That bitch.
Dora stepped forward, “Hey, we’re naming our child after Dirk’s...”
Dirk held her back and growled at Marla. “I ought to…”
“Silence!” Talon stalked toward Valeray. “What is the meaning of this?”
Valeray snarled, going partial wolf. “Hand us the Melandanti witch and the thieving raven, Princess Ravenna.”
Good thing Rave had already flown to Yosemite. Knowing her, she would have loved to tease them. Willow was also safe, since Theo had mentioned she died.
Dirk released Dora and went partial werewolf. Talon’s clawed hand dug into his arm but he twisted away from his uncle’s grip. “I have the right to defend my mate.”
Talon growled at him and Dirk backed away. The alpha turned to Valeray. “Princess Ravenna is not here, nor will we arrest her for you. The ravens have joined our community. As far as Dora is concerned, she is my nephew’s mate. You can’t have her.”
Valeray’s fangs extended and his face partially furred. “The raven took our last Bloodstone. We need witch’s blood to replace it. Release her to us and we’ll cooperate.”
Dirk could barely contain his rage. “The only blood that will be spilled is yours.”
Valeray glowered at him. “You’re under her spell.”
Dirk scoffed. “Actually you’re right and frankly that’s a damn good thing.”
Dora shot him a sidelong glance
. “Umm, I don’t think you’re helping our cause.”
“You would create the devil’s spawn,” spat Valeray.
“That’s not true,” said Phoenix. “We don’t even know if the legend of the dragon wizard is true and even if it is, their son would be raised to do good, not evil.”
Dora walked in front of Dirk, and he grabbed her arm so tight his claws dug into her leather sleeve. If any tighter, he would rip into her flesh. “The only devil creature around here happens to be the Protean that we suspect released the Bane.”
Obadiah the Benandanti priest dressed in gold stepped forward. He glared at Dora with the crazed eyes of a religious fanatic, and pointed a long clawed finger at her. “You see, the witch speaks of the devil.”
Dora shook her head. “The devil is some reptilian shifter. We should all worry about him.”
“She’s right,” added Talon.
“Of course she is,” said Obadiah in a mocking tone.
Dirk entered her mind. “
Babe, the Benandanti consider these legendary reptilians the devil’s demons and witches are women who can produce their spawn, namely dragons.”
“So maybe I have this reptilian DNA.”
“Who knows, but what matters right now is keeping you safe, so if you don’t mind riding on our last bus while we sharpen our claws with Benandanti blood.”
Talon lost his patience. “You wasted your time staging this minor inconvenience.” He met Valeray’s eyes. “If you wish to battle, we’re happy to accommodate.”
Dora furrowed her brow.
“Odd, we outnumber them. I sense a trick.”
“I do too, babe.”
Valeray waved a hand in dismissal. “Not necessary, we thought we’d first ask for the witch formally.” He narrowed his eyes at Dirk and then returned his gaze to Talon. You’re right; the zombies are our bigger concern. I suppose we don’t need another Bloodstone,” he said cryptically. He grinned. “For now your minor delay brings us enough pleasure.” He narrowed his eyes at Dora. “No need for you to be stuck here, is there? According to Marla, you’re capable of flight.”
“Bullshit!” Dirk began to shift. Talon barked something in wolf and Dirk remained human.
“Until next time.” Valeray bowed and then slowly rose. Distain in his tone, he sneered, “Enjoy hell.” His helicopters readied for takeoff. His soldiers stood guard as their alpha and priest boarded. The others, including Marla boarded the second helicopter. The men on top of the trains leapt to the other side. Their truck engines roared as they sped away.
The hovering helicopters’ blades whipped up dust and residual smoke from the garlic fields, darkening the skies and clouding their senses.
Talon and his guards cautiously approached the train despite the clatter from the helicopters.
Dirk coughed. “Damn garlic!”
A chorus of voices flooded Dora’s mind. “
Help us get to the light
.
Kill us before it’s too late. Run!”
Her heart marched in panic and she pressed her hands against her head. The out of their zombie body souls screamed. Danger!
“Dora, what’s wrong?” asked Dirk.
Talon sniffed and growled. “They’ve rigged the trains with explosives. Get back!”
