“Maybe I can create a ring of energy…” Nick started, his own hands and staff gleaming blue as they heated.
I shook my head. “I think I have a better idea. Do you think you can clear me a path—a runway?”
“What?” he asked in confusion.
The pack shifted and I could sense their impatience as they prepared to surge forward. They were done waiting.
“Just do it already. Use your sorcery and burn me a line through them, I’ll be right behind you. Be ready to jump on.”
“What? Oh no way! Not that again.” He protested as the Weis started moving as a unit and surged in our direction.
I gave him a shove from behind as his staff crackled and came to life.
“Move.” With a growl of frustration he lifted his staff and fire sprang from its tip, laying a length of blue flames through the stampeding beasts. The smell of singed hair and burnt skin made me gag as they squealed and peeled left and right. But I didn’t stop, I was calling my dragon as I moved forward, feeling the twist and pop of joints and bone as the shift moved through me in an agony too deep for words. But I welcomed the pain, moving through it as scales burst free and my jaws grew long and filled with razored teeth.
A roar of emotion bellowed up from the bottom of my throat and my wings spread wide, knocking startled Weis’ aside like bowling pins and further clearing the path that opened before me. And then I was through, wings in motion and feeling the lift that would raise me into the sky. I almost forgot to slow down long enough for Nicholas to scramble aboard, swearing a blue streak as he struggled to gain purchase on my slick back.
And then we were up, leaving the snarling Weis leaping angrily in the air, thinking they could snag my underbelly and pull me down. With a last flick of my spiked tail, I sent several tumbling through the air. If they weren’t dead, they were hurting. My entire body gave a shiver of joy, and Nick screamed, holding tighter. I opened my mouth wide and tasted the wind as it shuddered past us. Sunlight flickered over the shiny bronze of my scales, picking up different colors and reflecting them back. I winged out over the forest and crossed the next plain in a fraction of the time it had taken before.
I struggled to remember why I was here, flying through Wyndoor. My dragon didn’t care, it just wanted to feel the rush of sky.
A tap on my shoulder made my dragon peer through the clouds to something on the ground. With a sigh of disappointment, I dipped a wing and descended; the ground rushing up to meet us with dizzying speed.
The ants that dotted the landscape below grew until they were two legged figures scrambling to get out of the way.
Nick tapped me again and I smoothed out, slamming on the brakes as I prepared to land. Unlike the last time when I’d nearly knocked him unconscious, this landing was smoother and my feet hit the ground running. I came to a halt within a matter of yards. Nick fell forward, but could scrabble off to safety as I reigned my wings in and blew a loud puff of air in his direction, shaking my head as I tried to pull my dragon back in. She wasn’t happy with me, and I barely made the cover of a few scraggly trees before the change ripped through me and left me shuddering and naked on the ground. I forced my aching muscles to retrieve the clothes I had stored in the large satchel around my neck. I’d dropped my bow along the way and I wanted to cry at the loss.
But when I emerged from the trees, dressed and trembling, I wanted to kiss Nicholas when he handed them to me. No wonder he’d had such a time holding on.
We turned to face back towards the edge of the small woods we’d landed beyond. Dark eyes stared at us, emerging into the open to reveal themselves one at a time. Demon wolves, yellowed irises glaring meaningfully as they assembled around us to take stock of the dragon shifter and her rider.
There were maybe fifteen of them, mostly females and young pups. A large male I recognized separated himself from the group and stalked forward, lips peeled back in a snarl at the unexpected intrusion. He glared at us and I gave up any hope of a joyful reunion.
“Giat.” I nodded.
“How come is it, that every time I see you two its bad news for my people?”
Nick and I squared up with him. “We are…”
“I don’t care. The last time you brought Will Bennett with you. Now you are here and my people are scattered and dying. Tell me it wasn’t someone from your world that brought the disease, or whatever is responsible for what’s happening in Wyndoor. Can you do that?”
