“Alex Noziak,” he said, as if we were meeting under normal circumstances. “Very quick thinking. Though I expected no less from you.”
So he knew who I was? Or at least recognized me, which made my skin crawl.
I lowered my hands, saving my breath for whatever I’d need to do next. “Vaverek, I presume?”
He inclined his head, not enough to break eye contact. I felt the same way, not trusting him more than I could throw him. Since he was a Were I knew it wouldn’t be far.
“I did expect you to come a little better prepared,” he murmured. “Very shortsighted.”
I gave him a smile meant to singe him, which seemed to work very well as his brows beetled. “I see your arrogance is well earned,” I taunted.
He was right. Bran was busy. Willie was as useless as donkey tits and François was MIA. But I still had my tongue, which, if my brothers were to be believed, was as lethal as any weapon they’d ever faced.
Vaverek took a moment to look around. He must not have been too worried as he turned back to me, shaking his head. “Tsk, tsk, tsk. You are playing way out of your league, Miss Noziak. A common enough error for Noziaks, it appears. Just ask your brother.”
Vaverek one, me zero.
Except the rage building within me from his words helped. Then he nodded his chin toward someone behind me and I heard it. A growl. A wolf’s cry of pain and frenzy.
Van.
Vaverek two, me still batting a big fat zero. Unless I could stop him. Now!
I sent a silent plea to Manlike Woman, a Kootenai woman of power who was believed by my people to be supernatural because of her ability to don male roles despite her "delicate frame". And if anyone needed to man up here, it was me when facing this Were.
I quietly started my chant.
Oh Mighty Manlike
Bring to justice the one before me.
Vaverek looked at me, a snarl darkening his face.
Make him writhe in pain and feel the harm
that he has caused tenfold.
He started morphing. His height growing larger, broader, and very furry. I chanted louder.
May the pain, the anguish, the fear he created return
Twenty times ten to him.
A Werebison suddenly stood before me. Bison bonasus, one of the largest animals in the world and most deadly. But I thought they’d been slaughtered to extinction. Maybe the true animal ones had been but obviously Vaverek hadn’t gotten the memo.
Vaverek stood at least twelve feet high at the shoulder, his Were genes expanding the normal width and breadth of a bison, and that wasn’t counting his horns. At almost a ton in weight, able to jump six feet vertically, and outrace a human running, I was facing hell on hooves.
By the Great Spirits what had I done?
He was pawing the ground as I stepped back, my throat so dry I could barely utter the final words of the Retribution Spell.
Oh Mighty Manlike
Let his punishment fit his crimes
I call on thee, so mote it be!
Nothing happened.
CHAPTER 66
When in doubt, run like hell. A new Noziak motto as I turned and scrambled away from Vaverek.
Not that he was standing still. With a bellow that shook the ground he roared after me.
Nothing that big should move that fast.
I dove through the nearest row of trees placed wide enough for me to weave among them but close enough that Vaverek’s wide shoulders weren’t going to easily glide through. They wouldn’t stop him but they might slow him down. I had agility and that was about it.
How had the spell failed?
Backlash from using blood magic last night? Could be. Magic was a fickle bitch.
Like one of the cartoon characters my brothers and I watched growing up I threaded in and out of the trees like a roadrunner on crack. My breath was chugging, my leg muscles burning. Every time Vaverek smashed through tree trunks I gained a few seconds as I heard the thud of muscles snapping timber and the rip of roots being pulled out of the ground. At this rate I hoped to reach the simin fae before he did.
“Bran,” I screamed, using precious oxygen as I bobbed in and out from one side of the wall of green, seeing Bran and Willie on one side, the parking lot on the other. I waited till I was on Bran’s side before shouting again. “Bran!”
Parking lot side.
“What?”
Grass side.
“Release the spell.”
Parking lot.
My plan was born of desperation.
“When?” Willie shouted, which told me Bran was either resisting or using everything he had to contain the spell.
Grass side.
“When I say.”
Parking lot.
Why couldn’t the French have planted thick-limbed trees instead of wimpy ones? Vaverek was tearing through the twenty-foot trees like a St. Bernard puppy through petunias.
Grass side.
“Ready?” I called, so close I could see Bran’s strain from holding the limbs of the simin fae rigid, and Bran could probably hear my chugging breath. I mentally asked the faes forgiveness for what I was about to do.
One more round between shrubs. Grass side. Parking lot. Grass.
“Now! Run. Everyone run!” I raced toward Bran, grabbing his arm to catapult him out of the way and break the spell. But he’d already released it.
I could hear the high pitch of the fae screaming in their natural tongues.
“Run!” I screamed again, waving my arm at them to get them to move, but they wouldn’t listen.
In the blink of an eye Vaverek was on them, mowing them down like bowling pins. One threat gone. Now they couldn’t imprison Bran.
Bran and I flew to the left, Willie to the right.
Vaverek stumbled, his forelegs bending but not stopping.
I scrambled to my feet, clutching at Bran. “Go. Go. Go.”
He didn’t need the encouragement. Willie was on his own, but he had a Were’s speed so was better able to escape.
