Forging Day (Crucible of Change Book 1) (28 page)

“Unless something radically changes,” Mikah said, “I think Vivian will stick with the innocent girlfriend routine. It’s working for her so far. Why tip her hand by attacking people directly?”

“I hope you’re right, Mikah.”

“Even if I’m not, I know they have officers guarding Sharon’s room at the hospital. I gather it’s both for her safety, and that of the staff.”

I looked around at our flatware armament and tried not to feel like this was a lost cause. Hopefully the police would chase him to the Wyoming border and the ranchers would take care of the rest. We already knew they liked wolves even less than Elves.

Kat and I retired to my room. Since Tessa was back, we made sure both of our doors were locked before we undressed for bed. We turned out the lights, and I spooned into her arms. “I bet he’s halfway to the border by now.”

“He’ll be long gone,” she said. “Now get some sleep.”

* * * *

I dreamed a monster was trying to suffocate me. Leathery tentacles were pulling me into a swamp. Insects were biting me, buzzing in my ears and stinging my face. I was drowning and I couldn’t scream. I sat up, gasping for air, but my mouth was covered with heavy tape.

Wolf Colby slapped my face again, scoring my cheek with his claws. “Pay attention,” he growled, “unless you want me to hurt her more.”

He forced my head around until I saw Kat. She was bound, naked, to my chair with her mouth taped closed. There was blood in her fur, and a thin metal noose was around her neck. He said, “If you scream, or fight, or do anything but exactly what I say—you know how a slip knot works. I’ll give the wire a yank and you can watch the kitty die. Nod if you understand.”

I nodded.

“Good. Let’s get started. Take off that necklace and throw it across the room.” I only hesitated for a split second, but that was enough. He gave the wire a little tug and the metal noose disappeared into Kat’s fur. “I’m not going to tell you twice.”

Kat’s eyes were huge and her chest heaved with effort, but she was still breathing.

I ripped off the necklace and threw it into the corner. I wasn’t screaming, but I couldn’t stop crying either. If I didn’t get a grip, I was going to suffocate on my own mucus. Wouldn’t that be a laugh?

“Now there are things I need your mouth for, especially you telling me how much you love what I’m doing. I’m going to take off the tape now. You’re not going to scream or make a sound unless I tell you, right?”

I nodded.

“Good. I’m glad we have an understanding.”

He yanked off the tape, taking skin and hair with it. I gasped, but he didn’t punish Kat.

“I had a good thing going, before you came along. You were supposed to be an easy lay, while Viv was busy. You were easy, too, weren’t you? Somebody broke you a long time ago. What a pity. You’d do anything I asked, just so I wouldn’t get mad and leave you. Even when you cried, you made sure your roommates didn’t hear. That was thoughtful. What I don’t understand is, why did you have to wait until I left to start fucking her? We could have had some wonderful threesomes. I suppose it’s still an option. I’ll just have to be more creative with the restraints, but that’ll have to be later. Here’s what’s going to happen tonight. You’re going to do everything I tell you, and you’re going to make sure I know you like it. I’m going to fuck you until I get bored, and then I’m going to bite you so many times you’ll wish I’d just killed you in the park. In a few days, you’ll be my new werewolf playmate and we’ll play with your pussycat until we break her, too.”

Crom give me strength
, I prayed. I had to get him to drop that wire, no matter what it took.

“I think we’ll start with an old favorite,” he said. “At least it’s an old favorite of mine. You, not so much. Get on all fours facing your friend. I want you to watch each other while we play.”

I’d like to say I thought of something brilliant or heroic, but I didn’t. I was paralyzed with fear. I’d seen what he did to that woman in the park and my body remembered every hurt he’d ever inflicted on me. I wouldn’t let that happen to Kat, but I didn’t know how to save her.

Colby got behind me and grabbed my hips, sinking his talons into my skin, and I couldn’t take my eyes off of Kat and that horrible wire noose. I gasped at the sudden pain. Kat shook her head no and pulled at her bonds.

I was the only one who saw a pair of utility scissors floating toward the length of wire running from Colby’s hand to the noose around Kat’s neck. Kat flung the chair backward just as the scissors severed the wire.

“Crom!” I shouted, as I lunged away from Colby. I spun to face him, and a glowing silver hammer appeared in my hand. I swung at his head as hard as I could. He was fast, but not fast enough. It was only a glancing blow, but he roared as the side of his face burst into silver flames and his eye boiled in its socket.

