“Why are you killing people?” Angeline asked. “You’ve yelled at me many times but you’re not violent. This isn’t you. Dad, you aren’t acting-”

A wolf cry shook the air around them like the world was suddenly a snow globe.

“Now he’s robbing me of enjoying killing you. Will no one let me have what I’ve earned? Didn’t I feed and clothe you? Didn’t I try to look the other way when you whored yourself out to Malleck? You couldn’t leave it there though, could you? You had to start fucking that mutant beast.”

His head of white hair whipped up as the sound of wolves on the mountain cried out in the distance.

“How to kill you? What will be the best way to cut short your life and send you to hell with the message that I conquered the demon sent here to destroy me?”

“I’m your daughter. You’re not making any sense.” Angeline wrapped her fingers around a long slender rock with a sharp point at the end.

His eyes glittered in the dark like black water under a yellow moon. “You thought you’d defeated me. Didn’t you? When you got me fired from my job as chancellor? I admit I nearly did end things for myself there but that’s when I realized something. I realized that it wasn’t me who had to come to an end. It was you.”

Angeline scoots back and away from his feet still gripping the sharpened rock.

“I would have killed you a long time ago, but when I killed Abrenn, for firing me I had to be honest with myself. It was messy. I nearly lost that fight. We had to leave that very morning. If not they would have discovered it was me that killed Abreen.”

He reached down grabbing Angeline by the throat with his left hand and lifted her off the ground. She held onto his wrist with her weaker hand so that she could keep hold of the sharp rock.

“I planted every clue possible to make the people of Richfield believe you were a witch, and responsible for the grave they found. I pretended to break during interrogation and they bought it.” He shook her and slapped her hand away from his wrist.

“My wife was beautiful before she ruined herself trying to save you. Demon daughter.”

Angeline was waiting for a closer target but she knew she couldn’t wait any longer. Swinging hard aimed for his neck. Her father put his hand up to block the blow. The sharp rock cut deep into his palm.

He twisted the rock out of her hand and tossed it aside. The hit he delivered to her face was so hard she couldn’t make sense of where she was for a moment as he dropped her and drug her back to the pile of boulders

The pain in her head was strong, and the smeared image of his face as she tried to look up at him made him appear all the more a monster.

He knelt down pinning her hands at her sides, and sitting on her upper thighs.

Angeline screamed as hard as she could but it only lasted a second before her father sealed his hand over her mouth and nose.

“I’ve been practicing this move for a while now,” he said with a laugh. He bent forward so that he was only a few inches from her face. “I have more silver. Make a single sound and I’ll kill more of them. That woman Cara you were so worried about. I’ll start with her, and they pack will destroy Freebasin.”

Only seconds after he spoke, Angeline could hear the swooshing sound of wolves racing past them.

Angeline thrashed her feet on the rocks making very little noise but she hoped it was enough that one of the pack would hear her and kill her father before he hurt anyone else.

She turned her head wildly from side to side, ignoring the pain to escape his suffocating hold.

He pulled out the dart gun he’d made for Barthos a few years back. Angeline remembered that he’d taken Barthos to practice with it and he’d come back a different person. He’d been mean after that. Barthos acted like a soul in torment.

Now Angeline new why.

He sat up and pulled the trigger.

Angeline heard the cry of a wolf and the weight of it hit the ground.

“Make more noise and I kill more of them.” He laughed into her ear. “They think they’re so powerful because they turn into oversized dogs. A silver tipped dart brings them down and it doesn’t even matter where I hit them.”

He loosened his hold on her mouth and she sucked in air. All the times she’d fought with Barthos, she’d never once tried to find out why he’d changed. She’d never dared look at the face of the killer in her visions. She could admit that to herself now and she knew she hadn’t looked because it was him.

In all these different places of death and hate, it had been her father. It had always been him and she’d been too scared to see it, even though it was right in front of her.

“Just kill me and get it over with,” Angeline said.

The sharp stab into her stomach surprised her. Her eyes widened as she looked at her father as the monster he really was. He pulled out the knife showing her the blood that dripped down the handle.

“I got you,” he said. “Die, demon.” He took the knife in both of his hands raising it up over his head.

“Right in front of you,” she heard someone say.

Her father was bringing down the knife but he stopped, making a sound like a hiccup, and an asthmatic wheeze through a blocked airway.

The knife fell out of his grip as he looked down at his chest. Angeline saw the sharp branch protruding out of his chest the same time he did.

“Did I get him?” She heard Killian ask.

Thank you, heaven above. He’s alive. Killian’s alive.

“Yes,” Barthos answered. The sound was barely audible and full of anguish.

Her father started to fall forward on top of her, the stick in his chest came down fast with him. Her hands were still pinned under his knees. She cried out the same moment as the stick sank into her chest.

