Tooth and Claw (The Harry Russo Diaries Book 2) (21 page)

Navarre, sensing that he might be able to egg Nash on, began
reciting all the nasty things he planned to do to Nash’s mom and sisters. The
wolf snapped and snarled as Navarre’s words became more and more sickening.

“And I can’t forget about the wee one, such a pretty little
thing with her golden curls. Maybe I’ll keep her as a pet?” Navarre smiled a
sick smile at Nash. The wolf padded to the edge of the circle and stood with
his hackles up, his teeth bared. He snapped and barked at Navarre. “In a few
years, she’d be old enough to fuck, since I can’t have your lovely mate.”

“No, you bastard!” I yelled at Navarre and scrabbled to haul
in the slack on the gold chain, but I was too late. With a snarl, the wolf
bounded across the circle. I felt a pop as the protective ring fell, the
magical backlash sending me down on one knee. The chain grew taut for a split
second but instead of being dragged out of the circle, I suddenly found myself
falling back on my ass. The cuff and chain had disappeared. I looked over at
the wolf, or rather the wolfman. Nash’s collar was gone and he had morphed
from a full wolf to his even more lethal half-man, half-wolf shape. He
launched himself across the distance to reach Navarre. Navarre laughed in
satisfaction and met Nash’s attack head on. They grappled for a second and
then Nash went flying off of Navarre. He scrambled to his feet quickly,
unhurt, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Navarre stood at the ready, waiting
for Nash’s next move. He had discarded his crossbow at some point and instead
was armed with two short, curved blades. They shone brightly in the waning
moonlight and I knew that they would be coated with silver.

“Nash, look out! Those are silver blades!” I wasn’t
sure if Nash was even aware of me anymore at this point, his focus so intent on
Navarre. I grabbed my katana and took a few steps towards the combatants.
Navarre didn’t play fair so I didn’t see why we had to. We’d see how he
managed with a little two-on-one.

I took another step towards Navarre and he risked a glance
at me. He shook his head with a smile. “Oh no, my lovely. We’ll have none of
that.” The air crackled around us and I felt the overhead dome of magic
compress. It snapped down in size forming a large circle around Nash and
Navarre, encapsulating them in their own private fight ring. The circle had materialized
just inches in front of me and I was thrown backwards by the force of the magic
snapping into place.

“No!” I shouted. There was nothing I could do. I watched
helplessly while Nash and Navarre circled one another. Navarre was speaking,
but I could no longer hear what he was saying, the sounds coming from the
barrier muffled like they had been back at the lab.

Suddenly, Nash lashed out with his clawed hand. He took
Navarre by surprise and managed to rake his claws down Navarre’s side before he
could jump backwards out of reach. Navarre retaliated with a slash of one of
his blades, but Nash dodged out of the way, the blade sailing by harmlessly.
My relief was short-lived however because Navarre quickly followed the first
strike with a second from the opposite hand. It took Nash off guard and the
blade sliced across his back. His howl was muffled, but I could tell it was
full of pain. The silver would have immediately affected him the moment it
touched his skin. The cut weeped blood but didn’t appear to be too deep.
Unfortunately, it didn’t have to be. Even with just a few shallow cuts, Nash
would begin to weaken from the silver poisoning. I had to find a way to put a
stop to the fight.

I jumped to my feet and stepped up to the dome. The
magic sizzled and crackled as I drew close, making the hairs on my arms stand
up. I held out my palm to the surface. A frisson of energy roared up my arm
and sent me flying backwards. Okay, so that wasn’t going to work. I sat for a
moment, stunned, my arm numb. The combatants within the circle seemed
oblivious to my attempt. They continued to circle each other, each dripping
blood from several wounds. I looked at Nash, he appeared to be tiring. I
wasn’t sure how much longer he would last. Navarre, on the other hand, looked
like he was totally unaffected by his injuries.

A movement beside me had me scrambling to my feet again, my katana
raised. I huffed out a half-felt laugh as Daniel came to stand beside me. “I
don’t know what to do, Daniel. I don’t know how to help him. Navarre is going
to kill him.” Tears threatened to spill from my eyes. I wiped them away
angrily. They weren’t going to help anything right now.

