Free The Wolf in His Arms (The Runes Trilogy) by Adrian Lilly Page B

illuminating her face.
    “All he
did was show up. You know, when the change is about to happen, I can be...”
    “Moody,”
Alec finished.
    Lucy
rolled her eyes cheerfully. “I just really needed to concentrate, and he broke
it.”
    “Do you
feel like it helps? The meditation?” Jared asked.
    Lucy shrugged
her shoulders.
    “I saw
Mom today,” Alec said, trying to navigate away from werewolf talk. “She asked
about you.”
    Lucy
opened her eyes. “I know my distance is hurting them, but...” Lucy looked away,
even though her face was inscrutable in the darkness. “I can’t risk hurting
them. Really hurting them.”
    “Missing
you is really hurting them.”
    “Alec,
this isn’t the time for this conversation,” Lucy snapped.
    “Are
you hungry?” Jared asked, digging into the backpack before anyone could answer.
    “I can
feel it, you know, beneath my skin.”
    Alec
titled his head toward his sister, looking as if he might see something too.
    “Before
the change, almost like a warning light, flashing.”
    Jared
stared, stone faced, digesting this new information. “How do you mean? What do
you feel?”
    “It
burns. Like a fever. Like an acid mist on my skin—no—like acid bubbling up through
my skin.”
    “Can we
give her something for the pain, maybe a sedative?” Alec asked Jared.
    “No
drugs,” Lucy said.
    “Just
to help with the pain,” Alec repeated.
    “No
drugs!”
    Jared
took Alec’s hand. “You know she’s afraid tampering with the change might make
it, um, unpredictable.”
    “The
full moon is enough. I know the full moon. I don’t need any surprises.”
    While
Alec could not see her face clearly, he could tell from her voice that she was
crying. He fought the urge to comfort her. He knew she would be angry that he
neared her so close to the change.
    “Jared,
I know you saw the walls, the door,” Lucy said.
    “Yes.”
    “You
have to promise that, when the time comes, that when we’ve run out of hope, you
will— help —me,” she stressed the word,
giving it dark meaning.
    “Lucy—”
    “Promise!
I’m not as strong as Rene. I don’t think I can,” her voice broke off in a
choked sob.
    “I
promise,” Alec said.
    Jared
turned his head sharply, took in a ragged breath.
    “She’s
my sister. And I promise. I will do what has to be done.”
    “Not you,
Alec,” Lucy said.
    “Yes.
Jared will never do it. Jared never loses hope.”
    “It’s
time,” Lucy said suddenly. “Shut the door. It’s time.”
    Jared
leaped to his feet and placed his hands to the door. As he secured the door, he
watched Lucy’s face twist slightly in pain, her expression obscured by a
penumbra in the diminishing slant of light from the hall. He sat back in the
dim light of the camp stove and lanterns and took Alec’s hands, waiting for the
screams to begin.
    *           *           *           *
    “Shit,
there’s another car here,” Kevin said as he pulled up behind the only other car
on the empty block.
    “Doesn’t
mean anybody’s in the building,” Molly replied, hooking her thumb at The
Fullerton Building.
    “True.”
    “Maybe
it’s just other explorers, like us,” Tristan offered. They had run into other
explorers before. And stray dogs. That was the worst. He shivered at the
memory.
    “So
let’s start at the top and work our way down,” Kevin said as he unfastened his
seatbelt. Climbing from the car, he glanced at the car parked in front of him
again and then looked around the deserted street. He hated surprises. “Let’s
look around for an easy way in.”
    Tristan
grabbed the cameras and followed behind Kevin and Molly as they searched the
outside of the building. He snapped a few images on his phone before taking
some establishing shots with his video camera. Being this excited always made
him have to pee—that and the soda he had chugged on the ride. “Hey, I’m gonna
go around back to take a leak,” he said, breaking away from