by Angela Foxxe
“What do you want?” The woman shouted up to them.
“I want my family freed,” Tasha shouted. “You free them and when they call me and I know that they’re safe, then you can attack.”
“That’s not in our best interest,” the woman shouted back up.
Tasha raised her rifle and sighted it in on the woman. “Now it is,” Tasha informed her.
The woman looked deathly pale. There was a possibility that there were people out there with rifles, taking aim at her, but Tasha didn’t put much stock in it.
From everything that Dane had said, the Clans were about honor and pride. They were here to fight with tooth, claw, and beak. They were here to fight in the old ways, with honor. Tasha was the only one here with a gun.
“How do you want this to go down?” the woman asked.
“You give the order to have them released,” Tasha shouted down to her. “The moment they’re in the car driving, they’re to call me. Once I hear their voices and they’re not being followed, you are free to go join the others.”
“What’s stopping us from killing them after we’ve killed you?” the woman asked.
“What makes you think you’re going to kill us?” Tasha asked boldly.
The woman smiled on the other end of the scope.
Within half an hour, Tasha felt her phone vibrating. She held the phone up to her ear, bracing the gun on the railing of the balcony and looking down the sight at the woman who was still standing there patiently. “Dad?” Tasha asked him.
“Tasha, what’s happening?” Her father shouted on the other end of the phone.
“Are you safe? Is there anyone with you?” She asked. “Dad, tell me the truth.”
“No, we’re alone,” her father said. “Tasha, I’m not going to ask again.”
“Dad, drive until there’s nowhere else to drive,” Tasha ordered him. “Get a gun and if anyone you don’t know comes up to you, shoot them. I love you.”
She hung up the phone.
“Okay,” Tasha shouted down to the woman. “We’re good.”
“So are you going to surrender now?” The woman asked cheekily.
“No,” Tasha said.
“I thought not,” the woman shook her head. “You know we’re going to rip your baby’s---” Tasha sent the second bullet she had through the woman’s chest, ripping apart her heart with the power of physics and engineering. The woman buckled and toppled backwards, landing only feet away from the last person that had threatened Addy’s life.
Tasha looked at the tree line with her scope and started firing at anything that looked like a person.
Truthfully, she couldn’t see a thing, but she intended to send bullets in every direction that she could. She wanted them to hide for a moment longer while Dane took her phone and dialed the police. She couldn’t hear him reporting the incident over the bursts of bullets flying toward the trees, but she could tell that the message was getting through. The police hearing bullets was enough to draw them.
She’d already called her grandfather this morning and drawing the police to the cabin was the last part of the plan. She had thought about calling them last night and trying to explain what was happening to them, but she knew that seeing was believing.
They just had to survive long enough for the police to show up and witness the attack.
Not only would the cops open fire on anyone they saw attacking the cabin, but the shifters would be adamant about fleeing to prevent human casualties. The worst thing they could do was draw attention to them and if the law enforcement saw them and got record of them, there was no hiding or covering up that, not in the midst of a huge gang war among the clans.
They were going to take advantage of the chaos.
Tasha dropped her first rifle and picked up the next hunting rifle, waiting for there to be another figure appearing from the tree line.
“They’re coming up from the east,” Dane said, pointing.
Tasha swung her rifle and saw the man’s head rising above the crest. He was wearing a beanie and sunglasses, but he saw Tasha too late. She fired, the bullet hitting him in the face and throwing him back down the rocky bluff. She looked to the west and saw that there were two coming up. She spun and fired, missing both of them, but sending them into hiding below the crest.
Her eyes searched the north and she suspected that the south was probably overrun by attackers at this point. They were all probably being rerouted to the south so that they could attack them blindly.
“I’m heading inside,” Tasha told Dane.
She looked at him and as he prepared to hold them off as long as possible, she grabbed his arm and looked him in the eye. “I love you,” she said to him. She made sure that he understood that. Whatever came next, she was certain that they weren’t going to survive it, but she wanted to make sure that he knew she was madly in love with him before he died. Despite everything that had happened, she knew that he was a good man and that he wasn’t like the others. He was a man that she could trust and that she was happy to risk her life with.
He leaned in and kissed her and she was glad that they kissed, but, she knew that now was not the time and gave him a shove backwards. “You can kiss me if you survive this,” she told him and headed back into the cabin.
She locked the door behind her and dropped the hunting rifle. She picked up one of her grandfather’s shotguns and switched the safety off. She looked at the glass, expecting something to come flying through them at any moment.
Beyond the balcony, she could see several figures emerging from the safety of the trees and rising up the slope. Dane, standing on the balcony, threw himself over the railing and vanished. Soaring through the air moments later was an enormous creature that was unlike anything that Tasha had ever seen before. Golden wings stretched out and covered the earth below in shadow. The dragon was long and beautiful, impossibly beautiful in fact.
