by Cheree Alsop
He didn’t dare ride the motorcycle with his vision still touched in blue. He could barely control his thoughts with the anger that still flooded through him.
“Hold on a sec,” Trent replied.
A few moments later, Siale said, “Alex, are you alright?”
The sound of her voice calmed the frazzled edges of Alex’s nerves. He took a deep breath. “I’m fine.”
“Don’t lie,” she said. He could hear the smile in her voice. “You don’t have to pretend to be strong for me.”
“Isn’t that what boyfriends are supposed to do?” Alex asked, fighting back a smile of his own. The blue in his vision began to fade.
“Most boyfriends,” Siale replied. “But you promised you would be honest with me no matter what, and I know you’re not fine right now.”
Alex felt ashamed at her words. “I’m sorry.”
“I don’t need to hear that,” she said, her words gentle. “I just want you to know that I care about you, the real you. You’re busy saving people and improving the lives of humans and werewolves, but underneath it all, you’re my Alex. You’re strong but gentle, quick to act but able to think situations through, and most of all, you care about those around you. That’s why you’re in Greyton right now. You can’t sit back when others could use your help. You’re selfless, Alex. That’s one of the things I love about you.”
Alex’s muscles relaxed. His limbs reduced to their normal length, he felt his fangs and face return to normal, and fingers without claws held the helmet. Scratches showed where his claws had scored the paint.
“Thank you, Siale,” he said quietly.
“Feeling better now?”
“Much,” he told her. “But you think way too much of me.”
She gave a light, musical laugh. “It was my turn to be honest.”
Alex shook his head, amazed at his good fortune to claim such an amazing girl’s heart. Commotion rose from the building behind him. He could see faces peering through the windows of the structure across the street. Footsteps sounded down the alleys.
“I think I’m beginning to draw attention. I’d better go.”
He shoved the helmet on his head and climbed onto the motorcycle. He drove through the Saa with the feeling of hundreds of eyes watching him go. The tension eased when he reached the business section. Cars filled the streets and pedestrians covered the sidewalks in droves. It was amazing how the dividing street of Angel Avenue had such a night and day difference. He took a calming breath.
Siale’s voice was quiet when she spoke, “Are you coming to Kalia’s funeral tomorrow morning?”
The relief Alex had felt leaving the Saa fled. Sorrow clung to his thoughts with merciless weight. “I can’t.” His voice broke on the words.
“You were her best friend here,” Siale said gently. “It would mean a lot to her.”
Alex’s gaze clouded to the point that he had to pull over. He slid his visor up and rubbed his eyes. “I’m the reason she’s dead.”
“You tried to save her. You did everything you could.”
“But it wasn’t enough.” Alex fought back the urge to cry. “I can kill a hundred Extremists, but I can’t save one girl? What’s wrong with me?” The tears he had tried to keep at bay broke free.
“You’re a seventeen year old werewolf,” she replied, her voice soft. “You shouldn’t have even been in that position. No one should have to watch their friend die.”
“If I had morphed sooner...”
“You can’t blame yourself for something you can’t control. Kalia wouldn’t hold it against you.”
“She kept calling my name.” Alex hunched over on his motorcycle, the emotional pain so intense it made his chest throb.
“She knew you would do whatever you could to try to save her, and you battled through a hundred armed guards to do it. You can’t beat a bullet, Alex.”
He knew it was true, but he couldn’t accept it. “She wouldn’t have been there in the first place if the General...” He gritted his teeth and corrected himself. “If my father hadn’t been trying to make me into his killing machine. If I wasn’t her friend, Kalia would be alive right now.”
“Would you give that up?” Siale asked gently. “Would you give away the friendship you shared to save her?”
“Yes.”
“Why?” Siale’s question was filled with her need to understand.
People walking down the street were giving Alex strange looks. He shut his visor, blocking them out. “Because she was far better off before she met me.”
He started the motorcycle again. The sunlight on his shoulders felt flat and without warmth. He appreciated Siale’s silence as he drove down the road. He couldn’t face more questions. He couldn’t face anything at that moment.
Alex’s stomach growled. He found himself pulling into the small parking lot of the café where he had eaten with Cherish and the others the first time he had met them. He remembered to grab some bills from the cash Trent had given him and made sure the seat was locked securely before he went into the café.
He ate the egg, sausage, and cheese burrito without tasting it. The thoughts that swirled through his head did so with a maddening cadence that numbed his mind.
“I don’t think we’ll ever see her again.” A sob followed the words.
Alex turned his head slightly, catching sight of a woman bent over a table. The man next to her had a hand on her shoulder and wore the same broken expression.
“We can’t give up. Dessie is strong; you know that.”
“So are they, James.”
Alex’s first impulse was to clench away from the heartache in the woman’s voice. He had been through enough sorrow. He couldn’t handle feeling empathy for others when his ragged heart barely kept beating.
“I kept telling the police about the blue clover. They wrote it down, but they didn’t act like it was important.”
The man’s hand clenched into a fist. “It’s all we’ve got.”
“That’s why I kept saying it. It’s the only thing that links us to her.”
Alex didn’t know he had risen from the seat until he was almost to the couple.
