Aching Silver (House of Wolves Book 1)

by Amber Naralim

  Her trip from the car back up to Deklan’s apartment was uneventful if you didn’t count the flashbacks. Deklan was lost in his spells. Never even noticed the soft click of the front door closing. He looked up surprised when she asked, “Can I use your shower?”

  Deklan swallowed hard. “Sure.”

  She left him doting on Izobel and shut the bathroom door behind her. Setting her clothes on the sink counter she undressed. A button, then two and then suddenly she couldn’t get the rags she wore off fast enough, eager to the wash the filth of Ellis off her skin. She couldn’t keep the tears back any longer.

  Nora turned the water on. Its scalding pressure scrubbed the memories of tonight away. She washed the blood out of her hair, closing her eyes against the malice that permeated Ellis like an aura. The water hid her tears and the sound of water falling masked her sobs. Scrubbed so hard her skin tore she threw the washcloth to the ground with the peak of her fit.

  Nora took in a deep breath and blew it out slow. She fell to pieces, and then she set about the task of rebuilding from the ground up. Nora sat down with her knees drawn up and hugged herself until the water ran cold.

  A knock dragged her out of her fugue state.

  “Are you all right? You’ve been in there a while.”

  Deklan’s voice was gentle and compassionate and boy that was what Nora needed right that second. She wiped at her face and shut the freezing water off.

  “I’ll be out in a second.”

  Derrick hovered at the door for a moment before he nodded and shut it. Nora sniffed. She climbed out of the shower, dried off with a particularly fluffy towel and went about getting dressed. She also took another two drops from the little bottle in the medicine cabinet savoring the comforting sweetness it slathered over everything. She ran a hand through her drying curls, wiping the tears away a final time before she donned her cheerful mask. Her reflection showed the cracks but she didn’t have it in her to prop them up tonight.

  Izobel slept fitfully. Nora checked her pulse anyway. She wasn’t sure what to think of this woman, to be honest. Other than she fit into the world Nora had been trying to plaster herself onto for years. But that only added to her jealousy.

  She reached over and rubbed Valentine’s head. His rolling prrr-sound triggered a stretch and curl on the pillow next to Izobel’s head. Nora sighed and wandered out into the living room.

  Deklan offered her a smile and a cup of tea. Nora took it gratefully and sat down on the couch staring despondently at the wall. Deklan wandered the living room trying to figure out how to broach a conversation with this haunted stranger. He went for broke finally.

  “You can talk to me,” he said.

  Nora choked on a laugh that turned to a sob on the tail end.

  “Can I?”

  Her despondency was palpable. It coated his fingers thick and heavy. She had a smooth outer layer, but he could see right past it to the shook up mess beneath it. She needed a shoulder and he had a curious urge to offer his.

  “I’m a stranger,” he admitted. “But I have no ties to your world either. You seem the kind of girl who’s been keeping secrets.” He fondled a rock in his hand. “Secrets are like poison. They tear you up inside.”

  Nora sucked in a deep breath just to blow it free a moment later. What did she have to lose? “My family is falling apart. My brother has this insane plan to release monsters into the world to cleanse it and I have no way to stop him. My twin could save us, but he doesn’t give a damn about the world spinning around him. And the woman I hate because Abel wants her not only kept me from being raped tonight, but she saved my life. I’ve seen what Mathew Ellis does to folk women. He’d been planning it. Fantasizing about it. And she stopped him.”

  Deklan’s face drifted through a number of expressions before he landed on a gentle smirk. “See, secrets are rough,” he said.

  Nora sniffed, fighting tears. The smirk dropped away to reveal something that looked like concern. Deklan crossed the carpeted distance and crouched down next to her. He pointedly kept his hands to himself in deference to her admission of attempted rape.

  “Today is almost over. Tomorrow will come and it brings with it new beginnings. It won’t wash away the gravity of your troubles, but I promise it will offer a rung to climb through them.”

  All Nora had was tears.

  “Can I touch you?” he asked.