It was something that shouldn’t exist, but she watched as Dane opened his jaws and bellowed fire below and before the seven coming up the hill could transform, they were engulfed in blue flame, completely consumed by ravenous fire.
She felt something in her heart pounding closer and closer to hope. Maybe they could survive this. Maybe they would be able to make it through this.
Dane was the kind of creature that you hear about in fairy tales or that you would see in movies, but he was far more beautiful to behold in real life. His body was covered in glittering scales and red barbs stuck out along his spine and from his head like glittering horns. His belly and wings were as white as ivory, but they cast the darkest shadow. She watched him land amidst the flames, his eyes searching the trees for any other attacker that might be hiding. When he was satisfied that he was alone, he threw back his head and unleashed a roar that she could hear in the depths of the cabin.
Everything around her vibrated and glasses rattled in the kitchen. It was a powerful noise that shook her to her very core. It was the kind of sound that one could never forget.
Behind her, on the far side of the cabin, she could hear the sound of shattering glass. They were trying to get in from the north. She knew that everything was barricaded well enough that they were going to have a hell of a time trying to get in the cabin. She moved to investigate, holding her shotgun down to face the floor as she walked, making sure that she didn’t make a sound. She could see one of them gripping the timbers of one of the boards, struggling and pushing against it in vain, hoping to get it out.
He couldn’t see what he was doing or that Tasha was approaching him. When she was close enough, she reached to her hip where her grandfather’s knife was sheathed.
Silently withdrawing it, she pulled the knife free and swung it down with all of her strength, sinking it into the man’s hand, pushing through to the pine plank beneath it. The man screamed at the top of his lungs, his other hand blindly reaching for it. She watched as his left hand groped for the handle of the blade and when it was getting close, she held up the butt of he
r shotgun and slammed it down on the man’s hand, feeling the crunch of tiny bones breaking vibrating through the stock of the gun.
It was a sickening feeling, but she brought it down again and again on the hand until he withdrew it, shattered and broken beyond recognition. She watched in horror as the hand that was pinned to the board of pine began to change. It began to darken like the color of ash and soot before thick, black hair started to sprout all across the hand like some kind of sick, savage creature.
She looked at it and watched the man’s nails pop off and long, black claws stretched out, clawing at the board. The man was turning into a wolf. The sight of it was horrifying and she began to realize what it was that she was dealing with. They weren’t legend. They were true and she was dealing with them. The creature on the other side of the window was whimpering and howling in agony.
There was a spurt of blood across the planks, shooting through the gap and hitting Tasha’s arm. She could hear shrieking and whimpering in pain. She realized that whatever was on the other side of the window, it was gnawing off its arm.
It was pinned and it didn’t want to die. It didn’t want to get shot like a fish in a barrel. She listened to the sound of splintering bone and the creature’s arm shattered with the repulsive sounds of rendering flesh and skin. Howling and shrieking, the creature thumped on the planks of the wrap around balcony, writhing and screaming in agony.
From the shadows across the plank, she could tell that there were others. There were a lot more and they were focusing on the house. To the south, they were trying to keep Dane distracted while the rest hunted for a way into the house. That was fine. Tasha was ready for whatever they could throw at her. She took a deep breath and walked back from the window and the sounds of the thrashing beast were starting to slow.
It was bleeding out.
Good.
It wouldn’t be the last.
Chapter 9
She returned to the staircase, knowing that she would eventually have to retreat down into the basement and then to the doorway to the bunker. She would make it look like she was trying to get to the bunker to ride all of this out and if they got to her, then she would die without them ever knowing what happened to the baby.
In the living room, she grabbed her phone and tossed it onto the floor. Pointing the shotgun at it, she squeezed the trigger. The cellphone exploded into a thousand little tiny pieces and a bunch of dust that eventually constituted the last shred of evidence that would point them in the direction of Addy or who would have her.
They wouldn’t be able to track the fact that she had called her grandfather and that he was going to be the one who was coming back to find her. As far as they knew, this was the last stand. This was the last point in the fight. It was Tasha’s Bunker Hill.
Upstairs there was another sound of shattering glass, but it sounded like it was coming from the third story. It wouldn’t take long for them to realize that the staircase was jammed hopelessly and that there was no way they were getting down to the second story. The sound of shattering glass was a lot closer, but it was still above her.
She looked up at the ceiling and knew that they were on the second story. She made her way to the staircase leading upstairs and knew that they were going to find a bunch of furniture jammed into the passage, blocking them from being able to reach their target. The good thing was that there was still enough room for her to get off a good shot or two at whoever it was that was trying to come through.
Checking the southern wall covered in glass, she could no longer see what Dane was doing or if there was even anything happening. She could only tell by the roars and the occasional scream from one of his victims that Dane was out there. More importantly, there was no one trying to get through the glass, which meant that her back was covered. There was no other way for them to get to her and as she approached the stairs, she gave it her full attention.
