Not Gonna Die
Tonight
Brett
shoved the man hole aside with his good arm and hauled himself up, gasping in
the fresh air. Almost out. Now they could get away, they could go home. He forced himself to his feet, every muscle
screaming and reached back into the man hole, taking Lori’s hands and pulling
her up. They started to run but stopped,
blinded by a glaring light. An engine
roared and Brett’s heart sank. They were
in the middle of the road, a car bearing down on them with no time to get out
of the way. Brett shut his eyes and
squeezed Lori’s hand, feeling her return the pressure. He forced out a breath; he had time to do one
thing. He pulled his hand out of Lori’s
and shoved her aside.
. . .
“911,
what is your emergency?”
“Please,
you’ve got to help. It’s my brother, he’s
been hit by a truck. I think he’s dying,
nobody will help us. We need help right now.”
“All
right sweet heart, try to calm down.
Tell me where you are and we’ll send someone to you.”
“We’re
on Muse Avenue. Please hurry. You’ve got to hurry, you’ve got to help him.”
“We’ve
got an 18 year old male, struck by a car in a hit and run. BP is 62/43 after two bags of fluid and a
unit of blood. He has 3 more units
ordered. Heart rate is in the 160s. He’s on 100% O2 with the vent, intubated on
scene. Multiple broken bones, two
puncture wounds to the chest, right atelectasis and hemothorax, chest tube
placed in ER. Massive internal
hemorrhage, subdural hematoma in two places, rising intracranial pressure, last
Glascow was 5.”
.
. .
Satomi
barely remembered coming here.
Everything from the time a frantic Lori called saying Brett had been hit
by a car to being ushered into this hospital room was a blur. The first thing that struck her when she
entered was the smell. Blood, a lot of
it, and already the tinge of death.
Brett was barely recognizable- pale, bloody, a tube down his throat, his
wrists tied to the bed frame. She could
hear his heart beat, fast and erratic and far too soft. She must have stumbled, a nurse came up
behind her, taking her arm and guiding her to a chair by the bed. She said something softly that Satomi didn’t
hear and stepped out.
“Lori,
what happened?” Satomi asked after a moment, but Lori just shook her head, eyes
wide, her back pressed against the wall in the far corner.
Dawn,
the third person Lori called, stood by the door, both hands covering her the
lower half of her face, whispering a prayer that was almost too quiet to
hear.
They
stayed like that for a while until a man in his late 30s came into the room.
“Mrs.
Ito,” he said softly, with just a touch of an Indian accent. “My name is Dr. Gohvani, I’m one of the
physicians taking care of your-- of Brett.”
Satomi nodded and he took a breath before continuing. “I’m going to be honest with you, it’s not
looking good. He has sustained numerous
critical injuries, any one of which could kill him. It’s a miracle he made it to the hospital at
all, and in all honesty he could crash at any time.” The doctor laid a hand on her shoulder. “I know this happened very quickly, and you
don’t have to make a decision right now, but there’s something I’d like you to
think about. He’s suffering, he’s in a
lot of pain, and no matter what we do, we don’t expect him to survive long. As I said, you can think about it as much as
you need to, but as a physician, I have to suggest that it may be kindest to
take all this equipment away and let him go.”
Lori
whimpered and out of the corner of her eye Satomi saw Dawn put her arm around
the younger girl.
“There’s
nothing you can do?” Satomi asked. “Some
kind of surgery?”
“We
consulted several of the hospital surgeons and they all agreed that, at this
time, surgery would be futile. With the
severity and extent of his injuries, they don’t feel that even if they did
operate they would be able to fix everything.
And as unstable as he is there is too much of a risk he would die on the
table, and none of us want that.”
“I
understand what you’re saying,” Satomi said. “I don’t want him to suffer any
more than he has to, but Doctor he’s a fighter.
I have to at least give him a chance.”
The
doctor nodded. “I understand that
perfectly.”
“Can we
wait until after Monday night? If he can
make it until then-“ she paused. “I want
to give him a chance. If after Monday
night he hasn’t improved then, then we can…”
“Certainly,”
Dr. Gohvani said. “We’ll do everything we can to sustain him until then if
that’s what you want. I know it’s a lot
to take in. I’ll leave you with him for
a little while. If you have any
questions at any time have one of the nurses call me.”
“Yes,
thank you doctor.”
“Monday
night,” Dawn said, once the doctor had gone.
“You want to wait until the full moon.
I was thinking if he could make it ‘til then, do you think he’ll be ok
if he can get to the moon?”
“I don’t
know,” Satomi said. “But that’s when
he’ll be strongest. If he’s going to get
better it will be then.”
“Why
won’t he heal?” Lori asked.
“I
think there’s just so much wrong,” Satomi said, shaking her head. “Even our bodies can only take so much.”
.
. .
A nurse
stuck her head in the door. “Mrs. Ito, there’s someone at the nurse’s station
asking if he could visit for a few minutes.
He says he’s a friend.”
“Who is
it?” Satomi asked.
“He
said his name is Liam.”
Beside
Satomi, Dawn stiffened and stood up.
“Let me talk him.”
She
stalked out of the room and found Liam Dunbar standing at the front desk. Before he could say anything she grabbed him
by the arm and dragged him over to the end of the hall where there weren’t as
many people.
“You’ve
got a lot of nerve, showing up here.”
“What?”
he shook his head, confused. “Dawn, I-“
She
lashed out with her hand, striking him across the face, her claws gouging deep
red lines in his cheek. “This is your
fault! He’s only here because he was helping you.”
Liam,
shocked, touched the side of his face, the marks already shrinking. Seeing that just made Dawn more angry.
“It was
an accident. You know I didn’t mean for
this to happen,” Liam defended himself. “We tried to help him.”
“Why
didn’t you get an adult?” she demanded.
“You could have told anybody in that school that you thought he was hurt
and you needed help finding him. They
can’t kill us while humans are watching.”
“I
don’t know. I guess we didn’t think about that.” There was a pause and Liam
shuffled his feet. “How’s he doing?”
