38. Phil
Phil
S edrick’s wolf was just as impressive now as it had been that night by the fire. Beautiful in every conceivable way. Large, powerful, endless, dense dark brown fur, ivory fangs, curled lips, claws that gouged the dirt below—a coiled beast ready to strike.
Sedrick’s wolf should have sparked fear in my heart.
It didn’t.
An unimaginable sense of safety was all I felt when I stared at the snarling beast squaring off with the enemy.
“Wow, that’s impressive.” Peaches sounded awestruck.
I could relate.
“Weres are generally impressive, no matter what the variety,” Mr. Moony tonelessly agreed. “I was being honest earlier when I said I missed the taste of were blood.” Mr. Moony sighed heavily. “It has been far too long since I’ve tasted anything beyond human blood.”
Peaches’s silence echoed my own loss for words. Pixies were vegetarians. The thought of eating something that had blood in it—alive or dead—turned our stomachs.
A harsh yelp sounded from within the challenge ring. Beside me, Dillon whooped and jumped into the air. “You get him, Uncle Sed!”
Sedrick landed a good bite, and Edward limped because of it. Unfortunately, if anything, it made Edward look even more determined.
“Stop wasting time. Kill him.” Arie’s alpha voice was painfully cold and low. It sounded nothing like the alpha voice Sedrick had used on Ruthie earlier.
“That’s cheating,” Dillon accused, throwing an arm out and pointing at his grandfather. “He can’t use his alpha voice.”
“I am no expert on fairy law, but I doubt there are truly rules against it.” Mr. Moony didn’t sound concerned, simply matter of fact.
“Well, there should be.” Spoken like the child Dillon truly was.
My heart sped, my mouth opening and closing a litany of times.
Small gasps sometimes slipped through. Given how dark Sedrick’s fur was, it was difficult to see his wounds, but they were there, and blood splattered the dirt beneath their battling forms. Too much of it was Sedrick’s for my comfort. Still, it looked like he was winning.
“Mr. Moony?”
“Yes, Philodendron.”
“I . . . I get the feeling you’ve got more experience with these kinds of things than me. Does it look like, I mean . . .” I wasn’t exactly sure what I meant.
Thankfully, Mr. Moony understood. “It is too early to say for certain, but I believe Mr. Voss has good odds.”
Werewolf hearing wasn’t something I understood.
What I did understand was when Arie turned his head, ever so slightly in our direction, amber eyes lit from within, and a hate-filled sneer aimed my way.
I’d spent my whole life ridiculed, insulted, and laughed at.
I’d never been hated before. Arie’s look made my blood run cold.
The ruddy and black wolves that had sauntered in earlier stood to either side of Arie, their attention on the fight.
You wouldn’t think Arie knew they were there for all the attention he paid them.
Uncharacteristically, Arie ran a hand down the head of the ruddy wolf.
Without taking his attention off the challenge ring, the wolf backed away, his movements measured and slow.
Another yip, this one Sedrick’s, pulled my attention from Arie and back to the battlefield. Sedrick shook out a back leg, flipping blood onto the ground. I squeezed Ruthie tighter and heard her whimper. She was coming around, the trance Sedrick had sent her into earlier fading.
I bounced Ruthie in my arms, cradling her head as I pulled her face away from my neck. “Ruthie, honey, are you okay?” I didn’t expect a verbal answer, but I asked anyway.
Ruthie’s honey eyes lazily blinked, as if she were coming out of a dense fog. I’d never been placed into an alpha trance and had no idea if that’s the way it truly felt or not.
Eyes unfocused, Ruthie slowly zeroed in on me. She looked surprised, but then a warm, welcome smile full of relief settled across her face. Tiny fingers skimmed my cheek, tangling in my hair.
My wings fluttered, echoing Ruthie’s relief. I touched my forehead to hers and whispered, “I missed you too.”
Ruthie’s smile was radiant. Turned away from the fight, she hadn’t registered yet that Sedrick was fighting not only for his life but the lives of all of us.
She’d figure it out soon enough. There was nothing wrong with Ruthie’s hearing, and the sounds from the challenge ring were increasingly desperate.
I kept my attention on her, willing my eyes not to stray where my heart dictated.
I wanted to watch Sedrick, wanted to see every move, every hurt, and every counter hurt.
There wasn’t much I could do to help Sedrick in that hateful ring.
But I could watch over Dillon and Ruthie.
