“I think that you should stay with us until this is all settled. I have a large plot of land since I bought up most of the neighborhood and tore down the houses so that our pack could have privacy. I need to speak with the pack’s elders and then, I will send out my trackers with the information that we have to see if they can spot the lamia so that we can start to put a dent in his plans. Who knows how many altered humans he has at his disposal. We can try to make a move by tomorrow.”
“Okay, I’ll let Selene know, but I think that we should have Zara hunt with your trackers just in case something goes down.”
“My wolves are more than capable.”
“Anubis I mean no disrespect to the skills of your wolves, it’s just that she knows what to look for.”
“No. I have a better idea for Zara,” Selene tells me, forcing me to turn around.
Anubis gets quiet as he listens as well. Wolf hearing and all.
“She’s going to stay and help both of us train with the rest of the wolves on this full moon.”
“Sounds interesting. I think I’ll join you. After all, the moon is calling to me,” Anubis replies.
“I guess we will see you soon then,” I respond.
“I am counting the minutes,” Anubis replies. I can practically see the smile he’s sure to be wearing.
Chapter Twenty Six
Soon, I’m alone in the forest behind Anubis’s giant house with Katsu strapped to my back. Selene, Anubis, Jaxson, Zara, and some other pack members are out here too. But tonight, it is everyone for themselves, a test of skills against many types of opponents.
A human, werewolf, vampire, and witch walk into a bar. Ha ha.
Anubis has purchased every house on this side of the street, combining two homes for his main house and also creating a compound of sorts. High walls and intelligently placed trees create a perimeter and a means to keep nosey onlookers from seeing daily activities. Many of his pack choose to live here, Jaxson not being one of them. The woods behind the houses create a perfect place to hunt and test skill.
Someone at the house will give the signal any minute. Each of us have three black flags tied to our bodies and we have to attempt not to lose any. If we are knocked down by an opponent we have to give up a flag. They also can be taken from us by skill. Once we lose all three, we will be disqualified. The main objective along with that is to find and retrieve the white flag that has been hidden in the woods. I just feel as if I’m in the Hunger Games. I’m not going to be counted out easily though.
As the cold caress of the wind reaches through my leather jacket, I hear the signal, a car horn honking three times. With that, I take off as I fast as I can through the trees, dodging branches and shrubbery, suddenly feeling as if I am back with the Immortals, running with Lawrence.
That thought helps calm my nerves and makes it easier for me to believe in myself. Yes, they were born with their gifts and yes, they had been at this longer. Zara had kicked my ass already, Selene had outsmarted me, but I’m persistent and special. I have to remember that I have to first believe in myself. I need to keep in mind that I haven’t come into all my powers yet. I won’t allow a few mishaps to shake my confidence.
Suddenly, I stop and listen. With the breeze comes the taste of excitement. I can feel him, barreling towards me, the man mountain as I like to call him. Jaxson is in his true wolf form, hoping to use his speed to ambush me. It isn’t going to work though; I feel his intent, even from this distance.
I call for my power to rise within me, breathing deeply and picturing it building up inside my core like a slow flame. Then, it explodes, zipping through all of my synapses and I feel very much alive. I think having Zara’s blood inside me also makes it easier for me to accomplish this power surge. Jaxson doesn’t feel the change in me however, because he’s jetting towards me with the same speed.
I turn just as he’s flying through the air with jaws open wide, his teeth as sharp and as powerful as any great white shark. But, I stop him, my head tilting out of the way of his bite and my hands on both of his shoulders. My feet slide about ten feet from the force of his attack, but I manage to root myself and push him back. With a leaping kick, I send him flying through the air.
As expected, he lands on his feet with a growl and then does part two of his change.
It’s intriguing to watch his body tremble, distort, then grow into another beast. One that’s now standing on his hind legs, torso all muscle with defined abs like a man, smaller muzzle, and arms that are shaped like a human. His body is still covered in his chestnut colored fur. The black streak of fur looks like an unnatural bolt of lightning down his chest, eyes glowing yellow under the moon. His moon, full and giving him even more power. On this night, he is truly one of the luna dasa as he called it, the moon’s servant.
