by D. N. Leo
The animals came.
From behind them, Orla charged forward, hands curled into fists and fireballs flying at the animals. They howled in pain and burned like torches. In a short moment, the woods returned to its quietness. Orla turned around to see Maeve and Bradan gaping at her. She shrugged, “I’ve done this before. Once or twice.”
She looked again at a dark corner of the woods. “Crap. They’re heading toward Lorcan’s home.”
Orla stood at and looked in the direction of the ceremony, the opposite direction to his home. She looked at her wrist unit but had no idea how to operate it.
“Hell!” She rushed off toward Lorcan’s home. Maeve and Bradan followed her. “What are you doing? You can hardly walk! You’ll slow me down, Bradan,” Orla said.
“You’ll need my shield,” he said and let Maeve help him run after Orla.
Lorcan glanced around. What was taking Orla so long? He might have to finish this himself. Alana had sworn in and was proceeding to receiving her leadership. The next step would be receiving the power from the moon. It was critical they intercept her after she had sworn in—but before she received the full moon’s energy.
Alana stood on the platform and was proceeding toward the last step. Lorcan had no choice but to execute the plan. He came out from his hiding place.
“Stop!” he said.
On the platform, Alana turned at look at him. Her expression was priceless.
“What?” It was a growl loaded with tons of explosive fury from Alana.
“I can see that you are the new leader of this clan, and I am here to challenge this clan and your leadership.”
“You want to do what?” Alana roared.
“I challenge your leadership,” Lorcan repeated.
“You wouldn’t dare!” Alana whirled, her eyes bloodshot and beads of sweat running down her forehead. She adjusted her stance, and her eyes went blank. Lorcan knew black magic was coming his way. He concentrated and shot an electric wave at the platform right in front of Alana. It dug a large hole and cracked the surface. The crowd withdrew.
Alana jumped down to the ground.
“Now we’re on a level playing field.” Lorcan smiled. “You look like you’d like to use magic on me. That’s not an appropriate response to an outsider’s challenge of the leadership. If you are too new to the position to know, this is your second chance to respond properly.”
Alana smirked. “Do you know what will happen if you lose?”
“I don’t plan to lose, but yes, I know the consequences.”
Alana smiled. “All right. To win this challenge, you have to burn our energy source . . .”
“I do indeed.” Lorcan looked at the crowd, which had backed several feet away. Even the senior clan members stood at a distance.
Alana and Lorcan circled, looking at each other like predator and prey. Lorcan smiled. He glanced at the crowd and then concentrated. He turned his face up to the moon, gazed at it, and shot a large wave of electric current into the air. He used so much energy that it sent him staggering backward.
A funnel of smoke appeared, twirled, and flew straight at the moon. He heard a clashing sound, and the image of the moon cracked and shook. There were sparks, and each spark of purple light sent the crowd staggering back further. Lightning stretched across the sky, straight to the moon. Explosion after explosion burst blood red in the dark sky.
The moon caught on fire. The round shape of the moon became redder by the second. The heat of the fire burned the trees around them. They could smell the smoke and feel the heat. People in the crowd cried out, tears in their eyes. They slumped to their knees and started praying.
Lorcan cast a dismissive glance at Alana, who looked as if he would set him on fire if she could.
The moon still glowed red. Lorcan had burned the moon, the source of the clan’s energy.
“You tricked me. You must be cheating. This isn’t possible,” Alana roared.
The entire clan was on their knees.
“They don’t think I’m cheating.” Lorcan gestured at the crowd.
“Liar. You have to be.” Alana advanced and raised her arms, ready to perform magic. Lorcan shot another electric wave at her. She jumped and rolled on the ground to avoid it.
All senior members of the clan approached Lorcan. Anna stepped forward. “You have won the leadership challenge. What would you like to do?”
“I want Alana out of the clan. I want Maeve to be leader. If she doesn’t accept, then I want Bradan. All rules of the clan that restrict positive emotions and relationship are to be abolished. New rules will be formed, and it will be up to the new leader—either Bradan or Maeve.”
