Sohna and Vivian - My Brother's Keeper
It hadn't even occurred to Virginia to scream until it was too late. One moment she was simply standing on the sidewalk with her brother-in-law, the next he'd fastened one hand over her mouth while the other grasped her arm as he whispered into her ear that she'd better be quiet. She'd been too confused to do anything else; her mind had no time to adjust to the outrageous knowledge that Wolf's brother was here - How could he be here? she'd wondered inanely - and that he, for whatever reason, meant harm to her - For what? What did I do to him? But then, there'd been no time for further thoughts as he'd hauled her bodily over his shoulder - My baby! she panicked, No, please! She must have said something out loud, for he paused a moment to growl menacingly at her, his eyes flashing like an animal's. Silenced, she swallowed as she bent her knees to relieve the pressure. It occurred to her then that he hadn't simply thrown her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, which would doubtlessly have made her easier to carry, but had braced her where her ribcage would take the brunt of her weight. However, the slight hope from that realization left her as he scaled the high wrought-iron fence that surrounded the park. Even at night, the darkness broken only by streetlights nearer the road, her heart quailed as all the ends that could come to her child through his recklessness - no, let's be honest, Virginia, she told herself bitterly, it's your recklessness that got you into this - flashed before her. Her eyes squeezed shut, she held her breath, her stomach quailing as she felt him jump from the top, letting it out in an involuntary rush as his feet impacted the snow, jarring her.Then he ran. Away, through the open woods of the park which now was nothing more than an eerie blur of violet, snow-laden tree branches whipping past, he sped, the sound of his footfalls dampened by the snow, which tufted up in little sprays from the passing of his boots. Virginia ground her teeth against the pain in her ribs and hung on tightly. If she fell ... she didn't want to even think about it.
When he set her down against the flat, cold stone of a building foundation, she sat gasping in great lungfuls of air, her whole body shaking uncontrollably, though not from the cold.
Run! she told herself, but knew it was hopeless. She might gain her feet before he yanked her back down again, but she'd never get any farther and she knew it. She was just too out of breath and too slow now. A single whimper escaped her, but she had no time for more of that, either, as he grabbed her once again and shoved her bodily through a small, deep opening in the stone.
The chute reminded her uncannily of Dragon Mountain, until it ended abruptly in mid-air, launching her into the pitch-black depths somewhere above the cellar floor. She screamed once, a short, high, panicked shriek that was abruptly cut off as she hit the floor, her feet and legs stinging, for she remembered only at the last moment to tuck herself and roll with the impact. Above, she heard Rafe following after; heard the sharp clang of metal as whatever covered the chute banged shut; heard the rasp of his clothing on the slide, then the moment of silence before the landing.
Huddled into a ball on the cold floor, shivering, she made no effort to get up. Tears leaked from her eyes. Please, she thought, please let this just be a nightmare. Please let me wake up, please! But a memory came with the thought, of how she'd seen through the curse at the ruined palace, and she knew this time it was all real, all happening to her - worse, happening also to her baby. Chances she might otherwise have taken she passed now, her body being not entirely her own. But I can't just lay here, she thought miserably. That's just as bad. I have to do something ...
It occurred to her then to wonder why he hadn't apparently moved since hitting the floor. Did he knock himself out on something? she hoped. With a deep breath, she forced herself to a false calmness, holding herself steady by years of rigid training. There, punctuating the quiet of the cellar, she heard him – gasping as if in pain. And then she knew: It was full moon. The cramps had come upon him.
Terror for Wolf welled up inside her, but she forced it down, knowing she had to find a way out now, while he was occupied. How long the cramps would last, she had no idea – she really hadn't paid that much attention back in Little Lamb Village - quit feeling guilty! It's not helping the situation! Deliberately, she forced herself to stand, and though her legs were still shaking, she felt somewhat better. Tentatively she slid her feet sideways just a little, then a little more, making her way away from where she knew her brother-in-law had landed. Her hands touched the stone of the wall, and she followed it, faster now, past an inside corner, several feet more until her hands touched the wood of a door. She fumbled for the knob, finding a latch instead, and tore her fingernails twisting it in her panic. At last it gave way and the door swung outwards into the ghostly greys of a cellar with high, small windows. She slammed the door shut behind her.
It took her some time to find the stairs. The cellar of the place was huge, but cut up into what seemed to be a meaningless series of rooms, and she wasted precious time checking each in the dim light. Now, as she reached for the handle of the door to the main floor, she found herself terrified that it would be locked and she'd be trapped with Rafe when he'd changed shape. It had been terrifying to be overpowered by him in his human body. Once he had transformed ... Stop it!
She yanked down hard on the handle. It wasn't locked, but in the darkness there was no mistaking the red LED on the wall to her right that suddenly flashed on and off. She'd tripped some sort of alarm. Instinctively, she flinched, but then told herself she was being foolish. She wanted to be found, didn't she? This way it was certain, even if ... Don't think about it, just get moving ...
She walked a short distance down the corridor, past partition walls that didn't quite reach the high coffered ceiling, their shadowy depths brimming with museum pieces and display cases. I'm inside Philippsruhe, she realized, although she and Wolf hadn't yet toured the old palace - its exhibits weren't specific enough for what they'd been searching. Now, however, she wished fervently that they had; it would have made it so much easier if she'd known where she was going.
She passed through a series of rooms, their crystal chandeliers glimmering in the moonlight which reached them through the high windows. But when she reached a turn in their orientation and at last reached a dead end, she realized she'd have to go back the way she'd come - and that she'd taken up too much time already. She turned around and set off in a run, but when she reached the cellar door once again, she held her breath, almost expecting to see the handle turn as she watched. Still, she forced herself past it, coming out into a room where a grand staircase ascended up and to the right, its dark banister ornamented with some gleaming metal. And there, on the far wall, through another doorway to her right, lay the main entrance at last. Only this door, the third she'd tried, was locked.
