Lucian’s eyes changed to a bright red, his body bulging slightly but his skin was still the same color, his claws still fingernails. He let a growl rumble through his chest and into the back of his throat. “Aslam maku!” was all he said before pushing away from her and bolting for the front door, Taurus Judge drawn. The ringing from the defensive wards were enough to let them know someone was there.
“What the fuck did he just say?” she looked at Carl as he grabbed a shotgun from the rack and pumped it with eight rounds.
“He just said ‘death to all’ and it’s not good. His demon has more control than he does right now.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?”
“Without any training? Hell no, he could do almost anything and he probably won’t feel bad even if he destroyed the whole block.” He ran to Lucian, hoping to keep his friend from losing control.
Lucian was at the door, his gun drawn, his other hand on the doorknob ready to throw it open and unleash hell. Bullets tore through the windows, glass flying everywhere, as the wolves called for them to surrender. “Fuck that.” He said, throwing open the door he brought his pistol up to the closest one and fired, the round slicing through it’s throat and dropping him as his hand went to his neck to stem the blood.
There were a dozen of them on the grass and as the first went down they began firing at Lucian. He ducked to the side and the bullets hit empty air as they moved closer, advancing on the house. Looking at them Lucian wondered just what the hell the wards were supposed to be doing, none of them looked like they were in pain from the shreiking, and he couldn’t hear anything other than the ringing. Could wards go bad and need to be recast? He wondered. But there was no time for that, he had to get his demon under control, and this would be the best way to do it. Lucian looked to his friend, Carl was a few feet from the door against the front wall holding his shotgun muzzle pointed down.
Outside was a large black van, no windows, and some of the wolves used the vehicle as cover as they covered their pack mates walking to the door.
One of the wolves walked through the door, his rifle up, an AR-15. Carl brought the muzzle up and fired into his shoulders and neck and the wolf was sent sideways landing next to Lucian, with how his neck was torn open there was no doubt he was dead.
The second wolf through the door turned his rifle at Carl and took a round from the Judge to the back of his head, Lucian wasn’t taking any chances now. As the next wolf tried to come into the house Bonnie came up with her tactical shotgun, but rather than fire at him she wailed, a focused burst at the intruder that sent him sprawling backwards into another and they toppled backwards into the next two, landing in a heap of limbs at the bottom of the first four steps leading to the front door.
She rushed to the opening and began firing into the mass of bodies, her first shot taking the head of the wolf on top, her next taking the right arm of the one under him. The next two were just aimed in their directions before she was pulled back into the house by Lucian. Turning around she was about to rip him a new one when she saw his eyes and recoiled.
She hadn’t seen his demon like this, it sent chills down her spine as she saw the darkness there and he pushed her to the side, to safety but also putting himself in the line of fire. Putting himself in harm’s way and she couldn’t believe she was letting him do it. But she was afraid to tell him no.
He pointed to the armory and began walking backwards, pistol trained on the door and she took his unspoken command in stride. His pistol was good, but it would run out of ammo soon, and if they were coming into the house he needed something better for home protection than a pistol. Lucian needed one of the other fun toys Bonnie kept in her armory.
Carl backed up towards the kitchen countertop and ducked behind it, keeping him from view and giving him a spot to ambush them.
Lucian and Bonnie were almost fully to the armory before the next pair of wolves came into the house. “You should know you won’t win. There’s more of us on their way here. Just surrender and we won’t kill your friends’ abomination.” The first one called out as another pair followed behind them, their weapons moving as they checked their corners looking for targets.
Carl popped up and fired a shell into one’s back and dropped him before sending another into his partners chest, dropping for cover and hoping Lucian was able to get what he was looking for. He found for the first time that he wished he hadn’t hid his friend’s true nature, having a fully trained demon, even a half demon, on his side in a spot like this would have been even better than him having the shotgun. Especially if he could fully harness his abilities, that would be the most terrifying shit he’d ever get to see.
The two wolves began firing on the countertop, sending bits of it flying into the air and down over Carl’s body. They stepped towards him firing the whole way in short bursts, thinking they’d be able to flank him and end him quickly. One began moving around to the opening while the other walked closer to the counter itself, one to fire around the other to fire over. There’d be not doubt one of them would kill the panther.
Lucian roared as he came leaping off of the walkway on the second floor, a pair of machetes in his hands, curved kukri machetes. The first wolf looked up and he drove the blades into his skull and drove him to the floor. As the second tried to bring his rile around Carl shot his right calf and dropped him to one knee, his rifle clattered to the floor and Lucian put a foot to the dead wolf’s head as he ripped his blades from him. He brought them back in a deadly arc and took the wounded wolf’s head off with a powerful blow.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
“More of them are on the way, because that’s supposed to scare us right?” Lucian asked Carl as his eyes began returning to normal and his body began to settle. Just as another wolf came through the doorway and sprayed a burst of automatic fire in an arc that took Carl in the shoulder and Lucian was hit with five rounds in his back across his shoulder blades.
He dropped to his hands and knees, dropping the machetes as he did so. Bonnie sent a shriek at him and he dropped his weapon to grab his ears. She grabbed his hands and pulled one away, leaning close she wailed into his ear, turning his brain to mush as she did and his eyes went wide as her voice killed him as sure as a beheading would have. She pushed his body back and he fell to the floor in a heap, she dropped to her knees next to Lucian as he fought to keep awake, Carl staggered to his feet as his shoulder wound began healing on it’s own, the bullet pushing away from the bone as his body began to reknit itself.
