Changeling (26 page)

At the sound of the car moving away, the Wolfan’s head swung in their direction. It turned its back on its adversary again and charged towards them.

‘He’s coming!’ shouted Marcus from the back. ‘Move it, Ella. Get us out of here!’

Ella pressed her foot down hard on the accelerator, but the nether-creature was almost upon them, its lips pulled back in an evil grin that suggested it knew there would be no escape for them.
One more leap and it would be over the bonnet, and Trey doubted that the safety glass of the windscreen would stop the powerful beast. He raised his arms in front of his face to try and avoid the
worst of the glass that would shower in on them.

But the windscreen never shattered.

The huge grey beast had pursued the Wolfan and sweeping out an arm in a desperate last attempt to stop it, it had taken the creature’s back legs out from underneath it
just as it made that last terrible leap. Instead of crashing through the windscreen, the Wolfan smashed into the wire grille that covered the front of the car, its huge paw becoming wedged in among
the metal. It struggled to tear its trapped paw free of the metal, ignoring the deep cuts it inflicted upon itself as a result.

‘Go, Ella!’ Marcus shouted again. ‘He’ll break free any moment. For God’s sake, just drive over him.’

But Ella did not respond to his urgent cries. Trey looked across at her and her eyes were fixed on the Alpha leader. A terrible realization had dawned on her. Her lips moved, but no words came.
Trey understood what she was going through. She loved Jurgen, she had given up everything – even her humanity – to be here with him. But the thing outside now would never love her back
– it was too filled with hate and anger.

‘We can’t go,’ she said in a small voice. She turned in her seat to face them both.

‘Are you mad?’ Marcus said from the back of the vehicle. ‘That thing out there isn’t going to stop until we’re all dead, and if you think this tin can that
we’re sitting in is going to keep it out, you’ve—’

‘Ella’s right,’ Trey said. He took Ella’s hand in his own, holding the other out towards Marcus. Ella mirrored his movements as though they were sharing the same
thought.

‘Close the circle, Marcus,’ Ella said, nodding at the outstretched hands. ‘Open that back door and then join hands with Trey and me. There are three of us. That’s enough
for us to Change. We can stop this. If we work together, we can drive Jurgen away. We can force him away from here and away from Frank.’

‘And then what?’

‘Leave that to me.’

He stared at the two of them incredulously. There was a howl of pain from outside the car and Trey turned his head to see Jurgen rip his paw away from the car. The creature turned to look at his
uncle. The grey werewolf’s final effort had left him sprawled out on the ground, his limbs flung out at his side. He appeared to be utterly exhausted – a waiting victim for the
hate-fuelled beast.

‘Marcus!’ Trey shouted, thrusting his hand in the other’s face.

Marcus shook his head as if unable to believe his own foolishness. He kicked his foot out at the handle that opened the back door, leaned forward and took both the hands held out to him.

He was going to die. Frank Laporte tasted the blood in his mouth and did his best to block out the pain that spread like a forest fire through each and every part of him. He
was too tired to fight any more, too old and too tired. Looking up, he focused his one eye on the clouds rolling across the blue firmament, relishing the sight of them. It was so good to see again
– to see the outside world and not just the inside of his cage, and it seemed to him that the sky above him was the most beautiful thing in the world, bluer than any he could remember. He
coughed and felt the tiny droplets of blood rain back down on his face.

He closed his eyes and sighed, feeling himself change back into a human once more, glad that the transformation was painless and swift, but sad to be descending back into the darkness behind his
eyes again. He waited for death to come at the hands of the Wolfan, glad that he had been successful in thwarting its attempts to kill his nephew.

He couldn’t hear the car engine any more. He imagined Trey and the others driving off through the woods now, and hoped that his nephew would get as far away as possible from this place. He
smiled to himself, and waited for the end.

