Pure Blooded

by Amanda Carlson

  I narrowed my gaze on Naomi and edged to the side to get a better look at her. One of her arms had been recently cut and a bone knife covered in blood lay next to her head. Her blood had been contained in a small bowl, made of what looked like ivory, which sat next to the knife.

  “I don’t care if you’ve consumed her blood.” I took a bold step forward. There wasn’t much here to destroy except for the altar. “You’re not going to live long enough to do anything with it, so it doesn’t matter.”

  The bokor tossed her head back as the loa laughed. The sound was manic.

  “You fear me.” Her gaze landed on mine, and her irises were like tides washing over a clear sea. “That makes me satisfied. I have been planning this for longer than humans have inhabited these lands. Look around you.” The bokor’s body awkwardly swept a bony arm outward, her robe riding up to expose no more than a skeleton covered in skin. The loa’s voice sounded hollow in her host’s throat the more she spoke. “This is my world. It’s a place where the Earth collides with the spirit realm at a perfect apex. In the beginning, I filled it with water and beasts to keep the humans out, but they have wound their way back in. So now I must cloak myself within these trees so none discover me. But I have been patient all these years, biding my time, knowing that soon I will be free again. Free to roam the Earth as I did once long ago.”

  I pretended to be devastated by the news that she wanted to rise again, which likely had something to do with me. My eyes were downcast as I drew slowly closer to Naomi, the spells still in each of my hands. This loa was clearly out of touch with reality. She must’ve lived in this swamp for hundreds of years, not doing much of anything. In order to keep her thinking I was interested while I figured out how to take apart the altar, I asked, “If you’ve been waiting all these years for me to set you free, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. I’m not here to grant your wish. In fact, just the opposite.” At the same time, I lobbed the spells down in front of me, shouting the Latin words in unison.

  They exploded in a cloud of black and green smoke as I dove for Naomi.

  I skidded across the altar, scooping her body along with me as I went. The iron shackles snapped on impact, and they came sailing along with us as I landed on the ground, cradling an unconscious Naomi in my arms.

  That’s when I saw him.

  I knew it wasn’t Danny, but my heart rose in my throat anyway. The body was prone in the soil in front of the altar, right where the bokor had stood. His hair was the same dark shade as Danny’s and he had a similar build. I knew he was one of my father’s wolves, and when his scent hit me full force I swallowed, biting back my human emotions.

  I had to stay focused. There was nothing I could do for him now.

  The rabid wolves strained at their leashes, snapping and gnashing their teeth. They must be tethered there because the bokor couldn’t control them when she was ridden. But it was only a guess.

  I tucked Naomi against the side of the altar, as far away as I could get from any of the wolves, and stuck my head up. Marcy had cast a spell right after I’d thrown mine. She said we’d get three minutes if we were lucky. I now had a protection spell five feet around me and if both spells had worked, the bokor was stunned. It didn’t bode well that she wasn’t standing where she’d been, but I had to trust she was down for at least a moment. The air was dense with smoke and I had to act now.

  Marcy wanted carnage, and I was going to give it to her.

  I leapt over the altar in my Lycan form, destroying and upturning everything I could get my hands on. My claws raked away huge hunks of mud and twigs, while my legs exploded the bowl and sent the knife and anything that touched me sailing. I swiped at candles lining the circle, slicing them in half, destroying more bowls that had been placed on a small table with my fists. As the smoke from the spell began to clear, a laugh swept by my ear. You think I’m a child who can be felled so easily by a simple spell? Think again. The loa crashed into my stomach, sending me hurtling backward in the air.

  I gasped as I hit the ground. “You were forced out of your host. I take that as a win.” I’d landed within a hairsbreadth of a wolf, and without hesitation I drew my knife and plunged it into its brain.

  A scream pierced the air.

  My head shot up and I spotted Marcy standing over the bokor on the other side of the circle. I leapt up and ran toward them. “What happened?” I asked. “Why is she down?”

