by Melinda Hyde
she studied my face, and I smiled reassuringly down at her. “You did good, my love, but we’re not done, yet,” I stated, as I observed an array of conflicted emotions pass over her. The fire in her eyes blazed bright, and she snatched her gaze away from my own. I bent down to my knees, taking her delicate face between my roughened hands. “You’re going to do this, Leonia. I need you to,” I demanded in a harsh tone, fighting off a bizarre sensation that was developing inside me.
Leonia didn’t respond, but I knew that she wouldn’t deny me my request. Magic aside, Leonia had always been a good and doting wife. She would do anything I asked, even if she was less than thrilled with my request.
My hands fell away from her warm cheeks, and I stepped back, dusting a few, stray fragments of grass from my dampened knees. I pivoted about and motioned to the group of man-beasts that were curiously observing me, and they loped along behind me, down the gentle slope, to my home. I eased the door open, and, one by one, the creatures filed inside.
I eased the door flush with its frame, then instructed them to shift. They eyed me warily, a flash of worry passing through their golden eyes. I had forgotten how confusing the first shift could be. I quickly explained to them that they need only envision themselves in their human form and push back on the beast. Their eyes drifted shut, and the room filled with the sickening sound of pops and cracks, as their bones rearranged themselves.
While the men were squaring themselves away, I gathered several pairs of extra clothes I had stashed and tossed each of the men a pair. They didn’t say anything, but they started to unfold the garments, preparing to cover their overly exposed flesh.
Before they managed to fully cloak themselves, Mallory came gliding into the room. She met me with bright, welcoming eyes. Her looping, red curls were running wildly around her head. Then, she averted her attention to the fumbling men.
Her eyes were sharp as she skimmed slowly over each of their sweat-drenched, masculine physiques. A sizzling flame flickered behind her green irises. The narrowed look she was giving them was more than appreciative—if not a bit predatory. I followed where her eyes led, and an odd, burning sensation rooted its way into the pit of my gut. What it meant, I couldn’t say. Perhaps it was the beast within me—the alpha, but it prickled and bristled, becoming an itch I couldn’t scratch.
When I could stand it no longer, I made a show of clearing my throat, and Mallory reluctantly returned her attention to me. “Leonia is ready to see you. She’s waiting on the hill.” She nodded her head, glancing lazily back to the room, where my son lay sound asleep. “The men will sit with Lance until Leonia returns,” I assured her, assuming she was concerned for the babe.
Mallory’s red lips curled sensuously into a saucy smile, and she inched over, until she was standing in front of me. The stirring inside of me intensified, but this time the feeling was different. I stretched my arm out and took her slender hand in mine. It was small and warm. I wrapped my fingers around hers, allowing a desperate, gnawing hunger to ignite inside of me.
I guided Mallory to the door, doing all that I could to extinguish the flame. As we exited the cabin, she stepped closer to my side, her skin almost brushing against my own. I could feel the accusation of the curious glances trailing behind us, but I didn’t care. The sensation of her so close felt good—felt right.
When we rounded the corner of the cabin, I loosened my hold and allowed Mallory’s fingers to slip through my grip. I could feel the change in her energy immediately, and I cringed. The smile drained from her sumptuous lips, her nose crinkled, and her eyes became as hard as two glittering, emerald stones.
We continued up the side of the slanting slope in silence, until we rounded the top of the hill. Leonia was standing atop its crest like a lone specter. She hadn’t moved; Her skirts billowed in the wind, outlining her long, shapely legs. Her head and shoulders were still slumped from lack of energy, and the paleness of her features, with the moonlight lending them its magical glow, was devastating.
She would have been an intoxicating woman, if only she hadn’t been born bearing such a curse. In response to the sound our footfalls, Leonia lifted her head, studying us though dark, dancing eyes. Those glittering, fathomless orbs were cold and assessing as they came to rest on Mallory. It seemed as if Leonia were peering through her, into the very depths of the girl’s soul, searching for some detail that had escaped her. A vast wash of uneasiness waved over me.
I motioned for Mallory to stop and closed the distance that stood between me and my wife. Her hands hung limply at her sides; I took them in my own. “You look exhausted, my love. This is the last time I’ll ask this of you—I promise,” I whispered in a soft, sincere voice.
