Authors: Caris Roane
Got it.
She took turns watching him, then glancing down the street in the direction of the familiar golden glow of light that indicated Margetta was nearby. Olivia kept her cloaking vibration tight to them both.
The next moment, the door to the bar opened and, just as Zane had predicted, several of the bikers poured out onto the street and started brawling, calling each other vile names and shouting. She’d never heard quite that many ‘f’ bombs in her life as the men, along with a couple of rough looking shifter women, lit into each other.
Zane tapped on her telepathic frequency. When she opened, he said,
I’ll have Guardsmen coming in north of here about a mile up the road in just a few minutes. I want to head up there
.
But stay hidden. If Margetta discovers you’re the one who helped me, she’ll be after you.
I won’t make that promise, Zane.
He turned to her and she saw his eyes flash with anger.
You’re not to put yourself at risk. That’s an order.
At that, she lifted her chin.
The shifter part of me absolutely resents those words. Now tell me I’m out of line here. This is my life. These are my choices. I’ll ghost you, but like hell I’ll stand back and not take action if needed. And remember, I helped get you out of the Dead Zone.
Like any man used to command, he stiffened his back.
She put a hand on his chest, which stopped whatever argument he intended to put forward, and added,
I’ll make the promise that I won’t enter the fray. But I will do what I need to do.
He scowled heavily.
I guess I’ll have to be content with that.
Yes, you will.
At that moment, two Invictus wraith-pairs flew up the street. They had a couple of unbonded female wraiths with them, dressed in strange, gauzy-red strips and ready to force bonds with the shifters. Any of the bikers would make fierce battling mates once bonded as part of an Invictus pair.
They’re frightening to look at.
Yes,
Zane pathed
. They are.
He turned to her.
Be careful, Olivia. Don’t do anything foolish.
At that, she offered a crooked smile.
Again, no promises.
She watched his own lips twist, though she could tell he was trying to remain stern.
Wisely, he slipped unnoticed into the forest, moving north and away from the Elf Lords Hideaway.
Olivia kept her cloak frequency tight and her gaze fixed on the street. At the same time, she ghosted Zane as he flew a mile north. She switched often between her tracking ability and her need to see what was happening in Barker’s Bend.
In the north with Zane, the woodland opened up to a narrow field where twenty or so Vampire Guardsmen had gathered, hovering in the air and waiting to attack.
Across from the bar, more bikers rushed into the street and engaged in the brawl. The whole time, Margetta’s chaos wind blew, the strange odor making Olivia’s nose wrinkle.
Her internal gaze watched as Zane and his troops headed higher into the air, a fearsome sight. The Vampire Guard all dressed the same, in long, sleeveless leather coats padded at the shoulders, and in black leather hip boots, pants in the same material, and maroon woven shirts.
The coats flapped as they moved so that there was a certain sound to the flight, like a soft drum in the background. They flew swiftly south. But about a quarter mile from the bar, Zane lifted his hand and the entire squadron drew up, levitating midair.
Zane, what is it?
Olivia asked.
Shit, it’s just like Britchett Falls. My men couldn’t get in then and they can’t get in now. Margetta has some kind of additional spell in place.
Though his men stayed put, he rose another fifteen feet above his troops, probably looking for a way around the spell.
This feels like a wall that goes on forever.
As before, he used his battle frequency to break through, but when he waved his men forward, they found the same resistance and couldn’t progress past the spell barrier, even though Zane could.
He drew back immediately to rejoin his troops. To Olivia, he pathed,
The hell if I’m falling for that again.
Yeah. Don’t do that.
She heard Zane’s telepathic laughter.
Olivia moved out from the shadows, but stuck close to the shrubbery.
Let me get a visual down the street. Maybe there’s something I can do to disrupt the spell from here.
The golden light came into view first, then Margetta. Behind her were at least two dozen wraith-pairs and several single wraiths no doubt looking for new Realm-folk with which to bond. She let Zane know what she saw.
