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“Make sure she’s okay first.”
“Fine.” He left me there to check what was going on in Byron’s living room. I had almost fallen asleep when the front door burst open. Amelia Evans dashed in, tripped over me, then lay sprawled on the hallway floor.
“Dorian!” she screamed. “What are you doing on the floor?”
“I can’t get up,” I said weakly. “Just… just give me a minute.”
She scrambled towards me to feel my forehead. “You’re too cold. Did that harbinger do this to you?”
I nodded, so tired all of a sudden.
“Dorian, you need to shift. Quickly.”
“That’s what I told him,” Victor said, returning to the hall with Byron who looked a little worse for wear but nowhere near as bad as I was feeling.
“We’ll take him into the office,” Byron said. “Amelia, please check on Margo. She seems to be in shock. Vira isn’t much better. Mrs Harding should arrive soon. I want them both in a better state before she arrives.”
Amelia nodded then left us. Byron and Victor helped me to my feet then into the office. A few minutes later, I had shifted into wolf form, surprisingly quickly, as though my body longed for it, knew exactly what we needed. Within ten minutes, I felt better, warm and back to normal, all traces of the harbinger’s dark power gone from my body as though the wolf had burned it away.
I stayed in wolf form for a while longer because Margo kept shivering like crazy. When I sat next to where she lay on a sofa, she rolled over to sink her fingers into my fur, automatically reaching for warmth. The chill from her fingers took longer to leave, but by the time her mother arrived, panicked and upset, Margo was looking better and Vira had recovered.
Still, one man had harmed too many of us in one go, kept us at bay in our panic before we could get near him. If Vira hadn’t helped, we would be mourning a wolf. Byron was moving slowly, and I knew he wouldn’t recover fully until he shifted. I dreaded to think what might have happened if Margo’s father had been struck by that kind of cold.
What Vira had told us was starting to make more sense. Margo’s human side couldn’t take the damage. Now that I had truly experienced some of it, I could see how strong she had been so far. She had protected us as best she could, risking her health to prevent me from taking the worst of it. If I didn’t help her now, I was worth nothing.
CHAPTER21
Margo
The warmth had finally begunto settle back into my bones, but I doubted I would ever feel hot again. Whatever Eli had done had been long-lasting. He knew exactly what he was doing, while I was winging everything. If it hadn’t been for Vira, I did not doubt that Dorian would have died. I would have watched him die. I would have done nothing. This time, I wasn’t about to let Vira run away. I needed answers.
I watched her as she accepted a hot cup of tea from Byron. She took a grateful sip then smiled. “Thank you,” she whispered.
She still looked shaken, but she was already doing better, recovering far faster than I could.
Byron sat with a glance at me. Everybody had been quiet for a long time, waiting, unsure. I had a million questions in my head, but they all boiled down to one. “Why?”
Vira set the cup down on the coffee table. “I don’t know. I didn’t think about it. I felt strange all day, but I wasn’t sure why. Eli may have seen me speak to you. He’s possessive. He might have wanted to provoke you or punish me. I can’t tell.”
I waited for her to continue, feeling as though I were walking on eggshells.
“What he did today…” She sighed. “That wasn’t right. The Elders wouldn’t send him here to make such a drastic move. We live in the mountains to avoid death, to avoid complications. Using death the way Eli did is forbidden. I didn’t know he had gotten so strong. He must have been practising again. But where? When?” She shivered, wrapping her arms around herself.
Byron laid another blanket around her shoulders. “Again?”
“He used to practice on me. He’s good at it, but only because he’s been pushing the limits for his whole life. The Elders would never agree with what he did here, especially so publicly. This doesn’t make sense to me. He can’t do this alone.”
“What’s his deal?” I asked. “What is he here to do?”
“He must be trying to gain power. The way we live in the compound isn’t right. Eli agrees with that, but he wants to turn the way we live into something a lot darker. He doesn’t want to hide. He wants us to fulfil our true potential, in his words. He thinks we can be powerful. Our ancestors were, but it only ever brought more death our way as though we were…”
“Cursed?” Byron offered.
“Something like that,” Vira said. “The stories say that our ancestors went up against the werewolves in an attempt to wipe them out. In the process, many of our people died or simply lost their minds. Eventually, small groups of Elders moved their people to compounds. They hid and enforced rules to ensure history didn’t repeat itself. A lot of us don’t even have power any longer.”
“Why haven't you left for good?” Amelia asks. “You’re miserable there.”
Vira bowed her head. “I learned the hard way that Eli will find me no matter where I go. He thinks I belong to him. Our ancestor was one of those Elders who fled to the mountains. Eli wants to undo that mistake, but he will never be allowed to lead. These things destroy him daily. I don’t believe he was sent here to harm anyone, only to investigate, but he always pushes the line. I made a mistake today. I’m so foolish.”
