Cold Blooded

Its teeth sank into the base of my shoulder.

“Motherfuc—” I collided with the side of the tunnel as hard as I could at a dead run. The tunnel walls were only hollowed-out earth, but I’d hit it with enough strength to knock it off me. I think I squashed it. There was no time to look back. Yuri had said their bites weren’t poisonous. I didn’t feel anything suspicious. I was just pissed off it had bitten me before I could shake it off. I guess their only real tactic is to tear you to pieces one bite at a time. This was exactly what I’d been cautioning Danny and Tyler about on our last journey. An army of anything could bring even the most powerful supernatural to their knees. If there are too many, it’s going to be a huge problem. They’re going to swarm us if they get the chance.

We just couldn’t give them the opportunity.

I kept running, increasing my pace as much as I could, using every available body part to aid me.

My legs went higher with each stride, which allowed me to move through the water quicker. I was in my Lycan form, but I needed more power. Hit us with more adrenaline. As my wolf fortified us, a flicker came from my peripheral vision. Another Trow leapt at me from the shallow embankment. As it flew through the air, I got a good glimpse of its face. It was mean-looking with deep-set eyes, scaly skin, rows of uneven pointy teeth, and an accentuated piglike snout.

I swung my fist around in a blur and knocked it cleanly out of the air.

It bounced out of my field of vision and I heard it plunk in the water. We’re moving too fast for most of them to mob us, but when we reach the gate, we’ll have to work fast. I don’t know how we’re going to keep them from attacking us. My wolf barked and showed us glowing, our power pushed out like a shield. Do you think we can do that? Like Stasis? She yipped. I’d gone into a cocoonlike state the last time I’d been bitten by a poisonous insect. All my power had been channeled outward like a protective bubble to keep me alive. We can try, but if we go into full Stasis, we’ll be trapped down here for a long time. We have to try for half-Stasis. Is that even possible?

I had no idea, and judging by my wolf’s reaction, neither did she. But we needed to do something or we weren’t going to make it out alive. These little beasts were going to eat me alive until there was nothing left but a skeleton.

Twenty more paces and I spotted a large glowing area. I see something. My wolf funneled more power to my muscles. Together we were siphoning everything we had. Another Trow ran into my line of vision, but I dodged it easily as it lunged haphazardly. It sounds like there’s a horde of them behind us. Let’s start transferring our energy outward. Gold strands of power manifested in my mind. We need to weave it together. I concentrated on the golden light pushing it together to form an opaque mass. The glowing up ahead became clearer. That doesn’t look like any gate I’ve ever seen. What is it?

It was a monstrous brick wall.

The only thing adorning it, or making it appear remotely like any kind of passageway, was a gigantic curved knocker with the head of a vampire bolted to the middle.

I knew instinctively if I touched the vampire bad things would happen. We don’t go near the knocker. My wolf barked in agreement, still focusing on managing our magic. We were steadily moving it outward. How are we going to get past that brick wall? It will take too long to tear a hole through it, if that’s even possible. Once we stop, we aim the magic out like Stasis and pray it’s enough to keep the Trows off us until we can figure out how to break through. I’d been unconscious the last time I’d gone into Stasis, but when I’d woken up, I’d felt the power. I had to make it feel almost like that. We couldn’t force it too far outward and risk losing consciousness. That would be a very bad thing. I’m counting on the fact the Trows don’t have much magic. If they do, we’ll need a plan B or they’ll rip through our barrier with their greedy pointy teeth.

I ran straight up to the wall without stopping, jamming my claws into the bricks. Now! My wolf shot the concentrated power outward like a balloon. My golden power flexed tightly around us, right as the first one launched itself forward. Can you feel them? Are they bouncing off? I craned my head around. Ohmygods. We were already knee-deep in nasty Trows. But they couldn’t get to my body. The power block had worked and they were furious, jumping and spitting, that they couldn’t get to the prize.

It’s working and I don’t feel much magic coming from them. Now we just have to break the ward. I closed my eyes and ran my hands along the wall, trying to sense the magic. As I did, my bubble of protection flexed. Shit. I don’t think we can keep the Trows out and break the ward at the same time. It’s going to take too much of our resources to do both. Once we grasp the ward, we’ll need to shift the power from our shield into the spell. It’s going to leave us open to bites for a few moments, but it can’t be helped.

Double damn.

I continued to run my hands over the coarse brick. The ward tasted tart and old, like biting into an unripe crab apple. It had the same underlay as the cell chains. What kind of magic is this? I’d never come across it before. It doesn’t have a witchy signature like Tally’s or Marcy’s, or even Selene’s. My knowledge of spell casters was limited, so it wasn’t saying much. Do you taste that? The spell had manifested in the back of my throat in a physical way, settling on my tongue like a coat of pollen. Whatever it is it’s ancient, and I have no idea how to break it.

The Trows continued to snarl and leap around my feet.

This was becoming a funhouse. We need to split our power and start filtering half of it into the spell. With effort, I grabbed on to some of the power, and as I funneled it forward, as predicted, the barrier between us and the Trows shrank. We have to keep no less than a foot between us and them.

Suddenly their behavior changed and they quieted.

Do you hear that? What are they doing? The Trows had stopped jumping and were now emitting weird clicking noises. They’re pissed they can’t get to us and I think they’re discussing their options.

Thinking these little beasts had intelligence was almost too much for me. Yuck.

I had no choice but to ignore them and turn back to the task of breaking the ward. I searched for a weakness. Yuri said it would take everything I had, but I can’t even find what to focus on. The spell feels like a cloud. How do I break apart cloud? When I try to touch it, it moves. She flashed me a picture of us pouring air into a balloon. You mean fill it up? Yuri had stated emphatically I needed to close the gate when I was done. Then once we’re through, we suck our power back out? That must be it. I had to inflate it and then take it back out so the ward stayed intact and nothing else could get free and come after me. We can’t fill this sucker up slowly; it’s too big. It will drain us dry and leave us to the Trows. We have to go all in and jam it full in a few seconds. Hopefully it will work. If not, I got nothing and the Trows are going to eat us.