Magic Stars

  He went to ground. Julie lowered herself next to him. They peered through the gaps between broken bricks and dirt. Something grunted low and deep just behind the corner. Something big.

  Derek lay completely still. The silver had eaten a hole in his chest and was trying to reach his heart.

  Another grunt, harsh, loud. A beast ran into the open, huge, at least three hundred pounds and covered with long, coarse brown fur. In a bad light, he’d mistake it for a boar: It had the bulk, the shape, and the enormous boar jaws armed with tusks and massive teeth. But it had no hooves. Its legs terminated in clawed paws.

  He had no idea if the wolfsbane would work on it.

  The boar-hound snarled under its breath, sucking in the air. Small vicious eyes stared, unblinking. The creature took a step closer to the gap.

  Next to him Julie held completely still. She couldn’t take a hound. She’d need a spear. The tomahawks wouldn’t do it. He had to fix himself fast or neither of them would get out alive.

  Another step.

  Another.

  He reached for his knife.

  The boar-hound inhaled, searching for their scent, and recoiled. It snorted, pawed at its nose, snarled, and squealed like a pig.

  His ears caught the sound of heavy hoofbeats drawing near.

  The boar-hound grunted, circling the smoldering ring, trying to get away from the wolfsbane.

  A massive shaggy horse came into view, carrying a rider. Derek’s view gave him a glimpse of a leather boot and a leg in brown pants. Derek dipped his head, trying to get a better look. The hunter wore leather. Big, at least six eight, larger, broader, probably stronger than a normal human. A hooded cloak of wolf fur shielded his back. The invisible hackles between Derek’s shoulders stood on end.

  The hunter turned, showing his face. Around thirty, white, long brown hair. Hard. Weather-bitten. Light eyes. A long ragged scar crossing the nose bridge. Something with claws had marked him, but must’ve died before it finished the job. Derek bared his teeth. He’d make him choke on that fur.

  A tall bow of wood and bone hung over the hunter’s shoulder. The hunter raised an arm shielded by leather. A shriek tore through the night, and a bird dropped from the sky like a stone and landed on the arm. Ugly, bearded, big, with a vicious beak. Didn’t look like any bird he’d ever seen.

  The hunter studied the boar-hound, then raised his head and surveyed the area. His gaze passed over their shelter. He peered into the gap. Derek looked into his eyes. Magic rolled over him in a dark cold wave, dousing the agony of silver with ice, and he saw a long, frozen winter night under the moon. He felt the cold snow under his paws. He smelled his own blood, bright and hot, as it fell onto the snow, and heard the long, undulating howl of hungry hounds.

  This is the way it always was. This is the way it had to be now. He had to run, run into the trees, before the arrows and hounds found him.

  Nice try, asshole.

  The urge to run was overwhelming now. It was taking all of his will to just stay still.

  A moment dripped by. Derek waited. He was a wolf. He had all the patience in the world.

  The hunter whistled softly through his teeth. The boar-hound shook its head and moved on. The hunter turned away, tossed the bird back into the night sky, and the massive horse resumed its steady walk.

  They lay still for another three minutes before they quietly slipped out of the gap. Julie grabbed his hand, pointed to the pole, to herself, and up.

  Lift me.

  He grasped her legs and held her up. She plucked the arrow from the pole and they melted into the night.

  THE BIG BUILDING GAPED OPEN, its front wall gone, scattered in pieces on the ground. Half its roof was missing, but the back offered shelter. He was limping now, running slow even for a human.

  “Almost there,” Julie whispered.

  He squeezed one last burst of movement from his body. He was shutting down.

  “Almost there,” she repeated.

  He followed her across the dirty floor to the metal staircase leading up, up the stairs and to the far corner of the empty building. He sagged to the ground. She dropped beside him, yanked a small knife out of the sheath on her waist, and pulled his hoodie off. Her eyes went wide.

  “It’s over your neck.”

  He knew that already. The flesh over his neck and chest felt dead. When she touched it, he felt no pressure. The skin on his chest had turned duct-tape grey.

