by D. N. Hoxa
No.
The word materialized in front of my mind’s eye—courtesy of my wolf. She wasn’t going to allow it. She wouldn’t let us anywhere near Haworth.
But when she made an attempt to take over me, to squeeze my heart and claw at my chest until my body became hers, she couldn’t. Something stopped her, something that felt like fire and was on my right hand.
That’s when I realized that the farther up my body the freezing spell spread, the lighter it became around my ankles. As if it wasn’t spreading but moving toward my chest. Toward my arm. Toward my right hand.
Right into the Reaper String.
The body on top of me was pushed to the side. I was finally free. The freezing was gone. I no longer felt spelled. No magic on my skin, except in the Reaper String.
Whoever had spelled me pulled me by the ankles. They probably thought I was still frozen. Taking in a deep breath, I spun around as fast as my body allowed me, and I threw the Reaper forward.
The string wrapped around somebody’s neck. I saw her eyes and I sniffed in her scent, and my eyes almost popped out of my skull.
It was Terra. It was the girl from Finn’s research team, the one I’d hoped to be friends with one day.
But there was no time to be surprised, especially not when she fell to the side, crouched as she was when her own spell slipped from the Reaper String and onto her. But Terra wasn’t the last one to come after me.
Another explosion went off right in front of the hole in the front of the building. I was still sitting down so I caught it all the second it happened: people flying, slamming against walls. Tiles breaking, floating on air. Blood spilling all over the place. It all seemed to develop in slow motion, right until the strength of the explosion spell hit me and threw me back. I hit the floor with my head hard, and for a moment, I was blind. My senses were shut down, and all I could feel were my insides. My wolf, trying to make her way out to get me away from here. She was trying, I felt her struggle, heard her whine, her desperation, but she couldn’t. And the Reaper String scorched my hand.
I jumped up with a jolt, wanting to throw it off me, but its ring was around my finger, and it fell back onto my hand right away. My hand was not on fire, though the street in front of the building was. No more gunshots. No more spells. Just silence and a set of alarms coming from far away.
The dust still hung in the air, and the world stood still as I watched the entrance, not ten feet away from where I was sitting, surrounded by bodies. Even before I saw him, I knew he was there. It was just a feeling taking root at the core of me, rendering me motionless. I saw his shadow a second before his face came into view.
Hector Haworth looked exactly like he had the first and last time I saw him. Dressed in a navy suit, he looked right at me, like he knew where I would be all along. He didn’t enter the building. He just stood there on the ruined sidewalk and watched me, half a smile on his face, pride screaming from his every feature. He raised a hand at me, and the world came to life once more. People rushed to get to their feet, the sound picked up its speed, and his spell left his hand with just a small movement of his lips. I watched, but that was all I could do. My wolf howled, knowing that it was the end, that there was nothing either of us could do but watch. I saw the spell as if it had color, as if it had shape as it approached me, and even in those moments, I still couldn’t believe that Haworth was really there in broad daylight, coming to get me, either to kill me or imprison me—it made no difference. Just this morning I’d felt lucky that he hadn’t come looking for me yet. I guess I thought too soon. Now, there was nothing to stop him.
Except Finn.
I’d been sure of a lot of things about that werewolf. He was a good man, he was a bad man, he was a greedy man, he was a smart man—but never in a million years did I think that he would be the man to jump in front of a spell for me.
That’s exactly what he did. I recognized his brown suit and his wooden leg when he awkwardly jumped to the side, right in front of me. Haworth’s spell never made it to me, but it hit him square in the chest instead and threw him back. He landed with his back on my face, taking me with him, and once again my head hit the floor. Blood—my own blood this time—spread around the roots of my hair and slipped onto the cold tiles. Footsteps—people running on all fours. People shouted, spells were chanted, but Finn’s back had my head pressed to the side, and I had no hope of freeing myself. Soon, I wouldn’t be able to breathe anymore. The Reaper continued to burn my hand as my wolf clawed at my insides, begging to be let out. To save me.
