Snow: The White Crow (16 page)

She flippin' winked at me then reached up and rubbed an antler.  Oh good lord that felt good.  Red droned, “Get a room you two, we have Orcs to de-orc.”

Rach asked with a voice tinged with humor, “De-Orc?  That doesn't even make sense.  You do hear yourself don't you?”  Daria chuffed in laughter and agreement.

Red was on the verge of laughter as she said to the wolf, “Oh shut up Daria, or you won't get any tonight.”  I did laugh when the wolf put a paw over her own mouth at the threat.  We were all joking around when we were most likely facing our own deaths.

The beast inside me felt the thrill of the hunt, part of me craved it.  It growled inside wanting to be set free.  I said, “Okay, let me get in the proper mode here and let's do this.  Just hold the orcs off of me as I work on the spell.  If anyone gets close enough to take out the crone, her death will release the spell too.”  Then I paused and looked at Rachel. “ I don't know how long my nature spirit will hold me this time.  I... want you to know, I love you.”

She cupped my cheek and pulled my M4 off my back with her other hand, throwing it over her shoulder as she threw my own words back at me.  “Your nature aspect is your nature aspect.  She... you are my mate.  That's why it is called love and not a platypus.”

I rolled my eyes. “You're such a weirdo and it doesn't even make sense when you say it that way.”

She gave me a peck on the lips and I forgot what I was saying and just grinned. “Good wolfie.”

She looked at me expectantly. “Well get with it bird girl.”  I smiled with melancholy in my heart and twapped her nose and kissed it then exploded into my nature aspect.

We all turned and they started running as I took to the sky, transforming into my white crow on the fly.  Pack I had told my wolfling.  Yes, this was my pack below me we were on the hunt.  The hunt? The Hunt!  I could feel the thrill of the hunt inside me and I called out, drawing it to me as my pack mates burst into the clearing by the mine.

Gunshots rang out over the bellowing of the huge, attacking orcs, as Rachel fearlessly strode forward, double tapping the beasts with head shots as she progressed.  Daria was a grey furred blur as she leaped over an orc, grabbing the back of its neck and smashing it backwards to the ground.  It got a hold of her hind leg and I could hear it snap from where I was, followed by her yelp of pain as I came in to land behind the women.

The orc bellowed in pain and released Daria as an arrow shot through its wrist.  The Red Hood was pirouetting in the air, and her heel caught the orc on the chin.  I could smell the sulfur, brimstone, and rot of the magics it was constructed of.  As she landed, she continued her spin and the orc's head was flopping to the side as black blood went flying through the air trailing the long blade of that hunting knife.  She had almost decapitated it.  It staggered and fell.

That one was down, but I saw the ones Rachel put down starting to get back up as they healed as fast as I saw Daria's leg healing.  I let part of my life force flow out to my pack mates to bolster their strength.  And I concentrated on the crone who was holding the focus for her orc spell.  A piece of rotting flesh on a stick tied with her dead daughter's hair.

I saw the black chains going through it to each Orc and into the woman's black heart, a larger chain from there down into the earth, tethering her to the realm of the demons, tethering her own soul to hell.  Who would willingly do that just for power that is so fleeting to a mortal life?

She saw my intent as I worked down through the layers.  It was not like any nature or natural magics, not even black magics.  Demon magic was so complex.  So I reached my hands out to the chain that bound her and started pulling symbolically at the air.  She winced in pain as I started pulling at the weakest link in the chain as it bent in my mind.

She screamed. “Her!  Get the feathered abomination!”  And all of the Orcs turned from the battle toward me.  My pack moved between them and me.  I smiled as I felt something huge coming.  Rachel was out of bullets and now had Mari's hunting knife in one hand and a silver blade from her in the other, the stench of silver burn in the air.  My wolfling said to me,  “We're not doing enough damage Snow!  Make it fast.  Only two have gone down and dissolved.”

I raised my arms and trees exploded from the ground caging us all in except at our backs.  The witch laughed. “What is that supposed to do?  You nature spirits are so contrary.  You should embrace your power and join us.  The masters will reward you.”

I smiled as I could feel my forest shaking behind me.  “What am I doing?  Simply assuring that none of you escape.  Do you know who I am child?”

The witch looked nervous and I could feel the predatory aspect of nature welling up in me driving my wild side.  My voice boomed out as the ground around us shook. “I am Gretta Snow, one with and of Perchta, the Shining One. Goddess of the Perchten.  I LEAD THE WILD HUNT!”

Hundreds of roaring bear, wolves, cougars, and other predators barreled through the opening at our backs and flooded past us and over the Orcs, shredding flesh, rending limbs from bodies.  I reveled in the thrill of the kill emanating from the members of the Wild Hunt, I could see through all of their eyes feel the bloodlust, bask in the primal pull of it.

The witch started to chant as a black tear in natures begun to form beside her.  Before I could raise a hand to close the simple construct, I hear the thwip of a silenced rifle beside me and the witch staggered back, grasping her chest, blood pulsating between her fingers.  I looked at Rachel holding Gretta's... my, rifle.

