Page 47 of Jackal's Pride

“He’s right,” the dark-headed one agreed.

“It’s here,” Grim acknowledged, eyes focused ahead.

“Oh, God,” one of the females gasped. “It’s so much faster than we anticipated.”

“Get to the town!” Grim barked. One of the women jumped into the sky, disappearing into the huge dark clouds. In the distance, another funnel formed followed by another, sweeping through the land like monsters. “Kitty.”

“Yeah?” Kitty, I assumed, hurried next to him.

“Find your sister,” Grim ordered, and she nodded.

“I’ll go with you.” I was losing my damned mind, but I didn’t care. My stomach was twisting.I had to find Maureen.She didn’t even give me a chance to explain myself, nor help me understand her. And…Why was I so worried about her?

“Stay,” Grim said.

I gawked at him, not expecting him to request anything of me.

He continued, “Kara will find her, but we could use anything you have to offer.”

The one he called Kara faded without me.

Was the Grim Reaper asking for my help? For some reason this angered me. “You want me to stay here and help, not knowing where Maureen could be?”

“Do you think I’m not worried?” His voice had a plain, jarring tone to it despite the thunder above us. “Maureen is always right where we need her—but she isn’t here.”

“We’ve got to go!” someone yelled right before Grim and his offspring started moving. Some faded while others took to the sky.

For once, I didn’t know what to do. There was nothing to prove Maureen was in danger, but I gazed ahead—these people in front of me were. None of the humans would survive in a storm like this.

Her words—It’s what we do… It’s who we are—echoed through me.

My feet moved on their own accord, then my body shifted into a giant wolf and I raced toward the town. I didn’t know what I’d do when I reached it, but restlessness and fear drove me forward. Why? I didn’t know.

She’s inside me.Along with the one hundred and thirty-seven, Maureen’s heartbeat joined the others, and they forced me to change. To adapt. To become something when I was nothing.

The storm was bad and getting worse. The small town was right in the crossfire of two rapidly forming funnels. When I arrived, a small witch stood beside the blond-haired brother.

She yelled, “I think I can stop each one, but to do that, I’ll need to channel one of you for each tornado.”

Grim moved in front of her first. “Go ahead, Isabella.” She nodded, removing the material covering her hands.

“Jackal.” I wasn’t aware Grim knew I was still here until he spoke my name. “My family is everything to me. My daughter is blessed with eternal life while these people…” He shook his head. “They only have one.”

He latched onto the witch’s hand and then fell to his knees. His body jerked and thrashed as she siphoned power from him. His essence glowed a mixture of even shades of blue and black and flowed into her.

After taking what she needed, the witch released Grim and yelled, “Sebastian.” Just as Sebastian moved near her, the witch latched onto him. His pupils disappeared and a brilliant blue took over his eyes. He held out his hands, a powerful blast of magic blasted from his palms. Somehow, the witch was channeling through him and together, the two of them were taking on the brutality of nature in this world.

“Barron!” Sebastian shouted. “We’re not going to finish with this one soon enough!”

Barron nodded and faded. He re-faded on top of a building. His gaze was on the second funnel gobbling up everything in its path.

“Get ready,” the other brother screamed over the roaring wind. “Spread out.”

I didn’t even know what they were planning to do until the cloud was upon us, shredding through the town. I watched as Barron held up small barriers—blazing red with the color of his essence—over as many buildings as he could to keep them from crumbling, then I saw nothing but the dark funnel sweeping over everything he just sheltered. The storm engulfed him.

One of the females—dark hair similar to that of Maureen’s—hovered in the sky with several portal chips. She connected them together in a round circle in the sky, big enough to open one giant gateway. The ideal was brilliant. I watched from the ground as some of the storm swept into the current of the portal. She crossed her hands over her face as the wind brought up objects from the ground toward her—cars, signs, trees. She dodged and twisted in the air, her pink essence swaying and shifting with her as she let as much of the storm inside as she could before the passage was overloaded and forced to close. She opened it again, starting the process over. Where she was sending it, I didn’t know.

Another one of Maureen’s brothers protected several vehicles with humans inside. My eyes widened. Even through the howling of the funnels, I could hear their screams, their pleas. I could hear the determined shout of the one protecting them—he braced his feet and hands as his yellow-gold power wrapped around all the vehicles. Then nothing again. They disappeared from my view as the funnel spread over them.

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