But really there was nothing any of us could do. Holly’s body had to do the work on its own. We were maybe fifteen minutes out of Berkley’s Bay when it became obvious that it couldn’t. Holly was scrunched up against the car door, knees up, legs spread wide. The contractions were coming so fast there was hardly any break between them, and she was grunting like an animal in pain.
“There’s blood on the seat,” Syl shouted, panic in her voice.
“There’s always blood,” I said, as if I knew what I was talking about, but I turned around for a quick look anyway. The back seat looked like the scene of a massacre. “Just hang on. We’re nearly there.”
But not nearly enough.
“I keep pushing,” Holly panted, “but nothing’s happening.” She finished on a wail that turned into a howl.
“Oh, no you don’t!” I pulled off the highway with a screech of brakes that sent the gravel of the shoulder spraying from under my tyres. “Holly, you have to stay human!”
I flung open the car door and was hit by the smell of petrol and burnt rubber. I yanked Syl’s door open.
“You drive.”
Syl scrambled out, only too happy to leave Holly to me. I climbed in to find thick dark hairs sprouting on Holly’s arms and bare legs.
“Holly! Stay with me!”
But she couldn’t hear me, lost in pain. Her wolf was frightened and it wanted out. Faster than you could say My, what big teeth you have, I was sharing the back seat with a terrified wolf that would be only too happy to spread that pain around.
Syl took off with a squeal of tyres, and I lurched toward the wolf. It snarled at me, all its hackles standing up.
*Holly!* I slammed into her mind. Rude of me, I know, but the situation was about to turn ugly. *Holly, get a grip! I know it hurts, but you need to let me help you.*
“Umm, Lexi?” Syl said. “I think we’re being followed.”
17
I risked a quick peek out the back window. There was a car back there, not close enough to identify the people in it, but moving a lot faster than the speed limit.
Damn it. We were so close to safety. But I couldn’t think about it with a werewolf writhing and howling on the seat next to me. Her claws were ripping into my legs even through my jeans. I certainly wouldn’t be able to help her while she was in this state.
*Holly, come on. There’s no way you can push a human baby out of a wolf’s body.* Just thinking about the logistics of that made me wince. This child wouldn’t be able to shapeshift until it was a couple of years old at least. I just hoped its mother changing forms hadn’t harmed it. *You’ve got to change back.*
The wolf shook her head, as if she could dislodge me from her mind that way. She squinted her yellow eyes against the rush of wind from the broken driver’s window and growled at me. I persisted, talking to her through the link until the crazy faded from her eyes and she finally answered.
*Is that you, Lexi? How are you doing that?*
*Never mind now. Long story. Right now I need you to take human form again so I can help you have this baby. I don’t want to lose a hand here.*
The wolf’s body shivered back into human shape. Holly half-lay across the seat, panting.
“Let me have a look.” That was what they did in the movies, right? And then they popped up and said in a cheery voice, I can see the head! Not much longer now.
And I could see a head, just the very top of it, smeared with blood and gunk. Another contraction seized Holly. Her face went bright red as she pushed, but that little head didn’t budge.
Holly collapsed against the seat, panting, when the contraction was over. “It’s stuck, isn’t it?”
“I’ve heard that first babies can take a long time.” Maybe this was all perfectly normal. How the hell would I know?
I checked out the back window again. The car, a dark four-wheel drive, was a lot closer now. I recognised the farmland on either side of the road. The turn-off to Berkley’s Bay wasn’t far now.
“Go faster, Syl.”
“What?” The wind buffeting through her broken window made it hard for her to hear.
“Faster!”
“I don’t think I can.” She clutched the wheel so tightly her knuckles were white.
The back window shattered and the car swerved wildly as Syl jerked the wheel in surprise.
“Are they shooting at us?” she screamed, her voice coloured with equal parts disbelief and outrage. The car leapt forward as she discovered that, actually, she could go faster. Holly and I were littered with fragments of safety glass; I brushed them off as best I could.
