Chapter 11

Trent - Chapter 11

Trent had been on this field several thousand times in his life. Each time had meant a great deal to him. But none were going to be as epic as this one would be. He was pack leader, and he had his mate at his side. As he entered the arena, he heard the hush move over the field and he had to smile. This was for him.

Trent wasn't a vain man. Nor was he one that wanted someone to pat him on the back, but he did love having not just Joe at his side, but his family there as well when he took this huge step. A change in his life that would last forever. When he stood upon the large stump that had been at one time the tree of life for their kind, he looked around. It was time.

"As you all know, Casey has been convicted of crimes that resulted in the death of several people. And even though he is dead, his name has been bandied about as a criminal. But that's not why I killed him. He was going to harm your alpha-bitch." The murmurs were loud but soon quieted again. "That day in the bank, I had no idea that he'd been a part of this. All I saw was him standing over my mate, his teeth bared and his hackles up. He meant to kill her."

Reaching out his hand, he brought Joe to the top with him. Holding her like this, as close as he could, all he could think about was how close he'd been to seeing her hurt. Not dead. Thankfully she could no more die than he could, but she could have been hurt badly all the same.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like for you to meet my mate, Joe Calhoun. Your leader and master forever." The shout that started was deafening in the field. Flowers were tossed at them, some landing on them but mostly around them. They looked to be in a faerie garden. The ground was covered in the petals.

They were doing things differently this time. There would be a run, in which everyone who wanted to could shift and run freely in the fields. Not that there were any restrictions from that sort of thing normally, but tonight, with the moon full over them, it had a special magical quality to it. With a new pack master and his mate, there would not be the normal ritual of bringing forth issues and problems that had occurred during the time before, and no one would be brought to justice over some problems that were a result of it.

As he and Joe moved among the crowd, people stopped to talk to them, most offering congratulations and a few asking for a small token. It had been this way since he was a boy. The master and his mate would hand out favors, usually a small coin that could be returned when they had done a misdeed, and this would lessen their punishment. They each had ten, and after his were all gone, he looked to his dad, who was always close at hand.

"You did good." Trent smiled at his dad, never seeing him so happy before. "Right proud of you, I am. Your mom is too, but I'm about to bust with this."

"You always told me that I'd be here someday." He had, since his first changing. "I'm so glad that you were here with us when we took our first walk."

"My pleasure." He looked around like he didn't want someone to hear his next words. "That mate of yours, you know that there are some that are wondering if you'll change her too. I don't think she could get much more perfect, but they are asking."

"We talked about it, and we're waiting. I don't know what it will do to her, and there is little information on changing a day walker to a wolf. Noah said he'd ask around." His dad nodded and smiled. "You want to know something else? We're going to try to have a baby or two before the end of next year."

"Hot damn." They both looked around when the crowd hushed at his dad's loud voice. When he spoke again, he was much quieter, but no less excited. "That'll make your mom and me very happy. To have a grandbaby. I have to tell you, son, I despaired of you six ever getting around to it."

Hugging his dad, Trent felt his eyes fill with tears. He was as happy as he could be right now, and his dad was there for him too. It was weird, but over the last several days he'd been very emotional and had yet to ask Joe about it. He was sure it had something to do with the fact that they were so busy all the time. Seeing Noah walking toward him, he decided to ask him about it.

"It's overwhelming, isn't it?" Trent told him it was more than that. It was draining too. "It's because of the power you're getting. Not just from Joe but me as well. My blood, you see. When you took it, you took on more of me. Joe said she was having the same problems."

"Yes, she told me. I thought it was me feeling what she was." Noah said that was part of it but not all. "Will it level out, you think?"

"Oh yes. In about another decade or so."

Trent wasn't sure if he was kidding or not, but never got the chance to ask him. Two of his younger pack members came to him about an issue and he went with them to take care of it.

As soon as he entered the woods, he knew something was wrong. Running now, he kept up with the younger pups as they led him to Sterl. He could hear him then. His screams were tearing through him as if he was hurting too. Stopping the younger men, he asked them to go and get his mate and brothers.

