Lindsey jumps in front of Sofie, sleek and powerful in her wolf form, growling at the men and sending them reeling backwards as fast as they can. She stares them down; baring her teeth, letting them know that she’s a force to be reckoned with.
Sofie takes a few deep breaths, trying not to think how close that call was. But something’s wrong. As she breathes in there’s a sharp pain in her side. When she looks down she sees that blood is starting to soak through her shirt. The knife. The skinhead must have swiped her with it when she was trying to get away. She grabs hold of her necklace, waiting for it to heal her, but nothing happens. She’s in pain. She puts an arm around her middle, putting pressure on the wound and stepping away from Lindsey. All she can hope is that Lindsey is too focused on keeping the men in front of her at bay to notice the smell of blood.
Sofie knows that if Lindsey suspects that she’s been hurt then she’ll rip these men to shreds and Sofie doesn’t want those lives on her head, so she sucks up the pain. She watches as Lindsey swipes at the men as they try to get closer to her. It’s clear that she doesn’t have any intention of hurting them, no matter how much she probably wants to. She just wants to scare them off. Despite Lindsey’s hot-headed nature, she knows that attacking a group of humans, no matter how pathetic they were, wouldn’t win the Lycans any friends.
All that matters now is an exit strategy. “Finn, Darwin.” Sofie can barely get the words out. She looks down and sees that she’s losing blood thick and fast and her headache is getting worse and worse. The necklace isn’t healing her.
Her friends appear from out of the dark, moving towards her cautiously. She hopes it’s too dark for them to see the blood pouring out of her. “We need to get out of here, before things get any worse.” She forces the words out through teeth gritted against the pain.
“Sounds like a plan to me.” Finn’s typically laid-back vibe is hanging by a thread at this point.
“Darwin, Finn get onto Lindsey’s back, I’ll be right behind you.” Sofie senses their hesitance but there’s no time to baby him. “Do you want to live or not?” She knows that she’s being harsh but it’s the only way. “Lindsey, let’s go.” She calls over to the chestnut brown wolf, who is now swiping at the men with her tail, pushing them further and further away. Lindsey looks up at her and wastes no time bounding over to Darwin and crouching down for him and Finn to climb onto her back. Now run as fast as you can, Sofie tells herself, pushing forward and sprinting as well as she can into the darkness.
As they crash through the forest, Sofie’s side feels like it’s coming apart. She sees Lindsey lift her nose, like she’s scenting something and check back on Sofie every now and again but Sofie just keeps her head down, pushing on as best she can. She knows that Lindsey can’t carry all three of them, not even in her wolf form, so there’s no point in telling her what’s happened. She puts one foot in front of the other; every step feeling like it’s breaking her apart. She’s slowing down, but she can’t move any faster, it’s like she’s trying to wade through peanut butter. The headache and the pain in her side are getting worse and worse. Her limbs don’t feel like they’re her own anymore and she feels like she’s going to black out.
She looses her footing on a tree root. “Sofie!” She hears Finn’s shout as he sees her falling and she is vaguely aware of Lindsey skidding to a stop at the sound of his concerned cry. But she’s falling too quickly to really process what’s going on. Damn root, she thinks to herself before she hits her head and then there’s just blackness.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Sofie opens her eyes, slowly and closes them again when the sunlight pierces through her head like a knife. Knife. The thought takes her back to what happened in the woods. She shifts her body slightly and pain blooms in her side, white hot and searing. Instinctively, her hand goes to the wound, feeling the bandage that someone has dressed it with, by the looks of it someone with far more skill than her. The beamed ceiling of Ashton’s family room is above her and then she realizes that her hand is being held by a larger, warmer one and she doesn’t even have to hear his voice to know that it’s Ashton.
“Don’t move.” His voice is gruff and Sofie wonders if it’s more from worry or from anger at what Lindsey has inevitably told him about their little adventure last night.
