by Sarah Makela
While I'd smelled the sweet coppery scent of blood, I couldn't have imagined this view: a young woman lay on the ground in a pool of her own blood. Her hair color and style, in fact her appearance in general, was the same as mine. I bit my lip hard, but couldn’t suppress a muffled scream.
He punched me again, and this time, I fell to the ground right next to the corpse. My instinct to get out of here and fly away overwhelmed me, until I felt myself beginning to change. If the shift happened, I’d be vulnerable between forms. Wizards had been known to trap shifters before they could finish the change. Looking up at him, I had a feeling that he'd do whatever it took to get what he wanted.
"Just untie me and tell me what you want." My voice trembled a little. From the corner of my eye, I saw a couple of men walking toward us. They’d come out of the cabin’s side door, and they looked just as bulky and strong as the man standing before me.
"I wouldn't be that stupid. I know what you are. You're not going to get away that easily, little bird." He grabbed me by the hair and pulled me into a sitting position, making me moan in pain. "Rudy, she's seen enough. Take her upstairs. Jasper, you're cleaning this up."
I climbed to my feet before Rudy could pull me up like the first guy did. He advanced on me and I backed away a little, keeping just out of reach. "Don't touch me, Rudy. I can walk without your hands on me."
He lunged forward, but I dodged out of the way, sweeping his foot out from under him in the process. He tumbled to the floor with a loud crash, like a two-hundred-and-fifty-pound bag of potatoes.
Jasper sized me up again, as if he'd thought I was just some stupid young girl, and I’d unexpectedly impressed him. "Come on, girl. I won't touch unless you get out of line." He waved a hand out in front of him toward where I was supposed to go. "I'll fill her in and set her free like you want, Mr. McGuire."
I shuddered, anxious to get away from them. Would they actually let me go? Guess there was only one way to find out.
Chapter Eighteen
Morgana
Jasper had been true to his word—he’d told me my job and let me walk out of the cabin—but I felt hollow and empty. The men inside were more powerful than I could fight alone. Hell, just one of them had managed to lay me out flat, so I couldn't even imagine taking them all on. If I wanted to live, and if I wanted those close to me to be safe, I needed to buck up and accept what they wanted. I couldn't really have a relationship with anyone, anyway—my work was too dangerous, and this just went to prove it. I couldn't get involved.
I kept walking until I reached the road, then walked some more. I didn't know where I was, and frankly I didn't care. If someone drove by and hit me with their car, it would've been fine. At least it would put me out of my misery. Life just wasn't pleasant for me, and it never would be. I understood that now.
Sighing, I glanced over at a group of tall trees near the side of the road. I changed direction, my raven feeling the need to spread her wings. I needed that too. Maybe it was finally time for me to gain my taste of freedom. The power that people crave. Maybe I could actually put that into reality. The idea of flying away and leaving all that I knew behind was more tempting than it should've been, but I knew that was just fantasy. I couldn't take off like that. Cody might wonder where I was, if he still cared. But what he needed most from me was to find his family's magical talisman. I’d agreed to help him, so I couldn't just turn my back on him now. However, I knew now that we couldn't be in a relationship, and I truly, truly hated that after we'd gotten so close.
I stripped out of my clothes and left them under the bushes. I didn’t have anything in my pockets, so it wasn't like I really cared if I ever saw that outfit again. My raven form slid over me, and I leapt into the air, shouting out a loud kraa as I did so. We flew higher and higher, until we could see the town's lights in the distance. I soared toward them, knowing exactly what I needed to do. My heart wept with emotion, and the closer I got to town, the more unsteady I felt. My body exploded out of raven form, and the ground rushed up to me. I wasn't invincible—I'd die on impact, falling from such a height. Just as I got close enough to see the many cracks in the pavement, my raven form washed over me again in a flurry of feathers. Our feet tapped the ground and we pushed up into the air again, escaping near-death from emotional instability yet again.
