Bear Meets Girl

by Catherine Vale

  “Get out of the way, Angela,” Ben growled, his face tight. “I don’t want to hurt you if I don’t have to.”

  Angela’s answer was to land heavily on all fours and charge at him. Cursing, Ben jumped out of the way, and then changed into his own larger, stronger bear form. Cole’s heart leapt into his throat as Ben rushed Angela, but before he could intervene, one of the other shifters changed forms and attacked him.

  Cursing, he dodged out of the way, but not fast enough, and the bear’s claws ripped through the shoulder of his jacket and left deep gouges in his skin. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he considered lobbing a ball of fire at the bear, but he knew if he missed he could risk starting a forest fire, and he didn’t have time to deal with that. Instead, he stood his ground and waited for them to attack. As soon as one got close, he ducked in and slammed the ball of fire straight into the shifter’s furry belly.

  The bear roared in agony and fell onto its back, rolling around to try and put out the flames. The other two howled in fury and rushed in for the kill, and Cole jumped back just in time to let them smash into each other. He took advantage of the moment and sank more fireballs into their fur, and watched with a mix of fury and satisfaction as they writhed on the ground, trying to put out the flames. It was no good, though – mage’s fire could not be stamped out so easily. It would eat them from the inside out.

  He turned to go assist Angela, but saw that she’d already defeated her opponent – Ben was lying on the ground face-down, blood soaking the ground from an injury that, while fatal to humans, would heal within the hour. He took a step towards Angela, then stopped at the stricken look on her face.

  “What have you done?” she shouted, rushing over to the flaming bears rolling on the ground. “You’re killing them!”

  “Angela, no!” Cole grabbed her and pulled her back just as she was about to touch the flames. If they got on her there would be no way to put them out, and she would burn to death as well. “You can’t touch them. If you do, they’ll die too.”

  “But Jamie is in there,” she sobbed, railing against his iron-clad grip. “Why, why did you have to kill Jamie?”

  Guilt engulfed him like a cloud of noxious gas, which only made him angry since he’d just been trying to defend himself – and her. “He was trying to kill me!”

  “But they’re my family. They’re my family!” She turned around and slapped him, hard. “Why did you have to kill them! You could have shown some restraint and just incapacitated them instead! Now we won’t have anything left!”

  She stormed off, back over to Ben, her back stiff and her hands clenched at her sides. Cole watched, dumbfounded, as she sank down into the dirt and retrieved a pair of spelled handcuffs from her belt to shackle around her cousin’s wrists. Her shoulders shook as she restrained him, and Cole could scent her tears even from this distance. What exactly was he supposed to have done? As he raised a hand to touch his stinging cheek, anger engulfed him. This was exactly what he got for trying to help someone. A slap in the face and a mountain’s worth of blame on his shoulders. Clenching his teeth, he stalked over to Angela, who was still crouched over her cousin, trying to revive him.

  “We’re not taking him in the back of my car.”

  Angela whipped her head around to scowl up at him. “Excuse me?”

  “We. Are. Not. Taking. Him. In. My. Car.” Cole matched her glare with his own. “I refuse to have someone in the back seat of my car who has tried to kill me.”

  Angela jutted out her chin. “He’s restrained. There’s no way he could possibly try to kill you right now.”

  “Nevertheless, he’s a huge liability, especially if he manages to get free and warn someone that we’re coming.”

  Angela lifted an eyebrow. “Considering that these guys here already knew about our plans, it’s likely someone from there has been tipped off.”

  Cole swore foully, then turned and viciously kicked at one of the tree trunks. “God dammit!” He took his anger out on the trunk, unleashing a barrage of furious blows, until the trunk actually cracked and the tree fell over onto the path with a loud groan and heavy thunk.

  “Feel better now?” Angela asked sarcastically.

  “Marginally. But your cousin still isn’t allowed to sit in the back of my Camaro.”

