The Witch and the Werewolf (22 page)

“
What are you?” Jeremy
screamed, trying to struggle out of the thing’s grip.

“
I am the bringer of
night, the eater of souls. I take you, into me, and you become me.
I can smell your power. Interesting that it just blossomed all at
once like this. I will have it nevertheless.”

Jeremy closed his eyes and
pooled the energy in the pit of his being. He expelled it at once
in a bright blue flash, lighting up the night sky and sending the
priest flying away from him. The beast that was O’Leary screamed
out in pain, patting out the blue flames burning on his
robes.

“
That is how you would
play? Fine, boy. Taste real Witch Fire.”

The priest pushed his
hands out in front of him, like he was pushing an object away, and
red energy burst forth. Jeremy raised his hands to protect his face
just as the red energy hit. He wasn’t burned, however, as a shield
much like the one that enveloped him and Cassandra on the day of
Worm fall blocked the flames.

“
Tell me what you are,”
young Jeremy growled, building energy for another shot at the
priest.

“
You will find out soon
enough, boy.”

Jeremy stretched out his
right hand, smiling as the priest watched it. With his left he
hurled a blue ball of fire at the thing as if it were a high speed
burning baseball. The shot took O’Leary in the face, sending him
flipping end over end in the air.

“
Bollocks,” the thing
hissed, wiping the flames from his face. “I’ll come back for you
after I’ve absorbed the witches and the girl.”

The priest started to
flee. Jeremy panicked. If the thing could absorb powers from other
creatures he would be too powerful to fight soon. He shot off like
a missile, slamming into the priest’s back.

“
Our fight isn’t over
yet,” Jeremy said with a wicked grin.

“
So be it,” the wraith
told him. “Prepare to die.”

They circled each other as the other wolves watched. Her and
the she-wolf. She wasn’t sure why this female was singling her out,
but it didn’t matter much.

Time was
wasting.

The she-wolf lunged at her
and Cassandra, as exhausted as she was, just managed to step out
her way. The wolf missed her and slid across the icy pavement,
coming to a stop and then tried to turn. She couldn’t quite get
traction and stumbled. Cassandra took the opportunity to run at
her, both blades drawn and forward.

The she-wolf managed to
get her feet under her and, seeing the two feet of silver death in
each of Cassandra’s hands, jumped over the girl. As she passed
overhead Cassandra just managed to get the blade in her right hand
high enough to make contact. The tip of the blade barely caught the
she wolf’s belly, but it was enough that the force of her passage
overhead laid her gut open with a smoking wound. The wolf hit the
ice behind Cassandra, howling in pain, her body convulsing and
reverting to her human form.

Cassandra turned, prepared
to finish the wolf off, and then stopped dead in her tracks when
she saw the woman.

The woman was covered in
mud and grime. Her skin was bruised and battered. Her abdomen wound
smoked. But it was her mother.

“
Oh my god,” Cassandra
whispered in shock, dropping her swords. “Mom?”

She rushed to her mother’s
side and moved the hair from her face. It was her mother, alive.
The woman looked up with wild eyes, shock etched in her face.
Cassandra took her head in her lap, cradling her.

“
Mom? It’s me. It’s
Cass.”

Her mother panicked when
she saw her daughter, batting at her face and trying to push away
from her.

“
It’s okay mom, it’s me.
I’m here. We’ll figure this out.”

“
Who are you?” the woman
demanded, confused.

“
It’s me, mom. Your
daughter, Cassandra.”

Her mother pushed away
from her, standing and holding her sides. She looked around in wide
eyed panic as the wolves began circling. There weren’t just one or
two dozen, at that point. There were at least fifty. Cassandra knew
she wouldn’t live much longer. A naked man, covered in prison ink
and heavily muscled, walked into the circle of wolves, clapping his
hands.

“
Wow,” the man said. “Who
would have seen that coming? I mean, that’s Hallmark channel stuff
right there. Lost daughter reunited with mother who’s now a
werewolf… wow,” the man said, still clapping. “A Hollywood
screenwriter couldn’t have written a better script!”

