Chapter 25 - Yvonne
Panic drives my every step as I charge for the village. Hearing a child’s anguished cries has me terrified that something has happened to my Gio.
Worse, I can’t connect to Rissa’s mind link. Something must have happened, and they’re in grave danger now.
The dark, eerie mist settled over the village, making it hard to see even through my wolf eyes. But I race ahead, determined to get to the main area where Alpha Elias and Luna Aurora’s house is on the north border of the Snehvolk territory.
Somehow, my instincts carry me into the village, abandoned and quiet because the members of the pack had been warned not to be outside when we lured the demon to our territory.
Their houses had all been bound by spells that would ensure the demon dog couldn’t sense their presence, just like the spell Aurora cast on her own home, where she practices her magic in the bunker underneath it.
My mind races with a million questions. How did Gio get found? Did he run out of the house in search of us, and that’s when the demon found him?
I slow down just as the wailing grows louder, thundering through my eardrums and heightening my panic. I snap my furry head in every direction, the air dense with the dark mist that makes it almost impossible to see around me.
Suddenly, the crying stops. Gone, as if it never existed, through the night air, the veil of dark fog lifting to reveal my whereabouts.
Somehow, I’d found myself on the north border of the forest that surrounds Snehvolk territory.
Caught between the tall trees, the trunks surrounding me with the open meadow ahead, I soon realize why this scene feels so chillingly familiar.
I’ve seen this before, in my psychic visions that had come briefly a few times over the past few weeks while I’ve been in Girdwood. My wolf senses it too, whimpering in recognition as fear and dread wash over me, retracting my fur and leaving me to face what comes next in human form.
Gasping when I witness the materialization of the dark, malevolent spirit in front of me, I’m too stunned to move, freezing on the spot on watching every treacherous second it takes for the demon dog to morph into its physical form.
It draws from the surrounding fog, black licks of smoke twirling into a mass that resembles a werewolf only in its size.
The demon’s physical form is a hideous black mass shaped like a shaggy dog, its eyes dark pits of terror as a purple comes out to lap at its face.
The demon stalks forward, its hellish eyes keeping me pinned in place as I’m arrested by fear, almost forgetting that I have magic powers that can impede the demon’s mythical force.
Snapping out of the trance, I pull my wits together and remember who I am, even if I’m riddled with the guilt and shame of being fooled into one of the demon’s tricks despite the others’ many attempts to warn me about this very situation I’ve found myself in.
I push through my inner conflict with myself, not lingering on self-loathing, so I can get myself out of this situation.
Tapping into my mystical abilities, I feel my powers igniting in the depths of my eyes as my vision sharpens to focus on the demon as it stalks toward me, its paws barely touching the ground as it floats forward, still licking its lips as if its eyes have set on its ultimate prey.
I feel the power whirling in my palms, and my lips lift in a smirk because I can feel how strong the magic is, and I’m confident that I can hurt the demon enough to run back to the others.
A gentle whirring sound erupts around me like a shield of silver, translucent mist that gathers my powers until I’m ready to strike.
When I feel the intense energy coursing through my veins, I let it out, palms faced at the demon just as it’s about to close the distance. Thunderous bolts of sparkling silver light shoot out of my palms, aimed at the demon, but it dodges each strike as if anticipating every one.
I have to be smarter, needing to momentarily distract the demon when it doesn’t remove its eyes from me.
That’s when I face my palms out, throwing electric bolts into the trees on either side of me, erupting the trunks in hot licking flames of silver.
The demon slows down, its eyes flitting to the left for the split second that’s needed for me to hurl lightning bolts of magic at the demon’s face.
Two spears of electric pulses slice its face, one across its cheek, the other between its onyx eyes, and it whimpers and screeches as it’s knocked off the paws that were levitating above the snow-covered ground just now.
It shakes its limbs out and hits the ground on its side, appearing to have morphed fully into its physical form.
This is when the demon is susceptible to physical harm, and I snap my head in the direction of the burning tree behind me, looking for something I can use as a weapon.
But when I spin in the direction of the broken branch I spotted, my breath catches, and I’m struck frozen again when another two demon dogs appear through the fiery smoke.
