The Witching Hour: 11 Enchanting Novels Featuring Witches, Wizards, Vampires, Shifters, Ghosts, Fae, and More!, page 158
Shit. I’m just going to have to try to keep Will away from him until Astrid shows up with the knife. I run out to the garage, looking around wildly. Luke will know to look here for Will: he knows how much my mother hates bringing Old World business into the house. There’s nowhere to hide him out here; it’s just a big empty room with random supplies stacked around the edges. And even if I did hide him, Luke could smell him out in an instant.
I’m running out of time.
I dart over to the wall where Mum keeps my old rollerblade gear and grab my wrist guards. Mum always took safety very seriously, so these are made of heavy-duty black plastic that will keep my wrist and fingers from breaking if I have to hit something. It also means I can’t move my wrists much, so I only put on the right guard, adding my mother’s silver rings on top of it. I’m wearing jeans and a short-sleeved henley tee, so I run into the house and grab a black hoodie off the coat tree. The long sleeves cover most of the wrist guard.
I pick up a heavy-duty screwdriver with my left hand, then run back to stand guard over Will, who is completely unconscious now. He has stopped twitching and crying out, but the silence is almost more terrifying.
Luke’s not going to force his way through the main garage door: even he won’t risk cluing the humans in to our existence. That means he’ll have to come through the house or through the back door. I lock the exterior door and drag Will’s sleeping bag to the back corner of the garage, away from both doors. This way at least I can defend him better.
I realize belatedly that Luke will probably park a ways away and walk to the house for maximum surprise. Wolves are sneaky, which means he could be here now.
I shiver with fear, listening as hard as I can. Will he show up as a wolf or a man? Does it matter? Either way he is exponentially stronger and faster than Olympic athletes. I don’t have a chance. I silently implore Astrid to hurry.
I stand there for the longest time, and finally I hear the sound of a car turning into the driveway. Guess he’s decided not to bother with the element of surprise. I steel myself, going over to stand right next to the back door.
I hear nothing as the werewolf walks around the house. Then, very slowly, I see the door knob turning. I hold my breath, screwdriver poised in the air—and I hear a female voice say, “Sashi?”
Adrenaline races through me as I whoosh out the breath I was holding. Unlocking the door, I swing it open to reveal Astrid standing in the backyard, wearing black sweats and holding a short, wicked-looking silver blade. “Where is he?” she whispers.
I shrug. “You tell me. He never showed.”
Her brow furrows. “That doesn’t make any sense. He doesn’t know which wolf betrayed him, but he knows your mom was involved. Logically, he’d come here first.” Then the look of confusion is replaced by sudden horror. “Unless he was waiting to see which—”
Astrid is sucked backward into the darkness.
25
Sashi
I flick on the backyard spotlight and run out after them. Guarding Will might be the better play, but what are Astrid’s chances of surviving Luke without help? And if Luke kills Astrid, he’s coming for us next.
The backyard is long and rectangular, protected by privacy hedges as tall as me, which will hopefully hide the brawling werewolves on my back lawn. I can make out two figures at the far end of the circle of light, wrestling on the ground. I start to cautiously edge toward them.
“You!” Luke spits, pinning Astrid to the ground. He climbs on her chest and hits her with his open hand. “You did this? You should be grateful to me!”
Even in the dim light I can see Astrid’s eyes widen with rage. “You killed me,” she snarls back, struggling under his weight. “You raped me, beat me, and when I tried to fight back you destroyed me. Fuck you and your gratitude.”
He gets his hands around her throat and starts throttling her. I look around frantically. Where the hell is the knife? It’s either under her, or tossed away in the darkness. Either way, I have to act before he breaks her neck.
I dig into my pocket and pull out my mother’s long silver chain, snapping the clasp. As quietly as I can, I slip up behind Luke, who’s completely focused on Astrid. Holding both ends of the chain, I toss the slack over his head, wrap my left hand quickly around the links a second time, and pull tight.
