by Cheree Alsop
“Let him go!”
A picture frame flew across the room and hit the creature square in the face. Startled, she stumbled back several steps and tripped on the couch. She let me go to catch herself before she hit the ground. The moment my paws touched the carpet, the hold she had on me released. I staggered and drew in a life-saving breath.
“Don’t eat my friends,” Virgo growled.
The creature’s eyes narrowed. She looked from me to the warlock. I snarled to keep her attention from him. As if hoping to repeat our first encounter, she swiped at my face. This time, when I snapped at her, one of my fangs caught a claw. I bit down hard. The tip of the claw snapped off and fell to the floor.
The creature pulled her hand back and stared at the claw in dismay. I wanted to laugh at the similarity to a teen who had just broken her nail. The similarity ended when the creature gave an ear-splitting shriek.
She looked from me to the closest window. Before I could stop her, she dove through the glass.
“Don’t let her hurt anyone else,” Virgo said.
A glance back showed his determined expression. His face was pale from the blood that spilled between his fingers and down his arm, but the steel in his gaze showed the true warrior within the warlock.
“I’ll be fine,” he assured me. “You need to stop her.”
The warlock could take care of himself. The humans couldn’t. I leaped through the broken window and took off after the creature. To my relief, she ran past the startled family and turned down between two houses whose lights were off at the late hour. Shouts of surprise sounded when I darted between the family. I reached the next street and lifted my nose to the sky.
My howl was cut short when the creature tore the door off a warehouse and threw it at me. She shrieked and then ran inside. I had no choice but to follow. If anyone was in there, given the thick clove and apple scent of her hunger, she would make short work of them. I gritted my teeth and ran between towering stacks of crates.
“What the—” A scream followed a man’s surprised shout.
I twisted through the next row of crates and placed myself between the night guard and his bloodless assailant. The guard held a night stick, but his hand shook so hard I was amazed he didn’t drop it. The burnt wood smell of his fear colored the air. I lifted my lips in a snarl and faced the creature.
Her black eyes narrowed. “Mine.”
I growled an unmistakable denial.
The man behind me backed up until I heard him hit the crates. The realization that we were both trapped sent heat through my stomach. I growled again. She wouldn’t touch him if I had any say.
The creature took a step forward. Her skin hung in shreds where I had bitten her. By the slight limp of her left leg, the bite to her thigh affected her. I moved to the right, intent on exploiting any advantage I could find.
Claws snaked out. I darted beneath them and slashed the creature’s hamstring the way I would if attacking an elk or a moose with the pack. She let out a howl and the slice of her claws sent fiery tendrils along my back. I spun and lunged at her other leg. She jerked away and my teeth closed with a snap millimeters from her flesh. Before I could get away, she closed her hand into a fist and slammed down on my back.
I hit the floor with a resounding thud. The air fled my lungs. I struggled to regain my feet. Another blow threw me into the closest crates. I fell to the ground amid an assortment of plumbing pipes. The creature’s footsteps sounded low beneath the ringing in my ears. I lifted my head to see her black claws reaching for my throat.
The guard’s black club struck the creature in the middle of her head hard enough to make her stagger. She glared at him. It was the delay I needed.
I gathered my legs beneath me and sprang for her throat. My jaws closed around her jugular. I felt her stumble, but I didn’t let go. Claws raked my sides. I bit deeper. She fell to her knees and my paws touched the ground.
I heard the footsteps of the guard as he made his way around us. The instant he was clear, he took off running. Relief that he had made it flooded through me. I closed my mouth completely and felt the creature shudder. She collapsed forward, pulling me to my stomach. I held on until her body grew still. The hissing sound of her breathing stopped. I listened carefully, but couldn’t hear the beating of her heart.
I let go and backed away. Her sour scent turned out to herald an even more sour taste that refused to leave my mouth. I ran my tongue over my teeth in an attempt to clear it, but it clung like tar.
My heartbeat roared in my ears. I sat on my haunches and willed my breathing again to slow. That had been close, too close. If it wasn’t for the guard’s quick thinking, I would have been dead with him close behind. Would the creature have moved on or been satiated? I was glad I wasn’t going to find out.
I let my head hang and concentrated on calming my heartbeat. I needed to phase so I could explain if the guard called the police. The lines of pain from her claws made me long for the moonlight, but I pushed it aside. I would be out there as soon as I figured out what to do with the body.
The sound of a claw across cement made me open my eyes. My breath caught at the sight of the creature rising to her feet. She didn’t stagger or show any sign of pain from my assault. The marks from my fangs had healed somehow. She stood upright with a deadly grace.
Fear lanced through me.
A twisted grin showed her jagged teeth as if she guessed my line of thought. She opened her claws. I saw my death in her eyes. It wouldn’t be fast; she thrived on agony. She had been just toying with me, drawing out the inevitable. And the inevitable left my blood spilled across the cold cement floor.
I leaped through her claws, ignoring the deep lacerations as she scrambled to hang on through my fur. As soon as my paws touched the ground, I took off at a panicked run.
With the footsteps of the creature close behind me, I turned to the left, then right. I couldn’t remember where the door was. The scent of the guard’s fear clouded the trail. I took another turn, desperate to find a way to escape.
