They fell over, asleep.
With my spark completely extinguished, I dropped to my knees on the blood-soaked ground and waited for Reese to kill me.
CHAPTER 42
Taeral hadn’t moved since he’d been shot in the back. Elara and Mars stayed with him, huddled in a frightened clutch over his motionless body as Reese descended from the stands.
But he didn’t even look at them. He was headed for me.
I had nothing left. No magic, no strength, not even a sarcastic remark. I could only watch his approach, and hope he was angry enough to make this fast.
He stopped five feet in front of me. And started clapping.
“Well done, Mr. Black.” The clapping slowed, and then stopped as he crouched level with me. “You aren’t as weak as I thought. You’ve done some real damage here. Unfortunately, I think you might have gotten a few of your friends killed in the process,” he said. “But if it makes you feel any better, you have set me back by at least a month or two.”
“Yeah. That was the plan,” I managed. “To set you back.”
He shook his head slowly. “How did you do this? I really must know.”
One corner of my mouth lifted. “I suppose you’ll have to guess.”
“Fine. I can live with that.”
He straightened and took something out of his pocket. A loaded, capped syringe. “Since I’d planned to test you in the arena tonight, I decided to advance the timetable,” he said, sliding the cap from the syringe. “The new batch of L39. I tested it on one of my own men, and it worked just fine. In fact, he was even able to think and speak in enhanced form.”
“So what, you’re going to stick me with that?” I panted.
“Oh, no. This is for me.” He pushed a sleeve up and rubbed his thumb on his upper arm. “I said I’d face you before we were through, and I’d kill you. So now I’m going to rip you apart. Piece by piece.”
He popped the needle in, and pushed the plunger.
Damn. This was really going to hurt.
I hadn’t seen the transformation up close until now. His skin pulled taut, and the muscles beneath rippled and swelled. His nails thickened and lengthened into talons with sharp points. The jaw dislocated and stretched wide as more pointed teeth than could ever fit in a human mouth emerged.
His eyes went a solid, glittering black.
“I can smell your fear,” the Reese-wolf said, in a voice like a blender full of gravel. “Haven’t tried it myself, but I’ll bet it makes you taste better.” He grinned and crouched to spring.
“À dionadth!”
The shout was Taeral. As he spoke, the air shimmered in front of me. Reese crashed into nothing and sprawled on the ground with a frustrated snarl.
Taeral stood about ten feet back, his normal arm outstretched. At least, normal for a Fae. His glamour was gone, leaving him with sky-blue skin, pointed ears jutting from thick tangles of black hair, and needle-sharp teeth bared in fury. Pale flames of light danced along the outlines of his body—a sign that he was well and truly pissed.
But I sensed that he hadn’t dropped his glamour because his spark was gone. Power crackled from him in waves, stronger than I’d ever felt it.
He wanted Reese to see him like this. Probably because he was scary as hell…and he knew it.
Taeral advanced as Reese got to his feet. “I made you a promise, human,” he thundered. “And now I intend to keep it.”
Reese laughed. The low, wicked sound shivered down my spine. “The werewolves are stronger. Faster. And you’re even weaker than your pathetic friend,” he said. “I wanted to keep one of you alive, but I don’t mind killing you both. The Fae are nothing.”
In a blink, Taeral was in front of him. He grabbed Reese’s throat with his normal hand and lifted him off the ground. “I am an Unseelie warrior, the son of the Queen’s favored noble,” he said. “And you are threatening my brother.”
Runes of blue fire traced themselves into being along his metal arm. He stabbed his hand into Reese’s chest like a dagger, through skin and bone—and pulled out his beating heart.
Reese screamed.
Pale blue light flowed from Taeral’s normal hand into Reese. Healing him. Keeping him alive as he dropped the bloodied chunk of flesh and sliced his stomach open with the thorny nails of his metal hand, spilling his guts.
Exactly the way he’d promised to kill the bastard.
