Lilah looked away from the gory scene of the vampire being torn apart by the giant wolves.
“They ate the body?” Guy asked, his voice sharp.
“The body, the bones, the blood. Every scrap of him was consumed; it was the only way to kill a creature like him.” Paul shook his head. “But they were made to pay for it.”
Lilah walked down to the next painting, which showed the Fury in the Ahnclann cave. Some were huddled together; others were twisting in agony. In the center of the tormented creatures, one rose up on its hind legs, its face distorted and flattened, its naked skin showing through huge patches in its fur.
“The vampire’s flesh made them sick,” she guessed. “Was that what finally killed them?”
“No,” Guy said as he looked at the last painting. “It changed them.”
Lilah caught her breath as she saw the naked figures of humans emerging from the caves. “Oh, no.”
“We were highly intelligent, even before the transformation took place.” Paul sat down on a flat-topped stone by the last painting. “We understood that by devouring the vampire’s immortal being, we had changed ourselves. We just didn’t know how much we were altered.”
Guy turned to him. “You were the Fury.”
“We are the Fury,” Nathan corrected softly. “Eating that bloodsucker passed on one more gift: his immortality.”
His father nodded. “Now each night, when the sun goes down, we can return to what we were before the transformation. Some of us, like Nathan, can make a complete shift from human to Fury. Others cannot, and retain certain humanoid characteristics, as I do. A few cannot change at all, and remain locked in a human body.”
“So you’re not werewolves,” Lilah murmured. “You’re werehumans.”
Guy gave Nathan a shrewd look. “Your brother is one who cannot change.”
“Yeah, it’s why Dad let him become a cop,” Nathan said. “He never has to worry about Ethan sprouting fur and fangs while handing out speeding tickets.”
Suddenly the names she had read on the worn crosses came back to her. “The people buried behind the cabin weren’t your ancestors. They were the original settlers. You took their names.”
“Their names, their clothes, and their cabins,” Annie said as she joined them. “We had to learn how to live in these new bodies, and they didn’t need them anymore.” She frowned down at the crooked line of her blouse. “Buttons are still my enemy. I can never line up the damn holes.”
Lilah had a million questions. “But how did you learn to speak English? Didn’t any of the settlers’ families try to contact them? How did you keep the other humans from finding out about what happened?”
“We were able to talk, read, and write from the first change,” Annie said. “French and English, along with some old tongues no one seemed to speak anymore. We had shared memories of a world we’d never seen, to boot. I may not be able to wrangle buttons or sew a straight stitch, but I can tell you what kings and queens looked like. What it’s like to joust across a field and shove a lance through a man’s heart.” She eyed Guy. “Even how it feels to drain a human being of blood.”
“The languages and memories of the rogue they killed,” Guy said. “They must have absorbed them along with his body.”
“There was no mass travel or technology when we became the Ahnclann,” Paul put in, “and only a few trappers and miners traveled around the mountains. We lived in isolation for decades.”
“When letters came from back East, we’d answer them by writing things we read in the diaries and un-mailed letters the settlers had left behind,” Annie said. “We had to be careful not to make things sound too good here, so that no one would be tempted to visit. Back then people didn’t live as long as they do now, so eventually all the folks who knew the settlers died.”
“And then you were safe.” Lilah shook her head. “But you must have had other outsiders try to settle here.”
“Oh, they tried.” Nathan showed her his teeth. “We enjoyed their livestock and their women before we sent them on their way.”
“Nathan.” Paul gave him a stern look before he told Lilah, “We persuaded most of the humans who came through the pass to continue on to Chamberlain, where they could obtain land, jobs, and better supplies. A few staged gunfights convinced the rest that Frenchman’s Pass was not the place to raise a family.”
“It still isn’t.” Nathan stalked off.
Paul watched him go. “Nathan was just coming into his breeding years when we became the Ahnclann. Like most of our younger males, he never had the chance to sire young.”
“Another gift from the rogue,” Guy told him. “The Darkyn cannot have children.”
“It is an enduring curse, one that has been slowly eroding away at us,” Paul said. “Mating and breeding were two of our most powerful drives, and being changed has not diminished them. But we remain barren.”