The sound of the creature closing in drove me faster. My paws slipped and I slid around a corner to crash into the next set of crates. A bloody swath colored the floor when I rose and took off again.
I lost track of how long I ran. The realization that she was getting faster spurred me on. I swore I had covered the entire warehouse, but I couldn’t find any door. Fatigue burned through my wounded muscles. I didn’t know how much longer I could keep up the intense speed. She didn’t appear to tire at all, and any time I lagged, the slice of her claws were quick to answer.
She was the cat and I was the mouse. I thought I had sympathy for mice before; that feeling was doubled now.
“This way!”
My head jerked up at the voice. I caught a glimpse of a pale figure that glowed faintly with light. It was the ghost from the college, the girl I had seen in my nightmare. She motioned at the end at the next alley. “Come on! Hurry”
I could have sworn it was the wrong way, but I didn’t have time to second-guess. I loped toward her.
She looked behind me and her eyes widened. “Faster! They’ll help you!”
I had no idea who she meant, but the thought of any help was a welcome one. I rounded the corner and spotted the door at the end. Lowering my head, I ran for it with every bit of my strength.
But I couldn’t let her leave the warehouse. The thought struck me as I dove through the door into the welcoming moonlight. I spun and faced the opening. My sides heaved as I struggled to pull in a breath. I wouldn’t allow her to hurt anyone else if it was the last thing I did. The voice in the back of my mind whispered that it just might be.
Movement caught the corner of my eye. I glanced to the right to see a familiar wolf trot into the light that spilled from the warehouse. Mitch. A younger wolf with the long, gangly legs of youth joined him. A look left showed two other wolves, one burly with dark gray fur, and the other slender and pale. My pack had arrived.
At their questioning looks, I turned to face the doorway and growled a low threat. They joined me without question, their lips lifted in silent snarls. The instant the creature left the warehouse, five sets of fangs latched onto her.
The four werewolves helped me do what I had been unable to alone. Torn apart, the air choked from her, and with her claws destroyed, she finally closed her void-like eyes for good.
I backed off without taking my eyes from her. The other werewolves did the same. Their heaving breaths matched my own. Triumph showed in their gazes. I was about to acknowledge the creature’s defeat when the sound of a breath filling huge lungs met my ears. I stared in disbelief as the creature’s claws regrew. Her limbs healed and her dark eyes opened. Fear made me back away. My pack mirrored my actions.
I stopped at the edge of the light and lowered my head. I snarled. The other werewolves growled deep threats. We may have never fought such an opponent, but we had been raised to never give up. We had promised to protect humans from the evil paranormal entities around us, no matter what the cost.
I glanced at Mitch. His ears were pulled back and determination filled his blue eyes. I squared my shoulders and faced the creature head-on, ready to pay whatever price it took to take her down.
A truck screeched across the pavement and slid to a stop several feet from us. Virgo practically fell out of the passenger’s seat with a rag poorly wrapped around his arm. James rushed from the driver’s side. Virgo held up a knife. A floral scent touched my nose.
“Lavender and silver,” James called out. “Jakhins can’t survive lavender and silver!”
The realization of what Virgo was about to do hit me. I leaped at the creature and latched onto her shoulder. The wolves around me did the same. With her screech of protest ringing in our ears, we pulled her to the ground. Her claws tore huge gouges in the cement as she struggled to break free. She jerked upward and my fangs slid through her flesh.
Human footsteps ran to us. Virgo reached over my head. Before the creature could break free, he drove his blade deep into her chest to meet her heart. The smell of lavender filled my nose. The creature collapsed beneath me.
“It’s alright, Zev. You can let go.”
I didn’t believe it at first. My ears strained for any sound of the creature rising again. The wolves around me backed away slowly. I finally released my hold and did the same. I didn’t take my eyes off her, even when the sound of her breath left her lungs and didn’t return. I would watch her all night if I had to.
A hand touched my shoulder. I snapped at it and barely caught myself before latching onto Virgo’s hand.
He raised both of his hands and took a step back.
“Sorry,” he said. “I should be more careful.” He waved a hand toward the creature. “The heat of battle and all that.”
I gave a snort I hoped would be taken as an apology, but he was right. In all of my training, in the muscle memory pounded into my limbs through endless hours of combat, and in fight after fight in the ring, never had a friend set a hand on my shoulder.
In that train of thought, I had never had a friend have my back besides Mitch once at the Lair, not to mention an entire pack of werewolves, a warlock, and a human. It was a strange feeling and one that would take some getting used to.
“He’s all cut up,” James said.
Virgo’s gaze turned back to me. “Moonlight,” he told me. “And rest.” A grin creased his lips. “Your usual prescription.”
“What about the jakhin?” James asked.
“My mom….” Virgo’s words died away.
I lowered my gaze in understanding. His mother would have been the one to call. She had handled most things out of place in Brickwell. But she had been killed less than a week ago by Virgo’s deranged father and his dark coven. Virgo and his sister Jemmy were the head coven in Brickwell now, and Jemmy wasn’t there to call on.
