Psyche Moon (18 page)

Either the bleeding was slowing or I was doing some serious wishful thinking. I spoke to her, mind and voice, crooning that it would be okay. “Jason’s on his way. You’ll be okay. Just hang in there.”

Jason didn’t knock. He just pushed through the door, splintering the frame and rendering Billie’s deadbolt useless. In two seconds flat he took in the scene in front of him, Billie a wolf and me holding her with tears running down my face. Both of us were drenched in blood. His eyes narrowed, and he crossed the room to the couch too quick to believe, closing the door behind him. A lot had just happened that would have been hard to swallow on a normal day. Without a word, he pulled the sweatshirt away from the wound and his body tensed.

Though he hadn’t looked at me or spoken to me, his attention was very much on me. The strength that pulsed from him weighed heavy in the room, and it was clear he didn’t trust me. In fact, all of his anger was focused on me, blaming me for Billie’s condition. Shivering in intimidation, I shut down mental contact as much as I was able in my state of mind.

“Do you have anything to eat?” He spoke without as much as a glance. “Something with protein.”

“Yes.”

“She needs to eat. As much protein as you can find.”

I knew I could trust him when it came to Billie, but I wasn’t so sure I could trust him towards me. Billie was all that mattered right then, so I ran to the kitchen refrigerator. Grabbing leftovers from several containers, some eggs, and a carton of milk, I brought it all back to Jason before going back for more. “Does it have to be cooked?” I called from the kitchen.

“No.” So I returned with the pound of hamburger almost thawed on the top shelf. I watched him feed Billie from his hand, tenderly holding her head. She ate urgently, snapping up the food in her powerful jaws. He poured the milk into one of the leftover bowls and refilled it as she lapped it empty.

Her body jerked and her nose hit the edge of the bowl, tossing it aside and spilling milk all over the couch and floor. She whined and spoke to my mind.
I’m sorry.

It’s okay!
Her mental voice felt stronger already and I almost choked on my relief. I knelt beside her, risking nearness to Jason. “Don’t worry, baby. Just get better.” She licked my hand and I fought back the tears. “You have to get better. You owe me a couch.” The joke came across stale, but she snorted her approval.

Jason’s gaze on me became increasingly painful as he watched the interchange. “Do you have more food?”

I nodded. “Billie just went shopping, so there’s lots of meat in the freezer. I can thaw it out.”

“This will be enough for now, but she’ll need more after she sleeps. Pull it out. All of it.” I did so and returned to sit at the floor beside my fur-clad girlfriend and lay my head against her neck, careful not to disturb her wound.

Sleep, love. I’m not going anywhere.
She lay her nose on my arm and closed her eyes.

Trust Jason. Tell him everything. I love you.
A deep sleep overcame her, and I knew then she would recover. Tears of relief welled in my eyes, and I breathed deep for the first time since it started.

Only then did I turn my attention to the man in front of me, taking him in fully for the first time. He sat in a chair that he must have pulled from the kitchen and looked at me stonily. Tattoos covered his arms. His clothes, though clean, were worn through. The torn jeans and simple t-shirt somehow made him more menacing, as if they were deliberately designed to make me underestimate him. He made me think of a dealer more than anything.

“Who are you?” He asked me, demanding but not exactly hostile.

“I’m Sadie, Billie’s girlfriend.” He nodded, as if expecting that answer.

“How did you know to call me?”

“Billie told me to. She gave me your number and told me to trust you. It’s not like I could call an ambulance.”

“She gave you my number tonight? After she got hurt? How? She was in wolf form.”

I nodded, unsure how to answer that. I chose my words carefully, “She said to trust you, to tell you everything. So I will, but I don’t know how to explain everything. Billie and I can speak to each other in our minds. She calls me a Sensitive. That’s how I knew it was her even though she was a wolf. After she was stabbed she gave me your number.”

He tensed at my words. I wondered why I felt such anger and distrust. Still afraid to dip into his thoughts even by accident, I simply waited for him to tell me. “A Sensitive, huh?” He snorted. “After what you did out there … you’re no Sensitive.”

I realized people were outside of my house, three of them, but I hadn’t heard them. I startled and looked as if through the wall at them. “Oh no!” I didn’t want anyone to see what Billie and I had done.

