Crimson (The Silver Series Book 3) (6 page)

Chapter 5

“
The stars are
ours.”

“
You rhymed,” Renee said
with a drunken giggle. She turned on the hood of the car to look at
me. “That’s cute.”

“
It's what I do,” I said. I
raised my bottle to her and drank some more. “I’ll love you even
when there are no more stars to shine.”

“
The sun’s a
star.”

“
I know,” I said solemnly.
“I included our sun.”

“
Oh.” She smiled at me.
“That’s so romantic.” She kissed me soundly, tasting like beer and
cheetos.

I looked up just as a star shot across the
patch of sky above us. The ball of fire grew bigger and bigger
until the flames consumed my hands.

The rough asphalt bit into my knees as I
pounded on the passenger window. Heat seared my hands from the fire
inside the car, but I didn’t care. The window was too strong. I
searched for something hard, then found a rock and drove it through
the glass, slicing my hand as it went through.

“
Colleen!” my voice cracked
and I coughed as smoke filled my lungs. “Colleen, take my
hand!”

I couldn’t find her through the smoke. The
force of the crash had flung her to the roof which now sat below
me. I pushed through the window, ignoring the way the glass cut
into my hands and the heat of the fire beat against my shoulders.
“Colleen! Talk to me, Colleen!”

I felt her leg, then her waist and her
shoulder. Her head was tipped away from me. I pulled myself further
into the car and touched the side of her face. Blood coated my
fingers when I pulled them back.

“
Colleen, look at me!” I
was shouting now with the pain of the fire that consumed the seats
above us.

Her face turned toward me and her beautiful
blue eyes met mine and filled with tears.

“
Kaynan?”

“
I’m here Colleen. You’ll
be okay. I’ll get you out of here, I promise.”

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 my
stomach. “I won’t leave her!”

“
Kaynan, wake
up!”

Hands shook my shoulders. I shoved them
away, still lost in the fire-filled car. “I have to get her out,” I
cried.

“
Kaynan, you’re dreaming.
Wake up!” a male voice said.

I opened my eyes and Colleen’s blue gaze
faded into Grace’s sightless eyes. Jaze knelt next to her, his
hands on my shoulders. Grace’s face was pale, my head pillowed in
her lap. “Is he alright?” she asked in a voice tight with
concern.

“
It’s the fever,” Jet said
behind them. “He needs Meg.”

Strong hands lifted me from the vehicle and
carried me across a dark lawn to a small house. The scent of
werewolf touched the air when we entered, but two humans met us at
the door.

“
Bring him through,” a
woman said, leading the way.

“
He’ll be okay soon, don’t
worry,” a deep male voice echoed.

“
Who are you?” The fear in
Grace’s voice cut through the fever haze the filled my
mind.

“
Roger and Meg Valen,” the
man explained. “Don’t worry. We’ve helped werewolves in his
condition before.”

“
Many times,” the woman
said with a warm smile in her voice.

“
But why? You’re
human.”

“
We’re Hunters,” he
explained, “We-“

But whatever he was going to say next was
drowned by Grace’s terror-filled shriek. “No! Let him go. Don’t
hurt him! He didn’t do anything to you. He’s too hurt to defend
himself!”

I stared through the red-tinged fog past the
people that carried me. Grace was struggling against Jaze and the
scrawny driver from the SUV. Tears streamed down her face and she
tried to push past them to reach me. “Don’t kill him!” she
screamed.

“
They won’t hurt him,” Jaze
tried to explain.

“
They’re here to help,”
Mouse said. It took both werewolves to hold her. She collapsed to
her knees and covered her face with her hands.

“
Let me go,” I demanded to
the people who carried me.

“
She’ll be okay,” Roger
replied.

I shook my head and kicked against them,
ignoring the surge of pain that ran up my leg. “She needs me. Let
me go!”

They lost their grip and I fell to the floor
of the hall. I tried to stand and run to her, but my leg, taxed
past the point of strength, collapsed under me and I fell to my
knees. I crawled the rest of the way to her side and put my arms
around her. “Grace, it’s me. It’s okay.”