“Focus on me, take a little of my energy, you can survive if you do that.”
“He needs a good bit of energy though, he needs more than you can safely give him right now.” Carl tried to tell her as he brought his shotgun up to cover the door.
Lucian’s eyes began changing as his body followed and he heard the next two wolves coming into the house and he spun. Launching himself at them he drove them into the floor with his bulk and ripped one’s throat out while he focused on the other’s body and let his demon take over. He focused on the wolf’s energies and punched him hard enough in the chest to break his sternum and as the wolf exhaled in a rush, his powers kicked in and he began sucking his soul from his body.
As the soul fought to keep from being eaten he let more of his demon out, it wasn’t even conscious to him, it just happened. He could feel his body continue to change as his his demon began taking full control of his body. It was a strange feeling, this thing taking the drivers seat and knocking him back to the back seat. He could see what was happening, but he couldn't stop it, not that he wanted to at this point.
Lucian picked up the first machete he could find and tore out of the house, searching for the rest of the pack, he wouldn't be satisfied until they were all gone. As he launched himself onto the front walkway he saw over a dozen of them standing there, two had what looked like RPG's and even his demon understood what was happening.
There were four trucks, large brand new Dodge Ram's with more wolves climbing out of them every second. These were the reinforcements he was trying to avoid. And now they were in front of the house. He hoped the other shifters would be there soon because they were sorely outnumbered.
Dropping the machete he turned and was in the house in a second, grabbing Bonnie around the waist as he drove her backwards into the cabinets under her countertop. "Down!" he yelled.
Carl looked at him and brought his shotgun around and went for the door, praying he could stop whatever was out there. The first thing he saw was all the wolves, the second was the launchers. Before he could fire at them he felt the bullets hit him, he tried to fire the shotgun, but he couldn't be sure it even hit anything it was supposed to. As he dropped forward onto the cement the first RPG went off and the grenade went through the window into the kitchen. The second went into the second floor window that was above and to the left of the kitchen. The double concussive blast sent shrapnel and debris flying everywhere.
Lucian held Bonnie close, tight as he could, as the ceiling began coming down and he pressed her back against the cupboard doing his best to keep her safe. She tried to scream, her face a mask of fear, her lips forming the words, but nothing came out. He tried to tell her it would be okay, but he knew there was a slim chance they'd survive this. Leaning forward he whispered into her ear, "I love you." as the rest of the ceiling came down on top of him and everything went black for them both.
—
Carl vaguely felt the heat of the fire coming from the house, the drapes and furniture had to have gone up in flames, but he couldn't move right, couldn't get rolled over to see what was happening. One of the wolves walked up to him and he tried to smile, he could feel his arm and he raised it as best he could, flipping him the bird as he did so.
The wolf grinned and kicked him in the face, knocking him out before picking him up. "He's still alive, and he's a panther. We can make some money off this feline trash." The wolf stood around average height, but he was not so average. Unlike his brothers he was not a muscle bound brute, he was very lanky with wiry muscles where as they were all the same bulky size with muscles on muscles on muscles.
A few other wolves nodded their agreement and one dropped the tailgate of the truck they'd arrived in and he was thrown, unceremoniously, into the back. They weren't worried about the coverage this would get, or about the heat it should bring to them, there were too many officials and officers in their pockets. In the pockets of the entire supernatural world for them to be worried about the existence of werewolves getting out.
As they took their spots in the vehicles they looked one last time at the house as it burned and the two inside died from either injuries or smoke inhalation. But at least they had one prize from the endeavor. The lead wolf looked next to him at the passenger seat and smiled, “You were right. This was easy with your spells.”
In the passenger seat sat a man who looked to be in his mid fifties, with salt and pepper hair on both the top of his head and in his beard that hung to mid chest. The man that sat there just stared at him, as if he could see straight through to his soul with his piercing green eyes and said. “Of course I was right. I told you the banshee would have defenses, I told you to take her alive as well because she would fetch a great sum. But you had to go for total destruction and level the house didn’t you?”
“There was no other choice! If we didn’t do something extreme he was going to end us all!”
“I needed him alive! Do you want to spend the rest of your life as a toad? Because it might be cliche but I will do it if you continue to anger me. You could have asked for me to give your men a boost. I told you, ask and you shall receive, but if you are silent I won’t do any spells for you. That was the deal Marcus.”
He looked back at the road and took a deep breath so he didn’t rip the spellcaster’s head off. The wizened man was a necessary evil right now, but he could be a pain in the ass all the same. He still wondered what the hell the spellcaster needed with a half demon, granted it wasn’t a sanctioned birth, but that couldn’t be that big of a deal. “I’m sorry Atticus. I will think more the next time you follow us into battle.”
“Very well, you are forgiven.” He waived his hand and said something incomprehensible, Marcus looked sideways at him. “Everyone will believe this was a gas leak that caused the explosion, and they’ll all remember the same thing about the firefight. It was a very realistic episode of their favorite TV show.”
“But, you just said you weren’t doing magic unless I asked you.”
“I said I won’t do any spells for you. But there is a chance someone saw my face, and I can’t have them remembering it in case they recognize me.” He settled back and stared out the windshield. “I’m not ready to rejoin the land of the living just yet.”
They sat in silence the rest of the ride back to their headquarters.