From the Grave

by Karina Espinosa

  I growled loudly, snapping my canines at Enzo, letting him know I was behind him. He howled, and two humans came out from the bushes. Guns at the ready, they took their aim, but Finn and Michaels were there before anything could happen.

  I ran faster.

  A panic like nothing I’d ever felt coursed through me, fueling my need to save Ollie from being bitten. The adrenaline boost bristled my fur as I got closer to Enzo. Letting out a trembling growl, I stretched myself further and faster until my canines snapped onto Enzo’s tail and we came to a tumbling stop. I landed on top of him and clamped my mouth on his exposed neck. He wasn’t going anywhere.

  In the far distance, I could hear Amy shuffling Oliver away from the scene. I waited for Cas to show up when all of a sudden, I felt a puncture in my shoulder. My mouth slackened and my vision blurred until everything went black.

  I never got car sick. Motion sickness wasn’t my jam. But in that precise moment, it felt like I’d done a couple rounds at the buffet line and decided to go on the tilt-a-whirl afterward. It wasn’t a good feeling. I’d been sedated a few times in my life, but nothing like this. Whatever I’d been given was a goddamn horse tranquilizer.

  “I’m gonna barf,” I heaved. A hand patted me on the head, and I realized I was lying on someone’s lap.

  “Hang on,” said a husky voice I didn’t recognize. “The feeling will pass.”

  I couldn’t open my eyes, much less move my limbs. Everything felt heavy, and no matter how badly I wanted to move, to rip whomever had done this to me to shreds, I just couldn’t.

  “Who are you?” My voice sounded weak.

  “Don’t you recognize me?” He laughed. “I’m truly hurt. You’ve tried so hard …” He ran a hand through my hair.

  I gulped, my mouth dry. “Enzo?”

  He lowered his lips to my ear and whispered, “In the flesh.”

  “You son of a bitch,” I croaked and tried to move, but my arm flopped over the car seat, hitting the ground.

  “I thought you wanted to meet me. I couldn’t have planned this better myself,” he grunted.

  “What are you up to?”

  He kept quiet for a few chilling seconds, and I could only imagine him smiling sinisterly to himself. “You’ll see.”

  “Where are we going? Who’s driving?” I tried to move my arm again.

  “You sure ask a lot of questions,” he huffed. “Have patience, Mackenzie Grey. Patience.”

  I snorted. At least, I attempted one. “I have none.”

  We drove the rest of the way in silence while I took short, controlled breaths so I wouldn’t vomit all over myself. I could feel myself going in and out of sleep, the sedative still in effect, but by the time we made it to our destination, my mind was alert. My eyelids were still too heavy to open, but my other senses worked just fine. I could have used my Sight as I had earlier, but I was too sick. Whatever I’d been given had blocked me from even shifting.

  Enzo, I presumed, dragged me into his arms and carried me somewhere. The gravel beneath his boots crunched loudly and the air smelled heavy of gasoline. The summer heat made the scent worse, and nausea roiled in my stomach.

  “Are we at a gas station?” I mumbled as my head lolled back and forth.

  “Yes.” Enzo walked into what I assumed was a room and tossed me on the ground like I was nothing but a pile of trash.

  I bounced on the ground, and the motion was a nice wake-me-up for my body. It jogged my eyelids open, and while blurry, I was able to get a slight view of my surrounding area. It was dark, like a storage closet filled with cleaning supplies. The dank odor mixed with petroleum wasn’t sitting well with me, and after being tossed around like a puppet, I puked all over myself. Maybe it was for the best because after I was finished, relief washed over me. A dizzying feeling came on, and I felt the beginnings of a headache, but I could tell the effects of the sedative were wearing off.

  I crawled to do the door of the closet and tried to open it, but it was locked. My strength was depleted, and I still couldn’t shift. It was like the wolf had disappeared and with it, my energy. My mind raced as I wondered if he’d gotten Oliver or any of the others. Or was it just me? Momentary panic ran through my body, but my last memory was of Ollie reaching Amy, and Amy was fast. She wouldn’t let anything bad happen to him. He was safe.

