Tracking Bad Blood
“Sweetheart, open your eyes, talk to me. Sweetheart.” He sounds anguished. His hands cupping my cheek.
My eyes feel so heavy. I'm so tired, even my heartbeat is slowing down.
“No! No, no, no, no. Open your eyes, Genesis!!! Look at me!!! I said look at me!!!! No, you don't get to leave me. Come on, sweetheart. Please, open your eyes.”
Crashing anguish, sadness, and desperation. I feel it. I do. I struggle to open my eyes.
“Please. I'm begging you...if you love me, you won't leave me. You promised me. Genesis!”
I love you. I want to say. I'm just so tired. That's all. Just let me sleep. Just one minute. Just one minute.
“Why isn't she healing???” he's desperately asking somebody.
I know why. “Hel… nalin...toxin,” I mumble heavily. I manage to open my eyes just a little bit.
Tears. My mate has tears in his eyes. Why? His beautiful silver-gray eyes turn black, then back again, then back to black.
So tired now. I'm drifting off.
“Helenalin Toxin?” Serena's voice. Too far away. “Phase into your lycan. Honey, phase into your lycan..” urges Serena desperately, gripping my hand tightly. She's getting further. “Tell her to phase! Constantine! Tell her to phase!”
“Sunshine, phase into your lycan. Please. Open your eyes. Look at me! Look at me!”
I'm so tired. They should let me sleep.
Intense misery, fear, grief, despair, and anger suddenly consume me like a floodgate of feelings being opened and I gasp. My eyes fly open. My mate.
My mate is bending over me. His eyes are black pools of rage, fear, and devastation.
“PHASE!” he orders.
Automatically, Ezra comes to the surface, and the pain starts to throb fiercely and burns more intensely than ever.
I'm screaming loudly as waves after waves of throbbing agony assault my whole body. My pack members are holding me down as I thrash about.
I want to get up and destroy and kill everything in my path. I want to rip apart everything and everyone who caused me this pain.
“That's it, sweetheart, stay in this shape. It will burn the poison faster,” Constantine whispers into my ear. His big hands are cradling my head.
“Let me go!!! Let me kill!” I scream until I blacked out.
***
It's dark. There's still a little tinge of orange glow on the horizon. There's a big roaring fire about fifty feet away from where I'm lying on the ground. I'm in a clearing in the middle of a forest with trees all around me. The smell of burning hair and flesh is strong and nauseating.
Two strong yet graceful figures are moving back and forth, laboriously and aggressively throwing broken bloody limbs into the fire. Caspian and Lazarus. My pack mates.
Everything comes back to me now. The nightmare. The anger. The pain.
The vicious pain I felt before is now a dull throbbing in my back, chest, stomach, and shoulder. The anger is now a raging inferno that keeps turning my vision red.
My eyes scan the area, searching for my mate.
On the other side of the clearing, I see him pacing the ground like a caged tiger. He is shirtless and his whole body is stiff with restrained fury. He is beautiful and dangerous. I realize suddenly that the rage I'm feeling now is mostly his.
“You're awake!” says Serena softly. She rushes over to envelope me in a vicious hug.
“What is he doing?” I cling to her arm to sit up. I find his shirt on the ground underneath my head.
We both look at Constantine.
“He's been doing that for a while now. He wants to kill whoever did this to you, yet he's unwilling to leave you.”
“Constantine,” I whisper. All of a sudden he stops pacing. He tilts his head to the side as if he's listening to the wind. He then turns his face towards me. All of a sudden, I feel the wind blows, and in a heartbeat, I'm in his warm, powerful arms. His face is buried in the crook of my shoulder.
I raise my arms to wind them around his neck and catch the sight of my hands. I'm covered in mostly dried blood. Goddess knows how I smell.
I weave my fingers through his dark, silky hair and tug at it, pulling his face away from my neck. Black shiny orbs are staring back at me. He's half lycan. He's holding on to his human form by a thread.
“Oh, Constantine, I love you,” I whisper to him. Those words I thought I'd never get the chance to say to him again.
His eyes change back to their silver-gray color.
“I love you. So much. I thought my life was over when ...” he doesn't finish the sentence. Black bleeds back into his eyes. Swallowing all whites and silver-gray. They look like shiny black onyx. He's powerful and dangerous and so full of rage.
I feel the changes in the wind and sense their presence behind me. Lazarus, Caspian, and Serena.
I'm still very weak, but this has got to be done. My lycan demands it. With one hand, I grip the back of Constantine's neck and held him tightly to me, while I stroke his cheek softly with the other.
“We have to find Milan. Now,” I state.
My mate growls viciously, and I tighten my hold on him.
