“So the Cougar; he was all part—”
“No, no,” Jackal said, shaking her head and frowning, “He really is trying to kill us for violating his territory.” She let out a little laugh.
Aaron turned toward the trees again and narrowed his eyes. He couldn’t hear any twigs snapping, nor could he hear any more moans of pain. In truth, Aaron’s own body had stopped throbbing now too. The Cougar must have healed. But where was he?
Jackal spun around and put her back to Aaron. Aaron, then, turned his back to her and pressed up against Jackal. He quickened his breathing—which got his heart pumping hard again—and flexed his muscles until they started to grow and expand. Only this time he wouldn’t stop half way. His bones cracked and crunched, his legs twisted into wolf’s legs, and a mantle of grey fur grew from out of his skin to cover him from head to toe. The transformation was easier this time, quicker.
He sniffed the air, caught the Cougar’s scent, and forced the word “There,” to roll out of his mouth.
Jackal swung around and when Aaron looked at her he noticed that she too had transformed. Her body was covered in black fur, her back was arched into attack position, and her head replaced by a wolf’s snout and ears with bright blue eyes that shone with an inner light. And yet, despite the bestial visage she wore, her femininity once again remained. It was the eyes, Aaron saw. The eyes gave her away.
A snarl came from the trees and Jackal responded with a growl of her own. The Cougar melted out from the darkness, teeth and claws gleaming in the moonlight. Aaron shot his shoulders forth and snapped his jaws. The Cougar flinched, but then hissed in defiance. Jackal stepped forward and scraped the earth with her paws, a gesture that seemed to Aaron a little bit like drawing a line in the sand; a challenge.
The Cougar eyed the werewolves up. He was growling and hissing, his ears were pulled all the way back, and his eyes were blazing with anger and hate. From the dark of the trees he slashed at the air—a counter-challenge—his claws shining with malice and intent. And Aaron knew; outnumbered or not, the Cougar would not back down.
Aaron narrowed his large, predatory eyes and the Cougar flew out of the darkness to greet him. Its claw sailed through the air, fingernails like the sharpest razors, but Aaron blocked his arm, twisted around him, and this time bit into the Cougar’s neck. Then Jackal, who wasn’t two feet behind Aaron, clawed the Cougar across the chest as it went to turn around, tearing through fur and hide and muscle. But the Cougar wouldn’t be so easily subdued. He shook free of Aaron’s grasp and slipped between the two werewolves, turning to face them a few feet away.
He was breathing hard, now, with puffs of steam leaving his mouth and blood in its fur. Jackal and Aaron turned to it, stared it down, and promised it death without saying a word. The Cougar, understanding that it had been beaten, turned tail and made for the trees. Aaron made as if to follow it, but Jackal reached for his arm and stopped him. She shook her head, sternly, and pointed at the direction they had to go. The path was clear.
From a place not far from where they were, sounds came rushing through the trees. Growls and hisses echoed and for a moment it was as if the very forest had come alive! Aaron, in a moment of clarity, understood that the Cougar’s friends had been watching all along; and now that one of their own had been beaten, the werewolves were open season for the next challenger.
Or challengers.
Jackal turned on her heel and made a dash for the trees, determined to complete her mission; the parameters of which she hadn’t discussed with Aaron. He thought they were done, that he had learned his lesson and they could get out of the forest, but he was wrong.
Still, he followed. He was on two legs at first, but then he dropped to all fours and ran like a dog using his tail for balance. Aaron was much faster in this form than he was in his human form, and when he ran on all fours he found that he moved even more swiftly, his sharp senses telling him exactly where to put his hands and feet in order to propel his body to where he needed it to go as quickly as possible.
He couldn’t feel any pain now. None. Maybe it was the adrenaline in his system or maybe the powerful skin he wore afforded him a kind of immunity to pain. But all he could feel was the wind in his fur, the dirt under his hands, and the blood in his mouth; and it filled him with a kind of joy he hadn’t ever experienced, not as a boy or as a man.
