Violet (The Silver Series Book 4) (3 page)

Chapter 3

I came to with the feeling of being carried.
Light splashed with darkness ran across my eyelids. A heart beat
close to my ear and I listened to the sound, entranced by the bass
thump of blood carried through a network of arteries and veins and
of muscles working together in smooth harmony. Lungs filled and
released with the steady breathing of a conditioned body. I swayed
back and forth, held in strong arms.

My lungs burned. My eyes flew open at the
memory of a fire and smoke, not the same fire that haunted my
dreams, but fire that was alive and raging, eating everything in
its path and smelling of wiring and rubber.

Light blinded me, then turned to shadow with
the sound of trees swaying overhead. The face of the person
carrying me blocked out my vision of the trees and something
glinted in the sunlight. I squinted and realized it was Rafe's face
shield.

My heart slowed. Panic surged through my
body so strong I kicked and rolled. I fell to the ground and the
air was knocked out of my lungs by the impact. I curled inward
gasping, but not before I glimpsed Rafe backing up with his arms
around himself, his eyes intent on mine.

I ducked my head and forced the air back
into my body. My lungs ached, but not with the burning throb of
before. The thought brought back the memory of the fire and of
phasing. The last thing I remembered was trying to open the door
with wolf paws very inadequate for the job. I looked down at my
hands, realizing for the first time that I was back in my human
form.

I looked up at Rafe. He leaned against a
tree a few paces away, his eyes clouded and unreadable. My heart
slowed when I realized that what I could see of his hands were
covered in dark red burns. He held them against his bare chest, a
challenging glint in his eyes.

I moved slightly and felt the shirt I was
wearing. Glancing down, I saw that it was the green one he had worn
at the rehab center. A blush of shame rose through my cheeks. I sat
up slowly, careful to keep the shirt around my knees and grateful
that he was tall.

His eyes, so bold and expressive at the
clinic, were now guarded and alert as though he expected me to
spring at him and force him to go back. The metal shield across the
lower half of his face had streaks of soot along it, matching the
black marks across his forehead and through his brown hair. I
rubbed a hand across my face and found the same.

“
You saved me,” I said
softly.

He merely watched me, his hands cradled
against his chest.

My eyes moved to the lines across his skin.
It took me a minute to realize that they were scars, three great,
jagged scars, two down his chest and one lengthwise across his
stomach as though someone had cut him open. Far-spaced stitch marks
showed little care to how he had recovered.

“
Who did those?” I
whispered.

He rubbed a hand across his chest, then
winced and clutched his fingers back into loose fists. He looked
down at the scars and his brow furrowed. “Dr. Tannin,” he replied
so soft through the shield that I barely heard it.

My heart clenched and I fought down the urge
to growl or hit something, two things completely the opposite of
what I would have done before the accident. I sighed and stood up,
careful to make sure that the shirt covered at least the important
parts. It stopped halfway down my thighs and did little to shield
the chill that ran up my legs. “Let me see your hands.”

I took a step closer and he straightened
from the tree. His eyes tightened and I imagined him baring his
teeth beneath the shield. “You need help,” I pointed out. “From
what Roger told me, you should have healed by now.”

He opened his hands slowly and studied them
along with me. I touched one and he winced and pulled it away fast
enough to make me jump. I laughed at myself for spooking so easily,
then held my palm out again. He set his hand in mine, his breath
shallow and harsh as though it came out between clenched teeth.

Gouges ran through both palms where he had
grabbed the bars. Fresh blood showed in the crevasses and the angry
red skin looked infected. I stared at him. “I don't understand.
This should have healed.”

His brow creased slightly. “There was a gel
on the bars, like on my neck. If I touched it, this happened.”

I reached up before he could move and ran a
finger along the metal band around his neck. He jumped back and
growled, “What are you doing?”

I held up the finger. “I'm immune to silver.
It won't hurt me.” I rubbed the gel between my finger and thumb and
saw fine specks of gray in the solution. “It must make the effects
of the silver stronger,” I said more to myself than to him. “Maybe
it absorbs into the skin.”

