Wolf Sirens Night Fall: What Rises Must Fall (Wolf Sirens #3) (17 page)

“No,” he said
surely.

“Yes you are,
you’re-”

“No I’m not.
Sam knew where to hurt me. She bit me on the vertebra.” In the
silence she knew it was bad, he wasn’t just saying it. It all made
sense. “I can’t take it anymore.”

“Where you were
injured? In the war, before?”

“Yeah.”

He heard her
swallow. “Sky…how bad is it? Can’t you heal if it’s done
right?”

“No, it’s been
tried. I’m as good as I’ll ever be now.”

His face was
pale. She realized now that it was the paleness of pain; the night
made his pallor grey.

“Are you
alright?” she whispered.

“No,” he
blinked.

He knew she
didn’t know what to say so he added, “Some days are better than
others…with therapy and my healing ability it might get better -
but not fixed, I’m not indestructible Lila.”

Lila heard her
breath quicken. She was angry at Sam in way she had never been
before. She had done this maliciously. She had tried not to kill
him. She had deliberately maimed him. Sam had wanted him to live in
pain – forever.

“Have there
been other cases of this?”

“Like me? No,
not exactly, but there are other injuries. There was a girl here in
the Cult that Narine damaged. She never healed right, but it was
her leg and I think it looks worse than it is.” Lila knew without
saying it that while Sky looked okay, his injury was deep; worse
than it looked. The wolves where powerful and strong, they had the
ability to heal fast, but they still felt pain and they were not
past vulnerability. If it hurt badly enough, mangled in just the
right way, then their own miraculous healing speed could cripple
them. “I can’t run as well as I used to.” Old age was a friend they
didn’t have, but they were not immortal or unable to feel pain.

She didn’t want
to believe that it wasn’t possible to fix him. She wanted to tell
him it wasn’t true, but she felt helpless.

Her voice was
quiet and hurt as it broke the sound of the night. “Why did you do
it, Sky?”

“Leave you?” he
breathed.

“Yes.” She
waited for his answer.

“They dragged
me away. For the first three months they kept me contained, the
rest of the time they threatened your life and eventually I was
convinced it wasn’t right.” He looked away then, unsure if it would
be enough for her to hear his excuses. He still wasn’t convinced it
was right either, to be here. In a way he betrayed his kind by
wanting to be with her. They could not understand. He betrayed his
family in the worst way by meeting with her. “They don’t agree.” He
smiled in a way one does when in pain.

“Then why do
it?” She risked asking him, to hear him say it.

“Be with you?”
he swallowed. “I’m damned if I do, damned if I don’t. It hurt me
every day being away from you.” His deep voice vibrated through
her.

“But you
thought it was for the best,” she whispered dully.

“I thought it
was for your life Lila, and I thought you might have a chance at
something better,” he said with a defensive tone.

“I’m going to
take them down.” She gritted her jaw.

“How?”

She was pleased
he hadn’t scoffed. “I need information, anything you can tell me.”
Her eyes searched his.

He wracked his
brain. “There’s only twelve of us, including me, but only nine of
us are living in the compound - and there are more coming,” he
warned, with urgency.

“I worried it
was more.”

“Some have died
over the years or disappeared and Angele has been deposited,
probably in Shade as a spy. Narine runs the show, not Paws. He’s
the official head - but she is in control now, she’s vicious,” he
warned. “She wants to take over the valley.”

“Is Sam
there?”

“Yes, she comes
in and out. For now, she’s taken off with Bianca.”

“Where?”

“I don’t know.
Maybe searching out the others, but she'll be back,” he warned.

“Is Cres on my
side?” Lila whispered.

“Yes, I believe
she is.”

Her heart was
relieved to hear him say it. “Did she think you were dead?”

“I don’t know.
Look, we don’t have long, and it’s dangerous.” His blazing green
blue eyes looked about in the dark, “But you have to know Blair is
in the police and he protects them.”

“Blair?”

“Yes, constable
Whitlock - look into it,” he urged.

“Do they have
weapons?”

