Page 86 of Sergi
Sergi took off his clothes and hid them. I watched every nuance of his muscled physique as he waded into the pool, a dagger in each hand.
The night was quiet, but they were out there. I yipped again as if I were injured, then made a couple of turns before nestling into the grass. With my snout on my paws, I lowered my lids and waited.
It was five minutes before I heard the first rustling along the trail. I listened for distinct sounds to determine how many were out there. We might have disturbed their hunt or simply crossed through their territory, and they didn’t like trespassers. They would know something lurked beneath our human forms, so less likely on a hunt and more likely scouts not happy with our intrusion.
They didn’t completely surround us. One was in the crop of trees to our left, and another approached along the pond’s shore. One, maybe two, came down the path we’d walked.
Their footsteps were light, and if I wasn’t in wolf form, it would have been difficult to hear them. That’s what made the wild ones so dangerous. They spent most of their time as wolves, which heightened their senses. There was no doubt they’d picked up my scent. Did they know Sergi was vampire? I doubted they saw many in this area.
I kept my wolf still as I mentally prepared my attack. There wasn’t time. The wolf to my left burst out of the trees as a howl pierced the silence. It was lean and smaller than me, but that didn’t stop it as it leaped into the air.
My wolf rolled, and as the other landed where I’d once been, I grabbed the back of its neck. I shook it, my teeth sinking in, and blood filled my mouth. The wild, musky taste urged me on as the wolf howled in pain beneath me.
When it went limp, I dropped it and turned in time to see two things at once. One was the bared teeth of two wolvesbearing down on me. The other was the warrior who rose out of the pond like Poseidon from the sea. His face was grim with determination, the water sluicing over his body in rivulets, emphasizing his bulging biceps and thick muscular thighs.
I wasn’t the only one staring. The wolves, not expecting this new adversary, couldn’t stop their trajectory or speed within such a short distance. The four of us met with claws, fangs, and daggers.
Sergi didn’t hesitate, swinging his daggers as a wolf launched itself at him. I lost sight of him when the second wolf hit me in the side. We rolled, and though this wolf was larger than the first, it seemed dazed from seeing Sergi, who’d made a show of his bright white fangs.
Proof they hadn’t known they’d invited a vampire to battle.
I bit at the wolf’s neck, and it pulled away, but not before it took a huge bite of my shoulder. I yelped but didn’t stop as I clamped down on a back leg as the wolf shifted position. Its cry of pain urged me on, and I used my size and weight to shove the wolf away before I grabbed the back of its front leg. Its snout whipped around, and it pulled away long enough to get a hold of my neck.
Fear gripped me, and putting all my strength into it, I yanked out of its teeth and scrambled back. I felt the blood seeping into my coat. It had gotten another bite of me.
We circled each other, which gave me a quick peek at Sergi and the wolf he battled. Blood smeared his torso, arms, and legs, but the wolf wasn’t fairing any better. Sergi’s daggers were stained red as he slashed at the wolf. He wasn’t stabbing, which would produce deeper, harder-to-heal cuts, preferring to slice, which would still result in the rending of blood but heal easily after one or two shifts.
The wolf who I’d been sparring with lunged when he noticed my glance at Sergi, but I wasn’t a foolish wolf. My uncle taughtme as a pup to always keep an eye on the events around me while remaining focused on my enemy.
The wolf was surprised when I twisted as he hit, sending us both to the ground with me on top. Not what it was expecting as I grabbed it’s neck and shook. If this were a lesser beast, a couple good shakes could break its neck, but wolves were made of tougher stuff, and all I wanted was a decent enough injury to make it stop.
Fighting to disarm or maim was always more difficult than fighting to kill. And it was made harder when the other side only wanted to see me dead. I held onto its neck as the blood filled my mouth, and when the wolf quieted, I stopped shaking it.
Keeping my paws firmly on the wolf, I looked up, blood dripping from my mouth, to find Sergi watching me. The wolf he’d been fighting lay at his feet, and the first one I’d fought had crawled over to it.
“You can release it.” He nodded at the wolf under my feet. “They’ve given up.”
I stared down at my prey and saw the defeat reflected in its gaze. I panted as my wolf calmed, then stepped back to release it. It got up, shook itself, then limped to where the other two lay.
I followed and stepped next to Sergi, who watched the wolves. My focus was on the fourth wolf, who was still out there but hadn’t joined the fight.
Sergi turned with me as the fourth wolf, the one who’d been approaching from the pond, stepped out from behind a tree. It never joined the battle but simply watched and waited. I didn’t think it was an Alpha, more likely the lead scout. It lifted its head and released one mournful howl.
Sergi dropped his daggers and spread out his arms as he faced it.
“We’re not here to bother you. We just want to go home. You won’t see us again.”
The wolf stared, and while it didn’t advance, it didn’t appear impressed by Sergi’s words of truce. Then Sergi spoke again in a language I didn’t understand but recognized as the local Romanian tongue.
The wolf bowed its head, followed it with a whine, then barked. The three wolves near us slowly slipped away into the forest. Small drips of blood trailed after them.
“We’ll continue so you can shift and heal your wounds. Don’t follow us.”
The wolf lifted its head and howled. Sergi glanced down at me, and I nodded. The fight was over, and while the wolves refused to take it as a loss, they wouldn’t bother us anymore.
I trotted over to the trail that led down the mountain and waited while Sergi collected our clothes and backpack.
Without a glance back, which told the wolves we trusted them to honor their word, we continued our journey. One naked vampire and one limping wolf.
