Trial by Fire

by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

  I couldn’t take any chances, because if there was one thing the blood on my hands had hit home, it was the reality that from here out, we were playing for keeps.

  “She’s not prey,” I said out loud. “Not yet. We’re going to let them bring the fight to us.”

  Beside me, Devon groaned. With no small amount of ceremony, he lifted his right hand, dug his fingernails into his chest, and ripped out the bullet.

  “Well, there goes that manicure,” he muttered.

  “Somebody bring me a med kit,” I said, my voice the only sound in the room. “Mitch, I’ll need you to weigh in on a couple of things. Lake, bring me up to speed on the explosives. And will somebody please get Devon some clothes?”

  My hands soaked in my best friend’s blood, I prepared my pack for war. Now that the course was set, now that we’d passed the point of no return, I felt an odd sense of calm rolling over my body, a whisper in the back of my mind.

  I could practically taste the red haze of Resilience, hovering just out of reach.

  We waited for the attack at the edge of the forest, where we had the benefit of cover and our attackers would not. Lake, Maddy, Phoebe, and Sage took the front line; Devon and the kids were hidden safely away. Our perimeter was lined with explosives, and I was ready and willing to use them.

  If Caroline tried to set up some kind of sniper’s nest and pick us off one by one, she was going to be very unpleasantly surprised.

  I felt detached from what we were about to do, but my heart was pounding, feeding my brain adrenaline, fueling the pack’s appetite for blood. This was a hunt. We were hunters, and the air was heavy with the things a werewolf pack, backed into a corner, could do.

  Would do.

  I could see the expression on Caroline’s face as she took in Devon’s wolf form, pulled the trigger. She’d shut down emotionally, but as I played the moment over and over again in my mind, I caught wisps of fury, vulnerability, fear.

  Pack. Pack. Pack.

  I didn’t want to kill her, didn’t want to kill any of them, but if it came down to our lives or theirs, if Caroline started shooting, I’d put her down like a rabid dog—the same way I was going to go after Valerie and end this once and for all.

  Alpha. Alpha. Alpha.

  My chest tightened and a ball of energy exploded inside me, pushing me forward, willing me to force my way to the front of the pack—in front of Lake, in front of Maddy. Every instinct I had said to face this threat head-on.

  “Bryn.”

  My eyes were so focused on the horizon that I didn’t see Ali until she’d made her way back to the point in the forest where I stood. Briefly, I wondered what she was doing here, but then I saw the gun in her hand and the look on her face—one I recognized all too well.

  I’d invented that look.

  “Ali, you can’t—”

  “I can’t fight because I’m human?” Ali said, cutting me off. “Or because you don’t trust me not to get myself killed?”

  There was no answering that question. I didn’t even try.

  “I may not be strong, I may not be fast, and God knows that I don’t have even the tiniest sliver of psychic ability, but I am a part of this pack. I am a part of you, Bryn, and when I say that you are not going up against this coven without me, I mean it.”

  The message was clear in her stance and the set of her chin: alpha or not, I was her daughter. My fights were her fights, case closed.

  “Can you shoot?” It was probably a stupid question, but I’d never actually seen Ali armed.

  “Better than you can,” Ali replied. “I’ve always been a decent shot.”

  She fell in beside me, and Chase took a step toward the two of us. I looked at him. He looked at me. We waited. And no matter how much I wanted to, I couldn’t tell him that his willingness to trade the pack’s safety for mine didn’t matter to me. I couldn’t tell him that everything would be okay, that we would be okay, and he knew it.

  “Be careful,” he said softly.

  I pictured myself raising my right hand, waiting for him to do the same. I saw myself melting into him, but I didn’t move a muscle.

  “I will be,” I said.

  He nodded.

  “Chase?” His name caught in my throat as he turned back to face me once more. “You be careful, too.”

  He nodded, and then I felt it—a prickling at the back of my neck, a shifting in the air around me as the Weres began to scent our prey. The psychics were close, getting closer.

  This was it.

  Pack. Pack. Pack.

