Black Wolf (49 page)

"Thank you for
allowing me the chance to speak with you."

Patrick
nodded. "You have my attention. What is it you want?"

"A bargain,
which will be to the benefit of us both. I know of a way to give
you the power to control electricity."

Patrick's eyes
widened. "That isn't an elven ability."

"Normally,
true," the satyr conceded. "But there is sufficient similarity to
elven power that, I believe, it would be possible to give you a
great deal of influence over electricity. Lightning would, I
suspect, be too strong to chain, but in smaller amounts..." It
trailed off suggestively.

Patrick licked
his lips. All his bargains with Sikial and the others had done is
reinforce natural elven abilities and free him from the need for
light to draw power from, as long as he had the opportunity to draw
it from Sikial instead; nothing he could do was impossible for
another elvenmage. To have a power no other elvenmage had,
though...

"There must be
a high price."

The satyr
smiled. "Free me for one night, to hunt as I wish. This is a thing
which will require the power of death, and I know the right ones to
choose, that will allow me to gather that power. A sister and
brother, and their other brother and his friend. The lives of these
four will be enough."

"What do you
gain from this?"

"The deaths of
those whose lives will give you this power."

Patrick
considered asking why, or who the people in question were, but he
decided he was probably better off not knowing exactly what they'd
done to annoy a demon to that degree. And he really didn't want to
know their names, if they were just going to die anyway.

"For one
night," he said slowly, choosing his words with care. "For this
coming night, I will give you the freedom of this world, to take
what prey you choose, anyone except myself. And in return, you will
give me the power to manipulate electricity, to the greatest extent
you can."

"You have my
gratitude," the satyr said, and that grin showed very sharp teeth.
"I will come tomorrow night, and fulfil my side of the
bargain."

"That will
do." Patrick nodded in satisfaction. "Go."

The satyr
immediately vanished from the pentagram.

Patrick looked
down thoughtfully at the flour all over the floor, then sighed and
fetched the broom to clean it up. He had no desire to keep walking
through it, from now until Pamela came home, and it was less effort
than convincing her to do it without asking questions.

A shower might
be nice, he decided once he'd finished, long and scalding hot, and
allowing him a chance to reflect on what he could do with his new
ability.

Somewhat
belatedly, he wondered whether he should have declared the Lioren
mage, the annoying human, and the black wolf off limits as well. He
considered that, while he turned on the water and stripped.

No, he
concluded, as he stepped into the steaming water. What were the
odds, realistically, that of the six billion people in the world,
any of those three would be among the ones this demon wanted? And
if, by some astronomical chance they were, well, it would be
disappointing to be denied a satisfactory revenge, but knowing that
their deaths had contributed to his power so directly would go a
very long way towards making up for it.

46

Wearily, the
two wolves loped along the deer-trail, each carrying a backpack.
They could make much better time furform, and after the alarmingly
frequent demon attacks of late, they wanted to keep moving as much
as they could.

Although where
it was they were running to, Aindry had no idea.

She couldn't
recall ever having been so very exhausted, right down to her bones.
All too often she was certain Jaisan was going to lie down and not
get up, and that only the lingering hope of finding Jess kept him
moving.

The deer-trail
came to a lake, a rocky shore that sloped sharply down to the water
two feet below. Aindry let go of her pack, and scrambled down to
the edge for a welcome drink. Jaisan plunged his muzzle into the
water beside hers, lapping fast as a cat with cream. She nipped his
ear to remind him to slow down before he made himself sick, and he
reluctantly obeyed.

She caught a
glittering out of the corner of her eye, and raised her head again
to look. No, nothing that she could see. It was only the glint of
starlight and cottage lights and the thin crescent of the very
young moon on the ripples farther out on the lake. She lowered her
head back to the water.

Jaisan yelped
in pain and shock; she jerked her head up once more, barely in time
to see him being dragged into the water by something dark and
glistening wrapped around his ribs. She lunged towards him,
plunging under the water after him, frantically snapping and
clawing at the thing that held her little brother. Jaisan's
thrashing only made it harder.

Her skin
crawled as she felt a cold, questing touch against her side. She
twisted away and broke the surface, panting. No time to catch her
breath, Jaisan was still under there.

This time, she
went after the thing a few feet past Jaisan, and sank her teeth
into something rubbery and acidic. Grimly, she bit down with all
the force of a werewolf's jaws, wishing she had solid ground under
her feet to give her leverage.

A scream made
her head ring, and it snaked towards her—releasing Jaisan,
blessedly. Both came up for air at the same moment, dog-paddling
towards shore with more energy than she'd believed they still had.
Jaisan slipped on the slope up, his breath coming in ragged gasps;
Aindry dug in all four feet and blocked him from a fall back into
the water with her own body, barely.

Bitter cold
coiled around her rear leg, and wrenched her back towards the
water. She yelped as she felt something tear, but it was choked off
as her head went under again.

Oh, gods,
they're going to do it this time, we're going to die. We'll never
find Jess or Mom or Sam.

No! No damned
demon's going to kill off the Kore-Tremaynes that easily!

Fear and pain
went a step away, left her thoughts cold and clear as a bright
winter day. She had to get ahold of it and make it let go before
she drowned.

She writhed
around, felt the extra damage she was doing to her hip, but she
found her target and snapped. Even the water couldn't make her miss
at that range. The rubbery stuff squished unpleasantly, as though
there were no bones, but she ground her teeth together, pretending
she was trying to sever a particularly tough bit of meat from a
kill.

