“Every full moon they go insane and you keep them with you?” I asked and Isabeau glared at me.
“They were locked up on full moons. Well, they were until you were born.”
“What?”
“Your father was a gypsy and when he lost his gypsy blood he forgot many things, but not that we are vulnerable on nights with a full moon. We’re forced to allow two to three werewolves to remain free to guard our land from the Baobhans. They won’t leave our land because they won’t leave their pack.”
I glared back at her. “Yes, clearly my being born made all this happen.”
“I didn’t mean that,” Isabeau said but I didn’t pay any attention to her because I heard a familiar whooshing sound that made my fingers grow cold.
“Which one is she?” Came that horrible echoing voice.
Isabeau and I both turned around still holding onto one another and faced toward the gazebo. Two men were coming toward us. They looked like regular men in this light, except for their black eyes. If it weren’t for that echoing voice I might not have known they were black Siths. There was blood on their faces, around their mouths.
Did they kill Brynn?
“Come on.” I hadn’t realized that Isabeau was pulling me. Two more came out of the gazebo, and I could see a bloodied heap of fur inside and on the floorboards of the gazebo. “Duncan?” Isabeau stopped pulling me when she saw it too.
Was it Nicholas? Was it Toryn?
“See her eyes?” One of the black Siths pointed at me. They were all around us. “Just like her father’s eyes.” Isabeau cut herself and then hugged me. The black Siths started hissing, their teeth grew long and they stopped looking at me.
“The werewolves will come when they smell spilled gypsy blood,” Isabeau said into my ear. The blood from the deep scratch was soaking into the stomach of my sweatshirt.
“Won’t the werewolves kill us all?”
She was shaking as much as I was. “They’ll pick their natural enemy first, the Siths.”
“The Siths want your blood, Isabeau.”
“They’re not sure which of us is Seraph’s daughter.”
I looked at her as her words filtered in past my fear. “Seraph’s daughter?”
The giant werewolves came out of nowhere and were drawing the black Siths attention away from us. The black Siths piled onto a huge black werewolf I was sure was Nicholas. The other werewolf was brown like Toryn’s sandy colored hair and it was covered in black Siths too. Isabeau was pulling me away toward the houses again. The brown werewolf fell, and I screamed out.
“We have to get you to safety.”
“Where are the other werewolves?” She stopped pulling me. “This way.” We raced through the dark. I stayed with Isabeau though she was faster than me by a long shot. I saw her hop but I didn’t see the six inch tall metal rim sticking up out of the ground and tripped onto Isabeau, making us both fall onto the metal cage trap door in the earth.
The werewolves were going insane down there. They rammed the door and tried to get at us through the small openings of the cage door. We got up quickly. We could still hear the battle between the Siths and the two werewolves. “They’ll probably kill us when we open it,” Isabeau said. One of the werewolves in battle moaned a sound of terrible pain.
“Let’s do it.” I slid the bars out of the slots, as did Isabeau. When we freed the last one the door flew open and Isabeau was pinned beneath it. I held my breath lying on my back where I had landed several feet away. Werewolves shot past me. I didn’t move until I was sure they were all gone. The cage door was still on top of Isabeau.
I scrambled to my feet and grabbed the door. It wasn’t budging. Isabeau wasn’t moving beneath the weight of the door. I couldn’t tell if she could breathe. Her eyes were closed.
“What do I do?” I lay down and tried to push it up with the strength of my legs. It didn’t work. I got onto my hands and knees. “Isabeau, wake up. Help me. You’ve got to move,” I pleaded, tapping the knee that was sticking out. I thought I heard her make a noise. “Come on help me get you out.” The earth seemed to be opening up beneath her. She was sinking.
I grabbed her leg thinking she was going to be swallowed up but suddenly she was sucking in air and coughing. “Help me push,” I told her when she looked at me. The sounds of battle behind me were gone. “Hurry.” She strained against the gate. I stood up and lifted with my legs. The gate was rising.
As soon as Isabeau started to shimmy out she stopped helping me support the weight. I cut into my lower lip with my teeth trying to keep it from crashing down on her. “Help me.” She pushed it as she climbed out, and I heard growling behind us as I dropped the door. Isabeau was out and clutching her side.
They towered above us. Isabeau wouldn’t look at them, and I wasn’t sure if that was because she was afraid or because they wouldn’t like it. We could not out run them. None of them were coming at us yet.
Would they let us go?
“They’re waiting for the alpha to come. Then they are going to kill us for trespassing.” The werewolves all were parting, and I knew the alpha was coming forward and I looked around praying for a way out.
“When I count to three we are going to grab the trap door and drop down into that underground cage.”
Isabeau stepped back slowly. “We’ll never make it.”
“One, two-” They were crouching.
“Piper!”
“Three!” We grabbed the heavy gate and pulled it with everything we had. I was still hanging from it when it banged shut. I reached through and slid one of the bar locks in place but was not fast enough to pull it back unscathed. One of the werewolves had been trying to dig through the door and my right hand was bloodied and felt as though someone had shoveled out a piece of it.
