by Laura Hysell
“I’m okay, Izzy,” he said softly, pressing his mouth to mine in a tender kiss. “Thanks to you.”
“I thought I lost you,” I sobbed, dropping my head onto his chest. “I felt you dying.”
He pulled me closer, settling me onto his lap as he cradled me. He was quiet for several minutes until my sobs finally subsided. Then he spoke softly into my ear. “I couldn’t leave you. You held me tethered to this world; to this life. We’re one, Isabella Howerton.”
“Andrews,” I said softly.
“What?”
“Isabella Andrews,” I replied, pulling back to look at him. “Soon, anyway.”
He grinned and kissed me. “Oh, yes, my love, very soon.”
After a few more kisses, and a few loud coughs by our large audience, we tore ourselves apart and stood up. Mark frowned at my blood-coated dress, but after assurances I was fine, he let it go. Mark pulled on a pair of shorts that had been left for him, and we made our way toward the tents to check on the injured. Justin had fallen asleep, curled up in the corner of the first tent we entered. We let him sleep as we moved around the tent, checking on injuries. Jared was lying in the first makeshift bed, a large bandage wrapped around his body. He was still in wolf form, but opened his eyes when we approached.
“Jared, are you okay?” I asked, touching his head. He nodded his large wolf’s head, then closed his eyes again. We moved on, letting him rest. Mark spoke to several others that I didn’t know, closing his eyes and communicating silently to those in wolf form. I frowned as he did this, wondering when he had become so proficient at that. Jed, I knew, was capable of this as Alpha, but telepathic wolf speak was usually only possible when both were in wolf form. These wolves weren’t even a part of our Pack. I moved past Mark, lost in thought until I saw Beth at the back of the tent. Jed sat on the ground beside her, sleeping with one hand clutching hers. Beth was in human form with a thick bandage across her head and over one eye.
Jed jerked awake when I walked up, his eyes red. He climbed to his feet, his hand still holding Beth’s. “How is she?” I asked, peering at Beth’s paler than usual face.
He shook his head and I felt him reach out with Pack strength, lending it to her. I touched his shoulder, and he looked up at me. There were dark circles under his eyes and his cheeks looked almost sunken in. “You need to conserve your strength,” I said softly.
“I have to heal my Pack,” he replied, his eyes jerking back to Beth.
“Can I help? I’m healed. Take some of my strength,” I said, holding out my hand.
“I can’t do that,” he said, shaking his head.
“Yes, you can,” Mark said, coming up behind me. “I’d offer it myself, if I had any strength to give, but I’m barely on my feet as it is.” I looked sharply at Mark at this remark. His skin was still pale and he looked like he could fall asleep standing. I was about to order him to go lie back down when he continued speaking. “Use strength where you can.”
I held my hand out again, urging Jed to take my strength. He took a deep breath, warring with himself, before finally nodding his head. He took my hand in his, pulling strength from me. It wasn’t much, but even that little bit tired me. I wasn’t as healed as I pretended to be. Jed turned to Beth as soon as he let go of my hand, pushing some of that strength back into her. Immediately, her skin grew pinker and her breathing steadier. She wasn’t out of the woods, but some of the fear that had been etched on Jed’s face seemed to recede.
“Thank you,” he said, his voice thick with emotion.
“What happened?”
He shrugged and shook his head. “Not sure. She was trapped in the caves. Aidan found her a couple hours ago.”
I nodded and turned with Mark to check on the next tent. Vanessa was the first person I saw, but she was awake and sitting up. Multiple bandages covered her body, but her attention was on the person in the bed beside hers. I stepped forward and looked down at Killian. He was awake, staring up at Vanessa and whispering softly to her. He stopped speaking when I walked up and smiled weakly at me.
“Hey, Iz, good to see you,” he said.
“Izzy!” Vanessa said, jumping off her bed and hugging me before turning to Mark and doing the same. “You’re both okay!”
I nodded and said, “You too. Both okay?”
“I’ll heal just fine on my own,” Killian said, and I detected a note of anger in his voice.
