Aching Silver (House of Wolves Book 1)

by Amber Naralim

  Ellis lurched right tearing a chuck of her blond hair free. He stumbled hard but kept his balance for the most part. A second vine lashed out wrapping his arm. He backhanded Nora with his left. She slammed into the wall, her forehead smacking against the bricks with a meaty thud. Nora fell to the ground her eyes fluttering.

  Izobel came to her feet chanting under her breath. She smeared the dried flower over the tip of the quartz rod obliterating the handful of dried Echinacea and Red Columbine. She funneled the shadow of their essence into the plants and a vine shot out from one of the hanging String of Pearls. Two or three more from the same plant lashed his shoulders and his neck, climbing the sides of his face.

  Wrapped in creepers and leashed by willowy branches, he crashed into the bookcase that delineated the space between the living area and the bedroom. The thing toppled spilling potted plants, books, and crystals across the wood floor in a wave. He went to the ground dragged and pinned by the plants. Ellis ripped a handful away from his face and gasped, sucking in hungry breaths. Leaves seethed and vines crawled to cover the space in seconds.

  Nora rolled over with a moan. Her vision blurry, blood wept from her lashes. He knocked her tooth loose. She spat it out onto the hardwood. Izobel crossed the distance between them. She wrapped her arm around Nora and worked to help her to her feet.

  “What’s going on?” Izobel asked.

  Nora cried out overextending her knee. “Mathew Ellis. He’s my stalker.”

  Izobel snatched a kitchen knife on the counter as they passed breaking for the door. They didn’t have much time. The vines were snapping already. He’d be free before they got there. He rushed them from behind trailing plant matter.

  Ellis grabbed hold of Nora’s shoulder and shoved her toward the bed. She bounced off the edge. Izobel came at him with the knife. The blade caught the inside of his forearm slicing so deep white bone glistened among so much red meat.

  A hook to her jaw had Izobel seeing stars. He followed it up with a couple rabbit punches to her kidneys. She fell to her knees spitting blood. She’d stood toe to toe with Abel before. But times were different then. See what I meant about preparation being the key and all that. She coursed with spells that day that she did not have the time to even consider tonight.

  “You wait your turn,” he spat at her.

  His knee made solid contact with her nose and Izobel tipped backward stunned by the power of his blows. Ellis’ heavy tread echoed in her ears punctuated by a bloodcurdling cry from Nora. Izobel fought to roll to one side. She couldn’t see what was happening. She could certainly hear the detonation of fist against flesh though.

  “Hey, Asshole,” Izobel shouted fighting a bloody battle against gravity and pain. She pushed up making it back to her knees with considerable effort. “Can’t get it up unless she screams?”

  “Shut your mouth, rabbit, before I rip your arm off.”

  Izobel laughed and it was not a pleasant sound. “You could cut my arms off, and my legs. I’d still rip your goddamned jugular out with my teeth,” Izobel spat.

  He found her lack of fear infuriating. He’d fix that eventually. Mathew enjoyed breaking women. He turned back toward Nora.

  Now Nora understood what Abel liked about that girl. She spotted the glint of the blade a few feet from her. Nora reached for it with his attention on Izobel. She pushed up off the floorboards. He grabbed her by the hair and dragged her the rest of the way up. Nora spun into him tearing the knife across his wrist and forearm.

  Mathew hissed and backhanded her again. Izobel stopped struggling. She moved her fingers instead, calling the magic. Liquid gold spilled into her irises. Her chanting was a whisper that gained strength as it wove the charm together.

  The blood dripping from his wrist became a flood. It puddled on the floor beneath him. She called for more. Her fingers moved quick as light completing the shapes again and again. The charm built on itself, spiraling down to a pinpoint that spurred his blood to pump faster and shredded his veins.

  Nora rolled over onto her back. Mathew loomed over her. A teardrop detonated on her cheek. Nora narrowed her eyes. Red lines drew down his face. He was crying blood. He reached up and wiped at his cheek. Rage gave way to curiosity. He stared down at the red on his hands. Nora took the chance to wiggle away from him.

