Shadow Wars (The Stoneridge Pack Book 2)

by CJ Cooke

  “It should be here. We are the only shadow touched in the area. It had no one else to be attracted to,” Cassia spoke quickly.

  Almost as if to mock us, the first scream reached us, high-pitched and full of fear and panic.

  It was impossible to tell who it was, just that it was female, and that left only two potential options and one terrifying, unimaginable conclusion.

  “The baby,” Calli breathed, her voice echoing with the power it now contained.

  Blake burst into his wolf as he ran for the packhouse, the rest of the pack following his lead. The fucking thing was going after Jean and the baby, and she was with Holly and the pups.

  As my paws hammered against the ground, all I could think about was getting there in time. I had no idea what we would do when we got there, but all I could concentrate on right now was getting inside before anyone got hurt. How could we have forgotten the baby was potentially shadow touched too?

  I sensed Calli running beside me. She’d shifted with the rest of us, and still held the glow of the moonlight power inside her. If she’d been hurting before, going through the shift must have been excruciating, but that power that was causing her pain was our only potential weapon against this shadow demon we’d invited inside our own wards.

  Tanner burst through the glass of the back door. It shattered to the ground and was trampled into dust as the pack sprinted to the aid of our vulnerable and young.

  Please, please, we couldn’t be too late.

  I could feel my own alpha power starting to rise in response to my distress, that together with my larger frame, made me pull ahead of the pack as we hurtled through the kitchen. I could smell the scent of the others in the living room where they’d intended to pass the time with a movie night, but it was accompanied by the metallic tang of blood.

  “They’re in the living room. Stay alert, do not engage until we have the situation assessed,” I ordered the pack through our mind link. My mind was replaying the information Calli told me over and over in my head of the way the shadow demon had killed the old man. It didn’t stop, it didn’t even swing, it just ran through him and then he was gone.

  Surprisingly, Calli managed to keep pace with me as we barrelled through the living room door to take in the carnage before us.

  I had a split second to observe the scene of Holly lying on the ground bleeding from a gash across her stomach. Jacob had shifted into his wolf pup and was standing over her, facing down the shadow demon with his tiny teeth bared. Jean cowered by Holly’s head, begging her to hold on. I briefly registered Abby and Coby huddled in the corner, but before I could even make a move, Calli leapt. I should’ve known any order I gave wouldn’t be able to hold her back, not when Jacob and the other pups were in danger.

  The shadow demon didn’t even see Calli coming. It was entirely focused on the two women and the wolf pup in front of it. For a split second, I felt sorry for it—it had no idea the pain it had invited by threatening Jacob.

  The glow around Calli intensified as she barrelled into the shadow demon and knocked it to the ground. The creature actually screamed in surprise as she flung it across the room, impacting the wall. Calli shifted in mid-air, gracefully landing on two feet before she stood to her full height.

  “Do. Not. Touch. My. Brother!” she screamed as she dived at the shadow demon.

  For a moment, it looked like it was about to fade away. Its form seemed to shimmer, as patches of it faded to transparent. But then Calli grabbed it around the throat and hauled it up from the ground.

  A screech of pain filled the room as Calli slammed the shadow demon into the wall. Rather than the liquid shadow, which had moments ago been trying to fade away, it solidified, looking like a volcanic rock with small wisps of shadows trying to escape through the cracks.

  Calli’s chest echoed with a vicious growl as she pulled the shadow demon closer before slamming it back into the wall again. The moonlight glow around her seemed to intensify even more with her rage.

  Blake rushed to Jean’s side while Nash and Aidan immediately dealt with Holly, trying to stop the gushing blood flowing out of her stomach. River and Tanner gathered up Jacob and stood guard in front of the pups, but I stayed at Calli’s back. This demon stood no chance against her, but if it tried, I would not be letting it past me.

