by Cecy Robson
He pulled me to my feet. “We must leave—now,” he urged.
My jaw clenched tight. “Not yet.”
Tye maneuvered the helicopter for a second pass. The fire-breathing mouths followed, snapping their omnivorous jaws in search of more prey. Tye dodged and veered his way around the flames, but his jerking motions worked against us. Emme fell out of the front, where she had prepared to launch the stone from. It plummeted from her grasp when she grabbed onto the skids. Bren climbed out to help her, but she couldn’t hold on. With lightning speed Ying-Ying dove after her. She contorted herself around Emme and bounced away from Ihuaivulu like a rubber ball.
They were safe, but the others were not. Ihuaivulu slammed one of his heads into the helicopter and catapulted it out of control. Bren, who was hanging to the skids, changed and leapt to the ground after the fallen stone.
The helicopter crashed away from us yet didn’t explode. The main rotor continued to spin as Tye and Danny emerged as beasts with Shayna and Chang on their backs. They zigzagged to avoid Ihuaivulu’s flames, but they’d landed too close to him and needed help. I was about to charge toward them when a stream of blue and white fire shot at Ihuaivulu with the fury of hell.
Taran emerged on a hilltop opposite us, hovering above the ground with her crystal eyes fixed on Ihuaivulu. She screamed as meteors of fire tore from her core and at her target. The demon caught the balls of fire and swallowed them whole. Taran was in trouble.
And Emme was there to save her.
My youngest sister raised the large hunk of twisted metal that was once that copter with the full gamut of her force. She grunted and screamed with her hands above her head. Blood trickled down her nose and tears streaked her deep purple face as she levitated the aircraft above the ground. Ying-Ying jumped wildly and fired out words of encouragement as Emme’s burden shook from her strained efforts. With one last primal scream, Emme thrust the helicopter at Ihuaivulu. The spinning rotors took off three of Ihuaivulu’s heads moments before the rest exploded on top of him in a giant burst of light.
The excited hollers and howls of Alliance members were short-lived. The remaining heads ignited the entire area into a raging inferno. “Retreat!” a vampire screamed just before flames engulfed him.
Misha grabbed my hand and we raced back toward the camp. We swept in about the same time Gemini and Liam charged in. The others hadn’t returned.
Gemini’s two wolves became one. He and Liam changed and rushed to us. “Celia, where is everyone?” Liam asked.
“I don’t know. We got separated.”
Gemini’s dark gaze whipped back toward the smoking forest. “I’m going back.”
Misha intercepted him. “Don’t be a fool. The entire area is on fire. If they survived they will return in time.”
Misha’s words, although true, did nothing to calm me. My eyes darted around frantically. I didn’t see anyone I recognized. Just when I thought I would lose it, Taran appeared. The blue and white flames protecting her form withdrew back into her core, allowing Gemini to gather her in his arms. She wept openly while Gemini led her to me.
Taran threw her arms around me. “Oh, my God, Celia. I thought I’d never see you again!”
My voice shook. “Taran, did you see anyone else?”
She glanced over her shoulder at Gemini. “No one else came back?”
He placed his arm on her shoulder. “No, but we need to give them time.”
I pushed my hair back and paced, trying to avoid staring at the weres around me. Horrid scars covered the vast majority. Some had limbs completely burned off while others were swathed with heavy dressings to protect their fresh wounds. The few vampires that remained appeared unharmed. They must have dodged Ihuaivulu’s deadly fire. Had the creature’s flames even grazed them, they would have joined the heaps of ash surrounding the mountainside.
The injured watched me, fear and pain claiming their distorted features. None of them seemed familiar. None were who I longed to see. A horrible sense of dread claimed the pit of my stomach and twisted my gut. “Are Aric and Koda . . . ?”
“They’re alive, Celia,” Gemini answered me quietly. “The ones with the greatest trauma have been moved into the tents.”
My knees buckled when I once again took in the weres with the missing limbs. They waited out in the open, not in tents . . . which meant they were the ones in better shape.
