Chapter 117 - The Choice

  Marion's hands glowed white as she pressed them against the gash across Harold’s shoulder. The Harvard defender gritted his teeth as her Cleanse spell washed over him, purging the dark infection spreading from the werewolf bite. She felt the curse fighting back, clinging to his system, but her magic was stronger. The taint dissolved, leaving only the physical wound behind.

  "Maggie," Marion said, already moving back.

  The younger woman stepped forward immediately to activate her Heal spell. For a second time, white light bathed Jenkins's shoulder, knitting torn muscle and sealing punctured skin. The results weren’t perfect healing. He was still going to be sore in that spot for a few days while his body finished the job, but it was good enough to get him back in the fight. Marion's tier eight Heal would have done better, but they needed to reserve her mana pool for the Cleanse spell that only she could cast, and for Healing anyone critically wounded.

  "Thank you," Jenkins gasped, flexing his arm. "I thought I was done for."

  "You're welcome. Now, get back to your squad," Marion ordered, already scanning the battlefield for the next casualty. "And try not to get bitten again!"

  They'd fallen into a rhythm over the past few minutes. Marion Cleansed, Maggie Healed. One after another, they were pulling people back from the edge of transformation, keeping the defenders in the fight. It wasn't glamorous work, and it sure as hell wasn't as safe as remaining in the infirmary had been! Werewolves were everywhere and the battle raging around them was pure chaos. But all Marion had to do was look around and she knew they were making a difference.

  Each fighter they Cleansed was one fewer who would end up fighting for the other side, and each one they Healed was another warrior back in the fight, defending them all.

  Another defender limped toward them, clutching a bleeding leg. Marion moved to meet her, hands already glowing.

  "Marion, look!" Maggie called out, her voice sharp with alarm.

  Marion's head snapped up, scanning the battle for new trouble. Much of it was just as it had been. The tight formation of Alex’s troops had been reinforced by a couple dozen Harvard fighters, and now their square formation stood its ground against the wild attacks of the werewolves. Marion turned from that scene, looking for her boyfriend. She spotted Cameron first. He was in the middle of the battlefield, moving toward the pack leader who was down on his knees. Cameron was going for the kill. About damn time.

  Then she saw what Maggie had. A brown-furred werewolf had grabbed Cameron from behind, pinning his arms. Cameron struggled but didn't immediately throw the creature off. Why wasn't he just tossing it away? She knew how strong he was. Marion had seen him do insane, incredible things, so why hold back now, of all times?

  Oh God. That was Ruiz. She recognized him, even transformed. One of their own, turned into a monster and now being used as a weapon against them.

  Above the battle, Alex raised his hands. Purple energy crackled between his fingers as he readied a Lightning Bolt, aimed at the pack leader while he was vulnerable. This was it. The shot that would finish the enemy leader and maybe save them all, if Alex could land the hit.

  But Marion knew that it wouldn't be that easy. With Cameron pinned for the moment, Alex was on his own, exposed and vulnerable. The pack leader was smart and deadly. He'd survived everything Cameron and Alex could throw his way. Even teamed up, they hadn’t managed to kill the creature yet.

  Marion was moving before she made the conscious decision. Her legs pumped beneath her, carrying her across the battlefield at a dead sprint. Her tier five Agility made her faster than any Olympic athlete, but it still almost wasn't enough. She barely dodged around a fighting pair of Harvard defenders and a werewolf, vaulted over a fallen body, and kept running.

  "Alex!" she tried to scream, but the word caught in her throat.

  The Lightning Bolt streaked down from the sky—and missed. The pack leader rolled aside with impossible speed and grace. Marion's heart seized. Before Alex could cast again, before he could even react, the massive golden werewolf launched itself into the air.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Alex was a couple dozen feet up and obviously felt like he was safe at that height. It would take an impossible leap to close that kind of distance. But that was just what the chief werewolf did. Its incredible Strength and Agility carried it skyward higher than anyone could have expected. It reached, claws outstretched. Alex saw the threat. Alarm flashed across his features, then fear. He tried to fly higher, but there simply wasn’t time. Those terrible claws closed around Alex's leg.

  "No!” Marion breathed, still running, legs burning.

  Alex and the werewolf crashed back to earth together. The impact when Alex hit the ground echoed across the Yard like thunder. Marion saw his body go limp, saw the way his head snapped back against the pavement. He was stunned, for sure. Maybe worse.

