The Great Wolf: A Legacy of Kilkenny Novel Book Three (The Legacy of Kilkenny Saga) (12 page)

In the distance, a familiar sound comes across loud and
clear to my sensitive ears.  Brianna is coughing to lead us to her.  My wolf is
uneasy, he’s coaxing me to go faster, to reach her and claim Brianna as his
own.

In no more than three seconds, Brianna’s wolf has gone from
excitement to whimpers of pain.  A deep guttural growl comes from deep within
my chest.  He’s no longer worried about everyone else.  He’s tuned in to one
sound and one sound only, Brianna’s pain.

“Calm down wolfy,” Arien demands.  “Your glowing eyes don’t
intimidate me so stop with the glare.”

He’s unaware about how much I don’t care what he wants.  I’m
no longer in control, my wolf is mad and ready to go.

“Let’s go,” I bark.

The warehouse isn’t any warmer than being outside.  The wind
is whistling through the cracks of the metal building.  With my wolf in charge,
my body temperature rises to a comfortable 101. 

“
Abel, look at the wall,”
Parker discreetly tilts his
head to the left.

The area we’re in is lit by torch lights, casting shadows
along the wall.  I fully expected to see someone approaching us, instead it’s
my shadow.  I pause for a moment to register what I’m seeing.  There, climbing
the wall is my shadow.  It is not of me as a man, instead, my casted shadow is
of my wolf. 

“Have you ever seen anything like that before?”
 I
ask Parker.

“No.”

“Having a wolf as my shadow isn’t very inconspicuous,”
I
muse.  It reminds me of a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson, called My Shadow.  My
first grade class had to memorize it and read it out loud to our parents during
a morning assembly.  It started out…..

I have a little
shadow that goes in and out with me,

And what can be
the use of him is more than I can see

He is very, very
like me from the heels up to the head,

And I see him jump
before me, when I jump into my bed…

That’s all I can remember of the verse.  So much for my
memory, but I remember loving the poem.

 
“Maybe humans won’t notice,”
Parker jokes.  He never
kids around, maybe the stress of this mission is getting to him.  No, Parker is
a statue, unmoved by simple things like joking around.

“Maybe.”

The scream comes from a room on the other side of the
warehouse.  It’s undeniable who it belongs to, it’s Pru.  She’s awake. 
Brianna’s voice echoes along the walls as she pleads with her captor to stop
hurting Pru.

That’s all it took to get all of us to stop going slow and
to run across the room to rescue her before she dies.  We’re all light on our
feet as we approach the opening to the room.  I catch a glimpse of Pru strung
up in with her arms stretched wide.  The shirt she’s wearing is ripped open
with slashes running diagonal across her body.  A man with a black hood on is
literally whipping her with a leather bull-whip.  Blood stains the material of
her shirt.  Her head is lopped to the side.  He takes the whip and lashes
against her back.  Her head raises and instead of screaming, she laughs. 

“You’re about to die,” Pru laughs.  Blood is trickling from
her mouth, and one of her eyes is swollen and black.

I can’t take it anymore, he must be stopped. 

A gunshot goes off behind me and the sound of someone hitting
the ground.  Someone stops to help him.  Another shot goes off, my brain goes
into overdrive. 

The man with the whip is about to hit Pru again and that’s
when I hear a scream like none ever heard before.  Brianna.  Pru’s eyes go wide
and I turn around to see Brianna on the floor, blood oozing from her abdomen.

The man pulls his arm back to crack the whip against Pru
again when Parker leaps across the room at him.  Both of them tumble to the
ground.  Parker is fighting the man and kicks the whip out of reach.

A small weak sigh penetrates my ears.  Brianna’s lost
consciences.  I run to her crumpled up body on the floor.  My heart is breaking
as my anger builds to limits I’ve never encountered. 

I roll her over to her back and see two stab wounds in her
stomach.  Everyone around me is fighting someone else and all I care about is
her.  Most of them are hand to hand fighting.  All the wolves know martial arts
and from the looks of it, they’re holding their own.

I’m on my knees as I pull Brianna closer to me, my wolf is
angry but he won’t leave her side.  She isn’t going to die here alone while I
fight.  If I lose her, I have nothing to fight for. 

