by Harry Nix
They'd talked about the ten missing werewolves taken to fuel the blood golem. Between Julius’s promises and the clear rage the werewolves felt at having ten of their pack go missing, Alex knew that Darius and his fighters would come when he needed them.
Darius had even agreed to an ongoing alliance provided Alex could supply more rings in the future. Alex had agreed but with the proviso that they would discuss it after they got Juno back. He didn't want to make deals for future rings, considering he had no idea how many he might have to deliver in the future. So, it was the next morning they went out, and two days later came to Simak’s pack. Simak was a friend of Nia's father, and that visit had been much like the visit to Julius’s pack, with heaps of roasted boar and brewed alcohol. The werewolves had made beer, immense amounts of it, but then mixed it with another stronger alcohol to give it an extra kick.
Simak’s pack had lost seven werewolves, taken all in one night to feed the blood golem, and in between carousing, drinking, and eating Alex talked with various members of the pack. Some were furious and cold, others were resigned, recounting the various times mages and vampires had attacked them. It wasn’t the first time they'd lost werewolves either. One woman he met had lost all three of her sons over the years and now had no more children. Despite all the drinking and the party atmosphere, there had been a mournful undertone to it. Alex felt it was like the way he, April, and Nia threw themselves into passionate sex. The desire to let go, to celebrate life in the face of fear.
It was a second alliance secured by the magic rings Alex delivered and Simak’s promise to come when called. The alliance had been celebrated with immense amounts of alcohol which led them to now, Alex plodding along with an aching head.
River and Matilda weren't much better, having drunk deeply, and even Jacob was looking a little seedy. Although Alex had told the kid to take it easy, he'd obviously lost track of him at some point of the night. Nia was still relatively fresh-faced, laughing at the four of them, and calling them lightweights.
As the day wore on they gradually recovered, sweating away their hangovers with physical exertion. Alex hadn’t worked any more on the spell he was now calling shock finger but he was eager to wrap up this final alliance, meet Julius, and get back to Baxter to see how what progress had been made on breaking through the ward on Jameson Street.
He had a plan forming that if he could call all the packs they were allied with into town and they all approached the ward at the same time, perhaps they could overload it and then go on the attack.
If not, he could manufacture enough healing flame rings and use the black rune spell as a last resort.
Alex was chewing this over in his mind when he heard that unnatural silence in the distance. He stopped and transformed to hybrid, pulling the rest of his pack with him.
Nia came to his side.
“This alpha’s name is Wind and according to my father he’s a vicious lunatic. We want to make this deal and leave as fast as we can. We also need to be prepared for a fight,” she whispered to Alex. She'd already gone over it that morning, but it was a good reminder.
Soon Wind and some of his pack appeared. He had at least fifteen other werewolves with him, all men. Unlike Darius and Simak’s packs, who were mostly all black werewolves, Wind’s were a mixture of colors. Quite a few of them were red-haired and Wind himself was blond, almost white.
He came stalking down the hill, his fur glowing in the sunlight. Alex would have admired the majestic nature of it if he wasn’t on high alert. The feeling that this was incredibly dangerous grew worse as another werewolf came over the hill, a female, with a mage riding on her back.
Alex recognized him immediately. He had been the mage at the Greenacre pack, the one Julius thought of as some low-level accountant or something like that. Alex had thought this mage had been the one to cast the binding spell that had trapped him and his mates in a burning house. The mage had claimed that it hadn’t been him and had given him an empty wand as some kind of proof. Alex hadn't been able to get anything out of the wand. As far as he knew, once spells were exhausted, wands were nothing more than a fancy stick, but the mage, what was his name… Eric… that’s right, he'd seemed to think that with enough skill, Alex might be able to pull some information out of the empty wand. Alex growled under his breath and then reined it in as Nia gently touched him on the wrist. The pack came to assemble in front of him, Eric dismounting the wolf who then shifted to hybrid form.
“Alara,” Nia whispered in Alex's ear. Alex glanced over the pack to see if he recognized any of them. He hadn't really thought much about where all the werewolves from the Greenacre pack had gone, as so few had returned.
It seemed obvious now that they would join other packs. He supposed Eric and Alara had come to this one, although given Wind’s supposed hostility to practically everything, as Nia described it, it was surprising he was letting a mage live with the pack, especially considering how much werewolves despised mages.
Alex noticed that Eric was moving with a slight hitch in his step and saw his hand go to his side, as though he'd been injured at some point and it hadn’t healed well.
Alex stood and waited. Wind didn't bother scratching a line in the dirt. He just stood there looking at them. Jacob had been given strict instructions to shut his mouth, no matter what happened, and was standing at the back, River and Matilda on either side of him to make sure the young werewolf kept it in check.
