Suddenly, out of nowhere, a horde of Daimons attacked.
Vane shot to his feet to confront them. "I don't know how to birth the cubs," he told Ash. "You stay with her and I'll fight."
Ash nodded and remained crouched by Anya as she snapped and whined.
Fang transformed into a wolf, his stronger form, to fight, as did Liam and Fury, but Vane remained human.
Ash heard the Daimons scream as they found the alligators lying in wait for them.
Anya began thrashing as the fight broke out. Ash kept his attention focused on the she-wolf and only looked up to make sure the Daimons weren't making their way any closer to Anya.
Fang, Fury, and Liam were doing a remarkable job keeping them off in wolf form while Valerius and Vane fought them with knife and sword. The bad thing though was that the wolves couldn't use their magic any more than Ash could. Any random shot of their energy could accidently hit Anya and her pups and kill them.
"Vane!"
Ash started at the human noise from the wolfswan. He looked up to see a Daimon about to attack Vane's back. Forewarned, Vane saw the Daimon and whirled around in time to stab the Daimon through the heart and kill him.
Anya lay back.
Ash held her still as the first of her puppies crested. "That's it," he said to her in a calm, soothing voice. "We're almost there."
A Daimon came up through the hedges beside them. Ash sprang to his feet and whirled to defend Anya as Fang caught the Daimon and knocked him away from them.
"Take care of my sister," Fang shot to him in his mind.
Ash quickly returned to Anya.
With the Daimons so close now, he was having to watch the coming cub, Anya, and the Daimons.
It wasn't easy.
"Push," he said to Anya. "Just a little bit more."
The next few seconds happened rapidly and yet they seemed to move slowly through time.
Heartbeat by heartbeat.
Two Daimons rose up from their fight with Fang. One of them shot Fang with a Taser, immediately turning him human. Fang let out a howl as his body convulsed uncontrollably back and forth between wolf and human.
Vane went after the second one at the same moment the first one aimed the Taser at Vane, who dove at the ground. The Daimon pressed the button and the electrified prongs missed Vane by a fraction of an inch.
They struck Anya instead.
Ash cursed in anger as Anya was transformed from a wolf to a woman and back again. Her screams echoed in the trees and then she fell eerily silent.
Back in her wolf form, she didn't move at all.
Vane ran to her, but it was too late.
She was dead.
Ash let out his battle cry and rushed the Daimon who had killed her. He punched the Daimon hard in the jaw, then used his bare hands to finish him off. He pushed his hand straight into the Daimon's chest, piercing his mark.
The Daimon shattered into a spray of golden dust.
Now that he could use his powers without restriction, Ash made short work of the remaining Daimons.
Fang's transformations had slowed down, but he was still alternating between human and wolf forms as he dragged himself slowly toward his sister's body.