Panic and frustration crashed over her; she wanted to scream "NO!" and in her disbelief, shook the door on its hinges, before turning around and leaning heavily against it. This can't be happening, it can't! I can't be trapped here, not now, not after all that! Tears stung her eyes and she brushed them away. The chandelier overhead seemed to wink at her. She stared at it curiously. It winked again, as if ... as if a slight breeze were blowing on it ...
He was standing in the shadows back by the stairway, his eyes reflecting the light like an animal's, his breathing sharp and shallow. Her heart quailed; she felt the blood drain away from her face. Slowly, he took a step towards her.
Wildly, she looked around, her eyes straining to see in the darkness, resolving only grey misty shapes broken by intermittent bright silver pools of reflected moonlight. Her pulse raced, beating a panicked tempo at her throat. He advanced slowly, in no apparent hurry. And why should he be? she wailed inwardly. I'm trapped; there's no way I could outrun him! For a brief moment she considered it anyway. To her right she could see the dark, looming entrance to a different room. But the fear of not knowing how long it would be until he struck – from behind – stayed her. Still, she edged sideways, almost unconsciously, towards the opening; there was nowhere else she could go and not be cornered against a wall. His eyes followed her, glinting and inhuman. An inane little corner of her brain dispassionately compared him to his brother - her husband. They were so alike, yet not. She had never - at any moment in their life together - thought of Wolf as an animal. Nor did she really think of him as a fantastical creature that shouldn't logically exist; it still gave her a bit of a thrilling shock to see him undressed; to see or feel the obviously alive tail. But the disbelief was something she could put aside - even when she saw him as a werewolf - because she knew him so well, she thought; knew his dreams and fears and hopes. Yet the impression she had of his brother, here and now, was that of the classic, fabled beast - a monster who meant her nothing but evil.
She stumbled against something soft that nonetheless clattered, and though she caught herself almost immediately, he rushed forward, covering half the distance to her in less than a breath, and it took all of her willpower to keep from collapsing entirely and cowering on the floor. Her hand found the obstacle - a thick velvet rope which cordoned off some unknown part of the museum from visitors - and clenched on to it. The brass stand from which it hung was not that far. Once again, she edged sideways toward her goal.
Rafe saw what she was doing. The eyes narrowed and he sprang. In a fluid motion, Virginia scooped up the barricade post and swung it at him. But, unlike that long-ago time when she'd knocked Wolf out the window of her grandmother's apartment, she missed. Her assailant had seen it coming and violently tore the heavy brass club from her grasp. It sailed sideways across the room and with a crunch, bounced off a far wall. Before it ceased clattering, he had her by both arms, forcing them up and behind her and she screamed, her voice choking off to nothing as she felt his hot breath on her face, unable, finally, to utter a sound.
"Please," she mouthed the words, barely whispering, pleading, "Please don't hurt me ... please ..."
It was then she understood that he truly intended to kill her.
Deep inside, the old coldness welled up – the impenetrable ice that had served her so well for so long. Dying was so much easier if she felt nothing, had never felt anything. Her eyes closed.
His claws bit into the flesh of her arms, tearing the sleeves of her coat as she felt him being jerked away, snarling. Freed, her eyes snapped open, searching the darkness. A shadowy figure too big for a single man writhed at her feet amidst a cacophony of growls and snarls. She knew she should run, that this was her chance, but something - she didn't quite know what - rooted her, and she was unable to take even a single step away.
He cried out, an injured yelp, broken off. The voice ... wasn't Rafe's. Shaking, she watched in horror as a part of the shadow disentangled itself from the rest and stood, its glowing eyes regarding her with angry menace. Inside her, a small flame leapt to life against the coldness she'd thrown up, kindled by the unmoving thing still huddled on the floor. Wolf ... she thought. Wolf. He'd come to rescue her one last time.
She didn't know where the scream came from, only that she heard it – a woman's scream of outraged desperation just before she took up yet another of the brass rope-stands and charged into the thing that had been her brother-in-law. He took a step back, surprised, and tripped over the too-still form of his brother. Momentum carried Virginia forward onto him. As she let go the metal club to catch herself before she hit the floor, it struck him a glancing blow on the chin, sending him back down just as he rose. She hit the floor beside her husband, one hand pressing into his back before she slid it quickly up to his face.
"Wolf?"
He didn't answer. Her hand came away wet and sticky from something on his neck.
"Wolf!!" she screamed.
In a panic, she shook him, telling herself stupidly that she really ought to check for a pulse, then tried to forget she'd suggested it - she really didn't want to know.
"Wolf, please! Please wake up!"
Panic was creeping into her voice. He had to wake up. He had to. She couldn't live now without him; couldn't go back to the way she'd been. Please ...
Rafe's clothes rustled as he pushed himself slowly to his hands and knees. He crawled the few feet over to his brother ...
With a growl that sounded more like a roar, Wolf reared up, slamming Rafe's head down against the polished parquet of the floor, once, then again, before lunging at his throat
Abruptly, the lights flared on.
"Gott im Himmel!!"
Virginia's head snapped in the direction of the voice. Her eyes blinking against the suddenly too-bright room, she saw two policemen standing just inside the previously locked door. Both held guns, drawn, aimed at the scene they obviously couldn't believe was taking place before them.
"NO!!!!" she shrieked, and threw herself in front of her husband.
