Transformation (From the Embers Book 2)

by Jaliza A. Burwell

  Sweat covered his face as he fought the strain but he managed. And he ended up enraging Baron who returned the favor with a punch to the nose. I could hear the crunch from where I kneeled. A growl escaped my mouth before I could stop, hating seeing Landus in a vulnerable position.

  He is a man of power, he shouldn’t be on his knees!

  My body felt weird but I ignored it, focused on one thing. Tearing out Baron’s throat.

  “Maybe I should just make things easier now,” Baron said as he tucked away his blade. He pulled out an even longer blade tucked into a harness in his back. He brought it down and carved it along the left side of Landus’ face, starting just beneath his eye and down to his jaw. Blood flowed.

  I screamed, my fury at its max. I screamed and scream, the sound unnatural to even my ears. My body stretched a little before a ripple went through the air and the pressure around me was gone.

  Baron turned to face me with wide eyes. I launched myself at him, not even caring about the way my fingers were curled. Smashing into him, I made sure to rake my hands down his face and torso. He grunted at the pain and impact, but laughed.

  In another moment, I was shoved away from him by a strong force, the energy and magic combining and creating a strong cocktail of kickass. It was enough to send me flying until I slammed into the barrier. The barrier couldn’t hold against the pressure pushing against it from the inside with everything being tossed around. It shattered as I landed on the ground, feeling the rain of the last of the barrier falling around me, tickling my skin.

  The shifters surged inside, but Baron just laughed more, the sound loud and manic with his madness. He stopped long enough to move his lips, saying words that didn’t reach my ears. And then a dark blue smoke built around him and a moment later, he was gone before the shifters could reach him.

  The same happened to his elite henchmen. They were there, the blue smoke showed up, they were gone, leaving everyone confused.

  I leaned back, resting my head against the cool floor as I stared up at the ceiling. My body hummed with too much energy and no outlet. My fingers still twitched, wanting to scratch out that bastard’s eyes.

  “Nyssa.” Slade stood over me with a worried expression. There was a bruise along his temple and a piece of bloody gunk in his hair. Other than that, he looked fine.

  I blinked, wondering why he looked different. Clearer. I could even see the little beauty mark at the corner of his left eye. His eyes widened infinitesimally, telling me right away something wasn’t right.

  “What?” I asked.

  “You,” he said. “What the hell is going on with you?”

  He held out his hand and I went to grab it and froze, looking at my own.

  Holy shit.

  I had just thought my fingers were curled up in anger. I didn’t realize I had real claws. Each finger curled inwards with the nails grown out, sharp, with blood on the tips.

  “What the...” I lowered my hand to get a closer look. I had a fricken claw!

  I stared a moment longer before grinning. “Look, this is freakin’ awesome.”

  Slade snorted and grabbed my wrist, mindful of my finger knives as he lifted me to my feet. I swayed and he put his hand on my shoulders to steady me.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “Yes,” I replied.

  He didn’t look like he believed me but he went on to help everyone else.

  I looked over at Landus and ended up looking quickly away as my chest tightened. His attentiveness to the female shifter had sent ugly jealousy through me.

  Zayne came over, grinning as he pulled something gunky out of his long brown hair. “That was fun, we need to do that again,” he said. He paused as he looked at my face. “Hey, teeth. When did you get those.”

  “What?” I asked.

  He lifted his hand, tapping it against his lip. “You have some cool teeth right now. I didn’t know you were a shifter. What kind are you?” He sniffed the air. “I can’t tell.”

  I ran my tongue along my teeth and realized my incisors were a little sharper than they should be.

  What was going on?

  “I’m not a shifter,” I said.

  He eyed me. “You’re definitely something.”

  Slade whacked him along the back of his head. “Go help clean up and get a count of casualties.”

