I wanted so badly to tell her nothing more than what would happen to her. A side effect of hosting Maya, and perhaps being changed as a vampire in vitro made me an anomaly. Silver didn’t affect me. But that lack of information gave me an advantage. It’s not like I was enthusiastic about the possibility of being stabbed, but I would heal fast even if the knife stayed embedded in me.
“You’ve been trying to use any excuse possible to keep her,” she accused.
“And you’ve been using every tactic not to,” he snapped. The odd violet color was barely visible through the slits of his eyes. “You tried to have her killed—that wasn’t our agreement. Your impatience almost ruined everything. Do you know what would have happened to Maya without a host near? Of course you didn’t, you just had your sights on one thing.” Anger changed his appearance and he went into a defensive stance. Maybe I didn’t need to run, if I stayed long enough the arguing might become more combative and then they would destroy each other.
Marcia pursed her lips together. “At least I would have gotten something done,” she said through clenched teeth.
I wanted the fighting to continue: it was serving as a good distraction for them and for me to escape. The idea was quickly killed as Marcia’s features softened, her eyes gentle and unassuming, her voice having a light timbre that made her seem kind, maternal. “My actions were selfish and impulsive. Know that it will not happen it again.”
Yeah, right.
“You’ve bonded with a body that you are convinced is Maya—a descendant. Sky is nothing more than a shell, deserving of no more consideration than you give that one. Senna is a better choice. As long as Skylar has the Midwest Pack, she will not subjugate herself to you. They have given her a sense of false security.” Once again she looked in my direction, dismissing me with an upturned nose.
I wouldn’t betray the pack—the alliance made me strong—and I wasn’t likely to give in to Ethos. But would Senna possess the same veracity and ability to deny him? Was my family, if they were even still alive, enough to protect her, to give her the fortitude and confidence to refuse Ethos?
I glanced again at my cousin, still on the ground. They were going to remove Maya from me and I wasn’t going to live through it. I didn’t have a lot of options. To my right was Marcia and the other witches. Even if I had the Aufero, how would I fare against three other witches and Ethos? I was good with a knife, but not good enough to fight my way out against the three of them. My only option was to try to change. As long as I was in wolf form, they couldn’t use magic against me. I didn’t want to leave Senna but there wasn’t any way to get her out in animal form. I inched into position, knowing everything had to be done quickly. I still wasn’t able to change as fast as I needed to, but if I made it past the door and got enough distance I could change. I prepared myself for the pain of shredding through clothes. That always made things harder. I bolted, slamming into the witch standing in front of the exit. They had waited too long and she had put down her guard. I grabbed the arm that reached out to stop me, giving it a sharp powerful thrust that broke it. I could hear the high-pitched scream as I shifted into my wolf.
My paws pounded hard into the ground as I ran as fast as I could, trying to take in my surroundings. I kept a steady pace until a tiger smacked into me with so much force I tumbled across the grass, rolling onto my back. It burned. I spun around to see Anderson, two other wolves and a lynx at his side. I moved back several feet, surrounded by them, looking for an opening. The only thing I had was speed, and if I could get enough distance I would be okay. I lunged, they all started to jump toward me, and then I did a quick spin in the opposite direction. The coarse grass bit into my paws; as I made it to the side of the road the gravel cut into them. I could hear the pounding of paws behind me. I hoped there were just twelve, but the sounds mingled together, forming a thunderous rumble. I thought I would be safe in the street, a car had to be coming, but it was dark, not a car in sight, not even the sound of one approaching.
The good and bad about the Midwest was the abundance of farmhouses spread so far about by acres of fertile land. A porch light about a mile away breached the darkness and I ran toward it hoping that someone was home. I’m not sure how they would respond to a bruised naked woman at their door but I needed to try. Just a couple of feet from the home, I was about to stop and change back to human form when a body crashed into me and fangs sank into my side. I howled as another claw slashed my side and another swiped across my face. Blood dampened my face and blurred my vision; I tried to stand but my hind leg went limp under me.
