Chapter 36 Leo #3
Whether balance was restoring itself or not, after a few minutes, America and I reached the door of the sitting room.
Sure enough, I could hear two sets of heartbeats and smell that familiar scent of their family’s villainous blood.
My inner wolf responded instantly, baring its teeth.
Bloodlust surged up in me, but I tamped it down.
Not because the brothers didn’t deserve it or because I planned to go easy on them, but because I couldn’t afford to lose my cool right now.
There were too many things in motion, and I was sure as soon as we attacked, guards would come running from everywhere.
Sure, we had our threefold plan to help us, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t be a hard-fought battle.
America and I exchanged one last look, then I opened the door.
I probably shouldn’t have been, but I was a bit surprised when I was greeted by a large, well-decorated landing rather than an actual living room. Was their sitting area really two floors tall? Why would that ever be necessary?
Leaning in, I looked one way, then the other.
There was indeed stairs on either side. I couldn’t see all the way down the stairs, but I could make out the tops of a couple of heads that had to be more security.
Well, I hadn’t exactly expected to find the brothers completely on their own, but it would have been a lovely surprise if that had been the case.
I hadn’t sensed or heard their heartbeats, so they had to be on some sort of magical suppressant.
Or perhaps they were creatures that didn’t have an audible biological rhythm.
Granted, I had never heard of any like that, but I’d also never heard of lovely gardeners spontaneously gaining the ability to control plants, and that had already happened.
Crouching, I crept closer to the banister at the end of the landing, peeking over it.
One of the brothers were in the room, but where was the other one?
The heartbeat I had picked up close to him was actually one of his security, meaning we’d have to fight different species, and I would have to figure out on the fly what they were.
Not exactly surprising as that was how it had been at the gala, but it would have been nice to be able to scent most of them like I could with other shifters.
But with only one of them present, did we strike now, or wait for the other brother to arrive?
America and I exchanged yet another look, and I could tell she was wondering the same thing. She had a very expressive face. Or perhaps I’d gotten to know her well enough in the time we’d spent together.
Before either of us could decide, the brother spoke. It took me a few seconds to identify him from my position, but I realized it was Millicent, the one who insisted on being called William.
“Fuck! I’m out of wine. Where is that serving girl?”
“Most of your personal staff has been split up amongst your residences to make sure they couldn’t all be freed en masse in case there was an attack,” the security guard with the heartbeat murmured next to him.
“That’s the same reason we’ve taken most of the enthralled shifters down to holding cells and only have loyal ones currently active on staff. ”
“Fuck, you’re right,” the whining warlock groaned, dropping his head back onto the couch like he was truly put out.
It struck me as such an odd thing to do for a grown man who was anywhere between fifty and a hundred-and-forty years old.
I could never remember the order of the brothers or their ages.
Especially since they all looked like they were in their late twenties.
I was well aware that in addition to their boons they’d gotten from their patrons, they all had an unnaturally long life similar to that of shifters.
Granted, it was nothing like their mother, who had been alive multiple centuries, but it was far more enhanced than it should have been for simple warlocks.
“It’s fucking disgusting that my siblings’ incompetence means I have to live like a barbarian in this cesspool!”
Cesspool? That was rich.
Literally, actually, as it turned out.
“Open the door and tell the first staff member you see to get me some fucking wine! If I’m going to live like a peasant, I at least want to be drunk for it!”
The security guard nodded, then I heard footsteps beneath the landing. I was so focused on the conversation I didn’t realize the possible ramifications until the door opened and I heard the now invisible guards speak.
“Who the hell are you?”
“Oh, uh, I was trying to find the bathroom.”
That was when I had to grit my teeth. It seemed our good luck had run out, because I instantly recognized that voice as Chiga’s distinctive, impossibly deep timber.
We were definitely made.
“Oh, great!” Millicent said, throwing his hands in the air like he was a Broadway actor.
