Wolf Dream (9 page)

I placed my hands back over her wound and tried to pull the poison from her, but nothing came out. I pushed harder as tears streamed profusely down my face. Ian gently moved my hands away. I didn’t even realize he was there with us. “Es, honey, she’s gone.”

Ailaina pulled her knees to her chest and cried.

I sobbed as Ian pulled me into his arms. A howl made me look over his shoulder. Lauren’s spirit wolf looked down at Lauren
, and then slowly she disappeared. Tiny sparkles of glistening spirit remained where she stood dutifully, then floated over Lauren, covering her completely. One at a time they faded until Lauren and her wolf were gone.

My body racked as a new sob tore through me. Ian held me closer. “Es, I know it’s hard, but we have to find Julie and wake up the pilot.”

I nodded and pulled back from his cocoon of comfort. “I have a better idea.” I wiped the tears away and took one more glance where Lauren had been. I stood up and ran down the stairs, Ian close behind me, leaving Ailaina to grieve alone.

All the passengers were still sleeping heavily. I felt out around me, not for crossbreeds or magical beings, but for the spell she used. It wasn’t a normal sleep spell, that much I was certain. And where the h
eck did Julie go? I should’ve thought of it sooner – it was her spell and she could undo it, she just didn’t want to. But why?

“Princess, what are you doing?”

I spun around to face Ian. “I’m gonna wake them up.”

He tipped his head slightly. “You can do that?”

“I’m stronger than her. For crying out loud, I brought Julie back to life, I can counter her stupid spell.”

“Alright, if you’re sure.”

“Oh, I’m sure.”

“Hey there, give me a hand
, will ya,” Camilla called out from the first class area.

Ian and I both ran in there. She was dragging one of the breeds toward a closet of sorts.
Once I got closer I could tell it was an elevator that made the downstairs accessible to the crew. “What are you doing?”

She stopped tugging on the lifeless body to look up at me. She blew her hair that had fallen in front of her eyes. “You have to ask? Before you go waking up all my passengers I need to set the stage. If they wake up and see dead bodies everywhere; what will happen?”

I leaned toward Ian. “She’s got a point.”

Ian bent over and picked up the guy she was hauling and swung him up over the seats and onto his shoulder. “Where do I put him?”

Camilla walked briskly to the elevator that was already open with one guy inside. “Put him in here. We’re gonna have to stuff it as full as we can. I only have two storage spaces available: this elevator and that closet.” She nodded to a small closet just to my left.

The plane bounced for few seconds and I held my breath. We needed to wake the pilot before something happened and we all died—then it wouldn’t matter where we stuffed the bodies.
“Come on, guys, we need to hurry.”

“Where the
heck are Jarak and Julie anyway?” Ian asked as he shoved a body in the closet.

I dropped the legs of the one I pulled to the
elevator. “I have no idea, but they are seriously pissing me off.”

“Hey, they’re just missing all the fun.” Ian gave me a wink before picking up the breed at our feet.

Camilla dragged the last body over to us. “You call this fun?”

“Have you guys seen Julie?” Jarak said behind me.

“So now you show up? Where’ve you been?” Ian kicked a hand back inside the closet before slamming the door shut. “Don’t you dare lie to me either, brother. What’s going on?”

Jarak
took a step back. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I felt the familiar tingles of electricity in the palm of my hand. I held it up. Tiny sparks that looked like lightning sizzled out from my skin. “Jarak, don’t make me use this on you.”

He swallowed hard and held his arms up. “Es, it’s me, Jarak; you know me. I don’t know, honestly.”

“Funny thing is, I don’t know you anymore. Since Julie came back as the walking dead, you’ve changed. Now tell us, what’s going on?”

Jarak took off down toward the back of the plane. Ian and I exchanged looks before taking off after him. “Where does he think he’s going? We’re thirty-something thousand feet in the air. It’s not like he can just disappear!” I said while jogging down the aisle, looking in every row for Jarak.

“Esmerelda!”

I stopped as Camilla called my name.

“I’ll
go look with Ian after I get this passenger to her seat. I can’t have her waking up on the floor. You need to wake the pilot.”

She was right. Ian gave me a slight nod before taking off after Jarak again. I helped Camilla buckle the woman in her seat. “Will she remember?”

“She’ll hopefully remember it as a bad dream.”

“Ugh, I’ve had my share of those lately.” I looked outside
; light was slowly creeping its way into the sky. Morning was coming. I needed to wake the pilot—fast.

Camilla touched my arm.
“Go ahead. I trust that you can do it. I’ll go help Ian with Jarak and Julie.”

I nodded as she ran down the
aisle. I let out a deep breath and walked to the cockpit. The door was still wide open and both pilots were still piled on each other sleeping soundly. Great. I needed them to be in their seats with the door closed so the pilot didn’t realize anything was wrong.

