Throne to the Wolves_An Urban Fantasy Novel Read online

  Then again, I’d been sure, absolutely sure, he was dead. I’d seen the wolves carve him up, seen him fall off the building when he’d decided to fight instead of run. Granted, I hadn’t touched his body or anything because I’d been too busy running from the werewolf hit squad, but at the same time…

  “What happened?” I asked as I put my hands on my head and stood.

  “A lot,” my younger brother replied as he circled in front of me. Unlike how I remembered him, he was big, like linebacker big and dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt accented by a variety of fantasy armor. His boots were straight off of Iron Man’s Mark III suit and his left hand sported Thanos’s bejeweled Infinity Gauntlet while his right held a Spider-Man web-shooter complete with vial of Silly String.

  Various other items were strapped to his chest like a fantasy Rambo. It was sort of ridiculous when you looked at him objectively. I mean, here he was, a grown ass man covered in cheap plastic toys. Unfortunately, the gun in his hand was a good old-fashioned Beretta 92 FS. The sight of it almost made me smirk. Our master had wanted us to rely upon our magic. He felt by relying on tech we were limiting ourselves.

  My brother had always disagreed since bullets will kill most things just fine. My master had eventually conceded to let him have them because at the end of the day, well, a gun was pretty good at killing things. He may have just gotten tired of beating my brother over it though.

  “I can see that,” I said, meeting his gray eyes. They were just like mine, only I really hoped mine weren’t as twisted and dark. “But I saw you die.”

  “You saw me almost die.” His lips compressed into a slash across his face. “The wolves dumped my body in a dumpster and left me for the cleanup crew.” The edge of his mouth quirked. “I wasn’t as dead as the cleaner thought.”

  “Why didn’t you find me?” I asked because that suddenly seemed more important than anything. “I—”

  “I tried to find you. I spent a year looking for you, Annie.” He let out a breath and shook his head minutely. His gun didn’t waver even a centimeter. “Then I met a girl. Sorry.” He shrugged as if to say “you know how it is.”

  “That’s great,” I said, barely resisting the urge to move forward and hug him. It was weird. I was happy to see him despite the circumstances. After all, he’d been dead. Now he wasn’t. My brother was alive. It should have been a happier moment

  “She’s dead.” The words came out cold and empty. “The wolves came for us one night. Silent and deadly. They slit her throat with a garrote. I walked into our house to find her body slumped on the floor. The smell of gas and blood filled my nostrils.” He huffed out an angry breath. “I’d been about to turn on the light. If I had…”

  “Gordon, that’s horrible.” Tears blurred my vision. I wanted to hold him close, to comfort him. Only I was pretty sure if I moved, he’d shoot me. He had the look of someone who might. Besides, his training had been like mine. He could enter the dead zone that let him kill just as easily as I could. He might regret it when he came out, but I’d still be just as dead. I couldn’t risk it.

  “Yeah…” He took one hand off the gun and gestured toward the statues around us. “But they’ll pay.”

  “You can’t kill all these people,” I said, which was probably a stupid decision on my part. I should have lied, should have said I’d help him and then betrayed him. I couldn’t lie to him though. I never could really. Thankfully, that’d gone both ways.

  “I can, and I will.” He smiled, and it was so creepy it made me shudder. “They’ll all pay, Annie. For Pauline, for us, for all of it. They’ll pay in spades.”

  “And what then?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “What if it does exactly what you want?”

  “Then we’ll be free of the wolves. Their power structure will be shattered. We can rise, and they will not be able to stop us. We can live in peace without them trying to gut us at every turn.” A snarl flitted across his face and something dark and angry swam through his eyes. “Their lives are a small price to pay for ours.”

  “You can’t stop blood with blood,” I replied even though I had a feeling he was right. Whatever wolves survived might be pissed, but I doubted they’d be in a position to fight any mages and during that time animators would rise. Hell, the other mages had been waiting for an opportunity to rein in the werewolves, and I had no doubt they’d take it, given the chance. “I guarantee even if this happens, the wolves will come for us again.”