  Calli pulled one hand back and cupped it behind her as a ball of glowing magic began to form in her hand. She snarled and growled at the shadow demon as it frantically tried to escape her grip, gouging deep grooves down her arm with its claws.

  The ball of magic grew in size until it was about the size of a softball. Except rather than just the silvery-white glow of the moonlight, this one had veins of gold running through it. It practically looked like a lightning storm frozen into a crystal ball.

  Before I could think anything else about it, Calli slammed the ball of magic into the shadow demon’s chest, and it sank into its centre as it screeched and screamed in pain. It gave up trying to fight Calli, instead, it started to claw at its own chest, pulling chunks of its now hardened flesh away as it desperately tried to claw the ball of magic out.

  Calli stepped back, still holding a faint glow of the moonlight power, but it was fading by the second. That ball of magic had been all she had, and now we were inside without any source of moonlight. There would be no second shot at this.

  I braced myself to dive at the demon. I had no idea how I was going to stop it, but I was at least going to fucking try. Calli had somehow turned it into a solid form now. If it dared to take a step closer to my pack, at least there was something for me to sink my teeth into. I’d tear it apart, even if it meant sacrificing my soul in the process. No one would hurt the pack while I had any power to prevent it.

  Silvery light started to seep from the cracks in the now flailing shadow demon’s skin, slowly spreading from its centre until it had completely covered its form. Its screeching changed in pitch until it sounded more like a strangled scream. Drawing in one final breath, the pitiful creature shuddered, and then the moonlight burst from its body in a wave that ripped it apart, shattering the shadow demon along the cracks. Chunks of demon flew across the room, but before they could reach very far, they crumbled into nothing but dust and floated to the ground.

  The silence that followed was almost painful. The sudden absence of the agonising screams made the situation seem even more surreal. Did we do it? Was it dead?

  I spun on the spot, taking in the room, almost expecting it to dive out of the shadows to try for a second attack. But nothing came.

  Locking eyes with Cassia, she gave me one brisk nod. It was done.

  46

  Calli

  There was so much blood. It didn’t seem possible for one person to be able to contain this much blood.

  “Why did you do that?” Jean wept, pushing Holly’s hair back from her face.

  Holly lifted one hand to try and reach for her friend, but she was too weak to do it. Clasping her hand before it dropped away, Jean cradled it against her cheek.

  “You shouldn’t have tried to protect me like that.”

  Holly gave her a smile, and then her eyes started to close. She was only human; there was no way she could survive this amount of blood loss.

  I dropped to my knees beside Holly and slowly pulled her shirt away from her stomach to look at the damage. Four deep gouges ran across her stomach, claw marks from the shadow demon.

  Reaching inside myself, I grabbed hold of my magic and forced it into her body, but it was like it hit a brick wall and was thrown back at me. I tried again, only to be met with the same thing.

  “It’s not working,” I gasped, looking up at the room around me. As soon as I saw Cassia, I held my hand out to her. “Help me, lend me your magic. I must not be strong enough. I can’t heal her.”

  I was panicking, and there wasn’t enough time for this. I could already hear Holly’s breaths growing shallower as her heart started to slow.

  Cassia shook her head. A loo
k of misery crossed her face.

  “What do you mean no!” I screamed.

  “It’s no use, Calli. This is a shadow demon wound. It cannot be healed by light magic,” she told me as she came to kneel by me.

  “Then use your magic,” I begged. “Use shadow magic to save her.”

  “Shadow magic cannot give. It only ever takes. It doesn’t work like yours does. I can’t heal her,” Cassia told me calmly, no doubt sensing the growing panic inside me.

  I grasped Holly’s other hand tightly in my own, frantically searching my mind for a solution, any solution. We just needed something that could buy us more time.

  “No,” I whispered, unable to accept the truth. “There has to be a way, any way.”

  Nash’s frantic eyes met mine, pleading with me to do something; to save the woman he loved. But I had nothing.

