by J. C. Diem
“Yes,” Mark replied blandly and stepped around him.
The deputy stared as we trooped past him. Zeus bared his teeth on his way past, warning him not to come any closer. The entire town reeked of dogs and he was feeling edgy.
We stepped between the barriers that were blocking the road and made our way down the main street. It was eerily quiet. I couldn’t hear any movement inside the buildings as we walked past them. Blood pooled on the sidewalk and street in too many places to count. Chunks of flesh that had been bitten off and spat out littered the ground.
“Sheriff Novac?” Mark asked when we reached a small group of people.
A tall woman wearing a sheriff’s uniform turned around. She was a few years younger than our boss and was strikingly pretty with tanned skin and piercing brown eyes. Her black hair was pulled up in a no-nonsense ponytail. “Yes?”
“I’m Agent Steel. My team and I were sent here to investigate the claim that dogs have killed multiple people in Leeton. What can you tell me?”
“I’ll be with you in a second,” she said and turned back to her deputies. “Remember what I said, stay in pairs and shoot to kill if you see any dogs.” They all turned wary looks on Zeus and I stepped in front of him protectively. “Obviously, don’t shoot that dog,” she amended.
They nodded then paired up and spread out, presumably to search for survivors. Sheriff Novac turned back to us and examined our faces carefully. “I’ll need to see some ID.” She held her hand out expectantly. Mark dutifully handed over his ID again. She read it carefully and handed it back. “I’ve never heard of the PIA. What does that stand for exactly?”
“I’m afraid that’s classified,” Mark replied as he tucked his ID away again. “All I can tell you is that we deal with occurrences like this.”
“You mean other towns have been overrun by a large pack of feral dogs?” she said in heavy disbelief. “I’m pretty sure I would have heard of that.”
“What can you tell me about the situation?” Mark asked, avoiding her question.
“I received a call from a concerned citizen stating that something bad had happened here. When I couldn’t rouse the Sheriff, I headed straight here.” She indicated the deserted buildings with a sweep of her hand. “As you can see, the town is empty and there are signs of attacks everywhere. We found a lot of bodies inside the buildings and mostly left them where they were. We moved the deceased that were lying on the street inside so the vultures can’t exploit their deaths.” She had to be referring to the news van we’d passed on our way into town. “My men are currently searching for anyone who might be too injured to call out.”
“There are no survivors,” Lauryl said quietly, not that the sheriff could hear her. “There are only the dead who were left here to taunt you and your team.”
“Where did you put the deceased?” Mark asked.
“They’re in there,” she said and pointed at an empty building across the street. It had once been an office, but it had a ‘for rent’ sign on the door.
“We’re going to take a look at them.”
“Knock yourself out, Agent Steel,” she said dryly. “We’ll be searching for survivors while you do your investigation.” Her slight sneer was a blatant hint that she thought we weren’t going to be of much use.
Lauryl crossed to Mark and took his arm. He escorted her into the building and we filed in after them. Stay here and let me know if you sense any dogs, I thought to Zeus. He gave me a mental equivalent of a nod and sat next to the door.
I stepped inside to see fifteen bodies lined up neatly on the floor. They’d been covered in blankets or sheets that were now stained red. The town was too small to have a medical examiner. One would no doubt be coming from one of the larger towns.
Mark systematically lifted the coverings to examine the bodies. He took photos with his cell phone then stepped back. The glimpses I caught were of mangled bites and torn flesh. I didn’t need to take a closer look.
“What’s the plan?” Reece asked after our boss had been silent for a couple of minutes.
“Pair up and search the town,” Mark decided. “If you see any dogs, call out.”
“I will remain with you, Mark,” Lauryl declared. “Do not fear, I will keep him safe,” she said to us when we all shifted uneasily. Mark nodded in agreement. I trusted his instincts and didn’t protest when he left with her.
“Kala, you’re with me,” Reece said.
She snapped him a smart salute. “Aye, aye, Captain!”
