by JJ King
Before I could even cringe away, his hand shot out and struck me full across the cheek, sending me crashing to the floor in a daze of pain and disorientation. I struggled to regain my feet and cried out when he grabbed my hair and pulled me viciously up so that his face and mine were an inch apart.
“What was so important about your father that he was chosen to be Alpha over me? Huh?” Spittle flew from his mouth and landed on my cheek. “But, that’s a question without an answer because,” he pushed his mouth up against my ear and whispered, “I killed him where he laid and his pretty wife and children, too. Too bad the servants got away with you, or I wouldn’t have this little problem now.”
Loud buzzing filled my ears as I fell to the stage again, discarded like a broken doll. His face contorted with rage and he turned, throwing out an arm, pointing at the others in the auditorium to “Leave!” They listened because he was terrifying and there was a power coming out of him that made my insides hurt. It pressed against my head, against my bones and skin, pushing me down, grinding me to dust. It was all I could do to pull in a breath and survive.
I curled into a ball and covered my head with my arms, praying it would end soon. My brain wanted to explode, my heart pushed viciously against my ribs, I gasped as a wash of endless darkness rushed over me then sobbed when it receded at the last second. At least there would have been peace in the darkness.
“Get up.” The command was delivered with a snarl of impatience. When I didn’t respond right away he pointed into the auditorium. “Get up or your little boyfriend will become more than just a diversion.”
I looked out at the chairs where Bash still slumped, unconscious, and shook my head. “What? No, leave him alone.”
Viktor chuckled. “So fierce. Don’t worry, I won’t kill him. You can’t ransom off a dead kid.” He arched an eyebrow. “But you can chop off a few unnecessary parts.”
The blood drained from my face. I believed him, Old Ones, I believed he was crazy enough to do what he threatened. My limbs wouldn’t work right, they were rubbery and weak, but I struggled to stand. I’d felt the sting of his hand on my face and knew he’d kick me if I didn’t follow his demands. Since I didn’t feel like having broken ribs on top of my dislocated shoulder, I pushed shakily to my feet and swayed.
He looked me up and down with a look of disgust twisting his lips. “You’re just like your parents,” he spat out. “Weak and useless. A shadow of the family you were born into.” He drew his shoulders back and gazed down at me. “But you don’t even know who you are, do you little wolf?”
He paused and waited until I shook my head, then reached out a hand to smooth back a strand of hair from my face. “You look so much like him you know.” He shook his head and pulled his hand back. “Darling child, you are Elenora Galina Dom Volkov, youngest child of Alexander and Katarina Dom Volkov,” his lips pulled back to show his teeth again, “and heir to the Alphaship of Russia.”
I stared at him, swaying precariously, and just blinked. He had to be wrong, this was insane. My parents… I frowned, he was saying my parents weren’t my parents. But, that didn’t make sense. I looked like my mom, sort of. Not the way I looked like this lunatic, but still.
“No.” I shook my head slowly, afraid to fall if I loved too suddenly. “No, my parents are Bradley and Gretchen Jensen and I’ve never even been to Russia.”
His brilliant blue eyes glittered with annoyance and pity. “You were born in Russia and stolen away in the dead of the night by a maid. Saved from a quick death by a member of The Sisterhood, or so I’m told.” He cocked an eyebrow and scowled. “I’ll be rectifying that mistake today.”
His words took a moment to sink in. The mistake had been my salvation. His rectification could only mean my death.
“How can you be sure?” I blurted, taking a stumbling step away from him. “You say I’m your niece and, yeah, we have the same weird eyes, but how can you be sure that I’m her? What if you’ve got the wrong girl?”
He chuckled. “You’re a fast thinker, you get that from me. Your father was always just a tad slower than necessary. His vision was stunted, he couldn’t see beyond tradition and expectations.” His breath came quicker now and anger lined his forehead. “I was born to rule! He would have taken us back to the Dark Ages.”
His shouts lingered in the air, echoing through the room. I gritted my teeth to stop them from chattering and wished I had something solid to hold onto.
