25. Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Four
B ile rose in Riley’s throat. It wasn’t the dead body a few yards away, half covered by brush, that got to him, although that didn’t help anything. It was Cass, covered in blood. He was mostly a wolf, but not entirely. Standing bipedally like a human, the rest of him was a wolf. Fur covered his body, but blood matted it down. So much blood. His shoulder and neck were gnarled. Seeing all that pink flesh exposed and torn up as if a shark had bitten him instead of wolves, was what brought on the urge.
He thought for sure he’d lose his stomach contents, but tears flowed and instead, emotion clogged his throat.
The instinct to go to him was overwhelming. He started to, but Dad grabbed him, holding him back. “He needs you to fight for him. Can you do that?”
The desperation in Dad’s voice broke through Riley’s panic, making it possible for him to think about how he could save Cass’s life. He stopped fighting against his dad’s hold and listened. “What do I do?”
Riley never fought a day in his life, although he knew how to protect himself. He came from the not-so-great part of the city where carrying mace was a necessity. Muggings and assaults happened fairly regularly in his old neighborhood. But he’d never been a victim.
“You know how to create fire. Use it.”
Riley didn’t know what to do with a small flame. He didn’t have time to think about it because the wolf in the back shifted into a human. Alpha Miller was naked, which made him seem out of place.
“Attack them,” the man yelled. He was definitely the alpha. Riley remembered him from before.
Cass swayed as if he’d fall over at any moment, but he seemed to brace himself for the attack. Four wolves surrounded him, growling and snarling. Four more lay on the ground. One tried to get up but couldn’t.
Dad chanted, and the next thing Riley knew, something shimmered around Cass. It happened at just the right moment because Cass swayed a little too hard to the left and fell.
Two wolves went after him, and at the same time, two more ran for Dad and Riley.
Instinct kicked in. He ignored everything but saving himself and the two people he loved. He stepped in front of his dad for reasons he couldn't explain, protecting him from the wolves.
“Riley!” The frustration was real in his dad. But he chanted and threw something over Riley’s shoulder. One wolf froze mid-attack.
The flame was a natural extension of himself. It appeared as if Riley held a lighter. And when the flame grew into a ball of fire, it came from instinct. Riley threw it at the closest wolf.
The fire seemed to suck up the wolf. There was no other way to describe it. One minute, the wolf was there, and the next, he was gone in a giant whoosh. It was as if the wolf had never existed.
The wolves ran at Cass but bounced off the protective field Dad had created, yelping as they landed on the ground.
Cass got to his feet, but Riley could tell he wouldn’t stay that way for long.
Dad took action. He pushed Riley behind him, throwing magic around as though he were playing basketball. It was freaking amazing. He had two wolves in some sort of shiny magical bindings. Two were too injured to be a threat. He made the rest freeze.
They all shifted simultaneously, making Riley think maybe Dad had forced them to shift into a human somehow.
As soon as Riley stepped toward Cass, something slammed into him, knocking the breath out of him when he landed on his back.
He stiffened when he felt teeth on his neck. The wolf was heavy as it stood on his body.
It had to be the alpha. He must have shifted to a wolf again.
Cass roared, which made the wolf tighten its jaws.
Riley shut his eyes and waited for his teeth to sink in. But then Cass said, “Fight me. Leave him alone.”
“No. No, please. Please.” Riley didn’t know he was going to say it until the words were out of his mouth. All he knew was Cass wouldn’t survive a fight. He could barely stand up. Riley couldn’t let him do it.
A gun clicked, as if someone cocked it back, taking aim. It had to be his dad.
The wolf on top of him shifted. When its teeth left his throat, Riley sighed in relief. But then the alpha pulled Riley to his feet. The alpha used him as a shield, threatening to kill him with the claws on one hand.
“If you shoot me, I’ll kill him. You don’t want your son’s blood on your hands, do you?”
“You’re done, Miller. Give up.” Dad never wavered. He seemed as if his energy waned. Riley couldn’t figure out why until one wolf, who had been bound by magic, moved.
The wolf shook off the effects of the magic as if he were shaking water from his fur.
Dad shook his head. “I can’t hold it.”
Riley had heard his dad chant the words enough times. He thought he could conjure the spell. As soon as he said the words, a shield shimmered around him and the Alpha.
“Shit.”
The alpha chuckled. “Well, aren’t you helpful?”
Riley pictured the shield coming down, and then it did. He didn’t have to use his words.
Dad sucked in a breath, but his surprise took a backseat to having his gun trained on the alpha.
The wolf bared its teeth.
“Take down the deputy first. I’ve got the sheriff and his son.” The alpha said it as if he were smiling. Since Riley’s back was to his front, he couldn’t say for sure.
The wolf snarled at Cass, stalking him. When it lunged, it went for Cass’s throat where his neck already resembled hamburger.
Riley tried to get away, but the alpha’s hold tightened. He didn’t know he cried out or that he screamed until it rang through the forest. The sound became tangible, touching everything in thick waves, like metal sailing through the air.
When Riley pictured it in his mind, everything froze except for him. Even the sound wave stopped moving. The wind froze on his command.
Riley tore himself away from the Alpha, falling to his hands and knees because of the momentum.
“Cass.” He couldn’t see through his watery tears. He still managed to get to his feet and made his way to Cass. He pushed the sound waves away like water. The wolf came next. He hadn’t bitten Cass yet, so Riley didn’t have to worry about hurting Cass as he pushed on the wolf.
The wolf hung in the air a few feet from him.
Riley’s hands shook as he touched Cass. He hesitated to touch his wound. His hands shook. “Oh god, Cass.”
He was bad off, and Riley didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know how to help Cass or how to fix him.
He didn’t know how to make things move again. He wasn’t even sure how he did what he did.
