Descendant (21 page)

"What happened?" I asked, my legs automatically carrying me toward him as I eyed the makeshift-bandage.

"Hm? Oh this...” He lightly touched the bandage with his fingers and shrugged. “It is only a scratch. But Vanessa is fingers and shrugged. “It is only a scratch. But Vanessa is making me wear this ridiculous bandage."

"So that it doesn't get infected!" came Vanessa's insistent cry. "Do you want to go blind?"

"No, I suppose not," Eli said sheepishly, suddenly seeming a lot less like an authoritative young man and a lot more like a child being scolded by his mother.

"That's what I thought." Now back to her human form, Vanessa marched herself over to his side. "Now, let me look at it and make sure it hasn’t gotten dirty."

"But I mean... how did that happen?” I asked.

"You guys missed all the excitement," Eli said, flinching as Vanessa’s hand reached for the bandage.

I felt nauseous all of a sudden. "What excitement?"

"We had a few visitors while you were gone," Vanessa said as she loosened Eli bandage and inspected his eye.

"Who?" Kael asked.

Vanessa shrugged. "We didn't recognize any of them,” she replied. “Which is bad news in itself.” I gave her a confused look.

"It means Valkos’ forces are growing, perhaps faster than we original y thought," Eli clarified. "There were seven of them at first, all of which were new faces. We managed to take care of all but two of them, but then reinforcements showed up. And there were at least ten of them. At least ten more we didn’t recognize."

"The ones that passed us in the woods, I bet," I said quietly, glancing sideways at Kael. I felt even sicker. We should’ve known they were coming here. We should’ve been here.

Beside me, Kael shook his head but didn’t say anything.

"I don’t understand," I said. “I'm assuming they were after me, right? But we passed right by them in the woods. We heard them. They must not have been looking too hard if—"

"Apparently, he’s not just after you," Shane interrupted.

"What?"

“They took your sister, didn’t they?” Shane said.

“Yeah but—”

"He’s col ecting hostages."

"What?" I shook my head numbly, staring into Shane’s cold, dark eyes. "They already have my sister…isn’t that enough for them?" Shane didn’t reply.

“Valkos doesn’t like to take chances,” Kael said quietly.

“Having more than one hostage gives him more room to work with." His factual tone annoyed me.

"How about you don’t talk about my little sister like she’s just some pawn for this guy to work with?”

“That’s exactly what she is to him,” he said impatiently. “Her and Emily both—and anyone else he can get his hands on.”

“That doesn’t mean you have to—”

"Guys!" Vanessa interjected quietly, beating out Kael just as he opened his mouth to interrupt me. "We're wasting time here.” She gave me and Kael a stern look, and we both fell grudgingly silent. Vanessa cleared her throat and continued. "Back to what happened,” she said. “They went after Emily first. They could probably tell how weak she was — made her an easy target. We tried to stop them of course, but we were way past outnumbered by that point. A handful of them carried her off...” Her voice broke a little, and she had to take a deep breath before continuing. “Will and Jack followed them… and…”

"And we haven’t heard anything from them in a while now,"

"And we haven’t heard anything from them in a while now,"

Shane finished for her in a quiet, seething voice.

"But it’s possible they are purposely not responding, for fear their thoughts might be intercepted," Eli said, looking pointedly at Vanessa with his one good eye as she finished retying the bandage over his other.

"That's what we're hoping for," Vanessa said, her voice almost steady again. She turned to me and attempted a smile. "Anyway, not all of them left with Emily…there were at least half a dozen left for us to deal with."

"That's how this happened," Eli said, pointing to his eye.

"This is all my fault." It was all I could think to say.

"Please do not worry yourself about it, Alex," Eli said. "We all knew when we took you into our home that it would only be a matter of time before Valkos found out, even with all the precautions we took. None of us expected it to come this soon, perhaps, but we knew it would come, nonetheless."

"So you knew there were risks. Doesn’t change the fact that I brought this on all of you."

"We can debate that later, if you insist," Eli said. "Right now, we should be thinking about our course of action."

"Isn't it obvious?" Shane said before anyone else even had a chance to think about speaking. "What else is there to do? They struck first— and I say if they want a fight, we give them a fight. Besides, as soon as I tell my pack members about Emily, they’l be ready to tear Valkos’ throat out."

"Or die trying," Kael said.

"My lycans aren't afraid of death," Shane shot back.

"Oh good,” Kael said. “Because that’s exactly what you’ll be leading them to if you try and launch an attack with that sort of mentality."

