Page 20 of The Healer and the Wolf, Part One

20

VANESSA

I t was hard to say whether hours or minutes passed. Time had no meaning whenever bullets were flying.

I’d have thought the sheer hail of ammunitions and screams would have summoned the cops by now, but then again, Chadwicke had probably chosen this compound precisely because it was so far from any police station. What was meant to protect Chadwicke had turned out to be his downfall.

I couldn’t believe he was already dead. That it had happened so fast. I’d expected him to be like the evil, final boss in a video game, but he’d been the second one out of the game.

I supposed I really had been na?ve, that my idealistic thoughts about justice and the like had been just that: na?ve.

Oh, well, nothing I could do about it now. I would say live and learn, but hopefully I would never be in such a position again. I’d had my fill of action and espionage. I wanted to get back to my old life.

I hid the last group of staff in an old supply room, then looked out the window. I wanted to go to the party, but most of the guests were either gone or hiding. As much as Rosette’s face lingered in my mind, I couldn’t risk going into the active battlefield where the last holdouts of the security were fighting Leo. It tore at my heart, but I had to be realistic.

God, Leo.

That beautiful coat of his was pure red, blood flying off him whenever he moved. His healing ability astounded me. Why hadn’t it worked that day I found him in the forest? Had it been his curse? Or had those bears done such a number on him that it was beyond whatever magic he had inside him?

I’d ask him later if I remembered. If we both survived.

Since everyone was distracted, it would be the perfect time to make my way to the zoo and see if I could find Ricky.

After one more moment to gather myself, I trudged to where I thought the zoo was. I hadn’t been able to get inside since I didn’t “have the credentials”, but from what I could tell it, was more akin to a small, exotic petting zoo than anything official like in the city. It certainly wasn’t AZA accredited.

I’d grown so used to the sounds of battle, they had largely faded to background noise by the time I actually reached the front of the zoo. There was a guard station, but unsurprisingly, it was abandoned. Its staff were either dead or currently fighting Leo.

I hurried inside and headed toward the control room. At least, I hoped it was a control room. The bars of the enclosure were quite thick. There was no way I’d be able to break it open, and since I didn’t have a key, some sort of electronic lock was my best bet.

Thankfully, that door wasn’t locked, and I stepped into a room filled with tons of screens, display panels, and potentially a million and one buttons. All the buttons were labeled with abbreviations or messy handwriting I could hardly make out. Whoever had written it could have had a great career in medicine writing prescriptions.

I looked through all the camera feeds, but I didn’t have to get far before I found a wolf. I had no way of knowing if that was Ricky, so I carted through all the rest of the screens, and sure enough, he was the only one of his kind.

He looked so sad, so defeated, as he lay motionless on the ground. If it weren’t for the slow rise and fall of his flank, I would have thought he was dead.

But what if it was just a regular wolf with improper enrichment or stimulation, and Ricky wasn’t here? Now Chadwicke was dead, we couldn’t exactly question him on the whereabouts of Leo’s beta.

There was only one way to find out. I had to figure out how to unlock the enclosure and get to the wolf.

The important buttons would probably be red or something else noticeable. Their labels were more likely to have exclamation points in them. So, those were the buttons I pressed, watching the screens to see if anything changed. When I pressed one button, the console let out an alarming little beep, and an artificial voice began talking to me.

“ Warning, you are about to release the locking mechanism of exhibit C. Do you wish to continue?”

“Yes!” I answered quite emphatically, feeling like I had definitely gotten lucky. Nothing happened. Damn it, I’d have to find another button.

Nothing could ever be simple.

Scanning the entire console, I found three color-coded buttons clustered together: one green, one red with an X one it, and one yellow with an arrow pointing to the left. Were we going by ATM rules?

There were stranger things in life, so I hit the green button.

“ Lock for exhibit C disabled .”

Had I really done it? Looking back to the screens, I saw the wolf hadn’t moved at all. Either he was unaware the door had unlocked, or it hadn’t. Guess I had to go check.

As I hurried out of the control room, I made a mental note to call some rehabilitation centers and tip them off about abandoned zoo animals. Perhaps the authorities would take proper care of them when they showed up, but I didn’t trust them as far as I could throw them. At least if there were animal experts around, it was less likely the cops would accidentally gun down any caged animals in self-defense .

I wished I could free them, but from what I’d read about animals, they’d either die in the wild or attack each other immediately and never actually leave the estate, or heaven forbid, end up hurting an innocent as they fled in terror. So, now I needed to be patient and send help when it was safer.

That would have to wait, though, because my priority was Ricky, and only Ricky.

It didn’t take me long to reach the wolf’s cell—it was far too meager to call it an exhibit. Practically holding my breath, I went to the door, placing my hand on the cold bars and giving it a determined push. Sure enough, it opened. I paused for a beat, thinking how best to approach a very confused wolf.

