by Riley Storm
They weren’t having much luck. Their attacks never penetrated his own shield, and the defenses they could conjure up were meagre compared to hers. Klaue had given her the best.
Someone ran up to her and grabbed her. Jessica screamed and chopped down hard on the wrist with all her might. The hand withdrew for a second and someone cursed.
“I’m with you,” they snapped, then tackled her to the side.
Her shield was no protection against anything but magic, and the pair tumbled down as something big and heavy flew through the space they’d just occupied. Her eyes weren’t able to see what, the constant flashes of magic in the dark effectively keeping her blind.
“Kasperi?” she breathed, suddenly recognizing the voice.
“The one and the same,” he growled, standing up. He was close enough for her to make him out in the darkness. “Get back!”
She stood behind him as green magic in the shape of a diving bird of prey stooped down on them. Kasperi held aloft a scarf.
“Ummm,” she mumbled as the bird grew in size as it descended. What the hell was he going to do with a scarf?
“Quiet. I’m not very good at this,” he snapped.
Then the scarf began to move in circles as he whirled his wrist around, slowly, then speeding up. The silken scarf glowed red and the tip reached out for the bird. Kasperi made the circle bigger, and then bigger still, flicking it out to ensnare the bird.
With a grunt, he turned, the scarf moving with him, the green magic contained within, like some sort of trap. Spinning completely, he flicked his wrist and the scarf launched the bird right back where it had come from.
There was a roar of frustration and then a huge flash of green as the bird exploded across the sky. Jessica went blind once again, but not before she realized what had happened.
“Not good?” she said, holding on to Kasperi’s back as he guided her across the lawn. “You call that not good?”
“I didn’t think it would work,” he admitted. “I—look out!” He snapped his wrist up again, the scarf whirling about in tiny circles as it deflected a lance of red energy headed straight for her head.
Kasperi snarled in anger, wrapped the scarf around his fist and under the same armpit, creating a line. Then he concentrated, and pulled the scarf back, like it was a slingshot. A roiling ball of red-fire appeared in the center, and he let it fly, then followed it up with several more, all aimed at the sky.
“Uh, he’s flying,” she said, suddenly realizing that the mage wasn’t on the ground.
“Yeah, he is. And the bastard is tearing us apart,” Kasperi said.
“Klaue?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted heavily.
“We need to find him.”
Kasperi turned to look at her. “We can’t. We’re falling back. We have to go, now, before the wolves get back. There’s no time. It’s a bloody trap, Jess. They knew we were coming. Someone betrayed us.”
Jessica pushed him aside and stepped into the path of a blue cloud, wincing at the brightness as her shield flared up and stopped it, nearly burning her skin in the process.
Kasperi stared at her. “You’ve had that the entire time and you just now show it?”
She smiled. “You never gave me a chance. Now, where is Klaue?”
The shifter shrugged, then pointed. “Probably somewhere over there.”
She followed his finger to the center of the fight, where four or five shifters were battling with the mage. Somehow, the magic user had the energy to take them all on and still send things her way. If he wasn’t trying to kill her, she’d have felt important at that.
“Get everyone out of here!” she commanded, shouting as the sounds increased, the fighting growing more frenetic. “Take those who are hurt.”
Kasperi wanted to protest, but he saw the set of her jaw and nodded, taking off.
Jessica squared her shoulders, and then like an idiot, ran straight at the fiercest of the fighting. Magic was being thrown around at a breakneck pace, and the constant flashes fried her vision over and over again, but she was coming closer and closer. Then she saw him. Just like Kasperi had said, Klaue was at the center of the fighting, directing his men as they tried to bring the mage down.
They weren’t winning. She saw two bodies on the ground nearby. One was rolling back and forth, the left side of his body badly burned. The other…she looked away. The other wasn’t moving at all, and never would again. Another casualty of her personal war.
