Her Hunters

Chapter Fifteen

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

I pushed the library door open carefully, listening for the warning beep that would tell me whether the alarm had been set or not. When I heard nothing, I swung open the door and darted inside quickly. After locking the door behind me, I went straight for the desk where I knew the vault key was hidden.

Sliding my hand along the bottom of the top drawer, I found the small key. I held the piece of metal in my hand and sighed. So much had happened in such little time. It was hard to keep up. It seemed like just yesterday I was just a librarian in this small town. I would never be a normal person.

I sighed and made my way to the back of the library to open the vault door. I still wasn't sure what I was looking for. I should have called Morrigan, she could have helped me. Maybe it wasn't too late. As I walked to the middle of the room, I dialed her number. She didn't answer so I left her a voicemail. "Hey, I'm at the library. Will you come by?"

I scoured the shelves for books on shifter lore. I ended up with more than ten books on the table before I ended up giving up on finding every werewolf book. Picking up Wolves and their Shadows, I set to work. I flipped through the pages, folding the corners of every page that mentioned mates and the rituals. After a few minutes I stumbled across a page titled Link Origins.

Sonya Darkheart was the first woman to dabble in the dark arts. It was her mission to eradicate the shifters. Every single last one of them, from the wolves to the rats. When she was younger, a wolf had raped her mother and then killed her shortly after Sonya was born. Sonya was sent to live with the town coven, unknowing of the circumstances around her birth. The other witches, of course, knew that she was not pure. She was a hybrid and she deserved to die.

When she came of age, she learned of her origin and ran from the coven. They were planning to put her on trial, and she knew she would die if she stayed. She ran into the woods, hoping that they wouldn't follow her. She survived for a time, but that wouldn't last long. She needed a way to survive indefinitely. She turned to blood magic as a means of survival.

When the coven found evidence of this, they sent a search party into the woods to capture her and bring her to justice. They never found her. She had turned to a local werewolf pack and they protected her with their lives, despite going against natural law. She mated two brothers, and had a son through them. Shortly after his birth, the two wolves died.

"Anything interesting?" I jumped and slammed the book shut, wheeling around on the intruder. "We need to stop meeting like this." Diesel smiled at me again and pushed his hair back out of his face.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I seethed, walking past him to look out of the vault door into the library. "I locked the door."

He stepped beside me and pulled the vault door closed. "I was already here. Your boss let me in and forgot to show me out before she closed up for the night. She kept saying something about vault intruders and hidden secrets. She's a batty old thing, isn't she?"

"You should not be here. This is stalking."

"No. This is me giving you a warning. You need to get away from that pack if you want to live. Liam is going to storm the place within the week and you don't need to be caught in it." He sighed. "Who am I kidding? You already are caught in the middle. Take Xavier and get out. Fake his death if you have to."

I swallowed hard. It could be a trap. "Why are you telling me this?"

"I don't know. Don't question it. I just feel like I need to protect you from the shit storm that is about to roll in. We have no quarrel with you." I watched him struggle inside of his own head. "Stop looking at me like that."

"I'm not looking at you like anything."

He grabbed me and turned me around so my back was pressed against the door. "Yes, you are. Quit arguing with me and get out of here or you are going to die. Why can't you get that?"

"Why do you even care? You are one of the bad guys!"

He closed his eyes tight. "I already told you I don't know, Talia. All I know is everyone in your pack will die by the hands of demons."

"What? You are actually admitting to using demons? You must really be stupid."

"No. I didn't expect for this to happen. I didn't expect it from Liam. I thought that he had a righteous cause to turn on the pack, but he's deranged. I'm too far in this to back out of it now. I know that... But you can go."

My jaw clenched. "Why should I believe you? You don't want to help me. You want to kill the two men I love."

Diesel let out a loud howl and backed away from me, doubling over. I watched as his bones cracked under the skin and he fell to the ground. My heart started racing and I couldn't catch my breath. I had to get out of there. I turned back to the vault door and tried to pull it open. It had locked from the outside.

"Oh shit. No, no, no." I tried to pull the door open again. It didn't budge.

I heard laughing from the other side of the door. "He told you to leave, bitch. You lost your chance." I didn't recognize the voice, but something told me that whoever it was had something against the man inside of the vault with me.

If I couldn't get away, what could I do? Something inside of me told me to calm Diesel down. I really didn't want to get close enough to get bitten by the brute, but it was the only way to give myself a chance at surviving.

I took a couple of steps towards Diesel and dropped down to my knees so I could look him in the face. His eyes snapped to mine and he growled. "Away." I shook my head and put my hand on top of his, which had already partially shifted.

"No." I closed my eyes and started whispering under my breath. I focused on channeling my aura into his, trying to calm him. Diesel howled and thrashed, growling suddenly as he backed away.

"Away!" The sound was loud enough to rattle the shelves that lined the wall.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "If you lose control, it will not matter if I am close to you. You will kill me anyway."

Sadness flickered across his expression, but was gone as soon as the next phase kicked in. His bones cracked and fur sprouted from his body. He howled in pain and threw his body into a bookshelf, as if he were trying to knock himself out. I was getting nervous, but I didn't want to kill him if I didn't have to. I was thinking about the man I killed the day I met Gabriel. Murder was a last resort.

"Diesel, listen to me. Keep it under control. Neither of us has to die." I walked toward him calmly with my hands out. "Our pack can protect you, but you will have to cooperate with us."

He snorted. "Our pack? You are no wolf! You belong to no pack." I watched as he shook and hunkered down onto the floor. With a scream, the man turned into the beast.

Surprisingly, he made no move toward me. He laid there on the floor and looked at me, but did not try to harm me or get closer. I swallowed hard and dropped to my knees, cautiously placing my hands upon his head. He growled at me, but made no other hostile moves. I closed my eyes and focused on giving him my energy. I let the calm waves wash over him, accepting his rage into myself.

"What?" He looked afraid. I shivered and grit my teeth, forcing myself to keep my hands on him. As long as I touched him, I could keep him from shifting any further. My blood boiled hot and my bones began to creak and bend. "No."

Diesel tried to pull away from me, but it was of no use. I was halfway gone into his wolf's mind, feeling what he felt. I was as far inside of him as a person could get. It was disconcerting to say the least. The air grew thicker, hotter, and I struggled to breathe. "Sonya, give me strength." I shook from the force of his rage and screamed out into the vault.

"Talia." Diesel tried to push me away once more. "No!"

It was too late. Pain shot through me like thousands of bolts of lightning and my head spun. I couldn't catch my breath and the world grew dimmer as I held on to the wolf in front of me. Finally, peace met me with open arms.