Nine Tails 5: Void Shift

by J. L. Weil

  Void Shift

  Nine Tails Series Book Five

  J. L. Weil

  Dark Magick Publishing, LLC

  Contents

  Also by J. L. Weil

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Read more by J. L. Weil

  About the Author

  Also by J. L. Weil

  DRAGON DESCENDANTS SERIES

  (Upper Teen Reverse Harem Fantasy)

  Stealing Tranquility

  Absorbing Poison

  Taming Fire

  Thawing Frost

  THE DIVISA SERIES

  (Full series completed – Teen Paranormal Romance)

  Losing Emma: A Divisa novella

  Saving Angel

  Hunting Angel

  Breaking Emma: A Divisa novella

  Chasing Angel

  Loving Angel

  Redeeming Angel

  LUMINESCENCE TRILOGY

  (Full series completed – Teen Paranormal Romance)

  Luminescence

  Amethyst Tears

  Moondust

  Darkmist – A Luminescence novella

  RAVEN SERIES

  (Full series completed – Teen Paranormal Romance)

  White Raven

  Black Crow

  Soul Symmetry

  BEAUTY NEVER DIES CHRONICLES

  (Teen Dystopian Romance)

  Slumber

  Entangled

  Forsaken

  NINE TAILS SERIES

  (Teen Paranormal Romance)

  First Shift

  Storm Shift

  Flame Shift

  Time Shift

  Void Shift

  Spirit Shift

  HAVENWOOD FALLS HIGH

  (Teen Paranormal Romance)

  Falling Deep

  Ascending Darkness

  SINGLE NOVELS

  Starbound

  (Teen Paranormal Romance)

  Casting Dreams

  (New Adult Paranormal Romance)

  Ancient Tides

  (New Adult Paranormal Romance)

  For an updated list of my books, please visit my website: www.jlweil.com

  Join my VIP email list and I’ll personally send you an email reminder as soon as my next book is out! Click here to sign up: www.jlweil.com

  Chapter One

  God, I was sick of fast food, lumpy beds, and stiff blankets that smelled like an ashtray. I didn’t want to know what the dark stains on the carpet were. Never had I imagined I would hate the smell of pizza, but the thought was enough to make my stomach roll. If I never ate another slice again, it would be too soon. I’d die for my mom’s home-cooked Yakisoba with chicken right now.

  My mouth actually watered at the memory—so vivid, I could almost taste the sweet and savory noodles. I might have moaned.

  “Are you okay?” Devyn asked. The sexy Shaman sat in the driver's seat of our rental car, window down with the wind blowing his obsidian hair and the midday sun turning his flawless skin a warm gold. It was impossible to not get up hung on that face.

  “I’m fine,” I assured him, smiling.

  It was a lie.

  Devyn knew it as well.

  Damn magical Shaman bond.

  Devyn was tied to me by a connection I didn’t fully understand, but it made him the world’s best bodyguard. The sole reason for his birth was to protect me with his life. If I had been raised on the Second Moon, we would have grown up together and formed a bond that went beyond human relationships. He would have been more than a friend. A confidant. A teacher. A protector.

  But never a lover.

  That was a line Shamans didn’t cross. Ever.

  The gods should have thought about that before they made Devyn so goddamn attractive and tempting and perfect. It was pointless to deny I didn’t feel something for him because my body went all kinds of haywire when he was near. When he smiled, I about fell at his feet. When he called me kitten, I all but purred.

  I didn’t want to be just Devyn’s friend. Oh, no. I wanted to claim him.

  That was the most possessive thought I’d ever had about a guy, and it gave me pause. Did I really feel that way about him, like I’d snarl at any female who looked too long? Did I think of Devyn as mine? Was it the fox in me who wanted to stake her claim to the one male who’d become so vital to my life?

  Even if any of that were true, I had more pressing problems to deal with. My love life was going to have to take second place . . . said no eighteen-year-old ever.

  I shoved the half-eaten pizza into the backseat feeling frustrated, lonely, and pissed off.

  “Watch it,” a high-pitched voice said. Belle. I’d forgotten she was in the backseat dozing. She was so tiny that Devyn’s discarded black hoodie hid her and the seats dwarfed her, but what she lacked in size, she made up for in personality.

  My head turned toward her over my shoulder. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t see you.”

  “Story of my life,” the little pixie muttered, unfurling her iridescent wings for a stretch after being curled against her back. “Are we almost there?”

  “Almost where?” I added dryly. We’d been in the car for hours—another thing I was sick of. Road trips, as it turns out, weren’t my jam.

  Devyn slid me a sideways glance. “This won’t last forever,” he assured us, his eyes returning to the long road spanning out in front of us.

  “I thought this was going to be fun,” Belle pouted, fluttering up from the backseat to land on my shoulder.

  “Don’t make me flick you into the windshield,” Devyn warned, frowning. “No one is forcing you to stay.”

  Driving in close quarters for hours with the two of them was becoming perilous. “Maybe we should stop for the night,” I suggested, giving Belle a warning glare to not push Devyn’s buttons.

