I could feel...
There was a heat source somewhere. It felt like a single beam of sunlight was filtering down on me and warming my cheek and neck. The wood of the chair was dry. The paint was peeling off it and scratching my hands. The rope around my wrists was irritating and somewhat burned. I wrung my hands to see if I could loosen it at all. I could feel the knots start to give, but then it seemed like the rope tightened once more. I felt a sharp pain and hissed as I realized I was in direct contact with silver. Somehow, they had managed to combine it with the rope. I tried to twist my hands and wrists so that I could brush that piece of silver away, but I couldn't quite seem to reach it. I growled and stretched my fingers until I managed to brush it away.
I tried doing the same with my ankles and legs. I figured that if I could move just enough, it might end up being enough to help me get out of this mess.
No luck. The ropes wouldn't budge. I couldn't move my leg even a centimeter. The ropes were far too tight. I felt like I was losing circulation in my legs. I needed to get out of this chair soon. My legs were tingling. Muscle twitches sent shooting pains through my legs.
I shook my head. Focus, I reminded myself. What can I do?
I could hear...
The floorboards creaked. Wind whistled through a gap or hole in either a window or a wall. There was a minute scratching sound that made me think of rats, mice, and other creatures that move into houses when people move out. Were there raccoons?
I could also hear people arguing in an adjacent room. I could make out Alan and Addie's voices, but I didn't recognize any of the others. There were three men and four women I didn't know. Nine voices all together. How many did they need? I wasn't going to get out of this alive without help....
Help would only come if Wolfgang realized I was gone....
I heard something scratch against the front door and wondered what was happening on the other side.
The voices in the other room soon drowned out the scratching and shuffling. The voices started off as a low murmur but grew louder in volume as the argument increased in intensity.
"Why don't we just kill the bitch?" a woman demanded. "Why worry about the damned Separation Ritual? What's the point in keeping her tied up until after the full moon when she's going to find a way out of the ropes before then anyway?"
"Not to mention that it'll just kill her," a man chimed in. "Alan, you know this. We've seen it countless times. You did it with Brenda in New York."
"Exactly!" Addie chimed in. "You know how she treated Abigail—your real daughter! You know that the bitch threatened her. We can't afford to let that dog get out and back to the pack to warn them about what we're doing here. You remember when they stopped us from performing the ritual on the Volsunga. They almost destroyed our coven. We can't risk keeping her here long enough for them to do it again! We aren't that strong."
"They'll swoop down on us like a plague if we wait much longer. If she's the Volsunga's mate, they'll be here sooner," Woman Two reasoned.
"I don't want to kill her!" Alan cried in response. The statement shocked me but made sense of the regret I smelled earlier. Before he knocked me out, I had been certain that he would kill me, if given the chance. For him to say that he didn't want my death now made me wonder if I was wrong or if something had happened to change his mind. "Ceres may not be mine by blood, but she's still mine. I raised her! I will find a way to separate the woman from the beast and I want to find a way to do it without killing her. Maybe we'll find a way to keep her magic and then think of the ally we could gain by keeping her alive!"
Did he use my name? Did he humanize me? Was I more than a dog to him? Did he still care?
"That's not possible, Alan!" Woman Three argued. "We've tried it and we've failed."
"We don't know that it won't work!" Alan protested.
"The only spell we have kills them," Man Two interjected. "There's too much aconite in it! Too much silver!"
"I KNOW THAT!" Alan roared. There was the sound of scraping and heavy boots stomping before I heard a door slam open. Those heavy footsteps brought someone closer to me. Based on the cologne, I knew it was Alan. He grabbed me by the back of my hair and yanked my head back. His hand connected with an injury and when he pulled my head back, I hit the back of the chair. The gag muffled my cry of pain. I couldn't recall why there would be so much pain in my head. I couldn't remember hitting my head on anything. A vague image of Alan's trunk came to mind. Following that was the sensation of something heavy hitting the back of my head. Perhaps that's what did me in as far as head injuries.
