Fang, Fury, and Liam were doing a remarkable job keeping them off in wolf form while Valerius and Vane fought them with knife and sword. The bad thing though was that the wolves couldn’t use their magic any more than Ash could. Any random shot of their energy could accidently hit Anya and her pups and kill them.

“Vane!”

Ash started at the human noise from the wolfswan. He looked up to see a Daimon about to attack Vane’s back. Forewarned, Vane saw the Daimon and whirled around in time to stab the Daimon through the heart and kill him.

Anya lay back.

Ash held her still as the first of her puppies crested. “That’s it,” he said to her in a calm, soothing voice. “We’re almost there.”

A Daimon came up through the hedges beside them. Ash sprang to his feet and whirled to defend Anya as Fang caught the Daimon and knocked him away from them.

“Take care of my sister,” Fang shot to him in his mind.

Ash quickly returned to Anya.

With the Daimons so close now, he was having to watch the coming cub, Anya, and the Daimons.

It wasn’t easy.

“Push,” he said to Anya. “Just a little bit more.”

The next few seconds happened rapidly and yet they seemed to move slowly through time.

Heartbeat by heartbeat.

Two Daimons rose up from their fight with Fang. One of them shot Fang with a Taser, immediately turning him human. Fang let out a howl as his body convulsed uncontrollably back and forth between wolf and human.

Vane went after the second one at the same moment the first one aimed the Taser at Vane, who dove at the ground. The Daimon pressed the button and the electrified prongs missed Vane by a fraction of an inch.

They struck Anya instead.

Ash cursed in anger as Anya was transformed from a wolf to a woman and back again. Her screams echoed in the trees and then she fell eerily silent.

Back in her wolf form, she didn’t move at all.

Vane ran to her, but it was too late.

She was dead.

Ash let out his battle cry and rushed the Daimon who had killed her. He punched the Daimon hard in the jaw, then used his bare hands to finish him off. He pushed his hand straight into the Daimon’s chest, piercing his mark.

The Daimon shattered into a spray of golden dust.

Now that he could use his powers without restriction, Ash made short work of the remaining Daimons.

Fang’s transformations had slowed down, but he was still alternating between human and wolf forms as he dragged himself slowly toward his sister’s body.

Vane walked stonily toward Anya and sank down beside her. He gathered her wolf’s body up into his arms and cradled her as if she were a baby. Tears streamed down his face as he rocked back and forth with her and whispered to her.

Fang let out a fierce howl and turned into a man. His body bare, he laid his head down on Anya’s back and held on to her too.

Ash would never forget the sight of the three of them huddled there in their grief. It would haunt him forever.

All too well, he remembered his own past.

Saying good-bye to his sister and her baby…

Pain like that never fully healed. He knew it for fact. Not even eleven thousand years had taken away the bitter burn inside him.

His face grim, Ash took a step toward them. “Do you need me to-”

“Get away,” Vane snarled, his voice feral and cold. “Just leave us alone.”

Val arched one regal brow. “There might be more Daimons coming.”

“And I will kill them,” Vane growled. “I will kill them all.”

There was nothing more to be done to help them and Ash hated that most of all. The brothers needed time to grieve.

Disintegrating his staff, he turned toward Val who watched the brothers with a troubled gaze. “There was nothing more you could do,” Valerius said to Vane. “Don’t blame yourself.”

Vane let out an inhuman snarl.

Ash pulled Val’s arm and led him away from the scene before Vane attacked out of sorrow.

Val’s features were still haunted with sympathy. “The innocent should never have to suffer from the battles of others.”

“I know,” Ash said, his heart heavy. “But it seems to always be the case.”

Val nodded. “A furore infra, libera nos.”

Ash paused at the Latin quote. Spare us from the fury within. “You know, Valerius, there are times when I think you might actually be human after all.”

Valerius scoffed at that. “Trust me, Acheron, whatever human part of me that ever existed was killed a long time ago.”

Fury watched quietly for hours as Vane and Fang held their sister and wept like children. He remembered a time when he’d cried like that too, but it had been centuries ago.

He’d sent Liam on not long after the fight had ended to tell the rest of the pack what had happened, then stayed behind just in case there was more fighting to be done. Regardless of past battles, snipes, and ill feelings, Vane and Fang didn’t need to stand alone right now. Everything they’d cared about was dead. It was a pain Fury wished on no one.

Fury’s grief hit him on a different level. While they cried for the sister they’d lost, he cried internally for the sister he’d never know.

It was so hard to watch his siblings embrace like that while he stood on the outside.

Forever a stranger.

But he couldn’t tell them the truth. Their own mother and the siblings he’d been raised with had turned on him and tried to kill him. The only woman he’d ever loved had been among those who turned on him. Why then would Fang and Vane ever accept the fact that he was born of the same cursed union that had birthed them?

Besides now was definitely not the time for a family reunion.

He stepped forward tentatively. Not out of fear, but out of respect. “Guys? We’ve been here a long time. Since the Taser’s worn off, I think we should be going.”

Vane pinned him with the coldest dead stare he’d ever seen. He turned that look to Fang. “We need to give her a proper burial. We owe her that.”

Fang wanted to scream and curse. He wanted to punch until the impotent fury inside him was quiet. But he didn’t know if it would ever be quiet again. Something inside him was shattered. Anya wasn’t supposed to die. She was supposed to be here. In all the hell and uncertainty that had been their lives, she’d been the one thing he and Vane had lived for. Their calming influence.

She’d made the wolf human.

Without her…

There was nothing inside him now but the wild animal that only wanted the blood of everyone around him.

Fury approached them slowly in human form.

“Where’s Liam?” Vane asked.

“I sent him on to tell the others that the Daimons were defeated.”

Vane scowled. “Why did you stay?”

Fury glanced to Anya’s body. “I didn’t think you two were in any shape to defend-”

“We’re fine,” Fang snarled, and grabbed him by the throat.

Fury covered his wrist with his hand and jerked it away. His turquoise eyes blazed with anger. “Grief or no grief, you ever touch me like that again and I will kill you.”

Vane broke them apart. “There’s been enough killing here tonight. We need to go.”

Fury stepped back.

Fang started to apologize, but the words caught in his throat. Besides, he didn’t owe the bastard anything. Fury was probably gloating over this. It would be typical of him.

Dismissing the thought, Fang stooped down to retrieve Anya’s body. He stood slowly with Anya in his arms. Her fur tickled his skin. Over and over he saw images of her as a pup, as a teen, and as a woman. Most of all, he saw images of her as his sister and best friend.

Gods, how he’d miss her.

Vane sighed. “You ready?”

No. He would never be ready to say good-bye to her. But they couldn’t stay here forever. So he nodded even though he wanted to die alongside her.

Using their powers, they found their pack and where they’d made a temporary den in Slidell. Not too far away since the burdened females couldn’t travel easily, but far enough away that they should be relatively safe.