Chapter Twenty-Five #2
“N-Nothing, I’m fine,” I say, hoping the wave of pain will pass. “We need to get back to Casimir.” I grab my phone and see that my car has sent an alert to my phone for a lack of tire pressure. “I think someone slashed my tires, which means there’s more than one of them.”
“I can call for backup from my department.”
“But what if they shift? They’ll shoot them immediately,” I say as I click Casimir’s number a moment before the door busts inward. The wolf lunges in and immediately latches on to Cyrus’s leg. I kick him hard before shifting and tear him down as I hear more enter the house.
In this state of mind, Benny’s brutal, but he’s fixated on Cyrus, which gives me an advantage. Cyrus quickly grabs the gun Benny must have dropped when he shifted. Just as he snatches it up, Weston plows into Cyrus.
Cyrus smashes the gun into the side of Weston’s face, but Weston is oblivious to the attack as he goes in for Cyrus again. Pushing away from Benny, I take the brunt of Weston’s attack so Cyrus can get out. He flings the window open, pushes through the screen and climbs out.
Spinning, I lunge toward the window and leap for it, my front paws catching the windowsill as the pain from the silver hits me and I lose my grip. Benny grabs me by my leg and tears me back in as I find myself unable to focus on the fight.
Suddenly, there’s a loud noise, so loud that it’s deafening in this small room, especially for our sensitive ears.
I feel hands on me and start to fight before I realize it’s Cyrus pulling me through the window.
He slams the window shut and starts dragging me since I can’t seem to get my feet under myself.
He’s saying something, but my ears are still ringing from the gunshot. I manage to get up to my feet as he tugs and pulls me, and I realize I’m in my human form. When did I even tell myself to shift?
“Come on, Julian. We have to move. There are more of them,” Cyrus says, and while the ringing is still there, I can at least understand his words.
“Run ahead,” I urge.
“I’m not leaving you. The gun they dropped has silver bullets in it, so I can’t use it on them. I’m going to need you to get up and run.”
I nod as I scramble up to my feet and hurry after him. “My phone?”
“Fuck, I didn’t grab it after you shifted. I was fixated on the gun. Sorry. What’s happening to you?”
“I… I need Casimir,” I say.
“Yeah, Casimir would be really nice right now, but he can’t come out here into fucking Suntopia,” he retorts as he keeps pulling me. The pain is letting up a bit as I find my feet.
“I’ll shift and try to get them down.”
“There are four following us, and you are in no condition to fight,” he says a moment before one rushes in front of us.
“I’ll distract them. I need you to call Casimir. Tell him the silver is affecting my blood.”
“But what’s he going to do? He can’t come here! There’s sun.”
“I don’t know,” I realize. “He’s got his car. He could drive here.”
“Those cars aren’t made to withstand midday sun, though. We can’t rely on him. If I just nick them with the bullet… will it kill them?”
“No idea,” I admit. “It depends on the type of silver used. If it was like the bullet they used on me, it could kill them. If it just has a silver exterior, they’d be okay.”
I force myself into a shift and turn to face Keats who has reached us first. He’s snarling, his lips folded back as he shows off his fangs.
He lunges for me, and I dash in to meet him as I see Cyrus moving toward him instead of away from him.
Just as Keats grabs for me, Cyrus loops what looks like his belt around Keats’s neck and starts rushing backward, ripping him off balance.
Keats flails and fights to get back up onto his feet as Weston slams into me, reminding me how far off my game I am.
I’m flipped onto my side but hurry back up to my feet as I grab him by the neck and pin him down.
He’s flailing and fighting, but I have him down in such a way that the only thing he can do is kick me with his claws that can’t get through my thick fur easily.
The thing is… what do I do now? I can’t hurt him.
I sure as fuck can’t kill him. Can I make him pass out without hurting him?
That is until shocking pain rips through me. I lose my grip and he manages to gain control of the situation as he knocks me to the ground a moment before I’m forced back into my human form.
Cyrus is back, swinging his belt which smacks Weston in the face, merely irritating him.
“Cyrus, get back!” I beg. He’s a human. If he gets bitten or attacked, he won’t heal as easily.
Since it’s not a full moon, a bite from a werewolf wouldn’t force him to change, but it could still hurt him horribly.
“Cyrus, I think Ivo has to be nearby to control them or he could have controlled Casimir before he saw him. Any vehicle you don’t recognize, shoot the window.
He has to be hiding in something he can escape in.
I doubt he’d be in a house that we could burn down. ”
Cyrus hesitates, but he nods and draws back as I shift again.
Benny must have gotten some of my blood on him because he’s pawing at his muzzle, and Keats seems to be unconscious, so at least I have fewer to contend with, but how much longer can I even deal with any of this?
I see Weston turn for Cyrus who is running for the road, and I rush him, leaping onto his back as we go down together. When I hit, I see Olive a moment before her fangs latch around my throat and I realize she could really kill me, she could kill me right now… or my blood could kill her.
“ Olive, stop ,” I beg, but my words are useless. “ Olive, please .”
Not her. Please don’t let her be the one to hurt or kill me. It would destroy her.
Her fangs sink in, breaking skin. She’s so transfixed on me, she doesn’t even notice the way my blood has to be burning her mouth.
I try pushing her off with my paws, but it makes her clamp down tighter. All she has to do is tear back and she’ll rip my throat out.
And then she stops.
There’s a moment where she stands there, looking stunned before Weston, back in his human form, jerks her away from me.
I roll up onto my feet, but it feels like acid is running through my veins as I fall down in my human form.
My nails dig into the ground as I realize that I need to make sure they’re back to normal, but I can’t get up.
I can’t focus on anything other than this feeling that seems to be worse than death.
“Get away from him!” Cyrus yells.
“What the fuck? What the fuck?” Olive cries as she hurries back from me.
Cyrus reaches me. “He left. Your idea worked. There was only one car on the street with protective glass, so I knew it had to be him. Now come on,” he says as he tries pulling me to my feet, but I can’t get up. I can’t do anything.