by Hunter Blain
The wolf began striding toward her, confident the fight was over and all that remained was claiming the kill by eating her flesh.
“No!” I shouted while extending Mjolnir, ready to send anything I could downrange.
A giant wolf’s claw swiped down at my extended arm, cutting through my celestial armor and Fae coat with ease, and making me drop Mjolnir to the ground with a clatter.
Wide eyes looked up to see Stripe reaching his other hand around my torso.
My busted armor tried to bat him away, but I was as helpless as the trapped rabbit faced with the sheer might of the predator.
Steel cables that resembled humanoid fingers wrapped all the way around my torso and underneath the armpit of my still functioning limb.
Stripe lifted me up with strings of drool leaking from glinting fangs, and I began helplessly punching at his snout with my freshly shredded free arm.
“John!” Locke called out, giving me some sort of optimism to latch onto. His voice was the small flash of light in the darkness which provided a desperate feeling of hope.
That hope was murdered like Bruce Wayne’s parents when I heard the distinct growling of three wolves.
Daring a glance, I turned to see the conflagrated wolf had managed to get the flames out, and was in the process of healing with alarming efficiency. Even his fur was thickening again.
Looking further over my shoulder, I saw the two wolves Hayley had shot were climbing back to their feet, their own wounds having healed in the short time of the ensuing battle.
The three free wolves all turned to Locke at the same time and began charging from different directions.
If despair could be likened to a physical ailment like artery-choking cholesterol, then what I was experiencing inside my chest was the equivalent of a lifetime of McRibs packed with Sonic’s Chili Cheese Tots and washed down with a gallon of Outback’s Bloomin’ Onion blended with mayo and ranch dressing.
Hayley’s groaning brought me back as I turned my increasingly dizzy head to see her attacker stooping over to pick her up.
Looking back at my captor, a tear slipped from my eye. Not of sadness; I was just simply beyond exhausted.
Stripe was looking at me with eyes that were alarmingly intelligent. He appeared to be gloating, letting me watch as Locke was overwhelmed and Hayley was dismembered.
My jaw popped with how hard I was clenching it, and I could feel uncontrollable anger igniting beneath my skin.
Stripe cocked his head while looking down at me, yellow eyes narrowing.
Plumes of white began spilling from my eyes and up my head as I brought my good leg back, and then slammed it forward as hard as I fucking could.
It smashed into Stripe’s pelvis and took him off his feet as if he had a steel wire tied around his thighs and attached to the space shuttle as it was taking off into orbit.
The wolf dropped me as he rocketed through the air in a trajectory that I knew would take him out of the fight for several minutes.
I noticed I was hovering in midair and turned to see the were-pire over Hayley about to place her entire freaking head in his gaping, drooling mouth.
Mjolnir flew into my hand as I stared with an unreadable, stoic expression, and then pointed the hammer at the wolf.
The air inside his lungs contracted to the size of a grain of rice, yanking the pliable flesh free from his diaphragm.
In slow motion, I watched as Hayley fell from the were-pire’s loosening grip to land on the ground with a thud. To my horror, she had landed on her stomach, and fury exploded in my core for the baby that was inside her.
Without realizing what was happening, I blinked through the air, grabbing hold of the choking wolf by either side of his head, and ripped it in half with a wet, tearing sound.
Letting one side of his head drop, stripping away from his broken skull like a floppy banana peel, I reached into his exposed brain with a hand that was glowing white hot.
The gray matter sizzled at my touch, and I reached inward until half of my forearm was submerged and my fingers touched the bottom of his skull.
The wolf twitched as I swished my arm around, yanking all of his brain out before letting the broken husk plop to the ground.
I took a moment to notice I could use both hands again, though my leg was still mostly numb and useless.
Turning in midair, I willed Mjolnir back into my grasp—once again being appreciative that my weapons seemed to know when to vanish on their own—and pointed the hammer at the three wolves that were overpowering Locke.
