Greykin Valley

| 57 | Hunt for the Inimă

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| Jackson |

Amidst the battle, Jackson fought alongside Raphael and his team.

Kane's wolves were like cockroaches; they crawled out of every cave and hole in the ruin walls, and for every wolf who died, three more appeared to replace them. But Raphael was unlike anything Jackson had ever seen. He was so strong that he sent a wolf flying a hundred yards and into the forest when his paw collided with its face, and the tree that its body clashed with snapped like a twig and fell to the ground.

But that wasn't even the most impressive thing Jackson saw him do. When a sniper started shooting at them from a stone tower, Raphael morphed out of his wolf form, pulled his rifle from his back, and returned fire. He killed the sniper with his second shot, and then he shifted back into his wolf form and re-joined his team, who were still battling with Kane's wolves.

"How far?" Raphael called as he tore the head off his grey-furred opponent.

"I-I don't know," Jackson replied as he stumbled back when one of Raphael's wolves raced past him and clashed with the man who was about to fire his shotgun at him. "Maybe...uh...." He panicked and looked around frantically, but the battle was making it hard for him to concentrate on the inimă's ethos signal. And the fact that he was worried about his pack didn't help, either. "Do you know if Cyrus got Damon and the others out yet?" he asked desperately.

Raphael snarled as he pulled his leg from the jaws of the wolf who just jumped him. "You do your job," he said and slammed his free paw down on the wolf's head, making him yelp painfully, "and Alpha Cyrus will do his." He executed the wolf, tearing its head off with his teeth. "Find the amulet!"

Jackson nodded and tried to focus.

"Cover!" Raphael demanded.

Several of his team immediately hurried over to Jackson and surrounded him defensively.

He wouldn't waste what time they could give him. He crouched down into the snow and closed his eyes, and then he used his ethos to scour the battlefield for the inimă. But there was so much noise, so many conflicting auras; he couldn't let any of it distract him, though. He scowled and concentrated harder...and although it was weak, he could feel the amulet calling out to him.

"That way," he said as he jumped to his feet.

One of the wolves protecting him relayed the message to Raphael, who then commanded his team to follow. Jackson's protectors ushered him to the front of the moving line, and once he was beside Raphael, the orange wolf picked up the pace.

Jackson held onto the inimă's aura. The closer he got to it, the stronger it felt, and there was something else...anticipation? He didn't want to think too much about it, though. He had to find it.

"Still this way?" Raphael asked.

He responded with a nod, but when they reached a mound of ice-covered bricks, the signal led him to the right a little, so he followed it, and Raphael stuck close to him.

The aura led him through the battle, where several of Raphael's wolves broke off to hold the hostiles back. And then it took him under a stone bridge, down a hill and into a pit where at least fifty dead wolves and people lay, and then he reached the only part of the ruin that still looked somewhat whole. There was a steel door and barred windows, and the mark of Kane's pack was painted with blood on the bricks between two empty flagpoles.

Jackson stopped ten feet from the door, and when Raphael stopped beside him, he glanced unsurely at the orange wolf.

"You think he's holed up in there?" one of the remaining wolves asked.