Black Wolf (34 page)

The battle had
drawn an audience; he heard Bryan say, "Should we stop it?" and
Lori answer scornfully, "Let them go, maybe Bane can beat some
sense into Kevin. Gods know, he won't listen to me anymore." No way
could he surrender with others watching, especially not others who
expected him to lose or give up.

Bane was
limping, but still on his feet, when he turned on Kevin. Shield
after shield he tore down methodically; attack after attack he
evaded or destroyed before it could hurt him. He knocked Kevin's
legs out from under him, stood over the fallen and exhausted mage,
and changed to human form, both hands curled into fists.

"You're a
bully, Kevin Lioren, and that's all you'll ever be, and everyone
knows it. Stay away from Flynn and Cynthia, got it? If you go
anywhere near them, I'll make this look like
nothing
."

Bryan pulled
Bane back. "Enough, Bane. You won." He didn't move when Bane turned
on him with a warning growl, only dropped his gaze submissively.
"There's no point in anything more."

"He deserves
worse for what he did to Flynn and Cynthi." But it lacked the full
force of anger, now, and he let Bryan draw him away.

Kevin wondered
whether he had the strength for one last attack, while Bane's back
was turned.

Lori strode
over to stand next to him, looking down, arms crossed. "Do it and
I'll ram it right back down your throat. Give it up, it's over and
you lost. Damn it, Kev, I'm one of the last few who believed
there's more to you than what you've turned into in the past couple
of months, but I'm not even so sure anymore." There was contempt in
her voice, and anger... and pain? No, couldn't be. "Take a nap
while I get Mandisa." He had no defences left, couldn't keep her
out of his mind or keep her from shoving consciousness aside.

The world
returned in the form of hard ground under him and Deanna kneeling
beside him, tears running freely down her cheeks, whispering
something. With a little effort, he made out the words.
Damn
you, wolf
, over and over. Yes, Bane definitely deserved that
fate.

"I'm okay," he
told her hoarsely. "Becky?"

"Oh, forget
Rebecca for two minutes!" she snapped. "You need a healer more than
you need her!"

Mandisa, the
dryad healer who was Haven's official doctor, was giving Karl a
cursory examination and healing, on his far side. She finished with
the wolf, and turned to Kevin, her expression devoid of any
emotion. She wasn't exactly gentle, her mahogany-skinned hands
roaming swiftly down his body, mending anything actually dangerous,
overlooking anything less, and she said not a single word to
him.

Deanna helped
him get home to bed, and curled up beside him.

She cried
herself to sleep, and wouldn't tell him why, and wouldn't let him
in her mind.

* * *

Invariably,
Karl was late for circle; Deanna slumped in the chair, her knees
drawn up and her arms wrapped around them, listening in silence
while Kevin told Rebecca how he and Karl had challenged a trio of
classmates who had made offensive remarks about her.

Rebecca smiled
and cupped a hand around his cheek. "My champions."

"They had no
right to say anything like that about you. I bet they won't again,"
Kevin said. Rebecca was happy and knew she was appreciated. That
was what mattered.

"Tell her the
rest," Deanna said without moving, the first thing she'd said since
they'd arrived at Rebecca's apartment.

"It doesn't
matter," Kevin said dismissively.

"The rest?"
Rebecca said. "What does she mean?"

"We just got
suspended." Kevin shrugged.

"With a final
warning," Deanna said. "That next time, they will be expelled, and
that at that point, it will be up to Katherine and Tomas what to do
about Kev, and up to a meeting of the alphas to decide what to do
about Karl. Although Kev's mom was already nervous about his gift
being so strong and is now so scared of him that she'll probably
throw him out of the house before it gets that far. She might do it
over this, even. It was in plain sight of a lot of people."

Rebecca
frowned thoughtfully, running a hand absently through Kevin's hair
while she reflected on that. "Would it be so bad to just leave
here?" she said softly.

