Wolf Castle

by Heather Walker

  Callum didn’t know what to say. He followed Carson and the others outside. He froze in his tracks on the steps at the sight before his eyes. Thousands of the vampires mobbed the peninsula around Duart Castle. They poured out of the sea, the forest, the rocks themselves. Every inch of the island disgorged the creatures onto its surface, and all the vampires converged on the castle.

  Robbie and Jamie soared through the skies. They zoomed over the vampires’ heads and scorched them to smithereens with their fire, only to rocket skyward and bank for another pass.

  Down on the ground in front of the entrance steps, Elle bent over Hazel’s motionless body. She stroked Hazel’s forehead, but Hazel didn’t respond. The gleaming blue dragon stood between the women and the hordes of vampires moving in. Fergus bent his head and bellowed his ferocious challenge to his enemies. His eyes flashed, and he spat his fire in all directions.

  Callum broke out of his trance and rushed down the steps. He launched before he hit the ground. He spread his wings and streaked skyward to join his brothers. He cast his eye over the landscape in all directions, but he didn’t see Sadie anywhere. Was she in danger? Was she dead?

  He had no time to think about that. He spotted Arch, Christie, and Alec on the roof with their men. Vampires swarmed up the walls and climbed over the battlements. The demons fell out of the windows and through the doors. The castle’s very stones gave birth to more vampires than the defenders could ever defeat.

  The vampires backed the defenders into a corner of the roof. Every man on the battlements fought to his utmost just to stay alive, but it could never be enough. If Koto escaped, they were sunk.

  Callum started to stoop to fly to their aid when he happened to look around one more time. The vampires got within inches of Fergus. He could only mow them down so fast with his fiery breath. When he pointed his fire one direction, they rushed him from the sides. They clawed his flanks before he could turn around to face them.

  Callum veered. He had to save his brother. Fergus alone protected Elle and Hazel from the onslaught. If Fergus went down, the women would go next. If they lost Hazel, they might as well give up and die.

  Callum bent his wings to descend when he spied a flash of light. He glanced toward the forest and saw Sadie. She stood alone near the forest, and vampires swirled all around her. A loose ring of the things pressed in on her from all sides. She held her saber in both hands and spun first one way and then the other. She cut a perfect circle all around her to hold the things back.

  More and more of the vampires rushed to the scene. They trampled each other in their blind stampede to bring her down. Callum turned aside for the third time. He bent forward to descend when a ball of black fury launched out of nowhere. It landed in a flying maelstrom of claws and teeth. It cut a path through the vampires heading for Sadie.

  Callum would recognize that force of nature anywhere. The grey wolf ripped and slaughtered every vampire within reach. He didn’t make much of a dent, but he won Sadie a brief reprieve. He tore a path through the enemy to her side, and they faced the vampires together.

  Lachlan attacked the vampires in spitting, snarling rage. Sadie turned her back to him and cut the devils down faster, now that she didn’t have to keep wheeling to defend herself. Back to back, she and Lachlan blazed a path up the hill to the castle entrance.

  Callum retracted his wings. He knew what he had to do. He landed next to Fergus and turned his rage on the vampires. Between the two dragons, they laid waste the demon army until none of them dared come near the steps.

  Lachlan snatched a vampire by the throat. He wrenched his powerful neck sideways and cracked the vampire’s spine. He whipped the floppy body in wicked arcs from right to left to clear the remaining attackers from the field.

  Sadie ran to Elle’s side and set down her basket. She bent over Hazel and laid her cool hand over the welt on Hazel’s forehead. “Hazel! Can you hear me?”

  Hazel’s eyes fluttered open. “Fergus! He’s in danger!”

  “He’s okay now,” Sadie murmured. “Callum’s helping him. Come on. You have to get up. We need you.”

  Hazel groaned, but she suffered Sadie to help her into a sitting position. Sadie looked around and spotted the witch. Koto cowered behind a corner near the steps. She stole quick peeks at the three women before she ducked out of sight again.

  Sadie grabbed the witch by the collar and hauled her to Hazel’s side. “Get up, Hazel. There’s no time to lose. Show Koto how to set up the spell.”

  Callum listened to the voices behind his back. His heart raced in his chest. This was it. They got Hazel, Koto, and all the necessary goods in one place. Now he could only pray this worked.