“C’mon Jaxson, all this for lil old me?” I joke.
He laughs, the sound coming out like a bark. “I want to win.”
“In that case…” I draw my katana and grip it firmly in front of me with two hands. I’m not worried about slicing him up a little because weres tend to heal as quickly as vampires as long as they’re in their wolf form and the wound’s not too serious.
He gives me something that’s probably a smile, before ripping off a huge branch and hurling it at me. Instead of wasting time dodging it like he expects, I rush to meet the tree limb, slice through it and slash down on Jaxson’s thigh before landing an elbow into his chest. Jaxson then manages to knock Katsu from my hand before breaking through my attempted block and landing a blow to the side of my face.
I’m surprised that bones didn’t crunch, but not amazed at the blood coming from me from his razor claws. He leaps through the air, clinging on to a tree, hopping from one to the other at blinding speed, before making like a missile targeting me from behind. This is when my dance background kicks in and I flip out the way, twisting just in time to dodge another strike before countering with my own takedown. I grab one of his flags that are tied to his waist in triumph.
Swiftly, I reach for Katsu, my sword with the name that means victory, just in time to block a hard attack from Zara who has now joined the fray with a double bladed staff.
My body vibrates under the blow, but I manage to make her unbalanced and land a kick to her inner leg. She pretends to allow the fall to take her and handsprings backwards out of the way just in time to miss getting stepped on by Jaxson. Then, it’s all three of us in a brawl, acting on an opening that the other created, exchanging blows with one another. I can’t believe that I’m keeping up with them, but I don’t question it, don’t lose my focus. I allow my clarity that I possess at the moment to allow me to think two steps ahead. My mind begins to create a counter for ever counter, and soon, I am the one making Zara lose her weapon.
She gives me a look of approval and tosses me one of her flags before taking off into the night. She’s just enjoying the game, trying to test everyone’s skill level. Maybe I needed to do the same.
Once Zara disappears, I put my hands on top of my head, catching my breath as Jaxson sniffs the air before taking off at ten o’clock.
“Shit,” I say to myself as I see sparks, then a burst of light from the direction that Jaxson just took off in. I wonder who Selene is going at it with. I run through the trees, jumping over fallen branches and weaving like a football player, doing my best to keep up with the wolf in front of me who is using him human-like arms and sharp claws to jump quickly through the more dense trees in this area. After getting smacked in the face with a couple branches, I slow my pace down until I reach the outer area of the battlefield. There, Selene is standing over one of the other wolves in Anubis’s pack, a white wolf I recognized as the female from the fight near the club.
Selene is also looking very pissed off. Her hair seems to be floating from her use of magic and the left sleeve of her dark blue shirt is torn. What a waste.
Before anyone can attack, she says, “Anubis took the flag from me while I was fighting her. He’s
probably already back now, sneaky bastard.”
The female gets off the ground and huffs, shaking her body like a wet dog, before going into the trees and changing back to human form. We all listen to her painful grunts followed by heavy breathing as she completes her change and then comes back into the clearing fully clothed.
“Um, how come last time you guys were all naked and now you have clothes on? Because, I’m sure you didn’t just pull those out of the bushes,” I ask, very interested in her response.
“It’s the wolf magic inside of us. If we are more focused when we change, we can help the magic keep out clothes intact, but if we shift in a hurry or in a rage, it’s not likely that we’ll be focused enough to guide the magic into concealing our clothes, and we destroy them,” she answers, her voice sounding like she just woke up from a long nap.
The signal that someone has brought the flag back to the house goes off. I look at the two flags that I earned tonight with satisfaction. We all walk back slowly, with Jaxson lagging behind in order to shift back. Up ahead, Selene and the female wolf are talking about their fight. There seems to be a mutual respect between them, which is good. When we reach the light yellow house, Anubis is sitting on top of the roof, shirt off, legs dangling, waving the flag mockingly at us.
