by Tamsin Baker
“Marty! Fire!”
He started running and he heard his brother growl, the shift overcoming him as he bounded towards the edge of their town.
Marty had shifted by the time Kody got to him, the massive black wolf standing guard as the people of New Orleans ran towards them. Fiery torches in hand.
Kody threw back his head and howled, calling to the other men in the pack. Marty joined him and Kody felt the other wolves in the pack running up behind them.
Surround the town. Don’t let them near Marty’s home. They want Tania. And Chanti.
He sent out the message to the dozen or so wolves that had joined them on the hill and they took off in opposite directions.
The men charged and a gun shot rang out.
Oh fuck. They’re shooting to kill. Take them down.
Marty stumbled and Kody ran to his brother.
You okay?
Yeah. Flesh wound. Let’s go.
Kody pushed aside any human feelings he had and ran at the men shooting at them. A bullet zinged past his head, he dove and weaved around the trees. He rolled and kept running.
He could see one of the men up ahead. He had a bald head and dark skin.
Kody jumped and flew through the air. Fire seared his shoulder as another shot filled the air, but he landed on target. Teeth bared, he ripped through the man’s throat. Hot, metallic blood spurting between his lips.
He growled and bit down once more, the man making one more strange gurgling sound before his body went floppy.
He dropped the body, again, pushing the humanity inside his mind to the background. It was screaming at him for the bloody murder.
Although, if he’s shooting at me. Isn’t that self-defence?
Shut up. Focus.
Marty? Where are you? Marty?
When his brother didn’t reply, Kody started running back towards the town. No matter what, the most important thing was to keep their people safe.
He saw a huge black wolf flying through the air, his face covered in red blood. Marty ripped through the hunter he’d been aiming for and the noise began to fade.
Less gun shots, and then even less.
It became almost too quiet. Eerily so.
Marty was panting over the man’s dead body when there was a high pitched scream.
A female scream.
Damn. No!
Marty and Kody began running back to Marty’s house. They saw three dead wolves on the way and Kody cringed, tears imminent for his fallen family. But they kept running.
As the house came into view, surrounded by strangers, cold dread iced its way through Kody’s gut.
God. No. What do we do?
Kill them all. Was Marty’s reply.
His brother by his side, Kody charged. Running full tilt at his brother’s house.
He had to get to Chanti. His mate was inside and she was probably hurt. Or worse.
The people ahead of him weren’t paying attention to them. They had their heads bowed and their lips were muttering something incoherent. Heat seared his chest like someone had lit it on fire and he stumbled, falling to the ground.
His brother flew off into a nearby home and Kody pulled himself along the dirt.
What had happened?
Where was everyone?
A big, black man walked up next to him and Kody bared his teeth, growling as menacingly as he could.
The man lifted a large silver dagger and Kody’s heart pounded hard against his ribs.
His human brain screamed at him to move, but he couldn’t even get up. His legs were weighted down and he could barely feel them.
What sorcery was this?
The huge man above him grunted and the knife came down with a flash of light.
Straight into his heart.
****
Chanti’s whole body seized up with pain and she dropped to her knees on the floor.
Noooooo! Her mind screamed out.
But at what? What had happened?
“Chanti. What’s wrong?” Sharon asked as she mopped Tania’s brow.
Chanti gasped for air, he whole rib cage feeling as though it was in a vice. Being squeezed tighter… and tighter. Something terrible had happened.
“I don’t know… I don’t know…”
Tania grunted and groaned, her panting getting faster and faster.
“Help her, or I swear to God I’ll…” Mary, Tania’s mother, along with at least three other members of the sanction were in the room, and crowding her.
Chanti pushed herself to her feet and glared at the old black witch.
“Or. You’ll. What?”
She was pretty sure Kody had just been hurt, badly. The rest of the town was dying as they spoke and Tania was minutes away from birthing a child that could kill her. At this rate, he probably would kill her.
There was blood everywhere.
“Just. Please.”
So much of Chanti wanted to just step away and let her mother fix everything. But that would mean letting Tania die. And if she knew anything about what would happen tonight, it was that she was meant to be here.
“Get me Marty. And Kody.”
“Who? And why?”
“Tania and my mates. I had a vision yesterday and they are involved somehow. The blood lines… I’m not sure. But I need them.”
Tania’s mothers face screwed up into an ugly twist. “I don’t even know what they look like.”
I doubt that very much.
“Take Sharon and go now. We need them.”
Tania let out an unearthly cry and her mother jumped. Despite everything she knew, and how terrible a person she was. It was obvious the ties to her child ran deep.
Chanti turned towards Marty’s mother. “No matter what. Dead or alive. Bring them back. Take some of the men in case they need to be carried.”
Sharon, her lips turned down and a streak of bright red blood covering her cheek, nodded.
“All right. Let’s go.”
Tania’s mother walked out of the room, past the Voodoo pack with her head held high.
“Gah! Help me, please.” Tania screamed, writhing on the bed as her child tried to enter the world.
