Chapter Seventeen

Once again, I woke up to a nagging voice in my head- it was mine this time, yelling at me to get the hell up. This time though, I wasn't in a plush bed. Not by far. I felt cold metal under my almost bare back.

Which led me to four realizations: One, I was strapped to a lab table like one you'd find in a morgue. Two, I wasn't dead (I checked to make sure). Three, I was only clothed in my boy short underwear and my bra and cami. And four, my earpiece and necklace were gone.

Or not gone really since I could see them both on a desk. But very soon my earpiece would be blown to hell because Boris took that moment to smash it with his cane. I could still talk to the Pack (or yell really since the necklace was halfway across the room), but they wouldn't be able to talk back.

"Kaine, good to see those beautiful eyes," Boris smiled at me when he finished smashing the comms unit. He followed my gaze to the broken ear piece, "Yes, such shame you choose now to make me angry. I really thought us friends."

I gagged and just couldn't resist a good jab, "So you treated all your friends in kindergarten to your hospitality by tying them up to a table half naked. Isn't that a rule you teach your child when they're little? 'Now Timmy, being a sexual sadist is only fun in the movies, in real life, it's a very unpleasant thing and creates a great deal of mess-'" I choked off when he hit my throat with the cane, which was still coated in plastic fragments from the necklace. I felt some of them shallowly embed themselves into my skin.

My eyes watered and I fought for breath, "I," cough, "take it you didn't have," cough, swallow, "too many friends in school?"

His eyes were blazing with anger as he looked down at me, "Any guessing why I brought you to this place?"

I grinned, "I thought I covered that theory in my sexual sadist rant." That one only earned me a slap, not a crushed windpipe.

"No Kaine," he started to walk away, and I went wild trying to get the straps off. I couldn't, no matter how hard I tried it wouldn't work. Maybe they had learned after all. "I let you get down to this place because I want to finish what I start seventeen, almost eighteen years ago." He turned back to face me and I instantly stopped thrashing.

"What," I laughed, "you didn't get your kicks off torturing my mom, now you want to go a round with me?"

He sighed like I was a student who was just too dense to understand that when you add 2 and 2 you'll get 4. "It never about your mother, only you. And no, I do not wish to fight you. You can not bait me with such. And to fight would be counterproductive anyway."

He grabbed a syringe and bent down to my arm. I couldn't move, I couldn't even get him within biting range. He stabbed it into my arm and at first I felt nothing. Then the injection site started getting hotter and hotter. Until eventually it felt like there should have been flames shooting from it. I clenched my teeth until they groaned. I squirmed, but didn't give him the satisfaction of making a sound.

He looked at me like it genuinely hurt him to see me in pain, and then he must have sucked it up like a big boy because next I knew his cruel eyes were right above me. "Do you know why I left necklace?" he hissed.

I swallowed, "Because," I forced out, "you think it's hot and wanted to check to see where I got it?" My eyes were watering as the fire started to spread outward. I think I might have even managed a small grin.

"No!" he slapped me across my face for a second time in three minutes, "because I want friends to hear you scream! And for them to know what is next for them! We already know where they are. Tell me, is your mate there?"

I spat up into his face. Oddly, until today I have never been able to do that. Eh, better late than never.

Boris stepped back and wiped my saliva off his face. He forced a triumphant smile onto his mouth. "That is okay Kaine. You understand why? Because that injection will most assuredly kill you. A very slow death." His smile now seemed less forced and he literally pulled up a chair.

I racked my brain through the ever growing pain that was consuming me. Find a way out now Kaine! No need to plan something heroic, just get the hell out! "But," I rasped, "I though we were going to have some fun." I gulped, swallowing the pain, "Poking and prodding and all that shit."

He laughed right in my face then, "Ah, Kaine! I only regret we don't have more time! Such wit in children is hard to find." He leaned forward a bit, "And no Kaine, I already received what I wanted." He waved his hand over to a table. On it was any number of beakers and vials. Most of which had clear liquid and blood. They were mine.

