Hair of Gold: Just Right (Urban Fairytales Book 6) (11 page)

The barrier was faltering, and half the demons had already started scattering while others looked at Hansel and Gretel in anticipation, almost drooling as long tongues licked their fangs and lips, wanting to taste their flesh when the barrier fell.

Gretel was pointing. I turned my head to find Baird charging at me with his blade drawn, a look of pure rage on his face as he screamed almost incoherently, “That power was mine!” Again, that oddly detached portion of my mind noted that he wasn't furious about the death of his mother, just that whatever ritual they were performing, I had just ended prematurely.

I yanked my blade from his mother's corpse with a sucking sound, and rolled to the side as his blade came down into the dirt where I had been, steel sparking on the pebbles. I rolled to my feet as he turned to me, visibly shaking in his rage.

I felt oddly energized. Then let my own rage take me as I pointed my blade at him. “You killed my brothers!” I started my roar, and I felt something inside pour out as I did, and my roar was that of my brother's of three mighty bears coming from my throat. The very valley seemed to quake with the force of it.

My blade slammed into the dark druid's, and with a horrendous snapping and sparking his blade was shorn in two by a blow many times more powerful than I could have hoped to deliver on my best day, and it took virtually no effort on my part.

I growled at him, sounding like a bear, all primal and dangerous. Then I backhanded him with such force that he flew through the air thirty feet, slamming into the rocks of the entrance to the cave. I heard the snapping of bones as the man grunted in pain. Where had this strength come from? I looked at my hand, there were no burns. I felt as if I had my brother's strength in me.

I looked down in a panic at that thought, seeing the amulet burned into my chest. I reached up and tried to remove it, but it would not budge, it flet like I were tearing at my own flesh.

I looked back up as Baird staggered to his feet, his left arm dangling uselessly from his side and blood trickled from his mouth. He glared at me then looked toward his mother in horror. I followed his gaze, and there were three demons tearing his mother's body apart and eating her flesh.

He made a distressed sound and limped off into the cave. I started to move in pursuit when I heard a fizzling crackle and saw the energy barrier give way, and the demons start to rush Hansel and Gretel, who were standing back to back, green energies building in them as Hansel readied his whip.

I glanced back to where Baird had fled then to the woman I was developing feelings for. These two were the last two people I had in this cruel world. I let loose with a bellowing roar and dove toward the demons with this new strength gifted to me by my three bears from beyond the grave.

As the sun set on the battlefield, I looked around at the carnage before I bandaged a cut on Gretel's arm. I seemed to have the strength of my three bears inside me, and the demons were ill prepared for my fury. It took only a few minutes for them to realize that they were no match for my rage.

I had killed maybe twenty of them, Hansel and Gretel maybe five, when the others turned to run, scurrying off in all directions, their insipid whispers in my head receding, taking a huge weight off of my mind.

We stood for a moment looking around before I fell to my knees, bowing my head and sobbing over the loss of my brothers. Gretel was there, engulfing me in her arms and stroking my hair as she shushed me. I sobbed. “They're gone. She killed them!” I took a shuddering breath and another sob wracked my body as I whispered into her shoulder, “I'm alone... again.”

She shook her head as she stroked my hair and held me closer. “Shhh... you aren't alone, you have me. You have us.”

I felt Hansel place a hand on my shoulder from where he stood behind us. I nodded through my tears then I took three deep calming breaths and looked away from her concerned face to the cave. My eyes narrowed, and I stood with her, glaring at the crack in the earth where the dark druid had thought to escape from us. My hands balled up into tight fists.

I saw Gretel's look of determination, and she just gave me a single nod, telling me she was of the same mind as me, and we started to stride quickly toward the cave as we heard the first werewolf howls of the last night of the Wolf Moon in the distance.

We started into the cave, it was dank and pitch black. The air smelled fetid, like rotting swamp and dark magics that seemed to whisper to me in my head, tempting me like a siren song on the sea. I shook my head to clear it and squinted into the darkness.

A moment later I shielded my eyes as a bright green light flared up beside me. Gretel was lighting a torch with her magic, which Hansel was holding toward her. He took another torch from a stanchion on the wall and lit that one with the first and handed it to his sister, his whip ready in his other hand.

I pulled my blade and gripped the hilt in my anger, not allowing the grief overtake me. I blinked, realizing how naked I felt to the world suddenly without my brothers there, insulating me from the unforgiving evils that would do me harm. I couldn't start down that spiral, I would have my vengeance. I found myself thinking, “I wish Little Bear were here.”

