by Jeff Hale
There was a ripple in the air and Kat was gone, a yellow drake slightly smaller than an elephant in her place, roaring and rearing up, wings beating the assailants away. She gave a deafening screech of anger, then she snatched Alex with one clawed hand and I saw the muscles bunch in her hind legs as she sprang into the air, wings ungainly flapping as she flew off haphazardly with him.
While the others were watching, stunned, as the little dragon flew off with their prey, I put everything I had into speed, shifting into wolf form and bolting through the arena gates, across the far end of the compound, and vaulting over the lowest part of the palisade walls to disappear into the Forest beyond.
Kat had forgiven me, had come to save me. Grimm no longer had any kind of hold on me.
NINE
DARIEN
I ran in the direction that Kat had taken off flying, worried that she would kill Alex anyway by dragging him through the treetops. She quickly outpaced me in the air, before finally disappearing out of sight. I’d heard pursuit behind me to begin with, the baying of wolves as they came after me, but as I’d gotten farther away from the compound, they had suddenly stopped.
I slowed for a moment, caught my breath, then stopped long enough to draw my own blood with a claw and let it fall to the cool earth. “I renounce my tie to Grimm’s pack,” I whispered solemnly, then felt the sudden chill as I could no longer feel him or his wolves. It didn’t bother me; I still had Kat and Alex, and they were enough.
I took off again at a good trot in a direction I hoped might take me to one of the paved roads. I wasn’t sure where Kat was headed, wasn’t sure how long she could even maintain the drake form that she somehow had the ability to shift to, but it seemed that a good point of origin for her and Alex had been either of my father’s homes, in Sicily or in Greece, so I would try to get back to one of those.
I smelled smoke and the trees suddenly broke into a small clearing surrounding a tiny log cottage. The smoke was coming from the stone chimney that jutted from its roof and there was a person sitting on the steps wrapped in just a thin, faded green blanket, his or her head obscured. I stopped, moving slowly back into the trees, when the person turned to look at me. It surprised me because it was Kat, and I could have sworn I had felt her presence in my mind fade away.
“Darien,” she said softly, standing and holding the blanket tight around her with one hand, the other hidden in the folds.
I trotted closer and shifted back to human, seeing the appraising look in her eyes as they flitted over my naked body. I hadn’t had time to grab my pants before I’d made the run for it. I didn’t mind if she wanted to look; the appreciation in her eyes sent a warmth through me. A snowflake landed on her nose and I reached out with a finger to brush it off.
She took a step back, giving me a guarded look, her hand moving under the blanket, then she gave herself a little shake and smiled at me. “Sorry, you startled me.” She moved forward, inclining her head so I could wipe the snow away.
“Where’s Alex?” I asked her, looking around. “And what is this place?”
Kat looked confused for a moment, then she laughed lightly. “Alex is inside, resting. And I don’t know what this place is, I just came across it out here.”
“Lucky, that. But we need to get back to a main road. I think they stopped following me for some reason, but they could be closing in any time.”
Her mouth quirked up at one side. “Oh, I doubt they’ll follow you here, you’re safe.” She rose on tiptoe, placed a light kiss on my neck, then the side of my face.
I turned my head and brushed her lips with my own. She froze for several seconds, and I thought maybe I had overstepped my bounds, but then she let out a little hiss of breath and kissed me back. She let go of the blanket and it fell away, her arms going round me, naked breasts pressed to my chest. I feathered light kisses across her cheeks, her eyes, back to her mouth, my own hands running over the smooth skin of her bare back, trying to convey with touch how I felt about her.
I sank to my knees, slipping down along her body, until my face rested against her belly and my arms were wrapped around her thighs, the cool metal of her bracelet sliding against my back. I let out a breath that came from my soul.
“I love you, Kat, I do. This last year I was dead inside without you,” I whispered against her skin, reveling in the feel of her, the warmth.
