The witch's apprentice nodded and smiled.
"Hi. I'm Evan...this is CJ."
"Chelsie June," CJ explained. She looked back and forth to Ember and Stephanie before shaking her head. "So, you're into girls? I've never met someone like that before."
Stephanie's cheeks flushed and Ember laughed before explaining. "Sure you have, you just didn't know it. Besides, we're just friends... with benefits."
Stephanie groaned. "It's a long story," she said and glanced at Ember. Ember nodded, giving her the silent encouragement she needed. "Or maybe not so long. Ember and I are friends. I love someone else, but without her I might go crazy."
"She's using me," Ember sighed.
"Stop it!"
Ember laughed.
"Wait, you love someone else but you're having sex with her?" CJ asked. "Isn't that cheating?"
"Or an open relationship," Evan suggested. He clamped his lips shut when CJ's glare told him to.
"That's the complicated part," Stephanie admitted. "The person I love is with someone else."
"Doesn't seem that complicated," CJ said. "You just move on if they don't love you back."
Stephanie favored her with a sad smile. "Magic complicates all things."
"Magic?" CJ scoffed. She cleared her throat and glanced around the room and then back at her. "I'm sorry, this place is amazing... but magic? We're a little old for that, don't you think?"
The witch turned from her cauldron and stared at her. She didn't have any warts, a pointy hat, or a crooked nose, yet there was something about her that kept CJ silent and still while the woman studied her. "What was it?"
CJ twitched. "I'm sorry?"
The woman gestured at the cauldron and around her, speaking as she went, "This fire, that vine, those flowers, that bird high on the sill looking for a juicy bug. They all have the magic of life in them. You and your boyfriend, you have it too. All of us do and so does everything around us. It is the nature of our being. The nature of the world."
"A fire is alive?" Evan asked, confused.
"It has magic in it, the same magic that everything has. So yes, it is alive, young man, and you would do well to remember it."
"Energy, you mean, not magic."
The witch squatted down beside the pot, causing the front and rear flaps of cloth to sway in the air and almost leave her exposed. Evan was so distracted by her skimpy clothing that he missed her reaching into the flames. He noticed as she pulled her hand back out and held a palm filled with flickering flames. There was nothing between the flames and her skin.
She straightened and walked over to him. "Magic," she insisted. "Hold out your hand."
Evan glanced at CJ and the two other women. He swallowed and then shrugged. He lifted his hand and tried to keep it from shaking. "Sure, why not. It's not hurting you, it must be a trick."
Clover rolled her hand over. The flames continued to flicker, but now they were stretching towards the ground, not the sky. It looked as though, in some impossible way, the witch had made heat sink instead of rise.
"What—" Evan's voice failed him when she grabbed his wrist in her other hand and held him still. She brought her other hand over his open palm and tickled his skin with the heat sinking off of the tips of the flames. He squirmed and tried to pull away, but she held him fast.
Evan was about to speak again when she lowered her hand to his and engulfed his hand in flames. The growing heat in his palm was nothing to the sudden agony that seared up his arm and into his brain. His hand was being eaten away, the skin and muscle poked and picked away with a thousand tiny strikes each second. He cried out and fell to his knees, reduced from a proud and strong high school athlete that could do anything to a sobbing child.
He cradled his hand in his other hand and looked around. CJ was beside him, saying something and wrapping her arm around his back. When had the witch let go of him? He saw Ember watching, her lips straight but her eyes twinkling with amusement. What had he gotten them into? And when would his hand stop hurting?
He turned his attention to it and gasped. His skin was charred black and splitting open. Juice oozed from the cracks and ran across the ruined flesh, only to drip to the floor beneath him. His blackened fingers reminded him of a bratwurst left on the grill too long.
"Evan!" CJ's voice finally cut through the static in his head from the biting pain in his hand.
He looked at her again and blinked away the tears. It hurt worse than anything he'd ever felt, but that was only a part of it. This was his right hand she'd ruined. The hand he threw with. He looked over at Clover and saw her tending the cauldron as though nothing had happened. Her hand, the one that had been wreathed in fire, looked white, healthy, and whole.
