pair of large hands gripped his shoulders and lifted him back to his knees.
“Jace, are you okay? Jace?”
Jace’s eyes darted around the room. There were wolves everywhere.
David leaned into Jace’s line of vision and stared him straight in the face. “J, wake up. Jace, listen to me. Damn it.” He mumbled Yiddish curses as he repeatedly shook Jace to rouse him.
Jace clamped his hands onto David’s shoulders, still dazed. “Stop shaking me, David.”
David stopped, but he kept his hold tight. “Jace, are you okay?” he repeated.
Jace tried to steady himself, using David for balance. Swaying, he leaned on his friend. “What happened?”
“I don’t know, J. Alejandro was running for you, and the air started vibrating around you. I thought you were going to shift, but then you fell to your knees. It was like a pulse of energy shot out of you, and it kept coming in shock waves. It stopped Alejandro in his tracks and forced all the pack members to shift into wolf form, even Frankie.
Frankie? Where was she?
“Where is she?”
Jace shot to his feet. The world spun, and David caught him. He slung Jace’s arm around his shoulders and acted as his support. As Jace searched the crowd, David lowered him onto the platform again. Jace didn’t see her anywhere.
“She’s okay, J. I was right there next to her. She’s probably just helping someone in the pack.”
The air filled with groaning as the members of the pack transitioned into their human form. Shredded clothes covered the floor, destroyed during the transformation.
David grabbed Jace’s face with both his hands and forced him to meet his eyes. “Jace, look at me. We need to get you out of here.”
David’s words melted together as the blood drained from Jace’s face and he passed out again.
IT TOOK EVERY ounce of strength Jace had in order to crack open his eyes and stare at the ceiling above him. Someone had taken every drop of energy in his body and sucked it out. What the hell had happened to him? He fought to keep his eyes open while he searched his brain.
The blue haze. The wolf. The shadow man. The Berserkers.
Holy shit. He tried to get up but quickly fell back onto the couch where he’d been lying. Damn it. He pushed against the cushions with his elbows. He had to get up.
Where was he? His eyes darted around the room. David’s apartment?
Someone touched his shoulder and urged him to stay down. Shane’s face swam into view, looming over him. “Don’t try getting up. You need to save your strength if you’re going to channel your Skinwalker abilities again.”
Jace gaped. “How in the hell do you know about—”
“I did some research based on what David told me about what happened to you and the symbol up on your back,” Shane interrupted. “We know what you are, and we know that when you tried to shift, you entered the spirit world instead.”
The room spun. Jace covered his face with his hands and tried to steady his breathing. Out of this world. The whole situation was out of this world.
David’s voice carried from the other side of the room. “Hang on, J, and I’ll help you sit up.”
Jace frowned and started trying to get up again.
David limped to Jace’s side and supported him. “Don’t push it. You need to conserve your energy. You have to enter the spirit world again.”
Jace shoved against him. “The hell I do.”
David gripped him by the shoulders and held him firmly in place. “Jace, you have to. It’s our only chance to beat Robert. To save Allsun.” He dug his fingers into Jace’s shoulder blades, his frustration clear on his face. He over-enunciated each word. “I will
If it were anyone else saying those words, Jace would have punched him to a bloody pulp. Well, if he could have moved without feeling like he was about to topple over, anyway. He examined David’s face, and he knew that underneath the anger, his friend was dying to get back the woman he loved. Damn it. He couldn’t mess this up. “How will going back to the spirit world help me beat Robert?”
Shane raised his hand as if he were answering a question one of his professors had posed. “I did some research once David described what happened to you, and I found all this information about Norse mythology and Berserkers. Most people believe the Berserkers were an elite class of warriors, but the older beliefs are more relevant here. According to this...” He picked up a large book off the floor.
The aged gold lettering glimmered in the light, spelling something out in a language Jace didn’t recognize. Shane flipped through the pages. “Here it is. According to the writer, a Skinwalker must go on a journey with his spirit guide before he can reach his full potential. Then a select few of those Skinwalkers can become Berserker warriors. Is that what happened to you?”
Jace’s jaw clenched. He nodded.
Shane began to pace the room, the large book cradled in his arms. “The only problem is, it doesn’t describe how you become a Berserker and gain the powers of the gods. That’s why you need to go back to the spirit world. You have to find out.”
Jace straightened and brushed David away. “I already know what has to be done.”
Shane stopped pacing and stared at him with eager eyes, and David leaned forward eagerly.
Jace cleared his throat. “There needs to be a blood sacrifice of another Skinwalker. I need to kill a male member of my family.”
A brief moment of silence passed while Shane and David glanced at each other.
Shane let out a long breath. “Shit. We can’t possibly ask you to kill a member of your family.”
David scoffed. He pointed a large finger straight at Shane. “Oh, yes we can.” Turning toward Jace, his eyes filled with determination; he was ready for a fight. “J, you need to track down that deadbeat father of yours and pay him back for all those years of abuse.”
Jace stood slowly and walked across the room. Aside from Frankie, who knew only the bare bones, David was the only one who was aware of his history with his old man. Jace swallowed his anger. “David, I don’t know where he is. I don’t even know if he’s alive. I haven’t seen him since I was a kid.”
Shane slammed the book down on the table. “I’ll get right on that.” He hurried from the room, presumably heading off to find his ever-present laptop.
Silence hung in the air. Jace leaned against the wall, too weak to hold himself up, while David buried his face in his hands.
“I can’t lose her again, J, especially not like this,” David finally said. “I would fight for her myself, if I could. But injured like this...all I’d do is get both of us killed because of my damn pride.” He glanced up at Jace, a look of pure desperation on his face. “You can do this, can’t you?”
“Kill my father?” Jace stared at the wall. The memories of his father beating his mother until she lay sobbing on the kitchen floor invaded his mind.
“If I knew where he was, I would’ve done it already.” Jace shook his head. This whole situation was so messed up. “Where’s Frankie? Is she okay?”
“She was fine the last time I saw her. A little shaken up from the whole ordeal, but okay. I think she’s holed up in her apartment. She bolted as soon as you started to come to.”
Pain squeezed Jace’s chest. She hadn’t even bothered to come see him? To make sure he was all right?
