by Mandy Rosko
Bill shook his head, determined to ruin their hope. "And, if you come across something that cannot be burned? What will you do then? I don't want any more deaths on my hands. People have been dying for over a thousand years just because they looked like me."
“What’s there that can’t be burned?” Mike asked.
“His castle,” Bill replied.
Unbelievable.
Well, not really. It figured a medieval lord would live in nothing less.
Mike rubbed his face when no solution presented itself.
He paced to think. “I called for backup, told them where I’d meet them. I could call and tell them to come to the ranch instead but …” That would take hours. Mike fisted his Stetson and threw it to the floor. “Shit!”
“We don’t have time to wait for them,” Westley said, knowing where his thoughts had gone.
“I can help.”
Everyone turned their heads to the door that had opened a crack without their notice.
Mike’s eyes rounded to saucers. “Bud? What are you doing here?” Then the bandages wrapped around his torso and head became more noticeable. “What the Hell happened to you?”
“You know this boy?” Bill asked.
Westley looked between them. “Who is he?”
“My brother. And you’re not helping. You’re going to tell me what happened then I’m going to send you home.”
“Why not? He’s helping and he’s my age,” Bud said, pointing a finger at Chris.
The dragon scratched his red hair. “I’m older than I look kid.”
“Whatever. Mike, you don’t even know what I can do.”
Mike opened his mouth to say that it didn’t matter but Bill beat him to the response.
“He’s very powerful.”
Mike half turned so that he could look at the old man, still weak in his bed. “What are you talking about?”
“That boy tried to defend Annie. I saw him. Very brave. He even caught a truck and threw it at her attacker. Unfortunately Hadrian still got the better of him.”
“Threw a truck?” Mike looked at Bud, his eyes gazing over the scrawny muscles in his arms.
“Not physically.” Bud glared at him as though insulted before crossing his arms, hiding them. He looked around the room. “Here, look.”
He reached his hand out, pointed it towards the nightstand where pad of paper and pen sat. He drew his fingers together, as though he were holding onto something small, and the pen lifted into the air.
Mike’s breath caught in his throat. The pen came towards him, slowly, like a submarine in water. He put his hand out as it came close enough, and the little plastic pen dropped into his heavy palm followed by the paper.
Mike stared at his brother. The little brother he hadn’t seen in so many years, the one, he realized with this revelation, he knew almost nothing about.
“I don’t think it was the car accident that made you psychic,” Bud said, shrugging. “I think it’s just the way we are.”
“But …” He was too stunned to speak, so he just stared at the pad and pen some more.
“I can do a lot more than that. It’s how I survived when that dickhead attacked me. I shielded myself in the fall.” He rubbed his bandages. “Still hurt, though.”
Bud turned to Bill, back straight like a soldier. “If you’ll let me, I’ll help you get your granddaughter back.”
Bill raised a white eyebrow at him. “Do you know what you’re offering to go up against?”
“I was listening to a lot of conversations after I woke up. I know what you all are.”
“You don’t seem so surprised,” Westley said.
“Are you kidding me? Why would I be? Knowing what my brother and I can do? It’s kind of a relief knowing there are others out there.”
Everyone in the room smiled, even Mike. He certainly hadn’t been as ecstatic as Bud when he found out about everything.
“So, can I go?”
The two werewolves and one dragon looked among themselves.
“That’s up to your brother,” Bill said.
Shit. Now Bud was staring at him, begging him, and Mike was about to give in. He must have been crazy to even think of bringing his younger brother into this. But he was desperate.
"You better be as good as you say you are."
***
Hadrian wouldn't let her leave his sight. Not until she remembered how to operate the moonstone so she could turn him into a God.
Anne wished she were Luna so that she could turn him into fungus. Even with all her strength, she couldn’t take him out, and she’d tried.
His stubborn insistence that she was a Goddess despite her claims made her want to throw something at him. He'd probably use his magic to send the flying object right back at her.
She trailed behind him, the heels he gave her clicked loudly in the stone hall. She hated them, and for some reason, she couldn’t shift into her wolf form in this weird castle she was in.
He’d wrapped the moonstone in a thick cloak to prevent the light from harming his servants, and he carried it as though it were a precious jewel as he gave her a tour of his home.
“Never has its glow been so bright,” He’d said, looking at her over his shoulder, a giddy, child-like smile on his lips. “No doubt your presence has brought about the blessing.”
Ugh.
Some of the shadows straightened in his approach like soldiers, while others scurried out of his way, leaving rags and buckets behind them.
"This is the great hall. When we are married, I shall throw a marvelous celebration with food, guests, and music. I remember how much you enjoyed music." He reached out, took her gloved hand, and lifted it to his lips.
Disgust shimmied through her at the contact. She yanked her arm back but his grip tightened like iron. His mouth pressed harder until he deemed it time to release her.
She stepped back when he did. “Don’t touch me.”
Anne eyed the wrapped stone in his hand. She could probably reach out and take it …
Hadrian stepped forward as if she hadn’t sneered and put distance between them. "I also remember you wearing this above your lovely head." With a flick of his finger, a jeweled crown appeared in his hand.