Leonia shot Mallory another look that was laced with venomous flames. Then, she pulled her hands from mine and padded past me. She sauntered over to Mallory, eyeing her from head to toe through narrow eyes. The air became pregnant with barely checked animosity, but Mallory didn’t back down. The fool, I thought to myself, knowing what Leonia was capable of. Mallory was ignorantly naive; she met Leonia’s stony gaze head on, never wavering.
Leonia stopped in front of Mallory, pointing to a place on the dampened ground. “You need to lie down. The sooner this is over, the better,” Leonia snapped, not trying to mask the contempt she harbored for the other woman.
Mallory did as she was instructed, with a roll of her eyes. She brushed past Leonia on her way, her shoulder grazing my wife’s. I felt a pinch of dread, as my wife ground her teeth in frustration. I couldn’t be sure if her dislike of Mallory stemmed from the girl’s familiarity with me, or if there was some other, unbeknownst reason that had put her off, but I was beginning to become apprehensive. It would have been painfully simple for something to go awry when Leonia began to weave her enchantment.
∆ ∆ ∆
The process went on the same as it had before, except Leonia’s reserves began to deplete prematurely. When both women were hovering several feet above the ground, the bright, green light started to extinguish. It became thin and dull. It brightened and brimmed in uneven waves, stretching itself painfully thin. Then, it compacted itself in a tight net around them both, before retracting completely. It slammed into Leonia, jolting her slight form, and disappeared from sight.
At the loss of the light’s support, the two women collectively crashed onto the unforgiving ground. Mallory was as unmoving as a corpse, but that was to be expected. Leonia, on the other hand, stirred a bit. She pushed herself up on shaky, trembling arms, gazing up at me through half-lidded eyes. Her face was pasty-white, and the light in her eyes had flickered away. I started toward her, but before I could reach her side, she collapsed back onto the ground, and her eyelids fluttered shut.
I sighed as I knelt down beside her in the tall grass. There were deep, purple rings engraved around her eyes, and they seemed to be severely sunken in. I pressed the back of my hand to her cool brow, feeling the harsh sting of guilt prickle at my conscience. When she didn’t respond, I rolled her onto her back, and her head lolled to the side, resting in the sea of ebony strands that fanned out around her. I took her limp hand in my own, observing the weakened, unsteady rise and fall of her chest.
The soft piddling of padded feet approached me from behind, followed by the deep rumbling of a contented purr. I pivoted to the source of the sound, and Leonia’s limp hand slipped from my own, falling onto a cushion of grass. My jaw went slack. I knew I looked ridiculous, but I couldn’t force the muscles in my jaw to comply. The divine creature standing before me was a breathtaking sight. My men and I were all pitch-black and plain, despite our natural beauty. The same couldn’t be said for Mallory.
She was in a league all her own. She was sleek and slender in an elegant, feminine sort of way. Her size was as massive as ours, but she stood several inches shorter than the others and me. Her coat held the same dark, shiny tint as my own, but there were lighter, varying spots that could be clearly detected. Then, my eyes met hers, and my lungs seemed to collapse.
Our eyes were all the same. They were a wild, primal shade of yellow, holding true to the beast they originated from. Mallory’s weren’t yellow, though—not even close. They were the same pastel green as they had always been, only the change had intensified them, making them the deepest shade of bright, forest-green.
If an animal could look smug, Mallory did. There was a gleam in her devious eyes, and her lips peeled up at the corners, making her whiskers twitch. She knew exactly how beautiful she was, and every cell in her body vibrated with confident pride. She came to me on huge, deft paws, butting her head against my shoulder and sank back on her haunches in the tall grass.
I glanced anxiously between her and Leonia. The wily she-cat followed the trail of my gaze. When my eyes sifted back to find hers, they were still fixed loathingly on my wife, and her lips were peeled away, revealing her deadly incisors. A low, nervous chuckle lightly worked its way from my throat. Her spunk was as refreshing as it was frightening, and I was enjoying her jealousy. Her eyes rolled as she whipped her head away. She tucked her ears to the sides of her head, and her tail gave an impatient twitch of irritation.
