The Innocent: Chapter 14 (Patreon)

Index

Chapter 14

Camille

A shiver ran the full length of my body, stirring me from unconsciousness. The first thing that registered through the groggy weight in my mind was the pain. My head was splitting, no doubt from how hard Constance had hit me to knock me out, and I was bruised elsewhere from the fight. Most notably bruised were my ribs, which stretched painfully because my arms were stuck somewhere above me. There were minor cuts all over my body too, I could feel the sting of them, but they were already healing and weren’t enough to cause the pungent scent of blood in the air.

It was more than the older blood I’d scented the first time Kyla and I had come to the graveyard – that’s where I was, the graveyard, I could tell even with my eyes closed. But the blood was fresh. So fresh, and rich, and familiar. And when I finally stirred enough to recognize that familiarity, my eyes shot open. My head whipped to the right to see who was chained to the crypt wall beside me.

“Abby?” I jerked forward, trying to break free of the chains to get to her, but I could feel the burn of silver in them, making me weaker and preventing a Change. I’d never get out.

She looked over at me and offered a weak smile, but her eyes were red like she’d been crying. “Have a good nap?”

I strained forward as much as I could in the chains at my wrists and ankles, trying to find the source of blood. Even though I’d been in wolf form when knocked out, Constance had dressed me in sweats and a baggy tank top, not nearly enough to prevent me from feeling the chill of the dank, dark air. She’d also stripped Abby of her jacket and socks and shoes, and as I craned against my restraints, I found the stain in Abby’s shirt. There was a deep, seeping knife wound on the right side of her stomach.

“You’re bleeding.” I tugged harder at my chains, awake enough now to feel the beginning thralls of panic. There was no give, so I jerked harder, holding my breath and pushing my feet against the wall for leverage while I tried to break the metal from the earth. It was useless, and I shouted my frustration and slumped back. “How bad is it? Has the bleeding slowed?” She shook her head, but she hadn’t needed to answer anyway. I could smell it. I didn’t know how long I’d been unconscious for while she’d been wounded, but there was too much of it in the air. She’d already lost too much.

“She stabbed me,” Abby said. “Luna fought… she tried so hard, but it didn’t help.”

“Luna?” I breathed in worry.

“She’s okay,” she said. “The demon doesn’t kill innocents.” There was a thick pause, and then Abby whined and fresh tears flooded her eyes. “I didn’t want it to be true.” She sniffled, sinking forward into the restraint of the shackles around her wrists. “It was that mission, he’s the only one, but he wasn’t innocent.” She choked on a cry. “He couldn’t be, but Constance can’t be wrong. My dad’s wrong, or he lied… but why…” She mewled, chest heaving with the struggle to hold back sobs. “I never meant to hurt anyone,” she whimpered, “Camille, I never…”

“I know,” I said, “I know, it’s not your fault.” I knew that feeling, that sickening guilt when you realized you’d taken an innocent life. “It’s not your fault.” I wanted to hug her. Needed to check on her and make sure she’d be okay, but I was trapped and silver-weighed and I felt fucking helpless. I pulled again, thrashing side to side in fury when it didn’t work. “You’re going to be okay, okay? Stay strong.” I glanced around to try and find something useful. “Kyla and Luna will come and you’re going to be fine.” But I didn’t know if that was true. She’d lost so much blood already, and if I stopped struggling long enough to listen, I could hear that her heartbeat wasn’t as strong as it should be.

She swallowed hard, forcing down the tears and trying to say with some humor, “You can’t lie to me when I’m in your head.”

“Well then,” I countered, hoping a little playfulness would keep her spirits up, “maybe you should stay out of my head.”

Instead of reminding me that she couldn’t control it, she rested the back of her skull against the wall and admitted, “I like it in your head. You’re not as stoic and composed as you act most the time.”

“Is that right?” I asked, peering upward to see the shackles while I toyed with the lock, searching for a way to undo it.

