I let out a slow breath because that had been my first inclination. I just didn’t want to return to find her dead. No. She’d be safer with me and I wasn’t worried about emotional trauma since she had an empty place. It meant she’d been trained by Sheev. Nothing I could do would be worse than what he’d have already done.
“We’ll have to move fast. Stay close.” I moved to the door and looked outside. Everywhere I looked, mages were locked in battle with werewolves, but there weren’t nearly as many of the shifters as I’d expected. Sure, my past experiences with werewolves led me to believe they were usually good for five-to-one odds against the average mage, but this seemed like way too small of a force to siege Atlantis. So why so few?
Were these just the most pissed off werewolves? The ones most angry, and most likely to come just to inflict pain and carnage? I sure hoped not because that meant they had nothing to lose, and trying to kill indestructible hellbeasts was hard enough when they cared about surviving.
“Catch,” Madisyn called, and as I glanced at her, she threw me what looked like a skateboard sans wheels.
“Is this what I think it is?” I asked, catching the pink board and looking it over. It was way lighter than I’d expected.
“You said you wanted to move fast,” Madisyn said, dropping her own board to the ground next to me. “There’s nothing faster than a hover board. Well, as long as you avoid water.”
With that, her face scrunched up in concentration as she stepped onto the board. An eye-blink later, the board lifted from the ground.
“I’ve always wanted to try one of these, but I’m surprised you even know what they are when you thought Donkey Kong was old,” I said, half in awe as I did the same. The board lifted beneath my feet, and a smile crossed my lips as I surged out the door, lightsaber in hand.
“Gordon likes them a lot. He always makes me watch old movies with him,” Madisyn shrugged as she spoke. “This one is actually his board. I gave you mine because it’s a bit faster.”
“Thanks,” I said, partially wanting to give it to her in case she needed to escape, but that wasn’t the right way to think. No. She wouldn’t need to escape because I would protect her. “Come on McFly!”
My crimson blade sprang to life as I darted straight toward a werewolf with little Miss Madisyn in tow and slashed at the creature on my way by. The burning blade caught him between the shoulders, ripping a path of molten fire across his flesh. He howled in fury as he stumbled forward into a stone golem’s rock-hard fists. It wouldn’t be enough to put the werewolf down, but it damned sure wouldn’t help.
I didn’t stop to look at the aftermath, nor at the mage controlling the monstrous golem as I raced forward toward the hospital. If that’s where Justin was, I had to get there. Only, I didn’t really know the way there, and I could already feel the drain from both the hover board and the lightsaber. The only reason I hadn’t already flopped over was because it was way easier to use my powers inside Atlantis. I wasn’t sure why, but I was certainly happy to find that out right about now.
“Where is the hospital?” I called, glancing over my shoulder at Madisyn. She followed behind me, her gloved hands clenched into fists as she concentrated on following me.
“Cut to the alley on the left,” she said as we came upon a group of three more werewolves pushing back two more mages. I ground my teeth together as I tried to decide whether or not I wanted to follow her advice and go down the alley or help them.
Most of me wanted to go straight to Justin, but as my eyes fell upon the tiny boy huddled behind the older man and woman, I realized what was going on. That boy was about to become an orphan, and let me just say, that’s all sorts of fucked up, and not just because you don’t get to be Batman.
As I watched the werewolves advance, I knew I could ignore them and go along my way because my humanity switch was flipped. Still, I could feel the intrinsic need to help press up against that switch, telling me it was wrong to ignore their plight. It warned me of the hell I’d pay when I eventually flipped the switch back.
“Damn,” I muttered, flipping my switch back. A rush of emotions hit me all at once, but none were as pressing as the need to save that mage family. Power roiled around me as I swung my hover board to the right and zipped through the air toward them.
One of the wolves turned toward me as I sprang from the hover board and crashed knees first into his chest. My momentum knocked him to the ground, and we hit hard enough for my teeth to clack together, but I ignored the pain surging down my legs and drove my lightsaber down into its chest before ripping it sideways.
