chapter 6

William leaned against the door with his head near the partially open window for the last part of the drive. His body hadn’t fully cooled from having Emily in his arms, and the wind helped to dilute her scent somewhat.

He breathed a sigh of relief when he finally pulled into the garage and got out of the car. Emily got out, looked around, and gave him a look of surprise from across the car roof. For the briefest of seconds, her surprise puzzled him. Then it dawned on him and he gave her knowing smile as he closed his door.

“Were you expecting something else?” He quirked one teasing brow.

Emily froze. She didn’t want to offend them.

Again.

But she hadn’t covered her surprise well enough, and it was too late to deny it. “Yes, actually,” she admitted. “Like castles and moats-”

“And a guy in a cape who ‘vants to zuck yer blood’?” Paoli asked in his best Lon Chaney voice as he carried Amber past them and into the house.

Her face flushed warm again. Maybe not the last part, but she certainly didn’t expect them to be living in a completely normal split level just outside of a small town.

She really had a lot to learn about the world she’d tumbled into. Her embarrassment kept her silent as she followed William to the room Paoli laid Amber in. After Paoli got Amber situated, he considerately pulled the plush blue chair right up to the bedside for her. Emily sat down with a fleeting smile of thanks, but Paoli’s demeanor kept her wary.

He seemed uncomfortable, and he was looming. “We need to be honest with you,” he said once she was seated. “We have to discuss some things you may not want to hear. But there are things going on here you must understand. You need to know the truth we’re all facing so you can make your own choices. Informed choices.”

Emily didn’t like the sound of that. She swallowed a lump in her throat and tried to sound normal. “Like what?” She asked. To her surprise, she managed to pull off merely curious. But she fingered the silver necklace under her shirt nervously.

“Like what’s going to happen with your sister.” Paoli’s voice was gentle and patient.

“What do you mean?” Emily asked, her voice growing stiff.

“The Coven said she’s to be executed,” William supplied from the doorway he was leaning against.

Emily sucked in an audible breath, but her voice was level when she spoke. “What is ‘the Coven’?”

“The government of our world,” Paoli explained.

She nodded after a moment of thought. It made sense for them to have a separate government, she supposed. It wasn’t like a vampire could appear in a normal human court. But she got the distinct feeling there was more. “Okay,” she said slowly, trying to process the new information. “So, we need to keep her away from your government people until we figure out what to do.”

It seemed simple enough to her.

“It’s too late for that,” William said. A long moment stretched out before he admitted, “I’m the Coven’s executioner.”

It felt like someone just punched her in the gut. She stared at him in disbelief for a heartbeat, then sprang out of the chair and to her feet. Far too much anger welled in her for any fear, and she stormed up to William and stood toe to toe with him. “Did you bring us here for an easier kill?” she demanded. “Because if you expect me to stand aside and let you kill her, you’re in for a real surprise.”

She thought of the gun at her waist. Could she do it? Could she really kill a man, this man?

“No,” he said, and honesty shone in his intelligent, now-gray eyes.

She hadn’t noticed his eyes had changed colors before. They were a now a beautiful, steel gray.

“But we can’t ignore orders from the Coven,” he went on.

His answer gave her some degree of relief. She didn’t want to find out if she could bring herself to kill him. But the relief was a fleeting thing. If they couldn’t ignore orders from the Coven, how could they possibly save Amber?

“Are you saying they never change their minds?” She asked. She wasn’t about to just sit back and let some faceless group make the decision to kill her sister.

Paoli and William exchanged a heavy look, but said nothing.

“What?” She demanded with a look at William, then at Paoli, and back to William. “I saw that. What aren’t you telling me?”

William gave her a hooded look, his face carefully expressionless. “They reversed their decision once, but it came with a high price.” he said, taking a step back to put some distance between them.

“I don’t care about the price. I’ll pay any price there is to save her,” Emily insisted. Her purple eyes flashed with challenge and determination. She meant every word.

“You’re not in the human world anymore, young Emily,” Paoli interjected. He carefully guided her away from William. It was something that didn’t escape her notice.

A glance back at William showed he seemed to relax subtly.

“I don’t care about human world or world-of-whatever you are,” she said. She was beginning to yell, but she couldn’t stop herself. He wasn’t going to make it okay for Amber to die. Nothing could make that okay. Not after they gave her hope.

“Settle down and listen to me,” Paoli said calmly in the face of her anger. “You have no idea what you’re saying. There are prices you can’t even begin to guess at.”

“I don’t care,” she said stubbornly.

She really didn’t. There was nothing she wouldn’t do if it could save Amber, and she didn’t want to hear about the worst-case scenario.

“Now, are you going to help her or not?” She asked, staring Paoli right in the eye.

“I’ll try,” he said. “But the point we’re making, is her overall fate cannot be decided by either of us.”

“But if you can help her, she’ll have a chance, right?” She asked.

She needed to hear there was a chance. She couldn’t accept anything else.

Paoli held her hopeful gaze with a look of sympathy that worried her more than anything else. “I won’t give you false hope. It’s going to take a miracle, but there is a very slim chance,” he said.

And just like that, Emily could breathe again. She squared her shoulders and looked at him levelly. “It’s better than none.”

