Lost Vegas Series

by Lizzy Ford

  “She needs our help,” he replied.

  “She wants to murder us.”

  Black Wolf shook his head. If he had not experienced Tiana’s vision with her, he would not understand her plan. She would challenge the Hanover chief and toss him into the spirit realm, before the city and its surroundings were sucked into the abyss.

  But to do that, she would need a skinwalker with one foot on the other side in order to keep that doorway open. Black Wolf was thrilled by the chance to not only face the Hanover chief, but to drag both Hanover’s to their deaths in the next world. That his long journey would come to such a noble end was fitting for a man unlike any other.

  Assuming the scared little Hanover girl could follow through with it.

  His eyes went to the pyramid. He did not hide his presence from her, which was how she had created the barrier right beside him, with him trapped inside with her. Some part of her understood she needed the help of her enemy.

  “Do what you wish. I am going to find her,” he said and strode away from the other skinwalker.

  “We are stronger together.”

  “I do not intend to leave. If you value your life, do not follow me.” Black Wolf replied.

  Walks With A Limp ceased her nervous movement.

  His choice made, Black Wolf did not pay attention to her and strode down the street towards the pyramid. As if a dam had broken, a flood of people soon swarmed him, wealthy members of the outer city fleeing the pyramid.

  The sudden onslaught of hundreds of heartbeats against his brain drove him to his knees. He staggered and dropped, unable to stop the ripple of transformation that went through him.

  Not yet. With great effort, Black Wolf stopped the change from consuming him. He needed to conserve his energy for the coming battle. He hunkered down beside a building, waiting for the mad rush to stop. From the corner of his eye, he saw the people flee out of the dome. The Hanover was freeing them while keeping him contained.

  When the people were gone, he relaxed, head in his hands. His mind righted itself.

  “How have you never learned to control it?” Walks With A Limp asked, standing over him. “Did your mother not show you?”

  “She died before I transformed.” Black Wolf stood.

  “If you are going to collapse into a weak ball whenever we cross a human, you will need my help.” Walks With A Limp began walking towards the pyramid. “We will reach the Hanover bitch together. My gut tells me my daughter is already there.”

  Black Wolf trailed her. He found himself looking around for his spirit wolf. Not finding her, sorrow slid through him. It was not the first time he had sought her out only to recall she would never advise or help him again.

  “Did you have a guide?” he asked the frail but determined skinwalker ahead of him.

  “I did. We were separated not long before I came to this godforsaken city. I feel … I know he has died since then. I should have, too, but the Hanover chief kept me alive.”

  They reached the base of the pyramid and stopped to look up. In all his travels, Black Wolf had never seen a place like this one. Several guards surrounded the sacred place belonging to the wealthy, but they appeared to be busy with the remaining city dwellers. Several more people trickled out of the great building and ran past them, towards the dome’s barrier.

  He strode forward and into the building, stopping once more when he witnessed the mini-village at the center of the pyramid whose walls were lined with rooms and doors. The interior was ablaze with light from electricity, and the scent of kitchen fare wafted towards him from the direction of a stairwell nearby. He took in the abandoned lower floors in a cross between amazement and amusement.

  “This way.” Walks With A Limp was already twenty feet ahead of him.

  Black Wolf followed her towards an elevator.

  The quick ascent to the top of the pyramid turned his stomach. He could not help wishing his spirit guide were there to experience the elevator. When the door opened, they were greeted by two dead guards who had been struck down at their stations before either could challenge the intruder.

  He did not need to look twice to recognize the gashes on the men that could only have been caused by a bear claw.

  “Aveline is here.” Walks With A Limp paused in front of the door in front of them. “I had hoped she would have stayed away.”

  “She and the Hanover are bonded. Neither would leave the other.” Black Wolf pushed past her and opened the door.