Shane gave a dismissive snort. "I wouldn't expect a werewolf to understand the concept of dying with honor—or the concept of honor period, for that matter."

If it hadn't been for the way Shane had said it— like it was some sort of disgusting swearword— I probably wouldn’t have given a second thought to the word ‘werewolf’. I couldn’t help but notice though, how tense the air had gotten all of a sudden. And it was obvious the word hadn’t slipped by Eli and Vanessa unnoticed. Because for all that talk about Kael being part of the family, they both suddenly seemed to have lost interest in the conversation.

To me, it was just one more word in the jumbled mess of everything the past week had thrown at me. The silence now lingering over us reinforced at least one thing I’d learned about the two races, though: clearly, Eli hadn’t been kidding when he said werewolves and lycans didn’t usual y mix—in conversation or otherwise. Shane and Kael looked ready to kill , and I was almost positive they were both fully capable of it. So I spoke up quickly, before either of them had a chance to snap.

“I was kind of hoping nobody would have to die— with or without honor,” I said. For a second, I thought the two of them were actual y so focused on hating each other that they were oblivious to anything I was saying. But then Shane turned his head slowly to look at me.

“Clearly, you have no idea who we’re dealing with. People are going to die.”

“Well thank you for that bright little ray of sunshine,” I said scornfully. “But yes—clearly I have no idea. But you guys do, so it would be real y great if you could stop trying to kill each other for a few minutes so we could figure out where the hel to go from here.”

Shane gave Kael one last glare and the turned his attention fully to me, his posture relaxing slightly. “I told you,” he said, fully to me, his posture relaxing slightly. “I told you,” he said, shaking his head. “There’s nothing to figure out. Not for me, anyway. You guys can sit here and debate and formulate your little plans as long as you want—but I’ve wasted enough time. So if you guys wil excuse me…”

And then he turned and actual y started to walk away.

“Wait a second!” I called before I could stop myself.

Shane halted in mid-step and looked back over his shoulder at me. “What?”

“Are you serious? You’re just going to go? Just like that?”

“Yeah. Why?”

I bit my lip, hesitating. I knew what I wanted to say. And I knew exactly the reaction my words would get. “Well … then I’m going with you,” I said anyway.

“No you aren’t.”

“Like hel you are.”

“That is a real y bad idea, Alex.”

Eli was closest to me, so I turned and replied to him first.

“Maybe it is a bad idea. And I’m definitely open to any others—but I don’t hear anybody else suggesting any so…”

I swallowed hard before continuing. “I’m with Shane on this one.” I almost choked a little bit when I said that last part. I didn’t real y know Shane, but after witnessing his violent display of temper and obvious prejudice, I wasn’t sure how I felt about being on the same page with this guy.

Shane was studying me, looking curious and maybe a little pleased. “Of course you’re with me,” he said in carefull voice. “You want to save your sister, right?” His question sounded more like a statement. “I bet standing around like this is kill ing you.”

And that was all it took. Somebody understood me. Final y.

And—if only for that moment—I was prepared to follow Shane anywhere. I stared at Shane, at a momentary loss for words. I was about to agree, but Kael spoke before I managed to.

“Don’t act like you have her interests at heart,” he said.

I spun around to face him, feeling a sudden surge of anger that I couldn’t have justified if I’d tried. I met his eyes briefly, and then looked away just as quickly. My heart sank. Why did he have to be the voice of reason, anyway? I knew I couldn’t argue that Shane was truly trying to help me. I just wanted to think someone was on my side for once.

“What are you suggesting?” Shane asked, lowering his eyebrows.

“Having the one thing Valkos wants would be real y convenient for you, wouldn’t it? Maybe none of your pack wil have to die after all , huh?”

“I hope you’re not trying to say I would—”

“He’s trying to use you, Alex,” Kael said bluntly.

“Kael…” Eli began.

“I’m getting kind of tired of your lies,” Shane said, his lips curling into a snarl. “Besides, even if we left here and marched straight up to Valkos’ front door step, Alex would still be safer going with me than staying here with you.”

“It doesn’t matter one way or the other—there’s no way in hel she’s going with you.”

“You can’t stop me from—” The defeated look on Kael’s face brought my argument to an abrupt halt.

“Not just with you,” he said. “If she goes, I’m going too.”

I wanted to run and throw my arms around him. And if part I wanted to run and throw my arms around him. And if part of me didn’t suspect that Kael had only said that because he liked pissing Shane off, I probably would have. I tried not to dwel on Kael’s motives, though. I was just glad he was coming with me.

“There are five of us,” Eli said suddenly. “One of whom can not even shift.” He said it in his usual, factual tone—it wasn’t condescending at all .

