I’d thought my death would be fast. I’d been sorely mistaken. I washed another dish and shivered in the cold air. Andon hadn’t taken us south to avoid my friends; he’d taken us north. Very far north. We’d traveled for days, and I didn’t have clothes warm enough to handle the constant assault of cold air smacking at me.
The Wolves didn’t care. They had fur and, during the brief times they shifted to their human forms, they had clothes to wear. So far, no one had wanted to share anything warmer with me.
I sniffled. Sick prey wouldn’t run as fast. They knew this but tormenting me with illness amused them too much to stop.
Luna came and sat down next to me. She stared at me while I worked, not uttering a word. Did she expect me to say something?
I looked up, meeting her eyes. “Do you need something?”
“No.”
I stared back down at the bowl I scrubbed. “All right.”
“Why wasn’t he enough for you?”
I took a deep breath. “Because he wasn’t. Jason decided I was his mate. Maybe if we could have been together, if your father hadn’t separated us the way he did, those kinds of feelings would have developed for me, too. The time we were apart opened me up to other options. I know you don’t get it. You’re a Wolf; I’m a human. Sometimes the chemistry doesn’t match up even when we want it to.”
“He died for you and I can smell another man all over you.” She took a deep breath. “You lost your virginity to someone else. You have given no respect to my dead brother.” She growled. “None.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way. We weren’t on good terms when he died. Obviously, I’m enormously grateful to him. I wish he could have moved on. Fallen in love with one of your packmates. I wish we’d never dated in the Before Time.”
“Then you’d be dead.” Autumn came and sat next to Luna. “Besides, those were fun times.”
“Until he went all psycho on me and punched my dad.”
They both laughed like I’d reminded them of the best joke they’d ever heard. I rolled my eyes. It hadn’t been at all funny, not to me, anyway.
“Our mother grounded him for a week.” Luna shook her head. “Jason only paid attention to Dad.”
I’d been acutely aware of how much he valued their father. Even after his dad had driven us apart, Jason hadn’t been able to let him go.
“Let me ask you something.” I spoke to both of them. “When you find your mates, will you let anything keep you away from them?”
Autumn spoke first. “No.”
Luna, always the brighter of the two, considered my question. “I know what you’re referring to. It’s complicated for a Wolf. Jason held obedience to our father. Dad told him you didn’t want to be there, and he believed him.”
Right. I’d heard this argument a million times from Jace himself. I stood up and they growled. Much as I wanted to pick up a stick from the small, burning fire to my right, and jab at them with it, I forced myself to sit back down. I’d agreed to this. Icahn had died because of them. My friends and family could now be safe.
I had to eat my discomfort and wait out my days.
Chad had told his father off because he hadn’t liked his father plotting with me. That was something a human would do and not something Jason could manage. Ever. Not even for his so-called mate. I’d needed someone who could put me first, above all other things or people. Ultimately, that fact, coupled with Jason succumbing to his curse again, ended our relationship.
Then, of course, Jason had died.
I closed my eyes.
“It’s going to be tonight.” Autumn spoke softly. “I shouldn’t tell you. We weren’t ordered not to. Still, I imagine Dad would prefer you not to know.”
“Right.” My head throbbed. I guess I didn’t need to bother asking them for something to wear. I shivered and I knew it had nothing to do with the cold. It had been weeks since I’d seen a friendly face.
Andon really did know how to torture me. I’d expected a quick death. Instead, I got a long separation from the people I wanted to be with more than anything.
“Well.” Luna stood up. My sudden fall in mood would be a drag on her senses. She wouldn’t like it. “We’ll get going.”
“Hey.” I looked up. “Are we in Canada?”
I don’t know why I suddenly cared. Locations didn’t matter very much anymore. Borders were for the time Before. I still wanted to know.
Autumn laughed. “We have no idea. How would we?”
I nodded and went back to scrubbing my bowl. It had to be super clean at this point. At least it gave me something to do.
“You didn’t appreciate him.” Luna added one more time. “And he was the best person on the planet.”
“Everyone should have someone who thinks they’re the best person on the planet.” I smiled. “He was lucky he had all of you.” And because I never knew when to leave good enough alone, I added. “Maybe you could ask yourself how Jason would have liked you doing this to me.”
“Dad says we have to honor him by destroying his destroyer.”
“Too bad Dr. Icahn is already dead, then.” I smiled.
They rolled their eyes in unison, a trick only twins seemed to be able to manage to do.
When they’d left the vicinity, I stood up to stretch my muscles. I wouldn’t live through the night. That didn’t mean, however, I had to roll over and die. If they wanted a run, tonight I would give them one.
I smiled. The person who always enjoyed this side to my personality the most had been Jason. He would have grinned at my sudden belief in myself. Maybe it was the fact his family had surrounded me for weeks, but lately I’d been able to smile when I thought of him.
That had to be better than the ways I’d dwelled on him in the past. I’d meant what I said to Luna. People should remember us fondly.
I held my hands over my head. Attitude had to count for something in this strange life I led.