Daniel yipped at me and then danced forward. He was going
to hit the protective circle and I threw out my hand, shouting a warning. The
warning died in my throat though as Daniel passed right through the barrier.
Of course, he was a ghost. I shook my head at my mistake. Another movement
drew my eye to the circle on my other side. The big grey wolf had stepped into
the circle. He looked over his shoulder at me and yipped. He was soon joined
by another and then another. I had forgotten about my ghost pack. In seconds,
they had formed a ring around the entire circle, some of them standing half in,
half out of the protective barrier.

“I don’t know what you are trying to tell me, but I can’t
cross like you can.” I shook my head at them. “I hate to break it to you all,
but I’m alive and you’re dead. I guess the barrier doesn’t stop the dead.” I
gasped, sucking in a breath and holding it. The barrier didn’t stop the dead.
I looked back at Nash, he was limping now, a large jagged wound in his thigh.
He wouldn’t last much longer.

Decision made, I ran back to the small circle I had drawn in
the sand. I quickly retraced it, fixing the scuffed lines. I grabbed the sage
grass off the ground where I had dropped it and set it to smoking. With the
circle cleansed and the barrier reformed I sat cross-legged in the middle. I
stole another glace at Nash. He was holding his side, obviously in pain.
Okay, I shouldn’t have looked. It wasn’t helping. I needed to be calm.

I let out several deep breaths and closed my eyes. I found
my centre and grounded it in the earth below me, letting my consciousness flow
out around me. The clearing came alive with the electricity of life. I could
feel the charged auras of the entities around me. The trees, the grass, the
insects, a small vole creeping along the shoreline oblivious to the battle
going on just yards away, every living thing gave off a slight electrical
charge. Navarre’s dome positively crackled with energy. To my heightened
senses it looked like one of those globes with lightning inside, the kind that
when you put your hand on it the lightning would flow to your hand, dancing
across the surface.

But it wasn’t the living I was concerned with, it was the
dead. I turned my senses to the lake. Even within the lake I could sense
little electrical charges of life, the fish and insects that called the water their
home. Closest to the shore however, the sparkling life of the lake was
marred. It was like there was a black hole eating the edge of the lake,
sucking the life from it. Instead of the electricity of life, only death could
be found. The sense of wrong I felt was amplified by my heightened senses. I
took several more deep breaths trying to push all my doubts about what I was about
to attempt out of my mind.

I really wasn’t sure what I was doing, or if it would even
work. But I had to try. In the past few weeks, I had read everything I could
on necromancy trying to come to terms with my gift. It wasn’t exactly a
subject you could go to your local library and research however. Salvador had
his own collection of books and journals, centuries’ worth of information on
all things supernatural. Lucky for me, he had several books on necromancy and
Isaac had helped himself before he had come to live at the firehall.
Unfortunately, there was no ‘how-to’ guide for raising the dead. Instead, I
had combed through the personal journals of several necromancers where they had
described their own rituals, what had worked for them. The one thing I had
learned is there really wasn’t one true way. I’d just have to wing it.

I sent my focus out again, feeling the dead that surrounded
me. As I did, I whispered to them, chanting my plea:

“
I call to restless spirits

Justice will be done.

Walk again in mortal coil

Until the rising of the sun
.”

I repeated my chant over and over, feeling the power within
me build. The words didn’t really matter except as a means to focus my intent.
I sucked the energy from the world around me using it to augment my own,
channeling it to the dead. My body felt like it was on fire, every hair
standing on end. When I rose and stepped from the circle, I was flanked by
dozens of wolves in all shapes, sizes and colours, an army of undead at my
back.

I marched towards Navarre’s protective ring. When I reached
the edge, I stopped, just shy of touching it. It was then that I finally
looked into the circle again. I had been afraid of what I would see. Nash was
on the ground. He had morphed back to man form probably unable to hold his
wolfman shape any longer because of the silver coursing through him. Navarre stood
over him a look of smug triumph on his face. I called out in terror.

At the sound of my voice, Navarre turned. His eyes widened
in surprise as he took in the army at my back. Nash’s head turned and his eyes
met mine. They were glazed over with pain, but at least he was still alive.
Hold
on
, I willed at him, pleading to him with my eyes,
hold on.

