The Shepard's Agony (19 page)

Eric tackled Shepard off Larry and was able to contain him despite his struggles while Larry
caught his breath. Gwen ran to her father and helped him to his feet, letting him lean on her while he recovered.

“
I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” s
he mumbled, hugging him tight. Her nerves were a complete mess and she couldn’t stop herself from shaking.

He coughed, blinking back the tears that came with the coughing. “Where’s the other one?”

She looked up and saw that Jimmy had left. He saw that he was outnumbered and abandoned his brother.

Gwen spun to where Eric still had David pinned with a knee to his back, holding his hands behind his back. She’d never been so angry at anything in her entire
life
. She hated herself for ever trusting him, for not getting Eric to help sooner, and everything in general.

“
Get off me! Let go of me!” Shepard roared, trying to buck Eric off, but he wouldn’t be moved. He twisted his head up and saw Gwen staring down at him with nothing less than hate in her eyes
. His stomach plummeted.

Eric was shocked when Shepard suddenly stopped
moving
.
He
,
too
, turned his head toward Gwen, where the hunter’s gaze had stayed.

“I-”

“
You really are a Shepard,
” Gwen said, seething the words.

Shepard’s eyes widened.
"What?"

“
David was good to me, he loved
me
, and would have never even thought of taking off in the middle of the night like you did.” Memories of the two of them together, spending time together, when he surprised her at the Diner with the rose came to
mind
. She had to fight the burning in her eyes at such thoughts.

Shepard could only lay there and listen with a mix of shock and confusion. Why was she saying these things? He thought she understood the reasons for why he left. “Gwen, I-”

“
Shepard is a h
unter, he attacks innocent people and kills werewolves and vampires who don’t deserve to
die
. He attacked my father!”

Shepard’s eyes
stayed wide and round. That would be the reason right there. “I wasn’t going to hurt him!”

“I’ll never forgive you for that!” Gwen turned her back on him and helped her father up the stairs while Eric took care of Shepard.

“Wait! Gwen, I’m sorry!”

She ignored him and Eric pulled Shepard up and threw him back into the little room before slamming the massive door on him. Shepard was so completely
distraught with what he’d done that he didn’t fight
it
. No sooner was the steel door shut and locked on him did he collapse to the floor, clutching his gut with the extreme pain that pulsed through his body.

***

As soon as Gwen was
upstairs
, she immediately regretted her words. But her regret didn’t completely chase away her
anger
. She’d known what he was, but to see him fighting John and her own father—

John!

She mentally kicked herself for being so stupid. She’d left Eric down there all by himself to deal with Shepard and John. She hoped he wouldn’t be angry at her for it, but since the cleanup had
finished everyone else in the pack had either gone home or to the hospital to be
treated
. He was the only one around who could come to help her.

Di must have gone out to hunt rabbits if she hadn’t heard Gwen screaming for help like she was, which Gwen was grateful
for
. She didn’t know what she would have done if she saw her so soon after hearing Jimmy’s accusation. And he was now out there, somewhere, in the daylight. Would he be able to survive with only the clothes he wore to protect him?

“
I’m fine now, Gwen, you can let me go
,” Larry said when they made it to his room.

“
Oh,” s
he said quickly, pulling away and realizing that she’d gone from helping him stand to clinging to him for comfort.

He chuckled at her, but then
his face turned serious. “That hunter might still be in this house, so stay close, alright?”

The thought hadn’t even
occurred to her. Gwen immediately perked her ears to listen for anything that might sound suspicious.

“
I don’t think he’s around, but we’ll tell Evey and her new friend just in
case
. When Dianna comes
back
, you can tell her to stay on alert. I want the two of you to stay close to each other in case something happens.

Gwen bit back a groan. Staying near the girl for a long amount of time was the last thing she wanted to
do. In fact, she should tell her father about what Dianna had supposedly done so they could at least straighten out that mess.

“Daddy, about Di—”

“
In a minute, sweetheart, I need to check on Elaine.” He then
growled protectively. “If that hunter got anywhere near
her
, I’ll tear him limb from limb.

He meant
it
, too.

Gwen sighed, she didn’t really feel like going through that awkward conversation right
now anyway.

Hey
, Dad, did you know that hunter we caught just said Dianna, my best friend who used to sleep over when we were kids, was working with them? How about that?

Yeah right.

“
I’ll go tell Evey then,” she said
.

“Will you be alright by yourself?”

She nodded her head quickly. Of course she would be, it wasn’t the first time she had to walk around with something possibly out to kill her around the next corner. “Better we
split up, get things done faster anyway. You should wake Elaine. It’s not safe for her to be sleeping now.” Gwen wished she could go to sleep, but they still had things to do.

“
Well, alright.” Larry didn’t sound completely convinced, but he kissed her cheek and
forced a
smile. “Just keep your ears open for trouble.”

She nodded and walked off in the opposite direction. As expected, Evey’s door was shut. She gave it three hard knocks and waited before calling,

“Evey? I need to tell you something.”

There was no answer, so she knocked again, louder. “Evey?”

Was she sleeping? Gwen hoped
not
. When a vampire decided to turn in for the day, it was next to impossible to wake them up until dusk.

She knocked and banged again, not daring to even try and open the door, praying that it wasn’t the
case
.
Again
, there was no answer. Just perfect. She was sleeping. That meant she had to find Di and confront her without any help at all.

