The Legend of the Werewolf (31 page)

“
I can do a lot more than that.
It’s how I survived when that dickhead attacked me. I shielded
myself in the fall.” He rubbed his bandages. “Still hurt,
though.”

Bud turned to Bill, back straight like a
soldier. “If you’ll let me, I’ll help you get your granddaughter
back.”

Bill raised a white eyebrow at him. “Do
you know what you’re offering to go up against?”

“I was listening to a lot of
conversations after I woke up. I know what you all are.”

“
You don’t seem so surprised,”
Westley said.

“
Are you kidding me? Why would I
be? Knowing what my brother and I can do? It’s kind of a relief
knowing there are
others
out there.”

Everyone in the room smiled, even Mike. He
certainly hadn’t been as ecstatic as Bud when he found out about
everything.

“
So, can I go?”

The two werewolves and one dragon
looked among themselves.

“
That’s up to your brother,” Bill
said.

Shit. Now Bud was staring at him, begging
him, and Mike was about to give in. He must have been crazy to even
think of bringing his younger brother into this. But he was
desperate.

"You better be as good as you say you
are."

***

Hadrian wouldn't let her leave
his sight. Not until she
remembered
how to operate the moonstone so she could turn him
into a God.

Anne wished she were Luna so that she
could turn him into fungus. Even with all her strength, she
couldn’t take him out, and she’d tried.

His stubborn insistence that she was a
Goddess despite her claims made her want to throw something at him.
He'd probably use his magic to send the flying object right back at
her.

She trailed behind him, the heels he gave
her clicked loudly in the stone hall. She hated them, and for some
reason, she couldn’t shift into her wolf form in this weird castle
she was in.

He’d wrapped the moonstone in a thick
cloak to prevent the light from harming his servants, and he
carried it as though it were a precious jewel as he gave her a tour
of his home.

“
Never has its glow been so
bright,” He’d said, looking at her over his shoulder, a giddy,
child-like smile on his lips. “No doubt your presence has brought
about the blessing.”

Ugh
.

Some of the shadows straightened in his
approach like soldiers, while others scurried out of his way,
leaving rags and buckets behind them.

"This is the great hall. When we are
married, I shall throw a marvelous celebration with food, guests,
and music. I remember how much you enjoyed music." He reached out,
took her gloved hand, and lifted it to his lips.

Disgust shimmied through her at the
contact. She yanked her arm back but his grip tightened like iron.
His mouth pressed harder until he deemed it time to release
her.

She stepped back when he did. “Don’t
touch me.”

Anne eyed the wrapped stone in his
hand. She could probably reach out and take it …

Hadrian stepped forward as if she hadn’t
sneered and put distance between them. "I also remember you wearing
this above your lovely head." With a flick of his finger, a jeweled
crown appeared in his hand.

Anne's breath caught in her throat at
its beauty. Its slim, silver base glistened with diamonds that
connected to a thick, golden crescent moon that sat with its points
faced up.

Hadrian placed the crown atop her head
with the gentleness of a man placing a fallen baby bird back into
its nest.

He sighed and admired it. “It fell from
your head when that beast attacked you. Are you pleased that I have
kept it?”

She swallowed. God. She wasn’t even into
jewelry and she felt the weight of the glistening tiara burn in her
hair.

Hadrian snarled, for the first time
showing his annoyance. “Are you not pleased?”

Anne cleared her throat, yanking herself
back to reality. “Yes. Very pleased.” She had to get the moonstone,
not think about the priceless artifact on her head that should be
in a museum, or a vault with thick, iron doors.

Her grandfather said that Hadrian's power
was limited. That the more he used, the weaker he became as a
result of selling his soul for it. Though it seemed that in this
place, this Shadow Land where he hid away in his castle, he was as
powerful as ever.

"So lovely," Hadrian purred, pleased with
her response as he openly admired her. "I long for the day when you
remember your true self. Then, we can spend all of eternity
together."

"And, if I can't remember?" Anne prompted,
no longer attempting to convince him that she wasn't who he thought
she was.

He reached his hand out to caress her
cheek. Anne allowed it. "Then we will simply stay here, my love.
You will be queen and every serf who lives here will bow before
you."

"Serf?" Anne looked around the great hall
with new attention; the shadows who straightened themselves at
their master's approach, the ones who toiled on the floor and
scurried out of his way when he came near, all jumped into her
head. Anne's head swam, her stomach flopped, and her knees shook.
She reached out to Hadrian to keep from falling over.

"My love!" He snaked his arm around her
waist and helped her to a bench. She sat and leaned her head
between her knees.

She inhaled rapidly but it felt like
she couldn’t breathe.

"Water! Bring water!" Hadrian
called.

Anne raised her eyes. No sooner had the
words left Hadrian's lips was there a shadow hanging over her head,
a tray in its dark hands with a pitcher and two goblets on it. The
entity placed the tray on the long table, bowed low, and
disappeared while Hadrian poured her a cup.

Her hands automatically took the goblet
but she did not drink.

"They're people," she said, horrified.
"It's not just your knights, but everyone in your castle. They're
all people who worked for you."

She hadn’t known that. Bill said Hadrian
turned his knights into these things, but she’d been left with the
impression that it had been a willing thing.

He’d turned everyone in his
castle into these lost souls. There was no way they had
all
volunteered for
it.