Flynn sent an amused look after her when they left then turned to me. “Looks like we’re partners.”
I was glad Reece was giving me some space. Being paired up with him would have been awkward. We stepped outside and Zeus fell in beside me as we headed to the east. Mark and Lauryl were striding down the sidewalk heading west. Reece and Kala were angling to the north. There was nothing to the south except the road leading out of town.
“Are you ever going to forgive him?” Flynn asked when we reached the town limits.
“Would you?” I countered. “He dragged me into this life, made me one of you and told me he’d never leave me. Then he dumped me for a pure blood werewolf. How am I supposed to forgive him for that?”
“I get the feeling he wasn’t exactly in charge of his own decisions all the time.”
“I don’t care,” I said with more vehemence than I’d intended. “He should have been strong enough to stand up to his mother and whatever else was messing with his mind.”
Flynn studied me and I caught a flash of his memory of Reece trying to strangle me. “You think that if he’d loved you as much as you love him that he would have been able to resist them?”
My answer was an angry shrug of my shoulders. “It doesn’t even matter now. I severed my bond with him even if he’s still bound to me. I don’t want to talk about it anymore.” I was aware of how sulky and childish I sounded, but I was too heartsick to care.
₪₪₪
Chapter Thirty-Four
Finding nothing helpful on our search, we were on our way back to the center of town when we heard Kala shout. “Guys! We found their trail!” I’d detected the scent of more than thirty different types of dogs during our search. We’d been hunting for the path that they’d used to escape from town and she and Reece had just found it.
Flynn and I shared a look then took off at a run. I kept my pace to match his, which didn’t burn up as much energy as all out sprinting did. We reached Reece and Kala just as Mark and Lauryl popped into sight.
Mark staggered and it was Lauryl’s turn to steady him. “Forgive me,” she said. “I should have prepared you for that.”
“What did you just do?” he asked, straightening his tie unnecessarily.
“I teleported us here,” she said as if it was nothing out of the ordinary. For her it probably wasn’t.
“Can all faeries teleport?” Kala asked curiously.
“No. Only some of us have that talent and using it drains our energy. The greater the distance we travel, the more power we have to use.”
We were on the far outskirts of town now and Reece pointed to the ground where there were multiple paw prints. “Let’s see where they lead,” Mark said and gestured for us to go first.
We walked for a few miles until the town became distant. Zeus’ ears pricked up and he whined uneasily. I sensed it too, a rumbling in the ground that was all too familiar. “A golem is coming!” I warned the others.
Then the ground buckled and a gigantic stone dog with three heads erupted from the ground. Easily twenty feet tall, it was the same sandy color that the hydra golem had been. While the three-headed dog had fangs, they didn’t drip with venom this time.
“It looks like Cerberus,” Mark said in an awed tone. Zeus stared up at the monstrosity in dread. With his stub of a tail tucked between his legs, he wisely slunk out of harm’s way.
Snapping and growling ferociously, all three heads ignored everyone else and focused directly on Lauryl. The
stone beast struck and Reece and I went into motion. He tossed me his gun and I caught it with my left hand. While he tucked the faery and our boss under his arms and carried them to safety, I pulled my Beretta and began firing with both hands. The golem roared in pain and fury when I shot out the eyes of all three heads. Kala and Flynn emptied their guns into it, but their bullets did as little damage as mine.
“We need a grenade!” Kala shouted. The monster paused while its eyes regenerated. It wasn’t a hydra, but cutting off the middle head had worked last time. Maybe it would work again.
“There are grenades in the armory back at our base,” Mark told Reece. He’d set them both down well out of the battle zone. That theory was proven wrong when dogs suddenly began to bark and howl in the distance.
Unlike the dog pack that had saved me from being zapped by a witch in Bradbury, I couldn’t reach the minds of this large horde. They’d been taken over completely, just as Flynn had been by the hydra. Zeus was showing no signs of being susceptible to possession. My link to him seemed to be protecting his mind. He raced over to join us and took up a protective stance in front of Mark. He instinctively knew who needed the most protection.
