by Art DeForest
Sara screamed in rage and agony as the claws of one hand caught and held at the waist of her jeans, bringing Jade to a stop before she was flung completely clear. Despite the pain, Sara flexed the muscles of her now bare and bloody abdomen and sat up, launching a rock hard fist into her opponent’s jaw.
The force of the blow caused Jade to lose her grip and stagger back. Sara kept her forward momentum and flung herself out of the vehicle, catching her opponent in the midriff with a shoulder and taking them both to the ground. They rolled around amidst the brush and rocks by the side of the road, each trying to gain an advantage. Dirt and debris clung to the blood oozing down Sara’s body, becoming a reddish brown mud that smeared across her stomach and breasts.
It quickly became evident to Sara that Jade was almost as good at grappling as she was standing up and throwing punches. With a quick sweep of her hips, the enforcer quickly reversed their positions. Sara found herself lying on her back with blows being rained down on her from above. Reaching up, she grabbed the back of her adversaries neck and pulled her head in close, stealing the power from the punches. Holding Jade’s head against her exposed and bloody chest with her left hand, she reached out with her right, waving it back and forth, trying to find anything she could use as an improvised weapon.
Jade tried to get separation so she could bring her power fully to bear, once more, but Sara held on doggedly. Jade resorted to throwing short, sharp elbow strikes into Sara’s face and head. Strikes that inevitably drew blood.
Sara was getting desperate. She couldn’t dislodge her opponent from her dominant position, and her hand could find no weapon. With a sharp twisting motion, Jade broke free of the restricting hold on the back of her neck. A triumphant smile lit her features as she straddled Sara and prepared to beat her into an unrecognizable mess.
Huge black wings flashed out of nowhere. Half inch, needle sharp talons raked across Jade’s beautiful Asian features, cutting deeply into her face and lacerating her left eye. A scream of agony erupted from Jade as she rolled with the blow, trying to limit the damage as much as possible. Kangee pulled up out of his slashing attack, gaining altitude once more. As he got out of arm’s reach, he sent a mental picture to Sara. It showed her staff, still planted in the ground a short distance from where she lay.
As Jade rolled off her, a hand covering her mutilated face, Sara rolled the other direction and came to her feet in a sprint to her staff. Confidence and determination flooded through her as the comforting weight of the staff filled her hands. Spinning in place, she turned to take in the surrounding scene. Thomas’ pack mates were mopping up Jade’s last remaining henchmen. As she watched, a huge, battle formed lycan tore the head from the shoulders of the last vampire guard. The body and head exploded into ash, covering the lycan’s glossy black fur in gray dust. He shook his head and sneezed at the powdery substance before looking around for more enemies.
Sara did the same. What she saw made her undead blood freeze inside her as she watched Jade straightening up from the interior of the Suburban, the small black remote held up triumphantly in one delicate hand.
“Die or come with me.” Jade snarled, wiggling the remote in her hand. “Either way, my mistress gets you out of her hair, once and for all.”
The lycans started moving in slowly toward the vampire enforcer, but Sara held up a hand in warning, causing them to freeze in their tracks. Jade tried to look around with her one remaining eye, nodding haughtily as the wolves she could see, came to a stop.
“That’s more like it.” She said, relaxing her grip a little on the remote.
The blood had stopped running down her face, and Sara could see the cuts starting to heal. It would be a day or two before her eye worked again, however. Kangee took full advantage of Jade being blind on one side. Coming down in a swooping dive, powerful, black talons snatched the remote from the assassin’s grip before she even realized the huge bird was close.
Jade shouted in rage and frustration, her good eye burning with hatred as she watched Kangee glide over to Sara and drop the remote neatly into her outstretched hand. She started to move toward the blood shaman when growls from either side focused her attentions on the overall situation. A quick glance around confirmed that all her allies were dead and that she was outnumbered.
With a final glare of hatred in Sara’s direction, Jade leapt straight up in the air, landing on the top of the black Suburban she’d just been rummaging in. Another quick leap sent her body flipping over the heads of Thomas’ wolves and coming to a wobbly landing a little ways up the side of the canyon. She wasted no time in streaking off into the trees and brush of the hillside.
The six lycan’s immediately turned to give chase. “Hold,” shouted Sara before the could lunge off in pursuit. “She’s too dangerous to pursue recklessly. Besides, I think Thomas is going to need all the help he can get retaking the facility and setting things to right.”[5]
8
As it turned out, Thomas didn’t need any help. Sara and the balance of Thomas’ pack pulled up to the fake compressor station in their newly acquired SUV’s. She saw Thomas, Tango, and Ryan, wearing nothing but a pair of sweatpants that were too big for him. They stood around Thomas’ motorcycle where it sat in front of Sara’s own damaged SUV. She noticed that while Tango was still wearing a collar, Ryan wasn’t.
The members of the Grand Junction pack got out of the vehicles quickly and surrounded their leader, making sure he was okay. Sara had a quizzical cast to her expression as she approached and inspected Thomas and his friends. “How did you get the collar off of Ryan?” She said, by way of greeting.
