Wolf Dream (8 page)

Luna
lunged onto her back, pulling her down. I jumped on top of her and twisted her head. Adrenaline rushed through me as I thought of what they would’ve done to Ailaina, and I ended her life.

A bloodcurdling scream filled the plane. I spun around to see one of the passengers standing in the
aisle on the first class side of the partition. She screamed again and Ailaina rushed over to her and placed a hand over her mouth. “Shhhh… It’s okay.”

Commotion filled the plane as I heard cries and screams throughout the cabin. Passengers afraid of what caused the screaming cried out in terror.
Great. So not what we needed.

Jarak and Julie were the first to enter behind the woman. Julie’s eyes went wide
, then she left to go into the main seating area. I spun back around to help Luna with another breed who struggled against her tightened jaw around his neck.

I saw a flash of white and
knew that Maztic and Jarak were helping. I stood up and looked around. The woman who had been screaming was crumpled on the ground with her eyes closed. I glanced around; all the passengers were asleep again. I wasn’t sure how, but I was grateful. Ian and Dregan stood in the opposite aisle from me with Jarak and Maztic. All the crossbreeds were dead—well, for now. We still needed to behead them, but it would have to work for the moment.

Camilla walked in from the back seating
area. A streak of blood trickled down her face from a scratch over her eye.

“Are you okay?” I asked her while catching my breath.

“Yeah, I found that one breed in the back, but we don’t have to worry about him anymore.” She looked around. “I can see you guys were busy.”

I shrugged. “You could say that.”

“Ah, shoot, this was nothing,” Ian added.

Julie walked in, stepping over the sleeping woman. She folded her arms. “Next time you get in a fight
around humans make sure they are unable to see you. I put them all to sleep, but that’s something you should’ve done before it got that far.”

Ian strode forward. “Julie, you have no idea what was happening down here before the fight. Es had no warning and no time. You either shut your mouth for the rest of this trip
or I’ll shut it for you.”

Jarak came up behind Ian. “I don’t care if you’re my brother, you will not talk to her like that.”

Ian turned to face him. “You know, you’re just jealous because Es chose me and not you, and you got stuck with that
witch
over there.”

Jarak pulled his fist back and threw a punch at Ian, but Ian ducked out of the way.

“Hey!” We all turned to see Lauren holding her side, standing at the first-class entrance. “I hate to break it up, because I’d love to see Ian kick your ass, but we’ve got bigger issues.”

I rushed to her side with Ailaina. “Are you okay?”

I moved her hand from her side, revealing a dark red, sticky stain on her purple blouse. “Oh my gosh, Lauren, what happened?”

“It was nothing, just a stupid breed caught me off
-guard. When we heard that woman screaming we all ran to see what was wrong. As soon as Jarak and Julie went downstairs, one grabbed me from behind. I never saw him the whole time we were up there. I think he came out of the closed bathroom.” She winced as she placed her hand back over the wound.

I glared over my shoulder at Camilla. “I thought you said they couldn’t awaken from your stupid
Comotosa spell until you or someone with the B.O.M.B. awakened them?”

She backed up slightly. “I don’t kn
ow how he’s awake. It doesn’t make sense.”

“Well
, then, who else with the B.O.M.B. is on board this plane?”

She shook her head. “No one
other than the co-pilot. I screened the flight myself.”

Ian spread his arms out over the bloody scene. “Yeah, and that worked out so well
, didn’t it.”

Tears filled Camilla’s eyes. “It wasn’t my fault. Andrew said that if I didn’t let them all on board that he would kill me. I didn’t know they were gonna try and kill you. I swear.”

The plane shifted with turbulence and I grasped the sliding door to the entrance. My stomach rolled as I remembered we were thousands of feet above the ground, or ocean, and all my adrenaline left, returning my fear of flying. “Who is Andrew?”

Camilla wrung her hands. “He’s the
co-pilot, but he doesn’t have magical abilities.”

Oh
, my night was just getting better and better. The man who might want to kill me was flying the plane. “Then how did he know about the breeds? How did he know about me?”

“He is one of the few humans that work at the
Bureau. He used to be so sweet, and cared about helping all of the magical society, but lately he has been short and easily irritated. This afternoon before boarding, he came to talk to me. That was the worst I’ve ever seen him.”

“How did he get to be part of the
Bureau?” Jarak asked.

Camilla chewed on her lip for a moment. “Every flight must have two agents on board. One in the cabin and one in the cockpit. It’s a security measure. There aren’t enough of us with powers that have a pilot’s license. So, they hire humans for that part when needed.”

The plane jumped again and I could feel a slight descent. “Wait a minute. If he doesn’t have magical abilities, then Julie put him to sleep too, right?” A larger jolt of the plane left us all grasping out for something to hold on to.

My heart raced and dropped in my stomach. Ian rushed over to me as the ride smoothed back out. “It’s okay, we’ll just have Julie wake him back up.”

I nodded into his shoulder as he wrapped his arms around me.

“Um, well, maybe we should address the other problem I was talking about too.  I’m not saying waking the pilot is a bad idea, but what are we gonna do about the other three crossbreeds that fled somewhere in the plane I saw when coming downstairs?”

We all looked at Lauren. “What other three?” I asked.

More turbulence made me grasp Ian’s shirt
until my knuckles turned white.  A slight whir sounded as the descent became more prominent. “We’re gonna die,” I whispered.

“Um, Julie, now would be a good time to wake up the pilot,” Ian said.

Julie ran toward the cockpit. I took in a deep breath. She was gonna wake him up and we would be fine. I hoped.

Lauren let out a small cry as the dim lights flickered overhead and along the bottom of the
aisles. Okay, so maybe we really were going to die.

