“The dreams are still coming. I’m not naive enough to believe I’ve learned everything. But I do know we exist because something was needed to keep the balance between humans, werewolves, and the dogs of death,” I answered tiredly.
“Excuse me?” Michelle glanced at Gabby as if saying “did you hear that too?”
“Urbat. A cousin to Lycan,” I explained. “They’re close, but not quite the same. They tried to wipe out the werewolves almost a thousand years ago.”
“Oh,” Michelle said, looking suddenly enlightened. “I think Nana Wini told me something about that. But she didn’t mention any cousins. Just that there was a huge fight—they weren’t sure of the reason—and that it decimated their numbers.”
“Of both sides,” I said before turning to Gabby for confirmation. “Right? You can see the difference in their sparks. Are there more werewolves or Urbat?”
Gabby looked slightly stunned. “I knew it,” she murmured. “Two different kinds.” Her expression grew vacant and then troubled. “There are more Urbat. At least double.” Her worried gaze flicked to the door, and she chewed on her lip for a moment. “So what does it mean that I’m Hope?”
“So far, I just know that you’re the key to bringing all of us together. You know where the other three are.”
Her attention returned to me. “Two,” she corrected. “Charlene is one of us, too.”
“Who’s Charlene?” The name sounded familiar. “Where is she?”
“Here,” Michelle said. “She’s Emmitt’s mother.”
“Mother?” Emmitt had to be at least in his twenties. “How old is she?”
Michelle shrugged. “In her forties. I’m not exactly sure.”
“What’s her ability?” I asked.
“She admitted she could control people.”
Of course! The dream starring Penny the bully. I felt like jumping up and down and cheering. “Strength,” I sighed with a happy grin. “We are just missing Peace and Courage.”
I looked at Gabby. “Where are they?”
Gabby’s gaze grew slightly unfocused, and I was glad she didn’t ask what I meant. “Both on the East Coast. One is very far north and the other just a little south.”
“One is with Blake,” Michelle said in a quiet, deeply troubled tone.
“Who’s Blake?” I asked a moment before the memory resurfaced. Her stepfather’s business partner.
“He kept me prisoner for my premonitions. I thought he was a werewolf, too. But I’ve heard that word before. Urbat. One of his men was talking about Urbat ruling the world. We have to tell the others that another kind exists,” she said, meeting my eyes. Worry filled her gaze. “The Elders have been trying to find Blake through their connection. But they can’t. After I met Emmitt, I had a vision of Blake with a tall, blind girl. She called him Father. She seemed okay with him.” She shrugged and explained further. “He definitely didn’t strike me as a good person when he kept me locked up, but he seemed to treat her well. Kissed her head and everything.”
My stomach flipped in a sickening way. One of them had one of us and treated her well? A cramp started in my chest, and I struggled to keep my face straight as she continued.
“I’m sure she’s one of us. The visions I’ve had so far have all proved to be of us, people with abilities. I saw you in the mall talking to some other girls,” she said to me. “And you, sitting on the floor with Clay in wolf form by your side.”
Clay. So that was the Shaggy-man’s name, I thought absently as I continued to spiral into a dark, depressed place. With their numbers, if they already had one of us, was there any hope?
“You were both reading,” she told Gabby. “There’s only been five different girls in my visions. The other is a really angry redhead.”
That pulled me out of my thoughts for a moment for a harsh, pained laugh.
“That would be Peace.” I recalled the dream of the little girl on the playground. Isabelle. But I kept that to myself. “We need her.” I felt the tug of a dream coming on and wanted to groan. I’d found them. We were together. Wasn’t that enough? “We need her,” I repeated. I needed her. Or Luke. If Luke would just let me Claim him, these dreams would stop.
“Are you okay?” Michelle asked.
“No. I’m not,” I snapped, sighed, and then apologized. “The dreams I have are less than pleasant, and they won’t let up.” I changed the subject back to the issues at hand. “Gabby, you pinpointed me enough to send Luke. We need you to do the same for the other two.”
She zoned out for a minute. “We can get to one, but not the other. The one in the north is surrounded by the other ones.”
If the redhead was Peace that meant…
“The one in the north, the tall blind one that Blake has, must be Courage.” If they didn’t know Peace’s location, we could still get to her. I tried not to dwell on the impossibility of getting Courage. That just left the threat at hand. “Have there been any attacks here since we arrived?” I asked, recalling my warning to Luke. Both women shook their heads. Why hadn’t they attacked? What were they waiting for?
“Are there any Urbat here?” I asked Gabby.
She shook her head at me. “But I’ve seen them before. A few of them attacked us. And then there’s Elder Joshua.”
An Elder. I looked up at the ceiling and tried to think. We needed to expose the traitors and remove them before we could even consider making a move toward Peace.
“He was the one I contacted.”
Luke’s voice surprised me. I’d forgotten he was there.
