Hair of Gold: Just Right (Urban Fairytales Book 6) (7 page)

I snagged a fist full of fur on Pavel's neck and pulled myself up onto him as my brothers charged past me. I stood on his shoulders and bellowed my own bear cry with the others. We hit the first men without slowing, Pavel knocking one into a tree with a sickening thud with a single swipe of a massive claw.

I dove off of him rolling in front of the couple and coming up on one knee, blade facing the enemy. Little Bear came to a skidding halt beside me, then with a clang, he got a frying pan to his nose. He yelped in surprise, and I started to protest to the snarling woman, “Hey, what was that...” when with a clang, I was seeing spots and could feel blood trickling from my nose.

I growled animalistically and my hand shot out as I yanked the frying pan from the woman's hand. “Stop that! We are here to help you!” I blinked. The moment I pulled the pan from her hand, she had dropped her dagger, and her hands were weaving in the air as a greenish energy started to build in them.

She blinked and paused as she looked around to see my bigger brothers slamming into the raiders. She just nodded once and turned from me and sent that energy she was gathering at the nearest raider.

It slammed into him with such force that he went tumbling head over heels through the air to impact with one of his comrades. I blinked again and caught motion in my peripheral vision and twisted and ducked as I slashed my sword up in an arc with both hands, cleaving the front legs off of the first of the werewolves that had just arrived.

Things had just gotten a lot more complicated.

I had to blink when the young man didn't even hesitate and had swung his whip at the wolf as it yelped and tumbled to the ground. His whip cut deep into its neck, leaving the stench of burned flesh and fur behind. The beasts flesh was foaming white as it slumped to the ground and started to change back to human in death. The whip had silver in it?

The shock on my face turned to a wry smile as I caught the slightly smug grin the woman shot me. Then I growled out my challenge and dove at the raiders whose attention was pulled away by the need to fight off the arriving wolves. The young brunette seemed to be grinning as she picked up her little dagger while power gathered in her other hand.

I grinned at her as we clashed with the enemy.

The battle had been over quickly, my brothers saw to that. I kept glancing back at this wild-eyed brunette as she stood at my back knocking wolves back for her companion to deal with as I kept the raiders at bay while my brothers dispatched them. It felt oddly comfortable having her at my back.

When all was quiet except for the distant howling of wolves, I stepped up to my brother and examined his bleeding nose. I thumped his shoulder a couple times and said, “You'll be fine Little Bear.” Then I touched my own nose and said weakly, “Ow.”

The woman chuckled at me as she bent to pick up her frying pan and slipped it into her backpack. “Sorry about that, I thought you were with them.”

Then she looked at my brothers warily as her companion stepped up to her side. He placed a hand on her shoulder protectively, and I felt a pang of disappointment. She spoke behind her hand to me as she kept her eyes on my brothers as they checked the fallen to be sure none were faking, “You're traveling with bears.”

Little Bear made some grumbling protesting sounds, and I patted his shoulder. “These big lugs? No, they are just my brothers.” I hesitated as she turned those huge brown eyes on me. I looked down at my hands, realized I still had my blade in my hand and sheathed it, then offered a hand to them. “Katiana Inanov, you can call me Kat.”

She grinned hugely and shook my hand then her boyfriend did the same as I continued, “These are Pavel, Vladimir, and the big brute over there is Andrei.”

She hesitated then inclined her head to them. “Ummm... pleased to meet you?”

They inclined their heads back to her, and she blinked and asked me, “Can they understand me?”

I chuckled. “Of course, they are human just like you or me. They can just be... fuzzy when the mood strikes.” I gave a toothy grin.

Pavel grunted and bumped me with his shoulder, almost sending me to the ground. I stomped his paw and then pushed him over when he stood up on his hind legs and yelped in pain, cradling his paw. I shook a finger at him. “Stop complaining or I'll give you something to complain about.”

My other brothers chuffed and grunted with bear laughter.

The woman looked truly amused while her boyfriend looked on dubiously with a dour expression, his hand tightening on his girl's shoulder protectively. The woman turned her smile on me and said, “Gretel, and this is my brother Hansel.” My smile had broadened for a moment before I got myself under control. Her brother, not her boyfriend.

Little Bear rolled up to his feet then looked between Gretel and me as we just looked at each other. Then he made a chuckling, growling sound. I glanced away toward him and said, “Shut up. Nobody asked your opinion.”

Gretel asked in surprise, “Can you understand them?”