Abby hummed. “Kyla’s so straightforward.” She coughed, and I glanced over to catch the dark tint of blood that reached her lips. “But your head is a whirlwind of… I don’t know… anger and guilt and a million other things.”

I stopped my fidgeting with the chains because it wasn’t helping at all, and because the more I struggled, the faster the silver in the metal chaffed at my skin. “Why is that good?” There was no answer, so I looked over with concern. She was staring across the crypt at the beam of moonlight from the open hole to the earth above, losing focus. “Abby?” I prompted, and she met my gaze. “Why is that good?”

“Because you try,” she said. Her chest tightened with another cough, but she held it back. “Kyla doesn’t have to try. She’s brave, and compassionate, and it’s easy for her to be who she is.” She inhaled a labored breath, but the icy air reaching her lungs sent a visible chill through her body. “You have to try to be who you want, and you do, and it m-” she broke with a shiver, “makes me want to try harder.”

She was getting worse. I didn’t respond so I could listen for her heartbeat, and what I heard put me back on edge. “How are you feeling?” I asked, attempting to keep the creeping panic out of my voice even if she’d hear it in my mind.

“Weak,” she whispered, huffing with another restrained cough. “Cold. Everything hurts.”

I gritted my teeth to try and stay calm, suddenly remembering Kyla’s plan for fear. I dug my nails into my palm till it hurt, and waited. What felt like five torturous seconds later, there was a responsive pressure in my own hand. Two pulses. Hang in there. But we couldn’t. Abby had lost too much blood already, and I didn’t know how much longer she’d last. Constance was planning on killing us anyway, but I had to keep Abby alive long enough for Kyla and Luna to get to us. And I knew what I had to do.

I strained against my chains, testing how much slack I had while I studied the ones around Abby’s wrists. “Okay,” I panted, relaxing to regain my strength for the next push, “I need you to stretch toward me. As far as you can.”

Abby laughed, which sent her into a fit of coughs that looked excruciating. “I can’t,” she breathed, struggling for air, “I can’t let you bite me.”

“You can,” I urged pleadingly. “You have to.” Her choking ceased, and she was so weak that she went limp in her chains, barely shaking her head. “It’ll heal you,” I begged, “it’ll keep you alive until Kyla and Luna get here and you’ll be okay. It’s the only way.” She didn’t respond, and her normally glowing complexion was growing pale. “Goddammit, Abby, do it!”

“Admit it,” she murmured. “You’re fond of me.”

“Please.”

“Come on.” She huffed with as much amusement as she could manage. “I’m dying, humor me.”

“Yes,” I blurted in desperation. “Yes. You’re growing on me too. I like you.” I swallowed past the lump in my throat. “I like you a lot, okay? But Kyla, she… Kyla loves you. I know you know it.” She didn’t say anything. “Abby?” I pulled at my chains, pressing my nails harder than ever into my palm. “You know it, Abby.” There was one pulse of response in my hand. They were coming. “It doesn’t matter if she chose me. It doesn’t mean she can stand to lose you. Don’t do this.”

"I have to."

“You don’t,” I argued, struggling fiercely even though the silver seared against where my wrists were going raw. It’d make me sick soon, but it didn’t matter. “You helped save my life last semester, please, please let me save yours.”

“I have to save you again,” she said weakly. “If I turn, my dad will kill you. He won’t care about the Pack and he’ll kill anyone who tries to stop him. It’s not worth it.”

“It’s worth it,” I whimpered. I didn’t want her to die. “Damn it, you’re worth it.” She didn’t deserve it and I didn’t want it and I’d do anything, consequences be damned.

She gave a feeble smile that only managed to reach one corner of her mouth. “You’re a whirlwind.”

She wasn’t going to let me, and my heart ached with helplessness. I tugged and thrashed so violently against the metal cuffs that my wrists started bleeding, but I ignored the pain in them and in my bruised body to try and fight it. To try and break free. All it did was hurt, and I arched away from the wall. “FUCK!” I dug my nails into my palm till it broke skin, screaming toward the beam of moonlight, “Help! Down here! Help!”

