Brother

Two days went by and nothing happened. On the third day, I had to work and so Annabelle didn’t have to sit at home with my Dad or Danny, she came with me. Mrs Johns was thrilled to have her around, and it worked out well as she ran out to get us coffee, and then lunch, while I did as the guys wanted and kept out of sight

Mrs John had left for the day when Danny came in, and Annabelle had lost all her patience for sitting around in the store. She’d read the stack of magazines kept in the changing rooms at least a dozen times and since all my friends had to work too, she had no other options. I did get given the rest of the week off, just while my cousin was here, and normally I would protest, but I was happy to take it.

“So, how long till you close up?” Danny took a whiff of one of the perfumes on the counter and sneezed.

“About twenty minutes,” I tell him, making Annabelle groan. “Why don’t you guys go home? Rach is coming here after she finishes and we were going to catch a movie tonight. I won’t leave until she gets here and the Belle can get ready?”

Danny hesitated. “I dunno Sar. I don’t want to leave you here alone.”

“She’s a big girl Dan, please, take me home!” Annabelle whined, tugging on his arm.

“Yeah, but-”

“Rach will be here in like, fifteen minutes. There are heaps of people out there and I’ll be locking up in a minute so I can cash off. I’ll be fine.” I assured him.

From what Michael had told us, Scott was staying just outside of town at one of the fancy, private hotels where celebrities stay out when they want to get away. He hadn’t been sighted in town, and the only place he seemed to go apart from the hotel was Michaels house. I wanted to think they were all overreacting, but there was too much uncertainty in the air to believe that.

Danny caved and left with Annabelle, while I tidied up the store. I’d just finished cleaning the mirrors of the change room when Rachelle arrived and locking the door behind her, went about closing everything up.

“I’m so glad I won’t be working at Fisho’s forever. This stink, it’s just, can you smell me?” She asks, finally stopping smelling her work shirt.

“Yeah, it’s like you’ve been rolling around in cat food.” I tease

“I hate you.” Rachelle huffs, spraying the same perfume that had made Danny sneeze. “So what are we seeing tonight? I want something with romance.”

“I don’t even know what’s out.” I put the money in the safe and grab my bag.

“Any news on you know who?” Rachelle asks as she follows me out the back exit.

“Nothing. I hate this! Michael hasn’t come by either, and I think he’s just hiding what’s really going on.”

“Well, that would make sense. He wants to protect you. Hey, you’re kind of like Romeo and Juliet. Forbidden loves from different species. I should totally write a book about it. Supernatural romance is all the rage right now. Of course, I’d star myself as the gorgeous-”

I can’t listen to her anymore as I clutch my stomach and fall to my knees. I can hear my phone ringing in my bag, and dropping the keys, I can’t move as I hit the paving of the staff carpark. Someone is screaming, and it takes me a few deep breaths to work out it’s Rachelle.

“Help! Someone! God, Sarah! Sarah!” She yells.

Everything hurts.

Rachelle rolls me onto my side, mumbling something she learnt in First Aid and as she goes to put her fingers in my mouth, I manage to push her hand away.

“Danny.”

“Danny? Want me to call him? Oh, is this a werewolf thing?” I can’t answer her, because I can’t breathe. “Are you choking? Don’t swallow your tongue!”

My hands make it to my throat and I can’t believe there aren’t hands there trying to suffocate me. Another punch in my side has me falling onto my back before the sharp, crack across my collarbone has me screaming. I manage to open my eyes, to find Rachelle’s tear-streaked face watching me helplessly as she tries calling Danny. Then Jake.

I don’t know how long we’re there like that, but no one is answering and finally, it stops. She’s there in an instant, smoothing back my hair, holding my hand, and taking out a wet wipe, going over my face with it.

“Are you okay? What happened?”

With each beat of my heart, I come out of whatever that just was. I’m waiting for her to tell me I walked out into the path of a delivery van, yet the beating wasn’t mine to take and barely a minute later, I’m able to stand.

“Sarah, talk. Talk to me!” Rachelle begs.

“Danny.” It had been Danny. “Rachelle, I think Danny’s in trouble.”

“He’s always in trouble! What about you?” I don’t blame her for panicking and snatching my keys off the ground, I moved to the car.

“I’m fine. Get in.”

Mum had left me and Annabelle with her car, so Danny would be in the one we were supposed to share. It wasn’t anywhere in the street parking and I was willing to face her wrath as I broke the law by going nearly double the speed limit. They should have gotten home by now.

Annabelle is going to be getting out of the shower and Danny is going to laugh at me because he’s an asshole and he did that to try and be funny. I’d hug him, then kill him for putting Rachelle and me through that and getting home, the tyres skidded to a stop.