The next thing I knew, he pressed cold metal against my throat. For a second, just one second, it was just cold, but then it started to burn with such intensity that I couldn't even breathe passed the pain. I tried to scream, but again, the gag muffled the sounds. I could smell my own flesh searing from the silver. I knew that if he didn't get the blade away from me, I would die.
Above the searing of my flesh, I could smell the smoke. Something was on fire, but they didn't know it yet. Their noses weren't as sensitive as mine. They were more human than I was. The weeks leading up to the full moon had begun the process. My wolf was almost awakened, and I was already starting to benefit from her existence. Something was starting to burn. I almost smiled because I knew help was here, but I managed to keep myself from giving anything away.
"IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT?" Alan shouted. He yanked on my hair and I felt some pull out. The back of my head was wet, and I knew I was bleeding. I felt more blood drip down and knew that he had done something to injure me more. My head slammed against the back of the chair again, this time spots burst in my blindfolded eyes. "You want me to slit her throat? Right here? Right now?"
"YES!" Addie and two others shouted. I wished I could see her. I wished that I could look her in the eyes and hear her say that to me instead of just about me. Would she be such an advocate for my demise if she had to look at me at the same time? "DO IT!" she cried. "Get rid of one more beast this world doesn't need! Her fate is to die anyway!"
Alan roared as he pulled the knife away. It left a shallow cut behind in my throat. Alan kicked the back of the chair, hitting my bound wrists. The momentum sent me forward. I felt one of my wrists break at the impact of his foot as the ground swept out from under me. I fell forward, landing hard on my knees first. Momentum kept me moving and I could do nothing to protect myself as my face smashed into the floor. I couldn't even see it or turn my head at a good angle. My nose broke and the bleeding was instant. I couldn't breathe passed the blood and the gag. My cries went unheard.
I felt him kick me in the stomach, pushing me to the side. Tears soaked my blindfold. Blood soaked my gag and I choked and sputtered on it. I felt it splatter my face. My nose swelled. I tried not to vomit on the feeling of the blood pooling in my nasal cavity. I wondered what shape I'd be in when this was all over.... If it was all over....
I could feel the wolf inside of me begin to panic. We hadn't seen our first full moon yet. Her part of me did not want to awaken only to die before we experienced the freedom of setting her lose in the forest. I could almost feel her fur on the inside of my skin. It was an unnerving feeling, but a welcome one because it meant that I was still alive. It meant that we still had some control over this situation.
I could feel her fury at our treatment.
"I will do this my goddamn way!" Alan snarled at them.
I felt the desire for revenge build up inside of me. I felt the rage and the power and... the poison.
"She is my goddamn daughter” he continued with his rant. "This is my goddamn coven. This is my goddamn will!"
Spreading out from the cut and burn where the knife had touched me, I felt a fire spreading through my veins. It turned my blood into a tool of destruction. Something was on that knife. Something stayed with me. Something that he had done was going to try to ensure that I died. He knew that. This was his passive aggressive way of making sure that he took me out of this world without
having to do it himself. He could label it an accident in his mind. He didn't kill me... the knife did....
"If any of you useless fucks question me again, I swear by the Thousand Gods of Earth and Sky that I will rip—"
The sound of a door bursting open interrupted Alan's tirade and startled me as well as the Witches. I felt a new source of heat and heard the whooshing of the flames. I managed to move my head so that the blindfold came up above my eyes. I saw Wolfgang and Riley as blurry black blobs that came bursting into the room. The front door burst open as well and a gust of cold air came with it. I turned my head and saw another person rushing in. The cavalry had arrived.
"What was that?" one of the women asked as she looked up. The edges of my vision turned black. I struggled to, again, use the floor to help me. I was fading out of consciousness and I needed to be able to breathe before I drowned in my own blood. At this point my nose was useless and I'd gone much longer than I was comfortable with since my last good breath.