“I’ll help.”

Ailaina’s voice made me jump. I spun around and gave her a smile. I was glad to see her. “You okay?”

Her brow creased. “Yeah. I mean, I don’t have a choice right now. We’d just become fast friends
. I just, I don’t know.”

I gave her a hug. I knew she was still upset, but I didn’t have time to think about Lauren
. I was needed to help save everyone on the plane. She pulled back and wiped her face clear of all tears and sniffed. “I’m okay. Let’s get them to their seats.”

It took both of us, but we were finally able to get each man in
his seat with belts buckled. “Alright, let’s close the door. Camilla can come talk to the co-pilot; besides, I have no clue which one works for the B.O.M.B. because he’s human, and I’m not sure which one is pilot or co-pilot.”

Ailaina nodded and we slipped out of the cockpit, sl
iding the door shut. She let out a long breath. “What about all the blood? I mean, it’s everywhere. I think the passengers will notice if they are painted red when they wake up and the floor and seats don’t look much better.”

I looked around. She was right, blood was splattered all over the cabin and some of the passengers had speckled red splotches on them. “I th
ink I’m glad I have magic for this mess.” I chanted a small vanishing spell, and the crimson color disappeared from sight.

Ailaina looked around
, impressed, her hands on her hips. “Much better. At least it doesn’t look like World War Z happened anymore. Ready?”

“Ready.”

I closed my eyes and let the energy around and inside the plane fill me. In my head I could see the energy of each person and looked for the one light surrounding everyone that was the same. A hue of green hovered over the entire plane, covering each passenger. That was it.

I slipped my hands from Ailaina and raised them above my head. I opened my eyes and could
actually see the magic that kept everyone asleep. The energy continued to fill me until everything around me started to crackle and sizzle from the power I created.

In one fast motion, I brought my hands down and out away from my body, pushing away the mist of green. A shockwave of white shot out all around me, knocking Ailaina to the ground. I could see an electric
surge rush down the walls of the plane. My body tensed and as an afterthought, I hoped I didn’t interfere with the computer system.

A boom sounded throughout the airplane, loud enough for me to cover my ears and crouch down. I looked up and noticed a few passengers stirring. My heart lifted. The lady who walked in on us in first class looked around with wide eyes. I stood up and offered her a smile. Ailaina stood also and walked to the cockpit. Passengers stared at us as we got close enough to hear the pilots talking. Relief flooded through me.

We smiled at each other and walked toward the back of the plane to look for everyone else. We made it to the back galley area when another flight attendant stopped us. “I’m sorry, you can’t be back here. We’re going to get ready for our descent soon, so please take your seats.”

I grinned at her, but I had no intentions of going back
until I knew where Ian was. “I’m looking for Camilla.”

The attendant cocked her head. “Camilla went upstairs.”

“Thank you.”

Ailaina and I both hurriedly walked to the stairs
. Upstairs, the other passengers were stirring too. Camilla was pushing shut the lavatory door and smiled when she saw us. Ian stood up from his seat to greet me. “You okay?” he asked with a husky whisper.

I nodded as he took my hand to his chest. “Yeah, I just didn’t know where you were. Did you find them?”

“Yeah.” He looked over at Camilla. She walked toward us.

She wet her lips with her tongue. “We had to restrict them. I have them tucked away, so to speak, until we land.”

Ailaina folded her arms across her chest. “I can’t imagine Jarak having anything to do with all this.”

Camilla frowned. “I’m not sure he did. At least not that he was aware of. His girlfriend has a lot of control over him, maybe more than you knew. I do know I need to speak with Andrew
; he knows something for sure.” She excused herself and went downstairs.

An attendant’s voice came out over the intercom
, letting us know we were on our final descent. It was strange how all the passengers went on as if nothing happened. If only they knew what really happened in the last hour or so. I sat down with Ian and Ailaina took the seat behind me, not wanting to sit where her and Lauren were earlier—not that I could blame her. This was definitely one flight I was ready to be off of.

It felt like decades since we boarded. My a
drenaline was still spiked and my whole body shook. Ian grabbed my hand and gave it a squeeze. “It’s over, Es.”

I chewed on an already too
-short nail and nodded. “I know,” I let out a breath, “it was just weird, ya know? How so many were on the plane and intent on killing me. Will this nightmare ever be truly over?”

“It will.” He brought my hand to his lips and kissed my knuckles. “I told you, we won’t stop
until Nicholas is dead.”

Chapter
Eight

Leaving a Friend Behind

Esmerelda

We let everyone else get off the plane before getting up. Camilla met us at the top of the stairs. She gave me a quick hug. “It was nice to meet you. I just wish it were under different circumstances.”