"I see," I started. Before I got anywhere else though, I spasmed. The fire was throughout my whole body. I couldn't help it, I screamed. Bloody murder too. It felt like I was getting sent through a blast furnace. I tried so hard not to feel the pain, not to give this damn mutt the fucking satisfaction. But here I was, screaming like a dumb blonde who'd seen the guy who'd killed all her equally stupid friends in a horror movie.

That's about when I realized that's exactly what my life had become, a damn horror film. I screamed and cussed some more.

"Ah, that's better. Let it out," Boris crooned.

This was so much worse than Changing. I'd rather undergo fifty Changes in a day than this. It was so, so much worse. "Stop this! Stop this! What the hell did I do to you?"

"My dear girl, you did nothing," he stroked my hair.

I twisted my head back and bit his hand for all I was worth. He shook it and slapped me with his other, but I held on. At least it acted like a gag and I no longer screamed. But he sure did.

"Let go you bitch!" he slapped me again. "Let go!"

I smiled around his hand and clamped down harder. The pain in my body lessened. Though it still felt like getting drug through hell and back again.

Boots clomping down the stairs. Just one set. I didn't turn my head to see the new arrival. Figuring they would see me and kill me anyway. Might as well make sure this werewolf wouldn't ever use his hand again.

"Kaine," a steely voice commanded, "stop it."

I aggressively shook my head and ripped off half of the mutt's hand. He screamed so shrilly I would have covered my ears. I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping I was wrong about who stood behind me.

Slowly I opened them again, took in the mutt on the floor, his eyes fluttered, fighting unconsciousness. I turned my head. "Is this what you want, William? Do you want me dead?"

William stood still in my line of vision. Arms at his side, eye twitching slightly. "You have no idea how beneficial his work is."

The fire was fading even more. Maybe this was the end, the last stage of whatever was in my body. "Willy, I never thought I'd be able to say this, but you're so deluded." I managed a weak grin. My body was so tired.

"Am I?" he whispered. Some of his old insecurities seemed to present themselves in his question.

Completely forgetting about everything in the whole world I asked almost too quiet to hear, "What did he do to you?"

William looked at me, considering, "The same thing he did to you, only you weren't alive to feel it. And he made me better. So much better than you."

"Why? Why would you ask to be like me?"

"Because you were my big sister," his eyes got a far away look. "I saw how—" He growled at himself and shook his head. "What did you do to him?" William jerked his head at Boris and his eyes gleamed dangerously.

I couldn't answer though. My mouth stopped working. Everything was getting fuzzy. My ears hurt from the loud noises coming from upstairs. Loud shouting and wails. Growls and thuds. Something like a broken piano.

I blacked out, but not before a tiny voice in my head told me that I should really stop doing this.

Nothing, I felt nothing. I was floating. I saw my body on the metal table. The restraints were off now, a little late for that.

I could hear clearly, no more loud noises. I looked around. William, standing a few yards beside Boris. They were both looking at my body. My still, still body.

I couldn't even say I was mad to realize I was dead. Not at all. My only question was how long. Briefly I thought of the Pack and how they'd react. I hoped they wouldn't be too upset.

"You!" William shook with rage. "You killed her!"

Boris looked over to him calmly, "You wanted this. You told her so yourself."

He was still shaking. "Boris," he said in the same serene and deadly voice I used to use, "do you know the problem with creating something better than you?" He didn't wait for an answer, "When we turn on you, you're dead."

He pounced. William sacked the mutt and they went sliding across the slick floor into the table with all my DNA and blood samples. William straddled the mutt and punched him, over and over. Somehow though, Boris managed to lift his cane in his bloody, torn hand and get the bottom to touch William's side. He squeezed the handle. A three inch long blade popped out and slid cleanly into my brother's side. In surprise, he jumped up and held his bleeding torso.

I wanted nothing more than to join in. Kill this damn mutt and live happily ever after. I pushed and shoved at my body, trying to get my ghost back in. I had to help William.

