The Rift (34 page)

Angelica shook her head after I told her what
Bruce had said. “We’ll be together again, I promise. As soon as my
contract is up with Varius I’ll come to work for Wraith. We’ll get
you a new body and we can be together again.” She leaned in Bruce’s
direction, and he moved toward her until their foreheads appeared
to touch. “Please, Bruce.”

He agreed. I translated their goodbyes, and I
love yous, and I’ll miss yous. Jed squeezed my hand under the
table, and I was so grateful not to have to say goodbye to him. I
was so glad that I would fall asleep that night with his warm arms
around me.

Just as we were about to go to bed that
night, Henry walked in with Tucker. “I need to talk to her alone,”
Henry said.

“Um—” Jed started. He shut his mouth when
Henry handed him a pair of earplugs. He popped them in and
nodded.

Henry sat down on the bed and patted the spot
next to him. When I sat, he wrapped an arm around my shoulders and
squeezed me tight. “Are you sure about this, Kelsey? I know Jed has
this whole mating issue right now, but I really don’t think he’ll
die if you go back to Varius.”

It was pretty stupid, but I really hadn’t
considered my situation the way Henry was describing it. I leaned
into him and tried to imagine both scenarios. I pictured myself
leaving Jed and going back to Varius to complete my contract, then
I pictured myself staying with Jed. Both scared me. Even if I
stayed with Jed, I couldn’t know what the future would bring or how
dangerous our lives together might be. Varius offered a certain
level of security behind its warded walls, but the idea of having
to do what Yvonne wanted and of giving up my freedom to make my own
decisions just wasn’t an option. “Thanks, Henry, but I know this is
the right choice.”

“Have you considered what will happen if we
don’t get rid of the reapers here? If Wraith can’t hold up his end
of the deal, Yvonne is going to demand you go back to Varius. If
you stick with Jed, they’ll chase you, possibly for the rest of
your life.”

That thought made me want to shove Henry away
and hide under the covers with Jed, but Henry was right. I needed
to consider all of those issues. “Then we’ll fight. Part of the
reason I went to Varius was to get stronger. I’m stronger, now,
thanks to you, and I’m not going back there unless I have to,
especially now that Varius is siding with the reapers.”

Henry nodded and looked at Tucker who moved
to kneel in front of me. “You do understand, sweetie, that choosing
this path makes your dream of a normal life pretty much impossible,
right? Werewolves don’t make for a normal family life, and Yvonne
isn’t just going to let this go. In her eyes, you’ve taken her son
from her.”

I swallowed back my tears. I knew he was
right. I’d known that for a long time, but hearing him say it still
hurt. “I don’t know what’s going to happen with me and Jed, but I
love him and he needs me right now. We’ll make it work.” I was
still scared and I was pretty sure I’d always be scared, but I
couldn’t hide forever.

“You’ll never really be free from Varius,
Kelsey,” Tucker said. “You’re too special. Yvonne might have been
willing to sacrifice you for the moment for this deal with Wraith,
but I’m sure she already had a plan to get you back. She doesn’t
let anyone go.”

I nodded. I’d suspected what he said, though
I’d hoped it wasn’t true. “It doesn’t change my plan.” I tried to
convince myself as well as Tucker.

Henry nodded and slapped Jed on the shoulder,
motioning for him to take out the earplugs. Once he had, Henry
knelt in front of both of us next to Tucker. “We want to join
you.”

“Join us? In what? You want to live here with
us?” I asked.

Henry nodded. “Sure, if that’s all it is, but
Tucker and I don’t expect you to sit around and live in peace for
very long. Even if you do, you’re our best friend and you have the
power to allow us to be together physically. We aren’t going to
walk away from that. I was called back to Varius this afternoon,
and I didn’t answer the call. I don’t want to leave before you
clean out this town and…Tucker and I discussed it and decided we
don’t want to leave you at all.”

“How will you break away from Varius?” Jed
asked, his voice tight.

“My contract with Varius ended ten months
ago, and I’ve been such a stellar employee, no one bothered to
renew it. I’ll call my boss tomorrow and quit.”

“You think they’ll let you go so easily?”

Henry smiled and place a hand on Jed’s knee.
“I could ask you the same question. Varius will probably be gunning
for all of us in some fashion, but I’ve never known them to
flagrantly break the rules. No one would sign on with them again if
they did.”