“We suspected she was behind this,” snarls Caspian. His voice is different than normal.
I turn to look at my other pack mates, and they move in closer. They're in an aggressive stance. Three more pairs of shiny black eyes are staring back at me, and I realize my pack mates are still hungry for battle, especially after I confirmed their suspicion about Milan. None of them is looking much like a human now. Even Serena.
I can feel their fury. Sitting here in the middle of them in my human form feels like I'm sitting in the middle of a raging tornado. A maelstrom of dangerous and lethal power and rage.
I don't want them to unleash their wrath on just anybody. I need them to focus their anger and senses on getting Milan.
“But you're still weak,” Serena hisses. Her voice sounds cold and sinister, so different from her normal soft, caring, and melodious voice.
“She left no scent at all. Hard to track her down,” growls Lazarus. His frustration and rage are almost tangible.
“That's why we have to track her now. She leaves no scent of her own, but she had Logan's blood all over her. If we can follow that scent before it fades or she cleans up and gets far away, we'll have a better chance at finding her,” I explain.
“Then let's go find her,” says Lazarus.
Constantine slides an arm under my knee and another around my back and effortlessly lifts me up.
“You can leave me here. I'm slowing you down,” I tell him. I won't be able to run with them. I'm very weak. My body aches and the wounds throb still.
“You're never leaving my sight,” he growls, tightening his hold on me.
They then phase fully into their lycan form. Their bodies are so much bulkier and taller. Their eyes are jet black. The veins forming from their eyes sockets are now completely snaking around their whole bodies. Their eyebrows are thicker and more prominent. Their bigger and more powerful jaws are filled with sharp teeth and two very extended and deadly looking canines.
Unlike werewolves, even when fully phased, lycans walk on two feet. Our bodies, even though hairier than normal, are not fully covered with hair like werewolves. Our senses are heightened in our lycan form.
“The scent is faint, but it's still there,” hisses Lazarus, sniffing the air.
Constantine easily transfers me onto his back. I wrap my arms and legs around him and bury my face in the thick silkiness of his dark hair at the back of his head.
Lazarus leads the way. Once in a while, he stops to decide which way the wind blows and which way the scent really comes from.
We don't have to travel very far in the forest. The scent leads us to a small road, and it ends there. We conclude that she must have driven a car from that point on.
Knowing Milan, they decided to follow the road to the North since that would lead to the nearest civilization, instead of the hills and endless highways. They're careful to stay close to the trees, and they're very fast. I close my eyes and listen to the whooshing sound of the wind in my ears.
They run till we reach a small town. We are now out of the Shadow Geirolf Pack's territory. There's nothing much in this small town that I can see except for a small gas station, a convenience store, and an auto repair shop.
There are so many possibilities from that point onwards of where she would have gone to. Lazarus tells everybody to split up and sniff around.
I'm still on Constantine's back, and he's careful to stay in the shadows so that no humans can see us. Not many people are out and about. We're on one of the side streets, lined with small brick houses. Warm lights are coming from the windows of the houses.
“You can put me down. I think I can walk on my own now,” I whisper in his ear.
“I'm not letting you down. You're not going anywhere without me,” comes his gruff gravelly reply. Oh, for the love of everything fuzzy! Constantine in his lycan form is even more possessive than ever. I might end up being a monkey on his back forever. I'd be a chunky monkey from lack of exercises.
“Caspian found something,” he says suddenly, and we're off again.
We all meet Caspian near a diner. That reminds me of how hungry I am. He's standing in the shadows of the trees.
“I smell other lycans in this area,” explains Caspian.
“At least two others,” agrees Constantine.
“It could be her accomplices,” suggests Lazarus. It's probably not very normal for lycans to be in a place like this.
We follow the scent of the lycans. It leads us to a small run-down motel not too far from the town. I wouldn't believe that Milan would even step her foot in a place like this if it's not for the smell of Logan's blood. It is stronger here.
The motel is a single story building. The vacancy sign is in a tacky bright pink neon light at the front of the building. The sign above it simply says “Motel”.
We go through the back, trying not to be seen lurking around in our lycan form. We follow the scent to a room at the very end of the block.
The room is dark. We can't hear any sound of any movement or any voices coming from it either. Lazarus grabs the window by its frame and just tugs it off its hinges. Good thing this place isn't equipped with an alarm system.
Lazarus climbs quietly in through the window. He disappears inside for less than a minute before we get a signal to go in.
I'm disappointed to find the place to be empty. We turn on the light to find the place to be cleared of any belongings.
I glance around, caught the sight of myself in the mirror and almost fainted. I look like a character in a horror movie. My top is in tatters, and I'm covered in blood from head to toe.
