Tethers

  “Yes,” he said. “It is lonely. But the thought of burdening another with what goes on in my head is even more terrifying than being lonely forever.”

  “So don’t do that part,” I said. “But that doesn’t mean you can’t share a little comfort sometimes.”

  “A woman kissed me while I was away. It was a surprise.”

  I grinned at the tone of his voice. He sounded like a teenage boy after his first kiss. “What was that like?”

  “Nice.”

  “Nice?”

  “Pleasant.”

  I couldn’t resist the giggle that popped out of my mouth. “My surprise kiss was better,” I teased before I ducked under his arm and walked on.

  He gripped my arm and pushed me against a tree, his body pressing against mine. My heart raced so hard, he could probably hear it. I could hear his pulse, after all. His hand slid across my cheek and into my hair, tilting my head upward. I couldn’t break away from his gaze. I gripped his shirt, unable to do anything else. I wasn’t sure what I thought about what was happening, but my body was ready to go with it.

  He ducked his head and dropped a soft kiss on my lips before pulling back to give me a questioning look. I pulled him to me, and he moved eagerly, his other hand around my waist to move my body closer to his. He was too tall for it to be comfortable, but that was okay with me.

  His mouth was surprisingly warm, and after a moment of me taking the lead, he grew hungry, his tongue slipping against mine as if it had just remembered to dance. I leaned against his chest, feeling the comfort that only another lost, lonely person could provide. I didn’t have to think about anything but the need and warmth and—

  Icarus howled in the distance, but there was something angry in it, a warning. Then someone screamed.

  Phoenix and I instantly broke apart. My hands moved to my lips, and I felt a note of horror. We had been basically making out like teenagers against a tree while a poor human was being attacked by… Icarus? Or something even worse.

  To my surprise, Phoenix held my face in his hands. “You were right. Yours is better.”

  I actually cringed.

  He brushed his nose against mine. “And thank you, but we have to go.”

  I ran after him, bemused that he’d thanked me for a kiss. But I supposed he was thanking me for a kiss with no strings attached. Icarus’s second inhuman howl totally turned me off that line of thought.

  We rushed through the forest, but we couldn’t find Icarus anywhere.

  “Either sound travelled, or he’s chasing something,” Phoenix muttered. “He’s farther away than I thought.” He took a GPS tracking system from his pocket.

  “You put microchips into the werewolves?”

  “It was a concession in order to give them their freedom,” he explained, taking long strides back in the direction we had come from. “And it’s a good thing, too. Or we would never find Icarus in time. Back to the truck. It’s too far to walk.”

  We made it to the truck and set off, neither of us referring to what had happened before.

  “I’ll wash your hanky thing,” I said to break the silence as he drove at breakneck speed.

  “Keep it,” he said dismissively.

  I felt a little dismissed myself, but I was too eager to find Icarus to worry about it. After about fifteen minutes, Phoenix had to slam on the brakes when a woman ran out into the road in front of us, screaming for help. Her top had been ripped to shreds, and claw marks stretched from her shoulder to her breast. We couldn’t make sense of her words because of the hysterical sobbing, so Phoenix put her in the truck between us while I called Shay for help. The woman cried harder when Phoenix warned her she would have to stay in the truck alone. When Phoenix stopped the truck and we both got out, the woman curled up on the floor like a child.

  “Poor woman,” I said, hurrying to keep up with Phoenix’s long purposeful strides. “Shay shouldn’t be long. Where’s Icarus now?”

  He pointed away from the woods and toward some kind of farmland. There was a barn in the distance. And when the barn door appeared to explode away from the building, I knew that was where he meant.

  I squinted as a ball of fur rolled out of the barn. Icarus’s form flew out afterward, then they both disappeared inside again.

  “He’s fighting something,” I said.

  “Yes, but what?” Phoenix upped his speed across the muddy field. The pickup wouldn’t have made it.

  “I don’t think it’s a werewolf,” I gasped, at least a couple of feet behind the fae prince.

