White Winter (The Black Year Series Book 2) (30 page)

“Are you awake?”

“Yeah.”

Jonas could barely make out the sink and the door, opposite the bed. They were lying back to back, with Eve closest to the wall.

“You ever wonder if we would have gotten together if we’d met as humans?” she asked.

Jonas closed his eyes and rubbed the back of her leg with his foot. “You mean, aside from the fact you grew up in Nashville, and you’re a year older than me?”

“Right. Stupid question,” she said.

Jonas opened his eyes and looked over his shoulder. Her shoulders were rounded, and she was clutching her arms. He rolled over and put his left arm around her, pulling her against his chest. “I think we would have been great together.”

“I had a boyfriend.”

“I would have chased him off.”

“I’d be a senior. I wouldn’t give you the time of day.”

“I have a clock on my phone.”

She snorted. “Dork.”

He gave her hip a squeeze.

After few minutes of just sitting there until they were breathing in sync, she said, “It was nice just hanging out together tonight. Almost normal.”

“Mmm hmm,” he said, falling asleep.

♘

Jonas yawned as his feet crunched through the fresh layer of snow.

“You not get any sleep today?” Kieran asked.

“We stayed up until after sunrise.”

“Really?” Kieran said, wagging his eyebrows and punching him in the arm.

“Yeah, I wish. We were talking. You don’t realize how much information you share with someone until you actually have to put it into words.”

Kieran looked at him for a second, then faced forward again as the light changed. “I think it’s great that you two like each other so much.”

Jonas grunted.

The Sorcerer hadn’t lied - the weather was getting colder. There was a dry crispness to the air, like they were breathing ice, and since it was Sunday, Midtown was almost deserted. If he focused, Jonas could feel the faint but powerful magic pumping the heat of the city anywhere but here.

“How are things going with Amelia?”

Kieran shrugged. “I don’t know what I was expecting, to be honest, catching her on the rebound like that.”

Jonas half smiled. “That good, huh?”

Kieran sighed. “I think I make her laugh?”

“You?”

“Yes, clan leader, though it brings great shame on both pack and clan.”

Jonas grinned. “It’s the dog jokes, isn’t it?”

Kieran looked horrified. “I’m horrified, clan leader. With so many werewolves in the city, that kind of talk is sure to raise people’s hackles.”

“I’ll keep a tight leash on it.”

“If you don’t, the council’s sure to rub your nose in it.”

“I’ll be in the doghouse for sure.”

They turned onto Jonas’ old street. Kieran frowned and sniffed the air. Amelia came out the front door of her apartment building, saw them, and waved. Then she shrieked as four werewolves dropped next to her from the rooftop above.

Kieran’s reaction was instantaneous. He transformed, ripping through his clothes, and bounded forward. Jonas ran after him.

One of the werewolves grabbed Amelia from behind and snarled, “That’s close enough!” His claws pressed into her neck.

Kieran stopped, still twenty feet from Amelia. Jonas caught up to him.

“Do you remember me, clan leader?” the werewolf holding Amelia said.

Jonas looked at the attackers. They wore military harnesses sized for their transformed state. They were leaner than any of the Agency werewolves he knew, Kieran included. Two were brown haired, and one was black with a little gray, but their spokesman was unlike any werewolf Jonas had ever seen. He was brindle coated, both black and brown, with not-quite-symmetrical patches marking his face and muzzle. The effect was striking.

“I remember you,” Jonas said, stepping forward.

“I said stop!” the werewolf snarled, digging his claws into Amelia’s neck.

Amelia’s father came out the front door. He was pale, bald, a little overweight, and scared. He had a gun in his hand. “I don’t know what the hell you are, but-”

The black-and-gray werewolf casually swiped his claws across Mr. Koslow’s throat, then kicked him into the wall. The man crumpled, blood staining his shirt. His gun clattered to the floor.

“Daddy!” Amelia screamed.

“You called me an abomination, clan leader!”

“Jonas you need to
do
something!” Kieran whispered.

The sun will kill me if I use my powers
, Jonas thought. He’d overdone it with training and the council. The sky was turning from orange to deep red. He only needed a little more time.

“You said I’d never make it in this world - that I’d do everyone a favor if I crawled into a hole and died, removing my… my taint from our kind.”

“I’m sorry,” Jonas said. Amelia was sobbing, trying to turn her head far enough to look at her father.

The werewolf bared his teeth. “You were right, clan leader. I can’t fit into your world.”

“I wasn’t myself,” Jonas said. “You can join-”

“I’ve found my pack, clan leader. We’re going to build a better world. I just want you to know how it feels.” He ripped Amelia’s jacket off her shoulder and clamped his jaws down, crunching through her clavicle.

CHAPTER 29

“Ames? I think she’s waking up,” Kieran said, holding Amelia’s hand.

Jonas tried to look without disturbing Eve.

Eve raised her head off his shoulder and said, “What’s happening?”

“We think she’s waking up,” Jonas answered.

Amelia squinted, then opened her eyes. She looked at Kieran. “Hey, handsome,” she said, smiling weakly. She noticed the IV in her arm, then looked down at her hospital gown and tilted her head to the side. “Where
am
I?” She looked at Jonas, then Eve.

“You’re in the Agency’s med bay, hun. We brought you here,” Kieran said.

“Did I pass out? I passed out, once, in sixth grade. I hadn’t eaten enough,” she said.

Jonas and Eve looked at each other.

The doctor walked in. Not Jonas’ phony lab doctor; an actual medical doctor who worked with patients, even though he was a bit young and a werewolf. “You’re awake!” he said. “That’s good news. Probably won’t be any complications, then.”

“Complications from what?” Amelia asked.

