As Lyra began jogging back toward the crater on the street, she heard the wolves galloping back toward her. She noticed Nikolai's limp right away.
Lyra knelt down and the wolf came right towards her. His mouth and fur was covered in blood, but from the smell, she knew that most of it wasn't his own. "That doesn't look too bad. Not deep at all."
Vanya growled in her direction.
She held up the artifact toward him. "Don't worry. I got it. Let's just get out and—"
The scent hit Lyra like a ton of bricks. She smelled vampires all over this place, some of whom were headed in their very direction. But that wasn't what shocked her. Mace was somewhere nearby in the stronghold.
She took the bag off her shoulders and laid it at her feet.
"You two go on without me. I've got something I need to do."
Vanya snapped in her direction with his teeth, but Nikolai clawed at him long enough for Lyra to get away unscathed. She kept the sword close by as she ran toward the smell of her partner. As it grew more intense, she continued to wonder exactly how they might treat the former prince.
"Be alive, you idiot. Just be alive."
Her heart beat faster as she sprinted toward the scent. When she reached a dead end, she realized the vampire was just through that wall.
"Mace!"
She heard a muffled sound from the other side, though she had no clue what the person said.
"I'm coming!"
As she prepared to lower her shoulder and blast through the wall, she heard a faint growling sound behind her. When she turned, she saw the wolf who hated her staring her down in a dead end. Vanya finally had her right where he wanted her.
Chapter 21
It didn't take long for Mace's eyes to adjust to the dim torchlight, though he could feel his nerves stretch with the far-off sounds of howling wolves. His sister didn't seem nervous in the slightest, in fact, she took another drink before placing it back down on the bar.
Mace strained at his shackles. "Aren't you going to do something? Aren't you the leader?"
Aella smirked. "I trust my generals. Obviously, you haven't had much management experience."
Mace gritted his teeth and did his best to rip his chains apart, but it was no use. "Let me out and I'll help."
She laughed. "Because I can trust you so much. Weren't you the one who sneaked in here in the first place?"
Mace heard the scream at the same time she did. While it was impossible to know which side was winning the battle outside the room, the vampire's death rattle seemed to indicate the tide of the battle.
"Look Sister, I promise that if you let me go right now, I'll make sure that we turn a blind eye to everything you do outside of murder."
Aella raised an eyebrow. "How generous of you."
Mace took a deep breath. "I know that I should have sought you out after vampires went public. I can't ever take that back. But if you let me go, I promise that I'll help you now."
When another scream followed by a throat gurgle wafted in from the other room, Mace's sister shook her head and dove toward her brother. With expert precision, her razor-sharp nails sliced through the powerful restraints, and Mace was once again free.
He nodded toward her. "Thank you."
Aella scrunched up her face. "Don't make me regret it." She looked toward the doorway. "You want some leadership? Come with me. Don't get killed."
Mace followed her lead. "You're practically Abraham Lincoln up in here."
"Minus the assassination I hope." She looked left and right. "By the way, if you break your word, I'll kill everyone on your team."
Mace didn't acknowledge the threat as he and his sister pressed forward. Almost immediately, Mace sensed the presence of three shifters sprinting toward them at top speed.
His sister smiled. "I like these odds."
As her claws grew longer in response to impending battle, Mace used his speed to catch one of the wolves by surprise. He tackled the lead shifter to the ground, and their two solid bodies rolled across the floor. When Mace slammed hard into the wall, the wolf took a swipe at his face. He caught the creature by the wrist and turned his arm against the socket. The shifter yelped and growled.
Mace winked. "You've been a bad, bad puppy."
With a swift punch to the shifter's jaw, the wolf went limp beneath him. His claws retracted, and the shifter went from doglike to human in a hurry. Mace didn't recognize the Russian who lay beneath him.
As he turned back toward his sister, he saw her claws slice through the throat of both of her attackers in quick succession. Their hairy bodies fell hard against the ground.
Mace frowned. "You could have captured them."
She wrinkled her nose. "Nothing is worse than a backseat fighter."
Just then, Mace picked up something he hadn't expected. Her smell was unique enough to make it to him from several rooms away.
Mace stood up. "It's her. I have to find her."
While her face remained neutral, her eyes told a story of hatred. "Go. I'll be fine on my own."
Mace met her eyes. "Thank you. I won't break my promise."
Aella said nothing as she turned her back on him.
Mace sighed and began to run once again. He dashed toward the smell of Lyra Thorne.
Let's hope she showed a little more restraint this time.
As he sidestepped half a dozen bodies along the path, he could now hear her as well. But as he reached the adjacent room, she wasn't the only thing he heard. He could hear growling and the gnashing of sharp wolf teeth as well.
Chapter 22
Lyra's hand was raw from alternately punching Vanya's solid wolf face and preventing him from clamping down on her arm. Vanya seemed to be tiring as well, and she wondered who would make a mistake first.
She grinned. "I guess all that talk of letting bygones be bygones didn't amount to much, huh Vanya?"
The wolf did nothing but growl in response as he ran toward her. Lyra once again removed the sword from the back of her pants and swung the blade in the Russian's direction as he came close. For the sixth time in a row, the wolf easily avoided the attack.
