by Arizona Tape
“They came for us,” my best friend hissed between her teeth, her face hard with anger. I knew she blamed herself just as much for the whole war as I did. But I knew that Chesca would’ve managed to turn anyone against us. The Lowetts were just an easy target.
The young man in front of me ran his hand through his hair and sighed heavily. “So you all ran and they just keep following you, burning town after town as they go.”
“Pretty much, yes.”
“Fucking hell,” he grimaced, his hands trembling slightly. Interesting. I wondered what affected him so much.
“Why is my father not doing anything?”
“King Damara? He can’t... Not without consulting the Wolf Clans. And he can’t consult the Wolf clans because... Well, Regan’s parents are in hiding, mine are dead, Danny’s are pretending everything is peachy, and we’re sitting here in this rotten barn eating Aspen’s terrible excuse for a stew,” Ash ranted, surprising us all. She was usually so polite and well mannered, but every once in a while, she became far too honest and said all the things nobody dared say.
“Yes... That’s about it.”
“Wow...” Darren whispered, softly patting the back of his own head. “That’s crazy.”
“Yup, that’s how we got here. Anyone want more stew?” Aspen asked, holding up the kettle with what could only be described as murky bathwater.
“No!” we all yelled in unison, scrambling for excuses as we patted our stomachs and pretended to be full.
“Fine... More for me then,” he huffed, the leftover stew splattering in his plate looking like it had already been eaten. “So, you heard all our stories. What about you, Daisy?” Aspen casually inquired, ignoring the angry glare he got from Darren.
“Well...”
Chapter Eleven - Fire
A loud shriek from outside interrupted Darren and pulled us out of our conversation. Hastily, we all jumped up and ran outside to see what was going on.
“Fire!”
Thick, dark clouds of smoke ominously wafted up from the little town. The sky was painted red as flames danced on the roofs, casting long shadows over the town. Familiar shrieks of panic and terror filled the night. I had heard this before. Hell, I dreamt about it every night. No matter how different the towns we visited were, panic always sounded the same.
“The town is on fire,” Regan concluded, quite unnecessarily. That much was obvious.
“H-How did they get here so s-soon?” JP muttered, beads of sweat appearing on his face.
Aspen grabbed Darren by his collar and yanked him towards him. “Did you bring them here?” he hissed, his knuckles turning white as his eyes flashed dark. Oh no, that was never a good sign. Aspen’s temper was not something to be messed with. Especially not if it awoke his Alpha. I quickly stepped between the two men and pushed Darren behind me.
“Stop it, Aspen. It wasn’t him.”
“How’re you so sure?” he growled, his eyes flickering from light to dark. He was clearly struggling to keep himself in check. I placed a soft hand on his arm, hoping it would calm him down. We couldn’t deal with the town going up in flames and Aspen’s Alpha ripping loose. It would be catastrophic.
“Trust me, Aspen...” I begged, hoping that he would come to his senses and reigned his rage in. “Don’t go there. Not now. You need to take care of Ash.”
At the mention of his sister, his eyes turned back to their usual golden hue and he released Darren from his grip.
“Sorry, man,” he apologised, dusting off our newest companion.
“No sweat.” Darren graciously waved away the incident and turned towards the town. “That’s a lot of smoke... And I can hear a ton of horses coming our way. What now?”
“We run,” I said, turning on my heels to grab our belongings from inside the barn. We needed to hurry, there wasn’t much time left before they would reach us.
Darren jogged behind me. “You can’t outrun horses?”
“We’ve done it before!”
“It’s madness. Run where?”
Aspen caught up with us, already throwing as much stuff as he could back in his backpack. Luckily, we travelled light and never unpacked too many things. We knew things like this could happen at any given time.
“Yes, run where?” he asked, stowing away as much of our produce as he could.
JP stomped out the small fire in the hearth as Regan heaved his large backpack on his shoulders. Aspen gathered all the throwing stars from the wall and the ground, while Darren hesitantly grabbed the pan from the fire.