"Here, let me see it," Stephanie said as she knelt in front of him.
He glanced at her as her robe fell away enough for him to glimpse the full swell of her breasts inside her tiny bikini top. He looked down, uninterested in boobs for the first time since he hit puberty.
Stephanie held a wooden bowl in her hand. She took his hand in hers, making him hiss as his skin cracked and broke open from her gentle touch. She lowered the bowl and drizzled the thick liquid in it over his hand. It poured slowly, like honey in spite of its milky white color, and soothed the pain from what felt like hundreds of ants that were chewing their way deeper and deeper into his flesh.
She turned his hand over and poured the last of the bowl's contents onto him. Once it was gone she set the bowl on the floor and captured his hand between hers. She began to rub and stroke his charred flesh, reigniting the agony and making him see the dancing flames all over again as colored spots in his vision.
After a couple of minutes that stretched for eternity she let go of his hand and reached up to wipe the tears from his cheeks. "Is that any better?"
Evan's jaw ached from the clenching he'd been doing. His tongue was raw and worn out from scraping his teeth. He felt hot and sweaty all over and his legs trembled. Even his head ached from the pressure of him fighting back the pain. His hand... that felt okay.
Evan stared at his crippled limb. Fresh moisture filled his eyes and he had to blink it away to be sure he wasn't crazy. The charred skin was gone. The weeping cracks in his flesh were whole. His hand looked the same as it had before he'd arrived, if perhaps a little pink. He rolled it and tested his fingers, curling and relaxing them. His hand was as good as new. Black flakes and a pile of goo on the floor were the only signs that anything had happened to him.
"Holy shit," Evan whispered. He looked up at Stephanie, his lips parted in a grin that wouldn't stop.
"You're okay!" CJ breathed. She hugged him and kissed his cheek, celebrating for a brief moment before she turned her attention elsewhere. "That was mean. Mean and cruel. And unnecessary!" she snapped.
Clover turned to regard her. "You needed to believe. Now you do. I taught you both a valuable lesson, be thankful. Next time it will cost you."
"Cost us?" CJ sputtered.
"Not money," Ember interrupted. "Witches don't work that way."
Evan and CJ both rose and turned to the naked redhead. "What then?" CJ asked.
"Tell us what happened," Stephanie said, recapturing their attention. "Tell us what happened to you."
Evan and CJ looked at each other. "Go ahead," he urged her. "I'll fill in the blanks if there are any."
CJ took a deep breath and let it out. "Okay, um, I— we, sorry— were out driving around late a couple of weeks ago and an animal ran out in front of us. We hit it, but it was dark and everything happened so fast we didn't know what had happened. We stopped and I got out to check on it. It was a wolf, but I thought it was dead."
Evan nodded when she looked to him to confirm the story.
"One minute I was there touching him— he looked so beautiful— and the next he woke up and jumped on me."
"He jumped on you?" Ember asked. "You were on top of him."
"He scared me, I fell back," CJ explained. "He was on top of me then. He
held me down with a paw on my belly. Then he...uh, he bit himself."
"He bit himself?" Stephanie asked. She glanced at Clover and Ember before returning her attention to CJ. "Sorry, go on."
CJ nodded. "Yes, he bit his leg and really chewed at it, then he bit my arm and did the same thing."
"There was only one?" Ember asked.
"No," Evan spoke up. "There was a bunch. I'm not sure how many. I swung a stick at the one on CJ and sent him running. Another one came for her but I wacked him in the side of the head and sent him rolling. Others were running after the first one... it was dark and crazy. I got CJ up and into the truck and we got the hell out of there."
Ember nodded. "That makes sense."
"None of this makes sense," CJ disagreed.
"To you it wouldn't," the redhead said. "Guntar ran into an old friend a couple weeks ago. He didn't survive the night, but Guntar said he told him that his pack turned on him."
CJ looked at everyone and then back to Ember. "Who's Guntar?"
"Guntar is... well, he's my alpha," she said. "There's no other way to describe it. Leader, sort of, but more and less than that, at the same time."
