Chapter 44 The Moon Goddess Speaks
"Defensive positions!" Damon roared, his voice booming over the sound of splintering wood and distant explosions.
He stepped out into the foyer.
Elana was beside him, ready to fight beside her husband.
"Hold them back!" she screamed to the line of warriors shifting into their wolf forms. "Buy us time!"
It was a brutal, grinding stalemate. The battle didn't happen in a flash; it dragged on for agonizing hours. The Southern Gate became a choke point of smoke, and snapping jaws.
The military mercenaries, the Council brought with them, were disciplined, using sonic weaponry to disorient the wolves.
The Blackwood warriors fought with the ferocity of demons, but they were being worn down. The noise was deafening—a cacophony of gunfire, howls, and the sickening sound of bullets and claws meeting flesh.
Inside the house, the vibration of the battle rattled the crystal in the chandelier.
Fennigan was pacing, his wolf pacing just beneath his skin, desperate to go out there and rip throats. But he wouldn't leave Leela.
Leela stood by the window, watching the smoke rise. Her face was blank, serene in a way that was terrifying. The Elemental Stones in her chest weren't swirling anymore. They were vibrating so fast they appeared white.
"It's time," she said.
Her voice didn't sound like Leela. It sounded like a bell tolling in a canyon.
She walked to the front door.
"Leela, wait!" Fennigan grabbed her arm. "It’s a war zone out there."
She looked at him, and for a second, her eyes weren't green or amber or blue. They were pure, solid silver.
"Open the door, my Guardian," she commanded softly.
Fennigan felt his hand move before his brain told it to. He threw the heavy oak door open.
Leela stepped out onto the wide, wraparound porch. The smell of gun smoke and the metallic smell of blood was thick in the air.
She walked to the top of the stairs and looked down toward the chaos at the gate.
"ENOUGH!"
The word didn't come from her throat. It came from the sky. It came from the earth. It rippled through the air like a shockwave, knocking leaves off the trees.
Down at the gate, the fighting stopped instantly. Wolves froze mid-lunge. Soldiers lowered their weapons, clutching their ears.
"LET THEM THROUGH," Leela commanded. Her voice was amplified, echoing with a divine, harmonic distortion. "LET THEM COME TO ME."
Damon looked back at the house, bewildered, but the compulsion in the command was absolute. He signaled his warriors. Slowly, confused and snarling, the wall of wolves parted.
The mercenaries and the Council walked through the opening, moving cautiously up the long driveway.
They stopped at the foot of the porch stairs. The Alpha Council stood shoulder to shoulder as they looked up at Leela, their eyes greedy.
"A true Elemental," one of the Alpha's hissed, "You are coming with us. You are a battery, and we will study you, make more of you."
Leela simply raised her hand.
The Alpha choked. His eyes showing signs of fear.
Leela looked down at them. She stood tall, the wind whipping her hair around her face, but she didn't look like a teenage girl. She looked ancient. She looked infinite.
A blinding pillar of white light crashed down from the midday sky, engulfing her. It didn't hurt her; it crowned her.
When she spoke again, it was unmistakably the voice of the Moon Goddess channeling through her vessel.
"YOU DARE TOUCH MY LIGHT?"
The voice shook the foundations of the house. The mercenaries dropped their guns, falling to their knees, overwhelmed by the sheer, crushing weight of the divinity standing before them.
"THIS CREATURE IS MINE," the Voice thundered. "SHE IS THE BALANCE. SHE IS THE STORM. SHE IS THE FUTURE."
The Alpha who had been speaking, fell backward, scrambling in the dirt, terrified by the raw power radiating from the porch.
"LEAVE," Leela—or the Goddess—commanded. "LEAVE HER LIGHT ALONE. GO BACK TO THE SHADOWS AND TELL YOUR MASTERS THAT THE LYCAN AGE HAS RETURNED."
She swept her arm out, encompassing the trembling warriors, the Pack, and the land itself.
"THERE IS NO DEATH FOR US TODAY. THERE IS ONLY GLORY. THE FUTURE OF MY CHILDREN IS BRIGHT."
The light flared, blindingly intense.
"BEGONE!"
The blast of energy that rolled off the porch didn't kill them. It simply banished them. A wind of hurricane force slammed into the invaders, lifting them, tumbling them, and hurling them back toward the gates.
They didn't try to fight. They didn't try to regroup. They ran. They scrambled into their trucks and tore away, their tires screeching, terrified to look back at the goddess standing on the wraparound porch.
Leela stood there for a moment longer, the white pillar of light slowly fading, leaving the prophecy hanging in the silence.
Leela felt her legs start to wobble and her knees go weak. "Fen.." was all she could get out before the world went dark.
Then, her knees buckled.