Wolfen (43 page)

Desiree licked her lips nervously. “Where’s Arik?”

Aiden smirked. “He can’t help you now.”

“Aiden, I’m scared,” Casey said. “Don’t leave me anymore.”
Her pout was all game, but the wheeze wasn’t.

Desiree pressed her advantage. “You need me alive,” she
said.

“I really don’t,” Aiden countered, creeping closer.

Her finger tightened slightly on the trigger. “Then resign
yourself to watching Casey die!”

That stopped him, and he snarled, hair rising like hackles
with his anger.

“Stop. Stop it!” Casey shouted, crying for real this time.
Her next breath was a gasp.

“What’s wrong with her?” Aiden demanded.

“Asthma,” Desiree said. “She had an attack when you
abandoned her earlier. This could be a relapse. She needs treatment—and fast—or
her airways will close off completely and she’ll suffocate.”

“Do it,” he barked, gaze switching rapidly between her and
Casey. He was tense, a male Wolfen toeing the line, holding back by sheer force
of will.

The old Desiree would have balked, dropped the gun, and
followed his orders to the letter, fearing repercussions. The temptation was
still there. Her gun arm was getting tired; she felt herself weakening with an
overwhelming urge to curl up and pray he tired of hitting her, before her body
tired of holding onto life. She’d always done that with Klaus.

But Klaus was dead, and Aiden wasn’t a psychotic dictator
with an army. The rules have changed. She had an advantage here, and the sense
of power it brought made Desiree reckless to the point of insanity. She dropped
the gun—too heavy to hold up, anyway—and turned her back on him. “Eh, maybe
later. First we’re going to talk.”

“H-help,” Casey wheezed, reaching out to Aiden, even though
Desiree held the key to her recovery.

Aiden snarled, snapping his teeth like a rabid dog, closer
than he’d been a second ago.

Desiree flinched, but sat up straighter. She wouldn’t back
down. “Have a seat,” she invited.

“Please, help.” Casey’s voice grew harsh. She was looking to
Desiree and reaching for the herb box.

Desiree pulled it from her reach, eliciting a moan of
despair.

Aiden was at her back instantaneously, rumbling a pissed-off
growl at her ear.

Desiree squeezed her eyes shut and hugged the herb box to
her chest. “The longer you stall, the worse she’ll get.”

Casey whined a little.

Aiden gathered her up and sat across the fire from Desiree
with a glare promising death at the earliest opportunity, while Casey clutched
at him as though he were the only safe place in the world. “You’d let a little
girl suffer to get your way. You’re sick.”

“You forget,” Desiree snapped in answer, “I was a little
girl once, too, and plenty of people saw me suffer, and didn’t do a damn thing
about it. I am what they made me.”

Aiden didn’t like that. His eyes glowed brighter, and his
face rippled with the start of a shift, before he pulled it back again. “Ten
guesses what you want.”

“To live,” Desiree said simply, sprinkling licorice into the
pot of water. “You can buy her life by giving me mine; I can keep her alive
until you get to where you need to go.”

“Which means I need to take you along for the ride, right?”

She inclined her head. “Naturally.” He had to have a home
somewhere, and if not, he’d have to make one for Casey. It was a chance for
Desiree to start fresh, a new life. “I’m not without purpose. I could be useful
to you.”

He growled. “And if I refuse?”

Desiree shrugged. “Then she dies, you kill me, and the world
will be two weak links short.”

Casey must have said something to him, because Aiden patted
her on the back to comfort her, displaying a level of gentleness that clashed
with the savage countenance he turned on Desiree.

He only had to look at her, and Desiree shook with fear,
which pissed her off. So she took a deep breath and shoved down all of it: fear
for herself, for Casey, for Arik—who still hadn’t returned—for what might
happen tomorrow, or the next day, or the next. Right now, she had all the power
in the world to dictate the terms of her own life. She would not be cowed into
squandering it.

“
I
didn’t lock you up,” she said. “I didn’t consign
you to that cell.
You
volunteered, and you did it, knowing exactly what
kind of people you were dealing with. You don’t get to blame me for that.”

Aiden snarled, with less heat behind it. She’d spoken the
truth, and he knew it, whether it suited him or not.

