Page 70 of Witchblood

Felix paused as though confused. A hole appeared in his forehead, oozing darkness even as the bullet pushed free and it began to heal. Yeah, the old often couldn’t die that way, Oberon had once told me. It was whyApahad to put them down. Only he was strong enough to rip them apart and give them permanent death. The werewolf healing kicks in too fast. Though brain damage could be permanent.

Everything froze for a half a second as Felix tried to parse what was happening. It wasn’t long. But enough time for me to charge forward with speed I’d never experienced before and take a massive swipe at Felix, hitting him at neck level.

If I’d been my normal fox I’d have done little damage to him. Maybe annoyed him a little, but not hurt him. As this kitsune or whatever the hell I was now, my hit slid fiery blades through him. His skin burned but didn’t bleed. There was nothing left in him but darkness. My claws weren’t like the fox anymore, small and delicate. Instead they were something similar to talons, large and thin, curved and sharper than razors. He may not bleed, but my claws ripping his head from his body was enough to stop his movement. Felix’s head rolled in one direction, body collapsing at my feet.Try to heal that, motherfucker, I said to myself in Samuel L. Jackson’s voice.

I caught a glimpse of Carl in the distance, rifle raised, though not pointed at me. He stood very still and focused. I could feel him pouring some metaphysical power into the link of the pack. A warm energy, sort of like a cup of hot chocolate on a cool fall evening. I wasn’t sure what it was until I felt the whole pack streaming the energy through Dylan, Carl, me and finally, Liam.

Liam stopped tugging so fiercely at the ties between us. I worried it was because he was finally succumbing to the loss of blood and massive wounds, but when I looked down at him, he was healing. Wounds visibly closing. I gasped and pushed my own energy into that guided pool Carl was directing.

I had never seen a pack heal its alpha. Maybe the Volkov’s pack was just too broken to even try. I could feel them all through the link though. Even Dylan was healing, cursing at the speed at which his body demanded fixing, but still healing.

The house behind us began to crackle, and I glanced up to realize it was on fire. Blazing, in fact. I had a moment to worry about Dylan, before he leapt out of the hole that I’d made in the side of the house, in his wolf form. He landed less than gracefully, but he didn’t seem to be more hurt than he had been.

A glimmer of joy rolled through me. It was over. Everyone was safe. Felix was dead. We’d slain the metaphorical Grendel and I’d grieve over my actions once I knew everyone important was safe.

The reverberating grumble of something huge seemed to make the ground shake. The dark sludge of the Volkov’s beast rolled over us all, flattening the wolves to the ground as if gravity wouldn’t let them move a muscle. Darkness blanketed over the sky, plunging us into an unnatural black stillness, devoid of life. I struggled to breathe as the panic began to rise in my gut.

Like that day so long ago when I’d been a child and I’d seen something I couldn’t fathom. An evil so great that most went mad from its sight. Once again that raging madness hovered over me. Like it could touch me, rip me to shreds and not even blink an eye.

Another shot went off, flying wide, beyond me and into something I hadn’t yet had the courage to face. I heard Oberon’s whimper a second before something leapt the nearly forty yards over our heads to lunge at Carl.

I thought to protect Carl since he belonged to Liam, but while I wasn’t forced to bow like the wolves seemed to be, I found myself unable to breech the wall of fear. My labored breathing kept me hunched to the ground, frozen. Panic coursing through each cell of my body.

In that second I finally saw the thing that the Volkov struggled to control. Not unlike Felix, it was an emaciated creature with talons instead of claws. But the Volkov wasn’t human at all. Part wolf, perhaps part bat, but all thin flesh pulled taut over bones, it looked almost dragon-like in the head. Yet not. Snout elongated and filled with razor-sharp fangs. I couldn’t focus on it, the more I tried, the more the terror filled my belly. It seemed to morph from fear to fear; if I thought too hard about one fear it became that only to meld into another until I was left paralyzed, trembling, and terrified.

Chapter 31

The Volkov reached Carl and slashed at him. An action slowed down by my mind like the sort of things done in movies for effect, only this was all too real. Blood and more visceral things flew. A spray of gore spattered the ground in a wide arc around them.

And a half second later, Liam was on the Volkov’s back, claws digging into that wiry monster and teeth tearing at the back of his neck. No one else had strength to move. Not even Oberon.

Carl lay in the grass unmoving. I tried to reach down the pack bond to find him, but all I could feel was Liam’s panic. He had to save the pack, save me. Stop the Volkov from being set loose on the world. Impossible tasks set before him as he faced down a monster I wasn’t sure even the legendary terrors of old could measure up to.

The Volkov slashed at him, trying to rip him off, and bleeding Liam with every touch.

Liam. I thought hard at him, begging him to stop with one word, to run. He was frantic now. Both in his attack on the Volkov and his pulling on our bond. He knew he was going to die and didn’t want to take me with him.

I trembled, unsure how any of us stood a chance if Oberon, the Volkov’s own right hand man, couldn’t stand up to him.

With a yelp, Liam let go under the Volkov’s tugging. It was that or let himself be ripped in half. He was flung away, like no more than garbage, landing hard in the grass, a few feet beyond Carl, with a heavy thud. He didn’t get up either. I still felt him. Liam’s life wrapped around mine. His body damaged, bleeding, bones broken, bruises arising from every crevice of his body. He’d fight until he died before he gave up one of his wolves.

He struggled to pull himself up, wobbling, swaying, dripping blood. The Volkov focused on Carl, readying another pounce. Only a dusky-colored wolf flew from the second floor of the house and landed on the Volkov, hallowed in fire, like an avenging angel.

For a second it worked, even knocking the Volkov back several paces. Liam and Dylan tugged Carl away. But now it was another wolf in danger. One much younger and less experienced.

Toby.

I almost ran to him. It was Liam’s voice in my head that commanded me to stop.The Volkov won’t see you right now. All he sees is prey.

Toby shrieked when the Volkov’s claws slid through him. A sound so unghastly and terrifying, I was certain I’d hear it in my sleep if we somehow made it out of all this. I paced a few feet away, uncertain.

Toby flew into the trees, launched like he’d been spit out of a cannon. Liam returned to cut off the Volkov’s pursuit even though Liam was in rough shape. How was he even still upright? I didn’t understand why the Volkov was chasing Liam and the wolves. Carl had shot Felix, but it hadn’t been fatal.

I had killed Felix. Sliced into him with some otherworld power I couldn’t have imagined having just a few weeks ago. Is this what everyone was expecting out of me? Some vengeful spirit with the power to kill the bogeyman of the werewolves. Was that what I wanted? The Volkov to die?

I knew I didn’t want to lose Liam. I’d known him only a handful of days and yet dreamed of things I’d never thought to hope for before in my life. He gave me fantasies of home, happiness, and safety. A place to finally belong. Were they really fantasies? Or did I have a chance to experience those things with Liam?

Liam protected his underbelly with fast turns and low dives, but his back took a lot of damage. Blood matted his fur until he looked coated in it.