Alec nodded, silent.
“How was it?” Jared asked, putting down the pencil.
“Hard.”
Jared stood and stepped over to Alec, taking him in his arms. “I’m so sorry—in my excitement—I wasn’t even thinking.”
Alec cried softly on Jared’s shoulder. Jared held him, allowing Alec to expel the grief. The compassion in Jared’s arms comforted him, and he felt safe. After a few moments, Alec wiped his eyes clumsily and pulled back. “I feel so stupid for crying.”
“Don’t.”
“It’s just—hard—being in my grandmother’s house. Hard, seeing my mother so sad, so broken.”
“It takes time. I know.”
Alec placed his hand to Jared’s cheek tenderly. “I know you do.” Alec looked into Jared’s eyes. Over the last few months, despite everything that they shared, Jared had said little about the night his own family died, and about his survival and coping afterward. Though he was curious about Jared’s family, Alec didn’t pry, thinking Jared would tell him more in time. Alec knew his own trauma; he didn’t intend to make Jared relive his.
“I love you,” Alec said, placing his lips to Jared’s.
Jared returned the kiss, pulling Alec tighter. “I love you, too.” He could feel that rush of excitement that came each time he held Alec close, the internal shivering of his nerves just from touching Alec’s flesh.
Alec pulled back from the kiss. “We better work on this,” he said, nodding to the stone and mobile. Alec cut his eyes down. “But those pants sure do show me how much you liked that kiss.”
“Funny,” Jared said, adjusting the fabric of his pants. “Let’s decipher this.” He sat back at the table with Alec beside him, and they began the arduous task of translating the runes.
A Quiet Moment, Stolen
Lucy sat on the floor in a cross-legged, quarter Lotus position in the quiet mediation room at her gym. Mediating early in the day on the night of a full moon had become a ritual. She had no sense whether the meditation had any effect on the change, but it certainly helped quell her anxiety leading up to it. The peace was fleeting, but the willpower demanded to achieve a state of peace left her drained. She simply didn’t have the energy to wallow in worry, pacing like a caged animal, as she considered herself prior to the change.
Meditating in the throes of the change was impossible. The rage of the transformation, the burning of her skin as it began, knocked her over. The last she ever remembered was screaming as she felt her body turning against her.
Lucy took a deep, measured breath—pushing the poisonous thoughts out of her mind. The gentle bubbling of the water feature and her breathing were the only sounds as she relaxed her mind and body. She focused on breathing deep, trying to force out the dread that filled her. She could feel her mind releasing its grip as her body relaxed, muscle by muscle. The dark thoughts receded with each breath and a tremulous calm descended on her.
She heard the door to the meditation room open with a quiet whoosh and thought, Damn. She realized anyone coming in would also seek quietude, but she hated sharing the room on the night of a full moon. She peeked an eye open.
Mitch sat across from her, already seated, eyes closed. Just seeing him annoyed her. Lucy told herself that she was being ridiculous, that he was allowed to meditate as much as she was. But she couldn’t help but feel that he came in just to steal this quiet moment from her. His absolute silence bothered her even more. He’s supposed to be quiet! She told herself. But, in her mind, it felt like he was sneering.
Lucy opened her eyes and, despite herself, huffed as she stood.
“Don’t let me interrupt you,” Mitch said, his eyes still closed.
“You didn’t,” Lucy said. It annoyed her even more that he assumed he was chasing her off. She felt the heat flushing her cheeks and knew, although she couldn’t control it, that the full moon was playing a role in her anger.
“It just seems that as soon as I enter a room, you try to leave.”
“Then why do you come in?”
“So, I am chasing you off?”
“No!” Lucy barked.
Mitch’s eyes popped open and his body went rigid. He was silent.
“Look, I just have a lot on my mind, Mitch. And, before you ask, you’re not the type of person I confide in.”
“Type of person? What type of person am I?” He asked, his voice laced with sarcasm.
