Hunted (Auralight Codex: Dakota Shepherd Book 2)

by Shei Darksbane

  Elisa frowned and looked uncertain. “Then I will tell Elliot to go with you.”

  I balked at that. “What? No. Ralof said for you and Elliot to stay here to defend the house. Besides, we don’t need a man to protect us. Raelya and I can take care of ourselves.”

  Elisa crossed her arms. “Ralof takes many wolves with him to hunt Skinwalker and you think you and Raelya are enough if it should happen to find you?”

  “No… but it’s not like Elliot would make the difference on that or Ralof would have taken him with the hunting party.”

  Elisa seemed to consider that for a moment then nodded. “Very well. Elliot can stay here to protect house. I will go with you.”

  Raelya and I both blinked. “What?”

  Elisa started for the door. “You are right. Elliot will not be enough to defend you if Skinwalker comes. So I go.”

  “But Ralof said—”

  Elisa turned to me and caught my eyes. “Ralof did not know about situation with Amorie. Ralof left me in charge. In charge means to decide what is best, and I have decided this is best. Elliot will guard house. House has wards. If you and Raelya are going out, then I am going with you.” Her words may as well have been carved in stone for all the room they left for argument. Elisa stalked past me to the front and started putting on her boots. I glanced at Raelya and shrugged. We followed Elisa to the door and followed her lead in shoeing ourselves.

  Elisa glanced up at Elliot as she took the keys to Ralof’s truck from the wall. “Elliot, take care of house. Dakota’s girlfriend is trying to come to pack house and we must make sure she is not killed by Skinwalker.”

  Elliot straightened and nodded to Elisa. “I will keep them safe.” He said it like an oath.

  Elisa nodded to him and opened the door. “Come.” We followed her out to the truck and climbed in. Raelya took the driver’s seat and Elisa crawled into the seat behind her, so I took shotgun.

  Raelya revved up the engine and pulled out of the driveway onto the twisty mountain road.

  Elisa turned to peer out the window. “Drive,” she told Raelya. “If Skinwalker is out here, I will see it coming. I may have only one eye, but is good eye, and it will not hide from me this night.”

  26

  Awaited in Valhalla

  Raelya put the pedal to the metal. Unfortunately, we were driving in the dark along curvy mountain roads, and it felt to me like we were moving way, way too fast for safety’s sake. Yet Raelya seemed to know what she was doing and I reminded myself that she’d lived here for a long damn time. Actually, since before I was born. Still, I couldn’t help gripping the handle on the ceiling that Andrei generally referred to as the “oh shit handle” as we hurtled around the twists and turns.

  A small handful of houses and rental cabins spattered our area of the mountains, but since the area was devoid of businesses or major parks, our section of road was usually pretty light on traffic. That said, as we sped down the twisty paths, I noticed that the roads were all but empty. A weird, almost electric tingle lit the air around me that I noticed as soon as I started paying attention to the odd, wrong feeling of the lack of other cars.

  I almost commented on the lonely drive, but realized as I opened my mouth that Raelya and Elisa probably expected it to be just so. My training materials from SII had already taught me that Unawakened humans tended to subconsciously avoid an area where supernatural things were occurring. If something as powerful, scary, and out of place as a Skinwalker in the Great Smoky Mountains couldn’t push their instincts into staying clear, not much could.

  “Directions?” Raelya asked idly as if it weren’t all that urgent.

  I thumbed my phone on and started reading off the instructions from my earlier research, subcontracted as it might have been to the younger wolves, which would guide us to the tiny airport in Gatlinburg which nestled into the mountainside a short drive below the pack house. It was barely more than ten minutes out as the crow flies, but the crow didn’t have to navigate these twisty roads, so I was guessing it would take us more like fifteen or twenty.

  Raelya seemed to recognize the roads I mentioned and looked a lot more confident than I felt about finding it.

  I glanced back at Elisa to find her alert and watchful, peering about with her good eye, guarding Raelya’s side as well as the back. I turned to the right and gazed out the window as well. If Elisa felt the need to be watchful, I was going to help her.

