by Harry Nix
Alex felt the silver cleanse burst like fireworks, sticking to the specks of silver. For a brief moment he sensed the silver the planes were still carrying, packed in their hulls.
Then there was a lurch so sharp it was painful as every piece of silver for miles around pulled towards his position. The faint drone of engines began to scream as the silver within them was ripped out. The sound outside at first was like gentle rain. It soon turned to a downpour, and then there was a thud and Alex’s attention turned from the air to the direction of the mages’ camp
He’d made a mistake. His original spell, bloated and homemade, had attracted loose pieces of silver, but when Stephen had refined it, making it more pure and supposedly better, he’d altered something else that they hadn’t anticipated. It was attracting any silver it could find and down in the camp there were plenty of things with silver in them.
Alex could feel silver in laptop batteries working its way towards him. He caught the sensation of a mage screaming as the fillings in his teeth tore their way out, ripping through his cheek like a bullet. Parts of the generators bucked as the silver within desperately tried to make its way to Alex and he could hear a smashing sound as bearings within pushing out of alignment and destroyed the engine entirely.
The shelter began to shake as heavier pieces of silver landed on top of it. Alex became aware that pieces of silver were digging their way into the mountainside. They were trying to take the shortest possible path. Down at the camp was chaos as every piece of silver in the mages’ camp tried to tear itself from where it was. He could feel some of it moving but other pieces were stuck, mixed into an amalgam but doing their best to get to him.
“I need more, Alex,” April murmured.
He dragged his attention back to her and saw that his nature bar was completely empty. Trying to ignore the sensation of the tons of silver plummeting towards them, he attempted to reach out but there was already a thick coat of silver above them like a blockade and he couldn’t reach nature that way. He stretched his hand out to the mud and felt distant tree roots. Although he could pull on the nature it was only a trickle. He gave it to April anyway.
He tried to let some of the sex magic go but she pushed it back at him and shook her head. The best mana for this job was nature only. The shelter began to shake as more silver landed. It had clumped in the air and now was falling. Just as Alex was hoping that the dust had formed a hardened shield above the mat of plants that April was trying to grow, he sensed a huge amount of silver, falling at high speed.
Then it was like a bomb had gone off and the crushing darkness smashed him out of consciousness
21
Alex awoke to the smell of burning with a searing sensation down his legs and across his torso. He was buried in the mud, silver on every part of him burning its way through his flesh. He tried to move but he was trapped and he couldn’t open his eyes to see. He could feel a wet slurry of mud and silver pressed up against him. His connection to April and Juno was broken and he couldn’t tell whether they were alive or dead. Somehow, he knew it had only been a short while since the lump of silver had hit like a bomb. The spell had finished now and all the silver from miles around had been pulled to Alex. He knew that not all of it had made it, but also he could hear under the mud that there were no more planes flying above. They’d been torn out of the sky.
Alex opened his spell screen, which he could access with his eyes closed, and cast Know Thyself on instinct. His list of injuries was long. The worst one was silver poisoning at the top and throbbing in red. He immediately cast healing flame from one of the rings he wore, jamming his finger against his leg, then he cast purify as well. The pain reached an agonizing crescendo, and despite Alex expecting it was a bad idea, he drew on it, flooding the pain back into the purification spell, forcing the silver out of his flesh. The ring died, having used up its charges. Without missing a beat, Alex cast healing flame himself, charging it with pain, knowing it would produce a cold, black flame. He felt a jolt in his back. He realized he must have suffered an injury there he hadn’t noticed with the searing of his flesh.
As the silver boiled out of him, he tried to move again. He managed to get one leg free. The other was stuck, but that was only for someone willing not to break their leg to get out. So before he could give himself time to think about it, Alex shoved his other leg against the log and twisted, shattering his knee and down his shin before managing to pull his leg out. The healing flame immediately leaped down there, reconstructing bone and tendons, sealing up holes where silver was trying to make its way in.
