Ties to the Blood Moon 2nd Edition (18 page)

Joseph suddenly tensed and loosened his hold when soft footsteps approached behind me. I quickly dropped my arms. Adrenaline rushed through my veins, and my body began to shake violently. It was happening again and I didn’t know how stop it.

Chapter 27

“Gen,” Joseph screamed. “You’re killing him!”

Anxiety gripped me. I shook my head to clear the haziness, and when I looked down, James was pinned beneath me. I fell to the side, shocked, appalled. I had turned into some sort of crazed monster. Totally out of control. I got to my feet. Unable to look at Luna or her brothers, I quickly turned away. “I need some time … alone,” I said and hurried inside the tree line at the base of the mountain.

I hadn’t made it far when I heard Joseph and James calling me. instead of answering I kept running until I couldn’t hear them anymore. I felt like I had to get away from them. They weren’t safe around me. No one was. I had never felt so alone, and my heart ached. I fell to the ground and sobbed.

What had happened to my life? One minute I was just this girl, and the next I was a … oh my God I was a killer. I lay there thinking about everything. Murderers, rapists, kidnappers, and me. I wanted to die. I mean, how could we justify killing others?

***

When I opened my eyes Luna was sitting next to me, stroking my long tangles.

“Hi,” she said, but not in her normal perky voice. She peered down at me with a reassuring smile.

I jerked upward and leaned on my elbows. “How did I get back here?” For a brief moment I thought it had all been a bad dream. But the look I saw on James’ face told me it had been very real.

“I’m going to do some scouting further ahead in the mountains. I won’t be long.” He was talking to Luna, but shot me a quick glance before disappearing through the trees.

“I’m sorry, Luna. I didn’t mean to hurt him. I just can’t control myself.” I fought back the tears, which I seemed to be doing a lot lately.

“I want to ask you something.” I took a drink of the water she offered. “Why was Joshua so distant after I attacked him if he knew I would have trouble controlling it at first? I saw the same look in James’ eyes, too.”

“Let’s get everything packed up while we’re waiting.” Luna stood and held out her hand to me. “And, Gen? Just know that killing for the sake of saving others is not frowned upon by the Gods,” she uttered and smiled softly.

I couldn’t help but smile sheepishly. I realized I’d caught his scent before I even saw him. Something else I hadn’t noticed about myself before.

“Where’s Joshua?” I asked, leaning to see around Joseph.

“Hiding.” A sly grin slowly appeared on Joseph’s face.

I just looked at him, bewildered at first, and then aggravated. I guess he noticed my furrowed brow and quickly realized I wasn’t amused by all the mystery.

“All right. He’s in the woods close by and when I give the signal, he’ll release a rabbit. Your job is to chase and catch it without hurting it.”

“But what if I can’t? I don’t want to hurt a poor defenseless rabbit. No.” I shook my head. “I won’t do it,” I snapped and pursed my lips.

“Luna will be right beside you. She won’t let you hurt the rabbit.” He assured.

Joseph was beginning to lose his patience with me. “Why won’t you come? Luna might be weaker, but dud, she is lightning fast,” he informed proudly, and put his arm around Luna’s shoulders, squeezing her close to him. Her face flushed. She promptly lowered her eyes and smiled, looking just like a little girl.

As soon as Joseph whistled, I instantly heard the rabbit scurry and then it’s scent wafted in the air. I looked out of the corner of my eye and Luna had already changed. She let out a loud growl, and I started to panic. I didn’t know why but I wasn’t changing, so I closed my eyes and pictured my mom screaming for help, like she had in my nightmare. Adrenaline tore through me, and then the violent shaking. I quickly dropped to the ground. The haziness lasted only a short time. Unlike before, I was fully aware as I began to change. The pain wasn’t nearly as intense, and it seemed like just a brief moment until my animal instincts took over.

I glanced at Luna. She was crouched and ready. I reared up, letting out a deep growl before I bolted with her on my heels. I followed the rabbit’s scent, and it took only a few seconds until I spotted him zigzagging between the trees. I picked up the pace even more. My strides were long and fast, but Luna’s were faster. She really could fly.

Just as I swiped at the rabbit’s hind legs, Luna came around me and scooped him up by the back of the neck. My long claws dug into one of her legs, and she rolled, dropping the rabbit from her mouth. I crouched low, and snarled at her, ready to pounce.

She looked into my eyes, and spoke with her mind, calming me. The calming effect was like nothing I had ever felt. My breathing slowed, and I changed back at the same time she did.

He ran and jumped over me, landing next to his sister. I watched as he pulled apart the tear in her jeans and examined the cut. He had such a gentle way about him. It made my heart flutter just to watch him.

“She’ll be fine. See, it’s just a small cut.” He held the tear open for me to look. “It should heal quickly.”

“Are we quitting or what?” Joshua appeared from behind a thick patch of bushes holding two rabbits by their ears, one in each hand. “What’s going on?” he asked earnestly.

I opened my eyes just as he kneeled down and released both rabbits. They scurried away, and it took every bit of strength in me not to give chase. I wanted those two rabbits in the worst way, but I fought through it and suddenly the urge was gone, and I was me again, except I was utterly exhausted.