There was a flash through the light, and the gentle thud of feet hitting the ground beneath the opening. Constance straightened, glancing from me to the earth above. “Yell all you want,” she said, “there’s no one around to hear. I checked.”

"Let Abby go," I pleaded. “I won’t fight the ritual, I swear, just get her help. She shouldn’t be here.”

“She took an innocent life,” Constance said, striding across the crypt toward us.

“She didn’t mean to. She didn’t know.”

Constance edged near Abby’s face, staring into the brimming tears in her eyes and then pulling back to pinch her bloodied shirt above the knife wound. “She made choices. Those choices have consequences.” She pulled that same knife from earlier from the back of her jeans.

“Touch her and I’ll kill you!”

She deliberately faced me while she lifted the long sleeve of her sweater, and used the knife to reopen the nearly healed wound on her own arm. She stowed the knife and dipped her index finger in the pool of blood she’d produced. “Ic i beo ledand neadwoz,” she began, lifting her hand to paint a crimson streak over Abby’s forehead. Abby tried to jerk away, but Constance grabbed her by the chin to hold her still, and she was too weak to fight it.

“Hey!” I hollered over Constance’s next phrase, as she pressed a spot above the streak. “Do me first!”

“Alifd-”

“Stop!”

“-enc et atilan dhisum sawl.” She pressed a second spot beneath the streak.

“I’m ready!” I shouted. She ignored me to retrieve the knife. I could guess what came next, and I could feel Kyla getting close, but they weren’t close enough. Abby couldn’t stand to lose any more blood than she already had. My nails scored into the raw crescents I’d dug into my palms as I flailed against my restraints. “Do me first! Don’t fucking touch her!”

She reached into one of her pockets with her free hand, pulling out the protection charm she’d stolen from Abby’s backpack. She pressed it to Abby’s right palm, but Abby refused to hold it. “Grab,” Constance demanded. “Grab or I’ll make it stick.” Her fingers closed around the charm, and Constance brought the point of the knife up to the inside of her forearm.

“NO!” I shouted.

Constance ignored me. She carved into Abby’s arm while she spoke more phrases, and Abby screamed, her voice raw with exhaustion and weakness and pain. Her fist closed tighter around the charm like the pain was so bad she couldn’t let it go. Her eyes squeezed shut, but agonized tears still forced their way out and streamed down her cheeks. I thrashed so hard that the struggle drove the grip of silver poisoning around my stomach, making me queasy. But I wouldn’t let it make me weak. I fought and yelled because my wolf wanted blood and it was all I could do.

It still did nothing. Constance finished carving her first symbol into Abby’s flesh. Redeemed. And I was so furious that I’d have already Phased if the silver wasn’t preventing it. I was burning with the need to Change, the need to rip Abby’s assailant apart with my teeth, and that need to protect her ran so deep it should’ve terrified me, but the wolf inside me howled with rage because I’d never felt so powerless.

Constance reached into her pocket again, pulling out the small bullet she’d taken from the Council office. “Hold,” she ordered, shoving the bit into Abby’s left hand.

Every muscle in my body tensed as I prepared to start writhing in my chains and ignoring the bite of the metal at my wrists, but then two figures dropped through the opening in the earth. Kyla and Luna thudded down in the darkness, and Kyla snarled so viciously when she saw what was happening that her staying human was an unbelievable display of self-control.

“Luna!” I hollered. “Call an ambulance!” She hesitated to reach for her phone because there was so much happening here that we’d have to explain. There were rules for exposure, but none of that mattered. “NOW!”

