by Mandy Rosko
"You," Hadrian seethed, raising his hand to ready another blast. "I never thought I would see the day when you would come back here. All the better for me!"
SEVENTEEN
Hadrian's yellow blast flew from his palm like a jet, sweeping down the stone, tunnel-like halls with enough force to knock down the tapestries and animal heads.
It fired towards Mike. It would kill him!
Anne launched to her feet to take the hit. Vaguely, she heard Mike scream at her but she ignored it.
The yellow fireball closed in on her. Anne was ready to take it, but it split in two, separated, and flew around her head. One for Mike and one now for Bud.
Neither of them moved to jump out of its path, both planted their feet and glared at the things that would fry them.
Anne shrieked, about to watch the man she loved die. "Stop!"
Bud raised his hand in the same fashion Hadrian had raised his. The yellow blasts stopped inches before touching the flesh of either himself or his older brother.
They looked like mini suns hovering just beyond Bud’s palm.
Air escaped Anne's throat like a deflating balloon, leaving her with a head rush as she sank to her knees.
Of course! Bud's telekinesis. Nothing Hadrian sent at them could touch them.
Bud flung his hand as though swatting at a fly, sending the killer blasts back to their creator.
Anne didn’t move as they soared over her head like twin phoenix birds.
Hadrian ducked out of the way, slamming himself into the stone wall before the balls could hit. They flew on, mindless, and crashed into the wall at the far end of the hall in an explosion of rocks and dust, clouding them in a blanket of dirt.
"Impossible!" Hadrian roared when the dust settled. Ugly blue veins popped out his neck and traveled up his purple face. He stormed towards them. "I'll turn you into shadows!"
Anne grabbed his flailing robes as he walked by. He stopped and half turned to look at her, clenched his fingers in the fabric of his cloak and yanked it back. "This will only take a moment, my love."
His eyes on her, he couldn’t see the wolf and dragon wobbly getting back to their four legs.
"You're right. It will," she said as Westley and Chris ran and jumped.
Hadrian turned as they tackled him, their bodies crushing him to the ground and pinning his arms down.
Hadrian struggled and shrieked. First, in blind panic, kicking his legs and flailing his head.
When no teeth removed his head from his shoulders, he stopped. Rage took over. "Remove yourself from me, you filthy beast!"
Despite how they were both in their other forms, Hadrian's comment seemed to be solely directed towards Westley.
Filthy beast? He asked, plucking a heavy paw down on Hadrian's chest while pulling his lips back so that the warlock could see the points of his incisors.
Hadrian fell silent, his breath coming out in ragged gasps as the wolf opened his mouth and lowered his muzzle.
Hadrian closed his eyes, as though waiting for the killer bite from the animal he both created and feared.
Instead of biting his head off, Westley's giant tongue took one sloppy lap of his face.
Hadrian resumed his struggling and shrieking, his body insanely bending and bucking. "Disgusting animal! Filthy half-breed! I'll destroy you all!"
Both the dragon and the wolf let out snorts of laughter.
Anne couldn't help it either, it was funny.
Mike knelt down in front of her. The amused grin disappeared, replaced with trembling lips and a pounding heart.
She opened her arms and he swept in to hold her. He pulled her tight to his chest, crushed her while pressing kisses to her neck and shoulders. His muscled arms made her feel small and safe.
Strong emotions surged from him so powerfully that she couldn’t just feel them, she could smell them.
Relief, fear, joy…love.
He loved her.
"I was so worried about you," he choked.
Anne sniffed. Despite the brave front she put on for Hadrian, a nagging worry picked at her insides during the short hours of her stay that she would never escape. Eventually, Hadrian would have raped her. With all his shadow creatures around, there would have be nothing she could do about it.
But he came for her. Mike came back. He didn’t leave.
And, he loved her. It wasn’t just about lust. He loved her.
“I’ll get you out of here. I promise, I’ll take you home.”
At the mention of home, she pulled away to see his eyes. "Is Bill alright? Is anyone else injured?"
"Bill is fine," Mike assured her, his rough fingers threading her hair. "Westley decided to take on being pack master until something else could be figured out."
"Don't touch her! I'll destroy you and you will stay dead this time!"
A low growl erupted from Westley's throat. His jaws opened and lunged, this time intending to kill.
"Stop!" Anne and Mike screamed in unison.
Westley's teeth framed Hadrian's face. Hadrian's chest halted its up and down movements, his eyes wide as he stared at the inside of Westley's mouth, terrified.
Westley's pulled back lips revealed pointed teeth that pricked Hadrian's cheeks, blood trickled. His yellow eyes shone on Anne and Mike questioningly, though he did not pull his teeth away.
Mike stared down at Anne with that same question on his face. "I’m surprised you care. He just killed your pack master."
A fresh growl rippled through Westley's throat. Yes. He did.
She shook her head, not willing to look at the anger and feel the hurt radiating from her best friend as she attempted to deny him the chance to avenge his dead father.
"I—I feel sorry for him," she said.
"What?" Mike asked.
What? Westley demanded.
Though dragons and werewolves couldn't talk telepathically to each other, when Chris approached and nudged his furry shoulder, Anne got the feeling they were communicating somehow.
