by Jen Pretty
He bellowed and collapsed to the ground, but he didn't stay there. He was on his feet in a heartbeat and turning with a roll of his eyes.
"Fuck!" I called out as I launched myself at him, using my injured leg before it had healed. Black blood oozed from the bear, but it barely slowed him down. I would have to get my blade into his stomach to kill him.
Though he was large, his stomach was pretty low to the ground and I would have to get past his massive paws to get in range.
The sounds of fighting raged all around me and I could only hope that Jax and Falcor were okay because there was no way I could take my eyes of the bear.
He circled me, roaring and swinging his paw toward me, faking an attack and then continuing to circle. At least I had convinced him I was a worthy opponent. Though it might have been easier if he just lumbered toward me again. I needed a lucky shot and couldn't get that if the bear was playing it carefully. I might heal fast but getting mauled by a bear would probably hurt. A lot.
We swung at each other and circled for a few long moments before I finally dropped to my knees, as if I was hurt and the bear made a solid move, committing to the attack. He leapt intending to land on me, but I rolled to the side, just far enough that his heavy front paws missed me, and I sunk my blade deep in his furry stomach.
He let out a scream and a hiss. Black blood sprayed out and the bear collapsed to the ground. Its body deflated like an empty balloon. I had to hope that meant this one hadn't had time to possess a human. Maybe we could end this before any more people were hurt.
I turned to face the lion, never intending to let him out of my magical hold, but at the same time, a shout called out and from all around, vampires descended upon us. At first, I thought they had come to help. They could have been part of the DPI. But when they set their eyes on me and charged, that thought was quickly replaced by the fear that they were part of the war between vampires and warlocks.
"Get the heir!" one of them yelled. Falcor.
I turned to look for Falcor, but he had already vanished. At least he was safe. The horde of vampires would have a hard time capturing him anyway considering his ability to shift wherever he wanted to go. All eyes turned toward me. I froze. Waiting. They moved slowly, some of them with grins on their faces as if they had found their prize.
But I wasn't about to let them take me again. Fuck that. As they approached, Jax finally managed to finish off the bear he was fighting and he looked around, I assumed for Falcor.
"Shit," Jax said under his breath.
But it was fine. I knew what to do.
I waited until the vampires were close enough and then I pulled in my magic, releasing the lion that had been in mid-step on his way to eat me for dinner. Instead, he had a whole line-up of vampires to dine on.
He let out an earth-shattering roar and swiped, bowling a couple of the vampires down. It wasn't long before he trained his eyes back on me, but by that point, Falcor had returned behind the group of vampires who were trying to fight off the lion. He disappeared and re-appeared at my side a split second before the lion charged and we were back at the Sanctuary.
"A group of warlocks are on their way there to capture the vampires," Falcor said.
"What about the lion?" I asked. "We should go back."
"Just give it a minute," Falcor said.
We waited together in the cafeteria. I hadn't ever wanted to come back to this room again, but I seemed destined to relive the last moments of Niri. As if I was being punished over and over.
Falcor reached out and grabbed Jax and I then we were back in the street, several warlocks had been mauled by the lion who was nowhere to be seen now, but the rest of the vampires had been wrapped up in the magic and drained of blood so the street was awash with black and bright red blood.
"Where did the lion go?" I asked.
"That wasn't a lion," a witch said as she pulled her magic back in, satisfied the vampire had been drained enough to be restrained.
"Okay, whatever, where is it?" She pointed to an alley.
"What's it doing down there?" I asked.
"Fuck." He was probably possessing someone.
I launched myself forward and rounded the corner without slowing down. The lion had possessed someone. A woman stood before us and the lion was a shell in the corner. But my magic was pulling me in a different direction, toward the other corner of the alley. The woman or lion was blocking the way and she dropped her chin as if she was going to charge. But a familiar feeling settled in my stomach. A pull toward the other corner was strong and intense. Before I could think to react, the figure in the far corner leapt forward and in a flash of teeth, tore out the woman's neck.
The beast inside her roared before the vampire who had ripped out her throat dropped her to the ground and black blood ran down his chin and gushed all over the alley ground.
The vampire was Nick.
"Hi," I said.
He just stared at me, then shot a glare at Falcor and took off, past us.
I ran back to the end of the alley and looked both ways, but he was gone.
"Shit."
CHAPTER TWENTY
Back at the Sanctuary once more, I found myself in a large classroom, with people in uniform on one side and people in business suits on the other. It was like the water meeting the shore with me, Falcor, and Jax being crushed under the waves.
"So, the monsters have been taken care of. The news stations were reporting it as zoo animals in transport who escaped," the CEO of the DPI said, his eyes nervously sliding back to me and then more confidently to those around us.
I was glad to see he wasn't trying to push me around, and that he was competent at his job. I was bored and anxious, though, so keeping track of the conversations between the various branches of the DPI was tedious. My mind kept flicking to the image of the children all lined up in sleeping bags. And the back of the woman who I had seen for a split second.
