Nightly Howls

by Madeline Blake

  "Sharuken seems to give you quite the shock," Gizelda comments, "I know it is an experimental procedure, but we feel quite confident that it will deliver the desired results."

  Random thoughts are distracting me, making it difficult for me to listen to the Council. Nico's face keeps appearing before me, his green eyes staring into my soul. I try to think of what he would tell me right now, and the imaginary Nico's expression morphs into a face of pure despair.

  Nico melts my heart with one look as he begs, my mind flashing to that one night at the hotel. "Just please, let us be anything but this! You can treat me like dirt, or a child, for anything from you is better than nothing at all. I can be a plaything to you if you wish, as long as I am something!"

  "Please... don't do this to me!"

  I nearly fall off the chair when I realize that I accidentally spoke the last plea aloud. It is as if I am finally returning to reality, only now remembering that I am with the Council and they can hear my every word. Subconsciously I clutch my head in my hands and start to cry. I can't get rid of the mental image of Nico's face as he asks for forgiveness.

  "Pardon me?" Gizelda asks with a clear tone of disapproval.

  "I... I, I..." I struggle to regain my senses. "I cannot follow through with the procedure, High One."

  Griffin turns to stare at me, icily surveying my discomfort. "And why is that?" he asks so softly that I barely realize he is actually speaking. I turn a deep shade of scarlet red. This is it. This is crunch time.

  "I just... can't," I mumble, looking away from Griffin. Away from everyone.

  This disease is destroying me. Even now I am lusting for Nico's touch, and honestly, it feels like I would die without it. I just know I can't go through the procedure with a condition like this.

  After a shocked silence, Cyrus narrows his eyes. I glance at him warily. "We understand you have some feelings for your past mate," he begins, "and we regret that you have fallen into such a predicament. Such a situation would not be wished upon anyone... especially any of our own. However, you must understand that upon your shoulders rests the destiny of the werewolf race. You are so crucial to our mission... our purpose as werewolves. This is why it is so important that you accept our offer. We are not acting in our own best interest, but in the best interest of our entire race."

  "We implore you to consider our offer," Markus speaks firmly.

  Griffin steps closer to me, though his eyes are on the Council. "She needs time. Allow her some time to think." He speaks with the regal authority of a king, but I can tell he is nervous.

  Ferrars looks slightly relieved, most likely at the chance that he may keep his current position. "She does need time. I agree," he says quickly.

  The Council discuss among themselves whether to allow me more time. I try not to overhear them, although it is difficult not to. Seriously. I am about to have a temper tantrum. If they don't give me any time...

  "We will deliver an ultimatum tomorrow at noon," Cyrus finally says, his words nearly scaring me out of my skin. "You may leave now."

  So now I have less than a day to decide whether to help the werewolf race and lose Nico in the process or abandon it entirely. Certainly seems like a lose-lose situation.

  I can only wonder what Nico's real reaction would be if he was here. And I also can't help but ask myself why I care so much.

  Griffin touches the small of my back with his hand, and it doesn't hurt because of the layer of cloth. I breathe a sigh of relief. I hate that I feel like this, but there is not much I can do. I had no clue that this bond between Nico and I would become such a curse.

  He tentatively leads me outside of the meeting room, acting as if I was made of glass. “What’s wrong with you?” he asks angrily, as soon as we leave the room. His face is twisted in anger and confusion. I stare back at him with the same expression.

  He glares at me, then turns away briefly. When he looks back, he is somewhat subdued. More like the Griffin… the Scotty I know.

  “I don’t know…” I guiltily glance at him, then at my outstretched hands. Whipping my head around, I search for anyone, anyone besides Griffin.

  As a guard leaves the meeting room, I pounce. Running to him, I place one hand on his. He jumps away as if I set him on fire. “I’m sorry, Chosen One! Did I offend you?” He asks in anguish, caressing his hand and kneeling before me.

  My hand doesn’t burn in the slightest, and I stare at it in curiosity. In fact, a warm tingle spreads through my body and makes me smile.

