Chapter Eighteen

As I walked back into the bedroom Logan was pulling a clean hoodie over his blond head. "Are the rest up yet?" I questioned, breaking the short silence.

Logan shook his head, "Don't think so."

"Right." We stood there uncomfortably for a moment longer. My dream flashed back suddenly, "Logan, can I ask you a couple questions?"

He nodded and sat down on the desk chair. I made the bed to keep my hands busy.

"Is it normal to be taken to the Fates in a dream?"

Out of the corner of my eye I saw his eyes widen. "What?" he sputtered.

"That bad?" I sighed and sat cross-legged on the newly made bed.

Logan shook his head, "You never cease to amaze me."

I gave a half-smile, "I try my best."

His eyes took on a curious gleam, "What happened in it?"

"I'd rather only tell it once." I listened for any sign someone was awake. It sounded like a few people were just getting out of bed.

"Okay then. You said you had more questions?" He picked up the hotel pen and stationary and started doodling.

I picked at a loose red thread on my long sleeved shirt, "How long was I dead?"

At my bluntness Logan winced and set down the paper, "Long enough," he muttered gruffly. Then louder he said, "I don't know, I wasn't there when it happened." He sounded like it was entirely his fault.

I groaned dramatically, "You're not going to be one of those guys are you?"

He raised an eyebrow, "Those guys?"

I rolled my eyes, "The ones that blame themselves every time their girlfriends break a nail. They're all angsty. Some guys look hot in angst, you however, do not."

He grinned, "You're my girlfriend?"

I glared, "Didn't say that."

"Of course not," he teased.

We stared at each other for a long moment, before simultaneously standing up and taking a large step across the room. Logan wrapped me in his arms, "I'm so incredibly happy you're alive."

"Me too," I murmured into his shoulder. I pulled back and looked into his ocean blue eyes. I leaned in and slowly placed my mouth on his.

When we kissed it was so much more wonderful than before. This one had so much relief and passion in it that before I knew it my hands were tangled up in his soft blond hair and his hands were pressed against my lower back. It was all so natural yet at the same time foreign.

I don't know how long we stood there kissing each other, but when Logan finally pulled back we were both panting. His mouth was in a big goofy grin (probably matching my own), and his eyes shone with excitement and something else. Standing this close I could see silver specks in his blue eyes I'd missed before, they made him even more interesting if it's possible. Along with the silver, I also saw quite a few pink, almost healed scars across his face and neck.

"Where'd these come from?" I fingered one.

"Yesterday," he answered, while tucking a stray piece of black hair behind my ear.

"At least they're almost healed," unlike mental scars, physical ones healed fast in the werewolf world. So by tomorrow all my cuts and scrapes would fade, but all my memories of William and the mutt would last forever. I shook my head to fling the thoughts out, "What happened to Sasha?"

Logan grimaced and let go of me to grab a note from the desk, "He ran away before we could get him, he left this."

I took the note from his hand. Most of it was in Russian, something I hoped Roman would translate for me later. The rest though, was in rough, badly shaped English;

Kaine,
Forgive my actions, please. I had reasoning at the time, though I never have hope for you to understand. Perhaps if we met again I try to explain to you. Know your parents loved you greatly and that I am so very sorry for your parent's death, he was brother to me, and she my sister.
Sasha

"That bastard," I growled.

Logan rubbed my shoulder sympathetically, "We'll get him. And if we can't find him before we leave, I'm sure the Russians will hunt for him."

I grunted and threw the note on the desk. "Let's go get breakfast before everyone wakes up. I don't feel like sitting still." It was true, I was fidgety and hungry, a dangerous combination for a werewolf.

He grinned, "How about a run instead, maybe catch a rabbit, stretch our legs?"

"There's a forest in Manchester?" I asked sarcastically.

"No, but I'm sure we could find one somewhere." He smiled and tugged on a piece of blue hair, "Come on, I know you haven't Changed in a while."

I really needed to learn how to resist that smile, "Sure, why not. Better than Changing in the middle of our flight back."

Logan leaned down and planted a quick kiss on my lips, then bounced away, "No one can refuse my charm."

