Javier

by Emilia Hartley

  He ducked, fist colliding with a hunter’s stomach. Behind him, Vance shouted. Javier dropped, and a dart soared over his head. The hunter was prepared, throwing up his arm so that the sharp point rolled off his thick jacket. Vance swore, stringing together a line of curses as he tried to reload the dart gun.

  The man in front of him grunted and dropped to the ground, and Javier raised his head to growl at the second hunter. There was a chance they could go on to lead new lives, but that was only if they chose to relent. If they kept this up, if they thought they weren’t the monsters in this situation, there would be nothing else for them.

  This would be the end.

  The second hunter backpedaled, hand on the bolt like it was second nature. Javier couldn’t close the space between them if the man could raise the gun. He sped forward, faster than he’d ever moved before. The man went to raise the gun, but only made it halfway. The shot went off. It rang in Javier’s ears. He yanked the metal contraption from the man’s hands just as Vance ran up.

  The butt of Vance’s gun collided with his cousin’s cheek. The man crumpled, unconscious.

  Vance let out a breath and fell to the ground, exhausted. Pain crawled up Javier’s leg. It screamed, but he chose to ignore it. There was no time for pain. Nora was still lost. He needed to find her.

  First, Javier took the guns, one by one, and bent the barrels so that they’d be useless. Each one hit the dirt with a thud. The groans of hunters on the ground surrounded him. They were lucky to be alive, he thought. The urge to tear them limb from limb until they told him where Cordelia took his mate was overwhelming.

  No matter how hard he tried scenting for her, he could not find his mate. Not a fresh trail, at least. Her scent lingered all over the house. It was faint, like the eternal presence of coffee. He followed it from room to room, hoping to find her behind each closed door only to be stung by the taint of silver on everything.

  Javier’s wolf fought against him. It thrashed and snapped, struggling to be free since it thought itself to be the better hunter. It would find Nora for them. But, Javier couldn’t trust the beast yet. Cordelia was still nearby, and the beast was susceptible to the witch’s workings as long as there was still an emptiness inside him.

  He gripped the beast and held it back, forcing it to heel like a dog. He would not be controlled by the whims of his animal instincts. Javier would control himself, because if he could not control himself, then what kind of power did he truly have?

  “She won’t be here,” Vance said, his voice low and guarded. He stood at the end of the hall, as if to give himself time to run when Javier turned on him.

  Silly human, the wolf thought. If they wanted, they could snap his neck in a second. Both man and beast knew they were stronger, faster, but Vance’s death would do nothing to help them. The human had helped them. He had proven himself.

  “What do you mean? Where would she take her?” His words devolved into a growl that rumbled through the walls around them. Javier would have liked to see the salmon colored wallpaper on fire. The whole house would have looked better on fire.

  Javier stormed outside, ready to put the building behind him. He scanned the forest around them, knowing there were caves and valleys and other hidden places he would not be able to overturn in one day. If he had to, he’d spend weeks searching them all for his mate.

  Vance began speaking when the basement door swung open. The slam of the door against the house made Vance jump. His nerves were frayed from the long day. Javier hoped the man chose a simple life after this. He shook his head and stalked toward the source of the sound only to have his heart leap.

  Nora strode through the basement door, tossing her hair over her shoulder. There was a triumphant smile on her lips, echoed through the way she held herself. At the last step out of the basement, she winced and grabbed her stomach. Javier rushed toward her, weightless with elation.

  At the last second, he slid to a stop, hands caught in the air. He wanted to lift her from the ground and swing her through the air, but he was wary of her wounds. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt his mate. Instead, he gently placed his hands on her shoulders. The feeling of her skin against his was enough to fill him with desire.

  Nora smiled up at him, quiet for a long moment.

  He ached to ask what was wrong. Glancing behind her, he wondered where Cordelia had gone. Would his mate have willingly let her mother slip through her fingers? He wanted to believe Nora would have fought tooth and nail to defeat the evil enchantress. If her smile said anything, he could believe she had.

  “Where did she take you?” His heart stuttered uneasily.

