by Kate Harre
Quickly standing, Annie concealed the vial in the palm of her hand, while she worked at the cork stopper with her thumbnail until it popped free. She almost welcomed Adrian’s approach, knowing it would give her the best chance for a direct hit with the potion.
‘Annie!’ Alex’s face twisted with fear and he threw himself desperately into Adrian’s path, recklessly drawing his attention away from her. Not to be thwarted, Adrian’s claws raked viciously from Alex’s left hip to his right shoulder. Beneath Annie’s horrified gaze, Alex staggered, his hands flying reflexively to his torn abdomen. He looked down at the blood gushing through his fingers, then his gaze locked on Annie as he crumpled to his knees, before collapsing backwards, his hands falling away from his ravaged flesh.
‘Alex! Please no… not Alex,’ she whispered, too shocked to scream, too devastated to cry.
Until rage like she’d never felt before kicked in, boiling up from her stomach. She stepped forward at the same moment that Adrian’s muscles bunched, launching himself at her. With a furious scream, Annie threw the vial at him while he was still in mid-air. Catching him full in the face, it shattered, brown liquid spurting into his eyes, nostrils and mouth. The wolf’s face blanched in shock and then its body twisted, fighting against itself as it crashed to the ground, writhing in some kind of supernatural battle.
Annie didn’t pause to see if the potion would work. Sprinting to Alex’s side, she threw herself down, cradling his ashen face between unsteady hands.
‘Alex! Please be okay,’ she begged, fear making her voice sharp. She slapped his face lightly, trying to rouse him.
His eyes slid open, the pupils unfocused and almost completely dilated. His head slewed to the side and Annie had to prop it back up again, her eyes desperately clinging to his.
When he tried to talk, nothing came out. He swallowed and on a rasping breath whispered, ‘Dying… in your arms… is all I could… w-wish for.’ He attempted to raise a shaking hand to her face, but could barely lift it off the ground. ‘Annie, I…’
His voice faded away and with it the light in his eyes.
‘No!’ Annie cried desperately. ‘You can’t leave me. I love you, Alex. I love you.’ There was no response. She collapsed on his chest, sobbing uncontrollably into his neck. She hoped he could somehow hear her, because the thought of him dying without ever knowing how she felt about him was more than she could bear. She cursed herself for not telling him earlier when she’d had the chance. What use was the perfect moment if it never came?
‘I don’t want to live without you,’ she whispered brokenly. ‘I don’t know how to.’
Chapter 18
An odd warmth began spreading through Alex’s body, noticeable enough that Annie lifted her head away from his neck in bewilderment. Bodies were supposed to go cold, not hot, when they died.
Maybe he…
Before she could even formulate the thought, some unseen force pushed her away from him. Alex’s body jerked violently and then started to glow with an eerie blue light. For a moment the light pulsed, completely obscuring his still form from sight. Her eyes glued to the strange phenomenon, Annie watched in awe as the light slowly dissipated.
Alex lay on the ground, his gaping wound completely healed. But more shocking than that, the face she was looking at was the one she’d only seen in his year book. The scars, the brutal disfigurement, were all gone.
Crawling back to his side, Annie tentatively brushed her fingers lightly along his smooth, perfect cheek. He groaned at her touch and his eyes flickered open, confused but bright and clear.
‘What happened?’ he mumbled.
Annie threw herself at him, her hands sinking into the luxuriant depths of his black hair. ‘You’re alive!’ she half sobbed, half laughed, as she scattered butterfly kisses all over his face, tears streaming down her own. ‘I love you. I love you so much.’
‘What?’ Alex pushed himself to a seated position with one hand, taking Annie with him, his other arm holding her firmly around her back. He stared searchingly into her eyes, smiling crookedly at what he saw there. ‘You love me?’
‘Completely crazy, head over heels, can’t get you out of my head in love!’ Annie replied with a wobbly smile, her eyes glowing with happiness. ‘I’ve loved you for ages, but I was waiting for the right moment to tell you.’
He laughed, a short, surprised bark as if he still couldn’t quite believe what he was hearing. ‘I love you too,’ he confessed quietly. ‘More than anything.’
