The Wolf in His Arms (The Runes Trilogy) (30 page)

In the
back corner of the room, past the boiler, the light landed on a small door. He
had seen such a door before, in his grandmother’s house; it was an old coal room
door. Collin opened the door to the coal room and shone the light around.
Although no coal had been in the room in years, the room was still dingy and
dusty. But, it was the perfect place to hide. Best of all, a chute stretched up
toward the outside. If the outside door still worked, he would be able to climb
straight out of the building without walking through the corridors again.

Collin
placed his blanket and food inside the coal room and shut the door. With a
resigned sigh, he walked to the boiler room door, pulled it open, and making
sure the hall was clear, followed the cries that echoed down the corridors. The
screaming changed to yelling, “What did you do to me?” The words drove a shiver
through Collin as he pictured Tony and Mark, and he knew the young man’s fate.
Collin continued to trace the sound of the young man as his anger disintegrated
into tears. Collin mentally marked every turn for the return trip.

At a
closed set of double doors, he halted. The boy’s cries came from inside. Collin
swallowed and took a step, then lost his nerve, and stepped away from the
doors.
Do I really need to know?
He
asked himself. Collin glanced around, checking for an escape route, a hiding
place in case someone came. Another stairwell descended into the basement near
him, and he decided he could duck behind the stairs.
Maybe they aren’t even looking for me yet.
He decided to push
through the double doors.

The
heavy metal doors felt cold against the palms of his hands as he pushed through
them into an empty hall. The boy began to yell again. His hoarse voice resounded
in Collin’s ears. Below the young man’s ranting, Collin could hear other voices
now. The voices were familiar—guards, teachers, and then, among them, he heard
Proctor Roth. “The schedule has been amended,” he said. “Every boy in this
school gets injected by tomorrow night.” A moment of silence and then, “What
are you waiting for. Bring them!”

Panic
shot through Collin as he retreated toward the double doors. He pushed through,
knowing that guards were in the hall behind him. And then, suddenly, voices
surrounded him.

Voices
fell on him from above as footfalls landed in the stairwell. Collin ducked
under the stairs, pulling his legs tight against his chest. He could not see
who was coming. “Collin’s missing.” He recognized Mark’s voice.

“Begin
a search. He won’t get far.”

Footsteps
thundered away, and then more yells and screams filled the corridor as more
students were yanked from their beds and dragged into the basement. The clamor
of struggle as tables crashed to the floor, lamps broke, and nails scratched
along doorframes pelted Collin like rain. Tucked under the stairs, Collin
pressed himself against the wall, praying not to be seen or heard.

“Tonight’s
the night,” Lucy said as she poured a cup of coffee. “Alec feels confident that
Belle Isle is a great place to transform.”

Jared
sat at the kitchen table, reading the news on his laptop. “At least all of the
werewolf hunters will be at the Fullerton Building,” Jared said with a grin.

“Hmmm.”
Lucy huffed.

Alec
stumbled in, stretching. “Coffee. Stat.”

“You’ve
got arms,” Jared replied, and Lucy giggled. “I’ve noticed,” Jared ventured,
“that despite the added stress of this transformation, that you’re not as”—and
he added the word gently—“moody as normal.”

“Totally,”
Alec chimed in as he measured sugar into his coffee.

“I
guess I feel...I don’t know. Maybe you’re right.” Lucy said. She sat and as
soon as Alec was sitting. “Last night Mitch said something odd.”

“Odd
for Mitch?” Alec prodded.

“For starters,
he wasn’t talking about himself. But, seriously, he mentioned that I’m never
around on a full moon, and he commented on us all having green eyes.”

Coffee
poured from Alec’s mouth. “Are you fucking serious?”

“Do you
think he’s one of them?” Jared asked.

“He has
brown eyes.”

“You
wore blue contacts at first,” Jared said.

“Do
they even make brown contacts? I mean, who would want to turn their eyes
brown?” Alec noticed Haley walking into the room and added, “Not that I don’t
dig brown eyes.”