  At the same time, it felt a bit silly. The Skinwalker was an ancient terror; a monster scary enough to tear werewolves apart and put seasoned SII agents on guard should definitely register on my worry-meter, but the idea that it was coming for me just didn’t fly. I was nobody. Even with green burny hands, I wasn’t powerful or awesome or even super attractive like some of the other likely candidates for Skinwalker targets. I was just a newb werewolf with one neat trick. More likely, it was after Amorie.

  The idea that it wanted Amorie did frighten me a little. After all, if that was the case and it intended to catch her out alone, then the Skinwalker might well be on our side of the mountain even now. But with Ralof and the others out hunting, I doubted things would really go according to its plans.

  I tried poking Amorie’s contact icon again, just to see if she had landed, but it went straight to her voicemail again. I cursed silently and dropped the phone back into my pocket. She wouldn’t likely turn it on until she was on the ground, then hopefully she’d call me for an update before driving out into the danger zone. Hopefully.

  The minutes ticked by painfully slowly as I watched the darkness between the trees for signs of trouble. I didn’t actually expect anything to happen. And that’s why I gave a most unbecoming, startled squawk when something suddenly impacted the passenger side of the truck.

  Elisa growled and twisted to face the back window, and the truck skidded to the side, but Raelya kept it on the road, though she had to veer into the other lane to do so. I wondered for a second if we’d just hit a deer or something equally sturdy, but the anger in Elisa’s rumbling growl put me on alert.

  I whipped my head around, searching for answers in the darkness beyond the truck. “What was that?”

  Elisa scanned the road behind us. “Trouble.”

  I peered into the darkness trailing out endlessly behind the truck, but saw nothing save the road disappearing into the deeper dark between the trees where the light of the almost full moon could not follow.

  I jumped in my seat as a loud “crack!” rang out from the driver side door, and the metal screamed in protest as the impact drove it inward, denting the door hard enough to drive it into Raelya’s side and scrape against her arm. Raelya grunted stoically, her eyes fixed on the road ahead, her features set with cold determination. Beyond her, I saw nothing but trees zipping past. Nothing but a blur of motion in the air, gone too quickly for me to register what I’d seen.

  Elisa growled, “Skinwalker.”

  My heart raced along with my thoughts, my breath coming too heavy and too fast, as I frantically considered the situation. “Can Skinwalkers fly?”

  Raelya shrugged. “I suppose it could do whatever it wants as long as it has a skin for the occasion.”

  “Crap.” I glanced around the truck’s interior. “I don’t suppose Ralof keeps a gun in here?” And would a gun even help?

  Elisa pulled her shirt off. “Check under seat. Is weapon.” She unlatched the back window and pushed it open. “I will hold it off. If something happens to me, keep going. I will keep it busy.” And with that, Elisa stripped off the rest of her clothes and squeezed out through the little window, crawled into the bed of the truck, and started shifting into the war form.

  I winced at that thought and glanced at Raelya whose expression assured me she shared my thoughts. Hell no. No way were we leaving Mama Wolf behind with an angry Skinwalker. Come Hell or high water, we were in this together.

  Just as Elisa’s furry white varulf replaced the naked woman in the back of the truck, I spotted a giant bi
rd-thing with wickedly sharp-looking talons and pointed it out to Raelya, yelling, “Look out!”

  Raelya gunned the gas and the bird-thing swooped down from above us, passing just over the roof before landing on Elisa and neatly sweeping her toward the back end of the truck. The impact bounced the rear end of the truck hard, and Raelya swerved again, fighting to straighten it back out and keep us moving forward.

  In the instant it had taken the Skinwalker to move from flying overhead to wrestling with the werewolf in the bed of the truck, it had shifted its shape from a flying creature with a very not-bird-like face, to some kind of primitive-looking big cat with a shaggy coat of fur and sharp spines sticking out from its back and the joints of its legs, and a wicked pair of over-sized fangs—

  “Is that— holy crap! A sabertooth fucking tiger?” My voice came out squeakier than I’d intended.

  Raelya glanced back swiftly then returned her eyes to the road. “Looks like.” Her voice held a little less of the stoic calm she’d maintained until now. My wolf could feel the tension rising in her.

  I watched for a moment in shock as the sabertooth-Skinwalker did its best to sink those nasty-looking fangs into Elisa’s side while she wrestled it to the side and regained her footing to throw it off of her. Elisa grabbed the Skinwalker by the legs as she battled her way out from under it and as if she’d read her aunt’s mind, Raelya gunned the gas again just as Elisa heaved her weight into the sturdy-looking beast and flung it away from her.

