Shadow Kissed (Magic Side: Wolf Bound Book 4)

Jaxson

The tires of my truck screeched as I pulled onto Razorback Avenue. My skin still crawled from the Dark God’s magic, and a deep dread churned my soul. When he’d forced the shift, I’d heard him loud and clear, as if he’d been standing right beside me. His words repeated on loop in my head: I will take her from you. Tonight, your soul will be ripped in two.

I glanced at Savy. She clutched the door handle, her brows pinched together, looking as beautiful as ever, even as we perched on the edge of a knife. I sensed her fear, and my chest ached. Fury rippled through me. I wasn’t accustomed to feeling helpless. I couldn’t lose her. I wouldn’t.

The further south we drove, the more wolves and half-shifted people appeared from the flickering fog. It was like hell had been ripped open and was spilling into Magic Side.

I caught sight of Eclipse as we roared through Dockside. Smoke billowed into the sky, and I tightened my fists on the steering wheel.

A gray wolf strutted across the road up ahead, and I slowed down as smoke clouded the air. I didn’t need to crash right now. The Dark God’s magic was pressing in around us, and I had a sick feeling that it was only a matter of time before he infiltrated our minds and bodies again.

Savannah pointed out the window. “Holy shit, Jaxson, that woman!”

I followed her gaze to the sidewalk where a young woman, Fae by the look of her tipped ears, was in the early throes of a shift. On her neck was a dripping wound. My blood curdled. She wasn’t a werewolf—what was happening?

“It looks like she was bitten,” Savannah said, then looked at me. “Could it be lycanthropy?”

“Impossible.”

Lycanthropy was a rare disease transmitted from werewolf to non-wolf that brought on wolfish aspects, but it had been nearly wiped out in our world.

I slowed the truck as we rolled by the woman. Claws tore from her fingers, and she screamed as the bones and sinews of her body rearranged themselves.

“Oh, my God,” Savannah gasped. “Can we help her?”

She rose, half woman, half wolf. Just like the other poor bastard we’d seen.

I hit the gas. “Lycanthropy or not, this is the Dark God’s work. There’s nothing we can do for her now.”

I wasn’t certain that was the truth, but we had no time to stop.

Guilt tore at me as I watched the woman in the rearview mirror as we sped away. I was at least partially responsible for this shit, but I wouldn’t risk Savannah’s safety by stopping and helping those poor souls. My mate was everything to me now, and perhaps our only chance at stopping the fucking Dark Wolf God.

“It’s the mist,” Savannah said quietly. “He’s working through it…taking over peoples’ wolves and making them go crazy.”

Godsdamnit. If she was right and the Dark God was using the mist to infect people, how long did we have until he turned the whole island? Before newly transformed and apparently crazed wolves started infiltrating Chicago?

A loud thud hit the back of my truck. I looked in the mirror to find another half-shifted man clawing at the window, scraping up my new paint job. Motherfucker.

“Hold on,” I growled.

I hit the brakes, and the tires skidded and screeched across the asphalt. The man slammed into the window of the bed and flew over the roof, rolling on the sidewalk. I ground my teeth. He’d broken an arm and was pretty busted up, but he’d live.

Savannah turned to me, shocked.

“What?”

She shook her head and looked out the front. “Nothing, just a moment of déjà vu from the night I met you.”

A sick turn of fate.

Dodging cars, debris, and rampant wolves made the rest of our trip to the Indies painfully slow. Up ahead, a piercing wall of light illuminated the sky. The sorcerers must have erected their magical barrier.

We’d better be able to fucking get through.

Savannah had her phone to her ear and was tapping her fingers anxiously on the window.

“Savy?” Her cousin’s voice sounded on the line.

“Casey! We’re almost to the border with the Indies. Can we drive through the barrier that just went up?”

“Savy, damn it! Yeah, it only keeps the Dark God’s scourge out, but anything else has free crossing. But we have physical barricades, too—piled-up dumpsters and shit. Cross at the intersection of 73rd and Ironwood. Get your ass over here. We’re being bombarded by crazy-ass wolves.”

“Be careful,” Savy warned. “And don’t get bitten. We’ll be there in five minutes.”

“Fuck! Where’ve you been for the last three days? I was afraid you were dead!”

“Only sort of. I’m back now and ready to kick some ass. Keep the drawbridge down.”

She hung up and dragged a hand through her hair. “I still can’t believe we were gone for three whole days.”

I tightened my grip. “The loremaster told us time was different in the Deadlands. We’ve lost any chance to prep.”

Savy shook her head. “Doesn’t matter. We trusted Sam and Regina, and it sounds like they did their job. We’re alive and moving, so that’s good, but we need a plan. We’ve got to find a way to close that rift.”

I grunted with dark amusement. “A plan to close the rift? Right now, I’m just trying to keep us alive and get us out of Dockside. Let’s hope the Order—or hell, your aunt—has a plan to shut it.”

Swerving onto Ironwood Ave, I immediately slowed. The translucent magical barrier along the border to the Indies was nearly blinding. It rose into the heavens, emitting a brilliant white glow.

But the strange, flickering mist crept around the buildings, drawing nearer.

The closer we got to the magical barrier, the more blinding it became. I could barely keep my eyes open as we roared through the wall of light.