I laughed and used my legs to swipe his out from under him. He crashed to the floor and was up before I knew he was down, "Yup, no one."

He glared at me and started toward me, only stopping when Hope's voice floated in the room, "You are so right! They are so cute together!"

Logan's and my head both whipped around to see Hope laughing with Kat. I blushed and glared. I'm pretty sure Logan did the same.

"Sorry to interrupt you guys, but mom and dad want you in the dining room," Kat winked at us and her and Hope turned around and left. I quickly followed, not bothering to see if Logan was following. When we entered the dining room, I noticed everyone was awake and waiting.

"How are you, Kaine?" Roman asked. His eyes were bloodshot. I looked at the twins and noticed the same expression, only their eyes were red and puffy also. They looked like they'd been crying, probably because of Sasha.

"I'm… okay," I answered, flashbacks from my captivity flipping through my head.

"Good," Elena responded.

Jeremy spoke up from where he was standing, "Kaine, if you could tell us what happened?"

I nodded, took a deep breath, and started in on my story starting from where I had gotten in the Mutt's car. I ended it when I reentered my body after I'd died.

As soon as I finished, Kat leaned forward across the table we were all seated at enthusiastically and asked, "What was it like to be dead?"

Logan grumbled and shot Kat a look, "Do we really need to talk about this?" he muttered.

I ignored him, "I don't know, it was… different. I couldn't really feel much."

Kat nodded, "When we get back to Stonehaven I'd like to ask you some questions, for my notes."

"I thought you already asked Lucas and Paige about their experience, why do you have to talk to Kaine?" Logan whined. Geesh, he really is too overprotective.

His twin glared at him, "But they're of the magical races, not a werewolf. Besides, it's fresh in Kaine's mind." Logan glared back and they launched into an argument.

"Kaine," Elena said, breaking my attention from the twins, "Do you know what he gave you?"

"No idea, but it hurt like hell," I grimaced at the memory. Then I noticed the look on their faces, "Why? You think it could still be in my body?"

Jeremy nodded, "It's possible."

Elena leaned toward me and sniffed the air by my neck, "You do smell different."

I groaned, "Great. Just freaking great."

"Don't worry, if it hasn't killed you yet, I doubt it will," Nick piped in.

"Gee, thanks," I grumbled.

Nick grinned.

Elena spoke up, "You should pack, we're leaving at noon for the airport."

"Can I take a run first? I need to Change." Since Logan brought it up, I realized just how long it really had been. And it sounded really good right now.

The Pack Alpha nodded her head, "It's eight now, you have time."

I sensed we were being dismissed to do as we wanted, but I still hadn't talked about my dream. "One last thing," I said, calling attention back unto me.

"Yes?"

"I- I had this dream last night. I woke up in this huge white room with this woman named Eve staring at me," At the mention of Eve, several people's interest levels went up a notch. "She said the Fates needed to talk to me," I kept talking, but nothing came out. Not a sound. The people in the room looked at me weirdly.

"Kaine?" Logan asked me. Jeremy had his head titled, but with a knowing look, like he had already half worked out what was going on.

"Yeah?" I said, with actual volume. No one said anything. "Why can't I talk about it?" I looked around the room.

Before anyone could answer, a phone started to ring. Kat pulled a cell phone out of her pocket and tossed it to Jeremy after checking the display, "It's for you."

He answered, "Hello Jaime."

"Hi!" a breathless female voice answered. "Hang on, I'm telling him!" she hissed, I was starting to get confused. "Sorry about that. Anyway, I'm in the middle of a five-minute break in the show, so I can't talk long. Is there a," pause, "Kaine with you?"

Everyone looked at me oddly, probably thinking the same thing I was, 'what the hell has she gotten herself into now?' Jeremy said yes and tossed the phone to me, "Hello?"

"Kaine, I have a… visitor… Eve." My eyes widened slightly, and my memory flashed back to the lesson on supernaturals Kat had given me. Jaime, Jaime the necromancer? Was that who I was talking to? That would make Eve dead. Sounded sane enough for me.

"Eve? The-" my voice cut off again of its own accord.

