Silence of the Wolves (29 page)

‘Leyth, don’t worry, I’ll get you out of here,’ she whispered, tears filling her eyes and spilling over once more. With that Leyth let out an almighty scream, clutching his chest as his body convulsed. His breathing slowed, the harsh, ragged gasps of air he was taking in became shallow, further apart. Finally he stopped moving, his hand falling limp next to his body.

‘
No
!’ Tam barked. ‘
No
. You
can’t
die on me, Leyth.’ Tears were rolling freely now.

‘
Too late, little wolf, the silver has hit his heart,
’ the bony magi jeered.

Tam desperately watched Leyth’s chest, hoping like hell it would rise and fall once more.

Nothing happened, he remained completely still; his breathing had stopped all together.

Tamriel snarled, tears blurring her vision, a scream ripping from her throat. Heat boiled from her core, warming her skin, latching onto the magic holding her in place.

Finally she understood what her father had always tried to teach her, what Sapphire had tried to tell her. She couldn’t create magic, but she could manipulate magic. And there was a lot of magic in this room. Opening her eyes, she concentrated on the invisible wisps wrapped around her; she felt them, felt the sting of their power, the tension of it.

Even with her heart breaking as it was, she forced all her energy into ripping the magic apart, shaking it free.

She dropped to her knees as she gained movement again, eyeing the room just in time to see the man in the corner – her dad? – whip round, silently pulling out a large ritual knife from his belt.

He looked completely different to how she remembered him; long, white hair cascading across his shoulders where brown hair had once been, a wrinkled face, though his body was still broad and filled out his robe nicely. His muscled arms were tense around the blade.

Then fear stabbed her in the gut as she realised that she didn’t know who this man was going to fight for. Her gut told her he was her father, though lord only knew why; she hadn’t seen the man in well over a decade and had always assumed he was dead. After all, this could be a magic trick to make her trust him.

As she looked into his eyes, however, she had no doubt. His features had changed, as had his hair. Even his scent had changed. But his eyes were the same; kind, brown eyes that smiled and comforted. Eyes she had looked into a hundred times as a child and had wished she could see again as she grew older. He grinned at her. ‘Hello, daughter,’ he said, this time loud enough for everyone to hear. ‘Do what you need to do, I’ve got your back.’

Tamriel hesitated as confusion flooded her. It was only when her eyes passed over Leyth again, that she knew what she had to do. She faced the High Lord at a dead run, not stopping to take out the two remaining magi. Launching herself at the shrivelled grey bastard on his chair, she called to the wolf inside, shifting, her skin, her bones cracking and reshaping mid-leap, the magic at her core wrapping around her to form a protective shield.

The High Lord actually screamed as she leapt towards him, throwing all manner of magic at her; streaks of blue and red flew from his fingertips, brushing past her and singing her fur.

One or two of the electric bolts hit home, scalding her skin, but she didn’t feel it, didn’t care. She was deadly focused on her target, her prey.

Tamriel landed at his feet in wolf form, snarling.

‘
Red wolf, you cannot kill me! I—
’

She didn’t even let him finish his damn sentence.

She launched herself up towards him, bracing her paws on his knees to give her extra force; she snapped her jaw around his neck, teeth sinking in deeply.

The High Lord screamed, his voice strangled as her canines sank further into his flesh. Weak hands tugged at her, but she shook them away. This man had caused so much pain, so much death.

He had to die.

With that she ripped flesh free, tearing his throat from his body. He hissed as she tore him apart, his eyes rolling back in his head.

Tamriel didn’t waste time, spitting the twice-dead flesh out on the ground beside her, she launched at him again, teeth cracking through bone, completely decapitating him.

The world was a daze; she could hear fighting in the background, but she didn’t care. With the High Lord dead, she slowly pawed her way to the slab Leyth was on.

