Cursed by Destiny (WG 3) (7 page)

Gemini stalked toward the door. “It’s getting closer. Everyone outside—
now!
”

“I don’t want Shayna involved,” Koda growled.

Gemini furrowed his brows. “There’s no choice, Koda. It’s too late to get them to safety.”

Shayna jetted past me, her determination tensing her slender frame while fear blanched her face. She was spooked. And yet there she was the first one out the door. Koda and I bolted after her. I didn’t understand her need to race ahead of us, especially given her blatant terror. I stopped short of plowing into her when she stumbled to a halt on the snowy front lawn. She froze, her focus glued toward the sloping entrance of our neighborhood.

I froze, too, when I saw what had crashed the party.
Oh, hell no.

What appeared to be a giant maggot, the size of a city bus, slithered and crept its way along our cul-de-sac in wet and small slimy bounces.

Gemini rushed to my side. “Taran,” he growled, “put the neighbors to sleep—as many as you can. No one else needs to see this.”

I wished she could have done the same for me. The thing looked nasty. I didn’t remember Buffy having to deal with this shit.

Taran stepped forward, releasing ribbons of blue and white mist from her core. They spread like widening translucent streamers encasing the neighborhood in a light fog. Unfortunately for Mrs. Mancuso, that was the moment she chose to storm out of her house to harass us. “
Taran
Wird!
What in the name of sin are you up to?” Mrs. Mancuso’s eyes crossed the moment she inhaled Taran’s mist. She flipped over the porch railing and landed in her hedges, snoring the moment her orthopedic shoes hit the lawn. It was a tense moment, yet one that couldn’t stifle Taran’s chuckle.

The wolves
changed
and prowled toward the Tribemaster. Danny, the pack’s newest werewolf, awkwardly followed suit. Poor guy, he hadn’t signed up to go furry. Bren had
turned
him following a near-death battle a few months back. The others moved with predatory grace, their heads lowered and their ears pinned back. Their actions promised a vicious assault and a battle to the death. Poor Danny just concentrated hard to put one paw in front of the other. The giant larva lifted his wobbly head when he saw them approach, though his eyes weren’t visible through the rolls of pale gray flesh. His voice sounded wet, garbled, and sinister as his giant lips peeled back to reveal a mouthful of serrated fangs. “
Bring me Celia Wird and I might let you live
.”

Emme’s breath caught. “Could he be the one who tried to kill you last night, Celia?” she whispered.

Maggots weren’t known for their hearing. This one did just fine. His wrinkled face shot in my direction. He didn’t know me when he’d first arrived, but now he did. He roared, furious and loud, his black tongue shooting out past his daggerlike choppers. “
Mine!
”

“Sorry, Celia,” Emme squeaked.

I answered my attacker with a roar of my own, my anger and fear calling forth my protector. I took the offensive and ran toward him, yelling at the wolves to destroy the brain. My sweater and jeans ripped like Velcro from my almost four-hundred-pound tigress form as my claws broke through the frozen surface of the snow.

The wolves and I attacked as one. I leapt and dug my claws and fangs into where I thought his skull might be. His skin bounced like thick, rubbery gelatin—really nasty, slimy gelatin. I raked his flesh; it felt like I was scratching an oversized bouncy ball with human nails. He shook his head sharply, more to buck me off, and definitely not because I was inflicting much damage. I flipped back and sprinted around him the moment my paws touched the freezing asphalt. I circled him, searching for a weak spot. Strange rounded spikes protruded along the length of his back. I didn’t think they were meant to enhance his beauty and hoped we’d kill him before we discovered their true purpose.

A wolf howled in pain as I leapt onto the Tribemaster’s back. The maggot struck Danny hard with his monstrous head. Danny staggered back, trying to escape.

The Tribemaster flung his giant tongue out his mouth and spiraled it around Danny. He lifted him high into the air and slammed him repeatedly against the road. I drove my claws into two pink spots on the Tribemaster’s head, mistaking them for eyes precisely the moment my sword-wielding sister stepped in.

Shayna sliced off the Tribemaster’s tongue with an expert flick of her wrist. He roared in pain and spewed Shayna with black-colored fluid. The inky mess knocked her back, blanketing her completely. She rolled to her feet, narrowly dodging his snapping fangs.

