by Alana Melos
We’ll talk later, after you sort yourself out, Gerard sent to me as he began to tell Rebekah a story from his past career. “Did I ever tell you about the time I had to sneak into an all girl’s school? No? Well, all right, I know they didn’t have Catholic schools in Axis, but imagine a school like a church where the students had to go to religious services every day….”
His voice trailed off, but I heard Rebekah start laughing at some point in the story. It echoed back to me through the empty streets. I sighed. I’m sure the story wasn’t as funny as Ger said it was and probably had a lot more mind control and unsavory things in it, but he seemed to be keeping his word to me and being a father to her. At least something was going right.
The last member of our party still had yet to arrive. I walked around the apartment building to the back, where the forest lay. As I approached, I opened my mind wide and searched for Nos. I felt reasonably sure he wasn’t dead or debilitated too much anymore, else Adira would have gone off on me about that too. There was another row of buildings behind the pack’s HQ, but after that there were only ruins and the beginning of the wild forest. As I walked and scanned to my limit, the pavement beneath my feet became cracked and splintered. Even without all the ice and snow, the footing remained treacherous. I hovered just above the snow instead, moving at a walking pace towards the main forest. As I’d observed before, the leaves hadn’t fallen off, though the trees here weren’t the gigantic numbers we’d seen on the inside, being more of the regular size one would find in a park.
I stopped in the remnants of a children’s playground, just before the main treeline. I didn’t want to go in just in case the forest saw or sensed me somehow. I levitated there and scanned. I sensed all the pack inside their warm, toasty home. Adira fumed still, but there was no sign of Nosferatu. I even sensed Gerard getting into a cab a few blocks away. He sent me a faint message to give it up and get some rest before disappearing from view. There were no other presences nearby.
Sighing, I dropped to the ground and waited. My breath frosted the air and the cold began to seep into me once more as the heightened state of anxiety wore off and fell away, making room for other sensations to creep in. Maybe Gerard was right and I should just go home and relax. He’d recommend meditating to try and center myself. Maybe I should try to chop the emotions out of my head again, though it hadn’t gone so well last time.
I didn’t move. I stood there and looked into the dark forest, willing Nosferatu to pop out and start hissing his s’s at me being creepy and attractive and dark and dangerous. When a shadow moved in the forest, I started as I hadn’t sensed anything… and I really hadn’t expected him to pop out. If he was around, he would have made his presence known by now.
Narrowing my eyes, I looked for the movement. I stood stock still, breathing shallowly as I concentrated on all of my senses, searching for what had moved. A presence brushed against the edge of my telepathy and I tensed. It wasn’t Nosferatu; it was the forest.
Instead of doing the smart thing and running, I waited. The presence crept closer and closer. Now that no interlopers were in the forest, the immediate anger had diminished, leaving behind something that passed for curiosity. Was this the plant wolf thing, or was it the trees actually thinking at me? I couldn’t pin it down to any one place or thing. It seemed to come from all around, creating whispers in my mind, silvery threads which led in circles. Anger was still there, oh yes. It wasn’t the red rage I knew so well, but rather more of a burnt umber tinged with red. I’d never felt anything quite like it before.
Movement caught my eye a second time and I focused on it. Instead of hiding in the shadows, a figure stepped forward, its paws crunching on the crusted snow. The plant-wolfman moved forward, eyeing me with those bright green eyes. Now that I had something to focus on, I narrowed my concentration to him… it… whatever he was.
For the second time tonight, I ignored the smart move. The smart move would have been calling for backup telepathically while I held him down telekinetically. The vamps and wolves were fast and would have reached us before he broke the bonds. An alternate smart move would have been to simply let it be and retreat. Instead, I stayed where I was for the stupidest of all reasons: I wanted to capture him by myself so Adira wouldn’t be mad at me anymore. I made probably the worst possible choice for the worst possible reason.
