by Lisa Daniels
Nox had a thing for dangerous women. He grinned to himself, preparing for the trip.
He got the shock of his life when Echo demonstrated her magic on the surface, letting it flick out of her fingers to coalesce into a monstrous demon. He hissed in alarm as the monstrosity, which gave off the distinctive pulse of a Shadow, stood there with black long arms hanging.
“This is my magic. I can summon a creature. I call it Monster.”
Monster is a suitable name for that thing, Nox thought. He narrowed his eyes at it in suspicion. “Does it contaminate?”
Echo shook her head. “No, it doesn’t. I used it to carry you back. Can you see me lugging your body all the way from the chasm to the town?”
“Huh.” Nox wasn’t sure what to think about that. The notion of being carried by that thing sent unpleasant shivers groping his spine, like icy fingers. Echo released Monster with a sigh of relief, rubbing her cranium.
“I’ve already used Monster too much. I need to rest a bit. Well. Are you morphing then? We got some people to rescue.”
Nox rolled his eyes, growled, then constricted himself, transforming into his warrior form.
Chapter Three
Echo watched in wry amusement as Nox transformed with that look of indignation stamped upon his face. For a werewolf, he seemed to be taking her veins and her magic better than expected. Of course, she could never confess to him the real source of her magic, and the soul she housed inside. Suicidal, to even consider admitting that to a werewolf. They spent their lives fighting against abominations like her. She was merely a spirit that had hijacked a human body from near birth. She came from the origin world that held a sparse number of their population, from all the destruction the humans accidentally wrought in their quest for more power.
Still, the Shadows did not need to commit genocide. They could still live in the origin world. They could keep to the Fractured Spine without expanding and consuming all other life.
Nox resembled a finely silver-white furred werewolf, big, like they all were, with gleaming yellow eyes. He still seemed to wear that scowl as she mounted upon him, digging her fingers tight into his furs and preparing for the ride around the chasm, to try and detect any more of the scouting party. They needed every living person they could get.
She clung to his back, enjoying the relative speed he loped up to, the way his huge paws sunk into the snow, leaving elongated prints all behind them. Honestly, Echo didn’t know if they’d find anyone else, but she had to try. Anything rather than sit around and wait for a war to start, or deal with dodgy black market traders.
Her mind whirred through the idea of Nox in his human form, with his dark hair, yellow eyes and noble stature. Son of a chieftain, too. Not bad. It didn’t take them long before they found the first body. Two hours riding, near the spot where Echo had discovered him, and Nox’s sensitive nostrils picked up on a presence. They’d only just recently died, too. His body had impaled itself onto a spike in the chasm, but with werewolf healing, it might have been salvageable.
Nox let out a mournful howl, before pressing on, continuing their scout.
With time being of utmost importance, they scouted through the rest of the daylight and through a portion of the night. The snows whorled around them, tumbling down now from the cloud stifled skies. Before Erlandur’s original expedition, Echo had never seen a werewolf before. She only knew them as the beasts that opposed the Shadows viciously, fighting against their influence and harboring strong hatred towards her kind. She caught some of that from the werewolves, who had never seen a black veined human.
The things Erlandur had done to consolidate his powers, though. To become the first magic caster from the male bloodline. Sometimes, she’d been allowed to peek. Helena and the other Supremes in direct contest with the methods of the Shadows operating within the Fractured City had lured Erlandur along with other hopefuls, other men and women who wanted to risk everything for stopping the cause.
All of them except Erlandur had died. By all rights and methods now, Erlandur ranked as a Supreme, encased in the armor that protected him from spells. His ability was to raise up anyone who had died again and bind them to him – a marvellous, terrifying power. The more who died in combat, the stronger he became. He only had to lose his soul to obtain such strength. A worthy sacrifice. The upper Shadows wouldn’t know what hit them, once the invasion force made it safely into their tunnels.