She inhaled sharply, choking back what sounded like a sob. The chill of metal left my back and her hands rested on my head as she whispered something to herself that sounded vaguely Celtic to me. She dropped to her knees beside me, holding my face between her hands and I could see that she was trying not to cry. She kissed me as though she were trying to devour me, then drew away.
“Love me, wolf, for tonight just love me,” she said unevenly, imploring me with her eyes and taking me down with her to the blanket.
“For tonight and every night you’ll have me,” I told her, covering her body with my own.
She wrapped her legs around my hips, pulling me into her, and as our bodies moved in unison, she began to cry softly. I started to ask if her if something was wrong, but she stopped me with her mouth and I lost myself in her again, drifting off to sleep with her wrapped in my arms.
_______________________________
Pain woke me. Excruciating pain as something sharp was driven through my collarbone. I screamed; I couldn’t help it, it fucking hurt. I bolted upright, clutching at the object.
It was still light out although it was fading. I hadn’t been asleep that long, and it was snowing lightly. I grasped the thing that was stuck in my collarbone, trying not to cry out again as I pulled it from my flesh, and then looked at the bloody object in my hand. It was a heavy spike of silver, and someone had stabbed me with it.
I let out another howl as another one bit into me, sinking into my thigh. She was standing maybe fifteen feet from me, another spike in her left hand, her right still extended from the one she had thrown.
But it wasn’t Kat.
This woman was wearing an ankle length forest green skirt, slit up the sides to her thighs, and a black leather jacket over a dark green halter top that showed she wasn’t lacking up top, but hadn’t been as generously blessed by nature as Kat had. She was taller than Kat by a few inches, her shoulder length hair a light golden blonde. I couldn’t tell her eye color in the dimming light. She was maybe only a couple years older than Kat, and almost as pretty, although I might have been biased.
The expression on her face, however, was not pretty.
“You filthy beast!” she screamed at me, launching the other spike.
I tried to shift, to dive out of the way, but the silver was interfering with my abilities, wouldn’t let me draw power from my Aspect, not even to begin regenerating the wound she had already given me. This one pierced my shoulder, not far from the first, and I cried out again.
“You’re hers! That has to be the only reason I gave in to you!” she yelled, two flat discs with sharp carved points on the edges appearing in her hands from out of nowhere, gleaming in the light. More silver. She threw them at me in quick succession, one hitting the ground, the other catching me in the side. “Why else would I let you even touch me?!”
Touch her? I didn’t touch her, I made love to Kat… didn’t I?
No, I had just thought I’d made love to Kat; I had been too wrapped up in my feelings to pick up the small signals that it wasn’t her.
I managed to get to my feet and limp towards the Forest, still unable to shift, as I vainly tried to pull the spike from my thigh. Agony exploded in the calf of the same leg, as well as in my left shoulder blade as two more shuriken hit home. My leg gave out under me, toppling me, and weakness flooded me. I was losing blood, a lot of it, and with silver in my system, I was unable to heal fast. I began to crawl away, pulling myself with my good arm, and pushing myself with my good leg.
That was when I heard the snap of the whip. It wrapped around my neck, a thick silver cable that stung m
y skin, choking me as she dragged me out into the trees. I struggled with the cable, trying to loosen it, but I could feel myself fading. I felt her lift me, not an easy job for a woman her size, but then again she had pulled metal weapons from thin air so maybe she was stronger than she looked.
She leaned me face first against a narrow tree trunk, draping my arms over some low branches to support my weight, then she wrapped my arms around the tree so that my hands overlapped each other. I screamed raggedly again as she drove another spike through my hands and into the tree, pinning me to it, before the cable was suddenly gone from my throat and I could drag in a deep shuddering breath.
“I kill them, you know, the ones that escape from him,” she said, her voice cold, deadly. “But you’re Guin’s, and because of that, I’ll give you a chance. You had just better pray that she comes for you again.”
