Willow (Blood Vine Series)

by Amy Richie

  

  I jolted awake so abruptly that I fell out of my bed, slamming my head into the bed frame. “Ohh,” I groaned. There was a tickling sensation on my forehead and when I brushed it away my hand came back streaked red. “Ouch,” I whined.

  The pounding from my dream sounded again, making my chest tighten painfully. I skidded under the bed and shoved my fist into my mouth to stop myself from crying out. It wasn’t until I heard Rueben’s voice that I started to come to my senses.

  “Willow,” he called, “if you don’t open this door in three seconds we’re coming in. One.”

  I scrambled back out from my hiding place, cursing under my breath when my hair got caught in the springs.

  “Two.”

  With a hard yank, I freed myself from the bed but had to sacrifice several strands of tangled red hair.

  “Three.”

  “I’m … I’m fine,” I called still trying to catch my breath. “I’m fine, Rueben. I just had a bad dream.”

  “Who’s in there with you?”

  “No one.” I looked around the room just to be sure but I did appear to be alone. The sky outside my window was light but overcast a dark grey so it was impossible to guess at what time it actually was.

  “We heard you talking to someone.” There was a pause of silence. “Gage is out here with us, so we know it’s not him.”

  I rubbed harshly at my eyes, which were still tear filled from my bizarre dream. What had that been about? Was Ivy in real danger? I wiped away my tears, causing more blood to get on my hand. I pinched the bridge of my nose, my mind still fuzzy. I had forgotten that I was even bleeding.

  “Willow?”

  And the boys. “Yeah?”

  “We’re coming in.” The door handle turned but they didn’t open it all the way, uncertainty evident.

  “No, I’m fine,” I called weakly.

  “Someone is in there with you,” Rueben’s voice came more clearly through the cracked opening, “just tell us if it’s … you know … a private thing.”

  “A what?” What did that mean? Who did they think was in here? “I’m alone, Rueben, so alone.” I sniffed loudly and bit down hard on my knuckles. “I had a really bad dream, I was probably just talking in my sleep.” My voice came out warped and throaty but they didn’t come in. “Um,” I cleared my throat, “what are you guys doing here?”

  “Can we please come in?” Jed asked very softly.

  I puffed out my cheeks and quickly swiped once more under my eyes. “Yeah. Ok.”

  One by one the boys slinked into my room, staying pressed against the wall. “Are you all right, Willow?” Gage asked cautiously.

  “Yep.” I nodded my head quickly but stopped when I realized they probably couldn’t see me. I pulled myself up to sit on the bed facing them. “I just had a bad dream.”

  “What the hell happened to you?” Gage roared. He was the first on the bed but there was a soft blur of colors as the others crowded close.

  “Nothing!” He gripped my chin roughly and turned my face from side to side. “What are you doing?”

  “You have blood all over your face.”

  “I do?”

  “What happened?”

  “I … uh … ” I closed my eyes tightly, trying to think of what could have happened. Then I remembered. “I fell. Off the bed.”

  “You fell?” Gage obviously didn’t believe me.

  “Yeah, I hit my head.” I gingerly touched the gash on my head. “It’s fine, though.”

  “And your hair?” Jed tweaked a place on my head.

  “Got caught on the springs.”

  “You fell under the bed?” Gage’s eyes narrowed slightly.

  “No,” I pushed his hand away from my face. I would probably have a bruise there now. “I crawled under the bed when I heard you guys knocking.”

  “Why would you do that?” Jed asked, his eyebrows nearly as low as Gage’s.

  My head still felt foggy though and it was hard to tell what was real and what had been a dream. It felt like I had been under water for too long and was still trying to catch my breath. “I … uh … ”

  “Why would you want to hide from us?” Jed asked again.

  “I didn’t know it was you. There were wolves coming for us - I thought you were them.”

  “There’s no other wolves here, Willow,” Gage’s voice had become softer.

