Daemon’s Mark by Caitlin Kittredge (web ebook reader .TXT) 📕

That didn’t bother me much, either.

I watched the thing’s shadow advance on me, step by step, lips pulling back and nostrils going wide. It was taking its time with the kill. Scenting it.

Then it crouched, and leaped.

I braced myself for a strike that never came. Another shadow intercepted the were in midair, a red wolf the size of a horse that locked its teeth around the creature’s throat and slammed it into the ground.

The creature let out a squeal, and then its massive paw came up and raked down the wolf’s side, flaying the flesh along its ribs. The wolf let go, and they tangled together for a moment.

Masha screamed from a long way off. “Daddy! ”

I managed to sit up, ignoring the pain and the dizziness, the cool dampness of my own blood soaking the gown. Dmitri was here. He’d come for me.

Not me. Masha. Who was running at the creature, ready to help her father.

I caught her around the waist before she could get her head taken off, and she screamed and thrashed against me, which didn’t do my ribs any favors. “Let me go! We gotta help him!”

“I will!” I shouted. “Getting killed is not gonna do him any favors!”

She went limp at that, and I let her go as a horrible snarl rose from the creature’s throat. It was hurt badly—Dmitri’s wolf teeth had found a mark in its throat, and its front was a mess of gore.

Dmitri wasn’t doing so hot either, though. As they circled and swiped at one another, his back legs tangled and he caught claws across his snout.

“Hey!” I shouted at the creature, clapping my hands. I needed to distract it. Had to. It snarled, but didn’t take its eyes off Dmitri, and this time its teeth closed on Dmitri’s front leg, pulling him off balance and exposing his belly, claws digging into the soft area behind Dmitri’s ribs. Dmitiri howled, and the sound hurt me more than any of the creature’s punishment. It was pure animal pain and rage, the last sound something made before it was beaten.

My bare foot came down on a chunk of cement the creature had knocked out of the wall, and I scooped it up and hurled it with all the strength I had left at the thing’s head. It cracked against the creature’s skull and drew blood, and it turned on me.

“Come on,” I growled, spreading my arms. “Try it.”

All in all, it looked away for a split second, but it was enough.

Dmitri twisted his spine, his jaws closing on the creature and, with a shake and an echoing crack, its neck snapped.

The thing landed bonelessly on top of Dmitri and went still. Blood stained the floor, scent filling the air, and I tried not to choke as I went to my knees in the pool and shoved the thing off Dmitri.

He was phasing back, slowly, unconsciousness or pain turning him from wolf back to man. Masha knelt on his other side, hand pressed over her mouth and eyes enormous. “Is he…”

Dmitri groaned, and his eyelids fluttered. “Shit. That could’ve gone better.”

I swallowed hard and tried to keep my voice steady. “You got that right.”

“I…” He tried to sit up and failed. “I don’t want to alarm you here, Luna, but I can’t really feel my legs.”

I looked down. I’d seen plenty of broken bodies, so it wasn’t as bad a shock as it otherwise could have been.

I also couldn’t lie to myself about what I was seeing.

A massive set of gashes worked their way across Dmitri’s ribs. His abdomen was a mess—I couldn’t even say what had been there. The claws had gone in deep, probably down to the spine. Everywhere else was bloody and beaten. Dmitri’s arm was sitting at an odd angle, a compound fracture from where the creature had grabbed him. My mind cataloged all this while I felt the blood go out of my head and saw my vision tunnel down.

Dmitri picked up the look on my face. “That bad, huh?”

“Dad…” Masha’s voice was thin and rattling as paper.

“You’re…” I gulped. “You’re gonna be fine.”

Dmitri put his good hand on my arm. His palm was slicked with the creature’s blood. Or his own. It didn’t matter. “Don’t lie, Luna.”

“I…” I couldn’t make any more words come. This couldn’t be happening. He had to be all right. Were healing would come, and he’d be all right. I’d get him out of here, save him like he’d saved me, and he’d still be alive in the morning.

“When you didn’t come back I followed you,” Dmitri rasped. “And it’s a good thing I did. Now you two need to get up and get out of here before anything else comes for you.” He squeezed with his good hand. “This is all right, Luna. Don’t you think different.”

“I’m not leaving you,” I managed. I couldn’t breathe. It wasn’t my ribs. Dmitri had to be all right. He couldn’t die because of me.

Dmitri’s face softened. “I want you to. Maybe it wasn’t true an hour ago, but I want you to leave, Luna. Go. And take care of Masha.”

At her name, Masha’s eyes spilled over and she sobbed, putting her face against his. “Dad, I don’t want you to go.”

“Sometimes it doesn’t work out that way,” he murmured. His voice was getting distant, dreamy. He was slipping. “I love you, baby. All right? You go on now.”

Dmitri looked me in the eye as Masha sat back, sobbing. “It was a hell of a ride, Luna. I’m glad … I got to see you.” A little blood trickled from between his lips, and he coughed. “Now go. Don’t make me tell you again.”

I held on for just a second longer. “I’m sorry, Dmitri,” I said. Sorry for more than this. Sorry it had ever come to this. Just gods-damn sorry for everything.

“Me, too,” he whispered, and tried to say something else, but the last of his air went gently