Savage Magic

by Judy Teel

  The warmth in the middle of my chest expanded pushing my joy higher and higher until I felt half in love with everything around me. We could be happy here. We could look forward to the future instead of dreading it.

  Taking my hand, Cooper slowed down and pulled me to a stop. With a playful tug, he brought me against his chest and kissed me lightly. Then again, deepening the kiss as if determined to memorize every texture and taste of me.

  After a moment, he cupped my face in his warm hands and stroked his thumbs across my cheeks. "I love you, Addison. Nothing will ever change that."

  Brushing my lips softly across his, I urged him down onto the ferns growing in a thick patch beside the path. We knew the odds were against us, but in that moment we wanted to believe that everything was going to be okay. We wanted to know that our happiness mattered.

  His mouth moved to my neck, biting and kissing as he swept his hands up under my shirt and then down to the waistband of my jeans. Restless for more, I pressed my hips against his and Cooper growled low in his throat as he rolled me onto my back.

  A bitter sweet happiness flowed between our hearts as our bodies joined together. Pushing away my worries of the future, I surrendered myself to the rhythm of the pleasure that only Cooper could give me.

  * * *

  Cooper and I heard the screams when we were about a mile from the compound. We'd been taking our time, enjoying the afterglow of our time together when the first shriek of terror cut through the evening chattering of birds and sent a cold stab of fear into my gut. We both took off, bursting from the forest and into the clearing around the compound at the same time.

  I followed behind Cooper as he pushed through the crowd that was bunched up by the gate. As we broke past them, the sharp scent of blood hammered into us.

  Ryker knelt in the grass, his face a strained mask of agony. His shirt hung in shreds from his muscular chest and shoulders, and his partially shifted hands gripped his bloody thighs, the claws digging deep into his flesh.

  "Stay back," Cooper ordered as he sprinted for Ryker. Skidding to a halt, he dropped to his knees in front of his brother.

  "Don't give in to it," he said. "Don't give in."

  Ryker snarled, baring sharp teeth.

  Cooper didn't move. "You're strong. You can win against this."

  "Don't... want to... kill you," Ryker said, the words mangled as his face elongated, bubbling with the sick light as it tried to push into a wolf's muzzle. He screamed, fighting for control. The muzzle collapsed and the light faded. Ryker gripped his thighs harder, panting heavily.

  "Let me get you back to your rooms." Cooper inched a little closer and reached for his brother.

  Panicking, Ryker tore his claws free and scooted back from him on his hands and knees. "They want me to kill you. I...want to kill you." He fought back a snarl. "Please...." Surging to his feet, he shoved Cooper away and staggered toward the gate.

  The crowd scattered away from him, faces stunned, disbelieving. In a jolt of movement, Cooper was between his brother and the gate. "Ryker," he said, and I felt his heart breaking.

  His brother stopped, the ugly yellow light pulsing fitfully through him, his legs trembling from the effort to stop his shift. "I won't die here. I won't... risk anyone else's life to this torture."

  Above us, Mistress Raevinne, Erika and Miller rushed out onto the breezeway of the second tier. Miller and his sister sprinted for the stairs, charging down them at a dangerous speed while their grandmother stood with her arms up, the palms of her hands aimed at Ryker. I had no idea what a practitioner of her level was capable of. Whatever she did, the sick yellow light receded and Ryker's human form stabilized.

  "They can help you," Cooper said. "We'll find a way."

  Ryker shook his head. "No. She's only bought me a moment." He limped toward Cooper and laid his hand on his shoulder. "Into your charge I place the lives of our people," Ryker said, tears shining in his feverishly bright golden eyes. "The blessing of the Alpha I pass to you to give you strength. The wisdom of the Alpha I pass to you to give you courage. The power of the Alpha I pass to you so that you may protect our people from all that might harm them. Into your charge, I place the life of my daughter."

  Cooper shook his head, tears streaming down his face. "No."

  Ryker pulled Cooper into a tight hug. "Remember me as your brother," he whispered. "And that I loved you."

