by Abigail Owen
Ramsey rekindled the flames in his hands, ready for anything that came their way. "Let's start moving toward Selene," he said to Lila from over his shoulder.
"Yep."
Slowly, they moved in sync, with Lila leading. They couldn't move too fast as wolves seemed to block their progress each step of the way.
"Your six o'clock," Lila called for the second time. She dropped to one knee as he turned and shot a blaze of fire in that direction, hitting another charging wolf.
"Switch with me and watch my back," he said, and she nodded.
Ramsey could hardly make sense of the pandemonium as he led them through the throng. He caught a glimpse of Ellie in jaguar form chasing down a pack of three wolves with a lioness – one of the metamorphs from Africa – hot on her heels. But before he could check that she had it under control, Lila yelled, “Duck and roll!"
Ramsey did a great imitation of a military maneuver. He felt a gust of wind over his head. Looking up, he saw a giant condor sailing through the sky.
Back on their feet, Ramsey and Lila continued their slow progress. He looked for Ellie but couldn't find her.
"Holy shit," he heard Lila mutter behind him. "Is that a—?”
He chanced a glance over his shoulder in time to see an impossibly massive black Anaconda coiled around two large wolves.
He didn't have much time to watch as he returned his attention forward.
Lila's voice sounded in his head. "Ellie should definitely talk to the Brazilians about tapping into that power."
They kept moving, though their progress was agonizingly slow. "Can you use your telepathy to somehow force them to clear a path?" Ramsey asked Lila.
"Not even Griffin can do that yet," she said.
Oren’s ghost-like form appeared in front of them. "Selene would like Lila closer to her. Griffin says Maddox is after Lila, even in all of this.”
“We’re already trying to get to her,” Ramsey said. “It’s just taking—” He caught sight of two wolves closing in on Oren from opposite directions.
“Oren, hold your position and disappear when I tell you to,” Ramsey said.
Oren gave a small nod. “I’ll let Selene know you’re on your way.”
“Is Charlotte able to come?” Lila asked.
Oren looked grim. “No. She’s a little busy with the injured and the dead and getting them back to the castle.”
“Now!” Ramsey shouted. The wolves jumped for Oren at the same time and collided with a vicious crack as he disappeared, knocking themselves out.
“We’re on our own if Charlotte can’t get to us. Let’s keep going,” Lila said, turning her back to Ramsey once more. They’d only taken a few steps, when she added, “Something’s coming for me. I just caught a stray thought.”
He didn't have time to answer her. He came to a dead halt and then hopped a bit as Lila slammed into him.
"Ah, bloody hell," she muttered.
Chapter 37
A group of about ten wolves were lined up in front of them, creating a wall of bared fangs and snapping jaws. But they didn't attack.
"They're here for me. Maddox sent them," Lila murmured.
Ramsey wasn't about to wait around for them to coordinate an attack. But his brief hesitation to assess the situation was long enough for them to move a little faster than he did. Before he could light them up, the wolves were in the air, lunging for them.
Reacting on instinct, Ramsey threw himself over Lila and braced himself for the crushing blow of the wolves’ bodies…of their teeth and claws ripping into him.
But it never came. He looked up to see all ten wolves suspended in mid-jump directly over his head.
"Way to go, Alex!" he shouted with relief.
"Stay where you are!" they heard Griffin call.
"What's he doing?" Ramsey asked Lila.
She listened for a second. "Using his shield. He's going to—” The wolves suddenly went flying, catapulted by Griffin’s invisible force.
"—toss ‘em,” Lila finished.
Griffin and Alex both ran off to help someone else. Before Ramsey and Lila were even on their feet, they heard a sickeningly dull thud, and suddenly both of them were drenched in blood. Ramsey looked down and pulled what appeared to be a piece of guts off his pants.
“Sorry,” Jason, one of Selene’s Vyusher, yelled over to them. He was a powerful telekinetic with the ability to crush anything he wanted, and apparently he’d just splatted one of Maddox’s wolves.
