“Sorry, I’m just… more scared than nervous…” Somebody wants to hang my hide on his wall, and I’m going to do the Y.M.C.A.
“Oh, relax honey; it’ll be fine. It’s hardly life or death.” I rolled my eyes. Mom turned me to face the mirror while she adjusted the strap in the back of my vest. I regarded my reflection, and rather liked the way I looked. I stood a little straighter, held my shoulders broader; I looked good, respectable—and almost human.
Mom peeked around me to look at my reflection, I hadn’t realized just how much taller than her I’d become. She set her hand on my shoulder and I watched tears slide down around her smile.
“I guess you’re really not my little boy anymore are you?” I turned to hug her, but she held me away, “No, I don’t want to cry all over you, I’ll be fine, just give me a second…” She blew her nose, and then took a deep breath and composed herself.
“What’s the matter?” I asked.
She was quiet a moment, and when she spoke her voice was soft, “I miss you. I hardly ever get to see you or talk to you anymore. I know you’re an adult now and I’m trying to let go, but—for the longest time you were my entire life. And now I just can’t shake the feeling that I don’t even know you anymore.”
If they could harness the power of mother’s intuition, we’d never fear terrorists again. I frowned as I debated with myself.
“I’m still your little boy, yet at the same time I’m really not…” She didn’t reply, but I knew she was listening. “For a while now, things have been changing—I’ve been changing. I’m not who I was before, but trust me, that’s a good thing. I’ve only just figured out who I really am in this last year, and sorted out some personal demons.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“I noticed you haven’t been calling John ‘John’ anymore.”
I smiled, “I love how observant you are, it makes things easier for me.”
“Don’t be a smart ass.”
“Sorry, it was meant as a compliment!” I laughed. “After my accident Dad and I had a talk and I think we finally understand each other now.”
“I’m glad you got that sorted out. I was about to shoot the both of you.” she muttered, and then looked down. “Jimmy, it’s okay to tell us if you’re gay.”
“Woah, that was unexpected. Um, I’m not gay, not exactly…” I muttered as I turned red, “I’m not entirely straight either though; I kind of walk the middle road.”
“Thank you, for telling me the truth. You know, we’re not as dumb as you think we are. Real parents love their kids, no matter what, and we’ll always have your back.”
“Thanks Mom,” I smiled, both embarrassed and relieved.
When she couldn’t find anything else to fuss over, and I hugged her and Dad goodbye, and reassured them that I would be careful. I sat in my car a moment with the windows rolled down and took a deep breath of the cool night air. I went to rake my hand through my hair, only to be thwarted by the gel that glued it into messy spikes. In compromise I turned the volume on my stereo up a little more and sang along half-heartedly as I tried to force the stiff muscles in my shoulders to relax.
I knew the cops were already scoping out teen drivers tonight, so I set my cruise control at the speed limit and it felt like an eternity before I finally pulled into Loki’s driveway.
I grabbed the her corsage and then walked up to the door and knocked. I heard voices and movement behind it, and Wolf gnawed at the periphery of my mind, summoned by my unease.
When Loki opened the door my heart stopped dead.
She looked like an angel sculpted out of ebony and ivory. Her black gown flowed like ink from beneath her velvet corset, and her skin sparkled with a dusting of glitter while a silver necklace disappeared down the front of her dress. It was her eyes that crushed me though, shining like emeralds when she smiled with crimson lips. She looked elegant, delicate, powerful, and romantic all in one break of my heart.
A brilliant flash tore me out of my stupor, and I blinked and shook my head as spots danced in my eyes.
“Oh dear lord, the look on his face was priceless! Look!” Loki’s mother crowed as she showed the camera to her dad, familiar cowboy hat in place, which only made him laugh louder as I turned even redder. Like mother like daughter.
“Jimmy? You uh… dropped something.” Loki pointed down at the box that had slipped unnoticed out of my hands. I crouched to pick it up and wondered when this train wreck would end… My hands shook as I took the corsage out of its box and slid it onto her wrist; its rose matched the crimson of her lips and I caught myself staring. She stole my breath with another smile as she leaned in to whisper; “Thank you Jimmy…” and I knew she wasn’t just talking about the corsage.
