Trapped (22 page)

Isaac
jumped, between Anton and Jess. I knew that the balance of the fight
would shift if James and Isaac were able to clinch with Anton while
he was tied up with Dom and Ash, but if it was obvious to me it had
to be obvious to Anton too, and it was like he existed in a time flow
that was completely separate from the one that the rest of us were
forced to function in.

Anton
broke away from Ash and Dom just before James arrived on the scene
and sprang at me. I had a split second to remember Dom's
prediction that Ash wouldn't deal with my death very well, and
then Anton was practically on top of me.

Somehow
I'd managed to get my gun up and pointed in his direction, but
there was too much chance that I'd miss and hit one or more of
the pack. Instead I let my knees collapse. It almost wasn't
enough to save me. Anton got a set of claws into my left shoulder as
he went over top of me, but I didn't have to worry about
hitting anyone else now, so I fired almost straight up at him.

I
turned over and emptied my gun into Anton, but missed with all five
shots. I started to try and get myself back to my feet as he turned
and came back towards me, but my left arm wasn't working the
way that it should have been. I couldn't even reload. He was toying
with me and there wasn't anything that I could do about it.

I
took a quick breath, sure that I would die within the next few
seconds, and then Ash was there next to me. His legs and chest were
covered with blood, and I honestly didn't know how he was still
alive let alone able to walk, but he slammed a fresh magazine into my
gun and then released the slide as he took it out of my hands.

My
pistol roared once, twice, and then again in Ash's hands. We
were still going to die, but somehow that didn't bother me as
much as it should have. If I had to die then dying while making a
stand at Ash's side was a better way to go than most I could
think of.

Anton
seemed to be moving slower now. I saw all three rounds blow large
holes out the other side of him, but then he was airborne and headed
directly at us. Ash shoved me at the last possible second, sending
both of us flying in opposite directions.

I
hit the ground and rolled. It was an awkward roll, but it brought me
around to where I could see the rest of the pack as Anton landed and
tried to change directions again. He very nearly succeeded, but James
got a couple of claws into him as he sprang away, and this time James
was able to maintain his grip.

The
force of Anton's jump spun James' massive form around and
took him to the ground, but it was all of the opening that Isaac and
the others needed. Dom, Isaac and Jasmin all piled onto Anton and
began tearing him to pieces.

As
the dust finally settled I took stock and felt my heart jump into my
throat. Jess was a nearly motionless heap a few steps away from Alec,
and Isaac's hybrid body was bleeding from more places than I
could count. Everyone melted back to their normal shapes and then
Alec pulled himself back onto his feet and started giving orders. We
barely had enough conscious people to get all of the vehicles back to
the estate.

Donovan
and the rest met us at the door and then everything was a flurry of
bandaging and stitching. Ash, despite being wobbly on his feet, got
co-opted to help James get Isaac somewhere 'safe' and
Donovan took one look at Alec and then ordered me to apply pressure
to some of the worst of the gashes while he and Dominic saw to Jess
and Isaac.

Everyone
else filtered out of the room and I found myself alone with Alec for
the first time. He'd insisted that Donovan see to the others
first, but I could tell the fight had taken a lot out of him. I was
half worried he was going to slip into unconsciousness himself so I
found myself making small talk to try and keep him awake.

"So
your ability is sucking power out of people?"

"It
appears that way. At this point I don't know much more about it
than you do. With Brandon and the others it leveled everyone in the
area and it was just sheer dumb luck that we recovered before they
did. When the Coun'hij came for their visit, I reached for it
and got nothing."

"So
you didn't even know if it would work?"

"Nope,
not a clue. Turns out it didn't help even when it did kick in
today. If you and Ash hadn't put some bullets into him we'd
have been torn apart. Nice work, by the way."

I
shrugged, uncertain how I felt about the day's events. I knew
Anton needed stopped, but it was a different ball of wax knowing that
I'd helped kill him.

"So
what do you think went wrong this time?"

"You've
got a lot of questions for someone who just joined the pack."

"No
offense intended, Alec, but if you're holding Ash and me to the
agreement where we join your pack then we've got a hell of a
lot riding on your power. I know next to nothing about this world,
but even I can see that."

Alec
shifted slightly and bit off a groan as the motion pulled at the
deepest of the wounds across his chest.

"That's
a fair point. I'm not sure exactly what happened today. I tried
to focus the effect on Anton and leave all of you out of it. It
seemed like maybe I was partially successful. Nobody dropped to the
ground like before, but maybe it was just that the power is growing
weaker."

"You
don't believe that though?"

"I'm
not sure. I really hope not. Like you say, there is a lot riding on
my ability to serve as a deterrent over the next few months. I think
maybe my attempts to focus it robbed it of some of its absorptive
ability. Also, I think that Anton was much scarier than any of us
anticipated, even in our worst-case scenarios. I was pulling a lot
out of him, enough that it practically knocked me out, and all it did
was slow him down a step or two."

"So
your ability isn't the magic bullet everyone is hoping for
then."

"No,
I'm afraid it's not. It should still serve as a pretty
good deterrent though."

"Well,
I guess we owe you twice over. You didn't just take us in and
kill Anton for us, you did it when you weren't even sure if you
guys had a chance at succeeding or not."

It
was nice talking to Alec like this. If you found him after he'd
spent some time being run over by a buzz saw, he actually came across
as a half-decent individual. It made me think of the conversation
with Ash and Dom about the fact that he'd changed recently.

"Alec,
what happened with Adri?"

Alec
had me by the throat, back against the wall before I'd even
realized that he'd moved. He shook for a couple of seconds
while I flailed around and then with what looked like a supreme force
of will, lowered me to the ground.

