by H. D. Gordon
I pushed back the sides of my jacket and removed both guns from their holsters. Thick thunderclouds had rolled in overhead, darkening the already dim sky and promising a winter storm in the near future. Time seemed to move both slow and fast, and I pushed away any thoughts of fear as my fingers poised steady over the triggers.
Kyra flicked her wrists, and the large doors to the building slid back on their rails.
From inside the storehouse, there was only darkness and shadows, and had I not witnessed the carriage carrying Erek inside myself, I might have thought we’d just stormed in on an empty building.
In fact, the silence and darkness was so thick that my sensitive ears could literally hear the strong buzz of Kyra’s magic as it swirled and wrapped around her, along with the steady beating of our two hearts.
Then, from the darkness within, a pair of eyes lit up Wolf-gold, staring at us with the cold anticipation of a beast. This set was matched by another to the right, and another… and another. More sets of glowing eyes appeared until I counted eight in all. From the way they were spaced, I saw that Lukas had indeed commanded all of his soldiers to shift into their Wolf forms.
A line from an ancient fairy tale floated through my head at that.
The better to eat you with, my dear.
Though she was undoubtedly one of the most badass females I’d ever known, I saw the apprehension flash over Kyra’s face as we stared down eight full-grown male Werewolves with those glowing golden eyes.
The sparks of magic around Kyra’s fingers flared as she settled into fighting position, and I adjusted the grip on my weapons as we stepped forward into that darkness.
A light from above flicked on as we made our way inside, and its yellow glow brought the scene into focus, revealing eight Wolves, indeed. Plus two.
A voice filled the large space from the same direction as had come the light, and Kyra and I tilted our heads up to see Lukas Borden standing on the loft above. He wore the same fine suit I was so used to seeing him wear. Beside him, tied to a chair and now very much conscious, was Erek Blackwood.
And beside Erek, with eyes as crazy as a devil’s and teeth as sharp as knives, the Mad Wolf grinned down at us as well.
“Miss Silvers,” Lukas Borden said, clucking his tongue in feigned disappointment, “I almost bet that you wouldn’t show up. I had thought you smarter than that…” He glanced toward Erek where he sat tied up on the loft beside him, and back down at me. “And more indifferent. I guess your reputation was exaggerated. You’re not as cold and cunning as word would have you seem.”
For as tight as the knot in my stomach was, I was surprised when my voice came out steady. “And I suppose you live up to yours,” I replied. “A ruthless, self-serving male with a penchant for cruelty. That about right?”
Beside Lukas, Lucian let out a low growl, ropes of drool dripping from the Mad Wolf’s fangs.
But Lukas himself only smiled with eyes as cold as the dark places in the depths of winter. “I liked you, Miss Silvers. We could have been friends,” he said, and his eyes ran the length of me. “Perhaps even lovers.”
I snorted, and ignored the warning look Kyra shot me before the Sorceress returned her attention to the Wolves surrounding us, their predator’s gazes watching our every move. I was a good shot, but if they all decided to attack at once, I doubted we’d be able to take them out before at least a couple of them reached us.
“Just let the Hound go,” I said. “Then I will leave this place and you’ll never hear from me again. We’ve completed our business together. No hard feelings.”
Lukas laughed outright. It was a deep, rumbling sound that grated on my sensitive ears. I had yet to meet Erek’s eyes, because I had a feeling that whatever expression he was wearing would knock the air out of me.
“You know I can’t do that, Miss Silvers,” Lukas said. “But for the record, I did not initially plan on killing you. Not unless I had to, but you see, in our line of work, sleeping with a Hound is quite the folly. Not something that can be overlooked. For business’s sake. You understand.”
I nodded slowly, sensing that our little standoff was about to end, and then the real violence and destruction would begin.
“Why take him, then?” I asked, jerking my chin toward Erek. “Why not just kill me instead?”
