kept a lookout. I pulled on my boots and clothes and tucked my pistol in the
back of my jeans.
Savannah was pacing back and forth, pretending not to watch me dress. I
crossed my arms. “Time to shift back.”
She planted her feet, arched her back, and growled. No!
Amal raised her eyebrows.
Apparently, Savannah in wolf form was just as obstinate as normal. I
stepped up and released some of my alpha presence. “We need to get moving.
Shift.”
She sank to her paws and whined.
I gripped her by the scruff and used my alpha power to force the
transformation.
She snarled, then began to thrash as her arms and legs lengthened, and the
fur withdrew into her skin. I looked away, but I didn’t let go.
Finally, the contortions stopped.
“Jaxson, if you don’t take your hands off of me this second, I’ll claw your
damn eyes out.”
Good ole Savannah, same as ever.
I released my grip and quickly moved to Amal’s side. Just feeling
Savannah’s bare skin beneath my hands had made me stiff, and the scent of
her sweat-soaked body was driving my mind wild with lust and desire.
“Don’t look,” she said. “I still need to change into my clothes.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
Lie.
I closed my eyes and tried to blot out the subtle sounds of lace sliding
along her skin. My breath quickened.
What the fuck was wrong with me? She wasn’t a wolf. Or at least she
wouldn’t be for long.
22
Savannah
“Damn it all. I’ve still got mud on me,” I spat. Though our surroundings
were beautiful, I glared at the vile valley.
Jaxson grunted unsympathetically. “Kahanov had a head start. We need
to catch up, so get moving.”
“I know. Unfortunately, unlike some people— Amal—I actually have to
slip into a bra and undies, and I’ve got clay in places I don’t want to talk
about.”
The air stilled, and Jaxson’s tension was palpable.
I yanked on my jeans and shirt, threw on my jacket, and grabbed the gun
from my travel bag. I cocked my hip out and held the pistol casually in a
screw you pose. “Okay. Let’s rock it.”
Jaxson crossed his arms and worked his jaw silently as he glared at me.
“Next time, if I tell you to shift, do it. It might mean your life.”
“It was the wolf! She’s a tyrant. She wouldn’t shift back.”
You’ve spent your whole life on two legs. It was my turn, the beast
muttered in my mind.
I felt a little bad. She’d been drunk with happiness…well, until the mud.
I tucked the gun in my belt and shoved the spare clips into my tight
pockets, then followed Jaxson and Amal through the cobblestone streets of
the tiny village. Ivy draped over the old stone buildings, and planters
brimmed with flowers. It was like the village had been lost to time.
According to Amal, the town had originally been built by the Etruscans,
who’d dug caves into the hard layer of volcanic tuff. Over the millennia, the
underlying clay had eroded away, leaving the plateau isolated in the middle
of the valley, and most of the population had moved away.
Only a few windows were lit, and we hugged the shadows. Jaxson was
quiet, but Amal moved like a ghost.
Our plan was simple: knock on the door, and if no one answered, sneak in
with the assumption that Kahanov was already inside.
The mage’s tower was impossible to miss. It soared above the town. Built
of ancient limestone blocks, it almost glowed in the moonlight.
Problematically, however, there wasn’t a door, just a brass knocker mounted
on the wall above a set of stairs.
Amal kept a wary eye on the dark, crooked street while we climbed the
steps. Jaxson casually slammed the knocker three times. No response.
After trying again, he ran his hand over the stone where a door should
have been. “I have a bad feeling about this.”
Amal nodded. “I think we need to assume the worst. Kahanov had a day’s
lead on us.”
“Okay, so let’s find an alternate entrance, seeing as there’s no door to
break down.”
Amal slipped her phone out and pulled up an aerial map. “The mage has
an isolated garden that protrudes over the cliff. We might be able to climb
down into it from some of the houses at the edge of the butte.”
Jaxson glanced up at the tiled roofs of the houses around us. “So, over the
top?”
“My favorite way.” Amal crouched and leapt. She soared into the air and
landed lightly on the roof two stories above.
I glared at Jaxson. “How the hell am I supposed to do that?”
He turned, and his eyes glinted with yellow light. “Try parkour.”
“Parkour?”
He ran three steps, leapt, and rebounded off the side of the adjacent
building. He landed silently and gracefully on the roof, and made it all look
impossibly easy. I’d seen him do similar moves when he’d hunted me down
the alley.
Noticing my hesitation, Jaxson suggested, “I can probably jump back
down and toss you up. You’re light.”
My blood boiled. I turned, ran three steps, and leapt with all my strength.
I soared into the air— waaay higher than I thought possible.
Oh, shit.
The side of the building came up faster than I’d anticipated, and I
ricocheted toward Jaxson with almost zero control. My chest slammed into
the gutter, and I squeaked as I slipped and slid back, catching myself with my
claws before I tumbled to the street below.