Jaime sighed, "That'd be the one. Anyway, she wanted me to tell you that you can't talk to anyone about what you saw. It's a cosmic law thing, sorry."

"But what if it's really important?" I mean, saving/destroying the werewolves falls under important right?

"They never seem to think about that, do they?" she said exasperatedly, my confusion was growing. "Sorry, but I don't know what to say. Sometimes you can find loopholes. Try that," she recommended.

"Okay, I'll work on it. Thank you, it was nice to meet you."

I could almost hear her smile, "No problem, nice to meet you too, bye!" I hung up the phone and handed it to Kat. "Okay then, I'll ah…" I trailed off, completely absent of ideas.

"You could charade it?" Kat suggested.

I looked at her like she was crazy, "There's a reason I'm not in drama club."

She mocked hurt, "I was trying to help."

"Humph."

"We can guess?" Roman spoke up from beside Elena.

I nodded unsurely, "You could try."

The werewolves looked at each other, unsure where to begin. Clayton broke the silence first, "Was it a warning or a certainty?"

"Warning."

"If you do something wrong, you'll be sucked back into the afterlife?" Nolan guessed.

"No," this was already really frustrating. I knew what they needed to say, but I couldn't help.

"One of the enemies is still alive?"

"No," besides Sasha, my eyes flickered to Roman, Lev, and Grigori. The twins had their eyes down, as if ashamed. Roman's face remained stoic.

"There's still poison coursing through your body?"

I shook my head and looked around the room helplessly. All that was in the room was a painting of a wolf on the wall (kind of ironic), another picture of Einstein, and a vase full of flowers. There really wasn't much to help here. I thought of retrieving a pen and paper and try writing it, but I figured it would probably combust or something.

"Whatever mutations they did on you still haven't shown?"

"No."

"Are we close?" Kat asked, patience wearing thin.

"Not even in the right ballpark." Something, there had to be something I could use. Then my wonderful, lovely brain thought up the million dollar idea, if only it would work. I walked past half the room's occupants to the wall with the wolf painting. I took it down and threw it to Logan, then moved over a bit to get the Einstein one. I put both pictures on the table, and then looked down on them, trying to figure out what to do next. "Okay, let's see. Oh! Okay, what are we?"

"Werewolves?" Nolan answered a little unsure. The question was so easy, I would have done the same.

"Yup," I grinned. Then I took my finger and made a big X on the painting of the wolf. I looked up at the faces around me expectantly.

"Kill a wolf?"

I shook my head and gestured around the room.

"Kill a werewolf."

"Close," I exaggerated a slow circle with my arm at the people in the room.

"Kill all of us?" Clay growled.

"Good. What'd Einstein do?" Maybe this would work.

"E=MC2?"

"Invented the atom bomb?"

"Think broader," I coaxed.

"He was a scientist."

"He added a basis of knowledge to the scientific community of the time," Clay said, going all PhD on us.

"But he did what? Begins with a c-," I managed to get the first sound of the 'c' out before I was cut off.

They thought for a moment before Lev said something in Russian. I had been too preoccupied to realize Roman was translating our conversation.

Roman turned to us English folks, "He say 'contributions'."

My face lit up in a smile, "Leave it to the Russian speaking guy. Yeah, that's right. Now put it all together."

"Someone is going to kill all the werewolves?"

"Or…" we were almost there.

"Make a contribution!"

"Yes!"

"But who?" Logan looked at me.

I looked down ashamed, trying to think fast. If I told them the truth, that I had to make the choice, I could only imagine what would happen. If it was a choice between my life and every other werewolf, I didn't have much doubt at what would be decided. But I had two options didn't I? To save the werewolves or kill them. But would they trust me to make the right one? Did I trust myself? Maybe it was selfish, but I had this weird wish of wanting to continue my life.

So, with a quick decision that would undoubtedly come back to bite me in the ass, I shrugged in an ineloquent gesture of 'I don't know'.

Everyone in the room sighed. Some following with a variation of, "That's all you know?"

I nodded, "They just wanted to warn me."