It screamed
again, but held on.

She sensed
more than saw Jaisan, his teeth clamped down right beside hers. It
screamed, on and on, and abruptly went limp. Together, they
scrambled towards the shore again, and this time they made it.

Jaisan
stumbled, but kept his feet under him as they turned to face the
lake.

That long dark
tentacle snaked towards them again, no, two of them, one badly
chewed and dripping watery pale blood, the other intact.

Jaisan
wavered, then flung himself at the damaged one. He evaded its
attempts to seize him, and on the second try buried his teeth in
it. Then he dug his feet into the rocky ground, and held on for all
he was worth.

Aindry
understood. Dodging around the intact tentacle, she limped heavily
over, and bit the damaged tentacle again right where it was already
weakened. She had to keep moving, but really, the thing wasn't that
hard to evade now she was watching for it and could see it. Between
her efforts and the tension Jaisan was creating, made worse by its
attempts to pull free, the tentacle parted. Jaisan let go of the
piece he held, as the demon let out another shriek and flailed the
amputated stump.

Trying to
watch two at once took more concentration than Aindry had left,
even with her present clarity of mind; the bloody stump clubbed her
on the side of the head while she was ducking around the whole
tentacle. She fell, vision blurring into stars, and saw Jaisan run
to stand over her, growling savagely. She had to get up, or it
would kill him, he couldn't fight it alone. She battled the
spangled haze before her, and drove it off enough to struggle to
her feet again, though swaying a bit. Her left rear leg couldn't
take any weight, she discovered. Why hadn't she noticed until
now?

Could they
run? No, if they didn't neutralize it now, it would simply come
after them, perhaps with the advantage of surprise that had almost
been their deaths this time. Biting off the other tentacle would
probably not kill it.

They had to
lure the body out of the water.

Slowly, she
began to back away, a step at a time, still throwing snarls and
feints in the direction of the threatening tentacle. Jaisan
mirrored it.

A large, dark
shadow loomed under the surface of the lake, then broke out into
the air. If its form were based on anything real, it wasn't from
this
plane: it had a tail like a whale's, the tentacles were
its version of arms, and above the tentacles were two large round
eyes and a mouth that held teeth that would have been terrifying
had she not encountered and defeated things with more and
larger.

They kept
retreating, and it kept following, drunk on the taste of
anticipated victory and counting on its greater reach to keep it
safe. It couldn't get up on the shore, but it beached itself as
close as it could.

Aindry nudged
Jaisan with her nose, sent him circling to the right, and she
echoed it to the left. Neither could move quickly, both were hurt,
but if they both attacked at once, one should be able to get in
while it tried to deal with the other. The doubtful part was
whether they'd pull off the manoeuvre with both of them still
alive.

The demon
watched first one, then the other, rotating its entire body since
its octopus-eyes could stare only directly ahead. They closed in,
matching speeds.

Now.
Aindry lunged at the demon, and stumbled—she'd forgotten briefly
that her left hind leg couldn't hold her weight. Jaisan took that
as his signal to attack, and he did somewhat better. The tentacle
whipped towards him, trying to grab him and duck him in the lake
again. Aindry ran at what speed she could manage on three legs, and
launched herself off the shore at the unprotected body; she landed
on its tail and dug in her claws, hoping to hold the position at
least for a moment. She slashed at its eyes with her teeth, raked
directly across one, and opened a rip above the other that let
blood spill into it, blinding it. With a violent convulsion, it
threw Aindry off and into the water. Instead of trying for shore,
she assaulted it from there, with her teeth and foreclaws—no
leverage, but no weight on her hind leg either. Jaisan attacked it
from the shore.

By some
miracle, Aindry found a vital spot just as the tentacle whipped
itself around Jaisan's body. The demon let out a final shriek that
made Aindry wince, and melted away into nothing.

She splashed
heavily up on shore. No open wounds, this time, so no poison, but
the damage was severe. They could only pray they wouldn't be
attacked again tonight. There'd been two the night before last, and
two three nights before that, but only one the night before, so
there was a chance.

Jaisan shifted
to human, and sat down clumsily, blinking tears of pain and despair
out of his eyes. "Oh, gods, Aindry, what are we going to do?"

She willed
herself human as well, and lowered herself carefully beside him to
hug him. "We survive," she said, as firmly as she could.
"Somehow."

He shook his
head, still struggling to catch his breath around the words. "We're
hurt real bad. I think I heard ribs crack, it hurts to breathe, and
your leg's messed up bad. You're lucky your jaw isn't broken. They
haven't ever been this serious before. They won't stop until we're
dead."

Aindry sighed,
and looked down. As much as it galled to admit it, they were no
longer holding their own, they were losing.

"Let's go back
to Unity," she said quietly.

"There's no
one there."

"I know. It's
possible there'll be enough interference still that they won't be
able to find us as easily there. And if there isn't," she shrugged.
"It's melodramatic, but if we're going to die, let's do it at home.
At least there won't be any innocent bystanders hurt." She dredged
up a tired smile somewhere. "Besides, maybe there'll be enough
demon-luck in Unity still that something'll happen. And, if nothing
else, at least it gives us a direction to travel in."

"I guess it's
better than just lying down and letting them have us." He didn't
sound altogether certain he believed that. "Not right now,
though."

"No," she
agreed. "Sleep now. We can start moving when we wake up." Given the
condition they were in, it would take them a while to get there,
though it wasn't actually all that far away.

Given the
condition they were in, they might never get there.