Knight Casefiles Book 1: Revelations

Revelations [Chapter 26]

Chapter 26

All hell broke loose doesn’t even begin to cover what happened next. Elaine spun to the sound of Sigrun’s voice as the latter let out a challenging bellow. Looks like whatever she summoned had come to answer. If Sigrun was about to go full-on warrior maid, then it couldn’t have been good for any vanilla human who was close by.

“Elaine-“ I started but she cut me off.

“No!” she shouted, hand held out between us. “Chris, I love you. You know that. But right now, I just need you to stay back.” I could almost feel the heat rolling from her tone.

“Elaine, please. I can explain,” I said, hands up as I approached. “I will explain but now is not the time. Sigrun’s in trouble.”

“Sigrun? Who’s Sigrun?”

Dammit. “Olivier, I mean. That’s her, um, Nordic name…” Even as I said it, I could hear how lame it sounded.

“Her real name, you mean,” Elaine said. Her lips tightened into a firm line, her jaw set as she struggled against the emotions she tried to rein.

“Elaine,” I pleaded. “Listen to me. I need to go help her. And I need you to get out of here immediately.”

Her eyes snapped back to me, the pain evident in them. “No,” she said, firmly. “Whatever’s happening, I will find out.” Her eyes trailed back again to my gun. “If you want to stop me, then you know what to do.”

Elaine turned away from me, her shoulders set rigidly as she walked to the direction of the noise. By then, Sigrun’s grunts and shouts were reverberating through the mountain air, along with a series of thuds and growls. Whoever she’d summoned had brought company and that couldn’t have been good. I went to follow Elaine and grabbed her shoulder. She didn’t stop.

The reason I first dated Elaine was because I thought she was hot. But it was because of this aspect of her personality that I stayed with her. She was never the type to let anyone tell her to do something she didn’t want. She never backed down from anything. I’ve told her more than once that it would land her in a hospital someday. I just didn’t hope it would be today.

“Dammit, Elaine,” I muttered and brought out my Glock, shoving it into her hand. She paused momentarily and stared at the gun, and then at me. “If you’re not gonna listen, then you’re not going in there blind. Shoot anything that isn’t me or Sig- Olivier.”

She bit her lip as I handed her the spare cartridges. “I…what’s happening, Chris?”

“I need you to believe in me,” I told her. “Even if this is for the last time.” And as I said those words, I knew that they could very well be true. “Now, come on.”

I squeezed her shoulder and kissed her. She didn’t resist but she didn’t return it either. I led her around the clearing, the way I came, senses perked for anything. I wasn’t sure how much help they’d be given how they were currently screaming in my head, alerting me to a tremendous well of power emanating from the clearing which I assumed was Sigrun, but it was better than going in blind. The snowstorm was beginning to pick up, making the meager sunlight even scarcer.

“Where are we headed?” Elaine asked, her voice hoarse.

“To my bag. I need to get something there.”

The noise of the fight was getting louder. More of them were coming and I hated how I wasn’t there fighting alongside Sigrun but there was no way I could have just left Elaine there, unarmed. Elaine all but shrieked as the first wolf-beast broke through the foliage, a dim blotch against the background. It looked much the same as the one from yesterday with only minor differences.