Krista's Prompts - 9. Prompt 49

“Can you believe it?” Livia asked as we drove down the winding road just at full dark. The moon was rising, but not yet over the tree line, full and chilling. Not because it was winter, but because we both knew it gave our enemies power. These nights the alliance between protectors and predators were always strained. Still, on this night, the chill of the moon didn’t touch me. We were about to celebrate our graduation from the Academy. “We’re finally done.”

“Yeah,” I said as I focused on the road, surrounded by trees on either side. I was expecting a howl or movement from the wood line. A gentle reminder that we shared this land with monsters and policed over them to keep them in line. Twenty years of education and training and this would be the rest of my life, however much time I had left.

“Get excited, idiot,” Livia said as she slapped me on the shoulder. “We’re free!”

“I am,” I countered, glancing in her direction. Her smile should have been infectious, but it wasn’t and wasn’t even something she could’ve known. No one knew, because no one could know. Even people in a secret society had secrets.

“So we’re going to pick up Cass and Michael, find a bar and get ran out of it drunk off our asses,” Livia said as she pressed the automated button on the passenger side door and rolled down the window. Her long chestnut brown hair blew in my face, slithering across my neck and lips. Glancing over just in time to see her climbing out of the window, I heard her let out a yell just as I grabbed the back of her jeans and pulled her back inside the car.

“What the hell Livia,” I groaned, her usual antics were usually something that pricked my skin and made me feel more alive. “Cass said she was coming, but Michael said he couldn’t come.”

“What’s wrong with him?” Livia asked as she rolled up the window. It might have been Spring, but it was still cold at night. The cloudless sky didn’t hold in the day’s heat either and it left us as soon as the sun did.

“Nothing,” I answered swallowing, hoping she didn’t catch my change in tone. She was my best friend though, so she had to know me better than that. I didn’t glance over to see if she did, I knew that my eyes would give me away. They always did, I didn’t have the steely gaze like my father, I couldn’t read him and never would be able to. It was part of what made him who he was, I knew that, and he always reminded me that I had Mom’s softer eyes. That I would have to lose that, there was no room for weakness and one look was all our enemies needed.

“Well whatever it is, he’s had a stick up his ass for weeks now,” she said, grabbing my shoulder and for a moment I thought she had caught up. I know I hadn’t exactly been a picnic to be around either.

“Pick some fucking music,” I growled just as my phone started to ring in the console between us. Glancing down at the screen I saw Michael’s name and when I glanced over at Livia, who would think nothing about manners before answering it, I shot my hand out and grabbed it.

Sliding my hand across the answer button, I held it up to my ear as Livia started shuffling through stations on my console. She had the sound turned to where she could just hear the song playing, if she found one I knew she’d turn it up. We were almost to Cass’s, having no intention of picking up Michael along the way.

The only sound I heard on the other end of the line was an eruption of growls. Swerving at the sudden noise, I saw Livia sit back in her seat, no longer interested in music.

“Michael, where are you?” I asked, my heart hammering in my chest. I suddenly felt cold and hoped he was playing some sort of joke on me, the growls didn’t sound like they were human made though, they were visceral and angry. I could almost see blood on sharpened canines and the glow of eyes in darkness, yellow from the reflection of light in eyes better suited for darkness.

“Lake, I love you, take care of my mom,” he answered, his voice a mix of purposeful calm with a quiver of fear on the more important words like love.

“Michael, what the fuck?” I asked, yelling into my phone. There wasn’t a response and when I looked down at my phone, it read call ended and I slammed my foot on the acceleration. The lake was on the other side of the county, it was a natural boundary between us and them. One they breached regularly, but they were allowed, the alliance didn’t cage them, you couldn’t cage them.

“What’s happened?” Livia asked, buckling her seatbelt. “Slow down.”

“I can’t,” I said, my grip on the wheel hurting my fingers. “It’s Michael.”

“What happened,” she repeated and I felt her hand on my arm, but I shrugged her off me as my tired squealed around a curve. Once around it, my foot slammed onto the gas again and the engine protested as we hit eighty miles an hour.

“I don’t know,” I said, feeling my stomach turn and my heart, a heart we were trained to keep calm and steady, so that it could do its job. We weren’t supposed to feel, not in the heat of battle. Emotions were a strength, but not the ones I had now, I was never supposed to have them, not for him.

