Seven Days (13 page)

An explosion of glass, snarling, and growling stopped the questions I wanted to ask Elise. The sounds from the living room couldn't come close to matching the horrific vision that greeted me as I turned the corner.

A panther growled low from where it stood in the destruction its arrival had wrought in Elise's living room. Glass glittered on the carped and from where it had embedded itself in the walls. Wood crumbled under the cat's paws as it pounced forward, bringing Claude down as he'd back-peddled across the floor. The panther flexed
its paw, sinking its claws deeper into Claude's chest. The scream that erupted from Claude's lips was that of a rabbit in a snare.

The other pride members backed away, trembling as their beasts erupted from their human bodies. Claude's screams became whimpers as blood poured from beneath the panther's claws. When I would have run to him, Elise's hand on my shoulder stopped me.

"You can do nothing but get yourself killed if you go to him now, Kerry," she said. "Give the boys just a little time and then we will help Claude."

The panther turned at Elise's words and I was caught by
its gaze. It watched me, panting and savoring the scent of the blood washing through the house. It flexed its claws again and Claude's renewed screams echoed in the small room. My own screams joined Claude's and I clapped my hands over my ears. Elise was right. There was nothing I could do to help Claude, but I couldn't stand to hear him scream.

The panther coughed a roar and I heard Lane's laughter in the deep recesses of my mind. He was enjoying the pain he inflicted on Claude, but something about my pain fed him even more. The cat dropped its head and licked the blood as it flowed past its claws. Revulsion rocked me back into Elise, nearly taking us both to the floor. Lane's beast bared its teeth, preparing to rip the life from the boy under its paws and I screamed again.

"Get away from him!" Xavier shouted.

I turned to the destroyed window and saw Xavier standing in the front yard. Already I could feel the waves of energy pulsing between us as he ran and leapt through the gaping hole Lane's entrance had left in the wall of Elise's house. As he passed through the place where the window had been, Xavier's body flowed from man to cat in a way that was so natural and beautiful it took my breath away. I'd never before watched him transform, though I'd seen some of the other pride members change. Xavier's transformation was a natural flow of flesh to
fur; something I could only hope would be my experience when I changed at his side.

As Xavier landed in the living room, his beast roared--a thunderous bellow of pain and anger that shook the china in Elise's cabinets. Lane's beast turned to face his son and for just a moment, I believed I saw fear in the eyes of Lane's cat. Xavier's panther was larger, stronger, and surely angrier than Lane's. What Lane might have believed to be an easy fight had suddenly become a battle of far more epic proportions.

Lane's cat roared--a weak imitation of Xavier's--and turned away from Claude's still form. It lowered the front half of its body, its entire shape quivering with suppressed power. Xavier growled low and matched Lane's aggressive posture. The last thing I saw was Xavier's beast leaping forward to meet Lane. Christian dragged me into the kitchen, blocking the doorway and my view of the battle I could hear raging beyond him.

“Christian, I need to be there,” I screamed. I struggled in his grasp, using the little strength I had against him until all I could do was batter his chest with my fists and sob. How could I let Xavier face his father alone? How could I stop him from destroying the beast his father had become if I couldn't see him?

“Christian, that’s his father in there,” I cried. “We can’t let Xavier kill his own father.”

“No, Kerry,” Christian said, standing his ground and refusing to let anything I did change his posture or position. “Xavier needs to focus. If he’s worried about you, he’ll get hurt. He can handle that cat, no matter who he is, but not if he’s worried about you.”

"You don't understand. It's his real father and the panther who infected him. Do you want your friend to live with that kind of guilt if he kills Lane?"

"Xavier is my pride leader, Kerry. I am sworn to obey him and his last order to me was to ensure your safety. Do you want him to live with the guilt of losing you or live without him at all if you distract him and that panther gets the better of him?"

I stopped struggling. Christian was right. I couldn't live with myself if I lost Xavier because of some selfish thought of saving him pain distracted him and Lane gained the upper hand.

