Savage (30 page)

Warning. Danger. Death.

“Alpha,” Trick said.

She closed her eyes at the sound of his voice and let it reverberate through her as powerfully as any bomb. So here they were. Here he was. The Hellhounds who held her fate, her very life, in their hands.

She stepped from behind Justin. Trick faced them, very somber in all black — black boots and trousers, black silk shirt, black cowboy hat — as if he were going to a funeral. His eyes, heavily fringed with ebony lashes, peered from beneath the brim of the hat. Emotions tangled inside her — delirious joy at the sight of him, grief that he had let her go, anger that he threatened her pack.

“Hey, Katelyn,” he said softly, and the look on his face told her that he was feeling everything she was feeling, maybe even more so. Justin behind her, Trick before her; she saw his yearning, and his regret.

“What are you doing here?” Justin spat. Then he began to cough uncontrollably. The silver was getting to him.

Trick ignored him. He was looking straight at Katelyn. She saw now that he had come into the chamber by another route. Farther back in the huge room, stalactites and stalagmites had shielded a second entrance, larger than the one she and Justin had just used.

“Lot of fighting going on,” Trick said. “
Someone
is on his way.”

She knew he meant her grandfather. She held out her hands. They were shaking. “I can make it stop, Trick. Please wait. Don’t hurt anyone. The Fenner pack will stand down, but Dom won’t. I just need time for Cordelia or me to convince him.”

And by convince him, she meant kill him.

“You need time from
him
?” Justin said, laughing through his coughing attack. “How would he
ever
—” He cut off abruptly as understanding that Trick was the Hellhound dawned on his face. “No. No way.”

Katelyn said nothing. It was not her place to reveal Trick’s secret identity. But Trick’s silence told Justin what he wanted to know.

“Someone’s coming and someone else is already here,” Trick said, moving swiftly across the room toward Katelyn. He was within kissing distance when he reached into the crate of guns and pulled one out. He darted to a box of bullets and quickly loaded the weapon. He handed it to Katelyn.

From the entrance she and Justin had used, the same hooded figures Katelyn and Justin had spied on in the forest burst into the chamber. The Hounds of God. The first two threw back their hoods. One of them was Magus, with his weird tattoos and frightening eyes.

Katelyn thrust the second loaded gun at Justin before she remembered that he would have trouble even holding it. She ticked a glance at him as he pressed a hand to his throat. His skin was gray and he was covered in sweat. The silver was killing him.

Trick remained silent but his gaze traveled expectantly behind the Hounds of God to the entrance. Then howling werewolves burst into the room in a tornado of fur and fangs.

Followed by the Hellhound.

21

“NO, WAIT! PLEASE!”
Katelyn cried.

As her grandfather raised himself to his full height, a panicking werewolf batted her hard, sending her sprawling and her gun skidding across the floor of the chamber. Someone helped her up — she saw blue eyes — and her heart rat-a-tatted like a machine gun as she looked at the battlefield. The werewolves were howling and thrashing, scattering from the Hellhound as behind him, blue flames erupted along the back wall of the cave. Within seconds they leaped to the ceiling, burning bare rock.

Everything was a blur. Katelyn’s body was screaming at her to allow the change, to become not just any wolf but an alpha wolf, with claws and fangs to rip and tear. She defied the impulse and felt in the hoodie pocket for her other gun — a weapon far stronger than any ravening werewolf going half-mad with the pain of silver poisoning.

“I can stop them!” she cried. She gripped the gun with a clammy hand as her gaze traveled from wolf to wolf, sighting them down her weapon. Friend or foe?

A limping werewolf slunk over to her, and she knew it was Justin. He snapped his fangs at her. Blood dripped from his mouth.

She shouted, “Justin, it’s me! We have to get out of here! Get Cordelia!”

Then time stopped.

Time became a triangle.

At one vertex: in human form, Trick stood ten feet away aiming a gun, possibly the one she had dropped, at Justin.

