I'll have made him feel like less of a man all over again.
And Aunt May...
I stuff a sausage in my mouth and chew with anger. Cayden would have told me that Aunt May never meant to hurt me.
"Brett, please stop draining us," I force. He's making all the bad thoughts come back.
"I'm sorry," he says, rising from the table and shoving his chair in. "I'll step out for a moment." I watch as he turns the corner. A moment later, a door pushes open and he steps outside with a sigh. Instantly the pain in my chest--and a pressure I hadn't realized was there until now--dissipates. Of course Aunt May still loves me and did what was best for the Nobles, even if she had to work with Edwin. Of course she didn't know what a true monster he was when she worked with him, even if he disapproved of my parents getting together. Maybe I should call her before we go to the site. But first I have to lay into Karina again before she unravels us all.
"You seem to really hate men," I tell her. "Yeah, they can be difficult but not all of them are terrible people. If you open up, you might even find one you really like." I wink, trying to defuse the tension.
She stiffens and eyes Remo, who sits two chairs down from her, and Alex, who's taken the end of the table like he's the head of a board meeting. "Men are pigs."
"Some can be. I agree. Edwin was. But most are okay," I say. "You were around horrible men, Karina. And horrible women." A bad taste rises in my mouth and a sense of dread fills me, just as it did before Aunt May told me her secret. There's an awful thought in me that's so afraid of itself, it doesn't want to finish. "Taking it out on your brother won't make things better for either of you. Maybe you should clear the air, you know? Brett wanted to get you away from whatever was happening and always has. Maybe you were too scared to leave on your own?" What am I saying? The words are just coming out.
Karina pushes her chair back and eyes the direction her brother went, pupils wide and hunting for an escape. Everly watches her, paling, and so does Leonora, but no one tries to stop h
er. Karina bolts to the exit, but her intent is in her steps. She won't stop again until she's away from us.
"I think you pushed too hard," Everly says as the front door swings shut behind her.
I listen in shock as Karina runs past Brett outside, who's pacing on the sidewalk. Brett calls her name and follows her into the city, leaving us behind. Their footsteps vanish into the sound of foot traffic and rolling trams.
I should get up and follow them, but I can't. Gripping the table, I face Callie, Alex, Remo, Leonora, and Everly. "We almost had it," I force as a disgusting thought enters my head, a thought so gross I want to vomit all over my plate.
Callie shoots me a serious look like she has the same idea. "You almost had something."
"I agree. Brett's been saying--" Everly starts, then spears some vegetables to stop herself.
"Everly, have you been talking to Brett while the rest of us aren't around?" I try to joke. But it does nothing to thin the air. "We're all done with breakfast. We follow the Haydes' scent and see what went down. Though I bet we're going to walk into something ugly."
Everly turns her gaze from me like she's embarrassed, but there's no time to poke fun at her.
"Come on," I say, waving everyone towards the exit. "If we're going to get the two of them back, we need to go now."
Chapter Fifteen
Brett and Karina both reek of adrenaline and...terror? Even though they're gone, it hangs over the sidewalk outside as another tram rolls past, crammed with people just going about their lives. The metallic scent gets my heart racing as I trace it down the sidewalk and around an alley corner. Unlike Cayden's missing smell, this one is very distinct, like scents we pick up while hunting in wolf form. But this hunt is different and our prey is wounded in a way that's not physical.
I lead the others, rounding the corner and following the smell down a narrow alley, which merges with trash and the musty reek of rodents. Yes, like any city, Rome has rats and I hear them skittering into the cracks of the city as I keep running.
"Wait. We need to keep up," Leonora says from behind me.
"Us, too," Alex adds. His weapons clank under his leather coat and so do Callie's.
So I force myself to slow and stop. "We can't let them get away or lost."
"They won't get lost. If they want to come back to us, they'll smell us," Alex explains in his dry tone.
I face him down, but he's still all business. "When we find the Haydes, stand back a little," I tell him, even though I have zero authority over the guy. "We don't know how they'll react."
"If the Karina girl goes crazy and attacks us, I will have to defend myself," Alex says, patting his coat. The shape of a dagger's handle comes into view before vanishing again. Even if he's switched sides, he loves to remind us that he can switch back at any moment. That he's part of the Noble Order. This is a reminder for me and Callie as much as it is for Karina.
"Of course you will," I say. Best not to get on his bad side. "Come on. We'll walk because the two can't run forever. Stick together in case the cult comes back."
We seem to have stayed in the side of the city the cult doesn't frequent, away from all the museums and lavish hotels, because I smell no sign of magic users as we follow the scent through narrow alleyways that go between big apartment buildings, some of them definitely built in the modern age. This must be the boring part of Rome. The adrenaline hangs so heavy in the air that I start getting desensitized to it and have to take breaks, breathing through my mouth, before I can smell it well again.
"I keep having to do that, too," Everly says beside me. "I bet you detect the Haydes more than me and Remo do."
"Imagine living in an atmosphere like this all the time," I say, referring to Brett and Karina. "The Haydes grew up in fear."
Everly frowns and sighs. "I thought we Wolves had it bad."
The scent goes on forever and doesn't fade much. Karina's run for a long time and Brett's maintained the chase. After a good forty-five minutes and a few miles later, the world opens up into a vast park full of blooming trees and very green grass. The fear scent pools here as if Brett and Karina both stood at this spot for a moment before proceeding into the park. Brett caught up with her here and judging from the solid scent trail that crosses the street to the park, they walked in together. That's a good sign.