  Blood soaked into his shirt. The stain expanded merging with another and another. Slices opened on his arms weeping. Izobel’s chanting grew louder. Faster. Ellis doubled over. He keened. Nora didn’t understand what was going on. She didn’t waste time though. Nora climbed to her feet out of arm’s reach.

  Blood soaked his back spilling down his waist, staining his jeans. Izobel didn’t let up. A thousand cuts wracked him. Every wound he’d ever suffered opened wide. A line separated diagonally across his face. For your average person, it would suck. For a Kin it was deadly.

  Nora faltered on her way to Izobel. She fell to her knees trying to yank Izobel up by her armpit. Izobel doubled down on the charm. Opening the floodgates, she entreated the siren call of the prime.

  “Bleed. Bleed, you son of a bitch,” Izobel growled.

  Mathew seized. Blood poured from every inch of him. He collapsed to the floor. His skin tightened, veins standing out. A blue flame tipped in yellow sparked from one of the thousand cuts. It went up with a loud WHUMP. An inferno engulfed him, swallowing him whole.

  “No less than you deserve, you prick.”

  Fed steadily by the coals of Ellis’ body the conflagration grew. Already half the living room was lost to the Prime pyre. The heat was staggering. It ripped the oxygen out of their lungs. Nora choked, coughing and sputtering.

  “Valentine,” Izobel called.

  The black cat hopped onto the far counter and followed it along. He leapt down rushing under a hanging chair. The girls helped each other to their feet.

  “We have to get out of here!” Nora cried.

  They rushed down the stairs two at a time, the cat close on their heels. Behind them, the elements devoured more of the apartment. Prime destroyed everything in its path. Growing and seething it was the true meaning of inevitable. There was no stopping it.

  Through the heavy front door, they stumbled down the block. Nora hit the button on the car remote both unlocking the doors and turning the ignition on all at once. Izobel sank against the car, her knees weak. Nora wiped at Izobel’s nose. It dripped blood.

  “Are you okay?” Nora asked.

  Izobel nodded. Her eyes fluttering. “You?”

  Nora dropped her head to one side. “I’ve been better,” she admitted.

  “Come on. We should get out of here. Do you think they sent anyone else?”

  Nora shook her head. “Ellis wouldn’t have let them. Besides, the Kin don’t think much of humans.” She cocked a brow. “Guess that was his mistake wasn’t it.”

  Izobel’s laugh turned into a throat-tearing cough. She blinked down at the red dots on the side of her fist. “We’re not far from Deklan’s apartment.”

  She climbed into the SUV. Nora shut the door behind Izobel and jogged around to the driver’s side. All in all, Izobel looked a little worse for wear. Nora figured she should drive.

  Blue fire climbed the side of the building leaving nothing more than ash in its wake. Izobel willed it to die away. Once those floodgates break there was no stopping it.

  44

  Chapter

  Izobel gave directions from the passenger seat, barely able to keep her eyes open.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” Nora asked, concern plain as day despite the bruises and swelling.

  The cat hopped onto Izobel’s lap and she weakly wrapped her arms around him. He butted the top of his head against her jaw. She’d missed him.

  Overly light, her skin tingled with residual magic. She floated three feet above the seat, at least that’s how it felt anyway. Exhaustion and sucking need radiated from her core. Prime arced from one blood cell to another and an angry red mouth opened the meat of her thumb. She his
sed.

  “Blood magic is… it’s dangerous,” she said through clenched teeth. Izobel pointed. “There.”

  Something warm soaked into her shirt.

  When Izobel was fifteen her stepmother Max insisted, they spend a day bonding. It ended up surprising her. Izobel enjoyed herself, not that she’d ever admit it. That is until the car spun out on a slick road. They hit a tree. Broke three of her ribs. One of them was sharp enough to rip through her side. The wound reopening eight years later had her drowning in the memory.

  It’s easy to lose track of all the little nicks and scratches we suffer over our lifetime. But history remembers. Sores opened their mouths all over her body. Some negligible, other’s debilitating. Izobel threw her head back with an anguished cry.

  “Oh my God!” Nora cried.

