Her Pact

Part 14

Chapter 14

Closing her eyes, she blocked out the world around her, the sound of Zeke’s breathing harshening, the eerie silence around her.  She blocked it all out.  Her training with blocking and sending her thoughts never began.  She never even had a crash course on how to talk to someone with her mind, but she remembered the first day she had arrived.  Ally had said that Charlie projected her thoughts, sent them to Ally without meaning too. 

Was it the same now?  Could Ally hear the thoughts streaming through her mind, see the panic flowing off her in waves?  Realizing that she was slowly losing her calm, she took a deep breath before letting it out.

“Ally, I need you.  I feel stupid, and you probably can’t even hear me, but your men are in trouble.”

Hair stood up on her arms, and she could feel someone pushing at her mind, someone trying to get in.  Charlie tried to let her guard down, drop the buffer that kept her from magic, but she couldn’t.  No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t allow the person access.  It didn’t seem to matter though.  A sharp pain struck her mind, making her cry out in pain. 

“I needed to do that.”

Ally’s words flowed through her mind as if she were the one thinking them.  It felt strangely natural, but she could feel her wall building once more, pushing her Queen away. 

“You don’t have much time,” Charlie warned.

“I have what I need.”

The connection was broken, leaving Charlie sitting there on her own without a clue of what to do.  The longer she sat there, the angrier she became.  How had she let herself become this?  How could she allow herself to be so useless, so clueless? 

Twigs snapped, and when she glanced up at saw Ally, she knew that the woman did it on purpose, did it to warn Charlie she was coming.  Ally shouldn’t have to warn her though; Charlie should know that someone was sneaking up on her. 

“Don’t be too hard on yourself,” Ally said, while sauntering towards Zeke’s prone body.  “I spent my life waiting for someone to sneak up on me.  You didn’t.  Different environments cause different traits.  Move.”

The abrupt change of subject threw her off, but when Ally made an impatient gesture, Charlie reluctantly stood, giving her spot by Zeke to Ally.  The woman reached down, pressed her hand to his temple.  A slow smile crossed Ally’s face before her expression blanked.  Her hand jerked back, her breathing was ragged.  “He’s fine,” she mumbled.  As she rose to her feet, she didn’t make a single glance in Zeke’s direction as she headed to the woods.

“Wait!” Charlie called out, standing to her feet.  When Ally didn’t stop her walk, only turned it into a run, Charlie had no choice but to follow her.  “Ally, wait!”

Still, the woman didn’t listen.  Charlie quickened her pace, but when Ally abruptly stopped and dropped to the ground, Charlie had to jump over the woman to keep from plowing into her.  Glancing back, she saw what had Ally’s attention. 

“Will he be okay?” Charlie asked, her voice breaking slightly. 

Ally didn’t bother glancing in her direction.  “He was further from the initial damage than the others, which means it isn’t an instant kill.”   Ally’s hand curled around the back of Adam’s neck.  She bent down, towards his neck, and Charlie couldn’t keep the question from flowing from her mouth.

“What are you doing?”

This time, Ally’s eyes snapped towards her.  They glowed a bright green, almost too bright.  Her fangs were elongated, as if she were reading for the kill.  “You see this,” Ally said, her teeth making it sound more like a growl.  Charlie followed her nod.  Blood trickled from Adam’s mouth, blood flowed from his nose, and blood was caked around his ears.  “That is blood.  He’s bleeding internally; he’s dying.  Now, if you would shut the hell up, I may have a chance to save him.”

Charlie opened her mouth again, but the glare on Ally’s face stopped her from voicing her question.  “I’m going to bind him,” Ally said, answering her unasked question.  She looked down at Adam and sighed.  “I’m going to bind him to me; it’s the only way to keep him alive.”

Charlie reached out, ready to pull Ally away from Adam, but Ally’s command kept her in her spot.  “Stay where you are, and do not move until I tell you to.”

As soon as she finished speaking, her teeth sunk into her wrist.  As she pressed it to his mouth, her head dipped.  Charlie’s view was obstructed, but it didn’t take a genius to find out that Ally bit the man’s neck, completing the transfer of blood, something that would tie Adam to her for the rest of their lives.

Ally pulled back, blood flowing down her mouth and hand.  Her eyes shot towards Charlie.  “You can move now,” she mumbled, with a smile.

“What have you done?” Charlie whispered.

The Queen shook her head.  “I’m not sure, but it was the only way.  I can’t let one of my men die because of me.  I can’t let them die because I let Zeke keep his secrets, because I let Zeke run things how he wanted.  The two of you shouldn’t have been out here in the first place, but Zeke didn’t listen to my order.”

A sinking feeling dropped to the pit of her stomach as Ally spoke.  “You ordered him to not let me leave the house, didn’t you?”

“Nothing so drastic,” she said with a laugh, while absentmindedly brushing a piece of hair from Adam’s face.  “I told him that if someone wanted to go on a run, they double up unless it’s you or any of the newcomers.  I wanted four guards, none of them mine, on you when your outdoors.”

Footsteps echoed in the woods, more than Charlie could count, and she knew that everyone that held Ally dear was about to arrive.  “Because we may leave?”

“No, because I knew this would happen; I knew that they would plan an attack on you as soon as they could.”

“Why me?”

Ally smiled, the bright red on her chin only making her look sinister in the shadowed woods.  “Because you are my secret weapon.”

Before Charlie could ask what Ally meant, shifters surrounded them.  This time, though, they were all allies, and they all looked at Ally in complete confusion.  Charlie almost felt bad for the woman, knowing that Ally would have to explain the details of the situation.  She didn’t need Charlie’s pity.  Ally rose to her feet, swaying slightly.  “Burn the bodies.  I don’t want anyone to know what happened here today besides all of you,” she told her closest guards and Sebastian.

They all nodded, taking off into different directions, all but Sebastian.  He walked towards his mate, worry deep on his face.  “How much blood did you lose?”

“You knew?” Charlie blurted.

He turned towards her, giving her an odd look.  “Of course.  Ally asked me before she did it.  I have to admit that the thought of her biting him didn’t go over to well with me, but the man has become a friend to me, someone I could count on.  When he needs us the most, why would I turn my back on him?”

Sebastian turned to Ally and wrapped her in his arms, giving Charlie his back.  The message was clear.  The King didn’t trust her, didn’t know her motives, and he would turn his back on her whenever the situation rose, but as Ally winked at her over his shoulder, Charlie knew that she had at least one half of the whole on her side.  Would that be enough though?  Would that be enough to keep her here, to finally allow her to finish the pact she had made, and maybe, just maybe, it would be enough time to find something more with a certain shifter that had gotten her into this mess in the first place.