Heart of Stone (Alice Worth Book 4)

by Lisa Edmonds

  I started to summon Malcolm before I realized my bracelet was gone, ripped off either in the wolf’s initial attack or when I fell. If I summoned Malcolm and he jumped to the bracelet, I wouldn’t be able to release him and he’d be trapped in the crystal.

  Somewhere nearby, I heard Sean’s voice on the phone, shouting that he was fifteen minutes away. If I didn’t do something now, that was going to be about fourteen minutes too late.

  I pushed blood magic out through my fingertips to form claws, but my right arm was broken and useless. I was lying on my left arm, which was trapped underneath me by my weight and that of the wolf, who was mauling my back and trying to get his teeth into my neck.

  I blocked out the pain and focused my air magic just to the right of the center of my chest. With one burst I flipped us over and sent the wolf flying back. He landed on all four feet, gathered himself, and leaped on top of me.

  The wolf snarled and opened his mouth to show me all of his teeth. Hot breath blasted my face. The wolf’s eyes were golden brown. Somehow I knew who he was, even though I’d never seen him in wolf form before.

  Caleb.

  I hoped I wasn’t imagining the trace of humanity I thought I saw in his eyes. I fixed my gaze on his neck so the wolf didn’t interpret my stare as a challenge.

  “Caleb, stop,” I said urgently, hoping he’d recognize his own name. “I know you can hear me, Caleb. Think about what you’re doing. Jack wouldn’t want you to do this and neither would Delia. Think about Delia, Caleb. Think about Jack.”

  For a moment, I thought I might have gotten through to him. The wolf hesitated and raised his head. In the stillness, I heard Sean shouting my name on the phone. He sounded frantic.

  The wolf lowered his head, put his ears back, and growled. The sound was low, powerful, and pure animal. Oh, shit.

  I raised my left arm to shield my face as the wolf’s jaws opened wide and he struck. His teeth closed on my forearm, slicing through my flesh like knives. Blood splattered across my face and I screamed.

  When he let go, I punched him in the muzzle as hard as I could, but it did little to faze him. He went for my throat.

  As the wolf’s teeth closed on my neck, I forced my left hand through his fur and pushed my blood magic out through my fingertips. I raked my hand down his side and the blood magic sliced through his flesh like razors. Hot blood gushed down my arm and the wolf released my throat with a howl of agony.

  Instead of backing off as I’d hoped he would, he attacked in a frenzy of teeth and claws. I slashed him again and again, but it seemed to have little effect other than angering him more. He was berserk with rage.

  The wolf sank his teeth deeply into my throat again. He shook me like a rag doll and something crunched in my neck. My screams became gurgles and I struggled to breathe. My vision darkened. I had no more options.

  I thrust my left hand wrist deep into one of the wounds I’d made in the wolf’s side and pushed my blood magic deep inside his body, to his heart. With a choked sob, I killed him.

  The wolf fell, twitched, and lay still, half on top of me, his teeth buried in my throat. I pushed his head away, but I wasn’t strong enough to move his body off my chest.

  Sean shouted at me from the phone. I couldn’t hear him clearly, but it sounded like he didn’t know where to look for me. The pack usually used the gate on the east side. If he went there, it would be a long time until he was able to find me. I tried to call out to him, but all that came out was a bloody gurgle.

  Almost of its own accord, my hand went to the amulet around my neck. The chain had survived the wolf’s teeth. I wrapped my bloody fist around it and drank in the warmth of Carly’s magic and Sean’s hot golden shifter trace. “Sean,” I whispered.

  The stone amulet began to pulse like a heart. I hoped Carly’s spell was working and bringing Sean to me. I wasn’t getting enough air; something was terribly wrong with my neck. I reached up with my left arm and closed my hand around my shredded throat. I felt blood pumping out of the right side of my neck and tried to put pressure on it with my hand, but my fingers weren’t working right. It wasn’t enough to be arterial, but something was punctured. I was covered in blood and most of it was mine.

  As I lay there, trying to stay conscious, I realized I had another, perhaps even more serious problem.

