Rhianne nodded absently, riveted on the dynamic between Ben and the three goblins.
She saw the moment Ben decided to embrace their loyalty. Something relaxed in him, a barrier softening that had been held in place too long.
“All right.” Ben sighed as though resigned. “I guess I can’t really stop you.”
“Excellent. Please hold this, dear.” Millie handed Rhianne her handbag. It was far heavier than the small bag appeared, and Rhianne made herself not peek inside in curiosity.
The four goblins drew together. Millie stretched out her right hand and her sons laid their right hands on hers. Ben, slowly, placed his on the top of the pile.
The hands changed from human to the gnarled, brutally strong ones of goblins. The rest of their bodies remained the same, but their hands became massive and powerful.
Millie began a chant, and the brothers joined in. Rhianne didn’t understand the goblin language, but the words held force. The very air seemed to darken. Even Rhianne, an outsider, could feel the strength of the phrases.
Ben entered the chant, his rumbling baritone melding with the voices of the other three. The words rose, flowing around each other, knotting together in a bond of allegiance.
When the chant ended, all four hands returned to their human form. The four released each other, assuming casual poses as though nothing very significant had occurred.
“Okay then,” Ben said. “Welcome to the team.” As Darren and Cyril did a little victory dance, Ben pointed a blunt finger at them. “Before you get all hot to destroy our enemies, keep in mind, he neutralized Tiger right away.” Ben broke off and gazed pensively at the circle of trees. “I sure hope the big guy is all right.”
* * *
Tiger watched. And waited …
Chapter Twenty-Three
Tiger couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, couldn’t call out to Carly or his cubs to tell them he was all right.
But he could observe.
He’d been caught while shifting from tiger to his between-beast—or maybe the fabric of null-time-space had forced him to shift to it. Tiger wasn’t quite certain. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he was puzzling that out.
He liked his half-beast, which was massive and deadly unless he decided to gentle it for his cubs. Seth liked to cuddle against his fur, and Tiger-girl seemed calmer when he touched her with his paw-hand.
“They don’t know.” A tall man with hair bright as flame and dark eyes like holes to nothing stood next to Tiger. The man could move and speak, all the things Tiger could not. “They have no idea what’s to come.”
The two of them gazed through the ripples of not-time the Fae had caused. It was like peering through thick glass, similar to the blocks used to build decorative walls but without as much distortion.
Tiger could clearly see his mate and Seth across the green next to Dylan. Good. Dylan could protect Carly and his cub. He also saw Tiger-girl loping away with Connor and Andrea. Again good.
None could see him, though, and they were afraid.
“You will help me,” the Tuil Erdannan said. Tiger knew he was Tuil Erdannan and not hoch alfar because of his scent. He even smelled arrogant. “They trust you. I will have the spawn of my treacherous wife under my thumb and use her to destroy all who oppose me.”
Tiger did not answer, unable to move his mouth or work his larynx to push air across it.
“I need soldiers like you. Like you were meant to be.” The Tuil Erdannan didn’t bother speaking English, but Tiger understood him. When he’d been in Faerie to help Dimitri and Jaycee, he’d heard Tuil Erdannan words that his brain had stored and learned, which was how he’d been able to speak to Rhianne fluently in that language.
Tiger had been created to be a warrior to best all warriors. His original purpose, a noble one, had been to seek and rescue the stranded, but that purpose had been taken and perverted by ambitious men.
“You will help me.” The man’s air of disdain was sliced with the callousness of one who did not care whom he hurt. “You have no choice.”
In his silence, Tiger couldn’t growl, not in his throat. His mind, however, began a deep rumble, that of a tiger who was becoming very annoyed.
The Tuil Erdannan was wrong. Tiger had a choice. His creators had tried to breed him to be obedient. They’d stuck chips laced with magic into his brain that would make him so.
When Tiger had been abandoned, left alone for years, the chips had corrupted, and Tiger had broken the programming, replacing it with his own.
