The world began to grey, my awareness fading. Oblivion was so near with the blessing of escape. I welcomed the nothingness. I didn’t want to be conscious anymore. I didn’t want to sense them anymore.
Then I felt his grip on my face, his fingers gouging into my cheeks brutally. A squeak came from my mouth, and pain drew me back into consciousness. He’d been waiting for me to make a noise, begging me silently for a reason to hurt me more. With his other hand, he pushed his forearm against my throat, pushed my head against the building hard enough my ears rung. I couldn’t see it, but I felt the cold steel of the knife against my cheek.
“Don’t make a sound.” His warning came low and so close I could smell his sour breath. I knew he wanted me to scream and beg, wanted me to disobey him so he could punish me for it. I didn’t know whether to obey his spoken or unspoken voice. I thought I would go insane from the mental images of what he planned on doing to me. A low cry escaped my lips.
A merciless smile crossed his face, and when I saw the knife move I knew where he was going to put it. He wanted to make me ugly before he killed me. A choke came out of my throat, and my whole body braced for the pain. “You’re cute, dyke. Not for long.”
A blur of movement knocked into the boy suddenly, surprising everyone. He never even realized what hit him, his throat torn open before he hit the ground.
I’m here! I’m here! You’re okay!
Billie. Oh my God Billie! I didn’t have sufficient energy to register surprise that the animal was my girlfriend. I don’t think anything would have shocked me right then. Hands released me and I hit the ground, gasping for breath as relief poured through me. I listened to the chaos around me but didn’t connect with it through my numbness.
The only thing real to me was the nearness of Billie’s mind. Protective and loving. Angry that I’d been harmed and frightened. I’d never felt her fierceness before. It was startling, but I wasn’t afraid. Behind her anger, she was afraid for me. And all of her ferocity was directed at the boys who’d harmed me. Only a piece of her thoughts were on me, but that was enough. I blanketed myself in her mental touch, knowing I was safe.
I heard Billie’s snarl as she leapt at one of the boys who held me against the wall. I couldn’t see the damage done, but by the wet gurgling sound I knew his throat had been torn out like the other one. Two boys dead in a few seconds, and I felt nothing for them. With all of the attention on Billie, the threat to me was neutralized. She stood with her head low, teeth bared, and hackles raised, a menacing growl rumbling through the shadows.
I barely registered all of this. Later I would replay the memory and take it all in. But in those moments everything was dull.
Seven boys remained, and they all advanced on her despite their growing fear. Several pulled knives, and they cornered her where the fences met. A low hanging tree blocked her escape to me, and the only direction she could escape led away from me. She took note of it but didn’t even consider it.
Instead, she lifted her lips and snarled, snapping at them. Several boys paused in fear. One realized they weren’t facing a dog, and his surprise made me look closer. A wolf.
Sadie. Run!
My girlfriend the grey wolf faced the semicircle of boys. The half-naked human woman was forgotten while they faced a predator, though most thought she was a dog. She feigned at the closest boy, snapping her jaws to intimidate. He jumped back and yelped but did not run. She feigned again, a stocky boy bringing his knife down towards her head. She dodged it easily, but it gave another the lucky break he needed. The blade tore into Billie’s left shoulder, and blood instantly poured down her front leg. A small cheer went up from the group when they saw her favor it.
Billie’s pain and anger poured over me. Dammit Sadie! Run! Get out of here!
I knew I should, but Billie was hurt. They were killing her! I hadn’t been able to muster even indignation for myself. But for Billie, my fear transformed into anger, and cold resolve pushed the panic away in less than a heartbeat. I could feel power boiling within me, building with every drop of blood I watched fall from my lover’s shoulder. I didn’t know what I was about to do, only that it would save Billie. Acting only on instinct, I gathered power from all around me, letting it whirl within my body, building for just a few seconds more before releasing it. I pushed it towards our attackers, throwing every reserve of power at the ones hurting Billie. My skin tingled and my mind filled with the power at my disposal. It felt like I’d split myself in two, and one part of me rode along the power as it hit them.
