Worlds Apart (32 page)

“What the hell?” She pivoted to
face Shandari. “Is the ogre here to protect me or to guard
me?”

“Both.” Shandari managed to sound
authoritative and apologetic all at once. “If you go out there, we
may not be able to protect you. You’re safest in here.”

“Bullshit.”

“Why….”

“Bullshit,
Shandari! You’ve
got a hundred witches and elves and whatever in a perimeter out
there. Kasia’s out there. Hell,
Will’s
out there, and for
all I know, so is Ringstrom. I’m not in any more danger than they
are.”

“Yes, you are. You have a
connection to Clive that the others don’t. It will draw him to you,
and he will not be able to control himself.”

“I don’t care. He’s hurt.” Tina
swung back to face the giant, thrusting a finger upward to poke as
high as she could. She could just hit his chest, but she jabbed the
finger hard. “I can feel it. Clive is hurt. He needs help, and you
are going to move aside and let me out of here. If you want to come
with me, fine. You can carry the damn car, for all I care. Now,
move
.”

His expression didn’t change, but
he lifted an eyebrow at Shandari. Tina didn’t bother to look back,
but Shandari must have given some signal, for the mountain shrugged
once, and stepped aside. The double doors looked incongruously
small next to him. Tina wondered how he had managed to get inside.
Her panic gave her no time to question. She slammed against the
doors, shooting through as they flew open with a force they weren’t
made to withstand.

Outside, the night was clear and
cold. Stars glittered over the town. Shadows of nearby buildings
leaned toward her from the west, drawing Tina’s gaze to meet the
glare of the full moon. She jammed her feet into the ground to stop
her forward rush, shocked into paralysis by its unspoken message.
Then the panic returned, and her attention came back to the empty
parking lot. “Shit!” She turned in a circle, arms outstretched,
until she came face-to-face with Shandari, watching from the porch.
Somehow, the giant had emerged from the building. He stood behind
Shandari, regarding Tina with deep disapproval.

She ignored him.

“I need a car,” she said. Shandari
lifted her hands, as if to prove she did not have one. Tina slapped
her hips, remembering too late that her cell phone was gone. Lips
pressed tight, she took a step, firming her resolve to barrel past
the giant again, to go back inside and use the phone. She’d call
Sharon.

Before her next step, bouncing
lights appeared around the corner of the clinic, accompanied by the
crunch of running feet.

“Nobody move!” A man’s shout came
from behind the leading flashlight, which stopped about twenty feet
from Tina. In the light’s shadow, she saw a gun pointed at her.
Behind the lead figure, the second light was performing a series of
leaps as the person holding it scanned the area behind Tina, then
around and behind all of them.

“
It’s me,” Tina said, her voice
small in the darkness. “Is that you, Eddie?”

“Yeah.” He lowered his gun, but
didn’t holster it. “What the hell are you doing out
here?”

“I’m trying to get to Clive. He’s
hurt. He needs me.”

“That’s not going to happen, Dr.
Cassidy.” The other man stepped next to Eddie. He seemed familiar,
but she couldn’t place him. “You should not be out here at all. You
need to...”

“I need to find a car and get out
there,” Tina said. “Why can’t everyone understand that?”

He stepped closer to her, his
glance taking in the scrubs and flimsy tennis shoes she wore,
reminding her she wasn’t prepared to hike around the
mountains.

“I do understand. I’m Riff
Freeder. I was with Clive when he found you. I understand a great
deal, Tina. Including the danger you would face out
there.”

“The other werewolf is dead.” To
her own ears, Tina sounded like she was begging him.

“The danger now is from
Clive.”

“Clive will not hurt
me.”

The giant guffawed, making the
ground tremble under Tina’s feet. Even so, she heard Shandari’s
sigh from the porch.

“Will you force Clive to live with
the consequences if he did?” Riff asked.

