Cordelia was peering through the trees, shifting her weight and making breathy, whining noises of distress. Katelyn winced as she realized that Cordelia didn’t yet know what had happened to Lee Fenner — her father. Cordelia had left the Fenner pack for the Gaudins when her father had banished her for speaking to Katelyn about werewolves after Katelyn had been bitten, for keeping it secret from him. Keeping the pack a secret from non-werewolves was a golden rule in all packs, and Cordelia had broken the rule. And paid the price. Now, at seventeen, she was married to the alpha of the Gaudins, Dom.
“Kat.” Cordelia frowned up at the moon. “We have to get out of here. The fire’s moving fast and I’m sure Dom’s got more Gaudins looking for me. That Gaudin werewolf is your sworn enemy. You’re a member of the Fenner pack, and—”
“We don’t know that,” Katelyn broke in. “We don’t know who bit me.”
“The Fenners took you in.”
“And threw you out. And they have been threatening to kill me every single day of my life since then.”
“Then why didn’t you leave with me when I asked you to?” A world of hurt flashed across Cordelia’s features. “And don’t start in about having to stay to protect your grandfather. He forced you to move here. You hadn’t seen him in years!”
And I think Grandpa killed my father because he was a werewolf. And I think my mom knew. Or knew some of it.
She must have looked ill. Cordelia impatiently thrust the gas mask at her.
“Damn it, Kat. You’ve been exposed to silver. Take this!”
Katelyn didn’t need it, but that was something else Cordelia didn’t know. Unaware of Katelyn’s immunity to silver, Cordelia was putting her own safety on the line by offering the mask to Katelyn. She wondered if she could trust Cordelia not to share the secret of her power with her husband, because of the so-called loyalty instinct. If Cordelia had to choose, who would win, Katelyn or Dom? Katelyn knew she would do almost anything she could to help Cordelia.
But she hadn’t left Wolf Springs with her.
And she wouldn’t leave the Gaudin werewolf to die.
“You can stay here,” Katelyn whispered, “but I’m going to look for him.”
Then before Cordelia could stop her — before she could stop herself — she crouched down and glided from their hiding place. Her werewolf senses had not kicked back in and as she surveyed the hundreds of trees and bushes, she realized what a hopeless task she faced. And she could smell the smoke drifting toward their hiding place. She prayed that Cordelia would put on the mask.
She sniffed the air, trying to track the werewolf. She scented earth and vegetation and smoke.
And something dead.
That didn’t mean it was the Gaudin. The forest was burning and many animals could have died already.
She turned left and crept through the bushes, aware that her thigh muscles weren’t cramping. Another plus for having become a werewolf. She reached out a hand and touched a wet, sticky face.
She moved her fingers beneath his nostrils. No air. She jerked her hand away, then took a deep breath and felt for his neck. She placed her fingers over his carotid artery. It instantly reminded her of the man she and Trick had found in the forest. Horribly mauled, pieces missing, blood everywhere—
No pulse.
A twig cracked. The low, menacing growl of the Hellhound rumbled in Katelyn’s gut.
It’s still there.
2
KATELYN GOT BACK
to Cordelia as fast as she could. They raced deep into the forest. Katelyn kept up easily; a side effect of becoming a werewolf was an increase in strength and stamina. Katelyn’s insides lurched and she followed so closely that her fingertips kept grazing Cordelia’s arm. The smoke was thickening and Cordelia began to slip the gas mask on — giving up on forcing Katelyn to wear it. Then it tumbled from her hands into the dense foliage. Katelyn wheeled to retrieve it but Cordelia yanked on her hand.
“Leave it. We have to keep going!”
They ran together for what seemed like an hour. Then a cave loomed ahead, and Katelyn slowed — the Hellhound was said to live in the Madre Vena mine, which was also a cave — and then she told herself that if the Hellhound was still nearby, it was more likely somewhere behind them.
She darted inside with Cordelia. The cave was pitch dark. Katelyn’s enhanced werewolf vision still did not kick in. As she was a new werewolf, her powers of sight, hearing, and smell intensified to wolf levels, then declined back to human strength, at unpredictable times. With time they would stabilize, so she had been told. But for now, she was never sure when they would manifest, and for how long.
Cordelia found Katelyn’s wrist and urged her forward.
“We don’t want to go too far in,” Katelyn said. “We don’t want to get trapped in here.”
