Wolf Dream (10 page)

I chuckled. Es might not have grown up with her mom, but she had the same attitude. “
Here.” I reached out for the head. I grabbed it by a fistful of dark brown hair and grimaced a little as it spun around. The eyes were still open, staring at me. “Really? You couldn’t shut the eyes first?”             

Torres laughed. “After this many years, you’re lucky I clean up the mess.”

Adonia placed a hand on her hip. “Who cleans up the mess?”

I lifted the other three heads and hauled them down the hall to the room while they argued over the mess. We needed to get them out of the hall before someone saw us. We looked like mass murderers covered in blood, and the headless bodies wouldn’t help us any.

I used my foot to knock on the door. “Es, it’s me, open up.”

The door opened and she moved aside quickly. “
Eww, I hate the smell of those things. It’s like sour meat and putrid acid mixed together. Close the bathroom door so it doesn’t fill the room up.”

I dropped the heads in the tub. We’d have to sneak them out and burn them somewhere else.
“Well, I gotta go grab a couple bodies. We can talk about your perfume later. Watch the door.”

She smacked my shoulder. “Very funny.”

Adonia was dragging one of the bodies behind her and Torres had two, one slung over each shoulder. He motioned with his head back to the stairwell where we fought them. “There’s one left, but you better hurry, I thought I heard someone just a minute ago. Adonia already did a vanishing spell so the blood is gone.”

I jogged down to the corner and lifted the body over my shoulder. The downstairs stairwell door slammed shut and I heard clomping footsteps ascend the stairs. “Oh
crap.” I ran to the room and kicked the door. “Come on, open up.”

The door opened just as I saw a couple round the corner at the end of the hall. I pushed past Es and dropped the breed on the floor. I bent over with my hands on my knees. “That was close.”

I stood up and took a long breath. “So, who has the plan now?”

Chapter
Nine

A Corrupted Bureau

Esmerelda

I glanced around one more time before my dad lit the fire.
My mom and I were supposed to keep the smoke contained and hidden from mortal eyes as much as possible. Driving all the way to the Peñalara Natural Park with dead, headless bodies in the trunk made me nervous and was terribly unsettling. I knew we had to get rid of them, but being out of our element—or at least mine—made the feat seem harder.

I pulled the power from the earth with my hands and stretched it up over my head. My mom did the same thing on the other side of the flames and I felt her energy as soon as it touc
hed mine, creating an invisible dome to keep in the smoke.

S
lowly, I brought my hands to my sides. At least with the shield, I didn’t have to smell the horrid scent of charred metallic puke. Ian placed his arm around my waist and stared at our bonfire. He didn’t have to say anything; it was hard for me to comprehend how fast things were happening and the unimaginable twists we’d had to witness. Neither of us wanted to talk about Jarak. I could only imagine how Ian must feel. My own heart was torn in shreds with each thought back to the plane and how we left him. I know it was his choice to switch sides, but it just didn’t make sense.

Ailaina walked over to us.
“We’re gonna need a new place to stay. That hotel is probably crawling with breeds by now.”

I gave a short nod. “Probably.”

My mom came closer with my dad not too far behind her. “Ailaina, if you could find us another place to
stay that would be great. I don’t think we’ll need it for too long. It seems like Nicholas is in a rush to hurry this along.”

A shiver coursed down my spine. “Well, I’m in no hurry, but I think I might know why
he is.” All eyes were centered on me. “When Meadow came to me the last time I was asleep, she said Nicholas was sick and didn’t have the energy to come to me himself.”

My dad folded his arms and stared out over the flames that were beginning to die down. “What do you think it means?”

I shifted my weight. “The first time I saw him in my dreams back in Tennessee, he told me I changed everything, the elements shifted when I woke up Moriah and the others. He was really mad, obviously, but it was more than that. He said I would need to give him his blood; maybe he didn’t mean blood for his breeds, but he really meant for himself?”

Ian twisted me so I faced him. “I don’t understand. Why would he need your blood? I thought it was just for the breeds.”

“I don’t know if you noticed, but the breeds we’ve fought on this trip were stronger than they were a couple months ago. They each had vials of Belladonna, which is hard for any magical being to carry. So, maybe when I awakened Moriah, the weak ones died but the ones that survived became stronger.” I noticed Ailaina wince when I mentioned Belladonna. “So what if the shift in elements made a shift in his spell? Does that mean he needs my blood to live?”

Ian’s face lit up. “
But you made Nicholas weak.”

I smiled. “Exactly.”

My dad rubbed his chin and ran his fingers through the short stubble. “It makes sense. Why else would so many breeds be out at once? They’ve always reserved their energy, but if they know Nicholas is dying, then they’d want to find you to save him.”

“Gee, thanks
, Dad, that made me feel so much better,” I joked.

He winked at me. “That’s what I’m here for.”

My mom let out a small huff. “While you two joke around, this is serious. We are gonna need someone on watch twenty-four hours. We can’t take any chances.”

I shrugged. “Well, it’s not like I’m sleeping
a lot right now.” Just the thought of sleep both excited and scared me. I could feel myself weakening with each waking hour but my fear of what—or who— awaited me in my dreams was enough to keep me alert. I wasn’t sure how long I could stay awake, but maybe one or two energy drinks couldn’t hurt.

