A massive blow came to his back as he knelt down. The burning came again, but this time it unfurled between his shoulder blades. It was enough to make him stand back straight.
Felicia watched the blow to her friend. She needed to attack. She jumped on his back. She dug her fingernails into the soft spot between the dead center of his shoulder blades.
He roared a yelping sadness as the pain rolled through him like a shot of lightning. It felt like glass slicing flesh. It felt like a rake digging through him, and it wasn’t alone.
Another pain came, and then another and then another, as she sent wave after wave of clawed blows into his flesh.
He flailed up. He flailed back. He moved to his right and then to his left. His arms waved wildly behind him as he tried to find her. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t reach her limbs. He couldn’t find a place to grab her. He knew that he had to and soon. She was doing damage. She was gorging his flesh. She was digging a hole through his very body, and if he didn’t stop her, she might do worse than that.
25
Brandon watched Jimmy’s conversation. That’s when he heard the screams and roars come from behind him. He turned and watched Sasha turn into her wolf and attacked.
I’ve got to help her. He decided quickly bringing himself down closer to the roof. He intended to jump. He intended to pounce, but he couldn’t. Just as his left hand took the peak of the roof into it, a bellowing hollowness came out of the sky from above him. Before he had the chance to look at what it was, something banged hard to the top of his head and sent it back down. A huge weight carried from there and it pushed him forward causing him to crash hard to the side of the roof.
He rolled. He continued until he was now in the small crack in between the roof and the top of the porch. From there he rolled over some until he was lying flat on his back. He was now looking up.
The bat face is what he saw first. The feeling of a deep burning heat he felt next across both of his arms. It seemed that his arms were now pinned down. His elbows were locked to the roof. The pain came from his biceps. Luckily, his hands came up as he went down and it was just enough to keep the bat face, with all of its teeth in a very elongated mouth, from coming down to his own face.
“What the fuck!” He looked into its beady red eyes. He could see the nose just above the mouth pushed up with large oval nostrils blaring down at his eyes. Its face looked pure white. It had no hair anywhere on it. It looked completely like a large round faced vampire bat, drooling down over him. If it weren’t for the pain, he would have been purely shocked by seeing it so close.
Turning his head slightly towards the left, he could just barely see that it had two long fingers just over the large knuckle of a bent in wing. They were holding his arms down to the roof. Struggling, his hands under its chin, he could barely hold its neck. He could feel what felt like toes on top of his legs, squirming over him. They felt like worms or large snakes crawling over his jeans. It felt beyond strange. It felt beyond weird. He had enough.
With everything he had, he pushed up. His arms came free as he felt the fingers pulled away from his shirt. With its neck still firmly in his hands he sat up, rolled over, and brought it down to its back. That’s when he heard it squealing a high-pitched bellow that sounded like rusty steel scraping along a chalkboard, gnawing at his mind.
“I’ve had enough of you!” With it pinned, he squeezed.
Its mouth blew loud. Its wings shook all around his sides. Its long narrow legs kicked up into his thighs, bouncing as he brought his hands up to the sides of its head. Ready, and with all that he had left, he turned.
A snapping bang followed the turn. It screamed a shriek that shook the roof. A large, almost forked looking tongue slid out through its top teeth. Drool slipped out through the sides of its mouth. Thankfully, it did stop moving. The kicking stopped. The wings fell to its side. It stopped breathing.
He sat up. “God! The things I do for friends.” He looked down and watched with a dumb sense of wonderment as the face of the thing grew into a pinkish brown. Hair began to flow out from the top of its head, and quite startling, so did it around the sides of its face. “What the hell?” He watched its eyes turn pale and then brown. Its nose slid back down and turned longer and more human looking. Its cheekbones slid low. He couldn’t believe what and who he saw. “It’s a dude?” He expected the woman that attacked him before. He didn’t like that thought. “There’s more of you things out there.” He leaned back and watched with a slight stunning amazement as the wings slid back into just normal looking fingers and the arms grew larger. Now instead of a bat lying there, it was a normal looking naked man.
Satisfied, he stood up. “Don’t mess with the cool people.” He looked back towards the back of the house.
He could hear Sasha again yelping in what sounded like true pain. He could hear her struggle. He could feel her agony.
“I’m coming baby.” He left the porch. He ran across the roof, reached the backside of the house, and looked down.
The three wolves were now lined up in front of her, and were formed into something that looked like an arc. To him, they looked like they were planning together. They looked ready to make their next move.
26
“Rachel, I need you to get to the wall. I need you to stand in the center of the hallway.” Robert stepped out in front of her towards the center of the room. He looked to the window and then to the front door. He expected that at any minute either would shatter. He could hear the fights going on outside. He could hear the growls and the roars coming from everywhere at once. The noises sounded worse than any two grizzlies fighting each other in a small and enclosed room. At any moment that fight could come inside, and if it did, he had to be ready for it.
