"Gladius!" Sous yelled out the spell with his hand. Kara looked at Sous, performing the spell without her wand. Sous laughed looking at her sword. "Wow! My favorite spell!" She said.
The Alpha turned smiling at her mate. She began fight with the sword, slashing at the air.
"Watch this!" She said to Kara.
Sous grinned widely as she swung the sword in a wide arc. Her muscles coiled and released with practiced ease, the blade slicing through the air with a sharp hiss. Sweat beaded on her forehead, glistening under the sun's glare as her bare feet shuffled through the coarse snow near the coast.
Each movement was deliberate, fluid, a seamless blend of strength and grace that left faint trails of light flickering along the sword's edge.
Kara stood rooted, eyes wide in amazement, her own wand forgotten at her hip. Sous didn't need words; her body spoke volumes in the rhythm of her strikes, high, low, a spinning evade, then a lunge that kicked up snow.
"I still got it!" Sous said coming down, landing on the snow.
Kara smiled at Sous. She pointed her wand at Sous. "Ready to train?" She asked her Alpha. "Gladius!" Kara shouted, her own sword coming into her hands. "A quick battle before the kids get home."
Sous got into her fighting stance as well did Kara.
Sous grinned fiercely; the broadsword's worn leather hilt warmed instantly under Sous's calloused palm as Kara's spell-blade shimmered into existence, a razor-sharp extension of her will. Neither moved for a breathless half-second, the only sounds the distant crash of waves against ice floes and the harsh rasp of their own exhalations frosting the air.
SWOOSH!
Then Kara lunged, a blur of dark wool and flying snow, her blade slicing upward in a silver arc aimed at Sous's ribs. Sous pivoted, the sword sliced through her muscles as she twisted, deflecting Kara's strike with a bone-jarring attack.
CLANK!
It echoed off the frozen cliffs. Sparks skittered across the packed snow where the steel kissed.
Sous absorbed the jarring impact through her shoulder, the vibration singing up her bones as she used Kara's momentum against her, shoving hard to create distance.
Snow crunched violently beneath Sous's retreating feet; Kara stumbled, balance momentarily lost, her breath exploding in a thick white plume. Sous didn't hesitate. She surged forward, a low growl escaping her throat as she aimed a swift, economical slash at Kara's exposed thigh.
CLINK!
Kara was quick to block it.
Her blade slammed sideways into Sous's strike, deflecting the edge a finger's breadth from her thigh fabric. The force rippled up Kara's arm, urging her backward, but she planted her foot heel deep into the icy crust, spraying shards.
Sous pressed the advantage, driving forward with heavy, rhythmic blows that forced Kara into defense.
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!
The impacts echoed like a blacksmith's hammer. Kara's wrists ached; she tasted iron at the back of her throat, felt the sting of frozen air scraping her lungs with each gasped breath. Sous was strong, not just like a regular wolf but, all of the species, all of the magae from all of her mixed heritage was coming through.
Grunk was stripped of his armor and was sitting against a tree, the witches held him for a couple of days, not wanting him to be sent to the ghettos.
"We can't keep him here," Glinda said.
"I don't want him sent to the ghettos," Hacate said. "Its disgusting that this whole thing is happening. I was sent away because of Apex and yet here it is. That pack is back and even stronger," the powerful thousands of year old witch complained. "All we wanted is this tree, something we could have negotiated for with the pixies. And yet here are these damn wolves sending them to ghettos."
"This is how it is now," Gortrius said.
"Don't you see what they plan to do?" Hacate asked.
The witches were silent. They knew. They knew.
Crunch, crunch!
Zhiliary stepped forward with the elites, with Xeno, and Pamoen. Tany glared at the young girl, instantly knowing.
"Who is that?" Tany asked. They didn't answer so Tany walked up to Pameon. "Who is your sire?"
"Sous Apex."
"And what is she?"
Pamoen looked up at the sky. "Hmm," the little wolf thought. "Wolf, vampire, witch, fairy, and human," she said counting on her fingers.
Tany wanted to ask more questions but instead she placed her hand on Pamoen's head to get the information that she wanted.
Zhiliary motioned to Pamoen silently. The young wolf padded forward on light feet, her breath light in the humid air as she knelt beside Grunk.
She placed small, pale hands against his temples, a gesture both clinical and deeply unsettling. Grunk stiffened, eyes widening as Pamoen's irises flickered with unnatural silver light.
"Imma just lift you up," Pameon said. Tany laughed at the little girl.
"She so cute," Tany whispered to her friends. Even Hacate felt herself raising an eyebrow at the little girl.
Grunk's world compressed into fractured sensory fragments: coarse rope digging into wrists already chafed raw, the acrid scent of gasoline from the van's idling engine, the violent scrape of frozen dirt against his cheek as Xeno's iron grip hauled him upright.
Thud!
He was thrown into the van, the doors slamming shut as he was taken away to the nearest ghetto.
Tany watched them all disappeared barely listening to her covenant. "Why would Sous give her youngest daughter to Zhiliary and quadruplets-crazy."
"Tania," Gladian called out to the younger witch. "Come on, time for the ritual. We'll find a way to do something about the ghettos but this is important."
Tany nodded her head but it wasn't the ghettos she was thinking of, but of Pameon and her future. She sighed and shook her head, climbing over, stepping over the large veins.
Pameon sat in the van staring out the window. She wondered who that lady was, the witch. She was very pretty whoever she was.