I hissed in pain and bit back a yelp as the Kodiak Amulet burned where it was merged with my flesh, then with the smell of Narcisa's corrupt magics, energy exploded from me, and I felt some of that immense strength I had been gifted leave me.

A moment later, I was covering my mouth in surprise as tears blurred my vision. My voice was wavering on the verge of cracking as I asked, “Little Bear?” He looked a little confused and frightened until he looked up at me and then he nodded.

I almost dove on him and wrapped my arms as far around his neck as I could, and I sobbed into his fur as I whispered, “I thought you dead, brother.”

He nodded as I just held onto him desperately. I looked back with a happy smile as I heard Gretel ask, “But... how?”

I laughed a nervous laugh and shrugged and admitted, “I was feeling so exposed, and I had just wished that Little Bear was with us, and here he is.”

I released his neck, and he swung his muzzle to my chest and sniffed the amulet burned into my skin and sneezed and growled. I nodded. “I do not know, but I think it gave me the power that Perchta's feather had gifted you. It is something dark and corrupting, I can feel it urging me to find even more power.”

He swung his nose toward the darkness and his nostrils flared. His growl became more insistent. I nodded then looked to the siblings who were watching our exchange with wide-eyed incredulity. I heard wolves in the distance. “We must make haste, we need the dark druid alive if possible so that he can fix this.” I tapped my chest.

They all nodded and then I had a thought. I wished desperately that Vladimir and Andrei were with us. I staggered as all the borrowed strength and power was torn from me, and I laughed, overwhelmed with glee as my brothers stood before me. I slammed into them hugging them both desperately. I had not lost them after all!

I told them what had happened, they nodded as if they knew and understood already, then I shared a predatory look with them and the enchanting brunette and her brother. “Shall we end this?” I felt somehow weaker without the strength of my brothers in me. Nyet, that's not right, I felt... normal again, and I inhaled deeply and smiled. I felt oddly fatigued as well.

Then we were running through the darkness, my brothers roaring out a challenge to whatever awaited us in the depths. Their roars seemed amplified by the caverns as the sound bounced around on the walls like the way whispers in an empty church seem to grow to fill the space.

Pavel was the fastest of us and his nostrils were flaring as he tracked Baird through the winding passageways and immense caverns. We saw a couple demons dash away from the light and the fury my three bears radiated as we went.

I silently assured myself that we would come back for them. I had inadvertently released all of those demons into the world by killing Narcisa, and it was up to me to put it right, to hunt them down and send them back to whatever hell they came from.

We came upon a cavern that had soaring ceilings like a cathedral, stalactites hung from the ceiling, water dripped from the layered minerals into little pools below them. The torchlight cast an eerie flickering glow on the place.

There was some sort of slab in the middle of the space that reeked of rot and blood. It was stained red, and there were talismans and charms hung from stands with half burned torches that still flickered, casting long shadows on the cavern floor and illuminating the grisly scene.

The remains of a woman laid on that slab, bound by the wrists and ankles. It looked as if she were half burned and half devoured. The place stank of sulfur and decay, the smell of the demons. This is where Baird and his mother had called the demons into the mortal realm and bound them.

I covered my mouth to stop the reflex to vomit at the sight of so many bones that littered the area around the slab. How many people had they sacrificed here to call upon the underworld?

I heard a distressed sound beside me and glanced over to Gretel. She and her brother had gone pale and stood there just staring at the scene. There was an old terror in their eyes, and I remembered the story they told me of being taken by vrajitoares as children. They had almost suffered a similar fate in a cavern like this, and they came out... changed because of it. Always fighting the darkness that was placed inside them.

I reached out and pulled the pale woman to me, hugging her to me. She sobbed but once and relaxed into me then she took a deep shuddering breath as I released her and she looked up at me with determination and strength that made me admire her fortitude. She gave a thankful smile then looked around, waving the torch around as she called out, “Baird! Show yourself coward! Face us!”

I know there must be something wrong with my priorities because, at that moment, I felt more attracted to her than ever. She stood so close to her own personal nightmare, yet she instead chose to fight.

Andrei was sneezing and looked around indecisively. I understood, with the overwhelming scent of death, decay, and demons all around us, they had lost the trail. I roared out, “Baird!” And was answered by the echoes of my challenge, the dripping of water, and... the first of the werewolves emerged into the light of the flickering torches... Baird had escaped.

We all bellowed our challenge as we charged the wolves.