  Nora nodded. She needed everything this man offered. His kindness and consideration, she craved his gentility. Deklan wrapped his arms around her. He cooed softly, rocking her. Nora melted in his embrace. Warmth kindled between them, comforting and easy. It tingled on her skin rocking her with each tiny starburst. All of her machinations and anxieties fell away in the face of it. Nora could not remember a moment in her life where she felt this kind of peace.

  She let go of her second and third thoughts. Nora sank into the contentment swirling between them. Like warm water, it cradled her. She let whatever this was; have its way with her.

  “You are not alone,” he whispered.

  Moonlight mixed with a streetlight just outside the window painted his face in shades of blue. He smelled of patchouli mixed with cedar. His tousled blond hair was careless and perfect at the same time. She gave him the benefit of a dreamy smile.

  “You Sparrows cheat,” she whispered.

  Her golden eyelashes made half-moons on her cheeks. All she needed was a tinny song playing in the background. Sleep toyed with her. Contentment called to her.

  “What is this?” Nora asked.

  “Solace,” Deklan whispered.

  46

  Chapter

  Abel paced.

  Nora was capable. She had a head on her shoulders no king has had among the Kin in a hundred years. Had she been born with the blessing their lives would know peace. He was sure of that. He believed in her. For years he’d been her hands. And he was willing to do what it took to get her in control of the table.

  Her plan was sneaky. The problem with sneaky though, you have to be sure everyone is playing along to pull it off. Sneaky requires a level of trust most just can’t conjure let alone maintain.

  It was no secret he didn’t think much of Alex. The spoiled little punk had the world handed to him and he ran to sob like a little pussy. This clan didn’t need another ruler like him. Selfish and cruel.

  The Worthingtons were known for concurring. Give them a target and they would ooze through cracks to take it. Questionable tactics make lonely lovers, though.

  The Worthingtons had few allies, and the laughing lie about not needing them was getting long in the tooth. Not to mention a bitch to maintain, Abel thought it so hard his lips moved a little.

  Alex didn’t have what it took to run this clan. Abel was betting Nora would have a harder time controlling him too. There had to be a better way. He just had no idea what it was.

  Then there was the complication of the Sparrow. She’d earned both his respect and his admiration the last time she showed him what she could do. Still, he didn’t like sending her out into the world of the kin and the leeches alone. She could hold her own but there was a lot to learn.

  And so he paced.

  A circuit around the kitchen and right back to the tall windows on this side of the room, he sighed leaning against the frame. Forehead pressed to the back of his hand he gazed out at the rolling hills and supple fir trees. Drenched in the velvet of night, his eyes were drawn upward. A trillion stars danced around the silver crescent. Abel swore it dripped down on his shoulders sweet as honey. Heavy and thick it rolled down his skin leaving a cool, pleasant shiver in its wake.

  It stirred in his blood so blissful it courted madness. That is what the Kin are. Ecstatics. Lunatics and addicts. Devoted to the moon so deeply that wonder has gone maniac. They were a people born of those beliefs. True believers and fanatics became elders and teachers. But what else do you expect when your faith bubbles and sparks in your blood.

  They’d never had to wonder or doubt. Their Go
ddess stood before them every night. Even on the new moon. That was her time. When she worked magic and wove things into creation. The moon was undeniable.

  A noise spun him halfway. Zoe wandered into the kitchen pale and haunted. She wandered the halls like a ghost, just like she did the few days after she woke up here. He felt bad for the kid.

  She yearned for the moon just as heavily as he did. And their kind would spurn and cast her out. Foolishly at that! The kin were fading. Three to five children a year. And not all of them survive the first year. Their world was dangerous. This struggle lost the kin six lives just a few days ago. They could not afford to deny anyone. Pride always comes before the fall.

  The Kin he championed were forgiving and fair. They embraced their kind. It was about life, not survival. Savagery had its place, shackled to time, right where it belonged. More is done in peace.

  Abel relaxed. He looked her up and down at her from the high spiky ponytail to the old socks on her feet.

  “Put your shoes on, meet me out by the barn.”

