Moon Rise (Twilight Shifters Book 2) (10 page)

Aein scanned overhead, but the fog had come in and shrouded the sky, masking out even the sun. 

And then another body dropped, hitting the ground beside them.

"ARM YOURSELF!" Paske cried in terror.

Aein ran to grab her weapon but he pointed his sword at her.  "Not you!  You stay here where I can see you."

"Let me help you!" she shouted.

"Let you slit my throat while I'm trying to defeat this...thing?  Is that what you mean?  Get back!"

Aein walked to Lars and gripped his hand.  They didn't stand a chance.  She had seen what it had done to their troops.  She had cleared the bodies herself.  Another soldier's corpse struck the ground, his stomach opened by sharp claws.  She pressed her forehead into Lars's shoulder.  "I am so sorry," she said to him.  "I am sorry I could not tell you that I love you."

Her words yanked him away from the terror of the moment, his face a mixture of shock and surprise just as the sun struck the horizon.

"No..." he whispered, looking down at his hands as they began to change.

"One minute," she whispered aloud as she scanned the skies.  One minute before she would be completely alone, before the only person on her side shifted and was trapped in the body of a wolf.  "Oh dear gods..."

Lars limped to the body of the fallen soldier and picked up his sword.  Every movement seemed to cause him agony as the silver harness pressed into his changing body.  He pointed the tip of the sword at the sky, fighting the change.  It seemed as if it was causing him agony to hold onto his human form.  "I won't leave you, Aein!" he shouted.  But then, he shifted, unable to stop it any longer, unable to hold the sword.

Aein watched as the man who held them captive didn't know whether to kill Lars or the monster first.  She heard the creature whizzing through the trees, the sound of flapping and wings in the air.  One moment it sounded directly in front of her.  The next, on the other side of the clearing.  Aein ran and picked up the sword Lars dropped.  It was a two-handed blade, too heavy for her to lift.  Lars was writhing on the ground, the silver harness burning through his fur.

And then, Paske was gone, lifted up into the sky and into the fog.  And then he dropped, his neck broken, his eyes vacant and lifeless.

He had a dagger at his side and Aein scrambled over, her terrified fingers trembling and slipping as she tried to undo the buckle holding it in place. 

Lars began barking.  It was a warning cry.  He ran and leaped, striking something solid. 

And just as her fingers grabbed the dagger, the creature had her by the shoulders and was hauling her up.

Aein lifted her head to figure out what captured her.  It appeared to be a winged woman with wild hair and rows of sharp teeth.  Her eyes were red and her claws were hooked.  She looked like what would have happened if a person had tried to shift into a dragon form, but had gotten caught halfway.  Her skin was yellow and scaly.  Her hair was wild and the color of an apple.

"Harpy!" Aein screamed, hoping anyone who was still alive could hear her warning.  She saw the harpy's hooked claws reach down for her neck to snap her in two.  Everything slowed and Aein felt like she was seeing the whole world through a tunnel.  Aein was not going to die without a fight.  Aein put the knife between her teeth, grabbed onto the harpy's ankles and flung her own legs upward.  She wrapped her feet around the harpy's neck, and used her weight to fling the harpy upside-down. 

The harpy's legs let go of Aein's shoulders and now tried to scratch Aein like a cat disembowels its prey.  The harpy's claws ripped at Aein's armor, but when they touched the silver harness, she hissed and pulled back.  They were a ball of fists and claws rolling in the sky.  Aein twisted her body around so that she was sitting on the harpy's shoulders.  The creature dove and bucked, trying to knock Aein off.  Aein took the silver dagger and began stabbing wildly, releasing the fury she had built up over months.  With a gurgling cry, the creature fell, clawing at the air.

Aein braced herself as the earth grew closer.  The harpy's wings were outstretched as she tried with one last gasp to escape the inevitable.  But Aein forced the harpy's body to the ground first and used the creature to cushion her own fall.  She rolled off as they hit, feeling as if a horse kicked her in the chest.  She needed to close her eyes... just for a moment...  The darkness was so soft... so welcoming...