Taeral pulled him close as he shivered and twitched, unable to scream any more. “You’re dying,” he rasped near Reese’s ear. “For humans, the moment of death can last an eternity. I’ve something to keep you company while you wait—the eight months of torture I suffered at the hands of your so-called brothers.”
Reese’s body jolted stiff, his eyes wide and frozen in horror. At last, he slumped boneless in Taeral’s grip.
Taeral dropped the body with a sneer of contempt and rushed over to me. I still couldn’t get up, so he knelt in front of me, his worried eyes searching my face. “Gideon. Are you…yourself?”
“Yeah,” I rasped. “Pretty much.”
“What in the name of the gods happened?”
I shuddered. “Shot myself up with that human suppressing stuff,” I said. “Went full Fae for a while.”
His jaw went slack. “Why?”
“Because there was no other way out.”
“Foolish, impulsive child! You might have destroyed yourself. Do you have any idea—”
“Taeral. I might have, but I didn’t.” I spoke as firmly as I could. “It’s over now. And trust me, I’m never doing that again. I don’t know how you can stand it.”
“Stand what?”
“Being Fae, with all these…humans around.”
He gaped at me, and then smiled. “It does require some adjustment. Particularly when you happen to care for at least one of them.”
“Half of one, anyway.” I smirked and glanced past him at the remains of Reese. “You have to show me that heart-ripping trick sometime,” I said. “How the hell did you do that?”
He shook his head. “You’ll not learn that one. It involves swearing a gealdht to protect the life of another, and watching that life threatened.”
Great. Now I felt worse—at this point, I didn’t think that was possible. “So it’s because of your promise,” I said.
“Aye. But in this case, it is an advantage,” he said. “If your safety is threatened, I can access my full power. Besides, I did promise that bastard I’d kill him for what he did. I was merely ensuring my continued survival.”
“Right,” I said. “And you didn’t enjoy that at all.”
“Well. Perhaps a bit.”
“Guys, please tell me you’re both back to normal now.”
I jumped a little when Sadie spoke beside me. “Will you stop sneaking up on me?” I said. “It’s kind of hurting my pride.”
“Okay. You’re normal.” She flashed an exhausted smile. She’d helped herself to some soldier’s clothes, and I looked around and saw the rest of her pack doing the same. “So,” she said. “I don’t suppose either of you knows what they did with our stuff.”
“Any stuff in particular?” I said.
“They took my spirit bag and luna-ball. A few of the others had spirit bags. And I guess my father’s moonstaff—though I’m not sure I want him to have that back, after the shit they pulled at the path.” She sighed and looked across the field. “But I guess they need it. He claims he didn’t know…that Marlon took it.”
I couldn’t even imagine what she was feeling right now. To have hated someone so much, and then have them die to save you. It must’ve been hell.
But this wasn’t the time to worry about emotions. “I don’t know, but I can find out,” I said, looking to Reese’s mangled corpse. “Because I’ll bet he does.”
Taeral shook his head. “You’ve nothing left, brother. Your spark is exhausted.”
“Yeah, I know. But I don’t think I need my spark for this.”
“Has your mind
been as damaged as the rest of you? Of course you need your spark.”
“I’m not sure about that,” I said slowly. “Something…happened to me. All that moonlight. I sort of felt how things were supposed to work—for a few minutes, anyway. And I think the DeathSpeaker stuff comes from somewhere else.”
“Now I’m certain of it,” Taeral said. “Your mind’s been damaged.”
“Just let me try.”
He shrugged and shuffled aside, and I half-crawled toward Reese. At first I felt nothing when I put a hand on his shoulder. And I thought maybe I was wrong.
Then I felt a tug in my mind. Faint at first, and then increasing to an all-out struggle that seemed frantic, almost terrified.
No! Reese’s voice exploded in my head. You CAN’T be. It’s not true!
Christ, that hurt like a son of a bitch. But I had to grin in spite of the pain. “I did warn you,” I said. “Go ahead and keep believing I’m not, though. Maybe it’ll work for you.”
I swear, I’m going to tear your limbs off and shove them down your throat! You and your pathetic brother!