“Well, you really are full of surprises, my lovely,” Navarre
said, somehow projecting his voice outside the dome. He cast his gaze around
the circle as my wolf pack spread out to form a ring around it. “But your
little army of the dead will do you no good.” He gestured to the dome above him
with a confident smile.

“You’re wrong,” I replied with equal confidence. “You’re so
very wrong. And now, justice will be done.” Navarre’s smile faltered. He
looked suspiciously at the circle of wolves again. “Take him,” I ordered.
“He’s all yours.”

My words were all they needed. Almost as one, the undead wolf army
launched themselves through the magical barrier. It parted before
them like a curtain of water. Navarre threw up his hands in defense with an
unintelligible shout and then the wolves were on him. He stumbled back under
the weight of their attack. In seconds he was engulfed in a snarling pack of
ravaging wolves, his screams becoming more and more anguished until the barrier
suddenly popped out of existence. I rushed to Nash’s side.

“Nash!” I dropped to my knees beside him. He was a mess,
naked and covered in bleeding cuts. The worst were two jagged wounds, one
across his abdomen wrapping around to his back, the other across his left
thigh. Both were bleeding slugglishly. “Cian, can you hear me?” I pulled his
head onto my lap. “Damn you, Cian. Don’t you die on me now.” I cradled him
in my arms, not sure what to do next. His eyes fluttered open for a brief
moment and he sighed. “No! No, you are not allowed to die, you stupid old
wolf. Cian Nash, you listen to me. You are not allowed to die!”

I rocked his still body in my arms, tears splashing down my
face. This couldn’t be happening. I was too late. I had done everything I
could and it still wasn’t enough. I lifted my head and looked across the
clearing to the wolf pack, my undead army. The majority were milling about,
snarling and snapping at one another. Several fought over what appeared to be
an arm and I shivered with revulsion. I had called the dead. I had created
zombies and used them to kill. What kind of monster had I become? As if
feeling my pain, the undead pack froze. As one, they threw their heads to the
sky and howled, yipping and calling out mournfully. At least they were avenged
and I wasn’t sorry Navarre was dead.

“Harry?”

I turned, startled to hear a voice.

“Harry, it’s Isaac.” Isaac stepped out into the clearing.
I had forgot, with the dome down, he would have been able to track me.

“Isaac, help. I need help. It’s Nash.”

Isaac took a step towards me. Several of the undead wolves
turned and snarled at him, taking up a protective stance.

“Harry? Are these…Can you…?” He looked at me his eyes wide
in surprise.

I held out a calming hand to the wolf pack. “It’s okay
guys. He’s with me.”

The wolves backed off, many of them flopping down on their
rumps, tongues hanging out of their mouths. They looked so much like a bunch
of happy dogs, if you ignored the blood and gore coating their muzzles, I
couldn’t help myself and a giggle escaped my lips. I looked at Isaac. “I
killed him, Isaac. I killed Navarre.”

There was another sound behind me. I turned to see Tess and
Christina running across the clearing. Several men in SRU uniforms followed
closely behind. When they spotted my wolves, they came to a halt with various
degrees of confusion and trepidation on their faces. Several of the vampire
members of the team looked at me without outright distrust.

“Harry!” Tess shook off her shock and ran towards me. The
undead wolves didn’t seem concerned. Christina followed, her eyes on Nash.

“I don’t know what to do.” I looked at Christina in the
hopes that she could help. “He’s lost so much blood and there is so much
silver.”

A man in a medic uniform knelt down beside us. He dropped a
first aid kit on the ground beside Nash. “Get back and let me take a look.”
His voice was firm but kind. He looked at me. “Let me help him.”

Tess pulled me back. I gently laid Nash’s head down
reluctantly and let her pull me away. Christina took a step back, but then
hovered over the medic, her eyes filled with concern.

“Harry, what’s up with all the wolves?” Tess looked at me
warily.

“Justice.” I shook my head, not wanting to talk about it.

The medic had been conferring with Isaac, shaking his head.
I turned my attention back to what he was saying. “The chopper is still five
minutes out. I don’t think we have that much time.”