Darkness Unleashed

by McKenzie Hunter

  Ethan and I ran closer to the house, doing a swift count of the Faeries. “I see twelve,” I said.

  “There are some around the back.” He didn’t see them, but Cole, Gavin, and Steven were running toward the back of the house, following a trail of blood. Behind two of the Faeries were mutated monsters that had at one time populated the dark forest. They moved in unison with the Faeries, seemingly under their control.

  Something that looked like a cross between a rhinoceros and a bear came up on its hind legs, and with a swipe of its disfigured paw, it sent Sebastian back several feet. He careened into a tree so hard bark broke off.

  Another dark forest creation padded toward me, a horrid combination of a tiger with wings that were too small to be functional. They couldn’t be used as anything but a distraction, which worked; while I was focused on the wings, it had cleared the several feet between us and lunged at me, teeth bared, ready to take a chunk out of me. A shot rang out, a bullet tore through the animal, and it fell to the ground with a thud. I got a glance of Chris holding a shotgun.

  I didn’t have time to thank her before another inhabitant of the forest charged me. I forced magic outward, feeling resistance. Maya, who’d freely enjoyed magic, was fighting against me using it. It pushed the creature back. I looked around for a discarded weapon I could use. Nothing. The animal regrouped and came at me again, but it was stopped by a flash of movement. A human—or humanlike—body crashed into it, wrapped around it, and gave its head a quick jerk. When the creature stopped moving, Chase rolled it off him.

  Blinking several times, I tried to make sense of things. The elves I understood being here; the vampires I didn’t. Out of my peripheral vision, I saw Demetrius approaching a Faerie. Before he could get close, he was dropped to his knees; then he keeled over, face forward. A cruel, dark smile covered the Faerie’s glamoured lips. The faerie struck his fingers through the air, driving in the magic. Demetrius stilled and wailed in pain. Distracted by his torture session, the Faerie was shocked when Chris shot him in the chest. He stumbled back. Gabriella was quick to strike, beheading him. I used to think nothing could live without a head, but when we’d killed Ethos, removing his head hadn’t stopped him. I waited for the Faerie to move. He didn’t.

  Six witches, powerful ones, were having problems with two Faeries. Nia was high enough in the air that the fall would surely kill her. The Faerie holding Nia mid-air curled its lips sadistically, bringing a shiver to my spine. From his position behind the Faerie, Gavin started toward him. He didn’t see Nia suspended in the air. If his target died, she’d crash to the ground. He lunged at the Faerie, clawing at his back. He slashed and clawed at the monstrosity until it dropped to the ground, mangled and bloody.

  Nia was free-falling, her hands moving frantically to cast spells, but nothing slowed her descent. A powerful wind spooled under her. I assumed Gideon intended it to be gentle and didn’t correctly estimate the necessary force, but it was enough to slow her fall.

  Cole was a few yards from me, taking down another resident of the dark forest. Crossbow arrows flew through the air. In the few minutes it took me to find Winter among the chaos, she’d taken down five of the dark forest creatures.

  The havoc was overwhelming and trying to make sense of the players involved was difficult. I focused on the two Faeries advancing toward the house. I knew their targets: the Clostra and the Gem of Levage. I shoved strong magic at them hard, and with waves of their hands, they formed a bastion that blocked it and sent it back into me. I hit the ground hard but continued shoving magic at them, throwing up fields to protect myself from their return fire. But it was two against one. Two extremely strong Faeries against me, a person who hadn’t mastered magic the way they had. The one thing I had in my arsenal that they didn’t was my immunity to magic, so I dropped the field and took a running leap toward them while shifting into my wolf. I opened my jaws and clamped down on an arm. The Faerie growled, shaking her arm to detach me while the other beat against my side. I held strong, and when I finally released, I took a chunk of her muscle with me. She stumbled back, grabbing her arm, and leaned against the side of the house, her breath labored. Her glamour dropped. I attacked again, clawing and mauling. I thought the other Faerie approaching me would attack, but he was distracted. His gaze sharpened on something with interest. He changed course. I whipped around to see what it was. Ethan.