He releases Astrid immediately, and she squirms out from under him. I can feel his steel fingers digging at my hands, trying to pry me off him, but I pull as tight as I can. I want to guillotine this fucker.
After a momentary panic, though, Luke lets go of the chain, his fingers actually sizzling from the silver damage, and reaches back for my arms instead, flipping me forward over his head. He’s so strong. He throws me right into Astrid, and we tumble over in a pile of limbs. Astrid leaps away from me with werewolf speed, and while Luke is still carefully pulling the silver chain off his neck I stagger back to him and punch him in the face with my right hand.
Luke’s head snaps back with a very satisfying thwack, and he looks at me in surprise. “Not ba—” he starts to say, but I hit him again, as hard as I can. I reel back for a third strike, but he’s on his feet now, and he catches my arm over my head with a snarl.
While that is happening Astrid has recovered the silver knife and lunges for his back. Luke must catch her movement out of the corner of his eye, though, because he instantly releases me and turns to stop her, taking the knife in the meat of his arm instead of his back. Luke grunts with pain from the silver poisoning, but he plucks out the knife and tosses it behind him, into the darkness. Almost in the same movement, he picks up Astrid like she’s a cotton doll and throws her at the house. She hits the metal siding with a gruesome crack and doesn’t get back up. Luke turns to me, his eyes flashing with anger.
“Sashi. Little Sashi,” he croons, advancing. The yard is behind me, so I back up, praying that Astrid will get up. Get up, get up, get up. Luke keeps coming, taking his time. He holds a hand up to his face and examines the blood. “That was a hell of a punch just now. You break your wrist?”
I hold up my hand, showing off the rings and the wrist guard. “Huh. Not bad,” he says, his tone impressed. “Stupid and suicidal, though. You know, I actually had no quarrel with you?” He shakes his head like I am a pup who peed on the carpet. I’ve only got about fifteen feet until my back will hit the thick line of hedges. “I was planning to let you live. Figured you might be useful in the future. Now, though…” He grimaces, flashing white teeth in the spotlight. Ten feet. Eight. “Now I’m gonna huff, and puff—”
The light behind Luke’s head blurs for a second. That’s all I see, a blur of light. Then suddenly a two-hundred-and-twenty-pound wolf, as tall as my waist, is standing between me and Luke.
It half-snarls, half-roars, its jaws sending out sprays of saliva, and I actually take another step back, this time from instinctive fear of the wolf. I assume it’s Astrid for a moment, but then I spot her over the beast’s furry shoulder, just starting to struggle to her feet.
This big, dusty brown wolf is Will.
The realization comes slowly—in fact, I’m still working it out when he lunges at Luke, going straight for his neck. Luke doesn’t have the natural weapons the wolf has, but he has years of experience fighting werewolves, and he charges forward, shoving his arm down the creature’s throat. Will chokes and rears back, paws scrambling a little awkwardly on the grass, but then he goes right back for more, this time tearing at Luke’s leg meat. He sinks his fangs into the fat part of Luke’s thigh, going for the femoral artery, and I remember myself. Why am I standing around staring? I turn and run laterally to the corner of the yard, where I last saw the silver knife. I fall to my hands and knees and start feeling around in the grass. I hear a canine yelp of pain behind me, but I can’t bear to turn and look. I won’t be able to help him without a weapon.
Finally, something bites into my left thumb, nicking it. The knife! I grab the handle carefully and scramble to my feet, turning to join the melee.
I can’t watch. I mean that literally—the fight is happening so quickly and fiercely, both sides powered by werewolf magic, that in the dim light my eyes can’t keep up. I see Astrid, though, pushing off the side of the house to lurch toward Will and Luke. She still looks dazed from the hit, but she’s only four feet away from the fight, ready to jump right in there with them. “Astrid!” I shout, and she turns.