  Ryker's body spasmed and he pushed Cooper aside as a wave of yellow light rippled across his back. He clenched his jaw and lurched past me, straining to hold onto his control. Stepping into the woods, he fell to his hands and knees and the unnatural shift swept through his body, dissolving his humanity in its wake.

  Black with golden brown mixed through his fur, the huge wolf lifted his head and howled, the haunting sound filling my heart with the aching torment of Cooper's loss. Leaping forward, the animal fled into the shadows and was gone.

  * * *

  Cooper stared down at his niece, her gentle scent of bath soap and powder pulling at the heavy misery in his heart and tightening the unwanted lump in the middle of his throat. He'd allowed himself twenty-four hours following the loss of his brother, locking himself in Ryker's quarters and spilling his grief and rage. Finally exhausting the worst of it, he'd found himself at the gate of the Children's Fortress.

  The staff had quietly let him in, saying nothing as he trudged past them and slipped into the nursery. For the last hour, he'd been staring down at Maya, trying to make sense of what had happened.

  The door to the nursery opened quietly and Addison came up to him. Sliding her arm around his waist, she wiped the back of her hand across her damp face and then rested her head on his shoulder. After a moment, she reached down and brushed her fingers lightly across the fine down of Maya's hair. "He might still be alive. He's strong."

  "It's been seven days since he was first infected. No one's ever lasted longer than five." He could see his brother and father in the set of Maya's jaw, her mother in the delicate shape of her mouth and her blonde hair. Regret filled him. Now he would never see Addison's dark blue eyes and determined strength in the face of his son or daughter.

  "Miller asked me about the formula I use in my gun," she said, referring to the illegal darts that she made to subdue vampires and Weres. "He thinks we might be able to design a weaker version that may prevent infection."

  Cooper pulled in a long breath and tried to focus. "Suppress the Were DNA enough that the inter-D's don't recognize them as prey," he summarized. "Smart."

  "We haven't figured out how to help the ones who are already infected, but if we can slow or stop the spread of it—" She eased away and looked at him. "We ran tests again today. There are ten more cases."

  He met her gaze and her eyes softened as she laid a hand on his forearm. "We think there's a breach in the veil between dimensions somewhere near here and they're being drawn to the Weres because that's an energy signature they're familiar with."

  "Will they eventually branch out to the other races?"

  "Once their current source of food is gone, we're afraid they might."

  Cooper cursed softly. More orphans. More hope lost. "Work with Miller. When you're ready to test the formula, ask for volunteers."

  She squeezed his arm and left as silently as she'd come. Cooper bent down and eased the sleeping baby into his arms. Going to the window, he stared out at the empty playground and prayed the Huntress would give him the strength to do what had to be done to keep Maya safe.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Erika and Miller waited for me outside by the garden. It didn't take long to explain my formula and hand over a couple of darts from my gun for them to analyze. I was glad they'd be working with Dr. Barrett for a while. During the hours hashing out theories with the practitioners and struggling to manage the heavy sorrow I could feel in Cooper, I'd realized a way to stop the pandemic. But I needed to be alone to try it.

  I was Demon-Were, a dimension walker, if that book Dr. Barrett had g
iven me was right. If anyone could find the break in the barrier between dimensions, it would be me.

  After Miller and Erika left for Dr. Barrett's lab, I snuck out of the compound and escaped for the village ruins. Skidding down the last few feet of the embankment of the cliff, I jogged through the entrance, stripping off my clothes, boots and gun as I went. Naked, I padded up to the fountain and stared at the clear water trickling down through the carved vines, the clusters of plump grapes looking ripe and ready to pick. I licked my lips, feeling the siren's song of the water, and clenched my fist against the urge to touch it.

  An anomaly was a good place to start when you were looking for the key to a mystery. I took a breath and focused inward.

  Cooper's grief swirled thick and heavy around my heart and my throat tightened. I pushed through it, the devastation of his loss clutching at my thoughts as I did, tempting me down the infinite trails marked by my own sorrows. Instead, I pulled in another slow breath and plunged deeper, beyond emotions — straight to the core of my being where matter became energy, and energy became matter.

