by Sarah Beth
The scent of Alex’s blood filled his nose, causing momentary panic to filter through his senses. He took a moment to survey his coat, but the mottled dark brown fur made it hard to see the damage. But he could smell it. Once the vampires in the immediate vicinity were taken care of, Wesley let a low whine escape his throat.
Alex paused, looking around the building, bumping his nose into Wesley’s shoulder. He was fine — or he would be. It was enough reassurance for the moment, so Wesley turned to help look for Kyle. His gray fur should’ve stood out in the otherwise dark expanse, but Wesley didn’t see anything. Just as he was about to start making a lap around the perimeter, the sound of a bomb going off rendered him deaf. Looking around frantically, his ears ringing, Wesley saw the source standing on the second floor. Where a wall had been blasted out, small flames licking at the edges, stood an awfully familiar face.
Haryk.
A growl ripped itself from Wesley’s throat, feeling like it came all the way from the tips of his fur-covered toes. He wanted that Faye’s head between his teeth. Without taking the time to think through the choices before him, Wesley ran through the mess of bodies and battle, trying to get closer to the Faye. His paws pounded on the cement ground, slipping every once in a while in a puddle of blood. There was blood on the floors, in his fur, in his mouth, and there was blood on his mind. He wanted that Faye dead.
A dozen feet sat between him and his prey when his muscles stopped working. He froze in mid-step, teeth barred in a silent yet menacing growl. Only his eyes could still move, and so he saw that the rest of wolves were frozen too. But not the vampires. As one bloodsucker in particular took purposeful steps towards Alex, Wesley did the only thing he could think of.
He called for Abby.
Abby
She was being a child, and she knew it, but locking herself into one of the guest rooms seemed like a good idea when she was forbidden from joining the fight. Maybe forbidden was a strong word, but that’s what it felt like. Groaning, Abby turned her face into the pillow. She should be out in the living room with Tori and Soryn, but she felt irritated and angry. Better to save them from it. Besides, when was she ever going to find herself in such a plush penthouse in New York City ever again?
Sighing into the pillow, Abby pushed herself up. Time to woman up and stop acting petty. Maybe the three of them could watch a movie or something to pass the time. She was a few steps from the door when something slammed into her chest, sending her stumbling back into the bed. Panting, with a hand on her heart, Abby looked around the room. She expected to see a ghost standing by the door, but there was nothing. What was that? Why did her heart feel like it was beating a million miles a second?
She waited a few moments, but when it didn’t happen again, she rose from the edge of the bed, shaking her head. Whatever it had been, it was gone. Walking slowly to the door, her hand was on the doorknob when it happened again, this time bringing her to her knees. Her body was flooded with panic, seething anger that made her vision go red, and a familiar sensation of fur under her hands. Wesley. He was calling her. Leaning her back on the door, Abby grabbed hold of the weight on her chest and tugged it, following it back to its point of origin. The room in front of her melted away and was replaced by a bloody scene. The colors and smells of the warehouse invaded her senses as she wasn’t used to seeing things through the Wolf’s eyes.
Abby!
Wesley’s voice rang loudly in her head, but she couldn’t move to find him. Only her eyes could move back and forth. Of course, she reminded herself; she was in Wesley’s head. So why couldn’t Wesley move?
Wes? What’s going on? Why can’t you move?
Panic filtered through but it was brief, replaced by anger almost immediately. She could feel the growl in her own chest. I don’t know. But Abby it’s Haryk, he’s here! He’s doing something to the wolves, no one can move!
Her own panic and fear surged up, replacing the anger that the Wolf felt so keenly. If none of the wolves could move, they were going to be slaughtered. Haryk was going to kill them.
I’m coming! Just hang on! Although it hurt to pull herself away from Wesley’s consciousness, away from his body and the knowledge of what was going on around him, she had to be in her own body.
