Legendary Beast

by Barbara J. Hancock

  “You have found me. Just as I knew you would. We’ve been waiting for you,” Vasilisa said. She stepped from the maw of a cave that had been revealed by a giant boulder rolling away from its opening. “You know how I like to use natural inaccessibility to aid my power. Welcome to the Arizona desert. It’s far removed from the places where Ether bleeds through into this world,” Vasilisa explained.

  “You took Trevor through the Ether before the marked Volkhvy could take him from you,” Madeline said. “You weren’t kidnapped. You escaped.”

  “There was no time to come for you. They were on us too soon. Aleksandr was more powerful than I had planned for. I never imagined, after the witchblood prince, that any witch would be foolish enough to absorb the Ether itself,” Vasilisa said. “Much less one of my Light Volkhvy. I should have known better than most that the Darkness calls to everyone in desperate times. And Aleksandr was desperate for power. He sensed an opening as we struggled to recover from all the discord my curse had caused.”

  But Madeline could only look at the squirming bundle in the queen’s arms. They were separated by half a dozen yards of rocky earth, but she could see the bundle was a baby—a wiggling baby. Little fists waved in the air, and pudgy feet kicked. Fists and feet that she remembered in spite of all she’d forgotten.

  “Trevor’s awake,” she whispered.

  Her sword slipped from her hands and fell onto the dusty earth.

  “You sought a hideaway where you could continue to wake him slowly,” Madeline said.

  “When I allowed Lev to find you, I allowed you to wake too soon. I’m to blame for your memory loss. I didn’t know what else to do to save my daughter from the white wolf. You interrupted his hunt for her,” Vasilisa said. The baby in her arms had captured a lock of her long silver-white hair. She allowed the following tugs without batting an eye. “I’m sorry. Even though I would do it again, I’m sorry.”

  “Anna is precious to you,” Madeline replied. “Just as Trevor is precious to me.” She wanted to rush forward, but she had no idea if Trevor was well enough to leave Vasilisa’s arms.

  A howl interrupted them. It rose long and loud from a supernatural throat that was raw from centuries of howling. The white wolf had come through the portal. As he entered, his cry shook rocks from the cliffs around them. He landed between Madeline and the queen, blocking Madeline’s view of the baby.

  “Lev, she saved him. She’s been protecting him the whole time!” Madeline shouted. The white wolf didn’t look her way. Once his feet settled, he stalked toward the queen.

  She had no choice. Madeline bent to scoop up her sword. It was glowing brightly now. As bright as she remembered from those glorious days of unity long ago. The gem’s gleam made no sense as she prepared to stand against her partner in defense of her queen. Vasilisa wasn’t their enemy. She was an ancient complicated being who had made mistakes. But she didn’t deserve to die. Especially not when she held their baby’s life in her hands.

  “Trevor needs her, Lev. And so do we. Aleksandr and the marked Volkhvy are still our common enemy,” Madeline said, more calmly. How do you reason with a wild wolf? Or a wild man, for that matter? She could sense his heightened emotion, but not clearly. Like her, he was feeling anger, fear and relief. His heart pounded slowly and powerfully in his massive chest.

  It beat for her and Trevor. The white wolf couldn’t speak, but she could sense his savage devotion.

  “No, Madeline. Trevor doesn’t need me anymore. He’s ready to come back to you,” Vasilisa said. She faced the white wolf without quaking. He was on her now—his giant snout only inches from her head. The queen looked up without fear at the looming wolf that had formerly been one of her champions. Her beautiful features were soft and serene, even as she revealed a truth that could possibly seal her fate. Why would Lev let her live if she was no longer needed to keep his baby alive?

  “She loves her baby, Lev. Just as we love ours,” Madeline said. Terrible teeth were inches away from Trevor’s waving hands. He’d released the lock of Vasilisa’s hair.

  And now he grabbed the white wolf’s snout.

  Madeline gasped. It hadn’t been that long since she was certain the white wolf would hurt them. Knowing better now didn’t make it easier to see her baby touch the monstrous face.