What everyone except Carly, and maybe Connor, did not understand, was that everything Tiger did and had done since he’d been freed, was and had been his choice.
He could do nothing at the moment, imprisoned by this thick miasma, but Tiger had learned patience living through cold and lonely years in a cage. Patience was one of his strengths.
He could wait.
* * *
Ben joined the ranks Dylan formed around himself. Kim had persuaded Carly to return to the house with Seth, but the two ladies remained on the porch, not about to hide when their mates were in danger.
“What about the humans of this city?” Rhianne asked Ben in a low voice. “Shifter Bureau, and so forth. Won’t they notice Shifters gearing up for battle?”
“They might,” Ben said. “Unless your father has taken care of that. I notice no one has left Shiftertown since the ley line started acting up.”
The sky overhead was a pale blue, a fine Texas autumn morning. At the edge of the horizon, however, clouds were forming, a dark ring encircling the blue, though they were a long way away. Storms blew up here quickly, or passed by altogether—it could go either way. Ben wondered if Ivor could manipulate the weather in this world and didn’t like the implications if that were true.
Kendrick and his reinforcements had arrived. They’d shown up singly or in pairs to not draw the attention of human law enforcement. Kendrick’s people, who’d started life as Shifters who’d escaped the roundup twenty-five years ago, lived in secret out in the empty lands west of here, and didn’t wear real Collars.
Kendrick was a white tiger, a rare beast. He’d found himself a mate in the cute Addison, who’d come with him and joined Kim and Carly. Other human mates of Shifters migrated to Kim and Liam’s house as well.
Dimitri and Jaycee, Kendrick’s top trackers, along with a lion called Seamus, waved to Ben and Rhianne but stuck with Kendrick, listening to his orders.
Walker Danielson, in black fatigues, arrived with Rebecca, a Kodiak bear Shifter. All the bear Shifters of that household were present—Ronan, their leader; Scott, who’d just passed his Transition; and Francesca, who moved back and forth from this Shiftertown to Kendrick’s compound. So was Olaf, an orphaned polar bear cub who apparently couldn’t be persuaded to stay home.
“I want to fight too,” Olaf declared. He had white hair and the same dark, soulful eyes as Zander.
“Olaf, honey,” Carly called to him. “Why don’t you come here and help me take care of Seth?”
Olaf debated as he gazed from Dylan lining up Shifters, to Ben and Rhianne, and then to Carly.
“Okay.” Olaf trotted to the porch and bounded up the steps.
He was getting bigger every year, Ben reflected. In time, he’d be as huge as Zander. Wouldn’t that be fun?
“Rhianne,” Ben began.
Rhianne swung on him. “Don’t you dare tell me to stay behind while you strike out in this hopeless battle. I’m the only one here who knows how to fight a Tuil Erdannan. The method is, don’t fight them.”
Ben lifted his hands. “I was going to say, let’s stick together, kid. Or two is better than one.”
“Oh.”
Ben closed the space between them and caressed her flushed cheek. “You’re cute when you’re embarrassed.” He turned the touch into a caress and then a kiss. “But I really mean, let’s stick together. No flying off on your own, trying to take down your stepdad by yourself. I want you next to me, where I can protect
you.”
“That’s where I want to be. To protect you.” Rhianne raised his hand to her lips. “After … If there is an after …”
“We can talk about it when after happens, if there’s anything to talk about.” He shook his head. “I know that people like us don’t always get happily ever after. Sometimes all we can hope for is happy-for-now.”
“I am happy now.” Rhianne’s voice went soft. “Or I would be if my stepfather hadn’t decided to interfere.” Her expression changed to that of an annoyed Tuil Erdannan. “I’m growing a little tired of that.”
Ben grinned at her. “All right then. Let’s kick his ass.”
Rhianne’s answering smile held Shifter ferocity. “Let’s.”
“And then go out for ice cream.”
Rhianne considered this. “How about shrimp?” she asked, a roguish twinkle in her eyes.
She was adorable. “We’ll argue about that when the time comes,” Ben assured her. “Dylan? Where do you want us?”
