Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
Rudra stared with seething hatred at the man responsible for the torment her father had suffered for so long.
After finding Jericho battling unearthly beings by the back gate of the castle, she’d forced him to go home through a portal she’d created, along with an order to rally the clan to beware intruders.
If they didn’t smell like her, she’d ordered Jericho to kill on contact.
The moment she’d been unable to find her father or Fenris, she’d known something was going on. Then, unable to locate Jericho, she’d looked for her mother. Rena couldn’t hold out on sharing important information with her alpha, no matter that said alpha happened to be her daughter.
Watching her mother vanish in front of her had been a hell all its own.
But she’d been unable to tap into Rena’s energy to follow her.
Fortunately, her tie with her beta had allowed her to find him.
After sending him home, she’d focused and locked in on the malevolent energy that gave power to everything in the vicinity.
She hadn’t expected to see her mother lying in a pool of blood on the ground. Or that her father would be crying her mother’s name and hurrying to hold her before she bled out. By the Wolf, things had gone to hell all right. What had her father been thinking to take on Mikhail without her help?
She saw Fenris, a golden werewolf in his mightiest form, try to attack her uncle.
Before he could reach the man, a giant windstorm hauled the sorcerer high into the air while a half dozen mirror images of Fenris appeared.
None of them could be mistaken for the golden werewolf, though.
All the mirror images were ink dark and smelled of decay.
“Fight amongst yourselves, why don’t you?” Mikhail laughed, and at his insane glee, she felt a rage she’d never experienced.
“Rena, my love.” Her father had tears dripping down his face while he did his best to save her mother. She felt his magic sputtering, tamped down by a wave of energy from Mikhail.
She glanced from her parents to Fenris, now engaged with monsters giving him a serious fight. Before she could go to him, he roared, “Save Rena.”
Deciding to trust he could take care of himself, she joined her father on the ground and shifted to human. Then she placed her hands over his and chanted with him, giving her parents all the love she had inside.
Her mother’s neck wound healed, though Rena remained unconscious. “Take her home, Dad.”
“No. I can’t leave this. Not now.” He looked pained. “I don’t understand. Mikhail should have weakened by now. This shouldn’t be happening.”
“But it is.” And it was past time she stopped it. “Take Mom and go. I’m alpha for a reason, Dad. Let me and Fenris work together to stop this.”
“I’ll be right back. It’ll take all of us to finish him.” Rurik disappeared.
Rudra clothed herself in a protective cloak, much like the one Mikhail wore, and stood, ready to aid Fenris, when her uncle’s words froze her in horror.
“I’ve been waiting for you for such a long time. I knew Rurik wouldn’t disappoint.” Mikhail waved his hands and the black werewolves attacked Fenris en masse. They didn’t do more than bleed him, though, toying with him while they circled.
Fenris fought bravely, but for every blow he landed, the rogue werewolves lost flesh but not blood or strength. If anything, his attacks left them…stronger.
“Yes. That spell Rurik cast helped me quite a bit.” Mikhail floated high in his windstorm, watching the fight with delight.
“A drop of your blood in that spell gave me the ability to fight back.” He waved to his creatures.
“You see? They’re not as strong as you are wolf to wolf, but in a group, they’ll rip you to pieces.
And then, my boy, then you’ll be mine. Oh, the things I can do with your sacrifice.
” Mikhail trembled and sighed. “I’ll be more powerful than any sorcerer in existence. Than the demons even.”
Fenris growled and ripped one werewolf in half.
“I hadn’t seen that one coming.” Mikhail blinked. “You’re stronger than I’d thought. Wonderful.” He didn’t seem upset. Thrilled, more like. “And forgive me, my dear, for not introducing myself sooner.”
Rudra found herself caught up in a small vortex of wind, unable to move her hands, while the battle raged on. “You’re going to pay for everything you’ve done,” she warned, readying a spell in her mind.
“I always do.” He smiled at her, so evil and inhumane she cringed. It was as if something else stared out through his eyes. Something ancient and…wrong.
“You aren’t Mikhail.”
“Aren’t I?” He tittered. “You’re just jealous you didn’t think to use the werewolf for your own gain.
Do you have any idea how valuable his kind is to a magic user?
What his blood, pelt, and flesh can do when treated properly?
” He nodded at Fenris, who stared up at them in a rage so palpable she could feel it.
What the hell was going on?
“Once he’s been defeated, I’ll drink him down and feast on his flesh.
Then I’ll skin him and wear him with pride.
” Mikhail fingered his cloak. “The color’s a bit too bright, but with the right magic, I can tone him down.
