Seduced by Lies (7 page)

This above all: to thine own self be true

— William Shakespeare, Hamlet

I CLENCHED MY
fist, released it and grabbed Rose's hand. She shook from unshed tears, smiling despite her pain as we watched Curtis waste away before our eyes. Sam, Drake and Father Patrick stood on the other side of his bed as Dr. Susie checked his vital signs and kept an IV going.

She looked up, her soothing energy settling us as a tear slid down her face. "Curtis… "

He coughed up blood. "I'm dying, aren't I? It's okay, I can feel it."

His fiancé, who stood next to me, grabbed his hand. "No, you're going to make it. I won't let you go."

I tried to imagine what I'd be feeling if it were Rose in that bed, but that just made me see red. I'd already come too close to losing her. I knew what it felt like, and my heart broke for Paul and Curtis, for the pain they were in right now.

Everyone looked dejected, ready for the end, but there had to be a way to save him.

As if in answer to my thoughts, Serena entered the room followed by her white cat, Angel, who ignored me as she passed by.

Dr. Susie frowned at the young girl. "Serena, we talked about this. You can't attempt this level of healing."

A tear trickled down her cheek. "I have to. How could I live with myself if he dies and I do nothing to stop it?"

Paul looked torn, but finally backed away from his fiancé to give Serena room next to him. Her small hand disappeared in his much larger hand. "Curtis, I'm going to try healing you, okay?"

"You shouldn't," he said. "If Dr. Susie thinks it's a bad idea, then I don't want you to risk it."

More tears filled her eyes, spilling down her face. "We can't lose you. You're the heart of this place. You're my friend. So I'm going to try."

She closed her eyes, and nobody interrupted as she focused inward. White light radiated from her hands, sliding over Curtis' body and pouring into the wound in his shoulder. It felt like forever, but couldn't have been more than a minute, when Serena collapsed.

I caught her before she hit the floor, lifting her into my arms as Dr. Susie rushed over to examine her. "Get her on the bed over here," she said.

The small girl weighed almost nothing, her skin too pale, the healthy glow on her cheeks gone. Once she was prone on the bed, Dr. Susie hooked up another IV, expertly starting the line as she took her blood pressure. "I never should have let her do this."

"Will she be okay?" I asked.

"I think so, but she'll be down for at least a week." The former-nun-turned-doctor walked over to Curtis and examined his shoulder. "How do you feel?"

Curtis smiled, but it was a sad smile. "I felt her power, so pure and beautiful, but I also felt the disease in me push it out. I'm afraid I'm not better than I was before she tried."

Dr. Susie nodded. "That was our last hope. I've tried every medical treatment I can think of, and if Serena's power had no effect, I don't know what else to do."

Ryder and Bishop Sarlo chose that moment to push themselves into the room, coolly assessing the situation. I wanted to kick them out on their asses. They'd probably done this to Curtis and killed those other kids, and now they had the gall to show up here?

Father Patrick looked at us pointedly, but we didn't need any reminding not to mention Serena's powers. Of all the kids here, she was most at risk for exploitation. Instead, he greeted the two men who stood watching everyone. "Is there anything you can do to help this boy, given the nature of his injuries?"

The Bishop examined Curtis while Ryder growled at the group. "Where did this happen?"

Rose answered him, keeping her distance as if he might bite.

He sneered at us. "No more vigilante hunting. We'll take over from here."

That was it. "Excuse me? Like you guys are doing such a swell job of it so far? This monster is your doing. You let this happen, and I don't trust for a second that you can, or will, stop it."

Ryder didn't even bother to look at me. Prick. "If you mean that this attacker is of the Church, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but he is not."

"I thought all Lycans were part of the Church," I said. "If he's not, then what is he?"

"A lone wolf," Ryder said. "An outcast. He will be found. And he will be punished."

The Bishop finished his exam and sighed, making the sign of the cross over Curtis then turning to us. "There is nothing to be done, I'm afraid."

Rose gasped, and Sam frowned. Drake and I nearly lunged at the Bishop. Father Patrick and Dr. Susie just looked resigned. Paul, Curtis' fiancé, choked back a sob.

"But, isn't it a werewolf bite?" I asked, resisting the urge to pound his smug face into the ground.

"It appears it is," said the Bishop, "but I have no cure. No one does. The bite is infected with a deadly bacteria, and it is already tearing down his immune system."

Paul regained his voice. "How much time does he have left?"

"Not long," said the Bishop. "A day, at best."

Paul crumbled to the ground, putting his head on Curtis' bed. Curtis stroked his hair, murmuring comforting, if meaningless, words to him, then kissed his hand.

The Bishop looked away in disdain, nostrils flaring as he faced Father Patrick. "I cannot not believe you have allowed this to go on." His voice, raised in outrage, reverberated through the room.

Father Patrick looked up, astonished. "What do you mean?"