The werewolf screamed in pain, drawing the attention of the other two wolves as I hopped to my feet.
The man, a guy dressed in jeans and a black tuxedo T-shirt, took advantage of their distraction to mumble something in Latin as he threw out his hand. Instantly, the tree behind the wolves tore itself from the ground and slammed into the left wolf like a runaway truck.
As the tree turned to swing its branches at the right wolf, the creature leapt at me. I took a quick step backward, shifted my weight and swung for the fences. My lightsaber cut through the leaping werewolf, slicing it neatly in half moments before it slammed into me. I crashed onto the grass, the blade slipping from my hand as it clawed toward me, ignoring the fact that it had been cut in half as it dragged itself across the asphalt.
I’d known werewolves could put themselves back together, but usually there was a limit. I hadn’t known they could heal that kind of damage.
Already I could see tendrils of flesh rippling outward from the cauterized ends of its torso, and I knew it would put itself back together in a moment. Worse, the one I’d stabbed was already back up and closing in on me.
“Tony Hawk!” Madisyn cried, right before her hover board slammed into the Darth Mauled werewolf’s head, and sent him spinning to the ground. She landed lightly on the grass, and as I turned to look at her, the werewolf I’d cut open earlier grabbed me by the throat.
“You’ll pay for that, Annie!” he snarled, claws digging into my throat before he flung me like a ragdoll. I hit the ground beside the animated tree, little stars flashing across my vision as the wolf pulled itself upright and darted toward me.
“Annie, get to the others,” Madisyn called, looking at me as she stepped between me and the newly whole wolf.
“I can’t just leave you here!” I cried, getting to my feet. My lightsaber was too far away to get it before the wolf attacked. Damn!
“Yes, you can!” Madisyn said, a smile creasing her lips as the other werewolf I’d cut in half pulled itself together and got to its feet. “This is the moment I’ve been training for.”
Behind them, I could see the mother running with her boy in her arms while the father had that vacant far off stare that told me he was still controlling his personal Ent.
“No!” I cried, taking a step forward, and as I did, the werewolves got to their feet and glared at Madisyn.
“Go, Annie. I’ve got this,” Madisyn said, a grin spreading across her face as power whipped around her like a tornado.
Before I could reply, she reached into her pocket and pulled out what looked like playing cards. Green animator power spilled over the cards as she flung one of them into the space between the two werewolves.
“Behold, the mighty Blue Eyes White Dragon!” As she said the words, a torrent of white electricity erupted from the card, leaping into the air and coalescing into a massive white dragon. It snarled, ripping itself free of the card and leapt into the air. Its huge wings beat the air with enough force to knock the werewolves back.
“Holy mother of…” Confusion filled me as I watched Madisyn point at one of the fallen werewolves. I’d never seen anyone animate creatures from a card, let alone seen anything like this. The power she could command, even with the added benefit of being in Atlantis, had to be incredible. Even if I could have summoned a fucking dragon from a card, it’d have sputtered out almost instantly.
“What
’s the matter, werewolves?” Madisyn asked, mockery filling her voice as she danced from one foot to the other in excited glee. “Never seen Yu-Gi-Oh! before?” Her grin widened. “Tough luck! Prepare to face the power of my Blue Eyes! Go White Lightning attack!”
The dragon screamed and the windows in the shops behind me shattered as it threw its head back. White electricity arced around its mouth as it flung its maw forward at the two werewolves. Lightning the color of freshly driven snow erupted from its jaws and slammed into them. Their bodies twitched and convulsed as a bazillion volts coursed through their bodies.
The smell of burning hair filled my nose as howls of pain exploded from their muzzles. Then silver fire rippled from the wounds, which made no sense since only silver should do that, but at the same time, I was in totally uncharted territory.
“How the hell did you manage that?” I asked as her dragon finished off both wolves with less effort than it had taken for me to beat her at Smash Bros.