  The pull of the pack at the edges of my mind was unbearable, overwhelming. I hadn’t asked for this battle. The human part of me didn’t want it, but in those last moments before the enemy came into view, I could feel my humanity falling away, like sand through my fingertips, like the memory of a dream I’d never be able to reclaim.

  Alpha. Alpha. Alpha.

  Prey. Prey. Prey.

  We were Pack. The coven had come here to hunt us. One way or another, this was bound to end in blood.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  TO MY LEFT, ALI READIED HER GUN. ON MY RIGHT, Chase Shifted, flooding my mind with heightened perceptions from his wolf form: the sound of footsteps, the smell of gunpowder and lead.

  “Lake.” I was surprised that my voice could sound so human when the rest of me felt so not. “Now.”

  On short notice, we hadn’t been able to round up more than three or four pairs of earplugs, but given the number of teens and tweens in our pack, we had iPods to spare. On my order, the girls turned up their music, drowning out all other sounds. If the coven wanted to get past our first line of defense, they’d have to do it the old-fashioned way—without the help of Bridget’s knack.

  As if on cue, a single note wafted its way through the forest on the wind, announcing the psychics’ presence long before they appeared on the horizon, walking toward us like they hadn’t a care in the world.

  I knew what to expect, but the sound—sweet and simple and so full of longing that I ached to hear more—nailed my feet to the ground and brought my hands to my sides. I’d chosen to go without earplugs, because the one advantage I’d have in this fight was my own knack—and it only came out to play when I felt threatened, in mortal danger, trapped.

  That was where Bridget came in. The sound—oh, God, the sound—rushed me, enveloping my body, my mind, drowning out everything and everyone else, until there was nothing.

  Until I was trapped.

  If it had been just me, it would have taken longer for my Resilience to flare up, but even as I lost all ability to care about the outside world, the rest of the pack gnawed at the gates of my mind, and their panic at my sudden stillness spurred a single spark of my own.

  Trapped—Escape—Trapped.

  For an instant, I saw the music as a physical thing, multi-limbed and snakelike. It held me in place. When I struggled, it tightened, but the overwhelming need for freedom burst out of me, and I saw the world in shades of red. Black dots played around the edges of my vision, but this time, instead of giving in to the haze, I rode it like a wave.

  Fight. Fight. Fight.

  Survive.

  The psychics spread out—eight of them, Caroline and Archer nowhere in sight.

  Fight. Fight. Fight.

  I slipped sideways through the forest, far enough away from the rest of the group that—assuming the coven really was gunning for me—a portion of our attackers would have to follow. The first shot rang out, and the only reason I knew it wasn’t Caroline was because the shooter missed.

  The world was coming at me faster now. My heart raced, the amount of adrenaline coursing through my bloodstream an inhuman thing. I felt Chase throwing off Bridget’s hold, and like dominoes, the others followed.

  Now, I told them, and like horses bucking their riders, the girls gave up cover and rushed our assailants, crossing the space between them in a fraction of the time it took me to draw prey of my own.

  Teeth snapped. Meta
l flew. A high-pitched whine cut me to the core, fueling my need to fight, to protect.

  To survive.

  “Hello, mutt-lover.”

  Archer’s voice assaulted my mind, taking me back to my dreams. I saw the forest, the wolf, the fire—saw it as if it were real and the rest of the world had just faded away. Archer’s hold on my mind wasn’t a sharp, stabbing pain this time; it was burning, liquid flame: invincible, hungry.

  Fire exploded around my body, and knowing it wasn’t real didn’t stop me from feeling the heat.

  Trapped. Escape. Survive.

  Power surged, crackling through my body and rendering Archer’s interference useless. One second I was in my head, burning, and the next I was back in the real world, stalking toward Archer. He took a step backward and threw something at me—some kind of firecracker, maybe, or a mild explosive—and this time, I caught fire for real.

  Fight. Kill. Survive.

  My hair was burning, but I couldn’t smell it. My eyes watered, and like a rubber band, the hold I had on my Resilience snapped.

