Descendant (11 page)

Sera stood completely still , fists clenched and a determined look on her face, until Kael was no more than five feet away. She took a single step backward and crouched low to the ground, her teeth bared as if to return Kael’s growl.

Then things started to get real y weird.

I was about twenty feet away, and at first I thought what I saw must’ve been have been a trick of the sunlight. The sun’s rays couldn’t possibly have been beaming off of her teeth, could they? But I quickly saw that they, in fact, were—because her teeth had suddenly grown much too large for her mouth, into fangs that had plenty of surface area to reflect sunlight. Her face grew longer then, to accommodate her new set of teeth, and she fell forward onto her hands her new set of teeth, and she fell forward onto her hands and knees. Her arms and legs shook uncertainly for a few seconds before shifting into more muscular, canine versions. Then her own shadow enveloped her, and for a few seconds she was nothing more than a cloud of darkness that seemed to be growing bigger every second, until it final y unfurled to reveal a massive, jet-black wolf.

And there was something very familiar about this particular wolf.

My hand cupped and flew to my mouth in surprise. There was no mistaking it. I was staring at the same creature that had tried to drown me in the lake. Sera had failed to kill me then, and so she was back to try again. Last time, Kael had managed to chase her away. But this time he was facing her alone.

He hardly seemed intimidated though. Before the newly transformed Sera had even taken a single step, Kael attacked. His teeth went for her throat, but she danced sideways and out of the way just in time, so they just barely grazed her shoulder instead.

Sera stumbled briefly as Kael hit her, but she recovered quickly, spun around and threw her uninjured shoulder hard into his side— with what must have been incredible force, judging by the indention Kael’s body left in the ground when he landed several feet away.

Almost as soon as he hit the ground, Kael had sprung to his feet once more, and in the next instant, he propel ed himself forward in a single, fluid motion. Sera dodged and retaliated with a strike of her own, but Kael managed to dodge it as well . They moved with surprising grace for such large creatures, and I couldn’t help but be a little awestruck by it all .

Neither seemed to have a clear advantage over the other, which was a scary thing. What was I supposed to do if Kael lost? Not to mention that if anything happened to him, it would be my fault. He’d told me to stay at the house. He’d told me I would be safer there. Why couldn’t I just listen?

I was so busy trying to controll these racing thoughts that my focus inadvertently drifted for a moment, but a sharp yelp brought me back into the moment. My anxious gaze flew back to the battle. There was no need to worry, though, because while I’d been busy freaking out in my head Kael had clearly gained the upper hand.

He towered over Sera now, and she seemed to be having difficulty putting any weight on her right front leg. I watched her hobble slowly backward on her three good legs, ears pinned against her head and snarling and snapping all the while. She stopped once she’d put about five feet between them, and there she seemed determined to stand her ground.

But that determination wavered as Kael closed that space she’d put between them. For every step Kael took toward her, Sera took two reluctant steps backward, until she’d backed all the way up the bank and to the edge of the woods that ran alongside the road. There, her stubborn figure remained even when Kael stepped so close their noses touched.

When she refused to move any further, Kael’s low growl exploded into a fierce snarl and he lunged forward, hitting her square in the chest and sending her toppling over. She remained on the ground for several seconds before climbing shakily back to her three good feet.

She lowered her head and, still growling, turned and slinked into the cover of the trees. Kael tore after her, and it was a long while before their snarls and yelps faded into the distance.

Dazed, I pushed my door open and stepped out. I felt a flutter of panic rising in my chest as I looked toward the now silent woods. Where was Kael? And had I real y just seen all that? I braced myself against the hood of the care, closed my eyes and too a few deep, calming breaths. I wanted to go make sure he was okay. But I couldn’t move.

wanted to go make sure he was okay. But I couldn’t move.

( Kael?) I tried thinking. It was all I could manage; I was too shaken to even think a coherent sentence. There was no answer for what felt like a long time. I was about to attempt to leave the support of my car behind and go search for Kael when I heard footsteps.

“What part of stay at the house didn’t you understand?”

My teeth clenched at his words, which where loud and clear —without the soft echo that accompanied thoughtspeech.