“Good thinking.” Cordelia stopped and Katelyn bumped into her. “You’re not seeing like a wolf, are you?” Cordelia said.
“No. It comes and goes. Right now I can’t see anything.”
“Got it,” Cordelia said. Then she took another deep breath. “I’d like to kill Luc Gaudin myself. Dom did not authorize dumping silver into the swamp, Kat. When you see my daddy, you make sure he knows that.”
Katelyn shut her eyes tight. It was time to tell Cordelia the awful truth. Why was that more frightening than facing down the Hellhound?
“Cor, I-I have to tell you something.”
“Tell me Luc’s dead, and I’ll throw confetti,” Cordelia said, clearly not hearing the urgency in Katelyn’s voice — which, given that she was a werewolf and therefore acutely focused on body language and intonation, was not what Katelyn had expected. It would have been so much easier if Cordelia had realized that bad news was on the way.
“Luc
is
dead,” Katelyn said. “I saw him die. Justin killed him.” She didn’t fill in that Justin Fenner — Cordelia’s cousin — had fatally shot him with a gun containing silver bullets. As far as she knew, the Gaudins still didn’t know the Fenners had such a weapon.
“Did he suffer?” Cordelia asked, and Katelyn couldn’t gauge her tone of voice. Did Cordelia hope he’d suffered?
“I don’t know,” she replied. “Justin shot him while they were both in human form. Justin can’t change at will yet,” she added, nerves making her complicate the story when she didn’t need to say anything more. But she did suppose that he had suffered. Silver was poison to werewolves. So being shot with a silver bullet would be like having silver injected into your body, wouldn’t it?
Is that what it was like for my father?
“If he was here right now, I’d make sure he suffered,” Cordelia said bitterly. “He would beg to die.”
Katelyn shivered. Cordelia sounded like a different person — bloodthirsty and cruel — but Katelyn reminded herself that what they’d both been through had been horrific. Fenners had died today. And if what Cordelia said was true, Luc had betrayed them all.
“I’m glad it was Justin who shot him,” Cordelia added. “He tried to get my father to listen to Dom and accept the terms for peace. Forgiving me,” she said in a hushed voice. “Daddy wouldn’t forgive me.” She exhaled slowly, then piped up, “Oh, I almost forgot. I found your phone in the swamp. Here.” Katelyn felt Cordelia press the phone into her hand. “Someone called you during the fracas. I didn’t have time to see who it was.”
And then Katelyn realized that Cordelia knew that there
was
bad news. She was doing everything she could to avoid hearing it. Katelyn took a deep breath. Cordelia’s relationship with her father had been so complicated. She had loved, hated, and feared him in equal measure. She should be glad that he was dead. And yet . . . “I’m sorry. But you have to listen . . .”
“No,” Cordelia whispered. “No.” She let out a hard, heavy sob. “Don’t. Don’t say it.”
“Your father loved you,” Katelyn said. “He did. He and I had a deal. If I found the mine, then he would bring you home.”
Cordelia made a low, keening noise, one that Katelyn had heard before — in the heavy rain when her grandfather had driven her from the airport to the tiny, cursed town of Wolf Springs. A howl so mournful, and in such pain . . .
A werewolf died the day I came here, she thought. And he — or she — was mourned. Who died? Who did I hear howling that night?
And then she put her arms around her friend, and held her as she sobbed. But she couldn’t help but tense at every sound, every smell.
The Hellhound was still out there. It could be stalking them even at that moment.
Katelyn . . . can you feel me? I’m getting closer. And then—
She gasped. The voice she heard in her dreams was echoing around in her head now — when she was awake.
“No!” she shouted.
Cordelia jerked back with a startled cry. “What, Kat?”
“I-I think the Hellhound spoke to me. I heard him,” she said. “In my mind.”
Cordelia went silent for a few beats. “I can
smell
him,” she whispered.
The hair on Katelyn’s arms lifted and a shiver ran up her spine.
Cordelia grabbed Katelyn’s hand and together the two crept cautiously out of the cave, then ran.
Maybe it was fear that supercharged her senses. And now she smelled fear rippling off Cordelia and it only made her own terror worse. Cordelia yanked down on her arm and the two dropped to the ground, sliding underneath a massive fallen log that was partially decayed. They lay still for a minute, struggling to control their breathing. Katelyn strained her ears, listening for any sound, hoping she wouldn’t hear his voice again in her mind.