Concentrate.
Chanti turned back to her patient and tried to focus. She could literally feel the adrenaline in her system. Keeping her standing, her muscles cramping and her heart pounding.
She took a few fortifying breaths. Now that Mary and some of the others had left, she could breathe again. She lifted up Tania’s blood soaked dress and peering at the entrance to her womb.
“I can see the baby’s head Tania. You’re going to need to push. Slowly, carefully.”
Or you’ll rip yourself apart.
She would have loved the help Daniel offered, but the Voodoo bastards had put a knife to his throat and evacuated him from the room. The fact that he was another healer was probably the only reason he was still alive.
“I can’t, Chanti. I can’t.” Tania was lying flat on the bed, and her legs were shaking with the strain.
“Come on, sweetheart. You need to sit up, or stand. Can you do that?”
Nothing.
“Tania?”
Nothing.
Oh no. No, no, no, no, no.
“Tania!”
Chanti raced around the bed and jumped onto the bed, pulling Tania up, lifting her limp head.
“Come on, Tania! You’re going to die if you don’t get this baby out. Don’t you understand?”
The door swung open and Sharon walked in, tears streaming down her weathered face.
“Here they are.”
Marty’s bloodied human body was practically thrown onto the floor.
“Is he alive?” She asked, her heart breaking for the family before her. Barely begun, and yet all three of them on the verge of death.
Marty coughed and spluttered, rolling from side to side on the floor.
“Marty! You need to get up. Help me with, Tania. Please. Sharon. Hurry!”
Sharon reached down
and helped her son up to his feet. The Alpha of their small pack. A barely conscious man.
His eyes cleared, horror filling his face. “Tania?”
“Get up here. Behind her. Wake her up. Make her fight.”
She motioned to Sharon and Marty to come closer, to push Tania up.
“Get her to stand if you can.”
“Tania, Tania. Please wake up. You need to get the baby out. Please Tania. Don’t give up.”
She gripped the bracelet she’d given to Tania, hoping to call to it, to activate whatever was needed. Nothing happened.
“You need to do something, Marty. Bite her or something, I don’t know. What do you werewolves do?”
She went back to the place between Tania’s thighs, the baby’s head bulging like a purple melon.
“Push Tania, come on. Get your baby out.”
A heavy thump behind her made her freeze, a cold dread climbing up her spine like a ghost’s hand.
She turned around very slowly, and before her lay her worst fears. A grey wolf. Her grey wolf. Unmoving. Dead. On the floor.
“Kody.”
She stared at the dark man standing over her mate, a blood covered small sword in his hand.
Anger swirled inside her like never before. A terrible volcano of hate and blackness consuming her mind.
“No.”
She stepped around her mate and without thought on what she did, or how she did it, she swung both hands out and back together, hitting the man on both sides of his neck.
He sunk to his knees and another man rushed her.
She whirled and screamed, pushing out her palms and feeling, for the first time the true extent of her magic.
She wasn’t just a Voodoo practitioner, she was so much more. Maybe she was a witch, maybe something else. But at that moment she could feel the power of the Werewolves, of her ancestors. Her mate was dead and she had inherited all of his power.
And in this moment, she knew they all deserved to die.
“Argh!” She screamed out and flashes of light bolted out of her palms, exploding into the four people around her.
They all fell to the floor like their air had been let out.
Dead? Knocked out?
She didn’t care.
She squatted down and put both hands on Kody. Closing her eyes and tears flowing inside her soul. There was no pulse, no rhythmic breath.
Power bubbled inside her, the protection amulet on her neck burning and pulsing.
She took it off and lay it down onto Kody’s blood soaked fur.
She searched for the source and pressed her fingers into the large wound.
She reached over to her bag and pulled out a poultice and a knife.
When had she put that in there?
She looked down at her own forearm and ran the knife over her skin, pressing down hard. The pain didn’t register as she saw her blood run onto the poultice like she was watching it happen to someone else.
When it was soaked she pressed it against Kody’s wound, her heart pumping madly in her chest.
“Chanti! Chanti! Help us!”
The screams of Sharon and Marty burst through the cloud of silence enveloping her and she turned back.
This baby needs to come out now.
“Marty. Wake her up. Now.”
Marty growled, baring his teeth as he sunk them into Tania’s shoulder.
She gasped and moaned, pushing up and away from the intense pain.
Her eyelids fluttered and Chanti saw her chance. She reached inside Tania’s body, putting her fingers around the head of the baby.
“Tania. I don’t know what you chose to give you strength, but you need it now. Marty’s here, your babe is stuck. Please Tania. Push.”
Tania struggled to sit up further, and Sharon and Marty helped her.
Marty ran his tongue over the bite sealing it shut.
That’s pretty amazing.
Tania groaned and grunted, her huge body heaving as she pushed down.
The baby’s head bulged.
“I can see it. Keep going Tania.”
The baby’s head pushed forth, coming into her hands, there was a twist and a scream as Tania worked to get her baby born.
