CHAPTER 4
Red and Silver
"If you cut him open you aren't going to find your granny inside." Quinn eyed the silver knife speculatively. Something about it made him uncomfortable and it was more than just the silver content.
"Hmph" Gemma snorted. "I sincerely hope not. My granny was a battle axe of a woman who hated everyone."
Ms. Teo let her fingers trail fondly over Gemma's unruly hair. "Baby, I thin' now's de time fer explanations."
Gemma swiped at a tear that had started to trickle down her cheek. "Okay." She slid around so that Eliot's head was pillowed on her knee and she could feel the warmth of him under her hand.
Nate and Julio pulled a couple of kitchen chairs closer to the end of the couch where Sophie, Chrissa, and Ms. Teo had settled. Hardison carried Parker over and cradled her in his lap as he sat on the floor at the other end of the couch. Tyrel settled next to Hardison and gave Parker a gentle scritch between the ears. Quinn had moved to lean against the wall beside Gemma but realized that his wolf was too restless to hold still. He moved behind the others so that he could pace without distracting them.
With all eyes on her Gemma wanted to squirm but she resisted the urge and let her fingers play in Eliot's hair. "I get dreams. Not just the regular kind of dreams. I see things that will happen…"
"In the future? Like a fortune teller?" Nate's eyebrows shot up and Sophie slapped at his arm.
"Not exactly." Gemma ignored Nate's skeptical tone. "Usually it's like seeing a little film clip. I don't know when it's going to happen or why but I recognize it when it does. I've been dreaming about Eliot…"
The wolves could smell the subtle shift in her emotions and everyone could see the pink tint of her cheeks.
"What does this have to do with the big toad sticker?" Julio jutted his chin at the box holding the silver knife.
"Recently, in my dreams, Eliot's alone. He's…" She couldn't look at them all so she focused on Eliot's face. "Parker died and the pack didn't want him anymore so he left."
"But Parker's not dead." Hardison Pulled the big black wolf more tightly to his chest.
"But she's not really in there is she?" Gemma grimaced at the hurt look on Hardison's face. "You can't feel either of them in the pack bonds, can you?"
"But they don't feel dead." Quinn gripped his belly. "I can tell you that the feeling of someone in the pack dying is not something you just don't notice. If either of them were dead we should have felt them die." His whine was wolfish and he closed his blue eyes as he leaned back against the fireplace.
Chrissa looked at the upset wolves and Nate's skeptical face. This conversation wasn't, as far as she could tell, explaining or improving things. "Gemma, are you trying to tell us that they are going to die? Is that why you brought the knife?"
Yellow and blue wolf eyes focused on Gemma and she knew that it was the wolves watching her the same way that their wild cousins would watch a rabbit. Gemma opened her mouth to speak but the look in the wolves eyes froze her in place and she could feel fear slither down her spine.
"Dat knife ain' no natural knife. It be somit dat a houngan might use, or a witch mehbe."
"A witch?" Julio frowned. "Is it something evil?"
"No baby. But it be somethin' powe'ful." She gave Julio a reassuring look. "It da kina thing dat be use eithe way. Could be used for good, could be used for evil. Depen' more on de person who wield it."
"So what's the plan, Red?" Quinn smirked at Gemma and forced his eyes back to their human brown.
"Eliot... I saw this knife in the dream. It was used to force his pack bonds back into place." Gemma swallowed hard and scrunched her fingers in Eliot's hair. "I saw him and Parker and you two," She looked at Hardison and Quinn "running under the full moon together. I can still hear the hunting song, and the moon's singing."
Tyrel eyed Gemma speculatively. He'd only ever heard a wolf talk about the moon with such longing. "How does it work?"
"Ash said…" Gemma didn't get to finish her sentence before Hardison and Quinn both growled.
"We're involving the vampires?!" Quinn leaned over the back of the couch to glare.
Gemma stood up. "Do you want me to tell you what's going on or do you just want to keep guessing?" She wasn't surprised to see Quinn's wolf at the fore again. She knew from her time with the pack and her conversations with Eliot that Quinn had trouble controlling his wolf without a more dominant wolf around.