They dropped as one without even a flinch or a cry. All seven of the boys fell dead in that instant of releasing my power on them. I felt their deaths, but I was drunk with the power and felt only satisfaction. As I calmly surveyed the scene, the last remnants of energy began to dissipate into the world around me.
The power ebbed, and I returned to my normal self. Only then did my shock register. What had I done? Holy shit! I just looked before me at the dead bodies in horror.
Billie’s whine drew my attention, and I saw her try to stand on her useless leg. Her nose out and hackles relaxing, she glanced at the death around her. I could sense her horror as strongly as my own. Now that it was over, shock started to set in. She stumbled when her wounded leg wouldn’t hold her weight. Strangely, seeing her covered in blood made more of an impact on me than seeing her wearing fur and walking on all fours.
I had to get her inside before someone came. A killer wolf in the city would not live long. “Come on Billie. We can’t stay out here.” She nodded her head, and we both stumbled to our feet. As fast as I could, I made it to her side and buried my face in her neck.
Oh baby you’re bleeding. Billie collapsed to the ground, growing weaker as the blood spilled down her leg. “I hope you’re not as heavy as you look.” Billie whined as I awkwardly tried to lift her, hurting her in the process. But she made no other protest. I tried to reach her mind, but Billie had turned inward, deliberately blocking me out. She was too heavy for me to lift. With my arms around her middle, I dragged her around to the front door. She whined and licked my arm, but her mental voice was quiet.
Bolting the door behind me, I hoisted her onto the couch, trying unsuccessfully not to jar her wounded leg. I needed something to put on her wound, but my shirt was gone. For a moment I realized I was still naked from the waist up, but I didn’t care. A sweatshirt lay carelessly on the small table, and I pushed it over her wound. “Billie, it’s bad, and I don’t know what to do! I can’t call an ambulance, not like this. What do I do? I’m not a doctor!” Billie didn’t respond, obviously still in shock. I sobbed and begged with all I had in me. “Don’t die, Billie. Please don’t die.”
Billie’s crystal blue eyes opened, and she stared into mine for several moments. With immense relief I heard her speak into my mind, exhausted and still afraid. 555-1739 Jason. Call him. Tell him everything.
I grabbed my phone from my pocket and dialed.
“You’re late.” The man on the other side of the line answered in an irritated grumble. Despite the hour he wasn’t asleep, only surly.
“Jason?” I spoke hurriedly. “Are you Jason?”
He instantly snapped to attention at the urgency in my voice. “What’s wrong?”
“Billie’s hurt. She told me to call you. She’s been stabbed.”
“Did you call an ambulance?”
“No.” I faltered, not sure how to explain. “I … I can’t … Not like this.”
“Where are you?” I gave him my address. “Don’t call an ambulance. Don’t call anyone. I’ll be there in three minutes.” He hung up without waiting for a reply.
Either the bleeding was slowing or I was doing some serious wishful thinking. I spoke to her, mind and voice, crooning that it would be okay. “Jason’s on his way. You’ll be okay. Just hang in there.”
Jason didn’t knock. He just pushed through the door, splintering the frame and rendering Billie’s deadbolt useless. In two seconds flat he took in the
scene in front of him, Billie a wolf and me holding her with tears running down my face. Both of us were drenched in blood. His eyes narrowed, and he crossed the room to the couch too quick to believe, closing the door behind him. A lot had just happened that would have been hard to swallow on a normal day. Without a word, he pulled the sweatshirt away from the wound and his body tensed.
Though he hadn’t looked at me or spoken to me, his attention was very much on me. The strength that pulsed from him weighed heavy in the room, and it was clear he didn’t trust me. In fact, all of his anger was focused on me, blaming me for Billie’s condition. Shivering in intimidation, I shut down mental contact as much as I was able in my state of mind.
“Do you have anything to eat?” He spoke without as much as a glance. “Something with protein.”
“Yes.”
“She needs to eat. As much protein as you can find.”
