A Cursed Embrace
Page 37
I nodded.
She scowled. “Forget him, Celia. Time to get the hell out of Wolf Central.”
The more I drove down the snaking road, the more I felt my control breaking away. My tigress was strong, but even she would need time to cope without Aric’s wolf. I angled the car to the side, ready to let Bren drive, when a frigid cold struck my body all at once.
Hordes of demon children swept down from the sky and surrounded us. The biggest one I’d ever seen landed on Taran’s sedan and tore into the roof. She slammed down on the accelerator and tried to shake it, but the creature dug his back claws into the metal and continued its rampage, peeling the exterior like layers of foil.
Bren scrambled out the window. “Get me close!”
I remained at least ten feet away when Bren propelled himself off my hood. He changed midjump and tackled the creature. They toppled off the car and into the thick underbrush. I couldn’t see what happened next. All I heard were Bren’s growls as he fought and my sisters screaming for him.
Two others landed on Taran’s roof and finished breaking through. She jerked the car right and left, and back again, barely keeping the car from veering off the jutted road. I thought her maneuvers would knock them off, but when they started grabbing for my sisters, I was forced to articulate the unthinkable.
“Shayna, drive!”
Shayna climbed to the front and smoothly took over as I crept out. I leapt onto Taran’s mangled car and flung the closest demon against a large tree trunk. It exploded like a piñata, spraying the car behind me.
I went after the other as it pulled Emme, shrieking, out of the damaged roof. I tore off his wings before he could take flight, then jumped on his back and ripped off his head. The demon’s claws abruptly released Emme. I barely managed to grab on to the side of the car and catch her before she toppled onto the road.
Hell must have frozen over because in the distance Bren called for the pack. Farther away, a wolf answered his howl, then another, and another.
My glance shot toward Bren’s call. More demons swooped down from the sky, all large, all strong, all hungry. Drool glistened their yellow fangs, red irises fired with gluttony. Their numbers so vast, their wings and bodies collided against one another as they barreled toward us.
I shoved Emme through the window. “Taran, go. They’re coming, Taran. They’re coming!”
Emme was halfway in when a demon swept down and dug his clawed feet into my shoulders. The stabbing pain rippled across the length of my arms in agonizing spasms. I pushed Emme through before he took flight, thrashing violently, but the demon wouldn’t let me go. He drove his claws deeper into my skin, impeding my movements.
My feet slapped along the treetops when a bolt of lightning sizzled past me and struck the demon. It dropped me in a combustion of limbs. The world spun as my body plummeted to the ground. Emme tried to catch me with her force, but my weight and speed seemed too much for her. I landed hard on my stomach, losing the air in my lungs in one, long, painful exhale.
Sharp stones and pieces of broken branches pierced into my flesh. I struggled to regain my breath, frantically searching for my family. Taran’s car remained lodged between two trees. My car angled next to hers. Chunks of demon parts slithered out from beneath the tires from where Shayna had crashed into them.
My sisters stood in the middle of the road, fighting for their lives. Taran blasted everything she could with her fire, her hair whipping in the breeze as she reeled to face the advancing scourge. Emme launched a hailstorm of jagged stones, puncturing through their chests and slashing through their scaled hides. Shayna had transformed the car antenna into a rapier and sliced off heads and limbs. But there were too many of them, and not enough of us.
Deep within the forest, the pounding of massive paws against the earth announced the wolves’ approach. I growled with frustration. They were still far away. No way would they reach us in time.
I forced myself to stand, only to stagger backward when the strong aroma of vampire reached my nose. They stalked through the trees armed with rifles and dressed in tattered clothing. “Oh my God,” I gasped. They’re not the ones on our side.
My fear turned into panic when a redheaded vamp lifted the barrel and pointed it at Emme. I ran toward her as fast as I could, yelling her name. Another vamp saw me coming and shot me in the collarbone. The force knocked me against the graveled dirt. I roared in agony. I’d never been shot before; the pain was unbearable.
I wrenched myself to my feet. Another bullet struck me in my thigh. Horrible burning spread, but it was quickly replaced by a strange numbness. My limbs failed me, and my breathing slowed. From the hard ground, I watched the same vamp fire at Shayna.