We found Milan's Prada silk dress with blood in the big garbage bin just outside the door, but they're gone. They're gone.
“What now?” I sit on the bed, feeling dejected and very, very tired.
“Right now, I'm taking you home to get you something to eat and give you a hot bath,” answers Constantine.
I can feel their disappointment as well as my own. They are all back in their human forms now.
“But we can't let her get away,” I protest, close to tears. I remember what she said about making Constantine the next king and look at Caspian. It's not just me that I'm worried about.
Constantine sits right next to me and wraps his sinewy arms around my shoulders. His closeness is comforting. I thought I'd never feel this again.
“We'll find her, sweetheart. You know we won't rest until we find her, but right now you need to get some rest. You nearly...” His voice breaks and he doesn't finish the sentence. Instead, he kisses the top of my head and draws me closer to him. I glance up once again at Caspian then look down at my hands clasped firmly together on my lap.
“You don't understand! If we didn't find her on time, she's going to do something much worse,” I murmur. I blink my eyes rapidly to stop the tears.
“What's worse than killing you, sweetheart?” asks Constantine, scowling.
“I'm getting my men over here. They're on their way right now as we speak. We got their scent and we're going to track them right from here on. We're not stopping until we find her. The king has also been alerted about what's going on. He's sending his own men out as a reinforcement to get the job done,” explains Lazarus, trying to calm me down.
Caspian sits on the floor in front of me and takes my tightly clasped hands in his. “Tell me what is it that got you this upset, Red? I know attempts on your life wouldn't get you all ruffled up like this.”
Oh, I hate it when he calls me Red. I don't know whether to kick him in the nuts or hug him and tell him to be safe. Right now, I settle for just giving him a big scowl.
“You don't understand! She’s coming after you next!” I exclaim, looking at Caspian. “She's planning something worse. She's not going to stop until she gets the throne. She let her erasthai get killed because he was a human and she wanted to be queen. She wants to be queen next to Constantine. She's not going to stop.” My tears flow down my cheeks. I'm so very tired. Everything hurts.
I hear Constantine and Lazarus let out a few strings of curse words.
“So, you're worried that she's going to kill me??” exclaims Caspian. “Oh, Red.” He sighs, then he looks thoughtful for a second. “I knew you love me.” He suddenly grins, wiping a tear from my cheek with his thumb.
“Do you know that you look like you've just got dunked into a tankful of blood?” he asks, showing me his thumb that is now wet and red with my tears mixed with blood caking my cheek. “Or like in that movie. What was that called?” he adds, snapping his fingers. “Oh yes, Carrie!”
“Shut up, Caspian!”
How can he make a joke when I just told him his life might be in danger? Oh, he's beyond irritating!
***
“I think it's time for you to have a good bath,” suggests Serena, touching my hair. Yeah, I know my hair is stiff from dried blood. “I'm going to make you something to eat.”
I think it's almost midnight now and Duncan, our cook, has gone home. Serena, Constantine and I came home, while Lazarus and Caspian stay at the motel with their men to discuss their next move.
I wanted to go hunting with them, but I kept falling asleep in Constantine's arms even while waiting for the men to arrive. I felt kinda embarrassed to raise too much objection after that. Besides, their men who arrived, ten good-looking lycans, looked at me as if they just saw a living dead or a zombie or something. Sheesh! Try being poisoned, stabbed a few times, bitten, then kill a couple of rogues and almost died and still look like a runaway model. Ha!
I told Constantine that I'd rather take a warm shower rather than a bath. I don't want to sit in a tub of bloody water.
He starts the shower, rips my clothes off and sits me down on the granite bench in the shower. He washes me from head to toe. The water that swirls around before it goes into the drain is deep red.
I think I had fallen asleep while I was still in the shower. Next thing I know I'm being wrapped up in a thick, fluffy towel. I keep drifting in and out of consciousness.
Serena made me some soup. I think I had the soup. Somebody fed me the soup...maybe? Too sleepy to remember.
Then, I find myself lying in our warm, comfortable bed in Constantine's arms. This is my heaven.
“Sunshine, my sunshine... you're never leaving my side again.” He breathes. “I'll tie you to me if I have to.”
“I love you,” I whisper to him. My eyelids are already closing.
“I love you. You're my life. I've nothing to live for if you're...” He buries his face against my neck and inhales deeply. “I love you.”
***
“Sweetheart, hey...time to get up.” What? Is it morning already?
“Too tired. Don't wanna go to school,” I mumble sleepily. Gosh! I hate school. Why does it have to start so early?
I hear a deep chuckle. “Time to go hunting, my love.”
My eyelids flutter wide open.