by Cathy Clamp
I opened the door wide and felt myself slip into her body. She knew I was there and let go of her mind. The moon was rising now and I could feel the tug of the magic at the same time it pressed me down toward the ground. I focused on nothing but Sue’s feet and getting her across the room, fast and unnoticed. “You haven’t answered me, Paolo.”
“There is nothing to say. I want your death, and I’ll have that soon enough.” He was keeping hidden just beyond the door of the temple, protecting the egg. It wasn’t a very big building, but I was betting it was chock full of the toughest men he had. As it was, the new batch was moving with much more stealth. I couldn’t even see shadows move. But I sure as heck could see glowing. “Not as soon as you think.” I raised the rifle and squeezed the trigger twice in rapid succession. One guard down. I twisted at the waist and popped two more slugs and another thud sounded. “Oh, did I mention I have second sight? Darkness doesn’t bother me much.”
Paolo swore and started to close the heavy stone door to secure himself and his queen. I sailed back into Sue’s body and she let me. That’s when the moon came calling.
I let out a howl of pain and threw Sue into motion. She jumped out into the open area like an Olympic sprinter off the mark. It was all I could do to keep her moving side to side, ducking bullets that flew. She was almost to the wall and I’d nearly lost my battle of changing forms when a blur cut across Sue’s vision. She screamed as she was dragged sideways by her hair and the ball of C-Four fell from her grasp. Thankfully, it didn’t explode on impact.
Nasil had Sue’s neck stretched backward by her hair, a sharp knife held to her neck. She gasped and I could feel the blade cut her skin, just enough to let a small trickle flow down her neck. “If you surrender now, wolf, I might let her live. Otherwise you can watch her bleed away onto the floor.”
I let out a low growl and stepped into the open. A dozen guns raised on me and I stared them all down. He hurt my mate! That wasn’t allowed. The glowing snake held up the paw holding the sharp metal. “Oh, put the guns down, fools. He’s of more use alive. She is nearly born and will need a meal, since it’s likely the cut power line has ruined her magical treat. And when she’s done with the wolf, we will have two snakes to feed her, fat with power.”
I advanced another step, lowered my front legs, and raised my hackles. I let out a howl to call the pack. It echoed and sounded like a thousand more wolves. The men with their guns didn’t begin to look nervous until the magic of the pack began to fill me. The man holding my mate stared at me curiously. “How very interesting.”
He loosened his grip for a split second and forgot she is pack too. Her eyes glowed green as the pack entered her, held her, and made her strong. In a sudden movement, she pulled a dark sharp thing from her skirt and reached backward. She stabbed the shiny black stone claw into the snake’s back and he screamed and dropped. She rolled away after grabbing another metal claw and the white ball. The snake thrashed on the floor, spraying blood from a wound that wouldn’t seal. His colored light began to fall off in chunks, cut from him like meat from a bone. Two more snakes leapt out from the shadows and began to slice at the guards pointing at me. I seemed to remember them as pack. The dark-skinned men fell bleeding and stopped glowing. But the ones that were still glowing were mine. I raced forward and slammed into the nearest glowing man and closed my jaws around his neck. He beat at me and stabbed a sharp thing in my side that made me yelp. But I wouldn’t let go until he was still. He didn’t taste good, though, so I moved away, looking for better food. The other wolves were with me. I could feel my pack leader leading the hunt and when I pounced on another guard my bite felt stronger, my claws raked deeper.
When the last man was down, I moved toward the snake who had hurt my mate. He was still writhing on the floor, trying to reach the claw she’d left in him to pull it out. But she’d dug it in deep, all the way to the bone handle. There was a burst of color and the stink of power in the air and the snake called his true form. But the claw wouldn’t fall out. He hissed again and rolled. I could already smell decay and let out a snort of air. The snake was dying. It just didn’t know it yet.
Tony! I heard my mate’s voice in my head and I turned to her. Can you change back on your own? I need you to shoot the detonator.
I blinked, not understanding what she was saying, even though I knew I should. Concentrate, Tony. I need you back with me.