  I felt Cassia’s hand on my shoulder, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Holly. From the sassy woman who’d declared me her friend almost as soon as she met me.

  “Calli, it’s time to say goodbye,” she told me gently.

  “No, no, no, no, you can heal her,” Nash begged. “You did it for me, you healed me, and I was in worse shape than this. Please, Calli, I know I don’t deserve this, but I am begging you. Please don’t let her die.”

  I laid my hands over Holly’s wound and tried to force my magic into her again, but it just bounced back and slammed into me. With a scream of frustration, I tried again and again, but I couldn’t make it work. The tears were pouring down my face as I felt hands gently pulling me away from Holly.

  “Calli, it’s not going to work,” Grey told me gently, pulling me back against his chest as I wept.

  The only sound in the room were the sobs of everyone here and the quiet slowing of her breaths as Holly started to slip away. Her eyes were closed now as she lacked the strength to stay awake, slipping into unconsciousness. It wouldn’t be long.

  “Unless,” Cassia whispered, and I clung to that one word with about as much desperation as I could, grabbing her arm and pulling her towards me.

  “What? Anything, we’ll try anything.”

  I had no idea why I was saying that. I’d barely known Holly for any time at all. Out of everyone here, I had the least power to make these sorts of decisions for her.

  Cassia stared down at Holly as she tried to put the miracle together we were all praying for. It looked like a million thoughts were flying through her mind as she tried to puzzle through whatever it was she’d thought.

  “What?!” Nash screamed. “We don’t have time for you to think about it. She’s slipping away. Whatever it is, if it’s even a chance, we have to try, and we have to do it now.”

  “Turn her,” Cassia said, turning to me. “Bite her, Calli and turn her.”

  “Are you insane?!” Nash screeched, apparently having hit the end of his patience. “Women barely survive the transformation process, and she’s already at death’s door. How is turning her going to help her?”

  He was right; there was no way that would ever work.

  “She’s too weak as a human, but if we were to hold her body in stasis while she turned, her shifter magic would help her heal quicker. She could have a chance. We’d have to find a way to stop the bleeding by some non-magical method, though.”

  “Her body is too weak to survive the transformation,” Grey said from behind me.

  “Calli and I could help her through the transformation with our magic while she’s in a stasis, similar to how you put Jean to sleep. Calli could help manage her pain and use her magic to help Holly’s body go through the changes,” Cassia reiterated. I could see a gleam of excitement entering her eyes, and her belief that this could actually work.

  “But she doesn’t want to be a shifter,” I said sadly.

  “She was thinking about it,” Jean added quickly. “She was changing her mind, I know she was. Please, please, try this. I can’t lose her just because she was trying to protect me.”

  My eyes switched back to Nash. He was watching us in doubt. It had to be his decision, though. Out of all of us, he knew her the best, he would know what she’d want. Finally, he gave us one short nod.

  “She would want to live,” he told me.

  “Sit her up, quickly,” Cassia directed. “Calli, get behind her so that Holly can sit back against your chest, and get comfortable because you’re going to be there for a long time. I’m going to guide you through what to do, and then once you're situated, I will join my magic with yours, and we’ll guide her through this.” Turning to Grey, she spoke quickly. “Calli and I will be under a trance until Holly comes out the other side of the transformation. You’ll need to find a way to stop the bleeding, or all of this is for nothing. And you’re going to need to protect our bodies while we’re unable to.”

  Grey turned to Aidan and started to talk to him while I got myself into position behind Holly. As they gently leant her back against me, I could feel every breath that dragged into her lungs. We were almost out of time. We had to do this now.

  “Okay, Calli, you need to bite into her neck. Your wolf will naturally know what to do, but you need to infuse your magic with the bite. Once you pull back from the bite, you’re going to need to put a hand on either side of her head and use your magic to sink into her mind. It will feel similar to how you centre yourself to find your magic.”