“Like Arms,
yeah. Paws has them convinced an apocalypse is coming. They think
there will be a war between hunters and werewolves and humans.
Narine and he think they will rule.” He shook his head.

Lila remained
steady. “Would Reid be on our side if we fought the Cult, took them
down?”

“I don’t know.”
The expression in his eyes hoped for the best.

There was a
rustle in the trees. “You have to go, they might find us,” he
begged in a hurried whisper. Any longer and they would certainly be
caught. She gripped his muscular arms, felt the hot skin and veins
below, running her palms down to his hands before she released
them. She had heard enough to satisfy that unequal part of her
heart, and despite herself, she believed him. “I’ll come back for
you.”

She kissed him
hurriedly and he lifted her into his arms as their warm lips locked
desperately. For a moment it was if nothing else existed until his
hold eased and the moment was lost. She left, only letting go of
his fingers when they had extended as far as she could reach before
disappearing in the forest. She ran until the warm feeling of the
tips of his fingers disappeared. She bolted through the night, with
tree branches whipping at her.

Lila wanted to
forget the anger, she wanted to forget his excuse, even though it
hadn't justified everything to her. It didn’t matter. All that
remained was that he loved her more than life itself and as much as
she loved him. Nothing was better, or could make her feel better
than him.

Sky was
vulnerable to her; she knew for sure he cared to save her life,
even if it meant sorrow for him. It was her fault he was maimed,
and he had fought to save her from being killed. But mostly, he had
rescued her from the bite because he loved her. He didn’t want to
be there either, just as she felt, but the larger part won over.
Under the insane unfathomable electricity they felt for each other,
they risked everything to meet there in the night. She had hoped
the connection wouldn’t be there, but it was. More powerful than
ever and she felt exhilarated and devastated by it all at once. The
redolence of him had changed everything once again.

Shell even felt
like she deserved it. She went quietly into the cage and wanted to
escape it as soon as she did. Her wolf panted and paced inside her,
continually distressed. While she was alone and trapped, she
thought anxiously about what she had done. Who knew when the newly
infected wolf would surface? Maybe she would hurt others.

Shelly had
acted according to her nature once she had unchained her beast and
it had run. Then afterwards, Shell had gone back to admire her
husband, as long as she dared, in her blood smeared clothing. She
watched for hours that felt like moments. She could see him walking
about in the house, pouring a wine, marking papers, eating cheap
canned spaghetti and burning his tongue. But the memory of love and
home had been erased the second she arrived back at the compound.
Ready to suffer her punishment for disappearing alone.

“Well, well,
what did we ask you?” Paws cooed, placing a hot hand around the
back of her neck and gently guiding her into the bedroom he shared
with Narine on the bottom floor. It was the closest room to the
basement, which led down to the suffocating cage. She had
meticulously cleaned herself up in the river and dressed herself in
clothes from the hidden bucket in the forest, but she wasn’t sure
what they knew.

She didn’t
move, didn’t say a word. She was kidding herself to think they
wouldn’t have noticed, but she had deluded herself until this
moment, because wolf Shell hadn’t cared. That was until he said one
word to the otherwise empty dark house: “Cage.” And suddenly, with
consuming fear, she regretted what she had done and desperately
wanted to take it back.

Her alarmed
eyes glanced about and behind her the door opened and in came
Blair. Then, from the other side, Narine moved in with a clamped
smile, which was perhaps meant to be apologetic.

Blair’s hands
touched Shell’s arms from behind with a gentle grip that could
become vice-like if necessary. She saw Sky wasn’t present and she
knew why. He wouldn’t have allowed it, and couldn’t have done it to
her. She squirmed a little, to make Blair let go, but as she
feared, he only tightened his hold.

“No please!”
she begged already feeling the confinement.

Paws breathed
such a silent sigh that she imagined he might desist. “We have
already warned you. What do you want us to do?” He frowned
sorrowfully. Narine looked into his eyes, her brows mimicked his in
sympathy and she touched his shoulder. He bowed his head and said
with heavy regret, “Take her – put her in – lock it.”

