The Wolf in His Arms (The Runes Trilogy) (28 page)

“They killed my twin brother,” Alec said. “And Lucy’s
boyfriend.”

“I’m so sorry,” Helena said, and she reached across the
table to them.

“And they killed Jared,” Maxwell added and then cringed at
their horrified faces.

“I wasn’t really going to spring that on them just yet.”
Jared looked down at the table, trying to collect his thoughts.

“Look,” Haley said, “we went to Portland—that’s where
Vincent’s from—and he killed himself, yet he’s up and walking around and taking
people. Resurrection has something to do with you green-eyed folk.”

“Well said.” Jared thought for a moment. “We also liberated
some paperwork from a lab of theirs out in the middle of nowhere. It’s in some
sort of runic language, and we’ve been translating it as we can.” He shrugged.
“I think you’re caught up on what we know.”

“So you don’t know what they’re up to, and you don’t know
how to stop them, and you don’t know what we’re going to do next,” Nadia
attested.

“Right,” Maxwell said cheerily. “So, it’s the four of us
against Griffin, Vincent, and all the bad werewolves. Yep. We’re gonna die.”

Lucy scowled at Maxwell. “Now that we’re all together, we do
know what we’re going to do. We’re going to do what I’ve been doing all along:
train. You need to hone your gifts and learn to control the beast inside you.”
She turned to face Alec. “It seems all of you have a special blessing that
people like I do not. It looks like you can control yourself even when you’re in
a werewolf state.”

“We also need to find you a new place to transform,” Jared
said to Lucy. “And, maybe me.”

“And me?” Alec asked. “If Lucy’s wrong about my ability to
control.”

Nadia studied their faces for a moment. “And what about the
papers you ‘liberated’? We need to translate those.”

“Looks like we need to get busy,” Lucy said. “Training
starts in the morning.”

“I need to find our full moon spot,” Alec corrected.

A worried look crossed Lucy’s face, but she hid it quickly
with a smile.

“What does that mean?” Helena asked.

“I need to find Lucy a place to change—safely—on the full
moon.”

“I’ll help you,” Helena offered. “I won’t be training. I need
to keep busy.”

Alec nodded. “Thanks.”

Tony had
been distant during first period, but Collin thought it was best to give him
his distance to let him figure things out for himself. He watched Tony out of
the corner of his eye, and he could tell Tony was observing Ms. Ruhl, Mark, and
the other students. Now, it was lunch, and he wanted to ask Tony his thoughts.
He scanned the cafeteria, but he didn’t see Tony. He sat an empty table. He
looked down at the disgusting mound of food and then looked around the room
again. Still, no Tony. Suddenly, he felt someone bump his chair.

Collin
turned to see Mark behind him with three other boys. “You looking for your
boyfriend?” Mark said with the tone of a schoolyard bully.

“What’s
going on, Mark?” Collin asked evenly, as if he thought they were just friends
ribbing each other.

“Tony
got in a fight in second period. He was eyeing my friends here, and they didn’t
like it.” Mark knocked Collin’s chair again. “He’s in the infirmary.” Mark
kneeled down to whisper in Collin’s ear. “So, I wouldn’t count on seeing him
until late tonight.” He clutched Collin’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. You’re going
to the infirmary, too.” He added a quick, hard smack to Collin’s face as he
stood to walk away.

Panic
seized Collin’s insides as Mark’s threat rang in his ears.
They’re coming for me tonight.
But
what time? When is ‘late’?
He looked around and saw dozens of eyes on him. His
stomach boiled as he realized he couldn’t even leave the cafeteria unnoticed.
He rolled scenarios around in his head: if he caused a scene, no doubt he’d be
dragged straight to the infirmary for—what they were doing he didn’t know, but
he didn’t want it to happen to him. His mind turned to his friend.
Is it already too late for Tony, like Mark?
Should I just run for it? And try to get
help?
The hopelessness of his situation stung him, and his eyes teared up.

Collin
glanced around the room. His knees shook under the table, but he stood. He
walked, as steadily as he could, directly to the cafeteria door and addressed
the guard. “I need to use the restroom.”