Shayna fell limp and unmoving. The vampire who shot her approached, laughing. He cocked the rifle and aimed for her head, but he never got the chance to shoot.
Bren sprinted out of the trees and tore the vamp’s head off in one ferocious bite. He continued his vicious killing spree while I tried in vain to change. My tigress failed to respond. She tumbled deep within me, clawing with the need to hang on. Tears burned my eyes as the strength of her power receded. She left me. My God, she left me.
My muscles turned flaccid and weak, except I couldn’t understand why. It was more than just blood loss and loss of my beast. Something felt different, and everything around me slowed like a snail’s journey across a ravine.
Another shot was fired, this time hitting Emme. She collapsed, crying out in an earsplitting holler. A demon grabbed her around the waist and took flight while another lifted Shayna’s lifeless body in his arms. His bat wings extended like giant kites. He smiled, clutching Shayna eagerly against him. I tried rolling. My vision doubled from the effort and my heart rate slowed to a weak thud.
Two smaller demons dragged Taran away, each clenching an arm. “Celia, Celia!” She swore when she spotted my unmoving form. Her body thrashed violently and her pale skin dripped with the cold sweat of her terror. Her nightmare had come true. The demons had us, and they weren’t letting go.
Taran tried to gather her magic. A faint brush of her dwindling power raked against my failing senses. One of the monsters halted her efforts by crushing her wrist. As numb as I felt, her wails of pain sent a spear of ice down my spine. They launched into flight with her at the same moment my body left the ground. Below me Bren fought six demons in his desperate effort to reach us.
We soared upward, the flap of the demons’ wings a faint whisper in my ears. Taran unleashed a guttural scream. My eyes burned as blue and white light exploded out of her. The creatures holding her burst into nasty bits while she remained suspended above the treetops. Poor Emme used the last of her strength to keep Taran from falling.
Emme’s hand quivered and her lids fluttered. She was losing her hold. Taran’s body bounced and twitched in the air as the first of the wolf pack arrived. Heidi clawed her way up the nearest tree and leapt off a thick branch, fastening her powerful jaws on to the waist of Taran’s jeans. She ricocheted from tree trunk to tree trunk until she brought my sister safely to the ground.
Tears drenched my cheeks, knowing at least Taran had been spared.
My vision clouded as I scanned the forest floor. What seemed like the entire pack chased us. Aric and Koda thundered in the lead, growling with murderous fury. But I realized their efforts were hopeless as the demons lifted us higher into the darkening sky.
Misha, Misha, please find us.
And then the world went black.
CHAPTER 29
The sound of clanking steel gradually stirred me. At first, I thought I was home, waking to an earthquake. But instead of warm sheets, only cold metal chilled my back.
Metal?
I pried my eyes open. My vision blurred, and the pounding in my head intensified. Every part of my body felt stiff and sore, yet I couldn’t remember why. Then, slowly and painfully, my eyes cleared and the memories rushed back.
I sat up abruptly, only to pitch sideways and curse when every one of my injuries screeched. Shit. My chest, and my right hip and thigh throbbed mercilessly, while a burning sensation coursed through the deep gashes in my shoulders.
When I tried to move again, I realized my wrists were bound behind me. My tigress freaked. I thrashed like a caged beast and dug my nails into the rope. But it was useless. I couldn’t tear free.
“Celia. Celia, stop!”
My growls drowned most of Shayna’s hoarse calls. I searched around anxiously but couldn’t immediately spot her. That’s when it hit me; the heightened senses my tigress gave me were gone, even though her presence had returned.
I was . . . human. And it scared the hell out of me.
I shook my head, disoriented. My weakened gaze slowly adjusted and focused on my sisters, slumped and bound across from me. God, they’d taken a beating. Cuts and bruises covered their bodies, but what distressed me most were their bullet wounds.
A tear streaked down Shayna’s dirty face. “We’re in the back of a semi, dude. Tell me you’re okay.”
I couldn’t tell her what she wanted to hear. None of us were okay. Just alive. For the moment.
