GAISCE (At Our Best, Book 3, Part 2 in Baile Series)

Chapter 3 Tail Between His Legs

Callum

I ran in my hound form, moving fast with my four legs down the mountain towards the inner city.

There was no way I was ever going to join Isla's twisted gang. Their drastic mood and physical changes shocked me to no end. I barely recognised my ex girlfriend and her friends, they used to be total nerds. Now they were badass, psychotic, wannabe heroes.

I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn't see the hunter hiding in the shrubbery. A net cast from silver was thrown over me and I stumbled, rolling over and over down the rest of the mountain until I hit flat ground.

I shifted, my skin burning with flames until I melted my way through the metallic net.

"Nice try." I grinned maliciously at the hunter. He thought I was a common Werewolf, but I was so much more than a wolf.

The hunter lifted the hood of his coat and my face fell, he was no hunter. He was one of Delilah's minions, a Hellhound, a very powerful and deadly Hellhound. His face contorted into a smile and he opened his mouth to reveal a gnashing set of lava dripping canines, cracks fissuring along his skin before flames shot forth from his mouth.

I had no need to dodge his attack, being impervious to flames. The flames licked against my skin, bringing my own powers to the forefront and fuelling my need for vengeance against Tweedledee.

We both began charging toward one another at the same time, raising our fists. My fist collided with his jaw while he delivered a blow that went straight through my stomach and out the other side. Tweedledee kept his fist in place as my flesh healed around his hand.

"Shit." I just managed to breathe before Tweedledee threw me around like a rag-doll, pummelling me into trees, boulders and his free fist.

"My turn." Tweedledum arrived, muscles bulging and veins threatening to pop from his neck.

"Uh." I surveyed my situation. I was surely going to be made an example of by Delilah. Delilah. I couldn't go back to her. Memories began to surface and my body shook as I saw Delilah and felt all the insidious things she had done to me.

"April! Isla! I'll go with you!" I cried out, terror crippling my sanity.

"What the fuck is he on about?" Tweedledum asked.

"Apil!" I attempted to crawl backwards. "You were right!"

"Aren't I always?" April appeared out of thin air, surrounded in red magic with what looked to be a Shillelagh in hers hands. She grabbed my arm despite my still burning flesh and we teleported away.

My stomach lurched and the world spun around me until I fell hard in the living room of April and her friend's hideout.

"Pay up." Devon looked at everyone gathered in the room expectantly.

"No one's paying you shit, Imp." With one big tug April lifted me to my shaking feet, my mind reeling from the physical and psychological trauma I faced at the hands of Delilah Valentine. "Give him a jacket."

Alick tossed me a black leather jacket. I gave him a quizzical look before holding it up to see my face painted on its back. It was a spitting image of me, with canines breaking through my skin and flames and tattoos flicking up from my neck.

"This is sick." I remarked.

"Thanks." Alick smiled. It was then I noticed that he, along with everyone else wore leather jackets, in various colours and all with their faces on them.

"I voted against it, but you're part of the gang now." April's eyes still held resentment. I hadn't thought I was that bad of a boyfriend when we were dating, not bad enough to make her hate me at least.