The Ballad of Aramei (43 page)

Others nearby hear Treven’s words and the wave of conversations going on all around us ceases.

I look at Nathan and Treven both; Treven standing two full inches taller next to him. And then I go to elaborate more, just so maybe I can make some sense of it myself, and I hear Isis’ voice from somewhere behind:

“The dogs,” she says, “They’ve stopped barking.” She comes up next to Treven and loops her arm around his giant bicep; her face is imbued by unease.

We all stop to listen and she’s right; all night they’ve been barking sporadically, though nothing out of the ordinary, and now they are utterly silent all over the town.

Panic envelops Nathan’s face all of a sudden and his nostrils flare. He takes in a deep, aggressive breath and catches the scent on the wind. He always knows before any of us when others are nearby because of his powerful sense of smell. We all have it, the enhanced sense of smell, but Nathan’s ability is extraordinary.

The muscles in his arms harden and his dark eyes widen so quickly that it alone sends a jolt of panic through my bones.

“What is it?” I say, trying to look at him and keep my eyes peeled all around me at the same time.

“They’re here,” Nathan answers as his eyes shift black and his lips curl into a hard, bitter display. “Holy shit, they’re…
everywhere
.”

Instinct kicks in as Nathan’s announcement rolls through like a thick fog carrying grave news on the air and everyone becomes alert.

Xavier steps up, wiping sweat from his face, which in itself is strange. “It’s my mother,” he says with foreboding in his voice. “She just spoke to me.”

“What did she say, Xavier?” I’m too impatient. “Xavier, tell me what Nataša said!”

His eyes are so panicked that it puts me more on edge and I didn’t think by now that could even be possible.

“They’re at Adria’s aunt’s house,” he announces, “and so is Father. My mother demanded that we bring Adria to them now—they think she’s with us—or they’re going to kill everyone in this town.”

I start to pace furiously over the broken blacktop. My senses are going into overdrive as all of the beasts around me begin to go into an inner frenzy, each one of them preparing themselves mentally for what’s about to go down.

Focus. I have to stay focused on the plan which has just been shattered, and I’m realizing that with the unexpected turn of events, can’t be restored. The plan was to gather as many packs as we could and then take them into the mountains farther northeast into the Appalachians and away from Adria, station there for as many days as it took before my father found out about Aramei and then lure him and his army to us. We were going to be waiting, with an army and a plan.

But the plan has gone to shit. The plan has gone to shit….

“Isaac!” Treven says, bringing me back, “We can’t do this here. In the town.”

Isis glares heatedly at me next to him, but fear is dominant in her face. Fear of my father and not of me.

“He’s known all along,” I say vacantly; my intent stare absorbing the asphalt. “Why didn’t I
know
this? He knew the second that it happened—.” My head jerks up to see Nathan. “He
knew
, Nathan! He did everything we didn’t expect him to do, stringing us along to believe that he didn’t know when the whole damned time he was preparing and on his way back here—HE KNEW!”

Nathan steps toward me. “This isn’t the time to start blaming yourself, or questioning your position as Alpha.” He forces his hands on my shoulders, shaking me to. “This is our
father
, Isaac.” He pushes the words on me aggressively so that I’ll let the truth of his words sink in. “This isn’t some neonate half-breed Alpha, he’s the
Sovereign
and all of us—,” his gripping fingers fall off my shoulders and he points to himself with both hands, “—
all
of us made the same mistake, bro.
None
of us saw this coming!”

But I was the one supposed to be able to see it coming. I’m Alpha….

“Let’s go,” I say without another word and I make for my Jeep, jump inside and slam the key in the ignition.

Nathan gets in on the passenger’s side.

Everyone follows us out in a chaotic procession of squealing tires and bouncing headlights illuminating the dark trees out ahead.

In under a minute, when the first house comes into view along the dimly-lit road, I see them.

Nathan was right. They are everywhere, hidden in the shadows of every yard. Some are perched atop the roofs and in the trees. I can see their preternatural eyes glinting off the moonlight in the darkness like owls hidden in the branches.

The dogs are too afraid to bark anymore.