I shook my head and felt the pack fade from my mind. Nikoli was pulling them back and human thoughts began to flow back into my head. Ahmad and Tuli were at the temple door, using their swords to pry open the stone door, while slamming against the stone to push it even farther open.
“I’ve never been able to change forms, Sue. I’m not an alpha. You’ll have to shoot it.” I motioned with my head to the guns on the ground. I didn’t know whether she’d ever practiced for distance with a rifle, but she did pretty well on the guard on top of the pump. I turned away from Nasil. He was done for. Even now his hisses were becoming weaker, as was the glow surrounding him.
“Ahmad. Tuli. Leave him. Let’s move.”
Ahmad stayed where he was, throwing his shoulder against the door and bending the long sword nearly double. “I’m not going to leave without the book. I saw it in there. And we can destroy the egg, rather than simply hope for its death.” He looked at Tuli, motioning her away. “Go. Secure the other door so nobody else can come in.”
She nodded once and turned. But then, on impulse, she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “For luck, my prince.”
It apparently wasn’t enough for him. He grabbed her hair and yanked her mouth to his in a fierce kiss that left her eyes glazed and a shimmering dark glow etched across her lips like neon gloss. He released her just as abruptly and turned away to put his shoulder against the door once more. “Luck is for the weak. We are not. Go to your task.”
Sue and I were halfway across the room to where I thought we would have a protected spot when the wall went when the temple door finally gave way with a harsh scraping sound.
I was catapulted inside Ahmad’s head once more, causing me to skitter on the concrete floor and do a face plant that slammed my jaws together.
The inner temple was pitch black, with only the acrid smoke of the torches still thick in the air to give any indication it had ever been light. It was difficult to smell anything past the taste of venom and honey still painted across my tongue, but there was no denying anymore what the wol . . . what Tony had said. I could feel Tuli’s heartbeat as a twin in my chest. Fast when mine raced, slow and measured when deep in thought. So, then. Mated indeed. There were worse things in life so long as one didn’t become too emotionally encumbered, and an extra lifeline was of immense value.
I feared the emotionally encumbered part would be the difficulty.
A sound stopped me. I froze with concentration, then tightened my grip on the sword and waited for another whisper of movement. Yes, there it was, just to my left. I swung the blade abruptly toward the noise and was gratified the way the blade sunk into tissue, causing a muffled scream and the scent of blood to mingle with the smoke. The problem was I couldn’t tell how large the room was. I swung a second time, but met only air before hitting the stone with a sharp ting. I pressed forward, moving deeper into the room, swinging blindly, yet hoping to push Paolo into a corner where I could end this. My carefully sliding boots hit an obstruction but the sword still swung clear. An altar then, or perhaps a staircase. My hand reached forward, trying to find the egg, or the book, all the while swinging, stabbing, and moving the blade in all directions to keep anyone from ambushing me. Another whisper of movement, but this time it was a scraping, heavy and solid.
I was thrown backward, the weight of a massive block of stone hitting my chest with the force of a body. It slid me across the floor to hit the wall, head-first. With a snarl, I was up, sword still swinging toward where the stone had come from. I realized then that I was beginning to be able to see in the dark interior. Nor
mally, my night vision wasn’t good. But now I was able to make out shapes in the black. Tuli had always been exceptional at seeing in the dark. Could this be her influence? No matter. It was useful. I could see the edges of the altar now, and raced toward it. Yes! The egg was still there, just waiting to be destroyed. And the book also lay open and waiting for the words to be read.
A fist came from seemingly nowhere, hitting my temple hard enough to snap my head sideways and erupt bright lights in my vision. A net of power was thrown over my head, impressive enough to hold me frozen in place for a long moment. Yet even though I couldn’t move, I felt my arm raise, under another’s control. It stopped the next blow, where had I not moved, I would have been struck again.
Got your back. It was Tony’s voice, coming from inside my head.
Paolo only had so much magic, though, and it wasn’t more than two strikes—both defended adequately by Tony, before I could move again. The hilt of the sword became a club while I shook my head to gain my senses. It snapped forward like a steel cudgel, hitting Paolo right in the nose. Blood erupted, tasting of fresh copper and venom.
