by Lou Grimes
A bubble had grown over their heads, keeping them from the rain. Hovering over their hands were several dozen blood red balls of magic– until they sent them after Cara and Louvette. One flaming ball was catapulted into the sky. The rest hugged the land as if they were an army of snakes.
Everything darkened as the girls entered the jungle. The loudness of the rain lowered as they went into the trees. As they ran, they crashed through the flora, not trying to be silent. The only thing they wanted was to get away. Deafening thunder sounded overhead.
Cara fell to the ground. Louvette hauled her up and kept running. Louvette’s super hearing came in handy when she heard those orbs reach the jungle line from behind her. There were animals snapping and snarling. Something was chasing them. Not just something, but somethings, as in plural.
Mile after mile blended together. She didn’t tell Cara something was chasing them because she didn’t need her to focus on anything but running.
Cara was losing speed. She might have been a witch, but she wasn’t a Lupine like Louvette. She couldn’t keep up at this pace.
That was when they glanced a building off to the side, a massive old laboratory that had been abandoned for some time within the jungle. Not one window was wholly intact. Though the building itself was warehouse-sized, trees had overrun the entire building. The door to the inside now hung on its hinges. What lay past that door was darkness.
Running into the darkness, Louvette called her wolf to help her sight. The once pitch-black building turned into a hallway. Louvette led them deeper.
“I can’t see,” Cara said in a scared tone.
“I can,” Louvette consoled her. Cara gasped sharply as she met her friend’s eyes, which reflected in the darkness.
Louvette opened the double doors to reveal that the main part of the warehouse was completely open. There were five levels that had bridges connecting the corridors on each level. However, time had crumbled some of the bridges. There were tables on the ground floor similar to a manufacturing center of some sort.
Louvette found a bar and placed it into the door, aware that the bar was highly unlikely to stop whatever was coming.
“We need to go higher,” Louvette said, searching the room doors for a stair marker.
“Why?” Cara asked.
Louvette sighed, unable to keep the truth from her any longer. “There are things coming after us,” she explained.
“What things?” Cara interrogated, searching the darkness as if one of those things would pop out of the dark and attack them.
“I don’t know,” Louvette whispered. “The stairs are this way,” she added as her eyes found the marker. They hurried over to the doors. As they hit the stairs, Cara was stumbling up them because she couldn’t see.
The first flight of stairs brought them to a landing that took them to the lowest bridge. They continued on this path for as long as they could. Eventually, they came to a broken bridge. The two of them had made it up several levels before they couldn’t continue.
“This is as high as we can get,” Louvette said. They slid against the ground to relax for a minute. It wasn’t long before Cara spoke.
“Why are things after us?” Cara asked.
“They are after us because I’m a werewolf and they are witches. I’m so sorry I brought you here, Cara,” Louvette answered.
There was total silence for a long, excruciating minute.
“Werewolf.” Cara whispered as if the word didn’t sound right. That, or everything made so much more sense now.
Something scratched the walls on the other side of the building. Louvette’s hand went over Cara’s mouth to hide her breathing. The thing coming down the hallway was snarling.
Clanging echoed throughout the warehouse. The monster banged against the doors to the central part of the warehouse. When it did, Cara’s hot breath poured over Louvette’s palm as she shook.
That was when Louvette got the first view of what followed them.
Their stalker had a canine body skeleton with ram horns curling out of its head, and emitted a red blood magic glow that gave some light to the darkest part of the warehouse. This half-spectral being ran on blood magic and death alone.
Cara screamed into her hand when she saw it. It sniffed the air as if the beast could smell her scream.
A cloud of blood-colored magic appeared around Cara. That was when Louvette realized it was Cara’s fears the hell hound was catching wind of.
Louvette got into Cara’s mind immediately.
A familiar golden white gate shone at her as the yellow wildflowers shook in a wind laced with yellow magic. It was like a painter had created curly wind onto the canvas so viewers could imagine it. The aroma of honeysuckle spread throughout the air. Louvette smiled at the memory of the wildflowers that were attached to Cara’s gate. At one point in time, Cara had been in a field of wildflowers.
“It can smell your fear. I think it’s a hell hound,” Louvette told Cara.
“What? How are you in my head?” Cara asked.
“The only thing that matters is that you quit being afraid,” Louvette demanded.
“I can’t. Do you see that thing?” her mind sobbed.
“I do, but you’re one of the strongest people I know. I won’t let anything happen to you,” Louvette promised.
The thing was now attempting to climb up on tables and furniture, trying to reach them. It couldn’t find exactly where they were using scent alone. The hellhound just knew they were up there. It snapped at the air as if it could taste them. Goosebumps suddenly appeared all over her body. Louvette closed her eyes to switch her focus from her own fear to getting them out of there alive. At the very least, getting Cara out alive.
“Your ever-so-great grandmother was a witch who gave her life fighting for what was right. I know the courage is in your blood,” Louvette revealed.
“I’m a witch. That explains everything,” Cara said.
The blood red cloud around Cara dimmed until it was no more. Louvette smiled at her best friend.
In Cara’s own personal battle, they had lost their enemy.