I hesitated, “Well, no but…”
“Enough! You need to learn to stay where you belong and out of our world.” He took another step in our direction, his anger growing, and I watched Nicholas’ staff glow in response.
“We’re here to fix it. There’s an antidote.” Giat’s eyes never changed, and I tried to remember the more reasonable Demon wolf from before. But grief had dulled whatever edge of civility he had once possessed.
A shiver of unease trickled down my back and I called my power, felt it shiver along my arms and down my fingers. I Wouldn’t use it if I didn’t have to, but I wouldn’t let him attack me either. Our past hadn’t been that warm and fuzzy.
All at once Nick stepped in front of me and I gasped as his sorcerer’s power whipped around him in a tornado of power. His staff shivered with fire from end to end and all but covered both hands as he planted it in the earth in front of him between us. The earth trembled beneath our feet and I felt the surge of magic he held ready to unleash if needed. “Enough!” he growled. “We are not the enemy here and you need to pay attention.”
But Giat was beyond reasoning. “Nonsense. You are here to stir up more trouble. Every time you come, more of us die.” Behind him in the woods I heard low growls and sensed movement and growing aggression.
Sparks from my own magic fell in a waterfall from my fingers and sizzled in the dry grass at our feet as I tensed, prepared to run or fight or both.
“Giat.” A quiet voice spoke from the tree line. A stocky figure stepped forward and separated himself. He left a female and small child behind that I recognized. The family from the cave.
“You need to listen to them. They aren’t like the others. They risked their own lives to lead the vamps away from us. We survived because of them.”
Giat glared at the stocky Demon for several drawn out seconds. And then he expelled a frustrated breath and the fight seemed to leave him. He turned back to us both.
“Every time you enter our world… There aren’t many of us left. We were a village of fifty or more strong. Now we are less than twenty and hiding in the woods, waiting for the vamps to finish picking us off. Even if we were willing, we are in no kind of shape to help you do anything. Not this time.
I wanted to argue, but he was right. Even if we could enlist the aid of the maybe five or six able males, that would then leave the remaining pups and females defenseless. I couldn’t do that to them. Demon or no, they deserved better. We were on our own in this, and the odds of our small group being able to do what was necessary were not favorable.
I looked at the late afternoon sky. We weren’t due to meet the others until later that night, several hours from now. “Mind if we join you then until we have to leave to meet our friends?”
Giat nodded, turning away. “We don’t have any food to spare, but we have water if you are thirsty.”
Nicholas held up his smashed water bottle. I’d apparently destroyed it somewhere in the course of our flight. He slanted me a dirty glare. “That would be awesome,” he remarked dryly.
I blinked. All signs of the terrifying sorcerer of mere seconds before was gone. The tall, awkward boy, nearly a man, was back. We fell in step to join them.
Elise should have been more responsible. She’d known, of course, that the chances of a ‘welcoming committee’ near the portal was better than average. But when an initial expanding of her Vampire senses turned up nothing out of the ordinary, she hadn’t gone back for a second look. Jerry, not a Magical and carrying the antidote in a pack on his back, struggled to keep up, though
she couldn’t fault his effort. And Emerald was not yet at a hundred percent. Healed though she was from the savagery of the wounds she’d suffered; she was still weak as a kitten and required more time to cover the same distance. So it all came down to Elise.
They stood at the portal and prepared to leap through to the other side. Elise worried that Jerry might be too slow and Emerald yet too weak to clear the five feet of empty space on the other side. But they were fresh out of other options.
When the five Guards stepped away from the heavy thicket they’d been hiding in all three of them froze in horrified shock.
The tallest, and ugliest if she were asked, smiled without humor. “He said you would be here. That it was only a matter of time and all we needed was to be patient.”
“Who is ‘he’?” Elise tried.
But the vamp ignored her, his silver edged eyes cold on hers. His eyes shifted to the pack on Jerry’s back and he gave a sharp nod.
“We’ll be taking that bag if you don’t mind. We can’t have you spoiling all our hard work now, can we?” He smiled with no kindness.