I did a quick headcount and ran back outside, tugging on Ash’s arm. My best friend was frozen to the spot, her hands trembling as she stared at the scene unfolding in front of our eyes. Her face white as a sheet and her eyes the size of saucers. I placed my hand on her shoulder, making her jump up in fright. “Ash? You here with me?” I gently asked, knowing that big fires always triggered those memories. The fact that we were followed by pyromaniac bastards was quite unfortunate.
Aspen followed me outside and gently patted Ash on her face, trying to bring her back from her memories. “We’re not kids anymore. This is different,” he firmly spoke, but I could hear the tremble in his own voice. They were both terrified. And for good reason.
“We need to go, right now,” Aspen yelled, his tone changing just a tad as his Alpha emerged. That snapped Ash out of her haze and her eyes cleared up.
“Yes, yes, we do...” she stammered, slapping her own face as she slowly regained colour on her cheeks. “We got to move...”
“Exactly. Here, Aspen grabbed your stuff. Now let’s run!”
The rest of the boys joined us outside. Regan curtly nodded and JP gave me a thumbs up to signal that we were all clear and ready to go.
“Let’s go!” Aspen yelled as he pointed ahead, giving us the starting shot. With our satchels bobbing up and down on our backs, we ran away from all the ruckus and thundering. Noticing that Darren wasn’t following, I turned around and waved.
“What are you still standing there for? Run, Darren!” I yelled, stalling as I encouraged the young man to move his ass. He hesitantly looked at the fumes rising up from the town and then seemed to make up his mind as he jogged towards me.
“We don’t have time to waste,” I scolded him, not sure what he was waiting for. Maybe he did send the troops on us.
“Wasn’t sure if I wanted to get caught up in your crazy!” Darren shouted, winking at me as I hit his arm.
“Oi! This is your war too!”
“It is now, apparently!” he grinned, a twinkle dancing in his eyes as he ran alongside me. Secretly, I was glad that Darren was joining us. I liked his company and his boyish charm. It was like a fresh breeze. He was like a fresh breeze.
I stomped him again and shook my head. Even though we were running for our lives, he seemed carefree and unworried. Like nothing could touch him. He seemed different from the man I met this morning. The man with dead eyes and a hollow stare. No, apparently being chased by madmen made Darren look alive. And I had to admit, it looked good on him.
“Just shut up and run!” I deflected him, pulling my backpack harder against my shoulders as I tried to catch up with the rest of the group.
Out of nowhere, a massive black horse suddenly blocked our path and startled, Darren and I jumped back.
“Danny!” Ash shouted as more horsemen appeared from behind the hills and closed us in.
“Run! Get out” I shouted at the rest of my friends, praying they’d get out of here instead of coming back to play the hero. Too late. Regan already dropped his satchel and came storming towards us, his wolf raging in his chest. Silly man. Why was he so devoted to me? But then again, I would’ve done the same for him. For any of them.
I yelled out a string of curse words at the rider and with a power nobody would expect, my mate yanked the distracted rider from his saddle. With a nauseating crash, he slammed the man into the ground. One down. At least, five, six, seven more to go. Damn, nine, ten, eleven.
And my little trick would only work once.
“For fuck’s sake, Regan, you should’ve run! Now we’re all in trouble!” I angrily yelled at my mate, who waved my concern away.
“Not leaving you behind. Ever,” he growled, grabbing the horse by the reigns as he swung himself up. With energy and almost enthusiasm, he drove the horse towards our incoming enemies, storming into the heart of battle.
“Fuck it,” I hissed, dropping my own satchel and unsheathing two small knives from on my back.
“Looks like we’re fighting,” Darren next to me smirked, his dagger ready in one hand and his other armed with a small star. I had seen his aim, he was good. With one swift motion, he pulled his arm back. The muscles rippling under his shirt as he put his weight behind the throw.
Fifteen meters ahead, another rider fell from his horse. Bull’s-eye. Damn, the kid was really good.
I readied myself as the rest of my family joined me.
“This is madness!” Aspen screamed, but I could see small lights dancing in his golden eyes. Whereas her memories petrified Ash, they fueled Aspen and his rage. If he could, he’d take them down all by himself.