The car wasn’t there.

Danny probably just dropped her off and then went to Jake's. He’s fine. I kept telling myself that as I ran into the house, nearly breaking the lock on the door as I tried to get in. He wasn’t in the living room or the kitchen.

“Danny! Danny!” I screamed.

Rachelle was right behind me and as we ran upstairs, we both went and opened each of the doors.

“Annabelle! This isn’t funny guys!” Rachelle called out. “No one’s here Sar.”

I couldn’t answer her, running into the toilet - I made it in just time before I threw up. Everything was spinning, and I gripped the edges of the bowl trying to steady myself, but that only made it worse and I threw up again.

“Sarah, do you think that he got them?” Rachelle whispered, daring to come close enough to pat my back.

“My phone, please.” I fell against the wall and closed my eyes, but there was no way I could stop myself from freaking out now.

Rachelle was just as panicked, sobbing to herself as she passed me my phone with hands that shook as much as mine. After two attempts, I tried calling Jake. I didn’t expect his Dad to answer.

“Hey, Sarah! What’s up? You lookin for Jake?” He sounded so happy, and carefree, and it took me a second to form words.

“Yeah. He there?”

“Sorry love, he left about an hour ago to take a part to Mike. You know him dontcha? Mike Blake?”

“Ah, I know him. Can you, get him to call me when he gets in?” I swallowed the rising bile in my throat, trying not to gag. “Please?”

“Sure, but he said he might not be back too late. Mentioned seeing a movie with you girls too.”

“Yeah, I was calling him about that. Nevermind. I’ll try Danny.” I lied.

“No worries. Take care now!” He hung up and I tried to call Michael.

Nothing.

I managed to get up and go into the bathroom, washed my face, brushed my teeth and downed a glass of water before going into my room and changed out of my work clothes.

“What are you doing?” Rachelle was pale and looked as scared as I felt.

“I’m going to go find everyone.”

“But Sarah, it’s, what if, you can’t!” She came in and snatched away my sneaker as I went to put them on. “It’s too dangerous. You’re not a werewolf like them!”

“I know. But I can’t do nothing. Danny is in trouble, they need me!” I didn’t mean to yell at her, but I did and instantly hugged her. “I have to. Stay here, or go home, don’t tell my Mum anything until tomorrow. I’ll call you as soon as I find out anything.”

“I can’t let you go alone. I’m coming too.” She declared.

“You can’t. You’re not even supposed to know about them, and that makes it even more dangerous for you. You know what, tell my Mum to call Noah. He might be able to find out stuff quicker than anyone else.” I decide.

Running downstairs, I got into the buffet by the dining table and after going through the cupboards, find the old worn box that houses the silver kitchenware set Dad inherited from his Nanna years ago. Lifting the lid, I grabbed the corkscrew and the steak knives, not sure if a butter knife or cake server would be much use.

“What are you doing?” Rachelle asked.

“Michael said silver hurts them when it touches their blood, so silver bullets hurt them and so do silver blades.” I held up one of the knives. “I know Mum's other set is made from some fancy titanium stuff she got from Japan, but see, this is silver. It says so on the box. I hope it’s enough.”

“You’re going to go and take on an evil werewolf with your Mum’s best dinnerware?”

“I don’t think Peta would be able to take her Dad’s gun, and I don’t know how to use it anyway.” I shrug, grabbing a fabric placemat to put them all in before putting the lid back on the box and shoving it away. “Besides, I’m taking her car, so I think the knives are going to be the least of her worries.”

“Good point.” Rachelle agrees and she follows me out to the car.

“Call me when you get to the Blakes, and then as often as you can. Even just a text, maybe send me a smiley face for okay and a sad face for not okay and if you need help or want me to call Noah or the police, do an x and o!”

“Right.” I nod. I can do that.

We hug and I try not to cringe when the car shoots forward, leaving a couple of black tyre marks on the road in front of our house. At least something is going right as I make it to the Blakes in record time thanks to no traffic, speed cameras or police.

I’m about halfway up the driveway when I realised I shouldn’t have made my approach so obvious, but it’s too late to turn back. I instantly spot Jake’s car at the side of the house and so park alongside that. I’ve barely made it to the front door when the Blakes come rushing out.

I fumble in my bag and grab one of the knives, but I’m too slow and Mr Blake hugs me. “Oh, Sarah! We thought you were gone!”

“Gone?” I get out and he lets me go. Jake attacks me next, not holding back as he starts to cry into my shoulder.

“They got Danny. We heard a girl and thought it was you!” Jake tells me.

