by Jeff Hale
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the authors’ imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, organizations, clubs, or locales is entirely coincidental.
THE SHIFTING STORM Copyright © 2014 Lezlee Cheek Hale and Jeff Hale. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Cover art design by Lezlee Cheek Hale
Novels in the
Aetheric Elements
Universe
The Demon’s Corruption Chronicles
The Paragon Element
The Wild Within
The Pure Soul
The Shifting Storm
The Dark Flame*
Stand Alone
Beyond The Reflection
*soon to be released
TABLE of CONTENTS
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
About the Authors
(two months before the beginning of The Pure Soul)
ONE
KATELYN
It was raining. I sat on the windowseat in my bedroom, staring out through the glass as the rain pattered against it, my knees against my chest and my cat, Angel, sleeping contentedly near my feet. Dark clouds scudded across the sky, blocking out the sunlight, and as lightning flashed sporadically, I placed my fingers against the glass, feeling the tingle of the electricity in the atmosphere in my fingertips and watching the little blue arcs that jumped from my skin to the air around me.
“Well, that’s an interesting little trick.”
My head spun towards the voice, my blue eyes going wide and my heart giving a little sharp thud at being startled. Angel went from liquid unconscious lump to all fours, tail bottle brushed and hissing.
There was a large black wolf lounging on my bed. For a brief moment, I thought that maybe I had missed something and Darien, the werewolf who had claimed me for his mate, had miraculously appeared. I shook my long red hair out of my eyes, giving the creature a closer look, and realized that it was almost see through, like so much wolf shaped smoke, and had glowing blue eyes. Its tongue was lolling out of its mouth and I could swear it was smiling at me.
I placed a hand on Angel’s back to soothe her, felt static electricity zip through her fur and, with a startled meowrp, she shot off the seat to hide under my desk and stare at the creature on my bed.
“Poor kitty cat, but at least she’s just as scared of you now as she is of me,” the incorporeal wolf said in amusement. Well, sort of said, the words formed in my head anyway, and I knew that they were coming from it.
“What the hell are you?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at it. Sure, maybe I should have been more shocked, maybe I should have been looking for the nearest exit, but I’d dealt with a lot of strange things over the last year, not the least of which was becoming a werecat, a shifter, myself. I could gain claws and fangs in an instant. A ghostly wolf wasn’t going to really spook me at this point.
It had buried its nose in my comforter and was rooting around. “Damn, your bed sure smells better than Aerick’s, but then again you probably smell better than Aerick. You sure as hell are a lot prettier!” Its tongue made a slow lick around its—his, it was a masculine voice in my head—muzzle and he went back to panting with his tongue out.
His mention of Aerick caught my immediate attention. Aerick was my boyfriend, well, ex-boyfriend. We had split, amicably, almost eight months ago, so he could leave for Colorado to continue his magical training with Merlin (yes, the Merlin, the one who had brought the Barrier down, with Aerick’s help, and flooded our world with magic).
Aerick hadn’t had any clue how long he was going to be gone, and he had a thing against long distance relationships, so he thought it was the best for both of us if we separated. He felt it was unfair to me to have to wait around for him to come back, especially since he knew I was a cat shifter, and he didn’t want me put in the position of possibly cheating on him. I had waited anyway, was still waiting, but I had already passed the point of tears when I thought of him and now just felt more numb and hollow.
“How do you know Aerick?” I swung my legs down so they were dangling off the window seat and tapped my heels against the frame. “And I’d really prefer it if you didn’t slobber on my blankets.”
He winked at me and immediately pulled his tongue into his mouth. “Sorry, didn’t want to scare you so I was trying to look as moronic as possible to put you at ease.” He stretched out his front legs and rested his head on his paws. “As for Aerick, well, I used to be his familiar once, now I’m just a friend, and I run errands for the guy in charge.”
“You mean Merlin.”
“Yup. I’m on such an errand now, and since I was in the vicinity, Aerick wanted me to deliver a message behind the old man’s back. The old fart’s been keeping our Aerick incommunicado the whole time but Aerick was afraid you might worry.” He made a throat clearing noise. “’Kat, sorry I wasn’t able to be back for the holidays. I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be here, but it looks like it might not be until after your birthday. Hope you had a good Christmas and hope everything, and everyone, is treating you well’,” he said, in Aerick’s voice. “Sorry it wasn’t better news,” he continued in his own voice. He actually sounded sympathetic.
A stab of depression went through me, but I shook it off. I had halfway expected it. It had been just under eight months since he had left and I thought a part of me knew that waiting would do me no good.
“Ya know, I love him too, Kat, but I think you’ll be better off just moving on and getting over him. With the way his life is, with all that has happened and is going on, relationships just aren’t going to work out very well for him.” His tone was serious, making me give him a hard look, and I was just about to say something to him when here was a knock on my bedroom door. It was pushed open and Kris stuck her head inside. Her blonde hair was still cut in the feathery pageboy she preferred and she questioned me with her grey eyes.