"Ash is a vampire?" Sophie glanced from face to face.
"Ash is the vampire that Eliot left in charge of the sanguinary in New Orleans." Gemma leaned back against the wall but didn't want to sit while Quinn was still glaring at her with blue wolf eyes.
After a moment, when there weren't anymore interruptions, Gemma continued. "Ash said that he owed our pack and that this would even the debt."
"Our pack?" Nate had caught her casual use of the possessive and wondered what she'd really meant by it.
"If I use the knife to save Eliot and Parker I'll be bonded to the pack." Gemma looked at the toes of her shoes. She didn't want to look up and see that the pack didn't want her.
The toes of Quinn's shoes moved into her field of view and she looked up into gray-brown eyes that meant that wolf and man were both fully present. "Our pack." He pulled Gemma into his chest and hugged her tight. "We'd be lucky to have you."
"So how does this work?" Hardison gently rocked Parker's wolf but gave Gemma a tired smile.
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Eliot noticed the woman's odd enjoyment of the pretzels. Pretzels like the kind in this bar were nothing special and mostly there to make people thirsty so that they would buy more beer.
"What can you tell me about this emerald that you want me to retrieve?" Eliot slid a hand toward the small bowl of pretzels and was unsurprised when she pulled it closer to herself.
"The gem is important to me."
Eliot tried not to roll his eyes. "Yah, I got that." He drummed his fingers on the tabletop. "What I mean is; Do you know where it is currently? Do you know who took it? Any information that I might use to find it?" Eliot arched an eyebrow.
The woman kept her face tilted down, with her silky gray hair hiding her face, but Eliot got the impression that she was watching him intently.
"She said you do that."
Eliot frowned. "Who said that I do what?"
She snorted. "You haven't figured it out yet? That's okay. It's why she's usually in charge."
"Listen lady…" Eliot stood up to leave when her hand shot out and clamped hard on his wrist.
"You have to stop running or you'll break us." She finally looked up at him.
Eliot stopped frozen in place. He could feel all the blood in his body drain to his toes and his sudden descent back into his seat was involuntary. "Parker?"
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"Eliot?!" Quinn's eyes went from blue to brown, back to blue, and he dropped to his knees next to Eliot. With one hand on his belly he reached out with his free hand to check Eliot's pulse.
Hardison's wolf whined and he pulled the big black wolf into his chest burying his face in her fur.
Everyone in the room tensed, leaning toward Eliot. Tyrel shot up and moved in close to Quinn to check Eliot's vitals. "He's okay. Pulse is strong and steady." Tyrell breathed a sigh of relief.
"He's not okay." Quinn grimaced. "He's fading. Something happened and he doesn't feel right." Quinn's hand pressed hard into his own belly.
Tyrel had moved back when it was clear that his medical expertise wasn't immediately needed, and Gemma crouched down next to Eliot. She placed a gentle hand on his shoulder and pulled both of his hands into one of her own.
"He needs us." She smiled fondly at Quinn. "Just like we need him."
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Eliot heard himself say Parker's name but it sounded like a stranger's voice.
"No. Not really." She frowned in that way that always scrunched up Parker's nose. "I don't think I'm her but maybe she's me." She smiled at him as though everything made perfect sense.
"What the hell?!"
"Listen. We don't have a lot of time left." She glanced over at Frank behind his bar and wiggled her fingers in the bowl of pretzels. "You have to get us out of here."
Eliot was still reeling from seeing Parker's face, so he took several deep breaths trying to steady himself. He supposed that it was the lightheadedness and buzzing in his ears that kept him from noticing the two men leave their table to stand at the end of the booth. When he looked up both men were staring at him with smug looks that said they knew exactly what was happening even though Eliot had no idea.
Without asking or being invited both men sat. The man in the pink shirt sat next to Belle. And Eliot wondered if it was the look on Parker's face that finally made the connection clear, but he realized that he was looking at some version of Hardison.
Belle leaned her head onto the man's shoulder. "Pretzels." The word was grumbly and affectionate.
