Ice Moon (22 page)

Chapter Thirty-Five

Taryn

I
drifted in and out of consciousness. The wolf, the same brown one that had come to our house before Halloween, came to me again. It couldn’t be Jared, not really, but it didn’t matter right now. What mattered was Charlie.

His small hand was cold in mine. I rubbed my thumb across the back. “Charlie. There was a wolf. Just like you said.” Nothing. I swallowed and tried to wet my bloody lips. “He killed Damian. He can’t hurt us now.”

I didn’t know if Damian was really dead, but he wasn’t moving and his gun was gone. If Charlie could hear me, I was all for easing his fear.

“You have to hold on for me. Please.” Tears rolled down my cheeks, the salt stinging the cuts on my face. “Please, Charlie. I can’t lose you.”

In the distance, a man cried out. The snow glowed in the moonlight. Nothing moved.

If I could get my seatbelt unfastened I might’ve been able to reach Charlie and free him from his. I went to move my left hand, but nothing happened. In dim light, I could make out my misshaped shoulder.

I didn’t want to let go of his hand, not even to press the button on my seatbelt. I couldn’t let him go, not like I did with his brother. I wouldn’t lose them both.

“I won’t let you go, baby,” I whispered through my tears.

“Taryn!”

I squinted, not believing my eyes. In the silver light of the moon, Jared ran toward us. Naked in the snow. He dropped to his knees beside the crushed opening that used to be my windshield.

“Jared?” I had to be hallucinating.

“I’m going to get you out of there.”

“Get Charlie first.”

He stood up and leaned in through the open windshield, stretching toward Charlie. “Damn it. I can’t reach him from here. I’m going to need to get you out first, then I can climb in from your side.”

“I don’t…I can’t…” I couldn’t say the word out loud.

“I can’t help him until we get you out.” He reached through the opening and released my seatbelt.

He slid his hands under my arms and started to lift me. I screamed in pain. Jared froze. “Tell me where it hurts.”

“My shoulder. Left shoulder.”

He took a closer look and cursed under his breath. “It’s dislocated.”

“Just get Charlie.”

He raked a hand back through his hair. Snow landed on his bare shoulders and melted. He was shivering.

“Where are you clothes?”

“Far from here. I’ll explain later.” He straightened up. “I’m going to see if I can crawl through the back.” He knelt down close so I could see his face. “It’s really important that you stay awake for me. Okay?”

I nodded, and when I blinked, he was gone.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Jared

A
round the back of the SUV, I struggled to catch my breath. Tremors racked my entire body. I wasn’t sure if it was hypothermia or my claustrophobia realizing that I had every intention of climbing into this dark cavern.

The back window was shattered and the bumper hung from one side at an angle. I tried the handle. It lifted, but the mangled door was jammed. I yanked harder, hoping my added werewolf strength might be enough to make it budge. The metal whined, but it didn’t open.

Fuck.
I grabbed the bottom of what used to be the back window and pulled myself up. A shard of glass cut my belly as I slid into the battered SUV, but I managed to keep the family jewels intact. I’d be counting every small victory tonight.

Inside the shadowed cold cabin, the stench of blood swamped my senses. My heart pounded, my chest constricted, and dark spots flickered at the edge of my vision. It was happening again. Life slipping away. I couldn’t save her. I…

“Jared. Are you okay?”

Taryn. Focus. I swallowed the boulder blocking my throat and struggled to suck air into my lungs. “It’s too small. I can’t get through.”

Her voice trembled. “Please help him.”

My chest heaved as I fought the overwhelming urge to get the hell out of this confined space. Charlie and Taryn needed me. I refused to sit outside and watch them slip away. I ground my teeth and pushed forward, deeper into the darkness. The hood was compressed on the headrest of the backseat. I fumbled in the dark, cutting the shit out of my hands, but I barely felt it.

“Talk to me, beautiful. Your voice…helps.”

I gulped for air, cold sweat covering my already freezing skin. I shivered, but I kept moving.

“You really are a wolf.”

Staying focused on her words made it easier to compartmentalize the irrational ache to curl in a ball and give up. I found a button and pressed it. The seat collapsed forward. “Yeah I am. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”

“And my little boy…”

I slid closer to the front seats and stretched my bloodied hand toward Charlie. His skin was like ice. They must’ve crashed right after they left the cabin. While we ate dinner, Charlie and Taryn had been freezing on the side of a mountain.

I ran my fingers down his cheek until I got to his neck. Holding my breath, I rested my fingers on his throat trying to locate his artery. I closed my eyes tight.

Come on Charlie.

And then I felt it. Faint and slow, but steady. “He’s alive.”

Taryn sobbed, she was still clutching his hand. “Oh, thank God. We have to get him to the hospital.”

I couldn’t tell her the hospital wasn’t an option. Not right now. “Let’s get him out first.”

