Crimson (The Silver Series Book 3) (13 page)

“
That’s not what I’m
worried about,” I said, eying Mrs. Carso, Nikki, Taye, and Grace.
“I’m not sure about giving so many girls free range over
me.”

Everyone laughed and Jaze grinned. “I
wouldn’t be so sure either, but you don’t have much of a
choice.”

“
Yeah,” Brock echoed. “Or
you could leave it to us.”

I looked at the partially eaten sandwich in
his hand made up of as many meats and cheeses one could possibly
cram between two pieces of bread, combined with pickles, olives,
chips, and cheese whiz, and shook my head. “I’ll take my chances
with the girls.”

“
Lucky us,” Nikki replied
with a dramatic eye roll and the girls laughed again.

“
Oh, go phase,” Grace said,
pushing me toward the stairs.

I sighed and obeyed. I phased in Taye’s old
room that we had taken over and stalked back down the stairs.

“
At least as a wolf you
can’t protest,” Taye said with a teasing wink when I padded back
into the kitchen. It was my turn to roll my eyes and the girls
laughed.

“
We’ll leave you to your
fate,” Jaze said. Brock, Mouse, and Jet followed him from the
room.

“
You boys should go to
school if you’re not planning to help out,” Mrs. Carso called after
them.

Jaze poked his head back through the door.
“We’re investigating the labs and looking for Grace’s pack with
Roger. It’s more important than school.” He gave her a winning
smile and disappeared back through the door.

Mrs. Carso turned to the girls with a sigh
and a resigned shake of her head. “Boys.”

“
Get over here, Kaynan.
You’re not getting away that easily,” Nikki said.

I returned slowly through the door and sat
down on the floor in front of them. Mrs. Carso gave me a stern look
over, then eyed the back of the hair dye box. “We might need more
dye,” she said after a moment. Nikki, Taye, and Grace broke into
laughter.

***

“
You’re driving too fast,”
Colleen said from the passenger seat. My mind raced, anticipating
something horrible, but I couldn’t change anything.

“
We’re fine,” I replied. My
voice slurred and Colleen’s friend Debra giggled in the back seat.
I had heard that giggle before, I was sure of it, but I couldn’t
fight through the fog.

I stepped on the gas to emphasize that I was
in control, when in fact headlights and reflectors blurred together
on the freeway until they looked like solid lines and I couldn’t
tell which was which.

“
You’re going to get pulled
over,” Colleen said, a touch of panic to her voice as I swerved
toward what I guessed to be the reflectors.

“
Calm down,” I told my
sister as if I had said it a hundred times. “I promised Dad we’d be
home before midnight and I’m gonna keep my promise.” I squinted at
the glaring lights and felt patterned thuds under the tires. A
warning signal went off in the back of my head. I ignored it and
pressed the gas harder, intent on a set of bright lights heading
toward us.

“
Kaynan, look out!” Colleen
shouted. Debra screamed.

The lights towered above us a second before
the semi slammed into the front of the car. Our vehicle rolled and
glass shattered close to my head. The girls kept screaming and I
locked eyes for one brief second with Colleen. Her soft blue eyes
filled with tears, then the car started to flip.

Each roll and then the jarring force of
another vehicle hitting the car wracked my body with the knowledge
that I had done this to us. I flew through the windshield and
landed on the grass on my back. The stars winked down at me with
condemnation for what I had done. Moonlight covered my body,
promising retaliation for my actions.

I wiped the blood out of my eyes and rolled
onto my knees, then stared at the burning car. The thought of
Colleen inside spurred me to action. I dove through the asphalt and
pounded on the passenger window. My hands burned, but I couldn’t
feel them past the panic that flooded adrenaline through my veins.
I grabbed a rock and drove it through the glass.

“
Colleen!” I yelled. I was
responsible. I had been driving despite the alcohol Greg and I had
consumed before I picked her up from the party. Sobriety rushed
through me in a wave as I peered through the smoke and yelled,
“Colleen, take my hand!”

I pushed through the window and heat from
the fire felt like it was melting the skin from my face. I shouted,
“Colleen! Talk to me, Colleen!”

