Chapter 11. Lucia

Leighton

When the truck finally lurched to a stop, I could hear the princess screaming. Piper and I seemed okay and as I got out the car I could see that her side of car had taken the initial impact and there was a lot of blood.

By now her screams had subsided to a whimper as she tried to wriggle out the car.

“Stay still.” I told her as I worked out what to do and where all the blood was coming from.

“We need to move her, those wolves might be on our tail.” Piper had a cut to her head that her wolf was healing already.

I ripped the busted door away to give me space to get to the princess but her leg was trapped under the chair.

“This is going to hurt but it’s the only way to get you out.” I told her, not giving her time to process what I was about to do.

Her screams were quieter this time, as she bit down and I managed to pull her from the car. She was in a bad way and was going to need a healer, without her wolf I wouldn’t get her home and there was no way she would stay conscious long enough to hold onto my back.

“Piper, I can see there is a cabin up ahead, let’s get her there and if you stay with the princess I can return with help.”

Ideally I needed to do something with the truck because if they found it they could follow her trail of blood right to her. We were far from the river, shoving it in and hoping it floated away might work.

Deciding to deal with it first I started to push it towards the edge. Piper came to help as the open doors snagged on tree roots etc. The princess watched, sat beside each tree truck, blood still pouring from her leg despite my makeshift tourniquet with my belt. I thinks she was in shock as she had been shaking with effort not to scream as I had wrapped my belt around her leg.

Suddenly the car felt light as a gust of wind helped push it the last way to the river and I watched it float off in the raging current.

“I’ll go get help, you stay in case they find her.” Piper told me, looking at the stage of the princess. “My wolf is fast and she has a better chance with you protecting her.”

Her little wolf was fast but I was conflicted, it didn’t feel right leaving the princess but equally I didn’t fancy sitting around waiting for trouble to find us. Piper didn’t wait for me to agree but took of so I set about concealing the blood and before I picked her up and carried to the cabin.

She was barely conscious by the time I got her inside. Muttering random nonsense that didn’t make any sense to me. Her teeth were chittering but I couldn’t risk lighting a fire and giving our location away. Covering her in a blanket and went back to sort the crash site.

“How you holding up ?” I asked the barely awake princess when I returned from covering our tracks from the crash site. With any luck they would see the trunk in the water, far from here and assume the worst.

“Why is it so cold?” She whispered her pale skin deadly white against her jet black hair.

I got onto the couch where I had placed her and held her close to my chest so she could feel my warmth. It was like holding a lump of ice.

“You will go back and save them?” She whispered as she pressed her head into my chest, trying to get warm. I tried not to be worried when I thought how bad she much be to be happy doing that.

I knew she was referring the girls that I made her leave behind. She needed to worry a bit more about herself right now.

“I know don’t care about witches but she looked so like her.”

“Like who ?”

“Lucia, I couldn’t save her but maybe I can help them, please say you will go back?”

I was already going to have to go damage limitation on this failed mission I didn’t really want to think my chances of convincing the others to go to war over some witches but I couldn’t bring myself to tell her no.

“I promise I’ll get them out, and if you don’t die on me I’ll maybe even let you help.” That was a lie, once I got her home and I was keeping well clear of this princess, I knew from the moment I laid eyes on her she would be trouble. I just needed to keep her alive or I would have a very angry king and then a very angry Jackson.

“Why are you so cold ?” She asked her teeth chittering again. Her leg was still oozing, I forgot she wouldn’t have her wolf healing yet so was currently healing at a rate that was not much faster than a human. I want cold, despite holding a limp of ice in my arms so I was not getting been more worried.

“Who is Lucia?” I asked as her eyelids fluttered shut. I knew it was best to keep her awake.

“My little sister.”

“What happened?”

“It was all my fault.” She paused to catch her breath. “I refused to go with them, I didn’t know. We tried to escape but she didn’t make it.” Tears trickled down her cheek and I resisted the temptation to wipe them away because it felt too intimate.

“I’m sure it wasn’t your fault. It sounds like it was an accident.” I told her, wondering how I could find out more about this story as something didn’t seem right.

“If I they had told me.” She was slurring her words now and even when I shook her gently she didn’t respond but I could tell from the regular beating of her heart she was still with me.

I held her in my arms and prayed that Piper came back soon. I should have been scouring out looking for them but I couldn’t ring myself to leave her, frightened that if I did she might not be breathing when I returned.

“I don’t sense danger, just stay with her.” Titan suggested.

“Do you think the story about the sister was true? I didn’t see any mention of her.” I asked him.

“I don’t think she would lie.”

That was all I heard from him and I could feel my eyelid getting heavy as the minutes ticked by. I must have just doses of as suddenly everything seemed so peaceful. I could almost feel the flicker of flames warming us up.

Suddenly I was thrown awake by the door crashing open.