I knew I could trust him when it came to Billie, but I wasn’t so sure I could trust him towards me. Billie was all that mattered right then, so I ran to the kitchen refrigerator. Grabbing leftovers from several containers, some eggs, and a carton of milk, I brought it all back to Jason before going back for more. “Does it have to be cooked?” I called from the kitchen.
“No.” So I returned with the pound of hamburger almost thawed on the top shelf. I watched him feed Billie from his hand, tenderly holding her head. She ate urgently, snapping up the food in her powerful jaws. He poured the milk into one of the leftover bowls and refilled it as she lapped it empty.
Her body jerked and her nose hit the edge of the bowl, tossing it aside and spilling milk all over the couch and floor. She whined and spoke to my mind. I’m sorry.
It’s okay! Her mental voice felt stronger already and I almost choked on my relief. I knelt beside her, risking nearness to Jason. “Don’t worry, baby. Just get better.” She licked my hand and I fought back the tears. “You have to get better. You owe me a couch.” The joke came across stale, but she snorted her approval.
Jason’s gaze on me became increasingly painful as he watched the interchange. “Do you have more food?”
I nodded. “Billie just went shopping, so there’s lots of meat in the freezer. I can thaw it out.”
“This will be enough for now, but she’ll need more after she sleeps. Pull it out. All of it.” I did so and returned to sit at the floor beside my fur-clad girlfriend and lay my head against her neck, careful not to disturb her wound.
Sleep, love. I’m not going anywhere. She lay her nose on my arm and closed her eyes.
Trust Jason. Tell him everything. I love you. A deep sleep overcame her, and I knew then she would recover. Tears of relief welled in my eyes, and I breathed deep for the first time since it started.
Only then did I turn my attention to the man in front of me, taking him in fully for the first time. He sat in a chair that he must have pulled from the kitchen and looked at me stonily. Tattoos covered his arms. His clothes, though clean, were worn through. The torn jeans and simple t-shirt somehow made him more menacing, as if they were deliberately designed to make me underestimate him. He made me think of a dealer more than anything.
“Who are you?” He asked me, demanding but not exactly hostile.
“I’m Sadie, Billie’s girlfriend.” He nodded, as if expecting that answer.
“How did you know to call me?”
“Billie told me to. She gave me your number and told me to trust you. It’s not like I could call an ambulance.”
“She gave you my number tonight? After she got hurt? How? She was in wolf form.”
I nodded, unsure how to answer that. I chose my words carefully, “She said to trust you, to tell you everything. So I will, but I don’t know how to explain everything. Billie and I can speak to each other in our minds. She calls me a Sensitive. That’s how I knew it was her even though she was a wolf. After she was stabbed she gave me your number.”
He tensed at my words. I wondered why I felt such anger and distrust. Still afraid to dip into his thoughts even by accident, I simply waited for him to tell me. “A Sensitive, huh?” He snorted. “After what you did out there … you’re no Sensitive.”
I realized people were outside of my house, three of them, but I hadn’t heard them. I startled and looked as if through the wall at them. “Oh no!” I didn’t want anyone to see what Billie and I had done.
“They’re cleaning up the mess. No one will know.”
I looked at him in disbelief. “How? What about the police?”
“The police will find a bunch of bodies from a fight – punk kids with nothing better to do than turn on each other. Two deaths by attack dog and seven from knife wounds.” I just stared at him. “That’s what the police will find, and you will make sure they believe it, Mage.” He spat the word Mage in insult, and I shrank into the sleeping Billie. “You will bend their mind to believe it. But if you try anything like that on me or my Pack I will kill you.”
Speechless, I couldn’t say anything, and he continued. “Billie and I will stay here for a few days until she’s human and able to travel. After that you will stay away from her. I don’t want to smell you anywhere near us. You can stay in my territory so long as you don’t try anything, but don’t push me.”
Bewilderment turned to shock … and anger. “What? You can’t tell me not to see her. You don’t have the right! I don’t know what the hell is going on, but I’m not losing Billie.”
