There was a stone circle right there, and he sprinted for it with all he had.The fairy rings that sprouted all around it and kept trees and bushes at bay made that a lot easier.
The loup-garou was behind him.Sage heard the beast, his lungs heaving as he shifted again to throw off the magic for good.Sage was close, and he jumped forward, crossing the boundary of the stone circle in a more or less graceful dive.
The loup-garou jumped as well, but instead of landing on top of Sage, he yelped in pain.
“Succor, asshole.”Sage rolled onto his back and looked at the salivating loup-garou.“Can’t get to me now.”
The loup-garou looked around, but before Sage could compose himself enough to cast something deadly, the loup-garou sprinted off, apparently not stupid enough to glower at a witch who was free to cast at last.
Sage was left in the confines of the stone circle until he could come up with a viable way to get rid of the loup-garou.Peter came to mind.Sage patted his back pocket.
“Fuck.”
Will had borrowed his phone, and Sage hadn’t remembered to take it back, so calling Peter was out.The motherfucking bother, as the vampire would say.
25
Will
WheneverWillsniffedtheair and couldn’t smell any blood, he was relieved, just a little bit.Since the vegetation was so dense, the woods made the story of the loup-garou’s pursuit relatively easy to read, and Will sensed Sage’s magic on all the broken branches and the gouges in the soil.
At least Sage had managed to defend himself, and he’d stayed clear of the beast’s teeth and claws.Please be safe.I’m on my way!
Carl carefully crossed a stream ahead of them, then stopped.He held out a hand, but it wasn’t necessary.The hairs on the back of Will’s neck were standing up, his wolf clawing at his skin at the sense of impending danger.
Will pushed the wolf back, something he’d never had to do before in his life.It was distracting, and it distracted him for just a moment, just long enough to almost miss the dark shadow passing behind a fallen tree to their right.
But Carl didn’t.He spun.The loup-garou was going for Carl first, likely because he thought Carl was the bigger threat.
This time, the wolf wanted out even more, and Will gave in, allowing the shift.Carl brought a knife.I only have this.It was urgent—not painful exactly, but almost like freefalling when Will was suspended between his two forms.
The loup-garou got distracted, the sudden change in Will’s scent drawing the beast’s eyes.Carl had no time for distractions.He was diving to the side to escape the massive paws and claws.
He drove his knife into the beast’s side before jumping the tree trunk with a grace that wasn’t right for a wolf on two legs.It got him out of the way and safe behind the tree trunk and left the loup-garou halfway between him and Will.
Will’s world expanded.He was in his wolf form, remnants of clothing clinging to his fur.The ground was soft under his paws.He smelled the woods, moss and beetles, heard birds chirping in the trees.He smelled his mate.That scent was the strongest, the most important among all those others, and Will could tell he was near.
The loup-garou hadthatscent.It was the one Will used to fear, the one he would run from in this form.But no longer.That wickedness, those dark desires, they held no more threat, birthed no more unwanted fear, not for the wolf who knew his mate loved him.
Will, in fur and fury, growled and focused on the black beast, the wide jaws and cruel maw so much like the other one, the dead one, the one that rotted in a ghoul’s belly now.
Shift,Will thought,shift.
The magic answered.It came easily, like it lived in these woods all the time and simply waited beneath the leaves and sporing mushrooms for someone to call it.
The beast turned man, and the man was naked and weak, dirty.Will bared his teeth.He charged.
“Fucking badass!You magical wonder wolf!”
Carl.Will saw what he was doing, distracting Will’s target, and Will appreciated that.The loup-garou, now in human form, turned his head ever so slightly.
Will jumped at the man and bit deep.There was a technique to killing, but Will didn’t know it.He bit deep into the juncture of neck and shoulder, hoping it would be enough.The naked man screamed in pain and stumbled back, right into Carl’s blade.
Life drained out of him with his blood, and Will knew the end was near, but at the moment when he thought it was over, the loup-garou went into the shift again.
Will let go just a heartbeat before a claw sliced through the air where his head had been.Carl retreated too.
“I call water, earth, and land.Turn the leaves and ground to quickest sand.”
