Page 28 of The Dark War

Sighing, trying to bring reign in my anger, Dean reached for my hand. “He’s down at the southeast border. Osirus used the shifter horn for backup. He told us they were fine, just a bunch of ordinary witches.” I let out a sigh. Fighting was Kane’s thing, I shouldn’t be mad about that, but the nagging in the back of my head still festered. The static that still strung over the mind-link had me clench my fist.

“I can’t link him,” I muttered. Raine stood in the corner, holding her hand to her mouth. Her eyes glazed over, trying to reach him. “I can’t either.” Her eyes held worry. “He just linked us fifteen minutes ago.” Kissing Evelyn’s cheek, I handed her back to Raine.

“I’m going after him.” Arguments ensued behind me, but it was already too late. I had made my decision.

Stomping through the kitchen and into the dining room. The entire room went silent. I must have been leaking some sort of powerful aura because not one breath could be heard. “I need ten of the fastest wolves. We leave now.” The growling through my chest reverberated against the doorway as I pushed the swinging door out of the pack house.

Not caring if I ripped through my pale blue dress, I shifted. Yells from Raine, Dean, and even Naomi, who was coming out of her cabin, could not stop me. My mate was hurting, and there was no other place I could be right now. Evelyn was safe. The pack had our strongest warriors keeping our fortress hidden.

“Wait!” Liam, Kane’s father, tried to link me, but my mind was too busy thinking about my mate. The static continued to shift through my head, burning holes in the far corners of my mind. Giana howled at the annoyance, but we followed the pull.

I jumped over streams, bushes, and thickets of thorns. Pulling hunks of fur from my body, they regrew in an instant, but as I traveled, feeling Kane’s pull becoming stronger, my body began to weaken.

I grew tired, something that shouldn’t be happening. Wolves behind me caught up; their whimpers as they ran with me had me blink several times. I blinked too hard for too long, and my paws tripped in the mud below me.

We ran so far in such a short amount of time, the fastest I had ever tried. Surely I couldn’t be tired. Giana was to regenerate me. One of the warriors nudged my side. My eyes blinked in surprise, jumping back up on all fours. Trying to link them, I realized the static became louder. We all shook our heads.

Whimpers held one concerned wolf; he nudged my hip where my body met the mud. A long scrape, nothing that would inhibit my ability to run, but blood tricked down the fur. I wasn’t healing.

Checking the other warriors, they had cuts and scrapes too. Their bodies could no longer heal either.

What is happening?

Trying the mind-link one more time, the static roared in my ear. I howled a whimper and buried my ear into the mud. It was so strong it had me clawing my head until the warriors tried to make me stop. One shifted, screaming in pain as he did so. He jumped over my body, holding my paws away.

His torso was riddled with scrapes, his face contorted with pain as I saw one last bone pop into place. Howling one more time, a large roar made the trees around us shake. Thick leaves of green fell to the ground around us until the pounding of paws vibrated through our bodies.

My wolves whimpered, backing away from my body. That mind-link that held static became stronger until I heard the voice that I needed to hear. “Love, what are you doing?” His voice was soft, trying to calm me.

It was a reset. Kane’s voice flipped a switch in my head that caused me to close my eyes to watch the movie scenes before me. Those eyes, the dark wings, and the skin. She screamed out my name as I watched a knife plummet into her heart. The deep chuckles of darkness, the twisted grin of a vampire, and the clinking of his overly large rings on fingers as Skye fell to the ground.

Skye.

The fae woman in my dreams that called for me every night, it was her. Instead of my mind remembering each scene individually, it hit me like a freight train that never planned on stopping. Memories, sickening memories of bloodshed in the palace. The vials of potions, the white dust floating into my eyes, it was all there.

Giana shifted our body back into our human form, the memories proving to hit my mind so hard, her healing abilities stuck in my head. I screamed out in pain, seeing the wolves surrounding me, their backs to me to cover my naked form.

Kane hovered over me, still in his beastly body. His arms came around me, cuddling me into his chest. “I’ve got you.” His wet nose pushed into my neck. My body hung in his arms like a rag doll. “Skye,” I whispered. “Dust, the powder,” I mumbled. Giana pushed into my head further, the ripped memories that flashed in my mind slowly being sewn together by Giana’s paw.

“Rest,” Torin’s rumbled voice filled my ears. My head turned, checking for wounds on his shoulder. “Rest,” he urged me again. Once my fingers rubbed the once damaged area of dried blood, my eyes closed of their own accord.

Chapter Sixteen

Kane

Thecleansingflamepushedmy fur behind me. The heat of the blaze, the ash floating around the dead bodies of rogue witches and vampires, burned my nose. Torin purred in my head, happy that at least some of these mother fuckers were dead.

Osirus had blown the shifter horn, immediately calling us to his aide. I knew the fae would need some help, some damn muscle to push through the enemy lines. I couldn’t believe he actually thought his small platoon of fae soldiers would be enough to rescue his mate’s friend. If I had learned anything in all my dealings with bloodsuckers, it was that they couldn’t be trusted, and now they were working with magical beings to make it all the worse.

We were losing. A dark force had penetrated the walls of the old, ruined compound used hundreds of years ago. The magic around me had my fur stiffen, knowing that the leaking aura of darkness was seeping into our blood.

It was so difficult holding this higher power Torin and I had. We could sense things others couldn’t, and oftentimes, it could be too late. Once we entered the glamour spell that hid them inside their hide-out, our healing abilities were severed from our wolves. My warriors were hurt, blood spilling to the ground faster than I ever intended.

The smell and sight of my warrior’s cries felt familiar as they tried to dodge fire, electricity, and frozen streams of magic impaling their bodies.

Too familiar.

The worst part was that I couldn’t put my finger on where this smell was, this power I had felt before.

---