The brother in question wiped his hands on his jeans and ripped off his t-shirt. He tied it around his waist to stop the blood flow which was a lot heavier than I expected. The mutt was struggling to stand. Even using his now normal cane he couldn't do it.

I shoved harder at my body. My finger twitched.

William walked, though he staggered halfway there, to my body. He checked my pulse. His face contorted in rage and he limped/ran over to a side table. Grabbed those electric paddles and flipped a switch. Before he could act though, the mutt regained his footing. William cussed and threw down the paddles.

He attacked the mutt again. Footsteps thudded around on the floor above us. Someone banged the small metal door. I'm sure I could have gone up to see who it was, but I wouldn't leave. Not William.

Boris hit my brother on his head with the cane. William staggered and blood trickled down his face. Willy swung with his fist and missed. I don't think I've ever seen him hit anything until today.

I had to get back in my body.

I turned back to the fight when I couldn't get anything but another finger to twitch.

Willy managed to land a punch that knocked Boris on his ass. I yelped in glee, even though no one could hear me. The banging upstairs got louder. On his way down to the floor though, Boris managed to open up his knife once again. He thrusted upward and caught William in his right armpit. I shouted and yelled like crazy. That blow could kill right?

William also fell back, his head landing so it pointed to my body. His eyes washed anew with fury. My little brother pushed himself up and descended on the mutt without pausing. With one final swift blow, he punched Boris square in the throat.

The fight was done. William won. I smiled so hard it hurt. Then my face quickly rearranged itself into horror. Boris apparently, wasn't done ruining my life because he lifted his cane in a last ditch effort and stabbed upward blindly. He caught William in the eye. The blade sunk in until all three inches were inside my brother's head.

I screamed until my voice was horse. Until I couldn't scream at all. William thrashed for less than thirty seconds. Then he lay still. Boris also died in a minute.

My ghost self sobbed when I couldn't scream anymore. He was gone. Not just missing, but dead.

The door leading to the stairs crashed open, feet flew down the stairs. I wiped my eyes clear of tears to see Logan, Elena, Clay, Antonio, and Reece. Logan ran past everybody else to get to my lifeless body. Clayton checked pulses on Boris and William.

I pushed against my body again, trying to get back inside. Logan slapped my face gently, refusing to check my pulse when he knew there wasn't anything there. No one said a word in the lab.

"Kaine! We're alive!"

I whipped my head around to see William. He floated an inch or two off the ground. No bloodstains showed on his clothes. A big, innocent smile lit up his face. I shook my head sadly, "No William, we're dead."

He looked around frantically, "Oh my god, Kaine," he whispered, "I never meant it, never meant any of it."

I looked back down at the scene below. Logan looked like he was crying now. "I know Willy. I know."

A tear slid down his cheek.

I slapped on a fake grin, "I say we see what fun we can have in the afterlife."

William smiled a little and looked back at our bodies. Then he looked back to me and his smile broadened. "I will, Kaine, but it looks like you're gonna have to wreck havoc on the living world."

I looked at him confused until he pointed back to my body. I turned around and felt a tug. Logan had the paddles on now and was pressing them against my chest. Both my ghost self and my body spasmed as the electric currant ran through my body. He pulled them back and tried again. The tug was stronger this time.

I looked back at William. He smiled at me, "Go Kaine, I'm the reason all this started, go." He was right, but that didn't mean I wanted to listen to him. He saw my hesitation, "Go Kaine! I don't know how long you'll have the chance. You don't deserve to die now. Mom and Dad need one of us to come back. Go!"

"Willy, I love you so much. None of this was your fault. I'm the stubborn one." I looked wildly between William and the Pack.

"Go," he whispered. I went.

My chest heaved and my eyelids felt too heavy to open.

"Kaine?" the electric shock stopped.

"Mur-bah mmm-hmm," I'm not even sure what that was supposed to mean. I got my eyes to open. Faces hovered above me. Clay. Elena. Antonio. Reece. Logan. And for a split-second, I swear I saw William. I blinked and he went away.