“They’re cleaning up the mess. No one will know.”

I looked at him in disbelief. “How? What about the police?”

“The police will find a bunch of bodies from a fight – punk kids with nothing better to do than turn on each other. Two deaths by attack dog and seven from knife wounds.” I just stared at him. “That’s what the police will find, and you will make sure they believe it, Mage.” He spat the word Mage in insult, and I shrank into the sleeping Billie. “You will bend their mind to believe it. But if you try anything like that on me or my Pack I will kill you.”

Speechless, I couldn’t say anything, and he continued. “Billie and I will stay here for a few days until she’s human and able to travel. After that you will stay away from her. I don’t want to smell you anywhere near us. You can stay in my territory so long as you don’t try anything, but don’t push me.”

Bewilderment turned to shock … and anger. “What? You can’t tell me not to see her. You don’t have the right! I don’t know what the hell is going on, but I’m not losing Billie.”

His voice grumbled low, his body that of an animal about to attack. Recklessly, I didn’t care. “The only reason I didn’t kill you on sight is because you saved her life. Don’t press your luck. I could kill you just for being in my territory without permission.”

“Your territory! I’ve lived here my whole life!” His eyes narrowed in thought but he didn’t respond to my statement. We sat in silence for a while, and the chill air made me shiver. Jason stood and without a word walked down the hall to my bedroom, returning with a blanket. As he laid it over me, it dawned on me that I’d been arguing with a strange man without realizing I was topless. Suddenly self-conscious I pulled the blanket around me.

“Thank you.” He nodded.

A slight tap came at the door. I didn’t bother moving, knowing the man wanted to talk to Jason anyway. He opened the door a bit, but not enough for me to see well. “Cleanup is done.” He reported. “We moved everything two blocks down, and I don’t expect a knock on the door with questions. It’ll be a hard one to pull off, though. They were dead too long for our wounds to look convincing.” He was studiously trying to ignore me, fear of me filling the room like a fog.

“She’ll convince them.” Jason replied, and the man nodded. “Make the calls. Make sure nothing leaks out. Don’t tell anyone about the Mage yet.” He nodded again, glanced my way, and disappeared down the steps.

As soon as the door shut, I pounced on the dizzying number of questions I had. This stranger seemed to know something about me. No one had ever been afraid of me before – not like this. “What is a Mage?”

He paused. “You are a Mage.”

“Okay, what am I?” I challenged, no longer caring that he’d just threatened to kill me.

“Mages have power over the mind. They are neither Human nor Wolf. They are something else.” Crossing to his seat, his tongue loosened. “You are an old race. You can read and control thoughts, and powerful ones can even kill with a thought. Mages are not to be trusted.”

My eyes lowered as I remembered the seven I’d killed. “Like I did.”

“Like you did.”

I raised my eyes, needing to justify myself to someone. “I didn’t know that would happen. I didn’t know I could do that. They were killing her and I just wanted them to stop. It just … happened.” I pleaded with him to exonerate me, needing someone to tell me that I wasn’t responsible for seven deaths.

“It just happened.” He said in disbelief. “And you don’t know you’re a Mage.”

“I’ve never even heard of them before now.”

“Did you know Billie’s a Wolf?”

I watched my sleeping lover’s face as I answered, my voice softening as I took in her sleeping form. “I knew she was different. Special. She radiated so much power and life. But I didn’t know about the wolf part until she ran up tonight. I could tell it was her of course – her mind is the same. Nothing about it feels wrong. Even now, looking at her like this, this wolf is Billie and it feels natural. It feels right. I don’t understand.”

“We are Wolves. Humans use the term werewolf.” I nodded my understanding. I’d figured that much out for myself.

“That’s the secret. I sensed that she was hiding something, and she promised me it wasn’t bad, just private. She couldn’t tell me because it affected other people and she’d made a promise. She was so serious about it. I promised I wouldn’t pry. This explains a lot.”

“Tell me what happened earlier.”