  I nodded my head, already familiar with the process, having accidentally done it with Coby before and again with Maverick. I had a split second to panic about the fact that I was going to be the one biting her before I sank my teeth into Holly’s shoulder. Now wasn’t the time to second guess myself. The stakes were set at life or death, and I was not going to lose anyone else.

  Cassia was right. I felt my teeth shift as they were in Holly’s shoulder, my wolf teeth filled my mouth and a strange tingling sensation of my magic accompanied it. When they shifted back into my human teeth, I took that as my cue to pull back. I moved Holly slightly against my chest so she would be comfortable and then placed one hand on either side of her head. I didn’t have the chance to ask anyone how they intended to stop the bleeding because I dived straight inside Holly’s mind.

  47

  Tanner

  Jacob clung to the back of my legs in a death grip as he watched Calli take down the shadow demon and then try to save Holly. If I hadn’t been as terrified as I was right now, I’d be so proud of the little guy for not only managing his first solo shift but also of the way he’d so bravely faced off with a demon. He was so like his sister.

  Calli’s head fell forwards as she slipped into the trance, and Cassia talked quietly with Grey.

  When Aidan came back into the living room with the glowing hot knife, I knew it was time to move the kids somewhere else. They’d already seen far too much.

  “Hey guys, let’s go through to the kitchen while the other’s help Holly get better, okay?”

  “I want to stay with Calli,” Jacob whined.

  “I know, little guy, but what they’re about to do isn’t something that… Abby needs to see?” I told him, realising the best way to get him to leave.

  Jacob nodded in agreement like I’d known he would, and little cherry bomb levelled me with a look that seemed to say she knew what I was doing. It was so eerily like Calli I decided they’d spent way too much time together. Little cherry bomb was supposed to be on my side!

  River helped me get the kids situated at the kitchen table. Coby and Jacob were putting a brave face on, but I knew they’d been scared. Fucking hell, I’d been scared! That was just one of those things! How many of them were out there? Were we supposed to take them all out one by one? Was there ever going to be an end to this?

  “Let’s break into the cookie cupboard,” River said, overly cheerful. That was more telling about how worried he was than if he’d said nothing.

  I followed him over to the kitchen counter, keeping one eye on the kids who were sitting at the table reassuring each other.

&
nbsp; “I don’t know what we’re supposed to do right now,” River said as he rummaged around in the back of the cabinet that held all the baking stuff. His voice was hollow and quiet. He was probably going into shock. I think I was going into fucking shock!

  When River pulled out a packet of cookies, I realised this was Calli’s new hiding place, and I didn’t have it in me to smirk.

  “We get the kids situated for the night. We reassure them that everything is going to be fine, and we stand guard over our mate until she comes back to us,” I answered him, faking the confidence as much as I could.

  This was my job. Look after the pack. I could do this. Even if I wasn’t sure if I would be alright, I could make sure that everyone else was.

  River plated up the cookies, and I poured out some milk for the kiddos.

  “Let’s put all this on a tray and have a Mario Kart competition upstairs,” I cheered.

  The kids looked mildly excited at the idea, and I got the impression they were just trying to humour me, which I think was maybe a good thing.

  “Can we get pizza too?” Coby bargained.

  “You already had dinner,” River laughed.

  “Yeah, like two hours ago,” Coby sighed like it was the biggest drama in the world. I had to give it to him though, it felt like dinner had been years ago after everything we’d just been through.

  “It’s a deal. We can order them off my phone when we’re upstairs. In fact, you can even pick what we get,” I told Coby, and all three kids were off their chairs and charging upstairs like someone had lit their asses on fire.

  River looked at me like I was crazy, and I just shrugged, “If it makes them happy, I guess we’re ordering pizza.”

  “You have to tell Calli it was your idea to feed them pizza for the third time this week,” River laughed.

  “Fine, but you have to admit to stealing her secret cookies,” I shot back as I jogged after the kids.