Blood for Wolves (31 page)

“You wretch!” she snarled. “Humans
deserve to die. We are persecuted because of a curse they put on us. They are
the bane of this land and they deserve to be ruled over by us!”

“So you eat them in retaliation?” I
yelled. “You want to perpetuate the very curse they murder you for? What you
want to do will kill even more wolves!”

She bared her fangs, parts of her
body twisting as they changed. Yet she seemed to have trouble, as though those
same parts didn’t want to change.
Wolves react very badly to magic…

I charged at her, not knowing what
magic she might throw at me, but knowing that if she did and I were too close,
she’d suffer the same effects. Before she had time to ready a spell, I tackled
her around the waist and wrestled her to the ground. She screamed whenever my
blood touched her and fought back tooth and claw, trying to kick me off her and
cause damage without drawing more blood. The magic in her practically boiled
over. She wanted to use it, but feared what it might do to her.

I aimed the knife down, trying to
sink it into her flesh, but she hit me in the same spot the Steward had,
momentarily throwing me off balance. She tried to push me off, but I dragged
her back to me, slicing into her arm with the knife. She shrieked and howled,
the sounds ringing in my ears as I sought to finish her off.

“Fine,” she suddenly yelled. “If
you want to die for your little princess, then so be it!”

Burning white fire erupted all
around us. The same white fire from before. My flesh charred, my blood sizzled,
I tasted ash in my mouth. I was dying, dying, dying. I tilted my head back and
screamed along with her as we both burned in her magic fire.
Burn, burn,
burn
. I managed to open my eyes amidst the heat and the pain. She lay below
me, turning the knife toward my chest through the flames.
No!
The fire
was an illusion. Every part of my body screamed it was real, but I zeroed in on
my still-whole hand around the knife handle and forced it to turn around. It
pointed down now, and with all the strength I could muster, I drove it into her
chest. Wet with my blood, the poison of my love for wolves in her corrupt body
did its work. She gasped, screamed, clawed at me, and then fell back choking.

“Fond of knives?” she panted. “Then
I hope you enjoy this!”

A string of strange words cascaded
out of her bloody mouth. Before I could stop her, her curse catapulted me back
several yards. I struck the ground hard, screaming as dozens, hundreds,
thousands of blades sliced at my body. I writhed on the ground, crying out,
tears of pain escaping my eyes. What had she done? Was she dead? Was Marianne
safe? What the hell did she do to me?

I tried to drag myself away from
her, unable to stop screaming. My body was torn to shreds.
I’m dying, I’m
dying—why won’t pain stop?
Every few minutes a new wound opened on my skin
as though slashed there by a knife. Finally I lay on my back, sucking in deep
breaths of air, choking on cries of pain.

“Caroline! Oh, Caroline.”

Suddenly Wolf cradled me in his arms,
his bloody, tear-streaked face hovering over mine. Was the battle over? Had we
won? I screamed again and convulsed as a spot on my back sliced open.

“Caroline, what did she do?”

I grasped at the lapels of Wolf’s
new coat. I hated him. I hated him for lying to me. Twice. I hated him for
showing his true colors now that I was going to die.

“Caroline!”

Alex!
He was back! I
couldn’t see. The entire world was blurry. All I could make out was Wolf’s
face. Killing her must have freed Alex.

A scream of horror confirmed my
suspicious. Marianne was herself again, standing somewhere on the stairs where
I’d thrown her. Invisible knives cut at my arms and legs, drawing more shrieks
from me.

“Caroline?” Alex yelled. “Jesus
Christ, what’s wrong with her? She’s soaked in blood!”

Final curse
, a part of my
mind thought. But I couldn’t talk. I could only cry and jerk in pain when more
wounds opened. I was going to bleed to death. A slow, painful curse. I shivered
involuntarily in Wolf’s arms, chills already coming on from the loss of blood.

“It hurts,” was all I managed,
sobbing. “Oh God…” I writhed and screamed again.
How many more? How many
more? I don’t want to die.

“Caroline. Caroline,” Wolf sobbed. “Curse
the moon, forgive me. This wasn’t supposed to happen.”