I took a step then was airborne, flying high over the carnage below.  I folded my wings in as I spiraled out of the sky while I changed back into my Goddess aspect in a hurricane of feathers. I slammed into the witch from above, driving my antlers through her shoulders, and pinning her to the ground.  She blinked at me and coughed up blood.

I reached out and grasped the binding, it was like a physical chain in my hands and I pulled gently and it dissolve.  The few Orcs that were left bellowed and dissolved into dust.  I looked at the witch who was gasping her last breath and said to her, “Be at peace.”  Then thrust my hand into her chest and yanked out her damaged heart.  Then ripped my antlers from her as I stood.

I held the black organ high and roared with all of the predatory violence that nature was capable of.  The Wild Hunt all raised their muzzles and roared with me.  Then there was silence.  I dropped the tree barriers and the animals relaxed as I did then wandered back off into the mountains.

I threw the heart to the ground then turned to an empty clearing where only my pack stood.  I panted, calming myself, letting the beauty of nature soak into me, to calm my other side.  Rachel stepped up to me  I was panting and she laid a hand on my cheek, she wasn't afraid.  She said, “Hello.”

I blinked then smiled. “Hello my sweet wolfling.”  Then I added, “It may be some time before I have a semblance of my Gretta self.”  I marveled at the light of my life, we, I chose well.

She kissed my cheek. “Worth the wait.  You're pretty hot in this form too.”

Daria made a groaning sound and Red said again, “Oh get a room you two.  We still have the Black Crown to find.”

My pack went to the entrance to the old mine, I couldn't feel past the entrance, there were powerful magics cloaking it, I could see the layers upon layers.  Like someone had been adding new layers for decades, maybe even a century.  It was wolf curse and demon magic.  They wanted this artifact hidden, I was aware of most powerful artifacts, but this Black Crown was unknown to me.  Either it was something new or it was older than the life force of Perchta in my soul.

I paused as I looked at the boards.  The Red Hood, who wore the Light of Life in the mantle of her cloak was seeing what I was and smelling what the rest of us were.  “The boards were blown out from the inside.  There's fresh Alpha blood.  Maybe two days old.  He beat us and the gypsies to the Black Crown.  But that would mean he was inside with it.  Unless there is another entrance.”

I stopped my Rachel as she started toward the entrance.  I said, “It is spelled.  Death magics.”  I looked to the side as a smooth spot on a stone by the entrance.  “Here.”  I quested and tried to understand the spell.  The triggers, the key.  “It takes the blood of an Alpha to deactivate it.  I can dispel it, give me a minute to understand it.”

Maireni, who was bound to the beautiful werewolf who was not, chuckled and stepped up to the rock saying, “Or we can just use Alpha blood, we have two right here.”  She pulled her blade across her hand and let her blood drip onto the stone as her hand healed up.

I could feel the dark cascade of energy as the death spell collapsed.  I tilted my head at her.  Indeed?  An Alpha?  Then I understood the balance.  The curse was a double-edged sword, she was what the Alphas had attempted to become in order to combat what they actually were.  I understood balance.  I smiled at her.

We strode in, they instinctively fell in behind me, trusting me to detect any further traps.  Daria's nostrils were flaring and she whined.  Mari answered as if the wolf had spoken out loud.  “Yes, I smell it too Dar.  The stench of a Marcus brother.  It is so intense.  Like he lived here.”

We all paused at the back of a chamber, at a great wall of silver that had a vault like door.  The door had to be a foot thick of solid silver and it was buckled outward.  Something had forced its way out.

I quested but felt no magics beyond and stepped through. Rachel stepped over the silver threshold, avoiding touching anything, her bare feet started to sizzle.  She covered her nose and mouth as the Red Hood did the same, and I and Daria cringed back from the stench.  Silver burn, rot, feces, blood, wolf, and lupine curse.

The walls were all silver in the vault as was the floor and ceiling.  There was a thick silver chain hanging down from the ceiling with bolts as thick as my forearm.  It ended just above the floor, over a wood platform, with a three-inch thick silver collar that was torn in half.

Mari examined it.  And the small wood platform below it that had wolf claw marks in it.  Her nostrils flared and she took in the scents and cringed, but repeated it over and over.  “They kept someone in here for decades chained to the ceiling.”

She pointed. “That collar was one piece, meaning they forged it around his neck or did it with magic.  He would have broken his neck every full moon when he changed and his larger wolf neck snapped.  Then he healed back up until the next full moon.  The rot I smell is so repetitive.  He died of starvation over and over and the curse kept bringing him back.  I think they chained him and just left him and never returned.”

Then she took a deep breath.  Brave in the stench of the vault.  “I think I know what... who, the Black Crown is, and why the other Alphas are afraid he'll undo their compulsion on the packs.”

