by M. R. Noble
“What happened?” Andre murmured.
“I told you to wipe it first!” Roman yelled and blurred upward. He hit his head on the roof and bounced down again.
“Wow, easy,” I said and placed my hands on Roman’s chest. “Clearly this is an accident. So, just explain.”
“There’s nothing to explain! I use my blood to activate it, and usually my assistant wipes it down and passes it to the rest of the pledges.”
“So, this has never happened before?” I asked.
“No!”
“Okay, okay, we’ll deal with it,” I said. “You said it’s not permanent, right?”
Roman leaned against the wall as his nostrils flared. “Yeah.”
It was strange to see Andre act with Roman’s mannerisms. I took the device from Andre, who was now getting off the ground. He leaned against a cupboard, and his hand drove right through the wood. He turned his head to his hand in a delayed reaction.
“Not yet, Karo!” Roman said and took my hand. “Wipe the blood off first.”
The serrated blade had already clicked back inside the talisman. I found a nearby rag, held it underneath the disk, and pressed down on the bone. The blade clicked out underneath. As I continued to hold the button, I wiped the blade down.
“Okay,” I said. “Ready?”
“Take your necklace off,” Roman said. “It’s meant to protect the vampire who wears it from wolf magic.”
I slipped it off my neck, hiding the shock that Roman knew a detail about my father’s necklace that I didn’t.
“You’re going to feel weird,” Roman said. “The blood lust may be like a vampire’s, but your body will feel different. Like you’ve been put inside a…machine maybe. Something strong and foreign.”
“I won’t become one of those gruesome monsters in all the movies, will I?”
“No, those abominations are made from a bite during a hunt, not the proper way. You’re either born or made this way. If a human is bitten during the hunt, there’re usually dead within days. If they survive, it’s more humane to put them down rather than let them slay their families.”
I wanted to ask Roman if or how often an innocent person got hurt by his pack, but now wasn’t the time to explore his comment. “Ready?” I asked. My finger hovered over the button.
“Ready,” he said, and held his hands out to his sides like he was ready to catch me or stop me from running away.
I tapped the button. The blade cut into the palm of my hand.
A crippling pain seized me, and I buckled to my knees. The veins in my skin bulged and my eyes pulsed, feeling like they would pop. The air swirled around me, but I couldn’t breathe or move. As quickly as the magic manifested, it left.
I sat down on the floor.
“You okay?” Roman asked, as he crouched before me. Andre stood over his shoulder, looking like he’d started getting used to walking in Roman’s body.
“Yeah,” I said. “Am I still me?”
“Yeah,” Andre said. His dress shirt buttons had ripped off with the expanse of his ribcage. His shirt now hung open revealing his chest.
They helped me up.
“Port side!” Anton called.
We all surfaced on the main deck. Andre’s footsteps thumped on the ground, while Roman looked like a video which fast-forwarded at random.
I hung my head out over the rail. We approached the dock in Sochi with speed. The algae-covered cement ports glided closer. A sea boat more salt battled than the Mopenah coasted by. Beyond the harbor was a deep city center speckled with palm trees. The sun shone over the mountains which loomed behind the city. On the other side of those mountains was Kislovodsk.
Chapter Fourteen
The Parade
I stepped on the dock. A fuzzy sensation overcame my body. There was magic at work. Lots of it. Going onto solid ground felt like emergency training at the station all over again. Then, as a student, the idea of a lockdown was nerve-racking. My exterior was calm, but inside I was a ticking mechanism ready to strike at sudden movement. Now, the feeling was intensified. In a few seconds we’d find out if my idea worked.
“You feel it?” I asked Andre.
Roman gasped when he stepped onto the concrete strip. I hadn’t thought about the fact he may have never experienced the sensation of magic before. I imagined shifting into a wolf would be similar, but perhaps not. “You okay?”
“What is it?” Roman asked.
“My guess would be our suspected tracking spell at work.”
Andre leaned in to hear, but he crinkled his nose. “You both reek of wolf.”
