Shotguns discharged. The concussive force made her instantly deaf.
Her eyes opened. Linc was in midair, leaping higher than was possible. Ten feet off the ground. Something hit him. Bowled them both toward the circle. Bedelia’s entire body clenched, ready for the pain that would come when the magics—
Somehow, Linc rolled into a ball and spun to the side. Missing the circle. A creature she had never seen before had clamped its teeth onto his shoulder and neck. Savaging him.Werewolf. Half-human, half-wolf, fully a monster.
The shotguns boomed again and again. Two other werewolves fell, full of silver. Writhing in agony on the ground. Bee knew they’d been taken down with silver because they didn’t start to shift back to human to heal and live. Two vampires disappeared into the darkness, watching for more, on guard. Another finished off the downed wolves with multiple head shots before reloading. Bedelia was glad the darkness hid the gore from her.
Linc however, was still fighting the gray wolf. There was blood. Too much blood. He was injured. Fear spiraled through Bedelia.
Clara Anne waved her arms to get their attention. She pointed at the fighting werewolf and mouthed the word, “Shania Mayhew.”
“Oh no,” Bedelia said. “We called her. We called them.”
“She’ll want to get in here with us,” Clara Anne said, heard over the clamor still sounding in Bee’s ears.
“Linc won’t let that happen,” Bedelia said, knowing that he would protect her to his last breath. Tears pricked beneath her lashes.
Linc rolled across the ground, the wolf snapping, body whipping. Trying to get another hold on his shoulder, flank, or into his gut. Nubit raced close and aimed at the fighting pair but couldn’t get a shot that wouldn’t injure Linc as well. Were-creatures weren’t the only ones for whom silver was lethal. Silver could be fatal to vampires, too.
The werewolf dodged to the side, aiming for the circle and the power they had unleashed.
Linc moved faster, cutting the wolf with silver blades. He stabbed straight out, into her left jaw. She squealed. Jerked back on four paws as if to run away. Faster than Bedelia could see, Linc picked the wolf up and threw her against a tree trunk.
She landed hard.
A crunch even Bedelia could hear indicated broken bones.
The wolf was still alive, but she was stunned. Lincoln cut down and hamstrung her before he stepped back. He was breathing hard. Bedelia had never seen him breathing hard. Ever. He was covered in blood.
Mary, the vampire who had been watching the house and who’d brought them the items of calling, approached the wolf and fired a shot point-blank into the wolf’s left hip. She handed Linc the lead-lined box, and Linc applied three silver cuffs around the wolf’s neck like a dog collar. Without human hands, the witch would be unable to remove them, and with her body full of silver, she couldn’t shift to human and heal.
“Watch her. Kill her if she manages to shift. She’s a witch and a werewolf, and might have tricks we don’t know about,” Linc said. To the others, he said, “Two of you, attend me.” They approached and one of them turned the garden hose onto him, washing off the were-blood. Another swiftly cut Linc’s clothing away and left them in a pile. Linc was… still beautiful. So very beautiful. Naked in the faint light of the moon just beginning to rise. And so very wounded. Gashes and bite marks were all over him, dark in the night.
Linc’s eyes met hers and he grinned, insouciant, impossible, infuriating man. Together he and his vampires vanished into the dark.
“What are they doing?” Clara Anne asked.
“He’s hurt,” Mabs said. “They can heal him with their blood. But it means them bleeding onto his naked self and him drinking their blood and probably a lot of sex.”
Bedelia looked down at her hands. And there, right there, was the reason why she and Linc had never worked out. She had been a one-man woman, and Linc had been a vampire, always and forever. She sighed softly. Her hearing was mostly back, so she said, “Rule of three. Three called, three answered. Evil sought the power and evil was defeated, as the Coraville prophecy claimed. Our time is done, this circle is no longer needed. Let us reseal the energies.”
“Let the energies we have used return to the guardianship of the buried stones,” Clara Anne said.
“May the moonlight protect it,” Mabs said.
“May the earth and the plants, may the air and the rain, may all that is good within the earth and wrought by the Devine protect this ancient place and the circle of three that claims it. Seals it.”
Together they raised their hands, mimicking the first time they’d sealed the energies into the ground. They brought down their hands flat upon the ground. Together they said, “It is done. And it is good.”
Bedelia pushed upright and felt movement from the cliff. She started to turn to see.
“Down,” Nubit screamed.
Bee dropped flat. The shotgun boomed, boomed, boomed. A massive brown wolf landed in the center of the circle, so large the ground shook. The vampire landed beside him. “Close your mouths,” Nubit shouted over the ringing in their ears. “Don’t breathe!”
She fired. Fired. So many times. Reloaded and fired some more.
Blood went everywhere. All over the witches. All over the vampire.Were-taint.It was carried in saliva and blood, which was all over them.