Shell thought
she saw a hug between them as she was guided down to the dungeon; a
purpose built dug out room under the house, not on council plans,
that contained a welded cage, strong enough to contain monsters.
She had only been out under two weeks. And as the slide lock was
bolted, she huddled on the cement floor and thought of her husband,
in the warm house in the yellow light, knowing that she would never
see him again and more tears cascaded from her eyes.

The
conversation upstairs was barely a mumble to her ears. She worried
they knew about the woman. She could still taste the blood on the
back of her tongue. Shell knew if she went missing that she would
be locked up when she returned because she had been warned. So she
had decided make it count.

Reid agreed
instantly to Cresida’s plan. Paying a visit to Jackson’s
disgruntled family, he discovered J had been missing for a few
days. His mother had been crying, her eyes were red rimmed, and he
could smell the salt from her tears, though they had dried on her
flushed cheeks. After he tried Jackson’s home, a check at the cabin
revealed they had been there - he and a companion - but the scent
was old. Reid knew the odour. He narrowed his eyes and after some
thought he placed it - the girl Angele. The She Wolf Narine had
offered him. Obviously Jackson was more receptive. Reid met with
Cres to discuss their whereabouts.

“They could be
at the compound?” he suggested.

“No.” Cres
stared coldly ahead into nothingness. Her face was colourless. A
light breeze rustled a thin lock of her blonde hair around her
elfin face.

“What have you
seen?” he asked.

“They’re in the
bush.” She sighed heavily.

Reid waited for
the answer as her eyes glazed over again. “They’re in wolf form, in
the hills.”

“So that’s
where he’s been,” Reid huffed, and inwardly chuckled under his
breath.

“We could track
them?” She looked at him.

“Let’s go.” He
smiled, devilishly.

Cres and Reid
tracked them through the retired farmland and high into the hills.
When they didn’t find them on the first day, Cres returned home to
appease her Aunt and Reid agreed to keep on their trail, tracking
up rocky moss-covered boulders and fern rimmed rivers, deep into
the wilderness.

The bitch with
a limp was with J. Reid felt distain as he disrobed and left his
clothes in a bag that he shoved inside a rotting moss covered log
on the way into the damp subterranean wild, and morphed.

Reid picked up
their scent marks more strongly at the top of the mountains,
through the dark perfumed curtain of trees. He hadn’t been that far
out in the mountains for quite some time. If Angele was sent to spy
on them, then why take Jackson out so far? He didn’t know when Lila
would be back. Maybe a week or two at most. Cres wanted to sort out
who was on which side, before then. She wanted to deal with the
issue of Angele before Lila would. Reid knew Cres was worried about
that.

The smell of
the leaves in all stages of life flooded his nostrils, and then he
caught whiff of it. Wolf. J and the lame bitch, who’d obviously
charmed him.

They growled
when Reid approached and he snarled back. Venomous spit sprang from
Angele’s mouth, J’s instincts caused him to be unusually hostile
towards his friend. They had been phased for too long. The hair
stood up on Angele’s back. Reid was glad Cres hadn’t come with
him.

He half
expected her to spring, but it was J who went for him, to protect
her. The brothers tussled and backed apart with backs arched.

Angele
intervened; she phased back naked and called his name. “Jackson!”
and it echoed through the bush.

He backed off,
moaning, and twisted back into himself. Reid panted heavily and
shook back into human form.

The three of
them stood there nude amongst the trees. Jackson stepped in front
of Angele, protectively.

Reid grimaced.
“Hi Angele.” But his face fell, replaced by annoyance.

“Hi Reid.” She
smiled sheepishly as her lashes brushed her cheeks.

“What brings
you out here, brother?” Jackson asked and they closed palms and
embraced and patted each other on the back in a well-used one-armed
hug.

“Cres,” Reid
answered more seriously as he stood back.

“The huntress
half-breed?” Angele’s bell voice chimed.

Reid wrinkled
his nose. “Yeah,” he replied and crossed his arms, looking her up
and down behind Jackson who still stood in front, covering her
behind his body.