  “She’s weak. The loa took all her strength. But she’s trying to access her wolves. She must have connected to one of them right as you killed it.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Then we need to keep our advantage going. Your spells worked like champs. They forced the loa out and weakened the bokor. That’s more than I’d hoped for.” I turned, glancing at the remaining wolves. There were some who were still rabid and uncontrolled, straining their leashes like they were trying to get out of their skin to get to us. But others had calmed and seemed to be assessing me with intent.

  The bokor was grappling for control but was too weak to take over all their minds. I bolted toward the wolves I knew she was puppeteering, striking them down quickly.

  She shouted and writhed on the ground in obvious pain.

  Marcy called, “I’ll take the wolves on this side—”

  “No!” I yelled as Marcy flew backward, arms flailing. Her eyes were wide as her mouth gasped for air.

  Something had her by the throat.

  It had to be the loa. I dug my hand into the pouch as I ran, withdrawing another spell. I couldn’t remember what color did what, but I knew the word to use. This one was orange and I shouted, “Irrata!” as I threw it down on the ground.

  It exploded in a burst around us.

  The power of the spell shot me backward and I crashed into a totem pole, luckily not one with a wolf attached. I was back at Marcy’s side in an instant, thick orange smoke lingering in the air. She was rubbing her neck and coughing, still trying to catch her breath.

  “Did it work?” I asked. “What spell was that?” I reached down and held my arm out to her.

  She took it and I pulled her up. “It was a null,” she said. “And I think it worked better than expected.” She swished the fading orange cloud away with her hand. “I think I underestimated your blood, Wonder Wolf. Those spells are packing some serious power.” She blew her hair out of her eyes. “Honestly, they shouldn’t be working as well as they are against this kind of strength. That loa is fierce. Her magic is so strong, it crackles with energy.”

  “Maybe we should’ve brewed more?”

  She chuckled. “I did what I could. But we’re lucky—without these, we’d be fresh meat. Where’s Naomi?”

  “I tucked her behind the altar. Better question is where is the bokor?”

  Marcy glanced around. “I don’t know. She was right here on the ground a second ago.”

  I spun in a circle. The wolves had gone eerily quiet too.

  “Oh no,” Marcy whispered, tapping my shoulder.

  I slowly turned to where she was pointing. The bokor stood twenty feet from us, her remaining wolves surrounding her, calm and at the ready, with the strongest one at the forefront.

  Danny.

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  “Nooo!” I wailed, anguish tearing at my throat. “Please, no!” I tried to get to him, but Marcy held my waist firmly, keeping me rooted.

  “This may be an illusion,” she murmured close to my ear. “She’s playing with us. He can’t be dead from her usual methods. He’s supernatural, and he wasn’t in the circle before. She just called him in, likely because he’s not completely under her control yet.”

  Danny’s wolf was fierce.

  He stood shoulders above the other rabid wolves, but his brown coat was already coming off in patches, his muzzle dripping with yellowed saliva.

  “He is one of mine now,” the bokor said, her Haitian accent back. The cadence was oddly hypnotic. “And he will do my bidding as I ask it.”

  I straightened, my wolf
howling. I called out to Danny in my mind, and to my happiness, my Alpha connection was present. It wasn’t as strong as it had been before, but it was still there. “I bet he won’t.”

  “We shall see.” She grinned. “Go, my beast!” She set him loose and he launched himself at me without hesitation.

  I let him come.

  His front paws slammed into my shoulders and we both flew. My back crashed into the ground, and as we slid, I took my hands and wrapped them around his neck, fisting the fur tightly in my grasp. Once we stopped, he went for my throat, snarling and snapping. It took all my combined strength and magic to hold him just inches away from my face. But I was in my Lycan form, and I could hold him for as long as it took now that I had him. “Daniel Walker!” I shouted, infusing as much power as I could into my words. “Stop!”

  He faltered for a moment, his overly bright eyes dimming. But a moment later something ignited in them once again and he began to snarl. He smelled sickly, like my father had when he’d been cursed, but he wasn’t dead, so that was something.