Poor Holly was oblivious, lost in her own world of pain.
“You’ve got to get it out, Lexi. I can’t stand it!”
Holy hell. This was a nightmare. I leaned through the seats and shook Jake roughly. He’d stirred when Syl had thrown him against the door with her wild manoeuvres, but he was still groggy.
“Jake! Wake up! We need you.”
I nearly fell off the seat as Syl swerved again, though no one was firing at us anymore.
“Ice!” she screamed. “There’s ice on the road. Hold on!”
The car fishtailed wildly. Holly and I were thrown around the back seat like balls in a pinball machine. Ice? Warm spring sunshine was beating down outside. Where the hell had ice come from?
Jake roused, and flame leapt from his fingertips through the open window. Syl jerked her head back in surprise as fire licked past her nose. Clouds of steam boiled up from the road surface as Jake’s flames dissolved the ice.
He swivelled around in his seat, then threw a fireball out the gaping hole where the back window had been. It made a very satisfying whump! as it exploded on the car behind us. I stuck my head up long enough to see Anders hanging out the passenger side window, putting out flames with a stream of water from the irrigation ditches in the fields that were flashing past.
Holly wailed like a soul in torment, flinging her head from side to side. “Get it out. Get it out.”
If Jake’s gods were watching, I hoped they helped me now. I huddled between her knees, trying to get my fingers around the slippery little head. There was a lot of blood. I didn’t want to add to Holly’s pain, but there’s just no delicate way of getting your hand inside someone else’s body.
“Throw some more fireballs,” I urged Jake, my fingers already cramping at the odd position. The baby’s head was so tiny, and I was terrified of hurting it. “Keep them occupied. We’re nearly there.”
Even as I spoke, Syl took the turn-off to town, tyres squealing. Jake threw another fireball, but it was smaller than the last, and he was sweating with effort, his face so pale he looked like he was about to pass out. But I couldn’t worry about him now. I was sweating too, with the responsibility of delivering this baby safely. I pulled gently, trying to guide the baby’s head.
Another contraction rocked Holly, rippling across her distended belly.
“Push now,” I said. “As hard as you can. I’ll pull.”
Holly grunted with effort, a sound that bordered on a growl. Hair sprouted on her legs. I slapped her face hard, leaving a bloody handprint on her cheek.
“Stay human,” I snapped. “You can do this, Holly.”
We needed some werewolves here, to help her control herself. We needed Joe. If only I had another pair of hands I could ring him. But I was fully occupied with Holly, Jake was focused on fighting off Anders’ attacks, and Syl had her hands full keeping the car on the road. Anders kept trying with the ice, though so far Jake had managed to melt everything he threw at us. There was no point in him pitting his own flames against Jake’s, since he was a weaker fireshaper—although if Jake’s strength kept fading he might stand a chance.
He seemed to come to the same conclusion. A fireball came so close before Jake batted it away that I felt scorching heat all down my arm and the side of my face through the gaping hole of the back window. The smell of burnt hair hung in the air. My skin prickled with heat, as if I’d
spent all day laying in the sun.
I glanced at Jake with real alarm. Sweat streamed down his ashen face.
“Too close, Jake! Melt their car or something.”
He gritted his teeth and diverted another fireball. “Not enough. Power. Left.”
As we rocketed down the main street of town I felt a rush of warmth over my hands. Holly was pushing again, the veins in her forehead standing out with the effort. The warmth on my hands was her blood.
She’d torn, but the head was out.
“Almost there, Holly. You’re doing great.”
She nodded, too exhausted to speak.
We roared past the supermarket, the four-wheel drive right on our tail.
“Where to?” Syl asked. “I can’t shake them.”
If only it wasn’t daytime, I’d run to Alberto. There weren’t many shifters that could take on a shaper, but I reckoned Alberto had a fighting chance against Anders. But it was ten o’clock in the morning. Bright daylight, so Alberto wasn’t an option. We’d have to rely on our own resources.
“Home,” I said. “Let’s get Holly and her baby to Joe.”
