by Tasha Black
And she had already weighed her options and come out knowing she really only had one course of action. If she walked away, he would kill Grace anyway, and release the moroi to feast on the town.
Protecting the pack was Ainsley’s sworn duty.
She could feel the hum of each of them under her every move, even now in this cold place. The teeming warmth of their green submission bathed her in power and responsibility.
That didn’t make it easy, though.
She met Grace’s eye.
The policewoman’s face was a mask of calm. But Ainsley could see that her best friend’s eyes were terrified.
If she could stretch this moment across space and time, she would. Ainsley wished wildly that she could call a truce, or even have one moment to say good-bye.
Grace nodded once and lowered her eyes in assent.
Still, Ainsley stood frozen. To move toward Charley was to kill her best friend.
Not to move was to abandon her pack.
She closed her eyes and tried to picture Ophelia, and the calm way Ophelia would do what had to be done in this situation.
Sucking in a breath, she opened her eyes, and took a step toward Charley.
“Well, that’s unexpected,” Charley remarked, cocking the hammer of the gun. “I guess you’re more wolf than I gave you credit for. Say good-bye to your friend.”
“That won’t be necessary,” said a crisp voice from the doorway behind them.
Julian.
Ainsley snuck a glance back at him. He was holding the key. It seemed almost to glow in his hand, like it knew, after centuries, that it was finally close to its home.
“How about a trade?” Julian asked Charley, without so much as a glance at Ainsley.
“Julian, you can’t do this,” Ainsley said. “Your vows, your order... You’ve dedicated your life to keeping these things from getting free.”
“No. I dedicated my body and soul. Until I met Grace, I didn’t have a life,” he said simply. “I’m not willing to let her go. No matter the cost.”
A flash of understanding illuminated everything for Ainsley. The strange behavior, the tension, all of it made sense. Grace and Julian weren’t having a fling. What they had was love, true love. And Julian was going to destroy the world in its name.
Desperately, Ainsley scrambled, putting herself physically between Julian and Charley.
“You’re not thinking clearly, Julian,” she told him. “I’m not going to let you do this.”
“I’ve never been more clear about anything,” he said as a huge ball of light leapt into existence in his free hand. “And you might want to get out of my way.”
A growl burst from Ainsley’s chest, and she had to press down her wolf once again, as she summoned her own blue ball of light.
“You know you’re no match for me, Ainsley,” he said, the ball of energy pulsing in time with his steady heartbeat.
“You’re not that quick, Copperfield,” Cressida said from behind Julian.
Ainsley was at a complete loss for a moment, wondering how Cressida had managed to position herself without anyone noticing. She really was wonderfully sneaky.
“If you attack Ainsley, you’ll be dead before you hit the ground,” Cressida hissed in his ear. “And if you make me shift and ruin these boots, I’ll make sure it’s painful.”
For a moment, Julian seemed to waver in indecision. Then the ball of light in his hand flickered out.
Ainsley held her magic strong.
Cressida smirked, and Ainsley was forced to admire what a great pirate she made.
Julian’s shoulders slumped and the look in his eyes was so painful she could barely meet his gaze. She knew that look. She’d seen it in the mirror every night since Erik had gone.
“Why don’t you give me that key?” she asked him gently.
Julian looked down at the key in his hand, as though he had forgotten all about it.
He looked to Grace, then, before anyone could react, he threw himself at the center of the symbol on the floor, and shoved the key into the stone hole.
Instantly, a pillar of crimson energy engulfed him.
Grace’s scream ripped Ainsley’s gaze from Julian.
Her best friend, still bound, dragged herself across the floor toward the column of fiery red light.
Ainsley threw herself at Grace and rolled her away from the grate.
“Noooooo,” Grace howled. “Let me go! You were willing to let me die a minute ago. Let me go!”
Behind them, Charley cackled in delight.
Ainsley pinned Grace beneath herself and turned to see Charley stepping toward the beam.
Julian was gone.
“Rise, Master,” Charley boomed in his friendliest Sunday open house voice. “My father’s father began our post in this village to prepare for your arrival. I am here to do your bidding.”
The outline of a human-like shape began to form inside the beam.
Ainsley watched, numb with horror, as Charley stepped closer still.
The thing inside the light reached out a hand to Charley’s head. Charley closed his eyes, basking in the glory of its presence.
The moment the hand made contact with his head, his eyes shot open and he screamed in agony.
The gun fell to the stone floor with a clatter.
Charley’s head seemed to melt and ooze into the fingers of the outstretched hand, followed by his neck and torso. He continued to be drawn in, bit by bit, until at last his legs swizzled up into the pulsating red beam of light, and he was gone.
The light throbbed brighter than before, then pulled inward, darkening for a moment.
Without warning, it exploded upward, piercing the stone ceiling, and disappeared, leaving them in complete blackness.
The sound of rushing water poured in from the hole left in its wake.
One moment, Ainsley was on the stone floor, holding Grace down. The next she was waist deep in frigid water, grasping Grace’s leather belt to pull her up for air. Within seconds the entire chamber was completely flooded.