I barely had enough time to wonder who the hell Guin was when there was a crack in the air again and my body jerked as the whip sliced into the skin of my back, tearing the flesh. Only shock kept me from making any noise. As it cut into me a second time, a howl broke my lips, and every time thereafter. I lost count after twenty one, I lost consciousness after that.
TEN
KATELYN
I didn’t have time to think as I flew away. I just knew that I had to get myself and Alex away from there and hope for the best that Darien could take care of himself.
If I didn’t kill myself and Alex in the process.
I’d only ever shifted to drake once before, although this time it had been easier. But I’d never flown, hadn’t even been sure I was going to get us off the ground when I had tried earlier, and now I knew I needed to find someplace to land before I lost control and nose-dived us into a tree.
I spotted the tiniest gap in the trees not far ahead and did my best to steer for it. I dropped down into it, letting go of Alex with a little shove so he would roll out of the way and I wouldn’t land on him; no way was I going to try a landing three footed.
Snow and dirt went up in a brownish puff as I hit the ground with a thud, my wings slamming painfully against a couple trees and showering us with what little snow still clung to the branches. I quickly pulled my wings in to my side, shaking myself as I regained my footing.
“You okay?” Alex asked me, brushing dirt off his clothes and moving closer to me.
“Me?” I could talk in this form, although my voice was slightly deeper and with a strange resonance. “I’m not the one who just got bowled across the dirt.”
He half-smiled at me, leaned against my side and placed a hand on my skin. It was a leathery yellow, but according to Alex, it was soft to the touch. I wouldn’t know. “I’ve lived through a hell of a lot worse,” he said. “No, I mean… back there, what happened.”
Shame burned through me, chasing away the fight or flight that had temporarily pushed the events to the side. The tall blonde shifter who had obviously been in charge had been incredibly strong and powerful and I had sensed there was something much older, ancient, about him. He scared the absolute life out of me. When he had touched me, I had felt him pull the cat in me to just this side of shifting, but only the part of the cat that wanted to have sex.
After that, it had been like someone had tuned all my nerves to a fever pitch, had made me so god damned horny that all I could think about was sex. The desire had been so bad that I would have let anyone fuck me just to quench it. I was just glad that it had been Darien who had, even if I was ashamed that he had seen me like that, and I had hoped that our first time together could have been more intimate.
And we would be together, now, if he would still have me. I knew that he wanted us to be together permanently, and I still wasn’t ready for that, but he had told me once that he would be willing to try a less committed relationship with me; it had just been too late at the time and I was already with Aerick.
I was willing to give Darien that chance now.
When I had seen him, standing there looking worried as I opened my eyes, I knew that the feelings that I had for him had never gone away. My heart had leapt and I had drunk in the sight of him, saddened that he had cut off his long, beautiful hair. He had told me he loved me. Then he had given his soul to me.
I glanced around the tiny clearing, keeping an eye out for anyone that might be sneaking up on us, knew Alex was also in high alert. “Yeah, I’m fine, Alex, I am. I’m not happy that guy turned me into supernympho, but it could have been worse. We could have died.”
He nodded, although his expression was filled with disgust. “Thanks, for saving me. Some man I turned out to be, eh? Quaking in my shoes because some big bad wolf gives me a dirty look, then saved by a girl from his minions.” He pushed off of me and kicked up a spray of snow and dirt.
“Alex…”
He shook his head, held up a hand, lips tight in self-recrimination. “Don’t, Katie. I know what I am and I know what I’m not. There’s Alphas and non-Alphas… and I’m a non, so when there’s an Alpha around, I lick his feet, that’s just my place. Can’t fight it, but doesn’t mean I like it. And if you didn’t notice, all those fucking wolves back there were Alphas.” He sighed as he looked at me. “The Alpha vibe doesn’t affect you, does it? I mean, the Alphas’ ability to control your Aspect, that works, but the whole ‘bow down to your master’ thing, it doesn’t work on you.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
“And this…” He gestured at me and ran a hand down one wing bone. “This isn’t shifter.”
