The three sisters talk for a little while more, but they move further from the bedroom and Leah can no longer follow their conversation. She goes through her purse, hoping against hope there might be something useful in there. A phone would be really great about now.
But of course, Jennifer must have gone through it while Leah was napping in the car; she notices that the few items which might have helped her, namely some pens and a metal nail file, are mysteriously missing. Her purse contains Altoids, tampons and pads, a few stubby pencils, some scrap paper, receipts, her wallet, Chapstick, some grubby ancient makeup she nevers uses, and Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas. The three sisters apparently think that her possession of this book proves something about her relationship with Nahuel. What was it Serena called her? Oh, yes. His whore. Never mind that she hasn't seen Nahuel in ages, or that they never had anything like a formal relationship. Leah doesn't suppose there's any way she can convince her captors of that.
All the same, whatever he's up to, whatever their relationship is or is not, Nahuel will not just leave her here to die. If there's one thing she knows about him, it's that. It sounds like he absconded with this Chu-Hua chick's baby to keep it out of his father's hands, and on the whole Leah approves of that. Now Leah has made the situation epically worse than it already was, and she didn't even know it until it was too late to back out. She keeps the panic at bay by focusing on how much she fucking hates Nahuel's crappy family, and how pissed off she is that she was trapped by them so easily. She won't let her own unforgivable stupidity compromise Nahuel's plans, whatever they are. She will find a way to get out of here on her own, or she will die trying. The one thing she won't do is settle for waiting around to be rescued.
Eventually Chu-Hua starts to stir and moan, and soon after that May comes back into the room and resumes caring for her, singing quietly and stroking her hair. She does not address Leah, who sits in a corner and watches. She is not sure where May falls in the grand scheme of things. She was the only one to defend her brother's actions or to show any form of sympathy for Leah and Chu-Hua, but she also comes off as kind of a weakling compared to the overbearing Serena and the self-assured Jennifer. It doesn't matter that she's not as bad as her sisters; she's still on their side.
However, she's also the only one making any effort to see to Leah's physical needs, which makes her the good cop if nothing else. She provides a bucket and a roll of toilet paper, twisting her mouth apologetically but saying nothing as she hands them over. A few hours later, May leaves for a few minutes and then comes back with two trays of food, one holding soft squishy foodstuffs which she spoon-feeds to Chu-Hua, one holding a tunafish sandwich and a bag of chips for Leah. There is also a paper cup full of water.
Leah is famished in spite of her anxiety, but she forces herself to eat slowly, to make it last. Thank goodness she does; on her third cautious bite into the sandwich, her teeth encounter something not made of food. Leah puts down her sandwich and pulls a tiny scrap of paper from between two pieces of lettuce. It reads,
Nahuel told me you are too strong for a human. If so, don't let them see it and you may survive.
She peeks up at May, who hasn't noticed either her or the note. Until she knows who wrote it, she shouldn't assume anything about anyone's trustworthiness or lack thereof, so she surreptitiously stuffs the note in her mouth and swallows it quickly. Then she goes back to eating her sandwich, and she and May ignore each other equally.
Leah loses track of time in that windowless room. At first she drives herself crazy thinking about Nahuel and that baby, about Jake and the Cullens. Her parents are probably starting to worry about her by now. She told them she was leaving town but they would expect at least a few texts or a quick phone call. Leah wonders if they've started looking for her yet. They'll start in Winnipeg, since she told Jake she was there. But Winnipeg is far from wherever she is now. Leah curses herself yet again for diverting resources from the search for Nahuel.
Her jailers aren't starving her but she's hungry all the time anyway; her appetite never wanes, and she could easily consume ten times what they provide. Leah finds herself pacing the perimeter of the small room, wearing a track around the edges of the carpet, just so that her muscles don't atrophy. She wishes she could fight someone, build up her strength again, but she's pretty sure one of these chicks'll just bash her in the head with a two-by-four if she gets too uppity. Leah settles for doing as many push-ups and squats as she can when left alone with Chu-Hua. She can feel her strength growing, faster than such paltry diet and exercise should account for. Save when sleeping, she is never anything less than aggressively angry, and her fever never breaks.