Beside me, Kyra shifted a little on her feet, and I was sure that she was using the most colorful of curses in her head in that moment in reference to my idiocy.
Lukas slipped his hands into the pockets of his slacks, taking on the casual stance that I so often adopted. “Because I wasn’t sure you were going to show up, and if I couldn’t catch you before you split, I needed to tie up whatever loose ends were left. And if I took him and you did show up…” A shrug. “Two birds, one stone.”
In the silence that followed, the sound of the hammers on my duel revolvers clicking back echoed through the space. Outside, a magnificent crack of thunder boomed through the night, so loud that the earth rumbled a little bit beneath our feet.
“Kill them,” Lukas commanded, his voice the disinterested tone of someone ordering a cup of tea.
The Wolves around us began to close in, jaws snapping and eyes glowing as their master watched on from above.
Before all hell broke loose, Kyra and I exchanged a single glance, but in that one look, so much passed between us. We had gotten into trouble countless times before, had pulled each other out of the fire on more occasions than either of us could count, but never anything like this.
It was one thing to stand beside each other willing to fight. It was a whole other matter to stand beside someone willing to die.
If we made it out of this, I realized, there would be no way I could ever repay her, no way to convey the full weight of my gratitude. And if we did not, then she would have died because of me, and knowing her, she might just hunt me down in the afterlife.
Then the moment was over, and a surge of magic rushed out of Kyra as she thrust her hands to the side, shooting out purple bolts of lightning that slammed into the two Wolves nearest us and sent them skidding backwards.
At the same time, I began firing my weapon, making every bullet count. My first two shots found their targets and took out two more of the Wolves closing in. The sound of the shots was magnificent, exploding in my ears and leaving only a slight ringing in between firings.
I rolled to the side and fired off two more shots, narrowly avoiding the snapping jaws of a Wolf and striking one more between the eyes while my other bullet embedded itself into a barrel of moonshine, and the liquid inside started pouring out the hole, soaking the ground around us.
Beside me, Kyra had begun levitating, her magic lifting her over the heads of the Wolves as she continued knocking out the ones who made it past my barrels.
Moving with all the speed I could muster, I continued shooting. My vision tunneled in until all I could see was fur and fangs and the sparks of the hammers on my revolvers striking home.
Thunder boomed overhead, but the sound could hardly be distinguished from that of my guns. The terrific pounding of my heart was drowned in the madness.
At some point, Lukas must have seen that we were winning, and I barely caught the movement in all the commotion as Lucian leapt down from the loft on which they’d been watching.
Beside me, Kyra’s magic was ebbing. Since the Seers had put in the magical restrictions generations ago, her kind had not been allowed to use the kind of magic she was currently using. I’d known Kyra long enough to know that a Sorceress’s magic supply was directly tied to their physical energy, and while she was no doubt magnificent, she could not keep up her current magical expenditure much longer.
“Get Erek out,” I told her, speaking through clenched teeth.
The look of resistance my friend shot me was expected, but whatever expression was in my own eyes made her move, and I thanked the Gods for small favors.
Kyra blinked out of her position just as one of the Wolves closed its jaws aro
und the open air where her neck had formerly been. When she reappeared a moment later, standing on the loft beside Erek, I only had time to notice that she was swaying on her feet. Nearing the end of her magical supply.
I could tell she did not want to leave me, and we shared one final look that caused a crack in both of our hearts.
Kyra placed her hand on Erek’s shoulder, where he was still chained to the chair, and the two of them disappeared out of sight.
I didn’t have time to breathe a sigh of relief before the Mad Wolf was leaping toward me, maw yawning seemingly wide enough to swallow me whole.
With a half-drawn breath, I raised my pistols toward the beast, and fired.
And was met with the hollow clicks of two empty chambers.
Chapter 28
Everything that happened next happened very fast.
The duel clicks of the irons sank my heart in my chest like a hole in a vessel.
There was the flash of dark fur, the sound of low snarling, and the glimpse of glowing golden eyes.