Sofie ignores his suggestion, wanting to see him, but she manages to become acquainted with a whole new level of pain as she tries to turn her head. She regrets it instantly as the pain in her brain sends shock waves through her.
“Are you ever going to do what you’re told?” Ashton’s face fills her field of vision. His eyes are dark from lack of sleep and he looks like he hasn’t moved from his position by her bedside in a while, judging by how rumpled his clothes are.
“Maybe.” She can barely get the one word out. Her throat is dry and the sound of her own voice echoes in her head as if she were using a megaphone.
“How do you feel?” Ashton frowns at her, worry written all over his face.
“I’ve been better.” She tries to smile but it’s harder than it should be.
“Well when you’re up and about again, we’re going to talk about what the hell it was that you thought you were doing?” Ashton’s anger spills over, his eyes flashing and Sofie tries not to flinch at his tone.
“I just wanted to help.” She wishes that her explanation didn’t sound quite so pathetic from her position lying prone on his sofa. It isn’t lost on her that it’s the same place she had tended to Lola when she had been shot. Ashton’s family room was becoming the werewolf ER.
Ashton looks like he doesn’t know whether he wants to kiss her or kill her. He pushes himself away from the sofa, standing up and commencing his pacing, trying to vent some of his anger physically. “You could have gotten yourself killed. You almost did!” He throws his hands up in the air.
“Could you stop? You’re making me dizzy.” Her voice is weedy, but Ashton stops immediately, sighing deeply and taking up his position by her bed again.
“Do you know how much you scared me? I thought I’d lost you. I’ve been going out of my mind for days, since Lindsey brought you back.” Ashton caresses her cheek so tenderly it makes the emotion well up inside of her.
Days? Sofie thinks to herself. She had been out of action for days. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean...” Sofie trails off, not sure what she was going to say and feeling too weak to continue. Her body doesn’t feel like it’s her own, she has so little control over it and she’s tired, so tired. She forces her eyes to focus on Ashton’s face again and reads something more in the lines there than just a concern for her being attacked. “What’s happening? The necklace...it wouldn’t work.” Each word is a battle to get out, and she can feel exhaustion taking over her.
The look on Ashton’s face tells her that whatever is happening, it’s not good, not good at all. “I know.” He reaches out and fingers the stone that’s still sitting around her neck. “It should have worked, I don’t understand why it’s not helping, why nothing is helping!” Ashton struggles to get his voice under control but his emotions are running away from him.
“Tell me.” She does her best to squeeze his hand and her puny gesture seems to be enough for Ashton to come apart at the seams. She sees the fear in his eyes that he’s been trying to hide from her.
“You’re sick.” He takes a deep breath to say the rest, knowing that she would want to know all of it. “You’re sick and you’re not getting any better.”
His words fall into the space between them and before Sofie really has time to get to grips with what he’s just said, the exhaustion takes over her.
“Sofie, stay with me.” Ashton squeezes her hand and he lays his cheek next to hers. She feels the bristles of his beard against her skin and she wants to reach out and run her fingers over them like she had only a few days ago. But she can’t find the energy to lift her arm.
“Tired...I just need to sleep...Just a little.” Her voice is a whisper, she can’t manage any mo
re of that and then everything fades to black.
She has no idea how much time passes until she wakes again. But it’s darker than it was in the room before. It could be dawn or it could be dusk, there was no way for her to know. She feels her grip on the present slipping between her fingers and she has to concentrate on fading out of consciousness again. The pain in her head makes everything fuzzy, like it’s woolly around the edges. But she can hear people talking. They mustn’t be far away but she can’t see them. She tries to focus on understanding what it is that they’re saying, but as soon as she does, she wishes that she hadn’t.
“If you don’t bite her soon then you know what’s going to happen.” Lindsey’s voice is firm, but Sofie gets the impression that she’s repeating herself.
