Azure (The Silver Series Book 5) (6 page)

“
That was awesome!” one of
the boys said. He walked over to meet me with an excited expression
on his face. His scent matched the baseball hat, confirming that I
had found Alex and his friends.

“
Awesomely stupid,” the
girl who had spoken before replied, her dark eyes flashing. “You
didn't bring a rope or anything?”

“
I brought this.” I tossed
her my water bottle. She caught it and gave it to the boy on the
ground without looking at me. He took a few thirsty swallows and
handed it to the girl next to him. “My team is close behind with
ropes, a stretcher, and everything we need to get you out of here.
My job is to assess the situation and do what I can before they
arrive.”

“
Don's leg is in bad
shape,” Alex said. He knelt by his friend and pulled up his pant
leg to emphasize. Blood soaked through bandages that had been
loosely placed on an open fracture.

I crouched by him and felt for the edges of
the break. Don winced but didn't stop me. “The bandages are too
loose.”

“
We didn't want to hurt
him,” the girl snapped.

I refrained from commenting that blood loss
was a lot more dangerous at this point and swiftly unwrapped the
bandages. Sharp shards of bone showed stark white through the
bleeding tissue. I tossed the dirty rags aside and glanced around
for something else to use. There wasn’t anything readily available,
so I took off my tee-shirt and proceeded to tear it into
strips.

I wound the cloth gently but firmly around
the open fracture, binding it tight enough to last until we got him
back to the Search and Rescue base. Don gripped Alex's hand
tightly, but kept silent. I looked up and found him looking at my
chest. I glanced down and my stomach turned at the healing bullet
wound I had forgotten about. The edges had closed and the skin was
a healing pink, but it was obviously from a bullet.

“
Where'd you get that?” Don
whispered.

I gave a wry smile. “Hunting accident.”

His eyes widened, but he nodded. “Looks
painful.”

“
It was,” I said with a
laugh.

“
How'd you get that knife
scar?” the girl with the sarcastic tone asked.

I rubbed my eyes and rose. “Same accident,
ironically.”

“
You should probably stop
hunting,” Alex said with a concerned expression.

I chuckled. “I probably should.”

“
Is everyone alright down
there?” Ron called from above. “Vance, you down there?”

“
I'm here,” I shouted back.
“We have a fractured leg and,” I glanced at the bad-tempered girl
and the way she favored her foot. “Possibly a sprained ankle.” She
rolled her eyes, but couldn't hide the pain.

“
I'll send Dave down with
the harnesses and a splint. I'm getting too old for this
stuff.”

“
You should retire,” I
called back.

He swore softly and tossed the harnesses
down. I caught them and gestured to Alex. “You first.”

He shook his head. “Don and Tina are hurt.
They should go first.”

“
We need to secure their
injuries before they ascend.”

“
Then ladies first,” he
said, gesturing to the other girl.

I nodded. “Fine.” I helped her secure the
harness and had it ready by the time Dave reached the bottom of the
cave. He handed out some nutrition bars and more water to the
hikers, then clipped the girl's harness to the rope.

“
Ready,” he called to the
others.

The girl rose slowly, using her feet to walk
up the rock face as the team above pulled the rope. She disappeared
from view and I helped Alex into the next harness. Dave secured a
splint around Don's leg over my bandages, then wrapped it in
another set of cloth strips while we waited for the rope to
clear.

“
Good to go,” Ron called
down as the rope fell back to the bottom.

Alex rose slowly to the top, his face white
and eyes on the sky above the canyon rim.

I took the remaining strips of cloth Dave
had brought down and wrapped them around Tina's shoe and ankle
while Dave attached her harness.

“
Shouldn't I take my shoe
off?” she asked dryly.

I shook my head and tied the wrapping tight.
“It'll help support your ankle. We have quite a hike back down. The
more support you have, the better.”

I helped her to her feet and she tested the
ankle gingerly. She gave me an approving look. “Definitely
better.”

I smiled. “You just have to trust me.”

