Memoirs of a Girl Wolf (36 page)

“I’m right here,” he said, but he didn’t look at me. He pulled an unconscious Orgon out of the truck and safely into his arms.

“I was just making sure he was still out,” Reign explained.

I lifted myself up and ran forward, elated to see him and relieved, but Phoenix was still hurt, badly and I didn’t want to lose a boyfriend or a friend. I told Reign to follow me and I ran toward the house.

Mom and Viktor tended to Phoenix who was sprawled out on his back on top of the kitchen table.

“Put him on the couch,” I told Reign.

Reign, gently, set Orgon on the living room couch. With his arms now free, I wrapped myself around him, hugging him tightly then pulling away to examine him for any damage I may had caused.

He slanted his eyes and did his best to hide the right side of his face. Lifting his chin with my fingers, I saw a deep gash that ran through his right eyebrow and stopped near his ear. I grabbed hold of his hand and led him into the kitchen where the medical supplies were set out on the bar. Reign sat down on a stool as I tended to the gash.

“Is he okay?” I asked, Mom over my shoulder.

“I was shot,” Phoenix said.

“Stop talking,” Viktor said as Mom handed him a pair of tweezers.

“Silver bullets kill wolves, Mickey,” Phoenix said.

“I made the bullets,” Reign said.

We all turned our heads slightly to look at him as if we all remembered at the same moment that Reign was still the enemy.

“Congratulations, your boyfriend killed me,” Phoenix said, wincing.

“No, I made the bullets. After Mickey told me she was a wolf, I stopped making them with the silver compound,” Reign said, looking at me as he spoke.

“If that’s true,” Viktor began and then Phoenix whimpered just as the bullet popped out of his side fell on to the table and rolled over the side and onto the floor with a clang. Viktor picked up the small bullet. We all stared at it in his cupped hand, “then his system will reject it as it begins to regenerate.”

“I don’t lie,” Reign said with a shrug.

“How did your dad not know?” I asked.

“I painted the shells with chrome nail polish to make them look silver. He trusted me,” Reign said, tensing up a little as his eyes fell on the back of the couch in the room across from him.

Mom still worked on Phoenix, cleaning his wound and wrapping him with bandages as I also finished cleaning Reign’s face.

“What happened?” I finally asked after moments of silence.

“I got caught in a trap. You found me, you went wolf crazy, and you jumped your sweetheart here. Viktor showed up jumped that Hunter,” Phoenix pointed to the couch, “and knocked him out then tackled you to calm you down. Your sweetheart ran and got his truck and now we’re all here.”

“You’re bleeding,” I said touching, a red stain on Reign’s shirt.

“Just a scratch. I’m fine,” he said with a forced, tight smile.

Mom helped Phoenix sit up and then stepped back from the table and crossed her arms as she stared at us. Her face was still drained of color and filled with worry. Viktor placed his arm around her which caused her to relax a little as she eased into his hold. My stomach flopped as I watched them. I didn’t like it. I had never see a man stand so close to Mom before and look at her in that way, nor had I seen Mom respond toward someone like that. They clearly cared for one another, but that didn’t make me feel less uncomfortable. Now wasn’t the time to dwell on it though, so I turned my attention away from them and took a seat next to Reign on a bar stool as Phoenix hopped off the table and stood, crossing his arms, and resuming his normal, cold stance as best he could, he covered his pain though his eyes deceived him.

“What are we going to do about them?” Phoenix asked Viktor.

“Them?” I asked.

Phoenix pointed to the couch and then to Reign.

“No,” I shouted. “He’s not going to hurt us.”

“I’m not. I love Mickey. I’ve been tracking with the group in order to dismember the traps and I must have missed the one that caught him,” Reign said.

“I think you’ve proven that, but your father is still a threat,” Viktor said, sympathetically.

“Eliminate him,” Phoenix snarled.

“Kill my dad?” Reign’s eyes watered. He stared at me.

“No, we’re not gonna kill your dad. Right? We can’t—I can’t kill someone,” I said, searching Viktor’s face and when I could tell he and Phoenix had made up their mind I turned to Mom with a pleading look because I knew if I could have any effect on any of them, it would be her.

She nodded, rubbed her lips together, and then said, hesitantly, “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but we can give him the tea.”

“I don’t think now is time for a tea party,” Phoenix said, ignoring the look Viktor shot him.

“No, the tea that is going to sterilize the gene in Mickey. Would that work on him too?” Mom asked Viktor.

Viktor nodded slowly. “His is a gene mutation as well. The drink would work to erase his gene and possibly dissolve his memories associated with hunting.”

                            “Let’s do that,” I said.

              I ran around the counter to begin boiling water for the tea, but Viktor stopped citing that it would be faster to inject the drink into Orgon. The “cure” as Mom called it was in powder form. She mixed the red powder with saline as Viktor found a clean syringe in the first aid kit and knelt next to Orgon. He started poking Orgon’s limp arm looking for a vein. Once he found one, Mom handed him the mixture which Viktor filled the needle with and then looked at Reign for confirmation. Reign nodded, but turned away just as Viktor stuck Orgon with the needle.

              Orgon’s body jerked and convulsed. His face turned red and the veins in his neck protruded. Viktor held him down on the couch and then a minute later he was still.

              “What now?” Mom asked.

              Viktor felt for a pulse. He nodded once he found one and Reign ran around the couch where he knelt next to Orgon, who was still unconscious.

              “Take him to hospital,” Viktor said. “When he wakes up tell him he had a hunting accident. Send the group of Hunters away. Don’t let them see your father.”

