above ground: chapter 11

Chapter 11

Rae reached forward and snapped the necklace off of Lilith’s neck, bringing the fang close to her face so that she could scrutinize it.

Scar shifted uneasily by her side.  “Is it…?”

“It looks like his,” Rae answered darkly.  “We need Al to be sure.”  She shoved the necklace into her pocket, then focused her attention on Lilith.

“Who are you?”

“I… My name is Lilith.”

Rae’s hand shot forward and grasped her chin tightly, surprisingly warm against her skin.  She turned Lilith’s face to the right.  “You’re not part of the Guild, and you’re not a witch.”  She stepped closer, brought Lilith’s face forward so that they could meet eyes.  “Maybe the better question is what are you.”

Lilith paused, nervous to reply.  There was a bounty on her head—on any bland’s head—and she could be playing right into their hands if she confessed to her humanity.

Rae’s hand slid down, away from her chin, only to circle her neck.  “Who cares.  You won’t be alive long enough for it to matter.”  She cocked her head to the side.  “If you answer my questions nicely, I’ll make it quick.”

Lilith couldn’t reply, didn’t know what to say.  She could feel her pulse in her neck racing, throbbing against Rae’s hand.  Rae brought her other hand up and wrapped it around Lilith’s neck, pulling her forwards, so that there were mere inches between them.

“Now tell me, where did you get the fang?”

Lilith looked around, hoping against hope to catch sight of Wolf, but the only faces she could see were unfamiliar and unfriendly.

“Well?”  Rae tightened her grip, squeezing Lilith’s neck mercilessly.

“I… it was given to me,” Lilith choked out, panicked.

The answer seemed to infuriate Rae.  “Who gave it to you?”

She paused, then answered hesitantly, “Wolf.”

“I know it’s a werewolf.  What’s his name?” Rae ground out, shaking her slightly.

Lilith blinked back tears.  Her chest was burning, her throat aching from the pressure.  She found herself wondering what her friends back home would think of her situation, and then she remembered Emma and couldn’t stop the tears.

“She’s crying,” Scar said, his voice gloating.

Rae looked unsympathetic, her eyes frighteningly intense.  “Answer my question!”

Lilith could feel her eyes bulging in her head, her face was flushed and hot.  She managed to gasp, pull in some air, but it wasn’t enough to speak.

“Rae!”

At the sound of the newcomer’s voice, Rae let go of her immediately, the smile on Scar’s face vanishing just as quickly.  Lilith crumpled down on to the floor, her fingers reaching automatically for her throat.  She rubbed the skin gingerly, gasping for breath.

She raised her head and saw a tall man striding towards them from the opposite end of the clearing.  He was thin, but muscled, and towered over her.  He had short dark hair, and olive skin.  He scrutinized her with his piercing brown eyes, his expression serious.  Lilith cringed in front of him, intimidated.

“This was on her,” Rae said, tossing the fang necklace to the man.

He caught it in midair and examined it closely.  “It’s his,” he announced.  His eyes flicked up to meet Lilith’s.  “How did you get this?”  His voice was deep, rumbling from his chest.

“That’s what I was trying to find out before you interrupted me, Al,” Rae grumbled.

Al turned on her, stern.  “By choking it out of her?”

The two seemed set to argue, so Lilith pushed herself to her feet and spoke up.  “It was given to me.”  Her voice was raspy from the effort.  When the two werewolves looked back at her, she took half a step back before she realized what she was doing.

Al seemed to notice her fear, because his voice was curiously gentle.  “Who gave it to you?”

Her face burned now, not from tears but from embarrassment.  “A wolf.”

“Not by any wolf.  By one of mine.”  Al shook his head.

Rae stepped forward.  “Let’s just kill her and be done with it.  She has no mark; she can’t be the one we’re looking for.  She probably stole it.”

“Are you going to risk Silver’s life over it?” Al demanded with none of his previous gentleness.

Rae dropped her eyes, a scowl on her face.

“Don’t think I can’t smell the blood.  I know you killed the witch.  I make the decisions here, Rae, and if you’re not prepared to follow them….”  His voice trailed off threateningly.  He seemed to grow in size, and the air around them turned strangely hot.  Rae cringed in front of him, her face caught somewhere between guilt and defiance.

Scar, who had been quiet until then, whimpered, and the sound seemed to snap Al out of his mood.  He took a deep breath and sighed.  “Go take a walk.”

Rae turned and loped off without another word.

When she was out of sight, Al turned angrily to Scar.  “I thought I told you to rein her in.”

“You know I can’t do anything to stop her, Al,” Scar replied, hunching down awkwardly.

“You could’ve tried,” Al snarled back.  He ran a hand through his hair and closed his eyes, seeming to calm down.  “If Dev isn’t back soon, I’m going to tear Rae into tiny little pieces.”

He sent Scar away, then looked at Lilith, scrutinizing her appearance.  She was embarrassed when her stomach gurgled loudly, but it seemed to break the tension, for Al smiled, his face warming into a friendly expression.

“You said a wolf gave you this?”  He held the necklace aloft.

“Yes, a werewolf.  I… I don’t know his name.  He has a big scar across his chest.”  Now that she had begun speaking, she couldn’t seem to stop.  “I lost him in the city and I didn’t know where he’d gone.  I was worried, I thought I’d look for him, because, well, he saved my life.”

Al sighed, shook his head slowly.  “Silver always was one for heroics.”

Silver.  That was Wolf’s name.  She tested the word out in her mind mentally.  It felt unfamiliar and strange.  “Where is he?”

