I shifted slightly towards Brian, but it just made Fletcher growl even louder. His jaws opened and his long sharp teeth were bared at us.
Brian made a sudden movement, grabbing my arm to pull me behind him, and Fletcher seemed to snap.
A huge ball of wolf knocked us both to the ground, and I heard the wizard scream as he took the brunt of Fletcher’s attack.
For a second I lay there, the heavy weight of the wizard on top of me, and listened to what sounded like a death scene, then a light blinded me and I felt heat everywhere.
Fletcher yelped and retreated, the smell of singed fur filled the air and then the wizard rolled off me and I could see Iris.
She was standing like a fury of hell, fire burning in her hands and all around the circle coming from her; the grass was scorched and the trees were starting to crackle as the heat raced up their trunks and set alight the twiggy ends of the branches.
Her face was consumed with anger, and I could see she was about to let Fletch have both barrels.
“Iris, no!” I shouted, just as the wizard yelled the same.
She paused, but the fire continued to burn all around us.
Fletch was cowering against a tree, and looked terrified.
Iris lowered her hands and the fire began to die down. But a wall of flames continued to burn around the circle and down the middle, cutting Fletch off both from us and from escape.
“The wizard is hurt. Help me,” I said, trying to turn him onto his back so I could see his wounds.
Iris dropped to her knees beside the wizard. The wizard moaned, then clutched at my cloak. “You must finish the spell, Emily, you must do it now. Iris, you have to drop the fire.”
“Are you crazy?” Iris began to stem his bleeding, tearing strips from her own skirt. “I’m not letting him anywhere near her. He just tried to kill you!”
“I’m okay!” the wizard insisted, though he ruined the effect by coughing wretchedly.
I was scared but I hadn’t come this far just to give up. I wanted to save Fletch more than anything in the world. I tried to stand but my ankle gave out beneath me and I fell back on my behind. It must have been twisted when Fletch knocked us down.
“Iris, could you get to the woods?” The wizard pleaded. “I have a bag of supplies there with a medical kit. Emily will be okay. I truly believe Fletch won’t hurt her.” He looked like he wanted to say something more, then changed his mind and shot me an anxious look.
Iris looked from him to me, clearly torn about leaving me, but knowing that Brian needed the medical supplies urgently.
“Please help him,” I begged, “I think he’s seriously hurt. I’m alright, but I’ve twisted my ankle and can’t get up.”
Iris looked over at Fletch still cowering against the tree, and seemed to weigh up my safety. Eventually she nodded. She disappeared out of the circle towards the woods but her flames continued to burn around us.
Not far from me was Fletch’s human body. My heart leaped in my chest from fear that it might have been hurt by the fire, and I began to pull myself across to it.
I didn’t see Fletch move, but suddenly he was over the flames and right in front of me. He pounced and his massive paws came down on my shoulders, pushing me into the ground.
I looked into his eyes and my fear grew. They weren’t green anymore. They were yellow. We stared at each other but I couldn’t see Fletch inside anywhere.
His nose twitched, and moved across my body and into my hair, finally coming to rest at my throat.
I’d been frozen in the moment, oblivious to what was going on around me, but then I became aware of the wizard’s mind voice telling Bob to stay back, and I suddenly realised I had a werewolf on top of me and Iris was too far away to help.
“Emily!” The voice in my head was insistent, like he’d been speaking for a while and knew I hadn’t heard a word. “Emily, you must submit to him.”
I began to shake. I didn’t want to die. “What’s going on? Is he going to kill me?” I asked in my head.
Fletch was still and I wondered if he was picking up the mental conversation. But he didn’t take his focus off me for a second.
“No.” The wizard’s voice was full of the pain he was in, but still quite confident. “He doesn’t want to kill you, he wants to claim you. His wolf wants you for his mate.”
“Uh, what does that mean?” I asked in a panic.
“Male wolves are very dominant, Emily, you must submit to him. If you don’t then he will take you by force.”
“T-t-take me?” I began to shake even harder. I didn’t even want to think about what that might mean; awful images began to flow through my mind.
“Bite you, he will bite you,” The wizard said. “Submit, Emily, for goodness’ sake!”
I didn’t know how to submit; what was I supposed to do? I remembered a film I’d seen where someone had calmed a dog by lowering their head below the level of the dog’s, but I was on my back already, with him towering over me.
So I did the hardest thing I think I’ve ever had to do. To show him that I was his for the taking, I did the only thing I could think of. I tilted my head back and exposed my throat.
My eyes never left his as I offered him my neck.
His jaws opened and came down. He paused with his teeth against my skin.
To stay calm I reached out with my senses and tried to find Bob. Our bond meant that we could get a measure of each other’s feelings, and I knew he was freaking out. I made the connection to him. He was fluttering overhead in a panic, not wanting to do anything that would enrage the wolf, yet feeling like he had to do something. With my emotions I told him to be calm, that it would all be all right; and somehow, by telling him, I knew that it would be. I closed my eyes and waited.
And waited…
Fletch was still thinking, I just knew it. Then from deep inside him I heard his voice.
“Mine.” He said, his tone deeper than ever.
