The Wolf Esprit: Lykanos Chronicles 3

Esprit, he called.

I drew my eyes from the glorious moon to see Father standing near the clearing’s edge. He had transformed into his wolf form and left me atop the sundial hill to stare at the moon. For a moment, I thought it a trick—his ability to teleport without a sound. But I soon realized I’d been in a trance, staring at the Goddess like some obsessed imbecile.

Now, at my side, he commanded.

I hesitated, looking for the path down the hill.

I said now, son.

Feeling nothing but strength in my legs, I flew to him in one giant leap down to the forest floor. The move astonished me, this invincible feeling of control as my body flew some twenty steps with only the slightest effort.

Without waiting for me to gather my wits, Father took off into the forest thick like a demon.

At my side, his mind called to me again.

I leaped after him with all my strength, determined to catch up. I couldn’t comprehend the sensation. It felt as if I stood still while the earth moved beneath my feet. This must be what angels feel, I thought as I flew over the dark forest floor.

The realization that Father was flying even faster was all that tempered the mind-numbing speed.

At my side, he called again.

The more I tried to catch up to him, the faster he moved. He was testing me—I was sure of it. Wanting to prove myself, I gave everything to pursue him. I insisted on this, demanding my body respond with a vein of intoxicating energy that pulsed through my limbs.

It took only moments for Father’s advantage to wane as I moved into position at his side. When his eyes turned to meet mine, he howled at me with approval before slowing to a trot until we came to the edge of the forest, where he stopped.

My heart raced, but I didn’t feel winded. Instead, I felt alive for the first time. It was as if I’d never before seen and tasted the world around me.

Listen, he bid me.

I waited for him to say more, but soon realized he didn’t mean for me to listen to his words but the sounds of the night. And all at once, an ocean of sound reached my ears. It overwhelmed me, the grandeur of the gift and how concentrated the power became when I focused my mind. Before he’d instructed me to listen, I hadn’t realized how much I could hear of the surrounding night. Dozens of animals in every direction; I listened to their hearts beating in a cacophony of speeds that rose like music in my ears.

Then something else reached me.

It came over the horizon like smoke on the wind. A bare whiff of the fragrance, but unmistakable in the way it tingled at the back of my mind.

Father released a piercing cry out into the night, announcing our location, but his howl was a herald of courtesy rather than anything else.

From a mile away, his cry echoed from the throat of another.

Fly to her, he said. Father took off over the rolling hills laid out before us.

As if drawn by his command, my legs raced to catch up, and in moments, we were upon her.

Father stopped to take her in his arms, lifting her body from the ground to hold in the air as if she weighed nothing. He nuzzled and tasted her in an act so intimate I couldn’t help but feel my eyes intrude upon the moment. But seconds later, he released her, and I saw Gabrielle as I’d only seen her from Father’s mind before.

She was not as tall as I was, but still enormous compared to the petite lycan I knew. She had glossy black fur, much like her lycan hair, that glistened in the moonlight as it moved in the night breeze. There was a swell at her chest, and I saw the nipples standing at attention just as the rest of her demon frame. She seemed capable of overtaking me if she wanted, despite my larger size. Like Father’s, Gabrielle’s eyes refracted the surrounding light, appearing to glow in the night.

She approached me and lifted her hand to my face. I felt the hard sharpness of her talons as they caressed the fur of my cheek and jaw. She stared at me with such appraising scrutiny that, for a moment, I lowered my eyes as in deference.

Mon fils, she said, her voice coming as an echo on the breeze that swirled in my mind.

A cry of helplessness shot through her mind. Gabrielle drew a sharp breath, and her eyes shot around toward a light in the far distance. As if the space between her and the cry contracted to bring them only a few feet. I saw the color of blood fill her mind and sharpen her senses.

Show him the way, Father said to her.

It’s too soon, she answered with a scowl of protest. I will return soon enough.

Father took her by the arm as he thought she would shoot away.

It isn’t too soon, he said. And I will not have him coddled. Take us there, and let us show him our purpose.

Gabrielle drew a breath of protest, but the cry came once more, reaching over the miles that separated us, lighting up her mind in a sea of red. It pulled her such that she couldn’t think to protest, drawn to the cry as if nothing else could matter to her.

She turned back to me and stared with grave concern.

Do you see it? Do you hear their cry of suffering?

I responded only by mirroring the sound in her mind back at her. I let her see how the red hue also drenched my vision when I watched her thoughts.

Yes, that’s it. Follow it. Race to them now. A woman is in pain.

No sooner had she said the words when my legs leaped forward to carry me to the sound.

Gabrielle and Father followed as I moved like the wind through tall, moonlit grasses. The closer I came to the source of the crying, the faster my feet moved under me.

A farmhouse came into view, and the red light focused to a pinpoint as we came closer. Flashes of the human’s mind echoed through Gabrielle, the sharpness of the pain as a man raped her. The betrayal hurt this woman more than her vile man did. He’d beat her when she protested, slapping her face so many times to stop her wail that, at last, he’d used his fist to break her nose. She knew this man, and her unwilling submission to his lustful violence devastated her to her core. Her weeping had little to do with his sharp invasions or the throbbing in her face.

So angered by this was I that my feet raced faster, bent on crashing through the farmhouse bedroom wall to get at the fiend.

Stop here, Gabrielle’s voice commanded.

I continued to race, my blood up and determined.

I said, STOP!

Her voice echoed like a roar in my mind, so loud that the shock caused me to lose my footing, and I stumbled to the earth. When I recovered my bearings, I stood up with a roar of frustration and anger toward her.

Father was upon me in a second, standing between us.

Calm yourself, Esprit. Wait for the moment, he said.

Gabrielle walked up to me without the slightest concern and reached over Father’s shoulder to lay her hands on my face. She rubbed gently at my scalp, and again I felt the soft hardness of her talons push through my fur. The affectionate gesture released my anger in seconds.

We cannot just bolster into the room, love, she said. The sight of you, what you mean to do to that man who rapes her, will be too much for her to recover from. We must draw him out to us. We must slaughter him in the shadows.

But how? I pleaded.

Through Gabrielle’s mind, I still heard the woman’s suffering inside the house, and the need to stop it pulled at me such that I couldn’t think of much else.

Father released a cry into the night. He howled as loudly as he could, and she joined him.

The farm animals responded with sounds of fear, knowing what the cries signified. A herd of lambs rose from their slumber and cried with agitation as they huddled in their pen for security. Horses in the barn let out a siren of neighs to each other and kicked in their stalls.

At once, the woman’s pain stopped. The color of red from Gabrielle’s mind faded, and I felt emancipated from the biting urgency that drew me to her.

From the back of the farmhouse, a man appeared with a musket in his left hand. He searched in the moonlight for us, for the wolves that meant to steal one of his livestock.

Run at him now with light steps. Finish it, she commanded.

Gabrielle took off running in an arc around the farm. She howled, drawing the farmer’s attention away from my advancing position, and he shot into the night at her. Of course, he could never have hit her at the speed she moved, but it didn’t matter. The man was dead well before he might’ve realized his failure.