* * *
Dylan formed the Shifters into a big circle around the ring of trees. They’d attack from all sides, he instructed. Shifter species were intermixed within squads, so that the strengths of each type of Shifter could be used to greatest advantage and the weaknesses of each guarded. Felines were swift, wolves savage and determined, and bears were just fucking big.
“I want everyone in Shifter or half-Shifter form.” Dylan gave his orders in a voice that could be heard through the crowd. “Whichever way helps you fight your best. You won’t have time for shifting once we start.”
Clothes fluttered from the Shifters who were still in human form, and soon the common filled with lions, leopards, wolves, bears, and the jaguar that was Spike.
The Guardians were held in the rear. If there were Shifter casualties, Guardians would be needed to quickly dispatch Shifter souls to the Summerland, the afterlife. Sobering thought.
Dylan also asked Andrea, who had some healing ability, and Zander, to remain behind.
Zander rumbled. “You need another bear, Dylan. They’re your strongest fighters, and sparse in this Shiftertown.”
“You’re the only one who can heal serious wounds,” Dylan reminded him. “If you’re taken out, who’s going to save me when I have my stomach ripped open?”
“We can’t risk you either, old timer,” Zander said.
Dylan sent him a deadpan stare but didn’t respond. “You have your orders,” he called to the others. “Form up.”
Shifters dispersed to take their positions.
“The Mongols did this,” Ben observed as he moved with Rhianne to the north point, where they’d been assigned. “Surrounded their target with strength and struck without remorse.”
“Who are the Mongols?” Rhianne began to unbutton her jeans to prepare to shift, which distracted Ben all to hell. “Do you think they could come to our aid?”
“This was more than eight hundred years ago,” Ben said in amusement. “But I have to say, the Mongols would be handy right now. The hoch alfar could take archery lessons from them. The problem is, the Mongols would then turn around and take over here. They perfected pillaging and plundering and not in a good way. I should know. I was there when they sacked Samarkand. Things I wish I’d never seen.” He grimaced, swiftly blocking out the memories.
Rhianne skimmed off her jeans then her T-shirt, and Ben forgot about the past, the present, and some of the future.
“Ivor will know we’re coming, if we can even get to him,” Rhianne said. “He’s probably watching now, sizing up the Shifters and deciding how to destroy them with the least amount of effort.”
“Most like.” Ben studied the center of the clearing, where the ley line came to a point at the gate. A similar point happened in the haunted house, but the house decided when it opened and shut.
Rhianne, clad only in camisole and panties, glanced about shyly. The Shifters around her ignored her, either already animal, or in various stages of undress, preparing to shift.
“You can hide behind me to take off the rest of it,” Ben told her. “Not that Shifters care.” He shuddered. “Geez, I hope I’m not around when they all shift back. Shifters forget about clothes after a while. A nerve-wracking sight, dozens of male Shifters walking around with their ding-a-lings out, pretending everything is normal.”
Rhianne shook with nervous laughter. “Their whats?”
“Their pride-and-joys,” Ben amended. “But use me as a tree if you’re bashful.”
Rhianne stepped behind Ben, who promised himself he’d not glance over his shoulder while she stripped out of her underwear.
Ben broke the promise almost immediately and admired Rhianne’s graceful body as she slid off the final pieces. The curve of her waist came into view, then the firmness of her breasts tipped with dark nipples.
Rhianne caught him looking, but she only flushed and didn’t admonish him.
“I’m not sure I can do it,” she whispered.
“Not sure you can do what?” Ben’s voice was hoarse.
“Shift. Without going insane, or forgetting I’m me. How do they do it so easily?”
She glanced at Broderick McNaughton and his brother Mason as they kicked off jeans and melted into the form of gray wolves.
“Practice.” Ben faced her. “You did it easily at the park in New Orleans.”
“Because all I could think about was saving you. I don’t know how to shift when it’s not instinctive.”
“Remember what I showed you at the house?” Ben took her hands. “Concentrate on each move, find every part of yourself. Flow with it.”
