The Wolf in His Arms (The Runes Trilogy) (17 page)

“All
the attitude and head rolling in the world will not stop a werewolf,” Jared retorted.
He turned to Maxwell. “You’re putting her in danger.”

“And
you are
from
the suburbs,” Maxwell
reminded her.

Haley
cut in again. “We’ve been through everything together for the last three years.
He’s going nowhere without me.” She clutched to Maxwell’s arm as if to prove
their inseparability.

“I’m
actually almost out of beer,” Sue announced, walking back in with a nearly
empty case. “I can run down to the corner market.”

“I’ll
go,” Lucy offered. “Haley, why don’t you come with me? We can talk.”

Haley
eyed Lucy suspiciously and then slid off the stool. She turned her eyes to Sue.
“Don’t let them take him anywhere?”

“Did I
miss something?” Sue asked.

Maxwell
rested his hand on her shoulder. “It’s cool.”

Jared
pulled his jacket off and draped it on the couch. “See? We’re not going
anywhere.” He flashed Haley a smile, and she rolled her eyes.

On the
street, Lucy turned to Haley and rested her hand on her back. “It’s touching
that you care about him so much.”

Haley
shrugged. “We’re all each other’s got.” Bitterness hung under the words. “I can
take care of myself. I know I look all cute and shit, but I’m tough.”

“Have
you ever killed anyone?”

Haley’s
face puckered in disbelief. “Have you?”

“Yes,”
Lucy said evenly. “Last year. A man—Darius was his name—attacked my parents and
Alec and Jared, and I cut his fucking head off with a fucking scythe.”

“Are
you serious?”

“Yes.”

“What’s
a scythe?”

“The
thing the grim reaper carries.”

“Shit.
Lucy, The Reaper.” They entered the store and grabbed a case of beer from the
cooler. Lucy paid, and they began their walk back to the apartment. Haley
asked, “So, um, are you lesbian?”

Lucy
chuckled. “No. Do I seem it?”

Haley
shrugged. “We’re in the Midwest. Most of the straight women are butcher than
me.” With a smirk, she added, “You have a bit of a badass vibe. But, nerdy too.
It’s a weird combo.”

“I
started taking self-defense classes after this all happened.”

“Can
you keep him safe?”

“We’ll
try. We can’t make any promises.”

Haley
considered her honesty for a moment. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“As
long as you know the danger.”

“I
know.”

“Where
you pretty ladies heading tonight?” The voice came from a darkened doorway.

“Fuck
off,” Haley snapped automatically. Griffin stepped forward from the shadow into
their path. “Shit. It’s him,” Haley whispered to Lucy.

“Lucy
Rune,” he sneered as he approached. “A pleasure.”

“You
know my name, but I don’t know yours,” Lucy replied.

“Griffin,”
he growled his name, his lips working it like poison. “You’re supposed to be
dead.” He looked from Lucy to Haley. “Both of you.”

Lucy
looked around the crowded street. Too many cars and pedestrians bore witness.
She wagered he wouldn’t do anything in so visible a location. “I’m not sorry to
disappoint you.” She hated the fear she could hear in her own voice.

“Why
don’t we take a walk?” He pointed toward a darkened alley.

“Are
you fucking smoking crack?” Haley spat.

“Do you
really want all these nice people on the street to die too?” He flashed his
teeth as the canines grew before their eyes.

Lucy
struck out with a quick kick to his knee, buckling him. She swung with the case
of beer, hitting him in the head as he fell, increasing the impact. Suddenly
aware that violence erupted in their midst, pedestrians scattered like flies on
a slammed screen door. “Run!” Lucy urged.

Griffin
grabbed Haley’s leg as she ran past him, and she tumbled face first into the
sidewalk. Lucy saw him bare his fangs, ready to bite Haley. She delivered the
hardest kick she could muster to the side of his head. His head jerked aside
with a satisfying snap. Haley clambered to her feet and sprinted toward the
building. She reached the locked vestibule before Lucy. She pressed the button
for Sue’s loft. “Let us in! Let us in!” She cried into the intercom.

