Shifter (Wicked Woods #6)

by Kailin Gow

  The last of the male vampires was circling around, trying to get behind Carol. Kevin leapt at him, catching him from the side. Like the jock, it wasn’t quite a clean hit, and the vampire managed to roll. Unlike the jock, this one kept fighting, its nails and fangs extending just as the girl’s had. The vampire stepped back, swiping the air with those fingers as though testing them out for the first time. Kevin pressed forward, forcing him back into the trees. He didn’t like leaving Carol like that, but she could handle a single vampire alone.

  Kevin snapped at and harried the vampire he was fighting, not standing in one spot for more than a second, using the trees to his advantage as he dodged between them, attacking in sudden rushes. It was simply a question of judging his moment… there! Kevin leapt forward, his jaws closing on the throat of the vampire he was chasing, ending its existence with a single powerful bite.

  He turned back towards the spot where Carol had been fighting, expecting her to have finished off the vampire she was battling against by then. She had, but what Kevin saw made him start forward. Carol was on the ground, while the jock vampire Kevin had driven off was standing over her, ready to bring his claws down in a vicious strike. He’d obviously doubled back, probably attacking Carol from behind, because that was the only way Kevin could think of that he’d be able to defeat her.

  Kevin knew he had to do something, but even with his werewolf speed, he knew he wouldn’t be able to cover the ground in time. Carol was obviously too hurt or stunned to move out of the way, too. That thought made Kevin want to cry out, or do something. It wasn’t that he loved Carol, but he still didn’t want her dead. Especially not when she was just about the only way for him to force Josh back here and get to Briony. Yet what could he do now? Kevin’s mind raced, trying to think of an answer.

  A dark furred form shot out of the trees, slamming into the back of the vampire. Its jaws clamped around the creature’s neck and even from where he was standing, Kevin heard the snap of breaking bone. Right then though, he wasn’t looking at the vampire. He was too busy looking at the new wolf. He knew that wolf.

  Kevin transformed, stepping forward into the space between the trees. Carol had transformed too, and was standing there, scowling down at the newcomer.

  “Now? Now you come back?”

  Josh transformed, and stood there smiling faintly at his sister while the vampire on the ground burned to nothing. “It looks like it was just as well I did. I must say that your new boyfriend hasn’t done a good job of keeping you in one piece.”

  “Not my boyfriend,” Carol said pointedly. “My fiancé.”

  Josh looked from her to Kevin and back again. His eyes narrowed slightly. “Ah, I see.” He started to take a step towards Kevin, and then seemed to think again, looking back towards Carol in obvious surprise. “I never thought you’d do something like that, Carol.”

  “You weren’t here,” she snapped at him.

  “And now I am. We’ll talk later about this.”

  Kevin started to step forward to intervene, but he stopped as another figure entered the small space between the trees. Archer looked around, seeming almost disappointed that the fight was over.

  “Josh, we have to hurry.”

  Josh glanced at him. “Yes, you’re right. Kevin, I’m here to fetch you. You have to go with Archer.”

  And Archer rarely left Briony’s side now. “Briony’s here?” Kevin asked.

  “Briony is back in Palisor,” Josh explained, “and she needs you. Well, she needs a werewolf, and unfortunately, I’m not the one she wants.” He looked genuinely disappointed by that, but recovered well. “And of course, you going to Briony solves a great many problems.”

  “Like the threat of me marrying Carol?” Kevin asked.

  Josh flashed him an angry look. “Yes. But I can live with that now. There are more important things. Go, Kevin. Go, or I’ll assume that you actually mean to fight for my sister.”

  “I don’t need anyone to fight for me,” Carol said.

  “I’m starting to see that,” Josh said, “though I think you’d be in trouble if I hadn’t before.”

  Carol snorted. “I’d have dealt with it.”

  That actually got a small smile from Josh. “Of course you would.”

  Kevin didn’t have the time for that. “Josh, what’s going on? What made you leave Palisor? Why are you back?”