I slip my arms under her arms and pull her closer to me,
resting her head in my lap.  Her coat is next to the pole she’s been tied to; I
reach over to pull it to me.  I take her white coat and hold it against her
wounds; applying pressure to stop the bleeding.  Her arms are limp on the floor,
her wrists are bleeding from the zip ties.

“You’re here,”
Brianna thinks to me.

Any and all doubts escape my head, I’m sure as sure can be. 
“I’m here.  Relax, someone will be here soon to help.  I’m so sorry you got
pulled into this ridiculousness.  If the world would just play nice together
and stop with the fighting, it would be a better place to live.  I’ll always be
here for you Brianna.”

“I’m sorry they hurt Pru, I wanted to help her….”

Her words trail off as she slips further away.

“Abel, I want to approach you….don’t panic.  I’m Dr. Dawson,
I met you right before we came into the warehouse.  I want to assess her
wounds.  Did you see what they stabbed her with?”

Tears sting my eyes as I shake my head no.  “Please help
her,” is all I can say.

The doctor opens his backpack and pulls out some medicine. 
“I’m going to give her some morphine to help with the pain.  I need to get her
to the hospital or she’s going to die.  Do I have your permission to take
her?”  He’s cautious with his movements and it occurs to me that I have my
feral wolf look in my glowing eyes.

“Take her, please.”  I lean over and kiss her on the
forehead.  “I’ll be there soon, please don’t die,” I whisper in her ear.

Dr. Dawson places his arms under her knees and her neck to
carry her to the helicopter.  My heart is pounding as I watch him run through
the building for the flight to a hospital.

****************

I suck in my breath and exhale slowly. 

“Abel,” Pru says.

I jump in a flying leap and land in front of her.  “Hold on,
I’ll get you down.”

I reach over my head to release the clamp only to be
burned.  “What the….”

“Wolfsbane,” Arien replies.  “It’s an herb used to identify
werewolves.  Locals of Ireland and Scotland use it in their drinking water.  If
you’re a werewolf, you can’t ingest it without being burned.  You’ve probably
only been drinking bottled water.  Nothing like a wolf with a blistered
esophagus.  I’ll get her down, you catch her.”

He unhooks her hands and she collapses in my arms.  I lower
her to the ground on her side.  She’s been whipped a couple of times across her
chest and multiple times along her back.  For the first time in my life, I want
to kill someone for the pure pleasure of watching them suffer.  She’s beyond
self healing, her body has been through too much.

“Hold on Pru, help is on the way.”  Oakley is going to flip
out when he sees Pru.

“As fast as you are as a wolf, I’m faster as a vampire.  I’m
going to carry her to the plane and take her to help.  Get the bastards who did
this,” Arien says demands.

“Yes, go, please be careful.”

Where’s Ard? 

Shaynie has hog-tied two of the people and set them in
middle of the room.  She is pretty, but damn she’s a great fighter.

Parker has someone in a sleeper-hold until the guy goes limp
in his arms.  Shaynie runs over and hog-ties the guy for Parker. 

“Here’s who you’re looking for,” Ard yells.  She has a guy
with a Mohawk and dressed in a strange white outfit handcuffed  with his hands
behind his back.  He tumbles forward as she pushes him towards me.

Tao isn’t what I was expecting.  I remember that weres don’t
age like humans do, so he could be forty for all I know.

He raises his head and smiles at me.  His teeth are pink
from the bloody lip he’s sporting.

My teeth are clinched as I struggle to keep my cool.  I walk
over to him and pull the handcuffs up until his hands are twisted up between
his shoulder blades.  “Do you know who I am?” I whisper in his ear.  “I’m the
big bad wolf from Oklahoma, and your tin house is about to come down.  You’re
going to die a painful, slow, death.  Before I kill you, I will consider
releasing you after you answer a couple of questions.  Parker, please come over
and hold his arms for me.”  Parker walks over and takes charge of his hands.

Without consideration, I punch Tao straight in the jaw. 
Parker’s watchful eye is studying my actions.

“What did you want with Pru?”

“That skank whore is worthless.  She was much more valuable
when her father was alive.  Whoever told her she’s a shaman is crazy, that
bitch can’t tell the future any more than I can.  She’s a fake,” Tao says and
spits blood on the floor.

He did not just call her a skank whore.  “Brace yourself
Parker,” I demand as I do a round kick into Tao’s ribs.  The sensation of his
ribs cracking brings too much joy to my heart.  I’m liking his torture a little
too much.  Bloodlust.  “What do you want from my pack?”