There’s no way I can get out of this one. I’m toast if it’s just me against three evil creatures. Just as I’m about to cave onto my knees and sob, someone grabs my arm and pulls me upright.
“Aurora…” I gasp when I realize the cloaked figure is none other than the main luna of Snehvolk. She nods firmly, her eyes ablaze with the lilac color of her magic as she grabs my hand and presses her palm to mine.
“Now!”
That's all she says with a brief nod, and I tap into my magic again, bringing it to the surface.
Our powers merge in our palms, the wafts of silver and lilac dancing together and casting a shield around us.
When Aurora releases my hand, her magic remains in my palms, powering up mine so that I feel invincible.
Running on the adrenaline pumping through my veins, I follow Aurora’s lead as she shoots bolts of silver and lilac from her palms at the two newly emerged demons in the ingress of the woods.
Flashes of magic, luminescent bolts, slice through the air as both of us work to impair the demons. Before long, the alphas and soldiers join us, and the forest turns into a battlefield with werewolves and witches fighting against creatures of the underworld.
The air is filled with the sounds of growls and roars from the werewolves, and the demons make treacherous screeches as they flash through the air, morphing between black smoke figures and their physical, dog-like forms. Dawson’s wolf lunges for one demon when I immobilize it with magic, and he uses the unique opportunity to tear the demon’s head off its neck.
A cloud of screeching smoke foams in the air in place of its physical body, and it’s like it’s being dragged back to the dark depths of the underworld, screaming before it dies from this world, and the smoke dissipates in the air until it disappears entirely.
I nod at my mate with a chuffed smirk on my face, turning to the other demon to execute damage that can impair it long enough for the wolves to decapitate and kill it.
The one Aurora is concentrated on is injured enough to send it crashing into a tree, the bark snapping behind it, just as Alpha Elias and his Beta, Dillon, tackle it in its physical form.
While the one is being taken care of, I focus on the other, striking it with all my might and the force of the combined magic in my hands.
I’m able to crack into its ribs, breaking a knee while it’s in physical form, but it scrambles onto its paws and wheezes just as the other demon is killed behind me.
The demon whimpers as it struggles to its paws, then spins and rushes in the opposite direction through the forest, dripping thick streaks of black, greasy slime from where it’s been wounded. Dawson and a group of other wolves charge after it, giving chase out of Girdwood.
I turn to Aurora just as she signals to her mate that the only demon that’s left standing is getting away. I’m about to breathe a sigh of relief because two demons are dead and gone, when I’m hauled into a vision of a fire burning in a square pit.
I look up just as Alpha Elias carries over a black, cast-iron pot and places it over the fire, realizing that I’m seeing a vision because he’s no longer in wolf form.
I turn my eyes slowly around the moonlit meadow, the stars in the sky twinkling brightly beside the glowing full moon. Dawson is behind me when I glance over my shoulder, and Alpha Elias takes a step back, allowing Aurora to throw some herbs and plants into the cauldron.
On her left is the figure of a woman, but only her short-haired silhouette is visible as if a shadow is cast over her, another figure lurking behind her. I frown, trying to focus on the figure of the woman when a faint buzzing whirs in my eardrums.
“More demons will come to test you over the days…” A soft, lilted whisper enters my ears. “This is how Emile McGruff will defeat the demon when he is ready….”
I gasp, realizing that this is a vision of the future, when Aurora and Elias’s son is supposedly prepared to defeat the demon for good—or, perhaps, the underworld, where there are other demon dogs involved, not just one.
I glance to Aurora’s right and become stunned.
A familiar face wields a spoon, ready to mix the contents of the cauldron.
“Rissa?”
She looks up at me, smiles, and shakes her head slowly.
“Now’s not the time. You’ll know when it’s right.” Her voice enters my mind, but her lips don’t move. She doesn’t stop smiling, even when the male figure behind her steps into the light, and silver eyes glimmer with amazement at the crackling fire.
“Brooks?”
My shock snaps me out of the vision, and I’m back on the battlefield with all the soldiers and the Alphas present.
Aurora frowns at me, probably recognizing that I’d just had a vision.
But when she comes forward, I collapse onto the snow, a wave of exhaustion washing over me because of all the magic I wielded, and the vision I just had.