A Glimmer of Hope by Steve McHugh

  The Range Rover flew down the dirt path. Chloe’s driving was confident and assured, although Layla wondered if that’s how she felt inside. Layla certainly didn’t feel either of those things.

  The car behind them struck their rear bumper, forcing Chloe to struggle for control of the car, which narrowly avoided the trees pressing on either side of them. In a battle between oak trees and car at seventy miles per hour, there will only be one winner, and it won’t be anyone inside the car.

  Chloe turned the wheel sharply, taking the car out of the trees, and pulling the hand brake skidded the two-ton vehicle into the car park, ignoring the parking bays and signs to drive carefully. “Everyone out, we’re going through the woods.”

  Layla and Harry jumped out and leaped over a small wooden fence. Chloe was next, just as a BMW X5 smashed into the passenger door of the Range Rover. The force flipped the Range Rover onto its side as Layla tried to use her power to lessen the impact, but the car was too big and moving too quickly for her power to grab hold of it.

  Diana hadn’t gotten out of the car. “Diana!” Layla shouted.

  “She’s fine,” Chloe assured her, as the windscreen exploded, fragments of glass bouncing across the car park.

  The passenger door was torn free, and Layla gasped as what used to be Diana emerged with a low growl. Diana had the appearance of a monstrous grizzly bear, but with human proportions. It was as if someone had mixed a human with a bear, leaving a terrifying beast in its wake.

  “Werebear,” Chloe told her. “That’s her beast form. We need to leave. She’ll be fine.” Several blood elves left the BMW as a second vehicle entered the clearing.

  “Run,” Chloe snapped. “There’s a clearing a mile in that direction. Get to it. I’ll catch you up.”

  Layla and Harry didn’t need telling again, and they fled through the woods as the sound of gunfire echoed around them.

  After a few hundred feet, Layla risked a glance behind her. Neither Chloe nor Diana were there. She heard the growl of a predator, though, and saw several blood elves giving chase. She turned and ran again until her lungs were burning and her legs felt as if they had nothing left to give, but she continued on unabated. She wasn’t going back to Elias. Not now. Not ever.

  A short time later Harry fell to the ground, rolling down a nearby hill. Layla stopped and ran down after him, trying not to trip, and managed to reach the bottom without incident. Harry was on his feet, a knife imbedded in the back of his thigh.

  “This hurts,” he said through gritted teeth. “Probably not going to be doing a lot more running.”

  Layla stood beside her friend and glanced up the hill, and saw five blood elves watching them and laughing. “Get your belt off. Wrap it around the top of the thigh to stop the bleeding.”

  “What are you going to do?” he asked, wincing as he removed his belt.

  “Come on, you bastards,” Layla said, and cracked her knuckles. “Let’s see what you can do up close.”

  Layla smiled as the urge to fight filled her. She wasn’t going to allow herself to be taken. Not again. They would have to kill her first.

  “Move back to the trees,” she said to Harry, and she heard him groan in pain as he did as she asked. She followed him, never taking her eyes off the enemies in front of her, and hoped the number of trees around them would make it harder for the elves to fight effectively as a team.

  Four of the elves didn’t appear to be all that concerned as they jumped down the hill with abandon, drawing swords and knives.

  “You come with us,” one of the elves said, “and we’ll kill him quick.”

  “Or you don’t,” a second said, “and we eat him in front of you.”

  “That’s a brilliant offer,” Layla said. “But I’m going to have to go with the third option of you all pissing off.”

  The first elf swung a metal pole toward Layla. She raised her hand, and the elf’s movement stopped. A flick of her fingers and the bar melted, the liquid dropping to the grass before hardening again over the elf’s feet. A second later the metal changed again, this time to long spikes that skewered the elf to the ground, causing it to scream in pain.

  The other elves paused, but Layla wasn’t going to give them an inch. She rushed toward the nearest one, taking control of the sword it wielded and pushing it away with everything she had. The elf hadn’t let go in time and sailed back into a nearby tree.

  The remaining elves all dropped their metal weapons.

  “That’s not going to help.”