Tao jerks back.  His eyes widen with anticipation of another
punch.

I reach back and punch him in the jaw again.  “I SAID -
WHAT. DO. YOU. WANT. FROM. MY. PACK.”

“Your power.  I want your power and it will be mine before
you know what to do to protect yourself.  I have a real shaman who knows all,
and it has been foretold you’ll lose your power to another powerful being.”  He
leans his head back and cackles like a crazed and deranged lunatic.

A sharp noise echoes through the warehouse and a dart
protrudes from Parker’s neck.  In slow motion he crumples to the floor, his grasp
on Tao loosens.

Tao looks past me and I hear the tell-tale sound of the chamber
of a gun being discharged.  Before my reflexes kick in, one shot filled with
heat enters my back, through my bullet proof vest.  The heat ricochets before
exiting my abdomen.

My entire life I wondered what the flashes of my life would
be if it were to flash before my eyes at the moment before death.  Those are
the thoughts racing through my head as searing heat passes through my body.  I
have no idea how to process what’s happened but I know it’s major.  Everything
is black except in my minds-eye. 

Voices are faintly yelling out my name as I tumble to the
cold hard floor.

She’s beautiful with her long red hair.  We’re in Future
Business Leaders of America class.  She came over and introduced herself to
me.  Prudence Phelan.  I’d never known anyone with that name, but it fit her
like a glove.  I fell for those big grey eyes and her raspy voice.  Every guy
in school wished they were me and I wished she was mine.  Now we’ll never know
what it would have been like to be together.  She only had eyes for him,
Oakley.  It didn’t take long before we all were friends.  I’ve never told him
how big my crush on Pru was, I never will have that chance.

Someone is yelling my name in my face.  Stop yelling, I’m
not deaf.  Who’s crying?  If it weren’t so hard to do, I’d open my eyes and
tell them to stop with the tears.  My head is freakin’ heavy and impossible to
lift.  I have a metallic taste in my mouth.  Blood.  Why won’t they stop
touching me, poking me? 

SHUT-UP!
  I think as loud as I can.

 ****************

“Son, it’s me, Mom.  Dad and I are here, you’re safe. 
Please wake up,” my mom whispers in my ear.

People are always talking in my ear.  My head is swimming in
a fog or else I’d wake up I’m sure.  They use the word
comfortable
constantly.  Voices I don’t recognize, and voices I do, but none are hers.

Why hasn’t she whispered in my ear?  Why do they insist on
keeping me drugged?  The insanity is everywhere, even in my sleep.  Quinney has
been trying to get into my dreams.  I know because I see him outside the
bubble, he’s trying to get in but hasn’t been able to cross the invisible
barrier.

****************

I’m not sure what day it is.  I’m not sure what time it is. 
What I do know is I can’t seem to differentiate if I’m asleep or awake.

The weather is nice where I am.  The grass is green.  Long
gone is the dried up winter grass, replaced with the flowers of spring.  Is
this a dream?

“Where are we?”  I ask.

“You’re in a coma,” Pru replies.  She’s wearing a long
yellow nightgown with a matching robe.  “It’s time for you to wake up.”

I’m not asleep, I’m fishing.  The Oklahoma sun has been
beating down on my shoulders all afternoon.   “I’m fishing.”  I watch as the
sun glistens off her dark red hair.  “Why don’t you have your clothes on? 
Oakley’s going to freak out if he sees you walking around half naked.”

“Abel, I need you to wake up.  Oakley’s been arrested and I
need you to get up and tell us what happened,” she pleas.

“Arrested?  For what?” 

“They say he used excessive force on three supernaturals and
murdered them.  He doesn’t remember what happened.  He doesn’t remember
anything at all.”  She sits down on the ground next to me.  “Abe, if he’s tried
and found guilty, he’ll be executed.”

“He wasn’t even there, how could he be charged with
anything?” 

“My mom and him worked out a plan to follow you guys.  His
wolf couldn’t stand the idea of him not helping me.  Another helicopter flew
him to the warehouse.  Arien flew with me to the hospital.”  Pru drops her head
to her chest in defeat.

“We didn’t kill anyone.  Everyone was hog-tied, why would he
kill them?”  I look out on the pond, waiting for my line to be tugged.  “Who
said he killed them?”