  Focused on the Faeries’ activity around him and the two elven creations he was fighting, Ethan didn’t see the Faerie approaching him from behind. But Cole did. He looked directly at Ethan. I howled to make sure he saw it. Cole’s gaze fixed on the Faerie, and he charged, but in another direction, lunging at another creature that was approaching Steven. I howled again to get Cole’s attention and redirect him. Steven had seen the attack and was prepared for it. He didn’t need Cole’s help.

  I turned back to Ethan, but I heard Steven’s aggressive growl, rips, and crashes. I started running toward the Faerie attacking my mate. I lunged at him to find only air. He’d disappeared and reappeared just inches from Ethan. He jammed a sword into Ethan’s back, twisted it, pulled it out, and plunged it in again. He disappeared. Ethan fell, facedown. A dark forest creature was about to take advantage of the situation and take a chunk out of him, but I plowed into it. I ripped open its belly. My claws and teeth finished the job.

  I didn’t want to use claws and teeth anymore. I needed a sword—nothing but Ethos could live without a head. As if he’d read my mind, Sebastian appeared in human form, wielding his sword. I looked around to see if others had followed suit. Cole was in human form. Demetrius looked wrathful as he started toward a Faerie. I shifted to human form and glanced back at Ethan, who hadn’t moved. I had two Faeries in my sight and concentrated, forming a ball of magic. I had to work harder because Maya was fighting me every inch of the way. I tossed one in the back of the first Faerie. When she turned to retaliate, Sebastian beheaded her.

  Between the efforts of the elves, vampires, witches, and were-animals, the animals from the dark forest were either dead or contained. It was hard figuring out which parts went with what animal since they’d been abominable mixtures of things that shouldn’t have been together. We hadn’t accounted for all the Faeries I’d seen. Even Sebastian was doing another check. “I count four,” he said.

  “There are six more over there,” Gavin added from a few feet away. Good, that was ten of the twelve I’d seen.

  “There are four in the back,” Cole offered, coming to Sebastian’s side. Then he turned to Chris, who’d just come out of the woods.

  I started toward Ethan, my heart lifting when he moved, trying to roll onto his side. I felt magic wrap around me—Josh clothing me. An invocation floated in the air, and I followed it to two Faeries who’d dropped glamour. They had the Aufero in hand and were quickly making their way toward Ethan. Josh was the first to react. A withering firestorm of strong magic moved toward them. They weathered it behind an egg-shaped barrier they’d thrown up. Josh’s onslaught rammed into it. Ariel added hers; the shield bulged, and as it had done with me, it returned her magic with the same force. We ducked, but it grazed our backs. It burned, and excruciating pain seared through me. “Get the Aufero from them!” I didn’t want them to remove Ethan’s magic, which was stronger and deadlier than anything they possessed.

  Chris shot at the egg-shaped barrier, and her bullet came back at her, penetrating her shoulder. She cursed and grabbed it, letting the shotgun drop to the ground. Blood soaked her hand, and her string of curses was louder than the invocations the witches were doing behind the Faeries trying to bring down their barrier.

  Pain marred Chris’s face as she bent down to retrieve the dropped gun, but before she could, Demetrius wrapped his arms around her waist firmly. “We’ve helped, and we’re done.” And with that, they disappeared. The other vampires took his departure as their cue to leave, too. Most of the elves had already left, taking the creatures that had survived back to the forest.

  Eth
an groaned loudly as he stood. He’d lost that primal grace that dictated his movements. He lumbered heavily, the back of his shirt soaked with blood. A light silver glow came from the cuts the Faerie had given him. With much effort, he made it to their barrier and leaned into it. The field wavered. Nothing happened. A ripple formed along it again. Ethan’s magic was stronger and suffocating; it felt necrotic and wrong. As the field came down, the Faeries screeched, a high reedy sound that couldn’t be drowned out despite covering my ears. I expected to feel blood coming from them; I didn’t. But I couldn’t remove my hands. I wasn’t sure how Ethan was bearing it. But he was. He grabbed a Faerie, his fingers curling into its leathery, coarse skin. Then moments later, the wailing stopped as the Faerie went through a strange version of the vampire’s reversion like the other he’d killed in the first attack on the house. The dark scaly skin dried and shriveled before collapsing to dust. Ethan grabbed the other Faerie holding the Aufero. Before he could deliver the same lethal treatment to this one, the thing stabbed him in the stomach with a knife.

