Harmony: Harmony Book 1, page 18
“Please, let her be alright,” Leah prayed to any higher being listening as she pushed her body to the limit to reach her destination earlier, even if it was only by a few moments.
When she finally laid her eyes on the source of all that smoke staining the night sky, her heart sank, and desperation threatened to take over. In front of her, a building that she was certain was a warehouse was ablaze with such intensity that she could feel the heat from where she stood. She couldn’t smell Harper through the terrible whirlwind of scents coming from the fire, but she knew deep down that this was where her friend was.
Running towards the inferno without hesitation, Leah planned to use the gift her brother had sent her from the world of Harmony to brave the flames and look for her friend, but her plans were drastically altered when she heard gunfire coming from the direction of the burning warehouse. With a roar, she activated the enchantment on the medallion she wore around her neck, just as a precaution.
This precaution proved more than valid when she spotted two men dressed in black tactical gear shooting at something or someone hiding behind an SUV. When the men saw her approaching, they turned their guns towards her and began shooting without any provocation, but Leah was expecting it. She had faced other assholes dressed exactly the same, after all.
The silver bullets, so deadly to her kind, collided against an invisible barrier as Leah continued to run towards her target. By the time the two attackers realized their weapons were useless against her, they tried to turn and run in the opposite direction, but two Tier 1s would never outrun a Tier 2 werewolf like her. Catching up to them, Leah leaped over the nearest attacker and slammed him into one of the SUVs parked there, causing the car to be dragged back a bit from the force she had used.
Without wasting time to see if the first opponent was out of action or not, she covered the distance between her and the second and jumped on his back, bringing him to the ground. The man struggled and screamed for mercy, but Leah was not in the mood to be merciful. So, she sank her maw around the man’s neck and bit down until she decapitated him.
Leaving the body on the ground, she rose with her victim’s blood dripping from her fangs and looked towards the first opponent, who was trying to escape unnoticed after recovering from the blow, proving he was a supernatural. With a roar that made her next victim soil his pants, she advanced towards him and then, with a single fluid strike, brought her hand down in a terrible blow that shattered his head against the ground, with blood and brains painting the area around.
Standing up after unconsciously wiping her hand on her opponent’s clothes, Leah crossed the distance between her and the SUV being targeted with her heart in her mouth. Expecting to find the worst, she was both relieved and surprised by what she saw.
There, using the car as cover, she found Harper bloodied, injured, breathing with difficulty, severely burned, and missing fur in some parts, but she was alive. What surprised her the most, however, was the burned and unrecognizable corpse she was holding in her arms and seemed to be protecting with her own body.
The moment the girl, who was clearly struggling to maintain consciousness, saw Leah appear out of nowhere, she raised a gun towards her, but fortunately, even in that state, she managed to recognize her friend before firing any shots.
“Why did you take so long?” were the only words Harper said, an attempt at humor to lighten the weight of the situation. As those words finished leaving her mouth, she closed her eyes and fell to the side, reaching the limit of her strength.
Even so, the wounded girl did not let go of the burned corpse in her arms, something part of Leah noticed. No, not a corpse, as now that she paid attention she could see a slight rise and fall of their chest. She didn’t know what the story was there, but she could worry about it as soon as she could get medical assistance for both of them.
“I got you, Harper,” Leah said reassuringly, even though her friend couldn’t hear her at the moment. She was saying it more to herself than to the other girl, in the end. “Everything’s going to be okay.”
Chapter 21
The forest had fallen silent around Nate, the only noise he could hear being the rhythmic sound of his own feet hitting the ground as he ran as if his life depended on it, because it did. Surrounding him, the black trees stretching towards the sky obscured the silver moon he knew was in the sky and left the forest in almost complete darkness.
Risking a glance over his shoulder, Nate noticed shadows moving among the trees. His relentless and unforgiving pursuers were getting closer and closer. With no other option, Nate could only run for his life as his mind filled with fear of what would happen when he finally faltered.
“Oh, no!” Nate exclaimed in despair, clutching his heart as he abruptly stopped running, his feet even sliding on the ground from the speed at which he was going. In front of him, the forest abruptly ended in a large cliff.
Even though he knew what he would find down there, Nate approached the edge and risked a look at what awaited him at the bottom of the abyss. Down below, apart from a fall that would surely be fatal even to a powerful Easter bunny like him, there was a river of melted chocolate where whales and dolphins swam happily.
Hearing sounds from behind him, he quickly turned around. From the shadows, the forms of his hunters began to take shape, and 9 reindeer emerged from among the trees and began to surround the poor rabbit. Their eyes, filled with malice, left no doubt about Nathaniel Goldencarrot’s fate now that he had been caught.
“Guys, let’s talk about this,” Nate tried to say as he retreated carefully, with each step getting closer to the cliff’s edge. “This doesn’t have to end like this. Gwen and I love each other, and I’m sure Santa Claus will understand that once he cools off...”
“No one cares that you put seven kids in the boss’ daughter’s belly, little rabbit,” interrupted Rudolph, the reindeer Nate once considered one of his best friends. Nate found the reindeer’s voice a bit more feminine than he remembered, but maybe the magical creature was just under the weather or something. “What we can’t forgive, however, is what you did to the sleigh.”