She felt like she was going to hurl all
over her pretty dress.

"And now they will obey you as well,"
Hadrian said, coaxing her hand that held the goblet to her lips so
she would drink.

It could have been drugged for all she
knew, but Anne needed it. She gulped the water in one swish. When
Hadrian refilled her cup, she drank that too.

"How can you live here?” She started,
looking away from the goblet she held to stare at his black eyes.
"You claimed that you loved L—” She had to stop herself. “Me. Said
you loved me. Is all this," She waved her hand around the dark
space of the great hall, "really worth it? You’re alone here. Don’t
you miss the sun?"

While growing up listening to the stories
of the first werewolf, there were times she thought of Hadrian as
the evil villain. Other times, she sympathized.

While this was not one of those times,
and she wanted to put him in a world of hurt for doing what he did
to Gordon and Bill, she needed to believe there was some small part
of him still willing to listen to reason.

He took the covered orb from his lap and
unwrapped it. The shadows shrieked and fled when the room burst
with silver light, not golden from the sun.

He smiled at her. “This is my sun, your
presence in this stone. It has been for years.”

She shook her head. "It's not the same
thing."

"It has been enough to keep my head
intact," he grumbled, tucking the stone back into the makeshift
pouch.

The shadows reappeared when the offending
light was taken away. Like frightened children, they observed their
surroundings before quietly returning to their duties.

His head wasn't intact. Anne knew it
even if he didn't

She snatched the rock from his hands,
pulled it from the sac and jumped away from the bench. It might not
protect her from Hadrian's magic but it could at least get the
creepy shadow-ghosts out of the room. "I want to see my
grandpa."

Hadrian's body tensed. He rose to his
feet, eyes panicked and hands outstretched. "You wish to
leave?"

"If you really love me, you'll let me
go."

"Is there something amiss with the
accommodations?"

He spoke as though she were complaining
about her hotel room. "This isn't where I live and I won't let you
make it my home either. There are ghosts trapped here because you
won't let them leave and it's constantly dark."

"A fine complaint from the lady of the
night!" The force of his anger brought the familiar red aura to his
black-clad body.

Anne jumped and backed away from him. He
followed with storming footsteps until her back pressed against a
stone wall. Grabbing a fistful of her blonde hair, he yanked his
rodent face close to hers.

His breath was warm and putrid against her
cheeks, his teeth big and yellow through his snarl.

"You have spent your entire existence in
the dark, living on the moon when I called you to earth. I offered
the sun but you refused it, only appearing on nights when the moon
was full."

"That was the only time
she
could
appear you idiot!" Anne screamed. She raised her fist and
punched at Hadrian's hand, twisting herself until her hair was out
of his dirty fingers.

She moved along the wall, opting to
never hold still. The crown fell from her head in the struggle,
emitting a clang when it hit the stone floor.

Hadrian did not drop to pick it up as
he moved with her, following her.

The greater prize.

She kept moving but she wouldn't look
away from his heated eyes, burning red with wisps of fire crackling
beneath his lids.

She didn't care. Let him be angry. She
wasn't going to play this game anymore.

"Luna could only appear on earth on a full
moon night, that doesn't make her nocturnal, you moron. In case you
didn’t know, the sun’s up for almost an entire month on the moon.
You've been spending all this time in the dark for
nothing."

Hadrian raised his hand as though he
would slap her.

Anne's nails lengthened into
claws through her gloves, the most she’d been able
to change into her
wolf form since she’d arrived, so she could rip his throat out for
even thinking of it.

The ground beneath them shook before he
could lay a finger on her.

The tables and benches rattled against
the floors as the pitcher of water and their goblets bounced and
spilled.

Hadrian's head wildly dashed about,
searching for the cause.

This kind of thing couldn’t be normal for
the Shadow World, not if this was his reaction.

Anne fought the panic rising inside her.
Forcing her mind to focus on the bigger picture, she turned and
ran.

Anne lifted her heavy gown and ran from
the great hall. The ground stopped shaking as quickly as it had
started.

Hadrian gave chase. His screams were
wild, like a child crying for its mother. "Luna! Luna!"

Anne had no idea where she was going.
Each leap of her feet brought her farther and farther away from her
captor. His human strides couldn't match her agility even with the
high heels.

She followed the halls, twisting and
turning, the glowing stone in her hands preventing her from being
tackled by his shadow knights.

Finally, two oak doors appeared in the
distance. Their size large enough to fit a giant troll.

She ran for them, her feet kicking against
the stone floor and hauling her body faster toward her
escape.

If they were locked, she would barrel
through them. He would not keep her here!

Hadrian screamed behind her, his
voice distant and girlish with panic. "Luna!
Luna!
"

The doors exploded inward in a rush of
splinters and twisted metal. The force threw Anne backwards causing
the stone to fly from her hands and her head to barely miss a giant
hunk of pointed wood that came so close to impaling her she could
smell the oak.

Anne lifted herself on her arms. She
stared at the gaping hole where the doors used to be, now framed by
fire and wreckage.

Maybe going outside wasn’t such a great
idea.

Snarls sounded beyond the fires. Her
heart quickened as two beasts leapt inside the castle and charged
down the hall.

Recognition came and she cried. A
silver wolf with a white crescent moon on the right side of its
muzzle and red dragon, roughly three times the size of its
companion.