by JK Cooper
A thought sent a second wave of his creations surging toward the gates while he channeled some of the stolen magic toward the creation of a new portal, targeting a weakened section of the universe where a goddess had died.
Sadie slid behind a dumpster across from the small Cajun restaurant owned by her target. His group met there often, and she could make out wolfish shadows inside, even with the blinds drawn. They aren’t the most subtle bunch. She clawed her way into the pack link, not having the time to hack their communications gently. She normally liked to shadow someone, get to know them, ease into it without setting off any alarms.
I’m setting all the alarms off today. Listen up, pups of feminine persuasion, you need to get out. Get out now!
What the? Who are you? How are you doing this? The Alpha of this small-town Louisiana pack growled.
Sadie growled back. No time to explain the amazingness that is me or admire your accent. The Advent is coming. You need to run. Head out the front and go south, that’s where their numbers are thinnest. I’ll meet you at the Slidell Bridge with more info and some dynamite I may have borrowed from some crazy fishermen.
Why should I trust you? the Alpha snapped back. You might be Advent.
Feculence! Why would I warn you, if I were?
You could be leadin’ us into a trap. Blow us up on the bridge. Sounds like the Advent.
Sadie could hear the padding of wolf paws on gravel to the north. Not gonna argue with that. It’s so their style, but I’m seriously trying to save your lives right now. Please, get out. They’re only a block away. Ya’ll pissed em off good.
We sure did. Had ourselves a gator feedin’ party with them that tried to trick us before you.
I’m not copulating Advent! She howled into the night, hoping it would serve as an additional warning and spur the man to action. I approve of your methods, if not the sanity behind them. I’m a friend.
Her howl did get them moving, but not as she hoped. The pack barreled out the back door and into the larger group the Advent had sent there to prevent retreat. No, you idiot, I said the front door!
But she was too late. Sadie listened to the barked orders and then disconnected a moment later as the pack link filled with screams and death. I failed them. I’m so sorry. Releasing her hack didn’t completely relieve her of the sounds that came from the far side of the restaurant. She curled up behind the dumpster and mimicked the scents of rotting garbage until the night fell silent again.
Bryanne sat with Gennesaret near the front of the bus, pouring over the ancient Lycan text. She gently touched a grouping of colorful letters, etched in ink from another world.
“Two sides of a coin, one to unlock the key, the other to grant consent. Both must be won together as living fires rebuild what was lost.” Bryanne tapped the paragraph impatiently. “I hate this book.”
Genn put her hand between Bryanne’s and the pages. “Soft. The book is older than both of us combined.”
“Sorry.” Bryanne pulled her hand away. “I just wish the Mystics had written a little more straight forward. These puzzles are killing me.”
“You must have some idea? You know the Fae better than I.”
Bryanne pursed her lips. “I can guess. The Fae are split into two courts. That may be what it means. We have to get one thing from each court.”
“Shelby has to.”
“That’s what I meant.” Bryanne examined the words again. “Doesn’t say which one will give us which part. Means we’ll have to go to each.” She let out a long breath.
“And that troubles you?” Genn asked.
“The Seely Court isn’t too hard to deal with. They’re slightly nuts, but manageable.”
Genn caught on. “The other court is not as friendly?”
“They can be friendly, but they’ll flip from friendly to homicidal in a second. The Unseely Court is completely insane. It’s like Wonderland without the happy endings.”
“Ah, something to look forward to. Any idea where we go after the Fae?”
Bryanne chuckled. “Ever the optimist. Just assuming we’ll succeed?”
Genn lifted a delicate hand. “I have faith in the children.”
Bryanne glanced to where Kale had just stepped from the bus to examine the other one and talk to Shelby. “They have managed some extraordinary things, but it’s going to get harder. The Fae don’t give gifts lightly.”
“Hmmm.” Genn mused as she closed the book to review the symbols once more, rubbing the indented lines of the last two.