He was right, it wasn’t. I severed the line of power that held me in form and stood naked in the snow. I wasn’t cold and I should have been at least a little chilled.
“Neither is this.” I reached for that power again, power that was similar, but different from where I found my shifter abilities. I wasn’t able to control much of it, but I sent the power back out, seeing and feeling the snow lift from the ground to whirl lightly around me as I made the air move.
“Shit, Katie! Did Aerick teach you a few tricks before he left?”
“Aerick doesn’t know I can do this, or turn into the drake, or this.” I left the air to its own devices and held my palm out, little blue sparks of static electricity crawling across my skin like so many bright worms.
“What the bloody hell are you?” Alex whispered. His eyes were wide, but there was no fear in his voice, just confusion.
“I really don’t know. And other than Aerick, I don’t know who to ask. I was afraid to before, and now he’s gone so I can’t.” I dropped my hand to my side, the sparks winking out.
“Well, I’m glad you are whatever it is you are, or we’d both be so much bloody mess by now.”
I closed my eyes and nodded, hoping that Darien had managed to get out on his own, hoping that he’d even tried. For all I knew he’d watched us fly off and that super Alpha had taken control of him again or killed him.
“We need to get back to the car,” I said, glancing around me for several moments. “Then we wait for a while, see if Darien shows up. If he doesn’t, we head back to Athens. This way, I think, for the car.” I pointed through the trees.
Alex had been doing the same thing as me, trying to get a fix on direction. “Yeah, that seems right. You gonna be okay walking through the trees like that?” He started to take his jacket off.
“I’m not cold, but if you’re willing to give up your coat, I wouldn’t mind not flashing the Forest.” He handed it over to me and I slipped it on. It came to mid-thigh, so at least I was semi covered.
We headed off into the trees, barely making it twenty feet in when a chilling howl echoed through the dusk air. It was filled with anguished pain and was followed by another, and then another.
“Bloody fucking hell!” Alex exclaimed, stopping and looking in the direction of the tortured sound.
“That’s Darien!” I cried out, not sure how I knew, but I did. I also knew exactly which direction he was in, and I didn’t question it. I was already shifting to lynx, switching directio
ns and racing through the trees towards the sound, Alex hot on my heels.
The howls stopped suddenly and a wave of fear went through me. I dug in harder, my form a silver blur, finally feeling the radar ping in my head that let me know he was close and I homed in on it, skidding to a halt in dumbfounded shock.
My senses told me it was Darien in front of me, and the short black hair and familiar profile confirmed it. He wasn’t moving, his head hanging back, face upturned to the air, arms wrapped tightly around a young tree.
His back, buttocks, and the backs of his legs were a bloody mess, as though someone had flayed the skin from them. There was a nasty blistering burn around his neck. He should have been healing much faster and he wasn’t. Which meant there was silver involved somewhere.
I changed back to human, running to him, cradling his head in my hands. “Darien! Oh god, who did this to you, what happened?”
He didn’t respond, only his arms around the tree keeping him from falling to the ground. I circled the tree to see what was holding him there, hearing Alex’s sudden explosion of colorful profanity behind me.
“Help me, Alex! There’s silver in him, somewhere, he’s not healing!” I saw his hands then, overlapped on the trunk, saw the silver spike that had been driven through them and into the wood and a blinding rage went through me that someone could have done this to him. I grabbed the spike, placed a foot on the tree, and pulled.
Alex caught him as the spike jerked free and Darien fell. I threw the blood covered metal away from me in revulsion. Then I came around the tree and dropped to the ground to pull Darien carefully onto my lap, feeling something begin to dig into my leg as the front of his shoulder rested on it. I lifted him, seeing what looked like a metal throwing star sunk deep into his flesh, blood still dripping from the wound.