Luna pulled out her phone, and knowing that her time was growing short, Constance lifted the knife to Abby’s left arm. Kyla flew across the crypt, managing to catch a distracted Constance around the waist and throwing her clear into the wall at the opposite end. Constance was on her feet before even hitting the ground, and she turned with a glare, but Kyla placed herself in front of Abby, snarling in warning. She was close enough that Abby’s head lolled forward against her upper back, and Abby was too weak to straighten and her breathing was shallow, and my insides were twisting with poisoning and fear and worry.

“Whatever you’re going to do,” I told Kyla, “do it fast.”

I expected her to attack, to fight, but instead, she stopped snarling, her upper lip still curled while she looked at her hand and read in an unsure falter, “Ic i beo oferstel odh m-”

“I must finish!” Constance yelled, her eyes going wide.

She launched herself across the crypt, trying to grab Kyla and throw her aside. Kyla retaliated, whipping her off balance and shoving her to the ground, but she made a sweeping kick that knocked Kyla’s feet out from under her. Constance was back up with her knife in hand before Kyla even hit the dirt. The moment she tried to dig the first part of the second symbol into Abby’s left arm, Kyla threw herself off the ground, grabbing Constance by the hips and taking them both down.

Kyla used that moment to continue. “Morjorshyld.”

Luna had been pacing on her cellphone, but the second she hung up, she sprinted toward the action. She flung herself between Constance and Abby when Constance sprang up, yelling, “Kyla, finish!” Constance lunged forward to try and get at Abby with the knife, but Luna shouldered her away.

Kyla held her hand up again and read rapidly, “sacleases ond unbesmin,”

Constance froze, throwing a frantic look over her shoulder like she couldn’t decide whether to stop Kyla or try and finish with Abby. Her reluctance to hurt Kyla must’ve overridden anything else, because she made another move, this time at Luna. She reached over Luna’s shoulders like she was trying to get at Abby, but the moment Luna grabbed her around the waist to throw her back, she wrapped one leg behind Luna’s, pulling Luna’s knees forward and sidestepping out of the way so Luna fell.

“dhu yu alihst,” Kyla continued.

Luna snarled her frustration as she kicked out, the soles of her feet hitting Constance in the hip just as the knife got near Abby’s arm again, and Constance went flying into the nearby wall.

“dhaer sorgyron,” Kyla read.

“NO!” Constance roared, glaring at Kyla from where she’d regained her balance.

Kyla finished in a decided tone, “Afeor.” Constance continued to glare, but nothing happened. One corner of her mouth tugged into a smirk after a moment as she started stomping back toward Luna and Abby. “It ain’t working!” Kyla yelled in panic. “Afeor!” Constance kept marching. “Leave!”

There was a barely audible whisper from my right, and I could see Abby’s lips moving when I glanced over. I strained to hear her, but she was too weak and her voice too soft. “Louder, Abby,” I pleaded.

She drew in a labored breath, gathering the strength to say just loud enough I could make it out, “Af-ee-or.”

Kyla’s pronunciation was off. “Kyla, af-ee-or!” Constance shot me a look that made my blood run cold, but it didn’t deter me. I pronounced it correctly again. “Afeor!”

Kyla didn’t hesitate to yell, “Afeor!”

Constance seized the very second the word was out of Kyla’s mouth, her eyes growing so wide that white surrounded her brown irises. Her hands began to shake so inhumanly fast that the movement was blurred, and it traveled up her arms, through her chest and neck until her entire body was vibrating. Her eyes and nostrils and mouth began to glow a bloody orange, dull at first, but brighter as that vibrating had spread, until it was nearly blinding in the dark crypt. There was a high-pitched wail, so loud it felt like my ears would bleed, and then all at once it was silent and dark.

Constance collapsed onto the crypt floor, and every one of us remained frozen for a long moment to see if it worked. When we were certain it did, Kyla sprinted over, sliding to her knees at Constance’s side to search her pockets for a key. She pulled one out and dashed over, hesitating when she reached us and with a panicked look in her eyes, like she was torn between her duty to me and her concern for Abby.

“Get her down,” I said urgently.

