(Mis)fortune (22 page)

I kept my eyes on the trees lining the driveway while Emmitt drove out.  What once seemed so quiet and peaceful now menaced.  I imagined Frank and his friend watching us from the shadows.  How long before Blake joined them?

Leaving the driveway, Emmitt turned north.  Jim, driving Nana’s car, followed.  I knew we were heading to Canada and the mysterious Compound of Emmitt’s childhood.  The thought of going to a place with even more werewolves churned my stomach.  What would we find there?

“You’re killing me,” Emmitt said, pulling my attention from the trees.

“Excuse me?”

“Your fear.  I can smell it.  Even when you were facing down David in the parking lot of that diner, it wasn’t this bad.”  He reached across the seat and wrapped his hand around mine.  “It will be okay.  I promise.  There is no need for this fear.”

“No need?” I said in soft disbelief.  “Werewolves are real.  One of them kept me locked away for four years and wants me back.  The infallible laws, which your people
can’t
ignore, no longer seem to work.  After all, Richard’s murderer hasn’t stepped forward.

“I’m heading to an unknown place filled with an unknown number of werewolves who will think I smell delicious and may or may not treat me like Blake has.  If I don’t want to go, my only other option is to run again, zigzagging scent trails across the North America Continent, waiting to be stumbled upon.  How exactly am I supposed to get rid of my fear?”

Emmitt lifted the hand he held and brought it to his mouth, tenderly kissing the knuckles.  My heart flipped.  I wasn’t upset with him.  I was angry with myself for believing there could be an easy answer.  Emmitt kept my hand in his and remained quiet.

Nothing had been easy since Blake entered my life.  I needed him out of the picture for good.  The premonition of me biting Emmitt should have assured me everything would turn out all right, but Frank’s reaction worried me.  Why had he laughed when I told him?

And how was I a tool for Blake?  The way Frank spoke, it had to be more than just stock market information.  Frank’s comment about wiping out humanity scared me.  How many werewolves looked at humans like that?  It had to be a select group because I didn’t get that vibe from the three werewolves I lived with.

I stilled, recalling his exact words.

“If not for the curse that causes you to be born to humans,” I whispered.

I looked at Emmitt with chills skating over my skin.

“They knew I would be born?  How had Blake known I’d be born?”

He squeezed my hand reassuringly, but I caught his quick frown.

“Nana’s hoping to find answers at the Compound,” he said.  “Another Elder is there waiting for us.”

I had serious doubts she would find anything useful.  Blake held the answers I—we—needed.  How could I get them, though, without going back?  If not for Nana, Jim, and Emmitt, Blake’s men would have me, and I might know the answers.  But I didn’t want to go back like that.  And, now that Blake knew who I had protecting me, I doubted he would risk exposing himself again.

We lapsed into silence for so long I started to drift to sleep, still trying to think of a way to get answers.  Next to me, I felt Emmitt move in his seat.  A moment later, his jacket, which he’d brought with him, settled over the front of me.  I curled my legs under me, snuggling under the jacket.  It smelled like him, and it was all I needed to drift off to sleep.

*    *    *    *

I vaguely registered the sound of a car door opening.  Even the sudden chill as the jacket left me couldn’t completely wake me.  I turned toward the seat’s warmth, trying to get comfortable, already sinking back into sleep.

The feel of a thick arm sliding behind my back and another under my knees tickled my awareness.  Emmitt’s smell surrounded me, and I shifted to snuggle against him.  Then, he lifted me.  The air born, weightless feeling yanked me from my sleep.  I let out a yelp and wrapped my arms around him, prying open my unwilling eyes.

He smiled down at me while turning so he could nudge the door closed behind us.  The sound echoed in the surrounding silence.

I looked around for the boys, noting the sky had started to lighten.  Jim carried Aden, and Nana Wini held Liam.  Both the boys slept soundly.  The adults were already making their way toward the vague outline of a building.

