by Cecilia Lane
Well, there was only one way to find out if he’d have a repeat of his episode. He stepped onto the deck and stripped out of his clothes. As soon as his feet left the bottom step, his shift started rippling through his body. Not even five feet from the cabin, a large bear lumbered into the woods.
The night was quiet when Ariadne slipped out of her home and locked the door behind her. She didn’t think anyone would come snooping around, but she couldn’t be too careful with her mother’s state.
She adjusted the pack on her back and let the darkness engulf her. She knew the trails by heart and could likely find her way to their private clearing in her sleep. The trail was left off the maps handed out to the resort guests, but she’d always been instructed to erase her visit anytime she went there to perform magic too large to be done at the altar in her room.
She remembered her first visit to the clearing. Her mother was asking for a break in the weather. Heavy snows had locked them in that winter. A couple witches were staying with them for a visit. They’d all trekked through the snow, Ari and Raina carried on the shoulders of the older women until the frozen trees had given way to a small clearing. A large circle had been drawn into the snow that covered the ground, then the women joined hands around it. Ari and Raina were too young to participate, but she remembered the snow stopped falling the next day.
Since then, she’d visited the clearing a handful of times. Her mother was still the matriarch of their tiny coven and handled most of the large magic. She and her sister were merely assistants. They would inherit all the tricks she recorded in her spell book after her death. She worried that would be sooner than later, now that Raina had left.
Ariadne paused at the edge of the clearing. The moon was high in the sky and illuminated the space. She wouldn’t even need to build a fire to work her intended summoning circle.
She let the sounds of the mountains wash over her and soothe away her frayed and angry nerves. She needed to be centered to practice her magic correctly. An angry witch could be an uncontrollable witch, her mother always warned. So she listened to the crickets making their music and the rustle of leaves in the gentle, midnight breeze.
Then she stepped into the clearing and unpacked her bag. It was time to take back her mountain from the half-animal abominations that had torn her family apart.
Ari crouched over the circle she scrawled in the dirt. Her mother’s spell book sat open at her side. She consulted the image drawn on the old page, then positioned candles just outside the lines of the large circle.
The knife tip dragged along the dirt. There was resistance to her flourish, as if something resisted the pull of the magic. She tightened her hand around the hilt and forced the tip to move and finish the sinuous design she copied from the book.
The rune complete, she struck a match and lit the bundle of herbs. Smoke puffed into the air and she inhaled deeply. It would cleanse the circle and draw out the snakes she wanted to summon, according to the notes scrawled in the margin. She waved the herbs over the circle. The lines faintly glowed under the smoke.
She touched the candlewicks to the burning herbs. They ignited immediately and she dripped wax into the circle before settling each candle back into position.
She concentrated on her need. The resort and surrounding mountainside should be free of shifters. She didn’t want to politely tell other guests that they must have imagined hearing a lion’s roar bouncing off the cliffs, or warn people to mind the bears in the woods.
She wanted her sister back. Shifters didn’t get to spout their true love garbage and run off with people without any care for the damage they left behind. Raina and her shifter had left her to deal with the fallout alone. Where were they when her mother fell into her state of silence? Gone like ghosts.
Her anger boiled through her. She tried to clamp it down, but it rose on its own. Too late, she tried to sit back from the circle.
The glowing lines flared brighter than before. It consumed the anger inside her. The circle stretched and grew. Eyes wide, Ariadne reached to snuff out the candles. The summoning circle was growing out of control and she needed to end it before something happened beyond her intent.
She was rebuffed when she tried to reach across the lines. It felt like an invisible column was in her way. The circle kept expanding. She scrambled around the barrier and tried to grab for the candles and end the circle.
A hiss froze her in mid-step. Slowly, she turned her head to the center of the summoning circle. She expected snakes. The circle was intended to summon snakes she could direct to infest the cabin and chase after the shifter. What she saw made her heart nearly stop beating.
Monstrous rats the size of small dogs crawled out of the dirt. Their eyes blazed red with the color of their home realm. The fur on their bodies was rotted away in spots to show muscle and bone. Half-decayed mouths snapped razor sharp teeth at her.
Goddess, protect her. Her simple circle of conjured snakes had taken on her anger and summoned demons.
Chase lumbered back toward his cabin in bear form. His limbs held the wondrous sore of being pushed to his limits. His bear had taken off into the woods as soon as paws touched earth. They’d run deep into the mountains and chased after some game.
The best part had been no blackouts of memory.
Now, tired and satisfied, the bear let Chase direct it back toward their den. They would sleep soundly for the rest of the night and see what awaited them on the regular trails the next day.
His paws crunching on leaves and twigs didn’t hide the sound of another person in the woods. His large head swiveled in the direction of the sound and his nostrils flared to catch any scent besides the earthy smell of trees and dirt. Strawberries and sweet cream entered his nose. The bear rumbled in appreciation; the new scent was simply intoxicating.
Large paws padded toward the sweet flavor filling his nose and rolling over his senses. The bear wanted to lap up the source, mark it as theirs, and never let it leave his sight. Their mate would undoubtedly be a perfect match.
