10. Paul
Paul
In the Lurch
I was surrounded.
I was angry—no, enraged . I was full of bloodlust, and as mentioned previously, I was very much surrounded.
Tear! Shred! Defend! my inner wolf cried as I lunged for another shifter’s throat, both of us snarling. But I didn’t quite make it before an impossibly large fist slammed into my side, sending me skidding a bit to the side.
It doesn’t matter that she’s a dryad because I’m a fucking empath, not a psychic!
She’d lied to me.
Cherry had lied to me.
There was a not-insignificant part of me that hoped it was somehow a ruse, but I couldn’t dedicate much thought to it because I was fighting for my life. Before, I hadn’t been fighting for just my life, but considering that Cherry had split as soon as she could, I was a solo act now.
I can’t let them kill me. Not for free!
It was a dark thought, but it powered the howl that ripped out of my throat as I charged the massive man who’d sideswiped me. He looked to be part-ogre, and he was fast despite his size. He blocked my bite with a chair, grabbing a hunk of my hide with his other oversized hand.
Well, two could play that game.
I bit down, and I bit down hard, snapping the seat in two. Surging forward, I sank my teeth into his shoulder. It wasn’t a deep bite, but it was enough that we both had each other in a hold.
It was a stalemate, but his side of it was far more painful than mine.
The other wolf shifter collided with my side, ripping into me.
Fuck!
There weren’t many times in my life that I’d had to call on my accelerated healing, but I was quite grateful for it. Especially when the two of us went tumbling, limbs over limbs and claws over claws until we slammed into a wall.
At least my father had been responsible and made sure all of us were trained in how to fight—even Jackson, although he had never really been that enthusiastic, stating he was a lover, not a fighter. I had a feeling if my father hadn’t insisted on it, I would have bled out ten minutes ago.
However, even with my training, I was pretty sure my time was up.
I rose up onto my four legs. I was surrounded again, but this time with a solid wall behind me. That was less than ideal.
“Call your friends off, and I’ll let you live,” I growled in shifter-speak to the wolf as he started to get up, shaking his head this way and that as if trying to clear the stars from it.
“I wouldn’t if I could,” he answered. “I don’t know who you are, outsider, but you made a poor choice in coming here.”
Apparently, I’d been making a lot of poor choices lately, such as inviting a charlatan onto a murder investigation and following her into a pit of vipers. Metaphorically, of course. I wasn’t using that as a slur for the basilisk at the door.
I spun, swiping him with one of my hind legs and sending him flying back into the wall. With him off me, I could face the coming hoard of assailants with my head held high.
“Hey! Up here, fuckface!”
Cherry’s voice was about the last thing I expected to hear, but suddenly, a handful of things were happening all at once.
A bottle of strong liquor shattered down on the head of the part-ogre, a dark shape landed on the back of another, and then a third of my would-be attackers jolted like they’d been struck by lightning and collapsed to the ground, seizing slightly.
“You came back!” I exclaimed, even though I knew she couldn’t hear me. Because, as it turned out, she wasn’t a psychic at all. Just an empath , whatever the hell that meant.
“Go down easy now, big boy,” she said, and my brain finally processed that she had simultaneously thrown a liquor bottle down at a target, then leaped onto the shoulders of another like a superhero, and now had him in a rear choke, having tased another.
That one was still twitching on the ground, the prongs of the weapon attached to his torso.
Cherry might not be a psychic, but she sure was a force of nature.
Her impressive display had our aggressors reevaluating, and I took advantage of that to leap back into the fray, snapping my teeth around what I could and slashing with my claws when my jaws were occupied.
Somehow, despite all odds, the two of us managed to put space between us and those who wanted to harm us.
When the part-ogre Cherry was choking finally collapsed to the ground, I whirled to her and snarled.
“Run!”
She seemed to understand me. She took off yet again, this time heading for the entrance we’d snuck into rather than the tavern. I followed her, occasionally leaping ahead to barrel into or challenge anyone who tried to get close to her.
I couldn’t say why I was still defending her after what she’d pulled, but it was an instinct I couldn’t ignore.
Somehow, in the short time we’d known each other, my wolf had identified her as someone in my custody, someone to protect and defend.
Besides, she could have gotten away, but she chose to come back and help me.