She undid the chains at Abby’s ankles, and then the ones around her wrists, catching her when the lack of restraint left her unable to stay upright. Kyla held her, helping her to the ground while she tossed the key to Luna. “Alright,” she murmured to Abby, her voice shaky, “you’re alright, don’t quit now.” They reached the floor, and she cradled Abby in one arm while her other hand pressed to the wound on Abby’s stomach. There were sirens in the distance, so close that they’d be here within the minute.

Luna couldn’t unchain me fast enough. The moment I was unbound, I rushed to my knees across from Kyla. “Push harder,” I said, trying to hold back my panic, pressing my hand over Kyla’s on the wound because she was too emotional to do it right.

Her eyes had filled with tears, and her lips pursed with holding back a frown, but she nodded and removed her hand to let me do it. “Don’t die, Abs,” she pleaded, sniffling as she cupped Abby’s face. “Please don’t.”

Abby was too weak to say anything, and I was still going back and forth in my mind about whether I should bite her. About whether the medics would be able to save her because it was worth it. Even if her dad would come after me, even if she’d be upset with me for doing it when she’d said not to, even if Eli would punish me for biting another person so soon, it was worth it. But she wasn’t too weak to hear my thoughts, and her hand fell onto my forearm, squeezing with what strength she had left. I could feel the reassurance in the touch, the promise that she wasn’t done fighting.

Luna had knelt to check on Constance, who was alive and conscious and still bleeding from the wound on her arm. She was clinging to Luna, muttering ‘thank you’ and ‘I’m sorry’ repeatedly as she sobbed. Later, I’d be happy that she was okay, and that she’d survived the possession, but all I could think about at that moment was making sure Abby survived.

From somewhere above us, the sirens stopped, and voices yelled, “Hello?” and “EMTs!”

“Down here!” I shouted.

I yelled until beams of flashlights shone over the hole above us, and when they finally found us, I shouted about Abby having lost too much blood. They set to work immediately on figuring out how to get Abby up, lowering a stretcher and ladder and making sure she was stable before hoisting her out. We climbed out after them, Luna helping to support Constance once we’d reached the outside. We were immediately intercepted by police, who cut off our path to the ambulance Abby was being loaded into, and led Luna and Constance over to a second one so Constance could be seen for her arm. But Kyla was tense as she stared at the first vehicle, and I felt her panic and worry. Her stomach and heart were in such a flurry it was making me sick, and the silver poisoning from the chains made me almost unable to bare it. My stomach was tight with holding back a gag.

“Go with her,” I said.

Kyla tore her eyes away from the ambulance with surprise, studying my face to make sure I was certain about it. “Are you okay?” She took in my raw wrists, and then stepped closer to touch a hand to my nauseated stomach.

“I’ll be fine,” I told her, wrapping my arms around her shoulders when she hugged me tight around the middle. “Go,” I said, giving her an encouraging push toward the ambulance. “Keep me updated, please, text Luna’s phone. We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

“Love you.” She kissed me and jogged off toward the vehicle.

I watched it depart swiftly, and once Kyla had disappeared, I didn’t have to worry about holding back the silver poisoning anymore. If she was too concerned about me, she wouldn’t have gone with Abby, but I needed to know that Abby wasn’t alone. The feeling in my stomach caught up with me the moment she was gone, and I stumbled away and buckled over to vomit in the snow.

It happened once more in the next minute, and when I felt well enough to stagger to the ambulance Luna and Constance were at, an officer was holding out a bottle of water to me. “It’s normal after a trauma,” she said sympathetically. I nodded, glad the woman had come up with an excuse for me, and took the water to sip on it.

A male officer draped a heavy blanket around me, gestured toward my arms and said, “You should let a medic look at you.”

“I’m fine,” I said, lying, “I’ll do it at the hospital. I want to get this over with so I can go see my friend.”

He nodded. “Can you tell me what happened tonight?”

