Out of the Dark

by Quinn Loftis

  "Get up, we have to keep running." Gavril pulled Jen to her feet while Rachel helped Jacque up. Once on their feet, Gavril turned and began running again. Jen and Jacque didn't bother looking back up to see if the boars had decided to take flight. They took off running, going faster than they ever had before.

  "How did she find us so quickly?" Gavril asked his mate as they ran. He was looking for an opening in the mountain, a place they could squeeze into and take cover.

  "I don't know. I thought my cloak was still holding."

  Gavril once again began hearing the telltale sound of flapping wings. He picked up speed, motioning with his arm for the others to do the same. Finally, as they rounded a sharp curve around the side of cliff, there was the break Gavril had been looking for – an opening that looked like a vertical cut in the mountain. It would be a tight squeeze, but that was better than being out in the open.

  "Quickly, into the opening." Gavril stopped to point the girls in the direction of the opening.

  Jen squeezed in, followed by Jacque, Rachel, and finally Gavril. It wasn't very deep but it went far back enough that Gavril was able to back away from the opening. They watched the shadows of the birds in the moonlight as they flew over and past them. They all let out a collective breath.

  "That won't be the end of it," Gavril told them.

  Rachel grabbed some twigs and leaves off the rocky bottom of the opening, piling them together. She placed her hands over them and with a whispered word, a fire jumped up from the pile.

  "Wicked." Jen smiled.

  "The fire will help deter animals," she explained.

  Jacque and Jen sat down, both still trying to catch their breath.

  "So what exactly was that?" Jen asked in between breaths.

  "She's found us," Rachel answered solemnly. "She's using the animals against us. She will use the weather as well. She is very powerful."

  "Okay, so what are we going to do?" Jacque asked rather calmly.

  "We need Peri. I cannot fight her."

  "Okay, well Jacque and I will talk with our men and get Peri the fairy here."

  Rachel's lips quirked up on one side, "Does she know you call her Peri the fairy?"

  Jen winked at her, "You know it."

  "Hey, B?"

  "Jennifer." The relief in his voice made Jen's stomach do funny things. She tried to ignore that and focus on what was important, like staying alive.

  "We need Peri to come and save our butts."

  "What? Why? What's happened? Are you okay?"

  "I'm fine, but we were just chased by some crazy birds and then some BAWB." Jen pronounced her acronym for the boar as “bob”, and grinned when Decebel asked what the hell a bob was.

  "Big ass wild boar. Jacque's words. That's not important, what's important is the witch has our location on her radar and we need Peri to bring the rain."

  "I really wish you would talk in English and not TV military lingo."

  "Fine. The witch found us. Tell Peri to get her butt here and do her thing. Better?"

  "Yes."

  "It doesn't sound near as cool," Jen grumbled.

  "And cool is definitely what we are worried about since your life is at stake," Decebel snapped back at her.

  “Just go tell that fairy.”

  Jen waited for Decebel's response, assuming he was talking with Peri and the other wolves.

  "We're on our way."

  "WHAT? No, Decebel. You can't fight her."

  "Baby, you doubt my mad fighting skills, I'm hurt," he teased. Peri must have unbound him if he was teasing. “Be there soon.”

  This was not what Jen was trying to accomplish. She didn't want Decebel out here, vulnerable to the witch and her evil schemes.

  "Relax, love. I'm bringing the rain with me." And just like that he was gone. He didn't close off their bond, but he made it clear he wasn't going to discuss this any further.

  Jen looked over at Jacque's sour face.

  "Let me guess, Fane's on his way?" Jen asked dryly.

  "What is with them! Why can't they just listen to us? All we ask is to tell Peri to come and instead they hear, 'come save me, my furry hero'. I mean, seriously."

  "I'm with you. But they are about as cooperative as we are. You know what that means?"

  "That they will never listen to a dang thing we say," Jacque answered

  "Right you are, my red-headed sidekick. Right you are."

  "Peri will not let the wolves leave unless she has a plan," Gavril told them. He stared out of the opening into the dark night.