“When he shrank down from battle form to human,” responded Thomas. “The collar was suddenly too big, and he was able to just slip it off over his head.”
With a nod at that, she beckoned to Tango. “Come here Tango,” she said, gently.
The big puma hybrid immediately complied. Sara made him turn around and crouch so that she could read the number etched into the box on the collar. Quickly inputting the code into the slim remote in her hand, she hit the small black button marked ‘deactivate,’ then followed immediately by hitting the ‘release’ button.
The collar clicked open and fell to the ground at Tango’s feet. “One down,” said Sara, reaching down to pick up the inert collar. “Way too many to go.”
The happy process of freeing everyone from the collars was marred by profound sadness as the body of Donald, the lycan who’d been killed by Jade when she entered the facility, was discovered in a maintenance closet. The discovery, along with seeing Ivan’s remains, still untended in the interrogation room, cast a pall of sadness over the cloud of anger that permeated the facility over its invasion.
Thomas and Mike carried their fallen packmate out of the facility and into the purple-orange of the desert sunset. They were followed by Tango and a black bear creation who hadn’t been given a name as yet, carrying the massive form of Ivan’s body between them. Sara reminded herself to help all the creations to find names, if they didn’t already have one.
Pyres were built from materials at hand, dead and dried juniper for the most part as well as plenty of sagebrush that burned quickly and hot. Some gas, siphoned from one of the SUV’s was liberally doused over the pyres and its sad occupants. Thomas remained in human form, a silver lighter held absently in his left hand as the rest of the pack transformed fully into their wolf forms. Tango stood somberly by his side. Holding an improvised torch made from a long, gray piece of sagebrush with desert grasses wound around one end.
Thomas’ eyes were rimmed with red as he opened the lid on the lighter and sparked it to flame. Reaching over, he lit the torch in Tango’s hand. “Peace, brothers.” Was all he said as he threw the lighter onto the pyre. Tango followed suit, tossing his torch into the massive pile of wood and brush required to cover Ivan’s form.
Wolves howled their mournful song into the night as the flames leapt high into the sky. Thomas quickly transformed into his huge ginge
r and blond furred wolf form. His pale blue eyes shined as he raised his muzzle and joined his pack in their sorrow.
In a spontaneous show of support, the creations voiced their own mourning for their lost brethren. Tango and the other felines yowled a piteous cry. Deep roaring bellows issued from the bears. The canines among them did their best to emulate the lycan’s howls of anguish. High in the evening sky, Kangee’s caw shepherded the spirits of Ivan and Donald to their ancestors. A pink tear trailed down Sara’s cheek for the loss. She felt like a failure for not having protected beings that, at her great age, felt like her children.
Back in the facility, Thomas’ sadness was quickly turning to rage. “They took two of mine.” He growled out between grinding teeth. “They must pay.”
“They will.” Replied Sara, putting a consoling hand on the big man’s shoulder. “But we need to make sure the creations are safe, first. They know we’re still here. They could attack at any time.”
“Let them come!” Shouted Thomas, standing up from the table where they sat and slamming a fist into it. There was a loud crack as the table collapsed under the power of the blow. Thomas’ lycans snarled their support.
Sara waited for the Alpha to calm down before continuing. “If they decide to take this facility by force, they have the numbers to overwhelm you.” She said calmly. “You know that.”
“I’ll arm my wolves.” He said coldly. “And we’ll rip the heads off of any fucking vampire who manages to get through the bullets.” His face was a mask of stone.
“That will work, for now,” Sara replied, gravely. “But we need to find a more defensible position for your pack, creation and lycan both. Don’t let your anger jeopardize your responsibilities, Thomas.” She finished sternly.
Thomas’ eyes flashed at her rebuke, but deep inside he knew she was right. After staring at her for a moment longer, he bowed his head and nodded.
“I’ll send for reinforcements from the Denver pack,” Said Sara at the Alpha’s capitulation. “Once they arrive, I’ll seek out a new location. Someplace defensible, with a large enough space for training.”
“Training?” Asked Thomas, quizzically.
“Yes,” said Sara, gravely. “It’s time to take the battle to the Abandonados. They will always outnumber us, so we must be better trained and better equipped.”
Thomas nodded thoughtfully as intelligence took over from his grief. “Where are we going to find the money to train and equip all these creations?” He asked, finally.
“Let me worry about that.” She said with authority. “You just worry about killing Abandonados.”
Thomas’ dark smile promised vengeance. The deep growls of his pack gave it teeth.[6][7][8]
Books by Art DeForest
Kaitlyn Strong
I Love the Shadows
Stalking the Shadows
Savage Shadows
Kaitlyn Strong, Books 1-3
Light and shadows
Shadowlands
Hunter’s Saga
Hunter’s Game
Hunter’s Chase
Hunter’s Vengeance
Hunter’s Home, Books 1-3
The Nightstalkers
Nightstalker Incorporated
* * *
[1]leave my stop point here please.
[2]End of chapter 3
[3]Di Stopped 5-17 - tension building big time
[4]End of chapter 5
[5]End of chapter 7
[6]End of initial draft. Yahoo!
[7]yeah! lots of twists and turns.
[8]Di's turn now.