  Angela rose to her feet slowly. “Fine. Then I’ll just haul him into the Jeep and drive with him.”

  Cole rolled his eyes. “How is that any better than just leaving him here until we can come back for him?”

  Angela’s eyes flared orange as she bared her fangs at him. “He’s my family!” she roared. “It doesn’t matter if it’s convenient, I have to take care of him!”

  “Fuck family!” Cole roared back, shoving his face into hers and allowing his own fangs to elongate. “Just because someone is related to you by blood doesn’t mean they automatically deserve your protection, even though they’ve betrayed you! If I’m not proof of that, I don’t know what is!”

  Angela’s eyes widened as Cole’s shouts echoed through the forest. She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out, so they stood there in silence, their chests heaving as they fought for control. They were both teetering on the brink of losing themselves to the beast inside, which if allowed to happen would severely set them back on their rescue mission.

  Their staring contest was interrupted as Cole’s phone chimed, and he turned away to pull it out of his pocket. What he saw on the screen made him grin. “A friend of mine just sent me the blueprints for your brother’s little hideout,” he told Angela.

  Surprise smoothed away the anger on her face. “What? How?”

  Cole shrugged. “I sent him the coordinates to the location your father gave us, and asked him if he could dig anything up.” He tapped the file and opened it up so he could get a better look. “These should definitely make our breaking and entering job a little easier.”

  “Let me see those,” Angela demanded.

  “Nuh-uh-uh.” Cole held the phone high over his head when she tried to snatch it. “I’m not really inclined to share right now – not with a woman who’d rather take the side of the shifter who tried to kill me, over mine.” The words stung more than he expected, and he nearly choked on them. But he plowed forward, especially when he saw Angela flinch. “You leave him behind to think about what he’s done and get back into the Camaro with me, and I just might allow you to look at them.”

  “You bastard,” Angela seethed, fisting her hands at her sides.

  “That I am,” Cole agreed, feeling strangely hollow inside as he turned away. “I’ll wait for you in the car, but if you don’t make up your mind in two minutes, I’m going without you.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Angela brooded silently the rest of the drive to the Cascades. She’d gotten into the car after all – what choice did she have, really? – after tucking Ben’s still unconscious form behind a copse of trees where, hopefully he would be safe until they’d come to retrieve him.

  Cole hadn’t bothered to glance at her once since she’d gotten into the car – he’d simply handed her his cell phone so she could look at the blueprints, and then punched in the coordinates into his car’s GPS and drove off. She looked down at them now, biting her lip as she studied the plans. It would seem that Garrison had chosen to build his stronghold inside the mountain, digging into the earth and stone to carve out a place for himself and his ilk, where he could plot and execute his plan to rid the world of mages.

  The realization that she might be a little bit of a hypocrite began to creep in as she began thinking of her brother. Who was she to criticize Cole for attacking her cousin when they were going after her brother at this very moment? She could see why he might be confused by her behavior, and angry at her reaction. After all, he’d only been trying to defend himself.

  Still, he didn’t have to kill them, she argued with herself. Incapacitating them would have been more than enough. Besides, he could have started a forest fire! That wou
ld have killed them all, for sure. The fact that her cousins had also been trying to get her to stay out of it as opposed to outright attacking her was also making it hard for her to accept Jamie’s death. Her eyes smarted as she remembered the days when he would bounce her on his knee as a cub, tickling her or telling her stories. Why, oh why couldn’t she just go back to those days again?

  Grow up. Time only goes forward. You’ve got a job to do, and reminiscing about the past isn’t going to save Raina.

  Sucking in a harsh breath, she returned to studying the plans. “I’m not honestly sure how we’re supposed to get in,” she admitted after a few minutes. “The entrance is sure to be well-guarded.”

  “There’s an escape route that leads out through the other side of the mountain,” Cole said tersely, as he maneuvered the Camaro around a particularly sharp bend. On the other side of him, the road dropped straight off, revealing a majestic and terrifying view of the snowy Cascades around them. “It’s for the elderly and the children in the event of an attack, so they can get out safely. We’ll go in through there and navigate our way into the heart of the fortress.”

