Pippa waved me to go. "I'll take care of Emily. We'll be fine. Be safe."
I opened my mouth to ask if she was sure, but there wasn't enough time.
Roane grabbed me around my waist and flew out of the alley. We were in the park within moments. When he stopp
ed, I was plastered against him and a wolf was in the air. He had leapt in the air with his mouth opened, fangs extended, but Roane reached up, grabbed his hair and flung him across the park. The wolf bounced against a tree. As it snapped in two the wolf threw his head back up and snarled at us. He took off again. Bounding towards us, he tried to go around us this time. Roane bent down and sped towards him. He met him halfway and caught the wolf unaware. With another throw at the same tree, the wolf was impaled on the broken stump. The body twitched and jerked to get free, and a high pitched whimper came from its mouth as it did. Two more wolves snapped to attention. They had been stalking Wren, but whirled around. As one went to its mate the other flew at us.
Roane tucked me behind him.
'Under any circumstance, no powers. You are human and only human. Got it?'
I gave him a mental salute, but the wolf was on us. Roane ducked underneath the massive jaws, caught him around the neck and twisted. It snapped in two and the giant body fell limp at his feet.
Five wolves froze in place. As one body, they turned and regarded Roane. Wren plunged a dagger into one of their necks. Gavin took hold of another and threw him, but the other three bounded towards us.
"Gregory!" Roane called out.
The Viking vampire looked up, saw the situation, snapped his wolf in two and took three long-legged strides towards us. He jumped and grabbed me from his leader’s arms in mid-air, just as the three wolves ascended on Lucas. Brown smiled at me from underneath Gregory's long arm. She held onto one of his belt loops with a knife in hand.
"Hi, Davy. Isn't this exciting?"
"Brown." I shook my head at her. "You are crazy."
"I tried doing spells, but they didn't work. So then I tried to twist their tails when I caught them. I distracted a few, but one of them just swished me away." She showed me a red welt on her cheek. "It got me good so now I just hold onto Green's belt."
"Green?" I said faintly, but was distracted when Gregory deposited us both of the ground. We were away from the fight now and I expected him to return. He didn't move. I knew his job was now to guard us.
"It's my nickname for him. I think the leader called him Greg, but I like Green." Brown spoke as if we were shopping for a couch.
"Not much fazes you, does it?"
She let out a puff of air. A strand of her hair flew back in place. "Not much, no. You fight. You either live or die. It's easy to know what to do. Other stuff's harder to figure out."
Gregory glanced back and we quieted.
From there we watched the fight unfold. Roane was quicker than the others. He reacted faster and with more strength than the wolves expected. The body count grew around him, but the fight continued. Wren and Tracey had their own system. Wren would distract the wolf and lure it in while Tracey would come behind with the fatal stab. After the first one they killed, I saw that Tracey knew where to hit their heart. The wolves fell instantly. Gavin and the other vampire, the one who Roane had called Bastion, didn't fight with weapons. They threw the wolves around or were thrown by the wolves. Eventually, each of them would have enough of a hold on the necks to snap them. They just weren't as quick at it as Roane.
Kates fought her own way. She punched, twisted, rolled underneath them. I realized that she used her smaller size against them and moved around until they couldn't keep up. That was when she'd bring her gun up and shoot them in the head. Her arm was steady, her feet planted apart. She knew what she was doing and she had no qualms about it.
For some reason, the other vampires didn't bother me when they killed the wolves, but watching Kates brought chills down my back. She was human, but she wasn't at the same time. Was that how I was going to be? Was I going to become like her? I shuddered at the thought, but I knew I couldn't hide much longer.
When only seven remained, the wolves began to disperse. A few tried to drag their fallen comrades with them, but then Roane announced, "We will allow you to take them with you as long as you do not come back. This is my territory. No wolf will come in and take what is mine. Take that message to your Mother Wolf. Tell her that she's mine."
All of them stopped in their tracks and then turned to one in the back with a fur coat of sleek black. He padded forward and lifted piercing blue eyes.
Roane waited and held his gaze.
The wolf lowered his head in submission. The fight was done, simple as that.
I looked to my far right. Pete stood in an alley with his fists bunched at his side. He wanted to go out and fight with them. I felt the immense control it took to keep him where he stood, away from the fight. It was costing him. Sweat poured down his body to puddle around his feet.
His eyes caught mine and he jerked back in surprise.
As I held his gaze, I let him see inside of me. I wanted him to see inside of me. I was strong. I wasn't afraid. And I knew, without a doubt, that I'd have to deal with him at some point. Pete felt all this from me. I didn't let him go too far, not far enough to sense the Immortal, but I wanted him to know that I wasn't scared of him. The vampires had defended me this time, but there was going to be a time for my fight. I was starting to look forward to that now.
Then Roane stood in front of me and blocked my view. He snarled at Pete, "Leave."
I grabbed Lucas' arm. "No. This is my fight."
"It's not!" He turned on me and grabbed my arms. "It's really not, Davy."
"Yes." I took his fingers and lifted them off my arm. "It really is." But when I moved around him, Pete was already gone.
I was conscious of Brown's gaze. She watched every interaction between Roane and me, but I didn't feel judgment from her gaze. Then she took my hand and I felt her calm slip into me. Immediately,
my heart slowed down. Rational thought returned and then I was able to remember Emily and Pippa.
"Where's Emily?"
Kates had come over. She pointed down a hill. "They're safe. The Werewolf Wonder didn't stick around for his mate. I wonder why."
"Because she's not his, not yet."
I held Roane's gaze as I spoke, "She's still my friend more than she's his girlfriend."