Dawn
scoffed, looking away to hide the tears stinging her eyes. “He’s dying,” she said. “He could die any minute. Basically there’s nothing they can do, and
the doctors are saying that the kindest thing,”
the word dripped with disdain, “is to let him go.” She took a breath and looked back at
him. “And if the full moon doesn’t give
him enough of a kick to pull through, we’re going to have to do it.”
“I’m so
sorry,” Liam said, at a loss for anything else to say.
“You
should be,” she spat back. “This
wouldn’t have happened if he wasn’t with you.”
“Dawn,
I, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for this to
happen.”
“I
don’t want to see you here again,” she said, crossing her arms over her
chest.
Liam
started to say something, then changed his mind. Instead he just nodded and walked away. Dawn sighed and ran her fingers through her
hair, all the anger suddenly gone, replaced by an empty tiredness. She glanced at the desk, checking if anyone
had seen the exchange, then went back to the room.
. . .
“What have we got tonight?” Dreya,
the nurse coming on asked.
“You
just have one,” Sarah said, “But he’s pretty unstable so you’ll be titrating
those drips all night.”
Dreya
glanced into the room through the window.
“Oh, is this the hit and run?”
Sarah
nodded. “Mmhm.”
“I
didn’t think he’d still be here. Did
they ever get a hold of his parents?”
“Apparently
the parents both died in an accident last year.
The woman in there is the legal guardian, and she practically never
leaves. The girlfriend is in there a lot too, she comes after school. He has a
younger sister who comes with her most of the time but she doesn’t usually stay
long. I heard she was there when it
happened.” Sarah sighed. “It’s just so
sad, watching all of them.”
“Have
they talked to them about taking things off?” Dreya asked. “I mean, he’s not going to make it.”
“He
shouldn’t have made it through the first night.
But yeah, Dr. Gohvani talked to her.
As far as I know the plan is that she wants to wait until after Monday
night. I’m not sure what religion they
are, some eastern something, but the full moon is important to them
somehow. She’s gotten permission to do
some kind of ritual Monday night and if that doesn’t help I think they’re going
to take everything off.”
“I
can’t imagine,” Dreya shook her head, “having to make that kind of
decision. But we’re not helping him like
this.”
“Yeah. You want to go in so we can go over the
drips?”
They
both stepped into the room and Sarah smiled at Satomi. “All right Mrs. Ito, I’m going home for the
night. This is Dreya, she’s taking over
for me.”
Satomi
nodded acknowledgement. “Have a good
evening Sarah, you’ve earned a rest.”
“Maybe
you should go home and rest for a little while too,” Sarah suggested. “He’d want you to be taking care of yourself
wouldn’t he?”
“He
would.” Satomi smiled sadly. “I helped
deliver him you know,” she said after a moment.
“I was there the day he came into this world. I want to be here if he leaves it.”
.
. .
Dawn
took a breath to steel herself and stepped into the ICU room. A sharp pang stabbed at her heart, like it
did every time. She just couldn’t seem
to get used to the sight of Brett lying in that bed, white as the sheets, with
all of those tubes and wires attached to him, the monitor pacing out the
faltering beat of his heart. Satomi,
looking drawn and older than Dawn had ever seen her, sat in a chair beside the
bed, gently stroking his hair. She
turned when Dawn came in and gave her a tired smile.
“How
was school?”
“It was
ok,” Dawn answered mechanically. “How’s he?”
“The
same.”
Dawn
nodded, not knowing what to say. She
hadn’t really expected anything different. “All right,” she said, shifting her
weight. “You’d better go before it gets dark.”
Satomi
stood and hugged Dawn and the two of them held each other for a moment. When they pulled away Dawn smiled at
her. “Have something good for dinner
tonight, I know the food here is terrible.”
“I’ll
be back tomorrow by 9,” Satomi said, but Dawn suspected it would be more like
7. She probably wouldn’t get much rest
while she was gone either. With
everything that was going on, she had a lot of other people to worry about too. Satomi leaned over the bed and squeezed Brett’s
hand, her gaze lingering on him for a moment. “Call me if something changes.”
Once
Satomi had gone, Dawn pulled the curtain across the room, blocking off the view
through the large glass door. Then she
climbed carefully into the bed and lay down on her side next to Brett.
“It’s
the weekend, so we’re going to give Satomi a little break and I’m going to stay
with you tonight.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a crucifix on a
chain. “I brought you something.” She looped it around his wrist three times,
tucking it under the cloth restraint.
“Don’t tell Satomi.” After a
minute of listening to his ventilator assisted breathing, she leaned forward
and kissed the side of his face. “I love you,” she whispered close to his ear,
“so much. I don’t know what I’m going to
do without you. I know that sounds
silly, but I mean it. It’s always been
you and me. Do you remember our first day
of school? I was scared and didn’t want
to leave my mom but you held my hand and walked in like it was nothing. Or when we were learning how to swim, you
didn’t want to put your head under the water, and I almost drowned you trying
to get you to do it. The first time we
turned, chained up in Satomi’s basement.
We’d been waiting so long for it to happen but when it finally did I was
terrified. You talked big, until the
shift started and then you were just as scared as I was. But I could see you across from me and I knew
it was going to be ok. Always, if you’re
with me, I know it’s gonna be ok.” Her voice broke and she sniffed, struggling
to choke out the next words. “And I
don’t know what I’m gonna do if I lose you.”
She buried her face against his shoulder and started to cry.
.
. .
As the
moon rose, the Ito pack crowded solemnly into the hospital room. The nurse had helped Satomi move the bed so
that the head was under the small window.
Satomi opened the blinds, letting the pale moonlight slant over Brett’s
body. The pack gathered around the bed,
no one speaking. The air around them
felt heavy, thick with the gravity of the situation. They all knew this was Brett’s last
chance.
Dawn
could hear Lori’s heart pounding, could smell her emotions in turmoil. Occasionally her eyes flashed when she
started losing control. Dawn reached out
and took the younger girl’s hand, giving it a squeeze. Lori took a breath, steadying herself.
“All
right, let’s begin,” Satomi said.