At the other: Justin, slavering, ready to pounce. No,
not
ready to pounce. He was waiting for her command.

And at the head: she, Katelyn, her gun extended as well.

“Move away, Katelyn!” Trick shouted.

“No, it’s Justin!” she yelled.

“I know!” Trick said.

The fire was traveling at an unbelievable speed, engulfing the dry wood crates. She knew the entire chamber was going to blow up.

“Doc!” Trick shouted. “Get her out of here!”

The Hellhound roared and barreled through the battling werewolves as if they weren’t even there, throwing them left, right, as he charged. He ignored the fire as he ran straight for her. Hideous, grotesque, fangs and fur and pieces and those glowing eyes —

— and Justin howled and sprang at him—

— and Trick’s gun went off.

She screamed and, without thinking, she leaped in front of Justin and took the bullet.

Pain exploded inside her.

With a grunt she fell to her knees. She grabbed her shoulder. Blood spurted through her fingers and she looked at the Hellhound and held up her hand as Trick raced toward her.

“The silver does not kill her! She is touched by God!” Magus shouted. “Look! Look!”

“Stop fighting!” she yelled. “Stop it!”

Around her, the cavern exploded. Rocks and bullets and guns and crates and people shattered and rained down on her like fists. Like waves of the Pacific Ocean. Like the secrets of Wolf Springs.

Something landed hard on top of her.

She passed out.

Darkness.

Earth. Silver.

Trick whispered in her ear: “Don’t die. Please don’t die.” His warm breath was on her forehead and when she opened her eyes, she found his arms cradled protectively around her. His face was coated with dirt and all she could see were his eyes, which crinkled as he realized she was conscious. Behind him, her grandfather, in human form, collapsed down to his knees and grabbed her hand. He brought it to his cheek.

“Katie, oh God, oh thank God,” he said in a rush, kissing her hand, stroking it. “I thought I’d lost you.” Tears streaked his cheeks. “My own darlin’.”

“Grandpa.”

“Take it easy,” Trick cautioned, as he unfolded himself and sat slowly up. Dim light bloomed behind him.

Her shoulder ached. The sleeve of her hoodie was caked with blood and mud. She heard voices, and weeping. A howl. Another.

Tremendous piles of rubble surrounded Trick and her, and werewolves wearing gas masks and heavy work gloves were furiously digging through it.

“The bullet only grazed you,” he said. “But the cave exploded.”

She looked around in amazement. “
This
is the cave?”

“What’s left of it,” her grandfather said. “Justin’s digging for the survivors. Gaudins brought gas masks to the party. Maybe Dom had plans to get his paws on all that silver. Cordelia gave them to us and Justin’s got both packs working for him.”

“Survivors?” she said.

“So far it’s you, me, Cordelia, Justin, and Vladimir,” her grandfather told her.

“Where’s Cordelia?” she asked.

“Outside with the packs. Dom’s dead. We haven’t told the Gaudins yet, but Cordelia knows. We need to get you out of here and to your pack, so they can see you. We have to hurry.”

“To my pack,” she said slowly.

“The ones you were sending away to my place. They weren’t all the way down the mountain when everything started happening,” Trick said.

“Regan, she was a level-headed woman, I have to give her that. She kept your people together,” her grandfather said. “But once she got them here, she died in the fighting.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, and meant it.

“But it makes things easier,” he replied bluntly. “If I know my Wolf Springs volunteer fire department, they’re already on their way to make a valiant effort to put out a fire that shouldn’t be burning during a snow melt. The explosion will just be frosting on the cake. It’s going to take them a while to get up here. I figure we’ve about forty-five minutes left, tops. We need to conduct our private business quick and disappear back into our human lives.”

“What about the Hounds of God?”

“Lots of casualties,” Trick said. “A few got out and they look freaked.”