The
guard’s eyelids flicked slowly over his cold, green eyes, and his lip curled up
in a knowing snarl. “Go ahead.” And he waved Collin on.

Collin walked
toward the restroom sign and thought that he felt eyes on his back. He turned.
The guard was watching, but in the doorway, Mark stood with his new friends.
Collin turned and smacked into proctor Roth.

“Easy,
Collin,” Proctor Roth said, grabbing him by the shoulders.

“Sorry,
sir,” Collin apologized, his eyes on the floor.

“Where
are you heading?”

“Restroom.”

“So was
I,” Proctor Roth said, and he waved his hand toward the restroom. Collin kept
his face down as he walked into the restroom. He felt Proctor Roth at his back,
so close he could feel his breath on his neck. Collin’s lips trembled and his
hands shook as he approached the urinal. Proctor Roth took the urinal one down
from him. He smiled at Collin before turning his gaze to the wall. Collin
unzipped and tried to force himself to go unsuccessfully.
I don’t even have to pee.

Proctor
Roth finished and flushed the urinal. Collin kept his eyes on the wall directly
in front of him. He heard Proctor Roth’s shoes click on the floor behind him.
The sound stopped, and again he felt Proctor Roth’s hot breath on his neck as
he spoke to Collin over his shoulder. “Don’t stay in here too long. Restrooms
can be a dangerous place, even in a school as strict as this one.” Proctor Roth
exited the restroom.

With
trembling hands, Collin zipped up and stepped back from the urinal. He rubbed
his hand through his hair and looked out the glass block window in the wall. He
could see a wavy, frosted view of the world outside, and he thought,
I’m never getting out there. Never.

*
         
*
         
*
         
*

Shadows
cloaked the room as Maxwell startled awake. Panic swept over him until his eyes
adjusted and he remembered that he was sleeping on the floor of a living room
in Detroit. Among friends, he reminded himself.

“Hey,
what is it?” Haley mumbled from the couch. She was a notoriously light sleeper.

“Nothing.
Bad dream. Go back to sleep.”

She
propped herself up on a pillow. “Bad dream or premonition?”

“Bad
dream, I hope,” his voice quivered.

Haley sat
up and slid off the couch onto the floor beside him. “Tell me.”

“I was
locked in a small room. It was a strange room I didn’t recognize,” he recalled
the images. “I was trapped. With a werewolf.”

“Just
you?”

“Yes,
just me and, well, the werewolf.”

“Well,
we’re not going to leave you alone,” Haley assured him. She lay down next to
him and laid her head on his shoulder. “Any other details?”

“I had
a flashlight.” He stopped. “This is why I think it’s a dream.”

“Why?”
Haley prodded.

“The
flashlight killed the werewolf, like it was a bomb. It was weird.”

“Some
dream,” Haley replied, but Maxwell could tell that the wheels in her head were
turning.

A week of scouring the city had proven fruitless. Concern
fluttered across Alec’s face as he crossed another potential location off the
list he had made.

Sitting in the passenger seat next to him, Helena patted his
hand. “We’ll find a safe place for your sister.”

“I’m losing my confidence,” Alec admitted.

“Let me see,” Helena said, taking the map of Detroit from
Alec’s hand. He watched her face wrinkle in concentration. He fought the urge
to be annoyed by her helpfulness, but he didn’t know how someone new to the
city would find a place he hadn’t thought of. He looked out the window to the empty
building he had just crossed off his list of candidates. The building was getting
rehabbed into apartments, and his options were diminishing.

“What about this,” Helena enthused. “This island.” She poked
her finger into the map.

Alec looked at Belle Isle, a park situated in the middle of
the Detroit River. Only one bridge led to it, and the park was closed at night.
“It’s isolated,” he agreed.

“Let me see your phone.” Helena held out her hand. She
pressed around on the phone and brought up a map. “This says there’s an
abandoned zoo on the island. Abandoned zoos mean cages.”

Alec smiled at Helena as he started the car. “Let’s check it
out.”