  “Soon,” he replied.

  A few miles went by before I felt those piercing eyes of Devyn’s on me again, brimming with what I detected as concern. I thought I was holding it together pretty well considering all the shit that had happened to me in the last few months.

  One day at a time.

  I had accepted that it could be a long time before I went home or that I might never go home, and I had to lock up those hard emotions. At this rate, I didn’t know how much more room I had inside me to store those feelings. It was getting pretty cramped in that internal box.

  I snuck a glance at Devyn and nearly sighed, my pulse fluttering with adoration. I was more or less in love with the forbidden Shaman. Admitting what my heart felt to myself or to him wouldn’t change our positions or our duties. I might be willing to break the rules, but Devyn was a warrior of honor. His oath to protect me came before anything else, including his feelings.

  “Please tell me you’re not daydreaming about what the Shaman looks like naked,” Belle whispered. She played the part of both angel and devil in my ear most days.

  I coughed, my cheeks flaming with color at being caught gawking at Devyn. I was going to wring that pixie’s neck.

  Devyn winked at me, unleashing a devilish grin. “I don’t mind if you stare.” His ridiculous hearing meant, whispering or not, he heard everything the pixie had said.

  “I wasn’t staring,” I replied, folding my arms.

  The smirk on his full lips grew.

  Damn arrogant prick.

  Belle’s wings beat inside the car as she flew toward the dash and fussed with the radio
dial. “Your taste in music sucks,” she told Devyn.

  He lifted his fingers and moved them toward the pixie’s back in a position to flick her. My hand shot out, quickly covering his with my own. “Don’t you think about it,” I warned him with a hint of a smile on my lips.

  “She just insulted the Eagles.”

  I rolled my eyes. Devyn’s warped sense of humor made my lips quirk.

  Belle, oblivious to her near-death splatter, said, “If I have to listen to ‘Hotel California’ one more time . . .”

  If only we were in California, so close to home, then perhaps I wouldn’t feel as lost and confused as I did in this unfamiliar country.

  Belle’s hands went to her tiny hips. “They don’t have anything on Tupac.”

  Devyn’s brows scrunched together. “We’re ditching her at the next stop.”

  The pixie made a humph noise in the back of her throat, flipped her flaming red hair, and returned to searching for a radio station that didn’t sound like static.

  It was six o’clock by the time we found a place that Devyn deemed remote enough for us to spend the night at. I groaned at the hot pink vacancy sign, the neon Y burnt out. My enthusiasm was at an all-time low. I needed a plan, a course of action besides just running. And I needed a goddamn bed that wasn’t as hard as a rock.

  Who thought being a nomad would be so . . . hard?

  Gone were the days of plush pads in Switzerland. Cheap hotels in off-grid cities awaited us. I didn’t even know what country we were in, least of all what city.

  I was acting like a spoiled princess, but I hadn’t been raised to fight faes or save other worlds. I’d been raised to be a nice girl, go to school, and get good grades that would get me into a respectable college, not shift into a fox on a mission to earn nine tails so I could cure my mom and save a world I’d never stepped foot on.

  Yep. My life was a freaking fantasy novel.

  But I was no hero.

  That role definitely went to Devyn St. Cyr.

  God, his name alone made my heart patter a hundred times faster.

  Devyn scanned the parking lot as he pulled in, searching for any signs of non-mortal danger. He took care of securing us a room, paying in cash, and came back to the car with a key dangling from his finger. His eyes sparkled with mischief. “I hope you like room service.”

  Hope flickered inside me. “You’re kidding. This place actually has food?”

  “No. I just wanted to see you smile. We’re sharing a bed.”

  Wonderful.

  Another night of restless sleep.

  Sharing a bed with Devyn was wreaking havoc on my body. “You’ll pay for that, St. Cyr,” I said with plans of vengeance on my mind.

  He winked, putting the car into drive. “Add it to the list.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Just park the car so I can get out and stretch my legs. I think they’ve gone numb.” My Kitsune was itching for a run somewhere secluded and wooded like those trees at the edge of the hotel property. They looked inviting but troublesome—the perfect place for faes to attack.

  The car came to a halt in front of the ranch-style building, door 201. I opened the car door and unfolded my legs, stretching my arms over my head. An evening breeze smelling of pine tickled my nose, and I let out a slow breath.

  Devyn arched a brow, seeing the expression of longing on my face. “It’s been days since your last shift.”

  “I know,” I replied. “But I’m too tired tonight.”

  He slung a pack over his shoulder, the setting sun at his back. “You’re going to need to practice. You need to sharpen your abilities, not to mention your fighting skills.”

  I shot him a sweet smile beaming with wickedness. “Isn’t that why I have you?”

  “Precisely. To kick your butt into shape.”

  My lips turned down. “That’s not what I had in mind.”

  “I know,” he said, sticking the key into the lock and turning until it clicked open. He rotated the handle and pushed as the three of us stood outside looking in.

