Page 88 of Witchbane

The fact that the garage’s doors were up and the lights were on, despite it obviously being sometime late at night, would have been alarming if I wasn’t already aware that Al worked the garage at night. I didn’t see him. Was he with the other vampires? Maybe called by Hugo to attack?

Everything was still and silent around the shop. No sign of movement. The vampires hadn’t followed me through the portal which I closed with an iron fist. I could still feel them in the distance, their focus shifted to my new location, zeroing in on me like I was wearing some kind of beacon.

The weave of power and world strands made me a bit dizzy, and trying to clarify it all would take some getting used to, but I could see life coming from inside the shop. It was sort of like dancing starlight in tiny pops. I stepped into the garage, carefully peering around for any sign of the fae. All I found was Sean sitting in his office chair, staring at his computer.

Sean. Sean whom Dylan had adored and planned to marry. Could he be fae, and I not know it? When I looked at him, he seemed… odd? Not like a fae disguised as a human odd, but like he was wrapped up in some sort of cocoon odd. Layers of some weird orange matter surrounded him in endless ties, and he stared blankly at the computer screen. It wasn’t at all like the scion bond, which I’d disliked for the ties it wrapped around Liam. This was more like threads woven to his very soul. Thousands of them, rendering him incapable of moving for himself. For a few seconds I got the impression of a marionette, with strings sewn into each limb, ready to make it move in some story. Far beyond what Liam had, this was a tapestry of interwoven will tying Sean up for control.

Disturbing. But I could tell he was alive. His heart beat, the kitsune picking up easily on the sound. He breathed steadily, in and out, more like he was asleep while sitting there staring at nothing, than actually being coherent.

I tiptoed across the space—wary though not sensing anyone else in the garage—to Sean’s side. He didn’t move or acknowledge my presence. The strands around him looked more like a web the closer I got. I reached out a careful talon and hooked onto the first strand edge I could find, but it didn’t break or stretch.

“He’s mine,” a voice said. “Thralls are always very tightly bound. Sadly, he wouldn’t relinquish his wolf any other way. I preferred him with more personality. But we all do what we must.”

I released Sean and turned to face Al. He leaned against a car positioned in the middle of the second bay, arms folded over his chest. I hadn’t sensed life in the building because there hadn’t been any. Al was a vampire, or so I thought. The edges of him appeared strange now. My kitsune vision showed me a glow beneath the dark weight of death. Not vampire? Some sort of undead fae? Fae of death?

“The wolves are coming,” Al said. “And my vampires. I had hoped to turn the blond wolf.” He waved his hand in Sean’s direction. “It’s fitting though that he’ll watch his human die; I’ll make sure he understands, rather than being a slave to my call. More pain for him means more power for me.”

He had to be fae. How had I missed it? I’d thought I was good at seeing through glamour, but whatever Al was using wasn’t glamour. He seemed to be some sort of undead fae. He pushed himself off the car and stalked in my direction, unafraid of my kitsune.

“None of this had to happen. But you ran from me. First in New York when I found you outside that cookie shop, then when your car broke down in Chicago and I showed up to help. I sent Hugo to find you, and he kept you from me. That was a bad idea, but he learned his lesson. I control him and his, now. From partnership to slave.” He waved at Sean as if the bonds were the same. “Then when I helped you escape Hugo. Do you remember? You fell asleep in my car as I drove you out of the territory, but the second my back was turned, you ran. Always running, Sebastian. I thought you wanted a home?”

I heard the pounding click of claws on the pavement outside. The wolves had arrived. A snarling huff of icy breath seemed to create a fog around the garage. Their glowing dead eyes were impossible to miss. The two at the front made my heart flip over. Dylan and Toby. Half changed, but gone enough to follow Al’s call. They seemed to still be fighting it, occasionally their eyes turning to themselves and then back to death.

“They’re all mine,” Al said. “I could give them back to you if you wish. We don’t need them to build our own court. Plenty of fae left in this world we can call to us, use them to fuel our power.”

What did he want? Me? Why? I snarled at him, but he didn’t seem impressed. The wolves and the vampires created a wall around the garage, like a legion of zombies waiting to attack on his command. A lot like puppets, much like Sean was at the moment. Thralls of some kind?

