Chapter 24 - Jasmine
I ran with Owen in my wolf form to join the brigade that was going to fight the fires. He glanced worriedly over his shoulder, but I only nodded once. I wouldn’t be any good at the actual firefighting, but I could work as a medic and help anyone who was injured in the attempt.
We had just joined the firefighters in town when a column of smoke rising from just outside the town caught my eye. I barked a warning, and Owen turned. When he saw the smoke, he snarled and shifted to human form.
“Get the trucks there quickly!” he shouted.
Another fire, this one so much closer to town. A dreadful suspicion entered my mind, but I joined the medics, quickly ensuring we had the supplies we needed before I jumped into Owen’s car. The mix of sirens wailing made my ears throb as we drove to the site.
We were headed for the trailer park. My heart leaped into my throat when we got closer. My old trailer was in flames, black smoke billowing. I jumped out of the car and raced to the nearby trailers. Mrs. Howell was bedridden from pain most days. Had she gotten out?
I slammed open the door, not bothering to knock.
Faint, terrified cries reached my ears, and I raced down the narrow hallway.
Mrs. Howell was trying to pull herself into her wheelchair.
I quickly helped her into it, lifting her frail body with surprising ease.
Then I wheeled her out of the trailer. Across the street, Jane struggled to carry her twins and a diaper bag to her car.
I pushed Mrs. Howell to Jane and helped her get the twins into their car seats, then Mrs. Howell into the front seat.
“Go to the college,” I told her. “The priestess and nuns will look out for you.”
Jane nodded, face pale, and drove away. I turned back to watch the firefighters.
They worked in tandem with Owen among them.
They’d already put on their gear and had the massive hose blasting water onto the flames.
Already, the fire was smaller than when we had arrived.
Just to be on the safe side, I went into Jane’s trailer and grabbed a garbage bag that I shoved clothes, toys, and foodstuffs into.
I stuffed this into Owen’s car before dashing to Mrs. Howell’s home again and getting some of her things.
Two more omega families fled from their trailers, closest to my old one.
Others were slower, watching from their porches as the firefighters put out the flames.
It took over an hour, but finally, the last of the flames died away.
My shoulders slumped. I guess I’d overreacted by invading Jane and Mrs. Howell’s homes.
Owen broke away from the other firefighters as they continued to soak the remains of the trailer. I ran to him and threw my arms around his neck.
“That’s it, then,” Owen said, wiping his brow. “We need to get to the forest fire and—"
There was a whooshing sound behind us. We whirled to find Jane’s trailer engulfed in flames. They rose twice as high as the ones on my trailer had been, tinged with blue and green.
All the air left my lungs. That had come from nowhere. It went too high. These weren’t ordinary fires at all. I hugged Owen tighter, staring at the magical flames.
The firefighters started to turn the truck on the new trailer when Mrs. Howell’s burst into flames, too. I broke from Owen and raced to the car. He shouted orders to help evacuate, and I drove to another trailer, where I knew two elderly omegas who no longer drove lived.
The trailer park was soon evacuated, but the flames didn’t stop there. As the smoke grew thicker all around us, my heart sank. My vision was coming true, after all.
***
The town might have been lost, but the people were safe.
As I stared at the scattered tents and vehicles, my head pounded. The smell of smoke clung to my skin, and I kept vacillating between wanting to find Owen’s car again, curl up in the backseat, and cry, or to get back to working with the pack, trying to help settle everyone.
It had been a chaotic, terrifying time evacuating the town.
In the end, we’d ended up getting help from both the Burgess and Hammond packs.
If it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t have been able to get out at all.
Fortunately, between the three packs, the fire had been beaten back enough that the Tyrell pack was able to escape.
The most difficult had been the prisoners. Now that we didn’t have any cells to store them in, they were all tied securely to trees, wearing blindfolds so they would hopefully stay calm.
I hadn’t been able to save anything from the home I shared with the four alphas.
I wasn’t even sure if it had burned. At least I’d gotten a lot of baby clothes from Jane’s house.
It was enough to pass out to all the families with young children and let them have a clean outfit to change their babies into.
Two rugged trucks pulled into the large clearing where we’d set up. It was in a tiny corner of the territory, because despite their help, the other packs didn’t want us to be in their territories, and the pass that Owen had hoped to escape through was now engulfed in flames.
Alphas Julian from Hammond and Franco from Burgess exited the trucks. I headed for them, knowing Owen would reach us soon.
“We brought food and water,” Franco told me as I approached. “We figured you’d need it.”
Julian gave me a distrustful look, but turned to Owen when he arrived. They started to distribute everything while Franco handed me a small packet. “From Penny. She wanted to come, but we all agreed it was best if she stayed in Burgess, especially since the baby has a cold.”
I thought of the illness that had been sweeping through Tyrell lately and winced. It was likely just a cold, considering Penny had already cleansed the Burgess territory. “Thank her for me.”
“I will. The last word we got of the fires is that things are nearly out, so with any luck, you’ll have a respite, at least,” he said comfortingly.
