“You are ours now,” the sorceress said. “Marinette is right. You cannot recover from her curse. It flows through you now, and once you are under its spell, I will add my control and it will be finished.”
I glanced up, giving the bokor a cynical look. “Nothing is ever really finished, is it? Don’t you wonder how my father escaped this same curse? According to your logic, he should be dead right now.” I was still doggedly moving forward, but at a snail’s pace, which was maddening. “I know you’ve seen him here. He’s alive and well, despite your best efforts to control him. And, I shouldn’t have to point out, he didn’t die.”
The bokor looked mildly surprised, but just as quickly her face clouded. “Your father is the Alpha of his kind. He is very strong. But make no mistake, if he hadn’t escaped, the result would have been much different.”
“Ah, but he was able to escape,” I said. “He bested your spell even if he couldn’t cure the yellow masses himself. But he had help with that. And I do too.”
“By the time your aid arrives, it will be too late,” she said, dismissing me. “You are already going through the first transformation. Feel how it takes from you, eating you from the inside out. It’s meant to be painful, so you realize every second that your life is ending.”
I was almost to Marcy. The phone was still going off, its beeping rhythmic and constant. I wondered for a moment if only I could hear it.
She cannot help you, a breath whispered by my ear. This is inevitable.
That answered that question. “What are you waiting for, then?” I yelled, still grappling forward. I was to Marcy’s shoe. “Why not strike me down now?”
There was soft laughter. Why take you now when I can wait until my blood incapacitates you and does my work for me?
Danny whined, nosing toward me. “Stay back, Danny.”
Instead of listening, he got up on shaky paws and stumbled toward Marcy, knowing my intent was to reach the phone. I hadn’t seen what took Marcy down, but I assumed it was a spell from the bokor or something Marinette did. She couldn’t have been bitten, right? I asked my wolf, my voice filled with anxiety. I hadn’t thought of that. If Marcy had been bitten, it would be dire. I was to her leg when I heard a soft moan. “Thank goodness,” I muttered. Once I got to her, she lifted her head up. “I thought you might’ve been cursed.”
“What happened?” Marcy said slowly, still fully waking. “I had the advantage. I was sure of it—”
The bokor hit her with another spell and Marcy’s body lifted with the impact and collapsed back down, out cold.
I was furious, but there was nothing I could do to retaliate. “Was that really necessary in the scope of things? She was barely conscious.”
“Keeping her incapacitated is easy,” the bokor crooned. “I will not allow her to aid you again.”
The phone was still beeping, bless its heart. But now it was facing the ground, since Marcy had flipped over. I had to roll her. Danny tried to help, whining as he pushed his muzzle into Marcy. I slid my hand under her to reach it when something grabbed my ankles, yanking me sharply back.
I kicked my legs as I turned.
A rabid wolf snarled over me. I saw the sorceress’s careful attention in its eyes. I peered over at her and she was smiling a gruesome, broken-toothed smile.
“I will not allow her to help you.”
Danny snarled and started toward the wolf. He was going to protect me or die trying. His growl was ferocious, and he was huge. Much bigger than the wolf hovering over me. Another wolf sidled over to stand next to it, but the one who had been over my body stepped back. The bokor wasn’t going to take any chances. She had only these two left, as far as I could tell. We’d killed all her others.
“Daniel Walker, stand down,” I ordered. “This is not worth getting your neck torn out over. Plus, I’m getting out of this myself.” With a little help from Juanita.
He ignored me in favor of half stumbling, half walking to stand guard over my shoulder. Instead of moving him out of the way, which I could have done, I brought a hand up to his fur, letting him know my intent. I pressed him lightly, indicating where I wanted him to go with my fingers. He obliged and moved, and I casually rolled with him, reaching under Marcy to get the phone that was still beeping with Danny as my shield. My fingertips plucked the side of it right as the loa entered the bokor in front of me.
The change in the sorceress was immediate.
Her eyes flickered as the loa began to speak through her. The earth around us began to vibrate and the temperature dropped yet again, which seemed impossible since it was already so cold. “You cannot escape your fate. I will inhabit you and finally seek my resurrection.”
The ground began to shake in earnest, and I watched in horror as the bokor’s body began to convulse. Her eyes rolled back into her head, leaving only the whites, and she collapsed to her knees, her arms held wide.
There was another gurgling sound, and the two rabid wolves fell at my feet.