They heard snapping at the door that led to their bridge they now hid on. For a second, Cara’s cloud returned.
She got it under control. Louvette shifted into a wolf, ready to fight the hell hound. Truth be told, she should have been terrified of it. She had no idea how to kill it. There was also a large possibility it couldn’t be killed.
Cara ran her fingers through Louvette’s pelt, tickling her side. Cara was the reason why she wasn’t scared. The worst was they’d kill Louvette, but they wouldn’t harm Cara because she was one of them.
It slammed its body against the door, and then repeated this until the door exploded outwards. The hellhound snarled. Louvette growled back, just as prepared to attack as it was. This thing before her was menacing. A stench of burning flesh, ash, and smoke infused the air around the hell beast’s presence.
They slammed together. That first contact burned like fire. Her fur lying over her shoulder singed from the very touch of it, not to mention the revolting stench of burning hair. The bridge shook as they fought. They pulled apart. She was on the edge of the platform. The hellhound was between her and Cara.
Louvette baited the hellhound, challenging it with all her might. It took the challenge, and then charged her. Louvette’s wolf dropped to the ground as the hell hound went over the rails. She walked to the edge. What she saw made her delighted when she saw the fall had destroyed it. There was only a pile of ashes.
Returning to her human form, their joy was short-lived. More snarling and snapping came, from every corner of the warehouse. The rest had found them. There were too many hellhounds circling the bottom now to count. They started clawing and climbing their way up like the unnatural things they were.
They weren’t after Cara, Louvette remembered.
Louvette made a split-second decision. She grabbed Cara’s shirt, and then spun. She threw her onto another bridge that w
asn’t covered with hell dogs, using the momentum of her spin.
Cara screamed, but landed safely on another bridge catty corner to the one Louvette was still standing on.
They all converged on Louvette at once as if Cara had never been there. The weight of the hellhounds was too much for the bridge as one of the ropes snapped, sending a few to their deaths.
Staggering in response to the bridge losing some of its stability, she kicked the first hell hound in the face as it neared her, shifting into a wolf as she did. The odor of burnt rubber permeated the air as the bottom of her boot burned. Twisting to attack the next one, something hit that hound and it instantaneously became a smokey mess.
Louvette followed the direction from where the attack had come.
Arsen stood on a platform above her on the other side of the warehouse. Losing focus on the fight, she punched another hellhound in the face, searing her fist in the process. Louvette hissed out in pain.
“Now,” Arsen shouted. Louvette caught sight of Quinn sending a torrent of water at one.
Water engulfed the hellhound. It steamed and sizzled as water met fire. The stench from it intensified as it fell to the ground in a puddle.
A boulder knocked a hell hound out of her way as she fought to get off the breaking bridge. Louvette didn’t have to look to know Matt was here because she had seen him use his Gift of earth before.
Teeth sank into her shoulders. Louvette screamed. One hell hound was hoping to drag her off. She had not stayed focused as she had been taught in training, but the difference from fighting in real life and fighting in a gym was night and day. Louvette lost her footing when the hell hound won in strength.
Louvette’s wolf growled furiously. It tried to bite and tear into flesh that was not there.
Thunder sounded in the building. Louvette’s hair rose on end, thinking the witches had arrived.
The hellhound released its hold as it fell on the bridge, twitching. Natural electricity flowed through it.
She found the sender, who had a bolt curling around his hands. Louvette smirked when she caught a glimpse of Ian. It made his “anything wire” obsession make sense.
Louvette hadn’t even thought to use her Gift because it wasn’t something of the physical world. This thing was physical, but she didn’t think it had a mind of its own.
The sight of Arsen made her knees weak. He was here for her, regardless of the fact he hadn’t said a word to her in weeks.
“Garrett,” Cara squealed happily. Garrett was now protecting Cara while sending his own fire at some of the hellhounds.
Before she knew it, all the dozens of hellhounds were sent back to hell where they belonged. Climbing back up the bridge to the stairs, Arsen was waiting on her platform.
“Dang it, Winter. You’re all burnt up,” Arsen said to her when he helped pull her up. He grabbed her charred long curly mess. It just fell to pieces in his hand, reduced to ash.
Louvette’s eyes threaten to transform into a spillway of tears. Once that valve was open, it would be a task to close. She hardened herself because they weren’t out of the jungle yet. There would be time for tears later.
“I loved my long hair,” she whispered hoarsely. The loss of it broke her heart as much as the loss of hair could.
“Me too, but I love you more,” Arsen pointed out.
“I love you, too. Please forgive me for lying to you. You don’t know how sorry I am,” Louvette said.
“I do forgive you. I lied, too,” he admitted.
“I know, but it’s fine. Everything is okay now,” she promised.
“Yeah, it is,” Arsen agreed simply.
The two of them kissed. Arsen’s kiss was gingerly for fear of hurting her, but Louvette soon returned a hungry and savage kiss. The kiss morphed into a make out session.
Someone cleared their throat.
“Hey, boss, we need to leave before they can make more,” Ian announced.
“Are you okay?” Arsen asked, giving her a once over, but couldn’t see any wounds due to the smoke and ashes.