The Alpha Wolfan sensed the other members of the pack even before they emerged from the back of the vehicle, feeling their presence as they transformed. Now that they were out
in the open air he could smell their scent as it carried on the wind to him. He could smell Ella and her scent excited him. He wanted her to share in the kill he was about to make. He wanted her to
experience the killing and bury her muzzle alongside his in the blood of the freak-creature that had dared to fight him. He wanted her by his side again. But her scent was joined by the other
Wolfan that accompanied her – Marcus and the boy that he’d come here to kill, and he remembered the threat that the young man still posed to him. He also knew that Ella and Marcus were
responsible for bringing the
thing
– the half-man-half-wolf abomination – here to thwart him, and the hackles went up on the back of his neck as he turned to face them.

They came around the car and approached him cautiously, slowly separating and fanning out, Marcus and Ella going right and left of the newcomer as they moved towards him. At the sight of the
young upstart Jurgen felt the rage building inside him. He was bigger than all of them and he considered simply charging straight for the nether-creature in the middle, gambling that the other two
would be too slow to react. But they were being cautious; their eyes tracking his every movement, their bodies low and tense, ready to respond to any threat. He was already injured and in a
weakened state, and it occurred to him that if they chose to attack him together, they would easily be able to overpower, and possibly kill him. He didn’t think that Ella would ever hurt him,
but –

He retreated, moving carefully backwards and keeping them all in view. He looked at Ella, trying to read her intent from her body posture. Her eyes were locked on to his, and he thought that he
detected more than a hint of sadness and regret in them – as if she did not really want to be here with the other two. He knew then that she had been swayed by this newcomer; that this Trey
Laporte had somehow poisoned her against him. He would not have had to try too hard to convince Marcus that the pack needed a new leader – perhaps even offering him the role if he would join
him in deposing Jurgen. And the two of them must have worked on Ella – lying to her about him and forcing her along here with them. Ella loved him, Jurgen was certain of that. She’d
always loved him. He needed to get her away from the other two, he needed to make her see how she’d been used – how this . . . boy had lied and connived and twisted her mind.

His eyes switched back to the creature in the centre – the cause of all of this. The Alpha wanted so much to kill him. Wanted to spring forward and tear and bite and rend. Wanted to taste
the newcomer’s blood in his mouth and feel the life ebb out of his dying body. But he could see no way of doing that with the other two there to protect him.

They’d backed him up past the edge of the lake now. He had little option but to retreat. He would let the newcomer have this small victory – for now at least. He would nurture the
anger that he felt. Nurture and grow the hatred inside him so that he would be able to use it – use it to Change as he had earlier. He didn’t need the pack. He would go out on his own,
a lone wolf. And then, when they thought that he’d gone forever, he would come back and pick them off one by one. Kill them all for their treachery. All except Ella – he would keep her
with him, and they would start a new pack of their own – not one made up of a ragtag bunch of misfits, but one filled with their own children – a pack of pure-bloods. That had always
been his plan, and now this treachery made him realize how right he’d been. How right he was to have bitten Ella and turned her into one of them.

They’d pushed him far beyond the last cabin, and there was nowhere for him to go but into the forest behind. He stopped backing away, and saw that they paused in response. He glared at
them, a low growl deep in his chest warning them not to pursue him. They crouched low, their teeth bared and the hackles on their necks raised as if ready to spring forward and attack if he did not
leave now.

Jurgen was about to turn and go when the door to Lawrence’s cabin flew open and the ginger-haired boy came running out brandishing the shotgun.

‘Jurgen!’ the boy shouted at the top of his lungs, running towards them. ‘I’m coming, Jurgen.’

The first shot sounded like a cannon going off and all four of the nether-creatures dropped to the ground as the lead shot flew over their heads. The stupid boy had fired whilst running and
could have hit any one of them. He was still shouting madly, running in their direction, the sights of the gun dancing over each and every member of the group. He stopped about twenty metres from
them, planted his feet and pulled the gun to his shoulder. The second report seemed even louder to their sensitive ears than the first. It was answered by a high-pitched yelp of pain from
Trey’s right. Marcus leaped into the air, twisting his body in a writhing agony as the shotgun pellets tore through him, and landed on the floor with a howl.

Jurgen reacted first. The Wolfan that was Trey was weak – it had turned to see how badly Marcus had been hurt, taking its eyes off Jurgen and exposing its throat to him. The giant black
nether-creature seized its opportunity and leaped forward, teeth bared and ready to kill.