“When all is said and done, I hurt you for one day, and you
were left untouched while you healed. You, on the other hand, have caused me
pain that’ll keep hurting for weeks—out here, without any sort of way to
protect myself. You destroyed my leg and cut my chances of survival by more
than three-quarters. I think that makes us even.”

Casey’s wheeze was getting louder. She twisted around in
Aiden’s arms to face the fire, then leaned forward as she had before.

Aiden’s patience was wearing thin, so Desiree laid out her
terms very quickly. “Here’s the deal: we clear the slate right here and now,
and start over. I help Casey, and you let me live. You assure me safe passage
to wherever you’re going, and swear to me you won’t hurt me again, through
action or inaction, and I’ll make sure Casey gets there safe and sound, and
tell you how to keep her that way, until she’s grown enough to take care of
herself.”

Aiden took time to consider her proposal, time Casey didn’t
have.

“Ai-den?” She looked over her shoulder at him, equal amounts
of fear and betrayal in her small voice. Had she finally caught on to how
dangerous her new best friend really was?

He softened at once, rubbing Casey’s back. “Understand, if
any harm comes to her at your hands, your life is forfeit.”

Desiree nodded.

“Fine,” he growled.

She quickly tossed him the lavender pouch while she swirled
the tea in the pot. “Have her breathe that while the tea brews.”

Only when Aiden had finally broken the staring contest did
Desiree allow herself to relax a little. Night was falling on a veil of cold
silence, but she didn’t mind. In fact, she almost smiled, knowing, for once,
she’d make it. If Aiden cared enough about Casey to give up his grudge, he
wouldn’t let any harm come to her. And that meant Desiree was safe by
association. A good deal, in her book. She’d pat herself on the back for it
later.

By the time Arik returned, dragging a small mountain of
firewood in his wake, Casey was resting comfortably in Aiden’s arms and Desiree
was half asleep. He took one look at the scene, and dropped his burden with
wary resignation. “All right, what did I miss?”

Vengeance is supposed to be a righteous undertaking, the
act of becoming Justice, tipping the scales back to neutral in some small way.

It’s not.

Vengeance is selfish. It’s a vain man’s pastime with a
price I can’t afford.

I might know Wolfen biology down to the molecular level, but
human ailments have never been my concern beyond calculating how quickly they’d
take a person down. With Casey, it’ll be too damn quick, unless I can find a
way to get over this grudge against Desiree and learn to work with her rather
than against her. Pack comes first, always. For Casey, I have to be the bigger
man.

So I guess that’s what I’m going to do. Be all Zen and
shit.

There is wisdom in looking into the eyes of your enemy
and admitting when she’s right.

That doesn’t mean I have to like it.

~

Only one of the cars still had a functional battery, so they
repacked everything, siphoned out what little gas was left in the other
vehicle, shared some dried meat among the four of them, and set out.

“Where to?” Arik asked.

“North,” Aiden answered. Arik didn’t trust Aiden behind the
wheel, relegating him to the passenger seat. It was a concession Aiden still
regretted, but he swallowed it, and settled in for some seriously obnoxious
navigating instead.

“We should find a road,” Desiree suggested. “Roads lead to
cities.”

She and Casey were in the back seat, which made Aiden
twitchy. He didn’t trust the gimp with his girl. Just the fact that she’d have
sat there and watched Casey die left a bad taste in his mouth for agreeing to
let her live. And now she smelled familiar, which made it that much worse.

Aiden hadn’t lied to Bryce; he still didn’t believe a blood
exchange made any difference whatsoever in the way people felt about each
other. But it did change them on a basic, chemical level. Every time Aiden
scented Desiree, his instinct ran completely opposite to what he knew in his
mind he ought to do. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t do it if it became necessary.
It just meant ripping her throat out would be a hell of a lot more difficult.

Had she done it on purpose? Did she know?

“No cities,” he said. “We steer clear of any settlements or
man-made structures.”

“But—”

“I said no. We take the easiest path north until I say
otherwise.”

“Easiest would be a road,” Arik muttered. “Just sayin’.”

“Cities still have things in them,” Desiree insisted.
“Clothes, tools, supplies, cars and gas. Things we
need
.”

“Yeah,” Aiden agreed. “You know what else they have? Convert
hives. We don’t go into cities. End of discussion.” He glared at her to drive
his point home.