Jumping up onto the stone, she bit at the leather cuffs strapping him down, freeing his limbs and licked his face. Whimpering, she nudged at him, pawed his chest. He didn’t take in a breath, didn’t move. She rested her head on his chest. No heartbeat.

Sitting back on her hind legs, she gingerly placed a paw on his chest and simply howled, the sound ripping out of her lungs and bouncing off the cave walls. Her heart was ripping to pieces, breaking at the loss of her male. Her soul mate.

Slowly she changed back into human form, her beaten body breaking and shifting until her bare skin felt the coldness of the slab he was on, until her fingers were touching his soft skin, his chest. He was cold. Too cold.

Tears were spilling freely as she cried his name. ‘I can’t lose you,’ she keened. ‘I love you.’

Someone wrapped heavy arms around her waist, pulling her off of him.

She scrambled, holding on to Leyth, her nails scraping against the stone slab.

‘Tam, you have to leave him.’

‘NO!’

‘Tam, listen to me, we have to leave.’

‘
No, I won’t leave him
.’ She was screaming and fighting Julian’s grip as he dragged her away.

They must have found the cave after they’d fought their way through the rest of the building. They were here too late though.

Doc bustled past her, taking a quick look at Leyth, then bringing out a long plastic tube and a metal attachment and plunging a knife into his chest. Tamriel screamed and fought against the alpha, as Doc mutilated her male’s chest, thrusting the metal object deeper towards his heart.

‘
You’re killing him
,’ she screamed.

‘He’s already dead,’ Julian snapped, holding her, comforting her.

Doc grunted as something started dripping through the plastic tube onto the floor; he’d found the silver and was letting it escape Leyth’s body, drawing it out so it couldn’t burn him any longer.

Then Doc tried CPR, transferring air from his own lungs into Leyth’s; he beat his chest with a fist trying to restart his heart, but to no avail. Finally, he stood back and shook his head.

Julian let Tam go, and she ran to Leyth, tears still streaming down her face. The events of the last few weeks flashed past her eyes; she loved this wolf. She truly loved him; her heart and soul were his. He couldn’t leave her. He couldn’t walk into her life, turn it upside down, make her fall in love with him and just die. It was
not
happening.

Heat from her core roared to the surface, the small amount of magic left in the air tingled her fingertips. Tamriel used the skill she was born with and the energy she didn’t yet understand came roaring to the surface, sparks rippling across her fingertips as she pressed them onto her male, her wolf.

The energy struck him, making his body convulse. She screamed, sending more energy rippling into his chest. His body moved as the energy hit him. But his heart did not restart.

With a roar that tore her throat, making it bleed, she hefted all the energy she had, her heart and soul, her life, into one final blast of energy, sending it ricocheting into his chest, making his body jerk so hard it flew off the stone slab and onto the floor. She ran over to him hauling him upwards, holding him to her chest, holding onto him for dear life.

‘Please,’ she croaked, rocking his body gently. ‘Please don’t leave me.’

‘I won’t.’ He coughed against her.

She held him at arm’s length, his eyes were open.

He was coughing and spluttering everywhere, but he was awake.

‘Leyth?’ She whispered.

‘Tam-riel, I love you—’ he whispered, letting his head roll back and his eyes close.

‘I love you too. Leyth, I love you so damn much. Hang on. Doc!’ Tam shouted, ‘Doc, he’s alive!’

Doc ran over, pressing his palm against Leyth’s neck.

‘I’ve got a pulse!’ he boomed.

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

What the hell was that noise?

Leyth tried to scrub an arm across his face but he was in so much frigging pain. Trying to crack an eyelid, he winced as the bright lights in the room hit him.

‘Sssshh, hang on.’ Tamriel’s soothing voice caressed his ears, as the bright lights were dimmed, soft gentle hands ran through his hair and a wet cloth dabbed at his forehead.

‘I missed you,’ she whispered.

Leyth tried to speak, but nothing came out. He opened his eyes and had to blink to clear his vision.

Tamriel’s beautiful face came into view; her green eyes were sparkling with unspilt tears, even though she was smiling.