“That’s why Paul sent away for medical books, and taught himself to be a doctor,” Annie said. “Someday he’s going to find a way to fix that.”
“It’s taken more than seventy years of study, but with the new advances in genetics and fertility I’m hopeful.” He regarded Lilah. “You carry some of the same mutations as the Ahnclann, but you are also human, and you have”—he paused and glanced at Guy—“much insight to offer. I think I can learn a great deal from you, Lilah, if you are willing.”
“Insight?” Guy echoed. “What insight?”
Annie nudged Paul with her elbow. “I’d say this is where you and I hightail it out of here.”
The doctor and the innkeeper left, and Lilah held out her hand to Guy. “I tried to tell you before, but things were exploding and I got distracted.”
He sat down on the stone Paul had vacated, but when he would have drawn her down onto his lap, she tugged her hands away. “Whatever it is, my heart, just tell me. It cannot be as surprising as your talent.”
“This might be the one thing that tops it,” she admitted. “Paul took some blood samples from me, and that’s how he and Ethan and the others knew we were like them. He also ran some standard tests last night, but only one came up positive.”
He frowned. “Positive for what?”
“This.” She took his hand and guided it to her stomach. When he gave her a bewildered look, she said, “I’m pregnant, Guy.”
“No.” He stood and took her into his arms. “Lilah, the doctor has made a mistake, telling you this. You cannot be pregnant. The Darkyn cannot have children with humans, or with anyone.”
“I know.” She gently touched the gash that had already scabbed over on his cheek. “But you’re forgetting two important exceptions. I’m not entirely human, and you’re not Darkyn anymore.”
He flinched.
“Paul would like to run more tests,” she cautioned, “and with all the genetic mutations we have between us, it’s probably a good idea. But I’m not worried. I can’t say why, but I just know we’re going to have a healthy child.”
“A child.” All around them frost began crawling up the sides of the cavern. “You’re having my child.”
Lilah didn’t feel the cold, not when she looked into his eyes, and not when she merged her thoughts with his. The last of the darkness had gone, and all that was left was Guy, strong and courageous, passionate and possessive, quiet and loving. The enormous, endless love that he felt for her crossed over into her mind and heart, radiating out around them until the frost began to melt.
He dropped down on his knees, spreading his hands over her belly. “I can feel it. So tiny.” He looked up at her, concerned. “The heart is not beating.”
“That’s because it’s still forming.” She smiled down at him. “We should be able to hear it in about three weeks.”
“You will need to see a doctor.” He frowned as the reality began to sink in.
“I’ve already seen one, and I’d like him to be the one who takes care of me.” She hesitated, and then said, “I’d like it to be Paul. I’d like to stay here, Guy.”
He obviously hadn’t given any thought to where they would go. “Because of me?”
“You and me and the baby.” She stroked his hair. “Everyone in this town tried to protect us today. Everyone. They know what we are, but they would never betray us. Where else could we live where people would do that?”
“They are noble creatures.” He stood. “But this is such a small, remote place, Lilah. Will you be happy here?”
“As long as I’m with you.” She leaned against him and brought his hand to her stomach. “We will be.”
Ethan saw his own shadow standing next to the door to his office, and tried to walk past him. The arm that shot out to bar his path bristled for a moment with fur before it dropped.
“Dad probably needs you up at the caves,” he told Nathan.
His brother shifted his weight from one leg to the other. “Dad says I can’t come back there until I apologize to you.”
Ethan frowned. “For what?”
“Letting the Fury come between us.” Nathan’s teeth flashed. “We were good out there today, you and me.”
“You were good.” He frowned down at the body that would never change. “I was just adequate.”
“I can’t ever leave the mountain, Ethan. Not with my temper. You know it. I know it. Hell, I’m lucky if I can spend a full night in town without going over.”
He didn’t need to be reminded of how easily his brother could change. “So?”
“So you could go anywhere in the world. Do anything, be anything. Have as many women as you like and never have to worry about going Fury on them when things get interesting.” His brother leaned close. “So the next time you’re hating me for what I got, think about what I didn’t.”
