Dark Heritage Trilogy

by Hoffman, Samantha

  When Finn reached the top of the stairs, he looked quickly in both directions, before sprinting across the room. He ducked into the parlor room, and he flattened himself up against the wall on the left side of the door. I could hear the sounds of scurrying hired guns running around, and I wondered if they were all supernaturals or not. If they were, they weren’t very skilled to have not found us already.

  When the footsteps had passed by, Finn started to run. Doors flew by faster than I could see, and I kept my face pressed against his shoulder. Everything was already blurry from lack of food and water, and I didn’t need to make myself sick by watching Finn practically fly from room to room, searching for his way out. Plus, he would probably never forgive me if I threw up on his chest.

  We reached a massive oak door, and he brought his leg back and snapped it forward, kicking the door off its hinges with a sound like an explosion. Wooden fragments went flying in all directions, and Finn was running again before most of them had even hit the ground.

  Being outside in the sunlight for the first time in days had me blinking rapidly to keep from crying as the intense sunlight burned my eyes. Colorful patches of light floated across my vision, and I closed my eyes tightly, trying to force them away. They weren’t helping my dizziness any and I could feel the bile rising up in the back of my throat.

  Stop thinking about anything. Just hang tight, and you’ll be home in a little bit. Finn will get us both out of here…

  To keep myself from puking, I focused on the sound of Finn’s harsh breathing as he panted in my ear. His breath was warm on my skin, and the hairs at the nape of my neck rose as little bumps spread over my arms. Next I focused on Finn’s musky scent that smelled of dirt, moss, and the wild, and I felt a warm blush rise in my cheeks at the thought of how masculine he smelled.

  Finn skidded to a halt in the dirt, bumping against me. “Where do you think you’re going?” A voice asked. It was a voice I recognized, even though I’d only heard it twice before. The man whose foot I’d broken during the first attack–the man that had Finn beaten–was blocking our way out.

  And with you in his arms, he’s not going to stand a chance in a fight…

  I craned my head around, and gasped. There was a gun in the werewolf’s hands, and it was aimed directly at Finn’s head. He stood only a dozen or so yards away, but if his eyesight was as good as any other werewolf’s was, he most likely couldn’t miss. “Put me down,” I whispered in Finn’s ear. “You can’t fight with me in your arms.”

  Finn shifted me so I was curled up in one muscular arm, leaving one free to fight with. “Let us by, and I won’t hurt you,” Finn threatened, sounding oddly confident considering he had me in one arm, no weapon, and was facing down a werewolf of equal power that happened to have firepower on his side.

  The werewolf grinned wickedly, revealing razor sharp canines that looked ready to rip into the nearest throat. I swallowed nervously, and hoped that he couldn’t tell how scared of him I was. He’d threatened to slit my throat once, and he probably wouldn’t have any trouble pulling the trigger now. Was I about to die?

  I closed my eyes, unwilling to watch what was about to happen. Strangely, when I closed my eyes, the pendant that was clutched in my hand began to hum quietly, and I could see the souls of recently deceased dogs hanging around. Their corpses were nearby, and a plan quickly began forming in my mind, and I buried my face in Finn’s shoulder again, hoping neither of them would guess what I was up to.

  While Finn and the other werewolf stared each other down with their hands clenched and nostrils flaring, I took deep, even breaths, preparing to use my power. I could feel it building inside of me, rushing to my fingertips, awaiting my orders. As the power moved through me and I began the job of forcing their spirits back into their bodies, I could distantly hear the sounds of Finn and the other werewolf arguing, but it was almost like hearing something from underwater.

  I was so focused on what I was doing that I couldn’t make out the words, but I could tell that they were harsh and angry. Finn and this other werewolf obviously had history together, and it was giving me the time I needed to reanimate the dogs. I could see them out of the corner of my eyes, and when they started to twitch and get to their feet, Finn and the other werewolf saw them too.