“No, I don’t know anything, because none of this makes any sense!” Ashton is angry, really angry, Sofie can almost feel the vibrations of his mood from across the room.
“If you don’t turn her then she is going to die, Ashton!” She cuts to the chase in typical Lindsey-style and Sofie starts to regret trying to figure out what it was that they were talking about. Clearly, nothing that is being said is anything that she wants to hear.
Ashton doesn’t respond but Sofie hears the unmistakable sound of a fist connecting with a wall. She winces, wondering what it is about werewolves and punching walls.
“We don’t know that she would survive the transformation. Just because she has the Lycan gene doesn’t mean that it’s going to work. The transformation should start with water from the spring, but that’s not an option! We’re not talking about this anymore, Lindsey.” Ashton tries to dismiss her, but she should really know Lindsey better than that, she only leaves when she’s done with what she has to say.
“You can go back and forth as much as you want about this, Ash, but the facts remain the same. She has the gene, maybe that’s enough for you turn her without the water from the spring. She’s in bad shape, Ash. Turning her, giving her our healing powers, it’s the only thing that’s going to give her a fighting chance. If you stand back and do nothing then you’re as responsible for her death as the skinhead with the knife.” Lindsey turns on her heel and takes a few steps away, heading towards the front door, but Ashton’s words stop her in her tracks.
“Why isn’t the necklace working? It’s supposed to help her!” The pain in his voice makes Sofie feel like her insides are tied into knots. There’s nothing she wants more than to get off of the damn couch and run to him and hold him. But she can’t do any of those things, she can barely keep her eyes open.
Lindsey sighs, making her way back to her best friend, knowing that he doesn’t need her making his life more difficult than it already currently is. “I don’t know, Ash. We’ve been through this,” she reminds him gently. “My best guess would be that whatever is causing the pain in her head is interfering with the power of the sacred stone. The pain is stronger than she is. She’s been fighting it for days and it’s not getting any better, it’s getting worse. Her body is shutting down. You heard what the old guy said, the cut in her side isn’t healing, it’s growing and he can’t stop the bleeding. There’s no other way, Ash.”
Sofie tries to process everything that’s just been said, but her brain is having trouble keeping up. She has worked out that whatever is happening to her is bad, worse than she could even imagine.
“What if it doesn’t work?” Ashton’s voice makes her think of the kid that he was when he watched his mother die. She doesn’t want to put him through anything like that again, she wouldn’t forgive herself. Maybe you should have thought of that before you decide to play the hero, her uncharitable brain pipes up.
She doesn’t catch Lindsey’s answer, instead she falls into the comfort of sleep again, letting it overtake her. But her eyes open again almost instantly.
“You really need to stop making a habit of hitting your head like that. Soon you’re going to be too dumb to be a scientist.” Lindsey’s joke is in stark contrast to the concern that’s plastered across her face.
“Thanks, Linds, I’ll bear that in mind the next time I get knifed.” Sofie laughs weakly and then discovers that it hurts too much and so stops. “I knew you would make a lousy nurse,” she grumbles to her friend. Something is off about what’s playing out in front of her but it takes a few moments for her to realize what it is. Lindsey is standing in Ashton’s family room in her wolf form.
As Sofie looks around her she realizes that the pain in her head has stopped. Her side is still bleeding, the bandage is soaked red, but it doesn’t hurt, not even a little bit. She gets to her feet, expecting to feel unstable but she feels just like her old self.
“What happened?” She walks around the room, enjoying the feel of the ground underneath her feet.
“You need to wake up, Sofie.” Lindsey the wolf is still looking at her, her face expressionless.
“I am awake, aren’t I?” Sofie spreads her arms out, showcasing how she is very much awake and walking around.
The wolf shakes her head. “No, Sofe, this is a dream. You’re still asleep. You’ve been sleeping for days now, but now it’s time for you to wake up.”
Sofie mulls this over for a few moments. “But I’m tired, I’m still so tired.” She shrugs like there’s nothing more to it.