A minute passed. Another.
Somewhere far off a twig snapped. A minute later she could swear she heard growling.
Cordelia began to slide backwards, using the fallen log as a shield. Katelyn did the same. She sniffed the air but could only smell sweat — hers and Cordelia’s, mingled. She wondered if they were upwind or down from the creature.
“Can you still smell it?” she whispered to Cordelia.
“Yes,” Cordelia whispered back. “Can you see?”
Katelyn was startled. She could see — not the strange infrared luminescence that occasionally filled her vision, but a brightness as if someone had turned on a flashlight. Cordelia’s tear-streaked face bobbed in front of Katelyn like a white balloon.
“Yes, I can see.”
Cordelia crawled over the ground, occasionally scuttling sideways like a crab, keeping to the denser growth. Katelyn marveled at how silently her friend moved. She was right next to Cordelia and she couldn’t even hear the faintest whisper of sound.
She, on the other hand, was not managing nearly as well. Crouched down on her haunches, she stepped on a twig, which cracked as loud as thunder, or so it seemed. Then her foot slid on a rock and it rolled into another. She bit her lip to keep from swearing in her terror. She couldn’t help but wish that she’d tried harder, paid more attention, as Justin was trying to teach her how to survive in the woods. But she had never in a million years dreamed that she would be slinking through the wilds of Louisiana bayou country trying to hide from a monster.
She heard a shout from a way off. Had the Hellhound found other prey? She exchanged a fearful glance with Cordelia.
The other girl had risen up to a half-standing position and swiveled her head, her eyes squinted and her nose visibly twitching. Katelyn waited. Finally Cordelia shook her head.
Katelyn allowed herself one moment of relief, but they were far from safe. Feuding werewolves were still at war, and neither side would appreciate catching her and Cordelia together. And the Hellhound could reappear at any time.
We need a place to hide. A place where we can see without being seen.
She glanced up. The trees around them were tall. The nearest branches were incredibly thick and about fifteen feet off the ground. She could jump that high, but she didn’t know if the Hellhound or the other werewolves could.
Or even Cordelia, for that matter.
She stood slowly and Cordelia joined her after a moment. Katelyn gestured up to the branch above them. Cordelia’s eyes widened and she shook her head.
Cordelia didn’t think she would be able to jump that high.
She could, with my help.
Katelyn widened her stance and cupped her hands. Cordelia, a former cheerleader, instantly understood. She bounced up and down on the balls of her feet for a moment, the muscles in her legs cording, and then she stepped into Katelyn’s hands, hopped once, and jumped as Katelyn lifted upward with all her might.
Cordelia went flying into the air and she caught the branch. She hoisted herself up with ease and then looked down at Katelyn, quick victory fading to worry as she seemed to process that now Katelyn was stuck.
Katelyn just smiled back at her. This was her world, after all, and it was time Cordelia saw exactly what she could do. Katelyn bent her knees, felt her muscles tense, and then she launched herself upward. She grabbed the branch with both hands and swung herself up and onto it in a single, fluid motion.
Cordelia’s eyes widened and Katelyn grinned proudly. Then she looked down and realized she could see farther than she had anticipated. She wanted to be able to see even farther, though. She climbed up a couple more branches and Cordelia reluctantly followed her until they were perched high above the ground with a panoramic view of the fiery night sky. Now they were up higher than the Hellhound could reach, and they could search for him. But the fire still raged and it was closer. They must have traveled in a circle instead of straight away from the fighting as she had thought.
Cordelia gripped her hand and Katelyn reached out and hugged her.
She’s an orphan now. Just like me. Just like Justin.
It seemed there were a lot of orphans in Wolf Springs, Trick being a notable exception.
But then again, Trick Sokolov — godson to Katelyn’s grandfather — was an exception to everything. Katelyn had to find a way out of this, make her way back home so she could see him again. She had to tell him how she felt about him, even if it was the last thing she did.
Cordelia pressed her fingertips against the bridge of her nose, clearly trying to pull herself together. Katelyn — whose own father had been killed when she was only twelve years old, her mother dying more recently in a fire — knew from those experiences every emotion her friend was going through as she tried to grasp the terrible truth that her father was dead. Grief, pain, anger, guilt. They were all mixed up in an insane bundle that gnawed at you. It would take Cordelia days, weeks, to sort out all the emotions and to feel like she wasn’t moving through some kind of hazy nightmare.