Page 115 of The Alpha Dire Wolf
“I’m a witch. Right?” I said, shaking my hands and pointing them at the spun-glass tube. “Then I should be able to do witch stuff. Magic. Come on!”
The vase didn’t so much as shed a mote of dust.
“Stupid. You know better. Leave this to Lincoln. He can handle it.” I stomped a foot on the floor. It didn’t make me feel better, nor did it dampen the knots forming in my stomach.
He was out there, leading his people. Doing exactly what a leader should do. Fighting for them, from the front lines. Which was an excellent place to get hurt. Or worse.
I clamped down on that line of thought, cutting off brain-function supply to it until it withered. It would never die, but that was good enough. Spending time worry about Lincoln just then was pointless. He was an excellent fighter. I’d seen it multiple times.
Especially if he didn’t pick on something bigger than him. And if he did, he had his entire pack to help him out this time. He wasn’t alone.
But I was.
“Ala-ka-zam!” I cried, pointing a crooked finger at a picture frame.
Nothing. I frowned, looking closer. The frame still had the stock photo in it, judging by the blonde little girl being hauled around by her parents. It was a guest room, but that was still weird.
“Okay, Grandma. Now’s the time for you to come through. Speak to me, some sort of ghostly projection. Tell me how to use this power that we supposedly have. They need my help.”
There was no response. Not that I’d expected one.
“Fire!” I spat, thrusting a fist at the photo frame and opening my hand at the last second.
No stream of eye-searing flame burst from my wrist, but Ididget a reaction to my command. Millions of tiny needles drove their pinpricks deep into nerve endings in unison as my spine locked up.
Danger.
I bolted for the door as the window imploded inward in a shower of glass, giving way to the last thing I ever wanted to see again.
Bloodbound.
“No!” I screamed as a bony finger reached for my arm, coming up just short thanks to the early warning of my intuition. “Get away from me!”
The house cracked and gave way as the evil ebony-wood tree-thing tore its way into Lincoln’s house piece by piece, ripping a hole through the wall. I backed out of the room, slamming the door shut behind me. Then I booked it for the stairs.
Wood splintered as the tree-thing body-checked the door from its hinges and emerged into the upstairs hallway.
My intuition power was off the charts, screaming at me like fire klaxons, the noise both distracting and incredibly painful.My skull could only take so much before I was sure it would split in half.
The tree-thing reached me before I made it to the stairs, grabbing me and spinning me around. My ankle caught on something, and I tumbled through the doorway into Lincoln’s room, hitting the floor. The monster meanwhile had been moving too fast to stop, and it smacked hard against the wall when it reached the landing halfway down the stairs. The entire house shook on its foundations from the impact.
Bloodbound.
“Get out of my head!” I howled, scratching at my temples as the voice repeated with its rhythmic drumbeat consistency.
My spine arched and flexed with a constant stream of danger warnings, the pressure beyond incredible. I knew I was in danger. Could it not just shut up for a moment? I needed to think, to try to come up with a—
The tree-thing came through the doorway, smashing the flimsy drywall and framing aside. Bits of dust and debris scattered everywhere as it stalked toward me, eyeless and silent, made of darkened wood that looked constantly slick with wetness.
I couldn’t back up fast enough. It grabbed hold of my ankle as I tried to crawl backward. Icy-cold burned my skin, and I screamed in pain, lashing out with my other foot at its head. The move must have caught it by surprise because it let go. I was up and diving over the bed in a flash.
Bloodbound.
The tree-thing was fast. One incredibly strong arm reached under the bed and flipped it up on end before I had cleared it.
Screaming, I flew through the window, glass shredding my skin in places. I hit the roof outside, rolling down it and then out into nothingness.
I hit the grass flat on my back.