  In mid swallow of her glass of water, she gave him complicated eyebrows in answer. He walked out the front door before she’d even finished. Great, another one on one out in the world and far away from Johnny’s ears to make her week complete. Zoe just couldn’t find her footing. The woods were lovely dark and deep with this family. With emphasis on the dark.

  They had lovely faces all of them, but they were every bit as complicated as a fairytale monster could be. And it was so easy to get eaten. Worse Little Red Riding Hood’s excuses could get her in every bit as much trouble.

  That fable had taken a place among her worst nightmares of late. She couldn’t stop comparing them. Every spike of the story she recognized in her own tale surprised her, but she kept going.

  She felt bad for Conner, she really did. She even wanted to help. What she didn’t like was the implied obligation Conner was so sure to lay out for her. His favorite pastime was keeping track of the ways the Merrick brothers were putting themselves out by hiding her disease. That’s what he called it too. Like she was some kind of leper.

  She expected humans to shun and scream at her presence when Johnny told her she was a monster. She never thought the other werewolves would laugh and call her names too. Zoe slipped into her other shoe and looked at the door with a heavy sigh.

  The screen door banged. Zoe jumped turning toward it with what she thought was a karate pose should look like. And her face pointed it out. She sagged visibly heartbeat thudding in her ears. Zoe blew out a heaving breath and went back to her path feeling like an idiot.

  She turned the corner and the light blinded her. She lifted her arm to shield her eyes. Abel stood at the back of the smaller feed barn. His profile bathed in shadow worked something in his hands.

  Blinking Zoe stepped closer. “Are you going to shoot me? I mean what else could you Merricks do to me?”

  Abel shot her a look. She was as overdramatic as Connor. “I get it. This sucks. But it will get better, kid.”

  The expression he wore was decorated with compassion and sympathy. And of course, there was the smile that told her he couldn’t possibly be a part of what Connor’s plans were. The cruelty required to be guilty and have a smile like that were astronomical. They had to be.

  Abel handed her something heavy. It jerked her expression into surprised. The metal was cold, matte black. Her eyes flew open wide and her mouth made a little o.

  “Why did you just hand me a gun?” Zoe asked.

  “Claws and teeth we have a plenty. But the easiest way to kill a Kin is silver.” Abel produced a shiny bullet and held it out to her.

  Zoe reached for it. Her fingers brushed the mirrored side and it fell into the cup of her palm. Searing heat ripped across her flesh as it bounced around. She opened her palm and yanked it in to look at her hand. There was no mark. Nothing. But she could feel it. It sizzled and smoldered. Zoe swore she could smell meat burning.

  “What the hell was that?” she screeched.

  “That is silver.” He gave her a nod in sympathy. “It affects you deeper because you’re a lunatic.”

  She didn’t know what to ask first. All of the questions went rushing for her tongue at the same time and all she could do was breathe.

  “Johnny wears that around his neck?”

  Abel licked his lips and nodded where she expected an explanation. Instead, he picked up a full magazine and offered it. Zoe took it hesitantly.

  “In the end,” he coached. Abel smiled with her getting it right. “Give the bottom a slap. Hear that click. That’s a good sound.” Abel guided her fingers and palm into the right hold. “You want to hold it like this, all right.”

  Zoe tested it, holding the gun up.

  Abel smirked. “You’re a natural.”

  That won him his first smile.

  “Johnny’s still a little gun shy. If wearing it helps him…” He left the rest hanging in the nether.

  “Is Johnny really bitten, like me?” She asked the question gently but she still asked it.

  They weren’t exactly polite about the rumors that surrounded the Merrick’s at the square. She hadn’t had the heart to ask Johnny about it.

  “Where’d you hear that?” he asked, but Abel had an idea.

  “Conner’s been taking me to the square and showing me around,” she answered a little hesitantly.

  Abel shrugged his shoulders.

  “None of us know. Not even him,” Abel answered honestly. “My mother refuses to tell anyone who his father is. Swore she’d take it to her grave.” He looked up at her. “No one’s been ballsy enough to take her up on it yet.”

