“Warn your woman, and I assume she is your woman, that any interference will be taken as a further act of hostility. We accept that our aims may have been misunderstood by the Wolves upon our arrival but there can be no confusion now. We seek only to detain the werewolves, the diseased humans,” Carsten insisted.
“And you were told that that will not happen,” Kira insisted, her voice cool and composed.
“Forester, tell your woman…” Carsten began.
“She can hear you, Ian and so can I. Watch how you speak to her,” Evan’s jaw clenched tightly. The wolf was roaring inside him, demanding that he destroy any who would challenge his mate. Evan indulged the fantasy of letting the wolf free for one moment before continuing. “You don’t want to piss her off. She’s not as easygoing as I am.”
Carsten did not reply with words. In an instant the dove vanished and a bolt of flame burst from a fire mage standing several yards to Carsten’s left. Caught off-guard, Kira reacted too slowly and the flame struck the ground. Her water orb doused the fire mage and the air mage who transported with him through the flame. A wall of air came up immediately around them and pushed back the bullets that began to fly. One grazed the fire mage’s shoulder but he stayed on his feet. Evan stepped back and threw a glance at Katerina in time to see her and her two guardians streak away toward the southern bridge. It was the easiest way for Carsten to get his people across even with one of his fire mages now standing on their side of the river.
Two more mages and two hunters had joined the original pair of mages. They were penned by the shield that kept the gunfire at bay. A second air mage joined her power to the first and they began to push the boundary of the wall back. Evan lifted his hand toward the group and a green light circled the circumference of the wall. It delved down into the ground and resurfaced inside the boundary. Vines began to grow immediately. They shot up out of the earth and wrapped themselves around the air mages. If he could break their spells, the fire mage would lose his protection and be driven out or face the firestorm of ammunition that Kelan and the other curse wolves were raining down upon them.
The more plants that Evan could grow, the more space they would need inside their circle. Soon the air mages would be unable to maintain the shield at full strength and it would weaken. An earth mage inside the protective walls tried to turn back the growth of brush that was rising quickly. He found quickly that Evan’s earlier spell had worked. The plants of this earth would not heed anyone’s call but his. A quick hand to his pocket and the earth mage scattered a fistful of seeds upon the ground. They rose up quickly and tangled themselves with the vines Evan had sent until the whole resembled a huge nest of wrestling vipers. But the twining plants made it hard for the air mages to hold their ground and keep their wall. They were essentially trapped. If they dropped their shield they would be shot, if they didn’t drop it, the hunters and their silver-filled guns were worthless.
A thick mist began to rise on the ground. Evan turned his eyes to seek Kira or Sasha. Both were busy causing spheres of river water to collide with the bolts of fire magic the remaining fire mages were trying to send across the river. The mist had to be coming from the water mages on the other side. Evan clenched his fist and took aim at the nearest water mage. The bolt of green light flew across the distance and was deflected at the last minute by the mage. A tendril of mist wove up around Evan and tried to hold tight to his legs. A flash of blue light slammed the ground at his feet and pushed the mist back, making it retract like the rings made by a pebble in a pond. He glanced at Kira who smiled tightly and returned her attention to the fire mages. Mizu had formed a pool of water at her feet and was peppering the area with the blue blasts and driving the mist back, away from the Wolves.
Evan heard the sharp cry to his left. It was Damek’s cry. He took one quick look at Kira. She was holding her own and was in no real danger at the moment. The mages within the protected circle were disappearing one by one, to reappear on the other side of the river. As Evan turned to head toward the southern bridge he scanned the mages and realized he could no longer see Julien. He muttered a soft curse and began to run toward the cluster of Wolves who were firing heavy rounds at a group of mages trying to push them back so they could cross the bridge. He reached Katerina’s side with Gregoravitch at his heels. The water of the river was churning and bubbling as if it was a rapidly boiling pot. No heat rose from it but it was clearly impassable. Katerina was hurling a wall of water at the air mages and the spectacle of glowing blue water butting repeatedly against the glowing white screen of air was impressive but foolish.