“Did you even fight?” Jaxson asks him, clearly irritated.
Anubis laughs. “Don’t be such a cry baby. I won and you lost. Deal with it.”
“Whatever,” Jaxson mumbles.
“Hey, where’s that vamp?” Anubis asks, looking around, making it obvious that he doesn’t want her lurking around alone.
“She left the premises, said that she had to look into something real quick, but she’d be back in about an hour,” another one of his wolves responds.
Interesting. An hour is when Anubis’s tracker wolves are due back. What is she up to?
“Well, I can’t say that I like her disappearing like that, but she’s going to be a valuable asset. Let’s fill our bellies and talk strategy while we wait,” Anubis declares. We all nod and join him as he jumps from the roof, landing perfectly balanced and silent, and walks into the house.
◊◊◊
A little over an hour later, the other wolves return and give us the long-awaited details on the lamia and their whereabouts. They are on the outskirts of town in an old university research building. The place was supposed to be closed by the government which meant that someone in the local government had to be working with Namen. I guess it makes sense if children were really coming up missing in such high numbers, then someone had to be covering it up. If I find out who it is, I’d pay them a visit too after this was all said and done. Bastard.
It’s awesome to finally know where we are headed, but there’s also bad news as well. First, they had to allow the lamia to take another child. She, the lamia, had been dressed up like a woman begging for money. When one of the street kids tried to chat her up, she bit him to immobilize him then disappeared. Second, the wolves said that they actually smelled more along the lines of twenty of them. This means that there are enough of them to make a horde, which is what a large group of demons is called. There’s probably a gate that needs to be closed before more demons discover it and make their way through.
Namen is gaining quite a following. He must be feeding them well, meaning that there are many failures with his experiments. This could be interpreted as a good thing or bad. Next, there is pretty strong magic guarding the place. Namen will probably know immediately once we are inside. We have to be prepared if he does come.
Chapter Twenty Seven
Zara stalks in with hair freshly braided into singles, looks at our little group, and smiles, her fangs out and deadly looking. She throws me a bottle of something. “Here, you drink some of this and give the rest to Selene. It has my blood in it and it’ll help boost your strengths.”
“Hell no, you won’t be creating a bond with me,” Selene says, reaching to snatch the bottle from my hand to examine it. I pull away from her.
“What’s in it anyway?” I ask, slightly disgusted at the thought of drinking her blood like this. At least the other two times, I had been unaware.
“It’s an herbal compound designed to lengthen the amount of time that the blood is effective. I’d offer it to everyone but it only works with humans and witches since they are the only two groups that can be turned into vampire,” Zara tells us matter-of-factly, crossing her arms in that nonchalant signature way. Her black sleeveless hoodie makes her look like a dangerous thug. I kind of like it. Her tattoo sleeve making her ten times more attractive.
“Just swallow the shit and be done with it. We have work to do,” Anubis says in his Alpha voice. Meaning, this is final, let’s move on.
It is actually a wonder that Anubis and Zara could stay in the same room together for too long since both of them are clearly Alphas in their own respects. One or both of them are showing a lot of composure. Zara must also be keeping her power suppressed as much as possible allowing Anubis to be in charge in his own home.
I look at the drink one more time then shrug my shoulders as I open it and take three big gulps, leaving some for Selene. It doesn’t taste like anything at first, then, the flavor, or should I say power, hits my senses. It tastes like liquid fire. It scorches my insides, but also warms me in ring of safety as if nothing can get past it.
“That’s our bond becoming complete, Rayne,” Zara tells me, her voice spinning through my mind.
I give her a look, but she is already focused somewhere else. I sit quietly as the power of her blood cushions me. Then, I hand the bottle to Selene and give her a look that says, ‘drink.’ She huffs and obeys.
