Chapter 19
Snow Lost But Foolishly Found
The winding streets were as twisty and wrecked as the bleed gash through her chest. Her legs wobbled as flimsy as the plate of overcooked noodles the city designers used as a blueprint for these roads.
It didn't help that the tall buildings were so cramped together.
They might as well have been chunks of venison smothering in brightly covered spices only those who imagined themselves immensely rich bothered with. The kind of people who then paled at the price of an exotic fox lycan after Snow put on the usual show demanded by her human masters.
The rough uneven cobble jabbed the pads on her paw feet. Numbing despite the uneven slabs of cobble.
Yet oversensitive to the sharper stabs.
Funny how several open and bleeding gashes throughout your body could make you both too numb to some stuff like the humid breeze, to every prick on your feet, but overly sensitive to every aching muscle and gash.
Her toe claws caught so often in some random unseen crack that Snow normally would of seen and avoided that she had no idea why they hadn't broken to crumbly bleeding pieces by now.
Well, except maybe she didn't have the strength to break any of them.
Yet.
The dark plum pudding sky above didn't seem to hide any watchful eyes. No unexpected deviations on the roofs from slanted tiles and half-open piping to catch the rain. Nothing peeping out from the tiny alleyways. But those alleys were so narrow she couldn't squeeze her furry butt through them entirely even when she was in good health.
So the spidora hadn't caught up yet.
Why?
Their lycan blood trails were clear enough for anyone to follow, even anyone only slightly capable of sight or smell. The moon above was so fat and full it already gave everything a milky cast. Enough to see that their paths circled and interweaved.
Because her sense of smell easily work out which blood trail in the gory streets was their own fresh trail.
Plenty of bodies sprawled here and there, mostly human and young, to hide anything that passed much beyond a few minutes ago.
The dimming lampposts would only help her darkling brethren finish their dirty job they started tonight.
Her spell hiding the humans from her brethren would soon fade. Her strength no longer enough to maintain it.
That she lingered far in back of this odd group didn't help her case either. The nutcase duplicate Amber led right ahead of Mandy. How neither Ash or Mandy noticed that that nutcase was a duplicate, a fake … but Snow didn't have the strength to groan.
Instead, her treacherous stomach fluttered. As if the maggots that would soon feed on her flesh had preemptively hatched into butterflies and clustered themselves cozy all there.
Her gaze lingered too often on Ash, not on the arrogant tigress stumbled alongside him. Bleeding everywhere like her poor foolish vixen purren. Huddled over as little as possible, to prove to the corpses that tigress … well …
Snow sighed. Too much blood loss.
Her own movements were too jerky. Poorly hiding her injuries. Mandy wasn't doing much better. She only tried to act that way.
If Mandy died, that nutty vandread – who knew what would happen? Yet as long as Mandy lived, Snow had to serve as her purren.
While Ash kept just in arms' reach of Mandy and Amber…
Barely.
But the fact the spidora hadn't caught up by now meant they planned something far more horrible than merely running everyone down, wrapping them in webbing, then implanting eggs inside that would hatch and eat each of them alive – eventually taking over their bodies and minds and transforming everyone into new spidery monstrosities.
Yet no one but Snow seemed to remember her healing magic. Mandy must really underestimate Snow's healing talents. That walking all this way let her recover enough strength to attempt heal to herself properly.
It didn't vanquish the wounds right away.
Gashes shrank to cuts. Then down to slits. Then healed. Like an invisible forced pushed them together,
Fusing them back to normal.
Holes closed over. Insides repaired. Knitting together. Growing as itchy, no, more itchy, than when Snow had to wear human clothing over her fur.
A few moments later the aches and pain vanished too. Then the itching.
Leo, in fact, did teach her some useful magic. Helped her sorry butt escape from the pelt farms. His terms would come later. A few missions, a bit unpleasant in some ways, he claimed, probably somewhat honestly too.
Not that she would use another of her magical tricks, a slow swipe of her hand and it would vaporize the blood and gore off her fur.
No, she pretended to limp. As if still wounded.
Since if Mandy discovered Snow's talents …
Wait. If Mandy died, Ash would win by default. He, deep down, hated winning by default. Not the non-cheating, cheating sort of win.
And the vandread, a change of ownership shouldn't of caused any remarkable change in its form. That it's wings and straps shattered … very unusual. According to what Leo taught her. If this vandread wasn't made like the usual ones, which according to Leo, it probably wasn't …
Would this fake Amber die too? Ash definitely loved that dangerous blonde nutcase. It was too much like Snow herself before her purren hellmare. Lycan did not appreciate playwrighting, plays, or actresses the way humans did. Causing whole human slave rebellion thing … Snow was lucky she wasn't killed. Leo created a duplicate body just in time for Black Fang to assassinate a sleeping fake.
Not that Snow could explain any of this to Ash. Amber a darkling spy? One of the very lycan that ravaged his home city?
Better that he embraced that fake than discover the truth.
So timing here was everything.
The moment Mandy passed out; Snow had to rush to heal her just enough to keep her alive. Without waking her.
Because if Mandy passed out, it clearly was Ash's victory. Drinking contests typically got won that way.
Then Snow could bargain with him. Use Felix's passphrase and gain her freedom.
Leave out her past as Amber.
Maybe he'd even let her join their Paladin group. Grow to trust her. Even uncover the truth when he was ready for it, ready to forgive what her darklings masters insisted she do. Mandy would need help adjusting to human society. A fellow lycan that understood both reasonably well … one that was genuinely willing to help her …
So Snow scanned the nearest buildings one more time.
Then back at Ash.
Who stood facing her. Amber and Mandy to his right.
And fox lycan to his left. Fur coat colored and as beautiful as Snow's. Holding a pale blue saber arched back casually, its blade carefully pressed against the right side of his throat.
While Ash’s saber remained sheathed. His hands stiff and far from it.
The fox lycan smirked wicked at Snow.
“Obey me or he dies,” she said. Her voice as soothing warm and slick as an oiled needle through her skull. “Then the rest of you will die even slower, my dear little cubling.”
Snow gasped.
Insides wrenching.
Then nodded.
“Clean yourself off,” the new fox lycan said.
A simple swipe of Snow's hand magicked the blood and gore away. Made it blow off and crumble like paper burning away till none remained.
Mandy's scowl burned as much as stepping on a bit of fiery coal.
“Now come over here,” the new fox lycan said.
And Snow obeyed.
Walking till she stood a few feet from the newcomer. Where she could smell her scent. A gentle yet mild foxy scent that reminded her a bit of her dear sister Scarlet so long ago.
Yet her very presence seemed to weigh Snow down harder than any steel cage made of the heaviest metals.
That evil grin … that presence … both grew the moment a terrible thought crossed her mind.
Confirming the horrible truth.
“Azura Snow,” she said, “I'm so disappointed in you.”
She was the Darkest Fourth.
“And you should never disappoint your mother.”