Elise tried to still the beating of her panicked heart. Five against one vampire, a child and a human were not odds she wanted to take. “You can’t have it. We give it to you you’re just going to kill us.” With nothing to lose she added. “I’m sure Fino gave you orders to leave no witnesses.”
His eyes narrowed, but he didn’t deny her words. “I’m going to kill you regardless, but I was thinking of at least making it quick. Killing children…” He shook his head. “Messy business.”
Stalling for time, though to what purpose she had no idea, Elise tried to think of a way out. The portal was right there, but they were blocking it. “Do you always do whatever he tells you to do?” she hedged.
An abrupt laugh and the other two fanned out at his side, waiting for their leader’s direction to make a move. He shrugged. “Seems healthier that way. Stop stalling. Your just putting off the inevitable.”
Elise caught her daughter’s eye. “Can you call him through?”
Emerald shook her head, “Sound doesn’t travel through the portal unless its open or someone is en route through it at the time.”
Damn. Elise took a couple steps to the left. Emerald, picking up on her tactic, took an equal number right. If they were going to die, they would not make it easy for them.
Elise waited for the tell in their eyes, the spark of knowledge right before they leapt. It was coming, she knew, and they wouldn’t wait much longer. She struggled to think of what she could do or say to buy them more time, but she knew they were fresh out.
In a crazy slow motion, she watched as their muscles bunched and the leader opened his mouth and… there was shouting…
… from somewhere to the far left, coming down the trail. Loud voices grew in volume, several all at once as conversation and laughter floated down to them bare seconds before the group of teens emerged from the wooded path and trotted into the open. At the sight of them standing there, everyone froze.
Elise counted maybe eight or nine teenagers. Their eyes gave them away as a mixture of Other and Magicals. Based on the packs and blankets they carried; they were planning a party of sorts along the private beach area of Bane Lake. Elise remembered that Sadie had told them they were all on break from classes.
The young man in front took a tentative step forward, his ready smile slipping sideways in confusion when Elise and the vampires didn’t return his humor. “Hey, we aren’t interrupting anything are we? We just wanna cut through and hit the water below if that’s okay. I mean, we are just planning a little bonfire and such… you are welcome to join…” His voice dwindled as he looked from us to the three vamps. It didn’t take a brainiac to recognize a standoff.
Elise forced a smile. “No worries. We don’t mean to spoil your fun.”
In a space of seconds, Elise analyzed the situation. The vampires would have a tough time with ten Magicals, no matter how young they were if they attacked. And the mess… it would be hard to explain the massacre away. They would wait until the kids moved on if possible. She thought of taking him up on his offer, but she didn’t want to take the chance that her assessment had been wrong and force an attack either.
Emerald spoke up, her smile sweet and easygoing. “No worries. Were you going to go swimming off the huge rock up ahead? It’s cold but refreshing this time of year. All it requires is to take a leap of faith…”
As she finished the words her eyes slanted sideways over Jerry and held her mother’s hard. “Now!” she mouthed.
And Elise was moving, reaching out to grab Jerry’s hand while her daughter seized the other with dizzying speed. And then they were running straight for the portal, hand in hand. Elise bent forward, ramming her shoulder full force into the vampire that blocked her path, sending him flying to the side, unprepared for their sudden movement. They ignored the shouts behind them, the cries of alarm from the confused students as they hit the edge of the embankment and jumped up and out through the portal.
They landed wrong on the other side, not quite clearing the empty space beneath them. Still hand in hand, Emerald dangled over the open space, her hand still clutched in Jerry’s. With a growl of determination, Elise reached over Jerry and snagged her other hand. Together, straining for purchase in the crumbling earth, they inched her up the ravine until the three of them lay in a tangle, breaths heaving in and out.
“That was way too close,” Jerry acknowledged. He climbed to his feet to join both girls, looking back towards the open abyss with horror.
The sudden crackle and snap of the portal had them scrambling back further and turning to run. “They are following us this time; we have to go now!” Elise screamed.
