by Sarah Noffke
“That’s vampires,” Trudy corrected. “But everyone hates fire. Well, not demons. I think they eat it. However, I fear we’d die from smoke inhalation. This place is sealed up tight.”
“Maybe we set up a series of traps inside here? When she walks in, she’ll fall into a pit of blades.”
This gave Trudy pause. “I like that idea, but honestly, I think we have to get out of this place as soon as she opens the door. The inn has too many advantages for Vera, and we have no idea where the pack is. We don’t want to be ambushed in here.”
Liv agreed. “The entire pack will have shifted. It will be hard to determine which one is Vera.”
Trudy smiled. “For that, you can rely on me. I know exactly how to tell which one she is.”
“Oh does that x-ray thing work for that?”
She nodded and took another sip.
The two fell silent for a long minute while they thought, the wheels turning in their heads.
“So, the bite on your leg?” Trudy asked after a long bit.
“I fell,” Liv said simply.
“Yes, and Stefan fell too,” she said with a wink. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to pry if you don’t want to tell me. I get having your own life and missions outside of the House.”
Trudy stretched and stood, letting out a long groan. She was built more like a man, with her broad shoulders and narrow waist. “I’m going to go use the little girl’s room. Be sure to fill your reserves, but don’t worry about doing the dishes. I think we can leave them for someone else to clean.”
Liv smiled, swirling her spoon in the potatoes and making a design.
As soon as Trudy was gone, Plato materialized on the table beside the pot of food.
“How do you know when the coast is clear to appear?” Liv asked him.
“It’s a gift,” he said simply.
“Like x-ray vision?” Liv asked.
“No, more like the ability to pick the lottery numbers, which I can do as well.”
“Oh, really?” Liv asked. “I’ve been so poor I couldn’t buy us dinner, and you know how to pick lottery numbers? Why didn’t you ever tell me?”
“You wouldn’t want to be handed anything,” Plato told her smugly.
“Try me.”
“So, you’re stuck in an inn surrounded by werewolves, and the sun is less than an hour from setting,” Plato mused, sounding rather amused.
“It’s going to make quite the story to tell at dinner parties,” Liv stated.
“Unless you become dinner tonight.” Plato licked his paw. “Then I guess I’ll be the one telling the story.”
“Be sure to include that I tried to take you down with me,” Liv added.
“But like the coward I am, I ran before the pack could get me, leaving you defenseless and alone.”
“Yes, be sure to include that part.”
Plato shook his head. “I don’t think so. It doesn’t paint me in the best light. But if it helps, you’ll know the truth.”
“Okay, well, then just be sure to say a few nice words at my funeral, would you?”
“You know I can’t do that,” he answered.
“I know that you won’t,” she corrected.
“And before we order the stale croissants and flower arrangements for your service—”
“I don’t want flowers at my funeral,” Liv cut in. “You know I’m allergic to most of those things. Instead, I want balloons. And everyone must take a hit of the helium before they say nice words about me, or whatever they say.”
“I’ve made an update to the affair,” Plato stated. “However, don’t get ready for the Big Sleep just yet.”
“Do you have a way to get us out of this inn?” Liv asked, hope flocking to her voice.
“No. I can pop in and out, but you’re absolutely stuck here.” He looked around. “Whatever Vera’s family did to this place, they made it vault-like. You’re not getting out of here until she takes off the charm. Your friends have been trying for a while to get in through the back, but it’s no use.”
Liv smiled inwardly, proud that Fane and Alina were still trying to help her. He must have been very fond of her parents. How could anyone not be?
“Did you have an idea that might help us?” Liv asked. “Something to delay our deaths?”
“Yes, I think I do,” he stated proudly. “I’m hoping that it does more than postpone your death by several hundred years. If it works, you’ll reset the balance of this entire village, thereby reinstating peace among werewolves.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Are you sure this is going to work?” Trudy asked from the first landing on the stairs, looking down at Liv dubiously.
“No, not at all, but it’s the best plan we have,” she answered.
“And how do you know that Soren is perched on the roof?”
“Call it a hunch,” Liv said a bit sheepishly.
Trudy gave her a hesitant expression. “And the rest of the pack? How do you know they are located around the perimeter at the back?”
“Wild guess.”
“Okay, fine,” Trudy stated. “Keep your secrets. If you weren’t so cute, I probably wouldn’t go for this whole thing.”
“Isn’t that bad logic to base your decision-making on?” Liv asked her.
Trudy shrugged. “Probably, but I also like it when you make Adler angry. No one has been willing to be as bold as you in…well, for as long as I can remember. Even your mother didn’t dare to say the things you do to him, so I guess I’ll trust your judgment purely out of respect.”
Liv smiled. “I think that’s as good a reason as any.”
Continuing the climb to the second story, Trudy shot Liv one last look. “Be careful. And if you need help, you know what to do, right?”
“Scream like bloody hell?”
“That’s right,” Trudy said, disappearing around the corner.