Bryanne tapped the last. “I have no idea what to do about this. Grandmother said only four of the five races made it out of Alsvoira. She never named them. And the text here is even more garbled and mysterious than the rest, which I didn’t think possible. It’s going to take us weeks to unravel.”
Genn smiled. “We will worry about that after we get the next key.”
Bryanne felt the approach of two people from farther back, their slow movement shifting air. She turned to find Chelsea and Amanda picking their way past feet and backpacks in the aisle. The buses were well over capacity. And they smell like wet dog. “What brings two young Wiccans to us this morning?”
Chelsea froze, looked up, turned ashen, and opened her mouth several times.
Bryanne rolled her eyes. Wiccans were taught to respect the Bandrui from birth, which was nice, but it sometimes caused awkwardness. “Go ahead. The great Druid will hear you now.”
Chelsea found her voice and stammered, “Magic is being weird. Like really weird. Pulling away from me and unraveling. I wondered if you noticed?”
Bryanne frowned. “I hadn’t noticed, but I haven’t tried any in a while. That’s pretty common with new spells.”
Chelsea gulped. “It did it with old spells I know by heart too. It felt . . . unpleasant.”
Amanda nodded emphatically behind her.
Bryanne resisted the urge to send the children away. She and Genn had more to worry about than novices playing at magic they didn’t know how to control yet. But she bit back the reply. “Fine. Let me check into it.”
She closed her eyes and sought out the nearest ley lines. The closest were miles away, but she could still access those. Her magic would be slower and weaker, but no less real. She pulled from them, balling the energy together inside her.
She opened her eyes, seeing the world in tones of crimson with strings of energy flowing between the living souls on the bus. Bryanne smiled as Amanda and Chelsea both took three small steps back. Her red eyes disconcerted most people. Her scythe flashed into being in a hand she raised to keep it away from Genn and the Isluxua.
Her will flowed down her arm and through the scythe to create a simple light, something she might use in a dark cavern. The magic coalesced into being and then was ripped away, a streak of light flying downward. It hurt, scraping through nerves like sandpaper on fire. Tendrils of her magic ripped out of her body and mind with great friction and resistance. Unpleasant indeed.
Ice crept into Bryanne’s heart. She knew of only one thing that could strip magic from creation. She staggered to her feet, but the magic was still being ripped from her. Her eyes cleared and her scythe vanished, but still the magic poured from her. Wounds tore open inside her. “We have to warn Kale and Shelby. We have to run.”
Bryanne tried to walk toward the exit. Her vision narrowed, and she tripped over a sack of rations, falling against a seat before slumping to the ground. As darkness folded over her, she heard a howl that did not sound entirely friendly. We don’t have time for that. We don’t have time for me to pass out either. Get up, Bry! Get up! But the power of ley lines being pulled violently through her proved too much for her body to handle. The pain ended as the world went dark.
Anxiety flowed into Shelby from all sides as the small pack approached. Small pack? We were barely that size a couple weeks ago. Shelby calmed everyone as best she could, which was no easy task. The Feral felt cornered inside their bus. The other Lycans weren’t much happier be
ing stuffed onto a bus with strange humans. The Hunters still wondered if they’d made the right decision. The Wiccans were worried about their magic. Kale took on all responsibility for the growing pack and was having trouble letting others carry any of it. Shelby herself was a ball of concern for Kale and all the emotional beings who flooded her with their passions, fears, and insecurities.
Even the always stalwart Bryanne had a sudden spike of anxiety just as the wolves stepped from the trees. Shelby couldn’t help the Druid much. She focused most of her energy on Kale and the approaching Lycans.
I’m spread too thin.
This is true, Thyra. You put too much pressure on yourself, Eira said.
Kale’s emotional state changed. Confusion rolled off him in waves. He gave Shelby a puzzled look.
“What?” Shelby hissed.
He tapped his ear. “Sadie.”
“Wait, what?” Shelby didn’t know what else to say.
“Of course she waited until now to let me know.”
“Don’t make me say it again.” Shelby growled at her boyfriend.
