by Lan Chan
“You think you’re going to get away with this because your daddy is alpha?” James said. His angelfire glimmered around his broadsword. It cast a pinkish hue against his skin but didn’t detract from the shiner I assumed Charles had given him. It took a lot of strength to break Nephilim skin. How Charles ended up in a fight with the Nephilim was beyond me.
In my position, I couldn’t see Charles’s jaw opening but the distressed, growling sound he made shot terror through me.
“Chuck?” My voice was thin. Charles’s head turned to the side. I gasped, unsure of what I was looking at. The pupils in his eyes were ruby red and ringed by a corona of emerald green. His jaw hung open as froth bubbled on his lips. I blinked a couple of times to make sure what I was seeing was real. Charles had gone rogue. But the odd colour of his eyes didn’t match up.
In the second Charles lost sight of his prey, James surged. He launched himself forward and swung his blade in a wide arc that would have slashed Charles’s neck open if the shifter hadn’t ducked and rolled to the side in time. The blade caught a fistful of mane, sending errant hairs drifting in the wind.
Faster than my human eyes could catalogue, Charles recovered from his evasive duck and leaped into the air. The crowd inhaled at the speed of a creature that big. He whipped his left front leg when he reached maximum height and swiped it at James.
The Nephilim would have been caught had he not had the presence of mind to teleport. My heart palpated as Charles’s razor-sharp claws sliced through James’s shadow. The ground shook as Charles landed. James materialised again, his shirt in tatters, his chest heaving. All that lawn football and he was having difficulty keeping up with a fourteen-year-old shifter. Charles had only missed the mark by milliseconds.
Two golden-armoured Nephilim appeared in the air beside James. The one on the right was Marshall. His grim expression turned into irritation when he spotted James. The other was the guard who had tried to grab me at the assembly.
“Stand down,” the new guard ordered. Charles let out a snarl and pawed at the ground. I winced as great big chunks of lawn ripped under his claws. Marshall frowned when he spotted me. Quick as a flash, he teleported and appeared beside me. My muscles contracted when he grabbed me and teleported me away. We reappeared at the head of the crowd. Marshall let me go to be swarmed by Sophie and Luther.
“What the hell is happening?” I whined.
Sophie shook her head, eyes full of unshed tears. There was paper littered over the ground on this side of the lawn.
“James was hassling Sophie,” Luther informed me in a calm voice belied by the tight clenching of his fists. “Charles told him to get lost and it escalated into a fight. It was fine until Charles just snapped and...”
There was no need for further explanation. The foam decorating Charles’s mane said it all. “How is this even possible? His control is excellent.”
Luther stared ahead, face unreadable. “No idea. One minute he was okay, and the next, it was like this weird green thing scraped over him and he turned.”
Three more Nephilim guards appeared in the sky. “Get out of the way!” one shouted. Also a new woman I didn’t recognise. Unlike the guards we knew, these Nephilim had no patience for students. The woman landed and attempted to disperse the crowd through force.
A ring of fire ignited around us after the Nephilim pushed at Sophie’s shoulder. I placed a hand on Luther’s arm, almost wincing at the heat radiating off him.
“We’re not going anywhere,” he seethed.
By then the Nephilim was already moving down the line. Clearly she wasn’t very committed to her cause. Professors Mortimer and Magnus appeared with Jacqueline stalking behind.
Sophie let out a sob. Charles and the Nephilim were trading blows that shook the ground with their impact. If the Nephilim didn’t have the ability to teleport, they would have been dead in a second. If Charles got hold of any of them, their ability would be worthless. He could crush their spines in the blink of an eye.
“Charles,” Professor Mortimer called out. The lion didn’t respond. He snarled at the annoying assembly guard and jumped up once again. The Nephilim dispersed, reappearing farther out of Charles’s reach. My breath came out in shallow gasps. With each second that ticked by, Charles was getting stronger. Each time he leaped it was a little higher. Each time meant he was losing a little more of himself.