Alex didn't have a watch on, but a good half hour passed of simply standing, the assembled werewolves glaring at each other, before finally Wind scratched the line in the dirt and Alex walk forward to stomp on it. As soon as he did, the assembled werewolves roared and raced towards them. Alex almost cast a spell. He had his spell screen up instinctively and barely resisted hurling a fireball into the charging wall of werewolves in front of him. He was thankful he didn't as they all stopped on a dime at the line, standing there slavering, their sharp claws out. When they turned back they returned to their positions, leaving Wind glaring at them. He pulled Alex across the line, but then quickly let go and held out his clawed hand.
“That’s far enough. Did you bring the rings?” he said.
The hostility in his voice was evident.
“Do we have an alliance, so I can call on you?” Alex said in return.
“There is no alliance between us. You may call on us, just once, in exchange for the rings. They need to be in my hand in the next minute otherwise we’ll execute you all,” Wind said. Alex waved to River. He brought forth the bags of rings and gave them to Alex. He held them out. Wind didn't take them but waved to some other werewolf who came forward and collected them. During all this Eric came down to stand beside Wind.
Wind glanced across at Eric, and Alex saw disgust in the werewolf’s gaze. Given his seemingly volatile nature, why was he tolerating this mage in the first place?
“Talk, but be quick,” Wind said to Eric before walking away. Alex saw the werewolves opening the bags of rings to begin passing them out. If this went badly now it would be far worse. He wouldn’t just be facing teeth and claws but fireballs too and werewolves able to heal themselves. They would be shielded, too.
“I'm sorry about your pack. I heard what happened and that you’re no longer in your territory,” Eric said.
Alex heard Jacob make a scoffing noise from behind him and then let out a little yelp as Matilda must've done something to get him to shut up.
“Was there something you wanted to say to me? Because I was here to make the alliance with Wind and then we’re leaving,” Alex said.
“I traveled the slipways through the wild packs and to the heart of the interior. I believe you know what I'm talking about?” Eric said. Alex saw his hand stray to his side again.
“Do you have any healing spells, Eric?” he said.
“I'm sure you know that some wounds don't respond to healing spells.”
They stood there for a moment, Alex wondering whether he should say more, but al
l of the werewolves from Wind’s pack were within earshot. Alex was wary of letting out any clues. He knew very well what Eric was talking about. Julius had uncovered information on a pack of an alpha werewolf and a chaos witch that had vanished around twenty-three years ago, exactly when Alex had been adopted by Jane. Exactly when someone had filled out fake adoption paperwork to throw him into the system.
“Speak, because otherwise we’re leaving,” Alex said. The lingering effects of the hangover were still there, and his feelings about all mages had soured to the point that he didn't really care what this one had to say.
Eric took half a step forward, but then stopped when Nia growled under her breath. He lowered his voice and beckoned Alex forward.
“They never found their bodies. It is possible they may still live. I could help you,” Eric whispered so quietly that Alex had to strain his ears to hear it.
“Mage, are you done?” Wind shouted suddenly. Eric reached into a sleeve and pulled out a small ragged slip of paper with a telephone number on it. He held it out to Alex. He just stared at it. Finally, Nia reached out and took it from him. With that Eric turned away and walked back to his mate Alara who’d been standing nearby, watching the encounter.
Wind waved a dismissive claw at them, not even looking at them, and despite the disrespect that Alex felt in his bones and his desire to leap forward and snap the werewolf’s head off, he and his pack made an about-face, walking away, returning to the nearest slipway and making their way quickly away from Wind’s pack. Alex was thankful that everyone was in wolf form, especially because he knew Jacob had a lot to say about what had just happened.
They ran four hours straight this time until they came across Julius and some of his pack. Nia rushed forward making a happy noise, but then saw that Julius was injured, long scratches running down his arm.
“I can heal you,” Alex said. Julius nodded and held out his arm. Alex used the healing flame to stitch up the wounds. One of the other pack members was injured too so Alex healed her.
“What happened? Dad, where are the healing rings we gave you?” Nia said.
“We had to give the last of them away to make a deal, which in retrospect might've been a bad idea,” Julius said.
Nia transformed back to human, her backpack reappearing. She took out the map, and there in the dirt, Julius updated it, telling Alex which werewolves had accepted alliance happily like Simak, and which were behaving like Wind, or worse.
Out of the ten packs he marked two that he said he felt were actively dangerous, and although they'd accepted alliance, Alex should bring more pack members than he had with him if he wished to secure it. They traded backpacks then, handing the remainder of the rings they'd brought to Julius, keeping only a few for themselves. He was going to continue home to his territory now and then out again to make more alliances.
Despite the threat that he might have to enchant for weeks on end Alex didn't tell him to make deals for smaller amounts of rings. Just with the three extra packs they had now and the promised werewolves, he had well over two hundred who would come at his call, in addition to his own pack.
In under an hour, they had everything squared away, and after Nia chiding her father to be careful and him good-naturedly taking it, he shot a look at Alex that said a lot about wives and daughters telling alphas things. They then went their separate ways.
It wasn’t until they got back to their car two days later and Nia shifted to human that her phone reconnected to the grid.
It immediately started buzzing as messages landed. She read through them with a glum look on her face.