"Don't tell my parents. Unless they ask. So don't go by them." Billy, the younger of the boys, nodded. "Get the others here now. And find Noah. He was in the field where you found me."

Going deeper into the woods alone now, he reached out to Sterl. He was in pain, he could feel it now, and it was a deep pain of his mind and heart that Trent didn't know how to fix. As soon as he saw his brother curled into a tight ball, Trent approached him slowly, speaking softly to him.

"Sterl, it's me, Trent. I'm here for you." The sob was heart wrenching, and he moved to touch him. "Tell me what I can do. Where do you hurt?"

"Everywhere." Trent could see that he'd cut his face and arms. While he didn't have any idea how that had happened, he knew that they were only superficial and nothing for him to worry about now. "Kill me. Please, end my life now."

"I can't do that." Tears blurred his vision as he touched the long scar that he knew was on his brother's back. "Come on, Sterl, let me pick you up and take you to the house."

"Don't touch me." He continued to run the scar, knowing that it pained him now because it was tight. "Trent, they made me an immortal. I can't live forever like this. Make them take it back. I don't want to live like this."

"I know. I'm so sorry. I know." He moved closer to Sterl and held him, like a mother would a child. He could hear his brothers coming and wasn't sure it was a good idea for anyone to see him like this. Then Noah appeared in front of him, and the noise from the woods his brothers were making stopped.

"I sent them back. I let them think it was a hoax. I didn't think you'd want it spread around that Sterl was in pain." Noah got down on his knees just as Joe came into the meadow where they were. "She and I are going to help you, Sterling."

"No. Just take the immortality from me and let me die." Noah didn't say anything as he tore open his vein. "That won't work. I've tried that before."

That shocked Trent. His brother had tried to get a vampire to take away his pain. He looked at Noah when he only shook his head and put his wrist to his mouth. As he did that, Joe pulled Sterl's wrist to her mouth and bit down. She was going to drain out whatever poison that Noah found. And he told Trent there was plenty.

About a year ago now, Sterl and four of his friends had been out on a date. He'd been the odd man out, but had gone anyway when his date, a human, had gotten ill and wasn't able to go with him. Sterl never drank alcohol but told him later that there had been something in the tea he'd been drinking. Something that had made him dizzy and sick with it.

"I was just sipping it when I felt the urge to throw up. I thought it was the food we'd eaten. No one else was sick or dizzy, so I went outside to get some fresh air to see if that helped." Sterl had been in his own bed then, having been released from the hospital that morning. He'd asked to speak to him alone and told him what had happened. "Then when we all got into the car to leave, Mitch said he was feeling great and had promised us all that he'd not drank either. I believed him because I didn't smell it on him."

"What happened then?" Sterl hadn't looked like he was going to answer, so Trent started to change the subject. Sterl's face was cut up, his back the worst of it, having been thrown from the car, despite his seat belt, and impaled on a tree. Plus, his leg had been broken in several places. No one then or now could figure out why the wounds didn't go away when he'd shifted, nor had the bruising lessened. It was as if he were a human and not a wolf.

"A woman—or something—was in front of the car. Like she just appeared. I don't mean like she ran in front of us, but she was just there. Mitch swerved hard to the right, which should have put us in the ditch rather than.... I felt the car lift up, and then it was falling over the hillside like we were in a ball being rolled head over ass." Sterl looked away as he finished. "I woke up, hanging from the tree with my feet in front of me, and I could see that I was broken. Not hurt…I was literally broken from the accident. And there it was again. Like a woman, but not. I thought that I'd only dreamt about it being there when we'd wrecked…the woman, I mean. But there she was again."

"What was she doing?" Sterl again said nothing for several minutes, and that time Trent had waited. He thought that the pain of the injuries had made Sterling see the woman, but after he continued, he knew he'd seen the thing.