I reasoned I could knock him out with my ‘pathy if he got aggressive. Right now, the plant-werewolf moved forward with caution, scenting the air as any animal might do. No fear stained his emotions at all, not even the slightest whiff. He was curious. The anger licked at the edges of his consciousness as he smelled me, knowing I’d been one of the intruders from only an hour before. He’d tracked us this far, compelled by some unknown reason. Even he didn’t know why. He just had to, and that was all there was to it.
“Fuck,” I breathed, the word frosting the air as I exhaled slowly, keeping calm. “Adira was right.” There was no reason at all for the forest or the plants or whatever it was that had captured Rory to investigate. There were no intruders now. We’d left. Unless a plant could want revenge that was, and I scoffed at that. No, somewhere in the wolf’s mind was a memory, or the impression of a memory. Maybe it wasn’t “Rory” as I thought of him, but it couldn’t just be the plant.
Keeping myself open to him, I projected calm and affection to him. The wolfman padded closer, the snarl he had showing some very white and sharp teeth. I didn’t try to talk. I knew he could talk, but Adira had practically begged him to come back with her and it’d done her no good at all. He didn’t communicate that way, or at least I didn’t think he did. Plus, he seemed to have a thing against her being dead. I wasn’t a vampire and I didn’t try to force him to do anything. My senses stayed sharp, and I kept my sword hand near the hilt, ready to pull my blade at the first sign of trouble.
The wolf moved closer, his head moving in a strange herky-jerky pattern. I locked my eyes on his, trying to anticipate his actions and read his mood. He projected feral confidence, knowing he was the king of the jungle, or at least the forest. I projected that same confidence. No one would beat me. I might be defeated, but I’d never be beaten. There was an important difference between the two. I lifted my chin up as he approached, and he lowered his head as he came to a stop in front of me. No more than a couple inches separated his snout from my nose. He chuffed a sound through his mouth and exhaled hard through his nose at the same time. The breath felt warm and wet on my face, which I hadn’t really expected. I wasn’t sure what to expect… even in this strange world we lived in now, this wasn’t something you saw every day. I didn’t think anyone had ever seen anything like this.
He bared his teeth at me and growled, but the feel from him wasn’t angry. It was a test. I stood firm, narrowing my eyes. We stared at each other, the both of us strong and proud. I continued to exude confidence and calm… but then I added in the memories I had of Mauler, and my admiration and affection for him. I kept it subtle, but the wolf reacted to the change. Cocking his head to the side, his brows came down and his lip went up in a naked threat. Not backing down, I stood up straighter and intensified the feelings and the memories I sent him. I thought of him ripping apart our mutual enemies, of the battle in Axis when we’d helped each other to survive, of drinking in the Underground… his cocky grin, his slight Irish accent. It wasn’t enough.
The wolfman pushed closer and I looked for any sign of Rory in his head, any glimmer of recognition. The growling intensified and I dropped the violent memories. They weren’t helping, though they’d gotten a reaction. Violence was primal, and it went right to the heart of who Mauler had been. Maybe other primal emotions and memories would reach him? It was worth a shot.
I sent to him memories of Adira, him, and myself together in the threesome we’d had. The brilliant green of his eyes darkened at the thought of the vampire, so I concentrated on the parts we’d shared, the warmth of our bodies connecting, the kisses, the touches, and the fucking. I shive
red at the memories, remembering how scorching his skin had been since wolves always ran hot. Each kiss had left an impression on me, something I’d looked forward to repeating but had had the chance stolen away from me. The wolf’s reaction calmed, but only for a moment. He chuffed again, and bent his head to lick along the length of my jaw, our eyes still locked. It was a gentler reaction, but still not one I wanted. I tried to move it to the affection, the emotional bond, reinforcing in my head that while he was a wolf, he was also human.
Something nudged against my leg. I ignored it until it nudged again, more insistent, and the shape and feel of it familiar. When I glanced down, I saw he’d gotten hard over the memories. Although the size was impressive, my first reaction was hell fucking no. I was not fucking a wolf. Some people might have gotten off on that. I was not one of them. When I looked up, victory gleamed in the werewolf’s eyes as I’d broken our staredown. Realizing that took a second, but that was all he needed.