  “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

  The world beyond the door was more wondrous than what he had already seen of the pyramid. After a hundred years, he knew wealth and quality when he saw it, and the Hanover’s personal residence was by far, the wealthiest he had ever seen. Black Wolf walked through the apartments, appraising all he saw with the expert eye of a man who had hocked and traded his entire life. He did not plan on surviving, but if by some chance he did, he would take everything he could carry from the Hanover’s before leaving the pyramid.

  Walks With A Limp’s eyes, however, remained fixed on their destination. She walked as if in a trance, her line of movement straight whereas his wandered all over the apartment to assess the wealth he found. When it was clear she would not wait for him, Black Wolf trotted away from a china cabinet filled with delicate dishware from the Old World and down a hall.

  He sensed Tiana – but not her father. In fact, he was unable to locate the Hanover chief at all inside the pyramid or bubble the girl had created over part of the city.

  Walks With A Limp strode to the very end of the apartment and into a tiny room. Black Wolf trailed.

  “You should not be here, Aveline,” Walks With A Limp said to her daughter, who knelt beside the still form of the Hanover girl.

  Black Wolf went to the pair and knelt, assessing the Hanover girl’s condition. He did not doubt she was alive. If she were not, the dome would not remain in place. She was bloodied and unconscious. The scars he had noted across her body had all opened – an indication of a magic attack rather than purely physical one. The pool of blood beneath her was spreading fast.

  “I don’t know what to do,” Aveline voiced with a wary glance at him. “I tried to bind a wound, but it popped open again.”

  “Leave her. If the Hanover chief has finished her off, then let us leave while we can,” Walks With A Limp said, unconcerned.

  Black Wolf gave a mirthless half smile at Aveline’s exasperated expression. When it became clear the female skinwalker was not about to help her daughter, he spoke.

  “This cannot be fixed by human means,” he explained. Black Wolf took Aveline’s paw and hand and placed them on the Hanover girl’s bloody body.

  “Why are you helping her? Isn’t it better to have one Hanover dead instead of two alive to murder us?” Walks With A Limp demanded. She began to pace again, her unstable energy brushing over both of them. “We can still leave the city, Aveline. We can find Karl before we go and exact your revenge.”

  Aveline shifted away from Tiana, eyes on her mother. “Karl.”

  “The man who killed your father, my love. He is in the city somewhere.”

  Aveline hesitated. Her eyes drifted towards Tiana, and she shook her head.

  Walks With A Limp frowned.

  Black Wolf did not know if her distress stemmed from years of mistreatment at the hands of the Hanover chief, or if she were born unstable. In truth, he did not care, as long as she did not interfere in his plans.

  “This may be your only chance for revenge,” Walks With A Limp said.

  “I’m not leaving her,” Aveline said quietly and then met Black Wolf’s gaze. “What do I do?”

  Black Wolf leaned over Tiana’s body, seeking the tiny presence he sensed. Tiana’s spirit wolf was tucked safely away in a satchel in a dark corner. He retrieved it and opened it, pulling the pup out.

  “Little guide. You are young, but you must do your duty,” he whispered to the pup. The tiny creature lifted its head to gaze in his dir
ection.

  Tiana, it said.

  Black Wolf set it on the Hanover girl’s chest. “She is too small to heal the way she will when she is grown. You must help her. Focus your thoughts and energy on the Hanover girl, and let her guide send the energy where it needs to go.”

  Aveline’s look softened when she took in the pup. She drew a deep breath and closed her eyes.

  While a half-skinwalker did not retain the power of a full breed, Black Wolf understood the bond between the two girls to be unique, and suspected the reason was not what either of them thought.

  “This is a mistake,” Walks With A Limp said.

  “Then leave!” Aveline snapped.

  “You would send your mother away?”

  Aveline sighed.

  Black Wolf waited, unable to gauge what had passed between mother and daughter. As he watched, the gaping wounds across the Hanover girl’s body began to heal. At first, it was slow, as if the pup had not yet figured out what to do. When it did, the wounds closed quickly.