Her
frantic cry set Jared, Alec, Maxwell, and Sue into action. Sue darted across
the room, pressing the button to unlock the door. Jared and Alec ran to the
door, and bolted down the hallway. Maxwell hesitated at the door. “Wait here.
Lock the door,” he commanded Sue. Maxwell thundered down the stairs behind Alec
and Jared.

In the
vestibule, Haley yanked the inner door open when she heard it click. “Run,
Lucy!” She yelled as Lucy raced toward her with Griffin close behind. Lucy
pushed through the inner door. As Haley pulled it shut, Griffin grabbed the
handle. He yanked the door from her hands. Lucy launched a flying kick square
in his chest, knocking him across the sidewalk and into two passersby who were
also knocked to the sidewalk.

Griffin
lunged to his feet, shoving the passersby out of his way. “I’m gonna fuck you
up.” He charged Lucy.

At that
moment, Jared bolted through the door, slamming into Griffin at full speed.
Griffin howled as his back collided with the side mirror of a parked car. Glass
clinked to the sidewalk as the car alarm blared into the night. Jared and
Griffin tussled against the car until Griffin grabbed Jared by the shoulders
and flung him backward across the sidewalk. Jared tumbled to the sidewalk by
the door. Griffin prepared to leap as Alec and Maxwell arrived at Jared’s side.
Pedestrians gathered on the sidewalk, watching the spectacle.

Griffin
hesitated, watching Jared climb to his feet. Griffin dragged the back of his
hand across his nose. He glared down at the smear of his blood. “You think
you’re pretty hot shit,” he ranted. “You think you’re the alpha.” Griffin pounded
his chest. “I’m the fucking alpha. I am Griffin. I’m the oldest. I’m in charge
of this pack.”

“You
don’t own us. None of you do,” Jared countered.

Griffin
nodded. “I thought you’d feel that way. But we do control you.” Griffin stuck
his hand in his jacket, and before they could react, he pulled out a handgun.
He leveled it on Jared. “You’re no longer a part of this experiment.”

Griffin
fired.

Alec’s
mind fell behind reality as the impact flung Jared backward. In a blink, Jared
lay sprawled on the sidewalk, his head lulling like a discarded doll. His lips
drew back in pain to reveal blood-tinted teeth. His eyelids fluttered over
glazed eyes. Crimson seeped through the fabric of his shirt in an ever-growing melanoma.

Alec
fell to his knees. He became vaguely aware of screaming, people moving around
him. He did not notice the blood sprayed across his own face. He did not notice
as Griffin tucked the gun back in his pocket and began to stroll down the
street.

Alec
pressed his hands to Jared’s chest in a futile attempt to stop the blood as it
gushed from the wound. The wound, in fact, was larger than Alec’s hand, and he
was afraid his hand would sink into the pulpy mess that had been Jared’s chest.

“Lucy,
do something,” Alec finally cried. Blood bubbled up between his fingers. Blood
flowed out from under Jared, and the words
exit
wound
fluttered through Alec’s mind like a raven’s wings.

He
noticed, then, that Maxwell was on his cell phone, demanding for an ambulance;
Haley had yanked her scarf off, wadded it, and fell beside him to stop the
bleeding; Lucy dropped to her knees beside him, tears streaming down her face.
Alec looked at Jared and knew, without a doubt, that he was dying. His breath
came in short, choked breaths. His lips turned ashen, his eyes grew glassy and
distant. Jared sputtered blood, and it trickled across his lips into his beard.

Alec
clutched Jared’s hand. “Please, Jared, stay with me,” he whispered, though it
sounded like a roar in his ears. “Please.” He knew it made no sense to plead;
if Jared could, he would stay. Jared’s eyes did not close, but Alec knew that
he had taken his last breath.

Alec
lunged to his feet. He turned his gaze down the sidewalk where Griffin had
walked just seconds before. “Griffin!” His voice shattered the night, high
above the din of traffic and sirens and voices. The anguished cry was laced
with madness, hatred, rage.

He
spotted Griffin, still walking, about a block away.

