Authors: Tammy Blackwell
“
One of these days, I would
like to wander up on a spot where I know something fantastically
wonderful is going to happen,” I said. “Like, ‘Oh, look at this
dirt path. This is where someone is going to give me a new car and
a lifetime supply of ice cream.’”
Liam dropped his bag. “Talley’s vision?”
“
Talley’s vision,” I
confirmed. “If you want a front row seat, I think the big showdown
is going to happen right over there.” I pointed back towards the
little stream cutting through the field.
Liam turned in a slow circle, finally
stopping once he faced the direction of the town. “We’ll go that
direction once we Change instead of sticking around here.”
“
No. We’ll stay. No use in
trying to run away from it.”
“
I thought you didn’t
believe in fate.”
I dropped my bag beside his, then knelt down
to dig out our food. “I don't, but I do believe in Talley.”
We continued to get our
things in order in silence. I was heading towards a patch of trees
where I could Change in privacy, when Liam said, “It was when they
were holding you captive.” I stopped walking, but didn’t turn
around. “It was perfect. They were cautious the first few days, but
once the Hagans started falling in line, they let up, thinking they
were free of threats. I had everything I needed. I could have
rigged it up and gotten Jase, Talley, and Charlie out of the way
before it actually blew, but I knew there was no way to save you. I
told myself it was because of Alex, that I couldn’t let you die
because he would never forgive me, but it was a lie. It had nothing
to do with Alex, and everything to do with me.” He was behind me
then. I turned to meet his gaze. “Sometime, and I don’t know when
it was, you ceased to be Alex’s obsession and became mine. The way
you reacted to everything happening around you… It was strange and
unsettling. But the stranger and more unsettling you got, the more
intrigued I was. I wanted to know why you were like that. What made
you so…
Scout.
And
I knew if I did what I was supposed to do, if I blew up that cabin
with you inside it, I would never get to know you.” His hand
trailed over my cheek, resting at the crook of my neck. “That was
when I chose you, Scout. And even knowing what’s to come, I would
have done it again.” And then, he kissed me.
There is something to be said for being
kissed on purpose. Sure, out-of-control passionate kisses are all
sorts of breathtakingly sexy, but knowing someone has actively made
a decision to put their lips against yours is even better,
especially when that person is as focused and thorough about the
whole matter as Liam. He didn’t pull back until my knees were weak
from it.
“
We’re going to win,” I
said, hands clenched in his t-shirt so I wouldn't slide onto the
ground into a puddle of properly kissed goo.
“
Damn straight.”
“
And then, we’re going to
figure this out.”
A slight lifting of the corners of his mouth
in a classic Liam smile. “I look forward to it.”
This time, I kissed him on purpose.
Chapter 29
“
Surrender now, and I will
let the others live.” It was nearing daylight when I heard
Sarvarna’s voice echo through my head.
“
I haven’t issued a formal
Challenge yet, your majesty. Don’t you think you’re jumping the gun
a little bit?”
“
You’ve gathered a group of
Shifters together with the express purpose of overthrowing the
Alpha Pack. Your brother has already admitted to it. As per our
laws and customs, you are guilty of treason and subject to
death.”
I finally caught her scent, and not just
hers. Liam was right, there had to be at least twenty of them, and
they were close. Too close. They stayed downwind, which was the
only reason we hadn’t noticed them before.
“
I thought I was supposed
to die because I was a Thaumaturgic and an abomination. Come on.
Make up your mind.”
“
There are many reasons I
will kill you, but now you won’t have to die alone. For your
cowardice, your friends will now die alongside you.”
Liam slinked through the grass in the
general direction of the Alpha Pack.
“
Cowardice is sending in a
legion of Shifters to fight your battles, Sarvarna. Call them off,
and we’ll do this. Just you and me.”
I
trailed behind Liam, veering off slightly to the left.
“
A leader doesn’t deal with
such petty skirmishes. She delegates.”