  I banged on the closet door. “Help!” I croaked. “Let me out!” Someone had to hear me.

  After exhausting so much energy, I passed out. When I came to, Enzo was sitting in the doorway, a single light shining above him. Like the humans, he wore a hoodie to mask his face. I wanted to rip it off of him, but I could barely move on my own.

  “I bet you’re wondering why you feel that way,” he said. “It's my own personal concoction. I made it using wolfsbane.”

  “Asshole,” I muttered.

  He smirked. “I had to get you here somehow. You almost got me though. Congratulations were almost in order. I have to say, Mackenzie, you are one formidable foe. You had me sweating for a moment.”

  “Where are my friends?” I murmured as I tried to lift myself up, stepping on my own vomit to do so.

  “They’re safe. You’re the only one I wanted.”

  I let out a sigh of relief.

  “Don’t you care to know why?”

  I slipped on my own barf and fell. “You want Bash. I’m not stupid. I know when I’m being used as bait.”

  “Good girl.” His grin widened. “I want Duke too, so you and I are going to work together to make that happen.”

  I shook my head. “I won’t help you. Go fuck yourself.”

  “Well, that’s not very friendly. I thought we were getting somewhere.” He leaned forward and brushed my hair off my face. “What would you do for family, Mackenzie?” he whispered.

  “Everything,” I gritted. “Which is why I won’t help you hurt mine.”

  He gave me a small smile. “It's exactly why you’ll help me, whether you want to or not. Sebastian Steel and Duke Davenport took everything away from me. They killed my family, so it’s only fair I take their lives.” Enzo played with my vomit-soaked hair before tucking it behind my ear. “The others have already paid—”

  “And Killian?” I questioned. He was the only member of the Tracker Pack who went missing after their tour was over.

  His smile grew. “Sebastian told you?”

  “What about Killian?” I repeated.

  Enzo chuckled. “He’s around. I wouldn’t worry about him though. He’s suffering plenty.”

  My stomach dropped as I wondered what happened to Killian. Was he alive, or was he Enzo’s first kill? This nutcase had way too many loose screws, and if I wasn’t careful, I’d be his next victim. I gulped.

  “Don’t worry, Mackenzie, I won’t kill you,” he said. “You set me free. I wouldn’t be able to do any of this if it weren’t for you giving the lone-wolves freedom.”

  If I didn’t already feel sick, he just made me feel worse. He was practically thanking me.

  “This isn’t why I set the wolves free. You’re taking advantage of what I did and twisting it into something ugly and disgusting,” I said, repulsed.

  “Ugly and dis-disgusting?” he stammered. “They made me that way!” Enzo yelled as he ripped off his hoodie and exposed his face. The whole right side was marred with burn scars. Half his hair was gone, with small patches still growing in random places, and his right eyeball popped out of its socket more than the left, making his expression droopy and grotesque. He was completely disfigured as it went down his neck and, I imagined, his body. His face was merely inches away from mine, and it took everything in me not to shy away from him, but I didn’t want to give him what he wanted. He wanted me to react in horror.

  I steadied my rapidly beating heart and took him in. He not only bore the emotional scars from that fire ten years ago, but the physical wounds had taken a toll as well.

  “Look at what they did to me.” He pointed to his face. “Do you see how ugly I am?�
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  I swallowed slowly. “Is this why you want revenge? Because you’re not pretty?”

  He scoffed and threw some cleaning supplies across the room. “You think I’m doing this because I’m vain? They killed my family! I’m the only one left! They tracked my family down for weeks, they hunted us all because we didn’t want to join a pack. Just like you. Do you want to know why?” I didn’t answer. “Because I had two younger sisters who would be Lunas and my parents didn’t want that life for them. We’d found refuge in South America. But, of course, there’s no place safe from the law. They found us with a group of other lone-wolves, and it didn’t matter that there were children. They killed them anyway!”

  Enzo’s eyes widened, and his face was so close to mine, I could smell the cigarette he’d just smoked.

