Compelled (19 page)

Suddenly the burden lifted and my pain lessened enough for me to yell at Blazh.

“Don’t make me come for you,” I warned Blazh.

But there was no answer. I twisted my head to see he’d vanished. In one moment, he was there, and the next, he was gone.

What the hell had he done to himself?

But that didn’t matter anymore. What had once existed in a field floated into me.

And like a fool, I swallowed them whole.

Chapter 18

The Ukrainian countryside continued to burn with unnatural lights behind me as I ran, or, I should say, stumbled from the field where the band of old magic werewolves had been trapped toward the unknown to the east.

The goblin’s blade elongated into a sword and glowed at my hip, ready for me to face my enemies, but I was in far too shitty shape to do a damn thing.

So I ran with what strength I’d been given, Blazh’s final gift. My chest burned as the pace grew long. I was never the best runner, even when Thorn tried to train me to reenter the pack. Most of his efforts had been most likely early morning attempts to see me.

What I wouldn’t give for a car or even a horse. Shit, a spell to take me anywhere other than where I was right now was preferred.

Turn back
, a part of me begged.
Face your enemies with honor. Help your friends like they helped you.
Like a heavy block of lead in my stomach, the vessel containing the old magic spellcasters slowed my progress, but I didn’t stop.

My legs pumped faster and I urged the wolf within to work harder. I darted around clusters of trees. Leapt over fences. Burst through cleared farmland. Faster and faster.

A sign read Pylyatyn for the next small town, then Kozary. After that, everything was a blur until I collapsed in a thicket, my chest heavy and body soaked with sour sweat.

Every part of me was filthy, practically beyond anything I’d endured.

Instead of feeding my anxiety, I closed my eyes and curled on my side. I told myself I’d care tomorrow. Just tonight, I’d sleep and rock myself and try to ignore the words I whispered again and again.

“I’ll be clean soon. I’ll be clean soon. I’ll be clean soon.”

Somehow, someway, I had to reach Stolobny Island. A place over twelve hours away by car.

An elderly couple picked me up on the side of the road. They were on their way back to Russia to see their fifth grandchild who had recently been born. They couldn’t take me all the way to my destination, but a town on the border was just as good.

“A girl like you shouldn’t be walking alone,” the older woman chastised as she pushed me into the front seat between the couple.

The need to speak was there, but I only nodded. When I peeked at my hands, they shook uncontrollably. To not frighten the couple, I kept them clenched in my lap.

After sleeping in the thicket overnight, my body had changed in unimaginable ways. Tamara’s warning rang through my head, but I shoved it away.
The exchange requires a piece of you. In ways you can’t control.

What was the catastrophic price I was paying this time? I didn’t sleep for several days like Grandma. So what was changing inside my body and could I slow the process so I could make it? Another shudder passed through me.

The older woman clucked like a concerned mother hen. She pushed a soft piece of bread into my mouth, and then pressed a warm hand on my forehead. “We need to get blankets on this girl. She’s freezing.”

Werewolves usually had a high temperature. After what I’d experienced, I expected to carry a higher one due to the energy I expended to carry these people inside me.

I had yet to think about how I was keeping them there or how I’d get them out other than doing Blazh’s chant again, but one step at a time.

The couple pulled over, the woman helped me into the backseat, and she laid a few blankets over me. They smelled like her vanilla perfume. I snuggled under the covers as a trail of blood ran from my nose. I quickly wiped it away. The couple kept driving, unaware of my rising panic.

We reached
Troyebortnoye,
a small town along the border in Russia, around mid-day. The rest had done me some good, but not much. All around me, the land was flat, like rolling plains. Trees peppered the landscape here and there, but there wasn’t much.

“You need to be careful, Irina,” her husband whispered. Even at the lowest whisper, he was loud and clear to me. “She might have a bad infection. You might pass it to the baby if you’re not careful.”

“I’ve been a nurse for twenty years,” she clucked. “She has nothing more than a basic cold. I’ve been exposed to much worse.” She laughed off his concern. “Maybe I should be more afraid of you after bringing home that disease from that woman.”

