Ashes To Ashes (Wolf Guard Book 2) (27 page)

Charlie shrugged and steadied his sword, "you're welcome to try."

Her sight lightened to white once more, her gaze fixated on the guard and off of the black wolf slowly regaining a hold over his senses. I turned to catch Ty leaning over Lane, whispering into his ear and getting no response. He walked around to the rear of the pole and touched a single finger to the chains trapping the blond in place. Ty hissed as his finger seemed to singe on contact and turned to regard me for a moment.

He sighed and rolled his eyes to the heavens, "fuck it. This is going to hurt."

He grabbed the chains in both hands, grimacing and tightening his grip even as his face whitened and blood appeared to drain from his features. "Shit me," he growled out. Muscles bulged in his forearms, sapphire vision that shone in strain, and a groan seeped from his lips as he pulled with every ounce of his strength. The chain creaked as it shifted, links that whined in protest, until they cracked from such  force of exerted pressure. They slipped from around Lane's arms, allowing his body to fall to the side and smack his unresponsive figure against the mud. Ty dropped the chains instantly and kicked them away with his foot, rubbing his burning hands - that I could smell even from this distance, against his trousers. I let out a breath, a heart that pounded out its enjoyment, and eagerly stood as Ty bent to drag Lane's body from the floor to over his shoulder. He grunted, "weighs a fucking tonne."

I couldn't help the grin that spread over my face, a little bit of light that replaced the doom, and fixed my eyes to each step my brother made over the slippery surface. I caught a hint of movement from Lane, a twitch of the hand that hung almost to the floor, a flicker of claw that pushed at the skin to escape. I frowned at the talons slowly pushing their way through his fingertips, unsheathing so slowly, it seemed almost slow motion. I watched as his head bobbed, an attempt to lift it, only to fail in exhaustion. I watched as his arm locked, a tensing of muscles that shuddered, a strain on sinew that had forgotten how to move. I saw his lips move from under the hair that limply swayed, his mouth tracing sounds that repeated. I focused on the tiny twitches, on the shape that those lips made, a continual motion of a single word.
"Fe...fee...feed...feeder."

My eyes widened, snapped to lock with Ty's as I shook my head and screamed at him to put Lane down. Ty stopped walking and scrunched his brows at me in confusion.

"Put him down! Ty! Put him down!"

I ran from my hiding place, arms pumping as my feet slid inelegantly, spreading that mud in streams of uneven directions. "No!" I shouted as I saw his claws curve inwards, large hands that made weapons from talons so long. He threw his arms out with effort, gaining height to add to the force, and plunged them down again, stabbing all ten claws into the back of the man who carried him.

"Ty!" I screamed at the moon.

His knees dropped to the ground, thudding into the mud, a grunt leaving his surprised mouth on impact. He blinked. A single strangled gasp of shock. A muddied haze that covered that ice.

Hands let go of the blond he held, slipping the tight grasp to send him sliding to the floor. Another grunt left his lips, a wheeze of breath that struggled to form. A look of confusion down at his chest and the small holes that dripped red through his shirt.

He locked those eyes with my own, blinked at my slipping feet, then fell to the side in silence.

Chapter 33

Nothing.

I am nothing without you
.

Blood spurted from his mouth as he coughed.

"No, no, no." I held his head in my hands. "Come on, Ty. You're fine, you'll be just fine."

He gurgled, a weak laugh that only brought more blood to the surface. "Not...okay."

Tears fell from my face to his. "Don't be an idiot, nothing wrong with you."

His face paled as I watched. "Love you, Sash."

My breath stuck in my chest as everything within me broke. I heard the snapping inside my head, like shattering, fragile glass. Water welled to my eyes and clogged my throat, tears that flooded and drowned. I sobbed on heaving breaths, "heal dammit."

He looked up with a blurry gaze. "Think I'm...all outta juice."

I gave him a murderous look. "Then take some! Don't you fucking stop now."