He moved like lightning, nearly as fast as Nasil could travel. Rather than strike me, he pushed my back, hard enough that I was thrown into the wall. I nearly dropped the sword when my wrist bent backward. When I pushed off and spun—
Sue was slapping my muzzle, trying to pull me out of Ahmad’s head. “Come on, Tony. I need you back here with me! I can’t do this alone.”
A loud, vicious combination of yell and hiss, filled with pure rage, was followed by a string of swear words. They came out from inside the inner temple. We all turned and raced back to see what had happened. Ahmad was holding the book, looking a little bruised for the process, but the temple was otherwise empty. Paolo and the egg were gone and there was no sign of where they might have gone. One of the stones was probably a secret tunnel, but it would take too long to find it. We didn’t have the time.
Then we got our next annoying surprise. Nasil had also disappeared while we were all otherwise occupied. Down the same hole, or did he slither out a different way?
Still, I was betting he was mortally wounded. I had seen the knife sucking away at his power, carving it away from him like a turkey on Thanksgiving day.
A hammering sounded on the far door and it sounded a lot like a battering ram. Tuli grabbed Ahmad’s arm and started to pull. “I sealed the door as best I could, but I fear we’re out of time.”
Ahmad tucked the book under his arm and sprinted after me. One goal out of three wasn’t bad for a start. We could still hope that blowing the wall would find Nasil, Paolo, and the egg and drown them. When we got to the other side of the room, Ahmad looked through the sight to where the C-Four had been placed. “I can’t see the detonator, and we have no scopes. Someone’s going to have to get closer.”
He looked at Sue, which I thought was pretty chicken shit. “You’re the Sazi that will heal, asshole.”
“No. It’s okay, Tony. I said I would.” Sue took a deep breath, fully expecting she was going to die. I could feel it in her mind. But that wasn’t an option.
I stepped in front of her. “Lie down on the ground.”
“What?”
I repeated it. “Lie down on the ground. It’s the best shooting position. I’m going to see if I can take over your head. You only have to squeeze the trigger when I tell you.” She did as I asked, even as the ram hammered against the door. I dropped down the tripod on the front of the AK with a kick of a foreleg, and lay down beside her. She dropped her eye to the sight, but her eyes weren’t good enough to see the C-Four, much less the detonator.
I didn’t plan to use her eyes, though. She opened the mental door this time and I felt Ahmad hiss beside me. The book dropped from his hands and landed on my back.
“It lives.” His voice sounded horrified, and his scent was filled with fear. I suddenly understood what he meant. The book had a heartbeat. A steady pulse that felt warm and solid against my back.
A heartbeat.
Torn from the body.
I looked up as Ahmad stared at the snakeskin-covered book. “It is alive. It’s part of the cave and needs to go back.”
He picked up the short sword and raised it threateningly before kicking the book away from me to spin across the concrete. “It needs to be destroyed!”
I grabbed onto his pant leg with my teeth before he could go any farther. He stopped and looked down at me incredulously, in a How dare you touch me sort of way. I released him, but only so I could talk. “Do you want to be attached to me forever? Think about it. It’s the cave where I connected to you. It was the cave where you had to go to reach me in return. I’ve had dreams every night about that cave, either silent and lonely or filled with wildlife. I don’t know how, but the whole damned cave is alive and this book is a part of it.”
He paused, blade raised to cut it in two. “Do you actually believe the cave is sentient? That it connected us for a specific purpose? You realize that’s insanity, I presume?”
I flicked my ears forward while he got more nervous. “You betcha. As insane as a book with a heartbeat or a knife that eats magic.”
Tuli touched his arm and he looked at her. “Could it do any harm to take the book back there, Ahmad? If nothing happens, then destroy it.”
The door burst suddenly open at the other end of the room. “And . . . we’re out of time.” Ahmad picked the book up and Sue quickly leaned into the rifle, head lowered to the sight. Tuli kept busy firing round after round at the incoming guards, keeping them too busy to fire at Sue and me.