Virgo let out a breath. “I’ll call the coven in Township. They can take care of it.”
“Good idea,” James agreed quickly. “And good thinking on the blade. I couldn’t figure out a good way to mix lavender and silver. Coating a silver knife was genius.”
“Thanks,” the warlock replied, his voice quiet. He looked at the other werewolves. “And thank you guys for coming. We wouldn’t have gotten here fast enough.”
The soft snorts that followed were acknowledgement enough. Mitch, Striker, Safira, and Frost, the youngest at sixteen, nodded at me before turning back to the forest that surrounded Brickwell. The thought of going with them to the Willards’ house was a welcome one, but Virgo needed bandaging himself and I wouldn’t leave a human alone with the jakhin. Part of me still questioned whether she would rise again.
“You should go with them,” Virgo suggested.
I shook my head.
He sighed. “I figured as much.” He reached into the open door of the truck and pulled out a bag. “Here’s some clothes. You’ll want to phase; I’d hate for you to be naked when the coven shows up.”
I gave a sniff of forced laughter at his joke, but didn’t feel it. The three witches who headed the coven scared the daylights out of me. If I didn’t have to worry about answering questions, I would stay in wolf form to meet them. It felt safer even though I knew the power they possessed was far greater than my phasing from the moon.
“Let’s get you home,” James told Virgo. “Alia said she’d have the first aid supplies ready when we got back.”
“Great. I hate stitches,” the warlock grumbled. He glanced at me. “You’re lucky you heal by moonlight.”
I gave him a wolfish grin.
He shuddered. “Don’t do that. It’s terrifying.”
I grinned again. He shook his head and climbed into the truck.
“Take care of yourself,” James told me. “I’ll tell Alia to leave out the supplies in case you need some bandaging when you get back. I’m sure she’d be happy to help, so wake her up if you need to.”
I nodded but would do no such thing. I could take care of myself.
The human waved and climbed into the driver’s side of the truck.
“Take it easy with my baby,” I heard Virgo say to James.
“If this beat up piece of junk is your baby, it’s a good thing you don’t have children,” James said before he started it up.
Virgo’s reply was lost in the rumble of the engine.
I watched them drive away.
The realization that I was by myself with the creature’s corpse wasn’t a pleasant one. I told myself I was being foolish, but then a chill ran down my spine.
My body tensed at the realization that I wasn’t alone.
Chapter Four
I spun and found myself a few feet from the ghost who had led me out of the warehouse. The lavender from Virgo’s well-doused knife touched my nose at the same moment. I sneezed before I could stop myself.
Her contemplative expression changed to a disappointed one. “That’s all I get? A sneeze? I saved your life, you know.”
The one constant I had found during my research on ghosts and poltergeist and the like was that it never paid to make one angry. I wagged my tail, something I had made a point to never do in the Lair.
The ghost’s expression softened with a slight smile. “I guess I can’t expect a thank you when you’re a wolf. You should go change.”
Her sudden amiability surprised me. I picked up the bag Virgo had left in my mouth and carried it into the warehouse. Though it hurt with the random lacerations from the jakhin, I phased quickly and pulled on the loose black sweat pants.
“What are those?”
I spun with my hands out, ready for an attack.
The ghost didn’t appear to notice. Instead, she drifted closer. “Those marks, and that black one on your chest. What are they from?”
I glanced down. The burned brands stood out sharply against my skin. In the middle of my chest where her focus had landed was a jagged black wolf pawprint, remnant of my nearly dying at the hands of the
witches who were on their way. Deep red scratches remained from the lacerations that were healing beneath the moonlight. Empathy for Virgo getting stitches filled me. I had been there before; I never wanted to be at someone else’s mercy again if I could help it.
“Just scars,” I said. I pulled the tee-shirt over my head and slid it down.
“Scars from what?” the ghost asked.
I had hoped my curt answer was enough, but the curiosity in her gaze refused to leave. I let out a breath from between my teeth and chose a change of topic.
“Thanks for your help back there.”
She glanced toward the interior of the warehouse, then away. “Oh, that? That was nothing.”
Something in her tone told me otherwise. “That wasn’t nothing. That was brave.”
A slight hint of something lit her gaze. She gave a derogatory shake of her head. “It wasn’t, because I’m dead. I wasn’t at risk.”
“But you were afraid,” I stated, watching her closely.
She began to shake her head, then nodded it instead. “That thing was scary.”
“Terrifying,” I agreed with enough enthusiasm that it made her smile. “So what made you come find me?”
“I was worried about you.”
Her words caught me off-guard. “Me? Why?”
She lifted a shoulder. “You’re the only one who really sees me, and I thought…I thought that if I helped you, maybe you would help me?” She turned away and took a few steps toward the darker end of the warehouse. Her feet floated above the ground, but the grace of the effort was the same. “It’s stupid, really. I don’t know what you could do.”
The smallness of her voice caught me. I threw the shoes Virgo had supplied back into the bag and carried it to follow her. “It’s not stupid.”
She glanced back at me. “How could you help?”
I thought about what I knew of ghosts. “Well, most spirits stick around because they’ve left something unfinished.”