To hell with the pain, his female needed him! He took a sharp in-breath as he lifted his right arm, the limb felt like stone and screamed in protest. Slowly, awkwardly, he stroked her soft cheek. She leant into his touch, the tears spilling from her beautiful eyes as she moved, and kissed his hand.

‘I’m going to get you some water.’ She moved away from him, but was back in seconds with a cup and a straw. Pressing it to his lips, he tried to take a pull but to no avail, it took another few tries and a lot of spilt water until the cold liquid was running down his throat. It felt like he hadn’t had a drink in years.

Leyth cleared his throat again, it was raw, and the motion had him wincing, but he had to tell this female how he felt.

But she wasn’t supposed to be near him, the Circle would find her…

And, as far as he knew, she was supposed to be in a safe house hiding with Carl and Sapphire.

‘Tamriel, I love you,’ he choked out, his voice hoarse.

‘I love you too, Leyth.’ She beamed at him.

‘I’m sorry,’ he croaked.

‘What for?’

‘Leaving you.’

He didn’t even hear her response; broken memories hit him hard. Pain. A lot of pain. Tamriel screaming
. Please. Please don’t leave me.

‘Leyth?’ Her voice brought him back to the here and now.

‘What happened?’

‘It’s a long story, how about I fill you in over breakfast?’

He grinned at her, or tried to grin anyway, his face felt sore and swollen.

Holding the sheets, he tried to heft himself up into a sitting position, but…

Where was his left arm?

He panicked, realising that he couldn’t feel anything from his shoulder to his fingertips. He glanced down at the limb in question. It was still there, five fingers and all, but his skin was grey and he couldn’t feel a thing.

‘Doc!’ He heard Tamriel shout out of the door, before coming back to him and running a hand through his hair.

‘Don’t worry, Leyth, Doc thinks you’ll still be able to use your arm.’ She operated the bed so that he could be in a seating position. He leant back against it and did a quick evaluation of the rest of his body, all ten toes, fingers, feet and legs were present and he could move them, though it hurt to do so.

His manhood was standing to attention – thank god that was still working! – though he hastily bunched the sheet he was under around his hips to cover the little tent he’d been making.

Tams throaty chuckle brought his eyes up to hers.

‘What happened?’ he asked again, a little more clearly this time. He was covered in bandages and dressings.

‘Do you remember the Circle capturing you?’

‘Yeah.’ He winced at the memories of that room, the silver knives they’d used on him.

Hell, they’d injected him with silver.

‘Leyth.’ Doc bustled through the door. ‘Glad you’re awake.’

He spent the next few minutes checking wounds and redressing them. Leyth spared a glance at his mangled chest; it was not a pretty sight. He was healing well, the skin re-knitting, though the wound was puckered and sore. Doc explained that the silver injected into his bloodstream had made its way to his heart; he’d managed to drain it out but he had, in fact, died; it was Tamriel that had brought him back to life, using her kinetic energy to restart his heart once it stopped.

He was lucky to still have his arm at all, he could even move it, though it was difficult, and he couldn’t feel anything.

As Tamriel fed him breakfast, they told him what had happened at the Council’s headquarters, Tamriel had taken out the High Lord, which was mighty impressive.

John, Tam’s father, had been undercover with the Circle and had revealed himself at the last minute to take out the rest of the magi. He knew there was something about the thane he recognised. Even through that extensive disguise, John’s eyes had given him away, Leyth realised. He was apparently now in a meeting with the remaining, uncorrupted Council members to demand constitutional change; he wanted a leading figure from each race to have a seat.

Carl and Tamriel were going to put forward a proposal to join the Council’s private investigation agency and open a branch in this part of the south-east; they wanted to have a unit that was dedicated to investigating disappearances of registered supernaturals, as well as working with the police to look into human disappearances with a supernatural element.

‘That’s a bloody good idea,’ Doc boomed, clapping Tam on the shoulder.