I moved my head until the rag caught on something. I don't know what it was, but that snag helped me. I moved my head as far back as the chair would allow and my frustration mounted when the rag came loose from the catch. I moved to find the spot where it caught again and had to try more than once. When I found that sweet spot again, I moved as slow as possible to be able to loosen the rag enough to be able to spit it out. I gagged as it finally came free. I gasped for breath and coughed so hard that I was sure I was going to vomit as well. Luckily for me, I held the sparse contents of my stomach down and continued to gasp for breath. I didn't pay any mind to the fight going on around me. I focused on slowing down my breathing because hyperventilating during my own rescue wasn't the way I wanted to go out. I wanted to get rescued. I wanted this mission to be a success. My dying wouldn't make that happen. And with the smoke filling the air, there wasn't much time to panic. We were going to have to get out of here soon.
I saw their bodies fighting, but none of it registered in my mind. Bright glowing balls of electricity zoomed through the air from one dark edge of my vision to the other. The burning in my veins was creeping up my neck and down my chest. My eyes were heavy. My body wanted to shut down. My wolf wanted to heal. I was in so much pain from my wrist and other injuries...
I closed my eyes, just for a little while.
Chapter 16 ~Wolfgang~
The fire spread faster than what I had expected. Something in the mud room caught on fire and things in there started blazing. The turpentine hadn't even caught yet. Riley and I looked at each other. I knew my face had to be a mirror of his. All the sudden, we were both a lot more worried about this plan than we were before. "Shit," he muttered.
I nodded. "Let's go," I said. "Now."
Riley nodded. "Yeah," he said.
I took in a quick breath before I kicked the door. It slammed against the stairwell next to the kitchen with a loud bang. Riley and I rushed into the living room where the Witches were standing around Ceres. Alan had stopped shouting mid-sentence. One of the women looked up in confusion. The sound of our entry signaled to Luke that it was time and he came in through the living room.
I would have loved for subtlety, but there wasn't any other way around getting in. If we could make one sudden and loud announcement, maybe we could still hold the advantage. No matter what happened here today, this house was going down. If people were still inside when that happened, oh well. If we were still inside when that happened... we'd find our way out.
I took a quick look around when I entered the living room right before Riley. Everything was a shell of what it had been before. The furniture was gone. I assumed that her "tenants” took everything with them when they abandoned the property. Either they were gone a hell of a lot longer than Alan and Addie claim, or they didn't do a thing to this house in ten years—including live in it. This place looked completely abandoned.
I grabbed the Witch right in front of me and snapped his neck. He crumpled to the floor with a thud and I looked up again.
When I caught the sight of Ceres now on the floor, bleeding from her forehead and nose, my blood turned icy cold like the snow outside. Alan stood right behind her with a silver knife in his hand. I knew that Ceres was still alive because I could see her struggling and I could smell her wolf. If she died because of anything he did to her, I would kill him the way my parents should have killed him when I was fifteen.
I roared as I lunged for Alan. My hands shifted into claws with the barest of thoughts and I used my strengthened hands to punch him as hard as I could. The impact sent him to the ground, and I followed him. I clamped my hands around his throat and watched him start to struggle to breathe. The smoke was beginning to get thick and I wanted him to pass out. If he passed out and I left him here, he wouldn't wake up until it was too late. I wanted him to experience that fear.
An explosion on the ground right next to us served as distraction for Alan to be able to push me away. Witchfire was one of their most powerful weapons because they could summon it at will. We didn't have that kind of power.
Riley and Luke were attacking different coven members. They chose to fight in human form, like I did, shedding hands for claws. I couldn't spare them too much of my attention as the fight was only getting started. I had to dodge a few balls of Witchfire from Alan and Addie, who were trying their best to drive me away from Ceres. I couldn't let that happen.
Alan and Addie stood shoulder to shoulder with a grin meant to intimidate me. I growled low in my chest and saw Ceres's chair tip to the side. I was grateful for that because it meant that she was still conscious. If she was still conscious, I had more time. Not much more. Once the fire hit the turpentine, this house was toast. We were cutting things very close.