And I relaxed. He was right, I was his. My inner witch wanted to be with him.
“Yes,” I whispered. I buried my hands in his fur, feeling the electricity still flowing between us. It was muted, but definitely still there.
His teeth scraped gently across my neck, never breaking the skin, and then released me.
I opened my eyes just in time to see the wolf back off me, and then he sat down on his haunches in front of me, apparently pleased.
I grinned at him, feeling faint.
“Now, Emily! Complete the spell right now!” The wizard urged weakly in my mind.
I got shakily to my feet. I couldn’t see my wand anywhere so I raised my hands to the moon.
“Bob?” I needed my Familiar desperately. He was right there in a second. He didn’t say a word but landed on my shoulder and pressed against me.
Feeling stronger, I said the last part of the spell that I had memorised by heart; it was a sort of reversal of the spell I had done that had caused all this in the first place.
“Guardians of the North, West, South and East,
Unite this man and his beast,
Once more one soul within he,
This is my will, so mote it be!”
I flung my palms out towards him and… Nothing.
No bang or blast, no bright light, no uniting of the wolf and the inanimate body, both still separate in the circle.
Both Fletch and I looked around as if waiting for something.
“Bob, find my wand quickly!” I yelled.
It was in my hand in an instant. I realised I might also need to say the spell three times. So I said it again. This time, as I got to the last line I pointed my wand at Fletch. Still nothing.
I said it a third time, throwing all my heart and soul into it. I willed it to work with every fibre of my being.
Nothing…
My ankle gave out and I collapsed back onto the grass; the darkness seemed to close in around us.
I had failed.
Chapter Twenty-one
Fle
tch looked at me with great sadness in his eyes. Then he lifted his head to the moon and he howled.
It almost broke my heart, he sounded so lost.
“I’m sorry.” Tears poured down my face and I held my hand out to him. He gave me a last longing look and then ran into the night.
I wanted to lie down and cry until I had nothing left, but the wizard was hurt, Iris would be back any second and Fletch’s body was still lying in the circle.
First things first. I crawled over to the wizard.
He was actually looking a little better. He was breathing more evenly, and though his clothes were rags now, the bleeding seemed to have stopped.
“Brian?” I asked in a scared voice. “Are you going to become a werewolf now?”
“Unfortunately not,” he said, sounding genuinely depressed about it. “He didn’t actually bite me, just scratched me up a bit.”
I wasn’t sure how to respond, but at that moment Iris rushed back clutching a black holdall. “By the Goddess, this was hard to find! Is everyone still alive?” Her eyes darted round the circle. Her flames had dropped to nothing, but I’m sure she could plainly see that Fletch had gone, leaving his brain-dead body behind him.
She gave me a sympathetic look and touched my arm to offer comfort for my failure.
I gave a sniff, still trying to keep from crying over it, and then together we patched up the worst of the wizard's wounds.
“We really need to get you to a hospital,” Iris told him.
He shook his head. “I’d rather die. I can’t stand hospitals.”
Iris thinned her lips but didn’t press the point.
Together she and I half carried, half dragged the wizard all the way back to his camper van, with me limping in agony all the way. She got him lying down on his camper bed, and decided to boil the kettle for some herb tea and to sterilize some supplies he might need.
I waited until he seemed comfortable and then I told Iris I was going back out.
She absolutely refused to let me, saying that we now had a mad werewolf in the neighbourhood who was very likely looking for me.
I didn’t care a hoot for a word she said, though. I knew he wouldn’t hurt me. Fletch’s body was still at The Seven Sisters, and there was no way on earth I was leaving it there alone.
We had a bit of a shouting match about it, but in the end she couldn’t stop me. She eventually offered to drive over the Common to The Seven Sisters to get his body. I agreed with this plan, but said she had to stay and make sure the wizard was alright first.
I think she must have realised she couldn’t win and that I was going anyway, so eventually she agreed to stay with the wizard for a short while and then come and get us.
Bob guided me back through the woods. The night seemed horribly dark, despite the huge full moon, and the woods were creepier than ever. But I was determined. I was desperate to find Fletch’s body and make sure it was still alive. I wasn’t sure why it was so important to me, especially as my spell had failed and it was all too late. But I still felt that as long as his body was breathing then there was hope.
I’d brought a blanket with me, and it felt heavy as I stumbled over roots and grass. My ankle was giving me hell, but I determinedly ignored it and pushed onward.
I practically wept when we made it out of the darkness of the trees and onto the edge of Common, and almost ran, in a hobbling fashion, to The Seven Sisters.
His body was still there. His handsome face was almost blue with cold. How could I have just left it there?
I curled myself around him, trying to get some of my body heat into him, and I wrapped the blanket around us both, tucking it under as best I could to try to keep him off the cold ground.
I wondered what time it was. It felt like hours had passed since we had started the spell. I idly tried to remember where my bag was with my phone in it, but I couldn’t remember.
Bob cuddled up to me under the blanket, offering a little extra warmth and comfort, but soon he was asleep.