Not being able to stand made it tricky to get a good angle. Once I unfastened the seatbelt, he’d fall straight down, across the cab onto Taryn, crushing her separated shoulder and possibly injuring him further. If he already had a neck fracture, I couldn’t risk jarring him.

“Just breathe.”

Taryn’s voice brought me back. I hadn’t realized I was hyperventilating. “Fuck.” I gasped, coughed, and gradually controlled my breathing. “I’m a hell of a knight in shining armor.”

“I know you can do this.” She lifted Charlie’s arm and put it around the back of my neck. His skin was ice cold. Slowly she released his hand, her fingers brushing my cheek. “Save him.”

Steeling my nerve, I slid my right arm around Charlie’s waist, and with my other hand I unfastened the seatbelt. His dead weight sank against me. He seemed so tiny in my arms. A tear rolled down my face as I kissed his forehead. “Hang in there, buddy.”

My options for getting him out were, to try to drag him out the way I came in, to push our way out through the front windshield, or to climb through his passenger door. If it would open, that might be the easiest, but I wouldn’t know until I tried.

“I’m going to see if I can get his door open.” She didn’t reply. “Taryn?” Nothing. “Shit. This is
not
going to happen. Not this time. I’m coming back for you.” My voice caught. “You hang on for me.”

A new dose of adrenaline fueled my muscles. I jerked the handle of Charlie’s door and shoved it up with all the strength I had. The metal shrieked as it opened, more like a tin can than a car.

With my right arm tight around Charlie, I reached up with my free hand grabbing the frame of the door. I ground my teeth to keep from screaming from the pain of the tendons and muscles in my left shoulder as I pulled both of us up one-handed.

I hooked my arm on the outside and lifted Charlie out. I laid him on the side of the SUV while I jumped to the ground. The ice cold metal of the car stung my bare skin as I retrieved Charlie. As gently as I could manage, I carried him around the car and laid him under the shelter of a tree.

His pulse still beat under my fingers. Good boy.

I ran back to the car and knelt down to the driver’s side window. “Taryn?” She didn’t answer.
Damn it.

I bent my legs and pressed my shoulder against the frigid metal. I let out a primal scream, all my fear and all my love, and I shoved with every ounce of fight left in my body. The metal groaned, but it was moving. I kept pushing, changing my grip to use both hands. Deep inside my wolf howled and a reserve of power I never knew I had, emptied into my muscles.

The SUV tipped, the tires slamming into the snow. Taryn moaned at the jarring. Her door handle was flattened. I reached through the broken glass and popped the door from the inside. With some extra tugging it finally opened. I stretched across her body and unfastened her seatbelt.

“Are you with me?”

“I think so,” she gasped. “Charlie…”

“I’m going to take you to him, but moving is going to hurt your shoulder. Can you brace your arm?”

She moved her left hand to hold her forearm.

“Perfect. Ready?”

She nodded and I cradled her as carefully as I could. She bit back a cry and rested against my chest as I carried her over to Charlie.

“I’m going to pop your shoulder back in place. It’s going to hurt like a sonofabitch but then you should be able to use your arm.”

“Take care of Charlie first.”

I lifted her chin to be sure she was focused on me. “He’s freezing, Taryn. You’re going to have to warm him.”

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Taryn

“I
can’t. I’ll burn him.” My pulse thundered in my ears. The thought of using my Pyrokinesis on my little boy terrified me. He already had one scar from my fire, and that was one too many.

“I didn’t think I could climb in that car wreck either.” Jared kissed my forehead. “You can do this.”

“What if I hurt him?”

“He’ll freeze if we do nothing.” Jared shivered beside me. “I’ve done all I can. The rest is up to you.”

I looked past Jared to my son. Charlie’s skin was almost as white as the snow. I couldn’t let him die like Trevor had. I needed to fight for him. For both of us.

My gaze locked on Jared’s. “I’m ready.”

“Lay back.”

I lay down on the ground and he grasped my right wrist. “Brace yourself, this is going to hurt, but I swear when it’s back in place you’ll feel much better.”

He pulled my arm out straight. I wailed in pain, fire erupting in my belly. My stomach turned, nausea burning at the back of my throat. Finally, the joint slipped back into place. I trembled, shaken up from the painful treatment.

Jared pressed his fingers to my wrist. “You should be fine now. Strong pulse.”

I took a couple of deep breaths. The pain dulled to an ebb. My body still burned from the sudden agony of my shoulder. “I haven’t tried regulating the fire. I’m not sure how.”

Jared knelt by Charlie. “Kilani told me she remembered you heating mugs of hot chocolate with your hands. Can you remember how you did it?”

He’d been talking to her about me, about my powers. Just like he’d been talking to my son about werewolves. This wasn’t the time for an emotional discussion, but that didn’t stop it from hurting. Why hadn’t he talked to
me
? He said he loved me, but he never trusted me. Not when it counted.