  “Oh.” Frowning, Angela retraced the blueprints with her finger until she’d found it. “How did you know this was here? You barely glanced at the blueprints.”

  “I have a photographic memory. I only had to look at them once to get a full snapshot that I can refer to in my mind whenever I want to. Why do you think I handed the phone over to you?”

  Huffing, Angela didn’t bother to respond. “It looks like it’ll take us a ways to get in,” she said. “And these blueprints don’t tell us how many guards there will be, or where they’ll be stationed.”

  “Not to worry,” Cole said, tapping the side of his head. “My eyes will take care of that.”

  “Oh, right.” Angela slumped into her seat as she remembered Cole’s magical ability to see life-force signatures. She was starting to feel a little bit on the useless side.

  This is a rescue mission, not a pissing contest, she reminded herself. The better Cole was than her, the greater their chances were on retrieving Raina.

  Cole parked the Camaro on the opposite side of the mountain from where the entrance to the Black Moon Clan’s stronghold was, and they retrieved their gear from the trunk.

  “Your gun is fully charged, right?” Cole asked as they pulled on sweaters, and fit crampons on over their boots.

  “Of course.” Angela adjusted the woolen cap more firmly over her ears and tied it beneath her chin, then checked the gun at her hip again, just to be sure. Then she grabbed a pair of ice axes and began to inspect them. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been mountain climbing.”

  “Just follow my lead,” Cole advised. “I was up in the Himalayas just last week retrieving a politician’s daughter. You’ll be in good hands.” He adjusted his parka, and then turned toward her. “Come here a sec.”

  Angela hesitated a moment, and then drew forward, unsure what Cole was going to do. Something flickered in his eyes, and for a moment she thought he was going to draw her into an embrace, but he simply placed his hands on her and began to chant softly. Tingles spread throughout her entire body, and a warm, soft glow began to emanate around her that was a few shades lighter than his glowing violet eyes. The chanting began to die down, and as it did, the glow disappeared as well.

  Angela watched as he placed his arms crosswise over his chest to touch his own shoulders and repeated the same chant. When he’d finished, she asked, “Is that some kind of protection spell?”

  The left corner of his mouth curled a little. “In a way. It’ll mask our scents and mute the sound of our footsteps.”

  “Hmm. Clever.”

  After one last weapons and gear check they began their ascent of the mountain. The sun was just starting to go down, a dangerous time to begin a climb for most humans, but their supernatural eyesight afforded them better visibility, and besides, they would have more of an element of surprise if they approached at night.

  Four hours of climbing later, Cole finally held up two fingers to motion her to stop. “I can sense a life force signature up ahead,” he murmured, his lips brushing her ear so he could be heard over the whistle of the wind. Angela tried to pretend that the shiver that rushed through her body was from the cold rather than the contact. “I think the entrance to the escape tunnel is just up ahead.”

  “Great.” Angela took a deep breath to gather in more energy. She was loath to admit it, but the hike was beginning to take a toll on her – an ache had been building steadily in her legs for the last half hour. “I’ll take him out.”

  “I can – ”

  “I’m part of this mission too,” Angela said through gritted teeth as she pushed forward through the snow. “I’ll take him out.”

  Wanting more than ever to burn some of the pent up aggression and frustration out of her, she forged ahead, crouching low so that the snow drifts piling up would help disguise her approach. Even without the spell, the wind was in her favor, carrying her scent away from the entrance to the tunnel rather than towards it, so the sentry standing guard didn’t even notice her until she was upon him.

  “What the – ” he began, reaching for the radio, but she beat him to it, kicking it out of his hand, where it smashed against the rock face of the tunnel entrance. She caught him up in a sleeper hold and held on tight until he eventually slumped in her arms. Cole watched as she buried him beneath a snow drift where he would hopefully stay incapacitated until they were done with their mission, his arms crossed as he frowned. For a moment she thought he was going to chastise her for not killing or maiming the sentry, and she braced herself for the argument. But he only shrugged, and continued on into the tunnel.