I toss the knife underhand, as carefully as I can. If I were throwing to a human she’d be in serious risk of loosing a finger, but Astrid crouches and does a neat little wrist twist, catching the handle effortlessly. She takes one more step forward, raises her arm, and brings it down hard.
No way could she have aimed right, they were moving too fast, oh God, Will. But Astrid tumbles forward, holding the knife firmly in place, and I run over to see that it is buried in Luke’s lower back, near his spine.
He’s still moving, but now Will gets his opening. He uses it to tear the skin on Luke’s neck. The alpha drops to his knees as Will twists his head, worrying the skin off, then goes back for another bite.
It is horrifying. Caroline’s words echo through my mind. Some of us are just lost to the violence.
Still holding the silver knife in place, Astrid looks up and meets my eyes, knowing what I am feeling. “Get out of here, Sashi,” she orders.
Crying again, I flee.
26
Astrid
When Will is finished with him, there is very little left of the alpha werewolf of the Southern Minnesota pack.
I consider pulling him off, but something about the glint of violence in his eyes makes me nervous. He is on a mission, and I would rather be his accomplice than his next target. Finally, Will retreats from the body, looking at me quizzically.
I shake my head. “Thanks, but I already had supper.”
Ignoring this, he trots back to the side of the house, lies down, and begins licking at the blood on his paws. I just stay where I am, kneeling in a bloody patch of grass in the doctor’s backyard, next to Luke’s remains.
It’s over. A smile erupts on my face. I know there will be repercussions—I need to dispose of the body and tell the pack and figure out what to do with Will—but none of that matters, because Luke will never hurt me again. Not ever.
I use Noring’s supplies and a hose to clean up as best I can, hoping we get a good heavy rain soon. Then I grimly collect the remains of my tormenter and drop them in a thick plastic garbage bag. I will take it with me to one of the deep-woods locations where the pack likes to run, and hopefully no one will ever find it.
“You can sleep here, tonight,” I tell Will, hoping he understands. I don’t know how strong his magic is, but if he recognized Sashi in wolf form and went toe-to-toe with Luke to protect her, it’s gotta be decent. “The doc’s not coming back tonight. I’ll find you tomorrow.” And I take off.
I make a quick trip to the state park for body disposal, and then head back to the duplex When I pull up in the driveway, there is a small figure sitting on my steps. The headlights rake across her face, and I recognize Caroline.
Oh. Shit.
As I get out of the car Caroline swipes her face with the sleeve of her sweatshirt and stands up to meet me. “Is he dead?” she says quietly.
I nod. “I’m sorry for you, Caroline.”
Wan smile. “But not sorry you did it, right?”
I hesitate, but then I shrug. “Right.”
Caroline takes a deep, shaky breath and bows her head. I can see the tears dropping down onto the concrete walkway. “What will happen to us?” she says softly. “Who will be alpha? You?”
I am taken aback. “What? No!” I am not leader material. Admittedly, I hadn’t considered what would happen to the rest of the pack if I succeeded. None of them cared about me when I was getting stomped on a regular basis, so why should I care what happens to them without Luke? “One of the guys, I guess.”
She shakes her head. “None of them want it, don’t you see?” She tilts her head up, and her face is wet. “I tried…I tried to get one of them to take over. After he almost killed you. No one wants the responsibility.”
She tried to get the pack to turn on her own brother, for me? I am touched, and also troubled. For better or worse, Luke was Caroline’s protector, and I took him away from her. The pack will have to be absorbed by another, or they’ll have to find a new alpha to take over. But what if the new alpha doesn’t know how to take care of a sigma? Don’t I have a responsibility to protect Caroline now? “Whatever happens, Caroline,” I promise, “I’ll make sure you’re okay.”
She throws her arms around me, and I can feel the slightness of her. “I’m sorry about your brother,” I whisper in her hair, meaning it. I am sorry that Caroline lost the brother she loved, the one who grew up with her and protected her from her ex. But I didn’t kill that man. I killed the monster he became. Caroline nods. She understands.
