by Laura Hysell
Another wolf arrived and ran past us, further into the woods. The first wolf, who I suspected was Jed, stayed where he was watching everything. Mark crawled toward me slowly, his naked body covered in sweat. He scooted next to me and laid his head on my lap, exhausted. Mark looked up at Justin, who still stood backed up against a tree, his eyes wide with fear.
“Compared to the vampires, we’re tame,” Mark said to Justin.
I chuckled, but Justin just nodded his head and stayed as he was. I wanted to give Mark a few minutes to recuperate, but I was antsy to leave the area. “We need to get out of here,” I whispered to Mark.
Mark sat up slowly and looked at the wolf. He was silent for several minutes, and I wondered if he was communicating with him somehow. “We didn’t smell any vampires nearby,” Mark said. He paused, his eyes jumping toward Justin and Jared and back to me again. “Do you know where Kirk and Hugo are? I don’t smell them either.”
I shook my head and looked down at my hands. “Kirk’s dead,” I said softly, my voice breaking. I cleared my throat and continued. “I don’t know what happened to Hugo.”
Mark placed his arms around me and held me tightly. I didn’t cry though. I think I was too numb to feel anything. Maybe I’d cry later, when I really thought about what had happened. For now, I just wanted to be anywhere else but where I was. Mark pulled back finally and stared at me, his yellow and brown eyes searching my face. “We’ll leave soon. Lucas and Logan are bringing vehicles. You can relax, Izzy. You’re safe now. Everything is going to be okay.”
Chapter 22
I slept through most of the drive back to Jed’s house, curled up between my brother and Mark. As soon as we arrived at Jed’s house, I took a shower then immediately went to my room and fell asleep. Mark woke me up periodically with updates, but I mostly just slept. I woke up again to the smell of food. The clock said it was 6:15 and I was so confused I didn’t know if it was morning or night. My stomach rumbled, urging me to get moving. It was probably time to face the world again.
I didn’t bother turning on the lights as I rifled through the dresser. I pulled on the first clothes that came to my hand and ran downstairs to the small living room, which had been turned into a makeshift hospital room for Jared and Hugo. Hugo’s throat had been torn open by one of the vampires and they had left him for dead. Thankfully, he was a werewolf and not that easy to kill. I walked over to his temporary hospital bed and looked at him. He was asleep and had IV’s hooked up to him, but he looked better than he had when they had dragged him out of the woods, covered in blood and a sickly green color.
I patted his shoulder as I passed by and moved to Jared’s side. He was also hooked up to IV’s and still unconscious. A splint was on his leg along with a contraption to keep his head stable. Lucas had driven a truck with Hugo and Jared in it to Dr. Humphry’s clinic as soon as we had gotten into town. They had moved them to the house sometime during the night.
Dr. Humphry walked in from the hallway and smiled tentatively at me. “Good to see you’re up, Isabella. I wanted to examine you earlier, but Mark insisted on letting you sleep. If you’ll sit down, I’d like to check you over.”
I complied and sat down in a chair beside Jared. Dr. Humphry examined me as I spoke. “Is Jared okay?”
She didn’t answer right away as she examined my eyes and head, assessing me. I felt completely fine, just drained. She finished her exam and looked at me directly, her arms crossed over her breasts. “Jared should be in a hospital,” she said softly as she flicked a glance at Jared before turning back to me. “We did scans at my clinic. He has a fractured femur, multiple broken ribs that look old and partially healed already, and he has significant spinal damage along with a lot of bleeding on the brain, not to mention all the burns across his body. He’s been through a lot. I don’t know if he’s going to wake up, Izzy. I’m so sorry.”
“What? What do you mean? There has to be something that you can do. Let’s take him to the hospital then and get him treated!” I stood up, instantly agitated. After everything that had happened, I had thought if we got Jared back here, he’d be okay. He had become my responsibility, him and Kirk. I had failed Kirk, and now he was dead. I couldn’t lose Jared too. “Please, there must be something you can do.”
“I’m sorry, Izzy,” Dr. Humphry replied, patting my hand. “There’s nothing more I can do here.”
“There may be one option,” Jed said, walking into the room. He sauntered across the room, dressed in his usual cowboy boots and flannel shirt. He stopped beside Jared’s bed, but his eyes were on me. “Normally I’d ask Jared before making this kind of decision, but he isn’t capable of answering. Are you willing to take responsibility for him?”
I had no idea what Jed was talking about, but I had already taken responsibility for Jared. We had been through so much together in a short amount of time. I moved closer to Jared’s bed and stared down at his face. My heart ached for him and I felt tears threaten at the thought of losing him. He had become family to me, as much as my brother was. I looked back at Jed and nodded my head. “He already is my responsibility,” I replied.
