Through the Woods

by Cassandra Johnson

  “I’m going to take this up to bed and see if I can’t get all of this out of my head before falling asleep. I’ve started a new book.” Elle told him, smiling as she leaned across the space and kissed his cheek before she stood up. “Something like I have never done before.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Elle was dreaming, but her eyes opened right at that pivotal moment, waking from her sleep to see that the sun was coming up outside of her window. Actually, it appeared to already be up and forcing her to sit up in bed, pushing her fingers into her eyes before she looked at the clock on the nightstand, it was already eight-thirty in the morning. Shooting out of bed she stumbled downstairs quickly, urgency heating her blood, but for what reason it hadn’t sunk in yet. Elle felt like Bilbo Baggins waking up the morning after Thorin and Co came to his cozy little hobbit hole and realizing suddenly after they’d gone, and it wasn’t a dream that he did want to take that adventure. Terror and exhilaration heated her blood as Elle entered the kitchen and was suddenly blinded by the sunlight streaming into the room from the window. Shielding her eyes, she came to a stop and shrunk backward with a groan as if she had a bad hangover and in fact she did. Elle often suffered mornings like this when she went on one of her all-night writing binges, and it reminded her of how much she hated waking up early. Elle hadn’t fallen asleep until four in the morning and even then, her rest was fitful for a while until she drifted deeper and her body stilled beneath the sheets.

  “Dear God, please tell me that someone has already made coffee,” Elle said out loud though she didn’t know if there was anyone to answer. Her eyes squeezed closed as she stumbled into a chair and held onto the back of it to steady herself before the room got a bit darker, the blinds squeaking softly as they were lowered.

  “There is coffee, why don’t you take a seat.” It was Gaerik, his tone softer than she’d heard it before.

  “Thank you,” Elle managed and slid down into a chair rubbing her hands over her face, still trying to remove the sleep crust from her eyelids. “Are we the first to wake up?” She asked hopefully, the last thing that Elle wanted was to find out that she was the last person dragging themselves out of bed and that everyone was just waiting for her. A mug of coffee was placed down in front of her. Her eyes slowly opened as she reached for the cream and sugar and poured it into the cup.

  “Yes, actually. I’m surprised.” Gaerik’s voice was still soft, “I figured that Marik would rise with the sun.” In truth, he wasn’t so sure. Gaerik knew his brother wasn’t looking forward to this. Gaerik was the one looking forward to what today would bring. He wanted the fight, those bastards had tried to frame him for murder, not just Jamal the sneaky little son of a bitch, but the whole Council. As Gaerik thought of Jamal though, he watched Elle blowing her coffee to cool it’s temperature before she took that first welcomed sip. Jamal tried to kill her, it was just lucky that they showed up when they did, or else Elle would have been just like the other women Jamal had gotten his claws into.

  “Are you nervous?” Gaerik asked, leaning back against the counter, carefully keeping an eye on her, listening to the sound of her heartbeat.

  “Gaerik,” Elle looked up at him, placing her coffee cup down on the table. “I’m not just nervous, okay? I’m scared shitless of what’s going to happen today, and not just today but every day that follows.” Pausing there was a knock at the back door and Elle knew that it had to be Lucas, come with his merry band of werewolves to give them lessons in hand-to-hand combat. Elle wanted to vomit.

  Gaerik went to the door letting them inside, followed by Lucas were three other men, older than Lucas and Gaerik --she would have guessed that they were probably closer to Gallen’s age, but they were bigger. Elle imagined being a werewolf in Arkansas was a little more physical than it was in Connecticut, but then again Arkansas hadn’t given up the ways of the Alpha either. As much as she cared for Gallen, it looked like having a Council had backfired on them in more ways than one. They had all gotten soft because there was no need to fight.

  “Morning Elle.” Lucas smiled motioning to the three older gentlemen with him. “This is John Hellby, Travis Bartlett, and Donnie Jones,” Lucas told them making the introductions between Gaerik and Elle.