Liv held her father’s cane in her hand, hoping that Plato was right about the placement of all the pack members in the village of Lupei. One mistake, and she and Trudy would be dead. The plan was to divide and conquer. A pack of werewolves was impossible for a single Warrior to defeat, but one was manageable. However, Liv knew she wasn’t facing just any werewolf. She was about to face off with one of the deadliest to ever exist.
Although Trudy DeVries knew Liv Beaufont was hiding something, it didn’t worry her. Everyone was concealing a part of themselves. Sometimes that was because it was easier that way, or because they didn’t think they’d be accepted if others knew the truth about them. That was Trudy’s reason for not telling others who she really was. Trudy might have been able to see under people’s clothes, but that wasn’t her biggest secret.
However, Trudy suspected that Liv had different reasons for keeping secrets. For some reason, Trudy thought Liv was hiding something bigger than the House of Seven, but that was only a guess. And whatever it was, Trudy was okay with Liv doing whatever she was doing. There was a competence in the young magician that inspired trust. Trudy and Hester had discussed it many times. Liv Beaufont, as mysterious as she was, seemed to be straightforward. What you saw was what you got. She was fighting for only one thing, whether her agenda was apparent or not: the greater good.
When Trudy came to the third-floor landing, she marched to the far end, as Liv had told her to do. The sun would be down in less than a minute, which didn’t give her as much time as she’d like to set up for the next part.
Blinking at the closest wall, Trudy activated her x-ray vision to see through it. At first, she couldn’t see much past the roof, but then the small figures on the ground around the building materialized. She counted six. That was how many Liv had said would be on the ground, ready to storm in through the back.
How the girl had known the werewolves would be stationed there, Trudy couldn’t fathom, but she had been right. They were exactly where she said they’d be. And it made sense that they’d enter through the back, or be there if Trudy and Liv tried to escape that wa
y.
“Okay, now it’s time to find number two.” Trudy scanned the area around the upper floor until she found a figure standing just on the other side of a window blocked by shutters. “Bingo.”
Soren stood only a few feet away, still in human form. It was almost time, but not quite. Trudy knew what she’d have to do when Vera opened the inn. However, she’d have to be fast. Timing was key. And she hoped that if she was successful, it would mean that Liv was too. Leaving the young magician to do what had to be done hadn’t been easy. And yet, she knew she had to. Liv was the right person to face the alpha. If anyone could take her down, it was Guinevere’s daughter.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Liv tried to tell herself that she’d been in worse situations as she stared at the sealed front door, but the truth was she couldn’t think of a direr one. Yes, she’d been caught by Sabatore and nearly been kissed by the demon, but she’d had faith that Stefan would step in and save her. She’d been bitten by the lophos and nearly died, but even then she’d trusted the people around her to help, and Clark had come to her rescue.
But this...
Liv knew that when she faced Vera, she would be absolutely alone. Trudy’s job was to handle the rest of the pack, which was quite the job for one person. All Liv had to do was take down a single werewolf…who had magic. No biggie.
The lights flickered overhead, and the inn shook. Howls echoed around the building.
It was definitely party time, Liv thought, yanking her cane apart to reveal the two swords.
The chandelier’s bulbs extinguished, leaving Liv in total darkness.
“I see she wants to make a grand entrance,” Liv muttered to herself, placing a night-vision spell on herself. The room illuminated enough that she could make out the door again. It shook, and then the large wooden slab flew off the hinges and soared in Liv’s direction. She dove at the last minute, rolling out of its path.
Crouching, Liv spun to face the doorway and realized she was frozen yet again. The devilish woman had placed another immobility spell on her, but thankfully it wouldn’t last long.
According to Plato, a werewolf couldn’t do magic when shifted. He suspected that as a werewolf hybrid, she’d be stronger and deadlier than any other due to the magic, but she couldn’t cast any spells. That meant she’d had to take down the wards barricading Liv in the inn before shifting.
Liv realized once she looked out the open doorway that Plato was absolutely correct. The unassuming old woman’s body contorted oddly as she began to shift. The sounds of bones cracking and fabric tearing made Liv flinch. This should have been Liv’s chance to blast the not-fully-transformed werewolf and escape from the confines of the inn, but she couldn’t move. Instead, she was forced to watch the painful transition, unable to do anything she’d planned.
It took less than a minute for the small woman to transform, then standing squarely on the threshold was the stuff of nightmares. Sabatore had nothing on Vera in werewolf form.
The monster was covered in thick gray hair. Her long snout dripped disgusting drool, and her narrow eyes glowed red. Vera stood on her hind legs, her front ones covered bearing long claws that she held in front of her scarred chest. This was not a dog that was going to win any contests. No, she was so large that she had to duck to enter the building.
When the lights went out in the inn, Trudy could still see just fine thanks to her x-ray vision. It had been why she was never afraid of the dark when she was younger.
The floor shook under her feet.
So far the place was still locked up tight and the werewolves hadn’t shifted, but she had a feeling that everything was going to change over the next several seconds.
Multiple times, Trudy tried to break through the window in front of her using her magic, but they were still trapped. That only made the werewolf shifting on the rooftop in front of her, just a few feet away, even more chilling. The process appeared incredibly unnatural as the beast’s bones contorted at weird angles and it grew taller.
