Madly and Wolfhardt (25 page)

My strength.  Our strength,
I thought, remembering how Jackson affected my powers.

In that very instant, I knew that there was a way to save Atlas and Kellina.  There had to be.  I just had to be strong, stronger than I’d ever been before.  And part of my strength lay in my love for Jackson.

Looking down, I reached out and took Jackson’s hand in mine.  He didn’t resist, didn’t pull away.  I stepped toward him, raising my other hand to his, my fingers at his palm.  I rubbed my thumbs over the rope-like veins that lined the back of his wide hand.  They were like winding roads on a map. 

As I watched, his long fingers curled around mine and squeezed lightly.  I looked up and, even in the dappled moonlight, I could see his confidence.  But this time, it wasn’t turned inward.  His confidence was in me.  It was there, shining in his face, strong and sure.

You can do this, Madly.

Jackson’s lips didn’t move, but I heard his words as if he’d spoken them aloud.  I smiled.  Jackson smiled.  I don’t know how it happened, or why.  I didn’t question it because I didn’t care.  It simply was.  Just like our bond simply was.  And in it was strength, strength enough to conquer—conquer Wolfhardt, conquer fear, conquer the world if need be. 

Without a word, I laced the fingers of my one hand with Jackson’s and, together, we turned, walking in supreme confidence to where they held Kellina.

There were eight other Sentinels gathered around her, just in case she managed to escape, and they parted as I approached.  No one said a word.  No one made a sound. 

I stopped in front of Kellina and, letting go of Jackson’s hand, I knelt at her head.  One beautiful eye rolled up to watch me suspiciously, but she remained silent.  I knew that, though Wolfhardt was in there, Kellina was in control at that moment.  I could feel it as if she were sitting right beside me, a kinship emanating from her spirit.  She trusted me not to hurt her. 

“Madly, no!” Aidan called from several feet away.

I said nothing as I leaned in to whisper into Kellina’s ear.

“Hang on, Kellina.  We’re going to get him out of there.”

She whined once.

“Madly, no!” 

To my right, I heard the rustling of leaves and the grunts of men as Aidan tried to make his way to his love.

“Madly, please don’t.  You can’t do this.  You can’t do this to
me,
Madly.  Please!”

The desperation in his voice tugged painfully at my heart.  Again, I said nothing.  I didn’t want to make a promise that I wasn’t be absolutely certain that I could keep.  I believed I could separate Wolfhardt and Kellina, but I wouldn’t promise Aidan.  It would be hard enough for him if something happened to her.  I didn’t want to add the pain of betrayal to his anguish.

Jackson knelt beside me.  He took my hand in his this time, a blatant show of support and unity. 

As if our bodies knew what was needed, I felt the hum of his power course through our entwined fingers and up my arm, vibrating through my chest and settling into my belly like a ball of electric fire.

I closed my eyes, whispering
Please God
before I placed my other hand on Kellina’s head, right between her taut ears.  Immediately, the bracelet on my right wrist began to burn again, pulsing and throbbing as it took on a life of its own.

Through my palm, I began to feel the familiar energy of the water, as if I were drawing it into myself.  It puzzled me, but only because I knew that there was not a significant water source nearby.  And yet, I could feel it bathing my cells in its precious power, singing in my veins and bringing my lips up into a smile. 

I was awash with the pleasure of my home element when I heard Jackson whisper my name.  As always, I felt his voice as a sweet kiss on my soul.

Reluctantly, I cracked my lids to look around.  I was convinced I would see that the heavens had opened up to help me take the evil spirit of Wolfhardt from this place.  And at first, that’s what I thought I was seeing.

All around me in the dark forest, I could see crystalline drops of water rising from the ground and hovering in the air.  They looked like earthbound stars, twinkling in the woods as they caught and held the heavenly glow of the moon.

One by one, the drops began to move toward me and I could feel the delicate patter of a warm rain as they touched my face and became one with my thirsty body.

As if invigorated by the moisture, my bracelet began to warm all the more, growing hotter and hotter until I cried out.  Looking down, I was taken aback by what I saw.

Gone was the wolf I’d knelt beside.  The hair I felt tickling my palm was the hair of a human, of a girl I knew and called friend.  I looked into the gray-green eyes that I recognized, but in them, I saw a silent terror.  I felt it creep into my heart and take root as I looked into her desiccated face.

The flesh that was plump and vital only hours before was now shriveled and shrunken, clinging to the bones beneath like that of an elderly woman with failing health.  Her dry, cracked lips worked themselves open and closed forming words that were muted by a parched tongue.  I didn’t need to hear them to know what she was saying, though.  It was there, written in her eyes and in the stricken expression on her dehydrated face.

Kellina was my source of water.  I could plainly see that Wolfhardt was losing his hold on her, but it was costing Kellina her life.

Jerking my hand back as if I’d been burned, I fell back on my hands, away from Kellina.  I could hear Aidan’s pleas and accusations.

“Madly, stop!  You’re killing her!  Madly, please!”

His words sounded far away, paling in comparison to the conviction in my soul as doubts assailed me. 

What if I couldn’t capture Wolfhardt without killing Kellina?  How could I make a choice like that?  How could I commit such an atrocity?  It was murder!

“Let me go!” Aidan growled at his captors.  “Madly please!” he yelled.