Standing from the door, using it to help push herself to her feet, Abby grasped onto the presence of Wesley in her mind. Power and magic surged inside of her, sparking at her fingertips. The lights in the room began to flicker, sending the space into momentary darkness before bathing it in light once more. Furniture began to shake. A lamp fell off the nightstand and shattered on the floor. Even though there were no windows open, wind began to whip around the room, pulling blankets off the bed and made her hair fly around her head.
“Abby! Open the door!”
It was Soryn, banging on the door. She could hear Tori out there too, saying something to someone else. Maybe the guards had come inside. Whoever it was, it didn’t matter. All that mattered was getting to that warehouse. Getting to Wesley. Ignoring the constant banging, Abby pulled at the magic in her core harder than she ever had before. She needed all of it, everything, to do what she needed to do.
The lights went out, but the room was not bathed in darkness. Electricity sparked from the ceiling and the floors, gathering into a point in the center of the room. Just as the door behind her began to shake with the effort of the people on the other side, a portal sprang open in front of her. Light flooded the room, the wind died to nothing, and the only thing that Abby could hear was her own heartbeat.
With one foot inside the portal the door to the bedroom broke off its hinges, but it was too late. She was already spiraling through the vortex to the warehouse.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Abby
Whether it was because she was prepared for it this time or something else entirely, going through the portal was easier the second time. It didn’t feel like she was sucked into a washing machine on the spin cycle, but more like she was floating underneath a wave as it passed above her. Holding on tightly to the presence of Wesley in her mind, Abby didn’t concern herself with anything else.
Warmth, heat from a living creature, appeared under her hand. The thick fur of a wolf covered her fingers as they sunk into Wesley’s coat. The warehouse materialized before her eyes, the bloody battle scene from Wesley’s vision even darker in person. But it was the shock on Haryk’s face that she would remember for a lifetime. With her hand gripped in Wesley’s fur, she let her magic flow through her and into his body. His curled lip was the first thing to move, then it was the tip of his tail and front paw, still hanging in the air.
“You’re right on time, child! Ready to see your beloved wolves turn to dust?” His voice was high pitched, the shock of the situation clear in his tone. Sarcasm could only hide so much.
Glaring up at Haryk, she felt the need to point out that vampires turned to dust, not werewolves, but kept her mouth shut at the last moment. Her magic was slowly unfreezing Wesley, and she needed him. She couldn’t rescue everyone on her own. Not with Haryk watching. A shiver ran down Wesley’s spine, his muscles bunched and flexed. With a small smile on her lips, Abby regarded the Faye. “You’re right, I am right on time. Miss me?”
A vampire to her right moved closer to a wolf, frozen in mid-jump. Watching him out of the corner of her eye, Abby lifted a hand and sent the vampire flying into the nearest wall. Far away from any wolf.
Haryk’s lips curled in a snarl that could give a wolf a run for their money. “You are no match for me, child. You know nothing!”
Wesley’s muscles bunched under her fingers, but he kept his posture as still as possible. She squeezed her hand tightly in his fur, Are you ready?
His laugh, mixed with a growl, rolled through her mind. We were born ready. While Haryk raised a hand, opening his mouth to say something, Wesley leapt from under her hand and a change rippled through his body while in flight. A gold light grew from where her hand had held his coat and threade
d itself around his body and limbs. Casting a glittering glow over his black fur, it reached his muzzle and eyes, icy blue, was replaced with a vivid green. It all happened so quickly and yet it seemed to be in slow motion to Abby. She wasn’t even sure Haryk realized what was happening until Wesley landed on the platform inches from where he stood.
The Faye’s attention snapped away from Abby, his main concern the wolf that now paced with his teeth barred. Abby spun around, leaving Haryk at her back. Taking a deep breath, her power surged through the air before her and filled the warehouse with golden light. As it passed over the wolves their bodies began to twitch, muscles bunching and flexing. Her eyes scanned the room and found Kyle, two vampires inches from ripping his head off. Extending a hand, her magic blasted from her palm with a blinding white light. The two vampires didn’t have the chance to move another step.
