Oath Sworn Page 6

  Then I went to the bar, my cat clawing to come out. I couldn’t let the monster play, not yet. Closing my eyes, I focused on my territory and my land. The wolves were still moving, closing in on my location on the highway. Damn, I had really been hoping they would abandon the car and run the woods instead. I had twenty minutes now. I turned off all the lights from my spot, letting my eyes adjust.

  I poured a drink once I was done. I could hear Carey above me, moving things around and probably getting ready to run once this was over. I hoped so, at least.

  Fifteen minutes and my hands began to twitch. The full moon was tomorrow night, which meant every single one of the wolves would get faster shifts, but then again, so would I.

  At ten minutes, I began to pull off my clothes. Thankfully, my normal patrons didn’t even bother showing up today, or they must have checked the door, saw the closed sign, and turned around. None of them were around, and I hoped it would stay that way.

  Five minutes to go, I Changed. The pain tore through me as the bones broke and reformed, taking me down onto all fours. I snarled as the pain flared and took the air from my lungs. Hands became giant paws. My canines became five inch saber teeth. My eyes focused and adjusted to the dark, even better than in my human form.

  Roughly a minute. That was my Change time now. A shift between forms faster than even one of the oldest werecats could do. It was much faster than any werewolf would ever be able to perform.

  I jumped onto my bar and lay down. It was high enough to make me feel level with anything that walked through the door. I focused on my territory. The wolves had stopped five minutes out and were going through the Change, most likely. It made my hackles rise.

  In human shape, they could speak to me. I would get information, then probably kill them. In wolf form, they were a hunting party. There would be no talking. There would only be a fight.

  I could have left and hunted them down, but my instincts were against the idea. Staying close to Carey was my number one priority. If I left to hunt them down, I could miss one, and it could come here and take her or kill her. That wasn’t an option. This was my first Duty and hopefully my last. I wouldn’t fail it. I couldn’t fail it.

  The wolves were running now. I flexed my paws, extending my razor-sharp claws. I heard their paws hit the gravel of my parking lot, though one wasn’t in wolf form. I could hear the hum of a small engine and the tires hitting the gravel, kicking it up. It was a sound I was familiar with, like a small dirt bike. I bared my teeth, licking between my fangs. One stayed in human form. Interesting.

  I stood up slowly, all four hundred pounds of me, tense and ready to pounce as I heard the footsteps toward my door.

  “We come in peace. We’re only here for the girl. If you give her up, you’ll live,” the werewolf in human form called out.

  I snarled, making my answer known. They had already broken one rule by coming onto my territory without my permission. They were here for my girl, my charge, my Duty. They were idiots if they thought I was going to let them leave with her and just go back to my life. I was in this now. There was no turning back.

  The door opened and a wolf ran in. I took my shot, leaping off the bar and barreling into the smaller predator. The yelping noise it made as bones crushed from the impact would stick with me. I would win. Only fools came after a werecat.

  Something bit into my back leg, trying to yank me from my prey. Snarling, I pushed the wolf I was on down more as I turned to swipe at the other wolf. I could smell them now. Even if one or two lived through this fight, I would always remember them. I would always know which idiot wolves thought they could come into my territory and take something precious.

  I missed the wolf, who jumped back, releasing my leg at the last second. I spun around completely, snarling, sizing them up. The average werewolf was normally between two hundred and three hundred pounds. Only smaller werecats were close to three hundred. I probably had each of them by nearly two hundred pounds, and one of them already knew exactly what that meant for them. The wolf I pounced on wasn’t getting up for a long time, if it even could.

  I roared, letting the sound shake everything in the room. The werewolf in his human form walked carefully behind his wolves, glaring down at me. I gave him a very feline grin.

  “It didn’t have to be this way, cat,” he said almost casually, but I could smell the rage and hate in the air. It was a cat versus dogs problem. Unlike house pets, though, I would win.

