They weren’t just normal dogs, either. No domesticated breed could create the primal song of a pure-bred hunter these creatures gave voice to as they charged. Huge, too. As tall at the shoulder as Dev’s hips and he was no pigmy, not by a long shot. Sleek and powerful, they barely seemed to touch the ground as they ran. Lips pulled back from long, white fangs like hammer-claws as they snarled, the sound sending a shudder down Dev’s back.
Trust Friedrich to have dire-wolves as guard dogs.
Also, trust a fire sorcerer to cast them in flames and set them lose.
The burning wolves sped toward Dev, touching off little fires as they brushed against trees, their tracks marked by burned leaves and grass. Eyes like obsidian inside the bright flames of their faces locked onto Dev.
Sorcery, no matter what caste you practiced, was a hard discipline. Few who began ever finished. Well, no one ever really finished learning, but the number who became functioning sorcerers was completely disproportionate to the number who apprenticed. Mastering a spell and getting the desired affect was a long, arduous and often pointless process. Once the neurological pathway was blazed it was a matter then of linking the effect of the spell to a trigger. It was best to use something there was little to no chance of hearing in daily life as a trigger, to keep accidents from happening. Hence a lot of sorcerers using Latin. Never one to follow the pack, Dev had gone with his own bastardised version of Swahili instead.
Hands out, pointed toward both beasts, Dev triggered one of his most powerful tricks.
“Upepo wa dhoruba.”
Gale force winds sprang up around his arms and, following the direction of his hands, lanced outward. The tightly confined, hurricane-strength winds met the racing wolves head on. Both creatures staggered under the onslaught, the flames blown back from their heads, revealing raw meat and steaming blood, fur and skin long since burned away.
The beast to his right skidded backward on the loose leaf litter, smoke curling up from its guttering flames. Head lowered, lips pushed back in a growl, it lifted a foot to take a step forward. Dev twisted his hand and the wind spiralled under the creature, billowing up beneath it. Knocked off balance, the fire-wolf toppled over, yelping as its exposed muscles hit the hard ground.
Smarter than its fellow, the other wolf crouched under the wind, burning belly to the ground, snapping and snarling. Flames streaming back, it crawled forward. Lips pressed together, Dev added more strength to the wind on it, grunting in satisfaction when all but its tail-flames were snuffed out. It flattened itself to the ground to keep from rolling backward.
Then the first wolf was on its paws again, reignited as Dev’s concentration shifted. The creature leaped forward, covering half the distance between them in a single bound. Dev switched all his power to it, hitting it with a blast so furious and hard it was lifted off the ground and tossed into a tree ten yards behind.
Not waiting to see if the loud crack was wood or wolf, Dev spun and lifted both hands toward the other creature. He wasn’t fast enough. It raced toward him, springing into a massive leap aimed to put his face right between its burning jaws.
Dev dropped, the last of the wind dying as he rolled under the creature’s arc. His scarred back spasmed with pain, but he pushed through it, coming up on one knee, hands already out. But again, the wolf wasn’t where he wanted it. Instead, it was circling, coming closer with each step. Shoulders hunched, it watched him with dark eyes, a low level, threatening growl rumbling through its chest.
It was close enough now the heat could be felt, prickling along his exposed skin like a hundred burning needles. As much as he thought it not possible, the air around him became even dryer, hotter, steaming in his lungs. Already covered in sweat, new torrents gushed from Dev’s head, running over his face. He blinked fast, trying to get the stinging sweat out of his eyes as he tracked the creature.
A new wave of heat touched his back. Twisting, he found the first wolf was on its paws, circling as well, but it limped and wasn’t closing the distance. Not that it had to. It just had to keep him there so the other one could finish him.
He’d been prepared for a certain number of tricks, but not this much, not this quick. Already hurting from the Goons, tired from creating the ice on the tyres and then breaking out of the trunk, and now this, he was close to the end of his strength. Not to mention being physically weakened from his stint in hospital.
The fear was creeping back in, as well. As much as no one wanted to get burned, Dev hadn’t been able to tolerate open flames since escaping Friedrich the first time. The things he could do with fire were terrible; these creatures the least example of his perversity.
Dev had to do this fast. Two tricks so close together wasn’t impossible, but it was hard, and would probably wipe him out.
Keeping an eye on the able-bodied fire-wolf, Dev slowly put his hands on the ground, wide apart, in the direction of the injured creature. Softly, he incanted.
“Nitrogen kuvuta katika.”
The incantation pulled nitrogen out of the atmosphere, condensed it into a liquid in the area between his hands. The ground snap froze in the same instant the wolf behind him pounced.
Dev threw himself to the side, triggering the wind trick again. As he rolled, the blast caught the airborne wolf and tossed it over his head. The second wolf charged for him, damaged but still deadly. Rolling madly, Dev prayed his gamble would work. As he came over, sprawled on the ground, the injured wolf hit the patch of frozen ground.
“Kushinikiza nje!”
The power of the trick lashed upward from the frozen ground and through the creature’s paws.
Momentum carried the fire-wolf forward, but its front paws, frozen to the ground, cracked like crystal struck by a hammer. Sizzling blood arced through the air as the fire-wolf ploughed face first into the ground, ass flying up and over. With a sharp retort, its neck broke. A skinned, singed dead body thumped to the ground in front of Dev’s face.
Heart slamming in shock and surprise, Dev scrambled away from the bloody body. The most he’d hoped for was breaking the wolf’s legs. This was so much better.
A snarl cut through his mini celebration.
The other wolf was still very much alive, and alight. Its flames simmered from orange to blue as it stalked him. Each paw was lifted and placed back down with exacting care, having learned from its fellow’s death.