  Nora shook her head and looked away. The sound she made in her throat was almost pained, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “The basement.”

  He glanced back at the basement door, confused. His heart sped. Pain licked up his leg. “Well, I gathered that from your arrival. We searched all over for you, but I couldn’t even pick up your scent. Whatever she did, wherever she took you, it was more than just the basement.”

  There was something off about his mate, but he couldn’t quite figure out what it was. An aura of wrongness surrounded her and made his skin crawl the closer he came to her. He wanted to be happy. His mate was whole and safe. Was it only his fear of the enchantress that tainted his happiness? Or, was there something he could sense, but couldn’t explain?

  He opened his mouth to speak, but found his tongue tied.

  Nora cut off his words with her lips. She crashed into him, lips and teeth clashing for a second before he melted into her. No matter what happened, he was grateful to have her back. His mate, his forever. She was the woman who would sacrifice anything for him.

  When she pulled back, her breathing was heavy and her eyes glassy. Blood was smeared across her lower lip, staining it a deep red that stood out against her pale skin. He reached to wipe it away with his thumb, but Nora caught it and pulled it into her mouth. The sensation of her tongue and teeth dragging against his skin rattled his mind.

  Something was still wrong, but he couldn’t seem to straighten his thoughts long enough to understand them. All Javier knew was the feeling of Nora’s tongue against his thumb. He leaned into it, almost begging to lose himself in it. If he did, nothing would be wrong.

  The world would be perfect.

  “Hey, love birds!” Vance shouted. “Are you finished over there?”

  The rumble of an engine cut off and the sound of tires settling on gravel reached Javier. Sydney had returned, her mate pouring out of the passenger seat like dark water. Both narrowed their eyes at Nora. Jax wrinkled his nose. Javier gripped his mate, tugged her close, and snarled at the shifter.

  His wolf thrashed at the surface. It wanted no one near her. They’d lost her once already. He would not lose her again. In his arms, Nora smiled, smug. Her arms slithered around his neck and tugged him close. Her body writhed in his. Each little movement made him come alive.

  Until she hit the bullet wound in his leg. He grimaced and pulled back. His mind cleared, for a brief moment, and he saw the wrongness in Nora’s eyes.

  ***

  Nora screamed as she watched her mother kiss Javier.

  She was trapped inside her own body, unable to do anything more than watch as her mother manipulated the situation unfolding around her. Nora wished she could have puked when Cordelia used Nora’s body to suckle on Javier’s thumb. Everything about this was wrong. It made Nora feel repulsed.

  She screamed and banged against the cage Cordelia had built inside Nora’s mind with the mix of the two magics. It was so perfectly built that Nora could not find the weakness in it. There were no metaphorical hinges or cracks, only a solid wall that Nora had to stand behind and watch as Cordelia stole her life.

  Her mate.

  Nora had spent her life in this woman’s shadow. She was only Cordelia’s daughter, only Cordelia’s tool. Now, she was Cordelia’s vessel. Anger burned through Nora. It was consuming and uncontrollable
as it leapt through her trapped soul. She wished it could burn the walls surrounding her.

  It licked at the cage while Nora watched Jax sneer at her presence. He could see something was wrong. Nora’s hope leapt, the flames of her anger flickering around her. She waited for him to say something. He could warn Javier and tell him the woman he held was not truly Nora. Even Sydney could tell something was wrong.

  Her own mate was clouded by his relief. The fragment of his soul had grown strong, filling him with emotion he had not had since before they freed him from the barn. It blinded him with relief. He was willing to see Nora as he wanted, not as she was. The rest of the pack was not so blinded.

  Yet, neither Jax nor Sydney said anything. They suspected foul play, their eyes glancing to Nora every so often as Cordelia grinned with Nora’s lips, but neither found the voice to point out the wrongness of it all.

  Nora screamed again. She hoped the scream deafened her ears. It certainly shook the walls around her. No matter how hard she tried, they shook but never fell. The scene unfolding outside the walls slowly destroyed her. Bit by bit, with each brush of Javier’s hands against the thing that was Cordelia in her skin, Nora fell apart until she fell to her knees.