  The wolves jumped. One landed on my back, trying to push me down. Another ran for my back leg, grabbing hold of it. The third was coming straight for me, probably trying for a neck bite.

  I swung a paw, slamming it on the side of its head. I heard the bones break and crunch, heard the yelp of pain as the wolf flew to the side and hit a table.

  It was on now. I bent, trying to bite the one on my back. When I couldn’t reach it, I shook and directed my teeth and claws towards the one hanging on my back leg.

  A gun went off and I growled from the burning pain that hit one of my shoulders. Silver. Of all the dirty tricks, that one had a gun full of silver bullets.

  It was a weakness werewolves and werecats shared, but no one knew where the weakness came from. It wasn’t an instant kill, damn near nothing was, but it stung and would kill us eventually. The metal would hit the bloodstream and slowly poison us if we didn’t rest and recover and remove whatever the source was. It also made healing slow, another serious problem if I was going to be tangling with wolves.

  I was able to shake off the wolf on my back, but I didn’t get my fangs into the other wolf. Something hit my side and caught me off guard. I roared as I tumbled to the floor, clawing at whatever hit me. Teeth sank into my belly, and the next roar I made was one of pain. I kicked with my back legs, feeling flesh rend and a howl greeted me. It was painful music to my ears.

  Fur flew as the battle waged on. I lost track of the ability to really judge and plan my movements, instinct kicking in and taking over. I snapped and clawed at whatever flesh was around me. Anything that smelled like a wolf was a problem.

  The wolves were fast and agile, something I wasn’t expecting. They dove in, got a hit on me, opening up my flesh and tearing through my muscles. One of the knocked down wolves was up again and rejoining the fight.

  Finally, I was able to gain purchase on one and sank my fangs deep into its neck, holding it down as the other two tried to pull me off. I made sure it was dead with a hard shake, breaking the neck of the wolf. I felt good now, blood in my mouth, my vision sharp.

  I spun and grabbed another, who was too slow to get away now. It must have been one of the wolves I had already injured. I tore open its gut, roaring in satisfaction.

  A scream was the only thing that pulled me out of the blood haze I was in. Carey. I had to get to Carey. Where was that wolf in human form?

  Releasing the wolf without killing him, I just ran, heading for the staircase. I barreled up it, ignoring the hounds on my tail. I slammed into my apartment to see Carey trying to pull away from the werewolf holding her. With a snarl, I leapt, tackling the fool still not in his fur. They should have killed me before trying to take the girl.

  Not her! She’s mine!

  He was dead on impact with the floor, but that didn’t stop me from tearing him open, blood going everywhere. I even swallowed a piece of meat, just to prove my point to the wolves that followed me into the room. This was my girl and they were lunch if they didn’t start running.

  Idiots never run, though, and I was fine with that. They both jumped for me, snarling as they realized their mission was a loss unless they ended this now. Carey was still screaming, therefore I still had a cub to protect. Nothing was going to take that cub from me.

  It lasted only seconds. I met one of the wolves in the air, and it didn’t stand a chance. I was able to get my fangs into its gut and take it to the ground, ripping it open with a satisfied snarl. The second wolf jumped on my back, a safe place normally, but now there was nothing t
o stop me from rolling, forcing it off before my weight crushed it.

  When it was off, I jumped back to my feet and went for it, so fast that it didn’t seem to have the time to react. Furniture was knocked around as I tore it open and half played with the body, making sure it was dead.

  Panting, I realized I had won. I never thought I would lose, but there was always a pause at the end of a fight to breathe and take stock. I could feel the blood dripping from my jaws, hear it hitting the floor. I could hear the sobs of a little girl and turned, seeing her huddled in the corner of my living room. Her grey-blue eyes were wide with a petrified fear I understood but could do nothing about yet. I couldn’t shift with a silver bullet lodged in me, which meant there was no comforting the girl.