Riley waded through the waves to his dad. He pictured his dad moving again. That seemed to work before.
Except nothing happened. He touched his dad’s arm.
“I don’t know what to do. Dad.” He tightened his hold, leaning on him for support. “I need you.”
Dad’s body softened. Dad put an arm around Riley but kept his gun trained on the alpha. He scanned the area. Twice. And then turned to Riley, meeting his gaze. “You did this?”
Riley shrugged. “I don’t know. I think so. That wolf was going to kill Cass and I…I panicked.”
His dad blinked at Riley as if he were seeing him for the first time, but he recovered quickly. “We can use this.”
“Cass is all torn up. He needs me.”
“Can you wake him up?”
“Wake him up? I didn’t put him to sleep.”
“That’s what it feels like.”
Riley pulled his dad over to Cass, pushing the sharp sound waves away so his dad wouldn’t get cut. Not that he was sure they would cut Dad. They didn’t cut Riley, but something told him they would cut everyone else, including his warlock dad.
“I need you to tell me what to do. How to help him. He can’t…” Emotion lumped in his throat, stealing his words for a moment. He swallowed them down as best as he could, but it came through when he spoke, anyway. “He can’t die like Mom.”
Iven sheathed his gun and then pulled Riley into a hug. “He won’t.”
Riley would have smiled if he wasn’t so panicked. “Do you promise?”
“I’ll do everything in my power, Riley.” Iven met his gaze again. “Now, can you unfreeze him?”
Riley didn’t know how he did it. The fundamentals were beyond him. But he put his arms around Cass, holding him up. He feared Cass might fall over.
Dad went to Cass’s other side.
Riley pictured Cass in his mind. With Cass, it was different. When he pictured him, he was there, yelling at Riley for being in the forest, for putting himself at risk.
“Wake up, Cass.”
I’m awake, Riley. And I’m pissed. Cass said through their link.
Riley couldn’t keep the tears at bay. “Don’t die. Okay?”
Cass sighed. “You don’t either.”
“I won’t, but you have to wake him.”
“I don’t know how.”
Oh, right. Because Riley was the one who needed to wake him.
Riley got out of Cass’s head and pictured Cass moving so Riley could help him.
It didn’t take long before Cass fell into Riley. His fur disappeared, and he shrunk to human height. His skin was as covered in blood as his fur had been. “The discussion isn’t over, Riley.”
“Live, and I’ll let you yell at me for as long as you want.”
“Yell at him for what?” Dad asked.
“For coming here. For putting himself at risk.” Cass growled. His eyes turned canine.
“Concentrate on staying alive.” Riley didn’t want Cass to stress. It wouldn’t help his injuries.
“Ditto, baby.” Cass scowled when he finally glanced around. “What the hell happened?”
“Riley happened,” Dad said.
Cass met his gaze. He was clearly in pain, but admiration came through despite it.
Riley shrugged. “I don’t know how I did it.”
“We’ll practice.” Dad pressed the button on his radio and spoke into it.
Riley didn’t know what the numbers and letters meant, but they seemed to calm Cass.
“I just need to shift a few times. That should heal some of my wounds. At least enough to get me to the hospital.” Cass met Riley’s gaze. “Stay next to me. No matter what. Got it?”
Riley bit his lip to keep from smiling. “Yeah.”
“Even when I’m in my third form.”
“The werewolf beast thing?”
Cass sighed as if something Riley said annoyed him. Riley chalked it up to being injured. Since Cass could argue and stay grumpy, Riley figured his injuries looked worse than they were.
Come to think of it, the massive hamburger one on his neck appeared to have stopped bleeding. “Can you heal faster than a human?”
Cass cupped Riley’s cheek. “Faster than a warlock, too.”
That’s why Cass was so worried about him.
“Are you trying to say I’m fragile? Because I’ll have you know, I saved your life.” Riley pointed to the wolf, still stuck in a mid-air attack.
“I didn’t call you fragile.” Cass kissed Riley.
It felt weird in front of his dad, not that Dad paid attention. He’d moved on to securing the crime scene. He felt for pulses on some wolves and left the others alone.
“You did, but I’ll forgive you.” He was just glad Cass would live. Nothing else mattered as much as that.
Cass held Riley close and spoke to Dad. “There are three bodies a hundred yards west from here. They’ve been there a while. I think Krieger led me to them. He wanted me to find them.”
“Is that Krieger?” Dad pointed to a dead guy a few feet away.
“Yeah. I found him a few minutes after the other three.” Cass shook his head.
Dad pulled zip ties out of his pocket. “Do what you got to do. I need you well enough to help me secure the scene.”
Cass kissed Riley one more time. “I’m going to shift now, baby.”
Riley gave Cass room to shift. Each time he did, the wound on his neck appeared to scab over.
“I’ll grab your clothes.” Riley turned toward where he knew Cass’s clothes lay on the side of the road, ready to trek through the forest to go get them.
Cass grabbed him around the waist. “No, you don’t. Next to me at all times, remember?”
“It’s ten minutes, and none of them are a threat right now.” Riley waved a hand at all the frozen people. Some were literally freezing by that point if the purple tint to their skin was any indication. “I’ll grab blankets for them too.”
“Glued to my side, Riley.”
Riley sighed. “Fine. But I have a class on Monday. You can’t come with me.”
Cass smirked. “Can I have the day off on Monday, Sheriff?”
Iven chuckled. “I’m not getting into the middle of it.”
“That’s a change,” Cass mumbled.
Riley held Cass around the waist as they made their way toward the road.
Was Iven Palmer coming around? It sure sounded like it, but Riley wouldn’t know for sure until his dad said so. Riley knew him well enough to know they’d have the conversation on his own time.