Then her father was pulled off of her and the stick pulled free of her chest. The liquid heat of her blood leaking out from her stomach and chest felt almost like a leak, and her soul was beginning to slip away.

“Angeline,” Killian said her name. He was staring blindly at her, his hands found the blood and he gasped. “Angeline,” he roared her name.

“It’s okay,” she tried to tell him. “You got him. It’s over.”

“You’re bleeding, it’s too much blood.” He pressed his hands down hard on the wound on her chest. “You can’t leave me. I just found you, Angel. Hold on.”

Angeline put her hand on his but the words she tried to tell him wouldn’t come out. Her hands and feet were so cold.

“You found her?” Errol asked. His eyes met Angeline’s before he started to fade away. “Bite her, it’s her only shot.”

She felt pressure at her neck but she couldn’t see them anymore. The night was filled with a blinding white light that was warm and comforting, like Killian was hugging every inch of her at once.

“I love you, Killian.”

“Stay with me,” Killian shouted.

A rhythmic beat pulsed the light around her. Then hot air swirled through the light making it spin. More of the rhythmic beat sounded, it was louder this time and pushing the light away.

The whoosh of air sent the light spinning away like a star being sucked back up into the heavens.

“I’ve got a heartbeat,” Killian said his voice sounded like it was breaking. “That’s right, Angel. Stay with me,” he said kissing her forehead.

“I think you did it, Killian. She’s blinking her eyes. She might be awake,” Ian said.

Killian angled his face down toward hers but his eyes were still blank. “Angeline? Can you hear me?”

“I’m here,” she said surprised at the strength of her voice. “I’m right here.”

He smiled and traced her face with his fingers. “I thought I was too late. I’m so sorry.”

Angeline put her hand to the place in her chest where she’d been stabbed. It was sticky but there wasn’t any more blood leaking out. “How’d you do that?” She asked. “I was dead and you brought me back?”

“I couldn’t let you leave me, Angel. I need you.”

Angeline tested the wound on her stomach finding that it too was closed. She tried to sit up but Killian pushed her back down. “You’re hurt, and you’re still healing.”

“You bit me?” Angeline asked trying to make sense of how she could be healing this miraculously fast.

“I had to. I’m sorry.”

Angeline touched his face. “You saved me again, Killian. Thank you.”

He bent forward and she guided his mouth to hers. Killian was gentle but she could feel the emotion and love behind the tender kiss he gave her. She could feel in her chest the relief he felt at her being there with him.

“We’re connected, aren’t we?” She asked hoping she was right and not losing her mind as her father had.

“Yes, our spirit wolves are bonded. They seal our souls together.”

Angeline smiled at him wanting to hold on to him and not see the horror that was all around her. She wanted to lose herself in Killian, and show him how much she loved him.

“I can feel your smile, your love, and your fear. It’s okay. You don’t have to look at him again. We’ll get you and Barthos out of here.”

Looking past Killian and Errol, Angeline saw Barthos standing several yards back. He was staring off into the woods like he’d checked out of life and retreated into his brain.

“He did well,” Killian said, probably sensing her worry for Barthos. “He pulled out the spear and he brought me the medicine I needed to stop the poison. I got my hearing back but, I haven’t gotten my sight back yet…” he paused blinking. “Barthos was my eyes so we could get here.”

“But how did you know where to go?” Angeline asked.

Killian was blinking again trying to get back some form of eyesight. “There was blood. I could smell his blood. You must have cut him when you were outside this succaroot patch. Barthos helped me aim and take him down. I think he struggled with the decision, but Barthos made the right one.”

“Errol, take her and Barthos back to their house. I don’t want them to have to see their father like this.”

Angeline sat up and kissed him, holding him tightly to her chest. “I don’t know how I got so lucky to have you as my destined soulmate, Killian. But I’m so happy it’s you.”

Killian took her hand and kissed her palm. “I love you too, Angel.”

Errol stepped in and picked Angeline up. “I’ll be back for Barthos.”

There was no time for Angeline to say more before he was already slamming to a halt outside her house.

“What about the werewolf my father shot?” Angeline asked.

“He’s fine. We removed the silver. We all carry Killian’s solution so we were able to help him right away.”

Angeline nodded and then asked, “Will Killian get his sight back?”

Errol frowned as he answered with a shrug. “I hope so.” He looked back toward the forest and then turned back to Angeline. “Will it make a difference? Will you still love him?”

Angeline blew out a breath in a raspberry. “Of course, I’ll still love him. He’s the most amazing man I’ve ever known. I just don’t want him to be sad. He makes me so happy. Killian deserves to be happy too.”

“He’ll be happy as long as he has you.”

Angeline smiled. “That’s kind of you to say.”

“I didn’t say it, Killian did. I can hear him and he can hear us. He says, who needs sight when he has your love.”