  Cutting the chest wouldn’t do it. The silver was still in his bloodstream and moving up. If it hit his brain, he would die. He had to expel it before it reached that far.

  He snatched the knife out of her hands.

  “Don’t!” she gasped.

  He slit his carotid artery. Blood sprayed in a black-and-red mist. He smelled the metallic stench of dead Lyc-V.

  A howl, close, almost to them.

  Julie whipped around and dashed down the stairs, her satchel in her hand.

  Blood kept gushing in a heated flood, drenching his shoulder. Normally Lyc-V would’ve recognized the neck cut as fatal and sealed it nearly instantly, but the virus that granted his regeneration was dying in record numbers. He bled like a human, getting weaker with each beating of his heart. His hold on consciousness was slipping. His brain, starved of oxygen, was going to sleep like a dying fish. He hooked his claws into reality. A normal human would’ve been dead within seconds. If he could stay conscious, if his heart pumped enough silver-poisoned blood out for Lyc-V to recover, if the silver didn’t reach his brain, he might survive.

  Below, Julie drew a circle with white chalk around the stairs. A ward, a defensive spell. He doubted the chalk alone would hold the hounds or the hunter. She pulled the arrow from her bag and scratched a second line into the concrete floor, making the second ring inside the first chalk line.

  The boar-hound appeared in the gap where the front wall used to be, silhouetted against the moonlight. He willed himself to move, but he could do nothing.

  Julie yanked a small squeeze bottle out of her bag and poured a puddle in front of her, inside the circle.

  Get up, he snarled at himself. Get the hell up.

  The boar-hound let out a triumphant snarl of pure bloodlust.

  Julie dropped into the circle on her knees. He saw a small flame of a match being struck. The puddle ignited.

  The boar-hound charged. It came like a cannonball, snarling, giant maw open, tusks ready to rend.

  Julie thrust something into the fire.

  The hound covered the last ten feet.

  Julie jerked the object out of the flame and held it up in front of her like a shield.

  The boar-hound slid to a stop, its pig eyes fixed on the hot arrow in Julie’s hand. The creature pushed forward and recoiled, as if striking an invisible wall.

  He slumped in relief. The wound on his neck was closing. He was still alive. Now it was just a matter of time, and she had just bought them some.

  The boar-hound howled. In the distance, three other voices answered.

  He wasn’t sure how much time had passed: seconds, minutes. But the wind had changed, and he smelled the second hound before he heard it charge its way into the building and slide to a stop before Julie’s circle. Third and fourth followed. He heard the bird, saw it as it flew over him, circling, and then he heard the hunter’s horse.

  He heard the rough sound of metal striking stone. She was chopping at the arrowhead with her tomahawk.

  The pain in Derek’s neck had ebbed. The edges of the gray skin shrank, turning pink, not fast enough but it would have to do. She had done her part. It was time for him to do his.

  In the darkness of the second floor, he slid his shoes off, then his pants.

  The horse clopped its way into the building.

  “You cannot break it,” a deep male voice said.

  He looked down. The hunter stopped his horse midway down the floor. The four boar-hounds lined up between him and Julie.

  Here you are, asshole.

&nbs
p; “The arrowhead’s stone. This is stainless steel.” She sounded determined. “I’ll shatter it.”

  Derek rose quietly in the shadows.

  “That is my first arrow. The arrow is eternal and so am I. As long as there are humans and their prey, I will exist.”

  “Go fuck yourself.” She smashed the tomahawk into the arrow.

  Now. The change dashed through him, the brief pain welcome and sweet. His muscles tore and grew again, his bones lengthened, his fur sprouted, and suddenly he was whole again, stronger, faster, seven feet tall, a meld of beast and man. The burn of silver was still there, but now just a razor-sharp reminder of the pain and the need to kill its source. He smelled blood. His three-inch claws itched. He heard eight hearts beating: five animal, one bird, and two human. He wanted to taste the hot, salty rush of blood pounding through their veins, to open them and feel them struggle in the grip of his teeth.