Professor Mortimer shot a fireball of purple light at Charles. It wrapped around his enormous head and held him stationary for a fraction of a second. Charles snapped his teeth and green light flared. It smashed through the barrier of Professor Mortimer’s power. The mage stepped back, a frown on his disturbed face.
Charles’s head shook from side to side. His nostrils flared. When he exhaled, a billow of steam wafted out. Luther took a step forward then caught himself. “He’s burning up inside.”
That was stage two of the rogue shifter state. Soon, he would lose all sense of who and what he was. After that he would become an unstoppable killing machine and would have to be put down.
Bile crawled up my throat when green angelfire pierced the night sky. The bond slugged me in the gut like I wasn’t already aware of his presence. Kai landed on the lawn in front of Charles, close enough that if the shifter wanted to, he could take a swipe. Head bent low, Charles growled softly, his hulking head shaking with the pent-up rage.
Professor Mortimer drew a circle around them in an attempt to contain the damage.
Kai got down on one knee. “Hey, Chuck.”
Charles roared at him. The shifter sniffed at the air, swinging his head from side to side in clouded confusion. Standing his ground, Kai reached out a hand.
“You don’t want to do this, kiddo,” he said. “You’re scaring people. Why don’t you pull that big ass of yours back from the brink, huh?” His voice took on a soothing, cajoling tone that I had never heard him use with anyone but Cassie.
Charles stepped closer, his lips quivering across teeth that resembled blades. Sophie jumped a second before Charles lashed out. The purple circle flared in response to an outpouring of shifter aggression. Unlike his fellow guards, Kai didn’t teleport. Charles caught Kai in his massive paw and crushed. I screamed just as angelfire flared. Kai braced his arms against Charles’s paw as he funnelled his healing ability into the shifter’s body. The purple circle spun. Purple ropes emerged from the grass to shackle around Charles’s body, holding him in place.
Everyone on the lawn held their breath. Luther grabbed my hand. C’mon, c’mon. Agonizing seconds ticked by when nothing happened. Charles and Kai were locked in a battle of wills. The paw holding Kai rattled with Charles’s continued effort to squeeze Kai’s guts out. I couldn’t take my eyes off where Kai’s hand gripped Charles’s fur, sending wave after wave of soothing into the shifter.
Just when I thought I might lose my hand from Luther’s death grip, Charles gave a deep, low moan. My attention snapped to his eyes as the green seeped away, dragging the red with it a moment later. They were like a shifter mood ring. When they shone a bright, molten copper, Charles’s body slumped. He landed in a heap with Kai beside him.
Fur and bone melted into tanned, smooth skin. Charles was human again. Professor Mortimer dissolved his circle and chains. Kai picked Charles up like he didn’t weigh a thing and teleported. I grabbed Sophie and Luther, commanding Gabriel’s Key to take me to the infirmary.
Cassie was already there, racing around behind Doctor Thorne as Kai set Charles’s naked body down. He barely fit on the bed. Cassie’s cheeks were flame red as she settled a sheet over Charles while staring anywhere but directly at him. The sheet landed awkwardly but she didn’t stop to inspect her handiwork.
The three of us stood to the side as Kai placed his palm on Charles’s chest over his heart. Though his movements were calm, the bond painted another picture. Beneath the iceberg exterior he wore for the benefit of the world, Kai’s heartbeat was erratic. Moreso than Charles’s. It was always harder to watch someone yo
u cared about get hurt than to be the one hurt. My gut clenched as Kai attempted to throw off the residual terror of potentially having to kill Charles.
Cassie dragged a stool over to the bed. She offered it to Kai only to find herself suddenly gripped in a bone-crushing, one-armed embrace. Her features softened as she returned the hug.
“It’s okay,” she whispered. “He’s okay. You saved him. He’ll be fine.”
Over his shoulder, she made pleading eyes at me.
“Maybe we should leave,” Sophie said.
Luther balked. “No way. Let’s just...give them a minute.”
They peeled off and left me standing there caught between a bond and a hard place. Cassie waved frantically at me. My feet moved of their own accord. No sooner did I brush my hand over his arm did Kai release Cassie. Rubbing at her ribs, she scampered away. I slid my hand against his, holding on as he laced our fingers and clenched me to his chest. His cheek rested against my temple.