“Where to?” Bran shouted next to me.
“The building.” The only place we might form a defense against Vaverek. I glanced over my shoulder to see where he was and groaned. He was already wheeling around and pawing the ground for a new charge. The building was the only option but it was a good forty feet away. And I had no idea if we could even get in.
One thing at a time.
That’s when I heard the cry. A howl of pain. A wolf’s roar.
Van?
I skidded to a stop, Bran whipping past me, shouting, “Come on.”
“It’s Van.” But where was he?
I looked around, noticing the others. Must be Weres, not humans, as they had been racing toward where Bran had been. And Vaverek still was, which had everyone double-timing backwards.
Vaverek was in such a rage he didn’t seem to care who he was took out as he gored the nearest Weres, several in the process of shifting.
Bran ran back to me, grabbed my arm, and tried dragging me along, but I was digging my feet in.
“There!” I spied Van, in wolf form, chained between the doctor man and another, straining against the silver chains binding him. But silver against a shifter meant it was pointless. Vaverek and a dozen Weres were between him and us.
CHAPTER 67
I was Van’s only chance. The only one who might be able to stop him. “I’ve got to go back,” I shouted at Bran, still playing protective caveman warlock as he wrapped his arms around me, dragging me toward the building.
“He’ll kill you.”
“He’ll die without me.”
And that’s what it was coming down to. I knew Vaverek had Van drugged. I knew Van had been programmed. I knew my brother was out of his mind.
But if I didn’t try to reach him, there was no hope.
I twisted toward Bran, for once not wanting to slug him as much as make him understand. At least he’d stopped, which gave me hope. “Can you cast a containment s
pell?”
“To stop a raging Werebison?”
“No. I’ll handle him. You keep my brother from harming anyone.”
He looked past me, indecision written all over his face. “Please,” I said. “Help me.”
His face tightened, as if at war with himself, then he released me. His
voice a low growl. The sound of a pissed off warlock. “If you can’t stop Vaverek you get out. Understand?”
I nodded, too choked up to do anything else. Bran released me and started running at an angle to intercept Van. It also meant he was moving toward the other Weres. My goal was clear then. Get Vaverek to attack me. Get the Weres to do the same. Give Bran the space he needed.
One thing at a time.
I stood in the middle of the grassy lawn and started jumping up and down, waving my arms. “Here, fur-butt,” I called to Vaverek. “I’m over here you big dumb cow!”
Since bison were not bovines, I figured the insult would work. And it did. A little too well as he dug in those powerful front hooves churning up the grass as he rocketed my way.
No material for a banishing spell. My reverse punishment spell had sizzled. What was left?
Not time, that was for sure.
The building behind me? That was a copout and left Bran exposed. What was the Noziak motto? Do the unexpected. Which was a given considering we were all pigheaded and not because my dad was a pig farmer.
Mind made up I started running toward Vaverek. Closer. Closer. Closer. Until I could smell his furry stench, see the foam around his nostrils, the hatred in his eyes. Damn, he was huge!
But I kept running straight toward him, my heart in my throat, my skin iced with fear, until I was within a few feet and then I hurled myself to the side.
He raced past so close the wind of his passage slapped against me.
I landed with a tumble and roll, the earth rattling my bones. But I was still alive.
For now.
As I staggered to my feet I heard a familiar voice call from the tree line. “Alex? Over here!”
I turned to see Kelly waving at me, backed by Jaylene, Mandy and Vaughn. No Stone, not that I expected him.
They’d come. My team was here.
But what could they do except get killed? I wanted to shout run, hide, protect yourselves, but instead I pointed to where the Weres were circling Van.
“Get them.”
Vaughn nodded and that’s all I needed.
I turned back to Vaverek who’d sprinted past me with so much force and speed he was now a good twenty feet away. That’s what I needed. Some maneuverability.
Seeing Kelly had given me an idea. It was a long shot and a spell I’d only tried once before, but I didn’t have a lot of options.
I planted my feet wide, said a quick prayer to the Great Spirit to protect my back while I focused one hundred percent on the threat in front of me and started my chant. Out of the corner of my eye I could see two Weres racing toward me from the side furthest from my team.
Ignore them. Focus. I swallowed deep.
Defluo modo.
I call the chameleon to me now.
Vaverek shook his mangy head, slobber raining every direction. The Weres were shooting closer.
Recedo nunc.
He shifts, he changes, he blends
The Werebison lowered his massive head and shoulders. Another ten feet and the Weres would beat him to me.
Defluo modo
I change as he, to fit my need.
Hooves to ground he started pounding. A mass of muscle, speed and menace tearing toward me. I licked my lips and sucked in a deep breath to say the last lines, holding one hand out as if it’d stop the Weres almost on top of me.
Recedo iam
My corporeal self you can not see.
I thee will it, so mote it be!
Magic washed against me, staggering me back hard enough I stumbled and fell, landing on my backside.
Thank whoever watched out for fools and inept witches, my less-than-graceful tumble meant the Weres raced right past where I’d been.
The damn Invisibility spell worked.
I was so busy giving myself a mental yippie-kayee I almost forgot about the one-ton monster barreling down on me.
