Arianna's Tale: The Beginning (32 page)

“Hi, Anna… I’m Kiris, you can call me Kris…
Evan’s implying the light is hurting your eyes?” Kiris recited and
I was confused because from the name, I had really expected a
sulking Russian guy or something, but he sounded just as American
as the rest of them. I managed to barely nod my head while I felt
an arm slide under my knees and one wrap around my waist, and then
there was air beneath me, but he was warm, werewolf warm. “So,
Sybil and I are going to take you back to the house where it’s safe
and get you cleaned up. And don’t worry, we got word to keep Alex
away from you.” I sighed but let the werewolf warmth engulf me,
that is, until he stopped walking and got really tense. “What do
you want, fae?” Kiris growled and I felt the rumble in his chest as
he seemed to work to contain his anger.

“Get the metal out of her neck,” Ty hissed
and my eyes darted open and sped over to him despite the searing
pain running across my neck and into my head and the ridiculously
bright sunshine, but that time, the clouds weren’t so dark, the
storm was passing. “Get it out now.” His eyes were glowing, the
blue almost non-existent in them he was so furious.

“Troll,” Kiris dismissed, motioning toward
the car as it suddenly all sank in and I looked over towards the
car. That damage… Mark had caused it… Mark was here. Kiris’ arms
tightened around me when I started moving, but I managed to get
down and backed further away from the totaled car. “Anna…” Kiris
beckoned with restrained anger and I actually took a second to look
at him, confusion slipping into my eyes before I heard more
fighting and looked past the totaled car again. Kiris’ facial
structure was familiar, despite his spiked ash-blonde hair and
strange yellow eyes; despite the clear difference in coloring, he
looked like Aeril. “Anna, we need to get you out of here, you’re
hurt,” Kiris tried again while I lifted a shaking arm and saw the
bits of glass embedded in my skin and streams of red blood flowing
down my arm.

“Get the metal out of her neck,” Ty repeated
in a growl and I glanced at him again to find wispy bits of smoke
billowing around him while my shaking hand started towards my neck
but the look in his eyes made me stop, “Don’t touch it any more
than you already are.”

There was suddenly a little girl standing at
my side with short rusty red hair and deep brown eyes. She smiled
as she reached for my neck with both hands, one hand pressing
solidly against my skin while pain flashed through me when her
other hand latched onto something that was sticking out of my
skin.

“Don’t move,” she whispered gently, but I
gasped when I felt the chunk slide out of my skin and the hand on
my neck slid over the cut. Ty pushed her out of the way and I
caught sight of the three-inch metal shard in her hand before his
fingers slid across my neck.

“Why do you care?” I muttered, trying to
distract myself from the tingling in my neck where his fingers kept
sliding back and forth across my skin. His lips curled into the
faintest smile as I realized the billowing smoke was gone and his
eyes were icy blue again.

“What is there to make one care?” Ty queried
in reply, his hands sliding down my arms and his gaze following
after them as I felt more of that tingling. I realized distantly
that the sounds around us were muted, the fear was gone, there was
a coldness seeping into my skin that was soothing.

“You don’t seem to want me… not like they
do… but you keep showing up when there’s trouble…” I reasoned,
glancing down at my arms to find the bits of glass gone, the
streams of blood were dried, not flowing fresh, “Jack seems certain
you have a reason for your interest in me… but he thinks you won’t
tell him the truth.”

“Because I can’t,” Ty answered softly, “I
would if I didn’t think it would upset you… you aren’t ready to
know, yet… Let them take you to the wolf house, it is safer
there.”

“That’s where we were going before you
stopped us,” I countered and he smiled distantly as his fingers
slid across my neck again.

“The longer it was there… the more damage it
would do… you have a mild metal allergy, don’t you?” Ty questioned
and I barely nodded my head.

“But how do you know that…?” I pressed, the
faint smile slipping onto his lips again, “You won’t tell me
anything, will you…?”

When his hands finally fell back to his
sides, the wind was howling and only a few remaining clouds blotted
out the afternoon sun, but I couldn’t hear the sounds of fighting
anymore and looked behind him toward the totaled car.

