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Chapter 63: Aiden
My eyes are open, but I can’t move them. I’m looking through a tunnel with walls of shadow. I can’t feel the ground under my cheek. I can’t feel my own body. Everything sounds different, as if I’m in a cave. My nose still works. The dusty scent of vampires is suddenly tickling my nose and making me want to sneeze, and if I could feel my stomach it would be sinking. I can see along the path, everything sideways, the paved surface a wall and trees at my feet and my head. My friends had walked on before I fell. They’re turning to look at me now.
“Run,” I try to tell them, but nothing comes out of my mouth.
“Aiden?” Jade starts towards me.
I try to shake my head, but nothing is working. I will her with my eyes to stay away, to get away. “Get back, run!” I think at her.
“What happened?” Tala asks, following Jade, and I would scream, if I could.
“Wait!” Reese calls after the girls. “Wait, come back.”
“There’s something wrong, he’s hurt.” Jad
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Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 64: Sarah
I cried myself to sleep. I haven’t done that since I was a kid in the children’s home. I wake on the sofa, still in last night’s clothes. My mouth is stale and sticky and my face a mess of makeup and dried tears. Everything aches. I can barely move. I wince as I drag myself stiffly to my feet and totter to the bathroom for the hottest shower I can stand, wincing at every movement I make. I feel cleaner, after the shower, but it does nothing for the pain that permeates every muscle. Even my nose hurts. I always feel horrible after a good cry, but not usually this bad. I hope I’m not coming down with something. I’m probably transmitting all this to Aiden. Good, a little, selfish voice in my head says. He’s not here to comfort me, he’s off somewhere else. I know we didn’t say anything, but he must know I’m feeling awful, through our Bond. He must have felt how upset I was last night. Why isn’t he here? It’s not asking for much, is it, just wan
Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 65: Aiden
They never speak, never laugh, never even make a sound of effort, but I remember how they smell. Every kick, every punch, every chunk of hair ripped from my scalp, every broken tooth and rib and collarbone and finger, each one I match to a smell, and remember. They will pay. After a few minutes of the fledgelings’ assault, I stop feeling the injuries. I am a single ball of pain being flung about the vampires’ playing-field. Frost claws me from within, frothing mad and desperate to deal his own punishment here and now, but they mustn’t know. They can’t know my strengths, not until it’s too late for them. I’m finally left lying on the floor, a broken toy in a puddle of my own blood. The fledgelings file out silently, the single observer following them out. I remember his smell too. He’s just as guilty as they are, and he will face justice. I relax as best I can, letting them think I am helpless, until the door closes. I don’t even move then, listening for the footstep
Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 66: Sarah
Four against one is long odds, and, knowing what I do these days, I cannot even be sure that they are all human. I try to bluff, smiling at them brightly, already aware that it’s a wasted effort. They know who I am, and they probably know why I’m here, and if they know that then that’s not good news for Aiden. “I’ve come the wrong way. I’m just out for a run. I’ll go now, and get out of your hair.”One of the men veers sideways in his approach, not flanking me yet, but he will be if he closes the distance much more. I step away, but they move forward faster than I move back. As though anticipating my next move, which would be to turn and run, one is moving faster than the others, barely a handful of steps away from me now.“If we can reach the water, we’ll be safe,” I remember, but the water is at least three hundred metres away, if not more- the Isle of Dogs is surrounded on three sides by the
Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 67: Aiden
“That pathetic mess is the dreaded Aiden Cooper?” The words sound strange when given in the expressionless voice of Sutcliffe’s human speaker. “Why on Earth should we believe that?”“How dare you question your superior?” Whitfield demands, then glances at the screen and collects himself. “It’s easy enough to prove. Fletcher? Have the Seer brought in.” The observer from my earlier beating- Fletcher- opens the door and gives orders to someone outside.“Ah. The Seer I’ve heard so much about,” Ewing says, via his Voice. It’s impossible to tell whether he’s pleased, or excited, or sarcastic. It must get frustrating communicating this way. “She’ll be able to tell whether this is the Aiden Cooper she spoke about?”This Seer is how they knew about me? That’s how they discovered I was to blame for Laurence Taylor? I’m suddenly
Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 68: Sarah
Aiden’s alive, He’s seven feet tall, covered in fur and blood and rags, but he’s alive and he’s hugging me as if he’s never going to let go. I hug him back just as fiercely. The ghostly warriors have vanished back through the walls, and from the sounds in the distance they are finishing what they started. I should feel horrified at what I have done here, but from the moment I stepped through the door from the yard outside, and saw the eyes of the figures waiting for me, I have felt no regrets, These are not living, breathing beings. These are undead monsters.Aiden is speaking, but it’s hard to understand. His head is all wolf-y, so his mouth is the wrong shape. He huffs, and I get to watch him shrink back to a human. The process sounds painful but his face shows no sign of that when he’s himself again. His lip is scabbed and his nose is puffy. There’s blood all over his chin, which is probably his, and if his face looks that ba
Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 69: Aiden
Jade licks her lips. There’s colour in her cheeks, and her eyes are bright. She looks a hundred times better than she did only a minute ago. She stands slowly and backs carefully away from myself and Sarah, looking wary. Gabriella steps in front of her with a watchful expression on her face. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do! I’m just standing there, frozen with shock. There’s no right decision. I can upset my Mate and let her down. She’s afraid and she’s miserable and she’s feeling betrayed. She’s right, isn’t she? I’m betraying her by not trusting her on this. She wants… she wants… the Bond isn’t enough without words. Or maybe it’s me who’s not enough. I’ve never been enough. I look back at Jade. Someone who’s given her word to do me no harm. Someone who’s pretty much my prisoner. Can I trust her though? Vampires have honour, or so I’ve heard, but how can that be automatic when they are Turned? If a compulsive liar is Turned, does h
Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 70: Sarah
The building is empty. Deserted. The hall echoes faintly with my carpet-muffled footsteps, making me notice how hard I am stomping my feet down. Fury and misery burn through me in equal measures, and my thoughts are a mess. How dare he, after what I’ve done for him? I’ve already slammed the door on my awareness of his emotions. I don’t need to feel him fussing over his vampire best buddy.He knew Jade longer than he’s known me.Of course he’d cling to her rather than letting her go and staying with me. All I’ve ever done for him is to drag him into a mess of vampire takeover plots and horse-killing werewolves. I was so determined to rescue him, so happy to be able to save him. Now I feel like it’s that ancient video game. I’ve won the battle but all I get is to be told “Our princess is in another castle.”There’s not even any bodies. I wonder if the warriors take them to wherever Bellmout
Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 71: Aiden
Now I can understand why people living in London prefer the subway to cars. The traffic here is so slow! There are joggers overtaking us. The speed suits my mood. Every moment of our crawl along the street is taking me further away from my Mate. If she is still my Mate. If she’ll still have me, after this. After I abandoned her. She saved me, and I abandoned her. The day is grey, like my misery. The slow drag of the traffic matches the drag of my thoughts. I’m trying to do the right thing, but is this the right thing? Sarah doesn’t think so. My parents wouldn’t think so. They’d have killed Jade without a thought. That leads me to think about Reese. The idea of tracking him down and killing him for being a Hunter makes me feel sick, but that’s what I was raised to do. To fight Hunters and every other threat to my Pack. Ella and I are crammed together on the passenger seat. I know she’s there, pressed against me, smelling of child and girl and the cereal and milk she p
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