Relentless (10 page)

I ignored his groan while the other girl laughed. They walked across the lab to a desk where Lana sat at a chair and tapped on the computer. Miles perched on the edge of the desk beside her. They were talking, but I couldn’t hear them. I glanced toward Jared’s table. He was tying a tourniquet on Brynna, who seemed completely unconcerned that a novice was about to jab her with a needle. She was pointing to her arm and giving him directions as Robert stood beside them occasionally adding a piece of instruction. I tried to concentrate on the fake arm in front of me and not be too scared that I was about to practice on the real thing. I had to do a good job. Myles would never let me hear the end of it if I didn’t.

***

In my room that night, I snuggled under the covers with Beowulf curled next to me. I’d borrowed him from Myles, who had informed me I’d have to take him out to the bathroom before I went to bed. Right now, I was putting that off as much as possible to ensure he didn’t need to go again when I was sound asleep. I sat up on the edge of the bed and slid into my flip-flops. I rubbed my arm, or antecubital area as Lana had trained me to call it. There was a tiny blue circle right on top of the vein. After I’d practiced sticking Myles once in each arm, Jared and I had practiced drawing blood from each other. Beowulf pawed at my arm.

“I know, I know, you’re ready to go out. Come on. Let’s get it over with.”

He followed me to the first floor, his nails making a ticking sound on the tile floor. I waved at a couple of people still up watching television. There was no curfew here. If you wanted to stay up all night, that was fine, but you were expected to be in class the next morning. I was finding, though, that a lot of werewolves didn’t need much sleep at all.

As the lobby door swung shut behind me, Beowulf took off at a sprint.

“Beowulf, get back here. You’re supposed to take care of business.”

He disappeared down the trail, and I hurried after him. We were nearly to the school building when I finally caught up to him. He was hiking his leg on some feathery-looking bush. As soon as he was done, I scooped him up.

“Next time, I’m putting a leash on you.”

He wasn’t paying me any attention. His ears were pricked toward the classrooms. I stared into the darkness, trying to use the bit of moonlight that was glowing between scattered clouds. I could smell them then, one scent kind of familiar and another one different. Kind of like…Eric. A small path led off the wide lane I was on, and I went closer, following the smell to where I could see two men talking. But neither was Eric. They moved and suddenly turned in my direction. That’s when I realized, if I could smell them, they could smell me. One of them started toward me, and as he got closer, I could see it was my math teacher, Mr. O’Rourke. For a moment, I thought of running but knew that was pointless.

He shoved a limb aside and stopped in front of me. “What are you doing over here?”

“I brought the dog out to go to the bathroom before going to sleep, and he took off and wouldn’t come back when I called, so I came after him.” Beowulf squirmed in my arms as if trying to confirm my story. He let out a low growl.  “I finally caught up to him here. I’ll carry him back.”

Mr. O’Rourke didn’t say anything. Only stared at me for several seconds as if trying to see past my face, past my skin, to what was deep inside me. I stilled myself and kept running the picture of Beowulf dashing off into the woods through my mind. Could this guy see into my head? Hear my thoughts? Or was that something werewolves could only do in their wolf form?

“Next time, make sure he’s on a leash,” he said shortly.

“No kidding. I realized that halfway down that path back there.” I tried to sound like I wasn’t nervous. There was no reason to be. I’d run into my teacher and another person on the school grounds at night. That wasn’t anything unusual or weird. But my stomach felt jittery anyway, no matter what I told myself.

One side of his lip turned up in a half smile, then he pushed through the brush back to the building. The other man was gone as was the odd scent I’d picked up earlier.

Holding Beowulf’s squirming body, I made my way back to the dormitory. I didn’t let the dog go until we were safely in my room. I went to the bathroom and wet a rag, wiping Beowulf down.  Then I rubbed a towel over his short coat. When I was finished, he flipped up the bathmat as he dug in to run into the bedroom. I heard him hit the bed with a thud. I got a clean rag and wiped my legs and feet and dried them. Next time, I’d bathe after I took the dog out. Beowulf lay on my pillow and grabbed the end of it in his mouth when I picked it up to dump him off.

“No tug of war. It’s late.”