“I think so,” she said, not quite sure herself.
“Let’s move, everyone,” Arsen called to the small pack.
The pack hurried out. Arsen and Louvette paired up, as did Garret and Cara, and the rest of the guys fell in.
“We need to reach the road as fast as possible before they send more after them. Change,” Arsen instructed.
“What about Cara?” Louvette asked.
“She will ride on my back,” Garrett said. Garrett started to change into his wolf.
Chocolate fur the same color as his hair began to grow. Black and white tipped hair frosted his body. His deep amber eyes were almost glowing. His wolf was hulking. He’d break world records if any game warden came across him.
“I’ve always wanted a pony,” Cara teased, giggling hysterically as she got onto Garrett’s back. She dug her hands into his fur. Louvette was happy to see her mockingly nudge Garrett’s side as she squeezed. Garrett nipped in the direction of her legs, making his thoughts on being Cara’s pony recognized as well as anyone could when they were a wolf.
The rest of them shifted.
Louvette could only imagine the sight of all seven of them running through a jungle in Mexico. Cara was majestically riding on Garrett’s back like she was leading the pack into battle. It resembled a terribly cheap and cheesy action movie.
They had just made it to some rougher, more clifflike terrain when something dive bombed through the trees. Its talons dug into Louvette’s shoulders. Her wolf yelped before she was yanked into the air. She yelped not solely from pain, but also loss of ground.
From all the tree cover, she couldn’t see what had grabbed her until she burst through the treetops. That was when she saw what was carrying her.
It was a hell hound that had two bone wings protruding out of its body. The stench of it almost sent puke out of her stomach onto the treetops below. They were making ground to this thing’s master.
She changed into the humanoid version of herself to keep the full length of her arms. Slashing at the hellhound did nothing to stop her flight. Louvette tried to fight it every way she knew how, but nothing was working.
This thing was kind of an animal, but she doubted using her Gift would do anything. There was no harm in attempting because, if she didn’t, she’d end up in a blood witch’s cauldron on extra high.
Louvette entered the thing’s mind, not having any idea what to expect. A ghostly gate made of bones and death stood before her. There was a blood red magic woven through it that formed a skeleton key lock at its center. Even its mind smelled of decay. An image of herself rotting from the smell alone came to mind. It made her wary of skin-to-skin contact because she had no idea what it would do to her, especially since there was no one around to ask.
Not intending to touch it with her skin, Louvette kicked the lock using all the mental power she had. The bone splintered. She pushed herself deeper in, finding its center of control.
Normally, she would have heard its mind talking at this point, but she didn’t. Another gate appeared before her. She had not found its center of control. She had found its pilot.
That gave her the thought that another whose Gift was mind control would be able jump from the person she was controlling into her own mind. A mental shiver went through her.
This one’s barrier was made of blood red stones similar to a high brick wall. There were no locks or openings on this one. It didn’t have the appearance of a gate.
Louvette frowned, confused. Touching her hand forward, a colossal blood red symbol appeared before her. A rune. It had to be a ward of some kind because it didn’t look like any letter symbol she had ever seen. There was a large chance that they were not.
Taking a mental sledgehammer to it, she was pleased when she wasn’t immediately thrown back the same way as what Floralen had done to her. Chips fell to the ground. Louvette beat that brick wall until she was beyond the point of exhaustion as sw
eat dripped down her body. When she thought she could do no more, it fell away.
“This is all going to be worth it when I find the she-wolf. I’ll be able to make any Curse that I want,” an aged voice thought. Louvette knew she was in the mind of the oldest witch.
“You’re never going to make any Curses again. You’re going to forget you’re a witch. You have lost your magic. You will never be able to do it again,” Louvette dictated before giving the witch a chance to realize she was here.
Louvette fought to put up the commands. The witch clawed, kicked, and mentally tried to beat her in every way. There was eye gouging and kneeing from the both of them, but Louvette had her own life to protect and the lives of all the people this witch had ruined gave her a strength she didn’t realize she had. The woman was nearing the ending of her journey and Louvette still had a long life ahead if nothing took her out before then.
Her mind hit back angrily from the mental attack. There was not enough pain medicine in the world to cover up the headache now pounding her head.
The satisfaction Louvette experienced when all the fighting was over was irreplaceable. She had removed another dreg of society without having to get rid of someone.
Releasing the witch from her mental grasp, Louvette came back to her body being in the sky. Her mind eased up as some of the pressure disappeared.
The talons released. Louvette’s body went hurling back to earth. An exciting experience some people paid for when it included some type of landing gear. Louvette had none. No gear and no exhilaration as the wind twisted her all about. The one thing she did have was the will to survive. She braced herself before she hit the trees.
Each branch, twig, and stick hit her on her way down. Louvette almost blacked out. After layers and layers of trees, she hit water.
She gagged as water flooded into her open mouth. The current was too strong as it pulled her under. Louvette could not break the surface no matter how hard she tried.
Her eyes started to slide closed as she ran out of oxygen. A cocoon wrapped around her, and she was pulled to the surface as the current rolled around her. She came out coughing as she spit out the water and attempted to breathe. They dragged her out of the river.