“You talking to someone in here?” she asked, pushing the door wider and stepping into the room. She was dressed in dark hip-hugger jeans and a jean jacket over a black Marilyn Manson t-shirt, a pair of deep-purple skater shoes on her feet. “You okay?”
I pointed to the animal, who was still lying on my bed, his blue eyes now having a stare off with Angel’s pale green ones. I wasn
’t sure who would win, the cat or the ghost wolf.
Kris looked over to my bed, then back at me, shaking her head in confusion. “What?”
I tilted my head to the side. “You don’t see him?”
She looked back at the bed. “See who?”
“The wolf, on my bed.”
She snorted at me through a smile. “I think you’ve lost it, sweetie.”
“She can’t see me, red,” the wolf told me, still trying to stare the cat down. It was a standoff at the moment. “She’s human, not tied to the Aether in any way. She couldn’t see me even if I wanted her to.”
“Oh,” I said. “Well, here, Kris, look at Angel, she can see him, she’s under my desk.”
Kris obligingly peeked under my desk, following the cat’s focused gaze back to my bed. “Well, she’s staring at something on your bed all right, and it’s got her agitated.” She walked over to the bed and poked at the middle of the blankets. From my view it looked like she put her hand straight through the wolf.
“Well, hell, just cuz she can’t see me doesn’t mean she needs to go poking around on me!” He got to his feet and jumped down from the bed, came to sit at my feet.
“So what does it want?” Kris asked in curiosity. “I’m going to assume it’s not some demon dog since you’re not screaming your head off.”
“Demon dog?!” He threw a glare Kris’s way.
“He came to deliver a message from Aerick, guess he used to be Aerick’s familiar.”
“Ah… and from the look on your face, I’m guessing not so great news then?”
I smiled sadly. “He’s gonna be gone probably till after my birthday and still no clue after that. The ghost dog—”
“My name is Talon, thank you very much, and quit calling me a dog,” the wolf said irritably.
“—is advising me to give up on Aerick and move on with my life,” I finished, frowning.
She put a comforting hand on my arm. “Sorry, sweetie, I know how you feel about him, but I think your furry visitor is right. He’s been gone a long time now.” She looked at the watch on her wrist. “By the way, we need to get headed soon if we don’t want to be late.”
I hopped down to the floor, pulling my black Doc Marten’s out from under the bed and stuffing my feet into them. I yanked the laces of my boots tight, probably too tight, and tied them into a sloppy bow, then pulled my black leather jacket off my desk chair. My jeans were black today too, but I was wearing a deep-crimson men’s button up shirt under the jacket. I had gotten the shirt because the color matched my hair, and I could button it, or leave it unbuttoned, as much as I wanted.
“It’s not fair, ya know?” I knew I sounded whiny and I didn’t care. “I mean, I finally, finally, get a boyfriend, a great one at that, but no, he’s gotta be some magical prodigy, and it’s ‘sorry, hun, gotta go train with Merlin, be back, well, whenever’.” I blew a puff of air out that disturbed the long bangs that hung down over my eyes, and I pushed my hair back irritably.
Kris did her best to humor me. “I know, I know, can you imagine choosing that over staying with you? But seriously, he told you not to wait for him, you haven’t been officially together for months. There are a ton of guys at school who would ask you out if you wouldn’t keep giving them the ‘I’m unavailable’ routine.” Her lips curled in a half smile, one of those ones that was meant to convey understanding. “It’s time to let him go.”
I felt myself deflate a little, but I knew she was right; I had been pining over and waiting for Aerick for long enough now, so maybe it was time I moved on.
“Have you thought about getting hold of Darien at all?” she asked.
“Who the hell is Darien?” Talon asked, almost indignantly.
Darien. An image of him flitted through my mind, so different in looks from Aerick. Aerick was over six feet, solidly built, had medium-length dark-brown hair, bright blue eyes, and the kind of good looks that only a healthy dose of Russian and Norwegian blood could provide. Darien, meanwhile, had waist length black hair, eyes almost the same color, and beautiful bronze skin that was the result of his mixed Native American and Sicilian heritage. He wasn’t quite as tall as Aerick, and was leaner, but he was just as good looking. But I hadn’t seen Darien for even longer than Aerick had been gone.
“None of your business, Talon.” I gave him a measuring look, ignoring the odd look Kris gave me as I spoke to something she couldn’t see.
“Fine, be that way. And by the way, does Aerick know you can do what you were doing earlier, with the electricity?” He cocked his ears and I could see a speculative look form in his eyes, if a wolf could be speculative.
“No, and I’d like to keep it that way if you don’t mind.”
“Oh, you’re talking to the dog,” Kris said, still looking around the room.