Jed nodded, but I shook my head. “We can’t
offer you anything, Henry. We don’t even have a place to live after
tomorrow.”

Tucker and Henry stood. “Don’t worry about
us, Kelsey. We aren’t completely helpless.”

They left the room before I could offer any
more arguments. I turned to Jed and opened my mouth, but he shook
his head and placed a finger to my lips. “They’ve made their
decision. They weren’t asking for permission and we’ll be lucky to
have them.”

I couldn’t argue, and I found I didn’t want
to. I was too happy not to have to say goodbye to Henry or
Tucker.

Jed put a hand on my arm. “There’s something
you should know, though, before you make a final decision.”

I hadn’t wanted to ask about the call from
his mother, but I knew that’s what he had to be talking about.
“Okay.”

“Yvonne has promised we can be together if we
go back to Varius, now.”

“Is that what you want?”

“It doesn’t matter. You would be safe if we
went back there and…. I want you to be safe.”

“Which means you don’t think you’ll be
safe.”

“I’ll be fine. Will you go back with me?”

“I’ll go anywhere with you, but I don’t trust
her. I really don’t want to go back there.”

He nodded, relief evident in his expression.
“That’s what I thought. I don’t trust her either, but I had to tell
you. It bothers me that her offer came right after Lorelei tore
Wraith apart.”

“You think she knew what happened?”

Jed’s eyes darkened. “It’s exactly the sort
of thing she’d use to her advantage.”

When we got up the next morning, Doctor
Veronica and Angelica were already gone, and Bruce was in the
kitchen, looking desolate. Jed and I ate a quick breakfast, then
joined the others in the living room to hear what had happened when
Wraith tried to kidnap Lorelei. Jed sat on the couch next to Henry
and pulled me down onto his lap. I slid down to sit on the floor
and lean my back against his knees. I needed my space for that
meeting. He sighed, but he didn’t argue.

Wraith sat in a rocking chair that had been
dragged in off the porch. He was back in human form, though his
face was pale and there were dark, purple circles under his eyes.
“They were ready for us,” Wraith said. “Somehow they knew what we
were going to do. They…Lorelei let me in to see her, and she seemed
happy to see me. She went along with everything I asked, until…they
dragged Pyre in.” Pyre sat next to Wraith, he looked lucid, but
exhausted. “They told us they’d killed Boss, then they…they tied
Pyre to a chair and made him watch while they tortured me for
information. I didn’t tell them anything, but Pyre…”

“I had to tell them,” he said. “The things
they were doing to him and the…If they killed him it would truly be
the end of him, the end of everything we’ve been working for. I had
to make it stop. So I told them.”

“What did you tell them,” Jed asked, not a
trace of sympathy in his voice.

“I told them how many of us there are and
what we’re planning to do. I told them about Jed.” Pyre’s eyes
focused on the floor. “I told them any and everything I could to
get them to stop hurting him.”

Everyone in the room was frozen in place
except Lila whose heart-shaped face was red and whose whole body
trembled with suppressed rage. “You are a wolf now and that means
your first concern should be the pack, not just Wraith, not just
your alpha, but the well-being of us all. You betrayed your pack
and your family. You are a disgrace, Pyre.”

I wanted to argue, because I thought Lila was
being a bit harsh, but I couldn’t come up with a reasonable
defense. Pyre had destroyed any hope we had of taking the reapers
unaware, of gaining any sort of advantage over them. Now, they knew
about Jed and would have yet another reason to target me.

Pyre dropped to his knees and lowered his
head in a wolf-like gesture, but that only seemed to make Lila
angrier. “Wraith you must do something about him,” she said through
gritted teeth.

Wraith nodded, but he looked weary, both
physically and emotionally. “Later,” he finally said. “What Pyre
did will be punished, but what’s important now is figuring out how
Lorelei knew of our plan.”

“Maybe it was just a logical conclusion,”
Thad said from his seat on the floor. “They know we’re here, so
they might have just figured it out.”

Wraith shook his head. “No. Lorelei has an
ego the size of Canada. She should have believed I wanted to
reunite with her and be her second in command. Even if her staff
suspected I was up to something, she wouldn’t have believed them.
She wouldn’t have ordered my torture unless she was tipped off. I’m
pretty sure the guy doing most of the torturing was Reginald
Victor. He’s been gunning for me for a while, and Varius could have
given me to him as part of whatever deal they’ve got with Lorelei
and Victor.”

