Inwardly, I grinned.
If the Goddess let me get home alive, I would never ignore my deck’s screaming warnings again.
Chapter 11
The impact with the wendigo jarred me and I bit back a yelp, digging my teeth into any available part of him that I could while he grabbed me with too-sharp claws around my shoulders. He held on, jerking us to the stone and trying to pin me there.
But that would be a death sentence, and I tried to push the looming fear of his teeth around my throat out of my mind.
The vampire prowled outside the gates, watching eagerly.
For all that the wendigo was thin and wiry, he was also incredibly strong. The stark muscles in his arms seemed to be made of steel cable, and it was impossible to pin him under my heavier weight.
Claws scored across my chest, and when I snapped at his face he snapped right back, catching the skin of my muzzle and tearing it.
Finally my teeth found purchase at his shoulder. He screamed when I shook him like a rag doll, but didn’t let go. Instead his claws dug deeper, forcing me away from him when he flung me across the ground to land in a heap.
Getting the air back in my lungs, I struggled to my feet with blood and flesh falling from my open mouth to the ground below.
Everything hurt. The wounds from his claws stung, even as they healed, and the wendigo looked to barely care about his own healing wounds.
“Troublesome prey,” he seemed to admonish. “I don’t feel like working for my dinner.” His mouth was stained with my blood, and I worried that if I gave him the chance he would finish his shift.
I’d be no match for him in his full wendigo state if I couldn’t take him out as he was.
I lunged, using my strength to knock into him once more and sent us rolling across the stones, my jaws snapping at his throat and his teeth biting down anywhere they could. They were not made for letting go, and already my fur was covered in my own blood from all the times he’d bitten in and ripped his teeth free. My own regeneration was slowing, the wounds healing more sluggishly and burning as they closed.
My only saving grace was that his wounds were healing just as slowly.
He pushed me free again, then stood as I struggled to my paws, panting.
“You can’t beat me.”His form was shifting again, hair lengthening and thickening on his head and arms as a skull covering grew over his face. There it was; exactly what I’d been afraid of.
Might as well take my chance with the vampire, by trying to run, if my only other choice was dealing with a fully shifted wendigo.
As he shifted, his wounds suddenly seemed to be healing much more quickly. Mine hadn’t healed. Not yet. Blood mixed with saliva still dribbled from my parted jaws, spattering the white stone under me. The graveyard keeper was going to have a hell of a surprise when he started his shift.
His lips twisted into a grin and he opened his mouth tauntingly.
The wendigo didn’t get the chance to speak. He squealed in pain and in an instant, blood spurted from his gaping jaws. He spat unintelligible words, his actions pinning me to the ground with confusion. Until my eyes caught on the hand punched through his chest, fingers curled around his insides that were now outsides.
I couldn’t act. I was dumbfounded, and I found myself thinking sluggishly as my wounds still struggled to heal. Finally my roving gaze found the woman’s face who stood behind the wendigo, her other hand around his throat.
Sea-green eyes shone in the darkness, the pupils wide, and her lips were parted to reveal a mouth full of thin fangs. Her gaze shifted to me.
“Run,” she spat. “Go now.”
I didn’t need to be told twice.
I ran.
On my way out of the cemetery I grabbed my thigh bag, able to slide it over my neck to carry it out with me. There was no way I was leaving my cards in this cemetery.
In my excitement, I had forgotten about the vampire. A blur of motion caught my eye, but before I could properly see her, she was in front of me, hand out and something shining in her palm.
I ducked to the side, paws slamming against the pavement as I ran, but all the same I felt the pain of something hot and sharp bury itself in my shoulder.
It burned, the pain not fading, and the vampire howled in frustration after me.
But I didn’t care; I ran.
It wouldn’t have been smart to sprint into the quarter like this. If I was unlucky–and I had to say, I absolutely was–I’d get mistaken for a feral shape shifter and killed before I could explain just what had me in this state.
So I skirted the city, my pace slowing only slightly as I wound my way down and up darkened residential streets and alleys that were not filled with people.
Through the combination of scent and my bond with Aveline, I found my way home. My entire body ached from the fight, though most of my wounds had managed to heal as I sprinted through the less populated areas of the Quarter. Thankfully, I remembered a few directions from people that I’d gotten in the Quarter as well, making it that much easier for my paws to carry me home.
At last, after what had easily been two hours of almost nonstop running, I limped up the stairs to stand in our doorway, only dimly surprised to see Aveline’s car in the driveway.
Instead of shifting back-what would