“I got knocked out,” I explained, and motioned toward the crypt. “I woke up down there with Abby and Constance.” Constance looked at me, her rising terror about what I’d say so severe it was tangible. “There was a guy,” I said, looking directly at her so she’d know that, even though I’d been furious enough to threaten her, I didn’t blame her for this, “he hurt them, but then Kyla and Luna found us, and he ran.” Constance’s eyes filled with fresh and grateful tears, and I gave her the subtlest of smiles while Luna set a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“Did he drive away?” the female officer asked. “Run?”

“I don’t know,” I answered.

The male turned aside, saying into the radio at his shoulder, “Suspect fled, possible four-seventeen alpha.” Then he said to us, “You all should call your parents before we ask you anymore questions, or we’ll call if you need.”

Luna stepped away, but she was only pretending to call Eli and told the officers she couldn’t get a hold of anyone. We’d tell him the truth later, without a human audience. Constance’s parents arrived quickly, looking frantic but relieved, and I could only imagine that they hadn’t heard from her once since she’d been possessed. It took forever for the police to finish asking questions, and the fact that we hadn’t heard from Kyla made me more anxious every minute. By the time we were done giving statements, I was eager to be at the hospital. We stuck around just long enough for Constance to give us crushing hugs, and she murmured another teary apology when she gave me mine.

Afterward, Luna and I raced to the hospital in the Jeep, and I called Kyla as Luna pulled to a stop in the parking lot right outside it. “We’re here,” I said into the phone when she answered, “what’s happening?”

“Don’t come in,” Kyla murmured, “I’ll be there in a second.”

The defeated tone of her voice worried me, but I knew it would’ve been far worse if Abby hadn’t made it. So I waited as patiently as I could, tapping my bare heel against the floor of the car. She eventually came out, climbed into the back seat, and slammed the door shut with a heavy sigh.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“She’s in surgery,” Kyla said, glaring toward the hospital. “Her dad wouldn’t let me stay.”

My chest rumbled with a low growl. “You should’ve stayed anyway.”

Before Kyla could respond, Luna asked, “Did it seem like he knew it was us who broke into the office yet?”

“Not yet…” Kyla said.

“I’ll go in,” she volunteered. “He doesn’t know me; I’ll say I’m a friend from school.”

“Yeah?” I asked. “And how’d you hear about this so fast?”

“My dad’s a cop,” she suggested, sighing when Kyla and I seemed less than receptive. “Look, it’s better than you two going in and causing a scene.”

“Her dad would cause a scene,” I muttered under my breath, and Kyla huffed her agreement.

“Jesus,” Luna complained, “you guys are so weird about her. Do you want me to go in or not?”

Neither Kyla or I said anything, but it seemed clear that Luna going in was pretty much our only option. But she was still waiting for a confirmation, so I gestured impatiently toward the hospital, “GO.”

Luna rolled her eyes, mumbling as she got out of the car, “Lucky I like you, freaking frenzy-causing, werewolf enchanting, big-boobed lesbian-seducer.” She threw the door shut behind her and paced into the hospital.

Kyla and I sat there for a long span of minutes in silence, tense and waiting for a call even though we knew it’d be a long time before we heard anything. Eventually Kyla said, “Camille?” I hummed. “Come back here?” I climbed over the middle console and into the back seat, and she curled against my side, setting her head on my shoulder. Her hand found my arm and traced the edges of the silver burns in my wrist, careful not to hurt me. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah,” I answered. “I’m healing.”

"Your ankles? And the other cuts?”

“They’re not as bad.”

There was dried blood near the deeper parts of the wounds on my wrists, and the skin around them was raw and irritated. “You should’ve let the EMTs clean it,” Kyla said. She reached behind our seat into the trunk to grab the first aid kit. “You could still get infected.”

“I was worried,” I told her. “I wanted to be here.”

