But it was for naught.
Even as I watched, Blanche grew weaker from blood loss. Her grip on Montoni’s side was loosening, her eyes becoming unfocused. My own eyes were becoming unfocused.
Montoni released me suddenly.
I gasped as I fell to the ground. My lungs ached as they drew in heaving breaths of air. I coughed, lifting my head to find Montoni standing before me, arm still outstretched, as if still gripping my neck, but missing a majority of his arm, his bicep hanging uselessly from the bone. Blood was spraying everywhere, including over me, hot and sticky, and I pushed myself away from him until my back hit the wagon.
My eyes darted to Blanche, weakly holding fast to Montoni, although this new development had given her more fight. And on Montoni’s right was yet another wolf, this one a deeper black than Montoni’s wolf form, like that of obsidian. I stared at the new wolf, large and powerful with murder in its eyes. Montoni’s missing arm was between its jaws, still leaking blood, the fingers twitching as if trying to understand what had happened to it.
Montoni shook off his shock and pulled his injured arm against himself. With his free arm, he shoved Blanche off him. Blanche grunted but managed to seize a leg in her jaws, earning a cry from Montoni as his eyes found the obsidian wolf. “Who the hell are you?” he demanded.
In response, the wolf spit out the arm and licked its lips slowly, as if promising to taste more of Montoni’s flesh.
The wagon shifted behind me, and Annette was suddenly at my side, helping me to my feet. I glanced back to find Ludovico and my aunt sawing through more of the net covering Henri.
“You should have run,” I croaked, voice hoarse.
“Not bloody likely,” Annette snorted, clinging to my arm as the new wolf lunged at Montoni.
I watched, mesmerized, as the wolf sank its teeth into Montoni’s exposed side, Blanche anchoring him to the spot so he was unable to dart out of the way. “Is that …?”
“Bram,” Annette confirmed.
The gray wolf had recovered and stood behind Bram, eyes on the wagon behind me, expectant. And then Henri strode out from the wagon, skin blackened across his arms and face from being exposed to silver.
I swallowed hard as I watched Henri step up to his uncle, held in place by the two wolves gripping him with their teeth. He held Bertolino’s silver dagger in his hand.
“You always were a ruthless prick,” Henri spat, gazing hard into Montoni’s eyes.
Then the silver dagger was buried in his uncle’s chest.
Montoni’s eyes bulged, his face screwing up with pain and disbelief. The veins across his chest suddenly stood out, turning black, as if with rot. They grew thicker and kept expanding across his body until it began to sink in upon itself like moldering fruit. After a minute, he fell to the ground with a splat, Bram and Blanche letting go and stepping back.
Montoni’s skin softened until it fell from his bones, black blood oozing out beneath him.
And he was no more.
Annette and Aunt Cheron were making a tourniquet for Blanche. When she’d shifted back to her human form, she’d been pale from blood loss, her leg a mangled mess and still leaking.
“She needs a physician,” Annette said, looking drawn and pale herself.
Henri reached down to grasp his sister’s hand. “She’s a fighter. Obstinate, actually. And the whole supernatural wolf thing helps.”
Blanche chuckled and then coughed. “Don’t make me laugh. It hurts.”
“And if she bleeds out, she’ll just revive again on the next full moon,” I agreed. “Right, Bram?”
“I wouldn’t recommend it,” Bram said dryly before smiling at me with those damn dimples of his standing out.
Henri watched Bram warily. “You’re lucky that Montoni didn’t realize the curse had set in. If he had, he would have lanced your head or heart with silver. As it was, your head didn’t look particularly good on that pike.”
“Yes, lucky,” Bram echoed, tilting his head. “A pike, you say?”
“It’s probably best not to think about that.” Henri held out his hand to Bram. “Thank you, Valancourt. You saved us all today.”
Bram ducked his head, embarrassed, but accepted his hand with a shake. “I guess I did, didn’t I?”
“We owe you a great debt.”