  The wild within him roared. The thing that nearly turned him loup—the one he kept at bay with monthly trips to the woods, with meditation, with exertion, with running until his legs could no longer carry him—that thing broke free and it was hungry.

  “Choose a side,” the hunter said.

  Her voice rang, her words defiant. “I choose the Wolf.”

  “Then you die.” The hunter pulled the bow off his shoulders.

  Not today. Derek leaped over the iron rail. He landed among the hounds and opened two throats, tusk to tusk, before they realized he was there. Blood gushed—glorious, hot blood, straight from the heart. The wild sang within him. The third beast tried to gore him, but he hurled it aside like a rag doll. It hit the wall with a loud thud, whimpered as it slid to the ground, and lay still.

  An arrow whistled through the air. He grasped the fourth beast by its neck and jerked it up, holding the struggling animal like a shield. Arrows thudded into it—one, two, three—and sank deep. He hurled the creature at its master. The horse reared, screaming. The hound met the hunter’s fist and fell, knocked aside. It scrambled to its feet and ran to Derek, limping. The remaining hounds, two slashed and bleeding and one favoring its front leg, rushed him. He dodged the first, letting it rush past him, and landed on its neck and bit. His teeth closed around the spinal column and crushed the cartilage. He tore a mouthful of flesh and bone and let go. A tusk dug into his hip. He snarled at the pain and punched the creature’s thick skull. It shuddered and he punched again, driving his fist in with all his wild strength. The bone broke. Brain wet his fur. The last hound attacked, unsteady on its feet. The wild roared inside him, so loud he could hear nothing else. He carved the hound’s throat into pieces.

  An arrow pierced his thigh. He ripped it out, slashing the wound open before the silver could spread.

  The last beast fell. The bird swooped down at him. He snatched the raptor out of the air and tore off its head. Only the man was left. He walked to the hunter. There was no need to rush.

  The hunter drew his bow and fired. Derek knocked the arrow aside. Another arrow. He dodged. It grazed his thigh. The burn of silver spurred him on. Derek leaped and took his opponent off the horse with a swipe of his paw. The big human rolled to his feet, two blades in his hands. They were almost the same height: the hunter nine inches over six feet tall, and he fully seven feet in his warrior shape.

  Derek licked his fangs. Delicious blood coated his tongue and dripped from his mouth, but he was still hungry.

  The hunter became a whirlwind of blades. He sliced and stabbed and cut fast, very fast. Derek blocked, stepped inside his guard, and kicked him in the chest. The hunter flew backward, rolled to his feet again, and charged.

  They collided. A blade pierced Derek’s chest, sliding neatly between his ribs, almost nicking his heart. The pain tore at his insides. He buried his claws in the hunter’s gut and tore a handful of intestines out. The hunter twisted the sword, trying to carve his way to Derek’s heart. Derek stepped back, pulling himself off the blade, and the hunter chopped at his right arm with the other sword. He took that cut, because he had no choice—it nearly cut through the bone—and raked his claws across the hunter’s face. Blood poured into the hunter’s eyes. The big human lunged, his right sword striking. Derek moved to the left, letting the blade whistle past, locked his right arm on the hunter’s wrist and smashed the heel of his left hand into the man’s elbow. The joint snapped, breaking. He jerked the blade from the hunter’s suddenly limp fingers and rammed it into the hunter’s mouth.

  It was a good sword, sharp and solid. It made a lovely sound as it split the hunter’s mouth, then his throat on its way down. The hunter’s heart fluttered like a dying bird, then stopped.

  Derek raised his head to the sky. Above him the moon watched through the massive gap in the roof. He opened his bloody jaws and sang. The high-pitched howl rose up, riding on the moonlight, rolling through the night, and all who heard it would know he had made his kill.

  He shook the corpse, hoping for more fight, then took the dead man’s head into his mouth, but the hunter didn’t move. His heart was still. He tossed the dead hunter aside.

  There had to be something left to kill. There was still one heart beating.