  Josh looked at him and shrugged. “There are dangerous things going on. A… I guess you could call it a kind of prison, for some of the most evil creatures on Palisor has opened up. I don’t have all the details, but I do know that without more help, Palisor will fall. And then so will Wicked. Briony won’t do what is needed with me. Perhaps she will with you.”

  “And what’s needed?” Kevin asked.

  Josh shook his head. “Ask her that when you get there. Just make sure you don’t fail. All of us are counting on you.”

  Kevin looked at Josh for several seconds. Could this be some kind of plan on the werewolf leader’s part? No, Kevin couldn’t see how it could be, except inasmuch as it got him his throne back, and Josh had been quick enough to step away from that. As far as he could tell, this was genuinely about trying to help Palisor and Wicked.

  Kevin nodded. “Alright. I’ll go. And… thank you, Josh.”

  The words were hard to get out, but he managed them. Across from him, Carol looked furious.

  “Just like that, you’re going to Palisor?” she demanded. “You’re going to abandon me? It’s always her, isn’t it?”

  “It’s always Briony for me,” Kevin agreed.

  “You…”

  But by then, Kevin was already running. He could guess at how much that would hurt Carol, but he had more important things to think about. She’d tried to use him for her own ends, and as far as he was concerned she and her brother were welcome to one another. He was just interested in getting back to Briony.

  “Which way?” he yelled as Archer caught up with him.

  The dragon pointed. “Down there. I closed the gate after us when we came through, but there’s a spot that will open again. I can feel it.”

  Kevin didn’t argue with that. He knew that the dragons could find gates, though how they were going to open it when they got there, he didn’t know. Were they going to be stuck here, locked out of Palisor? They came into a clearing that had all the markers of a gate, from the small stream and the wild flowers to the brightly colored trees and the general feeling of peace.

  Archer gestured with his hand and to Kevin’s shock, mist sprang up, forming itself into the familiar shape of an arching gate to Palisor. When had he acquired the ability to do that? Did it even matter, just so long as Archer was providing him with a way to get back to Briony? He stood there, watching as the mist within the gate shimmered and cleared, revealing the landscape beyond it. The gate hadn’t done that for anyone but Briony before, either.

  Kevin stood there staring at what lay beyond the gate. It was hard not to, because what lay beyond was a battle. Dragons wheeled across the sky, strafing the ground with white hot gouts of flame that reflected off the brightly metallic colors of their scales. Below, creatures surged and milled, enveloped in a mist like darkness that seemed to shift and follow them as they scattered before the flames. They looked like vampires, but not any vampires Kevin had seen before. These vampires were hairless and angular, muscled but moving differently than anything human.

  Other things moved with them, utterly impossible things that crawled and slithered and in some cases flew, flitting up towards the dragons in an attempt to bring them down. One dragon did fall, plummeting to earth like a fallen meteorite, crashing into the ground while the creatures around it swarmed over it. In a matter of seconds, they left nothing but bones.

  “The vampires of Xylyx,” Archer said, and the dragon shuddered.

  “We have to go through into that?” Kevin asked.

  Archer nodded. “It’s the way back to Briony.”

  When Archer put it like that
, it wasn’t even a choice. Kevin took a breath and threw himself forward through the gate, ready to fight his way through whatever lay beyond.

  Chapter 16

  The battle around them was chaos. Tendrils of darkness flowed between vampires as they skittered and scrambled forward, attacking dragon and Hugtandalfer alike. Kevin shifted form as one came for him, barely dodging the sweep of clawed hands and clamping his teeth down on the creature’s leg. It was such a different way of fighting here in Palisor than it was back in Wicked. It was so much simpler, when any bite could kill a vampire.

  It needed to be. The next vampire was already rushing at him as the first one burst into bright flames. It was fast. Almost too fast for Kevin to avoid, passing within inches of him. He barely managed to catch it with his teeth as it shot past him, but that was enough. The creature stood there for several seconds before it started screaming and the flames finally claimed it.

