Carpathian 17 - Dark Celebration

better to find her own way home. He'd still be upset with her when he found out, but his anger would be somewhat tempered by the fact that she was safe.
    An almost humanlike scream of agony shattered the silence sending chills down her spine. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up, blood nearly freezing in her veins. She gasped for breath, looking wildly around. It was close, so close she could hear the accompanying snarling and snapping of a wolf in distress. Propelled by something outside herself, Skyler ran, allowing the reverberation of the struggle to guide her.

    Beneath a large misshapen tree a huge male wolf, reddish in color, fought with the clawed vise clamped around his leg. Blood sprayed across the snow, and the wolf chewed at his own paw in an effort to free himself. As she skidded to a halt, the creature whirled around to face the new threat, lips drawn back in a vicious snarl, yellow eyes gleaming with malice as he warned her off.
    Skyler backed away, keeping a safe distance as the animal lunged at her. The trap brought him up short and he yelped, spun and bit at his leg again, before whirling to keep a wary eye on her. His sides heaved and sweat made his fur even darker. His entire body shuddered. She could feel the pain rolling off him in waves. It wasn't Dimitri. The wolf couldn't be a shapeshifter or he would have freed himself. It was truly a wild animal caught in a vicious snare. Looking into his eyes, she realized his freedom was gone, but his spirit refused to surrender. He snarled at her continually, showing his teeth, salvia dripping from his mouth, and all the while, his yellow eyes never left her face.
    Had she already given up when this magnificent animal held on valiantly? When it was willing to chew off its own paw to survive? Skyler couldn't turn away from the beast, her compassion rising quickly. She held up one hand, palm outward. "Just relax," she soothed, trying to calm her rapidly beating heart. She drew in a deep breath and let it out.
    The wolf rumbled deep in its throat, but stopped growling. She nodded as if they were conversing. "That's it. That's good." Sometimes she could hold an animal, even a wild one, while she checked injuries, but she'd never tried to hold a wolf to her. It took a touching of two spirits, and that was never easy in the best of times. She concentrated on the animal, calling silently, relentlessly, to the very essence of the beast.
    The wolf grew silent, staring at her with intent eyes. She stepped closer, feeling the warming tingle that always spread throughout her body and mind before she connected solidly. Her stomach unexpectedly knotted and her throat burned. There was a bitter taste in her mouth. A shadow slipped against her spirit, something oily, slimy and evil. Her soul shuddered and drew back.
    Horrified, Skyler lifted her head to stare at the wolf. She saw the paw reshaping, the animal's body twisting and contorting, the muzzle elongating into a hideous bullet head sitting atop something half human and half wolf The mouth pulled wide in a parody of a smile showing stained, pointy teeth.
    Her breath froze in her lungs. She couldn't move, couldn't form the thought to call Francesca or Gabriel. She could only stand there waiting for death to come for her.
    A large black wolf burst from the trees, running full out, using ground-eating leaps that covered several feet at a time. The animal struck her with its shoulder, driving her away from the vampire. Ice-blue eyes burned with glacier cold as the black wolf whirled in midair and sprang for the throat of the shifting vampire. Heavily muscled, the wolf drove the creature backward before it had a chance to change fully into one form or the other.
    Powerful jaws clamped around the exposed throat and tore.

    Look the other way.
    The orders rang sharp and clear inside Skyler's mind. She squeezed her eyes shut tight, but that didn't begin to drown out the sound of ripping flesh, high-pitched screams and the snarls and growls of the undead. The voice slashed at her brain, cutting deep. She felt droplets like white-hot cinders burn through her gloves and skin to her very bones. It was impossible to keep the small cry of startled pain from escaping.
    The snarls grew louder, the shrieks more violent and terrible. Skyler covered her face with her hands to try to keep from looking, but she couldn't stop the morbid terror and spread her fingers enough to peek through. Dimitri was once again a man—no—not