  “How did you get away?” I would go to hell for what I was about to do, but I needed to get inside Enzo’s head. I had to plant doubt.

  “I was asleep when the ring of fire started around the camp. My mother told me to run. Instead of trying to help, I listened to her. I ran like a coward. It’s the reason God punished me with these scars.” He pointed to his face.

  I winced. “You went through the fire?”

  He nodded. “I had no choice. The rest of them burned alive. Every night, I can hear their screams. I bet your boyfriend does too.”

  Bash jerked a lot in his sleep. I never asked him why or questioned why he woke up a lot throughout the night. A lot of behaviors were starting to make sense. When I had my nightmares and trouble sleeping, he was so understanding. He knew what I was going through. I was starting to feel like the asshole.

  “Who will punish you once this is all said and done?” I tilted my head to the side.

  “Excuse me?”

  “For your transgressions,” I said. “The Tracker Pack will have paid for their mistakes, but what about you? You abandoned your family. Ran and never looked back. You think those scars is punishment enough? Please … that’s nothing. You’re the worst of them all. You betrayed your own family.”

  The left side of his face scrunched up. “I know what you’re doing, but it won’t work.”

  “I don’t have to do anything because you’ve already been torturing yourself for the last ten years. The rest is up to you. Clock’s ticking, Enzo. When you kill the last two on your list, you’ll be left with yourself to deal with. I wonder what you’ll do.”

  With Enzo, it was all a mind game. Fighting him with my fists wasn’t going to work. I had to play the game, at least for now. Until I figured out what his grand finale would be. By now, Bash would know I’d been taken. Cas would have had to tell him, and the SIU would be teaming up with the Brooklyn Pack to catch him. At least, I hoped that was what was being done. If not, I’d kill every last one of them for being so idiotic. And I think Bash was right; Enzo couldn’t be saved. He was too far gone. Shoot to kill would be the directive I’d give knowing what I now know. Ugh. I hate how right he is.

  Enzo got up to leave, tossing me a piece of bread. “Here’s your dinner.” He left the closet, shutting the door behind him and leaving me in complete darkness.

  The next few days were a blur. Enzo didn’t come by except to toss more bread and inject me with more of that sedative he’d concocted. It kept me loopy and my wolf out of sight. He mentioned it had some hint of wolfsbane in it, but I wasn’t paralyzed, so the paralytic must have been taken out of it. Whatever the case, I was down and could barely eat. The only thing keeping me upright was the thought of seeing Bash. The full moon was near, which meant Enzo’s plan would go into effect. Bash and I worked better as a team. We never should have split up.

  “Rise and shine,” Enzo yelled as he opened the closet door and sunlight beamed in. I scurried back, the light burning my eyes. I hadn’t seen it in days. “C’mon, its time.” He reached for my upper arm and tugged me up, dragging me across the dirty, vomit-covered floor.

  I shielded my eyes with my other arm and used my heels to try to stand, but I hadn’t stood on my own in days. My muscles were like rubber. But we were out in the open, and I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity.

  “Stop fighting me, Mackenzie,” he said. “Let’s make this easy.”

  With one loud grunt, I hauled myself up and slammed the back of my head to his. It made me see stars. I stumbled forward, across the gravel-covered ground, and fell on my knees. “Shit,” I groaned.

  “Fuck!” Enzo yelled. “Why did you do that?”

  I blinked a few times and let my eyes get accustomed to the light once again. It stung, but I pushed through the pain. When I felt him come near me, I kicked my foot backward until it connected with his groin. I looked back and elbowed him in the face. Putting him in a headlock, I squeezed, cutting off his air supply.

  “Die, you piece of shit,” I croaked.

  I didn’t have the strength I normally would, so when he went into a half-shift and dug his claws into my side, I released him immediately. Falling to my side, I clutched my abdomen, blood spilling between my fingers. My mouth dropped open in shock as I held on to myself.

  “You thought it would be that easy?” Enzo looked down on me.

  I looked up at his disfigured face. He hid the sun and behind him was a clear, blue sky, not a single cloud in sight.