Even if she had lied about being a psychic, that wasn’t the type of thing that I would forget or ignore.
But we were going to have a really serious talk after this, assuming we survived. Because she’d done so many amazing, impressive things, I supposed I was still clinging to the hope that it was somehow all a ruse, and she wasn’t a fraud.
“We’re almost there!” she called back to me, leaping up onto a table and grabbing some of the vines hanging down from above. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as she shimmied up, then swung over to grab onto a string of fairy lights that illuminated the seating area.
Only for the line to snap and her to end up tumbling to the ground.
“Ow…” she murmured.
I raced over to her side, tackling another humanoid, this one with a sword in hand.
Who fights with a sword anymore?
The Whisper’s minions, apparently.
I slammed my head into him at full speed, skull meeting his sternum. A little thrill coursed through me when I heard all the air driven out of his lungs. Once I was sure he wasn’t about to get up again, I leaned down so Cherry could grab onto my fur and haul herself up.
“Thanks,” she murmured breathlessly. “I owe you one.”
Oh, she owed me far more than that, but it was a matter for another time.
“Come on, to that door!”
She didn’t need to clarify which door she meant, and we raced toward it. As we ran, the ground cracked open in front of us, and roots sprang up, bringing a familiar woman dressed all in white with them.
I skidded to a stop. Even though it had happened twice already, I still couldn’t wrap my mind around the fact that I couldn’t sense the Whisper when she was in close proximity, not her scent, her footsteps, or anything else my enhanced abilities should have picked up on.
“Give u—” Before she could get the rest of her words out, Cherry ran up to her and punched her square in the nose.
“Sorry, love to stay and chat, but you should probably deal with that fire!”
“Fire?”
I didn’t know where the not-psychic got a lighter, but she jammed the same bent bobby pin she’d used to pick the lock into it, making the flame stay lit even after she let go.
Grinning, she dropped it in the open chasm, then grabbed an abandoned drink from the closest table and tossed it in as well.
“You bitch! ” the dryad screamed, but Cherry was already running. I took off after her.
How could she not be a psychic and still do so many uncanny things?
She’d read me, Chris, Jackson. She’d read the assassin.
She’d said things that no one else could ever know.
She always seemed to know what to say to every person we approached, and now she magically just had every tool we needed to get away?
Something didn’t add up.
But my desire to figure it out would have to wait, because we still needed to make it out the door. Despite all odds, we managed to barrel through it, slamming it behind us.
“I can’t believe that worked,” Cherry said breathlessly as she leaned back against it. I wanted to tell her that this wasn’t the time to stop, but I was still in my wolf form.
“I can’t believe you pissed off the Whisper.” The voice was completely disembodied, but I recognized it as the guitar tuner. A moment later, he was walking through the wall, looking just as strung out as before.
“I never would have told you to go see her if I knew you were gonna end up making such a mess.”
“You’re a witch?” Cherry blurted, and it was my turn to be a bit baffled.
Even with my enhanced sense of smell, I’d thought that much was obvious.
His bohemian outfit, moon tattoo on his sternum, and galaxy nail polish screamed witch.
Sure, I understood stereotypes weren’t always reliable, but they were stereotypes for a reason.
“Yeah. I specialize in illusion and charms. I’m not gonna risk my life for you, but I figured I could at least buy you a couple of minutes.”
“Hell yeah, we’d love that. Thank you!”
“Whatever, just get to running.”
“Aye-aye!”
Cherry took off. Since I was bigger and faster than her, I hung back to observe what the witch was going to do.
“Waiting for the show?” he asked wryly, and it was the most he’d said to me since we met.
I nodded, the motion feeling a bit strange with my wolf-musculature. The witch turned to the door and placed his hands on the ground.
It only took a few moments, but it was still fascinating to watch as he summoned magic, the energy spreading out until it looked like there was a giant, endless hole stretching down into the depths of the world.
“That should give them pause. And if any fall, their mind will trick them into feeling like they actually are for a couple of minutes.”
If I could have whistled in this form, I would have, because that was a handy trick. But even though I couldn’t emote in that way, the witch seemed to get it.
He gave me a little salute. “Hope you two survive. I’ll think of you two every time I play my guitar.”
Then he vanished back through the wall, and I took off.