by M. L. Briers
Their community was a fragile thing and the dynamics could be changed with one wrong move. He wouldn’t let everything that he’d built fall away so easily.
He had a good idea of where the others were. Justice, Landon, Dexter and Brody were running a perimeter from the castle outwards in ever increasing circles, trying to pick up a scent or a sense of magic at work.
Admittedly it would have been easier if they’d brought a witch with them, and there were a few volunteers who were eager to participate – Chelsea, Tyler’s kickass mate for one. That witch was always up for the fight, but none of the males wanted that added responsibility of protecting her when they were trying to hunt.
Connor heard a fifth set of paws on the ground and rolled his eyes back into his head … Shawn … it had to be, and the damn idiot wasn’t protected by the witches’ magic and yet he’d ventured out on the hunt.
The vampire knew that there was little chance in reasoning with the man or his wolf and sending the beast back to the castle with its tail firmly between its legs … the only other option was to use him as bait and protect him the best that he could.
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Something had woken Eva from her deep slumber. She’d sensed that something wasn’t right, and when she pushed up and looked to the other pillow and the indent there; the realisation that Shawn had been laying beside her and was now gone confirmed that feeling.
It felt as if something was lost and that she needed to find it again.
Her rational mind told her that was down to the mating pull – the rest of her mind, body and soul told her that Shawn was putting himself in danger for her and she needed to put a stop to that.
Now she was out in the frigid night air. Her magic felt stronger now and she could feel it like a warm comfortable blanket that was wrapped around her body.
The overriding fear within her at that moment in time was that someone would get hurt trying to hunt down Kal … that couldn’t happen. She’d brought the man to shifter land, and unintentional or not, it was her mess to clear up now.
Kal’s magic was strong. He’d been drawing on dark magic for a while, and every witch knew that the energy source for that kind of magic was unending. But dark magic also left the Warlock open to being tracked as she followed the invisible power signature like a guiding rope right towards him.
Her spine tingled as Kal’s magic found her, wound around her shields, said hello. She knew one thing; if she didn’t call on dark magic herself then she would never be able to defeat him … but if she did use it then she risked Kal piggybacking on that source for his own ends…
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
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Kal was tracking the beasts. He was more than ready to pull on the extra magic that he needed to start his spell when he’d felt her … Eva … her magic was out there in the night.
She wasn’t dead.
His attention wavered from those hunting him and he focused solely on her … his mind made the connection … and then he found it – another connection, another bond between her and … he followed that strand of magic where it took him.
Another wolf outside the castle grounds, this one unprotected by magic … this one … her mate.
Kal felt the anger rise up within him. His rage boiled within his body like a fever … he had to save her from that fate, from being bound and bonded to a shifter…
Kal dismissed the other beasts in the hunting party and centred his attention solely towards Eva’s mate. The man was apart from the group, alone in the hunt…
He wove his shields tightly around his body. No sound. No scent. Then he moved off from his vantage point, tracking the beast, and although he didn’t need her magic to end that wolf – he’d take pleasure in letting her share in the kill.
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Shawn could only hope that the others were having better luck than he was. His ears pricked up with every sound that came from inside the woods, no matter how small.
He wanted to hear the very first moment that someone found the Warlock. He wanted to be in the thick of the fighting – wanted to taste the man’s blood upon his tongue…
Protecting Eva was the only thing that mattered now, and if the witches couldn’t bind the man’s magic, or if they gave him no other choice, then Shawn wanted to be the one to end him.
Shawn caught the movement just off to his left. His head turned first and at the sight of the man standing there, his body followed.
His beast felt the first touch of the magic against its fur. A moment later and his whole felt as if it was being flayed alive.
Held in pain, unable to move, to shift, to do anything but keep that pain from his very soul … his beast tried to howl a warning to the others, but the sound just gargled within the back of his throat…
He could feel his wolf being torn from him. It felt as if he was being ripped in two. The wolf howled within his mind…
‘Shawn!’ Dexter’s voice echoed inside his very soul. The alpha must have picked up on his pain … ‘Hold on, we’re coming!’
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Eva felt it. The dark magic that wrapped around her shields like a serpent looking for a way in.
Kal had found her and was trying to push through her shields and join their magic … he was attacking. She moved as fast as she could towards that link, towards his magic as it called to her.
Stumbling over the uneven terrain, she was uncaring of the knocks and scrapes that her legs were taking, because she had only one thought that she could cling to, one mission in mind. She knew that she needed to stop him…
Her eyes locked on the wolf that was caught in the Warlock’s magic. She felt it … she knew somewhere deep within her very soul that it was Shawn … and then there he was, man and beast like a flickering sideshow, she could see both…
“No!” She bit out as she lifted her hands and centred her magic, calling on the dark side to bolster her shields and force them towards Shawn before it was too late … a shifter without his wolf was broken, and she couldn’t let that happen.
