by Harry Nix
“Creep as close as you can. I want you to find any weapons you can, wands, guns, grenades, knives, and murder as many mages as fast as you can. Do not stop until they’re all dead,” Alex said. He felt his command settling over Riley before the dead thing turned and crept away into the dark. The abomination inside him hated him furiously but was joyful at the thought of blood and death.
He was going to watch the results but then a werewolf he didn’t recognize came bounding up, shifting from wolf to hybrid so he could speak.
“Another pack has arrived, ten miles away. They’re staying on the other side of the slipway. All in wolf form, maybe two hundred of them. None of them are speaking but it’s clear there’s some kind of challenge,” he said.
Alex glanced in the direction the werewolf indicated. That way was where the wild packs were, the ones who attacked on sight. Alex supposed the howling had finally attracted their attention.
“Gather fifty werewolves and follow me,” Alex instructed. He shifted to wolf form to bound away into the darkness. He quickly found Jeremiah, who was working with Juno, looking over a small map using torches. Alex told them where he was going and left them to it.
As he made his way from mages’ camp he felt the werewolves gathering. Although the werewolf had spread the message, Alex could almost feel his own will exerting itself, the pack beginning to move as an extension of his own body. He even felt that some of them weren’t from his pack but were the Slipways fortress werewolves, some of them from Darius’s pack and three from Simak’s, but they were working together, running side by side.
They covered ten miles in the blink of an eye, streaking through the darkness. Soon they approached the line of the slipway. On the far side of it, Alex sensed werewolves. It wasn’t as clear as his connection to his own pack but he could tell there were far more than two hundred. Maybe even three hundred.
Alex immediately spotted the alpha who stood a good foot taller than any other wolf there. Like Alex he was pitch-black but was perhaps slightly older, his fur matted and muddy. Alex slowed and then shifted to hybrid form. The pull of it rippled out through the fifty werewolves around him and they all did the same.
From the darkness, he could hear low growls as though every werewolf there was challenging him. Alex walked forward until he came within shouting distance. Though seriously outnumbered, his werewolves had fireballs and shock balls and shields and also Alex himself. Still, he wasn’t here to fight werewolves.
The alpha werewolf emerged from the trees followed by a smaller group of ten, so Alex waved to his pack and did the same. The two groups approached each other warily in a small clearing that was scattered with small boulders and rocks. As Alex approached, he assessed the terrain. It wasn’t a terrible place to attack if they had to. The various boulders would slow some of the werewolves, but on the bad side of things, it would make escape difficult and his own werewolves wouldn’t be able to quickly get into the area.
Finally they came to a stop about ten feet apart, Alex looking over the alpha and the small group of werewolves behind him. They were all like him, black in color, their fur matted and dirty. He could smell them too.
After standing and waiting for a minute to see what would happen, Alex decided to take the initiative. He summoned a shock ball to his hand, using some of his natural mana. As it lit up the area, the snarls from across the way increased as well as those in the distance.
“I am Alex Lowe, the one and only werewolf mage. Ten miles behind us there are eight hundred or more mages, some Ignis, some Xavo, some Tradinium, setting up a camp so they can start their genocidal campaign against werewolves. The packs of Simak and Darius have joined me and soon we will attack and tear the meat from their bones. I invite you to join us so you may take your revenge on those that hurt you,” Alex said. Then he dropped the lightning bolt nearby in the dirt where it broke to pieces and harmlessly dissipated.
The growling modulated slightly. It felt like they’d shifted from deciding to tear him to pieces to perhaps considering what he said… and then tearing him to pieces.
Alex reached out with his senses. The strands were there, the werewolf power, but slippery. They were hostile to him and he didn’t think he had much chance of being able to grab it if a fight erupted. He waited for the alpha to speak, to shift, to do anything, but he simply stood there growling at Alex as though he was some giant, dumb, wild thing. Finally, he stepped forward and shifted to hybrid form, changing into a hulking giant who stood a good six inches taller than and probably had fifty pounds on him. The man had a shaggy, matted black beard. His hair was the same, half of it tangled and muddy and part of it turning to dreadlocks.
“Our land stay away,” the Alpha said, pointing to the land across the slipway. Alex resisted rolling his eyes. The Alpha was talking like a dumb caveman. For a moment he briefly wondered if staying in wolf form for long periods of time made it hard to adapt to human again.
“You don’t want to come with us to murder some mages? They’re just back there. In a few hours we’re going to launch our first attack,” Alex said. He could feel the faint strand of the alpha. It was like a thin line of cotton moving amongst a sea of it. He reached out and got a finger to it but then it slipped away. He couldn’t exert any will on this alpha.
“Our land,” the Alpha repeated, pointing across the road.
“Okay, that’s your land. We don’t want to go there. If you want to join us in about three hours, we’re starting the first attacks,” Alex said. He wasn’t quite sure the etiquette of walking away from such a meeting nor the wisdom of turning his back on such a hulking giant but he did it anyway. He turned around and headed back to his pack, shifting to wolf as he went. He glanced back when he felt a ripple, a pull on his blood and body as the alpha behind him shifted too.