  The third and fourth elves tried to attack at the same time, but Layla blocked their blows, grabbed the third elf by the wrist, breaking it, then pushed the creature into the path of the fourth. The fourth elf shoved its comrade aside, but that moment’s distraction allowed Layla to connect with a kick to the side of its head. Both elves hit the ground hard, the third crying out again because of its broken wrist.

  Before either of them could move, Layla was on them, raining down punches on the third elf, eventually knocking it out. She stood as the fourth elf got back to its feet and kicked out its knee, putting as much force into the blow as possible, and heard a satisfying pop as it dislocated. She didn’t need to worry about hurting these creatures; she only needed to worry about Harry and her surviving.

  Despite the pain, the blood elf shot up from a kneeling position, grabbed hold of Layla, and took her off her feet. The air rushed out of her body as she slammed into the ground, the blood elf using its leverage to throw punch after punch. It was stronger than a human, and Layla gritted her teeth and bore the pain as she blocked the blows.

  Finally, she managed to grab hold of the blood elf’s arm, locking her own arms around it. The joint broke a few seconds later. Bone protruded from the elbow and thick black blood began to pour over Layla, who shoved the elf off her and rolled aside. She turned the metal in the weapons around her into a fist-sized battering ram and smashed it into the side of the elf’s head as fast as she could. The elf was immediately knocked out cold.

  Layla stepped back, breathing hard. She looked up at the fifth and final blood elf. “Come on then.”

  She manipulated the metal fist, melting it down to liquid before forcing it to cover her fists and arms as armor. She flexed her fingers; it felt like she was wearing comfortable gloves. Layla could feel the metal, feel the impurities and the tiny flaws in her newly acquired armor. She couldn’t do anything about them, but she knew they were there. She’d figure out how to deal with that later.

  The elf was soon joined by half a dozen more. They laughed, but their laughter was cut abruptly short when a howl echoed through the woods. A second later, another howl sounded, closer this time. The elves appeared to be as nervous as Layla felt.

  A third howl, and the elves took a collective step back. Something had them scared. “What scares monsters?” Layla asked, although she wasn’t expecting the answer to be so immediate.

  A blast of ice tore into one of the elves, throwing it back against the hill, pinning it in place. It struggled to free itself as its comrades looked on in fear. It managed to get an arm free just as something jumped out of the tree, landing beside the elf, driving a sword into its skull.

  “That’s a fox,” Harry said. “A fox just killed an elf. Not a sentence I thought I’d ever say.”

  The fox stood on its back legs. It was three and a half feet tall, and was a humanoid version of a fox. It wore black leather armor and carried a two-foot broadsword, both of which must have been specially made for it.

  “Hello, you bastards,” the fox said to the remaining elves. It had a vaguely posh English accent.

  Harry and Layla shared a look.

  “You should probably run now,” the fox continued.

  The elves grinned and stepped toward the fox, but their confidence was short-lived as something much bigger sprinted out of the trees, its movements almost a blur as it barreled into the group of elves, grabbing hold of one by the front of its skull and driving it head first into the n
earest tree.

  The creature paused, allowing Layla to get a proper view of the werewolf who stood there. There was no way it could have been anything else—it looked exactly how Layla imagined a werewolf to look. Six feet tall and covered in dark gray fur, its maw opened, showing the razor-sharp teeth inside. It sprung forward, grabbing hold of a second elf in its mouth, and tore its arm off with a free hand. The werewolf tossed the limb aside as a black substance pulsed from the stump.

  The fight was bloody and quick, with the fox and werewolf killing all five of the elves in only a few seconds. They fought as if they’d been a unit for a long time, each of them covering the other’s back while they worked their way through the group.

  When it was over, the remains of the elves lay littered across the leaf-strewn ground. The fox turned to Harry and Layla, its fur matted with elven blood. “My name is Remy Roux. Come with me if you want to live.”

  The werewolf glanced down at Remy and laughed, the noise almost more alarming than the howls it had made earlier.

  “Remy,” it chastised, the voice not as deep as Layla had been expecting.