“What?” Alex asked.
She silently passed the phone to him. There was a message from Jeremiah.
Esme, Pearl, and Yvonne gone. Taken while probing ward border.
13
Alex paced in the empty front room of the vacant house near Jameson Street, flexing his claws, watching as every minute passed, urging it to go faster. Since learning that Pearl, Yvonne, and Esme had been taken. Alex had felt the wolf side urging him to go on the attack, to rescue his pack members, throw caution to the wind, use the black rune spell immediately, and reveal what was hidden under the ward and damn the consequences.
Wind, Simak, Darius and their packs were on the way. The plan was to approach on four sides of the ward simultaneously. With a combined force of well over two hundred werewolves, they hoped they could overwhelm it, strip it of its power and then approach the address together, to go on the attack and kill every mage there.
If luck was on their side, Juno would be there, as well as his three kidnapped pack members.
Despite the bubbling rage Alex had felt over the last few days, he’d focused his efforts on enchanting. He’d managed to fit the shock finger spell onto a ring, although it was limited, two charges only, and he had problems making them. Half of the rings blew themselves up or melted. Even the ones that survived he was dubious about, worried that they would randomly explode a few days later and injure one of his pack.
Still, he’d managed to make ten of them and had passed them out in preparation for the attack. These were Ignis mages and fireballs would be of little use. He’d also made a breakthrough, managing to fit flame shield onto a ring. Barely half his pack had them now but there was no more time to delay. He now had two symbols he could use—a flame and a lightning bolt, compressed code bundled up in an image.
* * *
Even today, the day of the battle, he felt the urge to enchant more rings, but it was all too late. To do so would drain his mana which would make him weaker for the attack.
April knocked on the door and opened it, coming in to wrap her hands around Alex. He heard the faint chime of a spell. It was one she’d used on him before. It felt calming and was certainly welcome now.
“It's time. Remember, the black runes are a last resort and we need to know if you’re going to do it,” April said.
She let off one final chime of music, the burst of relaxation going through Alex, quieting his mind.
He followed her outside, Jacob quickly at his side. The young werewolf had been at a low simmer for the last few days, having a far more difficult time controlling his emotions than Alex did. He was ready to rip heads off to save Yvonne and Alex had cautioned him to stay with the pack should they break through the ward.
The werewolves each had maps shared amongst them, so if they got diverted, they could find their way back to the staging area and try again. The moon was high, painting the street in tones of black and white. They set off down the street, silently counting off the numbers of the houses, and Alex tensed when he saw number fourteen. This was the point past which the ward had hit multiple times. As they approached, they checked the time, wanting to line it up exactly with the other three packs.
At midnight, as one, they rushed towards the ward barrier.
Alex found himself alone in a backyard staring at a children’s swing set. He came back to himself and looked around. He shifted to hybrid to leap the fence and then back to human. He soon spotted April a little way down the road next to a tree, her hands on the trunk.
“April,” he said, touching her on the shoulder. She awoke from her daze, and when she came back to herself, immediately found the nearest cross street. They were three miles away from where they'd started.
Fifteen minutes had gone missing thanks to the ward’s stupefying power.
Risking the Great Barrier snapping down on him, Alex transformed into a wolf and April rode on his back to the staging area where a few of his pack were gathering for another attempt.
Over the next four hours, they walked into the ward and found themselves confused over and again. The night stretched on and Alex regretted that they hadn't started earlier. They'd wanted to avoid risking any normals’ lives or triggering the Great Barrier, but now it was close to four in the morning and soon the sun would be coming up.
The ward still held and finally Alex decided to use the black runes.
With mos
t of his pack gathered around him wearing healing flame rings, April made Alex gulp down three bottles of liquid that tasted faintly of mint.
As he was sitting on the edge of the ward, the moment he opened his spell screen, the pages flipped to the black runes and the painful throb went through his body. The spell felt hungry and eager to do its dark business.
“Please don’t die if you can help it,” Nia said, watching him.
“It's happening,” he blurted out a second before the execute button lit up, and he triggered the spell, almost against his own will. It drained his mana down to nothing, every part of it, and then pulled more, as wounds began opening on his arms and legs. April poured magic into him but it was barely enough to keep up.
Once again, he felt the great and terrible machine he’d set free. The slicing of the spell into the ward was like a knife through flesh. As it shot out, Alex could sense that the ward had been drained by their efforts but even so was still far stronger than the first one he’d destroyed.
Whatever the Ignis mages were hiding, they’d used a lot of power to do so. Alex found himself on the ground suddenly, staring up at the stars and surrounded by figures with flames burning at the end of their fingers. Some part of him understood it was his pack.
April was nearby shouting something, and he saw a spray of blood shoot up into the air, bursting like fireworks. He moved his arm to press his hand against his neck and saw the flesh on his hand was gone. It was just bones, and tendons, the meat cleaved away.
He shuddered as he experienced the doubling of his mind again. He saw the ward being chewed apart by the black rune spell, mages scrambling to charge it.