One thing bugged Echo, however. The cold seeped into their bones, it slowed them down, it did things to their brains. Shadows were weak against the relentless onslaught of winter, of the blizzards that raged through the plains. Sure, they might be able to make it some of the way, but then it would simply be too cold for them to move or function. So how in the world did they get so far?
Helena and the three other Supremes didn’t know. They departed from the main branch years ago, trying to forge alliances with humans and werewolves. They were the ones who encouraged the werewolves to settle all across the Lunar Wastes, instead of in their original homeland, the Crescent Island beyond the Fractured City.
The last stage of their plan before the invasion involved heading to Crescent Island.
Echo shivered at the implication. She focused on the scenery, scanning for any shapes half buried by snow. Nox’s furs warmed up her hands, and his pants huffed up the air, leaving steamy trails as they bounded. Even with the fur mask on her face and the goggles to protect her eyes from the sting of wind, Echo’s cheeks still froze underneath her protection. She needed every layer of warmth possible.
Wonder what it would be like if he attempted to jump the chasm at its thinnest point? The thought trickled into her mind. If he failed it, we’d tumble far, far down. I’d probably land on him and break his spine. Echo blinked. Already, she felt her emotions beginning to dull, to lessen, the sympathy in her dying. When they passed a body in the snow, not one of the expedition, but a small child, Nox sniffed around it for a moment, and Echo stared dispassionately. Likely deserved it. One less idiot alive. Vaguely, she considered that it’d only been five hours since her last summon of Monster. Personally, she didn’t care when her feelings dimmed. It made it easier to think, to make the moves that mattered.
However, she also understood on a perspective level that her companions and allies in life needed emotion. Monster growled in her head as it crept over her mind.
Nox gave a startled yelp, and Echo’s attention snapped to a small gathering of rocks in the distance, near the base of one of the mountains, with a plume of smoke wafting partway into the air.
“There’s a bridge a league on,” Echo informed him. “We can use that to cross over then double back to the site.”
Nox barked confirmation to her instructions, and picked up his pace, now taking great leaping strides. Echo clung on, her dispassionate thoughts still whirring away.
If the Shadows of the Fractured City weren’t so greedy, so vain, they might have learned to live in harmony. It’s more logical to form alliances than to antagonize. It’s not smart to keep pursuing an agenda that the humans have likely long since forgotten about. Not to mention, the number of witches who existed today were a scarce fraction of their former glory. Maybe a hundred, two hundred. Not the tens of thousands that once existed.
Her fingers tightened on Nox’s furs as he bounded forward, reaching the bridge mere moments later. It had seen a lot of use, and had ridges all along the arch to compensate for the constant snow that tumbled down. Nox clawed over it, jumping into ten inches of snow and lifting his way through it.
Once he reached the shale of the mountain, he regained his speed, and they slowed once they neared the fire, and he half shook her, growling.
“Alright, I’ll get off.” Echo clambered off, flaking off some of the snow on her robes, and watched as Nox crawled on his belly, carefully approaching the camp upside of the wind. He disappeared around the corner, then howled for her to come a moment later. She stumbled through the path he had made through the s
now, and saw three members of the scouting expedition clustered, two of them in human form, attempting to heal from severe injuries, the other in wolf form, clearly guarding them. Four sets of yellow eyes peered at her.
“Good job we found you.” Echo figured introducing herself might be a neat idea. “I’m Echo, a witch of the underbelly.” She flashed her crescent symbol. “We’re part of a resistance forming to combat the ruling faction of the Fractured City. I’d explain more, but it seems you two are in severe need of medical care. And… unconscious. Never mind.” Echo crouched beside one of the werewolves, her long white hair drooping. One werewolf had two broken legs and crushed muscles, preventing him from healing efficiently. The other seemed to have at some point suffered internal injuries, and bandages covered his stomach and collarbone. “Are you fit to go?” She addressed the final werewolf, silvery white like Nox, but leaner and thinner. The werewolf walked towards her, snuffled at her hand, eyes lingering a while on her black veins. Nox barked at him.