Eliot looked up a little at the sandy haired man next to him. The man's eyes gleamed yellow for a moment in the dim lighting and he cocked his head a little to the side in a wolfish manner. Eliot was trying to see Quinn in this stranger but he couldn't. He was sure that if Parker and Hardison were somehow here then Quinn should be too.
Frank came over and pulled a chair up to the end of the table and he sat while he continued to polish a glass.
As soon as Frank looked at him with his sharp blue eyes, it clicked and Eliot recognized some piece of Quinn in the man.
Again, Eliot looked up at the man next to him. At this distance, he could see the color of the man's hair was several shades of tan, brown, and cream, that came together to create a sandy color. The man's arm brushed his and something warm and familiar swept through him. Suddenly Eliot was quite sure he was looking into the face of his own wolf.
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Gemma brushed her fingers over the knife. "We need to complete a bonding ceremony." She looked up at Quinn and then over at Hardison.
Quinn let a fingertip brush over the spine of the knife blade and felt the sizzle of a silver burn. "Eliot used a blood bond to pull me into the pack." He looked from his burnt finger to Gemma. "But he definitely didn't use a silver knife to do it."
"Ash said…" She paused at the look on Quinn's face and huffed out a breath. "Ash said that the cuts are the same as a bonding ceremony but we don't need the words because I'm not your Alpha and I'm not trying to be."
"He seems to know a lot about werewolf business." Quinn grumbled.
"Just tell us what you need us to do." Hardison moved closer still cradling Parker's wolf.
Gemma looked at Quinn. "You need to move Eliot so that you and I can be on either side of him." She turned to Hardison. "Lay Parker down on her belly between me and you."
Gemma picked the knife up and held it in front of her face studying her eyes in the reflection on the blade for a moment. She closed her eyes and exhaled slowly. As she did magic rippled out, questing through the room.
Quinn sneezed as the scent of magic burned his nose. "You're right. That isn't any ordinary knife."
"Julio would you pray please?" Gemma stood and walked over to Quinn.
His eyes went blue as she stepped closer with the knife in her hand.
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"What?" Eliot stared into yellow eyes that were as familiar as his own blue ones. Eyes that had been reflected back to him ever since escaping the manure pile in Gévaudan, France. "How?"
"If you don't fix this we'll die." Belle leaned into the shoulder of the man next to her.
"What do you mean?" Eliot frowned looking face to face.
"You pushed us away and now we're stuck." The man in the pink shirt didn't take his eyes off of Parker's face. Eliot was even more certain that it was Pretzels, Hardison's wolf.
"No." Eliot shook his head. "No. The pack didn't want me!" he thumped a fist on the tabletop rattling the bowl of pretzels.
"You always hit first." Sparky stared into Eliot's eyes. "You know it's better to hit first so that no one can hurt you."
Eliot felt the words in his chest but he never saw the man's mouth move.
"If she dies, he'll be alone." Belle snuggled into Pretzel's pink shirt. "Wolves aren't meant to be alone."
Hardison's wolf glanced at Eliot before kissing Parker's forehead. "Need them. Need pack."
"Won't, can't, be without them." Again Sparky's words rumbled in Eliot's chest.
"I'm doing my best to run this thing but…" The glass in Frank's hand cracked but he kept polishing it as though he hadn't notice. "what's the point in keeping control if I'm left alone."
"How? How do I fix this?" Eliot looked face to face. "Is the emerald you wanted part of the solution or was that just a way to get me here?"
"The gem is the answer." Sparky leaned a little closer to Eliot.
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Gemma knelt in front of Quinn.
Quinn rolled up his sleeve and held out his arm. "You ever done this before?"
"Bind a whole pack of werewolves to me?" She smirked. "No. This is a first." Her face went pale as Quinn rested his arm in her open palm.
Julio started to pray quietly and the soothing tone and rhythm of his native language mixed with the magic perfuming the air. A perfume that Quinn was unsure anyone else could scent.
Gemma hesitated with the knife over Quinn's forearm.
