Legendary Beast

by Barbara J. Hancock

  “Vasilisa shielded us from the curse and from you. You couldn’t have found us, Lev. No matter how you tried. I was sleeping. I couldn’t hear you. Or call you,” Madeline said. “I tried. As the sleep claimed me, I tried to call you. But I realized what was happening too late. I failed, too.”

  “You raised the sword against me. I was going to take the blade. Through my heart,” Lev said. “But you didn’t plunge the sword.”

  “Of course I didn’t,” Madeline said. “I was feeling your rage. But my love prevented me from killing you in either form.”

  She’d been so focused on Lev’s emotion coursing through her that she hadn’t noticed the morning sunlight was no longer orange and yellow. It was red.

  Lev broke his gaze from her. He looked over her shoulder. And Madeline could see the glowing ruby in her sword’s hilt reflected in Lev’s eyes.

  “We have to save Trevor. In the end, even if we can’t save ourselves, we have to save Trevor. You have to shift. We need your help to defeat the marked Volkhvy,” Madeline whispered. She heard with Lev’s ears. She detected the scent of the pack with his nose. They didn’t have much time.

  “If I shift, I might be as feral as I was before. Filled with fury. Driven by pain,” Lev warned. “I’ve been holding off the shift ever since we leapt the ravine. I realized then it was your fear that had stopped me from shifting before. And I wasn’t going to ignore it to shift even once I knew that I could.”

  Madeline raised her hands from his arms to his face. She cupped his hard jaw in her warm palms and stared deeply into the ruby light in his eyes.

  “You are filled with fury and driven by pain in either form. And I love you. Because your pain and fury is for us. It’s fueled by love. And your desire to protect us,” Madeline said. “Shift. Shift and we will both survive the leap through the Ether to save our son. Both or neither this time, my love. I won’t survive without you or the wolf in your heart.”

  Madeline suddenly knew the truth that her artistic eye had seen at the edge of the ravine. She’d captured that moment in her sketchbook. Lev hadn’t been trying to shift. He’d been holding the shift at bay. For her. Out of respect for her fear. His love had held back a supernatural compulsion, and she had somehow seen the extreme sacrifice and beauty. She’d had to draw him in that moment.

  And that had been the moment she remembered her love for Lev.

  Wolves began to pour into the courtyard through the wall surrounding it, crumbled by time. Like black water through the cracks of a broken dam, they came. Madeline drew her sword and whirled in one smooth, clean motion. Ruby light flared. But it wasn’t her sword’s light that caused the wolves to swirl in a confused mass before they could attack.

  It was the sudden earthquake that shook the castle ruin and the entire mountaintop on which they stood. Stones fell, crushing some wolves in the avalanche of debris. The aura of Madeline’s ruby protected her.

  And then it protected a massive white wolf as well.

  He was hers, and she was his. Her heart expanded as if it beat in a huge barrel chest of a monster. Her lungs expanded as if they filled with oxygen for the first time in centuries. The white wolf turned to look at her, and his red eyes no longer filled her with dread. It was her ruby’s light that caused his eyes to glow.

  * * *

  She was by his side. With all four paws on the ground and his powerful bite and his leap and his run, no adversary could stand against them. He was strong. He was tireless. For her. The lost time was over. They were found now. He had found her. He had found himself.

  He wasn’t feral.

  He was Lev, the white Romanov wolf.

  And he was the wild.

  The Carpathian forest called to him. The sharp scent of spruce. The ancient creak of rowan. The mineral bite of water that flowed over rocks in never-ending rivulets of refreshment. It was all for him, and in him—the ground beneath his paws and the prey that fueled his run.

  It was all for him because, in him, it was a gift for her. His bite. His leap. The muscle and bones beneath his fur. The hunger in his belly and the rage in his heart was all for her. He would strengthen her by standing by her side. Protect her by destroying her enemies.

  There was a greater enemy than these puny wolves that prepared to attack. There was someone else to find. But for now, he had found Madeline, and he had found his purpose again. To stand. To protect. To fight beside his warrior mate and her ruby blade. All his centuries of constant vigilance and preparation had led to this moment.

