More growls rumbled out from Caleb’s forces, and fourteen more boys burst into giant wolves—the speed of their transformation aided by the lunar eclipse.
I couldn’t believe how huge the wolves were, and I knew Daniel would be even bigger if he transformed into the great white wolf. But I also knew he wasn’t going let the white wolf free under the eclipse.
Caleb stood in the middle of it all, laughing like the madman he was.
“Now?” Brent shouted into my ear.
I’d almost forgotten about him in my struggle to keep up with the SKs and wondered how long he’d been shouting at me.
“Now!” I responded as the enormous tan wolf came volleying at my head.
I swung at it with my sword, but at the same moment a great crack resonated through the air. A bullet whizzed past my ear, and the tan wolf yelped. He fell to the ground, his shoulder bloody where the silver bullet had hit.
“Tell Ryan to watch it,” I shouted at Brent. “He almost hit me.”
“These bullets don’t fly right,” I heard Ryan shout in the background in my earpiece.
“Cheat to the left,” I said, remembering what the hunters I’d stolen the guns from had said. “You have to aim to the left of what you want to hit!”
Another gunshot fired, and a Gelal’s head exploded as he came charging at me. His body kept moving for a full five steps until he burst into green ooze. I grabbed the closest Akh and used him as shield. He screeched as the acid hit his skin. I threw the demon at a black wolf; he ripped the Akh to pieces with no regard to the fact that they were on the same side.
I looked back at the farmhouse and saw Ryan, Zach, and Brent in the windows of the master bedroom. Ryan and Zach aimed the hunting rifles out of the broken panes.
“Again!” I shouted.
More gunshots rang out, sending Shadow Kings scattering. I caught sight of Lisa as she grappled with a tawny wolf. An arrow went sailing into the wolf’s hindquarters from the direction of the farmhouse.
I looked up to see one of the Etlu Urbats standing on the roof of the house with a crossbow. Two more archers joined him, just as we had planned. They took out several Akhs with their wooden arrows from their vantage point.
Several more gunshots rocked the field.
“Don’t go hog wild on those bullets,” I reminded them. I’d been able to get only two boxes of silver bullets from Mr. Day because he’d run out of them—having passed them out to all the hunters who’d come into town for the wolf hunt.
“Can you see Caleb?” I asked Brent. He’d disappeared somewhere in the chaos of the field.
“No,” Brent said.
I swore. I heard a scream from somewhere in the crowd beyond the challenging ring, and I watched with great concern as several of the SKs started going after the guardians on the sidelines, not caring that they weren’t supposed to be part of the fight. We’d planned on this contingency, and Jude and Gabriel jumped into action, leading the spearmen in a fight to protect the people outside the ring.
“I see him,” Brent said. “Caleb’s on the far north side of the ring, close to where it edges on the corn maze.”
I looked out, but I couldn’t see him from where I stood.
“Concentrate your fire on Caleb.”
Two more shots rang out.
“We can’t get at him. He’s got too many SKs around him.”
I nodded. Of course Caleb would be using his own men as a shield. “Just keep firing in his direction. Get him mad enough that he sends the SKs into the house after you. That’s what we want.”
I jumped and rolled head over heels to avoid the attack of an oncoming werewolf. I was locked in battle with it, when a barrage of gunfire and arrows pelted the north side of the field. Ahks screeched and Gelals snarled, and I heard Caleb shout his command. The demon hordes turned their attention on the farmhouse, their ghastly eyes locked on the boys who stood in the windows—my boys. Even the demons that had gone after the guardians outside the ring turned their attention to the house, clacking their claws and grinding their teeth.