“I never said I thought that,” said Desta. “I know I’m not an amusement.”
“Well.” Viggo looked down at his ruined clothes. “Anyway, we will get out of this, and when we do, you won’t have to put up with me anymore.”
“Viggo—”
“Thank you, Viggo,” I said, edging closer to the both of them. I took Desta by the arm and yanked her away.
She gave me a puzzled look.
“Come on,” I said in a very low voice. “That’s probably the only decent thing he’s ever said to another person in his very long life. Don’t ruin it.”
Desta’s lips parted.
* * *
The morning—because it had to be morning, if we weren’t wolves anymore—dragged on. Ewan and Sinead stayed close. They seemed to always be touching each other these days. Desta and I sat next to them and Landon beside me.
Viggo paced.
“We’re going to have to do it again tonight,” Landon said. “The moon’s full three days a month. I don’t know if I can.”
“Were we very hard to contain?” I said.
“It’s fighting you that I can’t handle, Camber,” he said. “I was terrified that I’d hurt you badly.”
“You know that any wounds you give me, I can heal if I shift,” I said.
“Right,” he said. “But if you bleed out in wolf form before the sun comes back up…”
“Oh,” I said. “Right.” I wasn’t used to thinking this way. After all, I could always control my shifts before. Relying on the moon, it was terrifying. I hated being out of control. And, to think, this was how all the other wolves in the pack felt all the time. I thought back to my first time being a wolf, meeting Landon, and the way that he told me that being part of a pack would rob me of my autonomy.
In some ways, he’d been right. Being an alpha was a responsibility, and I was forced to do things that I would never do if I didn’t have the pack to think about. The pack was important to me. But I loved my pack, and it was worth it to me. It was different than the vampires and their bloods slaves. I knew it was. But when I tried to reason it out, I couldn’t. I had technically consented to becoming alpha of the Northeast pack, but I hadn’t known what I was signing on for, so it wasn’t as if choice was the differing factor.
All I knew was that I would rather have a pack and have limiting responsibilities, than to be free of any ties and all alone.
But I wasn’t sure why I was thinking about this now. Perhaps I was only trying to distract myself from the reality of what was happening to us.
“If last night’s shift did this much damage,” I said, “there’s no way that we can all survive another two nights of this.”
“Well, the wolf population down here is significantly thinned,” spoke up Aston. “I don’t mean to be insensitive, but that may help things. Perhaps it’s not hopeless.”
“I propose we get out of here before moon rise,” said Viggo. He was still pacing.
“Oh, great,” said Landon. “We’ll get right on that.”
“It’s mind boggling,” said Aston. “Yesterday, I spoke to one of the other humans who’s been here for nearly three months. He said that when he arrived, he was with a group of others, and they are all dead. Every month, the moon rises and nearly everyone is killed. He survives by staying clear of it all. Hiding in the corners, staying quiet. He says that the newer ones panic and try to fight, but he knows the only answer is to stay clear.”
“That’s horrible,” said Sinead.
“Well,” said Aston, “it’s insane, is what it is. Why would someone go to the trouble of capturing so many people only to kill them off systematically?”
“I’m telling you,” said Landon darkly. “Sadistic psycho.”
“Sadistic psychos statistically like to inflict the pain themselves, not just watch,” said Aston. “I can’t believe this witch, whoever she is, isn’t getting something out of this.”
Viggo stopped pacing. “Yes. It’s as we were saying. You don’t capture people unless it benefits you in some way.”
Abruptly, the trap door above opened. The gurney was lowered down.
Everyone simply stared at it.
We knew the drill. We had to load the dead bodies onto the gurney in order to be fed. But there were so many dead. No one wanted to do all the back-breaking work of carrying them.
Viggo tapped his chin. “Hmm,” he said. He raised his gaze to the ceiling. “Hmm,” he said again. And then he walked quickly across the room and stopped next to the gurney. He snatched up the closest body and loaded it onto the gurney.
As usual, the body was pulled up, out of the dungeon, toward the door above. And as usual, when it reached the top, it exploded into a shower of bright energy that swirled upwards through the trap door.
Viggo turned to us, a smile spreading across his face. “That’s it.”
“What’s it?” said Landon, getting to his feet.
“You’re right,” said Aston. “Of course. It’s been right in front of our faces all along. How could we not have seen?”
Viggo strode back over to us. As he walked, the gurney was lowered back down for the next body.
“Seen what?” I said.
“Death is the point,” said Aston. “We’ve been captured in order to be killed. When the bodies are raised, they release that energy, and that’s what the witch wants. That’s why we’re here.”
“But why go to all this trouble?” said Ewan. “Why not just kill us in the woods?”
“It’s a certain kind of magic,” said Viggo. “Suffering and sacrifice. It’s called magicum gladiorum. The worse the suffering, the greater the power at death. I remember running into gladiorum covens of these sorts of witches when I was a young vampire. I thought I had stamped their kind out from the entire world. But apparently not.”