Anne's breath caught in her throat at its beauty. Its slim, silver base glistened with diamonds that connected to a thick, golden crescent moon that sat with its points faced up.
Hadrian placed the crown atop her head with the gentleness of a man placing a fallen baby bird back into its nest.
He sighed and admired it. “It fell from your head when that beast attacked you. Are you pleased that I have kept it?”
She swallowed. God. She wasn’t even into jewelry and she felt the weight of the glistening tiara burn in her hair.
Hadrian snarled, for the first time showing his annoyance. “Are you not pleased?”
Anne cleared her throat, yanking herself back to reality. “Yes. Very pleased.” She had to get the moonstone, not think about the priceless artifact on her head that should be in a museum, or a vault with thick, iron doors.
Her grandfather said that Hadrian's power was limited. That the more he used, the weaker he became as a result of selling his soul for it. Though it seemed that in this place, this Shadow Land where he hid away in his castle, he was as powerful as ever.
"So lovely," Hadrian purred, pleased with her response as he openly admired her. "I long for the day when you remember your true self. Then, we can spend all of eternity together."
"And, if I can't remember?" Anne prompted, no longer attempting to convince him that she wasn't who he thought she was.
He reached his hand out to caress her cheek. Anne allowed it. "Then we will simply stay here, my love. You will be queen and every serf who lives here will bow before you."
"Serf?" Anne looked around the great hall with new attention; the shadows who straightened themselves at their master's approach, the ones who toiled on the floor and scurried out of his way when he c
ame near, all jumped into her head. Anne's head swam, her stomach flopped, and her knees shook. She reached out to Hadrian to keep from falling over.
"My love!" He snaked his arm around her waist and helped her to a bench. She sat and leaned her head between her knees.
She inhaled rapidly but it felt like she couldn’t breathe.
"Water! Bring water!" Hadrian called.
Anne raised her eyes. No sooner had the words left Hadrian's lips was there a shadow hanging over her head, a tray in its dark hands with a pitcher and two goblets on it. The entity placed the tray on the long table, bowed low, and disappeared while Hadrian poured her a cup.
Her hands automatically took the goblet but she did not drink.
"They're people," she said, horrified. "It's not just your knights, but everyone in your castle. They're all people who worked for you."
She hadn’t known that. Bill said Hadrian turned his knights into these things, but she’d been left with the impression that it had been a willing thing.
He’d turned everyone in his castle into these lost souls. There was no way they had all volunteered for it.
She felt like she was going to hurl all over her pretty dress.
"And now they will obey you as well," Hadrian said, coaxing her hand that held the goblet to her lips so she would drink.
It could have been drugged for all she knew, but Anne needed it. She gulped the water in one swish. When Hadrian refilled her cup, she drank that too.
"How can you live here?” She started, looking away from the goblet she held to stare at his black eyes. "You claimed that you loved L—” She had to stop herself. “Me. Said you loved me. Is all this," She waved her hand around the dark space of the great hall, "really worth it? You’re alone here. Don’t you miss the sun?"
While growing up listening to the stories of the first werewolf, there were times she thought of Hadrian as the evil villain. Other times, she sympathized.
While this was not one of those times, and she wanted to put him in a world of hurt for doing what he did to Gordon and Bill, she needed to believe there was some small part of him still willing to listen to reason.
He took the covered orb from his lap and unwrapped it. The shadows shrieked and fled when the room burst with silver light, not golden from the sun.
He smiled at her. “This is my sun, your presence in this stone. It has been for years.”
She shook her head. "It's not the same thing."
"It has been enough to keep my head intact," he grumbled, tucking the stone back into the makeshift pouch.
The shadows reappeared when the offending light was taken away. Like frightened children, they observed their surroundings before quietly returning to their duties.
His head wasn't intact. Anne knew it even if he didn't
She snatched the rock from his hands, pulled it from the sac and jumped away from the bench. It might not protect her from Hadrian's magic but it could at least get the creepy shadow-ghosts out of the room. "I want to see my grandpa."
Hadrian's body tensed. He rose to his feet, eyes panicked and hands outstretched. "You wish to leave?"
"If you really love me, you'll let me go."
"Is there something amiss with the accommodations?"
He spoke as though she were complaining about her hotel room. "This isn't where I live and I won't let you make it my home either. There are ghosts trapped here because you won't let them leave and it's constantly dark."
"A fine complaint from the lady of the night!" The force of his anger brought the familiar red aura to his black-clad body.
Anne jumped and backed away from him. He followed with storming footsteps until her back pressed against a stone wall. Grabbing a fistful of her blonde hair, he yanked his rodent face close to hers.
His breath was warm and putrid against her cheeks, his teeth big and yellow through his snarl.
"You have spent your entire existence in the dark, living on the moon when I called you to earth. I offered the sun but you refused it, only appearing on nights when the moon was full."
"That was the only time she could appear you idiot!" Anne screamed. She raised her fist and punched at Hadrian's hand, twisting herself until her hair was out of his dirty fingers.
