The Puppets and the Strings (A Werewolf's Saga Book 7) Read online

  “Hello Sasha, how have you been?” She stood there calmly.

  “What are you doing here?” Sasha only gasped.

  Sharlia saw her five people on their knees. She saw them almost unable to move. They should be attacking the woman and the people behind her. They should be defending her home. Not moving, as they were, she feared that she already knew why. She let her vampire’s eyes flare.

  Cassandra watched her closely.

  The people behind her raised their weapons to Sasha and Sharlia.

  “Not yet.” She didn’t come there for that. “I have come to talk with you. I have come to reason with you as my former sister.”

  Sharlia knew who this woman was, but she also saw—no she smelled—something very different about her. She didn’t smell with the musk of a wolf. She didn’t smell human either. She was in fact of both, and this she didn’t understand. One had to be one or the other. This didn’t make sense.

  “Reason and talk about what?” Sasha smelled this too about her friend. She, like Sharlia, couldn’t understand this. As for the smell, she recognized it as the smell surrounding them in the woods from the clearing. “Why do you smell as you do?” she had to ask, and did it without thinking another thought.

  Cassandra looked behind both Sharlia and Sasha, and now saw both Robert and Brandon with them. She was pleased with seeing this too.

  “I see you have all made it here together.” Obviously, she knew who they were.

  “It was you with us in the woods.” Sasha took a single step forward to the three steps leading to the front of the house. A small and narrow sidewalk stretched out from her to her once old friend.

  Cassandra nodded softly. “I see you still have the gift of your nose.” She admired her for it, but didn’t miss it at all. She had gained so much more than that ever gave her.

  Sharlia growled. “What have you done with my friends?”

  Cassandra looked down at the five people near her. “I have cleansed them.” The weakness of the drug had already spilled them to their knees.

  “Cleansed?” Sasha couldn’t believe how quiet she spoke. The words only added to the coldness she heard in her voice.

  Sharlia recognized everything. “She is one of them Sasha. She is one of the Gathering Storm.”

  Sasha swallowed a dry mouth. “That’s impossible.” She turned to her on her left, and then flew her eyes back around to Cassandra. Instantly, she saw how strange her once friend looked. She wore a suit, dark blue with a white undershirt. Her blonde hair was neatly trimmed. Her face was washed and soft to the look. She was not the same woman she knew when she helped them before. Then she was wild. She lived a free life. Seeing her now, she looked as different as night is to day. “How is that possible?”

  Cassandra kept her face as stone. She kept her voice the same way. “I have been freed. I have come here to offer you the same thing. I have come to grant you a true gift—sister to sister.”

  “Freed?” Sasha swallowed again. It was getting drier every single time. It actually started to hurt.

  “You were given the drug, weren’t you?” Robert came in to this. Like his friends, he felt shocked beyond words. He didn’t know what to think.

  Cassandra looked right at him. “I was set free with it yes.”

  Brandon blinked hard. “It doesn’t last you know. You will turn back again.” He spoke his mind.

  Cassandra shrugged. “It does. We do not let it.” She looked back to her friends behind her.

  Sasha let her anger show. “You are killing us. How is that freeing us?” she growled.

  Cassandra felt saddened with this. “Some have died yes, but more have lived.” Her face showed it, but her eyes absolutely looked it more. They drooped heavily. “Many more have made the choice.”

  Sharlia didn’t like the sounds of any of this. “Why did you not just attack us in the trees? Why play these games?” She kept her eyes focused on Tony, Alivia, Maxwell, Clinton, and Donna. Her friends now needed her. They were hurting. They were in pain. The weapons aimed at her and Sasha prevented her from moving. They locked her where she stood. It wasn’t fear but something more like shock. All of this shocked her to her core.

  Cassandra smiled. “Believe it or not Lady Sharlia, but we are not here to harm you. We are here to set you all free. We have come here to save you.”

  “Save us?” Sasha now felt sickened with this. Wolves didn’t abandon their packs like she had obviously done. It never happened. It made her feel betrayed. It violated her very life and everything she had ever believed.

  Robert listened to all of this, and suddenly felt true fear with all of it. If they could get to one of Jimmy’s children and convert them, as they had obviously done with her, they could get to any of them. They were vulnerable. This was more terrible than they ever thought before. They couldn’t win such a fight, not against each other. It now felt hopeless.

  Sharlia scoffed. “You wish for us to become human again.”

  Cassandra nodded softly. Her bob waved low all around her clean and made up face. “It is the gift that I have to offer you. You can shed your animal instincts and become one again with the world. There is no need to be what you do not choose to be.”

  Sharlia growled.

  Brandon stood fascinated.

  Robert heard Sasha growl too.

  “You betrayed your own father. You have betrayed your pack. How could you do that?” The shame and anger was slowly becoming an all-out rage. So much so, she could feel the eyes at the back of her mind beginning to come forward. She felt them ready to almost blast out of their darkness and into the light. It would take just one good pull and she would change. She wouldn’t be able to stop it, not when she was feeling like this.

