Chapter 118


    -Dorothy-


    The sun had just set by the time I made it to the edge of Bielke territory. I nced up at the murky skies


    with a growing sense of dread. It was a moonless, misty night. Every star was swallowed up by the


    thick fog that hung over our heads.


    Without the aid of moonlight, the shifters were at a disadvantage


    I climbed out of my car and went the rest of the way on foot. Thest thing I wanted was to alert any


    prowling vampires to


    my presence,


    Angie had briefly exined over the phone what was happening on Belile turf. The vampires had


    attacked just like Ignatius had suspected, but in numbers far greater than any of us could have


    anticipated.


    They weren’t just picking off stragglers this time, they were mowing down anyone in their path- and


    shifters were being bitten.


    Neither Angie nor Ignatius wanted me present at the battle, but with the amount of Bielke soldiers being


    wounded, Angie felt they had no choice


    I had powers that would prove useful in this instance. I could heal people with my abilities, and I had


    enough control over them to not leave myself incapacitated in the process,


    I made my way towards the creek that Angie had described to me. The forest was deathly still, silent


    aside from the asional breeze that rustled through the trees,


    If there was a battle going on nearby, I couldn’t hear it. But over the hill where Belile territory began, I


    could see a faint. orange glow and a billowing plume of smoke that rose from what must have been a


    roaring fire in the distance.


    When I reached the gurgling waters of the Belile creek 1 turned in slow circles, sweeping the area for


    any nearby enemies.


    The forest was silent, and the thick smog wafted through the trees around me, stifling and suffocating


    as it settled over the area. The surrounding trees were ancient behemoths that stretched toward the


    sky,


    Angie had said she would meet nie here, and so I waited impatiently, startled by the slightest of sounds


    from creatures in the foliage. After a few minutes of standing alone in nervous anticipation, I whipped


    around at a suddenmotion behind


    ΠΡ


    Angle stumbled out of the forest, bleeding from a deep g ash on her forehead and swearing like a


    sailor.


    “Dorothy! Thank Goddess, I was afraid you’d been mowed down by a stray vamp.” She tumbled into


    my arms and I frowned, concerned.


    “Veryforting, Angie, thank you.” I checked the wound on her forehead, running my thumb under


    the g ash and summoning the tiniest hint of my healing abilities to close it up. “Where’s Ignatius? Is he


    alright?”


    “Don’t waste your power on me!” Angie pulled away, rubbing at her forehead where the gut was slowly


    stitching itself up, her blood running backwards like time itself was warping to undo the damage.


    There are shifters who need it alot more than I do.”


    I shrugged, staring down at my hand that glowed with a pale white light, like electricity in my palm. “Is


    the battle that bad?”


    “Worse” Angle gripped my forearm, dragging me into the shadowy forest with sudden urgency,


    “Ignatius doesn’t know you’re here. He told me not to summon you, but we’re losing bailly. We need to


    get our people back into the fight.”


    As we pushed further into the forest, the sounds of battle became apparent. I heard wolves howling,


    and the bone-chilling wails of the vampire attackers. The smog overhead grew thicker and through the


    treeline I could see the orange glow of a roaring fire more clearly now.


    11:06 Fri, Jan 26 G


    Something about the scene catapulted me back into the past, and I stumbled beside Angie as forgotten


    memories swelled to


    the surface.


    Dorothy! Are you alright?” Angie’s cry of rm sounded distant, and I pressed my hands to my head,


    sinking to my knees. beside her.


    Alongside Angie’s 1 heard another voice calling to me, urging me to keep moving, to run. I


    remembered pressing on through a smokey forest, escaping the wailing enemies at my back. Rita


    running alongside me, her nails dipping into my forearm as she dragged me along,


    “Tin fine.” I whispered wearily, shaking the memories from my head. “This just feels.. familiar,”


    cony


    Angie helped me to my feet and I blinked rapidly, the distant memory dissipating before my eyes until I


    was once again grounded in the present. “Where are the injured soldiers?


    Not far from here. Fac and 1 carted them into a clearing away from the battle.” Angie was eyeing me


    with a look of concern.


    She opened her mouth to question me further but I shook my brad, walking ahead of her. “I’m line,


    really. Let’s keep going”


    We found the injined shifters huddling in the nearby clearing and 1 had to swallow my rm upon


    seeing the state of them. Some of them Itecognized, soldiers who I had fought alongside during the


    Tally war, Others were members of the Belile pack Somedidn’t look a day over eiglueci


    Many of the shifters sat upright, nursing broken limbs and deep ga shes. But so many others were


    like the vampires had cut them to the core


    The worst were the shifters who spasmed and gasped, flopping about on the ground like fish out of


    water. I rushed over to the nearest convulsing shifter, taking the young boy’s hand in mine: “What


    happened to them?” I asked Angie, who stood behind me a grave look on her face.


