Wolf's Soul (14 page)

“Not gonna happen, you fucking asshole.” Marisol replied.

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“Bitch. Then you"ll die like your father and mother. Squealing like pigs, begging to be spared.”

Callum saw the flash of anger on Marisol"s face. “Marisol, don"t talk to this animals.”

Marisol ignored him. “My mother and father would never make such pleas.

They willingly gave their lives to protect the ones they love. You know that, Pic. I understand why you said such a lie. You"re jealous you don"t have anyone willing to die for you, to keep you safe.”

“You don"t know that bitch.”

“Oh? Your brother must have known you have a small chance of getting out of here alive. And yet, he gave you the job of getting this sword. Does he not care about you?”

“Atos sent me here because I am the best. He knows I can do the simple task like wringing your puny neck to get the sword.”

“Simple tasks, eh? Well, little pup. Your brother is misinformed. Callum?”

Callum grinned at Pic whose face turned from bright pink to mottled red.

“Yeah, baby?”

“Go ahead and tear their hearts out.”

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He barely heard Marisol"s gasp before the three men shifted into wolves.

Two lunged at him. Callum avoided the first wolf by crouching low. He met the other one with his punch hitting the wolf on the jaw. “Fucking morons.”

The wolf hit the pottery wheel, landed on the floor on all fours with its tail high. Both wolves were snarling and their furs at the back of their necks bristled like sharp porcupine quills.

“Callum, what should I do with this one?”

“Don"t hesitate. If he moves kill him?”

The wolves crouched in front of Callum. A position he knew well. He changed form, jumped, and met the wolves in the air.

Marisol cringed at the sound of angry snarls resounding around the room.

She wanted to see what was happening but didn"t dare take her eyes off the one circling her. “Just so you know, blood icky robber, I will not use the poultice on your kind. So you"d better tell your friends to back off and leave us.”

“Pathetic little bitch, I can fit your neck in my mouth with a room to spare. You are too
skinny to lift that sword.”

Marisol stared at the wolf. She could actually read him. “Wanna try me?”

“You can hear me. Good. Now, listen to this. You’ll die, bitch.”

“Fool.”

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The wolf lunged at her. She lifted her sword in time. She"d never used the sword to kill anything that was alive before. She never knew how it felt to cut flesh. Now, she knew. It felt like cutting a pad of butter. Soft and smooth. At least until she hit the bone. Her sword went through the wolf"s side and connected with his ribs. A yelp that resembled a dog crying in pain rendered in the air before it landed on the floor with a sickening thud.

The wolf turned back into a man. With his piercing dark eyes, he rose to his feet. His blood dripped on the floor as if he just got out of a blood bath. He was almost as tall as Callum. All muscles and he looked so pissed. Oh dear.

“I fucking hate humans.”

Despite his wound, the naked man still looked vicious. His face contorted with anger. Good god. He looked so strong he could probably break her body like a twig. Marisol remembered what Callum said. If cut with an ancient sword, a Shape-shifter wouldn"t be able to heal himself. Perhaps he"d bleed to death and she wouldn"t have to fight him. Marisol prepared for the man"s attack.

To her relief, the man"s legs buckled beneath him. And then he shifted to a wolf form again. He didn"t move. His eyes were open and blood oozed from his mouth, nose, and chest.

Good god, I killed a Shape-shifter.

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Wrong. The wolf opened his eyes. They were grey like Callum"s when he woke up after she applied the poultice on his wound but something looked far different on this one. He looked like a diabolical, vile, rabid animal. Jesus! What was he?

“Kill him, Marisol. Now.”

Marisol heard Callum"s voice in her head. His urgent tone made her grip the sword"s handle, as if she was facing death itself. “I think I killed him already.”

The wolf stood on all fours.

“Maybe not.”

“Stupid girl.”

Now it was the bad wolf talking to her. Good god, this must be what paranoid schizophrenic experienced when they hear voices in their heads.

“Didn’t your daddy tell you not to play with sharp objects?”

“No. He told me the opposite.”

The wolf"s hind legs buckled beneath him but he forced himself to stand up again. And then he leaped. Marisol sidestepped avoiding the sharp claws from landing on her chest. Before the wolf could attack again, she swung her sword and cut the wolf"s throat leaving only the skin on the back of his neck intact. The body skidded on the floor. When it stopped, it instantly turned back into a man again.

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Marisol couldn"t decide which was worse. The sight of a nearly headless wolf or a nearly headless naked man. She looked at the body lying on its side. Its head angled so that it looked like it was lying against the body with its unseeing eyes upside down.

A vicious angry growl had Marisol turned to look. She froze. Fear rooted her to the floor. A wolf with dark as midnight hair standing on ends was slowly moving toward her. He was so tall, his back must have reached her stomach. And she was five eight. My god!

“I will send you to hell, you fucking bitch!”

The handle of her sword felt slippery from her sweaty palms. She wanted to drop it and run. No wonder her mother and father died without a fight. They were no match to these animals.

“You will die like your pathetic mother and father.”

This one was beyond angry. He almost successfully robbed Marisol of her strength and will to fight, but he made a mistake of mentioning her parents.

Reminding her that parents died violently in the hands of these filthy, good for nothing dirtbags renewed her physical energy and strengthen her belief that they should die without mercy. She felt no fear, but rage. Oh heck yeah. She was beyond fear now.

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“You think you can get passed my sword, you bastard? Come on, try me. You have no fucking idea who you"re dealing with here.”

“You are cocky for a daughter of a simple veterinarian.”

“You forget hairball, in my blood runs Youven"s of Arcus clan. I"m sure you know the two clans history.”