He never expected the blur of white that he caught in his right eye to attack. And even as Ella’s own teeth sank into his neck – biting down hard to bury her fangs in the soft flesh
and crushing his windpipe – he could not believe that it was truly her that was doing it. In his mind she had been replaced by some other creature – a perfect facsimile of the
white-furred beauty that he’d chosen to be his partner. He dropped to the floor, his eyes desperately seeking her out as his life ebbed from him. There was a dull, pulling sensation deep
within him and he began to transform into a human again. He couldn’t breathe. He was drowning. His lungs filling up with his own blood. His vision was already blurring and darkening at the
edges as his brain began to shut down.

And then there she was, human again, kneeling over him with her long blonde hair cascading down around his face.

He felt a lukewarm splash on his cheek as her first tear fell, and he managed a small smile at her. ‘I loved you,’ he managed before diving down into oblivion.

Trey was running across the field, his legs eating up the ground beneath him as he hurried to make it to his uncle’s side. He threw himself down on the ground beside the
prostrate figure, lifting the old man’s head into his lap with one hand while the fingers of the other fluttered in the air over the terrible cuts and tears that covered his uncle’s
face and body.

‘Uncle Frank?’ he said.

The old man’s forehead creased a little, and his head moved a fraction in Trey’s lap.

‘Trey?’ the old man said in a barely audible whisper. ‘Run, boy. Get away from that madman. He’ll kill you. He’ll kill us all.’

‘Shh. Try not to move. Don’t worry about Jurgen – he’s . . . gone.’ He shook his head in despair at the terrible state that the old man was in. ‘I’m
going to get you some help. I’m going to get an ambulance or a helicopter or . . . or
something
out here and then—’

The old man lifted his hand and waved away the boy’s words. He reached up and touched his nephew’s cheek, patting it gently with the tips of his fingers.

‘No,’ he said. ‘Too late for that.’ He hooked his index finger in front of the boy’s face, beckoning his nephew to come closer.

‘Forgive me,’ he said, patting at the boy’s cheek again.

Trey shook his head, fighting back the tears. ‘For what?’

‘I lied to you.’ Frank coughed again, and Trey watched a fresh tendril of blood snake its way from the old man’s mouth and run down the side of his face. ‘I lied to you
about who you are and what you are. And I lied to you about your father.’

‘Please, Frank—’

‘It was me that attacked your mother that day. I did that terrible thing to her and then I blamed it on your father.’

Trey shook his head, unable to take in what his uncle was saying.

‘Why? Why would you do that?’

‘I wanted him gone. I thought he wanted to take over and I wanted him to leave. I wanted to blame him for it so that he’d have to leave.’ He coughed, struggling to get the
words out. ‘I didn’t mean to hurt your mother so badly. I just . . . lost control. I think your father knew it was me. I think that your friend, Lucien Charron, knew too, and that your
father stopped him from taking revenge. I didn’t deserve that – not after what I did to Elisabeth. I didn’t deserve his compassion. Your father should have let the vampire kill
me. Instead, Lucien took my sight. He said that I would never again see the precious pack that I loved so much.’ He shook his head a little. ‘I’m so sorry, Trey. Please forgive
me.’

‘Hush now, Frank,’ were the only words that Trey could manage. He screwed his eyes shut to fight back the tears that threatened as a result of the jumbled mix of emotions that his
uncle’s confession had unleashed inside him.

Frank grabbed at his hand, squeezing it with as much force as he could muster. ‘Take it back,’ he said.

Trey shook his head, frowning in confusion at the old man.

‘The amulet. You must take it back. It’s your destiny, Trey.’

‘Frank—’

‘Please.’ The old man tried to pull himself up, but was simply too weak. ‘Take it back.’

Trey extracted his hand from his uncle’s and reached down to slip the silver chain up over the old man’s head. He placed it over his own and took Frank’s hand again.
‘OK?’ he said.

The old man smiled and nodded. ‘You’re a good boy, Trey. You are your father’s son,’ he said, his hand slipping from Trey’s as he spoke. ‘Goodbye,
nephew.’