  Cassandra shrugged. “Do you seriously want to continue to live this ungodly lifestyle? How could you want to live so filthy a life when I can free you of it?”

  Sasha blinked. She held her breaths. She fought the needs. “You want to save us from our filthy life? You want to save us from the death, from the pain, and everything else that human existence gave us. How is that being saved?”

  Cassandra bowed her head. “The choice is yours.” She looked at the people at her knees. Yes, they were people—humans—again. “Two of you take aim.” She motioned back to her friends behind her.

  Two of them, one on her left and right respectively, aimed their rifles down. They pointed their barrels at the heads of a man and woman in front of them.

  Sharlia saw this and felt her heart sink. “No!”

  Cassandra looked back up. “Join us or die like your fear shows you.”

  “No Sharlia.” Robert felt Sharlia was about to burst from her own skin, so he reached out and took her arms into his hands. “Dying with them is not an option.”

  She couldn’t agree. “I cannot allow this to happen.” She now had tears running down her face.

  Brandon had seen enough. “Not on my watch.”

  He moved so fast that no one saw him until he appeared just in front of Cassandra. He reached out to one of the armed people and grabbed their gun in his left hand. He ripped it out.

  The obvious woman screamed. The handle pulled out of her hand so quickly that it burned a two-inch hole straight through her glove from the friction alone. It also burned her palm. It felt like she held fire. The pain felt just as intense.

  Brandon threw the rifle out to some place behind the house. No one saw where it went, it went that far and fast.

  Cassandra took several steps back. “Take him out!”

  Several popping sounds flared out all around them.

  Four, maybe five darts struck Brandon in his chest, two went into his right arm, and two more struck his neck.

  The burning feeling flared out from everywhere. It raced down his chest. It blasted through his mind, and all of it brought him to his knees. He fell so quickly, he didn’t even feel it happen as fast as it did.

  Sasha watched this with total horror. She roared. She whipped t
he eyes and brought them forward as fast as she could.

  Robert watched Brandon fall to his knees. He heard the roars and bones cracking coming from Sasha, and looked back to the wall. He had to do something. He had to help. He let his blue eyes shine.

  With his power flaring, he felt for the stones of the wall in front of Brandon, felt every one of them, and lifted all of them in his mind.

  The wall, the entire wall, which stretched out a good twenty feet to the left of the front of the house, pulled right out of the ground. It then lifted straight up, looking like a large and cream-colored snake, three maybe four feet wide, some of it was beneath the ground obviously, and came at the heads of the humans.

  They watched it rise in front of them, and feeling more than terrified seeing it, they dropped their rifles. They were all collectively too shocked to move.

  Getting their attention, Robert now pushed.

  The wall, twenty feet long, flew right at their faces. It hit them hard, smacking each of them in their chests and heads. The impact then kept going, and it dragged them back from the house. The people couldn’t stop it from then pushing them back to the road.

  Blocked now, no longer surprised to see Robert doing things like this, Sharlia rushed to her friends. She moved with a blur. She reached them within seconds of seconds.

  Sasha’s skin turned black, but then stopped when she saw the wall. She couldn’t help it. Her human eyes saw it happening, felt fascinated with it, and came back forward in her mind. She turned back to human before she knew it.

  Robert rushed his friend. “Brandon? Are you all right?” He went to his knees.

  Sasha rushed him too. “Why in the hell did you do something so stupid like that?” She loved his bravery, but did think it was beyond stupid, she thought it was reckless. He should have kept his cool.

  He had to do it. “It’s fine, but I feel really fucking weird.” He felt completely numb. His entire body didn’t seem to want to move. He couldn’t control anything. He couldn’t even feel his feet.

  Robert felt the wall hit a tree. He looked up, saw all of the black clothed people now all on their backs. The wall that pushed them was now shattered. A large oak tree didn’t move. It broke it in two. He knew what it meant.

  “We have to go. They’ll get their bearings again soon.” He was right. They were already getting back to their feet.

  Sharlia couldn’t agree more, but “I am not leaving them here to die.” She wouldn’t. She couldn’t.

  Robert nodded. “Can you walk?” he asked Brandon. He had to know this first.

  Brandon shook his head. “Nope, I don’t think I can.” At least he thought he shook his head. He didn’t feel that either.

  Sasha knew she would help him, no matter what. “I can carry him.” She looked at Sharlia. She knew her friends wouldn’t be able to walk either. “How many can you carry?”

  Sharlia knew the plan. “I can throw one over my shoulder, two under each arm.”

  Sasha felt that was enough. “Good, I’ll take Brandy and one other.” She motioned to Robert. “Can take one with you?”

  He nodded, as he watched the humans now gather. They were still a hundred yards away. It wouldn’t be long.

  “I’ve got one.” He reached one of the young women, and pulled her to her feet with him. “How are you carrying two?” he had to ask Sasha.

  She only smiled. “That will not be a problem.” Her voice ebbed with a low growl, and then flashed with a full roar. Her face turned from a pale white to an ashen looking black. Black fur then flashed her face as her nose and mouth flared out into a massive tooth-lined snout. Her beautiful clothes tore. Most of it fell around her in chunks. Her nice shoes ripped from her growing pawed feet. Finished, she stood up as a large black wolf.