“They
do make brown contacts. I’ve looked.” Lucy confirmed.

“What
are we talking about besides Alec’s narrow definition of beauty,” Haley shot,
as she playfully smacked Alec on the back and helped herself to coffee.

“Mitch.
He noticed everyone’s green eyes.”

“And...?

“And he
may not be what he seems,” Lucy said, her normal pre-transition agitation
straining her voice.

“Is he
a threat? I mean, why help us?” Haley joined them at the table. “Maxwell’s
still sleeping.”

“No I’m
not,” he called as he staggered in from the living room where he and Haley had
slept. His hair spread out like turkey feathers around his head. “Is there more
coffee?”

“Save
us some,” Nadia called cheerily as she and Helena walked appeared in the
kitchen doorway.

“We
really have a full house now,” Alec said. “We need a bigger coffeepot. Did you
sleep well?” he asked Nadia and Helena.

Helena
replied, “It was kind of Lucy to give us her bed.” Lucy had slept in the study.

“So are
we discussing tonight?” Nadia asked, handing Helena the last cup of coffee.
“Can I make more?” She asked, pointing at the pot. Jared stood and offered to
make it. Nadia took his seat as Maxwell offered Helena his.

“Such a
nice boy,” she said and patted his cheek.

“Yes,
we are,” Lucy addressed Nadia. She had not expected how much the added chaos of
a full house would unnerve her. “We were talking about Mitch. He made some odd
comments.”

“Look,
Helena and I can’t come to Belle Isle, right?” Haley butted in.

“Right,”
all the werewolves said.

“Then,
we’ll keep an eye on this Mitch. You said that he said he never sees you at the
gym on the full moons. That
implies
that he’s there. And so, not a werewolf.”

“So,
you guys can drop us off before the park closes, then beat it out of there,”
Alec instructed. “I think that sounds okay. They’ll be safe, at least.”

“I
don’t like the idea of my mom trailing somebody. She’s no detective.”

“Nor am
I an invalid. Nadia, please.”

“And to
be honest, I will not be able to sit here tonight,” Haley continued. “Not while
we have no idea what’s happening to you.” She examined their faces, looking for
argument, and then added, “Besides, what if we’re here, making us sitting
ducks? What if that’s what Griffin wants?”

“I
hadn’t even thought of that?” Maxwell said.

Haley
patted his head. “My feet are cold. Will you fetch my slippers?”

“Your
slippers are in Chicago,” Maxwell grunted, unamused, while Haley giggled
joyfully.

*
         
*
         
*
         
*

Collin’s
head lulled and popped up abruptly as he awoke. He couldn’t believe he had
nodded off. His tired eyes groggily searched the small triangle of the hallway
he could see from under the stairs. Training his ears for even the smallest
sound, Collin inched from under the stairwell. He wasn’t sure how long he had
slept. The night had worn on in screams and fights and chaos as more students
were dragged to the basement. Now in the stillness, Collin hoped to return to
the coal room behind the boiler.

Popping
his head out, Collin looked up the stairwell. It was clear. He inched out
farther into the hallway. The empty corridor stretched in bands of light and
shadow. Collin raced down the hall as silently as he could, slowing at a corner
to peek around, then down the next stretch. The Boiler Room sign beckoned him
from midway down the hallway. Outside the door, he paused to listen. He could
hear only the hissing of the boiler.

Tucked
inside the coal room, with the door pulled shut, Collin finally wept as the
horror and anguish of the night flowed out of him.

*
         
*
         
*
         
*

The
long, narrow road deep into the scraggly woods of Belle Isle grew eerier by the
moment as the sun sank into the west. Haley braked. “This good?”

Alec
nodded. “The abandoned buildings are just through the woods.” Alec, Jared,
Lucy, Maxwell, and Nadia climbed out and collected their gear for the night.

