by Lexi Blake
“It’s like before.” Lee ground out the words between clenched teeth.
I started to have a very bad feeling because I had an inkling of what he was talking about. I remembered well the last time Lee had gotten this ill.
I looked around the room. All of the humans and the wolves associated with us were watching Lee with concern on their faces.
The crash of glass breaking forced my attention away from Lee. And then another, and then there was the sound of a plate smashing. The other wolves in the room dropped whatever they were holding and blank looks came across their faces. They dropped their drinks or the plates they’d been holding and no one made a move to clean up the mess. Almost as though they were one, their heads turned toward the front of the house and without a word to anyone, they began walking.
I stood, terror starting to creep across my heart. One moment they were laughing and joking together and the next all those alphas were zombie-like, moving as though someone else controlled them.
John McKenzie was the only wolf left with us, and he was sweating and shaking. “What the hell is going on?”
“I don’t know,” Dev replied, his eyes tight. “Are you feeling ill?”
McKenzie shook his head. “I feel a great urge to leave this house and join the crowd in the field. I didn’t even know there was a crowd in the field. He’s calling to me, but I won’t answer, damn it. I am the alpha. I submit to no one.”
Just as Dev shot me a look of sudden understanding, my cell phone rang. I took a deep breath, praying it was a wrong number. I was pretty sure if I looked down the number would be 1-800-YOU’RE FUCKED. I slid my finger across the phone to connect the call.
“Hello, Zoey,” Lucas Halfer’s smooth voice said, not bothering to wait for me to say hello. “I finally figured out why our little prize didn’t work on old Zack that night. You had me worried there. I thought this whole Strong Arm of Remus thing was just a bunch of bullshit.”
“Why didn’t it work on Zack?” I kept him talking while I tried to take inventory of exactly what our assets were. I hoped McKenzie had an armory somewhere because my little war with Halfer was heating up again. Dev already had his SIG out, checking the clip and flicking the safety off.
Halfer chuckled in my ear. “You neglected to tell me Donovan had found another idiot wolf willing to take his blood. It doesn’t work on loners or wolves who are dumb enough to oath themselves to vampires. So I guess you’ll at least have Zack to defend you. I’m sure your faery is there, too. Loved the show last night, by the way. You’re a woman of many talents. I would have been envied by all the demons if I’d managed to get you into Hell with me.”
“What do you want, Halfer?” I finally asked and heard Dev curse beside me the minute he heard that name.
“I want you to come to the window. Come see what I have planned for you.”
“I think I’ll pass,” I replied flatly. “You probably have a rocket launcher planned for me. I’ll stay out of sight where it’s nice and cozy and you’re not precisely certain of my position.”
“No rocket launcher, though I like the way you think,” he said with a chuckle that froze my insides. “You can come to the window and see my impressive display or I can start killing these wolves. I think I’ll start with the kiddos.”
There was a click that told me Halfer had said all he was going to for the moment. I cursed vilely and got my ass up to do what he told me to.
“What are you doing?” Dev asked, pulling me back.
I took his hand in mine and dragged him along. Padric and Declan followed close behind. “I’m seeing just how screwed we are, my husband. This might be one of the shorter marriages on record.”
All the breath in my body seemed to flee as I stared through the huge bay windows that looked over the valley below McKenzie’s house. I saw Lucas Halfer, ex-demon but still full-time asshole. He stood in the middle of the field with a shit-eating grin on his face and the Strong Arm of Remus in his hand.
All around him a massive army of wolves twitched and growled, waiting for their new master to give the command. They were all in wolf form, clothes ripped from their sudden and unexpected change and strewn throughout the valley. The wolves had been called and they answered, dropping everything they’d been doing to heed the siren’s call.
Halfer said something, raising that paw high above his head, and the wolves turned as one enormous pack, their teeth bared and the need for blood howling through them. Though I hadn’t heard the command, I knew what it was.
Kill.
