Part 33 (1/2)
Vaverek one, me zero.
Except the rage building within me from his words helped. Then he nodded his chin toward someone behind me and I heard it. A growl. A wolf's cry of pain and frenzy.
Van.
Vaverek two, me still batting a big fat zero. Unless I could stop him. Now!
I sent a silent plea to Manlike Woman, a Kootenai woman of power who was believed by my people to be supernatural because of her ability to don male roles despite her ”delicate frame”. And if anyone needed to man up here, it was me when facing this Were.
I quietly started my chant.
Oh Mighty Manlike Bring to justice the one before me.
Vaverek looked at me, a snarl darkening his face.
Make him writhe in pain and feel the harm that he has caused tenfold.
He started morphing. His height growing larger, broader, and very furry. I chanted louder.
May the pain, the anguish, the fear he created return Twenty times ten to him.
A Werebison suddenly stood before me. Bison bonasus, one of the largest animals in the world and most deadly. But I thought they'd been slaughtered to extinction. Maybe the true animal ones had been but obviously Vaverek hadn't gotten the memo.
Vaverek stood at least twelve feet high at the shoulder, his Were genes expanding the normal width and breadth of a bison, and that wasn't counting his horns. At almost a ton in weight, able to jump six feet vertically, and outrace a human running, I was facing h.e.l.l on hooves.
By the Great Spirits what had I done?
He was pawing the ground as I stepped back, my throat so dry I could barely utter the final words of the Retribution Spell.
Oh Mighty Manlike Let his punishment fit his crimes I call on thee, so mote it be!
Nothing happened.
CHAPTER 66.
When in doubt, run like h.e.l.l. A new Noziak motto as I turned and scrambled away from Vaverek.
Not that he was standing still. With a bellow that shook the ground he roared after me.
Nothing that big should move that fast.
I dove through the nearest row of trees placed wide enough for me to weave among them but close enough that Vaverek's wide shoulders weren't going to easily glide through. They wouldn't stop him but they might slow him down. I had agility and that was about it.
How had the spell failed?
Backlash from using blood magic last night? Could be. Magic was a fickle b.i.t.c.h.
Like one of the cartoon characters my brothers and I watched growing up I threaded in and out of the trees like a roadrunner on crack. My breath was chugging, my leg muscles burning. Every time Vaverek smashed through tree trunks I gained a few seconds as I heard the thud of muscles snapping timber and the rip of roots being pulled out of the ground. At this rate I hoped to reach the simin fae before he did.
”Bran,” I screamed, using precious oxygen as I bobbed in and out from one side of the wall of green, seeing Bran and Willie on one side, the parking lot on the other. I waited till I was on Bran's side before shouting again. ”Bran!”
Parking lot side.
”What?”
Gra.s.s side.
”Release the spell.”
Parking lot.
My plan was born of desperation.
”When?” Willie shouted, which told me Bran was either resisting or using everything he had to contain the spell.
Gra.s.s side.
”When I say.”
Parking lot.
Why couldn't the French have planted thick-limbed trees instead of wimpy ones? Vaverek was tearing through the twenty-foot trees like a St. Bernard puppy through petunias.
Gra.s.s side.
”Ready?” I called, so close I could see Bran's strain from holding the limbs of the simin fae rigid, and Bran could probably hear my chugging breath. I mentally asked the faes forgiveness for what I was about to do.
One more round between shrubs. Gra.s.s side. Parking lot. Gra.s.s.
”Now! Run. Everyone run!” I raced toward Bran, grabbing his arm to catapult him out of the way and break the spell. But he'd already released it.
I could hear the high pitch of the fae screaming in their natural tongues.
”Run!” I screamed again, waving my arm at them to get them to move, but they wouldn't listen.
In the blink of an eye Vaverek was on them, mowing them down like bowling pins. One threat gone. Now they couldn't imprison Bran.
Bran and I flew to the left, Willie to the right.
Vaverek stumbled, his forelegs bending but not stopping.
I scrambled to my feet, clutching at Bran. ”Go. Go. Go.”
He didn't need the encouragement. Willie was on his own, but he had a Were's speed so was better able to escape.