“They’re gone… they chased him out of town
for the moment…” Ty murmured, “It doesn’t mean you’re safe… get to
the wolf house….”

“Why?” I demanded but he only sighed and
shook his head.

“Because you’re safe there,” he insisted,
pushing me backwards as I stumbled back a step and felt warm arms
wrap around my shoulders, “As much as I would love to, I cannot
protect you from that troll on my own.”

Kiris turned me toward an SUV and I climbed
into the back seat with Sybil while he climbed into the driver’s
seat and we left. But as we drove away, I looked back to find fury
in Ty’s eyes again just before he disappeared, and I spotted the
totaled car again just before we rounded a corner and it went out
of sight.

“They aren’t going to like that he healed
you…” Kiris murmured under his breath, “You smell like faerie magic
now….”

“He helped… isn’t that what matters?” I
wondered and Kiris laughed hollowly.

“What will he want in return for his help?
Don’t think a faerie gives away magic like that for free…” Kiris
mumbled as we pulled up to the house only to find Austin standing
outside the front door, his blue eyes worried until they landed on
me, “Now you get to explain things to your brother….”

His words sank in as deep as the shard of
metal had been. I was covered in dried blood, but there wasn’t a
scratch on me anywhere. Before I could come up with a logical
explanation, Austin was pulling the door open and pulling me out of
the car and into a hug.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” he whispered
across my ear, his hand running into my hair to the back of my head
as he took a step back and his eyes scanned across me, “They said
there was a wreck… that you would be fine, but…” He trailed off for
a minute as his eyes scanned across me again. “But then Jack came
back in such bad shape and you weren’t here and I was getting
really worried….” His questioning gaze slid up to me, but I had a
more important question.

“Jack’s hurt?” I blurted and he barely
nodded his head, “He’s here?” Another slight nod before he took
hold of my hand and started walking into the house. We wound our
way up to the second floor and he started towards the door that
Caiden was walking out of and pulling closed behind him.

“She wants to see Jack,” Austin announced,
and Caiden’s startled deep brown eyes darted up to me.

“Doctor’s orders, he has to rest,” Caiden
managed to say directly to me before he looked at my brother,
“Sorry… she should be resting, too.”

“Caiden,” I coldly uttered and he slowly
looked at me again, “Let me see Jack or I’ll call your
brother.”

“You wouldn’t,” he gasped almost silently,
but I just stared at him until he sighed and pushed the door open,
“Only you, Anna… Not your brother.”

Austin’s hand slid out of mine as I stepped
through the door while Caiden pulled it closed behind me. Jack
looked pretty beaten up… not as bad as I had worried he would, but
still worse than I had really seen any of the wolves looking. I
crawled into his oversized bed beside him and took hold of his hand
while I just stared at the rise and fall of his chest.

“I thought I told you to stay away from Ty,”
he murmured and a tiny smile pulled up on my lips, “You smell like
him… like faerie magic….”

“You can tell me to stay away from him all
you want… he’s the one that keeps coming to me… kind of like you
guys did when I first moved here…” I quietly considered, startled
when he rolled over onto his side to face me. The pupils of his
emerald eyes were ringed with silver again as he inspected my
face.

“Were you badly hurt? I tried to get you out
of the way as soon as I saw him…” he worriedly asked while I barely
shook my head.

“What happened to you? Why was Caiden trying
to keep me out of here?” I wondered while his fingers started
brushing my hair out of my face.

“Troll broke my leg… I’ll be fine. Caiden
reset it. Apparently, Alex has decided it’s a bad idea for me to be
near you… apparently I’m staying tuned out too much, and I’m more
or less turning my back on the pack,” Jack reasoned while I chewed
on my lip.

“So what… Now I can’t pick you either?” I
pressed and Jack chuckled softly, barely shaking his head before he
kissed me.

“Nope,” he mumbled against my lips. His arms
wrapped around my waist and pulled me closer while my hands slid
around his neck. When we finally broke apart, I was quietly gasping
for air and ducked my face into the crook of his neck.

“If I’m not supposed to pick you, why did
you just kiss me like that?” I wondered as he laughed
distantly.

“Why are you hiding from me?” he questioned
instead, his fingers running through my hair. “I kissed you like
that… because the last time I kissed you, I thought there would be
other opportunities… this time, I know it won’t happen again….”