I grinned. “They are my brothers. I can tell when they are being smart asses.”

We all paused and looked up as the howls in the distance sounded closer. I turned back to the siblings and said, “We have a defensible camp just over the rise there. Join us.”

They nodded, and we headed back to our camp, flanked my mountains of bear muscle. We relaxed when we had stone at our backs and my bears surrounding us.

I pointed at the bedrolls by the embers of the fire. “Feel free to sleep. They will warn us if wolves get too close, nothing can get past my bears. I'll take first watch.” I sat on a stone by the fire pit and stoked the coals as I threw some tinder on it.

I smiled at the fascinating maiden who fought with a fire I had rarely seen, with a frying pan no less, and with... magic. She tucked some of her curly brown hair behind her ear, scrunched her head to her shoulders almost coyly and stepped past the bedrolls to sit beside me on the stone. “I'll join you if you don't mind. I rarely sleep on a full moon anyway. Too many nightmares of the past.”

I glanced back at her brother who spoke for the first time, it was a deep baritone, “Are you sure Gret?”

She made a shooing motion with her hand, and he hesitantly laid on one of the bedrolls and pulled the blanket up, keeping an eye on us. I almost snorted and whispered to her as I looked around to my bears who had one eye on us as well, “Are all brothers overprotective.”

She answered with an affirming grin and we chuckled.

Little Bear moved behind us and laid down to nap so that he could spell Vlad or Andrei later. He made a warm backrest for Gretel and me as we leaned back to listen to the night. She ran her fingers through Pavel's fur in amazement before she leaned back on him like I did. I caught his smug grin and jammed my elbow into his ribs. He was still grinning when he closed his eyes.

After Little Bear's breathing had normalized and I was sure he was asleep, I asked, “So Gretel, you were wielding magics in the fight, are you a vrajitoare?”

She grinned at me. “Vrajitoare? You sound like Raz. No, I am not a witch. When we were younger, Hansel and I were taken by a group of...” Her smile quirked. “...vrajitoare, who were intent on sacrificing us for one of their dark rituals.”

She shifted uneasily, her eyes losing focus as she scanned the trees. “They... did things to us with their magics. In preparation for whatever, they were planning. Rapunzel saved us, but it left a mark on us, their magic still runs through our veins, trying to corrupt. We fight it every day.”

She turned her head away from me, and I just studied her profile, the delicate lines of her face and her graceful neck. She was a beauty to behold. Maybe not conventionally beautiful, but something alluring in a wild, natural way to me. She smirked a little without looking at me and said, “You're staring Kat.”

I blushed and looked away. She chuckled a little and said, “I don't mind.” Then she laid back into Little Bear's fur and continued her tale, “When the signs of the witches corruption started making itself known, father sought out the druids of the Black Forest and beseeched them to help us.”

One hand tightened into a fist, and she held it up to stare at it as green energy built around it. She opened her hand, fingers splayed and the power just drifted off like a mist in the breeze. She glanced at me and shrugged. “They taught us. They showed us how to control the witch's shadow inside of us, to keep it at bay. We discovered that whatever channels they opened in us allowed us to wield other magics as well. Like the elemental power of nature that the druids commanded.”

She finally turned to look at me, like she was seeking acceptance. “I have to walk the line between the dark magics and nature magics every time I bring it to bear. That is why we learned to fight and to use it as a last resort in any confrontation.”

She looked back over her shoulder toward the rise. “I know not why those men attacked us, but they delayed us too long when the full moon was approaching. With the wolves on the hunt I had to use it.”

I smiled in understanding, she hadn't wanted to use her gifts. It must be hell, having a war within yourself every time you must defend your own life. A battle not to give into dark impulses. I understood, it sometimes frightened me how elated I felt in battle and often wondered if that made me as much a monster as those I fought.

I nodded. “I understand.”

She narrowed her eyes and studied me for a moment, then slowly nodded her head and said in a thoughtful tone, “I believe that you do.”

I nudged my chin toward her brother. “And Hansel? Does he find it as difficult?”

She shook her head and smiled at her sleeping sibling. “No. His affinity for the magics is much less pronounced. He cannot wield it as I can, though he can let it flow out through his whip. It is just a constant pressure in him, subtly coercing him to give in to the temptations to let it out, to make him do the vile things it whispers into our ears. Trying to catch him unaware, to corrupt him one step at a time.”

I nodded. “That is where the danger lies for us all.”

She paused and cocked her head. Her eyes drifted to my blade then to my brothers, and she nodded again. “You truly do understand.”