I lifted my beak and krawed, slamming down the wall around my heart. If I just didn't feel, that would be better than letting myself get hurt like this. But to feel was to be human. If I tried to shut down and keep away from everyone, then I wasn't living, just surviving. Life was too damn complicated.
My home passed beneath me, and I circled to get a look at it, considering going down before I headed into town to take care of something I should've avoided to begin with. To my surprise, Cody was walking out of my front door. He shut it behind him, looking like he had to get it just right for it to fit back on the doorframe properly.
My moment of truth. I didn't want to do this, but it was the right thing to do. The only thing to do. Almost anyone in my position would, yet it felt like it could be the biggest mistake of my life. I didn't want Cody to be the one that got away—or more accurately, the one I really liked but pushed away. But that was how it had to go. I couldn't be responsible for him getting hurt or killed. I wouldn't be able to live with myself. Maybe at that point, I would fly into the sky and just let myself fall.
Even as I thought that, my raven krawed at me. She thought I was a coward and weak. Cowards did things like that. We weren't weak or cowards. We wouldn't let ourselves do such a thing, not when we had the potential for so much more. Those thoughts were probably her survival instinct trying to cheer me up, but I knew I wouldn't stoop to that level anyway.
I would take care of what needed to be done. Perhaps then I'd be off to another destination, away from my perfect paradise, with its silly annual Demon Run coming up, and all the goofy pranks many wouldn't expect from a town with people capable of magic and mayhem.
I dipped lower to the ground, and when I was about a foot away from the grass near the gravel driveway, I shifted into my human form.
Cody had been watching my raven form with a stern curiosity. His heartbeat was racing, but when I shifted my form, a weight seemed to be lifted from his shoulders and relief lightened his expression. He ran to me, and I put up my arms, a little freaked out. The last person who ran at me had been trying to kill me. But I knew he was just happy to see me. He'd never hurt me on purpose. Not like I was about to do to him.
"You're here. You're...alive!" Sighing, he wrapped his arms around me, burying his face into my shoulder. "God, I was so scared. What happened? Are you all right?"
I let my arms hang down at my sides, and bit my lip as tears caressed my cheeks. Why did he have to do this? Why did he need to cause such feelings in me? I didn't want to have to do this, but it was for the best, for both of us.
"I..." My throat was raspy and kind of sore, probably from the screaming earlier. "We need to talk."
Chapter Nineteen
Cody
I pulled back a little. To say I was worried was a vast understatement. First she'd been kidnapped right out from under me, and now she was back. Why had they let her go? Had she managed to escape? It didn't make any sense that she was here. Her cabin was the first place someone would look for her.
"What's wrong?" I said slowly. Carefully. From the look on her face, I didn't think this was a conversation I wanted to have with her, but I supposed I needed to know where her head was at.
She nodded toward the house. "It's cold. I...I should get inside." Without another word, she turned away from me, and while I enjoyed looking at her body, I couldn't say I took a lot of pleasure in it right now. I was still worried about her, and she had bruises sprinkled all over her. I looked back at the road, where the tire tracks still glared at me. I should just go and try to find out what I could. Maybe I could find who had taken her and get some justice, since she didn't seem to be particularly into that herself
right now.
I didn't think going to the police would be our best option, not until I knew what was going on with her. Her shoulders were slumped forward dejectedly, and she was holding herself like she’d given up. I wanted to put my arm around her shoulder, but she didn't seem very receptive to that at the moment.
I carefully opened the door for her, making sure not to damage it further. Once she was inside, I set it carefully back on the frame and locked it to keep it in place. Not that it'd do too much good if whoever had broken down her door decided to come back.
She walked to her bedroom, and I hung back a little, letting her do what she needed to do. I heard the shower start, and I grimaced. Looked like I'd be hanging out for the moment, left wondering what was going on. On the kitchen counter was a closed laptop, with a set of papers next to it. I was trying not to snoop into her things, so I'd kept myself mostly away from it before, but now I wondered whether that was the right decision, for her sake. I walked closer to better inspect it. The envelope had my name on it, and I opened the folder to see general information about me and my family. There were pictures of me and my family members, my birth certificate, and my mother’s passport information.
