Wolf Sirens Night Fall: What Rises Must Fall (Wolf Sirens #3) (33 page)

He bent down to
meet our faces with his. “Oh and don’t try escaping. I know where
your mother is, Lila.” He winked, and smirked again.

He pulled the
door closed and I heard him jog up the narrow stairwell as his keys
jingled on his belt rhythmically. Whether he meant to or not, the
ceiling light was left on. I reached to touch Cres and for the
first time since finding her, I saw her face look up into mine with
sunken eyes. I smoothed the wiry blood-stained hair back from her
hollowed eyes. Carefully, I bit a piece of apple and took it from
my mouth and placed it in hers, her pale, dry lips parted as though
they had been glued, and she began to chew it slowly. I focused on
her and not the rust stains of blood smeared all around us.

Reid found
Tisane in the leaky cabin. The pale, soft curve of her innocent
shoulder gave no indication of the beast that lay buried within her
soul. The rain dripped through the roof, collected in various pots
on the floor.

He approached
silently, his anger smoldering as the rain tapped.

Suddenly, he
sharply announced his presence. “Why’d you drive off, bitch?”

Tisane froze
upon hearing his voice. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
She turned to face him with an angel’s gentle eyes.

“Why’d you
leave without them? How’d you know to run?” he rasped angrily.

“Lily, the red
haired girl,” she answered in a high, smooth tone. “I’m glad you’re
alive. Who else has escaped?” she urged with a concerned crumple of
her brows.

“Lily? Lily is
dead, witch! And so is half our side. You set us up to fail!!”
Reid’s hard gaze met her soft face. “Speak,” he ordered angrily,
spit flying from his bared teeth. “Speak, before I kill you.” Every
word was delivered thickly as the hatred in his eyes penetrated
hers.

“I don’t know
what you want me to say.” She swallowed. Her blue eyes wavered,
unsurely and the colour drained from her soft face.

“Did you know?
Did you send us to be slaughtered! We trusted you! Lila trusted
you. We watched them dig graves today. Do you know how many?” The
anger in his voice broke with sadness as he stepped nearer.

Tisane shook
her head stiffly, like a scared child, numb with fear.

He glared at
her, seething with rage as his heart pounded in his chest.

“Jackson and
Angele and Narine. Which one makes you sadder?” he taunted, damning
her vehemently with his eyes. His mouth pulled and he struggled to
compose it.

She summoned
her strength. “Reid, I’m only going to tell you this once. Lila is
alive isn’t she? And Cresida is alive, isn’t she? Half the pack is
dead? I’m sorry Jackson and his partner are gone. I’m sorry my
sister is dead.” Something about her tone told him despite these
facts, she wasn’t going to beat herself up over it. “They were
young, and I am sorry.” Her voice broke.

“You set them
up!” he shouted coming closer.

“No, no one
wins a war. I can help you get them out, I can try.” Her eyes
begged him to believe. “It was the girl,” she pleaded.

“What? What
girl? Angele? Who do you mean?” he yelled frustrated.

“The human one.
The one who helped your kind,” she pleaded.

“Yeah, like you
helped last night?” he said with hatred. He strode forward grabbing
her by the collar of her jumper.

“There is a
woman,” she tried to point. “See, there in the cards, she can help
you.” She pointed to the table, desperately with her long gnarled
fingers.

“We won’t be
needing your assistance anymore,” he hissed violently through
gritted teeth. As the adrenaline of anger coursed through him, his
teeth began to elongate and he attempted to thrust his head to sink
his long canines deep into her flesh, but as his teeth brushed her
neck, Tisane convulsed lurching violently. Reid leapt forward over
the table, sprouting hair and claws. Her frame trembled, grossly
dislocated and expanded. Tisane exploded into a grotesque creature,
a chair broke away beneath her hunched morphing body.

Sky bounded in
through the backdoor as Reid was tossed like a rag doll across the
room and hit the wall with a thud. He landed limply on the floor as
plaster cascaded down over him. Sky witnessed the creature with
fright, twice the size of a normal wolf, with a large nose and
curled nostrils and when it saw him it screamed an unnatural, loud
squeal. Then it touched its neck with a human-like claw and as its
eyes focused on the blood, it began to shrink and contort.