  At some point, I must have stopped, dropped, and rolled, must have extinguished the flame and disarmed Archer, but the only motion I was aware of was my fist plunging into his face, my body pinning his to the ground.

  Fight.

  I pressed my left forearm to his throat, cutting off his air supply. My skin was already beginning to blister from his assault, and the only thing that kept me from snapping his neck was a single sentence, issued from somewhere behind me.

  “Let the boy go, Bryn.” I heard Jed’s voice, and it pulled me back, away from that lovely red haze in which I could fight, fight, fight without thinking, without hurting, without feeling anything at all.

  Ignoring Jed, I dug my arm farther into Archer’s throat, feeling his trachea give, and the older Resilient responded by wedging a shotgun against the back of my head. “I said to let the boy go.”

  Jed didn’t shoot me.

  Mistake.

  In a single motion I caught the barrel of the gun with my leg and knocked it back into the older man’s chin. He stumbled, and I whipped the gun around, caught it in my right hand, and rammed the butt into Archer’s face, hard enough to knock him unconscious.

  Jed shook his head, smiled through the blood. The sense of panic—and the fight-or-flight mode that went with it—left me the moment I let my eyes meet his. There was no threat there.

  None.

  “That boy isn’t your enemy,” Jed said. “Not really. Easy thing to lose sight of when you flash out.”

  “That boy,” I said tersely, “set me on fire.”

  “You flashed out too early,” Jed grunted, ignoring my complaint entirely. “Fight isn’t over yet. You’re going to have to go again, and sooner or later, the back-and-forth will start to wear on you.”

  I didn’t have time for Resilience 101—not with my pack out there fighting for their lives. The smell of blood was thick in the air. The sound of teeth, of claws, of screams and howls was deafening.

  “Caroline has to be in position by now,” I said. Before Jed could reply, my words proved prophetic, and I felt—rather than saw—Chase take a bullet in the side.

  My Chase.

  White-hot pain. Silver in the blood. Hurts.

  “She doesn’t know what she’s doing,” Jed told me. Another shot sounded, another howl of pain. I felt it as if it were my own, wished it was.

  Don’t be dead, I thought, desperately trying to make the words an order. Don’t be dead. Don’t be dead.

  “Explosives,” I said out loud, my voice hoarse. “Very close to where I’m betting Caroline set up her little sniper’s nest. If you can take her out of commission without hurting her, do it, because otherwise, we will.”

  For the first time, I had the experience of watching another human flash out. The look that came over the old man’s face was completely animal: more than fury, more than need, more than the basest instinct I’d ever seen in a Were.

  Whether he’d get to Caroline before the explosives detonated, I didn’t know. With the smell of blood in the air and the feel of someone else’s pain shooting through my body, I didn’t care.

  I had to get to them—to Chase, to the others. They were my pack. They were mine, and they were hurting.

  Bleeding.

  Dying.

  “You really shouldn’t wrinkle your forehead like that, Bryn. It’s horribly unattractive.”

  I turned at the unsolicited advice, and there Valerie was, five feet away from me, completely unperturbed that I was the one holding a gun.

  “Your little friends are certainly keeping us busy, aren’t they?” Valerie said, casting her glance down at the battlefield below. A nagging sense of fear turned my stomach to stone, and I felt a sliver of ice sliding down the nape of my neck. I knew not to take my eyes off the woman in front of me, but I couldn’t keep dread from forcing my gaze to the right, where what was left of my pack was facing off against the rest of the coven.

  Wolf teeth met silver-plated knives held midair by a woman who blended in to the background like her entire body was painted in camouflage. Maddy, Lucas, and Sage were caught mid-Shift, bones frozen in the process of breaking, muzzles protruding from otherwise human faces. Lake was bleeding from her eyes and nose, Mitch was on his knees, and between them, the girls I’d seen at the breakfast table were moving their lips, saying something I couldn’t hear, causing the others to writhe in pain.

  “I promised not to kill the girls,” Valerie said thoughtfully, “but I think my partner in crime will understand if we lose just one.”