She couldn’t. Instead, darkness took me with Haworth’s face implanted in my memories.
It was a different world I woke up in, but this time I recognized it instantly. The grass, the flowers, the fish pond, the low hill, and the house across the garden. It was so peaceful up there. No sound of gunshots. No smell of blood. No dead or unconscious bodies around me, just Ban—the white wolf.
As if waking from a nightmare into a beautiful world, I smiled and relaxed, choosing to forget where I’d come from. I was here now, whether that was in the past or even just imagination, and I was going to enjoy it.
The sun shone and the breeze ruffled my wolf’s fur. I felt every second of it.
But I also felt her unease.
Ban whined, resting his head onto his white paws, his yellow eyes stuck on the house. There were no people on the porch eating and laughing this time around. My wolf wasn’t relaxed like she had been last time. Her self-control was amazing. I felt her desire to run across the field and enter the house so she could see what was happening with her own eyes, but she didn’t because she knew she would upset her family. This wasn’t her business. She just wished it would soon be over.
When a woman’s cry reached her ears, both she and her brother forgot all about restraint and followed their instincts. They jumped on all fours and ran for the house, stopping in front of the porch stairs. The scent of blood lingered in the air. Her family was in there, talking amongst one another, and the woman cried out again. She was in pain, that much was obvious, but nobody else seemed alarmed yet.
My wolf spun around to look at her surroundings. Her nose would give away any intruder long before her eyes could, but it was just something to do. Something to put her at ease, just for a little bit. Ban whined again. He didn’t like being out there like this any more than my wolf did, but there they stood.
And they waited.
Then came the last and longest scream.
And the baby’s cry.
I began to laugh in my mind. Now, I knew exactly what was happening. It was the woman—the pregnant woman—and she’d just given birth.
But my wolf didn’t understand this, not quite yet. She paced around the stairs to the porch, restless, trying to understand why her family was now laughing when until now they’d been screaming. I tried to speak to her, to tell her that it was okay, that all had gone well, but she didn’t hear me. Here, I was really just a ghost.
It took a while for the door to open, and two of the blonde werewolf women I’d seen last time came out, wiping their hands with a towel. They were both smiling, and they sat on the porch stairs. My wolf and her brother didn’t hesitate to approach them, sniff them, make sure everything was still okay. And the women patted the wolves, laughing. I expected my wolf to be happy, relaxed now that she saw that nothing was wrong. These two women wouldn’t have been laughing otherwise.
But my wolf sensed something I didn’t. She saw sadness in the women’s eyes. She saw strain in their laughs. She saw their hands shaking and smelled the fear hanging onto their skin. Ban was convinced but not her. No, she wanted to know more. She wanted to see for herself.
“It’s okay, Rowie,” the woman on the right patting my wolf said. “We’re okay.”
Still, my wolf didn’t believe it. Her voice wasn’t right. The look in her eyes wasn’t as calm as she’d have liked.
And then the women began to whisper among themselves.
“Than
k God she’s okay,” the one on the right said. They looked so similar, I had no doubt that they were sisters. Maybe even twins.
“How long do you think that’s going to last?” said the other and earned a punch on the thigh from the sister.
“Stop it, Aurora!”
But Aurora shook her head as she scratched Ban’s chin. “It’s only a matter of time now.”
“We’ll be fine. We’ve been fine so long, haven’t we?” her sister insisted.
“Before, she wasn’t here,” Aurora insisted.
“She’s just a baby!”
My wolf growled. She understood what baby meant. She also understood why Aurora was so concerned, but try as I might, I couldn’t see it.
The woman patted my wolf on the head, as if to tell her to keep calm, then turned to her sister again. “We’re protected. Nobody knows we’re here.”
“It’s his blood!” Aurora whispered. “He’ll know. Of course he’ll know. It’s only a matter of time before he finds us, sister. There’s no escaping him now.”
“He won’t care,” the other said, shaking her head. She just didn’t want to accept it. “She’s just a baby.”
“She’s his baby.”