They
all stepped close to the bed and lay their hands on him. Dawn winced a little when she drew off some
of his pain, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as when she’d done it before, not with
all of them sharing in it. Come on, Brett, she thought, you can do it.
For a
moment, nothing happened. Then something
changed, just like she could draw pain out, he could draw strength in, she
could feel it going into him. He started
to breathe faster, his chest heaving visibly.
One of the machines rang out a shrill beeping. Dawn felt herself trembling, next to her Lori
stumbled, grabbing the bed rail with one hand for support. A heartbeat pounded in her ears and she
wasn’t sure if it was her own or Brett’s.
Her head swam.
Brett
bolted up in bed, gasping, his eyes blazing yellow. His gaze darted around the room, frightened,
until it rested on Satomi. He relaxed
just a little bit, falling back against the bed. Then he started to cough, choking on the
ventilator tube.
Kleavon
Jones hurried out of the room, calling for the nurse. Dawn’s heart skipped a
beat, she had hoped against hope that tonight he would wake up and now was
almost afraid to believe that he really had.
“His
eyes,” Dawn whispered.
Satomi
leaned over him, meeting his gaze with her own wolf eyes and growled
softly. Brett’s eyes faded back to their
human blue just as the nurse hurried into the room. She just stared in utter disbelief for a
second then seemed to shake herself.
“Don’t
fight it honey,” she said, coming over to the bed. “Don’t try to take it out, it’s helping you
breath. Just take deep breaths, don’t
fight it. There you go.” She looked up at Satomi. “It’s all right if you stay, but for right
now I’m going to have to ask everyone else to step out of the room.”
.
. .
“Do you
have the scans from this morning, Sarah?” Dr. Morris asked, coming up to the
small nurse’s desk outside a pair of rooms.
“Yes
sir, let me pull them up for you.”
“I want
to see the abdominal ones too, Dr. Tarawa told me I should have a look at
them.” Dr. Morris scanned through them, shaking his head in amazement. “It’s
like his organs are literally knitting themselves back together. I think the kid is even going to get to keep
his spleen. How’s he doing?”
“Compared
to yesterday, amazing,” Sarah said. “Once he woke up he’s just improved by
leaps and bounds. They took him off the
vent last night and he’s done fine on his own, all the drips are down to
minimum, his vitals have been pretty stable, umm, his neuros are better than
when I got here this morning. So yeah,
he’s doing really well today.”
“All
right, I’ll go see him.” Dr. Morris
knocked on the door and stepped into the room.
“Good afternoon Mrs. Ito. Brett,
my name’s Dr. Morris, I’m one of the physicians who’s been taking care of
you. How are you doing today?”
“Ok.”
“Can
you tell me where you are?”
Brett
opened his mouth and seemed to struggle for a few seconds. “I…I can’t.”
“Ok,
that’s all right, can you just nod or shake your head for me? Are you at home?”
Brett
shook his head.
“At
school? In the hospital? Good.” Dr. Morris turned to Satomi. “When you talk to him do you feel like he’s
been comprehending what you’re saying?”
“Yes,”
Satomi said, “he understands fine, it’s just that he has trouble finding the
words to talk back. He knows what he
wants to say, he’s just, been struggling to do it.”
“That’s
what we call expressive aphasia, it’s common with injury to the area of the
brain he’s had. Brett, can you squeeze
my fingers for me?” Dr. Morris placed two fingers of each hand against Brett’s
palms. The left hand grip was strong but
on the right, his fingers just twitched.
“Can you move this arm at all?”
He managed to just barely lift it off the bed. “How about this right
leg.” The strength there was only a little better. It certainly wouldn’t bear
weight. “But you can feel it when I touch it?”
Brett
nodded.
“Are
you right handed?
“Mmhm.”
Dr. Morris could see a mix of
frustration and concern in the boy’s face.
“Look I don’t want you to stress about this too much right now,” Dr.
Morris said. “With neurological injuries it takes months, sometimes a year or
more before we can say what deficit is permanent and what’s going to get
better. Once you’ve healed we can have
therapy work with you and hopefully get you back to as close to the level of
function you had before as we can. But right now you just need to focus on the
rest of your body getting better and we’ll take care of this after.”
Brett nodded, but didn’t seem to
take much comfort from that.
“Are you in pain right now?”
Brett nodded.
“On a scale of 1-10 how would you
rate it? Just show me on your fingers.”
He lifted his left hand holding up
five fingers, then dropped three of them leaving two.
“Seven, all right. Where are you hurting?”
Brett sighed and shrugged his left
shoulder. “Everywhere.”
“Ok,” Dr. Morris nodded. “Well now
that I’m not too worried about the pressure in your skull I’m going to let them
go up on your pain medication so we’ll see if we can get that under
control.” He turned to Satomi. “Do you
have any questions?”
“Do you know about all these
medications going to the IVs?” she asked. “They’re supposed to be for his blood
pressure and things, which they tell me has been doing well today.”
“That’s something to ask the
cardiologist,” Dr. Morris said. “I do
know the nurse told me all the medications are down to minimum so the next step
would be to take them off, but I’m not sure what the plan is for that. I can tell you this IV nutrition will
probably stay for a while because even once they let him eat again there’s no
way he’ll be able to take in the amount of calories he needs to heal. But as
far as the continuous medications I would imagine they’ll be gone soon. But
again that’s something to discuss with the cardiologist.”
Satomi nodded. “Right, thank you.”
“All right, I’ll be back to see you
tomorrow. Don’t be too discourage that you’re not at 100% right off the
bat. You’ve been through a lot, and you
are improving remarkably.”
Satomi stood once the doctor
left. “I have to meet with the
pack. There’s some things we have to
take care of. I’ll be back in a few hours. All right?”
Brett nodded.
She hesitated, he could see the
conflict in her eyes. He took a breath,
wanting to tell her to go, that he’d be fine and not to worry, but he
didn’t. It was too hard and he doubted
he could get it all out. She reached out
and brushed his hair back. “I’ll be back
soon.”