I shifted.
It was more a decision my body made for me than my mind consciously comprehended. One moment I was standing on two legs, and the next, I was on four, the massive muscular body of the Mad Wolf sailing over me.
Shifting instantaneously was not a feat every Wolf could manage, and drew a lot of energy from the person, but now that my guns were empty and I had no more use for my fingers, fangs and teeth made much better weapons than fists and feet.
This had barely occurred before the Mad Wolf spun around, his jaws having snapped shut on empty air. He charged forward again, and I dodged, nearly getting bitten by one of the other Wolves Kyra and I had taken out previously who had regained consciousness. I darted and leapt and skidded, a mouse trying to maneuver away from the paws of the cat, and it did not take long for me to come to the very sudden realization that I would not walk out of this storehouse alive.
The relief I had felt upon seeing Kyra and Erek escape was short-lived, and tainted by the fact that I had essentially traded my life for that of a Hound. Of course, I’d known this was a possibility when I’d come here, but now that I was alone, trapped in a building with Lukas Borden and his Mad Wolf brother, I’m not ashamed to say that I regretted the decision.
I did not want to die here. Alone and so far away from my family.
These thoughts, along with any other rational cognition, were wiped from my mind as the Mad Wolf continued giving chase. His sharp fangs caught me on my rear flank and tore the skin right open, slowing me down. The irony scent of my blood filled the air, and there was a soft chuckle from overhead, where Lukas had been watching in stoic silence as the entire scene took place.
I continued my evasion, taking a shot at the doors, which had been closed at some point after we’d arrived, and which I could not open in my Wolf form. But none of that seemed to matter as I limped toward them, my survival instinct making one futile last-ditch effort at escape.
“That was dramatic, Miss Silvers,” Lukas’s voice echoed from behind me. “And don’t think that your Sorceress friend and your Hound lover have escaped. After Lucian is done with you, I’m going to hunt them down myself, and have them atone for your mistakes.”
Pain was shooting through me, the dim lights in the storehouse growing dimmer. I continued my futile stretch toward the blocked exit, and knew that the bastards were drawing this thing out without having to look over my shoulder and confirm. I was trapped and wounded. They could kill me anytime they wanted, but males like Lukas did not just get off on killing people like me, he liked to wave his dominance around so that he could feel better about himself.
I reached the closed double doors of the storehouse, my left rear paw leaving bloody prints with every step. The smell of spilled moonshine and blood and fear was thick enough to choke as I sucked in gasping breaths.
At least Kyra and Erek had made it out, I thought, and could only pray that the Sorceress had retained enough energy to make it back to the mountain. Teleporting herself and Erek after all the magic she’d used when coming in here had no doubt drained her power down to the dregs, along with any physical energy stores in her body.
I turned on my heels, facing the Borden brothers and their wicked, triumphant smiles, one in his mortal form on the loft above, and the other stalking forward with his huge head lowered, ears flat and teeth bared, anticipation gleaming in the gold in his eyes.
The fur on my back was raised, and I let out a low growl that earned a laugh from Lukas, and one of those Wolfish smiles from Lucian. My backend hit the closed doors, and my body shifted back into its mortal form on its own accord. The magic ring Kyra had made me when we were children ensured that my clothes and weapons appeared automatically, but as the irons were empty, this did me little good.
Now, instead of being a Wolf with my tail tucked low, I was a girl with a bloodied left leg. That leg buckled beneath me, and I slumped against the closed doors after gripping for the handles and missing, the strength in my body abandoning me at last.
“Such a shame,” Lukas said, still looking down on me from above, as the son of a bitch did with the rest of the world. “I really did like you… Kill her, Lucian, and let’s be done with this.”
I pulled my blurry gaze away from the Wolf on the loft to meet the crazy eyes of the Wolf right in front of me. My hands fumbled in my pockets, as if my fingers had forgotten that my guns were empty and were now acting on muscle memory.
