The Witch and the Werewolf (20 page)

“
I hope your powers will
help us,” he whispered to her. There was an appraising look there
much like someone examining cuts of meat at a butcher’s. She didn’t
like the way he looked at her, and Jeremy’s warning about the man
rang in her mind.

Men and women scrambled
into prone positions along the wall as far as she could see, rifles
pointed outward into the dark night. The wall stretched four city
blocks, around two of the remains of buildings, the ship, and the
old church’s foundation.

“
We shouldn’t be fighting
them at all,” Cassandra said evenly. She’d imagined all the wolves
magically turning back into people. “They shouldn’t be
here.”

“
What do you mean, my
dear?”

“
I killed him. I killed
the alpha.”

“
I don’t
follow.”

“
The werewolf in your
basement was the alpha wolf. The first. I’ve shared his memories
and thoughts for days and when he finally told me, it all made
sense. I shot him between the eyes. He’s dead. There shouldn’t be
any more wolves, right?”

The priest looked shocked
and not the least bit angry. “He told you he was the
alpha?”

“
Yes.”

“
And you’ve seen that, in
his thoughts?”

She shrugged. There was no
explaining the connection they’d shared over the last few days.
When she killed him she felt like she’d killed a part of herself as
well. And yet she’d had to do it for the good of all
men.

“
It can’t be. He cannot be
the alpha. It is not possible. No, my dear,” the priest told her,
his doubt resolved, “I fear you are incorrect. Yes, he was a very
old and powerful wolf. Perhaps the most powerful I’ve ever had the
misfortune of running across. But he was not the alpha. A simple
silver bullet to the head would not have killed the alpha. It would
take something… altogether different. He was not the one we seek.
He lied to you, for whatever reason. Who knows the mind of a
monster? The alpha is still out there and you will bring him to
me.”

She felt the pack out in
the wastes, darting through the shadows and avoiding the light. She
wasn’t connected to them in the way she had been the alpha, but she
could feel their raw hate as they sought entry into the Church’s
compound. She could taste their bloodlust.

“
You should not have
killed him never the less,” O’Leary continued. “He was our only
chance to find the alpha and end this.”

“
He was the alpha,” she
insisted. “I could feel it as truth the moment he said it.” She
wished Jeremy had been in the room with her. The boy would have
been able to tell if the beast was lying or not simply by looking
at him.

“
And if he was the alpha,
and you had not shot him, maybe we wouldn’t be facing hundreds of
angry werewolf bearing down on our little camp right now, would
we?” he said, dismissing her.

“
Or your myth is wrong,”
she said angrily. It was always the same. No one would listen to
her. Fine, she thought. I’ll just fight them on my own.

“
Where are you
going?”

“
To kill wolves,” she
said, leaping into the air much as her mother had and feeling the
power course through her body. She’d have to deal with this on her
own.

Had the guard remained in the cell after Cassandra had
planted the bullet in the wolf’s head, he would have seen the most
astonishing thing. The corpse was unmoving and still, yet there was
activity there. The silver bullet Cassandra had put into his head
wormed its way out, plopping down on the stone floor. The hole
closed behind it, healing. The wolf’s heart restarted with a jolt
and he jerked his head up.

The blackness had been
absolute and he was sure that this time was the time. He was sure
he’d died then, and the black sleep would take him for eternity. It
had been, on its face, a ridiculous idea. He’d been killed many
times before and each of those times he’d come back. The girl
killing him hadn’t been any different. He just hoped it would
be.

You didn’t kill the first
wolf easily.

He’d hoped this time would
be different simply because the girl was different. Their
connection had been sudden and surprising and it was not the least
bit disconcerting to have another presence in his mind. It wasn’t
something he’d seen in his long history and the situation’s
uniqueness had given rise to the hope that the girl might be able
to kill him once and for all. It wasn’t to be, though, and he
chided himself for hoping.

He felt the feral pack as
they swarmed around the church. They would destroy the place and
either destroy the survivors or add to their numbers. Their new
pack leader, a recent convert, had delusions of grandeur, visions
of his pack stretched from one end of the world to the
other.

Idiot, he thought. You’d
destroy your food source, hunting man into extinction. And what of
your new pack then?

There were too many
individual minds in the pack to make out, but the vast majority
were new. They had no inkling of man’s former dominance. They’d
never spent their days hiding in the shadows hoping the villagers
with the pitch forks would not find them. They were high on the
blood lust, driven by their desire to consume. The pack would swarm
over them like a fur covered virus.

He had no sympathy for the
human survivors. Whether they knew it or not, their kind had hunted
his to the edge of extinction. Guilt by association. They were
cattle, nothing more.

But the girl was
different. She was, somehow, innocent of the human’s crimes against
his race. She’d been a part of his mind for the last few days and
it had linked them. The connection was gone with his rebirth, but
he wanted it back.

He wanted the
girl.

Dutch ran down the ramp and heard his old friend, automatic
gunfire, calling to him.

Unfortunately, he also
heard the howls of the wolves as they stormed the slick, ice
covered wall. He rushed forward, rifle at the ready, and wished
he’d taken the time to visit the priest’s store of precious silver
ammunition before he’d tried to find a meal.

Dumb Dutch, he thought.
Dumb, dumb, dumb.

The even dumber act had
been leaving the girl by herself. It had been stupid to let her go
face the beast that haunted her thoughts alone. He stared down into
the basement of the church, knowing she’d gone down there to
confront the wolf.

“
Crap,” he muttered,
descending the stairs. What do I keep getting myself
into?

The bunker was empty, the
door to the cell wide open. Dutch pushed through the opening, rifle
raised.