  She stumbled forward, but she was too slow. She hadn’t even raised her sword when the white wolf’s mouth opened and closed on the baby’s swaddling clothes. Vasilisa didn’t flinch. She allowed the white wolf to lift Trevor from her arms. The baby squealed with delight, and giggled as Lev turned around. Madeline lowered her sword. The white wolf carried the precious bundle toward her. He stepped gracefully and gently over rocks to avoid jouncing the baby. Trevor’s smile indicated he was experiencing no fear or pain. He kicked his feet and laughed.

  Madeline dropped her sword once more to take the baby when Lev reached her. He lowered the happy baby into her outstretched hands and opened his mouth to release his hold.

  Tears streamed down Madeline’s cheeks. She looked from Trevor up into the white wolf’s eyes. Lev’s eyes, not the wolf’s, met hers in return. They were all together again.

  “Do what you will. I hurt you. I hurt you all. I deserve the harshest judgment. Anna is well now. And all my wolves have claimed their mates,” Vasilisa said. She hadn’t moved. Lev jerked away from them. He whirled and leaped back toward the witch that had separated him from his family. He landed in front of her, a giant wolf in front of a delicate, lithe woman—yet Vasilisa was capable of summoning immense power to defend herself if she needed to. But she didn’t. She simply bowed her head and waited for whatever fate might befall her.

  “Lev, she hurt us, but she also protected us. She came for us as the curse was falling. She sang us to sleep and sheltered us on Krajina. You tried to tear the world apart as you searched for us. That same savage love lives in her breast. For Anna. For family. For us. Forgive her. Forgive yourself,” Madeline said.

  Thunder split the sky, and the earth shook. Madeline braced her feet against the quake and held Trevor closer. The thunder didn’t scare the baby. He laughed as his father made the world tremble.

  Suddenly, Lev stood before Vasilisa in his human form. His nudity didn’t make him appear vulnerable. He was a mighty creation of blood and bone and enchanted blood. But he’d also created himself anew in the years of the curse. He was hardened and honed, tireless and scarred and relentless.

  Madeline’s heart soared even as her stomach fell. She’d been right to fear that Lev in his human form might be more dangerous to Vasilisa than the white wolf.

  He was hers. He was Trevor’s. But he was no longer merely a champion and a Romanov. He was a father and a husband. One who had never given up on his wife and child.

  Even in his human form, Lev towered over the queen. Vasilisa raised her head to meet his eyes. Her face was still calm. She didn’t cower or cry, didn’t summon the violet gleam of her power. Her hands stayed at her sides.

  And suddenly, Lev went down on one knee before the Light Volkhvy queen. She had saved his baby from the Darkness that had tried to devour Trevor’s innocence—the darkness she had caused and the Darkness of the marked Volkhvy. Trevor had been the line she wouldn’t cross. The line that defined her right to be the Light Volkhvy queen.

  Vasilisa did start then. Her face crumbled, and as it filled with sorrow and joy, she looked older than she’d looked before. Time touched her as Lev Romanov proclaimed his loyalty to her once more. Soft wrinkles appeared at the corner of her moist violet-blue eyes and around her pale lips.

  “A touching display. I’m almost sorry to interrupt,” Aleksandr said. He stepped from the portal on an oily black carpet of Ether that poured along under his feet from where he’d come. Several of his marked followers appeared with him. And following at their heels were half a dozen zombie wolves that cavorted around their masters in spite of looking the worse for wear. Black tongues lolled and wounds seeped, but they were soulless and mindless, comple
tely animated by marked Volkhvy.

  Lev rose to his feet and shifted in one graceful motion. One second he was human; in the next, the earth shook and the white wolf was illuminated in a brilliant flash of ruby light. Madeline had reclaimed her sword. She held Trevor with one arm and the ruby blade with the other. Its light surrounded her and the baby in a scarlet aura. Across the rocky clearing, the white wolf also had an aura of red all around him, and two glittering rubies for eyes.

  “How could you all forgive her? She used and abused. She tainted and took. And you bow to her as if she still deserves to be queen?” Aleksandr said.

