"So, Lucy, nice to meet you by the way. I feel very confident that Kyle here is the one who sicced the blood mages on us. Which, I'm sensing from your tense vibe, is a huge no-no." I nodded, seeking her agreement with my assessment. Lucy didn't nod back but she was listening. "I bet if you ask Tommy, he'll confirm that only he and his mini-me knew where the Kellys and I would be for the weekend."
Kyle, who had bristled at the mini-me comment, started to turn a nasty shade of red. "Shut. Him. Up. Now!"
Lucy hesitated for a moment. I could see her struggle with the facts: it was clear Kyle had an ulterior motive, but she had a job to do and that won out.
"Like I said, we'll sort all that out later," Lucy said, moving toward me once more.
"If you try to put that thing on me, we're going to have ourselves a situation." I tried so hard to keep my voice calm and passive, but once again I failed. My inner monster wanted blood.
Mr. Kelly's shoulders slumped. He knew what was coming.
"Whatever you're thinking, son, it's a bad idea," Tommy said to me, under the mistaken impression that he could still control the situation.
"Don't call me son."
Kyle leapt at Mr. Kelly, who had anticipated the attack. Mr. Kelly caught the younger man and threw him into the wolf that was charging from the right. Elyse and her mom had intercepted the wolf on the left. Mrs. Kelly grabbed a back leg, causing the wolf to stumble and Elyse let loose with a monster kick that sent the yelping beast into the bushes.
In one fluid motion, Lucy dropped the collar and flung some battle mage mojo directly at me. Now, I hadn't had time to test out the extent of my new fancy Ollphiest powers. I knew I was impervious to magic when in bear-form, but I had no idea how my human form would handle it. I closed my eyes tightly and gritted my teeth, expecting the worst. I felt the spell hit me and, just as in bear-form, it slithered around me, looking for a way through my natural defenses.
It didn't find one.
I opened my eyes and smiled.
Lucy was stone faced. Her eyes held no shock or anger, just cool calculation. She was dangerous.
"Ollphiest!" Tommy screamed.
The Kellys' driveway erupted into a shifter-fest. Mr. and Mrs. Kelly went full beast-form. Tommy and Kyle, who had untangled himself from Mr. Kelly's initial throw, also shifted to beast-form. Luckily for us, it seemed that all the all the extra muscle Tommy had brought with him could only shift into animal form. Don't get me wrong: six massive, snarling wolves were scary as hell, but considering what we could've been facing, it was a blessing.
Elyse, in cat form, was pressed against my side and hissing at the wolves surrounding us. I was the last to shift, choosing beast-form because of the shock factor. I wasn't disappointed. As my clothes ripped off of me and I reached my full man-bear hybrid height, Tommy and his wolves paused at the sight of me.
Lucy whistled. "You're one ugly son of a bitch."
As if her words had been some kind of pre-ordained signal, Tommy, Kyle and their wolves attacked as one. It should have worked. They had the numbers. But, instead, it ended almost before it started.
Tommy and Kyle jumped straight for me, but Mr. Kelly caught Tommy and they tumbled away in ball of growls and snapping jaws.
Mrs. Kelly tackled Kyle midair, and maybe it was his lifelong relationship with her, but he didn't immediately try to claw or bite her. Instead, he kind of grappled with her, trying to get her off balance and throw her to the ground.
Elyse had decided to take on two of the wolves on our right by herself and whatever crazy shifter jujitsu fighting techniques she had learned at that shifter summer camp were helping her kick the crap out those two unfortunate wolves.
That left three wolves and, of course, Lucy the battle mage for me to deal with. The wolves were almost embarrassingly easy. They attacked together, hoping to overwhelm me; no such luck. I was faster, stronger, and because of the Ollphiest in my head, a lot more vicious. I ripped through them, leaving them broken and bloody. The monster in me wanted to kill them, pull their hearts from their bodies, and take their heads as trophies. But he and I were starting to build a working relationship: one where I let him out to kick ass, but with the understanding that I would always retain control. These wolves were just following orders. I know that's one of the worst excuses in the history of armed combat, but they were raised to think of someone like me as the boogeyman, someone to be feared, a monster to vanquish. As far as they understood, they were the good guys.