I slid into the bed and held up the covers. The dog scooted underneath and snuggled next to me in a tight ball. I scratched the back of his neck absently. Why would someone have a scent like Eric? Was it a Fenryrian scent? And if it was, why would a Fenryrian be here? Why would my teacher be having a conversation with him in the dark? There were too many secrets here. Of course, I had my own secret so I couldn’t be too judgmental. The image of the other man and his familiar yet strange scent seemed to envelope me as I drifted off to sleep.

It seemed my eyes had only been closed for a second when they snapped open without me even thinking about being awake. I was outside. A light breeze stirred the damp air. I was on the path where I’d chased Beowulf earlier. My heart leapt into my throat. Not again. When I’d first started my change to werewolf form, I’d had these crazy dreams and often experienced what I had thought was sleepwalking but had really been me changing to my werewolf form without realizing it. That hadn’t happened since I’d accepted I was a werewolf and become aware of my change. Now it seemed as though it was starting all over again. I tried to wake myself, to see if what I was experiencing was real or a dream, but I couldn’t. Instead, I ran toward the school, though I wasn’t sure why. When I got to the classrooms, I could see Mr. O’Rourke and the other man still under the breezeway that ran between the classrooms. I crouched behind a tree.

“What the hell am I doing?” I whispered the words out loud, trying to make sense of where I was and why.

I didn’t remember leaving my room. Yet here I was hiding, calming my breathing, and hoping the breeze wouldn’t carry my scent. I slowly twisted to see around the tree. They were walking away, toward the docks, not even glancing my way.

I bent low and pushed my way through the bushes to follow them. It crossed my mind that I could be dreaming this moment, but it seemed so real. It made my head hurt, and I massaged my eyes as I pressed myself into the foliage, staying as far back as I could and still see them. An undeniable urge told me I had to go after them. It did not tell me why.

At the docks, I stopped in the trees. I could hear them as they stood on the wooden planks next to a boat I’d never seen before.

“I don’t know what his decision will be,” said Mr. O’Rourke.

The other man shook his head. “He’d better make one soon, or we’ll take measures.”

My math teacher shook his head. “Why, after all this time?”

“Because it’s the right time.”

“And the other one?” Mr. O’Rourke questioned.

“We carry out that plan as we arranged it.”

“When?”

“I’m not sure yet. I’ll let you know,” the man snapped.

The stranger stepped into the boat, and it began to float away. I realized it had a smaller battery-powered motor that would move the boat out of the harbor quietly until it reached open water.  Something wasn’t right here. I wished I could follow the man in the boat and see who he was, what he was up to. As the boat disappeared into the darkness, the air around me gusted as if a storm was brewing. I glanced to the sky but didn’t see any clouds. I closed my eyes, and when I opened them, I was sitting in the back of the boat.

Fear knotted in my throat. What was I doing? How had I just appeared in this boat? There was no way I could hide now. The man turned back to the island as he started the main engine. He looked right past me as if I wasn’t there. I almost smiled. I was dreaming. I could have done a cartwheel in the boat, and he wouldn’t have seen me. But I didn’t. Even though I knew I was dreaming, the dream me didn’t want to risk that the man would see me and transform into his werewolf self and rip me to shreds before I could wake up. Okay, that wasn’t going to happen, but it seemed like a good idea to be still and quiet. I rode along with the stranger toward the lights of Key West, the wind whipping my hair.

We entered the marina, and the boat puttered toward the docks. I wasn’t wet from the spray, but then it was just dream water. The boat nudged the edge of the pier, and the man tossed a rope toward a waiting figure. It was a young guy, my age or not much older with red hair and bulging muscles. He was huge. There were marks on his arms and at his neckline, but I couldn’t tell what they were. Then, from behind him, another figure appeared, and my heart hammered against my chest. It was Eric.

“How did it go?” Eric said to the man.

“Everything is in place. We only have to wait now.”

The bigger guy reached a hand down to help the man from the boat. I stood, thinking I’d follow them. Who knew where this dream might end? But when I moved, the guy with fiery red hair jerked his head in my direction, and his eyes seemed to drill into me. He pushed the man onto the deck and continued to stare at the back of the boat, at me.

