Love Lines

33: But You're Not Going To Win This Time

Chapter Thirty-Three

Being literally airborne for a few seconds was terrifying. I really thought I would blow away like you see in those movies with tornados. But thankfully, before I was lifted too high in the air, my very dark and hairy wolf came barreling through the wind storm and snagged my pant leg for the second time that night. My jeans couldn't possibly take much more of this as he whipped me around and pulled me into the cave as gently as possible. But as I came in for a landing on the cave floor, I caught a jagged rock to the shoulder. I winced and bit down on the exclamation of pain, not wanting to come off as a wuss. But at that point I was in a lot of pain and it was hard not to be.

Like a baseball player, I slid to a stop on the dirt when the wolf let go. He carried on a couple of steps further to lose momentum before sinking to the ground himself. He didn't look all that happy with the knife sticking out of his side but it was nice to know he was in here with us instead of out there with...him.

"Ow," I muttered, dropping my head to the dirt. Now my shoulder was throbbing along with my face and arm. This was just fantastic. The night couldn't get any worse than it had, surely.

"Tally," Cecil said it as a barely-there, relief-filled whisper but I heard it. The scraping of his shoes across the floor alerted me to his approach since it was pitch black now that the fire outside the cave and fence was put out by the wind. "Are you ok?"

He brushed the hair off my face, a few strands sticking to the blood that had dripped out of my mouth and I looked up where I imagined his head would be.

"Yeah. Just...I have ouchies." He helped me sit up and move over so I was resting against the cave wall. "What the hell is going on out there? It sounds like a tornado is landing."

"Someone released a tempest." He brushed his fingers across my cheek where Chris clocked me a couple of times. The injury, I imagined, would hurt like a bitch for a while. Cecil went over everything and by the time he touched the scratch on my throat, the tension in the air was palatable. How he was able to see all of it was beyond me. I could barely see his silhouette let alone any details.

"He got as good as he gave." I pulled his hand away from my throat, grazing a kiss across his knuckles to soften the blow. I may be feeling the physical injuries I received but the deeper ones, not to mention that image I'd seen as the knife was drawn away...I just didn't want to deal with yet. But I knew Cecil. He'd want to talk about it. He wasn't one to back down when it got difficult, his fight with the Gods and the argument he'd had with me the day of my mother's funeral proved that. He didn't lay down without a fight and working through what just happened was immediate whether I liked it or not.

Keeping a hold of his hand, I looked in the direction the wolf went, trying to stall as much as possible. "We should check on him. Chris got him pretty good in the side...maybe there's a flashlight in the bag Caroline gave me."

A clattering of metal against the stone rang through the cave followed by a growl. The wolf did not like being injured and who could blame him? I highly doubt in all his time of existing, he'd ever been hurt like that. At least not in the defense of someone else.

Instead of going to check on the wolf, Cecil settled down next to me and wrapped his arm around my shoulders in comfort.

"He'll be fine, I told you."

"But..."

"Werewolves heal fast. By the time he's back to being human, there won't be a mark on him. We'll just leave him alone for now. Wild animals are particular when they're wounded."

Another growl echoed through the cave and I knew it was in response to Cecil's comment about him being wild. For now I would let it go but later I would have to talk to him about the way he spoke about Andrzej both in and out of fur. Having them constantly at odds wasn't beneficial for anyone.