And then they were upon us. It was like a
wave of wolves bursting from the tree line. The acidic taste of
fear flooded my mouth, but I didn’t let my terror control me. I
sprinted across the grass and lunged at the first wolf I came to.
The power he radiated marked him as a true member of the Alpha
Pack, so I didn’t hesitate as I sank my teeth into the soft part of
his neck and yanked. I moved on to the next in line before he even
hit the ground.
Or maybe I should say the next two in line,
since I was tag-teamed. While one distracted me from the front, the
other sunk his teeth into my right hip. The pain was excruciating,
but not debilitating. I slung the wolf in front of me into a red
wolf who was charging towards Liam, and then spun around to face
the coward who had my blood staining his muzzle. My teeth ripped
into his front leg. The injury wouldn’t kill him, but he wouldn’t
be walking again until the sun rose either.
Liam and I were good, and even better as a
team, but no one can expect to win when the odds are two against
twenty. The fight would have been over before it started if a
second wave of Shifters hadn’t burst from the tree line, my
brother’s small body in the lead. I barely processed there were
more than a handful of Hagans when a black wolf landed in front of
me.
I was confused, unsure if this was a friend
or enemy until his smell registered. Warm baked cookies and
Miriam’s favorite laundry detergent.
Hank. I wasn’t surprised. He said he would
always come when Liam needed him.
One of the Alpha Pack lunged, and Hank
ducked low before coming up in a fury of teeth and claws. Convinced
he could take care of himself, I turned to face my next
attacker.
“
Excellent timing,
Tal.”
Just a few minutes more, and the army
we had scraped together at the last minute would have been avenging
our death instead of fighting by our sides.
“
Most of them just got in
before the sun set, and then we had to get all the way across town
in animal form,” came her reply. “You honestly didn’t think to
inspect the field you would be Changing in before you got there? If
you would have told me yesterday where the battle was going down,
this would have gone much more smoothly.”
I would have defended myself, but I was too
busy fighting for my life. I don’t know what human war is like.
I’ve never been crouched down in some Middle Eastern hole in the
wall while gunfire and explosions echo around me, but I can’t
imagine the sound is any more horrifying than what I heard
throughout our battle. Snarls and howls. Whimpers and whines. I
constantly sought out the voices I knew, listening for sounds of
triumph or harm.
Liam and I focused our initial energies on
the the Stratego and Taxiarho. I tried to exert Dominance with
them, to force them into submission, but it wasn’t happening. I
knew it wouldn’t, but I still tried. I didn’t keep up with how many
I killed, although I knew their individual faces would come back to
haunt me in my dreams. The others, the ones who had simply come to
defend their Queen, were easier. Some of them would actually submit
to me, which meant I could let them live. It didn’t always happen,
but it did happen. Maybe it was only the allies I had mistaken for
the enemy, but I like to think otherwise.
Occasionally I would catch a glimpse of the
others. Liam was, as always, magnificent. Like me, he was trying to
force submission or merely injure as many as possible, but when
there was no other choice, he killed quickly and without
hesitation. Jase was paired up with Joshua, who was swinging a
sword around like a gladiator. Once I even saw a coyote I was
certain was Makya. He wasn’t in the middle of the fray, but instead
another Hagan purposefully kept him corralled to the sideline.
The battle seemed to wage on forever, but I
know it couldn’t have been more than half an hour before the sun
started to rise in the sky. The less Dominant ones were the first
to fall to the ground, the tremors of the Change wracking through
their body. Liam and I stayed in wolf form until the very end,
guarding over the others along with Joshua, who was still carrying
around his sword. I don’t know if there are actual Rules of
Engagement for Shifters, but I felt strongly one of them should be
not attacking someone mid-Change.
