by D. N. Hoxa
“You were wrong,” Amara whispered, making me jump. She grabbed me by the arm and turned left, heading for one of the empty tables at the other side of the cafe. “He’s not here.”
Yes, I’d been wrong. Haworth wasn’t keeping a personal eye on Izzy, but he had his people do it. If my nose was right—and my nose was always right—twelve of the people in this cafe smelled like him and his magic. What the hell were twelve of his people doing here?
When we sat down, I positioned myself in a way that allowed me to see my sister’s profile. She was really there, and she looked okay. Her hair was tied behind her head, and she had no injuries that I could see. No blood, no black eye. She was fine. My whole body shook as I analyzed her and the people with her. She sat with five, and another six were in the next booth. Two vampires, five werewolves, and five witches—including my sister. It was much more than we could handle.
“Don’t be so obvious,” Amara said, pretending to look at the candleholder in the middle of the round table. “How many?”
“Twelve.”
“So it’s going down,” she said excitingly. “They’re here for the ninth item.”
“Or they’re just here to enjoy a drink.” Not Izzy, though. She was there because she had no other choice. Soon, I promised.
“No, she told me that this is where it was going to happen.”
“This?” I asked, waving a finger at the ceiling. “You think they’re going to steal something from this cafe?”
Just as the last words left my lips, all of Haworth’s people, including my sister, stood up. The waiter had just made it to us while we watched them keep their heads down and walk right out the door in a row. Amara stood up.
“Can I get—”
“We changed our minds,” Amara said to the waiter, a witch who’d just come to his powers, and she left without bothering to check if I followed.
I did.
As soon as we walked out the door, I felt exposed all over again. Yes, none of Haworth’s people had recognized us—Izzy hadn’t even looked my way—but spells didn’t last forever. Maybe Amara’s had already run out of juice.
“Shit, shit, shit!” she chanted and grabbed my arm to pull me to the side behind a thick tree trunk on the sidewalk. “The gallery. They’re going into the gallery.”
The gallery across the street was only two stories high but very wide. “Let’s go!” I said, afraid I’d miss my sister’s smell and lose her. My wolf howled just as I stepped onto the street, and it made something move in my chest. She was warning me—she was telling me that she’d come out if needed. Good, I thought. For once in her life, maybe she could really do the right thing and come to my aid when I needed it—not after I was almost dead.
I crossed the street running together with Amara. As soon as we stepped into the open gates of the gallery, an earth-shattering alarm began to ring, and the front lights to the sides of the double doors of the building turned red.
“Go, go, go!” Amara shouted, pushing me forward, as if the alarm didn’t concern her. I didn’t let it concern me, either. Instead, I just focused on my sister.
The hallways behind the double doors was beautiful. White marble on the floors, a classic chandelier with a million crystals overhead, and the most beautiful paintings I’d ever seen on the walls.
“Victoria!” Amara shouted, snapping me out of it. I was wasting time.
Sniffing the air hard, I caught the scent of my sister and Haworth’s men, and I immediately pointed left. They’d gone through the left archway, and Amara didn’t hesitate. I don’t know what she expected to do once she found them, but I trusted her judgment—and there was no other way I could reach my sister.
The archway sent us to another hallway, this one smaller but equally filled with beautiful paintings and jewelry in glass boxes. Two people were lying on the ground, their chests bleeding. Both were human. My wolf’s growl almost slipped through my lips, but I ignored it. There was no time to wonder who’d done the killing.
Izzy’s scent led us straight to the door in the other side of the hall, into a narrow corridor with another set of cherry wood doors. Even before we opened them, we heard the noise. All twelve of Haworth’s people were in there. Izzy, too. I wanted to wait and see what happened, rely only on my nose, but Amara wouldn’t have it. Crouching low, she turned the handle of the right door and pushed it open just slightly.