Casey played with her doll and stared out the side opening
where a door should have been. Aiden had strapped her in with the seatbelt, but
seeing her so close to the edge still made him nervous. He reached back, tugged
her closer to the middle, and she rewarded him with a smile so bright it made
his heart melt.

“What happens when we run out of gas?” Arik asked.

“Then things will become very interesting for some of us.”

The car was as off-road as twenty-first century military
engineering could make it. Still, it was no mule; it made so much noise,
Aiden’s head pounded after an hour, and it shook and rattled across the uneven
ground, making them all queasy. More than once, the wheel got stuck in a hole,
forcing Aiden to get out and push. Menial labor. God, how he missed the mule.

He kept watch for signs of life, but in terms of fauna, much
of the landscape looked pretty dead. Still, the farther north they went, the
more greenery there was. Better odds for finding food.

They drove for hours, until thirst forced them to stop and,
of course, Desiree had to comment. “I told you we should have found a road.”

Aiden’s hackles rose. He shook himself off, then got out to
look for underground water. Trees, moss, and moist earth meant an underground
source had to be somewhere nearby. He just had to find it. He cut off a forked
branch and cleaned it into a dowsing rod.

“Really? You’re going to
divine
water?” Aiden could
hear the eye roll in Desiree’s voice.

“No,” he retorted. “I’m going to look for a magical pot of
gold, and go to the convenience store on the corner of that patch of dirt and
that rock over there to buy you some Evian. Sound better?”

“Whatever.”

Aiden bit the inside of his cheek and focused on his task. It
was a long shot to begin with; he didn’t need anyone undermining his efforts
with their negativity. Twenty yards out, the rod twitched. Aiden swept the area
again, but only that one spot elicited any sort of response. He marked it, then
went back to the jeep for a small spade.

Arik had turned off the engine to save gas, and was now
stretching while he had the chance. Clearly, this was his first road trip.

Aiden shook his head, and started back toward his mark.

“Wait!” Desiree called. He had half a mind to ignore her,
but decided not to.
Must be civil to the cripple.
When he turned back,
she tossed him the canteen. “Take this.”

He stared at it. Was she messing with him?

“You know, just in case.”

Aiden tossed it back. “If there’s water, it’ll need to be boiled.”
Underground wells were usually cleaner than any other source, but with Casey’s
health in question, Aiden didn’t want to take any chance. He went to the pack,
and pulled out the cooking pot.

“I’ll get a fire going,” Arik offered.

About two feet down, Aiden struck water—a puddle seeping up
through the mud. He’d have crowed, but it wasn’t a big enough find. They’d be
lucky to get a few sips each. Wouldn’t hold them for very long. He scooped out
what he could, and dug deeper. Hopefully, by the time they’d boiled the first
batch, a little more water would have seeped up.

Once they’d gathered around the fire, the witch pulled out
her little box of potions.

“Is it time for Casey’s tea?”

She shook her head. “No, I just…figured I have these. Might
as well use them, right? Muddy water with a little chamomile has to be better
than muddy water alone.”

“As long as you don’t cast any spells over it.”

“Aiden, look! Look how high I am!”

Arik surged to his feet. “Casey, come down from there!”

Casey giggled, and climbed higher. “Look, Aiden!”

“Casey!”

“Let her be,” Aiden said.

“She’s going to fall,” Arik snapped.

Aiden nodded. “And then she’ll learn.”

Casey was halfway up the tree, using the branches like a
ladder. She had no idea how difficult it’d be coming back down. But if Aiden
knew one thing, it was that no matter how well the concept was explained to
them, people learned best by trying. Casey would, too.

“What is wrong with you?” Arik demanded.

Aiden ignored him. “What do you see from up there, kid?”

“I’m not high enough!”

“You’re plenty high, just need to look out farther.”

“I…I don’t like this. I wanna come down now.”

Arik was on the first branch before she’d finished talking.
“Hold on, Casey. I’m coming.”

Aiden’s mouth twitched. “Just come down the way you went
up.”

“No, don’t listen to him! I’m coming to get you. Just stay
there.”

“Case, climb.”

Desiree shook her head. “She’s human. If she falls, she
won’t heal in minutes like you. You can’t expect her to—”

“To what? Rely on herself? Know her limits? She got herself
up there, she can get herself back down.”

“Aiden, help!” Casey cried.

“She’s just a little kid!”