Alec
ran toward Griffin. He shoved pedestrians aside as he raced down the sidewalk, like
a great white shark preparing to split the surface. Lucy chased him, yelling
for him to stop, but he did not hear her. Rage filled his mind; he could feel
it pushing through his skin like angry fists.

Alec
morphed instantaneously.

Like a
chemical change as a liquid is suddenly a crystal, Alec suddenly lumbered down
the sidewalk as a werewolf. Lucy’s mind did not comprehend the change
immediately. Her only point of reference was Darius, and her sketchy memories
of her own changing, which took time as the beast seemed to literally claw its
way out of her. But Alec did not miss a stride. He did not stumble or pause. He
simply shifted.

Lucy skidded
to a stop as her mind became crippled by a Medusa-knot of emotions and thoughts
snaking over each other. Not sure what to do, she took a few protracted steps
after Alec as she watched the streets turn to chaos.

The
sidewalk cleared in front of the werewolf as he charged down the street. People
were shouting and scattering; some ducked into doorways, others fled into the
street. Avoiding pedestrians, cars skidded to a stop. Motorists, once they saw
the beast, sped off, yet others opened their doors to gawk. The werewolf passed
by a number of pedestrians with earphones who shrieked as they saw the beast in
their peripheral vision. Some people, and Lucy thought,
how stupid
, stopped to film the monster charging down the sidewalk.
The werewolf seemed not to notice them in his single-minded tracking of
Griffin.

Griffin
seemed to finally notice the tumult behind him. He turned to see the beast rushing
him. He tossed his head up and laughed into the night.

The
werewolf tackled Griffin to the ground. Those who had convinced themselves that
the werewolf was a publicity stunt realized, in that instant that the creature
was real.

Pandemonium
broke out on the streets.

Screaming,
pedestrians scattered in all directions like ants from a smashed hill. As the
streets flooded with fleeing pedestrians, cars hit their brakes, causing a
chain reaction of crashes. Cars veered off into parked cars, others collided
with cars in front of them. A motorcycle zipping between vehicles collided with
an open door, and the driver was flung onto the street.

Inside
busy coffeehouses and restaurants, inside apartments, stunned witnesses watched
as the werewolf plowed over his single victim, tearing his throat from his
body. Blood jettisoned from Griffin’s neck, splattering the sidewalk and cars
and buildings and the lamppost. The werewolf spit the chunk of flesh onto the
sidewalk and lumbered away.

Screams
and sirens deafened the night as Griffin stared into the dark sky. The urban
glare painted the sky a starless gray. As he sucked his last breath through the
gaping wound in his neck, a faint smile parted his blood-stained lips.

Ignoring
the tumult, Lucy ran down the street after Alec. Lucy stumbled her last three
steps as she approached Griffin’s shuddering body. His blood puddled on the
sidewalk under the street light, and poured into the gutter like wine. She
faced the alley where Alec had vanished, and with a short, defeated cry, she turned
and ran back toward Sue’s loft. She felt that she was trapped inside a church
tower as the calamity of the city banged around her. Her head vibrated with the
sirens, screams, honking—and all of it echoing, echoing.

She
skidded to a stop outside Sue’s loft. Maxwell and Haley kneeled by Jared’s
body. Someone had covered his face with a jacket, and Lucy felt a breath catch
in her throat, sharp like a dagger, at the finality of it. Sue enclosed Haley
and Maxwell in her arms, trying to comfort them. Police gathered and taped off
the area. An ambulance waited nearby. Lucy could see people looking out the
windows of the condominiums above.

Lucy
looked down at the blood spreading out from under the jacket. “Oh, Jared,” she
sobbed. Maxwell stood and looked at her, unsure, with his arms at his side. His
face fluttered like the wings of a small white moth, and then he threw his arms
around her. “I don’t know what to do,” Lucy sobbed.

“Can
you call someone?” Maxwell asked through his own tears.

“My
mom,” Lucy sobbed.

“Call
her,” Maxwell said.

Lucy
dug in her pocket, wanting so fiercely to hear her mother’s voice. The need
wrestled with her guilt over the distance she had spread between them and over the
guilt of delivering yet more devastating news.

Ilene
answered. “Lucy? Lucy, is everything okay?”