Charity's Storm (Charity Series Book 4) (12 page)

Chapter Nineteen

Levi’s POV

I stopped frozen in my tracks as a searing pain struck me that felt like a hot iron raking over my right palm. I lifted my hand into the air and watched as a trail of blood leaked from the blue line that decorated my palm. Not good. I wasn’t sure what it meant, but I knew I had to get to Charity right away. She was everything to me, and I couldn’t let anything happen to her—her or my son. Without further delay, I shifted completely, letting my full werewolf senses take over as I bolted through the forest as fast as my four legs would take me, with my loyal pack at my heels.

             
I knew the moment Charity’s voice didn’t answer her phone that she had dropped it—and somewhere she wanted me to find it. She could have whistled, knowing her familiar, piercing call would draw us, alerting us to her location, but in that choice any nearby packs would also be drawn to the noise. And thus, the situation could become perilous. My girl was nothing if not smart. She knew exactly what she was doing. She wanted me to find her phone—and find it I would. I would find both of them, and everything would be fine. It had to be. And whoever it was that had my family was gonna pay for it.             

             
I didn’t stop even to take a breather, but ran straight through until I reached the West Virginia line. I knew this area well. Years ago, some of the pack and I would run here during the full moon, but that was before my family came to me. They were everything to me. My life couldn’t exist without them. And the idea of someone taking them made a new, more intense anger rise within me. This was gonna be a night unlike any other—a red night—a bloody night. And it would only end with the death of my family’s captor.

             
I came to a dead stop, my pack piling in behind me, and reached down and picked up Charity’s cell phone. “She’s here,” I growled angrily, anticipating the punishment I was about to deliver. With stealth and silence my pack and I made our way through the dense trees until something halted me. It was a scent—a human scent.

             
“Wait!” I quickly morphed back into my human form and turned toward the rest of the pack that were spread out and invisible within the thickness. “Something is off here. Who else senses it?”

             
The unified rumbling told me they all did.

             
“These are humans who’ve taken Deacon.” A low guttural snarl rumbled in my chest. “This changes things.” The anger I was feeling was even greater knowing humans had taken my son and now held him and Charity captive, and I was crippled. I couldn’t barge in there and kill any of them. We didn’t kill humans. I paced back and forth, contemplating how to proceed. Then I felt it. “It’s a trap!”

Chapter Twenty

Charity’s POV

Suddenly I gasped, knowing without doubt that Levi had arrived. I’m not sure how I knew it, but I did. And I wasn’t sure what to do, but I had to warn them, so I began thinking really hard ‘it’s a trap, it’s a trap’ over and over. I only hoped that somehow it worked and Levi felt it. His senses were very strong. I sat quietly, listening. All was dead quiet. And then my heart sank as I heard it, the rumbling as though a herd of buffalo were charging. I had heard it many times before, and it was unnerving and relieving all at the same time. Levi must not have gotten my warning. I could hear the men outside yelling to each other and scrambling to get into position. The ones in the cabin bolted out onto the porch, leaving the front door wide open.
Then I heard gunfire.

             
“Deacon, we have to get out of these chains,” I said, kneeling to grab his ankle.

             
“It’s no use,” the voice behind me said.

             
I spun to see Jason Franco standing at the doorway holding a lit candle in his right hand and holding up a key with his left. “I told you in the prison that day that I’d kill you if I had the chance again. Well, here’s my chance. Goodbye, Mrs. Bell.” He sat the key down in the middle of the table across the room. “This time it’s for good.” He smiled wide and then dropped the candle and ran out the door, pulling it shut behind him.

             
It was then that I recognized the faint smell of gas coming from somewhere else in the cabin, perhaps the kitchen area even. My eyes widened in horror as the fire began to spread from the candle now lying in the middle of the cabin floor.

“Deacon, we have to hurry.” I pulled on the chain holding his ankle, but it was tight. I couldn’t get it off without hurting him.

              “It’s okay, Momma, I will heal quickly. Pull it off, and then I can get the key.”

             
I studied him and then looked over at the fire that was now spreading quickly up the side of the wall and to the ceiling. I made a decision then that I wasn’t sure was the right one, but I’d rather have my son lame than dead. “Okay, take a deep breath. This is gonna hurt.” And I pulled off his sock and shoe and began pulling.

             
He held his screams, and tears rolled down my cheeks as I pulled with all my strength. His heel was sweating which made it easier until finally I was able to slip the chain over his heal, allowing it to drop to the floor. Without hesitation, he hobbled on one leg, ducking the flames, to the table and retrieved the key. But by the time he turned around, the fire had grown too big and was now engulfing the small room in smoke and flames.

             
“Deacon! Save yourself. Run out! Now!” I yelled to him, covering my face with my shirt and coughing. “Go! Get out of here!”

             
“I’m not leaving you, Momma!” Then he covered his head with his shirt and hobbled through the flames and into my arms.

             
“You are a stubborn boy, Deacon!” I yelled. “But a brave one!” I quickly smiled and took the key from his hand and worked at the lock. As soon as I heard the click of the lock, I heard a more terrifying sound and looked up just as the ceiling began to collapse. I grabbed Deacon and dove to the other side of the bed as a huge part of the ceiling crashed down to where we had just been. I knew we only had seconds left. Once the fire reached the other room where the gas was there would be an explosion. We had to get out—and now. I looked frantically around the room and spotted a small path that led to the front door and it was closing fast, but if I was quick we could make it. I stood and grabbed Deacon in my arms, about to make a run for it. Suddenly, out of the heavy smoke and soaring flames, as if in slow motion, stepped a massive snarling beast.

“Levi!”