  “Not if we wipe them all out first. We can turn the tables on them.” He dropped the gun to his side and held out his free hand. “Join me, Annie. Help us avenge our friends and family. Help us show them our true power. We can put them on the run.”

  “I can’t,” I said, turning away from him and looking at my feet. “I just…”

  “Then stay out of my way. Just let me do it. No blood on your hands. Nothing.” The sound of his steps on the stone floor of the ritual chamber seemed to echo in the otherwise silent room. He put one hand on my shoulder, and his touch was surprisingly gentle. “Please.”

  I was quiet. If I stood back and was complicit, it’d be the same as doing it myself. If I was going to do that, I might as well put a gun to Justin’s head and pull the trigger. The sad, silly stupid little thing was… I couldn’t do that. Not for anything. Not even for a life of freedom. Yeah, I knew how stupid that was, but he’d been trying to change things for the better from within. That was worth something.

  I know, I know. I should have been able to ignore Justin, should have seen the bigger picture. The wolves weren’t exactly good people. They’d murdered my clan. Hell, they’d murdered their own breakers if what Laura had said was true. They were violent, powerful, and probably needed a good smack on the nose with a giant newspaper wrapped in barbed wire, but at the same time, Justin wasn’t all of those things.

  If I put him on the scales of fate and tried to weigh him against the amount of good letting my brother do his thing would likely accomplish, it wasn’t even close. Not by a fraking long shot. And yet... I couldn’t let him kill Justin because the thought of him dying made me feel hollow and empty in a way I’d never experienced before. Call me selfish, but well, yeah, I was selfish.

  “I can tell from your eyes what you’re going to do, Annie,” he said, and the sorrow in his voice hit me like an icicle to the heart. I’d never seen or heard him so disappointed in me. We’d been each other’s constant allies for nearly our whole lives. Through everything we’d had each other, and now… Now, I was going to ditch him for a boy. It was almost too pathetic to comprehend.

  “I’m sorry,” I swallowed hard. “But imagine if it was your girl who would die from the ritual. Would you still do it?”

  “No, but I don’t have that problem since the wolves killed her.” His gun started to come up. “I’m sorry too.”

  I threw myself at him. It was like slamming shoulder first into a steel girder, and he barely moved. Still, I got my feet under me as he stumbled and grabbed ahold of his wrist. I twisted, using momentum and physics to break his grip on the gun and send it flying across the room right before he backhanded me with all the force of a Mack-truck.

  My body hit the stone floor like a sack of potatoes. Pain radiated across my cheek as I tried to get to my feet. Before I could, he kicked me in the stomach. Stars flashed across my vision as breath exploded from my lungs. I collapsed to the ground as he rolled me over with the toe of his boot.

  “Please don’t make me kill you, Annie,” he said it like he knew it wouldn’t matter, but had to try anyway. It nearly broke me.

  “There’s got to be another way,” I gasped out, while clutching my stomach. “Please…”

  “Maybe, but if there is, I’m not interested.” His hand moved to his belt, revealing the hilt of a Kylo Ren lightsaber. So that was how it was going to be. “Sorry.”

  “Me too,” I replied, sweeping the leg.

  He hit the ground hard as I bolted to my feet. My stomach still hurt from the force of h
is kick, but I ignored it, burying it under a sea of emptiness as I let my killing mode wash over me. Panic, pain, and anger disappeared under a wall of cold focus.

  My brother got to his feet as I sprinted across the room toward a heavy wooden door at the other end of the hallway. I twisted the knob, thanking my lucky stars it was unlocked, and hit it hard, shouldering it open with all the strength I could muster.

  It slid open only a scant few inches, scratching across the dungeon floor as my brother caught up to me. His hand reached out, grabbing ahold of the hood of my sweatshirt as I twisted through the narrow opening. My feet went out from under me as my breath was suddenly cut off by my own collar. I fell, slamming into the stone.