A million thoughts scrambled through my brain, but as I continued to stare at their injuries, something didn’t make sense. I cleared my throat to speak, further irritating the harsh dryness. “Why haven’t you healed?”
Emme’s face crumbled. “I can’t, Celia. Our powers are gone.”
That horrible dread found its way back into my bones. “What’s happened? The last thing I remember is the demons flying us out of the Den.”
Emme bowed her head, sobs shaking her slight form. Shayna took a calming breath, then another, before finally speaking for her. “The demons carried us to an industrial park, Celia. You were still unconscious, but when they tried to bind your wrists, you woke up and started slaughtering them. You did a lot of damage, and at first I thought we were going to escape. . . .” She shuddered and grimaced into her shoulder.
I didn’t understand her reaction until Emme focused her bloodshot eyes on me. “They shot you four times, Celia. I don’t know how you’re alive.” Fresh tears streamed down her face and she curled into a tight ball.
My lack of memory told me two things. One, my tigress had regained consciousness before I had. And two, she’d woke fighting. Good. That’s what we needed.
Emme choked on a sob. I inched toward her and so did Shayna. We lay against her, trying to keep her body warm with ours. Shayna blew out a shaky breath. “It’s worse than we thought, Ceel. The Tribe recruited a band of dark witches. One of them possesses the ability to bespell the bullets to block our powers—or at least she did possess.” Shayna tried to swallow except the effort seemed too cumbersome. “The Tribesmen bragged about giving her to their Tribemaster once she’d exhausted her use.”
“Tribemaster?” I asked, despite knowing what she meant.
“The demon lord, Ceel. The real one.” She shook her head. “I don’t think the creatures we fought at Death Valley were it. I think we’d fought . . . his babies.”
My body scorched with newfound pain as my pulse raced. If Shayna was right, we fared far worse than I could have imagined. The demons Danny had called forth tossed the weres around like pillows and almost killed us. No way did I want to meet Papa.
Emme sealed her lids tight. “What do you think they’re going to do to us? They’re hungry, I can see it. But they haven’t . . .”
Tried to eat us? Emme had a point. Why wait? The Tribe had a plan for us. But what did we have that they could want? I didn’t want to find out. I scanned our dirty metal cave. A single bulb dully lit the area around us. Otherwise, the compartment was dark and empty, and reeked of rust and garbage. I pushed up to a standing position. “Any idea where we are or how long we’ve been driving?”
“No,” Shayna answered.
I spit some blood onto the filthy floor. “Well, screw this. Come on.”
I shimmied against the sides. Shayna and Emme grunted, barely able to roll. Emme shook her head. “We can’t, Celia. Maybe it’s your metabolism burning through the magic of the bullets. But you’re in better shape than we are.”
My brain hammered against my skull, and blood continued to pool in my mouth. My sisters could barely crawl. Dear Lord, how was I going to get us out of here? “Just try, okay? I’m going to play with the door to see if I can get it open. If we’re on an open highway, maybe someone will see us.”
I reached the roll-up door and anchored my foot beneath a metal latch. The semi clashed in a percussion of steady bounces, sending me sprawling into my sisters. I twisted forward again, banging into the door when the truck came to an abrupt halt.
The air brakes had barely stopped screeching when the trailer door swung open, momentarily blinding me with bright sunlight. Before I could react, two demon children dragged me out of the semi with their clawed hands. I flinched away from their serpentine tongues licking my face and squinted wildly, trying to keep a position on my sisters.
Emme cowered and cried harder. Shayna kicked and flailed, making the Tribesmen holding her laugh. I decided not to fight. No, not yet. I needed to conserve my remaining energy. If Emme was right, I’d get my strength back somehow.
Misha, Misha, where are you?
Even as I called Misha, I thought of Aric, hoping he and the other wolves were tracking us. The thought of what might happen in the meantime, though, made me panic, so I willed myself to relax. My sisters needed me, and I needed a plan.
I took in my surroundings, trying to figure out where the hell we were. Before us stood an imposing building resembling a castle, its high walls and towers fashioned from tan and gray brick. At first, I thought we were someplace foreign, until a large sign in front of the building gave away our exact location.