  “Are you in anyway related to Ashlee Barlett?” Elle asked Travis, rising from her seat to shake each of their hands in turn.

  “She’s my niece. Moved up to Memphis a few years ago with her husband. Got three kids and another one on the way. Her husband Jack will be joining us in a couple of days. We all thought it would be best if Ashlee stayed home with the kids considering she’s six months pregnant right now.” Travis told her with a smile. Elle nodded in understanding, she’d gone to school with Ashlee she was a lovely girl, but they’d never run in the same circles. It made sense, she was a werewolf. Was everyone from her childhood a werewolf or somehow associated with them? Her grandmother knew, Elle could only wonder. Grace had been spoon feeding this information to her since she was a little girl and she just never got it. Why hadn’t her grandma ever just slapped her and told her that it was all real? Of course, Grace had never said to her that it wasn’t real, how many years had she been waiting for Elle to figure it all out and she just never made the connection?

  “Good morning everyone,” Gallen said, walking into the kitchen as he was finishing fastening the last button of his shirt. Recognizing the faces in the kitchen, he’d been more prone to introducing himself at the meeting a few nights ago at the pack gathering, but Marik and Alex were still lost to the newcomers.

  “Harriet will be done shortly,” Marik said looking down at Elle before he moved his arm around her shoulder and pulled her in slightly.

  “Where’s Molly and your sister?” Elle asked finding herself leaning into the shelter of Marik’s side for a moment before she realized what she was doing and straightened up.

  “Oh, they are outside with the rest of the pack,” Lucas said flicking the blinds open for a moment showing her that yes, indeed the rest of the pack was in her backyard just waiting for them to come strolling out.

  “I’d better go get dressed then.” She told them as she hustled out of the kitchen. “Morning Harriet,” Elle shouted on her way up the stairs.

  “Morning!” For an old woman, Harriet didn’t act like it, she was slightly jogging as she went into the kitchen. Maybe it was a wolf thing.

  Dressing quickly, when Elle came back downstairs everyone was already outside, some of them were talking while some of the others were sparing with one another already while others watched. Stepping out onto the back-porch Elle moved over closer to Molly, she and Alex were the only two other humans within this strange new pack that had been created, and Elle felt a little safer being close to them instead of the wolves that were pairing up to show them different fighting techniques.

  “Have I missed much?” Elle whispered as she leaned into Molly for a moment.

  “No, we haven’t even gotten into the basics yet. Don’t worry you’ll be fine.” Molly smiled rubbing her back.

  “Do you know anything about fighting?” Elle whispered watching two younger men, closer to her own age using far more advanced moves than she was going to be capable of.

  “Yes, a bit anyway. Howard felt that I needed to be prepared for anything, so I will actually be helping Travis demonstrate some moves that humans can use against the wolves.” The look of shock on Elle’s face must have said everything because Molly began to chuckle.

  “But last night…” Elle trailed off confused.

  “Lucas is overprotective, and Shaye is too, but they highly underestimate what their Nana is still capable of.”

  Smiling softly, Elle didn’t want to appear as doubtful as her grandchildren were of her capabilities, but she’d also grown up with them too, Elle would have felt the same way if her grandmother was still living and here with them now. Elle just didn’t want to see her get hurt. Elle didn’t want to see any of them get hurt, but it was far past that now.

>   Steeling herself Elle was preparing herself for whatever might come today, and --she hoped what was to come in the days ahead of them.

  “We’re just going to go through a few of the basics and then you, myself and Alex will team up together. I’ll show you some things I learned when I was a lot younger than I am now.” Molly leaned over whispering into Elle’s ear softly though she had no doubt that all the wolves could hear what Molly was saying.

  “Are you ready Molly?” Travis asked as the group formed a circle around them leaving Elle and Shaye to close the gap. Instantly as Molly stepped closer she felt her heart rate speed up suddenly, and she wanted to pull her back like she was keeping her from walking into oncoming traffic, but the fighting didn’t begin immediately like she was afraid of.