“I was only going to be gone a few hours! You can’t real y expect me to stay locked up in my house the rest of my life,”

I said, whipping around to face him. I still had plenty of adrenaline left, and if he was looking for fight…

But a quick glance over his now-human self melted my anger pretty quickly. I saw the bloody streaks across his face first; they started across his right cheekbone and disappeared up into his hairline, into a patch of hair that was significantly darker than the rest.

“Kael…you…you’re bleeding!”

He snorted. “Yeah, that’s general y what happens when six inch fangs rip through you,” he said bitterly as he examined his right arm, which was covered and dripping with dark red blood.

“No, I mean, you’re bleeding a lot.”

“Again—they were like six inches long.”

“You’re going to bleed to death!”

He glanced up at me then, amusement briefly lighting up his features. “Not this time,” he said, ripping a strip of cloth from what was left of his shirt and using his teeth to help tie it tightly around his upper arm. “Just a few scratches—no big deal. They’l heal soon enough...especial y since tonight’s a full -moon.”

“Ful moon…?” I stammered, still staring at him in disbelief.

Even with his make-shift tourniquet, it still looked like he was losing an awfull lot of blood.

“You humans got a few things right in your stories,” he explained. “We’re stronger during the full -moon. And you already know, since you saw what happened to your arm after you were attacked at the lake, that we heal several times faster than humans do on any given day. So multiply that healing ability by the power of the full moon and, like I said, these scratches will be gone this time tomorrow, if not before.”

The site of all that blood was starting to make me nauseous, so I looked away. My eyes ended up on my own arm. Hopefully Kael would heal as quickly as I had.

“Speaking of the lake…that was Sera, wasn’t it? That day at the lake… she was the one who tried to drown me?”

Kael nodded. “Now you see why I told you to stay away from her?”

“Well , yeah. But why didn’t you tell me who she was?”

Kael looked uncomfortable all of a sudden, and took a long time answering. “…You didn’t ask,” he final y said.

I glared at him. Did he real y think that was a good enough excuse to not warn me about somebody who wanted to kill me? He turned and started walking toward my car, and I stomped after him—I wasn’t planning on letting him off that easily. But then I caught sight of his bloody arm again, and guilt flooded over me.

Okay, maybe I could ask Vanessa or somebody about Sera later.

Kael reached my car and crouched down beside my passenger side door.

“Wow,” I said, kneeling down beside him. “You completely “Wow,” I said, kneeling down beside him. “You completely destroyed it.”

“Would you rather I had left the two of you alone?”

I frowned. “Just making an observation,” I said quietly. “And for the record?” I couldn’t help but add, running my hand along the twisted metal frame. “I had everything under control…I was the one holding the gun, in case you didn’t notice.”

“You wouldn’t have shot it,” he said. “And it wouldn’t have mattered if you did. Even in her human form, a few bullets wouldn’t have stopped her.”.

My eyes widened slowly as I realized just how serious of a situation he’d gotten me out of. “Why did you do it?” I asked suddenly.

“What?”

“You said you wouldn’t follow me. What made you change your mind?”

The question seemed to have caught him off-guard.

“Maybe I just didn’t have anything better to do?” he said, looking away.

“You didn’t have to help me.”

“I know.”

“What about the others? Why didn’t they come?”

“They did,” Kael said. “Will and Eli stayed behind to take care of things at the mal .”

“At the mal …?”

“Sera rarely operates alone.”

“You mean there are more like her?” I asked. And then a horrifying thought crossed my mind. “Lora!” I cried, placing a hand over my mouth. “I forgot about Lora! We have to go back! That guy that was following us…I bet he… How could I have left her?”

Close to hyper-ventilating, I ran over and threw open my car door. Kael was beside me a second later, and he pushed me aside and slammed it shut again.

“What are you doing?” I asked, glaring at him.

“Do you listen to anything I say?” Kael asked, his tone a mixture of annoyance and bewilderment. “Lora’s fine. Will and Eli are with her—they’re already on the way back to your house.”

“…Oh,” I breathed.

“We should probably head back too,” he said, eying me warily. “Are you going to be okay to drive?”

“Yeah,” I said without hesitation—even though, now that I thought about it, the last thing I wanted to do was get back in that car. “But what about my door?”

“Might be a little breezy, but the car should still drive alright,”

he said, opening the door, sliding into the seat and turning the key I’d left in the ignition. My car started with no more protest than usual, and Kael got back out and held the door open for me. “Just stick to the back roads and drive slowly.