I sat up and scooted closer to Charlie. I rubbed my hands together and glanced at Jared. “Can you tell me if they’re too hot?”

His bloodstained fingers trembled as he reached for me. His skin was icy. My jaw slackened. He was freezing to death, too.

Jared withdrew his hand. “Didn’t burn me. Warm him up.”

I laid my hands on Charlie’s chest first, testing to see if my touch scorched his sweater. “You should turn back into a wolf. The fur would protect you from the snow.”

“I can’t.”

I frowned, moving one hand down each of Charlie’s arms. “It’s a full moon tonight, and you’re a werewolf.”

Jared shivered. “Doesn’t work like that. I get one shift with the moon once a month. I forced the wolf back so I could get you out of the car. There’s no changing back.”

My heart pounded. “Maybe you can get in the Escalade. At least you’d be out of the wind.”

“No way.” He shook his head. “I can’t.”

“Jared, you’ll freeze.”

“I’ll be fine. Concentrate on Charlie.” He started to walk away, into the dim light of my one fading headlight.

“Where are you going?”

“I need to be sure Damian’s dead. I bit him.”

I ran a warm hand over Charlie’s face. A little color seemed to be returning to his skin. Hope swelled inside my chest.

But then Jared’s words sank in. “Wait a second. That means…”

“It means I need to be sure he’s dead.”

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Jared

N
ow that I was out of the SUV, and Taryn and Charlie were safe, the adrenaline dwindled, zapping my strength. Exhaustion coupled with hypothermia blended until I could barely stand. All I wanted was to sleep.

I’d die.

As I neared the spot where I left Damian’s body, I prayed he was dead. I’d never bitten anyone as a wolf. If you didn’t kill them, they’d be changed, they’d become a werewolf, too. And since Damian was already a jaguar shifter, god only knew what kind of hybrid nightmare my mistake would unleash.

There was plenty of blood-stained snow.

But no fucking body.

I followed a red trail. He’d dragged himself away, but he’d lost a lot of blood. He might still be dead. With any luck my teeth had punctured arteries.

“Don’t move, Wolf.”

The smooth barrel of his pistol pressed into my back between my shoulder blades. I waited for another dose of adrenaline, but nothing came. No strength, no fear, no survival instincts. My skin burned from the icy wind, and the shivering had stopped, allowing the cold to seep even deeper into my body.

“You’re underdressed for a blizzard.”

“Fuck you.”

He shoved me forward. I fell face first into the snow, unable to break my fall. Behind me he cocked his gun. He shouted over the wind to Taryn. “If you don’t want to see me execute your boyfriend, you need to come with me. Now!”

I lifted my head, a monumental effort. “No! Taryn, don’t do it.”

He fired a shot into my leg. I screamed, but before I could retaliate, Damian bellowed in pain, dropping the gun. I rolled over and found him engulfed in flames like he’d been bathed in gasoline and lit a match.

His arms flailed as he stumbled backwards. His heel caught a rock and down he went, over the edge of the steep mountainside.

Taryn rushed to my side, her eyes wide. “Where are you—”

“My leg.” I was already losing blood. Fast. “How’s Charlie?”

“He’s still not awake, but he’s got some color and his pulse is steady.” She ran her warm hands down my chest setting off another wave of seizure-like shivers. “I don’t know what happened. I set Damian on fire. I…”

“You saved my life. All of our lives.”

“I’m dangerous. I’m the weapon they wanted.”

I shook my head, struggling for the strength to speak. “You’re no more dangerous than I am.”

She stared into my eyes and finally turned away to inspect my wounded calf. “You were in med school. Tell me how to help you.”

“We need…to slow…” I couldn’t get my damned teeth to stop chattering. “…the bleeding.”

Taryn pulled her sweater off over her head and I groaned. “No. You stay warm.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m plenty warm.” She pressed the sweater against my wound. I was too weak to scream. She kept one hand on the compress and ran the other up my uninjured leg, warming my wind burned skin. “Now what?”

I shuddered and forced out a whisper. “I need clothes and a doctor.”

Two giant wolves burst through the trees. I recognized Adam and Jason. I’d never make it long enough for them to shift.

Taryn gasped, but she didn’t run away. “Are they…”

“Yeah.”

She yelled, slowly like that would help an animal understand. “Jared is freezing and has a gunshot wound. He needs to warm up and get to a hospital.”

Jason’s head snapped in my direction. He trotted over and sniffed at my face. He licked my cheek and loped into the shadows. After touching my skin, he had to know I was fading.

Adam came into the light carrying something in his jaws. He dropped my clothes on the ground next to Taryn.

“Thank you.” She didn’t try to touch him, just went for the sweatshirt. “Can you sit up?”

I couldn’t move, couldn’t keep my eyes open. No fight left. She and Charlie were safe, that was all that mattered. Jason and Adam would get them home. I could rest now. So tired.

I sank into the void as I forced out a whisper, “I love you.”