Her mom snapped some more pictures of us and then she hugged her parents and I shook her dad’s hand. She grabbed her lace parasol and we left.
Safe in the car, Loki took my shaking hand, “Why are you so nervous?”
“Because I wanted to impress you?” She heard the ‘duh’ in my voice even if I didn’t say the word out loud. It was funny, I was only nervous about her seeing me, but I couldn’t care less about what my classmates thought.
We parked and joined the coalescing tide of taffeta, pastels, and sequins. We climbed the steps and waited by the cordoned off area where dancers were already trying to cool off. I thought I felt someone watching me, and looked over the crowd for Geri’s face. There was no sign of him, and I shook off the feeling as I opened the lobby door for Loki.
Whispers and cruel jabs followed us as we headed for the ticket booth, but beneath it I felt their jealousy. They were all so deathly afraid of standing out from the brainless flock, and yet at the same time yearned to feel as free as we were; unbound by the structured lies of High School social life.
I whispered as much to Loki, and she laughed. Tabby got in the line behind us and loudly chided that it looked like we were atending a funeral, not a dance.
We laughed at her and I didn’t hide my scorn as I ran my eyes over her blue silk dress, that couldn’t even be qualified as a ‘gown’. “I’d be jealous too if I looked like a Smurf threw up all over me.” I shook my head and turned my back on them.
A shift of air warned me before a firm hand grasped my shoulder and tried to turn me around, but I’d become immovable. I turned my head and met the eyes of Tabby’s latest Biff-du-jour boyfriend. My aura reached out and surrounded him, while I thought the command, let go. His ego crumbled under the force of an Alpha’s will and he complied with a dazed look, and I turned back and guided Loki to the cafeteria while Tabby tore into him.
Filing that new trick away for future use…
Already, the thud of the bass echoed out of the gym. We stepped into the seemingly infinite line that led up to the photographer. With hushed voices, we discussed Geri’s potential whereabouts, until a familiar booming baritone cut through the din. Bo’s dense form parted the sea of people, while a brunette I recognized from the hallway trailed in his wake clutched to his arm.
Loki gasped and waved excitedly when she saw her, “Kat! Oh my God, I didn’t expect to see you here!”
Kat blushed and smiled, “Hey Loki, I didn’t expect to be here! Bo didn’t ask me until the day before yesterday!”
“Way to go, waiting ‘till the last minute!” I teased him, “You’re lucky no one else snatched her up.”
“And just look at you!” he gestured at me, “Who’da thought you could clean up so well?”
“Gee, thanks buddy.” I thumped him on the shoulder as Kat complimented Loki’s dress. I felt for her mood, but there was no deceit or jealousy from this girl. I grinned and muttered so only Bo—and perhaps Loki’s supernaturally gifted ears—could hear, “Congratulations; I think you might have found the last genuine girl in this school.”
“Yeah, we have Calculus together. I wasn’t planning on going to Prom, but hey, somebody needs to be around to keep you out of trouble.”
“Oh? And for some reason you feel you’re up to this task?” I raised my eyebrow at him.
“Well, it gave me an excuse to ask her out…” He grinned.
“Hey, whatever works.”
I skimmed over the photo options and chose one for Loki and me, and then blurted, “Hey, we should do a group photo. My treat.”
They all agreed, and after we took our photos, Bo and Kat took theirs, and then Loki and I stepped back into frame. We allowed one serious picture, but for the final shot, we struck goofy poses and Bo and I held our dates in the air while they threw their arms and legs out like some roaring twenties jazz act.
I took Loki’s gloved hand and we threaded our way into the darkness of the decorated gymnasium. Vast swaths of fabric swayed overhead and glowed when the lights from the DJ booth swept over them, as a horde of kids jumped and moved in time with some hip-hop song I’d never heard before. We claimed a spot on the edge of the floor, where Loki and I stashed our things, hidden under my jacket.
