Amaris had a lot of time to think about the events of the last two days as they walked through the parking garage in silence. Lyle was walking just a few steps ahead and alert. When they reached the top level of the parking garage, which was the only above ground level, Amaris thought that she could smell smoke. Lyle’s pace suddenly increased and Amaris had to jog to keep up with him. When they exited it was still early morning, but the black smoke that was everywhere, made it look like it was not yet dawn. The beautiful little village was no more. Most of the homes and buildings were burned to the ground or still on fire. The pall of the smoke was like walking into a wall. Amaris covered her mouth with the sleeve of Lyles sweatshirt that she had put back on over her clothes. She also pulled the hood up over her head. There were tears in her eyes and whether they were from smoke, or guilt, or fear she could not say. Maybe all three. The horrors that started yesterday morning were stil
Stepping into the next room seemed like she was steeping onto the set of a horror movie. All the furniture was covered in white sheets and the room was so dusty that they were leaving foot prints. It was clear no one had been to this place in a very long time. Amaris felt almost as she were intruding. The room had a feel of sadness about it. There was little light apart from what Lyle’s flashlight provided, and it gave the impression that the house was grieving.“You said that your great great grandfather built this place? Has anyone been here since he passed?”“Actually, no one has been here since his first wife passed. He loved her so very much that he could not bare to be in the house that they had made their life in. After that he moved into town. The counsel later decided that he needed to marry again and chose my great great grandmother for him to marry as his second wife. They say that he was good to her, but he never loved her. Sad really. This place has been in the family all
Amaris sat alone in the fire lit room and stared around. She had a lot to think about, and not much over the last few days was good. She was hiding out here, but she felt she needed to get back. She needed to find Gran. She needed to stop more people from dying. Lyle had told Sheriff Clifton that they would be at his house if they needed him but they were not there now, how was he going to contact them if he had any questions or new information?Lyle had said that he was responsible for all the people in town since he was their leader, but here they were hiding out in the wilderness somewhere and he abandoned them when they needed him most. What was he thinking? They definitely needed to go back. At the very least to help the very people that he was supposed to be protecting. If she was putting them in danger, then she would go back down the mountain and turn herself into the sheriff. He would be able to protect her and know what to do. However, the sheriff did not have all the answers
Amaris walked as quickly and quietly through the forest as she could. What was she thinking. Mr. Lyle Bruce was here teacher. Before yesterday their conversations consisted of home work and the study of the moon. She never even knew that he did not live in the village or that he was from the mountain. She had blindly followed him because he had showed up at the right time on the road after she avoided the men in the forest. Could he be part of it? No. Gran had said that she knew him and that they had been working together. Unfortunately she could not ask Gran any questions since she has now disappeared. As Amaris walked she knew that she needed to pull herself together. She needed a safe place to think and a place to be able to make a plan. She had to find out if Gran was alive and if she was, get her back safe. That was really what mattered right now.Amaris walked through the night. She traversed the forest and as she worked her way down the mountain she found the stream that she k
Amaris reached up and pushed the door open and stepped in. Cautiously she walked into the living room. Amaris’ heart was in her throat. She did not want to find Anna and her parents dead like Lyle had found Grover at Gran’s. The house had been ransacked just as Gran’s had. They even tore the couch cushions apart. Their new family portrait that Anna had surprised her parents with when she got her graduation pictures last fall, had been slashed to ribbons. These men had not just searched but completely destroyed everything. Amaris decided to head into the kitchen. The kitchen table had been flipped and all four chairs had been reduced to firewood. Everything from the refrigerator and every cabinet had been dumped on the floor. There was flour and pasta, ketchup, mustard, milk, and it was impossible to tell what else all over the floor. There were no footprints on the floor. These men were careful, but a couple very large dogs had been in here, for a snack probably, and left their prints
Anna jumped on Amaris the moment that she sat down in the car, and hugged her tight. Anna backed up still holding Amaris’ shoulders, “Where have you been? Everyone has been looking for you. They had sent search parties out into the woods looking for you. They found one man dead in the river below the bridge. I am going to assume it was you that cut it?”Amaris nodded her head. The memory of that moment too painful and fresh. The memory of the second man further up the river that she found confirming that she had indeed killed two men.“All the other people from your gym class came running back in to the school screaming and crying and trying to find a place to hide. Once they got them calmed down and the security guard went to look out on the field the only one left alive was Mr. Clark. He had dragged himself over to try and stop Heather’s bleeding but there was nothing he could do it was too late.” Anna hung her head and wiped her cheek. She hugged Amaris fiercely again and then he