But the five, well, counting in Darren, six of us against ten riders was not a joke. They easily had us outnumbered and were at a serious advantage up on their horses. It would take a tough fight to get out of this one, granted that no more showed up. This was probably just a search party that got lucky.
With a loud battle cry, Aspen followed Regan as he dove straight towards the first horse. Right before impact, he conjured a knife from his sleeve and made a deep gash in the horse’s leg. With a thud, the large body hit the ground as the rider tumbled from its saddle. I grimaced. This one was mine.
I sprinted towards the fallen man and before he could get up, I danced around him in a whirl of red as I slashed his throat. With blood spouting out of his neck, he fell down next to his horse. Only ten more to go.
“Watch out!” I twirled around and barely had enough time to dodge a flickering blade. “Fuck!” I shouted as his sword sliced through my arm, barely missing my neck. I reached for my shoulder and winced as my fingers found a deep slash with hot blood gushing out of it. “Mother of shits!”
Thank the gods it was only my right arm. Luckily, most people assumed I was right handed and aimed for that side. I brought up my right arm in mock defence as I hid my left hand behind my back. Searing hot pain shot through my nerves as the gash was apparently deeper than I anticipated. The rider turned around and with a nasty smile on his face, he galloped back at me.
I hid my grin behind my red hair as I pretended to be much more vulnerable and weak than I actually was. I hadn’t met a man so far who wasn’t fooled by my slender frame and pretty face. Thinking he already had me, he aimed for my right side. At the last moment, I mimicked Aspen and twirled to the left, slashing his horse with the blade I had hidden behind my back.
The beast staggered and with it, threw his rider from his saddle. With an angry scream, the ugly map fell into the dirt. He threw me one last nasty look before JP jumped on his back and sank his knife through his throat. Nine more to go.
I pressed my hand against my wounded arm as I could feel the pain vibrate through my body. Fuck, that hurted like a bitch.
Behind me, Ash and Aspen had somehow both gotten up on horses and had joined Regan in running through our enemies and getting in a couple of slashes. That was only seven more to go. With some luck, we could actually do this. I turned to check up on Darren and found him missing from his spot. Had he run? That coward!
Not even sure why I felt so betrayed by him leaving since we only met him this morning but revelling in the rage and pain, I ducked out of another incoming sword and stabbed my knife in his leather boot. He screamed out in agony and with the blade still sticking out from his foot, he rode another ten meters before he fell down.
None of those men seemed to be great riders. At least we had that luck. I sprinted towards the fallen rider, cursing that I got wounded so early on. Blood kept gushing out of the wound and pressing my hand on it left me defenceless. But with every movement, the wound tore back open. I needed to bandage myself or I’d soon faint from the loss of blood.
Not fast enough, the man had scrambled up from the dirt and was swinging his sword above his head. I stared at the measly dagger in my hand and cursed that we didn’t travel with better weaponry. But if we did, we’d attract too much attention to ourselves. I twirled my knife between my fingers and readied myself for the strain on my arm if I had to parry his heavy sword with my teensy blade. Why did we not carry better weapons again?
With a loud cry, he stormed towards me and I only prayed that I would be able to block his attack. As strong and fast as I was, I was no match against brute power. A glint caught my eye and before I knew it, the bull of man hit the ground with such force I could only imagine how painful it would’ve been if he impacted with me. A small star protruding from his neck and I caught a shadow moving in the shrubbery. So Darren hadn’t run after all. Seemed like he was doing what he did best. Redistributing.
That was one more down. How many to go? Five? I quickly did a headcount for the horses that were still with rider and only counted three more sitting in their saddle. Two more. I just watched Regan swing a sword he must’ve stolen from one of the dead guys through another man’s chest. With a gurgle, he dropped from his horse into the dust. His horse, not caring that he lost his rider, just thundered straight ahead. This was my chance to get up on the saddle. I bounced up and down on the balls of my feet, reading myself for a jump. The horse galloped next to me and I reached for his reigns, trying to swing my foot into the stir-up. My sudden appearance spooked the animal and with a jut, he jumped out of the way, making me fall flat on my face.