I wondered for a moment if maybe those people had taken her because of the commotion the golden rocks had created. Could they be after my family's talisman?
Anger burned in my veins, and I let out a low growl.
"What are you doing?" Morgana asked.
I looked up at her, just then realizing the water had stopped. She was dressed in yoga pants and a tank top, with a towel covering her black hair. "You... Sorry. I saw my name on it, and I..."
"It's fine. We talked about most of what's in there already, but that's not what I wanted to discuss right now." She wrapped her arms around her waist as if she was still cold. "I...I mentioned it before, but we really can't be together. My job is too dangerous for relationships." She spread her arms out in front of her. “I really like you, but it's just not possible. Not now, and not ever. Sooner or later, someone with a grudge will come along, and they'll have a way to get to me...you."
She rubbed her hands over her arms and shook her head. "I can't have that on my conscience. You mean a lot to me, and I've already had too much death and loss for a lifetime. My previous boyfriend died while we were treasure hunting in South America. My parents died because of a 'mysterious' car accident when I was younger. My dad was also a treasure hunter. It's in my blood, but I'm pretty damn sure that the accident wasn't mysterious. It was someone getting even."
My legs weakened a little, and I leaned back against the kitchen counter. Here I'd been so quick to think poorly of her, imagining that she’d faced loss in the form of being dumped. It hadn't even occurred to me to think death. Now I knew why she'd been hell-bent on keeping me at a distance. But I couldn't let her push me away, not when she seemed to need someone else to stand alongside her. She looked so hopeless, and the bruises... I couldn't just leave her alone. Not even if she told me to.
"I can't give my job up, especially not now." She let out a sigh and looked up toward the ceiling. "I have too much riding on me. Something has to give, and whether I like it or not, it has to be us."
Pushing off the counter, I growled, but not at her, more out of the building frustration that ate at me. She just looked at me like she was trying to figure me out, not like she was scared. Then again, after the mess that was her house, I didn't think she was going to scare easily.
"No, I can't let you push me away. I can't, babe." I crossed the space between us and wrapped my arms around her. "We can handle this together. You need someone to be there for you. You can't be alone in this forever. You could be hurt. I'm sorry about your parents and your boyfriend, but I'm not like either of them. I'm...not human. I'm like you." I shifted on my feet, not really comfortable with doing this, but she'd shown me her form, both human and bird shifter, and I should give her the same.
Without any more words, I pulled my shirt off and slid my hands to my jeans, unfastening them with a few jerky moves. She placed her hand on my chest, stopping me for a moment. Her eyes were a little uncertain, as if she wasn't quite sure what to think of what I was doing. But after a moment she pulled away again, letting me continue. My pants dropped to the floor, and I had a moment to see her surprised, if not rather lusty, reaction to my naked body before I shifted to my coyote form. She slid to her knees so she was face to face with me. My coyote was more the size of a grey wolf than a normal coyote.
"Wow." She looked me over, but I noticed that she didn't look me directly in the eyes in this form. She was smart, and had obviously been around enough predators to know better. Not that she wasn't a predator too, but birds weren't exactly the highest on the food chain. She leaned her face into my neck after a moment, and I sat down, letting her run her hands over my fur. "I didn't think you were a shifter. You seemed like a nice, simple college guy. Except for the growl, of course, but I don't know... I chalked it up to not hearing you properly or something. I don't know what I was thinking, and I honestly still don't know what to think." She pulled back a little. "These people who are after me... They're scary. I...I've never encountered anyone like them, and I never want to again. They want me to retrieve an artifact for them, and..." She lowered her head and shook it, as if she'd said all she would.
I shifted back to my human form, heedless of the fact I'd be naked when I did. I didn't care. I needed to talk with her and console her. She needed to know my hunch, even if I was entirely wrong about it, and I needed to know more about what the people who’d kidnapped her wanted her to retrieve. Maybe they'd given her more specifics that she hadn't yet shared with me, that would prove me wrong. I hoped like hell that was true.