“This is all about power,” I said. “Of course it is. She’s killing us to make herself more powerful.”
“She’s a sadistic psycho,” said Landon. “Like I said.”
“Well,” said Viggo. “She’s an idiot is what she is. She’s counting on the devastation of so many dead to make us into idiots as well, but it won’t. The door is open. Let’s go.”
CHAPTER TEN
Viggo strode back to the center of the room, gesturing for the survivors to gather round.
Some of them came right away. Others stayed where they were, looking confused. Though there was no way to have a private conversation down here, it was also a big enough room that none of them had been able to overhear our conversation.
“Bloods,” called Viggo. “Come here now.”
The bloods were now led by someone other than Monty, but I didn’t know his name. He and the remaining bloods—about five of them—all glared at Viggo. They didn’t move.
Viggo pointed at the open door. Then he spread his hands and raised his eyebrows.
The bloods exchanged glances, and then they all came forward at once.
Viggo spoke to them in a low voice. “You’re going to lead the charge. You can jump up there. The minute you reach the top, rage out. You’ll be followed by the vampires, and then the wolves and then the humans. We’re going to kill the bitch who’s been doing this to us. You got that?”
The bloodhound leader smiled a nasty smile. “Got it.”
Viggo sent Desta and me to get the stragglers from the corners of the basement. He set about organizing the vampires to begin scaling the ropes that held the gurney. As promised, they were going right behind the bloodhounds.
I could hear the the human blood slaves were complaining about it, and Viggo was busily breaking compulsions to get them ready to fight.
Desta and I reached a group of wolves sitting against the wall. They were all still naked. Apparently, they’d lost their clothes in the shift. Desta and I had brought them clothes, but they were bloody and taken from the dead. It was all we had at the moment.
I recalled what Sinead had told me right after my first shift, that clothes w
ere dignity. It was true, I thought. They would not become human again until we clothed them.
“Come on,” I said. “We’re getting out of here now.”
The wolves took the clothes we gave them and dressed, but they wouldn’t meet our gaze.
“Come on,” I said again.
“We’re going to have to fight our way out,” said Desta, “but it’s going to be better than staying down here.”
One of the wolves looked at me. “Before this, I never hurt a single person when I shifted.”
“Well, it wasn’t your fault,” I said.
“If we go up there,” said one of the others, “we’ll probably all die.”
“Better to die fighting for freedom than to die down here when the moon rises again,” said Desta.
“Maybe you’re right,” said the last wolf, and he got to his feet.
The other two hesitated, but they joined him.
The three headed toward the pole and Viggo.
Desta and I crossed to the other side of the room, where two vampires were huddled on the floor. When we got there, we realized they were wounded. They’d sustained quite bad wolf bites, and wolf bites tended to heal very slowly.
“We can hear the plan,” said one of the vampires. “But we’re in no shape to fight.”
“You’d rather stay down here?” I said. “We’re getting out. Are you coming or not?”
“We won’t make it,” said the vampire. “But, Angela, maybe it’s better not to die in this hole.”
“It is,” I said.
They got up and went for the center of the room.
By then, the other set of stragglers seemed to have changed their minds and were already there.
At this point, no one was climbing up anymore. Instead, Viggo and Landon were hurling people up through the hole, one after the other.
From above, we could hear screams and yells. A fight was going on.
When Desta and I reached the two of them, they smiled grimly at us.
“Send us up,” said Desta.
“I’d like to be selfish,” said Viggo. “I’d like to do whatever it took to keep you safe.”
“But you’ve changed, haven’t you?” said Desta.
Viggo shook his head. “Perhaps not that much.”
“Send me up there,” said Desta.
I looked at Landon. “Ditto.”
Landon smirked at me. “I know better than to try to tell you what to do.” He seized me around the waist. I was airborne.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
I reached out and caught the edge of the hole where the open door was and hauled myself up onto the top level.
The first thing I saw when I got there was the bodies of bloodhounds lying everywhere, broken and bleeding. The next thing I saw was one of them exploding into energy.
The third thing I saw was windows. Five or six tall windows, letting in the sun, and the vampires weren’t doing well with that. They were at half strength. Most of them weren’t standing, they were floating in midair, frozen. I remembered that the witch had taken us all that way. She’d made everyone float except me.
And I had a hard certainty hit me in the gut.
We were no match for this witch.
She was standing at the end of the room. The room was long and oval, lined with windows, and the walls and floor were dark, polished wood. She floated off the floor herself, her toes dragging against the ground. Her hood was thrown back, revealing a head of dark curls. She had glowing green eyes and a cruel mouth. Her hands were outstretched and blue lightning leaped from one finger to the next.
Another bloodhound body exploded into energy.
The energy swirled into the air and drifted to the witch, who closed her eyes as it collided with her body, as if she was savoring the energy.
Desta climbed up next to me. She cringed at the bright light.
Could I shift?