As Alex moved, he realized he’d been in a small pocket of air, but now he’d slopped back into the mud. If he wasn’t careful, he might drown there. He thrashed around, trying to find solid purchase, and eventually caught a tree root and used it to haul himself up. His head broke free of the muck and he heard a shout from the werewolves nearby. He got his eyes open and saw that April and Juno were nearby on the edge of the silver-covered mud pit.
Jacob and Jeremiah had been pulling them out, both of them in hybrid form, bleeding profusely as the silver burnt into their bodies. There were other werewolves nearby, braving the silver, using the healing flames in their rings to help Jeremiah and Jacob.
Alex pulled himself out of the muck, the pieces of silver shooting away from his body. There was so damn much of it. As he got free, he saw that a chunk that must have come from a plane had smashed the log in two. He hauled his way through the mud over to Juno and April, who were both coughing and choking as Jeremiah and Jacob used the healing flames on them. They weren’t werewolves, so silver didn’t affect them, but they had both nearly drowned.
Despite the burning in his body, Alex pressed the healing flame against Jacob and then cast purify on him as well. The young werewolf was gritting his teeth, blood freely streaming down his shoulders and chest. The silver had eaten through to the muscle in spots, showing the tendons and veins beneath, including a deep hole in his neck that was down to the bone.
“Everyone back now,” Alex managed to say. He helped Jeremiah and Jacob haul April and Juno away from the silver. The rest of his pack backed up as well. Between purify and healing flame, Alex managed to get most of the silver out of Jacob, healing up the deep wounds. He then turned his attention to Jeremiah, who had finally toppled to the ground, his left foot little more than bone and skin, looking like it had been eaten away by acid.
As Juno and April spluttered their way to life, Alex used his magic to heal the worst injured of his pack around him. He didn’t need his connection to tell him what they’d been doing. They had dived into the silver, searching for his mates and him, burning themselves, willing to risk their lives to save them. Soon, Juno and April were up and breathing. Without missing a beat, they joined in, helping cast purification and healing spells.
As he finished healing the werewolves around him, they made sure to get away from the silver. Alex became aware of the pack spread out around the mages’ camp and what was now happening. He staggered over near a tree and looked down. He realized there were only a few lights still standing in the mages’ camp. It looked like a giant hand had grabbed the entire camp and pulled it a good six feet to the left, wrecking buildings and smashing generators. Alex had pulled every bit of silver, and some of it had destroyed their equipment, while some had remained in place.
The plan had been to attack at three, darting in and out, trying to lure mages away from the central camp, intending this to be a siege that would take all night and day, and another, stretching it out while they went through their food and water, but Alex saw that while he’d been incapacitated, Darius, Simak, and Wind had taken the initiative and had attacked from the other side. The battle was in full swing. Alex spotted a lumbering shape roaming the darkness, a golem of some type. He reached out, but he couldn’t sense anything. If it was werewolf blood, it was too far away for him to feel.
“New plan, everyone. Attack!” Alex called out. His pack roared in response. S
ome stayed in wolf form, while others were hybrid like Alex. As he was starting down the hill, Nia crashed into the side of him and then bit him on the arm, her fangs actually breaking the skin.
“That’s for nearly dying!” she yelled at him. But there was a wild grin in her voice. Alex felt Jacob join him, the young werewolf almost completely healed, and following behind was Jeremiah, his foot regrown and hurting, but not enough to stop him from entering the fight.
Alex cast haste on himself, a spell that he had originally thought was close to useless, and then gave an enormous leap, followed by the rest of his pack. They shot down the hill like a red tide of death, crashing into mages who were in utter disarray. Alex landed on the back of a mage who was a solid mountain of a man and there was a burst of a shield before it overloaded and the ring on the man’s hand shattered.