“
Why doesn't it affect
you?” Rafe asked, his tone cautious.

I gave him a smile I hoped was reassuring.
“I wasn't born a werewolf. I was made one by Dr. Tannin after I
died in a car accident with my brother. Silver doesn't affect
Kaynan or I.” It felt strange to say it so casually after what we
had been through, but I felt less cautious out in the open under
the trees, like a heaviness had been lifted off my shoulders.

He reached up to touch the band around his
neck again, but I caught his hand. “I can take it off.”

“
The shield, too?” he asked
in a restrained tone as if he refused to get his hopes
up.

I nodded and light touched his eyes. I
smiled at the softening effect it had on what features I could see
above the mask.

“
What do you want me to
do?” he asked softly.

I stepped around behind him and he held so
still I wondered if he was holding his breath. Every muscle of his
shoulders and back was tense. A long scar ran down his spine from
the base of his neck to below his shorts. I shuddered to think of
the pain that must have caused.

“
You're too tall for me to
reach. You'll have to kneel down.”

He hesitated, then knelt with his back to
me. His hands clenched into fists on his knees regardless of the
burns. I slid my fingers beneath the enclosure on the back of his
head and pulled just enough to test the strength. The gel that
covered the outside coated my fingers, but the metal gave slightly.
I clenched my teeth and pulled with a quick jerk.

The metal popped open and the shield dropped
to Rafe's lap. He jumped, knocking me backward before I could move
out of the way. My hands shot out to catch me even though Kaynan
had told me a thousand times that was a good way to break an arm. I
landed with a thud on the leaf-covered ground.

Rafe was suddenly crouched next to me, his
expression concerned. His uncovered jaw was bare of scruff, showing
him to be closer to my seventeen years than I had guessed. He
carefully helped me to my knees despite his injured hands.

“
I apologize,” he said, his
tone embarrassed. He sat back on his heels.

“
It was my fault,” I
quickly pointed out. “The stuff burns you. I shouldn't have let it
fall.”

Humor touched his eyes, casting away some of
the shadows that had added to his age. “You were helping me.”

“
You saved my life,” I said
defensively. “It's the least I can do.” I couldn't explain why I
felt like I had to defend myself, but his suddenly shield-less face
seemed so open despite the strong jaw that looked like it was
holding back a laugh at my expense.

“
You saved my life first,”
he said, his eyes on mine.

I was suddenly aware of how close he was. I
cleared my throat. “How about the other one?”

He lifted a hand as though to touch the band
around his neck, then lowered it again and gave me a sheepish
smile. I decided I liked his smile even more now that I could see
his lips. “That would be wonderful.” His tone told me how much the
thin band had stolen from him.

He turned on his knees and I slid my fingers
underneath the metal. His neck felt warm and his skin trembled
slightly under my touch. I wondered what would happen when he was
finally able to phase. The thought of being alone in the woods in
the middle of nowhere sent a shiver through my skin. “Am I going to
lose you?” I whispered.

He turned and looked at me, his eyes steady
and humor gone. “I won't leave you.” The depth of the promise in
his tone left no room for doubt. He waited until I nodded, then
turned back around.

I slid my fingers back under the band and
pulled slightly. The metal bent instead of giving, closing tighter
around his neck. I hesitated. “I don't want to hurt you.”

“
Do it,” he said in a voice
tight with restraint.

I took a steeling breath, then yanked with
both hands. The metal snapped and I kept it in my hands this
time.

Rafe fell forward as though the band had
been holding him up. He set his forehead on the ground and put both
damaged hands across the back of his neck where the band had been.
I worried that I had hurt him and moved to touch his back, but his
voice stopped me.

“
Six months is a long time
to be hacked open, studied, then pieced back together for the next
guy.”

My heart slowed. I couldn't think of
anything to say that would make it the least bit better.