Amaris went with Anna’s family to the police station where they filed a report with the officer on duty. They were advised not to go home tonight to give the investigators time to go out and take a look and document. They were told that there had been a rash of break-ins. Most of them sounding like theirs with the home being broken into and things destroyed, but no one was hurt and nothing taken, just vandalized. Anna’s Mom and Dad opted to goto the drive thru burger place at the edge of town near the highway since it had taken so long and they still needed to find a hotel for the night. It turned out that they had to goto the next town over since the police had been advising everyone that was broken into to goto the hotel for the night the small one in town was full. They rented two adjoining rooms so that they could go back and forth between the two. Anna and Amaris’ room was a “party room” as it had an adjoining door on the other side as well. The place was not very updated, but i
When Amaris woke she was in the woods. Her mind was hazy, but she was aware of all the foliage around her and the rays of sunlight coming through the trees. As she tried to remember where she was and how she got there, snatches of last night started coming back to her. All at once she remembered the hotel rooms and how she had just bolted and left Anna and her family to deal with the men while she escaped out the window. She also remembered running and jumping off the ledge and seeing the cement below. She should be dead right now or at the very least severely injured. She took stock of her limbs and body. Nothing seemed to be broken. Then she realized that she was no where near the freeway. She could hear a lot of things, the wind rustling in the tree branches and the creeking of the trees as they swayed. She could hear the birds. Boy could she hear the birds! They were making an especially loud racket this morning. She could hear a stream close by, and further in the distance... F
Amaris and Lyle sat at the table in the RV which had now become their home. They had settled into their life together on the run. They drove through the European countryside acting like all the rest of the tourists. They stayed away from areas that were known concentrated werewolf areas. They fell into their day-to-day routine, and Lyle had even taught Amaris how to drive the RV. Amaris was starting to show now, and Lyle was concerned that she did not have the proper doctor's care for her pregnancy. More than once he had tried to see if he could find a pack doctor that was willing to see her that was not loyal to the crown. However, they were in Europe, where the werewolves were most loyal to the King or Queen, since they were so close to them. He had not had any luck. They had not had any contact with anyone that they knew, as they had planned. Lyle had bought a burner phone in case of an emergency, but had not even turned it on yet so that there was no way to trace them. To further
Amaris bent down to see Anna at her feet holding her bleeding leg. She had changed back and was now naked. Amaris stripped off her hoodie and gave it to her grateful best friend. "Are you okay?" Amaris asked Anna while looking over to see if Lyle had moved. "I'll be fine. It's nothing Taji can't take care of when he gets back. Go check on your mate." Anna said watching the torn look on Amaris' face. Amaris looked back and gave Anna's shoulder a squeeze, and then hurried to Lyle. Amaris dropped to her knees between Lyle and The King's corpse. Lyle was breathing. It was as if he was asleep. Amaris knew that he must be like the others that she had brought back. It would drain her of her energy to do it. Then she took a look at the area around her. There were so many men and women that were injured and needed help. She knew that Taji could not do it all on his own. Amaris thought about how to heal them all for a moment, and then came up with an idea. She took a deep breath and closed her
Alexis and Andreas' men were attacking in their wolf form. They were coming in from every side, and from the look of it they had The King's men out numbered. The clearing was in an uproar with men and wolves everywhere. Before Amaris knew what was happening, Lyle had transformed into his wolf and leaped between her and The King. His muzzle wrinkled as he bared his teeth and growled in warning. The King looked at him and merely laughed. He reached behind him and grabbed the staff that he had back at the palace. Lyle seemed to recognize it and backed up a few steps. The King laughed at his retreat. "Smart lad. Hand her over and I will not have to use it." Lyle backed up a few more steps and this time he leaned into Amaris pushing her back too. The fighting was still going on around them. Many of The King's men lay upon the ground, and most of the rest were fighting two or three wolves now, since they were severely out numbered. Amaris saw that many of the wolves were making their way cl