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Shawn dragged in a breath as the magic was blasted away from him. His beast roared. He roared – demanding that his wolf pull back – the beast reluctantly complied, allowing him to shift back into his human form.
Shawn pushed up to his full height. He brought his arms out at his sides and flicked out his claws. His fangs elongated and his taste for the man’s blood rushed through his veins like a fever.
No reprieve. The man was too dangerous to risk binding his magic.
Shawn had felt what the Warlock could do and he needed to end him for the sake of everyone.
He stood between Kal and Eva. He would protect her with his life, but he wanted that man dead.
‘Dexter – he’s too powerful. If he ends me then take the kill – he needs to die…’
Shawn delivered his warning before he started on a hard, fast run towards the Warlock. The smug, slightly insane smile on the man’s face said that he wasn’t afraid.
Kal lifted his arms and tried to garner Eva’s magic … the witch was powerful, keeping his magic at bay like that, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t siphon her energy to bolster his own…
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Eva felt it then. Her magic was woven inside of her – the dark magic that she drew on wrapped around it – and then she felt the white light of the magic that reached to her from the witches coven…
Light and dark mixed together – like the good was overwhelming the evil, taming it, using it to like a battering ram against Kal’s defences.
Eva forced out wave after wave of that energy towards him – felt his magic start to crumble – start to give under the onslaught…
Her eyes locked onto Shawn as he charged towards the Warlock. Her magic followed him, surrounded him, and flowed inside of him, turning him
into that battering ram.
There was a roar that came from deep within Shawn as the man lifted his arm and sliced through the air with his claws … she felt that connection, felt his claws tear through the skin, the muscle, the bone.
Kal’s magic was wrenched away from her. She watched as the man dropped to his knees in the dirt.
She watched as he held in place hovering there between life and death.
She watched as his blood spilled upon the land.
His eyes still open and staring hate, but they were unseeing.
Shawn tossed his head back on his neck and roared his victory as Kal fell forward, face down in the dirt.
She pulled her magic away. Sent the coven’s magic back to where it belonged as the dark magic vanished from inside of her.
Her eyes focused on the whole scene. The vampire and the other wolves that had gathered in the clearing, having gone unnoticed until now…
Then Shawn turned fast towards her. His eyes were jet black and his fangs were still locked into place, and as she allowed the last of her magic to slip away, she too fell to her knees, exhaustion sweeping through her body like she had never known before.
“Eva!” Shawn roared her name, but her vision was failing her…
A moment before the darkness claimed her completely she saw him there in front of her. No fangs, no claws, and he was reaching for her, bringing her into the strong safety of his arms – speaking words that she couldn’t quite make out…
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
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“Two days!” Isobel exclaimed in frustration as she shook her head in dismay. Dexter eyed her with a smirk on his lips and laughter in his eyes and she hated him for it.
“Are you sure you’re not counting the minutes and seconds to go with that?” Connor asked, as he lay against the thick bough of the tree like it was his own personal hammock made of wood.
“Shut up,” Isobel tossed up at him.
“Patience is a virtue,” Connor shot back down to her.
“Shut up. Shut up!” She ground out.
“Maybe you want to take another picnic basket of food over and eavesdrop at the door again to see if you can hear anything.” Dexter offered her a knowing look.
“I did not eavesdrop at the door…” She shot him a glare.
“So you tripped and your ear was pressed against the door for…?” Connor got that exact same death glare.
“He could have killed her and buried the body under the damn floor boards for all you two care!” Isobel grumbled.
“Not true.” Connor answered.
“And how would you know sloth?”
“When I was passing a little while ago I could hear her heart beating…” Connor offered. “It sounded stronger this time.”
“This time?” Isobel shot him a knowing look and he quickly averted his gaze away from her.
“Yes, well … I … hmm,” Connor scowled.
“Ear pressed against the door was it?” She tossed back.
“Window,” Dexter offered back with a grin that spread his lips wide.
“I’m a vampire…” Connor sighed. “I have super human hearing to match the rest of my super human being.”
“Like … Batman…” Isobel chuckled.
“No, no bats!” Connor scowled down at her again…
“You know, we used to play a game when we were kids to see who could knock the cans out of the trees…” Dexter offered and Connor turned his head on a scowl.
“Let’s not even…” he got no further when Isobel lobbed the apple that she’d been holding at the vampire and it bounced off his head.
“Shot!” Dexter chuckled.
