Blood for Wolves (24 page)

“Come on,” I breathed. “Come on…”

The latch fell out of place and the
door swung open. I waited a few minutes to see if anyone came, but the area
remained silent. Then another thought hit me. I tore off Wolf’s coat long
enough to pull off my t-shirt. I shouldered my pack again and rushed over to
Alex’s cell.

I lifted, turned, and pushed back
the bar locks and opened Alex’s door. He gaped at me.

“Holy hell Care, how did you get
out?”

“Never mind, we have to save
Marianne and get the hell out of here.”

“There are werewolves all over this
place. How are we supposed to get out?”

I held up my shirt. “I’ll throw
this down a hall to confuse their senses. I might smell more like Wolf in this
coat.” I shoved the stay at him. “Use this as a weapon.”

“What about you?”

“I have an idea. Follow me.”

I ran down the spiral walkway to
the area below, keeping my eyes peeled for any guards. I looked around. A huge
cauldron of something cooked over the fire pit. The bubbling liquid smelled
surprisingly good. I was making everything up as I went, but we didn’t have
much choice. A wooden spoon as long as me lay on a table. I shoved the end of it
into the coals until it blazed away. I gazed around for a moment at the
tapestries hanging from the walls. Some were at least thirty feet long,
attached to thick wood beams that stretched across the ceiling.
That’ll do.

I ran over to a tapestry and held
the spoon turned torch under it.

“Care, what are you doing?”

“They’re all at whatever ceremony
that werewoman is performing on Marianne. We need some kind of diversion to get
them away from her and to keep them busy so we can get out.”

The tapestry flared and I ran to
the next one. Within minutes, the four around us were engulfed in flames. We
ran up the slope again, but before I took Alex to the sorceress’s chamber, I
threw my shirt as hard as I could down another hallway. Alex followed suit and
flung his hat after it. We sprinted up the stairs, relying on my memory of
coming down after being captured. Heat radiated up from the lower room as the
fire caught on other things. Tendrils of smoke crawled up the ceiling.
They
should smell it soon…

We were about twenty feet from the
chamber when roars echoed down the stairs. We ducked into a side hall,
scrambling down it to hide behind the curved wall. Werewolves raced down the
hall we’d just stood in, snarling and swearing. I hoped they all ran into a
backdraft. One at the end of the pack stopped near our hall, the others
charging on without him. He inhaled long and hard. His eyes narrowed. He
started to creep down our hall, sniffing amidst the smoke that now billowed up
the stairwell. I suddenly shoved the fiery spoon at Alex and took the stay,
reaching into a pocket to grab the pouch of lead filings. I grabbed a handful.

The werewolf came around the corner,
and I flung the lead into his eyes. Before he could make a sound, Alex smashed
the heavy spoon into his muzzle. His jaw cracked loudly and went slack. A
second strike to his face dropped him onto the stone.

“Okay, let’s go,” Alex said,
peering up into the empty stairway.

I stared down at the bloodied,
broken jawed creature. A nasty inclination to set him on fire crawled over me.

“Caroline!”

I snapped out of my fiery reverie. I
darted around Alex and continued leading him up the stairs to the main chamber.
This whole building was big and confusing, but I remembered well enough we’d
gone through her chamber when we came in. Escape had to be that way too.

“What is all this nonsense?” the
sorceress yelled. I guessed we’d interrupted her during whatever ceremony she’d
concocted for Marianne. I hoped we weren’t too late.

We peeked around the corner into
the main chamber. The Mistress stood in front of her chair as before, with
Marianne opposite her on the other side of the fire. Wolf stood off to the
side, hands clasped behind his back, looking stern but unperturbed. His
nostrils flared, and for a second I panicked. Could he smell me? Would he look
this way and attack? But he did nothing.

“What do you mean, fire?” the
Mistress snapped. Communicating through the ankle collars. “Then put it out!”

“What do we do?” Alex whispered in
my ear.

“I don’t care how big it is!” the
Mistress said.

My mind felt like it was running a
million miles a minute. I didn’t have enough magic items to make any use of
them that I knew of. I gazed at the tapestries. I didn’t know what this woman
could do, but she certainly wasn’t rushing down to put out a fire that was
going to engulf her entire fortress. The idea tickled the back of my mind. I
glanced around and found a sharp point of stone jutting from the wall.