“Bitch. You’re not immortal.”

“Against my sword, you aren’t either. I will take your five lives here, ugly-puss.”

The wolf blinked then took a step back. The look of surprise passed over his face, which was gone a heartbeat later. The wolf lowered his head.
“Fuck you.

Prepare to die.”

Marisol held her sword tight until her fingers began to hurt. She raised her sword and waited. “Come meet your maker, dickhead.”

The wolf surprised Marisol with his agility and speed. He leaped for her throat but she was faster. She didn"t spent hours of training on how to use her sword for nothing. She swung it with a deadly aim. The wolf"s body landed on the floor. His head followed. Seconds later, both began to disintegrate. The whole decaying process happened so fast all Marisol could do was stare on the mound of ash that minute ago was growling at her.

She was still trying to comprehend why this wolf tuned into ash while the other didn"t when she heard a loud crash. Taking her eye off the dead wolf, she 149

looked at Callum whose mouth had a good hold on the last Blood Robber. He threw him against the wall so hard the barn"s wood paneling splintered. The wolf stopped fighting. Instead, he let out a loud howl, stood up then jumped through the open window.

They"re gone, she thought. Thank god. Marisol looked down at her sword covered in blood that slowly ran down from the blade to its tip to drip on the floor.

Did she just kill two wolves? She looked around the barn. What a mess. It looked like a hurricane just came by and destroyed everything she worked hard for. There were blood spatters on the wall and the floor…Good god. How was she going to clean this up?

“Mari?”

“Callum, I killed two Shape-shifters. That one and the pile of ashes over there. Why did he turn into ashes?

“Babe, decapitation saves us from burying dead bodies. Small favors from the war gods.”

“Good god. This is a nightmare. Am I still on earth or in hell? I"m sure this never happens on earth so I"m sure I"m somewhere—”

“Mari.”

“Yeah?”

“Are you hurt?”

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She finally looked at Callum. He was wrapping what was left of his shirt around his waist. “No. You?”

“I"m good. Sorry I can"t return Mark"s clothes anymore. And I"m going to borrow another pair of jeans,” he snapped.

“No problem. You mad about the clothes? Don"t be because—”

She wasn"t prepared for Callum"s next move. He grabbed her arms. “You are one crazy woman,” he snarled the words before he leaned down to give her a bruising and punishing kiss. When Callum ended that kiss, her mouth tingled.

“I told you to wait. You didn"t listen.”

“I couldn"t just wait in my room. I kept hearing things breaking and loud thudding sounds. I wasn"t sure it if was your head getting smashed on the wall.

Have you any idea how hard it is to just stand, not do anything and not know what was happening? I kept thinking what if you"re hurt again. I don"t want that to happen again.”

“Sorry, babe. I"m not hurt. Thank you for your concern and thank you for saving my life earlier. But baby, when I tell you to stay put, you have to listen. Gad, Marisol. Do you like to disobey me so I would kiss you or are you just plain stubborn?”

“Well, I like it when you kiss me, but Dad called me stubborn every single day.”

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“God help the man you"ll marry someday. You"ll be the death of him.”

Marisol punched him in the gut. “I"m not that bad.”

Callum pulled her against him and hugged her tight. “Thanks for coming to my aid in your revealing tank top and jeans.”

“Changing was the last thing in my mind.”

“They broke your vases.”

“I don"t care. Those things are just samples. The good ones are in my drying room.” She pressed her hands on his chest gently. “Callum, this one is not totally decapitated. Is that why he still lays here?”

“Yes. You cut him bad. Even if you just nicked him. He"ll die anyway. His body won"t be able to heal his wound.”

Marisol raised her sword. She couldn"t" believe she held the most powerful sword in her hands. “I think something different happened to him. After I stabbed him, I thought he was dead, but then he came back and looked…different.”

“He became a Cancer.”

“Cancer?”

“Yeah, but he was still no match to your sword. Cancer or not. You killed him. Good.” Callum sat on his haunches to look at the dead man. “Baby, we got to get out of here. Now.”

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“Why? What"s a Cancer? Like a disease or tumor or something? Is the air contaminated with deadly germs?”

“I"ll explain later. Right now we have to leave.”

“Why? Did I kill someone important?”

“Yes. Atos"s brother, Pic.”

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Callum revved his Ducati"s incredible 180hp L-Twin Testastretta Evoluzione engine. The chassis" set-up tipped the scales at an unbelievable lightweight of 165 kilogram. His motorcycle was built for speed. The kind that they needed right now. Thanks to the Ducati family and Bolognese investors, he could use another form of speed other than his own. He was grateful to Mark for keeping his motorcycle in the garage. His friend must have known that it would come in handy. He looked at Marisol. She"d been punishing her lips from her constant chewing since she saw the bike. He could tell that she"d never been on one before.

“Afraid?”

“Just wondering how in the world I could have missed something so beautiful like this in this garage. Well, I noticed the tarp but didn"t think any of it.

Dad likes to tinker in there and he"s got enough junk to start a junkyard, but it never occur to me that he"s hiding a…What kind of motorcycle is this?”

“Ducati.”

“Yes. Ducati. So beautiful.”

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“It rides beautifully also.”

“Do you think I can keep my heinie on that seat?”

Callum wrapped his arm around her midriff. “Just hang on to me. It"s going to be okay.” He tilted her chin and gave her a kiss that made him wish they were in a different place, time, and situation. “Are you still thinking about the Shape-shifters?”

“Hard not to.”

“Baby, don"t worry. They will not attack in broad daylight and in the open.

We"ll stay on the road and the ride will be smooth.”