He weakly called out, “Doc?”
There was no answer.
Something tickled his upper lip, and he batted it away in irritation. It was wet. Glancing at his hand, he saw a dark streak of blood. A thin stream ran over his chin and onto his shirt. What the–
Vincent brought his jacket sleeve to his nose and called out again. “Doc?”
His head began to throb with the intensity of a migraine headache.
Something was wrong.
“Doc,” he uttered, voice cracking.
“Right here.” Doc rounded the corner. He hobbled to Vincent’s side, bending down to pick him up. When the scent of blood reached him, he bent closer. “What happened? Are you hurt?”
“My head hurts.” The words were childlike and forlorn, even to his own ears.
Doc pulled a cloth from his pocket and pressed it to his nose. “It could be any number of things. Keep pressure on it for now. We’ll make sure it’s nothing serious when we’re safe.”
Vincent groaned when the ceiling abruptly neared, squeezing his eyes shut. Hot air swirled around them. They turned, navigating the maze of file cabinets. A breeze wafted over his face. His eyes cracked open in surprise. There was a hole in the wall, where boards had been removed.
“I always thought that bitch would lose it someday,” Doc muttered under his breath. “Never counted on a fire, but it’s the perfect time.”
“Perfect time?” Vincent shivered.
“We’re not like the others, Vincent. We’re special. We’re the only family we need.” He stepped into the night air and ascended a flight of concrete stairs. They leveled out at ground level.
The forest stood across the lawn, an oasis of moist earth, leaves, and brush. The wolf yearned for it, but horror gripped Vincent’s heart as Doc’s intentions became clear. He wanted to keep him under his control. It could only end in a lab somewhere, with Vincent’s body on a cold, hard slab. This needed to stop, now. Before it started.
“Wait–”
“Be quiet, or they’ll hear you,” Doc snapped, carrying him toward the trees. “Do you want to die?”
There were a lot of things he didn’t want. Dying was just one of them.
“Please, I don’t…” Have the energy to fight you on this, he almost said. It wasn’t enough that his face was covered with a bloody rag and that he was trembling from head to toe. He almost blurted out his vulnerability, loud and clear.
“I don’t think it’s safe to leave yet,” he mumbled instead. “We’re in the open–”
Doc sighed, abruptly lowering him to the grass. Dew seeped through the seat of his dress pants. It was cold against back.
The bloody rag fell to the grass beside his head. Vincent realized his nose had stopped bleeding.
Doc fumbled for something in his pocket. “I’m sorry about this. But you’re giving away our position.”
Vincent’s eyes widened when he realized Doc was holding a syringe.
Not another one.
The needle glinted in the moonlight, and he scrambled backwards, wolf growling in warning. He didn’t get far before Doc snatched his arm and shoved the needle through the fabric of his jacket. It pierced his skin with a vicious pinch.
Doc hadn’t yet pressed the plunger when a voice made him freeze.
“Don’t.”
A blurry form approach them. The scent made Vincent breathe a sigh of relief. “Hey, Logan.”
“What happened to ‘kid’?”Logan circled around Doc until he was pointing the gun at his forehead. “Take your thumb off the plunger. He’s been dosed enough for one day.”
Doc looked up, but he didn’t comply. “You really think you can kill me before I inject him?”
“Maybe not, but it’s doesn’t matter. It’s just a sedative.”
“Is it?”
“Yeah,” Logan snapped, though he didn’t sound so sure anymore. “Word is, he can save your ass. It wouldn’t make sense for you to kill him. Back off.”
Doc looked down at Vincent, as if accessing his options. A tense moment passed. Ever so slowly, he took his thumb off the plunger. But then a gun appeared from nowhere. Logan had his eyes on the syringe, and didn’t see it until it was too late.
“Kid, get down!” Vincent shouted.
Logan dropped the instant the gun went off. Through his blurred vision, Vincent couldn’t tell if he’d been hit or not. If Doc had hurt him…
Vincent turned to Doc… just in time to see the contents of the syringe injected into his arm. Doc began to lift him again, intent on taking him away.