Leah eavesdrops whenever she can, if for no other reason than that there is nothing else to do around here. She never really picks up new information, though. Most of it is Serena being a bitch to May, or Jennifer trying to act like everything they're doing isn't totally awful and illegal. Leah gathers that Jennifer is the youngest of the three, that Serena is the eldest and raised May but did not enjoy the task, and that May is more timid than a bird trying to fly for the first time. May might be pretending, hiding her strength from her sisters. Any one of them might be pretending.
Leah's only solid connection to the passing of time is in Chu-Hua's face, which slowly regains a more healthy color and fills out under May's care. Sometimes, as the days go on, Leah even hears the two talking together quietly, in what sounds like Chinese.
One day, Serena storms into the bedroom/prison cell and jerks Leah to her feet, ignoring May's nervous protestations. She tightens a zip-tie around Leah's wrists, drags her through the house and pushes her out the front door. Jennifer is waiting on the lawn; May remains in the bedroom with Chu-Hua. Leah squints against the sudden daylight, which burns her corneas something fierce in spite of the overcast sky.
"Take her, Jen," orders Serena. "She reeks. I don't want it getting on me."
Jennifer picks Leah up in a fireman's carry, and she and Serena begin to run.
At first Leah is too busy trying to worm free of the zip-ties to notice her surroundings. But she gradually becomes aware that Jennifer's speed exceeds distance-running, jogging and normal sprinting; even burdened with Leah's dead weight, Jennifer is flying along at maybe twenty miles per hour. And they keep up that pace for a long, long time. Leah gives up on her zip-ties and then, a few minutes later, gives up on giving up. She is sure that she could break them if she could only get a little leverage, but that's not happening. She tries gnawing through them and manages to weaken the plastic in a few places.
Finally they stop. Leah is dropped unceremoniously on a particularly hard patch of ground and left there, while Jennifer and Serena walk around and whisper together. Leah rises awkwardly to her feet and tries to thump some feeling back into her legs, stomping around until calves and thighs begin to tingle again. She stretches out her arms as much as the zip-ties will let her. She tries again to split the bonds, but her arms are floppy and weak from dangling. So she just tries to pump blood back into them as best she can.
Having seen to her most pressing physical needs, Leah takes stock of her surroundings. There's not much to see; she's in a field of cold, hard, sparse grass. The sky is gunmetal gray. The air is cool and dry. There is nothing alive for miles. There are no trees or bushes to offer cover should Leah attempt to run; and besides, one of the sisters always keeps her in sight. This might be her best chance to escape, but she'll have to wait till the sisters are distracted.
Leah is thirsty and, as usual, very hungry. The wind picks up and she arches against it, wanting to relieve some of her fever. Her throat has been closed up for days, not in the getting-sick kind of way, more in the furiously-trying-not-to-cry way, although Leah couldn't cry now if she tried. She wishes the voices would come back to keep her company. What she wouldn't give to hear Tadi and Jake arguing in her subconscious! But there's nothing to hear except the wind.
She gnaws on her bonds again, turning away from her captors, sitting on the ground and hunching over to hide what she['s doing. She manages to wear the zip-tie down so thin in one place that she should be able to tug it apart pretty easily, when the time comes. Until then, she decides to leave her manacle in place so that Serena doesn't simply replace it with a fresh one.
They stay out here for what feels like a long time, although in the absence of shadows it's hard to tell. Serena's cell phone buzzes, and she takes a call. She walks out of earshot, but Leah hears her whispering to Jennifer that Nahuel and their father are on their way. Leah's heart kicks like a horse at that. She's going to see Nahuel again. She's actually going to see him again. She's still alive enough to see him, but she's not sure she can ask him to rescue her like this. She should have rescued herself already. She promised herself she would. She can't let him trade an innocent baby for her dumb ass.
There is a distant rustling that reaches Leah on the wind. They are coming. Her face grows warm and then hot, her hands start to shake, and she finds herself reflexively grinding her teeth. Leah's vision is going funny: colors seem to flicker and run together, though shades and lines remain constant. Her nose twitches with sensitivity. When a fly whizzes past her face, she can feel the breeze generated by its wings, separate from the wind already blowing. She hears its wingbeats not as an indistinct whine but as a series of high-pitched clicks. Her sense of time does not speed or slow, but for a second she can actually see each individual beat of its wings before it flies away. She can see everything happening. Everything.
