Mark growled, but when Caster turned to the projection that was present-day Mark, his expression remained impassive. The past Mark moved like the warrior he’d proven himself to be and had one of the vampires by the neck, and the others stopped, encircling him. He didn’t seem fazed by their insurmountable threat. His growl tore through the heavy air, and Caster couldn’t contain the pride swelling in his chest when the vampires shrank back.
The vampire in his grip was bleeding, struggling against the enormous strength of the half-transformed Mark. The utter lack of urgency or movement from Zeke drew Caster’s attention only for a moment. It was unusual, inexplicable. Given the threat they faced, the Alpha should at least help. Instead, Mark was in a fight by himself. His claws tore through the vampire’s neck as he battled the others, who seemed unwilling to unleash their full strength, their threats somewhat subdued.
A blur of movement signaled more enemies for Mark to deal with. He tore his attention from the battle Mark waged against seven vampires to see his cousin Bastian.
Bastian grabbed Zeke by the neck, and the Alpha seemed to yield to his fate. “Stop!”
Mark’s claws ripped through the vampire’s neck, tearing his head clean off, and he reached for the second of his assailants, his torn skin from the vampire attacks repairing as fast as new wounds appeared, his clothes drenched in blood.
“I said, stop.” Bastian’s voice stilled the precision of Mark’s movement. The other vampires stepped away from Mark, a silence reinforcing the stalemate.
Bastian’s claws dug into Zeke’s neck. “You’re coming with me, or he dies.”
The growl from Mark’s wolf was enough to cause the other vampires to shrink further away from him. He advanced, his intent to tear Bastian apart unmistakable, but he stopped halfway to his goal. It took a second for Caster to register the palpable change in the air, the toxicity of the magic whose source could only be…Ethel.
She materialized in Mark’s path, a smile on her face. Mark started to move again, but she held up a hand, and he was held still. He struggled against the magical bonds holding him in place, his growl morphing into a pained howl the longer he remained stuck.
“This will be so much easier for you if you stop struggling.” Her tone was indulgent. Her demeanor was anything but.
Mark didn’t seem to trust it either. His struggle to fight her magical bonds grew fiercer.
The witch’s sigh was too dramatic for the moment. “Fine.” She glanced at Bastian, Zeke still in his grip. “I guess, we have to do this the hard way.” She squeezed her hand in a fist, looking at Mark like a prize she wanted above everything. The effect of her magic became clear when Mark’s latest howl dissipated into a human gasp. His claws, the only indication of his wolf, retreated into his nailbeds.
Her prey immobilized, she smiled. “Do you feel that, wolf?”
Mark tried to move again, but her magic proved too much.
“I have taken your wolf.” Her smile grew as she circled Mark’s still body. “Swear your allegiance to me, and I will give him back.”
A single tear rolled down Mark’s cheek, and Caster couldn’t contain his rage. He willed his form forward, only for an invisible thread to draw him away from his target.
You can’t.
Riley’s voice in his mind was unwelcome. Caster tried to fight against the considerable magic holding him in place as the growl of another wolf filled the space.
Ethel gasped, turning to Bastian. “Who is that? They were supposed to be alone.”
Whatever Bastain said drowned in a renewed blur of activity. A large gray wolf, James, imposed itself on the proceedings. He‘d torn one of the other vampires’ heads clean off before the others could even mount a considerable defense. His arrival, the speed and efficiency of his attack, proved a significant game-changer. In her surprise and anger at a situation she could no longer control, the witch lost control of Mark.
He moved with renewed urgency, his goal, Bastian, but in human form, both Ethel and Bastian were much faster. Bastian’s considerable strength lifted Zeke off the ground by the neck as Ethel’s magic once again immobilized Mark, too close to his target.
Her voice, still and small as it was, drowned out the battle waging behind Mark. “Know that you could have prevented this.”
She hurled an orb of her dark magic at Zeke’s form, and Bastian was wise enough to step away from it as it found its mark. The sound of bone crunching as Zeke’s body disintegrated into the pieces Mark had tried to describe to him was one he would never forget. As was the piercing scream from Mark.
Mark fell to his knees as Ethel and her vampires dissipated into a teleportation spell. He scrambled on his hands and knees to what was left of Zeke, his pain a whispered “no,” he repeated like a chant as he gathered the mess of limbs to his lap.
His pain infected the air, enough that even in this form, Caster couldn’t escape the weight of it. James remained in wolf-form, guarding the perimeter like the soldier he was, as Mark’s pain drained all life out of him. His tears flowed past his face, drawing gasps from his shaking body, his hands slack as they held on to the man he loved.
A crack of thunder startled James, and he growled a warning which Mark was too lost in his grief to heed. Unnatural darkness blanketed the natural darkness, infecting it with the same toxicity Caster had experienced before Pierce pulled him into the light.
James’s growl became a whine when the darkness closed in on them. Mark lifted his head like it weighed a ton, his gasp shaking him out of his grief the moment he became aware of the new threat. Red points of light, five, that Caster could count, bled through the darkness. Eyes. Eyes that he’d seen before.
Mark scrambled to his feet as the eyes grew closer, moving with the darkness instead of through it. James moved closer to his charge, still in wolf-form, growling at the new threat. The red-eyed creatures, not unlike the one they’d encountered the night they’d gone looking for the witch, stepped closer, a thinbaring of sharp, pointy teeth appearing below each set of eyes.
He felt, more than heard, Mark’s gasp, his inability to access his wolf now a fact. The creatures and the darkness that made up their bodies drew closer, and Mark took an inadvertent step back. James stood his ground even as the wolf he was whined its fear.
Caster fortified his form for the inevitability that he would join this fight, the consequences be damned, when the creatures stopped their advance. It took a second for him, in this form, to register the change in circumstance.