When the world had been broken, so had the Veil. The Veil was essentially layers between the worlds of the living and the dead. Seven layers that went to the level which had housed the demons. The Veil had been holding them along with a host of other creatures . . . it was possible that these were creatures from somewhere within it.
Really, anything was possible, which made this difficult at the best of times.
I shook my head, answering my own question. “Even if it was something from beyond the Veil, why aren’t there others? No creatures are singular—born out of thin air. They all have mates so they can produce and overrun the land. Why are they always alone? Where are their kin? And, why have they been dead? What’s killing them? There’s never a bite mark or obvious missing limbs, nothing. Are these new creatures unable to survive in this world? Or is there more to it? Is someone killing them? And if so, why?” The questions poured out of me.
My little cat sighed. “All good questions, and like always, you’ve got a shit ton of them.”
I smiled at her and rolled my eyes. At least I knew my questioning of things hadn’t changed.
Oka walked around to the other side of the beast and turned her head to the side. “Wait, what is this? Another one?”
I got up to see what she’d found, and a frown creased my brow.
Burned into the creature’s hide, right in the middle of its chest was a symbol I’d seen before. The flesh under the mark was charred black, and around that it was bright red. As if the brand was relatively new. More than that, it was the same symbol I’d seen on the other two strange creatures, though they’d been placed on different body parts.
The first time I’d seen it, I thought it was just an oddity of the creature’s characteristics, just something it had. But then we’d found it on the second creature that didn’t fit into any gene pool I’d ever heard of.
The exact same symbol. An open circle, a line, and a closed circle. What little study I’d done of signs and symbols told me it was a sign of attachment. As if the creature was tied to someone else, as if it were bound to them.
Except, that wasn’t all on this “griffin.” The closed circle had an addition. Three small dots ran along the edge. I made myself lean close and touch it, hoping for a bit of residual energy that would give me a clue. Nothing came through, though.
Did that change the symbol’s meaning? Or did the three dots mean something else entirely?
Or was it all just another strange coincidence?
“It’s the same as on the others. Except for this,” I pointed at the dots. “Those are new.”
“What does that mean?” Oka asked as I stood. She jumped into my arms and climbed onto my shoulder once more, looking down at the poor beast.
“One thing’s for sure. This isn’t good. And we are seeing them closer and closer together.”
“Something is ramping up,” she said. “We need to be extra vigilant, Pam.”
The sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach agreed with her even if I didn’t want to admit it out loud.
Chapter Eight
Funny thing was, I didn’t have a lot of time to digest our inspection of the dead creature on the road, or any thoughts on the not-griffin, or the symbol burned into its flesh, or what it could mean for everyone before the bloody screaming from the front of the caravan started again.
“Damn it, BJ, shut your trap,” I muttered. She seriously needed to relax. We lived in a startling world filled with horrors you didn’t dare even dream about regularly leaping out at us. Did she not get that memo?
Oka laughed. “Maybe Sage will give her a sedative of some sort. That’s about all she’s good for when it comes to being a witch.”
“A heavy dose, let’s hope. Something that will last a solid twenty-four hours. Long as it’s not belladonna.” I stretched my arms over my head and twisted to one side to see a flash of black rip through the trees.
Well, if that wasn’t a pile of dog doo just waiting to be stepped in. Looks like I judged old BJ a little too harshly. Perhaps her scream was more warranted than I’d thought.
Another streak of black, followed by one of dark brown, and one of gray. More colors, more movement. They flashed through the forest to our left, and I counted as fast as I could in order to get a bead on them.
Wolves were dangerous, and we’d had a few run-ins with them as far north as we were over the last three years. Hell, what we traveled on was a huge chunk of what was left of Alaska. I’d have been surprised if we hadn’t run into wolves.
But these were not your average everyday wolf, but their larger, crankier, hungrier cousins.
Werewolves, to be precise.
From ahead, I heard Richard shout above the commotion. “Circle! Children and women in the center!”
This was his defense strategy, and as things went, I’d seen worse. The caravan worked to get themselves turned around, backing the vehicles in fast and hard, the pregnant woman and very few children placed in the relative safety of the circle.
The men set themselves up to fight, but they weren’t going to be fast enough. I could see it already.
“Oka, are there as many wolves as I think?” I asked as I broke into a jog.
“Yeah, there are,” she said. “Now can I shift?”
“Hang on. If there are too many, they’ll come at you and I don’t want you to get mobbed and hurt.” That was the downside to her shifting into her tiger form. She was hard to miss and made a great target, and I didn’t want to risk losing her.
I moved with the flood of bodies as they fought to get inside the circle of the trucks, my eyes tracking the pack as best I could.
The pack was sizable, possibly the biggest we’d come across. Which told me they didn’t need us to grow their numbers. They were after something else then.
An easy meal.
Easy food that was tender and couldn’t run all that fast—like the children. My heart picked up speed. They wouldn’t dare. They damn well wouldn’t dare!
The commotion came at me from all directions as the pack surrounded us, launching at us from everywhere. None were close enough to me to dive into them. I kept still, the chaos filling my ears, feeling the flow of the fight as it picked up.