  Nora hit the gas, pulling into the parking lot with a lurching turn. An apartment building in all its modern aesthetic soared high into the dark sky. Lots of windows. Nora killed the ignition. Izobel fumbled with her phone. She worried she might not make it to the thirteenth floor. Nora took the phone from her hitting the send button. Izobel slumped against the door unconscious. The phone rang distant on the other end, and a masculine voice answered.

  “Hello?”

  “Deklan?”

  “Who is this?” The contact information said Izobel but that wasn’t her voice.

  “Izobel needs your help. We’re in the parking lot. She just fell unconscious and I can’t get the bleeding to stop,” Nora said getting out of the car.

  She rushed to the passenger side and opened the door. Izobel slumped in the seat nearly falling out. Nora crouched down next to her taking her pulse. It was thready.

  “What happened?” Deklan asked jogging out his front door sans shoes and shirt. He materialized out of the shadows. Deklan pushed between two cars and skidded to a stop.

  “That was… fast,” Nora said more to herself. She let her phone drop into one hand. Her look was questioning only long enough to fall back into Izobel’s dire stakes. Abel would never forgive her if he lost another love to Nora’s mistakes.

  “She said something about blood magic. She’s bleeding, I mean like I’ve never seen so much blood,” Nora said tipping Izobel’s head back trying to get the flow from her nose to stop. “Something is seriously wrong.”

  The blond woman was a wreck, all black eyes, and bruises. Her lips were swollen and bloody. He pushed past her. Izobel’s shirt was torn and soaked in red. A dozen cuts studded her arms and chest. Deklan put together the puzzle with the few pieces he was given. He pulled something from his pocket. Nora couldn’t tell what it was from where she stood.

  “Please, help her?” Nora pleaded.

  Jealousy had its place. No one is immune. But Izobel saved her life. And she hated to admit it but she’d enjoyed their conversations on the trip here. She wished her safety and health.

  “Yeah, just… I’ll need to get her up to my apartment,” he said distracted.

  Deklan waved the lump of shiny rainbow obsidian over Izobel’s forehead whispering a chant. The magic took hold and the blood stopped dripping from her nose. He cradled Izobel to his chest. Lifting her, he moved toward the apartment building. Nora shut the door and followed on his heels hesitating a beat so the cat could catch up. She kept her questions for now.

  45

  Chapter

  They rode the elevator. It was such a jarring thing to experience with the need for urgency boiling at its surface. Derrick doted on Izobel, whispering his chant, and brushing rocks over her face. The ringing in Nora’s ears vibrated physically. A massive Yuka plant wilted slowly next to her. Brown color leached away at the verdant green of its spiky fronds. It shrank and withered curling in on itself.

  Valentine circled Deklan’s feet, his concern for Izobel interrupted by the intermittent need to show his contempt for Derrick with a flick of his tail and an unimpressed glare. They had a complicated relationship. Deklan couldn’t keep his stare off Nora’s face. Beat to hell was an understatement. With the light, he could pick out details. Nora held her shirt closed. But it wasn’t torn like Izobel’s, hers had been cut.

  “What happened?” Deklan asked finally.

  “We were on our way to meet a woman from her circle. But we were followed.”

  “Claudia?” Deklan demanded.

  She was good. Curiosity only had a second or two before she killed it with a neutrally questioning look. Deklan smirked.

  “It’s okay. I’m part of her circle too,” he explained with a smile that burgeoned on too easy.

  “So you’re a Sparrow?” Nora asked, regarding the murdered plant with suspicion.

  “Sparrow?”

  “Sorcerer.”

  He nodded. “Yeah.”

  The elevator doors opened and he led her down the hallway to the last door on the left side casually. A few healing spells and a nullification charm put Izobel in the recovery column. She was out of the woods. The apartment was spacious. Neither this place or Izobel’s apartment matched their exteriors. The space multiplied, building on itself to create a mirrored effect that looked wrong until you were standing there. Vanilla paint and rustic modern paneling greeted them. The wood was warm. A leather couch and a single chair decorated the main room. Plants seemed to be a thing amongst the magically inclined.

  She followed him into the bedroom where he lay Izobel on the queen-sized, platform bed. From modern industrial sheik to bohemian in the distance of a hallway, mandalas and dream catchers hung in every window. Every flat surface cluttered with crystals in a rainbow of colors. Four glass containers hung from the ceiling spilling succulents.