His voice grumbled low, his body that of an animal about to attack. Recklessly, I didn’t care. “The only reason I didn’t kill you on sight is because you saved her life. Don’t press your luck. I could kill you just for being in my territory without permission.”
“Your territory! I’ve lived here my whole life!” His eyes narrowed in thought but he didn’t respond to my statement. We sat in silence for a while, and the chill air made me shiver. Jason stood and without a word walked down the hall to my bedroom, returning with a blanket. As he laid it over me, it dawned on me that I’d been arguing with a strange man without realizing I was topless. Suddenly self-conscious I pulled the blanket around me.
“Thank you.” He nodded.
A slight tap came at the door. I didn’t bother moving, knowing the man wanted to talk to Jason anyway. He opened the door a bit, but not enough for me to see well. “Cleanup is done.” He reported. “We moved everything two blocks down, and I don’t expect a knock on the door with questions. It’ll be a hard one to pull off, though. They were dead too long for our wounds to look convincing.” He was studiously trying to ignore me, fear of me filling the room like a fog.
“She’ll convince them.” Jason replied, and the man nodded. “Make the calls. Make sure nothing leaks out. Don’t tell anyone about the Mage yet.” He nodded again, glanced my way, and disappeared down the steps.
As soon as the door shut, I pounced on the dizzying number of questions I had. This stranger seemed to know something about me. No one had ever been afraid of me before – not like this. “What is a Mage?”
He paused. “You are a Mage.”
“Okay, what am I?” I challenged, no longer caring that he’d just threatened to kill me.
“Mages have power over the mind. They are neither Human nor Wolf. They are something else.” Crossing to his seat, his tongue loosened. “You are an old race. You can read and control thoughts, and powerful ones can even kill with a thought. Mages are not to be trusted.”
My eyes lowered as I remembered the seven I’d killed. “Like I did.”
“Like you did.”
I raised my eyes, needing to justify myself to someone. “I didn’t know that would happen. I didn’t know I could do that. They were killing her and I just wanted them to stop. It just … happened.” I pleaded with him to exonerate me, needing someone to tell me that I wasn’t responsible for seven deaths.
“It just happened.” He said in disbelief. “And you don’t know you’re a Mage.”
“I’ve never even heard of them before n
ow.”
“Did you know Billie’s a Wolf?”
I watched my sleeping lover’s face as I answered, my voice softening as I took in her sleeping form. “I knew she was different. Special. She radiated so much power and life. But I didn’t know about the wolf part until she ran up tonight. I could tell it was her of course – her mind is the same. Nothing about it feels wrong. Even now, looking at her like this, this wolf is Billie and it feels natural. It feels right. I don’t understand.”
“We are Wolves. Humans use the term werewolf.” I nodded my understanding. I’d figured that much out for myself.
“That’s the secret. I sensed that she was hiding something, and she promised me it wasn’t bad, just private. She couldn’t tell me because it affected other people and she’d made a promise. She was so serious about it. I promised I wouldn’t pry. This explains a lot.”
“Tell me what happened earlier.”
I shivered at the memory and tried to hold myself together. I was able to keep my voice steady for most of it. “It started about a week ago. A couple of boys threatened us while we were walking. They wouldn’t back off, so Billie … batted them to the ground in about three seconds. She was amazing. They came back tonight with friends. They wanted to get back at Billie through me. They jumped me at my car, and all I could think to do was call out to Billie. With my mind. I was so scared. They drug me around to the side of the house and beat me, tore off my clothes. He had a knife and he kept thinking what he would do to me …” I couldn’t voice the boy’s thought.
“And then Billie was there, and she was a wolf. She killed the boy who was hurting me and another one. But they cornered her, and she wouldn’t run because I was still there. Someone stabbed her. I’m not even sure what happened or how I did it. I’ve never done anything like that before. It’s like I was so scared and angry and desperate I pulled from everything around me. As much as I could gather. When I released it at the boys, they just fell down dead! I didn’t mean to kill them – I didn’t even know I could do something like that. They were going to kill her, and I just reacted.”
Psyche Moon Page 14