He finally releases me and looking at all four of them, they’re pretty beat up. Nothing too bad, but they still have to be hurting. My stomach sinks as I know the girl was Annabelle. How stupid was I to let them leave? I should have made them wait for me to finish work.

“What happened?” I try to hide the guilt I’m feeling, and take in how beat up they all are.

“Michael happened.” Justin winced as he went to walk down the stairs.

"What?"

“Scott came here this morning. It was fine, we had coffee. We all went for a run, and then he started talking about Danny and Jake. Michael explained to him the situation, about Jake finding out and how close the boys are. He didn’t care, happy he is a submissive wolf. Then he asked about you.” Mr Blake told me.

Michael was missing from this little welcome party.

“Where is Michael?” I demanded.

“Locked up.” Justin sighed. “Here. They didn’t take him, but he was out of control because-”

“I couldn’t lie to Scott, Sarah. I told him what I noticed with you and Danny. Your link that lets him share his pain with you. That’s all. Michael got annoyed at that.” Joe scoffed, but his Dad didn’t stop talking. “Got really annoyed at that, so Scott kept digging. Turns out, he’s been watching all of us since before Christmas when someone told him there was a rather dominant she-wolf in town.”

“Me?” They all nodded. “But, I’m not.”

“No, but you have the potential to be. Scott doesn’t like being challenged and likes to fix his problems before they arise.”

“He has Danny and my cousin, so he’ll kill them now?” I managed to grab Jake's arm as I felt faint.

This was really happening.

No more what ifs, or maybe’s. Scott had come to town to kill us.

“I would think so.” Mr Blake agreed.

“I’m calling the police and, and, the media and I’m going to make it impossible for him to get away with it. I’m going to tell everyone about werewolves and I will-”

The thud from inside made me stop and instantly all four of them moved to block me.

“He couldn’t get out of those chains,” Joe whispered to his brother and Jake started to lead me towards the car.

Chains?

“What was that?” I demanded.

“He’s woken up,” Jake told me softly. “He’s not right. It’s not safe for you to be here. When I got here, they’d just knocked him out and they had to chain him up before he went after Scott on his own.”

I didn’t get to say anything else when the front window smashed beside us and through the shards of glass that rained down onto the grass, Michael leapt out in wolf form. He looked possessed as he turned to face us. His eyes showed white, his ears were down, his hackles up and saliva pooled like bloody foam around his jaws.

“Start talking Sarah!” Justin mumbled, the brothers grouping together as their Dad stepped in front of them. “Tell him you’re okay!”

My throat went dry and I couldn’t figure out how to make words. My mind was blank, lost in the insane depths of the wolf's gaze. Mr Blake didn’t have that problem.

“Here she is. Look!” He called out as the animal crouched low, muscles tight and gathered together ready to spring into action.

He shoved me forward like a sacrifice and not expecting it I hit the dirt hard. A managed to yell in surprise, and Jake moved to help me up. Instead, he found himself face-to-face with the pissed-off wolf. The growl was the sound that would inspire nightmares, and Jake completely froze.

I’m not sure if it was smart or stupid for him to fall onto his back, turning his head so his neck was exposed as he submitted. Either way, it didn’t please him and as Michael jumped at Jake, I managed to throw myself over him like a shield. We didn’t go through all of this for Jake to end up being the wolf’s punching bag and I wasn’t going to let him get hurt either.

“No!” I screamed.

The weight of the wolf was nearly crushing as it slammed against me, only there were no teeth biting into my flesh or anything else. It scrambled to its feet and nudged me so I was pushed away from Jake. I took slow, sharp breaths and held my side, wondering if he managed to break something.

The whines that followed distracted me enough, just like the wet nose that was now pushed against my stomach, my arm, and my neck before going through my hair. Now I was so close, there was no missing the red and wet-looking marks all over the fur, and slowly raising my hand, I managed to pat the top of his head.

“I'm okay.” I leaned against him, hugging the animal like that could bring Danny back, and clearly I wasn’t that hurt as I let him go and crawled away as he shifted back into his human form.

“How are you here?” Michael half sobbed, half yelled, his relief obvious. His nakedness was forgotten as he gathered me up from the ground and held me against him.

“They took Annabelle, not me. And Danny!”

I threw my arms around his neck and held him like I had when he was a wolf.

“I thought he was going to get you. You have no idea how these last couple of hours have been for me.”

“I’m fine, but I don’t think they will be for long. We have to help them. Tell me what we have to do.” I let him go and just as he turns back to his family, I freeze.

Mr Blake has a gun on us and Jake scrambles over to stand beside me.

“You should have stayed down there son!”

“You fucking bastard!” Michael snaps, stepping in front of me. “I didn’t think you’d stoop this low.”

“Hand her over, then we can go back to the pack. We can go home!”