“Was your daughter taken to the Saa?”
They looked up at him in surprise.
“Yes,” the man said, his tone cautious. He leaned protectively closer to his wife.
“When?”
“Two days ago,” the woman replied. She glanced at her husband.
“Are the police looking for her?”
Tears broke free to trickle down the woman’s cheeks. Alex tried to be unmoved by her pain, to remain impartial behind the walls he had erected to avoid thinking of Kalia, but the hurt was too fresh, and he had to clench his jaw to keep his strong façade.
“They said they’re trying,” she answered. She buried her face against her husband’s chest.
He smoothed her brown hair with one hand. “But they say too many are lost to the Saa. They go through in sweeps, but the girls being kept captive get moved.”
Alex nodded. “The gang sign they left was a blue clover?”
“Yes. They spray painted it on the door to the gas station where Dessie was working. She was the only one on that night, and security footage showed two men in hoodies grab her and drag her away.” The man flinched as though the memory of watching his daughter be carried away by strangers had scarred his mind.
Alex didn’t know if they believed he would save their daughter, or if just the fact that someone cared was a lifeline to hold onto. He set a couple of bills down on their table. “Don’t give up hope. Dessie will make it home.”
He didn’t know what else to say. He turned to leave, and heard the woman break into sobs as he exited the café.
“You’re heading west,” Trent said, his voice quiet as if he was afraid to speculate.
“I’m going to the funeral.”
The faint note of relief in Trent’s voice was almost lost in the sound of the motorcycle engine.
&nbs
p; “Do you want Jaze to send the jet?”
“No,” Alex answered quietly. “I’d prefer to keep this to myself. I’m not going to stay long.”
“Are you coming back to the Academy?” Trent asked.
The hopefulness in his voice ate at Alex’s conscience. His friend truly missed him.
“I can’t,” Alex told him honestly. “Not for a while at least. I need things to, well...” He let the thought die away.
“I understand. Have a safe trip. I’ll keep an eye on you.”
“I know you will.”
The fact that Trent was able to track his every move used to bother Alex to no end. Now, however, the thought that someone knew and cared about where he was on the long, lonely expanse of road filled him with a sort of comfort. He turned his gaze to the horizon lost in the blue distance. Hills rolled away on either side, their graceful curves broken by cities, power lines, and small clusters of houses barely big enough to make up miniature towns. Alex let his thoughts go and became just a biker with the road beneath his tires.
Chapter Four
It felt fitting that the rain fell during Kalia’s funeral. Water ran off Alex’s shoulders and through his hair as he studied the ground at his feet. Jaze’s calm, sad voice reverberated across the vast city cemetery. Alex stood in the older section where bowed angels, beseeching saints, and ornate cement crosses hid him from view of the dark-clothed, hunched shoulders and lowered heads of his classmates and Kalia’s family. Alex couldn’t make himself walk any closer. It was hard enough knowing that she was being lowered into the ground because of him. He couldn’t face her family or friends.
A footstep within the raindrops caught his ear. Alex looked up and met Siale’s understanding gaze. The tears Alex had been fighting to keep at bay broke free as Siale made her way between the gravestones and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. He sobbed silently, and felt her do the same.
“I’m so sorry, Alex,” she said softly, her voice shaking.
“Me, too,” he replied.
The rain fell harder, enveloping them in a thunder of sorrow louder than Alex’s torrential thoughts.
The pastor’s voice was quiet as he intoned, “Kalia knows how much her loved ones care about her. She is safe now, far from the reaches of harm, and she’ll watch over her loved ones and help you during difficult times. Take comfort in knowing that she is far beyond the reaches of pain or heartache, and that she will now and forever be surrounded by joy. Remember her in your days and live your lives so that you will be worthy to join her when your time here is through.”
They listened to the footsteps of the students and family members who slowly wandered away. Kalia’s mom’s soft sobs filled Alex with pain. He could hear Mr. Dickson’s talking quietly to her as he led his wife back to the limousine. The sound of tires along the muddy ruts was dulled beneath the downpour.
“Gather together,” Jaze’s voice called softly when the last of the humans had departed.
Alex’s ears strained to pick up the chant he knew would follow. The voices of the students and professors spoke together.
“Our sister, body of flesh and blood no longer your soul holds. Run without the confines of blood and sinew, howl without the constriction of lungs or breath, and live within the embrace of the moon and her welcoming light. Your life is one with wolvenkind, and your heart will beat with ours forevermore. You will not be forgotten.”
Low howls, soft but full, rose from the group around the grave. Alex knew if he stepped between the stones, he would see them huddled together in a close group, their heads bowed and hands held as they honored one of their fallen. Alex howled softly enough that they wouldn’t hear him, but he felt the unity of his and Siale’s voices combining with theirs in one last farewell.
When the voices faded away, Jaze concluded the chant, “Never forgotten, always one.”
Alex whispered the words along with the others.
“I’m glad you came,” Siale told him.
“Me, too,” Alex admitted. He held her close, resting his chin softly on the top of her head. He wanted to stay like that forever, to never let Siale leave his side again, but he couldn’t face the Academy and the walls that reminded him of the girl who would never walk within them again. He took a shuddering breath. “I can’t go back. Not yet, at least.”