“Varius,” Henry said with a nod of agreement.
“They know Wraith doesn’t want any other reapers horning in on his
town, and they know how dependent Jed is on Wraith. They could have
warned her to be wary.”

“But why would they do that?” Jed asked. “Why
would they turn against us?”

“Because there’s more profit in playing both
sides,” Holly said, walking in without knocking. “With Harvest One
and the reapers moving in, they couldn’t trust Wraith to deliver on
his promise. They want an in on the other side, too.”

“This wasn’t just playing both sides,” Wraith
said. “They destroyed any shot we have of winning here.”

Holly shrugged. “I guess Varius had even less
faith in you than I did. None of that matters now, though, trouble
is on its way.”

“Shit,” Jed said. “How many?”

“Lorelei, five reaps, ten borroweds, and
fifteen reapers. Plus, another fifteen Harvest One employees. I
have to get back before they notice I’m gone.” She crept back out
of the house as quietly as she’d slipped in.

Everyone started yelling at once, but Jed
just watched them all in silence, his expression distant. I sat
next to him and tried to achieve his same level of calm, but my
heart wouldn’t stop racing and I was shivering like I was cold,
even though it was warm in the house. Just when I thought I was
going to fall apart, Jed spoke in a calm even voice, “We have to
run.”

The people closest to us quieted down, but
the others kept yelling. “We have to run,” Jed said again, his
voice no louder than before, but that time he caught Wraith’s eye.
Wraith roared everyone quiet before turning his attention to
Jed.

“They’re attacking our home,” Wraith said.
“We don’t back down.”

“We back down or we die,” Jed said. “We’ve
got eight wolves, one of whom is in no shape to fight, two humans,
one of whom is injured, and Kelsey and Tucker to fight the reapers.
That’s two reapers against fifteen, eight fighters against thirty
well-trained fighters. Even if wolves are stronger, how many humans
can you take out? Can you fight off five at a time? And they’ll
have weapons, trust me. They’ll be packing silver, too.”

Wraith dropped his head to his chest while
Jed spoke. When looked up, defeat was clear on his face. “If we run
they’ll chase us. As wolves we can out-run them, but we’d be
leaving Kelsey, Thad, and Henry to them.”

Jed nodded, his expression eerily calm. “We
run to the woods, all of us in human form, and we split up. They’ll
have to split up to follow and we’ll be able to take some of them
by surprise. Wolves will use scent to anticipate them and set up
ambushes.” The sound of a car screeched into the driveway, followed
by doors slamming.

“Shit,” Wraith hissed. “Fine, let’s go.
Everyone to the woods. We’ll meet at the waterfall behind standing
rock. Jed and Kelsey you go first, I’ll take Lila and Hugh and head
Northwest, Pyre you go with Thad and—” That was all I heard, as Jed
and I started through the house and out the back door.

We burst out onto the back porch and were in
the woods in two steps. I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked
around to see Slade with us.

“They’re already out here,” Jed said, his
nose twitching. He glanced at Slade, but made no comment. “There’s
one about five hundred yards straight ahead and another to the
East. If there’s more I can’t smell them.” He moved as he talked.
“So we’ll head straight and veer west in 200 hundred yards.”

Jed held my hand as we ran. I knew I was
slowing him down, so I ran as hard as I could, trying not to
stumble over tree roots and ignoring the sting of branches that
swatted and scratched my face. Slade followed silently, her
breathing even and her stride easy. She seemed more comfortable in
her new body than I’d ever been in mine. We’d gone about a hundred
yards when Jed veered sharply right and dove behind some boulders.
I opened my mouth to speak, but Jed shook his head and I shut
it.

I heard a branch snap and the swish of
fabric, and Jed was gone. He’d leapt straight over the boulder.
There was a grunt, but by the time I made it to him, Jed was done,
standing over the body of a woman, who looked younger than me.
“Your turn,” Jed said, as he wrapped an arm around me and pulled me
close. I understood what he meant as soon as I saw a reaper float
up and out of the body. There was only one reaper and it looked
like a middle-aged woman, so I had to assume the girl Jed had
killed was one of the reaps. I didn’t have any time to feel sad for
the young girl who was dead. I focused on calming my racing heart
and sending my soul out of my body. It felt like it took me a
really long time to decompress and get free, but when I floated
away from my body, the reaper was still there, watching me.