Ainsley swam with all her strength, in what she hoped was the direction of the hole left by the creature. She had bumped the domed ceiling, and begun to feel for the opening, when Grace wriggled out of her grasp.
Determinedly, Ainsley kicked after her friend. Her arms closed on Grace again, but in the tumult, she lost her sense of up and down.
A beam of light showed her the way, and she swam, dragging Grace after her.
Despair set in when she saw it was only a broken shard of the key.
Ainsley snagged it in the hand that wasn’t hooked on Grace’s belt. Her lungs burned with the need for breath as she held the bit of glowing key near her face and let out a tiny bit of precious air.
In the soft illumination, she watched the bubbles move. They seemed to be going sideways, but she kicked off like mad in their direction.
They led her back to the smooth, curved stone of the ceiling. She felt around frantically, but couldn’t find the hole.
Again, she held up the bit of key to search, wondering how much longer she could hold her breath.
Two strong hands grabbed her from behind, yanking her backwards.
No, no, no.
She turned and the light of the key reflected in a sequined eyepatch.
Cressida.
Ainsley followed Cressida and soon they had reached the hole. On the other side was more icy water.
With the last of her strength, Ainsley swam. It grew impossible to hold in the air in her lungs, and she began to let it out, as slowly as she could, not knowing how much further she had to go in the icy blackness.
Soon, all of her air was gone.
Ainsley struggled to fight it, but her desperate body tried to breath in the water.
Miraculously, she broke the surface a moment later, spluttering and coughing as she clawed her way to the mud of a familiar bank.
She was too desperate for her next breath to appreciate the fact that the tomb of
the moroi had been directly below her special place with Erik all along.
Under the white bark of the sycamore where they’d played, she willed her body not to choke to death, on the water of her own creek.
Cressida appeared beside her, loosening Ainsley’s death grip on Grace.
“Get her untied,” Ainsley gasped.
The air was cold enough that Ainsley could see her own labored breath as she stumbled up the rocky bank and fell to her knees.
The water she vomited felt pleasantly warm as it flew out of her lungs. She retched a few more times, then turned to Cressida and Grace.
Grace sat on the bank, staring blankly back into the water.
“Any sign of that thing?” Ainsley asked Cressida.
“No,” Cressida shook herself, sending droplets everywhere. “Where would it go?”
“It’s looking for a quick power fix,” Ainsley hypothesized. “Who are the most powerful people in town?”
“Ophelia,” Cressida said instantly.
“Garret,” Ainsley added, the wheels of her mind turning furiously as her accelerated healing kicked in. “I’ll go to Ophelia, you guys go to Garrett. Put the pack on high alert. This thing cannot leave Tarker’s Hollow.”
Grace still stared into the black water. Ainsley was nearly paralyzed looking at her. Imagining the trajectory of the water to the hole, to the tomb, to Julian, disappearing into the red light under the grate.
The broken key seemed to ache in Ainsley’s hand, reminding her of the mate she would never regain.
“Let’s go, sweetie,” Cressida said kindly to Grace. “He didn’t do that so that you could sit around moping.”
Suddenly, Grace was on her feet. She blew past them both, looking like she was ready to punch one of them in the face.
“Take care of her,” Ainsley said softly.
“Somebody’s going to pay for these boots,” Cressida muttered.
Ainsley trotted ahead to Grace. She couldn’t leave things this way.
“I’m so sorry for what happened to Julian,” she said helplessly. “And that you got caught up in all of this.”
Grace kept walking.
“I have to go to Ophelia,” Ainsley said. “But I will find you when this is over. I can’t make things right, but I’ll find you anyway.”
Grace didn’t even blink.
But Ainsley didn’t have time to negotiate.
“Hold this for me,” she said, tossing the shard of the key to Grace.
Without waiting to see if her friend caught the key, Ainsley shifted into her flame colored wolf, shredding what was left of her tattered clothes.
As it always did, her focus narrowed to a simpler plane. The shivering misery of her conflicted human was replaced with the singular purpose of a wolf seeking her alpha, and the tingling burn of bunching, stretching muscle as she sailed through the woods.
CHAPTER 14
M ary was confused.
No matter how many books she read about grown-ups, or how much she longed to be treated like one, sometimes, the things they did still puzzled her.
Tonight, she knew that what Erik was saying, and what he was doing, were very different things. She just couldn’t quite figure out why.
“What’s he doing?” she said, almost to herself.
“He’s going to fix things,” her mom whispered.
“How?” Mary asked.
“There’s a very bad thing in those mines,” Miss Bonnie said. “Erik is going to make sure it never gets out. It’s what your daddy was trying to do when he brought down his branch. He’s going to finish what your daddy started. To protect us.”
Mary could hear the comforting words they were saying, fix and protect, but the set of Erik’s jaw told her there was another way to describe what he was doing.
To protect us.
“What about him?” she asked, turning to the librarian, who had less reason than her mother to protect her feelings.
Miss Bonnie averted her eyes, and suddenly, everything was clear.
“No!” Mary cried. “He can’t do that!”
She had spent her life listening to her grown-ups, mostly, and doing the things that ought to be done. But she couldn’t stand by and let this happen.