“Sorry. Sadie can talk to us when she feels like it, apparently. She sent our friends days ago and forgot to let me know. Nice timing.”
Shelby reached inside and explored the connections she had with every pack member, including those who weren’t Lycan. “I didn’t feel her rejoin the pack.”
He held up his hands. “She’s getting good at that venatrix thing?”
“Seems like. What did she say about them?” Shelby pointed to the wolves who had reached the roadway.
Kale smiled. “Enough.” He raised his voice. “Francis?”
One large brown wolf stepped forward and shifted into a young, handsome, and very fit man. Shelby averted her eyes from below his waist. She was sort of used to nudity within Elias’s pack, but she had come to know them. It was a little weird still with new pack members . . . at least for her. Two black wolves stepped between Francis and the buses, a protective move that had the added benefit of covering much of his nakedness.
“That’s me,” Francis said. “So, the feisty one got you the message we were coming?”
Kale nodded. “Just a minute ago. She cut it close.”
Francis laughed, loud and long. Shelby had a hard time not grinning with him. It was contagious.
“Sounds like the Sadie I met. Saved our wolfy bacon though.”
“She mentioned that too. Seemed pretty proud of herself,” Kale said.
“That’s fair. She earned some pride.” Francis then stared at Kale in silence for a while before broaching the subject. “She promised I’d get to meet the Summer Omega and the true Alpha Prime. So, that’s you two?”
Kale gestured to Shelby. “She’s the Summer Omega.” Then quieter, “You want to show him?”
Shelby blinked at him for a second before she realized what he meant. Her armor flashed on over her clothes and she brought the scythe and wheat stalks into reality. She reached out to the ley lines to increase the effect, knowing her eyes would glow a brighter red and the lines of her armor would pulse with the power.
She held the magic within her, relishing the taste of it, the sense of something more inside her. It leaked away faster than it should have, but she’d done what she wanted, so she let it go. Francis whistled as she let the crimson drop from her eyes.
Chenoa put on her armor behind them.
Kale let his armor appear too. “I’m not the Alpha Prime though. I’m just an Alpha, doing the best I can for my pack.”
“There’s nobility in that.” Francis glanced around at his little pack. “I’m convinced. How do we go about signing up? Do we have to fight? Or can I just swear to you and let you take over as Alpha from there?”
Shelby bolstered Kale’s confidence as she noticed a spike of uncertainty rise.
Kale took a step forward as her strength filled him. The black wolves snarled. “No need for that. I don’t want to strip you of your pack or your leadership.”
Francis cocked his head to the side. “Isn’t that kind of how this works?”
“I’ve had a few weeks to consider what I would do when faced with this decision. I want you to retain control of your group. Only you swear loyalty to me, not the rest. You stay their leader and I will become yours.” Kale glanced at the bus that housed most of the remaining Hunters. “I’ve had the opportunity to watch military leadership in action. It has its benefits.”
Francis looked from Shelby to Kale. “You think that’ll work? I’m not as experienced as I seem.”
Shelby again filled up Kale’s flagging ego as uncertainty crept in once more.
Kale shrugged, but it was a confident shrug. “Me either, and I’ve never heard of a pack doing anything like this, but I believe it’s worth a try. If it doesn’t, I can always kill you later.”
Francis flinched and Shelby sent forth reassurance. Kale slowly let a wicked smile creep on to his lips. “Kidding.”
But he wasn’t, Shelby could tell.
“Do we have a deal?” Kale asked.
“Don’t have to ask me twice.” Francis knelt, leaning on the two black wolves as he did so.
Shelby felt him join the pack, her heart expanding to accept him. Natural born. Young. Scared. Trying so hard to be half the leader his father was. He reminded her of Kale. His pack came with him as a package deal. She knew each by name and how to help them, as though they had joined the pack individually. She could sense Kale’s influence over them as their ultimate Alpha. I think Kale’s plan worked.
Of course it did, Eira replied. He has revived the old ways. The pack structure before humans came to Alsvoira, before Lycans. Did you truly think Immortal Wolves fought over every scrap of authority?
