Page 91 of Only Human in Strangeville

“Well, we can’t help them just yet. Let’s focus on the wolves because we’ll need them to fight the vampires.”

“Good point.” I took a deep breath and concentrated on freeing the wolves. We could do this.

***

It took a fair bit of time to get around to where I thought the spell originated. When we arrived, we found a large stone plaque flanked by four of Vito’s men. One of them was a vampire I’d seen before. The other three I didn’t recognize, but I thought they were human by their tanned skin. All four were armed with guns. None reacted to our presence, so my invisibility spell was working.

I took a moment to study the tablet. The three images on it were depicted in exacting detail, one, a human with their face twisted in agony. The middle image depicted a werewolf in “wolfman” form, roaring at the sky. The third showed a wolf collared and chained to the ground.

Even from here, without trying, I could feel the malignant spell radiating off it.

The three of us backed farther into the woods. The slight drain of the invisibility spell was starting to become noticeable. I’d have to drop it soon.

“They’re armed and we’re not,” Bridger whispered. The vampire would hear it if my spell wasn’t muffling sound, but I thought it should be or they would have heard us approach.

“Yeah. I’ll see if I can make a shield spell. They won’t expect us to attack head-on, right?”

Nimbus woofed softly, and I remembered he had powers, too.

“Okay, shield spell, then Nimbus does something. Maybe you can yank their guns out of their hands and toss them away?”

He rooed and wagged his plumed tail. I took that as agreement.

“I’ll see if I can use magic on the vampire. What about you, Bridger?”

“Nimbus, can you get me one of the guns?” my human mate asked.

The cloud dog wagged his tail again, keeping it curled over his back in what I assumed was confidence.

Something in Bridger’s tone, or maybe the feeling through our bond caught my attention. “Bridger?”

He shook his head. “Don’t like killing humans.” The hunter tightened his lips. “No help for it, though.”

I put my hand on his forearm and squeezed. “I don’t see a way around it. Maybe if I knew more about my powers…”

“It’s not your fault, Hannah. They chose this life, and Vito chose this conflict, not you.”

I took a breath and nodded. “Yeah, okay. I’ll try to remember that.”

My hunter smiled and winked. “Just remember, fluffball here would be in their hands if you hadn’t done everything you did. We’re all way better off.”

He was right.

I shut my eyes and focused on the strongest shield I could form and put it between us and the bad guys. After a quick glance at Bridger, we jogged toward the bad guys.

I couldn’t keep up both spells, though I did my best to hold onto the invisibility as long as I could, but it dropped about the time we reached the vampire and his goons. Fortunately, the vampire hadn’t expected anyone to sneak up on him, and we caught them completely off guard.

One of the men got a shot off at us, and the bullet ricocheted off the shield spell. Nimbus rooed loudly as he snatched the guns out of the humans’ hands.

The vampire managed to hold onto his but the look on the humans’ faces was comical as their guns sailed away before landing at Bridger’s feet.

He kneeled and grabbed two of them. I took the third before losing hold of the shield spell. Fortunately, Nimbus had control of the situation. He stirred up a whirlwind right in front of the vampire, deflecting the rapidly fired bullets up and away with his powers. When the vampire’s slide clicked open, I fired two shots to distract him while I desperately tried for a sunlight spell.

Sparks flared out in front of me and wrapped themselves onto the vampire, seemingly sticking to him as he screamed in agony and tried to brush them off.

While I focused on the vampire, Bridger took out two of the humans with well-aimed shots. The third human, seeing that things weren’t going in his favor, turned and ran.

Nimbus almost seemed to laugh as the human tripped over something and went sprawling into the dirt.

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