"They're here," I say, pointing to the park. A few children play in a sandbox and I listen past the shouts. Brett and Karina are sitting on the opposite side of a huge tree, on the far end of the park, and neither are talking. Brett sighs and birds chirp. It seems they've been sitting there for a while. Of course, they both ran here while we had to walk.
I wave everyone into the park. Callie hangs back, respecting my wishes, but Alex breathes down my back as if ready for a fight. The last thing these normal kids need to see is blood. Two small girls shrink back from Alex as we pass the sandbox. He is intimidating.
"Let me, Everly, Callie, and Leonora go ahead," I say, whirling and studying my party. "The girls. Looks like Leonora's parents stayed at the hotel to guard our stuff, so that's good."
"Here comes Brett." Everly points over my shoulder.
I look, and he's walking towards us, alone, leaving Karina sitting on the opposite side of the tree. She's not trying to run anymore, almost like she's just too exhausted to try anymore. Brett's face is twisted into disgust and hatred, but as he raises his gaze from the grass and looks at me, he raises his hand in a rage-filled thumbs-up as he approaches me. His disgust isn't for me.
Then Brett makes a fist and holds it out. He sighs like I'm not getting something obvious.
"Fist bump," he snarls.
I give him one. "Why? I screwed up royally back there and made your sister run."
"You screwed up royally? I tried to get you possessed for killing our father out of revenge. Karina's right on one thing. I'm an idiot." Brett turns away and pounds his fist into a narrow tree trunk. "Our father deserved to die. You gave him his just rewards and I was too dumb to realize it. What he was doing to my sister...he made her think I knew about it and didn't care...that no one would help her and all men wanted to do that to women...that I'd do it, too...if I'd known I would have killed him myself!" Brett leans into the tree and lets out a long, helpless sigh.
His words crash into me like a truck and I backpedal. The world spins. "I did the right thing? Brett, none of this is your fault. You were trying to protect her the whole time!" I know Karina can hear this but I want her to. My breakfast rises in my throat. This is truly Savage.
I was right to rip out Mr. Hayde's throat. I ball my fists as the faint taste of his blood fills my mouth. The blood of a monster even worse than the Savage Wolves. Maybe I really am even more Noble than Savage and this is what being Noble really means.
Brett whirls on me. "Some people just deserve to die. Remember that." His eyes fill with hatred as my limbs tremble. He's drawing the life from us again. But right now, he needs it, so I stand in place as the others slowly back away. None of that possession pressure settles in my chest now. This is different. All my guilt about Mr. Hayde has died with a whimper.
And instead of darkness, a deep, golden warmth fills the space in my chest where the Savage King has tried to invade.
"Brett," I say. "You're a great brother. You didn't know this was going on and your DNA donor tricked you into hating each other. That's what happened. But now he's gone and he's not coming back."
Everly shocks me by stepping forward. And as I watch, she grabs Brett's wrist with an equally shocking tenderness.
"Brett, don't beat yourself up. Let's get Karina back and let her get some rest. And we'll let her decide what she wants to do."
"She's got a long road," Brett says to her. He sighs again. "I was starting to suspect, but I couldn't just ask something like that."
That explains why Brett's softened towards me lately. I should have seen all the signs of this sooner. He deserved the truth. I should have figured it out. And then it all had to blow up lik
e this.
Behind the tree, Karina stands and looks around the trunk at us. I force a smile and give her a wave. She's welcome with us and I want her to know.
And slowly, expressionless and without a word, she shuffles her feet and walks over to us.
Chapter Sixteen
"Karina's sleeping. I gave her some stuff to help her sleep," Everly says in the hotel hallway once we're back and settled. "And no, not the drugs Remo and Leonora brewed up."
I stand with Everly and Brett. The others have retreated to the outside deck to get some sun and calm our nerves.
"Thanks," Brett says to her. "Cold medicine?"
"That's what she asked for. Says it used to help her sleep all the time," Everly says.
Brett frowns as his eyes fill with regret and pain. "I wonder why."
I still can't get over the horror of this, despite the warm glow that remains in my chest. I've killed and now I feel good about it. And I'm not sure how to feel about that, but I do like the warm, noble feeling. Perhaps this is the way Noble Wolves should feel about what they do.
"I agree we should let Karina sleep," I say. "I think Cayden's still alive. Oh, I hope." A crazy thought hits me. I've destroyed a dark wall that kept my heart chained for months. Maybe I can--"And something changed in me back at the park." The warmth inside gives me hope. Instead of that horrible pressure I got when I thought of how I tore out Mr. Hayde's throat, I felt something like Remus's presence. Like I have my own internal barrier against Romulus.
Like I have a chance.
"Look," Brett says, rubbing his hand through his dark hair. "I'm sorry I treated you the way I did."
"You didn't know what was really happening," I said. He's not draining me anymore. My limbs remain strong and no signs of that chest pressure appear.
"Why didn't she run?" Brett turns away and takes a few steps down the hall.
Everly takes his arm. "She was scared." Yeah, there's something starting to bloom between the two. She curls her fingers around his bicep. "Brett, stop beating yourself up. I get that way too, when I can't get my family members to listen to me."