IRONMOON TRILOGY

Chapter two

The doors struck the frame again, and the small window in the center cracked from one corner to the other.

“Move away from the door,” the security officer ordered.

Mara did not move. She stood beside the dead man’s bed with her injured hand closed against her chest, watching the metal frame shake under another blow. The red emergency lights turned every face in the room into a series of hard shadows, and the patient’s blood had dried in dark patches across the floor beneath the stretcher.

“What is your name?” she asked the officer.

He kept his attention on the door. “Frank Delaney.”

“Frank, you said there was an animal in the ambulance bay. Did you see it?”

“I saw enough.”

“Then tell us what we’re dealing with.”

The door bowed inward again. Kelly stepped back until her shoulders touched the cabinets.

Frank held up one hand. “Stay behind me.”

Mara looked at the gun beneath his jacket, then at the narrow doorway. “A gun may not help you if you don’t know what is on the other side.”

“You have a better plan?”

“I have a phone.”

“The lines are down.”

“Then I’ll use my personal one.”

She pulled it from the pocket of her scrub trousers. The screen lit when she pressed the side button, and three missed calls appeared from Elara. Mara had forgotten to return the first one before the patient arrived, and the second had come during the resuscitation. The third had come less than a minute earlier.

Her thumb hovered over the call button.

A voice rose from the hall.

“Mara Vale.”

Kelly covered her mouth with one hand.

Frank lifted his gun and took a step toward the door. “Who are you?”

The voice answered through the wood. “Open the door and I will tell you.”

Mara knew that voice.

She had heard it in the hospital café when the man had ordered black coffee, and outside her apartment when he had asked whether she had taken the south route home. Rowan Thorne never raised his voice. He spoke with steady patience, even when he was saying something that should have frightened her.

“Rowan,” she said.

Frank looked at her. “You know him?”

“I think so.”

“You think so?” Kelly whispered.

Mara pressed the phone against her ear and returned Elara’s call. Elara answered before the first ring finished.

“Where are you?” Elara asked. “I’ve called you three times.”

“I’m at work.”

“I know you’re at work. The hospital switchboard is down, and nobody will tell me why the security doors are locked.”

“There’s been an attack.”

“On the hospital?”

“There was a patient. He died.” Mara glanced at the body, then lowered her voice. “He said he knew my mother.”

Elara stopped speaking for a second. “What did he say?”

“Her name.”

“Mara, leave the building.”

“I can’t.”

“You can. Get Sloane and come to my apartment. We’ll figure this out together.”

“Something is outside the trauma room.”

“Then leave through another door.”

“The whole wing is locked down.”

“Who locked it down?”

Mara looked at Frank. “Security.”

Frank’s eyes remained fixed on the door. Rowan spoke again from the hall.

“Mara, I need you to move away from the frame.”

Elara heard him through the phone. “Who was that?”

“Rowan Thorne.”

“The man who keeps showing up?”

“Yes.”

“Why is he at the hospital?”

“I don’t know.”

“Ask him.”

Mara kept the phone to her ear. “Why are you here?”

“I came for you.”

“That answer has never made me feel better.”

“Open the door, Mara.”

Frank shook his head. “Don’t.”

Mara watched the door buckle beneath another strike. The metal around the lock had begun to separate from the frame, and small pieces of paint fell onto the floor.

“Frank,” she said, “if he wanted to get in, he would have broken the door already.”

“That may be because he wants us to open it.”

Rowan’s voice came through the door. “The thing in the hall has your scent. It will tear through the room in less than a minute.”

Kelly turned toward Mara. “What does he mean by your scent?”

Mara pressed the phone harder against her ear. “Elara, call Sloane and tell her to stay inside her house. Lock every door and window.”

“You’re frightening me.”

“I’m frightened too.”

The admission quieted Elara.

Mara had not meant to say it. She had spent most of her life keeping fear under control, since the accident and the months that followed it, since the night her mother vanished and adults began speaking in low voices whenever Mara entered a room. Fear had never helped her work a shift, pay rent, or sit beside a dying stranger. She had learned to place it somewhere private and return to it later.

Tonight, there would be no later.

“Mara,” Elara said, “put me on speaker.”

Mara did it.

“Elara, we have no time,” Mara said.

“I’m still here.”

“Who is the other man?”

“His name is Rowan Thorne.”