“What is it?” Eric asked.

The other boy shook his head. “I’m not sure…something.”

The wind gusted, my feet levitated off the bottom of the boat, and I flew toward the sky, toward darkness.

In my bed, I sat up with a jerk, my breath coming in gasps. Beowulf sat next to me, no longer under the covers but sitting on top, watching me closely, as if I’d actually disappeared and just might do it again. My hands gripped my thighs, trying to be sure I was in one piece. A long, slow breath escaped my lips. Beowulf whined and tilted his head to one side. What a weird dream. It was crazy, but so real. I patted my lap, and the dog climbed on top of my legs and licked my neck.

“Sorry, guy, did I roll over on you while I was dreaming?”

I lifted the cover, and he scooted under again, taking his usual spot next to my side. I stared at the ceiling, almost scared to sleep again. I knew what had happened was only a dream, but it left me with a strange feeling. My palms had grown damp, and I wiped them on the sheet and took a deep breath. My mind had put together a bunch of images that had been in my head—Mr. O’Rourke and the other man, then Eric, who was never far from my thoughts. But the guy with the red hair I couldn’t explain. I’d never seen him before. Finally, my eyes began to feel heavy again. This time when I slept, it was without any dreams.

Sharing a table in class with Jared wasn’t really sharing. It was more like finding room because he took up so much space. The teacher droned on about lines and angles. Normally I liked math, and this trigonometry class had been interesting every other time I’d attended it. For some reason, I kept dwelling on that strange dream. It had been over a week since it had happened, but I couldn’t seem to stop thinking about it. Enough weird crap went on around here that an odd dream wasn’t something to make a fuss over. Still, it had seemed so real. I felt a bump against my arm and glanced at Jared.

“We’re supposed to be writing this down,” he whispered.

I glanced at the whiteboard. Mr. O’Rourke’s back was to us as he wrote furiously with a purple marker, his favorite color. I grabbed my pencil and started copying.

Preoccupied
.

Jared had printed the word on a scrap of paper and slid it over to me. I only shrugged. What was I supposed to say? Um, yeah, I’m thinking about this dream where I traveled to nearby places but was invisible. A buzzing noise filled the room, and everyone started putting their things away. I wrote fast, trying to get the information in my notebook. I’d have to be careful to concentrate more and quit worrying about the ridiculous dream.

On the walkway, Jared fell in step beside me, and ahead, I could see Myles and Lana. Lana wasn’t usually in this building because she’d finished her high school courses when she was, like, nine, genius that she was. I hadn’t expected to like Lana, but I did. The other girl was smart but not arrogant. Brynna liked to make people feel less smart, like she knew so much more than you and she wasn’t afraid to tell you. You just had to deal with it. At least in the beginning, she had been that way. After I’d gotten to know Brynna, that had all stopped. Well, not totally, but it happened much less, or maybe I noticed it less.

Myles waved at us. “We’re going to Key West again this afternoon if either of you wants to go.”

“Who’s going?” Jared asked.

“Everyone who wants to. They’re taking several larger boats.”

“Count me in,” Jared said. “What about you, Alexis?”

I nodded. Hopefully, I could get a call in to Eric if he was still in the area.

“I’ve got another class down here.” Jared pointed toward the other end of the building.

“I have lab with Lana.”

The blond girl grinned. “I thought you might forget, so I came to remind you.”

“No, I’m not going to forget. I actually like it.”

Myles groaned. “Oh no, not another lab rat.”

“It’s not so bad, Myles,” Lana said, smiling at him.

He had Lana’s hand in his, and he lifted it, pressing the back against his chest. “I’ll leave it to you guys. Besides, I’m not going anywhere near that lab. Every time I do, you want me to let her practice stabbing my veins.”

“She can practice on me,” Jared interjected.

Myles stared at him for a moment. “I’ll remember that next time they ask me.”

“She’s not drawing blood today, anyway,” Lana said. “She’s learning how to run the equipment that analyzes the samples.”

“Thank goodness.” Myles wiped the back of his hand across his forehead dramatically.

Jared laughed at him then left. Lana led the way to the lab, still holding Myles’ hand, and I followed.

“What’s up with you and big boy?” Myles glanced back over his shoulder at me.