The wolf grabbed me by the shoulders and spun me around in a second, his talons digging into my jacket and hitting my armor. I reacted out of instinct and pulled my sword, but the wolf snatched my wrist and jammed it against something metal and cold, making my hand let go. He pushed me forward and down, almost to the point of falling forward until I caught myself with my free hand. I wedged a telekinetic barrier between us and pushed him back, but had to stop as his grip on my hand and shoulder was too firm, and he threatened to take my arm with him if I kept pushing. The side of my face hit the cold snow and I bucked, thrashing in his grasp. It only excited him more and he leaned forward, biting my neck, but not how a vampire would do it. He took the width of my neck in his mouth and bit firmly without breaking the skin.
I told you this had been a bad idea, the full extent of which was clear to me now. If he wouldn’t let me push him off, and I couldn’t see him to do anything telekinetically--though the thoughts of Nosferatu’s sword through his chest made me think it would be temporary at best anyway--I concentrated on my telepathy.
Sleep, I told him, commanding him mentally. This was as far as I’d push my ‘no mind control’ rule, as it was a matter of life or death. I put all my mental force behind it, pushing the command into his brain. Expecting him to fall over asleep, surprise hit me when he bit down harder, making me wince. His flanks pressed into me, and he was ready to go. I blinked a few times, trying to figure what went wrong when a weird sort of logic hit me: plants don’t sleep. I laughed at the absurdity of it and my situation. Of course it wouldn’t work on a plant. I should have known.
I could have told him to let go or to run away or anything else, but I honestly didn’t like breaking that rule of mine. It hurt when I did, and had even when I wasn’t plagued with guilt. Instead, I pushed further into his, or its, mind, searching for another solution. Time slowed for me as I raced with the speed of thought, picking through his threads of emotion and looking for anything I could use against him. Raw animal lust stood prevalent, and the desire for heat… for a mate. For someone worthy. For an equal. I understood that desire, at least.
Beyond that, something stirred. It was faint, but the idea of my flesh--not just flesh but my flesh in particular--was familiar. I latched onto that and stoked that feeling. The wolf’s bulk shoved against me, and he let go of my hand to rip at the leather trench I wore. His talons hit the steel plate over the back. God dammit. I knew the leather was ruined. At least the plate had saved me, for now. It whipped him into a frenzy, but I kept thinking about shifting, about him being human, about how his human self had felt against me, in me. All the while, I struggled, made him spend effort to keep me where he wanted me, teeth or not.
The bite released, and he moved my hand in front of me. The fur receded from his hand and the bones shifted. I felt his body move behind me, on top of me, remolding itself into the preferable form. The skin grew over the fur and vines, until it looked like a human hand once more. The weight lessened on me, and now… now I inserted the telekinetic wedge between us and threw him backwards. His strength weakened in his human form, he let go and flew backwards, hitting what looked to be an old merry-go-round hard and crumpling.
I stood up using my teke and brushed the snow from my face. Sure enough, it was Rory… a very naked Rory, but it was him nevertheless. Searching for any recognition, the naked human struggled to stand. I’d dealt him a pretty hard blow, but I knew the old Rory could take it. This new one was more uncertain, wobbly. Maybe I’d hit him harder than I thought. His thoughts fluttered with pain and anger, but underneath that was something else… something familiar. A niggling thought wormed its way to the top of his head. It fought with tooth and nail for dominance, that nagging feeling that he knew me, that I was an ally. That I was pack.
“Cap…” he said and stumbled forward. I saw him better in the moonlight, and his skin looked weird, dark. His hair had changed as well, shaggy and rough. He took another step, reaching for me but not aggressively. It was more like his body reflected his mental reach for understanding. He knew me, but didn’t know how he did.
Well, fuck. Rory really was alive. Faint, confused, and buried somewhere in a broken mind, but there. I bit my lip and told him again, Sleep. I didn’t expect it to work, but this time, he keeled over instantly in the cold, wet snow, and was snoring a few seconds later.
Adira, I sent to the vampire at the headquarters. I sensed her jerk her head up and bare her teeth at nothing, her anger still hot and fierce. I have a present for you.