  "Well I hope it's a good one because Fane and Decebel are walking right into the witch's path. They should bring flowers and chocolates since they are throwing themselves at her feet," Jen growled.

  A sudden flash of light blinded the four, then again when the darkness returned just as suddenly.

  Jacque, Rachel, and Jen all stood up and watched a tall guy who appeared to be in his mid-twenties walk into the small cave. He had shaggy, sandy brown hair and steel colored eyes. Next to him was a girl they quickly recognized as Elle.

  Elle smiled at Jacque and Jen, and greeted Rachel with a hug, as if she were an old friend. The guy took Rachel's hand and, with Gavril growling, leaned down and kissed it. He glanced up at Jen and Jacque and winked.

  Jacque rolled her eyes. "There's trouble."

  Jen nodded in agreement. "With a capital F H."

  "Trouble starts with T, Jen."

  "Yes, but freaking hot starts with F H."

  Jacque snorted. "Man, your mate is gonna have his hands full."

  "Did your eyes get gouged out when you bonded with Fane?" Jen asked, turning to look at Jacque.

  "No." Jacque smiled.

  "Well, neither did mine. I'm not undressing the guy with my eyes, I'm just appreciating the eye candy he brings into the world."

  "Hello, ladies. I'm Adam." He grasped Jen's hand, leaned down, and just as he did with Rachel's, he kissed it. Jen tried not to blush but, crap, she was female and he was hot.

  Adam's eyes seemed to watch everything around him at once. Though he was flirty, he was no doubt deadly.

  Adam did the same to Jacque and, much to Jen's relief, Jacque blushed candy apple red as well.

  "Elle and I are the cavalry," he informed them with a broad smile.

  Elle stepped up next to him and smiled. "You ladies ready to do battle?" She handed out small throwing knives to each of them.

  Jen grinned wickedly. "Hell to the yeah!"

  "Um, Elle, Jen shouldn't be allowed to play with knives," Jacque said cautiously.

  "These knives are special." Elle grinned. "These knives are enchanted in such a way that they will only hit what you intend them to. You can't miss. And doesn't matter where you hit, each hit is fatal."

  "This is so freaking cool! I mean, like Lord of the Rings cool." Jen's eyes lit up as she took the throwing knife.

  "Jen, probably not real kosher to compare them to a movie."

  "My bad." Jen smiled sheepishly.

  Adam smiled at them. "Elle said you guys were weird. She wasn't kidding."

  Jen and Jacque glanced at Elle, who had turned red. "I really was kidding," she said with raised eyebrows.

  "Hey, we aren't offended when someone speaks the truth. No worries. Now, if you had said I was sweet, or that Jacque had boobs – well, then we'd be offended."

  "Jennifer Adams, I know you did not just say that." Jacque glared at her grinning, completely remorseless friend.

  "I don't know who you're speaking to, Red. My name isn't Jennifer Adams."

  "Whatever," Jacque snapped.

  "So, are we going to get this party started or what?" Jen asked Elle.

  Elle nodded. "We're the bait."

  Gavril stepped up and grimly looked at Elle. "Peri wants us to distract the witch until the wolves can make it to us."

  "Exactly."

  "Why did she let the imbeciles go in the first place?" Jacque grumbled.

  "Because Peri knows when to say wh
en. Vasile's power was rolling through the house, threatening to bring it in on their heads, Fane was threatening Peri, and Decebel was threatening to eat every Fae that crossed his path from then on."

  Jen gasped. "No he didn't!"

  Jacque rolled her eyes at the thought of Fane threatening the powerful Fae.

  Elle nodded. "When they found out you guys were under attack, that was their breaking point.” She shrugged. “Everyone has one."

  "Okay, what's the plan, Stan?" Jacque asked pointedly, trying to get everyone back on board.

  "Who's Stan?" Rachel, Gavril, Adam, and Elle all asked in unison.

  Jacque and Jen groaned.

  "We are so going to have to have a class on American sayings and slang," Jen muttered.

  Jacque tried again."What do we need to do?"