“I know you are, honey. But to get better you have to wake up.” Lindsey’s voice is coaxing, trying to draw her out of her trance-like state.
“Everything hurts when I’m awake.” Sofie is vaguely aware of the fact that she sounds like a petulant child, but she can’t stop herself.
“Sofie!” Lindsey’s voice has lost its tender edge, she’s not in the mood for babying or bullshit. “The pack is still at Ashton’s house. He won’t leave without you and the pack won’t leave without him. This isn’t just about you anymore. Things are getting worse on the outside and it’s only a matter of time before your old boss comes to find us. We can’t be here when that happens so you need to wake up.”
Sofie feels needles of guilt pricking at her as she takes in what Lindsey’s saying.
“You have to save the pack, Sofie. The only way you can do that is if you wake up.” Lindsey’s voice has regained its coaxing, enticing tone.
“But how? I can’t even open my eyes!” Sofie shrugs, like a little girl, fighting the urge to curl up and cry.
“You have to try, Sofie.” Lindsey’s face is moving out of focus as Sofie feels her mind slipping away from her again. Then, all of a sudden, she is alone. All she can hear is the echo of Lindsey’s words. You have to try, Sofie. You have to try.
Wake up, Sofie. She pinches herself like she used to when she was afraid of the dark and tried to keep herself awake at night. Wake up, she repeats to herself. She pinches herself, harder this time and she feels a flicker, as if she’s opened a crack into the real world. Emboldened by her progress, she realizes that pain is the best way to get her to wake up. She takes a deep breath and prepares before she punches herself hard in her wounded side.
“Jesus Christ!” Sofie breathes out the words, panting heavily as her eyes fly open. There’s a sheen of sweat on her forehead from the remembered pain in her dream and her heart is hammering against her ribs like it’s trying to find a way out of her chest.
She’s back in the real world, out of the dream, but she almost has to pinch herself again to make sure of that as the person sitting in front of her is the very last person she would ever have expected to see.
“Here to gloat?” Sofie frowns at him as she tries to sit up as gingerly as she possibly can.
“Wow, you really do have a low opinion of me don’t you?” Gus shakes his head, like he’s surprised.
“Don’t pretend that you care. I’m sure the feeling is mutual.” Sofie tries to present an image of confidence, despite the fact she feels like she’s about to faint. Keep it together, Braun, just stay focused, she tells herself. “What are you doing here, anyway?”
“I’m covering Ash. He needed a break, the gu
y has barely eaten or slept since you came back.” Gus doesn’t offer any more information, he just continues giving her a look that she can’t put her finger on.
Sofie doesn’t reply, not sure what to say and not even certain that she’s strong enough to launch into a conversation. But she’s uncomfortable under his scrutiny. “Why are you looking at me like that?” She doesn’t add that she knows she looks about as good as she feels, but she has to conserve her energy. There’s no point in wasting words.
“Because you’ve surprised me and most people don’t do that.” Gus’s response is simple and to the point. For a while it seems like that’s all he’s going to say, but he carries on. “You’re not like the others. You’re impressive. You were prepared to sacrifice yourself to help your friends, to help the pack. Anyone that would do something like that is pretty impressive in my opinion.”
Sofie waits for the punch line, for him to say something cutting, but it doesn’t happen. It’s almost harder for her to accept that he’s actually saying something nice than it is to believe that he hates her with a passion.
“Thanks.” She doesn’t want to get into a big deep and meaningful conversation with Gus, not when she can barely keep herself upright on the couch. “Where’s Ashton?”
Gus nods in understanding, “He’s taking a walk, need to clear his head. He didn’t want to leave you, but I told him I’d make sure you were alright.” The gruffness in his voice doesn’t quite cover the sentiment that he cared what happened to her.
Gus doesn’t have to say anything else, she knows that Ashton wouldn’t leave her side unless more bad news was on the way. “What’s happened?”
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