Pack magic, p.2
Pack Magic, page 2
I had time to prepare. I wanted to make a memorable entrance before I fought to the death. And my mother’s leather fighting outfit would do just that. I rummaged through the trunk in my closet and found the pants and the corset, wondering whether I’d be able to pull it off. After showering, I shimmied into the pants and clasped the bodice together before turning toward the mirror.
My wet locks fell freely, but I didn’t want my hair loose. It was too easily grabbed in a brawl. I pulled my hair back and set a tight braid in a matter of minutes. One glance at the effect, and I smiled. I looked like a redheaded Laura Croft, ready to kick ass.
If I had to shift, I’d have to recreate this look when I won and shifted back to human form. I nodded at my reflection, staring into my green eyes. Eyes that held more trepidation than I could allow.
“You got this.”
Great. Now I was talking to myself. I rolled my eyes and headed out of the house without taking a last look.
The arena sat at the far side of town, which was a decent mile-long walk from our house. It gave me time for the doubts to creep in, especially with the empty streets surrounding me. It was almost like waking up after the apocalypse. No one was around like I expected.
No one was doing the last-minute run to get a seat for the fight.
I stopped with the arena in view and the wind at my back. My stomach knotted. I homed in on my wolf hearing, tilting my head to get a better read. Sounds of feral growls reached my ears, and my blood chilled with cheers from the crowd.
My heart thudded into my stomach and my lungs tightened, making drawing air difficult as panic pounded my muscles. Both fear and anger bloomed hot, mixing into a potent cocktail of anxiety. My brother had gone and defied me, doing something incredibly stupid.
And Phillip had to have been in on the ruse. Damn them.
I bolted toward the arena doors, skidding to a stop in front of the wood panels blocking the entrance. I yanked on the handles. They didn’t budge. My heart thundered in my ears, and I tapped into that alpha thread that I usually kept closed. My brother’s pain, along with the pack’s bloodlust, came through, nearly cutting me off at my knees.
I gripped the doors and pulled, using every ounce of power I had inside me. Vampire and alpha strength combined, turning me into a force of nature, and the wood holding the gates tightly closed splintered to nothing more than sawdust. The doors ripped from their hinges, and I tossed them away from me.
I was just in time to witness the light from my brother’s eyes fade. His death hit me like a speeding bulldozer, and I reeled back with the force of it. My brother’s body went limp in the wolf’s jaws, and the bastard shifted to human form to finish the brutal ritual to claim his position as alpha. He gripped my brother’s head with the intent of tearing it from his body.
“Stop!” I yelled, pushing my influence across the entire arena.
Everyone froze in place.
The man holding my brother’s head snapped his gaze up, and his bright-blue eyes met mine. An arrow to the center of my chest would have been more welcome than the inappropriate burn his gaze caused in me.
I pointed at him. “You. Step away from my brother.”
He dropped my brother’s limp body on the ground and stepped away. His body was slick with the blood of his own injuries, which mingled with that of my dead brother.
I marched down the aisle right into the ring, staring him down. I couldn’t bring myself to look around the arena at the pack who let this farce of a fight occur. Not with the heaviness of my brother’s death still clinging to me like a thousand-pound press squeezing my chest.
“He won. He is the new alpha,” one of the older council members said.
I could never remember that crotchety old man’s name, but I recognized his voice, and my glare moved from the contender in the ring to the council.
“I did not sanction this.” I pulled on my alpha, bringing her front and center, and pushed the power out over the entire arena. “I am the rightful alpha and the one who will fight to the death for the position.”
I had seen my father do this once, and the effect was the same. Each pack member folded in on themselves, cowering under my influence. I scanned the crowd, disgusted that they would let an innocent die. They were more filled with bloodlust than the vampire part of me.
When my gaze landed on Phillip, I let out a growl. He dropped his gaze, wiping the tears from his cheeks. He had no right to cry over the outcome he so readily supported. Yet his tears tightened my throat, and I looked down at my dead brother.