I yanked my claws free, pulling out what resembled long, wrinkled, fluid-filled earlobes. I realized too late they were his testes.
Oh,
gawd
. I shook my paws like a madwoman—or, rather, an extremely skeeved-out tigress. One of them landed on the hood of Taran’s new car, splattering the windshield with thick pink foam; the other exploded all over Danny’s back. He yipped excitedly over the Tribemaster’s roars, knowing I’d caused some damage, but sadly oblivious to the amount of supernatural semen coating his bluish fur. Perhaps that was a good thing.

I shook off the disturbing chills buzzing down my spine. I didn’t like how close the maggot’s fangs were to Shayna, and neither did Koda. We landed at her side. Koda caught one of the larger fangs between his jowls and pulled with the force of his entire body. He extracted the tooth, causing the creature to writhe in agony. I tackled Shayna out of the way just before his head whipped back, barely missing us. His skull landed so hard it rattled the neighborhood and cracked the road. Danny wasn’t so lucky. The Tribemaster nailed him in the ribs and sent him flying into our neighbor’s yard. He landed with a loud crack and his head twisted in the opposite direction. I shoved Shayna back toward the house with my body and growled at her to stay put. Her fear was making her reckless. I worried she’d get hurt. When she didn’t make an effort to return, I raced back to check on the others.

Emme knelt over Danny, trying to heal his broken neck. Liam perched at the top of the screaming creature’s head. All I could see were his back legs and his wagging tail as he burrowed his way through the thick gray flesh and toward the creature’s brain. Black blood and chunks of flesh splattered his brown fur. He’d caused major damage. In a few more feet he’d cast the blow to end the Tribemaster’s life. Koda distracted the creature from attacking Liam by continuing his role as the periodontist from hell. Extracted fangs littered the street like piles of bones.

Taran stood in the middle of the road, generating wicked blue and white fire and waiting to strike should Liam fail. She was in a good spot—safe, and ready to sear the Tribemaster’s hide. I joined Gemini and Bren, who gnawed at the creature’s side trying to reach the vulnerable underbelly. I raked with my claws and pierced the flesh until I caught something long and slick reaching for my throat. I veered out of the way, narrowly missing the long wet tongues that ensnared my friends. The tongues had emerged from the spikes lining the Tribemaster’s back. They squeezed, cutting through the wolves’ fur and into their flesh.

I sliced through the tongue, tightening around Bren’s large neck, only to have another whip me across the face and pull Bren tighter. Gemini howled,
calling
the pack. Another tongue encircled his muzzle, sealing it tight and silencing him. Usually another
were
would answer his howl. My ears strained to hear a reply. None came. The pack wasn’t coming, and we needed help.

Having a master vampire for a guardian angel had its advantages. I concentrated on Misha and
called
him through the connection he’d passed to me long ago.
Misha, I’m under attack. Get your Armani-clad butt over here.

I fought the other tongues trying to snatch me while I clawed my way up the creature’s back. I sliced Bren free and charged toward Gemini. Gemini’s oil-black wolf snarled and something cracked. A second identical wolf punched through his back, severing the tongues with a powerful snap of his fangs. My tail flicked with excitement. Watching Gemini split into two wolves never got old.

I helped Gemini’s twin wolf free his other half and then trudged through the jungle of tongues toward Liam, slicing at anything that attempted to rope me.

Liam scrambled out of the hole he’d made before we reached him. He
changed
back to human, panting and covered with black ooze. “It’s not there! The brain is somewhere else in his body.”

Which made sense, considering I’d cut his male parts from his forehead.

Shayna’s screams cut through the mist. “Danny, look out!”

Danny had attempted to rejoin the battle. He should have stayed down. The Tribemaster batted him with his tail and launched him into the side of Taran’s new Mustang, leaving a huge dent. Emme lifted Danny with her telekinetic
force
and pulled him to the side of the house and away from the fight.

Taran, encased in an inferno of blue and white flames, gaped at the enormous dent before fixing her royally pissed-off face back on the Tribemaster. “For shit’s sake, get away—
now!
”

We landed on the ground in time to see a fireball the size of an elephant slam into the giant maggot’s side. It bounced off his rubbery skin and into Taran’s new car, engulfing it in a sea of flames.

“
Son
of a
bitch
!”

So maybe the fireball was more the size of a Mustang.

Shayna sprinted across the lawn and attacked. She lifted her swords and rammed them into the two small holes above the maggot’s mouth. She was now unarmed and helpless. The wolves and I rushed to protect her when the remaining tongues enmeshed us in a wriggling net.