I tried it, and it happened. Why was it different here than it had been in the dungeon? Hadn’t the witch bothered to spell this room? I didn’t know, and I didn’t have time to think about it. My wolf form exploded over me and I ran for the witch.
The witch had her eyes closed. If she was aware of my approach, she didn’t seem to care. Maybe she had so much power that she didn’t think of one wolf as a threat. Maybe she was so focused on sucking up energy that she truly didn’t see me.
I was aware that Desta was stumbling after me, determined to help, even as the sunlight weakened her.
I knew my sister was no match for this witch.
Hell, I was no match for the witch.
But I seemed to have surprise on my side, and I would take advantage of that if I could. So, I launched myself off the ground, into a flying leap, diving through the air at her.
As I soared, I could see one of the vampires exploding into energy. I could see Landon and Viggo climbing up out of the door. They were the last to come up from downstairs. Everyone was up top now, and most were either dead or floating in the air.
Then I collided with the witch.
She shrieked.
I bit down on her collar, ripping into her flesh, my mouth filling with her blood.
She gestured with one hand.
I was flung back into the wall, stunned. Pain burst in my body and I slid to the ground, whimpering. But I’d taken a big chunk out of her. I could see that she was bleeding.
And then I felt Sinead and Ewan. I reached out through our bond, and I made them shift. I summoned them forward.
Viggo and Landon were running across the room at the witch.
She saw them, and her attention moved from me.
I shifted back into human form, healing myself. I shifted back right away.
The witch gestured at Viggo and Landon and they floated into the air.
No. Not Landon.
Sinead and Ewan were coming to me. They were coming from the opposite side of the room, on the other side of the witch.
I took control of their bodies, so that we all moved together, as if we were pieces of a whole. My pack. My wolves. My three-pronged attack.
We all went for the witch’s neck at once.
She was in the process of making Viggo writhe in pain, using her magic, probably because suffering made the death have more power, if what we had heard was true.
She wasn’t expecting three wolves at once. She wasn’t expecting wolves at all. None of the other wolves could have shifted. That was why she hadn’t wanted me in the first place. She knew an alpha could weaponize her pack members. She knew that I was dangerous to her.
Sinead, Ewan, and I all struck at once. We all went for her neck, and we all sank our teeth into her.
Together, we ripped her throat out, leaving behind nothing but the bloody strand of her spine.
Blood sprayed everywhere, onto our pelts, onto her surprised face, onto the floor, onto the ceiling, onto the windows.
She stopped floating and her feet collided with the floor. They couldn’t hold her upright and she fell to the floor, lifeless.
There was a beat.
And then everyone else who was floating fell too. They all landed at once, thudding against the wooden floor.
I spat out the witch’s blood and skin. I threw back my head. I howled.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Landon nudged the witch with his toe.
She didn’t move.
“It can’t be that easy,” said Viggo, looking over Landon’s shoulder.
“You call that easy?” I demanded. “That was a coordinated wolf attack. I never did anything like that before.”
“She was a very, very powerful being,” said Viggo. “I was no match for her.”
“And she underestimated me,” I said. “That’s how I got the jump on her. Just like how Landon and I got away from you. You underestimated us.”
Viggo considered. “Could be. I hope you’re right.” He nodded at Landon. “Let’s throw her down into the dungeon to be sure.”
“Good thinking,” said Land
on.
Together, Viggo and Landon hauled the witch to the open door. They dumped her body down there and shut the door on her.
I yanked at the shreds of the shirt I was wearing. I was really barely clothed. I would have been happy to find some clothes, so I decided I’d go looking around this house for something.
I peered around the room.
Huh.
This room was all it was. One big, empty room, surrounded by windows. There weren’t any doors.
I remembered the house we’d seen before, the one up on trunks like stilts. It hadn’t had this many windows, and it had had a door. So, we couldn’t be in that house. We must be somewhere else.
But if there was no door, how did we get in?
I spotted Desta at one of the windows. She was struggling with it.
I hurried over to her. “Let me guess. You can’t open it?”
Desta shook her head. “No. I’m weak, but I’m still a vampire. I should be strong enough to open a window.”
“They’re probably sealed closed with a spell,” I said. “Like the door was when we were down there.”
“But she’s dead, isn’t she?” Desta pointed at the witch. “If she’s dead, shouldn’t her magic have died with her?”
“I don’t think it works that way,” I said. “After all, Vivia’s dead, and the spell she made for us to protect the village is still working.”
“Well, damn it,” said Desta. She looked around for something in the room to throw at the window and break the glass, but the room was empty of furniture. Instead, she rushed at the window and slammed her fist into it. She screamed and backed away, cradling her wrist.
The window was still intact.
Viggo called out to us. “Let me try.”
“Be my guest,” said Desta, voice full of pain.
Viggo strode over to one of the windows and punched it.
Nothing.
He swore, shaking out his hand. “They’ve got to be closed with magic.”
“So, that begs the question, how are we going to get out?” said Aston.
Canticle to the Midnight Moon Page 6
