Chapter 13. This time, Lilith looks to settle the score with Kate and Lilly once and for all. Will she succeed or can the sisters manage to survive her deadly tricks?

The five wolves were making their way through the forest. While it was normally not difficult, they were taking slower than usual for some strange reason. And the reason was Kate.

After they had entered the forest, Kate had begun to experience things, strange things. Every so often, she thought she was seeing Lilith. First, the hellhound had only been visible out of the corner of her eyes. Kate could brush that off as her mind playing tricks on her. But then, the visions of Lilith got clearer and closer. Soon enough, Lilith seemed to be everywhere, cackling at Kate and taunting her.

"You know you're not going to make it to tomorrow, right?" one Lilith taunted. "You got even less than a zero percent chance of surviving! And then, your death is going to be so terrible, I can't even begin to describe it," another mocked.

Kate did not listen. She felt as though she was losing her mind, but she would not allow herself to be caught in Lilith's trap. She remembered what Lilith had told her earlier, that the curse caused illusions. Kate figured that this is what these phantom Liliths had to be. She just kept telling herself that they were nothing and so managed to keep struggling on.

Kate ignored it as best she could, but it was difficult even for her. So much of her mental energy was consumed by blocking out Lilith's taunting images that she could not pay attention to where she was going or how long she was taking to get there.

Then, all of a sudden, Lilith appeared on the path in front of her, larger and more frightening that she had ever seen her. This large, slobbering hound with fire bursting from its eyes and mouth must have been Lilith's true form, Kate thought. And it was charging right for her. "Time to die, Kate," it said in a deep, evil voice. "I'm going to destroy you right here and now! There's nothing you can do to stop me!" Kate braced herself for the impact as the thing seemed about to crash into her like a runaway train.

"Kate?"

And then, everything was gone. Kate shook her head and looked beside her to see Humphrey, watching her with concern.

"Kate, are you okay?" Humphrey said. "You're acting kinda weird."

Kate blinked a few times, trying to make sure she was seeing properly. "Yeah, I'm fine. Nothing to worry about."

Lilith growled as she psychically viewed what was happening. "If only that good-for-nothing Omega hadn't interfered, I'm sure I would have driven Kate insane that time! Everything was set up so perfectly. Now it's ruined… She's afraid but she's still acting tough and she isn't letting the illusions get to her. And I doubt I'll get such a good chance to drive her mad again."

She turned her focus to Lilly. "Oh well, if I can't get Kate, I might as well kill the other one, then. She's weak enough to destroy quickly and easily, especially now that I've drained most of her life-force."

And she entered Lilly's mind.

"Guys, problem!" Garth called from behind Humphrey and Kate. They looked over their shoulders to see that Lilly was frozen in place. Her eyes were once again locked in another trance.

Kate could still see visions of Lilith, but her love for Lilly gave her the strength to ignore them. She and Humphrey ran over, Kate reached out to touch her sister.

"Don't do that!" Humphrey and Garth yelled together.

"Why n- ouch!" Kate said, pulling back her paw. "She bit me! My own sister bit me!"

"She does that… when she's in a trance," Humphrey explains. "Sorry about not mentioning it before."

Kate rolled her eyes. "Never mind. So, you guys have done this before. What do we do?"

"Kill her!" Edgar yelled from behind the others. "Kill her now before she kills us! It's the only way!"

"Here we go again," Humphrey said as he and Garth glared at Edgar. Kate looked as though she was ready to attack the rust-colored Beta.

"We are not killing my sister!" Kate said with a commanding voice.

"You can't tell me what to do!" Edgar said. "I'm an Eastern Pack wolf, after all! And you're just a Western dog! You have no control over me!"

Since the packs were now unified, Kate knew she did have the authority to order Edgar around, but she realized arguing with him would be pointless. Instead, she turned to Garth. "Should you do the honors or should I?"

"Be my guest," Garth said, stepping out of the way.

Kate walked up to Edgar. "I'm giving you one last chance," she said. "Apologize for threatening to kill my sister, or I'm going to beat you up."

"Just like when we were pups," Humphrey whispered to Garth.

"Sounds like you're speaking from experience," Garth whispered back. Humphrey cringed when he said it.

"Like that scares me," Edgar said to Kate. "I'm not about to get beaten up by a girl! A fight between us wouldn't last five seconds!"

"You sure about that?" Kate answered, threatening Edgar to make something of it.

Edgar growled. "Yeah, so get out of my face before you get hurt! Then I'll be able to do in Miss Lilly and we can get back to normalcy."

Kate raised an eyebrow. "Uh, no. I'm not going anywhere."

"Suit yourself," Edgar said as he pounced at Kate.

Kate easily dodged him and delivered a blow to the pack of his head. The momentum sent him flying to the ground.

"He was right," Kate said to Garth and Humphrey as she stood over her fallen opponent. "That only took two seconds."

Meanwhile, things were very different for Lilly. Her mind had become a battleground. She pictured herself being strangled by Lilith, with the terrible black mist smothering her. Lilith, her eyes burning, laughed as she choked the life out of Lilly.

"Time to die, little girl!" Lilith shouted. "You knew it had to come to this sooner or later. I've taken in nearly all of your life-force. I just need the very last little piece… your soul! Stop struggling now and just accept your fate."

Lilly began to cry. "Please, no! Don't hurt me! Garth still needs me! Stop!"

"Oh, like I'm going to stop because you're pleading with me?" Lilith mocked. "If it was that easy, I'd never kill anybody, would I?"