She scowled. “Forget him, Celia. Time to get the hell out of Wolf Central.”
The more I drove down the snaking road, the more I felt my control breaking away. My tigress was strong, but even she would need time to cope without Aric’s wolf. I angled the car to the side, ready to let Bren drive, when a frigid cold struck my body all at once.
Hordes of demon children swept down from the sky and surrounded us. The biggest one I’d ever seen landed on Taran’s sedan and tore into the roof. She slammed down on the accelerator and tried to shake it, but the creature dug his back claws into the metal and continued its rampage, peeling the exterior like layers of foil.
Bren scrambled out the window. “Get me close!”
I remained at least ten feet away when Bren propelled himself off my hood. He changed midjump and tackled the creature. They toppled off the car and into the thick underbrush. I couldn’t see what happened next. All I heard were Bren’s growls as he fought and my sisters screaming for him.
Two others landed on Taran’s roof and finished breaking through. She jerked the car right and left, and back again, barely keeping the car from veering off the jutted road. I thought her maneuvers would knock them off, but when they started grabbing for my sisters, I was forced to articulate the unthinkable.
“Shayna, drive!”
Shayna climbed to the front and smoothly took over as I crept out. I leapt onto Taran’s mangled car and flung the closest demon against a large tree trunk. It exploded like a piñata, spraying the car behind me.
I went after the other as it pulled Emme, shrieking, out of the damaged roof. I tore off his wings before he could take flight, then jumped on his back and ripped off his head. The demon’s claws abruptly released Emme. I barely managed to grab on to the side of the car and catch her before she toppled onto the road.
Hell must have frozen over because in the distance Bren called for the pack. Farther away, a wolf answered his howl, then another, and another.
My glance shot toward Bren’s call. More demons swooped down from the sky, all large, all strong, all hungry. Drool glistened their yellow fangs, red irises fired with gluttony. Their numbers so vast, their wings and bodies collided against one another as they barreled toward us.
I shoved Emme through the window. “Taran, go. They’re coming, Taran. They’re coming!”
Emme was halfway in when a demon swept down and dug his clawed feet into my shoulders. The stabbing pain rippled across the length of my arms in agonizing spasms. I pushed Emme through before he took flight, thrashing violently, but the demon wouldn’t let me go. He drove his claws deeper into my skin, impeding my movements.
My feet slapped along the treetops when a bolt of lightning sizzled past me and struck the demon. It dropped me in a combustion of limbs. The world spun as my body plummeted to the ground. Emme tried to catch me with her force, but my weight and speed seemed too much for her. I landed hard on my stomach, losing the air in my lungs in one, long, painful exhale.
Sharp stones and pieces of broken branches pierced into my flesh. I struggled to regain my breath, frantically searching for my family. Taran’s car remained lodged between two trees. My car angled next to hers. Chunks of demon parts slithered out from beneath the tires from where Shayna had crashed into them.
My sisters stood in the middle of the road, fighting for their lives. Taran blasted everything she could with her fire, her hair whipping in the breeze as she reeled to face the advancing scourge. Emme launched a hailstorm of jagged stones, puncturing through their chests and slashing through their scaled hides. Shayna had transformed the car antenna into a rapier and sliced off heads and limbs. But there were too many of them, and not enough of us.
Deep within the forest, the pounding of massive paws against the earth announced the wolves’ approach. I growled with frustration. They were still far away. No way would they reach us in time.
I forced myself to stand, only to stagger backward when the strong aroma of vampire reached my nose. They stalked through the trees armed with rifles and dressed in tattered clothing. “Oh my God,” I gasped. They’re not the ones on our side.
My fear turned into panic when a redheaded vamp lifted the barrel and pointed it at Emme. I ran toward her as fast as I could, yelling her name. Another vamp saw me coming and shot me in the collarbone. The force knocked me against the graveled dirt. I roared in agony. I’d never been shot before; the pain was unbearable.
I wrenched myself to my feet. Another bullet struck me in my thigh. Horrible burning spread, but it was quickly replaced by a strange numbness. My limbs failed me, and my breathing slowed. From the hard ground, I watched the same vamp fire at Shayna.
