Fox Rematch (The Madison Wolves Book 10) (5 page)

“Angel. I am not paying for her, I am paying for me. I can’t watch anymore. Bring me my mate.”

Angel looked at me. “I’m sorry,” she said.

“May I talk to her?”

“Yes,” she said. She handed me the phone, and I took it clumsily with my free hand. Angel helped steady it against my ear.

“Hello, Love,” I told her.

“I’m sorry,” she said, and she started to cry.

“Honey, I won’t let them kill me.”

“You might be too far gone to stop them.”

“Stop underestimating me!”

“There’s more silver, isn’t there?”

“Yes, I’m holding it in my leg. The sooner you withdraw your offer, the sooner I can stop hurting for a while.” I looked at Angel. “Another sandwich, please.”

She fed me a sandwich and I listened to Lara cry.

“Please come home to me,” she said.

“I’ll come home in a few days, Lara. Stop watching.”

“I can’t. Honey, come home now. I need to hold you. The stress, honey. Think.”

“Michaela,” said Angel. “It’s the middle of the afternoon.”

I stared at her. “You were all asleep when this started.”

She nodded. Then she took the phone from me. “Lara, she doesn’t remember. We’ll bring her to you; it will be a little time. We’ll turn the video feed back on in a little while, after we’ve cleaned her up, so you can see her, then we’ll bring her to you.”

“Thank you, Angel,” Lara said. “I love you, Little Fox. I’m sorry, but I can’t let this go on any longer.”

Then they hung up. Angel set the phone aside.

“It was 4:30 in the morning when the first dagger was taped to your foot,” Angel said. “It was 2:00 in the afternoon when we removed them. It is now about 3:30.”

“Only one day.”

“How long did I hold your silver knife in my hand last year?”

“But you can’t heal it,” I said.

“How long did Elisabeth hold one, and then it took how long to heal?”

“A minute, and about thirty minutes, I guess. But Angel, I zoned out and let all the damage happen.”

“No, you didn’t. Elisabeth kept begging you to tell. You would take a minute or two, but say no, and ask for more food. You ate it. Elisabeth would order you to tell, and you would scream no, and then there would be a burst of healing — we could see it around the tape. Karen ordered you to tell. I begged you. Scarlett begged you. We all came down and begged you. You responded slowly, but you kept saying no.”

“I don’t remember.”

“We kept begging you to tell. Then you started to talk about Flora and Fauna, and how you were protecting them.”

“I don’t remember. Did I scream?”

“Sometimes. You whimpered and thrashed a lot. You seemed incoherent when you talked about Flora and Fauna, but you told them to run to Lara, that she would protect them. But when we begged you to tell, you would say after a while, quite clearly, no, you will never tell pack secrets. We asked what secrets, and you told us clearly we wanted to know about the chopsticks and belt, and you weren’t telling.”

“Water?”

Angel held it for me.

“Shortly after noon, you sat straight up, opened your eyes, and stared straight at Elisabeth. You said, ‘I can hold the poison back a while longer, Elisabeth. I love you.’ And then you were out of it again.”

“I begged Lara to pay the ransom. We’d been dropping our demands for hours. I begged her to let us stop. I did it on camera, and then I called her. She refused. Scarlett led a revolt. She and the other girls dragged Gia away from the computer and adjusted the ransom. I called Lara. She refused.”

Angel caressed my face. “Scarlett tried to turn the revolt on Elisabeth. The other girls weren’t ready to follow her against the head enforcer. Elisabeth told Scarlett to talk to you.”

“Was I coherent?”

“It took a few minutes. You opened your eyes, and you said, ‘Oh Scarlett, I’m not going to die. I love you all. I promise, I will make Elisabeth stop in time. How can I pay all your favors if I die? Now, you girls go outside and have a nice run. Later, we’ll play more poker. I probably won’t play as well as I did last night.’ Then you asked them all to hug you.”

“Are they all right?”