A few moments of silence followed during which everyone digested what they had learned. Elena looked around the room and then her eyes passed again over me, "Go for your run. We should tie up our loose ends and head for the airport."

I'm pretty sure that was code for: leave, we have to talk about stuff you shouldn't hear. As much as I wanted to know what would be said, I was starting to sweat, a sure sign of an imminent Change.

One last look at all the unreadable faces in the room and I turned to leave. When I made it about ten feet, I heard footsteps behind me and smelled the wonderfulness of Logan. He fell into step beside me. We were quiet as we headed out to the main lobby to the street outside. As we passed through the lobby though, the door behind the check-in counter was open. The owner sat inside, watching a small T.V.

"A historic mansion three hours outside Manchester burnt down late last night. It was currently occupied by a large family of the surname Jonson. All fourteen members were killed in the fire. The local fire chief is ruling it as an accident, a severed gas pipe that was accidently ignited…" The woman reporter droned on. A picture of the house I was held captive in flashed on the screen. It changed to one of the same house burnt to the ground.

I looked at Logan, who nodded at my unasked question. Yes, they had been the ones to catch the house on fire, to cover up their tracks. I couldn't even find it in myself to care. Those mutts deserved what they got.

Without another glance at the T.V., I hurried outside, eager to find some woods. Since I had no idea what car keys Logan had, I let him lead me to the blue SUV I was taken back to the hotel in yesterday. He waved the keys in front of my face and raised an eyebrow, "You wanna drive?"

"No, I don't know if I even could." I should never have waited this long. I was way too close to Changing for my comfort.

Logan nodded his head, opened the passenger door for me, and jogged around the car, sensing the urgency in my voice. He wasted no time in pulling away from the curb, and speeding away from the center of the city. I pulled my jacket off, getting too hot. My muscles were getting twitchy and I was panting from the heat.

"Just calm down and focus on not Changing. It shouldn't be that hard to find some trees," Logan said soothingly.

I looked around and spotted a business owner unlocking her clothing shop for the day. "Logan, pull over and ask that lady. Tell her we're looking for a camping spot."

With the common male grunt of complaint at asking directions, Logan complied and pulled over to the curb. He hoped out and approached the woman who looked up in curiosity at the sound of the car door opening.

"Excuse me ma'am. My girlfriend and I were wondering if you could tell us where the nearest campsite is," Logan kept his distance from the middle-aged woman, but was nothing but polite, something I was sure he didn't learn from his father.

The lady looked past him to me, I managed to control my muscles long enough to give a polite wave. "There's a park about fifteen miles south, if you're just looking for some fresh air. The nearest forest is quite a bit farther I'm afraid."

Logan smiled, "Thank you, we appreciate your time." Then he half jogged over to the SUV and practically floored the gas when he looked at me.

I managed a ragged laugh, "Oh come on, I can't look that bad."

He grimaced, "Well if I could say you did without getting hurt, I'd tell you the truth, that you look awful." My boy wonder looked around helplessly. "Don't you ever go this long in between Changes ever again. It only makes things more painful and harder. If this wasn't a damn rental, I'd park the car and tell you to Change in the back."

Rolling my eyes, I said, "Jesus Logan, I'll be fine. It'll be like five more minutes. Three if you don't slow down."

He grunted and remained silent. Finally, just when I thought I'd literally burst, I saw the tops of trees. Then we crested a little hill and I saw a broad expanse of green grass and some bare trees. Trails cut through the thin trees, until towards the back the trunks thickened into almost a forest. Logan parked in the lot and ran to my door. He helped me out and to hobble to a trail. Luckily, at this early in the morning, there were only a couple joggers, all of whom we managed to avoid.

We finally managed to get to the thicker section of trees. Once we got pretty far in, I promptly stripped to my underwear and cammi. At which point I glared at Logan until he got the message to turn around. I finished undressing and dropped to my knees just as I started to vomit.

My back arched and my bones started to crackle. Fingers changed into claws and dug into the cold, hard earth. My skin itched as black hair sprouted out. I cried out in pain and Logan shhh-ed me from a few feet away. As the last few bones in my body changed into those of a wolf, I collapsed. My tongue lolled out and I lay on the frosty ground, trying to work up enough energy to move.