  With their fangs bared, the two dogs charged, tearing across the ground like bullets. The werewolf turned and fired four shots, none of which stopped the already dead dogs. The first to reach him lunged, slamming into the werewolf’s chest and knocking him to the ground with an oomph. His teeth went for the throat as the other dog joined the fight, and Finn didn’t waste his opportunity to escape.

  He shifted me back until both of his hands were under me, and he leapt over the werewolf’s bloody form, sparing him only one last look while he fought of two zombie dogs. He worked one hand free and grabbed the gun he dropped as the dogs attacked, and he waved it around, trying to find the best angle to shoot.

  Finn sprinted off across the grounds, pausing only to bunch his powerful legs before leaping over a low fence. The grass on the other side lead into a thick tangle of trees, and Finn raced for them, still holding me in his arms. As he reached the line of trees, a shot rang out, and Finn gasped in pain, before stumbling to one knee.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Finn ran for almost twenty whole minutes before collapsing from exhaustion in the middle of an empty field. When he dropped to the ground I was pinned under him, and his elbow dug painfully into my ribs, making it almost impossible to get air. I shoved and pushed, but Finn wouldn’t budge, and he didn’t answer any of my questions. He just moaned quietly, and stopped moving.

  Finally I was able to wrestle my way out from under him, and when I did, I almost wished I hadn’t. The entire back of Finn’s shirt was stained red with blood, and it was seeping into his jeans and even the ground around him. I could see the bullet hole in his left shoulder, and I gingerly pulled aside the shirt to get a better look at it. There was a small gaping hole that oozed blood like a fountain, and I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do next.

  So I took off my thin sweater, balled it up, and pressed it against the wound as tightly as I could. Finn gasped in pain, but it was more of a response than I’d gotten since he’d fallen, and I looked at him. “Finn, what am I supposed to do?”

  “Dig it out,” he mumbled into the dirt.

  “What?” I yelped. “You can’t be serious. I’m not a doctor, Finn. I can’t even drive yet, and you expect me to dig out a bullet in your shoulder? What if I damage the muscle and you lose the use of your arm? You’d hate me forever.”

  “The muscle will repair itself, but it can’t start until the bullet is gone. Please, Ronnie,” he begged quietly. “It really hurts. Just try.”

  I sat there for a moment in a sheer panic, wondering what I was supposed to do. Did I just reach inside his wound with my finger and try to dig it out? Wouldn’t that just hurt him even more? I don’t know what I’m supposed to do! What if I hurt him so badly he can’t fix himself? How am I going to do this?

  I took another quick glance at his back and frowned. The bleeding had slowed down, and already his entire left shoulder was turning a dark purplish color as his skin bruised, and I made my decision. I put one hand on his arm to steady us both, and I took a deep, steadying breath before slipping my index finger into the bullet hole. The second I touched the wound, Finn clenched his teeth and groaned in pain as his entire body tensed.

  I tried to be as gentle as possible, but it wasn’t like digging around in someone’s shoulder could ever be considered a pleasant experience. Finn’s body trembled beneath my shaking hands, and I tried to focus more on what I was doing than on the amount of pain Finn must be feeling. When my finger touched something warm and metal, I curled my finger around it, and started to carefully pull it toward the hole.

  I was afraid of tearing the muscle in his shoulder and rendering his arm useless, but I knew I couldn’t leave the bullet embedded in his musc
le, because he said it wouldn’t heal that way. When the bullet neared the hole, I gripped it between my two fingers and yanked it out with a final gush of blood and one more groan of pain from Finn. Then his entire body relaxed and he slumped to the ground again.

  As I stared at his back, the bleeding completely stopped, and the muscle in his back began to mend itself. Finn was unconscious for the entire experience, and I was glad for that. I didn’t know how supernatural healing worked, but it had to be similar to normal healing, just faster. And normal healing hurt. There was bruising and throbbing, and it would be the same for Finn, just at a more accelerated rate.