He gave her a weak smile and she
left the room. He heard her talking to
the nurse outside, telling her to call if anything happened.
When he was sure she was gone he
struggled to turn onto his side pulling his dead limbs with his left arm, grunting
against the pain shooting through every part of him. Not at
a hundred percent, the doctor’s words echoed in his mind, and he scoffed. Hundred percent? He could barely roll over on
his own. What if he was like this forever, unable
to speak more than a handful of easy words, unable to walk, a struggle to move
at all. Even for a werewolf, some
injuries were permanent. What if he’d
used all his power to survive and this was what he was left with?
Then it wasn’t worth it. Dead was better than this.
No,
he stopped himself, shoving the thought aside. He didn’t mean that, it wasn’t right to mean
that. Brett bit his lip, feeling
disappointed, exhausted, tears sting at his eyes. He shut his eyes, he was too tired for
this. He wished he could slip back into oblivious
unconsciousness, so he wouldn’t have to think about or feel anything for a
while.
.
. .
Brett stirred out of a doze when
Dawn and Lori came into the room. It was late afternoon, he’d been asleep
longer than he’d thought. “Satomi?” he asked them. She’d said this morning she’d be back in a
few hours.
The girls exchanged a look he
didn’t see. “She’s busy,” Dawn
said. “She wanted to come but she’s got
a lot to deal with, trying to get everybody out. So you’re stuck with us for now.”
.
. .
Liam hurried out of the school
building, his head down. All he had to
do now was get across the parking lot without anyone stopping him and he was
home free. He stopped when he caught the
scent of another werewolf. He look up
and saw Dawn standing near Mason’s car.
She took a step toward him, looking a little embarrassed and cleared her
throat. “Hi.”
“Hey,” Liam said warily. “What’s
up?”
“I’ve been meaning to talk to you.”
“It’s not really safe here,” Liam
said. “Can we go somewhere else?”
“It’ll only take a minute, I’m not
really supposed to be here. We’ve been banned from McCall territory and I’m not
supposed to go anywhere alone, but I needed to talk to you. I need to tell you I’m sorry for what I said
to you at the hospital. I know what happened
wasn’t your fault, and what I said wasn’t fair.
I guess I just needed somebody to blame.
I know you didn’t let him get hurt on purpose and that you tried to
help. I’m really sorry.”
“It’s fine,” Liam said, smiling at
her. “I get it I guess. How is Brett?”
“He’s great,” Dawn answered, a
light sparking in her eyes. “I can still barely believe it. They’re talking about moving him out of the
ICU and then he could go home soon if everything goes ok.”
“That’s great. Weren’t they talking
about having to keep him there for a while?”
“Yeah, for like a month or
something.” Dawn smiled. “Everybody’s
shocked that he’s gone from practically dead to going home soon in a week.
Which is why we’ve got to get out of there before somebody figures out what he
is.” Her expression clouded again. “I mean they probably already have.”
“Maybe not,” he said, but couldn’t
quite make is sound like he believed it. “So, am I still banned from the
hospital?”
Dawn blushed and shook her head.
“No. I’m sure he’d appreciate it if you came to see him.”
.
. .
Dawn and Lori hurried down the
hospital corridors, smiling at the nurses as they passed. At first glance, everything seemed normal but
if anyone had looked at them longer they would see the tension in the way they
carried themselves, the fear in the quick glances they shot around the
room. They got to Brett’s room and shut
the door quickly behind them, Lori taking up a position beside it like a guard.
“What’s wrong?” Brett asked, sensing
the trouble immediately.
“We have to go. Put these on.” Dawn tossed a set of clothes
at him. “They’re not going to wait
anymore, they’re coming for you. We
heard some men talking downstairs earlier.”
“They’re here now?” he said,
struggling into the shirt, his right side still weak.
She nodded. “Yeah. I didn’t think they’d try anything in
the hospital but the whole town’s going crazy.
We’re probably going to have to run once we get down stairs.”
“I can’t,” Brett said, shaking his
head.
She gave him a hard look. “You’re going to have to. Here.” She took his hand and pressed it
against her chest, he could feel her heart hammering under her sternum. “Take a little help. You did it once before,” she said when he
hesitated. “It’s like taking pain, it’s
just going the other way.” Her eyes
fluttered half closed as she let some of her strength go into him, then she
pulled him up off the bed. “Come on, we need to hurry.”
Lori peeked out into the
hallway. “I don’t see any of them. At least not the ones that were downstairs.”
They all eased out into the hall,
Brett with one hand on Dawn’s shoulder, leaning on her heavily for support.
They started toward the elevators and as they approached a nurse looked up from
her computer screen. “Where are you
going?” she asked, standing. “Is everything all right?”
“I’m sorry, but we have to go,”
Dawn said, trying to walk past her.
The nurse moved a little more in
their way. “You can’t go,” she
said. “Let me get someone to talk to
you, it’s not safe for him to leave yet.
There are things we can do but you can’t just walk out.”
“Yes we can,” Lori said stepping up
the woman and drawing herself up to her full height. “We’re going, don’t get in our way.”
The nurse stepped aside and started
down the hall toward the nurses’ station, but by the time she got there they
were at the elevators. Lori tapped her
foot almost spastically as they elevator made it’s slow decent to the ground
floor. Dawn held her breath as the light
changed to 1, hoping the doors wouldn’t open to the sound of gunfire.
They didn’t, but she couldn’t
breathe easy yet, the worst part would be getting out of the lobby through the
parking lot and to the car. They
shuffled out of the elevator, not meeting the gaze of the people getting on
after them and started toward the front of the hospital.
Brett’s grip tightened on her
shoulder. Act natural, she told herself.
Don’t panic, just walk out like a normal person. But that was hard when she couldn’t be sure
everyone down here didn’t want to kill them.
They were halfway across the lobby
when two men stood up. The ones she and Lori had heard talking earlier. Lori stopped and growled softly.
“Keep walking,” Dawn whispered.
The men waited until they were past
them then fell in behind, following toward the doors. Dawn’s ears pricked at the sound of a bullet
clicking into a chamber.
“When we get to the door run.”