  He hadn’t been feral or mad. He’d been obsessively training. He’d been hardening himself and strengthening his abilities. For her. For Trevor. For his family. It hadn’t been madness. It had been a wild love only the wildest of Romanovs could understand.

  The white wolf had always known he would find his warrior, even when his human soul had lost hope.

  “We need to prevent them from using the portal. We can’t allow them through,” Madeline said. Her words gave him a direction in which to point his ferocity. He had always been the wildest of the Romanov wolves. The fastest. The most agile. Because he had learned to give himself completely to the shift. Madeline had always been his lifeline back to his human form.

  Until she hadn’t been. He’d remained a wolf for centuries because the wolf was needed. If he hadn’t been needed, Madeline would have called him home. Others tried to call, but he didn’t listen. He listened tirelessly for Madeline’s call instead.

  And now he was needed once more.

  He’d always known she would find her way back to him. He’d been tireless all this time so he would be ready for this moment, when he was called once more to fight by her side.

  Chapter 22

  The wolves temporarily broke the control of their Volkhvy masters because their instinctive fear of the white wolf was so strong. But their masters weren’t far behind. Once the witches caught up with their pack, they retained control by tightening their grip on the Ether in the wolves’ blood.

  Madeline could see the marked Volkhvy. They had appeared on the sections of the wall that still stood. One. Two. Three. Then a dozen more. Anna had marked them all. She could see the shadowy bands of bellflowers shining darkly against the pale skin of one forehead after another. An ozone-scented breeze came with the witches. Their manipulation of the Ether had kicked up an unnatural storm. Instead of rain, drops of Ether appeared above their heads and fell in an oily drizzle. The ruby aura of her sword protected her. Since the wolves weren’t fortunate enough to have a shield, their fur became matted with oily residue.

  But they ignored it.

  The witches had halted their temporary milling about They massed into a cohesive force once the marked witches appeared. And with violent, synchronized gestures, the Volkhvy set their tainted pack on their prey.

  Madeline and the white wolf stood between the pack and the fountain. They couldn’t afford to die and leave Trevor unprotected. But they could at least reduce the number of wolves that would follow them through the portal.

  As soon as the first tainted wolf leaped and the white wolf tore him in half, Madeline knew they could do more than reduce the numbers. The white wolf wouldn’t let any of the tainted wolves pass. With him defending the portal, she was free to go after the witches. They would divide and conquer as they’d done before, only on a much larger scale. Then again, as large as Lev Romanov was as a man, he was a giant as a wolf. She would have to live up to his size and strength.

  She had taken down one witch with a dead ruby sword. The confidence of the white wolf pulsed through her. They were connected. They’d always been connected; she just hadn’t known it. Now she didn’t just know, she embraced it. Her confusion and fear no longer stood between them. She and Lev were a perfect team. Her sword glowed, and all the strength and agility she’d rebuilt over the last few weeks was enhanced.

  Thirteen witches were nothing to a Romanov warrior and her wolf.

  She took the marked Volkhvy down one by one. Even t
hough she wielded an enchanted blade, it was her determination that propelled her on each climb up the deteriorated wall. The witches had given themselves over completely to controlling the pack. Their focus was on the battle with the white wolf. Madeline took advantage of their distraction and killed them. One after another. By the fourth witch, she was drenched with sweat and shaking. By the tenth, she was barely able to make the climb. The white wolf was no longer white. His coat was marred by the black oil of Ether taint and by the wolves’ blood. The witches had already killed the wolves. They had become zombie vessels poisoned to death by the Ether that controlled them.

  The white wolf laid their desecrated bodies to rest one by one just as she sent the evil Volkhvy into the Ether. She stabbed all of them through their black hearts with her ruby blade to ensure that they would never be able to hurt another wolf or another child.

  The last three witches finally realized what was happening and disappeared, risking the Ether that already filled them to travel away from her blade.

  Madeline collapsed to her knees. The ruby light faded, but not entirely. The gem was alive with the power of her connection with Lev. It had taken the white wolf’s ferocious devotion to her to feel it. Lev had fought the connection. For her. He’d wanted to give her the chance to turn away.

