Rose: Briar's Thorn (10 page)

Her other hand swiped at one of the smaller vines I hadn't retracted yet, and she caught it.  “Jacob and Wilhelm explained to me that you used up a piece of your darkness to save me.  But that in time, it would have created a new darkness.  Which would have drove you over the edge to the side of corruption and evil.”

She looked at my vine in her hand.  “This was not destined, so the fates needed to step in to maintain the balance.  I am your...”  She swiveled her head up to look at me with a smirking smile and mischief twinkling in her eyes. “...antidote.”  She looked back down and my eyes followed.  My black and twisted vine slowly became a lush and healthy looking green.  The thorns flattened into the vine and little delicate pink roses appeared in their stead.

I just stared at the impossibility of it, in total shock.  She let go and I watched the roses wither and die as the vine blackened again.  She said, “They said I can negate your poison, if I will it while I am touching you.”  She shot a toothy grin up at me.  “You don't mind me touching you, do you?”

I shook my head, trying to understand.  She grasped my hand and laced our fingers, and explained further, “If I hold your hand we could walk through the crowds in this new world of America, without fear of anyone being harmed if they touch you.”

She whispered, “Look at your hand.”  I looked at our clasped hands and blinked.  Her white skin needed the sun that she had been deprived of for so long, but my white, sickly skin was... pink!  I was confused, I didn't understand.  I had an urge to flee.  My head was swimming, spinning, wonky, flitzy, fuzzy worm.  I started backing away from her on green viney legs.  She tightened her grip on me.  “It's alright Rose.  As long as I will it when we touch, the blackness inside of you is held at bay.”

I shook my head, I deserved to be punished, I deserved my fate.  I shook my head. “No... mother, father, Safin.  I put you in an endless sleep.”

She shook her head and raised her hand to my cheek.  “No, you saved me from a fall to my death.  Then you saved me from the very curse forced upon you.  Then you protected me as I slept.  The brothers tell me that you used part of your life force to create the regenerating,  impenetrable briar patch around the crypt.  Part of your heart.”

Then she paused and asked, “Why?”

Why what?  Spinning, fuzzy, confusion, clarity.  I knew what she was really asking.  I swallowed hard and closed my eyes tight as I whispered, “Because I am in love with you and I could not bear to live in the world without you.”

I opened my eyes when I felt her shift, she was right in front of my face, smiling.  She whispered, “Good.  Because I have been in love with you since the moment we met in the forest, when I laid eyes on you, I thought you were the most magnificent woman I had ever seen.”  Then we were kissing and all my confusion was replaced with a new kind of buzzing fuzziness.  It almost felt like I was heating up all over.

When she broke the kiss with a little smile, she pulled me back down so we could sit and look at the night sky.  There were few stars in the sky due to the glare of the city lights, but I could pick out certain constellations.  From our vantage point on the rise the motel was situated on, we could see over the city gates and see downtown in the distance.  That was where I might meet my end the following night.

Nicole whispered, “Is that a monument to a modern deity?”

She pointed at the lit up spire, and I grinned.  “No that is the Space Needle.  Parker explained it to me recently.  It was built when Seattle hosted a celebration for people of all nations, it was called a World's Fair.  That was the centerpiece of the celebration, there was a second one built outside the walls of the city for the people among the cursed to come together as well.  I pointed north to the lit up Unity Needle.  When it was over, the Needles were left to remind people to celebrate others and their cultures and to live in harmony.”

She smiled at me.  “So there are no more wars between nations?”

I shook my head sadly. “No, there have been many wars while you slept, two that spanned nations across the globe.  It seems that mankind is trying to wipe itself out before the wolves can do it.  But there are more good people in this world than bad.”

I blinked at my own words.  We were all so dense.  We cursed the Scales for leaving but four of us to fight all the evil in the world.  How could that possibly be balance?  We were so outnumbered.  But now I realize that the balance of good and evil isn't just the paranormals like the wolves and us, it encompassed all of mankind.  So we were just the extra little boost all the good people of the world needed to keep the scales in balance.  I'd have to share that with the others.