  I sniffed around and found the gun, nudging it to her. She was shaking like a leaf but I needed her. I needed her to help me so I could help her. She was watching my every movement, which meant I at least had her attention, which was good. Then I went into the bathroom and gingerly pulled open one of the ground level cabinets and pulled out my first aid kit. It would have what she needed to get the bullet out. I just hope she understood the message I was trying to send her. I dropped it at her feet and took a moment to sniff her. There was so much blood in the room and on me that it was a bit amazing I could smell anything, but I needed to know if any of it was hers. Once I was satisfied she wasn’t truly harmed, I sat back and angled so she could see the bullet wound. I made a pitiful noise, hoping to garner any amount of sympathy from her to get moving and help me out.

  It worked. She blinked twice and opened her mouth before closing it again. She grabbed the first aid kit and looked down at it, as if she was realizing what it was.

  “The gunshot,” she said softly. “Oh! They shot you!”

  I bobbed my big head and tried to nod towards the hole. It was on my left shoulder and I was hoping she could see it. I was probably covered in claw marks and bite wounds, but a bullet hole looks different from those.

  “You…Oh. Okay. I’ve never done this. I don’t know if I can. Is there anyone we can call?”

  I shook my head. Come on, kid. I need you. Please.

  “Oh fuck,” she said, anxiety and fear all I could hear. I bared my teeth. I cursed a lot, but she was eleven. She had at least a few years before she was allowed to be a mouthy teenager. “Okay.” She unzipped the bag and found what I was hoping she would. Every werecat carried everything needed to get a silver bullet out. It was paranoid and ridiculous, but we had mini surgery kits, honestly. When you didn’t have backup, you had to have everything you needed. Lessons young werecats normally thought were jokes, overly paranoid, but I was never stupid enough to be completely unprepared, so I had taken those lessons to heart.

  I hissed but kept to myself as those tongs were shoved into my shoulder. I could feel her shaking through them and down to my bones now. She was terrified and it was my fault. I should have taken the werewolf with the gun out first, and it was a mistake I promised myself I wouldn’t make again.

  I even heard the ting of the tongs finding the bullet. All the while, Carey was quiet—shaking, but quiet. The poor thing would need therapy after this, that much was clear, but the loss of her innocence was something that would need to be addressed later.

  I wanted to drop my head on the floor in relief when I felt the bullet leave me. That much silver was stopping me from shifting, but now I could, so I started the process. It was slower than normal. Carey’s free hand never left me as my bones broke and changed.

  Finally, I was a naked human woman lying on her stomach on the floor, covered in blood. I was still panting, though, my tongue out and everything.

  “Are you going to be okay?” she asked me. “Please be okay. I never wanted this. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Why are they doing this? I would have never told them if…”

  I let her trail off, letting that sink in. Of course. “Did you call them?” I asked softly.

  “I…He was one of my guards,” she answered softly, pointing at the dead one in his human body. “He had texted me and I said I was being protected by a werecat and that he didn’t need to worry. You were going to take care of me. He just needed to find my dad. Then he came up here and he had a gun.” Her voice broke and I could hear the tears begin. Regretfully, I was bleeding and in too much pain to push myself off the floor for a moment. Shifting with silver in the system was hard.

  “It’s okay,” I said gently. “You told him not to come. You tried. You didn’t know that they were the bad ones.”

  “I thought…I thought he could never betray Daddy! He was texting me, begging to know if I was okay and I thought that was a good thing! I told him Daddy wanted me here and he needed to stay away, that I was safe! He…he came up here with his gun and said he needed me! He needed me to get Daddy to come out of hiding and d-d-die like a good Alpha.”

  “Oh honey,” I breathed out, trying to move closer to her. I reached out and grabbed one of her hands. “It’s going to be okay. Me and you, we can do this. Give me a few minutes to get over that last Change I made and we’re going to get out of here. I’m going to protect you.”

  “I know!” She was sobbing now and fell over, her face on my back. I could feel the heat of her tears as she clung to my prone form. “Get better! Please! This is my fault! Please get better!”