“You chose an ordinary wolf. Why?” Al asked. “You could be a king in this world. Build a court greater than any of those who remain. Turn this world into a magic realm beyond anything Underhill could have been. And you chose a wolf?”

Because Liam was mine. And I didn’t think he was ordinary at all. Kings and all-powerful magic, no thanks.

“Fate, you call it,” he stalked around me. “But you are fate. You are not required to take that path. Life and death, the kitsune. More death than life. We fit, don’t we?” He waved his hand at all the vampires and wolves. “All this death is what we are. Why not bask in it? It gives us strength. You wanted a home. Let me show you how to create a world within this world. Craft it to be the home you could only dream of. Perfect in every way.”

But I had a home with Liam. And Liam had been chosen for me by the forest god, to be what I needed. I was supposed to buck that for some random fae of the dead? To create an imaginary world? Did he mean like Kiran’s palace woven from magic? Why use all that effort when this world worked fine?

I didn’t feel like death. Not with the heat of the kitsune power, or the usual pulsing warmth of the pack, or even the tickling ants of power that came with opening portals. I did feel power, life, and crazy amounts of magic. It was like a piping hot cup of tea, scented like my mate, willing me to drink.

Al stepped close, reaching up to weave his fingers in my fur. Not a pleasant sensation, more like icy bugs crawling rather than fingers. I snarled at him, but he grabbed a handful and held tight. He needed beyond human strength to hold me firmly enough to keep from snapping him in half. But I realized in that moment the sensation wasn’t bugs or fingers. It was the spell of whatever he’d done to Sean. Spindles of power trying to tie up every bit of me into a puppet like he’d made of everyone else. It began to wrap me in ice, ropes of frozen strength.

No. Not a chance. I was done dancing to anyone else’s tune. I had a mate and a baby to take care of, and a pack to unite because obviously there was some trouble there since they’d been taken over.

One battle at a time. However, there was one thing the fae always seemed to forget about me. And my stomach growled in that deep belly of the beast way, reminding me of all the delicious smells, not of vampires or wolves or even Al before me, but of power. Like a freshly baked apple pie with the amazing scent of cinnamon and vanilla spice.

Those strands of power, I ate them. Sucked them deep and kept pulling. Like the world’s largest ramen noodle bowl, slurping it all down. Before Al even realized what I was doing I had him hooked, not all that unlike the feast I’d had in Underhill, sucking down his power.

He let go, trying to get away, but I slammed a paw into him, smacking him to the ground. My paw had grown, engulfing half his body. Space in the garage grew small and tight, although I didn’t stop drawing on the power, swallowing it down in heaping gulps to feed the growing flames and fire of the kitsune. We fed. A single focus on taking every last bit despite the edges of my vision fading to dark shadow and the roof of the garage hitting my back.

I felt a portal open, and ants dancing across my flesh, but the power was gone too fast for me to add to the feast. There were screams beneath my paw, my talons dug into a withering husk of a thing that used to be Al. I only barely heard it.

Something gentle touched my leg, fingers tickling through my fur with calming pets. And this one had power, but it felt circular, like it was drawing from… it was drawing from me?

Blinking through spotted vision I paused my feeding to turn my head. It was hard to see through all those rolling waves of color. The world of power, strands settling slowly into places that I could recognize. The garage, which had undergone some damage, pieces falling around us, the concrete buckled and scorched. Outside, the parking lot was strewn with bodies. Some living, some undead. The wolves were back in their human forms, all panting and lying in heaps like they had endured the greatest fight of their lives.

The vampires were all dried-up things. Not dead, or true dead at least, but drained of power. I could see those tiny threads that wove together the undead parts of a vampire, animating it, making it sort of human. The soul within was something completely different. It would have taken little effort to snap all those ties and end the vampires. The gentle caress of fingers through my fur made me hesitate and look back. With one arm wrapped around my giant leg, was my mate.

I stumbled, wanting to be in his arms, hold him, assure myself he was real. He looked real enough, but there was gray in his hair and beard I didn’t remember. Laugh lines in the corners of his eyes he hadn’t had. Wow, I needed him bad. My body was reacting to him by practically sitting on him. All I could do in my giant size was turn to lick him.

He laughed. “Missed you too, baby. How about we fix this, yeah?”