As Cas swung the car around the corner, I caught a faint scent, and I sniffed the air. Recognition hit me, and I leaned forward to tell him, but before I could open my mouth, Faith screamed and I was thrown forward as the car hit something hard. The momentum had me crashing into Cas’s seat before the seatbelt mechanism kicked in and jerked me sharply back into my seat. A shower of glass flew through the car, and I flung one arm up to shield my face. The car stopped, and I slowly looked up, already feeling a soreness on the back of my neck. I looked over at Faith and realised I had stretched my arm out to hold her back. Her hands were gripping my forearm, and her nails were digging in as she blinked at me before turning to look at Cas. The engine was still running, but the entire front window had caved in, and Cas was slumped forward over the steering wheel.
“Fuck!” I cursed loudly, unclicking my seatbelt. I heard Faith do the same, and we both scrambled out of the car on my side. Pulling open the front door, I crouched to look into Cas’s face, not wanting to move him. His eyes were closed, and his head was bleeding profusely, but it looked like a shallow gash, nothing to be too worried about. I was more worried about the fact he was unconscious.
“Cas?” I called, leaning closer. “Cas!” His eyes squeezed shut and then opened, burning red. “Cas, talk to me? Are you—” I broke off as a sound came from the front of the car, one I knew well—the sounds of claws on metal. I straightened up slowly, placing myself head-on with the dark shape we had hit. “Cas, whatever magic you have right now, I suggest you heal yourself damn quickly.”
I heard him groan. “Working on it.”
“Work faster,” I snapped, my eyes fixed on the glowing pair in front of me. “There’s a fucking hellhound on the bonnet of the car.” I reached behind me and pulled Faith close, shielding her with my body. Not that the gesture would do much if that thing ripped my head off in the next second or two. I heard Cas cursing as he began to move.
“Can you shift?” Faith whispered in my ear.
I shook my head slowly, not taking my eyes off the beast. “It’ll move faster than that, I need a few moments. If Cas can get out of the other side while we’re distracting it…”
“I don’t think that’s going to help us here,” she murmured, her breath warm against my ear. “There’s more than one.”
I nearly closed my eyes. “Fuck. How many?”
“I’d say five or six. I can see them moving in the trees, but there might be more. I can’t see Cain or Alex though.”
I heard a crackling noise, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw a strong white glow. She must have had a knife on her. Good girl. The beast looked down at the light, and it was all the delay I needed. Shoving Faith backwards, I leapt onto the bonnet of the car, shifting as I went. I wasn’t anywhere near wolflike by the time I collided with the thing, but my teeth and claws were, and for now, that was all I needed. The bitter taste of ichor spread across my tongue as my teeth sank into the thing’s throat, and I heard the half growl, half whine reverberate through its neck. It turned, trying to latch its own jaws onto me, then after realising it couldn’t reach, it braced itself against the car, readying itself to leap. I prepared to get dragged to the ground with it, but then its legs gave way and it dropped heavily to the bonnet. I let go of its throat and straightened to see Faith standing on the other side, sliding her angel blade out of its huge chest. The holy fire hissed and spat until the ichor that covered it sizzled away.
“Now what?” she asked me. Unable to use my human voice, I jerked my head towards Cas before jumping down and completing the shift. I turned towards the car as she helped Cas drag himself out of the front seat. He appeared a little unsteady, and I could see him leaning heavily on her shoulder.
He looked up at me. “Just a little woozy, I’ll be fine in a minute. Go find Alex and Cain.”
I barked quietly then headed towards the trees, sniffing the air as I went. Scents filled my head—the trees, the grass, the chemicals from the hospital, disgusting hellhound, blood… I hesitated and sniffed again. Yes, blood. Alex’s blood. My heart sank as I made my way through the trees as quietly as I could.
He was propped up against one of the trees with a pool of blood beneath him, his right arm cradled in his lap. As I got closer, I saw why. It was shredded from his bicep down to his wrist. Blood flowed freely, though his other hand was clamped around his wrist, trying to stem the flow. I could have howled for joy when his eyes opened and he looked up at me.
“I tried to hold them off. Bastard threw me to them to distract them while he… The damn dog threw me against the tree and tore half my fucking arm off.”
I growled, and Alex sighed.
