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“I would prefer not,” Eli said. “And silver doesn’t even bother me. But a bullet is a bullet, regardless.”
The six of us inched closer to the walls, closer to the heavy fighting. A fairly large battle was taking place directly in front of the gates to one of the seven entrances to Fangmore.
“Wyatt, look,” I said, pointing beyond the fighting.
A heavy steel gate had been installed at the entrance. Tranquility operatives patrolled in front of and behind it. They didn’t look concerned by the fighting going on less than a hundred yards from their post. A ball of fire streaked toward the gate and exploded ten feet from the guards, deflected by a magical barrier.
“Son of a bitch. We’re too late,” I muttered. “They’ve already put a barrier up.”
“Those guys are TO,” Wyatt said. “Maybe we can talk sense into them and get them to let us in.”
“We’ve come too far to give up now,” Crew added.
“Are you all ready to go through that?” I asked, nodding at the fighting. “It’s the only way to get near the gate.”
“Ready as we ever will be,” Eli said with grim determination.
Moments later, we broke cover, all of us shifting, with Eli following behind. At first, the combatants didn’t realize we were moving through the battlefield, but after a few dozen yards, shouts went up as we were spotted. My nerves frayed as thefighters turned their attention on us, but the sound of Wyatt’s thoughts at the back of my mind helped me calm down.
Thankfully, the battle in this particular area appeared to only be between rival factions of wolf shifters. No sign of silver weaponry or magic users. Using our new mental connection, Wyatt and I fought off several wolves who rushed at us. Crew and Chelsey stayed near Eli and August, and managed to scare off a group of dumbass adolescent wolves. The stupid kids probably thought this was fun. They’d end up killed if they weren’t careful.
Staying close to Wyatt allowed my wolf to focus and fight better. It was as if we were one being, leaping, biting, and clawing exactly when the other need help. As brutal and awful as it was to need to fight, there was a beauty to the dance we were in. Thankfully, the majority of the shifters who were fighting didn’t see us as much of a threat, and we made it a decent distance toward the gate.
Crew and Wyatt had cleared out a small party of shifters, sending them fleeing, when a whispered voice slithered into the deepest recesses of my mind. Almost like the way some of Wyatt’s thoughts echoed in my own mind, only that was a beautiful and natural sensation. This felt…oily. Dirty. Like an unwelcome visitor in my head. Whatever it was, it beckoned me toward the city, urging me to leave my companions and sprint to the city walls without them.
Wyatt could sense something was wrong with me, but he was locked in battle with a scrawny light-brown wolf.
I managed to shake the strange thoughts off in time to dodge an attack at my back. A burly black wolf, almost the same shade as Wyatt’s, was attempting to jump on my back and bite into the scruff of my neck. Rolling aside, I lashed out, biting his foot. He yelped in pain, and Eli sent a blast of magic into his side.Ribs broke with an audiblecrack, and he yowled in agony as he tumbled away.
In the distance, gunfire started, a staccatopop-pop-pop. Someone with firearms was moving closer to this part of the battle. We had to hurry.
Come, my little success. My dearest girl. My first one. Come to me.
That voice again, this time louder and more pronounced.
Fucking Simon.
My body went rigid as the battle raged around me. He was luring me to him, doing something similar to the way he’d taken over Abel and Leif’s minds back at the volcano. My paws moved of their own accord in slow, measured steps toward the gates. I fought for control of my own body, snarling at myself, but still my paws carried me forward. A tremor of existential terror coursed through me. My greatest fear was going feral, and this felt exactly like how I’d pictured it. No control, unable to stop. Complete and utter madness.
Wyatt rushed to my side. Simply having him within my radius, right there where our fur could touch, helped snap me out of whatever Simon was doing. I shook my shaggy head, trying to clear my mind and push Simon’s voice out of my mind.
The battle raged on around us, but Wyatt nudged me behind a half-crumbled wall of what might have been a gas station in the past. He shifted back, and with a small bit of difficulty, I did as well.
“What the fuck was that? Someone’s voice was in your head, but it wasn’t you.” Wyatt’s eyes were wide with terror.
I rubbed at my temples. “It was Simon. He has to be in Fangmore. There’s no other explanation for it. I didn’t feel him calling to me until we got close to the gates.” I grabbed Wyatt’s shirt and looked into his face. “He ishere.”
“Are you up for this? You can go back and hide in the helicopter or something.”
“Bullshit. I want to get the asshole. I’m fine. Now that I know what he’s doing, I can resist him,” I said, though that wasn’t sure that was entirely true. I hoped Wyatt didn’t sense my uncertainty.
Behind us, a terrible, ear-splitting roar erupted from the battlefield. The sound of it sent gooseflesh racing up my arms and down my back. The look of recognition and horror on Wyatt’s face told me I hadn’t imagined it.
We raced out from behind the wall to see a horror laying waste to the rival shifters. One of Simon’s abominations, some creature that looked like it had come slithering out of a nightmare. It had the long, serpentine body of a basilisk, but four thick and muscular arms of a tiger. Massive paws slashed at the combatants, spraying blood into the night sky. Below the tiger arms were four misshapen humanoid arms, making it look almost like a centipede. Instead of the deadly eyes or head of the basilisk, it had the serrated mouth and head of a small sea serpent. Bile rose up my throat.
Wyatt and I rushed into battle. None of the others besides those of us who’d spent time on Bloodstone had ever fought these things before. August had shifted back to his human form out of shock and horror and stood staring at the monster.
“Stay in the fight!” Wyatt called to him as we ran past.