"If Little Red Riding Hood is going to vanquish the Big Bad Wolf…" Quinn's hand closed over the butt of the knife just behind Gemma's grasp. He bared his teeth at the burn of silver on his palm but continued to force the blade down. "you gotta mean it!"
Gemma gasped but followed through cutting a deep gash into Quinn's arm and slicing down toward his wrist. "Not vanquish. Rescue."
Behind her Sophie gasped and turned away. Chrissa squeezed Julio's hand "Dios Mio" and went back to praying quietly with him. Tyrell hopped up and went for his medical kit.
Gemma moved quickly and this time didn't hesitate as she cut a similar wound into Eliot's wrist.
Quinn used his free hand to help press his wound to Eliot's and keep their arms clasped together.
Gemma hurried to Hardison and Parker and did the same. Hardison's eyes went yellow and he bared his teeth as the silver burned through his skin. Despite the free bleeding wound in his own arm, he held Parker's foreleg for Gemma.
Gemma slashed another cut into Parker's other foreleg and kneeling between Parker and Eliot she cut into Eliot's free arm.
She was just about to turn the knife on herself when Tyrel stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. "Hey. They'll heal up, but if you slit your wrists I might not get the bleeding stopped in time."
"It's okay." She gave him a firm smile. "I already know how this goes. Besides if it doesn't work out I know where I'm going." She hissed as she cut into her left wrist, and she couldn't help the whimper as she switched hands to cut into her right. She set the knife back in its box and quickly pressed her bleeding wrists to Eliot's and Parker's.
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"Okay, so I pushed first. It wouldn't be the first time I screwed up." Eliot waited but no one else said anything. "I don't know how to fix this! How do I find the emerald that's supposed to fix this?"
The door to the bar rattled in its frame and all eyes jerked toward it.
"I have been talking to her." Sparky's eyes lit up and he stared hard at Eliot while the door continued to rattle and bang under the assault coming from the other side. "I knew she would come."
"Who?" Eliot looked from the intense yellow gaze to the cracks spider webbing across the door.
The glass fell to the floor in a glittering shower and Gemma stepped in.
"Eliot!"
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Julio had closed his eyes while he prayed and was unsurprised to smell blood, a lot of blood. There was no way the big knife was going to be involved and there wouldn't be blood.
"Padre Dio, ¿en qué nos hemos tido? Me pidieron que hablara con usted pero no tengo idea de por dónde empezar."
Chrissa laid her hand on his back and a warmth spread through him. Nothing magical or divine exactly, just the comforting touch of his wife.
"Father, our friends need your protection and provision. You can do anything and that knowledge gives us comfort. We ask that this means and method have your blessing. Please bring our friends back to us." Chrissa's quiet prayer faded to a whisper.
Julio thanked God that He'd seen fit to provide Julio with such a wife. Chrissa always seemed to know where to step when he lost his way and she was always there to support him. That feeling of gratitude led him into a prayer of thanksgiving for their friends as well.
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Gemma closed her eyes and at first all she could feel was the pain in her wrists. She took a deep breath and pictured herself reaching out to pick up the glowing ribbons that were the pack bonds. She didn't know if that was how the others thought of the bonds but it was the image that sprang to mind.
The pain in her wrists warmed to a buzz of energy and Gemma felt herself slide. She didn't know how else to describe the feeling as she slipped from an awareness of the room around her, and the pain in her body, into a dark void.
At first, she was scared. The dark always scared her. At the gentle tug at her wrist, she looked down and saw the faintly glowing ribbon she'd reached for before. It tugged and she tugged back. Following intuition and a sense of purpose, she moved through the dark.
She found Eliot curled on his side and she knelt next to him. He was warm and solid under her hands but he seemed to be deeply asleep.
"Eliot." She brushed his hair away from his face. "Eliot!" Patting his face and shaking his shoulder garnered no response either.
"Dear God, what do I do?" Her hand went to the gold cross that Eliot had given her. It was her habit to touch it when she prayed. Especially when she prayed for Eliot.
She unclasped her necklace and bent down to fasten it around Eliot's neck. She couldn't resist the urge to press a light kiss to his lips and his forehead.