  There was no hope. She was a powerless fragment of a being. Perhaps if she hadn’t tried shaving away her own soul after Walter’s death she would have been stronger and resisted Cordelia’s magic. As Nora was, Cordelia’s magic had folded her like a slip of paper.

  While Nora cried on the floor of her mental prison, something washed over her. It was warm, unlike anything else in the depths of her mind. She thought of sunlight and picnics in the summer. Her head slowly rose. There was no light around her, nothing like the light of summer that she craved in this darkness.

  Still, there was something in the cage with her. It danced around Nora like a cat greedy for attention. Her stomach flipped. When Cordelia entered Nora’s body, she’d brought more than just her own magic.

  She surged to her feet and reached out. The magic she’d lost wrapped around her wrist. It was a warm greeting that gave Nora hope. If she could grasp it and pull it back into herself, perhaps she could fight against the walls around her. Nora knew there was a cost to using this power, but there was no way she could let her mother continue with this farce.

  Nora’s body, her life, belonged to no one other than Nora. If Cordelia were left to run the show, she knew the woman would slink back into her hunter’s den. The barn would be filled with souls once more. Javier… Cordelia would slowly twist him into the monster she always wanted, this time through the lie of love.

  No. Nora would not let her mother do that. She would not let her touch him ever again. Nora reached for the power that swirled in and out of the cage, tugging it toward her. Part of it was still latched to Cordelia, and Nora feared it would give her away, but the power happily let go of the witch and sank into the soul it belonged to. Nora’s hope fluttered as the power returned.

  Cordelia pressed into Javier’s form, nearly hiding herself from Jax and Sydney’s gaze. Nora could feel Cordelia’s plans forming. At her fingertips was the beginning of a new menagerie, new souls to be harvested for her magic because her mother had discovered the cost of Nora’s magic. Cordelia glanced to Vance and scowled. The man’s face drained of color, realization slapping him.

  Nora screamed as Cordelia reached out and gripped Vance’s soul. She fought for control, slamming against the walls around her as his body jerked into motion against his will. Nora followed his path, catching the glint of the gun hidden in the wood pile. She slammed her fist against the wall of her mental prison.

  “Nora,” Javier’s voice filled her mind. He gripped either side of Nora’s face and peered into Cordelia’s soul. “What is it?”

  All it would take to fell the shifters was two shots. Vance reached for the dart gun in the wood pile and Nora screamed with fury. There was a cost to her magic, she knew, but there were also two bodies residing inside one body. Her magic moved through the walls Cordelia crafted and grazed the second soul.

  A shiver shook Nora’s body. Cordelia’s expression faltered. Her mate ducked his head to ask what was wrong, but Nora was already at work. She twisted and turned the magic inside her, the same power Cordelia had turned against Nora in the first place. It latched onto Cordelia’s soul like a ravenous beast. Power flared in every direction.

  Distantly, Nora could hear the shouts outside her body. She tried to pay them no mind as she worked her magic. It flared in every direction. Through it all, the only thing she could see were Javier’s confused eyes. Nora pulled the growing power toward herself and slammed it against the walls that contained her.

  Vance’s footsteps faltered. His knee bent and gave, dropping him to the ground where he stayed. His shoulders rose and fell too fast, but at least he’d stopped. This was Nora’s true family and she’d stop at nothing to protect them. Nora could win this fight.

  Cordelia screamed and crumpled. The power Nora slammed into the walls around her was fueled by parts of Cordelia. Nora couldn’t help but grin. Cordelia’s greatest plan had also been her greatest failure. Stepping into Nora’s body had allowed Nora to destroy her once and for all.

  With each blast, each sliver of Cordelia’s being, the walls cracked. The magic built upon the souls of others crumbled and fell away. Nora sucked in a deep breath and tried to reclaim her body, but Cordelia still gripped her. The battle pressed back and forth. Nora felt her soul grasp onto part of her body, a hand, an eye, part of her foot. Cordelia hissed and pushed back, desperate to hold onto the body she’d claimed.