“Kerry, help me with Claude,” Elise said. She'd pulled the bleeding boy into the kitchen and knelt calmly by his side. Her calm voice helped me focus, though her lack of concern for what was happening in the living room seemed cold and distant to me. How could she focus through the roaring battle? My reality shifted slightly and I stumbled against Christian. He helped me kneel beside Elise, but I was unable to do anything until she spoke again.

“Kerry, I need help,” Elise said softly. “Xavier can take care of himself. Body and soul. Claude, on the other hand, will die if you don't help him.”

I glanced at Claude's pale face, noting the
bluing of his lips. Elise was right. I could do nothing but harm Xavier. I could help Claude. I lay my hands over the gaping wounds on his chest and willed the healing energy to rise. When it came, the power rocketed up my back and poured from my hands into the dying boy who lay in front of me. The force of the energy pulled a scream from my lips and a low groan from Claude. I almost jerked my hands away, but caught sight of the wounds closing with amazing speed. Something about my healing ability had changed just since I'd worked on Christian the night before. Was it the were virus? Had it made my healing ability into something akin to a super power or was it just my heightened state of concern for the panthers brought on by the battle ragging in the next room? Whatever it was, Claude lay still, but whole on the floor in front of me within moments. His eyes fluttered, but didn't open. Elise checked his pulse and smiled at me as she cut the few stitches she'd managed to get into Claude's arm before my power had pulled the wounds together and knitted them without a trace.

"I...I don't know what that was," I stuttered. The energy was still with me, though banked like a fire made to burn slowly through the night.

"Your power is growing, Kerry. I told you that would happen with practice."

I shook my head and tried to block out the sound coming from the living room. Surely Elise was going to need new furniture and several contractors to repair the damage the fighting panthers were causing. Every so often, the house would tremble beneath the vehemence of the battling cats. I edged toward the doorway so I could at least see Xavier, but Elise and Christian both stopped my passage.

“Kerry, it isn’t over yet,” Elise said. “Let them finish this without distraction.”

“He’ll hate himself if he kills Lane,” I said. “I can’t let him do that.”

“Xavier will make his own choices,” Elise said. “And you’re going to let him. I know you love my grandson, but you have to let him make the choices that will make him the man I see him becoming. You can’t live his life for him. You have to trust him to do what’s right.” Elise turned back to Claude, folding kitchen towels to place under his head. Having said her piece, she dismissed me and expected me to abide by her words. I waited until the growls, screams and crashes faded from the air before I crawled to the doorway and peered into the living room. Christian remained near to keep me from entering the room, but allowed me to see what destruction the battle had wrought on the men and the room.

“Why,” Xavier demanded. “Tell me why you did this.”

Lane lay battered, bleeding, and human on the living room floor. Xavier stood over him, blood trailing down his back and sides from small scratches. His body, though bruised, was otherwise whole. Lane, on the other hand, had several obviously broken bones and gashes that drained blood into Elise's carpet.

Russell handed Xavier a pair of sweat pants after pulling on a pair himself. The rest of the pride stood sentry behind Xavier. Their bodies showed signs of fighting, but none were as hurt as Lane.

I sighed deeply, a sound of relief that brought Lane's eyes to me where he locked his gaze with mine. I shuddered under the weight of those eyes. I hadn't noticed how like Xavier's eyes Lane's were. And never had I seen such envy in the eyes I loved. Lane's gaze held a weight so heavy I could almost understand what might have made him want to hurt his own child as he had. Almost.

“She doesn’t run from you,” Lane rasped, still looking at me. “Even when you are your beast, she runs to you, loves you.”

Xavier glanced over his shoulder and saw me in the doorway. The sad smile lifted only the corners of his mouth, but love shone in his pale green eyes.