She opened her mouth to tell Klaue she was there, but the mage chose that moment and gestured violently with one hand. Green flames rose up, cutting her and the bodies off from the living shifters. Jessica cursed and tried to force her way through, but the pendant grew too hot, and she could smell her skin burning this time.
“Fuck you!” she cried out in frustration, stepping out of the flames. Maybe she could get around them!
Running to her right, she passed the hurt shifter and saw the edge of the flames, just past the dead one. Almost there. She could make it.
But just before she got there, the fire shifted, and blocked her away again. Frowning, she glared at it, hearing the mocking laughter as the living thing followed her. She kicked out in frustration, her foot hitting something metallic lying near the dead shifter.
Looking down, she saw the outline of a pistol in the grass. It was hooked to a strap at the base that was still looped around the dead shifter’s arm. She bent down to free it, blocking the view of the weapon from above, even as another blast of blue slammed into her shield. Jessica shrieked in pain as the pendant grew so hot it burnt her skin, and then exploded.
She was defenseless.
Klaue must have noticed, because she heard his bellow over the cacophony as he called her name. There was no time. One more attack and she was dead.
“I have you now!” the mage cackled.
Jessica finally pulled the strap free of the burnt flesh, flicked the safety off and put her video game training to use. She flung herself to the side, pistol in both hands as she tracked the mage in the air. He was hovering almost right on top of her, warding off everything Klaue and his men could give with one hand, the other focused on her, blue coiled in his palm.
Almost at the same moment he extended his arm, she saw him at the end of her sights and squeezed the trigger.
The bullet sliced through the air and slammed into the mage’s palm, though she’d been aiming at his chest. Blue energy erupted around him—and something else. She watched it fizzle and die as particles of…something, drifted down from the sky, sparking every time they encountered magic.
The mage screamed at the backwash, and the sudden black mark expanding out from the middle of his hand. He flung himself backward in the air, and gestured sharply. A rent appeared and he disappeared into it, still howling in pain. The crack in reality disappeared, and Jessica sagged, sighing hard. It was over.
It was only then she realized the howls hadn’t stopped.
32
“They can fly,” he muttered, racing across the open ground toward Jessica. “Of course, they can fly now. That seems fair.”
Two sleek black forms came streaking across the grounds toward Klaue’s mate, like shadows moving of their own volition. They came at her like pincers, splitting apart and angling inward, the first of the wolves of Canis to arrive on scene. Soon there would be more.
A lot more, there’s no way that little lightshow was missed by, oh I don’t know, the entire House Canis!
All around them, wolves howled and closed. Most of Klaue’s men were retreating toward the forest as fast as they could go, helping those who were injured, and carrying those who were dead. He growled silently at the pair of casualties, vowing once again to make Canis and this unknown mage suffer.
“Jessica, once I deal with these two, get on and hang on!” he shouted, nearing his mate. There wouldn’t be time for instructions afterward. It was going to be too close to begin with. A race between the wolves, and Klaue.
Bones grew and shifted as he slipped into the transformation. It was an awkward, clunky thing that took several noticeable seconds to achieve. Trying to shift on the run was impossible for most shifters. But most shifters weren’t aspiring champions of High House Ursa.
Klaue was, and while it wasn’t pretty, he didn’t slow down. He sped up. Powerful hind legs propelled him forward, his front legs still shifting as they attempted to keep up. Accelerating faster as his body bulked out and stabilized, Klaue opened his mouth wide, bellowing a challenge to the two canines as they shot across the lawn, straight at his mate.
Neither one listened to him, intent only on Jessica. Like a pair of rabid dogs they ran onward, eyes only for her. It was their first, and last, mistake.
Charging forward, two tons of bear made short work of the first black-furred beast by the simple expedient of trampling it. The wolf was huge, somewhere over 400 pounds but—hit by something four times its weight and eight times its size—it didn’t stand a chance. The wolf went down, bones snapping and fur parting in great gaping rents as his paws tore it to shreds while he ran over it.