“I said back off!”
It seemed Logan’s patience had finally run out. He began firing at Doc as he unsteadily clamored to his feet. Having narrowly survived the surprise attack, his eyes were wild with adrenaline. Shaking hands and fatigued steps produced shots so off target that he was hardly a threat. But the determination in his gaze was unnerving.
Doc chose to run, transforming into a wolf as he covered ground. How was that even possible? Vincent heard his footsteps pound over the soil until he reached the forest. It wasn’t until he was out of sight that Logan stopped firing every weapon he had.
A collapsing wall brought Vincent’s attention back to City Hall. The building was fully aflame, crackling as fire consumed the wood. Smoke poured from the basement, where the ceiling had collapsed.
“Are you okay?” Logan breathlessly asked, sliding to his knees beside him. He bent down to look into Vincent’s eyes.
Vincent did his best to nod, even as he felt two fingers press against his neck. He felt okay. Better than okay. Kind of light, and fluffy. If someone told him the ground had morphed into a feather bed, he might have believed them. But it was rocking like a hammock in a storm. That was the downside.
“Didn’t expect to find you here, man. What was that stuff Dr. Allen gave you? More sedative? Do you feel sleepy?” Logan patted him on the neck, impatient for a response. “Dizzy, nauseous–”
“All of the above, kid,” he slurred.
Logan huffed a small laugh at that, sitting back on his haunches. He looked relieved.
“Logan!” Anna called.
In his peripheral vision, Vincent saw Anna running toward them. He was amazed how she ran at all, what with the earth wobbling like an ocean tide. But then, maybe she felt it after all. She slowed as she reached them, stopping several paces away.
“Is he okay?” Her tone was wary. Vincent squinted to better see the wound on her face. Whatever had happened, she would be lucky if she retained any vision in that eye.
“I think he was drugged again. At least, that’s what I’m hoping. Help me get him up. We need to get out of here before the fire draws attention. I don’t want to explain a bunch of dead bodies. Do you?”
Vincent groaned when Logan shoved an arm under his back and heaved him into a sitting position. His stomach rebelled, leaping into his throat. Swallowing hard, he decided it would be best to close his eyes until he was upright. Logan placed an arm over his shoulders and dragged him to his feet.
“Come on, work with me. Try to walk. Anna, I hate to ask, but can you help? Just until we get him to the car.”
There was a feminine grumble. Heavy footsteps only further confirmed her reluctance. Vincent couldn’t find it in his heart to be offended. Not only had she just been attacked by one of his kind, but after years of hunting werewolves, the idea of helping them couldn’t be more foreign.
When her calloused hand grasped his and she slipped under his shoulder, he knew she was taking the first step in a journey he began long ago. One of acceptance.
They hauled him to the road, where Logan’s car was waiting. Anna must have driven it closer.
“Here,” Logan grunted. “Let’s get him into the backseat.”
He opened the car door. The metal groaned in protest. An arm encircled Vincent’s waist, and then he found himself dragged over the vinyl. It was still tacky with blood. The fabric of his tuxedo pressed into the seat as Logan tried to get him situated. The
kid had a funny way of doing it. He almost sprawled on top of him.
“There’s only room for one back here,” Vincent mumbled.
Anna snorted.
When Logan backed out of the car, he snapped, “You’re welcome.” But there was no real fire in his voice.
He took a deep breath once he was standing upright. “Okay, here’s what we’ll do. We’ll stop by the fire station. Anna can grab her bike and meet us at the motel. Once we grab our bags, we can get the hell out of dodge. I know a place in Montana that should be quiet enough to hunker down for a while. We could all use a little time to heal.”
“Then what?” Anna asked. It sounded like an honest question, not at all like the challenging demeanor she’d displayed at the motel.
“I keep Vincent safe from Dr. Allen and our own labs, while somehow investigating his immunity to silver.”
“You make it sound easy, don’t you?”
