Authors: Alianne Donnelly
Amazing how quickly things change. One day you’ve got Rob
Zombie on your mind, and the next Bob Marley sings that every little thing is
gonna be all right.
Aiden would approve. He always says everyone needs a song
in their heart, and if they don’t have one, they’re not worth the bother.
I miss him.
Wonder what he’s singing now.
~
Bryce found Sarge by the gate, overseeing the preparations.
Four of his men took supplies from the ant-line of people contributing
generously to Helena’s departure and sorted them into categories—food and
water, clothing, tools, and weapons. What the town had gathered would last the
three of them a month.
Sarge noticed Bryce looking things over, and left his
station to join him. “Do you approve?” he asked. His tone said he did not.
“Seems excessive,” Bryce said.
Sarge made a thoughtful sound. “I expected you to ask for
more.”
“You don’t know me.”
“You’re right. Let’s take a walk.”
Sarge set a brisk, measured pace—the march of a trained
soldier who knew where he was going, and planned to get there. Bryce matched him,
curious to see what this was about.
“You’ll forgive Matron’s absence today. She is not feeling
well enough to entertain, and asked me to take charge in her stead.”
Entertain?
“Your display last night was quite impressive; Matron was
beside herself for hours. And then Helena’s decision sent her into hysterics.”
“She already knew Helena was leaving.”
“She did. What she didn’t know is that Helena won’t be
coming back.”
Bryce stopped in his tracks. “Say again?”
Sarge pivoted on his heels to face him. “When Helena leaves,
it will be for good.” He inclined his head for Bryce to keep going. “Naturally,
this changes things quite a bit.”
You got that right!
She’d better not expect them to
adopt her.
Bryce followed Sarge past the livestock pens and into the
stables. The horses were out, stalls already clean and scattered with fresh
hay. Sarge stopped at the end of the open corridor and nodded ahead.
On the far side of the lake, by the wall and safely out of
the way, Sinna nocked an arrow and drew back, just like Bryce had taught her.
Her face was pinched with concentration as she sighted down the shaft. Her
target was at least a hundred yards away, and once she had it in her sights,
she lifted the bow several degrees higher, and loosed. She hit the target, but
clearly not well enough for her liking, and she stomped her foot, nocking
another arrow.
“Are you fond of your companion?” Sarge asked. He wasn’t
looking at Sinna.
Bryce followed his gaze to the wall running along Hopetown’s
perimeter. Two guards stood on the catwalk a fair distance off, relaxed enough,
but each had an arrow to a bow string, their eyes on Sinna. “What is this?”
“This is a message from Matron. Like I said, your display
last night left an impression. Your honor is in question, especially where Helena’s
safety is concerned. In short, Matron doesn’t trust you to keep her safe. It
has been suggested that we keep your companion as collateral—”
Bryce growled. “Didn’t work out so well for the last people
who tried.”
Sarge smiled and inclined his head. “Yes, well, now that
Helena’s decided not to come back, it wouldn’t have done us much good, anyway.
I have been instructed to tell you there will be others joining you on this
trip. And if they don’t like what they see, their orders are to aim for your
friend.”
Bryce cracked his knuckles. He had no patience for threats,
veiled or otherwise. Under different circumstances, he would’ve already twisted
Sarge’s head off. But these weren’t different circumstances.
The more you
have, the more you have to lose.
“You don’t want me as an enemy,” he said, keeping a tight
leash on his temper.
“Naturally, I don’t, no. Which is why we’re talking right
now. If you keep your word and look after Helena the same way you do her”—he
pointed to Sinna—“then we don’t have an issue. It’s that simple.”
“Is that your position?”
“It is.”
“Fair enough. Now allow me to demonstrate mine.” He pulled
out the handgun he’d strapped on earlier and fired two shots in rapid
succession. There was a reason Aiden put Bryce on the big gun wherever they
went. He was the best; a killer by nature. But this time he chose not to kill
the archers.
The first shot struck one of the guards in the thigh, and he
dropped his bow and sagged against the wall, clutching at the bleeding wound.
The second bullet grazed the other guard’s head and knocked
him out. He tumbled headlong to land in the lake. Sinna saw him fall and, as
Bryce knew she would, raced to his aid. She dragged him out of the water,
checked his pulse, then shouted for help while she administered CPR.