On the horizon, a small group approaches. As they draw near the prisoner, Leah can start to pick out details. She identifies Jake, Nahuel, Jae, and a man she doesn't recognize but who can only be Nahuel's taint of a father. The stranger is pale-skinned and dark-bearded, tall, barrel-chested and powerful. His skin shimmers in a way that makes Leah dizzy; he seems to be faintly glowing. Leah next wastes a few precious seconds gazing hungrily on Nahuel's face and form, so familiar to her but still startling in its beauty and poise. Then, with a thrill of delight and relief, Leah notices a fifth figure, following behind the main group.
Tadi has come. Leah feels a swelling irrational conviction that whatever happens now, she will be safe. Tadi will always see her safe.
The barrel-chested man breaks from the group and runs, impossibly fast, over to Leah. His smell, diluted by the open air but pungently unpleasant, precedes him: spoiled fruit, rotten flowers. Leah grits her teeth, her whole body quivering with the desire to run headlong toward this sick son of a bitch and tear his head off. Her hands tremble so hard her zip-tie nearly snaps. It is a struggle merely to keep from screaming.
"Where is the infant?" asks Serena when Joham reaches them.
"Change of plans," says Joham. His voice is low but somehow shallow-sounding, like he has a head cold. "The infant is gone. We have won a greater prize today." He grabs Leah firmly by the arm and begins to drag her back out into the empty space between the two groups. Nahuel and Tadi approach them, and they meet in the middle.
No. No, no, no. Leah looks at Nahuel, but his head is bent and he will not return her gaze. It can't be this way. He can't possibly mean to—
"Don't do it," she manages to say through clenched jaw. Nahuel glances up at her for a brief instant, then looks down again. He doesn't speak.
"As we agreed," says Tadi. "And you will relinquish all claim on the infant."
"As agreed," says Joham. The place where his hand grips Leah's arm burns and sweats. "If Nahuel tries to renege, I will consider all agreements off. Understand, boy?"
"I understand," says Nahuel quietly, still looking down.
"Try it again," growls Joham.
Nahuel looks up at his father. "I understand, sir," he says again, with exaggerated humility.
I can't let you do this, Leah thinks frantically. I am not worth this.
Joham reaches out and lazily cuffs Nahuel across the side of the face. His movement is quick and sure and efficient, and he doesn't appear to have struck Nahuel very hard, so Leah is shocked to see blood spring up almost immediately from his cheek.
"You'll not be insolent to me, boy," says Joham menacingly. Then he hawks a glob of silvery spit into Nahuel's eye. It slides down his cheek and neck and soaks into the collar of his shirt, leaving an oily-looking track on his face, like a slug trail.
Nahuel does not respond. He doesn't even flinch, not even when Serena breaks out in mocking titters across the field. Was this, too, a part of the deal he stuck to free her? That he should take every humiliation thrown his way, that he should make no move to fight back?
Very well. With a sudden sense of clarity and purpose, Leah realizes that she will simply have to fight for him.
She takes in a mighty lungful of Joham's noisome stench, holds it there in her chest, wallowing in it. Every drop of feverish blood in her veins is replaced by molten rage. She takes another deep whiff of that foul odor and feels an expansion down low at the base of her spine. It's just like when she met Bella, but she's not panicking anymore. She's too fucking angry to panic. A hurricane of fury tears through her body, pushing her out of herself. Leah's rage claws its way up her throat. She holds her body tight around that hurricane, waiting for her moment.