  “Ethan, let go!” I yelled, running toward him, my ears still ringing. He didn’t. The Faerie pulled out the knife and shoved it into Ethan’s chest, leaving the blade embedded. Ethan destroyed his attacker. I could see why they so desperately wanted the magic Ethan hosted—it was powerful and deadly.

  When I yanked out the knife, it crumbled to pieces that floated away, following the same fate as its creator. I lifted Ethan’s blood-soaked shirt, exposing the wound. The silvery glow illuminated his stomach before whisking to nothing as the skin pulled together and formed a mesh, leaving behind a small scar of newly formed tissue. Sebastian helped me ease him to his side so I could look at the wounds on his back. They looked exactly like the scars on his chest and stomach.

  Ethan struggled to keep his eyes open. Finally, he held them open long enough to look at me. His eyes were clear blue, not a hint of his wolf present. Even the distinct wisp of magic that the were-animal possessed was gone. I felt its loss, and I wondered if the others did as well. The aura that signified the presence of the animal was gone. That predaceous counterpart that lay in waiting to be unleashed was gone. Was I the only one who sensed it?

  “Change,” Sebastian instructed him. It was a gentle command, meant to trigger that deep preternatural connection that existed between the Alpha and his pack members. Ethan closed his eyes in concentration. His face became flushed. He worked to call forth his wolf. His heart pounded from the exertion, his breath became ragged, and sweat glistened on his brow. It was in vain. He stayed in human form. He was human now. I felt magic, but not that of the enigmatic were-animal. Hints of Faerie and witch magic wafted off him, but that was all. Before, his wolf had overpowered his other magic

  Sebastian dropped his head in concentration, slipped his hand over Ethan’s, and instructed him to change. Several minutes passed, and both Ethan and Sebastian were on the floor, drenched in sweat. Sebastian had changed to his wolf and back to his human form, trying to force a change in Ethan.

  Cole said it before the rest of us were willing to. “He can’t change.”

  Ethan tried again, which took everything he had because he passed out. At least I hoped he’d passed out. We all waited for his chest to rise because his heartbeat was so faint; it was as if his heart had given up as well.

  CHAPTER 25

  Ethan was barely breathing, and calling what his heart was doing an actual beat was generous. Dr. Jeremy got him on the exam table. Kelly tried to usher everyone out. When she tried to direct me out, I held my ground, refusing to go anywhere.

  “Everyone out. Sebastian and Gavin, I need you to stay,” Dr. Jeremy instructed in a rush. I knew everyone was moving quickly, but it still seemed too slow.

  Dr. Jeremy must have felt the same way because he yelled, “Everyone out now! I won’t ask again!” People moved past me, but I didn’t budge. Dr. Jeremy gathered medicine and brought a crash cart next to Ethan, and Kelly tore the clothes from Ethan’s body.

  “Get her out of here,” Dr. Jeremy commanded anyone who would listen. Gavin approached me, and I glared at him, daring him to touch me.

  “Sky, you have to leave.”

  “I’m not leaving,” I informed him with the same command in my voice as he’d delivered his request with.

  “You will have to, and I really don’t want to force you out.” He stepped closer, his voice becoming low, a whisper. “Please, don’t make me force you.” His eyes were gentle, pleading for compliance.

  Reluctantly, I backed out. The door closed and locked behind me, and the curtains were drawn, something rarely done. What does that mean? Good or bad prognosis? I tried to remember a time when the curtains had been drawn or Dr. Jeremy had looked that panicked or he’d yelled. When had he dealt with a shifter who couldn’t shift?

  Josh was sitting against the wall, his head resting against it. A vibrant colorful string of magic twirled along his fingers. He appeared to be using it as a distraction.