  He’d been forced to release me though. Instead of taking the impact with the cold hard rock full on, I rolled backward into him and did a handstand kick that would have made Jean Claude Van Damme proud. My Doc Martins caught Gordon in the chest and sent him stumbling backward with a loud “oof!”

  I continued the movement and came up to my feet. I ignored the pain in my throat and scalp as I burst through the door and nearly had a heart attack. It was nothing but a closet. I was trapped. I pushed the door closed behind me even though it left me in complete darkness because I wasn’t sure what else to do. I leaned against the edge to keep it shut and waited.

  Not that it mattered. If my brother wanted in here, he had more than enough ways to break down a door. Then again, for all I knew, maybe he’d just lock me in here and keep me out of the way. It’s what I’d do.

  “Annie, come out please.” There was real pleading in his voice and a realization hit me. He didn’t want me dead. At least not enough to shoot me when I’d been down and out. Maybe he hoped that by keeping me alive until the ritual was over he’d convince me or at least get me to forgive him. Hell, normally he’d have been right, but his ritual would cost me Justin, and I couldn’t pay that price.

  “No,” I said, frantically searching the room for any kind of weapon because I had to open this door and face him. No, not just face him, but stop him.

  “What if I let your boy toy live?” he asked as my eyes fell upon a row of lockers a few feet away from me. I wasn’t sure what was in them, but there had to be something useful. “What if I don’t kill Justin?”

  I was on my feet and reaching toward the lockers, but I stopped. “You won’t do that. His father is the King of Wolves.”

  “If it means having you on my side, I could do it. Who is to stop me? We’re the only ones here. The rest are back at base.” He let out a slow breath. “Besides, the King of Wolves will fall soon enough. My spies tell me he is not recovering well. His time is at an end. If Justin were to join us once his father passes…”

  My hand was on the locker. I could feel the cold kiss of the steel beneath my fingertips, but even so I stopped to consider what he’d said. What if I did what my brother asked? Justin might not forgive me, but he would live. His mother would live. He would probably become the King of Wolves with the others gone. Either way, he might have the power to hold things together. He was the prince after all.

  Only, he might not forgive me.

  The thought of that made something inside me go cold and dark. It shattered the calm of my killing place. I couldn’t do that to him. At least not willingly.

  I opened the locker.

  “Annie?” my brother asked, and as he did, the door started to open. Without me pressing it shut, there was nothing to keep him out. Well, almost nothing.

  I reached into the locker and picked up both my lightsaber and my charm bracelet. I slipped the bracelet on and turned as the door opened. My brother stood in the doorway framed by the cascading light of the ritual. He held his hand out to me.

  “What do you say, sister?” he asked, and the way he looked at me made me want to join him so much it hurt. “Will you join me?”

  “No,” I whispered as I thumbed on the lightsaber. “It’s a horrible night for a curse.”

  22

  Darth Vader’s crimson blade sprang to life in front of me, casting my face in a shroud of shadow and angry red light. I wasn’t sure why, but the idea of us both using lightsabers favored by the Sith seemed somehow fitting.

  I slashed at my brother as he leapt backward as nimble as a jungle cat, avoiding my attack as it cleaved a molten scar in the dungeon’s doorframe. His own hand went to the blade at his belt, and he pulled it free as I stepped out of the closet. His eyes were narrowed into slits as I stood there, a two-handed grip on the light saber.

  “Has it really come to this, Annie?” he asked, thumbing on his own lightsaber. Kylo Ren’s scarlet broadsword flared to life. Crackling sparks leapt from the blade as he dropped into a fighting stance that reminded me more of ancient knights than the Kendo-like style our master had taught us. So he’d picked up a few tricks. Interesting.

  “Yes,” I said, propelling myself forward with my legs while slashing at him once more. He met my blade with his, and the resounding crash of our sabers was deafening.

  To be honest, it was always a little weird fighting with a lightsaber because unlike a traditional sword, the blade had no weight. All of the weight was in the handle, and it made wielding it different, especially when the blades pushed against each other because the fulcrum was way lower than it’d otherwise be.