But I still felt like I was being called out, and it still stung.

“I know I can’t yet—but it could take weeks for me to learn,” I said. “We don’t have weeks.”

“This is a real y bad idea,” he said, unmoved.

“She brings up a good point though,” Vanessa said quietly.

“Right now, or this time next week—what does it matter?

We don’t real y even have a clear idea of what we’re facing, anyway. Al the time in the world might not be enough to prepare us, one way or the other.”

“A couple of days could make a big difference though,”

Kael said. “It would give us time to—”

“You’ve already agreed to come with me!” I interrupted impatiently.

“…Not because I agree with you,” he said, frowning at me.

“Eli’s right—this is a horrible idea. We should at least hang back long enough to form some sort of plan.”

“I already have a plan,” Shane growled. “It’s simple, and it starts with not standing around doing nothing while Valkos kill s off two of my pack members, along with the girl’s sister, and not to mention Will . Some family you guys have here—I’ll be sure to let Will know just how you feel about him. After I rescue him, I guess.”

“Shut-up.” The low, threatening voice didn’t sound like Vanessa at all , but it was her fingers that dug into Shane’s shoulder a second later. She jerked him around to face her, her gaze livid. “I like you Shane,” she said in a steady voice.

“But if you ever suggest that I would abandon Will , or Emily, or any of them again…I swear to God I wil rearrange that pretty face of yours in the most painfull way possible.” She flashed him a charming smile and shoved him away. There was silence again. I just stared while Eli shook his head, and Kael looked like he’d gotten everything he wanted for Christmas.

“Alex.” I flinched as Vanessa turned to me, even though her expression had already gone soft again. “I’m with you, if you want to go.”

I nodded, and Vanessa walked over to my side. Kael and Eli exchanged glances but didn’t move, and Shane cleared his throat.

“Right,” he said, eying Vanessa warily. “I’m leaving. You guys do what you want.” He was almost out of sight before I got my feet to start moving after him. Vanessa caught up with me a second later. Neither of us said anything.

We just walked.

“Yeah, this is definitely a problem,” Shane muttered. “What now?” I asked. I didn’t know if I could handle anymore bad news at the moment. “Their scents are practical y on top of one another here,” he said.

“Which means…?”

“It means Will and Jack caught up with our new friends after all ,” Kael said, his tone impatient and borderline condescending. The few words he’d said to me since we’d left the house had all been in that same tone, and it was starting to get real y annoying. I assumed his bad mood toward me probably had something to do with the fact that I’d sided with Shane. But I had no intentions of apologizing for that, so I was just going to have to weather it.

“So where are they now?” I wondered aloud, making a point of avoiding eye contact with Kael as I spoke. “Bad news there, I’m afraid,” came Vanessa’s voice. She and Eli had been scouting ahead of us, but now the two of them reemerged from the trees and into the clearing we’d stopped in. They both wore identical worried looks. “There are two paths that lead away from this clearing,” Eli said.

“One group appears to have taken Emily one way, while another group went in the complete opposite direction—with Will and Jack.” Shane let out a string of curse words.

“Why would they split up?” he asked. “My guess would be they’re trying to separate us, too,” Vanessa said. “Or slow us down, at the very least.” “So they know we’re following them?” I hypothesized.

Eli nodded. “So it would seem.” “So which way are we supposed to go now?”

“Ever heard of divide and conquer?” Shane interjected without missing a beat. “There are five of us—three go one way, two go the other. The group of three should probably —” “So you’re suggesting we do exactly what they want us to do?” Kael interrupted. “Bril iant. They’l never see it coming.”

I sighed, anticipating the oncoming argument.

“We’re not even sure how many we’re up against,” Kael went on. “Al five of us might not even be enough to take on half of them. If we separate, the chance of us rescuing anybody is slim to none.” “Al right then—we stick together,”

Shane said through clenched teeth. “Now are you going to be the one who decides which way we go? Are you going to decide whose lives we save? No? I didn’t think so.”

Kael fixed him with a ruthless stare. “We’d have a better chance for success going after Will and Jack,” he said.

Shane turned to him, his expression furious. But Kael wasn’t done. “There are two of them and—as far as we know—they’re both still healthy. They could aid in their own escape.”

