Cherishing Destiny (A Dangerous Destiny) (37 page)

∞∞∞

While Mother was riding out to meet the boats, the Chief
was circling the little house that Olina had brought them to.  He would not underestimate
the
Were
-wolf witch even if she looked like a wrinkled old crone.  He
shifted and stalked around the perimeter, sniffing the wind and watching the
house for any signs of movement.  Then he heard it, the tiny crack of a broken
twig underfoot, and it was downwind and in the woods.  The panther ran on soft,
sure paws, flying across the forest floor, weaving in and out of the close
trees.  He heard the beast ahead running also, no longer worrying about
stealth, but still moving with grace, not crashing through the brush.  She ran
swiftly, but the wolf bitch was old and he caught her, leaping on her back and
digging his claws into her hide, sending them both into a tumble.  She came to
her feet when they stopped and faced him with a ferocious show of long teeth
and a growl low in her throat.  He shifted just enough to use his voice, but
the words still came out sounding as if he growled them.

“You will not be harmed if you chose to cooperate.” He
snarled the words in his cat form with human vocal chords.

She followed suit and shifted just enough for speech, as
well. “Cooperate with what?” she asked her voice deep and gravelly in the
wolf’s throat.

“You will lead us to the settlement and the Vampire elders
there.” His voice was firm even through the distortion of his creature.

“I will not help you,” she rumbled, leaping onto a boulder
half buried in the dirt and baring her teeth.  Her hackles were raised, and she
was rolling out a loud, fearsome growl that made Olina’s hair stand on end when
she heard it clear back at the house.

The panther did not wait to try further persuasion, he was
confident in his ability to track the wolves to their home.  Olina had told him
about the boy who came twice a week when she was telling him how she estimated
the distance to the settlement.  He was growing impatient to face Four Walker
and find the Vampires.

Olina listened as the growl turned into a vicious sounding fight. 
The fight continued for less than a minute when she heard a yelp and then silence. 
Her eyes were wide and frightened when the Chief stalked out of the woods
dragging the body of Greta by her long grey hair.  They were both nude.  He
dropped Greta and dressed in the clothes he left neatly folded by his horse. 
Olina ran to Greta’s torn body and checked against hope for some life. Tears
streamed down her cheeks, and she glared at the Chief.

“Mother said she could be spared. You didn’t have to kill
her,” she sobbed.

“Mother said she could be spared if she was cooperative.  I
don’t think trying to rip my throat out is cooperative, do you?” He was being
facetious but in truth Mother told him that she didn’t care if he killed both old
women if they became a problem or a burden.

Olina ran at him and struck his solid chest with her tiny
fists.  He grabbed one bony wrist and spun her, pinning the wrist behind her
back.  She swore at him and tried desperately to remember and speak the incantation
of a curse she had in one of her books.  He heard the old women speaking the tongue,
the one that Mother murmured when she worked her spells, and he reacted with
speed.  He grabbed her face and head in his hands and snapped her neck with a
quick twist.  She fell limp to the ground, and he shoved the body away from
himself with the toe of his boot.  Hearing the language of the incantations
scared him.  He had seen things in Mother’s service, and he respected the power
of the witches.  How dare the old woman try to curse him, he thought.  He left
the bodies for the wild animals and started tracking the wolf boy. 

The Vampires slowed him, and it was nearly dawn when he
found the first sign of other wolves crossing the path of the boy with some
frequency.  He knew he was close, and he halted the Vampires some distance
back.  From the crossing scents, it was safe to assume that there were watchers
posted.  He hoped that they would not cross his scent at the edge of their
perimeter for a while at least.  He left his clothing with the Vampires and
shifted to panther.  He climbed the first tree he came to and started working
his way forward, carefully, from tree to tree.  He moved as high up in the
branches as he dared, and he tried not to drop leaves and twigs to the ground
below that might carry his scent.  It was a long, painstaking process, but he
eventually came within sight of the settlement and hadn’t raised any alarms. 