  Zayne nodded, his expression melting into something more serious, before going over to help sort the dead. I kept my focus on Slade as he talked to other shifters. Using my peripheral vision, I could see Landus. It was hard dealing with seeing him caring so gently for someone who wasn’t me. He lifted the hurt female up in his arms, spared me a cold glance, and then walked out of the room. The woman looked small, curled up in his arms, as he disappeared out of the room.

  My chest shook as I stared at his back as it disappeared. A weird hard noise came out of my throat and Slade looked over at me as he talked with a shifter with red hair and freckles covering his cheeks.

  “Nyssa?” He frowned. “Are you okay?”

  I nodded before pain stabbed through my abdomen and I coughed. I put my hand to my mouth as a series of bone-jarring coughs overtook my body. A hand touched my back, cautious, but slowly moved along my spine to show support. I shook my head, not wanting the touch. My body ached, it felt like someone was poking my stomach with magic, and I didn’t know when it was going to stop.

  After a few more hard coughs, I straightened up and lowered my hand, noticing the blood on them that weren’t there before.

  “What the fuck?” Slade asked, staring at my hand with wide eyes.

  I pushed out a chuckle, the sound nervous to my own ears. “Looks like I was hit harder than I knew,” I said, trying desperately to keep my tone casual. Inside, I was freaking the fuck out.

  “If that’s the case, you shouldn’t be fucking standing,” Slade snapped. “We need to get you a healer.”

  I shook my head. “It’s fine. And you know I can’t use a healer. They can’t do anything about internal bleeding. I’ll just go sleep it off.” I winced as I realized how gross I was. “After I take a long hot shower, of course.”

  “What the hell is going on with you, Nyssa?” Slade asked.

  I cocked an eyebrow at him. “Nothing, why?”

  “Because you’re fucking coughing up blood.”

  “I told you, I was hit hard.”

  “And your teeth? You’ve never had sharp teeth before.”

  I ran my tongue over my teeth again. They were still pointy. I gave him a smile. “All the better to tear into someone.”

  He shook his head and waved Zayne over. “Make sure she gets home,” he said before turning around and stalking away. He needed to go check on Gwinny.

  Zayne rocked on his feet as he stared at me. “Where to?” he asked.

  “Nowhere with you,” I said and turned to walk away.

  “Nuh uh, not happening,” the teenager said. “If my Beta says to do something, I do it.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him reaching out for my arm. I turned quickly and hissed at him. Yes, hissed. I’d never done that before.

  His eyes widened and he lifted his hands up. “Sorry,” he mumbled, stepping back.

  “Do not touch me,” I said, my voice thick with warning.

  He nodded quickly, the dark strands of his hair that were not pulled back falling around his face. “Okay,” he said slowly. “But I’m still escorting you back to where you want to go.”

  I didn’t say anything and went out into the hallway, making my way toward the portal. Shifters were all around me, dissecting the place and trying to connect dots to explain what the hell Baron wanted.

  He took my blood. And Landus’s. What did that mean? I would need to talk to Cecil. She would know. She was an encyclopedia of spells.

  I stepped to the side to let a pair of feline shifters run by carrying an unconscious bear. I blinked, looking at the massive creature again. He wasn’t quite right to be a bear. His tail was lon
g, his fur longer than it should be. He had shifted into a Woodlands creature, but not one I’d seen before.

  We continued on, Zayne doing a good job of staying on my heels. He wasn’t going with me, but he didn’t know that yet. I would need to give him the slip because with the way his honey-colored eyes were focused, he was planning to follow Slade’s instructions to the bitter end.

  We got to the portal and while Zayne hesitated a moment, I went right through, ignoring the pain smashing my innards.

  I came out of the other side, relieved to be through it. I really hoped I wouldn’t have to do that again. These gates were getting old fast.

  The other side of the gate was just as chaotic with healers working overtime and shifters moaning in pain, and a couple of them were on the ground, their bodies still. They didn’t make it through. A couple of mages and vampires were there too. Slade stood by Landus, both their bodies stiff as they listened to the complaints being thrown at them.

  Slade’s eyes met with mine and he shook his head. He wanted me to stay away.