Sarge said nothing, but he was tense, shoulders back, chest
up, jaw twitching. Bryce should have left it at that, but for once in his life,
he needed to say something. Not just for Sarge, but for himself. And for once,
he knew exactly the right words. “Pay attention. Did you see how she looked at
both of your archers before she dragged that one out? How she’s keeping an eye
on the other? She
knows
she’s saving someone who would have killed her,
but she’s doing it anyway. See, Sinna doesn’t stop to decide who deserves to be
saved. She just does it. It’s who she is, how she thinks. She’s what you and I
will never be, no matter how long we live. She is
good
.”
Sarge jerked to make a move.
Bryce caught his arm in a punishing grip and felt the bone
creak just short of snapping. He could break it so easily; a few pounds of
pressure was all it would take. Just a few more, and he could crush it beyond
repair. But this wasn’t about him or his desire to make the man cry tears of
blood. This was about Sinna. Tearing his gaze away from her made the feral part
of him rise almost to the surface. Bryce knew his eyes had gone pale, catching
light in the shadowy corridor; he knew, because when Sarge met his gaze, his
pupils dilated with sheer, unadulterated terror.
“Now,” Bryce said, “I know a soldier like you will
misunderstand the message I’m trying to send here, so let me spell it out for
you. If your people want to make themselves a walking banquet for converts,
that’s their choice. But if their yummy scent brings the horde down on
her
,
I swear to you I will slaughter them all and make a trail of their innards all
the way to your front door.”
Bryce released Sarge, and the soldier stumbled back with a
pained gasp. “Do we understand each other?”
Sarge gave a clipped nod, pivoted around, and marched away,
rubbing his arm.
The townspeople carried their injured soldiers away, leaving
Sinna by herself, holding one of the guards’ bows, an arrow still on its
string. She peered up at the places where the guards had stood, then searched
for the origin of each shot. The moment her gaze landed on the stables, she
dropped the bow and headed right for them.
Clever girl.
Bryce turned to head back, but people had begun to pour in
from the other side to see what had happened. So many shoved and tripped into
Bryce, he growled and ducked into one of the stalls to get out of the traffic.
David straggled, trying to shoo the children away, while
craning his neck to see the commotion. He and Sinna met in front of Bryce’s
stall at the same time and Bryce shifted farther out of sight.
“What happened?” David asked.
“Have you seen Bryce?” She sounded annoyed.
“Uh, no.”
Bryce couldn’t see them, but their scents told him plenty.
Anxiety left a bittersweet aftertaste on his tongue. Not as sharp as fear, but
it lingered longer.
Sinna huffed, footsteps muffled on stomped dirt as she tried
to get past David.
He stopped her. “Whoa, slow down. Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” She sighed. “No. Not really. Something’s going on
and... Forget it. I shouldn’t be telling you this.”
Bryce moved a few inches to the side. From that position, he
could see Sinna’s hair through the gap between the stall door and wall. She
shifted her weight from foot to foot, rising up on tiptoe to look over David’s
shoulder.
Let her go,
he thought, silently compelling David to get the
fuck out of the way.
“I don’t mind.” There was a shrug in David’s voice but it
wasn’t careless. And he still hadn’t moved. “So, I guess you won’t be staying,
huh? Because you could, you know. There’s plenty of everything to go around.
You’d fit right in. It’d be like old times. I mean, before. I mean... You know
what I mean.”
Bryce clenched his teeth until his jaw cramped, waiting for
Sinna to answer.
“I can’t,” she said, her posture stiffening. Had she picked
up on the same eagerness Bryce had heard? She must have. No female was that
oblivious.
“Yeah, I get it, you’re all
grr
now, too good for the
likes of us.” David chuckled, but the sentiment still came across as bitter.
“It’s not that,” Sinna said. “This place is amazing, really.
But it’s not for us.”
Us.
Not me—
us
. Bryce’s animosity eased a bit.
“It could be,” David pushed. Could he not take the hint?
“You could make a home here. Start over, make a new family.”
She said no,
friend. Let her go and move on.
But no, he had to go and lay it on extra
thick. “We’re the last ones, you and I. There’s no one left from the city. I
know it’s a stupid thing to say and there’s no chance in hell of anything, I
get that, but I just wanted to say that I—”
“I’m sorry, Dave. I have to go. I need to find Bryce.” Sinna
ducked around him, and her hurried footsteps echoed down the stable corridor.
“…always liked you,” David finished with a dejected sigh.
