NEWBORN: Book One of the Newborn Trilogy Read online

  “Run away with me!” Wolf repeats, black eyes alight, his cheeks burning. “Before he finds you. He’s not going to like this!”

  “Who?” I gasp, knowing the answer.

  Releasing me, Wolf takes a step back. “The wizard,” he answers. “Gabriel can’t know you’ve… Turned.” He utters this last word with anguish.

  My brain is racing madly. Should I tell the werewolf I had already talked to Gabriel? That the wizard already rejected me outright? No… I can’t, that would only make the situation so much worse. For what if Wolf were to change his mind? What if Wolf, upon hearing about Gabriel’s reaction, decided to react the same way? Decided to reject me or – so terrible to imagine it – kill me?

  Black eyes are boring into me. “Who bit you?”

  I’m staring back blankly, my recent tears making the skin around my eyes hard and irritated. “I don’t –”

  Wolf growls, “It was Amoretta, wasn’t it? Or was it Mortimer?” Fury is coarsing through his veins. “Why I’ll –!”

  “No!” I exclaim wildly. “It… it was Jack, Wolf. It was Jack!”

  Black eyes grow wide. “Jack?” Surprise is registering across a russet face, replacing his sudden anger. “You mean…”

  “Yes,” I tell him, unsure of what I’m confirming. “It was Jack who bit me…”

  Geez, I’ve never seen his eyes so wide.

  “Nora, I – I’m so sorry,” Wolf tells me, his entire form deflating in front of me as his eyes search for mercy. “This is all my fault! I lost Jack… I was certain he was trying to escape. I didn’t know he was still looking for victims! I figured he was just trying to escape those wizards…”

  His words trail off, his ears no doubt hearing the excuses, the self-justifying tone of his explanation. He’s left staring at me, looking as forlorn as I’ve ever seen him, but I’m too distracted to feel sorry for him.

  For I realize what he’s saying. Wolf thinks I’ve been changed recently – not months and months ago, long before he knew me. I have an opportunity now to tell him the truth. How would he react? Not well, I imagine. I think back to when the werewolf and I were in The Mousetrap. He seemed angry that I’d kept Gabriel a secret, even though we’d discussed wizards. Should I learn from that mistake? But if he’d witnessed the scene with me and Gabriel. And seen me murder that Releaser…

  Hey, like being alive? my alter ego asks. If you do, shut your trap!

  Gotcha, I reply.

  I meet Wolf’s eyes. “It’s okay,” I say to the werewolf. “You tried to get Jack – tried to track him down. Gabriel and I got separated and then Jack came and had his way with me,” I invent hurriedly, too far in to turn back. Strangely, I’m spurred by the shock in Wolf’s eyes as I go on. “Jack left me on the ground to turn and ran off. I haven’t seen him or Gabriel since the attack.”

  Wolf collapses to his knees. Horror spilling from every pore to cover his russet face in a wild sheen, he looks up at me, dark eyes pleading as he clasps my hands. “Forgive me, Nora,” Wolf moans, his face sinking. “I – I can’t believe you were raped and changed! This is all my fault, look what I’ve done by letting Jack escape! I can never live with myself after this, Nora. I’m a failure!”

  Oh geez! Now look what I’ve done. My lies are already biting me in the ass.

  “Stand up, Wolf,” I say quickly, blushing madly as I look around the surrounding loam. “It’s okay – I already told you that. It’s not your fault Jack – uh – raped and bit me. I mean, Gabriel wasn’t there either!”

  Bizarre as it sounds, it feels good to get back at the wizard. Even in a way as infinitesimal as this. I will take that wizard down, one lame, irrelevant white lie at a time until I have my revenge!

  Shaking his head, Wolf stands, towering over me. “It all makes sense,” the werewolf remarks, his eyes glistening as he stares into me – his expression drenched in agony. “I saw you were changed, but I didn’t understand the tears… Nora, I’m going to murder Jack for what he did to you! I promise!”

  The vehemence in his words surprise me so much I take a step back. But I’m pleased all the same. This is good. Wolf is so furious about my being raped that he won’t think about the vampire thing as much now. That was some pretty big news until the bigger news came of my being ravaged by Jack.

  “I know you will,” I respond, trying my best to look downtrodden and victimized. Secretly, I’m whooping inside. Now I don’t have to worry about Wolf killing me! And Jack shouldn’t prove any trouble later, for he did ravage me… in a way. A long time ago. “I know you’ll bring Jack to justice.”

  The werewolf is murderous. “It’ll be a painful death for him!”

  I’m about to respond when I hear something. A voice in the distance: “Find them! Bring me the wizard!” The voice is loud and booming, the kind that instantly demands authority, and I recognize it at once.

  “Mortimer,” Wolf breathes, his expression deadly.

  “The scent of werewolf,” another one yells, closer this time – a male. “Just picked it up, sire! They’re this way!”

  I gasp the forest air as Mortimer yells, “After them! They’ve ruined our home! Bite them! Kill them!”

  I’m gazing into a stony russet face. “We have to run, Wolf!”

  “I just promised you revenge.”

  Stealing myself, I reach out and take his hand. “Not now. Not yet. There’s too many of them, they’d overrun you. I want revenge against Jack, I really do, but not in exchange for your life!” Black eyes bore into mine, looking for judgment. I breathe, “Run away with me.”

  “I see them!” yells a voice.

  Whirling around, I see Seamus – the young male vampire I’d seen at the compound – pointing at us from fifty yards away.

  He yells, “They’re here, they’re here! Sire! Amoretta! They’re here!”

  Now my eyes are pleading. “Run away with me!”

  Wolf exhales his answer. “Fine then.”

  We run for it.