“It’s barely a scratch,” Vanessa retorted, crossing her arms.
“It could get infected,” he said as he pulled back the covers to reveal a single bandage across his chest.
“It’s been treated, and we can get you antibiotics soon enough.”
He laid back down, groaning. “Oh, the pain. I think perhaps it was a werewolf scratch after all.”
“I was there when you got hurt,” Vanessa replied, smiling down at him. “It wasn’t a werewolf.”
“Are you sure? I feel a bit feverish. It could be the change coming on,” he continued.
“What are you going on about?” I asked, interrupting Killian’s theatrics.
Vanessa rolled her eyes, but she was grinning widely. “Killian wants to join the Pack, and he thinks if he’s injured badly enough we’ll change him to try and save him. He’s really not that hurt, though.”
“If not today, then soon,” he said.
“You’re not gonna let this go, are you?” Vanessa replied, looking at him sharply.
“I intend to stay with you. I know how your family feels about you dating a human. So, I just won’t stay human.”
“I don’t care what they think.”
“I just battled vampires for you,” he replied, sitting up once more. “I’m not going anywhere. You might as well give in, because I will be a werewolf someday.”
“Someday is not today, Killian,” she replied. “And don’t you dare say you’ve battled vampires or done anything else for me. You did those things for you.”
He shrugged, in what could have been agreement or not. “Okay, not today then, but soon.”
She sighed and shook her head but didn’t argue with him and the smile on her face had grown only wider. I gave her another hug before moving on, chatting with the other healing members of the Pack. By the time we made it through the tent, Mark was walking slower and breathing hard. He had definitely put on a brave face for everyone, but he was exhausted. I was too, after lending strength to Jed. We settled down beneath a tree, where we both quickly fell back asleep, wrapped in the comfort of each others arms.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Mark and I napped through most of the morning, regaining our strength. At some point, Aidan had plopped down on the ground beside us and promptly fell asleep. He alone seemed unharmed through all the fighting. His clothes were covered in dirt, blood, and debris, but none of it was his. Around noon, I found a change of clothes and went back into the tent to check on the injured while Mark made his rounds throughout the camp. Jed had finally fallen asleep, and Mark took it as his duty to take over.
Thanks to werewolf speed healing, and a little magic from Declan, Ivan, and Brody, most of the Pack were up and moving around. My own injuries had healed dramatically, and only pink, puffy skin remained. In another day, there would probably be no sign of the injuries at all. If I’d been able to shift into my wolf form, I probably would have been healed already.
While I’d slept, all the remaining trucks and tanks had been brought together, forming a makeshift barrier around our camp. Everyone who had been caught in the cave-in had been rescued, leaving only the dead behind to mourn. We knew there were bodies buried beneath the rubble that we wouldn’t be able to tend. The other dead were being rounded up in trucks, so they could be taken back to their homes for proper burial. I watched as one of the trucks returned, parking further away from camp under a cluster of trees. The truck door opened, and a weary looking Lucas stepped out. He caught my eye, stopped, and turned toward me.
“Glad to see you’re alive,” he said, forc
ing a smile on his face.
“Logan?” I asked softly, thinking of the last time I’d seen him, covered in blood and staring sightless at the sky.
Lucas shook his head, his eyes filling with tears. “I felt him die,” he said quietly. “It should have been me.”
“You can’t talk like that.”
“Why not? It’s true. Logan always had his shit together, and he was always looking out for me. I’m a fuck up, Izzy, and we all know it. Logan is… was… the best brother,” he stopped talking as tears streamed down his face.
“I’m so sorry,” I said, unsure what to say or how to comfort him.
“I need to…I gotta go,” he said. He patted me on the shoulder before walking back to camp, his head down.
“Sorrow will pass eventually,” Aidan said as he walked up beside me, his Irish lilt strong. “It will be a rough journey back though.”
“Yes, it will,” I replied, turning to look over the man who had been in my head for a year. “You seemed to fair well during the fighting.”
“Ah, yes, it is my gift and curse,” he said.