“I pretty much only train with cards. It’s my thing.” Her lips quirked into a grin as the dragon landed beside her and nuzzled her outstretched hand like a pretentious cat. “Now go. I have some more cards in my deck, and I want the werewolves to see me coming.”
With that, she sprinted off toward the last of the three wolves like a meat grinder dressed in Chucks and an X-men T-shirt, and as she did, I tried to ignore the fact that an eight-year-old girl had just killed two grown ass werewolves like it was nothing. Even if Gordon hadn’t slaughtered a metric ton of them and caused this attack, it was no wonder they hated animators. Fictional objects were, by their nature, OP as fuck after all.
I know, this is where you tell me I’m a horrible person because I decided to just let her do her thing. In my defense as I watched her dragon rip the third wolf limb from bloody limb, I suddenly wasn’t worried about having to save her. No, I was worried about who would save the wolves from her since unlike me, she didn’t have her humanity switch back on.
That was the problem when you turned it off. You could turn out like Gordon and do something insane, and even though I was sure we’d bonded, it wouldn’t take much for her cold, unfeeling lizard brain to see me as a threat if I tried to stop her.
5
I’d like to say I made it all the way to the medical center before I got jumped again, but unfortunately, Murphy was having a field day with me. It wasn’t enough for the werewolves to be attacking the last bastion of mages in the world. No, of course they had to be coming after me, personally. I mean, I guess I sort of understood where they were coming from, but come on! I’d tried to save them!
Okay, they didn’t necessarily know that, but still. They were killing people indiscriminately, which okay, was what Gordon had done too, but fuck it just needed to stop or everyone was going to wind up dead or broken beyond all repair.
That was why I’d tried to stop Gordon’s ritual. Not because of Justin, but because trying to stop the murder of so many people seemed like the right thing to do. Now through, with the werewolves chasing after me, I almost wished my brother had been more thorough because then all these mages wouldn’t have died as well.
When I saw him I was going to let him know that the next time he kicked a fraking hornet’s nest, he’d better damned well kill all the hornets. Or, you know what, just don’t go on a holy war against the top of the food chain.
I put on an extra surge of speed, pushing more magic into the hover board and trying to put more distance between me and the two werewolves chasing after me. A quick glance over my shoulder told me they were getting closer with each passing second, even with my increased speed. A snarl of determination tore from my lips as I veered hard, avoiding the side of a building as I spun into a ninety degree turn and shot across the street.
One of the werewolves tried to mimic my maneuver but wound up crashing through the glass front of the building, while the other nimbly leapt up onto the side of the building and kicked off of it like a professional gymnast, or Spider-man, but let’s be real here. He was way less cool than Spidey.
As he hit the ground hard and reached out for me, I grabbed onto the back end of a passing jeep. The mage in the back spun around, and as he did, he saw the werewolf racing after us. A million thoughts seemed to race through his head, and I was pretty sure he was debating whether or not he should help me. Decency must have won out because as a grimace creased his chapped lips, he whipped a hand outward at the wolf.
Metal streetlights tore from the street and flew at the werewolf, slamming into it and knocking it away. Only that wouldn’t keep it down, at least, not for long. As strain filled the mage’s face, the poles began to bend, wrapping around the werewolf.
“If you have silver, use it,” I said, and he nodded toward me moments before he shut his eyes. Magic thrummed around us as I hung onto the Jeep, glad the hover board could keep me moving and didn’t require a lot of magic, otherwise I’d have been hoofing it a while ago.
A howl erupted from behind me, followed by the shriek of wrenching steel right before the Jeep slammed on its brakes, jolting me forward into the rear bumper. My chest hit the steel hard enough to knock the breath out of me as the metal mage lost his balance and fell off the side of the Jeep and onto the street. I rolled off the bumper and lay on the ground trying to remember how to breathe as gunfire erupted from the front of the Jeep.