The room could have been mistaken for a chapel. There were benches on both sides, polished to perfection, but in the middle of the room, instead of Jesus on a cross, there was another one of those big banners with the Gallery’s logo on it. There were ten large glass boxes on display with three sets of lights focusing on each, but they were all empty. It looked like a showroom, or even an auction room. A very fancy auction room with oriental rugs and massive paintings on the walls and on the ceiling.
Amara held me by the arm as we made our way behind the last bench to the right of the room, unable to see much because we were focusing on not getting seen. Once we felt safe, we sat down on the floor, and I’ll admit, when one of Haworth’s men shouted, I almost peed myself. Amara’s guns were already in her hands, and she held the barrel of one in front of her lips to tell me to keep quiet. I took out one of my guns, too. And the Reaper String.
It burned me, just like it had before, but it wasn’t real. It was my wolf. She was pushing the memory to the front of my mind, desperate to tell me what I stood to endure if I went through with this. Too late, I thought. Izzy was close enough to grab now.
“Hey, stop that!” one of the men said. They were all in the center of the room, and by the looks of it, they were breaking something, possibly the wooden floor.
“C’mon, guys. We’re running out of time,” another said.
“Just let me have some fun while we’re here!” someone complained, and the next second, the sound of glass shattering echoed in the wide ceiling.
“Benjamin, for God’s sake, what the hell!”
“What? Nobody will miss them,” a voice that I assumed belonged to Benjamin said, and another glass box shattered at his hands. The sound of a hammer, maybe even two, hitting the floor every few seconds made my skin raise in goose bumps. Amara had gone to the end of the benches and was looking at them, but I didn’t dare. Besides, I had my nose, and my nose would tell me everything I needed to know. Izzy was with the crowd, right in the middle of it, and it wasn’t time to reach out to her yet.
“Anything yet?” a woman asked.
“Yep! I see it!” said a guy—very excitedly.
“Hurry up, people. Hurry up!” I recognized Benjamin’s voice, right before another glass box shattered.
Then, the guy who’d seen it began to laugh. The sound of the hammers stopped. I closed my eyes, and in my mind, I could already see the scene developing. The enchanted item these people were here for had been hidden under the wooden floor of the gallery. They’d found it, and Haworth wasn’t here. Which meant, these people were going to send that thing to Haworth. They could be tracked. They’d lead us right to him.
Right after I’d gotten Izzy away from them.
Putting my gun away, I dragged myself on all fours behind the bench until I reached Amara. She was patiently waiting, but it was useless. Haworth was not going to come. He was not going to make it to the gallery.
I put my hand on her shoulder, and she jumped, almost giving away our presence. I hoped to God that her spells still had juice because Haworth’s people were already heading for the door, and the werewolves among them could smell us. I waved for Amara to move to the next bench so we could hide and see them better, and she agreed. We stayed as low as possible, and the thought of getting caught made me feel light as air. I could see the tops of their heads as they rushed toward the door, laughing and hi-fiving each other. They’d gotten what they came here for, and now, they were leaving.
I recognized Izzy’s blonde hair. By some miracle, she was the last in the line. Amara tried to get up, her guns ready in her h
ands, but I stopped her and shook my head. Coming really close to my ear—though I don’t know why she bothered when those people were screaming at the tops of their voice like little children— she whispered, “They’re getting away with the enchanted item!”
“We get Izzy and we let them go.”
“Victoria, you can’t be serious!” she said, suddenly terrified.
“They have the item. They’re going to take it to Haworth. We can follow them straight to him, but if we stop them now, we won’t know where he is!”
Realization registered in her wide eyes, and she began to smile.
“Okay?” I asked.
“Okay,” she said. “Let’s get Izzy.”
She jumped to her feet and ran to the door like she didn’t care about getting caught. Heart in my throat, trying to ignore my wolf’s whining, I followed her. The fear was still there, but just the thought of Izzy getting away made me forget about everything else. We followed the others through the hallway and then the narrow corridor. Amara didn’t bother to tell me what she planned to do—she just did it. One second she pushed me against the wall and told me to stand still, and the next she jumped through the open door all by herself with her arms in front of her, her spell at the tip of her tongue.
