The three of them pulled up to the front of the motel, and they each stood out of the car together. The day had already started to ebb into night. The sun was still out, but that didn’t seem to matter anymore. They would only have so much time to go there and get what they knew they had to get.
Michael was the first to the door. He was the one that knocked.
Brandon heard the knock. He wasn’t asleep. He didn’t know if he would ever be able to sleep again, so hearing it, he stood up. What now? He asked. His legs felt weak. They felt wobbly. He didn’t feel like he was moving on his own accord. Who could be coming to see me? He reached the door. Maybe Rachel forgot something. He turned the knob. He felt weighted down as he opened the door.
Seeing the two men and the woman at the door, it suddenly dawned on him why he felt like he did. They’re here for me. He recognized them instantly. Seeing them, the memory of that night flew through his head with a blast of heat, feeling like a flashlight, a searchlight, was now blaring into his eyes. It made them burn. It made them ache. He shuddered with all of it.
He could now remember them coming to his apartment. He could remember them offering to help Jimmy. He could remember the offer they made to him. The memory of the bite to his neck came next. He remembered it all, so much so, he could almost feel the pain again at his neck. It came strong. It came with true force. The pain raced through his shoulders and went down his arms. He could feel his own blood ooze from his neck. It all came back to him again like it just happened. He felt everything. With it all, he nearly gasped. He winced. He nearly lost all control all at once.
“Brandon? How are you my new friend?” Michael smiled. The heat from the sun behind them felt so strong on his back. He could feel that heat piercing through his clothes. It wasn’t much longer before that heat would start to burn him. Knowing that his time was short, he had to come inside, so he pushed his way past the boy and into the safety of the room.
“What do you want?” Brandon asked, helpless to stop the tall blonde haired man from coming inside. He could feel his strength. He could feel his force, and couldn’t do anything about it, so he didn’t. Besides, he knew what they were. He knew they were there for him. They were there for what he had to give them. He didn’t know how he knew what he did, but it was still there. The memory of the voice flying through his head as he lied down came rushing back into his thoughts. The voice was his. Michael had been speaking to him this entire time.
“You have the vial?” Michael stepped towards the second bed. Joshua came in and joined him over by the wall. Melinda stayed by the front door but closed it to the sun outside.
Brandon turned around to the three of them, and looked to all of them in turn. His thoughts turned over, and over again inside his head. He couldn’t believe they made him do everything without so much as an effort to do it. He also knew that he couldn’t stop them from doing what they came there to do. He felt helpless. They controlled his every move and his every thought. It also meant that they knew about the vial and the drug. That’s, after all, what they were there for. “I have it here.” He reached into the front pocket of his jeans, and brought it out in front of him. He had no control. His mind did everything without thought. His hand moved all on its own. It took everything he had to breathe, and even that felt like he wasn’t the one doing it.
Michael looked at the vial and gasped. If what he heard about it doing was right, he knew that he would put it to good use. It was his only way to stop Kalima. It was all they had to stop the beast that had strength far greater than theirs. He could only hope that it would be enough to make them do what they now knew they had to do.
Wolves were stronger than nightwalkers. They had overwhelming strength, where they only had speed. They could hunt him down easily enough, but if they had to fight him, they would lose that fight. They all knew this. They needed something to balance that strength. They needed something to give them an edge. Michael could only hope that the drug would do everything that Brandon heard it would do.
“You’ve done well, my new friend.” He reached out and took the vial with his left hand, and held it up towards his face. He looked deeply into the clear liquid behind the glass, and could just sigh with the possibilities that it could give them. It’s so strange that something so simple could do so much harm to someone so powerful. How can this simple clear fluid stop someone like Kalima? With it in his control, it felt like destiny. It felt hard to describe such a power that he now had, right in the palm of his hands.
“You’re going to use it on Jimmy, aren’t you?” Brandon couldn’t believe what he just did to his friend. How could I have betrayed him like this? How could I given one of his enemies something that can harm him so much? He winced with the thought. He tried to swallow a dry mouth but failed at it. He felt enraged. He felt ashamed. He felt downright evil, if not pure hell itself.
“There’s no need to feel ashamed my young friend. We need to stop him, before he does any more damage. We have to end this.” Michael looked at the vial, turned, and then handed it to Joshua.
Joshua took it and likewise exhaled when he now held it in his grip.
“What did he do to you?” Brandon lowered his head some. He couldn’t look at them. He couldn’t face the truth of his own betrayal.
Michael sighed. “He’s your friend, I know.” He stepped over to the closest bed and stared down at it idly. “Your friend has become something that we cannot let continue my young friend. We cannot allow him to continue down this path. He’s become dangerous to our kind. He’s become something that must be stopped.”
“Why?” Brandon brought his head back up. His eyes met Michael’s dark stare. Instantly, just as he saw that look, a shot of pain flew through his body and flung itself down into his spine. It felt almost like a thousand knifes had just pierced his entire frame. It felt worse than agony. It felt worse than fire. He felt almost like he was being burned alive with a million heated blades.