She stared at me, her gaze sweeping over my body, even as she tried to keep her eyes from between my legs. She wasn't doing a good job of that, either. A rosy blush tinted her cheeks, and she nibbled her lower lip before finally meeting my eyes again.
"Like what you see?" I asked, smirking at her as her blush intensified.
"Uh, yeah. Sure." She grabbed my jeans from beside us and tossed them at my lap, effectively covering me up, for the most part. But I could tell she'd been a little reluctant to do it. Her gaze still slid to my chest for a few moments before she seemed to catch herself and yanked it back up to my eyes. "Um..."
Seeing how flustered she was at my nakedness nearly made me forget why I'd changed back to my human form. Right. We needed to talk.
I leaned in a little closer to her and brushed my fingertips over her cheek. "I can help you. Tell me what kind of artifact they want."
She leaned into my chest and wrapped her arms around me. Her small hands on my bare skin caused blood to pool in my dick, but now would be the worst time for an erection, especially since I bet she’d notice, given how close she was to me.
"They told me a little bit about it, and I'm nervous about what it might be." She looked up into my eyes as if begging me to understand.
"You're afraid it might be my family's talisman?"
She pressed her cheek against my chest and nodded. "Yeah. Their descriptions and the things you've told me about it match."
I ran my hand over her back in soothing circles. I no longer needed to be concerned about the erection. It was all gone now. While I'd had a hunch about it being my family's talisman, I hated that I'd been right. If Morgana’s kidnapper jerk knew it existed after the recent magic damage in the woods, how many other people might also know about it? I clenched my free hand into a fist and leaned my forehead against the top of Morgana's head.
"We'll get this sorted out. You can count on me. Just give me a chance, babe. That's the only thing I've wanted."
Chapter Twenty
Morgana
After seeing Cody's massive coyote form, I didn't doubt that he'd be able to handle himself in a fight. But I still worried about him getting hurt. Even as a Raven shifter I'd gotten myself into places that almost killed me. In fact, it'd happened twice
so far tonight. I didn't want his blood to be on my hands, but I also had to accept his help right now, since I seriously didn't know how else I'd get myself out of this mess.
"Okay. Just promise me you won't put yourself in needless danger." I glanced up at him, savoring the firmness of his warm chest beneath me. Being held in his arms gave me a strength that I'd desperately needed, something I hadn't been aware I lacked before now.
"I promise." He squeezed me a little tighter for a moment, and I bit my lower lip at the sight of his muscles flexing.
Whew... He needed to get dressed before I stripped away the jeans that lay across his lap and continued what we started earlier. Need flared inside me, but now wasn't the time. Not with bad guys breathing down my neck. If they knew Cody was here, and that he was important to me, they'd use him for leverage to make sure I did what they wanted.
"Good. I guess we need to get busy." I pulled away from Cody and climbed to my feet. My gaze landed on the wreckage of my home, really taking it in in the dawn's light. My stomach roiled, and I leaned back against the wall, placing my hands on my belly. "God, he destroyed my home." I couldn't keep the torrent of emotions that flooded me out of my voice. "It's..." I shook my head and looked up at the ceiling, only to see a few shards of glass from the lamp embedded there.
Cody pulled me into his arms again. This time I didn't care that he was naked. I just needed his warm body against mine. "We'll clean it up. It'll be okay. I promise." He cupped my chin in his hands and forced me to look at him. His eyes held an angry confidence, and I actually believed him. "Where should we start? You know better than I do what's going on. How will we find the talisman?"
I sucked in a deep breath and held it for a moment before letting it out slowly. He was right. I needed to focus on the task at hand. "Let's look at the map of where the last instances of magic were. I think we should head out and visit them. They’ve all been in a relatively small radius, and none of them have left the forest, so if we look long and hard enough, we should be able to find it. I'll be able to scout from the air, and perhaps you can scope out the scents on the ground to see if they're any help."