The day after I failed my first attempt to exorcise a demon, the entire class got another chance at it. We all passed without incident and Rashne only killed the demons once we finished. There were no more messages from any of them about the traitor. I was both happy and disappointed.
The entire month of March was a blur. As the days went by I spent any spare time I had figuring out how to take down Rashne before he got his big blue hands on the Goblet of Demons. I was a woman obsessed. My thoughts drifted in the middle of conversations and classes. The desire to stop him even invaded my dreams. Everyone around me seemed to notice I wasn’t all there. Holly tried to ignore the fact that when she talked my eyes were always staring off somewhere far into the distance.
I walked into the last lesson of the day with Holly and the twins behind me. We all sat together and I spaced off as they talked about what the next test might entail. All I had to do was get through three hours of Rashne droning on about mermaids and I was free to seclude myself and plot his downfall.
Our group went out the night before on a hunt for a dark witch, which meant we had the night off. I looked forward to brainstorming alone in my room. Don wanted to have a mentor meeting, but I planned on blowing it off. He had done it before, so I didn’t think it would be a big deal if I did just this once.
But the night had other plans.
Rashne rushed into the room. “Everyone retrieve your weapons and meet by the elevators. We have an emergency situation that requires all hands.” He spoke in a hurry.
The room erupted in excited conversation. Everyone did as they were told. We gathered in the front lobby within ten minutes to wait for whoever would take us out. It surprised me when I saw both David Yu and Rashne walking side by side. In all the time I had been there, I couldn’t remember ever seeing them together.
David spoke up before his feet stopped moving. Rashne looked down at him with ice-blue narrowed eyes.
“Listen up, kids. We’ve got a rogue werewolf situation. It was spotted in a nearby town tonight and has already killed one person and wounded another. This is a dangerous one. I need you all focused and ready. Anything you’d like to add, Rashne?”
David turned his head to look up at the blue Djinn. His lips pursed and his thin eyes narrowed to the point of being closed. There was obviously something going on between the two of them that we weren’t aware of. Maybe David knew about the goblet and had his sights zeroed in on Rashne as well.
The Djinn didn’t answer. He stared straight ahead. His bulging muscles tightened and released beneath his black tank top.
“All right, let’s move out then!”
It took three trips in the elevator to get all thirty-five people up to the main level. David rode each time to make sure no one tried to sneak off to duck out of the dangerous hunt. Apparently, previous initiates had tried.
The world differed from the last time I saw it. The snow was all but melted and the cool air no longer stung my cheeks. Behind the tall pine trees, the full yellow moon shone brightly, lighting up the night sky. There wasn’t a cloud in sight.
In the parking lot, three large black vans sat running, their tailpipes emitting white clouds into the chilly air.
“Cloaks on, hoods up, and let’s roll,” David said with enthusiasm.
I could tell by the twinkle in his eyes that he truly enjoyed the thrill of the hunt. Walking that fine line between life and death was something that got his heart pumping. He smacked the side of the first van to signal the driver to close the door after everyone was in. He shook his hands out at his sides and bounced on the balls of his feet. The air he heaved through his bowed lips came out in white puffs.
Holly, Atticus, Achilles, Ryker’s former cronies, and I all squeezed into the van driven by the hyped up weapons instructor. I immediately buckled the seat belt across my lap on the long bench seat. He cranked the volume up on the radio to blast Marilyn Manson. I cringed as the music beat against my ear drums.
“Let’s do this!” he shouted before slamming his foot on the gas pedal. The tires squealed as he turned out of the parking lot and onto the main road.
Thankfully, it only took about ten minutes to get to the town of Pinecliffe. When my feet stepped out onto the pavement, my knees wobbled as if ready to give out. I had never felt car sick before, but my head was dizzy and my stomach empty and twisted from his driving.
Without a word, David and Rashne took off down the road lined with dark and quiet houses. We followed closely behind with Holly and me at the front. Thirty-one initiates walked quickly behind us to simultaneously catch up and fall behind.
A howl echoed through the darkness. It sent goosebumps down my arms in a wave. I whipped out my gun from the holster on my hip. As we ran, I ejected the magazine to make sure I had preloaded it with silver bullets as instructed. I had checked at least six times before we left, but I wanted to be one hundred percent sure. Someone’s life would depend on it.
We passed a dark carport and out of the corner of my eye I saw the shadowed figure of Death. It was the same one I had seen in the classroom when Rashne killed the demon—the same one I thought I had imagined in my room the night Danny died. By now, I was positive he only showed his white skeletal face when someone near me was marked for death. But before my eyes could focus, the figure vanished.
My heart raced as I picked up speed to run alongside David. There was a sickening feeling deep within my stomach that told me more than one would die. It couldn’t be Holly. I had to protect her and everyone else in the group. I had to stop the werewolf before it killed again.
Another howl pierced the night. It was closer than before. So close I heard it growl afterwards. I could smell its hot rancid breath filling the air around me. Before I knew it, the werewolf jumped down off a nearby roof to land a few feet before us. I could have sworn the ground shook when its massive hind paws met the rough pavement with a thud. Its long, furry fingers with claws the size of knives braced the creature before it straightened up to its full, terrifying height.
It had the head of a large wolf, with teeth as long as my fingers, pointed like the tip of an icepick. Its long ears perked up with alertness. Drool dripped from its peeled back, black lips as it growled. With a calculated step, it moved its muscular leg forward, its sharp toenails scraping along the road. The ruffled tail behind it shrank close to its body.
