“Did it work?” I asked. “What spell was that?” I reached down and held my arm out to her.
She took it and I pulled her up. “It was a null,” she said. “And I think it worked better than expected.” She swished the fading orange cloud away with her hand. “I think I underestimated your blood, Wonder Wolf. Those spells are packing some serious power.” She blew her hair out of her eyes. “Honestly, they shouldn’t be working as well as they are against this kind of strength. That loa is fierce. Her magic is so strong, it crackles with energy.”
“Maybe we should’ve brewed more?”
She chuckled. “I did what I could. But we’re lucky—without these, we’d be fresh meat. Where’s Naomi?”
“I tucked her behind the altar. Better question is where is the bokor?”
Marcy glanced around. “I don’t know. She was right here on the ground a second ago.”
I spun in a circle. The wolves had gone eerily quiet too.
“Oh no,” Marcy whispered, tapping my shoulder.
I slowly turned to where she was pointing. The bokor stood twenty feet from us, her remaining wolves surrounding her, calm and at the ready, with the strongest one at the forefront.
Danny.
14
“Nooo!” I wailed, anguish tearing at my throat. “Please, no!” I tried to get to him, but Marcy held my waist firmly, keeping me rooted.
“This may be an illusion,” she murmured close to my ear. “She’s playing with us. He can’t be dead from her usual methods. He’s supernatural, and he wasn’t in the circle before. She just called him in, likely because he’s not completely under her control yet.”
Danny’s wolf was fierce.
He stood shoulders above the other rabid wolves, but his brown coat was already coming off in patches, his muzzle dripping with yellowed saliva.
“He is one of mine now,” the bokor said, her Haitian accent back. The cadence was oddly hypnotic. “And he will do my bidding as I ask it.”
I straightened, my wolf howling. I called out to Danny in my mind, and to my happiness, my Alpha connection was present. It wasn’t as strong as it had been before, but it was still there. “I bet he won’t.”
“We shall see.” She grinned. “Go, my beast!” She set him loose and he launched himself at me without hesitation.
I let him come.
His front paws slammed into my shoulders and we both flew. My back crashed into the ground, and as we slid, I took my hands and wrapped them around his neck, fisting the fur tightly in my grasp. Once we stopped, he went for my throat, snarling and snapping. It took all my combined strength and magic to hold him just inches away from my face. But I was in my Lycan form, and I could hold him for as long as it took now that I had him. “Daniel Walker!” I shouted, infusing as much power as I could into my words. “Stop!”
He faltered for a moment, his overly bright eyes dimming. But a moment later something ignited in them once again and he began to snarl. He smelled sickly, like my father had when he’d been cursed, but he wasn’t dead, so that was something.
“Marcy!” I yelled. “Take the bokor down! She’s in his head.”
Marcy charged the priestess, her fingers out front wiggling.
“Danny.” I gritted my teeth as I turned us over, bracing my stomach and legs against his squirming torso, effectively pinning him. “You have to quit this! It’s me, Jessica! Your Alpha.” I threw power into his body, my breath hitching when I sensed the same mustard-yellow masses coating his insides that had infiltrated my father. The curse would kill him if we didn’t get it out, and once he was fully dead he would be in her control forever.
I wasn’t about to let that happen.
Marcy shouted, “Listen, you ancient witch for hire! I can play games too. How about this?”
I couldn’t see what was happening, but the bokor shouted in pain in response to Marcy’s spell, and Danny’s eyes flickered. “Do more of that, Marcy,” I urged. “It’s working.”
I told my wolf, When she hits the bokor again, we send our power into Danny’s body and try to force the rest of her control out. Her presence shouldn’t be too hard to detect. I hoped.
Marcy incanted another spell as I pushed power into Danny, trying to shove out the spell or however she was controlling him.
As I did it, Danny lost some of his will to fight me and relaxed. I tried to reason with him again. “It’s me, Danny,” I murmured in calm, soothing tones, praying I was getting through to him as I continued to force her out. The yellow masses pulsed but didn’t disappear. I tried to insert my power between them and his body, just like I had done with my father. “Listen, you have to help me out here. We need to cut this sorceress off. I know you’re still in there, and I’m not letting you go without a fight, but having you cooperate would be extremely helpful right now.”