“Kerry loves me no matter what,” he said. “But that doesn’t answer my question, Lane. How could you make me what I am after having suffered what you did? You knew what kind of life you condemn
ed me to when you attacked me. If you loved my mother as you claimed to, how could you try to destroy the child you made with her? How could you hate me so much? As he spoke, the anger drained from Xavier's voice and left behind a bewildered pain I realized I could eliminate with an explanation Lane would never give him.

“It wasn’t you he hated, Xavier,” I whispered. Xavier shook his head, not understanding.

“She’s a smart one,” Lane said. His voice grew stronger with each passing moment and I knew that if his revelation took much longer, Lane would have healed enough to be dangerous again. “I’ve never hated anyone as much as I hated the woman who should have loved me.”

“Mom,” Xavier said, still shaking his head slowly. “I don't understand. You claimed to love my mother. How can you hate her?”

Lane's bitter laughter sent chills down my back. “Did she tell you that she left me alone in the swamp by the pond? Tell you that because I was alone, sleeping, and hung-over that the panther who infected me found me easy prey? Did she tell you that when I told her what had happened, showed her what her leaving me alone had meant to my life, she ran from me? Ran right to that mealy-mouthed northern boy who had taken her love from me? Did she tell you any of that, boy?"

"No. She only told me that after her night with you by the pond, she realized she still loved my father and went back to him."

"Your father," Lane spat. "I was your father, but Dot took you from me, made sure I wasn't welcome when you were near. Tyler was always the one standing between us. He took Dot from me and then he took my son away too.”

Lane panted and I saw that his wounds were beginning to close. He’d be healed soon I knew he wasn't going to give up his plan of destroying Xavier and his family. He would fight until the last drop of blood dried and every heart lay still. I rose and tried to catch Xavier's attention, but he was engrossed in the tale Lane spun as he healed.

“I saw you playing in the yard in Florida that year and you smelled like her” Lane whispered. “You were so much like I was at your age and so beautiful to me. And then I heard you call Tyler ‘daddy’. You can't know how deeply that cut me, boy. Rage was all I had left.” Lane’s face crumbled with agony so sharp I could almost taste it. My soft heart wanted to comfort the man he'd been ten years earlier, but knowing what he'd done since then--to me and to the others he'd harmed--I let go of any compassion I might have for him.

“I followed you into the swamp to punish Dot,” Lane said. “To make you what I was so she would have nothing left she could love. So that you wouldn’t be perfect in her eyes ever again.”

“You son of a bitch,” Xavier said. The dead tone of his voice brought tears to my eyes. I wanted to erase the words Lane had spoken so Xavier could live without the knowledge he now had, but I knew I could do nothing but repair the damage as best I could when the battle was over.

Xavier's shoulders tensed and the electric charge of his panther flowed through the room. He was on the edge of losing his control and there was nothing I could do about it.

“But it didn’t work, did it,” Lane spat, bitterness stealing any remaining humanity from his voice. “Dot didn’t run from you. She ran to you, to where you lay at the edge of the woods. She nursed you until you healed and when you changed, she held you and sang to you. She didn't care that you were a monster. It mattered that I was.”

“You did this because my mother didn’t love you?” Xavier’s hollow voice pulled at my heart. I wanted to weep for his loss, for his pain. “You destroyed so many parts of my life, changed my future because you couldn’t get it through your thick, stupid skull that my mother was in love with another man.” Xavier trembled and I clung to the doorway. I knew there was no turning back. Xavier meant to end Lane's life no matter what I said or did. I could only hope to be able to repair the damage when it was over.

“I did it so she would see that what I was didn’t change who I was,” Lane said. “She saw you change and she still loved you, but she wouldn’t come back to me.” Lane had levered himself onto his hands and knees. His skin rippled and trembled with his oncoming change. The battle was about to resume and I could do nothing but watch and wait.

Xavier advanced on Lane. “My mother didn't care that I was a werepanther because being a werepanther doesn't change who you are,” he said. “My mother was smart enough to know that. She knew you were a selfish, angry and homicidal man who loved no one but himself. Who could love that?”