    “They were bitten. She whispered it, tense unease etched into her features. “By the vampires. We have


    no idea if they’re going to turn or die


    The young boy gripped my hand tightly, nearly breaking my bones under his clenched fingers. His eyes


    were rolling in his head, his teeth chattering uncontrobly. I worried he might just bite off his tongue.


    Through his tom shirt I could see two small puncture wounds on his shoulder. Dark trickles of blood


    were seeping from the incision, and the boy seemed unable to heal himself.


    I lifted my eyes to the other injured shifters, analyzing their varying conditions, I had to be careful when


    wielding my healing powers. If I pushed myself too far. I could end up unconscious again. Thest time


    that had happened. I’d been out cold for weeks


    “Get back to the battle, 1 told Angie, setting my jaw. “I’ll handle these people. Just make sure no


    vampires wander this way


    Angie seemed hesitant to leave me. She wrung together, shifting skittishly from one foot to the other.


    “The needs you,” I spoke over my shoulder, already focusing my attention on the injured shifter before


    me. “Go to her. I’ll be alright


    Ange lifted her fist, then sighed and dropped it again


    “Don’t do anything st upid,” she muttered before darting into the woods without a hackward nce.


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    I did what I could for the injured shifters, hovering over one and then another, cing thy glowing


    palmis on damp, sizzling


    Some of them I couldn’t healpletely, their wounds were far too serious and I would have killed


    myself in the process Instead, I gave them just enough of a push to kickstart the healuig process. They


    were in pain, and they would be for a while But at least they would live


    about. I tried my best to stop their seizures, but any abilities sensed to do nothing to halt


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    11:06 Fri, Jan 26 G


    whatever they were undergoing


    Everytime I tried to draw from my own energy, to pour that glowing white light into their bodies through


    my palms, I seemed to hit a wall. It was just like back then, when I had tried to heal the Tally shifter we


    had captured.


    The Tally mutants were vulnerable to iron, and a single slice from my faerie de had left the man’s


    entire arm withering and rotten. My powers could do nothing to remove the poison from his


    bloodstream. The best I could do was remove his arm entirely


    I couldn’t do that with these shifters. The vampire’s venom had already spread too far.


    I managed to get a few of the wounded soldiers healed and back on their feet. They thanked me and


    melted into the forest with hollow eyes. I had no idea what atrocities they had seen, but I understood


    that it took a lot of courage to willingly step back into the fight.


    I had just finished setting the bones of another young shafter, the shattered particles in her knee


    knitting back together under my touch. I was exhausted, swaying on my feet.


    Whether it was merely exhaustion or something more, I became aware of strange sounds around me.


    A part of me was aware that I was delirious, having pushed myself further than my b*dy could handle


    despite my better judgment.


    I was seeing double, triple. Past, present and future ying out before my eyes in a trinocr


    kaleidoscope of sound and


    color.


    I saw wolves streaking through smokey streets. I saw long-limbed creatures, snarling maws and blood-


    red eyes. Only when I reached out to touch them, my fingers brushed empty air.


    “Hey, are you alright?” The girl whose leg had been put back together touched my shoulder in concern.


    “Maybe you should rest for a bit.”


    But my attention was elsewhere, and I jerked upright, staring into the forest at the sound of a child


    keening. “Do you hear char”


    The girl responded, but I couldn’t hear her anymore. Her words were drowned out by the ringing in my


    ears. I got feet, taking a few wary steps towards the edge of the clearing. “I have to help them


    A few of the healed shifters tried to stop me, but I was gone, ruming blindly into the forest before


    anyone could get a h


    of nie..


    Someone was in danger, Someone needed help. I followed the terrible wailing through the forest,


    leaping over gnarled roots and ducking under twisted branches that wrenched at my clothes like boney


    grasping hands.


    I burst through the treeline, running beadfirst into a bl oody battle between shifters and vampires.


    Sound erupted around. me, gnashing teeth and vicious snarls. Agonized howls of fallen shifters as they


    were in in the streets,


    Through the chaos I spotted Angie and Fae, fighting back to back against a wall of hideous vampiric


    beings. Nearby I could see Ignatius, stabbing and shing at another slender, deadly vamp. He caught


    sight of me as I darted through the scrabbling bodies, real fear shing in his eyes.


    “Dorothy? Get out of here!”


    I wanted to run to him, to fight side by side as we had so many times before. But still that voice rang in


    my head, the desperate screams of a child who needed me


    I met my mate’s wide-eyed stare for a moment, voicing my apologies with my eyes, before turning


    down an alleyway and disappearing out of sight.


    11:06 Fri, Jan 26