Bloodmark (19 page)

“I think the time has come, Grey. You should know what I am,” Baran said. “We are more than mere animals. We are werewolves, shape shifters. The eyes of the night.”

Mund spit on the floor. He was furious and frightened. He paced between the two exits, the front door and the kitchen. I knew he didn’t agree with Baran’s judgment, and he wanted to pull rank with his royalty, but he didn’t. He just paced back and forth, his eyes trained on Grey’s every movement. Adrenaline pumped through my veins, bringing every cell in my body to life. I held my breath as I waited for him to respond.

“Werewolves . . .” Grey said.

“Yes,” I replied.

He stood up, pulling his hands away from mine. Mund was instantly at my side, and in that split second, he backhanded Grey into the door. The sound echoed all around me, sickening my stomach. Grey licked the blood from his lower lip and turned his back on all of us as he put his hands on the doorframe for balance. The muscles in his back pulsed with strength.

“What do you eat?” he asked. There was an accusation in his tone, and Mund growled in return.

I stayed sitting on the floor to not further upset them all. “We prefer to catch our own wild game, but we can eat everything humans eat,” I said.

“You don’t eat humans?”

“No, Grey. We do not. There are some who have forsaken their vows of protection and do kill humans, but we do not,” I said.

“So the legends are true? Werewolves are real?”

“Yes, the legends are true for the most part. We live forever. We shift form at will. We are supreme beings. We protect the balance of life and protect all humans from danger and from each other,” Baran said.

“You’re being careless, he’s not one of us,” Mund said.

“He has a right to know. If he’s going to love Ashling, he should understand what we are and what he’s committing his life to.” Baran continued, “Our appearance is varied, usually by our genetic makeup, matching our hair color. Our physical stature in our wolf form corresponds to our stature in human form, and other similarities cross over, such as hair color and eye color. Ashling, for instance, is a small red wolf.”

Grey smiled at me shamelessly. “I’ve seen you,” he said. I didn’t take my eyes off Grey, but by the sounds in the room, Mund swallowed his own tongue. “The little red wolf that day in the woods . . . I knew it was you.”

I nodded. He touched his cheek where I had licked him that day.

“Werewolf,” he said.

“You’re the one running with wolves, you fool.” I playfully batted at him.

“He’s seen you?!” Mund roared, advancing toward Grey, but Baran stepped between him and us.

“Care to explain?” Baran asked me.

“I was at the falls, trying to learn the different sounds and scents of all the animals, when I got caught in one of the game warden’s traps. Grey set me free,” I said, smiling at him. “I had been running through the woods, and Grey ran with me. Stride for stride.” I couldn’t hide my admiration for him.

Their faces wore every emotion: gratefulness, anger, and fear. I had been reckless, I knew that, but I wouldn’t change it. My reckless behavior brought Grey to me.

“What were you thinking, Ashling?” Mund said. “You should never have been in the woods by yourself. What could have happened?”

“Grey was there.”

Mund glared at us. “You’re a trusting fool.”

“Mund?” I said.

“You shouldn’t trust so easily,” Mund said. Then he turned his angry stare on Baran. “And neither should you. I know you want to trust him . . .” He turned his back on us.

“Grey, we are putting our faith in you. You have to understand that you can never tell anyone about us, or you risk endangering Ashling’s life,” Baran said.

“I understand,” he replied.

“Is that bloody good enough?” Mund said. “You’re going to trust this half-breed with her
life?
I know he’s Brenna’s son, but that doesn’t make this right!”

Grey turned his attention on Mund at the sound of his mother’s name. He watched Mund carefully. I wonder how much he really knew about his mother and about us. There was an eerie quiet to him.

“Mund . . .” I said. How could he be so mean after everything Grey had done to protect me and how much he clearly loved me? He treated Grey as if he were still a stranger.

“You understand this,
wanker
—she’s my sister, and if you hurt a hair on her head, I will bleed every drop of blood from your body,” Mund said.