“Idiot,” he muttered to himself on his way out the other side. “What did you
think would happen…”
Helena dropped down from the rafters, landing right next to
Bryce. How the hell long had she been up there? She shook her head. “I told
Sarge it wouldn’t work,” she said.
That’s
what she wanted to talk about, right after
David’s pathetic attempt at a declaration?
At his incredulous look, she rolled her eyes. “Yes, I knew.
I know everything that goes on around here. Sadly, ‘General Hellraiser’ is just
an honorary title. I have no say in how things are run and Sarge is…well, you
saw. He doesn’t always think things through.”
Bryce snarled, pushed out of the stall to get away from her.
He didn’t get far. Most of the dispersing crowd were filing back through the
stables, forcing him aside yet again, only this time, all anyone talked about was
how Sinna had saved the archer from drowning.
Helena situated herself next to him where he couldn’t
escape, and watched the crowd go by, smiling as if they were doing it for her
personal enjoyment. “I like her,” she said. “She reminds me of Desiree; all
caring and motherly. The world needs more people like that.”
“You should prepare yourself,” Bryce told her. “People
change, especially when they have no other choice. Your sister might not be the
same person you remember.”
“Yeah. But she’ll be alive. That’s all that matters.” When
the last of the gaggle had passed, Helena slapped Bryce on the shoulder,
perking up. “Now come on,” she said. “You gotta see this.” And she ran off,
still talking. Bryce rolled his eyes and followed, mentally preparing for whatever
crazy stunt she had up her sleeve this time. “I couldn’t believe when Jason
showed me. It’s a total relic, but how cool would it be to shoot one!”
Who was Jason again?
“And he said we can take it with us. I can’t wait! It’ll be
like shooting fish in a barrel.
Ka-chow!
” Helena veered off at the front
gate, swerving around the people putting their supplies together, and ducked
into the armory.
The scent of fire and burning metal seared Bryce’s nostrils,
and made him sneeze the second he entered. His eyes watered from the heat of
the forge, disorienting him. “Helena!”
“Over here,” she called, and Bryce followed her voice to a
leather flap that served as a door.
On the other side stood a cottage like any other in Hopetown
except the roof had gaps big enough to let in plenty of light. There were
several crates stacked to one side, stamped with old military marking. Helena
pried the top off of one and dug through the hay that served as padding. She
took out a round thing and tossed it to him, followed by three more, so fast,
he almost dropped them. Baffled, he stared down at the items, trying to connect
the dots. Hand grenades. “Do they still work?”
“Oh, those? They’re kid stuff. I’m just taking a couple in
case we get bored. They’re not really good for much else; not enough
pow
,
you know? But
this
, this is the real deal.” Helena leaned into the
crate, burying her arms shoulder-deep in hay. She dragged out a heavy, green
metal cylinder with a trombone-like opening on one end and a taper on the
other. She grabbed the handle, braced it against her shoulder, and sighted down
the barrel’s length. Then she held it up, turning it this way and that,
modeling it for him, before she broke down into giggles, bouncing on her toes
like a little kid on Christmas morning.
“We have a rocket launcher!”
Damn it, girl. When something hurts, you
tell
someone!
I gun the engine as hard as it can take, stopping only
when I see an abandoned car nearby, and only long enough to siphon what I can
out of the gas tank. I’m pushing it, risking the little Beetle falling apart on
me, but I don’t have a choice.
Desiree has been unconscious for hours, burning to the
touch, and not even the meds she’d helpfully sorted into doses are bringing the
fever down. Casey is freaking out next to me, watching me with wide, trusting
eyes. She knows something’s very wrong, but she expects me to know how to fix
it.
Only, I don’t.
I don’t know what Desiree’s meds are supposed to do. I
don’t know if I should up her dosage, or if that will make things worse. The
best I can do is force fluids down her throat. And I don’t even know what that
will do—if anything.
But I do know others with a hell of a lot more knowledge
and training than I have. They’re only a few hours away. If I can keep Desiree
alive that long, I know they can make it better.
I just have to keep her alive that long.
~
They passed a rusted blue sign welcoming drivers to Montana,
and Aiden forced his hands to unclench from the steering wheel. It was warped
enough already. “Almost there.” He checked the rearview mirror.
Desiree was out cold, curled up beneath the mountain of
clothes and blankets he’d piled on top of her.
“Is she going to be okay?” Casey asked.
Aiden didn’t know what to tell her, so he pushed the engine
harder instead.
The scenery changed from plains to forests, back to plains
again, and then mountains. The national park was one of the most hospitable
places around.
