The Werewolf Dates The Deputy - Kristen Painter Page 0,68
up and raised her sword to deal a potential death blow, but Ingvar stepped closer, arms outstretched, ancient words spilling from her lips again in a stream too fast to be understood.
She was too close. Leif could easily strike her at this range.
Jenna turned her head to tell Ingvar to back up, then realized she couldn’t move. Not her arms, not her hands, not her feet. At least she could speak, but she couldn’t bring her head back around either. She could see Leif advancing only from the corner of her eye. “Ingvar, what are you doing? You’re supposed to freeze the wraith, not me.”
Ingvar’s eyes were still solid disks of black. Jenna didn’t remember a seer’s eyes looking like that before. Her mouth kept moving as she continued the incantation.
Leif moved closer.
“Ingvar, help me. I can’t move. What have you done?” Jenna’s panic returned. Nothing like this had ever happened to her before. Nothing like this was supposed to happen. Helgrind quivered, bound by the same immobility that held her.
Ingvar remained oblivious, lost in the spell she was casting.
Leif was only a few feet away. Another step or two and he’d be able to take Helgrind from her.
Through the shroud of magic encircling them, she saw movement. The feral pacing of the most magnificent beast she’d ever had the pleasure of knowing.
With every ounce of energy she had, she yelled for the one person sure to come to her aid. “TITUS!”
An eerie howl went up, splitting the night with its haunting cry and ending Ingvar’s chanting. Even Leif stopped moving.
Titus, in wolf form, came flying through the wall of light, shattering it. All at once, the wall disappeared, Leif dissolved into black threads of vapor, and Ingvar backed up.
Jenna’s body began to tingle as the ability to move returned to her.
Titus stood between her and Ingvar, hackles raised, teeth bared. He snarled for all he was worth.
Beyond the circle, three more wolves snapped and growled.
Finally able to move, Jenna lowered Helgrind to her side and looked at the seer. “What’s going on, Ingvar? This didn’t go the way it was supposed to.”
“No, it did not.” Ingvar glared at Titus. Her face seemed to twitch and stretch for a moment as if her skin wasn’t her own. She dug into a small pouch at her waist and came out with another handful of powder. She quickly tossed it into the air, muttered a single word, and just like Leif, she vanished into the night.
Jenna stared at the blank space where her friend had just stood. “What in the name of Freya is going on?”
Titus looked over his shoulder at her, let out a whimper, and collapsed.
She opened her hand, dropping Helgrind to instantly return it to her back, and fell to her knees beside Titus.
“Get him out of there!”
Jenna looked back to see Birdie, Hank, and Bridget standing where the wolves had been.
Birdie motioned to her. “You’ve got to get him out of there. There’s wolfsbane in the circle. A lot of it. And he’s been exposed. We’ve got to get him out of here.”
Jenna didn’t know exactly what wolfsbane was, but she understood that Titus was hurt. Because of her. She scooped the wolf into her arms and staggered out of the circle. She was strong, but Titus was a lot of wolf to carry. The runes would have to be closed, but she could deal with that later. Titus was all that mattered now.
Hank took Titus from her and immediately started toward Titus’s house. “We need to get him to the hospital.”
“It’s that serious?” She felt sick as she followed along. What had he done to save her? “It wasn’t supposed to go down like that. Ingvar’s spell to freeze the wraith froze me instead. Something went wrong.”
Bridget slanted her eyes at Jenna. “Ya think?”
“I didn’t know any of that was going to happen.”
Birdie looped her arm through Jenna’s. “Of course you didn’t know. I’m sure he’ll be all right. Just needs some fluids to flush out his system. Wolfsbane takes about twenty-four hours to clear a body.”
“If he didn’t get a lethal dose,” Bridget snapped.
Hank growled at his sister. “Deputy Blythe didn’t do this. Don’t take your anger out on her.”
“Titus did what he did because of her,” Bridget shot back.
“I’m sorry, Bridget.” Jenna’s next exhale was ragged. “I would never want him to be hurt. I love—”
Bridget looked at her. “That’s just the spell talking.”
Jenna shook her head. “Maybe it was a day ago. But not