  “Always wanted to say that,” Remy said with something approaching a smile, although he showed far too many sharp teeth for Layla to find comfortable.

  “My name is Kasey, but you can call me Kase,” the werewolf said. She took a step forward and held out one massive, blood-drenched paw. She paused. “Shit, sorry.”

  “Tommy’s daughter,” Layla said. “He told me about you.”

  A second later Kasey was no longer a werewolf, and in her stead was an incredibly attractive woman, although her light brown skin was covered in blood.

  “You’re really naked,” Harry pointed out.

  “Umm . . .” Remy began. “You get used to it. Werewolves and their ilk don’t really have body issues. Naked is just a fact of life with them, it’s not like they can wear clothes while they’re in their beast or animal forms.”

  Kasey glanced down at herself and shrugged.

  “You’re a talking fox,” Layla pointed out.

  Remy froze, glancing at his hands for the first time. “Holy shit, am I? Oh, not again. I’m a damn fox, Kase. Did you know that?”

  “He knows,” Kasey said drolly. “He’s also a giant pain in the ass.” She sniffed the air, and turned as a naked Diana appeared at the top of the hill, with Chloe beside her. Kasey’s smile grew as she saw them. “I assume all of this is your fault.”

  Diana shrugged.

  Layla poked Harry in the side of the head. He was staring. “You’ve seen breasts before, Harry.”

  “Yes, and yet this is the single most terrifying and wondrous thing I’ve ever witnessed.”

  “We need to leave,” Remy said to the pair. “As long as you’re okay and don’t need a moment, or a cigarette or something.”

  Harry shook his head. “I don’t think I can walk, though. Stab wound.”

  “Diana was a literal goddess,” Remy explained. “I get the staring. Doesn’t mean you should to do it, unless you like being punched in the face.”

  Harry winced as Diana walked over to examine the wound, which caused his expression to alternate from painful to embarrassed, as Diana removed his jeans to take a look.

  “The wound is not deep, Harry, and I see no serious bleeding. But walking on it could tear it. I shall carry you.”

  Harry was about to protest when Diana picked him up in both arms, his jeans falling to the floor. Layla covered her mouth and tried not to laugh.

  “Wait a second. Diana, as in the Roman goddess?” Layla asked. Even though she’d heard that the gods and goddesses of mythology were real, she hadn’t expected to be standing in the presence of one of them. Nor for them to be friendly and easy to talk to. And especially not for one who was still naked to be carrying an exceptionally uncomfortable Harry through some woods.

  Remy nodded. “Not all of them are as pleasant as she is, let me assure you of that.” He paused. “Sorry, I know he’s hurt. But damn, Harry, that’s gotta be killing you.”

  “I’m fine,” Harry called out in a tone that suggested he would rather not be in his current situation while everyone else was watching.

  Diana smiled. “You have nothing to be ashamed of, Harry. You have a fine body. It’s manly.”

  Layla didn’t even chuckle once, although she clamped both hands over her mouth to stop it. Kasey and Chloe also had to physically stop themselves from laughing. Remy, on the other hand, just laughed. Loudly.

  The group walked a little way to a clearing, where a powerful black helicopter—the type Layla had once seen in a film about the US military—sat. Diana and Kasey grabbed some clothes from inside and quickly dressed in dark blue combat fatigues. The pilot, a man who nodded hello to Layla but otherwise kept quiet, started the engine once they were all inside and strapped in.

  “So, now we go to Winchester, yes?” Layla asked.

  “That’s the plan,” Diana said. “It’s time you learned more about the world you now live in. We’re going to meet with one of the directors of the Law of Avalon.”

  “I read a bunch of stuff about them not being trusted,” Layla said.

  “You can trust this one,” Kasey told her.

  “Why this one?” Layla asked.

  “She’s my mum.”

  23

  The helicopter landed behind a massive thirty-story building constructed predominantly of glass and steel. The edges of the building were curved slightly, giving it the appearance of twisting as it rose up into the sky. Behind the helipad was a large section that had been turned into an assault course. Several buildings of varying sizes dotted the dozens of acres of land. Armed men and women patrolled the ground, each of them dressed in dark blue military fatigues identical to the ones Diana and Chloe had found in the helicopter.