Teeth gripped my leg and dragged me back slowly into the woods. I opened my eyes: two wolves were at my side, I guess Anderson was the one pulling me back to the blockhouse. I snapped at one of the wolves, taking a chunk out of his leg. He growled in pain and bit me, and more pain seared through me. My head grazed over the ground as Anderson roughly pulled me toward the house. Blood blurred my vision but I heard that familiar growl—Ethan.
The sound of crunching bones filled the air. I could only see shadows, but they moved around me. The pain was starting to feel unbearable and I had to keep fighting to remain conscious. I closed my eyes for a second, needing to rest. “Skylar.” The voice was familiar but I couldn’t place it. He said my name again, and when the person attempted to move me, I groaned, batting with my hand to try and protect myself from more pain. “Skylar, It’s me Sam.” I tried to open my eyes, but blood distorted my vision. “I need you to move, there’s a lot of fighting going on and you’re going to get hurt.”
I rolled over to my stomach, the pain from the slashes on my stomach and back aching, and when I pushed up to my legs, I collapsed.
Samuel grunted as he lifted me and pulled me over to the side. I smelled blood and heard bones crunching. The chilling sound of a high-pitched wail was cut short and the shadow of something moved past me. I tried to make it out—it looked like part of an animal’s body.
There was a large crash, and pellets of stone hit me. Josh’s magic was strong and it overtook the air, bursts of it, and when large chunks of debris rained over me I dragged myself farther away from the house using my front legs. I was starting to get light-headed from the loss of blood. More debris splattered around, and when I tried to move again, the world started to swim around me and darkness hit.
“Skylar.” Steven’s voice was gentle against my ear. I attempted to open my eyes, but they were swollen shut; and I was still in animal form. I craned my neck to look around. I was in the infirmary but my body ached just as much as it had before. Steven gently stroked the fur running along my back. “You’ve been out for a while.”
I growled a response and tried to change but everything hurt and even holding my head up was a struggle. How much blood had I lost? How long was I out?
Firm light hands ran along my side, a feather touch, I could barely feel it. “Skylar, sweetie,” said Sebastian. That had to be bad. Sebastian didn’t use maudlin terms of endearment. Sweetie, honey, sugar, baby, those weren’t words I had ever heard him use. The panic came on fast. I tried to move my legs, and they moved—I think. Then I tried to turn and bile crept up my throat as I tried to ignore the pain. How badly was I injured?
“Skylar.” Sebastian’s voice was soft and kind and guided me into a gentle reverie. “Lay here and take gentle breaths, okay? We need to change her back into human form.”
“I tried, she’s stuck,” Steven offered.
“You have to be more dominant to force a change.” Sebastian’s tone was soft, but he was too calm, which only heightened my fear about my injuries. “It’s not an insult against you; I think we keep underestimating her dominance.”
Ethan was next to my ear, his voice so soft, I could barely hear it. “We are going to force a change. It will hurt and there really isn’t anything we can do right now to ease it, okay? I’m sorry.”
I couldn’t concentrate on his words, just everyone’s mood. How bad were the injuries that both Sebastian and Ethan ha
d been reduced to this? What did I look like that my mere appearance left such a morose look on Winter’s face?
Sebastian’s hand laid over my front legs, firmer this time, and I felt the tinges of the change. My body elongating and reforming, heart that stopping just for a moment, the tension on my ligaments stretching to the limit only to rebound and reconfigure as I molded back into human form. But all that didn’t matter because my back and chest were on fire, like someone had dropped acid on me. The pain ripped at me, and I felt like I was physically being flipped inside out. I screamed at the top of my lungs, but still that didn’t relieve the agony and then I was whole—human—but the pain compounded. I couldn’t see anything; my eyes were nearly swollen shut. I ran my fingers over my stomach, this was more than just blood. I felt something that didn’t feel like skin but all the things that skin covered. I am sure my back looked a lot like my front where a claw had dug in and dragged across it. Each breath hurt so badly that I was forced to take small, shallow ones.
