Sanguis Noctis: Bloodlines Part 50

"I'll go bring him back," Anthony sighed, shrugging on a heavy jacket that had been hanging by the door.

"Don't." Randall's voice was sharp, his jaw so tight it looked like one good push and he might just shatter apart. "Let him be, Ant. You know he needs to run when he gets like this."

The way Anthony's shoulders tensed looked like guilt. "If he's not back by midnight, I'm going to find him," he muttered.

"Or you'll let him be," Randall repeated, voice low. He took the broken gla.s.s into the kitchen to throw away.

Jed glanced around the room, fidgeting in his seat, uncomfortable. This was why he didn't do family s.h.i.t. It all just got so... messy. Much better to not deal with it at all. "Do you need help in there?" he asked, starting to stand, to reach for half-empty cups.

"No" was Randall's firm response. And Jed sank back down again, sighing. There went his exit strategy. Victor, on the other hand, didn't even ask before he went to help Randall clean up. Randall's tense body language didn't ease, but at least he didn't snap at Victor.

Anthony sank back down into his chair, his hands clenched tightly together on the tabletop to ease the shaking. "I'll get the guesthouse ready for you guys in a minute," he told Jed and Redford, but his gaze was fixed out the window, his breaths deeper.

"Don't worry about it." Jed practically fell over his chair in an effort to get to the hall closet. "We know where everything is. You just sit there and think calming thoughts. Come on, Red."

Redford looked just as relieved for something to do as Jed did, and together they piled their arms high with pillows and blankets. After they picked their way across the yard, they made up Victor's bed first, before retreating into their room and getting the sheets on the mattress. "That was...." Jed shrugged, shaking his head. "Not exactly what I was expecting."

"Neither," Redford admitted. He tossed a pillow across the bed at Jed and straightened a corner of the sheets, fussing just to have something to do. "They've all seemed happier lately."

"I get it, though. h.e.l.l of a thing to sit there and listen to someone list out what you're supposed to do when they kick it." Jed bent over the bed, reaching across to grab the comforter and hauling it onto his side.

"Yeah." Redford heaved a sigh. But then he looked at the bed they'd just made, then up at Jed, and a quirked a little smile. "I never thought I'd see the day where you made the bed."

"Hey, come on now." Jed put a final fluff on the flower-dotted comforter. "This is manly as h.e.l.l." Grinning at Redford, waggling his eyebrows up and down, Jed gestured to the mattress. "If you think I'm not getting enough practice, though, we really should mess it up. You know, so I can try again." The messing it up was really what Jed was most interested in.

"I'm just surprised you even know how to make a bed," Redford mused. Clothes and all, he crawled onto it and tugged Jed down with him, manhandling Jed around until Redford had him in a comfortable position. After ending up on his back, with Redford half lying on his side, Jed curved an arm around Redford's shoulders. "Did you learn that in the army and just haven't employed that knowledge since?"

Jed ran his fingers along Redford's arm, flashing a half smile. He could lie. It'd be easy to say yes, to roll them over and kiss Redford, to let the subject die. There wasn't any reason to talk about this, or to let Redford in any further.

"My mom."

But, for some reason, Jed was just full of the Care Bears today. He couldn't seem to help himself. "My mom made my sisters and I make our beds every morning, before school. If we didn't, we had to go to bed an hour earlier that night. It was a big deal, for whatever reason. Army just taught me how to do hospital corners."

"Yeah?" Redford sounded pleased, inching up so he could put his head on the pillow next to Jed's. "That sounds nice." Redford always got those dumb puppy-dog eyes whenever Jed mentioned his past. Like Jed was giving him a gift by talking about freaking bed making.

"It was annoying," Jed grunted. "Why make your bed every day? You are literally just going to mess it up twelve hours later. It makes no sense at all."

Redford gave a quiet laugh against his shoulder. "You make it because it looks pretty. And because it feels good to get into a bed that doesn't have the sheets hanging off the edge."

"I like my sheets hanging off the edge." Grumbling, Jed turned them so he was hovering over Redford, so he could drop a kiss onto the bridge of his nose and smile at the way Redford blinked, trying to bring him into focus. "I like you on my bed most of all. And that really tends to mess things up."

Redford rolled them again so he could use Jed as a mattress, bonelessly sprawling over him. "I think we should make the bed more often," he said. "It's nice, doing things that aren't blowing things up."