  “No. You guys scared them away but they took Ivy.” I shuddered at the memory.

  “Ivy was never here.”

  “Is Ivy her sister?” I heard Steven ask. I didn’t hear an answer but it didn’t matter.

  “I know,” I half sobbed. “It was just a dream.” Several hands reached out to pat various parts of my body. My head, my back, my arm. It might have been comical any other time, but the dream was too fresh. I flung my arms out to ward them all off. “Why are you guys here anyways?”

  “Time for school,” Rueben mumbled.

  “Gage said you went to bed upset,” Rodney added.

  “It’s time for school already?” I looked again towards the window. “You guys can go, I’m staying home.”

  “We’ll stay with you,” Tyson offered.

  “No,” I shook my head and took a shaky breath. “You guys go.”

  “We’re not leaving you alone.” Rueben looked like the very suggestion was offensive.

  “I’m fine. I just need to go back to sleep. You guys go … do some damage control.” I smiled weakly at Steven.

  “What does that matter now?”

  “It always matters, Colby.” I squeezed his hand briefly. “Good practice.”

  “We don’t want to leave you like this,” he said solemnly.

  “I know you don’t, but I’m going to have to insist on it.” I pushed my hair firmly behind my ears. “You guys go to school and I’m going back to sleep.” I waved my hand in a wide arc, shooing them all out of my room.

  Reluctant, but obedient, they all filed out until it was only me, Jed and Gage. “You can’t sleep,” Gage said in over exaggerated sadness.

  “Why not?” I started to scruff up my face but realized that my head was kind of sore.

  “I don’t know how hard you hit your head but you are definitely not acting like yourself.”

  “I’m fine,” I said for what seemed like the fiftieth time.

  “I don’t think you are,” Jed seconded Gage’s opinion.

  “I’m tired.”

  “You go shower and I’ll cook breakfast.”

  “I’m not hungry.”

  “I know you’re not, but I’m going to have to insist on it.”

  My lips turned up despite the quivering I still felt in my stomach. “Fine,” I groaned.

  “That’s my girl.” He pinched my chin before bouncing off the bed.

  “You’re just a great big bully!” I called to his back as he and Jed left me alone again.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Horror Story

  A shower helped immensely and by the time I joined Jed and Gage for breakfast I felt almost like myself again; a little shaken, but me. I even managed to eat most of the eggs Gage piled on my plate.

  “This is really good,” I told him with a grin.

  He grinned back. “Glad you approve.”

  Jed rolled his eyes and shoveled more food into his mouth. He had already eaten so much I was sure his stomach would explode, but he didn’t appear to be in any pain.

  Gage stood in front of me with his arms held loosely at his sides. “What?” I asked, swallowing too big of a bite in my haste. I half gagged and hurried to gulp down some orange juice.

  “You want to go for a run?”

  I knew that the prospect of going for a run wasn’t what was making his eyes narrow like that but I still agreed. Some fresh air sounded good. “We can wait for Jed,” I said with a small grimace towards the still eating Jed.

  “I’m all finished,” he managed to say with a full mouth.

  I morphed right outside
the front door. I usually waited until we were out of sight of the road but my nerves were stretched tight and I longed to be in my wolf form. As I felt the others join me I marveled at the way Gage always knew just what I needed.

  I felt freer than I had in the cabin; less afraid. It was easier to think clearly when I wasn’t blinded by my fear. I barely even noticed Jed and Gage running with me, as the muscles in my legs grew hot.

  This was the second time I had dreamed of Ivy and the second time she had told me to come find her. Was she really in trouble or was it just a dream? Were the warnings real?

  We looped around in a circle and stopped by the river to rest. When Jed and Gage morphed I followed suit. My mind was too full to notice the way they stared at me at first, but then I looked up.

  “Your dream was about Ivy?” Jed asked as soon as I raised my eyes.

  “She was sitting on my bed, giving me advice.” I raised both eyebrows but neither of the guys smiled. “But then she told me to come find her.”