  My body began to glow with a soft, gentle light and the terrors of the last few days faded with the sounds around me. I held myself in that place, breathing steadily...infinitely patient. Between one breath and the next, an orb of light burst around me and my existence filled with silence. The urge to laugh with relief floated through me. Confident now, I guided my energy higher.

  There was a crack of sound like a giant door slamming closed. Once again I stood in another world. Home.

  A single tone of sound, like the note from a flute, filled the air. Unimaginable colors swirled around me, luminous green, blue, red... I cocked my head, listening. Displeasure brushed through me. The tone wasn't the same as before. It was wrong, broken.

  I glided forward, pleased that I'd kept my human shape, even adding my usual black T-shirt and faded jeans. No weapons and no boots, but other than that exactly who I wanted to be. My satisfaction rose.

  Smiling, I followed the melody of the strange note, the colors swirling around me like clouds of agitated butterflies as they fitfully gathered to create a corridor for me to drift down, breaking apart as I passed like fragments of dreams when the sun rises.

  The sound kept steady, never louder or softer as I drifted forward, and unexpectedly I realized that the dimension itself was generating the tone. I stopped, looking around to get my bearings, but there were no landmarks in this place. Nothing to mark distance, or even time. Yet, as I focused on the pulsing patterns of the colors, I felt the discord within them.

  Something was definitely wrong.

  Peering through the fog of vivid, living colors, I listened harder, trying to zero in on why the tone felt so off to me. Something rippled through the space in front of me, the colors fading for a moment as it passed. A splash of mindless hunger rolled over me, and I drew back. Another shimmer of movement flowed by, its ravenous wake fanning out across the endless space. And then another.

  The inter-Ds.

  I tracked their trails of washed-out colors, the lower, discordant notes of them mangling the pure tone of this world as it scratched along my nerves like claws. Not home, something deep in my being whispered. Not right.

  And then I saw it, a ragged vertical break in the patterns, a cut of tattered, dying colors. I stopped, repulsion swelling through my being. Was this the key to what was happening in my other world?

  I forced myself to step closer, my spirit tightening, urging me back. A whisper of a touch grazed my elbow and I jumped as one of the rippling wakes flowed past me and into the fissure. The smell of rotten Jasmine touched me, spreading over my skin, soaking me with uneasiness. I had to close the breach.

  I inched closer, the colors around me growing agitated, their patterns sharpening, spiking like a thousand rows of cruel teeth as their colors dulled. A voracious rage bore down on my soul, ravenous to crush it, starving for revenge.

  Danger! someone said against my mind and I turned, searching for the source. Go back!

  Who's there? I demanded.

  Danger!

  I glided away from the fissure, streaks of color streaming past me like fast moving water. Show yourself!

  Run!

  Panic seized me. Cooper?

  Change now!

  He was in trouble. I had to go back.

  There was a crash of sound as light burst through and out from me and I stood on the other side of the ruins past the wall, my back to the fountain. The sun hung low in the sky, casting long shadows out from the forest around me.

  My feet sank into the soft dirt, my body heavy around me, more powerful. I looked down and saw muscular reptilian legs and wide webbed feet tipped with deadly claws. I brought my hands up, tilting my head to see them. Flexing my fingers, I clicked my six-inch razor-sharp claws together.

  I swished the thick, spiked tail behind me and snapped my teeth. Damn it. I'd shifted. Once more, I was the scaly, ugly baby of a T-Rex and a pterodactyl with a little stegosaurus thrown in for good measure.

  Something crashed through the forest to my right. Something big. I ducked, lowering my body over my muscular legs to get a more balanced position and readied myself to spring on the threat.

  The noise grew louder and then a dragon-like creature burst through the underbrush into the clearing that surrounded the ruins. He stopped and raised up on his hind legs to sniff the air, the strange blue aura around him shimmering and dancing with his movements.

  He was beautiful.