They sprinted forward as the glass
doors slid open, the men behind them pulling out their guns and starting after
them a few seconds later. Dawn pulled
her keys out of her pocket as she ducked away from the smattering of handgun fire. Several people screamed and started shouting.
She skirted around the back of her car to the far side, but stopped short as
she reached for the door handle.
“Wait, stop.” She held out her hand
to Brett and Lori, before they could open the car doors. The tires were flat, so airless the rims were
touching the ground. She growled and stomped her foot so hard it cracked the
pavement.
The front passenger window
shattered as a bullet crashed into it.
The wolves dropped, crouching behind the car.
“Run for the woods?” Lori asked.
Dawn nodded and grabbed Brett’s
arm. Not like they had another option. When they heard the men start to reload they
made a break for it.
They ran for what felt like
forever, Dawn dragging Brett behind her, until the sound of pursuit was left in
the distance. Then they ran a little further just to be sure. When they finally stopped Dawn’s lungs felt
like they were on fire.
“I think we’ll be ok here for a
while,” she said resting her hands on her knees, trying to catch her
breath.
Brett stumbled to his hands and
knees, gasping for breath, his whole body shaking. Dawn’s heart constricted, he
was in no condition to be hunted like this. Dawn knelt beside him and put a
hand on his shoulder. It was wet and
sticky with blood from where his wounds had reopened. She took out her phone and sighed with relief
when she saw two bars in the top corner.
“Ok,” she said after tapping out a
few texts one handed. “My dad is going
to come get us.”
“Good.” Lori stood and dusted off
the back of her jeans. “I’m going to
look around, make sure there’s no one nearby.”
Dawn nodded after a second’s
thought. “Stay close.” She kept her ears open, listening for any
sign of trouble as she shrugged off her jacket and used it to stop the bleeding
on Brett’s chest.
Not twenty minutes later they heard
a car engine in the distance. The girls
stiffened on either side of Brett, claws ready, fangs out. They were near a bike trail and someone was
coming up it. It was only one set of
footsteps, Dawn hoped it was her dad but was afraid it was a hunter. Whoever it was was nearly on them and Dawn
caught the scent on the breeze. She
breathed a sigh of relief. “It’s my
dad.”
She sprang up and ran towards him
throwing her arms around him.
“Are you all right?” he asked,
pushing her out to arm’s length and looking her up and down.
She nodded. “I’m fine. We’re ok.”
“Ok, let’s hurry,” Mr. Cavaro said,
coming over to Brett. “I’m not sure if
they’re watching the house. We probably
don’t have a lot of time.” He took Brett
by the arm and hauled him up. Brett
groaned as his right leg went out from under him. “Easy, I got you,” Mr. Cavaro readjusted his
grip. Dawn slipped under Brett’s other
arm and the two of them helped him down the bike trail, Lori going in front of
them, watching for danger.
They made it to the Cavaro car
without running into any trouble and soon they were on their way. “I’ve got some stuff for all of you in the
trunk,” Mr. Cavaro said as he pulled out of the parking lot. “The bags you girls packed earlier, so we’ll
be able to go straight there.”
“Where are we going?” Brett asked.
“Out of Beacon Hills,” Dawn
answered. “We’re going to stay with my
grandparents. Dad’s getting a new job
over there and they’re going to put us up until he finds a house. You guys are going to stay with us until we
go to college.”
“Satomi?” He sounded like he
already knew the answer.
Dawn nodded, swallowing the lump
growing in her throat. “She’s dead. A few nights ago. She’d decided the best thing to do was leave
and she went to tell them we’d go if they’d just let us. But they killed her. They killed everybody.”
“Almost everyone,” Lori put in from
the front seat. “We think Jiang and
Tierney and Gabby made it, but they’ll be gone by now.”
Brett rested his head on the back
of the seat and let that sink in.
Everyone was dead. No alfa, no pack. They were all that was left.
The car jerked and started to
skid. Brett woke with a growl, his head
knocking against Dawn’s shoulder as he was thrown into her.
Lori snarled. “What is it with these people and tires?”
Mr. Cavaro gunned the engine,
trying to keep going but the car rocked again, this time one of the front
tires. He swore under his breath as he
had to stop the car. Half a dozen men with guns were surrounding the car. “Get down!” Mr. Cavaro yelled. Brett unfastened his seat belt and quickly
crouched in the floor boards. Gunfire
rattled out, automatics this time. The car’s windows shattered. Brett ducked covering his head with his good
arm, trying to shield himself from falling glass. His heart hammered against
his ribs, his ears ringing. He shifted
his weight, testing the strength of his right leg. It was worse than it had been earlier and
he’d barely made it out of the hospital.
There was no way he could run now.
The shots stopped and the men stepped closer to survey the damage. Brett held his breath and ran his tongue
across his fangs. If he couldn’t run
he’d have to fight. Everyone paused, tense and motionless until the men were
right on the car. Dawn and Lori sprang
out, fully transformed and set on the closest ones. The men yelled and the gun shots started
again. Brett took advantage of the momentary distraction to lean into the front
seat. The metallic tang of blood stung
his nose but he couldn’t tell who’s it was.
Dawn’s dad was in the most danger, out of all of them he was the only
one who couldn’t heal.
“I’m fine,” Mr. Cavaro said
quickly, brushing shards of glass off the back of his neck. “Keep your head down.”
Lori kicked one of the hunters in
the knee. It snapped and he went
down. Dawn was on top of another one
wrestling his gun away from him. She
sunk her teeth into his arm and slashed her claws across his chest. One of the men ducked behind the car, lifting
his gun up over the hood and taking aim.
Brett reached up through the broken window and grabbed the man by the
front of his shirt, jerking him down and slamming his head into the top of the
car. Lori screamed and stumbled. Two single shots rang out, close, and the two
remaining hunters hit the pavement. Mr.
Cavaro stood beside the car with a pistol raised in his hands. Brett and Dawn stared at him in
surprise.
“What? You thought you guys were the only ones who
could be dangerous?” he asked. “We need to hurry. They might have called for help. Lori, are you all right?”
