Kitsunes erupted from the bracken, Power snapping like static around them. Immediately they went for the women; Rebekah and Elena, trying to snatch away their minds and turn them against their own. Kol lunged for one dark bodied fox, heard a snap behind him and whirled around just in time.
Elena had a branch raised over her head and swung it down at him. Hissing in surprise, he wrenched it from her arms, snapped it in two and hurled it at their enemy, impaling a kitsune through the chest.
Something was wrong. Shoving the doppelgänger towards Tyler, he caught the whoosh of flying limbs and stumbled. Arrow had his sister in a joint lock; a wrist and armlock combination. The dazed expression in Elena's eyes and the breathy hiss from Rebekah immediately told him something was wrong.
"They can possess women!" Arrow shouted. Rebekah struggled against him but he held her steady. There was nothing she could do. "It's kitsune magic – you need to find the ones causing it. They'll be concentrating purely on maintaining the link. Look for any that aren't moving!"
Duncan was rapidly murmuring something. Several kitsunes were battling the warlock, bouncing off of a shield conjured around him. Thrusting his palms out, the warlock's shield pulsed out and threw the kitsunes back, giving him time to begin another spell.
Elena whipped out a dagger from its sheathe and swung it. Ducking back, Kol whipped forward in a motion like a striking snake and shoved her far across the clearing. He wasn't as good at fighting as the others were but he'd come up with a few moves in his spare time. Running around, he delivered quick and decisive blows to the kitsune armada.
"How many are there?" Something leapt onto his back. Snarling, the original reached back, grabbed a handful of fur and dragged one from him by the scruff of its neck. It bit into his wrists and Kol sank his teeth into its throat, throwing it away like a rag doll.
Wind gathered around the clearing like a tornado forming, scooping up whirlwinds of leaves and branches. It was getting stronger and stronger. Duncan's chants were getting louder and louder. A large silver wolf took up a battle stance in front of the child mage and started snapping at those that came near.
Kol found one of the little runts that was possessing one of the two in their team. He promptly snapped its neck and paused, trying to figure out who it was that had been freed. Arrow still had a hold on Rebekah; the original was dazed, her expression haunted. Elena was slashing at the kitsune now, trying to adapt some awkward form of martial arts. She seemed to hesitate and think about each slash before she did it. Then her eyes glazed over and she took a run at Duncan.
"Damn it!" Roared Arrow as Rebekah tore herself free and launched herself at him. "Snap out of it! Rebekah! S-"
"ARROW!"
The force of Rebekah's push threw Arrow into Elena, whose dagger slipped between his shoulder blades. Arrow's face contorted in a mask of pain and hurt. Despite the kitsunes beginning to overwhelm Tyler, Kol rushed forward, rammed into Elena and yanked the dagger from Arrow's back.
"Sorry sis," grunted the vampire. Though it would hurt him more, he pulled back his fist and punched his sister with the force of a two ton truck. Her neck snapped back, tempered eyes rolling back in her head, and she collapsed to the ground. As he shook his hand from the impact, he glanced towards the blond vampire behind him. "She is going to murder me."
"She'll understand." Arrow replied, rolling his shoulder in its socket. The wound healed almost instantly. "There are too many kitsunes."
"Well what do we do?" Demanded Kol.
Arrow bared his bloodied fangs at the hoard of foxes. "Fight kitsune magic with warlock magic. Protect Duncan. He can use Pain Infliction – cripple all of them at once. Then we use our vampire speed, give as many as we can serious injuries. We don't need to kill them – just give them an incentive to leave."
"And if that doesn't work?" They inched their way towards Tyler, who was desperately trying to protect Duncan. The hybrid moved with dizzying swiftness, biting, clawing and kicking, as the kitsunes laughed and danced around him. Fury flooded from his eyes like a storm surge.
Arrow narrowed his eyes. "Attack the leader. Every system or pack has to have some sort of hierarchy. I've been listening to them – it's that dark brown one at the back that's been giving the most instruction."
