Filed to story: The Healer and The Wolf PDF Free
An alarmed wailed, nearly deafening me, and the entire energy of the building changed.
Uh-oh. I had most definitely fucked up.
I didn’t let that distract me, however. Running toward the wizard, I slammed into him, locking my jaws around his flailing arm. Let him cast one of his fancy spells without any hand movements. He screamed as I ripped it off, but the screams petered out when I let go of his unattached limb and closed my teeth around his throat.
I made quick work of the remaining two, and as I was about to turn my attention to the victim, another set of doors burst open, and more enemies poured in. Some were dressed like the security guards at the estate, and some wore lab coats. I even spotted some in those same collars I’d seen the brothers use on my pack. Suddenly, it was twenty-to-one in a very enclosed space.
Not exactly great odds.
I had taken on way more than that at Chadwicke’s, but that had been an entirely different situation. I hadn’t fought more than a chunk of ten at one time, and there had only been two magic users in that entire fight-not counting the warlock. The ratio in this situation would be way different.
Most of all, though, I knew I had to get back to Ven and Ricky. What if they were being attacked?
Saying an internal apology to the person lying on the table and promising I would return for them, I then left right back out the surgical window and raced through the hall. The caged creatures were now almost all roused, and if they could make noise, they were. Some of them were even reaching out of the bars of their cage, no doubt pleading me to take them with me. It hurt right down to my core to leave them behind, but I had to. I had fucked up, but I would make it right. I would make it better. I would return. No matter what.
It didn’t take me long to reach that same room I had been locked in, but this time Ven was at the door, trying to pry it open, while Ricky was clearly still fighting with the panel.
“What did you do? What did you do?” I heard her demand in a panic.
“It wasn’t me!” Ricky shouted.
I knew I shouldn’t, but I shifted into my human form. I had to tell them what had happened in case things got even worse.
“Oh, my God, Leo! We’ll get you out! I swear, we almost have it!”
“I’m the one who set off the alarm,” I said as quickly as I could. “There’s a whole lot of people about to pour in here who really wanna hurt us.”
“Wait, what?”
“This isn’t a testing facility for animals! It’s a testing facility for us!
Shifters! Changelings. Sprites. Nymphs.” I listed everything I’d seen, and I was sure there were more I couldn’t identify by sight.
“What? I-I?-“
I didn’t get to hear whatever Ven was going to say because all the enemies who had been following me burst into the room, and suddenly, I was enveloped in another fight.
It wasn’t pretty, not by a long shot. Acid sprayed toward me as I leaped at my closest attacker. I managed to tackle them to the floor and sink my teeth into their head, but not before that liquid hit my coat and the entire room began to smell of melting fur.
Even though it was my fur, it still smelled horrendous. I couldn’t pay much attention to that because I had to move on to my next target, latching my jaws around one of their knees and shaking until I heard it crack.
It turned into a bloodbath, and it wasn’t until after maybe my third or fourth enemy, when I was blasted up into the ceiling by a surge of ice, that I glanced toward Ven’s face.
I didn’t mean to do it again, but I was doing everything that had scared her so much the last time. If I did make it out of here, would she ever be able to forgive me? Or had I just successfully sealed her perception that I was a monster?
VANESSA
“Leo!
Fuck,
Leo! Just hold on!”
I yanked at the door like it would do anything, pausing only to beat at it with my hands. My knuckles and the side of my palm were bleeding, but I didn’t care. Leo was right in front of me fighting for his life, and I couldn’t help him.
I’d never felt so helpless, and when our eyes locked, he looked so fucking guilty. That was all my fault. I’d yelled at him for how he had handled himself at the estate, but this was different. There were no innocents in that room, only Leo and the assholes attacking him. I needed him to get out. I just needed him to be safe.
“Ricky!” I screamed, not caring that my voice cracked. “Open this fucking door!”
“Don’t you think I’m trying?”
“Try fucking harder!”
Was it the nicest thing to scream? No. But all I could think of was Leo. Of the fact that he was only a few feet from me, but I could do nothing. How had the night changed so quickly?
Leo was doing an incredible job fighting, but every time I saw him get hit, I wanted to vomit. It was all too much, and it felt like it was entirely my fault. How had I allowed us to get separated? I never should have let him wander into that other room alone.
Would I be good in a fight against so many magic users? I had no idea. But that didn’t matter. What mattered was that I would be with him, not stuck on the other side of the door only able to scream.
Just as I thought I was going to combust, the door finally, finally, let out a happy beep. I kicked it open, surging inside with zero survival instincts, but I didn’t care. I grabbed the closest batch of test vials to me and threw it at a one of the lab coats chanting something. It hit with a satisfying shatter of glass, but it had little effect other than that.
It had distracted him enough for Leo to jump on his back and begin ripping out his spine, though. Was it gruesome? Yes, but again, I didn’t care. There was a time and a place for violence, and I was pretty sure this was it.
I looked for my next target, intending to throw more, when another dozen figures barreled into the room. They were barely in when someone shot something toward me. I couldn’t make out what it was, but I had the good sense to throw myself backward.
I tumbled out of the room, caught by a half-transformed Ricky. He was just as ready to throw down as I was-no surprise there-but as we both stood and moved to join the battle again, Leo leaped toward us.
Oh, were we retreating? Risky, but I was fine with it. Or at least that’s what I thought was happening until Leo slammed into the door, closing it with a finality that thundered in my very soul.