  I used my ruined sweater to wipe off as much of the blood on his back as I could. When I was done, I finally noticed that it was nearly dark, and in another hour or so I wouldn’t be able to see my hand in front of my own face. I needed a way to start a fire to keep the two of us warm, and I didn’t see any way I could leave Finn here.

  But I can’t let him freeze to death either.

  I made sure that Finn was as comfortable as possible, before leaving his side to gather dry sticks and brush. Every few minutes I would look up to make sure that he was still where I’d left him, and that the two of us were still alone. When I had enough wood to start a small fire, I went back to where Finn was still lying unconscious, and I used the heel of my boot to dig out a small hole in the dirt, before lining it with rocks.

  Then I piled in sticks and dry brush, before realizing that I didn’t have a way to actually start the fire. I knelt down by Finn’s unconscious body and gently rolled him over onto his back, careful to avoid dropping him on his injured shoulder, and he let out a quiet moan. I knelt there on the ground beside him for another moment, not looking forward to digging through Finn’s jeans pocket.

  Finally, I stuck my hand inside and tried not to think about the fact that I could feel the warmth of his thigh through the fabric of his jeans. After just a second of digging around, my hand clamped around a cylindrical tube, and I pulled out a cheap, green plastic lighter. After using it to start the fire, I slipped it into my pocket, and sat down in the dirt beside the small fire. It gave off a small circle of light, illuminating Finn’s features.

  He looked exhausted and emotionally drained, but he also looked at peace. The wound in his back was mostly healed, but he hadn’t woken up yet, and I wasn’t sure how long he would be out. I’d have to stay awake until then, and I didn’t have anything to do except finger the pendant hanging between my breasts and think about Andrew, necromancy, and my mother’s spirit.

  I closed my eyes and lay back, staring up at the darkening sky above me. The stars were just starting to dot the sky, and I contented myself to counting them while I tried to figure everything out.

  *****

  It took almost three hours for Finn to wake up, and when he did, he looked much better than he did when he collapsed. The first thing he did was check to make sure that I was in one piece. After assuring him that I was alright, he asked if there was anything to eat, and when I told him there wasn’t, he frowned.

  “I can go find something,” he offered.

  “How do you plan to do that? We’re in the middle of nowhere. I don’t see any convenience stores.” He just stared at me in silence until I started to get uncomfortable. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

  “I actually meant that I could shift and go hunt.”

  “Like as an animal?”

  “Yeah, that’s generally what we shift into,” he said dryly. “Do you have a problem with that?” he asked, getting defensive.

  “No, of course not! Finn, you just saved my life. You were willing to fight that werewolf to get us both out of there. I won’t ever forget that.”

  “It was nothing,” he mumbled, looking away.

  “Though to be honest, I don’t know what you were planning to do with just one hand.”

  He looked at me and smirked. “You’d be surprised what I can do with just one hand.” He waggled his eyebrows, looking much more like the arrogant Finn I knew. Making sure I got his good shoulder, I reached over and smacked him.

  “Don’t be gross,” I said, even though I was grinning along with him.

  The two of us lapsed into a thoughtful silence, and I immediately went back to thinking about my mother. Finn must have sensed that something was bothering me, because he was watching me with something that almost looked like genuine concern. “Are you alright?”

  Can I talk to him? Would he understand how I feel right now? It’s not like there’s anyone else that’ll understand…

  I took a deep breath. “While I was there, Andrew tried to teach me more about necromancy. We were in his library, and I was supposed to be raising some recently deceased animals. As I was trying, I saw another ghost that made me lose focus and I raised them all at the same time, which is what Andrew wanted, but it really freaked me out. He was so focused on what I was trying to do he didn’t even see her. But I did.”

  “Who was she?”

  I sighed. “It was my mother. She appeared to me in the library,” I said when Finn didn’t speak. “but I haven’t been able to contact her again. I thought it might be because I didn’t have my pendant, which was originally hers, but I don’t think that’s it anymore. Maybe I was wrong and it was just a trick of the light.”

  “Do you really believe that?”