  The late afternoon light caught in the smooth scales covering his body, making deep iridescent turquoise, purple, and royal blue dance along his powerful musculature. His head was shaped almost like a German Shepard's, the forehead high, the snout narrowing into a long muzzle, the pointed ears alert. A mane of what looked like short quills ran down his back, starting between his ears and tapering to the tip of his tail where they sprouted into deadly looking spikes.

  Dropping down to all fours, he cocked his head to look at me, his silver eyes bright with human-level intelligence. His gaze traveled over my body and then he shook his head and sat back on his tail, as if shocked by what he saw.

  "Ee ant ahl ee 'ovie stahs," I grouched, my words garbled by my lack of human lips and teeth. Yeah, take that, pretty boy.

  His eyes widened and he rocked forward onto his toes. He seemed to be considering approaching me when he tensed and his attention focused into the forest. The powerful muscles of his back legs tightened and he swung his head back toward me. Uh, oh.

  I jumped over the crumbling wall of the ruins as he sprang at me, snapping open my bat-like wings and flapping them for extra speed and leverage as I scurried to get some distance between us. The sight of them brought the dragon creature to a surprised halt. Ha! I thought. You might be pretty, but you don't have these.

  I gave my wings an extra flap for emphasis and braced myself for a fight. Instead, he sprang over the wall, landing lightly inside the perimeter. He gestured toward the woods on the other side with his clawed hands. When I didn't move, he repeated the motion, adding a frantic nudge of his head.

  I shrugged. Was he telling me to run away? Why? Whatever he was, I could totally take him. I hunched down again and gestured for him to bring it on. His ears angled back and he repeated his combo motions. I shook my head "no".

  That's when the stink of rotten Jasmine swept over me. On the other side of the wall behind Dragon Guy, the air shimmered. A second later, It solidified.

  To say the thing was some kind of giant bug didn't do the monster justice. True, its tube-like body was plated in flexible sections like a centipede, so it definitely had some kind of exoskeleton. It also boasted six disgusting legs, each with curved spines running down the outside and tipped by a single deadly-looking claw.

  But as if stabbing and shredding its victims with its legs wasn't good enough, its face also had a broad forehead with a bulbous multi-faceted eye set in the middle and a snubbed-off reptilian snout that looked powerful e
nough to crack elephant bones. And when it opened its mouth, I was treated to the horror of double rows of sharp, inwardly curving teeth.

  Look, Mom, someone more hideous than me.

  There was no question the thing was designed to tear through prey and enemies, leaving nothing but tiny pieces behind. My instincts freaked out, screaming at me to run away fast, but something held me back. Maybe it was the way Dragon Guy stared at me, or how he'd frozen in place. He certainly looked capable of at least giving the twenty- or thirty-foot bug-croc a run for its money, yet he hadn't moved. Why?

  I watched the monster's head swivel back and forth, swallowing down a gag when the rotation of it went all the way around as its forked tongue darted in and out of that deadly mouth. After a moment, the air about a foot out from its body rippled like a heat wave and the smell of rotten Jasmine intensified. The vibration compressed inward, distorting the monster as it went, as if encasing it in beveled glass. When the vibration reached the center, the creature vanished.

  I stared at the spot where the air still rippled with an unnatural pulse and my peripheral vision caught the almost imperceptible shake of Dragon Guy's head. Even though my mind was screaming at me to run and my guts continued to feel as if they were pretty much liquefying from fear, I didn't move. Finally the heat wave shrank to a small spot and disappeared.

  Dragon Guy released a long breath and his shoulders relaxed. Turning, he cocked his head at me and a fierce smile stretched over his scaled doggy face. Sitting back on his tail, he reached into a kangaroo-like pouch on his pearly-scaled belly.

  Already shaking from the shock of appearing and disappearing nightmares, if I hadn't been braced up by muscle-bound monster legs, I would've fallen over when he pulled out a pair of soft-looking leather pants with a rawhide cord drawstring and a leather shirt laced at the throat. Who was this guy, Davy Crockett?

  He nodded to me as if to say, "you next." I backed up, shaking my head. "Really?" the angle of his head seemed to say.