"Coward!" Jeered Kol reflexively.
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ x ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
"Hey, kitsune leader! Yo mama so fat, when she jumped off a bridge, she fell straight through to hell!" Shouted the human with curly brown fur.
The wavy blond cocked his head, but decided to play along. "When she did, she took the entire bridge down with her."
The ebony wolf couldn't help but rumble in amusement at the joke. Sensing that all of his pack members were looking at him expectantly, he abruptly changed it into a low growl. It was pretty convincing, except the gleaming of his half-lidded eyes. Thankfully the wolves were behind him so they couldn't see his face.
Despite being pitted against so many kitsune, the strangers were doing considerably well for themselves. The blond male vampire seemed to be leading, the others following his lead. He remained strangely calm in the midst of the battle and yet his blue eyes held the excitement and vigour of a child in a sweet shop. It mirrored that of the other vampire that stood and fought beside him, except it wasn't as crazed. It was rational, not blood thirsty.
The kitsunes in the clearing faltered, doubled over and screamed in unison as the warlock sent shock waves of pain through their heads. Then they vanished in a whirlwind, striking faster than the untrained eye could see. Even the wolf darted in between friend and foe, biting and slashing and fighting.
However he could see madness in the silver wolf's eye. The curse of power; the curse of a vampire, torn and conflicted. A strange one, he was, thought the leader, flattening his ears. He was neither yet both. He had the instincts of a born, bred killer, nagging at him all of the time.
A young, small, white she-wolf, specked with the odd silver dash, bounded through the forest towards him. Impossibly ice blue eyes stared out ahead of her, plus the patrol that she had brought with her. She had brought quite a few in anticipation of battle. Half of them hung back tentatively while the rest circled around the black wolf and his entourage, spreading around the edge of the gorse.
"Sharpclaw!" Greeted the she-wolf casually, assuming a crouching position beside the grey-muzzled old wolf. "Your apprentice warned me of the kitsunes. From what I hear, the battle rages on."
"They're attacking some outsiders. There is even a werewolf amongst them, but he does not breathe. He moves like one of the vampires. Fast and swift." Sharpclaw murmured.
The white wolf's blue eyes widened. There was a misty sheen cast over them. They stared straight past the forest, out into the horizon. "Odd. But then, we have heard whispers on the wind. How many kitsunes are there?"
"Many. Too many for them to fight alone."
"Then we must help."
"But Misty Sight-"
"No buts, Sharpclaw. If they somehow defeat the kitsunes, they might find out camp and attack us next. That or they have come in search of Sanctuary. An outsider he may be, the werewolf out there is still kin, and the kitsune are our enemy. The enemy of my enemy..."
"...Is my friend." Sighed Sharpclaw wistfully. It had been he that had told her that story. "Yes, Misty Sight."
Confidently, the white she-wolf nodded. Rising to her paws, she swept her tail behind her in a gathering motion. All wolves behind her rose. Her tail lifted, and the wolf pack surged forward, barking and snarling, straight into the fray.
Misty Sight and Sharpclaw observed for a moment, and then raced out to join the battle.
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ x ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
Blood roared in Tyler's ears as wolves burst out of the bracken. Muscles rippled beneath fur, hot breath blew against his ear and he broke off his attack on one particularly small kit to stare in horror. It was like watching a tidal wave crash onto the shore of a beach right in front of him.
Suddenly the kitsunes didn't feel so brave. They shrieked in terror, some fleeing, others staying to escort the wounded out, or others too brave or arrogant to stand down. Inches in front of his nose, a massive brown timber wolf slammed the tiny fox into the ground with both forepaws and delivered a shattering blow that sent shivers through his undead body. In just as much grace as a leaping gazelle, the wolf moved onto his next target, with a smaller, ashen grey wolf racing beside him clumsily like a child in shoes several sizes too big.
He heard a choked cry from behind and whirled around so fast that he nearly gave himself whiplash. Behind him there was another one, a light brown one with one ear shredded, but snarling with as much rage as an angered mother. The kitsune the old wolf faced scrambled away.