“You’re probably just smelling yourself.” I had never ‘smelled wolf,’ but it was likely a scent I was used to because I grew up with Roman. “Let’s move before we’re spotted.”
“Affirmative,” Andre said.
The plan for Sochi was to wait for Andre’s contact to approach us near the boat and guide us to our next set of wheels. The ride from Sochi to Kislovodsk was nine hours. Andre had advised Roman to speak as little as possible to the contact, to avoid having to explain our circumstance. Andre didn’t want to spook his contact into thinking Andre had been compromised by a spell.
As I skimmed the crowd, a dark-haired teenaged boy approached us. He was tall, skinny, and slouchy. His black hair hung over half his face, to complement his all black outfit. If it were night, dressing in all black may have made him blend in. On a bight sunny day which was heating up fast—his black getup turned heads.
“You gotta be kidding me.”
“No, I’m not,” Andre said. “Careful, Roman, he’s skittish.”
Roman skidded forward and blurred three feet. “I got this.” He walked toward the contact and slouched down mirroring his posture. “Hey, sup?”
“What?” the kid said.
Roman straightened up and put more moodiness into his tone. “We’re ready.”
The kid shifted his weight uncomfortably. “What’s with the act? Are you on drugs?” He stepped back. “What’s with your voice?”
“Be cool.” Roman held up his hands. “Look it’s been a long ride and I’m tired. I got choked out in a fight and it messed with my voice box.” Roman leveled down to his height and looked him in the eyes. “You ready? Or not?”
He reacted to the authority in Roman’s voice. “The van is over there. But I don’t owe you anything else after this.”
“You’ve done well.” Roman clutched his shoulder.
He flushed with the clearly unexpected praise. “It was nothin’. Stealin’ the van was easy. Gettin’ it back will be the hard part.”
Roman turned and gave us the signal to follow. We tailed them to a black van parked behind a dumpster.
“Hi-yah, Tod,” Andre said.
Tod flicked his head to Roman. “You told him my name!”
“Just get driving, Tod,” Andre said. “We’ve got a deadline to meet, and you’ve got a stolen van to return.” Andre climbed in. Tod put the van into gear, hit the gas, and stalled it. “The clutch,” Andre said. Tod glowered at him in the rearview mirror.
“You got it, Tod. Try again,” Roman said.
Tod turned to Roman. “Not from you too!”
The tracking spell would be there lying in wait for when the essence of the wolf subsided. It was imperative to get to Kislovodsk as quickly as possible, but I couldn’t tell Tod this. Instead, I let quiet anxiety eat away at me.
We drove down the narrow street, and I took one last glimpse at the glossy sea behind us. The van veered onto the main strip, revealing the city of Sochi. The shiny skyscrapers stretched out between palm trees and manicured flower gardens. Suspended above the city was a chair-rail carting people up to the mountain peaks. The bluffs were huge, and by the time we’d journeyed halfway past the mountains, the hours passed more quickly.
My tormented sleep last night made my eyelids droop. Not even my wolf-like strength could fight the lull of the drive. Every time my head nodded, I would jar myself awake. I wasn�
��t sure if the essence of the wolf would keep my dreams safe from my enemy. I snapped my head up when the van cruised to a stop. There was a gas pump outside my window.
“How much longer to Kislovodsk?” I asked.
“Four hours,” Andre said.
I relaxed. I fell asleep and my mind remained untouched, which meant I was indeed shielded. If my dreams wouldn’t be protected when I got to Kislovodsk, I would bank as much sleep as I could while I had the chance. I laid my head against the seat and closed my eyes.
“Wake me when we’re there.”
****
The beeping of car horns jarred me awake. My feet shot out into the front seat, sending it forward off its floor mount with a cracking noise.
“Shit! Shit! Shit!” I leaned around the flipped car seat. If Roman had his werewolf strength and not Andre’s, I wouldn’t have worried about hurting him.
Roman was quiet.
The honking of horns meshed with the dance music which boomed out into the street. The roads and sidewalks were all crammed with people.