“I’m not much use at the moment. Cain went that way.” He jerked his head in a direction where the trees grew thinner. I bent and nudged his face with my nose before trotting in the direction he’d indicated, praying that Faith and Cas would find him soon.
The band of trees we were in wasn’t that wide, and they soon ended, leaving a large patch of sparse, open brushland under the darkening sky. The stars were coming out, and the moon, only half full, hung low in the sky. My canine senses meant I could see much clearer than in my human form though, so I easily found Cain and the rest of the hounds. I counted nine in total. He was surrounded by them, still dressed in his suit, but breathing hard. I saw the hurried rise and fall of his chest, heard the hammer of his heart, heard his bones cracking under his skin…
I froze as Cain shifted. His already large bulk grew, and I watched as he swiftly transformed into the biggest wolf I’d ever seen. Black fur sprouted over him, and his suit ripped into shreds. He shook himself and began to growl, his fierce green eyes glaring at his attackers—except they didn’t attack. Even with him shifted, all the hounds remained circled around him, like a hunting formation, but I couldn’t see… I scanned the area. There had to be an alpha. Hellhounds hunted in packs, much like wolves, and there was always an alpha, except tonight I couldn’t find one. Yet still they circled him, waiting for some signal. It didn’t take a genius to work out there must be someone controlling them somewhere nearby. My money was on Berith.
Seemingly tired of waiting for the attack, Cain leapt toward the closest hound. It tried to dodge, but Cain’s jaws clamped down around its neck, and he picked it up and shook it before throwing it to the side. He rushed at them again and again, but they kept their distance, evading his attacks, never going for the kill themselves. I watched in confusion. I had never seen hellhounds behave like this. If Berith was controlling them, he had an ironclad magic fist on their killer instincts. I stayed low, not wanting to rush in if Cain wasn’t in immediate danger.
The fur on the back of my neck stood up as a chill ran through me. Immediate danger. The hounds weren’t going to attack, they were keeping Cain contained, keeping him busy. They were buying time. A rustling in the bushes behind me startled me, and a low growl started in the back of my throat. It died as Cas and Faith edged through the bushes, and I padded silently over to meet them. The scent of blood was strong in the air.
I couldn’t communicate with them in this form, so I shifted back, hoping the sounds of my bones cracking and reforming wouldn’t attract any attention.
“Hellhounds. Not attacking him, keeping him occupied. Cain’s the big one,” I informed them.
Cas nodded. “It makes sense. They don’t want to take Cain out, not that they could. They want to keep him here until Shemyaza arrives.”
“We can’t let that happen.”
I looked over at Faith and realised she was covered in blood. “Are you two okay? Faith looks like a vampire’s wet dream right now.”
She rolled her eyes. “We’re both fine. We found Alex and helped him get back to the car. He’s in no condition to help right now. Did you hear what that dickhead did to him?”
I nodded, though I wasn’t as shocked as she seemed to be. Cain had spent his very long life hunting vampires, and I doubted he ever stopped to ask if they were essentially vegetarian before he killed them. “We still need to get to him before Shemyaza does. What’s the plan, Cas?”
He gazed out over the bushes to the skirmish beyond, then he sighed and shrugged. “You’re not going to like it, but I say we jump in and get him out.”
I lifted my eyebrows. “Three of us? Against nine hellhounds?”
“Well, four of us. I imagine Cain will help somewhat,” Faith replied, looking over the branches at the huge growling wolf in the distance.
“We need to get him out of here before Shemyaza shows up. Whether he wants our help or not,” Cas stated, and to my surprise, he began to shift to his demonic form. Faith and I watched him as he grew taller and bulkier, his dark, shadowy wings spreading out as far as they could in the trees. Faith did the same, her feathers brushing against my face as she unfurled her wings. She cast a glance sideways, watching as Cas stripped off the ripped remnants of his shirt. Luckily, his loosely fitted jeans had managed to stay put—not that I should be complaining, being the one already completely naked sitting on the ground.
Faith ran her tongue over her bottom lip as her eyes passed over Cas’s bulked up form. “So, um, when this is all over, we are totally going to bed with you looking like that.” Her eyes dropped to his jeans, and I laughed quietly.