Dogs of all descriptions surrounded us and began to close in. Lauryl lifted her hands and chanted in her native language. I saw a shimmering barrier appear around her, Mark and Zeus and knew she’d keep them safe.
“Go and get a grenade,” I said to Reece. “We’ll keep it occupied.” He tossed me his spare ammo before taking off. He could sprint a lot faster than the van could move. He was only gone for a few minutes, but it felt like a lifetime. I continued to shoot out the golem’s eyes while Kala and Flynn did their best to keep it away from Mark and Lauryl. I wasn’t sure why, but it was fixated on the faery and seemed intent on killing her.
Reece had brought some more ammo as well and tossed it to us. I reloaded while Kala and Flynn continued to shoot at the golem’s eyes. Their shots weren’t as precise as mine, but they kept up the barrage. I began to fire at it again while Reece circled around behind it. Using his new strength and speed, he leaped onto its back. It reacted as soon as his feet landed on it and two of its heads swiveled around to try to bite him. We fired at them while he blasted a hole in the joint where the three heads met its body.
Stuffing the grenade into the hole, he pulled the pin and leaped clear. I shouted a warning when one of the heads snapped at him as he was falling. He turned his head to watch, but he couldn’t avoid its teeth. Its jaws closed around him and I heard the crunch of bone when it bit down.
Blood burst from Reece’s mouth and he made a sound of agony that brought a corresponding cry from me. Then the grenade went off and the golem exploded. It spat him out and one of the fangs broke off in his chest. Now separated, all three heads dropped to the ground. The golem’s body and two of its heads became inert, but the middle head still continued to writhe.
Reece lay crumpled on the ground beside the head of the golem that had bitten him. We gathered around him in shocked silence. One glance told me that his wounds were too catastrophic for even a shifter to be able to heal. He held out his hand to me and I dropped to my knees beside him. Despite everything that he’d put me through, I still loved him and I didn’t want him to die.
“I always loved you,” he said in a breathless whisper.
“I wish I could believe that.” Tears blurred my eyes and streaked down my face.
Lauryl came to kneel beside me. “He speaks the truth. See for yourself.” She touched a fingertip to both of our foreheads and I saw more of Reece’s memories.
Through his eyes, I saw myself on the first day we’d met. He’d been attracted to me from the moment he laid eyes on me. When I’d pulled my gun on him, he’d fallen for me hard. He’d never wanted a submissive mate, but someone who could stand up for herself. I hadn’t let him intimidate me and that had been his undoing.
Convinced that I’d end up hating him like his parents had if we became close, he’d tried to resist me. Then he’d been compelled by Lust to take me and an insidious force had slipped into his mind for the first time. It had been so subtle that he hadn’t known he was being manipulated. He’d followed the whispered suggestion and had bitten me and had made me his.
The dim memories of being abandoned by his mother had driven him to keep me at arm’s length even after we’d become bonded. He knew I was physically attracted to him, but he couldn’t believe that I could actually love him. After being rejected by both his mother and his father, he didn’t think he was worthy enough for anyone to truly care about him.
When we’d headed to West Virginia to hunt down the rogue wolf, the still unknown entity had returned. It had subtly turned him against me, whispering promises that his life would be perfect if he joined his pack and had a pure born family.
The entity had used him like a puppet. I could see it now. It had used him to turn me into a werewolf and then it had discarded him, leaving him to the unkind mercy of his mother. Nina wasn’t insane like her husband and youngest son had been. Instead she was a control freak who wanted absolute rule over everyone in her pack. She’d never had any intention of letting him take over no matter what she told her followers.
When I’d severed my bond with him, the vampirism had been unleashed and he’d turned feral. Nina hadn’t been able to control him and had permanently locked him in the cell. She’d refused to believe he was turning into a vampire and hadn’t allowed him to drink the blood that he’d craved. He’d turned more and more to the darkness while she’d starved him just as she had when he’d been a toddler.