His smile trembled in from its permanent position. "No one here but the wolves...your Alpha can't take it, and Irish is...on his own planet."

His wolf would heal him but the animal had taken a hit from those chains. "Shift."

He shook his head in a gentle twitch. "Tried...can't."

I should have paid better attention, made sure he had enough for the feeder inside him. Taken care of him like he'd always taken care of me. "Please don't." I crumpled completely, looked to Lane still laying on the floor. "Take from him, his wolf will heal."

Ty shook that head again and coughed a splatter of blood to his chin. "He can't handle it."

I shook my brother's body. "He stabbed you, he'll fucking handle it!"

"He can't even...wake yet."

I looked around frantically, finding Charlie swiping at the faery with his sword, swirling patterns around her that almost danced and had her swearing at him in confusion. Conall staggered to his feet, the animal wavering as he gained his bearings.

"Conall!"

The wolf turned black eyes to me.

"Help me."
I whispered at the monster, pleading for him to listen.

He shook his head back and fore, clearing the vision that swam in circles, and looked to the Fae that tried her best to stand still for long enough to work her magic on Charlie. He growled, his mind all encompassed by white hair and blood red rage.

"No, please. Help him first."

The wolf wavered again, looked to me then back at the female, a monumental decision for the beast that begged for blood. He rumbled in disgust and turned to toward me, finally taking a step in my direction. I blew out a breath and shook Ty, "look, Conall is coming."

His body remained motionless.

"Ty...Conall will help." I looked down to see his eyes closed, marble overcoming animation, the shade of death that robs the soul.

I stopped breathing. Joined my brother in silence. Copied his stillness as his soul tried to leave, felt just as frozen as he must be as his usual warmth chilled to cool. The tears that ran down my face the only moving parts of me.

Red hair flickered to the right of my vision. Blonde that stood tall beside him. A mountain of Scotsman, proud as he stood next to grace.

"Tessa." The wolf rumbled through my voice, rage that rose to heap the blame, pulling all the ire that whirled a tornado to fling every ounce of accountability at her feet.

She shrugged without hint of remorse. "I told you, Sasha. It's all about who you want standing next to you." Her hand lifted to run fingers through Duncan's hair. "I'd like to stand next to my mate. I'm a Queen taking my rightful place."

I scoffed at her words. "Who the hell made him a King?"

She lifted one shoulder. "The same people who made yours one."

I looked to the blond still unconscious on the floor, grief twisting my soul to scowl towards him. Conall's wolf pulled Ty's body out of my arms and I found I couldn't look at the limp form as it left my hold. "No Kings left, Tessa."

She smiled, "wrong. There'll be one left after tonight."

I focused my stare entirely on her, not giving a single look to the Scot. He'd ruined my life since he'd been in it - some demon pulling strings in the dark. He thought himself a King?

I'll show him even Kings can die.

Royalty can fall just as hard as we can, be just as much the puppet to destiny and her will. "You think they're brothers?"

She nodded. "They are."

I shook my head and laughed, a little too high and a little too strained. "Not in any way that matters."

She looked at the blond on the floor. "Think he might feel differently when he wakes."

Duncan joined in to sour my soul, twist that knife in just a little further. "Lost him a long time ago, lass. Just taking him back to where he belongs."

I stood from the ground and sneered at him, taking a step towards Tessa and ignoring the Scot. "You won't be around to find out." The wolf fed the empath, taking that rage and dousing it in accelerant, twisting fury until it became some unnameable thing - something so mutated, it was a new kind of raw power. Something black that birthed in fire, substance that crystallized and reformed, became something greater than the original. As the fire burned, I pulled it higher, allowing it free reign to destroy as it willed - a conscious choice of pure destruction.

And in this ferment I wallow, giving life to waste and despoil.

A desolate end and shattering ruin, as everything turns to ash.
 