Coming
around the side of the car, Maxwell knocked on Haley’s window. Haley rolled down
the window. “Yes?” She asked coyly.

“You two
be safe,” he said. He leaned through the window and kissed her cheek.

“You
have the flashlight?” Haley whispered in his ear.

He
nodded yes. “Take care of her,” he said to Helena.

“And
take care of my Nadia,” she replied.

“You
got it.”

The car
pulled away. The brakes lights flared red in Maxwell’s eyes as Haley braked for
a pothole farther down the road. Maxwell turned to the others. “So, Alec and
Lucy each get a room. And you, too, Jared, right, just in case?” Maxwell turned
to Nadia. “That leaves you and me on guard duty.”

“No
sweat.”

Following
Alec through the woods, Jared assured, “No one should know we’re here. We just
need to lie low tonight and regroup once the full moon passes.”

The
unseasonably warm night raised a mist off the water and ground. Their
flashlights reflected back in the hazy air. Beyond the trees, a clearing opened
onto the abandoned zoo. The silhouette of buildings cut through the mist. They
crossed a small train track with a miniature abandoned train rusting on the
rails. Mist snaked through the bars of opened, rusted cages, the doors dangling
ajar. “There’s a solid cinder block building up here. There’s a room for each
of us. Each with a metal door.”

“Good
scouting.” Jared tousled Alec’s hair.

Alec
led them into the buildings, past broken out windows, shattered bottles,
leaves, and other debris. “This was the lion house, I think,” Alec explained.
“What’s good is that the rooms were built to house large animals.” He flashed a
smile. Deep inside the building, he stopped in an interior hall with three
doors branching off. “These all lock, but I added locks on the outside of the
doors for the padlocks we brought,” he said. “Each of these rooms was where
zookeepers accessed the large cats. They lead directly into the cages on the
outside of the building through exterior metal doors. So, if a werewolf gets
through the outside door, he—or she—goes directly into a cage.”

“The
moon will rise soon,” Lucy warned. “We need to hurry.”

“This
is the fun part where we all get naked,” Alec tried to hide his bashfulness
with humor.

“I
won’t peek,” Nadia promised.

“I
will,” Maxwell admitted with a smirk.

Nadia
huffed in disdain.

“Let’s
try to stay focused,” Jared said.

“I will
be,” Maxwell quipped. “Trust me.”

Lucy
stepped inside the small room. She looked around the grimy interior, not much
larger than a large walk-in closet. Fallen chunks of plaster and dust coated
the floor. A brown water stain marred the ceiling. As Alec had said, a small
metal door rested in the outside wall. She undressed and handed her clothes out
the door to Nadia. Nadia folded the clothes neatly and tucked them inside
Lucy’s bag.

“Hurry
up, you two,” Maxwell called jovially. He waited in the hall between Jared and
Alec’s facing doors. He rocked back and forth on his feet, stealing quick
glances inside the rooms, one at a time. He blushed at a flash of abs or chest,
a quick glimpse of buttock, and as they turned to hand him their clothes, the
joyous full frontal. Alec closed his door slightly, and stood behind it,
glowering at Maxwell, as he handed Maxwell his clothes. “What? I said I was
going to peek.”

Maxwell
turned to take Jared’s clothes. Jared stood boldly with the door to the room
fully open. He handed Maxwell the clothes and his glasses. “I’m not as shy as
Alec.”

Maxwell’s
face burned red as he took the clothes and glasses. “I see that,” he stuttered.

Jared
chuckled robustly as Maxwell’s reaction reminded him slightly of how easily
embarrassed Alec was.

As
Maxwell approached Nadia, she scolded him, “Serves you right. Better get the
doors locked.” They went from door to door, bolting them. With the doors
secured, they put up their tent and unfolded their sleeping bags, preparing for
the long night.

*
         
*
         
*
         
*

Lance
Herald pulled his cell phone from his pocket and, seeing the number, considered
letting the call go to voice mail. He pressed TALK. “Hello, Carmen.”