Jarak

My head pounded furiously as I pried my eyes open. I tried to move but realized my hands were tied behind my back. I wiggled my fingers and stiffened when I felt another set of hands tied to mine. My head shot up, and I cringed as the pain worsened with the movement. I blinked rapidly, but the light in the room was almost blinding to me because of a raging headache.

Where was I? Where was Maztic? Oh no, what happened to Es?

Thoughts raced through my mind. I opened my eyes wide, not caring about the pain anymore. Oh shit, I cursed inwardly as my throat constricted and my mouth went dry. The room we were in was a gray holding room of sorts. One door in and out with no windows. I tried to recall the last thing I remembered before passing out.

I remembered Es accusing me of having something to do with what happened on the plane. My heart ached at the memory of her face. When she mentioned Julie, all things started to make sense and I ran off to find her. What a fool I’d been. I knew Julie had been up to something, but I never guessed that she’d trade sides. Thinking about it, maybe she was never truly on our side to begin with.

“Calm down, lover,” Julie said behind me. So, she was who I was tied to.

“What kind of mess did you get us into this time?” I muttered through clenched teeth.

“Me?” She sounded innocent, but I knew better. “I could ask you the same thing. Maybe if you could get that little tramp out of your head we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

I yanked on the rope that connected us. “Es is not a
tramp, and I haven’t had anything to do with her, just like you wanted. I haven’t really talked to her in months. I can’t believe I listened to you. I coulda had something real with her.”

“
Tsk, tsk. You could never have anything with her or anyone, your heart belongs to me.”

“Yeah, well, my heart was almost detached from your wickedness. I was so close to breaking your spell. I wanted to love her, I did love her. But then you came back to life and while I ached to hold her I couldn’t because of you.
Now she’s in love with my brother.”

“Well, I am glad to know my spell has worked through all these years. She’ll never love you like that
. I saved you from heartache.”

“You haven’t saved me from anything,” I growled.

“You should be nice to me if you want me to help get you out of here.”

I smirked. “You can get us out of here? You’re the reason we’re here in the first place. Besides, we don’t even know where we are.”

“Jarak, you’re seriously not that naïve, are you? That snooty little flight attendant must have had us brought to the B.O.M.B office, but don’t worry. I have connections.”

The door swung open hard, hitting the wall and creating a loud echo in the room that reverberated in my head, making me cringe in pain. One of the first things I wanted to find
out was how they were able to use magic on me and render me unconscious. Other than Es, Adonia, and Victor, I didn’t think anyone had the capability.

An older woman came in with long black hair. Only a few streaks of gr
ay showed her age. I couldn’t help but wonder if she possessed magic since witches were immortal and rarely showed traits of an aging human. Her charcoal dress suit complimented her tiny figure, and she had what looked like a 9mm holstered on her hip, but I could be wrong because the 8md looked a lot like the one humans used. Only, the 8md was deathly to all magical beings, including guardians and witches. Very few beings even had one. They were hard to find, even to those who searched for them.

She slammed the door shut and walked over to us. “
Enjoy your stay with us so far? How’s your head?” Her voice was softer than I thought it would be. I almost expected to hear something nasally, though she sounded far from nice. Her condescending tone was enough for me to guess that Julie was right about where we were.

“Hurts,” I replied. Not that I expected to get any sympathy from her.

“Well, that’s what I am here for. I’m MaryAnn and I’m the head forensic nurse at the B.O.M.B.”

Well
, that confirmed it. She pulled out a syringe from her back pocket and tapped it to mix the contents inside. I watched as the fluid went from clear to cloudy. My heart raced as I wondered what she would do with it, and what it was. She was not in Julie's line of sight, so I knew that she had no idea what was in store for us.

I turne
d to whisper over my shoulder, “If you're going to get us out of here, now is a good time."

“
Oh, I don't think you'll be going anywhere,” MaryAnn said as she flipped the lid off the syringe.

“Julie, seriously,”
I whispered harsher. With my feet I tried to push back farther away from MaryAnn. “Look I had nothing to do with whatever happened on the plane. I swear, it wasn't me.”

“I know.”
She was faster than I could blink and push the needle into my bicep. At first the liquid was ice cold around the point of entry, but then it turned hot, like a searing flame that shot down my veins. I grit my teeth and held my breath as I waited for the heat to subside. Why wasn't Julie answering me? I winced again as another flood of heat rushed over me. I tried to twist my head enough to see Julie, but the room started to swim and my chin dropped to my chest.              

I was coherent enough to hear MaryAnn talking to Julie, but too drugged to respond.
I could make out MaryAnn's voice, although it was garbled. “The infamous Julie has graced me with her presence. You know there was a time when you would have helped me with an interrogation. It's so sad to see the direction you’ve gone.”

“
MaryAnn, nice to see you too.” They both laughed. Why would they be laughing?

I felt the tug of the rope that bound me to Julie as it was untied. I tried to pick my head up but it was too heavy. Julie moved away from me and the rope was replaced.

“We have to take him, you know that, right?” MaryAnn’s voice sounded farther away. Maybe she stood by the door, but I couldn’t tell. “Hurry, we don’t have a lot of time.”

The door slammed shut and everything went black.