  He ignored me and kept running, but closer to the barn, he stopped and held an arm out to keep me still. “Wait,” he whispered. “They’re right at the door.”

  And then the pair barrelled out of the barn again. Icarus gave a triumphant bark as he drew blood, but if the creature was still standing after ten seconds in a fight with a werewolf, then it was doing better than pretty much anything else I had ever seen. They drew apart and circled each other.

  The second creature was smaller than Icarus and had a more human shape. On its back two legs, it stood about as tall as Phoenix, and compared to a werewolf, it was a runt, yet it was holding its own. Its grey hair was long, shaggy, and matted, and the hair at the back of its hind legs dragged along the mud. It smelled like death, poison, and rot. I coughed a little at the stench, and the creature looked at us for an instant.

  It had golden eyes with huge black pupils, and its claws were even longer than its weird paw hands. Its back was hunched, and somehow, that made it seem more intimidating. And it was fast, way faster than Icarus. He could barely get a hold on the thing, and looking closer, I saw that the werewolf was covered in bloody strips where the creature must have scratched at him, or maybe bitten. The new monster had a bitten leg, likely from attempting to leap out of Icarus’s reach, but other than that, it looked mostly unharmed. The creature opened its mouth impossibly wide. The fangs were long and wiry, like barbed wire fashioned into the shape of teeth.

  I shuddered, horrified by its appearance. “What the hell is it?”

  “I have no idea,” Phoenix said, to my surprise. “But I wouldn’t try to stake it, Ava.” He flinched. “Watch out, Icarus!”

  But the creature’s great big leap at Icarus turned out to be an escape route over the werewolf’s head. Icarus looked slow next to the nimble creature, and right then, I realised it was running straight at me. Phoenix shoved me aside, and the creature went for him instead. Claws first, it ran into him, lifted him in the air, then flung him away. The creature sprinted away faster than any werewolf could have.

  I hesitated, waiting for Phoenix to get up, but he remained on the ground, and the scent of his blood quickly filled the air. I scrambled over to him. “Icarus! The woman’s in the truck!” I shouted.

  Icarus wavered for only an instant before chasing the fleeing creature. His howl a few seconds later sounded furious, and I realised the creature was probably going to get away.

  I knelt by Phoenix. His T-shirt was soaked with blood. I tore apart the fabric. The wounds slicing his chest looked deep. Burgundy blood flowed freely. Too much blood.

  “No, no, no,” I whispered, checking his fading pulse. “Wake up, Phoenix.” I slapped his face then realised I was going to have to do something fast. I pulled off my jacket then yanked my shirt over my head, ripping away a thick strip of fabric. I somehow managed to get it under Phoenix and across his chest, pulling it tight in an attempt to slow the worst of the bleeding. I tried holding the wounds together, but my hands were too slippery. Panicked, I pressed the remainder of the shirt against the bleeding wounds, but even if Shay arrived, help wouldn’t come in time. Phoenix’s heartbeat was fading, and he had a deathly pallor.

  I had no choice—I had to try something drastic. He was going to die anyway. I bit my wrist, opening the veins with an awful tearing sound. I knelt on the shirt to keep pressure on the wound then forced Phoenix’s mouth open with one hand. I laid my wrist against his lips and let the blood tric
kle into his mouth. I concentrated, willing my blood to help him. Blood trickled down the sides of Phoenix’s face. He didn’t respond, but I kept trying, unwilling to give up. I couldn’t just let him die.

  I prayed it would work, prayed it wouldn’t hurt. I had done the same thing for Carl once, but I had fed on blood myself beforehand. The incident had strengthened our old unwelcome bond, but Carl was just a human while Phoenix was powerful in his own right. I remembered how powerful fae blood had tasted, and I hoped mine would do even a smidgeon to help him.

  But perhaps I alone wasn’t enough. I reached out for another, more recent, bond. I sought out an untapped part of the world around me, that connection with the Eleven. They had come to me; maybe I could bring them, too. I didn’t sense their presence, but I pulled on their energies, their power, and I tried to push it all into my blood. If I was a conduit, then balance could at least help me save a life.