The crumpled passenger’s seat rustled. Roman flipped the seat back over and sat back down a little lopsided. “I’m fine.”
“Sorry,” I said.
A woman bumped into the side of our van. She wore an intricately painted mask in the shape of a bull. “Wooo!” She threw her hands into the air, spilling her drink on the passenger door. There was an onrush of people, and she danced toward the next car.
I looked across the mob filling the streets. Half-naked men and women shouted out in Russian and danced to the music. Many wore masks in the shapes of animals painted in bright colors. Others wore traditional Russian garb. Disk jockeys and live bands were stationed along the sidewalks, next to booths selling drinks and pumping beer from kegs.
“Guys…” I kept staring outside the window. “What am I looking at?”
Andre, Roman, and even Tod, were silent, like they were hypnotized, but I think it had to do with the blonde girl in front of our van flashing her breasts at the windshield.
Tod did me the favor of a response. “Autumn Equinox Festival.”
They watched the little doe yank her shirt down and fix her costume antlers as she trotted away to a new group of people.
“I hoped we’d make it into town before the parade started,” Tod said, “but you guys got in later than Andre said. We’ll be stuck in traffic for hours now.”
Andre leaned forward. “Not if I can help it.” He pointed to an alleyway off the main road. “Down there. We can try to cut off the parade. Stay away from the main road.”
Tod laid on the horn and jerked the van to the left. Pedestrians jumped back. It was a ballsy maneuver, but it was effective. He beeped the horn and turned down the alleyway. More people dodged out of our way and we broke through the main crowd.
I caught flashes of the festival through gaps in the buildings and alleyways. The little girl part of me was giddy to see the floats. I didn’t yet see any signs of the parade. What I did see was a little flash of black lightning. I squinted, summoned my vampiric vision, but recalled I only had the essence of the wolf now.
“Ro, how do you improve your sight?” I stayed focused on the crowd as the van sped forward. Through an alleyway, I spotted another flare of black lightning between a tall figure and a dark-haired woman. A bystander would have told themselves it was a trick of the eye. A member of the magical community would have known it instantly. Dark magic.
I slanted forward, waiting for the next oncoming laneway. Another bout of light flared between two people in a different location. One party fell to the ground, then the other hoisted them up and carried them off through the crowd. An oncoming building blocked my view before I could gather more details.
My gut reaction to help the person got my adrenal chemistry pumping, but in wolf form it resulted in a pulsing strength which rolled over my skin. My veins bulged. Deep within my bones a pain broke loose, but instead of crippling me, it hit me like a dose of amphetamines. My hands shook as my muscles tightened. My ligaments threatened to snap.
“You can’t, Karo. Not unless you shift, and it would be too dangerous since you haven’t mastered the wolf.”
“Too late.” My clawed hand stretched for the handle and broke the van door open. I leapt from the moving vehicle and rolled onto the street.
My wolf body felt like human steel. I took off, running in the direction I last saw dark magic. I caught glimpses of my claws growing into talons as I ran. The stitching of my sweater tore apart at my elbows.
The man turned down an alley with the woman in tow.
My feet shattered the concrete beneath them. The surge of strength crippled my body into a crouch, and my arms lengthened as I barreled through the crowd.
Men, women, and hunks of stone blew through the air around me, as my claws unearthed the stone and metal in their path. The carnal need to eat, chew, and devour overcame me. Everything I once found attractive in anyone or anything, I now needed to consume. I almost missed my turn at the alleyway. I dove down it and set my sights on the only door visible.
The wood splintered as I exploded through the doorway. I slid to a halt in the middle of the room. Hot air spiraled from my snout, not from fatigue from the run, but from bloodthirst. My vision was tinted with a red hue. Blood surged from my temples to my eyes.
Six men froze, one with a fragile-looking woman lying limp in his arms. Behind them was a large wooden crate, open to the front of the room, and full of limp bodies. The people lay still, except for the steady rise of their chests. They were alive. Behind the closest crate stood four more, packaged and sealed. Ready for departure.