They both grinned stupidly, green eyes staring into brown, their arms wrapped tightly around each other. Until Annie realised he still didn’t know what had happened.
‘Wait. Give me your hand.’
In the process of leaning down to kiss her, Alex gave her a bemused look but obediently loosened his tight grip on her and offered his hand. Cupping her hand around his, Annie planted a soft kiss in the middle of his palm before pressing it to his cheek.
Looking at him expectantly, Annie was disappointed when he showed no response other than confusion.
‘Why is my hand on my cheek?’
‘Feel your face, Alex.’ Her hand dropped away as he tentatively shifted his fingers across his cheekbone and nose. His eyes widened, shock stilling his expression.
‘Is it… I mean…’ He swallowed, too afraid to hope. ‘What… what do you see?’
Smiling gently, Annie smoothed her thumb over his eyebrow, simply because she wanted to touch him. ‘If I had a mirror on me, I’d show you. The curse is broken, Alex.’
‘But –‘
A crash interrupted him, as first the Sherriff and then Deputies Fields and Haynes burst into the clearing, guns drawn. Sherriff Denton’s eyes swiftly swept her surroundings, taking in Annie and Alex sitting on the gravel beach, Jake still slumped against a tree and Adrian’s prone form. She relaxed slightly, gesturing with her gun at Adrian. ‘Is he alive?’
Annie bit her lip. She’d completely forgotten about Adrian, but was relieved to see he’d reverted to his human form. The potion had obviously worked. ‘Just unconscious, I think. I caught him in the face and knocked him out.’
The Sherriff’s eyebrows shot up. ‘That must be some self-defence class you’ve been taking.’ Then she focussed more intently on Alex, her eyes narrowing. ‘Young Mr Hamilton. We haven’t seen you around these parts for a while.’
Lifting Annie off him, Alex rose gracefully to his feet and reached down to pull her up beside him. ‘I needed some time out to reassess my life, Sherriff. But I’m back now.’
Sherriff Denton frowned, but didn’t pursue the subject any further. Glancing over her shoulder at Deputy Fields, she gestured at Adrian. ‘Cuff him. We’ll take him in for questioning.’
Chelsea, closely followed by Sydney, almost fell into the clearing in her haste to find out what was going on and took in the scene with a sigh of relief. She was still looking a little wild around the eyes, but her colour was coming back. Her face convulsed in shock when her eyes settled on Alex. ‘Alex Hamilton? I knew you looked familiar! Wait a minute, how did you… actually never mind, tell me later,’ she babbled in a rush.
A groan from the edge of the clearing had them all turning towards Jake, who had roused and was rubbing his head. His gaze flew to Annie and then on to Alex, doing a double take before he quickly masked his surprise at the radical change in Alex’s appearance. The tension in his shoulders eased when he realised they were both whole. ‘What did I miss?’
‘Not much,’ Annie responded nonchalantly, before hurrying to his side.
Grinning, Jake pushed himself unsteadily to his feet, leaning heavily on her for support. ‘Remember, not a word of this to your mother.’
Annie rolled her eyes. ‘That’s going to be a little difficult when you can barely stand up!’
Sherriff Denton cleared her throat. ‘You folks can head on home now while we do our thing.’ She tossed a torch to Alex, who caught it deftly. ‘You’ve been through enough for one day, but I’d app
reciate it if you could all come in tomorrow to give a statement about what happened here tonight.’
There was a chorus of thanks and they all slowly filed out of the clearing and onto the path leading out of the forest. Chelsea couldn’t take her eyes off Alex and seemed to be at a loss for words. Annie knew she’d have a lot of explaining to do later. Sydney though, was beaming, and as soon as they were out of earshot of the clearing Alex rounded on her.
‘You said I would forfeit the chance to have the curse lifted,’ he accused, his expression confused. ‘I figured you must have healed my wound, but I never thought…’
Sydney shook her head. ‘No, I didn’t. I simply asked you if you were prepared to forfeit it.’
‘Why?’