  “To come find her?” Jed leaned a little closer. “She said that in your other dream, too.”

  “I know.” Jed seemed more interested so I avoided looking at Gage.

  “What else did she say?” he asked eagerly.

  “She said that only I could find her; save her. And that I had to be strong enough and … ” I hesitated to tell them anything else. I already knew how Gage felt about Mikhaul.

  “And what?” Gage asked in his raspy voice.

  “Well,” I looked over at him, prepared to stop talking at the first sign of anger, “she said not to let him eat her heart.”

  Gage nodded slowly but didn’t look mad, or laugh, or roll his eyes, or do any of the things I expected him to. “You know,” he said softly, “that she wasn’t really there, right?” I liked when Gage used his soft voice, it wasn’t so raspy.

  “I know. But these dreams have to mean something.”

  “I agree whole heartedly.”

  His ready agreement took a little of the wind out of my sail. “You do?”

  “I do.” He still didn’t smile.

  “So you agree that Ivy needs me?” I asked cautiously.

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “Then what are you saying?”

  “I think it’s just you.”

  “It was Ivy.”

  “Because you miss her.”

  “No.” My lips snapped shut on the word.

  “It could have been anyone, Willow. You were talking to yourself.”

  “That is,” I snorted, “ridiculous. It was Ivy; it was so real.”

  “It was all you,” he continued softly, “your anxieties about the pack, your fear of Mikhaul,” he couldn’t help a slight eyebrow raise at that, “and Ivy.”

  “What do you know about my sister?” It was suddenly so much more difficult to breathe.

  “I know that you miss her and I know you feel guilty for not protecting her more.”

  The truth was, the things Gage said made sense. I looked away toward the water, my bottom lip trembling. “I didn’t protect her,” I told him without moving, “she never needed me to.”

  Jed laid his hand on my leg. “I’m sure you did,” he said hopefully.

  “She needs me now,” I said firmly.

  “You don’t know where she is,” Gage pointed out.

  “She’s with Bella.”

  “And that helps you how?”

  “The council found Bella once … ”

  “You think the council will help you find Bella?” Gage, as usual, didn’t need much to know exactly what I was thinking.

  “I can ask them,” I shrugged.

  “You’re part of the council,” Jed said turning to Gage, “you can ask them to.”

  “I’m not part of the council,” Gage replied patiently, “and I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

  “Going to the council?” Why wouldn’t he want me to go to the council? Wasn’t the council there to help?

  “Finding your sister.”

  My sigh was short and curt. “Why?”

  “I just don’t think it’s going to be the happy reunion you’re expecting.”

  “You don’t even know her.”

  He regarded me quietly, a smirk on his lips. He abruptly got to his feet. “Jed, do you want to hunt with me?”

  Jed didn’t need to be asked twice, he was immediately on his feet. “Sure.”

  “You staying here or going back to the cabin?” he asked me.

  “You aren’t going with us?” Jed almost sat back down.

  “No, I just want to sit here a while longer. I don’t know how you can still eat, Jed,” I teased with a fake smile, “after that breakfast.”

  “We’ll see you back at the cabin,” Gage called.

  By the time I turned my head to respond, they were already gone. I stared at the place they had been sitting, which was now just a bare piece of grass.

  Gage made me want to pull my hair out in thick chunks most of the time. It seemed like any time I was near him I was either angry or drooling. I had to admit, though, he usually ended up being right.

  Of course I knew that it wasn’t the real Ivy in my dream; even I - who turned into a wolf - knew that some things just weren’t possible. I had tried to convince myself that she was somehow sending me a message using our sisterly bond.

  But the truth was, Ivy and I didn’t have a strong bond. Maybe we did when we were kids, but we hadn’t been kids for a long time.

  I absently tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, which refused to stay in place. What would it hurt to find her? Even if she weren’t happy to see me, at least I would know she was ok. I could endure more of Gage’s “I told you so” attitude for that.