  The vampires recovered from Callum’s arrival, and they closed in on him and Fergus in droves. Callum stepped sideways to cover more ground. He and Fergus darted their long necks one way and then the other to hold the vampires back.

  Out of nowhere, he felt something sharp puncture his hind leg. He whipped around in a shrieking fury, but the noise died on his lips. Vampires crawled all over the castle. They climbed out of the sea, scaled to the roof, overran the defenders on the battlements, and climbed down the walls on the other side. They came at the two dragons from behind, and two of them started to climb up Callum’s tail.

  He bellowed out loud. He spun around to confront the new threat, but too many vampires attacked from his front. Fergus faced the same problem. No matter which way they turned, the vampires overpowered them with sheer numbers.

  Callum couldn’t hear the women anymore. Koto huddled on the ground while Elle, Sadie, and Hazel messed around with the stuff in the basket. Callum couldn’t think. He blasted his fire in every direction. No matter where he shot it, he hit something while more vampires assaulted him from every other direction.

  Fergus screamed. Vampires clambered up his legs and mounted on his back. They sank their teeth into his scaly hide, but Callum couldn’t help him. He had his own problems. He couldn’t help the women, either, and the vampires broke down the dragons’ defense. In a matter of minutes, they would slaughter those four women and the game would be over.

  Callum cracked his tail through the air to flick the vampires off. At the same time, icy cold fingers touched his front left leg. Three vampires raked their claws into his skin to climb up his neck. They bit and scratched and scrambled all over him.

  As soon as Callum and Fergus started to go down, the vampires sensed their impending victory. They redoubled their efforts. At the same time, the dragons sensed their approaching downfall. Their strength flagged, and more vampires rushed in to drag them down.

  Callum screeched his desperate rage and terror to the heavens, but no one could help him now. All over the field, the vampires covered every person and dragon in sight. Jamie landed nearby to help him. In a heartbeat, the vampires rushed him and buried him under mountains of bodies.

  Callum didn’t see Robbie anywhere, but he suspected all four brothers dealt with the same problem. They could stay aloft, but they couldn’t defend the castle from up there. If Koto didn’t cast the spell soon, they couldn’t do a thing.

  Just when Callum started to give up, a blood-curdling screech blasted in his ear. A dozen wolves launched out of the woods onto the field. They slashed and marauded through the vampires. The biggest wolf, a grey one, galloped up to the castle steps. He took a flying leap and landed on Callum’s back.

  The wolf dug its claws into Callum’s hide and set to work on the vampires. It annihilated one demon after another and flung them off Callum’s back. The wolf worked his way up Callum’s back to his neck and cleared the vampires off in no time.

  The wolf pack ran in a circle around the embattled women. The dragons and the wolves worked together to drive the vampires back.

  Chapter 33

  Sadie fumbled with the Tarot cards and dropped half of them on the ground. Hazel cradled her head in her hand. “I don’t feel so good.”

  “That’s nothing compared to how you’ll f
eel if we don’t pull this off,” Elle muttered in her ear. “Don’t look up. Just get to work, and hurry.”

  Elle wrestled Koto into position. The witch stared at Hazel with huge saucer eyes. She didn’t respond to anything anybody said to her until Sadie grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. “Wake up, Koto. Pay attention. Hazel’s gonna tell you some magic words, and you have to repeat them. Understand? You have to say them, and you have to say them like you mean them. Got it? You have to put your heart into it, or we’re all dead.”

  Elle snorted. “Rob was right. That’s the only thing what will get her to do it.”

  Hazel poured the lavender water into a bowl and sprinkled the dried sage over the smoldering coals. “Will that work?” Sadie asked.

  “It’ll work as long as Koto uses her power to make the spell happen,” Hazel replied. “Everything depends on that.”

  Sadie rounded on Koto. The witch started to break out of her frozen stupefaction to understand what was going on. Hazel blew on the sage to set it alight. A thin wisp of fragrant smoke wafted into the air. Hazel murmured the words under her breath. “Mnistoh, mnylnin, ini dheflo llyatta lladdepas sefrimi viaphreen urlu…”

  “Don’t send them to Urlu,” Elle snapped.

  “Where should we send them?”

  Hazel thought about it for a moment. “How about Antarctica?”