Damn. I didn’t need my spark to do this, but apparently having it helped tone down the pain. Every word tore at my mind, and the blood was already flowing freely from my nose. “I can’t stay and play with you, Reese,” I said. “So I’m just going to ask my question, and then leave you to rot in whatever hell they have for heartless, sadistic bastards like you.”
I’ll never answer! You can’t—
“Where is everything you took from the werewolves?”
The tugging was so violent, I thought he’d manage to rip my brain in half somehow. Finally, he screamed, THE SAFE IN THE LAB, goddamn you! Back wall behind the sliding panel! Zero-four-zero-one-seven, you disgusting freak of nature!
My brow went up. I could feel the absolute fear behind every word—it must’ve driven him to answer with more than just what he had to, like most of them did.
There, I told you! Now let go of me!
I really had to. The pain was so intense, it’d nearly drowned out the rest of the world. I couldn’t afford to pass out. But there was one more thing I wanted to ask, to clarify something he said. An exact phrase that I’d heard from more than one dead person. Let go of me.
If they were dead, how could they possibly know I was touching them?
I looked down at Reese’s body. “What are you seeing right now?”
He didn’t try to fight this time. I see you! Holding me! Put me down, you son of a bitch…let GO, let GO, let GO! A strong tug in my head came with every shouted word.
And my vision started blurring.
I snatched my hand away and focused on breathing for a minute. When I knew I’d stay conscious, I looked at Sadie. “The safe in the lab,” I said. “Back wall, sliding panel. Zero-four-zero-one-seven—I think that’s the combination. Do you know where the lab is?”
“Not exactly.”
I told her. She looked surprised that I knew, but she didn’t ask.
“I’ll get someone to go down there. And Gideon…I really want to know what the hell happened. All of it,” she said. “But first, I think we should get out of here as soon as possible. Grab and go. Can you guys make it to the bunker?”
Taeral nodded. “Of course.”
“I don’t know if I can, but I will.” I made myself take a final look around at the death and destruction I’d caused. To remember…and to make sure it never happened again. “Right now, this is the last place I want to be.”
CHAPTER 43
All of the werewolves had survived, except Marlon.
On the long hike back, two of the elders carried his body wrapped in a canvas tarp they’d found somewhere in the research building—a structure that had been reduced to a pile of ash by now. Silas and his brother Oscar set the place burning, after it was collectively decided that Compound 23 and L39 should never fall into anyone’s hands.
Especially mine, I thought. But I hadn’t said it.
Willow, Marlon’s widow, walked beside the body. The two carrying him, Butch and Jenny, were the parents of Tate, Luther, and Rennie. Dionne was Mars’ mother. Counting Sadie and Elara, there were twelve werewolves left in the pack.
No one mentioned Marlon’s betrayal. Word had spread about the way he’d saved Sadie’s life—his debt was paid.
It took almost three hours to reach the trashed bunker. Silas told everyone to wait outside. He went in, and returned a few minutes later with a large pile of folded blankets. “We’ll sleep in the canyon tonight, under the stars,” he said. “The spirits will protect us. In the morning, we’ll begin to rebuild.”
I wasn’t sure if Taeral and I were welcome to sleep under the stars. But no one told us to leave.
Eventually everyone found a spot and settled down. Sadie shared a blanket with Taeral, and I laid one out next to it. She seemed relieved that we were mostly okay, but I couldn’t tell if she was just tired, or furious with me.
I could still see the look on her face when she realized I’d crushed the soldiers to death.
While I was trying to decide whether to talk to her, Elara came over with a blanket. “Do you mind if I sit with you guys?” she said.
“You’d better.” Sadie jumped up suddenly and hugged her. For a second Elara looked startled, but then she embraced her back tightly. “Thank God you’re all right,” Sadie murmured, stroking her sister’s hair. “I was so worried. I thought they’d…”
She failed to finish the sentence.
They finally eased away, and Elara sniffled once. “You came back for me,” she said in a choked voice. “Even after you said you never would.”