"I'm turning around," Logan warned me. I had to work to understand what he was saying. I guess my wolf brain wasn't fluent in English. When he turned around to see me, his face lit up in a grin. I cocked my head in a 'what?' sort of way.

He laughed and shook his head, "You just look so cute with those big eyes."

I growled and lifted up my lip in a snarl as if to say, 'Yes, and my fangs are pretty cute too.'

He gestured to some trees a couple yards away, "I'm going to go Change. Be out in a minute."

I grunted and closed my eyes for a minute or two. It must have been longer than that though, because I woke up to Logan nudging me in my shoulder with his wet nose. Quietly growling at being woken up, I forced my joints to cooperate long enough to get me standing. The blonde wolf in front of me nipped at my legs and then bounded back, then did the same again.

The third time he tried it, I leaped on him and managed to gently bite the soft flesh of his stomach. He squirmed until I let go and shot off like a rocket. Before I could even think about it, I was speeding after him. I saw his yellow tail swinging in through the brush and pushed myself harder. My feet were flying over the ground, jumping over logs, taking me far faster than I'd ever run before. The fact that there were people only a mile away hardly even registered in my mind.

I was free. No more being stuffed into a classroom with kids who were scared of me. No more fighting people that I could beat hands down. No more getting strapped to lab tables. No more little brother to worry about when he came home with bruises for being a nerd.

I stopped dead in my tracks, locking my forelegs to slow me down. What was I thinking? "No more little brother." How could I be happy with this? William was one of my only friends. Sure he was a pain in the ass sometimes, but he was theoretically my flesh and blood.

While I was struggling with my conscious, Logan came back and sat on his haunches in the middle of my line of sight, looking at me curiously. Probably wondering why I had cut our game of tag short.

I was just about to pantomime that nothing was wrong when the wind shifted. The chilly breeze brought with it a scent I knew too freaking well. Logan caught it too and his hackles rose.

Following Logan's lead, we stalked downwind and followed the bastard's scent. A few times we came pretty close to a trail that a jogger was running, but for the most part, we stayed in the middle of the large patch of trees.

The trail stopped at a small clearing. Inside was a very built yellow wolf. As he turned, I caught a few patches of gray fur. He was standing over something. Something disgustingly human shaped. My brain took no time at all in registering the fact that there was a dead, bloody, woman at Sasha's paws. She was in a jogging suit with her brown hair pulled back into a pony tail. At her throat was a massive gash that had practically severed her head from her shoulders. A few other parts of her were also torn, as if something had been gnawing on her. Even my wolf self gagged at the realization Sasha was in the middle of breakfast.

I let out an involuntary snarl before I could stop myself, Sasha's head whipped around to face me. His muzzle was the most awful shade of red, with pink froth bubbling from his lips. His eyes almost glowed and were a scary color of silver. Look up the definition of rabid in the dictionary, and you'd see a picture of Sasha.

Meal forgotten, he charged Logan and I. Logan tackled me from the left just as Sasha would have bowled into me. Logan jumped off of me and crouched in between me and Sasha. I shouldered him aside to look at the obviously very sincere (sarcasm implied) man who had written that apology Logan had shown me. I mean really, was he that dumb that he couldn't even think to leave the country before dinning?

Said man growled at me more feraly than I'd ever heard from anything before and leaped. That was when I came to the conclusion that Sasha was very much so insane. Here Logan and I are, two werewolves in our prime, and he decides to just pounce away at us. So, as you likely suspect, we met the attack head on. Well, Logan did anyway, right after he shoved me away. It was so unexpected that I rolled and sprung back up ready to fight the wrong wolf. I quickly regained my thoughts and decided later rather than now would be a better time to cuss out Logan for trying to protect me.

I set about looking for an opening where I could get to Sasha. You would know how hard that task was if you've ever seen a dog fight. Only werewolf fights are much faster and brutal than that. And then to add to my dilemma, both fighters were blond, making it incredibly hard to identify them from only flashes of recognizable features.