I shivered at the memory and tried to hold myself together. I was able to keep my voice steady for most of it. “It started about a week ago. A couple of boys threatened us while we were walking. They wouldn’t back off, so Billie … batted them to the ground in about three seconds. She was amazing. They came back tonight with friends. They wanted to get back at Billie through me. They jumped me at my car, and all I could think to do was call out to Billie. With my mind. I was so scared. They drug me around to the side of the house and beat me, tore off my clothes. He had a knife and he kept thinking what he would do to me …” I couldn’t voice the boy’s thought.

“And then Billie was there, and she was a wolf. She killed the boy who was hurting me and another one. But they cornered her, and she wouldn’t run because I was still there. Someone stabbed her. I’m not even sure what happened or how I did it. I’ve never done anything like that before. It’s like I was so scared and angry and desperate I pulled from everything around me. As much as I could gather. When I released it at the boys, they just fell down dead! I didn’t mean to kill them – I didn’t even know I could do something like that. They were going to kill her, and I just reacted.”

“Instinct.” He said, and I nodded. That was apparently something he understood. He was beginning to relax, and the intense anger and distrust had softened. But something new had him very worried. “Have you ever controlled someone’s thoughts before?”

I nodded slightly, not liking to admit it. “A couple of times. A long time ago.”

“Why not now?”

I gathered my thoughts to try and put words to it all. What I could do defied language, and I knew I couldn’t explain it well. I tried. “Reading simple thoughts and emotions is as natural for me as breathing. I just do it. But when I control someone’s thoughts it’s different. It’s forceful, and I feel … I don’t know how to describe it. Godlike. Volatile. Like it’s my right to do anything I want. It’s seductive, satisfying. I scared myself when I did it before. I hated that I used someone. Tonight was worse. When I was holding onto the power, I was enjoying it. I saw the bodies, and I was glad they were dead. But when it was over I was horrified.”

“I’ve never met a Mage who didn’t like that power.”

My voice turned harsh and clipped. “I don’t. It’s like knowing there’s a psychopath living inside of me. If I don’t touch that power, she can’t come out. ”

“Billie will be okay. You saved her life, and you called me in time. Wolves either die quickly or heal completely. Her body has started to repair itself, and now she just needs food and sleep. So do you. Go to bed.”

“I won’t leave her.”

He nodded and disappeared into my room again, returning with more bedding and a shirt. He didn’t even seem to notice my nudity, as if my breasts were no more interesting than my chin. So I dropped the blanket and slipped the shirt over my head despite his presence. Spreading the bedding on the floor beside the couch, I lay down wishing I could still feel Billie’s touch. But the couch wasn’t big enough for a human and an injured wolf.

As I closed my eyes, Jason spoke thoughtfully, “I don’t know what to think of you, Sadie. We’ll see what happens next before I decide what to do with you. Reading thoughts may be normal for you, but it’s not to me. To me it’s an attack, and I always defend myself and my Pack.”

I didn’t open my eyes or turn in his direction. I didn’t want to see his accusing eyes any more. “Blocking out surface thoughts and emotions is like trying not to hear a conversation happening right beside me. I can’t promise I won’t pick up surface thoughts – I don’t know how to block out everything. But I’ll block out as much as I can. You have my word.”

He didn’t reply, and I left it at that.

Chapter 11

Her desperate mental call woke me.
Sadie!
The urgency in it put a loaded spring under my back and I bolted up to check on her. Her legs thrashed as she searched for me, not understanding I was right in front of her.

Shhh. I’m right here, love. I’m safe. You’re safe. Jason’s here too.
I locked my eyes onto her crystal almond shaped ones, and she stilled. I buried my hands in her warm neck, strangely finding comfort in the softness of her fur. “Everyone is safe.”

Did they hurt you?

A few bruises. That’s all. You stopped them before they could do more.
I promised her. I wasn’t injured much, but I couldn’t honestly say I was dandy.

You’re really okay?
I’d convinced her about as much as I’d convinced myself.

She wouldn’t believe it until she felt the full truth from me. An explanation was in order. “I’m really okay. I’m shaken up and scared and my face feels pretty mushy, but it doesn’t hurt much unless I touch it. It’s not serious. I’ll heal.”

They didn’t rape you?
Her voice shuddered at the question, and an involuntary shiver swept over me.