The man scoffed. “Are you gonna bring that up again? I’ve apologized for the past ten years.”

“I itched for days after you lay with that bitch.”

I hid my laugh. Maybe this guy was a distant human relative. In a way, he reminded me of my man-whore uncle Boris.

“Thank you for the ride,” I told them. “I’m feeling much better.” With a trembling hand, I managed to open the backseat door and angle myself out. The werewolves trapped inside me churned in my belly and pressed against my bladder. It was time to find a bush before I had an accident.

“We’re already at my daughter, Alyona’s home,” she said with an annoyed tsk tsk sound. “God helps those who take care of their own. Freshen up and eat before you go.” She got out of the car and was on me faster than I could move. I hid my smile. Even my aunt Vera didn’t have the quick reflexes this human possessed.

“Get the bags out,” the woman commanded to her husband. He nodded, apparently whipped into submission after he did the deed ten years ago. “Have Alyona prepare the bed above her garage for our guest.”

I didn’t protest as the woman’s husband helped me into the house. From there, a kind human around my age took me under her wing. Her children huddled and followed her around, but like eager pups, they fed me and tucked me into a warm bed with crisp sheets. Pure heaven.

As the half moon rose and the night creatures prowled, the wolf inside me tugged me awake with a violent shake.

My head flicked to the double window above the one-room garage apartment. I held my breath. Shadows crossed the windows and the goblin blade twitched on my hip.

Time’s up.

I sprang into action, grabbing my belongings and stuffing them into the backpack. My cellphone glowed bright. Nice and fully charged.

A single message flashed on the screen:
Nat, where r u?

I had plenty of other ones, but the one from Tyler was at the top. As quickly as my fingers could move, I typed:
under attack. heading west from
troyebortnoye. thorn safe in finland.

Nothing moved outside my window. I crept out as fast as I could. Without a sound, I leapt off the second story and landed softly on the grass outside. Still good. On the other side of the house, I caught the faint sounds of heavy footsteps where the cars were parked. It wasn’t bipedal like me. Death had found my little sanctuary.

I hightailed it west outta there.

My sprint took me a few miles into the middle of a small woods, my only cover. There was nothing else out here but flat plains, fields, and small towns.

And whatever circled the house had to have followed my trail. Was it the creature that attacked Tamara’s house? Or something worse?

I hungered for a forest. A place where there was nothing but miles and miles of thick vegetation. In the trees, I could try to blend in and hide. Out here, I was exposed and vulnerable.

The need for sleep tugged at me as sleet soaked through my jacket and chilled my skin. With trembling hands, I chanted and pressed my palm to the wet grass. The earth was still. Nothing pulled at me.

I was so screwed.

There was no place for me to go. No jump point.

A little help wouldn’t hurt so I recited the calming spell Grandma Lasovskaya taught me. Warmth and calm immediately drenched me from my head down to my feet.
 

The blade stirred to life so I grabbed it.

The hilt elongated in my hands going from metal to a smooth wood finish. The blade hollowed and twisted upward to a beautiful, spindly spiral point.
 

My heart beat like a trapped animal. I glanced around, but nothing came at me.
Yet.

C’mon, c’mon, finish transforming already.

The tip of the blade turned bright and crystallized. I gripped the middle tightly as the blue crystal at the end whistled. The rain drops that hit the metal strips circling around the crystal evaporated.

I had a freaking hot and cold fireplace poker in my hands.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

What was coming for me to need this kind of thing? It better have a trigger somewhere.
 

The short staff in my hands began to vibrate faster, but I held firm. The wolf within me urgently tugged at me to transform and run away. To chuck it all and flee.

But could I even transform into a werewolf while holding the spellcasters inside me? I’d gone all the way from Finland to the Ukraine yet my pursuers had found me. There was no more running. There was no more escaping. This was the point where I’d either die or make a final stand.

Slowly, I backed into a tree trunk. I listened and waited. At first, there was nothing but a strange silence as the tree branches stretched out their barren limbs like arms reaching for me. They didn’t bring comfort.