Finally, the trees gave way to a clearing. Jackal stood a short dash from the trees in her human form, her clothes stretched to comic proportions but only barely ripped. At her feet Aaron spotted a small stone structure. It was a pond, irregular in shape. On one side of the stone border stood a small shrine with candles and carefully laid out cat icons; trinkets and gewgaws, nothing more. But it was the water that struck Aaron hard.
The water in the pool was green, and intensely bright. It was as if the water was luminous, as if there were lights beneath the surface shining outward. And the water was warm, too. Aaron didn’t have to touch it to know that it was; the clouds of steam rising up from the water were proof enough.
“Quick,” Aaron heard Jackal say, “Give me your phone.”
He let go of the beast wolf form, shrank back into his human self, and reached into his pocket. The phone was still there. Aaron then handed it to Jackal and turned around to face the trees they had just come from. The Cougars weren’t far behind. He was sure of it. But Jackal didn’t much seem to care.
“What are you doing?” he asked, not looking at her.
“This,” she said.
At that moment, Jackal wrapped an arm around Aaron’s shoulder, pulled his cheek to hers, and raised the phone high enough that the camera got their faces and the pool behind them. She was taking a selfie?
“You’re serious?” Aaron asked, looking at his dirt-caked face on the phone’s screen.
Jackal grinned. “Damn fucking straight. Now say Cougars!”
Aaron pulled a face, Jackal pressed the button, and the screen blinked as she took the picture. She then shoved the phone back into Aaron’s pants, dipped her hand in the warm water, washed her face with it, and started to run; toward the trees.
“Wait!” Aaron said, “What are you doing? That’s where the Cougars are!”
Jackal spun around, smiled, and said, “You’re going to have to run real fast then, aren’t you?”
She spun around again, threw herself to the ground, and in the blink of an eye she was a wolf. Aaron, who was stuck with the phone in his hand, swallowed hard at the sound of the approaching cougars and then sped into the trees. His transformation wasn’t as graceful, but he managed. And with the phone firmly stuck in his jaws, Aaron followed Jackal through the dark woods, through enemy territory, and out of the Mountain Cougar trail.
The Cougars, he thought, would probably put him on their shit list after tonight.
Chapter Ten
When Aaron and Jackal arrived at the hub where they had left the rest of the pack before setting off on their mountain trek, it was deserted. Only Jackal’s car remained, quietly reflecting the moonlight evening, minding its own business. Aaron had wondered if the rest of the Mountain Cougars had come down here and driven the wolves off but that didn’t seem likely. It was more likely that they had retreated to the tattoo place to wait for Jackal and his return.
He was right, of course, so Aaron and Jackal headed off in her car back to the glittering lights of the Las Vegas strip. The ride over gave Aaron a chance to change into a pair of jeans and a shirt Jackal had taken from Liz before they left her place. When he put his clothes on, Jackal and Aaron swapped seats so that she could get changed into hers. She told him it always paid to pack a spare set of clothes, and to always dress in something you didn’t mind getting ripped or destroyed if you’re planning on going out of your daily routine.
Aaron stepped into the Wolf Skin tattoo parlor first. The lights were on and the parking lot was full of cars which, it being so late, would probably catch an idle passerby by surprise. But Aaron hadn’t seen many folks walkin
g down the sidewalk on the side of the road. In fact, as he waited for Jackal to step out of the car so they could both walk up to the building together, he saw a man go out of his way to give the parlor a wide berth. This was another lesson he would learn: when werewolves congregate, humans evacuate.
The Wolf Skin tattoo parlor fell silent when Aaron walked in. He may have been wearing new clothes, but his hair was still matted with dirt, skin crusty with dry blood… and dirt… and he wasn’t wearing shoes. Among the crowd of watchful eyes Aaron caught sight of Rocky, the werewolf he had tussled with at the foot of the mountain. He walked up to him first, extended his hand, and said “No hard feelings.”
Rocky stood upright, almost seeming to dwarf even Aaron, and then took Aaron’s hand to shake it. “No hard feelings,” he echoed.