I could keep them safe and comfort them.
Right now, Dillon was too enthralled in the fight.
He didn’t need my emotional support. Ruthie did.
Mimicking Ruthie’s actions, I ran a finger through her hair.
Dillon had done a good job, pulling it back into a sharp ponytail.
Ruthie leaned into the touch, tilting her head just over my shoulder.
If I hadn’t been watching her, hadn’t had my eyes locked on hers, I wouldn’t have seen the sudden change—the abject horror.
Ruthie’s mouth opened, the scream caught in her throat, a silent echo of pain. And then that scream tore itself into existence, violently birthed into a world of fear. Her scream pierced my ears, drowning out the life-and-death battle being waged in front of me.
I turned, Ruthie still in my arms. Peaches and Mr. Moony were behind me, eyes wide. Peaches had his hands clamped over his ears, and Mr. Moony was statue still, his gaze fixed on Ruthie.
Horror filled me as I saw what scared Ruthie, what had finally torn that mournful sound from her fractured soul.
Naked, not a strip of cloth to his name, a humanoid man with ruddy hair and a wicked scar running down his left arm stood behind Peaches, the glint of a razor-sharp claw raised, his scarred arm reaching around Peaches, the edge of that claw riding a bolt of lightning toward his neck.
“Peaches!” My best friend’s name was garbled as it punched from my gut with too much force.
Peaches never saw the lethal claw coming. He only saw the abject fear pulsing from every fiber of my being.
An unholy roar shattered what was left of my eardrums. I didn’t think anything could be faster than that claw. I was wrong.
Mr. Moony’s taloned hand grabbed the werewolf’s wrist, wrenching it away from Peaches’s throat, snapping his arm with a sickening pop.
The werewolf screamed and pulled away, but Mr. Moony wasn’t done.
Mr. Moony’s limbs cracked, his arms elongated with his hands and fingers, and his pupils blew out.
Hunched and crouched over, Mr. Moony sprang over the back of the pew, taking the would-be assassin to the ground with him.
Peaches whirled, a haze of golden pixie dust nearly shrouding him. Sounds came from the other side of the pew, horrific, gruesome grunts, squelches, and ripping sounds. Blood splattered a nearby wall, and something deep down told me it wasn’t Mr. Moony’s blood.
I felt sick. That feeling tripled when I heard Dillon scream, “No!”
Whirling, I faced the battlefield again.
My heart sank like a rock. Sedrick was down.
Edward was battered to hell and back. He looked unsteady, but he was still standing.
I could see the rise and fall of Sedrick’s chest but knew he was severely injured.
Before Peaches had been attacked, Sedrick had been winning. I turned away and—
Furiously, my head snapped in Arie’s direction.
He paid no attention to the fact one of his wolves had just been savagely ripped apart by a vampire.
The smirk lighting up Arie’s face, the abject satisfaction was all the proof I needed.
Maybe he hadn’t known he’d be sending that wolf to his death, but he’d used a member of his pack as a distraction.
If hearing Ruthie scream had captured my attention, I couldn’t imagine what it had done to Sedrick.
Wings humming with speed, I lifted Ruthie and myself off the ground and shouted, “We’re fine. I’ve got Ruthie and Dillon. You told me you’d win, so finish this.”
Sedrick’s ear flicked.
Edward attacked.
I didn’t close my eyes, though I wanted to.
I watched, heart in my throat, breath caught painfully within my chest. Ruthie violently wiggled within my arms. I struggled against her, trying to hold her tight, but she started to grow, gaining mass at an alarming rate.
Snow-white fur erupted all over her body.
Her weight pulled me to the ground, and when I finally released her, a massive wolf stood, four feet braced far apart.
She wasn’t as big as Sedrick, but she was far larger than Dillon’s wolf.
“Moon Goddess,” Dillon’s cursed whisper found its way into my ears. “She’s a dire.”
I had no idea what that meant. Maybe later I would. Right now, all my focus was on the challenge ring. One wolf was left standing. The other was gutted, intestines were torn from their body, neck bent at an unnatural angle, and chest impossibly still.
Sedrick snapped his jaws at the dead wolf before lifting his head and howling long and low. That howl was echoed by Dillon, his transformed body tilted back on his haunches. Ruthie’s howl joined in, her nose pointed high into the air, her pure white fur gleaming in the nearly full moon.
The fight was over. Sedrick had won. The cost . . . I still wasn’t sure what the cost had been.