There was a quizzical look on Grey’s face, as though he knew something more than he was saying. He stood up and offered his hand to Mund. “Agreed,” he said, waiting for Mund to shake his hand. But Mund didn’t accept it; he only growled in return. “Look, I get it. She’s your baby sister, and you’re having a hard time letting go of the fact that she’s growing up.” He paused, studying my face. “But you understand this—I love her and I am a permanent fixture in your life as long as she wants me here. So get used to it.”

Mund’s growl deepened. It was a warning, but Grey ignored it, turning his back on him. Was it arrogance, or a misguided trust in Mund? He was oddly unaffected by what Baran had told him, and it was troubling that he didn’t have a stronger reaction, as though he were the one keeping secrets.

“So can I see you as a wolf?” he asked.

Baran answered for me, “No. There’s more you need to understand, Grey. If you are going to be a part of her life, you need to understand she is in hiding right now. There are some
dogs
from our world that are trying to take her from us, so you’ll need to help us keep her safe.”

“That I can do,” Grey said, scooping me up from the floor into his arms as if I were a child, holding me tightly to his chest as if I weighed nothing more than a feather. “As long as you want me.”

“Good. Now can I finish my movie?” Baran asked.

Grey sat down on the sofa with me in his lap, and I rested my head on his shoulder. Mund stayed standing by the front door. He was too shocked to move, and I was too angry with him for overreacting about this whole thing, but I had to admire him for loving me so much. No matter how mad I was, I was still touched by how much he cared about me.

I listened to Grey’s heart; it was steady and unyielding, like his love for me. He was watching me instead of the movie, studying my face, though I couldn’t fathom what he was seeing.

“You really are my little wild one,” he whispered in my ear. I hid my smile, but I liked the way he said
my
. I liked the way it sounded on his lips. Before I met Grey, I could never have imagined the depth of love and how much it would change me.

The movie ended, and Grey said his goodbye to me—three times before finally driving off. Which left me with Mund again. He had to get over the protective-older-brother thing. It was getting old. I was a big girl, and I didn’t need a babysitter any more.

I shut the front door quietly and stood, waiting for them to get it over with. But Mund didn’t say anything; he only held his face in his hands as he sat on the edge of the sofa while Baran still sat in his chair.

“Thank you,” I said.

“Ash, please be careful,” Mund whispered through his hands.

“I know, I know. The prophecy,” I said.

He looked up at me with pain in his eyes. “Ash, it’s not like that. I don’t care about any prophecy. I only care about keeping you safe.”

“Right.”

“Be fair,” Mund said.

“Fine. Then you be fair. I love him. End of story.”

“Well, now he knows what we are,” he said. “If we aren’t dead by morning, he’s probably a keeper.” I laughed despite my annoyance with him. Even when he was being melodramatic, he still had a sense of humor.

Luckily two weeks passed without any fights. Grey spent every day at our house or at Ryan’s practicing. Either way, we spent every evening together. Laughing, hugging, even stealing a kiss or two when no one was looking. School blew by without even having to notice. I just kept smiling and saying hi to Lacey, and she just kept ignoring me—the best of both worlds.

I worked on translating the journal and found poems of love from Ragnall to Calista. I found a pressed thistle, which was a sign of strength, and drawings of the ring on my finger. One passage I translated caught me by surprise.

Spring 1048

The visions come more often of Ragnall’s and my demise. Our wedding brings my death. Uaid’s betrayal. The red one, the dream, she will come from my blood to save us all. With her snow-white skin and crimson curls. She is the missing element that will bring balance back to the earth
.

She wrote of her own death two years before it came to pass in 1050. She knew Uaid Dvergar would kill her, and yet she still married Ragnall and died. For love? Or for me? Why would she accept death for the idea of someone coming over nine hundred years later? She knowingly sacrificed herself . . . for the dream of
me
.

Could I have made such a sacrifice for the sake of love? I couldn’t truly know until I was put in the situation. I couldn’t say how strong I would be, how hard I would fight, or how much I could really sacrifice for the ones I loved. It was humbling to finally understand the sacrifices that had been made for me.

Another entry also captured my attention. This one I didn’t share with Mund or Baran. This one I kept to myself. They wouldn’t understand.

Winter 1048

The Dream will be all-powerful with her love by her side. Finding this wolf is of the utmost importance. He is the key to her
. . .