I reached her body and my heart leaped with
joy that I knew deep down was in vain. Blood covered my fingers and
a yell tore from my throat at the fire that burned along the tops
of the seats above us, consuming the fabric like it would soon
consume our bodies.

Colleen’s face turned toward me. Her
beautiful blue eyes, the color of the summer sky at noon, met mine
and filled with tears of pain and fear that I had caused. She said
my name and my heart clenched at the fact that her tone was not one
of condemnation or anger, but of pain and love.

“
I’m here Colleen. You’ll
be okay. I’ll get you out of here, I promise,” I said, though my
heart shattered with the knowledge that neither of us would get out
of there alive.

Hands grabbed my legs and began to pull me
back out of the window. “No!” I screamed. “I can’t leave her!” I
kicked out, but they wouldn’t let go. The broken window cut at my
stomach. “I won’t leave her!”

I kicked free of their hands and grabbed
onto her. Her eyes closed and breathing stopped, but I wouldn’t let
go. I sucked in the smoke, willing myself to die of asphyxiation
instead of live without my sister. Memories of the old health
classes we had taken together rushed to my mind and I breathed into
her mouth, willing her to take what good there was left of the air.
Her face was pale, ashen, and without the life and spark that made
her who she was.

“
No!” I yelled with my
final breath. I glared at the flames that writhed above us and
curled my body over Colleen’s to shield her from the fire. Smoke
filled my lungs and I coughed. Each breath was empty of air and
full of searing smoke. I closed my eyes and warm tears ran down to
Colleen’s face.

Chapter 13

“
Kaynan. Kaynan, wake up.
Please wake up.” I opened my eyes and found that I was still in my
wolf form sleeping on the kitchen floor while the girls worked to
dye my hair. Only they had stopped dyeing and all of them stared at
me. Tears showed on all of their cheeks and Mrs. Carso held a
dishrag to her face. Grace’s gloved hand caressed my fur through
the black dyes. Something wet fell down my muzzle.

“
Wolves don’t normally
cry,” Taye said quietly. She removed her glove and wiped the tears
from my fur. I realized that they had seen the dream, or the
reality that had come back to haunt me in my dreams. Taye saw the
understanding in my eyes and she nodded. “We saw what
happened.”

“
No one should have to go
through that,” Mrs. Carso said, dabbing at her eyes with the
dishrag.

“
It’s not your fault,”
Nikki said. “You didn’t know that would happen.”

But I couldn’t hide the self-reproach I felt
and I turned away, wishing I could crawl somewhere and die with the
knowledge that she would never lighten the world again with her
ideas and her thirst for knowledge that she always tried in vain to
instill in me.

“
You loved your sister very
much,” Grace said in a whisper.

I nodded, unable to even ask her to let me
be alone with my despair.

“
How about your parents? Do
you love them?” she asked.

I thought of all the ways I had stabbed them
in the back, the money I had stolen, the car keys, sneaking in and
out of the house at any hour of the night no matter how much worry
I saw in their eyes, my razor-sharp responses to their questions
and the hurt I caused.

But through it all there had always been one
constant, one thing that never changed no matter what I said or how
rebellious I acted. I think it was the one thing I tried to prove,
that if I went far enough they would finally have enough of me, but
they never did. Through everything, they always loved me, and no
matter what I did or how far I went, I always loved them. I gave a
small nod and hated myself for it even more.

“
Then let them know you’re
alive,” Mrs. Carso said quietly. “They deserve to know.”

I couldn’t meet her eyes. Grace ran her hand
through my ruff. “Go home to Renee,” she said softly. “If it was
Gabe, I’d want him to come home to me.”

I looked at her for a moment, her gentle
expression and the distant sadness on her face as she thought about
her deceased fiancé, and I had to nod. “You’ll go?” she asked. I
nodded again, her hand on my head, and she put her arms around my
neck for a hug I wanted more than I could admit.

“
Wait,” Nikki said. “The
dye!”

Grace froze, then started laughing. “To
think I could look like you,” she said, her face close to mine.