Lyle walked around the back of the house to the UTV as the truck drove away. He climbed in and looked at Amaris. "Decoy." He said with a thumb over his shoulder. "Where did you find him? He looks like your doppleganger." Amaris asked amazed. "Funny thing. When I went to get some of those items that we needed earlier, he was the supply clerk that helped me. I asked him to help me out this evening by taking the truck out for a test drive to see if the repairs I made earlier are going to hold. I told him I needed to drive a short way behind to see if it was okay." Lyle laughed again. "So that poor guy has no idea that he is bait?" Amaris was getting ready to get out of the UTV. "I did tell him that since we were hiding out that we need to be extra vigilent for the possibility of attack, which is more likely since we have been here for a while." Amaris got angry. "Lyle, that poor man could get killed because they think that he is you!" She turned and yelled at him. "We
Amaris' mouth hung open for a moment, and then anger grew. "Who? Who whipped you?" Lyle turned to look at her, then down to the floor. "Adam and Sveta. They were made for each other. They are equally twisted and driven by their need for power." Lyle said with a dismissive tone and then almost mechanically started taking the rest of his clothes off. It was clear that he did not want to continue this conversation any further. Amaris walked over and lifted his face to hers from his bent over position. "I'm sorry." She said in a whisper that cracked from the emotion behind it. "I did not want any of this, least of all for you to be hurt." she kissed his cheek tenderly. Lyle dropped the clothes that he was holding and put his arms around her. "This is not your fault. Don't ever think that. This is not something that you chose. You were as much thrown into this as the rest of us. This is all the fault of the ones who have greed and lust in their heart. The ones who have
Lyle dropped it back into the pack and put a few things in from the pile that he had set aside to go into the truck. Then he grabbed the pack that Amaris was filling and sorted through her things. He found a tracker there too. "Well, at least we know it wasn't Kliman. He never touched your pack." Lyle said as he moved over to the doorway of the barn. Sitting against the wall of the barn were a few dozen hiking packs waiting to be filled. Lyle grabbed two from the end and handed one to Amaris. "Fill them with everything that you will need. Only one extra set of clothes, and a couple extra pairs of socks and underware. Food, and matches, and so on." Lyle was moving so quickly that Amaris was not sure what to grab first to stay out of his way. "Quickly! We need to do this before he gets back, or anyone else comes along and sees us." They both hurried and filled their packs and then Lyle took them both and told Amaris to stay there and he would be right back. While Lyle wa
When Amaris' hand touched the young man's arm she suddenly was transported to another time. It was night here. There was the unmistakable sounds of fighting. Growls, and yelling all around her. The young man that Amaris had just been talking to was in front of her hiding behind a tree. He held some sort of black box in his hand and loooked to be waiting for something. "Where are we?" She asked the young man in a whisper as she stepped closer to him. The man did not respond. He did not even look at her. She reached up to tap him on his shoulder. Her hand went right through him. Amaris jumped back startled. She stared at her own hand, and then tried to touch the tree next to her. Her hand passed through that too. She took another look around her. She realized that the man standing next to her was speaking. "They are leaving now. Green transport truck. She is hidden in the back under the tarp. Out" The man said. He was putting the box away and turned to leave in th
Amaris stood there frozen and watched the back of Gran as she walked out of the room. She slowly sank back down on the couch next to Lyle again. He still had not moved from his spot, but seemed to be in deep thought. Amaris brought Lyle out of his stupor by grabbing his hand. "Did she just say what I think that she said? Are we going to have a baby?" Amaris thought about what Gran had said 'Little ones'. What did she mean? Was she talking about our children in the future? Amaris felt just like she often had lately after talking to Gran, more confused. Lyle took a deep breath and turned to Amaris. "According to the tapestries that we saw earlier, you and I will have one set of twins. A boy and a girl. Like you they will also have powers. Which means that like you they will also be hunted by others for what they can do." Lyle hung his head. He did not want to think about his children being hunted anymore than he wanted to think about Amaris being hunted. Now it was Ama
Amaris sat back and looked at Gran who had a big grin on her face. Anna walked over and squeezed in between Lyle and Amaris. "Sorry Romeo, but we need to get this meeting moving, and you just can't help yourself." She said patting Lyle on the shoulder at his disappointed look. Lyle rubbed the back of his neck again and smiled raising his hands in the air. "Got me." There were a few laughs and then everyone turned back to Gran. "Well, as I was saying. We will be splitting up." Everyone gathered around her nodded. Gran had presented this idea already, and no one seemed to disagree with her. "Lyle you will be taking Amaris and hiding. NONE of us is to know where you are." Amaris' eyes grew wide and worry now crept in. Up to this point she had been able to stay safe because she had the help of a lot of people. She did not want anyone else to die, and she was afraid that she would get Lyle killed if he felt that he was her only line of defense. Gran pointed a finger at Amari