***

It was a long night. There must have been something about the dark magics of that sacrificial lair, or it was the scent of all the old blood staining the ground that brought the wolves. I had never faced so many on any other Wolf Moon. They just kept coming, but they were no match for my silver, or my bear's claws and jaws, nor Hansel and Gretel's fury. The brunette was at my back the entire night as we seamlessly fought our enemy as one, it felt oddly right and almost... intimate?

There were dozens of now human bodies lining the cavern floor when the few remaining wolves pricked their ears as they gazed back toward the outside world then ran. Dawn was approaching, and they instinctively wanted to run from it, to remain the wild furred beasts, bereft of the burden of humanity.

We all just stood panting. Then as Gretel and I leaned our backs against Little Bear to rest, I found myself biting back a scream as the amulet flared and to my horror, my brothers were all hit by that unnatural blackish light and were pulled back inside of it. Gretel and I fell back onto the ground as I screamed, “Nyet!”

I wished desperately for my brothers to be there but that time it does not work. In my rage and frustration, I slammed my fist against a large stalactite as I roared like a bear. It shattered, sending shrapnel hurtling away. I had their strength again, and my hand was unharmed.

I staggered. I was so tired. Exhaustion threatened to overwhelm me. I was dimly aware of Hansel catching me, and I felt like I was being carried somewhere. I smiled at a sweet voice of the woman I had become quite fond of asking, “Kat?”

That was my last memory for quite some time. I slept a long and hard dreamless sleep, it seemed never ending until all at once, I opened my eyes.

I smiled at the face that was looking down at me. She was smiling in relief and concern as she stroked my hair and tucked it back out of my face from where I lay on a bed. “There she is. You had us worried Kat.”

I blinked then everything came back to me as I laid my hand on hers, holding it to me as I sat up. I was in a cottage. I placed my other hand on the amulet that was a part of me now, it had all been real, not just a bad nightmare. I whispered in question, “My brothers?”

She shook her head sadly and answered with regret, “They have not reappeared. You have been out for two days, and we could not wake you. We could find no injuries.”

Two days?

Then she leaned in and whispered hotly in my ear, “You had me so worried.” She kissed my neck just below my ear, sending a wave of excited gooseflesh down my neck and spine as she engulfed me in a hug.

She released me, then seemed mad and slammed a tray with some bread and fruits on the little table beside the bed and snapped out, “Now eat, drink. And don't ever do that to me again.”

I blushed and nodded. Then started eating the offerings. I don't know if it was going two days without, but it seemed I couldn't get enough food into me. I cleared the plate three times when she brought more and some smoked meats. She shook her head in disbelief and muttered, “You eat like a bear.”

I paused at that then looked down that the brass Kodiak Amulet protruding out of my chest, bubbled into my flesh, the eyes carved into the palm sized bear head looked almost alive... watching. Was my insatiable hunger a side effect of having my brothers strength in me? Was my almost comatose sleep?

There was a knock at the door, and Hansel opened it a crack, exchanging whispers with someone. He nodded then looked over at us. “The elder wants a word. I'll be right back.”

Gretel nodded then turned her attention back to me when her sibling left. When the door to the cottage had closed, she stared at me. I could tell she was trying not to look at the amulet, then she asked, “What happened the other night?” She hesitated and added, “Is... Little Bear... are they...? They came back, and I think it had to do with that cursed thing.”

She broke eye contact to looked momentarily at the amulet. She wrung her hands as she tore her eyes off of it and back to my eyes which were watering as I held back the tears that were threatening at the mention of my brothers. She whispered, “That thing is calling to the darkness inside of me.”

I swallowed and nodded, the persistent whispers in my head, the siren song of the dark magic seeping into my chest a constant pressure in my mind.

I growled, and it came out something bestial and wild, nothing that should be able to come from me. I was afraid and alone and angry and confused, and I wanted Baird to pay. I grabbed the amulet and tore at it in futile frustration, I may as well have been trying to tear off my own arm.

She grabbed my arms and moved them away from the tainted thing. She placed her forehead on mine and locked eyes with me, and I froze. Her eyes had little green flecks in them that I had not noticed before, but now, this close I could see them swim and swirl, lit by that green magic she held inside.

She whispered firmly, “We will figure this out, and if we can get your brothers back, we will.” Then she asked in a confident tone, louder, “Right?”

I inhaled deeply and pushed away the darkness and despair trying to consume me and then nodded with determination once. Her stern and confident look turned into an almost sly and playful smile, and I stopped breathing at what I saw in her eyes as she said impishly as she closed the gap between our lips, whispering, “Good.”

There was nothing in the world at that moment besides her, and the need inside me as we shared the tenderest of kisses. It started to get more heated and desperate when the moment was ruined by three loud knocks on the door.