JAMES
James' skin bubbled. It fizzled like the surface of soda pop, tickling his skin numb. This time, when he resurfaced from the blur of visions, he didn't even think about leaving the bed. A stunt like that would earn him a first-class ticket to eating the floor.
Just barely, James opened his eyes, but he couldn't untwist his face. There was a flash of another vision, someone crying in the corner and James flinched. A whimper escaped his lips as his whole body tightened up, ready for another beating. He couldn't do it. He just couldn't. No more visions. They bludgeoned his head and bruised every inch of his brain. He was a pair of jeans thrown into the dryer one too many times and then, he was beaten with rocks, ripped up by scissors and thrown into a flaming pile of garbage.
"Are you awake?"
It was Elias again.
"Fuck off," James muttered. If he was forced to suffer, he'd rather do it in silence.
"I deserve that."
"You deserve my hands around your neck."
"That too."
James groaned, insanely annoyed by how agreeable this guy was being. He just wanted to shake him. Turning on his side, James could face Elias, who was leaning against the wall. He had his arms crossed as he bore holes into the ground. His blue eyes had their sparkle.
James sighed. "Haven't you done enough Elias? Just leave me alone."
They were quiet at first. Elias hadn't looked at James once since he woke up. He kept his eyes pinned to the side of the room. Chewing on a thought, Elias tightened his grip on his own arms. He finally said, "Back at the hotel, you assumed that I was a vampire. That's not true... I'm- I'm a werewolf." He shook his head. "Just not the usual kind with a pack and a family and a bond to the Moon."
"Is this your way of telling me you're a lone wolf?" James remarked, and Elias shook his head with a half-hearted laugh. Finally, he met James' eyes.
"Threatening to mark someone else's mate is a disgusting form of evil. It's not been my intention to pick sides. I just wanted to survive, like I've always done. I've been doing this job since I was a teenager. Back then, it made sense, but I... I can't do it anymore and I'm ready to retire, after one more job."
Quirking his brow, James found the strength to sit up. He shifted against the wall just, so he could dump all his weight there. He slumped. "Congrats. Why are you telling me this-?"
"How much do you have on you?" Elias said suddenly.
"Uh," James mumbled, reaching for his pocket. He named everything he felt, "I have my tic-tacs for kissing Eric and an old receipt for grocery store wine."
"You're an adult and that's all you have?" Elias huffed and swiftly turned around. He ran his hands through his hair, looking up to a God that may or may not be watching. All the other times, in different lighting, James could never put an age on Elias until now. He was a young man. It was his eyes that confused James. He had tired eyes, but in that moment, his baby face was showing.
"Help me anyways," James spoke up and pushed himself to the edge of the bed. Despite passing out, it was as if he hadn't slept in weeks. Every muscle in his body begged him to lie back down, but he fought it and took to his feet. All the weight in the world sat like a boulder on his back. "Start your new life now and help me just because it's the right thing to do."
James wasn't ready. His knees gave out, but Elias was there in a flash with a curse on his lips. "Dammit it. Dammit it all," Elias huffed and sat James back on the bed. Of all things, Elias chided James as he shrugged off his jacket. "I have an Oracle that can hardly stand with no shoes and a mate that'll probably kill me when he sees me and he says he wants a freebie."
It was all actually kind of amusing and James had to laugh as he slipped his arms into the sleeves. "Thank you," James whispered.
Elias' scowl only deepened. He grunted, "Don't thank me yet. Keep that smell of yours hidden until we get far enough away from this hell hole."
"Why?" James asked and Elias draped James across his back. James leaned into Elias, holding tight around his neck.
"How else do you expect Eric to find you?"
The mere mention of Eric's name warmed James' skin. He felt closer to being alive again. For just that small moment, James was basking in the sun. He was standing in front of the lake behind Eric's house, holding Eric's hand. Eric.
And then, reality came crashing back down on James and he thought, he might cry. Frost trickled into his veins and goosebumps riddled his body with a shudder. He held onto Elias just a bit tighter.
"Let's get out of here." James almost didn't manage to get out.
Elias agreed with a nod. Slowly, Elias opened the door and on the ground were two knocked-out wolves. James' jaw dropped. "You've been busy," he commented, but Elias didn't answer. Elias didn't have to. He must have disposed of them before he talked to James. The side of James' lips lifted. No matter what, Elias was always going to help him.
Instead of going down, Elias went another floor up. Now that James knew Elias was a wolf, James was hyper-aware of his racing heart. He held it in his throat. If this didn't work... If James got caught again... Well, Laurence didn't sound like he'd lie. James shuddered, feeling the pulse narrow-in on his neck. Just imagining Laurence's teeth sinking into his skin made James want to crawl out of it. From his toes to the tips of his fingers, James felt cold again.
The upstairs was less occupied. People seemed to be going downstairs and Elias moved without making a sound, slipping into rooms and becoming a statue as the other wolves walked by. He finally brought them to the back-guest rooms and onto a patio. The cold air struck James like thousands of needles and immediately, violently shuddered. He couldn't stop his whimper.
I'm so sick of being cold, he thought.
Elias climbed the balcony and warned James, "Hold on tight."
But James was already prepared. He had a death grip on Elias that could rival a finger trap. He ducked his head into Elias' shoulder and when Elias jumped, for a moment they were weightless and then, in the next second, James felt like a dumbbell and when they landed, he expected to find a crater. Elias landed with a hard thud. James jumped a little up his back, but Elias' hold on his legs was tight enough to keep him from falling.