Suddenly, it
was human and the woman’s body collapsed to the floor, still
holding her hand out awkwardly with the drop of blood on it. Sky
moved back as it lay motionless and feminine. He looked over to see
Reid still phased, collapsed against a wall, covered in broken bits
broken of plaster. He moved and transformed, rolling about in agony
as his bruised bones reset into human shape. Sky’s heart thudded in
his chest nervously as he knelt by it, at a cautious distance.

The woman’s
pale body lay slumped on the floorboards, long blonde hair covering
her face.

Reid swallowed.
“Is she dead?” he said wriggling up. He grimaced, tucking an arm
around his ribs.

“What the hell
was that?” Sky bellowed towards Reid, as though he would know what
it was.

“Should we kill
it?” Reid stepped nearer, but Sky stopped him with a raised hand,
intrigued by the creature.

“It was twice
the size of us,” he added, eyes alert, examining the woman now in
pale, human skin.

“And she seemed
so placid.”

“You said Lila
was friends with her?” Her peered over her.

“Yeah, she was.
Like I said, she brought us here.” Reid mumbled.

“And she said
this was a safe house?”

“Yeah.”

“And she said
this woman had harboured her?”

“Yes,” Reid
rasped, annoyed.

“Why the fuck
did you try and kill her then?” Sky glowered.

“She didn’t
warn us about them knowing about the attack.” He scowled.

Sky baulked.
“Maybe she didn’t know?”

“What now? I’m
not touching it.” He eyed the naked woman over in disgust.

Sky moved
closer and bent down and laid his hands on the creature’s face,
turning her chin to the ceiling as a length of dirty blonde hair
fell from her cheek.

He bent his
face closer to look into hers and brushed the wavy hair aside over
her pallid skin to look at her neck wound. He winced at the sight
of the tiny tear in her skin and peered at it, trying to assess
whether she healed as they did. She moved her head back slowly and
Sky cleared his throat quietly to speak, hoping not to startle it.
“Tisane, are you okay?” He looked at Reid and ordered sternly, “Get
some water.” He looked into her eyes, “Tisane do you know what just
happened?”

She furrowed
her dewy brow.

“I’m going to
pick you up and put you on the couch okay?” He looked about for a
cloth to lie against the very minor graze on her throat. “Get a bit
of the material, too.”

Sky ordered
Reid, pointing towards the rags what remained of her clothes. Reid
laid a piece on Sky’s palm and he pressed it into the bloody
scratch left by Reid’s teeth on her neck, but it was only a
nick.

Sky lifted her
gently and Reid moved a pillow with his free hand as Sky placed her
down delicately on the small couch.

Sky grabbed a
throw from the recliner. “Tisane?” he asked again softly, placing
it over her. He turned and took the glass from Reid’s hand. As he
held the water to her lips, she reacted placidly as she looked at
them with her pale blue eyes. The wound had already begun to close,
he saw, as he peeked at it from under the cloth.

He put down the
glass.

“What
happened?” she asked in a whisper as she started to rise up.

Sky placed a
firm but, gentle hand over her shoulders, his eyes wide. “Just lie
here,” he urged. “Do you know what just happened?” She didn’t
resist as he gently pressed her back down into the cushions. When
he looked closely, the blood on her fingers had a metallic hue,
only it wasn’t gold.

Tisane thought.
“No.” She looked at them and frowned struggling to recall as she
placed her hand on her neck. She looked at Reid, frightened.

Sky glanced at
him also. “He won’t touch you again,” he said with an emphasis on
the
again
part. “What are you?”

She looked at
them as though she didn’t understand.

“We came here
to ask what you knew,” Sky offered.

She shook her
head and then glanced up at Reid.

Sky redirected
her attention. “Lila’s been caught. Can you tell us what you
know?”

She nodded and
her thin lips moved quickly. “When I’m too close, I can’t get as
good a reading. Lila knew I was worried, she was going in anyway.”
She grimaced at the memory.

Reid spoke up.
“What about Lily?”

She scowled at
him, perhaps recalling the interrogation before he’d become
violent.

“Fine then
leave.” Her voice cracked.

“No, don’t pay
attention to him – please, you helped Lila, I can’t thank you
enough.” Sky’s eyes were wide and honest.

