The Wolf in His Arms (The Runes Trilogy) (18 page)

“Mom,
we’re in Chicago. Someone shot Jared.” Lucy felt her lips form the words but
could not believe that they were true. “He’s dead.”

“Oh,
God. Alec?” Ilene shot her son’s name with a dire urgency.

“We
need you and Dad. He’s lost it, Mom. Alec’s totally lost it.” Lucy didn’t know
what else to say.

“We’re
on our way. Now,” Ilene promised. “Get up, Jason,” she ordered, holding the
phone to her chest. She brought the phone to her mouth. “I’ll keep my phone on
me. Take care of Alec until we get there.”

“I’ll
try,” Lucy wept. She hung up. Lucy looked around at the police.
How will I answer them?

“What
do we do? What do we do about Alec?” Maxwell asked.

“I
don’t know.”

“Should
we go after him?”

“I
don’t know.” Lucy threw her hand up to stop the questions. She walked over to
an officer. “Where will you be taking him?” She tipped her head toward Jared.

“Are
you family?”

Lucy
paused. “Yes.”

“He’ll
be going to the morgue for an autopsy. Did you get a look at the shooter?”

They don’t know he’s dead
. “He’s dead. About three blocks
that way,” she hooked her thumb over her shoulder. “A monster ripped his throat
out.” The officer blinked at her blankly. “I need to sit down,” Lucy stammered,
and she crouched against the brick wall of the building.

Shreds
of familiar cloth lay on the sidewalk.
Alec’s
clothes
, she thought.
He’ll need
clothes.
She turned to Maxwell. “I have to find Alec.”

The
officer stepped closer to them. “I spoke with the three of you. Were there any
other witnesses? The others I spoke to indicated that another man had been with
you?”

Lucy
read the dubiousness on his face.
What
did the bystanders say they saw? A man chased after the shooter—only to turn
into a werewolf mid-stride, in a blink?
She wondered “No, it was just us,”
Lucy said.

“Just
us,” Maxwell echoed. Haley nodded.

“I was
inside,” Sue said flatly.

The
officers dispersed after Jared was wheeled away on a gurney. Back inside Sue’s apartment,
Lucy stared out the window at the city so alien to her. The city lights
blinked, uncaring, into the night sky, as she pondered where Alec was—whatever
form he was in—alone, heartbroken. She turned into the apartment. She noticed
Jared’s coat on the couch. Lucy rushed across the room and lifted his coat. His
car keys were inside. “I’m going to go look for Alec.”

“I’ll
go with you,” Maxwell said.

Lucy
shook her head. “I don’t know what Alec’s going to be like. He’s never—” Lucy
leaned against the couch, feeling the monumental weight of the night pushing
against her.

“He’s
never changed before?” Haley asked.

“No.”

“Did—”
Maxwell searched for the right words—“The shooting cause it?”

Lucy
looked away from Maxwell, knowing he meant
Did
Jared’s dying cause it?
Fresh tears rolled over her cheeks. “A man told us
there was a trigger. But we didn’t know what the trigger would be.”

“Why would
he kill Jared?” Haley blurted out.

Lucy
shook her head. “I don’t know. I don’t know.” She bolted upright. “I got to go
find my brother.”

“I’m
still coming.”

Lucy
waved him on as she staggered to the door. She paused in the doorway and faced
Sue and Haley. “I know what you must be thinking, but we didn’t bring this on
you. It was coming with or without us.” Lucy shut the door.

A sharp,
biting cold the wind whipped off Lake Michigan as Maxwell and Lucy stepped onto
the sidewalk. Lucy immediately wondered if Alec had transformed and was
freezing somewhere. “The car will be faster.” Without waiting for a reply, she
darted across the street between cars.

Maxwell
waited for a passing car and then snaked between two others to follow her. “One
of us should go on foot,” he said.

“You
want to drive?” She tossed him the keys. She turned her back to cross the
street again.

“Lucy!”
He called a little too loudly. She turned to face him. “I will help you find
your brother. We will find him.”

