Warrior

Chapter 11-1

Chapter 11

I shot to my feet and raced inside. I heard fighting upstairs, but I tried to block it out and focus on Sara. Halfway down the hallway, I felt her. I ran to an open door with a set of stairs leading down into what had to be the cellar. Uttering a silent prayer that she was okay, I descended the stairs, bracing myself for what I might find.

Nothing could have prepared me for the sight that greeted me at the bottom. I’d seen a lot of strange things in my time, but a pair of hellhounds lying meekly on the floor like house dogs was definitely not one of them. The beasts raised their heads and growled at my arrival, but neither moved to attack.

Voices floated to me from beyond a rounded archway, and relief flooded me when I recognized Sara and Remy.

“Stop!” Sara cried out, her voice shrill with fear and pain.

I ran around the hellhounds to the doorway and stopped short when I saw Sara walking calmly to a glass cage rippling with red electricity. Demon fire. Inside the cage huddled three small trolls who cried piteously as Sara neared them.

Her hands grabbed the glass bars and shattered them, making a large hole in the side. Immediately, a tiny body flew out of the cage and into her arms. Instead of hugging the troll back, Sara quietly set her on the floor and turned away from the cage.

Behind her, the other two trolls jumped from the cage and ran to Remy. Three sets of eyes widened when they saw me, and they clung to the older troll.

My only concern was the girl on the other side of the room. “Sara?” I called to her.

She turned, and I sucked in a sharp breath when I saw her eyes. No longer the emerald green I knew, the irises were completely black. A demon’s eyes. Recognition flashed in them, but it was not Sara who looked back at me.

My Mori surged forward, feeling hers so close to the surface, and I had to fight to keep it down.

“How did this happen to her?” I asked the troll as I walked toward Sara, my eyes never leaving her.

“Sara let demon free cousins,” he answered.

“Khristu!” She had deliberately let her Mori take control of her in order to save the trolls. Knowing how Sara felt about having a demon inside her, I marveled at the sheer will and courage it must have taken to relinquish her mind and body to it. And I knew the terror she must be feeling right now, trapped inside the demon’s mind.

Reaching her, I framed her face with my hands. “Look at me.”

Unfamiliar eyes met mine.

“Sara, it’s time to come back now,” I ordered more calmly than I felt.

“Your friends need you. Roland needs you.” I need you.

There was no reaction. She stood woodenly, her eyes blank. I’d hoped Roland’s name, if not my voice, would snap her out of it. Her Mori was strong for one that had been repressed its whole life, and it was fighting to stay in control. The longer it did, the more Sara would slip away into madness.

I won’t lose you. I slapped her across the face hard enough to make her head snap back.

Nothing.

Grabbing her shoulders, I shook her hard. “Goddamnit! You will not do this. Do you hear me?”

She blinked, and for a second, something stirred in her eyes. Her body twisted in my grasp, and she – the demon – tried to pull away from me.

I wrapped my arms around her. Her Mori was strong, but it was no match for me. “That’s it, Sara, fight. Follow my voice. Come back to me.”

She let out a growling roar as she struggled to break my hold. The demon was scared because she was fighting.

Holding her closer, I put my mouth to her ear. “You were right, Sara; you are not weak. In fact, you are one of the strongest, most infuriating people I have ever met. You fight monsters, you befriend trolls and beasts, and you face horrors that would break a lesser person. And you walk headfirst into danger to protect the ones you care about. You are loyal, stubborn, and foolhardy and, though you don’t believe it, you are a warrior.”

She stopped struggling and stood quietly in my arms.

I pressed forward. “Few Mohiri could have done what you did tonight, giving up yourself to save those trolls. You did what you had to do, and now you have to come back to us. To Roland.”

“Roland?” she rasped.

“That’s right,” I said hoarsely. “Your friend, Roland. He needs you now.”

She began to shake. I remembered clearly the first time I’d lost control of my own Mori. Barely five years old, I was terrified when the demon had filled my mind, taking over my body. At that age, my Mori was weak, and my mother had talked me through it. I couldn’t imagine the struggle Sara was going through with her much stronger demon.

I pulled back and looked into her eyes. My breath caught when I saw green specks in the black irises.

“That’s it, moy malen'kiy voin. Fight.”

A violent shudder went through her, and when her eyes met mine again, they were the perfect shade of emerald green. “What happened to Roland?” she asked.

I wanted to crush her against me and yell at her to never do that to me again. Instead, I rubbed her arms and looked into her confused eyes. “Roland and Peter ran into some guards and Roland was shot.”

“What?” Fear filled her eyes. “Is he okay?”

“He was alive when I left him. Peter is calling Maxwell.”

“He was…” She jerked away from me, and I let her go. “Where is he? I need to help him.”

“If anyone can help Roland, it’s Maxwell. He’ll know what to do.”

My words were meant to calm her, but they only seemed to agitate her. Fear and desperation crossed her face, and she pushed past me and ran for the door.

“I have to find him!”

All I could do was follow her. In the outer room, the hellhounds perked up when she raced past them, and one let out a soft whine.

“Stay,” she ordered as she tore up the stairs.

The hellhounds lowered their heads to the stone floor.

