And suddenly, two huge wolves with bright yellow eyes broke out from the underbrush ahead of me, blocking the path. Heads lowered and canines exposed, they snarled.
I halted as my terror pounded in my veins, and lifted the phone I still clung on to like a lifeline to my ear. “W-Warin…”
“I’m coming.”
Something large and heavy hit me full-force in the back, and I fell forward with a grunt as the air got knocked out of my lungs. I hit the ground with a smack, sending my phone clattering out of reach.
Strong jaws locked around my arms, my hair, and the back of my coat, pulling at me so hard the pain lanced through my body. I wheezed and fought for breath, kicking uselessly at my furry attackers while they dragged me off the path and into the bushes.
Fractured twigs and branches tore at my clothes and face, brambles ripping at my skin, but the wolves paid no attention to my cries of pain. My scalp burned from where one of them had dragged me by the hair, and I was pretty sure the one pulling me by my right arm had punctured the skin.
Once we were deep in the bushes, they finally released me.
I scrambled to get up, but didn’t make it further than my knees before a hard push at my back sent me back down on all fours. They clearly didn’t want me standing.
I cowered on the ground as I stared wildly at my attackers.
There were five of them, the biggest wolves I’d ever seen, more the size of ponies than canines.
I’m going to get savaged to death by mutant wolves. What an undignified end for a city girl.
Cracking sounded behind me, but not like branches. It was deeper, louder, and followed by the sound of something tearing. I spun around, still huddled on the ground—and nearly threw up at the sight that met me.
One of the wolves was… was breaking in front of me. It was the only word I could think of to describe what was happening to the creature. Its muzzle was peeling back, skin splitting apart to reveal raw flesh and carnivore teeth. It howled as its body split, contorting beyond its original scope. The flesh along its sides was tearing, too, reshaping itself around broken bones that seemed to fuse again in a new order. Fresh skin spread over bare muscle, until finally, a naked man crouched next to the remaining wolves, his sides heaving.
“A-are you… okay?”
I don’t know why I asked him that—maybe my freaked-out mind thought he’d been inside the wolf, like goddamn Little Red Riding Hood. Maybe it was just relief over seeing another human being, hope that there would be a way out of this madness. But when he lifted his head, those same yellow eyes stared back at me, and I realized with a sick sense of dread that he wasn’t going to help me.
No one was.
“Deadwhore,” he snarled.
“Really? You’re… you’re what, some sort of a werewolf, and you’re still a goddamn evangelical fanatic?” It wasn’t that I wasn’t still about to wet my pants from fear, but the unexpected insult from something that was clearly not even entirely human surprised me enough that a small measure of indignity rose in my gut amidst all the terror. I clung on to it with both hands.
“You are accused of conspiring with vampires against your brothers and sisters. How do you plead?”
I blinked. “Uh… what? Is this… is this a fucking trial? You’ve got to be kidding me!”
He lowered his head, his lips peeling back in a warning snarl. Despite his human mouth, his canines were still eerily elongated. “How do you plead?”
“Not guilty!” I snapped.
“Liar,” he hissed. “We’ve seen you with the dead thing. We saw you at the slaughterhouse. You are a betrayer. And we sentence you to death.”
My eyes widened at his last word, my precarious grasp on my indignation slipping as pure terror took hold once more.
Death.
They were truly going to kill me.
The wolves behind me howled and snarled, and I spun around to face them. Not that it mattered. They all leapt as one, heavy bodies knocking me down as jaws filled with sharp teeth snapped and tore. I fell to the ground, instinctively curling in on myself to protect my throat. Not that they needed to pierce my throat to kill me.
They ripped into my limbs, pulling at me from all sides.
They’re going to tear me to pieces.
It wouldn’t be an easy death—it wouldn’t be quick.
Out of nowhere, anger welled up from somewhere so deep I’d never known it existed. These strangers, these monsters, would rip me to shreds without a second’s hesitation because I’d befriended the wrong man. Like the fanatics who’d kidnapped me had tossed me into Warin’s cage for reading the wrong book.
Like my family had torn me apart since I was a kid for simply being wrong.
The injustice of it all, the absolute fury, burned through my veins. My life—they were trying to take my life, and here I was, curled into a ball, sobbing and pleading for mercy.
No more!
That simple thought flamed deep in my mind—and it was as if it lit a fuse.
Fire exploded behind my eyes, raw energy crackling down my arms and out.
Bright green light burst out of my palms, sending a shockwave through the small clearing. The wolves flew backward several feet, landing on the ground with pained yips.
My breath came in short heaves as I stared at my outstretched hands until I thought my eyes were going to fall out. My palms still tingled, as if I’d held onto an electric fence.
What…?
I didn’t have time to wonder what the hell had just happened any further. Furious snarls rippled all around me as the wolves got to their feet once more. And then they pounced.
Teeth snapped shut around my shoulder, buried into my side through my coat, and I had enough presence of mind to know that this was it when a thud sounded next to me—and suddenly there was no longer a wolf biting into my shoulder.
A pained yip, and the jaws locked on my side and limbs released as well. Growls, snarls, the crunching of bones and tearing of flesh filled the clearing, followed by more pained yips and howls.
Still very much in fight-or-flight mode, I kicked against the ground, forcing my aching body up. That was when I saw him.
Warin was in the clearing with me, fangs bared and blood dripping from his lips. By his feet, two broken bodies lay crumpled. It took me a little while to realize that their heads were no longer attached to their bodies.
The three remaining wolves were spread out, crouched and ready to pounce on the lone vampire, but he didn’t give them the chance.
Moving swifter than I could follow, he tore through the clearing. The wolves spun, but it was too late. One of them fell to the ground, followed by a wet clonk as his now human head landed nearby. His vertebrae was sticking out of where his head had been attached only moments prior, shining white against the dark blood.
It took less than half a minute before the two remaining wolves lay motionless as well.
An eerie silence fell over the clearing as Warin stared down at me, eyes wild and fangs gleaming in the faint moonlight that made it through to the forest floor.
It lasted for maybe three long seconds—until I lost the final shred of control over my convulsing stomach and had to roll onto my knees to throw up.