  Layla counted four towers around the rear of the property, each one fifty feet high, and from her vantage point she could see armed soldiers in them.

  “Sniper nests,” Kasey told her. “This place was attacked a few years ago by a monster. Nearly killed my dad and me. My mum runs it and wanted to make sure it would be a lot harder for anyone to get into. There are about a dozen of those towers around the property, a guard station to get into the property, and twenty-foot rune-scribed walls. We’re safe here.”

  “Rune-scribed?”

  “Ah, sorry, I forget you haven’t been around our world for long. They’re words of literal power. Like on the scroll you found. Anyone tries to force their way through those walls, they’re going to get a nasty surprise. Mostly of the explosive, permanent kind.”

  “You know Chloe.”

  The change of topic visibly surprised Kasey, but she nodded that she did. “We’ve been friends for years. I get that you’re probably angry with her for lying to you.”

  “She fabricated her entire life to get close to me. She’s a stranger to me.”

  “Bullshit,” Diana said, turning around. She’d set off in front, leaving Kasey and Layla to talk, but apparently had heard enough. “She loves you like a sister. Same as Kase here. Her job was to keep you safe, a job she didn’t manage to fulfil, and she’s devastated by it. She might not have told you the truth, but she doesn’t have it in her to fabricate a whole personality. What you saw is her. The past doesn’t matter one jot. Only the person you are.”

  Diana turned and set off once again toward the main building.

  Layla wasn’t sure what to think anymore. So much had happened that she felt as if a tidal wave had picked her up and carried her along, giving her no say in her destination. It wasn’t a nice feeling.

  “How do you know my father is an umbra?” Layla asked as they reached the rear entrance to the building.

  “My dad told me,” Kasey told her. “He’ll explain a lot, I’m sure. He’s good at it. Have you met Thomas Carpenter? Tommy?”

  Layla nodded. “He seemed nice.”

  “He’s awesome. A bit overprotective of his one and only daughter, but he’s get
ting better.”

  “Overprotective?”

  “I’m twenty years old and I’ve been able to use my powers since I was fifteen. It took Dad a while to get the idea that I’m capable of taking care of myself. And boys, it took him a while longer to get used to those.”

  “He doesn’t like you seeing people?”

  Kasey laughed. “No, nothing like that. My dad had a family once, centuries ago, and he was forced to leave them. So when I came along, he found it hard not to think I’d leave, or he would. Like I said, he’s better now. He lets me out after dark and everything.”

  It took a few seconds, and Kasey’s grin, for Layla to realize that she was joking.

  The three of them entered a glass lift, and Kasey pressed the button for the top floor. Layla felt nervous as she watched the ground move further and further away.

  “You not a fan of heights?” Kasey asked her.

  “I’m okay with them, just glass lifts are a bit weird.”

  “You get used to it. Or you go crazy and refuse to step foot in the building. Probably one or the other.”

  “Not as bad as Nate,” Diana said. “Took him centuries to get over his fear of heights. He’s still not thrilled about them.”

  “Nate?” Layla asked.

  Diana smiled, and Layla knew she felt genuine warmth for the man. “Friend of ours. Nathan Garrett. He’s not here at the moment. In fact, I’m not sure where he is or what he’s doing. Probably getting in trouble. It’s what he excels at. If you stay around long enough, you’ll meet him, though.”

  “If?”

  “You’re not a prisoner, Layla,” Kasey pointed out. “You’re free to go, we’d just rather you didn’t. Keeping you safe is easier if we know where you are.”

  Layla sighed.

  Kasey placed a hand on her shoulder. “I know it’s hard.”

  “Do you?” Layla asked. “My whole life has been turned upside down. People who were friends have lied to me, people want to kidnap me, others would probably rather I was dead. I’ve seen people murdered, I’ve seen monsters and things I’d have been quite happy to have never witnessed in my whole life. Do you have any idea how all of that feels?” She breathed out and immediately regretted the tone she’d used. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”