He placed himself in front of her, forcing himself not to look at her bare body. Her red lips parted, and Ben wanted nothing more than to kiss her, touch her, and take her down to the ground, to hell with the battle.
Ben held on to his self-control with difficulty and began the tai chi rhythm he’d taught her. Their hands went back and forth, Ben transferring energy to Rhianne, who then returned it to him. The connection between them filled his body with vitality.
Rhianne began to relax, to smile. Her eyes lost focus as she trained them on Ben, and her movements became more graceful.
What was a Tuil Erdannan deep down inside? Ben saw the truth in Rhianne’s eyes, a being of light, of pure energy, formed long ago into a shape that would make them slightly less terrifying. The shape caused others to underestimate them, to the others’ peril.
Mixed with the Tuil Erdannan effervescence was the more solid, earthy energy of the Shifter. Strength plus unimaginable magic.
The combination was deadly.
Ben realized that this combination was why Ivor wanted his hands on Rhianne. Ivor doubtless had discovered that Rhianne was half-Shifter, and he’d see in her a weapon he’d want to bring under his control.
If Ivor had Rhianne in his arsenal, he could be even more powerful than he already was.
This was why Ivor had helped Walther le Madhug kidnap Rhianne and try to force her into marriage. To breed more part-Shifter, part-Fae, part-Tuil Erdannan warriors.
The fury that thought unleashed had no equal. Ben growled, the terrifying beast inside him pushing to get out.
He held Rhianne’s gaze. “Let’s go end that bastard.”
Rhianne nodded once, then her head went back, and the beautiful eagle poured over her frame. Rhianne didn’t change like most Shifters, whose limbs and faces gradually morphed, ears and tails emerging. Instead, her body shimmered, feathers sprang forth, and the form of the eagle suddenly inhabited the space where she’d been.
She turned her head, studying Ben with her brown-black eyes, the flicker of Rhianne’s humor somewhere inside them.
The Shifters in the vicinity turned and stared. They’d never seen a raptor Shifter, and they were understandably curious.
Ben had to wonder about Rhianne’s true father. Had he been a raptor as well, an unknown Shifter species? Or had the Tuil Erdannan inside her bent her DNA and decided her Shifter shape?
/> Dylan barked an order, and the Shifters moved into formation. Inexact formation, it was true, because Shifters didn’t fight like ordinary soldiers. They remained in loose alignments, the better to fight the way each were best able.
Ben, the goblins, and Rhianne were in a group of their own. Ben had joked to Dylan that they didn’t have to pair up with Shifters to balance out strengths and weaknesses, because goblins had no weaknesses. Well, except for enormous egos, but they’d have to live with that. Dylan hadn’t laughed.
Dylan gave the final order to advance before tossing off the last of his clothes and shifting into a black-maned lion. Dylan as human showed signs of his age with graying hair and a few lines on his face, but the lion appeared as formidable and vigorous as his sons.
Dylan’s nearly three hundred years of existence could be seen in his eyes, however, the wisdom and experience he’d gained—as well as the pain—from leading his family through every tragedy and triumph of his long life.
Ben and the goblins remained in human form. They’d discussed things and decided not to change until the last minute, keeping their true abilities under wraps. Ben had also strapped to his arm a pad made of wadded up T-shirts Carly had brought him.
Rhianne fluttered upward and settled gently on Ben’s outstretched arm. She was about double the size of a wild golden eagle, and heavy, but she carefully gripped his arm in such a way that her talons wouldn’t gouge him.
“These are Tiger’s T-shirts,” Carly told Ben cheerfully before she withdrew.
“Great,” Ben answered. Rhianne had already torn through a few layers. “Which of us gets to explain this to him?”
Ben would be happy to see the big guy at all. Carly’s eyes had held strain when she’d spoken, but she hadn’t given up, Ben knew. She and Tiger had the mate bond, and she’d know if that had been broken.
The Last Warrior: Shifters Unbound Book 13 Page 24