“No!” Alana roared and charged at Lorcan. Anna swung her arm, and a stream of fire shot at Alana. Alana twirled to avoid the burst of fire. Her body stretched out, and she grew to twenty feet, her arms becoming gigantic claws. Lorcan looked up and wasn’t surprised at all to see a hideous version of the woman at the riverbank. Her long, sharp claws stretched out like iron snakes. They pierced Anna and lifted her off the ground. Blood rained down on the people as Alana laughed. People trampled each other, running to get away.
“This is the price for stopping me from getting what I want. Do you like this, Lorcan?”
“Give up, Alana. You’ve lost,” Lorcan said.
“Over my dead body. I am the leader of this clan. It is mine!” Alana screamed and shot fire at Lorcan. The force lifted him up and threw him into a tree. From the corner of his eyes, he saw Riley running toward him. Lorcan smiled and glanced up at Alana.
“This is your last chance, Alana. Give up your leadership. Go away.”
Orla ran as fast as she could. The air vibrated with the energy of the coming shapeshifter. Maeve and Bradan trailed right behind. Orla worked her head frantically, searching for the information Ciaran had gathered about Lorcan and his parents. Why were they attacking Lorcan’s home? If Alana was the key to their plan, and she was to get them the power, what would attacking Lorcan’s home give them?
She kept running.
When she got a glimpse of a small group of shapeshifters, she charged straight at them and let her fireballs fly. She took them down quickly—too quickly for her liking. She was missing something.
She kept running toward Lorcan’s home. She could see the entrance from the distance. She skidded to a halt, and Maeve slammed straight into her.
“Holy crap,” Orla said.
The leopard shapeshifters had surrounded the house. There was no way she could take all of them down. The people in the house, aware of the attack, had turned the lights off, but that would put them at a disadvantage. Darkness was what these animals were used to.
Lorcan had said Alana was from Bricius’s clan, and the wolf he’d captured was her lover. How much she loved the wolf, Orla had no clue. But she might send other leopards here to rescue it. There were problems with her theory. First, the number of leopards present here was definitely overkill for rescuing a single wolf from a group of defenseless women and children. And second, Alana didn’t know Lorcan had the wolf and was keeping it here.
Then something dawned on her. Lorcan’s father had been on his way to give Lorcan information about his origin when a leopard caused the accident that had cost him his life. That meant the leopard—or Bricius’s clan—knew about Lorcan. They knew he was not their biological son, and therefore knew that Keeva was their first child. Jane had promised their first child to Bricius if the child was a girl.
It was obvious to Orla that the leopards weren’t trying to rescue the wolf. They were going for Keeva.
Chapter 35
Lying on the ground, looking up at the demonic version of Alana, Lorcan said, “Give up your leadership pursuit, Alana. I know you’ve worked your whole life for this, but it’s over. I want to spare your life.”
Alana laughed. “How kind of you, thinking about sparing my life while I am kicking your ass!” She laughed again, but the laugh grew bitter.
L
orcan saw a broken soul beneath the evil facade. At the riverbank, he knew she had meant some of what she’d said. She’d used magic to read his mind and had stumbled upon the memories of him stalking Orla during his childhood. She’d tapped into it, and it had chewed up her subconscious and had become her own memories. When she’d said she wanted a taste of him, what she had meant was she’d wanted a taste of true love—and not with him but with someone special in her life.
Alana didn’t have many choices. Lorcan pitied her. “You’re outnumbered, Alana. Let this go and live,” he said.
“Do you think I’m stupid enough to fight this whole clan by myself?” She snapped her fingers, and herds of pumas and leopards emerged from the depths of the darkness, stealthily walking around and closing everyone in. “This is my true family,” she said. “I’ll let this clan live, but they will live the way I want them to. As for you, Lorcan, you destroyed the source of energy I’ve worked for years to get. I can’t forgive you for that.”
