A Cursed Bloodline (WG 4) (28 page)

He
changed
into a wolf and locked his gaze on mine. Except his eyes weren’t the soft brown of my love. They flashed bright green—the eyes of a cursed wolf.

Chapter Twenty-four

“No!”

Aric thundered toward us, tackling Tye. The vampires hit him with a storm of darts and still he secured a chunk of Tye’s throat. Michael kicked him off. Aric landed about thirty feet away and staggered to his feet, rearing to attack. His massive paws pounded the earth until his powerful form buckled and surrendered to the sedatives.

Tye wheezed and thrashed in pain as he covered the enormous hole in his neck. Blood squirted from his carotid artery like a geyser, beguiling the thirst of the injured vampires. They gathered around him, breathing heavily and gazing at him with primal hunger. I couldn’t move to help him. Terror left me paralyzed where I stood.

“Kill the wolf,” Misha ordered. He clasped my arm and hauled me away. I didn’t fight him. It was only when he tried to lift me into the SUV that I gathered my senses.

My voice shook hysterically. “You can’t kill him, Misha.”

“He is cursed with moon sickness. It must be done.”

“No,”
I sobbed.

“Celia—”

I clutched his arms with all my strength. “I’m pregnant.” He stared back at me, bewildered by my words. “It’s Aric’s, Misha. I’m carrying Aric’s child.”

The betrayal in Misha’s face forced me to loosen my grip. His entire demeanor crumbled in unfathomable misery, yet his devastation was quickly replaced with unimaginable fury. He yanked himself away from me only to seize me painfully by the shoulders and glower. His breath came out in threatening bursts. I thought he was going to strike me. But Misha’s blows never came. He dropped me and stormed back toward Aric. I struggled to regain my balance and sprinted after him.

Although he said nothing, the vamps who carried Aric’s limp form quickly released him.

“But, Master,” Tim said.

Tim averted his gaze, then he and the remaining vampires discarded their guns and shuffled toward the vehicles. They were all in bad shape; most were missing portions of their bodies or entire limbs. I clutched Misha’s hand when he tried to follow. “Thank you, Misha. I—”

Misha tore himself from my grasp, his irises reflecting back in that dreadful green. Every part of him was poised to attack. But instead he closed his eyes tightly. When he opened them again, they were gray, cold, and ominous.

He spoke with guttural rage. “My debt to you is repaid. I owe you
nothing
. You are no longer allowed in my presence. Do not even
dare
to speak my name.”

Misha stalked away. He didn’t look back. He said nothing more…and he didn’t have to. Our friendship was over, but I didn’t have time to mourn its loss.

I lifted the tranquilizer gun near my feet, shoved it into the waistband of my shorts, then tore a section of fabric from my tank top. Tye’s artery had sealed and his trachea had begun to reform, except chunks of flesh remained exposed. He needed help. I wrapped the stretchy fabric of my shirt around his neck and tied it tightly.

He watched my careful movement and swiped at his pale, clammy skin. “I have to kill him.”

My tigress eyes replaced my own. “You’ll have to kill me first.”

Tye clenched his teeth and glared. “You’re a fool, Celia.”

I stilled. “Maybe I am. But I won’t allow Aric to die.”

“Damnit, Celia. You don’t get it. He’s not Aric anymore. The moon sickness has claimed him!”

Tye became a blur as my tears blinded me. I blinked, allowing the large drops to streak down my face. “Don’t ever tell me what he is or he isn’t. You don’t know him and you have no idea what he’s capable of.”

We veered toward the sound of approaching footsteps. Michael limped to us. His right calf muscle had been stripped from the bone, exposing his tibia to the hungry flies gathering to feast. His grimace expressed his obvious pain. He bent and with his only arm gathered the remaining guns. “I’m going to help you,” he told me before I could ask.

“Did Misha send you?”

Michael paused. “No. The master wants nothing to do with you.”

“Then why?”

“Because you helped us.”

I sniffed. “Michael, Misha will interpret your actions as a betrayal and kill you for it. You have to go back.”

Michael continued about his task. “You helped us” was all he said.

Our cellphones were damaged during our fight with Lucinda. But even if we could call for help, Aric’s condition couldn’t wait. We needed to get him home. I left Michael and returned to the cave. Michael was in no condition to assist me in moving the cage that had housed his master, but that’s not why I asked him to stay behind. Tye would try to kill Aric in my absence. I knew that. With Michael there, he would think twice.