My mind tried to fit her shape into one I knew all too well. One who had raised me and been missing for weeks. I shook my head, reminding myself that just because I wanted it to be true didn't make it true. There was no way Dorothy had somehow made it to whatever that world was that Falcor shifted us through.
"Is it Nevermore?" I asked out loud instead of in my head.
"Pardon me?" Mr. Havisham asked.
I looked up to find everyone had turned to face me. "Um," I said intelligently.
"You had a question, Selena?" he pressed.
"When warlocks or witches shift, do they go through Nevermore?"
A low murmur of voices circled around the room.
"I'm not sure that is relevant to our current topic." He spoke carefully, but Crow chose that moment to appear, diving in right above Mr. Havisham's head and making him duck. The man squawked a bit which forced a smile to my face that I had to cover with a cough.
Crow landed on my desk and stared at me. His midnight eyes holding much more than a bird’s eyes ever could.
"I guess we can talk about that now if you like," Mr. Havisham said, clearing his throat and smoothing down his hair. "Witches and warlocks who can shift, travel through a different time instead of space."
"So, it's like 1990 or something?"
"Sure, something like that," he replied and then cleared his throat, turning back to the rest of the audience as if the subject was finished.
"Could a normal person get there?" I asked.
Mr. Havisham's eyes squinted. "I don't see how. Unless a very powerful warlock, like your friend Falcor or his father, took him there. Not many can stop there."
"How about a really powerful necromancer?" I asked before he could try and change the subject again.
"It's never been done, but I suppose anything is possible," he replied.
Crow called out once loud and then bobbed his head.
"Is Dorothy where the children are?" I asked, staring at Crow.
Mr. Havisham began to speak, but Crow cut him off with a series of long calls that
sounded like speech, though I couldn't understand him. I wished he could speak, or at least write down what he was saying.
Apparently, it didn't matter, because now that I had said the words out loud, I knew with certainty that somehow, she had made it there and had been waiting for the children. Dorothy was taking care of Colvin. Something clicked in my mind and I suddenly found a focus I had been lacking since the children disappeared and the monsters came to earth. It was a weight lifted from me and I began to laugh.
Jax's hand slid up my shoulder and he had a concerned look on his face, but I couldn't stop laughing.
"Um," Mr. Havisham said, his face even more concerned than Jax's. "Is she alright?"
I held up my hand. "Sorry. I'm sorry." I wiped the tears that had streamed down my face and looked around to everyone apologizing again. Of course, Dorothy was where she was needed most. She had always been exactly where I needed her to be as a child. Right there when I fell off the swing. Right there when one of the other children pushed me down and told me I was weird. Right there when I raised my first wraith and scared myself so badly, I clung to her for a week. It was like magic. She had always been right there and now she was right where I needed her to be.
I managed to stop my laughter and bit my lip to try and stop smiling. It was a serious time. People were dying and wars were raging. But the lightness persisted even as the teams went back to their discussions.
"Selena," Mr. Havisham said, pulling me out of my own thoughts a few minutes later. "Can you find the vampire king?"
"Nick? Yeah, probably. I've done it twice before. Well, Crow has."
"Excellent," he replied. "So, we are in agreement? Black Crow will find him, and we will raid his location. Heavily armed and take him out."
"What the fuck?" I said a little louder than I intended. "Nobody is taking out Nick."
"Selena," Jax said in a low voice.
"No. He is mine," I said with a possessiveness that almost overwhelmed me.
"Selena," Mr. Havisham cut in. "We have to stop this war before more lives are lost. Nick is a twin who had lost his other half. We have to use whatever means necessary to stop him. If he was in his right mind, he would agree with us."
"Yeah, well, you can do it some other way. Nobody is taking out Nick." I punctuated the statement with my fist hitting the desk so hard it groaned, and my magic spilled out like lava, hot and angry, sparks flying as it covered the floor.
People lifted their feet as if it was actually lava, but I didn't care. Nobody was going to hurt Nick. I would find him, and I would stop this, but we weren't going to hurt him.
"Um," Mr. Havisham stood up on a chair, his eyes on my magic as it jumped and spun around the room. "Okay, Selena. We can do it your way."
I let my magic continue its angry trail around the room before calling it back. I felt a bit like a child who had just thrown a temper tantrum, but tough shit. These idiots were not hurting Nick.
I could bring him around. I knew I could. I just had to find him.
Crow leapt off my desk and did a lazy circle around the room before turning back to me taking a few powerful flaps before lining himself up with my stomach, pulling in his wings and diving right at me.
"Do not follow me," I said a moment before Crow collided with me and suddenly, I was flying around the room. I looked down to find Jax had caught my body and was cradling me in his arms. I felt bad for a second about saying Nick was mine in front of Jax but hoped I hadn't just messed up whatever was growing between him and me.
Crow flapped straight for the wall and this time I didn't flinch. We passed right through the wall and out into the forested area behind the Sanctuary.
I was glad when I realized we wouldn't have to go through Nevermore. The place had both amazed and terrified me. I didn't want to have to go back there.