  But, Nora refused to let up. The magic that Nora had been born with, the power of light, turned scratchy. She was overusing it, but Nora was still nowhere near in control. The power crackled and fizzled, growing ragged around the edges. She tried to wrap her mother’s soul with it, but Cordelia used the force of darkness she held to slam back.

  Nora knew this fight could be over soon. She was still nowhere near in control of her body and her power was growing thin. Cordelia’s soul was still wrapped in the force of darkness, a magic fueled by the souls of others. Without access to Cordelia’s soul, Nora would have to use her own to fuel her magic. The price was worth it, but how would she live after?

  Would her soul return little by little the way Javier’s was, or would she be cursed to live a half-life?

  “You can’t win against me,” Cordelia said with Nora’s tongue. Gasps and shouts erupted around them. Cordelia flung her magic at Vance once more. It gripped him and pushed him into action like he was nothing more than a puppet.

  While Cordelia was distracted with Vance and her mission to kidnap the shifters Nora called family, she had an idea. Nora shoved her freed soul into her arm and regained control of it before Cordelia could react.

  Nice try, but you forgot one thing.

  Nora used her control over the one arm to punch herself in the stomach. She didn’t feel the pain, but Cordelia sure did. The pain doubled her over. It sent Cordelia’s soul reeling and snapped her grasp on the dark magic. Nora used that moment to strike.

  She shoved her magic at Cordelia. Light flared in her vision, fueled by Cordelia’s soul. Moment’s later, after the screams faded and pain slowly filled her, Nora reclaimed her body. The light died with a crackling sound. She felt something inside herself snap.

  Her mother’s soul was gone, but so was the power Nora had been born with. No matter how deep she reached, the power was gone. For a glorious moment, all was as it should have been. Nora had been strong and invincible. Then, it faded and left her nothing more than human.

  Well, human and bleeding.

  A few feet away, her cousin lay on his back on the ground. He stared up at the sky with relief in his eyes.

  Before she could roll over and do the same, Javier’s hands lifted her from the ground. His normally strong eyes were wide with fear. Something warm dripped down her leg, but the pain in her stomach was stronger than anything else she might f
eel. As her spine straightened, she winced, painfully aware of the broken stitch.

  “N-N-Nora?” he asked, hesitantly, holding her at a distance.

  “Do you really think Cordelia would say anything other than yes if she’d won?”

  Javier spared no time in lifting Nora from her feet. No longer standing, her stitches pulled less and the throb in her stomach faded to a constant ache.

  “What did I just say? You have no reason to believe I’m me!”

  Javier smiled. It was relief, love, and cockiness all in one. And, she wanted to slap it off his face.

  “Cordelia would have swooned into my arms. This is more along the lines of what I’d expect from you after that.”

  Nora groaned. “Please tell me your sister isn’t rubbing off on me.”

  Javier said nothing. He only held her tight, as if the two could meld into one and never be apart again. She clutched him, her heart wanting much the same thing. Being trapped inside her own mind was terrifying. Her own body had betrayed her. No, her mother had betrayed her. Over and over again, the woman proved incapable of showing human compassion.

  Nora should have felt sadness, knowing Cordelia’s soul-less shell was trapped somewhere between worlds, but she knew it would be better that way. Nora looked to Sydney, ready to apologize. Her case was smashed. There would be no way she could ever close it.

  But, Sydney didn’t seem bothered by the realization. “Did I just watch the abridged version of Body Snatchers? Is this the real Nora?”

  Her body ached and screamed, but it felt good to be back in her own body. She nodded and leaned into Javier. He cringed and shifted part of his body away from her. Her stomach flipped when she looked down to find blood blooming around a bullet-sized hole in his pantleg.

  “What happened?”

  Javier nodded his head toward one of her cousins, laying in the grass toward the front of the house. Her mouth formed a small O of surprise. Everything had been turned upside down, but it was over. If anything, Sydney could take in her cousins as Cordelia’s accomplices. If they refused to change for the better, they could see what a few years behind bars felt like.