  “Okay,” Elle replied. “That should take care of ’em.”

  Hazel chanted again. “Mnistoh, mnylnin, ini dheflo llyatta lladdepas sefrimi viaphreen Antarctica…You girls help me. Repeat the words. That will encourage Koto to say the words, too.”

  Elle and Sadie repeated the words. The memory of that fateful night came back to Sadie. This spell transported her here in the first place. Would it work again to save all their lives?

  Hazel turned to Koto. “Come on. Say the words, and put as much of your power into it as you can.”

  Koto jumped. Then she started chanting the incantation along with Elle and Sadie. “Mnistoh, mnylnin, ini dheflo llyatta lladdepas sefrimi viaphreen Antarctica…”

  Hazel glanced over her shoulder at the three dragons battling thousands of vampires. “You three keep going. I have to get out there and help the guys.”

  “Hey!” Elle cried. “You can’t leave! We need you helping us.”

  “I don’t count,” Hazel replied. “Only Koto matters, and you two can help her as well as I can. Just get her to keep repeating the incantation until it works. I gotta go before the guys go down.”

  In a flash, she was gone. She rocketed off the ground in a blinding flash of red. She shot across the field and let loose her jets of flame against the vampires. Robbie appeared out of the skies, and together, he and Hazel drove the vampires back.

  Sadie turned her attention on Koto. The woman relaxed when Hazel left. She stopped chanting. Sadie shouted in her face. “Keep going! Don’t stop! Don’t stop for anything. “Mnistoh, mnylnin, ini dheflo llyatta lladdepas sefrimi viaphreen Antarctica…”

  She bellowed the words in Koto’s face until the witch picked up the refrain once again. Sadie and Elle chanted for all they were worth. Sadie refused to look around. She couldn’t stand to see Callum and the others in danger. She had to concentrate, to get this witch to focus her power on the task at hand.

  Elle closed in. Together, she and Sadie blocked Koto’s view. They forced the woman to maintain eye contact with them while she kept repeating the same refrain. “Mnistoh, mnylnin, ini dheflo llyatta lladdepas sefrimi viaphreen Antarctica…”

  Sadie heard her voice rising to a shriek. Her throat ached, but she wouldn’t stop now. “Mnistoh, mnylnin, ini dheflo llyatta lladdepas sefrimi viaphreen Antarctica…”

  The incantation turned into a heartfelt prayer to anyone who might be listening. Please, God, let this work. Sadie closed her eyes, threw back her head, and raised her arms to the sky. She put her heart and soul into every word. “Mnistoh, mnylnin, ini dheflo llyatta lladdepas sefrimi viaphreen Antarctica…”

  Five clammy fingers seized her by the throat. They jerked her head back, and bloodsucking fangs pierced her neck. She screamed the words out before she gave up her life when, out of nowhere, a massive explosion hit her in the face.

  Her feet left the ground, and she flew backward. She landed on a body. The fingers still held her by the throat, but a gale-force wind hit her like a freight train. It tore her clothes and hair, and it ripped those fingers off her.

  Something thumped her hard. She barely got her eyes open in time to see a blinding white light blazing before her eyes. The vampires flew past her head and plunged into it. The vampire that bit her from behind tried to grab hold of her to steady itself, but the light caught hold of it and dragged it away.

  Koto stood a few feet away with her arms thrown above her head. She screamed over the noise, but the wind didn’t touch her. Her voice gave power to the portal drawing all those vampires into it.

  In the blink of an eye, all the vampires disappeared down the portal. The light winked out, and Sadie stared at the spot where Koto used to be. The old woman had vanished.

  The five dragons turned around to stare, but nothing remained to see. The wolves trotted to a standstill and blinked at the scene. Elle and Sadie exchanged glances. The silence didn’t fit with the cataclysm that just took place. No one could quite understand the fight was over.

  Jamie transformed first. He straightened his legs and sauntered up to the steps. “Weel, how do ye like that? It worked. I didnae think it would.”

  “I didn’t, either,” Sadie replied.

  Elle let out a shaky sigh. “It worked for now, you mean. They’ll come back eventually.”

  The big grey wolf loped forward. He stood up and changed into Lachlan. “Ye did it. Ye saved us.”