I moved to his still body. His dark wolf pelt was covered with matted blood from several different cuts, and I dropped to my knees next to him, letting the sadness wrap around me like a noose. Tears filled my eyes, and I leaned over him, letting them drop into his fur like magic rain.
Both my parents had instructed me on how to use my tears. But my phoenix tears hadn’t worked on them. It hadn’t pulled them back from the dead liked I had hoped. Even so, this was my brother, and I had to try on my only blood relative left.
“You stupid idiot,” I whispered and wiped my face, transferring the wetness to William’s snout before I sniffled and glanced up at Phillip.
Phillip moved tentatively through the crowd until he stood at the perimeter of the battleground. He shook his head like he knew what I was about to do.
With all my power of the vampire persuasion, I issued an order. One Phillip could not ignore. “Phillip, take my brother back to the house and wait there until I arrive.”
He clenched his jaw, and he marched forward. “Don’t do this,” he whispered as he scooped up my brother’s limp body in his arms.
“Go.” I growled, letting my anger surface. We were going to have some really nasty words when I got home.
If I got home.
As soon as Phillip cleared the arena, I climbed to my feet and walked to the center of the ring. I turned in a circle, clamping down on the devastation pummeling my muscles. Everyone was still cowering and averting their eyes. Even the council had their eyes on the ground.
The only one who wasn’t cowering from my alpha pulse was the bloody stranger in the ring with me. I scanned him from crown to toe and back, and the smell of his blood sang to the vampire in me. I had to squash the reaction, along with the appearance of my vampire fangs. My wolf fought to overtake me as well, and I wasn’t sure whether it was for revenge or something else because Alpha Boy’s dangly bits weren’t dangling like they had when he stepped away from my dead brother.
Maybe he was just as twisted as he looked, and got off on the idea of killing. That left me cold and ready to lay down my own gauntlet.
“This is my fight.” I shifted with a growl, and his eyes went wide as my flame licked my fur.
“You cannot shift in the battle for alpha,” Alec shouted from the council table.
It was enough to turn my attention away from Alpha Boy to Alec, who was shaking his head.
I shifted back to human form. “Why the fuck not?” I slammed my fists into my naked hips, not shying away from all the eyes staring at the curves of my body that were now on full display.
Hushed whispers cascaded through the arena. I wasn’t sure whether it was my language, or the glimpse of the flaming wolf that most of them had never seen, or the fact that I wasn’t hiding my lady parts like a good wolf should in front of a stadium full of people.
“Because that is leveraging your other powers,” Alec said. He had seen me more than enough times over the years not to blink at the spectacle, but the rest of the council hadn’t, and they were wide-eyed and frightened at the display.
I narrowed my eyes at them, especially Alec, who I had rebuffed many advances from over the years, but somehow, we had still remained friends. Or so I thought. Until now. The hunger, coupled with something darker, in his eyes gave me pause. “This has nothing to do with being the alpha of this pack, does it?”
Alec swallowed hard and looked at the ground. “It has everything to do with who the alpha of this pack is,” he said through clenched teeth. “Using your other powers puts you in default.”
I turned back toward my opponent, who now stared at me with an unwanted look. One I had seen before. One that a lot of the men in the crowd wore as they stared at me. But from my opponent, it seemed to be deeper, more visceral, much like the way my father looked at my mother. I wasn’t interested in being this asshole’s bitch.
This was my pack. Not his.
I held my hand out and pulled my bo from the ether. “If you won’t let me fight with my wolf, then I am fighting with my bo, because, otherwise, this is a fancy façade for an execution.” I glanced at Alec and received a hesitant nod in return despite the gawks from the rest of the council.
The man splayed his hands out in front of him and shook his head, taking a limping step backward. “I need time to heal before I step back in the ring.” He waved at the damage my brother had done. Bloody welts and torn skin met my gaze, and I think he may have had a broken arm to boot, based on the unnatural angle of it. “Otherwise, this will end up being my execution.”