“Aegia,” Evan called to the undine as he slid into cover behind a barricade that had been erected a few yards from the bridge and grabbed a weapon from the cache waiting there. “Let Damek take over. You’ll exhaust yourself and Katerina.” Evan began to fire with no real target in mind. The barricade wavered. Suddenly behind it grew a thick, solid stone wall cutting the bridge in half. The stone glowed grayish-brown against the wall of air and water. Aegia withdrew with a splash and regrouped to zip back to Katerina’s side. Damek held fast against the two sylphs who were charging at him in waves. The air broke and whipped around back to the air mages.
With Damek acting as a shield as well as a barrier for the mages, it gave them a small space where the barrage of firing guns could not reach them. Or so they thought as they pulled their sylphs back to reinforce the line along the river bank. Evan felt the humor in Damek at the same time he felt Keita unwrap from his arm and flash away. He saw her go to William. He was lying on his stomach beside Alexi, both now in human form. They flanked a tired Katerina and added to the raining metal that was collecting on the opposite shore just short of their marks. He saw William nod at whatever the gnome was telling him. Evan watched Keita start to clap her hands. He tried to isolate the sound from the deafening pops of the shots being fired. He couldn’t do it but he could see her and the recoil of William’s gun. He was firing in a pattern given him by Keita.
The next thing Evan heard over the gunfire was the sound of a scream. A man screamed in pain. Then another. Evan turned his head to see mages half carrying wounded men from behind the wall that was Damek. How had the bullets gotten through? What were those two doing? He watched the stone wall and saw it flicker. “I’ll be damned,” he muttered. Gregoravitch looked over at him. “Damek is opening and closing the wall in time to William’s gunfire. Keita is orchestrating it.”
Soon the mages retreated from the bridge. Carsten seemed to be pulling back his mages. They were coming together in a group near the original fires. Keita returned to his arm in her vine state. Evan braced himself up on one hand against the barricade and began to add his own mage blasts to the conventional weapons. It took him longer to hit his marks but he did hit them. The air barrier could not stop light and the pure energy blasts were hitting the mages and helping to drain them. But that was all he could do. If he put enough power behind the blasts to truly incapacitate he’d wear out himself and Keita before he could do any significant damage.
The situation was rapidly becoming an obvious stalemate and Evan wondered how long Carsten would keep at it. He’d also been wondering what Julien was up to but the answer to that became apparent seconds later. Evan saw the mage standing with his back to the battle. He lifted his arms and held the battle staff aloft. Four bright flames sped from the central fire to circle him. A graceful sweep of the staff down, right and up resulted in one of the flames shooting up into the sky.
“Oh shit,” Evan yelled. “That son of a bitch!” Only the most powerful of mages would try this, only those who had tremendous power could allow their elementals the freedom to take this form. And only a bound elemental could.
The flame grew enormous and stretched itself out until it was the size of a very large horse. Its boundaries shifted, doubled in size and the new shape became clear. A dragon. It had a large, powerful body, a long neck with hooked spikes running the length of its spine, overlapping scales of oran
ge and red and two massive wings. A bright orange sunburst pattern on the chest identified the creature for Evan. “Keahi,” Evan felt a deep sinking feeling in his gut as he recognized Julien’s primary salamander. The fire elemental was a bit of a rogue creature who chose to bond with Julien. It rarely followed any rules except the idea of pleasing its friend and that word described the relationship of the elemental to the mage much better than master. Even Agni, the fire guardian seemed reluctant to cross Keahi. He was like Julien, the best at what he did.
The other flames soared into the sky at the fire mage’s command and began to sweep the fields behind the line of fire. Systematically they burned the ground and destroyed the homes and buildings of the curse wolves who had set up small farms away from the village. Evan knew from the feeling of outrage that roared in his chest that Kira had seen the dragons and was furious at the way they were destroying what very little the curse wolves had. Gregoravitch’s feelings were not spoken directly but from the low growling sound the man was making in his throat, there was no doubt he too was beyond angry.
