Black Wolf Read Online Free

energy into a bubble around Bane, one that would keep any
kind of outside magic from reaching him.
     
    The ducks
sensed it and exploded into a flurry of escaping feathers and alarm
quacks; so did Bane, who threw a wordless, irritated question at
him.
     
    Before Kevin
could explain, pure raw energy slammed into the shields with
dizzying force. Bane yelped, more in surprise than fear—not much
frightened Bane—and crouched where he was, instinct telling him to
get back to his coven-mates to defend them against whatever was
attacking, reason telling him that if he moved it would be harder
for Kevin to protect him.
     
    Kevin threw
more of the power he'd absorbed from the sunlight into the shields
to reinforce them. Without Flynn's warning, his normal shields and
the ones built into the tent would all have shattered like an egg
under a hammer, but this one held, deflecting the attack away and
scattering it harmlessly. Just in case, he poured more power into
the shields woven into the framework of the tent. A second blow
against Bane, the third targeted the tent…
     
    "What on
earth…" Deanna began sleepily, aware of the fluctuations in ambient
energy levels even if she couldn't track them directly, and then
her tone hardened. "Rebecca?"
     
    Carefully,
Kevin searched outwards, holding the shields steady; this was a lot
harder than multiple butterflies, and could be a lot more
devastating if he dropped any of the balls he was juggling. Anger
surged—that was Rebecca, all right. Why couldn't she just leave
them alone? Why did she have to wreck their peaceful camping trip?
He pulled up whatever power he had left, shaped a window in the
shields around him and Deanna just for an instant as soon as the
fourth blow had been rebounded, and furiously flung everything he
had back in the direction from which the attack had come, targeting
it on Moira's very visible energy signature and Rebecca's
unmistakable presence.
     
    He didn't
think it actually reached them; something else absorbed it before
that. But the blows stopped, and right now, that was good
enough.
     
    He reached to
Flynn, hoping the seer would have a better idea what was going
on.
     
    *In the
forest,* Flynn said. *Get moving before he dies! I'll find one of
the healers so you can use me as an anchor. Find him!*
     
    Kevin winced.
Running around a forest in what was, to him, utter darkness
punctuated by heat images really wasn't going to be a lot of fun.
Well, Deanna would help. *Dia, Bane, not sure if you caught that,*
he said, mentally instead of out loud, so he could send it to both.
As the only telepath in the coven, he tended to find himself the
centre of communication. *Flynn says there's someone who's going to
die if we don't find him.*
     
    *Stay there
until I get back to you,* Bane commanded. *I don't want you
wandering around a night-time forest without me if Rebecca's in the
area.*
     
    *Hurry,
then.*
     
    *Already on my
way.*
     
    Kevin called
just enough light along the ribs of the tent that he could see to
find his shorts and running shoes; Deanna had already rolled to her
feet, not needing the light so much, and was ready to go. By the
time Bane ran out of the trees, they were out of the tent and Kevin
had an approximate fix on which direction. If it weren't that he
would have to create a gate to get Flynn and one of their healer
friends there as quickly as possible, he'd have let dryad and
werewolf go alone. Arguably, he could let them go, then gate
himself to them, then gate the healer in, but two gates
without even much moonlight would leave him too exhausted to walk.
And creating light while in the trees would only cause disorienting
moving shadows and interfere with Bane and Deanna.
     
    So, instead,
he gave his coven-mates what information he could about the
direction of the lingering traces of power, and trusted them to
keep him from walking into a tree. He wasn't expecting it to be all
that far; there'd be too much power loss over long