The feeder sent its fear. That smoke that built in black, so filled with temper it broke the lock on the wolf's cage and forced itself through the human. A smog so thick it veered from my pores to find an outlet through my eyes and mouth, spilling that despair and soiling the earth with nightmare. So completely it thrived, until I became the offender, the devil to their fleeing victim. It wrapped itself around Tessa and Duncan, utterly free from my control, wrapping black wisps shaped as hands around their faces. Sending them to their knees before me.

Look at the crown that takes a servants role; how easily they bend under my will.

Tessa begged as tears flooded her eyes. Pleaded for me to cease, so overwhelmed by true panic I doubt she even understood what she was doing. I smiled at her stricken face - the one that had looked at my own in deceit, and unsheathed the claws the wolf whispered to take, talons to split her skin. My lips moved of their own accord, dancing around the smoke that poured, telling the female her darkest sins and just what she'd now owned. "Life for a life, Tessa. Reap what you sow."

I pulled her blonde hair by the roots, stretching her body up from its knees. Saw Duncan's eyes watching as I took my claws to her throat, and ripped through muscle, ligament and tissue. His sight widened in horror, a scream dying on his lips, awake in his own nightmare as reality knocked to take over a dream. I dropped her throat to the floor, blood that spurted like fountain, and dug those claws back in to cut through the bone to her spine. Her head tumbled to the mud, her body falling in a heap, as I released both halves like rubbish to be discarded. I turned to the Scot on his knees, holding his head in his hands, rocking as if he watched his own death over and over again. I puffed out a cloud of smoke, laughing as it settled above his head, entranced by the heavy fog that built dread in its purest form.

I knelt beside him, waiting until his eyes were on me - staring in terror at the black that spilled from my face. "He took my brother," I tapped him on the shoulder. "I'm going to take his."

Such a big wolf brought down to earth. A strong male that fell so far alone. I suppose I should have been concerned over my actions, but as I held his face in one hand and stabbed a claw into his left eye, I found nothing to be overly concerning. I lost my way in my vengeance, became everything I'd sworn not to be, I held his head under thick black water as he suffocated himself in fear. The wolf wanted his head - this man that had taken her mate, I was more interested in torture, a drawn out end to his intricate games. I tapped a path to his chest, found it heaving in panicked breaths, a body so overcome by falsities of terror its responses forced him to weakness. I clawed a hole in his shirt, found skin that begged to be red, and slowly pushed a talon in to match the one that pushed at his brain.

I found his heart with my claw, like he'd found mine with his. Destroyed it with stabbing slices - like he'd destroyed mine to pieces.

I turned his brain to nothing, just greyness riddled with holes, no chance of repair for the organ that died with each scar from the wolf and her knives. She got hers as I got mine, some duel work of revenge, a synchronization of attack and a vindictiveness that froze. I pulled my hands free of blood, covered in that accusing colour, and turned to the wolf at my back.

Conall lay on the floor, curled on his side with claws spread wide, a few strands of pure white hair stuck between his teeth. Charlie sat to his right, sword across his lap, leaning against a rock in the mud with his head thrown back to the night. Ty lay on his back, eyes closed to the stars, skin that glowed in the moon's embrace and shone some bright light of soul.

Lane slumped to my right, face covered in mud, arms thrown out to the side with claws that were stained in blood.

Ty's blood.

I narrowed my eyes at the wolf, seething that fury once more, a never ending pit of the darkest hate that fed a being so wrapped up in reckoning.

"Charlie." I hissed at the guard in the mud.

He turned my way and raised an eyebrow.

"Get that wolf," I pointed to Lane. "Wake Conall up, we're leaving."

He squinted his gaze my way, probably a little curious about the raving beast that turned my voice to stone. "Are you alright, Sasha?"

I smiled at him, slightly off. Like the black fire had melted and twisted my features to scorn. "Oh. I'll be just fine, Charlie."

He stood to pick Lane's body up, nudging Conall's sleepy wolf with his foot. I stared as he grabbed the blonds bicep and hauled him up off the floor.

Just fine.