Almost.
With a choking cry I rolled away from Vaverek’s hooves, so close I could feel the clods of earth pelting me as he chewed past.
Too near.
But we weren’t done fighting yet.
I looked over to where Bran stood, hands stretched toward Van, freezing my brother and the two handlers with him. Good.
Jaylene, Mandy and Vaughn were not having as easy a time of it as they danced in and out of a pack of Weres attacking them. The Weres had not morphed, probably because they’d be too visible to any Council members looking out from within the building. A quick glance in that direction and I could see shadows at the second floor window.
Yup, my hunch was right. Van’s drugged state was to look like a shifter run amuk and attacking humans. Which made it necessary that the Weres didn’t reveal themselves. Except Vaverek already had. How was the Council going to ignore a raging bison?
Their problem. Mine was still stopping him. Now. He might no longer see me but that didn’t mean he wasn’t still lethal as hell and looking for a new target.
Which meant Bran and my brother, or my team.
I ignored my body screaming in protest as I lurched to my feet. That’s when I noticed the bullet of black-banded fur race past me.
“Dad?” The cry escaped me before I realized he couldn’t see me.
The wolf paused a heartbeat, shook his head then continued to bullet toward Vaverek. Of course, wolves used to be one of the few threats against bison, but that had been when wolves hunted in packs and they attacked a young calf or ill animal for food.
Dad had already reached Vaverek, launching himself to latch onto the bison’s nostrils. Shifter wolves were larger than their pure wolf brethren, which meant Dad was a good two hundred pounds of snarling, ferocious killing machine, using his forty-two teeth to exert over two thousand pounds of pressure to tear into Vaverek.
Made me want to be a shifter myself just so I could have done the same.
But right now I needed to get to my team.
Staggering across the grass I was glad I was still invisible. That way I wouldn’t have to live it down that I basically limped into the fray. But I was there and I’d do what I could.
Thank Stone for teaching me enough Krav Maga. A key thrust here, sideways kick there, and a few sweeps of my invisible legs to an attacking Were here and there. It didn’t take long for them to start turning on one another.
Punch. Smack. Kick, Thrust.
I felt the reverberations up every bone of my body but at least they weren’t getting powerful return hits on me. Weres at the best of times are a wary lot, fighting something they couldn’t see just messed with their Were-sized brains.
With a jerk of his thick neck one Were, who must have been the most Alpha one fighting, growled, “Retreat.”
Yes!
Not one of the other Weres hesitated. And it couldn’t have happened a minute sooner. Vaughn was curled on the ground but alive. Jaylene and Mandy were leaning against one another, blood streaming from one’s nose, the other cradling her still healing arm.
My hard-pressed team assumed Kelly had been at work since she wasn’t visible anywhere. Which made me wonder where she’d disappeared to.
I didn’t have time to say anything as I heard the sharp crack of a rifle shot.
As if in slow motion I pivoted and watched Bran as his arms were flung out before him. Then he toppled forward, red blooming along his side.
I was running before I realized it, racing to his side, pressing my hand to staunch his blood flow, to make sure he was still alive.
He was. Barely. But his eyes were open, his lips moving. I leaned forward, reassuring him, “Don’t worry. I’ll get you out of here.”
I didn’t kno
w how. But I’d do it.
He shook his head. Even here he didn’t trust me. Then I made out the word he kept repeating over and over. “Van.”
Too late I looked up to see my brother less than five feet away, his wolf lips pulled back in a silent snarl, his fur bristling, his body crouched and ready to attack.
CHAPTER 68
I raised my hands before me, using my voice to try and reach my brother’s human part, if he had any left. “It’s me, Van. Alex. I won’t hurt you.”
He maintained his crouch, his yellow eyes narrowed, focusing. Good news; he hadn’t immediately attacked. Maybe I could connect with him.
“I want to help you. Protect you from the people who did this to you.”
The same people I’d seen scampering off the second Bran’s containment spell broke. One of them, the doctor who’d been with Philippe Cheverill the night he’d died, paused long enough to shake his head before he disappeared through the shrubbery toward the parking lot.
Cowards the lot of them.
Behind me I could hear my father still attacking Vaverek. Another sound reached me. A barking dog.
François? Finally. If I ever got out of here Fido and I were going to have a few words and not of the hey-how’re-you-doing kind.
But right now I had to keep my brother from going ballistic.
“It’s me Van,” I repeated, my voice not betraying the terror racing through me. Bran needed help. Now. “We can all walk away if you just go easy, Van.”
Usually not a problem, of my brothers, Van was the calmest, the most controlled in wolf form or human. But I couldn’t see an ounce of humanity in the raging-yellow eyes staring at me.
Not at me. At my bloodied hands in front of me. Talk about stupid with a capital S. The invisibility spell had held, except for where my hands had touched Bran’s blood. So here I was, speaking in the voice of his sister but not looking like her, holding bloodied hands in front of a rabid wolf as if I were a hunk of raw meat.
INVISIBLE POWER BOOK TWO: ALEX NOZIAK (INVISIBLE RECRUITS) Page 26