“But,” he continued as if he hadn’t just exploded, “to answer your question, even though I don’t need to, once I discovered you were here, I had your DNA analyzed. The results were conclusive. You are Elenora Dom Volkov.”
“You’re lying!” I shouted, letting my overwrought emotions spill free.
He just shrugged. “I lie all the time, it’s an unfortunate side effect of murdering one's own family for power, but I have no reason to lie to you, little wolf. You’ll be dead soon and I’ve had to hold my tongue for far too long.” He took a step towards me.
I stumbled back, throwing up my hands to ward him off. “Why now then? Why wait until I was surrounded by security and brick walls to come for me?” I had to focus on staying alive, on asking him questions and keeping him talking. I couldn’t sink into the dread of comprehension that he wasn’t lying, that my entire life was a lie.
He chewed on his lip for a moment, considering me. “I had no reason to care before Sylvie LaFlamme,” he spat out her name, “was granted Alphaship of Canada. Women couldn’t rule, so why would I care if you lived or died? But now…”
The pieces came together so quickly the words bubbled out of me. “Now that women are taking power you’re afraid I’ll have a claim to the Alphaship of Russia.”
His eyes gleamed with fury and confirmation. “I’m afraid of no one, little wolf.”
“Then you’d have sent someone to kill me,” I said in a slide of words. “You didn’t have to come here yourself and tell me any of this. You put yourself at risk to what, terrorize someone you don’t claim to care about, for shits and giggles?” My knees came up against something solid and I reached back to steady myself with my good arm.
He was on me in a second, his big hands wrapping tightly around my throat as he stared down at me with my own eyes. Except they weren’t my eyes, they were hard and cold, and filled with rage and vileness. They were the eyes of a murderer and a madman.
I wrapped my hands around his wrist, trying desperately to pull it away so I could breathe. My shoulder screamed but what was pain when he was choking the life out of me?
Stars burst in my line of vision just like the time I’d dived too deep into the natural spring pool at my friend’s cabin. The water had been freezing and I’d been stunned by it, enough that I’d gotten turned around in the dark water and not known which direction to swim. My lungs had screamed then and lights had flashed before my eyes, and I’d known that I hadn’t long to live without oxygen. I’d surfaced and gulped in air, then gotten out and refused to ever go back in.
I was dying now and there was no surface to fight towards. He was so much bigger than me and I was tired, injured, and out of time.
I squeezed my eyes shut and saw my parent’s faces, smiling at me. A feeling of lightness and peace filled me, luring me to a place where the pain and fear would end. I wanted to give in, to let go and just be there, in the light, but something stopped me. My father’s face changed, his smile melting away as he shook his head and made that tutting sound he made when he was disappointed.
I felt the words rather than heard them and they struck me hard. Never stop fighting. Be brave. Be fierce.
I had no time to think. I let go of his wrist with my right arm and raised it high above my head. With every ounce of strength I had left, I twisted it and brought it down, smashing my elbow into his forearm and breaking his hold on me.
He howled and grabbed his arm while I rolled away and fell to the floor. I didn’t look back, I didn’t have time. I needed to breathe, to get m
y strength back, to find something to hold him off.
I gasped and stumbled to my feet, moving behind what I now saw was a table to scan the stage for a weapon. My gaze fell on an electric guitar, a prop from the musical being rehearsed.
I ran for it, throwing everything I had left into getting my hands on that guitar. If I could just hit him once, stun him, I could maybe…
My fingers wrapped firmly around the neck of the guitar, and I swung it up and around, then froze as my eyes adjusted and I saw the gun pointed straight at my head.
Chapter 24
I dropped the guitar to the stage floor as my fingers went numb with cold.
I’d faced death so many times today that I thought I’d get used to it or, at least, come to terms with the fear that bloomed bright and fierce in my chest, but no.
I stared at the gun for a long moment, unable to break my gaze. As I looked at the weapon, though, I understood that it wasn’t what would kill me. I shifted my gaze to what would. Viktor.