Dev stood, a long stick in one hand. He cracked his neck and flexed his fingers.
The fire-wolf leaped.
Dev hit it with the wind trick, but this, too, it had come to understand. Thrown backwards, it twisted in midair and landed on its paws. Magnificently agile, the creature spun and rushed him again.
“Theluji!”
In the second it took the wolf to jump, the air between it and Dev had gone from the low-seventies down to subzero. Snow bloomed like white fireworks, instantly melted by the heat. The resultant water drenched the wolf, putting out the flames. In a cloud of steam, Dev thrust the stick forward.
Without the flames or thick fur and hide, the wolf’s own weight worked to impale it on the stick. Hot blood burst from between its wide jaws as it crashed down on Dev. Dying, it still managed to snap and claw at him, but Dev shoved it off, his hands finding slimy, warm resistance. Tumbling away, the wolf nevertheless tried to get back up. Torn muscle dangled around the stick buried in its chest, blood pouring from the wound. Growling, it managed a single step before staggering. Then another, but that was it. The creature, raw and steaming, collapsed at Dev’s boots, snarling and scrabbling at the ground.
Dragging in gulps of air, Dev hauled himself back to his feet. The front of his shirt was smeared with blood, his hands coated in globs of partially cooked flesh. Now that the flames were out, he could smell the sharp tang of very rare meat. His stomach rolled.
Heart still racing, he left the dead and dying wolves behind, hoping like hell they were the only ones. The ringing in his ears had increased to the point he was having trouble hearing anything else and there was a band around his brain, winching tighter with every trick he pulled.
Perhaps he wouldn’t mind so much if Friedrich had bugged out already.
Forgoing stealth—if he was still in residence, there was no way the fire sorcerer would have missed the deaths of his creatures—Dev headed directly for the mansion. As he approached, he noted that nothing had changed. No one had rushed outside to see what the disturbance was; no hidden sentries had popped up to take him out.
Hitting the gravelled drive, he followed it to the circle before the front doors. Here, he found the first of the dead.
Four drivers, lying beside their vehicles, neat bullet holes in their foreheads. On the steps, two black suited security guys, dropped guns close to their hands. Dev stopped long enough to work out they weren’t long dead. The blood on their bodies was tacky in the thickest parts, dried in the thinnest, but even accounting for the warmth of the day, they hadn’t cooled much. The attack had probably been winding down just as the Goons crashed into the outer wall.
The wounds were precise, sniper levels of accuracy. There were Council operatives with that sort of skill, but it couldn’t have been any of them. Dev had the contract on Friedrich, no one from the Council should have horned in on his territory. But if it wasn’t the Council, then it was someone with the ability to get past the keep-outs and fire-wolves.
At the top of the stairs, the doors were open. Picking up the discarded guns of the security guys, Dev checked their clips as he ascended. Both Sigs, one with a single round missing, the other with only five left. Tucking that one into the back of his jeans, Dev held the other one in both hands, easing through the gap in the doors.
More dead, bullet wounds, blood sprayed across the otherwise pristine marble tiles. Another security guy and two servants, Hispanic girls in the skimpy, French maid outfits favoured by Friedrich. Innocents, in as much as anyone working in this house could be considered innocent.
Shoving aside his emotions, Dev cleared the rest of the first floor. Five more dead, all servants, all taken out in cold, clinical precision. There was no doubt this had been a professional hit, three or four shooters at least.
He passed the door to the basement without giving in to the need to shudder, pausing long enough to make sure the door was locked. If there was anyone down there, he couldn’t do anything for them until he was certain the rest of the place was secured.
Back to the foyer, he took the spiralling staircase up to the second floor.
The next body he found was familiar to him.
Dev crouched by the young woman sprawled face first on the landing. He didn’t need to see her face to know it was Elise. Every inch of her perfect, desirable body was etched on his memory, burned there in flame and pain. She’d been Friedrich’s apprentice in all ways—sorcery, business, torture, sex. Her skill with flames hadn’t been as exquisite as her mentor’s so Friedrich had let her hone it on Dev. The deepest scars on his back were her signature.
He’d looked forward to killing her. Now he would never get that experience.
Anger burning as hot as the fire-wolves, Dev rolled her over.
She hadn’t been shot. Nothing manmade had killed her. There were no slices or stabs or signs of strangulation. The front of her cream blouse was stained dark red, but not because she’d bled on it. Her insides had simply been turned into outsides. The fatty mounds of her inside-out breasts pushed at the thin silk, the shape of her lungs moulded across them. Below, loops of intestine curled in pale purple swirls around her liver and stomach. Nestled low in the mess was her uterus.
Her beautiful face was frozen in horror, eyes wide, mouth agape.
As much as Dev had wanted her to die slowly, he was disgusted by the sight before him.
Three or four shooters and an earth sorcerer. A powerful one.
Standing, Dev adjusted his grip on the Sig Sauer and hoped the killers were gone. He’d seen what Lana could do when angry and this sorcerer was far stronger.
Another body lay outside Friedrich’s bedroom. Dead by the hand of the sorcerer, but not like Elise. No, this poor fool had simply had every major bone in his body crushed. He’d bled out through his mouth and ass.
The door to Friedrich’s bedroom was closed but not locked. Dev stood before it for a long time, steadying his breathing. Like the one leading to the basement, this door made his heart stutter and his hands shake.
There was nothing on the other side that could hurt him. Whoever had attacked had taken out the security and Elise without significant trouble. They wouldn’t have left Friedrich alone.
Dev turned the handle and pushed the door open.