Shock rippled through me. No one but a hellhound’s master could command the beast, yet this pair had just submitted to Sara as if they belonged to her.

I saw her go outside and say something to Erik and Raj. Then she was off and running down the front steps. At the bottom, she turned to look up at me. Her chest heaved as if she couldn’t draw air into her lungs.

“I have to go to him. Please. He needs me,” she cried.

I went to her. “Roland is with his people. If anyone can help him, they can.” I hated hurting her, but she needed to hear the truth, to prepare herself for the worst. “The men had silver ammo, most likely to protect themselves from the vampires they were working with.”

She took a step back, shaking her head frantically. “No, no, you don’t understand. I can help him.”

I grabbed her by the shoulders before she could run again. “He took a direct hit in the chest, Sara. The pack will do what they can for him, but this type of injury is almost always fatal to werewolves. I’m sorry.”

“No! I won’t let that happen!”

Sobbing, she pulled away from me, pain radiating from her. “I know I’ve been nothing but trouble to you and you have no reason to do this for me, but I have no one else. Please help me, Nikolas.”

Her desperate plea gutted me. She had no idea there was nothing I wouldn’t do for her.

I turned to the house. “Erik, I need your bike.”

He tossed his keys to me. I took Sara’s hand to lead her to the motorcycles. I gave her a helmet and grabbed one for myself. Straddling Erik’s bike, I started it and waited for her to climb on behind me. She pressed herself against my back and wrapped her arms tightly around my waist.

I broke the speed limit all the way to New Hastings, even though I knew what we’d find when we got there. Neither of us spoke until we reached the Knolls.

“Brendan’s. That’s where they’ll take him,” she said when I slowed at the turnoff.

I’d gotten to know the area over the last month, so I knew where Brendan’s farm was. Minutes later, we drove along the edge of the driveway, which was packed with vehicles. Lights shone from every window in the big two-story house, and a small crowd of people stood on the front porch talking. Everyone quieted and stared at us when we pulled up.

Sara jumped off the bike before I shut it off. She ran up the steps and found her way blocked by the young hotheaded wolf named Francis.

“Haven’t you done enough?” he railed at her. “You are not welcome here.”

“I have to see him.” She tried to push past him, and one of the other men grabbed her shoulder to hold her back.

“Let me go!” she cried.

My Mori growled dangerously.

“Take your hand off her.”

I forced myself to walk calmly to Sara so I didn’t go over and rip the arm off the man who dared to touch her.

The man let her go and narrowed his eyes at me. The others moved closer to him, scowling as if they could intimidate me.

I tensed and prepared to pull Sara behind me in case one of them made a move toward us.

“What’s going on here?” rumbled Brendan from the doorway. Several of the men hung their heads under his glare.

Sara ran to the Beta wolf. “Brendan. Please, I need to see Roland!”

The older wolf’s eyes and voice were kind when he laid a hand on her shoulder. “I know how much you care about him, but you can’t go in there right now. It’s not safe.”

“Not safe?” she repeated tearfully.

“The silver went in too deep. It’s too close to his heart, and we can’t get to it. He’s half mad with the pain, and he doesn’t know anyone right now. He’d tear you apart.”

A long mournful howl came from inside the house, and every person on the porch shuddered.

“He can’t heal,” Brendan told her, his eyes dark with grief. “A couple of hours at the most.”

A wave of her pain hit me, and I almost closed my eyes against the force of it.

“No!” She pushed past him into the house. “Roland is not going to die!”

Brendan let her go and shook his head sorrowfully. “She loves that pup like a brother. This is going to kill her.”

“This is all her fault,” Francis spat.

“Francis!” Brendan gave him a look that brooked no argument. “Roland is old enough to know better. Do you really think that little girl could force a werewolf to do anything against his will?”

The younger wolf had no reply to that.

“Is there no chance?” I asked Brendan, though I already knew the answer.

“None.” He wiped his eyes with his shirt sleeve.

Silence fell over the porch. A few of the wolves laid their hands on the shoulders of those next to them, seeking solace in each other’s touch. I’d always heard that werewolf packs were closely knit, but I’d never experienced it firsthand until today. Every member of this pack would grieve the loss of one of their own. Even Francis bowed his head in sorrow.

Another agonizing howl tore through the silence. A woman began to cry quietly.

A boy appeared in the doorway, his eyes wide with excitement. “She’s gone in with Roland!” he cried in a high voice.

“Who?” Brendan asked.

“Sara. She said she’s gonna save him!”

I shoved past the wolves, ignoring their shouts of outrage.

Brendan stepped aside to allow me entry, and I ran to where a crowd was gathered outside an open door on the first floor. I pushed through them, earning more than one growl until Brendan barked, “Let him pass.”

I reached the room and took in the sight of the black werewolf chained and thrashing on a mattress in the corner. Sara called to him, and he went nuts, straining to break the chains that held him.

I grabbed her around the waist and pulled her from the room.

She turned and smiled at me. “It’s all right. I just tamed two hellhounds, remember?”

Her eyes held mine, begging me to have faith in her. I didn’t know what Sara had done to those hellhounds, but she had done something to make them her own. My gut told me I was about to find out what that was.