Lori nodded, wincing as she pressed
a hand against her bleeding thigh. “I’ll
be fine once I get these bullets out.”
Brett forced the car door open and
dragged himself over to her. “I can do it,” she snapped at him.
“Let me help.” He might not be much
use anymore, but he could do this.
“Fine.” She nodded, bracing herself, and he dug three
claws of one hand around the first bullet hole.
Dawn stared at her father for a
moment. She knew he carried the gun but
he’d never fired it at a person before. She shook herself and hastily got off
the man she’d been fighting. She went
over to where her dad had thrown open the trunk and was wrestling out the spare
tire. Three of the men were unconscious, her dad had shot too more and the
other two… She flashed her eyes in the side mirror as she went past and her
breath caught in her throat. They were blue.
Not now, she told herself, she’d
have to deal with that later. She
grabbed the back bumper of the car and lifted it so the back tires were off the
ground.
“Lori,” Mr. Cavaro said over his
shoulder as he started to change the tire.
“When you get those out if you can, they’ve got to be parked close. See if you can find their cars and borrow
another tire.”
“Can do.” She answered and they all
worked in silence for a minute.
“I’m sorry,” Dawn said softly,
suddenly unable to look at her father.
“I never wanted you to see me like that.” Completely a wolf, tearing
into people. “I know you don’t like what I am.”
Mr. Cavaro looked up quickly,
looking stricken. “Dawn, baby no. I’m sorry if I ever made you think that. It’s
just,” he paused, composing his thoughts.
“Your mother took the bite too quickly, without thinking about what it
might mean for you down the road. How
much harder, more dangerous parts of your life are. All this,” he glanced at the men sprawled on
the ground. “And I’ve always been afraid
for you because of that. But you’ve
handled it so well. I know the wolf is
part of you, and it is part of what has made you the strong, beautiful,
compassionate woman that you are. I wouldn’t change a thing about you.”
Dawn blinked at the stinging in her
eyes. “I killed those men.”
“And I killed those two,” he
countered, pointing at the two bodies.
“Do you think I wanted you to see me do that? But they were going to kill all of us. We both did what we had to do. I’d rather your eyes turn blue than you be
the one dead in the middle of the road.”
.
. .
“All right, we made it,” Mr. Cavaro
said as they pulled into the driveway of his parents’ house.
“What are you going to tell them
happened to the car windows?” Dawn asked.
“I’m going to hope they don’t
ask.”
Dawn got out of the car and met her
grandmother at the front door, enjoying the long hug she gave her. “Hey Sunrise.” She look over to where Mr.
Cavaro was helping Brett up to the house.
“You’re man looks pretty rough, sweetheart.”
“Better than he did two days ago.”
“Why did they send him home so
soon?”
“There’s a lot of stuff going on in
Beacon Hills,” Dawn said, trying to find a way to explain things without
telling her everything. She wasn’t
really sure what all her dad had told them already. “I guess they needed the rooms.”
“Poor thing,” Nonna said. “Don’t worry, we’ll take good care of him.”
She squeezed Dawn’s shoulders. “We’ll
take care of all of you.”
.
. .
Brett vaulted over a fallen tree,
landing in a crouch. Blood dripped down
his arm, splattering the leaves, glinting in the moonlight. Wait, he’d been here before, he’d jumped that
log just a few minutes ago. Gun shots
rang out behind him and he ducked as they thudded into the trees around
him. The hunters were closing in. He sprang forward when the gun fire stopped,
sprinting for a clump of underbrush that would provide some cover. But it just seemed to get farther away. Panic rose in his throat like bile and he
tried to run faster.
Zing.
Brett grunted as an arrow
thudded into his back. He heard the
hunters behind him, taunting him with words he couldn’t make out. Gasping, he tried to change course.
Zing. Zing.
Brett growled, he just
needed to run faster, he could get away if he could just run faster. But still
he couldn’t seem to get anywhere.
Zing.
Another arrow and he
stumbled forward, his foot catching on a root, sending him sprawling. The hunters were getting closer. He dug his claws into the dirt, pulling
himself to his hands and knees. He
coughed and spit out blue black blood.
He had to get moving, they would catch up to him if he didn’t get
moving.
Something
roared and all of a sudden his nose was filled with the scent of tar and
gasoline, and instead of dirt and leaves under his hands it was asphalt. Light blinded him, tires screeched and a car
plowed into him.
Brett
opened his eyes, gasping for breath.
What happened? Running, he was running.
He had to get away from the hunters.
His legs were trapped in something, tangled in the sheets. He threw off the blanket, stumbling out of the
pull out bed. His claws cut gouges into
the coffee table as he ran into it, sending it and everything on it crashing to
the floor. He lunged for the glass doors,
and fumbled with the latch. He had to get away before they caught up to
him. He threw it open and ran outside.
Something
slammed into him. He hit the ground,
snarling, rolling in a tangle of limbs.
Someone was on top of him, pinning him down. He slashed a clawed hand at them, feeling
warm blood on his fingers.
“Brett!
What are you doing?”
He
bared his teeth, growling low in his throat.
“Brett,
it’s ok,” Dawn said. “It’s all right. Brett, look at me.” She put her hands on his
arms. He stiffened, growling again. “It’s all right,” she said cautiously,
letting him sit up. “You’re ok, we’re at
home. You’re safe.”
His
glowing eyes scanned the back yard looking confused. “Dawn?”
She
nodded. “You’re all right, you’re safe.”
She took one of his wrist, lifting his clawed hand in front of his face. “Put them away. Come on, breathe. The sun, the moon-“
“The
truth,” he said with her, taking a breath. “The sun, the moon, the truth. The
sun, the moon.”
And
then he was human again.
“There.”
She smiled at him, brushing his hair back off his forehead. “It’s all right, it was just a dream.” They sat in silence for a minute while his
heart slowed to a normal rate.
“I’m so
sorry,” he said, taking her wrist and turning her arm over, looking at the
bloody claw marks on her arm.
“It’s
ok,” she said.
“No
it’s not.” Brett ran a hand through his hair.