  “Give me a moment.” I tried to push up, my arms shaking. The pain was fading, though, which meant I really needed to get moving. I could see where the wolves hit me now. It would take time for everything to heal. Normally, after injuries like these, I would take four to five days letting them recover, but the silver was going to make that into a few weeks unless it bled out of my system sooner.

  I didn’t have a few weeks, though. Carey needed me right now. I was able to sit up completely thanks to that thought, that need. I stared at her, probably as wide-eyed as she was staring at me.

  “This wasn’t how I thought our night would go,” I said, trying to smirk. “Run off and pack a bag. I have a few suitcases in my closet. Use one of those and put the Switch in your go-bag. You can play on it while I drive.”

  “How are you so calm?” she demanded, seeming even more shocked by my quick bounce into what we needed to do next.

  “Because freaking out and crying isn’t something I can do right now. I know what world I belong to, and that means I don’t get to pause and think about things like this until I know we’re safe. I have to be strong for you and direct you or this is never going to work.” Oh, I wanted to. There was violence in the supernatural world, and there was no escaping it, but there were types of violence. A werecat territorial fight wasn’t fatal. There were too few of us for it to be that way. It was brutal, but never to the death. This…I didn’t have it in my heart to tell Carey this was the first time I had ever killed anyone with the intent to kill them and that I wanted to fall apart just as much as she did. I was a monster, but this was the first time I had truly lived up to the reputation.

  She nodded, trying to stand. I attempted to help her as she slipped in the blood covering my hardwood floors. I didn’t move as she walked back into my bedroom. I had my own things to deal with for a moment while she packed.

  Grabbing my first aid kit, I looked over my injuries. I dried them with a towel nearby and somehow not soaked in blood. Werecats bleed slowly, something I was eternally grateful for in that moment, so it wasn’t hard to stop the bleeding. I grabbed a suture kit and looked at my thigh, seeing to the worst of my injuries, hopefully. There were scratches all over my back that I couldn’t do anything about, but I could deal with my legs.

  My shoulder burned with every movement too, but I sutured three deep injuries on my left thigh, then two on my right. I had training in it, and more than enough practice at doing it to myself. I was done before Carey and pushed myself to stand as she brought out her go-bag and put it on the couch, which was five feet off its previous spot.

  I let the destruction sink in, sighing as I realized thi
s was going to have my bar shut down for weeks, if not months. If I could even come back at all.

  Pushing that aside, I went into the bathroom, wiped off as much blood as I could, then followed Carey into the bedroom. I threw on something to wear, then began emptying my drawers, grabbing whatever I could to pack. I took my big suitcase and began to fill it, probably taking too much, but if I was going to end up covered in blood at every turn, I needed spares.

  “Carey, can you find my cellphone?” I asked. I needed to text a few people and let them know that we were attacked. It was time to go deeper into hiding, and people needed to know that so that they didn’t worry when they came here and found this. Which reminded me that I needed to tell the wolves to come clean up their own. The council would do it because it was their fault.

  Once the cellphone was in my hand, I shoved it into my pocket. I would call everyone from the road.

  The last things I needed to grab were weapons. I took the gun off the floor, thankful for the unintentional gift the werewolf had given me. I also had a silver dagger, a gift from Hasan, who had decided when I left that I needed some way to defend myself. Finally, in my closet there was an aluminum baseball bat. I threw all three weapons into my gym bag, then proceeded to help Carey finish.

  We had to leave this carnage behind and disappear. I wasn’t even sure where to begin.

  6

  Chapter Six

  Carey and I were on the road within twenty minutes of me getting off my floor. It wasn’t particularly fast, but it was the best we could do. I was limping and she was scared. There was only so much two girls could do under those circumstances.

  I had no idea where I was going, but it was far away if I had anything to say about it. Thirty minutes and past Jacksonville, I guessed my direction was the Texas-Louisiana state border. I knew I couldn’t drive all night, but I was going to at least make some distance from my own territory. Hopefully that would shake the wolves off our trail for the time being.