“Gift and curse? What do you mean?”
He frowned and ran a hand across his strong, straight jaw. “When I was originally joined with that dagger on your side, I gained gifts. I was faster, stronger, and just better in general. But, I was still human. I still bled.” He stopped talking and shifted his feet before pulling off his shirt and flipping it over. “See this here?”
I leaned forward, looking at the tattered hole in the back of his shirt “What happened?”
“Vampire tried to bite me. Tore the shirt with his teeth, but couldn’t make a dent in my skin.”
“Wait, what do you mean? Like, he couldn’t hurt you at all? I mean, I know they said you couldn’t die, but… you can’t get hurt?”
Aidan shook his head and picked a rock up off the ground, jabbing it suddenly into his chest. I jumped back, staring at the rock protruding from his skin. He yanked the rock out, and the skin closed up immediately. There wasn’t a single drop of blood. “Can’t bleed,” he said softly. “It hurts a little, but the pain is gone almost immediately.”
“Well, that’s interesting,” I said, looking at his face. ”
“It should make me happy, but it only solidifies the fact that I am cursed. Only way I can die is to be stabbed by my own knife, but all that does is put me back into the blade. There’s no way I’m doing that again.”
“What did Declan say?”
“They’re going to work on it,” he said, his frown deepening. “They wanted me to come back to Ireland with them, but I told them no.”
“Why not? It’s your home.”
“It hasn’t been my home in ages,” he replied softly. “I don’t think I can go back. Not yet. The only memories I have are bad ones.” He rubbed at one of the swirling tattoos on his chest, seemingly lost in thought. After a moment, he looked up at me. “There’s only one thing left for me to do.”
“What’s that?”
“Kill vampires,” he said bluntly. “It’s what I was made for, and the last few days have been invigorating. We killed a lot, but there are always more. The Draoi won’t leave me alone though. Brody has volunteered to help me get set up in this new world.”
I stared at him, taking in his words. “You’re leaving, aren’t you?”
He smiled and said, “I don’t belong in the world of wolves. Don’t worry, lass, I’ll keep in touch.”
“When?”
“Not until after your wedding, of course,” he replied, smiling wider.
I laughed, until my eyes caught sight of the truck of bodies again. The laughter died on my lips. “So much waste,” I murmured.
“It’s war, Izzy. There will always be casualties in war. Just think how many more there would be if we hadn’t stopped Petrivian.”
“I guess we’ll see what happens now.”
I spent the rest of the day helping organize our return home. We wouldn’t be leaving until the next morning, to give the wounded more time to heal. Our working vehicles were fewer, and the need for them greater. The trucks would be reserved for humans and badly injured, with everyone else in wolf form traveling cross country. We slept when we could through the day, conserving our strength before nightfall. Just because Petrivian was dead, didn’t mean all his vampires would be. It also didn’t mean that others wouldn’t try to attack us. Declan assured us that the contract still held, but that only deterred attack from one group of vampires. We still had Henri and his vamps to deal with, as well as the werewolves he had brought which had disappeared with him.
As night fell, the dagger began to tingle on my side. I stood with Mark along the edge of our makeshift barrier of trucks. Aidan moved up beside me, fingering his daggers. Jed was still with Beth, who had yet to regain consciousness. He said he wanted to stay with the wounded, to guard them, and no one argued it. Mark had rested as much as possible through the day and had opted to take point on guarding the camp. Unease rippled through the Pack standing guard along our perimeter as vampires stepped into sight.
Thomas stepped forward, and a little of my own anxiety lessened. I touched Mark on the arm, and we stepped forward together to greet him. Other vampires stilled behind him as Thomas moved closer. “Greetings,” he said.
“Thomas,” Mark said simply, nodding his head.
“Haven’t seen you in a while,” I said pointedly, crossing my arms.
Thomas shrugged, but a frown creased his forehead. “Orders,” he said.
“What’s that mean?” I asked.
“The bosses didn’t want me fighting here, in this battle. I stayed behind.” He stopped talking, acting almost worried. “I’m afraid I have news.”