I didn’t have time to ease into it. I flooded her brain and felt myself join with her. I’d pushed deep before, until I could slip into her skin like gloves. But never as a wolf. It was a tighter fit. I didn’t realize how different my brain worked in this form. Yes, I could force it to bend, but it was painful. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, hoping the others would keep me safe and took over Sue’s body. I opened my eyes and was abruptly looking through the metal sight. The white blob in the distance wasn’t really that far. I could see the cord and . . . what the heck was that thing around the cap?
I nearly laughed when the image suddenly made sense in my head. It was the quarter! The one from the firing range. The cap was right in the center of the coin, giving me a larger target to shoot at. And heck, it was only a hundred fifty yards or so. I’ve taken longer shots.
I took a deep breath and started to squeeze the trigger when a burst of pain made the whole gun move as Sue cried out. Crap! She was hit. Right in the shoulder.
I let my calm fill her, ride over the throbbing of her arm. It changes nothing. Concentrate on the job. Patch up later. She nodded and tried to center herself. Her arm was trembling now, but she only had to do it once. She breathed slow and calm and I felt her mind transcend the pain. That’s what needed to happen.
Feel the arc before you fire. Know where it’s going to land. I calculated it in her head this first time and adjusted the front of the barrel just a bit. “Fire in the hole,” I heard my wolf mouth say. The others looked at me and dove to the side, behind one of the sturdy pumps.
She squeezed once, but I felt her arm twitch from pain and the barrel raised. No matter. I moved her finger to squeeze again a second time with a nudge of the barrel down, before there was even time to blink. The men in the doorway looked confused all of a sudden, but when one of them looked to where the bullet had landed, he screamed for everyone to evacuate. The first bullet sunk deep into the plastic, but the second bullet, that was the ticket. Concussion turned to electricity, turned to boom!
We scrambled off the floor and followed Tuli and Ahmad to the next room. A roaring sound began to follow us.
Began to catch up.
We raced through the long, narrow hallway, back to the stairwell. I reached the stairs first and turned to see the wall of water, a dozen feet high, racing our way. “Go, go, go go!” Ahmad picked Tuli up bodily and threw her onto the second l
evel of stairs. Sue struggled behind them, bleeding profusely and without Sazi healing to fix the damage. She was in too much pain to run. The scent cut me to the core. I stopped beside her and slammed shut the solid-steel fire door with my shoulder. It wouldn’t hold for long, but it didn’t need to. Ahmad was holding open the door to the basement where we’d entered, three levels up, waving us up, to hurry.
“Ever ridden a wolf?” I knew I could carry her. I carried her to bed all the time. Why not give her a ride?
She didn’t argue. She just straddled my back and rested her cheek against my fur, arms around me and fingers tight in my neck ruff. She had to pick up her legs a little so they didn’t drag, but damned if I wasn’t able to run up the stairs as the water burst through the door, sending it spinning like shrapnel against the wall. It chased us upward with a speed and force that made me glad I had supernatural speed. I passed the others by and they didn’t stop me. They could fend for themselves easier than Sue could.
But even the basement wasn’t safe. Nothing was until we reached outside. I was thankful that Sue knew the way. I felt her in my mind, correcting my flight as I ran. “Four hundred eight, four hundred nine,” I heard her say under her breath. “We need six hundred twenty to reach the door.” She pulled on my neck like it was reins. “No, left turn here.”
I looked back to find that Ahmad and Tuli had changed forms as well. Even they couldn’t overcome the moon forever. But they were fast as lightning in this form, racing past me down the hallway. I put on extra speed as the roaring—held back for a moment by the second fire door—finally burst onto the level through the uncompleted walls.
Sue started screaming to get the attention of the staff as we raced up the main flight of stairs. “FLOOD! The sea’s coming in!”
One guard turned to see two snakes and a wolf carrying a bleeding woman with a sword. But that didn’t panic him nearly as much as the sound of roaring water under his feet. He poked his head into the stairwell and then slammed the door and locked it.