Lucy could feel the conversation spinning out of control. Yet, she felt powerless to control the rage bubbling under her skin. “Just, you know, that type.”
“No. Tell me. How do you see me, Lucy Rune. I gotta know your feelings.”
“You want to know? I think you’re a self-entitled, overgrown frat boy meathead. That’s what I think.” Lucy stomped toward the exit.
“Please walk quietly in the meditation room,” Mitch said, pointing to the sign on the wall.
Lucy glared at him venomously and shoved through the door. As it swooshed angrily, swinging back and forth in her passing, Mitch smiled, and then closed his eyes, to enjoy the solitude.
A Night to Remember
Lucy was fuming as she entered the apartment. Mitch stole any relaxation she’d gained from meditation. She slammed the door harder than she meant to, making a picture on the wall rattle. She looked at the crooked picture, only getting angrier.
In the back room, after hearing the door slam, Alec looked up from his work and arched his eyebrow at Jared. Jared smirked, knowing Lucy’s mood during full moons. He hoped their news would improve her spirits.
“I hate him,” she griped as she burst into the back bedroom.
“Mitch the Bitch?” Alec asked.
Lucy smiled. She loved that Alec always referred to him as Mitch the Bitch. “Yes. He ruined my meditation.”
“How’d he know you were there?” Jared asked, looking up from the papers spread in front of him. Lucy was so wrapped up in her frustration that she didn’t notice the mobile draped over the Meredith Stone.
“He probably saw me through the door and decided to ruin my day.”
“Maybe he just wanted to meditate,” Alec said. “It’s not like you’re on a recognizable schedule.” Lucy glowered at Alec, not wanting to be reasoned with. Alec added, “Jared has news.”
“Why me?” Jared asked.
“Because you’re doing the hard work.”
“But you’re the one who got the decoder,” Jared argued.
“You have a decoder?” Lucy asked.
“Yeah, but you’ve been hunched over the manuscripts all afternoon,” Alec said to Jared.
“But I couldn’t do it without the decoder you found.”
“Girls, you’re both pretty. Now shut the hell up and tell me what you found.”
Jared flashed Alec another covert smirk before turning to face Lucy. “Alec met with your mom and found the decoder. It seems to be working.”
“And?”
“So far I’ve only translated the titles of a few pages.”
“Why are you jumping from document to document?” Lucy snapped.
Jared ignored her harsh tone, knowing the reasonable, kind Lucy would return in a few days. “Two reasons. One, I’m using the titles as a litmus test of sorts. If enough of them make sense, then I can assume it’s translating correctly.”
“Okay.”
“And two, I want to know what all we have, so we can prioritize.”
“Okay. Yeah. That makes a lot of sense.” Lucy offered an apologetic half-smile. “What have you found so far?” She took the seat next to Jared.
Alec shuffled the papers into his hands and read. “One is titled History. One is titled Rogue Species. One is titled Resurrection. And one is titled The Gen5 Pack.”
“The Gen5 Pack? Is that you guys?”
“We don’t know yet,” Jared said.
“Anything labeled...cures?”
Jared shook his head. “Not yet. But that’s my priority.”
Lucy shook her head. “Th
e pack is your priority.”
“What if a cure has to happen now, like there’s only a certain amount of time?” Alec asked, his voice rising.
“You’re speculating, Alec. We know that there’s some trigger that’s going to make you guys wolf out just like me. And if we all change, we’re screwed.”
“I can work on both,” Jared said.
“We can all sit and translate,” Lucy said. “Hell, I’ll do the translations, it’s my fucking specialty. I’m saying you two must find this pack. Stop them.”
“Or convince them to join our side,” Alec said.
“What?” Jared asked.
“Like you did me. Look, Darius said we’re the pack. The best. Powerful. What if we can convince the others to fight the good fight? Maybe we can stop the bad guys or, well, werewolves. Whatever they’re planning.”
“We don’t even know who we’re up against,” Lucy said.
“Not yet.”