I clipped her harness to the rope and
watched her walk slowly up the rock. Ron's team tossed down a
second rope which Dave used to secure himself so he could rise with
the injured boy.

“
Ready chief?” Dave asked
Don. The boy nodded, his eyes tight. Dave called that they were
ready and I helped steady Don as he was lifted into the air. Dave
kept him away from the rocks and they rose slowly out of
sight.

I glanced around the sandstone cave. The
floor was covered in sand so soft it felt like powder between my
fingers. I doubted many people had ever been down there. It always
felt like a breath of fresh air when I found somewhere few had
been, like despite all the chaos and treachery in the world, there
were still sacred places left.

“
Coming up?” Ron
yelled.

I looked back to find the rope tracing
patterns in the sand. I glanced around the cave one last time, took
a breath of the still air, then slipped into the harness Ron had
attached to the rope and walked up the wall.

The first person I saw when I cleared the
rim was Nora. She stood with her hands on her hips, her face
slightly pale from the strain of the climb and a spark of anger in
her green eyes.

“
You just jump into a cave
with no regard for your safety?” she demanded.

I glanced at Alex and he shrugged
apologetically for having told on me.

I sighed. “What? You’re concerned about me
now?”

She sputtered. “I, well, you have people
counting on you and shouldn't be diving headlong into granite
caves.”

“
Sandstone,” I corrected
with a smile.

She rolled her eyes. “Whatever.” Her gaze
found the bullet scar on my chest and some of her spark faded. Her
eyebrows lowered and she looked like she wanted to say something,
then she turned and limped gingerly away.

I pulled off the harness and dusted the red
sand off the knees of my pants. Traer put a hand on my shoulder,
his gaze also on the healing bullet hole. “Just a scratch,
huh?”

I was trying to come up with some way to
defend myself when Alex piped in, “It's from a hunting accident.
Cool, right?”

“
If by cool you mean
idiotic,” the irritated girl said from behind us. “What kind of
idiot gets shot while hunting? What, you forget to wear orange or
something?”

“
Something like that,” I
replied in a dry tone. Traer turned away to hide a laugh and I
slapped his shoulder. His laugh turned into a pained
cough.

Ron, Dave, and two other members of the
Search and Rescue team had a stretcher assembled and finished
strapping Don onto it. Seth and Max waited in the shade of the
canyon with their tongues lolling out and pleased expressions on
their faces. One of Ron's girl teammates had brought them water and
was making a big deal out of them. I refrained from telling her
they had missed the trail entirely and vowed instead to give them
extra chores when we got back to wipe the smugness from their
faces.

“
Hup,” Ron called. His team
lifted the stretcher and they started out ahead of us. Traer
conversed with the team's medical lead while the wolves gamboled on
ahead wagging their tails and looking like foolish dogs.

“
You'd think they found a
missing city the way they act,” Nora said with a quiet
laugh.

I glanced at her. “Too bad they lost the
trail halfway in.”

She gave me a puzzled look, then a small
smile. “Traer said you were the best tracker.”

I shrugged. “It's the reason I went on
ahead. Sorry about ditching you back there.”

“
I didn't want to slow you
down. I just can't believe you went down into that cave without
ropes.” She gave me an unreadable look that made me
uncomfortable.

I lifted an eyebrow. “Would you believe I
did it for the thrill of the adventure?”

She shook her head. “I believe you did it to
help innocent humans who were hurt.” Her eyes narrowed. “I don't
understand you, Vance.”

“
That I'm not all evil?” I
asked offhandedly to cover up how much her words bothered
me.

“
That you live in a desert,
have a Masters degree in Literature and Philosophy, and take care
of a pack of werewolves instead of living a normal life in the
city.” Her brow creased. “There’re a lot of werewolves that
function in society.”

I didn't let my surprise show. “Are you
saying that you're okay with werewolves in normal society?”

She avoided my gaze. “I don't know what I
believe anymore,” she said softly.

I let that settle for a moment, then brought
out the topic that had been at the back of my mind all day. “It's a
full moon tonight.”