Michael smiled when Brandon fell to his knees. He enjoyed causing pain. He loved it when he needed to do it to another. He couldn’t allow the questions. He didn’t want the others to feel that he wasn’t being forceful enough. He had to be the one in charge. He had to be the one that was stronger than anyone else was. He had to keep in control of all of them. “We must.” He stepped forward, and knelt down in front of the boy.
Brandon screamed as the pain flared, blaring through him like crashes of lightning. He couldn’t stand it. He couldn’t stop it. He knew nothing about anything.
“Hurts, doesn’t it?” Michael reached out with his right hand and took Brandon by the bottom of his chin. He brought his eyes back up to his.
Brandon winced from the sight. He nodded his head. It took every amount of strength for him to do just that.
“You want it to stop?”
Again, Brandon nodded.
“Then stop.”
The pain followed the words, and with them, instantly, his entire body became normal again. Instantly, the knives vanished right from his skin. The heat faded. The fire vanished. Instantly, he felt strong again.
Michael let go of his face and stood back straight. “There’s only one way to end the pain my new friend.” He left Brandon and rejoined Joshua over at the far wall. “You must bring him here to us. You must let us have your friend.” He turned back around, as Brandon stood back to his feet. “Only then, will you have your reward.” He smiled.
Brandon scoffed. “You want me to betray my friend? You want me to be rewarded for that?” He could never do such a thing. How could he? How dare he? He couldn’t. He wouldn’t even try to do it.
“Pain.” Michael smiled.
Again, just as the words came rolling off his tongue, heat and fire raked its way through his entire body. The knives returned, and the fire bellowed inside his soul. He screamed as he once again fell to the floor. He hit the thin carpet of the floor with a loud and rather painful thud to his knees.
Michael left Joshua and walked b
ack over to him, but this time, he stayed standing and merely looked down to the top of his head. “You know what you must do, and you will do it my friend.” He looked back to the others, first to Joshua and then to Melinda. “We will leave him. He has a job to do, and so will we. I must see the old one. I need to gain his help.”
The others merely nodded.
Michael looked back to the top of Brandon’s head. “Stop.” he stated coldly, and then turned from him and made it back to the door.
Brandon felt the knives vanish again just as fast as they started. He never saw the three of them leave. He never even heard the door open or close. When he picked himself up to his feet, he turned and looked back to the front of the room. They were gone. Realizing it, he took a huge and a heavy breath. He reached for his heart and hugged himself with both of his arms.
What have I done? He felt tired. He felt winded. He felt ashamed.
He left the foot of Rachel’s bed and went back to his. He needed to lie down, now more than ever. He needed to flush his mind. He had to think. He wouldn’t hurt Jimmy, and in knowing that, he knew that he had to do something and fast. He just had to figure out what that something was, and worse yet, he couldn’t think too much about it. Michael was in his head. He was reading his thoughts. He knew everything, and knowing that, he let his mind go blank. He let his thoughts fade away from the forefront of his mind. He knew that he had to do something, but that something was going to have to be done without thinking about it first. He now knew that. He knew that he had to take that opportunity when it came, no matter what that something was. What other options did he now have?
21
Jimmy and Sasha left Kenny’s as the sun started going down. He didn’t want to leave, but he had to go. He needed to meet with Rachel. He couldn’t wait to see her again. A part of him didn’t know how he was going to react when he finally did, but another part did. He did feel different. He did feel rather odd. His experience with seeing himself change on the tape and seeing how Kalima acted for the first time sent his mind racing and made his thoughts even more jagged than what he already felt. So much so, he didn’t seem to know how to think anymore. In a way, he almost felt like he was cheating on his long lost love. He knew something and just didn’t know how to tell that person of what he did. It was all such an odd feeling. He couldn’t place it. He didn’t even know where to begin, or how to start with it. He could only hope that she would understand what he now felt. He knew she loved him, that wasn’t in doubt, but he also knew that she wanted him for being human. He knew that she would stick by him, but that she was also expecting him to choose being Jimmy, and not the wolf. He knew that, but still had doubts about it. He only hoped that she would forgive him for what he was about to do. Seeing what he was, and who he was, opened his eyes in a way that he didn’t expect to happen. He saw himself differently. He saw himself for what he now was, and that was simply, he could never hurt Kalima. He would never stop the beast from being what it was. He accepted himself. He liked it, he already knew that, but now he wasn’t sure if he wanted to stop it. It all felt so clear now. It all felt so real. He no longer wished to fight it. How am I ever going to tell her such a thing?
Walking back to town, both he and Sasha said almost nothing to each other during the whole trip. They both kept quiet.
For Sasha, she let it happen. She knew what he had to be thinking about. He loved Rachel, but now all of that seemed to be changing. He began the long, emotional process of loving what he was. Well, maybe love was too strong of a word for it, but it was close. She could say that he was now closer to accepting it. As far as she felt concerned about it, it was about time that he did. He couldn’t fight being himself. He wouldn’t be able to live without Kalima, she knew that, but now, he started knowing that too. With it all, she felt more than just pleased. It made her feel confident. She now felt more than just happy for bringing him there to see him.