The sound of explosions filled my ears and splashes of color like a fireworks spectacular leapt into the air as the werewolf who’d been chasing me threw off the last of the metal and sprang at me. It landed on top of my chest with both feet, and I felt the bones in my chest nearly give way. They weren’t broken because trust me, you never forget what that feels like, but it hurt nearly that bad.
Air whooshed out of me and little spots of color shot past my eyes as the werewolf stepped off of me and reached down, grabbing me by the throat. He lifted me into the air and howled in an octave I hadn’t heard before. Was it some kind of signal? The sound shattered my hearing as he threw me over his shoulder and turned to sprint off and take me to Alabaster.
“Put her down,” the metal mage growled. He was on his hands and knees with one hand outstretched toward the werewolf. His teeth were clenched and blood dripped from a cut above his eyes, but thankfully his black off-roading leathers looked like they’d taken the brunt of the damage from his fall.
“Not going to happen little mage,” the werewolf said, readying to leap, only as it did, the entire Jeep lurched, sliding sideways across the ground for a split second before going airborne and smashing into the wolf like a two-ton baseball bat.
I was thrown backward along with the wolf, only before I could hit the ground, I was jerked violently sideways by the metal zippers on my sweatshirt and pants. My body shrieked in pain as the Jeep spun in midair and came down on the spot I’d just been sharing with the wolf. Only instead of getting both of us, it missed me completely and pinned the werewolf to the ground with a horrible squelch.
“Gotcha!” the metal mage called, catching me before I could hit the cement. The sound of gunfire still filled the air, and as I tried to shake the cobwebs from my head, the metal mage wrapped one hand around my waist and leaned in close to my ear. “Animator?”
“Yeah,” I slurred, grabbing onto his arms for support because the ground was going topsy turvey beneath my feet.
“Got any silver?” he asked, and I nearly asked him why because I was so out of it.
“Yeah,” I said, offering him the dagger from beneath my sleeve. I was reluctant to do so because my lightsaber hadn’t been nearly as effective, but I wasn’t sure I was up to fighting hand to hand either.
“Do your thing,” he said, holding the blade out as I concentrated on the knife. Stars shot past my eyes as my magic surged into the blade and turned it from a simple metal knife into a silver blade straight out of any werewolf book where silver was lethal to the creatures. Yay animator powers!
“It’s good!” I cried as the werewolf threw the jeep of
f of him like it was made of Styrofoam.
“Good,” he said, and the moment the words left his lips, the blade shattered into a million pieces of shrapnel that exploded out around us like a swarm of stinging bees. It hit the werewolf in the center of the chest, ripping through him and reducing him to a mass of burning flesh. Before I could comment, the metal mage spun and directed the silver death cloud toward the front of the Jeep.
While I couldn’t see what was happening because the Jeep blocked my view, screams and the smell of burnt flesh filled the air for a second and then silence fell. It was so weird to hear after all the gunfire and explosions, that for a second, I didn’t realize what was going on.
In fact, I didn’t quite understand until he held my dagger back out to me, good as new. “Thanks, Animator.” He smiled at me and ran a hand through his hair, finger combing the dark locks out of his eyes. “Where you headed?”
“The hospital,” I said as he helped me to my feet while I pocketed the dagger, thankful it hadn’t been lost forever.
“Us too,” he said, staring at the ruined Jeep like it’d struck out with bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth. “At least we were... My wife is there. She was supposed to get out tomorrow, but…”
“We?” I asked as a sudden bout of sadness gripped me. His wife was in trouble at the hospital because of what my brother had done, and no matter how much I might try to see things from Gordon’s point of view, this was still on his hands. I gritted my teeth because in that moment, even if I wasn’t already going to the hospital, I’d have helped them get there. Besides, they’d saved me from the werewolf when they didn’t have to…
“Yeah, we,” said one of the two guys as they came around from the front of the Jeep. He was dressed like the metal mage in off-roading leathers, but I couldn’t have told you what kind of mage he was at first glance. He must have caused the explosions, but I wasn’t sure how.
Prince of Blood and Thunder: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Spell Slinger Chronicles Book 2) Page 4