  He hadn’t realized the white wolf would never turn away, no matter how much it hurt to stay by her side.

  The white wolf was Lev’s heart. He confessed it without saying a word. Madeline struggled to her feet and went to the monstrous beast who had helped her defend the portal. He shied away from her hand, either because he was covered in grime or because he would never be tamed—she couldn’t be sure.

  Madeline let him slip away. He stopped several paces from the fountain and turned around to face her. The ruby’s light was still in his eyes, even though she had cleaned and sheathed her blade. It wasn’t a reflection. Her eyes would look the same. The ruby’s power was in them as long as they accepted it.

  For now, they couldn’t afford to push it away.

  They still had a baby to save.

  Madeline approached the fountain, giving the white wolf his space. He watched her suspiciously, as if she might try to put a collar around his neck if she came too close.

  “Were you always this ridiculous, you silly beast? I’m only going to wash my face,” Madeline said. She scooped up water from the fountain and did just that. The white wolf sidled closer. “You could use with a face-washing yourself.”

  And then Madeline splashed the huge white wolf that dwarfed her and the statues of all the Romanov wolves.

  “It wasn’t you I feared. It was Vasilisa all along. I felt your fear of her. It woke me. It colored all my perceptions of you. And your anger at yourself. You shared that with me as well,” Madeline said.

  It was time to step through the portal. But she had one more thing to say to Lev. She’d already told the man. Now she told the wolf.

  “It wasn’t your fault. You weren’t to blame. But you know that in your wolf form better than you know it in your human form, don’t you? You didn’t focus on fault. You focused on being ready when the time came,” Madeline said.

  The white wolf blinked at her. She saw Lev in his eyes.

  “Come back to me when it’s time,” Madeline said. “Just as I came back to you.”

  The white wolf whined. He lifted a giant paw and placed it in the icy water that flowed up from somewhere deep inside the mountain beneath them.

  “I understand. It’s time to go,” Madeline said. “And I’m not sure how much you can understand, but I have to try.” She reached and grabbed the white wolf’s fur before he could slip away. She tightened her hold, and he turned his massive head toward her. She wasn’t afraid. He wouldn’t hurt her. The certainty of that filled her as surely as she could sense the powerful beating of his heart beneath her hand. “Vasilisa is helping Trevor. She’s preventing him from waking too soon. I know Lev hates all witches. He distrusts them. For good reason. But to protect Trevor, we can’t harm Vasilisa.”

  The white wolf blinked at her. His muscles trembled beneath her grip. She didn’t let him go.

  “I don’t know what we’ll find on the other side of the Ether when the portal takes us to Vasilisa. I only know I won’t allow you to harm her. We must save Trevor. We must protect him,” Madeline said. “He needs Vasilisa’s help.”

  The white wolf whined again, and she allowed him to pull away from her hand. He didn’t jerk. He didn’t leap. Instead, he pulled gently.

  “As big as you are, I suppose I should be grateful of the consideration, but seriously, haven’t you learned by now I’m not going to break?” Madeline asked.

  Her body did protest when she leaped into the fountain to stand beside Lev. This time she didn’t try to hold him. He wasn’t tame. He wasn’t a companion or a pet. He was her wild wolf. And in this form, he barely knew his name.

  He might not have understood her words about the queen. It might be dangerous to allow him to step through the portal as the white wolf, but somehow, she thought the wolf was more malleable than the man. Lev might not be capable of standing down. When he saw Vasilisa again for the first time since he’d found his family, he might react more ferociously as a human father. It was a risk she had to take. To trust the wolf. Because there was no way of knowing what they would find on the other side.

  * * *

  There was no place close to Vasilisa’s portal for the plane to land. Aleksandr had to risk the Ether in order to reach his quarry before it was too late. His body was already filled to overflowing with the black rush of the Ether itself. He could feel it travel inside him, along with his blood. Its chill coated his heart, slowing its beat. All of his visible veins gleamed darkly beneath his skin in a spidery network. And now, as he rose from his seat on the plane, he looked down to see that the viscous liquid was seeping from his pores to flow in thick tendrils on top of his skin.