Evan closed his eyes and called to Adem and Keita. The gnomes were at his side almost as soon as he’d formed the thought. Their eyes met and there was a touch of fear in the brown and gold depths but they nodded and two bright green flames appeared before him before streaking off into the night sky. As the lights rose up over the scene of the stalled battle, they changed. Ryder had discovered this potential in the elementals and had only taught three of his protégés this skill. Now two of those would use the power against one another. Evan felt the strength pull from deep in his chest and soar out of him. It was a risk since he didn’t have his battle staff but Evan saw no other choice. He prayed he was justified in his trust of the two gnomes. Two emerald green dragons formed and soared toward the fire dragons. Before they could reach the four destructive beings, a fifth red dragon rose from the ground and headed directly back toward them.
Evan stared stunned at the animal and the implication of it. His hands shook and the desire to cry out in despair warred in his heart with the wolf’s absolute rage. He rose to find the source of the dragon. He’d not seen him but he must be there.
“The mages.” Gregoravitch poked a sharp elbow at Evan. “They’re leaving.”
The flame circle was small now, big enough for two or three at a time and the mages were entering the circle in turns and disappearing. Julien was buying them time with his distraction as well as compounding the amount of damage they’d done until now. The hunters, all four of them were crouched behind trees and bushes. Their weapons were trained on the Wolves but they did not fire. The air shields held in place.
Evan’s attention returned to his elementals. The fifth dragon, who Evan knew by the name of Hotaru, was headed directly for the two green dragons. He’d have put any one of his gnomes against the dragon but was worried that the bond between him and the master of this dragon would impair their ability to challenge it. The salamander sped toward the two green dragons but just as it would have reached attack distance it veered off to its right.
“No!” Evan felt bile rise in his throat as he realized the creature’s destination. The light from its shimmering skin lit the area enough for Evan to see Kira and Sasha racing toward him. It soared over their heads and directly toward the wall and the buildings it enclosed. Weapons behind the gate that had been silent to that point began to fire at the immense invader. But Hotaru did not turn from his course. He headed directly over the small compound in the direction of the main house. The orbs of water from the three women slammed into his sides, seemed no more of an annoyance than a mosquito. A water mage close to its master must have charmed this salamander against the effects of the water globes. It would still be vulnerable to water energy but the limited skills of these women were less than a cloud of gnats to the huge dragon.
“The children,” Gregoravitch yelled. His words weren’t needed. Alexi and William were already stripping off the flight suits and transforming as they ran. They raced toward the house, neither even pausing when they reached the ten-foot high fence. They leaped over the gate and came down soft and easy, never breaking stride as they headed for the house.
“Johannes,” Sonya’s voice was barely audible but her mother’s mouth formed the word clearly.
“Alexi and William will get him,” Kira assured her as she pulled her down behind the barricade to the right of where Evan and Gregoravitch knelt. She hugged her sister-in-law tightly for a moment then thrust a gun in her hand. “Here, shoot at something, it will make you feel better.”
The Wolves watched helplessly as the great creature opened its mouth and released an inferno on the house. The stones heated up and began to char as Hotaru hit the house with his first pass. Small missiles fired from turrets sailed past his head harmlessly. The second pass brought not only another heated blast of flame but a terrible impact as the dragon slammed into the structure with one massive shoulder. The weakened stones began to crumble and the structure collapsed in on itself. The dragon looped wide, swinging out over the field and the other dragons. In another situation Evan could have found humor in the fact that Keahi broke formation and tried to chase the red dragon off before resuming his scorched earth assignment. Hotaru sped up and fled back toward the house. The four red dragons still in the field were involved in a firefight with the green that made it look like an out-of-control Christmas display. Green and red lights flashed everywhere and the sounds of the dragon’s roars rumbled the ground.