  "Right," Adam started. He pointed to the ground and suddenly a large pile of knives like the ones Elle had handed the girls appeared. "You guys will go out and let the witch get a lock on you. Take some knives. When her minions begin to attack we start our assault. Just think about where you want the knife to go and throw it. Try to hide behind the trees and stay out of their direct line of sight. Keep the animal between you and the trees so you can make it back to rearm yourselves. If she sends the birds, hold the knife up as the bird swoops in – any break in the skin will kill it. Got it?" He looked at them expectantly.

  Jen nodded and bumped fists with Jen. "I'm going straight up Rambo in here."

  Jacque grinned, she couldn't help getting into the fighting spirit when Jen was so eager. "Let's do this."

  Jacque and Jen grabbed several knives and headed out with Gavril and Rachel at their heels.

  The six stood about twenty feet in front of the opening to the small cave. Their eyes narrowed as they scanned the skies and the woods in front of them. Adam and Elle snuck off in opposite directions, seeming to melt into their surroundings, while Jen and Jacque took up fighting stances, which they'd learned in the self defense training during the Gathering. Gavril kept lifting his nose in the air, taking deep breaths and cocking his head to the side as if listening closely for something. Rachel stood straight and looked fearless with a knife in each hand.

  The trees and surroundings seem to grow eerily still as they waited, watching to see what Desdemona had up her sleeve. They still hadn't spoken her name out loud even though she already had power over them. None of them seemed to be willing to give her any more by speaking her name into the wind.

  Jen looked down. She felt the ground begin to tremble. The jarring emanating from the earth was moving up her legs and became so rough that her teeth nearly rattled in her mouth. She looked over at Jacque. "BAWBs?"

  Jacque shrugged. "Whatever it is, it can't be good."

  "Is anything that causes earthquakes ever good, Jac?"

  Before Jacque could answer, their heads whipped around as the sounds of crashing and cracking became audible. They watched bushes, low-hanging tree branches, and clumps of snow being tossed up as the BAWBs came barreling toward them.

  "DON'T HESITATE!" they heard Adam holler as they saw a flash of light. Then two of the boars were hit with what seemed to be a ball of flame. They crashed into the others, and several fell while they struggled around them, attempting to continue their charge.

  Without thinking, Jen picked out one of the BAWBs and threw a knife. Her eyes widened when the knife embedded itself in the boar's forehead, bringing the animal down in an instant. It slid on its side until its momentum finally stopped. That seemed to wake everyone else up from their shock. Gavril bellowed a loud snarl and phased into his wolf form, running headlong into the scourge. Rachel, like Jacque, had thrown her knives and was already running back to the cave to rearm.

  Jen grinned wickedly as she watched Jacque throw two knives back to back, then holler, "Score!" when two boars came crashing down.

  Jen realized that Elle and Adam were using their Fae magic instead of knives. That was where the balls of fire – which kept taking out boar after boar – were coming from. She couldn't help thinking that it would be so much easier to throw fire then having to keep running back and get more knives, but she wasn't going to complain under the circumstances.

  Jacque was coming back from her fourth trip for weapons when everything was still again.

  "Is that it?" Jacque asked as they all looked at the carnage before them. Burned and bloodied bodies of wild boars scattered the ground. Jen cringed when she saw Gavril in his wolf form, licking his muzzle.

  "That was a test," Elle answered as she stepped from the shadows of the forest.

  "More will come," Adam added.

  "Okay, no offense, but you guys are kind of creeping me out with the monotone, short responses," Jacque told them as she turned slowly in a circle, her eyes bouncing from the sky to the ground and back again.

  Adam walked over to the pile of knives, which had taken a dent from the battle. He held out his hand and muttered something under his breath and more knives appeared.

  Jacque shook her head and snorted. "I would be a cow if I could do that and conjure cupcakes up anytime I wanted to in mass quantities like that."

  Adam looked at her with his head cocked to the side. "Do cows like cupcakes?"

  Jacque rolled her eyes and let out a loud breath, waving him off. "Never mind, Legolas. I forget that my sarcasm and witty banter is wasted on your pointy ears."