“Behind you!” Lila yelled back.
Jason spun on his heel and zeroed in on the wolf trying to sneak up on him. Ramsey and Lila got a firsthand look at just what Jason’s capabilities were. The wolf just sort of imploded and exploded all at once. It was the kind of horror so sickening to witness; even Hollywood would have put the action off-screen rather than traumatize their viewers for life.
Ramsey glanced at Lila, who looked a little green. "You okay?" he asked, even though he wasn't feeling all that steady himself.
She shook her head. "I'll never be able to un-see what we just saw. Let's just keep going.”
Lila kept backing up, moving in sync with Ramsey as she telepathically watched his moves behind her. She’d been using her psychic power since the melee broke out – or at least she’d tried to. Given the sheer number of people fighting, she had difficulty concentrating enough to be effective, but at least she’d managed to get Alex’s and Griffin’s attention when she and Ramsey were confronted by the pack of wolves.
What the hell does Maddox want with me so badly that he would waste fighters in the middle of a battle to get me?
Out of the corner of her eye, Lila caught sight of one of the men who she thought was part of the Russian tribe. He was surrounded by about four or five wolves. She couldn’t tell with so much going on between them. Lila was about to signal someone close by when he acted. Moving at impossible speeds that reminded her a lot of Nate, he reached out and touched one of the wolves on its paw. It turned a strange shade of blue, and when the wolf stepped back down, it shattered into tiny pieces.
Wow! He can turn something to solid ice with just a touch!
Lila had to keep most of her attention on her immediate surroundings. But when she looked back over, the Russian was standing in the middle of several wolves, who were now on the ground howling in pain, all missing body parts that had frozen and fragmented.
Yet another mental image I didn’t ever need inside my head.
Lila shook it off as she continued to keep moving in lock-step with Ramsey. They’d made it about halfway to Selene, when a picture flashed into Lila’s mind from Maggie's point of view. A gigantic, dark brown wolf stood before her, ready to pounce. Maggie was terrified. Though she was a wolf herself, Maggie was on the small side. Selene had once told Lila that Maggie had never actually fought in any of the battles, even when Gideon was in charge. She was only used for her ability to project sound.
Something about that wolf Maggie faced off against seemed familiar to Lila.
Looking around desperately, Lila finally located where Maggie was standing, not too far away. "Ramsey," she called. "Maggie needs help. Over there." She pointed.
But Ramsey was too busy fighting a different wolf to pay attention. "I'm going for her!" she yelled.
Without waiting to see if he heard her, Lila took off at a sprint. When she was almost there, she saw another wolf running on a trajectory to intercept her. Lila was thinking through her options when a column of flame flashed past her and knocked the attacking wolf out of her way.
Lila was going to be too late. She saw the wolf get ready to lunge at Maggie. And then, in the blink of an eye, Maggie completely disappeared. Lila checked herself and then kept running. She knew what’d happened to Maggie—Desmond had gotten to her first and turned her invisible. But Lila didn't stop running towards the large brown wolf. She knew who he was now.
Lila made it to where Maggie had just been standing and threw her hands up to ward off an attack. She reac
hed for her emotional control and shoved every amount of serenity and comfort she could muster into the creature standing before her.
"Dane… Dane, it's me, Lila. Can you pull out of the wolf?" she pleaded, while simultaneously sending a frantic mental message to Marcus. If Dane was here, so were the others that Maddox had taken out of their cell. And possibly some he’d abducted from their home in the Louisiana swamps.
The great beast in front of her shook his head. Lila felt the confusion radiating out from him in powerful waves and was only vaguely aware that Ramsey was helping to keep all the other fighters at bay.
Using her telepathy, Lila flashed scenes to Dane’s mind from the last year she'd spent with him and his clan. They were memories of friendship and camaraderie. And a memory of what his true natural-born power was… the ability to turn into a giant grizzly bear.