  Within minutes, Tiana was healed. Black Wolf picked up the pup and held it, aware it would be drained from the effort.

  Aveline opened her eyes and leaned back. She wiped her bloodied hands on her pants before pushing hair out of Tiana’s face to see her features clearly.

  The Hanover girl’s eyes fluttered open. She stared at the ceiling for a long moment before turning her head towards them.

  “I am so sorry about lying to you, Aveline,” she said, distraught.

  “Don’t worry about that now. You’re safe,” Aveline told her.

  “None of us are safe,” Tiana replied. She pushed herself up into a seated position. Her features were drawn, and dark circles lined the undersides of her eyes. Her voice trembled, and tears filled her eyes.

  “You won’t face him alone again,” Aveline vowed. “I don’t know what these two are doing,” she waved her hands in the direction of Black Wolf and her mother, “but I’m here with you until this is over.”

  The Hanover girl smiled and took her friend’s hand, squeezing it. “I am always happy to see you, Aveline.”

  “Where is your father?” Black Wolf asked. “I cannot sense him.”

  The Hanover girl frowned. “I cannot either.”

  “Then we know where,” Walks With A Limp said. She looked upward. “That place has hidden skinwalkers for four centuries.”

  Tiana stood, with Aveline’s assistance.

  “He’s hurt,” she said. “But nothing compared to what he did to me.”

  “Is Tiana stronger than him?” Aveline asked, eyes on her mother. “Is this a matter of putting them in a room for a confrontation, with us to prevent him from hurting her?”

  “In theory, the heir should be stronger. Every heir kills his predecessor and takes his place when he is ready,” Walks With A Limp replied.

  “When he is ready,” Black Wolf echoed the words. “This girl may never be ready.” He motioned to the slender, Ghoul-eyed waif.

  “I am ready,” Tiana insisted softly.

  “Can you control your power?” Walks With a Limp snapped. “Can you block his?”

  The Hanover girl did not respond.

  “You are black powder without a spark,” the female skinwalker continued. “You are a child trying to fight an adult’s war.”

  “She can do it,” Aveline said firmly. “She’s stronger than she looks and smarter than any of us!”

  “He cannot pass my shield,” Tiana added.

  “We both know what must happen,” Black Wolf said. “One of the reasons you did not allow me to leave either.”

  The Hanover girl nodded.

  “What?” Aveline asked.

  “We have to widen the barrier between this world and the next, or open one, if it has closed,” was the quiet response.

  “Absolutely not!” Walks With A Limp exclaimed. “To do so is pure madness.”

  “We shared a vision,” Black Wolf said. “It must be done.”

  “All we must do is kill him. We do not need to place all of this world in danger to rid it of one man.”

  “He is not a man. Not anymore,” Tiana responded. “No one here can kill him, including me. Even combined, I do not think we can. He held you captive for fifteen years, did he not? If you could not escape him, how can you kill him?”

  Walks With A Limp lowered her head. It was impossible to miss the malice in her eyes as she gazed at the Hanover girl.

  “She did escape him once. But your father threatened to kill me if she tried again,” Aveline answered.

  Black Wolf considered the full skinwalker closely, trying to determine what she hid. After a moment, he turned to Aveline.

  “What did you feel when you found her?” he asked.

  “Feel?” she shrugged. “An insane amount of energy.”

  “My father was not there when you found your mother, was he?” Tiana asked, puzzling over the skinwalker’s silence as well.

  Aveline shook her head. “I assumed it was her sending out all the energy. But I think it was the attic.”

  “I should have known.” Black Wolf chuckled.

  Tiana glanced at him. “You are thinking what I am,” she stated.

  “The place where you found her exists in the next world,” he confirmed. His focus shifted to Aveline. “Your mother is a skinwalker, a creature not belonging fully to either world but existing in whichever world she is born, or placed. She can cross between them if need be.”

  “If my father can walk between them,” the Hanover girl’s eyes were on the ceiling. “So can I.”

