The Witch and the Werewolf Read Free Page A

way. It howled in pain as the wound smoked and
blood gushed out.
    “ Bitch,” it growled. “I
will enjoy consuming you.”
    Her mother was in the air
again, this time raining fire down around the werewolf. Fire? How
did her mother do that? Who was that woman? It was obvious she
didn’t know all there was to know about Eleanor Kent. The fire
singed the wolf as it darted out of the circle, again howling in
pain. Her mother came down inches from where the thrown silver
blade had stuck in the ground, yanked it free, and came up in a
crouch.
    The wolf yanked a small
tree from the ground, roots and all, and hurled it at her. Eleanor
raised her hand, palm up, and a wall of bramble thorns sprang into
existence between her and the flying tree. The tree crashed through
in a shower of sparks, but the wolf was already leaping over it,
coming down on top of her mother, knocking her to the ground and
sending her blades flying.
    “ Mom!” Cassandra screamed,
still struggling to get Brad to the van. The boy was crying, hands
locked to his face.
    “ Don’t worry, little one,”
the thing growled at her. “You’ll get your chance.”
    “ Run, Cassandra! Get in
the van and run,” her mother screamed, pushing uselessly against
the massive weight crouched on her chest. “You have to
run!”
    Cassandra was locked in
place as the thing howled and then bit into her mother’s shoulder.
Eleanor Kent cried out in agony, unable to struggle away from the
werewolf. She wanted to rush to her mother, to help her somehow,
but couldn’t move. Brad sobbed next to her, sinking to the dirt
once more.
    “ What’s going on, Cass?
What’s happening?”
    The wolf bit into her
mother again, blood and bone flying. It turned and looked at her,
the long snout forming a grin. “Your turn, little
bitch.”
    The thing leapt into the
air, towards her, and came down next to Brad. It slapped Brad away
as if he was nothing but a child’s toy and he landed ten feet away,
his neck in an unnatural position. Cassandra glanced at her
erstwhile lover and was sure he was dead. The wolf turned to her,
snout inches from her cheek, sniffing.
    “ You smell so sweet,
little bitch. Like your mother a hundred years ago.”
    Something clicked in
Cassandra. Suddenly she didn’t want to die. The world might be
ending, she thought, but if these things were out there, in the
coming night, she’d be there to stop them. She didn’t know what her
mother was, didn’t know what she was, but she knew she wanted to
live long enough to hunt every one of the werewolves down and put
them out of her misery. Inaction turned to action and she felt
something building deep within her. It was like a fire, burning in
the pit of her stomach. As the wolf put its clawed hands on her the
fire leapt out, through her hands, and set the wolf’s fur alight,
flinging him back across the park in an explosion that sent shock
waves through the trees.
    “ What the hell?” she
muttered, staring at the smoking palms of her hands. “What did I
do?”
    She ran to her mother’s
side, scooping the woman’s bloody carcass into her lap. The woman
breathed laboriously and Cassandra knew she was dying.
    “ Mom…”
    “ It’s okay, Cassandra.
I’m… it’s too late for me. You have to go on. You have to carry on
the fight.” She coughed up a chunk of blood. “You have to find the
alpha wolf and kill him. The first one, Cassandra. Find him and
kill him and this will all end. Take the pack from
them.”
    She has so many questions.
She regretted leaving her mother and chasing her own silly,
childish desires.
    “ I’m sorry, Mother. I’m so
sorry.”
    “ Take these,” the woman
said, forcing the short silver swords into her hand. “And run. When
you’re ready, hunt him down and kill him. They will consume the
human race now, if you don’t. There is nothing to keep them in
check anymore. Find the priest. Find the Church of the Dead Wolf.
He will help you.”
    Tears flowed down her
cheeks as her