They ran, cutting through the short plains and hoping there was nothing there to intercept their passage. They had to take the chance. The syrupy pop behind them heralded the arrival of the guards. None of them had to look back to know they didn’t have near enough of a lead, and Jerry would only slow them down.
He must have realized the same thing. “Elise, take the pack. You’re faster than any of us.”
“Shut up and save your breath for running,” Elise shouted back, stubbornly.
They made the tree line as Jerry gave a strangled yelp. Emerald and Elise turned and came to a screeching halt of indecision.
The vampires had caught up and one of them had reached out and snagged Jerry by the back straps of his backpack, pulling him off his feet and to the ground.
The vamp that held him grinned, eyes glowing bright red and fangs emerging in anticipation of the kill. Using his sharp claws, he sliced the straps clean and removed the bag before turning back to Jerry, who was still trying to scramble away, refusing to give up. “Get away from me you blood sucking demon dog.” Jerry shouted.
But he was no match for a full-grown vampire. In a second, before Elise and Emerald could fathom coming to his aide, the vamp had him snatched up, claws cutting deep as he hauled him in for a bite. He had the pack—that made them no longer necessary.
Emerald screamed and lunged forward, her own fingers forming claws and her teeth descending as she moved. Elise likewise raced forward behind her.
They weren’t fast enough. The vamp’s teeth grazed Jerry’s exposed throat at about the same time he lost his head, literally. The rest of his body went limp and crumpled in slow motion to the ground as Jerry screamed, and scrambled out of the way.
The other two vamps stood blinking in confusion, eyes darting around the clearing frantically. Their eyes landed on what they could see. Emerald stood tall and proud, her eyes cold and blood red as she stared them down.
She smiled. “You should have run when you had a chance. You’re in Wyndoor now.”
And then what had done away with Jerry’s attacker was on them. Thin cuts and slashes ran like invisible red threads over their bodies, moving faster and deeper. They screamed and fought the invisible demon that tore at them, but they didn’t stand a ch
ance against a foe they couldn’t see.
Emerald looked away as her imaginary friend tore them to pieces.
“What… was… that!” Jerry rasped, shock taking hold of him as he shook in reaction.
Emerald moved closer and threaded her arm through his. “That was my friend Bale.” As they watched the air in front of them seemed to shimmer and then slowly it took on substance and solidified into the beast Elise had glimpsed before. At over seven and a half feet tall, his dark eyes speared them without expression. He turned to Emerald. “Gone.”
Emerald flashed a brief smile in Jerry’s direction before stepping closer to the monster. “Yes. We thank you for your help.” She placed a small hand on the red dampened fur of his arm and for the first time they realized that the enormous beast trembled.
“We need to find the Demon wolves. Do you know where they are? Our friends are waiting for us there, we hope.”
He gave a brief nod. “I show.” He made to move away and Emerald took a stumbling step after him. The race had taken a lot out of her. Elise took a step in her daughter’s direction.
“Emerald, maybe you should rest first.”
She slashed a worried look in her direction. “No time.” She took another stumbling step and grit her teeth, looking for the energy reserves that she didn’t have.
With a sudden grunt of understanding, the beast stepped forward and snatched her up. Without a glance in their direction, he took off down the trail at a jog.
Elise glanced at Jerry’s bemused expression. “I believe that’s our cue and we’d better keep up.”
That was better said than done. Bale was fast and his long legs ate ground in biting strides, one to every three of theirs. As a vampire Elise could keep pace, but within the first mile Jerry lagged, gasping behind them, but refusing to ask them to slow down.
Elise glanced for the third time behind her and swore. He’d dropped back even further, increasing the gap to close to fifty yards. Dangerous in Wyndoor, where the predators preyed first on the weakest link.
“Emerald, can you get him to slow down, take a break maybe?”
Rule 9 Academy Series Boxset: Books 3-5 Young Adult Paranormal Fantasy (Rule 9 Academy Box Sets (3 Book Series) 2) Page 44