“Emmitt, put me down.”  I didn’t want anyone’s first impression of me to be that of a helpless girl.

He set me on my feet.  “I was trying to let you sleep.”

“I know.  Thank you.”  I clasped his warm hand.

The rest had helped relieve some of my anger and frustration.  I felt bad about venting at him but didn’t want to say anything out in the open.  The ears here would hear far too much.

I turned to look back at the road we’d come from but saw only a rutted trail leading into more trees.  The surrounding woods reminded me of our home in Montana.  I could see why Emmitt and Jim had settled there.  It must have reminded them of this place.

Hearing a door close, I turned to see the boys gone.

“Is this where you grew up?” I asked Emmitt quietly.

“Yeah.”  He gently tugged my hand, encouraging me to start walking.

A long, two-story log cabin, winged by several outbuildings, encompassed the area we’d parked in, which was more dirt than gravel.  Constructed before the 19th century, the buildings had seen better days.  Pieces of chinking were missing here and there from between the grey, aged roughhewn logs.  Near the ground of the first story, most of the chinking was new, showing that repairs were in progress.  A few of the old, single-paned windows rattled slightly in the breeze.  I wondered how they could possibly stay warm in winter.  The outbuildings were all in equally poor repair.  Emmitt hadn’t been exaggerating about their need for money.

Despite the building’s run down appearance, the area around the buildings showed signs of upkeep.  Flowers bloomed in pots near the main door and in the window boxes under a few of the first floor windows, improving an otherwise unfriendly exterior.  Branches from surrounding trees showed signs of recent pruning, and the weeds near their bases, trimmed back.

The oversized front door was one of the few things that looked new.  I eyed the unevenly spaced deck boards that raised a step above the ground.  In a few places, the wood looked newer.  Even with the replacements, it still looked questionable.  At least, I didn’t have far to fall if one of the boards snapped under me.  I stepped up on the planks and was surprised they felt sturdy.

Emmitt reached around me to open the door.  I walked into a huge entry and paused, relieved to see the inside in much better repair.  Rugs stacked with shoes lay around the outskirts of the room while a variety of outerwear hung on the hooks screwed into the walls.  I felt like I had just walked into a huge coat closet.  Emmitt’s hand on my lower back prompted me to step further into the room.

“Nana Wini sent a call out for a pack meeting in a few hours.”

That sounded intimidating.

“Pack meeting?  Why?”

“It’s time you are introduced to the pack.  It lets everyone know you are under the protection of the Elders.”

What protection?  Their laws didn’t work.  Physically, Nana fought off two rebel werewolves, but I knew there were so many more out there.  I didn’t voice my doubts.

“What about the boys?”  I was less afraid for myself than I was for them.

“They’ve already been put to bed.”

He led me down a long hallway.

“I mean their safety.”

His expression filled with soft understanding.  “It will be discussed in the meeting as well.  We will keep them safe.”  He walked beside me in silence for a moment.

I could tell he was struggling with something.  He didn’t leave me guessing for long.

“I know you’re probably tired, but my parents would like to meet you.”  He glanced at me.  “If you’re up for it.”

My stomach did a tiny flip, and not in a good way.  The leaders of the pack and parents to the man I now dated wanted to meet me.  I’d just dozed in a truck for several hours and probably had crazy hair and looked rumpled.  Great first impression.  No, I really didn’t want to meet them, but I nodded anyway.

Emmitt’s face lit with a relieved smile.  “They’re waiting for us in the apartment we’ll be using.”

Emmitt and I followed several hallways before finally climbing a set of stairs.  He led me to a door that opened to a newly remodeled, modest apartment.

A small area in the back left corner of the main room was set aside as a kitchenette, complete with a mini fridge, coffee pot, and small breakfast bar.  There was no kitchen sink.  Getting water from the bathroom had to be more cost efficient, especially if the apartment was only used occasionally.  I could see where this kind of updating moved slowly.  It had to cost a fortune.