Deanna
uncoiled, her gaze fixed on Rebecca. "Is that what you had in mind
all along? Completely destroy their lives? Destroy every connection
to family and friends that they have, so they're absolutely focused
on you and only you with no room for anything else? Then what?
Gods, Rebecca, what kind of sinkhole do you have inside, that you
can only fill by turning a pair of teenage boys into your zombies
at the cost of their own futures?"

"Dia,
what...?" Kevin began, utterly taken aback.

"Shut up,"
Rebecca said, more than a hint of growl in her voice. "For your own
sake, Deanna, shut up now."

"No," Deanna
said. "I've been watching this for four months now. I can't just
watch this any more. I want to know. What is wrong with you, that
instead of protecting your coven, you abuse them instead?"

"Dia!"

"Shut up,"
both Deanna and Rebecca snapped at him, so close together it was
nearly a single voice. Kevin looked from one to the other, at a
complete loss for what to do. He'd known that Deanna didn't really
understand Rebecca; neither did Karl, but he came closer. Dryad
nature was, well, what it was. Rebecca's demand for obedience so
that she could best protect them, above all protect her
too-tempting elvenmage, made sense but more and more lately, Deanna
had obeyed only with obvious reluctance.

This kind of
outright defiance was something else altogether.

"I already
can't reach Karl any more," Deanna said, sitting forward in the
chair. "We grew up together, but you've turned him into someone I
don't even know. You're killing everything that's genuinely
Kevin
, all the laughter and the playfulness and the
kindness, by inches, and he won't listen to me because you've got
him so convinced that he's your soul mate and your knight in
shining armour. And you want me to keep going along with this? Not
on your life, Rebecca."

Rebecca's
rising growl alarmed Kevin increasingly. Deanna was his best
friend, he couldn't let Rebecca hurt her, if Rebecca lost her
temper she'd attack, but he couldn't go against Rebecca
either...

"That is
enough
!" Rebecca stood up and took a step towards Deanna,
threateningly.

Kevin saw
Deanna shiver, but she refused to lower her gaze, kept her eyes on
the alpha bitch's. "No."

Teeth showing
in a snarl, Rebecca untied the ribbon-drawstring of her skirt, and
let it fall; her blouse followed immediately. They were all
magesilk, Kevin had made them himself, but it underlined the
warning and the countdown until...

Rebecca was
going to hurt Deanna... no!

An eye-blink
before the red wolf lunged, a wall of shimmering crimson spun
itself out of the light of the setting sun. Rebecca couldn't stop
in time, hit it and was thrown back.

Hackles
raised, teeth bared, she turned on Kevin.

"I can't let
you hurt Dia," he told her shakily.

*I do as I
please! Now and always!* She advanced on him menacingly; the
sunlight was fading fast, but there was enough for him to use for a
moment more. What should he do?

He looked at
Rebecca, looked at Deanna, and decided, though something inside him
screamed at him that he was insane.

He spun the
last of the sunlight into a cord, and flung it at Rebecca; it
tangled itself around her, and she lost her footing. Snarling in
fury, she clawed at it. It wouldn't hold her long.

"We have to
get out of here," Deanna said, bolting to her feet. Kevin slammed
the door shut behind them, and threw as much magic into sealing it
as he quickly could; that might buy them an extra minute or two.
"The pet store's close," Deanna said breathlessly. "Sam and Bryan
will help. Rebecca won't mess with them."

Kevin nodded
mutely.

From inside
Rebecca howled, wildly, a summons to Karl. The door shuddered as
she threw her full weight against it.

"Quickly,"
Deanna added.

They fled
across the yard, through ankle-deep snow. Kevin glanced back, as he
heard the door give way. Rebecca was racing directly towards them,
and he had no illusions about what she might be capable of in this
kind of rage. They couldn't possibly reach the pet shop before she
caught up. There was probably no one who would let him in the door
or who would care if Rebecca killed him—but that wasn't true for
Deanna.

"Dia. Get out
of here."

"I can't leave
you!"