"Mitch was hanging out of the front window. His body was moving, I could see it. When this thing stood in front of him, he reached for her, begging her to help him. She reached out her hand and touched him. But instead of helping him, she jerked him from the broken window and tore him in half. Just tore him apart. She moved to Bri then. Her body was on the ground behind the car. The thing, this woman thing, killed her too. Tore her head off and left it to lay there." Sterl looked at him then. The anguish of what he'd seen was there on his face. "Tony and Beth were next. The thing stabbed a large piece of the glass from the broken windows into his chest, going not just into him but completely through him. Beth was dead. I could see that her neck was snapped, but the thing didn't stop. She walked to her and did the same thing, using a large stone to crush her head."

"Christ." Trent hadn't wanted to ask him about what she'd done to him. He hoped that she'd left him there, thinking that he was going to die anyway. But Sterl had started crying then, sobbing out the rest of his tale.

"She came to me then. Just levitated up the tree to me." Trent held his breath. "As she floated in front of me, I got a good look at her face. She was…she was beautiful. Long dark hair, lips that were full and red. Her body, sheathed in this sort of transparent aura, was gorgeous. She just stared at me until…until...."

He'd looked away then, as if he were too frightened to continue. Trent wasn't sure he wanted to know what she'd done. Was positive even to this day that the thing that had killed his friends had meant the same for Sterl.

"Her fingers seemed to morph, like ours do when we shift. But they elongated, and her nails darkened until I was sure they were covered in old blood and were as long as her arm. Her hair, too, changed. It lightened to a purest white and hung below her feet. Her face seemed to shrink in on itself, until she was nothing more than bones with something stretched tautly over her skull. When she touched me, stuck her nails through me, I could see that she was enjoying it, and I had the sudden urge to just die, to give up. But then she spoke." Sterl looked away again. "She told me that I was going to be her biggest prize as yet. That my seed would flood the earth with demons."

Sterl lay back, his eyes closed as Trent held his hand. He hadn't even realized that he'd touched him until he felt his brother's fingers tighten around his. They sat there, neither of them speaking, as the sun lowered in the sky and the sounds of the outdoors echoed in the house.

"I'm never going to meet my mate, Trent. I never want to have children. I don't want that thing to come back and take them from me." Trent asked him if that was what she'd said to him. "Yes. My children are going to be hers."

~*~

Memories not his own hit his mind. Noah knew who the she-devil was and what she'd done to the man in front of him. Sterling Calhoun was lucky to be alive. As he filtered through the terror of the young wolf and focused on the words she'd said to him, Noah also felt the man's resolve not to ever find or keep his mate. He'd rather die lonely than to take the chance that any issue of the union would be taken from him. Noah looked at Joe.

I know her. He nodded and asked her not to speak of it here. Can you help him? Can we keep him safe?

We will.

As Sterling drank his blood, Noah moved into his mind and pushed the poison from his body. He knew as surely as he was helping this man that the she-devil had put a poison in not just his mind, but his body as well. Noah found all that he could, knowing that if he didn't get it all, the man would try to talk him into letting him die again. And knowing what he did now, Noah wasn't sure that he'd not help him.

When Sterling had drank all that Noah could give him, Noah pulled his wrist away and sealed the wound. He'd have to go and feed now. Helping Sterling had drained him more than he wanted to admit. But he'd be healthier, if not a little happier, now that the poison was gone from him. Noah turned to Trent after putting Sterling into a deep sleep of the dead.

"He will need to be watched over. I've put him deep, far deeper than he's ever been before." Trent nodded and told him he'd do it. "He won't wake for a week. Then at the end of that time, he will need to shift to rid himself of the scars that have been a part of him for far too long. And then I would suggest that he rest. He will need it, but will be most…make sure that he rests."

"I will." Noah knew that Trent would too. The man was Sterling's pack master now, and would resort to commanding that he rest if Sterling didn't comply. Noah looked at Joe when she said nothing. "This other vampire, the one he tried to get to help him, do you know who it was?"

He did. "He is dead. He was murdered some weeks ago."