I shook my head at her sullen behavior and turned back to Leonia. She hadn’t stirred, and her breathing was still shallow. I scooped her up into my arms, hauling her wilted body close to my chest. Holding her so close caused another flash of guilt to course through me. I glanced away from her sunken, sallow face, to the starry sky above.
The soft but unmissably intentional brush of Mallory’s fur swished across the leg of my pants. I peered down at her, but she kept her eyes trained down the slope. I heaved a hefty sigh, then worked my way through the thick blades of grass, down the side of the hill. Mallory loped gracefully along beside me, nothing more than a shadow that was at one with the shadows of the night.
When I carried Leonia into the cabin, with Mallory still close to my side, we were met with a series of inquisitive, awed expressions. The men were finally fully clothed, and they lounged in varying spaces along the floor, leaning their broad backs against the wall for support. I ignored their blatant stares, and I breezed past them, toting my wife into our room.
Lance was still sleeping soundly inside his tiny crib. I stopped as I passed by, to look down at his fragile, angelic features. He had a lot of his momma in him, but I could see myself there, too. He was perfect—my perfect boy, and I was going to make sure he grew up in a world that was free of magic and monsters.
At that thought, I glanced down at his mother—the woman I loved, and I felt a conflicted mixture of emotions surge to the forefront of my mind. From the moment I had seen her, I had known I had to have her. She was beautiful and wild, but like most things exotic, a whispering voice that reminded me that I should have admired her from afar.
It wasn’t that I didn’t love Leonia—I did. She was beautiful, possessing a quiet strength that was built on bone-deep courage. If not for the tainted, demonic blood that flowed through her delicate veins—the same blood she might have passed on to my son, I would have counted myself a lucky man. That speculation threw a dark cloud upon my mood, and I took one more peek at my son, before crossing the creaking floorboards to our bed.
I eased Leonia’s flaccid form down into the plush bedding. Her head lolled to the side, but she didn’t move an inch. She looked terrible, and I cringed inside, knowing that I was the cause of her current state. A part of me felt a deep-bedded seed guilt for asking her to undertake such an enormous task, even if it was necessary. I pulled her dark hair from her face and twisted the strands together, then pulled the cover up, over her shapely form.
I was still transfixed on Leonia’s ashen features, lost somewhere faraway in the bowels of my tormented thoughts, when a low, throaty growl emanated from the doorway. I threw a quick, reprimanding glance over my shoulder to find a Mallory observing me. There was an impatient gleam in her cunning eyes, and her long tail twitched in jerky motions.
An amused smile found its way to my lips. I had to admit, Mallory’s spunk was invigorating. She was nothing like Leonia—they were polar-opposites. Leonia was steady and solid, like the snow-covered mountain that overlooked the land. Mallory had more zest. She was more like the rivers that rushed through the canyons, unpredictable and willing to crush anyone or anything that stood in its way.
She stood, flexing her muscles, as she prepared to leave, and I rose up, trailing her back into the main room. The men were gone. I supposed they were out somewhere testing their new abilities. I gave a mental shrug. It would do them good to become acquainted with their new bodies. The more they practiced the more efficient they would be when it was time to put them to use.
I followed Mallory’s movements with my eyes, and hers never wavered from my own. I was captured and helpless, but worse, there was no part of me that wanted to resist. She brushed the length of her agile body against my legs, and I chuckled low in my chest.
Mallory cocked her head, then crossed to the center of the room. I leaned back against the sturdy wall, waiting to see what she would do next. I wasn’t surprised when her body began to shift. Unlike my first shift, hers was swift and graceful. One minute, she was a panther, and the next, she was a gorgeous, curvaceous woman standing in the dim light.
My heart stuttered to a helpless standstill, and the smile melted from my dry lips. Thin beads of perspiration clawed their way to the surface of my skin. I threw an unintentional, involuntary look over my shoulder at the room where Leonia lay useless in her exhaustion. Then, I snatched my attention back to Mallory. Her hair was a wild, tangled mass of unruly curls that cascaded down, shielding her voluptuous breasts from view.