He was watching me with those familiar blue eyes that glittered now with triumph and satisfaction and I wondered if my real father’s eyes had been the same. I thought of my dad, the sweet, simple man who’d sang me to sleep at night as a child and danced with me at my high school prom, and wished I could climb into his arms one more time.
Mom would cry, I knew. She’d be strong and stalwart for dad, but, at night, when the lights were down and she thought no one was listening, she’d cry for me and for the years we wouldn’t have together.
Sara and Bethany would be devastated and they’d need each other more than ever. We’d planned so much of our lives together, growing older, getting married, having children. This was supposed to have been a minor detour in our plan. I grieved for the lives we’d planned.
My eyes shifted, looking out into the seating area to where Bash still slumped. There was something there, something important and big, something growing beyond our control. It would be over before it had even had a chance to begin. I closed my eyes and wished for more time.
“He closed his eyes, too, you know,” Viktor said quietly with what struck me as an edge of regret. It made him sound human.
Strange, I thought, you don’t really expect a psychopath to feel regret.
I opened my eyes and looked straight into his. He’d stood above my parents and murdered them in cold blood, he’d said as much. Spite and hatred fueled me driving away the fatigue and hopelessness. I wouldn’t give him the peace of going gently into that dark night with my eyes closed. No, he’d have to look me in the eye when he pulled the trigger.
A ghost of a smile lifted his lips then he pulled them tight again and sighed. “This right here is exactly why you have to die, little wolf.” He shook his head. “There’s too much of me in you. When The Sisterhood told you the truth of who you are, you’d have come for my Alphaship. It’s better this way.” He murmured the words as if trying to convince himself, then took a deep breath and tightened his finger on the trigger.
“No!” The shout resonated through the auditorium and, for a split second, Viktor’s attention deviated from me. I threw myself to the side as the gun exploded, sending a silver bullet crashing through the set walls and into the concrete behind.
I grabbed the guitar and pulled back as far as my injured shoulder would let me, then crashed it into Viktor’s shins.
The crunch of bones breaking met my ears and filled me with just enough hope to have me moving, scrambling to my feet and shoving whatever I could find back at him. A roar of pain rent the air so loud it seemed to grab me by the throat and squeeze but, I kept moving.
Another shot ripped through the air and, for a moment, time stilled and I was free, I’d made it out of the horror. I saw the stage door in front of me and knew that if I could just reach it, I’d be safe.
Agony erupted everywhere and I was flying, my arms thrown out in front of me, my heart exploding in my chest. The bullet slammed into my thigh and I landed in a heap of blood, torn flesh, and deadly poison.
I pressed a hand to the wound and pressed hard, cursing myself for being too slow, and looked up into hard blue eyes and bared canines.
Viktor’s wolf was impressive. His fur was a thick mahogany color, less vibrant than mine but beautiful all the same. Only, it wasn’t beauty I was thinking of now as he lowered his shoulders, bunched his hind legs, and prepared to attack.
A mass of ebony fur slammed into Viktor, taking them both down in a tumble of limbs and snarls. I pushed back, dragging my leg and leaving a trail of silver tainted blood as I went, trying to get away from the snapping teeth.
Bash, my head snapped towards the auditorium seating. His seat was empty.
It was Bash. My heart flew into my throat as the battle raged, each man holding their own because they were still both injured. Viktor’s change had helped heal his broken bones but they were still fragile and Bash was taking advantage of that. He stalked around the older man and pounced quickly, getting in nips that tore at flesh and spilled blood.
My wolf scented the blood and wanted to change, to throw her weight in the battle and fight alongside her mate. My mouth fell open in shock at that thought, at the realization that my wolf thought of Bash as hers already. I was desperate to shift, but there was silver in my blood.
I tore my pocket open, the one I’d stored the extra antidote in, and pulled out a needle. My hands were trembling, so much I dropped the needle twice before I managed to extract enough Argyria sanitatem to fill the vial. There was just enough left when I finished for one more dose. Xavier, I prayed to the Old Ones, hang in there.
