Page 43 of Howling
The prisoner doesn’t bother to deny it, and I almost feel sorry for the brainwashed idiot.
“What crime did you commit?” Dante asks, and I snort in derision.
“No asking if I’m innocent or if I was framed?” I pin him under my glare. “You’re taking his word for it?”
I’m not angry or annoyed. I’m…hurt, which pisses me off.
Dante chuckles, the asshat not the least bit repentant. “Do I believe you would do whatever it takes to survive? Abso-fucking-lutely.” He leans forward, amusement gleaming in his eyes. “What did you do, kitten?”
“She killed the old man who took her in as an orphan and raised her from a child. She slaughtered him in cold-blood before fleeing justice.” His voice is a rough growl, barely audible above the rumble in his chest.
Tears burn the back of my eyes at the mention of Gramps, and I swallow hard, focusing on the blurry road in front of me and not the grief trying to consume me.
“No protests?” He taunts, his voice harsh, his chains grinding as he leans forward. “No claims of innocence?”
His soft tone breaks something in me, and I slam on the brakes, the car fishtailing so hard that we nearly tip into the ditch. The pressure on my chest is so heavy that the effort to breathe is a struggle.
It’s too much, and the block in my mind shatters, bringing back the horrors of that night—being forced to leave him behind, watching as they hacked him to pieces. I had hoped that, by some miracle, he might have survived.
That hope is the only thing that has kept me moving.
To have it yanked away so brutally shatters my fragile peace. Metal creaks as the wheel under my hand bends, the brittle metal cracking, bits crumbling away in my fingers, but I can’t seem to release my hold. If I let go, I’m afraid my grief will finally drag me into its dark embrace.
“Hey, pretty girl, breathe with me.” Tyler leans over the back seat so far that he’s practically crawling over it. “In for five seconds. Hold it. Out for five seconds.”
He repeats the mantra for nearly three minutes, and I do my best to shore up the cracks in my psyche. When I glance outside the windshield, I blink and try to figure out what I’m seeing. It’s raining, which isn’t what surprises me. It’s that the raindrops have reversed directions. Instead of falling, they’re rising from the puddles in the road.
Tiny rocks are vibrating on the gravel road, slowly levitating. Twenty feet in every direction, rocks are floating about five feet high, like gravity ceased to exist. That’s when I notice the car tilting a little drunkenly, shuddering under my grip. I cock my head, the view almost looking like we’re floating underwater…without the water?
That’s when I see the blue haze of my power surrounding everything.
I’m doing this…somehow.
That breaks the spell. Before I have a chance to process anything, my magic vanishes, and everything drops to the ground. Rocks rain from the sky, while the water pours down with the force of a lake being dumped on us.
Maybe I’m not far off, because I swear I see a fish wiggling in the middle of the road. The vehicle lands hard, creaking loudly in complaint when it slams back into the earth with a resounding bang. The jolt rattles my bones and tears a grunt from me. A heavy feeling weighs down my limbs, the gravity twice as strong, and I realize I must have been floating as well. The only thing that kept me in my seat was my seat belt.
I slowly peel my hands off the steering wheel, as if what happened was as simple as pressing a button in the car. Almost afraid of what I will find, I glance in the back seat. Tyler is scrambling to pick himself off the floor, rubbing a hand along his ribs. Garth still has a hand pressed against the roof, while Dante grips the door handle. His eyes are wide, but he’s not really panicking.
Dante has his nose lifted in the air, like he’s trying to catch a scent of something. His slate eyes gleam like metal reflecting in the darkness, indicating his beast is in full control. I expect to find fear in his expression, but when he catches me staring, he smiles at me with too many teeth in his mouth.
They’re not exactly fangs, and I tilt my head, trying to process what I’m seeing.
No, actually, they’re too many fangs.
Static from his creature brushes over me like a caress. Something old and primordial peers back, something that hunts for its prey in the darkness…and his sights are set on me. Yet, I don’t get the impression he means me harm, more like he’s excited to see me.
I should be freaked out, but something about his pleasure at the chaos I created is almost childlike with wonder. Whatever creature he harbors, it’s not a wolf like he pretended. His movements were a little too fast, a little too…bendy? Is that a word?
Staring at him, I swear I can feel his creature reaching for me, the brush of his claws against my cheek so light that I shiver at the touch.
Then he blinks, wrestling back control, rearing away from me like I’m the monster…which I guess I am.
He just doesn’t know it.
“Did I kill him?” Each word is like razor blades slicing my throat. “I might not have held the blade, but it’s because of me that he died—he died protecting me. I didn’t want to leave, but he ordered me to go. I had hoped he survived…”
My voice cracks, the air around me shimmering with warning, and I do my best to wrestle my emotions into the vault in the back of my mind. Tyler pats his chest, inhaling deeply, and I do my best to mimic him. The air seems thin, like my lungs are trying to breathe underwater.