Reid walked out
through the screen door on the front verandah. Sky ignored the
screen slamming shut.

“You really
don’t remember what just happened?” he asked tenderly.

“No.” She
looked away, thinking.

“Reid tried to
bite you,” Sky said, wide-eyed, crouching beside her. “He cut
you.”

She went pale
and touched her neck again and the fear was evident in her eyes.
Sky laughed a little. “I wouldn’t worry, it seems something else
far rougher than Reid has bitten you before.” His mouth parted.

She looked
concerned. “Am I one now?” She winced, her frightened eyes shining
with moisture.

“Tisane, have
you had these blackouts before?”

“What? No, I
must have fainted.”

“You don’t know
what just happened?” His blue-green eyes were wide.

“He attacked
me.” She gestured towards Reid who paced the verandah. She frowned
and sat up. “I fainted?” her voice trailed.

“Yes, you did
faint, but you were enormous! The biggest we’ve ever seen. Who, I
mean…what are you?” Sky gave a short unsure laugh...

“I don’t know
what you mean,” she whispered to herself.

Sky looked
bemused and for a moment, she clearly thought it was a joke.

“Who are you?”
She asked the tall tanned man to confirm.

His expression
calmed. “Sky,” he answered. “Tisane you are a monster,” he stated
aghast.

“No, but how?”
she asked looking at her soft human hands.

“You tell us.
Did Lila know?” he asked eagerly.

Her thin lips
pulled. “No.”

Reid was
standing in the doorway again. “You are the biggest, most fucked up
beast we have ever seen and you don’t know it?”

When Tisane was
feeling better and the colour had returned to her face she got up,
ate some fruit from the kitchen and sat at the table to do a
reading. She turned the nine of swords.

Sky came in
from outside and asked, “Have you never seen your blood with the
metallic silver in it, like ours?”

“No, I’ve never
noticed.” He was tall and lean unlike Reid, who was shorter and
more muscular.

“Never?” He
picked up the bits of broken chair, from the floor.

“No, my mother
always said I had thick skin and when I was hurt she bandaged it
and told me to look away because the sight of blood would make me
feel ill.”

“Really?” he
asked holding the broken wood in his long arms.

“Yes. She told
me if I looked at it I would faint.” She put the elegant stubbed
fingers of both hands over her face.

He lingered for
a moment and then took the broken pieces of chair outside, tossing
them near the woodpile.

Sky returned
“What do you see in those?”

She noted he
was quite tall as she glanced at him, but he had a gentle manner.
She looked at the cards, her brow wrinkled.

“Everything and
nothing - the answers I seek. They confirm the obvious, most of the
time,” she trailed and shrugged avoiding his handsome face. What
was obvious to Tisane was most definitely not obvious others.

“What did you
ask it?” He sat at the table.

“Where Lila
was,” she said in the same reflective tone.

“And?”

“Bluntly?” She
turned her face and then looked straight into Sky’s almond shaped
eyes. “She’s in a nightmare, she’s cold and it’s dark. She’s
trapped on the edge of sleep, she’s held in the grasp of chaos, far
from help and comfort; she’s tormented. See these points.” She
pointed to the depiction on the card. “She impales herself on
them.” Her glistening eyes were wide with the impending horror of
it. The cards weren’t always literal, in fact most times not, but
in this case they depicted the scene. She turned another from the
deck. “The prince of wands. This is you, Sky.” She tapped it and
turned another. “Oppression, this is you again under someone else’s
control.” She flipped another. “Discipline is required to oppose
others. Prepare to defend, you will choose a course of action - but
you will endure.” Tisane knew he would get Lila out and she was
determined to help him.

“Did you read
for Lila?”

“Yes,” she
admitted diffidently.

“And she
believed you?” he asked quizzically.

“We had an
understanding.” She looked down. “Here, the Chariot. Lila had this
before they left last night.” She tapped it and her eyes looked
towards his.

“Did these
cards tell her to go?” he enquired intently.

“No, in fact
they were ominous at best. There were so many awful cards, but it
was expected. Nothing and no one could have stopped her or him.”
She looked pointedly at Reid on the other side of the room, who
avoided her gaze.