‘Because I wanted to know if you had truly changed; whether Annie’s life was more important than your face,’ she explained quietly. ‘When you proved it was, I knew you deserved to be loved like Annie loves you. It was only a matter of time before she told you and the curse was lifted.’
Understanding dawning on her, Annie pulled up short, causing Jake to wince. Her eyes flew to Alex’s. ‘You idiot! That’s why you were suddenly considering the surgery, isn’t it?’
He glanced guiltily at Sydney, but nodded. ‘I’d been holding onto the hope that someday you might come to love me and then the curse would be broken. When I thought that wasn’t possible, well, as you know… I just wanted to look better for you.’
‘But to willingly give up your chance of having the curse lifted for me, I… I don’t even know what to say!’
Looking at her like she had a screw loose, Alex closed the distance between them and brushed his thumb along her cheekbone. ‘I love you, it’s that simple. My face is nothing compared to your life.’
Annie smiled mistily up at him and then grinned wickedly. ‘You realise you’re prettier than I am now? It’s my turn to have a complex about not being good looking enough for you.’
Snorting disparagingly, he mussed up her hair. ‘As if. You’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.’
‘From now on I’m going to listen to you, Annie, when it comes to guys,’ Chelsea tried to joke, still shaken from everything that had happened to her in the last few hours. ‘Clearly I have rotten taste in men, while you seem to have scored a winner.’
‘Not that all this downloading isn’t touching, but do you think we could get moving,’ Jake groaned. ‘I need some love and attention of my own!’
‘Sorry, Dad.’
Alex stepped in and looped his arm under Jake’s, relieving Annie of his weight, and started moving forward as swiftly as Jake could manage. Leaving him to Alex, Annie wrapped her arm around Chelsea and squeezed her side. ‘You okay?’
‘Yes. No. I don’t know.’ Chelsea drew in a shuddering breath as they started walking again. ‘What happened seems kind of surreal, like it wasn’t really Adrian. But I can’t help thinking if I’d been nicer to him or asked him out instead of waiting for him to ask me, none of this would have happened.’
‘You can’t blame yourself, Chels. Adrian is sick and he needs help.’
Chelsea flapped her hands in front of her, as if she didn’t know quite what to do with them. ‘But what really does my head in is how the hell did he turn into a wolf?’ she screeched, an edge of hysteria entering her voice. ‘And how come Alex was all scarred and unrecognisable one minute and then he’s back to the way I remember him – except his eyes aren’t hard anymore, which I’m guessing is your influence?’
‘It’s a lot to take in, I know. But let’s just say there’s a supernatural element at play here and life is not as normal as we believed.’
Chelsea shuddered. ‘That’s not a comforting thought.’
‘True, but I like to look at it this way – if not for all the crazy stuff that’s been going on, I never would have met Alex and I honestly can’t imagine my life without him.’
‘I wish I had that with someone,’ Chelsea whispered, her expression full of longing.
Annie squeezed her side again. ‘You will. There’s someone special out there for you.’
‘What if I miss him?’
With a laugh, Annie glanced over her shoulder at Alex. ‘I don’t think that’s possible. I was drawn like a magnet to Alex; I couldn’t stay away from him – even with his messed up face complicating things.’ Annie turned to ask Sydney if it was that way for everyone and frowned when she couldn’t see her. ‘What happened to Syd?’
Alex glanced around. ‘She must have slipped away. She prefers to keep a low profile.’
‘Oh.’ She’d have to make time to visit Sydney and thank her for her help in defeating Adrian. Without her aid, she and Alex would most likely both be dead. ‘How are you doing there, Dad?’
Jake’s head turned in her direction. ‘Your old man’s tougher than he looks,’ he quipped and then ruined it by grimacing when his foot caught on a tree root, jarring his back.
‘Not much further to go,’ Alex reassured him, tightening his grip on Jake’s waist. ‘You’re a bit out of shape. Maybe you should join Annie in our training sessions?’
Jake glared sourly at him. ‘You know, I think I liked you better when your scars made you humble.’
‘Scared, Jake?’
‘Give me a couple of days to heal and I’ll make you eat your words,’ Jake responded through gritted teeth.