  “Ella. It’s Ella.” I bend beside him, looking into his emerald green eyes. “Did my touch hurt you?” I feel sorry for him because of the shock and alarm I can detect in his eyes.

  “No, Chosen One,” he responds softly, “but nobles never touch me. I’m sorry for acting in a detestable manner.”

  “I’m not a noble. And I am Ella! I don’t want you to call me by any other name! And stop apologizing!” I hate to see such a handsome guy kneel before me in such a manner. I don’t deserve this measure of respect.

  “I apologize.” He bows his head, and then tentatively rises to his feet. He disappears within seconds, narrowly managing to avoid my anger. He completely ignored me.

  Forgetting about the guard within seconds, I turn back to Griffin, ashen with the realization that it is only him.

  “It is only your touch I cannot bear,” I whisper, staring up into his eyes. He looks back in horror.

  “What can you possibly mean by that?” He asks, subconsciously reaching towards my arm. I snap it away, ashamedly glancing at the ground. I can’t tell him. I can’t tell him of this awful disease that has robbed my every desire, hope, and stray thought.

  I say nothing, guiltily looking around me. After a second of hopeless deliberation, my thoughts turn to the one who started all this. The one that made me look like an idiot in the meeting room.

  “I have to see him. I have to talk to him.” I shake my head, and then deliberately turn away from Griffin for the millionth time. “I’ll find that guard. He will tell me where he is.”

  “Where who is?” Griffin asks, his voice escalating in anger, “Ella, you better tell me right now who you are talking about!” He stalks after me as I travel in the direction of some nearby guards.

  It is then that I realize that surely… surely Griffin would know. I stop and look into his brown eyes pleadingly.

  “Please, Griffin, please… take me to Nico.” His eyes seem to light on fire when he hears me, and he seems to snarl underneath his breath.

  “So it is really all about him, isn’t it?” He asks sarcastically. “You can’t even touch me, but you moan about him constantly? What has he done that I haven’t? I have protected you from day one-“

  “No, Griffin! You don’t understand!”

  Well neither do I, but that is beside the point.

  “Well then, enlighten me.” He crosses his arms over his chest. His eyes drill holes through mine. I’m not getting out of this one.

  Tears start to fall from my eyes. “It’s the… it’s the…”

  He softens as he watches my meltdown for a few seconds. “What is it, sweetheart?”

  The endearment stings as I start to fall before him. He catches me on the way down, touching my arm and waist. Instantly I burn as if on fire, screaming loudly. He shifts his hands so that a layer of cloth separates us instantly, and the relief slowly comes. I cannot control the sobs, no matter how hard I try.

  He holds me for a while, and I temporarily forget myself in his embrace. I forget about my tainted body, my horrible afflictions. It feels like I have almost regained a missing piece of myself.

  But of course, it only lasts for a moment.

  “I’m cursed, Griffin,” I whisper, staring blankly upwards. “I… need to talk to Nico about the curse.”

  “But Ella… didn’t you hear?” He asks quietly, steadying me.

  “Hear what?”

  Silence enters the room for a few seconds while Griffin seems to ponder exactly
how to phrase his next words.

  “He’s gone.”

  ~ Nico ~

  I pace the room, worry creasing my brow. “What am I supposed to do, Asher?” I ask a figure huddling in the corner of the room. The bundle of fur shakes its head, and then wearily turns to lie on the cold floor.

  It has been two long days since I have seen Ella, and each second has been like an eternity. If I think really hard, I can still remember her lips upon mine. It feels so good for a minute, but then I remember that I am never going to see her again.

  The second Ella stepped upon the table to send the shifters away… I knew that the Council would never give her back. Maybe Ella didn’t notice, but I saw the glimmer of excitement in Cyrus’s face. He is such a sly old dog… wanting to get his dirty paws on the only good thing that happened to the werewolf race in hundreds of years. The others had a similar expression, but none compared to his.