"There's nothing wrong with a good explosion," Jed mumbled, hop-skipping kisses against Redford's neck, hands sliding up and down Redford's back. "That's way more fun than bed making."

Redford caught Jed in a kiss. There was no hurry to it, no edge to either of their movements, just a leisurely connection. "And what if I disagree?"

A slow little smirk curled Jed's lips. "I'll have to change your mind." Slipping his hands up under Redford's shirt, he deepened their kiss, taking his time, a soft moan caught between them. He gently pulled off Redford's clothes, pants getting pushed away, his own jeans lost over the edge of the bed. They took their time, rolling together in exhales and grasping touches, the sheets bunching under Jed's back as Redford moved above him, the brilliant orange of the fading sun painting Redford's skin on fire.

And when they finally did collapse, when the slow pace turned urgent, Redford's gasps became quiet moans, and Jed grinned into the dark as he slid kisses along his skin. "See?" he whispered as they lay together, legs and sheets tangled all at once. "Explosions."

They fell asleep in a messy sprawl, Jed using Redford's bicep as a pillow, Redford's breaths evening out into a relaxing rhythm that Jed listened to until sleep claimed him.

They woke with the sound of gunshots splitting the air.

Jed jerked upright, heart pounding, a cold sweat making him shiver. At first there was nothing, the throb of his heartbeat in his ears, the sick sour stench of his own fear. A dream, maybe. A nightmare. He had those. But then a third shot rang out, followed by the high-pitched yelp of a wolf in pain. Jed was tumbling out of bed before he had time to realize he was moving, grabbing his jeans, shoving his boots on, tugging on a shirt even as he ran out the door.

"Get my bag from the Jeep!" he hollered to Redford, grabbing his Glock from the holster he'd left by the door and thundering down the stairs, out onto the lawn.

Another drawn-out howl, this one cut short by the staccato bursts of a semiautomatic. And then there really was nothing but silence.

s.h.i.t.

Chapter 21.

Redford REDFORD CAUGHT up with Jed just as Anthony and Randall did. He didn't waste time speaking. He threw the bag to Jed and ran by his side, the four of them sprinting in the direction the noise had come from. Redford's eyesight wasn't good in the darkness when he was still on two legs, but he had no time to shift, so he endured the thin branches whipping at his shoulders and face and ignored the sting of rocks coming up hard against his feet.

Anthony and Randall got there faster than he and Jed did.

"I smell blood," Redford gasped out, skidding to a stop. Anthony was circling a tree, his ears back in the universal wolf body language for anger. "Not enough for a kill shot, though."

Fumbling through the bag in the darkness, Jed found the flashlight and switched it on, frowning as he swept the light over the area. He crouched down, illuminating the trunk of the tree and the matted gra.s.s before letting the flashlight slide along a trail. "He got hit here," Jed muttered to himself. "Blood against the tree trunk, a slug there, so probably a through and through. But then he was dragged." Rubbing a hand across his mouth, Jed nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, they took him."

There was a far off noise of someone crashing through the forest with as much finesse as a herd of stampeding elephants-Victor, from the cursing Redford could hear. Anthony shifted back, though his eyes still blazed yellow in the dim light. "Jed, if you have explosives in that bag, I want to borrow them," Anthony said flatly. "I'm going to track these b.a.s.t.a.r.ds."

"Explosions come with me," Jed returned. "It's a two for one deal. But yeah, I've got 'em. You, me, and Red, we'll go after them now. I can keep up."

Randall, still shifted, growled under his breath, fur at the nape of his neck standing up. Anthony held out his hand. "Give me the explosives," he said. "Will they kill the hunters if I put them close enough?"

"I'm not handing over a bunch of C-4 to a guy looking for revenge." Jed took a step back, gaze going between Anthony and Randall. "And yeah. You put a big boom-boom next to squishy things and you'll be in a whole world of red rain. Including yourself, because you don't f.u.c.king know what you're doing. Now listen. You aren't a G.o.dd.a.m.n killer. We don't know what's going on here, but I'm not going to lead another untrained wolf into a slaughterhouse just because. How do you even know they're not a bunch of idiot kids who shot a wolf and have no d.a.m.n clue?"