  It began as a nagging feeling somewhere deep in my belly. At first, I thought the discomfort was just another wound, but it spread quickly. I squirmed and moaned weakly as a wave of heat rolled through my body. My arms and legs spasmed, then went limp. A dozen heartbeats later, I felt another wave of heat, stronger than the first, followed by another full-body convulsion. Deep inside me, something lifted its head and began to rise.

  In spite of the pain and fog in my head, understanding dawned. I’d been bitten repeatedly by a werewolf. I was infected. The spasms were the first signs of the change.

  Not every werewolf bite carried the virus; many werewolves were carriers but couldn’t infect others. Others carried an especially virulent strain that infected and spread rapidly. Caleb must have been one of the latter—or perhaps the speed of infection had something to do with my shifter father, or it was a combination of both. I felt the virus moving through my blood. An ordinary human might not have perceived it as clearly as I could, but my blood magic sensed the spread of the infection.

  The amulet pulsed faster on my chest. I hoped that meant Sean was getting close.

  Another convulsion hit and my back arched. I screamed. The pain of my wounds faded, replaced by a strong compulsion. From a dark place inside my mind, a pair of golden eyes stared back at me. My wolf was rising and she wanted me to shift. My arms and legs jerked and the bones felt like they were grinding together. I fought against the urge with everything I had.

  In the distance, tires crunched on gravel and a car door slammed. Footsteps ran impossibly fast in my direction. I heard an enraged howl and recognized Sean’s voice in the sound.

  Sean flung Caleb’s body away. He pulled me against his chest and rocked me, making a heartbreaking keening sound.

  “Not…dead…” I managed to whisper. My voice sounded strangely loud. I opened my eyes. The moonlight was somehow blinding and it hurt.

  Sean’s face was stark white with horror. “Alice—your eyes.” I flinched. Why was he shouting?

  I convulsed again and cried out. Despite the pain of fighting the change, it was getting easier to breathe. I reached up to my throat with my left hand. I was still bleeding, but not as badly as before. I had to be imagining it, but my left arm seemed to be working better too. “What’s…happening…to me?”

  “You’ve been infected.” His tone sounded like he was whispering, but his voice was loud, which made no sense. “Your hearing and eyesight are improving, and you’re already healing like a werewolf.”

  “No,” I moaned. “No, please.” I struggled to get away, though there was no way to run from what was happening inside me.

  Sean held me so tightly that my spasms shook us both. “Where is Malcolm?”

  I coughed up blood. “I couldn’t summon him. I lost my bracelet.”

  Suddenly, in my mind, I saw my wolf. She was black, with a lighter band of fur across her shoulders and a streak of white in her tail. Her eyes were bright gold. She opened her mouth and showed me her teeth.

  The wolf moved restlessly and my body shuddered, joints popping as my arms and legs stiffened and tried to bend in ways no human body could. I screamed and screamed, fighting back, fighting the change.

  Sean pulled me tighter against his chest. “I’m sorry I couldn’t save you from this.”

  “Not…your…fault,” I ground out between clenched teeth.

  Gold rolled through his eyes and I wondered if mine were doing the same. “I’m going to call your wolf,” he told me. “It will make your first change easier.”

  “No,” I told him emphatically.

  “Alice, let me help you. You will not go through this alone.” Sean looked lik
e his heart was being ripped out. “I’ll take as much of your pain as I can. It’s part of what I do for new wolves. The more you fight the change, the more it will hurt. You could die if you don’t shift now.”

  His eyes turned pure, bright gold. As an alpha, he would command my wolf and she would take over. Once I shifted, there would be no going back.

  I closed my eyes so Sean couldn’t release her. Even as my body convulsed and the wolf moved under my skin, I remembered something. I’d heard of strong blood mages being able to burn the werewolf virus from their bodies. It was rare, but there were a handful of documented cases. I had no idea how they did it—the accounts had all been very vague—but I could feel the infection moving in my bloodstream. If I could feel it, maybe I could use my magic to burn it out, as I’d burned the Black Fire drug from my system when Spencer Addison tried to kill me with an overdose.