He watched as the settlement began to stir for the day and
he quickly realized that there were too many
Weres
to attack the settlement
outright.  He was going to have to forgo his hoped for a rematch with the Four
Walker, and unless he got lucky, he wasn’t sure if he could get both Vampires
and the child without alerting the wolves.  He watched for over an hour,
patiently, and his vigilance paid off.  He saw a pretty
Were
with a
young girl that looked to be about the right age.  There was something about
the child that drew him to her.  The
Were
and the girl moved into the
trees, and it appeared that they were digging around the base of the trees,
putting something in a basket the woman carried.  He moved closer to the pair
as silent as a shadow creeping over them.  He waited for the
Were
to move
into the right position below him and then his shiny black mass dropped onto
her, hitting her with the full force of his weight and muscle.  Before she
could scream or shift, he crashed her skull into the tree trunk, knocking her
unconscious.  He knew she wasn’t dead, but he had no time to remedy the
situation because the little girl was running toward the settlement and
starting to scream.  He flew up behind her and shifted as he snatched her up
and clamped a hand over her mouth.  She struggled and was unbelievable strong
for a child of no more than three, he guessed.  He could also feel her trying
to bite his palm, her little Vampire fangs scratching against the skin of his
hand, but unable to find any purchase.  He clearly found the right child. He
pulled a head scarf from the woman and used it to gag the girl.  Then he
dragged her up the tree, kicking and squirming.  When they were high in the
branches, he set her on one and let her go.  She had no choice but to cling to
the branch if she didn’t want to fall.  He ripped a piece of cloth from the hem
of her coat and tied it around her wrists.  He stuck his head through the loop
her arms made and slung her across his back, changing into a panther and
leaping to the next tree. 

Destiny squealed behind her gag.  Suddenly the man with two
different colored eyes was a huge, black cat, and she could only squeeze with
her legs to try and hold on.  Her hands were tied in front of her and looped
around the neck of the panther.  She felt so out of control that she tore at
the bindings and heard the gratifying sound of tearing cloth.  She clutched the
fur on the back of the animal’s neck, and as he leapt to the next tree, she
pulled her feet up to stand on his back and spring off, catching a branch in
her little hands.  For just a second, she had looked like a trick rider,
standing on the back of a pony. Now, she was dangling from the branch and her
little legs couldn’t reach the next one.  She had nowhere to go, and her small
hands were slipping on the bark.  As she lost her grip, the panther was there
catching her by sinking his teeth into the chubby flesh of her thigh.  She
screamed into her gag, but the panther did not loosen his grip.  He continued
on with her dangling from his jaws that way.  Destiny’s pain was excruciating
and by the time the panther dropped to the ground in the midst of a bunch of
startled Vampires, her leg was a bloody mess, and tears streaked her face. 

“Bind her,” he shouted, stalking off to find his clothes.
“Tightly!” he added glaring at the brave three year old.  He was back in no
time to toss her over the front of his horse and mount up behind her.  “The
wolves don’t know we’re here yet, and I hope it will stay that way long enough
for me to get a head start.  You will wait here, and when they discover you,
you will hold them off as long as possible.  If you can, grab the Vampire
elders and take them prisoner.”  The Chief rode off at a frightening pace
without waiting for an answer from the Vampires.  He knew they had no shot
against that many
Weres
, and he just hoped that they would put up enough
of a fight to give him a few hours on the pursuers he knew would be coming. 

∞∞∞

Ryan walked with Destiny riding on his shoulders until they
reached Lily’s greenhouse.  Lily was just emerging with a basket of some kind
of grassy looking herb. 

“Destiny told me that you two have plans this morning,”
Ryan said, lifting the little girl off his neck and putting her down.

“Oh, no. I totally forgot. Sue Ellen just came and told me
that I have a baby to deliver and offered to hold down the fort here for me,”
she nodded toward the woman walking around the corner of the house. 