I shrugged, and she rewarded me with a smile that made her big brown eyes sparkle in the moonlight. I had to look away, and I felt a blush burning along my cheeks and down my neck.

She then said something I did not expect, “We decided that we had a responsibility to travel the lands to find those who would do harm to other innocents, like was done unto us, and stop those who would corrupt others with dark magics. Maybe then we can be freed of our curse. It is what Rapunzel did before she disappeared. We owe it to her and to us, or at least the innocent children that we had once been.”

She rested a hand on my arm and started to speak but paused as we listened to a wolf howling closer to our camp. I laid my hand on top of hers and assured her, “There are only two out there. My brothers will...”

I was interrupted by the bellowing roar of Andrei a hundred yards away, in the direction the howling came from. There were snarls and growls followed by sounds of a skirmish and a yelp. Then all was silent after Andrei made a satisfied grunt.

I smiled at her and amended, “There is only one out there.”

She cocked an eyebrow at me and moved her eyes to my other hand, which was resting on the pommel of my sword. I chuckled and dropped my hand from it, then shrugged as I said, “My brothers are not perfect.”

She gave me a silly, knowing grin then glanced at her own brother. I tried not to chuckle. It seems all brothers are the same.

I was acutely aware of the fact that I had not removed my hand from hers, and she had made no move to withdraw her own. She placed her other hand on my arm and leaned her head on my shoulder as she asked, “So tell me about Katiana, and how you come to be in the company of bears.” Then she added with a tone that told me she wasn't sure if I were just teasing, “Are they truly your brothers? Or do you pull my leg?”

I sighed and relaxed into Little Bear's warmth as I said, “Truly. Well, they are my brothers in all but blood. They saved me from the wolves on a Wolf Moon and took me in when I was a young child. I am their kin as surely as you are Hansel's.” Then I grinned. “And they are truly human most of the time. They just stay in bear form for the Wolf Moon to protect me.” Then I added, “And you and Hansel.”

She cocked an eyebrow again, and I added, “Not that you need our protection.”

She chuckled in a delighted manner, and I had to smile at it. Then I told her the story of the little girl who's mother had called her Goldilocks, and the tragedy that had but one redeeming point, that the little girl found another family that loved her as much as her slain parents had. Of how that little girl became the fourth Inanov.

I then shared the reasons for our quest and how I believe that their own attack was our fault, that these men were raiders on the way to Chernivtsi to terrorize those whom we protected.

She just nodded into my shoulder and said quietly, “Then perhaps you could use allies in your quest. Our goals are the same, and this Narcisa and Baird must be stopped.”

I smiled down at her. “Says the maiden who fights with a cast iron skillet.”

She grinned without looking up and released my arm to slap it before reclaiming it. She mumbled in her own defense, “I bloodied your nose with it didn't I?”

I snorted and slapped my hand over my mouth in embarrassment.

Then we just sat there like that, staring into the dwindling fire, listening intently until Vlad and Andrei lumbered back into camp to have Pavel and Hansel relieve us. I knew that Andrei wouldn't really sleep, he was the most overprotective brother in the world.

We stood when Little Bear got up. He thumped Hansel on his way out of camp as my other brothers laid down. Hansel waved his hand, trying to slap the offender. “Just a few more minutes Gretel.” Then he sat up and blinked and seemed to remember where he was. He just stared at Pavel for a moment until my brother nudged his head toward the howls in the distance.

Hansel nodded and stretched then stood as he grabbed his silvered whip, looking around sheepishly. “Right.” He gave us a mock salute then headed to the edge of the clearing to stand by a small outcropping.

Gretel moved to one of the bedrolls, and I cleared my throat gently as she looked at the coals of the fire. She glanced over, and I nudged my head toward Andrei. “I can do better than that ratty old bedroll.”

She joined me, and I pulled her to my bears. I just flopped in between them cuddling into the soft fur and was surrounded by their intense body heat. She looked at me as if I were mad then exhaled and shrugged and more timidly slid in by my side.

She sat for a moment then smiled. “They're so warm.” I nodded triumphantly, and she just gave a toothy grin and snuggled deep in between them. I caught Andrei, who was feigning sleep grinning and elbowed his ribs before allowing myself to drift off into a light sleep, partially aware of the wolf sounds in the distance.

The last thing I was aware of was the overwhelming smell of bear and the underlying scent of lilies I have been catching ever since we met Gretel. I think I was smiling as sleep came to claim me.