Try (Book Four, Teen Wolf)

Ch. 12: Smoke and Mirrors

I was still kicking the door. Once. Twice. Three times.

Finally, with a yell of anger, the hinges broke. The swung open wide enough for me to fit through.

Breathing heavily, I walked out of the door, into the pathway, slowly looking around, alert. I looked behind me, not seeing anyone, turning back forward, walking forward.

I heard a Berserker growl behind me, turning around, catching the arm that was about to hit me, grabbing both arms to push him back into the wall. It raised its arm above my head, swinging down, hitting me, making me stumble back. It tried to hit me again. I ducked under its arm, spinning behind him. It turned around, running forward, pushing me into the wall with so much force I felt and heard bones cracking.

I looked at the tattoo on its arm. Two bands, one wider than the other.

Scott's tattoo, the one Derek and I helped him get the same day I got the triskele tattoo on my hand.

I looked up to his eyes, knowing it was him.

Kate roared as she walked in.

Scott pushed me to the floor, walking away, standing next to her.

Kate looked at the tattoo. "I am going to have to do a better job of covering that up." She looked at me. "Not your best fight, Tara. Is that because you're weak and hungry and so far from home, or losing the one boy who's ever loved you?"

I glared at her. "Why did you do this to him?"

"How," Kate told me. "That's--that's the better story. See, when I first got away from the Calaveras, I had no idea where to go. But something kept pulling me here, to the temple of Tezcatipoca. It's name means, 'Smoke and mirrors', and this place is a temple of smoke and mirrors." She traced a design in the dust on the stone wall. "Obsidian." I looked up in recognition. She walked toward me. "When I got here, I found the Berserkers waiting for me. They helped me survive. And I didn't know quite why until just recently. Till I decided to trust someone I never thought I would trust."

"Let me guess," I said. "Peter." Kate gave me a confused look. "That's right. You guys aren't the devious masterminds you like to think you are. I knew you were working together to kill Scott."

"And that's why you were so prepared," Kate finished. "You were right all along. You just didn't know how right you were." She looked at Scott. "And to think, we actually believed you were over." She looked at me. "But you weren't prepared to see your boyfriend as a vicious, murderous monster who would kill you, were you?" I didn't answer, glaring. She clicked her tongue. "Oh, sweetie. But you were right about Peter. I never thought I would trust him after he tried to kill me. But I decided to. It was then that I could not only control the Berserkers, but . . ." She stood next to Scott, trailing her fingers over the bones covering his chest. "I could create them. They call me la loba. I assume you know what that means, too?"

"The Bone Woman," I answered reluctantly. "The Calaveras captured us looking for you before we got out."

"Aw," Kate said tauntingly. "But it's a good thing you managed to get your way out this time. I need to test his loyalty. Did you know Scott became an Alpha without having to kill anyone? Oh, that's right. You were there. And you were there when he went through quite a lot without ever having to kill. I think it's time to change that."

Scott broke off a bone from the thing on his chest, walking toward me, raising the bone to stab me.

I reached up, catching his wrist, pulling myself up, spinning behind him.

Scott backed into me, the bones spiking from his back pushing me against the stone wall, shattering the stone. With the bones in the right side of my body, one of the bones barely missing my heart, I gasped. Scott walked forward, pulling them out, letting me fall to the floor with holes in my stomach and chest, trying to heal, bleeding profusely.