The growl that came from Anthony made Redford wince. Jed was lying, that was obvious enough to Redford-that gunfire had been from a semiautomatic, and idiot kids didn't wander around in dark forests with semiautomatics. And even if they did, they wouldn't drag a live wolf away.

Anthony didn't seem to be thinking that clearly.

"I don't care who they are; they took my brother," Anthony barked. "If you're not coming, you're welcome to stay here. Get some sleep."

Grabbing Anthony's arm, Jed didn't back down from the warning growl. "Fine. Fine, okay. I'm coming with you. And if you say we go in for the kill, we will. But I am handling the explosives. Okay?"

Victor chose that moment to burst into the clearing, bending over to brace his hands on his knees once he came to a stop. "What," he wheezed, "happened?"

Redford didn't want to interrupt Anthony and Jed, so he leaned over and whispered to Victor, "Edwin got taken." Just the thought of it made him want to tear into the woods after the hunters too. O'Malley had promised he would call off his operation, and they'd all thought they'd be safe. But now there were hunters on the Lewises' property. This might have just gotten far more personal.

Anthony's anger seemed to dissipate some. "Okay," he said, taking a moment to breathe deeply, getting himself focused. "You're right. You know more about this kind of thing than I do. But we're going now. If you tell me to wait until morning, I'll remind you of the time you tried to blow up that hunter camp because Redford got a tiny bullet graze on his arm."

"Yeah, well." Jed pulled his shotgun from the duffel bag, ratcheting off the safety. "You talked me out of it. I'm a cold-blooded killer. You're a nice guy who likes to fish. There's a world of difference between what I do and what you can live with." There wasn't time for this. For a big drawn-out heart-to-heart. And Jed seemed to feel that just as much as the rest of them. He met Anthony's eyes, holding his gaze, brilliant human green against feral wolf yellow. "You told me once that you weren't animals, that you didn't kill without reason. Was that true? Or only when you didn't have skin in the game?"

Anthony's upper lip lifted in a reactionary snarl, but he didn't voice it. Jed waited patiently as Anthony seemed to struggle through his thoughts, his gaze darting from Jed to the forest. "Everything in me wants to tell you there's a d.a.m.n good reason," he said, his voice tight.

"Wouldn't argue with you." Jed darted a glance forward, tense. Redford knew he'd be trying to guess how much time had pa.s.sed, how far ahead the hunters might be. "It's always easy to be a good man when nothing you love is at stake. I know. That's the only kind of good I ever am."

Jed's eyes flicked over to Redford, expression going grim. A thousand thoughts seemed to be held in that glance. Redford knew that if it had been him taken, Jed wouldn't stop to debate morality. He hadn't. But this seemed different. And Redford honestly wasn't sure if Jed was thinking of the time the hunters had shot him, or the way Redford had lost himself to the instincts and ripped out a man's throat. Neither memory seemed to fill him with any sort of confidence about this situation. Maybe there was more at stake now. Maybe there was something bigger than just himself to think about. Either way, Jed was standing between Anthony and men who didn't deserve the consideration. Something had changed.

"I am two seconds away from just ignoring you and running in there," Anthony replied. His shoulders were hunched up tight, but as Redford watched, they slowly drooped, leaving Anthony looking defeated. "You're right. And I wish you weren't."

"Story of my life, kid." Jed gripped Anthony's shoulder. "But I promise, we'll get him back." Jed never promised like that. He said it was the surest way to make s.h.i.t hit all kinds of fans. But his voice was grim, serious, gaze unwavering from Anthony's. "So let's get moving." He turned back to the others. "Okay. Victor, Randall, you go back to the house," Jed said.

Randall immediately barked at him, setting his front paws and growling. Obviously not agreeing.

"Go back to the house, guys," Anthony echoed, looking down at Randall. "It'll be safer."

"We're coming with you," Victor insisted. "You're hardly going on some sort of stealth mission. Two extra bodies won't change anything. And Randall is an excellent wolf to have on your side at times like this."

"Yeah, but you're not," Jed said, exasperated. "You sound like a G.o.dd.a.m.n elephant running through the woods. I don't want to send you back alone. I need Redford, therefore Randall gets the short straw. Now stop f.u.c.king arguing."

Victor grumbled in exasperation, but he gave in. "Right, then. I'll hold down the fort." He sounded like he'd tried to inject some cheer and determination into his voice; it hadn't worked. "Randall?"