  I want to pitch a fit about “finding her first” and all that, but turns out I didn’t even do that. Some guy beat me to the punch and I didn’t even know it. In addition, he stole her heart as easily as it took me to fall in love with her. Although I guess her heart didn’t belong to me anyway. It sure changes things, looking at the situation like this. I never thought myself to be a thief, but turns out I’m in jail for a reason, if not the one they put me in here for.

  I finger the bars of the cell, made out of a strange metal that cannot be bent by werewolves. Trust me, I tried. We are not getting out of this place without help from the outside.

  What I really hate about being locked in here is that I’m truly helpless. It makes me think of all the other times when I have been like this. The list stretches on and on, though most recently Ella’s awakening stirred a similar reaction in my chest. It really hurts… not being able to save the people I love.

  Does Ella really need saving? I sit down, placing my head in my hands in frustration. I suppose she is safe here. More than she ever was with me. It seems like every time she was near me she would land in a near death experience.

  Griffin looks like a more capable guy than I am, although I would like to think of myself as more handsome. Of course, it isn’t true, and we couldn’t be any more different. He looks more humanlike than I, without the green eyes and crazy hair. I can only hope Ella finds my bizarre looks more appealing. This is probably all I have left, if even that, over Griffin.

  “Asher, seriously, help me.” I look back at the furry bundle, and it moves slightly to bare its teeth. I give him an exasperated look, and he shifts into his beast form.

  “What do you want?!” He looks at me in frustration. “You know there is nothing either of us can do.” His body continues to change into a human form, and I temporarily freeze to watch him. His curious method of shifting always manages to amaze me. He is the only werewolf I know of that can stop halfway between werewolf and human for a prolonged period of time. The incredible control he has fits in perfectly with his Beast talent. Usually Beast talents lose control over themselves when they shift, but Asher never loses his temper without a reason.

  “I need a plan. A plan that can get us out of this cell.” I start to pace back and forth along the bars. “I need to save Ella.”

  “You aren’t getting Ella back,” Jake shrugs, lounging in another corner of the cell. “You know that. Just give up.” He looks more worn out than the rest of us, with bags underneath his eyes and a dreary glare. He has also been the one most active in trying to think up a plan with me. I know he is pretty fond of Ella and loathes losing her like I do, but seems like he has finally faced the awful facts.

  “Come on, Nico, we both know brainstorming is not going to work very well. We have tried it for about a day and a half and my head is about to explode,” Wes complains, lying on a wooden bench. I think we are all pretty much sick of each other by now.

  “I’m not asking you. We all know you aren’t much help,” I snap back, leaning my head against the bars. The golden airhead in our group certainly fits the blond jokes we throw at him every now and then.

  Ever since bonding, I at least gather satisfaction from the fact that she will feel some measure of regret if she casts me away. It hurts that it is turning out like this, but a sadistic part of me is happy that she now fully belongs to me. The Council can’t separate our bond. All I need to do is somehow convince Ella that she needs me, and perhaps she can somehow convince the Council to let me stay with her.

  That plan may be harder than I thought to achieve, considering that I am stuck down in the dungeon. It isn’t that bad of a place, our cell having four beds and a decent bathroom. The floor and walls seems to be made of solid rock and the room is decorated sparsely. It reminds me of the hotel we stayed at, except the doors have bars.

  “Asher, what have you been doing?” Jake asks Asher while he surveys a small hole in the wall. “Have you been trying to drill through the walls?”

  “You have any better suggestions?” He asks in response, and then shows all of us a thin, sharp nail. “I found this stuck in the wall yesterday.”

  “Like that will do any good,” I mutter, falling onto my hard bed and staring at the ceiling. I miss her. I miss her more than I would ever be willing to admit.

  “Hey, I did manage to make a few holes in the wall,” Asher protests, showing us the dot-sized pinpricks scattered in one brick. “I was hoping to loosen this brick and then work my way back. Surely we could get to the wall from here and then fight our way out.”