Lilly felt the life draining out of her and entering into Lilith. She felt herself being dissolved into Lilith's body. Just as she closed her eyes, she said, "Garth, I'm sorry!"

And then, her lavender eyes burst open and she looked straight into Lilith's burning pupils. Lilly's white fur began to glow, becomes a powerful white light.

"What's going on?" Lilith said. "Unless…. Uh-oh. Not good."

"Get out of my head!" Lilly ordered. And then the white light exploded.

Lilith collapsed to the floor of her cave. Slowly, she began to pick herself up, all the while suffering from a massive migraine.

"Got out just in time," Lilith said. "A few seconds longer and she could have destroyed me. I can already feel that most of the life-force slipped out of me and back into her."

She sat in silence for a few moments. Then she spoke, "Looks like I chose the wrong wolf to bond with. There's no way I can use her to get my full power back now. And I'll be too weak to go after Kate again for a while."

Lilith pounded the stones in frustration. Even in her weakened state, she had enough strength to shatter several. "That settles it! Now I really need to get down into that pit! It's the only way left!"

She forced herself up, about to leave the cave. Then she remembered that she still hadn't found another entrance. "The only known tunnel-entrance collapsed, Kate and Lilly still alive, and that old fool nowhere to be found!" she yelled. "Why does this have to happen now, when I was so close?"

Then an idea occurred to her. "I doubt that old Ambrose will leave them alone for long. When they get back together, then I can confront him about all the secrets he's hiding. And as for Kate and Lilly, there's more than one way to kill a wolf! Hahaha!"

Lilly blinked slowly. It was the first movement she had made in minutes. She looked around to see Kate, Garth, and Humphrey watching her with concern.

"I was in a trance again, wasn't I?" Lilly said.

"Lilly, what happened?" Kate asked. "Do you remember anything?"

Lilly tried to shake the confusion out of her head. "I… think I do. I just remember Lilith… strangling me, saying that she was going to steal my soul. And then there was this light… and she disappeared… and I don't know why."

Garth nuzzled her. "It's alright. She's gone now."

"For now," Humphrey said. "I'm sure she'll be back later."

Kate elbowed him.

"What, not a good time?" Humphrey asked.

"But… it was different this time," Lilly said. "Something happened… to her. I don't know what, but something… injured her."

Kate nodded. "You're right. Something's happened to her. That's just what I felt when the visions disappeared."

"Visions?" Humphrey and Garth said together. "I thought you said you were fine," Humphrey said.

"I was… I mean I am," Kate said. "But Lilith was attacking me… or at least illusions of her were. But then they all stopped just before Lilly came out of her trance. Something's definitely up."

"I'll say something's up!" came a voice from behind a tree. Ambrose walked out and continued speaking in a pleasant voice that didn't seem to match what he had to say. "There's the fact that you all walked out on me when I'm trying to save your lives! Don't you understand how dangerous that was?"

Kate snarled. "And don't you understand how dangerous it would be for us to stay with you? You never tell us what we need to know! You just have to keep doing the mystery routine! How are we supposed to trust you?"

Ambrose shook his head. "Little lady, there are forces at play here that you cannot even begin to understand. If I've kept anything from you, it's only because it is for the best. You must realize that."

Kate growled. "Why should I believe you? How can I know that there is something I can't understand if you don't tell me what it is?"

Ambrose smiled. "You at least have to admit that you have to choose between trusting me and going against Lilith alone. And if nothing else, I'm the lesser of the two evils."

Kate was silent for a moment as she thought this over. Finally, she nodded reluctantly. She did not want to admit it, but Ambrose seemed like the only one with any idea about what was going on. And they couldn't afford to just turn away any advantage, no matter the risks involved.

"But how do we know Lilith is coming back?" Garth said. "I mean, since Lilly blew her up."

"Blew her up?" Ambrose asked.

"Yeah," Garth responded. "Lilith possessed Lilly and tried to steal her soul. But then Lilly says this bright light appeared and blew Lilith away. She couldn't take Lilly's soul."

Ambrose looked from Garth to Lilly, who hid her face in Garth's shoulder. The hermit considered what he had been told. Then he burst out laughing. "No, she wouldn't be able to, would she?"

"Why not?" Garth and Kate said together.

"I'll explain later," Ambrose said, "though I think it's pretty obvious."

"No, you'll explain now," Kate responded, "if you want us to trust you."

"That's fine by me," Ambrose remarked. "But do you really think the middle of the forest is the best place to discuss this? We would be safer in my den."

Kate considered this. "Yeah, we do need to go someplace safer. But not your den, I don't trust you enough. If you're really serious about coming along, you can follow us to my parents' den. I'm sure they'd love to meet you!"

"Fine," Ambrose said, "as long as everybody's up to it. Speaking of which, what's wrong with him?" He pointed to Edgar, still lying on the ground.

"Edgar, get up!" Garth ordered.

"I don't want to," Edgar said. "Miss Kate will beat me up again if I do."

"Only if you try to kill Lilly again," Kate said.

"I don't believe you!" Edgar shot back.

"Okay," Kate answered. "Let me explain it like this. I may beat you up if you do get up, but I'll definitely beat you up if you don't!"

Edgar immediately jumped up. "Okay, let's go!"

"Alright," Ambrose said, "if everyone here's ready, let's get moving before the sun sets. Actually, it'll be quite interesting to see what's been happening with the wolf packs of the valley since I was last down there all those years ago. Lead on, little lady."

Kate responded, "Don't mind if I do."

How did Lilly defeat Lilith? What is the hellhound going to try next? And, perhaps most importantly, what are Eve and Winston going to do when they hear about all this?

Read on.