Scanning the area, Trudy noticed the other six figures shifting. A chill ran down her spine at the vision of the many werewolves taking form. Trudy had always loved animals, which made what she was going to have to do next even more difficult.
She reminded herself that her empathy had gotten her in trouble with the council more than once. However, Liv shared this same affliction, and it had served her in many different ways.
Trudy had battled inside about the right course of action here, but had finally concluded that Liv was right. It was possible that not all the werewolves had to die. Yes, that might be the right option. If the alpha and her second in command were in fact the problem, why punish everyone?
Trudy knew what it was like to conform. She’d been doing it all her life. If Liv was right and the other werewolves were punished for doing things they couldn’t control, she wouldn’t be able to live with herself—and the last thing that Trudy DeVries needed was more guilt.
A loud crash on the first floor made Trudy spin around. Something had happened below. She couldn’t see to the first floor from the third, but her magic told her exactly what she needed to know.
The spell had been lifted. They were free to leave the inn, which meant the werewolves were also free to enter.
A growl that made Liv’s ears ache escaped the werewolf’s mouth. It held its head up to the ceiling, its long arms extended like it was trying to hug the night for setting it free.
Liv’s fingers twitched around the cane. The immobility spell was wearing off. Vera had placed it on her right before shifting, but it wouldn’t last now that she’d changed. Any second now, Liv would be able to move. As soon as she could, she’d need to get the hell out of that place.
The werewolf slammed down on its front paws and growled at Liv, who was only ten feet away. Too close.
The hot air spilling from Vera’s mouth soared across the space, making it feel like a furnace had suddenly been turned up. The beast’s breath was putrid as it accosted Liv in the face.
She threw up her arm to shield her nose and was grateful to find she could move once more. Vera, however, wasn’t as happy about it. She lunged, but Liv darted to the side fast enough to avoid being tackled. The werewolf collided with the front desk, making the thick wood buckle. She was like a bulldozer, strong and crushing.
As Vera worked to untangle her large form from the broken pieces of the desk, Liv shot a stunning spell at the werewolf, but it did nothing.
Liv’s magic didn’t work on Vera. It must have been a protection placed on her as a hybrid, which meant that Liv might be absolutely screwed.
Without magic, she had to rely on the only two things she had to her advantage: her intelligence, and her father’s cane.
Holding up her hand, Trudy sent a powerful stream of magic through the large window in front of her, blowing it out of its frame. It flew several dozen feet, landing on the roof of a building across the lane.
The sound of the breaking glass got all of the dogs’ attention, which gave Trudy the perfect opportunity to soar through the open window. She landed with a thud in front of Soren in werewolf form. If he had been ugly before, with his wide nose and small eyes, then he was even more repulsive now that he was covered in fur.
He whipped his head over his shoulder, his bright green eyes landing on Trudy. Before he had a chance to growl or react or whatever, she held up her staff, wrapping his body in an electrifying spell. It made his limbs stretch out as he was rocked by the internal shocks. As Liv and Trudy had suspected, Soren not being a hybrid made him susceptible to magic, giving the Warrior as fighting chance.
The pack at her back was moving in closer and Trudy directed her attention to them, creating a line of fire using her staff. It cut the six werewolves off from the inn, making them shield their faces from the sudden burst of flames. Carefully using the staff her grandmother had given her, Trudy raised the flames until they were high above the werewolves, too tall for them to jump.
; An angry, deep growl resonated through the night air behind Trudy. She knew what doing the fire spell had cost her. It had released Soren from electrocution.
She turned to face the werewolf, delighting in the fact that his fur was still steaming. However, crouched, he still appeared strong enough to do a lot of damage. And unfortunately for her, she had to make a choice. Keep the fire wall up, barricading the werewolves away from the inn, or take out Soren?
Trudy held her staff horizontally, ready to use it as her grandmother had taught her. The woman’s words echoed in her head. “When you can’t rely on magic, use brute force. One day you’ll be a Warrior who fights for magic but ironically doesn’t get to use it in all situations.”
Chapter Thirty
Sidestepping in the direction of the entrance, Liv tried to not make a single noise. Vera was still yanking her claws free of the splintered wood.
The inn was going to need a major renovation after this fight.
A piece of the wood from the broken door cracked under Liv’s boot and she froze.
Vera brought her large snout around to find Liv standing only a few feet from the entrance. She considered making a break for it, but the way the werewolf moved made Liv certain that she wouldn’t make it off the porch before she was tackled.
No, I must keep my eyes on the beast. Turning her back on Vera was a recipe for death.
“Hey, little puppy,” Liv said, holding the silver swords in her hands and taking a fighting stance. “Would you like to play fetch?”
Vera jerked loose of the broken wood, landing with a thud that made dust rain down from overhead.
Akio had taught Liv to use the dual swords together in a way that could cause a distraction. He called it sword illusions, and many soldiers used it in battle to hypnotize their enemies, confusing them until they could get a clear shot. He called it a last resort because it was apparently what someone did when they had limited options left. That was definitely Liv right then.