Alex rejoined his pack and together they streaked off into the darkness back to the mages’ camp. Alex glanced back a few times and saw that they weren’t being followed. He had no idea whether his message had gotten through, whether the alpha could even understand English anymore. Maybe this was one of the reasons the wild packs attacked without talking first. They spent too long as wolves and lost the ability to think their way through things.
As they got close to the camp, Alex ordered some of the group to split off, to keep watch in that direction. He didn’t want to be ambushed by a wild pack pinching him between the werewolves and the mages. When Alex arrived back, enjoying the sound of the howling, he felt a chill run up his spine, like someone with cold fingers had touched him. He realized he could sense Wind and his pack. They had arrived but were separate from Darius and Simak. They weren’t howling but simply waiting in the darkness.
Alex had already met with Darius and Simak, both the alphas are reasonably friendly to him. He had no desire to meet with Wind now. The last time they had it had almost broken out into a fight, and besides, there were things to do. Alex crept up to his vantage point and looked out at the camp. Nia came slinking beside him, laying down on the leaf litter.
“That dead monster you sent went really well. Do you see one of the buildings is half down? Over there to the left,” she murmured. Alex shifted to hybrid and saw that one of the buildings had been smashed and there were a few dead bodies scattered about the place.
“It killed about fifteen mages before it got taken down, although I think we just added to their dead bodies because some of them are now on shovel duty,” Nia said, pointing. Alex saw there were more dead figures with glowing green eyes wielding shovels, a few dressed in mage robes.
He supposed that Xavo had been collecting dead bodies for weeks to use as workers. Most of them appeared to be normal people, although formally dressed in suits and ties, whatever that were buried in.
The majority of them were old but there was a scattering of younger dead among them, and Alex briefly wondered if Xavo had murdered to get stronger bodies to use.
It was passing one in the morning now. The plan was to keep up the howl unti
l around three before sending the first wave of attacks to draw the mages to one side. Then werewolves on the other side would dash in and out.
Alex was settling in to watch the camp and mull things over when he heard a faint drone on the edge of his hearing. He bolted to his feet when he realized what it was. A plane somewhere high above. He listened and soon realized it was more than one, maybe four or five journeying their way across the sky.
Planes could only mean one thing: silver being dropped.
“I need April,” he said to Nia who bolted off into the darkness. Alex called the nearest wolf over and began handing out instructions to spread the word that it was likely they were about to be silver bombed. Messengers went bolting off into the dark to make their way to Darius, Simak and Wind.
Once again Alex cursed the fact that he couldn’t yet enchant purify onto a ring. Between purify and healing flame, a silver bombardment’s negative effects were dramatically reduced.
He glanced down at the camp when he heard a faint cheer that quickly died away as a few mages went striding among the others, maintaining discipline. That definitely wasn’t good. If the mages were happy it meant something really bad was about to happen. Alex had anticipated they might use silver at some point, but with the limited time, they only had three of the silver cleanse crowbars charged up and ready to go. Two were on the side with Simak and Darius and one was near Alex, maybe half a mile away. Because their range was limited there simply weren’t enough to cover the land if they were bombarded with silver.
Alex watched the camp as he waited for April. The mages were gearing up, more appearing now, emerging from tents. He could see it playing out, the silver bombardment from high above and then the mages attacking, killing who they could before retreating. Alex looked up into the sky but although he could hear the planes he couldn’t see them.
Nia appeared in wolf form with April hanging onto her back, nearly falling off as she jerked to a stop.
“I need a storm, the biggest storm you can summon,” Alex told her.
April looked up at the sky. It was a warm night but there wasn’t a single cloud.
“I already checked. There’s hardly any moisture in this area. I can make a storm but I’m going to need some help,” she said
“Where’s Juno?” Alex asked. Nia huffed and then went sprinting off into the darkness. Alex looked up at the sky again. This far away from civilization there was no light pollution except for the mages’ camp below and the sky was awash with stars. He knew he wouldn’t see the silver till it landed on them.
A new idea crossed his mind. He touched April on the shoulder.
“What if you and Juno give me power and I cast the silver cleanse spell before the silver even gets here. If I can pull it out of the air and clump it in one spot that means it doesn’t land on any werewolves,” he said.
“Sure but it lands on you. That many planes, it could be tons of the stuff,” April said.
Alex looked down the hill. The mages were definitely getting ready for something, gathering in ranks. He had to make a decision. He could let the silver land. The werewolves would activate the three silver cleanse bars he’d set out and maybe clear away the silver.
Or instead of creating a storm he could use the power to try to pull the silver out of the air before it got there at all.
Nia came out of the dark with Juno bouncing on her back, but laughing like she was riding a bucking bronco. As she arrived Alex saw that she’d changed into a short dress but with combat boots. She slipped off Nia’s back, the dress riding up her hips showing that she wasn’t wearing any underwear. Juno caught his gaze and took her time adjusting her dress before walking over and lightly smacking him on the side of the face.