“
Kaynan? Kaynan!” She
leaned into me and sobbed against my shoulder. “Kaynan, they’re
Hunters. They’ll kill you!”

“
I don’t think they’re that
kind of Hunter,” I said.

“
There are no good
Hunters,” she replied, her voice firm in her belief.

“
They’re going to help me,”
I said.

She shook her head against my chest. “No.
They won’t help you. They’ll use you and then kill you. That’s what
Hunters do.”

I glanced at Roger and Meg at the end of the
hall. Both watched me without doing anything that would add to
Grace’s distress. My leg throbbed and I grimaced at the pain. The
fever haze made it hard to think. “I need their help, Grace.”

“
No,” she cried. “No, no,
no. Please Kaynan, don’t trust them. Don’t believe what they’re
telling you.”

Her body shook and I didn’t know what to do.
I looked up and met Jaze’s eyes. “Meg has a sedative,” he said
quietly under Grace’s sobs.

My heart ached at the thought, but I didn’t
know what else I could do. Grace was growing hysterical and with
the weight of the fever pressing against me, I wouldn’t stay lucid
much longer. I looked down the hallway at Meg. “It’s safe,” she
reassured me quietly. “She won’t remember it and it doesn’t have
any side effects.”

I took a steeling breath, then nodded. Meg
disappeared into the room behind her, then came back carrying a
small syringe. Grace grew more hysterical when she drew near, so
she handed the sedative to Jet. “Give it to her in the arm.”

He knelt next to me and I held Grace as
still as I could. She struggled when the needle poked her arm, then
she sobbed against my chest.

“
Don’t let them hurt me,
Kaynan. You promised.”

I nodded against her hair. “I promised,” I
said softly. “You’re going to be okay.” A knot tightened in my
throat.

“
Are you alright?” she
asked, her voice drowsy.

I nodded but couldn’t bring myself to speak.
She stopped struggling, let out a sigh, and sank against me.

Meg knelt down and checked her pulse. “She
must have been exhausted,” she said after a moment, her brow
creased. At my look, she gave a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry.
It’s mild. She’ll sleep for a few hours and it’ll wear off
smoothly.”

“
She’s been through a lot,”
I said. I wondered why I felt the need to defend her, and
questioned why I also felt I could trust the strangers around
me.

“
You both have,” Roger
replied, sympathy in his eyes.

I glanced at Jaze. He knelt so he was at eye
level. “You know you can trust us. Listen to your instinct.
Everything will be okay.”

I took a deep breath and nodded.

“
Let’s get you to the
table,” Roger said. He reached down and helped me to my
feet.

I refused to let go of Grace. I gathered her
in my arms and limped slowly down the hall after the Hunters. It
felt like a hallway out of a nightmare where the door kept getting
further and further away. I knew it was the fever, and I was on the
verge of collapse by the time I reached the room. I stumbled
against the door, but strong arms took Grace from me while others
carried me to the table. I looked over to see Jaze and Mouse make
Grace comfortable on a cot in the corner.

“
I’ll give you something to
knock you out. It’ll be easier that way,” Meg said. Her eyes echoed
that it would also be safer, but my mind screamed against being
someone else’s plaything again, helpless and unable to defend
myself.

I shook my head. “I can’t go under. Is there
something else you can do?”

Meg gave an exasperated sigh and met Jet's
eyes across the room. “One of your minions?” she asked, almost
teasing. He shook his head and lifted an eyebrow at me
questioningly.

“
I don’t know you, any of
you,” I explained apologetically. “I promised I’d look after Grace,
and after the labs-“

“
It’s alright,” Meg cut me
off. “I’ll use a local and inject the area so you won’t feel it.
You werewolves and your tough acts.” She shook her head and
motioned for me to roll over on the table.

I did as I was told and gripped the curved
metal edges when something cold was sprayed on the back of my calf,
then the prick of a needle followed.