Chapter Thirty-One
I felt the magic pouring off my husband before the wolves had taken more than two steps toward the house. It wasn’t lust magic this time, but something a bit more helpful in this situation. Dev stood beside me, his hands splayed wide as he slowly brought them up, raising them with the greatest of intent from his legs to his chest. His arms moved slowly as though they were pressing against a great weight.
The ground outside the house rumbled as the dirt split open and spat out life. Flowing grass and vines and all manner of things green and vibrant flew up from the earth and formed a tangled mass roughly twelve feet high. Even from where I stood, I could plainly see the thorns that wove their way through the wall of green. It was a barrier as far as I could see either way.
“Goddess, brother,” Declan breathed as he watched the field outside. “When did you learn to do that?”
Dev took my hand and spun on his heels. “They will still get through. We have a little time though. Padric, do you have a guard with you?”
“Always, Your Grace,” Padric responded.
“When the time is right, you will call them,” Dev commanded, his voice all steely determination. I probably shouldn’t have found it irresistibly sexy given the situation, but I did. “They will protect my goddess. Is that understood?”
“Yes, sir.” Padric didn’t try to hide the small smile he had. I could guess what he was thinking. He was proud of the man Dev had become. He was proving cool in a crisis and capable of making the right decisions. Declan was the warrior, but Padric was looking to Dev for his orders.
McKenzie seemed a little better as we hurried back into the great room. “What the hell is going on?”
“I’m afraid we’ve brought some of our problems with us, John,” Dev admitted calmly. “You find yourself in the middle of a small war.”
“It did not look small, brother.” Declan didn’t seem terribly concerned, but rather intrigued by the prospect of a good fight. “That was a large army of wolves.”
“Wolves?” McKenzie spat. “Those are my wolves. Why would they be attacking me?”
“The Strong Arm of Remus,” I said and watched McKenzie blanch.
The alpha shook his head. “That’s a myth.”
Lee managed to sit up. The barrier of plants seemed to be helping him a little too. He was still shaky, but some of the color was coming back to his face. “It’s not a myth, Mac. Zoey tracked it down a couple of weeks ago with the full intention to destroy it. Just being near the damn thing made me violently ill. We got blindsided by that fucking demon and lost it. We thought it didn’t work. It didn’t affect Zack at all.”
Zack was one of two wolves on whom it had absolutely no effect. “I don’t see what the big deal is. It’s a petrified paw. It didn’t stop me from trying to kill that bastard and I don’t feel anything right now except regret that I didn’t tear his throat out the first time.”
“It’s not having any effect on Neil, either,” I pointed out.
“Are you telling me Halfer is out there and he has control of all the other wolves in the valley?” Neil asked, his eyes wide. He knew the story. All wolves knew the story of the Strong Arm of Remus. They had thought it was just that—a story. I now had irrefutable proof that it was more than a myth.
“Daniel’s blood is protecting you,” I told Neil and Zack. “You both took a blood oath to Daniel.”
“But Neil hasn’t taken Daniel’s blood in
over seven months,” Sarah pointed out logically.
“Yeah, it’s some good shit,” Dev said, his face losing all its smoothness. His eyes were dark and he was ready to fight. Dev had been ready for this fight for a long time. “Tell me where your armory is, McKenzie. Please tell me you’re well equipped. We need guns, preferably semiautomatics at the very least, and silver rounds. Grenades or flash bangs would be helpful.”
“I have some guns, but I’m not running an army here. Why would I have silver rounds?” McKenzie still didn’t seem to believe what was going on. “I have a few in case of emergencies, but it’s just a single box. These are my people. I don’t shoot them full of silver.”
Declan rolled his eyes at what he clearly considered the naiveté of the alpha’s statement. “Certainly no one’s people ever rose up against their good leader. You wouldn’t last a day in Faery, McKenzie. The good news, brother, is my entire guard is excellently equipped.”
“With bows, arrows, swords, and knives.” Dev shook his head. “I wasn’t planning on doing close-combat fighting with a bunch of werewolves. It tends to be best to keep out of the range of claws and teeth.”