Taran struck the Tribemaster with vicious blue lightning bolts. She sizzled the creature’s flesh, but failed to cause much harm. Danny staggered to his feet only to stumble back into the snow. His wolf was exhausted from healing; it would take him time to recover. The pack wasn’t coming and Misha didn’t appear. We were seriously screwed until Emme got creative. She raised Taran’s flaming car with her
force
and smashed it into the Tribemaster. The creature wailed in pain and the tongues loosened enough to allow us to breathe.

Shayna ripped the borrowed diamond necklace from her neck, ignoring Taran’s loud and descriptive protests, and converted it into a giant translucent sword. Emme hoisted Shayna with her gift and onto the Tribemaster’s back. Her face remained fearful yet resolute. She hacked through tongues and sliced us free. We fell to the ground. Shayna remained on his back, spinning with a dancer’s elegance as she cut through writhing appendages. The wolves and I gathered for an offensive assault and rammed our prey with our claws extended.

“Taran!”

I jerked my head toward Emme’s screams in time to see the Tribemaster lurch forward and swallow Taran whole.

No!

The Geminis roared and dove at the Tribemaster’s face. One latched to the mandible and snapped the bone while the other gripped the lower jaw and yanked. The Tribemaster squalled as his mouth crashed to the ground.

The rest of us attacked the underbelly, determined to kill him and free Taran. Thick and sticky chunks of flesh embedded into my claws and black ooze dripped into my right eye, but I couldn’t stop—I
wouldn’t
stop. He had my sister.

We tore open the belly just as a horrible gurgle rumbled my front paws. Horror slapped my face like a tangible force. In my mind I believed he was digesting Taran, until a scorching heat built beneath me. I
changed
back to human, sensing her fire build. “
Pull back—now!
”

Shayna jumped off the Tribemaster’s back and into my arms. I shoved her ahead of me and tried to scramble away, but I wasn’t fast enough. The Tribemaster exploded. Tarlike innards splattered against our backs and propelled us forward. I landed face-first in a bank of snow on Mrs. Mancuso’s front lawn. I pushed myself up with my arms and gagged. Everything smelled like rotting fish and my exposed skin stung from my belly flop into the frozen snow.

A pile of leftover flesh the size of a mattress stirred to my right. I stumbled to my feet and lifted the edge of the nasty slippery skin. Taran crawled from beneath, spitting vile liquid. “I found the brain,” she sputtered, before she proceeded to projectile vomit.

Gemini’s wolves merged into one and
changed
to human. He tore across the lawn and hauled Taran into his arms, gallantly stroking back her slimy hair while she continued to hurl.

It must have been love.

Danny, also now human, had finally regained consciousness. He staggered over to me. “What happened?”

Snarling echoed behind me. Koda’s wolf form growled at Shayna. I wasn’t sure what he said, since I didn’t speak wolf, but it didn’t sound pretty. Shayna put her hands on her hips and frowned. “Miakoda Lightfoot, don’t you dare take that tone with me!”

I looked around the neighborhood. The universe had a sense of humor. Seven cars were parked on our street. They remained unscathed, while Taran’s Mustang continued to smolder.

Liam and Bren tended to Emme, who threw up violently into Mrs. Mancuso’s snow-covered rhododendron bush.

“Is she okay?” Danny asked.

Bren sauntered over to us, covered in maggot slop, naked, and obviously not giving a damn. “She’s fine, Dan. She just got hit with a chunk of spleen.” He sniffed the air and backed away from him. “But forget that. Why the hell do you smell like evil’s nut sack?”

CHAPTER 6

For years, the local witch clan had gathered during the winter months and practiced making it rain. My sisters and I generally avoided witches, and they kept their distance from us. The supernatural catfight we’d had with them ensured we’d never be BFFs. “Weird” and witch just didn’t mix.

I must admit, I enjoyed how the fragrant scent of their magic mixed with the bewitching power of Lake Tahoe when they called upon the rule of nature. And while I’d been drenched in too many unexpected downpours, today their ability to manipulate the elements proved useful. All it had taken was a call from Gemini for the coven to command a rainstorm strong enough to wash away the putrid remains of the Tribemaster. I may have aligned with the vampires, but the witches had managed to get awfully cozy with the
weres
.