As soon as we were through, I slammed on the brakes.

The truck fishtailed and screeched to a stop just in front of a makeshift barricade of overturned dumpsters and a shipping container.

I parked on the shoulder and climbed out, and Savannah scrambled after me.

Casey’s head peeked over the barrier. “Get your asses over here, now!”

Claws scraped on asphalt behind us, and I spun.

Three rabid-looking wolves lunged toward us, but before I could extend my claws, magic ripped through the air.

Wind and electricity whipped around us, and a fireball grazed my head. It blasted into the lead wolf just as he leapt for Savy and drove him howling into the ground.

I grabbed Savannah’s hand and pulled her with me to the barricade. We jumped over, and the barrage overwhelmed the attacking wolves. They retreated, leaving one unconscious. Or dead.

Savannah flew into the arms of her cousin. “Casey!”

“Holy crap, you made it,” he said, squeezing her. “Thank the gods. Mom’s about to have a stroke.”

Sam stormed over and pulled Savy from his arms to hug her, too, then turned toward Casey, her face a mask of rage. “How many times do I have to tell you to knock that shit off? Get your people under control! No fireballs. No lethal magic. Those are our people! They’re just not in their right mind!”

Casey threw his hands in the air. “What do you expect me to do? Those furry bastards are vicious and were going to take a bite out of my cousin. I don’t care who they were.”

Sam locked him with a steely gaze, and he took a step back. “No fireballs,” she snarled.

The sorcerers and wolves guarding the perimeter watched them with held breath.

Casey let out a big sigh. “Fine. But we can’t take any more losses—I’ve already got two of my boys bit and infected. We’re doing this my way.” He twirled his finger in the air, signaling to one his cronies, who was parked beside a series of black crates. “Wolfsbane it is.”

Had he lost his damn mind?

Two of the crates were full of black cannisters of wolfsbane, while a third was stacked with gas masks. Casey grabbed three masks, tossed one to Sam, then strolled over to Savy and me and handed us each one.

“Casey, you’re kidding right? You know that wolfsbane hurts us,” Savy said. “Half the people here are werewolves.”

“No shit. But unless you have a better idea, this is how we keep them out.”

Sam looked at me expectantly. They all did—werewolves and sorcerers alike.

Casey’s people were bruised and battered, and even our wolves—who could heal—had tattered clothes and seemed exhausted. By the looks of it, they’d been holding this position for a long time, and shit wasn’t going to ease up.

“Do it,” I growled. “But don’t kill anyone.”

“You got it, boss.” Casey spun and waved his buddies over.

Sam touched my arm. “Things are bad here, Jax. There’s a mist that turns our people crazy—or, more accurately, puts them under his control. And anyone bitten becomes…a hybrid. Half human, half wolf, and completely mad.”

I nodded. “We’ve seen the transformation happen, but we didn’t know how it worked, exactly.”

Sam looked at Savy. “Whatever you do, don’t go into the mist. He tries to take control. It’s…horrible. We can’t be anywhere near it.”

Laurel LaSalle’s shout cut through our conversation. “Savy!”

She came running up the street and pulled Savy into her arms for a lingering hug. Finally, she released her. “You’re okay?”

Savannah smiled. “Let’s not leap to conclusions, but I’m complete. What can we do to help?”

Laurel’s eyes darkened. “As far as we can tell, the Dark Wolf God has opened a rift in Dockside. His magic—that shimmering mist—is pouring through. We must close it before he collects enough power to cross through himself.”

“How do we do that?”

“Follow me,” she said.

She led us to a makeshift workbench, where her husband, Pete, was hunched over. The top was inscribed with a circle of spells, and in the center sat a silver object that looked like an astrolabe. He glanced up and smiled, but his eyes were weary. “It’s done, I think.”

Laurel peered down at it. Worry and doubt swirled around her, but she steeled her nerves and squeezed her husband’s hand before looking to me and Savy. “We’ll find the rift, and I’ll use this talisman to sew it shut. This is the needle, and my magic will be the thread.”

For a moment, Savannah admired the talisman on the workbench, then looked up at her aunt with an expression of deep sorrow. “This is amazing, but I don’t think sealing the rift will be enough.”

“What do you mean?”

“We need to go back through to bind the Dark God in his realm before you seal the rift. Otherwise, sooner or later, he’ll make a new one,” Savy said. Though she spoke with confidence, I saw the despair and fear in her eyes.

We’d gotten lucky last time, escaping with our lives. Returning to the Dark God’s realm to finish what we’d failed was likely a one-way ticket.

“Bind him? How could you possibly do that?” Laurel asked.

“Long ago, the Moon bound him there, but her spells were failing,” Savy said. “We’ve started the process of repairing them, but we have one left. If we succeed, the spells will recharge, and the Dark God will be stuck in his realm for good.”

Understanding shadowed Laurel’s face. “You’re going into his realm, to face him?”

“If we don’t, all this will happen again.” She lightly touched the astrolabe in Laurel’s hand. “Once we lock him away, will that thing be powerful enough to close the rift?”

Laurel looked off to the shining barrier, a tear shimmering in the corner of her eye. “It sure as hell better be.”