Code of the Wolf (29 page)

He kissed her then, and she laughed and wept and murmured endearments as he laid her down on the bank and loved her until they were both reborn in a blaze of light.

 

V
IRGIL WAS LAID TO
rest in a little grove where Lester and the other Friends had interred the ashes of Levi Carter and Serenity's parents seven years before. It was a quiet farewell, without ceremony, each prayer spoken in the silence of the mourner's own heart. Serenity knelt beside the simple grave when the others were gone and laid a bunch of black-eyed Susans across the freshly turned earth. Even Caridad and Zora, who along with
Victoria had been essential in deceiving and defeating the Reniers, gave sober thanks for his selfless courage.

There was no more talk of Serenity and the others leaving Tolerance, though it took Lester some hours to recover from the shock of witnessing Jacob's Change. He listened soberly to Jacob's explanation, then quickly agreed that it would be best to keep the matter of werewolves a secret from the other Friends.

Aunt Martha passed a week after Jacob took the Reniers to the Kerr County Jail. Serenity shared her sadness with the Friends, but not with Jacob; he had determined to stay with the surviving Reniers until they were tried and sentenced. Before he left, he had warned Serenity and the Friends that they might be called as witnesses in any trial, but his letters from Kerrville contained no news of any such need.

Serenity missed him terribly, but the time came when she knew she and the other women had to return to Avalon. After they were packed and ready, she said her farewells to the Friends, embraced Uncle Lester—who was bravely doing his best not to show his own grief—and exchanged another tearful hug with Elizabeth.

“Thee will be happy,” Elizabeth said. “Perhaps thee will never be a Friend again, but thee will do much good in the world. It is in thy nature.” She kissed Serenity on both cheeks, smiled and walked away.

 

T
HE JOURNEY BACK TO
New Mexico seemed interminable, not only because Jacob wasn't with them, but because Serenity was eager to get home.

When they finally rode in sight of the ranch house,
Caridad whooped, spurred her weary mount into a gallop and blew into the yard like a storm. Victoria rode in after her, just as Helene, Changying and the others ran out to meet the home comers.

Zora and Serenity rode on together. Serenity found that her joy was mingled with a sorrow she was only now beginning to understand.

“It looks the same,” Zora said. “Yet so much has changed.”

Serenity nodded, unable to speak.

Zora reached over to touch Serenity's arm.

“He will come home soon,” she said. “The time will pass quickly. You will see.”

And it did. Once Serenity had convinced her astonished audience that Jacob Constantine was coming back to Avalon to stay, they all quickly settled back into a daily routine.

But Zora had been right. So much
had
changed.

Serenity rode more lightly, as if her hate had been like shackles that had grown heavier with every year she had let it fester. The bright New Mexico sun warmed instead of burned, and the sky stretched all the way to Heaven. Helene's baby boy was born on the last day of August. Peace settled over Avalon like a benediction.

 

B
ABY JOEL WAS
two months old when Jacob rode in. He was bathed in dust and weariness, his lips cracked and his gray eyes webbed with new lines. But when Serenity straightened up from the cow she'd been tending and he saw her, he transformed before her eyes. He leaped from his horse's back, bounded across the
grass like something with wings and gathered her up, lifting her and spinning her around until she was too dizzy even to laugh.

And when he kissed her, the sky burst open and wept with joy.

They walked back to the house together, leading their horses, wet to the skin, and so lost in each other that they didn't see Michaela and Judith waving as they passed, and hardly realized when they had reached the outer corral.

Caridad was gentling a new horse, and she was the first to see them.

“It is about time you returned,” she said gruffly.

Helene came out of the house a moment later, beaming and holding her little boy in her arms. Victoria emerged from her workshop, sooty as usual, and Frances followed Changying out of the bunkhouse, slowing when she saw Jacob.

Changying bowed. “It is good to see you again, Mr. Constantine,” she said.

“And you,” Jacob said. He looked at the other women with a warm, slow smile. “It's good to be home.”

Greetings were exchanged all around, and quiet congratulations extended to the lucky husband-to-be. Frances hung back, shy and a little sad, but then Jacob whispered something in her ear and she was all smiles again. Serenity loved him for making the girl feel better in her loss of the man she adored, but she never asked him what he had told her.

Near sunset the other women rode in, but Zora had still not returned from her work on the range. After supper, when Jacob had bathed—watched over and
thoroughly scrubbed by his soon-to-be wife—he and Serenity strolled up to the yucca-spiked hill overlooking the house. They sat on a tumble of rocks and held hands as they surveyed the valley below.

“What happened in Kerrville?” Serenity asked.

“The Reniers went to trial,” he said. “Faster than I had any right to hope. Seems they were wanted for a dozen different crimes, but no one had ever been able to find them, let alone bring them in.”

“And they were found guilty?” Serenity asked softly.

Jacob nodded. “Funny thing is, not a single respectable Renier showed his face during the trial or after. None of their kin came to their defense.” He sighed. “I stayed to see them punished, but I didn't take any satisfaction in it.” He cradled Serenity's hands between his own. “My days as a hunter are finished.”

“As well they should be. Do you think I'd let you wander around the country without me?”

“I'll never leave you.” He bent to kiss her. The benevolent stars continued their stately dance across the sky.

“I made a visit on my way home,” Jacob said a little while later. “To the place where Ruth is buried.” He pulled Serenity into the crook of his arm. “I know she's at peace now. She always was. I was the one who didn't know it.” He nuzzled Serenity's hair. “I told her about you. Maybe it's loco, but I felt her give her blessing.”

“I don't think that's loco at all,” Serenity murmured. “I'm glad. She was a good woman. I know that because she loved you.” She sighed and snuggled closer. “What about the feud? If no Reniers showed up to defend the gang or try to interfere, maybe it's finally over.”

“Maybe it is.”

“If werewolves can learn to live in peace with each other, maybe werewolves and regular people can, too.”

“I guess it has to start somewhere.”

“I think right here is a very good place. I figure we could get married next week, if that isn't too soon for you.”

“Tomorrow wouldn't be too soon.”

She hesitated. “You know, we might not ever have any children,” she said softly.

He tipped up her chin. “You tend to collect people the way other folks collect stamps. I figure someday a kid is likely to show up needing a home.”

They kissed again, long and slow. A shooting star flashed its tail like a salmon returning to the place of its birth.

“I wonder where Zora is,” Serenity said, lifting her head from Jacob's shoulder. “It isn't like her to be gone so long, and I know she wanted to see you as soon as you returned.”

“She did, Serenity.” He drew back and pulled a folded piece of paper from his vest. “She left this for you. I was waiting for the right time….”

Serenity took the letter out of his hand. The writing was almost childishly precise, each letter carefully formed as if for a school assignment. She read the message, then folded the paper up again.

“You know what it said?” she asked Jacob.

“She told me.” He touched Serenity's cheek. “You can see why she has to go?”

“Yes.” She wiped her tears away with the back of her hand. “She has to find her own way. There is a path for
her, too. She has to shed her skin before she can live in the sun again. But…I wish she'd said goodbye.”

“She couldn't. As long as she doesn't say it, she can believe she's coming back.”

“She'll come back,” Serenity said. “This is her home.”

“That's what she has to find out. Like I did.” He gazed into her face, the golden flecks in his eyes like tiny constellations in a deep gray sky.

“There's one more thing I haven't told you,” he said.

She braced herself. “What is it?”

“I love you.”