  The sabertooth-Skinwalker slammed into the tailgate so hard it tore the whole thing off just by crashing into it. The metal gate made an awful sound as it cascaded along the road behind us, disappearing into the dark, but the Skinwalker sunk its claws into Elisa’s thigh and managed to stay in the truck.

  Elisa howled in rage and pain as the Skinwalker tried to leverage itself back on top of her. She dug her claws into the bed of the truck and held on, but the Skinwalker pushed against her and tried to pull her out of the truck, sinking its enormous teeth into her side. Elisa’s grip slipped as the Skinwalker heaved against her once again, and her claws tore rents in the metal bed. She twisted to the side and sunk the claws of her other hand into the wheel casing, but the Skinwalker had better footing and started leveraging her toward the gateless edge, still ravaging her exposed side as it did.

  Elisa practically roared as the Skinwalker tore its massive jaws free from her side, taking a terrifyingly generous piece of her with it and causing her weight to shift toward the the edge of the truck bed. The determination and urgency in her voice spurred me out of my shocked paralysis. I threw myself over the seat and thrust my torso out the little window, extending my arm as I did. I lifted my hand toward the sabertooth-Skinwalker, drew the Hellfire to my palm and unleashed it with all my fury. “Not without my Mama Wolf!” I yelled in general panic.

  The sickly green flames leapt hungrily onto my target, like a ravenous demon throwing itself lustfully onto its prey. The lambent fire stuck to the sabertooth-Skinwalker’s coat like napalm, gluing itself to the creature beneath it and feasting on its flesh. The ancient beast made a sound that defied description, a nightmarish yowl that made my skin crawl. Its focus suddenly shifted from Elisa to its own green burny hide, and as soon as it let go, Elisa’s muscles flexed as she heaved despite her injuries and hurled it screeching from the truck. The sabertooth-Skinwalker screamed in rage as it sailed out of the truck and onto the road behind us.

  I naively expected, or maybe hoped, for that to stop it, but the sabertooth seemed to recover alarmingly quickly. The spiney cat-terror climbed to its feet in the blink of an eye and chased after us fast enough to almost keep up, but the Hellfire was voraciously devouring its coat, spreading like the hellish wildfire it was. The Skinwalker narrowed its eyes at me in naked loathing as it suddenly leapt into the air, shedding the sabertooth skin which fell limp to the ground as its body twisted grotesquely, mutating in the space of a heartbeat from the sabertooth into the flying creature from before. Something in the way its body seemed to warp itself from one shape into the next was utterly repulsive, the wrongness of it nearly turning my stomach. The winged beast launched itself into the sky with a single, mighty thrust, leaving the now-lifeless sabertooth skin to the asphalt, and the Hellfire to its meal.

  “A griffon?” I shrieked. “Griffons are a thing?”

  “Dakota!” Fear and desperation had leaked into Raelya’s voice. “Is Elisa all right?”

  Elisa drug herself more squarely into the truck, smearing blood along the bed as she did. She flicked her hand almost disdainfully in our direction, growling defiantly as she crumpled onto the metal beneath her.

  “She’s still moving, but she doesn’t look so good. We lost the tailgate, so careful we don’t lose her too.” The sky behind us was clear so I climbed up into the passenger seat next to Raelya and peered out the windows, trying to see where the Skinwalker had gone.

  The roof suddenly buckled above us as the griffon-Skinwalker punched its talons into the metal and dropped its weight onto the truck. Nasty razor-sharp bird claws ripped the metal like it was paper as the winged horror rose once more into the sky. I thrust my hand into the hole it left behind and funneled Hellfire into the darkness above, but the Skinwalker was already gone.

  “Damn it!” I yelled in frustration. If I could just land the Hellfire on it, I could force it to lose another form. Maybe it didn’t have another flying shape, and we could lose it. Hell, maybe if I kept this up, I could actually kill the damned thing.