He gave a chuckle and I stared at the
tattered body, his face still against the forest floor. “I never
thought I'd ever touch pure, clean earth again.” He put his hands
on the ground and ran his raw fingers through the dirt. I winced at
the chance of infection, but then he lifted his face to look at me.
My heart stopped at the look of pure happiness in his golden eyes.
A bit of dirt clung to his eyebrows, making him look even more
endearing. “Have you ever felt anything so wonderful?”

He pulled my hand open and set a handful of
deep, dark earth in my palm. I stared at it, wondering if I had
freed a lunatic.

Rafe smiled at the look on my face. He sat
back on his heels and ran his arm over his face to clear away the
dirt. “I'm not crazy, if that's what you're thinking.”

I tried to protest that I had thought
nothing of the sort, but the knowing look in his eyes cut the
protest short and I settled for blushing and kicking myself
mentally for being so easy to read.

He gave me a perplexed look. “I can't expect
you to understand, but I owe you everything.”

A shudder ran through my skin. I pulled the
shirt closer, but cold had nothing to do with it. I was about to
phase unprotected and out in the open, away from those who had been
there to turn to if I ever needed help. My heart started to beat
faster.

“
I'll phase, too.” At my
stare, he shrugged. “It's better to not be alone.”

I couldn't argue with that. I ducked behind
a tree and pulled the shirt off, then phased quickly into my wolf
form. I walked back around the tree, my paws silent on the soft
ground. He studied me for a minute and I turned away from his
scrutiny.

“
Sorry,” he said. “I've
never seen a black and cream wolf. And your eyes are amazing.
You're quite beautiful even as a wolf.”

I refused to look at him, but saw him smile
out of the corner of my eye. I hadn’t seen many werewolves at the
rehabilitation center, but they were usually gray, black, cream, or
white; my coat wasn’t too different from theirs, but no one else
carried the contrasting colors. My eyes were another matter.
Something had changed when I was turned into a werewolf in Dr.
Tannin’s labs. My dark blond hair had changed to black with purple
highlights, and my blue eyes were now a dark violet color that
unsettled me every time I saw myself in a mirror. It was yet
another reminder that I wasn’t the same person who had died when
Kaynan crashed the car.

Rafe’s footsteps brought me back to the
present. He walked around behind the tree and picked up the shirt I
had been wearing. He then pulled the drawstring cord from his pants
and folded the shirt into a tight bundle. He moved to pull his
shorts off and I turned away just in time. If a wolf could blush, I
would have been bright red.

“
Sorry. Modesty isn't huge
in the wild, but I'll take these with us. Easier than finding
clothes wherever we end up,” Rafe said with a hint of humor in his
voice.

I trotted a few paces away to give him some
privacy and bent to smell a cluster of small purple flowers at the
base of a tree. A strange scent touched my nose and my heart
slowed. I turned, trepidation filling my chest. The woods behind us
looked clear, but the scent was stronger. I was about to warn Rafe
with a whine when a whistle sounded through the air; I ducked half
a second before a bullet sunk into the bark above my head.

I darted to the left several feet, then
turned and saw men running at us from the direction we had come.
Rafe sprang out from behind the tree, a dark gray wolf whose
muscles rippled under his fur. The small pack made of our meager
clothes sat at his shoulders like a backpack. He snarled at the men
who backed up quickly at his sudden appearance. He darted between
them to my side and made sure with a quick glance that I was
alright. He then turned and I ran beside him into the trees.

A whirl of bullets flew around us. Rafe let
out a slight yelp, then took the lead. He ran left down a river
wash to the bed. I followed him around the twists and turns of the
river bottom until he found a place to cross up the other side. He
slowed after a few more paces and we both tried to listen past our
racing hearts and heaving lungs.

I willed my heart to slow and strained my
hearing. Everything was silent for a few seconds, then the roar of
motors touched my ears. I looked at Rafe and he stared back with
wide eyes. He jerked his head for me to follow him and we darted
into the underbrush.