She opened her eyes and the fog had rolled in.  The world was nothing but dim and gray, illuminated by only the flicker of the campfire.  She wondered how Lars lit the flames with his wolf paws.  She saw the campgrounds were filled with sleeping shapes tucked into their bedrolls.  Something told her not to call out, not to wake them.

It was as if they were inside of a gigantic bubble.  Outside the protection of their dome was a world of nothing but white and fog.  Even the trees were gone.  She realized Finn was sitting upon a log by the fire.  His eyes scanned the skies overhead.  There was a vague memory that he should be somewhere else. A winged shape flew by, but did not venture any closer.  Finn did not acknowledge her and she knew to leave him alone.

She heard footsteps coming towards her and she sat up in her bedroll.  A figure came out of the fog.

"No..." she whispered.

It was Cook Bolstad, the man who raised her, the man responsible for making her poison her own people.

"You're dead," she said, trying to remind herself.  Perhaps he had not died.  Perhaps he had been here all along, looking for her, looking for the cure.  Perhaps it had been nothing but some terrible mistake.

But then he reached out for her and she could see he was not alive.  His face was deathly pale, his hands were bony and skeletal.  When he opened his mouth, he began to fall apart.

"I did it for you..." he whispered, his voice carried to her on the edge of a breeze.  "Seek me, Aein... Find me... I did it for you..."

Then the last of his flesh crumbled away, leaving behind the shape of a hawk who took to the skies and flew away.

"A
ein?" said a soft voice. 

Aein's eyes flew open. 

It had just been a nightmare.  Her heart pounded like it might explode out of her chest.  She had to hold on to the dream.  Cook Bolstad traveled from beyond the grave to send her a message.  It was fading.  What did he tell her?  He told her to find him.  How could she find him?  He was dead.  He died in the stronghold, slaughtered in the kitchen, burned by Queen Gisla as they tried to ensure those who were dead would stay dead.

"Aein?" said the voice again.

Lars was kneeling beside her.  The sun was up and light filled the sky.  They were still in the camp, but Finn was not by the fire, shapes of sleeping figures were not tucked into their bedrolls.  It was just her and Lars.  The pain in her head thumped and every inch of her body felt like it had been horsewhipped.

"Where is everyone?" she asked, wetting her lips and wincing.

"Dead," he said.  "Dead or gone.  No one came back after you killed that thing." He motioned to the harpy’s body lying beside the fire.  Aein noted he had torn off its head.

“Precautionary measure or anger management?” Aein asked.

“Both.”

"Good," murmured Aein.

Lars put his arm behind Aein's shoulders and shifted her into a sitting position.  Her ribs ached.  Nothing felt broken, but it hurt.  Lars gazed into her eyes.  "Your pupils seem to be the same size, so I am afraid you cannot blame anything on hitting your head."

"There goes my best excuse," said Aein.

He planted a relieved kiss on her forehead.  "You scared me when you wouldn't wake up."

She allowed Lars to help her to her feet.  She grunted, pausing a moment to rest her hands on her thighs as she caught a few deep breaths.  The rush of blood made her woozy.  "Remind me to stop being the hero, would you?"

"Stop being the hero."

"Done," she said as she stood up.

Lars was fiddling nervously with his silver harness as he watched her.  The buckles were constructed in such a way that he could not remove it by himself. 

"Want me to help you get that off?" she asked.

"You may remove any articles of my clothing you see fit," he replied.

She ruffled his hair and turned him around.  "This will be quite enough for the moment," she said.  Her fingers felt like she was moving them through mud and they would not work the way she wanted them to.  "Kind of a shame.  My harness ended up saving me."

"Really?" he asked, glancing at the harpy's corpse as if she might pipe up to confirm Aein’s claim.

With no comment from the dead body, Aein continued.  "The harpy couldn't touch it and it was a silver blade which let me cut its throat."

The harness slid off of Lars's shoulders.  He let it drop to the ground and stretched out his chest and arms.  "Ye gods it feels good to get out of that thing.  I think I'll take my chances with the harpy."

"Did it hurt you?" Aein asked.

Lars answered with a small nod.  He pulled back the edge of his shirt.  There were great red welts weeping angrily on his skin.  "Whenever I moved and it got passed the fur, it burned," he said.  "I have no idea how they kept those wild werewolves harnessed."