“
You’re going to feel some
pressure,” Meg said, her voice professional and even.

I wondered how many times she had removed
bullets, then my thoughts were shattered by a biting pressure in my
calf followed by the scent of infection and blood. The contents of
my stomach rose in my throat. I clenched my teeth and tried to
swallow.

“
They got you good,” Meg
said with a clank of metal instruments. More pressure followed and
I shut my eyes.

Roger put a hand on my arm and squeezed
reassuringly. “It’s alright. She just has to get the bullet out,
clean it, stitch it, and you’ll be done.”

I pictured shiny metal prongs poking around
for the bullet amid the blood and infection. That, combined with
the exhaustion of running for four days followed by a seemingly
never-ending car ride with a leg that felt like it would explode
finally did me in. Fog clouded my thoughts and tiny lights burst
behind my eyes. I took a deep breath and gave in to the relief of
unconsciousness.

Chapter 6

“
He’s done?” Jaze’s even
voice made a dent in the fog.

“
It was a tough one, but
he’s done.” Meg’s reply took on a tone of disapproval. “He should
have had it out days ago. I don’t know how he ran on a leg like
that.”

“
There’s a lot we don’t
know about either of them,” Jaze said. “He’s different.”

“
Tell us about it. Did you
see his eyes?” Roger put in. “I’ve never seen anyone with red
eyes.”

“
He smells different, too,”
Jaze confirmed. “There’s something off about him that I can’t
place.”

Meg took a slight breath, then let it out
like she wasn’t sure she wanted to say what was on her mind. She
sighed. “There’s something else.”

“
What?” Jet’s question held
a note of suspicion.

“
He’s not allergic to
silver,” Meg said with an audible grimace as though she knew they
weren’t going to like it.

“
You ran a test while he
was under?” Jaze’s voice carried a hint of distaste.

“
I didn’t have to,” Meg
said. “The bullet was silver. If he was a normal werewolf, he would
have died by now.”

Everyone fell quiet.

“
How’s he healing?” Jaze
asked after a couple of minutes, his voice even.

Hands touched my leg. I kept my eyes closed
and concentrated on the cold table beneath me.

“
Fine,” Meg said. “He
should be alright by morning. His fever’s already
fading.”

“
Good.” Jaze fell silent,
then spoke up again, his tone contemplative. “Let’s take them both
to my house. It’ll be a lot less traumatic for Grace if she wakes
up in a house of werewolves instead of Hunters.”

Meg made a small sound, but Roger cleared
his throat. “Can you blame her, honey? Remember how we used to be?
She must have gone through something terrible to react like
that.”

They moved me from the table to a blanket on
the floor, then picked up the edges of the blanket and carried me.
The gentle rocking of their steps swayed me back to
unconsciousness.

***

When I awoke, I couldn't remember where I
was. Light streamed through a curtained window and an unfamiliar
blue and white checkered blanket covered me. Scents I didn’t
recognize tangled in my nose along with one that pulled at my
memory. I turned my head and saw a young woman sitting on a bed
across from my mattress on the floor. Her knees were tucked under
her chin with her arms wrapped around them, and her gaze was turned
toward the sun that danced through the window onto her beautiful
face. Her eyes stared toward the thin curtains, but they didn’t
seem to focus.

The memory of the sightless eyes slammed
home. I saw everything in one quick flash, the accident, the
flames, Colleen’s tears, broken glass, blood, waking up at the lab,
hiding, being hunted, and running with Grace. My chest ached with a
burning throb of memory that threatened to burst out in a sob. I
caught my breath and forced the emotions away, pretending, like I
had so many times before, that I had no one to care about and
nothing to lose.

Grace turned toward me. “Are you awake?” Her
voice was timid.

“
I am. Are you okay?” I
rose to my feet and touched the corner of her bed
uncertainly.

She gave a small smile. “You just had a
bullet removed and you’re asking if I’m okay? The question is, are
you okay?”