“Scared out of their minds. I don’t think any of them will volunteer to become enforcers.”

“It’s the wrong job for them. It might be the right one for you.”

“You think so?”

“Yes, maybe. You’re not as big as Elisabeth, but you have a cool, clear head. But go to college first. Promise me.” She nodded. “What happened at 2:00?”

“You opened your eyes again. You hadn’t for a long time, but you kept telling us no, you wouldn’t tell, and when Elisabeth asked about the silver poisoning, you said you had it under control, but not much longer.”

I shook my head. I didn’t remember.

“What happened, Angel?”

“You looked straight at me, and you said, ‘Tell Lara I loved her.’ Not love. Loved. Past tense.”

“Ten seconds later, Elisabeth’s phone rang. It was Lara, and she was screaming incoherently at Elisabeth. But Gia and I had already ripped the daggers from you, and we were scrambling to wash the wounds, but there was no silver, just the burns.”

“No, Lara called later, after I pushed the silver out.” I glanced down at my leg. It throbbed. “I can hold that a while, but I need more food.” She fed me, but then said, “We’re out. I’ll get more.”

“No, is there more to the story?”

“Just a little. You told us you would tell the secrets, but then you were incoherent. Elisabeth calmed Lara down and told her you deserved the chance to see this through. Lara screamed at her, but she didn’t offer to ransom you. Elisabeth told her not to.”

I smiled. They had let me have my honor.

“You faded out after that, and you scared the crap out of us. We were begging you to heal and trying to feed you. Then you began to whimper and begged us to stop.”

“I think I remember that. I offered to tell.”

“Yes.”

“I remember the rest, then.” I smiled. “But I lied.”

“You did. But honey, it’s over. We accepted the ransom. It’s over.”

“I kept my secrets.” I smiled.

“You did,” she said. She pulled me into her arms. “And now you understand this tradition, don’t you?”

“Yes. Angel, thank you.”

She released me after a minute. “I’ll cut the tape now.”

“No,” I said. “We have to fix the silver first. I’ll be easier to hold down this way.”

“All right. I’ll go get everyone.”

“Is there more food upstairs?”

“Yes. We called Mom. You ate us out of house and home, Michaela. You ate a month’s worth of your normal food. She’s upstairs. I can smell fresh chicken.”

“Did she see me?”

“No. She couldn’t handle this.”

“Angel, I should have soiled myself. Or did I get bathroom breaks, too?”

“No, you didn’t. But we cleaned you up.”

“Did I ruin the sofa?”

“No. Ava asked a particularly disgusting question, and we realized the effects all the food and water would have. We managed it.”

I laughed. “Thank you.” I sniffed. There was a faint odor.

“Yeah, we did the best we could. I’ll get food and help. Are you going to be okay for a minute without me?”

“Yes. Please hurry though. It hurts, and I can’t hold it too much longer.”

She didn’t wait; she flew up the stairs screaming for Elisabeth. They passed on the stairs, Angel going up, Elisabeth coming down, Karen immediately behind her.

“I’m fine,” I called out.

Elisabeth didn’t bother going around the sofa, she jumped over it and spun to look at me, crouching down.

“I’m fine,” I said again. “But we need to get the silver out.”

“We did that,” Elisabeth said.

“We got half. It’s going to take two or three more times to flush the rest.”

“How are you doing this?” she asked me. “And I saw how much silver was in the last one. How can you do this?”

“Elisabeth, have you seen how much silver I play with? You don’t think I haven’t made mistakes? Or tested what it does?”

“You’ve intentionally silver poisoned yourself before?”

“I wouldn’t say that. I have been splattered with molten silver a number of times. That hurts like a son of a bitch; I don’t recommend it. And it burns right into you, pure silver in liquid form. Gets pulled into our blood stream instantly. Pain in the ass.”

Elisabeth shook her head while looking at me. Gia, Angel and Scarlett descended the stairs rapidly, and I looked over the couch, I saw they were laden with trays of food.

