I came to in Walsh’s arms. He was holding me like a baby, cradled to his chest with the furs draped around us.
“We need to bathe all of this blood off her!” he snapped to Sage. “She’s like a beacon.”
My body bounced up and down and I realized he was running.
“I’m awake,” I mumbled, flinching with pain each time my body slammed down into his and my shoulder wound pressed into his chest.
He looked down at me with a sharp gaze. “Can you run?”
Run? Maybe…
“I could definitely walk fast…”
“Fuck it,” he growled, and pulled me tighter to him as he pumped his legs faster. I felt weak, tired, and absolutely overjoyed to see my wrists were free of the cuffs.
My wolf.
I peered over to see Sage shooting an arrow from a bow that I hadn’t noticed before.
That meant… someone was chasing us.
My wolf surged to the surface and I braced myself for the pain that never came. The spell was gone and I wanted to weep for joy, but there was no time.
Fur broke out onto my arms and Walsh must have felt it against his chest, because he looked down at me. “If your wolf’s coming out, tell her to run ahead and find us a cabin or something to wash you up in.”
I nodded as a muzzle took shape before my face and then pulled away from my body, going spectral. My wolf form leapt out of Walsh’s arms, as he still clung to my human body, and before she hit the ground she was fully formed.
‘I’ll find a cabin or a creek,’ she said and then took off, vampire-fast, into the woods ahead of us.
I felt some strength return now that the cuffs were off and my powers were on full display. I could feel my werewolf healing kick in.
“I think I can run now,” I told him.
He looked over at Sage, who was covered in black blood and jogging apace with us. “I think I got the last one.”
Last one of what? Were more of those creatures chasing us? I shivered.
Walsh skidded to a stop and set me down just as Sawyer’s presence surged forward. ‘I fell asleep again. Are you okay?’
‘Cuff’s off, but still in some shit. Mind text you later,’ I told him, and started to jog lightly.
I could almost see him smiling, that chin butt on full display. ‘Mind text you later. I love you.’
I smirked, I’d probably never get used to hearing those words.
“Did another Munai come?” I asked Sage.
She shook her head. “Just a regular dark fey who apparently had a bear as a pet.” She lifted her arm so that I could see three deep gashes from wrist to elbow.
Shit.
Who kept a wild bear as a pet? A freaking dark fey, that’s who.
My wolf pulled on my thoughts and I attuned my attention to her. She was inside of a hunting cabin. It was cold and looked abandoned, but it had a fireplace and stack of wood.
“We’ve got a cabin for the night. This way.” I veered to the left and followed my wolf’s inner sense of directions. She’d jumped through a window to break into the house and had gotten some cuts in her fur. I wondered why she didn’t walk through the front door like she’d walked through the glass back on campus to help Sawyer.
‘With you injured, I need to conserve our magic.’ She told me as she read my thoughts.
Whoa.
She had her nose to the ground, sniffing out the place and checking every room. She smelled some type of dried meats in a cupboard and a gamey animal smell under the floorboards. Probably something like a rat. There was a thick layer of dust over everything. It looked like whatever this place was, it was a seasonal cabin, or abandoned.
As Walsh, Sage and I came upon the small A-frame structure then, I switched from my wolf vision to human.
“There.” I pointed. It was barely visible in the dark moonlight, surrounded by trees.
“Empty?” Walsh asked.
I nodded. “Yep.”
Sage shook her head. “That’s seriously so cool that you can do that.”
I gave her a weak smile; it was hard to think something you did was cool when you were constantly being hunted for it.
When we reached the door, I tried it, only to find it locked.
Duh.
Peering into the broken window, I spotted my wolf waiting by the fireplace for me. I slipped my hand into the open window and turned the lock, unlocking the door.
Once we got inside, Walsh got right to work on stitching up Sage’s arm while I cleaned up the glass with a handmade broom I found in the closet and patched the window with cardboard to keep the heat in. My wolf lay by the fireplace just watching us, seemingly content with being outside of my body right now. It was weird to be apart. I felt slightly uncomfortable without her with me. Like I was hungry, or tired, or half full. It was hard to explain. As if she heard my thoughts, which I’m sure she did since we were the same person, she trotted over to me.