I snuggled in with Nicole as I remembered what she had said earlier, and whispered, “You were aware the entire time?  How did you get here?”

She sobered a bit and seemed to latch onto me tighter, her face looked haunted, like she was lost in a poison memory.  Her voice was far away when she described how she was awake and aware the entire time she lay on the stone table in the crypt.  She tried to call out to me every time I would visit.  She listened in rapt fascination as I told tales of the changes happening in the world, or read books to her.

Whenever I was away in other lands, the Grimm brothers would sit with her in my stead.  Wilhelm shared that they felt responsible for her state, that it was unanticipated.  Even they did not know it was possible for one being to sever part of their own soul to maintain the life of another.  Even my creation of the briar patch that fed off my very life force to regenerate was beyond what they had thought me capable of.

She could hear all the attempts over the years, of the humans trying to breach my protective barrier.

She shared the extreme loneliness of the endless sleep when nobody was there to speak with her.  But her heart would speed up each time I returned, and she savored every word I would impart to her.

Her eyes brightened as she locked them on mine. “Then my violet-eyed beauty made a choice, to be part of the world again instead of watching from the outside.  To join with the other Avatars to stand against the new evil the Alpha wolves have awakened and try to end the curse of the lycan contagion, once and for all.”

She sighed. “When you reawakened inside, so too did I.  I remember the sweet taste of the air as I inhaled deeply as I sat up from my living nightmare.”

She smirked a little. “I opened the heavy metal door to see the impenetrable black wall of your briars.  You had me in my armor and with my weapons, so I pulled my swords and started hacking and pulling away branches and vines.  It started growing back in on itself.  But when I moved in closer to watch, it hesitated and stopped.”

I could feel her muscles flexing slightly, reliving the effort, as she continued. “With renewed vigor I started hacking a tunnel through the barrier.  It took me days, I was hungry and thirsty but wondered why I had not starved.  I looked back at the passage I had hacked that had closed in behind me.  It seemed that the vines kept an arm's length from me.  I continued on, with but one thought on my mind, to escape and find you.”

She smiled. “I saw sunlight filtering through the briars, I was almost free.  Then I felt something black and evil coming my way.  I had felt darkness moving throughout the world since I fell into that endless sleep.”

She made a sour face. “The last couple feet I saw hands grabbing the vines and tearing them away.  I sheathed my weapons and started tearing at the vines as I heard the voices of the brothers Grimm calling to me.  'Nicole... we must leave this place at once.  The Alphas are coming.'  Then with one last push, I was free.”

She touched her cheek. “I felt a thorn scratch my cheek as I tumbled out at their feet.  I looked at the blood in horror.  Had I gotten free just to kill myself?  But Jacob saw my fear and shook his head as he helped me to my feet and explained that I was immune now, that I was your balance, your antidote.”

She nodded to herself. “He prompted me to remove my gauntlets and touch the briar patch.  I did so hesitantly, and the vines started turning green and flowering.  He said that as long I willed it, I could change the nature of the curse.  So I pushed all of my will into my hands and watched as the deadly briar patch turned into a flowering bramble.  The brothers had approved, letting me know that no others would end their lives at the crypt.”

Then she looked away and snuggled in tighter.  “Then they spirited me away, just ahead of the huge amount of blackness I could feel converging on my crypt.  They brought me on a flying machine.  We actually flew through the air.”

She seemed suddenly amused. “They had to show my original appointment papers as the first female Wolf Hunter ever when we arrived.  They were extremely persuasive with the authorities in this new land.  Then before I knew it, we were here and I was reborn again as I saw you standing in that room down there.  Knowing I could touch you as I have always longed to do, and I finally let my lips claim you.”

I smiled and tilted my head at her.  She grinned and with a finger, tilted my head back to a natural angle.  Then I kissed her.  We sat in silence after that, just basking in each others touch.  Then all the questions came.  We spoke of everything and nothing.  I realized that if I survived what was coming, that now I didn't want the Avatars to end me, now that my Nicole was with me again.