Then I’d arrived and he’d roused from his mindless hunger for blood. His bond to me was the only thing that had kept him from losing his sanity completely. He’d kept a picture of me in his mind the entire time he’d been held prisoner. Without his mother and the entity in his mind to cloud his thoughts, I could now see how badly he wanted to be with me. He’d never stopped loving me even after I’d rejected him so harshly and had done my best to beat him senseless. Now he was dying and nothing could save him.
“You are wrong,” Lauryl said, reading that thought. I turned to her and she was blurry from my tears. “There is one thing that can save him. Become bonded to him again. It is his only chance of survival.”
I stared down at my former mate, wondering if I could put myself through the heartache again if he were to change his mind and reject me once more.
He won’t, a voice said inside me. You might be fated to save the world, but you are his destiny. Will you punish him for merely fulfilling the tasks that were set for him?
He’d tried to tell me that it hadn’t really been his choice to leave me. Now I saw that he’d been telling the truth. The few short days that we’d had together when we’d finally accepted our bond had just been a prelude. We could have that kind of happiness for the rest of our lives. All I had to do was be brave enough to accept his love and to offer mine in return.
₪₪₪
Chapter Thirty-Five
Unwilling to renew our bond in front of witnesses, I scooped Reece into my arms and sprinted as fast as I could to our compound. I didn’t have time to search for a safe way to enter the grounds. He was trembling on the edge of death already. Stripping off my jacket and harness, I sacrificed the rest of my clothes and called on my wolf. She burst forth and I changed in mid-step. Now in my half-vampire and half-werewolf form, I leaped into the air when I neared the gate. Time slowed down as I neared the barrier. My toe nicked the wire and a jolt of pain went through me.
Reece opened his eyes when he felt my brief surge of agony. Seeing my bestial face, he reached up and placed a hand on my furry cheek. Then his eyes closed and his hand fell and dangled limply.
Reverting back to human form and now completely naked, I raced to the door that led to the kitchen and slapped my hand on the scanner. We were inside the instant the door unlocked. Inside my bedroom a few moments later, I closed and locked the door then laid Reece on the bed.
/> Our hearts beat slower than usual now, but his was barely functioning at all. He’d lapsed into unconsciousness and had only moments left to live. Straddling him, I grasped the stone fang and wrenched it out then dropped it to the floor. Fresh tears welled when I saw the gaping wound in his chest. His heart had been almost completely destroyed and he was beyond the ability to heal it. Praying that I wasn’t too late, I tore his shirt off then leaned down and sank my teeth into his left shoulder.
For a long moment, nothing happened. Then I felt our bond reconnect and his agony poured through me as if it was my own. His back bowed and he gasped in pain that was mingled with pleasure as I drank his blood.
Rolling us over so he was lying on top of me, I placed his mouth against the mark that he’d made on my shoulder what now seemed like a lifetime ago. His little brother had marked me last, but Gareth had never had a hope of claiming me. “Drink,” I urged him.
Semi-conscious now, he nuzzled my shoulder and his fangs scraped my skin when they descended. His teeth sheared into my flesh and it was my turn to writhe in pleasure. My hands trailed from his wide shoulders down his back. I felt him stir against me and nearly broke into sobs when I realized that he would be okay.
Fully refreshed and healed after drinking my blood, he drew back a little. He stared down at me in wonder when he realized what I’d done. “You re-bonded yourself to me.”
“It was the only way I could save you,” I replied.
He looked away and I felt his guilt and sorrow. “After everything I did to you, I don’t know why you bothered.”
“It’s apparently my destiny to save the world,” I told him. “As far as I’m concerned, I just did.” He looked back at me with such hope that it was heartbreaking. “Without you, there is no point. You are everything to me. I gave myself to you, mind, body and soul the first time we bonded. I just did so again willingly.”