She stopped digging through the kit to look up at me. Her eyes held mine and then scanned the rest of me, and I felt her reach out in the connection, searching more than just my face. “You care about her,” she said. Even though her voice was soft, it was a statement and not a question, and there was an edge of surprise in it. “Like I do…”

I didn’t know what to say to that, or what I even thought about it, but Kyla and I had agreed to be honest with each other. Always. “I offered the bite,” I murmured.

Her eyebrows furrowed, and she asked haltingly, “For… me?”

“Yeah,” I said. But that wasn’t right. “No. I don’t know.” I stared at my hands, eventually shaking my head, saying decidedly, “Not just for you.”

When I said nothing else, she asked nothing else, but gave a small smile and returned to the kit. She retrieved a bottle of rubbing alcohol, some ointment, and some gauze wrap, and I held my wrists out over the floor to let her do what she needed. She met my gaze as she held the open bottle above my wounds, hesitating because we both knew it would be excruciating, and I braced myself and nodded. She poured, and I gritted my teeth, rumbling deep in my chest through the searing pain of the alcohol. It was over in a few seconds, but the stinging lasted, settling deep into my flesh even after she applied the ointment and bandages, and I’d been through so much stress that my skin itched with a Change. I needed to run, needed something to release all the pent-up tension that had built throughout the night. I leaned my head back against the seat, breathing deep to try and relax through the pain and the worry and the restlessness.

Kyla dropped the first aid kit back into the trunk, and she watched me for a few moments before she leaned in. She kissed the edge of my jaw, the pulse point below it, and the muscle in my neck below that, soft and open and slow. They were apologetic and soothing, an offer of comfort, but also testing. A request. I knew exactly what she was asking, and with the adrenaline from the night still lingering in my veins and tingling in my skin, it didn’t take convincing. I turned my head to find her lips with my own, kissing her once in acknowledgment.

“We need t-”

“I know,” I said, and in the space of an instant, I’d pushed her back against the seat and straddled her lap, and my lips were back on hers.

She needed to feel me. It had been a long, painful night, and she needed to kiss and touch and reassure herself that I was fine. That I’d survived and everything was okay. She needed to feel connected, and I needed some kind of release because we couldn’t run. And we were both so restless. We had nothing else to do but sit here, trapped, waiting for news that Abby was okay, and sitting in silence was torture. But Kyla was comfort. Safety. We could lose ourselves in the connection and in each other, and it would ease the anxiety and make waiting easier.

I kissed her deeply while her hands found the bottom of my loose tank top, slipping under to feel my skin, and they carried the promise of everything I needed. They were so hot in contrast to the chill air, so soft and strong and skilled. She always knew just where to touch me. Which rib to trace so it stirred instead of tickled, which spot to press on my back to get my hips to move, where to caress on my chest to make my breath catch in my throat with anticipation. But her restlessness made her impatient, and the demand in the movement of her hands and in the connection filled me with an uncontrollable need for release. My skin burned with it, my chest ached with the restraint of holding back the Phase that the silver had stolen from me. I was riding the thin edge of Change, and she felt the desperation.

She pushed my shirt up my chest, leaving my lips to kiss between my breasts. “Stay with me,” she whispered, her hand slipping beneath the lining of my sweats, “I’ve got you.”

The first brush of her fingers over my clit was such a relief that the moan I released was mixed with a heavy sigh. There was too much tension in me for teasing and build up, and she knew it. She set right into the touch and rhythm she knew from experience would finish me quickest, and it made me so weak that I collapsed forward, bracing my hands against the seat behind her. Her head was still at my chest, and she kissed everywhere she could reach while I rocked my hips into her hand. She pressed searing pecks up my neck and across my collarbones, brushed her lips or tongue over a stiff nipple to draw another moan from my throat, nipped the fleshy muscle above my breasts because if I couldn’t sink my teeth into something, then she knew having her teeth on me was the next best thing.

