Chapter Thirteen

 

Whisper managed to grab Violet’s arm as the crazed woman tried to dart out from behind the crate, but her grip wasn’t very secure and Violet managed to shake her off within seconds.

“Shit,” Whisper said as Violet ran to the back door, clawing at it like some sort of rabid animal. To open the door, Violet would have to remove the security beams Axel had put across the door, but in her delirious state, Violet seemed unable to comprehend this. Luckily, Violet’s confusion gave Whisper time to run up to her and catch her by the arm again.

“Come on, Violet! You shouldn’t be standing out in the open.”

In response, Violet turned around and bit Whisper, sinking her teeth hard into Whisper’s hand.

“Ow!” Whisper jumped back, anger flooding her. “What the hell, Violet! Axel and I help you and this is how you repay us? By biting me?”

Violet didn’t answer. She kept clawing at the door, and Whisper let out a long, exasperated sigh. Violet was out of her mind with panic. It wasn’t exactly fair of Whisper to hold her responsible for her actions at the moment, so Whisper gritted her teeth and tried again, this time using niceness tactics instead of force.

“Violet, please come with me behind the crates,” Whisper said in the sweetest, most soothing tone she could manage. But the sweet-talking method had no effect. Violet screamed again and pounded at the door, like an animal trapped in a cage. Whisper was at a loss. She couldn’t just leave Violet out here. It wasn’t safe to be out in the open like this, especially when Violet was as delirious with fright as she was right now. But if Whisper couldn’t move Violet by persuasion or by force, what was she supposed to do?

Whisper decided the only option she had was to knock Violet out, then drag her unconscious form the few feet back to their hiding place. It wasn’t ideal, but it would have to do for now. Whisper pulled her arm back with her fist clenched, and then swung forward as hard as she could toward Violet’s head, intending to punch the living daylights out of her. But instead of Violet’s head, her fist met the hard, unforgiving wood of the back door.

“Ow! What the…” Whisper pulled her fist back toward herself and inspected it, hoping that she hadn’t broken any of her knuckles. Then she spun around, trying to understand how Violet had disappeared into thin air. To her horror, she caught a glimpse of Violet running out of the back room and toward the front of the bar.

“Violet! Come back!”

Of course, Violet ignored her. Violet must have turned and decided to flee the back room at the exact moment before Whisper’s fist would have run into her. Now, the crazed woman was running straight into the thick of the battle.

“So much for lying low,” Whisper muttered, then ran after her.

Whisper never even considered staying behind and letting Violet face her own fate. Violet hadn’t been very nice to her, and Violet had tried her best to steal Axel, that was true. None of Violet’s actions exactly screamed out, “I’m worth rescuing.” But for Whisper, it didn’t matter. Any shifter, no matter how rude they had acted, deserved saving. No one deserved to be hurt or killed at the hands of the Gilt Hollow attackers just for being a shifter.

And so, Whisper chased after Violet, muttering curses and then coughing deeply as the smoke from the front of the bar quickly filled her nose and mouth. Things were so hazy up here that Whisper had a hard time keeping an eye on Whisper, and an impossible time trying to locate Axel. She’d been hoping to catch a glimpse of him and get some reassurance that he was alright, but unless she accidentally ended up within two feet of him, she had no chance of seeing him.

Violet kept running, so fast that Whisper had trouble staying close enough to not lose her. The smoke, blood, and noise in the front of the bar must have spooked Violet even more than she already was, and before Whisper knew it Violet had reached the front door and was running out into the open. Whisper hesitated at the door.

She didn’t want to leave Axel behind. What if he needed her help in the middle of the fight? But even as Whisper asked herself that question, she knew what Axel would want her to do. If he could assess the situation, he’d tell her that he was well able to take care of herself, and that it wasn’t right to leave Violet on her own and helpless. Because really, that’s what Violet was right now. Helpless.

Whisper wanted to make Axel proud, and she knew that saving Violet would accomplish that. Besides, she had vowed to herself to protect all of Bear Hollow during this fight, and that included Violet.

I hope I’m making the right choice. Whisper ran down the street after Violet, praying the whole time that Axel really would be able to take care of himself. Searching for him in the smoky bar would be a fruitless effort, anyway. Out here, where the smoke didn’t hang so heavy, she could see much clearer. And she could see Violet ahead still, running down the street in such a strange, zigzag pattern that she looked drunk.