There was a pause. “I could use some help.”
Vincent inwardly raised an eyebrow.
“Like I’d let you handle this alone anyway,” Anna answered.
He must have missed something. The tension between them was all but gone.
The back door slammed. His eyes fell closed with the rocking motion of the car when they climbed into the front seats.
The wolf stirred, sensing their upcoming departure from Pinechester. It wasn’t as opposed as Vincent expected, especially with his wife’s resting place among the trees. But Pinechester was a place of sorrow now, a grave not only for Maria, but for most of his pack. Their demise had given him the freedom to set out on his own, in search of another wolf family.
Wherever he finally settled, be it Montana or the other side of the world, if he wanted to visit Maria, he knew where he could find her. It was with this knowledge that the wolf quieted. Curling up in the recess of his mind, it slept.
Logan managed to start the car on the third try. Anna, to her credit, waited patiently and didn’t mention it. They weren’t the only ones who could use a little healing. The car needed a new driver window and windshield before daylight. Otherwise, they would never make it to Montana without being pulled over.
“Here, let me see,” Logan murmured.
Vincent cracked his eyes open. Logan was probing the wound on Anna’s face.
“Don’t displace the clot,” she warned through clenched teeth. She was only just allowing the contact, and ready to pull back at any moment. Her hands were ready to lash out.
“I promise.”
After a long moment, he whistled. “I might be able to stitch the skin, but I suggest we hit a hospital to check out that eye anyway. Unless you want to wear an eye patch for the rest of your life. They look cool in the movies, but they aren’t exactly subtle.”
She gave his shoulder a playful shove. “Shut up. We’ll stop somewhere in several hours and get it looked at. I have some good pain killer in my first aid kit. But it’s for passengers only, and Vincent is already way ahead of me. Right, Vincent?”
She turned in her seat to give him a dorky thumbs up. He returned it with all the strength he could muster. They should really get a move on before her adrenaline faded and the pain kicked in. Ibuprofen wouldn’t tide her over for long.
“Hey, Anna.” Logan sounded thoughtful. “Do you still have the grenade you’ve been dying to use? The basement of this place is filled with files that point to the existence of werewolves. You said you’d grabbed the important ones earlier today. The fire might destroy the rest, but–”
“Hell, yeah!” Anna cut him off.
Vincent smiled as she bounded from the car. Most of the time he’d spent with Anna had been at the end of her loaded gun. It wasn’t the friendliest of introductions. But if she was the kind of prowler who packed grenades, he could grow to like her style.
There was a faint grunt of exertion as Anna threw the grenade. Her running footsteps were muffled against the grass. Their rhythm faltered when she stumbled once, but then she dove into the car.
“Go, go, go,” she gasped.
Logan hit the gas.
The vinyl of the passenger seat strained when Anna turned to watch her handiwork.
There was a muffled explosion. Debris rained down on the roof of the car, further denting the exterior. A ball of fire blossomed in the rearview mirror.
Logan and Anna shouted their victory. When Anna leaned over to give Logan a kiss on the lips, they almost swerved off the road.
The steady roar of air breezing through the car lulled Vincent into a stupor. He closed his eyes and let himself drift. Even when he felt the car stop, first at the fire station and then at the motel, he only floated on the edge of reality. In the abyss between lucidity and sleep.
When he shivered with cold, he felt two things as if from afar. The wolf, lazily emitting warmth from within. And a jacket, tenderly placed over him like a blanket.
At long last, Logan pulled onto the main road and began driving west for Montana. The rumble of Anna’s motorcycle trailed behind them.
Perhaps there was something special about his reaction to silver. Perhaps he would need to keep a low profile to avoid ending up in a lab. But right now, in this moment, he felt a sense of freedom that he hadn’t felt for two years.
He curled up and tucked Logan’s jacket more securely over his shoulder. As the world faded away, he heard the faint voice of the little girl, his Alpha, singing him to sleep.
Ashes, ashes, we all fall down.
Fever Page 11