Hopefully you won’t pass any cops…Do you know the way to your house from here?”

“I think so.”

“I’ll run alongside you, just in case.”

“Okay.” I climbed into seat and pulled my seatbelt on. “I’ll see you at the house.”

He nodded and then disappeared up into the trees, and I proceeded to drive back to my house slower than I’d ever proceeded to drive back to my house slower than I’d ever driven in my life. Every now and then I’d catch a glimpse of silver racing through the trees beside the road, which was bizarre at first, but by the time we pulled onto the road I lived on it seemed almost normal. Other than an occasional demand to ‘hurry up’—which I ignored every time— Kael kept his thoughts to himself. And so, for most of the ride home, I was left to my own.

I knew I should’ve been overwhelmed with relief. It had been a close-cal , but everything turned out fine. Despite what he’d said, Kael showed up just in time to save me. I was thankfull for that—truly, I was. But for some reason, all I could think about where the what-ifs.

What if he’d been too late? What if he hadn’t come at all ?

What if Sera had decided to kill me right then and there, in that mal parking lot? And then what about Lora? If Sera had moved to attack Lora, I wouldn’t have been able to stop her. I was just a weak human, after all . For now, I was just a weak human. But not after tonight. I didn’t care what Kael, or any of the others thought anymore.

I wasn’t staying this way.

As I drove back to the house, I didn’t bother trying to keep my thoughts from Kael or anyone else who might’ve been listening. So it came as no surprise when Will met me at my car door with a worried look on his face the second I drove up.

“Don’t do this, Alex,” he said as he held open the door and offered me his hand. I took it and pulled my self out of the car, but didn’t look at him. “You seem like a nice kid—I don’t want you to become my enemy,” he continued in a plaintive voice.

“Where is my sister?” I asked quietly.

“She’s inside. And she’s perfectly fine,” Will said, as if presenting an argument. “So I don’t know why you—”

“Yeah, she’s fine thanks to you,” I interrupted. “What if you hadn’t been there?”

“But I was there. Me and Eli both were.”

“And I thank you both for that, I real y do. But—”

“But what?”

“But I’d prefer to take from here.”

“There’s nothing wrong with relying on others, you know,”

Will said, shaking his head.

“Yeah. Until they let you down,” I said under my breath, shoving past him and heading for the front door.

“We haven’t let you down yet, have we?” he called after me.

His voice sounded smug, and I slowed almost to a stop, my guilty feelings from earlier resurfacing. I regained my composure quickly, though, and hurried on to the front door.

I’d almost made it to the porch steps when another voice called my name. This time I did stop, leaving one foot balanced on the bottom step. I looked back over my shoulder to see Eli walking toward me.

“What?” I demanded.

He smiled at me, despite the harsh tone of my voice. “It seems you’ve made up your mind,” he said in his calm, quiet voice.

“…Yes,” I said with a carefull nod, taking my foot off the step and turning to face him.

“It is your choice to make, so I wil not try and talk you out of it,” he continued. “But I do have a favor to ask of you.”

Of course he did. There’s always a catch. “What kind of favor?” I asked.

“I think it would be in everybody’s best interest if your first shift took place under capable supervision—just in case.

The newly transformed are usual y a danger to not only others, but also to themselves as well .”

His words caused the bile that had settled in the back of my throat to rush forward. I swallowed it down and managed a small nod.

“Kael has offered to come back later this afternoon and escort you back to our home. You should rest until then.”

“Okay.”

“I wil see you tonight, then,” Eli said.

I waved halfheartedly as he turned and walked to the black sedan parked beside my now doorless Honda. Will was already sitting behind the steering wheel, and I waved to him too. He just looked away.

I sighed as I watched the two of them disappear down the driveway, and then I turned and headed through the front door. Before I’d even closed the door, the sound of hurried footsteps thundered through the entryway.

“Alex!” my sister called hushed voice. She rounded the corner a second later and threw her arms around me so hard I nearly lost my balance. “You’re okay!” Lora’s voice never rose above a whisper, which probably meant Mom was still resting up before tonight’s hospital shift. And the fact that Mom was still sleeping meant she likely had no idea Kael and the others had been here. I said a silent prayer of thanks for that bit of good fortune as I hugged my little sister tightly.

