Chapter 29

Selene stood beside the rest of the Vyusher, desperately trying to hold her anxiety in check as she watched Ellie, Griffin, and Lila. The Louisiana clan had only allowed Svatura near them. No Vyusher. The group across the field stood connected through an interlocking network of hands in hands or on shoulders and backs. Heads were bowed, and eyes were closed, as they watched what Ellie had to show them, using Lila’s gift so they would know what they were seeing was the truth. They’d been standing there a good thirty minutes.

“Is she showing them the entire history of the Svatura over there?” Desmond muttered in her ear.

Selene grinned. “It is a really long story,” she reminded him.

“Yeah,” he grunted. “So are you finally talking to me now?”

She cast him a sideways glance. “I guess so.”

“You know nothing my father suggested was my idea, right?” he pressed.

She sighed. “Yes, Desmond. I believe you.”

Selene almost jumped at the sound of Griffin’s voice. “Selene, we need you. They’re ready to let you tell your side of the story.”

“Are you sure? Is that a good idea?” She remained where she was.

“Hey. Stop canoodling with Dez and trust me.”

Selene squared her shoulders and started across the field. A smile played at her lips. “Did you really just say canoodle?”

A deep chuckle sounded through their mental link, sending shivers skittering across her skin. “Technically, I thought it,” he replied.

Ellie released Griffin’s hand to allow Selene to join their circle. His larger hand engulfed hers, sending warmth and strength through to her soul. It was the first time he’d touched her in ages. She flicked a glance at him in time to catch his smile. He squeezed her hand as if to acknowledge the physical connection, but said nothing.

“Show them exactly what you’ve showed us.” Ellie pulled her concentration back to the task at hand. Determination a force within her, Selene did exactly that.

As she moved through the memories and the images and feelings, Selene suddenly felt, just for a split second, as though she was the one controlling all the powers, rather than Ellie. A starburst of colors—purple, blue, red, and yellow—flashed before her. Cracking open one eye, she looked over at Ellie, who was watching her closely with a frown.

“Keep going,” Ellie instructed telepathically.

Selene closed her eyes again and wrapped up the last of the memories she felt were important to share. When she was finally done, she opened her eyes and focused on Marcus.

“Did that help? Do they understand?” she thought at Ellie and Griffin.

“I’d like a moment to confer with my people,” Marcus said before they had a chance to respond.

“Of course,” Ellie and Selene both murmured. They backed away, giving the Louisiana clan some space.

Ellie took Selene’s hand in hers. “Your eyes look like mine when I’m going dragon, all blue flames.” She tapped into Griffin’s telepathy and kept her comments between them.

“Wow! Yours are a freaky hot-pink. Is that how my eyes look when I use my powers?”

“Only when you’re doing something big, I think. But did you feel that odd moment back there? I can’t even describe it.”

“Yes. I saw something strange, but it was too fast―”

“Yeah. I wonder…”

“Either way, we need to get it under control before someone sees.”

“Right.” Both girls closed their eyes and worked in tandem to calm their powers.

“What’re you two doing?” Griffin interrupted.

They stared at each other. Selene was relieved to see Ellie’s eyes had returned to normal and received a nod from Ellie to say the same was true of hers. In mutual, silent agreement they decided to keep it between themselves until they figured it out.

She returned to watching the Louisianans debate their options. “What do you think?” she asked, tipping her chin toward them.

Griffin stuffed his hands in his pockets. “It’s hard to tell. I deliberately stayed out of their minds. I didn’t want to be accused of interfering with their opinions.” He sent her a brief, curious glance before turning his attention back to the group. “It’s a compelling story, Selene. And they seem to be reasonable people. Have some faith.”

Selene’s lips twisted. “Faith is not a strength of mine,” she muttered to herself.

She didn’t think anyone had heard her until Griffin edged a little closer behind her. “Are you so sure?” he whispered in her ear.