Taran draped her arm around my shoulders. “I’ll take you to them. But Aric especially is not . . . well.” She led me to the rows of tents, pausing outside one of the larger ones.
The flaps of the tent opened as the Elders exited. Anara regarded me with his usual distaste, while the others met me with a mixture of sadness and compassion. I took a deep breath before stepping inside and tried to imagine the absolute worst.
Nothing could have prepared me for this. I gasped in horror. It was all I could do not to scream.
Half of Koda’s body blazed with angry red blisters ready to burst, but the rest of his body was in far worse condition. His right side resembled thick charred leather, patterned much like the scales of a snake. His right eye had swelled shut and he’d lost an ear. And his hair, once long, thick, and silky, now lay singed or was missing from the sections of his burnt scalp. He hunched over in agony.
And still he’d fared better than Aric.
The top and sides of Aric’s hair had vanished, devoured by the seared indentations speckled across his scalp. His face, neck, chest, and arms were brutally damaged. He’d lost the first two layers of skin in some parts, and all three in others. His ears—my God—were nothing more than shrunken pieces of deformed flesh. And where his right eye had been, only a patch of burnt skin remained. His left eye moved to where I stood, shrouded beneath an alarmingly swollen slit.
The wolves watched me closely, but didn’t move. Taran leaned in close to whisper. “Ihuaivulu’s power was too great. They’re slowly healing their infections and pain, but the scarring . . . appears to be permanent.”
Shayna’s heart-wrenching sob made me jump. She staggered past me to fall kneeling before Koda. “Oh, my God, no. Puppy, no!” Her screams pounded my chest like vengeful blows. She reached out to him, but pulled back. Her eyes swept over his burns, unsure whether to touch him.
Koda pulled her onto his lap, subjecting himself to obviously excruciating pain. Yet he didn’t care. He just wanted to hold his mate. Shayna kissed his lips and cheeks, weeping hysterically. He tried his best to comfort her, but it was no use. She hurt as much as he did.
Aric’s ruined face met mine, yet I couldn’t bring myself to go to him. My hands balled into fists and tears leaked from my eyes. I trembled with the force of my rage—livid for the pain he’d endured and for how he would continue to suffer.
I wanted to scream from the injustice. Aric had honorably protected the earth, and this was his reward? Fuck. YOU!
My tigress eyes replaced my own and hatred filled my rampant heart, scorching the edges of my soul and demanding I destroy anything in my path. My beast roared inside me, clawing and biting at my rib cage. Kill, she demanded. Kill!
Taran gripped my wrist. “Celia . . . Celia, are you all right? Jesus. Celia, just breathe, honey. Just breathe . . . Oh, God. Honey, please calm down . . . I swear we’re going to get through this . . .”
My own personal hell raged inside me. I didn’t know how to control it, or whether I wanted to. And then the ground quaked, hard enough to shove my tigress aside and pull my human side forward.
Ihuaivulu, that wretched son of a bitch, was nearing.
Misha stormed into the tent and spun me, grasping my shoulders tight. I tried to toss him, but he held strong and thrust his face in mine. “Now is not the time for mourning, Celia. Bren is back with Emme and the stone.” He shook me hard when I tried to break free. “Listen to me! We have the power to finish this. Do it. Now.”
My mind struggled through the vile fog twisting and distorting my thoughts. The stone. The stone is back. I bit down hard on my lip until it bled and snapped me out of my misery.
I tore away from the tent, pumping my legs as fast as they’d carry me. Aric called to me. My God, his pained and garbled voice held no hint of his once deep and confident timbre. It was all I could do not to race back to him. I wanted to take him in my arms and never let him go. But Misha was right. I had to put an end to the Tribe once and for all.
The steps of those chasing me quickened, but failed to reach me. I focused on Tye, who stood at the edge of a cliff, waving the stone—the very weapon I needed.
“Time to go eagle!” he yelled before he jumped.
I exploded into my new form and dove for him. He cringed and swore as my talons once again dug into his shoulders. I flapped my powerful appendages and aimed for Ihuaivulu, who sped toward us with outstretched wings, hell-bent on murder. Time to say good night, you evil bastard.