  He turned and saw her sitting in a circle. She looked . . . good.

  He walked to the circle. She didn’t move. She just watched him with pretty brown eyes.

  He ran headfirst into a wall. He couldn’t see it, but it was there. He looked down and noticed a white chalk line between him and her. Magic.

  He circled the ward, probing it with his claws. The invisible wall held all the way around. He stopped in front of her and crouched, so they were level. His voice was an inhuman, ragged snarl. “Let me in.”

  “I don’t think that would be a good idea.”

  “Let me in.”

  “Maybe in a little while,” she said. “Once you cool off.”

  “I’m all cooled off.” He wanted into that circle.

  “In a little bit.”

  He backed away and ran full speed at the circle. The wall held.

  “You really can’t skip the hunt,” she told him.

  It took another four tries before he decided he couldn’t break through the wall. He kicked the corpses for a while, but they didn’t put up a fight and the horse had run off. He thought of tracking it down, but he would have to leave her and he didn’t want to. He finally settled for stretching out by the circle and looking at the moon.

  It soothed him until his breath evened out. Slowly the rational thought returned. His body hurt in too many places. He wished he could fall asleep, but if he let himself go now, he would sleep like the dead for several hours while his body healed the damage. He couldn’t change shape either. Most shapeshifters could deal with one or two changes in a day and then it was nap time, whether you liked it or not. He was stronger than most, but he didn’t want to tempt the fates. He’d spent so much energy fighting the silver, a change could shut him down for good, and he didn’t have that luxury.

  Caleb Adams was still out there.

  The deep purple of the night sky was slowly fading to lighter blue. The sunrise was coming.

  The wild had gotten away from him. It was always like this—he remembered what he did only after he had done it. It always felt right while he was doing it. Sometimes he regretted it, although mostly he didn’t. He did today.

  “Derek!” she sounded alarmed.

  He sat up.

  “The rock is moving.” She pointed right. “He’s taking it somewhere!”

  He shook himself. “Come on.”

  She squinted at him.

  “I’m cooled off,” he told her.

  She reached over, rubbed the chalk line, and stepped out. Her scent washed over him.

  “Which way?” he asked.

  “East,” she said. “No, wait, southeast. He’s going back exactly the way we came.”

  “Sorry I scared you,” he said as they left the building.

  She rolled her eyes. “You’re not that scary.”

&n
bsp; Relief washed through him. He bared his fangs at her, pretending to snarl.

  “Ew. Drool. Nothing you do scares me, Derek. Deal with it.”

  “I’ll have to try harder then.”

  “You do that.”

  CHAPTER 4

  THE SKY ABOVE PILLAR ROCK was a pretty blue, with thin trails of clouds stretching from the east. The muddy water of the holes stole the color, and for the moment, turned blue and shiny, like cobalt glass. The pillar jutted among the myriad of puddles, reaching toward the sky, and on its very tip, three chunks of glowing rock lay together, forming a single glowing stone. It was almost beautiful, Derek reflected, except for Caleb Adams, who stood between them and the pillar. He’d caught Adams’ scent the moment they left the ruins. The warlock made no attempts to mask the trail. A child could’ve followed it.

  He was in his forties, average height, but above average build, if his broad shoulders and stance were anything to go by. His black robe, tattered and tied with a length of rope, probably hid the build of a weightlifter.

  His face was perfectly ordinary: short, dark blond hair; short beard; dark eyes under sloping eyebrows. His face had a ruddy tint, just short of a sunburn, the kind pale-skinned people got when they were forced to spend time outdoors. Clever, Derek decided. If Adams walked into a bar and ordered a beer, Derek wouldn’t pay him a second glance.

  “I have to know,” Adams said. “What the hell is it? Who hired you? Why are you following me all around the damn city? I just can’t shake you two off.”

  Derek unhinged his monster jaws. “Your people killed the Iveses.”

  “So that’s it?” Adams frowned.

  “Kids,” Julie said. “They killed the kids, too. You don’t get the rock. You don’t get the power. You get to answer for the family.”