  “Is it true, he can’t change?” he asked softly, concentrating fully on the magic as he made it respond to his command. I understood what he was doing. He felt out of control and needed something he could control.

  I took too long to answer because I didn’t know what to say. It was the animal part that allowed us to heal, and now his brother had lost that and had four stab wounds. It also appeared that whatever magic had been on the Faerie’s blade was sealed inside him, preventing him from changing and healing.

  Through the haze of my grief, sorrow, and unease about Ethan’s prognosis, I looked for the right words to comfort Josh.

  “No, he can’t change. Even Sebastian couldn’t force him into a change. The Elite.” I glared at Cole, who had come through the double doors to give his two cents’ worth, something I could have done without.

  Josh nodded slowly and wore the same look of defeat I’d seen in Ethan when Josh had been in the hospital bed. The magic disappeared, and he stood and walked away through the doors Cole had entered. He needed time alone, but I knew he needed someone—London. Most of the witches had left, and the only two I’d seen as we’d rushed Ethan into the house were Ariel and London. I hoped London had stuck around.

  “What the hell is wrong with you?” I snapped.

  Cole inclined his head, and his brows pinched close together as if he didn’t understand my anger. “Did I do something wrong?” His inquiry and bewilderment seemed so sincere.

  “You did a lot of things wrong,” I asserted. “You didn’t have to tell Josh that.”

  “I didn’t have to tell him the truth?” he asked, incredulous. When he moved closer, I smelled blood on him. He’d changed his shirt, but the stench of spilled blood, magic, and death lingered. “This pack has held so firmly to their secrets and lies of omission that you don’t think twice about concealing the truth.” He reached to touch me, but after I gave him a look, he thought better of it. “Sky, don’t let that be who you become.”

  “I wasn’t going to lie to him, but you doused any hope he might have had. You pretty much told him his brother is going to die.”

  “But he probably is. It’s wrong to give him false hope.”

  “He’s not going to die!”

  I moved back toward the door to the infirmary, hoping they’d opened the curtain. They hadn’t. Pressing my ear against the door, I strained to listen, but all I heard were muffled voices and sounds of machines. After several minutes, I gave up.

  “You didn’t help when you should have,” I squeezed through clenched teeth as Cole took a position next to me.

  I relaxed against the door, ignoring him. He was probably trying to come up with a good lie.

  “I helped, just the wrong person. And for that I apologize. I made a split-second decision of who was in the greatest need of help. I truly thought Ethan had it. Based on what I’ve seen of his skills and what I know of him, he is exceptional. You must believe me. I won’t benefit from his death. I won’t get his position; it would go to Winter.
”

  “Until you challenge her,” I said.

  He peered into the window as if he could see behind the curtains. “From the looks of things earlier, she’ll get his position. Sky, it will hurt worse if you don’t consider that an option.”

  I closed my eyes, unable to bear the thought of it. Cole was right. I didn’t see how Ethan was going to survive the injuries if he couldn’t change. Changing helped us heal; the magic in him would be ineffective. Dr. Jeremy was talented, but he was used to working with us, people with an exceptional ability to recover. I couldn’t shake the images of Ethan’s injury, his ragged and clipped breathing, and his failing heart.

  “Whatever I feel about Ethan, I put it aside when it comes to pack obligations. That’s what an Alpha does. If the pack is strong, we are all strong. The strength of all our packs rests in that of the Midwest Pack. You fall, then so do we.”

  I swallowed and tried to brush the tears away as quickly as they spilled. He placed his hand on my shoulder, and I felt guilty that I didn’t shrug it off. I welcomed the warmth and the comfort it provided.

  He continued, “I’m asking for your forgiveness, even though I did nothing wrong. I tried to do what was best. I wouldn’t do that to you.” Cole looked sad, and it was hard to keep painting him as such a cold, calculating person. Had it been it a mistake? Had he acted in good faith? I kept thinking about Steven’s contempt for Cole. Could he be wrong about Cole, or was I naïve in thinking Cole was genuine?

  I nodded.

  “For what it’s worth, I really hope I’m wrong,” he offered in a low voice. After giving my shoulder a gentle squeeze, he left.