Chapter 94

I swooned and the phone tumbled from my hand as I fell aside. Francium cursed again, swerving the car and bouncing us along as more shots were fired at the car. He zipped and zagged, sliding us around in the back seat as he tried to avoid the bullets.

“Hold on!” Francium yelled, turning off the road.

“What are you doing?” I asked, trying to hold on to the handle as he turned again.

“Taking a short cut. It’s harder to shoot through the trees.”

The wound burned like fire. I smelled it burning like silver. I felt it creeping through my shoulder. I looked at the wound and saw it starting to turn black. My stomach churned. Was I going to lose my arm because of that bullet?

Was I going to lose my life in this chase?

“Fucking silver bullets. They really want to kill us,” Francium cursed. “I don’t know what the hell Damian wants with you Hedy, but he wants it bad… Are you really, Pandora?”

I didn’t answer and hoped that Armageddon hadn’t heard him. Instead, I fumbled with my safety beacon. It was on, but it wasn’t connecting any more than it had been. The secret of the safety beacons was the one thing that I didn’t know. I could get the Moon Shadow mainframe and super computer to do just about anything, but it wouldn’t tell me how they worked. I always thought they were kind of infallible.

“Can you see me on the map yet?” I asked into the phone.

“No, you’re still jumping around,” Armageddon said. “You’ll need to boost the signal somehow.”

“How? Can I use this phone?”

“No,” he said. “There’s no GPs in a Moon Shadow phone. Do you have another phone with you?”

I bit my lip and pulled out my personal cell phone. I pulled out the mini-USB port of the beacon and connected it, turning on my cell service.

“Can you see me now? We’re being chased at gunfire through the forest. I don’t know if you’ll still see it with whatever vampires can do to the forest.”

“… I see you,” he said stiffly. “I see you. We’re coming. Tell him to keep heading towards Blood Pass. We’ll converge there. Don’t slow your pace!”

I lifted my head. “He says keep driving and don’t slow down.”

Francium jerked his head and made a hard turn, swerving around something. The tires screeched as it cut around the object, and I leaned against the door. Another gunshot was fired, but I heard it distantly like we were getting farther away from them and they were going the wrong direction. I peeked out the window behind us and saw no one.

Maybe someone else was watching over us or some of those New Moon wolves that didn’t hate werewolves so much or were loyal to Francium were helping us.

We broke through the tree line to a cliffside road. Then, I saw the red stone of Blood Pass in the distance.

I hissed, pressing my hand to my shoulder, trying to stifle the bleeding.

“What about your mom? Where is she?”

Francium laughed. “Knowing my mom? You’d be better off worrying about us, or Damian and his stooges. She’s either rallying the rest of the pack under her banner or getting everyone out before Damian starts hunting those who aren’t loyal to his cause.”

“Would they be loyal to the werewolf cause?”

He scoffed. “Save your strength and worry about politics later. There’s a first aid kit under the seat.”

I frowned and fumbled for it, pulling it out and opening it. I grit my teeth as I got my jacket down around my shoulders to get a better look. The blackness hadn’t spread. It didn’t seem like it would, but it wasn’t healing either. I tried to push my power to force it to heal, but nothing happened as if my power could push it.

“I don’t know what powers you have,” Francium said. “But silver negates it. There should be some salve in there to help pull the silver out.”

“You seem to know a lot about this.”

“I transported a lot of people that had been hit with silver…” He said darkly. “Werewolf and vampire.”

I found the salve and started to spread it over the wound. It burned, but it seemed like it was working as the burning scent grew fainter. I didn’t bother trying to stitch I closed but wrapped it tightly, hoping to stifle the bleeding. I applied the same salve to my neck, hoping it might do something to keep me from bleeding out and put on a big piece of gauze over it and medical tape.

“I still want an answer,” I said. “You killed Claire, and until you can explain how you didn’t, you did. And the why of course. If you were having a problem with your father, why didn’t you just leave the pack.”

He sighed. “You’re really… surprisingly childish.”

I flushed. “Childish!”

“You ran from Wolf Fang,” he said. “Straight to Full Moon, but you were from a tiny, insignificant pack. Did he accept you with open arms?”

I drew up short. Had Claire told him what I told her about my arrival?

“… no.”

“Suspicious, wondering what your angle was?”

“Well… yes.”

“Imagine how he would look at me: son of one of the big three,” Francium said. “Think about how the rest of the world would look at me… If I ran to Full Moon? If I ran to Red Moon?” He scoffed. “Don’t be ridiculous. There was nowhere to go that actually would have helped me without trying to get something out of it.”

“Pandora,” Armageddon said softly. “Did he… Did he just say you were from—”

The line went dead. I looked at the phone and cursed. It was dead. I tucked it into my pocket as my phone started ringing again. I hoped that it wouldn’t die soon. My heart soared as I realized that Candido was calling me.

I answered it. “Candido?”

“Hedy,” he said stiffly. “Where are you?”

“It’s complicated,” I said, my eyes burning. “I’m so glad to… to hear your voice, Candido.”

“Tell me where you are,” Candido said, his voice desperate. “Please tell me where you are.”

I sniffled as tears fell down my face. “I’m in the car with Francium and Claire, we’re driving towards Blood Pass. We’re being chased by vampires.”

“What—"

Another shot fired from behind us, ripping through the side of the car. Then the car tilted and rocked. I heard something like a small explosion. Francium cursed as the car seemed to rock a little more.

“They shot out a tire!” He cried. “It’s going to get bumpier.”

Would we get there before they shot out all the towers or got a lucky shot through the window? I had no idea.

“I’m so glad you called,” I said and sniffled. “I’m sorry that I tricked you.”

“What?”

“I wasn’t going to meet my mate or anything like that,” I sniffled. “I just wanted to make you jealous. I just wanted you to realize how much… How much you want me too.”

“Hedy, stop—”

“Fuck!” Francium cried and turned the car sharply.

The car rocked as something rammed into the car, but Francium didn’t stop driving. I curled closer to the door. I glanced out the window and it seemed we had taken another turn.

“Don’t worry. There’s more than one way,” he said, but his voice didn’t sound certain. I heard more tires on the road coming up behind us.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen next, but I love you…” I sniffled. “I really really love you and I hope you and your mate get to be really happy together.”

I reached down to my ankle where the last life beacon every operative of Moon Shadow had was. I pressed it firmly until it started to beep.

He swerved again and cursed. “Shit!”

“It’s okay,” I said softly, the world starting to go dark from the pain that was dragging me under. “You did your best.”

“Hedy?” Claire called, looking at me from over the edge of the seat. She seemed to be free of the shackles and in her right mind. “Don’t close your eyes, Hedy.”

My lips twitched and I reached out to take her hand. “I’m… glad I found you again. You know you’re my best friend?”

Her eyes widened. “Don’t close your eyes—”

The car jerked sideways. Metal crunched and Francium cried out as the door on the passenger side dented in. Tires screeched, and Claire screamed as we tilted, tumbled, and slammed into something.

“Hedy!” Candido screamed in my ear. “I’ll find you! I’ll find you just—”

The car bounced and tumbled, flipping and crashing down the side of the ravine before the glass exploded inward. The metal creaked, and water began to fill the cabin after we slammed into the river. Water gushed and rose. I felt the car bobbing and sinking, floating down the river, but the last thing I heard, the last thing that I ever wanted to hear was Candido’s voice.

“Hedy!”