The baby’s shoulders slid forth and then the baby slithered out like a dolphin. Wet, and covered in blood.
“It’s a boy.”
He was slippery and purple. Chanti placed him down on the blanket she had, wrapping him up and putting a tie on the cord.
The placenta wriggled out, all red and pulsing.
And just as relief surged in Chanti’s heart, Tania really began to bleed.
The trickling turned into a gush and she heard Marty start to scream.
“No. No. No.”
The baby mewled and cried, wriggling in all of his purpley red glory.
Thank god for that. He’s alive.
She handed the baby to it’s grandmother and pushed Sharon to leave.
Chapter 8.
Sweat ran down Chanti’s face. What the fuck could she do?
There were dead or unconscious people everywhere!
A vision of werewolf teeth and blood emerged from a hidden area inside her brain.
Marty’s saliva! It healed his bite! Could it do that for all wounds?
Marty was sobbing and shaking Tania as she lay in his arms.
“Marty! Can you heal her? With your..” She motioned to her mouth. “You know. Seal her wounds like you did with the bite?”
Marty looked up, dark smudges beneath his eyes. “Ah… yes. She’s my mate so…”
She grabbed his arm and tugged. “Come on then. The baby tore her apart. See if you can close up her wounds.”
She remembered her own foretelling words ‘Whatever’s going to happen, it’s going to be tonight. The blood lines will mingle forever, or both will fall.’
Blood, too.
“Marty. Can you cut your arm or something, mingle some of your blood with hers too, okay?”
He nodded as he lay Tania down carefully, moving to the space between her legs.
Their baby mingled their blood together already, so hopefully they didn’t need anymore, but may as well cover the bases.
Marty partially shifted, his face turning werewolf like as he began to clean his mates body.
Chanti turned towards her own mate, kneeling down beside him.
She pulled back the poultice she’d applied to his chest and gasped. Her heart ached in her chest as renewed hope fluttered through.
The gaping wound was gone.
She’d healed him, he’d healed himself. There was still life in him.
She lay her hand down on his blood soaked chest.
Was that a heart beat?
She rushed to twist around and lay her head against his chest.
Her stomach dropped.
Nothing.
But she could hear something! An echo.
Maybe? Was she imagining it?
It didn’t matter.
She pushed herself up and grabbed for her bag.
She glanced over to Tania and saw the bleeding had stopped and Marty was pulling her to sitting. Her head lolling around and her complexion as white as cream. But she was alive.
Just.
“Here. Make her drink this.”
She threw Marty a bottle of blood tonic and went back to searching.
What do I use? What do I use?
May as well throw everything at him.
She pulled out every amulet and health charm she had and placed them down on him.
She sprinkled healing potions and herbs on his body. All over. His matted dark hair, his long limbs. It was strange trying to heal a wolf, but she could still see him. Her Kody.
Nothing happened.
She put her head down and prayed.
Jesus, please help the man I love. Loa, please help him. He is a good man.
She opened her eyes and wanted to slam her fist into the ground. Why the hell wasn’t this working?
&
nbsp; Because bringing people back from the dead is only for those practising the black arts.
“No. No!”
She was not losing this fight.
Blood. She needed more of her blood.
The baby.
No… she couldn’t kill her child. Kody would never forgive her. But maybe, just a little of her blood closer to the baby.
She grabbed the knife and lifted her top.
Her hand didn’t even tremble as she slid the knife across her lower abdomen, where a c-section would open her if she needed one.
Pain broke through her threshold as the adrenaline that had been keeping her going all day began to run out.
She gasped as tears ran.
Bright red blood spilled forth and she cupped her hand, gathering the blood there.
Kody had other injuries, his shoulder had been blasted apart.
She moved her hand across and pressed her blood to his.
Then she shuffled down to gather more and spread it over every injury he had, her stomach dropping each time she took some of her life form and passed it to her mate.
Her eyes were drooping and sweat covered her now shaking body.
She didn’t care. Anything, if it would save him.
When she was done, she grabbed a poultice and applied it to her own body.
Before her eyes the wounds began to heal and she put both palms together and linked her fingers in a prayer position, but she wasn’t praying anymore.
Time to fight.
She raised both arms up in the air and brought them down on his chest.
Hard. Pain ricocheted up her arms.
“Come on, Kody.”
Bang. She hit him again.
“Come back to me.”
She hit him again, her head spinning with fatigue and her arms like lead weight.
One more. A voice in her head whispered.
She didn’t have much left in her.
She raised her arms, stared straight at the ribs over the heart that she desperately wanted to beat again, and with all of her strength, she brought them down, as hard as she could.
Kody jerked, a strange moan rolling from his animal throat.
“Is he alive?” Marty yelled from the bed.
She put her head to his chest and there it was. The sweetest sound in all the world.
A steady, thumping, heart beat.
“Yes!”
The fur began to disappear, golden skin reappearing before her tear blurred gaze. Kody’s face transformed and there before her lay her mate.