*Lucy*
She wasn't sure what the sound was. It was a scratching kind but at the same time reminded her of leather rubbing and chalk on a chalkboard.
"I hear it too," Tommy said to Lucy, looking up from the computer he'd been focused on.
They were in Megan's room - the WiFi room as she called it. But to Lucy this was Megan's room; the place that reflected her, a modern touch in this old castle. She'd brought flat screen TVs, actually comfortable chairs and sofas into a space that was all stone, gargoyles and mustiness. Lucy felt close to Megan here. Safe.
"Markus?" he asked his brother. He nodded too. They were twins Lucy knew, even though they didn't look it, and sometimes needed no words to communicate.
Markus moved to the door that opened to the balcony as something crashed down there.
No.
It hadn't crashed so much as landed Lucy decided.
"What the-" Markus' words were drowned out by the sound of splintering wood and shattering glass as the balcony door exploded apart.
It took Lucy only a moment to recognize what had come into the room. But several more to accept it as true.
The creature was the one from her nightmares. It's skin not scaly as she'd thought then but rough because it was made of stone. It had wings and claws.
Gargoyle.
Stone demon...dragon. Yes. Dragon, for it had wings and fangs. And claws.
One of the ones that guarded the front entrance.
Except alive.
No. Not alive. But no longer just stone either.
"Lucy, go," Tommy said as the stone beast leaped on Markus. It was surprisingly graceful and quick for something so solid. "Go find James."
Lucy backed up as Tommy joined his brother in the fight. Lucy wondered what they hoped to do.
Didn't they understand? This was not a creature of flesh and blood. They could not kill it. Not with their fists or fangs. Nothing could kill it, for it was not alive.
The beast threw Markus into the wall, screamed and flapped its stone wings. Its eyes were red.
Lucy had been hunted by red-eyed things before.
All you could do was run.
So she did.
*James*
He woke up because someone was scared. He'd had an uneasy feeling all night. He wondered if it was Megan. But right then it was not Megan's fear or unease that had woken him. It was Lucy's.
Strange. She was not pack.
She was one of his, but not technically.
Remember, the girl whose voice he had never heard whispered. It made him want to roar at her in anger. Who was she to come into his mind? How could she even?
"James?" Megan said, putting a calming hand on his bare chest.
"You're back?" he asked, frowning but so happy. He'd missed her. Seeing her lovely dark locks, her grey eyes, her smile. It made him want to pull her close and never let her go. To open their bond and be truly one with her.
"Yeah, we just got in," she said, gently touching his cheek before leaning down to kiss him. "And I have quite the tale to tell you about our trip."
Her kiss tasted sweet and metallic.
Of blood.
"I missed you," he told her, but when he tried to reach for her in the mate bond, it didn't feel right. But she was here and so warm and true.
"I missed you too." She ran her hand down his body and he let her. He needed to let her touch him. She wanted to. She'd said so. It hurt her when he didn't.
As her hand slid over his stomach, he remembered another woman's hands there. There and everywhere else on him.
Remember.
He remembered.
And then Megan looked at him and her eyes were blue.
And he knew.
"Witch."
She smiled and suddenly he saw the blood in her teeth. She tilted her head in an unnatural way and licked her lips. "Your blood tastes so sweet Warrior."
Then he felt the pain in his neck. Like a vampire, she'd bit him. He was still bleeding, warm and slick, it was coming down his neck.
Terrified he waited for more glamour to hit him. For her to bespell him as Marisol had. She had drunk his blood. But when a second, then two passed and her smile begun to fade, he acted.
He broke her neck before the smile was completely gone. James sank to the floor, pressing a hand against his neck. The bleeding was stopping.
He looked to the witch. Her seemingly dead eyes. They'd have to burn her to be sure she stayed dead though but for now, she was still.
Everything was still, everything but Lucy's panic.
It burned in him. Getting closer and closer.
Then she was there.
In one of Megan's sweatshirts, a red one with a beaver on it. For a second that made him doubt her. Fear she was another illusion. But he could feel her terror through the pack bonds. No witch could do that. At least he prayed they couldn't.
"Another," she said as she threw the door open and then flung herself on the floor next to him. Her blonde hair flew everywhere. For a moment she reminded him of his sister. But she was dead. Like his mother. Like so many others. "Another. Help Tommy."
"Where?" he asked.
