“You fought well, for a dog,” Brian said. “You may have beaten me, if it had been a fair fight.” He sounded almost sad. “But then again, only a fool goes into a fight without an edge.” He leaned down close to the werewolf placing his foot on the beast’s arm. He leaned in toward his large pointed ears. “That’s why you’re going to lose. That’s why you always lose. We play to win. You seem to play to prove how strong you are.” He stood up and produced a large pistol.
Mr. Davis couldn’t move as the weapon was aimed at him. He looked down the barrel of the gun. The metal faded away quickly down into a deep spiraling darkness. A loud bang sounded, a sudden flash of light, then all was black.
Brian stood up and put the gun away. He watched the large black werewolf melt back down into a rather impressively large man. He looked out over the city as lava still flowed between the buildings and smoke continued to fill the air. “Hmm, I wonder where Kenneth got off to.”
* * * * *
Ansuya broke through the Whyte Plain without incident. She came crashing back into the City Under the Mountain and was stopped cold.
The two forests that had fed their city were aflame with a raging fire that would consume every scrap of wood in the place. Black smoke hung over the city like a dense fog. Her ears could pick out noises and sounds of distant gun fire.
How had this happened? She knew that Kenneth was behind this. With what Wolfgang had said it was the only possible choice. But how had Kenneth found out about their city? How had he managed to get in? Only wolves or Shape shifters could… open…the doors in.
An ice-cold chill ran down her spine. That’s what Natalia had been talking about with the zoo and training wolves. Kenneth had somehow managed to relearn how to dominate wolves.
This whole time, her in his basement, letting her out to corrupt House Brandt, somehow that had all been part of his plan. Did he want her to see this? Was this some kind of sick revenge for her resisting him for so long?
She dug her claws into the stone of the street and threw herself in toward the heart of the city. She may have been a little late, but if there was still fighting to be done she would take her share of vampires down.
* * * * *
“So, you’re the one who caused us all that trouble back there?” Kenneth asked the reddish-brown werewolf that was lying helplessly in front of him.
Derceto tried to move. She tried to make her muscles respond to her will. But her body had no energy left. She had given everything she had to cause the destruction of the city. She had hoped that she would have killed more of them. But as she looked around her, only able to move her eyes, she was surrounded by twenty five of them at least. She would not give in to fear though. She stared at the lead vampire defiantly.
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
He kneeled down near her head with a large caliber pistol resting in between his legs. Speaking in a very casual voice he asked, “Did you really think you would kill all of us with your little stunt back there?” he was smiling broadly at his victim’s helplessness. “I have to give it to you though, you made it much harder on us than I would have liked it to be. But then I assume you thought you would have some sort of back up? Some kind of reinforcement was supposed to come pick you up as you lay here unable to move even a finger?” He looked up at his house mates. “Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase, ‘all in,’ doesn’t it?” The vampires laughed cruelly at the Elder.
“We Shape shifters,” Derceto gasped out, “are harder to kill than you might suppose.” Her body was exhausted beyond measure. Even talking was a huge effort but one that had to be made. “Even if you do destroy the city, we will keep fighting you and yours,” she spat.
“Well, you’re right on one of those counts.” Kenneth stood up looking around the city and the destruction that this one Sage had managed to cause. He wondered what he could do with such power at his disposal.
He crouched down and gazed into the Shape shifter’s eyes. The golden eyes repelled his attack almost immediately. Kenneth tried again, and again the strong golden eyes were like an impenetrable wall against his Domination attempts. He sighed and shook his head, “You would fight, even without this city wouldn’t you?” Derceto met his eyes unflinching and unmoving. “That’s why we have to kill every last one of you.”
Kenneth abruptly shot four rounds into Derceto’s head. He took out both her eyes, sent one bullet in between them, and one was shot down her throat. Kenneth stood up as the werewolf melted back to her natural wolf form.
Kenneth holstered his weapon and glancing around at the remainder of his house he asked, “Shall we continue?”
Some of his house mates smiled, others laughed. Kenneth led them deeper into the heart of the city, jumping from one building to the next, each time easily passing over the lava filled streets below.
* * * * *
Acharya had his hands full.
Huan Li had ordered the twelve of the younger Shape shifters to cover his flanks. His pack had the left extreme flank. The vampires on this side of the city kept trying to get around him. Between running and jumping across the city, shooting at anything that got within eyesight, and trying not to fall or shoot one of his own, he didn’t even have time to think.
Ares was firing short controlled bursts, but even the mini gun wasn’t much help to them now. They might as well be in full retreat with the speed at which they were falling back. He wasn’t even trying to hit anything anymore, just conserve ammo and keep the vampires from out flanking him to the south of the cavern.
“Aiman,” he called out.
“Yes, Acharya,” the Enforcer called back dryly as he fired a few rounds before jumping to the building behind him.
“Where are we going? Where do you we make out stand?” He hadn’t meant to ask those questions. He hadn’t meant to voice those fears within earshot of anyone. They were private fears that he had kept hidden since this battle had started. He could not take them back, and the scent of his pack shifted ever so subtly. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one who was thinking them.
“Huan Li knows where he is going. This is part of the Mr. Davis’s plan, is it not?” Aiman was as solid a man as Acharya had ever known. The man somehow engendered resolution in his heart and mind.