Trick took Katelyn’s hand. Wearing a gas mask, Justin came up behind him and she watched Trick’s face harden, though he made no other gesture to acknowledge Justin’s presence. The way Justin passed her grandfather with a quick nod suggested that he didn’t realize that Mordecai McBride was the Hellhound. Either he hadn’t heard Trick yell out to “Doc” or he didn’t know that that was what Trick called her grandfather. Justin was completely focused on Katelyn.

Justin took off his mask. There were fresh bruises on his dirt-smeared face. “
I’ll
get her out of here,” he said.

Trick bristled. His hand tightened around Katelyn’s. Then he let go of it and rose, facing Justin. The two locked gazes; the tension between them was as hard and real as a silver bullet. Though it seemed to cost him dearly in a point of pride, Justin strapped his gas mask back on.

“I’ll go out under my own steam,” Katelyn told all three of them.

Justin’s masked face was unreadable; Trick’s face was just as inscrutable as Katelyn slowly got to her feet, waving off help. She was an alpha. She had to be strong. The world — such as it was, a complete disaster — spun around her but she stepped through the dizziness. Trick discreetly signaled her to go toward the second entrance, reaching out a steadying hand that she ignored. Justin was next, and her grandfather trailed behind him.

She never wanted to remember what she saw on her way out: bodies in pieces, some studded with silver. Blackened faces. Warring with her self-preservation instinct was her own need to help. When her knees began to buckle, she almost allowed herself to sink to the ground so she could dig for survivors.

Instead, she determinedly walked into the opening, skirting a large pile of rock. Detecting fresh air, she moved faster. It was rough going, but she made it out without passing out. Although the night air revived her, it was still choked with smoke, and as they moved to the right toward the entrance of the cave, she saw that the forest was still burning.

“That’s slowed folks from town from getting here to investigate,” her grandfather said. “Humans, I mean. But it’s just a matter of time before they get through.”

Justin took off his mask and dangled it from his fingertips. She wanted to ask him for the names of all their dead. She couldn’t be sad that Arial and Dom were on the list, but it was still shocking.

They went out and around to the other entrance and to her surprise, members of both the Fenner and Gaudin packs had assembled in front of the cave, which had not sealed. Katelyn didn’t see Jesse. They were wearing their human skins. It took her a moment to figure out that they must have transformed into wolves and run through the forest fire to get there so fast. Their loyalty instincts had kicked in, and another wave of protectiveness surged through her like a tide. Alarmed, she reminded herself what werewolves were: brutal, bloodthirsty
animals
. Supernatural creatures who murdered their own to keep their existence a secret.

My family
, came the unbidden thought.

As the four — Katelyn, her grandfather, Trick, and Justin — reached the cave entrance, the assembled werewolves registered their presence and parted, making a path. Unless Justin had told someone that Trick was the Hellhound’s apprentice, none of them knew that Katelyn’s grandfather was the feared guardian of their laws.

Cordelia was standing just inside the cave, facing the crowd, and her face broke out into a joyful smile when she saw Katelyn. She ran to her and almost threw her arms around her, but her gaze dropped to Katelyn’s injured shoulder and she kissed her cheek in greeting instead. Katelyn did the same.

“I greet you in the name of the Gaudin pack,” Cordelia said in a loud, bold voice. Unhappy murmurs moved through the crowd. Cordelia’s face reddened but she held her head proudly as she waited for Katelyn’s response.

“I greet you in the name of the McBride-Fenner pack,” Katelyn replied.

“Good job,” Justin murmured.

Cordelia and Katelyn stood side-by-side as they walked toward the cave. Justin stood on the other side of Katelyn. Trick took in the two of them, gave Katelyn a long, poignant gaze, and then walked to stand with Mordecai, who stood very sternly as he surveyed the crowd. The two Hellhounds. How many present knew that the two outsiders could transform in an instant and take them all out?

As they all took their places like actors in a play, her grandfather looked at Katelyn with such emotion that it almost made her lose control. She swallowed hard.