“Do we need Cass?” Livia asked as she picked up her own phone. “She lives closer to the Lake than we do.”

“No,” I answered as the road straightened up, it meant that we were getting closer to town. The faint glow of the street lights that lined the road was backlighting the thinning wilderness. On the other side of it, nestled in more fucking trees, was the lake. “Don’t call her, I don’t know what’s going on.”

“There’s only ever one thing that’s going on,” Livia countered and I watched her screen light up as she made up her own mind to call Cassie.

“Don’t fucking call anyone,” I yelled reaching for her phone. “The fucking Lake is their territory.”

“I know,” she said, her detached calm grating on my nerves. “So we need help.”

“Just don’t call, not yet,” I said as we sped through town hoping the town police weren’t out making their rounds. Dumb of what really fucking happens every night just outside their town and every small town between here and wherever. If we were held up now, I didn’t think I would be able to persuade them to let me go. I didn’t know if I would be able to stop.

“Adam, calm down,” Livia said as my hand found the wheel and I blew past a red light. It was dead out tonight, most people sound asleep in this dead ass town. There was nothing to do past nine that didn’t involve leaving the town completely for bigger cities.

“It’s Michael,” I hissed as I got through town quicker than a person should have been able to. I didn’t have time to feel lucky about not having blue lights in my rearview though. The lake was down another winding road that dead ended at a boat ramp and a parking lot.

“What the hell is he doing there anyway?” She asked as she reached over and grabbed hold of the door handle. I glanced over to see her tense and wild-eyed, staring forward at the road, knowing it was a curvy assed dead end just like I did.

“I don’t know,” I answered, gritting my teeth.

“Do you think Evan and the assholes are involved?” She asked and I shrugged my shoulders just wanting to get there before I lost all of my resolve. I wished I were going alone, I didn’t know what I was about to see, the growls told me what I needed, but I didn’t get a chance to hear much of anything else. Everything else that I would need before I crossed into their territory and became fair game.

“I wish you would let me call someone,” she said as I went around another endless curve, sliding into the other lane, breathing again when I didn’t meet the headlights of oncoming traffic.

“Let us get closer to the lake, then call my dad, just him, no one else,” I said as we hit the middle of the curve that opened up onto the lake. Swallowing I looked forward as my headlights hit the paved parking lot where people parked their trucks after dropping their boats off at the ramp. I expected to see a sleek black Dodge Charger, but the lot was completely deserted.

Slamming on the brakes, not caring how crooked I parked I slid out of the driver’s side. Livia slid out of the passenger side as I hit the trunk release on my keychain. When it popped open we both walked back and I grabbed a hidden latch that opened a secret compartment. I grabbed a small pistol and a clip of silver bullets. Livia’s weapon of choice was a whip that was tipped with sharpened silver. She paired that with her own pistol, which she tucked into her jeans. I grabbed a set of daggers and I closed the trunk.

“Slow and easy,” Livia whispered as she caught up to me. “We were definitely heard already.”

“I know,” I hissed as my eyes darted around the natural clearing the lake provided. The beach was just past the parking lot, there was a small vendor, closed for the night the window shuttered. Beyond it were bathrooms and a playground. During the day this was a paradise, people completely unaware of what hunted this place at night.

“Over here,” came a voice from a distance. It was between a growl and a very commanding human voice. It came from the tree line that hugged the beach. Turning towards the sound I heard a gurgling sort of groan that made my heart race. I shrugged off Livia’s hand as I raced over pavement and onto sand. I heard her footfalls behind mine and her swearing as we closed the distance and when we busted through the tree line lights hit my face and I came to a stop, reaching up with my arm to shield my eyes.

“Put your weapons down,” the voice commanded as I felt Livia’s back slam against mine, her hair falling over my shoulders. I felt her tense at the voice as the light left my face. “Adam McBride, put your weapons away.”

“No,” I said as my vision adjusted to the light again. As I looked around I saw them, half naked, in a semicircle.

“If you don’t, we won’t let you pass,” he said and I took a step forward as Livia turned to stand shoulder to shoulder with me. I was a head taller than her and as she fell beside me I heard the crack of her whip that ended with a metallic ring of the silver. I watched as a man with a scar across his chest take a step back, a snarl on his face as curved claws took shape on his fingertips. The only thing that can scar a werewolf was silver or the teeth of another werewolf. The slash across his chest was long, deep, and clean.