The rest of the room was setup as a living room, complete with occupied sofa and chairs.

Six sets of eyes turned toward us as we walked in, interrupting a quiet conversation.  I recognized Mary and Gregory, and of course Jim and Nana.

Everyone stood, and Emmitt led me toward the two I didn’t know.

“Mother, Father, this is Michelle.”

Emmitt’s father, a tall formidable man with a bulk of bulging muscles and a serious expression, stood beside Emmitt’s mother.  I’d caught how he watched her intently while she’d spoken with Mary.  The slight softening of his expression when his gaze settled on her assured me he had a soft spot.

His mother was tall and lean but not thin.  She wore her hair pulled back into a ponytail.  Dressed in worn jeans and a t-shirt that sported a rock band from the seventies, she fit into her surroundings.  She looked beautiful and much younger than in her forties.  Apparently, women aged well, here.  In fact, I hadn’t noticed any old and wrinkly werewolves.  Nana Wini’s hair might be white, and she might be old in years, but she didn’t have any other signs of aging.

“Call me Charlene,” Emmitt’s mother said.  She gave me a warm smile that reached her dark blue eyes—Emmitt’s eyes—and offered her hand.

I returned her smile and reached for her hand.  When we touched, my world tilted precariously.  I
really
didn’t want to faint in front of Emmitt’s parents.

The room and all the people faded from my sight.  I
stood
in a black void and knew something wasn’t right.  Shouldn’t I have fallen?  I reached out a hand and slowly turned in a circle.  I couldn’t see, hear, or feel anything except myself.  There was no floor beneath me. I appeared to be floating.  I looked around, feeling panicked.  Where was I?

I spotted a pinprick of brilliant, white light in the distance.  It looked like a tiny star.  Yet, even its brilliance didn’t explain how I could see myself in the inky abyss surrounding me.

As I watched, the pinprick of light began to expand.  It rapidly grew to the size of a baseball but didn’t stop there.  It bloated to the size of a volleyball within seconds.  Its radiance hurt my eyes, but I didn’t turn away.  Instead, I squinted, trying to see it clearly.

The light wasn’t growing but swiftly flying toward me—or me toward it.  I tried to move.  The result was a moment of helpless flailing since there was no floor to use to propel myself.  My heart started to race painfully in my chest.  Death couldn’t come this way.  I wanted to see my brothers.  Emmitt.

I threw my arms in front of my face and braced myself.  Light flashed brightly through my scrunched eyelids.  I cringed, waiting for the impact of whatever it was.  When nothing happened, I tentatively lifted my head and peeked through my arms.

Everything around me had changed although I still couldn’t move, suspended in nothing.  The area directly below my feet was a brightly lit white space.  Around me, millions of images overlapped each other like frozen stills on a monitor.  I wondered what waited behind them and blinked in shock when the one I’d been looking at jumped out of the way to expose another image behind it.

Turning my head, I focused on other images, willing them to move, and they did.  They flew to the side to make room for the ones below.  Most of the images were clear and crisp, but some were fuzzy or dark.  All had people in them.

Before I had a chance to focus on any one image, I flew backward.  The images behind me moved to create an opening in the weird, white emptiness.  The whiteness clung to me, briefly stretching into the black void before letting me go, leaving me in darkness again.  I watched the light shrink in size as I zoomed away from it, or maybe as it zoomed away from me.  It was hard to tell.

Just as suddenly as I’d appeared in the void, I snapped back to the present.  My hand stretched before me, holding empty air.  Charlene had let go.

“You okay?” Emmitt asked.

I mentally shook myself and dropped my hand to my side.  I wasn’t sure what had just happened.

I’d thought I’d glanced images, some violent, containing several of the people in this room.  At first, the images had appeared infinite.  When they moved to allow me to leave, I’d seen they weren’t.  They had been stacked on top of one another, several layers deep.

Had I just seen the source of my new premonitions?  Could that really be where they came from?  I desperately wanted to go back and study them.