“Well, the dream team is here. What’s so important, oh important one?” Juno said.
Behind her Nia had shifted to hybrid form. “Witches,” she muttered.
“I’m going to cast a silver cleanse spell to try to pull the silver out of the air before it lands. I need your help,” Alex said. Juno looked up at the sky and then back at him.
“I guess I always wanted to be buried in tons of silver. Was either that or die in a terrible milk-related accident,” she said.
“We need that log with the space under it, it might shelter us somewhat,” April immediately said. It wasn’t far away but in the interest of speed Alex grabbed both his mates under his arms and ran through the darkness jumping logs. April was clinging to him on one side but Juno was laughing. From behind Nia followed.
Alex could vaguely sense the pack around him going to ground, finding logs and thick foliage to crouch under. He was sure the planes had begun dumping their loads of silver but it hadn’t hit the ground yet. Perhaps if they were lucky they’d used the silver dust which would take its time to reach the ground. They reached the muddy embankment and climbed it, Alex putting his mates down. Long ago a tree had fallen and then animals had dug out underneath. A water stream had been formed, washing out a hole below. There was a small gap on two sides, enough that they could squeeze down below it. It was by no means perfect, but was the best shelter they’d be able to get to in this area. Alex turned towards Nia when she touched him on the arm.
“Last chance to go with the storm idea,” she joked, giving a nervous laugh and glancing at the sky. Despite how quickly things had moved there was some kind of slow repair going on between them. They hadn’t really had the time to reconnect, to whisper their apologies, to renew. As with many fights between husband and wives, they knew they’d both done something wrong but it would take time to come back from it. Alex kissed Nia and felt the scrape of her claws down his back, gripping his fur. When they pulled apart she was panting and not from the exertion of running through the night.
“Find somewhere good to hide,” Alex said. Nia winked at him and then bolted off into the dark.
“Come on, we don’t have all night,” Juno called out. She and April were already under the log, down in the mud. Alex crouched down and then had to shift to human so he could fit through. Even so, it was a squeeze and he scraped himself as he went down, drawing blood. Soon he was under the log, crouched in the mud. He wasted no time sitting cross-legged in a small circle with April and Juno, holding hands. He brought up the silver cleansing spell, knowing that it would stretch about half a mile from where he was. That wasn’t enough so he had to juice it, double it, give it a good dose of power.
He brought the spell up and began pushing on it, compressing it onto itself. Although with Stephen’s help they’d compressed it, it was still a large spell and to Alex it felt like he was trying to push two cars together. It took not just magic, but mental effort as well, quite similar to the domination that he exerted over the dead.
Although he was holding hands with April and Juno, in his mind he was pushing with his hands, forcing the spells on top of each other. From one direction he could feel April, her nature magic flowing into him. On the other side was Juno. Her chaos was skipping up and down, and so the flow was uneven but still reasonably high. Alex used the streams of magic to help fold the silver cleanse spell and increase its power. It only took a few minutes and he managed to get it up to 10X. He knew he wouldn’t be able to take it any further. The spell would now stretch out to cover the surrounding area, across the mages’ camp and out the far side, covering miles of terrain. That meant it also went up as well in a giant dome fixed over Alex’s position.
He poured his own magic into it, choosing to use his natural mana first as that replenished on its own. All of the other bars of magic were full, including death as he’d drawn from the dead. Through the connection to his mates, he could feel their emotions. April was worried but brave; Juno was feeling reckless and crazed.
Alex finally hit the peak of the power, then, hoping he wasn’t about to be crushed to death, let the spell go. A shimmering light appeared in front of him, the same as it had before when he cast it at Julius’s. This time, however, it expanded rapidly, soon the size of a bea
ch ball and then they were swamped in light as it grew outside the confines of their small shelter. Alex got a brief sensation of a glow that went fifty feet up in the air, a giant dome lighting up the night like a second sun.
For a brief moment he cursed it, knowing that the mages below would know exactly where it had come from. If he was them he would direct his attack there. Then he felt the dome break apart, pieces of it flying upwards into the sky before bursting like fireworks. As it did Alex caught the sensation of the silver in the air. The closest of it, dropped from the first plane, was a mere twenty feet off the ground. High up in the atmosphere there were tons of it. The planes strewing the silver dust were attempting to make a fog of it to cover the land and fill the air, to make the werewolves breathe it and choke on their own blood.
As the spell broke into pieces seeking out individual pieces of silver, Alex understood two things at once. Yes, the spell would pull the silver out of the air and stop it from landing on the werewolves, but also there would be tons of it and it was going to land right where they were. Both April and Juno must have caught some sensation of his emotion.
“What’s wrong?” Juno said.
“There’s tons of silver and it’s coming right this way,” Alex said.
“I have a plan to protect us,” April said. She squeezed their hands and Alex saw her spell screen open. The spell she used to cast vines was one that Alex hadn’t been able to master yet due to its size. He saw it appear and then a few others—variations of growth spells that April used to build their gardens. Up above them, in the wet earth, vines sprouted and wove their way across the top of the log, beginning to form a thick mat.