The entry was incomplete and abruptly stopped midsentence, the ink smudged on the last word. But I knew it referenced a wolf . . . a wolf who would be my love. If Mund knew the prophecy spoke of a wolf love of mine, he would fight harder against my choice to bind with Grey, a human. This entry would be mine alone. I tore it out of the journal, hiding it in my copy of
Pride and Prejudice
. Mund hated fiction—he’d never open it.

Maybe she was wrong about the prophecy. Or maybe it was never about me and they were all mistaken. All of the
maybes
made it hard to think. I wished Mother were here; she would hold me tight in her steel grip, safe from worry, and braid my hair while singing a sweet song. She would tell me to stop running wild as she delicately washed the dirt from my face. I missed everything about her, though I could still feel her love and strength in my heart.

The day of the dance finally came, and it coincided with Samhain, the end of summer. It was an important ceremonious day for our kind, but I had a dance to go to. The girls had nominated my house for getting ready. Baran was less than thrilled about having so many hormone-charged humans in the house again, but he still agreed. He said he would stop back before we all left for the dance. Mund also decided to hide elsewhere until he absolutely had to come back in to get dressed.

Kate and Beth were the lucky ones with dates. At least the rest of us had each other to hang out with, though. I wasn’t sure why I was going—Grey would be playing up in the band. I would be alone all night, and Lacey would be there, hopefully without incident. She had been ignoring me for weeks, so that seemed promising.

The girls sculpted their hair into beautiful up-dos, but I didn’t have a clue what to do with mine or how. This was one of those moments when I found myself looking around and realizing how completely unfeminine I really was. I could hardly put mascara on without poking myself in the eye.

“What do you ladies think?” Kate asked, spinning around, showing her perfect hair.

“Beautiful,” Emma said.

“Truly lovely,” I replied.

“You haven’t started your hair, Ashling,” Kate said.

“I don’t know what to do with it. And even if I figured that out, I’m not sure I’d know how to accomplish it.” I laughed nervously. I hated feeling inadequate. I could dance nearly every classical step, I could weave silk, speak the language of the Bloodmoon, and recite classic poetry in Latin. I was even learning ancient Greek, but could I do my own hair? No. Every part of being a girl that should come naturally was foreign to me.

Kate squeezed my shoulder and studied my dress. “With the shape of your dress, I think we should do something asymmetrical.” She began moving my hair around expertly, creating a side sweep. “Let’s straighten your hair. It’ll be beautiful, but still a little wild. What do you think?” she asked.

I just nodded. I had no idea what she was talking about, but I trusted her style. The others continued on their own hair and makeup while Kate straightened my hair, section by section. I watched her transform me into someone I didn’t even know. The girl in the mirror was smooth and refined, wide-eyed and beautiful. By the time she was done, my hair was exquisitely shaped around one side of my face.

“Oh, Kate . . .” I said.

“You’re welcome. Emma, can you help Ashling with makeup? You’re a pro.”

Emma smiled. “What do you want me to do?” she asked as she started digging through a large makeup bag, pulling out dozens of strange little containers.

“Not sure really. Something simple.”

“How about we play up your eyes and do a simple nude lip,” she said, more to herself than to me. “A lightly smoky eye, but in golden tones.”

After Emma and Kate finished their work, I looked like a woman. I had to admit, I loved the feeling of being dressed up.

“Clint and James should be here soon,” Kate said.

“Will you help me?” Emma asked Kelsey as she held out a flower corsage she’d purchased herself. Kelsey easily pinned it on to her bodice.

“My mom bought me one too,” Kelsey said.

A horn honked outside, sending us all running to the window to peer out. There stood James and Clint in front of a black limo, smiling proudly. Beth and Kate rushed out to greet them, and Kelsey, Emma, and I followed. It was going to be my first ride in a limo. Everyone was ready to go, but I felt out of place. I wasn’t as dressed up as the others, and I didn’t have flowers as they all did. I wished I would have known—I could have picked something up.

Mund walked out the front door in a light-gray suit with a white dress shirt and a white tie. He looked striking. And if Emma’s gasp wasn’t enough to convince him he looked good, nothing would.