  Madeline could hardly bear to watch him speak. His lank hair was no longer his defining feature. The Ether taint that had made his hair appear heavy with oil was now a streaky black coating all over his skin. But it wasn’t a static stain. It flowed like a sentient liquid with his movements. It disappeared and reappeared from his eyes and mouth, from his nose and ears.

  The Ether he’d welcomed into his blood and his soul now overflowed the vessel of his body.

  “So. You have become Dark Volkhvy, and we won’t need Anna’s bellflower mark to identify you any longer,” Vasilisa said. Her hands glowed with violet energy. The power she summoned grew to surround her. Madeline didn’t find the queen’s power reassuring. She’d never seen her summon the crackling violet aura before.

  This Arizona desert plateau had become a battlefield, and she held her babe in her arms.

  “I am the chosen vessel of the Ether itself,” Aleksandr replied. “And I will rule you all.”

  He didn’t summon typical Volkhvy power when he attacked. No gemlike shades of energy erupted from his hands. The oily Ether that coated his skin flowed to his outstretched fingers in a sudden rush, and it was the Ether that exploded from his palms as he aimed them at the queen.

  Vasilisa met his attack with a violet arc of energy, but her power was absorbed by the black. Her violet energy merely slowed the attack. The oily black stream Aleksandr shot from his hands continued to consume Vasilisa’s light as it came closer and closer to her.

  And then the white wolf broke the stream. He leaped between his queen and Aleksandr. Madeline screamed. The oily Ether splashed against his ruby aura. But as it splashed, it also took hold. It easily penetrated the aura to stain his pristine fur.

  “No!” Madeline protested.

  But she couldn’t leap to Lev’s defense, because the zombie wolves and their marked masters attacked her. She was driven up against the rocks surrounding the cave where Vasilisa had hidden.

  Trevor was crying now.

  As she fought back wolf after wolf, she turned her body sideways to protect her baby. The ruby sword glowed, and its light was suddenly redirected completely toward the aura surrounding her child. Her connection to the blade had subconsciously told the power what to do: protect Trevor at all costs. She was left defenseless except for the sharp blade in her hand. It was all she needed. She slashed and hacked, and the wolves fell.

  But they weren’t ordinary wolves. They were vessels of Darkness, and their masters caused them to rise again and again.

  * * *

  The white wolf’s howl rent the air. Lev’s fire and fury was in the wolf. His love for his family was unstoppable. The Ether tried to enter him, but there was nowhere for it to go. He was hard. Impenetrable. Completely filled with purpose. And his wild, savage love was too light for the Darkness to touch.

  The oily Ether rode his fur, but it sloughed off, as it couldn’t invade his body. It fell in useless puddles on the ground, only to evaporate as black smoke in the hot desert sun.

  Lev shielded Vasilisa even as he stalked toward the witch who would take her throne. He had pledged his loyalty to the queen for Madeline and Trevor. Now he protected her in order to protect them. She’d proven that she would stand for his family. The white wolf required nothing more and would accept nothing less.

  The Ether Aleksandr sprayed from his hands seemed to come in an endless stream. It didn’t matter. The white wolf faced it all, and it splashed off him and fell to evaporate on the ground. The power of the spray was tremendous. He had to press into it and against its force.

  But his power was tremendous as well. He refused to back down. He braced his shoulders and his spine and took step after step toward the Dark witch.

  Madeline and Trevor were in danger because of Aleksandr. He had to be crushed so they would be safe.

  “You will fail!” Aleksandr screamed. His voice was oily and wet as Ether flowed from his lips with his words. But there was something else wrong with Aleksandr’s voice. The white wolf’s ears were able to detect an echoing quality. When the witch screamed, he screamed with two voices.

  “It’s the witchblood prince. He’s using Aleksandr to try to manifest from the Ether. It’s been him the marked witches were channeling all along,” Vasilisa warned. “No wonder they were corrupted. He must have ridden the first wave of Ether into Aleksandr, and he’s been growing stronger ever since.”

  “You will fail as you failed before!” the witchblood prince continued to scream. With his own voice and with Aleksandr’s.

  His words were meaningless to the white wolf. Only his human form thought he’d failed. His wolf form knew he had been preparing to finish a long battle. What was time to an enchanted wolf? He had all the time in the world.