We flew over the graveyard where I had raised all the wraiths my first day at the Sanctuary when I had run from Niri. The thought made sadness press at me, but I shoved it aside. There was no time for that. There was an army of witches, warlocks and vampires who were all interested in seeing Nick stopped by whatever means necessary. I couldn't let that happen. I had to do whatever it took to end this peacefully.
If I could get Nick back on our side, between Nick and king of the witches and warlocks, we could maybe curb all the fighting and focus on the real enemy. White Crow. I shuddered at the thought of him. But he was the one who was sending the monsters to earth. He started this war by having the warlocks capture Nick's brother and kill him. We should all be fighting against him together instead of fighting each other. I just had to make Nick see that.
This was the first step to getting back control of everything. The first step would be the hardest. I knew that. But it was the most important. I had to stop the fighting.
Crow flapped through the air and I could feel his senses pulling us along. As if he was on auto-pilot, knowing exactly where Nick was.
It wasn't until he slowed at a warehouse with broken out windows and pieces of missing siding that I began to worry. What if Nick tried to hurt Crow? Was he so far gone he would do that?
Crow landed in a patch of dead grass beside the building and hopped up to a gap in the wall where there had once been steel siding, but it had been ripped off by the wind or maybe a vampire. He ducked through the gap and into the near darkness inside.
"We do this, and the Warlock king will fall," Nick's voice echoed through the open space.
A round of cheers called out. There were dozens of vampires in the warehouse, gathered around a staircase where Nick stood, looking angry, but also something else. His eyes held a sadness that was so obvious, I wasn't sure how anyone could miss it.
"His plane arrives at midnight; team B will meet on the runway at eleven."
Crow yelled out again. Then Nick turned and climbed the stairs, his boots echoing off the steel treads as the rest of the vampires chatted animatedly and began packing up their things.
Crow took flight, staying to the dark shadows as he carried us up to an office that overlooked the warehouse with tall glass windows.
Nick was behind the glass, sitting at a desk in the far corner, out of sight to the vampires below. His head was resting on his palms and his fingers were shot through his hair that was dyed black now. He looked like shit.
Crow slipped us through the glass and landed silently on the desk in front of Nick.
Nick startled and then shook his head and groaned. "What are you doing here again? I stopped the monster and lost 30 vampires. What more can I do for you?"
Crow hopped forward until he was almost touching Nick who leaned back as if he was afraid of Crow. He just stared at Nick, his eyes burning into Nick's as if he was trying to see through him.
Nick swallowed. "Maybe my time has come. I can't go on like this."
Crow took the last step and blinked up at the man. His face was so broken, I felt tears well in my eyes. But I didn't have eyes, so when Crow's vision got blurry, I was shocked to find that my tears fell from his eyes. And suddenly, Crow pulled back, giving me control and I heard my voice come from Crow's mouth.
"You are still mine."
Nick gasped. "Selena?"
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Nick's face changed to one of fear. "You shouldn't be here."
"Why not?"
"You should be somewhere safe. I told him to make sure you were somewhere safe."
"Who did you tell?" I asked.
"Crow!" Nick shoved his chair back, making it topple over as he rose to his feet to pace the room. "I told him you needed to be somewhere else by tonight."
"Why is that?"
Nick spun around, his floppy hair falling in his face, but the look of panic hadn't changed. "Where is your body?"
"What does that matter?"
He took a step toward me as if he wanted to wring my neck. "Where is it, Selena?"
There was a knock at the door and Nick spun so fast, racing to the door with the speed of a vampire and o
pening it a small crack. "What?"
"Everything is ready, sir. Team A is in position outside the Sanctuary," a female voice said from beyond the door.
"Fuck. Tell them to wait for my signal. If anyone does anything, I will rip their hearts out. Do you hear me?" His voice got progressively louder as he spoke.
There was a quiet, "Yes sir," from beyond the door and then Nick slammed it shut again.
"You need to go back," he said, turning on his heel and glaring at me.
"No," I said. "You need to tell me what you have done!"
His hands rose to his face, rubbing the skin until his fingers slid into his hair and nearly pulled it out in frustration.
"Selena, please?" He got down on his knees and stared into my eyes. "Please, you have to. I can't stop this now. It's already in motion."
"You can do whatever you want. You can stop whatever you started. Or you can live with the consequences."
Nick collapsed further. "I'm sorry," he whispered, just loud enough for me to hear him. "I don't know what to do."
"The king comes in at midnight," I reminded him. "You have a chance to turn this around." I glanced over at the clock. "Four hours."
"Just please, leave the Sanctuary. Go somewhere far away."
I shook my head. "Colvin needs the sanctuary to come home. I won't leave. Whatever you have done, you will undo it. And then you will come home and take your place at the table to discuss how we stop the one responsible for this in the first place."
"My brother is still dead."
"So is Niri."
Nick's eyes grew round and he seemed to shrink further into himself. "How?"
"The same one who started this war by killing your brother destroyed the Sanctuary with his beasts and killed Niri. I won't stand by while more die because of him." I hopped forward to the edge of the desk. "You will either join us or you will kill me. Those are your choices now, Nick. I'll accept whatever you decide."