  Fine with me. I wasn’t up to playing politics with who amounted to be a bunch of children throwing a temper tantrum.

  “Nyssa!” Mage Thomas called out, and I winced at the accusation in his voice.

  So much for slipping away silently. I contemplated just walking away as if I didn’t hear him, but Mage Thomas ruined my chances when he showed up in front of me.

  “What is the meaning of this?” he asked.

  “Meaning of what? Life?” I asked, playing dumb. “I don’t know. I think everyone’s been trying to figure that out since the beginning of our existence.”

  He glowered as I responded to him. “No. Why were we not informed about this attack? One of our own was taken, we would have liked to have been there to ensure her safe return.”

  I looked toward where the four girls were being looked over by medics. They were all pale, a couple shaky, all of them definitely scared. “They look fine to me, definitely safe.”

  “N-Nyssa!” Mage Thomas sputtered out.

  “Yes?”

  His eyes narrowed before he let out a huff of breath and stalked over to the girls. Shifters were quick to block his way.

  “Let him through,” Landus ordered and they hesitantly stepped aside, no doubt hating that they were letting a mage near Gwinny.

  I rubbed at my stomach and the pain dancing around inside it before turning and making my way back to my car. Zayne followed along like a good guard dog.

  “Zayne?” I asked, stopping and turning to him.

  “Yeah?” he asked with wary eyes. I would be wary too if I were him.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “For what?”

  “This.” I lashed out, my fist connecting with the sweet spot near his temple that had him falling at my feet, out cold. Shaking out my hand and ignoring the slight sting, I sighed, trying to feel guilty, but I got nothing. I was just tired, dirty, and needed some sleep.

  I jumped into my car and drove away, knowing I was going hear shit about this soon. I turned on the radio and blasted the radio, trying to drown out my thoughts with music. My eyes kept going down to my hands. They weren’t claws anymore. I didn’t even know when they changed back. Probably before I went through the portal.

  When I made it home, I beelined to the shower, desperate to feel clean. The plan was to clean up, rest and heal up, and then bombard Cecil with a million and one questions. I’d hoped with her up and running, this rage inside of me would go away, but it had only gotten stronger.

  I wanted Baron.

  I wanted him badly.

  And now I wasn’t so sure about the reason why.

  Chapter Eleven

  I remember seeing movement up in a tree. It grabbed my attention and my curiosity got the best of me. I climbed, forcing my small body to hold my weight as I went up. I remember reaching the top and then hands reaching out of the darkness. They shoved me, and I fell for a very long time.

  —Nyssa’s Journal

  A nightmare, or maybe another memory, woke me only a few hours later. My body groaned when I moved to sit up, the soreness and stiffness making itself known.

  I grabbed the journal I kept in the nightstand drawer and flipped it open, ignoring the older passages.

  This was my dream journal, or maybe it was a memory journal. My earlier life was nothing but bits and pieces and those bits and pieces only came into existence when I slept. Mostly. Sometimes they punched me when I was doing something similar and it ended up jogging one of the hazy memories.

  Not wanting to lose the images in my head, I quickly wrote them down. A woman held me, swaying side to side as she hummed. My body burned and I couldn’t stop crying. She would hum and then reassure me that it was natural, this was proof that I was growing into a big strong girl. That the heat meant I was who I was meant to be.

  When I finished writing, I stared at the passage for a couple of minutes.

  I had a strong feeling that woman was my mother and when my chest ached, it only reaffirmed my thoughts. Did I burn because I was a growing phoenix? Was that part of the aging process? To have my body burn from the inside, feeling like it was going to consume me?

  Too scared to dwell on those memories and risking the chance of driving myself insane, I went into the kitchen, made hot chocolate, and grabbed my phone. There were a few missed calls and messages from Cecil.

  Grumbling, I called her, hoping it was still too early and she was asleep.

  She answered on the second ring. “Nyssa, get here as soon as you can, we may have gotten a few answers.”