When she thought Vanya was vulnerable, she pushed off the wall with one leg and swung it toward the Russian's face. But Vanya was much less vulnerable than she supposed, changing directions in midair and clamping his jaw down on Lyra's calf muscle. The pain spread through Lyra's body like wildfire. Her leg locked up with agony, but her arms still worked just fine. With a quick swing, she lopped off Vanya's tail. The blood shot off in every direction as Vanya released his grasp on her leg. He whimpered and backed away, turning several times to examine the stump where his tail once lived.
Lyra took the opportunity to crouch down and examine her leg as well. Her eyes watered as she looked down at the wound, which almost seemed as though a shark had bit in and luckily hadn't torn her entire leg from her body. The blood seeped out onto the ground.
She clenched one fist in an effort to deaden the sensation. "No more treats for you."
Vanya snarled at the dog pun and ran toward her once again.
Her eyes lit up as she saw an opening and swung her sword. While she thought she had a clear path to the wolf's mouth, she hadn't expected Vanya's teeth to go straight through the blade. The metal crunched in his mouth, and the once-promising weapon was neutered.
She limped as she attempted to crouch down in a fighting stance. "That's all right. I like hand-to-hand better anyway..." As the blood loss increased, Lyra allowed herself to blink for just a second.
When her eyes opened, she saw Vanya a few inches away from her face. As she braced herself, a whoosh of air came streaming into the room. A blur her eyes didn't have time to register yanked the wolf out of the air and slammed him into the floor before he could get one claw on Lyra. When her eyes could finally discover the identity of the blur, she wasn't surprised in the least. Mace threw fist after fist into the wolf's jaw. Lyra saw the blood and teeth exit the creature's mouth, complete with w
himpers and growls. The Russian didn't stand a chance against a vampire with a crush.
When Mace finished his smackdown, he breathed heavily atop the wolf. The shifter gave one final whimper as he transformed back into human form. He didn't look much better than his wolf counterpart, as the blood and gaps in his mouth remained even after changing his shape.
The Russian spit blood toward Mace's eyes. The crimson missed the mark. "Try a fair fight. One man against one man."
Mace raised an eyebrow. "No thanks."
With one last swing, Mace's knuckles connected right between the Russian's eyes. With a groan, the crazy brother went silent.
Lyra took a deep breath and shook loose the cobwebs. "I was coming to save you."
He grinned as he stood. "We really should keep tabs on how many times we've saved each other."
Lyra fought the urge to give her vampire savior a hug as she looked back in the direction she'd come from. "I'm glad you're alive."
"How glad on a scale from 1 to 10? I want to make sure we include that data in our spreadsheet."
She waved him toward the doorway. "First, we get the artifact. Second, we do the data entry."
Mace's eyes twinkled as he followed close behind Lyra.
They reached the crater just as she heard the sound of a van starting. As she got back into the sunlight, she saw Nikolai in the passenger seat of the van with the bag draped across his shoulder.
She called out. "Nikolai! Wait!"
Nikolai met her eyes and smiled. He gave a short wave as the wheels from the vehicle peeled out, leaving them in the van's dust.
She growled and looked down at her still-bleeding leg. "Damn."
Mace put his hands on his hips. "I guess your boyfriend went home with another date."
Before Lyra could scowl in his direction, an attacker she didn't see coming leapt upon her back and wrapped an arm around her throat.
Lyra instinctively rolled forward, shedding the assailant and taking another roll to get to her feet. Her leg burned in response to the motion, and she turned back to face someone she didn't expect.
The creature scowled and extended her claws. "This is for my father, you bitch."
The vampire sprinted towards her, but once again Mace dove through the air and slammed the attacker to the ground.
Her vampire partner held the woman back. "Come on, Sis. There isn't any time for that."
Lyra's mouth hung open. "You have a sister? You have a sister who just tried to kill me?"
Mace's sister screamed beneath him. "She murdered our father, Mace. Doesn't that mean something to you?"
Mace pulled her to her feet. "The Russians got the last artifact. So unless stopping her is going to save the city, you better start telling us what the hell that thing does."
The sister let out one last snarl before her temper seemed to cool.
Lyra could see the family resemblance now that she had a moment to look. The sister had Mace's eyes, as well as her father's ruthlessness.
The sister shook her head. "There's nothing you can do."
Mace grabbed her shoulders and shook. "Tell me what the artifacts do."
She looked him right in the eye. "You think a half dozen wolves is bad?" His sister's eyes moved toward Lyra's. "Imagine an entire city of them."
Chapter 23
As Doug moved the small sculpture to the “X” of tape in the spot Rhea had told him, he couldn't help but feel there was something missing. It was as if a portion of his brain had been temporarily removed. And when a person is as smart as Doug, even the smallest change is easily noticeable.
"Why do I feel this way? Did I eat a bad sandwich or something?"
He placed the ancient-looking sculpture down and faced it in the proper direction. Now all three pieces of art were in place. But for what reason?
"Rhea told me something about these. Right? There's some reason why I'm doing this?"