  Archer transformed alongside him, his natural form shining golden in the midst of the darkness around him. He swept his tail to one side, knocking back vampires, then followed it with a burst of flame that swept over half a dozen of them at once, consuming them in a matter of moments.

  More swept in, and more after that. Kevin leapt clear of a blow, only to take a kick to the side from a second vampire. He spun and lashed out with his teeth, leaving the vampire to die, but by then he was already trying to defend against an attack from two more vampires. Kevin shifted back to his human form just long enough to throw one of them over his hip, kicked backwards to knock the second of them away and changed back into wolf form to try to finish the first with a bite. By then though, it had already spun away into the greater melee.

  Kevin didn’t know what to make of these vampires. They were strong, as strong as Marcus’ vampires had been, and they were fast, but there was also something almost mindlessly savage about them. They didn’t seem to think. They just charged into the attack. And in a lot of ways, that made them far more dangerous. At least with Marcus, they’d been able to reason with him. With these… they just kept coming, not seeming to care about their safety. Not seeming to care about anything except blood and violence.

  Kevin managed to pull back from the fight for a second as Archer let loose a second gout of flame. He looked around, trying to work out where they were, and saw that they were in a hilly environment, with a tree lined path leading up the rocky slopes, and at the top of it there was what looked like a castle, so skillfully built onto the peak of the cliff it sat on that it seemed to be part of it.

  Between them and the castle there was an army that shone silver on the ground and every color of the rainbow above it. The Hugtandalfer warriors were there, along with their dragons, and they were definitely in the middle of a hard fight. As Kevin watched, the darkness around the vampires swept forward and they moved with it, seizing a Hugtandalfer woman from the end of the line. She screamed, loud enough that Kevin could hear her above the rest of the battle, but not for long.

  Briony would be there somewhere. Briony, Fallon and the rest of them. They just had to get to them. Kevin started forward, biting the first vampire to get in his way, dodging around the second, and starting back as the third was engulfed in a jet of flame thrown out by Archer. They fought their way forward like that, working in tandem. Archer blasted vampires with his fire and Kevin did his best to keep the dragon from being swarmed by vampires. One on one, he was more than a match for them, but Archer was also a large, slow target in his dragon form. Kevin had to run in circles around him, biting any vampire that came too close while using Archer as a shelter against the worst of their attacks. Slowly, gradually, they began to move forward.

  Then Kevin saw her, not at the heart of the fighting, because the other Hugtandalfer moved around her to stop that happening, but still staking vampires left and right, using a stake that seemed to shine strangely golden. Briony. She was there on the hill with the others, Fallon fighting right beside her. They just had to get to her now.

  Yet that was easier said than done. There were hundreds of vampires between them. Vampires that would be even more dangerous when night finally fell, because then they would be able to come at the Hugtandalfer from all angles, unseen. Kevin pushed forward, biting vampires left and right. Archer lashed out with his tail and used his flame to blast groups of vampires, as well as firing it at some of the stranger things that seemed to scuttle among them. Had they been things that the vampires had found down in their chasm prison? Whatever they were, they seemed as mindless and vicious as the vampires themselves.

  The vampires seemed almost confused by the idea that he and Archer were there, in the middle of them. They were focused on the Hugtandalfer in front of them, rushing forward in waves, seemingly uncaring whether they lived or died. There were so many of them. Enough that every time the Hugtandalfer fought off one group, another was there to attack. Kevin saw Hugtandalfer fighting, swinging swords and glaives left and right at the kind of speeds that no human would have been able to match. Yet the vampires matched them, so that the fights took on a frantic quality. A Hugtandalfer might cut down one of the vampires as it emerged from the darkness they carried with them, but there was always another one ready to take its place.

  Kevin saw them dying there. A Hugtandalfer went down with three vampires atop him. A dragon that swooped in too low when trying to burn the vampires was pulled to earth and swarmed in a way that made Kevin even more careful about protecting Archer from attack. He spun, snapping at a vampire that had come too close to the golden dragon, while Archer spat a wall of flame that caught a cluster of vampires as they charged him.