              “You said he won’t remember anything about hunting,” Reign said.

              “He will remember amateur hunting as a sport. He won’t remember anything about hunting Morphics and it’s up to you to make sure of that,” Viktor said.

              Reign scooped Orgon up into his arms. I walked with him to his truck where I helped him place Orgon inside and then we embraced tightly, but Reign collapsed in my arms. The sudden weight caused me to slump to the ground as I shouted his name. He was unresponsive. I lifted his shirt and saw that it was not a scratch like he said, but a deep wound. I couldn’t wait for the others in the house to help me. I lifted Reign and put him in the cab of the truck next to Orgon and then jumped into the driver’s seat, started the truck, and sped out of the lane and down the road toward the hospital.

34

              In the days that followed, Viktor stayed with us and Mom was the happiest I had seen her in a long time. I stayed mostly in my room waiting for Reign to call me. He had been absent since the night in the woods and I was miserable.

              Because of their loyal friendship, Viktor wanted Phoenix to stay with us while he recovered, Though Mom wasn’t happy about the idea, she allowed him to stay in the twins bedroom, but only for a few night because she had plans to bring the twins home now that she believed things may be safer.

              “There’s still enough for you,” Mom said, one morning at breakfast.

              “What?” I asked.

              “The powder. There’s enough for you,” Mom said.

              Viktor cleared his throat and said, sharply, “Erin.”

              “I’m just saying there’s enough.”

              Before I responded, there was a knock at the door. I quickly left the table thankful the distraction.

              I opened the front door to find Reign standing on the front steps with his back to me and his hands stuffed in his jean pockets. I was overcome with excitement to see him after not hearing from him since he was discharged from the hospital. He had lost a lot of blood from the wound that I had inflicted when I jumped him as a wolf. I figured if my heart was able to give Hunter’s strength then so could my blood, so as soon as Reign was checked into the hospital I donated my blood for a blood transfusion and he healed within twelve house, but he was avoiding me. This was the first time I had seen him in a week, and as excited as I was to open the front door and see him standing before me, his demeanor kept me from approaching him. Instead, I stepped outside and shut the door behind me.

              Standing next to him with my arms crossed, I waited for him to say something, but he resumed looking down at his boots and avoiding my eye contact.

              “How’s your dad?” I asked.

              Reign nodded. “Good, he doesn’t remember anything.”

              I breathed a sigh of relief before saying, “Nothing at all. That’s good right?”

              “It’s gonna be hard to keep his friends away, but I think we’ll be okay and your safe.” He took hold of my hand. “That’s all that matters.”

              I looked up at him and brushed a golden lock of hair out of his dark eyes which were still staring down at my hand he had hold of, but he shook his head away from my hand and took a step back.

              “I’ve been thinking,” he began.

             
Thinking
? My heart squeezed.

              “And with everything that has happened,” he choked on his words, “you’re right. It’s not safe for us to be together.”

              “But your dad is no longer a threat,” I said in disbelief. How could he do this?

              “He wasn’t the only threat,” Reign said.

              And that’s when I sensed his fear. He was afraid of me. I examined his face and my eyes settled on the red scar that started above his right eyebrow and touched almost to his ear. I thought of the even bigger scar across his side that was hidden by his shirt. I spun away from him with guilt and shame that I was the one who had so badly wounded him. I understood, though I didn’t want to, that he had every right to be afraid of me.

              All that was heard were the chirping birds having flown back recently from the South. They dropped to the ground in a mass of blue and yellow and then picked back up and settled in the high branches of the trees around us and then dropped to the ground again repeating this cycle as we stood near one another not touching, or speaking, or meeting the others eyes.

              “I’ll take the powder,” I said, turning back toward him as I suddenly remembered what Mom had told me moments before. “There’s still more. I can take it and be normal. Then we can be together.”

              “You’ll forget,” he said.

              “I won’t forget you. I’ll forget you’re a Hunter. I’ll forget about Morphics, but I won’t forget you.”

              “You would do that?” he asked.

              “I’ll do it for you, so that we can be together, right? Then we can be together.”

              He nodded and pulled me toward him, wrapping his arms around me tightly, and I nestled my head under chin listening to his strong heartbeat.

              I didn’t ask Reign to stay because before I drank the powder I needed to ask Viktor something. He was in the master bedroom talking with Mom, who was crying. Phoenix stood in the doorway talking with Viktor in hushed voices.

              “What’s wrong?” I asked.

              “Your mother is upset because it’s time for me to go,” Viktor said.

              “I don’t understand why. Orgon isn’t going to track you anymore,” Mom said.

              I saw this as my opportunity to ask him what I wanted to know ever since I saw him morph into the white wolf.

              “Did you kill Reign’s mom?” I asked.

              Both Mom and Viktor looked at me, but only Viktor replied, “I have never killed an innocent human.”

              “Reign thinks his mom was killed by a white wolf right back in the woods.”

              “That’s not what happened, sweetie. Reign’s mother was already severely attacked by the time your father found her and it was a case of bad timing. Seconds after your father arrived, a woman came along with a Hunter’s gun and your father left,” Mom said.

              “But Orgon was told that a white wolf killed his wife and he has been tracking me since,” Viktor said.

              “Then what killed her?” I asked.

              “We don’t know,” Mom said, shaking her head.

              “Like the attacks that have been happening recently? Is there a connection,” I asked.

              “No, they just released that the attacks are most likely a cult of some kind every victim was marked with some type of weird symbol,” Mom said.