The wolves were moving, growls were getting louder, and a scream pierced the night air. With the packs able to defend themselves again, Abby turned back to where Wesley was attacking Haryk. Magic was flying through the air around the two but nothing seemed to hit Wesley, it would just glide off his fur and hit whatever happened to be behind him. Whatever Abby’s magic had done to him, he was quicker and more powerful than ever.
Vampires were starting to run. The realization that they were outnumbered and outmatched, even in their own home, was beginning to dawn on them. Abby watched two young teens jump through a broken window, quickly pursued by one of Ira’s wolves. Pity filled Abby’s stomach. So many of the vampires were young, still children really. They had made a choice that was now costing them their lives. The fact that they were murderers was the only thing that helped Abby to bury her emotions.
A wall of muscle and gray fur pushed into her stomach. Looking away from the battle ensuing above them, Abby found Alex standing firmly in front of her. His big green eyes staring into her. She knew he was trying to protect her; she didn’t need to be able to speak through the pack bond to know that. But she wasn’t done here, not yet.
“I have to help Wesley, there’s more that I can do.” Her voice sounded far away to her own ears, like she was speaking through a wall. It was void of any emotion, flat and monotone.
Alex pushed harder against her, making her stumble back a step. As she got her balance back, she noticed that Kyle, and another wolf were taking on a small group of vampires. There were still too many of them. It didn’t matter that dozens lay dead on the floor, or that some had escaped out the windows, there were still too many. She saw more than one wolf body on the ground, too. No, she wasn’t done.
Taking purposeful steps away from Alex, she stopped in the center of the expansive room, a pool of blood under her bare feet. Pulling on her magic, everything around her began to slow. She saw Alex take a step towards her. Saw a vampire lunge at Kyle. Breaths started to come in slower and slower, her heartbeat slowed in her chest. As her power began to heat her body to an uncomfortable temperature, she looked up and watched as Wesley dodged a blow from Haryk. His body then twisted in midair and his jaws closed around the Faye’s shoulder, close to his neck. It was the last thing that Abby saw before closing her eyes against the heat in her body.
It hurt, everything inside her felt like it was boiling. Baring her teeth against the pain, she heard a howl from above her but couldn’t open her eyes to see. The power kept building; it was too much. With a harrowing scream ripping itself from her lungs, she released her power all at once. Blinding light was the last thing she saw before she crumpled to the ground.
Wesley
He could still taste Haryk’s blood in his mouth, but all he cared about was that his Mate wasn’t waking up.
The warehouse was a disaster; blood mixed with the dusty remains of the vampires covered the floor. Whatever magic that Abby had used not only turned the vampires to dust, but fried all the corpses on the ground, too. Even the wolves had been cremated where they’d died. The Faye, for good or bad, was still breathing. Barely. Wesley would have killed him but had been distracted by Abby’s stunt. His heart had felt like it was being ripped out of his chest.
But she was breathing. Breathing was good. Footsteps coming up behind him had a growl work its way out his human throat. If he had still been in his wolf form, his hackles would’ve been raised too.
“Easy, Wesley. It’s me. I just want to help.”
Soryn’s voice, calm and even, worked its way through Wesley’s brain. His wolf wanted the Faye gone, far away from their Mate, but Wesley was in better control now. Soryn knew magic, he could help Abby. Stiffly, he nodded his head, but didn’t move Abby’s head from his lap.
Coming into his peripheral, Soryn had his hands raised to placate the wolf. But it still took some effort on Wesley’s part to not move when the Faye knelt by Abby and raised a hand to her forehead. As he closed his eyes, a soft bluish glow came from under Soryn’s palm. For minutes all Wesley could do was force breath in and out of his lungs. He listened to the slow beat of Abby’s heart and the occasional words that Soryn spoke, barely above a whisper.
Abby’s heart gave a powerful pump, then another, before a gasping breath shocked Wesley more than her eyes flying open did. She sat up quickly, too quickly, raising a hand to her head. Wesley kept his arm around her shoulders, trying to steady her. “Easy, you’re okay. You’re alright.”