  Brandon watched her and laughed. “Baby, you are fucking gorgeous.”

  She peered down at him with large yellow eyes. She whined. She winced. She bent down and with her heavy and bulky black clawed right hand; she grabbed him by the arm. She pulled him to his feet and held him up. With her arm now around his waist, she kept him there.

  He forgot how strong she was. He missed it more than he thought, as he missed her.

  With him secured, she reached down and took one of Sharlia’s men.

  The humans were now running to them.

  “It’s time to go!”

  Sharlia loved her friends more than ever. But Robert was right. It was time to go.

  “Get to the house. I have a way out.”

  Robert reached the front door first.

  Sharlia was behind him carrying the three people, one woman and two men, with her.

  Sasha thundered inside last.

  Inside, Robert slammed the door. “Now where?”

  She hated doing this. “There is a door behind the staircase. It leads down to the basement and to the tunnels that are beneath the town.”

  He nodded with this. “Then that is where we go.” He looked back to Sasha. “Is it big enough for her?” She was now standing a good seven feet. Tunnels were sometimes small. They couldn’t take the chance.

  Sasha just tilted her head at him.

  Sharlia nodded “It is.” She had never used these tunnels before. She really didn’t know if they were or not. As far as she was concerned about all of this, it didn’t matter. They didn’t have the choice either way.

  “Then let’s get the hell out of here.” Robert turned.

  Sharlia turned too and headed to the stairs. She led them there and opened it for all of them, as the sounds of footsteps were now surrounding the house. It sounded like boots. They sounded like humans always did.

  They headed down the stairs.

  Sharlia led the way.

  Sasha carried Brandon and the other male with her without a second effort.

  Robert closed the door behind them and took up the rear. The young woman had her left arm over his shoulders and he dragged her by the waist.

  At the bottom of the stairs, the basement led them to several tunnels at the back wall. They followed the one on the right and moved as fast as they could collectively run.

  22

  They smashed through the windows. They crashed down the door. The foyer looked empty. Cassandra expected as much. Walkers were secretive creatures. They hid themselves well. They also escaped just as quietly.

  “They’re not here. They must have gotten out somehow?” One of her masked friends told her softly. He and the others searched the entire house. No one was home.

  She turned to him quickly. “How did they escape from us? I thought you knew this place?” She was right. He should have. He had lived in this place for a century, before he joined them. That was how she knew about this place. That was they found what they needed. She wasn’t the only one who had once lived with these animals. He should have known where they went.

  He didn’t. “I am sorry Cassandra. They must have had another way out that I was not informed about them having. I was just a guard then. They didn’t tell me everything.” He sounded very perturbed and he was.

  She couldn’t accept this. “We have to find them. Send out search teams. Let the others know too.”

  He nodded and turned.

  She couldn’t let him leave just yet. “Do not harm the young female with the red hair. Tell your people she is to be brought to me well and intact. Do you understand me?”

  Again, he nodded.

  She accepted this, and turned back to her more important concerns. She had to find a way to tell him what happened. They had to know.

  “Leave me here, all of you.” She turned to the others. There were now five of them still with her and she needed privacy to do this. They couldn’t see her fear. She had to remain strong in their eyes.

  They said nothing. Each of them left her alone and in the foyer.

  She waited for all of them to leave, and when they did, she removed her phone from her back pants pocket and brought it to her ear. His number was already dialed.

  “
It’s about time I heard from you Cassandra.” Martin answered the phone after only one ring. He had been expecting her to call him all day. “What have you found out?”

  She bowed her head, tried to gather herself the best way she knew how to, and when she felt ready, she began. “I’m sorry Martin, but they escaped us. They had a secret way out.”

  Surprisingly, he seemed like he already knew. “I’m sorry to hear that.” He paused before beginning again. “It seems that Sharlia is more resourceful than I thought she was.” He paused again, and again it was brief. “They must now be heading to find him. We must find her before she does.”

  There was so much more than that. She had to explain it, but didn’t want to. This became more dangerous than it ever had been before. She didn’t know how he would take the news.

  “They know Martin. They know about the origins of the drug.”

  Again, he sounded confident. He obviously already knew. “They found the grave then?” He paused. He began. “That was expected. I have no doubt that they are now searching for him. Their needs to inform him of his daughter will force them to make mistakes. It is now imperative that you find them and get them under control.”

  She agreed. She had no other choice. “I have everyone out looking for them now. It shouldn’t be hard to do. We have some within her circle that will have ideas where she will go next.”

  The phone fell silent for a good minute, before his voice came back again. “Very well then—call me when you’ve found them.”

  The line died before she could answer him.

  It left her speechless, and unable to think right. At least she did already start what he wanted her to do. That was something, if not nothing at all.

  Finished, she turned from the stairs, and headed back outside. She had to help with the search.

  23

  “I can’t believe that he did that to her. She should have seen right through it. She had it coming.” Angel chatted through almost the entire movie. She asked him a thousand times what was happening. She asked him about the characters. She wasn’t quiet once.