The den itself lay nestled in a lush valley, totally cut off
from the rest of the world. Aiden knew the area like the back of his hand. He
knew which roads to take, where his people maintained them for a safer ride. He
knew the turnoff, which looked like a service road but soon opened up into a
path wide enough and smooth enough to allow a tank through.
He laid on the horn to signal to the sentinels he was
coming, and watched the trees for movement, hoping to see a familiar face.
The woods opened out into a vast meadow usually a high
traffic area for deer and bears. Today, it was deserted. A tall concrete wall
rose up on the far end like a blemish on the face of Nature, and Aiden had
never been so glad to see it.
Still standing, strong and pristine, just the way he’d left
it weeks ago. Guards at the top signaled to each other, and by the time Aiden
had reached the gate, it was wide open for him. Two dozen men and women armed
with guns and crude weapons lined the path, in case trouble came their way.
Aiden gunned it inside, then slammed on the brakes, skidding
across the dirt. Cheers rose up when he got out of the car, and just as quickly
died when people saw who else he had with him.
“Graham!” he barked, yanking the back door open so hard, it
broke off.
He pulled the covers off of Desiree, shocked by how pale she
was, so tiny on the already small back seat, barely breathing. He didn’t bother
to look at the tall, brown-haired second-in-command as he carefully took her
out. “Get the med lab prepped, and find me a healer,” he ordered.
“Is that a human?”
“
Move!
” Aiden snapped. “And find Bryce.”
Graham motioned for some others to follow the orders and
tailed Aiden into the polished, bright-white complex. Just like the mule, the
med lab was covered in photovoltaic paint, which generated so much electricity
they didn’t know what to do with it. Every cottage had appliances, every Wolfen
in residence had a computer. They even had a server hub, kept cool underground,
creating a mini Wolfen Wide Web.
Inside the complex, fluorescent lights illuminated pristine
corridors. Labs and offices, classrooms, and testing halls had been repurposed
into exercise gyms. The medical center was far enough away to serve as a
quarantine area, if necessary, but close enough to be accessible to all. Aiden
loped the last few yards to an exam room, and laid Desiree onto a gurney,
switching every light on.
“Uh, good to have you back,” Graham said, rubbing the back
of his head. “Who’s she?”
Aiden rummaged through the drawers and cabinets, and finally
found a heated blanket. He shook it out, plugged it in, and laid it over
Desiree. “Where’s the healer?” Aiden demanded.
“On her way,” Graham replied. “Did you tell me to find Bryce
earlier?”
Aiden pried one of Desiree’s eyes open and swore, clicking
the blanket up to high heat.
Light, running footsteps approached. “What the hell is going
on?” the healer demanded. She pushed past Graham and into the room. Psi Six was
one of their best—a pretty brunette who preferred to be called Penelope. She
was tall and lithe the way supermodels used to be, but her no-nonsense attitude
and quick mind made her an indispensable asset. She grinned wide when she saw
Aiden. “You’re back!”
“I brought you a patient.”
That quickly, Penny was all business. She shooed a baffled
Graham from the room, tied her long hair back, and washed her hands. “Talk to
me.”
“She has a pretty deep cut on her right thigh. It got
infected on the way. I tried to clean it as best I could, but she’s got a fever
and won’t wake up.”
Penny pushed the blanket aside, and hesitated. “Where’s the
rest of her leg?”
“Don’t ask, just fix her.”
Aiden had cut off the right pant leg to get a better look at
the wound earlier. Desiree’s stump was now exposed but for the thin bandage
he’d wrapped around it. Penny leaned close to get a whiff. “It’s infected, all
right,” she confirmed. “I also smell chemicals. What did you give her?”
“I have no damn clue. She’s sort of a scientist, too. When I
found her a bunch of pharmaceuticals, she set up her own medication regiment. I
just repeated what she did.”
“Get them for me,” she said.
“Right.” Aiden ran back to the car.
Casey still sat in the passenger seat, frozen, staring at
the people outside. They were keeping their distance, trying to look casual and
non-threatening, but they watched her intently, and it was making her nervous.
“Aiden, I need to talk to you, man.”
“Graham,” Aiden said, as he gathered pill bottles from the
back seat floor, “this is Casey. She’s ten years old, and you’re all freaking
her out. Casey, this is Graham. He’s a good friend of mine who knows I’ll break
his face if he lets anything happen to you. Can you stay with him while I take
care of Dez?”