“I haven’t lost it like that since seventh grade. It’s not even a full moon.”
“It’s ok,” Dawn repeated, “nothing happened.”
Yeah,
nothing happened. He’d just totally lost
control over a bad dream. If Dawn hadn’t
stopped him he would have run half naked through the woods the rest of the
night. “I could have really hurt you.”
“No you
couldn’t,” she scoffed. “I know you’re
feeling better, but not that much.
Besides,” her voice softened, “you stopped once you got my scent. You always know who I am.” She stood and helped him to his feet. “Come one.
Ugh,” she grunted, looking over the road rash that still covered his
back and arms. “We got dirt all in these
scrapes. Let’s go clean them up before
you get tetanus on top of everything.”
They
quietly slipped back into the house and into the kitchen and Dawn started
running water over a washcloth. Brett
started to say something then stopped, someone was coming. They both turned to the door and saw Dawn’s
nonna coming into the kitchen.
“Hi,”
Dawn said, hiding her bloody forearm behind her back as she frantically
searched for something to say, some excuse she could give.
Nonna
watched them for a second then laughed.
“Ok, I’m not going to hold you in suspense. I know what you are Sunrise,” she said,
smiling at Dawn. She looked at Brett, “I
wasn’t sure about you but I’m not surprised.”
Dawn
stared at her for moment, her mouth slightly open. “How did you know? How long have you known?”
“I’m
the one who told your mother about werewolves, that the bite might help her
have children.”
“But
how did you know about werewolves in the first place?” Dawn shook her head. How
had she not known this? The story had always started with her mom meeting
Satomi, Dawn had never thought about how she’d found out about werewolves in
the first place.
“My two
oldest brothers were wolves,” she said.
“For a while if you got far enough up in the mob they’d offer you the
bite.”
Brett
and Dawn exchanged a glance. “Are you telling me, there is a werewolf mafia?”
Dawn asked.
“That
is awesome,” Brett said. “We should just
drop out and do that.”
“Hold
on,” Nonna held up her hands. “Back in
the day a fair portion of the local families were wolves, but they moved on
back in the 60s.”
“Aw,”
Dawn said, only half faking her disappointment.
“That’s still awesome. Tell us more.”
.
. .
Dawn
stepped into the living room and found Brett asleep, stretched out in a patch
of afternoon sunlight that slanted through the large windows. He slept most of the day now, still healing. She smiled to herself, thinking how much better
he looked. He’d lost the lingering scent
of death a few days ago and only the slight tang of blood remained from the
cuts and scrapes he still had.
Superficial injuries, they would be the last to go away. That’s when they’d know he’d fully healed.
She shouldn’t bother him with it
now, she thought, whatever resolved she’d had faltering. It could wait, she’d tell him another
time.
But he
woke up when he heard her come in, or maybe when he scented her sudden
panic. “Hey.” He stretched and smiled at
her, sitting up. She came and sat down
next to him, not sure how to make a good exit now.
“What’s
wrong?” he asked.
“Nothing.”
He
raised his eyebrows at her. She took a
breath and looked away from him, fiddling with the hem of her shirt. “Come on,” he encouraged, “you can tell me.”
She
turned so she was facing him, letting her eyes glow.
Brett’s
breath caught. “Dawn.”
She
nodded, changing them back and looking down at her hands, feeling tears sting
at her eyes.
“When
did it happen?” he asked gently.
“When
we were leaving Beacon Hills,” she said, not looking up. “Those men who shot up
the car. I, killed one of them for sure,
maybe two. So, now you know.”
“It’s
ok,” he said.
“No
it’s not,” she snapped. “My eyes turned.
I killed innocents and I darkened my soul.”
“No,”
Brett said, shaking his head. “I know
that’s what they told us but it can’t be right.
Not if it works like this. Those
men weren’t innocent, they were trying to kill us.”
“I knew
what I was doing,” she said. “I knew if
I cut him like that he’d die and I did it anyway.” She finally looked up, brushing her hair
behind her ear. “I’ve been stalling
telling you. I know I needed to but…I understand if you, if you don’t want…”
“Hey,”
Brett interrupted. “That woman who attacked me in the parking lot, I was going
to kill her. I would have if Gerard
hadn’t shown up. Would you be ditching me if I had? People were trying to kill
us. You did what you had to do.”
She
laughed mirthlessly under her breath.
“That’s what my dad said.”
“Well,
he’s right.”
“So you
don’t mind?” she asked, looking up at him from under her lashes.
“I wish
my eyes were blue too.”
She
smiled and laid her head against his shoulder, feeling her heart beat steady.
“No you don’t.”
“Gets
you more points in the wolf mafia at least, right?” He smiled nervously, shaking it off like he
really had been kidding, but honestly he’d meant it.
Dawn’s eyes were blue because she’d had to
kill protecting her family, her pack.
Protecting him. He’d been pretty
much useless since the hunters had showed up. He’d let them get to him in the
first wave, and he’d just slowed everyone else down since then. Also, no one said so, but he was almost sure
the hunters had found out who most of their pack was when they’d all come to the
hospital to help him. If his wolf eyes
were blue, it would mean that he’d been doing his part, protecting them just as
much as they were protecting him. That
was more important than ever now.
“The law of the jungle,” he said softly, lacing the fingers of one hand
through hers, quoting a poem Satomi used to tell them.
She ran
her thumb up and down against his. “The
strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the
pack.”
They
were all going to have to be pretty strong wolves now, with a pack of
three.
.
. .
Brett,
Lori, and Dawn sat around a Wing Palace table by the window, specifically
picked because it had a view of both doors and most of the parking lot. Liam came in and started to walk to the
counter, but then he saw them and came over to their table.
“Hey,
are you guys back in Beacon Hills?”
Brett
shook his head. “Just for today.”
“We
came to get our stuff,” Lori said, dropping the chicken bone she was chewing
absent mindedly onto her plate. “And to
talk to the realtor about Satomi’s house.”
“You’re
selling it?”
“We
don’t need it anymore,” Brett said. “And
the money will set us up in a new place for a while.”