“Yes, it is traditional weaponry, but it is all reinforced with silver.” Declan sounded pleased with himself. “I changed all the tips on our arrows to silver and the knives and swords are all silver as well. I was serious about taking that vampire out, Zoey. Then there will be an opening in your bed.”
I ignored my obnoxious brother-in-law in favor of freaking out about another obvious problem. “Daniel’s out there, Dev.”
“Yes, he is,” Dev acknowledged as McKenzie began to lead our party toward the armory. “The good news is Halfer won’t consider him any kind of a threat and probably won’t even look for his resting place until after he kills all of us. The bad news is Daniel can’t hear a damn thing in that coffin. He’s wearing an advanced set of earplugs. I bought them because he’s such a grump when he doesn’t get enough sleep and Zoey snores.”
“I do not,” I protested as Dev drug me alongside him.
“Yes, you do, my goddess,” Dev shot back. “I think your little snuffles are sweet and they don’t bother me at all, but Daniel struggles because his hearing is so much better. He says you sometimes sound like a water buffalo trying to mate. His words, not mine, my love.”
I huffed, offended because I was quite certain I didn’t snore. Danny, on the other hand, had been known to blow the roof off from time to time when he was human. I was pretty sure vampires didn’t snore at all.
McKenzie stopped and opened a door. The armory was small and full of mostly shotguns and rifles. Dev would use his SIG as his primary weapon, but he took a shotgun and shoved a .38 in his pocket as well.
He sighed over the tiny armory. “I spend a fortune, deal with the most unsavory of arms dealers, and when I finally get my little war, I’m stuck with this. I hoped to finally get to use the P90s. Well, perhaps when we fight Marini.” He handed me two pistols and a box of bullets.
Felix stepped forward, his hand out.
Dev looked at him sympathetically. “Felix, we all know you’re a pacifist. You don’t have to do this. Just stay at the back of the group and we’ll protect you.”
Felix gave Dev a hard look and kept his hand out, waiting for his weapon. “Give me a gun, Dev. If you think for one moment I’m going to let a bunch of wolves tear my wife apart, then you’re wrong. I took vows. I took vows of nonviolence, but I took deeper vows, too. I vowed to protect her. It takes precedence over everything else.”
Dev passed Felix a shotgun and quickly showed him how to load it. Sarah had never been a pacifist and knew better than Felix how to use a gun. She shoved a .38 in her pocket and kissed her husband passionately.
“It’s going to be all right, Felix,” she said quietly. She would do whatever she could to protect the man she loved. She’d been off the black magic for a long time, but I was sure she would use it if she had to.
“Zack,” Dev called to his bodyguard. Zack ran forward from the back of the group. “I need you to change.”
Zack changed with zero hesitation. His suit ripped around him, falling in pieces to the floor. He sat back on his haunches, waiting for further instructions.
Dev focused on his well-trained wolf. “You will find a way out of here. Those wolves out there are trying to kill us. They will likely ignore another wolf, especially if you don’t cause them trouble. Get to Daniel. Wake him up and tell him to get off his ass. It’s time for us to kill Halfer. Tell him I’ll be waiting. You must be sneaky, though. I don’t want Halfer to suspect Daniel isn’t in the ground as he should be. Watch and wait for the time when Halfer won’t see you slip into the tent. Join with the others if you have to in order to bide your time. Be patient, Zack. This is our only shot.”
The big brown wolf thumped his tail once and then took off.
“So we’re supposed to stay alive until sundown?” McKenzie asked, sarcasm dripping. “I don’t think that’s going to happen, Your Grace. There are at least a thousand wolves out there and many of them are stone-cold killers.”
“Under the influence of that artifact, we have to consider them all stone-cold killers. They’ll do Halfer’s will, and he wants us dead. We have a secret weapon that Halfer isn’t counting on. Trust me, McKenzie,” Dev assured him. “My partner is a king. Daylight will not stop him. We have to stay alive until Daniel is awake then he and I will take care of Halfer. How do we get out of here?”
