Back to You (41 page)

“I don’t get it.”

“Vuk says that you’re the best thing that has ever happened to him, the only thing that concerns him is protecting you and being with you.”

“Go on,” I whisper, rigid, anxious. “I’m in no hurry to get home.” A slight smile turns up the corner of my mouth as I think about the trouble I’d get in with Donn if he could hear me now.

“You know that the Council will be holding a ceremony, right? And you know it has various phases. The summing up, the banquet, the proclamation, and the verdict. But maybe you don’t know that Vuk has volunteered himself as an offering for the ritual part of the ceremony,” he confesses, holding nothing back now. “Hardly surprising really, that’s just the way Vuk is.”

“Offering? He’s volunteered?” I gasp. My mind, for an instant, would rather believe a simpler, less painful lie to the truth. It’s the news I most feared and it sends a chill down my spine, putting my head into overload. I stare Drake straight in the eyes; I don’t want consolation right now, what I need is the bare, naked facts.

“Actually, your bloodsucker friends call it … a
sacrifice
.”

My eyes are as wide as saucers.

“Ah, don’t get upset,” he mumbles. “It’s an instinctive reaction.” There’s gravity in Drake’s voice now.

“A sacrifice,” I repeat numbly.

“That’s the bizarre part, one of those weird things.”

“I’m an expert in weird things.”

“I know, I know,” he smiles. “Anyway, basically, the only wolf that can attend the ceremony is the sacrifice. The wolf that will do battle with a bloodsucker opponent selected by the Council.”

“Are you messing with me?” I ask incredulously.

“He has to fight in a cage, it’s a battle for supremacy. There are undeniable rivalries between wolves and vampires. Speed, strength, agility, family ties, freedom … and sometimes we clash with them not only on the battlefield.”

I can feel myself turning red with rage and tears fill my eyes.

“Vuk and I are the only ones to see how wrong this all is,” he continues. “And well, my cousin too. He’s been spending a lot of time here with us.”

The tears flow from my eyes, I begin to weep quietly.

“Stella? What did I say?”

“Why didn’t you stop him?” I cry, throwing my hands in the air. Drake takes my wrists delicately, trying in vain to calm me down.

“You know that when Vuk get something into his head, there’s no stopping him. Nobody could make him see sense. Don’t worry, Stella, he’ll come out of it just fine.”

I try to shake his hands loose. I become livid with rage.

“What’s wrong?” he whispers in my ear soothingly.

“Shut up, Drake, just shut up! This isn’t right!” I realize that I’m acting like a five-year-old, but the rational side of me is totally obscured by the irrational one.

“This is really getting to you, isn’t it? I must admit, I read you wrong. I didn’t think you cared so much about Vuk.”

“Jeez! What kind of world is this? It’s not fair!” I take a few deep breaths to calm down; it’s pointless getting worked up over something I can’t control.

“Why did the Council choose Vuk? They know he’s my friend. And what happened to the wolf that was supposed to fight before him? What would happen to Vuk if he decided to pull out?” The questions flood out of me as if a dam had been opened. Drake laughs and releases his grip on me.

“The very fact that Vuk is not only a werewolf but also your buddy was what made the prospect of using him so damned attractive to the Council. They hadn’t yet made their pick of who was to fight against the bloodsucker. Your last question? I don’t think you can pull out once you have volunteered for the part. It’s an irreversible decision, you get me, Stella?”

I just stare at him, dumbfounded.

“At least try to get him out of it.”

Drake shrugs and shakes his head.

“I don’t think he wants to. It was his way of guaranteeing your safety, Stella. In the case of necessity. The cage fight is the only way into the ceremony, and once inside, he can protect you.”

Incredulous, I leap to my feet.

“Just what is this stupid ceremony?” I spit out, contemptuously.

“Basically, Stella, it’s a dumb formality that includes a ritual fight between sworn enemies in an enormous cage built for prehistoric birds. The more space they have to move, the more spectacular the show is. Symbolic supremacy is at stake. It’s not as bad as you think. Sit down, relax, and I’ll explain.”

“I don’t want to sit down.”

“Ok, do what you want. But I need to find a way to provoke Vuk into his first transformation when there’s no full moon. That’s why I wanted to see you this afternoon.”