Shayna fell limp and unmoving. The vampire who shot her approached, laughing. He cocked the rifle and aimed for her head, but he never got the chance to shoot.
Bren sprinted out of the trees and tore the vamp’s head off in one ferocious bite. He continued his vicious killing spree while I tried in vain to change. My tigress failed to respond. She tumbled deep within me, clawing with the need to hang on. Tears burned my eyes as the strength of her power receded. She left me. My God, she left me.
My muscles turned flaccid and weak, except I couldn’t understand why. It was more than just blood loss and loss of my beast. Something felt different, and everything around me slowed like a snail’s journey across a ravine.
Another shot was fired, this time hitting Emme. She collapsed, crying out in an earsplitting holler. A demon grabbed her around the waist and took flight while another lifted Shayna’s lifeless body in his arms. His bat wings extended like giant kites. He smiled, clutching Shayna eagerly against him. I tried rolling. My vision doubled from the effort and my heart rate slowed to a weak thud.
Two smaller demons dragged Taran away, each clenching an arm. “Celia, Celia!” She swore when she spotted my unmoving form. Her body thrashed violently and her pale skin dripped with the cold sweat of her terror. Her nightmare had come true. The demons had us, and they weren’t letting go.
Taran tried to gather her magic. A faint brush of her dwindling power raked against my failing senses. One of the monsters halted her efforts by crushing her wrist. As numb as I felt, her wails of pain sent a spear of ice down my spine. They launched into flight with her at the same moment my body left the ground. Below me Bren fought six demons in his desperate effort to reach us.
We soared upward, the flap of the demons’ wings a faint whisper in my ears. Taran unleashed a guttural scream. My eyes burned as blue and white light exploded out of her. The creatures holding her burst into nasty bits while she remained suspended above the treetops. Poor Emme used the last of her strength to keep Taran from falling.
Emme’s hand quivered and her lids fluttered. She was losing her hold. Taran’s body bounced and twitched in the air as the first of the wolf pack arrived. Heidi clawed her way up the nearest tree and leapt off a thick branch, fastening her powerful jaws on to the waist of Taran’s jeans. She ricocheted from tree trunk to tree trunk until she brought my sister safely to the ground.
Tears drenched my cheeks, knowing at least Taran had been spared.
My vision clouded as I scanned the forest floor. What seemed like the entire pack chased us. Aric and Koda thundered in the lead, growling with murderous fury. But I realized their efforts were hopeless as the demons lifted us higher into the darkening sky.
Misha, Misha, please find us.
And then the world went black.
CHAPTER 29
The sound of clanking steel gradually stirred me. At first, I thought I was home, waking to an earthquake. But instead of warm sheets, only cold metal chilled my back.
Metal?
I pried my eyes open. My vision blurred, and the pounding in my head intensified. Every part of my body felt stiff and sore, yet I couldn’t remember why. Then, slowly and painfully, my eyes cleared and the memories rushed back.
I sat up abruptly, only to pitch sideways and curse when every one of my injuries screeched. Shit. My chest, and my right hip and thigh throbbed mercilessly, while a burning sensation coursed through the deep gashes in my shoulders.
When I tried to move again, I realized my wrists were bound behind me. My tigress freaked. I thrashed like a caged beast and dug my nails into the rope. But it was useless. I couldn’t tear free.
“Celia. Celia, stop!”
My growls drowned most of Shayna’s hoarse calls. I searched around anxiously but couldn’t immediately spot her. That’s when it hit me; the heightened senses my tigress gave me were gone, even though her presence had returned.
I was . . . human. And it scared the hell out of me.
I shook my head, disoriented. My weakened gaze slowly adjusted and focused on my sisters, slumped and bound across from me. God, they’d taken a beating. Cuts and bruises covered their bodies, but what distressed me most were their bullet wounds.
A tear streaked down Shayna’s dirty face. “We’re in the back of a semi, dude. Tell me you’re okay.”
I couldn’t tell her what she wanted to hear. None of us were okay. Just alive. For the moment.