  “Koto saved us,” Sadie replied. “I wonder where she is now.”

  “She mun’ ha’e been one o’ ’em all alaing,” Jamie remarked. “That may be the reason she didnae like Faery folk so much.”

  “We’ll probably never know,” Sadie replied. “Either way, she’s gone and she won’t be coming back.”

  “I hate tae lose her,” Lachlan murmured. “She’s the ainly one as can help us against this thing when it does come back.”

  Robbie and Callum appeared. “Are ye lassies awright?”

  “We’re fine,” Elle replied. “It’s all over.”

  Across the field, Hazel helped Fergus to his feet. She hooked his arm over her shoulder to support him. His shirt hung in tatters, and an ugly gash seeped blood down his stomach.

  Sadie ran to his side. “Take him inside. We have to get the wound disinfected right away.”

  “He’ll be all right,” Hazel panted. “This one is all mine.”

  Sadie stood back and stared at her friend. Hazel had more power to heal a ghastly injury like this than all the hospitals in America. She showed no sign of worry at all that her husband was bleeding out in her arms.

  Callum took Fergus’s other arm, and he and Hazel helped Fergus inside. They laid him on a table in the dining room, and the friends gathered around to watch. Hazel peeled back the sodden rags covering Fergus’s wound. “It’s not as bad as I thought,” she murmured. “I can fix this in no time.”

  Fergus lunged off the table and screamed. “No!”

  She laid her hand on his shoulder. “Just lie still. I’ll have you fixed up, and then it won’t hurt so much.”

  “Not that!” he shrieked. “Me eyes! I cinnae stand it. Ye mun’ stop it now, lassie, afore it kills me.”

  Hazel gasped. “Your eyes!”

  Fergus screamed louder than ever. “God, make it stop! It’s killin’ me. I cinnae stop it.”

  “Fergus,” Hazel began.

  He grabbed her and yanked her down close to his face. “Stop it, lassie! For the love o’ heaven, make it stop.”

  Hazel shook her head and muttered under his breath. “It’s his sight. It’s gotten worse these last few weeks.”

  Fergus made another dive to
sit up. He caught hold of Lachlan, who happened to be standing nearest to him. “She’s under the sea! Ye mun’ find her. She’s under the sea.”

  “Who?” Lachlan asked.

  “The witch,” Fergus screeched.

  “Koto?” Hazel asked.

  “The woman,” Fergus screamed. “The woman ye’re lookin’ fer. She’s under the sea.”

  The friends exchanged glances. Lachlan frowned. “How can she be under the sea?”

  “I’m lookin’ at her as sure as ye’re standin’ ’ere,” Fergus bellowed. “I can see her plain as paint. She’s right there. Ye mun’ find her and bring her up.”

  “How could someone from our time go through a portal to under the sea?” Elle asked.

  “The vampires came from the sea,” Sadie pointed out. “Maybe the curse took her there and sent the vampires from there, too. Who knows?”

  “She’s right there,” Fergus screeched.

  “Where?” Lachlan asked.

  “Right off the Tower Hoose, below the big rock that looks like a rooster,” Fergus replied. “She’s waitin’ fer ye. Oh, God, lassie, make it stop. It hurts!”

  Hazel pushed Lachlan back. “This can’t go on. He’ll die.”

  “What are you going to do?” Sadie asked.

  Hazel didn’t answer. She laid her hand on Fergus’s forehead. A terrible stillness fell over her, and she fixed her brooding eyes on her husband’s face. Fergus convulsed a few more times. He kept screaming, but the sound gradually died away until he collapsed back on the table.

  He groaned in agony, and when he turned his face away, he broke down sobbing. Hazel ran her fingers through his hair. She petted his cheeks, and when she returned to examining the wound in his stomach, Sadie saw tears on her cheeks.

  Hazel sniffed. “It’s all over. He can’t see anymore.”

  The friends stared at her. No one made a sound. Hazel passed her hand over his wound, and the jagged flesh knit together until only a dried crust of blood remained.

  Sadie turned away. She couldn’t watch those two together. She couldn’t look in on their most devastating moment. She walked out of the room to the castle entrance. For a moment, she stared out at the empty field and the forests beyond. Then she closed her eyes and leaned her forehead against the door frame to block out the terrible images crowding into her mind.