Obviously torn, Randall hesitated. But Jed just shook his head. "Don't, kid," he muttered. "We need blankets, hot water, and whatever first aid you have. Victor doesn't know where everything is. Edwin's going to be hurt when we bring him back, and I don't know how bad. So go, get ready. I need you both to do that so that we have someplace safe to take him to." Jed hesitated, looking over at Victor. "There are some spare guns in a hidden panel in the back of the Jeep. Get those. Lock the doors. Be ready. Okay?"

Victor still didn't look happy, but he nodded again and laid his hand on Randall's back in a comforting gesture. They left, and Redford turned his attention to Jed's bag. He pulled out his own gun and holster while Anthony shifted, and set about getting himself ready.

"Anthony, can you pick up their trail?" Redford asked, strapping the holster over his shoulder. He realized then that he was still in the clothes he'd worn last night, barefoot. Jed was sloppily dressed in what he'd tossed to the floor; Redford noticed that Jed's shirt was inside out. Neither of them had taken the time to hunt for new clothes.

Anthony circled the tree again and took off at a trot. To give Jed freer range of movement, Redford took the bag and slung it over his own back as they followed.

As they ran and as Redford thought, he felt a resignation settle into him. At the start of all of this, their only mission had been to help the Lewises find the Gray Lady's pack, but in doing so, they'd stumbled into a fight. And it still wasn't over-it would maybe not be over for a very long time, considering the visions Victor had had. And all Redford wanted to do was take Jed to some remote little cabin in the mountains and fish from a stream.

This war they'd found themselves in might not end. This could just be the very start of it, and Redford didn't want it. He didn't want to get involved in something like this. But he couldn't back out now, could he? He didn't want to back out, not when the Lewises were in danger. Redford just wished this fight had never started at all.

When Anthony finally came to a halt, Jed and Redford stopped beside him. They crouched behind the low overhang of a hill to catch their breath. Redford tipped his chin up, testing the air with a deep inhale. "They're close," Redford told Jed. "Not even a mile away, and they've stopped." There was a certain scent that came with movement. Redford couldn't quite describe it, but it was something like a mix between the sweat of exertion and the pumping of blood. He couldn't smell that on the hunters anymore. Creeping through the scent of pain and sour fear was the crisp smell he a.s.sociated with Edwin. Anthony seemed to sense it too, because his ears were darted forward, body in a line of tense antic.i.p.ation. "Edwin is with them, and he's alive."

Jed pulled out a box from his bag and attached his second favorite sniper scope onto his rifle, easing himself up to rest along a fallen log. After a moment, Jed murmured, "I can't see any lights. No fires or torches that I can tell. We'll need to get closer."

Redford looked around for a twig. When he found one, he pushed the end into the dirt and started drawing a map. "From what I can smell, most of the hunters are gathered together," he said, keeping his voice low. "Edwin was telling me all about this area yesterday. There's a shallow stream that goes to the east of us, and an outcropping of rocks near where I think the hunters are. They've probably camped there for the night. Which means that we can't come at them from that direction." He drew a line approaching the west. "We'll need to go this way."

Jed nodded, looking over the map one last time before dashing it out with his foot. "Lead the way," he said, gun in his hands, dropping back behind Redford and Anthony.

"Wait," Redford hissed, throwing an arm out to stop Jed moving. Anthony had frozen as well, and together they looked behind them. "There's...." Redford sniffed the air, his eyes growing wide. "There's a few dozen wolves approaching."

"What the-" Jed cursed under his breath, fingers tightening on his gun. "Where?"

"Behind us," Redford replied. He inhaled again, trying to sort out the different scents the wind was carrying. "It's.... I think the Gray Lady is with them."

Jed darted a look at Anthony, as if for confirmation. Anthony shifted back, remaining crouched low to the ground. "It's her," Anthony agreed. "I have no idea why, but it's her. Mallory too."

"Not good," Jed growled, turning to face where they'd come from. "Not good, not good, not good." His gun was out, leveled at the trees, and Jed was scanning the dark forest as if he'd suddenly be able to see more than a few feet in front of him.

Redford began to hear the quiet noise of paws moving over dirt, dozens of them running in unison. Then a bare minute later, he began to see shapes approaching through the trees. A sleek gray wolf emerged at the head of the pack, a wolf one moment and then human the next.

The Gray Lady, naked and as wild as the forest around them, regarded them calmly. "I see we caught up just in time."