I backed away from him just enough to see
the distance in his eyes before I kissed him. He inhaled a really
deep breath when he gently pushed me away and fell onto his back,
staring up at the ceiling.

“Anna… I only have so much self-control…
you’re in my bed…” he groaned, running his hands over the top of
his head into his hair, “And I pretty much have a gag order to stop
messing with you….”

I was leaning over him when he opened his
eyes again, they were bright emerald with the silver gone. A second
later, the door opened and Rayne walked inside and over to the side
of the bed where I was.

“So you send the other guy I can’t be with
to get me out of your room…?” I wondered almost silently, my gaze
shifting to Rayne who carefully lifted me up from the bed without
saying anything.

“So I get the other guy you trust to get you
out of my room until I’m able to clear up this crap with Alex,”
Jack murmured in annoyance while Rayne carried me out of the room
and across to my own room where he carefully placed me on my
bed.

“Jack’s in love with you,” Rayne whispered
as I barely nodded my head, “Do you love him?” I shrugged my
shoulders.

“I love you…” I muttered and he laughed
distantly.

“Arianna… you barely know me…” Rayne
countered, but I shrugged my shoulders again and he sat down on my
bed beside me.

“You guys barely know me,” I rebutted and he
chuckled softly making my heart skip, “That doesn’t seem to stop
you… so why should it stop me…?”

“Because you’re smarter than that,” Rayne
replied, turning to face me as his blonde hair fell over his hazel
eyes, “You’re way too smart to get involved with all of us….”

“Not exactly my choice,” I mumbled and he
laughed softly again, “Why doesn’t my apparent, stench, seem to
bother you?”

“What? Because Ty healed your wounds so you
smell like faerie magic?” Rayne wondered with genuine confusion in
his eyes as I nodded, “My pack and the local faeries had an
arrangement… they kept our farms protected from the weird weather,
we kept them protected from the local vampires… it doesn’t bother
me because I grew up around the scent of faerie magic.” He leaned
closer and softly pressed his lips to my cheek. “We chased Mark out
of the country again… Evan stayed on his trail up into Canada
somewhere….”

“How did he do that… to the car…?” I
whispered and Rayne smiled distantly.

“He’s a troll… they’re big, bulky,
ridiculously strong, and not exactly bright… he ran into the car at
full force,” Rayne explained simply, “Jack barely had time to get
you out of the way….”

“Is Evan the only one still following him?
Is that safe?” I pressed and Rayne chuckled softly as his eyes
scanned across my face.

“Evan is strong. He’ll be fine. Don’t you
want to wash off?” he queried and I sighed but nodded before I
headed across the room, collecting a towel and opening the bathroom
door.

“You can stay if you want…” I dismissed
before I stepped into my bathroom and climbed into a hot shower. I
watched the dried blood wash down my arms in watered-down rivers
and the fear slid back into every nerve ending of my body. Mark had
nearly killed me… What did he want with me that he would nearly
kill me?

I was actually almost thankful to find Rayne
lying across my bed, his head resting against my headboard when I
walked out of the bathroom in sweatpants and a tanktop. He didn’t
even try to stop me when I climbed into the bed beside him and
rested my head on his chest, but his arm wrapped around my
shoulders and pulled me closer.

“You’ve had a rough day, Anna… get some
rest…” Rayne gently whispered across my ear.

“I need to talk to my brothers… find out…
what’s going on with…” I trailed off when he kissed my
forehead.

“Get some rest… they’ll be here when you
wake back up,” Rayne suggested, his werewolf warmth wrapping around
me when he rolled onto his side and pulled me up against him.

The crash of my door against the wall jolted
me out of a dream where I was surrounded by faerie lights and five
werewolves. The lights had been landing on my arms when the door
opened and I was confused when I woke up surrounded by warmth. It
took me a long minute to remember that I’d fallen asleep in my bed
beside Rayne, but once I did, I started trying to figure out what
had happened to my door.

“That would be your little brother… I’m
going to get up now, okay?” Rayne softly recited and I barely
nodded my head before cool air slid over me when he rolled over and
stood up from the bed.