Resisting the urge to lean back slightly, she whispered back, “What do you mean?”

“Only someone with a great deal of faith would’ve relocated herself close to the people who had a right to hold a grudge, but you decided to move to Estes Park.”

Selene wasn’t sure how to take that but decided to go with a positive spin. “I think that was more desperation than faith,” she responded dryly.

She straightened as Marcus turned and walked toward them. Selene went to meet him, flanked by Ellie and Griffin.

“You’ve given us a lot to think about,” he acknowledged. “But we are—”

WHAM!

The blast of an explosion coming from the direction of the castle ripped through their ranks.

In an instinctual move of self-preservation, Selene and all the other Vyusher instantly shifted into their wolf forms. As soon as their link to the pack mind kicked in, they could all hear what was happening in the castle where the rest of their pack was under attack.

A horrible growl arose from the wolves, the fur on their withers standing to attention. Marcus and his team stumbled back from them.

Selene ignored them and looked right at Desmond. “Go!”

All of the wolves took off for the castle at a full sprint.

Selene turned her stormy gaze back to Marcus and his clan. A snarl ripped from her throat as she bared her teeth.

Marcus held up his hands. “We had nothing to do with whatever is happening,” he insisted.

Reining in her wolf, Selene shifted back to human. “We are under attack in there. If you have nothing to do with it, then prove it. Help us.” Her voice was a low growl, her wolf still fighting for control.

Marcus glanced behind her to where Griffin and his family still stood.

“Decide,” Selene commanded.

Marcus’s face hardened with resolve. “We’ll help you,” he said. “Only about ten of us have any kind of power that’s worth a damn in a fight. But those ten are with you.”

“Link up.” She turned toward her friends and placed her hand in Griffin’s.

“Charlotte, the Council’s chamber, please,” she directed.

As soon as Marcus and his clan joined their hands, Charlotte wasted no time. Selene barely blinked, and suddenly they were all standing in the large meeting hall inside the castle.

Selene shifted into her wolf form to be able to hear the pack. Screaming and growling bombarded her mind from the link, and she swiftly picked out the most important information.

“Griffin—” she thought.

“I saw it. So did Ellie. We’re on it.”

“Charlotte,” Griffin directed aloud. “Get people out of here, starting with anyone you know can’t fight.”

With that, Ellie and Griffin rushed out of the room, followed by everyone else. Only Charlotte and Selene remained.

Charlotte initially turned to Selene, a question in her eyes. Selene just shook her head. Charlotte only briefly hesitated before vanishing from the room. Still in wolf form, Selene lay down on the floor and closed her eyes. Listening to her pack through their link, she started picking out who was in the most trouble and intervening where she could.

* * *

Griffin ran through the castle, following Selene’s mental directions on where the worst of the fighting was taking place. Ellie, Alex, Nate, and several of the Louisiana clan followed behind him.

When he reached one of the common areas off the corridor, Griffin ducked as a wolf lunged at him, only to be frozen in mid-air. In fact, the entire room, overflowing with battling wolves and men, had frozen in place.

“I’ve got these. Keep going,” Alex called.

Griffin didn’t have to be told twice, and he picked his way around the frozen bodies.

“Any mental powers in here I need to be worried about?” he asked Selene.

“No. Keep going,” was her curt reply.

Once he made it to the corridor off the other side of the room, Griffin stopped suddenly and searched through Selene’s thoughts for directions. He saw the door she was picturing and pulled it open, only to be confronted by a wall of solid ice.

He used his telepathy to search for Ramsey but found his friend’s mind completely occupied with guarding the people Charlotte had teleported out of the castle. She’d taken them to the same field where they’d been confronting the Louisianans and he had a wall of flame around them. Griffin’s next idea was Ellie’s dragon, but it was too large to unleash inside the castle corridors. Before he could come up with another option, Nate moved up behind him.

“Whoa! I’ve totally got this one, Griff. Move outta the way.”

