Chapter Twenty
Wolf lends me every ounce of energy that she can. I've never run so fast in my life.
The werewolves are on either side of us, closing in, the rest coming up from behind. I can't go any faster than this with both of them on my back. And even if we get away from the werewolves, the vampires are out there too.
Run. Don't think. Run, Wolf chides.
But it's hard to think when I've got at least four werewolves all talking and growling in my head. They've got us. We're not going to get away.
Then the weight on my back is suddenly halved and I'm running even quicker. I turn back and see River has jumped off.
"He's gone! He jumped! He's gone!" the woman yells.
What the hell is he doing? He thinks he's going to slow them down? It's suicide. He can't take them on his own. He'll die and they'll still catch us. He'll die alone, like Julien. He died alone. He knew he was going to die. I can't let River go through that.
I stop and shift back so suddenly that the woman flips over my head and I go tumbling forward with her.
"You're going to leave me," she whimpers, grabbing hold of my shoulders.
I help her off the ground, and she acts as though my touch burns her.
"I can't," I yell. "I can't leave him! I won't run!"
The woman collapses to the ground and buries her face in her hands. There's nothing else I can say to her. I sprint back towards River, the voices in my head roaring about the binder that killed the others.
Tear the skin from his body!
Rip off his limbs!
Eat him alive!
They're screaming so loudly. They're almost there. We have to save him.
River stands just ahead of me, a werewolf charging towards him. I won't make it in time. Not on my human feet.
I need you, I say.
Wolf is there. She is me and then I am her. We race on four feet to him, already focused on the throat of the werewolf. We are there, latched on and sinking our teeth into him. I don't care anymore. It's kill or be killed. This is how the world is. I'll kill them all.
"Falon no!" River yells.
The werewolf squeals beneath us, but we bite down harder. There's a sharp pain in my back. Another werewolf is on top of us, trying to tear us off of the other's throat. We let go and grab hold of his front leg, swinging him into the one beneath us.
A reddish-colored werewolf is running for River.
Don't touch him! You touch him, you die! I scream at her.
You're not one of us! Get out of my head you bitch! she screams back, circling around River.
We make a run at her, snarling and growling and barring as many of our teeth at her as we can. She immediately backs off, and I move so that my side is touching River.
"Falon... It's over now," he says.
A werewolf with a blue stripe approaches with another four werewolves in tow. Cara.
Cara, she was human! She changed, but it wasn't our change! It's the fast male that almost got River. What is she?
I'm a soul binder! I yell.
You're not just a soul binder, Cara says, walking towards me.
We hunch low to the ground and bare our teeth again.
I am! I scream. Wolf is my soul! We're bound!
Your soul is a werewolf, Cara states.
I look down at our paws, the toes slightly longer than I know a wolf's to be. More fingerlike, like the werewolves'. And we're big. I know we're big. I just assumed Wolf is above average in size. I've never seen us in a mirror before. I have no idea what we look like. But I can't ignore the evidence in front of me.
The mind-speak. Garrick's reaction. The similarities.
Wolf is a werewolf's soul. River knows. Finn knows. Everyone knew but me.
Why didn't you tell me? I ask Wolf. Who were you? You were human too! Who were you!?
Everything I've known; who I am; what I am. It's all breaking down. Everything I thought I knew: destroyed.
Bring her to me, a voice bellows, and it courses through every part of my body.
Goosebumps erupt in it's wake. That voice is familiar.
All the werewolves flinch, some of them tuck their tails between their legs.
You want to see her? We should finish her here!
Bring her to me, it repeats.
Our mind is being pulled on. We suddenly have no desire to resist. We will go with them, go wherever the voice wants us to go.
Yes, sir, Cara says.
She growls at me as she approaches and, for a moment, Wolf and I feel the need to lay down at her feet.
We snap out of it and growl back.
You can try to take us. We're not going, I declare.
Cara circles around River and me. You don't have a choice, binder. I should put an end to you. Here and now. For all that you've done and the abomination that you are.
Try. I fucking dare you.
Wolf snarls to add to the sentiment. Cara doesn't hesitate. We almost don't turn in time to meet her when she lunges. She's small, but fast. Faster than us. But not by much. And what we lack in speed we make up for in pure strength.
Cara doesn't fight like the others. She runs in quick, biting and tearing at us, then dashes away to regroup and get on the defensive. Every time we attack she manages to dodge, then comes in from another angle.
Within minutes our back leg, right shoulder, and side are bloodied. We manage to grab hold of her muzzle, teeth biting into it to keep her jaws closed.
Some of the other werewolves step forward and Cara's growl reverberates through our mouth.
Stay back! She's mine! she yells.
We twist, turning her neck so far to the side that she has to turn on her side to keep it from snapping. Her paws scratch and push at our face, claws catching us in the eyes, but we ignore the pain.
She gives one last push, putting her back legs into it as well, then changes. We recoil from the sight, unsure of where to attack. The other werewolves step in, guarding her until she finishes changing. We charge at them and they snarl and snap at us. There's too many of them.
Cara walks out from behind them, naked and bleeding, four punctures around her mouth. Her eyes are ablaze, wide and angry.
"How dare you! How dare you pretend to be one of us! Whose soul was it? Whose soul did you take from us?" she yells. "Was it Garrick's? Did you steal it when you killed him? You and your bastard kind. Making our transformation look weak, stealing our forms! Stealing our souls!" Tears drip from her eyelashes.
I didn't take anyone's soul! Wolf has been with me my whole life!
"Liar!" Cara screams. She surges forwards, moving as if she was in her werewolf form: launching with her legs, lips pulled back over her teeth, the nails on her outstretched hands ready to dig in to me.
"Falon!" River points at something behind us.
We turn to look at him. The Asian man is behind me, another syringe in his hand. The needle is in my neck before I can bite his head off.
The edges around my eyes darken and blur. They darkness spreads. I can just barely see River running towards me before the Asian man thrusts his knee up into River's stomach. He falls. He reaches out to me. Then everything is black. Again.
Shit.