Time ticked by. I began to doze, with depressed thoughts running through my mind. I supposed that we would have to take Fletch’s body back to the hospital and that his parents would eventually turn off his life support. I wondered if Fletcher the wolf would live on once his body was gone, and whether I’d ever see him again. I realised that if his parents discovered he was gone they would come for me, and not in a good way.
At some point Lyra appeared and woke me up.
She butted her head against my elbow affectionately. “Iris sent me. The wizard has lost consciousness and she doesn’t think she should leave. She asked if you could please come back.”
I shook my head. “Sorry, Lyra, tell her I’ll wait as long as it takes.”
Lyra pleaded with me for a minute, but I was resolute. I wasn’t leaving Fletch again. Eventually she offered to stay with me.
“No, we’re fine. Just tell Iris to take care of the wizard, but that it would be a good idea to get Fletcher back to the hospital tonight before his parents discover he’s missing.”
She looked uncertain, but agreed, and left to let Iris know.
I stroked my fingers through Fletch’s soft hair, taking all the time in the world to look at his face in the moonlight. He was actually quite beautiful. His brows were heavy, and his closed eyes were large with long black lashes. His generous lips curved in an almost-smile, as if he knew I was holding him. His jaw line was strong and masculine, and his body felt so firm and real in my arms. I pressed my hand to his chest and felt his heart beating steadily beneath it. It was so sad that he might never open those amazing green eyes again.
I began to talk to him, telling him about my life. I knew he couldn’t hear me, but I needed the distraction. I told him about my memories of my mother, about growing up with just my dad, about Clare and Duncan, and Bryony and Kate. I told him every secret I had, and then I told him about all my fears.
After a while I ran out of things to tell him about myself and started to talk about him. How I’d felt the first time he walked into the shop. How in only a week he had become so important to me. How much I wished things could have been different between us.
I don’t think I had acknowledged most of these feelings even to myself before, but now they were pouring out of me. It was like I’d always had them, but I’d been bottling them up because I knew there was no hope for a future for us.
I snuggled against him, still trying to warm his lifeless body. For a long time I just lay there, trying to work out how I truly felt about him. I knew he was handsome, that he could make me smile. I also knew he was deep and had great inner strength. I knew he liked me and that the spark between us wasn’t just paranormal, there was a real rightness when we were together. Two souls that seemed meant to meet.
I was getting really tired and emotional. The night seemed to be going on forever. I remembered the saying that the darkest hour is just before the dawn, and I hoped that this was it, and I wouldn’t have to be this cold and miserable and introspective for much longer.
That was when I noticed the first fingers of light at the edge of the trees. The dawn was coming, and a new day that would take him away from me forever.
I began to cry in earnest. Why hadn’t the spell worked? Was it my magic or was it because he hadn’t made peace with his wolf?
I felt I would give anything to put it right. To be with him again. I began to wonder if there was any chance at all that I could survive the transformation and become a werewolf too? Maybe I could find his wolf and persuade him to bite me? Then we could run away and be werewolves together forever. Would it really even matter that much if I didn’t survive the change?
In the long cold of the night I had at some point accepted the fact that my life would never be the same without him. I thought I might be in love with him.
I’d been projecting my rambling thoughts at him for hours but now I shook him. “Do you hear me, Aaron Fletcher? You’re not allowed to die. You have to come back for me, I need y
ou! Please don’t leave me…” I buried my head in his chest and sobbed.
At my words there was a sudden blast of light, and for a second I thought my spell had worked. But then I realised it was the dawn, and the sky around me was filled with sunlight.
Then Fletcher's arm tightened around me.
“Emily?” he whispered.
Chapter Twenty-two
“Arrgghh,” I screamed and tried to pull away, but he wouldn’t let me. His arm was closed in a vice grip around me.
Bob screeched too and rose like a helicopter into the sky.
“Shhh,” Fletch soothed. “It’s okay, it’s all okay now. You did it, Emily, you saved me.” He kissed my hair and my temple, and warmth spread through my body.
I clung to him, my shock receding. It was really him, he was alive and in his human body!
“I thought I’d lost you.” I was still crying but now it was from sheer relief.
“Never,” he said pulling me even closer. “You will never, ever lose me.” It sounded like a promise, and I looked up into his gorgeous green eyes and was totally lost to any sensible thought.
He pushed his hand into my hair and brought my head to his, and then he kissed me.
It was the most satisfying kiss of my entire life. In fact it was the most wonderful moment of my entire life too.
The kiss started out as reassuring and comforting. His mouth moulded gently to mine and seemed full of emotion. It made me feel safe and cherished, and I got slowly dizzy as the pressure of the kiss increased. I wriggled against him, feeling like I just couldn’t get close enough.
I wondered if I was dreaming – if I had fallen asleep on the cold hard ground and none of this was happening. I tightened my grip on his shoulders, holding on for dear life.
I began to feel unreal, like the world was on pause, and we were floating away in time and space. Nothing existed except the touch of his lips against mine, his hands in my hair and on my back. I clung to him, and even though we were lying down, I felt like we were slowly spinning. The warmth where our bodies touched seemed to be creating a glow all of its own. It felt magical…
Werewolf Magic & Mayhem (Book Two, Magic & Mayhem Series) Page 12