  Nora wasn’t sure why but this room felt staged. She wondered who he was performing for.

  “There’s some Advil in the medicine cabinet,” Deklan said pointing to the en suite bathroom. “But if you really want the pain to go away take two drops from the little bottle next to it. It will help with the shakes.”

  And here she thought she was hiding it better than that. He grabbed things from the dresser top. Nora took him up on it. Her head was splitting like firewood. She sighed at her reflection and opened the cabinet door, not wanting to look at the mess Mathew made of her face. She dumped four tabs out onto her palm and swallowed them down with a handful of water that stung like a bitch.

  She sat there looking at the bottle for a moment considering her options. Only a few inches tall it was a bauble of blown glass. A corked stopper held in slightly cloudy oil. It glimmered in the overhead light. The plant was dead but Izobel looked much better. With a shrug, Nora let two drops fall on her tongue from the long spike at the bottom of the topper.

  The tart hint of blueberries brought with it a soothing wave of cool pleasantness. She returned it to the shelf and closed the medicine cabinet door. Nora dabbed at her throbbing lips with a wet washcloth, cleaning the dried blood away. She licked it from her front teeth and noticed a buoying pressure building. Delightful as a caress, her stiff muscles melted with it. The fiery ache triggered by her every movement died down to a dull roar at the back of her thoughts.

  Grateful, she adjusted her shirt once more, uncomfortably, before she wandered back to the bedroom. Deklan plucked a leaf from one of the succulents and fed it to Izobel.

  “She’s going to be all right, right?” Nora asked.

  “A little rest. Some TLC and she’ll be back on her feet in no time.”

  Nora nodded. Relieved, she leaned against the doorjamb, eyeing his tattoos. Intricate lines, circles, and triangles gave way to a Chinese dragon that slithered over his left shoulder and came to rest over his breast. Both arms were decorated in vibrant color.

  “So you’re a werewolf? Huh?” Deklan asked grabbing something from beneath the bed.

  Nora laughed. “Kin is the proper term and no. I’m folk. We’re human family. My brothers are Kin.” She cinched her shirt in tight and a button popped. Nora sighed. “Do you mind if I grab our bags from the car.”

  “Go ahead. I
t’s going to be a little while before she wakes up. You should get comfortable.”

  Nora left the apartment. Halfway to the lobby she pulled her phone free and dialed Abel. She sighed, preparing her briefing in her head before she hit the send button.

  “I’ve been waiting on your call. I thought you’d check in every six hours,” Abel scolded from the other end.

  “Mathew Ellis followed us. Your Sparrow killed him.”

  “Jesus. This is why I wanted to come with you,” Abel’s argumentative tone melted into gentle.

  “We’re all right,” Nora lied. “How did he even know we were going?”

  “That’s a damned good question. Are you sure you don’t need me?”

  Nora’s paranoia kicked into gear. She searched her plans for any weak links. A leak had to be on her end. No one went near the farm without Abel knowing about it. She didn’t so much trust anyone within the clan anymore. Every day Michael Risguard brought more people in that she didn’t know. It was time to admit he was outplaying her.

  “It’s okay we’re with Izobel’s circle. We’ll be fine. Listen, I’m going to get a new phone. I will call you as soon as I have it set up. Use the account I set up for you to do the same. Just in case.”

  “I don’t like this, Nora?”

  “I know, but we don’t have any other choice right now. Alex is our best chance of turning the clan around. He’s our best chance to keeping Zoe alive,” she added hoping that would prove sweeter bait. “I’m going to go. As soon as you get the new phone text me the number.”

  Abel hesitated a moment. Nora hung up on him. She had too many plates spinning at the moment. She had to pare them down. First was a new shirt. She dug through her bag and pulled one free. A comfortable flannel worn so thin you could almost see her skin through it. She loved this shirt; it used to belong to Abel. Comfort. She craved comfort.

  She couldn’t get the sensation of Ellis’ hands on her out of her head. Nora didn’t like violence. It was necessary. She wasn’t a fool. But for the first time she delighted in the pain Izobel dished out to that disgusting freak.