Jed stood in front of them, between the pack and Redford and Anthony, gun in his hands. Unafraid. He faced down dozens of wolves without blinking. Which was probably idiotic. "We've got this under control," Jed told her lowly. "Though I'm sure if you need a place to stay for the night, you can take a detour through the Lewises'. But you don't need to be out this way at all."

"They've taken one of your own, am I right?" Her voice was nothing less than absolutely cool, but Redford still heard the growl of anger thrumming underneath. "They have been trying to take ours, still. We found notations on one of the hunters about where they intended to strike next. And we are ready to strike back."

"This is not a war." Redford saw Jed's hands tighten around his gun, his body shifting into a more defensive stance. "If you go over there, if you rip them apart, what next? They send more men. Better trained men. It's an arms race. You escalate, so they come back with bigger guns, with tanks. And then what do you do? You send more wolves in? So they start with planes. I've seen it before. It never ends well. Let me go in there. I can pull the kid out, send the hunters a message, without you throwing down the gauntlet."

"We are beyond messages, human," the Gray Lady said sternly. "There are consequences to what they have done, and they will know those consequences tonight. We are not weak. We will not lie down and let them continue."

"Anthony." Jed's voice was a quiet plea now. "This will start a war. Tell them."

"Jed's right, ma'am," Anthony said. He remained crouched, putting himself on a lower level than the Gray Lady, but his words were firm. "They can keep recruiting, but you can't. There's only so many wolves in the area."

It looked like the Gray Lady's patience was running out. Her wolves gathered around her, facing them down, with only Jed standing in the middle to stop them, and all of Jed's words and weapons couldn't stop the wolves from attacking if that was what they decided.

It felt like an eternity stretched past as the Gray Lady considered her answer, and Redford grew more tense with every second. Finally, she inclined her head, and for a moment it looked like she might agree.

She murmured, "Go. Kill them all."

The wolves flowed past them on silent paws, shoulders b.u.mping against Jed and Redford's knees. Jed lifted his gun then, aiming it at the Gray Lady, finger on the trigger. But even he realized it would do no good. He closed his eyes, a defeated slump to his shoulders, and let the barrel of the gun fall, pointing harmlessly down at the forest floor.

Dismissing them, the Gray Lady shifted and ran off, leading the rest of the wolves toward the camp. Redford and Jed didn't move as the wolves streamed around them. Redford only glanced at Jed to see the resignation on Jed's expression that matched his own, and Anthony was staring after the pack, his jaw clenched tight. Moments later they heard the wolves attack in a flurry of noise: cut-off screams, barks and growls, and the dying moans of the hunters.

Everything fell to silence. Then a lone howl rose in the distance. "Edwin," Anthony gasped, sprinting toward the camp.

Redford reached out to take Jed's hand. "We should go catch up," he said quietly.

Jed looked like he'd aged about ten years. But he took Redford's hand without a word, and they made their way toward the wolves. The stench of death and blood was hard to miss. Even Jed grimaced as they got closer. And there was not much left of the hunters. There were eviscerated corpses strewn like fallen apples, the dark puddles of them against the ground. A few wolves looked to be limping, a few more were injured, but none had fallen. It looked like they'd caught the hunters mostly in the tents, a few of the bodies clearly cut down in an attempt to run away.

Jed made a quiet, choked sound. He abruptly turned and walked away, outside the tattered circle of the tents, back to the scene.

The Gray Lady was human again, standing in the middle of it like a queen surveying her land. A fine spray of blood marred her face, but she didn't seem to notice. Redford found his way to Edwin first, who looked banged up and b.l.o.o.d.y but alive. Anthony was already there, holding Edwin tightly.

"Never run off again, Edwin," Anthony was saying frantically.

In wolf form, Edwin looked strangely small, leaning heavily against Anthony's chest. He nosed into Anthony's throat as if rea.s.suring himself of the scent, giving a pained yelp when he tried to take a step. Blood was matting his shoulder; clearly that was where the bullet had hit him. The hunters hadn't bothered to do anything to the wound.

Redford gently touched Edwin's uninjured shoulder. "I'm glad you're okay," he whispered.

"We're going back to the lake outside your cabin," the Gray Lady announced, seemingly having no time for reunions. "I a.s.sume you have your brother there, ready to give medical aid?"