All Wounds (23 page)

Robin nodded. “I mean, I’d understand and all. And it would explain a lot of stuff you’ve told me about. Not wanting me to think you’re crazy, or thinking I couldn’t handle it, or wouldn’t want to, or—”

“It’s got nothing to do with you, or anything like that,” Rebecca interrupted. She got up and went to her friend and hugged her. “I just learned about this a couple days ago. Think, Ro. We just saw Ryan in detention, in broad daylight. Do you think he was a vampire then?” Robin shook her head and pulled away from Rebecca to look at Ryan’s still form.

“You’re just mad because you think I’d keep a guy like Billy away from meeting you,” Rebecca teased. She elbowed Robin in the ribs. “Come on.

Let’s get out of here. I’m done for now, and he needs to rest.” Robin blushed and shook her head. Rebecca led the way out of the enclave and shut the door behind her.

“I wouldn’t blame you for keeping Billy all to yourself,” Robin said.

“Talk about gorgeous!”

“That’s just what he looks like to everyone else,” Rebecca said as they walked downstairs. “He’s really a big, hairy wolf-man over seven feet tall.”

“I like them tall!” Robin defended. She caught a glimpse of Billy as they reached the bottom of the stairs. “Mmmm...there’s my wolfman...” Billy paused and glared at the two girls.

“Jeeze, would you two stop talking about me! Or if you’re gonna, get it right!
Man-wolf
. Get that straight. I ain’t no ‘wolf-man.’” He had a huge armload of blankets held against his chest he was taking to the den he was making for himself in the garage. He’d found Nana’s old car in there and had fallen in love with the musty old workshop. He hadn’t wasted a second claiming it as his “room.” He glared at Robin. “And I don’t need no moon to change either, girly.”

“Well, when you’re allowed to try and impress me with your bad wolf self, you’ll have to show me this big scary
man-wolf
you’re supposed to be,” Robin replied in a bored voice.

Billy growled and stalked off.

“I think he likes you,” Rebecca whispered to Robin.

“I DO NOT!” Billy yelled. “STOP TALKING ABOUT ME!” Robin and Rebecca giggled again and went into the kitchen. Rebecca reached for the clean tea mugs Robin had washed up and a dishtowel when movement outside caught her eye.

Were those...

“Ro,” Rebecca whispered. “Turn off the light.”

“Why?” Robin asked. She peered out the kitchen window. “What’s out there?”

“I don’t know! It’s dark, but not that dark. I thought I saw something.

Turn off the light!”

“Okay, sheesh!” Robin reached over and snapped off the kitchen light.

Her eyes widened in horror. “Oh my god! Are those...? Is that what Billy really is? My God, there’s...how many are there? Why are they here? What do they want?”

Rebecca shook her head. “I don’t know. I do know they can’t come in the house unless I say they can if they’re not hurt or using the portal upstairs and I’m not about to invite them in! And I’m sure as heck not going to tell Billy there’s a pack of werewolves sniffing around the back yard. And cripes...Syd’s not here!”

“Of course I am, Acolyte,” Syd’s voice came from the darkness behind her. She felt his hands on her hips as he leaned around her to look out the window as well. “What has you so—”

A noise escaped Syd, and Rebecca shivered at its menace.

She turned her head to look at him. “Billy said something about his brother—”

“Rebecca!” Robin hissed in a frightened squeak. She pointed out the window.

Standing in the middle of the back yard was Billy in human form, facing the crowd of six other werewolves all by himself.

“Come on, Acolyte,” Syd said. “It’s time you learned what ‘neutral ground’ is supposed to mean.”

He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her away from the window.

w x

Billy, now in wolf form, faced another wolf. This one was gray-furred and much larger, and in far better condition. Compared to him, Billy didn’t look like he could win a fight with a wet paper bag. The other wolves looked ready to join their gray friend, but were holding back as though waiting for the brewing fight to really start.

A shot broke up the evening calm, startling the snarling, circling wolves.

Billy and the others turned at the sound.

“Bit, what the hell you think you’re doin’?” the wolf that was Billy rumbled, incredulous.

Rebecca stood on the back porch with a rifle gripped in both hands. She was trying to hold the long gun steady, hoping the werewolves couldn’t see her shaking. She had fired into the air this time, but she lowered the barrel slowly, promising that the next shot would hit somewhere a lot more painful.