She moved toward it with a steady caution, not willing to give away anything to her enemies. She wanted them to think that they were getting the jump on her, but when they realized that they weren’t, she would put buckshot in their faces.
There was no way that any of them were going to touch her baby.
The great thing about shotguns that Tasha liked was the fact that it didn’t take an expert to do a lot of damage with them. As far as she was concerned, a shotgun was the kind of weapon that just needed you to point in the general direction and aim, especially this close to them. She intended to put her theory to the test and as she heard footsteps trying to cautiously move toward the stairwell, and she heard snarling and hissing as they tried to move the furniture. Dressers and tables were jammed in tightly. She was happy with how well the stairwell was blocked and even if they turned into bears and tried to ram through, they weren’t going to succeed.
She could see something with a plume of thick, brown feathers, larger than anything she had ever seen before. There was a clicking and something that sounded awfully close to pecking. The sound of it annoyed her and she wondered if someone could actually turn into a bird.
Taking the steps carefully, she could see a scaly looking foot with dark talons planted in one of the narrow openings. Its claws were long enough that if it could hook her, it would rip her open and spill everything that shouldn’t be outside of her. The thought of it sent a shiver down her spine. Lowering the barrel of the shotgun, she pointed it at the foot and didn’t waste any time. She pulled the trigger. Wood splintered and carpet flew up in a dusty cloud, but more importantly, there was a screech that rose up that Tasha would never forget.
The sound was hideous and terrifying at the same time. It was the kind of sound that made her want to run away in terror, but her resolve was stronger. She could see something hairy snarling and ramming the jammed furniture, knocking drawers loose and rattling handles, but that was it. It clawed and scratched as the creature continued to screech. Tasha fired again at the dark mass, but she missed and it had gotten the attention of the creature. It paused and froze for a moment, like it was thinking of what it would do next.
There were more footsteps above her and she knew that those who had tried to get in through the third story were now trying to get in through the second story as well, only to find the same problem. It was only a matter of time before they started to come down and try for the wall of windows. Tasha listened to the screeching, screaming bird creature on the other side of the furniture mass. After a second, there was a frantic flailing and suddenly silence. The black, hairy shadow had killed it. She knew it.
Regardless of whether it had been a mercy kill or not, the creatures above her seemed to take it in a multitude of different ways. It sounded like there was a war happening upstairs and from all the thumping and thrashing, it sounded like they were all attacking one another, turning on their comrades and trying their hardest to kill everything around them.
There was screaming, howling, shrieking, screeching, and banging all across the second story. Tasha traced the loudest of the movements with her shotgun, waiting for one of the monsters to come crashing through the ceiling. Thankfully, nothing like that happened, but there was a fair amount of panicking as the creatures seemed to evacuate the entire second story of the cabin and head for the tree line.
There was a bellowing roar and she knew that Dane would have a fun time mopping them up and chasing them down. From the sounds of everything, he was already done with whatever distractions they had sent his way. All that was left now was for him stop others from getting into the house and to kill anything that she was able to drive free from the house.
Keeping her rifle ready, Tasha listened to the sounds of footsteps on the walkway that wrapped round the entire cabin. They were coming from all sides. They were being funneled finally to the windows and the one door that wasn’t barricaded. This was where she was going to make her stand and she had a good feeling about it. It wouldn’t be long until the police were here and they would be able to help out in any way that they could.
Her strategic retreat would even buy Dane some time to get away and transform back into a human. She wanted to feel hope, but she knew that there was still a lot of time before any of this was final. Besides, what if the monsters decided that it was worth their time to kill a few police officers if it meant killing Dane and Tasha? What if there weren’t enough police officers or the officers turned out to be terrified and unable to respond? There were just too many possibilities for her to hope in anyone other than herself.
That was fine. She wasn’t afraid to die for Addy.
Sure, she wanted to stay alive and she wanted to spend the rest of her life raising her and teaching her everything that she knew and giving her the best that she could possibly offer to the child that she loved more than herself, but there was more at work here than that. There were forces that were willing to do horrible things to Addy and if Tasha could give her life to protect her daughter, then Tasha was going to do just that.
The first of the creatures rounded the corners and she saw that it wasn’t like the wolf man. This one looked like a great horned ram from the Rocky Mountains, but it was half a man. It stood there, white and shaggy, stained with blood and staring at the windowed wall.
Walking on two hooved legs, it stared at the glass and Tasha had a bad feeling about this. They were supposed to be funneled in through the door. She hadn’t expected something like this. The creature’s black eyes searched the glass before it let out a bellow and with all of its strength, it threw itself at the glass. There was a loud bang and a rattle that vibrated through the glass, but the creature toppled to the deck and all that was left was a crack in the glass that webbed out from the impact.
It must have hit that with more strength than a hammer. The thought of what it could do to Tasha made her sick to the stomach. There was another of the ram creatures and it charged the glass and slammed into it again, causing its own web of fractures. There were dark masses of hair and claws, their eyes black and glistening. Wolves.