Jed smiled minutely and said, “I thought you might say that. He’s going to die if we do nothing. We could take him to a hospital and they might be able to do surgery and save his life, but he would never be the same. Best-case scenario is he’d be paralyzed, and never walk again. He could also have permanent brain damage. No matter what the hospital did, he would never be the same. Is that the kind of life he’d want? I’ve spoken to your brother and he seems to think Jared would rather die than live paralyzed. Do you agree with that assessment?”
I shrugged. “I don’t really know Jared that well, but Justin did. I’d trust his judgment on that.”
“What does your gut tell you?”
“He’s a fighter,” I responded immediately. “He’s tough and he could live like that, but I think it might crush his spirit. He’s been through so much already, and despite everything, he has persevered. Even when things were at their worst, he was cracking jokes. He’s tough, but I don’t know if he could take much more. There’s only so much a person can handle.”
“He was tortured.” It was a statement, not a question.
“Yes,” I responded, stroking Jared’s hair.
“I could turn him,” Jed said softly, and I looked up immediately. “If I bite him, he could become a werewolf and heal from this.”
“Then why haven’t you done it? Jared would be fine as a werewolf!”
Jed looked at me directly, his eyes turning golden between one blink and the next. “Not everyone survives the bite. You must understand this before making a decision for someone else. There are no guarantees. With as many injuries as he already has, he could very well die from the bite. The first bite can bring on the transformation immediately, or it could take a few days. Everyone is different. Some people are bitten and never become werewolves. Some people die as soon as they are bitten. It’s a roll of the dice, Izzy.”
I tried to think about what he was saying rationally, but there was nothing rational in my decision. My heart had already chosen a course of action. “Do it,” I said assuredly. “Please, Jed, do it right away.”
Dr. Humphry was shaking her head, but she didn’t say anything as she began prepping Jared. Jed took a deep breath and looked at me. “You’re sure?” I nodded my head in response. “We’ll take him to the barn for the transformation. It’s safest for everyone that way. You should stay here. I’ll find you when we know something.”
I pursed my lips, ready to argue, but Jed looked at me once more with his piercing golden eyes and I simply nodded my head. I leaned over Jared, still stroking his hair as Dr. Humphry moved around me to secure him to the bed. Jed’s words had me worried, but I knew I had no other choice. Dr. Humphry tapped me on the arm, indicating they were ready to wheel Jared to the barn. I nodded and leaned close to Jared so I could whisper in his ear, even if he couldn’t hear me.
“Jared, ple
ase fight,” I whispered softly. I kissed Jared on the forehead before standing back to let Jed and Dr. Humphry wheel his hospital bed out of the room. I stood there silently for a few moments before making the decision to go in search of the food I smelled.
I stopped at Hugo’s bed, noting he was awake and looking right at me. I smiled timidly at him and he grinned back at me as he sat up. “Glad you’re okay,” he said simply.
“You too, Hugo,” I replied as I walked out of the room.
“You made the right decision,” he said as I reached the hall leading to the other living room. I turned and looked back at Hugo. He was pulling his IV’s out, but he stopped to look directly at me. “Jared will make a fine wolf.”
I smiled and turned away, hoping he was right. Mark was sitting in the living room when I walked in, waiting for me. He stood as soon as I entered and strode toward me, pulling me toward him in a fierce hug. I stood still and let him hug me, but I didn’t return the embrace. He held me for several moments before finally releasing me, his expression worried.
“Are you all right?” Mark asked.
I didn’t know how to answer that. No, I wasn’t all right. I was desperately trying not to think of everything that had happened, and I was worried about Jared. My stomach growled loudly and I grinned sheepishly at Mark. “Hungry,” I said simply.
He grinned back at me and flung an arm casually across my shoulders. “Well, let’s get some food,” he said simply. I let him lead me into the dining room, where several werewolves were already eating. Mark pulled out an extra chair for me beside Justin and we sat down to eat.
The lone wolf, Leon, was sitting at the table chatting amicably with Logan. As we ate, Mark filled me in on what had happened after I left the house with Patricia. Patricia’s vampires had attacked the barn, releasing the caged werewolves. Leon had stepped in and killed one of the vampires, protecting the young Michael in the process and securing his place in the pack.
We finished our meal and all moved into the large living room to wait for Jed. More wolves showed up and the house was soon filled with people. I sat in one of the smaller couches, smashed between Justin and Mark. Justin hadn’t spoken about what had happened to him over the last several months yet. He sat uneasily beside me, wringing his hands nervously. He still didn’t seem comfortable with the werewolves. I patted his leg reassuringly as Jed entered the room and silence descended.