"Okay," James nodded and a cloud of his breath billowed between his lips. "That was awesome."
"Save it for when we're back in the city," Elias said, but James could hear the little smirk on his lips. Just as he began to move forward towards what looked like an endless sea of trees, a howl erupted from the mansion. The cry was answered by more howls. With a curse, Elias started running and James' hold tightened.
James' held his breath without thinking. His heart slammed into his chest and the hits created waves through his limbs. The world felt like a white void. Fresh snow covered the ground without a single footprint or any sign of life. The gray trees were striking, their limbs were crooked like broken bones. They passed them in seconds, blurring by.
It didn't matter now.
James closed his eyes and released his smell. He didn't just let it leak, he released it like a tidal wave on the shore. His smell became a calling card with Eric's name all over it. "Find me," James whispered. His chest clenched as he couldn't shake the doubt that this could all end without a happy ending.
Glancing back, James peered through the storm and the frozen wind. James' heart dropped to his stomach. Behind them were a dozen wolves raging forward, all aimed at them. "Run faster," James begged, ducking his head down and bracing himself. On command, a growl rolled out of Elias' chest and his speed doubled. The force pulled James' skin back. It was stronger than if he put his hands out of a car window.
Still, the wolves' growls nipped at Elias' ankles. James' skin crawled, hearing their frothing jaws snap. His heart thumped faster than dragonfly wings and it only rattled his nerves more. Suddenly, Elias cried out and before James knew it, he was thrown upside down. His back found the ground instantly and he rolled across the snow into a tree. The snow, as it was knocked off its branches, doused on top of James' and he gasped. It soaked him to the bone and James shuddered violently, slapping the chunks of slush off his clothes.
His eyes snapped up as a flash of light consumed Elias. From it, appeared a white and gray wolf with the bluest eyes James had ever seen. Elias transformed in time to knock heads with a deep brown wolf with ratty hair and bright red eyes.
Shivering, James stood and held himself up by the trees. At this point, his feet were numb and swollen pink. Every stepped burned and James sucked in his lips, biting down a scream. He clenched the tree as two other wolves, light brown ones skidded to a stop. Elias, the wolf quickly turned and barreled into one of the smaller wolves. He knocked them clear into the air and into the branches of a tree. The tree tipped over with the wolf that tumbled and when their body finally stopped rolling, they didn't stand up.
"Run! James!" Elias' voice roared, a departure from his mortal tone. Behind the wolf's growl, there was just barely an echo of his voice. Not another second went by as Elias lunged for the dark wolf with his sharp teeth bared. He tried taking a bite out of that wolf's neck, but the dark wolf dodged, ducking its head and trying to lunge through Elias' legs, which knocked him over.
James gasped as the light brown wolf jumped on top of Elias. Elias lunged up, piercing his teeth into that wolf's neck. The wolf cried out with a devastated whine, but Elias' didn't let up. Elias' shook his head and only let go when the dark wolf snapped at him.
"RUN!" Elias shouted again.
It took everything James had to rip himself from that spot. He backed away at first, meeting Elias' eyes, but he managed to turn away. Stumbling into a run, James' world tilted slightly. There was no way he was running straight. He knew when he knocked his shoulder into a tree. He pushed off its bark, refusing to stop. James' breath labored to go on, but he had to keep going. How could he face Eric, if he couldn't say he tried everything to get back to him?
Rushing past him, a handful of all kinds of wolves eyed him. James gasped and snapped his head to the side for an escape, but they were surrounding him. He turned to run back when a wolf, that was larger than any James had ever seen, jumped into the air. It was the deepest color of red like wine like this wolf was blood spilled out of someone's veins. This wolf landed right on top of James, its paw pressed into James' chest and like thin wood, his rib cages threatened to break and splinter.
The wolf's breath flushed across his face as James became face to face with their sharp teeth. "I warned you," the wolf hissed and the weight of realizing this was Laurence nearly flattened James. He grabbed Laurence's leg, the one pinning him to the ground and desperately tried to pry him off. Laurence dragged his sandpaper tongue up James' neck to his ear and something inside of James quivered. "Now you're going to feel the power of my bite. What's it like to be matched with a real Alpha."
James felt Laurence's hot breath wash over his skin and James tensed up. He was ready for the pain. He was used to it by this point. He expected it. Laurence's drool slipped off his fangs and dropped on James, but suddenly, the weight disappeared. With a gust that washed over him, James could breathe again.
Wasting no time, James started crawling backward in the snow. He twisted his head around and a streak of black fur knocked Laurence into a tree, that quickly cracked and split and crashed into the snow. A black wolf stood tall, their shoulders heaving up and down, but their head was held high and their ears were forward.
James could recognize that wolf anywhere.
"Eric," James sighed and relief flooded his veins. James pressed himself against a tree as a horde of other wolves descended. They met the army of Black Timber wolves with a vengeance. Among them was Frances and a few vampires James sort of recognized, but James' eyes were pinned to Eric.
Just seeing him again...
It was indescribable, feeling the strength return to James' limbs. He could stand again and this time, he did not tremble. A piece returned to James because now, after all this time, James wasn't complete without him. He was twice as big. He was as strong and unbreakable as diamonds.
Laurence had no chance.
Author's Note
Bit of a shorter chapter! And I'm sorry about the wait, but I've been trying to move and that's basically taken over my life. Hopefully! I'll be able to relax and write soon! Until next time!
Remember to vote on the chapter! And tell me what you think, how did you like the escape (almost escape)? And hey! Eric is back (finally)!