Where the strands of her looping curls thinned at the crest of her belly button, coming to an uneven end, I could see the perfectly smooth, creamy skin that stretched over her rounded hips. My eyes drifted lower and lower, until I had consumed every inch of her with my eyes. I brought them back up to meet the deep pools of sea-green that sparked at my appraisal.
My mouth began to water, and I had to swallow, as my mind raced through all the indecent possibilities splayed before me. A pleased smirk shimmied its way across Mallory’s sun-kissed features, and she deftly danced over to where I stood rooted in place. Her expert hands shimmied down the surface of my shirt, then slid underneath, skimming my bare abdomen with her smooth, velvety touch.
My belly clenched painfully with anticipation, and I traced my palms over the bare skin of her lower back, jerking her hips hard against my own. She cracked a satisfied, expectant grin, grazing my chest with her sharp nails, and I leaned in, ready to devour her.
My insides were rolling with the demanding need of her, when a loud, shill scream reverberated through the cabin, followed by Lance’s bellowing cries. Mallory snarled viciously, as I tore away from her. She followed my worried line of sight to the bedroom, and her eyes filled with unbridled hatred. The scream sounded again, forcing me into action. I whirled away from Mallory, rushing into the room where Leonia lay in the middle of the bed, thrashing in a fit of agony.
6.Near Miss
Lenora
My eyes were on the brink of sinking shut, when a horrible, earsplitting racket ricochet through the recesses of the cave. I glanced around at the wary eyes of my creatures, shining out from the darkness. Confusion and fear filled the cavern. I shifted my eyes to Aleksandra’s slight, slumbering form, and I pulled a thin coverlet up, tucking it beneath her chin. She was still soundly asleep, seemingly undisturbed by the horrific sound.
The tortured cry came again, mingling with the agitated bleats of a baby—Leonia’s baby. I brought my knees up to my chest, tucking the hem of my gown beneath my bare feet. There was a pull of sadness tugging at my soul, pleading with me to rush to my sister’s side. She had used a vast quantity of magic earlier that night, and now, I knew that she was suffering the price.
I bleakly tipped my head into the hollow made by my knees, allowing the lullaby of belted agony to slam into my brain. I replayed every devastating moment and word
that had been shared between my sister and myself in the past year. The creatures around me were like family; there was no lengths I wouldn’t go to, to secure their safety, but deep down, I still despaired over the rift that had formed between Leonia and myself.
At some point during my lonesome, desolate reflection, I must have drifted off, because the morning heat floated into the cave, making the air uncomfortably humid. I hefted myself up from the prickly hay, parting the curtain of snow-white tangles from my face. My head was pounding inside, and there was an insatiable ache deep in the muscles of my neck.
I stretched my stiffened limbs in an attempt to alleviate the pain, then froze in wide-eyed terror. Where Aleksandra should have been cuddled in the hay beside me, there was only a cold, barren space. Any thoughts of my own troubling ailments fled from the corners of my mind. I lunged up from the bedding, frantically scouring the cave with my eyes.
I scurried over to the pool at the back of the cave, fearful of what I might find. I peered down into the bottomless, black, secretive depths of the water, searching for anything out of the ordinary. I felt a small sliver of relief, but it wasn’t enough. I had to find her.
I whipped away from the silent water, glancing frantically around the interior of the cave, and that’s when I noticed a small, rounded heap of blankets piled close to Izzy’s side. I approached the heap of material slowly, hoping that I would find Aleksandra tucked safely at the heart of the pile. I stooped down, not allowing my knees to brush against the cold, rocky ground, and I eased the corner of the fabric aside.
A deep breath, that I hadn’t known I was holding, whooshed from my chest, and my shoulders sagged inward with relief. A tiny, rounded nose and peaceful, lash rimmed lids peeked out from the opening. The child took in a deep, stuttering snuffle at the perceived disturbance, and she wiggled closer to Izzy’s side.
I bit down on the back of my knuckles to stifle a cry of frustrated relief, before tucking the corner of the blanket beneath the girl’s chin. She didn’t move again; she was sleeping sound. Sometime in the night, while I slept, the racket from outside must have frightened her, I thought to myself. She must have gone to Izzy seeking comfort, and that was fine.