Noah would bet anything that not only had the man been murdered by the same she-devil that had hurt Sterling, but that she'd killed him because he'd tried to help him. Noah wasn't worried. He was much more powerful than her, and he knew something that she didn't. Noah was aware of her now.

As he took to the skies to find someone to feed from, Noah thought about the woman. She'd done this before. Attacked without provocation. Killed without thought, and had tried her best to repopulate the world with someone like Sterling. The prime of a pack, the strongest of a wolf family. But she'd gotten the wrong one this time; not only had she not picked the alpha, but she'd picked Noah's family. Noah was very protective of what he considered his.

Will she come here now? Noah had to smile at Joe's question. She'll be aware that someone helped him. Do you suppose she'll come here and try to reclaim him?

Yes. He moved above the trees and then landed on a particularly high branch to watch the humans below him. There were several, and he'd need at least three of them to fill up. Noah didn't kill, but he would need a great deal from these men before he was healthy again. It is her bad fortune that she has tried to take Sterling. It will land her in the middle of my realm, and that will get her killed once and for all.

She's dangerous. More than that, she's power hungry and strong. How will you defeat her, Noah? You have tried before. He had. And he knew that he'd not given it his best. It had been a half-assed effort at best. If she comes here, and I'm betting she will, what will she do to Sterling now that he's no longer her pawn?

We are stronger than we were. And as a family, you know as well as I do that we gain from that too. Sterling has you and me now. He will be all right. She does not know that with my blood, she cannot harm him again. And with your powers surrounding him, she won't find him an easy target as she did before. He thought about the images in Sterling's mind. She went there for him. Gave him an elixir that was to put him into a deep sleep while she killed the others. It is going to come back to harm her that he not only knows what she did, but that he remembers her despite her trying to take the memories from him.

We know her now as well. Noah moved to the ground, watching for someone to come up behind him as he commanded the men to stand still. Drinking from them, just enough to sustain himself for another time, he was forever careful that no one snuck up on him. When he was finished, he took some cash from his pocket and lined those of the men he'd used. It would do him no good anyway, and he wanted to repay them for their help. I will put out a call to arms for others. We'll all keep an eye out for her, and make sure that wherever she's hiding, it will be reported to us soon.

After closing the connection to Joe, he moved to his home. Michael was there, waiting for him as he'd asked him to do. When he handed Noah the file he'd asked for, Michael sat down and began snapping green beans, a thing that he'd never seen him do before.

"Mr. Marshall is staying here. And I thought it would be fun to make food for him. I was not aware that it was so much work." Noah started to point out that most of the things he'd eaten long ago were now available in cans, but thought he'd just let him figure it out. It might be fun for a while to watch him struggle with it. "Also, we have a new phone. One that hangs on the wall. And Internet capabilities. Mr. Marshall asked for it, and I saw no problem with having it put into the household. Is that all right?"

"It is. You do whatever he needs to make him feel like this is his home." Michael nodded, and Noah was almost afraid to bring up the she-devil. "Sterling Calhoun has been touched by Helenia."

Noah was just able to grab the bowl filled with the newly snapped beans before it hit the floor. Michael stood up but sat down again twice before he asked him where she was. He assured him that he had no idea at the moment.

"Does he know what she is? What she's done?" Noah told him what he'd seen in the younger man's memories. "Oh, that poor boy. That poor, poor boy. We'll have to protect him, my lord. Keep him safe, and his family."

"I'm doing that now. I've put out a call to the Board of Vampires, and they're to let me know when they have information I can use. I'm afraid, as is Joe, that she has harmed him thinking that she's gotten the alpha. When she figures it out, no one will be safe." Michael said he agreed as well. "I've healed him, giving him a great part of me so that he'll be protected. Joe will do the same for Trent. Here, we'll have to remain on our toes to make sure that she doesn't get by us."

"I assure you, sir, she will not be able to get by us. I will make sure that all of the house is safe from her. I will call in a few favors today to make sure." Noah smiled. He didn't even want to know who might owe him favors. As he said his good days, he made his way to his lair. Things were going quickly now, and he needed to be rested.