We looked on as she explained, “The five brothers Marcus were kings in old Romania that were seeking power and dominion over man.  With the help of gypsies and a trickster demon, they originated the lupine curse that plagues the world today in their quest for that power.  When one brother, Cristian, found that to gain the power, they needed to sacrifice an innocent girl, he pulled out.  But they needed all five for the binding and spells to work.”

She looked at the collar swinging on the chain.  “From what we learned after Alistair Slater told us this much, Cristian fought but they forced him to participate, chained to a tree at the sacrifice.”  She looked up.  “After the demon tricked them with the curse, Cristian refused to turn anyone, to control anyone.  But they tried to make him come around to their side.  They had captured him and starved him to death over and over.  Offering him humans on the full moon to eat.  He refused time and again.”

Then she looked angry.  “Then one full moon they brought his wife, Adela, in chains.  After he changed, they had a dozen humans that were loyal to them hold him down as they cut her hand on his teeth.  Minutes later she became wolf and shredded all of those humans.  All the infected from Cristian's bloodline were sired by his Adela.  The brothers Marcus would release her into villages every full moon to try to force their brother to join them.”

She chuckled to herself.  “Cristian refused and swore his vengeance on his brothers, and for centuries he did all he could to sabotage any of their plans and break any compulsions on the human cursed.  But he disappeared a century ago.  Now we know where he was.”

She motioned to the chain.  “It seems his brothers even dehumanized him by calling him the Black Crown and locked him away in this cell and forgot about him until Daria and I started killing the Alphas and they declared war on Clean Bloods.  I'm pretty sure they sent the Gypsy witches to kill him and try to turn me.”

Rachel asked, “But if that was true, why didn't they just come straight here to kill him instead of searching the mountains?”

She shrugged.  “My guess is that Alistair had him the whole time as leverage against his brothers.  They never agreed to his plan to control all the silver production in the world, they thought it was too risky.  He almost made it work.  I'm betting that they didn't know where he was holding Cristian.  But they couldn't have the threat of his release hanging over them now that they are in an all out war overseas.”

We all looked at the collar then the door.  I voiced it, “But he is out now.”  I looked around at the evidence of a century of suffering and death.  “The question is, did any part of his mind survive this, or have the remaining brothers finally got their wish, and another killer has been released into the world?”

Daria was growling low and Mari nodded at her then looked at us. “I guess that's our cue to go on the hunt.”  She smiled at us.  “Ladies, it has been an honor.  We need to find a time to get together with the others and talk.  It's nice to not be alone.”

I grasped her arm. “We are pack.”  She nodded with a wistful smile.  I ruffled the wolf's ears and she complained with a snuffing chuff.  Then she offered a paw, I smiled and shook.

Rachel gave them each a hug and said, “We'll see you soon then Red?  Fluffy?”  Then she comically hopped back from Daria, who was eyeballing her shoes.

We all walked down the tunnel and emerged outside in the setting sun.  With one more shared smile, they were off, grey and red blurs weaving through the trees on the scent trail of Cristian Marcus.  Daria's howl exciting my hunting instinct.

We made our way back to where we had left a tied up, Amanda Danes.  She looked at us calmly as we approached.  She had a tear in her eye and she looked at the sun.  She whispered as she shook her head, “I don't want to be a wolf.”

Rachel knelt in front of her and placed her forehead on hers and smiled sadly.  “None of us do.  But it isn't so bad.  Just keep locked up under the full moon and it is pretty much what you are used to.”

I placed a hand on her head and asked,  “Do you feel the need to attack us anymore?  The compulsion should be dead with the witch.”  She shook her head and I smiled and said, “Good.”  I started untying her.

She struggled.  “No!  The sun is setting!  I don't want to hurt you.”

I smiled as I finished untying her.  I placed a hand on her cheek as Rachel sat beside her.  I assured her, “You won't hurt me, I think I accidentally made you pack when I tried to break the compulsion.  And my mate won't let you hurt me if you aren't.  We need to get you back to Issaquah, everyone is looking for you.”

She looked nervously at the sun and Rachel asked, “The rest of your squad?”

She shook her head. “Half were killed in the ambush, thy just took control of the cursed of our team with that talisman and the witches made me watch while the other clean blood was eaten in front of me before they had a wolf bite me.  They were sadistic bitches.”

I nodded as I felt the last rays of sun pass over the horizon.  I watched in fascination as the women changed.  Then I was faced with a small black wolf snarling and snapping at me as my beautiful red wolfling disciplined her. She snapped at her and pinned her to the ground with her fangs at her throat until Amanda whined in submission.  After that was all sorted out, I offered my throat to my Rachel to show Amanda my mate was the boss of us all while she was a wolf.

I held both my hands out and Rachel settled under one hand and the smaller Amanda under my other.  I scratched under their fur then we all started running through the woods, the moonlight reflecting off of my feather cloak, lighting our way back toward Slater Mining and the car.  I reveled in the feeling, it was as seductive as my forest was, a part of me.  Pack!  My Pack!