Casey looked at Graham, eyes locked on the tribal wolf
tattoo on the side of his neck.
“Hey, Casey,” Graham said, with a weak-ass smile. “It’s nice
to meet you.”
Casey’s eyes shifted back to Aiden. “I wanna go with you.”
“I’ll just be a minute, I promise. Dez is really sick and
needs help right now. Can you be a brave girl for a bit until I get her
settled?”
Wide-eyed, Casey hesitated, but then nodded, clutching her
knife to her chest as she climbed out of the car. She went up to Graham, looked
far up into his face and said, “If you hurt me, I will cut you. Aiden said I
could.”
Aiden grinned at that. “Why don’t you show her around?” he
suggested to Graham. “Get her something to eat, too. We haven’t found much on
the road.”
“Yeah, sure, I’ll do that, but I really need to talk to
you!” He shouted the last as Aiden ran off to the exam room.
Penny had removed Desiree’s bandage and was cutting away the
stitches Desiree had so painstakingly put in. “This is decent work,” she
praised. “Did you do it?”
“She did it herself,” Aiden said proudly.
Penny hummed thoughtfully. “So I see you decided to adopt
her.”
He scowled. “Not exactly.”
“Really? Then why do I smell you all over her?”
“Long story, and I really don’t have time to tell it. Will
you just fix her?”
Penny paused at the last stitch and looked up, one eyebrow
arched almost comically high. “
You
don’t have time to talk?”
He snarled. “Here, these are the meds she took.”
Penny removed the final stitch, set her implements aside,
and took the bottles from him. “These are way old,” she said. “I didn’t even
know they existed anymore.”
Aiden shrugged. “We got lucky.”
“Well, there’s nothing here that could harm her.” She
sniffed the contents, frowned, and sniffed them again. “But they’re pretty
degraded. In her condition, she needs at least ten times this dose.”
Aiden fidgeted, then shoved his hands in his pockets. “So
what do we do?”
“Well, the most practical option would be to put her down.”
Aiden growled, hackles rising.
Penny noticed. “But seeing as that’s not an option, I
suppose we try to fix her.”
“Okay, how do we do that?”
“
We
don’t.
I
need room to work, and
you
need to get out of here and deal with whatever’s going on outside—shoo.”
Reluctantly, Aiden dragged himself back out to the
courtyard. The gate was secure once again, and the techs were checking every
dial and gauge of the Beetle like bloodhounds. He had no doubt the entire thing
would be taken apart and recycled by the end of the day.
Those who weren’t busy going about their chores, and those
who’d stopped their chores to watch the show, surrounded him to offer greetings
and welcome him home. Aiden smiled and soaked up the affection, letting his
people soothe his frazzled nerves. He returned each hug and playful shove,
ruffled the little ones’ hair, and shook hands with the guards. Their presence
alone made him happy to be back. Aiden had grown up with these people, fought
with them, bled with them; he’d watched them suffer, and helped put them back
together. They’d built this place up from the horror it used to be into
something amazing.
This was his family. And goddamn, but he’d missed them all.
In seconds flat, they had him at a table filled with
food—platters of meats and cheeses, a bowl of fruit, jugs of water and mead,
and honey cakes piled high and smelling sweet. But he couldn’t relax until he
saw Casey at the kids table, stuffing her face. She grinned, waved happily,
surrounded by boys and girls her own age who peppered her with questions.
Yes-or-no questions, because her mouth was full and she couldn’t manage more
than a wordless nod or head shake. Wolfen were nice that way.
Aiden got the grown-up version of the same. Most of his
people wanted to know where he’d been, what he’d brought back, and what the
hell his T-shirt was about. Only when Graham declared they had official
business to go over did they reluctantly scatter. But Aiden knew they’d be back
eventually; they wouldn’t rest until they got the full story out of him.
Once they’d cleared the benches, Graham sat down, his
handsome face worried. When he asked “What happened?” he didn’t want to hear
tall tales like the others. He wanted facts. And his steady gaze said he wanted
them for a reason.
At least he’d waited until Aiden was done eating.
Aiden swigged his mead and sat back, content. “You won’t
believe when I tell you.”
“Okay, let’s start simple. Where’s Bryce?”
A cold, hard weight crushed the good vibe he almost managed
to get going. He stared at Graham, trying to figure out what the punch line
was, but the man didn’t even blink. “What do you mean, where’s Bryce?”