The speeding cars were turning heads all down the street. People came out of shops to look as we passed. But it wasn’t the people I was interested in. I began to reach out, gathering those “resources” with my mind even as I nodded encouragement at Holly.
“One more big push. Time to meet your baby.”
She reached down, felt the damp head. It seemed to give her renewed determination. When the contraction seized her she bore down with all her remaining strength. After all those hours of effort, the last bit seemed almost easy. The baby slithered out onto the back seat in a rush of blood and other fluid.
Oh, my God. It was so tiny, so red and wrinkled and perfect.
“It’s a girl.” My eyes met Holly’s in a shared moment of joy and wonder that ended abruptly as the car behind rammed us.
I grabbed for the baby as we were all jolted forward. Syl screamed and stomped on the brake. Not one of her better ideas. The car hit us again and we were shunted sideways. I clutched the tiny body against my chest, bracing myself against the back of the seat in front. We spun through three hundred and sixty degrees and slammed sideways into a wall with a noise like the end of the world.
Okay, so maybe it was a good thing after all that Syl had braked.
It took me a long moment to realise we’d stopped. My ears were ringing. I looked down at the baby in my arms, still attached by the cord to its mother. It opened dark, slitted eyes and gazed up at me in indignation. Then it opened its mouth and wailed, a high-pitched cry that sounded more like something that should have come out of a kitten’s mouth than a human’s.
“You okay?” I asked Holly, and she nodded, reaching for the baby. “Syl? Jake?”
Syl groaned, but Jake lay still. I shook him, heart in my mouth. He didn’t look hurt, but there’d been something wrong ever since the fight in the plaza. Lucky he was a shaper, and I didn’t care whether he lived or died.
I shook the bastard harder. I was a terrible liar. Even I thought so. Somehow in the last twenty-four hours of fighting with him and fighting alongside him (and maybe even during the kissing bit, if I was really honest with myself) I’d come to care what happened to one shaper, at least.
Someone wrenched open the door next to me with a shriek of metal. A gun appeared in the opening.
“Out,” said a voice.
I obeyed, staggering a little as I found my feet. The hand holding the gun belonged to Mason, the lion shifter. Behind me, Holly groaned. There was still the placenta to deliver. I risked a look back and saw a black cat dart away from the wreck. The car sat half on the footpath and half on the street, rammed up against the pub. Alberto was not going to be pleased at those cracks in his façade when he woke tonight.
“Move.” Mason prodded me away from the car. I put my hands up and moved. Anders stood in the middle of the road, wreathed in fire, a smug expression on his face.
The street, which had been full of people, rapidly emptied at sight of the fireshaper. No one interfered with shaper justice in a shaper town. Syl would find Joe, and the wolves would come, but even they wouldn’t take on a shaper in a straight fight.
Luckily I had a few tricks up my sleeve. This fight would be as dirty as they came.
18
Did I mention that Berkley’s Bay was a seaside town? Seagulls were always hanging around, stealing food from the tourists, squawking and fighting over every scrap of fish from the trawlers, and generally crapping on everything like pigeons on steroids. For the last few minutes I’d been gathering a storm of seagulls—a veritable tornado of seagulls—ready to drop on Anders’ unsuspecting but very deserving head.
Admittedly, the fire would be a problem for them, and I felt bad about that, but there was a time for soft and fluffy animal love, and there was a time for protecting what mattered. Holly and her baby needed me. Jake needed me. Some time when I had more time to think about that, I’d be all kinds of screwed up about feeling protective of a shaper. I didn’t know quite what I felt for that hot flamethrower, but I’d walk over burning coals to save him from Anders.
Although, come to think of it, I’d walk over burning coals to save my worst enemy from Anders. Assuming I had an enemy worse than Anders himself, that is. And I had no time to analyse my feelings for a certain blue-eyed shaper, with Anders smirking at me like that. He was tossing something up in the air, then catching it in one flaming hand, over and over—something that glinted gold in the morning sun as it tumbled through the air. Its twin rode in my pocket even now.