I ripped my sweatshirt’s right sleeve off and then tied my bleeding hand. Isabeau watched me. She wasn’t talking or reacting to the frenzy above ground still going on. They were digging trying to find a way in to get us. I felt like I was trapped inside a terrible nightmare. Any second they would break in and we’d be ripped to shreds.
“I’m sorry I drug you out here, Isabeau.” She didn’t respond, and I didn’t know for sure if she could hear me over the sounds the werewolves were making. Looking around the huge cage room, I found that that was all it was. There was no sink or bathroom.
We waited, and no one came.
Once I finally stopped bleeding most of the werewolves lost interest in trying to kill us but did not leave the perimeter. No one came looking for us. They probably thought we were asleep in our rooms. The night was not quick in its passing. Isabeau eventually broke her silence to sob uncontrollably. I did my best to comfort her but nothing I said helped her or got through to her.
I knew why she was crying, it was the heap of fur in the gazebo. It wasn’t Nicholas or Toryn. I had spotted them trying to come into our cage to kill us. I had not forgotten how I felt when I had believed it might have been Nicholas or Toryn. I didn’t know Duncan very well but when I had seen him he had been so polite and sweet. I had seen Isabeau with him and seen how much they loved each other.
The sorrow was so strong in Isabeau that I couldn’t help but cry with her. We cried ourselves to exhaustion. I was still supporting Isabeau’s weight when I heard the bar lock slide out. The trap door opened with a metal yawn. By the time I got to my feet. Nicholas dropped in and the early morning sunlight with him.
He had dried blood caked on the left side of his torso. His eyes traveled up and down my body before he reached for me. I didn’t mean to flinch, but I did. Nicholas didn’t miss it, but he grabbed me anyway and pulled me into his embrace.
He kissed me with desperation and force. I could feel the fear he had radiating from him.
Toryn dropped in next and didn’t look any better off than Nicholas. He watched as Nicholas picked me up and carried me in his arms. “Get Isabeau,” Nicholas commanded and Toryn obeyed. Nicho
las jumped out of the deep cage and landed on the surface. The pack stood with their faces averted and there was no more hoping to be had. I knew then that Duncan was dead.
Nicholas and Toryn moved across the land as though it were catapulting them toward the big house. There were many members of the clan waiting, standing outside of the house. Most of them were crying. Brea grabbed Isabeau from Toryn and squeezed her to her breast crying. She prayed aloud, thanking God for preserving her baby.
They were ushered away immediately upon Isabeau’s non-responsiveness. Nicholas set me down in front of Seraph. Her face was wet and her eyes were red. “Why did you venture out of the house last night?” I stared at her thinking, this woman is my mother.
The queen of the gypsies had sold me away when she had a compound of safety around herself. Those creatures that had killed Duncan last night had been free to find me for years.
“Answer me.” More tears spilled from her angry eyes. “You left the safety of this house when you were told not to do so. Why didn’t you listen to Nicholas?”
I looked at Nicholas and inadvertently at Toryn as well. Most of the clan was still present and they were all waiting to hear what I would say. I straightened my back and faced Seraph. “Brynn told me that she was meeting Nicholas at the gazebo. I wanted to see if it was true for myself.”
“Brynn?” Seraph’s gaze found her instantly in the crowd as Brynn came to stand beside me in between Nicholas and myself. “Is what Kellan said true?”
“I said we secretly met at the gazebo. I did not tell her I was meeting him last night.” She turned toward me. “I am truly sorry you misunderstood me.” She looked at Nicholas. “I’m sorry I broke my promise in keeping our secret.”
Nicholas didn’t argue or protest so I jumped in. “I did not misunderstand you Brynn, and you know it. You said that we could go and confront him together but I didn’t trust you enough to go with you so I asked Isabeau to go with me.” I looked at Seraph. “Isabeau didn’t realize there was a full moon until it was too late. I didn’t mean to endanger her.”
“Did anyone else hear her say this to you?”
“No.”
Seraph turned her angry piercing gaze on Nicholas. “You have been meeting Brynn in secret?”
“I have not met with her once since Piper has arrived. It was only one-”
“And this one meeting consisted of what?”
“Brynn wanted me to forgive her for betraying me.”
Seraph looked from Brynn and back to him. “Then why was it secret?”
Nicholas stiffened and lowered his gaze. “I find it shameful that I wanted to speak with her after her betrayal. It is shameful that I cared at all why she did what she did.”
“Brynn?” I looked at her too when Seraph called on her. “Is this the truth? Was there more to your secret meeting than revealed here?” She glared at me and I back at her. I wanted to rip her apart.
“I dare not speak against what the alpha has said. I choose punishment in lieu of speaking against the alpha.” She looked at Nicholas. “My love.”
My insides were drenched in jealousy. Looking around I grabbed the first thing I saw, a broken discarded plastic kids sand bucket and hit her in the face with it. Gasps and low volume laughter traveled through the clan.
I stood there with the bucket smiling at her insulted expression and didn’t care what the consequences would be.