“Get the fuck out of here, Adam,” Michael groaned from just beyond them. Hearing is voice I brought my gun up, pointing it at the chest of the nearest wolf. They were all male of various ages and when I raised my hand the largest and youngest of the group dropped down to his knees. A growl vibrated through his chest as his hands dug into the earth.

“Calm yourself, son,” the only one to speak said. I watched as a man, graying at his temples, grabbed the younger one's shoulder. The younger man’s head turned to look up at him, his eyes were glowing in the moonlight. “McBride, I’ll ask you again to put your weapons away.”

“Not a chance in hell,” I countered, not surprised that he knew who I was. We were a small order and shared the last names of our fathers for generations.

“We don’t have a lot of time,” the man countered, “if you wish to see your friend while he is alive, you need to drop your weapons.”

“Michael,” I yelled, taking a step forward with Livia reaching for me again. “Where are you?”

“Go away,” he said, his voice falling from a groan to a whisper. “Please go away.”

“What the fuck did you do?” I asked, turning to the obvious leader of the group. They lived on pack terms and no one else would speak to me unless they were told to. So I finally took the time to recognize who stood closest to me in the clearing. Victor Oaks was the Alpha of the pack that defended the lake, the heart of their territory. His pack founded the town we now protected from them, back when they were human. It was completely erased from history, names altered, graves of the buried changed and forgotten. The most dangerous thing in this forest by far stood with his hand on the shoulder of his packmate, his gaze unwavering, his breathing even. He knew I would relent and rush forward and when my hand released the gun it held, I ran towards them. The wolves parted and let me pass as Livia yelled my name and the semi-circle closed ranks again.

When I found him he was being tended to by a woman, completely naked except for a pair of shorts she likely borrowed for modesty’s sake from someone else. She had tied a makeshift belt from a vine, its leaves blowing in the wind she caused when she moved.

“Get away from him,” I ordered as my knees buckled just beside his body. He was pale, too pale for Miachel. It was too dark to see the light blue of his eyes, even when I knelt down close to him and grabbed his hand. When he fought me and yanked his hand out mine I reached for him again.

“Don’t touch me, Adam,” he hissed his teeth gritted as he breathed in fast, shallow breaths.

“I was able to calm the bleed,” the woman said and I glanced up to see her hovering over us, her claws at her side. She had long dark hair that she had draped over her breasts. “If we don’t get him to our doctor soon, he will die.”

“We have doctors,” I said as I reached for his hand again.

“Adam, fuck don’t touch me,” he hissed trying to slide away from me on the ground. “Please don’t touch me.”

“You can’t change him,” the woman said as she stepped forward. “Adam McBride, can we speak in private?”

“No,” I answered, glancing up at her. She was young looking, but there was no way to tell how old she actually was.

“We didn’t do this,” she said and I watched her kneel on his other side, my eyes watching every move she made. When she reached for him, I saw Michael flinch and hated that he let her touch his arm. I watched her claws smooth back to gentle fingers, smeared with his blood. I watched her pull down the ripped fabric of Michael’s blood stained white shirt. There I saw the bite on his shoulder. It was pulsing a small stream of blood, but whatever mixture of plants she put on it, seemed to be slowing some of flow.

“No,” I said as tears blurred my vision. Blinking them away I glared over at her and reached to my belt for my daggers. Seeing me her hand shot out and grabbed my wrist, I felt her tighten her grip and I heard her growl, deep and guttural as pain shot from my wrist.

“Calm yourself Adam,” she said as she released my hand. “We did not do this, we would not break the alliance, not for this.”

“Who did, then?” I asked as I rubbed and stretched out my wrist after making sure she didn’t break it.

“We heard the start of the fighting from the opposite shore, when we crossed and came to shore we saw the nomads surrounding him,” she said as she gently pulled his shirt back up to cover his exposed bite. Michael calmed slightly when he could no longer see his damaged shoulder and when his eyes found mine again they were wide with understanding. “His friends fled the beach and left him to die, we intervened and chased them well into the next pack’s territory before coming back. We hid him, knowing what would be done if he were discovered.”

“Do they know he was bitten, his friends?” I asked, turning to look back at her.

“No, they were too drunk to notice anything and so was he,” she said as she rested her hand on his neck. I felt the urge to reach for my daggers again until I realized that she was checking his pulse. “He’s getting weaker, we need to decide now.”