Cassandra stood, scooping
up the swords, and turned to face the man. “Who are you and what
have you done to my mother?”

“
I am the leader of this
little pack and, sadly enough, I didn’t plan this. Don’t get me
wrong. I would have loved to claim responsibility for this, but I
just can’t. I’ve turned many in the last day, but she was already a
member of the pack when I replaced the former manager.”

“
She’s coming with me,”
Cassandra said, deadly serious. “If you get in my way I will kill
you.”

“
I’ve got about fifty
wolves right here that disagree,” the alpha said. “Not only are you
not taking my female, you’re going to join the pack. I knew there
was something about her that made her different. I didn’t think
that something was her being a witch. It seems your kind make
ferocious wolves. I’d promise that it wouldn’t hurt but I’d be
lying.”

Cassandra steeled herself,
trying to calm her nerves and prepare for the coming battle.
“You’ll have to kill me first.”

“
That too, can be
arranged,” the alpha said, nodding for his wolves to rush
forward.

Cassandra stood her ground
though she wanted to run away screaming. Her mother cowered before
the rushing pack. Just as the first wolf was almost atop her,
though, a shape blurred through the oncoming lines. Wolves went
flying as if they were no more than children’s toys. With a roar
that rivaled any she’d heard, the alpha she thought she’d killed
just minutes before emerged at her side. His wolf form towered
above all of the others and he crouched low, ready.

“
I’ve been looking for
you,” the pack’s alpha said as his body began to change,
transforming back to the wolf. “There is only room for one of
us.”

“
That’s great,” the old
wolf began. “You think that because you took an infant alpha that
you can take me? Do you have the slightest clue who I
am?”

“
I know you’re the old in
a world of new,” Robert told him as the two circled. “I know you
want to die.”

“
And do you think you are
the one to kill me?”

“
I can only
try.”

The pack stopped, unsure
of what to do. Their new alpha was young and untested, but he’d won
his spot in fair combat. The old wolf in the center of the ring was
an unknown quantity. Cassandra could feel their awe and fear of the
old wolf. She expected a titanic battle for control of the pack,
something even more dramatic than on the bridge. The young alpha
was strong and quick, the old experienced and powerful.

What actually happened,
though, surprised her.

Once the young alpha’s
transformation was complete it rushed the older alpha. The gigantic
werewolf reached out and took the creature by the neck, lifting it
up off the ground. The young one squirmed in his grasp, surprised.
It was even more surprised when the old alpha, with a simple flick
of his wrist, broke its neck. He tossed the lifeless body to the
ground and faced the pack. The battle was over before it even
began.

“
No, pup. You are not the
one to kill me.”

The wolves bowed their
head in reverence. It was obvious to many of the older wolves. This
was not just an alpha. It was the alpha, the first.

Cassandra used the pack’s
distraction to go to where her mother lay, clutching at the smoking
sounds in her gut.

“
Come on mom,” she
whispered. “I have to get you out of here while there’s still
time.”

“
Get away from
me.”

“
Mother,” she said
sternly. “It’s me. Don’t you remember your own
daughter?”

The woman’s face was a
mask of confusion and fear. “I… I don’t remember
anything.”

“
You are my mother,”
Cassandra said, slapping her mother across the face. “You are a
witch. You need to get yourself together and move while we have the
chance.” She was so very exhausted. The reprieve presented by the
appearance of the old alpha was temporary at best, she knew. She
had to get her mother back in the church’s compound.

There was a flash in the
sky and Cassandra looked up to see two blurs streaking across the
night. Blue energy lanced out, mixing and fighting with countered
red energy. Sparks flew, lighting up the dark, ice covered
landscape. She watched the fireworks show, awestruck. There was a
sound like a jet breaking the sound barrier, the boom so loud that
the remains of buildings shook and chunks of concrete littered the
ground. The entire pack, including the alpha, stared at the battle
in the sky, unable to make out the combatants but entranced by the
light show. Blue energy waves would strike out only to be blocked
by the red. Then the process was reversed. The sonic booms
continued and the wolves watched.