"I don't understand."
Ember smiled. "You will soon."
CJ frowned. "What do you mean they turned on him?"
"Duh! They killed him," Ember explained. "And a pack without a proper alpha is a lost pack."
"What is all this pack stuff?" Evan asked. "Like a biker gang or something?
Ember laughed. "Something. But that's not why you're here. We can talk about that later, if you still want to know."
"What? Why?" CJ turned back to Stephanie and Clover. "I've told you everything that happened."
Stephanie tilted her head. "Did you? Have you noticed anything different about yourself? Or about Evan? About anyone?"
CJ opened and closed her mouth. She glanced at Evan and got another encouraging nod. "I guess I've been changing. My fingernails, they grew earlier...a lot. Then the next time we looked they were back to normal."
"That's it?"
She sighed. "No. Clothes bug me. I hate them and can't wait to strip them off. I use any excuse I can to be naked. And sex. Oh my god! I'm constantly horny. I want to screw Evan every waking minute, just about."
"She does," Evan agreed.
CJ slapped his shoulder, earning a chuckle from Ember.
Ember grinned. "I'm that way with clothes too. Plus it's fun dressing in almost nothing and teasing people."
"Looks like all of you are like that," CJ said.
Evan cleared his throat. "Uh, I was just getting used to it, but now that you mention it, I'm feeling awkward again."
Stephanie frowned. She gestured at her robe and swimsuit and said. "Oh, sorry! I thought wearing this would make it easier for you."
He groaned. "Wait, you like being naked too?"
Stephanie blushed a little before admitting, "I'm a witch. We embrace nature. We don't need to be nude, but the more we can feel the world around us and open ourselves to it, the better. I've gotten used to it."
Evan shook his head and looked at CJ. She had a half smirk on her face. "What? This is funny?"
She let a small giggle slip out. "It is. It feels so much better...and knowing there are other people that feel that way? It's vindicating and releasing! Just give in to it, baby. Besides, you can't possibly be upset watching these two gorgeous women."
Evan's eyes narrowed. "This is a trick, isn't it? Your testing me. Well don’t worry, I only have eyes for you."
"You should," Stephanie agree.
"She's a beautiful girl," Ember agreed. "I'd rock her world if I had the chance."
"Ember!" Stephanie scolded.
"What, like you wouldn't?"
"Her boyfriend is right there!"
CJ held up her hand to stop them. "Please, um, this is really awkward. Can we just move on? Pretend you're not trying to make me feel better and—"
Ember growled, shutting CJ up. "Why are so many girls so stupid? You are beautiful, accept it. Men want you and women either want you or want to look like you. And over the next couple of weeks you're only going to get better."
Evan knew from the shade of red on CJ's face she wasn't going to respond right away. She was embarrassed and trying to find a way to deflect the compliments. "Better?" he asked. "How can she be better?"
Stephanie laughed. "Ooh, you are a clever boy. Where were you a couple of years ago?"
Ember ignored the young witch and answered his question. "The blood will change her more. Prepare her body. She'll lean up a little more and thicken in other areas— areas you'll appreciate."
"You should see Crystal," Stephanie said in a soft and dreamy voice.
Ember rolled her eyes and continued, "It's ironic, we are designed to survive, and that includes mating, yet it's almost impossible for us to have children."
CJ gasped. "What if I want children? Someday, I mean. Not now!"
Ember shrugged. "It's not impossible, just difficult."
CJ nodded. She turned to Stephanie. "Crystal? Is that..."
"Yes," Crystal said. "She is."
Ember tilted her head and scratched behind her ear. Her eye lids fluttered as her hand dug at her scalp. When she finished she shivered and focused on CJ again. "Smells? Food? Strength? Recovery? Anything else?"
CJ gasped. "Yes! I really notice how things smell lately. And they seem to smell stronger. Not gross stronger, either. In fact, when I smell something it's like I'm reading about it or tasting it or...or...I don't know, something. I understand it. Even the worst smells don't gross me out like they used to."
"Stronger too," Evan added. "Oh, let's see. She healed faster when she got hurt, recovers from exercise that leaves me on the verge of a heart attack, and she runs longer and faster than ever before."