  I shook my head. “No. She was there. I just don’t understand how she could be there now, after all of these years, and then not appear to me again. I spent three days in the dungeons after seeing her, and I thought I was going crazy. It would have been nice to have someone to talk to while I was there.” My eyes had started to burn with unshed tears, and I looked away so Finn wouldn’t see. “I was all alone in that cell, and she wasn’t there for me. I’d give anything to see her just one more time. To tell her goodbye.”

  Finn sighed. “I understand how you feel.”

  “Do you?” I asked, yawning. Everything was starting to catch up with me, and I could practically feel my eyes closing against my will.

  “I lost my mother when I was twelve. I know what it’s like to miss someone so much it hurts.” I looked over at Finn, surprised to find no arrogant smirk on his face. He was relaxed, open, and sharing parts of his life with me. When he noticed me watching him, he shrugged his powerful shoulders. “It was years ago, and I’ve gotten over it. You will, too.”

  That woke me up a little. “My mother’s been dead for years, too. But that doesn’t make it any easier, especially since I always got the feeling that she was the only person in my life that actually loved me. My dad gave up his rights to me when she died, and I went into foster care.”

  “My dad killed my mom,” he said so quietly that I would have missed it if I wasn’t focusing on him. “She was having an affair with our pack leader, and when my dad found out, he killed her. Our pack leader threw him out of our pack, and I became a burden to the others around me. I left my pack when I was sixteen and I’ve never looked back. I couldn’t.”

  “That other werewolf was part of your old pack, wasn’t he?”

  Finn nodded. “An old friend of mine. He hated me for leaving, but he just didn’t understand that there was literally nothing there for me. The pack was full of angry bloodthirsty animals, and I didn’t want any part of that. When I left, he saw it as a betrayal. They all did. Now I’m an outcast, and if any member of my pack ever sees me again, they’ll probably try and kill me, too.”

  “Just because you left?”

  He looked at me with a frown on his face. “A werewolf without a pack is a rogue, and rogues are never trusted. We’re worse than dirt in the supernatural world, Ronnie. I know you’ve seen how the Council treats me. They tolerate me because most werewolves won’t have anything to do with the supernatural community and they can use the extra muscle, but they don’t trust me, and they certainly don’t like me.”

  I slid closer to him until I was pressed up against his side. “I trust you. You’re good Fin
n, and anyone that thinks otherwise is a fool.”

  He didn’t say anything, but I didn’t expect him to. He was still staring at me as if I’d just grown a second head, and I expected it had something to do with the fact that I was curled up against his side, and was resting my head against his good shoulder. I should have probably moved, but he was warm and comfortable, and I was tired, and my eyes were already closing.

  I was almost asleep when I felt Finn’s good arm snake around my waist, pulling me closer.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  “Oh, my god! I can’t believe you’re alright,” Tanya said, throwing herself at me. I slid my arms around her back, careful to avoid her wings, and hugged her like I hadn’t hugged someone in years. I couldn’t believe how much I had missed her, and judging by the way she hugged me back, she felt the same way.

  When she pulled away, I noticed there were silver tears in the corners of her turquoise eyes. She wiped them away with a trembling hand, and turned to Finn. “How dare you just run off to save her without telling us? Do you have any idea how furious the Council is with you? They don’t appreciate rogues that don’t take orders.”

  Ezra nodded. “Yeah, man. We would have gone with you. Even Holly.”

  Holly looked up from the bottle of blood that always seemed to be in her hands, and she shrugged. “They might have been able to talk me into it. Or I probably would have just stayed behind and been a lookout so you could all get away.” She looked at Finn and raised a perfectly elegant eyebrow. “I’m surprised you managed to sneak out. They really upped security after she was taken. You must have really wanted to save her to get passed them.”

  “Finn knows what Andrew wants with her,” Tanya said, looking at Holly. “He knows how dangerous Ronnie is in Andrew’s hands, and he couldn’t let the world be destroyed. Plus, you and I both know this also had something to do with Diego. They had…unfinished business.”