***
Andon stood in front of the Wolves, all dressed in their human skins. They stared at him like the God he thought himself to be. I barely paid attention to what he said. The night air, so much more frigid than the cold daytime version, beat at my skin.
Running was going to prove challenging. The air would burn my lungs. I’d have to remember to breathe through my nose as much as I could. A scarf would have gone a long way to help.
I intended to run south for as long as I could. I’d hide if I could find a way to stay downwind, where they wouldn’t scent me. I’d promised them a machete-free go at me. That didn’t mean I wouldn’t defend myself if I could figure out another way to do so.
“This woman is responsible for the death of the Wolf who should have been your Alpha upon my death.”
I looked at Andon. It struck me as strange, the way they were more concerned about their pack hierarchy than their familial relationships. How about, “This girl is responsible for your brother’s death?” I shook my head. I’d never gotten them and I doubted I ever would—not that I had much time left to contemplate such things.
Running for my life wouldn’t give me a lot of time for reflection.
“Jason is gone from us. This woman should have been his mate and yet she betrayed him, over and over.”
I could have argued. Really, what did it matter?
“And so, tonight, I give you the chance for revenge. We’re going to play Catch the Warrior.” His eyes gleamed in the night. He loved this.
Andon Kenwood defined the word masochist. If I’d felt like causing more trouble for myself, I would have asked him how his wife, the Vampire, was doing these days. Andon had a real loose definition of what a good mate did and did not do.
“She’s going to run and then you will chase her. Whichever one of you brings her carcass back to me will be rewarded.” He smiled at me, licking his lips.
I gulped. So now they were going to fight over my dead body?
“What happens if you don’t catch me?” I had to ask.
“Not possible.” Andon shook his head.
“Okay.” I nodded like I agreed. “But let’s say they don’t. There needs to be a time limit on this, correct? I mean, it can’t go on forever. How long does this game last? How long do they have to catch me before they’re pathetic?”
Murmurs in the crowd told me they hadn’t liked my phrasing. Perhaps I could have been more political. Only I had no interest in being nice to the creatures trying to eat me and then fight over my remains.
“There will be no end date.” Andon scoffed like I’d said the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard. He even went so far as to laugh, which of course made all the Wolves laugh too.
I put my hands on my hips. If only they could see themselves from my perspective and how utterly ridiculous everything they did seemed.
Deadly comedians.
“Gotcha.” Even if I managed to escape, they would never stop hunting me. If I ran all the way from Canada, or wherever I’d landed, to New Jersey, where Genesis lay, I’d always be at risk.
I really shouldn’t be surprised. I’d agreed to a deal with my personal devil. Putting me into and through hell fell high on his agenda.
“So, it’s time then.” I looked down to make sure my shoes were tied. They were. I supposed now would be as good a time as any to start running.
“Hold on.” Luna spoke up, her voice calling out into the night.
Her father raised his eyebrows and stared at his daughter. “You have something to add?”
“Yes, my Alpha.” Her voice squeaked when she spoke. “I think we should discuss whether we should be doing this.”
“What?” Andon’s answer cut into the night and all of the Wolves cowered, some of them going so far as to bend at the waist from the effect.
“I don’t mean to contradict you, my Alpha. I know you have our best interests at heart, always. I miss my brother every second of every day. I just question whether or not Jace would want this.”
“She was an unworthy mate to your brother. He had no sense when it came to her and his feelings cannot be consulted because he is dead.” He roared, his hands shifting into their Wolf forms while the rest of his body remained human. “Do you have anything else you’d like to question me about, pup?”
His meaning seemed very clear to me: Question anything else and I’ll claw your eyes out, Luna.
“No, sir.” She looked down.
I stared at her even though she wouldn’t meet my gaze. Luna had made an attempt to stop this lunacy. She’d listened when I’d spoken earlier. I appreciated the effort.
Maybe the severity of the circumstances made me too sentimental, but it moved my heart in a small way to know someone else thought Jason would really not want me eaten.
The dream I’d had of him weeks earlier came back to me. He’d looked handsome in his prom tuxedo. We’d been young. Years later, he’d stared at me in the snow, still looking as young and handsome.
We were never meant for one another. That didn’t mean I couldn’t acknowledge he’d been special and he had, for a time, made me feel perfect. How many teenage girls ever have that feeling?
“You seem awful happy for a girl about to die.” Andon stared right at me.
“I was just remembering your son in his prom tuxedo. You remember, don’t you, Dr. Kenwood?” I deliberately referred to him like I had in high school. “You took pictures of us in my parents’ backyard. I wore black. He showered me with roses for a week after.”
Andon stared at me, silence filling the air of the night. If I’d made him the slightest bit uncomfortable, then I could feel good about my little statement. Let him think about us that way for a minute. Let him realize who he was about to send his Wolves after.
I’d been something in Andon’s life before he blamed me for all of Jason’s problems.
“Rachel Clancy, I’d suggest you run.” He snarled the last word and, like the smart girl I’d always thought myself, I ran like hell.