That was until a big gray wolf leapt over a group of fighters, landed on the hood of one of the trucks and then bounded up onto the back of it as he headed straight for the center of our group.
“The kids, that fucker is going for the kids!” I yelled as I turned on the speed, my cloak snapping out around me.
“Frost!” Oka cried as she jumped down from my shoulder and ran ahead of me, weaving effortlessly between people’s legs.
I worked my way forward until a spear flew right in front of my nose and hit a small brown wolf in the leg. It only served to make him angry, and I was his closest target. I turned in time to see the thrower, Ron aka Ass Face, already running away.
“See? This is what I meant, Ass Face!” I hollered at him. But he either didn’t hear me, or he didn’t care. Maybe he was hoping the wolf would take me out.
But it would take more than a small werewolf to wipe me off the face of this broken Earth. She bared her teeth at me and lunged forward just in time to see Oka doubling back, running to my aid. I shook my head, and she skidded to a halt. “The kids, help the kids! Shift only if you have to!” I yelled at her. She nodded and took off again as I leaned back, letting the wolf take me down to my back. Thing was, she didn’t know I had the zombie slayers tucked near to me, or that even a bite from her wouldn’t turn me into a werewolf. I had her by the throat with one hand, holding her off while I reached for one of my curved blades.
“What the hell are you doing?” I snarled at her.
She snapped her teeth. “Death comes. We precede her.”
Well, she was right about that.
The female wolf lunged hard at me, then jerked with a suddenness that had nothing to do with my own blade. Her growl cut short right in the middle of a rather throaty sound
that turned into a burble of air escaping past the blood in her throat.
I rolled her off me to one side and sat up to see Macey yank her machete from the wolf’s spine. She nodded to me before moving on to the next target, doing what she could to help fend off the wolves. Blood splattered the side of her face and one arm. For a little human, she was doing a bang-up job of taking out the werewolves in the few minutes they’d been attacking. She was out for their blood, and I certainly wasn’t going to stop her. That kind of drive kept people alive.
Pamela, you could end this all in moments if you embraced your magic. Wipe them out with the snap of a finger.
Sweat beaded out along my face that had nothing to do with my physical exertion. “I will not,” I growled.
You will die without me.
I rolled the back end of the wolf off me, fighting to ignore that dark voice, my hands warm with blood. Shaking, I stood to meet my next challenge, blades ready.
But there was none. The wolves were making an organized attack on the center of our caravan. Right where Richard had squirreled away the children in the hopes that they would be safe.
How many children had they lost to the supernatural world? Too many to count. Too many lost, too young. Rage lit me as I strode toward the center, anger like I only knew when innocent lives were on the line. I didn’t give a shit about the adults—they could take care of themselves, but who helped the children?
Distantly I knew that was Rylee’s teaching coming through, but I didn’t care. I clung to it for all that it was as true to me as it was to her. I would not let a child suffer if I could stop it.
As I approached, Sage was casting nothing more than weak stunning spells that only annoyed the five wolves that had surrounded their stronghold. Although, stronghold was a bit generous, if I was being honest. The group had the three children locked away inside the cab of one of the trucks, and Sage stood on top of the cab, with humans on the ground shooting arrows, and throwing spears at the beasts. A few actually hit their marks; if they worked together, they’d be even more effective.
Where were the guns? I knew the men had them.
It hit me then that if the guns weren’t being used, then the caravan was finally out of ammo. Shit. That was going to make life harder yet. But that was a problem for another day.
Today was all about surviving.
I looked for Oka and saw her under the cab of the truck, waiting. She’d not shifted. Her thoughts and emotions ran through me. She’d hold back unless the kids were in danger. She knew there was a chance she’d be killed if she shifted—if not by the wolves, then the humans once they saw a big-ass tiger in their midst.
“Good girl,” I whispered.
The wolves were strong, fueled by the rapid healing of their supernatural blood, and continued their push toward the truck. Even from where I was I could see the fatigue on Sage’s face.
This was not going to end with her alive.
One mottled brown wolf broke through and went at Sage from the passenger’s side of the truck, its claws shrieking across the metal as it dug in deeply. Within the cab, the children screamed.
The brown wolf growled and snapped at her feet, close enough to grab her cloak if she got careless. Part of me hoped she did.
She needs to die. You deserve her place as the caravan witch. You are the power here, not her.
I gritted my teeth and forced that voice down, away from the surface. For now, it was the best I could do.
Sage fired off another weak spell—nothing more than a small burst of power really—that hit him right in the nose, making him growl even more, but it didn’t deter him. Awesome, all she’d done was piss him off. She threw her hands up, clearly getting ready for some other parlor trick when I saw the abandoned bow and arrow by the truck. I scooped them up, pulled an arrow back, aimed, launched it at him.
The arrow hit the wolf square between the eyes with a heavy thunk and sent him back about ten feet, where he lay motionless and well away from our crowd of people. One down.
Sage froze, her mouth an open O of surprise like even she couldn’t believe what she’d done. I looked away, shaking my head. She’d not even seen the arrow.
“Idiot,” I muttered.