My knees shook and I was about to fall when Joseph grabbed me up, and swung me around in circles. Luna was laughing and cheering and even Joshua smiled, which was something I had rarely seen him do. Not that he was a grouch or anything, but he was just more of the serious type.

We all joked and laughed on the way back to our camp. I didn’t realized we had run so far. It seemed like it had only taken me a couple minutes to chase down the rabbit, but we had been walking back for almost an hour and still hadn’t made it back to camp.

I guess I was weak from changing twice so close together, and the sun’s rays seemed to also be taking a toll on me. My legs ached, and I finally reached the point I couldn’t walk any farther. “I need to rest,” I gasped, and dropped into a crouch. “The sun seems to really be draining me. I don’t see how you guys can take it …” I trailed off, sitting down.

“That’s ridiculous. Changing doesn’t affect someone like that and you know it,” James scoffed at Joseph. “Whatever’s going on with Gen has nothing to do with her becoming an Adlet wolf.”

Chapter 28

I was almost asleep until I overheard Joshua say my name.

“Shh … keep your voice down. She doesn’t know that, and until we figure out why it’s affecting her this way, there’s no need to tell her.” Joseph’s voice was low and throaty.

Tell me what? What’s ‘affecting’ me?

“Well, transforming shouldn’t take all her strength, even when she’s first learning to control it.” He paused for a minute. “It’s obvious something’s not right and we’ve got to figure out what before we get to Devils Pass,” Joshua snapped.

“She’s just tired, that’s all.” Joseph didn’t sound too convincing.

James chimed in. “Joseph, you know it’s going to take all of us to get past Zane’s henchmen. If she’s not one hundred percent, we’re as good as dead.”

“Healed. See?” Luna had changed into a pair of blue jean shorts, which showed off her muscular legs. When she pointed out the place on her thigh, it was nothing more than a thin red line. “We’re fast healers.” She peered at me and giggled, I assumed, at my wide open eyes.

“Let’s get going. We still have a long way to go,” James said, and climbed onto his ATV, and we all followed suit.

The sun’s rays burned heavily on my bare skin, and my energy lessened by the minute. I cupped my eyes and peered up at the sun. It was about to drop behind the mountains and I counted each second.

I caught myself falling asleep several times, and almost fell off the ATV more than once. I think Joseph felt it the last time because he clamped his hand securely over mine.

We didn’t stop until well after dark. We were in the mountains, somewhere in New Mexico. When I climbed off the ATV, I quickly realized I had loads of energy. I felt almost like I had drank a bunch of energy drinks.

“This time it will be harder. No light. You’ll have to rely on pure animal instinct. And, you’ll have to be able to transform quickly,” Joshua added gruffly.

The further we walked into the trees, the more nervous I became. It wasn’t going to be me and Luna like it was before. The brothers were coming this time. I had to transform, hunt down a rabbit, catch it, then transform back … all without any help. If I went too far, Luna wouldn’t be there to stop me.

Joshua finally stopped, and turned to look at the rest of us. “Everybody ready?”

The “everybody” he was referring to was me. My whole body shook, and I’d broken out into a sweat.

“I’m ready.” I floundered as I tried to move next to Luna. They were all so graceful when they moved. I, on the other hand, looked like a baby giraffe, all legs and stumbling over my own feet. We weren’t on flat ground like we were during the earlier hunt. I quickly realized the uneven floor of the mountainous terrain would be much harder to maneuver on.

“Let’s go.” They transformed and were on the move. I didn’t have time to think about anything. I suddenly dropped to all fours, and followed. I smelled something straight ahead of me, but it wasn’t the familiar scent of a rabbit. It smelled like blood mixed with a gut retching stench.

I heard a series of low growls, and I knew something was wrong. I bolted in the direction the growls were coming from. I leaped onto the top of a series of stacked boulders and looked below. Luna and the boys were surround by a large pack of coyotes.

They weren’t your regular everyday run of the mill coyotes either. These were quite large for coyotes and their features were almost grotesque, like something out of a bad horror movie. One of them had its teeth bared and was slowly inching toward Luna.

I crouched low, then pushing off hard, leaped from atop the rock. I landed in front of Luna, and reared up, growling more fierce than ever before. It cowered, but I didn’t care. I grabbed that coyote by the throat and snapped its neck in one shake of my head, slinging its lifeless body to the side.

My pack saw that as their cue. A vicious and bloody fight ensued. Even though they were greater in number, we were much greater in both size and strength. Joseph dove right into the middle of several coyotes, and Joshua joined him. The sound of crunching bones and the smell of blood filled the air. When I glanced at Joseph, he was ripping out their throats one after another. His fur shined in the moonlight from the fresh blood sprayed everywhere.

In the midst of the growling and snarling, I heard footsteps trailing off in the distance. As soon as I felt sure they didn’t need me, I gave chase. I knew we couldn’t let any of them get away or Zane would know for sure we were coming.

I was having a hard time tracking the coyote, because the mountains in that area were covered in their scent. It was their home and they hunted the mountains all around the Ice Cave, and Devils Pass, which was where James had said we were going.