Lucy’s
face remained a stone mask. “I know we will.”

*
         
*
         
*
         
*

“What
have we done to deserve this?” Jason’s voice sounded broken.

Ilene
couldn’t bring herself to raise her head off the car window. The highway in
front of them stretched into infinite points of dusty white. Snow flurries
cascaded through the light and over their windshield like stars. “This isn’t a
punishment,” she said weakly. She wondered how long it had taken her to realize
it. Was it only now—in this moment?

“Did
Lucy say why they were in Chicago?”

“No.”

“But
Alec isn’t hurt?”

“He
wasn’t shot. But he just lost his boyfriend. To say he isn’t hurt is wrong.”

“You
know what I meant,” Jason snapped.

“This
feels like we’re on repeat.” Jason remained silent as he concentrated on the
road, ignoring her. “I’m sorry,” she apologized, finally. She reached across
the seat and patted his arm.

Jason
nodded. “I accept.” He was silent for a moment. “I don’t know how to do this.
What am I to say?” He stopped, but Ilene could tell he hadn’t finished, and so
she waited, quiet. He began again, “Feeling is so hard. I’ve hurt so much; it’s
hard to hurt anymore. I feel numbed.”

Only
the whirring of the tires broke the long silence; only the painful white of the
highway lights broke the long darkness. “We still have to love,” Ilene said
finally. “Love is pain. Love is loss.”

*
         
*
         
*
         
*

Lucy
stopped midblock to peer down yet another dark alley. She had walked blocks on
a seemingly endless parade of darkened alleys and doorways. The night air
chipped away at her, but it was the loss, the grief, that truly numbed her.
“Alec,” she yelled into the alley, no concern for how anyone looked at her. She
entered the alley. Bags of garbage littered the pavement next to an overflowing
trash can. The stench assaulted her nose. One small dim light lit the alley
about halfway down. She saw a figure draped in shadow at the end of the alley.
“Alec,” she called again. She swallowed her hope. Each time she had seen
someone in an alley, and she had allowed herself to believe, it had been a
homeless person—some other lost soul in the freezing night. Sadness after
sadness that she stumbled upon increased the woe weighing down her heart.

The
shadowed figure murmured recognition, and Lucy darted to him. Alec sat on the
cold pavement, naked, his hands draped between his legs. His back rested
against the brick side of the building and his head dangled limply. He looked
up at Lucy. His green eyes were glassy and they reminded Lucy of shattered
Depression glass. Blood crusted his lips and around his mouth. “Is Jared really
dead?” He sounded soul-crushed.

Lucy
couldn’t speak, so she nodded. A sob burst through her lips in a spray of spit.
Fresh tears rolled down her cheeks. Slipping her coat off, Lucy said, “Here.”

Alec
rolled over on his side, ignoring the offered coat. “I just want to lay here
and die,” he gasped. His breath floated away in steamy clouds.

“Alec,
please.” Her outstretched hands shook with the coat.

Alec
curled up tighter as a sob racked his whole body. He covered his head with his
arms and uttered harsh sounds that were a cross between a sob and a scream.
Lucy draped her coat over him and stroked his hair. In time, she knew, he would
be strong enough to stand. She would wait.

Lucy
peered over the back of the couch to ensure that Alec was still sleeping. She
returned to the loft’s open kitchen and sat at the table with Maxwell, Haley,
and Sue. “He’s so exhausted,” she muttered, her own voice brittle as winter
grass.

“You
should sleep,” Sue said.

“My
parents will be here soon.”

Maxwell
cut is eyes to the couch where Alec was sleeping. He recalled helping Lucy
bring Alec to the loft, helping her wash the blood from his face and getting
him dressed. “Is there anything else we can do?” He reached his hand out and
touched her hand briefly. “For you?”

Lucy
tried to smile but her face crumpled into sorrow and tears. “I just want to see
my mom and dad.”

“He
didn’t hurt anyone else,” Maxwell assured. Lucy looked up at him and
scrutinized his face, but she said nothing. “That’s good.” Maxwell continued.
“It’s like he knew what he wanted to do, like he could control it.”

