Page 15 of Alice Worth and the Elite Death Machine

Okay, I’d expected a howl, so that was different. He likely counted on his size and physique to paralyze me with fear. But grandstanding had its downside too—especially when his opponent had once faced a forty-foot-tall Titan with the face of a dragon and a body made of vipers.

His head was still raised skyward when I manifested my other whip and lashed with both like all our lives depended on it. My targets were theúlfheðnar’s throat and right arm.

At the same moment, Ben and Jesse made their moves, ducking under my whips with astonishing speed and launching themselves at theúlfheðnar’s exposed belly and left arm. Apparently, the wolves and I agreed that we needed to damage his arms and reduce the danger of those deadly claws.

Theúlfheðnardropped his trophies and met the wolves and my whips in the air, moving faster than I’d anticipated. He swung his left arm and sent Jesse’s wolf flying. Jesse hit a tree with a pained whine and crumpled to the ground, dazed or unconscious.

Ben sank his teeth into theúlfheðnar’s belly just as my whip caught the wolf-man across his upper chest and left a deep, gaping wound. My other whip coiled around his right forearm. The razor-thin stream of magic sliced most of the way through his massive arm before he wrenched free and batted Ben aside as he’d done to Jesse. Ben took a big chunk of theúlfheðnar’s stomach with him, and though he whined at the blow, he landed on his feet, snarling.

I spared Jesse a glance to make sure I saw him breathing and then lashed again. Theúlfheðnarleapt out of the path of the cold fire, spun, and came straight for me, claws extended.

Whips were no good for close combat. I pushed blood magic out my fingertips to form blades of my own and dove at him, staying low.

Unfortunately, I only partially succeeded at avoiding his claws. Streaks of fire raked down my back. I screamed and drove my blood magic blades through his inner thighs, hoping to slice his femoral arteries. Hot blood tinged with dark golden shifter magic sprayed across my face and body. Up close, I discovered his feet had claws as well, though not as long as those on his hands.

With another scream of rage and pain, I rolled between his knees, seeking temporary safety behind him. Theúlfheðnarturned with a growl, probably hoping to finish me off while I was down.

Ben took advantage of the wolf-man’s inattention and hit him again, this time latching onto his left shoulder and thrashing his head to mangle and tear as much flesh as possible. I scrambled away and made it back to my feet just as Ben ripped out a sizable chunk of theúlfheðnar’s shoulder and jumped clear to avoid being savaged by his massive claws.

How the hell was this guy still standing? Sean had said theúlfheðnarweren’t immortal, but I’d started to wonder.

Theúlfheðnarbellowed again and pounded his chest with his fist. “Faoladhfilth,” he spat. “You coddle the weak and attack the strong.”

“Wrong on both counts. I protect the vulnerable and kill those who prey on them.” I inched to my right, drawing his attention away from Ben, who circled too, limping badly. His right foreleg had been sliced down to the bone. “You target the weak,” I added. “You aren’t strong. You’re a coward.”

My insult had the desired effect. He leapt straight for me with a snarl that promised death.

Three enormous wolves hit him from both sides in midair, knocking him down in a mass of teeth and claws. A black and silver wolf I knew very well and a brindle wolf and gray wolf I didn’t recognize tore into the snarlingúlfheðnaras he bit and sliced with his own teeth and claws. The brindle was unmistakably Lucas Stone; his alpha power and fury scoured my skin even from fifteen feet away. The gray wolf was also someone from the Blue Valley pack.

I had never been so glad to see Sean’s beautiful black-and silver wolfy self. I’d known he was nearby because my amulet had pulsed so rapidly and powerfully I’d worried theúlfheðnarwould hear it. By insulting theúlfheðnarand getting him to attack without thinking, I’d given the others an opportunity to catch him off-guard.

Jesse hadn’t made it back on his feet yet. As I ran to check on him, theúlfheðnarimpaled the gray wolf on the claws of his right hand, slicing it nearly in two, and flung it into a tree with a sickening sound of bones breaking. The wolf hit the ground and lay still. My stomach lurched. With each passing moment, the risk of theúlfheðnarkilling someone I loved grew.

Finally, to my immense relief, Jesse raised his head. When he saw Sean and Lucas fighting theúlfheðnarand Ben’s injuries, he rose and loped unsteadily in their direction. I didn’t know how much help he’d be, still dazed and limping.

I pulled the demon blade out of the ground as theúlfheðnaralmost impossibly lurched to his feet with four hundred pounds of enraged werewolves hanging onto him with their teeth. He bellowed and sent Lucas flying in a spray of blood. The brindle wolf, his side gaping from claw wounds, rolled to a stop in the grass and didn’t get up.

No, not Lucas. Please don’t let him be dead, I thought desperately. The thought of Noah leaving the night his father died trying to protect him and Mariah having to deal with both losses made me sick.

None of us were going down without a fight, though. Ben leapt to get his teeth into theúlfheðnar’s throat as Sean continued to tear at his shoulder. I grabbed the sword with both hands and ran at them. “Sean, Ben,move!”

Sean and Ben backed off immediately, but Jesse was too irate or in pain to hear. He dodged the wolf-man’s deadly claws and latched onto his bloody thigh where I’d sliced him earlier. Theúlfheðnarsnarled and raised his claws to deliver what would surely be a killing blow to Jesse’s back.

Despite my shout to keep clear, Sean’s wolf jumped and sank his teeth into theúlfheðnar’s raised forearm to save Jesse. As the wolf-man struggled to free himself from my pack mates, I locked gazes with him and used my momentum to drive the demon blade straight through his abdomen all the way up to the hilt. Theúlfheðnarlet out a gurglyurgghhsound and staggered.

See? Pointy end, bad guy. I wouldn’t get any medals for style, but I’d always valued substance over style anyway.

With a garbled snarl, theúlfheðnarfinally fell, ripping the sword hilt out of my hand as he went down. I stumbled out of the way as Sean, Ben, Jesse, and Lucas—who’d gotten back on his feet despite his wounds—piled onto the wolf-man and tore out chunks of any part of him they could sink their teeth into. Blood spurted everywhere.

All the wolves were bloody and wounded, and so was I, for that matter. Theúlfheðnarwould be dead soon enough; elite death machine or not, that was arterial spray that just whizzed past my face. But now over the stink of theúlfheðnar’s innards I smelled sulfurous magic and demon blood on Sean and Lucas.They must have killed demons at the house before they arrived to help me take on theúlfheðnar.

And holy hell—where was Malcolm?

As much as I wanted to stay and look theúlfheðnarin the eye when he died, I knew the wolves would take care of business. My ghost would have joined us here if he could. That meant something big and bad was still going on at the house.

My back and a half-dozen other less-serious wounds burned like fire, and I was covered in all kinds of blood from my hair to my boots, but I took off running again—this time, back toward the Blue Valley pack’s refuge. I heard nothing from that direction but the wind, and I didn’t like the silence. Not one bit.

Ben caught up by the time I reached the side of the hill and made my way around toward the front yard. Even with a torn leg and what was at least a couple of broken bones, he had no trouble keeping pace.

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