‘We will heal faster together.’ Then she leapt into the air, went transparent, and settled inside my chest.
“That’s unreal,” Walsh commented, and I turned to see him and Sage watching me with complete and utter fascination.
I gave a nervous laugh. “Should I start a fire?”
Walsh shook his head. “I’ll put on the fire and burn everything that has your blood on it. You need to wash up. I lit the pilot light on the water heater in the basement, but I’m not sure if it will work. It’s ancient.”
I nodded.
He reached into his pack and pulled out some of my clothes. “From Sawyer,” he said.
I looked down and smiled, tears filling my eyes. It was my “Feeling Stabby” t-shirt, and black cargo pants. Plus a new pair of Converse shoes, sans duct tape heel. There was also a sports bra and clean undies.
He’d thought of everything. I realized now that as much as I was going through hell here, he was in his own hell trying to manage this situation from afar. If the roles were reversed, I would be going mad unable to help him.
Grabbing the fresh clothes, careful not to get blood on them, I slipped into the bathroom and ran the water, praying to every god imaginable that the water heater worked.
It did. Warm fresh water hit my chest and I nearly cried out in joy.
Bless the lord, it did!
There was a bar of handmade soap on the ledge, and although it grossed me out to use it, I knew I had no other options. I just told myself it wasn’t previously used by a dark fey. Working the bar between my hands, I scraped off the first few layers with my thumbnail and let it slide down the drain. Then I stepped into the warm water and lathered my entire body, being careful when going over the wounds at the front and back of my shoulder. The water rolled down my back and legs, pooling a pinkish red at the base of the tub.
Walsh was right, I had lost a lot of blood with this shoulder wound. I mean, I was shot with a fucking arrow, so I’m not sure what I expected, but… damn. Even the ends of my hair were dyed pink from sitting at the back of my shirt and soaking up blood. It took a long time, and lots of awkward and painful reaching, but I was able to get it all off my back… I hoped. I used the bar soap in my hair, which left it uber dry, and without conditioner I knew I would have a rat’s nest, but zero fucks given because this was survival mode. Considering yesterday I’d “showered” in a stream next to a mule, this was a five-star resort.
Sawyer spoke just as I turned off the tap: ‘I miss you. I can’t believe this situation got so fucked so fast.’
I sighed, wringing out my hair and using a towel that hung on the wall to pat myself dry.
‘I miss you too. We’ll be okay. We’ll get through this,’ I told him.
He was quiet, and I felt his guilt thrumming through our bond. ‘Do you ever wish I left you at Delphi? I feel like I… I ruined your life.’
My heart pinched. ‘Never. Not in a million years, Sawyer. If you didn’t get me out of there, I never would have been free and I never would have found love. Aren’t those like two basic principles of happiness?’
I could almost feel him grinning. ‘So you’re saying I did you a favor? Maybe you owe me.’
I snorted. ‘I wouldn’t go that far.’
He was quiet while I dressed, and I wondered what else was bothering him. ‘What’s going on with you? Everything okay near the Witch Lands?’
He sighed, and there was a pause where I could feel him sifting through what to tell me. ‘Sawyer, what’s going on?’
‘I’ve been escorted back to Sterling Hill, where I’m on house arrest. I can’t leave the school grounds until my trial for Vicon Drake’s murder.’
Holy fuck. ‘Sawyer, it’s all good, I blew up the evidence room when I was with the vampires.’
I briefly gave him a rundown of the room with the briefcase and fur in it and how I’d made it all go poof.
‘You did that for me?’ he asked finally. ‘Even after what happened with Meredith?’
‘Of course!’ I admonished. ‘True mates, remember?’
‘That was… very sweet, Demi, but they’d already gotten the results and sent them to the Magic City Crime Division. Then when I showed up and tried to bring you home, they pulled some fur off my wolf to confirm…’
No.
No, no, no.
‘What are you saying?’ I couldn’t think straight, I couldn’t put two and two together.
His sorrow pushed through our bond. ‘I’m saying that I’m on trial for assassinating the prince of Vampire City. If found guilty, I’ll spend the next twenty years in Magic City Jail.’