Just as Syd had told her to say, Rebecca yelled, hoping her voice didn’t give her complete terror away. “What part of ‘neutral ground’ don’t you understand, Denis?”

Rebecca’s heart beat hard against her chest. She felt Robin come up behind her and squeeze her shoulder and it helped her focus her thoughts.

Oh, this is insane!
What made her think she could play referee between two really, really big...wolf-man-things?

Rebecca couldn’t help but marvel at what she could see of the two creatures in the dark of her back yard. Muscled and lithe, Denis outweighed Billy by at least seventy pounds, and was a good six inches taller than his younger brother.

Billy was going to get pummeled into worse condition than his Mustang.

“And what part of ‘disavowed’ is hard to fathom?” came Sydney’s voice from Rebecca’s other side. “That happens to be a member of my clan you’re about to attack. I’d think on that very seriously before you make another move.”

Something clicked in Rebecca’s mind, and she remembered how upset Billy was when he thought she would tell him not to go looking for Ryan.
Billy
is
a member of Syd’s clan! But...aren’t werewolves and vampires enemies? What’s going on?

Denis snorted and curled his lip at Syd. “Stay out of this, you soulless blood-sucking—”

Whatever was going on, these guys obviously meant to hurt Billy, and if they hurt Billy, Syd was apparently going to do...something...and it wasn’t going to be good. Rebecca pulled the bolt back on her rifle like she’d seen her nana do when she’d taught her to shoot tin cans off the back fence, ejecting a silver bullet casing and loading another round. She pointed the rifle at the gray-furred anubi that was Denis.

“The first one was a warning,” Rebecca said, her voice steady, light and calm this time. “The second one goes through your heart. Of course, I’m new at this, and it’s a bit dark out here. Also, my aim probably really sucks—it’s been awhile since target practice. I could miss and hit one of your pack.” Syd looked at one of the werewolves backing Denis in particular. “You hearing this, Johnny?”

“Yeah, Syd, I’m hearing,” called one of the man-wolves still across the boundary in the dusty alleyway.

“You unclear about what ‘neutral ground’ means, too?” Syd asked, his eyes never leaving Denis. “Or you, Jackson? Carl? Gregory? You really want a battle with Clan Cardoza on your heads?”

The three other anubi he named all looked at the ground and mumbled various versions of “No, Master Cardoza.”

“Now I don’t know a couple of your other boys, Denis, but I do know your sire, and you can be certain he’s going to hear about this breach of peace at the house of a Healer.”

Denis snorted. “Go ahead. I’m within my rights to challenge my own brother. He’s a traitor.”

“He’s already been judged, and sentenced,” Syd replied. “And you’re—”

“But he’s not dead!” Denis interrupted with a growl. “He was sentenced to death! You can’t stop me carrying it out!”

His temper lost to his rage, Denis bolted forward at them, fangs bared, claws outstretched.

“BILLY!” Robin shrieked.

Rebecca, panicked, pulled the trigger on her rifle.

Denis yelped. Rebecca’s stomach twisted at the horrific sound of an animal in pain. Blood and fur spilled through the anubi’s hand as he cupped his wounded shoulder. Rebecca’s own shoulder throbbed, but she held the rifle steady.

Cripes, cripes I just shot a werewolf! Oh God
—Rebecca’s thoughts raced.

Calm and quiet, Acolyte, even here in your mind
, came Syd’s voice in her head.

Many things can also hear your thoughts. Keep your emotions in check, and private. Calm
yourself and carry on. Finish what you’ve begun.

Rebecca swallowed hard and spoke again.

“I’m sorry I had to do that, Denis, but you’re still on neutral ground—

my ground—and the only one who has any kind of say about life and death on it has a Healer’s mark,” Rebecca said, her calm voice filled with what she hoped sounded like menace. “Which I don’t believe you have.”

“What’s more, that anubi now bears the surname ‘Cardoza’,” Syd added.

“Thus far you have been indulged in your attempts to harm a member of my clan only at Billy’s insistence. However, I cannot as his Master—”

“True anubi have no masters!” Denis growled.

Syd went on as though Denis hadn’t spoken. “—stand aside and watch as you attempt to take his life. And, should you succeed, his clan will avenge his death. I, for one, would welcome the opportunity to take your mutt-hide apart one slow piece at a time.”