I soared above Ihuaivulu with hopes Tye could just drop the stone on him. It would have worked had the creature not taken flight. Damn it to hell. I supposed it was too much to hope his wings were just decorative.
I dipped right, left, and down, trying to avoid the multitude of snapping jaws and sprays of fire. No way could I outfly him. So I had to fly smart. I nosedived into the outside of the volcano and shifted us through. I was almost out of air by the time we flew out the other side. Beneath me, the earth rumbled from the force of Ihuaivulu slamming into the volcano.
“Celia, I lost the stone!”
“Screeech?”
“It didn’t shift with us. It has to be on the other side. Go back. Go back!”
I tilted my wings and circled around. My heart leapt into my throat when I saw what was happening at the farthermost edge of the Alliance camp. Shayna darted around the splintered chunks of ruined trees, converting the pieces into long silver spikes. The vamps and weres—including Aric and Koda, who grunted in anguish—impaled Ihuaivulu’s tough skin and shredded his wings to worthless bits. He roared and tried to fly, only to collapse on the ash-coated ground.
My eagle eyes scanned the ground below and fixed upon the discarded stone. I dove toward it, ready to snag it when Ihuaivulu struck Tye with his tail. The blow propelled us into a distant tree. My sisters’ screams were barely audible over the crumbling bark and crash of the falling timber.
We landed hard atop the smoldering trunk and flopped onto the heated soil. I lost my eagle form and couldn’t reclaim it. I changed into tigress and lurched in time to avoid being fricasseed by Ihuaivulu. Heat from his flames scorched the earth, turning the mountain into his personal hell. My lungs contracted with the need for air. I couldn’t breathe and began to suffocate, yet I compelled my body to plow through the battered terrain, willing my paws to ignore the mounting heat.
Tye’s lion form jetted full speed for the stone. His white fur made him almost invisible against the ash, but it was only a matter of time before Ihuaivulu’s remaining heads spotted him.
I needed to distract Ihuaivulu. So instead of running away from him, I charged right at him. My sisters and friends yelled at me to turn back. I ignored them and kept my head in the game. If it was my time to go, so be it—but Ihuaivulu was coming with me.
I jumped and darted away from his flames faster than my tigress had ever moved before, seeing the streams of fire as merely larger versions of lightning bolts thrown from an overzealous martial arts master. My strategy worked, and so did my high-velocity dodges that managed to manipulate Ihuaivulu into burning his own tail. He roared and stumbled in pain, allowing me to launch myself onto one of his remaining snouts.
My back claws fastened onto his nose, my front claws gouged his eyes, my jaws broke through the thick scales and into bone. Warm liquid squirted against my claws and mouth, and his furious screams pained my ears, but I continued to unleash my wrath—for Aric, for Koda, for everyone who’d stood against him.
The last thing I saw was the second head rushing at me right before a deafening explosion fired me into the air. I landed as a human on a mountain of ash, choking and gasping next to Tye’s naked form. We sputtered and coughed as dust settled around us while an outburst of excited cheers echoed through the valley. Tye kipped up and hauled me to my feet. “Motherfucker!”
That pretty much summed it up. The ruins and destruction of the mountain surrounded us, yet not a trace of Ihuaivulu remained. “Damn,” I said quietly.
Tye didn’t respond, choosing instead to rub his thumbs against my hands. Ash covered both our bodies. Unfortunately, it did little to hide my goodies. I yanked my arms back and changed. He shook his head once before resuming his lion form. We sprinted back to camp, his cheer making him playful. He rubbed up against me, tickling me enough to cause me to purr. I swatted at him and he nipped at me teasingly. We continued our banter all the way back. I took it as good-natured fun until we reached our friends and he changed back.
“Celia, if you ever change your mind . . . you know where to find me.”
“Get in line,” Misha hissed. He and my loved ones embraced me and patted my back. I searched for Aric, but failed to see or scent him.
Gemini bent to scratch my furry face and whisper in my ear. “He’s in the woods immediately to my right.”