Nate tried to explain that it wasn’t his fault, but the reindeer wouldn’t listen as they continued to encircle him, causing him to edge closer to the cliff. And to think that all this had started with happy news, with Gwen telling him that after trying 10 times a day she would finally be having his children. Not everyone was happy with that news, however. Santa Claus hadn’t taken well to the news that his precious daughter would be breeding with a mere Easter bunny, and without even getting married first. But what could Nate do about it? He was a rabbit, for God’s sake!
The moment Santa Claus picked up his flamethrower, Nate knew he had to make an urgent strategic retreat. Knowing that his father-in-law could find him anywhere there was a chimney, Nate had the brilliant idea of borrowing the magical sleigh in order to escape from the North Pole to the South Pole. Unfortunately, while passing through North America, Nate had an accident when a rocket hit the sleigh and fled the scene without even stopping to help. It wasn’t his fault, he was the victim there!
“Wait a minute, guys,” Nate said desperately, almost falling into the chasm when one of his feet found only air beneath them. “I can pay you for the damages! Do you accept chocolate eggs? Everyone likes chocolate eggs! I’m involved in a very good scheme that you might be interested in, with eggs coming directly from Belgium. Top-notch stuff, you won’t regret it!”
“Goodbye, rabbit,” Rudolph said with Jess’s voice, laughing maliciously before slamming his right front hoof on the ground and then starting to run towards Nate. The last thing Nate, the Easter bunny, saw before Rudolph’s horns impaled him was a red nose.
Opening his eyes with a start, Nate was already sitting up in bed before his brain realized he was waking up from a dream. Or rather, a nightmare, albeit a very strange one.
“You were really having a nightmare, so I took the initiative to make it a little more interesting,” Jess said from where she was sitting cross-legged in a chair next to his bed, making Nate notice her presence for the first time.
Nate, however, only listened to her with half of his attention, as the other half was focused on something much more unusual than Jess messing with his dreams. As soon as Nate’s mind had cleared enough, he had looked around and realized that he and the fairy were not the only people in that room.
While Nate lay on what looked like a hospital bed, even having an IV connected to his arm, the other half of the room was occupied by the mattresses, blankets, and pillows where lay a being that could easily be considered a monster. He, and the strategically placed blanket to cover his modesty made it clear that he was a ‘he’, was the first werewolf Nate had seen in his Primal Form.
On Earth, there were many theories about the true origin of werewolves, whether they were wolves that acquired the ability to take on a human appearance or if they were humans who through magic learned to transform into wolves. That didn’t matter much at the moment, however.
What mattered was that the vast majority of werewolves on the planet were only capable of transforming into 3 main forms: a human form, a wolf form, and the hybrid form for which werewolves were known, in which they transformed into anthropomorphic wolves. Some of them, those with greater talent and skill in transformations, were able to make small alterations to these base forms, such as being able to speak in the form of a complete wolf and to possess wolf ears and tail in their human forms. This changed for those who had managed to ascend to Tier 3, though.
Those werewolves who reached Tier 3 gained a new transformation option, which they called the Primal Form. While the appearance of this form was still heavily based on wolves, each Tier 3 werewolf had a different form. Trevor’s father, for example, was known to be able to transform into a giant 3-headed wolf. In contrast to this, the werewolf in that room possessed a Primal Form that resembled the hybrid form of the other werewolves Nate knew. That is, if those werewolves were giants.
It was difficult for Nate to know the werewolf’s real height as he lay curled up, but his guess was that he was at least 3.5 meters tall. Built like a tank, the werewolf had a body full of muscles that were clearly visible even under his fur as dark as the night. In his hands that seemed capable of crushing concrete with ease, he had huge claws that could cut a human in half without any difficulty, and that’s if he didn’t decide to use the large fangs that filled his massive jaw, with two of them so prominent that they couldn’t be contained by his lips. For all intents and purposes, he looked like he had stepped out of a horror movie.
“Who’s that?” Nate asked Jess without taking his eyes off the sleeping monster. No, not just asleep, as he could see how heavily he was working to breathe, even though his body showed no visible wounds. Like Nate, the werewolf had something being injected into his veins, probably an IV saline solution, but while Nate was connected to a single bag of the liquid, the other man was connected to 3.
“One of Beastsoul’s advisors, or whatever term they use,” Jess replied. “But he was already there when I arrived. And that’s not an IV saline solution, it’s some kind of potion that is speeding up the recovery of his body while also providing the necessary nutrients for such healing. Nothing too impressive, but the person who created it knows what they’re doing. Probably some talented alchemist who doesn’t have the resources to do something better. Situations like this are more common on this planet than you imagine.”
“What are you doing here?” Nate ignored the fact that the woman had once again read his mind without permission and instead finally turned his attention to her, relieved that he wouldn’t be dinner for a wounded beast.
“Nothing much,” Jess shrugged. “I got word that a Tier 4 died, and since they’re at the top of the food chain here, I came to investigate personally. I was hoping it would be one of the idiots trying to find a way to assassinate me, but no luck there.”