The second wolf saw it happening and veered away, but it was too late. In their desperate attempt to kill Jessica, they had forgotten their sole advantage over a bear shifter: fighting as one. Individually, he made short work of both of them. Rearing upward in the path of the second Canim, he shoved his paw into its neck. Claws dug deep, and the taste of iron filled the air as steaming blood poured from the wound, covering his paw and running down his arm.
The wolf scrabbled at him with all four paws, trying to dislodge him, to win its way free as it dangled in the air. Klaue didn’t give it a choice. Spinning around to build momentum, he whipped the arm overhand and straight down. The wolf had a split second to yelp before it hit the ground, neck snapping instantly from the force. The creature wheezed once as its last breath left it, and then it was still.
Moving toward Jessica, he crouched down, looking at his back, hoping she would get the hint, but also fearing she might be too shell-shocked to figure out what was going on.
The forest on the eastern edge of the property was alive with enraged howls as the wolves realized they had been tricked and reoriented themselves toward the real threat. Klaue could run fast in his bear form, but not as fast as the wolves. Nothing was faster on open ground. His only hope was to build enough of a lead and get into the forest. There, the speed advantage would be nullified and he could bring his strength to bear more easily.
Hopefully, we can get out of here before that becomes necessary.
Roaring timidly at her, he gestured with a paw, imploring her to hop on. Jessica came near, eyeing the black fur and bone-yellow of his teeth nervously. He tried not to shake impatiently, and only partially succeeded. Cursing himself, he prepared to shift back, to convince her it was fine.
“Don’t get impatient with me,” Jessica snapped suddenly, taking a fistful of fur and hauling herself up onto his back hand over hand. “It’s not like they offer bear-riding lessons in the human world. Something about you folks not being overly kind to Goldilocks has them scared.”
He stood still for a moment, stunned at the way she’d reacted to his impatience with attitude. Damn, he liked this woman a lot!
“Well, come on now. You got me on top of you. Now mush!”
Mush? He thought, glaring at her over his shoulder. You’re going to pay for that one.
But move he did, slowly at first so she could find her grip, then faster. And faster. People often didn’t realize how fast bears could move when they wanted to. Shifters could move even faster. The scenery flowed by in a blur, and on his back, Jessica screamed.
Glancing back, he saw a veritable horde of wolves pour from the forest on the eastern side of the property. They came on in a line, black clouds poured from a can, coating the lawn from view as they saw their quarry escaping. Howls filled the air as they hunted.
And we are the prey.
“Klaue, to your left!”
His head snapped around just in time to see a silver-gray wolf leap at Jessica, trying to take her from his back. There was nothing he could do, he was moving too fast, and it was too late.
And then suddenly, Jessica was dangling at his side, pulling painfully at his fur as she held on with both hands, her feet constantly kicking off his chest and front leg to keep from being trampled. The wolf sailed over the top through the suddenly empty space and landed in a heap, yipping in frustration as it bounced and tried to regain its feet.
Klaue desperately wanted to slow, to get her reseated, but if he did, the wolves would catch him again. Clouds of air steamed as he breathed hard. With a muted roar, he twisted his body slightly, using the momentum to fling Jessica back up on top of him. She landed sideways, and he felt sharp yanks on his fur as she repositioned, but it was a minor price to pay for her safety.
Moments later, they entered the forest. Jessica ducked low behind his head, so flat he could feel her against him like a shirt. It couldn’t be pleasant up there, the constant bouncing, but she wasn’t complaining. In fact she was eerily quiet, not having made a sound during that entire ordeal with the wolf that nearly got her.
Sparing a quick glance back as best he could, Klaue verified she wasn’t hurt. But other than that, there was little he could do but run. Run as fast as he could and hope that they would escape the wolves. Escape them, and live to deal with the consequences.
The raid was a disaster, and at least two of his men were dead. What’s more, House Canis still had Jessica’s sister, and now they would be on their guard. Nothing good was going to come of this night, he could feel it.
Putting his head down, Klaue ran on into the night, his thoughts as black as the sky.