My fingers stuck to the remains of Misha’s victims when I gripped the bars. I dragged the cage out as quickly as possible, slamming it multiple times against the sharp cavern walls. I tried not to gag from the festering smells of death, but it was hard. My head pounded and my stomach lurched, yet it wasn’t until I slipped over something that slithered with maggots that I finally vomited. I leaned against the wall just outside the cave and tried to steady myself. It didn’t work. I lost what remained of my composure and broke down.

“
Shit
. Goddamnit!”

Never in my life had my faith been challenged more. I was so tired. Tired of fighting, tired of feeling, tired of pretending to be stronger than I was. I was tired of living. It was just too damn hard. I thought about my only other option. I could let Tye kill Aric. We were mates, right? If he died I’d soon join him, and we’d be together…and wouldn’t that son of a bitch Anara just love to be rid of me? And the nasty little shape-shifters? Oh hell, they might even throw a party.

I purposely struck my shin against the jagged stone. It hurt. Oh,
damn,
did it hurt! But I deserved it for entertaining thoughts about dying. No. If I died, it would be at God’s hands or at the hands of my enemies as I fought them until my very last breath—and not because I was a coward.

Screw that
.

I returned to the cave and dragged out the cage, heaving it through the demolition left by Lucinda’s cyclone.
Bitch
. Even in her absence she made everything harder for me. Despite my urgency and my frantic tugs it took an exceptionally long time to return to the base of the mountain.

Tye sat on the trunk of an uprooted palm tree. He seemed a little better, furious at me, but physically more improved. In contrast, Michael’s dark skin had turned ashen and sweat slicked his brow. He leaned against a palm for support, swatting the bugs that sought to gorge on the flesh dangling from his knee. If he didn’t feed soon I’d have more than one bloodlust victim to worry about.

Empty tranq darts lay scattered near Aric’s giant chest. Michael motioned to him with the rifle. “He woke up again.”

“I figured.” I counted the number of darts. There were eight. And I hadn’t been gone that long. “How many darts are left?”

“If you’re thinking about taking him back to Tahoe…not enough.”

“Then we’d better get going.” I shuffled toward Aric. I didn’t want to be stuck in a cage with him, but the only way to lug him inside was to drag him by his hind legs.

Tye scoffed. “The bars and the chain won’t hold him long.”

I wanted to throw a rock at him. “They’re reinforced with magic. I can smell it.”

Tye stomped over to me. “It doesn’t matter, Celia! Nothing you’re doing matters. The moon sickness will continue to drive him to kill while razing his neurological system! You’re a nurse, you know what that means—unendurable pain and brain damage. Is that what you want? Do you want him to suffer? Do you want him to kill—?”

My screams came out like choked sobs. “Shut up. I’m not giving up on him!” I snagged Aric’s legs and wrenched him inside the cage. “He needs to live—he
has
to live, and that’s all there is to it!”

There was more I wanted to say, but it would have meant more tears, and I couldn’t waste the energy. Michael shot him with tranquilizers even though Aric hadn’t moved. He bowed his head when I stared back at him in shock. “Sorry,” he muttered. “But you won’t be able to chain him on your own and there’s no way I want him waking up while I’m trapped in there with him.”

The collar wouldn’t fit around Aric’s gargantuan neck. We ended up tying it, limiting his movements. Given his lust to kill, we reasoned it was a good thing.

The cage was monstrous, heavy, and too wide to fit through the rear of the vehicle. Our only choice was to secure it to the roof with rope Michael had found in the remains of the barn. Michael and I struggled to lift it. He had only one hand and I was too short to be of much use. After a round or two of massive swearing, Tye stood and helped. I raced us back to town with Michael in the passenger seat and Tye sprawled across the back, although I doubted he could sleep with a volatile wolf just above his head.

I slowed our speed when we reached town and came upon a group of drunks, singing and stumbling their way home. Michael raised his brows. I nodded and rolled to a stop. My heavy lids lowered as I watched him approach the humans. I didn’t realize I’d fallen asleep until the sound of him shutting the door woke me when he returned.

I rubbed my face. “You look better.”

“Humph.”

I started the engine and floored it. “What’s wrong?”