“She’s not that little,” Aiden countered. But Desiree
wouldn’t back down, and neither she nor Arik would let him hear the end of it.
So Aiden got up and went to Casey’s tree, where Arik sat, stuck halfway up with
no idea how to move from there. Pathetic.

“Can you come get me?” Casey asked.

“Sorry, kid. Too many people in that tree already. Get down
from there, man,” he told Arik. “You’re just embarrassing yourself.”

“Please!” Casey held onto the trunk like a little monkey, so
blinded by anxiety, she couldn’t see the branch right underneath her butt.

“How’d you get up there?”

Arik slipped, swore, but he had a hold on a branch and was
able to climb back down. As Arik descended, Casey’s eyes widened even more. “I
climbed,” she said.

“So, what are you waiting for? Climb back down.”

“I can’t!”

“For Chrissake, will you just go get her?” Arik demanded.

Aiden waved him aside. “Why not?” he asked Casey.

“I’m scared.”

“Are you hurt?”

“No.”

“Is someone else hurt?”

“No…”

“Is someone chasing you?”

“Come get me!”

“Yes or no, Casey—is someone chasing you?”

“No!”

“Then you have no reason to be scared.”

“I’ll fall!”

“Could be,” Aiden allowed. “That’s what happens when you
climb trees without knowing how.”

Arik stared at him as if Aiden had lost his mind.

“You can climb down, or you can fall. Your choice.”

“If I fall,” she said, subdued, “will you catch me?”

“Always, baby girl. But you’ll probably hit a few branches
on the way down, and I won’t be able to help that.”

Casey wailed.

“You are one fucked up son of a bitch,” Arik said.

“Maybe,” Aiden agreed. “But what do you wanna bet she won’t
climb that high again?”

Arik just shook his head.

“There’s a branch right beneath you, Casey. Put your foot on
it.”

Aiden talked Casey down from the tree, one branch at a time.
And she did it all by herself, without slipping or falling even once. By the
time she’d made it to the bottom, she was smiling again, running off to play
with her doll by the waterhole. Aiden patted Arik on the shoulder in
conciliation, and aimed a smug grin at Desiree as he sat down to his tea.

“Was that your idea of tough love?” Desiree asked.

Arik, having been scared shitless by Casey’s escapades,
trailed her in case she got a boo-boo. Casey made him chase her around to keep
his vigil. Damn, he loved that kid.

“Casey doesn’t need tough. She needs someone to show her
she’s capable of more than she was taught.”

“All you did was make her more likely to go off on her own.”

“And that’s a bad thing because…?”

“She could get hurt!”

“Or she could come back stronger.”

“What if she has another asthma attack while she’s gone?”

Aiden poked the fire with a twig. “Tell you what, when you
have kids, you can teach them whatever the hell you want. Make them afraid of
their own shadow. Make them so dependent on you, they’ll have no choice but to
stay and take care of you. But excuse me if I don’t subscribe to that crock of
shit.” He tossed the twig onto the flame. “When
my
kid gets thrown to
the wolves, I want to make damn sure she’s strong enough to come back leading
the pack.”

He couldn’t tell if that was scorn or confusion on Desiree’s
face, but he did detect a smidgen of reluctant respect. About damned time. Then
she had to go and ruin it. “Casey’s not your kid.”

“She is now.” Aiden pushed to his feet. “Case, come on! Time
to hit the road!”

Casey ran to the car, slapped her hands onto it. “I win!”
she declared.

A winded Arik followed far behind.

“Congratulations, looks like you got second place,” Aiden
teased.

“Shut up,” Arik snapped.

Aiden chuckled. “I’ll make you a Fastest Loser trophy
later.”

Before they doused the fire, Aiden went to check the
waterhole. It’d gone dry. He put on a brave face for the munchkin, but it
worried him. A human body could go a week or more without food. Without water,
death was pretty much guaranteed after three days; less, if they needed to do
any rigorous activity. Like, say, if the car ran out of gas and they had to
walk the rest of the way to Montana.

Much as Aiden hated to admit it, Desiree might have had a
point about the cities. This area was too unfamiliar for him to guess where
they were or where they needed to go. They needed a map and supplies. Not to
mention, the drive would be easier over paved roads.

Aiden sighed. At times like these, he really wished he had
his brother to watch his back.