  “Johnny sugar coats. Connor terrorizes. What do you do, Abel?”

  “I suppose that is up to who you ask.”

  “How screwed am I?”

  He dropped his head to one side. His words measured. “This is a dangerous life. Short. Brutal. And there are far too many who would chew your bones to splinters to use it as a tool to escape their own misfortunes. And that’s if you survive all this.”

  Her eyebrows popped high just to ease into an accompanying expression. “Apocalyptic doom and gloom. Got it.” She made a flippant check gesture next to her head.

  “You aim for the head or the heart. Silver alone won’t stop a Kin.”

  “That bad?”

  “I thought I would have to put a bullet in my brother’s head. All totaled that gives me hope. The stars align and we make it past the Culling…” He left the rest hanging in the cold air between them. “Either way you slice it, after the Culling, things get complicated.”

  Zoe licked her lips and looked down at the gun. Abel was a physical presence she just couldn’t shake. He loomed larger than he was. Shadows menacing, and howls on the edge of her hearing seductive as a siren song. But none of that matched his demeanor. Oh, he rocked that badass aura. It comes off cool in movies. He had the snappy dresser thing going toward his action star status too. It was more intimidating this close. But plain as day his open, pleasant vibe winked at her.

  “How do I hold it again?” Zoe asked.

  47

  Chapter

  Sitting on the side of the bed Izobel pulled her silken shirt down over her bare back. Little bubbles spilling over with succulents surrounded her. Deklan’s bed had romantic appeal. She didn’t understand why she couldn’t just love him. On paper, he had everything she thought she wanted in a man. In practice, she found herself considering Abel. And so, she declared she didn’t need either.

  Valentine grabbed her hand with his paw dragging it over to his chest. She gave him the pets he demanded and he gleefully rumbled with a purr.

  “You’ll like the farmhouse,” she assured him.

  She stood up grabbing her jeans from off the footboard. Izobel went to step into them and nearly fell over. Her bones felt hollow and her head ached. But she was alive, in Deklan’s apartment, no less. That meant the douche bag after Nora was dead. The blur of last night fell into place.<
br />
  Dead.

  A word like that had consequences. Good and bad were a brand burned into your skin. And make no mistake both of them sting.

  Izobel sucked in a breath and tried her jeans again. This time she wove the button closed. The bathroom door opened and a plume of steam proceeded Nora. Drying curls swept her broad shoulders. Her professional look had a touch of elegance. A pencil skirt that hugged all the right curves and a tailored blouse with a ruffled collar winked at romantic, were a sharp contrast to the bruises.

  “Are you okay. Last night got really…” she didn’t even know how to finish the sentence.

  “Why did that man attack us?” Izobel asked.

  Nora moved into the room. “Because he’s a psychopath. You know the adage, some people just suck. Yeah, that goes for the kin too. Monsters are everywhere.”

  For some more than others, Izobel couldn’t help thinking. Both of them were touched by the supernatural world. But the sorcerer’s seemed just a touch more stable than the werewolves… I mean, if you’re playing the home game.

  “Okay, he’s a sicko,” Izobel said with a smile that didn’t seem satisfied in the least.

  Nora figured the easiest way to nudge the sorcerer to her side was a glimpse at the truth. There is a use for lies. Nora learned from the mistakes her grandfather made. She covered her tracks when necessity made her a thief. But most importantly, she learned to frame the truth in a way that told the story Nora wanted told for her.

  Nora huffed out a dramatic breath. “Okay, the truth is I think someone is striking at us from the shadows. They made it look like my grandfather put a hit on the Merricks. And I think they had something to do with why he showed up last night.”

  Izobel’s jaw worked. She unclenched her unfriendly body language and her hands fell down to her sides.

  “What do we do about it?” Izobel asked. “Without the Merricks my sister has nothing.”

  Nora smiled. She liked a motivated party. “We start by putting my brother on the throne. Once he’s in place it will be easy to see who’s using the kin against us.”