Not having the answers bugged the programmer and resident genius to his core.
Heidi walked into the room and gave her coworker a sideways glance. "Did you find what you were looking for?"
Doug's forehead wrinkled. "I'm not sure what you're talking about."
"You know, some weird tracker device. You almost running into me in the hallway. Does any of this ring a bell?"
Doug had been known to hyper-focused sometimes so much that his interactions with people went out the window. But this seemed different and more unsettling.
He cleared his throat. "Sure. I found it. Thanks for checking in."
Heidi shook her head. "You're a terrible liar. I suppose that's probably a good thing in the long run." She looked down at the sculpture. "Rhea get a new decorator?"
He shrugged his shoulders. "I'm just the hired help."
But to what end?
Doug sighed. "I better get back to the office. It's been a while since Mace and Lyra checked in."
She nodded, a hint of skepticism remaining upon her face. "You know, that sculpture would look much better over—"
"Don't move it!"
Heidi put up her hands. "Why?"
"I'm not sure. Rhea said not to move it."
Heidi stared at her coworker. "I'm not sure what's gotten into you, Doug, but it's not a good look."
She turned and walked away.
As Doug tried to piece his last two days together, he placed the third and final sculpture in the area Rhea had instructed. The second it locked into place, he felt a low hum of energy. A warmth seemed to enter his chest, like he'd been wrapped in a blanket of protection.
As he stepped back to the control room, Rhea looked across the room from him. "How does that feel?"
"It feels good. Why does it feel good?"
She looked toward a monitor that showed a half dozen camera feeds in the Loop. "Sometimes you have to protect yourself against what's coming."
Before Doug could ask exactly what was coming, a ring came in on the comms. Doug pressed a blinking red button.
"What's happening?"
Lyra's voice echoed through the room. "I found Mace. We're headed away from the Tuscan stronghold; I need to know if the artifacts have moved."
Doug pulled up a new window on the monitor, which displayed the six artifacts he'd been tracking.
"Wait, weren't there nine?"
Doug shook his head and focused back on the monitor. "They are moving. Looks like they're headed downtown. Is there an artifact festival this week?"
Lyra's voice was rushed over the comm. "I would consider locking yourselves down if you can."
Doug looked toward Rhea, she didn't seem the least bit worried. "Why? Why do we need to lock ourselves down?"
Lyra sighed. "Because things are about to get hairy in Chicago."
Chapter 24
Once Lyra passed along the instructions to the cab driver, she could get back to her current purpose: berating Mace for his stupidity.
She wrapped her leg in a piece of fabric she'd torn from one of the dead vampire's uniforms. "How could you just go into the stronghold without any backup whatsoever?"
The vampire gritted his teeth. "If someone hadn't been too busy spending the night in a shifter's bed, maybe none of this would've happened."
She let out a sharp laugh. "I see. Now all of this is my fault."
Lyra watched cars whiz by as they got to a more populated area of the city.
Mace pointed his finger at Lyra. "You're the one who turned off your comms to do whatever it was you wanted to do with the wolf."
She shook her head. "You're jealous. You're jealous of anyone who gets to spend time with me. And because your jealously has clouded your judgment, you let yourself get captured. They could've killed you."
The cab driver in front turned slightly to the back. "This seems like a private conversation. Is there any chance you could hold off until we get to—"
The driver's words began to change into screams. The car swerved from left to right as the human shook in the driver's seat.
Lyra turned her rage into focus. "Open your door, Mace."
Mace's eyes grew wide. "What?"
The car continued to swerve, now going even faster as the transformation came into full focus.
"Open your damn door!"
Mace tried the handle, but with the door locked, he was forced to resort to more primitive means.
Lyra watched as the vampire's fist slammed hard through the car. His hand left a hole in the vehicle, but the door still remained. Lyra checked the rearview mirror and saw that their driver had now fully become a wolf. He growled and strained at the seatbelt holding him in. The vehicle sped up and seemed destined to crash into the swerving vehicles in front of it.
Mace leaned back against her and used his feet to propel the door off his wrist and skidding along the ground below.
Lyra's heart pounded within her chest. "Go now!"
The two of them undid their seat belts and dove out the uncontrolled vehicle. Lyra's shoulder roll got her back up to standing on the blacktop in a hurry. Mace wasn't as lucky, slamming his legs and rolling along the street. When Mace finally came to a stop, she saw a pack of wolves behind him. Their clothes were tattered from the transformation, and they seemed interested in one thing alone.
Lyra screamed. "Mace, look out!"
Mace just avoided a swipe from two wolves that sprinted for him. As he stood, he pointed once again at Lyra.
"Look out behind you!"
Lyra turned to see another vehicle swerving out of control, and it wasn't the only one. She leapt at just the right moment, tapped her good leg on the top of the car, and came down in a crouch. Sharp pain shot through her injured calf as Mace reached her side.
"My sister apparently wasn't kidding. But we're not wolves."
Lyra took a long look around. Men, women, and children had all been changed into predators. And in their eyes, Mace and Lyra were the prey.
Myths & Magic: A Science Fiction and Fantasy Collection Page 37