I arched a brow at him. “What are you talking about?”

“I mean, every time I look up, there he is, and there you are. Is there something I should know?”

I frowned even though his back was to me and he couldn’t see me. “No, there’s nothing you or anyone else needs to know. He’s a nice guy.”

“Hmm, kiss of death…the nice guy,” Myles said dryly as we kept walking.

“It’s not a kiss of death to be a nice guy,” I argued.

“So you do like him.”

“What? No, I didn’t say that. I just said…” My voice trailed off as Myles started laughing.

Lana hit him on the arm with her free hand. “Stop, Myles. You’re just trying to aggravate her.”

“I’m not trying to aggravate her, Lana. I’m just trying to see if we need to be worried about her previous boyfriend showing up somewhere. Or are we fortunate enough to be rid of him?”

I stopped walking. “You know, he was your friend, too, Myles.”

Myles dropped Lana’s hand and turned to me. “A friend who lied to us repeatedly.”

I held my hands up questioningly. “What was he supposed to do?”

“Be who he was, just like we were.”

“It wasn’t like you were broadcasting to the world you were a werewolf.  How was he supposed to know?”

“He knew.” Myles’ voice was hard and low.

“You’re just being that way because he’s Fenryrian.”

He slapped his hand on his thigh. “Of course I am. He can’t be trusted. He’s going to follow his father’s agenda.”

“You don’t know that,” I choked out.

“Of course I do.”

“So what is his agenda, if you know so much?”

He stepped toward me and caught my arm. “To annihilate us.”

I opened my mouth to argue with him, to say it wasn’t true. The words were right there at the base of my throat, but I couldn’t speak. I didn’t know. Did Eric’s father want all Lycernians dead? Possibly. Was Eric so dedicated to his pack, to his father, that he’d follow through with that plan no matter who got hurt? I hoped not. I believed he was different. I had to. I loved him.

Shaking my arm loose, I stepped past Lana and continued on to the lab. I could have asked Myles why he’d been at a restaurant in Key West having a meal with some strange woman. I could have put him on the spot about something he was obviously trying to keep secret. But I didn’t. No matter how angry he made me, I knew he was only trying to protect me. Protect all of us.

Lana caught up to me in the foyer of the lab.

“He doesn’t mean anything by it, you know.”

“Of course he does. He never wants me to see Eric again. He’s Fenryrian, so everyone here is against him. Everyone thinks all Fenryrians are evil. It doesn’t have to be that way. Eventually we could all come together. Who knows, all the Lycernians’ and Fenryrians’ differences might get resolved one day.”

“They’re not going to be resolved.” Lana swiped a card through a reader next to the door then punched a code into the attached keypad.

“If someone told Myles he couldn’t be with you anymore, he wouldn’t be so happy, either.”

Lana continued to stare at the keypad until the door clicked. Finally, she spoke in a low voice. “That’s true. But we’d do what we had to do.”

“Which means you’d find some way to be together.”

Lana pulled open the steel security door, motioning for me to go through ahead of her.

“That’s not what I mean at all. Myles and I would go on with our lives and do what we had to do. We’d meet another person who would one day be our mate.”

I stopped at the end of one of the lab tables. She continued a few steps farther, but when she realized I wasn’t following, she turned back to me.

“What is it?”

I leaned against the lab table. “We’re obviously talking about two different people. Myles wouldn’t do that for a minute. Just go on and find someone else? No way. He’d get to you somehow and fix the problem, whatever it took.”

“Is that what you think?”

“Of course it’s what I think. It’s what I know. Wouldn’t you do the same? Wouldn’t you go wherever, do whatever to get to him?”

“I’d do whatever was best for the pack. So would Myles.”

“Bullshit.”

Lana walked farther and stopped in front of a big machine. I went down the aisle and stopped beside her.

When she looked at me again, her brows nearly touched, and she was frowning. “It may be fine for you to say that, but for some of us, this is not just something to do to pass the time. It’s our life, our history, our culture. It’s everything we are, and we’ll preserve it no matter what. That’s what Myles believes. I hope one day you’ll believe it, too. Some things are just bigger than you.”