I guess I just assumed it has always been the same.
Change is a part of life, Thyra.
I know. One of the new additions snagged in her heart. “You have an Omega?”
Francis smiled. “My little sister was always good with people, from when she was three on. She helps us stay together and grounded.” He waved a small wolf forward. “This is Wanda.” He smirked at the look Shelby gave him. “My parents liked the old names no one used anymore.”
Wanda shifted into a girl of maybe fourteen, cowering behind a black wolf. “Hi.”
Shelby smiled. “Hi, and welcome. It will be nice to have another Omega around here.” Shelby sent the girl a dose of support, encouragement, and comfort. That same mix of emotions poured out of the girl and into her pack. Oh, that’s going to be super helpful. We need to find more like her.
Kale rubbed his chest and motioned for Francis to stand. “That’s weird. I can feel you as part of the pack link. All your wolves are there too, to a lesser degree. I think we just made something new.”
“Or something very old,” Shelby corrected. She caught Chenoa’s nod of approval.
“Welcome to our pack. We’re an odd mix. Remind me to fill you in.” Kale began walking back toward the bus they were about to abandon, staring at the shredded tire. “You showed up at a great time, just when we’re soon to be busless.”
Francis laughed his contagious laugh again. “We just ran across two states. We can handle a jog through the woods.”
Kale’s armor fell away. He glanced down and spoke in a hushed tone to Shelby. “Um . . . I didn’t mean to do that.”
Shelby’s armor felt less solid now that he brought her attention to it. That can’t be good. “Can you get it back?”
Sections of his armor appeared and disappeared. “Not completely.”
Shelby lifted a hand and let her gauntlet vanish. She brought it back, the magical metal feeling thinner than before. “We’ll have to talk to Bryanne, see what she thinks might be happening.”
Shelby realized the sharp rise in anxiety from the Druid had gone, but it had been replaced with anxiety from the Wiccans and Genn. She was getting zero emotion from Bryanne. Something’s wrong.
Shelby grabbed Kale’s hand. “Let’s ask her now.”
Shelby found the Druid laying in the middle of the aisle, surrounded by Chelsea, Amanda, and Gennesaret. Several other people had stood to see what the commotion was about. Genn glanced up as the door hissed closed behind Kale.
“We wanted to get your attention, but we didn’t want to interrupt.”
Shelby waved Genn’s apologetic tone away. “Probably for the best. Things were tense for a second. Is she okay?”
Genn leaned over Bryanne. “I think so. Her heartbeat and breathing are steady. She was saying something about magic and warning you before she passed out.”
“Magic’s been acting weird,” Chelsea said.
Kale managed to hold a gauntlet on his hand, but that made his breastplate vanish in a spray of sparks. “We noticed.”
Shelby knelt next to Genn. “When do you think—"
Bryanne gasped awake, coughing. She found Shelby’s eyes and locked in on them. “Demon.”
Shelby smiled, happy to have her friend back amongst the conscious. “I’ve been called worse.”
Bryanne shook her head, absolutely no humor in her facial expressions. “No, demon close by, absorbing magic. It’s the only explanation.”
A demon? Why not? Shelby’s world had only been blown up a few thousand times in the past months and year.
Kale leaned over Shelby, his breath warm on her neck, creating goosebumps up and down her arms. “What do we do about it?”
“We run.” Bryanne tried to sit up, but that brought on more coughing. When she recovered, she continued. “The Fae can defeat demons. Our scythes might work on them too, but the rest are just targets and food to these things.”
“You’ve met a demon?” Chelsea asked.
Bryanne wobbled as she finally succeeded in sitting up. “Only once. It sucked all the magic out of a town.”
“That doesn’t sound so horrible,” Shelby said.
Chelsea gasped next to her. “You don’t understand. A little magic goes into everything.” She counted off on her fingers as she spoke. “Electronics, cars, computers, medicine, food prep and storage. It would be like an EMP went off.”