33
Struggling to keep her breathing even, Jessica faced forward the entire way home. Her eyes stared straight ahead, not seeing anything that passed by. Next to her, Klaue sat in the driver’s seat, but she could feel his attention split between her and the road. It didn’t matter. There was nothing he could say that she wasn’t already telling herself.
Nothing had challenged them in the woods, and once they were on the far side of the wall and in force, the wolves had been reluctant to give chase. She thought. It was mostly a haze in her mind, and she remembered very little of the escape besides riding atop Klaue. That part was vivid because of the wolf.
It had come sailing out of the night from the opposite direction, and only an instinct had reached out and told her to look the other way, a sixth sense warning her of danger. Whatever it was, it had saved her life. Jessica hadn’t thought twice, she’d just pulled a move she’d seen in a movie somewhere. Somehow, it had worked and she hadn’t fallen off.
After that, the race through the forest, wolves at their heels, at least one of them attacking Klaue… it had all been lost to a fog. Her hands were covered in scrapes, and she had one on her face as well. Branches and things had whipped at her as they’d raced toward safety, minor pains compared to saving her life.
Now they were almost home. Klaue was guiding them into the underground garage. Then they were walking. His quarters appeared around her, the room shifting with every blink of her eyes. The cold was gone, replaced by…nothing. She couldn’t feel anything. Her chest hurt. The world grew brighter. Then darker. Klaue was there.
Klaue was there.
Some of the pressure on her chest disappeared. He held her hand, then touched her face. The warmth of his fingers, the tenderness of his caress sliced open the shell that had descended over her, freeing her from its constrictions. Jessica sucked down a breath of air, hearing how strained her lungs sounded as they gasped for precious oxygen. Once. Twice. A third, and finally the world slowed down. She continued to breathe.
Then the tears came. All at once, they cascaded down her face like an avalanche, burying Klaue in them as he clutched her to him, whispering in her ear over and over again that it was okay, that she was alright.
Didn’t he kno
w? Couldn’t he figure it out? The tears weren’t for her. She was fine, just a few scratches. The tears were for the others. The injured. The dead. Oh, God, the dead. People had died! She remembered seeing the body now, hit by one of the mages’ blasts of blue energy and unable to defend himself. Charred and burnt. It was from that dead body that she’d pulled the gun and shot him.
She, Jessica, had shot someone. In all her days of video game playing, uncaring of the gore and the people she dispatched, never had she thought it would feel like this. What scared her most was she liked it. She liked knowing that an evil person had gotten just a taste of what was coming to them.
Klaue was rocking her back and forth now gently, trying to soothe her. “Jess, Jess. Shhh, it’s okay, we’re home now. Everything is fine.”
But everything wasn’t fine. The tears came for one more person.
“My sister,” she whispered. “My baby sister. They still have her, Klaue. They have Zoe. What are they going to do to her now?” she moaned. “Oh fuck, they’re going to kill her, aren’t they?”
She had to be in shock. There was no other explanation for her hysterics. A corner of her brain was railing against it all, saying that nothing could be gained by acting this way, but emotions, hormones and fear for her little sister overwhelmed all rationality at the moment.
“Your sister…Zoe, she’ll be okay,” Klaue said, trying to assure her. “As long as you’re still alive, she’ll be fine. Trust me, it’s going to be alright.”
Sudden anger flowed into her, scouring her veins of any other emotion, burning it away as her blood boiled over.
“Everything is not going to be alright,” she hissed, pulling away from Klaue, standing up straight. “How can you say that? How can you say that!”
Klaue stood, towering over her, but she wasn’t intimidated by him. Not at all.
“How can you say that?!” she shrieked, beating a fist on his chest. “People are dead, Klaue! They are dead! Are you too uncaring to notice? Did they mean nothing to you in the first place? Is that who you are? Do you just toss men away like they’re nothing, just more fodder for glorious Klaue as he ascends the ranks?”