  Other than the stench of dust and mothballs, the first thing I noticed was the gross stain on the rug. How hard was it to get the carpets cleaned? I stepped over the rust-colored spot on the floor and threw my bag on the bed. Belle zoomed in alongside me, darting in a flurry of sparkles from one wall to the other, scoping out the room before landing on the TV.

  “I’m taking a shower,” I announced. “My hair reeks of pizza.” I swore it was oozing from my pores. I pulled out a clean shirt and shorts from my bag before walking to the bathroom. I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to leave Belle and Devyn alone, but at the moment, the only thing I cared about was a hot shower. I hoped this place had water pressure hard enough to make my skin pink.

  There was nothing special or memorable about the motel bathroom, just a sink, a toilet, and a tub with a shower. It had all the necessities, including a hairy spider hanging out on the wall. Too tired to care about sharing my space with the eight-legged creature, I turned on the water and stripped, letting my clothes fall to the floor.

  Things could have been worse.

  The water was hot, to my delight, and the familiar scent of my shampoo and body wash helped ease the sad ache in my chest. I lingered in the shower, sorting through all that I was feeling, hoping to wash away the cloud of homesickness that had darkened over my head the last few days.

  Devyn getting hurt had really put shit into perspective. Without the Shaman, I was doomed. My mom was doomed. Hell, the world was doomed.

  The night he was stabbed, the realization of how important he’d become to my life had shocked me like a thousand volts of electricity singeing my blood. And although I’d been able to turn back the hands of time and save him from that fatal blow, the memory of it haunted me night and day.

  It haunted Devyn as well. His dreams were restless more often than not.

  Smearing the foggy mirror with my hand, I stared at my reflection, taking in my gaunt cheeks and thinning face. Mom would take one look at me and force bowl after bowl of miso ramen down me until she was satisfied I was well fed.

  It wasn’t that I was starving myself. No, that wasn’t it at all. I just didn’t have an appetite, and the sleepless nights were starting to show.

  I twisted my long, dark hair into a single braid and left the steam-filled bathroom in my borrowed T-shirt. I’d taken to stealing Devyn’s shirts to sleep in. Being cocooned in his scent at night gave me a comfort I desperately needed. It was the next best thing to being held in his arms.

  Devyn was sitting at a small table in the corner under the dim glow of a wall light. He had his twin blades out—one laying across the table, the other in his hand. Wrath and Fury, the magical fae creatures, were nowhere in sight. I stood silently in the doorway, watching him as he sharpened the sword, but he sensed my presence, tilting his gaze toward me. The center of his eyes caught the soft yellow hue of the light.

  “Hey.” The muscles in his face relaxed as his eyes landed on me. “You’re lucky. I was about two seconds away from breaking down the door to see if you were still alive.”

  I plopped onto the center of the bed, facing Devyn, and crossed my legs. “You worry too much.”

  “It’s my job.”

  “And he is incredibly devoted to it,” Belle chimed in. “I’ve never seen someone pace so much in my life over a shower.”

  “Watch it, pixie, or you’ll find yourself sleeping in the car,” Devyn growled at her.

  “Like you could catch me.” Belle stuck out her tongue.

  He lifted his sword, letting the steel blade glint against the lamplight, and flashed Belle a wry grin. “You better hope I can’t.”

  I needed to intervene before things escalated. “So what’s the game plan? We’ve been traveling for days.”

  “We keep going and exercise your abilities. You’ll need them to go up against your uncles when the time comes,” he replied without a hint of hesitancy. His path was so clear to him.

  A
chill slithered down my neck, but I suppressed the urge to shudder. I understood the basics of what was expected of me: earning nine tails in as short of a time as I could manage. But after that was where it became fuzzy and made me uneasy. It wouldn’t be enough to just have magic; I needed to know how to wield it effectively against those who might harm me or those I cared about.

  I was still coming to terms with who I was: the heir to a kingdom I’d never seen, never stepped foot in, never called home. I didn’t want to be a ruler. Devyn might not have come right out and said it, but by embracing my Kitsune heritage and accelerating the rate it took to earn my tails, I was more or less sealing my future, whether I wanted it or not. Katsura couldn’t remain without a ruler forever.

  Queen.

  I was a queen in another world.

  Millions of girls dreamed about such a title—how glorious it would be to wear a glittering crown and silky dresses all day. Something told me being queen of the Second Moon didn’t involve either.

  My chin lifted. For Mom, I would bear the burden; I would leave behind everything I’d ever known and loved. “How long can we keep running?”

  “Until you’re strong enough,” he said, flexing his fingers.

  “When will that be?” I pushed, letting a bit of my frustration out in my tone. In the short time since I’d figured out who I really was (a shape-shifting fox), I’d managed to gain four tails. Not all that impressive for a Kitsune, but nine, that was almost unheard of—as rare as a unicorn with wings.

  “You’ll know,” Devyn insisted.

  I wrinkled my nose. “Me? Is that a joke?”

  “You have much to learn about Katsura, being its queen, and the power residing in your blood.”