"Kaine, thank god," Logan breathed. He put down the paddles without looking away; as if afraid I'd leave again if he lost sight of me. He reached his hand out and cradled my face. I smiled, even though this whole event was bitter sweet.

"Is," I took a deep breath, "anyone hurt?" I sat up slowly.

Elena shook her head, "Everyone's safe." She looked around again and saw William's body, then winced at her last statement.

I sighed in relief. "I- I want to go home." I refused to look at William. I wanted to remember him as he had been as a ghost; whole, healthy, and peaceful.

Logan nodded and took my elbow, guiding me down off the table. I was able to stand, but I was so shaky. He led me way around the two bodies and up the stairs. I heard Elena softly order Antonio to get William's corpse.

I squeezed my eyes shut until I felt the slap of a cold breeze across my face. I was told to stay there (right outside the front door), while they brought the car around. Clay stood with me. Peaceful silence enveloped us until Clayton spoke up.

He coughed, "If you have any thing left to say to your brother, I'm sure Jaime would be glad to help," Clay told me gruffly, without looking at me.

I glanced over, "No, we already—." Without warning, I tackled Clay to the ground. I have no shame in saying that I normally would never have been able to take Clay by surprise; however, he really wasn't expecting that. An arrow whizzed above our heads just as he pushed me off and opened his mouth to yell.

We both sprung up, looking in the direction of the projectile. A figure ran around the corner of the house. Without thought, we both followed.

I knew who it was; Michael. He was easy to take down. Sure, he was waiting for us around the corner with a baseball bat, but I ducked under his swing and Clay stayed wide. I grabbed him by his knees and Clayton ripped the bat from the vampire's hand and hit his head in a swing that smashed in his face. Michael fell but as we watched, his face was rearranging itself back into proper order.

Clay looked at me, still on the ground. "Go get in the car. I'll take it from here." I nodded and stood. I got a few paces before Clay called to me, "Kaine, thanks."

I nodded again and walked away with a little smile on my face. I think I had just managed to get the Pack enforcer's respect, something I was pretty sure was very hard to do.

The SUV was waiting for me; I opened the door and climbed in. Along with the werewolves who had been in the lab with me, Kat was in here too. Elena, in the driver's seat, looked in the rearview mirror at me, "Clay?"

I gestured behind me, "Taking care of a vampire. Told me to go ahead."

She nodded, "I'll be right back." She climbed out to join Clay in a party of dismemberment.

The people in the car would look at me, and then glance away quickly. I ignored everyone, even Logan, and leaned against the door. I closed my eyes, and before Clay and Elena even got back, I was asleep.

I was woken up when we arrived back at the hotel. Logan walked beside me through the back door and into my room. Someone had thought to grab my duffel from the mutt's house, but I ignored all the clothes inside and just climbed into bed in my cammi and boy shorts that I was still wearing.

I didn't say a word when Logan got in with me. He put his head at the bottom of the bed and his feet stretched up to the top. As if to show me he was here strictly on a professional level. I almost fell asleep like that, but for some reason- I really don't know what possessed me- I swung myself around so my head was at the bottom too. I faced Logan and scooted over until my face was buried into his chest. He wrapped his arm around me and didn't say anything, just stroked my hair. I was too tired to cry, I fell asleep.

When I woke up, I was tucked under the covers with my head back at the top of the bed. Logan lay behind me, with the front of his body pressed up against my back. I looked at the clock on the nightstand beside my bed; it was 7:00. Way too early to get up. I went back to sleep.

I was in a huge columned room. All around me it was white. The room seemed to stretch on forever, never ending.

However vast and interesting the room was though, my attention was immediately drawn to the tangle of yarn criss-crossing and zigzagging around the room. The main concentration of it was directly behind a little girl on a dais with a huge loom. But then the girl changed to a middle-aged woman. A few seconds later, an old crone. Each female did something with the yarn; measure, snip, weave, measure snip, weave.

I stood there who knows how long, completely transfixed by the process. That is, until I was snapped out of it by a woman as tall as I was, with just as dark hair. Only she had blue eyes and wasn't in her underwear. She wore jeans and a wife beater tank top. On her hip she wore a sword. A BIG sword. It kind of glowed too.