He responded exactly as she expected.
Damn.
When more unbonded wraiths began to fly toward the bikers, Olivia’s heart rate rose. Once bonded, those biker-shifters would be tough to defeat for the average Vampire Guardsman. The Invictus bond added power to both the wraith and the bonded mate.
Olivia knew only one thing; she had to help if she could.
I’m going to try something, Zane. Just be ready.
What are you doing?
She heard the concerned edge to his voice.
Don’t worry.
Margetta won’t be able to see me.
How do you know that for sure?
His voice sounded harder now, angry. Clearly, he didn’t like that she was taking action.
I just know. Now hold on. I’m going to shift.
She took a deep breath, focused on the fur on her hands and chest and let her wolf come.
The experience as always, of so much transforming power working in her body, electrified her. Desire flowed as well, and it didn’t help that she was still ghosting Zane. She was connected to him, even more than before, which heightened her need for the vampire.
But she set aside her lust and savored the shift from human to wolf, the feel of the earth beneath her paws, and the stronger scents that came to her from every direction. Unlike her human form that seemed to react in a negative way to most of the odors around her, the shifter seemed to delight in just about every one of them.
Except of course, for Margetta’s stench. That was something not even her wolf-ness could embrace.
She raced through to the backyard and leaped into the air. She didn’t quite understand why she was able to bound as high as she could when she knew most other shifters couldn’t. But she had tremendous reach as she gauged her distance to Margetta.
She bounded, slammed her front paws against the side of a neighbor’s house and almost as quickly her back paws, so that she sailed through the air a hundred yards.
With her gaze focused intently on Margetta, she judged distance and timing perfectly. She angled as she flew so that she touched down three feet behind the smelly bitch.
With a quick swerve in Margetta’s direction, she aimed for the woman’s right heel, opened her maw, and bit down hard, making sure she reached bone.
She leaped away a split second later, loping off to the east, behind the strip center, and heading straight for the forest. Once in the woods, she turned and watched Margetta hop around on one foot.
The Invictus pairs, to the last one, moved away from Margetta a good thirty feet. Olivia wasn’t surprised. Margetta might be lovely to behold, but she had the soul of a monster and wouldn’t hesitate to strike out at any handy object.
Zane, are you there?
Once more she ghosted to him in a flash.
What happened? I’m hearing the woman yelp.
Olivia smiled, suddenly glad she’d been born half-shifter.
I bit the bitch and it was awesome.
You did what?
She heard the laughter in his telepathic voice.
I bit her and the wind has stopped blowing which means the shield is down. I suggest you get a move on because about a half minute ago, several unattached wraiths started doing some kind of enthrallment trick on your biker buddies.
I’m on it.
She watched with her internal vision as he waved his arm forward again, setting his Vampire Guard in motion.
Olivia stayed put, keeping her eye on Margetta from the edge of the forest. If the Ancient Fae whipped up a new spell, or pulled anything else out of her magical bag of tricks, Olivia would be able to warn Zane.
The Ancient Fae, however, remained bent over, her wounded heel lifted slightly. Olivia could see blood on the pavement, a nice pool of it. She could also tell Margetta was healing swiftly.
Ghosting Zane again, she watched him lift hand and make use of his battle power. A streak of blue lightning headed toward a wraith-pair and struck a bonded troll. The troll’s face twisted in an angry snarl, as he flew backward onto the street, his chest smoking. He writhed in pain and would be dead soon.
Olivia ghosted away from Zane, deciding she didn’t want to see the rest of the battle, at least not so close up.
Reverting her attention to Margetta, she heard the Ancient Fae deliver a series of orders. She directed her Invictus pairs to head away from the street, then to come in at various points to surround the Vampire Guard.
Zane?
Sort of busy here.
Margetta’s moving her troops to surround you. I’m going to look for a better position to relay their movements.
Don’t suppose I can stop you.
No. You can’t.