It wrenched its jaw wide open and roared with a vengeful fury. My eyes squeezed shut on instinct as I turned away from it. Hot spit flecked my cool cheeks, its teeth a mere seven feet in front of me.
David aimed his gun at the creature’s heart, but there was no time to pull the trigger. With a quick swipe of its large hand, the beast knocked it out of David’s grip. It landed in a nearby bush.
On my other side, Rashne’s hands lit up a bright blue. Flames grew with an angry intensity. I could almost hear the electricity hum inside him. The werewolf charged forward with both hands out and shoved the Djinn. He flew through the air and landed on his back a few yards away.
“Shoot it, Kamlyn!” Holly’s voice rang out over the rumbling growls.
The werewolf had chased after Rashne. It pinned him down with ease. Drool dripped from its teeth and onto the Djinn’s tattooed chest, who struggled to push the half man-half wolf away.
I fired off a shot, but the beast anticipated my move. With great speed it jumped from the ground up to another rooftop and took off on all fours. Its claws scraped at the tin roofs, causing residents to turn on their lights and come outside. There was no time to explain to them what was happening.
“After it!” Holly shouted.
Most of the initiates followed her. A few hung back, standing nervously in the middle of the road with their guns shaking in their hands. Once David found his pistol, he took off after everyone else. Holly and I were at the forefront as always. As my arms pumped furiously, I wondered why we were the two crazy enough to put ourselves right in the path of danger while everyone else avoided it.
/> The werewolf leapt from one roof in an attempt to land on another across the street. Its long, muscular body stretched out over us as it flew through the air. Holly moved quickly to aim her gun upward as it positioned itself over our heads. One of her silver bullets caught the beast in the leg.
It fell from the air with a whimper and rolled along the rough pavement. There was a moment of silence as it lay on the ground. For a brief second, I thought it might be dead. But then the muscles in its arms twitched and it pushed itself up to stand fully erect, teeth bared and eyes burning a bright yellow.
Holly shot again, but missed completely. It charged her on all fours with a speed no human could match. Its shoulder rammed into me and threw me aside, causing me to lose hold of my gun. I didn’t see where it slid off to. I looked around madly as the werewolf lunged forward.
A fury of multiple swipes from the creature’s long claws knocked Holly to the ground. When it landed on top of her, it sank its nails into her upper arm and ripped away in a hooked motion. Bits of flesh hung from its paw. Then, it let out a shrieking howl at the night sky as it brought its bloodied claws to its mouth and chewed at the bits of skin and muscle it’d torn away.
I had to act fast. There was no telling how long the werewolf would be distracted by the taste of fresh blood. There was also no telling how long Holly would last. The ragged figure of Death popped into my mind. I wouldn’t let her die tonight.
I reached up for my necklace and ripped it away from my body. The chain broke as I clenched the pointed wings like a dagger. I set my sights for the harried creature’s heart. With a warrior cry, I raised my arm and thrust the sharpened ends of the silver pendent into the beast’s chest.
Its thick body jarred from the impact. It let out one last faded howl as black blood spurted from the hole. It fell limply onto its back.
Slowly, its large body transformed before my eyes. The thick coat of hair retreated into the pores. Its long snout shortened, its jagged teeth shrank, and its sharpened nails sank into the now human fingers.
It was no longer a monster that lay at my feet with a deep hole in its chest. It was a naked woman. Her blond hair spread out beneath her head on the cold pavement. A pool of bright red blood formed from the river that ran over her breasts and down her side. Death had been right. A woman was dead and I had killed her. But there wasn’t any time for me to process what that meant. Holly needed me.
I ran to kneel by her side. She was still conscious and moaning through gritted teeth. There were several long, deep gashes down the right side of her face. The claws had narrowly missed her eye and nose, leaving them intact while the skin of her cheek hung loosely from the bone. The slashes made to her arm gushed thick blood onto the blacktop. There wasn’t a lot of time. I had to get her to the hospital ward immediately. I didn’t want to think about what would happen if I didn’t.
“It’s okay,” I said to her, unable to hide the panic in my voice.
I had never seen wounds so deep before. I didn’t know if she would be okay, but I couldn’t let her know that. She had to believe she was going to survive if she wanted to have any chance of making it. David ran up and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the badly wounded girl.
“Jesus,” he said as he covered his mouth with his hand. He ran it over his face and through his black hair as he spun around in a circle. His eyes avoided looking at the blood and dangling flesh. “We need to get her back now. Rashne and the others will handle Gordon Scott.”
“What happened to Gordon?” I asked frailly. I didn’t want to know the answer.
David stopped with his hands on his hips. He looked at me through his thin lashes. “He’s dead. The thing tore his heart out from his chest and ate it…right in front of everyone. There was nothing we could do. It all happened so fast.”
I could tell by the panicked look in his eyes that I was losing him.
“We need to get Holly out of here,” I reminded him.
We both carefully slid our hands under her body. The second we lifted she gave a terrible cry that echoed. People were standing in their driveways, staring at the horror taking place on the darkened street.
“We just have to do it,” David said quickly. “One. Two. Three!”
Together, we lifted Holly up to her feet. She howled and cursed loudly with every inch we moved her. David hooked both his hands under her arms and told me to lift her feet.
“Is she going to turn?” I asked once we laid her down in the back of the van.
I held her head in my lap as David jumped into the front seat. He took off, his tires squealing on the slick road.
“No, we killed the werewolf that bit her, so she should be fine.”
He didn’t sound as sure as I would have liked him to be.