Siale was silent for a moment before she said, “I know.” She gave him another tight hug and then released him. “I’d better get back to the others. I love you, Alex.”
“I love you, Siale.”
He watched her disappear between the tombstones and out of the curtain of rain that blanketed him from the world.
Alex lost track of how long he stood within the angels and crosses. He felt apart from them, but no less lost. By the time he made his way back to where he had hidden the motorcycle behind the far gate, the sun had set and the night was so deep part of him doubted it would ever rise again. The next night would be the full moon, but nothing penetrated the darkness of the storm clouds above.
Alex pulled his key out of his soaked pocket and was about to climb onto the bike when he noticed the parcel that had been set on top of the fuel tank.
Taking his time, Alex opened the plastic bags. Sandwiches, two apples, several bags of chips, and two candy bars were revealed. A note sat on top of them. Alex picked it up and squinted at Trent’s scrawled handwriting.
‘I knew you wouldn’t take the time to eat, so here. Don’t worry. Terith made it so it’s not going to kill you. (Well, it might). There is a rain slicker and several changes of your clothes in the saddle bags as well as some more money. You probably need to fill up pretty soon. You can thank me later.
Trent’
Alex’s stomach growled. He took a bite of the first sandwich. He paused and inspected the contents closer. It appeared to be peanut butter and miracle whip. Cook Jerald should definitely not let the girls in the kitchen.
Alex was hungry enough to finish both sandwiches despite their strange contents, as well as one of the apples and a bag of chips before he turned to the saddlebags.
The rain slicker was long and yellow. It looked like it belonged more on a western cowboy than to a biker, but it would keep the rain off of him. A quick search revealed several changes of clothes along with a black hoodie. Alex pushed it to one side and paused when his fingers brushed something. He lifted the cloth and a small smile touched his mouth. A silver seven had been embroidered on the sleeve of the black hoodie right over the seven Alex had gotten tattooed on his shoulder to honor Jet.
Alex shoved everything else back in the saddlebags but the hoodie and the rain slicker. He drew the hoodie on over his soaked clothes, then fastened the yellow slicker.
Convinced that he looked like a terrifying motorcycle-riding banana, Alex kicked the bike into gear and cruised slowly back down the road.
“Trent, you there?” he asked into his helmet’s headset.
“Always,” Trent replied almost immediately.
“What do you do?” Alex asked with a reluctant smile. “Walk around with an earpiece in all day?”
“Yes, and it would bring me a lot less stress if I could convince you to do the same.” He paused, then, “Any luck?”
“Not a chance,” Alex replied with a snort.
Trent chuckled. “I had to try. I stuck an earpiece next to the tracking chip in the gas cap. Don’t worry. It’s wrapped so it won’t get ruined.”
“I was worried,” Alex replied dryly.
“I knew you would be,” Trent answered.
“Tell Terith thank you for the sandwiches.”
He could hear his friend’s smile when he said, “You must not have eaten them, or you wouldn’t be thanking her.”
Alex laughed out loud. “They were pretty horrible.”
“I wonder if I could talk Professor Colleen into teaching a cooking class next year. The whole point of this Academy is to teach us survival. It’d be useless if we all die of food poisoning as soon as we graduate.�
��
“You have a point. Peanut butter and miracle whip?”
“I know, right?” Trent said. “But get this. Brock got his hands on one and now she can’t make them fast enough.”
“It’s amazing he’s still alive.”
“That human could out-eat a bear.”
“Gladly,” a voice called in the background.
“Are you in the Wolf Den?” Alex asked, surprised.
“Unfortunately,” Trent muttered. A dull sound came through as though he kicked something. “It’s pretty filthy.”
“Only because I practically live down here,” Brock called. “It’s not like I have to impress any girls.”
“Like you know any girls,” Trent replied.
“I know plenty of girls,” Brock shot back. “Or I would, if I didn’t spend all my time down here!”
“What are you guys doing?”
Trent hesitated at Alex’s question. His voice was a bit reluctant when he replied, “Looking for Drogan.”
Alex’s heart clenched. Even the sound of his half-brother’s name was enough to make him see red. The thought of Drogan safe and warm while Kalia lay beneath the rain-soaked ground was almost more than Alex could bear.
“Jaze is concerned Drogan will be out to avenge his father. Mouse has triple-fortified the Academy, but there are safe houses and small werewolf communities we’re trying to watch over. Jaze is also trying to track down a werewolf killing humans in Texas. It really never stops on this end.” Trent fell quiet, then said, “Drogan really could be anywhere.”
“Just keep Cassie safe for me.”
“I will,” Trent promised.
“And thanks for the clothes.”
He heard the smile in Trent’s voice when his friend replied, “No problem.”
***
Alex reached Greyton just before dusk. He could feel the pull of the full moon that would soon rise beyond the skyscrapers. Until then, the call felt like an itch between his shoulder blades that wouldn’t go away until he was forced to phase. He left the motorcycle at the park and roamed the streets restlessly, but his feet soon took him to Cherish’s apartment complex. It was the only place that felt somewhat like home within the city.