A telepathic bond could be shared between humans and werewolves. Could it also be done with dragons?
Westley ignored it and kept his teeth on his prisoner.
“I feel sorry for him,” Anne said again.
The explanation seemed to be enough for Mike. "Incapacitate him but don't kill him."
Westley growled again, the arched claws of his paws lengthened where they pinned Hadrian, readying for a kill.
Anne felt Mike's anger spike. "You draw one more drop of blood and I'll arrest you, too. As of now, he's an unarmed prisoner."
Westley growled a third time, his eyes flashing from her to Mike, and back again.
Chris sat on his haunches, red-forked tail waving lazily as he waited for Westley to make his decision.
Anne blinked and just about missed it. Westley released his frustration with a howl, angled his head and clamped his jaws into Hadrian’s robes.
The warlock screamed as Westley yanked the man into the air and hurled him at the stone wall with so much strength he might as well have been throwing a bean bag.
Hadrian hit and promptly crumpled to the floor. He stumbled to his knees, struggling to lift his hands.
Then his body stiffened like a brick and fell over again. This time it stayed down.
Confusion took over. "What?" Anne looked over, saw the concentration on Bud's face and knew that he was responsible for Hadrian's containment.
Westley snorted in disgust, lifted himself to his hind legs and transformed back into a man.
Chris followed suit. Since he was the only one of the two who could change while still keeping his clothes intact, he removed his long jacket and handed it to Westley so he’d have something to wear.
Westley donned the jacket and stormed pastsed Mike. "He better spend the rest of his existence in a hole," he snarled, walking towards the burning forest as though he weren't moving straight into an inferno.
Chris picked up Hadrian and slung the man over his shoulder. It looked
more like he carried a two by four with how stiff the warlock was. He followed his lover without saying a word.
The three watched them go. Anne sensed Hadrian's steaming rage, hissing as it boiled helplessly, along with his yearning for her as he was taken away.
Bud was the first to break the silence. "Uh, what was that about?"
Mike took Anne's hand and threaded his fingers through hers. "I'll explain later. We need to get out of here so you can take this place down."
Anne remembered the shaking. She looked at Bud. "Can you actually destroy this place?"
He shrugged. "I tried earlier, just to see if I could before Mike reminded me you were here. Seemed easy enough."
"Plus, it should distract the shadows as we leave. That fire outside won't burn strong enough forever," Mike finished.
“They won’t all attack us, anyway,” Anne states. “Some of the shadows are just servants. They’re all part of the castle. He did this to them.”
Mike’s eyes widened. “What?”
“Yeah, he turned them all into these things just like he turned my grandpa into a werewolf.”
“Whoa.” Bud’s eyes wide and mouth open.
Mike pulled her close and looked at the stone walls. “Then we’ll destroy this place and set them free.”
He looked her in the eyes. She sank into their blue depths and knew he would help them. Even if some of them had tried to kill him.
"Your grandfather is waiting to take us back, we need to go. But, first…” Mike jogged in the opposite direction of the exit, right to where the moonstone fell when Westley tackled Hadrian.
When his fingers wrapped around the orb it glowed brightly enough to penetrate the cloth. He grinned before rushing back and taking Anne's hand. "We can't leave behind the evidence, can we?"
Anne grumbled and stared down at the thing with animosity even though it had protected her from the shadows. "I guess not."
Luna gave that rock to her grandfather as a gift, but it cost him nothing but trouble. Anne wouldn't have cared if the thing smashed into a million pieces as she took Mike’s hand and dragged him through the castle doors, past the courtyard, and out the stone gates in her impatience to see Bill alive and well.
Despite the wall-like appearance of the high flames, an open path had been left for them to safely walk through the burning black forest. Not a single spark touched her gown or hair, another little thing she was sure she could thank Bud for.
When he showed her his gift she didn't think he was anywhere near this strong. Her only discomfort was the heat.
At the center of the clearing, highlighted by fire, stood Bill. She forgot all about the heat as she saw him leaning against a thick wooden stick, using it as a cane. His pale face lit up when he spotted her.
Westley and Chris were already with him, waiting impatiently on either side of the older man. Hadrian lay, still unconscious, over Chris's shoulder while Westley had an arm wrapped around Bill's torso. As though he were afraid the older man would collapse without his support.
He shifted the stick to his other hand and held his free arm open to her. She let go of Mike’s hand and ran to him, only to skid to a halt five feet away.
She couldn't tackle him with a hug like she wanted if there was a risk she would hurt him.
As though reading her mind, he handed his stick to Westley and opened both arms. "Does an old man get a hug for his trouble?"
She cracked. Anne launched herself into his arms, sobbing. "I thought you were going to die."
Bill rubbed her hair the way he used to when she was little, her face leaning into his chest, absorbing the comfort.
She sensed, rather than saw, the grin on his face. "I'm immortal, remember? It would take a lot more than that to kill me."
"I hate to be impatient," Mike interrupted. "But can we get out of here before Bud loses control of the fire?"
Anne turned. The color of Bud's face had indeed changed to an unhealthy orange with the stress of having to focus his powers for so long on more than one thing at a time.