I already felt overheated and claustrophobic from the body heat pressed into the room. That was another reason school dances never really appealed to me. The loud music hurt Wolf’s ears, so he kept well away from the surface. Loki and I watched for a little while, and I tried to memorize how everyone else moved, but then she dragged me out into the crowd and held me to her as the music changed and the DJ played ‘Angel’. I tried to swallow my nerves and shuffled like Frankenstein’s monster at first, but eventually I remembered to unlock my knees and move. As the beat sank in I let myself sway with it and Loki laid her face on my chest.
I loosened my cast-iron grip on my self-control as we lost ourselves in the faceless mass of bodies. Eventually we bumped into Bo and Kat, and formed a little circle with them and a couple of Kat’s friends. We laughed and danced until both of us were covered with sweat and panted from the heat. As the first notes of “Jump Around” started up, I pulled Loki into the shadows with me and we slipped away.
We pushed our way outside into the cordoned area and I gasped at the intense brush of the cold night air. Down from the parking lot, I recognized Tabby’s incoherent ranting drifting over the cars as she screeched about something. My eyes started to scan for Geri until Loki distracted me.
“You know, you’re not half bad for someone who’s never danced before!” Loki laughed, breathless and beautiful, while Tabby fell silent in the background.
“Yeah well; just ‘cause I haven’t done it, doesn’t mean I haven’t imagined it very hard!”
Loki laughed again and looked at me with that heart-stopping smile of hers, and then her eyes drifted over my shoulder and widened.
“Get down!” Fen and Corwin’s screams tore through the dimensional fabric and I threw Loki to the ground as the window behind us blew out with a crack of thunder. Silver daggers rained down around us as people screamed and ran. They tripped over the cordon as they panicked and rushed blindly in every direction.
I pulled Loki up and met the fierce glare in her eyes as my own shifted and my hackles rose as I looked down the school’s front steps. My stomach dropped out when I recognized the face of Fen’s murderer.
Jack flowed up the steps with unnatural grace, his face haggard and haunted with sunken too-wide eyes as he chambered another round into his hunting rifle.
My eyes hardened and I pulled Loki through the ruined window and dead-on into the sea of people. Somebody in the crowd screamed that he had a gun, and everyone broke into a panicked frenzy. I recognized faces and their names with them; Jeremiah, Rebecca, Morgan, all of them reduced to the most basic survival instinct: fight or flight.
I swam against the stampeding tide as I gritted my teeth and grunted with every blow I took, elbowed, kneed, and punched by the onrushing mass of students. I glanced behind and saw that my plan seemed to be working, as our hunter fell back from the onslaught of humanity as well. I lowered my center of gravity and heaved harder through the mob, the muscles of my arm burned from their death lock on Loki’s hand.
Loki pulled me toward the wall, and I watched her reach out for the fire alarm as shots cracked through the air, impossibly loud in the enclosed space, and a fresh wave of screams swept over the crowd. Upbeat dance music still blasted in the gym, oblivious to the events unfolding in the lobby. Something warm sprayed onto my hand as someone screamed and fell onto Loki. I lost my grip as they knocked her over, but she surged up from underneath them and yanked the red fire alert switch down, setting off an ungodly loud alarm.
My ears rang but I heard a familiar voice yell and I glanced over my shoulder. Bo struggled with Jack for control of the gun, the back of Bo’s suit jacket stretched taut as he fought to overpower his old friend.
Loki seized the opening and pulled me out of the lobby. As we rounded the corner we found Kat cowering there as Officer Jenson ran past. I lifted her over my shoulder as Wolf rose within me and lent me his strength. Despite the painful alarm, my ears flicked back as Jack let out laugh that sent chills down my spine. Officer Jenson yelled over the chaos, his handgun drawn and aimed, but Jack kept Bo between them as a human shield.
My eyes latched onto a door handle, which thankfully opened when I turned it. I pulled Loki and Kat inside and locked the door as soon as it was closed. Even with my eyes fully shifted, it was difficult to make out the interior other than it was a janitorial closet, and I felt over the walls for the light switch. Loki panted as she gripped me, and I clenched my eyes shut to flip the light switch.
“Jimmy… It hurts…” her voice was so faint, and a wave of fear staggered me as I flipped the switch. Hot pain seared my eyes as I opened them too soon and turned around. She looked fine, aside from a few places where sweat had soaked through her dress and her unusual pallor.
