Page 48 of The Night Calling

* * *

The first hourof my search was uneventful. As soon as I crossed the barrier, I shifted into my wolf form—my senses were heightened then, and I moved faster.

So far, I had found several sites where Conri and his demons had dug into the ground and made a mess. Of course, once they were done searching, they didn’t bother to clean up.

Most sites were on the perimeter of the pack lands, close to the barrier. But there were others—behind my house, along the streets deep in town, in backyards … they didn’t seem to know where to look for the crystal, so they were digging randomly.

As I went from site to site and tried taking stock of how Conri was doing this, and also figure out why he was after the crystals, I tried remembering the things my father told me when he was in lesson mode—that was the only time when he was more patient and caring. To me, it had always showed me he cared more about the alpha’s bloodline and continuing our pack and power, than his own son.

Regardless, I had paid attention to it all because I had wanted to be alpha. I had promised myself, and my mother, that I would be a better alpha than he was.

That dream had died when the pack was attacked and I thought everyone had perished.

But my desire was now back. I didn’t want to be the alpha for power alone. I wanted it because it was the only way to help my pack, to free them.

When he told me about the witches and their gifts, my father said nothing was random when it came to magic. What I understood from that was that the crystals weren’t in random places. Wherever they were, it had been planned. It was on purpose, to maximize the spell.

But where could that be?

I walked down Main Street, and when possible, close to the square. I even took a peek at the school. The sun had set, and the school was as dark as the rest of the town. If I didn’t know better, I would have said the school was deserted.

Like the rest of town.

During my exploration, I found out something else: there were more demons here than I first thought. It turned out the demons had occupied the houses on one side street, three blocks from the main square, and right beside the burnt section of town. I didn’t get close, afraid they would see me, but I saw them coming and going, changing patrol shifts, and inside the houses through the windows.

There were at least a hundred demons here.

My friends and I were strong, but I wasn’t sure we were strong enough to take on a hundred demons, even with some of the Ironfang pack joining us.

An hour later, I stopped wandering the town, thinking about where the crystals could be hidden. Lavinia could help since she was still a witch and thought like one.

Still in my wolf form, I made my way out of the barrier.

And skidded to a stop as a demon emerged from behind the trees—outside the barrier.

Eyes wide, the human-looking demon stared at me in frozen stupor for a second. I didn’t think he had seen me coming through the barrier, but I couldn’t be sure.

He reached for the radio attached to the waist of his pants and clicked on it. “There’s a wolf shifter outside the barrier and—”

I lunged at him.

The demon let go of the radio and stepped aside. My claw grazed his shoulders. When I landed and turned to him again, my breath stilled. The demon transformed. The boring-looking human turned into a figure at least a head taller than me with dark-gray skin, a hairless head, pure-black eyes, and sharp teeth in a wide mouth. His clothes stretched but didn’t give.

The demon bared his teeth at me. “You think you can take me, wolf?” he teased me, his voice deeper and rougher than before.

Oh, yeah, I could take him. I had to—otherwise everything that had happened so far would be in vain.

I feinted to the right, as if I would make such a rookie mistake. The demon reacted and stepped to the left and I barreled into him, taking him to the ground. The demon moved his big arms at me, pushing me away, and I bit down inches from his face. The demon kneed me in the stomach, but I held my ground. I would bite off his arms, then I would rip his throat out!

From beside the radio at his waist, the demon unsheathed a small knife and jerked it at me. He grazed my ribs with it, and I yelped and jumped away before he was able to sink the knife in my gut.

The demon shot to his feet and held the knife between us.

“Not so tough now,” he said, pushing the knife forward.

I retreated a few steps back and looked around. I snarled at the demon before sprinting toward the trees.

The demon turned as I darted past him and opened his arms wide. “You’re running from me? Coward!”