I shifted and traveled as far into the forest as I could manage, then used my nose to track Aric. I found him wrapped in a blanket, staring pointedly at the ground. I changed back to human and hurried toward him. Tears dripped down my face as I took in his disfigured features. “Aric.”
“I’ll understand if you don’t want to stay with me.”
My tears stopped their descent as I struggled to make sense of what he said. “What the hell are you talking about?”
He stepped away from me when I reached for him. What? All I wanted was to hold him.
“I’m saying you can choose Tye, Misha, or whoever else you desire. I just want you to be happy.”
I stumbled backward into a tree, stunned and barely able to keep my wits. My fist found the trunk and struck. Blood poured from my knuckles. “I’m happiest with you. Don’t you dare try to get rid of me again!”
“Celia, I know what I must look like—”
“Do you think your looks are all I care about? I love you, Aric—all of you.” After everything we’d been through and all our time apart, now he was pushing me away. I cried into my hands, releasing the fear and sadness I’d carried since first learning of his afflictions. My sobs turned into gulps, frantic gasps for air. My chest ached from the sharp intakes of breath and from the cruel stabs of his words.
He stepped toward me slowly and placed his battered palms on my arms. His garbled voice cracked when he spoke. “You still want me?”
I yanked him to me and met his lips with mine. He grunted in pain, but I refused to let him go. Instead, my kiss turned more passionate.
Aric wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me close, kissing me back with the love I knew so well. His skin scratched like rough and jagged plastic. He was no longer handsome or smooth or soft. The tease of tiny little chest hairs was gone, as was his sense of touch. There was no firm muscle, and he’d lost the mobility in his lips. He would never again greet me with the smile that made my soul sing. But he was still my Aric. His taste was just as sweet, his body just as warm, and his heart still beat for me.
He broke away, panting heavily, but this time not from pain. I stroked the side of his face as gently as possible. “I’ll always want you,” I whispered. “No matter what happens.”
Footsteps approached from the dense wooded path behind me. Aric covered me with his blanket and pulled me close. Tye leaned against a tree, wearing a pair of shorts and a rather amused grin. “You really don’t believe in Destiny. Do you, dovie?”
I tightened my hold on Aric and rested my head against his chest. “My destiny
is in my hands, Tye.”
CHAPTER 31
Makawee examined Aric’s arms, her white brows knitted into a frown. “With Ihuaivulu’s return to his dormant state, the effects of his power should have ceased.” She shook her head. “I cannot comprehend why our weres are incapable of healing.”
Emme had tried to help Aric and Koda. She took away their remaining pain, but their scars would not dissolve.
Danny watched Makawee release Aric. Regret and sadness dulled his young features, making him appear years beyond his age. “What happened to the Tribesmen who were guarding the other stone? Maybe they can tell us something.”
Gemini stroked his thickening goatee with his thumb and forefinger. Aside from a few minor burns on his forearms and back, his body had been spared. “Most were incinerated by Ihuaivulu when they awoke him.”
“The Tribe weres who survived were given to the vampires,” Liam said, unable to hide his disgust.
“Hey, we were hungry,” a vamp called from a few tents down.
I moved toward Aric, then thought twice. Makawee, while sympathetic, would likely object to any contact. My arms weighed heavily from the urge to hold him as I faced her. “What about the witch who helped raise Ihuaivulu? Could she have—I don’t know—done something so they can’t heal?”
“I killed her, Celia.” Taran’s eyes skimmed over Aric’s and Koda’s forms. “The bitch deserved a lot worse.”
Shayna remained a permanent fixture on Koda’s lap. She wouldn’t talk, but when Koda lifted her chin, she flashed him a gleaming smile. It lacked its usual luster, yet was enough to curve one side of Koda’s mouth.
We followed Makawee outside to join the crowd of Alliance members that had gathered. I held back a little so I could walk beside Aric. I waited until she joined the Elders and Uri on a small incline before I spoke softly, “I just want to be alone with you.”
Aric lowered his head. “Now’s not a good time, love. But I’ll see what I can do.”