“Okay. I’m going to set these on
fire like the other ones. Then I want you to get Marianne while I keep her
busy. She said my blood was poisonous. One of the werewolves licked me and died.”
I ignored Alex’s aghast look. “I’ll get as close as I can to her while you get
Marianne. She can’t use any dangerous spells on someone in close proximity
without damaging herself. Besides, she wants the two of us alive.” I hoped all
the things I’d read in those books about magic were right.

“What about him?” Alex said, nodding
at Wolf.

“Never mind him. Just get out. If I
don’t get away, then just take Marianne back to our world. Find the pond. Get
her out of here. They’re just going to keep following her. You can hide her
better in our world.”

Alex shook his head. “This is crazy.”

I clapped him on the shoulder. “I
know.”

I edged the spoon forward. The
flames were dying on it now, but they were still strong enough to do the job. I
inched it behind one of the tapestries while the sorceress ranted at her
werewolves and Wolf looked on, seemingly indifferent. The tapestry caught. I
slammed my hand onto the fragment of stone in the wall, slicing open my palm. I
ground my teeth together, trying to ignore the pain as I swept my bleeding hand
over my face and the coat, and then all over Alex.

“Go help those idiots!” Mistress
finally barked at Wolf.

Wolf inclined his head and strode
toward the stairwell. The moment he reached it, I flung the burning spoon into
the room, where it slid to a stop under another tapestry. The fabric was instantly
alight.

“What—” was all Wolf got out before
I grabbed him by the front of his vest and hurled him down the stairs with all
my might.

Without looking back, Alex and I
stormed into the room. Alex snatched up Marianne as I ran right up to the
Mistress, holding out my bleeding hand to her, using the power of my blood to
stop her in her tracks. The other tapestries around us caught fire. I glared at
her, the blood on my face slowly drying from the heat of the fire. The dark
liquid dripped onto the floor.

“You impertinent little human! I
ought to rend you until your heart falls out.”

I flung out my hand, droplets of
blood flicking out at her. She leaped back, screeching.

“Caroline!”

“Alex, go.” I slowly walked
backward, continuously flicking blood at her.

The Mistress snarled. “So you think
I can’t use magic? Then how about this?”

White fire suddenly erupted around
the both of us. It seared through my flesh, turned my clothes and hair into
nothing but cinders. The marrow in my bones cooked, my eyes melted away, I
became nothing but flames and fire, white hot pain. I couldn’t even scream.

Then it was gone. I found myself
rolling over the stone floor. The tapestries fell around me into piles of
flaming orange fabric. My senses returned, and someone was helping me up. Alex.

“I told you to leave,” I gasped.

“She wouldn’t let me go without
you.”

Marianne stood beside him. I
grabbed her up into my arms. Alex bounded down the stairs in the hall that we’d
first come through after our capture. I stole a look behind me. The Mistress
was nowhere to be seen, but most of the room was nothing but fire and smoke by
now. Then, beyond the flames, I saw Wolf. He stared back at me, his eyes golden
in the firelight. He couldn’t reach me through the fire, only stood there. I
turned and bolted down the stairway.

Along the way we passed the weapons
cache. Alex grabbed up another crossbow and two quivers of bolts. I shifted
Marianne slightly.

“Hang onto me, honey,” I told her,
and slung a crossbow and quiver over my shoulders as well. As an afterthought,
I snatched up something that looked like a rapier. We ran as fast as we could
out of the fortress, into the woods. But we didn’t get far when Marianne
screamed.

Behind us loped gray shapes. Howls
echoed through the woods as the werewolves came straight for us. Alex stopped
where he was and started shooting. Werewolf after werewolf went down, crashing
into the forest floor in a shower of dirt and leaves.

“Alex!”

He kept shooting. The werewolves
spread out into a wide circle. Too many for him. I put Marianne down, taking up
the crossbow and shooting at them as well. My aim wasn’t as good as his, but it
slowed them down. Marianne clung to my leg, her entire body trembling.

