Page 69 of Witchblood

“The wolves are out front fighting Liam, Oberon andApa,” I told Dylan. “I’m sure Liam will be up soon.”

“And Felix?” Dylan asked, a slight tremor to his voice.

Felix had not been in the rush of wolves. I’d know him anywhere. His wolf was dark gray, more like soot, than the near charcoal of Liam’s wolf. Was he in the house somewhere? Wouldn’t I have sensed him? Heard him? I listened hard for a minute, wishing my ears were as good as the werewolves were. But I heard nothing.

Nothing.

Not the sound of the fighting out front. Not a peep from birds or bugs. Or even Dylan’s breathing as he seemed to be holding his breath. Much like I did right at that second. The darkness of the shadows expanded. The lightbulb overhead shattered, spraying glass shards over us. A supernatural wave of energy seemed to suck all the air from the room. For a moment I was certain it wasApa’smonster finally set free after it had killed Oberon and Liam. I didn’t have a second to be sad because everything in me screamed in terror.

Itfeltlike something otherworldly. Demonic even, if that was a real thing. I thought for a brief second about the poem Beowulf:Till the monster stirred, that demon, that fiend, Grendel, who made his home in a hell. Not hell but hell on earth...

Only it was a mostly human hand that grabbed me by the throat and threw me out of the closet and into the other room. I landed hard on my right shoulder, rolled through sludge, then smashed into the wall, blinking stunned into the darkness for only a second. Then I was lifted by my hair, pain scorching through my scalp, and turned to face darkness.

I screamed. Couldn’t help it. What had once been a man named Felix was now some sort of skeleton with flesh stretched over it. His skin clung to bone, as though no muscle existed beneath, and his eyes had become giant pools of swallowing darkness. His fingers ended in claws, and parts of his body seemed to be half stuck between the change. I could count the ribs protruding from his bare chest. He had wolf fangs in a partially human mouth. Inhuman. Monstrous.

Panic roared to life, but instead of freezing me up like it normally did, it gave me a fire to fight. Liam needed me back. I had to save Dylan. The pack needed Dylan whole, even if that meant distracting the monster long enough for Liam to come to our rescue.

I began to kick, punch, and wriggle as much as I could against Felix’s grip. I slammed my thumbs into his eyes. The wet pop would have horrified me at another point, only now it was the crawling darkness that gave rise to terror. Transferred from his face to my hands. It curled around my fingers, gliding up my arms, like a parade of stinging fire ants soaked in liquid nitrogen.

Felix shrieked in agony and tossed me into the wall again. There was an explosion of pain through me. Darkness lingered on the edge of my vision, just teetering on a tightrope over unconsciousness. I lay stunned for a moment, hands burning with a terrifying tingle of pain. Like ice running through my nerves, licking its way up my arms. I couldn’t get my fingers to do much more than twitch as I tried to roll over, crawl away, something.

Then Felix was back, smacking me into the floor, hand on my neck. Claws inches from ripping the life out of me. He dripped blood, which burned my skin like acid. I flinched and yelped, trying to kick him away, while cursing my now useless arms. The ward spells and warnings did nothing. I couldn’t even feel my hands anymore. The tingling kept moving upward. Like it was eating through my nerves. What would happen when it hit my core? My lungs or heart?

I sucked in a deep breath to scream again as Felix’s fingers dug into my throat. His mouth opened to something out of a horror movie, giant, dark and filled with teeth. Then something large and dark smashed into him, dragging us all tumbling several feet in a mass of limbs and gore. Felix let go.

I rolled into a pile of discarded bones and tried to stop my face from landing in the mess with no arm strength. Felix got up, shaken, but still mad and blind, yet somehow able to face his opponent as though he could see. And then there was a giant dark gray wolf launching itself at him.

One moment I was joyous with relief because there was Liam. Alive and fierce. The next came horror as the wolf collided with the monster that was Felix and the both of them stumbled backward, into and out the second story window.

Chapter 30

The sound of glass shattering seemed to happen after they fell, like the noise of life suddenly returned to the room. I could hear Dylan’s mewling cries from the closet, growls and snarls from below, and in the distance a wet chewing sound. I shuddered, arms not working, but heart pulsing in fear as I found my way to the window to look out.

Below a fierce battle was going on. Not just Liam and Felix. ButApaand Oberon too. Liam was trying to fight Felix, whileApaand Oberon fought. Well Oberon wasn’t fighting so much as trying to keepApaout of the fray. The yard looked like an explosion of bodies had taken place. Blood darkened the grass as far as I could see and pieces of wolves and some humans were strewn everywhere. The grass squelched beneath the raging battle, but Liam seemed to be holding his own. I heard a chain rattle and pop, then raced back to Dylan’s side. He’d broken the link, but was unable to unravel the chains.

There was glass everywhere, which I found by stepping too close. “Stay still,” I begged Dylan. “Fuck.” My arms were completely numb. My feet throbbed from my broken nails and glass shards. It took a little ingenuity, but I was able to nudge a few choice links free with my toes until the chain began to loosen and Dylan crawled free. “There’s glass,” I told him.

“Not strong enough to walk anyway,” he said grumpily.

From outside came a furious growl, followed by a howl that chilled my blood. Pain stabbed into me. Like someone had raked their claws across my entire body, from my face down my gut. It hurt so bad, and I felt the warm rush of blood. Thought for a minute that somehow Dylan had found the ability to change and attack so quickly. Only he howled too, in pain, writhing as though he’d been cut open.

Yet neither of us bled. I felt like I was dying. Pain intensely blinding. There could be only one reason.

Liam!

My heart screamed as his blood began to pour out of him. He was dying. The link stretched between us. His soul wrapped around mine, but he seemed to be trying to unravel it. No. Not after I’d just found him.

I won’t take you with me,he told me through the bond. But I wasn’t going to stand by and let him die. He’d waited a year for me after one kiss. He deserved more than the five seconds this insanity had given our relationship. And I had so much I wanted to tell him, even if the words were damn near impossible to say. He was mine, dammit. The universe chose him for me, it was only fair it gave me a chance to know and love him.

Love. Fuck. Yeah. Not there yet, but so close. Need. Want. Hope. Dream. All of it rested on Liam being for real. I watched Felix dive toward Liam, intent on the final kill.

The fire ignited in me, like Liam’s spilling blood was kerosene. A moment I was human, the next I was fox. The pain in my arms vanished and warmth spread to every bit of my body. Hot, this time. A raging fire, and real flames lapped at my feet, engulfing the dried dead.

I was bigger again. So large this time that as I tried to exit out the same window Felix and Liam had, the wall shattered around me in a splinter of wood and siding.

I was weightless, then I landed on the ground, on all four paws. Unhurt, and unfazed. It was Liam who lay in the grass, gutted and bleeding, his face a mass of gashes. I shrieked a sound of warning that hurt even my ears. I wasn’t fast enough. Felix was already on Liam, claws digging in.

A shot rang out. Sharp and loud, echoing through the darkness.