Dirk threw her over his shoulder and along with the others dashed back as explosives boomed from train compartment to train compartment. He set her down and covered her with his body. The ground rolled and slight debris showered them.
She’d expected the searing heat of a fiery inferno. Instead, the bombs sounded no louder than cherry bombs. “Hah, the fuel train was a mile away. Too far.”
“You’re right.” Dirk stood and helped her up. “Shit!”
The plastic explosives had only been strong enough to blow out the doors. Dora’s eyes widened. “Holy biological weapons!”
Out of the rigs and train compartments swarms of zombies flooded out. Too many. Thousands. A few wore military uniforms but the majority were civilians. Bloodied in various stages of decay, from near skeleton to a few looking like they woke up with a bad hair day and botched makeup. Recent zombies. Perhaps the Benandanti used humans to lure the rest in. Falling out of the boxcar like lemmings off a cliff, the first string of zombies landed hard, breaking limbs. The rest stumbled out, their fall cushioned by landing on the crippled zombie bodies. They scrambled to their feet, moaning and honed in on them, hungry for human flesh.
Talon yelled. “Retreat!”
The guards backed away.
“Open fire!” Talon ordered.
They used high caliber rifles and aimed for their heads, blowing their brains apart but there were too many. It was like stopping a herd of limping, moaning, stampeding wildebeest. Impossible.
Dirk grabbed her and sat her on his motorcycle as he whirled around. Unfortunately, room didn’t exist for their large vehicles to turn around.
Talon shouted commands. “Leave the provisions behind. Pile into smaller vehicles.” He ordered Phoenix and the other bird shifters to fly home. The rest ran to the back of the caravan. They sped away as the riot of zombies shuffled, limped, crawled and a few even half jogged toward them.
Phoenix landed in front of Talon who led the escape. He slammed on his brakes, stepped out. “Halt!”
“They blocked our escape route with another zombie filled eighteen wheeler. Not as many but at least two hundred ghouls,” Phoenix said out of breath.
Talon grabbed her shoulders. “Fly back and tell Falco we’ll need to be airlifted out of here.”
Phoenix looked worried. “We only have three helicopters and by the time they get here…”
“Please, love, go. We’re outnumbered but remember we’re werewolves.”
They embraced as if it was their last time, before she tearfully stepped back and flew off.
Dirk turned to Dora. “You, too. Fly out of here.”
“No. I’m not leaving you.”
His tone turned menacing. “Dora, that’s an order!”
The sound of rapid gunfire commenced as the betas fired upon the zombies blocking their exit. The explosion of grenades rang the air as well, but they didn’t have enough explosives to stop the hungry swarms. Soon they’d be surrounded. Overall, the pack numbered less than forty. One thing Dora had learned was the alphas never abandoned their pack. Like the honor bound captains of sea faring ships, they would join their crew in death. Though the zombies ignored the fully formed werewolves, there were enough ghouls to trample them, or inadvertently bite them, trying to reach a beta.
Talon signaled to Dirk and he responded with a nod. He kissed Dora hard and released her. “Go!”
There would be bloodshed. Torn limbs. She could treat their wounds if need be. Werewolf or not, would they survive? Life without Dirk wouldn’t be worth it. She was an alpha’s mate. Dora refused to leave. “Forget it!”
Dirk growled. “Dora. Join your family!”
“You are my family!”
He muttered something in wolf and moved to grab her. Too late. With the speed of a peregrine, she flew up into the branches of a lone sickly oak tree with dry brown leaves. Too weak to sustain the weight of the entire pack. Dirk growled from the base of the trunk.
She leaned down. “Don’t you see? His plan was to force me to fly, the better to shoot me from their helicopter.”
He paced below, raked his hair and looked up. “Shit! You’re right. His plan was to flush you out into the open.”
“Exactly. The Benandanti way of celebrating my twenty-seventh year,” she shouted.
“Dirk!” Talon snarled orders to him and a few other alpha younger men and women to shift.
He obeyed and groaned as his bones snapped. The man she loved howled in fury as he re-shaped his body into that of a beast. He and the other alphas dashed toward the zombies. Monstrous werewolves ripped off zombie heads. At the same time, the betas went partial werewolf and armed themselves. Rifles, guns, swords, fangs and claws.