When they reached the town of Old Forge, that’s when the silence finally broke in the warm summer breeze.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do now.” Jimmy kept his eyes forwards as they continued moving. He couldn’t keep quiet anymore. His head felt like it started to ache from thinking so much. He needed help finding the answers to some his questions. In other words, he needed her help. He knew she would understand what he now felt. He knew that she would be able to tell him what to do next. At least, he hoped for such a thing. She was all that he had left.
“I’m here for you Jimmy, you know that?” Sasha likewise kept her face forward as her mind kept in the same direction as they walked down the side of the highway. She meant everything she just said.
He nodded. “When this first happened, I thought I wanted it to end. Now I’m not so sure.” He shrugged his shoulders. His thoughts came rolling out of his mouth with an ease that almost felt surprising, even for him. He rarely spoke his feelings to anyone. He never did it, and hated it when he had to do it. He liked his privacy. He liked keeping his thoughts as his own, but now, he couldn’t do anything about it. He felt like if he didn’t, he would explode from the pure pressure of it alone. He didn’t expect it, but didn’t even try to stop it from happening when it started. “After seeing him, after seeing Kalima, I just don’t know anymore.”
She smiled. She walked slightly ahead of him, so he wouldn’t have seen her do it. “We are what we are Jimmy. You can’t stop it any more than having brown eyes and black hair. You have to be what you were meant to be.” She stumbled some on the dirt of the side of the road, which caused her to stagger some, but she was able to keep her feet and stride without feeling the need to fall down.
He nodded, taking in everything she said. It all made sense, but still, “What am I going to tell her?” He swallowed some. It felt soft. It made him feel ever so slightly winded some because of it, and he didn’t know why.
“If she loves you, she will accept it. She will accept you for what you are. If she doesn’t, then maybe you shouldn’t be with her in the first place.” She bowed her eyes some to the road. She told herself that it was because she needed to watch where she walked, but she knew that that was a lie. In all truth, she hated what he said about Rachel. She wanted that love; even if she knew, he would never give it to her anyway. Still, she did try to fight the feeling. She just swallowed it back down her throat.
He nodded. “I don’t know if I should let it happen.” He looked to the side of the road, and then, just ahead of them and past her, he could see a single streetlight hanging over the road. They were coming closer to town. The light seemingly led their way to it.
“What do you mean?” Sasha’s voice cracked some. She could hear the sound of hope there within it. It gave her hope that her feelings for him might come out into the open even more after all. She knew what he tried to say. Being what they were, made it difficult to have anything like love with a human. There would always be a danger being with someone that was so very different from what they were. They would always have the possibility of something happening to one of them that the other one could never take back. They were what they were, but with another wolf, everything would be different. That’s why they chose their mates well. They had to do it. Danger was simply something that one of them could never ignore about the other.
Jimmy turned his eyes back to the back of her red hair. “I don’t want to hurt her. As long as I am what I am, I feel that I always will do that.” He looked out to the trees that lined the road to his right. The darkness within them almost looked overwhelming. It all looked so complete. It looked just like what he now felt in his own soul—darkness and overwhelming to the end. “There are always going to be packs to avoid. There are always going to be another Samuel that will want to try to take her. There will always be danger being with her.” He winced again after he finished what he tried to say. He didn’t know if he accomplished it.
Again, Sasha nodded. This time she didn’t answer him. She didn’t want to continue with the discussion. She wanted to
pick up where they left off when they took the motel room back in Albany, but she knew that she couldn’t. She wouldn’t. She didn’t want it to look like what she really wanted it to look like. Therefore, she didn’t say anything. She just kept quiet. She changed the subject. “We’re almost there.” She looked up ahead and could see the small parking lot at the front of the motel that Jimmy told Rachel to meet them. She had nothing left in her that she could have done.
Jimmy looked up just as the streetlight overhead came over his head. He could see the parking lot. He could see the building just slightly behind the trees that continued on his right just ahead of them. Seeing the parking lot, he could easily see that it looked empty. There were no cars parked in it. There wasn’t anyone there that he could see, and that meant that she wasn’t there either. Maybe, she didn’t even come. Realizing that one simple thought, his heart sank instantly in his chest. What am I going to do if she didn’t come? What am I going to do now? He didn’t know. The thought of her not coming never once crossed his mind. That wasn’t like her. It wasn’t like her not to do something that she said she would do. Being that, it also gave him another idea. That’s my answer then. He brought his eyes back down, and watched the tops of his sneakers as he walked. Seeing them move, made his mind wander right along with them. If she’s not here, then I won’t have to hurt her. I can move on. I can just let her go.
They reached the edge of the tree line where the parking lot opened up to their right. They both made it onto it and there they stopped.
“It doesn’t look like she’s here yet.” Sasha turned around and gave Jimmy half a smile. She could feel his disappointment. She could feel his heart flutter low in his chest. She was about to say something else, but headlights flashed to her face, coming from behind him, and it made her pause. Instantly, she recognized the car, and with that realization, she knew that Rachel had come there after all.
A Werewolf's Saga Books 1, 2, & 3 (A Werewolf's Saga Boxed Sets) Page 67