“Listen, I don’t know how to
explain this to you people. But I’ve
got
to be there.” She
pointed with both hands at her chest and stomach, turning to catch
the gazes of each Kaarmaneshian. “There’s something inside me
that’s
forcing
me to go. Every minute you detain me makes it
worse.” She focused on Shandari, whose face showed a trace of
doubt. “It
hurts
, Shandari. If I don’t go, I think I’ll
explode. And Clive will die.”

Shandari stared at her, then
turned to Riff. Tina held her breath, wondering if they could
communicate telepathically. Perhaps they could, because Riff nodded
and held out a hand to Tina.

“We have a vehicle in back. I’ll
take you. But you’ll still have to convince Kasia.”

Everyone around her moved,
streaking off in various directions. Tina could not track them all,
so she concentrated on her hand in Riff’s as he pulled her around
the clinic at a fast trot. The beam of his flashlight passed over
Eddie’s black Dodge Ram. She scrambled into the back seat, while
Riff stood guard. A few minutes later, Shandari and Eddie rounded
the building. Shandari climbed in and tossed a bundle of clothing
into Tina’s lap.

“Your jacket,” she said. “And
hiking boots. Your nurse brought them over from your house this
afternoon.”

Bless Sharon and her uncanny
insight.

No one talked during Eddie’s wild
drive to Kasia’s reconnaissance camp. Tina struggled into the
boots, fighting both the seat belt and her lack of balance with the
curvy mountain road. Eddie’s speed matched her own urgent
yearnings, so she didn’t ask him to slow down.

Just as they screeched to a stop
behind Ringstom’s police car on the side of the road, Shandari
reached a hand to grip Tina’s fingers. “Center the panic you feel,”
she said. “Control it, Tina. You’ll need it to convince
Kasia.”

The truth of this statement became
evident as soon as Tina stepped out of the truck. Two tall and very
strong figures blinked into existence on both sides of her, grabbed
her arms and lifted her off her feet, putting her right back in.
The door shut on her nose and they turned their backs to her,
blocking her way out. When she turned to the other door, she saw
figures surrounding the truck, as still and immovable as
rocks.

Behind the steering wheel, Eddie
sputtered. “What the hell?”

Shandari did not repress a snort
of laughter.

Tina slapped the window.
“Goddammit, Kasia!” She didn’t quite shout, certain that Kasia
would hear her even if she whispered. She concentrated on the panic
in her middle and envisioned sending it out with her words, to
smack the elf upside her head. “I know this is dangerous, but I
also know I have to go out there. Don’t waste any more time,
please. Clive is still alive. But he won’t be much longer if we
don’t help him now.”

The panic reached a high pitch and
Tina winced. Placing her hands on the window, she directed the
panic into a push, trying to break through the glass and the backs
of her guards. A sharp pain pierced her head, but she kept
pushing.

In a swift move, the guards
stepped away. One of them reached back to open the door. Tina fell
into strong arms that forced her upright to meet Kasia’s furious
glare. “Stop doing that before you hurt yourself,” she
snapped.

“I wouldn’t have to do anything if
people would stop fighting me about it. I’m not a child, Kasia. I
decide for myself what risks I will take.”

“Do you see those people?” Kasia
asked, indicating everyone who was surrounding the area, far more
than just the few who stood by Eddie’s truck. “Every one of them is
standing there for the express purpose of protecting you. Every one
of them is willing to die or risk the werewolf’s curse, if it will
keep that werewolf away from you. They understand the risk they’re
taking. You do not.”

“You’re right,” Tina said, anger
still coloring her words. “I don’t understand everything. I don’t
get how this magic works. I just know what it’s telling me to do. I
don’t have any way of turning it off, Kasia. I’m going out
there.”

A touch of doubt moved across
Kasia’s face. Her glance went past Tina to stare at a point behind
her. “What do you See, Shandari?”

Shandari’s voice was soft, but
everyone could hear her. “I can tell you that Tina and Clive have
worked a spell between them. I can’t see it all, but she’s telling
the truth about its compulsion. I think...” and here, she paused,
as if not trusting her own words, “...I think there is protection
in the spell.”