The field looked exactly as it had in
Talley’s vision. Blood was everywhere. Even though most every wound
would heal during the Change, their skin would still be stained
with the blood spilled. But not everyone would heal. I made my way
through the mass of writhing bodies. Hank was one of the first I
ran across. I could tell the fight had been particularly hard for
him, but he was Changing quickly. I was happy for him, but more so
that Liam didn't have to lose another father figure.
Jase was a bit harder to find. The relief at
seeing him mid-Change almost outweighed the weirdness and grossness
of seeing him mid-Change.
“
Scout?” Talley’s voice was
tearstained, even in my head.
“
Jase is
okay.
”
“
I know, but
Toby--”
I took off at a full run, using my nose to
find him. I leapt over bodies that were part human, part animal,
only paying enough attention so I didn’t accidentally step on
anyone. I found him far away from the others. He was in human form,
and had been for some time. Yet again a Shifter’s last ditch effort
to survive had failed.
Another Shifter lay crumbled in front of the
body. Still mostly coyote, he growled and snapped his teeth as I
approached.
“
Talley, can you talk to
Makya?”
“
He didn’t do it,
Scout.”
I already knew that. Not only could Makya
not take Toby, but the grief rolling off of him was palatable.
“
Tell him that no matter
what happens, he’s to stay here. If he lets anyone other than a
Hagan touch the body, he’ll wish he was the one who
died.”
“
Scout--”
“
Tell him.”
“
Is that an order from my
Alpha?”
My eyes couldn’t break away from the body
crumbled on the ground. Memories flashed through my head: Toby
talking Charlie, Jase, and me into stealing Grampa Hagan’s prized
watermelon out of the garden when we were kids. Toby walking out of
the delivery room, a huge grin on his face as he cuddled Layne
against his chest. Toby getting off the plane after nine months in
Iraq, tears streaming down his cheeks as he ran towards his family.
Toby standing in front of the Alpha Pack, asking them to let me
go.
Brave, strong, chauvinistic Toby. I would be
damned if I let him die for nothing
“
Yes. Let’s end
this.”
***
Speaking of Alphas, it was time for me and
Sarvarna to have a little face-to-face time. I Changed back next to
my clothes. It felt a bit like cheating with everyone else having
to go naked, but there was no way I was confronting her with my
boobs on display in front of a bunch of guys. Liam, who was wearing
a pair of jeans, was waiting for me once I was fully human and
dressed.
“
Toby’s dead.” As far as
greetings went, it sucked big time, but I couldn’t help it. It was
this rotten, horrible thing I had to get out of me. “They killed
Toby.”
Liam brushed the tears from my cheek with
the back of his hand. “I am so sorry. He was a good man.”
“
How do I tell Charlie? Oh
God. How do I tell Layne?” My heart was broken. I knew because it
hurt so much.
“
Scout, you need to
breathe.”
Couldn’t he see I was trying?
“
Who else? Who else did we
lose?”
“
We’ve lost about five.
Joshua’s arm looks like hamburger, but he assures me it’ll heal.
Everyone else should be okay once they finish Changing.”
“
Which is my one and only
mercy.” I didn’t flinch, which probably pissed her off. She tried
to sneak up on us, but not even the smell of blood could block her
scent from me. “Surrender now, and I will merely Banish the
others.”
I thought I wouldn’t be ready for this
moment, that when it came I would see too much humanity in her to
follow through. Toby’s death changed that. I didn’t care if she
loved her parents or was adored by her little sister. And if she
thought I was a demon, it was because she made me become one.
“
If I don’t?”
“
We’ll start all this
again, but this time the wounds won’t heal so quickly.”
I looked across the field, even though this
scene had been etched in my brain for almost a year. “That might
not be the best idea, Sarvarna. As you might have noticed, most of
your Alpha Pack is dead.” And I would carry the guilt of it for the
rest of my life. “Are you prepared to lose more?”
“
I believe I’m more
prepared to lose soldiers than you are, Scout.” Her upper lip
curled. “Maybe it’s because we both know all this blood and death
is on your hands, not mine.”