Wild Wolf (Darkmore Penitentiary Book 4)

The table I was crouched beneath was burning, the crackle and pop of the heavy wood combining with the growing heat and billowing smoke to force me from my place of refuge.

I’d lost track of Shadowbrook and Wilder in the mayhem and now it was down to me to cause the distraction Rosalie needed.

I steeled myself, flattening my palms to the dirty flagstones beneath me in an attempt to stop them from trembling. I expelled a harsh breath and rolled free of my concealed spot, throwing myself into a series of rolls. Whatever might be lurking out there wouldn’t be able to get a lock on me.

I threw myself to my feet with a feral cry, raising my arms over my head to appear bigger and more intimidating. It was one of the tactics I’d been taught during my guard training at Darkmore and though the one time I’d tried it in there I’d received cat-calls and raucous laughter, I felt like I had it down now.

But there turned out to be no one there for me to intimidate.

The ramshackle marketplace which had been full of nefarious vendors and buyers alike was now abandoned, flames licking at several stalls, holes blasted through the walls and into the floor. Debris littered the ground and a few bodies were strewn over tables and under heaped rubble. Aside from that, I was alone.

“Err…guys?” I called out, turning to hunt for a sign of Sin or Ethan anywhere. They were probably in danger, desperately in need of my help but I had no idea where to find them.

The last time I’d been with them we’d been headed towards the east side of the stronghold so I turned that way and took off, water magic coiling around my fingers, my senses sharp in anticipation of anything.

A high-pitched shriek broke through the air ahead of me and I stumbled over my own feet as my heart leapt in surprise. I hesitated for a moment but my team were relying on me and I knew now that it was time for me to step up and embrace the call of the dark. I had to keep on this path.

I broke into a jog, the groans of some poor bastard reaching my ears, but I couldn’t spare any time for him. He’d figure it out. My boys needed me.

On I ran through the near-abandoned building, a few vendors scrambling in the opposite direction with questionable wares clutched in their arms, some of them bleeding, others cursing the stars for their ill fortune this night.

Another shriek ruptured the air followed by a baying cry which made the hairs stand up along the back of my neck.

An open door stood ahead of me, the wood hanging awkwardly from one set of hinges, more chaotic sounds echoing up from the darkness within it. I could make out the start of a stone staircase leading down into the bowels of this place and I edged closer as more squawking and chattering reached my ears.

I leapt back in alarm, water spraying from my palms as a beast leapt up the stairs and burst out into the light.

I tripped over some loose rubble and went sprawling onto my back, something sharp cracking in my back pocket and jabbing me in the ass cheek.

My eyes widened as the beast leapt at me and I cried out, raising my arms to ward it off. But the savage thing passed between my waving hands, its small body around the size of a rabbit, though it was more rodent in its features with bucked teeth sticking out of its jaw at odd angles.

More whooping, shrieking and howling was rising from within the depths of that staircase and as I shrieked and flailed, knocking the small beast off of me, the thundering footfalls of many feet raced closer, making the floor beneath me tremble.

I scrambled back across the ground as the stampede of feet raced closer, the walls rattling now, terror pounding wildly through my heart.

I blinked and the room turned purple.

That wasn’t right.

I blinked again and it was green.

The pain in my ass cheek sharpened as I scrambled back across the ground and I shoved my hand into my pocket, yanking out a syringe, the needle wet with my blood, the potion inside it gone.

I blinked at it furiously, my eyelashes like fluttering butterfly wings, ready to take off and leave my face behind forever.

“Don’t go,” I whispered to them, the syringe wafting around in front of my eyes. My jazzy, snazzy eyes.

I leapt to my feet with a surge of energy, the syringe tumbling from my fingers in slow motion, bouncing across the flagstones. One. Two. Three. A kind of flopways roll next, then four. Seven. It was slowing now and…

My gaze rose to the doorway where a hoard of beasts had appeared from nothing and nowhere. Birds flip-flapped into the air, critters scrambled over my boots, and big, bad beasties looked me up and down like they might crunch my bones to dust.

“Ca-caw,” I whispered because they were here for me and I was here for them.

Something roared and it wasn’t moving slowly anymore – it was fast, fast, fast and its limbs were long and tipped with razor sharp claws, its teeth bared in a hungry smile aimed right at me.

We were the same. Two feral creatures ready to roam these halls.

My blood was pumping all the way around my body and the room was blue in the next blink.

Blue means poo.

And I was on a roll.

No gnashers would gnash me.

The beast lunged but I dashed to the right, pirouetting by and leaping into a sprint. More monstrous things were scrambling from that open door and I wasn’t going to be their meal. But I could lead them – they could be my pack!

“Come critters!” I roared and I broke into a run, turning back the way I’d come, my feet moving so fast that they were a blur beneath me.

The world was dancing and I was the drummer setting the beat. Jaws snapped at my heels, claws swiped at my spine and in it all I was running and leading the swarm.

I was the king of the beasties and they would answer to none but my call.

I released a yodel of command and they bellowed at my back, following me into the arms of destiny while my heart beat so fast I was almost certain it was trying to outrun me.

But no heart could run faster than I – for I was racing at the speed known only to the Creature Caller and I was him!