“Holy shit, bro…,” Nathan looks nervous and excited as we drive by that first house and see two brooding werewolves, still in human form, standing on the side of the house at the garage.

Our procession of vehicles slows down almost to a crawl. I feel like one of those kids sitting in the backseat as his parents drive him down the brightly-lit streets of a Christmas wonderland. Except this is much darker and the figures scattered about the lawns of all of these houses aren’t giant inflatable snowmen or nativity scenes.

Every. Single. House. From Water Street, to 2 and Litchfield and Smith and finally to Vaughan. All my father has to do is flutter his eyelids and every person as far as two towns over from Hallowell will be dead.

I open up my ears to hear the residents inside as we pass, but no one so far seems to know that they’re in danger. Thankfully, most of the town’s residents are still asleep.

Finally, I pull off the road and onto Beverlee and Carl’s long dirt driveway leading to their house. I pick up the speed now that I’ve got a better idea of what we’re up against all over the town and come to a hard stop outside the Dawson house. The only car parked out front is Beverlee’s old gray Chevy Malibu. But I sense those inside and I can hear Nataša’s voice slithering through the room.

We get out cautiously and more than a dozen vehicles pull in behind us, clogging the driveway all the way out onto the main street; some park
along
the main street.

There’s only one light burning in the house, downstairs in the den. Shadows move across the windows of the downstairs floor and so far I can tell there are at least six different figures inside. The tall light pole that stands between the old barn and the house casts a buzzing grayish-white light across a large portion of the west side of the yard. Movement stirs inconspicuously at the side of the barn. Two werewolves. And then on the top of the roof. Two more werewolves. The house is surrounded.

But I don’t sense my father.

“Nathan?” I say without looking away from the house. “I don’t think Father is inside.”

“I don’t, either,” he says in a low voice.

A large crowd walks in behind us and I turn around to see Treven standing at the head of them all; Sebastian is next to him.

“Treven,” I begin, “I need you to take everyone with you, spread out throughout the town wherever you see an enemy and do whatever you have to do to keep them from Turning in front of the humans and, more importantly, keep them from killing or infecting them.”

I look to Nathan and Xavier. “I’m going inside and it’s probably best that I go alone.”

Xavier shakes his head in refusal. “Oh, no way, brother,” he says, “my mother is in there and I’m going with you.”

“That’s why you shouldn’t go,” I say.

Xavier grits his teeth.

“I’ll do whatever you want me to do,” Nathan says, “But I don’t think it’s a good idea to face them alone.”

“You doubt me?” I say, offended, but quietly doubting myself a little.

“I don’t doubt your strength, Isaac,” Nathan says, “but I do doubt your heart.”

“My heart?” I say blankly.

Nathan nods. “Humans are involved; Adria’s aunt and uncle, which makes it worse. Nataša isn’t here holding them hostage so Beverlee will show her how to scrapbook—she’ll use them against you.”

“So, you doubt my ability to make hard decisions.”

He’s right to doubt me, but I remain outwardly firm.

Nathan gives up and says, “I’ll go with Treven. There are at least one hundred of her beasts out there and unless we want a whole town infected in one night, Treven needs as many of us as we can spare.”

I nod in agreement and then I turn to Sebastian. “Are you alright in this?” I think because he’s still so new and a half-breed, I feel a sort of responsibility to him.

“Hey, man, I’m good,” he puts up his hands,

I give Treven and Nathan one last nod and all of them take off running through the trees in a flash of scattering figures.

Xavier is still standing beside me.

“Maybe I can talk to her,” he says about Nataša. “I know she’s a hardass, but…I hate to say it, but she’s not like Sibyl.”

His comment about my mother didn’t sting as he apparently thought it would; I got over my mother’s betrayal a long time ago.

“Nataša is loyal to our father,” I say and then from the corner of my eye, I catch a glimpse of the figures inside the house moving across the front window. “She will do whatever he’s told her to do, Xavier, and that includes taking you down with me if it comes to that.”

Xavier tries to act as if the truth doesn’t faze him, but I know otherwise. He rounds his chin and says, “At least let me talk to her. Give me that much. If she chooses her orders over her own son, then you do what you have to do and I won’t interfere.”