‘It was Carl’s idea.’ Tam grinned. ‘Julian put the request in for me to apply, and for Carl and Sapphire to transfer from their current positions.’

‘Before now, you couldn’t apply elsewhere, the Council gave you the job they wanted you to do, so I’m impressed they’re now allowing you the option,’ Doc mused. ‘Though it seems the Council itself is currently being restructured.’

It seemed a lot was going to be changing over the next few months, and Leyth was ridiculously happy that he could be part of it.

‘Julian’s built us a house.’ Tamriel beamed at him.

‘What?’

‘Julian decided everyone needs to stay on pack-land, with the Circle going back into hiding, they’re more deadly than ever.’

‘Hell, there’s going to be a power struggle, a fight for leadership.’

‘Yes. But we’ll worry about that later. For now, you get better, and as soon as you’re ready, I’ll take you down to our new home.’

Our home. He liked the sound of that.

Tamriel excused herself as Doc began work on Leyth’s physiotherapy. She kissed her male goodbye and walked to Julian’s office to begin work on the private investigation firm.

The idea was still going ahead, thank god! Though part of her was going to miss investigative reporting, becoming a PI seemed to be a better fit for her; she’d always wanted to do it. Now she had the people behind her and the will to do it, it could very well be the best career move of her life.

‘The Council accepted your proposal, though I have to say, the fact that your father is now on the board works in your favour!’ Julian announced as she walked through the door. Alison was sat in an incredibly comfortable looking wheelchair next to her brother, working her way through a pile of paperwork.

‘Alison!’ Tamriel all but ran over to the female, wrapping her arms around her. ‘Thank you. Thank you for letting us know about the High Lord. If you hadn’t—’

‘It’s OK!’ Alison cut her off, giving her a hearty squeeze, though you could tell she was still very weak. ‘You saved my life, remember? It was the least I could do.’

The two of them sat there, hugging for the longest of moments, before Julian interrupted.

‘So, Tamriel? The Council have accepted your request to become an employee of their private investigation agency. They agreed to let Carl head up a branch in this area, and it is now set up and ready to go.’

‘Great! Where do we go from here then?’ She released Alison at last, who beamed up at her.

Julian went on: ‘Well, you can use the empty room at the top of the stairs as your office, I’ve already made the preparations.’

Tam was gobsmacked; her own office!

‘The Council are funding the new branch and Carl will run the office here, but you will all be working underneath Director Rogers, who is the man in charge of the agency. He wasn’t too happy about opening a south-east branch, but he agrees it makes sense to have a branch in each county. We are able to use his connections in the police force, so you will need to chase those up soon, make sure you introduce yourself to everyone.’

‘Thank you,’ Tam stammered.

‘Just make sure that if you have to speak with Director Rogers, you are short and sweet. No back chat.’ He gave her a stern look. ‘You really don’t want to mess with him. Or upset him. Or get in his way.’

‘I’ll try my best.’ Tam grinned, she was just chuffed to be able to begin her new life. She was still going to be writing freelance for the local newspapers, Julian couldn’t make her give that up if his life depended on it, but freelance work wouldn’t be enough, and so working for the Council as a PI was as best a situation she could fathom, even if it was working underneath what sounded like one hell of a scary director.

‘Oh, and I’ve arranged for the remaining contents of your flat to be brought over to your new house; you and Leyth are on the plot next to Carl and Kaylee.’

Tam couldn’t help but grin. The Circle might well still be gunning for them so, yes, she had a hell of a lot of dangerous work ahead of her. But for now, she was unbelievably happy. Her male was alive, they had a beautiful house they could move into together, and she had one hell of a job that really could make a difference.

Julian excused himself and Alison to go and see Leyth, promising Tam that he would help take him down to the new house when he was finished with Doc, then he suggested she went to check out her new office space.

Tamriel walked up the grand staircase, marvelling at the beautiful paintings on the ceiling. When she reached the top, she turned right and walked through the grand double doors that led into her office.