“Did you find a new pack where you
are?” Liam asked.
“No,” Lori said. “There’s no werewolves there anymore, it’s
just us. We’ll figure it out though.”
“Is that safe?” Liam asked,
furrowing her eyebrows.
“Safe enough for now,” Dawn
said. “There shouldn’t be anyone looking
for us there since there isn’t a pack.”
“Well, if you came back here, Scott
would let you join our pack. That way
you wouldn’t be on your own.”
Dawn scoffed before she could stop
herself and muttered, “No thanks,” under her breath.
“What?” Liam asked.
“Nothing,” she said hurriedly.
“No, what?” Liam insisted.
“It’s just,” Dawn shifted in her
seat. She didn’t want to be mean, she
liked Scott well enough, but… “Scott stood around making deals while the rest
of us got massacred.”
Liam stiffened. “We survived didn’t
we?”
“I wouldn’t say that so loud if I
were you,” Brett cautioned.
“Why not?”
Dawn took a drink of her soda. She’d already said more than she meant
to. The other two made a point of not
looking at Liam.
“Look,” Brett said after a
pause. “Like she said, everyone was
getting slaughtered. We know it’s not
what happened, but the supernaturals who are left are saying, that Scott did
make a deal with the hunters and that’s why none of you died.”
“That’s crazy!” Liam said.
“We know that,” Lori interrupted
him. “We know Scott was doing his best
and trying to help but…”
“But it’s suspicious,” Dawn picked
up where Lori left off. “Packs that have
been here for decades, families that have been creatures for generations,
gone. But you guys are the smallest pack
and the newest. Not everyone is going to
believe it was luck nothing happened to you.”
“Scott’s just good.”
“Guess so.” Dawn nodded. “Whatever
he did he protected his pack and that’s his job.”
“We don’t want to fight with you,”
Lori said. “Want to sit with us?” she
scooted her chair over, making room. “No more pack talk, we promise.”
.
. .
“Brett,” Mr. Green, the councilor
of their new school, smiled and motioned to the chair in front of his
desk. “Have a seat. It’s good to have
you join us.”
“Never thought I’d say this, but
it’s pretty good to be back in school.”
He slung his backpack over the back of the chair and sat down. “So, first question, am I going to graduate
on time?”
“We’re going to work with you on
that. You’ll need to do some extra work,
but if you pass the classes you can graduate with everyone else.”
Brett sighed. “Good.
I’ll lose my scholarships if I don’t start in August. I’m pretty sure
I’ve lost the lacrosse one already.”
“Well, I can’t help with lacrosse
but I have every confidence that you’ll be able to start in August.” Mr. Green
picked several stapled papers up off his desk and handed them to Brett. “This is a list of what you’ll need to do to
catch up.”
“Ok.” Brett nodded, scanning the
list. It was a lot, but it was doable. At least it would have to be. “There’s
something else I wanted to talk to you about while I’m here.”
“Of course.”
“About career stuff.”
“Ok, what were you were thinking
about doing?”
“Well I hadn’t really decided. I
was thinking about engineering, but I don’t know if I want to do that now. But
I don’t want to waste the credits I already have.”
“The credits you have are mostly
core coarse work, they should apply to most majors,” Mr. Green said. “What were you thinking about doing instead?”
“I don’t know yet. But I want to do
something…” Brett paused. “I almost
died, I should have died. But I didn’t,
and I want that mean something. I want
it to matter that I’m still here.”
“So you’re thinking something more
in public service?”
Brett nodded. “Yeah, I want to help people, make a
difference.”
“Well, that is an excellent
endeavor. Luckily, there’s a lot of
different jobs that would allow you to make a real, hands on difference to
people.” Mr. Green started counting things
off on his fingers. “There’s healthcare,
a lot of options there, law enforcement, teaching.”
“I might think about that. I could
be a coach maybe.”
“You could. That would give you the opportunity to make a
difference for a lot of kids.”
“I think I’ll look into that,”
Brett said, warming to the idea.
“Definitely look at your options, I
can get you some information.” Mr. Green
held his gaze for a minute. “I can tell
you, whatever you decide to do, if you go into it with the attitude you have
right now, it will make a difference
that you’re still here.”
.
. .
Brett and Dawn sat on the couch, a
laptop on the coffee table in front of them, Dawn with a notebook balanced on
her knees.
“Ok,” she said, “so are these the
two you guys narrowed it down to?”
“Mmhm.”
“Well they’re both nice and not too expensive. This one is a little bigger but it doesn’t
have the washer/dryer hookups.”
Brett shrugged. “I don’t do laundry
anyway.”
“You do now, do you think Lori is
going to do it all?”
“I guess it’s something we’ll have
to talk about,” Brett said.
“Anyway, according to google maps,”
she grabbed her phone, “this one is pretty close to the house Dad’s going to
buy and is less than 20 minutes from the college.”
“So you like this one better?”
“I’m just helping you with pros and
cons, it doesn’t matter what I think, you and Lori are the ones who are going
to live there.”
“Yeah, but maybe someday, you might
live there too,” Brett muttered.
She started to laugh nervously,
then stopped. “Really?”
“Yeah.” He nodded. “I’ve kind of had a lot of free time to think
about stuff lately and I realized… I love you,” he said before he could change
his mind.
Dawn grinned and looked down at her
note book, shoving a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
“Was that too soon to say?” he
asked hurriedly, shifting his weight.
“No,” Dawn shook her head. “You’re late actually, I’ve already said it
to you.”
“What?”
“Yeah, when you were in the
hospital. I said it before, but you couldn’t hear me.” She scooted closer, biting her lip. “It’s always been you and me. When you were dying, I didn’t know what I was
going to do. I love you too.”
Brett grinned and Dawn giggled.
“So,” he said, “in a couple of years will you marry and move into this
apartment with me?”
“Yes,” she leaned forward, nuzzling
him. “Yes, definitely.”
They kissed each other, and when
they pulled back both their eyes were glowing.
“Now, will you stop being such a
girl and tell me what you think about this apartment.”