My heart beat like a drum in my ears. My body unfroze and I went after her, but when I saw what was at the end of the corridor, I stopped again,
It was my sister, standing in front of the door on the other side, looking around at the walls like she had no idea what the hell was happening. Amara had spelled her. Freaking genius! Or so I thought, right until my sister turned around, and she looked right at me.
My knees felt weak, but my smile couldn’t have been bigger. Pushing Amara to the side, I ran for Izzy, so eager to grab her in my arms I almost passed out.
Then…
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”
I stopped running a few feet away from her. Izzy wasn’t smiling. She didn’t look happy to see me. Not at all.
“Izzy, thank God you’re okay! I’m so sorry. So, so sorry they got to you, but—”
“Victoria, stop it!” she hissed then turned to look at the door through which Haworth’s men had already disappeared. “You’re out of your fucking mind! You’re going to get yourself killed!”
“I came to get you, okay? And this time, I’m coming with you wherever you go. Nobody is going to take you away again,” I said in a breath. I could hardly believe she was in front of me again. I’d found her. I’d really found her.
“Victoria, nobody took me the first time,” Izzy whispered, a sad smile on her face while she shook her head.
“What?”
“I said, nobody took me the first time! I left myself. Didn’t you get the memo? I took everything with me,” she cried.
My body stepped back on its own accord. “What do you mean?”
With a sigh, Izzy rubbed her eyes for a second. “Listen, stop coming after me, okay? I’m right where I want to be. Do you understand?”
I shook my head. “No. You’re lying.” She was lying through her teeth.
“I’m not lying! Get over yourself, Vick! I ran away from that place you put me because right here is where I belong. With my people.”
It was my turn to laugh. “Your people? Izzy, they are murderers. Lunatics. Haworth is a monster. They’re all bad people!”
“The ECU is full of bad people. The world is full of bad people,” my sister said. “Just stay away from me, okay? Leave me alone.”
“No!” Was she crazy? Of course I wasn’t going to let her get away. And when she tried to open the door, I jumped forward and grabbed her by the arm. “This isn’t you talking. I don’t know what he’s done to you, but I’m going to fix it.”
“He’s done nothing, you stupid bitch!” My own sister. I couldn’t believe my ears. “Stop messing wth my life! Leave me the fuck alone, or I swear to God I’ll be the one to hand you over to him, you hear me? I don’t want to leave. I want to be here!”
“Izzy, I—” She didn’t let me finish. Instead, she punched me in the nose real hard and ran through the door.
Blood exploded and slipped into my mouth, making me want to puke. My wolf growled, trying to get me to stand back.
“Are you okay?” Amara asked, standing behind me, unsure of what to do. She’d heard it all. She’d heard my sister telling me that she wanted nothing to do with me.
But I refused to accept it. Wiping as much blood and tears as I could from my face, I opened the door of the corridor and ran through the hallways until I finally made it outside. Isabelle Hogan was a fool if she thought that I believed any word she said. Haworth had done something to her, I was sure of it. I couldn’t give up on her now, so I ran out of the gallery, ignored the alarm and the siren of the police cars approaching fast. The guards were all dead so nobody stopped us, but the smell of blood coming from my own nose made it very difficult for me to pick up Izzy’s scent.
“Over there!” Amara said, pointing left where Izzy and another two of Haworth’s men were turning the corner.
I ran faster than I ever had in my life. Whether she liked it or not, I was going to get Izzy back.
But then I stepped onto the main street, and the smell of my own blood was forgotten.
He’d passed by there. His scent was faint, barely there, but I’d know it anywhere. It was Hector Haworth.