The skin around her eyes tightened slightly
at the thought of being surrounded by a group of werewolves forced
to be in wolf form by the moon. She brushed at an imaginary speck
on the sleeve of her shirt. “Does, uh, your pack generally behave
on full moons?”

I nodded and fought back a smile at the
tension in her voice. “They do, and we're not a pack.”

She glanced at me. “What do you mean?”

I shrugged. “Two's more of a werewolf
retreat than a pack territory. The wolves at Two are my friends,
but five male Alphas living together along with nine other male
grays isn't exactly natural.” My heart turned over at the thought
that with the help of Nora's Hunters, the numbers were actually
four Alphas and six grays.

“
Then why do you live
there?”

I phrased my answer carefully. “Two was
created to be our second home, a haven where male werewolves could
grow up in safety to preserve the werewolf line.”

“
Females are expendable?”
Nora asked with a spark of defiance.

I chuckled. “Not exactly. The females are
safe. Someone started killing off Alphas when I was six. My parents
built Two as a sanctuary.” My tone darkened. “Eventually, it became
easier to just keep us here. Alphas are a bit hard to live
with.”

“
Did they visit?” she
asked, horrified.

“
For a while.” I forced a
nonchalant tone. “Then we communicated through computer and
phone.”

“
And they feel justified in
abandoning their children to raise themselves?”

I studied the rock walls around us. “When
someone else started killing off Alphas again a year ago, and were
much more successful at it this time, it justified their system.”
My throat tightened, but I forced my voice to remain steady. “I was
supposed to go home when I turned eighteen, but the first killings
happened just before my birthday, and one of their gifts was that I
would stay at Two until it was safe.”

Nora glanced at me out of the corner of her
eye. “And who decides that?”

I didn't answer and she didn't press the
issue.

After a while, she said, “There must be
something more that keeps you at Two besides your parents.”

I nodded and gestured to the red rocks
around us. “This keeps me.”

She shot me a look. “Dirt and rocks?”

I shook my head and pointed at the achingly
blue sky above the stark red sands. “The azure sky, the red
sandstone, the cool nights and hot days. I'm free out here in my
own way.”

“
And trapped as well,” she
replied. She held up a hand when I opened my mouth to argue. “Don't
get me wrong. You can have your blue sky and rocks and all, but
this isn't freedom.”

“
And you have freedom?” I
pressed.

She glared at me and turned away in a huff.
We walked in silence back to the vehicles, then said goodbye to Ron
and his team.

“
Another find to make me
look bad,” Ron said good-naturedly as he shook my hand.

I grinned. “You just started missing me,
that's all.”

He rolled his eyes and opened the door to my
jeep. The wolves jumped in and Nora started to climb gingerly up
after them, but Traer stopped her and motioned toward the front
seat. Nora glanced back at me in surprise. I shrugged to hide my
own astonishment. She limped around the jeep and climbed into the
front seat, then threw Traer a grateful smile.

He met my eyes with a slight touch of red to
his cheeks and got in the back with Seth and Max. I bit back a
smile and started the engine.

Chapter 6

It felt good to phase in the light of the
moon. I chose to do it outside away from Nora so as not to scare
her. She was adamant that she wouldn't try to leave, and I hoped
the idea of nine wolves running around was enough to keep her from
taking back her promise.

Brian, Ben, and Thomas, the other three
Alphas at Two, joined me for our usual run around the perimeter.
The six grays, Max, Seth, Traer, Johnny, Zach, and Drake, followed
close behind. It was a silent, formidable group, but my bones ached
deep inside for a real pack and the closeness and loyalty that came
from running with a true family. My own parents, Alphas themselves,
had only run with me once for my first phase at Two when I was
seven. The other werewolves around me had similar stories, and we
had learned to rely on ourselves for friendship and camaraderie, a
hard thing when most males branched out to start their own packs in
their late teens and early twenties. It stung to be forbidden even
my rights as an Alpha, though the gaping absence of the other
wolves who should be with us was a stark remind of my failure to
them as well.