“What—” Her knees gave out and I kept her from falling. My hand fell on one of the wet spots, but it was hot to the touch and a thin film of crimson colored my fingers. That stain wasn’t sweat, and it was getting bigger…
“Oh no, Loki no!” I yelled, and fumbled with her corset. Kat stared, frozen and useless, watching with wide deer eyes.
“Jimmy…” Loki moaned as she hyperventilated. I tore my vest off and wadded it up, and then shoved it into her corset to try to stanch the bleeding. She cried out as I pulled the laces of her corset tight again. ‘Stop the bleeding, make her safe, stop the bleeding, make her safe’ recycled over and over again through my head.
“Okay Loki? Listen to me, here’s what we’re gonna do, okay? We need to get you to the hospital. Do you think you can walk?”
“I’m fine, I’ll fucking crawl if I have to…” She growled as amber faded in and out of her pain-filled eyes. She gritted her teeth and struggled to stand, tenacity written on every part of her body, and I loved her more than ever. She lost the fight against gravity with a pained gasp, and I lowered her back to the floor.
“Yes, Loki, you are obviously the definition of ‘fine’.” One thing was clear; she’d never make it out fast enough. Jack could just take us out one-by-one at his leisure. “Okay, plan B. You need help, so we can’t stay here. I’ll draw him away. Wait a minute or two, and then get outside, okay?”
Terror overpowered the pain in her eyes, “No… No, Jimmy, don’t go out there, he’ll kill you! Please, I can’t lose you too!” Her slender hands fluttered, clenched onto mine, then reached for my collar; the pain was too much for her to hold still.
I forced a smile and tried not to flinch as I heard more gunshots through the heavy door, “Don’t worry, there’s no way I’ll lose.” I said with forced cockiness, and my smile slipped as I realized it was truly now or never. “Loki, please forgive me, but I love you. I love you so damn much, you have no idea—”
“Shut up Jimmy.”
Her words stabbed deep into my chest.
“I think I know… exactly how much…” She gasped as she slid her fingers under her necklace and lifted out the moonstone ring that hung from it. The scarred shield over my heart cracked like porcela
in, and then she slid her shaking hands up to cup my face and pulled me down into a kiss. Our wolves stirred and a cloud of energy burst around us as our auras entwined each other like lovers’ legs and goosebumps erupted all over my body.
I wanted to scream; all this time, if I hadn’t been so afraid of losing her, I could have been with her!
“Kat? Kat!” I shouted, and finally shook her out of her shocked reverie. I dug my cell phone out of my pocket and forced it into her hands, “Kat, I need you to call 911. If the coast is clear, I’ll come and get you. If I don’t, then wait for me to draw him away, and get her out of here. Do you understand?” She nodded shakily, and I made her repeat my directions back to me before I turned back to Loki.
“Loki, you simply do not have the option of dying on me, got that? I’ll come find you when I lose him.” I grabbed her face and stole another kiss, because I didn’t know if there would ever be another. My fingers smudged her own blood on her chin. “I love you!”
Her choked cry broke my heart as I ducked back out the door and engaged the lock behind me. I surveyed the hall with a quick sweep of my eyes. People screamed in the gym, so not everybody was out yet, at least they’d killed the damn music. My ears shifted, and identified a few trampling victims nearby mewling with pain. I eased around the corner and looked back out into the lobby.
A grinding squeak shot through my jaw as I clenched my teeth. Bo lay face down in a dark pool that soaked through the short carpet. Another one… One after another this fucker was trying to destroy everyone that I held dear. Not far away, Officer Jenson lay crumpled in his own bloodstain.
Click.
My muscles screamed in protest as I pushed them to their extreme. Jack was still raising his rifle as I blurred backward smashed my fist into his face.
Too close to Loki… Jack stood directly in front of the closet, so I dashed past him and around the corner that led to the mostly dark hallways. For the briefest of moments, I’d actually entertained the notion that I would do just as I’d told Loki I would; lead him away and double back for her. But in my heart I knew I would end this fight tonight, either with my life or his.
Walking Wolf Road (Wolf Road Chronicles Book 1) Page 30