Chapter Five
With Adira’s help, I got the unconscious man-wolf-plant back to the HQ. We dumped him on his own bed, still snoring. Our arrival had caused quite the fuss, and the other wolves stood nearby, staring through the open door at Rory’s sleeping form. To say that he had changed was putting it mildly. I’d observed the vines grown into his arms even in his human form outside. Once we got him into the light, we’d all stared as he’d been turned green. It was a light green, a touch duller than the color of spring grass. His dark hair had turned a deep forest green. In addition to that, wolf fur poked through his skin in strange, curved patterns, almost like spirals around his arms and legs. It ruptured from his back and chest as well in thin, misshapen lines. Adira said it was because of the quick change he’d done that night. Other wolves sometimes were missing patches of human skin if they changed fast and didn’t consume all of their human skin and teeth before returning to human form. I knew how broken his mind was, but how broken was his body? What had the plant done to him, and was it infectious? No one wanted to get near him except Adira and myself. If there was something to infect us, we were already goners since we’d hauled him up from the broken playground to here.
I stood in the doorway keeping an eye on his sleeping form. The command to sleep wouldn’t last without me maintaining it. “I will be back,” Adira said. “I need to tell Freyja about this.” The happiness shone through her eyes. I nodded, giving her a wan smile in response. “Thank you,” she said, leaning in and kissing me softly. “Thank you.”
“We’ll want to hurry with this, or find something to drug him or… something,” I said. “I can’t stay here forever making sure he’s under.”
She left, shadowstepping in her haste to find the other co-leader of the pack of wolves and vampires. I leaned in the doorway, sighing. I didn’t know what else I could even do for him. His mind… I’d tried to tell the vampire on the way here that it wasn’t really him, not yet. Not without some kind of psychic surgery, and maybe not even then. Who knew what his captivity had done to him?
“What happened to him?” a male voice asked, thin and uncertain, with a German accent. When I turned, one of the younger men of the pack had stepped forward to peek through the opening. His brown hair was bound back in a ponytail, and he wore a goatee. Shorter and thinner than most of the other wolves, I guessed he must have been fairly newly turned. I didn’t recognize him offhand, or have a name to put to him.
“I don’t know,” I answered, looking back at Rory’s broken b
ody. “The… the forest, I guess. It….” Stopping, I shook my head. “Man, I don’t know.”
“You’re Caprice, right? Sister to the pack?” That was what they called me, a sister in blood or sister of battle because I’d shed blood with them during their escape from Axis. When I nodded, he offered a hand, “Viktor.”
Auspicious name, I thought as I shook his hand. “What’s taking so long?” I asked. “I thought the whole damn bunch of you would be here.”
He shook his head, his small brown eyes narrowed in thought. “They’re… afraid.”
“Nothing to be afraid of,” I said, rolling my eyes and looking back to Rory. “He’s sleeping. He won’t wake until I let him.”
“That’s not what they’re afraid of,” Viktor said. He made a noise, as if interrupting himself, and then padded footsteps drew my attention away from the sleeping werewolf to the entrance to the large basement. The other wolves parted like the Red Sea to allow Freyja and Adira through. Though Adira wasn’t tall by any means--she was a couple inches shorter than my five foot eight--she almost towered over Freyja. If the diminutive redhead crested five foot two, I’d eat my trench. She projected confidence and strength. Of all the wolves and vamps I’d met, I would have pegged her as a leader. There was that certain indefinable attitude which told people to get the fuck out of her way. I called it the ‘don’t fuck with me’ aura.
Her blue eyes flashed the light back to me as she drew up short and waited for me to move out of her way. When I did, she ducked in the doorway as Adira stood nearby, exuding her own brand of confidence, quiet and subtle. The vampire simply knew things were going to go her way and didn’t feel the need to advertise it. Between the two of them, they ran the pack on Earth Prime here since their real leader was trapped in Axis.
Freyja breathed in deep and steady for about ten seconds, then shook her head, turning on her heel to look at Adira. “No,” she said, her voice firm.