“Some things may be bigger than me or you. But I know Myles wouldn’t walk away because someone told him he couldn’t be with you. Not if you still wanted him.”

“But what if I told him no? What if I didn’t want him?”

The metal of the stool was cold in my hand as I pulled it away from the table so I could sit in front of the machine I’d be learning to run today. The idea that Lana would send Myles away because the pack thought she should was unthinkable to me. It wasn’t something I could see Myles doing to her. Maybe Lana was more committed to the pack than even Myles. I just didn’t see Myles walking away from her because someone told him to.

I turned to the machine, not sure what to say to her. “So, what do I do?”

For a moment, Lana didn’t respond, then she stepped closer and slid a laminated paper toward me. “These are the steps to run the machine. It’s not hard. It identifies the virus in the blood. Then we can see if we already have an antiviral for it or if we need to use that blood to try and make something different.”

Following the directions on the card, I pulled a blood sample from the rack sitting next to the machine and used a pipette to put a few drops of blood into the machine where Lana indicated. She pointed to several buttons that were listed on the card, and I pushed them. She sat on a stool beside me as the machine began to whir.

“I was wrong to say that.” I stared at the lights on the machine as they blinked but didn’t look at the other girl.

“Wrong to say what?”

“The bullshit thing.”

Lana laughed. “It’s okay. I’ve been told worse things before.”

“Maybe, but I shouldn’t put down what you believe. It was wrong.”

“I’d hope it’s what you believe, too.”

“I guess I can’t right now. It’s overwhelming to believe all this exists. I find myself wondering when I’ll wake up.” That statement immediately made me remember my dream of being invisible.

“It is a lot to take in,” Lana agreed. “But hopefully, over time, you’ll understand why it’s so important to be loyal to your pack. They’re your family, you know.”

“The Fenryrians really aren’t trying to kill us all, are they?”

“They may not actively be trying to kill us, but some of them would like for there to be only one pack—theirs. Those Fenryrians would kill us if they could get their council to allow it. Thankfully, for now, there are a few peaceful members on their council.”

“I don’t know why you all can’t get along.”

“You can’t get along with anyone who wants to have all the power over you and everyone else in the world. You can only be obedient to them or fight against them.”

“No one can have that much power.”

“Oh, yes, they can. And will if we don’t work to stop them.”

I nodded as the results of the testing appeared on the screen. “No virus detected.”

“Guess Myles is clean then,” Lana said with a grin.

“Yep. We’ll have to tell him the good news.”

“I think we should tell him the results were inconclusive and we’ll have to stick him again.”

I studied the plastic-coated card then opened the machine to remove the sample. “I doubt he’ll buy that.”

“Me, too.” Lana took the sample and dropped it in a red plastic container. “But I bet Jared would let you take a sample. It looks like he might have a little bit of a crush on you.”

“You think so?”

“Definitely. Just keep that in mind while you’re thinking he’s such a nice guy and a friend. He might be thinking he could be more than a friend. Only, I’m guessing your heart is occupied elsewhere.”

Before I could answer, a door opened at the back of the lab, and Daryl crossed the room, moving toward the front door.

“Hey, Daryl!” I called out, waving to him.

He waved back at us without stopping and punched in his code to go out.

“He’s very shy,” Lana said.

I nodded in agreement. “What’s he doing back there?”

“It’s a special section of the lab where we work on the antivirals.”

“Daryl’s like you, huh?”

Lana narrowed her eyes at me. “How’s that?”

“Super smart.”

“I’m not super smart.” She laughed and handed me another sample to run through the machine.

“Oh, come on, Lana. You finished all your courses, and you do lab work and research. Of course you’re smart.”

“I guess I have a few special talents. And yes, Daryl is really good in the lab, too. But everyone has special talents.”

“So they keep saying, but I don’t see any of them in myself.”

“You will. Give it time. Besides, they say you’re especially good at fighting, and Myles says you’re extremely fast. You even got asked to be on the competition Bodinwa team on your first day in class. All those are special talents. Some people have more physical talents, which is good for working out in the field. I don’t have any talents for the field. I can draw blood, but I’m not strong enough to protect myself against other werewolves. So I don’t go in the field. The idea of it scares me to death.”