Lorcan stood up slowly and glared at the animals.
“Sorry, Lorcan,” Alana said and signaled.
Two pumas jumped at him. He stepped back, fixed his stance, and shot a large electronic wave at them. They howled, dropped to the ground, and disintegrated.
Alana smiled and raised her arms. She was ready to call the group of them to attack Lorcan.
But just then they heard a loud, haunting howl. The shadow of a warrior and an army of wolves appeared.
Lorcan smiled. They had made it in time. It was his friend, Roy, a half-wolf, half-fox were-creature. Obviously, Ciaran had given him an army of creatures to lead. And they weren’t ordinary werewolves - they were super powerful space were-creatures.
The shapeshifter leopards and pumas cringed and shrunk into disorganized small groups. The space creatures were double their size.
Alana glanced at her surrendering clan. “You cowards! Fight! Don’t just stand there!”
From behind the line of space creatures, Roy stepped forward and approached Lorcan. “Sorry I’m late,” he said. “We had a change of plans.” Lorcan looked behind Roy and couldn’t find Mori. “The shapeshifters split,” explained Roy. “Half of them attacked your home. So we split as well. Mori is heading toward your home to handle that half,” Roy whispered into Lorcan’s ear.
The hair at the back of his neck stood up, and a surge of fear stabbed at this heart. Attacking his home? With this mother, sister, Noah, and a kitten inside? How could he have made such mistake? Why hadn’t he thought of that?
“How many?” Lorcan asked.
“Don’t know. We split half of what we’ve got.”
“Did you see Orla?”
Roy shook his head. Riley arrived, holding a bag in one hand and a rifle in the other. “It was harder than I thought, but we’ve got it.”
Lorcan felt sweat running down his spine. He had to finish the business here quickly, find Orla, and get back home.
“As I said, Alana, you’re outnumbered. I’ve given you a chance to withdraw, and you didn’t take it. So I guess you’d rather die,” Lorcan said.
A corner of Alana’s mouth quirked up. “Intriguing. I am the best of the shapeshifters. Even if I don’t take this leadership, killing me isn’t possible for you.”
“You have no clan, no group, and no master now. I’m guessing you’d like to be a rogue. So go with your friend. You can be together in hell.”
Lorcan tossed out the contents of the bag Riley had given him. On the ground lay the golden wolf skin, the fur soaked with blood.
“Your friend wouldn’t give up your location or your identity. He died protecting you, Alana.” He could see the blood surging beneath her skin. “The reason I gave you a second chance was because beneath that mask, I know you are a woman who could love. Or should I say, a woman who used to love. The wolf told me all about the time you spent in the woods with him.”
Alana roared and grew larger. Then she shrunk considerably and fell to the ground.
“He said you left him for power, and he would rather die than live without you. When he found you, he didn’t want to be a rouge anymore. He thought he had found his other half. A life partner.”
Alana opened her mouth to say something but it came out as a guttural animal growl. Lorcan’s plan might work. If she’d had a fraction of true love for the wolf and had sworn in to this black magic clan, the conflicting emotions would kill her. She would burst into flames at any second. That was, if she had ever loved the wolf.
Lorcan continued, “Before I ripped his skin apart from his body, he was telling me about the time the two of you had run together in the woods. He treasured that and said he would do whatever it took to free you from your duty to your clan. But you loved power too much. And that broke his heart.”
Alana roared one more time. Riley aimed his rifle. Roy pulled his gun.
She leaped toward Lorcan and then dropped to the ground. Then she stretched her arms out, and for a moment, her hands turned into the gigantic paws of a black puma. The black magic clan roared in anger. They yelled and cursed and wanted to trample her to death.
Lorcan stopped the crowd. “She’ll die soon by herself because of her own curse and her betrayal to her true love.”
She couldn’t shift. The paws turned back into human hands, and she turned back into a beautiful and dying Alana. She lay on the ground, tears pouring from eyes that had begun to burn with fire. She didn’t beg. She didn’t talk. She just waited for her death.