Soryn sat back on his heels, running a hand over his own forehead. Wesley noticed a bead of sweat dripping down his temple. The Faye took a deep breath before taking Abby’s free hand in his own, “You were badly drained from whatever magic you used, I had trouble finding you. Your subconscious had locked you away, trying to keep you safe.”
Wesley didn’t understand what Soryn was talking about, but then when it came to magic he never understood much. All he cared about was Abby in his arms, and she was alive.
She took a shaky breath, nodding in Soryn’s direction. “Thank you...I — I don’t think I could’ve found my way out by myself.”
A small smile pulled at one corner of Soryn’s mouth. “You would’ve been fine. Your Mate was here for you, all you needed to do was reach for him. But it may have taken your body some time to have enough strength to do that.”
Groaning, Abby leaned back into Wesley’s chest. “No kidding. I feel like I just ran a marathon. Or five.”
Chuckling, Soryn rose from the ground. Looking around the warehouse, he raised a brow. “Yes, I would think so.” Turning back to them, he locked eyes with Wesley and nodded his head. Turning, Wesley watched him walk towards a wolf on the ground. It didn’t look good.
Turning his attention back to the woman in his arms, he wrapped his other arm around her, pulling her close. Breathing in her scent, his wolf finally began to calm. She was okay. They stayed that way for a time, while the ugly business in the warehouse was taken care of. He saw Kyle walk into the building, through a door that had been opened. He scanned his body quickly, but he appeared unharmed. It wasn’t until Tori came over, kneeling in front of Abby, that Wesley let his arms relax their grip.
“Alex wants to see you both. He doesn’t think Haryk is going to last much longer, and he won’t talk to anyone but you, Abby.”
On second thought, maybe Wesley should just keep holding on to her. He almost did when she sighed, pushing herself off his chest. Helping her to her feet, he left his arm tightly around her shoulders. Both to keep her close and to keep her upright. She stumbled her first few steps.“I thought I saw you rip his head off?”
He chuckled, squeezing her shoulders briefly. “I would’ve, but then some little witch decided to almost kill herself. I got distracted.”
She cringed, a small smile on her lips. Looking up at him, she shrugged under his arm. “Oops?”
Laughing felt good. It helped to ease his tense muscles and loosen his grip on her. But he still didn’t move his arm. “Yeah, oops. I think we need to go back to Elazar and make him teach you how to not do that again.”
Tori chuckled, walking on the other side of Ab
by. “You should’ve been at the penthouse. Girl opened a portal, by herself, in the bedroom. Place looks like a bomb went off. Soryn didn’t even know it was possible for anyone to do it alone — not even a High Faye can do that.”
Well, nothing about his little witch was normal, that was for sure. He figured Soryn shouldn’t have been so surprised, and maybe he hadn’t been. But Wesley was glad that they had been there, even if she had pulled such a crazy stunt. Sure, he had called for her, but he hadn’t expected that to happen.
Walking through the warehouse, heads turned whenever they passed. It made the hairs on his arms stand on end, but he knew they didn’t mean Abby any harm. He knew from experience that watching her use magic was shocking. But he wished they would stop staring. Coming to the area underneath the blown out room, where his battle with Haryk had occurred, Wesley saw Alex, Soryn, and Ira. Haryk was propped up against the wall, and he didn’t look good. Wesley’s wolf was pleased with their work. His one shoulder was practically chewed off, blood soaked his clothes and the floor around him. He was still alive simply because he wasn’t human.
Coming up to the group, Alex’s head turned in their direction. He had blood on his face, a gash above his eye still healing, but otherwise appeared undamaged. Despite the situation, he smiled at the sight of them. Turning his back on the Faye, he opened his arms and pulled Wesley and Abby into a hug. It was awkward and not very comfortable, but it was perfect. Alex rested a hand on Abby’s cheek when he pulled away. “Child, you never cease to amaze and terrify me.”