Rachel did what he told her to do, and moved to a spot just under the doorway to the hallway. Once there, she took a deep breath. Her thoughts were for Jimmy. She could hear the struggle. She could hear the screams. She could hear the roars. She could only hope that he would be all right in the end.
Ross joined her there as well. “We don’t have to stay Doctor Garland. We don’t have to risk them like this.”
“I’m not leaving them. I’m not going to do that so stop trying to convince me of it.” She kept her eyes trained to the center of the room.
Just above all of them the sound of a large and echoing thud reverberated around the small house. It sounded almost like a large old oak tree had just hit the roof.
Ross jumped with the sounds. It made him look up. With it, he took a deep breath. “I don’t want to see him get injured my dear. I have a safe place to take you. If you stay here that just might happen. They’ll keep coming at him. They keep hurting him to get to you.”
Hearing that, she tried not to, but she did start to think about it. Is he right? If I stay, they will keep coming. They will keep fighting. If I run, and if they are after me, then they should follow me. They’ll leave the others alone. They’ll focus on me.
Ross could see her thoughts rolling behind her eyes. He could see that what he said was gaining in momentum within them. Feeing that he was right, he knew he had to keep going. He had to keep pushing her. “Like you, I don’t want to see him injured. You know I would do anything to get him to help me, so why would I want to see him do that. If you come with me, we’ll go for my car. We’ll get out of here, go to my safe place, and they’ll leave them alone. Why risk it? Why risk all of them? Why risk his life?”
She could hear another loud thumping sound come from above them. A second one followed it and that one came from the area of the front door. The second one she hated more than the first. It came from where Jimmy was. It came from his fight. She now began to panic. She couldn’t risk his life. She wouldn’t know what she would do if that happened. This was the first time she began to understand why both Jimmy and Robert did what they did. In that moment, she forgave both of them completely. It’s what they did for her. They risked themselves so she wouldn’t get hurt. Now, she
knew the feeling well. “Okay, where is this place?” She turned to Ross with a strange sense of calm overcoming her all at once. So much so, it made her worried some. It felt too sudden to seem real.
“It’s right in town. It’s not far from here.” He smiled. The fighting he didn’t like himself. He too felt worried. He too felt scared. Unlike Rachel, he felt it all for himself and himself alone. “We can get there quickly.”
She looked to Robert and smiled towards him. He wasn’t looking at her, so she turned back to Ross. “Where’s your car?” She asked with her eyes never once leaving the sight of her brother’s back. She finally loved him again. She loved him so very much.
“It’s down by the road.” He turned from her and to the man in the living room. “I don’t think he’ll let us leave.”
She nodded. “We’ll head out through the back bedrooms. The one I was in earlier has a window on the side of this place.” She turned.
Ross took her arm. He followed her to the first door on the right.
She pulled him inside the room, and closed the door behind them. She locked the doorknob and turned to the far wall.
He watched her run to the wall and to the only window in the room. He watched her then slide it up and open.
“Come on.” She gave him a wave just before she climbed out of the window with her legs going first.
He followed her quickly, listening to the sounds of a thousand animals seemingly fighting around the world. It sounded worse than ever, now that he was outside with them.
“Which way?” she asked when they were both standing on the side yard.
“This way.” He turned left away from the snarls and growls and headed straight to the trees.
She followed him into the shadows of those trees and together they disappeared into the night.
27
The sounds seemed horrific. They came from all sides of the house. Robert heard the crash on the roof. He heard a loud thud and a scream come from his left. He heard what sounded like someone running on the roof towards his right. It all sounded too much at once.
It’s only the matter of time before they get in. He turned to his right. A heavy hissing sound came from that direction.
He turned left. All of the snarls came from there.
He looked up finding nothing else coming from the roof.
He looked back to Rachel. “It shouldn’t be long. We just have to wait…” He stopped cold. She’s gone. What in the hell? “Rachel?”
He left the center of the room and moved into the hallway. He stopped just under the doorframe. “Rachel?” He called, and heard nothing come back.
He moved down the hallway, and came to the first down on the right. He tried the knob but it wouldn’t turn.
“Rachel?” He knocked. “I told you to stay in the hallway. The back is too dangerous. You have to stay out here with me.” He knocked again. Like the first time, no one answered. “Rachel?”
He tried the knob again, and again it wouldn’t turn.
Goddamn it! He closed his eyes. He let his mind go free and blank. He reached out for her. He looked through her eyes.
Suddenly, he could see trees. They looked almost like he was running around them. He could feel someone holding his right hand. Gracefully, he looked back and saw that Mister Ross guy running just behind him.
He opened his eyes. “That son of a bitch!”
He looked at the door. He felt it with his mind. He could feel the wood as he pictured the feeling of it in his hands. He could feel its coarseness. He could feel its strength.
Suddenly, the door began to shake. It began to tremble, and just as suddenly, it blew out. It crashed into the room and shattered up against the inside wall.