Another spell hit me. It packed a much bigger punch than the first one. It actually sizzled on my fur a bit before it dissipated. I turned my attention to Lucy and growled.
The stunned look on Lucy's face said it all. She was surprised the spell hadn't done more damage. She recovered quickly and pulled her daggers. I reminded myself that she represented the Society and that she was in possession of what must pass for an arrest warrant in the magic world. The only problem was that the warrant was based on incomplete information. I needed to put her out of commission, but I had to be gentler than I had been with the wolves. I didn't know the healing capabilities of battle mages.
Lucy had different intentions. She moved just as fast as the wolves. Super speed? Impressive.
I prepared to catch her and body-slam her into the driveway. It seemed like the most non-lethal thing I could do. At the last minute, she dropped to her knees in a power slide underneath my claws. She was still moving fast and slashed out with both blades. They sliced across my belly as she tucked into a roll and came up onto the balls of her feet behind me.
Ouch.
My stomach was on fire.
She had actually cut me. Bad.
Witch.
I think the politically correct term is battle mage, but yeah, she did some damage. What's up with that? I thought we were the Big Bad?
Witch. We must destroy her now.
Hold on. We're not destroying anyone.
I spun, ready to parry Lucy's follow-up attack. Unfortunately, I had not spent my summers at Camp Shifter and so my fighting skills were limited to stuff I had picked up from online gaming and late night cable marathons of Kung-Fu Theater. It would not even be nearly enough to beat Lucy, who was moving like Neo from the classic Matrix trilogy.
Lucy was twirling her blades, dancing from foot to foot in some serious martial arts badass-ery. I would be super impressed, if she wasn't trying to gut me.
I could feel the cuts on my mid-section; they were bleeding freely. My cool man-bear fur was getting all matted and gross. I could also feel a kind of void in my energy — my aura. I think Lucy's daggers had cut a hole in my Ollphiest magic shields. It was a small hole, but I bet if Lucy flung anymore mojo my way, it wouldn't just slide off me. It would find the hole and proceed to magic my butt into submission.
Never.
Yeah, well, I don't think this is the right time to test our limits.
But it was time for my newly discovered beast-mode AOE roar.
Lucy attacked with a tricky spinning-leg thingy.
My roar caught her mid-spin, and she dropped like a stone. Her hands covered her ears, her eyes wide in pain and shock.
Everybody else on the driveway also dropped. I felt a twinge of guilt that Elyse and her folks were getting dosed with my super roar, but the professional battle mage who had been kicking my butt took precedence over their momentary discomfort.
I ended the shrieking roar and moved in before Lucy could get her focus back. She struggled to her feet, swaying slightly. Wow, she was tough.
Gut her.
What? No. There will absolutely be no gutting.
She would show you no mercy.
Yeah, well she's supposed to be one of the good guys, so no gutting.
Instead, I backhanded her. My hand felt a momentary resistance and then I felt the telltale pop of magic discharging. A shield. Lucy had a shield spell that I just punched through like it was paper. Her eyes went wide. The back of my fist connected with the side of her head. I made
sure to pull back on the force of my blow, not wanting to crush her skull. I guess I needed a bit more practice because the hit sent her flying backward into the side of the house. I winced — well, the beast-form grunt that served as a wince — when she hit. Her eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed in a heap. In the magic spectrum, I could still see her life force pulsing strong, so I hadn't killed her or damaged her too much.
A snarling growl, followed by a hiss of pain, brought me back to the fight. I spun and quickly assessed the status of the Kellys and our attackers. The stun from my roar had worn off, and the fight was getting back into full swing. Unfortunately, the temporary lull in the fighting and the assistance he was receiving from his dad had helped Kyle get the upper hand with Mr. Kelly. Tommy had hold of Mr. Kelly's arms, which had allowed Kyle several free swipes at Mr. Kelly's unprotected torso. The result looked like something out of a slasher movie: deep ragged cuts crisscrossed Mr. Kelly's chest. There was a ton of blood. I had no idea how Mr. Kelly still had any strength to struggle against Tommy. Kyle let out a satisfied grunt and moved in for what looked like a killing blow.