Joham is hanging onto her, unaware of the meltdown in his hands, ready to hand her over to Tadi. And Leah has had enough. She will not be traded like livestock. She will not be manhandled by this monster for another instant. And she will not allow him to humiliate his son. Leah digs her heels into the hard ground. Joham jolts in surprise, looks down at her. He tightens his grip on Leah's wrist and bares his teeth, letting out a low growl to let her know who's in charge. But Leah is not intimidated. Her body is a fault line over a lake of magma. All she has to do is shift…
Her rage explodes out of her, built up over weeks and months to a deadly magnitude. Her soft skin splits away to be replaced by a shaggy pelt as thick and tough as armor. Her blunt human teeth are forced aside by two-inch curved ivory skewers, and the wrist Joham is holding is no longer wrist at all, but a forepaw, hairy and massive, armed with claws like knives. Her vision ceases to fluctuate, and settles into a blue-and-purple understanding of sight that has more to do with movement than shape. She can see and attack faster than Joham can react: she rounds on him, bringing two paws the size of shovels up to his shoulders like a dog going in for a kiss. Her snout, a foot long and dangerously pointed, yawns wide. With the strength of a crocodile she closes her teeth on Joham's face, crunches through his flesh and skull as easily as biting through a peanut, and twists. With a flick of her muscled hairy neck, Leah sends Joham's face flying through the air. It has not even landed before she is worrying the rest of his skull free from his spinal column. Rivulets of silvery, acidic liquid pour from his gaping neck, dribble down Leah's giant face.
She bats Joham's twitching body to the ground and plants her two front paws on it. A familiar-smelling beast appears first in her ears and nose, and then in her field of vision; and she does not have to be told to know that it is Jake. He begins systematically yanking Joham's limbs free of his body, while Leah uses her weight to hold the unmoving torso down. She wonders distantly if this scene will give her nightmares, later on. In the moment, she feels no stronger emotion than pride in a job well done.
Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Nahuel intercepting Jennifer and holding her off. A third wolf, whom Leah identifies as Tadi without so much as a second thought, has Serena pinned to the ground with one massive forepaw—a formality, surely, for Serena seems to be unconscious. Jennifer is crying somewhere in the background, subdued by Nahuel.
Leah, can you hear me?
Tadi's voice materializes inside her head. Leah knows instinctively how to answer her.
I hear you, Tadi.
Joham has a group of backup fighters to the north. Jae and Jake, come with me; we will head off Joham's goons. Leah, you stay here and guard Serena. If she tries to escape, kill her; otherwise, let her live. I will be in touch.
In moments, the wolves are gone.
Leah lopes over to Serena. She circles the prone young woman, smelling and listening. Serena's eyes are closed and all of her major joints seem to be dislocated, which is probably why she isn't running away. Just to be safe, Leah settles her whole body on top of Serena's, her front paws on the girl's shoulders, hindquarters comfortably pinning down those white legs. She is so much more massive than this girl, even sitting, that Serena almost disappears beneath Leah's bulk. Serena twitches feebly, but with all her limbs out of joint she really is quite helpless to move. Leah bends her head and thoughtfully licks some blood from her forearm.
Jennifer's vibrating sobs grow to a loud wail and attract Serena's notice. Her face a mask of white-hot fury, she glares over at Nahuel and Jennifer, who stand together a few yards away. Leah glances over too. She can't really tell them apart by sight, but she hears Nahuel's voice coming from one of the figures, addressing the other in exactly the same tone one might use to calm a skittish dog.
With Leah momentarily distracted, Serena makes a desperate bid for freedom, jolting herself out from under Leah's weight with surprising force. She struggles a few yards before Leah leaps on her, and then swipes at Leah's flank with sharp-nailed fingers. Leah, not as used to this four-legged body as to the bipedal model, yelps in surprise and pain as she loses a strip of furry flesh to Serena's raking blow. But Leah gives the pain no more than a second's notice before reaching out to neatly scoop Serena's right eye from its socket with a single claw. Serena collapses, screaming, blood flowing freely from her ruined eye-socket, and Leah settles onto her once more, haunches rounded and fore-paws stretched out before her like a Sphynx. She laps up the eye from the cold ground with her tongue, and swallows it whole.
Serena makes no further escape attempts, and even Jennifer's whimpers subside into frightened silence after this. Distantly, almost academically, Leah reflects on what she's just done. If she ever becomes human again, will the memory of this scene replace the deaths of Sam and Emily in her tortured subconscious? Will this become her new nightmare? Will she even feel remorse? She just murdered a man. She just orphaned these girls.
She just orphaned Nahuel.
Leah looks over at him, and his eyes meet hers steadily; but she is not a human, now, and can no longer read anything in his expression.