"Maybe they don't feel it as much," said Aein.

"Better not to feel it at all," said Lars with finality, picking up the harness and throwing it into the swamp.  It dropped into the water with a splash.

"Do you think they have Finn held in one of those?" Aein asked.

The ripples of where the silver landed spread out, as if with the horror of what her question meant.

"They must have been lying," said Lars.  "He would never have allowed himself to be caught."

"So you're saying you think he is dead?"

Lars rubbed his hands through the waves of his dark auburn hair.  "He can't be dead."

"I dreamed of him last night," said Aein.  Her words came as if from another world.  "He was sitting by a fire, scanning the skies for more harpies.  He was here.  Protecting us.  And then Cook Bolstad came to me and told me to find him."

"It was just a dream, Aein."

"But what if it wasn't?"  She looked at Lars.  "What if they are both ghosts who came to visit me last night when I was so close to death?"

Lars did not say anything.  He dug his shoe into the dirt.  "I couldn't help you," he said.  "You were lying there and I tried to wake you.  I stayed with you all night keeping you warm, but I couldn't help you because of these paws."  He held up his hands and gazed at them as if they had betrayed him.  "I was so scared that you were going to die."

"Well, it looks like death won't have me," she replied.

Finn looked down at the ground and shifted uncomfortably.  "Did you mean it?" he asked.

"Did I mean what?"

"Did you mean it when you said you loved me?"

The moment came rushing back Aein, the moment she had stood there, seeing death coming.  She realized that if life was going to end, there was one thing she needed to say to Lars.

"Of course I meant it," Aein replied. Her cheeks burned.  But she didn't know if it was what she wanted or needed right now.  Lars had come to her that night of the battle, come to her in her room and begged her to run away with him.  They had never discussed it since.  She knew he had feelings for her.  She didn't know how much was her, and how much was them just trying to survive and being the only ones who understood one another.

Lars took her hand, reading the conflict playing across her face.  "Is the reason you can't love me because I'm a wolf?"

"No," she said, horrified he thought that at all.  "No!"

"As soon as that berry bush blooms, I am going to eat them until this shift goes away.  Don't worry," he tried to reassure her.  "I will not be a monster forever."

"You are not a monster!"  Aein hated that he hated this part of himself so much, hated that he saw this change as a curse.  "We would have been dead if it hadn't been for your shift.  The cyclops?  Those spies on the road?"

"You see how well I helped.  Lord Arnkell had people practically waiting here for us."

Aein stopped him.  "Lars, you are perfect just the way you are.  You have saved my life more times than I can count.  But I almost died.  Finn is rotting in a cell somewhere.  We have a war to fight.  This thing between us?  The timing is just not..."

"Don't you see, Aein?  This is our life.  This is always the timing.  It will never get better.  When I saw you there dying, when I was powerless to do anything to stop it... I promised myself that if you woke, I would talk to you about this because we may never have a chance again.  We are trapped here in the swamp and the reality is that at any moment a harpy could swoop down and end us.  We may both be killed by some creature here or our old countrymen there and
then
it will be too late.  I love you, Aein.  And you said yesterday, when you were faced with death, you said that you loved me, too."

She thought back to the words which had come out of her lips.  Lars was so good to her.  He needed her.  She was important to his life and sanity.  She stepped forward, resting her cheek against his chest.  It felt so good to just rest.  To hold someone close.  To be held.  "I know what I said," she replied.

"And did you mean it?"

She lifted her face and gazed into Lars's soft, green eyes.  "I could never lie to you," she said.

And he leaned down and kissed her.

T
hey were hushed as they put their gear on their horses.  Aein smiled at Lars shyly.  Though it should not have made such a difference to have finally admitted their feelings, somehow it did.  She still wasn't sure if it was good or bad.  There was a part of her that mourned the loss of the friendship they had before.  It was so uncomplicated.  So fun.  Now, there was so much more.  But she knew she loved him.  He had been there for her.  He made her laugh.  He needed her desperately.  That had to be love, didn't it?

"Never thought I'd be putting on these old colors again," said Lars, fastening his belt.