Michael shot me a sour look. “I don’t normally feed on men.”

“Oh…right.” Vampires didn’t physically orgasm when they fed. It just felt that way psychologically. “Sorry.”

Michael grimaced. “I tried to pretend they were ugly women…really, really ugly women.”

He tried to make me laugh at his own expense, but nothing was funny when Aric’s torturous roars drowned the sounds of the engine. Michael lowered the window, sat on the rim, and shot several rounds into Aric until he finally stilled. I flinched with every squeeze of the trigger.

Michael’s expression lacked all humor when he slipped back into the seat. “We need to get back to Tahoe, quickly.”

I stomped on the accelerator. The weight from Aric and the cage pushed the engine to its limits. Each time we rounded a corner or hit a curb I fought to keep the SUV from tipping. Considering my hands wouldn’t stop shaking, it was a hell of an accomplishment.

We arrived at the San Salvador airport close to dawn. I didn’t bother telling Michael to influence the minds of everyone we passed. We didn’t have the time, he didn’t have the energy, and at that point I couldn’t care less who saw the giant wolf strapped to our roof.

My eyes cut Michael’s way. Poor guy. His feeding allowed his leg wound to heal and prevented bloodlust, but not much more than that. He’d have to nourish a lot more to regenerate his arm. And still he managed to invade enough minds to permit our entry onto the runway and find us a ride home.

Tye and I waited for him in silence, mostly because I refused to speak to him. He leaned against the hangar wall, alternating between scowling at me and watching Aric. “What do you expect will happen when you return to the Den?”

“I expect his Elders to cure him. Or maybe Emme can heal him. If not, perhaps Tahoe’s head witch could counteract the spell or something. Genevieve’s strong, she—”

“Can’t,” Tye finished for me.

“What?”

Tye’s voice slowly rose with anger. “Genevieve
can’t
reverse the spell. Emme
can’t
heal him. The Elders
can’t
cure him. There is no cure!” He pushed off the wall and shoved his face in mine. “They will kill him, and you, you will watch him die.”

The heat from my anger surged fast enough to suffocate. “Why are you here?” I shoved him away. “If this is what you really believe, why do you stay?”

Tye’s thick brows angled in frustration. “Because I don’t want him to kill you and I don’t want you to watch him die!”

Michael returned, his pace slowing when he caught Tye and me facing off. “I located a U.S. cargo plane here to deliver goodwill medical supplies. They’re scheduled to fly back to San Diego sometime tomorrow. I convinced them to leave for Tahoe right away. We can fake an emergency landing if we have to.”

I rushed forward to retrieve Aric, just as he woke up. He threw his body against the cage, hard enough to tip the SUV over.

The huge vehicle and cage rattled against the concrete and Aric still wouldn’t stop. He slammed into the bars, hard enough to bend them and snap his ribs. Tye shot him with four tranquilizers—and that only partially doped him. He tried to shoot him again and ran out of darts. Michael fired six more times before finally knocking Aric out. I couldn’t believe it. The cage and chain barely held him despite being reinforced with magic.

Michael reloaded his gun. “The moon sickness makes him increasingly stronger and violent. We’re running out of time.”

I dropped my hands to my sides. I hadn’t realized I’d clasped them against my mouth. “How soon can we leave?”

“As soon as the pilots are done refueling, we’re out of here.” Michael took in the crowd that had gathered from the commotion. “I’ll be right back.”

The group of pilots and grounds crew walked away smiling after Michael was done with them. Among them were two women. Michael used the opportunity to eat, again. When he finished I’d already cut the ropes binding the cage to the SUV. He helped me push the cage into the cargo plane. Tye didn’t help. His only contribution was to swear.

Michael nudged me a few hours into our flight. “You should sleep, you don’t look well.”

I could have slept for a week, but my worry for Aric kept my lids wide open and my heart thumping. He lay with his back to me. I’d been watching him breathe for a long while, agonizing over the spasmodic rise and fall of his chest. His ribs were slow to slide beneath his fur and reattach, taking close to an hour rather than mere moments.

The moon sickness was interfering with his ability to mend. I shuddered, wondering how else it ravaged his body.

I forced myself to rise rather than taking Michael up on his offer and pushed my sweaty hair away my face. “Shouldn’t we give him some water or feed him?”