“Rebecca?” Robin asked in a whisper, recovering from her shock. “You shot him! I thought you said you help things that are hurt? Why would you hurt him?”

“Like Syd said...just because we observe neutral ground doesn’t mean others respect that,” Rebecca replied. “And just because we don’t take sides doesn’t mean that we don’t defend ourselves, or those who need our help. I don’t know about you, but I think Billy needs our help.”

“Me too,” Robin whispered.

Rebecca gestured at Denis with the rifle. “I’d be happy to look at that wound, if you think you can behave yourself,” She said.

“She is still in training and could use the experience. She hasn’t seen what silver bullets do to an anubi just yet,” Syd continued.

Oh, he’s got to be kidding,
Rebecca thought.
We’re in the middle of some kind
of—I don’t know—
war
or something here and he wants me to—

Denis spat on the ground in reply.

Rebecca sighed and shook her head. “All right then.” She lowered the rifle to the ground, looked at Billy and nodded.

Billy snarled and lunged at his brother before Denis could comprehend. His fangs bit deep into Denis’ neck. Blood spurted from the wound.

Denis howled and clawed at his brother, opening long, bloody rents in Billy’s brown fur.

“Billy has to handle this,” Rebecca said. She turned and put an arm around Robin’s shoulders.

I just hope he can
, Rebecca thought as she looked back at the fight that raged behind them. The dark yard shone with pools of blood, but it was nothing she was worried about. She had interfered as much as she could.

At least she’d evened the odds for Billy somewhat. What had Billy done to be sentenced to death? Why was his own brother out to kill him? She hadn’t known the big hairy guy very long, so maybe she was stupid to trust him—and Syd—as much as she did. But Nana trusted them....

Rebecca shook her head and turned away from the fight. Whatever was between Billy and his brother had to work itself out.

w x

The silence outside was deafening. The other werewolves gone, Rebecca, Robin and Syd sat on the back porch swing, taking in the aftermath of the battle that had gone on for the last half hour. Rebecca felt morbid in a way—like she’d been watching a wrestling match on TV instead of a life-and-death struggle between two Ethereal creatures.

Her eyes found Billy and watched him for a long moment. He was covered in blood, sitting in the middle of the cold, dark lawn, breathing hard. Denis was nowhere to be seen.

“He’s hurt,” Robin whispered. “Shouldn’t we, I don’t know, help him or something?”

“He has to ask for help himself,” Syd replied. “And I think most of the blood is Denis’.”

Robin and Rebecca exchanged a glance and, without a word, Robin crossed the back yard to Billy.

Rebecca watched as her friend offered the anubi a sympathetic smile and laid a gentle hand on his arm.

Billy’s large, furred, anubi hand covered Robin’s for a moment before Robin returned to the porch.

“Where’s Denis?” Rebecca asked.

Syd nodded toward the very back of the yard along the boundary line.

“Under the dogwood tree,” he replied. “Can’t you see him?” Rebecca squinted against in the darkness, looking to the spot Syd indicated. There she saw the gray anubi, curled into a tight ball leaning back against the trunk of the dogwood tree, his huge furred hands wrapped around his body. Rebecca would have thought he was dead but for the fact that she could see the labored rise and fall of his chest as he struggled to breathe.

“Will he let us heal him?” Rebecca asked.

“I don’t know. Again—he has to be the one ask for help,” Syd said.

“But...what about the blood?” Robin asked, looking down at the puddles seeping with agonizing slowness into the ground. “Shouldn’t we do something?” Her voice caught in her throat.

“It’s Ethereal, and already fading,” Syd replied in a gentle voice Rebecca hadn’t ever heard him use. “Come on. Inside.” Syd went into the kitchen, leaving the two girls alone on the porch for a moment.

Robin wiped her eyes and managed a smile at Rebecca.

“If I didn’t already have my eye on that furry hunk Billy, Syd would be my first choice for prom,” Robin said, sounding like her old self again.

“It’s after dark, so he could take me, right?”

Rebecca pretended to punch Robin’s arm. They giggled and Rebecca knew the worst was over. Robin was ready to be her Helper.

Initiated by a werewolf battle.

Rebecca mentally shrugged. She supposed it was better than being abducted by demons.

w x

They weren’t in the house twenty minutes before the kitchen door opened. Standing on the threshold was Billy, still in his natural wolf—and very bloody—form.

The anubi didn’t say anything. Rebecca stood up.