The Mad Wolf stalked closer, and in his gaze, I saw my waiting death.
Some of the other Wolves Kyra and I had incapacitated but not killed were coming to. They pushed to their paws around their Alpha, heads held low as they stalked forward. A pack on the prowl; predators rousing at the scent of death in the air.
My fingers continued fumbling uselessly in my pockets… and closed around something small and metal. I was so out of it that it took a precious moment to even remember what the item was.
When I did, laughter bubbled up my throat, accompanied by the taste of blood.
The approaching Wolves were so confused by my reaction that they actually gave pause.
“Fuck you, Lukas,” I said, and slipped the little metal object out of my pocket.
The ground on which I was sitting was soaked with Moonshine, so when I pulled the little fire flicker that the Demon, Elian, had given me from my pocket, I was well aware of what would happen if I sparked it to life.
Which I did, because there was no time to waste and none to second-guess, either. Lucian saw what was in my hand, and leapt forward in an attempt to reach me before I could flick the flame to life. But as fast as he was, he was not fast enough to beat the snap of my fingers, and the tiny flame had no sooner sparked to life before I tossed it at the Mad Wolf. It landed right where his paws had been just moments ago, and the reaction was magnificent.
The ground, which had been saturated with shine from the shots I’d fired that had gone haywire, lit up like the night sky during the Winter Harvest Celebration. The response was instant, and red-blue flame spread throughout the storehouse in a blanket of burning glory, putting a moving river of fire between me and the males that were trying to kill me.
But I barely had time to watch the beauty of this, because Lucian had leapt forward, and his open jaws were sailing toward me in a blow that was meant to sever bone and muscle; a bite meant to kill.
I was already sitting, my back leaning against the closed sliding doors of the storehouse, so I dropped even lower and laid flat on the ground, raising my boots into the air. My left leg was slower to react, but as a Wolf, my right leg alone should be strong enough to do the trick.
Or so I hoped.
As Lucian sailed into range, I aimed my feet at his wide chest and had only split seconds to await the impact. His jaws snapped on open air at the same moment as the soles of my boots slammed into his chest. I used every bit of strength I had left in me to extend my legs in a hard kick.
Lucian’s body went flying ba
ckwards, over the ocean of flame that was now engulfing the space. He landed on his back, but scrambled promptly to his paws, his crazed eyes taking on a panic that made me smile despite the fact that we were all going to burn in here together.
The other Wolves were all trying to flee, but the fire was now crawling up the walls, racing toward the barrels along the wall.
The barrels full of highly flammable moonshine.
A magnificent explosion sounded right on the heels of this thought, and the doors behind me shuddered as heat rushed at my face, making me bring my arm up and shield my eyes against the brilliant flare.
Through the flames, the panic of the Wolves was palpable. I caught sight of Lucian, the Mad Wolf himself, spinning in circles as the tip of his tail caught fire after I’d kicked him away from me. The terrified look that came into his eyes was awful to witness, despite the fact that the male had been about to kill me less than a half-minute prior.
As the heat grew in intensity, another explosion sounded, this time shaking the entire structure and reverberating through the hard ground on which I still sat. I blinked, coughing as smoke filled my lungs and fogged my brain. Some of the others started coughing, while others were letting out the high-pitched squeals of a hurting canine, and a couple others still had shifted back into their mortal forms.
These ones began screaming.
Orange and blue flames engulfed the scene, and the back of my head fell back with a thud to the metal door I was still leaning against. The metal was hot enough that it would soon sear through my skin, but I made one last effort to reach up for one of the handles.
My left leg gave out beneath me when I tried to stand, and I collapsed in a heap as another fit of coughing wracked through me.
It was in that moment that I peered through the smoke and flame and agony and caught sight of Lukas. He was still up on the loft part of the storehouse, still looking down like a king upon a burning throne. He met my eyes across the fray, and the hatred there was almost as hot as the flames blooming brightly all around us.