“I just had a thought,” Jared cut in. “What if forming the pack is our trigger? What then?”
“What if wearing purple on the third Friday of the month is your trigger?” Lucy snapped. “I’m so sick of guessing. Guessing when you’ll change. Guessing if the door will hold me in. Guessing when the werewolves will make their next move. Let’s do something.”
“She has a point,” Jared said, standing. He looked down at Lucy. “As abrasive as that point might be.”
“So we’re going to try to hunt the members of the pack down and convince them to join us? To fight against the werewolves?” Alec asked.
Jared nodded.
“But first we have to convince them that there are werewolves. Even though you and I can’t change.” Alec shook his head and frowned. “Great plan.”
“Instead we let the wolves get to them first? Kill their families? Their friends?” Jared reached out and took Alec’s hand. “This is what we agreed to do. To fight. To try to stop them.”
“Who in their right mind would listen to us?”
“I don’t know. But he’s out there,” Jared said.
“Or she,” Lucy added.
* * * *
The drive to The Fullerton Building would take about 45 minutes. Tristan stretched out in the backseat, fiddling with his camera, as Molly sat in the passenger seat, watching the world whiz by her window. In the driver’s seat, Kevin enthused, “I’m so fucking stoked.”
Tristan reached his head into the front seat between them. “I know I’m gonna get great shit tonight. Greee-ate!”
“Dude, are you stoned?”
“Maybe.”
“Seriously. Are you serious?” Molly yelled, smacking his shoulder. “We agreed. No pot.”
“Dude, I’m just really excited. And I needed to chill.”
“This is our first night excursion. We don’t need you breaking a leg because you’re baked,” Kevin said, his voice thick with disdain.
“No more,” Molly said. “Give me your bud.” She thrust out her hand angrily.
“You have it in my car? Asshole!”
Tristan handed the small stash to Molly. “Generally, I’m like, I’m so lucky that my boyfriend’s best friend isn’t an asshat. This is not one of those moments.” She tucked the bag in the side compartment of her door. “Total asshat.” She dragged her hand across her forehead, pulling her bright red-dyed bangs out of her eyes.
“Whatever. Sorry. My buzz is already gone,” Tristan said, sulking into the backseat. His mop of curly hair bounced on his head as he slammed his back against the seat like a pouting child.
After a few moments of silence, Kevin said, “So you have cameras for all of us?”
“Yeah. If you want them,” Tristan said, still sulking.
Molly rolled her eyes to Kevin. “Just because you’re an asshat doesn’t mean I don’t want to help you ghost hunt.”
“There’s totally gonna be one!” Tristan rebounded, his face thrust happily between them once again.
* * * *
In the dark of winter, Lucy demanded to be in the safety of the vault by the time night fell, long before the full moon rose. She sat in silence in the backseat of Jared’s car, her eyes closed, listening to the classical music playing in her earphones. Alec sat in the passenger seat, looking out the window at the vacant buildings around them, fiddling with a flashlight. Jared pulled the car into an empty lot and turned off the engine. “Here we go,” he said.
Lucy already had her earphones out and was opening the car door. Jared popped the trunk on the car as he exited. Alec climbed from his seat and looked up at The Fullerton Building, once the focal point of the nearly derelict neighborhood main street. Its dark, broken windows gaped like ominous portals to individual hells. Dankness wafted out of the abandoned building, smelling like a long-closed cellar. In the fading light of the sun, Alec watched as pigeons alighted on the window ledges high above. He shivered. The vacant building always gave him the creeps. Had it not been for Jared’s company, he would never be able to stay the night in the building. I’m a werewolf who’s scared of the dark, he mocked himself.
Coming around the back of the car, Alec grabbed the bag for the small pop tent he and Jared would sleep in as Jared grabbed the backpack and sleeping bags. Lucy had her items slung over her shoulder. She shook with tense, anxious energy. Jared double checked that the car was locked and said, “Let’s go.”
