Part 60 (1/2)
Lennox was so I would have to be fledged before I experienced that What if Ballard so o?
Find the other one and kill him Of course they were after Ballard He was Head Wolf, Il Gatto, the leader of the Sons and Daughters of Romulus but this was before that had happened Before Ballard had won the race Lenoir had communicated with Rayven in my dreams It hadn't happened yet! They could just as soon have been talking aboutwithin Ballard, they wanted stopped; so even he didn't know about The Grey Wolf Do not let IT survive It had to be
”Rook Rookmaaker” I whispered deliriously
I felt ourselves land, and ht I will go faster”
”Halsey, you have to wake up”
Soh me ”WAKEUP!”
”I'm herewhat is it?”
But where was I?
”We have to hurry, coed me to my feet
Suddenly, I heard it, and Saw
Explosions, fire in the night The benandanti were in trouble
Lennox, I thought
My consciousness cae of Stroue was behind us Stroh the trees after theht ht shot to the Hollow itself! The trees were all on fire ”BALLARD!” I shouted If I was going to save hi quick Lennox and Manon had already ju thick aboutly, blindingly bright blue! The only time that'd ever happened, it ori had co the about! The Dark Order!
I flen the path, feeling prickers and things dig intoto reood I was doo downhill The holloas full of i, but I saw spells erupting suddenly, everyay
Curses flew fro past others I foundwhat to do Are you a witch or aren't you? Craft, I told myself
But I couldn't just craft Not without first finding Ballard
His doe of the Hollow A meteor struck near my feet Rayven wanted Ballard Maybe they were back And Ballard was one of them The Watchtowers That would be it He was my Protector, after all If so, what exactly did Watchtowers do, and was that why Ballard seemed to be on Rayven's hit list?
Was Lennox, or Marek, or Selwyn? But the Watchtoere destroyed; my parents were destroyed
A blast from someone's Mark erupted an to run really fast It couldn't be this simple it couldn't
”Sundr!”
I fell on h the ori stood overon uts,” he said
I could only watch as the Grigori prepared to strike
Laurinaitis's face had taken on the characteristics of a jaguar He plowed into the Grigori, bowling it over They began to duel
It happened lightning-fast, each brandishi+ng their spells at the otherLaurinaitis was tricky; he executed a series of blindingly-fast feints All too soon, he dispatched the Grigori At the saot to my feet ”Are you okay, Halsey?”
But there was no time”no time” I shouted I raced ahead
I continued toward Ballard's do continued aroundmy best to breathe It was around here so thick and fast What would the benandanti do without Stromovka? I couldn't believe Rootten
I wouldn't I couldn't The benandanti had never forgotten They watched and they waited They hadn't let their guard down once Neither would I
Why, if things were so bad, hadn't Mistress Genevieve ever said anything about it? Was she protecting me the way it felt my landlady had sometimes done? Yet, Risky had set Ballard and I down this path Why?
I found Ballard's tree, and was just about to scale it, when a voice behind me made me turn fast
”Mine at last”
I whipped around and Rayven was standing right there If he was a Grigori, why didn't he look like one of them? He was scary, but essentially a wizard They were et it
”WhatdoyouwantRayven?” I said Whinybut so what
He ca froapity I couldn't just ju in his presence, I sahy he had been a Watchtower There was so smooth, urbane, about him Yet, he had been corrupted How?
”You truly are alone,” he hissed
I snapped I forine, before uttering it It wasn't enough Rayven blocked it easily and sent his own spell shooting my way ”N for Neophyte For not ready yet,” he said His eyes lit up ”I don't believe it”
Out of the darkness, the tungleskin had crept It was the grey wolf But it wasn't evil It wasn't even there to kill me
”That's one of the Lares,” said Rayven, astonish his features
I looked at his Mark; back towhat Rayven's Virtue could be Did he even have one? We were connected sorey wolf, there in Stros flashed What was going on?