“This is not a gambling opportunity,” Shane snapped. “Just because there’s a better chance of—” “For the love of all things holy—wil you guys give it a rest?” Vanessa shouted, causing everyone to jump. “The bickering is not helping,”

she added as everyone turned to stare at her. I mouthed a silent ‘thank you’ to Vanessa as Eli nodded in agreement with her words. “Vanessa’s right. Shane, Kael—I think you both make valid points.” Kael and Shane both gave Eli a disgruntled look. Clearly, a shared victory wasn’t what either had in mind. I don’t think Eli cared. “I do not think we should separate,” he continued. “But I do not think we should follow one group over the other, either.” “And the other option is…?”

“I think we can be pretty sure that—whatever route they take to get there— they are all heading for the same place, right?” No one disagreed. “Shane, you mentioned the rest of your pack earlier. How soon can they reach us?”

“Probably a couple of hours,” Shane said, paying full attention to Eli for the first time. “Maybe sooner. I haven’t been in contact with them for a while now, since we’ve gotten so far away—it would be too easy for our conversation to get intercepted.” “I assumed as much.” “But I can be within a safe range in no time at all , if I hurry,”

Shane continued in a rush. “We could be back by sunset, no problem.” “That would give us time to plan our next move…” “Which is what?” Kael interjected savagely. “A full -

on assault? Eli, I expect this kind of thing from this idiot” —he jerked his thumb toward Shane—“but from you?”

Eli looked like he’d been slapped across the face. I couldn’t help but wonder how often he’d been accused of being wrong—it wasn’t something that had ever occurred to me, to be honest. He always seemed so sure of himself, so confident and full of authority. Now he was quiet, and didn’t seem to want to take his eyes off the ground; if he’d been in wolf form I think his tail would’ve been drooped between his legs. It was several moments before he managed to look up and meet Kael’s intimidating glare.

“If nothing else, Shane should still go,” Eli said as Vanessa placed a hand on his shoulder. “No matter what, reinforcements are a good idea. I do not think the five of us are going to be able to do much of anything alone. And I know that I, for one, am exhausted. We could rest while we wait for Shane to get back.”

Nobody it seemed—not even Kael—could argue too enthusiastical y against the suggestion of rest. So Shane left, and we stayed and set up camp in the clearing.

The guys had ragged on Vanessa for taking the time to pack plenty of food, but I was definitely thankfull for it.

Because while Eli and Kael were perfectly content with hunting their supper, I wasn’t planning on leaving my human taste buds behind anytime soon. I got the impression that Vanessa would’ve liked to join them on their hunting expedition, but she insisted that wasn’t the case. So the two of us held down the fort while eating our way through the bag full of food she’d brought and waiting for them to the bag full of food she’d brought and waiting for them to get back.

Once I’d eaten as much as my stomach could possibly hold, I stretched out and laid back in the rough grass, clasping my hands together behind my head.

“Hey Vanessa?” I said after a few minutes of stargazing.

“Hm?”

I hesitated, even though I was the one who had interrupted the silence.

“Do you think it’s true? Al that stuff about the pact? I mean —do you real y think I’m the descendant of that guy?”

Vanessa frowned. “It’s the only thing that makes sense,”

she said with a shrug. “I can’t think of any other reason Valkos would risk openly attacking you and your family like that. It was definitely a dangerous move for him—one I don’t think he would’ve made if he didn’t have a lot to gain from it.”

I considered her words for a second. “This Valkos guy…just how big of a threat are we talking, anyway?” I asked, sitting up.

Vanessa fixed her eyes on the small campfire we’d built, grabbed a stick lying at her feet and started breaking it into small er pieces and tossing them into the fire. For a second, I didn’t think she was going to talk. But then she turned to me, shaking her head. “We’re talking…” she began slowly.

“About a creature who raided vil ages, slipping into houses in the middle of the night and stealing sleeping children so he could infect them. Because the younger they were—”

she paused, and flung what was left of the stick into the flames, “—the easier they were to controll once they became werewolves, which made them perfect candidates for his army.”

I stared blankly, trying to digest that sickening little factoid.

But Vanessa had more to say.

“He’s smart. Manipulative. Al he used in the beginning—al he needed— were words. A lot of us thought this guy knew what he was talking about. And I’m not talking about bad lycans, either. I’m talking normal, smart, well -respected lycans—lycans who you’d never think would hurt a soul—started raising their own war-cry against the humans thanks to him.”

Her voice trailed off towards the end. A wall of water had formed over her eyes, and they shimmered in the light of the flames. The unshed tears might’ve just been because of the smoke stinging her eyes. But something told me that wasn’t the case.

“You knew some of those people?” I guessed quietly.

She gave one, barely-noticeable nod. “He tore apart a lot of families,” she said without looking up.

