The Witch and the Werewolf (21 page)

“
One down,” she whispered,
sheathing the one sword and then recovering her other along with
the pistol. “How many to go?”

Two males rounded the
collapsed remains of a small building got two pulls of the trigger.
The big gun jumped in her hands but she managed to nail one of
them. The wolf’s momentum carried it further as it transformed,
changing to a human, and sliding dead to her feet. The other leapt
over its compatriot, and raked at her with massive claws as she
darted right. She tripped over the outstretched hand of the dead
wolf, however, and fell onto the ice covered ground.

The wolf leapt into the
air, ready to pounce on her, as she turned over. She pushed her
palms forward. Blue flame jumped from her hands, catching the wolf
in the air. Its body contorted and twisted as it hit the ground,
convulsing in pain. She got to her feet and jumped to it, driving
the sword down into its chest.

“
That’s right,” she
screamed into the night. “Come and get it.”

The wolves, sensing the
demise of three of their brethren, howled in response and she felt
them closing on her. The noose tightened. She knew she could take
the wolves one on one, but there were dozens in the quarter mile
around her. Gunfire and explosions from the church’s ad hoc walls
lit up the night in flashes. She saw them in those flashes. Her
quick dispatch of three of them had given them caution.

“
Come on, you bastards.
Come and get me. You took my mother. You know you want
me.”

A dozen took her challenge
and rushed her at once. Her instincts took over and she knelt,
driving the silver sword down into the ground. The pavement cracked
around the sword, small ruts running out like so much broken grass.
The tiny chasms filled with blue energy that flowed out from her
body like wavy water. The dozen wolves paused, circling her. She
closed eyes and drove the sword further down into the ground. The
electric blue energy leapt out, striking the wolves and
incinerating them so quickly their bodies didn’t have time to
revert to human form. When she finally opened her eyes all she saw
was a dozen burnt wolves. The air was thick with the smell of burnt
flesh and fur.

Her body shook. She was
exhausted. Two dozen more wolves replaced the ones she’d killed,
growling low.

She got to her feet and
dusted herself off. She didn’t know if she could take yet another
onslaught. She simply didn’t have the energy in her. She didn’t
feel the power rising. So, this is it, she thought. At least I took
a few of them down with me.

And then something stirred
in her mind, something she thought she’d killed. The connection
wasn’t the same as before. She didn’t feel his emotions, didn’t see
his memories. But he was there, nevertheless.

The circling wolves
parted, making way for the female she’d fought on the bridge. The
wolves gave her a wide berth and she felt the pack’s respect for
the female.

“
Hello old friend,”
Cassandra said, drawing her second sword. “I guess you’ve come back
for more?”

The wolf was gone, over the top of the wall and
out into the ruins, before Dutch ever got close. He scrambled up
the ice, slipping several times, and ended up beside Father
O’Leary. The old priest had a maniacal look on his face as he fired
an old AK-47.

“
Come on ye furry
bastards! Come get us!”

The men around the priest
were petrified, but holding. He peeked over the edge of the wall
and watched as a werewolf scrambled up, all snapping jaws and fury.
One of the defenders changed his aim, slightly, and put a three
round burst into the wolf’s face. It flew backwards, wounds
smoking, dead before it hit the ground. The man grinned at his kill
just as another wolf made it to the top of the wall and raked him
across the face. The claws tore into his skull, scrambling brain
matter.

“
Holy mother of god,”
O’Leary said, turning his own weapon at the wolf, pulling the
trigger, and sending it falling back to the base of the slightly
slanted wall. “The damned creatures are everywhere.”

He turned to Dutch was
edging to the opposite side of the wall. “What in god’s green earth
do you think you’re doing?”

“
The girl is out there,”
Dutch said. “I’m going for her.”

“
The girl has done enough
damage as it is,” the priest told him. “Leave her.”

“
Yeah, not happening. The
wolf went after her, I’m going to.”

He started to slide down
the wall but the priest grabbed his harness, stopping him. “What
did you say?”

“
The wolf is out there
hunting for her.”

“
The wolf is dead. My man
saw her kill him, saw the corpse.”

Dutch shrugged. “I don’t
know what to tell you, father. He’s out there somewhere, right now,
trying to help her.”

“
He took a bloody silver
bullet to the brain. I don’t care how old he is, that would have
killed him,” he said, rubbing at his chin. “Could it be? Could he
actually be the alpha?”

“
I don’t have time for
this, father,” Dutch said, attempting to wrench free from the
priest’s grasp. The old man’s grip was amazingly strong, though,
and he couldn’t break free. “Let me go.”

“
Listen here, dear boy. I
haven’t waited seven hundred years to catch him just to let some
witch girl and a mercenary spoil it. I’ve waited so long to have
his essence and you are not going to screw it up.”

The man’s eyes darkened to
a black so dark no light would penetrate them.

“
What the hell are
you?”

The priest smiled, showing
a mouth filled with razor sharp teeth that looked for all the world
like stainless steel.

“
I am death come for your
children,” the priest said, flying straight up into the cloud
covered, dark night.

The defenders around him
stared in horror, many forgetting there was a battle going on. A
wolf took the opportunity of lessened gunfire to leap over the
wall. Dutch spun and shot the thing twice, driving it back down the
slick slope.

“
Keep shooting,” he
ordered, hunkering down on the wall. A werewolf scrambled up the
wall just a few feet in front of him, close enough he could smell
the thing’s rancid breath. He shot it in the face and watched as it
slid back down to the base of the wall, adding to the rapidly
growing pile of human bodies there. “Keep them out of the
compound.”

He started, once more, to
crawl over the edge of the wall, intending on searching out
Cassandra. One of the defenders stopped him.

“
Where are you
going?”

