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I couldn’t respond. I was too lost in my own head, trying to pinpoint the source.
“Damien, answer me,” he growled again. “Is it close?”
Serena looked utterly confused. I couldn’t even tell you what I looked like.
“It’s… It’s…”
It was like my totem was moving. Sprinting. Wherever it was I could sense it spinning faster and faster, causing my whole body to shake.
“I think—”
My sentence died abruptly as the hulking forms of Lionel and Christophe sprang from the outer brush. They landed heavily, skidding across the smooth stones of the ancient courtyard before spinning to face us. I should’ve smelled them. Should’ve heard them coming. But somehow they’d gotten upwind, and gained the advantage.
“DAMIEN!”
The growls, the snarls, the screaming — all of it faded instantaneously away. There was a rush of white noise, as there always was, and then the distinct sensation of leaving my body. Of rapidly falling away, faster and faster.
Of plunging into darkness…
17
SERENA
If I hadn’t seen it — if it hadn’t happened right in front of me — I would’ve never believed it. Not in a million years. Not even after that night in Savannah, when I was terrifyingly sure I’d never question anything I saw, ever again.
Two animals sprang nimbly from the outer edge of the courtyard, shattering the silence. That they were wolves didn’t really surprise me. What did surprise me however, was the sheer size of them.
The creatures were tremendous. Streaked with black and grey, they were three times larger than any dog I’d ever seen. One was bigger and much broader than the other, but both their entire bodies were rippled with muscle.
“DAMIEN!”
Broderick’s voice barely registered in my head. I was too busy staring at the creatures. Just the very presence of the animals radiated power, but it was their eyes that struck me the most. Their eyes glowed with an intelligence and coherence way beyond pure animal instinct.
Their eyes were human.
I spun toward Damien but he was already gone. Where he once stood, only a pile of his clothes remained. Some were shredded violently, some of them merely shrugged off. It was almost like the rapture had happened while my head was turned, and he’d been taken away into the sky.
Except that just ahead of where Damien had stood, a beautiful white wolf was leaping straight at the enemy.
I gasped when I saw it, realizing what and who it was. Understanding in the back my mind I was witnessing Damien, fully changed. Completely transformed into this incredible creature who was now defending me against not one but two attackers.
Do something!
I’d taken two steps backwards when a terrible rending, popping sound reached my ears. Off to my left, Broderick was halfway through his own transformation. My heart caught in my throat as I saw his limbs snap in two. His body somehow bent in upon itself, his skin splitting bloodlessly down the middle as he suddenly sprouted fur, teeth, and a long, canine snout.
For a moment I was speechless. Totally powerless to act. It was like being in shock — seeing something so impossible, so far beyond the scope of reality your brain can’t even register enough to send physical impulses to your body.
I looked on, open-mouthed, as Broderick finished his transformation. He was bigger than the rest of them, all sinew and muscle, his lustrous amber-colored fur all swirled with grey. Quickly he shook out of his remaining clothes and arched his back, his lips curling over a set of snarling, slavering jaws. He sprang before me in a dizzying blur of speed before crouching, head down, in a defensive stance.
He’s protecting me…
The whole thing happened quickly, within the span of seconds. Yet in my mind it had all taken place in eerie slow motion. Just watching it put me into a sort of trance, an almost hypnotic state from which I wasn’t willing to recover. And then suddenly something was sprinting at me — something big and fast and terrifying — and my instinct for self-preservation thankfully took over.
WHAM!
The lead wolf struck my shoulder as I dove to the ground, knocking me backwards and tumbling me end over end. In my mind it registered that it had been aiming for my throat. That it was already going for the kill rather than any sort of submission.
Luckily for me, the wolf that had been Broderick had leapt at the last moment, deflecting most of the momentum.