“Wait a minute, someone’s trying to do what?” Nate asked, bewildered, unsure if he should be concerned for his friend or for the planet.
“I can’t be killed by anyone below Tier 5, Nate,” Jess reminded him with an eye roll, as that was information he should be tired of hearing, even if he couldn’t understand the reasons behind it. “But back to the point, a Tier 4 died and I came to investigate. Imagine my complete lack of surprise when I found out you were involved. Way to go! Too bad the vampire let you kill him, or that would have been something the bards would sing about.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Nate said honestly, hoping Jess would explain the situation to him. He would remain confused, however, as the girl just smirked mischievously at him.
“Hey, changing the subject,” Jess began innocently. “The big bad wolf over there is going to die soon from silver poisoning. Oh, if only there were a way to save someone from such a horrible fate! If only there were some hero who could certainly use this unfortunate opportunity to gain influence and trust with one of the most powerful factions on the planet...” Jess paused to wiggle her eyebrows before continuing. “I’d say it’s ridiculous for an entire species to have a deadly allergy to a specific metal, but that would be too much hypocrisy coming from me since the vast majority of the non-noble Fae are still affected by iron. Although the same happens if I put a kilo of plutonium in a human’s hands. Or cesium, for that matter. Hey, remember that time you nearly had a heart attack when you caught me dismantling that nuclear bomb I stole to see how it worked?”
Ignoring the fairy’s rambling, Nate simply nodded as if he were paying attention to her and returned his focus to the giant werewolf on the floor on the other side of the room. Analyzing the unconscious man further, he confirmed that he had no visible wounds, but apparently whatever they had done to heal him had not rid his body of the traces of silver that were slowly killing him. Nate knew that Tier 3 werewolves were supposed to be more resistant to silver poisoning, but there was certainly a limit. Being more resistant didn’t mean being immune, after all.
Realizing after a few seconds that Jess wasn’t saying anything more, he turned his attention back to where the fairy was, but he only found an empty chair. Not knowing if she had left because she was busy or because he was ignoring her, but guessing it was a combination of both factors, he sighed deeply before starting to remove the needle from his arm.
Pulling off the blanket that had fallen to his waist, revealing that he was only wearing a pair of pink shorts, for some reason, he got out of bed and carefully walked over to the motionless form of the werewolf. Throughout the short journey, Nate half-expected that the humanoid beast would open his eyes and decide he didn’t like the look of the young man, but he managed to reach his goal without any hitches.
Kneeling beside the sleeping figure, Nate took a deep breath and then placed his hand over the man’s heart, feeling its faint beating even through all the muscle and fur. He expected the giant werewolf to wake up when Nate touched him, but when nothing happened, the young man breathed a sigh of relief and closed his eyes.
Nate knew Jess was right about this being a unique opportunity to gain some influence with one of the largest factions in the world, but that wasn’t why he was taking this risk. When the fairy said this was one of Trevor’s father’s advisors, he was almost certain of the werewolf’s identity. If he was right, this was a man who was a friend of his father, and he wouldn’t let him die if he could help it. Not to mention that Nate knew his daughter, who was probably somewhere nearby, considering she was part of the same pack as Harper.
Ideally, Nate would have sought out some help to mitigate the risk he was taking of the werewolf waking up, not recognizing him, and deciding to attack before the young man could explain what he was doing there. However, he wasn’t comfortable revealing one of his biggest secrets, and he was sure Jess wouldn’t have truly left him alone with a threat of that magnitude in the room. So, Nate hardened his resolve and, for the second time, began to heal a werewolf of its greatest weakness.
When Nate had seen Harper rapidly dying on the floor of that warehouse, he had an idea that he didn’t really know would work. Harper, at that moment, wasn’t really dying because of the shots she had taken, but rather because of the silver poisoning that was simultaneously killing her and preventing her from healing. In theory, the solution should be simple: get rid of the silver, and the problem would disappear.
In practice, however, this had rarely worked in the countless times it had been tried. After all, a tiny amount of silver in a werewolf’s bloodstream was enough to kill them. Nate, though, had abilities that no one on Earth had possessed up to that point.
Without having to worry about hurting Harper, as he had tested this aspect of his power and knew he couldn’t consume living beings, Nate had stretched his ability to consume matter to the limit. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the ability to perceive what was happening inside her body, so he couldn’t really find the silver. What he could do, however, was cheat. The young man, desperate to save the girl, simply forced his power to consume everything inside Harper’s body that wasn’t part of her.
Faced with a similar challenge, he simply did the same thing he had done with Harper. Someone had already removed the bullets from inside the giant werewolf, so all Nate’s power had to do was consume the small traces of silver that had accumulated in his flesh and were flowing through his bloodstream. The whole process took much longer than the first time, probably both because of his patient’s size and the huge amount of silver he was encountering compared to when he had done this with Harper. Shaking his head, he didn’t even want to think about how many dozens, or maybe hundreds of silver bullets had been needed to do this to the powerful werewolf.