Jaxson was there in a second. He grabbed my jacket by the neck and
heaved me halfway before hauling me up by the back of my jeans.
I scrambled up the roof on my hands and knees.
Lights went on in the house below, and we climbed over the top and
ducked down. Someone started shouting in Italian.
“What are they saying?” I whispered.
Amal grinned. “That—and please excuse this, I’m only translating—that
the fat cats are fucking on the neighbor’s roof again.”
I put my hands over my face and leaned back. I was so not awesome.
“Come on,” Jaxson growled, and jumped up to the adjacent roof, a full
story above us.
I sighed, got to my feet, and followed with more success this time.
The house was perched at the edge of the cliff, and as soon as I looked
over the threshold of the roof, my stomach swam with vertigo.
The mage’s garden was a narrow strip of green far below, protruding
from the side of the plateau. Around the base of the tower, it expanded into
well-kept grounds, but on every side, there was a steep drop-off into the deep
valley.
A chilly breeze swept up from the mist-shrouded ground below, and my
skin prickled. “I’m not jumping down there.”
“Of course not. We’ll climb,” Jaxson said as Amal swung herself over the
side of the roof and dropped to a narrow wall at the cliff’s edge. Then she
climbed down.
So this is how my crazy friends and I die in Italy, I thought.
Jaxson dropped down on the wall and looked back up. “I’ll
climb down
beside you. Don’t worry, the rock here is porous, and there are plenty of
handholds.”
My palms suddenly felt like seaweed, and my stomach tumbled. But I
wasn’t going to let him seem me squirm.
“I can’t believe I’m going to do this.”
I forced my claws out, sank them into some cracks in the top of the stone
wall like Amal had done, and then levered myself over the edge.
It took ten heart-rending minutes to get down, and when my feet finally
hit the ground, I uttered a quiet prayer of thanks and vowed to never climb
anything ever again.
My fingers throbbed with pain, and I had to wrap my arms around myself
to stop them from trembling. “What now?”
“We look for a way in,” Amal whispered.
Tendrils of predawn mist wound around the garden. I could make out
ornamental trees and flower beds, and a little gazebo in the distance. A series
of busts were mounted on the low stone perimeter wall. I peeked over the
edge, and my stomach dropped with a fresh twinge of vertigo. It was just
darkness and mist below.
The garden was populated with statues of people in extravagant, lifelike
poses. While the sculptures near the portal had been fanciful and grotesque
monstrosities, these were absolute masterworks.
My eyes were drawn to a perfectly sculpted female warrior. She was
thrusting her spear forward with a surge of force and momentum that I could
almost feel. It was breathtaking.
Her target was a man mounted on another pedestal. He was naked and
recoiling in fear, one arm raised. I wondered what message the mage was
trying to convey.
We cautiously made our way through the misty garden toward the base of
the tower. There wasn’t a door there, either, but we found three caves in the
cliff opposite the gazebo.
“Entrance might be in there,” Jaxson whispered.
“Jax, I don’t like this.” Amal grabbed his arm, and a pang of entirely
unreasonable jealously shot through me.
She pointed to another statue. This one depicted a man in a trench coat
with arms thrusted forward as if casting a spell—I’d seen Casey strike a
similar pose many times.
“Look at the way his coat is flying. These are too realistic, Jax. And
modern.”
“Shit.” He spun, scanning the grounds.
I looked around. “What?”
He pulled me down behind the hedge, and Amal dropped beside us.
“Basilisk. Or one of the children of the Medusae. Probably lives in those
caves.”
“What the hell are those?” I whispered, worry coursing through me.
“The first is a giant lizard. The second are serpents. Both can turn you to
stone…like the statues around us,” Amal answered.
Oh, goddamn it.
We waited. My heart was pounding so loudly that I was sure the mage
could hear it all the way in his tower. But nothing stirred in the darkness.
Then a subtle scratching echoed from the cave. Jaxson tensed, and I held
my breath.
From out of the shadows, a dark shape emerged. A massive reptilian head
swung left and right. It flicked out its tongue, searching the garden for the
source of the sounds.
Us.
23
Jaxson
Shit.
I yanked Savannah down behind the ornamental hedge. “Whatever you
do, do not look at its eyes, or you’ll end up like the statues in the garden.”
Amal dropped beside us. “Stay quiet and crawl along the bushes.”
I glanced through the gap beneath the hedge.
The six-legged basilisk moved cautiously, testing the air with its tongue.
Every few seconds, it raised and lowered a frill along its back. It hadn’t
spotted us. That was something. I motioned for Savannah and Amal to start
moving along the hedge.
Something rustled, and I checked beneath the bush again.
The thing had moved twenty feet, and I’d barely heard it. It was now only
a few feet from where Amal and Savannah were still slowly crawling.
My mate. Protect her.
My pulse surged, and a wild madness consumed me. It was pure instinct,
driven by the mate bond. Fuck.