A portal opened next to me, and an obsidian blade flashed through the air right as Stripe stepped through, fury written all over his face.
My vision collapsed to the size of a needle’s eye, and I was vaguely aware of the sensation of falling.
I struck what I thought to be the ground, and I opened my eyes, waiting for the blackness constricting my vision to release. Seconds passed as my vision cleared. Mjolnir was in front of me; my hand was still wrapped around its handle, but was at an awkward angle. I shouldn’t be looking at my own knuckles.
Then it hit me. My arm had been cut off.
It took a few precious moments to register that my celestial power had been completely severed by having my gauntlet removed from the rest of the set.
My head weighed a thousand pounds, and all I could do was lay on the ground, watching as blood oozed from my cleanly severed arm, cut just below my elbow.
An enormous wolf’s paw stepped into view, and I managed to redirect enough strength to pivot my eyes in their sockets.
Stripe leaned down to look at me, his obsidian Aztec sword lowering to rest on the ground in front of me, blocking my view of Mjolnir.
I had nothing left in me, reaching an absolute new level of exhaustion. It’s funny. In that moment, I wanted to laugh at the version of me from just a minute or two ago who thought he was too tired to continue, yet had the celestial armor intact. I was just learning all kinds of new levels of incapacitation today. Ain’t learnin’ fun, kids!
Locke shrieked in pain. That oddly didn’t seem to make me react in any way, which meant I was at my rock bottom; physically and emotionally empty.
I closed my eyes, no longer able to keep them open, and waited for the darkness to swallow me.
39
A roar of challenge rang out, piercing the blackness I was submerged in. I knew that sound.
“Dep...weg...” I mouthed, not able to put forth enough strength to formulate the words.
One eye slipped open, and I saw a furry blur rush forward with amazing speed. I couldn’t follow the movement in real time, but I heard the unmistakable sound of impact as Depweg tackled Stripe to the ground.
Suppressed automatic gunfire sounded, and I swiveled my eye to lock onto a small, out-of-focus shape that vaguely reminded me of Meli.
One of the three wolves shrieked in pain as another blur streaked across my vision. This one was smaller, and I dare say, faster than Depweg.
The small ball of nimble fur leaped through the air and swiped across one of the remaining wolves before continuing through the air.
Hope gave me a strength I didn’t know I had, and I opened my other eye. I thought I was going to pass out from the effort, but I lifted my head and saw one of the two remaining wolves grab at a throat that was spilling blood.
Meli leveled her sights on the last and emptied the rest of the magazine into it before dropping the spent weapon to the ground. I guess she was out of ammo, and I mentally smacked myself in the head for not giving her more MOLLE pouches to hold the rifle magazines.
Meli rushed over to me, yanking out one of the IFAKs and dropping to her knees.
“Oh my God,” she gasped, seeing how bad I must be. All she had to do was reconnect my hand, and my armor would be complete again.
“Re...re...reco—” I stammered, never taking my eyes off my arm.
“Be quiet,” Meli commanded as she pressed a QuikClot kit to my stump.
At least it’s not o
ne of the ones that bur—OH MY FUCK!
The heat was intense and made my old friends—the black bugs—visit again. They swam in my vision, and I briefly wondered how long ago Depweg had built these kits. Didn’t they stop using the burning ones years ago?
The bugs began to diminish as Meli quickly debated on my leg or arm.
“Reconn...” I whispered.
“What?” a flustered Meli asked while leaning down closer to hear me over the nearby raging battles.
An idea I didn’t like came to me, and I swiveled my eyes to look at Meli.
Whispering even quieter, I said, “I’m sorry about this.”
“What?!” Meli barked, bringing her ear all the way to my mouth.
I lunged the few inches to her neck and sank my teeth into the artery just beneath the surface.
Delicious were-blood flooded my mouth as Meli became paralyzed with surprise and terror, making her heart pump even harder.
A moan escaped my throat as I felt her life energy flooding through my body, giving me strength I didn’t think was possible. Then again, hovering that close to death would make any level above that feel like you were king of the world.