  “Don’t call my wolf,” I said, keeping my eyes closed. “I’m going to try something.”

  Sean gripped my chin. “What are you doing? Talk to me.”

  I reached up blindly with my left hand and he grabbed it and squeezed. “I’m going to use my magic to burn the virus out of my blood.”

  He jerked like I’d shot him. “No, you can’t—you’ll die. Let me help you shift. I know this isn’t what you want, but I swear I will take care of you.”

  “I have to try. It’s been done before.”

  “Do you know how?” It was a challenge.

  I paused. “In theory,” I said, not quite lying. The wolf within swiped at me again, angrier this time, and I shrieked.

  He made a broken sound. “I’m begging you—please don’t do this. I can help you change. I can’t bear to watch you die.”

  “Then go, because I’m going to do this, whether you’re with me or not.”

  A long silence. I knew I’d hurt him, but I couldn’t worry about that right now. The wolf prowled, looking for a way out.

  “You’d rather be dead than be a werewolf?” Sean asked finally. I was glad I couldn’t see his face at that moment.

  I shook my head. “I don’t think I have much time before I no longer have a choice. I want to have a choice.”

  He pulled me into his arms again and buried his face in my hair. “Most of us never got a choice,” he said roughly. “I’ll be damned if I’ll take yours away. Look at me.”

  I opened my eyes.

  “I love you,” he told me simply. “I will always love you, no matter what. If you heal yourself, I will take care of you. If you shift, I’ll never leave your side. If I lose you…Alice, I don’t know what I’ll do.”

  I kissed him. My bloody hand left streaks on his face.

  I looked down at myself. I’d healed a little because of the werewolf virus, but I was still a mess. My right arm and shoulder were badly broken. I was covered in bites and gashes. My neck didn’t feel right and I wondered if the wolf had broken something there.

  “If I make it, please take me to Charles and ask him to heal me,” I told Sean. “He owes me a boon.”

  He held me tightly. “I’ll take you. Just live through this and I’ll take you anywhere you want to go, even to him.”

  My eyes went to the bloody body of the wolf. “I’m sorry. I had no choice.”

  “I know.” He kissed my forehead. “I made the wrong decision bringing him into our pack and letting him stay.”

  “You believe in people. Don’t ever stop believing in people.”

  “Don’t ever stop reminding me of that.” He looked into my eyes and brushed bloody hair back from my face.

  My wolf stirred. Suddenly, I felt displaced, like I’d been pushed out of the way inside my own head. My wolf looked at Sean through my eyes.

  “Oh, my God,” Sean breathed. He sounded far away. “I can see your wolf. She’s beautiful.”

  I felt my wolf’s desire. She saw a powerful alpha male and she wanted him. She was gathering her strength, as if she intended to leap out of me. I knew I wouldn’t be able to hold her back much longer.

  I wrenched control away from the wolf and she slashed across my mind with her claws. I screamed and shook with the effort it took to hold her in check. I couldn’t let her take over control of my body. I’d fought too hard and given up too much for freedom to lose my autonomy to this wolf within me or to any other foe.

  “Move back,” I told Sean breathlessly. “I don’t know what this might do to you.”

  Reluctantly, Sean moved away, leaving me alone on the blood-soaked ground. He sat with his back against a tree, his eyes shining like golden lanterns in the darkness.

  I closed my eyes and spooled my blood magic as quickly as I could.

  As if sensing danger, the wolf threw back her head and howled. My back arched. I opened my mouth and howled with her. I couldn’t believe the wolf sound came from me.

  From somewhere to my left, Sean howled too. His cry was angry and mournful.

  As our howls echoed in the trees and my wolf moved under my skin, I drew my blood magic up and in as if I was taking a huge breath. I concentrated all of my senses inside myself. Everything else faded away.

  I sensed the motes of fire that were the werewolf virus in my blood. Carefully, I focused on a single particle of the virus and used a tiny amount of my blood magic to attack it. The mote flared with a spike of pain and heat that made me twitch. Then it disintegrated, leaving behind a blackened, dead cell.