“What about you?” I asked her when I final y pulled away a minute later. “Are you okay? What happened?”

Lora stepped back and stared seriously into my eyes. “I couldn’t find your car when I came outside,” she said. “So I wandered around in the parking lot for a bit, then I pulled out my phone to cal you. But you know that guy I pointed out to you in the food court? The one I said was stalking us?”

“Uh-huh.” If I’d been nauseous before, it was nothing compared to how I felt now. How could I have left Lora alone with that guy creeping around?

“Well , apparently he was following us. He followed me into the parking lot,” Lora said. “And the jerk grabbed my phone right out of my hand before I could finish dialing your number…”

“He stole your phone?”

She shrugged. “I got it back.”

“…How?” I asked, a cold sweat sweeping over me.

“I kicked him. He practical y threw it at me then.”

“You kicked him?” I had to swallow a laugh. What could I say? I’d taught her well . “Then what?”

“He started rambling about making me pay for kicking him and stuff—I don’t real y know what all he said ‘cause I turned and ran away right about then.”

“You were able to get away?” I asked anxiously.

“Not even close—that guy was fast. I mean like crazy fast.”

“So he caught you?” I said, my breath catching in my throat as I spoke.

“Yeah, but then those friends of yours… Will and Eli I think?

They showed up and kicked that guys butt—right in the middle of the mal parking lot.”

I exhaled slowly as she continued.

“Well , I mean—they kicked it as much as they could in two minutes… But the police showed up pretty quickly, and the stalker guy ran off, and Will and Eli seemed to be in a hurry to get out of there all of a sudden too. It was all real y…

strange,” she concluded with a shrug.

“Yeah…” I agreed, Vanessa’s words from last night echoing in my head. Don’t you think our kind have had enough publicity over the past few weeks? They’d been in a hurry to avoid the police then, too. “But the important thing is that you’re alright,” I said, deciding quickly that I’d worry about my newfound friends’ problem with the police later. I wrapped my arms around Lora and gave her another squeeze.

“Alex,” she said in a voice that was suddenly way too serious for a thirteen-year-old. She pulled away, and her deep brown eyes stared unrelentingly into mine as she spoke. “Who are those people? And what happened to you? I saw your car when you drove up. Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” I said, trying to avoid her gaze. I couldn’t blame her for wanting to know what was going on. I knew a lot more now than I did this time yesterday, but I still felt like there was more to everything that was happening. And it was driving me crazy, thinking about how little I knew. Lora was completely in the dark though, which must’ve been infinitely worse.

But she was just going to have to endure it.

“Lora, I think it’s better you didn’t know everything. Or anything even…I feel like…the less you know, the safer you probably are.” I think some part of me wanted to believe that if she didn’t know what was going on, she wouldn’t have to worry about it, and so she wouldn’t have to be a part of it any more than she already had been.

Unsurprisingly, she disagreed. “Come on Alex,” Lora whined. “You can’t keep this from me forever. If you won’t tell me, you know I’ll just find out for myself, one way or another.”

“Lora…”

“How about I just guess, and you tell me if I’m right or not?”

“How about not?”

“Okay, so that guy in the mal ? Blondie? What was he?”

Lora asked.

I just rolled my eyes.

“He moved way too fast for a normal human—” she said, looking at me for confirmation.

“Think about what you’re saying,” I said, in my best attempt at a skeptical tone. “So he was fast. So what?”

“He caught me in like less than a second—that’s what. And “He caught me in like less than a second—that’s what. And I had about a ten second head start. You know I didn’t even think he was gonna follow me at first? I kept looking over my shoulder…but he just stood there for the longest time, looking all pissed off. Then all of a sudden—Bam! And he’s right next to me. No human moves that fast. And when Will and Eli were fighting, all of them were nothing but blurs—I couldn’t even keep up.”

I tried to give a believable laugh. “Yeah. They’re probably aliens.”

“I thought about that possibility,” Lora said, matter-of-factly.

“They don’t look like aliens though…”

“I was joking. There’s no such thing as aliens,” I said irately.