I shook my head back and forth vigorously. ‘No. Vicon raped me. We filed a complaint. Have your useless lawyer pull that file. He should be in jail. Not you. And like you said, the sentence in Vampire City for brutal rape is death.’
‘The rape would have to be proven in court,’ he told me.
I nodded. ‘I’ll testify, so can Raven and my mother and father. The local human hospital in Spokane did a rape kit. I will not let you take the fall for killing that awful animal.’
I could feel the barely contained anger brewing inside of him and I knew it wasn’t anger at me. It was anger at Vicon and Queen Drake, and the system. ‘Look, I don’t want you to worry about this. Just get to the Witch Lands. Your mother and Raven are waiting to greet you. They will bring you to me. Just focus on surviving, Demi. They will do everything in their power to take you from me.’
Survive. Wasn’t that my middle name now? I could do this. I could make it back to him. I would make sure he wasn’t going anywhere.
I whimpered. ‘Why… why do they want me so badly?’
He sighed. ‘About a hundred reasons. You’re a split shifter and they want your power. They’ll use you like a battery, draining you every day to fill themselves up. They also know that if I don’t get married, my entire family line dies and our wolves will have no alpha, which will make our race easier to control.’
Well, if that wasn’t just awful, I didn’t know what was.
‘I got this. I’ll see you soon. Promise,’ I told him, and then stepped out into the living room to find Sage in Walsh’s lap, kissing him.
Holy mother.
I cleared my throat and she jumped off of him like she’d been stung, wiping at her red lips. “What’s up?” she said, her voice cracking. “Shower have hot water? Did you get all the blood off? I’m next. I think I’ll head in.” She blasted past my grinning face with her crimson cheeks and shut herself in the bathroom.
I looked at Walsh, who looked surprisingly calm as he watched the flames of the fire flickering to the top of the stone. I decided to let this go and get the details later from Sage.
“I talked to Sawyer,” I told Walsh. “He’s on house arrest now in Werewolf City. Can’t leave until his hearing.”
Walsh’s eyes went stormy. “That’s bullshit. That vampire had it coming.”
I’d forgotten until this moment that Walsh had been on that “hunting trip” with Sawyer.
“You think it’s just about Vicon, or also because he killed the prime minister?”
Walsh shook his head. “He was well within his right to kill Locke. The guy went mad and physically tried to hold him back from inspecting the building we thought you were in. We had evidence and he shut the whole thing down. Locke threw the first punch, went feral like a strung-out junkie.”
I frowned. That was… crazy and weird. It was so obvious that the people running these cities were corrupt as all hell.
“What does Sawyer’s dad think of all this? He must be… pissed at me.”
Walsh scoffed. “All due respect to my alpha… but he’s too soft. Sage’s dad would have been a better fit, and Sawyer will be an amazing leader. Curt brushes things under the rug and is always avoiding fights. He’s known for being a pushover, so the other leaders push him around.”
I winced. That was basically what I’d seen of the alpha as well. “So he doesn’t really care?”
Walsh shrugged. “He’s deferring to Sawyer on everything. I think he can’t wait for his son to take over next year.”
Geeze, that was not what the largest city of werewolves needed, a weak alpha. I was glad Sawyer was stepping up, but killing the prime minister, declaring war, and then getting on house arrest, wasn’t exactly in the plan.
“You should try to get some rest. That shoulder will heal faster with some sleep. I’ll keep watch.” He tipped his head toward the fire, where he’d laid out a few sleeping bags. A yawn escaped me at the mere mention of sleep, and I nodded.
A few hours wouldn’t hurt. “Thanks,” I told him, and took a sip of water from my canteen before slipping into the warm sleeping bag. It smelled like Walsh; he must have given me his. I set a mental clock for three hours so I could wake up and take a shift so Walsh could get some sleep.
Suddenly, the weight of the day pressed down on me. Killing the troll after getting shot, then sticking a hot poker in my own arm, then killing the psycho dark fey. It was all too much.
‘Gonna sleep a bit. Walsh keeping watch. Love you.’
‘’Kay, me too.’ Sawyer’s reply was instant. ‘And I really fucking love hearing you say that you love me.’
I fell asleep with a grin on my face.