"Then find
help! We can't both outrun her! I'll hold her!
Go!
"

She hesitated,
unwilling to leave him, but she knew as well as he did what their
chances were. She ran off across the lawn; he saw her trip on
something under the snow, catch herself with a hand on the ground.
Then Rebecca got there.

He hated this
time of year. Edging up on the winter solstice, night fell so
early; there was a waxing moon up there somewhere behind the
clouds, but scant light made it through to the ground. That left
only electric light to use, and that never worked as well. And the
cold, even had he been dressed for it the bitter December cold was
an enemy.

Well, at least
Deanna would be safe.

Karl's solid
shaggy bulk knocked Kevin off his feet. Kevin scrambled to get at
least to his knees, threw all he was into weaving the glow of
streetlights and outdoor lights into a shield around himself.

It won't hold,
it won't hold, I'm having too much trouble concentrating and
there's just nothing to use and it's so cold... have to give Dia
time to get somewhere safe!

He bowed his
head, trying not to think about the snapping teeth held back only
by an all-too-fragile barrier of light. They were going to kill
him, he was sure of it; there was no hope of anyone being willing
to intervene between him and the consequences of his own choices.
Possibly, the intense cold would kill him first, which might be a
mercy. But the longer he could hold on, the more time Deanna had to
find sanctuary.

"Can't we even
watch a movie in peace?" someone growled.

Kevin looked
up fast.

Bane, with
Flynn and Cynthia—and Deanna.

"You've scared
them badly enough," Bane said shortly. "Face it, Rebecca, half your
coven just mutinied, you've lost them."

Rebecca
rounded on him, snarling, tail up and ears forward in pure
aggressive threat.

Bane sighed.
"One on one, then. You and me."

She hesitated,
then abruptly wheeled and raced away, Karl at her heels.

"Thank you,"
Kevin whispered.

"I can't
believe I just helped you."

"Leave him
alone," Deanna said fiercely. "Rebecca's been messing with his
mind. Kev isn't a bully."

"Does a damned
good impression of one, then." But his expression softened a
little, as he regarded the drained elvenmage still kneeling on the
ground. "Still, you know him better than anyone and you're still
looking out for him, so I guess there's a chance he's not a
completely lost cause. I predict she's going to be waiting for you.
So I guess you'd better stay with us for tonight. By tomorrow maybe
she'll have cooled down a little."

Immediate
protest from Flynn and Cynthia, both of them watching Kevin as they
might a large dog of uncertain temper.

"For one
night," Bane over-ruled them. "If you'd rather, I'll take them home
with me, I'm not
her
to force anyone into anything. I don't
blame you, but she's not rational enough to think about what she's
doing, she'll kill them."

Flynn yielded
first. "Deanna doesn't deserve that," he muttered.

And Kevin did.
He couldn't have been angry, even if he'd had the energy. He was
too surprised help had come at all, and even less would he have
expected it from this quarter.

Cynthia
sighed, and nodded. "For one night. I suppose if we don't get him
inside and fed in a hurry, it's going to become a moot point very
quickly. But you," she glanced at Deanna, "keep him on a leash,
would you?"

"Kev won't
hurt anybody without Rebecca," Deanna said stubbornly.

"All right,
all right. Come on, then."

This was
Flynn's house, and it was wonderfully warm inside. The seer darted
upstairs briefly to warn his mother Isleen of the extra company,
and returned to say only that she knew. Kevin interpreted that to
mean she wasn't entirely pleased. Flynn did give them his own bed,
but left when Kevin came in the room, edging around him and trying
to keep as much distance as he could.

Deanna wrapped
the quilt from the bed around Kevin, hugging him close against her;
he could feel her shivering. She felt warm to him, which was
generally not a good sign. "I don't know what to do now. After what
happened earlier today, I had to do something but I couldn't think
what until I was doing it. She's not what we thought she was at
first. Bryan was right when he warned us, there's something very
wrong in Rebecca's head, but we couldn't see it."