Jackal, who had Aaron’s phone in her hand, walked in with the selfie they had taken at the Cougar’s sacred shrine on the screen and a big smile on her face. “Check it out and weep, boys,” she said, planting the phone in Rocky’s hand. “By the way, I think we may have really pissed them off,” she added.
“The Cougars are always pissed off,” one of the pack said, “They’ll get over it.”
Marcus stood, crossed toward Aaron, and gave Jackal a stern stare. “Did he do it?” he asked.
Jackal looked at Aaron and then at his father. “He passed his trial,” she said, “Took a beating, but he passed.”
Aaron wanted to smirk, to gloat, to boat, but he realized that he couldn’t have done it without Jackal. “I would have died out there if it weren’t for her,” he said, “I had no idea what I was doing.”
Marcus nodded. “It takes a big man to admit he needs help,” he said. “It’s a hard lesson to learn, but we’re wolves. We help each other; that’s what a pack is for. It’s why we need to be a part of one.”
Aaron nodded, understanding now what his father meant. He wondered, though, if Amber would be his pack when he went back home. She wasn’t a wolf, but she was his girlfriend. No. She was more than that. He didn’t want to think that he wouldn’t be able to share all of himself with her, but he didn’t ask. Now wasn’t the time nor the place. Aaron felt the weight of the eyes on him, felt them judging him, sizing him up; he needed to do and say the right things here.
“So, what’s next?” he asked.
“Now,” Marcus said, “We bring you in to the pack.”
“How do we do that?”
The pack of wolves in the tattoo parlor exchanged looks, grins, nods of approval. “Get in my chair.”
Aaron cocked his head. “Get in your chair?”
Marcus gestured toward the empty chair in his booth; the chair his clients sat on when they went to get tattoos.
“You want me to get a tattoo?”
“No; I want to put a tattoo on you. If you want to be a part of this pack, you need to get under my needle.”
Aaron thought about what he had just been through, the injuries had just suffered, and couldn’t find a reason to object to getting a tattoo. He didn’t have any tattoos and hadn’t ever thought about getting one before so he had no ideas as to what he would get, and seeing as though they were for life he figured he ought to be given a little time to decide. But Aaron’s father wasn’t the kind of man to wait.
“And you’re going to choose what goes on me?” he said, heading towards the chair.
“Yup.”
“And I don’t get a say?”
“Will you relax already?” Jackal said. “Rocky, why don’t you show him what I put on your skin when you joined the pack.”
Rocky rolled up his sleeve to reveal the face of a snarling wolf as realistic as a photograph. The wolf’s right eye had been gouged out and it had a scar over the brow, but it looked vicious and ready to rip its enemies to shreds. Aaron, and some other members of the pack who had gotten up to see it, marveled at the work while Jackal looked on, smug and clearly proud of it.
“That must have taken a long time to do,” Aaron said.
“No, actually. Werewolves heal really fast. We got it all done in one sitting.”
Marcus snapped a pair of gloves on his hands and called Aaron over. “After this,” he said, “I’ll need you to stay here for a while.”
Aaron approached the chair but he waited, standing. “What do you mean? I passed the trial.”
“Passing a trial makes you a member of this pack. But becoming a fully functional member of our society requires you to live with the pack for a while, to get used to living with a predator lurking underneath your skin. I know you have a girl back home you’ll be wanting to get back to but I can’t in good conscience let you leave just yet. I need you to tell me you’ll stay until you’re ready.”
Aaron thought back to the conversation he had had with Liz about the day Marcus chose to leave. She had told him that Marcus didn’t want to hurt Aaron or his mother and in the moment a small part of him had understood what she was saying. Now, listening to Marcus talk about Amber—someone he had never met and probably didn’t care much about—and her safety, more of Aaron was starting to believe Liz’s words.
“I’ll stay,” Aaron said, after a moment’s pause.