Griffin turned to face Nate as he stepped back from the doorway. He didn’t see the younger man but felt the breeze of his passing. Suddenly the frozen mass exploded, showering him with shards of ice. Griffin threw his hands up to cover his face, and when he lowered them again, he found Nate swinging from the frame of the door, a pleased grin splashed across his face.

“Ouch, Nate. Warn me next time.”

Nate’s smile widened.

“Watch out!” Selene yelled in Griffin’s mind a split second before a blur of fur tackled Nate from behind.

Griffin went to use his shield to physically push the wolf off Nate. Before he could form it, one of the Louisiana clan—an intimidating grizzly bear—pounced first. He ripped the wolf off Nate, who quickly hopped up, unscathed and unfazed.

“Go, dude. We’ll hold them off here!” Nate waved him on.

“Ellie!” Griffin called his sister to his side. Together, they raced down the spiral staircase located behind the door.

As they turned a corner, once again the terrible sounds of a struggle—wolves growling and snarling, men yelling, explosions, and blasts—reached them. The metal-tinged odor of blood hung over everything like a pervasive cloud.

“We’re getting close,” he called over his shoulder to Ellie. They pushed their way through a pair of double doors, then stopped dead in their tracks. They’d entered a massive room which teemed with battling men and beasts.

Griffin turned to Ellie. “I know you can’t go dragon. You’ll have to go—”

The scream of a jaguar interrupted him, and Ellie, in the form of her massive black cat, bounded past him and hurled into the fray. She sank her steel-trap jaws into the haunches of the closest wolf who was attacking another wolf Griffin recognized as friendly Vyusher. Throwing her body back to stand on her back haunches, Ellie yanked the huge timber wolf off its feet. The animal yowled in pain and thrashed back and forth trying to escape. Ellie flung it away and into a wooden door which splintered under the force.

Confident his sister could handle herself, Griffin scanned the room and found three large wolves advancing on a small brown one.

Oh, shit, he thought to himself as realization struck. “Ellie, make sure you’re attacking the right wolves. These must be Maddox’s forces.”

“Got it!”

Griffin slammed his shield into place between the smaller wolf and her attackers and waited for them to make a move.

“Griffin!”

Ellie’s warning came just in time. Griffin turned his head as a huge, pewter-colored wolf lunged for him, teeth bared. Holding his one shield where it was already raised, Griffin threw up another shield and rammed it into his attacker mid-air with such force he knocked the creature out cold. He returned his attention to the little brown wolf he was protecting and rammed his invisible shield across the room, bashing the three attacking wolves into the wall behind them. Two got up, limping slightly, then suddenly disappeared.

“What the—?” Griffin exclaimed, searching for them with his telepathy, but to no avail.

He sought for Ellie and found her as she swiped her massive claws across the snout of another wolf. The animal fell back with a loud yelp of pain, then disappeared as well. Ellie, now on all fours, stood and sniffed at where it had been lying.

Griffin tapped into her thoughts. “They’re being pulled out once they can’t fight. Why would they…?”

With a shake of her massive head, Ellie turned her gaze toward her brother. “They’re here as a distraction.”

Griffin nodded in grim agreement.

“Selene!” he called.

“Hold on…”

He watched telepathically as Selene turned off someone’s power. The assailant she stopped had been fighting several levels up from where Griffin now stood. They’d been using a fearful ability to physically crush people on a group of Selene’s more helpless Vyusher.

Griffin almost felt Selene’s small mental relief like his own. “Okay,” she said.

“The attackers are a distraction. Where are they pushing us away from?”

Selene left her mental shields down to let Griffin watch as she searched through the pattern of attacks based on the level of fighting. She was picturing the glows of each power in use.

“Farther down from where you are. About two levels. The original dungeons.” She gave him a mental picture of where to go. Griffin took off at a sprint, Ellie hard on his heels.