And once I’ve devoured your father and mother, you and I can get better acquainted. ”
“No.” Just…no. Rudra wished her father would have included her in on his plan, because she would have found a contingency for a worst-case possibility. “So you used my father from the beginning? Did you plant the idea that a spell using a drop of werewolf blood would be enough to weaken you?”
“Of course. No such spell exists.”
Dread consumed her. She stared down at Fenris, who’d given everything to protect her.
No. She refused to let him be harmed for her.
Not again. “But it does, Uncle.” She smiled at him, heard the werewolf below her scream out in a rage, and promised herself not to worry about him right now.
She had to focus on the threat in front of her if she had any hope of saving her lover.
Dear Wolf in the Forest, your wolves need you now more than ever. Please help us to vanquish this blight on all that’s good in this world, and I pledge you everything within me to do your bidding. Whatever it takes, just keep Fenris safe.
A stirring bristled the fur of the wolf buried inside her. She felt a warmth and a sharing of power, one that she’d always sensed but could never tap into before. Goddess?
Soft laughter and a warm kiss bathed her from head to toe.
Below her, Fenris did something that made their enemy cry out with pain.
“What are you doing?” Mikhail shrieked at Fenris, no longer looking at her. “Get off of him. No, stop.”
She stared at her uncle and commanded, with all of her will, that the lives of all he’d taken be returned to him. The Wolf in the Forest backed her magic, pressing with a canine will and a hunger for right. But the darkness around Mikhail was strong, bolstered by Fenris’s blood.
“Damn it, get out of here,” Fenris yelled at her and threw two of Mikhail’s now dead werewolves at him.
Mikhail managed to dodge them, but the third toppled him from his windstorm. He nearly fell to the ground, only managing to right himself at the last minute.
Rurik reappeared and grabbed Rudra, then teleported them next to Fenris.
He stood bleeding from myriad bites and scratches. He looked like hell, yet the power he radiated strengthened her. Which made little sense.
Fenris nodded at Mikhail, who had conjured more undead, now circling them. “Can I kill him now or what?”
Rurik seemed like a different man. “Yes. Please do.”
Mikhail smiled. “You can’t kill me. I’m more powerful than you can ever—”
Fenris struck a clawed blow that reached into and through Mikhail’s chest. He pulled back his fist, clutching a black and bloodied heart.
Mikhail shrieked and groaned, but his magic didn’t sputter out. If anything, it grew.
“He’s not dying,” Fenris shouted to be heard over the whipping wind spouts growing around them. The undead moans added to the discord, and the sound hurt her ears. Rudra cast a protective spell around them that her father strengthened.
“At least I can hear myself again.” Rurik sighed. “Thanks, honey.”
“Thanks?” She glared at him. “Why didn’t you do this with me, Dad? Did you know Mikhail used you to get to Fenris?”
“Yes.”
“That he’s now stronger because he’s got a werewolf right where he wants him?”
“Yes.”
“That because of you, Fenris might die? That—Wait. What?”
“I knew all along. Fenris does too.”
Fenris nodded. He staggered and righted himself. “Let’s finish this.”
Rurik agreed. “Yes. Rudra, I need you to—”
“Finish this how?” Panicked at the resigned look in Fenris’s eyes, she latched onto his bloodied hand. “No. You don’t get to leave until I’m through with you. I’m alpha here, buddy. Not you.”
He bared a fang. “She’s so cute when she’s mean.” He wiped a bloodied claw down her cheek, not hurting, but caressing. “Watch your dad, Red. Let me do my part now. Okay?”
“No. No sacrifices,” she snapped, scared because she somehow knew what Fenris meant to do.
“Just one little one.” He pulled back from her, countering her magical tugs with an impossible resistance he shouldn’t have had.
“Fenris, don’t. This isn’t your battle.”
“Yes, it is,” her father said quietly.
“I’ll never forgive you for this,” she seethed, on the verge of tears.
And then Fenris stepped away from them. Rurik held her back while Fenris took the black heart in his hands and held it above his head. He closed his eyes.
Rurik teleported them to a high point in the keep, from which they could look down and see everything unfold. Then he countered the spell he’d been using to protect Fenris. Rudra felt it wink out.
And the horde converged on him. Undead, monsters, even a few beasts she’d never seen before. They piled on Fenris until he could no longer be seen, only that black heart still beating pumped in his hands.
Fenris cried out. Once.
A bolt of white lightning lit the sky and travelled to the heart in Fenris’s hands. An explosion rocked the courtyard.
When Rudra had regained her wits, she helped her father to stand. They stared down at the courtyard, now cleared of everything but Fenris.
He lay naked, bleeding, and unconscious on the empty ground. Not a monster or corpse to be seen.
And he didn’t move.