“
Cassandra?” her mother
asked, coming to her senses and finally remembering her. “My
daughter?”

Cassandra clutched her
mother to her chest, feeling the heat from her wounds. “Yes mom.
It’s me. I’m so sorry for everything that’s happened, but we have
to go now. We have to get out of here.”

The woman shook her head
in disagreement. “No, dear daughter. I can’t go with you. I am of
the pack, now. I am one of them.”

“
I don’t care,” Cassandra
said, tears forming in her eyes. “We can fix this. We can find the
alpha and kill him. That will fix everything.” She was lying to her
mother and they both knew it. She’d already tried to kill the
alpha, put a silver bullet into his brain.

Her mother stroked her
cheek. “That is the alpha, dear. He is the first wolf and he’s
returned to his people, at long last. You cannot kill him. He is as
eternal as the sun, one of the first beings.”

She couldn’t get the thing
out of her mind. The loss of the connection bothered her. “We can
think of something. We’re witches.”

The battle in the air
cumulated in a gigantic explosion of blue and red. The light was so
bright she saw the ruins, for the first time, as if it were
daytime. Her mother looked so sad in the full daylight and she held
her tight, once more.

“
You have to leave, Cass.
Go now.”

“
No,” she said solemnly,
images of the night of Worm Fall still fresh in her mind. “I’m not
leaving you again.”

“
Then end me, Cassandra,”
her mother said, guiding one of Cass’s silver blades towards her
heart. “Don’t let me go on like this. You don’t know the things
I’ve done.”

“
No,” Cassandra said with
force. “I will not. We will figure this out, mom. I promise you
that. Just come with me. Let me get you out of here.”

After the explosion there
was a sound like a crashing jet and she looked up just in time to
see Jeremy plummet down, hitting the ground with enough force to
leave a crater. The wolves stared on in wonder, watching as the
other half of the sky battle, Father O’Leary, descended in a cloud
of red energy. He was absolutely rippling with the fire, casting a
red glow about the circle of wolves, and he looked very different
than the last time she’d seen him. Gone was the dawdling old man
with wrinkled skin and wild gray hair. The thing that landed in the
middle of the circle was a predator, like the wolves. But where the
wolves hunted to survive and grow the pack, the thing that had been
O’Leary was evil incarnate.

“
Imagine my
disappointment,” it began, staring straight at Cassandra, “when I
discovered your mother had vanished from the world. You cannot bgin
to understand how long I’ve waited for the opportunity to have your
mother and the alpha in the same spot at the same time. Such power
in their essence… such an absolutely intoxicating
elixir.”

“
Mom… we have to run,” she
said, already trying to figure out how she was going to snatch up
Jeremy on the way. How was the boy here in the first place? Had he
been battling with O’Leary in the sky? Was that even
possible?

Her mother whispered, the
fear so evident even with the exhaustion and pain from the silver
wounds. “My god… I thought they were all gone a thousand years
ago…”

“
What? What is
he?”

The alpha spoke, his voice
in wolf form deep and guttural, answering for them.
“Wraith.”

“
You know me so well,”
O’Leary grinned. “And you, right here, under my nose. I must be
getting old to ignore the signs. Three silver rounds to the chest,
another to the head… how does any wolf besides the first survive
that? I’ve hungered for your essence for eons. Now I will have you
and I will have your pack. Now feed me. I desire your
essence.”

The alpha motioned and his
new pack moved forward as one, launching at the vampire. The wolves
piled onto the wraith and all Cassandra saw was flying fur and
blinding red light. The sound of dozens of wolves attacking at once
was intense, but the roar of red energy from inside the pile of
werewolves was louder and building, a low grumble like a missile
taking off. Cassandra knew a ferocious power was building there,
something that made her abilities look like mere child’s play. The
energy released in a light too bright to look at directly and the
pile of burning wolves went flying in every direction like so many
glowing embers. O’Leary stood at the center of the burning circle,
unharmed and grinning.