Maybe he was already drunk. It was a shame warlocks couldn’t succumb to alcohol poisoning.
Or maybe they could if I tried really, really hard, like jamming a wine bottle into his throat and drowning him with it.
It was always good to have options. “Another idiot! This is what happens when you take away all of my trained staff! We’re left with these incompetents! ”
“We’re trying to protect you, sir.”
“I know that, but it doesn’t mean it sucks any less. Go on, you idiot! I’m sure you’ve got enough brain cells in that giant skull of yours to find the wine rack in the old larder beneath the kitchen and fetch me a bottle. I trust you’re at least literate enough to read the label?”
No way. Were we actually going to get away with it?
I thought for sure the moment they saw the hulking giant that was Chiga they would instantly know something was up.
But it seemed that taking all the shifters and his enthralled subjects from him had really hampered Millicent and his security detail.
Maybe if he wasn’t so whiny, he wouldn’t be distracting the head of his team from a very suspicious situation.
Or maybe this security guard wanted something to happen to his boss. It certainly was an interesting theory, although one I couldn’t explore at the moment.
“I can read,” Chiga said almost uncertainly, and bless him for leaning into Millicent’s assumption of his intelligence.
I shouldn’t have been surprised, considering he was a professional mercenary and likely had gotten into some awkward situations a few times in his career, but still, I appreciated it.
“Prove it. Wine now. Chop, chop.”
“Yes, sir.”
I heard Chiga take a step away, and maybe one more step, before a different door on the lower floor burst open and what had to be the very last brother strode in.
“I swear to Bacchus the water quality—” He froze almost instantly, not even finishing his sentence. “Who the fuck is that?”
“What do you mean? Oh, one of the useless buffoons we have keeping the grounds?”
I saw the new brother’s face cloud instantly, and in a flash, he lifted his hand, sending a blast of magic out the door. America and I jumped to our feet. “You’re such a fucking idiot, Millicent.”
It looked like the fight was on.
Gripping the banister, I launched myself over it, shifting into my wolf form in mid-air. It hurt to do it so rapidly, flesh tearing and joints breaking, then reforming, but I figured we could use the steam to help obscure our onslaught.
Because there was most certainly an onslaught. I heard Chiga shift behind me, the unmistakable, haunting bellow of a moose filling up the room like the howl of something entirely alien. I always tended to forget how creepy the giant animals sounded.
But Chiga wasn’t the only one barreling in. Pretty much every door except the one the brother had come through burst off its hinges to let different members of my team in. Within seconds, we were all in the room, attacking the last two members of the warlock bloodline.
I went for the one who had sussed us out.
I had hoped to get the drop on him quite literally, however, I never quite touched ground.
A moment or two before I was about to land, the potted plant next to Millicent rapidly grew in size.
The next thing I knew, two giant leaves wrapped around me and flung me across the room.
Ah, that had to be Frederick, the plant user.
If the tricks Ven had pulled at the manor were anything like the plant user in front of me, no wonder she’d thrown Alric for such a loop.
There was something particularly uncanny about foliage coming to life and acting like a sentient creature.
Like it was breaking all the rules of our world and how it was supposed to work.
I recovered quickly and found my footing, only to have two security guards run in with guns. If I had to guess, those weren’t as benign as the ones I had tangled with at Chadwicke’s manor. Meaning, they most definitely had silver bullets.
That certainly wouldn’t do. While not everyone in my group were wolf shifters, and therefore didn’t have the silver allergy we did, a majority were.
I pivoted my attention from Frederick and focused on disarming the new pair, hoping that if anyone else had run in from other directions, my allies would choose to do the same.
I leaped at the first one, closing my jaws around his wrist. I bit as hard as I could, appreciating the crunch of bone as I jerked his arm back and forth. If he survived, he would never have use of that hand again.
Good.
He screamed. I let go of his bleeding limb and head-butted him in his chest for all I was worth.