The stranger shifted temporarily, revealing a tall, willowy thin man, who introduced himself as Loras. “I don’t think we can move these two yet. If they go on our backs, they’ll likely sustain more injuries.”
“My magic will sort that out. We need to get you to our base as soon as possible. They have patrols. You’re not safe here.”
Loras scowled. “What magic do you have?”
“It’s a Shadow creature that can carry them. Don’t worry. It won’t contaminate. I used it for Nox when I found him earlier.”
Nox whined, but the sound seemed to reassure Loras. “Let’s see this thing, then.”
Echo smiled sardonically, before allowing the magic to ripple through her veins. Monster formed in the snows, huge and imposing, blue eyes scanning the environment. Loras swore and stepped backwards as Echo commanded Monster to gently scoop up the two werewolves, then readjust its shape so that its arms became baskets for the werewolves, and three more spots appeared on its back.
“Let’s sit on Monster. It won’t bite.” Echo clambered up Monster, her hands sinking into a strange, gloopy substance as she settled into one of the crooks. Reluctantly, Loras followed with Nox, who had shifted back into human form.
With all of them seated, Monster rippled silently across the snows, unaffected by the bumps or the depths. Nox gasped behind her as Monster stretched its form again, flowing down the chasm wall with all of them on board, before reaching the bottom and flowing back up the other side, stopping just before reaching the surface.
“We’re gonna chasm surf to avoid detection.” She smiled at their dumbfounded expressions.
“Why didn’t you just do this earlier, instead of forcing me to run all the way to the bridge?” Nox glared accusingly at her.
“I prefer to avoid using my magic when possible. I get massive headaches summoning this thing.” They rippled along the wall, and Loras gradually calmed down, observing his unconscious companions, and noting the minimal disturbance they got.
“This is impressive.”
Yes. My darkness is rather impressive. The empathy filtered back into Echo, and she winked at them. “Your friends will be fine. We have good carers in the underbelly.”
“Did you collect anyone else?”
“One was dead. I know not his name. And Faith thinks one called Mordyn is deceased as well. She said that he was draped across her undead mount before the avalanche took place.
Nox smacked his lips. “Well, you can figure out it’s Nethen. You guys are the only survivors left.”
Loras sighed, scratching at his dark, shaggy beard. “I thought as much.”
“The more I associate with you,” Nox said, now addressing Echo, “the more impressive you seem. But I smell something off about you as well. Like with Erlandur.”
“It’s the corruption you’re smelling,” Echo offered, a faint sliver of fear tingeing through.
Nox appeared doubtful, but he conceded the point. “I don’t know enough, to be fair.”
Thank the moon for that. She didn’t want to downgrade in front of his eyes. She wanted to be elevated, and important. Her mind drifted to other places. What would Nox be like, without all those robes on? Werewolves were supposed to be aggressive. Would he take her, stifle her protests, as he ripped off her clothes and punched through all her barriers?
A dark smile lingered about her lips. All she needed to do was to find a way to get Nox to agree to the idea. To experiment.
They chasm surfed with ease, Echo explaining as best as she could to Loras about the underbelly, and a little of life in the Fractured City, which seemed to boggle the werewolf’s mind. So few people truly knew what went on there. Her casual drop of the Supremes working for them as well caused him to choke on his own tongue for a moment.
A glint of metal in the chasm caused Echo to pause their ride and venture deeper into the gloom. Monster’s form teased around it, and Echo identified it as piping, possibly sewage piping from the Fractured City.
But this far out? Suspicion mounted. She made a mental note to come back here to inspect it. Nox and Loras didn’t understand her change of direction, but didn’t question it, when she urged Monster back into the chasm wall again.
The headache pounded her skull, growing worse and worse with each passing second. It took a lot of energy to maintain Monster. She began tapping into her reserves, draining out of the bracelets and crescent necklace she wielded, to boost them the last league or so before reaching the town.