  Walks With A Limp was gazing at her daughter, anger in her eyes, but also concern. After a hesitation, she spoke to the Hanover girl.

  “Your father maintained the tear between this world and the spirit world,” she said. “It enhances your power. If you close it, yours will diminish.”

  The Hanover girl started to smile. “So will his.”

  “It has been open since the Old World ended. The Hanover’s have been guardians who abused their positions,” Walks With A Limp said.

  “A breach of this nature cannot exist without an anchor,” Black Wolf said. “It is not natural. Something must be keeping it open.”

  “Skinwalkers. With one of us stuck in the breach, it could not close.”

  “Then why is it open now?” Tiana asked.

  “It is closing. Slowly. Your father may be trying to do exactly what you wish to – widen it,” Walks With A Limp replied. “That is the danger, that he can throw you into the other side before you can do so to him. Or worse. One of you could destroy this world all together if it is sucked into the next.”

  Black Wolf left, tired of waiting. He strode into the hallway and paused briefly, until he was able to feel from which direction the energy of the breach came. The pulse of energy was stronger than he had felt from his spirit guide.

  He followed his instincts and strode into an opulent bedroom. Ignoring the wealth around him this time, he stopped to feel for the direction again.

  “This way.” Aveline brushed by him and walked down the hallway, into a small room. A painting covering the hidden entrance had been removed from the wall and propped up next to the door. “There’s a passageway between the walls that leads to the attic.”

  Aveline stopped quickly.

  “He is expecting us,” Tiana said, her breath catching audibly.

  Black Wolf pushed past them into the room and observed the gaping opening in the wall.

  “We cannot walk in there without considering what might be on the other side,” the Hanover girl said and rubbed the scars on her arms.

  Black Wolf listened to them debate, his eyes on the corner of the hearth. Blood covered the corner and dripped onto the marble flooring beneath it. More blood smeared the flooring in front of the door.

  He took some heart in knowing his enemy could bleed but was just as quickly perplexed as to how anyone knew a skinwalker could hold open the breach let alone identify a tear between worlds
and know how to exploit it.

  A human – a true human – could never know this. A skinwalker? His kind had the ability, though no skinwalker in their millennia of history had tried, likely because they knew better.

  It was not the first time Black Wolf’s eyes fell to Tiana, and he wondered what kind of creature she was. He had believed her to be a spirit when they first met and told her once she was not of this world, half in jest, half to aggravate her. But the longer he stood in the room, the more he began to believe none of the Hanover’s were originally from this world.

  And what of the half-skinwalker capable of entering and leaving the next world? As a half-human, Aveline should never have been able to enter it at all. Which meant her father was not the human she thought he was.

  Black Wolf glanced at Walks With A Limp, who watched the two girls interact with clear disapproval.

  The two of them came to a decision and approached the wall, hand in hand.

  Black Wolf watched, curious to see if his hunch was correct.

  Aveline walked through, but Tiana bounced off an invisible barrier.

  “He’s blocked you,” Aveline said with a frown. “This won’t work if we can’t all face him together.”

  They both looked to him.

  Black Wolf approached, using his senses to assess what his eyes could not.

  “He has not blocked it,” he said slowly. “You cannot enter.” This he addressed to Tiana.

  “Why not?” she asked. “I am his heir.”

  “Your connection to this world is too strong,” Black Wolf said. He did not have the time to tell her what he believed to be the truth.

  Tiana’s face fell.

  “But I can cross.” Aveline jumped from one side of the doorway to the other.

  Black Wolf glanced towards Walks With A Limp, who turned away and strode out.

  “Mother!” Aveline called. “You can’t leave!”

  Walks With A Limp did not respond.

  “What she did not tell you is that your father was not a human,” Black Wolf said. “You and the Hanover’s are bound by more than duty.”

  Tiana’s eyes were riveted to his, while Aveline stared after her mother, upset again.