Black Eyed Peas, which was now thundering throughout the chapel. Then, from within the darkness, I saw a series of bright yellow lights begin to flash. It took me a moment to realise that it wasn’t part of the strobe lighting that I could see, but the burning eyes of the wolves as they came towards us.
“I’m going to get Kayla,” Isidor shouted over the pumping music and the snarling that was now coming from the approaching wolves.
Before I had a chance to say anything, Isidor was leaping and spinning over the heads of the wolves and releasing a volley of stakes into them. The wolves raised their colossal heads and gnashed their foaming jaws at him. But Isidor was too quick for them, and their jaws crunched down on nothing more than air. Some turned to go after him, but the main pack fixed their crazy yellow eyes on Potter and me and charged us.
“Ready, sweetcheeks?” Potter grinned at me, and just like the words in The Black Eyed Peas song that was playing, he looked as if he was having the time of his life. Then he was gone, launching himself through the air at the wolves. His arms moved so fast that they were nothing more than a blur of movement. Fur and chunks of wolf flesh spattered the walls, ceiling, and floor of the chapel.
I watched several of the wolves bound towards Potter, knocking him off his feet and sending him skidding on his back across the dance floor. And in the strobe lights that continued to pulse and flash all around us, everything seemed to move in slow motion. I watched as Potter disappeared beneath a mountain of fur and muscle, and I shot through the air, fangs and claws gleaming.
My razor-sharp fingernails sliced in the flanks of a wolf, and as I felt it spasm beneath me, it snapped its giant head around to see who or what was on it. With its teeth just inches from my face, it gnashed at me. Jerking my head backwards, I buried my free claw into one of its massive eyeballs. Something close to puss burst from its eye socket and splashed me. It felt warm and sticky against my face. I ripped my other claw from its belly, dragging my nails in a zigzag motion so the wound could never be closed. The wolf shrieked and convulsed as its entrails spilled from the ragged hole that I had cut in it. Within seconds the wolf lay motionless, its giant pink tongue lolling from between its jaws. I stood up,then was swiped sideways across the chapel. I crashed into the far wall, splinters of wood showering through the air. I rolled onto my back as a huge black wolf leapt on me. Pinning me down with his giant paws, it looked into my face with its seething eyes.
“Who are you?” the wolf roared over the music, the sounds of ripping, tearing, and howling now seemed louder than the music. “What sort of creature are you?”
I tried wriggling free of him, but he was so heavy that I found it difficult to breathe, let alone move.
“How dare you interrupt my ceremony!” he howled into my face, his breath so hot, that it felt as if I were staring into a furnace.
“You call stealing the souls of children a ceremony?” I spat.
“Do you not know who I am?” he roared. “I’m McCain, the Match Maker.”
Realising who it was beneath the fur and remembering how he had ripped Emily Clarke to pieces, I knew that I was in trouble. I could fight back, but I didn’t want to kill him. I wanted McCain alive, but I doubted he felt the same way about me.
“You’re nothing but a murderer, McCain, and I’m gonna prove it,” I screamed at him. “I’m gonna bring your whole world down around you. I’m going to make sure that you never hurt another child again!”
“And how are you going to do that when you’re dead?” he woofed, then licked the length of my face.
With his whiskered snout so close to my face, I lifted my head off the dance floor and whispered in his ear. “I’m dead already.”
Then, I sunk my fangs into him.
Chapter Forty-Three
It was like I was coming awake after an operation. The wolf had been staring into my eyes one minute, then she was gone, howling and flying back across the chapel. The wolf, Lola, seemed to be in my head as she had stared into my eyes. I could hear her breathing and a sound that I hadn’t heard inside me for a long time — the sound of a beating heart. Lola had been matching with me. But something had stopped her before the process had been complete. I looked up, and through the flashing lights I could see someone or something spinning through the air towards me. At first I thought it was a wolf, but the figure coming towards me was too agile. They moved with lighting speed as they fired…fired their crossbow.
“Isidor!” I screamed, feeling as if I was going to explode with happiness. I watched him spin through the air like some freaky trapeze artist as he rained down stakes on the wolves that leapt into the air after him. The wolves he hit flew backwards, their claws scraping against the wooden dance floor.
“Kayla!” someone shouted, and I spun round to see Sam being pinned to the floor by a silver-haired wolf. Its face was just inches from Sam’s, and a glistening line of drool swung from its foaming jaws and spattered against his face. “Kayla!” Sam screamed again, and then fell silent.
I raced across the dance floor, my claws out. But as I made my way towards Sam, I watched as the wolf’s eyes began to light up like two burning pits. Sam’s face glowed yellow beneath their stare. My friend stared back into the eyes of the wolf and then something strange started to happen. I had seen a lot of things in my young life, but nothing so freaking weird as what I was now witnessing. Sam’s face seemed to be stretching upwards, like it was made of putty. It was like the wolf was pulling his face off with his eyes. I watched as Sam’s face almost seemed to wrap around the wolf’s head like a mask. With my blood turning ice cold inside of me, I knew that the wolf had started to match with Sam.
“No!” I screamed, leaping into the air. My wings shot from my back, as I rocketed down on top of the wolf. I sank my claws into its meaty neck and yanked backwards. Looking down, I could see Sam’s face stretching like a latex mask.
“You won’t take my friend,” I screeched into the wolf’s pointed ear. “Release him.”
With all my strength, I wrenched backwards again. Then, flapping my wings furiously, I lifted the wolf off the floor. But Sam came with him, swinging by his face from beneath the wolf. Their faces were now joined together and I feared that it was too late to stop them matching.
Isidor swept past me and I screamed at him. “Isidor, help me. The wolf has got Sam!”
With crossbow in hand, Isidor flipped backwards, releasing two stakes which buried themselves into the eyes of the wolf. The beast shuddered beneath me, then, let out an agonising howl. Its eyes ran like liquid from their sockets and it looked like custard. For a moment, I thought I was gonna puke as the smell was disgusting — like rotten eggs. With its eyes dribbling across its snout, the spell that it had cast over Sam was broken and he fell to the floor. I released the wolf. It staggered onto all fours, its giant tail swishing to and fro in a frenzy. Blind, the wolf didn’t know which way to go. It howled, then dropped to the floor, a wooden stake sticking out from the back of its skull.
I dropped to the floor and knelt beside Sam. He didn’t move. “Sam!” I shouted, and shook his shoulders. In the sparks of light that still flashed on and off around us, I looked at Sam’s face. It was swollen like a bruised melon. It was so puffy that I could barely see his face. His eyes were swollen shut and his lips were purple.
“Is he dead?” Isidor shouted over the music.
“No, I can hear his heartbeat,” I told him, taking one of Sam’s hands in my claw.
“He should be safe now,” Isidor said. “I think Potter is making light work of the…”
“Potter’s with you?” I gasped, looking up at him. “Where’s Kiera?”
“Under that wolf,” Isidor said, pointing across the dance floor.
“Go and help her and I’ll get Sam out of here,” I said, lifting him into my arms.
“You can’t bring him with us, Kayla,” Isidor warned me. “He’s human.”
“I’m not leaving him here,” I said. “Sam is my friend.”
“Potter isn’t going to like it,” Isidor smiled, then winked at me.
“That should make you happy then,” I smiled back at him, as I carried Sam in my arms across the dance floor.