Alex went down with him and started slashing away, other rings activating as the mage struggled to get free of Alex. Alex got a few good blows in, weakening his shields before something hit him from the side. It felt like a train and Alex smashed through a building and out the other side, coming to land in an empty, back part of the camp where the fighting was sparse. He managed to get to his feet, just in time to see Wind emerging from the hole in the wall, stalking toward him.
“I challenge you,” the werewolf growled. Alex had managed to get to his feet and cast healing flame, feeling his ribs pop back into position and tendons stitching together.
“Fight the mages, you half-wit,” Alex growled. From behind Wind came more of his werewolves, at least ten of them, and Alex saw that some were carrying wands. For a moment, he almost laughed. The sight of it looked strange, these giant werewolves carrying wands like toothpicks between their claws.
“I’m not fighting a werewolf when there are mages to kill. We can have a challenge after this,” Alex growled. Alex saw there was no point in trying to negotiate with Wind. More importantly, he felt it too. The alpha’s mind was made up. He intended to kill Alex. With that sensation came another. It wasn’t just Wind who was affected. Of the ten werewolves behind him, seven were the same, feeling like hardened blocks of ice to Alex. The remaining three were doing as they were told, but he could feel their uncertainty, that they knew this betrayal was wrong and stupid. Alex looked around for any of his pack. With the attack, he’d been thrown far from them. Setting pride aside, he howled, hoping someone at least would hear.
“Coward,” Wind sneered. Alex reached out to the three werewolves, feeling the tenuous strands, but he couldn’t get a grip on it. They simply hadn’t been around him long enough. For a moment he regretted not going to meet Wind, not spending at least some time over there to strengthen this odd connection.
“I accept your challenge one-on-one,” Alex said. He used his claw to scratch a line in the dirt, a pointless symbol, but one that he hoped would at least mean he could fight Wind alone, and not have to fight the other, wand-carrying werewolves. Alex knew if they started firing, there was no way he’d be able to defeat them. He saw Wind grimace as though he was in pain. Then he shook his head before waving a claw.
Alex cast every shield he had all at once as he dived out of the way, trying to get behind a wrecked generator. Fireballs landed where he’d been standing and then followed him, gushing red as they burst against the ground. Part of a tent nearby caught flame. Alex backpedaled away from the generator, his flame shield helping protect him. He managed to get to his feet before diving straight through the window of one of the pre-fab buildings the mages had set up. He had to make some space so he could fight properly. Fireballs flew in through the window as Alex landed and then he realized there was only one door in this building, which appeared to be some kind of office.
He howled again and kicked the door open, casting haste once more and sprinting around the rear of the building as the werewolves pursued. As soon as he got around the rear of the building, he abruptly stopped and turned, slashing out with his claws just as a werewolf came around the corner. A shield flared and Alex recognized the magic. It was his. His own damn shield rings being used against him. He slashed again, then cast shock ball, shoving his palm against the werewolf’s torso. The flame shield ignited and then a regular shield, Alex getting a wash of heat. So Alex cast another shock ball, slashing with one claw and throwing it with the other. The werewolf thankfully was only wearing three rings and Alex managed to break through them, the shock ball finally getting through and shocking him into unconsciousness.
Knowing that what he was about to do could be incredibly stupid, considering the waste of time it might be, Alex ducked down and then crunched his jaws into the werewolf’s arm, digging into the bone. Then he cast purify on himself. The spell didn’t know where Alex ended and the werewolf started. He must have juiced him more than he thought, drawing unconsciously from pain, because a hole opened in the werewolf’s torso and black gunk spurted six feet up in the air like an oil geyser. It was the same shit that Jasper had had in his body, making his bones iron-hard. Connected through the bone and flesh, Alex felt it leaving the werewolf’s body. The second it was gone, he let go.
The werewolf was injured, a broken arm at the very least, but he’d survive. Alex barely got to his feet before two more werewolves emerged from the other side of the building, flinging fireballs at him. He took the first one straight in his chest, flame shield engaging then breaking apart. The second one missed him by a hair, crashing into the building behind. The pain in his chest was immense. The first werewolf’s wand was far stronger than the other, the fireball hotter. When his shield had broken, Alex burned.