Cas swung his burning red eyes to me. “And what are you laughing at?”
I bit my lip. “Just reading Faith’s mind, is all. She’s totally wondering if you bulk up in other places too.”
Cas’s mouth fell open, and we both turned to look at Faith whose face was rapidly turning an interesting crimson colour. “Maybe we should get out there before those things take Cain down?” she suggested haughtily, avoiding our eyes.
“Yes… I think Faith and I will attack from above and take them by surprise. You alright to go in alone?” he asked, turning to me.
“Sure. See you on the other side.” I shifted again as Cas and Faith moved away to find a space big enough to allow them to take to the air. Cain had stopped attacking now, but he was panting hard from the exertion. It crossed my mind that they might need him tired out when the watcher got here. I fixed my sights on the nearest hound and slunk forward through the shadows until I was close enough to pounce.
Cain’s eyes connected with mine as he noticed my movement, and I nearly recoiled from the blow as his mind connected with mine. It was the primal connection of a pack alpha to a beta or omega multiplied by hundreds of thousands of years of power—a pack connection with the ultimate, the first, alpha. When he spoke, it resounded through my head like thunder.
They defend but they do not attack me.
They are trying to distract you, keep you busy. We think they are being controlled by a powerful demon. We need to get you out of here before something worse shows up.
I felt the brush of Cain’s mind as he growled a warning to a hound who had inched forward, a mental raising of eyebrows as it were, at the mention of something worse. Then we attack, the two of us, and pray for fortune.
If I could have grinned, I would have. Who said there were only two of us?
Dark shadows crossed the sky, blocking out the glimmer of the first few stars for a moment, and then a bright light flared as Faith’s knife became an angel blade and she swooped down to land on the back of one of the hounds. It bucked and heaved underneath her, and she struggled to get a grip on its fur, swinging her blade across its throat. Ichor spilled out over her face and chest and she hit the ground with a thud as the hound’s body crashed down. I waited a moment to see her get up, cursing at the blood on her face, then launched into the fray myself.
As my teeth and claws sank into the first body, I heard a scatter of gunfire. Cas hovered above, taking out hounds where he could. Normal bullets didn’t usually kill hellhounds, but they could injure them or slow them down. The hound above me snarled in my face and I growled back. We faced each other, waiting for some hint of weakness. I pretended to leap, and he launched into the air. I came up beneath him, my teeth and claws scrabbling to get hold of the soft parts of his belly. One good yank, and the bitter taste filled my mouth again as his skin tore, emptying his entrails onto the ground. He whined and turned to try and stop me, his strength waning as his guts spilled onto the earth. I backed away, watching him with pity as he dragged himself towards me before finally collapsing on the bloodstained soil.
I wasted no time and bounded towards Cain, who was struggling under the weight of four hounds that had leapt onto his back, biting and clawing at him—their orders not to harm him had clearly been rescinded—and I already saw numerous scrapes and claw marks along his ribs.
“Sam!”
At Faith’s scream, I whirled around just in time to see a huge hound bearing down on me. He collided with my side, his claws tearing at the skin stretched across my ribs, and I howled as he struck bone. Two hounds raced towards Faith, and I tried to follow, but the creature sank its teeth into the back of my neck, shaking me from side to side. I scrabbled at its chest with my claws, twisting and turning in its grip in a way that made my skin rip painfully under its fangs. With one strong pull, he threw me across the ground, and I hit it hard, rolling over. For a moment, I lay there dazed. Cain still battled four of the monsters, but I could tell he was tiring.
I felt the thud as Cas hit the ground next to me, felt his hands fasten onto my fur as he dragged me up onto my feet. “Come on, pup, don’t just lie there, you lazy arse!”
I gave him a short bark, and he laughed, though it died in his throat as Faith screamed. We turned to see her battling two of the hellhounds alone, her angel blade flashing back and forth. As lethal as the divine power made it, it was still only one short knife, which wasn’t exactly great against two creatures with fangs and claws. She was doing an okay job, causing large welts that bled fiercely from both hounds, but she was backing up, and I could see from her pale face that she was exhausted.
Cas started towards her. “Help Cain!”