My mind wanders back to the night of the last full moon when Vuk transformed. My head is spinning. I slump down on the trunk again.

Drake is searching for the right words to say.

“You saw how Vuk reacted last Thursday when he thought you were in danger, right? He began to shake from head to foot, but nothing else happened. I thought I could provoke him enough. So this time I have to be more convincing, he has to think you really are in trouble.”

My rage is suddenly extinguished like a fire in a downpour. I realize what a dummy I’m being. Instead of getting mad, I need to help here.

“Right, sure.”

He smiles, pleased that I’ve finally caught on. When Vuk has reached the point where he can control his body, he can transform at will. It’s not easy and it’ll take time to learn when apply the brake and how to hit the gas when the time is right. I can’t even always manage it. Of course, the fact that there’s a couple of ravenous vampires on your trail doesn’t help his self-control any, but … you’ve gotta keep your head, whatever happens. Vuk needs you.”

The sun suddenly bursts out from behind the clouds, its reflection on the beige gravel suddenly becoming a blinding white. I squint and turn away.

“Has Vuk ever talked to you about me?”

Drake’s eyes wander lazily to the house.

“Have you ever heard of
core
?”

“Core?” I repeat the word, which I can quite place in this context. “What is it?”

“One of the weird things we have to deal with. It’s the very reason of being for every wolf. It could be the pack, as it is for my cousin, It could be freedom, like for my father, or vendetta for me. And in Vuk’s case, it’s you. He was in love with the cause. But as soon as he met you, well nothing else mattered. Or almost.”

“Sorry,” I whisper. “Are you serious?”

Drake glances furtively at the wooden house again.

“Yes, it doesn’t happen to everyone. Actually, it’s an exception not a rule. But that’s how Vuk managed to find his…” His eyes bore into me, I blush. “His soul mate.”

“How?”

“Through Jason. It wasn’t safe for him to be with you all the time, but he couldn’t say anything to you yet. But he cheated, just like Donn did, and came back as J. before he was supposed to. You were going crazy because he refused to tell you what was going on, why he couldn’t see you so often, why he was always tired and moody. But the two of you made it through because you were in love. I don’t know what persuaded Vuk––the idea of freedom or your face ––to accept the last assignment. The one about you.”

I feel relief, but I can’t figure out why, it’s such an irrational feeling right now. I guess I must just be happy that something brought Vuk into my life. Drake gives the impression of being totally cool about all this, but his silence seems to hide a little embarrassment.

“And if Vuk had carried out his mission, he would have won his freedom in exchange. But his life became almost normal with you. No, it actually got better. He was still trying to deal with the fact that he would have to give you up to Jason when and if he every returned. He was sure he could handle it. He would talk to me about the phone calls and the promises that risked getting broken.”

“What was the assignment?”

Drake nibbles his lips nervously.

“He was supposed to be your guard dog, make sure you came to no harm. I mean, he was supposed to protect you until Jason got back. But things changed. I think I realized what was happening even before he did.”

“Were you given a kind of counter-mission?”

His face tenses up, a vein on his forehead begins to throb. “Yes, one from high up. Very high up.” His face is pained. “One that carried even more weight than the one Aaron assigned Vul. I got very precise orders from Graham. Jack Warner explained everything to him, telling him that the best was yet to come, at the ceremony. He has something planned for you and Jason, Stella. So, as head of the family, Graham wanted me to hunt you down, going against my own brother, to bring you into the library tower. In exchange, I was promised freedom. And, against my will, I accepted the mission. My cousin was more eager to do the job, for the good of the pack. So I let myself be persuaded to take it on, to become the bad guy in the picture.”

“And Vuk found out that night we first met in front of the bar, right?”

“To be honest, that wasn’t the main problem. Rules, freedom, count for nothing when you’ve found your other half. And Vuk was willing to give anything up for you. You know the rest of the story.”

He trails off, searching my face to see if I’m absorbing all this information.

“It was tough at first, we were close, you know. My brother and I were playmates, sparring partners, best buddies. But then I got tired of all that shit and I decided to talk to Vuk about what was going on. But it was like he was on another plane, as if he had been struck by lightning.”

I tear my gaze from his hazel eyes, trying to make sense of all he is saying. Our relationship was already complicated enough, now Drake had injected another dose of the supernatural to it.