Just to be sure that Di really wasn’t in the cabin, hiding somewhere, Gwen checked her room and every other room that had been emptied that night after the attack. She even checked under the beds. Empty. Di really was out in the woods somewhere, and Gwen had to go and find her.

Chapter Thir
teen

Gwen couldn’t find her. She couldn’t find Di anywhere. Not that she was trying very hard to find her, all things considered, but it was still strange that as far as she walked and in so many different directions, she couldn’t find, hear, or even smell where she went. There was only the crunch of pine cones under her shoes, the sounds of the birds and
woodpeckers in the trees, and the smell of sap and bark. Was she hiding downwind or something? Where was she?

Gwen leaned against a nearby tree and inhaled the scent of the woods around her to calm her nerves. She knew the last thing she should be doing was letting her guard down, but she needed to
rest.
What
she really needed
was sleep, but she couldn’t until she found Di and everything came out into the open.

Resting her eyes wouldn’t hurt and the smell was relaxing. It was fresh and familiar, of pine and rabbits and earth, the wind cooling her face.

It reminded her of Shepard, no, it reminded her of D
avid, before she knew him as a hunter.

She opened her eyes and wiped her face to make herself more alert. Why couldn’t she stop thinking about him? He wasn’t right for her in any way, shape, or form. If she decided to forget all about him then she could go on for the rest of her life being
perfectly content.

The rest of her life …

As if to prove it to herself, she tried to picture her life without him. Maybe five years into the future, she would be married, have children, maybe even two or three, a baby in her arms and a cozy house around her.

But
, who would be there with her? The only other person she could think of was John, so she put him into the mental picture.

He would come up from behind her, wrap his arms around her shoulders and kiss—

Gwen burst into tears. That wasn’t what she wanted! Why did her second choice have to be the man she didn’t want to spend her life with? Was there no one she could have whom she chose?

Maybe her father was right, maybe she was better off find
ing someone to love within the pack. But everyone else was either older, taken, or showed no interest; John was the only one who’d have her. Did that mean she had to forget everything else she felt and pick him based on that alone?

Gwen wiped away her tears and fought to keep from feeling sorry for herself. She needed to relax again, and she needed to decide what it was that she wanted. Di could wait.

She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, the vision of the house and children came back to her, only this time there was more laughter, the wallpaper would be old and tacky but colorful. David was in John’s
place
. He would wrap his arms around her shoulders and kiss her neck, she wouldn’t even care that he was dirty after working so hard outside in the
field
. Gwen sighed her content.

It made her feel warm inside. The mental image made her smile and gave her
goose bumps. That was what she wanted, the only problem was that it would likely never happen…

Never happen if she sat back and let everyone make h
er decisions for her, let her pack judge David without really hearing what she had to say about it.

Her father was wrong, he didn’t brainwash her and he never would. David took her out of
harm’s way and protected her from his brothers. As for fighting with her father, well, she wished that hadn’t happened but she could overlook
it
. She was going to make sure that Bill saw her side of things when it came time to judge him.

Gwen took a quick breath to calm her nerves, she was exciting herself and that wasn’t going to help anyone. She needed to see him, he still had more potion to
drink
.

If he was awake to take it this
time
, then all the better.

The problem was, how was she going to get inside to see him this time?
Eric or John
were
likely
to
be
watching
the
door
. If Eric did leave for a few moments to help get John back
upstairs
, he was likely back down in the basement by now.

Gwen banged the back of her head against the tree and yelped, clutching the pul
sing spot. That wasn’t very smart, now she had a headache.

There was one way she could see him, but it would require more of Evey’s spells that Gwen hadn’t used in months and months. Why would she? She’d wanted to learn some ma
jick when she’d met her, everyone capable of getting their hands on majick wanted to learn it, but usually stopped learning due to a lack of interest. The same happened with her. Learning spells was fun and interesting at the time, but she wasn’t a witch and she didn’t want to be one.

She had to
try
,
though
. It was all she
had
, and the more time she wasted, the less time David had.

Gwen breathed in deeply and closed her eyes. It was difficult trying to relax her body and mind when she was so
tense
. The headache didn’t help either, but after a few
moments
, a misty cloud wisped above her head, her entire body going slack and pale.

To an onlooker, it would have appeared as though she had suddenly died, but actually, she was in a place between asleep and awake.

***

Andrew shut the door of the
barn
to block out as much
light
as he
could
. Some still crept in through holes in the rough and rotting
wood
, but it was an improvement. He
sighed
, throwing his shovel and gun down on the pile of hay that had served as his bed for the last two
days
. Keeping the rabbit in one
hand
, he
wiped
the dirt and sweat away from his forehead with the other.

He’d buried his brother in the woods, then he had to hunt. Despite how much he wanted to lay back and do nothing at all, he still had himself and his father to think about.

His father …

He turned to find him and nearly fell back when the man he’d just been thinking about appeared mere inches away from his face. Eyes glowing and teeth out, a hungry hiss in the air.

Andrew didn’t have a chance to say a word before the rabbit he’d plan
ned to cook was snatched out of his hand and thrust into Garrett’s jaws. The sucking sounds and droplets of blood flowing down his chin were sickening. Andrew had to fight to keep from turning away or bringing his fist to his mouth.