A million thoughts scrambled through my brain, but as I continued to stare at their injuries, something didn’t make sense. I cleared my throat to speak, further irritating the harsh dryness. “Why haven’t you healed?”
Emme’s face crumbled. “I can’t, Celia. Our powers are gone.”
That horrible dread found its way back into my bones. “What’s happened? The last thing I remember is the demons flying us out of the Den.”
Emme bowed her head, sobs shaking her slight form. Shayna took a calming breath, then another, before finally speaking for her. “The demons carried us to an industrial park, Celia. You were still unconscious, but when they tried to bind your wrists, you woke up and started slaughtering them. You did a lot of damage, and at first I thought we were going to escape. . . .” She shuddered and grimaced into her shoulder.
I didn’t understand her reaction until Emme focused her bloodshot eyes on me. “They shot you four times, Celia. I don’t know how you’re alive.” Fresh tears streamed down her face and she curled into a tight ball.
My lack of memory told me two things. One, my tigress had regained consciousness before I had. And two, she’d woke fighting. Good. That’s what we needed.
Emme choked on a sob. I inched toward her and so did Shayna. We lay against her, trying to keep her body warm with ours. Shayna blew out a shaky breath. “It’s worse than we thought, Ceel. The Tribe recruited a band of dark witches. One of them possesses the ability to bespell the bullets to block our powers—or at least she did possess.” Shayna tried to swallow except the effort seemed too cumbersome. “The Tribesmen bragged about giving her to their Tribemaster once she’d exhausted her use.”
“Tribemaster?” I asked, despite knowing what she meant.
“The demon lord, Ceel. The real one.” She shook her head. “I don’t think the creatures we fought at Death Valley were it. I think we’d fought . . . his babies.”
My body scorched with newfound pain as my pulse raced. If Shayna was right, we fared far worse than I could have imagined. The demons Danny had called forth tossed the weres around like pillows and almost killed us. No way did I want to meet Papa.
Emme sealed her lids tight. “What do you think they’re going to do to us? They’re hungry, I can see it. But they haven’t . . .”
Tried to eat us? Emme had a point. Why wait? The Tribe had a plan for us. But what did we have that they could want? I didn’t want to find out. I scanned our dirty metal cave. A single bulb dully lit the area around us. Otherwise, the compartment was dark and empty, and reeked of rust and garbage. I pushed up to a standing position. “Any idea where we are or how long we’ve been driving?”
“No,” Shayna answered.
I spit some blood onto the filthy floor. “Well, screw this. Come on.”
I shimmied against the sides. Shayna and Emme grunted, barely able to roll. Emme shook her head. “We can’t, Celia. Maybe it’s your metabolism burning through the magic of the bullets. But you’re in better shape than we are.”
My brain hammered against my skull, and blood continued to pool in my mouth. My sisters could barely crawl. Dear Lord, how was I going to get us out of here? “Just try, okay? I’m going to play with the door to see if I can get it open. If we’re on an open highway, maybe someone will see us.”
I reached the roll-up door and anchored my foot beneath a metal latch. The semi clashed in a percussion of steady bounces, sending me sprawling into my sisters. I twisted forward again, banging into the door when the truck came to an abrupt halt.
The air brakes had barely stopped screeching when the trailer door swung open, momentarily blinding me with bright sunlight. Before I could react, two demon children dragged me out of the semi with their clawed hands. I flinched away from their serpentine tongues licking my face and squinted wildly, trying to keep a position on my sisters.
Emme cowered and cried harder. Shayna kicked and flailed, making the Tribesmen holding her laugh. I decided not to fight. No, not yet. I needed to conserve my remaining energy. If Emme was right, I’d get my strength back somehow.
Misha, Misha, where are you?
Even as I called Misha, I thought of Aric, hoping he and the other wolves were tracking us. The thought of what might happen in the meantime, though, made me panic, so I willed myself to relax. My sisters needed me, and I needed a plan.
I took in my surroundings, trying to figure out where the hell we were. Before us stood an imposing building resembling a castle, its high walls and towers fashioned from tan and gray brick. At first, I thought we were someplace foreign, until a large sign in front of the building gave away our exact location.