And then I realized I wasn’t entirely sure that was true—after all , up until a short time ago I thought there was no such thing as werewolves, either. And I’d never even heard of a lycan. I couldn’t help but smile a defeated, what-else-can-I-do-but-smile kind of smile as I thought about how bizarre my life had become lately. That smile didn’t hang around long.

“Okay well maybe not aliens…but am I hot or cold? Give me a hint,” Lora insisted.

“I’m not playing this game,” I said. “I need to go move my car into the shed so Mom doesn’t see it when she leaves for work. And then I’m going back to bed—I’m kinda tired seeing as how someone woke me up entirely too early this morning.”

Lora opened her mouth, but I turned around and quickly headed back outside before she could even utter a syl able of protest. I half-expected her to follow me outside to continue her pursuit of answers, but she didn’t. And when I returned from parking my car in the shed at the far edge of our yard, she was nowhere to be found. I assumed she’d probably gone to her room, either to pout or to concoct more possible explanations of what had happened at the mal . I moved quietly in hopes that, if she was in her room, she’d stay there and leave me and my thoughts in peace.

True to my word, I headed straight for my bed. I didn’t go back to sleep though, partial y because of everything I had to think about, but mostly because no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t seem to get comfortable. The second I tried to close my eyes, the dul headache I’d been fighting all morning got a mil ion times worse, and even after I took a couple aspirins, it still lingered. And my head wasn’t the only thing that hurt; for some reason, almost all of my muscles were aching, and no position I laid in gave me any relief. Worse than the aching, though, was the strange tingling sensation that shot through my arms and legs every time I moved.

Even though I wasn’t able to sleep, I stayed in my bed—mostly to avoid Lora. As an added bonus, I managed to avoid Mom too, by pretending to be asleep when she came in about an hour and a half after I’d lain down. I heard her driving away about thirty minutes later.

It wasn’t until the digital alarm clock at my bedside read 4:00 that I reluctantly decided to drag my self out of bed. I didn’t know what Eli’s idea of ‘later this afternoon’ was, so I figured I should probably be up and ready to go—whenever Kael decided to show up.

The thought of seeing Kael again wasn’t exactly the greatest motivator for getting out of bed. I had a feeling our trip back to their house was going to be an awkward one, since I doubted the short time we’d been apart was long enough for him to have forgiven me for not listening to him.

In fact, I was a little surprised Kael had offered to come back for me. My guess was he was planning on using it as another opportunity to lecture me. That did seem to be his favorite pastime, after all .

Still thinking about Kael, I migrated from my bedroom to the living room and plopped down on the armchair nearest to the back door. As I stared out the sliding-glass, I found that the more I thought about him, the less I could blame Kael for being angry with me. I mean, maybe a lecture or two was being angry with me. I mean, maybe a lecture or two was the price I had to pay for him saving my life.

He’d saved my life.

It was a strange feeling, to owe that much to someone—especial y someone I’d just met. And I didn’t particularly like that feeling. Still , I suppose being in debt was infinitely preferable to being dead. My eyes glazed over as I continued to stare out the door. I decided I should probably talk to him about it, and apologize too. I was thinking about just what I should say, when I suddenly realized I wasn’t even sure I’d thanked him for saving my life, for putting his own life in danger to protect mine. What kind of person doesn’t say thank you for something like that?

Well , Kael would probably be here any minute. I could thank him then, and apologize—whatever it took to put us back on good terms. There was no sense in worrying over it just yet. I leaned against the door’s cool glass, gazing expectantly toward the edge of the yard. I only had to wait about five minutes before somebody stepped out of the woods. I slid the door open quietly and stepped out, squinting to get a better look. It didn’t take me long to recognize who it was and, when I did, my heart sank horribly.

Kael obviously was mad at me—so mad he’d decided not to come get me after all . Instead, it was Vanessa making her way toward me. Her face lit up with a wide smile as she approached, and I tried to return it as enthusiastical y as possible.

“Hey Alex,” she said.

“Hey…”

“Are you doing okay?” she asked. “You don’t look particularly happy,” she added, her smile wavering slightly.

“I’m fine. I just thought…wasn’t Kael coming to get me?”

“Ah…are you disappointed to see me?” Vanessa asked, making a face.

“No,” I said, managing a small smile. “I’m just…” I trailed off, shrugging.

“Worried about him?” she finished, the beginnings of a mischievous smile tugging at her lips.