Rain slashed sideways through the cemetery gates, turning Selena's family mausoleum into a drowning cage. Ayla braced against a marble angel's wing, the engagement ring burning through her glove like a live coal. Across the flooded graves, something golden-eyed and wrong paced in the downpour.
"Still her lapdog, Lucas?" She thumbed the ring's inner ridge, feeling Selena's fingerprint groove against her pulse. "Fetch!"
The wolf lunged. Not Lucas—not entirely. Its hackles bristled with rusted chains that sang in the rain.
(In the mortuary's attic, Lila sliced her palm on broken stained glass. Across town, Selena's teacup cracked, oozing blood instead of Earl Grey.)
II. Counter-Bite
Ayla ducked behind a headstone engraved "Beloved Daughter". The wolf's claws shredded granite like wet cardboard.
"Nice upgrade," she spat, rolling clear of debris. "She stick titanium in your kibble?"
The wolf snarled, chains whipping in a frenzy. Its left pupil flickered human for a heartbeat—Lucas fighting the puppet strings.
Ayla ripped off her glove with her teeth. The ring's bioluminescent metal cast warped shadows. She'd sworn never to use it like this.
Silver met rust.
The ring clinked against the wolf's choke chain.
"Sit," she hissed, twisting the band.
The wolf convulsed. Its howl tore the storm open.
III. Reverse Communion
Lightning froze the scene:
Ayla's hair plastered with grave mudThe wolf's jaws inches from her throatThe ring fused to its mangled chain
Thunder broke the stasis.
Human fingers closed over Ayla's wrist.
"Took you… long enough…" Lucas rasped, half-transformed. His right side remained wolfish, ribs protruding through decaying fur.
She headbutted him. "Welcome back, Fido."
Blood from his split lip sizzled where it hit the ring. The storm muted. For three breaths, they were just two thieves in a broken world.
Then Lucas seized, tendons snapping like overtuned guitar strings. "S-she's rerouting control—"
The chains reanimated first.
IV. Symbiotic Stain
Lila stared at the blood pooling in Selena's saucer.
"You're bluffing." She pressed her bleeding palm to the attic window. Rain blurred the cemetery's skeletal trees.
Selena's laugh crackled through the mansion's intercom. "Check your left ribcage, little moth."
Lila lifted her sweater. A bruise flowered where no impact had landed—the exact shape of Selena's cracked teacup.
"Harm's embrace," Selena crooned. "Mother's first lullaby."
In the cemetery, Lucas went rigid. His human eye rolled back.
"Time's up," Ayla muttered, slamming the ring onto his half-transformed paw.
The effect was grotesque—flesh warping around metal, human knuckles erupting through fur. Lucas screamed in stereo, his voice layered with Selena's shriek through the storm.
V. Ephemeral Pledge
The rain turned acrid. Lucas collapsed, fully human for the first time in months. His lips found Ayla's bleeding knuckles—she'd split them on his teeth.
"Still think… I'm worth saving?" His breath fogged the ring.
Ayla yanked him upright by his ruined collar. "Don't flatter yourself. I just hate her choreography."
The kiss surprised them both. Brief. Bitter. A transmission of rust and wolfsbane.
When the lightning returned, Lucas was gone. The ring remained, now sized for a wolf's digit.
Selena's laughter echoed from the mausoleum depths.
(Interlude: The cracked teacup in her parlor reformed itself. The bloodstain now resembled Lila's fingerprints.)
Postscript: Tarnished Afterglow
At dawn, Ayla found Lila burning dolls in the greenhouse.
"He kissed you," she said without turning.
"Bit me," Ayla corrected, tossing the distorted ring into the flames.
Lila lifted her sweater. The teacup bruise had morphed into Selena's baby portrait. "She's getting creative."
The ring melted into a puddle of liquid moonlight. It solidified around a stray bullet casing—size and shape for a wedding band.
Ayla pocketed it. The storm hadn't stopped.
Just changed targets.