  “Marcy!” I yelled. “Take the bokor down! She’s in his head.”

  Marcy charged the priestess, her fingers out front wiggling.

  “Danny.” I gritted my teeth as I turned us over, bracing my stomach and legs against his squirming torso, effectively pinning him. “You have to quit this! It’s me, Jessica! Your Alpha.” I threw power into his body, my breath hitching when I sensed the same mustard-yellow masses coating his insides that had infiltrated my father. The curse would kill him if we didn’t get it out, and once he was fully dead he would be in her control forever.

  I wasn’t about to let that happen.

  Marcy shouted, “Listen, you ancient witch for hire! I can play games too. How about this?”

  I couldn’t see what was happening, but the bokor shouted in pain in response to Marcy’s spell, and Danny’s eyes flickered. “Do more of that, Marcy,” I urged. “It’s working.”

  I told my wolf, When she hits the bokor again, we send our power into Danny’s body and try to force the rest of her control out. Her presence shouldn’t be too hard to detect. I hoped.

  Marcy incanted another spell as I pushed power into Danny, trying to shove out the spell or however she was controlling him.

  As I did it, Danny lost some of his will to fight me and relaxed. I tried to reason with him again. “It’s me, Danny,” I murmured in calm, soothing tones, praying I was getting through to him as I continued to force her out. The yellow masses pulsed but didn’t disappear. I tried to insert my power between them and his body, just like I had done with my father. “Listen, you have to help me out here. We need to cut this sorceress off. I know you’re still in there, and I’m not letting you go without a fight, but having you cooperate would be extremely helpful right now.”

  He cocked his head at me and I read his confusion, and then his eyes lit with the unnatural brightness once more and he began to snarl at me, lunging and snapping at my face.

  “Dammit,” I grumbled, holding him down with a forearm locked over his neck. “If you’re not going to do it for me, then you need to do it for Naomi.” He struggled beneath me, not heeding my words, growling and biting. “Danny! Do you hear me?” I got as close as I dared to his face. “Your mate needs you!” I sent more power into his body.

  This isn’t working. We’ll have to use magic to force her out, I told my wolf. I don’t know what it will do to him. I don’t want to blow him up, so we need to tread lightly.

  Transferring power was different than blasting something with magic. One acted like jumper cables on a battery and the other would tear through him like a hurricane. What I needed to do was find the sorceress’s signature—whatever she was using to control him. It was in there somewhere.

  I concentrated on the task as Marcy and the bokor went back and forth, spell for spell. My friend was holding her own and I was extremely proud of her. I slowly threaded magic into Danny’s body until I found something. There, I see it, I told my wolf. Those thin, almost transparent yellow lines connecting the masses together? We concentrate our magic on those places and destroy the connection. I prayed it would be enough as I sent a multicolored burst of magic into his body and aimed it directly at the yellow lines.

  Danny jumped like he’d been defibrillated, and the bokor let out a bloodcurdling scream. “You don’t like that, huh?” I called as I sent one more blast of concentrated magic into his system and all the lines snapped at once.

  Danny shook his huge wolfy head as his haze finally lifted. He glanced up at me and seemed to be surprised to find me over him. Then, without hesitation, he ran his huge tongue completely over my face. I chuckled. “I knew I hadn’t lost you yet.” I gave him a quick hug and eased off him, wiping the saliva away with the back of my arm.

  Danny rose on unsteady paws, staggering as one of his knees gave out. My magic hadn’t gotten rid of the masses. I had only broken her mind control over him. We had to get him out of this realm and to Ray as soon as possible. That was the only thing that could help him now. Danny made a move to lie down and shift back into human form.

  I shook my head. “Not yet,” I said. “Naomi needs your protection, and shifting right now is too risky in your condition. I didn’t just free you from her hold to have her snare you again.”

  At the mention of his mate’s name, he growled, pinning his ears back. He angled his muzzle in the air, and once he found her scent, he took off. I let him go.

