Wolf Reborn

Chapter Fourteen

Faith stared in horror as Theo's father, who had taken the distraction of her arrival to jet the jump on Theo, poured an unknown liquid on him. It didn't look like it was hot but Theo wailed like he'd just been scalded with acid. For all she knew, he had been.

An anger like she'd never known surged through her body and made her hands shake with rage. Inside of her, something foreign came alive and she didn't care if it was human, demon, or wolf--she knew she could cause Kendrick tremendous pain by letting it guide her hand.

From deep within her core, the ability to destroy the Westervelt pack's former Alpha emerged. She would simply stop his heart by electrocuting him from the inside out. It was easier than scalding him and letting him die over time. No, she would end this here and be glad of it. He'd hurt her love.

She focused her gaze on the former Alpha, and a strange buzz seemed to fill her then project out. Breaths came in and out of her mouth as Kendrick fell to his knees. Good, it was working. A door slammed and as she watched the saliva in Kendrick's mouth start to bubble, she realized Rex had run into the room. Gabriel stood over Theo, a job she would take over doing just as soon as Kendrick Kane was no longer a splinter on the skin of the world.

"I've got it." Rex sounded jovial but she had no idea of what he spoke. It didn't matter. Only death mattered. The next sound she heard was the distinct resonance of tearing paper. What had Rex torn up?

As fast as the power she had felt started, it was pulled from her body. She closed her eyes and wailed. It felt like someone was tearing off her limbs one by one.

"Holy hell, they're disappearing." Rex's frantic tone reached her and she opened one eye to see what he was talking about. He was right. The demons were being returned to their own dimension through a large black hole that had formed in the room. Kendrick seized on the ground and she hoped he was dying. Could they be that lucky?

Rolling over she used what was left of her upper body strength to maneuver herself to Theo. His eyes were closed, his lips in open as if he still screamed if only in silence. She stroked his cheeks, in no way was she ready for their living life to be over.

So nice of you to finally clue into that. Her wolf's voice filled her mind. Thank heavens she was back.

Well where have you been?

Usurped by that thing that almost made you turn into it.

Rex hit the ground next to them, now in his wolf form. He whimpered and nudged at Theo.

"I don't know what to do. I don't know what they dumped on him which means I have no idea if we should move him or not."

Her eyes flew to Kendrick who was being lifted off the ground by two of his newly made wolves. Faith wasn't surprised. The poor creatures needed the drugs he could provide to survive. They wouldn't want him to die. Gabriel growled and lunged at one of them, knocking them to the ground hard. Kendrick fell with a thud and a groan. Lifting one hand in the air, he said something she couldn't hear and he and the new wolves made a whoosh sound as they vanished from the room. She rolled her eyes; why was she not surprised?

"Let him go, Gabriel. We can't win today. It doesn't end like this and you know it. Not on the ground in Arizona with Theo nearly dead and a hole in the universe pulling the demons away."

I'm so sick of discussing what I supposedly know about the future. None of us know anything.

Rex raised an eyebrow. "Liar."

"Could you two knock it off and help me get Theo out! I'm making a command decision and saying that moving him is better than not moving him."

Rex nodded and ran to Theo. "How many times have you shifted, big brother?"

Pausing for a second, Gabriel considered the question. Three times.

Faith groaned. That meant that he couldn't shift back again, not unless she wanted to carry him out of there too. The wind picked up in the room and it looked like all the demons had been carried out on the wave of hot air.

Jumping to her feet, Faith rushed toward the dimensional hole. "Don't let him die." She screamed at the top of her voice, not knowing if it was possible for them to even hear her on the other side but convinced she had to try.

"Don't let him die. He doesn't deserve it. He's done everything you asked and more. We'll never bother you again. Rex tore up the paper. So don't let him die."

On her side of the hole, nothing happened. Fury filled Faith's veins but this time it was her own and not artificially constructed by another life form. She stomped her left foot. "If you let him die, I swear before I follow him, I will find a way to bring you back here. If I hunt through used bookstores and the back lots of voodoo priests, I will find a way to bring you back here. I'm a woman who can find anything or anyone. It used to be my job. So I make you this promise, if you don't use every ounce of power in your reserve to fix him right now, I will do that every day for the rest of my natural life."

There was a solemn feeling to the vow Faith made. To her, it felt like somehow the clouds moved and the universe shifted. Her pledge would be kept, she was suddenly sure of it.

Her first indication that something was about to happen was that the vibration on the floor. Turning around, she looked at Rex and Gabriel who both stared at her with their mouths gaping open.

Rex found his voice first. "What you just did, it's the stuff of mystics, legends. You just moved the universe, I felt it."

Faith shrugged her shoulders. "I meant every word. What happens now?"

Gabriel nudged at Theo again. No idea but my guess is he's going to wake up.

A blinding white light consumed the room and Faith had a moment to scream before she lost consciousness and darkness consumed her.

"All right, my love, that's enough. Up you go."

Faith would know that voice anywhere. Her heart beat in excitement and she groaned without opening her eyes. "Theo, before I look at what's happened here, tell me, are we dead?"

His gentle laughter filled her soul with joy and she forced her lids to separate. "I take it that we're not? Unless the after life is amusing, somehow."

She struggled to sit up and he grabbed the back of her neck to assist her. "Not dead, not yet. My brothers," Theo indicated them with his head. Rex stared at a painting on the wall of a clown and Gabriel, still a wolf, licked at a wound on his paw. "...tell me you put on quite a show, nearly frying my father and bending the universe to your will."

"You were going to die." She tugged a string of her dark hair. "What did he pour on you anyway?"

"No idea. It was clear and scentless but it burned right through me. I wasn't exactly in a position to stop and ask for the name of the product."

"I don't suppose you were." Deciding the room felt steady enough she pushed herself into a standing position. "Now what?"

"What do you mean?"

Faith wrapped her arm around his waist and inhaled the smell of him before something she saw startled her. "Theo." She rubbed his cheek with her hand. "You're not scarred, it's all gone."

Eyebrows down in concern, he rubbed his cheek before laughing. "Well, how do you like that? I guess the demons took it all back."

Faith wanted to shove him. "That's all you want to say on the subject? You devoted your life to being humiliated and upset about that scar and all you want to say is: well how do you like that?"

"The moment I met you it ceased being important. I wouldn't care if I was a hunchback as long as you love me." He put up a hand to stop her from talking. "That's not true, if I was a hunchback and couldn't help protect you, that would be a huge problem."

Shaking her head, she couldn't help her laugh. "You are impossible." She shoved him gently but didn't let go of his waist, which defeated the purpose. "So, now what?"

"What do you mean?" He shook his head and she sensed he genuinely didn't know what she meant.

"What do we do now?"

Stopping his walk, he turned to stare at her. "We go home."

"And then?"

"We continue on. There's an island full of invisible wolves."

Faith shrugged. "Tristan probably has that under control now. I showed Ashlee that nifty trick with the powdered herb."

"My father got away, yet again, and we still need to punish him for what he did to your friend, although you fried him pretty well so maybe you got the first punch in."

Nodding, she agreed. Although she still didn't feel justice had been fully served. "So we go home and we just wait and see what happens then?"

"That's what I would suggest."

Lightness filled Faith's heart. They could go home to Westervelt, where she'd always been meant to live. Theo was her mate. Whatever happened, she was his, he was hers, and that was really what mattered.

"Sounds like a good idea."

Pulling his lips to hers, she kissed him hard. Inside her wolf howled in delight. It felt good to know they were going home together. For now, and always.

The End