  Maddy lunged, snapping her half-human muzzle at the old woman with the knack for influencing animals. She didn’t see the snakes rushing down from the forest, didn’t see the one close enough to strike.

  I saw it, though—saw it and felt everything Valerie wanted me to feel as fangs struck at Maddy’s body, only to be intercepted at the last minute in a blur of darkness and fur.

  Chase. Bleeding. Hurting. He stumbled, turned, cut the snake down the middle with his jaws even as its head clung to his hind leg.

  I stopped breathing.

  Hurts. Hurts, Bryn.  Maddy? Okay?

  Chase’s thoughts were a mess, as uncensored and jumbled as Lily’s. I wanted to go to him, but I couldn’t move, and all I could see was Chase beside me, Chase standing guard, Chase shielding Maddy’s body with his own.

  Maddy? Okay? Bryn?

  Chase’s voice was weaker in my mind now, and that was enough to tell me just how badly he was hurt. I could feel the burn of silver, the venom in his bloodstream.

  Bryn … Protect …  Mine …

  I let down my walls, let him in. He filled me up, the way he and Devon and Lake had before, but this time, it was just the two of us. Chase and Bryn. Bryn and Chase.

  Bryn. Protect Maddy.

  For you.

  I hadn’t realized how far into my head Valerie had managed to get until Chase was there, too. His presence pushed against hers, and my body finally recognized the invasion for what it was.

  She was attacking me from the inside out. She was violating me. She was hurting the people I loved.

  Red, red, red …

  Everywhere, there was red.

  On some level, I knew that my own body was injured, knew that once I flashed out, there would be nothing to keep me from pushing too hard, too far.

  It didn’t matter. I could feel Chase lying on his side, bleeding, as his voice got softer and softer in my mind.

  Red, red, everywhere, there was red.

  Chase had saved Maddy. For me. He was going to survive this. He had to. We had to. With everything I had, I shoved Valerie out of my head. She blinked like I’d thrown something at her and stumbled backward.

  “No bother,” Valerie said, her hair falling into her face as she recovered. “You’re a curious little thing, but I don’t need to be in your head to win this fight—or any other. I’ve already got so many little soldiers. Can you feel how much they
hate you? How much they want to see your people bleed? It’s a delicate mixture—fear and loathing, the kind of curiosity they’re ashamed of, sorrow and fury—rising, rising, until they can’t stand it anymore.”

  “Hello, Mother.” I didn’t know whether to take Caroline’s appearance at our side as a good sign or a bad one. At least if she was here, she couldn’t be targeting the rest of the pack.

  At least if she was here, everyone else was safe—from her.

  “Hello, Caroline.” Valerie sounded mildly pleased at her daughter’s arrival—no more, no less.

  I looked at Caroline’s cherubic face, took in her doll-like features and the color of her eyes.

  Watched them go from blue to black.

  “Shoot her.” Valerie spoke the words, and I dove to the ground, just as the world exploded around me. I knew a shot had been fired, but couldn’t tell who had been shot. I was already in pain—so much pain—and I could feel all of the others’, feel it everywhere.

  Someone was shot.

  Was it me?

  No.

  I clung to consciousness, clung to Chase as he began to fade away, and the last thing I saw before everything went black was Caroline’s eyes changing back to blue—and Ali standing over Valerie’s lifeless body, holding a smoking gun.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  I WAS LYING ON MY BACK, MY HEAD TURNED TO THE side, my eyes closed. I knew before I opened them that Chase would be there, lying on his back, his head turned toward mine. The night sky stretched out above us, stars burning so bright it hurt to look at them.

  His hand wove its way through mine.

  Neither one of us spoke, but I felt his heartbeat as if it were my own, and for reasons I couldn’t pinpoint, tears began trickling down my face, slowly at first, but then faster.

  This isn’t real. I tried not to think the words, but couldn’t hold them back.

  I wanted it to be real. I wanted him to be okay, and barring that, I wanted the two of us to stay this way, my hand wrapped in his, his face close enough to mine that I could taste him.