Back at headquarters, she dismounted along with Loras and Nox, and let Monster trundle the rest of the distance into the med-bay, where it carefully laid the unconscious werewolves on two empty beds.
Faith slumbered in her bed, and didn’t stir awake in their silent intrusion.
“You should rest too,” Echo offered. “I’ll get the medics along. And our local friendly Supreme, so you don’t freak out if you see her passing in the corridor.”
Loras twitched his nose in annoyance, but kept his manners as Echo brought three medics and Helena, who warmly greeted them.
Helena, though, didn’t know warmth. Not really. Like all Supremes she knew no true emotion, but years of experience had taught her to emulate them.
“Once you’re recovered, we’ll send you back, with Echo, I think. She’ll provide ample protection for you all, and we need a representative from the resistance to explain what’s happening to your friends in the Spine.”
Loras nodded, but stared at Helena in hateful suspicion. “I’m not used to seeing one of you not attacking.”
“To be fair, there’s only four of us. It’s a long story. There used to be more. But let’s just say it’s not easy organizing a coup underneath the Fractured City’s nose.”
“I don’t understand your motivations. If we’re killing your kind, what do you get out of it?”
Helena folded her arms, her brilliant white hair glinting in the firelight. “I’ll explain later. Rest for now, werewolf. We’ve a lot of work to do later.”
Loras sighed and settled into the bed, where a human medic with black veins examined him, scowling at the bruises upon his skin.
“Laters,” Echo said, yawning. She stretched, before heading off to her sleeping quarters.
It was only when she’d opened the door and walked in, when she realized Nox had followed her all the way. A thrill of excitement and anticipation caused her to grin. She feigned indifference though, and said, “I can show you to your quarter if you want.”
Nox raised one eyebrow. “I’d prefer this one.”
Oh. It’s like that, is it? “Come in, then. And close the door. I get cold easily.”
Nox did as bid, and Echo again examined the rugged contours of his face, the thin black stubble over his cheeks and chin, and a tiny flare of arousal stirred in her guts.
“Okay, first off, I just want to say thanks. You helped rescue my companions, and brought them back here without detection or harming them further. Nox settled down on one of her wooden chairs, ne
ver taking his eyes off her. “How big can you make that thing grow?”
Echo tapped her fingers on the rock wall behind her, just to have something to do, to conceal her growing excitement. “Depends how long I go without casting Monster for. But I could, I think, make Monster big enough to carry a lot more than just five people. I’ve never tried any larger before.”
“Is that all it does? Carry?”
“Monster does whatever I want it to. I’ve used it to attack before. I’ve also used it to run away. Just depends on what’s needed.”
If you knew the darkness that resided inside me, Nox. If you knew I’m a product of the very thing you fight against. A Shadow soul in a shell of a body, the human soul devoured without mercy. Would you be so intrigued in me, then?
She wasn’t destined for love. To have a relationship. Shadows didn’t love. Shadows hungered.
However, Nox was unaware of this. He got up suddenly and advanced forward, an evil smirk upon his face, eyes intent. “Dangerous, aren’t you?”
Within a second, he’d pinned Echo against the wall, and she tilted her head to face him, heart beating faster, thrill igniting her insides.
“I could kill you in the blink of an eye,” Echo said, her lips curling savagely.
“Me, too,” Nox said, allowing his teeth to run along her neck. She shivered at the touch. “I wonder if you’re as dangerous in bed as you are in the flesh?”
“Give me everything you got,” Echo hissed back, now digging her hands into his robes. “And don’t you dare hold back.”
Nox growled, yellow eyes flashing, and he crushed his weight against her, sucking hard at her neck. He rapidly pinned her arms back and pushed his knee into her crotch, limiting her chance to move. She moaned in pain and pleasure as he bit at her ear, squeezed her wrists hard, pushing his hip into her, so she could feel his erection growing. He didn’t stop, and when Echo struggled against his grasp, he merely pinned onto her harder.