“Good. Now, what’s next?” the female wolf asks. She pulls back her blonde hair and I watch her dark blue eyes settle obediently on Anubis. She’s about the same height as me, but much smaller. Tiny breasts, tiny waist, small lips. Her boyish body makes her look like a young teen.
I glance at everyone, studying them. Their aura is much easier to feel now. All my synapses seem to be firing from the mixture I just consumed. I want to run, jump, and swim. I force my body to stay seated. Is this how I’ll always feel with vampire blood in my system? I hear Anubis speaking and Jaxson muttering a reply, but I’m too intrigued by what I’m feeling to give it much attention. Okay, time to focus.
For the next hour, we come up with a plan. Then, we come up with another two in case those fail. By the time we finish, we are all set on tomorrow night. It is time. I can’t deal with any more innocents getting taken. We all know however that this is only the first step. We’d have to locate his lieutenants if we wanted to do some serious damage. I’d have to get in contact with Damien as much as I hated to admit it. He had resources up his sleeve and it would make our job a whole lot easier.
“So, let’s go over the plans again,” Anubis tells us as we finish up our discussion.
Selene will start off with a perimeter spell that will keep the lamia from getting away. It would force them to stay in the building. However, since the building is so large, she can only hold it for five minutes, if that. Therefore, Zara will stay with her to protect her and eliminate any of the ones that happen to get free if she is unable to hold the spell or if she becomes weakened. Using our newly formed bond that Selene is also not too happy about, I will tell Zara to let Selene know when to start the incantation once we are closer inside. We then are to attack in three waves.
Jaxson and I are the first wave. Anubis and the female wolf, who I now know is named Taryn will try to circle around and catch them from behind. Last, two more of Anubis’s best hunters would take advantage of the confusion of battle and finish it all up. They will also stay behind to burn the bodies. We are hoping to be quick and precise enough that we’ll be able to rescue the children afterward. If there are any children to rescue.
If the children are being directly guarded by the lamia, which Zara doesn’t think they will be, Jaxson will give a signal through his pack bond and
the last three will meet up with us and create a path for me to get to the kids while they take out as many lamia as possible. Anubis and Taryn would then decide what to do based on how many children there are.
The trackers had also informed us that there are plenty of cameras around and that we’ll need to destroy as many as we can. Zara said that she’d be fast enough to take out the ones around the building before we were set up, then we’d have to move quickly inside to handle the rest. The strategies are based upon our individual strengths and weaknesses and in the end we all seemed satisfied with who will be watching our back.
I have to remind everyone about the potentially deadly venom of the lamia as well as the fact that they can regenerate. Last, we’d have to find that damn gate that Namen opened for the demons. Needless to say, there is a helluva lot of work that needs to be done.
When we finish, I stand and walk towards Selene to ask her what her next move will be, but Zara has already beat me to it.
“Hey,” she says to Selene, slightly touching her arm in as friendly a way as possible. I notice Selene flinch, but make an effort not to pull away. “I need you to come with me. I have a spell that’s going to be able to close that bridge that the demons are getting through, but it’s blood magic. That’s part of why I needed to have you drink my blood. You’re going to need the strength to practice this,” Zara tells her gently, making an effort to seem non-threatening. Selene doesn’t care for vampires, that much is obvious. That in itself is weird to me because Selene never seemed like the prejudiced type. Maybe I’m wrong; maybe she just doesn’t like Zara.
Selene turns her beautiful green eyes towards me and asks, “Are you going to come with us?”
I think for a second, wondering how Selene would feel about being left alone with Zara for such a dangerous spell, but I know that she’ll definitely have to rely on her tomorrow, so the sooner she gets used to it, the better. “No. I think I’m going to take Anubis in the forest with me and see if I can contact Diana. Maybe she will have some ideas about that day we talked about and how much time we have before the eclipse hits.”
The Unmaking (The Rayne Whitmore Series Book 1) Page 22