              In a flash of fur and fire, he scooped us both up into his arms and ran from the blazing scene. As soon as his feet hit the dirt, a huge explosion erupted that sent us flying through the air. Somehow, in that moment, I got the sense that Deacon and I were still tucked in Levi’s protective embrace. Then everything went dark.

             
When I opened my eyes, I couldn’t breathe. It took me a moment to realize that it was because Levi’s huge and still furry body was lying on top of me. “Levi,” I said and then coughed. “Levi.” He didn’t answer. Something was wrong. It took some effort, but I was finally able to crawl out from under him. Deacon was huddled beside us, crying with his head in his hands.

             
“Deacon, honey, are you okay?” I asked, taking his face in my hands.

             
He nodded but looked stunned. His face was coated in ash and smoke. It was then that I noticed the cabin was on fire and mostly gone. There was chaos all around us as the pack scrambled to locate everyone.

I turned to Levi. “Levi, we need to go.” But he didn’t move. Smoke was pouring from the fur on his back. “Oh my gosh!” I patted his back frantically, putting out the small flames that were hidden in his fur. “Levi!” I grabbed him and pulled until I was finally able to get him turned on his back. “Levi!” I grabbed his face roughly, even slapping him, but he didn’t even flinch.

With almost a supernatural speed, he morphed from his wolf form back into his human form. I knew this couldn’t be good. He had never changed so fast before. It was in an instant. “Oh no! Levi!” I screamed. “No, no, no!” I threw my head down on his chest and listened…nothing. There was no heartbeat. “No! Levi!” I was barely aware that the pack had now formed a circle around me. Those who were still in their wolf forms were howling and whining. I began breathing heavily as the sobs erupted from deep inside of me in a fierce explosion. I screamed as I cradled Levi’s head against my breast and rocked as the tears soaked my cheeks and neck. “You can’t leave me, Levi.” My voice changed to a mere whisper. “You can’t leave me here without you. I need you. You can’t sacrifice yourself for us. I won’t let you. I can’t live without you.” I peered up at the broken souls before me, each one pained in a way that pierced straight through my aching, throbbing heart. I spoke to the air as if he was no longer in the body in my arms but all around us. “We can’t live without you. You keep us all together. Without you we’re lost. We need you, Levi.”

I glanced to Deacon and our eyes locked. There was a pain there that I recognized in a fourteen year-old girl ten years ago. Suddenly, I saw my father lying in a pool of his own blood with me cradling his head in my lap and begging him to come back. Somehow I knew that fate would not deal me this hand again. God loved me. He wouldn’t do this to me ag
ain. With that thought, a fervency rose in me then that blinded my vision and heated my blood to boiling. I pushed Levi to the ground and hit his chest…hard. “You are not leaving me!” I hit it again. “You are not leaving me!” I hit him again. “You are not leaving me here alone! Do you hear me?!” I hit him again. “Come back! Come back! Come back!”

I could hear the stirring of the pack around me. Someone called my name and began to approach. I spun and growled
fiercely. “No! Don’t touch me! I know what I’m doing!” I turned and hit Levi again. “Wake up! Wake up! Don’t you dare leave me!” I grabbed his hand in mine and our connection symbols touched, suddenly what felt like a bolt of lightning struck my palm and shot through his. I was thrown backwards as his whole body jumped off of the ground, startling all of us. There wasn’t a sound to be heard as we all stared at his chest, almost willing it to move. Seconds ticked by until finally there was a slight movement in his fingers. I gasped, throwing my hand over my mouth to silence the squeals of surprise and joy as the hot tears poured from my eyes. His chest slowly began to rise…and fall…rise…and fall. He breathed in a deep breath and his eyes cracked open.

             
“Oh Levi!” I fell onto his chest and hugged his neck tighter than I ever had before as the relief finally set in.

             
“Owww!!” he groaned, coming to a sitting position and grabbing his chest. “Why does my chest feel like I’ve been in a fight with a werewolf named Bruno?”

             
Everybody wiped their tears as they laughed. “Because you have,” Eli said. “Only this Bruno is a cross dresser.”

The pack burst into shrilling laughter, but all I could do was cry. I had come so close to losing the most important person in my life, and yet once again I was shown grace and mercy and he was returned to me. At that very moment, my heart was filled with so much love and thankfulness. I just knew I would never take Levi for granted ever again.

Levi stroked my tear stained cheek. “Thank you for not giving up on me.”

I shrugged and wiped my nose with my sleeve, just like I often told the boys not to do. “It wasn’t me, it was Bruno,” I teased with a playful wink and stood to help him to his feet, but the pack was there, pulling him up with little effort. Once he wa
s standing on his own, he snatched Deacon and me into a smothering embrace and kept us there.

After a brief discussion with the others, Levi took my hand and pulled me and Deacon toward the car. “We need to go.”

“What happened here?” I asked, looking around at all the mayhem left behind. “What happened to all the humans?”
              “Well,” Levi began, “the explosion took out most of the humans since they can’t heal like us. And the rest of them, the ones that didn’t run away, threw themselves in the traps they set for us when they saw us running toward them. The stakes impaled them. I guess we are pretty scary when we’re all furry, like you say. Some got off some shots though. Josh and a few others were hit.”

             
“Josh!” I squealed. “Is he okay?!”

“Settle down, Charity. He’s okay. All of them are. Some will take longer to heal, but they all will.”

              “What about Jason Franco?! Is he dead?!” I asked, nervous about the answer.

             
“We’re not sure. With all the burnt flesh, it’s hard to tell who is who. I’m sorry baby, but we’ve gotta get out of here. The fire department is on the way.”