The quietness meant one thing: I was being hunted and my pursuers didn’t want me to hear them coming until it was too late.

Get ready, Nat. You got this.

The trees not far from me to the west shook. A powerful blanket of cinnamon filled the air, so strong I could taste it on the edge of my tongue. My heart beat against my ribs and I tried not to think of all the reasons why Tamara made us run away, why Tamara used her house for protection instead of facing it head on.

The pine trees directly in front of me fell over. Whatever was coming for me was closing in fast. The goblin blade shook so fast, my knuckles whitened from the grip. The army stirred in my stomach. An ominous form approached me in darkness with bright red pinpricks in the center—almost like the bioluminescence from deep sea fish. The crimson dots blinked as my attacker grew larger and larger. I’d hoped that whatever was coming for me would maybe be as big as a horse, but what came for me was almost as high as some of the trees. My sharp eyes made out what had to be its face—a mass of wriggling tentacles with eyes in the center. It had a squid-like face, but a lion’s torso. Sharp claws snapped the fallen brush at its feet as it slowly came at me like a predator approaching its prey.

Cato Fillian’s darkling.

A growl formed in the back of my throat. My incisors lengthening in my mouth. The wolf within was hungry for a fight.

“C’mon!” I snapped.

A thin line formed on the darkling’s face and spread open to reveal dagger-like teeth that glowed like hot coals. From its back, longer tentacles squirmed. As its mouth twitched, opening and closing, a clicking noise bounced off the trees.

I turned the goblin blade so that the business end pointed at the darkling. Power pulsed from the glowing crystal and raced into my fingertips. Sparks jumped along the tip. The tiny hairs on my head rose. The burden I carried in my stomach rumbled and a strange aquamarine glow grew along my limbs.

The darkling trembled and like a fellow predator, I knew the next sequence of events. I waited for it, watching the muscles in the darkling’s legs tense up. Any second now, it would strike and I’d be ready. The darkling leapt forward. I lunged and spun to the left, avoiding a swiping claw by inches. The darkling crashed into the trees behind me. As I turned around, I pointed the goblin blade at my target.

Where the hell was the trigger?

I didn’t need one. As I thrust the goblin blade forward, a dual arc of cold and flame shot out of the crystal. In the path of where I fired, branches turned to cinder, and the ash immediately froze afterward.

Now that was bad ass.

The darkling dodged my attack and came at me hard with one of its tentacles. I jerked out of the way, but wasn’t quick enough and the tip of one barbed tentacle snagged my shoulder, tearing the skin that blossomed with pain from the hit.

Keep moving, Nat.
I thrust the weapon at it again, and, this time, a blast of wind rocketed through the thicket, sending the demon one hundred feet into the trees again. But it didn’t stay down for long and scrambled after me.

My quickened breath came out as mist as I tried to dodge and outrun the darkling, but it was far faster. It swooped in again, its wide mouth biting deep into my leg. The pain didn’t keep the wolf in me from fighting back. At the same time, I plunged the crystal tip into the darkling’s shoulder. Blood and flesh sizzled. Our mutual screams filled the air. The darkling immediately released me and scooted backward with a limp.
 

I did the same as hot blood coursed down my leg. God, the pain was awful. I bit back the scream in the back of my throat as black dots danced around my vision. With my shaky left hand, I clutched my leg and with my right, I tried to hold on to the twitching goblin blade. A tree hit my side hard as I backed into it. All the while, I continued to face my enemy.

Stay in the present. Never look away.

The darkling hissed at me from a few feet away, crouching low again for the next attack.

The staff began to vibrate again, this time too much for one hand to steady. I used both hands this time, recognizing the power build-up again as white sparks snaked around the staff. My knees buckled as fatigue swept over me so I used the tree for support.

Time to play again for the last time.

Static electricity tickled my arms. The hairs on the nape of my neck rose as the goblin blade began to glow so bright I had to close my eyes and pray that a final strike was coming to end it all.

The goblin blade shuddered and a missile of white-hot heat from the crystalline tip rocketed into the ground. From there, it shot heavenward into the stirring clouds and then rained down onto the darkling.