“There’s one thing I don’t understand,” I said. “If a werewolf in southern Oregon is enough to set off the alarms, how do you get to move around freely?”
“It depends on the signature you give out,” he explained. “I have ways of changing my signature.”
“Ways you’re not going to share with me?” Bianca asked.
“Ways that wouldn’t work for you,” Antonio said. “Now let’s get back to The Estate.”
There was something quite remarkable about running through the forest with the wolves at my side. I wasn’t sure who was protecting who, but I was exhilarated and free, until suddenly a blinding light flashed in the forest in front of us, throwing us all off our feet.
I sailed through the air and smashed into the ground. The wet earth pressed up against my skin into my face and my nose. It smelled like a grave.
“What the fuck?” I mumbled, looking around for my companions. They were still in their wolf form, but they were lying on their sides, not moving.
I stood up, getting my bearings. The world was still tilting and whirling and there was a loud throbbing in my ears. The pulse. I had the pulse. I needed to find out where the enemy was.
I scanned my periphery vision, sending energy by focusing on danger. Something pulsed back at me, moving at the back of my head. I spun around. Standing there were three of the biggest, burliest men I’d ever seen in my life. But they weren’t just men. Their legs were like goat’s and they each had horns of varying sizes on top of their heads; their chests were naked in the rain. The largest one in the center of the other two had his crossbow pointed directly at the space between my eyes.
“Make one move and this arrow will get you. It’s silver and basted in garlic and holy water, the very end of it being a wooden tip. We’ve got a little something for everyone here. I suggest nobody move a muscle. We’re going to extract both wolves. We thought we were coming for one, but it looks like today is our lucky day, gentlemen.”
I snarled as they took a step toward me and the wolves.
They weren’t going to take Bianca. Not today. I sprang into action, leaping into the air directly over the satyr in front of me. I captured his head with my feet and gave it a swift side twist, snapping his neck. He fell to the ground before I even landed on the other side facing the largest satyr. In seconds I grabbed him in a headlock and forced him to release his arrow aimlessly. Then I flipped the satyr onto his back and sank my teeth into his neck, drinking from him while he screamed.
The poison in my veins soon overtook him. I glanced over to see the other satyr shaking in shock, his back against a tree. I dropped the satyr I was drinking from and made short work of tying the last satyr up.
“Maybe you can get a nymph to set you free at some point in the near future,” I said as I went to check the wolves. “This is Cougar Creek Coven territory. I suggest you leave as soon as you figure your way out of that knot.”
Chapter 17
Antonio was still seething when we got back to The Estate. I didn’t have time to deal with his emotions, because we had a few other things on our plate, Demons were coming to call. The entire coven had gathered ready to do some magic and put this demon down once and for all.
“Are you sure you’ve got everything you need?” I asked Mae.
“I’m not the one who got us into the situation,” Mae said. “But yeah, we’ve got a handle. We’re going to do what we can.”
“Remember. Last time you guys did something, it didn’t work out too well and Rar’goth went from residing in Jane to walking free on the Earth,” I pointed out. “This time we’ve got to be super vigilant.”
“How did you guys survive so long in this place without knowing so much?” asked Antonio. “Demons are capable of doing things we don’t even realize they can do.”
“Don’t blame us,” Trina interjected. “We’ve been living in a quiet neighborhood in the middle of nowhere until Mae showed up. And with Mae came all these other people out of the woodwork as if they all belong to her.”
“They belong to The Estate,” Mae said. “Everyone in the Cougar Creek Coven made a promise to The Estate, not me. I even think to a certain extent the men were drawn here for a similar reason.” She looked over at Branson and smiled warmly.
I knew she was also referring to Matheus and Toern, even though they weren’t there. I’d seen those three men protecting the women of the coven as if they were sentries in the same stance Antonio was taking. Maybe people were being called to the coven. From everything I understood, Cougar Creek had gotten a lot more crowded over the last month or so.
It made sense.
Authorities had been called in when the kids had been killed. The state provided Sheriff Ted with not just a deputy, but a person who would inherit his job when he retired. They asked for somebody to volunteer. I had seen the opportunity and there wasn’t much left for me in Indianapolis even though I’d lived my entire adult life there. Now it just seemed like twenty years of having a job. I mean, a job I cared about, but that was all the roots I had there.
“The demon’s going to be here any minute,” I said.
“We’re going to take them straight into the altar room. That’s the best place to bind him.”
There was a tapping on the door that barely got our attention. Bianca and I exchanged a look. We’d been expecting a little more of an entrance from a demon. I opened the front door to find the demon standing there. His skin was charred black with thin magma cracks all over it.
He wasn’t even ferocious. He stumbled forward, leaving trails of embers after him. Anita swept up with a magic hand.
“He’s dying,” I heard her whisper to her brother Drake.