She leaped up off the gravel. She only needed to get past these women and get to Erik before it was too late.
If the thing was too strong for her dad with his crew, it was too much for Erik by himself. And that made this a waste — whether the grown-ups saw it that way, or not.
But the librarian grabbed her. She was stronger than she looked.
“There’s nothing you can do, honey,” she whispered in Mary’s ear.
“Remember what he said, Mary,” her mother added. “We need you to be strong. To take over your new role in the pack.”
“I can’t,” Mary cried, struggling hopelessly against Miss Bonnie’s strong arms. “I won’t. I don’t want this. I just want him to be okay.”
Her mother joined in, holding her fast. It was hopeless.
A rustle in the air caught her attention, and she turned to the ridge overlooking the mine to find it thick with wolves and people. Half the town must be there. The ones in human form headed down to join her family on the mostly empty lot.
While her mom and Miss Bonnie were distracted, Mary pictured her sleek gray wolf. It lowered its snout to her and instantly she felt herself change.
She hadn’t shifted many times. But this time it came easy — maybe because she needed it to be.
Time slowed down.
Mary dove between Miss Bonnie’s legs and out into the open space at the mouth of the mine. She splayed her paws to stop herself from sliding out of control on the gravel.
The smells of the mine overpowered her wolf nose, and Mary struggled to focus on Erik’s smell. It was a spicy amber scent, and once she had it, it was easy to follow.
Suddenly, something big landed on her back.
Another wolf had her by the scruff.
She tried to shake it off, but it held fast.
A second wolf landed on her back.
Desperately, Mary snapped at them. But she knew already it was useless. Her tail fell between her legs.
The spicy scent vanished into the mouth of the mine.
Mary lifted her snout and howled mournfully.
The night air filled with echoes of her song. Every wolf in Copper Creek had joined her in her pain.
She sighed and felt herself slide back into the form of a girl again.
Instantly, the jaws on her neck were gone.
Her mother licked her cheek once with a raspy tongue, before shifting back to human herself, and wrapping Mary in her arms.
“This had better work,” Miss Bonnie hissed, the moment she had shifted back.
“The cave-in’s already blocking off the section of the mine where Jake and the boys were. What’s Erik going to do that hasn’t already been done?” LeeAnn whispered back over Mary’s shoulder.
Before anyone could answer, an earth-moving rumble tore through the ground. Mary felt the earth come up to meet her, and her naked hip hit the gravel hard enough to bruise.
The twins began to cry, and the wolves on the ridge stirred nervously.
Mary looked up to see smoke pouring out of the mouth of the mine.
“What happened?” she whispered, not expecting an answer.
The crowd behind them began to buzz.
“That crazy son of a bitch opened the east branch!” Ted Mullin’s voice lifted over the crowd.
“What?” a woman’s voice asked.
“The gas. He lit the gas,” yelled another man’s voice.
“That thing will burn for a hundred years. What are we supposed to do now?” Jimmy Brewer shouted.
“We can’t mine anymore,” said another voice. It was Mr. Kirkland, one of the foremen.
“Without that mine, this town is doomed,” a woman’s low voice carried across the night air.
Mary felt the weight of a new a
nger pull at her shoulders.
“He just put an end to Copper Creek!” screamed another voice.
Enough.
Mary stood, feeling taller than the mountains.
“Shut up!” she screamed.
Silence, sudden and complete, blanketed the crowd. The eyes of the whole town bore down on her.
Just yesterday, she would have been ashamed to stand naked and dirty before a single person. And now she stood proud, letting the cold wind whip her hair and buffet her body. Since her first change, she hadn’t needed her glasses anymore. But she had hid behind them anyway, they were another layer between Mary and the world. Now they were broken somewhere in the gravel, and she was glad.
“You shut your mouth, Jimmy Brewer,” she shouted. “And you too Mr. Kirkland.”
Her voice had taken on a deeper quality that frightened her, but excited her all the same.
The men sensed the power behind her words, or the fallacy in their own, and looked at their feet.
“The man that just went into that mine is a hero to this town,” she said. “Just like my daddy. Don’t you ever forget that. Anyone that says different is going to have to answer to me.”
It was a silly thing for a fifteen year old to say — she knew that. But no one questioned her. She could feel the fire in her own eyes as she held the pack in her gaze.
A murmur of excitement rippled through the crowd. They began to point and crane their necks to look past her.
Mary whipped around to face the mine. Something was coming out.
If Erik had failed, and the creature, whatever it was, had gotten loose, they were all doomed. Mary headed toward the entrance, a low growl building in her throat. If the thing was going to kill her, she would die spitting in its miserable eye.
A blackened body half-crawled, half dragged itself toward her.
Erik.
Oh god, it was Erik.
Mary broke into a run. Her mother and Miss Bonnie moved aside for her immediately this time, then fell into step behind her.
She bolted for Erik. He collapsed onto his chest, and rolled onto his back before she made it there. The coppery odor of his blood and the terrifying breath of the fire poured off him. Only a tiny sigh of his spicy amber scent still clung to him.
Mary dropped to her knees. She felt someone wrap a blanket around her shoulders and didn’t bother to look up.