"We can come back later for you to bring down the castle," Chris said, touching his hand to Bill's shoulder. Mike, Westley and Bud did the same. Since it appeared as though getting in and out of the shadow world relied on keeping physical contact, Anne did not release Bill from her hold.
"When we do come back, this fire will have burned out and there'll be no trees left," Westley said. "It'll be easy enough."
Bill closed his eyes, concentrating on getting them back to the real world. Anne was overcome with a tingling sensation that appeared like a fuzzy blanket just under her skin before the bright flames disappeared.
***
Hadrian couldn't move his body but his eyes and ears remained open as the filthy beasts carried him off to wherever they pleased, like he was a sack of animal feed.
It was undignified!
He wanted to shriek as they walked directly into the forest of flames. Aside from being too hot, the licking fires never reached out to take them.
Though his vision was upside down from the way he stiffly lay over the monster's shoulder, he could see a path opening before them, greeting the trespassers and allowing them safe voyage.
He tried to summon his shadows to rescue him, called out with his mind and ordered them to come. All refused.
They could not come near the fires.
Cowards. Weak, pathetic, monsters.
He would deal with them later, destroy them for their arrogance in assuming the right to disobey. Then he would transform Edward into a shadow instead of merely killing him, just as he should have done a thousand years ago.
The little fool would return to his rightful place as Hadrian's servant and pet. There would be no escape.
They finally stopped to greet an old man in a circular clearing that even the fires had yet to touch, the grey grass remaining un-charred under him.
"Where's my granddaughter?"
Ah, yes. The old beggar in wretched garbs Luna begged him to spare. Hadrian puzzled over why Edward would bring him. Surely his age would put him in no position to offer aid to his companions.
"She's coming. I just had to get out of there. Don't worry about him, totally harmless." The wolf-monster said, patting Hadrian's stiff back. He teetered like a log over the shoulder of the dragon.
His stomach rolled when it appeared as though he would fall face-down on the ground below. The dragon adjusted him over his shoulder to prevent the likely fatal incident.
"I never thought I'd stand so close to him again without him trying to blast me."
Hadrian's sharp attention focused on the man's words. What was that?
"I wanted to kill him, was this close,” he measured a small space between his thumb and forefinger, “to ending his miserable existence, but Annie and Mike want him arrested. Annie said she feels sorry for him." The wolf-monster scoffed the last part.
"Michael is not the law outside of Griffon City and you're pack master now, if you wanted to, you could have ordered Antoinette to stay out of it. There would have been nothing she could have done," the dragon reminded him.
"Yeah, but I can't do something like that. Not to her at least. I think that's why I know I can't be a leader. Not if I'm uncomfortable giving orders."
"If you ever decided to, you would make an excellent pack master."
Hadrian heard the footsteps of his love rushing to greet the old fool. When Edward demanded to leave, Hadrian's blood stopped flowing.
The feet of Hadrian's captors shuffled towards the old man so that they might touch him.
Hadrian did not understand. Why would they put their hands on the old man? Edward was the one with the power to travel to and from the Shadow World.
With the power required to take them through the worlds, the spell on Hadrian weakened.
With effort, he twisted his head to look at the old man whose eyes were closed and could not look back at him.
Him. He was the one who brought the monsters to his do
or?
The shape of the jaw, the thickness of the grey brows. Hadrian knew that the blue eyes he'd hunted for a thousand years would rest underneath those closed lids.
"You!"
EIGHTEEN
Anne sighed when the heat of the inferno Chris made of the Shadow Forest left her skin. Like a light being switched off, it was suddenly gone, replaced with the chilled air of the real world. Or, perhaps, it only felt chilled because of the contrast between temperatures. Either way, it was good to be back.
The ranch looked almost exactly as she had left it. The only difference was the fires had finished themselves off and were now smoking helplessly against the things they had burned. Fences were destroyed, trucks were upside down and scorched. One of the cabins was even missing its’ roof.
Another difference was that the pack wasn’t scattered about, naked and helpless. People crowded around, their bodies still, frozen, as they waited for the group who just appeared out of nowhere to make the first move.
Westley and Chris were the first to step forward. Chris all but chucked Hadrian in the dirt at the feet of the pack.
"We got him!" Westley called.
There was a pause as all eyes stared down at the man-log.
Mass cheering broke out amongst the crowd. The people rushed forward to greet their pack master, his companion, and even Mike and Bud before surrounding both herself and Bill.
Hugs and handshakes were exchanged. Kisses were planted on cheeks and backs were slapped as the pack congratulated their heroes.
Male wolves pounded their right fists over their hearts to Westley and Bill, both of whom took the attention with a grain of salt and a blush.
Anne allowed herself to be torn from Bill only so she could get to Mike.
He looked down at her and smiled. "Hey, Princess."
She ignored his jab since she obviously looked like one in the ridiculous gown she wore.
"Hey, yourself." She hooked her fingers in the collar of his shirt and pulled his lips down to meet hers. The cool air invigorated and awakened her senses. Relief and happiness swelled inside of her now that she was back where she belonged. With Mike.