“Stop it! For the love of everything holy, stop this! Nobody’s going to find us. We’re safe. We’re protected.”
Aurora sighed but decided not to argue anymore. “I will pray every second of every day that you’re right, Caren. May God help us all.”
Suddenly, my wolf turned away and ran into the garden. At the very end of it, she raised her snout to the bright sky and howled. A baby was born. She felt the danger hanging in the air like a physical thing, but she wouldn’t show me. Wouldn’t let me see. And as soon as her heart-wrenching howl was over, she kicked me out of her memory.
11
Nobody knew what to tell me. As far as anybody was concerned, even Finn’s secretary, my name was Gia Hall, and I was Finn’s latest recruitment, in the office to learn the job before I could start working for him. Only half of it was a lie, really, but when the ECU came to ask me questions, all I could tell them was: I don’t know. Now that was a big, juicy lie.
I did know. I’d seen. Haworth and my sister and Terra and his other men and women. I’d seen them almost tear the entire building apart just to get to me. And when Haworth finally thought he had me, Finn had jumped in front of the spell.
He’d saved my life. Now, he was in a ECU hospital in a coma, and nobody wanted to tell me when he’d wake up.
I had no friends there. Nobody came to talk to me or ask me how I was except the ECU medics, right after the interrogators were done with me. They took off twenty-one glass shards from my body. Funny, I hadn’t even noticed them there. The medics gave me this awful tea to drink—only three sips—because they couldn’t go around doing healing spells for everyone. A healing herb tea was faster and took less energy. Nobody thought to search me. The Reaper String was in my pocket, but nobody seemed to notice, though their detecting devices picked up every spell stone, weapon and bullet in the building. I almost told them about it, but I held my tongue and let it slide. What good would it do if they imprisoned me? Haworth had already broken into the ECU once to steal back his enchanted items. He could steal me from them just as easily.
My life had turned upside down once more, and I had no idea what to think about first: my wolf, who couldn’t come through because of the Reaper String; the Reaper String that had practically saved my life when it stopped Terra from freezing me and pulling me outside; my sister, who’d been there with Haworth and his people, knowing they were there for me; or Finn, who’d jumped in front of a spell for me, and was now wasting away in a coma.
Thirteen people were dead. Eight of Haworth’s and five of Finn’s. My sister was not one of them, but Terra was. She’d been frozen when Haworth delivered the final explosion before he came for me himself, and she’d broken her neck when she fell against the wall. One of Finn’s men had shot her in the head right after the ECU had come close and Haworth had decided to make a run for it.
It was dark outside when they let us go. I stopped on the broken sidewalk and looked at the world around me. The ECU had cleared the street for miles on both sides, so no cars and no passersby distracted me. Nothing was there to remind me that I had nowhere to go. If I went back to the apartment, it would be asking to be found by Haworth. If I went to Mandy’s, I’d be putting her and her boyfriend in danger. If I went back to my mother…I was not going back to my mother, not like this.
So, a motel it was. I was already on my way, looking at my phone for the nearest motel, when somebody behind me spoke.
“Gia Hall?”
I froze in place, terrified to look over my shoulder, even though the stranger hadn’t even used my real name. I hadn’t even crossed the ECU’s tape that was stretched across the street yet, and he’d caught me.
Swallowing hard, I gathered my courage and faced him. I couldn’t be sure if I’d seen him before. He was a tall man, a witch by the smell of it, dressed in black with a lot of weapons hiding under his oversized jacket. His dark hair was cut short, barely a shadow over his head.
“Yes?” I said halfheartedly.
“My name’s Vince, and I’ve been appointed to take you to a safe place tonight.”
He took another step forward. I took one back.
“Appointed by who?”
But I should have known.
“Mr. Germain, miss.”
I smiled bitterly. “Finn is in a coma. How could he have appointed you for anything?”
“Before,” the man said. “Two weeks ago, he appointed me to take you to a safe place in case something like this happened.”
For some reason, I laughed. That man was just unbelievable! He was taking care of me even when he wasn’t there.