“Did he hurt you?” Kai asked against my hair.
“No. He saved my life.” Kai’s fingers clenched, but I hushed him. “Cass is right. He’s fine.”
For a long moment, my world became the slowing of Kai’s heartbeat and the warmth of his arms around me. For the first time, I fed my hedge magic into the bond, tempering its vibration with the cooling sensation of damp earth and water-soaked leaves. Touching the bond jolted something in my mind.
“Kai. There was a second there when I thought I saw green angelfire in Charles’s aura.”
Silence stretched across the quiet room. In the bond, Kai was suddenly alert. “It could have been anything,” he said at last.
“It could, but it’s not, is it?”
His muscles tensed around me. On the bed, Charles suddenly jerked awake. “Too stubborn to go rogue, huh?” Kai said all too quickly. The subject change gave me whiplash.
A soft growl emitted from the patient. “I’ll have you know it’s not stubbornness, it’s determination,” Charles croaked. The pent-up breath in me relaxed its hold.
“Oh really?” I said, “Was it determination that made you challenge a senior to a fight?”
Charles tried to sit up, but determination hadn’t translated to his body yet. He slumped back again. Reluctantly unwinding his arm from me, Kai sent more healing into the shifter.
“Okay, okay,” Charles grumbled, as he squinted against the angelfire. “That was nothing. I can deal with it, Kai.”
I punched him in the shoulder. My fist hit a bone. Ow. I never learned. “I need to speak to Gran,” Kai said. “Don’t move until Doctor Thorne has had a chance to inspect you.”
He turned to me, his green eyes hooded.
“One-time deal,” I spat out before he could get any ideas. “Extenuating circumstances.”
He reached out and drew a finger across my cheek. “I don’t know. People get injured a lot around here. Maybe you can be my nurse?”
He teleported before I could tell him exactly what I thought of that idea. Sophie and Luther must have been spying because they returned to the room with Cassie the moment Kai was gone.
“Do you want some clothes?” Sophie asked Charles.
“What for?” he drawled.
I caught Sophie’s eye. She rolled hers. Shifters!
“You didn’t have to hit him, you know.” Sophie sat back on Kai’s discarded stool.
Charles laced his hands behind his head. His biceps corded to reveal finely cut muscle. “If he ever comes near you again, I’ll rip his guts out.”
Rather than come over all fluttery at his protectiveness, Sophie let out an exasperated breath. “He was just being his usual jerky self,” she said. “Nothing I haven’t dealt with before. You can’t try and kill someone just because they’re an idiot.”
He snorted. “Shows how much you know. Max isn’t here anymore. And Kai can’t hit students and get away with it now. So it’s my job to protect you.” He turned his attention to me. “Both of you.”
For goodness sake! Setting aside Charles’s misguided antics, I pinned Sophie with a stern frown. “Don’t tell me James was giving you grief about what happened in class?”
“He said something about her not being so snarky when her friends weren’t around,” Luther offered. “So Chuck punched him. Seems fair to me.”
My hand clenched in sympathy. If I had been there, I would have done the same thing. “He’s lucky Max isn’t here anymore,” I found myself saying. A twitch made Sophie’s left cheek ripple. Something hollow spiralled in my chest. That foreboding sensation again.
“Speaking of that dunderhead,” Charles said. “Did anyone pick up the invitations?” Oh, so that’s what all the paper on the ground had been.
“Nah, we came straight here,” Luther said. “Besides, you kind of shredded them when you went nuts.”
“Crap. He’s going to get all pissy now. Don’t know what his problem is. It’s like the older he gets, the tighter his panties twist. If Max asks, I gave you both invitations to his ascension party.”
“His what now?” I stammered.
“Ascension,” Sophie said. “Shifter rite of passage.”
“Oh, yeah, that clears it up.”
“When a shifter reaches the age of maturity, they have a ceremony that indicates to other shifters that they’re ready to take their rightful place in the pack.”
“And mating,” Cassie piped up. She grinned at Sophie like it was going out of fashion.