  Crimson sparks leapt from the sabers as my brother pressed his down toward me, trying to aim the side jets of his broadsword into me. My muscles corded with effort as I struggled to push him back, but it was nearly impossible. I was reasonably strong for a girl, but my brother was a big hulking man, and there was no way I was going to beat him in any contest of strength.

  I twisted my body as I turned off my saber. The sudden lack of resistance sent him stumbling forward. His lightsaber came forward in a wild arc that cut the stones where I’d been into slag, but I’d been ready for that. I came out of my twist and drove a roundhouse kick into his back.

  He nearly stumbled into his own energy blade, but managed to turn off his lightsaber before he crashed into the glowing jets of red plasma spewing from the hilt. He came to his feet in a roll, lightsaber already reignited. Bits of burning rock had melted holes in his shirt, but if it bothered him, he didn’t show it.

  “Nice,” he said, a smile on his lips as he brought the blade up. “But this isn’t the movies. I haven’t just taken one of Chewbacca’s bowcaster bolts, and you’re no Rei.”

  He was right after all. I was no Rei, even if the two of us were standing here fighting with toy lightsabers like a normal brother and sister. Then again, I was an animator, and it was my job to play with toys.

  “No, I’m just Annie.” He came forward as I flicked my lightsaber back to life. “And that’s more than enough for the likes of you.”

  I parried his slash, letting it slide off mine as he drove me steadily backward across the room. I turned, twisting and angling my body so he drove me backward toward the ritual. After all, I didn’t have to beat him. I just had to stop his ritual, and something told me, destroying the statues might do the trick. It might not stop the ritual completely or permanently, but it sure as shit wouldn’t be good for him. I just had to hope he didn’t realize that was my plan.

  His blade came down at me in an overhead swing that would have split me in half if I tried to block it because there’s no way I could have held it off with pure strength. I pushed off the balls of my feet and launched myself toward him, bringing my shoulder up under his forearms. The blow still hurt as it slammed into my left shoulder, and I could hear the spitting and popping of the lightsaber’s side jets behind my ear, but my own weapon was already coming around.

  Gordon’s eyes widened in shock as my blade hit his side and stopped just short of cutting him in half, Darth Maul style. In fact, everything stopped. I stood there unable to move. I’d been about to end him, but evidently, he had some tricks up his sleeve too. The fucker.

  His own weapon shut off with a hiss and a snap before he stepped away from me,
a strained smile on his face. Sweat beaded on his skin and he was swaying a bit. Clearly he was using a bit more power than he’d expected.

  “Are you wondering what happened, dear sister?” he asked, raising his left hand in front of me and splaying his fingers. The time gem bonded to the infinity gauntlet on his hand was glowing, casting orange light across the room as he lifted his hand.

  The motherfucker had stopped time. I wasn’t sure how he could manage the strain of that kind of magic, but I could tell from the ebb and flow of energy in the room he wouldn’t be able to hold me long. I’d be free in a few seconds. Still, with me frozen, that might as well have been an eternity.

  I tried to respond, but found I couldn’t move my mouth to talk. Hell, I couldn’t even breathe, and as I started to grow lightheaded from the lack of oxygen, blood began to trickle from his left nostril.

  “I’m not going to kill you, Annie. If I’d wanted you dead, you’d be dead.” He turned away from me and moved toward the ritual’s center. “But I can’t let you stop me.” The other gems on his gauntlet lit up as he dropped down on his knees in the center of the star. “I know you’ll forgive me. Maybe not if I killed the prince, but if I do this without him… well…” His eyes flashed with sorrow. “I just can’t do to you what they did to me.”

  My vision went spotty as he reached out with the infinity gauntlet and touched the lines of the star spray painted across the ground. The gems on it flared to life, and I realized he was doing the impossible. Our power couldn’t make us into gods, but the Infinity Gauntlet was designed to make the user a god, and he was using our power in a way I’d never thought possible: to make himself a god, if only for a moment. Like magic, the star warped and reformed, turning from nine points to eight points. The only figurine that hadn’t been glowing sat on its own, ignored by the pattern.