“
The girl needs
me.”

“
We need you,” the haggard
looking man insisted. “We can’t do this on our own, not with…” he
pointed up into the sky, not wanting to actually say what he
thought about the old priest. “You’re the only real soldier
here.”

Dutch sighed. He knew the
man was right. They probably wouldn’t survive anyway, but they
definitely wouldn’t survive without help.

I’m sorry Cassandra, he
thought sadly, sighting through the scope of his rifle and adding
his fire to the mix. I wanted to help you.

Jeremy watched the battle from inside the ship,
watching the colors of war through the wall. There were so many
wolves that their brownish black color ran together, muting their
form and making it look like a massive blob was attacking the
fortified church. With the ability to see through the ship’s walls
the entire battlefield looked like a giant computer
simulation.

He watched as Cassandra
fought the beasts, surrounded all the time, her silver swords
flashing like lightning. He watched as she drove one of the blades
into the ground and a blue blast wave leapt out, incinerating the
wolves around her. She was amazing, fighting like a warrior queen
from a comic book, but she was badly outnumbered. He stood and
began making his way towards the ramp that led down into the
church’s courtyard.

He then saw the thing that
claimed to be a priest leap up into the night, flying away like a
superhero. More like a super villain, he thought. The thing was not
human and Jeremy didn’t care what anyone said, he was sure it was
evil. Dutch seemed like a good guy and his trust in the creature
surprised him. He was on the wall, trying to direct the battle the
best he could as the creatures swarmed around the pinprick of light
that was Cassandra. The creature flying into the battle only
confirmed what he already knew. Cassandra needed his
help.

As he walked he felt a
change inside his body. Energy stirred there, much like when he’d
watched Cassandra work her magic. It felt like a fire burning in
his stomach but was not altogether unpleasant. He felt… powerful.
The power coursed through his veins and he knew, even without
normal sight, that he could fight them on the field.

“
Where do you think you’re
going?” the woman who’d been charged with keeping the children
corralled asked.

“
I have to go help her,”
Jeremy said softly, trying to hide the fear in his voice. He didn’t
want to go outside. He didn’t want to look at another wolf. But
Cassandra, despite her bravery, couldn’t do it on her own. And the
power in him… he could use it like she did. He didn’t have to be
the poor little blind kid. He could fight the wolves.

“
That’s mighty brave of
you, son, but you can’t go out there. Don’t worry. The father will
protect us, just like he has all along.”

“
The priest is a monster.
I’m not sure what sort of monster, but he is. I wouldn’t trust
him.”

The woman laughed,
dismissing him. The fire burned in his belly. “Oh? And how would
you know that, sweetie?”

“
I can see his
colors.”

She laughed again. “Just
sit down, son. This will all be over in a few hours.”

The woman was green at her
core and he knew she meant well. He felt sorry for her. He was only
a kid but he knew things would never, ever be the same. They’d
never go back to the world they left a few nights ago. “I’m sorry
about this.”

“
There is no reason to be
sorry, kiddo. We’re all under a lot of stress. So just go sit
down.”

“
I’m not sorry about that.
I’m right about the priest. He’s some sort of monster.”

“
Then what are you sorry
about?”

The force flowed up
through his abdomen into his hands. It was only a fraction of what
Cassandra could do. But he watched as the vivid red color pushed
out from his hand. The wave of energy was invisible to the woman,
but hit her in the gut like a hammer. She flew backwards, slamming
into a bulkhead. Jeremy was relieved that he hadn’t killed her. The
other survivors in the ship’s hold made a wide alley for him to
walk through.

He knew what he was and it
finally made sense that he and Cassandra had, somehow, found each
other.

He was also a
witch.

“
Fill that gap!” Dutch hollered down the line. “Fill that gap
right there!”

The only things keeping
the wolves out of the church’s compound were the steady stream of
silver laced death and the ice covered slope of the ad hoc wall
thrown up around ship and buildings. The wall was tall enough that
the wolves couldn’t leap over it easily. They were still tearing up
the line, though, scrambling to the top and dragging the hapless
defenders back down with them. Dutch fired at a wolf trying to claw
his way up the embankment towards the gap left by dead defender.
The wolf snarled and snapped but the other men and women directed
their fire to the wolf, ripping it apart with silver laced
ammunition.

The wolf’s head exploded,
its body instantly reverting back to human form, and slid down the
wall.

Brilliant blue light
erupted from out in the ruins followed by a sonic boom and the howl
of the wolves.

“
Good luck, Cassandra,” he
whispered, looking for his next target.

Jeremy’s feet didn’t touch the ice covered ground
as he leapt into the air. It wasn’t just a jump, though, like
Cassandra or the wolves. When he ended up high in the sky above the
Church of the Dead Wolf he was actually flying.

It was the single most
exhilarating experience of his life.

He soared through the air,
hands stretched out in front of him, imagining himself to be a hero
from a comic book. The colors of the battle below turned to tiny
pinpricks of light as he climbed ever higher. He soon hit the thick
layer of black clouds and the dust and ash stung at his skin and
eyes. He pushed higher, easily manipulating the energy his body
produced, and shot out of the top of the cloud bank.

It had only been a couple
of days, but he’d already started forgetting what the sun felt like
on his face. He stopped, levitating for a few moments, soaking it
in.

He was distracted by the
sweet sunlight and didn’t sense the priest thing before it slammed
into him, driving him back down into the cloud bank.

“
I didn’t realize you were
a witch too,” the thing hissed at him, arms wrapped around his
body, face to his face. The priest had changed considerably since
Jeremy had first seen him. The rows of razor sharp teeth glittered
with a silver aura and his eyes were black as night. “Had I known,
we could have skipped the pretense and gone straight to the part of
me stealing your soul.”