“Someone betrayed us on the way here,” I told them. “That’s why there were so many attacks.” But why not bigger groups of them? If the werewolves already had three, why would they risk me, the fourth, joining them? “There’s a lot more to discuss, but I’m about to pass out,” I admitted when the dreams nudged me again. My time was almost up.
“Gabby, keep an eye on the Urbat. If they start grouping and heading this way, we need to give everyone a warning.” I sighed and tried not to remember what the Urbat had done in the past. “The children should be evacuated, now.”
A sharp knock sounded at the door. A moment later it pushed open.
“Time’s up,” Clay said.
Gabby grinned at him and waved him in. Emmitt followed closely behind, elbowing Luke on his way past. The dream’s tug grew more insistent.
“Please keep quiet about all of this,” I said, standing. Then, to impress on them the seriousness of our situation, I repeated what I’d told Luke. “You have no idea what’s coming our way, but I do. I’ve been raped, beaten, cut,” I lifted my shirt to show them all the stitched gash, “starved, drowned, blinded, burned… you name it, I’ve lived it. We’ve lived it. You just don’t remember. Don’t trust anyone with your safety. When we do, we die. And I’ll be the one who has to remember.”
Turning, I left the silent room. Nana Wini stood just outside the door. Her expression told me she’d heard what I’d said.
Luke stole my opportunity to say anything to her by scooping me up into his arms. I shot him a disgruntled look still upset with his use of a pet name on another girl. But his angry, clenched jaw kept my mouth shut. I’d been too recently abused to have reminded him of all the other abuses I’d suffered. I rested my head against his shoulder and let him carry me.
“It was just a name,” he said after a moment.
I didn’t answer, keeping my head on his shoulder. But I felt better knowing he understood his mistake.
He gently set me on my feet just inside the tiny apartment’s door, and cupped my face in his hands. “There’s no room for anyone else in my heart,” he said softly. “Only you.”
“Then why?” I pleaded. If I was in his heart, then why did I have to wait to Claim him?
“Because I promised I would protect you,” he said. His eyes burned with fierce resolve. “Even from myself.”
The dream tugged, and my next blink turned into a three-second nap. A fingertip traced my eyebrow.
“You need rest,” he said, wrapping an arm around me and guiding me down the hall.
I did. I promised myself I would argue some more about the logic behind letting me Claim him now. But after a nap.
Fully dressed, I crawled up on the mattress, eased onto my side, and curled up protectively around my aching stomach. Stupid idea to cut myself. Didn’t work and now the pain lingered. Always pain. With that thought, the dream pulled me as Luke’s weight depressed the mattress next to me.
****
I sat up, shaking from the details of the dream. More death! Sweat coated my face, not from a fever, but the memory. Why had I dreamed that? I turned and noted the empty cold spot next to me. He’d left me, that’s why. After his sweet comment about holding me in his heart, he’d left me. He knew what I suffered. I weakly swiped at my face, removing the moisture and wishing I could remove the memory. Exhaling slowing, I reflected on what I’d learned. My sister Courage always died young.
Light still shone through the room’s window. I glanced at the numbers on the digital clock. Less than an hour had passed. Two pills and a glass of water waited on the small lamp stand next to the bed. Without hesitation, I swallowed them down. I could have cared less what they were at that point. I’d have taken anything from painkillers to cyanide. I definitely hadn’t gotten the rest I needed.
My stomach ached from sitting up so quickly. I gingerly rolled off the bed and rose to a crouched stand. I hobbled out of the bedroom to look for Luke. I found Michelle waiting on the couch in the living room, but no Luke. She stood when she saw me. Her concern for me was evident on her face.
“Luke asked me to wait here so you wouldn’t be alone. I know you said the dreams were bad, but…”
I looked away from her uncomfortably and wondered how much I’d yelled.
“Luke said he left you some pills.”
“Yeah, I already took them. What were they?”
“Something for the pain.”
Darn.
“Nana and Sam want to talk to you when you’re up.”
“I’m not up yet,” I said as I shuffled toward the bathroom.
Michelle followed me to the door. “They want to know what’s going on. Gabby and I haven’t said anything. But after you left, Sam tried talking to Gabby and they ended up yelling at each other. Clay looked all bristly like he wanted to hit Sam.”
I rolled my eyes, finished up, and opened the door. “And I care why?”
“Sam’s an Elder. Gabby’s—” The door opened with a bang stopping Michelle’s words.
“Gabby’s getting annoyed,” Gabby said, striding into the room and closing the door behind her. “They let you go because you’re hurt, but as soon as you were gone, we were bombarded with questions. They even sent for Luke to grill him.”
I couldn’t help the panicked look that crept into my eyes. It was too soon to reveal everything. It explained his absence, though.
“We didn’t say anything,” Gabby assured me again. “Look, I wasn’t sure who to trust before you got here, but after talking to you, I don’t think we can do this alone. I think we need to talk to the Elders. At least some of them.”
Michelle nodded her head in agreement.
We were all thinking of Elder Joshua.