  I narrow my eyes at the holes. “That doesn’t even look like it goes through the entire brick. You may have made it halfway.”

  “I’m working on it!” he huffs, and I laugh.

  “How long are you planning on doing that? A year?” Wes jokingly asks. Asher blushes, although it is hard to tell because he is shifting at the same time. Obviously he is done talking to us.

  Asher, now a gigantic wolf, continues to hold the nail in his teeth and push it into the rock. I turn my head away from him in hopelessness. We are doomed.

  Once I think about it, technically this is all Asher’s fault. If he hadn’t Awakened her, we never would have gotten in this mess. Too delirious and angry to second guess myself, I launch into a series of thoughts and accusations against Asher in my mind. I have nothing better to do.

  Just when I wonder how exactly I am going to murder Asher when we get out of here, a pair of footsteps interrupts my gleeful thinking. Intrigued, I turn to the man coming towards the bars. It doesn’t take long for me to turn back away in disgust.

  Griffin doesn’t smile as he steps up to the bars, inches from my face. As I try to stay calm, I notice that today he looks like a phoenix—bright with the emotion of either fury or excitement—with his red hair and animated expression.

  “What are you doing here?” Jake asks resignedly after I refuse to address Griffin. “Come here to gloat?”

  “Well, I was supposed to come down here to inform you all that you will be either exiled or exterminated this Saturday, but I’m sure that is a little bit depressing for all of you at the moment… so I will try to start out with some good news.”

  We all look at him dryly as he makes a big show out of trying to think of something.

  “Yeah, yeah we get it,” I huff, “nothing good for us delinquents. I mean, we only found the human destined to save our entire werewolf race and basically delivered her into your greedy hands.”

  “Now, now, not so fast.” He laughs, “You seem to forget that you actually were trying to keep her away from us when we caught you.”

  “Only because we were afraid of something like this happening to us.”

  “Look, don’t get angry at me. I’m only the messenger,” he cautions, taking a step back from the bars as my face grows red. “It’s Ella. It’s all because of her. You can blame her for all the problems you get into from now on.”

  “You know I can’t do that,” I shake my head, looking at the floor. Somewhat subduing myself, I look up at him. “What do you sta
nd to gain from all this?”

  “Well, the Council says they will give me back my birthright if Ella agrees to stay at headquarters. As if she has a choice.” He pauses, looking right into my eyes. “But I don’t care about that. That is not what’s important to me.”

  “What is important to you, Griffin?” All four of us nail him with an iron gaze. He seems to be growing a bit uncomfortable, squirming slightly.

  “Her,” he nearly chokes, before straightening and trying to eye us coldly. “Everything about her… I want to myself. I do have selfish motives, but are they truly different from yours? All I want is to protect her and love her as a mate should.”

  He is right. I am really no different than him. Why am I acting all high and mighty?

  He steps closer to the bars, closer to my face. “Nico, I don’t hate you. I’m actually grateful to you for the love and kindness you gave her, because even though she doesn’t admit it, she has certainly been affected for the better. You also saved her life several times, from what I have heard, and that makes me respect you more than anyone else at Headquarters. I know you’re a good guy. Maybe a little resentful… but I would be too in your position. Please believe me… try to understand.”

  “Then surely, if you really felt that way, you would get us out of here,” I say, basically flabbergasted by his confession. It certainly seemed like he hated me.

  The strangest thing of all is that I do understand. Though I don’t want to.

  “Well, that is an interesting point. Why don’t I get you out of here?” He laughs. “If only it were that simple.”

  “Sometimes, it is.”

  “First off, I don’t have the power to let you go. Secondly, even if I did let you go, I would be worried that you would go off and do something stupid. Just out of curiosity, what would you do if I got you out?”

  “Save Ella,” I say fiercely. I don’t like playing games.

  “Yeah… right. See, that qualifies as something stupid. It isn’t in my best interest for you to do that, and once you think about it, it isn’t in yours either. What are you going to do when you save Ella?”