Into The Dragon's World - Brittany White Page 0,50

see a huge, silver-gray wolf with its nose to the ground.

“She’s here,” Brady said, every nerve in his body urging him to do something, anything. “You smell her, too?”

The wolf reared up on its hind legs, shifting back into Zack’s human form. “Yeah. But it ends here.”

“God damn it,” Brady muttered, driving a hand through his hair in frustration.

“Wait a second…” Zack looked around. “Where are we? The Ramble?”

“Yeah...I’ve tracked him here once before. I can follow him up to this spot and then it disappears.”

Zack ran ahead. “Fuck me…”

“What?”

“This is Ramble Arch, right?” Zack didn’t wait for Brady’s reply. Ramble Arch was just a narrow stone structure built between two hills. He jumped a fence and climbed onto higher ground. “It should be around here…”

Brady’s patience was quickly fading. “Zack!”

“You know about the cave, right?” Zack spoke as he peered down at a small inlet off the lake. It pooled in a small, stone-lined area.

“What cave?” Brady hopped the fence and joined him. “What are you looking for?”

“The steps…” Zack glanced at Brady and saw the confusion on his face. “Okay...there used to be a cave right around here, long time ago. Big tourist thing for a while. Then it got bricked up after a bunch of attacks.”

“And?”

Zack grinned. “Found ‘em. Come on.”

Narrow steps hewn from stone led down to the inlet. The steps were overgrown with weeds and hard to navigate. Brady’s foot slid on some moss, but he caught himself before he could crash into Zack. At the bottom of the steps, the inlet was shallow, two or three feet deep at most, and dotted with small islands of stones.

Without saying a word, Zack pointed to the entrance of the cave.

It had been bricked up once. Now, the bricks were strewn everywhere, the result of the brute force used to shatter the wall. The entrance to the cave was narrow and claustrophobic. Brady realized that if Wallace was in there, he must have had to transform into human form first.

They walked through the stagnant water slowly, making as little sound as possible. Now, Brady could pick up Casey’s scent again. She was here, somewhere. Wallace’s smell was fierce. He must be living here, Brady realized. This is where he disappeared to when we were gone.

Zack held up a hand, signaling Brady to stop. At the mouth of the cave, Zack slowly looked around the corner, peering into the darkness. Brady knew that a wolf’s eyes could see in the dark almost as well as a dragon’s. Still looking inside, Zack gestured Brady forward. Brady was barely able to control the urge to move faster. The scent of Casey’s fear was overwhelming.

They stepped into the cave and hesitated a moment, listening. Brady could see that the cavern had high ceilings, stone outcroppings, and a rocky dirt floor. Just ahead, he could see the faint flicker of firelight in another chamber. Zack saw it, too.

As they crept closer, Brady heard voices. Wallace. Casey.

“...it’s just a bastard, just a bastard.” Wallace’s voice sounded thick, as if he was trying to talk through his shift into bear. “We’ll just have to take care of that little problem later.”

“Fuck you!” Casey’s rage-filled voice was undeniable. Brady moved faster now, Zack just behind him.

Wallace’s furious growl echoed through the cave, followed by a solid thud and the sound of a body hitting the ground.

Casey! Brady couldn’t hold himself back and charged into the chamber. Wallace turned to face him, fully transformed. In bear form, he towered over Brady, a massive wall of muscle and claw and teeth. Brady glanced behind him and saw Casey crumpled on the cave floor. He couldn’t tell if she was breathing.

Brady! Zack’s voice resounded in his mind. Get her and go! Now!

Zack’s wolf form leapt from the shadows, jaws snapping, and managed to knock the bear off its feet. Brady ran to Casey, picking her up in a fireman’s carry as he edged around the melee. He hesitated a moment. Zack needed help. The bear was too big, too strong for a wolf to take down alone. Its claws slashed at Zack’s sides even as Zack’s fangs bit divots out of the bear’s shoulders.

Go! Zack’s shout reverberated through Brady’s mind.

“God damn it,” Brady muttered in helpless frustration. He side-stepped Casey out of the cave’s narrow entrance, carrying her to a narrow bank along the inlet. He listened for her breathing. Felt for her pulse. A dark bruise was forming over her left jaw and cheek, but she was