She folded her arms over her chest, "Hello, I'm Eve, and if you don't quite staring at my sword I'll have to hurt you."

I looked her up and down, knowing I really didn't have it in me to fight. But I never let a threat go unchallenged.

Eve suddenly smiled brightly, "Ah, about time I get someone who doesn't cower!" She looked over her shoulder, "those are the Fates, they want to talk to you."

I looked back at the weaver, the crone this time. "Wait, the Fates? Where the hell am I?"

Eve rolled her shoulder distractedly, "In the afterlife." She saw my expression and added, "But you're not dead."

I nodded like I understood and walked up to the middle-aged woman who cut the yarn. Eve walked beside me.

"Eve," the crone's voice was… weird. I don't know how else to describe it. "You may go. We will—"

She changed into the little girl and continued to talk— as if nothing happened- in that weird voice. Only it was higher this time, "—summon you later to talk about another job."

Eve grimaced and turned to me, "Sorry kid, gotta go," and she disappeared.

I stood still, feeling uneasy. Were the Fates going to like, maybe, smite me or something for escaping death?

The little girl laughed in a childish voice, then became the middle-aged woman who spoke gently to me, "We do not smite people, Kaine Arden."

"Good to know," I muttered.

The hag peered down from the dais at me, never stopping her weaving. The little girl spoke up, "It's almost a shame you are not dead. You would make a lovely angel."

"I am not sure, sister," the middle Fate said, "she is as stubborn as Eve."

"True, true," said the hag.

I was getting dizzy watching them change form like that, "Umm… Fates? Could you tell me what I'm doing here?"

"As impatient too," the girl murmured. "You are here—"

The middle Fate took over, "—because you were supposed to die yesterday."

I barked a laugh, "Is that so? I really couldn't have guessed." Oh God, I had just sassed a Fate. That had to be a sin or something.

They pretended not to notice my rudeness (for which I am grateful). The crone's turn, "However, you did not."

"My sisters and I," the little girl spoke, "revaluated your past and future. Pondering rather we—"

"—should force you to return to the afterlife."

A whole cycle of changes went by before they spoke again.

"What lies behind is clear, However our forward—"

The middle-aged Fate continued, looking kindly at me, "—sight is foggy. If you stay on this path, you'll make a great contribution—"

"—to the werewolf world. The wrong path and you'll destroy it."

"So no pressure or anything," I mumbled.

The girl peered up through her lashes, "We normally do not tell the living these things, Kaine, but you are special."

Hmm… getting called 'special' by a Fate, compliment or insult?

I though about that until the hag said I could leave now. I stared at them in incredulously, "So you brought me to the afterlife to tell me I'm allowed to live?"

The hag nodded and the little girl added innocently, "And that you might destroy the werewolves."

"Uh-huh, right. Well a Hallmark card would have sufficed." I blinked and uncrossed my arms, "So if you could just send me on back to my body, I'll… uh… get right on not annihilating the world." This whole experience was just weird. I just wanted to go back to bed and wake up next to Logan.

And I did. My eyes snapped open and there I was, curled up beside Logan, my face against his side. I looked behind me at the clock, 7:14. Figures, that whole ordeal lasted less than fifteen minutes.

I sighed, rolled over, and stretched. Logan felt me move and woke up too. He opened his eyes and looked at me with those perfect, blue orbs.

He reached over and fingered my neck. He pulled his hand back to reveal a plastic shard from Boris' cane. I grimaced, and pulled out another one, "I should go take care of this."

I threw back the covers and walked into the adjoining bathroom with only mild embarrassment at still being only in my underwear. I picked all the plastic out of my neck with the use of a mirror and a pair of tweezers that I thought belonged to Kat. Seventeen pieces went into the garbage can.

I walked back out to see Logan still in the bed. He was looking up at the ceiling. Neither of us said a word as I grabbed my bag and went back into the bathroom.

I cranked the cold water, undressed and stepped into the shower.