  Perhaps if there had been more werewolves there, the battle wouldn’t have been a difficult one. The Wickham pack, given the same powers Kevin had, would have made short work even of the horde of vampires that surrounded them. Yet there was only Kevin, loping from vampire to vampire, biting and moving as flares of bright light from dying vampires marked his passage.

  The chaos of the battle was absolute by then. The noise was overwhelming as Hugtandalfers screamed, dragons roared, and the vampires made inhuman sounds of their own. Fire was all around as the dragons strafed the vampires’ ranks. There was the clash of claws on steel armor, the thud of weapons hitting flesh. There was the scent of death and burning in the air, mingled with the rank, ever present stench of the vampires. Kevin kept going even though his limbs ached with the effort. How long had they been fighting now? An hour, more? How long would it be until sundown?

  It was hard to tell how the battle was going. The only bodies on the ground were those of Hugtandalfers and dragons. The fire that engulfed the vampires on their deaths made it impossible to tell how many of those they’d killed. All Kevin knew was that suddenly, as he looked up, he was closer to Briony than he’d thought. She’d obviously seen him too, because she started to fight her way forward.

  Kevin ran for her, snapping at any vampire that got in his way. Behind him, he heard Archer take to the air, obviously deciding that Kevin could protect himself now. Kevin sprinted, arriving at Briony’s side as she reached the last of the trees along the path and bringing down a vampire that leapt at her. Kevin transformed, and for a moment it seemed like there wasn’t a battle raging in the background. Or maybe the Hugtandalfer forces had simply succeeded in pushing the fight’s front line out beyond them for a while.

  Kevin didn’t care. He didn’t even care that Briony was wearing blood covered armor. He just drew her into his arms, kissing her deeply.

  “I’m so glad you’re okay,” he said. “You sent Josh back. You sent him, just to fetch me.”

  “I love you,” Briony said, pulling back just enough to look him in the eye. She hesitated, but not for long. “You know the ring you gave me as a sign that we were together?”

  Kevin knew it. He had it on a chain around his neck. “Yes?”

  “I want to wear it again.”

  Kevin hurried to remove it from the chain, slipping it onto one of her fingers.
>
  “No,” Briony said. “Not that finger.”

  “I don’t understand,” Kevin said. Or at least, he didn’t dare to hope…

  “Kevin,” Briony said, “I love you. Even with the age difference between us. Even with you being a werewolf, and me being the queen of a completely different world. People have been telling me that I need to marry someone if I’m going to come into my full powers. Well, there’s only one person I could ever want to marry.”

  “Don’t ask to marry me just for that,” Kevin said.

  “I’m not,” Briony assured him. “I’m asking to marry you because I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Okay, so I want to do it right now because it might be nice to actually have some rest of my life, but that doesn’t make what I feel any less real.”

  Kevin didn’t know what to say. Well there was one obvious thing. “Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you. If you’re sure?”

  “I’m sure,” Briony said.

  “I always thought I’d be the one proposing,” Kevin said, “and I don’t think I’d have planned it like this…” he gestured to take in the battle going on behind them. Briony stepped past him, lancing the long, golden stake she held through a vampire.

  “Me either,” she said. “I’d thought I’d wait, at least until I was in college. Maybe longer. But this… this changes things, and honestly, no matter how long I wait, it will still be you, Kevin. It’s always been you.”

  “And right now, we need to do this if we’re going to save Palisor, don’t we?” Kevin didn’t mind that part so much now. He kissed Briony again, deeper this time.

  “So that’s a yes, then?” Briony asked with a smile, as they pulled apart.

  “Yes,” Kevin assured her, “it’s a yes. Did you think I’d say anything else?”

  “Maybe for a moment, when I saw you with Carol.”

  “And now?”

  “Now, you’re all mine,” Briony said, kissing him.