He cast purify from where he was, hoping it would work, but it just bounced harmlessly off them. Whatever the black stuff was, it wasn’t going anywhere, not without Alex cutting them to the bone. His pause to cast purify allowed the two werewolves to fire their wands at him again. He took another hit on the shield, which then broke. A searing pain started in his right shoulder. The other one hit him in the legs, and he stumbled, falling in the dirt in front of them like a kid trying to skate for the first time. He rolled out of the way as one of them stomped a clawed foot at his head, casting shield as he went. He didn’t get there in time, catching a claw halfway down his face before the shield kicked in and pushed it away.
He did manage to get to his feet, though, and as more of Wind’s pack appeared, Alex sensed that some of his were near, too. He sprinted away from the werewolves and toward his pack, leaping onto the roof of a small building and toward one of the remaining lights. Jacob was fighting with one of the werewolves, viciously slashing into his torso, going head-to-head, his own shield flaring as the two werewolves fought like brutal machines. There were other pack members nearby who would come to his call. The fight was already beginning to turn.
“Don’t kill them!” Alex called out. If it was true that that black shit was able to control their minds, then Alex had to try to get it out of them if he could. Wind was an asshole of the highest order, but he didn’t deserve to die because some mage or vampire poisoned him.
Jacob broke through the shield of the werewolf he was fighting, and in the next swipe, took him to the ground, retracting his claws and punching the werewolf into unconsciousness. Alex dived across, grabbed his arm, and repeated his move, biting through the flesh, feeling the gush of hot blood in his mouth, and then casting purify on himself. The spell running through him went out through his teeth and into the bone, and as it pushed the black away the werewolf vomited black, splattering out onto the ground.
“Gross!” Jacob said before standing up and diving on another werewolf. There were no more fireballs at least, the werewolves having been disarmed, or having exhausted the charges. Alex saw one of his pack nearby, a woman. She was dead and staring at the sky, half her face burnt away. The rage almost overtook him. He managed to hold it back as they kept incapacitating werewolves. He managed to purify three of them, getting the black shit out of their bodies, but the others died. The battle was fast and brutal. It wasn’t alw
ays possible to hold them still. Jacob had to kill another werewolf, slashing his throat out. Alex saw in the dance of the fight that there was no other way.
Just as Alex was wondering whether Wind had run off in cowardice, the alpha werewolf appeared on top of a building. He dived down on Alex, whose shock shield flared and then broke. Alex smashed into the ground, feeling his ribs snap again. Wind was suddenly everywhere, claws and teeth kicking and biting and slashing. For a moment, Alex lost himself in it, desperately slashing back, chunks of flesh being carved away from both of them. Somehow, he managed to get on top of Wind, but then was kicked to the side. Alex landed and blinked, seeing his spell screen still active in front of him. He didn’t curse himself this time for forgetting the spell. Such was the frenetic nature of the battle. But he took the second before Wind stood up to cast shock shield again, charging it up with death, using every drop.
As Wind dove toward him, Alex launched in his direction, and they crashed together like two mountains. This time, the shock shield burst in an enormous blast of light, overwhelming the shields that Wind had, the last of his rings, Alex’s rings, burning out. Incredibly, the werewolf still wasn’t down. They started slashing away at each other, but then in the midst of it, Alex cast haste on himself, and then again, speeding up. He began to avoid Wind’s strikes as though the werewolf was moving in slow motion. With a final grunt, Alex broke one of his arms, and then the other, which almost exhausted him, feeling like he was bending metal bars.
Despite the fact that Wind was snapping at him, Alex dived forward, digging his teeth into Wind’s shoulder, just as Wind did the same. As soon as Alex’s teeth met bone, he cast purify. The spell bounced, hitting the black and shooting away. Alex cast it again, and heard a crunching in his neck as Wind’s teeth dug into his shoulder.