During my futile quest, Sasha was able to get the upper hand. For, as it turns out, sometimes blind rage is a good tactic. Sasha pinned Logan under his weight, and bit his underbelly. Seeing my opening, I tackled him off of Logan so we sailed clear into the underbrush. But as I did so, Sasha tore out that chunk of flesh from him. An earsplitting howl echoed through the small wood and it broke my heart to hear it. If I didn't have enough excuses before to kill Sasha, I sure did now.

We landed and rolled to get back up onto our paws. I'd never fought in wolf form, so I didn't go for anything fancy, hoping the rage thing would work for me too. So through my red tinted vision I leaped at Sasha. Instead of dodging like I would have, he jumped at me like I expected. I managed a glancing grab of my teeth at his throat before we crashed back to earth. I was almost instantly pinned beneath his weight like Logan, but I was able to squirm loose before he could bite me.

I'd barely regained my footing before he attacked me again. I dodged and grabbed his hind leg in my jaws. I yanked and he fell to the ground only to copy me and bite my leg. The unexpected pain caused me to yowl and let go of my grip. Sasha stood up and this time I was yanked to the ground. All I had to do was feint towards his injured leg and he let go of mine to jump away.

God that hurt like an SOB! I could feel warm blood trickling down the fur and it buckled if I put too much weight on it. My only consolation was that it seemed to be hurting Sasha just as much. I couldn't give it time to get any worse. I growled and circled Sasha once before feinting at his side. He didn't react like I'd planned and instead went straight for me. I quickly angled myself so that I could reach in between his paws and grab his neck when he got to me.

Sasha entered in the small target area where I could kill him. I lifted my paws to scratch him and to bide time before I could get my muzzle up. My head turned upwards and clamped around his throat, I ripped it from his neck with a surprisingly instinctive twist and shake of my head. Blood went everywhere.

His limp form slumped to the ground and I sat back, looking at it. I guess I was kind of in shock that I had killed something that was once just like me 'cause the only thing running through my canine brain at this point was 'huh, well that's gonna leave one helluva mark in the morning.' Only Sasha wasn't going to wake up in the morning. I had killed him, solved the problem, dug his grave, terminated him, kicked his bucket for him, a bunch of other phrases that all meant I had ended a human being's life.

Honestly though, when I caught another whiff of the dead jogger, I can't say I regretted doing it. Sasha had caused so many problems, ended so many lives (almost my own too) that he deserved it.

I didn't stay around his body long enough for any more contemplation to take place because with the smell of the jogger came a whimper from Logan. I limped back to where he was last and found him almost human. I averted my eyes for the last Changes to take place and when I looked back he was curled into a ball, with his back facing me. I hobbled the last few paces and nudged his back with my nose.

"Go Change Kaine, I'm fine," he sure as hell didn't sound fine. I was about to argue that I wouldn't leave him when I realized I wouldn't be of any help without opposable thumbs. So I hightailed it- as much as you can with a bum leg- back to my clothes (turns out we hadn't really gone very far) and commenced my Change.

Since I was rushing it hurt a lot worse than it should have, but I had no choice. The minute I was done I barely stopped for breath before pulling on my jeans and sports bra, then my cammi; all of which was done on the ground because it hurt to stand on my left leg. I grabbed a stick from nearby and used it as a crutch. I shuffled over to Logan's pants and flung them over my shoulder after I grabbed the cell from the pocket.

Wasting no time, I dialed as I hobbled back to Logan. "Logan?" a man answered over the phone.

"Antonio!" he was the first name in Logan's address book that was Pack. "Logan, he's hurt. We ran in to Sasha in the park, he got bit in the stomach." Almost there, I could here Logan moaning.

"Kaine, where are you?" He was speaking calmly to me even as I could hear him move the phone away from his mouth to bark orders at someone.

"At a park," I racked my brain for a name or address, "Somewhere at the edge of Manchester." Since I couldn't remember seeing a name, I went for the next best thing, "From the hotel take a left, right, right, drive through the light, left, drive through four stop signs, another left, another light, one more stop sign, and then turn right into the park entrance. We're back in the wooded section."

"Good Kaine, we're on our way." He hung up even as I heard the front door slam.