"Do you see?" she asked him. "This is not who you are. I know it's hard – practically impossible – to break away from the wolf pack you’re linked into. But you've got to try. Reach into yourself… the bear is there."
Dane looked at her and shook his head, his eyes filled with hate. She was losing him.
"I'm here, brother," Marcus said, as he calmly stepped in front of Lila. "I am your true tribal leader. I order you to become the bear."
Dane hesitated, but Lila felt a flash of recognition move through him. "It's working. Keep talking," she whispered in Marcus's ear.
"You’ve got to let the wolf go. Shut the pack off from your mind," Marcus commanded.
Dane whimpered, and his whole body started to shake violently. Suddenly one of his paws shifted into a bear’s, though only for a moment, and then back to a wolf’s. Then his fur started rippling, changing color and consistency and length. Beneath the fur his body shivered and contorted.
Suddenly he was a bear. Then back to a wolf. He flashed back and forth several times. Finally, with a mighty roar, a great grizzly stood before them, his sides heaving from the exhausting struggle. But the wolf didn't return.
Lila felt his emotions and read his thoughts. "He's safe," she told Marcus.
Marcus approached his friend, who stood there motionless. When he got close enough, Marcus laid one hand on the big bear's shoulder. "Welcome back, mon ami. It’s good to see you.”
Dane nodded.
“We could use your help.” Marcus pointed toward the commotion. “You up to it?”
Dane answered with terrifying roar, and then he turned and ran into the fray. He batted at wolves with his huge paws, swatting them across the field like flies.
Lila turned to Marcus. “You can’t use your toxic gas here,” she said.
“Nice to see you too. And I know. I’d kill our people too.”
“Go find the others. I’ll help if I can.”
“Thanks, peanut.” He kissed her on the cheek and then sprinted away.
“Don’t run off again like that,” Ramsey’s harsh voice caused Lila to turn around. “I almost didn’t get to those wolves in time. You promised me.”
Lila grimaced. “Sorry. I had to get to Maggie. And Dane.”
Ramsey said nothing, and they resumed their previous positions and kept moving forward. But four more mild skirmishes later, and they were still no closer to reaching Selene than before. A big part of the problem was that Lila couldn’t defend herself, and she was realizing that Ramsey could do much better if he didn’t have to protect her the whole time.
She had an idea. One so stupidly brilliant, Lila almost slapped herself in the head for not realizing it earlier.
“Ramsey,” she called.
“No,” he said back.
“What do you mean, no? You don’t know what—”
“I know that tone of voice. You’re about to break your promise to me.” He blasted a wall of flame at another wolf and then turned to face her. “Let’s have it then.”
Lila grimaced, but looked pointedly up at the sky.
Ramsey caught on immediately. “No way.”
“I’ll be able to see everything from up there and relay it back down to Selene. Ellie and Griffin have other powers needed down here, but I don’t.”
“No way,” he said again. “You’ll be too far away for me to protect you.”
“You won’t need to protect me. Not when I’m up there,” she said. “And you’ll be able to move faster and do more down here without me holding you back.”
“That giant condor is still up there. You don’t even know if you can fly. You haven’t even tried it out or practiced,” he argued.
“It’s instinct. How hard can it be?”
Before Ramsey had a chance to protest further, Lila shifted to the falcon and took off.
“Lila!” she heard him yell after her.
“Go. Help the others,” she mentally answered him.
“Woman, I swear you will be the death of me,” his grim thought came through loud and clear.
“Only if you keep watching out for me instead of yourself down there. Go. I’ll keep in touch. I promise.”
“I’m not going to bother answering that comment. Watch your back for that condor. I don’t see him right now, but he’s gotta be somewhere,” he replied.
As Lila circled higher and higher overhead, she was thankful to see him finally pull his attention back to the battle surrounding him and start fighting again.