McKenzie moved down the hallway and we followed. “I have a secret tunnel that leads from the house to a cave in the mountains to the north. We’ll be able to see the field so at least we’ll know what’s coming.”
He led us to the back of the house. Even now I could hear the wolves beginning to howl. The sound was far closer than I was comfortable with. At least some of the wolves had made their way around the barrier. We found ourselves in a narrow hallway. McKenzie came to a dead end and we stopped, giving him space to do what he needed to do. The walls in the hallway were paneled in rich wood. The alpha pushed against a seam in the paneling and a small door slid open. McKenzie pulled on a pair of heavy gloves that had been hanging from a hook near the door.
Neil had taken up position at the rear. He listened, his senses wide open. “Dev, we’re about to have incoming.”
Even as he shouted the warning, I heard the crack of glass shattering as the strongest and fastest of the wolves made their way through, over, or around the barrier Dev had created. McKenzie opened the door with his gloved hands and ushered Felix and Sarah through. Declan stood beside his brother, sword drawn, and Neil ran to stand in front of me.
“Come with me, Your Grace,” Padric demanded, taking me by the arm.
“Dev,” I yelled out as Padric tried to manhandle me into the passage.
Dev turned briefly to look at me. “Go with Padric. I will follow you, my goddess. Padric, if you have to carry her out of here, you will do it.”
I didn’t understand why he couldn’t just come with me now, but he was being a control freak with Daniel out of action. He would never allow anyone else to control the battle besides Daniel. I saw Lee trying to stay by Dev’s side, but he faltered and fell to his knees.
“Lee!” I couldn’t leave him behind. Even if he changed, he was different. The wolves would sense his difference and he would be at their mercy. I struggled against the royal guard, trying to get back to my wolf.
McKenzie cursed as Padric shoved me into the small passage. He pushed us through as quickly as he could, directing us to move through the darkness. I looked at John McKenzie and attempted to play to anything soft inside him.
“Please,” I begged the alpha who was more than strong enough to bring Lee with us. All he had to do was drag him a few feet. “Please, don’t leave him behind.”
The alpha shook his head and started toward the sick loner. “Damn it, Owens,” McKenzie said under his breath. He picked Lee up in a fireman’s hold and walked through the doorway. “Get
through that gate and we should have a shot at getting out of here.”
“We’re through,” Padric called out as he hauled me past a large gated doorway. It ran from the top to the bottom of the tunnel and created a complete barrier. Even in the gloom of darkness, I could see the silver shine of that tightly barred gate. I shivered as I realized if we got stuck in this tunnel, Daniel wouldn’t be able to get through the gate. He would be helpless to get to us.
Dev, Declan, and Neil ran through, though Dev was now laying down suppressive fire. Neil and Declan scrambled into the tunnel while Dev backed into the space, not letting up on his firing position. I held my breath as a huge black wolf reared back and leapt toward my husband. The wolf was in midair, snarling with fury as Dev took his shot. The wolf hit the floor and Dev fired through the gate as Declan slammed it shut behind him. I heard the satisfying sound of the bolt sliding home.
Dev pulled me close as the first wolf hit the gate and his flesh began to sizzle. We all turned back toward McKenzie.
“Well I don’t shoot them full of silver, but I’m not a complete idiot,” he explained. “Everyone needs an escape hatch when the going gets tough.”
I shrank back as another wolf joined the first. They shoved their bodies against the silver, not seeming to care that their flesh was burning. They snarled and howled their frustration at being so close to their prey but unable to take it down. The two wolves shoved their paws through, trying desperately to get their claws on anything.
I didn’t recognize them in this form but I knew these were people I’d probably met during our stay here. These were men and women who asked us for help and offered their hospitality in return. They weren’t raging killers. They were just pawns. They had children and lives to go back to.
Dev raised his gun and leveled it at the wolves trying to claw their way through the silver bars to get to us. His eyes held no mercy, and I knew he was ready to kill every wolf that came our way. I wasn’t quite so ready as my husband.