"Retreat! Retreat!" The kitsune leader, stunned by the sudden reinforcements, hurried away into the dense forest. Tyler saw a rush of red in the corner of his eye and instinctively snapped at it, only to catch the tip of bushy fur in the front of his teeth. Spitting it out, he readied himself for the battle.
It was a red wolf, young and strong. Surprised, he stared at her, unprepared for the whoosh of movement and she sudden whump and the kit that crashed into his side. The red wolf laughed as he leaned up, holding the kit in her jaws. It struggled, hissing and spitting, but its short, stubby limbs scratched harmlessly through thick fur.
"You haven't any battle claws," chortled the she-wolf through a mouthful of fur. Upon closer inspection, one of her teeth was missing and there was a nick in her ear. "Leave it to us. We'll chase them off for you."
"Who are you?" Tyler demanded.
Smiling, the red wolf shrugged, and she disappeared into the fray once more, swinging the kitsune around in her jaws like a rag doll. It yelled at her to let it go as they faded into the shadows.
Tyler looked around. Wolves were everywhere; he couldn't see through the rainbow of large bodies, or hear anything except for guttural snarls and feral grunts. A golden flash landed in front of him and, for one fleeting moment, he believed it was Caroline. But the face that he glimpsed in the peripheral of his vision was definitely not his girlfriend.
"Tyler? Yes, no heartbeat." Rebekah glanced up, her hand in her pocket. It looked like she was holding onto something, but what he wasn't sure. He was focused on her eyes. They were unfocused and she looked shaky. "Find your way to the camp fire. I'm going to grab Arrow before he gets himself bitten. If you see Kol, make sure he doesn't kill anything."
There was something odd here. Her voice was light and excited, like she was pleased about the arrival of these wolves. Did that mean she knew them?
The shove almost unbalanced him. Squeezing through the mass of wolves and still-fighting kitsunes was like trying to crawl through a collapsing tunnel. One moment he had a clear view – the next his way was barred. Tiny teeth sank into his spine, scraping against bone. He cried out in pain, reached around and tried to bite into his attacker. Suddenly it vanished.
Standing over him was a colossal ebony wolf, one side of his face scarred straight down the middle. His golden eye was piercing. It felt like he was a pup looking up into the face of death. But in the ebony wolf's jaws, there was the limp body of a kitsune, its last defiant snarl etched onto its face, Tyler's blood dribbling down its chin.
Unforgiving, the wolf tossed the body aside and reached forward, sinking sharp teeth into Tyler's scruff. It hurt and he made a noise of protest, but he was being dragged towards the charred sticks that had once housed a fire. The black wolf dumped him there and watched as the last few kitsune fell.
"Sharpclaw, Mint needs help!" Called a voice from somewhere. The wolf's ears twitched. As he turned, his golden eye lingered a few moments longer on Tyler, but then he bounded away to where a wolf was lying on his side in the dust.
A white she-wolf stepped up, as small as the wolf he'd fought before, guarding the moonstone in Paris. Her ears were trained on the group as they gathered. Tyler, his back cracking back into place, hurriedly stood up and ended up staggering straight into Kol's legs. The vampire hissed disapprovingly and shunted him away with a half-assed boot to the rear end.
Arrow was stood beside Rebekah, supporting her in her daze. Kitsunes used a variant of black magic – tainted magic as a result of their greedy, mischievous natures – that left the victim disorientated. Kol was giving an exhausted Duncan a piggy back ride, the warlock slumped over his shoulder, breathing unevenly. He had several small bites in his arms and one that looked like it had been yanked, as if the kitsune had forcibly been pried from him by something much deadlier.
Elena was... Nowhere. Tyler looked around, fearing the worst, but saw her draped over the back of a broad shouldered grey wolf, padding towards them carefully. She was bloodied and quite badly injured. As soon as he saw this, Kol unceremoniously bit into his wrist and practically shoved his entire hand down her throat in his awkward attempt to keep Duncan upright and move with the grey wolf as the bloody thing kept walking.