  Phoenix’s lips had turned blue, and I was feeling weak myself, completely drained. But suddenly, he coughed, then his eyes flickered open. They were filled with confusion, surprise… and disgust before closing again.

  I couldn’t worry about that yet. Icarus bounded back over, whining as he nosed Phoenix’s face.

  “He’ll be okay,” I said as the werewolf licked my wrist. “But I need to show them the way, to make sure help gets here. They might get scared off if you go, but I need to put pressure on the wound, or he’ll bleed out first.” My voice had grown high-pitched. The werewolf nudged me out of the way and planted a heavy paw on top of the bloody, crumpled shirt on Phoenix’s chest.

  “Try not to break him,” I said breathlessly then grabbed my jacket and ran. I pulled my jacket on over my bra as I ran, trying to remember the way we had come. I reached out with my other senses, and suddenly, a bunch of human energies came into view. I kept running until I saw the ambulance and Shay’s car.

  “Help!” I shouted. “We need help!”

  A paramedic ran toward me, running his hands over me to find out where the blood was coming from.

  “Not me,” I said impatiently. “Shay. Shay! Phoenix is bleeding out! Icarus is with him, but we don’t have much time. He needs help.”

  “Stay with the victim,” Shay commanded one of his recruits. “Everyone else with me. Paramedics, bring whatever you can to help.”

  I ran, forgetting about letting them catch up with me. I was halfway to Phoenix before I turned around and realised how far everyone was behind me. But they could still see me. Phoenix was mumbling incoherent words to Icarus as I knelt by the fae prince’s head. I licked my jacket sleeve and did my best to wipe the blood from Phoenix’s mouth before anyone saw what I had done.

  Icarus whined, and I wasn’t sure if it was in protest or because he sensed the life leaving Phoenix’s body.

  “It’s okay,” I said, more to reassure myself than the werewolf. “We’re going to be fine. They’ll help him, and he’ll be fine.”

  The werewolf nudged me away from Phoenix’s prone body with a low growl. I surreptitiously glanced at Phoenix’s still-red mouth.

  “I didn’t hurt him,” I said. “I wouldn’t hurt him. I was trying to help.”

  But Icarus refused to let me near Phoenix again, even when the others reached us. The paramedics surrounded Phoenix, working quickly to staunch the blood flow.

  “What happened?” Shay asked as Icarus sat next to me.

  At least the werewolf didn’t want to eat me.

  “There’s something out there,” I said. “I’ve never seen anything like it before. The werewolves haven’t been killing anyone, Shay. This thing is fast and lethal. It could cause even more havoc now that we’ve interrupted its feed.”

  “What did Phoenix say about it?” he asked.

  I glanced at Phoenix and shivered as the paramedics prepared to take him back to the ambulance then on to the supernatural clinic. “He didn’t have a clue what it was. It’s smaller than the werewolves, and its hair is longer. It stood on its hind legs until it had to run. It’s ugly, and it has some serious fangs and claws. But it’s definitely not native to Ireland if Phoenix doesn’t know about it.”

  Shay nodded. “I see. I’m going to head over to the hospital. Do you want to come with me?”

  I inwardly recoiled at the idea of Phoenix waking up, knowing what I’d done to him. “Uh, no. I should probably try to get Icarus back to the werewolf zone without causing a national incident.”

  “All right.” Shay hesitated. “Are you okay?”

  “I didn’t get hurt. Only… Phoenix. Is that woman okay?”

  “She was a little hysterical, but her injuries aren’t life threatening. She’ll be fine as soon as we catch whatever her attacker is.”

  “I’ll get Carl to help me with some research. Maybe something from Eddie’s shop will help us figure it out.”

  “Well, you’re the only one awake who can recognise its image, so I suppose that’s for the best.”

  “Let me know how Phoenix gets on,” I called as he started to walk away.

  He turned around to smile at me. “Looks like it was lucky for him you were here, eh?”