“Give me!” I yelled. “Chicken! And I’m not sharing!”

They shoved the food into me as fast as I could eat it, and once I was calm, I looked at Scarlett. “You. Come here and give me a hug.”

She fell to her knees at my side, weeping, and I pulled her to me. “I hear you led a revolt. I’m so proud of you, Scarlett. I love you. Stop crying now, I still need your help.”

She released me slowly. “I was so scared.”

“I know. Let’s get rid of the silver now and we’ll talk more. It hurts, Scarlett.”

“Oh god,” she said.

“Elisabeth, same thing as before. Everyone get ready. Do not video this.”

“We’re not.”

It took four more times before I got it all out. I screamed a lot. It wasn’t fun.

Finally I lay back on the sofa, dripping in sweat. They tried to feed me, but I waved them away weakly. I looked at Angel. “I am going to fade away for a while. Please don’t be afraid. Cut me loose. Remove the tape. Clean me up. Dress me. Get everyone down here. I want all of you holding me.”

I turned to Elisabeth. “Me on your lap, Scarlett and Angel next to me.” I looked back at Angel. “Then call Lara and she’ll call me back.”

Then I faded away.

* * * *

I was out of it for a while.

“Come on, Little Fox,” Lara said. “Talk to me. Come back to me, Michaela.”

“Water,” I said weakly. There was a straw at my mouth.

“Are you back?” Lara asked.

“Soon. Head hurts.”

“You’re dehydrated,” Elisabeth said. “Drink more water.”

Lara talked softly to me, holding me there, and finally I opened my eyes. I was dressed, cuddling in Elisabeth’s lap, with Angel’s head on my shoulder and Scarlett next to Elisabeth, her head against my back. The other girls were surrounding me, several kneeling on the floor with their heads in my lap.

“I am Alpha,” I said.

“Yes,” Elisabeth said. “You are most definitely Alpha.”

“I love you all. Thank you so much.”

“We are not doing this again,” Elisabeth said. There was weak laughter.

“And I will kill anyone who suggests it,” Lara said. She wasn’t joking.

I rested my head against Elisabeth’s chest. “You all cleared your schedules for a week, and it was only a day. I didn’t do very well.”

“Oh for crying out loud!” yelled Lara. “The tradition is a few minutes of punishment every half hour to hour. You spun for over two hours and laughed it off, and then you let them nearly kill you over a ten-hour period. That’s two weeks compressed into one day.”

“Alpha,” said Scarlett to me. “Shut the fuck up.”

I laughed. “Language, Scarlett.”

“I’m not your student anymore,” she said. “I graduated. With honors, I will remind you.”

“All right. I guess I did okay. I didn’t break, after all.”

“I’m sorry,” Elisabeth said. “You did.”

“I never asked to be ransomed.”

“You gave pack secrets.”

“Did you verify them?”

She froze.

“Cause I’m pretty sure I was coherent, and I don’t recall you verifying them.”

“I know Lara gave you the belt. I was there when you opened it.”

Lara was chuckling in my ear.

“Turn the feed back on,” I said. “Gia. Do it.”

She climbed off the floor and crossed to her computer. She clicked for a minute. “It’s on.”

“Are people watching?”

She clicked some more. “A hundred and twenty four active viewers.”

“Some of them probably walked away. Is it being recorded, too?”

“Yes.”

“Good enough. If you can, set a marker or something at this point. Someone hand me my chopsticks.”

“Damn it!” said Elisabeth.

The women holding me stayed where they were. Gia rose from her chair, rummaged in a bag somewhere, and then she held the chop sticks to me from over Elisabeth’s shoulder.

I looked at them. “Can I see the feed?”

“There are two,” Gia said. “One per camera. One is wide angle, one is close up on you. It was a medium shot earlier, but it’s a close up now.” She brought her laptop over and set it on the coffee table, and I could see myself on her screen. “Or do you want the other one?”