She shut the communication down and loped north through the forest until she was parallel to the bar. She raced across the field, her cloak still tight, then leaped onto the pitched roof. Four paws sure helped to gain quick stability.
From her new vantage, she could see all around the bar and down the street. Margetta was using both feet now, all healed up. Olivia wished now she’d torn out the woman’s Achilles tendon, or maybe her heart. Of course, she had no way of knowing the extent of Margetta’s powers and a full-on attack would have been foolish. Better just to bite and run.
The battle was going strong with several Invictus pairs lying prone on the street, either dead or so severely wounded they couldn’t move.
The wraiths who had been attempting to create the heinous Invictus bonds now flew near Margetta, swirling in wild paths twenty feet above her head.
Margetta, however, no longer appeared to be interested in the battle on the street. Instead, she shifted direction entirely and moved toward the forest. She appeared to be searching for something on the ground.
Olivia knew instinctively that Margetta was somehow tracking her.
But how?
Of course, the good news was that for all her power, the Ancient Fae still couldn’t see through Olivia’s cloak. Yet, it seemed clear that Olivia had left a trail of some sort behind her, a mark the Ancient Fae could see.
She was safe for the time-being because Margetta was moving slow, so she reverted her attention to the street battle. Scanning the surrounding area, she saw several Invictus pairs moving in, just as the Ancient Fae had ordered.
She pathed to Zane,
I see Margetta’s troops now, Mastyr. They’re closing in.
Olivia watched as Zane brought down another Invictus pair, then drew away from the battle enough to scan the skies.
Ready. Do you have numbers and locations?
He then shouted to his team to prepare for incoming.
Olivia gave specifics,
Two pair have just entered the back door of the bar. Three pair are coming in from the north, and five from behind my house.
She shifted to the south.
Another three are moving up the street.
Thanks, Olivia.
She heard Zane start shouting out the locations of the advancing Invictus. His troops moved seamlessly into place.
Needing to check her own back trail, she turned and caught sight of Margetta coming out of the forest directly across from the bar.
Oh, shit.
What?
Zane asked.
Margetta is on my trail. But I’ll head north.
Be damn careful, Olivia.
I will.
Margetta was halfway to the Elf Lords Hideaway, her gaze still fixed to something she could see on the ground.
Olivia whirled and leaped to the roof next door. Margetta levitated at almost the same time to the roof of the bar and slowly moved to the edge, where Olivia had just been.
The battle on the street had grown noisier, but Olivia didn’t dare look anywhere but at the Ancient Fae.
Margetta lifted up and glanced at the building next door. A split second later, her gaze landed on the exact spot where Olivia stood, where her paws touched the roof-tiles.
It was clear that Margetta could see some kind of trail that her paws were leaving behind.
Olivia could hear her own heartbeat rushing in her ears.
Margetta smiled and leaped, but Olivia bounded off the roof and back into the forest in a single leap.
She turned and watched Margetta move slowly in a circle then fix her gaze once more on something only she could see. Yet, to Olivia’s vision, there was nothing there. Olivia checked the same location and it was as she feared: The exact place her front paws had landed when she’d leaped into the forest.
Zane. I’m in trouble.
Tell me what’s going on.
Margetta can track me because wherever I set a paw, I must leave behind some kind of mark that she can see. I’m in the forest now, but it’s only a matter of time.
All right. We’re doing okay here. My Guard has all the wraith-pairs well-engaged. I want you to head north and west. Take big bounds like you do. That will slow her down a little and I’ll intercept you. If I hold you and levitate, she shouldn’t be able to find you, not with your cloak in place, covering us both.
Got it.
As soon as you see me, feed me your location. Remember, I can’t see you either.
Understood.
Olivia took off through the woods for a hundred yards, weaving in and out of the trees hoping an erratic path might slow Margetta down. And it did, but only a little.
She headed across a flat field then bounded into the air a half mile.
But Margetta was in her wraith form now and flying fast, closing in.