If he was anyone else, I might have felt bad for him, but all I could think of was whether his victims wore that same expression before he ripped their lives, their ability to consent, and their very minds away.
Raising my hands over my head, I sent all the plants toward him, the green wave quickly snatching him up. But like Frederick, he didn’t make it easy. He sent out blasts of magic, trying to knock them away. I gritted my teeth, my feet beginning to slide off the floor as I was dragged along with it. I still didn’tunderstand the symbiotic relationship I had with plants, but I knew I was losing this particular tug-of-war.
“Leo!” I cried, but he was already on it. Him and pretty much every shifter still capable of battle. The tide had most definitely shifted as they all raced up to the warlock. The eagle shifters flew directly to him, slashing and biting at his face before wheeling off and turning around to do it again. The coyotes raced up the leaves that were unfurling for them, while many of the wolves used the furniture to leap up and bite at the man’s dangling feet. For once, we were dealing with a brother who couldn’t summon shield bubbles to surround himself.
However, he was still very capable of summoning lightning.
It began to crack down in earnest, setting fires in half the places it struck. The shifters had to go from attack to defense, and I worried that Millicent would get the good sense to go for me. I didn’t have the reaction time the others did, and with all my concentration on keeping him held, I didn’t think I could magically protect myself either. If only I was powerful enough to yank him down to the ground, or if any of us could physically reach up to him to do so. He wasn’t planning to stay and fight. His intent was to escape. And if he did, there was a chance he could start the cycle all over again somewhere else.
If only…
Chiga slowly clopped into my line of sight, his dark eyes determinedly raised towards the warlock. He definitely looked worse for wear, with several bald patches along his hide and a wound down the side of his neck that was bleeding sluggishly, but that didn’t stop him from gracefully lifting his head and slowly enclosing his long, arboreal teeth around the warlock’s ankle and yanking him downward.
I felt the give in the plants as Chiga’s immense strength immediately brought the enemy closer with one yank. Millicentscreamed bloody murder and extended his hand downward as if he were going to blast the moose shifter.
But that bastard of a warlock didn’t realize how completely outnumbered he was, because as soon as he focused on Chiga, I was able to squeeze the plants tighter, and all the shifters surged at him again. I was pretty sure he realized it a hair after I did, because as his hand crackled with malevolent, crimson energy, the two eagle shifters still left in the room went for his eyes.
He changed his aim to the birds, who pinwheeled up out of the very hole in the roof he was trying to escape through. But that distraction was his final mistake, as both Leo and Ricky managed to get to his arms while America finally scrambled up high enough to be even with his face. Three sets of teeth all tore into Millicent at once, and in a rain of blood, it was over.
I finally let go of the strange magic I still didn’t understand, but my heart continued to thunder in my chest.
I couldn’t believe it.
It was finally over.
There would be no more shifters enthralled. No more kidnappings. No more senseless murder. For the first time in God knew how long, the people I’d grown to love would have peace.
“Leo,” I breathed, swaying slightly, and my lover bounded over to me, shifting into his human form a few paces away. I embraced the rush of steam and let it swallow me, opening up my arms. Sure enough, Leo’s strong limbs wrapped around me, practically crushing me to his chest with a hug.
“We did it,” he whispered, and I could hear the wonder in his ragged voice.
“We did,” I confirmed. “Let’s go home.”
“Yeah, let’s.”
38
LEO
For the first time since I was a young child, things were calm. Truly calm. There had been a lot of cleanup after we defeated the last two brothers, as we still had to take care of the remainder of their security outside, free the enthralled they’d left behind, and reunite them with their families.
Then there was the matter of my missing pack members. I had hoped we would find them with the last two brothers, but we only found four: Elizabeth, Frank, Archie, and Phillip. Like most of us, they were confused when they first came back to themselves, but bit by bit their memories returned. Unfortunately, even with the increase in their recollection, none of them had any idea where the rest of our pack could be.
We hadn’t been a large pack, cresting over thirty at our biggest before the massacre, but we were still missing about seventeen pack members. I knew it was unlikely that all of them were left alive, but still, I had hope that there were more of us left than the six of us.
If it weren’t for that weight hanging over my shoulders, it would have felt like months of serenity had passed, but inreality it was only about a full week when something incredible happened.
I’d been out in the garden, trying to find a semblance of normalcy with Ven, when a ragged, bony figure appeared at the tree line. Even after so much time, I knew that scent like the back of my hand.
“Andromeda!” I’d cried, heart in my throat as I sprinted for her. Although she was much thinner and worn than I had ever seen her, I knew it was her. Same hair, same button nose, same foxlike eyes.
She had practically collapsed in my arms at the time, but I was there to catch her. Her face was gaunt and drawn, but I knew without a doubt it was her. Hope bloomed in me. Bit by bit, our lost numbers might find their way home.
We were on the third day since she’d arrived, and although she was already improving under Ven’s care, her memories were still scattered. While she didn’t seem to recall us by name, our scent brought her comfort, so Ricky and I donated shirts to her makeshift bed on the couch. One downside of so much of our pack being reunited was that space was getting more and more scarce by the second. Most of the free space in Ven’s yard was packed with tents, and while most of our support had returned to their homes, a lot of them were hanging around to help transport recovered victims back home as soon as they remembered where their home was. I also got the distinct feeling that America wasn’t ready to leave. I didn’t blame her. Sometimes the peace seemed far too good to be true.
“Okay, I gotta go in and get changed,” Ven said, standing up and wiping her hands on the gardening apron that had been given to her by... actually, I couldn’t remember who had gifted that particular item, but I did know that my love had been wearing it whenever she was out in the garden.
“Changed? Why?”