“If anyone opens their mouth, they’re going to regret it,” Sophie warned. I bit the seam of my lips together to stop myself. But it was hard.
We stayed with Charles until Doctor Thorne arrived, and passed Jacqueline on the way out. “How much trouble do you think Charles will be in?” Luther asked.
“No way to know for sure,” I said.
Cassie shook her head. “Kai will do everything he can to make sure Charles is okay.”
I left them with that thought ringing in my ear. Kai would literally move heaven and earth to keep the people he cared about safe. But in the hierarchy of duty, I had top billing. That was what worried me about these strange illnesses. Ruminating on it, I announced to Sophie that I was going to call Max. “Prepare yourself.”
“Why would you do that?” She was just slipping into her pyjamas. They were a cute pink set of shorts and camisole with little cupcakes on them.
“I need to check something.”
“I’m outta here,” she said.
“Really? You haven’t spoken to him in how long?”
“None of your business.” She stormed out the door and slammed it shut behind her.
Woo! Hit a nerve. I knew they had been in contact over the summer but their relationship, or lack thereof, had taken on a complicated turn. Something to do with overbearing shifter tendencies. I couldn’t get much out of her without incurring the wrath of the beast, so I left it alone. Especially when she retaliated and mentioned the bond.
It was a little late but I figured Max would be okay without a few minutes of beauty sleep. When he answered the mirror call, my heart skipped a beat. Not in a good way. He sneezed before I could say hello. I think the expression was: run over by a truck.
Max was the poster child for shifter virility. He was their movie star. The sickly, washed-out creature in front of me reminded me of...well, death. It brought to mind that unease I’d been feeling whenever someone mentioned him.
“Is this some kind of shifter transformation I’m not aware of?”
“Don’t start,” he growled and then coughed like he was trying to expel a fur ball.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“Do you know what the definition of fine is?”
“I got into it with some demons on the border,” he said. “Must have picked up something.”
“Or you’re just sick. It seems to be going around.”
“I’m a shifter. I don’t get sick. Did you call to make stupid statements?” Well excuse me! Charles was d
ead right. Max did have his panties in a twist. Then again, if I were used to never being sick, I would be surly too.
“No. I called to say thanks for the invitation, but I’d rather not attend a weird shifter orgy disguised as a ceremony.”
I was kidding, of course. If Max invited me to a satanic hoedown, I would go just for the chance to drag Sophie there.
“Very funny. I see dying hasn’t blunted your forked tongue.”
“I remember you being a lot nicer too,” I snapped. “What’s the matter? Life outside the Academy not meeting your expectations? Or have you realised you peaked too early?”
He snarled. “I swear to the moon, Lex,” he said. “If you weren’t Kai’s bond –”
“Don’t even go there. Can we have a single conversation without you bringing that up?” It was like déjà vu from New Year’s Eve all over again.
“I don’t like small talk. It’s the most important thing you’ve got going on. You want to be bonded. I don’t even have to be near you to tell. Why are you fighting it so hard?”
I punched the mirror where his head was. “So sorry, Mr. Big and Strong Man. Would you like me to go into the kitchen and make you a sandwich?”
He snorted. I wasn’t sure if it was to make a point or because his sinuses were backed up. “I’d rather take my chances eating a poisoned toad. You can’t cook for shit.”
“You know what? I don’t need this.”
“Then why did you call?”
I hesitated. I’d gotten what I needed from the call. Seeing him was enough to reinforce the theory that had started to form. “Never mind. I don’t know why I bothered thinking we could have a civil conversation. I haven’t spoken to you in what, three months? I’m fine, by the way. The pressure of the bond isn’t immense or anything. I’d hate to see what you’ll be like when some chest-beating Neanderthal comes for Dani.”
The mirror rippled as I attempted to cut the call, but Max slapped his hand out on the other side to stop me. “Lex,” he said. He rubbed at his eye with the heel of his palm. When he glanced up, they were unfocused and slightly tinged with green. No way this was demon related. “I get it. You’re freaked out. I’m only trying to look out for your best interests.”