She shook her head, pressing one of her own small hands against his neck. "Bleeding."
"It's okay. It's stopping." He grabbed her wrist when she tried to get clear of him. "They're here for you?"
It was both a question and a statement. She had known. Somehow she had known they were coming. He'd hear of her dream, nightmare.
He had too, since the day they found her. That one day, someone would come for her. They had found Lucy, hidden, a dead female werewolf - her mother most likely - two other wolves and a witch. James had known since then Lucy would bring him great trouble. But he'd also not wanted to abandon a child.
She was still a child but also not. She was old enough to tell him of her troubles. Now, while they waited for his wound to close, seemed as good a time as any.
"Why?" he asked when she nodded but looked away. Saying nothing. But she'd given the mute card up. So now he'd have all the words she had refused to give before. "Why?"
"Family not like yours," she said, tugging at her arm.
He let her go but held her with his eyes.
"What does that mean?"
She made a noise that meant frustration in all languages. "No mate." She put her hand on her stomach. "Babies wolf. Human babies wolf. My family not like yous. Yours."
"The werewolf trait is dominant for your family?" he realized after a few seconds of sorting her words and gestures. "And no mates?"
He hadn't ever heard of the latter. But long ago the werewolf trait used to always be passed on. It was only in the last few generations when werewolves mated with humans the offspring was born human.
He wondered why such a trait had made Lucy's family a target. Or was it the first? Clearly, something about her had brought the witches. But why now? So long after they had saved her? How were they bold enough to dare to come here? Into his territory?
"No more blood. Stone monster," she said, jumping up. "Help Tommy."
"Alright," James said. "Let's go kill us some more witches."
Only, when he looked to where the dead witch was supposed to have been, her body was gone.
"I fucking hate witches," he said but Lucy took off running.
He followed.
She took him downstairs a floor. There was a screeching noise that didn't come from a wolf. Besides, wolves fought silently. This was not silent.
"Stay behind me."
She did, letting him take the lead.
The pack was fighting what James would, like Lucy, dub a stone monster. No, not one, two of them. The whole pack was here.
From what he picked up in his first few seconds of surveilling the scene, the strategy seemed to be to attempt to chip away at the creatures. Bit by bit.
Clearly, Lucy was right in that there was more than the one witch he'd killed. Someone had to be animating these ones. He wondered if his time and energy were better spent searching for the puppet master.
But then Markus, who was already looking dazed and had blood pouring down the side of his face, took a hit. James noticed the Doc already down, along with Tommy whose leg was bent unnaturally. He couldn't abandon them. He fought with his pack, together. If Robin had been here, he could have sent him to search for the witch controlling the beast. But he wasn't.
He was with Megan. Megan was safe. Far from this danger. Far from witches and monsters that could not die.
That thought gave him comfort as he grabbed a fire poker, hoping the iron would be strong enough to smash the stone. To turn the tide.
In his bones, he felt certain it wouldn't. And as his weapon connected but did very little to stop the creature, his fear was confirmed.
As Tio took a hit from one of the unfurling wings of the other creatures James begun to fear this was one battle they might not be able to win. This was not something they had ever fought before.
Then one of the creatures, the one closest to the balcony which judging by the smashed appearance had been their entry point, begun to retreat.
It went through the broken door and then went off the balcony, it's wings spreading out. It looked bigger than it ever had been guarding the front of the castle. Because James had realized what the creatures were.
They were the manor's own protective gargoyles. Turned against them.
He was sure he'd hear a terrible impact as the stone monster hit the ground. But instead, defying all laws of gravity, the wings carried the creature. He watched it ascend into the sky while the other one stopped and turned back into the unmoving hunk of rock it had been for centuries.
With the threat seemingly gone, collective breaths of relief were drawn.
But James was not so quick to do so.
For he'd caught a flash of color on the back of the gargoyle that had flown off.
It had people on its back.
One of them in bright red.
Lucy.
____
A/N: OMG, so the bad guys (gals) have Lucy. The pack is all beaten up. Robin and Megan are far away and not totally out of the woods yet...I really love to make trouble don't I...
So I have a chapter, which I'm not sure if it should go before or after the next chapter. It's all written and done but I think it's going to work better as chapter THIRTEEN rather than TWELVE so you'll probably have to wait a week for the next update. But I am working on deciding what I'm putting in the "deleted scenes" book which might be up this weekend!