My pants were soaked with blood and tore easily to reveal the bullet wound. Already I could see the tiny silver lines that would snake out and poison me. I moved my hand around to the back of my thigh and probed carefully, sobbing out a cry of relief when I found a hole in the muscle. The bullet had gone straight through, I wouldn’t have to dig it out.
I positioned the needle in the muscle next to the wound and pushed until it was all the way in, then lowered the plunger. The antidote felt like ice water in my veins but it would do the trick, I’d seen it bring Daniella back from the brink, after all.
I wouldn’t be able to shift, though, not until all of the silver was eliminated from my body. Until then, I’d just have to fight with what I had.
The gun lay on the floor, discarded for teeth and fur. I pulled myself across the floor and grabbed it, cradling it for a moment before realizing there had to be a good reason Viktor would abandon it for his wolf.
I grasped it by the handle, careful not to touch the trigger, and brought it closer so I could see the magazine release. One click and the magazine dropped free, empty of bullets, into my hand. I eyed the gun again and reached for the top part. I’d seen enough movies and guns in real life to know that you always had to check for one in the chamber. I pulled back and peered inside. No bullet, the chamber was empty.
“Useless piece of shit,” I muttered, tossing it to the floor beside me. I tried to push off the floor but had to bite back a cry when my injured arm refused to work. “Damnit,” I ground my teeth together and used my other arm to get up.
I was going to fight as long as there was breath left in my lungs.
My toe hitched on a piece of broken table and I leaned down to grab a long shard that would have made even Buffy happy. It was jagged on one end and thick on the other, a perfect Mr. Pointy if I ever saw one.
I hefted it and waited for an opening.
The stage smelled of blood. It was splattered on almost every surface as Bash and Viktor charged one another, taking bites then retreating to find better angles.
I watched, crouching low behind a chair that had been overturned, and waited until Viktor was close to me, then threw myself forward and swung the stake down.
He moved like lightning, too fast for me to get a good hit, but my makeshift weapon managed to scrape the length of him, drawing more blood and more rage. His lips curled back as he snarled at m
e and lunged.
Bash caught him before he could land on me and dragged him back by the tail. He twisted and pulled until he was in front of me, guarding me, and Viktor was facing us both.
I felt the change in the air before I felt an unbearable pressure pushing down on me, forcing me to the ground. Besides me, Bash whimpered and fell to his belly. I pushed back, trying to regain my feet, trying to look at Viktor, whose eyes, so otherworldly in a wolf, bore down on us both with an intensity I felt in my bones.
It was like earlier, when he’d commanded me to get up, I realized through the pressure in my head. This was his Alpha power, his wolf’s command voice. I’d read about it and how it affected those under it’s command.
But, I wasn’t under his command, I forced the thought through the pain. He wasn’t my Alpha. I didn’t need to listen.
My entire body shook violently as I fought back against the near overwhelming urge to prostrate myself before him. Some part of me wanted to give in, wanted to obey, but I screamed at that part of me to “shut the fuck up” and pushed off the floor with a growl that broke Viktor’s concentration and made him step back.
Another growl trembled through the air and I glanced down at Bash, expecting to see him by my side. His body quivered still, lain low by Viktor’s command. I looked up, confused, and felt my eyes widen as another wolf, a female with beautiful auburn fur, leapt onto the stage from below, teeth bared and ears laid flat in warning.
I didn’t recognize this wolf and wasn’t sure if her look of contempt and fury was aimed at me or Viktor. My question was answered a moment later, when she launched herself towards him with snapping teeth.
Bash climbed to his feet and tossed his head, as if trying to shake off the hold Viktor had had on him. I looked down at him and ran my hand through his thick fur. “Are you alright?” His gentle head butt against my injured leg showed he was more concerned for me than for himself. “It’s okay. I took the antidote. I’ll be fine but I can’t shift.” I looked longingly towards the battle going down on the stage again, then back down at Bash. “Go get him.”