  I chewed nervously on the frayed skin of my thumb. It would probably be better not to tell Gage what I was planning. He would just try to talk me out of it, then we would fight - again. No, it was best to find Ivy without Gage’s help. That took out the council. How would I possibly find her?

  The rest of the day passed quickly. Gage and Jed rejoined my silent brooding after their impromptu hunt with smug smiles. I didn’t need to ask them why they were so happy; I could smell blood all over them.

  “Feeling any better?” Jed asked off-handedly.

  He obviously wasn’t interested in the truth so I lied. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

  “We should move to a big city.” Gage scoffed at his suggestion but I only smiled.

  “Why would you want to live in a big city?”

  “A place like New York.” His eyes were still mostly glassy.

  “We can’t live in New York,” Gage said with a small laugh.

  “Why not?” He turned to me for help.

  “Although I try to make it a habit of disagreeing with everything Gage says, I have to agree with him on this one.”

  “Too many people?”

  “Just a bit.” He grinned wide. “Well, where ever we go, you’ll be able to go to school again.” Jed must be bored crazy having to spend all his days with Gage. “Gage, you’ll be able to go, too,” I gushed with sudden inspiration, “you could easily pass for a senior.”

  “I’m not going to high school.” Gage was quick to shoot down my moment of brilliance.

  “Why not? It might be good for you. Mixing with people your own age?” I wriggled my eyebrows dramatically.

  “You really think there are people who are almost 900 years old?”

  My smile disappeared. “You know what I mean.”

  “High school is not the place for us,” Jed piped up.

  “Us?”

  “Me and the guys have been talking and we’re not going back to school.”

  “Why wouldn’t you?” My mouth fell slightly open. “You have to!”

  “We’d learn tons more by hanging with Gage and,” he continued forcefully when I was ready to interrupt, “high school is dangerous.”

  “They’re just kids.”

  “Exactly.” His eyes beamed at me as if I�
�d caught on to some great secret, which I hadn’t.

  “I doubt if they can hurt you.”

  “But we can hurt them.”

  “You haven’t hurt anyone here.” I wasn’t quite ready to give up, but my voice got lower.

  “Not yet.” He crinkled his nose slightly, making me shift uncomfortably. “Do you know what happened at our last school? Why we had to leave?” I wordlessly shook my head, not sure if I wanted to find out. “There was this teacher there, an art teacher; I can’t even remember his name, but he was a young guy. I don’t even know why they let someone like that teach young people. He liked … ” Jed hesitated, looking over at me with a nervous flicker of his tongue across his top lip.

  “He liked the girls?” I guessed. “He was a little too friendly with them?”

  “No,” he said tightly, “it was the guys he was after.”

  “What?”

  “Yeah, he asked them to stay after class and then he’d … ”

  I swallowed thickly. “Ok, I get it,” I grimaced.

  “So one day he asks Rueben to stay after class.”

  “Oh no.”

  He nodded solemnly. “Maybe the guy deserved it.”

  “What did you guys do?”

  “We burned the school down before leaving. Figured it was better than them finding … the mess.”

  “That’s awful,” I whispered.

  “Have you ever killed a human, Gage?” Jed asked.

  “I have, but I don’t make a habit of it.”

  “Have you?” he turned to me.

  “I haven’t, but Ivy did once. Bella said we just have to control our temper.”

  “Don’t redheads have a naturally bad temper?” Jed tried to tease.

  “I don’t, well I didn’t before I met you guys.” Lately I hadn’t been able to control my temper very well at all.

  Gage patted my leg. “Bella taught you from the beginning. She did well.”

  I smiled but then a horrible thought suddenly occurred to me. “Have you killed, Jed?”

  He nodded, his eyes creasing at the corners. “Which is what I’ve been trying to tell you. School is dangerous for us. There’s too many … distractions. Girlfriends, football games, and when you’re the one to be the nerd you have to deal with people picking on you.”