Lorcan crouched next to her. “Why did you send your clan to my home?”
“I didn’t. They found out about your make. Now they want Keeva. I am not that important to them. I’m just a pawn.”
His heart skipped several beats. His little sister was what they wanted. Lorcan turned to Riley who had no idea what was going on back at home. Lorcan could feel the heat seeping out from every pore in Alana’s body. She was going to burst into flames.
They still had the wolf locked up—the fur had just been a decoy.
“I won the challenge. Is there anything I can do to help you?” Lorcan asked.
Tears rolled down her face. “Did he really think I left him for power?”
Lorcan couldn’t lie to the dying woman. “No. He loves you.”
Alana nodded. “Thank you.” And she closed her eyes.
They heard a low growl and saw a shadow fly out from the woods. The yellow wolf leapt out in one swift move, flipped Alana onto its back, and charged into the woods. People roared and wanted to give chase, but Lorcan stopped them.
“Let them go. Your clan isn’t exactly saintly. So for all the sins you’ve committed and the people you’ve killed or harmed with your black magic, let this even out the game. Let’s forget and move on,” Lorcan said to the crowd.
He turned toward Riley and Roy. “Shapeshifters attacked my home. The wolf is here, so I don’t know what’s happening at home or why they released it.” Then he ran in the direction of his home. Riley and Roy followed.
The run home through the woods seemed to take forever.
Chapter 36
In the house, Keeva grabbed the rifle and walked toward the door. Jane banged at the door of her room and shouted for Keeva. “Keeva, let me out. I won’t tolerate this.”
“She’s really mad, Keeva,” Noah said. The kitten, Aris, sat on his shoulder, giving Keeva a disapproving look.
“Now, for you two, I’ll lock you in your room, too.” Keeva picked Noah up. Noah wriggled and protested.
“I can do magic, Keeva. Orla taught me. I can help.”
“I can’t let a kid fight.”
“Let me down. You just wait here. Father will be back. He always keeps his promises. If I let you go out there and you get hurt, he’ll be mad.”
“Stop wriggling. I’ll wait if I can. I thought we had a wolf to use to bargain with the shapeshifters. They lurked around for hours and didn’t attack because we had the wolf. It’s one of them. But Mother let it go, and now we’ve got nothing, Noa
h. Do you understand that? They will storm in here shortly, and I need to put you somewhere safe.”
“But how many can you kill with that rifle?”
“I don’t know, but I won’t go down that easily.”
“No one is going down. Let me go. I had a happy vision, and if you stay alive, it will happen.”
Keeva put Noah down. “What was your happy vision?”
“You and Father, me and Aris were having a picnic at the riverbank.”
Keeva looked into Noah eyes. “That’s a happy thought. But no one is having picnic at the riverbank in the middle of winter. You’re making this up, aren’t you?” Keeva tilted Noah’s chin up and looked into his eyes. Noah pouted and tears threatened.
“You promised my mother!”
“I didn’t promise anyone anything!”
“You promised you’d take care of me and Father. Please—just stay in here and wait.”
They heard a crash. The side window broke, and a gigantic shadow leapt in, landing smoothly and quietly on the floor. Keeva raised the rifle, aiming at the creature. In front of them was a magnificent leopard with glowing green eyes. Keeva held the rifle firmly. “I never harm animals, but I’ll make an exception this time. You’re not just an animal, and I have a kid to protect.”
The leopard whirled around stealthily, then its fur glowed for a second before it turned into a man—tall, lean, and young with striking green eyes.
“There you are. You weren’t hard to find at all. What a magnificent creature! Now I understand why he wanted you so much.” He looked Keeva up and down.
“Who?”
“Our late leader. But don’t worry, we’ll treat you well.”
“Thank you very much. But I’m the one with the gun, and I am not in the mood to treat any one well at the moment. What do you want?”
“You, of course,” the man nodded at Keeva.