We were surrounded. They closed in
on Alex. I ran out of bolts and brandished the rapier just as a werewolf leapt
at me. I ran the sword through his middle, pushing Marianne back and ducking as
the still-alive werewolf slashed at me. I jabbed at him again and again until
he finally fell back, dead.

“
Alex!
”

They were too close. He planned to
go down fighting.

A werewolf leapt at him. Not enough
time for him to put another bolt in his bow. I screamed.

A huge wolf collided with the werewolf
in mid-air and the two rolled over the ground, snarling and fighting.

More wolves charged out of the
forest, attacking the werewolves, and suddenly I realized who they were. The
pack we’d talked with a few nights ago. The alpha had just saved Alex. Alex
didn’t question it and sprinted back to me as the alpha tore out the werewolf’s
throat. He looked up at me. I understood.

I picked up Marianne, and together
the three of us ran, leaving the werewolf pack and the wolf pack to battle it
out.

We ran for a long time. Sometimes
we carried Marianne alternately. Sometimes she ran with us. We ran until we
simply had no strength left to run anymore. Finally we dropped down on a felled
log. I laid down, breathing harder than I ever had in my life. I had no idea
how many miles we’d traversed. We’d zigged and zagged from time to time as
well, in a weak attempt to make it harder for them to track us. Or at least buy
us a little time. I coughed. Alex looked like he wanted to throw up.

“Don’t do it,” I gasped. “You need
the energy.”

He held up a hand in a clear
statement of “Shut up. I know.”

“Marianne. How are you?”

She stared back the way we’d come. Probably
looking for wolves. “I’m all right. I’m thirsty though.”

“I can relate to that,” Alex
managed.

“We’ll have to find a creek or a
river,” I said. “We don’t have any water left.”

I opened Wolf’s coat, forgetting
that I no longer had a shirt on underneath it. Just my sports bra. I hoped one
of the werewolves choked on that shirt.

“What happened back there anyway? With
the wolves?” Alex said.

I pulled out the old map from one
of the pockets, then buttoned up the coat again. I unfolded the map to see if
there were any waterways drawn on it. “That was the pack from when you were
asleep.” I paused, trying to figure out how to explain it. “Wolves and
werewolves don’t get along. Whatever is going on, the wolves aren’t party to
it.”

“Can we be sure?”

I knew who he meant by that. I
pushed myself up. Marianne inched closer to me on the log. I examined the map.

“You saw them fighting, didn’t you?
Besides, Wolf isn’t a full.” A tiny chill went through me. “For all we know,
he’s an aspiring werewolf.”

I pushed the thoughts away. The map
had a few thin lines running through the land. They might represent sources of
water. Then I realized I had no idea where we were. I rubbed my face, wishing I
knew landmarks and had my compass. Wishing that I had a gun or bear spray at
least. I’d long since tossed the crossbow and quiver; no sense in keeping the
weight if I couldn’t use them.

“Is that were we came from?”
Marianne asked, pointing at a small building on the map. It sat beside the sea,
at the edge of the forest just like the fortress.

I blinked. “Maybe.”

The three of us studied the map.

“Is that a castle?” Alex asked,
pointing at another building deep in the woods.

“That’s the Kingdom of Red,”
Marianne said.

“That’s where we want to go,” I
said.

“What about Marianne’s village?”
Alex peered at me.

I shook my head. “We need some
serious help now. The Sentries come from the Kingdom. I don’t want them to kill
off the wolves, but they’ll be better able to handle the werewolves. Besides,
we can’t lead that kind of stuff into her village.”

“Yeah. Right. Sorry.” Alex rubbed
at his eyes and heaved a sigh.

I gazed at the sun through the
trees for a moment. “Okay. Assuming when we left the fortress, we ran in this
direction,” I traced my finger over the map, “because we’re not anywhere near
the ocean anymore. We need to head this way to get up to the castle. On the way
we’ll bump into a few streams. The first one shouldn’t be too far from here.”

“Hell, sis, we could miss that
castle by five miles or more.”

“Do you have a better plan?”

He remained silent.

“Besides, there aren’t any
settlements listed on this map. We might run into some on the way. We hit two
on the way down here.”

“And I’m good at climbing,”
Marianne suddenly piped up. We both looked at her.