For a moment, he just looked at her. His eyes showed something akin to respect. Then he gave her a nod of agreement. “I’ll see what I can do.” He shot a look at William and left the room.

Silence stretched out, broken only by Amber’s constant moaning.

“He’s not like I would have pictured a vampire,” Emily said finally.

William gave a small smile. “No,” he agreed. “But he gets that a lot.”

“So, you’re a werewolf?” She asked, trying to sound casual.

“Not exactly,” he said.

She noticed his hesitation. A thoughtful little crinkle appeared between her brows. “But you turned into a wolf,” she pointed out. A very big and terrifying wolf, she thought, but didn’t voice aloud.

He gave her just a hint of a nod. “I’m complicated,” he said.

Another silence stretched out.

What did that mean? He either was a werewolf or he wasn’t. What was the point of being obtuse about it? “Do you kill people?” She asked bluntly, her voice almost a whisper. “Humans, I mean?”

A tight smile crept across his face and didn’t reach his eyes. “You’re safe with us,” was all he said.

She nodded almost absently. “So yes,” she mumbled.

There was a heavy feeling of disappointment in her gut, but she refused to examine it. She needed to keep her distance from him. She could never be involved with someone who killed people, no matter how attracted to him she was. He was a killer, and she needed to remember that.

“Not if I can help it,” he said heavily.

“Prop her up,” Paoli instructed when he reentered the room, a small vial in his hand. Emily did so without question. She watched with baited breath as he poured some vile-smelling concoction down Amber’s throat.

Amber coughed and sputtered, covering Paoli in frothy spittle, but the transformation continued, unchanged.

“Well, that was disappointing,” he announced dryly. He wiped his face with a grimace, then hustled back out of the room.

“What if he can’t fix this?” Emily asked William in a small voice. “Then what happens?”

William held her gaze. “You already know the answer,” he said darkly.

“I told you, I won’t let you kill her.” She met his eyes boldly, as if daring him to challenge her.

He said nothing, but continued to watch her. Like she was a bug.

“Stop looking at me like that,” she said, squirming uncomfortably.

“Like what?” He cocked his head to the side, a look of puzzlement on his face.

“Like you’re a cat watching a mouse,” she said.

She jabbed an accusatory finger in his direction.

William grinned at her. It was a guilty look.

“What’s funny?” She demanded.

“You walked into a werewolf den under a full moon without a thought, but someone watching you makes you uncomfortable,” he chuckled.

Emily glanced at Amber. “I didn’t consider the moon,” she admitted. “I just knew she was there, and I was afraid for her.”

William sobered, becoming instantly serious. “Did you know she was with wolves?”

“Yes,” Emily said, watching Amber again.

“Then you should have considered the moon,” he admonished. “You’re lucky to be alive.”

Emily plucked at the blanket, uncomfortable at being scolded, especially when she knew he was right. “I know,” she said softly.

“Let’s give this a try,” Paoli said, his voice very serious when he returned.

A gold necklace dangled from his hand, and the reeking smell of whatever was inside the charm made William back away, a scowl on his face.

“What the hell is that?” William demanded when Paoli crossed the room and slipped the necklace over Amber’s head.

“Wolfbane,” Paoli said over his shoulder.

As the trio stood watching, the transformation gradually slowed. Several minutes later, it stopped completely and Amber was left in exhausted human form. She crumpled in on herself. One last moan escaped her lips before she fell into a blissful state of unconsciousness.

Relief washed through Emily with enough force to make her knees weak. “You fixed her,” she whispered breathlessly, her eyes tearful.

“Not exactly,” Paoli disagreed.

He held his hands out to ward her off when she stepped forward like she wanted to hug him. “Sorry. Cross,” he reminded.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” Emily cried, quickly stepping away from him. Then a frown crossed her face when his words sank in. “What do you mean ‘not exactly’?”

“Wolfbane won’t cure lycanthropy. All it does is stops the wolf from being able to take over the body. All the rage is still there, but now it has no outlet,” he explained.

“What does that mean for her?” She asked. That didn’t sound good. Amber wasn’t exactly known for her even temperament before.

Paoli looked back at William, who was now standing in the hallway to avoid the wolfbane. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I’ll keep looking for something more permanent, but at least this will buy her some time. It’s almost sunrise, and we all need to rest. There’s another bedroom down the hall.”

“I’ll stay with her,” Emily said absently, her eyes on Amber’s worn-out form. At least she was human again. Sort of.

“No,” William said sharply.

Both Paoli and Emily turned and stared at him.

“Until we have a chance to see what her mental status will be, it may not be safe,” William explained.

Paoli seemed to consider it, then nodded in agreement. “That’s true,” he said. “Something like this may have left her—well—different.”

“But she’s my sister,” Emily objected. “We may have a troubled relationship, but I can’t imagine she’d ever actually harm me.”

It was ironic to be arguing about her safety with two men who killed people.

“We need to see if she’s still your sister when she wakes up. For tonight, you need to be safe so we can all rest,” William said.

He held his hand out to her and waited.

With a heavy sigh of surrender, she stroked Amber’s damp forehead one last time and left the room to meet up with him. She gave his outstretched hand a distrustful look and waved her own arm toward the hall, instead.

“Lead on,” she said with clear irritation.