Vanessa didn’t seem like she wanted to go on. After we were silent for several minutes I started to feel a little bad for even bringing it up, so I tried find something to change the subject with. I had one topic in mind that I was almost sure Vanessa would be up to talking about. But I real y didn’t want to talk about Kael right now. There was too much uncertainty there now. Too many questions, questions I wanted to talk to him—and only him— about.

Of course, there was no guaranteeing he would actual y be willing to talk to me about them. I lifted my head and looked at Vanessa, who was staring miserably into the fire.

“Hey …you know the other night, when we were talking about Sera?” I ventured. “You said we’d talk later, about why Kael didn’t want me to know who she was…” I let the topic hang in the air.

Vanessa looked up and nodded, but didn’t say anything.

Figuring she needed a little more persuasion, I went ahead and divulged—probably against my better judgment—what and divulged—probably against my better judgment—what had almost happened earlier between me and Kael in the woods. I don’t know why I brought it up—there were so many other ways this conversation could have gone.

Besides, I’d been planning on keeping this particular incident to myself, and also on pretending it had never actual y happened.

As it turned out, though, it was just the distraction Vanessa needed.

“I knew it,” she said once I’d finished talking.

“Knew what?” I asked. Oh God. What had I done?

“You and him. Him and you. You know, I never would’ve seen this coming but…” she looked thoughtful for a second, then she bobbed her head up and down and brought her gaze—her suddenly very serious gaze—back down to mine. “But man—it’s so obvious!”

“What’s so obvious?”

“That he’s in—”

I held up a hand, cutting her off. “Whoa. Whoa now.” Her lips had been forming the “L-word” and, as determined as I might’ve been to distract her, we were so not going there.

Or at least I wasn’t.

Vanessa, on the other hand, was already there. “That explains why he didn’t want you to know who Sera was,”

she said.

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m pretty sure there’s something between Kael and Sera —or at least, there used to be. I’ve tried to get him to tell me just what that something is, but he’s not real big on talking about his past.” She shrugged. “But it’s kind of obvious, right? You saw yourself that first day at the lake, how he just let her go? I’ve fought beside Kael enough to know that he definitely holds back whenever Sera’s concerned. He’s protecting her.” Her hands clapped suddenly together and she nodded excitedly. “There are still lingering feelings there.” She said it as if she was presenting a fact.

“And that has what to do with me…?”

“Don’t you see? He doesn’t want you to know that he still cares about Sera. Might ruin his chances with you.” She folded her arms across her chest and nodded solemnly.

“Wow.” It was all I could manage to say. A bemused smile spread across my face. “That’s…not logical at all .”

“There’s nothing logical about love, Alex.”

“Don’t use that word,” I warned her.

She looked undettered. “What? I cal ‘em like I see ‘em.”

“You’re crazy.”

“You’re crazy if you don’t jump on this golden opportunity,”

she said simply.

“Golden opportunity?” I repeated, stifling a laugh.

“Oh, don’t act like you don’t think he’s hot.”

I coughed so hard I nearly choked. “I never said he wasn’t,” I muttered. For a second it felt like the flames of our fire had jumped to my cheeks. I heard movement, somewhere in the distance—probably just a squirrel or something, but it sent a panicky realization through me just the same. “Look, considering he’s got supersonic hearing and all , how about we drop this particular conversation for the time being?

And by ‘for the time being’ I actual y mean forever.”

“He’s been way out of hearing range for a while now.”

“How can you tell ?”

“Because my sense of smell is better than my hearing, and I lost track of his scent some time ago,” she replied. “Eli, on the other hand, is close.”

Sure enough, less than a minute after the words left her mouth a gray wolf trotted its way into the clearing. His appearance was a welcome interruption to our conversation, but I shuddered at the thought of how much of that conversation he’d heard.

I tried to ignore the splotches of red covering Eli’s face and neck—I didn’t want to think about the poor little woodland creature that had become his dinner. It didn’t help that I could still smell the alkaline scent of the blood, either. As he approached us, I had to stop my hand from automatically covering my mouth in disgust. I swallowed hard. How was I going to get use to this stuff? “Where’s Kael?” I asked, trying not to think about how weird it was to be talking to a wolf—a wolf who, for that matter, lifted his head toward me as I spoke and whose blue-gray eyes were glowing with obvious understanding. I ignored the smug look Vanessa shot me.

(He offered to take the first watch, while the rest of us sleep.) I nodded to let him know I’d heard him. He turned to Vanessa next. (Are you going to sleep like that?) I heard him ask. She shook her head silently, looking at me. “I don’t mean to make you the lone human, but it’s much safer for us to sleep like that,” she said, nodding toward Eli.