  Marion was twenty feet away and closing fast.

  The pack leader moved with horrifying purpose. It planted a massive paw on Alex's chest while the other grabbed his wrist and twisted it viciously. The snap was audible even over the sounds of battle.

  Alex's scream tore through Marion's heart. She'd heard him in pain before. They’d both been injured in fights, but never like this. She’d never seen him so helpless. The pack leader ground the broken bones together and Alex's screams intensified, his face going white with agony.

  "Get away from him!" Marion roared, her voice raw and desperate.

  She was close enough to see the pack leader's bloody muzzle dip toward Alex's throat. Near enough to see those jaws open wide, revealing teeth like knives. Alex's eyes fluttered open and found hers across the distance.

  In that moment, everything else fell away. The battle, the danger, the fact that she was running straight toward a tier eight monster that could kill her as easily as breathing, it all faded to insignificance. None of it mattered. The only thing she cared about was the man she loved lying broken beneath a monster's claws.

  Marion's hands were already glowing ice-blue. She didn't slow, didn't stop, just cast the strongest Ice Bolt she could as she ran.

  The shard of frozen magic streaked across the remaining distance and slammed into the pack leader's side, punching deep into his ribs. He roared in pain and rage. His head snapped toward her. Those awful yellow eyes locked onto hers, filled with intelligence and fury.

  Marion was already casting again, her hands crackling with gathering frost as another Ice Bolt formed between her palms. "That's right, you bastard. Look at me. I'm the threat now."

  She figured he’d turn away from Alex and attack her, or maybe see another attacker coming and withdraw. But the pack leader didn't do either of those things. He ignored her. He just turned back to Alex, his bloody muzzle descending once more.

  "No need to fear, smart one," the monster said, his voice a guttural growl that somehow formed words. "Soon you be strong. Soon you be pack."

  Marion raced forward, pumping her legs with everything she had. She fired the Ice Bolt as she ran, but the werewolf chief slapped the icicle out of the air without even glancing her way.

  Cameron streaked toward them through the air, his face a mask of desperation. But he was too far. She did the mental math, and he was going to arrive seconds too late to save Alex.

  Nobody was going to make it in time.

  Except her.

  Time seemed to slow. Marion's world narrowed to this single moment, this one choice that only she could make. She saw everything with perfect clarity as the pack leader's teeth descended toward Alex, and his eyes squeezed shut, waiting helplessly for the bite that would end everything he was.

  If those teeth found flesh, Alex would turn in minutes, not hours. She’d seen that happen more than once during the fight. Somehow, the pack leader's bite was different. Maybe because he was stronger? Maybe because he was ‘patient zero,’ the source of the curse? Whatever the reason, she wouldn’t be able to Cleanse the curse in time, and once Alex turned, there would be no cure. Marion's Cleanse couldn't save someone already transformed. She'd already tried and failed.

  Alex would become a monster. He'd lose himself and everything that made him Alex—his brilliant mind, his tactical genius, his compassion hidden behind pragmatism, his terrible jokes, the way he looked at her like she was the only person in the world that mattered…

  She'd lose him. Forever.

  Unless she did the unthinkable.

  So Marion didn't think. She didn't try to calculate the odds or weigh consequences. Her body moved on pure instinct, driven by love and desperation and the absolute certainty that she could not let this happen!

  She dove forward, sliding beneath the pack leader's descending muzzle like a baseball player stealing home. Her momentum carried her between the pack leader’s jaws and the man she loved. She felt Alex's broken hand brush against her leg as she slid past him, heard him gasp "Marion, no!”

  Then the pack leader's teeth closed on her outstretched arm instead of Alex's shoulder.

  The pain was instant and absolute, like being stabbed with hot knives. She felt like her arm was being crushed in a vice lined with razors. Marion screamed, the sound tearing from her throat involuntarily, but she couldn't pull away. The pack leader's jaws were locked around her forearm, his teeth sunk deep into muscle and tendon.

  Through the agony and the horror of feeling her flesh tear, Marion managed to tilt her head back enough to see Alex's face. His eyes were wide with shock, grief, and desperate denial.

  "I love you," she whispered.

  Then the pack leader's jaws clenched tighter, and the world went white with pain.