Fiona Frost: Order of the Black Moon (47 page)

The pain
quickly
subsided
as
I became numb
.
I was going to die
.
M
y cousin, however badly I
had
despised her, was most likely dying
a few feet away
from me
.
It was a living nightmare
, but
this time,
I wouldn’t
wake from it.

“Well, now you’ve lost one family member, how does it feel
?
I wanna know how you feel right now
.
G
ive me an idea of how
much
your daddy will
suffer
when he gets home
, w
hen he finds your brains blown out all over this pretty
white
sofa,”
he
hissed, jabbing the
tip
of his
gun to my forehead
,
dropping it down
to my chest
,
stabbing
my sternum
until it shoved
my body onto the back cushion of the couch
.

“Hmm
.
Do we want
exploded
brains or a blown out heart?
You choose,” he taunted as he flickered the gun between my chest and my forehead.
“
Huh, you have no preference?  Okay, l
et’s do brains.”

M
y front doorknob
turned.
Somebody was on the other side.
Please don’t be my father.
I took a long inhale, trying to stay focu
sed on what was about to happen, anticipating a gun blast.

With a loud slamming noise, as if somebody kicked the handle,
the front
door burst open
, crashing against the wall
.
Gerald
stormed
towards the
door, stepping over Haley’s body
, to
confront
the uninvited guest
.

I clutched my chest where the barrel had gouged me, trying to rub out the pain.

“Put down the gun
,
and you’ll get out of here alive.
Keep
it
pointed at me
,
and
I will make you regret your decision
,”
a familiar
voice roared from the foyer.

No! Wolfe, why?
My throat seized, constricting, I gasped for air
, but
c
ouldn’t breathe
.
Not one fiber in my body had dared to
fight back until I heard
his
voice
.
I lunged off the couch, grabbing the frying pan from the floor
as
he
took a swing at Wolfe’s head with his gun hand
.
He missed.
W
olfe countered with a powerful shove on his
chest
, dropping his widened eyes to Haley
; G
erald stumbled backward, tripping over
her
body
as he fought to remain on his feet
. He
turned his head in my direction, catching me approaching with the frying pan.
With a
fuming fire
in his eyes,
he
charged
towards me
in a rage
.

“No more delays, Fiona,”
he
warned
with
a savage fierceness,
raising
his
gun as he
marched closer
.
“
B
ack
away
or
I will shoot her
right now
,
”
he
faced
Wolfe
, keeping the barrel aimed at me
.

“And then
,
I will kill you
,
nobody wins.
Drop the gun,” Wolfe demanded, speeding
towards him as if he
wore
a bullet-proof suit of armor.

“On second thought, I will kill you both, but she is first,”
Gerald
scoffed
,
his enraged eyes flickering between us.

T
he gun found my forehead
once again but this time, I was prepared to fight.
I
launched
the frying pan across the room
and ducked as
Wolfe’s
bulky
arm slid across
Gerald’s
neck,
locking
him in a steel
grip
from behind.

“Run, Fiona
!
Get out of here!
”
he
shouted
as
he pressed
his arm
harder
onto
his
neck, grabbing his forearm to secure his position.

Gerald’s face flushed red,
turning
a
deeper
shade with every
second
.
He flailed
the
gun in an
unwieldy
manner,
trying
with all of his strength
to fight off Wolfe with one hand and aim the gun at me with the other.

A flame spewed from the end of the gun as
an
ear-splitting blast
filled
the room. A flat high-pitched
tone
resonated
inside of my
aching
ear canals
followed by a
muted
static
and odor of burned gunpowder
.
As if s
omebody had turned down the
volume
of the room
,
dead silence
filled m
y head
.
Afraid to look, I
surveyed my body
, passing
inspection.

Wolfe.
I
exhaled;
he
still had Gerald in a taut chokeho
ld.
He hadn’t taken the bullet.

“Fiona
!
Get out of here now!
”
Wolfe
shouted
, but it sounded
like his voice was much further
in the distance
.

Frozen. I
was unable to
move,
incapable to
comply with his
demands
, the muted static returned,
shrill
buzzing in my ears
.
My eyes locked onto
his
hold on Gerald
’s neck
, taking
sheer
pleasure
as I watched him suffer, his
face turn
ing
a deep
er
purplish-blue as
he
struggled
to breathe
.
I couldn’t look away
.
I might have even
been smiling.

Gerald dropped the gun to use
both
hands
in an attempt to unhinge
the massive arm constricting his neck
.
The capillaries began to burst in
the whites of
his eyes, and the purple
hue of his face
darkened
to a dismal
blue as he
swung
his le
g backwards
to kick at Wolfe. Gerald’s
bloodshot
eyes
rolled
back into
their sockets
, his
body turn
ing
limp
as
a
rag
doll
.
Wolfe dropped
him coldly
on the
living room
floor
as
a swarm of black suits
flooded into the room
.

Within moments, a flurry of activity
buzzed
among us as the agents
took over the scene
,
handcuffing and removing
Gerald
f
rom
the house
.
A
crew of paramedics
flocked to Haley
, who
had
begun
to moan and writhe in pain.
I sighed, relief sweeping through my body
.
They stabilized her before rushing her outside on a
gurney.

After speaking with the agent in charge for what seemed like an eternity,
Wolfe
’s arms cradled my body from behind
as
he
guided me down the
hallway,
escort
ing
me into my bedroom
.
He locked
the door behind him
, placing me
on the edge of m
y bed
. He took a seat
next to me
, holding my
waist with a gentle, iron grip.

“Are you
sure you’re
alright?”

“Yes, of course, maybe a little freaked out, but I’ll be okay.
Are you?” I said, examining his arms and noting various cuts and bruises Gerald had managed to confer
during their struggle
.

“I couldn’t be better.
Camber
said
she talked to you today at lunch,”
he
said
in a serious tone.

I was disoriented by the
energy within
his
gray
eyes, appearing
vibrant
silver
as
the
sunrays
bounced off them.

“Yes, she corroborated your story, but I never asked her to do that,” I said bluntly.

“I know what she said to you.
I know
that
you know
,
and I want to explain.
I can’t have you kicking me out of your club, because it means too much to me.
Not just because of what we do
,
but if I couldn’t be with you—
”

“What are you saying
?
”

I was mystified.
He
gazed into my eyes with
a
probing intensity
,
and
I couldn’t tear myself away
.
I blinked,
blushing;
my mind
purged its thoughts
,
blood
feeling
electric in my veins.

“Fiona, I love you,”
h
e said softly
.

M
y
heart
momentarily forgot how to function, I gasped for air, my face searching for the right expression.

He continued,
“
I’ve always loved you.
I just never knew how to tell you.
I think you are the most beautiful girl in the world, yo
u are definitely the smartest,
most ambitious and m
aybe the nerdiest,”
he
flashed
a
smile
.

I was
speechless;
filter
ing
through my responses,
I tried to choose the right words, but failed—
so my subconscious
mind
changed the subject.

“Can I ask you something
?
”
I said
once I started breathing again.

“Anything,” Wolfe said with the most
incredible
smile I had ever seen.

“How did you know I was in trouble?”

His
eyes
turned
solemn as he gazed at the wall behind me for a moment.
I realized he
had expected a warmer reception to his honesty.
He drew his lips into a straight line, nodding.