The world tuned out as I watched my sister and her friends running for the four cars at the end of the street. Four cars. In one of them was Haworth. I felt it in my bones. His car had passed this way, and he’d had his window open. Yes, I could see it all in my mind. I understood why his scent was as light as a perfume. He was there, and now was my chance to kill him.
“Victoria!” Amara shouted, but when I tried to move, I found I couldn’t. Something was stopping me, something coming from inside my chest.
Hector Haworth was still on my mind, now not because I wanted him dead, but because I wanted to be as far away from him as possible.
She caught me unprepared, my wolf. She clawed at my chest in my most vulnerable moment, and I had no choice but to watch her take control of my body. There was only one thought in my mind, planted there by her: she could not get close to Haworth. She could not let me get close to Haworth.
So she made me shift. My bones shrank and grew, my organs reformed, my skin stretched and covered in fur. I could see Amara’s face in front of me, calling my name, but I couldn’t hear her voice. I couldn’t hear my own thoughts anymore. I’d blown it. I’d come this far only to be caught off guard by the one thing I’d always been careful of my whole life. My wolf took hold of me, and I fought until a howl left her lips. I heard it clearly, inside my mind and out in the world.
Then she kicked me into the darkest corner of her consciousness and didn’t let me out again.
7
I’d stopped fighting long ago. Even if my wolf had intended to let me see where we were and where she was going, I had no desire to look because I already knew enough: she was taking us as far away from Hector Haworth as she could. I was aware of myself, of the way she had me locked into some dark basement of her mind, only after she began to think about retreating, and letting me have my body back. I almost didn’t want it. Almost.
When she takes over, she always takes me to a forest because that’s where she feels the most comfortable. That’s why I had no reason to expect anything different this time, but there was no stopping the surprises with her. The pain began as always, and I hated every second of it. My bones shifted and my muscles shrunk, the fur disappeared and my skin was mine once again. When it was over, a thousand years later, I opened my eyes and saw that I was lying on concrete, and the clear dark sky took over my entire vision. My ears and nose needed a few seconds to adjust, and I realized that I was in the city. I sat up, sad to realize that my anger had faded somewhere along the way. Now I just felt numb. My wolf had brought me to the rooftop of my apartment building, which was a
first. Too much concrete here for her taste, but I wasn’t complaining. I’d rather have to walk down a few stairs to get home than find my way back from the woods.
The night was so peaceful, the city noise almost too far to reach me. For a few minutes, I just sat there in torn clothes and looked at the dark, moonless sky. My wolf wasn’t there, watching through my eyes. For a while, I was all alone.
Coming to terms with what had happened wasn’t easy, and every time I closed my eyes Red’s face pictured itself in my mind. He’d been the first to tell me that I wasn’t ready—not for anything as long as I couldn’t control my own body. Like a fool, I’d refused to listen.
But now, I did. Now, I knew, and after tonight, I was never going to make the same mistake again.
I hoped to find Amara already there when I got to my apartment, but she was nowhere to be seen. I took out my phone, which by some miracle was still intact, but decided to take a shower before calling her. It was already two in the morning. Maybe she’d gone home and was already asleep.
When I got into bed, I texted her to let her know that I was okay, and sleep took me even before I lay down properly, the need to get away too great.
In the morning, that need hadn’t gone away, but I had somewhere to be. I couldn’t leave Finn hanging, not now that I knew he’d been right. My sister had left her safe house of her own free will. Nobody had kidnapped her. She’d chosen to join Haworth again.
Or maybe he’d made her choose this somehow? Last night, I’d been so sure of it, but not anymore. Not when I remembered the look in her eyes, the determination in her voice. I guessed I would never know. Getting dressed in my brand new clothes, I tied my wild curls as well as I could behind my head, and made my way down the stairs and to the driver waiting for me right across the street. My nose had already healed from my sister’s fist. Amara had texted me, telling me to call her whenever I could.
I couldn’t now. Not until I figured out how to tell her…anything.