Jed looked directly at me; his eyes still golden wolf eyes. “The transformation has already started. John is going to keep an eye on Jared, but if he can survive the night he’ll be okay.” I nodded and Jed continued on, addressing the group. “I have received word from the Idaho pack. They went to the vampire den, but it had already been burnt to the ground by the time they got there. We don’t know what happened to the vampires there.” Jed’s eyes moved around the room to Justin and settled there, waiting.
Justin shifted nervously in his seat and bit at his lower lip before finally raising his eyes to meet Jed’s. I reached out and grabbed Justin’s hand, squeezing it reassuringly. He turned to me when he spoke. “They destroyed my research,” he began quietly. “That’s why the building was burnt down. It’s the only explanation.”
“What research Justin?”
He looked down at his hands, intertwined with mine. He sat there silently for several minutes, collecting his thoughts. He kept his head down as he spoke, his sweaty hands clutching mine as though I was his lifeline. “I had heard rumors about a village in the Carpathian Mountains where no one ever got sick. They didn’t get the cold, the flu, or anything. No one had died there for over 40 years! I thought there must be something in the water, or their food, or something that was keeping them healthy. I thought this discovery could make my career! Sarah and I could finish our PhDs and we could be married.
“It took a while, but I was finally able to assemble a team. We headed straight to the village, but the villagers were close-mouthed. No matter what we tried, we couldn’t get any cooperation from the village. We were ready to leave, when a man named Petrivian approached us and said he could help. He was a bit of a scientist himself, and with his help, we developed the vaccine. I didn’t know what he truly was. I didn’t ask questions. I followed blindly; too ambitious to stop and question what I was doing, or whether it was ethical.”
Justin stopped and cleared his throat, his head still down. His hands were shaking holding mine and he risked a glance up at me, his face pale and drawn. “We kept making batches of the serum, but it didn’t work on any animals we tested. Petrivian insisted it would only work on humans, so Sarah volunteered. I tried to stop her, but she insisted. She said she was doing it for us, and for the world. She was so ambitious. I should have fought harder against her taking the serum, but I was selfish. Petrivian gave her the serum and it changed her,” he said, pausing again. “At first, I thought we had just made the best discovery ever. Her hair was more lustrous, her skin was flawless, and she couldn’t get injured or sick. It was a miracle cure, just like we hoped. We sent a report back to the States about our unofficial trial, and were immediately ordered to come home with all our research. We hadn’t mentioned Petrivian in our reports. He insisted on accompanying us, and that’s when everything went wrong.”
Justin paused, taking a deep breath. He looked around the room, before settling once more on me. “Sarah wasn’t the only one in our expedition who had taken the vaccine. By the time we got on the plane to leave, most of the expedition had taken the serum and were now under Petrivian’s control. I didn’t understand what was happening at the time. I had grown suspicious of Petrivian, but I thought it was just insecurity. He had taken a liking to Sarah and I was jealous of their relationship. She was so enamored with the charming Petrivian, but she wasn’t the only one. She spent more and more time with him, secreted away at all hours of the night. I didn’t realize…” he stopped, swallowing hard.
“He turned her into a vampire?” I asked softly and he nodded his head.
“He wanted her to be like him, to do his bidding. She agreed to it! He had shown her his power and she agreed to be like him. She didn’t even tell me.” His voice broke as he choked back tears. “She slaughtered most of our team while we were stuck on that damn plane. By the time we landed, the plane was red with blood and only Jin, Kirk, Jared and I were still human. Everyone else was either a vampire, or dead.
“That was when I realized what was happening. Petrivian had already bought out NuvaDrug and the other pharmaceutical companies. He managed to get his vaccine pushed onto the market. Every person infected with Petrivian’s blood was now under his control, and he was mass marketing it. Kirk, Jared and I managed to escape for a short time with Sarah. We had her contained, but she escaped and came back even more ruthless than before.” He stopped talking as a single tear trailed down his face. He quickly wiped it away and stared back down at his hands.
The room was silent as we took in his words. Everything he said added up with what we had suspected about the vaccine. There were still gaping holes in his story though, and I found I had a million questions racing through my mind. I opened my mouth to ask him, but Jed beat me to it.
“Why were they still after you? They could have easily killed you, but they kept you alive and vampires keep coming after you, and your sister. Why?” Jed asked.
Justin took in a deep breath and looked up, facing Jed. “They want my research. They want the project I’ve been working on,” Justin replied, pausing. He glanced at me and pulled his hands out of mine, guilt etched on his face. “I’ve been working on making the vaccine air-borne… and permanent.”
To be continued in Bloody Consequences.
About the Author
Laura Hysell writes dark, urban fantasy and paranormal romance. She has a love of coffee, good Pacific Northwest beer, and sarcasm. She lives two hours from the beach, mountains, and big cities in the heart of the Willamette Valley in Oregon. Bloody Beginnings is her first novel.
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