Glinting Silver

Chapter 13

Safe, alone, deep in the woods. This was where wolves of all kinds felt safe. It was where Domino and I took the pack when danger arose. But now it would be our death bed. For the more pain that Domino was in, the more energy leaked out of me. I was exhausted from blocking out his pain.

Kim was pouring more stuff into his arm, yelling random things. Bliss and Starling had gone to find more herbs for Kim, while Alistair and Max guarded the clearing. Belle was touching my shoulder. Me? I was curled up on on the ground with my head in my hands.

Here, try this. Bliss said. She dropped some strange succulent plants into Kim's hand. Kim crushed it up and squeezed the juice into Domino's mouth. Pain erupted in my throat and I screamed, looking like I was trying to strangle myself.

Kim swore when she saw me like that, but I was beyond caring. What horrified me was that my barrier was still up. If I was getting this much pain, I dreaded to imagine how Domino was feeling. Starling came up with a flower in his mouth.

Through my tears of pain I saw that the flower's petals were aerated and white edged in crimson. I opened my mouth to scream but it was too late. Kim crushed the flower straight into Domino's mouth.

My wall dissolved and we screamed. Him and me both. We were screaming and howling and when I looked at him he was twitching and blood was pouring out of his mouth. My vision blurred.

"Starling! What was that thing!"
"I don't know!"
"Domino! Domino!"
"Juniper shut it out!"

The words meant nothing to me, nothing. I was clawing at the grass, tearing it out. The others kept yelling but it was more of a muffled buzz. Then I saw the shape of Alistair burst into the clearing.

"Antidote! Human antidote!"

Something fell from his open mouth but everything was just a mist now. I saw a blobby fuzzy shape push something white into Domino's arm. Then everything went dark. But only for a second.

Do you have any idea how fast human anti-poison works? I do now. I could see again, clearly. But that was all. My hearing and movement hadn't come back yet. I looked over at the tarp Domino was laying on. His breathing was smooth. I opened to his pain and found nothing.

Then I leaped up and ran to him. Kim and Starling stepped back as I rolled the unconscious wolf onto his back. His mouth was open slightly and he didn't move with breath. Out of sheer desperation, I slammed my face into his.

His lips tasted of blood and tears. When I pulled away, I was breathing hard. But he wasn't breathing at all.

Tears ran down my face like a waterfall. I felt myself erupt into wolf and howled to the full moon. This was a mistake. The others had no choice but to turn wolf and follow my lead.

Seven voices howled with me. Bliss, Belle, Starling, Max, Kim and Alistair. Six. But there were seven voices. I flattened my ears and looked down.

Domino was still unconscious. But he was in wolf form and making wheezing howls. I howled again and started pawing him.

Wake up! Domino for gods' sake, wake up! I screamed at him. The others sat in a circle around him and swayed with their eyes closed. It was weird and creepy and I had never seen anything like it. But...

Domino's eyes opened a slit. I put a paw to his nose. He was cool, not too feverish and not too dead. I raised my eyes to look into his.

What's up? he said groggily. He tried to say more but I jumped on him in a tangle of paws and glinting fur. I was crying and he was crying and then four and a half silver wolves and one and a half rogue wolves leaped ontop of us. We were all here together.

But no. There should be another. My paws tightened around Domino and I buried my nose in his fur. We would find Aurora, even at the cost of our own lives.