  I scanned the sky through the hole in the roof, and when the griffon-Skinwalker swooped in again, I was ready. I sprayed the Hellfire upward as the giant bird-beast swooped down, gripping the already torn roof once again and ripping the hole even wider. I saw the Hellfire catch on the griffon-beast’s tail-feathers as the expansive wings lifted it back into the sky, but the Skinwalker somehow twisted itself in half and snapped the feather free before the flame could spread and still managed to catch air with its wings and stay aloft. The jerk.

  The griffon-Skinwalker roared, an awful off-sounding noise that threatened my stomach’s integrity again as it lifted itself into the sky and vanished from sight.

  “I think it left.” I called to Raelya over the rushing wind from the hole over our heads.

  “It will be back!” Raelya slowed slightly to take a turn, completely ignoring the stop sign, though the road was clear anyway.

  I glanced back at Elisa and saw that her wounds were healing slowly, but she was still ducked low to the truck bed and there was an alarming amount of blood spread beneath her. I started to climb into the back seat to check on her further when a sudden motion overhead announced the Skinwalker’s return. The sound of its wings had changed somehow in the space of a minute or so since it’d left, and the speed at which they thrust air down through the hole in the roof had slowed. I barely had time to wonder what other flying creature the Skinwalker could change into when I spotted the ruby-scaled behemoth just before it landed on the hood of the truck.

  Raelya and I screamed in unison as a dragon— an actual dragon landed on the hood of the truck and glared down at us through the hole in the roof.

  The dragon-Skinwalker was big. Really big. But not as big as I might have expected a dragon to be. It was easily as bulky as the truck itself, and at least twice as long from head to tail, covered in red scales and sharp-looking spines that accented its cheeks and the ridges above its eyes and ran the length of its spine. The dragon-Skinwalker snapped its colossal jaws down and clamped them onto the edge of the hole in the roof above Raelya’s head, wrenching the metal open wider.

  I spread my palm toward the monster desperately hoping to drive it away once again, but I could see the satisfaction in the fiend’s eyes as the Hellfire I called simply rolled over its scales like water off a duck. Realization caught up to my desperation and I cursed as the dragon-Skinwalker somehow managed to grin.

  Enormous, wicked-looking teeth snapped at my hand almost lazily and still terr
ifyingly fast. I jerked my arm back inside the truck just in time, but I had the feeling that the monster could have had my hand if he’d wanted it. Cold fear rolled through me as I stared at a creature that defied everything I’d ever known, a monster of fantasy that by all rights shouldn’t even exist, a terror that no mere mortal could possibly defeat.

  In that moment, I wanted to forget everything and run. But I thought of Elisa, bleeding in the bed of the truck from wounds she’d gained defending Raelya and me, and I remembered the scars wrapped around Raelya’s wrists from when she’d fought the Templar for me.

  The strength of the pack is in the wolf, but the strength of the wolf is in the pack.

  So I decided instead to face everything and rise.

  I dropped to my side and reached under the seat, slapping my hand around quickly to find the weapon Elisa had told me was there. I expected a gun case, or a rifle, so I almost missed the thick piece of metal even when my fingers brushed it, but when I realized what I’d found, I wrapped my fingers around it and drew the sword from under the seat.

  “Keep it steady, Imperator!” I yelled to Raelya as I climbed up onto the seat beside her and pulled myself up through the jagged wound in the roof and swung the heavy, Celtic longsword at the dragon’s claws that gripped the truck.

  The dragon-Skinwalker pulled its claws deftly out of the way of my clumsy strike, and followed it with a swipe of its own. I ducked into the truck as it scraped its claws over the roof once, then again as I started to straighten again. The dragon-Skinwalker gripped the jagged metal edge of the hole and started to tear it further open to get to me. I slammed the sword point-first into its scaly hand, only to have it bounce ineffectually off the monster’s impenetrable armor. The dragon let out an explosive, deafening roar that left my ears ringing as it reared back with mocking mirth in its eyes.

  Determinedly, maybe even foolishly, I gripped the sword with both hands and pushed myself up through the roof, stepping up onto the back of the seat to give myself the leverage I needed to pull the sword free. The dragon-Skinwalker’s eyes swam with triumph as it opened its mouth wide, impossibly, weirdly wide, and brought its mighty jaws crashing down onto me. But this time, instead of dropping back, I slammed the hilt of the sword into the roof, wedging it between two jagged folds of metal, and braced it, screaming with all my might. “Witness!”