I shot forward like lighting and slammed my claws into the basilisk’s
back. It roared and thrashed as I tore away at its armored hide.
As long as I held on, it couldn’t look at me.
The beast reached the same conclusion and dropped onto its side to roll. I
thrust back before I was crushed and slammed into the side of the fountain.
Dirt and leaves exploded into the air as a massive reptilian claw swept the
bushes aside, and a roar shook my bones.
I rolled onto my back and looked up to see—
Nothing.
Utter darkness in all directions.
I wasn’t unconscious. My heart was pounding, and I could feel the damp,
dew-covered grass beneath my body. Had its gaze blinded me?
Fuck.
The ground shook softly, and the creature’s breath rasped a few feet from
where I lay, drowning me in an unbearable carrion stench. The thing sniffed,
and I felt a hot puff of air roll over my skin.
It was right there. How was I not dead? Was it blind as well?
The thing made a hissing noise, and I held my breath as I slowly and
soundlessly readjusted my feet to leap away.
Gunshots rang out to my right. The basilisk unleashed a deafening roar,
and my eardrum burned in pain. Then something swept within inches of my
body as the beast charged away.
Suddenly, a hand grabbed my arm.
“Come on!” Savannah whispered.
“What the fuck’s going on?” I couldn’t see a thing.
She pulled me forward, and we started running. “This is my shadow
magic. I can see. Follow me.”
A blood-curdling roar sounded from twenty or thirty feet away.
“Hold on.” Savannah skidded to a stop. “Amal, come to my voice.”
“What’s going on?” Amal whispered from the darkness.
“We’re wrapped in shadows. It can’t see us, and we can’t see it. Nobody
gets turned to stone.”
“Brilliant, but—”
“Amal, take Jaxson’s hand and follow me.” Amal took one of my hands
in the darkness, Savannah the other, and we moved through the garden.
Our feet crunched over a strip of gravel, and then we were pounding over
grass again.
Suddenly a sea of stars and silhouettes of trees appeared. I stumbled out
of the wall of darkness and to a halt just in time to avoid tumbling over the
precipice and into the misty abyss.
Amal and Savannah were wide-eyed beside me. We needed a distraction
to throw the monster off our scent.
I grabbed one of the stone busts along the wall and heaved. The marble
head spun end over end into the darkness, and the sound of a heavy thud and
rustling bushes echoed upward. The basilisk roared from behind us, and the
deafening sounds of its footfalls rose as it scrambled over the edge of the
cliff, scaling its way down.
Fuck, that was too close.
I nodded at Savannah and Amal and quietly moved forward along the
wall toward the gazebo and the caves in the cliff.
A
moment longer, I searched the entrances of the three caves for a clue.
Pale light emanated from a pool in one, and steam rose off the water. Idyllic
in any other circumstance.
Amal pointed to the middle cave. “A way in.”
There was a thin seam of light. Before I could respond, an angry bellow
erupted from the darkness behind us.
Savannah spun around. “The basilisk. Go, go, go.”
We charged into the cave. The light was emanating from a cracked door. I
shoved both women through, then slammed the door behind me.
We found ourselves in a rough-hewn storage cave lit by dangling Edison
bulbs. I pushed Savannah and Amal forward and around a corner just as the
door exploded off its hinges, and shrapnel slammed me into the wall.
Savannah gripped my arm and hauled me out of danger as the darkness of
her magic filled in behind me.
We scrambled up a narrow set of worn stairs cut from the rock. The walls
shook, and the stench of carrion breath washed over us, trailed by the sound
of claws scrabbling against the stone.
“It sounds stuck,” Savannah said as we wound up the stairs and emerged
in a long cave that served as a wine cellar. Relentless scratching and grunting
echoed up the stairwell, but it didn’t draw any closer. The basilisk was
wedged. For now.
Savannah bent forward and braced her hands on her knees. “Thank God
the stairs down there are narrow. I really hope there’s a way out the front
door.”
To my surprise, her scent wasn’t fear, but rather elation—the thrill of the
chase. I inhaled deeply, delighting in her. “Nice move with the shadows. You
saved my ass.”
“It’s a nice ass. Where the hell are we?” she asked, breast heaving. I had
to tear my eyes away from the sheen of sweat that glistened hypnotically on
her chest.
Amal traced the thousands of gouges that covered the stone wall. “In
some old, hand-cut Etruscan caves. A lot of the buildings here use them for
storage. Speaking of which…”
She pulled a silver case from her pack and clipped it on her belt, then
passed one to Savannah. “This is a potion bomb cartridge. Just flip the lid to
pull one out. They’re labeled – firebomb, shockbomb, and stunner. I should
have passed it out earlier.”
“Yeesss,” Savannah said. “I’ve heard of those.”
Potion bombs were unstable, designed to break on impact, and they didn’t
Untamed Fate (Magic Side: Wolf Bound Book 2) Page 17