  The black liquid that coated Aleksandr’s skin began to form a new face made of oily Ether over Aleksandr’s face. The features yielded to high cheekbones, a sharp nose and a lean jaw. When Aleksander screamed, the black liquid face grimaced and opened its mouth wide, too. But the Ether face laughed instead of echoing Aleksandr’s scream. The laughter was wet. Black bubbles roiled from the Ether face’s lips as the face behind it struggled.

  Aleksandr raised his hands to his face, but everywhere his fingers disrupted the Ether face, it liquidly reformed once his fingers passed through. The marked witch couldn’t dislodge the entity that used him. He clawed and clawed, but it was too late. Far too late. Wet laughter came louder as Aleksandr screamed in fear and frustration. His utterances had become eerily sibilant as if oily liquid prevented clear elocution. The two faces simultaneously competing for space made the white wolf shake his head to clear the double vision.

  “It’s him! It’s Gregori! The witchblood prince!” Vasilisa shouted.

  “I refuse to be banished. I will rule you all and Elena will be mine,” the possessed witch swore. “All of the warriors will belong to me. Vasilisa will belong to me.”

  The white wolf’s jaw had been made to destroy witches. Two or twenty. He used it now, crushing the witch that had become nothing but a vessel for the taint of the witchblood prince. Aleksandr fell when Lev opened his mouth to release him. He crumpled in a bloody heap on the ground. His blood was oily and black. The coating that had become another face dissolved into a puddle onto the ground. He’d defeated the witchblood prince before he could fully manifest. Two evil witches with one bite.

  “Thank you,” Aleksandr said, gurgling as the last of the oily taint flowed from his lips. Once he was empty, he breathed no more.

  Lev turned around from the smoking corpse and the puddle that was already being absorbed into the ground, and crossed the clearing. When he had protected Vasilisa from Aleksandr’s attack, she had turned her attention to helping Madeline. Trevor was protected by all the ruby’s power in an aura of scarlet light, but he was also protected by the queen herself. She stood in front of Madeline’s left side and used her glowing violet body as a shield against the zombie wolves’ endless attack.

  Endless until Lev turned their bodies into pieces that couldn’t be reanimated, at any rate.

  The marked witches’ attack had eased when they witnessed the transformation of their leader. They must have feared that the taint within them might allow the witchblood prince to enter them as new vessels. Their hands came down, and they backed away from the mother and child they’d been terrorizing with the wolves.

  Two or tw
enty. He’d been made to deal with evil witches. Numbers didn’t matter. He was tireless. The remaining marked Volkhvy fell beneath his crushing bite in the same way that their corrupt leader had fallen. Only then did Madeline lower her sword so that she could comfort her crying child.

  He’d saved them. This time he’d saved them. But the baby’s fearful cries still pained his sensitive ears. He didn’t know how to wage a battle against tears. There was nothing left for him to do. Tireless or not, Lev fell to the ground at the feet of his mate.

  Thunder rent the air, and the earth shuddered beneath them as the white wolf shifted back into his human form. Lev immediately acknowledged his exhaustion. Unlike the white wolf, he could admit when he needed to rest. But he reached for Madeline’s leg anyway. He grasped her to let her know that he heard Trevor’s cry, and he supported her efforts to soothe their baby’s tears. He wanted to envelop them both in his arms and protect them forever. At the same time, he knew that wasn’t possible.

  There was always another threat on the horizon. The white wolf dared a world of evil to face him. Lev wanted to spare his family from the fight.

  Vasilisa came forward. She removed the white cloak from her own shoulders and allowed the voluminous material to float down over Lev’s back.

  “I knew you would come,” she said. “I always knew.”

  Chapter 24

  Unlike while in his wolf form, Lev still had reservations about staying with his family. He now knew that the white wolf would never leave them. So there was only one option left to him: disappearing into the Ether. If he chose to make the jump to nothingness, he would take the brash wolf with him into the dark. Only then could he be certain that his family might be able to live a normal life without being chained to a Light Volkhvy champion who was determined to fight.