  “Before Travis and I begin to spar, I would like all our human friends to be aware that silver can be used to kill a werewolf but unless it hits a major kill zone like the throat or the heart they can recover pretty quickly, and they will be damn pissed when they do.” Reaching inside of her pocket for something Molly held up a gold chain. “Werewolves aren’t particularly weakened by religious artifacts like vampires so don’t think that making the sign of the cross is going to save you, although if you meet Saint Peter, it’ll earn you some brownie points with the Man upstairs.” Everyone laughed at that, but Elle was a little dumbstruck, vampires? Vampires were real?

  “Wait…” Elle began, but Molly quickly held her hand up smiling her laughing smile.

  “I know that you have questions, but I’ll talk to you about that later.”

  Shaye gently reached over, pushing Elle’s mouth closed again before a fly got trapped in there as Molly went on.

  “Silver burns the skin of werewolves, but since I’m not actually trying to cause any permeant damage to old Trav’ here, I’m using my mother’s gold chain.” She smiled wrapping the chain around her hand before she spun and landed a clean shot straight to Travis’ nose to which he bounced back a few steps reaching up to cradle his face for a second before looking up, blinking hard for several seconds.

  “Goddamn it, Molly that hurt!” Travis growled as his eyes colored burnt copper.

  “Well, I didn’t mean for it to tickle, silly,” Molly said as she shook the chain loose from her hand.

  “You were supposed to warn me first.” Travis omitted shaking his head slightly before he stepped back into the line of fire.

  “There are no warnings in war, Travis.” Donnie laughed somewhat.

  “Anyway, had this been silver, Travis would have been in searing pain unable to block any further attacks,” Molly explained as she idly wrapped the chain around her hand again. She caught Travis off guard and struck him across the cheek with the back of her hand. One leg shooting out to drop into his shin, scraping the heel of her boot all the way down to his foot, he toppled over onto the ground but was quickly on his feet again.

  “Now, this gives you time to get away. Don’t be stupid and think that you can really fight a werewolf who wants you dead. Travis is taking it easy on me because I’m an old woman.”

  “And an old woman with a right hook from hell,” Travis grumbled pulling a handkerchief from his pocket and wiping a small spot of blood from his nose which they all knew he would recover from.

  “You always want to keep silver on you, whether it’s a ring, a chain, or if you are lucky enough to have one, a knife because you never know when you might need it. The point of this exercise isn’t to prepare you to fight a werewolf it’s to teach you how to render one incapacitated just long enough to get away from one.” Molly told them, speaking to Elle and Alex specifically.

  “But,” Lucas interrupted. “Even the best-laid plans do not always work. Always be on your guard and aware of your surroundings, use whatever you can to get away and get someplace safe and let us handle the rest from there.”

  Elle was amazed, she knew that Travis wasn’t going to throw everything that he had at Molly, the werewolves were planning on doing all the fighting, but she also knew that they were counting on fatalities of the human kind, but she was still surprised by how Molly threw those punches. Where did she learn them, had her husband taught her those moves and why had he ever been worried that she would need them?

  “Now, who wants to pair up?” Molly asked looking straight at Elle obviously giving her no choice to allow her fears to cripple her where she stood. Holding her hand out to Elle, she gradually stepped forward and took the piece of jewelry as Molly handed it to her, feeling how fragile it felt in her hands, she didn’t understand how the chain hadn’t broken the instant Molly wrapped it around her hand.

  Molly wasn’t going to cut her any slack just because she had grown up practically in her own house. Lucas, Elle, and Shaye had spent so much time together as kid’s people used to laugh and call them the triplets. She looked back at how good her childhood was, despite the lack of a mother and father but she had a different kind of support system, and Molly Pritchett was a big part of it. Inhaling she stepped forward into the circle with Donnie and tried to remember this was just for practice, no one would be harmed today, but that was the problem. Elle knew what they were doing this for.