CJ licked her lips and nodded. "Yeah, all of that."
Stephanie stared at Evan. "What about you? Have you experience any of this?"
He frowned. "No, nothing."
"Saliva," Clover said. "That breaks down the blood. It helps make the change easier."
Ember and Stephanie turned to her and said in unison, "What?"
"The wolf that bit himself and then her, he knew to use his spit to weaken his blood and hers. They merged, fooling her body into accepting it."
CJ looked back and forth between the three women. "What are you talking about? His blood invaded me? Like I've got Ebola or something?"
"Something, but not Ebola," Stephanie said.
"Oh my god," CJ mumbled. Evan grabbed her hand and held it tight, trying to force his strength into her. "So, um, what do I have?"
"You have a wolf," Ember said.
"A w— wolf?" CJ asked. She shook her head and turned to look at Stephanie and Clover. "I don't underst—"
Evan winced as CJ's statement ended in a scream that splashed ice water against his spine. He spun on the balls of his feet, looking for what had her freaked out and tried to keep his balance steady to defend her. Standing a few feet away from them was a long and lean wolf covered in red fur. The she-wolf's lips parted so she could lick her chops.
CJ stumbled back a step and then stopped. She looked around and then refocused on the wolf. "Ember's gone!"
Stephanie walked around them and up to the side of the wolf. She reached down and ran her finger nails through the fur between the wolf's perked ears. "No, she's not."
The wolf turned, craning her head and looked up at CJ. She grinned, if a wolf can be said to grin, and licked the inside of Stephanie's thigh.
Stephanie yelped and leapt back. "Stop that, Ember! That's sick and wrong!"
The walls of the cottage stopped spinning around Evan as Stephanie put a name to the wolf. He took a half step to stay balanced. Ember couldn't be... the wolf couldn't be Ember. She was a human woman!
"Magic," Clover reminded them.
The wolf sit down on her haunches and then grew. Her fur became blurry as she shot up, growing at an impossible rate
on her head and shrinking until it disappeared on the rest of her body. Her arms rippled and reshaped, from shoulder to paws elongating into fingers. Her chest grew wider while her sternum shrank back towards her spine. Her breasts swelled and darkened as her nipples popped into their proper place.
"Ta-da," Ember said as her shifting finished. She grinned.
"You're bad," Stephanie scolded her.
"You like it," Ember said over her shoulder. She stared at CJ and nodded. "Two weeks, the next full moon. You can do this too."
CJ shook her head and reached out for Evan. "I... I'm going to—."
Evan caught her as her legs gave out and she crumpled to the floor. He lowered her the rest of the way to the floor and looked around, half expecting to see a hospital waiting room around him. There had been enough crazy stuff going on he wouldn't be surprised if it was all a dream since he'd taken CJ to the hospital two weeks ago.
The cottage didn't disappear. Ember stood, a puzzled expression on her face. Stephanie rushed forward and knelt down next to him. She reached out and stroked CJ's cheek with her hand. Her fingers traced across her face, touching her forehead and then sliding down across her throat and brushing between CJ's breasts. She went lower and left her hand resting on the unconscious girl's belly just below her belly button.
"What are you doing?" Evan demanded.
"Trust her," Ember said.
Evan turned and glared at Ember. "Trust her? After—"
"After she put your hand back together and stopped you from having a lifetime of love with The Stranger," the redhead corrected.
Evan hesitated and then nodded. He turned back and watched Stephanie kneeling over his girlfriend. The blond's eyes were closed and her head was bowed. One hand rested on CJ's forehead and the other remained on her lower abdomen. She looked up and took a breath before smiling.
Her eyes met Evan's, chasing his worries away with a simple glance. "She's sleeping. She'll be fine, but you should stay here the rest of the day. Leave in the morning."
Evan glanced around. "Here?"
Stephanie smiled. "Well, not here, here. I have room at my place. You can stay there."
"Oh, okay. Can I wear clothes?"
She laughed. "Yes, you can."
Alpha Rising Page 3