“Bad news, I take it,” Mark growled.
“Henri’s men attacked your Alpha’s home. There were casualties.”
“What?” Mark asked, and I felt him reaching out through the Pack bond. I imitated him, reaching through the bond and following his lead. As connected as we were, it was easy to match what he did. He followed the bond far from here, back home, seeking out the wolves left behind. Mark touched each wolf in turn, and I frantically tried to keep up with him. “No,” Mark whispered, as his seeking ceased.
“What?” I asked, my mind racing as I tried to keep up.
“Hugo,” he choked out.
My heart constricted as I filtered through the Pack, searching for the distinct presence of Hugo. Nothing. I searched frantically, looking for any sign of him even as tears welled in my eyes. “What happened?” I asked.
“Henri happened,” Thomas said angrily. “He left some of his wolves behind to attack. They are all dead now, including the one called Leon. Unfortunately, the big man, Hugo, was beyond our ability to save.”
“He stayed behind for his wife,” I said through tears. “What about her?”
“Dark haired woman? Sickly?” Thomas asked, and I nodded.
He shook his head. “She died by her husband’s side,” he said softly. “She fought well for a human.”
“And the rest of the ones left behind?”
“I believe the rest survived, although the barn was destroyed,” Thomas said. “We eliminated the rest of the threat, and now guard your borders.”
“Well, that’s something, I guess,” I murmured.
“Henri will pay,” Mark growled, his fists balled at his sides.
Thomas nodded in agreement. “Yes, he will. Someday. For now, we will guard your travel back home through the night.”
“Guard us?” Mark asked, his eyebrows raising in surprise.
“My bosses want things back the way they used to be. I’m not sure if that’s possible, but if we work together, who knows what could happen. It’s worth a try,” he added.
“We shall see,” Mark said, nodding once. “We leave in the morning.”
Thomas nodded and turned to leave. He stopped, pulling his ever-present cigar out, and glanced over his shoulder. “For what it’s worth, I hope we ca
n have some sort of peace. I like you,” he added, smiling at me.
Despite the heartache I felt, I smiled back at the vampire. “Weirdly enough, I like you too, for a vampire.”
He chuckled and turned away, taking the other vampires with him. I glanced up at Mark, who stared into the distance, his expression unreadable. Turning to Aidan, I found him frowning after the vampire. He glanced at me and shrugged. “Interesting fellow,” he commented.
“That he is,” I replied as I relaxed against Mark. He wrapped an arm around my shoulder, pulling me to him in a one-armed hug. “You didn’t know about Hugo?” I asked softly.
“No, there was so much happening, I didn’t sense it. I should have. Jed… I have to tell Jed. I don’t think he realized it either.”
“Go tell your Alpha,” Aidan said, drawing his blades and flipping them in his hands. “I’ll stand watch.”
Mark hesitated, his eyes searching the distant trees as though he could see danger in the distance. After a few moments, he nodded his head and headed toward the tent. I stayed behind, waiting and watching with Aidan. No vampires came to attack us during the night. Aidan and I worked our daggers together, as he showed me more maneuvers. My dexterity had improved since becoming a werewolf, and I mimicked Aidan as he flipped the daggers from one hand to the other. After a few hours we took a break, letting the next crew take up guard duty. Having slept most of the day, I found I wasn’t tired at all, but knew it would be a long day to follow. Mark hadn’t returned, but I could feel him nearby. The rest of the Pack had been told about the attack, and I felt sadness and anger ripple through the Pack as word spread.
Aidan and I retreated back to the tree we had rested under. It was well into the night when I fell asleep, drifting off into a strange series of dreams. Someone was asking for entry, pounding on a metal door, but I kept denying him. The dream shifted, and I stood on a white, sandy beach. Warm wind caressed my skin, and suddenly I was relaxing in a beach chair with a cool drink in my hand. I looked around, feeling as though I had been here before. A door stood in the middle of the beach, and someone was knocking on it over and over again, asking to be let in. I frowned, thinking it was a strange place for a door.
