33. Chapter 33

Chapter 33

Can you keep my clothes? I asked Terrance quickly.

Of course, the spirit residing in my crown assured me.

Esme and I let the shift roll over us. Langston frowned. ‘You'll have lost your clothes,' he muttered. ‘Silly girl.'

Ha! Showed how much he knew. I'd relish his shock later when I shifted back fully dressed. If I hadn't been on a mission I'd have done it right then, but I wanted Langston focused, not wool-gathering about how the heck I'd retrieved my outfit, so I resisted temptation.

Langston and Greg both stripped before shifting and left their clothes neatly folded next to the carriage and tethered horses. I kept my eyes away from Greg; now wasn't the time to get distracted.

‘I guess I'm jogging,' Torrance said drily, looking at the three wolves next to him. ‘Lead the way.'

We turned and plunged into the woods. Staffordshire pack's lands were sizable but the woods around the seat of power weren't vast. We padded through them carefully, mindful of our two-footed companion and the pack of wolves that might be lurking not far from us.

As we slunk closer to Nina, I almost gasped. She looked well, not like the tattered state I'd found her in some two centuries later.

We watched her for a moment. I wasn't sure what I'd expected but I couldn't see a thief; there wasn't anyone dressed in black and sneaking around with a bag marked SWAG. Finally we hunkered down to wait and observe; the last thing we wanted was to draw attention to Nina right now.

We sat there for more than an hour, Torrance in an uncomfortable crouch, until suddenly we heard yips of alarm and howls of aggression on the wind. The Staffordshire pack were on high alert and, judging by the increasing volume of their cries, they were heading our way. Uh-oh, that wasn't what we needed. Shit was about to go down.

As we tensed for the wolves thundering towards us, a man burst out of the seat of power. God damn it! I hadn't seen anyone go in – had he been in there since before we'd arrived?

The thief was small and skinny with narrow eyes and a prominent aquiline nose. He had a bag on his shoulder. He was trying to pull it off with one hand but it had caught on his head and he was getting flustered as he pulled at it. All the while his other hand was stubbornly clutching the glowing orb; presumably he was planning to shove it into the bag once he got it open. His fear of the approaching werewolves was making him clumsy: he was a clumsy, scaredy thief, my favourite type.

Greg shifted to human to speak to us. ‘That's a go bag!' he said urgently.

I shifted too. ‘What's that? Like a bug-out bag?' I asked.

‘No. If he puts the orb in it, it'll be transported to a linked bag that could potentially be hundreds of miles away. Don't let him put it in the bag!'

Greg shifted back and we raced towards the fumbling thief. At the same time as we broke through the cover of the trees, the Staffordshire wolves came over the brow of the hill.

Langston braced himself and his golden eyes turned blue. He blew a hard gust of wind at the unprepared wolves that sent them tumbling. It bought us a few seconds, but not much more. Maybe air powers were overrated; then again, maybe Langston wasn't proficient in using them.

If we had air powers, Esme growled, we would use the air itself to slice our enemies in two .

Well we don't, so claws will have to do, I shot back.

Greg and I thundered towards the thief as Torrance grew a fireball and rolled it towards the wolves. It was huge and ponderous so it was easy for the agile wolves to leap out of its way before it fizzled out uselessly a few paces away from them.

The thief had pulled the bag off his shoulder and Esme and I leapt to stop him from putting the orb inside it. As we landed on his chest, we didn't hesitate – Esme never hesitates. She bit down on his forearm, tearing through muscle and sinew and even chomping through bone. He gave an unearthly scream and dropped the orb as he clutched at his ruined arm.

Torrance sent another fireball rolling towards the attacking wolves. Before it could reach them, the eyes of one of the Staffordshire Pack wolves turned blue and it used air magic to blow the fire back at him. Torrance didn't blink; he knew he could absorb the flames easily.

I hate this bit, Terrance muttered into my mind and winced. Before I could ask what he meant, the thief pulled a packet of something from his pocket with his good arm and threw it into the fire. I saw Torrance's eyes widen in panic but he could do no more as the fires hit him. And this time … he didn't absorb them. Lit up like a beacon, he stood there screaming .

Langston ran towards him. ‘ TORR !' he shouted in anguish.

I shifted into human. ‘Drop and roll!' I screamed at Torrance.

But he didn't drop and roll, he just ran around in circles, still screaming as his own flames burned him alive.

Torrance, call the fire to us and then throw it somewhere else! I suggested urgently. He did as I bade, pulling the flames from himself and tossing them away. In his haste to end his suffering, he tossed the spare flames towards the seat of power – where they instantly caught on the wooden structure.

This was a fucking mess.

‘Get water!' I screamed at the Staffordshire pack. ‘Hurry! Save the seat of power!'

The wolves stared at us, frozen by indecision. They'd been braced for an attack and we were interlopers, but now we were talking about saving the seat of power. Were we friend or foe?

DO IT! Esme barked.

After a moment's hesitation half of the confused wolves loped back to the mansion to get water; they'd been whipped into action by our alpha command, even if they didn't understand how that was possible. The other half stayed and watched us, growling threateningly but not taking any steps to attack us.

I looked around, torn. I wanted to help Torrance but, sick as it made me, I turned back to the thief. He was the reason that I'd come here; I'd help Torrance after I had the orb.

I was just in time to see the orb's light flicker, pulse and go out. The man in black frowned but still dropped it into his go-bag. Son of a bitch!

The Staffordshire wolves staggered and fell, and Langston gasped and dropped to the floor like he'd been punched. He lay there dumbly in his wolf form, slowly blinking his golden eyes, then he shifted into human form. He sat up slowly and turned to me, his eyes wide. ‘My air power! I can't reach it!' he panted in panic.

The Staffordshire wolves must have reached the same conclusion. Feeling weakened, they beat a hasty retreat back to their stronghold.

Recriminations boiled through me. I had screwed up and I had failed. The orb was in the go-bag being sent to who-knew-where; Torrance was covered in severe burns that he couldn't possibly recover from, and Nina was on fire. God, I was so rubbish at this. Everything that could get fucked up had gotten fucked up.

Beat yourself up later, Esme snapped. Fix it now !

She was right: feeling sorry for myself wasn't helping anyone – and God knows, there were plenty of people in need of help.

Abruptly, Langston spotted Torrance, staggered to his feet and collapsed next to his former best friend. Torrance's skin was a mix of blistered skin and blackened flesh. Not an inch of his alabaster skin remained, not that I could see anyway, and his clothes had melted and meshed with his scorched torso.

‘Oh my God! Torr!' Langston reached out and cradled his head. ‘Torr, you'll be okay. We'll get you to a healer.'

I shook my head. Torrence wasn't going to be okay, not by a long shot; he had minutes left of his life, if that. The shock or the wounds were killing him, and we didn't have time to waste. If I was going to save him, I had to do it now. The orb was lost to me – for now – but at least I could do this. Hopefully.

Torrance was hanging on to consciousness by the barest thread. He mumbled something I couldn't make out. I turned to Greg. ‘Put out that bloody fire!' I ordered, pointing to the smoke pouring from Nina and then I ran headfirst into a burning building.

Because I couldn't save Torrance without a little help.