Rowan answered through the door. “Elara Quinn.”

Elara swore. “He knows my name.”

“He knows both of yours,” Mara said.

“Open the door,” Rowan repeated. “Frank, take the nurse and stand against the far wall.”

Frank did not lower his gun. “You identify yourself first.”

“Rowan Thorne, Alpha of Blackridge.”

No one moved.

Mara frowned. “Alpha of what?”

“The Blackridge Pack.”

Elara gave a sharp breath through the speaker. “Are you hearing this?”

“I’m hearing him.”

“Mara, you cannot open that door.”

Rowan’s voice hardened. “If you leave it closed, all three of you will die.”

Frank turned to Mara. “How does he know there are three of us?”

Mara looked at Kelly, then at the dead patient. “He may have been watching.”

Rowan spoke again. “Mara, hold the metal disk in your left hand.”

She glanced at the tray where the disk lay beside a bloodied pair of scissors. “Why?”

“Because the mark has started.”

Mara opened her hand. The crescent on her palm had spread toward her thumb, and heat had begun to travel up her wrist.

“How do you know what is on my hand?”

“Because I have seen it before.”

“On whom?”

“Your friends.”

Elara’s voice changed. “Mara, what is he talking about?”

The door jolted under a heavy impact, and Frank fired through the lower panel. The shot filled the room with a violent c***k. Kelly screamed and dropped to the floor. Something on the other side gave a deep, angry cry, then scraped across the door.

Frank stared at the smoking barrel. “That should have stopped it.”

Rowan said, “Open the door now.”

Mara crossed the room before Frank could stop her. She picked up the metal disk, felt the heat bite into her fingers, and pulled the door handle down.

Frank seized her shoulder. “What are you doing?”

“Making a decision.”

She opened the door.

Rowan stood in the corridor with blood across his shirt and a long knife held in his right hand. He had no coat, although the hospital entrance doors had opened to a cold November night less than ten minutes earlier. His dark hair was damp against his forehead, and a cut ran from his left cheek to the edge of his jaw.

He looked past Mara and checked every person in the room before bringing his attention back to her.

“Are you hurt?”

“My hand is burning.”

“Give me the disk.”

“Tell me what is happening.”

The creature hit the door from the other side.

Rowan pushed into the room and pulled Mara behind him. “Everyone against the wall.”

Frank raised his gun. “You’re not in charge here.”

Rowan turned his head. “You can argue with me after I keep you alive.”

The door burst open.

A body struck the opposite wall and landed on the floor near the nurses’ station. Mara recognized the hospital security officer who had left the room earlier. His radio was still clipped to his shoulder, but his neck had been opened from one side to the other.

Kelly began to cry.

“Stay down,” Mara told her, then grabbed the nearest supply cart and shoved it across the entrance.

The animal entered before the cart reached the door.

It stood on four legs, with shoulders higher than Mara’s waist and a muzzle stained with blood. Its front claws scraped across the floor while it kept its eyes on her. A bullet hole marked the fur beneath its left shoulder, but the wound had already closed.

Mara stepped back until the dead patient’s bed pressed against her knees.

Rowan moved in front of her. “Do not run.”

“You have got to stop giving me instructions without explanations.”

“The mark has made you visible to it.”

“What is it?”

“An infected wolf.”

Kelly stared at him. “You said wolf.”

“I did.”

Frank fired again. The bullet struck the creature’s chest. It stumbled, then lifted its head and charged.

Rowan met it halfway.

The impact drove him into the wall hard enough to shake the cabinets. He drove the knife beneath its jaw, but the animal twisted, caught his forearm between its teeth, and dragged him across the floor.

Mara grabbed the defibrillator paddles from the machine and ripped the cables free.

“Get away from him!” she shouted.

Rowan looked at her while he wrestled the creature’s head away from his arm. “Do not use those.”

“You have a better idea?”

“Take the disk to the door.”

“That is your plan?”

“Do it.”

The creature pinned him by the shoulder. Its claws tore through his shirt, and blood ran down his ribs.

Mara ran to the door with the metal disk in her hand. The crescent on her palm burned harder, and the animal’s head turned toward her. Its attention left Rowan.

“Here,” Mara said, lifting the disk. “You came for this.”

The creature rose from Rowan and moved toward her.

Frank shouted, “Mara, get down!”

She pressed the disk against the mark.