I had almost died by fire, and now,
after so much…

“Wolf!” I gasped, then opened my
mouth in a silent scream as an unseen knife slashed at my cheek. I panted for
air. “Wolf. The jacket. There’s a vial.”

He immediately began searching the
pockets in my blood soaked coat. He pulled out the vial of lavawort flower
extract.

“Give it to me,” I said
breathlessly, then convulsed again, tears spilling down the sides of my face.

He opened it and gave it to my
shaking hands.

“What is it? Caroline—” His eyes
widened as he caught the scent. “CAROLINE, DON’T!”

But he was too late. I downed the
bottle and immediately went rigid in his arms as a new wave of pain washed over
me. A searing heat burned me from the inside out, spreading through my veins,
coupling with the agony of the wounds, wrapping tendrils of molten liquid
around my heart. I couldn’t even scream. I was burning, burning just like the
old witch had said. My mind went numb with the fire. I couldn’t breathe. I’d
reached too far. Fought too long. In the haze of agony, I summoned my last
remaining bit of strength, every scrap of resolve, and reached up to touch
Wolf’s cheek. His hand immediately covered mine and held it there.
Beautiful.

And then I died.

Somewhere in all the darkness, a
wolf was howling.

“What the fuck was that? What the
fuck happened to her?”

“This is all my fault! That witch. That
old witch lied to me!”

“Of course it’s your fault! You
fucking went traitor on us!”

Somewhere, in all the blackness and
the shouting, a little girl cried.

“She said the only way I could save
her was if I broke my vow.”

“Well that sure as hell didn’t
work, now did it?”

The voices went silent. The dark
echoed with the sounds of crying. The wolf howled again. I wanted to comfort
him, but I didn’t know where he was.

“Jesus. Care…”

I wanted to be with them. I wanted
to be with the voices.

“You broke her heart, you know. I
mean, I think you literally broke her heart.”

“What? No…. I couldn’t have. She’s
not….”

“You didn’t
see
her. There
was something wrong with her. Even the other wolves saw it.”

This time a wolf didn’t howl. A man
screamed. Angry. Pained.
Dying.

I clawed my way up, raging against
all that blackness.
I am not going to die in the dark alone!

I sucked in a breath. The men
around me froze. Someone gently put a hand to my chest to feel my heart. It
beat weakly against his palm. I opened my eyes a crack. Wolf still held me,
gazing down in sheer disbelief and hope all mixed together on his face. My body
ached. Traces of fire still lingered in my veins. I took in another breath.

“Caroline,” Wolf breathed. “Oh
please.
Please
.”

“I hurt,” I
whispered, and passed out.

When I awoke again, it was in a
luxuriously soft bed and cocooned in supple sheets white as new fallen snow. I
felt…clean. Relaxed. Better than I had in a long time. Still a little tired,
but nothing that wouldn’t be cured from lounging in bed for a few hours more. The
room was more lavishly decorated than our small guest room had been. The walls
here were whitewashed and fitted with furnishings in such a way that a feng
shui master would be jealous. Between the time of my half-death and my newly
awakened state, the sun had come back out and beamed happily through the
frosted glass windows to my right.

I stretched and realized I was
dressed in a white slip—and that my arms were covered with the scars of healed
slash marks. I traced my fingers over them in awe…and horror. Lavawort always
left scars behind after it healed. How many wounds did I have when the extract
went to work? I closed my eyes and shifted on my pillows. Someone in the room
let out a faint groan.

I opened my eyes again and gazed
around. Then I tilted my head back. Wolf sat near the corner of the bed,
leaning back against headboard, his head resting against the corner post. I
wondered where Alex and Marianne were. No doubt they’d been taken care of as
well. He whimpered softly in his sleep. He’d cleaned up, now dressed in blues
and grays. His sable hair was brushed back as always, yet I wasn’t surprised to
see the shadow of stubble on his face. Yet as good as he looked, dark circles
ringed his eyes.

I yawned and stretched again, a satisfying
cat-like stretch, unkinking all my muscles and waking up all my bones to
renewed life.

My movements roused Wolf, and in
the blink of an eye, he dropped to his knees beside the bed, clutching one of
my hands in his.