Kasia’s chin came up, and Shandari
spoke with more urgency, faster and louder. “No. I cannot guarantee
that. If Clive should bite her, there is no help for it. I do not
think he will attack her. The spell will hold him back.”

Kasia’s gaze came back to Tina,
her chin moving with suppressed tension. “All right. I’ll take you
myself. Just you and I, so bring whatever equipment you’ll need
with you.”

Tina breathed again, her mind in
sudden turmoil. What would she find up there?

Will pushed through the guards,
holding a backpack out. “Take this. I’ve had it ready for several
hours. Antibiotics, soap, water, morphine, saline solution and IV,
bandages, scissors, tape... it will work for either wolf or
man.”

The first-aid list cleared Tina’s
mind, allowing her knowledge and skill to return in full force. She
grabbed the bag, shoving it onto a shoulder. “Thank
you.”

“Here, put this on,” Kasia said,
tossing a piece of white fabric to Tina. “It’s protective
clothing.” She demonstrated by shaking hers out and stepping into
it. It somehow formed itself around her.

“Like a hazmat suit,” Will
murmured, as he helped Tina into hers. The fabric shaped into legs,
torso, and arms, then hood and facemask. Tina felt a moment of
panic, but the stuff on her face vanished as soon as it had formed.
She knew it was still there, but it didn’t interfere with breathing
or speaking.

The panic had not left her belly.
She hiked the backpack to her shoulder and stepped toward the outer
circle. “Let’s go.”

Kasia took her arm. “We’ll go the
fast way.” She tapped her strap and threw something into the air in
front of her. A portal appeared and Tina at last felt a bit of
relief. She’d be there soon.

Kasia tapped her forehead and that
part of her suit lit up with a directional light. She shouldered a
rifle-type weapon and jerked her chin at Tina. “Stay right behind
me.”

She stepped through, and Tina
followed.

Chapter 38

The forest was quiet, as if in
shock. It was also very dark. The moon was too low to be seen
through the trees, and its light did not penetrate to the forest
floor.

Tina tapped her forehead like
Kasia had done and jumped in surprise when her own suit lit up. The
lamps were bright, lighting the path up to twenty feet in front of
them. The lower branches of several trees were full of ravens, all
of them watching the women with unblinking eyes.

Kasia was in front of Tina,
blocking her view of what was ahead. The panic within her rose up
and propelled her forward, past Kasia and around a tree.

It took a few seconds for the
scene to resolve itself in her mind. Her first awareness was of the
blood. It touched everything in the small clearing and pooled on
the ground. In the pool of blood was a figure. No.
Two
figures. She saw it now. They were wolves, one atop the other in an
ugly parody of the love act. The wolf on bottom was on his back,
his throat caught in the jaws of the upper wolf. His face was
turned away from Tina, but she could see his eyes were closed. His
forelegs were wrapped around the other wolf’s torso, his back legs
raised underneath, as if to kick his attacker’s belly.

Even in the flickering light of
her lamp, Tina could see that the belly’s organs had poured out of
the upper wolf. The bottom animal seemed to have a leg caught
inside the cavity. The fur along the top wolf’s back shimmered
silver in the light, in the few places not covered with
blood.

She realized she did not know
which one was Clive. This seemed desperately wrong to
her.

Her first thought was to separate
them, but as her legs tightened to move forward, a deep nausea
shook her body and forced her back.
Do not touch the silver
wolf.

Somewhere in the corner of her
mind, she remembered that the wolf on her porch had been
silver.

Kasia shoved her back, rifle fixed
on the animals. “Given the nature of Fontaine’s spell on you, under
no circumstances should you touch him. The ravens tell me he is
dead. Clive is not. Not yet, anyway.”

“We’ve got to get him out of
there,” Tina said, although she knew she couldn’t help. She blinked
in shock when Kasia shoved the rifle into her arms. “What the
fuck?”