  “I don’t sense anyone up ahead,” he told her. “Let’s hurry.”

  They moved through the tunnels as quickly as they could while making the least amount of noise possible. Though it was much faster than climbing around the outside of the mountain, and certainly faster than going back down the mountain and up the other side, it still took them the better part of an hour before Cole began to sense life force signatures again.

  “We’re approaching the end of the tunnel,” he warned. “There are three shifters on the other side.”

  You don’t need to tell me that, she thought. She could smell them easily from this distance. But in the interest of keeping the peace, she decided to keep that thought to herself. They turned the bend and soft light began to glow from the end of the tunnel, followed by the murmur of voices and the hum of machines.

  Cole immediately flattened himself against the wall and crept toward the entrance. Angela followed his lead, and stopped behind him right outside the entrance. She could see another sentry standing right there, and her pulse picked up as she realized that, without Cole’s cloaking spell, he would have already scented them by now.

  She watched with baited breath as Cole reached into one of his pockets and withdrew a little baggie filled with what looked like dried herbs. He poured a small amount of them into the palm of his hand and then closed his fingers around it and chanted again. A soft blue glow began emanating from between the cracks of his fingers.

  “Hey. Is someone there?”

  It took every ounce of Angela’s willpower not to remain flattened against the wall and not crouch down into a defensive stance. Cole opened his palm then, and softly blew on the leaves, which gently ghosted through the entrance on a spiral current.

  “What the…” someone else began, but his voice trailed off sleepily. She heard his body slump against the ground, and then several others followed him. Burning with curiosity, she barely waited for Cole to poke his nose around the wall and give her the okay before she rushed in through the doorway.

  “Holy shit.” She crouched down beside one of the men and checked his pulse, only to hear him snoring softly into the ground. “Out like a light!”

  “Yeah, and they should be like that for another few hours.” Cole wasn’t even payin
g attention to the men; his keen violet eyes were scanning the room. “This looks like the cellar.”

  Angela looked around at the metal shelves full of barrels and containers of food and drink and supplies. “Yeah, I’d have to agree. I guess they keep some guards around here for the escape tunnel, and maybe someone down here to manage the supplies.” She toed at one of the bodies. “Where do we go now?”

  Cole considered it, evidently consulting the map in his head. “We should be able to go through that door and take the tunnel from there over to their dungeon chambers.”

  Angela shuddered at the word dungeon. “I hate to think of Raina trapped in a place like this.”

  “Well lets go rescue her then.”

  They encountered surprisingly little opposition along their way, largely because of Cole’s ability to see enemies coming, which allowed them to hide while shifters were passing through, or prep another sleeping spell. They tried to avoid using the spell as much as possible, though, as they had to hide the bodies afterwards and too many people missing would definitely raise a flag.

  Eventually they came to a foot-thick steel door that looked like something straight out of The Man With the Iron Mask. Angela squared her shoulders and prepared herself to expect the worst.

  The door creaked open slowly, revealing a corridor lined with iron-barred cells. Angela scented Raina right away, and rushed in without even thinking.

  “Hang on!” Cole hissed, grabbing her by the collar and yanking her back. “There could be traps!”

  “Who’s there?” Raina called out, her voice brittle, as if she were hanging on by a thread, and Angela sucked in a breath.

  “Please, Cole,” she nearly sobbed.

  “I’ll go first,” he said gently, giving her shoulder a soft squeeze. He moved forward slowly, his eyes sweeping the area, glowing that brilliant violet again as they searched for clues that she couldn’t see. Angela followed behind him until they arrived at Raina’s cell, and she sucked in another breath as she caught sight of her friend slumped forward, her wrists hanging limply in their shackles that were bound to the wall.