“Close your eyes, Skylar.” I was trying so hard to force them open. Ethan held my hand. I think it was Ethan, it felt like his touch, but something was off. It was missing his emotions. He was forcing himself into an odd calm just to hold my hand. Unlike the turbulent intensity of who he was, this felt like the touch of a stranger.
I tried to sit up. The pain cut through me like a knife and I dropped back on the bed. “Don’t,” Dr. Jeremy advised, and then seconds later I felt a sharp prick in my arm and a haze overtook me, followed within seconds by darkness.
When I awoke, I felt odd. My body was so used to a high amount of pain that it felt strange not to feel it.
“Slowly,” Steven instructed, moving from the chair next to me to help me. There were so many bandages on me, I felt like I should have been in a horror flick as an old-school mummy. I started to pull off the ones on my stomach when Steven’s hand covered mine to stop me.
“Don’t look at it yet,” he ordered, his appearance dull against the vibrant green eyes that where wide and lively looking despite the bags under them.
“When is the last time you’ve slept?” I asked.
“I’ve been here two days since Dr. Jeremy sedated you.”
“Then why do I still have injuries?” That was one of the perks of being a were-animal, we take a licking and keep on ticking, and if we don’t it’s just a day or so and we’re back to it. Okay, maybe bullets left us a little more damaged, but all I have are claw and bite injuries.
“They’re healed, but he wants to make sure you don’t have scars. The scars were pretty bad yesterday.”
When I picked at the edges of the bandages on my abdomen, he grabbed my hand.
“I just need a quick glance.”
“No you don’t.”
“If I can tolerate looking at your sword wound and Sebastian’s bullet wound, and the damage done to Winter last year, I am sure I can handle it.”
“Fine. I can’t handle seeing them again. Please don’t take the bandages off.” His gentle eyes entreated, and I couldn’t help but obey.
I didn’t touch the bandages. It wasn’t until Steven sat back in his chair that I noticed that Samuel was leaning against the wall.
“Hi,” he said. “How’s your leg?”
Good question. I scooted to the edge of the mattress and then slowly moved to my feet. They seemed relieved when I bore my own weight. Samuel looked like he had seen better days—his hand was bandaged, there was a small scratch on his cheek, and he had a cane resting next to him.
“Is he dead?” Everyone knew exactly who I meant. Ethos.
“No,” Josh said while walking in. He didn’t look as bad as Samuel. He had just a bandage on his hand but he’d obviously had a battle that didn’t go his way. “He was gone by the time we got there, but we have the protected objects.”
“Even the Aufero?”
Josh grinned. “Especially the Aufero. Marcia didn’t give it up without a fight.”
A fight, he must have really won and be very happy about it. “Is she …”
“I wish.”
Based on the grimace on Samuel’s face he seemed to share the same sentiments.
“What about Anderson?” I was sure he was dead, along with the were-animals that were with him.
Steven made a noise.
“What?”
“After Ethan saw what they did to you—” He stopped and made a face. Steven had a high tolerance for violence so it had to be pretty bad. “Marcia and one other witch got away; the others weren’t so lucky.”
I couldn’t say I was unhappy about it, but we were responsible for killing two members of the Creed—how would that play out? After being on so many ends of the political spectrum of the politics of the otherworld, I was aware that things like that had consequences. Things always had consequences.
I hesitated, thinking about the building crumbling next to me and my cousin in there unconscious and unable to protect herself. “What about Senna, is she okay?”
“She’s upstairs, and I doubt she wants to see you any more than us. She locked herself in the room and is doing a great impression of an overwrought teenager,” Josh said.
“Well she’s not much older than one,” I reminded them. “Why haven’t you all taken her home?”
“We need to keep her safe until we find Ethos, if not, he’s going to try to get to her again.” Josh’s wry smile showed he was sympathetic to what she was going through. She was probably scared after being taken from her home, and the were-animals weren’t known for their hospitality.