  This time Adam was shaking his head, but he didn't have a chance to respond before the sky around them grew dark. The flapping of wings filled the air around them. The sky above them was pitch black, making whatever was flying invisible. As they all craned their necks back and narrowed their eyes, trying to pierce the darkness above them, Jen realized what it was they were hearing.

  "Bloody hell, those are bats!"

  The bats began dive-bombing the group. Gavril jumped into the air and snatched one in his jaws. He crushed it and spat it out, only to continue the process again. Adam and Elle were once again shooting fireballs and Rachel, Jen, and Jacque were holding their knife-wielding hands in the air, stabbing at anything that came their way. Wave after wave of the nocturnal creatures swarmed and dove at the group. Jen, Jacque, and Rachel had formed a back-to-back circle with each other so that none of them was left with a vulnerable side.

  Jen didn't know how long it had been since the first of the bats, but she was beginning to get really ticked off. The ground was growing black, covered with the bodies of dead bats – which they were killing just as quickly as they could. However, with every bat that fell another replaced it.

  "Is she breeding the damn things?" Jen yelled.

  "She can command them to come from all over." Rachel spoke over the flapping wings.

  "How long can this go on?" Jacque shouted over to Elle who, like Adam, had her back to a tree and was aiming her hands at the sky, sending flashes of light and balls of flame at the unrelenting bats.

  "Until we're weak enough for her to kill," Elle answered honestly.

  Chapter 27

  "Vasile, you cannot wait any longer," Peri told him firmly. "You must call the other packs; you must remind them of what happened during the werewolf wars. They have to remember why a witch cannot get her hands on a healer!"

  Vasile stood, staring into the dancing flames of the fire. He was still angry over Peri binding him and his wolves. Alina had kept him from doing anything stupid, but his wolf wanted to teach that Fae a lesson: you don't mess with an Alpha or what belongs to him. Alina had told him to look at the bigger picture and to get over himself. He'd snorted to himself and thought, not for the first or last time, that the American girls really were rubbing off on his mate.

  "So you think I should call on them?" he asked her.

  "You cannot defeat both Thad and Desdemona without their help."

  He looked up from the fire at Peri. The stern lines etched across her forever-young face seemed to be deeper today. She held his stare and he knew she wasn't challenging him – she was imploring him. />
  "This battle will happen on my terms, where I choose." Vasile had read the history of the wars and knew it would be a tactical error to let his enemy pick the battleground or time.

  "Then you had better ready your troops and begin getting your players into position." Peri held out a phone to him. Vasile took it from her and, without hesitating, began calling the Alphas from Hungary, Bulgaria, and Colorado as well. He brought them up to speed on all the happenings over the past four weeks and – with Peri barking in his ear – explained the possible outcomes if Desdemona and Thad weren't dealt with.

  After an hour long conference call with the three other Alphas, it was decided they would meet at the Tavern in three days' time. That would give Dillon and the members of his pack he would bring time to get there. From the Tavern they would make the final preparations and decisions on where to mount their attack.

  Vasile got in contact with Skender, who he had left in charge at the Tavern, and explained that the other packs would be arriving and that he needed to help Nicolae set up. A lot of wolves were about to descend on that small building.

  Sally stood, wearily looking out the second story window from the room she had been sharing with Cynthia and Crina. She watched as the snow fell and blanketed the landscape – which, despite knowing it wasn't – looked identical to to her world. She was tense and worried, wondering what was happening to her friends. She was hurt that they hadn't confided in her that they were leaving. For the first time in the history of their friendship, Sally felt left out, like she didn't fit, and it hurt. She wiped the tear away that escaped her eye.

  Suddenly strong arms came around her from behind and pulled her back against a firm, warm chest. She knew she should probably refuse his comfort – she was already going be nursing a broken heart when Costin lost interest in her – and she shouldn't encourage him, but she needed him. She turned in his arms and wrapped her own around his neck and laid her head against him. She listened to his heart beating and the slow, steady breath that made his chest rise and fall. Something in her reached out to him, craved him, and she was so tired of fighting it.