Ryan recognized Sue Ellen as Stephan’s wife, the one who
gave him the bathtub so long ago when he and Sara were living with the Lakes in
a one room cabin. 

“I told Destiny she could go with me to pick mushrooms so
that she could learn the medicinal from the poisonous.” Lily knelt in front of
Destiny. “I’m sorry, honey.”

“It’s okay,” Destiny said, taking Lily’s hand and patting
it.  They all laughed at her grown up gesture.

“I can take her,” Sue Ellen offered. “My grandmother taught
me mushrooms too.”

“That would be great,” Lily said, taking the grass from her
basket and handing it to Sue Ellen.

“It’s alright with me. I have plenty to do today,” Ryan
said. 

Destiny smiled at Sue Ellen and took her hand as they
walked away toward the trees.

It was mid-afternoon, when Alex poked his head in at the L.T.’s
place looking for Ryan.  “Ryan, Aurora says, if it’s not too much trouble, do
you think she might get to see her own daughter for a little while today?” Alex
said.

“She’s not with me,” Ryan said, his brow furrowing in worry
already. “Sue Ellen took her to pick mushrooms, but they should have been done
with that hours ago.  Sue Ellen was over at Lily’s helping out because Lily is
delivering a baby. Did you check there by any chance?”

“No, but I will,” Alex answered not nearly as panicky as
Ryan was where Destiny was concerned.

“I’ll go with you to look for her.”

“I’m sure she’s fine, you’ll see.” Alex said as they walked
to Lily’s.

When they found no one at Lily’s, Ryan shifted and went to track
them from that morning.  He followed their trail until he found Sue Ellen at
the base of a tree, her head bloody and probably fractured. Her breathing was faint
and erratic.  He howled an alarm from his wolf form, and the settlement came
alive in response. They made short work of the Vampires in the woods, but Ryan
realized that the
Were
that took Destiny had at least a day head start. 
By now he knew from the track that it was the same
Were
-panther that almost
killed him at Alex’s cabin.  They all pushed hard to catch up to the panther
and the little Vamphyr that had stolen their hearts. 

∞∞∞

In the three days it took the Chief to get back to
Syracuse, he rode two horses into the ground, and the third was looking like he
may not make it either, when they reached Gates. 

“Get your men together.  The wolves are right on our
heels,” the Chief shouted to Gates as he dismounted dragging Destiny with him. 

“Where are the others?” Gates demanded, ignoring the
Chief’s order. 

“Back there somewhere,” was the Chief’s retort.

“And the other prisoners?” Gates was angry and was not
about to let the Chief leave with the only prisoner, especially not the
Vampyrum.  He stepped in front of the Chief as the
Were
-panther was
preparing to march off with the girl.  The Chief saw his escort of a dozen
Warlocks waiting silently by the edge of the property.  They approached when
they saw him with the girl.

“Your other prisoners will probably be riding through your front
gates any moment at the head of a
Were
-wolf hoard. Why don’t you go capture
them, yourself?”the Chief snarled. 

“You arrogant little fuck! No one talks to a Vampire elder
like that.” Gates and the Chief were at each other in the blink of an eye,
years of bottled hate for one another boiling over. 

Destiny struggled against her bonds while the
Were
,
and Vampire fought.  Just then she was scooped up by one of the Warlocks, who
promptly turned and walked away without waiting for the Chief or trying to lend
him any assistance.  The silent creepy men moved swiftly and were nearly out of
sight when the
Weres
with Alex and Aurora arrived in a fury.  Gates had
failed to heed the Chief’s warning, and, as a result, his Vampires were unaware
of the danger until it was upon them.  The battle was vicious and brutal. 

The Chief realized that the Warlocks had left with Destiny,
and he yanked himself free of Gates only to turn and find himself face to face
with an enormous black wolf. 
The Four Walker!
  It was all he had time
to think before the jaws of the beast closed on his throat and ripped the flesh
out with one powerful thrash of his massive head.