“Caroline, I’m so glad…” he trailed
off, unable to finish. His eyes misted over with tears. “Oh Caroline. I am so
sorry. I am
so sorry.
I…”

His face begged me, implored me to
understand. To see that if he’d only known the kind of pain he would cause me,
he’d rather have driven a knife through his own heart.

“She told you to break your
promise,” I said, unable to get my voice above a whisper.

He looked surprised for a moment,
then nodded. “I thought it was just my heart I was risking. It never occurred
to me that yours…that you might….”

He put his hand over my heart,
losing himself for a moment as it beat beneath his fingers. I covered his hand
with mine.

“Tell me,” I said.

“It was a lie.” His words spilled
forth as though I’d unleashed a dam. “Everything I said in front of her was a
lie. The lake was real. Everything without her was real. I love you, Caroline. You’re
my mate, my heart, and I love you so much. I lied because the witch told me if
I learned the truth about you—about you being the Guardian—I’d have to break my
vow. And then I did and she knew and if I didn’t play along she’d kill me and
I’d never be able to rescue you.” He held onto my hands as though I might fall
away if he let go and leaned forward to press his forehead to mine.

“You sent the wolves, didn’t you?”
I asked. He nodded.

“I had a plan all worked out, but
then you broke out first and I wanted to go after you so badly but I couldn’t,
so instead I followed along and tried to work with Martock to figure out a way
to save you and Marianne and Alex and, oh Caroline, I thought I would die when
I saw you in that dress…”

I held his face away to search his
eyes. “That was you? I thought I heard someone…”

“I couldn’t help it. I wanted to
see you and then you were so beautiful and you smelled amazing.” He paused to
breathe deeply, his eyes closing as he inhaled my scent. “I wanted to steal you
away then and there and tell you everything. If only I’d known your heart was
breaking. Caroline, my sweet Caroline. Can you ever forgive me? I didn’t know. If
only I’d known.”

His voice dropped to a whisper. His
nose gently touched mine, but he went no further. I swept my fingers through
his hair, watching him berate himself. How long had he punished himself over
me?

“Have you even slept?” I asked.

“Not much. After they brought you
here, I never left. I’ve been watching over you. I’ve never seen anyone drink
lavawort flower elixir like that. It healed everything, but it almost killed
you. For a moment, we all thought it had.”

“I know. I was,” I struggled with
how to explain it, “in the dark somewhere. Barely there. But then I heard you
howling and arguing with Alex and…I heard you scream.” I shook my head weakly. “I
don’t ever want to hear anything like that again.”

“You won’t,” he whispered and
kissed my forehead.

For several long minutes, neither
of us spoke. He brushed his hand over my face, gently touching on all the
curves, from the line of my jaw to the shape of my lips. Then he ran a finger
over a spot on my cheek. The place now held a thin scar. He blinked and
abruptly the hazel battled with the gold.

“When I saw him hit you, touch you,
I wanted to kill him myself. That’s the only part I don’t regret. If she hadn’t
killed him, I would have.”

I smiled faintly. “How are the
others?”

“The minute you killed her, Alex
and Marianne turned back to their normal selves. I can’t believe she was there
the entire time, right on the throne.”

“I kept her with me until the fight
started. Then I thought she might be safer on her own.”

The corners of his mouth quirked. “Clever
Caroline.”

“Are they okay?”

He nodded. “They’re fine. We
released all the people in the castle holds. Her parents were down there, and
they’ve been reunited.”

“I’m so glad.” I sighed with relief
and then paused. “How long was I asleep?”

“Two days, my heart.”

I struggled to sit up. My muscles
felt rubbery as I pushed myself into a sitting position with Wolf’s help. I
clung to his arms, waiting for the slight wave of dizziness to pass. Then I
focused on Wolf again. Desire was written all over his face, in his eyes, the
tension in his muscles. But he didn’t dare touch me. Not without my permission
first. Not without my forgiveness.

“Why didn’t you tell me your plan?”

He dropped his gaze. “It was hard enough
making one without letting her know. She was always in my head, poking around
for information. I didn’t want to tell you because then I felt she would know
for sure. I needed to convince her or she would have killed me and Alex and
cursed you and Marianne away….” He looked up at me again. “I hated it. I hated
every second of it. I hated hurting you. I hated lying to you and breaking my
vow.”