Chapter 38
Lila gained a good altitude and started circling the field. The condor was nowhere in sight. She sincerely hoped someone had taken it out already. The sheer volume of noise coming out of the fighters below had her wondering how the rest of the world couldn’t be aware of what was happening.
“Selene, Griffin, Ellie,” she mentally called. “I’m up above you. The bulk of the fighting is centered directly in front of Selene.” She sent them an image of what she was seeing. “Put that big black and grey wolf out of commission. He’s one of their leaders.”
Once she had that message sent, she looked for her sister. Griffin had said that Adelaide could shift into a falcon now. They could work together.
“Adelaide, where are you?” she called. She flashed an image to her sister of where she was, and in what form. “Get up here.”
She got a flash of her sister standing off to the side of the skirmishes, partially hidden in the trees. A man was standing behind her holding what appeared to be a lasso in his hands. Lila could tell that Adelaide was unaware of his presence.
Before Lila could warn her, Nate came busting through the underbrush and tackled him. He managed to knock the guy out cold, and the lasso disappeared. Nate ran off again, and Adelaide morphed to her own falcon form and took to flight.
“What’s the plan?” Adelaide asked Lila.
“Circle and report. Let’s see if we can’t at least give them information,” she answered.
What seemed like ages later, Lila and Adelaide were still at it. They helped Selene single in on stronger fighters to cut off their powers and coordinate attacks on larger groups of wolves. But the battle raged on, and Adelaide and Lila couldn’t tell who was winning. They were too evenly matched. And both sides were losing more and more combatants.
“They got Meagan,” Charlotte informed all the telepaths. Meagan had the unique ability to create a vacuum, sucking all the air out of a space. The Vyusher would feel her loss. Maddox’s forces had already taken out Sylvie, who could conjure a tornado, and Jason with his crushing telekinetics.
Lila had also seen them take out Stephen, one of Marcus’s key leaders who crushed people with steel bands. She wasn’t sure if he was unconscious or dead, but Charlotte had gotten to him and taken him back to the castle.
“Watch out!” Adelaide’s voice screamed in Lila’s mind.
Lila dove into a stoop as a ball of lava came whizzing right at her.
“Alex, stop that fireball from hitting anyone as it comes back down,” Lila said. She watched as it froze in midair, and then the fire went out completely and Lila knew Ramsey had doused it. She used her falcon�
��s keen eyesight and located the perpetrator.
“Marcus,” she thought “Seamus is here.” She showed him where to find his friend. “Go talk some sense into him.”
Another lava ball came flying at her.
“Fast,” she added. “He’s trying to take me out with those damn projectiles of his!”
Alex and Ramsey handled that second ball of fire too. Only this time, she watched as they brought it down to Dexter, and he turned it to solid metal. Griffin used his shield to lob the chunk of iron, landing it right on top of one of Maddox’s largest wolves.
Lila looked for Seamus to see if Marcus needed her. Marcus got to him fast but not quite fast enough. One of the Timening had seen his lava bombs and decided to remedy the situation. Before she could stop the Brazilian, his power was at work.
Dirt shifted and moved under Seamus’s feet. Tendrils of earth came up out of the ground and wrapped around his ankles and then started pulling him down, under the earth. It was like a scene from a zombie movie, only the dirt was swallowing him whole, dragging him under. Seamus screamed… he was about to be buried alive. Marcus got there just in time to grab his hand.
“Let him back up,” Lila mentally instructed the Timening fighter.
“Who the hell are you to tell me this?” he asked.
Griffin’s voice entered the conversation. “Let him back up, Gustavo. But not quite all the way. Just his head for now.”
Seamus spluttered and coughed as his head appeared from the ground. He glared at Marcus, who still held his hand.
As they had with Dane, Marcus and Lila worked together on Seamus, until the heat and anger disappeared, and confusion took their place. On Griffin’s command, Gustavo brought Seamus all the way up.
Lila turned her attention back to the fighting. "This isn't working," she thought to all of her family. "We need something bigger."