‘Take as much time as you need. We’ve got the rest of our lives,’ Alex said with satisfaction.
Jake groaned dramatically, but Annie saw the smile he was trying to hide. ‘You’re going to be around for that long?’
Alex’s eyes bored into Annie’s. ‘Most definitely.’
*
Going back into the forest had been a challenge, especially on her own. But Annie refused to allow fear to govern her life. With Adrian in police custody there was no reason to stay out of the woods. Still, she had jumped at every rustle of the leaves for the first few minutes until she finally relaxed.
Sydney wasn’t surprised to see her standing on the doorstep of her cottage. ‘You have questions,’ she stated with a small nod. ‘I figured you’d be back.’
‘I do,’ Annie admitted, suddenly feeling awkward at the speed with which she’d returned to Sydney’s home. ‘But that’s not the only reason I’m here. I really do want to be your friend… if you’ll let me.’
Ushering her into the kitchen, Sydney flicked on the kettle. ‘Would you like some tea or coffee?’
A quick glance around the tiny kitchen revealed there was no coffee machine and Annie was a die-hard coffee snob. ‘Tea would be great, thanks.’
‘You picked a good time,’ Sydney said over her shoulder as she scooped tealeaves into a red ceramic pot. ‘I’m leaving tomorrow and I’m not sure when I’ll be back.’
‘Oh why? Where are you going?’ Annie sank down onto a chair, genuinely disappointed.
‘I have a new assignment down in Texas.’ Sydney poured boiling water into the teapot and carried it over to the table, before going back for two cups and a plate of cookies. ‘I guess you could say my job requires me to move around a lot.’
‘How long have you been doing it for?’
Sydney’s lips quirked into a mischievous smile. ‘You want to know how old I am. Contrary to Alex’s belief that I’m hundreds of years old, I’m actually only in my sixties.’
‘You’ve aged well!’ Annie grinned and helped herself to a cookie. ‘So does that mean you still have some family around?’
‘My parents died a couple of years ago, but I have a younger sister who lives in Idaho. She and her husband own a ranch out there. I also have two nephews and a niece, all of whom have kids of their own.’
‘So you still have a family to go home to for Christmas,’ Annie said in satisfaction. ‘I’m glad.’
Sydney poured the tea and pushed a cup across the table to Annie. ‘They all know what I am, so I don’t have to hide anything from them. My life would be a lot harder if I had to keep that a secret f
rom everybody. I’m sure you know how that feels.’
‘Yeah, it sucks!’ The tea was still too hot to comfortably drink, so Annie leaned back in her chair and eyed Sydney curiously. She was an attractive woman and Annie wondered if she had ever had someone special in her life. She wanted to ask but it was a pretty personal question for someone she didn’t really know all that well. ‘Is your sister a witch too?’
‘No. And I’m glad – she gets to have a normal life and that’s the way it should be.’ Sydney sighed and absently picked up a cookie, which she started to crumble into tiny pieces as she stared at the table. ‘I don’t know why I am and she isn’t. We both had the same parents, the same upbringing.’ She looked up with a wry smile. ‘Although my parents were true hippies of the seventies, so maybe it was the drugs!’
Annie choked on a cookie crumb and hurriedly covered her mouth. ‘Are you saying drugs can result in weird supernatural stuff? Because it’s entirely possible my Dad messed around with that kind of thing and…’
Throwing back her head, Sydney laughed delightedly. ‘I was kidding, Annie! I have no idea how these things happen. All I know is when I turned sixteen, suddenly I could make stuff happen with my mind.’
‘Like what?’ Annie was insanely relieved she didn’t have to blame Jake for her own “ability”.
‘Well, let me see… that’s going back a while.’ Sydney stared thoughtfully at the ceiling. ‘I think the first thing I did was something really small. It was dinnertime and I was staring at my glass of water, wondering if I could make it whirlpool and then the water started swirling. I was so shocked I jerked backwards and spilt the water over my dinner plate and down the front of my dress.’
Giggling, Annie took a sip of her now drinkable tea.
