Dannika Dark: Seven Years

It was then I realized what Austin was doing. He was trying to get my father to turn the gun on him.

“Austin,” I pleaded, trying to distract him. “No. Please don’t do this. The Mage is the one you want. Wes wasn’t given orders to kill just anyone, Austin. You were supposed to be his first hit.”

He blanched as the words speared through him, and I had him for just a split second. The more Austin confronted my father, the more I feared for his life. My dad could shoot a cherry off a tin can, and Austin stood at point-blank range. But his eyes were resolute, and he never backed down.

Prince’s wolf yelped as the Mage threw another burst of energy into him. They weren’t sorcerers but powerful immortals who harnessed energy like a weapon. Blood was everywhere, and Denver’s wolf was almost out of sight. Suddenly, Maizy wrapped her arms around his neck and I scarcely breathed. My heart skipped like a stone across the water until Denver’s wolf slowly trotted out of sight with her safely on his back.

“Wes is in the ground because of you,” Austin continued.

“You don’t know jack shit,” my dad shouted. “I should have known you were one of them. You think I wanted my boy growing up and struggling like I did for so long? The job paid well and he was willing.”

“He didn’t want money, Nelson. Wes wanted immortality. That’s why he bartered with the Mage. He was star-struck with our world—wanted to be one of us. Let your daughter go; there have been enough casualties.”

I’d never been in a situation like this before. I was just a girl who worked at a candy store and had a regular life.

Something flashed in Austin’s eyes… something dark and bottomless. My dad must have seen it too, because he pulled me to the right side of the porch using the belt. He was going to make a run for it.

Out of nowhere, Lorenzo appeared from the side of the house and seized my father’s wrist. He jerked his arm away and the gun went off. I stumbled forward and Austin caught me around the waist before I fell.

“So you are the human who killed my aunt?” Lorenzo said, holding my father by the throat. “You’ve caused us much grief over the years, and it’s time to face the jury.”

“Wait,” I started to say.

Two men held my father while Lorenzo confiscated the gun and set it on a small table. I’d never seen him look so fierce. He had his hair tied back and wore the same black tank top with writing on it as he had when we first met.

Lorenzo’s malevolent eyes darkened. “You may have some sentimental bond to this man, Alexia, but if he plays in our world, then he plays by our rules. This human committed a crime against my family by taking a life and stealing a child. He’s going to face my family and serve his sentence. There’s nothing you can say to convince me otherwise, so don’t waste your breath.”

He walked over and angrily removed the belt from my neck. “Shift, and heal yourself.” His eyes flicked to Austin. “You have things under control here,” he stated, more than asked. “I’ll take my prize and go my own way.”

“Just one minute,” Austin demanded. He eased me into a chair and his heavy boots stomped across the porch until he stood in front of my father. Without warning, he threw a hard fist into his face, delivering two more brutal punches until blood poured from my father’s broken nose.

Austin bent forward with a menacing scowl, speaking almost inaudibly. “ Nobody fucks with my pack.”

Lorenzo slid the loop of the belt over Nelson’s head and tightened the strap around his neck. And just like that, Lorenzo took the man who raised me away. The man I no longer called my father and one I never wanted Maizy to understand was hers. A man who’d threatened her life, betrayed my family, and who held no value to the beautiful life that once belonged to my older brother.

I never saw Nelson Knight again.

Austin peered over his shoulder; Prince had the Mage under control. The next thing I knew, he leaned in and slid his arms behind me, helping me up. I held onto his neck as we traded places and he pulled me into his lap.

“Whatcha doin’ here?” I said weakly, trying my best to smile.

Austin whispered something in my ear, a single word that made all my pain disappear.

“Shift.”

I didn’t think I’d ever get used to coming back into consciousness after shifting . It was disorienting, like a night after partying where I could only remember snippets of what happened.

But the sting in my arm had vanished and the only evidence remaining that I had been shot were smears of crimson across my flesh. I awoke on the front porch, naked, and Austin slid a knee-length T-shirt over my head. I robotically put my arms through the sleeves and turned around.

“You okay?” he asked.

But my mind was elsewhere. A sheet covered the body of the Mage, blood soaking through the white fibers, especially around the head. Prince stood before him, yanking up a pair of jeans I recognized as one of Austin’s because of the hole in the knee.

His arms swung at his sides and he approached Denver’s wolf, who was shielding Maizy. Prince wiped the blood from his face and chest with a wadded-up shirt as his pack looked on. In a commanding voice, he said, “Back away, and let me have the child.”

I shivered at the authority in his voice. A feral growl rose from Denver and Prince shouted his order once again. This time, everyone in his pack lowered their heads submissively.

Prince bent down and lifted Maizy into his arms. He softly hummed a melody, taking a seat in the chair on the porch. She relaxed, coping as most little children do. She stopped sucking her thumb and patted her hand against her leg to the rhythm of his song.

Silent tears wet my cheeks.

Austin crouched on his knee and held one of my braids between his fingers. “How did you know to come here?” he asked Prince, but his crystal-blue eyes never looked away from me.

“I have a scout,” Prince replied, pointing up at a red-tailed hawk perched in a tall tree. “That’s not in violation of your territory; you don’t have control of the sky.”

“Why did you feel the need to have someone on my place?” Austin asked apprehensively, looking over his shoulder.

Prince considered this and stretched out his legs, crossing them at the ankles. “I made an agreement to help find the man who took her. We knew he was back in the city, but once again, lost his trail.” Prince tipped Maizy forward and closed the rip in the back of her shirt. “You should take care to keep this mark covered,” he said in a low voice. “They sell makeup which will camouflage it for a young child who doesn’t understand the dangers.”

He shared a private look with Austin and I crawled over and brushed my hands through her hair. “You okay, Maze? Bad guys are gone now and won’t be coming back ever again.”

“Why did he do that?” she asked in a sad voice. “He hurt you.”

“No, honey. He missed. See?” I showed her my arm. “Don’t you worry about me, little Maze. I’ve got that big-sister magic going on.”

“Magic?” she asked.

“There are very bad men in this world, child,” Prince began. He grasped her attention as she looked up into his pensive eyes—one sapphire and one brown. “But there are also men who will protect you. Always remember that, and surround yourself with only those you trust. You are but a fragile human, and there are things in this world you can’t comprehend.”

Maizy suddenly hopped off his lap and went inside the house. Austin finally sat down beside me, stroking my back.

“That advice goes for you too,” Prince said, lowering his sharp eyes to mine. The hair he once had in a tight ponytail now fell free across his shoulders. “I hope whichever pack you choose, you keep the little one with you. She is a special child.”