  I stood, turning to where Marcy and the bokor were still circling each other. With surprise, I saw that the rest of the rabid wolves were lying on their sides. “How’d you do that?” I called as I moved toward them.

  “I figured out the spell she was using,” Marcy said triumphantly. “So I countered it with one of my own. It was a deceptively easy one. I almost missed it. It’s the kind of spell you learn in grade school.”

  “You know nothing,” the sorceress intoned in a flat voice. “My wolves are part of me. They have only gone to sleep but I will raise them shortly.”

  “They went to sleep because I kicked your spell to the curb.” Marcy had her fingers up, ready for the next round.

  I came up behind Marcy and addressed the bokor. “Are you the one who’s making these people into wolves? Or is it the loa?”

  The sorceress threw her head back and cackled, her multicolored robes flashing, her grimy, broken teeth exposed to full effect. “My magic is beyond your understanding, female wolf. But mine coupled with my darling Marinette’s—we are a force like nothing you’ve ever witnessed.”

  “So it’s true,” I said, trying not to be too stunned. “The loa is Marinette.” I glanced at Marcy. “You were right.”

  “Imagine that. I mean, by strict percentages, I’m bound to be correct at least half the time,” Marcy answered. “But I can tell you, I wish I had been wrong about this one.”

  Something whispered by my ear. Your time has come, it said. I have dreamed of this day.

  I swatted the air in front of my face. “Marinette,” I called. “I see you’ve finally recovered from the last black spell we gave you. Your henchman here is claiming you are both extremely powerful, but we drove you away fairly easily. You’re not looking too incredibly fierce to me now.”

  The bokor started to laugh and it sent the hairs on the back of my neck straight upward. I glanced at Marcy. Dammit, we were missing something big here. She shrugged and said, “I have no idea what’s going on, but I don’t like it either. Something’s off.”

  “You wanted me here, Marinette, so I’m here. Let’s finish this,” I called. “Or are you too weak?”

  Hot air wafted by my face, prickling my skin. I created you… now I will take back what’s mine.

  It took me a moment to process what was about to happen, but when I did, I shouted to Marcy, “She’s going to try and get—” All at once, dank air infiltrated every part of me, pouring through my nose, my ears, my eyes, pushing into me with relentless strength and energy.
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br />   She was inside me, devouring me in an instant. And I fell to my knees.

  I heard Marcy yell, “Grab a spell! Grab a spell!”

  Mindlessly I jammed my hand into the pouch and grabbed the last three spells. I drew them out, but instead of throwing them to the ground, I took one deep breath and smashed the bags against my body, saying all the words. The spells were crafted for me, with my blood, so I assumed they wouldn’t render me unconscious or do anything overly nefarious.

  There was a crushing noise as they all exploded, making my eardrums ring, but I managed to keep myself steady. Then suddenly the smoky, spell-filled air around me went totally still.

  I coughed and wiggled my fingers, swishing away the cloud of mingled aftereffects. I couldn’t feel the loa in my body. The air in front of me was muddy brown. “Marcy, what happened?” I called.

  She came up behind me. “Well, you successfully froze, stunned, and protected yourself against the loa. Can you feel her in the air? Was she doing what I thought she was doing?”

  “She was inside me. I don’t sense her right now, but that doesn’t mean anything.”

  “Wait,” Marcy said. “If you froze her with that spell, then we should try and do something more, and we only have a few minutes at best.”

  “What do you have in mind?” I glanced through the haze and spotted the bokor on the ground. “She looks asleep.” I raised my eyebrows at Marcy. “Or is she dead? That would be the better scenario.”

  “She’s asleep or stunned, or both. But that was all me. I hit her with another combo. I have no idea which one worked, or if they both did. But it doesn’t matter, we need to hurry and deal with the loa first. She’s the bigger fish we need to fry in this dead swamp.” Marcy waved her fingers in front of me and magic brushed by my face. It made a crinkling sound, like a potato chip bag being rustled, and the air around me started to pop and crackle.