His breathless voice was almost musical in my ears, and I clenched my teeth with a glare. His injuries were significant enough to make a fight today a slaughter. But this was the man who took my brother’s life. Of course, I’m sure both he and Phillip lied through their teeth, saying I sanctioned the fight, but still, I wanted blood.
“Fine. You have ten days to heal and get back into fighting shape. So be back here at eight in the morning next Friday,” Alec said.
Of course the council would agree to a stay of execution. They wanted their white knight to put me in an early grave, and from the looks of him, that wouldn’t happen today.
I pointed my bo at Alpha Boy across the ring as he attempted to hide his privates from my view. “Your funeral will be next Friday.” I sent my bo back to the ether and tapped into my magic to dress myself in the same badass outfit that was shredded on the ground around me.
I marched out of the arena without a word.
As soon as I was clear of the prying eyes of the pack, I let out a sob. The loss of my brother weighed heavy on me, and Phillip was going to get an earful. William wasn’t as strong of a fighter as I was, so why he would have gone along with this insane idea was beyond me.
By the time I got back to my house, the rumblings of the pack echoed in my head. Some mourned William just as deeply as I did, and others...well, let’s just say they were hoping for a repeat on Friday. I shut them off. I wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction of my pain. Not when they rejected me so fully.
I swung the door open and stopped in the doorway at the sight before me. William nursed a cup of tea with a blanket wrapped around him. He glanced at me with a sheepish smile. The kind that told me he knew he was in a world of trouble. His cheeks still held a paleness, but at least he was breathing.
My phoenix tears had worked. That revelation froze my feet in place. It was the first time I brought someone back from the dead, too, and it shocked me, wiping out the devastation in my soul and making my form shake with the sudden release of tension.
On the heels of my relief came my rage.
“What the hell were you thinking?” I slammed the door behind me, opting for the anger to keep my wobbly legs straight.
“I was fighting so you wouldn’t have to. Dad wouldn’t have wanted you to take the hit,” he said, without much power behind his voice. It was the same argument from last night.
I had rejected it then, just as I rejected it now.
My alpha bristled. “You will not do that again, understand?”
I let my alpha power roll through the house. William cowered, and Phillip just looked at the floor with a frown carved into his deceptively youthful face. I focused on William. “You are all that I have left.”
My chin trembled, and I looked up at Phillip, sharpening my blurry glare in his direction as paths of heat fell from the corner of each eye, clearing my vision. “And you.” I pointed at him. “You are in the fucking doghouse.”
He lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “I knew you could bring him back.”
“Well, good for you. It didn’t work on either Mom or Dad, so why were you so damn sure I could this time?”
“Because your mother’s time was up, and your father wanted to be with her. Besides, their tattoos made reviving them impossible. But even if he didn’t have it, he still would have opted to not come back. That’s the catch with your power to revive the dead. They have to want to live.”
William climbed to his feet and set the teacup on the table. “Dying sucked, but I figured you could bring me back if it happened. And if I won, I would have named you alpha.” He shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal. “Plus, now, maybe I’ll look more like Dad.”
His tilted grin pulled a high-pitched laugh from my lungs. “What if you were wrong?” My voice cracked, and my gaze jumped between them.
William wrapped the blanket around his waist, revealing a torso without a scar. Only the anti-possession tattoo of an eye marred his perfect chest. We both had the same tattoo, and I can remember the discomfort of the tattoo guns. It was uncomfortable, but nothing like what I expected. Phillip gave us a modified version. One that didn’t bind us like the one my parents had. But it would never let another being possess me and have access to my powers. Which was the goal of us getting the tattoo.
William crossed to me and gave me a strong hug. One thing about William Young: he knew how to give a comforting hug. I almost forgot about how angry I was with him as he lightly squeezed me, warming my heart.