With a roar, Whisper began shifting into bear form. It was time for her to join the fight, ready or not. The streets here had cleared out somewhat, other than the dead bodies that lay around. But up ahead, the fighting continued. Roars of anger came from both shifters and Gilt Hollow attackers. Some of the Gilt Hollow attackers were on horses, but that didn’t seem to be giving them much of an advantage, since the horses shied away and tried to rear up every time a shifter ran toward them. Whisper growled at a few horses here and there as she ran after Violet, and had to dodge the angry sword of a Gilt Hollow citizen who didn’t appreciate the fact that she’d spooked his horse.

Out here, and in bear form, Whisper easily caught up with Violet. Somewhere along the way, Violet had had a run in with a sword or two. Her clothes were slashed and bloody now, and a long, angry scratch ran across her face. Her hair was a wild tangled mess, but her eyes looked even wilder. She stared at Whisper’s bear form as though she’d never seen a bear before in her life.

Okay then. Time to get you off the streets. Whisper used one of her giant bar paws to swipe at Violet’s legs from behind, quickly knocking the panicked woman off her feet. Violet was so startled and disoriented that she didn’t protest. Whisper grabbed Violet’s shirt in her mouth and started dragging Violet across the dusty pathways as fast as she could. This wasn’t at all sanitary, and Violet’s wounds were probably full of dirt now. But it was better than leaving Violet out in a daze on the streets to die. Whisper dragged Violet several rows of houses away, and then picked a random house to leave Violet in. Whisper pushed open the door to the house with her grizzly paw, only to find about five startled shifters hiding inside, all still in human form. Their eyes widened a bit when they saw Violet and then Whisper’s bear, but they seemed to understand.

“Leave her with us. We’ll clean her up.”

Whisper grunted her thanks, then turned to leave. Before she had fully turned, though, one of the people inside called out and stopped her.

“Hey, wait a minute! Aren’t you Whisper? Axel’s girl that works at the bar?”

Whisper turned around and huffed, giving a little nod of her bear head. She was a bit surprised that someone had recognized her in bear form, but her eyes did look the same. A sharp observer might see the similarities.

“Good luck out there,” the shifter said, giving her a small salute. “Take care of yourself, and of Axel. Our little community couldn’t stand to lose either of you.”

Whisper grunted again in appreciation, and then turned to run back toward the battle. She felt relieved to be rid of Violet. Someone else could deal with that crazy girl now—she was off of Whisper’s conscience at least. Whisper decided to head back to the bar and see if there was still fighting there. If Axel was still fighting, she wanted to help him first.

But the bar was completely empty when she got there. Several tables and chairs were broken, and the walls had gunshot holes in various places. Several bodies of dead Gilt Hollow attackers were scattered across the room as well, and Whisper shuddered at the sight. The smoke had cleared, and she forced herself to look the room over carefully from left to right and front to back, just to make sure that Axel’s body wasn’t among the fallen. With great relief, she confirmed that he wasn’t one of the dead. At least, not the dead out front.

Whisper went behind the bar and then to the back room, but there were no bodies back there. It looked like the fighting had never even made it that far, because there was no damage back there other than the small amount of damage Violet had done when she fled their hiding place behind the crates.

The back door was open now, though, and Whisper knew in an instant that Axel had come back here looking for her. Knowing him, he must have been frantic when he realized she was gone, and now he was out tearing the town apart to find her.

I have to find him.

She ran out into the streets, her heart pounding with fear for Axel’s life. The fighting had moved on from the area near the bar, so she took off running toward the other edge of town, where she could hear anxious shouting. She came around the corner of one dusty street to see a mob of people. Dozens of shifters and Gilt Hollow attackers were locked in a battle. The fighting was so thick that Whisper could hardly tell where one body ended and another began. She scanned the crowd, desperately trying to catch a glimpse of Axel’s face. She couldn’t see him anywhere, but she did see a little old lady, a bear shifter if Whisper remembered right, using a metal pot as a weapon. The old lady was swinging wildly at the Gilt Hollow men who were twice her size, and she was having a surprising amount of success at holding them back. The old lady wasn’t going to hold them off forever, though, and Whisper found herself running toward the fight to defend the woman. From there, Whisper was fully sucked into the battle. She kept an eye out for Axel, but she couldn’t see him anywhere. So she fought. And fought, and fought. She fought until she felt like she was going to pass out, and even then she kept going. Time seemed to stretch on forever, and Whisper felt like she was going to be fighting for the rest of her life.

She couldn’t tell which side was winning or losing, but still, she kept going. She would have kept going forever, if it hadn’t been for one of the Gilt Hollow attackers landing a sharp blow to the side of her head with a heavy club. Whisper felt a sharp flash of pain, and then everything went black.