Suburban Vampire Ragnarok

Chapter 48

No matter how cautious they had been there were still several werewolves in the dell, and as Scott's luck would have it their attention was immediately drawn to the two intruders. They began snarling and circling them. Dawn didn't even hesitate when she shouldered the lever-action carbine and began picking off wolves. Scott drew the dirk and began slashing and stabbing at the attacking werewolves, wounding a couple here, killing a couple there. As he was preoccupied, Dawn ran the carbine empty and began using it as a club. But the stock soon broke and one of the remaining wolves pounced on her, knocking her to the ground. As the beast held her down, his salivating jaws open in a hungry snarl, Dawn knew she had few options. She reverted to some of her martial arts training and brought her knee up into the obviously male canine's nether regions. The werewolf immediately dropped to its side, whimpering and twitching.

"That actually works on werewolves?" Dawn said. "Who knew?" She then drew her short sword and finished the injured werewolf. Meanwhile, Scott had slain the last of the werewolves that attacked him, when he turned toward the young lady, sensing danger.

"Dawn!" Scott shouted. "Get down!"

Dawn did so. He threw the dirk. His aim was perfect as the dirk intercepted a werewolf in mid-leap, entering its skull right between its eyes and dropping the carcass right at Dawn's feet.

"You've improved your aim!"

"Impressed much?"

Scott looked around the field, seeing only dead werewolves. He found it odd that he didn't see the body of Tony Knight. Scott dismissed this apprehension, thinking that perhaps one of the wolves wanted a convenient snack. He then headed to the tree of dark power. The runestones were still tied to its boughs. Scott stood before the rune of Uruz, the symbol of power. He tried to grab it off the tree, but the leather thong wouldn't break. In fact, it rolled down toward the trunk of the tree, as if trying to retreat from his grip. He mentioned the odd occurrence to Dawn.

"You mean it won't let you remove it? Then how are we going to stop it, or turn it off, or whatever?"

"You know, I probably should have done just a little more research."

"You think?"

"Well, I gotta try something!"

Scott then waved his hands in front of the stone. "Runestone! Off!"

No effect. He tried waving them again. "Turn off, runestone!"

He then clapped his hands. "Stop, runestone! Switch off!"

"Scott, what are you doing?"

"Trying to get the runestone to quit doing that evil power thing. To release Zed."

"Scott, it's an emblem of evil, and it uses dark magic for its power. Dark magic, not 'The Clapper'."

"So, you're saying we need to use dark magic to shut it off?"

"Seriously, Scott? We're not going to use dark magic. That's kind of against my beliefs."

"Right, right. Gotcha. So, what do we do?"

Dawn's attention was drawn to the box of Huginn and Muninn, which had been neglected by the wolves, as it lay near the smashed altar, still open. "The nails!"

"The nails?"

"Yes, didn't Juhani say that those nails were in there to help control the evil power of that runestone? If that's the case..."