The doctor looked at Kieran, then turned back and looked at Jonas with an eyebrow raised.

“She doesn’t remember,” Eve said.

“Will someone just tell me what’s going on?” Amelia said. She kicked her feet under the blankets. “I’m not paralyzed.”

“I just need to take a look at your shoulder, Miss,” the doctor said. Kieran stood to get out of his way. Amelia twisted her head to see, but the place she was bitten was too close to her neck. She looked up. “Oh, hi, Mrs. Black!”

“Hello, Amelia,” Alice said, stepping into the room.

“I haven’t seen you since… and you’re a vampire! Ma’am, you rock.”

Alice looked at the others and said, “You haven’t told her?”

“No, ma’am,” the doctor said.

Jonas shook his head. Eve winced. Kieran just looked kind of helpless.

“Jonas, tell Amelia what happened.”

“Me?”

The look Alice gave him made his heart stutter.

“Um, Amelia?”

“Yes, Jonas?” she said, gripping her sheets.

“Do you remember the werewolves that attacked you, on our street?”

“Kind of?” she said, looking down at her hands. She noticed the patch of darker skin on her right arm and rubbed it with her palm, then saw there were more on her left arm. “What…”

“One of them bit you,” Jonas said.

Her left hand went to her right shoulder. Her eyes widened. “I remember that. It really hurt.” She tried to turn her head again, then ran her fingers over the uneven skin.

“The wound is closed, Miss,” the doctor said. “There’s a scar, but that will disappear in a week or two.”

“So I’m a werewolf, now? Is that it? There’s no cure or anything?” Amelia asked. She looked at Kieran.

“Yeah, baby. You are, and there’s no cure. I’m sorry.”

“Okay. How long will these take to disappear?” she asked, holding out her arms.

Jonas swallowed. “The werewolf who bit you had a condition, Amelia.” He shook his head. “He gave it to you. It’s part of the disease.”

He saw her jaw clench. “Is it just my arms? Damn it, Jonas, tell me!”

“It’s not,” Jonas answered.

She looked at the doctor. “Get me a mirror.’

“I’m not sure-”

“Get me a mirror,
now
.”

“I’m getting a mirror,” he said, all two hundred pounds of him scooting to one of the drawers.

He handed her a small, glassless mirror. She looked in it, turned her head left and right, then set it down on the bed. “Fine. I’ll deal with this. I’ll use makeup. Or not; I always thought I was too normal to be beautiful, so maybe this is what I needed.” She pulled the tape off her IV port and pulled it out, gritting her teeth, and pressed her hand against the injection site.

“Ames…” Kieran said.

She lifted her hand. The wound had healed shut. “Huh.” She threw off the sheets and put her legs over the side.

“Amelia, please,” Kieran said, putting his hand on her shoulder.

“
Get your hand off of me,
” she said, her eyes gleaming gold. He jerked back as if he’d been burned. “I’m going home.”

“Jonas,” Alice said.

“I can’t.”

She looked at him again, as if he was a stranger she’d just noticed. He could feel Eve’s eyes on him too.
Why me, huh? Because she’s my friend? Because Dad would have just told her from the start?
Amelia was at the foot of the bed when he said, “Amelia, you can’t go home.”

“Why? Am I a prisoner?”

“Your father’s dead, babe,” Jonas said. Eve stiffened. “I’m sorry. It’s been over 12 hours. Agency cleaners already boxed up the apartment; there’s nothing to go home to.”

Amelia transformed. Full-blown lycanthrope. She was flying through the air, teeth and claws heading for Jonas’ face before he had time to blink. Then she was on the floor with Alice’s hand on her neck, unconscious.

“Kieran?” Alice said.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“She needs to be around other werewolves. People who can take a punch and socialize her before she kills someone.”

“I’ll take her home, ma’am. To my home.”

Alice nodded. She looked at Jonas and said, “I’ll send Frank. Make sure she’s restrained.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Jonas mumbled.

Alice left the room.

“Holy wow!” the doctor said, looking at them. “I mean, wow! Is she yours?” he said to Kieran.

“We’re dating.”

“Do you have
any
idea how much anger it takes for a first-day transformation? She didn’t even revert when she passed out. I mean, it’s chemistry! She must have been repressing that for
years
.”

Jonas felt sick.

The doctor clapped Kieran on the back. “You could build an entire new bloodline off that anger - aside from the skin, of course, and-” He paled. “Oh, shit, Kieran! I’m sorry. I didn’t… I just got-”

“It’s fine, Jesse,” Kieran said, sounding dazed. “Can you help me get her back on the bed?”

♘

Kieran and Jonas sat on one side of the van. Amelia sat on the other. Her wrists were cuffed to the bench, and Kieran had strapped her harness tight. She was still in wolf form.

She glared at Jonas for the first ten minutes, non-stop, just the gleam of her eyes and the tires crackling on the road. And the smell, like he had his face pressed into a wet dog’s coat, and the dog had rabies. He didn’t have his earphones with him. Kieran kept to himself, staring straight ahead.

After they cleared the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, the light in her eyes faded a little and she looked around the van. Her nostrils flared. Her right ear flicked for a whole minute until she got it under control.

Most of her fur was a kind of spotty tiger stripe. Where most werewolves had solid colored coats, or just one patch of color on the forehead, chest, or back, hers was an even mix of brown and black. She was darker on top of her muzzle, mostly tan on the outside of her ears, and pale to the point of seeming cream colored around her mouth and throat. Her tail, curled around her right side, followed the same pattern - dark on top and light on the bottom. It was fascinating to look at.

She was too thin, though. The transformation had stretched her, lengthening her legs and torso. Even looking out of the corner of his eye, he could see her ribs beneath her fur when she breathed, and her waist was too narrow for her hips.