Jared looked around the empty street. One street light shone at the nearest corner, and otherwise, the street was dark. No headlights approached; no one walked the street. The emptiness reassured him that this building was the best choice for Lucy to transform. Ensuring the safety of others and keeping Lucy’s conscience clean were his priorities. Lucy led the way around the back of the building, where they entered a door that had been pried open sometime before they began using the building.
Lucy shone her flashlight into the entrance of the dark building as they entered. A cavernous, door-lined hall stretched before them, branching off into other halls. Lucy panned the hall with the beam of the flashlight, and confidant the hall was clear, she headed for the stairs to the basement. Lucy kept her hand on the handrail as she descended the slick marble steps into the basement. “Love this place,” she grumbled.
“I expect zombies every time we come down here,” Alec admitted, his voice tight.
The concrete and solid steel vault was in the back of the basement at the end of a dead end hallway. The fact that the vault was built to be hard to break into also made it hard to break out of. The vault was about twelve feet deep and eight feet wide. Jared shone his flashlight inside. The light fell over the claw marks in the concrete as he entered the vault behind Lucy. “Let’s get you set up,” he offered Lucy.
Keeping Lucy comfortable until the change was a challenge since she shredded anything left in the vault with her. Working together, they spread out the sheet of plastic they used to protect her from the damp, cold floor and then spread out the old blankets she would use this one night. On the next full moon, they would come with different plastic, different blankets.
In the hallway, Alec assembled the pop tent as Jared set electric lanterns around the perimeter where they would sit vigil. Jared double checked that the two rooms leading off the hall were empty, and then he shut the door that led into the main part of the basement. He latched the lock that he had put on the door after their first night and secured it with a padlock. Now, no one could surprise them while they waited until morning.
He turned to see that Alec had lit the camp stove and that Lucy was situated on the blankets inside the vault. As Jared approached to close the vault door, Lucy nodded to them.
“We don’t need to shut the door just yet. Not yet,” Alec said.
“Shall we talk about the translations?” Jared asked.
“No,” Lucy said softly. “Let’s talk about something else. Something normal.”
A brief silence fell between them, and they all chuckled.
“Normal’s hard to come by these day
s,” Jared said.
“So what does Mitch do exactly to piss you off?” Alec asked.
Lucy frowned. “It’s just his demeanor. He’s an excellent trainer—I admit—but he bugs the hell out of me. He’s so smug.”
“And today?” Alec looked at his sister, draped in shadows within the vault, the dim lantern light only partially illuminating her face.
“All he did was show up. You know, when the change is about to happen, I can be...”
“Moody,” Alec finished.
Lucy rolled her eyes cheerfully. “I just really needed to concentrate, and he broke it.”
“Do you feel like it helps? The meditation?” Jared asked.
Lucy shrugged her shoulders.
“I saw Mom today,” Alec said, trying to navigate away from werewolf talk. “She asked about you.”
Lucy opened her eyes. “I know my distance is hurting them, but...” Lucy looked away, even though her face was inscrutable in the darkness. “I can’t risk hurting them. Really hurting them.”
“Missing you is really hurting them.”
“Alec, this isn’t the time for this conversation,” Lucy snapped.
“Are you hungry?” Jared asked, digging into the backpack before anyone could answer.
“I can feel it, you know, beneath my skin.”
Alec titled his head toward his sister, looking as if he might see something too.
“Before the change, almost like a warning light, flashing.”
Jared stared, stone faced, digesting this new information. “How do you mean? What do you feel?”
“It burns. Like a fever. Like an acid mist on my skin—no—like acid bubbling up through my skin.”
“Can we give her something for the pain, maybe a sedative?” Alec asked Jared.
“No drugs,” Lucy said.
“Just to help with the pain,” Alec repeated.
“No drugs!”
Jared took Alec’s hand. “You know she’s afraid tampering with the change might make it, um, unpredictable.”
“The full moon is enough. I know the full moon. I don’t need any surprises.”
The Wolf in His Arms (The Runes Trilogy) Page 6