‘Hey, Tam,’ Carl said, looking up from his laptop. ‘Cool, huh?’

The room was absolutely beautiful. Three desks had been laid out around one side of the room. Carl had taken the one closest to the door and Sapphire had taken the one at the end, leaving her one by the window.

The room had been painted a beautiful deep green and the wooden floor had been varnished. There was a large projector screen at the far end, in front of which stood a huge wooden table with several comfortable-looking chairs.

There were two sofas and a coffee table arranged on the other side of the door to Carl. Honestly, this room was possibly three or four times the size of her entire flat.

She wandered over to her heavy wooden desk, running a finger across its smooth surface. There was a brand new laptop sitting on it, a telephone and all manner of stationery. She walked around it and sank down in the large leather chair. ‘Is this—’

‘For you?’ Carl finished. ‘Yup, in the drawer to the right is your first few cases and the computer is already set up and logged onto our network.’

Tam opened the drawer and pulled out the paperwork, the first file read:

Name : Jessica Vincent

Age : 23

Location : Whitstable

Jessica went missing on November 30
^th
.

Cold case.

‘Who’s Jessica Vincent?’ Tam asked.

‘She’s one of the girls that have gone missing after their twenty-third birthday. From now on, any cases the police have that have links to our nature are passed to us, any cases that have inexplicable variables are too.’ He paused, eyeing the file. ‘By the sounds of it, Jessica Vincent may have been a half-breed shifter, in which case, she could have gone through the change and died, shifted and can’t change back, gone into hiding or been captured by the Circle. It is now our job to find out what happened to her.’ Carl grinned. ‘We are officially the Council’s Private Investigator Agency’s first South East branch. Even if our Director is one scary son of a bitch.’

‘Aw, boss!’ Sapphire greeted her, waltzing in with a file in one hand and a coffee in the other. ‘Why do I get the vamp case?’

‘Because you’ve got a nose for the dead.’ Carl grinned. ‘Well, the un-dead anyway.’

Tamriel couldn’t help but smile as she sat behind her desk, living and laughing with her friends and family. She really did have everything; she was the luckiest wolf that ever lived.

Several hours later, Tam had done the rounds, then checked on Leyth, who was sleeping soundly. His wounds were healing nicely and it wouldn’t be too long until he was up and about.

Tamriel had prepared their beautiful house ready for him to come home to. It was a little empty, but she would fix that in time.

It was a farmhouse; the outside was brick and wood, with a pretty picket fence that ran around the edge. The interior was beautiful with exposed beams and a hardwood floor. It was completely open plan, the living room stretching most of the length of the house, there was a doorway one side that opened into a big kitchen with a huge dining table and double doors that led out on to a patio. At the other end of the living room was a door that led to a bathroom and stairway that led to the four bedrooms upstairs. The bedrooms surrounded a large square balcony area that looked over the stairs. There were absolutely no small corridors or hallways.

Tam’d bought a new sofa and TV so Leyth had something to do while he was healing and had used his huge four-poster bed for their room.

Now, sat behind her desk, she rubbed her eyes as she went over the case she was handling once again. She had all the file details for Jessica Vincent; pictures and family accounts of where she had last been seen.

It turned out that her mother was a single parent, living in a flat in Whitstable. She’d worked hard to make a life for the two of them, but there wasn’t much of a family history listed. There were no details of her father. Tam planned on going to question the mother tomorrow.

‘Hello, sweetheart!’ Her mother’s voice made her jump. Tam snapped her head up and there, standing in the doorway, was her mother’s beautiful tanned face, her black curls framing her bright green eyes.

She was in her fifties, but she only looked thirty!

‘Hi, Mum.’ Tam grinned, walking over to give her a hug.

Damn, she’d forgotten to call her!

‘Oh, don’t worry about that.’ She grinned. ‘I’m a Wiccan, remember, I know everything!’