“That’s what you agreed on? You’re weak. He won’t let you live for long, you’re an old man now with nothing to offer him.” He snarled.

“Not true. I still have half the pack behind me, and once I’m back with them, his days are numbered. If we have to make a few sacrifices along the way, so be it. Now move and hand over your girlfriend.” I hear the gun click into position and think of Danny.

“You’re insane if you think I’m going to do that. You two are just as fucking retarded as he is if you believe what he’s saying. Don’t you remember what it was like before I got out? Look at what you have now. Friends. Freedom. Why go back?”

They weren’t listening to him. At least Joe wasn’t, but Justin dared to look at Jake and when I saw his shoulders slump I knew he was a lost cause too. I put my palm on Michael's back, not willing to let him sacrifice his family for mine.

“Don’t do this,” I whispered.

“Listen to her! The pack comes first Michael. You know this is the right thing to do!” Mr. Blake sounded convincing enough and looking at Jake, I pointed at his pockets before the car.

He got the message, subtly sliding his hand in to get his keys as I mouthed to him. ’Just. Go!’

“Let Jake go, and I’ll let you take me.” I offered, ignoring his gasp of protest and the look Michael served me with. “And take my Mums car home, with no damage, otherwise I may as well be dead.”

I felt calm.

My mind was clear.

I saw one of the knives I’d dropped amongst the glass of the window and had an idea.

Mr. Blake laughed at my request. “Sweetheart, do you think your Mummy will care about her car after she finds out her kids are dead?”

“Probably not, but I think you kind of owe me that.” I shrugged.

“Fine. Give Jake the keys, he can take it home. You’re not stupid enough to mention any of this are you pup?”

He shook his head.

“This isn’t happening. Sarah, get in the car with Jake and get the fuck out of here. You and me old man, I’ve had enough of this.” Michael demanded.

The rage that burned inside him radiated off his skin, so much so that I half expected the grass to ignite with each step he took toward his Dad. I couldn’t imagine the oldest Blake taking up the challenge and purposefully dropping the keys, glad everyone was too focused on Michael to see me grab the knife.

“Go Jake, Rachelle knows okay? Go to her!” I whisper, and while he doesn’t look happy about it he nods.

I have no idea how this is going to work, but I keep my hand against my side and feel the blade pressing into my leggings as Jake gets in the car.

“Michael, you don’t have to fight him.” I move to stand in front of him and try and get the courage I need to do this.

“Get in the goddamn car!” He snaps and I turn to face his Dad.

Before he can try and shove me backward and behind him, Jake starts to move, and Joe and Justin launch themselves in Michael’s direction, knocking him down.

“I am sorry about this Sarah.” He tells me regretfully. “Now, get in the house so I can make-”

Before he can lower his arm, I grunt with effort as I send the knife into his skin. I don’t just stab, I drag it too and try to get over the fact I just stabbed him in the arm. The feeling of the muscle and skin tearing vibrated into the handle and thick, dark red blood floods out of the wound.

Instantly he goes to push me away, and I take the knife with me, before stabbing him again, this time I little higher up. My victory doesn’t last though as his good arm swings my way. I don’t move in time so I get the full force of his hit and stumble backward.

My head explodes as I hit the ground, the throbbing pulse of the pain starting on my cheekbone from where he hit me. It echoes the back of my head where I hit the ground and I can’t move straight away. Michael is calling my name, and turning to look at him, Joe is limp on the ground, while Justin has backed off. I try to get up as he comes my way and barely sit up when the gun is once again pointed in our direction.

“Fucking little bitch used silver!” Mr. Blake has lost the old man look; looking as out of control as Michael had in his wolf form.

Michael forgot about me, shifting as he charged at his Dad. It was then the shot rang out, stunning me completely as I’d never heard a gun off so close to me before. At that same moment, Michael yelps, and his hind leg lifts from the ground. The butt of the gun is then being used to hit him over the head and with a whine he drops to his side; not moving again.

I’m grabbed from behind and no matter how much I protest, Joe and Justin are stronger than I am.

“Let me go! I swear I will-” I start to rant.

“Oh shut up!” Mr. Blake growls, and I barely get a glimpse of the handle of the gun as I meet the same fate as Michael.

I know that I’m falling, and I see the bloodied silver knife there on the grass beside me. Everything looks so bright, so full of colour like I’m staring at a picture that someone has played with the brightness and contrast on. At that moment, I follow the fat blob of unnaturally red blood as it slides down the handle that looks like it’s nothing more than a beam of light and I think of Danny.

I scream out his name over and over wanting him to answer me as the black spots ruin the scene I have in front of me and before I can try and create some kind of message; everything disappears.