"You're
not supposed to talk about her. Only the fact that you haven't
been told directly that she's off-limits, let me put enough
restraint on my beast to stop from killing you."

I
rubbed my throat, still leaning against the wall.

"So
if I ask again, are you going to kill me?"

"I'm
sorry about that, I really am, but I just don't want to talk
about her."

I
waited, looking at him expectantly as the wounds on his chest started
bleeding again. Nearly a minute passed before he sighed and slid back
down into the chair that he'd been sitting in previously.

"OK,
you deserve to know something. The rest of the pack all lived through
it after all, so sooner or later you'll piece most everything
together. Adri was my biggest mistake. I love…loved her and
the last time the Coun'hij was here I did things I regret,
things that Adri didn't approve of. She left, before I really
even had a chance to explain anything, and she's never coming
back."

Somehow
I'd never expected it to all come down to a broken heart. Alec
had led his pack through what must have been the next best thing to
hell, apparently never flinching from doing what needed done, from
being the kind of pack leader that could command unwavering loyalty.
After all of that it was the loss of a girl that had driven him over
the edge. I opened my mouth, searching for something to say, but I
couldn't seem to find the right words.

Alec
chuckled. "You're on the point of saying that I just need
to give it time, that there are other fish in the sea."

"Maybe
not in so many words, but it's a valid sentiment…"

"Would
you say that if Ash left you?"

That
really stopped me in my tracks.

"No,
I guess I wouldn't. At least not at first."

"You'd
be right not to say that. The kind of profound connection that you
and he have, that she and I had, doesn't just wander into your
life all of the time. She's gone and now I need to deal with
that fact."

Alec
looked up at me with pain-filled eyes and sighed yet again.

"I'm
having a really hard time caring what happens next though. I'm
making bad decisions, decisions that I know are wrong at the time
that I make them, but it doesn't seem to matter to me. Ordering
everyone not to talk about Adri, agreeing to go up against Anton,
those are just the two that everyone knows about. It's the
wrong thing to be doing, but I just don't care."

I
shook my head at him. "Look, Alec. I don't know what to
tell you other than that you need to pull it together. I'm glad
you decided to help Ash and me, but there is too much at stake here
for you, me, Ash and your friends for you to be making stupid
decisions."

"You
have no idea what I'm going through. It was a mistake to talk
to you about this. This conversation never happened and if you talk
about it again I won't be able to restrain my beast. Consider
yourself warned."

**

An
hour and a half later Ash and I finally found ourselves alone
together. Alec's estate included a number of smaller houses
that looked like they were meant for domestic help, but which I
suspected had been built with the intention of giving the members of
the pack sufficient room to avoid some of the worst of the dominance
friction.

We'd
been assigned one of them, one with two bedrooms at Ash's
insistence. Call me old fashioned, but I was just fine with the
arrangements. I was actually a bit surprised as we walked into what
was to become our new home. It wasn't furnished quite as richly
as what I'd seen of the main house, but it was still a very
nice place to live. I followed Ash into the living room and then we
separated for a second, each to our respective rooms to drop off our
suitcases. Ash came out of his room a few seconds later and crossed
his arms.

"We
need to talk. You promised to run when things got rough."

"My
staying helped turn the tide. If I'd left like we'd
talked about, you probably would have died along with the rest of the
pack."

Ash
sighed and ran one hand through his hair.

"The
outcome doesn't invalidate the fact that you lied to me."

"You're
right. I did promise, but that promise was made without all of the
facts. If I'd known what I know now, I never would have
agreed."

I
had him on the back foot for once in our relationship. He had no idea
where I was headed.

"You
failed to tell me that Anton wasn't tracking
us
, he was
tracking
me
. You could have cut me loose at any point and
saved yourself. You didn't need to stick with me, you
definitely didn't need to agree to join Alec and tie yourself
to what I'm realizing is a loose warhead just waiting for a
place to explode."

Ash
swallowed a couple of times before he found his voice. "Who
told you?"

"I'm
not going to tell you that and you know it. The last thing you need
to do is go off and play alpha over something stupid like this. The
important thing isn't that I know, the important thing is that
you didn't tell me. So give, why didn't you at least give
me a heads-up to the fact that Anton was linked to me?"

"Because
you would have reacted just like this. You would have demanded that I
leave you behind, sacrifice you to keep myself safe."

"Maybe
that would have been the right answer. We managed to survive, but as
you just finished saying, the result doesn't always justify the
method."

Ash
shook his head. "I did what I did because I couldn't see
a future without you that I wanted to be a part of. It's
impulsive, illogical and I've spent the last decade trying to
avoid any kind of emotional entanglements but from the first moment I
saw you I couldn't get you out of my mind. It only got stronger
as I spent more time with you, and the funny thing is that I don't
even regret the decisions that led us down this path. I want to be
with you. I…I guess when you get right down to it, I love you.
I didn't think it was possible for me to love anyone, not after
everything I've been through, but I couldn't help myself, not when it
came to you."

He
was right; everything about the last few weeks was crazy and
impossible. We barely knew each other and the pressure cooker that
we'd just landed ourselves in was hardly the environment to try
and build a solid foundation for future bliss.

Still,
I couldn't argue with the sentiment. I'd been ready to
die on the off chance that my staying in that canyon would provide
Ash with a way out, a way to survive. My feelings had only gotten
stronger. I loved Ash at least as much as he loved me.

I
didn't try to respond, not with words at least. I stepped into
Ash and let him wrap his arms around me. We'd get through
whatever hot water Alec landed us in somehow. We were together and
that was all that really mattered to me at this point.

—The Story Continues in
Forsaken
—

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