Chase stopped in his tracks. Mate? Impossible. Definitely not in the middle of the woods.
The bear grumbled in response and tore control back from Chase. It took them on a careful course toward the scent. Caution was thrown out the window when a scream pierced the night.
Slow steps became a breakneck race toward whatever had distressed their mate. The bear dodged low branches and big tree trunks. There was no care if others heard their roars. Let the threat hear what danger was to come if one hair of their mate was harmed.
The bear dashed into the clearing and skidded to a stop. The night erupted with a bear’s roared fury at the decaying rats trying to climb the tree that held the waitress from the dining room. Her face was contorted with terror as she tried to fend off the little beasts.
Chase waded into the small pack of monsters, clawing and snapping at anything he could reach. The little demons smoked where fangs and claws struck. They hissed and scratched, but weren’t able to penetrate the thick fur coating his body. Just their attempt infuriated him and the bear. The monsters should know when they were bested, but still they tried to swarm over their attacker.
Closing firm jaws around one demon, Chase tried to ignore the acidic taste that flooded over his tongue. The demon went limp with a quick shake of his head, then faded away into smoke that stung his eyes. He slashed out again at the ones biting his ankles and managed to send two more into puffs of smoke. He grabbed and shook as many as he could reach until all but one had vanished into stinging smoke.
The last still climbed toward the treed woman. It didn’t even turn to see the death that approached it from behind. Chase growled and smacked it away from the tree trunk with one of his large paws. The thing shrieked as if flew into the night, slowly dissolving into smoke.
Chase huffed in large breaths of air. Even though the monsters were gone, they left behind an ugly smell. His bear wanted to cough and gag on the thick stench of death that filled their nose
.
He had time now to really take in the scene. The bear raised its lips in a snarl and took several steps backward. The shapes drawn in the dirt were scuffed; candles were snuffed out and on their sides. What he’d been standing on and fighting over was a circle commonly used by one type of paranormal. Witch.
Those hadn’t been just regular animals that were attacking her. The circle, their decayed state, how they disappeared into smoke… He may not be up to date on his Agency-sponsored training, but he knew a demon when he saw one. Summoning the beasts from their plane of existence was forbidden by the Agency.
One scent filtered through like a burst of fresh air. The huge bear’s head swiveled again and focused on the woman slowly descending from the tree. He inhaled and caught the unmistakable scent of magic. The intoxicating flavor was what wafted off any witch. Identifying it made him want to recoil.
Chase growled when she started to dart away and she stopped all movement. The stinging scent of fear hit his nose and he ignored the flash of guilt from his bear. The beast had no problem with her actions—it’d enjoyed the fight and wanted more, but only after it covered the woman in their scent.
Chase had other ideas. He needed to take the woman into custody and make a report to the Agency. Rogue witches wouldn’t be tolerated, even if they were mates.
He pushed his bear back and started his bodily transformation. He couldn’t very well make a call with bear vocal cords. While his growl held her in place, it wasn’t enough. She needed to be told she was being detained.
His joints cracked and popped, muscles snapping and mending in new places. His fur receded and revealed his skin, though a thick thatch of dark hair remained on his head and face. He rose from a crouch and rolled his shoulders, unembarrassed by his nakedness. He could snag clothes when he took her into his cabin for questioning.
His bear rumbled with excitement at bringing the witch back to their den, temporary as it was. Chase pushed the thought aside and locked it firmly away with the observations of her delicious scent and gorgeous curves.
There was no possible way his mate would be a witch, and a criminal at that.
The shifter stomped toward her with fury etched on his face. Ariadne backed away from him with unsteady steps. Her retreat halted when her back hit a tree trunk. She wanted to dart up the tree again, as she had when the lesser demons attacked, but he was a bear. His horrendous claws would let him easily follow her.
She tried to ignore his body, but that was like being submerged and ignoring the water all around her. It was impossible not to take stock of how he towered over her, or the strong muscles roping his body. She’d never imagined someone could have so much definition on his torso: hard planes of muscles were lined with dips between the slabs. Even his hips were lined with mouth-watering indents that arrowed straight toward his…
Ari jerked her eyes upward and felt a blush color her face. It wasn’t the only part of her responding to him. Her nipples tightened under her shirt at what she absolutely did not spy on her inspection.
It didn’t matter if she’d gawked at him or not. The shifter’s scowl appeared permanently carved on his face.
“You’re in violation of Arcane Affairs Agency code that states there will be no summoning of demons into our world. You’re being taken into custody.” The shifter growled.
Oh, hell. Not only was he a shifter, but he was one of those traitors, too? Arcane Affairs agents betrayed all the paranormals by trying to stick their noses where they didn’t belong. They were all for regulating what they didn’t understand. Hers was exactly a case of lack of knowledge on the part of some supposed expert. As if she’d ever trust a shifter to understand the affairs of a witch.
“I did no such thing!” She planted her hands on her hips and glared at him. She tried to keep her attention on his face. He may be utterly gorgeous, but he was a shifter and an agent trying to arrest her. She didn’t have time for admitting attraction.