That turned out to be a mistake on my part.

Suddenly, the nearly lifeless wolf was on his feet and lunging toward me, his teeth bared in a vicious snarl. Belatedly, I realized that just because Leo was kind to me when I had first run into him didn’t mean that Ricky would necessarily be.

Shit.

It would be quite ironic if I had managed to survive so much of the vicious battle outside just to be ripped to pieces by Leo’s righthand man. But I couldn’t run, and I couldn’t fight off a wolf shifter, so what was left for me to do?

Survive.

My body moved entirely on instinct. I brought my forearm up and shoved it into the starving wolf’s mouth. I screamed as he bit down, and for a moment I was sure he would tear my arm clean off. What was I supposed to do in such a situation? I was smaller, weaker, and not magical, despite what that stupid warlock had thought. Did I just lie back and accept the fact I was about to be mauled by the very person I had risked my life to save? What a stupid way to die.

That’s when Leo’s words echoed in my mind from that very wonderful and informative conversation we’d had over breakfast in bed.

If Ricky was here, I’m sure you could break his curse, too.

Well, maybe that wasn’t it word for word. I remembered thinking it was preposterous at the time. After all, I hadn’t broken Leo’s curse. That had been mere coincidence. But now? Well, I suppose this was the perfect time for that sort of Hail Mary.

Despite the fact I could feel the wolf’s massive teeth tearing through my tendons and sinking down to the bone, I stopped screaming long enough to close my mouth and press a kiss to his dry, cracked nose.

The force in my arm let go as I was enveloped by an explosion of steam and fur, my vision completely obscured. I took the opportunity to crawl away until my back hit the bars of the enclosure, the door a few feet farther to my right.

My first instinct was to run, but I tamped that down and focused on ripping off one of my sleeves and hurriedly wrapping it around the bite wound in my arm.

I nearly blacked out from the effort, but somehow, I managed to tie a knot with my other hand and my teeth. When I looked up, there was no sign of the giant wolf, no steam, no fur.

A filthy, haggard-looking man was on his knees, an utterly shocked expression on his features. He let out a startled sound, barely even human, and quickly crab-walked backward. I wasn’t surprised—Leo had been kinda the same when he’d regained his human form.

Still, relief washed over me. Somehow, despite all odds, I’d found the first member of Leo’s pack. He’d have a family again.

“Hey there,” I said, speaking softly as I slowly, slowly raised my hands. “I’m a friend of Leo’s. I’m here to help.”

At that, his look of shock turned into one of awe. “L-L-Leo?” he sputtered, his voice gravely from disuse.

“Yeah, Leo. I’m his friend. I’ve come to take you home.”

The man continued to stare at me, and for a moment, I worried he’d have a hard time to comprehend the situation, but then he nodded and got to his feet, swaying slightly.

“Hurt?” he asked, casting a guilty look at my arm.

It hurt like an absolute bitch, and I was dizzy enough that was I afraid I might pass out, but I wasn’t about to admit that to him. He had enough on his plate, and besides, it wasn’t his fault. As far as I was concerned, everything was Chadwicke’s fault, may he Rest in Piss.

“I’ll be fine,” I said, using my uninjured arm to push myself up. I was unsteady, but not so much so that it would stop me from getting us the hell out of Dodge. “Come on, we can help each other along.”

He watched me warily but eventually took my hand. With our arms over the other’s shoulders, we slowly made our way the entrance of the zoo.

But we had hardly even left the abandoned guard area at the front when I saw a staff member sprinting toward us. Sighing internally, I prepared myself for a fight, but I hoped they would be friend rather than foe. After all, everyone who wasn’t security had been pretty receptive to me all night. Granted, none of those people had been sprinting toward me at full speed with a look of determination in their eyes.

To my immense relief, they skidded to a stop a few feet in front of us to catch their breath. I doubted someone who was about to throw down with us would do that.

“You’re the wolf!” she exclaimed once they had caught a bit of their breath.

We both nodded, and a wide grin broke out across her features.

“I don’t know how you’re here, but thank God! Things have really gone to hell. I’ve been wanting to get out of the contract that asshole tricked my family into for ages.” Her bright blue eyes landed on me. “Do I have you to thank for all of this?”

I wasn’t quite sure how much I wanted to reveal about Leo to this stranger. There was always a chance she was tricking me. “I had help.”

“Ah, I suppose that’s the feral wolf out front who’s handing the entire security force their own asses?” Another nod from me, and the woman’s grin spread from ear to ear. “I thought as much. Here, let me help with him. I pulled a truck up in case I could find anyone else who needed help splitting. I can lead you to it.”