He looked, saw the door gone, and moved inside the room. He ran to the window and noticed it open.
“Rachel?” He whispered. They couldn’t know that she was no longer inside the house. Knowing this would cause them to take her. He had to stay quiet. He had to find her just as so.
He climbed through the window and was now outside. He looked right, heard the sounds of fighting, so he turned left. He ran to the trees. He ran to find her.
28
The three charged all at once. One came to the right and another came to the left, as the one in the middle stayed and jumped.
Sasha took one-step back, when suddenly a flash came from the right.
The right wolf flew with the blur to her left.
She followed the motion when it stopped. She watched Brandon roll, with it now on top of him. He had it by its throat, holding its snout up off his head.
She smiled some inside as she turned to the animal coming right at her chest. She swung with a large arcing motion just as it reached her.
Her right clawed hand struck it in midair, and the force of the blow blew it in the opposite direction.
It landed a good fifteen feet towards the corner of the house.
With it down, she looked left.
The wolf jumped in full stride.
With her momentum carrying her sideways, the animal managed to swing onto her back. Its weight there, it dug in with all four claws.
She screamed a bellowing yelp as she felt her flesh torn in several places at once.
She flinched, and fell to her knees. Her hind back paws slid towards the back planked steps to the house.
Now down, she swung with both arms trying to grab it behind her. It took her several tries before she grabbed what felt like its tail.
With it firmly gripped, she pulled as hard as she could.
29
Brandon used all of his force to turn the animal’s head to the left.
Instantly, he heard it snap. Almost as instantly, the animal died. Its hair shrank down to nothing but skin. Its body ebbed until it looked human again. It took only seconds before he had nothing but a young man now lying completely naked on top of him. With him dead, he tossed the body to his left.
Why do I get all of the naked dudes? He rolled over, and looked towards Sasha. He climbed onto his hands and knees, and watched with a sense of loving power as Sasha grabbed the four-legged wolf off her back.
She lifted it out, grabbing its hind legs with one arm and grabbing its neck in the other, she pulled.
The beast squirmed, but it couldn’t do much of anything as she lifted it over her head. With a roar, she brought her elbows down with her tremendous strength.
The beast screamed, low and deep as the sound of a bashing cracking echoed around it.
Hearing the crack, Sasha let go of the feet and flung it head first with everything she had.
Brandon watched as the beast over her head instantly went pale as its hair disappeared and its skin turned back to a human’s pale look.
He watched as she flung what looked like a woman’s body behind her and watched as it struck the wall of the house with a loud thudding bang.
Sasha let out a huge and magnificently triumphant roar, which shook the world as she watched the body fall to the ground. She had won the fight. She had victory.
Brandon smiled as she turned back towards him and bowed her roar back down to a huff. “That’s my baby.”
She tilted her head. If he could hear her thoughts, he would have loved listening to it.
His smile grew larger. He stood up, took one-step forward but stopped when he heard a huge roar carrying to them from the front of the house.
“Jimmy?” He turned. He sounds hoarse. He sounds like he’s in real pain. “We have to help Jimmy.” He looked back to Sasha.
She looked as well and turned.
He followed her around the side of the house.
30
Jimmy pulled the one off his back, taking her by what felt like one of her legs. He didn’t bother to see her, but instead just flung her back to somewhere behind him.
Felicia flew back into the trees with such strength that she didn’t stop until she hit a tree several rows from the clearing. Hitting it ever harder, she felt her right leg s
nap, and her left arm break. She hit the ground almost like she was nothing more than a sack of potatoes— lifeless and immobile.
Free from the pain, Jimmy turned back to the others, but noticed no others coming. He roared out sounding like a large elephant ready for a charge. When he finished, he took a deep breath, and that’s when he smelled a familiar scent.
He could smell her running away from him. He could tell that she was heading off into the trees. Her scent wasn’t the only one with her. She wasn’t alone.
Rachel! He screamed, and turned to the right. He turned away from the house. Her scent carried off and he could tell that she turned.
He turned and followed the scent. He turned and headed towards the side of the house and headed straight to the trees.
31
Rachel and Ross ran towards the road, and found his long black Cadillac just by the road right where he told her it was.
He ran to the driver’s door, and opened it. “Come on my dear. We don’t want to draw any more attention than we already have.”
She reached the trunk when she heard her name called from behind her. She turned and watched Robert come out from the trees and towards the back of the car with her.
“Rachel? What the hell are you doing?” He met her at the trunk.
She caught her breaths. “I’m not going to let them get hurt for me.” She turned, intending to run to the passenger side of the car, but he grabbed her right arm and forced her to stop.
“You can’t just run. You have to stay with us. We are all safer together.”
She blinked. “Is that what you said when you decided to leave me?” She looked him straight into his deep brown eyes.
A Werewolf's Saga Books 4, 5, & 6 (A Werewolf's Saga Boxed Sets Book 2) Page 13