Hotaru headed back toward them, only this time his target was far less protected. He headed for the school. A unified scream of furious terror rose from curse and blood Wolf alike. “Not the children.” His voice was meant for no one but himself as it sighed out of his lungs. Evan knew he had tears in his eyes and didn’t care who saw them. How could he do it? How the hell could Marcus do this? Did he hate so much? Did he hate him so very much?
Evan stood and started toward the school. Kira and Katerina were behind him when he felt a shudder in the natural forces around him. Looking to the north he saw a sight that stunned him. The fight was being joined by a bright blue dragon the clear azure color of the Caribbean Sea. It fired blue bolts of energy at Hotaru, making him yelp and cry out in pain. The energy of the water dragon forced Hotaru to turn and abandon a pass at the school in favor of defending himself from the newcomer.
Blue light flashed again and rolled down the side of the red dragon leaving a black charred streak. Hotaru fired bright red blasts at the blue dragon who spun and moved out of the way easily. Evan couldn’t believe his eyes. He knew this undine. He knew this dragon. It belonged to the third person he had known that Ryder had taught to use the spell. Cassie. But Cassandra was dead. This undine was unbound. How… It didn’t matter how, what mattered was that Nitu had joined the fight and Hotaru had no chance of standing against one of the oldest undines known to serve humans.
The battle over the farmlands ended as Julien called back in his dragons. They’d done a great deal of collateral damage but no one had been harmed in the attack. Keita and Adem now joined Nitu and surrounded the red dragon whose thoughts now were consumed with escaping.
Evan was so stunned he barely registered the next few minutes. Instinct he didn’t know existed kicked in and he let the wolf run free inside the man for the first time as the hell that had broken loose roared up for one last ditch attempt to destroy them all.
As Hotaru flew overhead, rushing back toward its mage, it blew one final breath of flame that caught the roof of one of the wagons. The tarred roof caught fire and began to burn. Evan learned at that moment that four of the hunters were in fact fire mages. And he learned it as they appeared from the flames with all most no warning. The wolf inside slammed him to the ground but not before a silver bullet skimmed across the skin of his upper arm leaving stabbing pains shooting through his arm.
He heard Sonya cry out and saw Gregoravitch stagger to his knees. “Nico…” The man shook his head and then roared i
n rage. “That was my son,” he screamed and the flightsuit was gone and the largest brown and white wolf Evan had ever seen was lunging toward the hunters. Before it had taken more than a handful of leaping bounds it stopped and jerked. Suddenly the wolf was gone and the man was lying on the ground clutching his chest.
With bullets soaring around them and screams of wolves being hit by the flying silver, Evan rolled to where Gregoravitch lay, hoping the man hadn’t been hit by one of the silver nitrate rounds. He pulled the man’s hand from his chest and saw no wound. Kira was suddenly at his side as well and he could hear her sobs. Stanislav Gregoravitch spoke only one word before he died without a mark upon his body. “Ivanna.”
Kira’s cry turned to one of outrage and she forgot all about human magic and slipped out of her shift. Transforming she charged at the nearest hunter, hitting him from behind. Her jaws clenched around his throat and he screamed just once before she shook her head and snapped his neck. She let go as she felt a bullet fly too close to her and rolled away behind one of the barricades. To her amazement she watched the scene before her. Evan was hand to hand with one of the hunters. Kelan had just buried a knife deep in the ribs of the third. Then she saw him, the fourth hunter. He was firing his weapon from behind a tree. These men had to know this was suicide. Only a zealot would have volunteered for this and Evan had told her that the hunters were all volunteers.
The fourth hunter took aim at Evan but before Kira could even scream a bright purple light erupted behind the hunter. His eyes went blank and his head dropped forward. The hunter crumpled to the ground at the base of the tree. From behind the tree stepped one of the Wolves. Zev. He met Kira’s eye with a smile on his face. He lifted one finger to his lips and then transformed and bolted off the other direction.
Circle of Wolves Page 35