I would do the same. Even if I couldn’t’ drag this man to jail, I could certainly drag him to hell with me. I pounced on him and slammed him into the ground.
He whipped his head around and bit down on my ankle. The stinging pain of his teeth slamming into bone rippled through me, but I didn’t let up. I pulled on the power that allowed me to leap and I shoved him into the portal with me.
The wolf howled. The sound warped as we fell through time and space. For a brief moment, I heard his soul in it. Then the howl turned hollow and we hit the ground rolling. We tumbled apart and sprang back to our feet.
Only, this time, the other wolf stood between Addie and me. He realized that at the same moment and turned to look back at her with hungry eyes. The wolf’s tongue lolled out of his mouth. He gave me a crazed wolf grin and took off running.
Addie had no way to defend herself. I’d taken her power and coiled it within myself like a messy yarn ball that I could pull whenever I needed. The power tangled and knotted because I had no idea what I was doing. When I tried to shove it back at her, I fumbled and tripped in the tethers.
Time slowed. I ran, galloping towards her. Every step jolted my bones and rattled my teeth. Addie’s face came into focus. Surprise made her eyes wide. Then they clouded over with her power. She raised both hands as her lips turned into a grim, determined line.
Gripped in her hand was that beaded necklace. It swayed in the wind. Light flashed in the black beads.
Her lips formed a single word. “No.”
I could see her arcana. It formed like white smoke between us. Roiling, the clouds gathered and rushed towards us. While the clouds washed over me, they slammed into the wolf. He staggered, but only barely.
That was all I needed. I took the moment to leap on the wolf and pin him to the ground again. If I jerked my head, I could snap his neck. However, I doubted that would do anything to help. He was already dead.
Addie’s power continued, spreading past us. I wondered if she’d lost control of it, but my beast gave her little thought. The creature inside me trusted her more than it should have. I had watched her struggle to hold onto her power before. This could be another of those moments.
My beast shoved forward. It took over. I went numb as it shoved me back, deep inside my own body.
“I’m sorry to call on you,” Addie said sorrowfully.
While her words confused me since I’d leapt into this fight all on my own, my beast gave it no thought once again. My beast only looked up when the trees at the far end of the estate split, and two more creatures rushed out towards us.
Their howls were vengeful. I could already tell that they were on my side. How I knew that, I wasn’t sure. One wolf, a reddish brown, went to the right. The other, a gray wolf, went to the left. They circled around us to keep the enemy from being able to run if I lost my grip on him.
“Here’s your chance to make him pay for what he did to you,” Addie said.
She dropped to the ground. Without thinking, my beast released the wolf in my jaws and sprinted towards Addie. There was an enemy behind us, but my beast cared little when Addie’s safety was in question.
The enemy wolf didn’t get the chance to pounce on us, though. The two other wolves were complete, too. They weren’t aberrations or mindless zombies. They were fully formed beings with their own anger.
The beast understood. This shifter had killed them. When Addie said this was their chance, she meant that this would be their chance for vengeance from beyond the grave.
As if this man hadn’t already gone to Hell.
I skidded to a halt beside Addie. She reached for me and buried her face in my fur. I glanced back. Already, I knew I would have to jump back into the fight. The other two wolves were struggling against the enemy.
They weren’t nearly as large as he was. They didn’t fight with a lust for pain the way he did. My paw ached from where he’d bitten me. At least, I knew there would be no infection. I’d already gotten that part out of the way.
I asked my beast if it was ready. It turned back to Addie and nudged her with its muzzle. She exhaled softly and pulled herself upright. When she gave a quick nod, I leapt out of the ruins and back into the fight.