Lucy looked across the living room at Maxwell and Nadia and
tried to keep her frustration from showing in her face. She had worked with
them for a week, and felt neither had made substantial strides. When it came to
meditation Maxwell lacked the attention span to concentrate on his breathing.
Every time Lucy opened her eyes, he was fiddling with his phone or looking
around the room. Nadia managed well with the balancing poses, but she shied
away from self-defense moves with a snobbish sneer. Lucy decided that trying to
teach others the moves she had learned in her classes was more difficult than
Mitch had ever made it look.

“Take five,” she muttered. She walked down the hall and entered
the bedroom study. The room looked like a command center with a dry erase board
marked with everything they knew about the werewolves in addition to the
translated pages strewn around the room.

“How’s the morning regimen?” Jared asked as Lucy entered.

“Brutal, apparently.”

He chuckled. “We’re not soldiers, I’m afraid.”

“I’m thinking of enlisting help.” Lucy approached Jared and
sat next to him. He cocked his eyebrow with his question. Lucy continued, “Mitch.
As much as I can’t stand him, he’s really, really good at teaching.”

“And how are you thinking of arranging this?”

“I was thinking I’d pay him for a class for me and some
friends.”

“Here?”

“At the gym if we can swing it.”

“I like it.” He took his glasses off his face and placed
them on top of his head. He scratched his bearded chin, and looked so much like
a professor that it made Lucy giggle.

“We were supposed to have different lives, weren’t we?”

He nodded. “Yes, I’d like to think so, but, if things were
different, I wouldn’t even be here. Darius was my father after all.”

Lucy took the thought in. “Maybe everything will work out.”
She eyed the papers. “Anything we can use to our advantage?”

“Maybe. I’m so distracted looking for information, I haven’t
translated anything completely.” He looked at the dry erase board. “Haley did a
great job with the board. I may enlist her help with the translating.” He
smiled. “Since you’re preoccupied training.”

Alec breezed into the room, as Helena trailed behind him.
“We found the perfect place for Lucy to change. Belle Isle.”

“Why the park?” Lucy asked.

“It’s an island. It’s closed at night. And it has an
abandoned zoo on it with empty, solid buildings,” Alec enumerated. “It’s the
best place to wait out a full moon.”

“Great job, Alec,” Jared said.

“Actually, it was Helena’s idea,” Alec admitted.

Lucy took Helena’s hand. “Thank you.” She turned to Alec and
Jared. “Now we just have to get ready to fight Griffin and Vincent,” Lucy said.

Alec added, “And figure out what the hell the other werewolves
are up to.”

*
         
*
         
*
         
*

Inside his office at the Cornerstone Boys Academy, Nigel
studied his fingernails and then shifted his half-lidded gaze across the desk
to Griffin and Vincent. “Chicago is set, I presume?”

“We made 50 new werewolves in one night,” Griffin gloated. “That
city won’t know what the fuck hit it.”

“Neither will Los Angeles, New York, London, Sydney, Tokyo,
Paris, Madrid, Buenos Aries...The list goes on to every sizable city in the world.”
Nigel turned his attention more fully to Griffin and Vincent as he righted
himself in his chair. He folded his hands on the desk. “We have operatives
stationed with every major head-of-state around the globe. Imagine every world
leader dead at once. Imagine every Congress and Parliament torn to shreds.” His
face lit with the wicked glow of a jack-o-lantern. “After this full moon, human
civilization will be thrown into chaos and crumble.” A perturbed smile puckered
his mouth. “You are the only members of the Gen5 Pack to join us.” He leaned
closer. “Why is that, Griffin?”

Griffin looked down and sucked in his cheeks. “I guess you
underestimated their bonds with their families.”

“Maybe I overestimated your ability to be persuasive.”

“And Darius’s failures?” Griffin contested. “I’m to be
blamed for those too?”

Nigel’s face blossomed into a full smile. “I’m not looking
to assign blame. I’m looking to make this a learning opportunity.” He leaned
back in his chair and folded his hands behind his head. “How do we stop them?”

“You see them as a threat?” Griffin scoffed.

“Never underestimate your enemy.”

Griffin sighed. “You want me to take care of them?”