Raising my head off the ground, I positioned myself to get better access to her flow of blood as a part of my brain screamed at me to stop.
I hadn’t enjoyed blood in so very long, and it was like being reunited with a lover after years apart from one another.
I felt alive again, like I wanted to sing and dance, but at the cost of Meli’s energy...and maybe her life.
My red eyes shot open, and I pushed Meli away before collapsing back to the ground.
On my back, I reached out with my stump toward where Mjolnir was still being gripped by my hand.
Meli gurgled and coughed, and a sickening understanding came over me; I had gone too far in my urgency to consume her blood.
Using my shoulder blades to move, I inched closer and closer to my hand. Only problem was, the stump was facing the wrong direction.
“Grrrrr!” I growled through crimson-coated teeth.
An idea came to me, and I willed Mjolnir to fly through the air and into my numb left hand.
It leaped from the ground and over my chest right as I slammed my stump toward my hand.
The pieces clicked together like a magnet, and I could feel the armor undoing the cauterizing the QuikClot had done, using the were-blood energy flowing through me to heal.
Power rushed into me again, and I pushed myself up and over to where Meli was starting to go still.
Placing my fingertips on her neck, I focused on healing the vascular tissue beneath the skin. It was delicate work, but I could feel everything reconnecting.
The blood flow stopped, and I knew she at least wouldn’t bleed out.
Her heartbeat was somewhat erratic, and her eyes were unfocused. I had simply taken too much blood from her.
I can return some of it! I thought to myself, getting ready to force some of my own blood out of my body and into her veins.
I froze as I thought about how Ulric had made me, giving me his blood when I was dying.
“Shit!” I barked while desperately trying to come up with a new plan.
Looking up, I saw the three wolves had split up and were attacking Locke and Ben. Sonsofbitches could really heal.
Glancing toward Depweg, I saw him expertly dodging Stripe’s obsidian Aztec sword, but knew all of his graceful avoidance and combat skill could be countered with one lucky blow from his opponent’s blade.
A large part of me said Meli was a lost cause and I should move on to help Locke and Depweg, but I knew that wasn’t right.
Peeling my focus away from my friends and to the problem beneath me, and idea pinged in my brain.
Reaching down to the burnt, gaping wound in my thigh, I clenched my teeth and stuck my fingers through my own flesh.
“RRAAAAAAH” I screamed into the sky as I pulled out a strip of my flesh with trembling fingers.
There was a pop, and I knew I had yanked the flesh free.
With heaving breaths, I brought the flesh up to Meli’s mouth and pried it open with my numb, free hand, trying my best not to knock out her teeth or dislocate her jaw. Damn, I missed having dexterity in my fingers!
Meli’s mouth hung open, and I inserted my flesh into her mouth, trying my best to angle it to where it might slide easily down her throat.
Blood seeped out of the chunk of meat and glided over her tongue, prompting her lips to quiver. I helped her close her mouth, and was rewarded with a wash of relief as her jaw began chewing.
Ben cried out like a pissed off kitty, and I shifted my focus to see him tumbling through the air. Impressively, he landed on his feet, dragging his claws through the concrete, and leaped right back into battle.
I ripped another strand of flesh out from beneath the charbroiled scab that was my leg, and rested it on Meli’s lips. I was confident she would be okay.
Looking up to Depweg, I saw him limping. One of his legs was matted with an alarming amount of blood, but he was still getting in some good licks. However, Stripe was able to quickly heal all of his injuries at a vastly superior rate, and would win by simply letting Depweg bleed out.
Turning back to Locke and Ben, I could see they weren’t faring any better.
The werecat had several huge gashes down his side that were also spilling precious blood. Locke was doing his best, but he had mostly been forced on the defensive.
How the fuck do we beat these guys!? I shouted inwardly as I let my eyes land on Hayley, who hadn’t moved since she had been dropped.
Hecate came to mind, and I reached up to pat at my heart, my armor disappearing as my hand neared.