Damn it!
Pain shot through my body as I landed on my bad arm and I screamed in frustration. Stupid arm and stupid fucking horse.
Just in time, I rolled out of the way as another rider galloped over me and I narrowly avoided his hoofs slamming into the ground. Fuck me, that was way too close. With my hand pressed against my open wound, I crawled up from the mud and cursed as I felt the edges of my skin curling up. My legs trembled as I stood up, exhausting crashing likes waves through me. My body felt heavy. Everything about me felt heavy. The pain was numbing, but everything of me was numbing. My head was growing fuzzy and my vision blurry. How much blood had I lost again?
How many more attackers? Was everyone still safe? I felt for my wolf and asked her to find Regan’s, just for a little encouragement or a surge of energy. I knew it wasn’t fair to distract him, but I needed to feel him. Just to know he was doing okay.
My body vibrated warmly as my wolf returned with Regan’s and I happily let them crash into my chest. The scent of oak hit my nose and I could feel our bond and his magic flow through me. Greedily, I revelled in his power, loving how it enveloped me like a good embrace. I could already feel the wound on my arm starting to heal from the overload of magic surging through my veins. And then suddenly something else hit me.
Black. Dark. Vile. Tainted.
My eyes flew open just as I could see Regan fall from his horse. No!
Chapter Twelve - Shift
A bone-chilling shriek reverberated through the cold night. Oh no. I doubled over and sank to my knees, clutching myself as ice coursed through my veins and fire danced over my skin. A pain like thousands of needles stabbing me all at once shot through my nerves and the nauseating telltale signs of joints popping made my stomach turn. Not now!
My eyes shot open and as I watched Regan lying still on the cold ground, I knew there was no use fighting it. My wolf was coming out, whether I wanted her or not.
My limbs twisted, my skin slit open and with a howl, my wolf burst out. With a vigour and strength that my human form lacked, I rushed towards my mate. The first horse that blocked our path threw his rider off as I sank my sharp teeth in his leg. The taste of blood metallic and sour on my tongue, but I didn
’t care. All I cared about was Regan.
With a nudge, I pressed my wet nose against him and silently begged for him to get up. Defending him if he was out cold would be so much harder. I snarled as another horse approached us and howled to spook the beast. He bucked but his rider skillfully moved with his animal and swung a spear at me. I jumped out of the way and narrowly avoided another cut. Luckily, shifting meant that the wound on my arm healed and I could draw strength from my bond, even if he was unconscious.
I nudged him again, praying he’d get up. Come on, Regan! I need you.
My long tongue lapped his face and in relief, his eyes fluttered open. Thank the spirits.
“Danny?” he groaned, slowly coming by. The heavy rock lifted from my heart and I happily rubbed my head against Regan’s. Hey, in my wolf form, that was as close as I could come to a cuddle.
“You shouldn’t be a wolf,” Regan muttered, grunting as he pushed himself up from the ground. He swayed a little as he regained his footing and patted me on the head. A low rumble escaped from my chest and I pressed myself against his legs. Good mate getting back up.
He stretched his neck and tested his shoulders, wincing as his muscles cramped. I gently nudged against his legs and he smiled, knowing exactly what I meant. He grimaced and ran his hand through my fur. For a big man with rough manners and a cold stare, he was always surprisingly tender and soft when it came to me. It just made me melt. But this was not the time nor the place for romance. I quickly checked the battlefield and noticed that both Aspen and Ash had drawn the last man from the horse. Quickly, they double-teamed him and before I knew it, he hit the ground. That sort of efficiency only came from years and years of fighting together.
A chill ran over my spine and just in time, I spun around. From the bushes, a stray man came running out in a desperate attempt to kill one of us. I clacked my tongue in dismissal and lunged toward him, knocking him down in one clean sweep. That poor sod. He shouldn’t underestimate me. I clamped my jaw around his neck and with all the anger and strength I had left, ripped out his windpipe. An eerie silence befell on us as the screaming in the village had died out and the flames had been extinguished. It had all been a ploy to smoke us out. Literally.