The black wolf returned from 'Mint', carrying him over his shoulders. He took up a position beside the small blue-eyed she-wolf, staring at them all intently. "Who are you?"
"We're friends," replied Arrow, kneeling down gracefully. He could only guess what the pack was saying. He had no idea.
Rebekah snapped out of her daze and looked around at the wolves, suddenly remembering where they were. "Khimki forest wolf pack... That's right. I've brought a message for you. For your leader."
The she-wolf before them barked, rallying her pack to her. "What?" She asked. Rebekah looked on uncertainly. After a moment of awkward silence, Sharpclaw leaned forward and mumbled something into her ear. Tyler could only guess in the hierarchy of the wolf pack law, she was the alpha female, and he was most likely the alpha male. That or he was her subordinate. He knew for certain that she was in charge.
Misty Sight frowned, gasping in realisation, and then nodded in understanding. "Wolf tongue doesn't do good for vampires. Hold on..."
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ x ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
Again and again and again. Where were his siblings? Klaus wasn't concerned, but angry. As Rebekah's phone went into voice mail, he delivered another message through ground teeth. It essentially went along the lines of, "if you don't call me back, I'll cause hell until you do", but without as much malice as he would have used with Kol. Without as much suspicion as he would have used with Elijah.
"No word." Murmured a hybrid he had called to Mystic Falls in order to help him relocate his currently missing siblings.
Klaus let out a bellow of rage and, in a moment of bouffé délirante, decapitated his helper with a violent swing of his arm. As the innocent body crumpled to the floor, the head rolling away, Klaus glared at the concerned features on his face. The movement had been too fast for him to register. His lips curled into a snarl. Grabbing his wine glass, he hurled it at the wall, staining blood red wine onto the expensive cream sofa.
"Where could they be?" He spat at himself frustratedly. "First Finn left me, Elijah, then Rebekah and Kol. Esther has them, I know it." Despite having no evidence that Esther had even existed in the past few weeks, he was convinced that she was involved. The phone call from Rebekah... Elijah had been in trouble, and if Elijah had been in trouble, it had to mean someone powerful, equipped and confident enough – or insane enough – to challenge an original vampire.
But how? No weapons to kill us... The stakes have all been burned. The white ash tree is extinct! Witches could draw in the power of nature as easily as vampires could flip a car onto its roof. In Kol's case it would be several times onto its roof, over a ditch and into the side of a lorry, but that was beside the point.
Frenzied and conflicted, he circled around the room, biting his lip thoughtfully. How had Rebekah known where to go? Why had she taken Kol and asked him to remain in Mystic Falls? No, he was reading too much into this. There was a chance Rebekah hadn't found him yet and they were still searching.
But why take Kol and not him?
Klaus had an army of hybrids at his disposal. Kol was erratic, borderline psychotic, if not already. Klaus couldn't be killed by white oak stakes, or silver daggers, making him a powerful, indestructible tank. Kol could be killed, though Klaus was torn on whether he cared or not.
Fifteen witches, plus Esther herself. Not the original witch, but extremely powerful and crafty. Did Elijah stand a chance? No. Well maybe, if he'd ran away in time, but from the sounds of it, he hadn't actually got all that far. And what was with phoning in the middle of the fight? Klaus couldn't see his elder brother that desperate for help, unless he genuinely believed that his life was at risk.
...But if it was, why would he call his family – the ones he cared about more than anything – to aid him? Unless Esther was building up an army of witches herself to take them all down by force. That would affect them all.
The clock beeped, telling him how close it was to his deadline. Klaus hurriedly snatched up his coat, scooped his phone from the desk and headed out the door.
He'd call for his hybrids later, order them to standby, and to look out for his family as well, just in case they did show up sooner or later. When Esther unleashed the dogs of war, Klaus's wolf pack would be there to show her true strength.