So then it’s not just me and Nathan and Daisy who want things in our society to change. Even Xavier understands the importance of freedom and revolution. All of us, my brothers and sisters and I, have lived among humans for too long, inadvertently exposed to human nature and have experienced the differences in their nature and ours. We have come to realize that the ways of our generations-old totalitarian government and lifestyle is wrong, and that it doesn’t have to be.

Change begins with us.

I inhale a deep breath and say, “Okay, I’ll give you the chance.”

And without wasting any more time, we head toward the front porch together.

~~~

“Eet ees about time you joined us,” Nataša says in an accent, standing in the den in the center of the room. “Xavier, I am surprised you have involved yourself in this…atrocity.”

There are six other beasts standing in the room with her: one near the stairs leading to the upper-floor, two in the den with Nataša, one in the kitchen looking out the window at the front yard, one at the large den window and now one right behind Xavier and I.

I still don’t see my father. Could he be waiting upstairs? But why?

I realize that he isn’t here. I felt it earlier, a heavy feeling of absence, but now I’m
sure
of it. So many things are shooting around inside my head.

Right now the most important thing is what’s in front of me: Adria’s aunt and uncle, terrified and in grave danger.

Beverlee sits in her nightgown on the center couch cushion with her back straight and rigid; her trembling hands are pressed against her thighs where she wrenches the fabric of her gown in her fingertips. Tears streak down her face and I know she wants to look at me, but she’s too afraid to move her eyes. Her brown hair is matted and ravaged; strands are stretched messily across her face, stuck to her skin by tears and snot and sweat. Carl Dawson is in his favorite chair, but the way he sits there in an unnatural position with his back at an angle, tells me he had been tossed there by violent hands. Carl is shirtless and wears a pair of navy pajama bottoms. There’s a trickle of blood running down the under part of his neck and instantly I fear that maybe he’s already been infected, but I’m relieved when I notice the blood came from his busted nose. There is no emotion in his face except the fear I see in his eyes. Unlike Beverlee, he does make eye contact with me and I know he’s hoping that I’m here to help them, but can’t understand how someone like me, a twenty-year-old guy seemingly harmless, could possibly help in a situation like this. He keeps glancing covertly over at Beverlee, wanting only to reach out and hold her even if in his arms she truly isn’t safe.

Xavier speaks up first:

“Mother,” he says carefully, “this isn’t right. They have nothing to do with what happened to Aramei.” He doesn’t feel confident with his own words, but he’s trying. He swallows and takes a deep breath, stepping forward just a little. “Only rogues do this; take human hostages and risk exposing our society to theirs. You know it’s wrong.”

Nataša would probably smile wickedly right about now, but she has never been one to smile even for mocking sake. She stands there for a moment, studying her son. Her dark red hair is pulled back tight into a ponytail, stretching the skin at the corners of her eyes and making them appear tight and slanted. As always, she wears her signature skin-tight black leather bodysuit and tall black boots with the shit-kicking kind of heels.

She walks across the room to stand in front of Xavier and I step up beside him boldly. She reaches out and combs her fingers through Xavier’s messy blond bangs, but says nothing to him in return.

She looks right at me, getting right down to business, bypassing the ridiculous monologue that we all know would make absolutely no difference.

“Where is your foolish, blasphemous little mate?”

I stay calm. As calm as I can, considering. “Not here, obviously.”

“That is unfortunate.” She turns only her head to see one of her men and he moves in behind Beverlee. I tense up and Beverlee’s tears rush heavier to the surface as if someone had turned on a faucet behind her head. The man’s shadow looms threateningly over her. His black claws are at the ready down at his sides.

Carl struggles in the chair, his face contorted into a livid and frightful expression, but he can’t move. I notice a flicker of hatred for himself pass over his eyes, hatred for being paralyzed and feeling completely useless when Beverlee needs him the most.

I ready myself internally, keeping one eye on the one behind Beverlee so I’ll see when he goes to make his move and one eye on Nataša who stands inches from me, waiting on
me
to make
my
move.