Wolves and the River of Stone (21 page)

Zola was on her knees and holding her stomach as the cloud dispersed in a rain of dirt and rocks. I caught a glimpse of Happy tearing through a line of zombies near the entrance to the glen before the body parts were flung out of my narrow view.

Philip dragged himself to one knee at the top edge of the earthworks and I stared at the necromancer with a mixture of disappointment and appreciation for how durable he was. Philip’s hands were shaking and his eyes were wide with shock. He fumbled for something in his cloak. I saw his mouth move and he vanished from the glen with a crack.

“No!” Zola screamed. She tried to stand up, but fell to her knees and vomited.

“Hi Damian,” said a small, airy voice.

A surge of adrenaline wracked my body as I turned around with my hand sliding to my shield. I blew out a breath when I found the small ghost we’d left with Happy the year before, and the panda himself. Blood was dripping from her hands and vanishing before it hit the ground. I noticed it didn’t stick to Happy when she touched him. My eyes widened as the panda bear nudged her back with his nose and she giggled. The ghost rubbed Happy’s snout, and looked back to me with a huge smile. It was so very out of place in that field of carnage.

“Ah,” I said eloquently, “You’re talking now?” My eyes trailed back to the edge of the earthworks. More zombies were cresting the top. Further down, a flurry of vampires and werewolves flickered in and out of shadows. Aeros was on his feet again, watching over Zola as blood flew and wolves roared across the glen. I turned back to the little ghost and she was nodding in a sage-like fashion.

“I used to be Elizabeth, but now I’m Vicky, like your car.” She smiled and ran her hand through Happy’s fur.

Bloody hell, I thought as I rubbed my face. She knows who she is. She probably knows who her family is. I need to tell them. I wanted to tell them last year, but how? Where do I even start? Do I ever not want to make that house call.

Vicky giggled and climbed up onto Happy’s back. She pointed behind me and I turned to find three werewolves stalking us in a semi-circle. Happy tossed his head and roared at the line of wolves. The sound shook the ground as I watched Happy pull in ley line energy to fuel his roar with power. Two of the wolves took a step backwards. Shit,
I
was tempted to take a step backwards. Happy was anything but.

One stupid wolf stood his ground. I shot him in the gut. Happy leapt forward with Vicky’s fists wrapped in his fur and dismembered the wolf with a snarl. I don’t care how fast you can heal, being reduced to your component parts is unhealthy.

There was another flash of light from the woods beyond the vampires and werewolves. Zachariah came over the northern hill near the battle, but he never saw Hugh coming. The wolf tackled him and I thought it was over. A flash of red light sent Hugh tumbling down the side of the earthworks with a howl. I cursed and ran at Zachariah. I worried about Hugh for a second before my mind regained its focus. It was time to end him. As I concentrated on the necromancer, I realized all the sickly orange lines of power were tied to him. “It’s Zachariah!” I said. “The zombies are tied to
him!”

Hugh righted himself and went for the kill with a vicious leaping uppercut. Zachariah shifted his body enough that Hugh only put three deep slashes into the necromancer’s face. Zachariah didn’t even scream. He summoned a shield as Hugh leapt again, knocking the werewolf senseless.

The necromancer’s face pulled into a twisted smile as he dropped the shield and drew a wavy Kris dagger from his belt. I gritted my teeth, aimed, and fired at Zachariah’s chest. I missed. The dagger came down fast at Hugh’s neck. I was still further away than I would have liked, but I curled my hand into a fist and screamed,
“Pulsatto!”

Zachariah dropped the dagger as he doubled over from the force hitting him in the gut. He started to limp away and fell to a knee. I glanced at the vampires. Carter was with them now, battling the coal-black Alpha. Zombies were closing on them from three sides. Alan’s dark form took two down in a flurry of dismemberment. I sucked in a breath to yell a warning to Carter. It was the last thing I did before another necromancer came over the hill and blasted me fifteen feet across the glen with god knows what. I saw the night sky, then the grass, then felt the hard earth as I spiraled across it, rolling as best I could. I saw stars dancing in my vision before I saw the huge rocky face.