“I
can’t even remember when I change. Alec and Jared”—and her voice trembled on
his name—“always locked me in a vault.”

“What
if we’re different? Because of what they did to us, the experiment?”

Lucy
tried to be compassionate; she could hear the hope in his voice. She could tell
that he had witnessed his worst fears tonight: suddenly changing into a monster
without warning. But to think now, that it could be controlled—offered him
hope. “Maybe. I don’t know. I can’t think about it.”

“We’ll
wait up for your parents,” Sue said. “Take the guest bed. Maxwell will sleep
out here on the floor to keep an eye on Alec.”

Maxwell
and Haley watched Sue lead Lucy to the guest bedroom. Haley asked, “Do you feel
safe sleeping out here with him?”

“Yeah.
Absolutely. I feel safer than I ever have.” He hugged Haley. “I feel like he
can be trusted.”

She
turned her eyes to Alec, sleeping deeply on the couch. “I wish we could do
something for him.”

“Right
now, I’m afraid no one can do anything for him.”

Lucy
had been asleep less than an hour when Ilene and Jason rang the buzzer of the
loft. Sue paced to the door, wringing her hands. She buzzed them in and greeted
them at the door. “Hello, I’m Sue.” She waved them in.

“Jason,
and this is Ilene,” Jason replied.

“Where’s
Alec?” Ilene cut in. She pulled her gloves off as she walked.

“Asleep
on the couch,” Maxwell said as Ilene walked into the living room. “I’m
Maxwell.”

She
seemed not to hear him as she peered over the edge of the couch at her sleeping
son. “And Lucy?” She walked toward Maxwell, Haley, Jason, and Sue who gathered
in the kitchen. “I’m Ilene. Did I say that?”

“Yes.
You did.” Sue nodded. “Lucy’s asleep in my room in the back.” Sue gestured to
Haley. “And that’s Haley. Would you like some coffee?”

“Oh,
yes, please,” Ilene enthused. Maxwell took their coats and hung them up as
Ilene and Jason settled in at the kitchen table. “What happened?”

“Lucy
and I were coming back from the market,” Haley began. She looked toward
Maxwell, trying to let him know she would edit herself. “A man jumped us. Jared
came to our rescue and the man,” Haley turned her head, as if turning from the
memory.

“What
happened to the man?” Jason asked.

“Alec
chased after him,” Maxwell answered. He turned his eyes toward Alec and then
back to Jason. “The man killed himself.”

“What?”
Jason bleated.

“I’ll
call in the morning to see what we have to do to get Jared home with us.” The
coffee cup shook in Ilene’s hands. “I’ll call the funeral home that handled the
other funerals. I was really pleased with them,” she continued. “I’m sure they
will be helpful. I’ll let them know Jared needs picked up here.” Coffee slopped
out the side of the cup and slipped over her fingers. She looked down absently.
“Do you have a napkin?”

Sue
walked over and handed Ilene the napkin. “If I can handle anything for you,
please let me know.”

“Us,
too,” Haley said. She leaned her head on Maxwell’s shoulder.

Jason took
Ilene’s hand in his. “Thank you.”

Lucy
appeared, then, in the hallway, coming from the bedroom. She saw her parents
and rushed to them, clutching them, and cried. They held each other. Maxwell,
Haley, and Sue looked away.

*
         
*
         
*
         
*

Alec
didn’t awake until the next morning, and when he did, he sat motionless on the
couch. He refused food, but accepted the coffee Ilene handed him.

Ilene
made the arrangements as planned. Maxwell and Haley offered to drive Jared’s
car back to Detroit, following Alec and Lucy, who would ride with their
parents. They said their goodbyes to Sue and began the trip back.

In
Jared’s car, Haley scrolled through her phone, looking at the news. “It’s on
the news,” she told Maxwell. Her voice sounded especially strained.

“And?”

“Someone
caught the attack—Alec attacking the shooter—with their cell phone.”