I moved forward, but Kates stopped me. "She's going to have to pick sides, Davy. Or you're going to have to let her go."
"She's not a part of this. She's not supposed to be a part of it. She shouldn't have even been here."
But then Roane pulled me closer. "Enough." He turned towards Gregory. "Take them to the estate."
"All of them?"
"Wren, Tracey, grab the other two. Yes, all of them."
"Roane," I started.
He turned and walked away. Gavin gave me a soft grin before he followed behind him. Bastion went next and then Gregory spoke up, "Davy?"
Brown patted my arm.
"Yeah," I sighed.
Kates laughed, "Road trip."
"Shut up," I snarled at her before I followed the jolly green giant. Brown was already going after him. Pippa and Emily got into a car with Wren and Tracey while the rest of us climbed into the back of Gregory's car.
"Where are they going?"
Gregory didn't answer.
Kates did. "They're following the werewolves, making sure they leave town."
Why wouldn't they? I should've thought of that in the first place. I rolled my eyes at my own sarcasm. What was my problem? Roane had come to protect me. He did it for me. If he hadn't, I would've used my power and the truth would've been out. Everyone would know it was me. My friends would know too and maybe that was my problem. Maybe I was sick of hiding? Maybe I was tired of being protected like I was some helpless weakling? I wasn't one, not any longer.
I sighed and then settled back in my seat. As I turned to look outside, I bolted back up. Saren stood on a hill. She was watching our car and I knew she'd been watching me the whole time. When our gazes met, she grinned and lifted two fingers in a salute. Then she disappeared and something in me went with her.
It was over. I knew at that moment that my normal life was gone. Werewolves had attacked. Vampires had defended. And one of my guides had stood back because she knew I could handle it on my own.
I couldn't stay out of the war any longer. I was the entire reason for the war.
A tear slipped down my cheek and I felt someone take my hand. Brown gave me a smile and then squeezed my hand.
'I might be going out on a limb here, but I'm pretty sure you can hear thoughts. Maybe you can't. If that's the case, then I'm just thinking to myself which is normal. I do that a lot, but I know something's different about you. Maybe this is it or maybe this is a part of it. I don't know. All I know is that whole fight was about you. And the other thing I know is that when I'm not around you, I don't feel the magic in me. Okay. I feel it a little, but I always thought I was just fooling myself. But when I met you, I felt the magic in me. It was the first time I knew it was really there. I always feel it when you're around and that means something. So whatever's going on, I'm always going to be grateful to you. You made me not believe everybody when they said I was crazy.'
Another tear fell down my cheek.
'Thank you, Davy.'
She squeezed my hand once more.
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
Everyone was quiet when we arrived an hour later. Even Wren seemed withdrawn as she showed the rooms to everyone. Tracey stayed in the foyer, which was big enough for a tennis court, but I felt her eyes. They hadn't left me since we'd arrived and despite the private room I was shown, I still knew she could see me. When someone knocked on my door, I wasn't sure if I should answer. I didn't know if I wanted to talk to Talia's sister or not, but then Kates burst through the door.
"That was a welcoming invite." She flung herself on my bed and flashed me a smirk. "What's your problem? Your honey came to your rescue and now you get to sit back and wait for him to come to bed tonight. I don't know about you, but that would give me the shivers, the
good
shivers."
"I was just attacked by werewolves. Unlike you, I don't find that thrilling."
"You should." Kates sat up. "What's your problem?"
"Have you seen what's going on?" My voice went shrill.
"Have you?" My childhood best friend shook her head and got off the bed. "Davy, this is what happens. We fight. We deal. Then we wait for the next fight. Why are you acting all shocked and bothered by it? Wait. I should've thought of it before, but I didn't." Then she sighed. "You can't deal, can you?"
"Shut up."
"You can't." She stood behind me. "I can't believe it, but you were the one that lit Craig on fire. It's not like this is the first time you've had to deal with something bad."
"Craig wasn't bad. Craig was a nuisance. He didn't mean that my entire life would change. I did what I did so that my life wouldn't change."
Her voice gentled. "You lit him on fire. You burned him alive, Davy. I was there and don't act like you were doing it to save yourself. You were doing it to hurt him. You wanted him dead."
"I didn't kill him. Those hunters—" My voice trembled.
"Those hunters ripped him apart, but he was dying anyway. He was already on fire when they got him. You killed him; they just made it go faster. You're going to have to do worse. You know that, right?"
Could I deal with what I'd done in the past? Craig had been obsessed and a vampire stalking me had made me go crazy. I won't ever deny that, but to acknowledge that I'd m
ade the decision to kill him… I wanted to hide from that reality. I knew it was there. I'd made the decision, but what sort of a human was I if I could do that and then pretend I was still normal? What did that say about me?
"Davy, this is just the beginning." Kates sounded shaken. "I tho
ught you were ready. I thought Roane had been prepping you this whole time, but he hasn't. You aren't ready for anything."
"I'm ready for what I need to be!" I shouted at her, but stopped when someone else knocked on my door.
Emily poked her head inside. "Can we come in?"
"We?" Kates laughed under her breath.
Pippa and Brown followed behind. All three of them looked around the room.
"You have a better room than me," Brown exclaimed. "You could have two bedrooms in this room."
"Three." Pippa gave me a shy smile.
Emily was quiet, but she glared at Kates before she sat in a far corner.
Kates' eyebrows went up. "Could you find a seat farther? In the next room maybe?"
"Kates."
"What?" She looked at me. "The girl's got a problem with me. I'm just pointing out the nonverbals."
"Nonverbals?" Brown's eyes danced between us.
"She glared at me and then sat as far away as possible. You know what that's called? Passive aggressive. I've heard that's not good."