He toppled backward and didn’t get up. Old Leo might have taken the time to stop and chomp on his throat right then and there, but I’d learned that I didn’t always have the time to make sure every single enemy I faced had a completely satisfying end.
What was important was that he was out of the fight, and I could focus on the brothers.
Oh, and also all of the plants in the room.
Never in my life did I think I would have to have a showdown with some foliage, but that was exactly what was going on.
Vines burst from the floor and broke through the windows, trying to grab whoever they could, while the tree and other plants were tripling or even quadrupling in size, their leaves turning into limbs.
A quick glance told me Chiga was most definitely being our MVP.
His truly mammoth animal form was too big for most of the vines to pick up and fling around, and his mouth was especially suited for destroying plant matter within seconds.
After all, moose had the ability to dive down in the water and rip out mouthfuls of hearty aquatic greens all in one breath.
I never thought a battle could be influenced by someone being really good at eating salad, but, God, was I grateful we had Chiga on our team.
His teeth weren’t just meant for ripping and tearing flesh.
However, I couldn’t leave it all up to the moose.
I charged at the plant that had tossed me aside, ducking this way and that beneath each swipe.
It was strange how they moved, almost like they were a second delayed.
It made it harder to predict their movements.
It was probably because they didn’t have a nervous system that could send signals to their muscles, so the way they were moving was so completely foreign to what I was used to.
However, I still managed to get close enough to the ornate pot.
I immediately started digging in the dirt.
I nearly laughed. Here I was, in a battle for pretty much all shifters in a multi-state area, and it was suddenly very important how fast I could dig a hole.
I was so focused on the dirt that I lost track of the fight. Suddenly, I felt a white-hot slice on my thigh. Jerking around, I saw a security guard wielding a giant thorn, magic crackling in his other hand.
He didn’t smell like a warlock, which meant he was likely a witch. I’d dealt with witches before, and while they were certainly powerful foes, they were nothing like the brothers. I could work with that.
But before I could whirl to face him, two smaller, tawny figures jumped on him, one going for his extended arm, the other for his throat.
He screamed, but not before both coyotes tore into him.
The two shifters jumped off the man as he crumpled, and I realized it was America and one of her cousins.
I gave them the shortest, most appreciative nod before getting back to digging.
It took maybe two more seconds before I found the root ball. I hadn’t even known what a root ball was until I met Ven, and I sent up a prayer for her love of info-dumping about plants. Eager to get a heavy hitter out of the way, I dug my teeth into the root ball and ripped with everything I had.
I swore the plant squealed, which was something truly uncanny, but I didn’t let go. Even when one of its leaves suddenly slammed into me and lifted me off my feet again—a mistake on the plant’s part, because I didn’t let go of its root ball as I flew through the air.
I knew Frederick would simply heal the plant, but from how Ven had described things, it was less him controlling the plants and more giving them a sort of magical half-life.
Hopefully, he wouldn’t even notice the plant was gone until he saw it, and then he would have to waste time and energy bringing it back to life.
So, I bit and I tore, even using my paws and claws to tear away chunks of densely packed roots. Sure enough, once I got down to the heart of the root ball, the leaves finally stopped moving and fell to the floor.
Massive footsteps sounded behind me, and I whirled around, ready for another fight. Instead, I saw a giant moose smiling at me. I had no idea what he could be so happy about, but then he nodded at the mess I’d made of the plant.
Oh! Well, bon appetit.
While he hoovered it up to make sure it truly couldn’t be used again, I spun to go for Frederick again.
But once more, I was thwarted as a geyser of water burst from the floor and spun up to the ceiling.
For a split second, I was completely baffled, until I smelled the distinct rust of an old pipe.
Millicent had used his powers to summon the water from below the marble floor.
That was clever and far more resourceful than I thought he would be.
It looked like the battle had gotten that much more complicated.
We needed to end it, and fast, before Millie and Freddie got any more creative. Otherwise, we might not survive.