The decision to leave Amber behind to find his father had been hard enough, but this one was harder. Consigning himself to being without the girl he wanted to be with for an unknown amount of time hurt like all hell, but he was starting to understand one important part of werewolf life. Arguably the most important one. A werewolf’s life is about self-sacrifice, and Aaron was willing to sacrifice anything for Amber.
SHADOW WITCH
Amber Lee Series, Book 3
By Katerina Martinez
SHADOW WITCH
Amber Lee Series, Book 3
Copyright © 2017 by Lee Dignam & Katerina Martinez. All rights reserved. Cover uses images © 2016 Shutterstock.
Published by Supernal Publishing
***
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, events or locales is purely coincidental.
Reproduction in whole or in part of this publication without express written consent is strictly prohibited. I greatly appreciate you taking the time to read my work. Please consider leaving a review wherever you bought the book, or tell your friends about this serial to help spread the word!
Thank you for supporting my work.
Prologue
PROLOGUE
The darkness was coming for me. I had been able to endure the chase for a few days, maybe a few weeks, but the darkness was implacable. Relentless. It chased me over mountains as high as clouds, through caves and cities, and across fields of grass and snow. Everywhere it went the darkness ate, turning the world black in its wake. Soon, I feared, it would catch me and consume me too—and then it would win.
But I could not allow that to happen. Though my bones ached and my muscles screamed out in pain I continued to run, fighting to stay ahead of the darkness. To stay alive. To find the one person who could help me, the only witch on the planet with the power to fight the growing darkness. With my Shadow ravens at my side I moved across entire continents on faith alone, hoping that one day I would be drawn to her energy like a moth to a flame.
And it was in a sleepy grove that I found her.
White flecks of snow clung to her red hood and cloak. Streaks of auburn hair fell lazily over her shoulders and her skin, as white as the snow itself, seemed to glow in the cold, sharp light. But it was the wolf at her side that caught my eye most of all. Tall and powerful, the gray wolf watched me closely, its yellow eyes narrow slits which promised death at the first sign of aggression. But I was no aggressor.
The wolf emitted a low growl and I felt my insides quiver. The red witch placed her white, porcelain hand in the space between the wolf’s ears and scratched, and the growl receded. This is how it had been in each of my dream encounters with the red witch. She never spoke and neither did I. Sometimes the wolf would howl into the sky and cause large black b
irds to scatter out of the trees. Other times it wouldn’t so much as growl.
My heart started to race. This was new. I could feel it beating hard against my chest and for a moment saw my dreaming self squirming in bed, my forehead glistening with sweat. Behind me, the darkness was coming. I sensed the cold chill as it approached, colder even than the air in this snowy glen. It was a cold that made even the Shadow birds perched on wayward branches over my head shiver with dread.
The red witch snapped her head to the left and then to the right, her copper locks cutting through the air like red blades. She could sense the darkness now too. This, too, was new. I felt, this time, that the darkness was closer. Close enough even for her to perceive, no matter how fleeting her glimpse was. The darkness was coming for me, but it would consume her too if she allowed it.
This time, unlike any other time, I felt the need to speak. To warn her.
“Red witch,” I said.
She brought the weight of her green eyes on me and stared.
“The darkness is coming. Will you help me?”
The red witch stood motionless, eyes shining on me like Jade crystals deep in the eye sockets of a statue. The moment hung like a strand of time suspended in a great vacuum, but then the statue nodded and relief came rushing at me from all sides. I sighed, smiled, and for the first time in forever felt the hopeful touch of salvation grace my skin. But the red witch turned away from me and started to walk through the trees. Her wolf followed, silently padding the ground behind her.
“I must find you,” I said beneath my breath, “But I don’t know where you are.”
As if responding to my cues, the birds took flight and began to circle around me. Tens of them. Hundreds of black, flying creatures, part shadow, part real, zooming around me so fast they encapsulated me in a tunnel of air. Then they took off, one after the other, deeper into the woods and I followed them, and followed them, and followed them, until I came across a sign in the middle of the woods.
The Amber Lee Boxed Set Page 49