The prudent thing would have been to remain suspicious and tell her to buzz off, but I wasn’t exactly in a position where I could refuse allies. Besides, it wasn’t that hard to believe that the insidious warlock had entrapped multiple people. That was the whole reason why I hadn’t wanted to go in guns blazing in the first place. It would have been so easy for the young woman in front of me to end up dead when she had done nothing wrong. Allegedly.

Still, I needed the help, so I let her take over with Ricky.

His legs were shaking, and his body was so frail.

Leo had been wounded when I’d met him, but otherwise, he’d been in good health. That was not the case with Ricky. Poor guy. Already, I was thinking of different ways to help him get back to normal. Maybe that was a bit ridiculous, but it helped me deal with the impossible storm of pain I was trying to ignore.

I had expected the sound of battle to have faded, because how many security guards could there be? But it was still going, although there was less gunfire and more hellish noises I couldn’t identify.

I ignored it and focused on getting to the truck. The compost truck I had used earlier was pulled a few yards or so behind the manor. We limped over to it, and once Ricky was safely inside, the stranger tossed me the keys.

“Do you mind driving? I figure I should keep my hands free in case it comes down to a fight.” She grinned, not too differently from Chadwicke, but her teeth were a whole lot pointier, and her eyes had started to tinge yellow.

“No, I don’t mind.”

Still a bit dazed, I got into the truck and put the keys in the ignition. We were so close to leaving, and the reality of everything hit me all at once.

“I can’t leave him,” I said, more to myself than anyone else.

“Huh? Your friend is right here in the back, don’t worry. I’ve got him.”

I shook my head. “No, I can’t leave Leo.”

“Leo? Are you talking about your insane battle tank? He’ll be fine, I promise.”

“There’s no way you could know that.”

I pressed my foot down on the gas, and the truck lurched forward as I drove through a fence and over the garden display that me and several other staff members had spent the past week working on. It broke my heart a little, but Leo was more important. I careened around the side of the estate, aiming for the party area.

“Whoa, slow down. Are you crazy? The exit is the other way!”

“We’re not leaving him.”

My arm was throbbing, my entire body hurt, and my adrenaline was through the roof, but somehow my voice remained steady. My entire focus was on making sure Leo was all right.

When I rounded the corner, I expected to see more blood and Leo tearing people limb from limb. That wasn’t what was waiting for me, however. Instead, my best friend and current nightmare was facing off with none other than…

Chadwicke?!

“How is he even alive?” I blurted, slamming on the brakes. Surely I was hallucinating?

“Did you think he was dead?” The strange shifter mused, sounding surprisingly unfazed. “Yeah, he’s one lucky son of a bitch.”

“I saw Leo ripping his throat out! There’s no way he could have survived that!”

“Now, that’s where you’re wrong. Like I said, he’s lucky. It’s his bread and butter.”

“That doesn’t?—”

She put her hand on my shoulder. “ Luck is literally his magic. He has a pact with some spirit or something who deals with probability and chance. He can manipulate the fabric of reality to skew to impossible odds. And that’s on top of all the other natural stuff most witches can do.”

“Luck isn’t a power.”

“Oh, I assure you, it most certainly is.”

I was gobsmacked. The man I’d very much watched die right in front of me was currently sending Leo flying into a table, the decorations that had been so neatly piled on top of scattering in a thousand different directions.

Ricky leaned forward, one of his slender, dirt-caked hands reaching between the front seats to point at the warlock.

“ Him, ” he growled, voice barely more than a breath. “ Chadwicke .”

That somehow seemed more like a warning than an accusation, and I followed his pointer finger to see what looked like a spell circle beginning to glow beneath Leo as he tried to pick himself up from the splinter remains of the table.

No.

Fucking.

Way.

Something unlocked deep inside me, and I hit the gas again. I reacted without thinking, my body making decisions before my mind could catch up, but I was at peace with it as the truck shot forward.

Chadwicke, bastard that he was, barely had time to look over his shoulder before we collided with him at full force, sending him sailing even farther than he’d managed to fling Leo. Never one to miss an opportunity, the alpha jumped on top of Chadwicke before he could recover and tore into him.

This time there was no chance he was surviving. Not with his guts lying scattered in bits around him, and his heart in Leo’s mouth.

Holy shit.

I had just killed someone.

While I may not have struck the final blow, it wouldn’t have happened without me. In fact, I was downright instrumental to the warlock’s demise. Maybe Leo would have accomplished it on his own, maybe not. Who knew what spell Chadwicke had been summoning?

It was like the entire world had gone quiet. I knew there would be a lot of repercussions for what I had just done, but now wasn’t the time to contemplate that.

I rolled down the window. “Leo, get in the truck!”

With no hands to speak of, and probably not enough time to shift, Leo bounded over the truck and jumped into the back. At least this time he probably wouldn’t be able to smell the compost over all the blood coating him.

Finally, with both Ricky and Leo safe, along with our new ally, I peeled off toward the exit.

One brother down. Four more to go.