“Decide what?” I asked, but I already knew what she was asking. Michael would want to die here in this forest. He wouldn’t want to turn. None of us would want that, we were trained to fight and kill werewolves. I should have already ran my dagger through his heart, once Michael turned into one of them, he would be too dangerous to be left alive. That was the law and we knew it. One of them trained like one of us would destroy what we built, what we understood.

“Michael,” I said, swallowing as I leaned forward. An eruption behind me happened as Livia finally had enough and tried to breach the protective wall of wolves between us. I didn’t want her to see him, I was too afraid to let her.

“Adam, please,” he whimpered as he finally reached for me. I had to grab his hand to keep it from falling back across his chest. When I glanced up I saw a flash of sharp teeth and I watched the woman bite her own wrist. When the blood flowed in streams down her arm she looked at me.

“This will buy him some time,” she whispered, and I watched her place her wrist over his mouth. “Our blood has healing properties, as you know.”

I let her do it, because I wasn’t ready for him to die. When I heard him swallowing, I fought back the urge to vomit, and I looked above me to the canopy at the fully risen moon. The full moon would boost her blood more tonight than it would on others.

“Adam,” he said as she lifted her arm away from his mouth.

“I won’t do that again,” she whispered as she stood after a gentle pat of Michael’s arm. She left us as she fell into place a few yards away, with the rest of them. With her gone, no longer tending to him my hatred of werewolves surged back and I looked away from Michael trying not to feel betrayed by him. He knew better, just like I knew better. No one came to this place unless they were ready for death or stupid. Even then, I knew the long time Alpha wouldn’t have allowed for a bite, bloodshed yes, but not a bite. He knew that would lead to an all-out war against him and they would lose. Werewolves had two weaknesses, silver and daylight. The power they held belonged solely to the moon. They could change during the day, but it punished them, and they weakened faster. We had nothing against the sun, we welcomed the mornings with a smile.

“Adam,” Michael repeated, and I searched out his eyes as my hand gripped his and rested on his chest. I felt his heartbeat, rapid and weak in his chest. His breathing had calmed from fast and shallow to slow and deep. His face was no longer strained with pain and when I looked at him, despite the dirt and blood, he looked like himself again.

“Michael, I’m sorry,” I said as tears filled my eyes, but I blinked them away, I didn’t want to miss my last moment to remember every angle and contour of his face. If this was the last I would see of him this night, I wanted to remember who I loved and who loved me, despite everything.

“Don’t be,” he answered, offering me a small smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “I always knew where your heart was.”

“Please,” I said, not wanting to remember the fight we had a couple of weeks ago. I left that secluded field thinking I broke his heart. That I was selfish and an asshole and that he never would forgive me, because I was too scared to let people know that we were in love. All because of a stupid law that said that people who train and fight together couldn’t fall in love. We were supposed to be focused on protecting our team, not a person. To love Michael meant one of us would have to leave and I wasn’t ready for him to leave. He wanted to tell everyone to try to change the laws and I was too afraid that the laws would make an example of us instead. I thought it was too much of a risk and that I would be forgiven in time and be back in that field on a picnic blanket, kissing him and neglecting the food because we knew we were on borrowed time. I was more than ready to live my life like that with him, being willfully blind to the bigger picture looming over us both. That we would also be expected to marry someone, make a family, settle into a life.

“I don’t want to die,” he whispered, bringing me back to him. “I know that I have to.”

“I don’t know that I can,” I said, swallowing as I felt the dagger, rigid against my side. The perfect weapon to end a life.

“You know I can’t, you know the law,” he whispered and smiled despite his words.

“You wanted to change the laws not so long ago,” I countered, bringing my other hand up to rub my finger across his cheek. When he leaned into my hand I felt a fresh tear fall down my face.

“I don’t want to be a hunted beast,” he said as my finger found the corner of his mouth. “I don’t want to see your heart change when you see me like that.”

“I love you, Michael,” I said as I leaned lower. I felt him tense and grimace and I wondered how broken his body was. “That won’t change.”

“It will, it has to,” he said as his eyes steadied on mine. “I’ll be changed, I won’t be Michael, I’ll be…”

“Stop,” I said, my voice failing me. “Just stop and let me kiss you.”