“Well, I have no reason to tell him, although I’m gonna bite your friend if she keeps calling me a dog.” He growled at Kris. “But anyway, time’s a wasting and I gotta go, see ya later, sweet thing!” He blinked out of my sight.
I sighed dejectedly, leaning down to reach under my desk for the cat. She gave my hands a suspicious look and hissed at me, refusing to let me touch her, before bolting out of the bedroom and into the living room.
Oh, well, I wouldn’t trust me either after that little shock I accidentally gave her. She’ll forgive me later.
“Is it still here?” Kris was poking at the blankets again.
“No, he left. Guess he was in a bit of hurry,” I replied.
“Well, we need to be in a hurry too, if we want to make it to class on time,” she said as she headed into the living room.
I picked my backpack up off the floor next to my desk, slung it over my shoulder and followed her out. I twitched my hand the tiniest bit, heard my bedroom door shut behind me as I manipulated the air to push it closed.
“I really hate it when you do that, it’s creepy.” Kris shook her head at me, her own backpack dangling from one hand.
I shrugged. “Just practicing what I’ve been able to figure out how to do.”
I had been manifesting small magical capabilities since before Aerick had left, nothing huge, just a mild ability to control electricity and air, but I was unsure why I had them or where they had come from. I had kind of been left on my own to figure everything out, although I had been surprised when Sayuri and Takeo, the weretiger couple formerly from the Vegas pack, had shown up to offer to teach me. They hadn’t mentioned anything like this, so I wasn’t even sure they were shifter powers.
“You need to find someone who can teach you how to use it properly, that’s what you need to do.” Kris gave me a stern look. “Before you accidentally do something you shouldn’t.”
“I wouldn’t even know where to look for someone who could teach me,” I told her, “aside from Aerick, and he’s busy now anyway.” Well, there were a few others I could go to, but I refused to. I didn’t want to have anything to do with the sorcerers at MAGE (Mind and Aetheric Government Enforcers) for fear they might lock me away to study me; it was bad enough I’d had to register with them.
I could go to Lucien, but he was a Primal Aspect, The Phoenix, and I was sure he had better things to do than worry about one little cat shifter with some odd sideline powers. Alex, my other packmate and a shifter like me, was still in Europe with Darien as far as I knew, and I certainly didn’t want to bring it up to my da. He was a rakshasa, a shifter-vampire hybrid, and so was Matt. I could talk to Matt, but for all I knew he’d tell my da. I wasn’t going to bother Sayuri and Takeo with it. Once I’d learned what I could, I’d kept my distance from the two weretigers. They were friendly enough, but they were still part of Henry’s pack and I didn’t approve of that. I didn’t think they, or the others, could help me with this.
Even if Aerick hadn’t been so busy, I still wouldn’t have told him, because that would have meant telling him what had first brought the powers on—my surprising shift into a yellow drake, the result of a desperate desire to esca
pe being killed by the Alpha of the Las Vegas pack. I hadn’t told him because I didn’t want him taking vengeance on them on my behalf. Violence was something that never had set well with me.
We left the apartment, locking the door behind us, and walked out to the parking lot. I had my car here; I had driven it back to Las Vegas after I had flown back to Washington last year. I had come back with it totally packed with all mine and Kris’s belongings that we could get into it, as well as Kris and a disgruntled cat. Mom had shipped the rest of my things to me later before she herself had moved to Oregon to be with my father. She was unhappy about me being so far away, but at the time, vampires had been trying to end my life and Vegas was one of the safest areas for me.
The drive to UNLV was short, comparatively, for Vegas, long for anywhere else. The student parking was full when we got there and it took some time to find a spot, resulting in a long walk. We made it to our English Lit class right as the bell rang, and both of us slid breathlessly into our seats, the extremely petite blonde girl who sat on my left giving me a wink and a smile as I sat down.
Kris and I had scheduled all our classes together, taking the same ones. This semester was English Lit, English 201, Cryptozoology 101 and Psych 101. We had Lit and English on Monday and Wednesday, and Cryptozoology and Psych on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
“Ya’ll were cuttin’ it close,” the little blonde on my left whispered to me, a distinct southern drawl to her voice. Her name was Celeste. She had long pale-blonde hair and bright emerald-green eyes. She had a blue denim jacket draped over her chair and I could see she was wearing a white cotton blouse with a matching long white cotton skirt today. “Did ya get yer reading done over the weekend?”
The reading in question was Milton’s Paradise Lost, and Kris and I had both gotten it finished, despite its heavy poetic prose. It was an interesting story, but not one I was sure I would ever read willingly again.
I nodded to Celeste, absently noting that she had her makeup caked on rather thick on her right cheek, as though she were trying to cover up a mark. I started to comment on it, but she put a finger to her lips, shushing me, and pointed at the professor, who was trying to get our attention.