The moon was past its apex when a huge werewolf landed lithely on the roof before us.  Daria padded over and whined once and then leaned her body in against us.  I chuckled and scratched her flank while Nicole just looked at her, amazed, and scratched her ears.

A voice behind us startled me.  Mari said, “Oh dear lord women.  Don't spoil her.  She'll want that from me all the time now.”  I swear the wolf smiled at her and stuck her tongue out.  I keep forgetting she is a woman, not the wolf she appears to be.

I idly wondered how the Red Hood had snuck up on me like that, I can normally feel the darkness inside of her moving.  She was good... really good.  She must have read that on my face because she grinned then said, “Chief Mendez called. They and the mayor want to see those of us allowed inside the city walls, can you two hold the fort and watch the trouble twosome pups, keep them out of trouble?  We'll be back soon.  Oh, and the food arrived a while back.”

There was a deep rumbling growl from below and Rachel called up, “We can hear you, you know, Red?”  I grinned at the banter, then even more at Nicole's stomach growling at the mention of food.

I nodded and scooped up my girl and stood on black thorny legs and skittered over to the edge and stepped off the edge, my vines cushioned our landing and I set her down.  She grinned at me.  “I can manage on my own you silly woman.”

I whispered, “I know, but I like... touching you.”  She smiled back and took my hand.  We looked at the group.  What a varied lot, but at the same time, all so similar.  It was hard to explain, but then I got it.  It was family.  We came from all walks of life, but we were family just as sure as blood.

We saw the women off and snorted when four of the six vehicles watching the motel tried to take off after them.  But had to stop and men got out to examine all of the flat tires.  It seems something sharp and pointy, like a bunch of thorns, had perforated their tires.  Amanda pushed my shoulder playfully as Rachel grinned at the cussing men.

We retired to the room to eat and to wait for the other women to return.

When the women returned, they were pretty somber.  Huge, warbling sirens started going off in the walled city and moments later huge horns mounted on towers, started going off outside the walls as well.  I could hear the breach klaxons going off simultaneously.  This was it, before the women could affirm it, I knew that they humans had been convinced.  That they agreed to the evacuation.

Everyone else seemed to come to the same conclusion, and Red didn't bother explaining.  She just nodded and walked back into the motel.  We looked around as the city woke up, then followed.

Once we were all back inside, Maireni spoke,  “They are using the north and west gates for the evacuation.  So that anyone still in the city will be grouped into the area Snow White here has cleared of druid circles.”

She gave a toothy grin as Gretta blurted, “Hey!  None of that Snow White bullshit, Little Red Riding Hood.”  I swear Daria was chuckling though it was a chuffing sound coming from her.

Then Mari got more serious as she looked directly at me. “How much gas you got in your tank, Rose?”  I furrowed my brows and she clarified, “Seattle is huge, they don't think they can evacuate the Clean Bloods to the walled city of Tacoma before nightfall tomorrow.  Let alone evacuate the metro area.  If needed, how big of a barrier can you put up with your briars?”

Ah, I understood.  Sneaky, weaky, clever red girl, smart, intelligent.  I shrugged. “I truly do not know.  I try to keep the venomous abominations inside of me, not let them out.  How big of a barrier would be needed?”

She gave an almost apologetic look and said, “At the least, two miles, thirty feet high to stop wolves from jumping it, three miles at the most.”

Miles?  I blinked.  Then I shrugged. “I guess I'll have to.  I've never done anything to that scale before, not even for Nicole's crypt.”

I felt Nicole lace our fingers and she spoke with a surety that made my heart soar,  “My Rose can do whatever is needed.  I have faith in her strength.  And I lend my sword to protect the innocent.”  She looked around, “Just how many people are in the umm... metro? ...area of this great city?”

Parker answered instantly, and I remembered that this was her home.  “Almost four million people.”

Nicole made a gasping choking sound.  “Impossible.  That's over a tenth of the world's population!”

I tried to hide a smile and whispered to her, “There are billions of people in the world today.”

She mouthed “Billions?”  I just smiled and Parked nodded too.  Then I saw the shadow in her eyes as she realized just how much she had missed while in that cursed sleep.  The sleep I had subjected her to.