The next morning, I start packing up the few possessions I have that survived the reign of Luke. The duplex is under his name, and it won’t be too long before someone at his work reports Luke missing. The cops will go to his house—I have already packed a suitcase of his things and left it in the woods with the body—but they might stop here next, so I need to be gone by then.
At eight a.m. there is a knock on the door. Cautiously, I go to answer it and find Will standing on my front step.
He looks good. Really good, actually. He’s wearing a cheap Vikings T-shirt and gym shorts he probably picked up at a gas station, but he has the werewolf glow of health now, which boosts the overall impression of his all-American good looks. At the same time, he looks older, heavier with sadness.
“I have some questions,” he says when he sees me through the screen door.
I hesitate, giving him a wary look. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he says. “I just need answers.”
Nodding, I open the door and let him in.
Luke trashed all my furniture, so we sit down side-by-side on the living room floor, our backs to the wall. I don’t offer him any refreshments, because I don’t have any. The silence stretches between us for a while.
“What happens with my family?” he says eventually.
I had forgotten about this part—the big sit-down where you learn all the rules. “You can’t tell them,” I say. “Humans who learn about the supernatural—we call it the Old World—they have to die…or become one of us. It’s the one universal rule, and the vampires enforce it strictly.”
He is quiet for a long moment, taking this in. If he’s surprised to hear about vampires, he doesn’t show it. “So I just…go back to my life?” he asks dubiously.
I shake my head. “You can’t. You’re going to age slowly now, and you’ll need to disappear every full moon,” I explain. “So you have to break off contact with your loved ones. Permanently.”
He winces, but doesn’t look surprised. I can see this has already occurred to him. “How?”
“Two choices. The pack can help you fake your own death now, or you can spend the next five years slowly alienating them,” I say matter-of-factly. In my opinion sugarcoating this stuff is worse than just hearing it straight. “Then you disappear.”
He nods slowly, taking that in. “I think,” he says, “I’ll go with the first option. They’ve been half-expecting me to die for years; they’re ready for it. I think it would hurt them less than…the other thing.”
I nod. “Sashi?” I ask.
“I tried calling her this morning, but she’s not answering.” He winces. “I get the feeling that watching me eat someone might have been a deal breaker.”
“It’s not that,” I tell him. “Well, not just that. The three species of the Old World, we don’t intermarry much. We tend to find each other…off-putting.”
“It’s true then?” he asks softly. “She really is a witch?”
I nod. “She couldn’t tell you. Not allowed.”
“Sashi explained it to me, while I was…out of it,” he says in a dull voice. “I understand why you did it. Hell, I even sort of understand why her mom did it. I didn’t know that Sashi was trying to get pregnant.” He shakes his head, and I see that a couple of tears have drifted down his face.
“You love her,” I say, because he needs to hear it out loud. He needs to say goodbye to his future with Sashi, and if she can’t listen then I will.
“More than anything,” he says simply. “I never… Before I met Sashi I never got close to anyone, not really. But from the moment we met, it was like,” he hesitates, then gives a little shrug, like there’s no point in censoring himself. “It was like coming alive again.”
“I’m…I’m so sorry, Will,” I blurt out, surprising us both. He turns his head sideways to look at me. “I needed help, and I convinced myself that I was doing something good by changing you.” I sigh. “I’m really sorry.”
He nods. “Thank you. But I hope her life will be better this way. Without a baby, or a dying boyfriend. She’s too young to have to go through that stuff. So I think I can forgive you.”
I send him a grateful smile, but he’s not really looking at me. We are quiet for a long time, and finally Will starts looking around the room, at the small boxes holding my possessions. “Where will you go?” he asks.
“I don’t know,” I admit. “I was thinking about LA. I’ve always wanted to be a musician, and I’ve heard there’s not much of an Old World scene out there. There might not even be a werewolf pack yet, or maybe it will be small enough to be open to new members.”
Will considers this for a moment. “I’ll come with you,” he says.
Epilogue
Five months later