“You appear injured,” Aeros said.

“Thanks for that,” I muttered as I came up onto my knees. The smell of dirt and grass was ground into my face and I could feel blood mingling with the mess.

“
Inimicus Letum Phocanen!”
I heard Zola’s voice before I even realized she was up again. The incantation flowed across the battlefield in a haze of sparkling white dust.

My eyes whipped back to Zachariah. He stiffened as the haze moved around him and the orange lines of power evaporated. Zombies fell all across the glen, no more animate than fallen logs, as Zola’s incantation sealed Zachariah’s necromancy.

“Witch!” Zachariah said. “You can’t–”

Vik tore the throat out of the werewolf he was battling and threw the mass of cartilage and blood into Zachariah’s face. Zachariah screamed and clawed at his eyes as the sack of flesh hit him, but Vik was on the necromancer before anything else could happen. The bones in Zachariah’s arm snapped.

“Vik! Don’t kill him!” Zola’s voice was shaky, but it carried well enough for the vampire to hear. He nodded, held one hand at Zachariah’s neck, and then wrapped Zachariah’s good arm behind his back. Vik looked around, placed his leg across Zachariah’s, and smashed his face into the dirt.

With the zombies down, all that was left were three wolves. Hugh was groggy, but at least he was moving. If there were more necromancers in the woods, they weren’t anxious to join the fight. Dominic picked up a zombie by the ankles and swung it into the side of a wolf. The rotting corpse exploded as it sent the werewolf tumbling down to rest beside the last remaining torch.

Sam pounced and rammed her fist through the wolf’s neck before it could get up. She flashed back to the other earthworks to help Dominic and Carter with the last two wolves. One of the wolves was a darker khaki than Carter and the other was the coal-black Alpha. They were all upright now, facing each other down on bent hind legs and primed claws. Their fur was just as matted and bloodied as Carter’s, but they were still almost too fast to follow.

Carter’s hand snapped out and caught the other khaki wolf by the ankle. That was all it took. Dominic fell on the wolf the instant it slowed. I didn’t even know what he did to kill the wolf, but gore flew from the wolf’s back and Dominic attached himself to the furry neck.

When Dominic started to feed, the last wolf, the Alpha, darted over the earthworks and disappeared into the woods. Carter bounded after him with a roar.

Silence fell over the remains of Cromlech Glen as the werewolves raced deeper into the trees. Hugh was gone. I could only assume he was with Carter. I heard the necromancer beneath Vik struggle again and heard a slurp from Dominic’s direction. Sam started toward me and the smile beneath the blood on her face startled me. She squeezed my arm and turned to Zola.

“You take me to the most interesting places,” she said.

Zola snorted a laugh and rubbed the head of her cane. “Ah would prefer to blame your brother for that. Are you well?”

“Yes, actually. I feel good.” Sam smiled and I wasn’t sure if I should be happy she was okay or very, very, disturbed. She looked around and her smile cracked. “Where’s Foster?”

“Shit, I saw him go into the woods when we started fighting. I haven’t seen him since.” I shook my head. “Don’t worry, it’s Foster. He’ll be okay.”

Sam started chewing on a bloody fingernail. “I hope so.”

“V
ik,” Zola said. “Bring us the necromancer.” She hobbled into the light of the flickering torch at the center of the glen. The crackles of the flame were fireworks in the silence. Zola held up her hand to stop Vik where she wanted him.

Dominic dropped the body he’d been feeding on and looked toward the woods. Vik put Zachariah between him and the sounds of screaming rolling over the eastern earthworks.

I smiled when Hugh came over the crest and into the glen. His fur was bloody and matted with dirt and twigs, but his stride was effortless. There was a dirty bundle of clothes wrapped up in his arms. A battle-worn Foster and Alan walked behind him. Alan had a black-cloaked figure in tow.

“We found one alive,” Hugh said as Alan dragged the screaming man close to the torchlight and left him on the ground. One glance showed me his legs were broken. The man started to talk, but Alan knocked him out with a quick punch.