Al looked grim, but resigned.  “You better come with me.”

He led her away from the camp, further upstream.  The river burbled even louder than before, the waters white with froth.  Al waited patiently while Lilith kneeled down carefully and rinsed out her mouth, then splashed some water on her face.  The motions soothed her.

When she was finished, Al took the lead once more, angling away from the river, and she realized he had taken her to the riverside on purpose.  It was more thoughtful a gesture than she had expected from the man, and he rose in her estimation.

They walked further ahead.  As the roar of the river faded behind them, Lilith slowly became aware of a noise up ahead.  She strained her ears.  Someone was growling, a weak and pitiful sound.  They pushed through some trees, and arrived in a small clearing.  A werewolf was circling the area, tail held up, ears erect.  His attention was focused on the source of that growling.

When he noticed Al, his ears flattened on his head and his tail sank down to hang low between his legs, wagging gently.

Al nodded at him.  “Go back to camp,” he ordered, and the werewolf yipped and slipped out of sight.

It was then Lilith noticed the crouching figure in the middle of the clearing, the soft grey coat instantly recognizable.  It was Wolf, and he was growling.  His lips were pulled back away from his teeth, his head angled down towards the ground.  His black-tipped tail was a straight, horizontal line.  He was so focused on his actions he hadn’t noticed them yet.

It was as if he were pushing up against a great weight.  His legs were trembling weakly beneath him as he struggled to stand.  His muscles straining with the effort, he straightened his legs inch by inch, until he finally stood tall.  Then his legs buckled beneath him and he collapsed back on to the ground.

“Wolf!” Lilith cried, and ran into the middle of the clearing.  Al caught up with her and grabbed her wrist, stopped her from getting close.

When he caught sight of her, Wolf stiffened and inhaled deeply, then his entire body relaxed, as if a puppet had cut his strings.  He closed his eyes and seemed to go immediately to sleep.

Lilith took a step towards him, then stopped.  Fear warred with her impulse to make sure Wolf was okay.  She’d forgotten how big he was in wolf form, and his mouth, parted in sleep, only highlighted the sharpness of his teeth.

She settled on asking Al questions.  “What’s wrong with him?”

“He’s too tired to change.  Wore himself out trying to fight my orders.”  Al moved closer and crouched down, whispered something into Wolf’s ear.  Wolf’s body shuddered and rippled in response, absorbing the fur, shrinking down to human form.  Lilith caught sight of an eyeful of skin before she looked away, embarrassed.

“Give me your cloak,” Al said, a tinge of amusement in his voice.

She unclasped the front button and handed it over without looking around.  She kept her face turned away until she was sure Wolf—Silver!—was decently covered.

When she turned around, Al was scooping Wolf into his arms as if he weighed nothing more than a feather.  He led the way back to the camp, moving carefully so as not to jostle Silver.

He set Silver down by a girl with ginger hair, who immediately began fussing.  The woman touched Silver’s face with easy familiarity, checking his pulse and his temperature.  She even lifted the cloak and glanced down his body.  The sight made Lilith inexplicably angry.

“Not a scratch,” the woman said.  “I’m impressed.”

“He could hardly disobey,” Al retorted, chuckling.

Lilith forced the words out of her mouth.  “Don’t you have clothes to give him?”

“I’ll scrounge something up,” the woman volunteered.

Al shrugged and turned away.  “Don’t stress yourself out.  It serves him right.”  He beckoned for Lilith to follow, and she complied reluctantly.

“Will he be okay?”

“He just needs to rest.”

She forced herself not to look back.  “What happened to him?”

“He was adamant about finding someone.”  Al shot her a shrewd glance.  “And I ordered him to stay here.”

“And he chose to ignore that order?” she guessed, feeling a faint surge of hope.  Silver had wanted to find her.  He hadn’t abandoned her on purpose.

“He can’t ignore my orders, but he did his best to fight them.  He was so angry he ripped right through his clothes like a cub.”  Al smiled at the memory.  “I’ve never seen him so flustered.  Didn’t do him any good, though.”

“I knew it,” she said.  “I knew he wouldn’t have just left me.  It didn’t make sense.”

Al shot her a sharp look, but said nothing.  He stopped walking.  They were smack in the middle of camp.  A large pile of bags was on her left, and directly in front of them were two blankets, spread out on the ground.  No cushions, Lilith noticed, a detail she found odd.  Back home, when they had had picnics near the underground lake, everyone always brought cushions.

Al gestured for her to sit on the blankets, then made himself comfortable across from her, leaning back against the pile of bags.  She sat down, surprised that the ground was softer than expected.

Rae crossed the clearing and joined their circle, much to Lilith’s dismay.  She settled, cross-legged, halfway between Lilith and Al, and looked expectantly at the latter.

“Well?” she demanded.

Al pursed his lips at the sound of her voice, but seemed to be keeping a tight control on his temper.  “It is as we suspected.”

Rae’s gaze flickered briefly over to Lilith, her gaze suddenly wary.  “But there’s no mark!”

“Does there have to be?”

Rae shifted back and mumbled something which sounded like, “Renegades.”

Al ignored her.  He focused his intense gaze on Lilith, his eyes thoughtful.   “Whatever you did to Silver, it is impressive magic.”  He leaned forward.  “Now, to business: what are your terms for his release?”

Rae stiffened, turned to face Al.  “You’ve got to be kidding.  We don’t negotiate with witches.  Especially not renegade ones.”