  She was under no assumptions that she would be able to do to Donnie what Molly did to Travis, but she would do her best, in her own way. Elle had never been in a real fight before in her life --that wasn’t saying very much since her grandmother raised her to be a lady. Perhaps Grace had always hoped that she would never need to know how to fight, still though Elle wished she’d known what she did now. Planting her feet shoulders width apart Elle nodded to let Donnie see that she was ready. Bringing her fists up as he came at her, he was quicker than Travis, but then Molly hadn’t really given him any signs of what she was about to do when she felt herself being swept off her feet, Donnie’s hands quickly cradling her back as she hit the ground and his mouth was poised at her neck.

  “Well, as everyone can see that is a good way to get yourself killed. Elle, you’re dead right now.” Molly said as Donnie let go of her and stood, helping her back to her feet.

  “Can I try again?” Elle felt a little embarrassed, this was what it would be like, and Donnie had done his job, he didn’t go easy on her, but he wasn’t overly aggressive for the actions he’d taken.

  “This is a good first lesson on what not to do. Remember werewolves are big, but they’re still just as fast as any other being coming after you.” Molly told them all. “You have to be ready to strike at any movement, not just stand there like a four-year-old who just crapped her pants on the playground.”

  All the wolves had a good laugh at that, Elle would have found it funny if she wasn’t the four-year-old in that analogy. Dusting herself off she thought about what Molly said to her, you had to be ready to strike. It made since she needed to be prepared to do something that would completely throw her attacker off guard like Molly had shown them.

  As Donnie stepped back, rolling his neck getting ready to knock her off her feet again she watched him take one step before she raised her foot off the ground and nailed him in the balls, Donnie’s throat rippled with a howl of pain as she hadn’t held back an ounce of strength when she kicked him. Once he doubled over, she grabbed his hair, but at the last minute he knew what Elle was about to do and grabbed her leg as it came up to bring her knee into his nose, toppling onto her back she pulled her fist back and slammed it into his jaw.

  “Ow!” Donnie rolled off her into the ground, clutching his jaw. “My tooth!” Donnie groaning slowly sitting up on the ground as Elle looked at him, her eyes wide with fear and concern as she sat up.

  “Oh my God, Donnie I am so sorry.” Elle squeaked trying to get closer to look at what she had done. She honestly really hadn’t intended on hurting him but if this was a life or death situation she was sure she had incapacitated her attacker enough to get away, now since Elle knew that it wasn’t a life or death situation she was in full-on panic mode.

  “I think you knocked my tooth lo
se.” Donnie whimpered slightly as she got closer, moving his hands as Elle gently touched his chin as he held his mouth open.

  “I got something inside that can help with the pain.” Elle nodded quickly as she helped him to his feet.

  “I think that’s all the training we will do today,” Molly said as everyone began to fall into their own groups again, wolves against wolves once more as Elle, Molly and Marik went into the house with her.

  “Donnie you have a seat here, and I’ll be right back,” Elle told him feeling lower than a snake’s belly. He was trying to help her, and she’d gone and broke his tooth off at the gum line.

  Running upstairs, she went into the bathroom cabinet and started looking around for the tube. Since Elle was about eighteen, she’d kept this stuff for toothaches despite what it said on the label. A friend of her grandmothers was married to a dentist, they’d divorced years prior of course, but Grace had told her about Elle having a toothache one day and not being able to get to the dentist until Monday.

  “Ah Hah!” Finding the tube of Anal Ez, Elle grabbed a couple q-tips and high tailed it back down to the kitchen. “Now, I know this is going to seem weird, but this stuff is the exact same thing as the numbing gel that the dentist uses in his office before he hits you with the needle.” Spinning the cap off she loaded the end of the q-tip up with the pink gel and gently eased Donnie’s cheek over placing it on his gum line where the tooth had been broken off.

  “It tastes awful,” Donnie grumbled around the q-tip looking up at her.

  “It’s supposed to be cherry flavored but just give it a minute,” Elle said as she screwed the cap back onto the tube.

  “So, that’s why you had that in your cabinet,” Marik said taking the tube to look it over for a second. It looked a little different than the one she’d had in New Haven, but he distinctly remembered seeing it in her cabinet when he’d gone looking for cold medicine.