Still, the zombies persisted, stumbling over the fallen, rising with arms lifted, barking moans desperate to devour flesh. Others slammed their hands and heads on those who had taken shelter inside their vehicles. The cars shrieked into reverse as zombies clung on to fenders and doors. It was the script from every zombie movie. Surrounded. Torn. Blood and guts, all that remained of the once living.
The bullets and maddened alphas killed many but many more undead got through. Already a few betas fell prey to rampaging zombies. Their blood curdling howls enraged the alphas and they managed to kill hundreds. But more came.
Valeray had executed a plan that would take Dora out without having to fight off an angry alpha mate and Talon’s pack.
Asshole. He knew the zombies would do what came naturally to them, kill without fear or regret. The yelp of another beta seared her soul. It was her fault. She must help, but how? Her powers were useless. Flight, healing and plant growth were not exactly worthy weaponry.
Chapter 22
The werewolves barricaded the empty field with vehicles. The swarms shambled forward, slowed but relentless in eating their pound of flesh. Dora thought of her safari in Africa and brief stay with the Masaai. The tribe lived in constant danger from lions and hyenas. Their only protection had been what they gained from nature: their fence of thorny bushes. If only such a weed grew here. That was it! Thorny bushes. She didn’t rhyme and instead relied on her determination as Willow had instructed.
She focused on the grass growing around them as thorny bushes. Like weeds on steroids, the bushes sprung as a barrier between zombies and the werewolves. The zombies stuck on the barbed wire-like bushes. They struggled, impervious to the razor-sharp thorns burrowing into their rotting flesh. Like hundreds of slithering snakes, the prickly branches twined around their limbs. The zombies thrashed arms and legs against its hold, tearing their skin to the bone. Regardless of their entrapment, they chomped bloodied mouths toward the living. No pain, no resentment, no emotion but one, hunger. Nonetheless, they were still held in check. The plant barrier was as impenetrable as the underground lab’s thick wall had been.
Dirk and Talon looked at one another.
Atop the safety of her tree, Dora telepathically spoke to him.
“So what do you think of my green thumb?”
“Not bad, babe. Just hang in there.”
He turned his werewolf head toward the sky and growled. “
Shit. Trouble.”
Above the din of the communal zombie moans, the distinct sound of helicopters approaching gave her false hope. Falco! It couldn’t be. Not this fast. Crap. The Benandanti were returning to finish her off and this time she was a sitting duck. Up in the tree, she was vulnerable. If she flew, how would she get away from their pursuit? She swayed, her energy weakened, she leaned against the trunk. Gardening must burn witchy calories. She couldn’t count on reaching supersonic speed.
A Benandanti helicopter lowered near the zombie bush enclosure. The trapped zombies looked up toward the engine’s clamor with opened mouths, as if baby birds barking for a regurgitated morsel of flesh. Now what? The helicopters hovered and one of Valeray’s men dropped something. Realizing what it was, she clutched the tree trunk, to stop herself from falling. The grenade’s explosion sent zombie body parts flying, littering the ground like an anatomical busted piñata. A huge gap in the thorny gate opened, and the blocked ghouls moved toward the pack with ravenous determination.
The first helicopter circled above as if taking a leisurely tour of the Grand Canyon. The second one honed in on her. It hovered dangerously close to her height, its blades cutting off leaves and beating the air with gale force winds. The tree shook and limbs snapped. Her hair whipped around her as she held on to the branch. Quaking uncontrollably from raw dread, her mind went blank.
The helicopter’s door opened. Marla stood on the landing gear and balanced a rifle. She grinned, showing her fangs, “Die, witch!” Despite the unsteady position, she aimed her weapon, fired, and bark exploded near Dora’s ear.
Too damn close. “Shit!” Dora scrambled lower to another leafy branch.
The other helicopter approached, perhaps thinking she was about to take flight. Below her, the pack fought zombies. Gut wrenching fear choked her. Death by air or by zombies? Death at age twenty-seven? Death? No, not today.
But what do I do?
In the roar of noise and chaos, Willow whispered, like the ocean sound inside a shell.
“Wolfsbane.”
Her mentor’s voice sounded so real, Dora twisted around, expecting to see her in the flesh. No. It was a witches’ telepathic projection. A skill Willow had never mastered. Until now.
Marla shouted. “Lower!” The helicopter descended to position itself for another shot.