“Damn right I did.” Sadie smiled. “You’re my sister. I’d never let anyone hurt you.”
She settled beside Taeral again, and Elara spread her blanket out in front and sat down. The younger werewolf looked from Sadie to Taeral, and then smirked. “You guys are together, aren’t you?” she said.
“No!” Sadie blushed fiercely and cleared her throat. “Why does everyone think that?” she muttered.
“Told you,” I said, ignoring Taeral’s hot glare.
“You are. I knew it.” Elara let out a tiny, almost happy sigh, and turned to me. “Thank you,” she said.
“For what?”
“You did it. You saved my family.” She shuddered and crossed her arms. “If you hadn’t shown up when you did…we were going after them ourselves. Tate thought we could do it, beat them and get the elders back. But he was wrong.”
Yeah, I was a real hero. At least I hadn’t slaughtered every last one of the soldiers—some of them had run, and a handful were still under the sleep spell when we left. A few of the werewolves had grudgingly moved them out of range of the fire. But I still didn’t feel too great about being thanked for murdering a bunch of people without a second thought. “Well, it wasn’t just me,” I finally said. “Wouldn’t have made it without Taeral and…shit. Chester!”
Elara’s brow lifted. “What about him?”
“He said he’d come looking for us if we didn’t stop at his place,” I said. “He’ll do it. There’s a bunch of soldiers still up there, and if he goes back—”
“Can you call him?” she said.
I shook my head. “If he’s got a phone, it’s definitely not a listed number. He’s a bit on the paranoid side,” I said. “Maybe I could check with the sheriff, see if he made it there and if she has a way to contact him. But I’m pretty sure she still has my phone. She kind of confiscated it when she arrested us.”
“You got arrested?” Elara said. “Cool.”
“Elara. Being arrested is not cool,” Sadie said bluntly. “Don’t even think about it.”
She rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”
Just like her big sister.
“Anyway,” Elara said. “I’ve got a phone. You can use it to call the sheriff.”
As she stood, Sadie stared at her. “You have a phone? Dad never let anyone have a phone,” she said. “He says they�
��re too human for us.”
“Dad doesn’t know.” Elara flashed a sly smile. “Be right back!” she called over her shoulder as she jogged toward the bunker.
Sadie gave an exasperated sigh. “Teenagers,” she muttered.
Silence settled in, and once again I considered bringing up the whole violent murder issue with Sadie. But before I could make up my mind, Elara came back to plop down on her blanket and hand me a smartphone in a sparkly pink case. “There’s actually a cell tower pretty close to here,” she said. “And I installed a signal booster, so it works fine most of the time.”
“Thanks,” I said, trying not to laugh at Sadie’s I-don’t-believe-this expression.
After a few swipes and taps, I found the keypad, dialed directory assistance, and asked to be connected to the Elk Heights sheriff’s department. The phone rang four times, and a voice I recognized as Walt from the CB unit answered with, “Sheriff’s office.”
“Hey, Walt,” I said. “Can I speak to Sheriff Gormann?”
There was a pause, and Walt said, “Do I know you, son?”
“No, you don’t. Sorry,” I said. “But I have to talk to the sheriff.”
“Sheriff’s busy right now. If you’ve got an emergency—”
“Look, just tell her it’s Mr. Black.”
Another pause. “This ain’t one of them prank calls, is it?” Walt said. “Mr. Black, like that movie Swimming Dogs or whatnot, with all them Mr. Pink and Orange guys?”
I bit back a laugh. “It’s not a prank. Please, tell her I’m calling.”
“All right. Hang on.”
There was a clunk as Walt put down an actual phone. Two minutes later, Sheriff Gormann came on and said, “Mr. Black. I’m glad you’re alive.”
“Yeah, me too.” I closed my eyes briefly. “So you got your people back, then?”
“All but one. Thanks to you, I hear,” she said. “Listen, I’m really sorry about Chester.”
My blood ran cold. “What happened to him?”
Fields of Blood (The DeathSpeaker Codex Book 2) Page 19