  My wolf snarled, enraged. She ran full speed toward the front of my brain.

  I convulsed violently. My bones ground against each other and bones broke in my legs. My scream turned into a howl of rage and pain as my jaw popped and dislocated. My body was shifting.

  No time to do this carefully or slowly. I focused on the virus in my bloodstream and opened the floodgates on my spooled blood magic.

  The surge of power was enormous. My back bowed so violently that something snapped and I went numb from my chest down. I couldn’t tell if I was screaming out loud or only in my head. Fire raged through me as my blood magic burned in my veins, incinerating the virus as it went.

  The wolf howled in fury, but her run was stopped by a wall of red and black flames. Angry and frustrated, she paced.

  The firestorm raged inside me for what felt like an eternity. I had no idea what my body was doing on the ground in the woods; my entire existence focused on the sensation of the virus burning out of my cells.

  In the midst of the inferno, the wolf stood, unafraid. She stared back at me, head held high, utterly fearless.

  In a moment of clarity, I saw the wolf wasn’t some other creature trying to take me over. She was me—or some core part of me. I recognized in her eyes the young woman who’d defied her grandfather, who’d refused to be broken no matter what he or anyone else did to her. I feared that without her I’d be weaker and afraid. I had no desire to become a werewolf, but I didn’t want to lose this essential part of myself either.

  Stay with me, I said to her as the flames flickered and died. The virus was gone.

  The wolf inclined her head. She changed shape, her limbs stretching out, sliding through me under my skin. Slowly, she settled into my bones.

  Finally, everything faded away. The last thing I saw before I lost consciousness were two golden eyes shining through the dark.

  16

  Consciousness returned in stages. I sensed motion and heard a voice, though I couldn’t understand what it was saying. As the fog lifted, I realized I was lying in the back seat of a car that was moving very fast, and it was Sean’s voice I heard.

  “—minutes away. That door had better be open when I get there.”

  A pause.

  “She’s alive,” he said tersely. “I’ll be damned if I know how. There’s not enough blood left in her to fill a coffee cup.”

  I couldn’t hear the response. He must be on a cell phone.

  I struggled to open my eyes, but my eyelids seemed to be taped shut. I couldn’t feel anything below my chest or move my legs at all. My jaw s
till felt like it was dislocated. I moaned.

  “Hold on—we’re almost there.” Sean sounded strained. “She’s awake,” he told the person on the phone. “Stay with me, Alice. Stay with me.”

  The car whipped around a corner and I slid helplessly across the back seat. Somehow, I didn’t end up on the floor. Vaguely, I felt pressure around my middle. Maybe a seatbelt.

  Sean said, “I’m pulling into the garage. Be waiting.”

  The car turned sharply again. He drove over a bump, down a steep ramp, and around another corner. We screeched to a stop and Sean flung his door open with such force that the hinges broke.

  At the same time, someone yanked open the door by my head. For a moment, there was stunned silence.

  “Jesus,” I heard a deep voice say finally. Bryan.

  A seatbelt clicked. Sean scooped me up and then we were moving. My body was still numb, but I felt air on my face as they ran from the car and across a concrete floor. Their footsteps echoed like we were in an underground parking garage.

  “Down the hall. Third door.” It was Adri’s voice.

  Sean ran past her and the sound of the echoes changed. We were in a long hallway. The door to the garage slammed closed and two sets of footsteps—one light, one heavy—pounded down the hall behind us.

  Sean turned and went through an open door. Bright white light seared my closed eyelids and a strong antiseptic smell burned the inside of my nose.

  “Where?” he snapped.

  “This gurney.” Charles’s voice was tight. “Is she conscious?”

  “She’s in and out.” Sean lowered me carefully onto a hard bed. I whimpered when he let go of me. I heard the snapping sounds of latex medical gloves and metal clinking.

  “What is all this?” Sean demanded.

  Charles’s voice sounded as if he was walking around me. “Human and vampire blood transfusions. I cannot replace all of her lost blood with my own or she will become a dhampir, or rise as a vampire if she dies.”