“It was nice to meet you too. I won’t ever be able to fly again without looking for you.” I looked back over my shoulder at the lavatory then back at her. “What will happen to Jarak?”

“Don’t worry. I’ll take good care of him. He might not even know he was part of something, but then again he might have changed sides. I’ll get him back to headquarters and we’ll find out. Once we know for sure that he had nothing to do with it, he’ll be released. Although, I can’t say the same for Julie.”

My stomach
lurched. I couldn’t imagine Jarak working for Nicholas. Ian’s mouth twisted.  “Well, I want to be the first to know what you find out.” He placed his hand at the small of my back and with a small nudge, urged me to leave.

“You don’t rea
lly think Jarak could do that, do you?”

His face was stern with his jaw clenched. “I don’t know what to believe right now, not after last night. This whole flight
was set up. I can’t imagine my brother betraying us; it doesn’t make any sense.”

Well, we agreed on that. A sharp pain slashed through my head with each steady beat of my heart. Ian was right, last night was wrong and it should’ve never happened. Now my head ached from all the events
, and I just wanted to sleep, but I couldn’t—especially not now.

Ian

I heard the shower and knew Es had gotten in. I laid back on the hotel bed and closed my eyes. We’d finally made it to Madrid and I was utterly exhausted. There was still no word on Jarak and my patience was running thin over the whole situation. Something wasn’t right; I knew something was off but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

I
came too close to losing Es again and that was what killed me the most. Maybe coming to Spain was the wrong idea. Heck, I wasn’t sure what the right idea was anymore.

A small knock on our door startled me from my thoughts. I jumped up and darted to the door. I wasn’t going to take any chances
, so I looked through the peephole first. I let my body relax when I saw Ailaina.

I opened the door and moved aside so she could come in. I looked out in the hall both ways
, making sure no breeds were staking us out before shutting it.

“I’m sorry. I know you probably wanted some time alone with Es, but I couldn’t stay in my room alone. I was go
ing to share it with Lauren and…”

I lifted my hand to cut her off. “Don’t worry about it. I understand. You
guys became good friends; it must be hard for you. Es is in the shower. She should be out any minute, but you know that a minute can be an hour when she’s in there, so you may as well get settled in. You can take that bed over there.”

“Hey, I heard that,” Es called from behind the bathroom door.

Ailaina smiled and let her bag fall off her shoulders to the floor at the end of the bed.  “Yeah, but he’s right.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle
; things seemed almost normal for the moment. My stomach grumbled so I checked my watch. “I’ll order some pizza.”

“
Mmm, sounds good. Hey, Es, hurry up or I’ll eat your half!” Ailaina flung herself on the bed, laying on her stomach, staring at the wallpaper.

I raised a brow. “Half? Maybe I should order two.”

“Ian,” Ailaina whispered. “Are they coming back? Will they find us?” She sat up and talked even quieter, “Is Es gonna die?”

“No. I won’t let her die.
Besides, you’d probably see that before any of us.” I nodded her way.

She twitched her mouth in thought then sighed.
“But they’re coming back huh.”

I let out a long breath and ran my hands through my hair.
“Yeah.”

“How long do you think we have?” Es said behind me. I hadn’t even noticed that she was out of the bathroom. Her hair was wrapped up in a towel on her head.

“Not sure, and since we’re all that’s left until your parents get here, I’m not sure we should do anything to provoke Nicholas.”

Es placed a hand on my shoulder. “We
’ll be okay, you know that, right?”

I took her hand and brought it to my lips, kissing her palm. “If something happens to you…” I couldn’t finish saying what I was thinking; it hurt too
much.

“I’d say get a room, but I’m already intruding in it, so I think I’ll just come out and tell you that you might want to see this.”

I turned away from Es to Ailaina, who now stood by the window. I strode over there and lifted the curtain enough to peek outside. We were on the third floor, so I could still see the busy road below us clearly. I carefully let the drape fall back into place. “Well, we’re not alone.”

Es’s eyes widened. “Is it Nicholas?”

I shook my head. “No, and I don’t think he knows exactly where we are yet, but he’s scouring the city. There are about five breeds walking around outside.”

“Es, sweetie, why don’t you get some rest? You look miserably tired,” Ailaina coaxed.
She was right. Es looked exhausted with dark circles under her eyes. Every time she blinked she fought to reopen them.

Es waved her arms out. “Oh, no, that’s exactly what he needs to find us. If I fall asleep
he will know where we are.”

I ran my hands up and down her arms. “You haven’t slept in
two days, you need your rest or you won’t be any good when we find Nicholas.”

“I can’t. You don’t understand. I’d give anything to sleep right now, but he’s there waiting for me. My dreams aren’t happ
y anymore, they’re sad and scary and real.”