  Shivering, I beckoned Icarus away from the scene. I expected him to get into the back, but he transformed into his more-human form and sat silently in the passenger seat. He might have been more vulnerable, but he still looked powerful and intimidating. His body was covered in bulky muscle threaded with pulsing veins, and his gaze was intent and piercing, full of purpose. He sat still but alert, poised for action at a second’s notice. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to be expected to drive properly with a naked werewolf staring at me, but I tried anyway. Icarus didn’t say a word until we were a good distance away.

  Then he suddenly lifted my arm and inspected my cut wrist. The wound had quickly stopped bleeding after I’d fed Phoenix, but the smell of it must have been bothering the werewolf. He held my gaze as he drew his dry tongue across the wound. I shivered at the look in his eye.

  “Wrong,” he said in an unexpectedly clear voice. And then he opened the door and jumped out, transforming into a wolf in mid-air. He bounded over a wall and out of sight before I could even think to slow down. I stopped the truck to close the door and laid my head on the steering wheel in a panic. Phoenix is going to kill me this time.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Lucia was home, and as her father was in hospital, she stayed away from the cul-de-sac. Surprisingly, Val didn’t join her as often as I’d expected, choosing instead to help me with research.

  “He’s awake,” Val said abruptly when I enquired about Phoenix. “But he’s weak. They’re keeping him in. One of his relatives offered their blood, and he’s doing as well as can be hoped.”

  My cheeks reddened. “Oh.”

  “Why do you look guilty?” she asked in a curious tone. “You’ve been antsy for the last two days.”

  I bit my lip. “It’s kind of my fault he got hurt. He pushed me out of the way of the creature’s path, and he got in the way instead.”

  “That’s what happens,” she said. “How is that your fault?”

  I shrugged, unwilling to share with anyone what I had done next. Going home in just a bra and a jacket, covered in other people’s blood, had been bad enough. Panicked and incessant questions had followed, and I had distracted everyone only because I had details of the as-yet-undiscernible creature. Nobody on the Senate knew what it was, and I had provided the same description numerous times, one that Phoenix had likely seconded as soon as he awoke. The heat was off the werewolves for the present, but that didn’t mean it was over.

  “A shifter spat on me in the hospital,” Val said. “They truly hate us now.”

  “Maybe you should keep away from there then.”

  “It’s not my favourite place anyway,” she said, but I could tell the lack of respect hurt at least a part of her. She was proud, and if a shifter didn’t fear her enough to be afraid to spit on her, then something was very wrong.

  She and Carl were sit
ting in my living room, reading through a stack of books he had borrowed from Eddie’s shop. After two days of pure research, we hadn’t found a single clue to what the creature was.

  “If it’s not from Ireland, then there may be no old records of one ever being here before,” Carl had guessed. “Many of Eddie’s books are focused on Irish literature only.” That had given me the idea to raid Baba Yaga’s collection, and Peter had promised to drop a box over on his way home.

  Val slammed a book shut. “This is useless. I have no idea what I’m even looking for here.”

  “Just…” I shook my head. “Anything hairy or clawed. That’s a wide-enough net, I think.”

  “That covers half of everything that’s ever stepped foot in the country,” she complained. “What if this thing is a new creation?”

  “Then I don’t know!” I shouted. “We’ll just have to wait for another army to fight against, I suppose.”

  “Calm down,” Carl murmured, barely looking up from his book. “Val, go take a break. You deserve it.”

  Muttering under her breath, the half-hellhound left for next door, where Anka was cooking dinner for everyone.

  “Okay,” Carl said. “What the hell is your problem? What are you worried about?”

  I picked at my thumbnail. “Nothing.”

  “Liar, liar.”

  “Shut up.” I sighed and shook my head. “I’m just worried about Phoenix is all.”

  “He’s fine. He needs some rest. Then he’ll be back on his feet, and you two can take Icarus and go hunt this furry arsehole down.”

  I shifted uncomfortably. That was the last thing I wanted to do.

  “Okay.” He dragged out the word. “That’s obviously not the problem. What happened that you haven’t told me about?”