He shrieked and clawed at the flames. Someone pounded at the bedroom door and I tried to scramble toward it. Colby backhanded me, sending me flying into Kat. We both crashed hard into the wall. He loomed over us, arm drawn back, and roared again. His roar changed to a yelp of agony as his ass burst into flame. When he grabbed for his backside, the flames enveloped his hand as he yanked two gleaming silver knitting needles out of his butt.

The door crashed inward, spilling Leo and Tessa into the room. Colby gave me the finger as he leaped out through the open window. He shouted, “I’ll kill you both, you bitch!”

Leo lunged after him, but he wasn’t fast enough. “He leaped over the wall. He’s gone.”

Lights blazed and I heard distant sirens, but nothing mattered except getting that loop of wire from around Kat’s neck. It took half a lifetime to hook my finger under the wire and free her.

* * * *

I couldn’t believe my sister. She did what normal people do when a murdering rapist breaks into your home—she called the police. Now the crime scene techs were taking my bedroom apart. Kat and I, wrapped in blankets, were downstairs talking to Lieutenant Clark again. He was insisting I go to the hospital and get a rape exam.

I glared at him. “I told you, I’m not going. There’s no need for it. And by the way, he doesn’t appear to be halfway to Wyoming, does he?”

“Ms. Mitchell, we’re asking for your cooperation. You want him captured and convicted, don’t you?” The lieutenant was using his best
speak calmly to the victim
voice, and it was really making me mad.

“Get your evidence from my room,” I told him. “Match it to the girls in the park. I’m not going anywhere.”

He turned to Kat, but before he could start, she rasped out, “I’m not going either. He tied me up and you already have pictures. He didn’t rape me.”

“Leo, give the lieutenant our werewolf notes.”

Leo led him over to the gaming table. “Here. This is what we know about werewolves. Share it with your officers.”

His techs took pictures of all of the notes, but Clark wasn’t done with me. “We’d like you to consider protective custody, at least until he’s been apprehended. You’re obviously a focus of Mister Green’s rage, and he seems to have no problem getting into this house.”

“No. I’m not going anywhere. Just get what you need and go. Please.”

I don’t know how long they were there. I saw Mikah talking quietly with the lieutenant, but I couldn’t hear what he said. All I wanted to do was huddle with Kat. I flinched every time someone came into the room. Kat and I were half dozing when they finally finished.

The lieutenant looked in one more time. “If you decide to make a formal statement, or if anything else happens, you know how to reach us.”

I couldn’t stop shaking by the time the front door finally closed on the last police tech. “I can’t take this anymore. I don’t care what it takes. I’m going to find him and I’m going to kill him.”

I couldn’t get the scene out of my head—Colby’s hot breath on my neck as Kat pitched backward with the noose still around her neck. I grabbed Kat and hugged her until she squeaked. “Why did you do that? If Grammy had been a second later with the scissors, I couldn’t have reached you in time.”

She squeezed me back. “I wasn’t going sit there and watch him rape you.” She gave me a watery smile. “Besides, I kinda hoped you’d figure something out.”

“The worst thing he could have done was take you away from me.” I clung to her as the dam broke and the tears finally came. Taking a deep breath, I pulled the blanket tight around me. “Berto, I hate to ask, but could you help me with some scratches? In the other room?”

Kat started to follow us, but I stopped her. “Please. I don’t want you to see the scratches. I promise we’ll be right back.”

I led Berto into the downstairs powder room and closed and locked the door. “I don’t want Kat to know. Can you help?” I turned around and dropped the blanket.

I heard his sudden intake of breath. Colby had left bloody grooves with his talons when I’d bolted out from under him, and he’d hurt me more than I’d admitted to anyone.

“Olivia, sweetie, of course I’ll help.” His voice was thick with tears. He gently kissed my forehead, and his prayer was too quiet for me to hear. I could barely stand still to let him tend me, and I loved him.

His touch took away the pain and healed the wounds, except for the ones in my heart. He got me a warm damp washcloth and a towel. “We should get you cleaned up, and I’m going to have someone bring us a robe, okay? You don’t want to use that blanket again.”

I did what I could, and he helped with the rest. He answered the quiet knock on the door and helped me into a soft, fuzzy robe. “You ready to go out?”

I carefully hugged him. “Thank you, Berto. I’m as ready as I’m going to be. Can’t live in the bathroom forever, right?”

I was drinking something warm and alcoholic when Cordie came back down the stairs. “You can’t sleep in your room tonight. It’s a disaster, even if the screen wasn’t broken out.”