Bishop Sarlo gestured toward the Curtis and Paul. "Heathen, unnatural practices." Then he pointed at Sam, who held a sleeping Ana. "Pregnancies. One might think you've opened a brothel."

Drake stepped up to the Bishop, rage on his face. "Are you calling my wife a whore?"

The Bishop only smiled in that pompously arrogant way he had. I looked to Drake and nodded. I had his back, and he knew it. We could take these assholes.

"Do not be offended, young man," the Bishop said. "This is Father Patrick's wrongdoing. These practices will be eliminated, once I am in charge."

"You will never run this place," Drake said, advancing on the Bishop.

Ryder moved between them, facing Drake. "We have decided there may be a use for this place," he said. "Do not make us change our decision."

"Or?"

"Or I'll kill you."

"Try."

Ryder roared, and I slammed into him, pushing him against the wall with my hands around his neck. One twist and I could snap it.

"Fight me first," I growled.

Ryder sneered. "You protect his kind?"

"I protect everyone at this school. We have welcomed you here," I said, fuming. "Do not make
us
change our decision."

Ryder's vein pulsed in his forehead, and his eyes turned bloodshot. "You want to die, shifter?"

I laughed. "Is that a challenge?" This bastard had no idea what my training had been. I had multiple black belts, not to mention shifter strength and druid magic. Let him try.

"Please," Curtis' voice, so faint, stopped me from ending Ryder. "Stop fighting. We are all victims here."

"They've lost nothing," I said, but I released him. Only for Curtis. If he really was going to die soon, I wouldn't let this be his last memory.

"When news of these attacks grow," Curtis said in a whisper, "people will turn on all of us. They'll blame shifters. They'll blame Lycans."

"My kind is innocent," I said, keeping my eye on Ryder.

"People won't care. To them we're all the same. We're all monsters." Curtis squeezed Paul's hand more tightly, his body already so frail. "Please, the world out there is hard for all of us. This must be where we, no matter how different, are accepted. A place where we are loved."

Curtis gazed into Paul's eyes and smiled. "We all need love from time to time."

I wished I could believe what he believed, wished I could live a life that believed in the inherent goodness of human nature, but I'd seen too much. If I couldn't believe, and I couldn't fight, then I couldn't be here.

I turned and stormed out the door.

there was no such stuff in my thoughts

— William Shakespeare, Hamlet

ANA GIGGLED AND
walked a few steps on chubby toddler legs before falling on her bottom. I clapped for her, then picked her up and took her to the couch to cuddle while Sam cooked dinner.

Our cottage was small, but had two bedrooms, a cozy living room and an attached kitchen. We had what we needed and were only a short walk to the mansion.

I watched my wife as she stirred the stew and put a few slices of sourdough in the oven to toast with butter and garlic. The scent made my stomach rumble, and Ana patted my belly. “Dada hungry.”

I laughed and kissed her nose. “That’s right, Daddy’s hungry.”

Ana’s small hand gripped mine, her trusting eyes, as blue as Sam’s, looked straight into me, and I wondered again what her powers would be. With her genetics, we could only guess, but we knew she’d be remarkable.

Then I thought of Curtis, and the pain he was in, emotionally and physically.

“Sam, were you able to read anything else from the Bishop and Ryder?”

She came in and joined us on the couch while the food finished cooking, and Ana reached for her. “Mama. Hold me.”

Sam’s face lit up with love and joy as she took our daughter into her arms. “They're sad about Curtis.”

"I didn't feel that."

"Sympathy is often logical, not emotional."

“They must be hiding something,” I said.

“Maybe,” she said, frowning. “But they focus so much on the present. I wouldn’t know if they had any bad intentions until they'd committed the acts."

"Is that normal?"

"Not really. I've only known a few who could stay so focused on just what was right in front of them. But as leaders of the Church, perhaps they're trained in such things."

I sighed. “I guess that makes sense.”

“What did you feel from them?” she asked, playing peek-a-boo with Ana.

“Anxiety, anger, judgment. But that could be from so many things. Emotions are hard to interpret.”

Sam paused her game and looked at me, eyes haunted. “I did see one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“Ryder. You have to be careful around him.” She looked down at Ana, then slipped into her mind-talking mode.
He imagined killing you.

I pulled her and our daughter into my arms. “I don’t need to be a mind-reader to tell that. I could feel his anger at me, though I don’t know why.”

“Do you worry that the lycan will attack our school?” she asked, again looking at Ana who had snuggled into her arms, sucking on her thumb, eyelids fluttering closed.

That would make sense. If the lycan was in fact targeting paranormals, an entire school of them would be a prime target. Once again, it seemed all those we cared about were in danger, just for being different. “We’ll have to set up a patrol,” I said. “Those with defensive powers can help.”

"I hope the shifters catch whoever is doing this."

"I hope so too," I said.
And I hope, once they do, that they’re strong enough to defeat it.