My wolf tried to complain. She wasn’t sure yet if this Vince guy was trustworthy, but a safe house sounded better than a motel where anybody could find me if they just looked hard enough. So I followed Vince to the other side of the street in silence, hoping that, for once, I had made the right decision.
We didn’t need a car to get to wherever we were going, and Vince insisted he walk ahead while I stayed a couple feet behind. The safe house was fifteen minutes away from Finn’s headquarters. It was an apartment, almost completely empty, save for two beds in two separate rooms. It smelled of spells in there, spells in all kinds of magic—just like it did in the headquarters. Had that stopped Haworth? No. He’d come right through somehow, as if his intention had been to show me just how powerful he was. Protective spells couldn’t stop him. I’d be a fool to think that I was safe from him.
I thought Vince was going to leave once I came out of the small bathroom and chose the room at the end of the hallway to sleep in. Or pretend to sleep in. But he didn’t. He didn’t say much, though. He simply stood like a statue in the middle of what should have been a living room and watched me until I closed the door to the room. A bed with no sheets or pillow, just a brown blanket at the foot. Linoleum and white walls, white blinds in front of the window. I didn’t bother to open them and look out. I lay on the mattress and looked at the ceiling and waited for something to happen—anything. But other than hearing Vince’s footsteps and smelling his scent every time he walked around the apartment, probably to check that everything was okay, nothing got through the walls.
In what felt like a heartbeat, morning came. I only realized because my phone vibrated with a text, and I checked the time. It was Amara.
Where are you???
Oh, shit. I’d forgotten to tell her that I was okay. She’d probably heard about what had happened at Finn’s headquarters. I quickly typed a reply: I’m fine. Safe for now. Headed to Finn’s hospital.
I didn’t realize I’d decided that until I typed it and hit send. It was dangerous, yes, but at this point it was hard to care. And the ECU hadn’t recognized me the night before. There was no reason for them to be suspicious if they saw me at Finn’s now.
<
br /> Vince hadn’t slept at all. He’d lain down a couple of times for half an hour or so, but he was no more rested than I was. He was surprised to see me coming out of the room just a little after seven. Maybe he’d thought I slept through the night.
“I’d like to go see Finn, if that’s okay.” I didn’t mean to ask him—he couldn’t stop me from seeing Finn if he tried, but I didn’t want to test him. I had no idea what kind of orders he’d received. I hadn’t even thought to ask.
But Vince nodded. “I’ll take you.”
A sigh of relief left my lips, and as soon as I used the bathroom, we were immediately on our way. I didn’t know which hospital they’d taken Finn to, but Vince would know. He didn’t bother with cars or cabs, or even a bus this time, either. He made us walk for half an hour until we reached the main ECU offices in the city. The last time I’d been there, Finn had saved me from having to even enter through the front doors. This time, Vince showed the guard some ID, told him our names and the purpose of our visit, and the guard took us all the way around the main building. There was a smaller one to the side with nothing but a white cross painted over a dark wooden table above the door. I’d never been to an ECU hospital before. I’d never had need to go to hospitals, even as a kid. Paranormals rarely fell ill, and when they did, they stuck it out at home and got back on their feet with herbs and spells. But the ECU had hospitals all over the country, mainly for its men and for people who ended up missing their limbs in missions and fights or fell into comas after an attack, like Finn. I didn’t expect to see a lot of people in there, but at least five people dressed in white robes were walking around the hallway behind the door, going from one corridor to the other. There were three corridors, and the white tiles and white walls made them all look identical. To the right was the information desk, and chairs were mounted on the walls to the side, but nobody sat in them. As soon as Vince spoke to the woman behind the information desk, he led me to the corridor on the left. I smelled everything before I saw it. The sterile hospital smell took most of the edge away from everything else, but I recognized the people and their weapons standing at the end of the corridor. There were seven of them—four ECU guards and three of Finn’s employees. They’d been there the day before, fighting against Haworth’s men, and by the looks of it, they’d gotten away without a scratch.