“
Hello, mercenary,” he
heard the familiar voice call in the gloom. “I’d say it was nice to
see you again but I would be lying.”

“
Where is she?” Dutch
asked, surprised at the fear in his voice. He’d already fought the
wolf once, but that was when he didn’t understand their species.
And he’d gotten very lucky. The wolves in the pack, out in the
ruins, were puppies compared to this one. Just the simple fact that
he hadn’t died with multiple silver gunshots was enough to make
Dutch wary. He didn’t know how he’d kill the beast and that
bothered him.

“
She left after killing
me,” the beast said with a sad laugh. “Killing me… I thought she
would be the one to do it. I thought I’d finally found the person
who would end this life for me. I was wrong.”

“
Where is she?” Dutch
demanded again, anger rising and replacing the fear. “If you did
something to her I’ll find a way to kill you.”

The wolf laughed. “I wish
it were so that you could. Unfortunately, I do not think it is
possible. Some part of me has always known that, I suppose, but one
can always hope for death, can they not?”

Impatiently Dutch demanded
again, “Stop talking gibberish and tell me where the girl
is!”

He was infuriated but that
fury balanced with the fear he felt. It was an awkward situation to
be in.

“
You feel for her, do you
not? And more than just common concern for her safety. There is a
spark there, a longing for the girl. It is the beginning of
something.”

“
What’s between Cass and I
is none of your business,” Dutch replied, thinking back to his
conversation with the boy. He also felt stupid for even having the
conversation with the werewolf in the first place. This was
ridiculous.

“
She feels for you as
well, mercenary. But she’s confused and… I’m afraid a lion’s share
of the blame goes to me. But we are not connected now. The bullet
to my forehead severed that, at least for the moment. She is,
however, in great danger. And despite her vigor and willingness to
fight, she cannot take on two hundred wolves on her own. You must
free me so that I may help in the fight.”

“
Bull,” Dutch spat. “You
expect me to free you? So you can tear through these survivors and
join your buddies out there?”

“
Do not misunderstand,
mercenary. I care not what happens to your race. I care not what
happens to me, at this point. But I do…” the wolf paused and Dutch
could tell he was uncomfortable not only with what he was about to
say, but the implications it held for him. “I do care about the
girl. She was in my mind. It is impossible for me not to care about
her. Free me and I will help you fend off this pack. Afterwards, I
do not know. But I give you my word, on my honor, that no harm will
come to these people, this night, at my hand.”

“
I have no reason to trust
you,” Dutch said, but he wavered. He knew Cassandra would wade out
into the fight and the wolf was right. She probably wouldn’t
survive.

“
And you trust the priest?
What do you really know of him? I can tell you that he is not what
he appears.”

“
What is he then?” Jeremy
had said the same exact thing. What was going on here?

“
I do not know for sure.
He is very old, however. I’ve seen him as far back as the Spanish
Inquisition. But being immortal generally doesn’t equate to being
human. Free me, mercenary. Time is wasting. The pack is attacking
the walls of this compound as we speak.”

“
You’re the alpha, aren’t
you? You’re the one the priest spoke of. If you die, they all die,”
he said, raising the rifle again.

“
I am. But Cassandra has
proven, once again, that I cannot die. You are welcome to try, once
more. I relish an end to this madness. You will be, however,
wasting both of our time. But promise me one thing if you squeeze
that trigger.”

“
What?”

“
If come back in a few
moments, free me so that we might save the girl.”

Dutch did squeeze the
trigger, but he didn’t shoot the wolf. The lock on the silver jail
cell flew apart in a shower of sparks.

“
If you’re lying to me,”
he growled, mustering as much courage as he could, “I will find a
way to destroy you.”

“
And, once more, I hope
you can do just that.”

For the second time Dutch
watched as the man turned into a wolf. He couldn’t look away from
the transformation and stared, slack jawed. The wolf was massive
and powerful, ripping the shackles and chains free and then
bounding past Dutch, up the stairs and into the battle.

Battle of the Wolf

Flying through the air, after she’d leapt away from the wall
in anger and disgust, was the most exhilarating thing she’d ever
known. She jumped higher than her mother, higher than even the
wolves in the battle on the bridge. She flew through the air like a
bird, watching below as the wolves crept through the ruins. She
hadn’t thought of landing, though, and when gravity took over and
she began to plummet towards the ground, she panicked. She tried
pushing out the force bubble, like she had during the tsunami, but
nothing happened.

She landed feet first,
painfully, her legs buckling under her, and then face planted into
the pavement.

Through the pain she
wondered if she’d ever be able to actually control her powers or if
they would always be a simple reaction, based on her emotional
state. Would she ever have the control her mother had?

“
Damn it mom,” she
whispered, coming up in a crouch. “I really need you.”

The wolves were
everywhere, swarming over the ice covered ruins like ants. She
turned just in time to see a large male rush at her from the
darkness. It hit her hard, knocking her over and sending her sword
and pistol skittering away. She rolled away just in time before it
lunged down at her, jaws snapping and dripping saliva. Cassandra
dodged the other way as the wolf snapped down again. Its claws dug
down into her shoulders and she screamed as she fumbled with the
second sword, still secured in its scabbard. The wolf howled, head
up right, in an attempt to frighten her but the act gave her just
enough time to pull the sword free and wedge it up between the
creature’s limbs.

“
Get off me, dog,” she
screamed at the beast, shoving the blade in even further. The wolf
convulsed and changed above her, its arms shrinking, fur receding.
Once the thing finished its transformation it died, collapsing on
her. She shoved the wolf off, getting to her feet.