in case anything nasty came close.
“Okay.” He nodded again but remained where he was, looking at me.
“Alex? No Brethren. No matter what.” My life wasn’t worth the consequences of them finding just how very humanly weak I really was.
“Okay.”
“Go!”
“Okay.”
He turned and ran out into the dark trees. I leaned my head back and closed my eyes. I tried to think about what Craw had meant about it being my fault. Had I met a Draco Wyr before? Perhaps I’d killed one? I was drifting in and out of consciousness and couldn’t work any of it out. There must be a reason as to why the bitch woman – Iabartu? – needed him. Goddammit, my brain just wasn’t cooperating. I gave up and opened my eyes to the stars instead, marveling at how they seemed to be moving around the sky as if they were dancing. Milky Way, Ursa Minor, Cassiopeia…so pretty and shiny….I blinked slowly. I was starting to feel very cold and shivery. I tried to pull my knees up to my body to curl into myself and generate some warmth but a shooting pain ran through me instead and my vision started to cloud over. Closing my eyes, I felt my whole body fall into shut down mode. A stray thought crossed my mind that if Alex didn’t get back here with Julia quickly, then I might soon be talking to John himself. A quiet smile curved my lips and everything went quiet again.
“Mackenzie!” Mackenzie!
Someone was shaking me.
“Mackenzie! Look at me!” Now.
It was Julia, not John. Go figure. I forced my heavy eyelids open and looked away from the sky and at her. “Hey, Jules.”
“Hello, dear. I need you to hold on to Mr Florides’ hand for me, please. This is going to hurt.”
Alex’s face swam up. “Hi, Alex. Where’s your blue smoke?”
“Hush, dear. Hold his hand and grip it tight.”
“’kay.”
He placed his hand in mine and I held it. I looked at him and told him how pretty the stars were. He just looked back at me solemnly. I was aware of Julia pulling off my blood-soaked bandages and taking a jar of something from a bag beside her. It smelled awful and had a very green tinge to it. She scooped a dollop out.
“I’m sorry, Mackenzie.” Julia’s hand smeared the green gloop onto my wound and I screamed. I heard Alex next to me moaning as I squeezed his hand. Julia started rubbing in the ointment and I screamed again. Nothing had ever hurt this much before. Nothing had existed before this pain. I fainted yet again.
*
This time, when I woke up, there was a wolf looking at me with pale yellow eyes. Tom. Julia was still there too.
“What the hell did you do to me?” The pain had gone but the memory of it still remained.
She put her hand on my forehead. “It’s an old remedy called trieswater. Particularly dangerous to humans, I might add, Mackenzie. You’re lucky that Mr Floride found me when he did. Much longer and I don’t think it would have worked.” She removed her hand and looked satisfied. “There’s no fever at least. You’ll live. You’re a damn fool for staying out after a fight like that considering your injuries though.”
“John…”
“Is still dead and nothing you do will change that. Can you stand? We need to get you back to the keep. Dawn will be breaking soon.”
With Alex’s help, and Tom nudging me gently, I managed to get to my feet.
“Tom will carry you back to the keep. You should get some sleep. Mr Floride here has filled me already on most of your night activities. For your information, the Lord Alpha confirmed my status as the new Cornish alpha after he returned last night and will be returning to the capital. He is however leaving behind a delegation to investigate further, thanks to the encounter with the terrametus.”
“What? He can’t do that!” I burst out.
“He can do whatever he wants,” chided Julia, gently. “They have pressing business back in London to attend to but have decided that the situation here needs to be taken care of too. They’re going to ask Mr Floride here to do some more work before they decide what to do next.”
I swore violently. How many of Julia’s lotions and potions was I going to need to depend on to get through more time hiding from the Brethren? Speaking of which… “Why haven’t I heard of this trieswater before? I feel a hell of a