“It’s quite a good copy, you know,” he said conversationally. The ring flashed and turned in the air. “If it hadn’t started to melt in that fire you threw it into, I might have gone on believing it was the real thing for some time. I must compliment Steele before I kill him.”
“What are you talking about?” Might as well keep him talking. It would give Joe more time to get here.
“This ring you gave me. It’s not the original.”
I shrugged. “You said get the ring from the Ruby Adept’s safe. That’s it. Maybe he didn’t know it was a copy.”
“You think the Ruby Adept wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between a fake and the avatar of Apollo?”
The avatar of Apollo? Holy shit. That sounded kind of serious.
“So maybe he kept it as a decoy, and the real one’s somewhere else.”
A black cat poked its head around the corner of a building behind Anders.
“Bullshit. You know how many metalshapers could make a copy of that ring?”
“Probably most of them.”
*What’s happening, Syl?* Between Anders and keeping the seagulls at the ready, I didn’t want to split my attention too many ways. I just needed a quick update. *Found Joe yet?*
*We’re in the alley next to Tegan’s salon. Tegan’s here too, and Norma and Ray are on their way.*
Anders moved closer and I took an involuntary step back, my eyes on those flames.
“Since Hephaistos was killed? Probably only a handful of them,” he said. “And do you know how many of those came to the Plaza this morning to arrest me?” He took another step closer. “Just the one.”
Behind me, the baby cried again. No other sound. Now would be a really good time for Jake to wake up and light a fire under Anders, but it didn’t seem like I was going to get that wish. Shifters and seagulls were better than nothing, but I’d have felt more confident about taking on Anders with a shaper on my side.
Time to stop stalling and bite the bullet, before he and his flames got any closer to the people I was trying to protect. Nobody else was going to die in a fireshaper’s flames because of me.
“Okay, you got me. Jake copied the ring and palmed off the fake on you.”
“And where’s the real one?”
“In the Ruby Adept’s safe, where it should be. You’re in kind of a lot of trouble, actually. I don’t th
ink your boss is very happy with you.”
It was like standing in front of a bonfire. The parts of me that faced him stung with heat, while my back was cold. My burned wrist throbbed in sympathy, reminding me just how nasty it could be to get on a fireshaper’s bad side. This tête-à-tête was getting too hot to handle. I sent the call out to my gathered flock.
“I hope for your sake you’re lying,” he said. “If I don’t get that ring right now, a lot of people are going to die, starting with your werewolf friend.”
That was it. I was done taking shit from fireshapers. I dropped a frothing whirlwind of sharp beaks and frenzied wings on his head.
He threw up his arms, shooting flames into the sky, but some got through. The noise was unbelievable: the roar of flame, the thunder of wings, the raucous screeching of hundreds of seagulls. Mason started shooting, so I threw some birds at him too, and he dropped his gun to cover his face and head instead.
Joe and Tegan burst from the alley. Tegan made a beeline for the car, but Joe stopped to deliver a punch that dropped Mason like a stone.
“Get Holly out of here!” I shouted over the uproar, and he nodded, his face grim. I wondered how much Syl had told him of what his wife had been through.
I lunged for Mason’s gun, but a bolt of fire melted it to slag before I could reach it. I danced back as another bolt seared the ground at my feet. A few brave birds still dive-bombed Anders, but most had either fled or lay smoking on the street.
I glanced wildly around. Joe had Holly in his arms, while Tegan carried their tiny newborn. Anders threw a wall of flame that stopped the little group in its tracks. He had white feathers in his hair, and a pissed-off expression on his blood-streaked face.
“Last chance,” he said. “Give me the ring.”
I cast around for allies, but animals are smart. All the locals had fled the scene of the battle. None were close enough to help me now. I had the feeling Anders wouldn’t wait much longer. But what could I do? If I gave him the ring, he’d still kill everyone. There seemed no way out.
Stolen Magic (Shadows of the Immortals Book 1) Page 17