I hesitated, torn between following orders from my leader and going to the aid of the woman I loved. Then a bright light flashed in front of me, and with a flurry of white wings and a gleaming angel sword, Euriel dropped out of the sky. The head of one of the hellhounds went rolling across the ground, smoking. Cas turned back to me, and without a word, we went to Cain’s aid, knowing Faith had backup. As I leaped up to rake my claws down the back of one of the hounds, Cas grabbed another around the middle, tearing it away from Cain. He squeezed it tightly, his enormous shoulders and arms bulging as he crushed the thing completely. It fell limp in his arms and he cast it aside, reaching for the next.
Cain twisted and jackknifed in the air, managing to get his head around to grab another from his back, clamping his jaws around its skull. Cas darted forward and grabbed the back legs. Their eyes met, and with a yank, Cas jerked backwards, ripping the body cleanly away from the head held fast in Cain’s jaws.
The hound beneath me struggled, releasing its grip on Cain’s fur, and the two of us went crashing to the ground. My eyes closed with the impact as I hit the ground and the creature landed squarely on my belly, winding me. As I gasped for breath, I caught a brief glimpse of yellow teeth and flashes of light. Forcing my eyes open wide, I rolled to my side, still gasping, but the creature was already dead, nearly cut in half by Euriel’s blade. I staggered to my feet as Cain tore the throat out of the final hound, dropping it in a bloody mass on the one next to me.
For a moment, none of us spoke. We just stood there staring at each other, breathing hard, covered in black ichor from the beasts and scarlet blood from ourselves. I turned to find Faith standing a little way behind us. She also seemed frozen. Blood spattered her pale face, which was lit unnaturally by her glowing blade as her crimson hair and black feathers ruffled in the wind. Her eyes, dark in the shadows, were fixed on Euriel’s face.
“You.” His tone was cold and hard.
“Euriel…” Faith’s voice shook, and I suddenly realised why. My heart plummeted, and I shifted back to my human form as quickly as I could.
“It was you the whole time.” His voice shook with rage, and I could see his fingers clenching tightly over the hilt of his sword which fizzled and spat, reacting to his raging emotions.
“I’m so sorry. I—”
“Don’t. Just… don’t. You,” he repeated, staring at her. “How can it be you? I talked to you, I trusted you. I…” His face darkened like thunder, and she stepped forward, reaching out as if to take the hand he clenched into a fist by his side. He stepped backwards quickly. “Don’t touch me. You… you’re an abomination. Don’t come anywhere near me.”
Faith recoiled as if she’d been hit, and tears that had been threatening to fall were now freely flowing down her face. In an instant, Cas and I were by her side.
Cas stepped forward. “Euriel, please. Just—”
“It’s Lord Euriel.” He sheathed his sword and took to the sky, leaving nothing behind but a single white feather.
Faith moved forward slowly and picked it up, looking up into the sky where he had vanished from view. She turned, and my heart tore at the anguish on her face. In two steps, I had her in my arms. Faith buried her face against my chest, and I felt her tears wet my skin.
“I’m not going to ask why you have three angels at your disposal, though I am very interested. However, I think for now we should get out of here, if, as you say, something worse is going to show up.” Cain’s low timbre jarred us back to reality, and I looked around at the dark corpses that littered the ground.
“Where should we go?” I asked Cas, stroking Faith’s hair.
“Do you have a house we can go to?” Cas questioned Cain who nodded.
“Not too far from here.”
“Right, we’ll get back to the car, and you can give Alex directions—after you apologise for trying to feed him to hellhounds.”
Cain made an expression of disgust. “The vampire? He’s with you too? Why on earth would I apologise to him?”
I felt Faith pull back before she lifted her hand to dash her tears away. “He’s the vampire who tracked you down so we could come and warn you. The vampire who risked his life trying to defend you against those monsters. The least you could do is apologise for trying to get him killed.” Cain stared at her, his eyes hard, but she held his gaze, and he eventually released a frustrated sigh.
“Fine. I’ll apologise to the bloodsucking fiend. Which way?”
“This way.” She pushed past him, her wings curving into inky folds against her back. I noticed she hadn’t tried to conceal them like she normally did. Of course, now that Euriel knew what she was, or at least thought he knew what she was, what chance did she have if he was to tell the Heavenly Council of her existence? I followed Cas towards the treeline, my heart heavy and a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.