I looked to Jackson, who was watching me carefully.  In his eyes, I saw pain.  It wasn’t his pain that burned there, though.  It was mine.  It was a reflection of my agony, my turmoil.  It was as if his insides were being ripped out because of my suffering, his pain a sacrifice to the gods of bitter victories and unacceptable choices.

Slowly, he rolled to his feet, pulling me up to stand at his side.  His pale eyes, eyes that seemed brighter than the moon that hung above us, saw into me, seared through me.  They reached inside me and placed a gift inside my heart, a gift that spoke to me in words that my head couldn’t understand.

“Do you trust me?”

 I nodded.

“Do you trust me?” he asked again.

“Yes,” I whispered.

With a blinding speed, Jackson bent and tossed Kellina over his shoulder and took off through the forest at a dead run.  I stood, dumbfounded, as I watched him go.

Follow me, Madly.  Trust me.

So I did.  Without one more second’s hesitation, I ran after him, feeling the earth’s rain splattering my face with liquid vigor, my legs moving beneath me with speed I didn’t summon because I didn’t know I could.

As if he was still in my head, I knew where Jackson was going.  When I saw the stream come into view, my eyes simply confirmed it.

Leaping from the bank, Jackson landed in the water and trudged quickly through it to its deepest point.  He let Kellina fall from him until she was all but lying on his hands, face up, adrift in the gently moving waters.

When Jackson glanced at me over his shoulder, I understood and I jumped from the bank into the water and made my way to them.

Reaching beneath Kellina, I laced my fingers with Jackson’s and, immediately, I felt the explosion of the water.   It churned around us, great swells washing over our bodies, threatening to carry Kellina downstream.

Quickly, I closed my eyes to harness it.  I felt it tingle in my toes and radiate from my fingertips, joining with Jackson’s strength to pull Wolfhardt from Kellina.  The roar of the water drowned out all life, but for the three of us where we rested in an eye of calm amidst the tiny hurricane in the forest.

Images began to flit through my mind, pictures of a boy in the woods growing into a man with an obsession.  I saw him succumb to a wolf and then turn to kill it.  Then, I was inside the man.

I felt a pelt on my back, as well as the desire for the flesh of a girl wash through me, clear and potent.  Saliva flooded my mouth with thoughts of her.  My body tingled with awareness.  Daisy petals drifted by behind my lids like dust in the wind. 

Then there was blood and anger—overwhelming, mind-boggling rage—and there was pain.  The excruciating shifting of muscle and bone tore at my nerves and a feral greed arose and drove me to hunt.  And to feed.

I felt the soothing, invigorating taste of something coppery sliding down my throat as if it were actually happening.  My mind wanted to be free of the visions, but they held me.  Relentlessly, they held me. 

A burst of conflicting emotion coursed through me as I held the limp body of the Straus Maiden.  In a tiny scratch, I placed a drop of my own blood, the seed of my curse for her to carry throughout eternity, hidden until I could awaken her unto me. 

I knew but one thing stood in my way, one person.  It was with great zeal that I tasted her flesh, opening the door for death as her life fell at my feet, one crimson drop at a time.

With her blood on my tongue and answered revenge in my heart, a blackness invaded me.  It stared back at my man’s face from the mirror.  It promised me that I would live inside every maid in the Straus line, crouching like a patient disease.  It promised me that there would be a day when I would possess the last of the Straus line and, with her innocent hands, kill all that remained of her family.  And then I would kill her. 

I saw Kellina’s grandmother.  And then I saw Kellina.

Darkness folded in on me, threatening to carry me down, down past despair and defeat.  It was the feel of Jackson’s hands that anchored me to the world around me and I clung to them with all that was within me.

I forced my eyes open, looking first into Jackson’s handsome face and then down at Kellina.  Her face looked as healthy as the first day I’d seen her, as the first day
he’d
seen her—Wolfhardt.  Relief flooded me, a relief so intense that I felt the sigh of it well in my chest like a large fist. 

But something brought me up short.  Something stirred a darkness that I could still feel hovering within me.  Looking up, I saw a sooty cloud marring the clear air between Jackson and me. 

It was as if an ink stain, black as a raven’s wing, had taken on a shape—that of a man.  As I watched, the form shifted, writhing as it struggled to take on the likeness of an animal, a wolf.  It squirmed frantically, stuck somewhere between man and beast, the figure stretching and yawning as if something else was deep inside the blackness, fighting to get out. 

I felt a burning hatred flood me, so quick and complete that I had to curl my fingers into tight fists around Jackson’s to keep myself from hurting Kellina.  But something in me wanted to.  Desperately, savagely, it wanted to.

Instinctively, I knew that Wolfhardt blamed her for his failure to kill the grandmother.  Kellina’s influence had been so strong that she’d kept him at bay most of the time.  Her personality had split to accommodate him, unable to bear the existence of something so evil inside her. 

But the draw of the full moon had been too much, Wolfhardt’s presence too strong, especially after he’d tasted blood.  But it wasn’t human blood that helped him overcome her; it was the blood of a Mer.  It was Aidan’s blood.  The power in it had sent Wolfhardt into a frenzy. 

Determined to keep Aidan safe, Kellina had fled the hospital when she could no longer fight Wolfhardt.  The Lore had used her weakness to take over, used the opportunity to make an attempt on Kellina’s grandmother’s life.  Only she wasn’t the one in the window.  I was.