I lunged for Alan again, but this time my attack was for Addie. I struck true, my fist colliding with the side of her head, knocking her out cold. I would have continued my assault on her, but I didn't have time. Alan was still right next to me and if I stopped to kill Addie, he would have plenty of time to kill me. I used her distraction to send a kick at Alan. He stumbled back but didn't fall. I growled and sent a fist flying his way. He blocked my punch and held my arm so that he could gain access to my side. He punched me a few times in the ribs and I cried out from the pain. As he moved to punch me again, I kicked him in the groin. I wasn't above low blows in a fight to the death, even if I did let someone live.
Riley didn't share my sensibilities about letting anyone live. Even though he knew that the house was coming down, he had killed two of his three opponents and was on his way to repeating the act with the third. Luke even managed to use one of his opponents to kill a second.
I focused on Alan again, and noticed a woman standing nearby. She held a deceptively delicate-looking chain that dangled from her fingers. I knew better than most what those chains could do. I still had the scars to prove it. No matter how thin and breakable they looked, I knew those chains were stronger than any metal found on earth. That chain was magical silver, created by the person who wielded it. Abigail and Addie had spent an hour whipping me with it. Abigail enjoyed it far more than any sane person should have. Those chains were sharp, strong, and poison just like all their other silver objects. It'll do the trick every time.
Alan, who was still furious with me, called his knife to his hand again. He met my eyes with a grin. He lunged at me with the silver dagger. I managed to side-step him and use his attack to toss him across the room. He crashed into the wall with a grunt and fell to the floor. Again, he wasn't dead. He wasn't unconscious either, but it was enough time for me to face the woman with the chain. She rushed to me, holding the chain out to capture me with it. I did what she wasn't expecting me to do. I grabbed the chain and used it to wrap around her neck. I held onto the chain for as long as I could, screaming as it seared the palms of my hands. I held on until she went limp. I'd mentioned that the chains were sharp. This chain cut into her neck. While I burned my hands with it, I used it like a garrote against her and I smel
led her blood when it sliced through her skin. I wrenched it as I put my foot to her back. I screamed with the effort and pulled the chain through her neck. Her head went sailing across the room and her body fell forward. Blood splattered everything, including me. I dropped the chain and turned. Riley was squaring off with Alan and Luke was fighting another Witch.
Alan threw his silver knife toward Riley. I shouted and Riley managed to duck just in time for the blade to shoot passed him and lodge itself into the Witch he had been fighting. He looked down at the knife sticking out of his sternum before he fell to his knees. Riley and I both charged Alan, running him into the banister of the staircase behind him. We shoved him through the rotting wood and crashed into the wall on the other side of the staircase. He slumped onto the ground, unconscious, but I didn't even care. Now that we disabled the threat for a while, my concern was with Ceres and only Ceres.
I rushed to her as Riley and Luke continued fighting the remaining Witches. I pulled the chair upright so that I could free her from her bonds. She had managed to work off her gag and blindfold, but she was unconscious. I untied her wrists, ignoring the pain of the silver in the ropes, and felt something shift as I did. Her wrist had broken. She let out an involuntary cry of pain as I freed her arms. I moved around her to untie her legs and glanced up at her face. It horrified me to see her injured like this. When I finished untying her, I gathered her up into my arms. She started sobbing and I knew that we had to get the hell out of the house before the fire hit the gas line.
"Come on!" I called to Riley and Luke. They covered me as we went out the open front door. The explosion sounded as soon as we hit the street. The shockwave knocked us all to the ground. Ceres flew out of my arms and rolled away from me. I hit the ground hard enough to knock the wind from my chest. I gasped for breath as I scrambled back to my feet, disoriented. The world around me was a haze. I couldn't hear anything, and my vision doubled. Smoke and debris filled the air. Flaming bits of house were all around us and I prayed that every Witch inside of that house had died.
Vanilla Moon: Awakening Page 15