“Don’t kiss me,” he said as I leaned lower, my chest laying across his unmarred shoulder bringing my face close to his. “Please.”

“Don’t take my last kiss away from me,” I said and I watched a tear fall from the corner of his eye as he stared up at me. When he finally relented with a nod I moved forward and felt his lips graze mine. I felt him tense under me, a ragged breath hitting my face as he kissed me back. I released his hand and he reached up and grabbed the back of my head when I kissed him again. The familiarity of his lips, the warmth of them on mine. The smell of his cologne mixed with the earthy smell of the forest around me, it all took me back to the field when I closed my eyes. I was able to forget that Michael wasn’t going to rise from the ground and walk out of the forest, smiling and holding my hand.

“Adam,” he whispered, turning his head so that he could break my kiss.

“Don’t tell me to kill you,” I hissed, knowing where his mind was going, where mine would have to meet his, before the night ends.

“I can feel it already coming,” he said and I leaned back onto my knees. “My death and the change, one of them will win.”

“I’ll stay with you,” I said, shaking my head. “I’ll let you think a little longer.”

“I’d rather die feeling strong and still all human,” he said as he tried to sit up, but couldn’t manage it. “Please be strong enough for both of us, you have to be.”

“No,” I countered reaching for him, but he moved his hands out of my reach.

“You have to,” he argued, his eyes steady and I hated him for being able to do that when I never could. And I hated that I lost him every time he did it. I wanted to see what he felt through those pale blue eyes that could hold me all day if he wanted to.

“I don’t,” I said, shaking my head as I looked around the forest. Like statues I found the wolves standing, still in line with Livia still talking to them, swearing at them, making enemies of them with every word.

“What are you doing?” He asked, reaching up for me as I made to stand.

“I can’t watch you die,” I answered looking back at him. I still saw the man I loved, whether he still saw himself like that or not, it didn’t bother me. If he left this forest beside the lake hating me, I didn’t care, if he hunted me I would welcome it. If he brought the war with him, I wouldn’t mind. Living in a world where Michael was dead was worse, infinitely worse, than having his heart beating strong in his chest and hating me. Maybe laws were laws for a reason and I would break every fucking one of them a million times over.

“Don’t do this,” he said as his hand fell back to his chest.

“Take him,” I said, turning to the pack of wolves. “Take him and go, now.”

The woman broke ranks first and turned to look at me and I looked away, not wanting to look at her. The wall continued to break as more of them started moving and Victor Oaks stepped in front of me as the big wolf and another grabbed Livia who tried to get around them. With a struggle they were able to grab the whip and with a painful howl from one of them, it fell to the ground with her kicking at them.

“Livia, please,” I said and when she saw me she stopped struggling, but the two wolves didn’t release her.

“You know what this means,” Victor said as he looked past me to where Michael was also yelling, calling out for me to come back.

“I know, I can’t see him again,” I said and he smiled briefly as he shook his head.

“You’ll be seeing him again,” he countered, “I just hope for your sake and ours that his hatred eases when he does.”

“Take care of him,” I said, and I stood still and allowed him to pat me on the shoulder as he walked past me to join the others as they disappeared deeper into the forest. I listened to Michael calling my name fade further into the forest with them. When I could no longer hear him I started walking and the last two wolves let Livia go and she crashed into me, her fists slamming into my chest. When that didn’t get the reaction from me that she wanted, I felt her slap me and when I turned to her, she was glaring at me, her whip in hand at her side, her eyes the steadiness of duty that I just didn’t ever have, daring me to speak.

“What have you done?” She asked as I found my gun and tucked it into my pants, pulling my shirt over it.

“I let him live,” I answered as the pain of her slap finally hit me through the numbness I felt for making the decision.

“You will be exiled from the order for this,” she said, the fight leaving her voice. “I know you and him were friends, but he wouldn’t have wanted this.”

“No, Livia, we weren't friends,” I countered, shaking my head. “And I’m hoping he remembers that when the next full moon rises.”

I knew she didn’t understand what I was saying from the look on her face, but I also knew we had all been through everything together. I could trust her to keep this secret, it wouldn’t be long before I would have to answer for this crime anyway. It would give me just enough time to hunt the ones responsible for this night both wolf and human. I would make them pay and then I would wait in the field during the next full moon, picnic basket on a spread-out blanket for Michael to come back to me.