She moved along the wall, opting to never hold still. The crown fell from her head in the struggle, emitting a clang when it hit the stone floor.
Hadrian did not drop to pick it up as he moved with her, following her.
The greater prize.
She kept moving but she wouldn't look away from his heated eyes, burning red with wisps of fire crackling beneath his lids.
She didn't care. Let him be angry. She wasn't going to play this game anymore.
"Luna could only appear on earth on a full moon night, that doesn't make her nocturnal, you moron. In case you didn’t know, the sun’s up for almost an entire month on the moon. You've been spending all this time in the dark for nothing."
Hadrian raised his hand as though he would slap her.
Anne's nails lengthened into claws through her gloves, the most she’d been able to change into her wolf form since she’d arrived, so she could rip his throat out for even thinking of it.
The ground beneath them shook before he could lay a finger on her.
The tables and benches rattled against the floors as the pitcher of water and their goblets bounced and spilled.
Hadrian's head wildly dashed about, searching for the cause.
This kind of thing couldn’t be normal for the Shadow World, not if this was his reaction.
Anne fought the panic rising inside her. Forcing her mind to focus on the bigger picture, she turned and ran.
Anne lifted her heavy gown and ran from the great hall. The ground stopped shaking as quickly as it had started.
Hadrian gave chase. His screams were wild, like a child crying for its mother. "Luna! Luna!"
Anne had no idea where she was going. Each leap of her feet brought her farther and farther away from her captor. His human strides couldn't match her agility even with the high heels.
She followed the halls, twisting and turning, the glowing stone in her hands preventing her from being tackled by his shadow knights.
Finally, two oak doors appeared in the distance. Their size large enough to fit a giant troll.
She ran for them, her feet kicking against the stone floor and hauling her body faster toward her escape.
If they were locked, she would barrel through them. He would not keep her here!
Hadrian screamed behind her, his voice distant and girlish with panic. "Luna! Luna!"
The doors exploded inward in a rush of splinters and twisted metal. The force threw Anne backwards causing the stone to fly from her hands and her head to barely miss a giant hunk of pointed wood that came so close to impaling her she could smell the oak.
Anne lifted herself on her arms. She stared at the gaping hole where the doors used to be, now framed by fire and wreckage.
Maybe going outside wasn’t such a great idea.
Snarls sounded beyond the fires. Her heart quickened as two beasts leapt inside the castle and charged down the hall.
Recognition came and she cried. A silver wolf with a white crescent moon on the right side of its muzzle and red dragon, roughly three times the size of its companion.
Westley and Chris.
Thank. God.
They landed in positions that left them ready to pounce, teeth bared in a snarl at the man behind her.
She turned. Like her, Hadrian had been blown off his feet. He struggled with his tangled robes that wouldn't allow him to rise as his wide eyes stared at the fearsome wolf.
Westley looked into her eyes, turmoil and relief rolling off of him at the sight of her.
Are you alright?
She jumped to her feet, not caring how they got there as long as they were there. "Never better. Get me—"
She stopped. Mike ran through the fiery doors and surveyed the scene before finall
y spotting her.
Their eyes met. Anne's heart pulled as she sensed the same relief rolling off him that she felt on Westley, only on such a higher intensity. It pulsed from all the way across the hall.
She sniffed, eyes stinging.
Behind him, his younger brother, Bud, appeared. Features awed as he looked around, oblivious to his brother’s stares.
So, he was the reason the castle shook. The kid nearly brought the whole place down.
Behind them, the whole of the dark forest was ablaze, glowing and hot.
Chris's fire. It left no space available to cast a decent shadow.
Even if it did, the shadows outside were probably serfs working the land, not knights meant to protect the castle.
Still, that didn't explain how they got to the Shadow World.
"Wow," Mike's eyes travelled up and down her shimmering gown, a lazy smile tugging at his lips. "You look—"
"Say another word and I kill you," she warned.
He grinned. "But you look good."
She’d been forced into the dress and ogled by an old pervert, Mike’s compliment shouldn’t have made her blush.
Don't worry Annie, we'll get you some descent clothes when we're finished with this guy. Westley and Chris resumed their animalistic charge against the still struggling Hadrian.
Anne's eyes widened as huge as the moonstone as they whirred past her.
They didn't know that Hadrian wasn’t limited to his power in the Shadow World.
"Stop!"
Hadrian righted his cloak and flung it out of his face. He stood, as much fire in his eyes as there was in Chris's mouth, and raised his palms.
Like a unit, Chris and Westley leapt into the air for a running attack. A blast of black cackling energy erupted from Hadrian’s hands and rocketed into their chests.
It threw them backwards, twisting them in the air, and then down. Neither got back up.
"No!" Anne screamed and ran for them. She fell to her knees, cradling Westley's wolf head in her lap. His eyes did not open.
She looked up, ready to transform so she could kill the man standing above her.
Hadrian was no longer entirely fixed on her, his red eyes would not leave the spot where Mike stood.
They stared each other down. Mike's knees were bent as though he were getting ready to spring.