She turned to face the next closest wolf. He climbed up the hood of the truck while spears, arrows, and rocks rained down on him. I was curious as to why he ignored the men and was so hot on Sage. I mean, sure, she was the designated protector, but it wasn’t like she was doing a whole lot of protecting. Then again, I had just painted a bullseye on her by smashing that other wolf back. Maybe she wasn’t the only one who’d not seen the arrow. Fucking hell, this was turning in on me in a way I’d not considered.
I ran around to be at her back. It wasn’t easy, seeing as there was already another wolf between her and me, and two of the caravan’s men working to bring the wolf down.
Their blows with large staffs did nothing but throw the wolf off balance as he advanced.
The temptation to take the big bastard out right then made my fingers itch. I nocked the next arrow, watching for my opening. It would come fast and I had to be ready.
“Now?” Oka called out to me from under the truck. I glanced to see her staring up at me, all but begging with wide eyes.
“Not yet!” I yelled at her. Her shifting into a big orange tiger was a literal last resort. I watched the wolf in front of me, slowing my breathing so I was ready. The two men of the caravan backed up as Sage made her move.
Good gods, they thought they needed a blast radius with her?
Just as before, she raised her hands in the air and jangled her bracelets. Hard to believe that the humans had fallen for her tricks. I’d never have learned anything from her, except for maybe how to manipulate people. And I’d seen plenty of that with my own father, enough to know it was a skill I didn’t want.
She flung her hands at the wolf in a jumble of bracelets and flapping robes and a muttered word that sounded like “begone.”
I timed the shot, and once more the arrow struck the wolf between the eyes, burying deeply, and partially hidden by the long shaggy fur. Good enough.
No one would ever realize it wasn’t Sage, unless they stopped to check the dead wolves.
The ground below us rumbled and as the wolf tumbled back, a hole opened up. Fuck, this was not the time for an earthquake!
Don’t worry, it got worse from there.
The two men that had backed off for Sage’s blast radius along with two others who’d come to help fell into the pit as well, screaming as they went down, followed by another wolf who willingly jumped in.
“Good shot!” Oka yelled.
“Stuff it!” I hollered back.
We didn’t need to add to the already low numbers of humans out there. While I might not be into making myself a caravan witch, them getting killed—even by accident—on my watch wasn’t generally a good idea.
I counted as the men struggled to climb out of the hole, shoving each other up on their shoulders and grabbing for the hands of those reaching down for them. Four of them had fallen in; only three came out. While they hauled them up, others stood at the edge, and fired on the wolf still in the bottom of the pit with everything they had.
If they could all get out before the wolf . . . I could handle him before they realized what was happening.
“Hurry,” I growled as I dropped to one knee and pressed my hand into the soft soil. “Come on, hurry!”
The split second the last guy crested the opening, I tried to connect with the earth, forgetting in the heat of the moment.
I arched back as electricity snapped through me, the bracelets jangling and dancing just like Sage’s as I fought to breathe through the pain.
Darkness swelled through me and my eyelids fluttered at the feel of it against my insides, like silk, warm and sensuous.
I lifted a hand and the dark wrapped around my fingers, the pain eased and I took a breath.
Panting, I sat on the edge of the hole
.
No one would notice, right? In all this chaos, surely no one would notice what I was doing.
I looked up from my crouch, the dark magic making my fingers tingle. Fear and excitement licked at me. Could I use some of it, and not fall victim to the darkness within? I wasn’t sure.
Three wolves still ranged around the truck, moving with twitching limbs and eyes that were full of fear. One in front of me, and two to my right, in front of Sage. The three of them watched her, the seemingly powerful witch, and bared their teeth as they wove from side to side as if deciding just how to attack. She turned to face the closest to me.
I lifted a hand to her and pointed to the wolves right in front of her. “Seriously, what about those two?”
She ignored me and continued to turn. I ground my teeth in frustration.
With her at my back now rather than the other way around, I couldn’t attack it without her seeing, and knowing exactly what I was doing. Weak she might be, but blind she was not.
“Now?” Oka asked again.
“NO!” I yelled as I stood and ran toward the wolf, his eyes still locked on Sage.
I was going to have to take a hand-to-hand approach before Sage could make her so-called attack happen. The wolf’s eyes widened as I leapt at the sandy-colored beast.
He was so focused on Sage, he hadn’t seen me coming even though I’d run right at him. That reaction or lack thereof told me two things. One, he wouldn’t have survived very long in the pack; and two, he was a new wolf. The old ones were way harder to kill and were hyper aware of their surroundings.
This one thought he knew where the threat was and ignored little old me, which meant I won before I even delivered the fatal blow.
“I’m getting in on this!” Oka yelled as she burst out from under cover and leapt in time with me. There was no time to tell her to back off.
She landed on his scruff hitting him from the side, digging in her tiny razor-like claws. He turned toward her, again ignoring me as he snapped his teeth at her. Which gave me a wide-open strip on his back. I landed flat on his back and sat up as though he were a horse. I automatically clamped my legs around his middle, holding on. He yelped and bucked a bit, but I was ready for that, clenching tighter with my long legs, easily holding my seat.
Aimless Witch (Questing Witch Series Book 1) Page 6