  My wound wasn’t deep enough to kill me but left untreated would cause an infection that could. I hadn’t showered in days and hadn’t sensed my wolf. I was starting to worry.

  “I need to shift,” I mumbled.

  “So you can kill me?” he scoffed. “Yeah right. Come on, get up.” He reached for my hair and gripped it tightly before dragging me across the gravel, whistling along the way. “This could have all been done a lot easier. You just had to make it hard on yourself, didn’t you?”

  I gritted my teeth and took in deep drags of air. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of me crying out for help. I groaned in pain as I clutched my side in silence. The pebbles and rocks cutting and digging into my skin as he dragged me along, I winced until the ache was so bad I was numb to it.

  He picked me up and threw me into the back seat of a car. “Sit tight,” he ordered and shut me in, most likely childproofing the locks.

  We drove for at least an hour before I began to recognize the scents around us. We were in Dumbo, Brooklyn … where the pack resided.

  “It won’t work,” I muttered. “The warehouse is guarded since your last attack.”

  He snickered. “You think I don’t know that? My humans have been surveilling the pack ever since. We know all their ins and outs, everything.”

  “Then why wait until now?”

  “I was waiting for you.”

  “What?” I tried to lift my head but couldn’t.

  “I needed something of importance to Sebastian or Duke. Something they would die for. Luckily, I have you.”

  I squeezed my eyes shut. “I don’t understand.”

  “You’ll see,” he whispered.

  The car came to a slow stop, the brake pads screeching, and I waited for Enzo’s next move. He was nothing if not calculated.

  Taking a few breaths, I sat up on my elbow and looked at the warehouse down the street. A gaggle of humans surrounded it, maybe a good three dozen of them, which was really bad. If Enzo bit that many humans, they would all have to be reported to the Summit. It would be an outbreak and wouldn’t look good for Alexander, who was currently working to get the laws changed for lone-wolves.

  “What are they doing?” I looked at Enzo in the rearview mirror.

  He smiled at me. “We’re going to set the warehouse on fire.”

  “Wh-what?” I stammered. “You can’t! There are innocent people in there!”

  “My sisters were innocent too.”

  I tried to open the car door, but it was locked. I kicked it with all my might, but unfortunately, my wolf was nowhere to be seen. I was like a human.

  “Let me out!” I shrieked as I kicked at the car window. “Get me the fuck out!�
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  My breathing grew heavy as I kicked harder and harder. I began to sweat, or maybe cry, as I worried who might currently be at the warehouse. I screamed so loud and long I thought the veins in my neck were going to rip apart.

  A shooting pain from my heel vibrated up my leg as I kicked the door incorrectly, but I didn’t care. I needed to get out.

  “There’s no use, Mackenzie. Just watch.”

  I froze as I looked out the front window and saw one of the humans pour what I assumed to be gasoline on the warehouse building.

  “No …” I cried. “No, no, no.”

  When they were finished, another lit a match and tossed it toward the front door. The warehouse went up in flames. I was shocked at how quickly it did.

  Silent tears ran down my face. I wanted to scream, but something didn’t feel right. My insides should be ripping apart at the moment. Bash was in there. My other half was dying. Why wasn’t I?

  I wasn’t as knowledgeable when it came to Anam Aonachds like Bash was, but from the little I did know, we were practically two peas in a pod, to put it in layman’s terms. If I hurt, he hurt. If he died, I died. I should have felt something, but I didn’t.

  My eyes narrowed as I continued to cry and watch the scene unfold before me. The building crumbled quickly, the humans scattering to avoid getting engulfed in the flames.

  “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Enzo mused.

  “It’s something all right,” I mumbled as I wiped my face with the back of my hand.

  “Pardon?” He turned around to face me, mild shock coloring his features as he realized I wasn’t a mess.

  “It's not real, is it?” I took a stab in the dark. “You’re fucking with me.”

  Whatever he’d been injecting me with must have been messing with my mind because this wasn’t real. It couldn’t be.