***
Eventually, anyone, even someone in top physical form, which I was not at that point, gets tired. No one would ever call me a marathon runner and an hour and a half turned out to be my outside limit.
I had to stop. Seeing a nearby tree—and they all looked pretty much the same in the dark—I leaned against it, gripping my stomach. I didn’t want to puke. They had enough of my scent for them to track without giving them such a large target.
My feet hurt. I’d cut my face on several branches and fallen a bunch of times. I bled from my arms and legs. At some point, I’d torn my pants. In the woods, open wounds meant infection.
A crack of thunder in the sky caught my attention and, seconds later, it rained. I closed my eyes, letting the cold water come down on me. This might be the last time I ever got to feel something like liquid running down my face.
The lightning lit up the sky and, in the distance, I could make out a house. Several of them, actually. We occasionally came across dilapidated street blocks. Homes nearly destroyed from the years of sitting empty, abandoned to the elements.
My senses weren’t letting me know there were any Wolves near me yet. I made my stiffening legs move. I wanted out of the rain. Being soaked and running didn’t go well together. Besides, it would feel nice to be inside a house again. One more time, to remember what it had felt like to be that kind of human.
It took me longer than it should have, but I reached the block of houses before the rain came down in large drops that were painful when they hit me. One of the doors hung open, and I took that as a sign to go right inside.
The floors creaked while I walked on them. Jason and I had waited out part of a snowstorm in an abandoned home once. It had been lovely until I’d found a Vampire hole beneath the place and we’d had to run. If the Vamps found me on this occasion and actually managed to turn me instead of killing me, no one would know. I’d be left undead with no one to end my existence.
The idea brought my nausea back on. I stumbled across the room and sat down in the corner. Some of the windows weren’t broken and wedging myself as small as I could next to an old kitchen counter at least let me feel hidden.
My hands shook. This was the most alone I’d ever been. Even when I’d disappeared from Genesis, I’d had Icahn’s people around. Yet, here I sat—a girl with family and friends, left to die in the elements in an unfamiliar land. If I could survive the Wolves, I’d never find my way back home.
That kind of thinking never helps. Keith’s cheerful Irish accent rolled around inside of my head. Apparently, I was back to hearing him again. I smiled. Better insanity than total loneliness.
Keith is dead.
The thought overtook me again. I swallowed, wishing I had some kind of water, anything to wash away my dry throat. How could I suppress pain if I couldn’t even manage to send it down through my esophagus into my stomach?
How long could I wait in this house? In the dark? Alone?
What had it looked like before? I hadn’t been able to make out much from the outside except it appeared to be wood. If it had been painted, I wouldn’t know until the morning.
I stood up and walked to the window. Cowering behind my kitchen counters had never been my style. What were they doing in Genesis right then?
I tried to picture it. At night, we fought the monsters. Were they back living in Genesis or had they moved to Redemption full-time? Genesis. Patrick would want to go home, collect his wounded people, and return to where we could make things safe.
We. Like I was there. I shook my head.
Return to where they could make things safe.
My parents, still devastated by my death—they had to think it had already happened—would be stoically continuing to perform their duties. Or at least I hoped they would. If my father had started drinking again, I’d be pissed.
“I don’t get to be angry. I’m dead, remember?”
The sound of my voice echoed through the empty house. It startled me and I jumped.
“Screw this. I need a weapon.”
Didn’t I? My chest tightened, and I had to catch my breath.
Don’t panic, Rachel.
Keith again. Only. Keith. Was. Dead.
I caught my breath. Yes, I wouldn’t panic and I’d find a weapon. I’d promised to stay machete-less and I doubted I’d find one of them in this place anyway. Anything would have to do. A phone cord. A piece of steel from a can opener. Damn it, a water bowl.
Anything.
I marched forward, looking around the room. The place had been stripped pretty bare. Probably four or five decades earlier, when I’d been sleeping and whatever humans who had still been living had been fighting against being drawn into the Vampire tunnels to be used as food and labor.
I’d been having dreams, blissfully unaware a crazed, maniacal asshole had been playing with my mind.
I took the stairs two at a time, hoping they remained in decent-enough shape that I wasn’t going to end up falling through them. Or with the whole house collapsing around me.
Worst-case scenario-playing happened to be a specialty of mine.
How many ways could I die? Hell, I’d already surprised myself. I hadn’t expected to live to see Icahn demolished, and I had. I’d been standing right next to him on the balcony when he’d been shoved over it.
Maybe I would live through this.
I wandered into a bedroom. It was empty save for a curtain rod, which dangled empty from one of the windows.
“Now that has interesting possibilities.”
I took the metal rod in my hands. It was lighter than I would have liked but at least not plastic. It could work really well for a Vampire. Only I’d not seen any since I’d been out running. Maybe the Vampire population had been smaller in Canada.
I smiled. I really had no idea if I was in Canada or not. Now that I’d clung to the idea, I didn’t want to let it go. I’d finally visited Canada.
Goose bumps broke out on my skin. I took a deep breath. The Wolves were coming.