Luna brushed up against my leg.
“It’s okay, Es, I’m right here. It might hurt and take forever to recover, but you’re immortal, remember? You can make it through this.”

That was not comforting at all. I looked up into Ian’s azure eyes. He was not immortal. If only we had taken the next steps to being together, maybe then he would have been okay. Like my dad with my mom, they were bound together by love, making him immortal with her. I loved Ian, but was it enough to save him?

“Esmerelda, I need your help!” Julie yelled from the front of the plane.

That worried me even mor
e than dying. She never needed—let alone wanted—my help. I ran as fast as I could, jumping over the dead bodies to get to the cockpit.

She looked at me with wide eyes. “He won’t wake up. I don’t know what’s wrong.”

Jarak was there first, grabbing Julie and pulling her out of the way. “Move, Es, I can’t let this happen, not right now. It’s not right.”

I didn’t understand what he meant but moved anyway. Ian was right behind me. “Camilla and Lauren went to take care of the other three breeds
, and Ailaina went to find a first aid kit to help Lauren.”

I nodded but it all felt so surreal. Was this really happening?

“Damn it, Julie, why’d you have to put them to sleep?” Ian asked.

“Don’t yell at me. I did what I had to do.”

Jarak tried every combination to open the cockpit door but nothing worked. Ian pushed past me to Jarak. “Move over, I got this.” He slammed into the door with his shoulder, creating a small but otherwise useless dent. Turbulence jerked the plane as Ian hit it again.

“Hey
, man, I don’t see what you’re trying to do. This door is made to withhold attacks,” Jarak said as he returned to the door.

“Well, wise one, the plane is going down because smarty pants over there put the pilot to sleep and can’t wake
him. We,” he used his finger to point at all of us in a circle, “are the only ones awake. So, we need to get in there.”

Hearing Ian confirm my fear of why the plane was descending so fast scared me even more. “Let him try, Jarak.”

“Fine, but what are you gonna do once you get in there? None of us know how to fly a plane.”

“I’ll figure that out, right now we just need to open this door.” Ian plowed into the door again.

“That won’t work,” Camilla said as she neared the cockpit.

Jarak raised his hand
s in surrender. “I’ve already tried to tell him.”

“Here, let me.” Sh
e walked up to the door with a set of keys.

Ian moved back over by me, rubbing his shoulder. “Well, now you show up.”

The door opened and Camilla moved out of the way. Ian rushed into the cockpit. One of the pilots had fallen forward when Julie put them to sleep and landed on the autopilot, turning it off.
Well, that explains why the plane is descending.

We all crowded in as best we could to watch.
Ian moved him from his seat and laid him on the floor. Stepping over him, Ian sat down and looked around. “Do you think if I hit the auto thing it will engage where they had it set before?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know, but we
gotta try something.”

Ian switched it over but nothing happened. He shook his head then hit the control dash. “Julie, wake him up!”

“I can’t. I don’t know what’s wrong.”

“Figure it out
,” I said as I stepped over the sleeping pilot and unbuckled the other one. He slouched over and I barely caught him before his head hit the floor. He finally made it out of the chair and rested on top of the other guy. I sat in the other pilot’s seat. “Maybe I can help?”

Ian gave me a sad look. “What do you
wanna try?”

“I don’t know. I’m gonna feel for the energy in the computer to help while you switch the auto thing back on again. If we can keep us from crashing into the ocean
until Julie can wake up the pilot, then I will be happy.”

“Alright, ready?” Ian grabbed the switch and waited for me.

Even with shaky hands I released enough energy to boost the power in the computer and Ian turned it on. Almost instantly, the plane leveled out and I could feel an incline. “Oh thank God.” My breaths came fast.

Camilla grabbed her chest and let out a sigh. “Thank you.”

I stood up and ran out of the cockpit. Julie wasn’t anywhere that I could see. The passengers I passed were still asleep, but at least the plane wasn’t descending anymore. Although, the lights still flickered occasionally down the aisles.

“Julie!” I ran down the
aisle. Where was she?

“Es, Ailaina needs your help with Lauren.”
Luna’s distraught voice interrupted my thoughts.

I headed back to the stairs. T
aking two at a time, I made it to the upper deck where Ailaina, Lauren, and Luna waited for me. Lauren was lying on the floor and I could see she was having trouble breathing.

I kneeled next to her
. She smiled up at me but I knew it was fake. “So you decided to join my party after all,” she whispered in between heavy breaths.

“Yeah, you know, I thought you’d miss me.” I looked over her torso. Her hands were folded together over the wound in her side. I wanted to cry. It looked
so much worse than it did earlier. Bright crimson pooled out onto the floor.

“Es,” Ailaina touched my arm. “They used Belladonna.”

The world around me seemed to slow down. Nothing mattered anymore but Lauren. It was just like Bry all over again. All of my childhood he was my dad; even after I found out, I loved him just the same. In my heart I would always have a place for him as a father, and losing him much the same way pulled at my heart as I looked at Lauren. “Get Ian.”

I knew Ailaina left to go find him but I never saw her leave. Luna nestled up next to me and that’s when I noticed
Kara laying down with Lauren. Her muzzle rested on Lauren’s shoulder. Her soft whimper tore at my heart, and tears filled my eyes.

I sat up a little better and ran my hands over her injury. I could feel the Belladonna burning my skin
, but I still tried to pull it from her. Lauren gripped my wrist. “Don’t, it’s not worth you dying too.” She took a ragged breath and winced. “Besides, Ian needs you. I’m glad he’s happy again.”

I shook my head. “No, I’m gonna try. I have to.” I sniffed and tried to hold back the tears
, but they fell anyway.