“Coward,” I hiss.
He turns a glare on me and changes his direction. His fur looks matted and dirty, but his scales are shiny, and I wonder if the scales and fur alternate or if, when you rip his skin, the scales are underneath.
He curls a lip and growls.
“Stayback!” I shout.
There’s a rattle behind him, and I jerk my head in that direction, my eyes widening when I see more creatures like him. They are much smaller, but they have the same rotted evil oozing off them as the Ravage Wolf.
Mordecai grabs my arm and whirls me away. I’m caught by Jarek, who lets out a deep snarl that seems impossibly loud. I rip my gaze off the creatures and look up at him.
“Jarek?” I say uncertainly.
“Cadel!” Jarek shouts. “Any time now would be good.”
Mordecai lashes out at the Ravage Wolf, slicing at him, and then falls back, narrowly avoiding getting his arm shredded.
“CADEL!” Jarek screams when the other creature and his new friend crouch, getting ready to jump towards us.
A massive wolf jumps over my head, and I turn, watching, knowing it was impossible to get there.
My brain makes the connection, but I still can’t accept it.
Jarek tugs me away as Mordecai turns to face the others. They lunge, and he stabs, shoving his blade deep into a shoulder, but the creature just jerks back, and his weapon is gone.
“Mordecai!” I shriek.
He ducks and rolls away, and when he comes up, he’s disappeared, and there’s a black wolf with ice-blue eyes standing there.
“What the…” I whisper. My knees get weak, and I slide down Jarek to sit on the ground, watching as the massive wolves fight.
“Come on, we need to go.” Jarek yanks me back up to my feet.
“Mordecai and Cadel,” I say, stuttering over their names. “Wolves.”
“I know. It’s freaky, and it doesn’t make sense, but I promise that it will, just not now. We need to go.”
I shake my head and try to get to my feet, but I’m shaking hard. Jarek lifts me and grabs my jaw, squeezing it enough to hurt.
“Get it together, Keres. You’ve seen shit in this world that you can’t explain before; this is another one. Now move.”
He rushes into the battle, slicing the back tendons of one of the wolves attacking Mordecai. There are five on three now, and I don’t like our odds.
They move so gracefully. Cadel dances around the Ravage wolf, but every time they collide, it’s like thunder. They could destroy this city with the way they are fighting. I take a step backwards and hear an almost silent growl.
My skin crawls, and a quick glance reveals another four of these beasts. They appear to me the same size as large dogs, but a pack this big could destroy us in minutes.
I have no chance of surviving this.
I feel sorry for not having been more and not having a chance to be more. The wolf creature with two glowing golden eyes spots the stag. He turns towards it, his lips curling back.
“No! Leave it alone!” I shout.
He snarls at me; they all do, almost as if they are one.
He lunges. I pick up a brick and throw it at him, hitting him hard in the side of the face.
He lets out a yowl and turns, snarling at me,crouching.