“Not amused…” Connor berated her with just a look, and yet, out of the corner of his eye; he caught sight of the apple that Dexter threw at him, and his hand snatched it from the air before it even got close. “You two have to try a lot harder than that if…”
Isobel snapped her fingers and a strong blast of wind from nowhere hit hard against the vampire’s body and rolled the man right off of the bough and deposited him face first down in the dirt …
“How about that?” Isobel asked with as much innocence as she could muster. “Hard enough for ya?”
“Yes.” Connor grumbled as he lifted his head and spat out a mouthful of dirt. “And ouch.”
Dexter’s deep chuckle rolled through the air and his mate chuckled along with him.
“I would have thought with Vicky as a mate you would have learned not to tempt fate or challenge a witch by now.” Dexter offered.
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“So, Isobel just tossed Connor out of the tree…” Shawn reported the news to his mate from where he stood at the window.
He would have thought that his wolf would have been more antsy to get out and run the land, but the beast seemed perfectly happy to have spent the last two days locked in the cabin looking after their mate.
“You know what they’re waiting for, right?” Eva shot back on a frown as she wished that Shawn would just back down and not be so damn pigheaded about letting her get out of bed until he thought that she was fully rested…
If she had any more rest then she might just die from being overly rested…
“The mating howl.” Shawn said on a low deep growl at the kind of images that tossed up within his mind.
“They want to know if you’ve killed me or not,” Eva offered back. That spark of mischief ignited within her.
Shawn’s growl changed. It no longer sounded hungry but angrier…
“Killed you!” His head shot around and he questioned her sanity with just a look.
“Well, they haven’t seen either of us for days…”
“Nearly two days…” Shawn offered.
“That’s what I said, days, and you could have killed me like a gazillion times over in that time…”
“I would not…” Shawn started from the window towards her.
“Well, try telling them that. The last time they saw you with me – you were probably snarling and growling at everyone…” she offered and he frowned harder…
“Well, you were injured…” he scowled…
“And you were probably skulking around like a crazy wolf, not letting anyone near me…”
“You were injured!” He offered back a little more forcefully, as if by saying it harder and louder she would understand his point better.
“And I was injured,” she shrugged.
“I said that!” he offered back…
“I was injured…” she tried again.
“I know you were injured…” he offered back, twisting his head on his neck and looking at her as if she’d started speaking in tongues…
“So then…?” She urged…
“Then what? I carried you home!” Shawn sounded exasperated.
“And they haven’t seen me since…” she shrugged again, and gave him an expectant look.
“Oh! You could have…” he tipped his head to one side and poked his tongue out of the side of his mouth.
“Nice … dramatic pose … hopefully I’ll look a little better than that when I die and my tongue will be firmly in my mouth.” Eva tossed back and Shawn chuckled.
“I don’t know …” he said. “I think you’d look pretty cute with the whole tongue out thing…”
Shawn grinned, and it was a damn, sexy grin that lit up his eyes and made her heart skip a beat.
“Gee, thanks…” She berated him with a flick of her eyes. “It’s nice to know you envisage me dead…”
Shawn grumbled a growl.
“That’s not…”
“They do too, apparently.” She shrugged, lifting her hand and pointing towards the window. “Seems everyone wants me dead…”
His growl was longer, deeper and louder. He stalked towards the bed and scowled down at her.
“I do not want you dead.” He grumbled a growl along with his words.
He couldn’t understand how the hell she had dra
wn that conclusion until he saw her lips twitch, noted the smile that was in her eyes fighting to get out, and then he growled some more.
“Maybe just a teeny bit?” She gave him a wicked smile, and that growl turned hungry.
He berated himself immediately. He had to remember what she’d been through – what her body had been through.
Hunted by that damn Warlock. No sleep, no real food for days and days, and then she’d been some kind of conduit of magical energy to fight off the man’s magic and turn it back on him …
No. There would be no mating – no real wooing until his mate was fully healed.
“Right now or in general?” He shot back, and then berated himself for that one too.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
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“See …” Eva tossed up a hand and fought to keep the laughter from her voice. “I knew your true feelings would rise to the surface eventually.”
“That is not…” he started again, and again that mischief danced within her eyes. “Do you know that you make me want to run head first into a tree?” He offered back.
“Right now or in general?” She shot back with another smug smile on her lips as she tossed his words back at him.
Shawn’s body snapped to attention as his brain kicked his backside into gear.
He was still tense from everything that had happened. He’d been walking on eggshells around her most of the time.
Hell, the first twenty four hours she had slept and slept, and he had held her in his arms, curled his body around her, and hadn’t left her side for longer than a few moments at a time.
He’d reluctantly talked with Dexter over the pack link, but only if the damn man was insistent … people annoyed him so – he just wanted to be left alone to care for his mate!
Even the damn vampire was sitting in a tree like a monkey … it was little wonder that he wanted to head-butt something … and now he was taking it out on her – sort of…