“I’ve never been wrong about you. Ever,” he whispered in my ear.
I leaned into the hug. He was always more spot-on about me than anyone else. We shared the same blood, but I somehow got all the power that came with it. He got the soft heart and calming presence versus my chaotic vibe.
It took a moment for his words to sink in. The only way he would have put his life on the line was if he thought I couldn’t win the fight.
I pushed him away, giving him my evil eye. “You didn’t think I could win.” It came out in more of a gasp than a statement.
William glanced at the ground and pressed his lips together. When he raised his eyes, I knew. That’s why he sacrificed himself for me.
“And you are feeding me a line of bullshit about believing I could bring you back.” I crossed my arms.
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Phillip said. “I knew you had the power locked inside you. It just had to be the right circumstance for it to shine through.”
My gaze shot to Phillip. “So, you used my brother because you didn’t think I could win the fight. You gambled with his goddamned life!” I repeated, my voice stronger and surer and full of the anger making my form shake. Seconds slid by without a response.
William glanced at the ground, avoiding my gaze. Phillip followed suit.
Their total lack of faith in my ability stung more than the council saying my father’s wishes didn’t matter. I closed my hands into fists before I exploded.
A knock on the door interrupted, giving both Phillip and my brother a stay of execution from my fury. I took a breath, thankful for the diversion.
I spun and yanked the door open, and my relief evaporated. The alpha who had killed my brother stood on our doorstep. Except now he was clothed and had one of his arms in a sling. The right side of his face was marred by black and blue, and one of his eyes had swelled in the aftermath of the fight.
The unexpected guest sent a shock wave through me.
“I came to offer my condolences.” He looked up from the ground, flashing those nearly electric-blue eyes at me. His eyes widened at the sight of my brother over my shoulder. The man stepped back, and his gaze shot to mine. “He was dead. How is he alive?” He waved at William with his uninjured hand and then his eyes narrowed as he came up with his own answer. If he were able to conjure silver bullets, they would have shot out of his eyes at me, leaving me for dead. “Necromancer.”
Necromancers were not abided in any civil society, and the fact he thought I would manipulate the dead irked me back into the seriously deadly mood I had been in moments before.
“No. Phoenix tears, you asshole.”
“She’s not a necromancer,” William said from behind me. His voice held a growl as well, as if seeing the stranger bristled his protective instinct. The fact he spoke an articulate sentence should have busted the necromancer thought.
The dead brought back to animation by a necromancer didn’t speak and they didn’t heal, either. They looked more like rejects from The Walking Dead than a normal human.
The man blinked at him, and then his gaze dropped to mine with a layer of confusion over the hostility still radiating from him. “The phoenix is a myth.”
I waved at my body, as though that should be enough. “Apparently not. Besides, your presence here is unwelcomed.” I could not deal with his murderous glare any longer and went to slam the door.
His hand landed in the center of the wood, stopping the door from swinging closed. “I was asked to come. So, your attitude is unwelcomed.”
“Who asked you to come to my house?”
His lips pressed together, and he glanced at William over my shoulder. “No one asked me to come here. But I was asked to come to save this pack.” His tone screamed annoyance and an underlying anger. “Now I understand their inability to get behind you as their alpha.”
I bristled, feeling my fire trying to surface. I held it down, but I certainly was tempted to smoke this stranger right where he stood. But that went against everything my parents taught me. Murder was wrong, and there never was a valid reason for that. Killing in self-defense was forgivable, but that was only if there was no other way to survive. “And you readily agreed to kill to take the helm.”
He stared me down, but I caught the nuance of a wince as I said the words. “That’s the protocol.”
“Fuck protocol. Any leader worth a damn would find a solution other than death.” At least that’s what my father had taught me. The only true exception was when it was kill or be killed, and a fight for alpha should not be a kill-or-be-killed situation, in my humble opinion.