Sam ran up to Foster and hugged him. The hard lines etched in Foster’s face softened and he returned the gesture with one arm. “You’re hurt,” she said.

“It’s not bad.”

Sam reached out and touched a tear in his right wing. Blood poured from the wound in rivulets. “Dammit, Foster. It
is
bad.”

He shook his head. “Aideen will fix it, don’t worry.”

“Yeah, after she kills you,” Sam muttered.

Hugh stopped beside Foster and unwrapped the bundle of cloth he was carrying. His body began to shimmer and pop while he was still working with the bundle. A now familiar burning brushed against my aura as Hugh shifted back into human form. His exaggerated muscles vibrated and flattened out over his arms as his posture straightened and his fur fell off. He stared at the contents of the bundle as it fell open.

“May I help?” he said.

Foster nodded.

Hugh crouched down in all his naked glory and pulled out a small mortar and pestle, some herbs, and what looked like a sports bottle of water.

I elbowed Sam in the ribs when I noticed her staring. She blushed under her drying mask of blood. A deep rumbling shook the earth beneath our feet and I turned to find Aeros staring at us. His craggy granite face wore a jagged grin as he laughed. I smiled at him and turned back to Hugh and Foster.

Hugh was mixing something with the mortar and pestle. He lifted it to his nose and took a deep breath. He nodded and scooped out a pasty green mixture. Hugh rubbed his hands together and then smeared the concoction over both sides of Foster’s wings. “It won’t do much, but it should stop the bleeding.” By the time he finished talking, the flow of blood was greatly diminished.

“Thanks, Hugh,” Foster said.

“One good turn deserves another, my friend. I might have been killed if you hadn’t caught the necromancer.” Hugh tilted his head to the side to indicate the cloaked figure on the ground. He rubbed his hands off on the bundle of clothes and stood up.

“Hugh, clothes,” Zola said.

The werewolf glanced down at himself and a wide grin spread across his face. “Indeed, I suppose that would be appropriate now, yes?”

Sam continued staring at Hugh’s backside as he pulled on a pair of jeans. I heard Dominic and Vik laughing behind her.

Zola’s smile died as she turned to the necromancer on the ground. He was waking up. “Now, where is Philip? What’s he planning?”

“Go crawl in a hole and die.”

Zola clubbed the man’s broken legs with her cane. When the screaming died down, she asked again. “Where is Philip and what is he planning?”

“Stones River,” he said in a tiny voice. The man gasped and stiffened. “Stones River. I don’t know what else. Don’t know what he’s doing. He wants to kill the wolves.” His eyes unfocused and he started rambling. “Wolves have to die, vampires have to die, the humans, everyone has to die, demons, die ...”

Zola cracked him in the face with her cane. I was surprised when the man’s eyes focused again behind the stream of blood.

“What the
hell
you old bitch!”

Hugh turned around and pounded the necromancer’s face with a quick jab. “Respect,” he said.

The necromancer spat out a tooth and glared at Hugh. I watched his aura darken and a flare trailed toward the vampires.

“You can’t touch them,” I said.

The necromancer cursed and stared at me. “There’s dozens of us, dozens, you dumb fuck.”

I heard Zachariah mutter something along the lines of “Shut up.”

The man spit out blood and another tooth across the trampled grass and dirt. His eyes moved back to Zola. “You’ll die. You’ll all die, you stupid bitch.”

I glanced at my master. She nodded.

“You first,” I said as I pulled the trigger on my pepperbox. The smell of gunpowder was a relief over the scent of blood and rot in the air. I watched the body twitch as I pondered the man’s last words and cleaned his blood off my arm.

“Damian, point your gun at Zachariah,” Zola said. “Ah think he’s aware we have no issue killing him.” She pointed her staff in his general direction and said, “If you run, we will kill you. Do you understand?”

The necromancer nodded once as his eyes flashed between me and the dead man.

“Vik, let him go.”

“You sure?” Vik said.

Zola nodded.

Vik shrugged and walked over to stand beside Dominic, a short distance away from Zachariah.