I nodded, but I didn’t know if I could believe it. The darkness was increasing its attacks on us, and I still had no idea how to save everyone.
Franco returned to helping with the distribution of food.
I tried to join in, but when people kept giving me frightened looks, proving that they still blamed me, I retreated to the car.
There, in the cool, cramped interior, I finally opened the packet that Penny had sent.
Inside were several sachets of herbs. Lavender, mint, chamomile, and a few others.
They were all types that I was using in my experiments for the calming tea. It was just enough to brew one more batch. But how should I make it?
I soon grew restless being stuck in the car and stepped out.
Shortly after, the other packs’ alphas left.
I didn’t want to be among the pack, putting them on edge, so I went a little way into the forest. Penny had taught me a bit about foraging, so maybe I’d find enough for my supper and save more of the food for the others.
I found a few bushes with some berries, but I walked past them. All of a sudden, the only thing I wanted to do was to go back to town. Maybe the book the priestess found hadn’t been burned. Maybe I could find it, and inside, the full answers.
“Jasmine!”
Owen grabbed my arm, bringing me to an abrupt stop. I turned toward him, blinking in surprise. He cupped my face in his hands, staring into my eyes worriedly. “What were you doing?”
“I…thought I could go back to town and get answers,” I admitted. It sounded foolish when I said it out loud, yet there was this deep ache in my chest that said I had to do it. I had the answers close; I just needed to find them.
“I called after you, and you didn’t seem to hear me.” The alarm grew in his eyes. “We’ve been so worried about whether I’ll fall to the darkness, we haven’t considered it might come after you.”
My hands went cold, but my mind rejected it. “I’m not feeling violent. I just think I need to get back to town.”
“And that could be the darkness, luring you in.” His hand dropped to mine, and he laced our fingers together. “Come back to camp. I don’t want you wandering off on your own. It’s not safe.”
“But there’s nothing I can do at camp,” I muttered.
Owen opened his mouth, then closed it again. I was right, and he knew it. But we kept walking. When we emerged again, my gaze moved to the trees on the other side of the forest, where the prisoners were tied.
There was something I could do. One last effort.
I collected a spare pot, filled it with water, and then started a small fire near Owen’s car.
Mine wasn’t the only campfire that had been built, but when people saw me working with flames, many of them ran to tattle on me to Owen.
He eventually had to join me and make it look like he was the one tending the fire, not me.
When the water was almost boiling, I removed it from the heat.
I dropped in the sachets of herbs that Penny had sent along, then stirred as they steeped.
This time, instead of having a certain amount of each herb, I remembered the order that they had been written in the book, and steeped them according to time.
I took out the mint after a minute, the chamomile after two.
Last of all was the lavender. As I stirred the tea, making sure everything was mixed together, I prayed that it would work.
I thought about my alphas, how good and kind they had proven themselves to be.
Tears dripped down my face, and a few of them splashed into the tea.
Owen was called away again, and I took the tea to where my three alphas were. I didn’t dare make noise or let them know it was me. Instead, I carefully pulled away their muzzles and held the pot to their lips, letting them drink the fresh tea.
There was no obvious change, and I wasn’t going to risk taking off their blindfolds to check, either. I made my way back to the car and rolled down a window before I crawled into the backseat, pulled my sweater over my head, and sank into a restless sleep.
It was after dark when I woke up. Owen had come to the car and was lying across the floor in his wolf form, sleeping.
Outside, I could see that all the campfires had been put out.
A cool breeze blew through the open window, and I started to reach for the handle so I could go to the front and turn the key and close the window, when I stopped.
The camp was asleep, Owen included. If I opened the door, it would turn on the overhead light and wake him. But now…
Now I could make my way back to town and try to find that book.
I maneuvered myself carefully, climbing out the window as quietly as possible.
It was evidence of how dead-tired Owen was that he didn’t wake.
Once outside, I shifted to wolf form and headed down the mountain, moving through the trees.
Being in the forest alone at night creeped me out something terrible, and I had to move slowly to avoid stabbing myself in the darkness.
It took me an hour to get to town. The flames had died away, but the few streetlights that still worked showed curls of smoke drifting through the air. It put an acrid taste on my tongue.
As I trotted toward home, the further I got from the working streetlights.
The town, so dark and smelling of smoke, was even creepier than the forest. I tried to push back the prickling down my back.
As I drew closer, a flash of light caught my eye.
My heart jumped, and I froze, expecting flames to burst alight.
But this light wasn’t the same blue-green as the fire. It was a pale yellow, almost white. Cautiously, I made my way closer, only to gasp when I rounded the dorms. My garden boxes were all glowing. A pure, radiant energy emitted from them.
The sound of footfalls on the ground made me whirl. A large wolf came trotting forward, and through the smoke, I caught Owen’s scent. Relief washed through me. He must have followed when he realized I was gone.
I whined in apology, and he stiffened. A growl ripped through his throat, and my heart stopped again.
Then he lunged.