“Maybe we could put some sleeping bags in Mikah’s safe room?” I was at least half serious.

A loud rapping noise sounded from the hardwood floor upstairs. Everyone jumped, and Leo took off at a run. Mikah reached to stop him. “That sounded just like Grammy’s cane, when she was trying to get my attention.”

Leo drew his gun and flicked the safety off. “Everyone wait here.” He stalked up the stairs, but it wasn’t a minute before he called down. “It’s okay. Mikah’s Grammy has something for Olivia and Kat.”

Leo was waiting at the top of the stairs. He led us around the corner and down the hall and pointed to the double doors leading to Grammy’s suite. Normally closed, they were wide open. Nobody used Grammy’s rooms, except the cats, ever. Leo pointed at the ornate mirror above her cherry dresser. The glass was fogged, and in it was sketched a heart with OM + KS in the center.

“Grammy, are you sure?” I asked.

An exclamation point appeared next to the heart. The coverlets drew back on the matching king-size four-poster bed, and it looked like someone was fluffing the pillows.

“Thank you, Grammy! I love you.”

Kat smiled and hugged me. “Grammy saved my life. I can’t think of a better place in the world than in her care.”

Tears shone in Mikah’s eyes as he and Berto stood arm in arm, smiling at us. “Be safe. Try to sleep.”

Berto hugged Mikah before he came over and hugged me and Kat. “You make a lovely couple, and Grammy knows it. Good night, my lovelies. If you need anything, anything at all, we’ll be right downstairs.”

* * * *

We luxuriated in Grammy’s marble bathroom. Her shower—correction, our shower—could have comfortably fit four people without anyone rubbing elbows. Tenderly, we bathed each other as if it were the very first time. She was so beautiful. I’d never loved anyone the way I loved my Kat. I knelt and took her hand, water cascading down my back. “Kat, dear Kat…You’ve been my very best friend for so many years. I don’t think I can live without you, and I never want to find out.” I kissed her hands. “Katarina Summers, I love you more than the moon and sun. Love as your heart leads you, but promise me you’ll always come home.”

Her eyes got wide, and she looked stunned, and then she dropped to her knees, hugging me close. “Oh, yes! I love you so much, Olivia. I can’t imagine life without you. You, also, love as your heart leads you, as long as you always come home.”

We knelt there, kissing and holding each other, in the gentle artificial rain.

The room filled with the heady fragrance of scattered rose petals. There, in the beautiful old four-poster bed, we pledged our love as all lovers have, since the beginning of time.

Our Turn to Hunt

It was still dark when Kat woke me with a kiss. “Mikah wants to know if I’m going to work today. I can stay home if you need me.”

“When did you start working for Mikah?”

“While you were gone. He needed extra help, even with Tessa, and I needed a paycheck.”

“You go help Mikah help those kids, Miss Kitty. I’ll be fine.”

She kissed me again. “Call if you need anything and I’ll come home. Be safe. I love you.”

I kissed her back. “I love you, too.”

When I woke up again, it was to someone knocking on the door. “Wake up, sis. We have planning to do. You’ve slept long enough. See you downstairs.”

I found Leo, Frank, and the rest of the Troll contingent in the dining room, just finishing their lunch. At least Leo was nice enough to set aside a plate for me.

Motorcycle saddlebags were draped over one of the chairs. John kind of cleared his throat. “I feel like a rat for leaving you all at a time like this, but Stacy is pregnant. We’re going to stay with my parents in Arizona. I want to help, but I have to take care of Stacy. We’re heading out after we eat.”

The other Trolls looked a little sad, but none of them looked surprised. “You stay in touch,” said Razaini, “And let us know when you get there safely, okay?”

“We promise,” said Stacy. “We’re going to miss you.”

They finished eating, and there were hugs all around. We heard the motorcycles roar to life outside and drive away.

Leo grabbed another sandwich—just to be companionable, I’m sure—but as soon as the last sounds of their engines faded away, he was back to business. “I couldn’t really sleep last night, so I did some recon on the Botanic Gardens. I think that mission is a no go.” He picked up Mikah’s clipboard and continued. “I didn’t see any way not blocked by those hell birds. Sure, we could get past them with a suitable application of high explosives, or one well-placed firecracker, but that defeats all chance of stealth. We’re more likely to blow ourselves up than get a usable sample of monkshood. Cordie did some research, and while we found some information, it was a bit sketchy since werewolves were supposed to be mythical creatures.”