Electricity ran down my spine. A low muffled snarl escaped my jaws. Fighting the change felt like constant nails on a chalkboard, but I had to know who was behind this. My back arched, and my forearms elongated. My shadow unfurled on the floor like a ghoul breaking free from the concrete. I screamed, the sound reverberated off the walls, sounding half-human, half-animal. My jaw contracted just enough to form words.
“W—hat is thisss?” I asked.
The men backed up, one step at a time. The smell of fear oozed from their skin. They all looked to a stocky man with skin like cooked ham. Whispers flew between them like Russian proverbs.
“This is Vampire business,” Ham Skin said and squared his shoulders. “This is the First in Command’s human stock for the Harvest Festival coming,” he leered at me, “and if I were you, I wouldn’t come between him and his personal supply.”
I snarled, not from his words, but from the little pair of doe antlers which lay before their feet. My gaze followed the droplets of blood trailing from the antlers to the side of the crate. I pawed sideways to increase my view. A pool of blood surrounded pretty blonde hair. I contorted and collapsed to the ground.
My bones broke, and my joints hinged. I screamed, but the sound turned into the horrifying roar of a predator. I felt the vocal cords in my neck snap. All I recalled after the pain was the urge to tear the juicy flesh from Mr. Ham—to make him pay for what he’d done.
They scattered, but I was too close for them to fully retreat. I raked my teeth through his calf, and the skin filleted from the bone. He tasted like pig. The warm blood in my mouth didn’t quench my anger, it made it worse, like the first sip of vodka for an alcoholic. I darted forward and cut off the others’ escape.
“Karo!” Roman called.
“Karolina!” Andre followed.
Roman charged the cornered vampires. Thrusting his hands outward, he called his new magic forth. A sizzling purple light coursed from his hands. He swung it like a baseball bat as the vampires made a break for the door.
The lightning zapped through the air—about two meters away from its target. The bolt cracked into one of the crates. Pieces of wood tumbled onto the floor. Smoke rose up from a charred hole. Men and women with panicked cries started to climb free from the opening. Roman caught on and started blasting holes in the crates. People flooded the door
, crying out as I pounced to pursue their captors.
“Karolina!’ Andre slid in front of me. “This isn’t you!”
Looking into Roman’s face with Andre’s voice snapped me onto his wavelength.
Roman blurred forward and tripped on his own feet as he skidded to a halt. “You get the vampires,” he said. “I’ll walk her through the change!” Roman held either side of my face. “Karo, you’re in there. You control your body, okay. Take control. No one else is here but you and me. Concentrate.”
Behind Roman, Andre shifted, but only as far as his upper body. Creating massive clawed arms which looked outrageous on his human legs. He raked his talons through one of the henchmen left behind, but left enough of him untouched that he could sprint away.
Some of the crates Roman had blasted with Andre’s magic had caught fire and spread to the rest of the building.
The sound of sirens rang out over the crowd.
“Look here!” Roman twisted my head back. “Look at me. You got this, Karo.”
The essence of the wolf urged me to the scents of blood and prey, but inside of the wolf’s body there was me. I focused on the Karo I knew. Who I was. I concentrated on the thing which gave me power: my free will.
My muscles relaxed, and I felt the power subsiding. My claws started to retract. I shifted into the form of a woman. My torn clothes hung limp around me.
The room filled with smoke, and there were people passed out in the closest crate who hadn’t awakened from their jolts of dark magic.
I dashed to the pile of people and started lifting them over my shoulders and carrying them outside. Andre had shifted back and already beat me to the pile. We placed the people down outside in the alleyway. Roman left my side and put Andre’s super speed to good use. He zoomed back and forth moving the people outside. I felt around on the ground on my hands and knees to ensure there were no civilians left. The thick smoke at floor level burned my eyes and lungs.
An object in Andre’s hand scratched against the concrete floor.
“There’s no one left. Let’s go!” I coughed and jerked on his arm.