“There’s got to be a way to block him from getting through to you that way. He’s wearing you down.”

She shivered. “I think that’s his plan. If I’m tired then I’m not as good because I can’t think as fast or as clearly, and my magic won’t be as strong.”

Ailaina plopped back down on her bed. “Have you been able to get through to your mom? Maybe she knows how to block him.”

Es folded her arms across her chest. “I’ve tried, but she’s still in the air, somewhere over the ocean. I just hope her flight goes better than ours did.”

I didn’t want to see her so upset
; it killed me that I couldn’t fix it all for her. “I’m sure she’s just fine. Nicholas is after you, not her.”

“That didn’t stop him when she was
pregnant with me.”

I wrapped my arms around her
, wishing she believed that I would do everything to protect her and wouldn’t let anything happen to her. I kissed the top of her head. “I know, but this time it’s different. You changed things when you woke up the witches.”

“Yeah, how can I forget. I made it so he needs my blood.
I can’t even do the stupid Reaping Spell. What kind of witch fails at a spell anyway?”

“Es
.” Ailaina jumped up from the bed. “You saved so many innocent people from Nicholas killing them. You did good. You guys will figure out the Reaping soon. Don’t worry about it until then.”

Someone pounded on the door
, making us all jump. “Esmerelda, it’s Dad, open up.”

Es ran from my arms to the door. I grabbed her hand before she opened it. “Wait, it could be a trick.” I pushed her back and looked through the peephole. I didn’t see either Torres or Adonia. “What the heck? Stay back, Es.”

“Why? What’s wrong? Where’s my mom?”

“Ailaina, keep her back.” I opened the door slowly, just enough to poke my head out and look around.
The hall was empty, but I noticed a light flicker at the end. Dregan appeared out in the hall and I could feel his anxiety.

“What do you think it is?”
I asked him in my head.

“It’s Hela, he said to show up and stay with you and Es.”

I closed the door but had no intention of actually staying in the room. Luna sat dutifully beside Es, who stood with her eyes wide on me. I ignored her gaze and looked at Luna. “Hela sent you too?”

“Yes, he said Es was in danger.”

“Ian, what’s going on?”

I came up close to her and grabbed her hands. “I want you to stay right here. I’m gonna go out in the hall and make sure Torres and Adonia are okay. Under no circumstances are you to leave this room.”

She started to speak but I placed a finger to her lips. “No, Es, not this time. You will stay.” I glanced over at Ailaina, whose face was ashen. “Keep her here.”

She nodded at me. “Sometimes you ask the impossible. Have you ever tried to restrain her before?”

I couldn’t help but smirk. “Yes, and I know what you mean, but do your best.”

“You both know I’
m right here, right?”

I gave Es a quick kiss on her forehead before heading out the door. I made sure to hear the click of the inside
deadbolt before taking off down the hall. Dregan ran right beside me.

Before I made it to the end of the hallway
, a body came around the corner and stopped inches from my feet. Dregan jumped on the man, and I squatted down as he ended him. It was a breed for sure. I’d have to come back later to finish him off, but this confirmed my suspicions that Torres probably needed my help.

I jumped up and darted around the corner
, where I saw Torres and Adonia fighting off three other breeds. I stopped to watch for a moment. They intrigued me; they fought well together, each movement anticipated by the other. They clearly had things under control, but all of my aggression from the past couple days pushed to the surface and I snapped. All I could see was red. They were here to kill Es, but I would die before I let anything happen to her.

I grabbed the closest breed from behind and twisted his neck. He fell to the ground in a slump.
I knew he wasn’t close to being dead, but he wouldn’t be moving for the moment while I helped the others.

“I thought you’d miss all the fun,” Torres called out as Hela jumped on the breed they were fighting, taking him to the floor. Torres grabbed a stake from
a hiding place at his back, under his shirt, and plunged it into the guy’s chest.

Torres reached
behind to his back and grabbed another stake, tossing it over to Adonia. She caught it without looking and pushed it into the breed, killing him without even blinking twice.

She stood up and flipped her red hair over her shoulder. Wiping her hands on her pants, she looked around. “Where’s Es?”

“I told her to stay put.” I pointed with my thumb over my shoulder.

Her brows rose. “And she listened to you?”

“Yeah, it’s hard to believe.” I squatted next to the man I took down, reaching behind my back and pulling out a stake from a hidden sheath under my shirt. I mused how Torres and I had the same preparedness. Never be without a stake, which was something I learned at an early age.

I finished killing the breed and helped Torres complete the jobs by removing their heads. Adonia cringed. “I have always hated this part,” she said as she picked up a head by the hair and held it
out. “At least with a real vamp they just disintegrate. You know breeds are made by a fool playing with dark magic since you have to disassemble them to actually kill them.”