Heat shot through her arm and forced her to her knees. The creature stopped three steps away, lifted its muzzle, and released a howl that made every window in the emergency wing tremble.

Rowan pushed himself upright. Blood covered his hand, but the bite marks on his forearm had already closed.

Mara saw it happen.

She stared at the unbroken skin, then at his face. “You were bitten.”

“I know.”

“You were bleeding.”

“I know that too.”

The creature lunged.

Rowan seized its neck and drove it into the wall. The animal fought him with enough strength to tear the door from its hinges, but Rowan held on. His teeth clenched, and a rough sound rose from his chest.

Mara stood with the disk still pressed to her palm. The mark had spread across the base of her fingers, and the metal had begun to c***k.

“Rowan,” she said, “what do I do?”

“Put your hand on its chest.”

“That is the worst instruction you have given me tonight.”

“It is the only way to stop it.”

The animal slammed Rowan into the wall again. His head struck the plaster, and his grip loosened.

Mara stepped forward.

Frank grabbed for her, but she pulled away. “If I don’t, it will kill him.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I know what I saw.”

She crossed the distance between them and placed her marked hand against the animal’s chest.

Its fur was hot beneath her palm. The heart inside it beat hard against her hand, and a second pulse answered from the mark on her skin. The creature’s eyes widened. Its claws dug into Rowan’s shoulder, then released him.

A man’s voice came through the animal’s throat.

“First key found.”

Mara tried to pull away, but the disk had fused to her palm.

Rowan caught her around the waist and dragged her back. The creature fell onto its side, shaking so hard that its claws struck the floor.

“Mara, get behind me.”

“What did it say?”

“Move.”

The creature’s body convulsed. Fur withdrew beneath its skin, bones shifted, and the large animal collapsed into the shape of a naked man. Blood ran from his mouth, and a crescent mark burned across his chest.

Kelly made a choking sound and turned away.

Mara stood frozen beside Rowan, staring at the man on the floor.

Rowan took off his shirt and threw it over the stranger’s body. “Nobody touches him.”

Frank kept his gun trained on the man. “What the hell are you?”

Rowan did not answer him. He watched Mara’s hand instead.

The metal disk split down the center.

A thin line of blood ran from Mara’s palm to her wrist.

Rowan reached for her, but she stepped away from him.

“Don’t.”

His hand stopped in the air. “You need treatment.”

“You knew this would happen.”

“I knew the mark would wake.”

“You knew there was something hunting me.”

“Yes.”

“You knew my mother’s name.”

“Yes.”

“You knew about Elara and Sloane.”

His silence answered before he did.

Mara looked toward the phone on the floor. Elara was still connected, and Sloane had joined the call without Mara hearing the second line open.

Sloane spoke first. “Mara, come home.”

Mara kept her eyes on Rowan. “I can’t.”

“Why?”

“Because the man in front of me says he is an Alpha, the animal on the floor was a wolf, and somebody has been watching the three of us since we were children.”

Elara said, “Mara, get away from him.”

Rowan bent to pick up the broken disk. “If she leaves with you, the Red Hand will follow.”

Mara’s throat tightened. “Who are the Red Hand?”

Rowan looked toward the shattered door, where distant footsteps had begun moving through the darkened hospital wing.

“The people who have been waiting for you to remember.”

A second voice came over the hospital intercom, distorted by static but clear enough for every person in the room to hear.

“Bring us the first girl.”

The voice repeated the sentence through every speaker in the building.

Mara closed her hand around the burning mark and stepped away from the dead patient’s bed.

“Where are you taking me?” she asked.

Rowan looked at her for a long moment before answering.

“Blackridge.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“Then I will stay here until they reach this room again.”

The footsteps came closer.

Mara looked at Kelly, at Frank, and at the unconscious man beneath Rowan’s shirt. She looked at the phone where her two friends were waiting for an answer, then at the corridor filled with broken glass, blood, and the sound of people searching for her.

“Get my friends somewhere safe,” she said.

“I will.”

“And you will answer every question I ask.”

Rowan nodded once. “I will answer what I can.”

“That is not what I said.”

His eyes held hers. “Then I will answer everything.”

Mara picked up her phone and slipped it into her pocket. She took one final look at the man who had died calling her the first key, then followed Rowan into the dark corridor while the hospital speakers continued repeating the same command.

Bring us the first girl.