“So … in the forest, when you were hunting me, you met Jason, or should I say J.?” My voice is wary, something that doesn’t escape his notice.

“Look at me, Stella.” I can’t help but obey. “You don’t know how Nathan died in the forest, do you?”

“I didn’t even know he was dead.”

“Vuk must’ve wanted to avoid you suffering that pain,” sighs Drake, shaking his head, a trace of bitterness in his words.

Unthinkingly, I turn my right hand toward the sunlight; the light catches the scar J. made.
Jason
made. I have to make an effort to think of my mysterious savior as Jason. But I don’t have any clear-cut memories of Nathan, he seemed a bit weird and standoffish, and that’s all that springs to mind. He liked playing around with knives, I remember that too. The feel of the sharp tip against my back still sends shivers down my spine.

The bright sun warms my skin, but I can still feel the heat radiated by Drake’s body. I wonder if he could get so hot he’d catch fire. A thought suddenly occurs to me.

“Some hikers were saying that they’d seen giant cougars, big as bears, near the coast, and Scott mentioned some people disappearing in the forest,” I say, looking at the sunlight setting his wild red hair aflame. “What happened? Did Nathan get attacked by a bear when he was hunting?”

“In a certain sense, you’re right,” he murmurs, his eyes foggy and dark. Then he shakes his head, trying to suppress a smile. “I guess I shouldn’t laugh, but it’s funny. ‘Young man attacked by a bear in the southwest in the late mating season. A terrible tragedy.’ That was the official conclusion filed by the rangers when they found him and gave us back his corpse after almost a month. My cousin was going crazy.”

“Did he know Nathan?”

“I’ll say!”

I try to hide the dismay on my face. “It’s terrible. What happened to him?”

“Jason seemed out of his head, to say the least. He wanted to know why we were dogging you. But I couldn’t tell him. That would have put my freedom at risk. I couldn’t breathe a word about any of it. So I fought tooth and nail until the very end. Nathan came up behind him, taking him by surprise. Anyway, it all happened in a flash.”

I feel like an intruder, peering through the crack in a wall at someone else’s pain. But there’s a peaceful atmosphere, despite the delicate subject matter.

“I don’t understand why Vuk didn’t talk to me about the ceremony right from the start.”

“All I know is that telling you about it would have been against the rules. But hiding it from you tortured him. He didn’t want you to feel guilty or try to stop him from doing it. I don’t know if he’s ever spoken to you about what I’m going tell you now… but Vuk used to fight against other unstable wolves. The aim of it is to bet on who will be able to transform first and who won’t be able to at all. But if one of them manages and the other doesn’t…”

“Oh no!”

He turns his nose up. “Yep, exactly!”

“So Vuk already knows how to transform when he wants?”

“He couldn’t always manage it. Plus, it’s different now, he hasn’t done it in over a year. And at the ceremony, I have to be a hundred percent sure that he can metamorphose at will, so that he can beat the Council’s chosen vampire. Otherwise there’s no hope for him. And we don’t want to risk that, do we?”

“No, because I’m going to stop him from going into that cage and offering himself as a sacrifice!”

“His request has already been accepted. On Thursday. When he met you after class, he acted as if nothing had happened, he thought it would be best for you. He didn’t want to cause you any pain.”

The blood drains from my face, I’m dazed and confused.

“This whole thing is absurd! I’m worried sick! How can you bear to know this is going to happen and just sit there calmly?”

“I can’t,” he murmurs, looking down at the ground with pained eyes.

“But you’re allowing it to!”

“And so would you, if you knew how much he wanted to do it! I’ve tried to convince him not to, but he won’t listen.”

He tries to gauge my reaction, but my face remains stony, it doesn’t betray the torment I’m feeling within.

He turns sharply toward the porch, as if he has heard something. Then he looks at me urgently.

“Listen, we don’t have much time. Vuk is on his way. I hope you manage to convince him, but I know my brother, we grew up together. And when he’s set his mind on something, especially if it’s about you, there’s nothing doing. I know this is traumatic for you. You see, for me transforming is easy, I don’t have to think twice about it, my body just does what I want. But Vuk can’t do that… at least not when he wants.”