I gave a wolfish huff and they closed in to
finish the job.

***

Mr. Davies led me into the patient room with
Grace, Jet, and Jaze close behind. The room was too small for the
five of us, but no one wanted to be left out. I worried about the
danger of bringing Grace, but it was comforting to have her there
knowing I would probably be under anesthesia, and she insisted on
being brought along to make sure that everything went alright. The
scent of dogs, cats, birds, and various reptiles filled my nose
along with an overwhelming mixture of urine and antiseptic. The
veterinarian, a skinny man with bright red hair and glasses,
entered a few minutes later. His eyes widened when he saw me, then
he glanced at Mr. Davies.

“
Good morning, William,” he
said with a jovial smile and a disarming manner. “What have we
here?”

Mr. Davies smiled back and gave him a firm
handshake. “Hey Charles, good to see you again.” He glanced at me.
“We just adopted this, uh, dog, and we need to see if he has a
tracking chip. He’s to be trained as a seeing eye dog,” he said
with a quick glance at Grace.

Charles studied me up and down, looked at
Grace, then nodded and disappeared out the other door of the small
room. The sound of dogs barking beyond rose briefly, then he
returned with a small hand-held device that looked straight from a
sci-fi movie.

He motioned for the others to back up, then
knelt by me and began to run the scanner over my body. He started
at the back of my neck, ran down my spine to my tail, frowned, then
began to scan my legs. The scanner beeped on my right forearm.
Charles glanced at Mr. Davies, performed the scan again, then sat
back on his heels and gave me a straight look I had never seen
anyone give a dog.

“
Can I be perfectly honest
here, William?” the veterinarian asked, looking from me to Mr.
Davies.

Mr. Davies nodded. “I wish you would.”

Charles took a steeling breath and met my
gaze. “I know this isn’t an ordinary dog.”

I dropped my eyes, but felt him watching me.
“Well, uh,” Mr. Davies searched for words. “I was told when we
adopted him that he might be part wolf.”

Charles looked up at Mr. Davies, a twinkle
of amusement in his eyes. His gaze shifted to Jaze, Grace, Jet,
then back to me. “Part, huh?”

“
Yeah,” Mr. Davies
said.

Charles sat on the floor with his back to
the wall. “I had a best friend when I was younger who was also part
wolf.” He looked back at Mr. Davies and my heart clenched despite
his calm demeanor. “He was a werewolf.”

Grace touched my back, her fingers entwining
in my fur.

“
I, uh, why do you, I mean,
a werewolf?” Mr. Davies sputtered.

“
He’s why I became a vet,”
Charles said with a nod. “But he was killed last year.” Sadness
swept through his features. “Alphas everywhere were being killed.
He tried to hide, but he was tracked down.”

Mr. Davies' voice dropped. “So you know?” he
asked, his tone thick with trepidation.

Charles nodded. “I've known since the first
day I met you. You showed up new to the area, family in tow, soon
after werewolves started to disappear. I had my suspicions and Jack
confirmed it. He tracked you for a while and said you were
trustworthy.” He smiled. “I really have valued your friendship, and
I thought that deep down you knew that I knew.”

Mr. Davies shook his head, his eyes wide. “I
never did, honest. I was just trying to keep my family safe.”

“
I know,” Charles replied.
“That's why I never said anything. Jack lost so many loved ones and
he told me about packs breaking apart for protection. I couldn't
blame you for going into hiding with your family.” He squinted
behind his glasses and looked at me. “And now for a
twist.”

“
What twist?” Jaze
pressed.

Charles' eyebrows rose. “This one's
different.” He ran a hand through my fur and pulled loose a few
strands. He fought back a smile. “Nice dye job.” I snorted and he
held up a hand. “It was a nice effort and probably fooled my staff,
which is a good thing, believe me.” His mouth twitched. “How much
dye did you use?”

I stood up, offended that he thought we had
gone through all of this as a joke, but he rose back to his knees,
his expression apologetic. “I'm sorry. You obviously have a good
reason to hide who you are.” He glanced at Mr. Davies. “What about
the chip?”