  He no longer knew how he escaped the constant vacuum. Every step took effort. Every inhale and exhale was bubbly and wet. But he couldn’t abandon his chase. If the white wolf and his warrior reached their baby and triumphantly reclaimed their connection, he would lose everything. He’d sacrificed his autonomy to win. He had all but given himself to the Ether. All he had left was his goal: to defeat Vasilisa and rule the Volkhvy in her stead.

  Aleksandr stood in the center of the plane, which was rocketing over the Carpathian Mountains. Far below, Lev and Madeline Romanov had all but defeated his witches and their wolves. Only a few had escaped through the Ether as a last-ditch effort to retreat. He’d felt the ripples of their travel in the Ether that flowed in his body. He’d heard their warning screams in his head.

  The white wolf had appeared. Lev Romanov had shifted. Perhaps Aleksandr should have retreated as well, but the Ether rode him too insidiously to consider escape. There was no going back. There was only the battle ahead.

  It required no effort to channel more Ether to surround him. All of his effort was spent trying not to be devoured as the black sphere formed. He couldn’t risk traveling through the Ether. He would travel with it instead.

  Within moments, the sphere was thick enough to protect him. Never mind that he trembled within the black hole it created inside the plane. He fought its hunger, continued to fight it as the bubble sank through the floor of the plane and out into the Carpathian sky.

  The sphere of Ether fell with him inside it. It carried him to the ground. At impact, the sphere burst, expelling him as if it had given birth. The ground was drenched in oily fluid, but in moments it had become thicker. Its cold embrace was drawn back to his body, and he was suddenly covered with flowing Ether as he’d been before.

  Only this time, the Ether rooted itself into his pores, settling more firmly against him like a living, lurching second skin. Aleksandr was hundreds of pounds heavier than he’d been before. It took all his remaining strength to pick up his feet and put them down again in a shambling march as he set out to f
ind the portal that would take him safely through the Ether to Vasilisa’s side.

  Safely.

  Oily laughter erupted from Aleksandr’s black lips at the thought. He tamped down the panic that rose with the eerie outburst of humor.

  He was no longer sure the laughter was his own.

  Chapter 23

  The cold of the water was more than mountain chill. As they allowed themselves to sink down, the water rose. Like living mercury, it climbed their legs and engulfed their bodies with a shimmering flood. Vasilisa’s portal sucked them into the Ether. Madeline floundered. It felt almost as if the sleep was claiming her again. She panicked. Her sword nearly slipped from her hand. But on her other side, the white wolf sensed her sudden terror as the portal reminded her of her long, inexorable sleep. He pressed his massive body against her instead of shying away. He was wild, but he was hers. He supported her body for the one step necessary to take them through the Ether and out the other side.

  Madeline fell forward, soaking wet and coughing up spring water.

  There was no fountain on this side. There was only an unwelcoming rocky terrain. The air was hot and dry.

  Using her sword unceremoniously as a prop, Madeline pushed herself up from the ground.

  She had expected an army of marked Volkhvy. Or a dank prison, where the queen and Trevor were held in a cell. What she saw confused her. Reddish soil dotted green with scrubby vegetation held no signs of life or habitation. The sky was a vivid blue, like Lev’s eyes, and it stretched as far as she could see across desolate plains disrupted only here and there by flat plateaus. Nearby, boulders as big as the white wolf and smoothed by constant wind were very different from the craggy gray rocks of home.

  “The portal didn’t work. It didn’t bring us to the queen,” Madeline said. But she was interrupted by a rumble and a harsh rasp of stone on stone. Her knees bent and she whirled, expecting to see the white wolf shifting, but he was nowhere to be seen. He hadn’t materialized by her side. She was alone with the rasping. She brought the ruby blade up before her with both hands on its hilt. The ruby’s glow was dim. She could barely discern its light in the sun. She would face whatever she’d found, but her heart was hollow. Had the Ether eaten Lev? Had there been taint left in his blood as the wolf after all?