  “Answers to what?” I asked. “Because if you figured out a way to keep the imps from making random sinkholes around the city to fall into, I want in on it.”

  “Nyssa,” Cecil snapped in irritation.

  “I’m serious. Those bastards have it out for me. Once or twice is coincidental, but I swear, it’s every single time.”

  “Nyssa!”

  I pulled the phone away from my ear and pressed my lips together. “Get your ass over here.” She hung up before I could respond.

  When Cecil snapped like that, I listened, so I didn’t drag my feet as I went to see what had put her on edge.

  All of them, the shifters, witches, mages, and vampires were already there when I pulled up. My senses picked up their familiar signatures. They weren’t in the house, but behind it.

  Cecil always had a knack for sensing me and showing up to greet me whenever I arrived. This time was no different as she stood in the front door.

  “Should you be up and moving?” I asked.

  “No choice.” She grabbed my arm and yanked me inside. Her grip was tight enough to bruise. She led me down the hall, through the kitchen, and out the back door. Everyone was dead quiet when we joined them. Despite being outside, with everyone there, they managed to make the space feel like a closet.

  “Baron attacked again,” Landus growled out. There was a cut on his forehead that he hadn’t had when I last saw him only a few hours ago.

  “And we got the four kiddies he stole,” I said confused.

  “No. He attacked again,” Cecil said.

  “That was fast. Doesn’t he sleep? What’s the damage now?”

  “We have safe houses around the city,” Slade said. “He blew them up.”

  “Who was in them?” I asked.

  “Can’t say.” Slade’s expression said it all though. Important people they wanted to keep out of the public’s eyes. Most likely dangerous people.

  “Not just shifters’ safe houses, but one of ours was hit too. We increased security at our other locations,” Jamal said from his side of the yard.

  Without noticing it, all of the factions had separated themselves into their individual groups. By the nodding of Mage Thomas and Maura, they had similar stories.

  “This makes no sense,” I said. “He’s hitting safe houses now? Who’s in them?”

  No one said anything and I rolled my eyes. “You do see the
two major issues with this, right?” Again, silence. I huffed. “One, he has knowledge I’m sure he isn’t supposed to have if he’s able to hit safe houses. Two, he’s trying to find people. People each of you know to keep safe. So let’s try this again, who is using safe houses?”

  Cecil stepped forward and ignored the glare from Maura. “There are people we put into them when attacks like this happen against our side. Think of them as elders. They are fountains of knowledge, no longer as powerful as they used to be. We have one elder currently.”

  “For us, it’s more for domestic situations,” Mage Thomas said reluctantly. “Being a mage is something that isn’t discovered right away and sometimes, the families aren’t happy about it. So we protect them while we settle the situation. We have two such situations right now. They’re only kids.”

  I eyed Jamal. “Pops?”

  He winced. “Visitors. Our Queen does not let visitors stay on her property, and we use the safe houses for them. We have one visiting now.”

  That left the shifters. I glanced at Landus, and knew right away he wasn’t going to say anything. He was too busy glowering at me. Slade spoke up instead. “We have a family in a safe house while they wait for transfer into our pack from a different city. We also have someone important visiting.”

  “Sounds like Baron is being a bit of a bitch,” I said. “We don’t even know if he’s lashing out, showing he knows you all too well, or if he needs the people in your safe house. If I were you, I’d move them deep into your territories to keep them safe.”

  “Not happening,” Jamal said.

  I shrugged. “Then I hope your visitor isn’t all that important if they get killed. Their family won’t be happy to know that you knowingly left them in danger when you could have kept them safer in your queen’s lair. That’s bound to piss someone off.”

  That got Jamal thinking and whatever was crossing his mind wasn’t good.

  “B-Baron already proved he can get onto our l-lands,” Mage Thomas said.

  “Isn’t that the conundrum? Maybe if you asked really nicely, the witches will be more than happy to use the same wards that they have around the shifter’s property and my house around yours. They managed to create one strong enough to keep them out.”