My eyes went wide as I felt what was beneath my coat, just over my heart.
Reaching into my breast pocket, my fingers wrapped around what Gabriel had left for me inside of Val’s storage room.
Removing my hand, I looked down at the two nine-inch nails, and understood what I needed to do.
Everything happened slowly as I threw the nails into the air above me and willed Mjolnir into my grip. Closing my eyes, I focused on the world around me, and sent up channels to reach out toward the sky.
I could tell the fighting had stopped. Right as the wolves were no doubt wondering what was happening, I let a bolt of lightning flash from the sky, splitting into forks as it neared the ground.
Each of the were-pires were electrocuted and sent flying in different directions.
“Depweg! Locke! To me!” I shouted as I let Mjolnir go and caught the nails as they fell back toward the ground.
Without wasting time or asking questions, Locke and Depweg sprinted to where I stood over Hayley and Meli. Ben limped to his sister and nudged her cheek with his bloody nose.
“Ehnnnn,” Meli moaned, lightly brushing Ben away as she continued to chew the piece of meat I had placed on her lips.
Sensing his sister would be fine, Ben turned his attention to the wolves that were regaining their feet.
“What is it, John?” Locke asked out of breath. He had several gashes over his body, but they seemed like they had just been the tip of the claws instead of the brunt that Ben and Depweg had taken. Locke was many things, but nimble...um...was also one of them. Heh, I said “just the tip.”
“John!” Depweg rumbled urgently.
Looking over my shoulder, I saw Stripe already striding toward us, sword in hand.
“Take these,” I commanded, holding out my hand so they could grab the nails.
Locke used his nonwand hand to grab a nail of Christ while Depweg snatched up the remaining one. It looked so much smaller in his grasp than when I had wielded mine.
“Now what?” Locke asked, looking the nail over and over.
“This,” I confidently said, letting my own gladius bloom into view.
“I don’t—” Locke began, but I cut him off.
“We don’t have time for twenty questions. You need to believe that what you are hol
ding is a freaking flaming gladius. Got it?”
Locke and Depweg simply looked at their nails before exchanging glances with one another. All the while, the were-pires were making their way toward us. Stripe was running now with fury in his eyes.
“Guys! Believe! Pretend we’re in some Disney movie and just freaking believe! Okay?!” I urgently demanded while shifting my weight uncomfortably on my good leg. “Or better yet, pretend they are lightsabers! That’s still Disney, right?”
The rest of the were-pires were sprinting forward, creating a wall of muscle and claws. I took note that only Stripe seemed to have the ability to manifest a sword.
Because the universe had an astounding sense of humor, the remaining hybrids summoned their own Aztec swords made from obsidian.
“Locke! Depweg! What you are holding is a gladius! Believe!”
“You keep saying that!” Locke countered, waving the nail around in his fist like it was a lightsaber he couldn’t figure out how to activate.
“Why aren’t you freaking believing over here?!” I cried out, Stripe only yards away from us.
The boss were-pire leaped through the air, his blade ready to fall on Depweg’s head, when a flaming gladius directly blocked the attack, sending Stripe flying back for several feet as he tried to keep from stumbling over.
The twelve-foot-tall Depweg held a gladius that would have been a freaking longsword to me, and immediately lunged forward while his opponent was off-balance.
Seeing Depweg’s success, something clicked in Locke, and his own sword burst to life, heavenfire dancing over the blade.
The three wolves slowed for a moment at seeing a trio of angelic swords on the battlefield.
Sensing his opportunity, Locke extended his wand and sent a wall of fire toward the were-pires.
The heavenflame coated two of the wolves and they collapsed to the ground, shrieking. I hoped they’d have a harder time healing from that.
Locke and I moved in with our gladiuses while the jarring sound of swords clanged somewhere behind us. Depweg and Stripe were having it out.
I lopped off the head of the nearest were-pire right as Locke engaged in a one-sided dance with the one that hadn’t been burned.