“Ethan, Gavin, Sebastian, and Winter are cleaning up the situation with the Ares,” Steven said, his voice tense as he sagged back into the chair. “Ethan and Sebastian don’t want any more packs in the area. They helped with all the attacks, and Ethan and Sebastian think that Ethos wouldn’t have gotten this far if it weren’t for Anderson and his pack’s help. They are now without their highest-ranking members, and Sebastian wants the remainder of them to disband.”
Marcia didn’t have the Aufero, nor did Ethos; I’m sure her alliance with him would soon be severed. All the protected objects were now in our possession, but I was sure the Clostra would not be for long. As before, Samuel would be given one. I doubted his assistance wasn’t contingent on it. His motives were ruled by his doctrine and delusions of a magicless world. We weren’t going to change his path or beliefs any more than he was going to change ours.
CHAPTER 13
Dr. Jeremy wouldn’t release me until my scars were totally gone. Then he came at me with the dreaded jar of hellfire. Of course, he called it by another name, but cream of hellfire seemed apropos. He had used it the day before, and it was like acid on my skin. Having the scars didn’t seem so important. Scars built character.
He sat next to me to remove my bandages. Part of me thought they were to keep me from seeing how bad the scars they were. But the bandage on my face looked worse to me than any scar. He took the one off my face first and studied me for a while. “I thought you were going to lose the eye,” he admitted, “but everything looks good.”
“Because you’re the best.” I gave the preemptive compliment. We often made a point of blandishing him with them or he would go into his soliloquy about being unappreciated. And he wasn’t entirely incorrect. We had gotten used to him and probably took him for granted. If Dr. Jeremy couldn’t fix you, no one could. When I suggested he hold off on putting the cream on my back, which for some reason hurt worse there than on my face, he simply said, “If I don’t do it, you won’t be able to wear those bright pink tank tops with the cat on it that you’re so fond of.” He turned me around. “You do realize you’re a wolf, right?”
I was willing to give my Hello Kitty t-shirts up if it meant never feeling the sting again and told Jeremy the same thing.
“You say that now, but I know better,” he said as he shushed me.
After ten minutes of excruciating pain, I was re-bandaged and still feeling the dull sting of the medicine th
at remained on me.
Ethan laughed as he walked through the door. “Some of the things you yelled out aren’t even curses. Are we making up languages now?” I had taken a page from Sable, and it kind of felt good. It was a mixed bag of whatever words came to me. So what if crap-snacks wasn’t a real word, it made me feel better.
“Let me put it on you and see how you like it.”
He scooped some into his hand and spread it over his forearm. His jaw clenched tight as he as he rubbed it into his skin, but he didn’t make a sound and let out slow easy breaths, accepting the pain as part of him as the skin started to bubble a little and then melt way to reveal a smoother layer underneath.
“It does hurt,” he acknowledged.
“Really? My screaming wasn’t a good enough warning? You had to see for yourself.”
“You’ll be fine,” he teased, before kissing me lightly on the lips. Dr. Jeremy was the only person in the room, but it was the first time he’d done anything like that. PDA wasn’t Ethan’s thing. He remained close, his lips brushing against my cheek as he spoke. “How are you?”
“I feel better than I look.”
He nodded and his lips kinked into a half smile. He was still off, and I hated him like this. I didn’t always like being inundated by his emotions; but they were him, tightly held to his very being. Without them, it wasn’t Ethan.
“We should remove the magic again,” I suggested, moving back so I could look at his face.
“I plan to, but I want Josh to do it.”
I nodded. It wasn’t a slight against me. I found out about Ethan being a dark elf before Josh and it was a source an animosity between them.
“Do you plan on telling him about the Veritas?”
I tried to read the stolid look but as usual I couldn’t, and the only thing he offered was a noncommittal “We’ll see.”
Lunar Marked (Sky Brooks Series Book 4) Page 29