I was heading toward climax so fast that I was already breathless, but I missed her lips and her tongue and her taste. I leaned back and took one hand off the seat to cup her face, tilting her chin up so I could take her lips in a desperate kiss, hardly caring about air as I moved against her. The pressure between my hips was almost too much to hold back, and I could feel in the connection how badly Kyla wanted it. How much she needed to hear me come.

“I’m close,” I breathed, taking her bottom lip between my teeth.

“I know,” she said. “I’m finishing with you.” I gathered the capacity of mind to reach between us, aiming for the button of her jeans even though I knew it’d be hard to touch her like this. “No need,” she whispered against my lips, her free hand grabbing mine to set it instead against the back of her neck, “you’re enough.”

That hand joined the other between my legs, and she didn’t hesitate to slide two fingers into me while the other continued working higher up. The fullness of her fingers forced a profanity onto the stuttering breath that left my chest. I clenched so hard around her as heat exploded at my core, and it carried through the connection so that her eyes lidded and her breath hitched.

I was there, only managing to hold back just long enough to ask, “With me?”

“Yes,” she whimpered, her hips pushing impatiently beneath mine with the next thrust of her fingers.

And I was gone. I let the peaking pleasure wash over me, and curled into her as I fell into the first bursting wave of climax. She hit that peak with me, throwing her head back as her eyes slammed shut, and it exposed her neck as I felt the invitation in the connection. I bit down over the taut muscle beside her throat while I throbbed against her and around her, every muscle in my body seizing with euphoria while I felt the vibrations of the moans in her throat against my mouth. My body was so grateful for the release that it lasted, and every time I fell into fresh waves, it sent Kyla reeling, until the echoes cycled back to the pulsing in my clit and sent me into another weaker ebb.

By the time it ended, I was too weak to even keep the grip of my jaw at Kyla’s neck. I let her go to press lazy, wet, soothing kisses to the indents my teeth had made while we recovered. She was still inside me, fingers feeling for my heartbeat in the sensitive flesh, and she hummed her approval every time I pulsed against her with an aftershock.

All the burn of holding back a Change was gone. My body was beautifully content, and prepared for the remaining stress of waiting for word from Luna. “Thank you,” I whispered against Kyla’s neck.

She pulled out of me while she set her forehead against mine, wiping her fingers on the inside of my sweats and then reaching up to press a hand to the center of my chest. “Are you really okay?”

It was clear then that she wasn’t just asking about the wounds in my wrists and ankles. She was asking about my emotional state. About my fear of the occult and the fact that it had almost killed me a second time. About how I’d been stuck while Abby was hurt and unable to do anything about it. I was still worried about Abby, but being with Kyla had grounded me to safety and calmed every other stress I’d been through, making me strong in the face of waiting for news.

“Yeah,” I answered, setting my hand over Kyla’s on my chest. “I was too worried to be afraid for myself. Are you okay?”

“I’m relieved you’re not hurt,” she said, kissing me once. “If I lost you, I don’t know what… I couldn’t…” Her gaze wandered past me to the hospital. “But Abby…” Her eyes grew watery while she stared, but then she blinked the tears away. “I don’t want to think about it till we know for sure.”

I shifted off her lap, pulling her with me while I laid down across the seat. She settled on top of me, and I wrapped my arms around her as she buried her face in my neck. And we waited. For a couple hours more, we lay there, silent but fully awake, comforting each other with our embrace or the occasional kiss.

Eventually, Luna pulled open the driver’s side door and hopped into the seat, turning around to look back at us. “She’s out of surgery and she’s going to be fine.” I sighed with profound relief, but such a powerful wave of it went through Kyla that it was almost painful even for me. “She’s sleeping now, but we can come back tomorrow and see her.”

Kyla sniffled and reached between us to wipe the tears from her eyes. “Thanks for going in.”

Luna gave an understanding smile and asked, “Home?” I nodded, and held Kyla a little tighter while Luna drove us back to the comfort of the Pack house.

<<< Chapter 13

Chapter 15 >>>