“I saw the demons. The evidence of the circle is right under our feet. Are you really going to deny what’s right in front of me?” His eyes flared with a hint of gold. His bear was watching as closely as the human.
“I’m not denying I was summoning something. But I didn’t intend for demons to come through. I was trying to summon—“ She bit off her words before she could finish the sentence. He already wanted to take her into custody. She doubted her intention of summoning snakes to drive him out of her resort would go over well.
But he caught her cessation. He crossed his arms over his chest and arched an eyebrow. “Summon what?”
She’d been caught. There were no laws against summoning things from this world, no matter how much the Agency wanted to meddle. The covens put up a stink when they tried to regulate individual spells and their member on the Council was forced to agree. But she stood little chance convincing the agent holding her captive of her innocence. She’d rather take her chances escalating her concerns up to the Council.
Ari raised her chin and set her jaw, determined not to speak another word. But as she did so, a glow behind the shifter caught her attention.
Her eyes widened and she leaned around him to get a better look. She hadn’t imagined things when she saw a glow from behind him. The circle, which should have been broken during the scuffle, had reformed. The edges glowed and a hand shot through the middle.
“Uh…” she pointed around him.
“Listen to me!” He growled and ignored her. “What were you trying to summon if it wasn’t those little rats?”
“Really, look.” She jabbed her finger around his bulk.
He turned just as another hand shot through the dirt. Bony fingers dug into the ground and hauled something forward. The markings of the summoning circle shifted and broke as a head crested into the world. The bony fingers led to bony arms that crept forward and hauled more and more of the body from the ground.
The shifter approached the demon coming into the world, but it was too late. It planted its hands at either side and pushed the rest of its body into the mortal realm.
It was an ugly monster. Shaped like a human, but obviously not, the thing was tall and gangly without a hint of bulky muscle to it. Whip-thin and with limbs far too long, it made even a casual glance uncomfortable. Wispy strands of white hair clung to the narrow skull. It was covered in feathers and the sharp, long nose resembled a beak.
Ari grudgingly respected the shifter when it squared off against the demon. He bounced on the balls of his feet and launched a powerful punch straight for the demon’s face, but the demon simply ducked and stepped into the shifter’s space. With movement too quick for her to track, the demon sent the shifter sprawling.
Her blood froze when it turned red eyes on her.
“You must be the little witch that stole my pretties.”
The demon’s voice rasped like dead leaves against a tin roof. The sound of it triggered a shiver that ran through her body. She chewed on her lip. Demons were dangerous creatures that wanted to come into the world and make it their own. Only, that meant the death and destruction of everything that lived. If she said the wrong words, it could enslave her magic and make her a servant in its horrible mission.
The demon cocked its head at her. Its bloodless lips curled into a smile that revealed pointed teeth. “Speak, girl. You stole from my legions.”
Legions. Ari tried to hide her shock. Greater demons controlled legions. Goddess, protect her and the rest of the world from what she’d brought forth.
“There’s no denying it, witch. The shifter doesn’t have power over me and mine. You took what was mine!” Its screech made her fall to her knees and press her hands to her ears in agony.
“You killed my pretties. I will have something of yours before I destroy your world. It’ll be your gift to me.”
The shifter struggled to his feet and wiped his mouth on the back of his hand. Relief flooded through Ariadne. At least his death wasn’t on her hands.
Her relief was short l
ived. The greater demon stretched out his hand and her mother’s spell book flew through the air. The demon flipped through the pages then inhaled along the spine of the book. “Ah, yes. This isn’t yours. But the witch who made it will be mine.”
The demon curled its bloodless lips into another horrifying smirk, snapped its long fingers, and vanished into thin air.
Chapter Four
“No!” Ariadne lurched forward, arm outstretched to where the demon had stood only a blink of an eye before. But of course, it was gone. Even the summoning circle had disappeared, all traces of the lines she drew trying to summon snakes scrubbed off the dirt.
She didn’t spare another glance at the shifter and instead took off toward her home. Her mother had written the spell book over her entire life. It contained all the recipes and incantations she’d perfected from her own mother. And now the demon was using it to locate the witch who penned it.
Her mother had no means of defending herself. She’d been silent since Raina disappeared with her shifter. Ari had only heard the whispers of her moving in her room, but never caught sight of her except in her bed or staring out her window.
Panic urged her legs faster than she’d ever run before. She ignored the sting in her lungs and the ache in her side. She couldn’t be bothered giving in to the weakness of her unfit body when her mother’s life was on the line.
She heard cursing behind her. Of course, the shifter was after her. She darted a look over her shoulder. He was so much bigger and stronger than her, but she didn’t expect him to already be so close. She dodged between some tree trunks to try throwing him off, but he simply rebounded and kept after her.
Still, she ran. Let him catch her. She needed to get home and protect her mother.
His fingers caught her shoulder and spun her around. Breathing hard, she could only glare when she wanted to call him every name in the book and make up a few more for good measure.