Not going to happen. I let the Ollphiest out.
Yes.
I leapt at Kyle, moving faster than fast. I struck out, lightning quick, with one of my monster clawed hands.
Kyle lost an arm at the elbow and received a vicious slash across the face. He fell back, shifting back into human form as he hit the ground. He held his amputated arm out in from of him and screamed like a madman. Tommy let Mr. Kelly go, shifted to human, and rushed to his fallen son.
I made sure Mr. Kelly was good and then quickly dispatched the other shifters. I moved through them like they were standing still. A slash here, a bite there, bone-shattering punches to faces everywhere; I was a force of nature. I was surprised that the Ollphiest side of my persona wasn't killing anyone? Ripping, shredding, and maiming, yes, but no killing. Interesting.
You expressed your desire for no death.
Yeah, but I thought you'd just ignore me.
WE are Ollphiest.
Right. There was no 'he and I,' just we. And we had just kicked the crap out of Tommy's little army of henchmen.
The driveway was littered with bleeding bodies. All the henchmen had shifted back to human. They were all in various stages of messed up. Kyle was still screaming. Geez, what a drama queen. He's lucky all he lost was an arm. He deserved to have his throat ripped out.
Tommy had used some torn clothing to create a tourniquet for Kyle's arm. He cradled Kyle in his arms and sobbed, "My son. My son."
I felt a slight ripple in the magic flowing around me. I looked over at Lucy. She was regaining consciousness. I watched in fascination as one of the rivers of magic diverted from its natural course and sort of dipped into her before resuming its normal flow. She was healing. I was sure of it.
Tommy started shouting in some other language. Irish, maybe? He sounded really pissed. He was gesturing at me, while looking over at Lucy.
Mr. Kelly shifted back to human, kneeling down in front of Tommy and Kyle, "Thomas, he was going to kill me."
Tommy just yelled louder. I wasn't sure why everybody seemed so distressed. Yes, I had done some damage, but shifter magic would have everyone back in shape probably by tomorrow. I looked around at my handiwork. Well, maybe not tomorrow, but soon.
"Elyse, take Orson and go. Now," said Mr. Kelly, never looking up from Tommy and Kyle.
Mrs. Kelly, still in beast-form, let out a clicking noise.
"Katie, they have to go before Lucy wakes up." Mr. Kelly sounded pained.
What was going on? Kyle had way overstepped his bounds and had been slapped down. So what? I was about to shift and ask just that question, when Elyse nudged me toward the back of the house. I looked over at Lucy again; her eyes were fluttering. I received another more demanding nudge from Elyse. I huffed and shifted into bear-form. Elyse rubbed noses with me and ran around the side of the house. I gave one more glance at Mr. Kelly. This time he met my eyes. He was afraid.
For me?
For his family?
Or for all of us?
He flicked his eyes toward the side of the house where Elyse had run. I got the message and ran.
CHAPTER 18
Elyse led me into the hills behind her house. With our unnatural speed, we were far from the city in minutes. I could still smell the city, but it was just a small undercurrent. Elyse had been running these hills for years; she knew every trail and pathway.
I had questions about what just went down, but Elyse didn't stop moving, so I'd have to wait until she decided to stop. She led us down into a deep ravine that, in human form, would have been near impossible to get into, but in animal form it was no problem.
When we reached the deepest part of the ravine, Elyse sniffed around, stopping under a California Oak. She started to dig.
Okay.
She stopped digging and chuffed at me; I looked from her to the small hole she had already dug out. I blinked at her and snorted. I padded over and started digging alongside her. Our giant paws were not exactly designed for digging, but they still made quick work of our task. The hole was about four feet deep when my claws clicked against something hard, something man-made from the smell of it.
Elyse shifted and gestured for me to do the same.
She pulled me into a fierce hug.
Oh boy, here we go again, naked soft girlfriend parts mashed into my dumb man parts.
Thankfully - but not really - she pulled away.
"How is your stomach?" she asked, bending over to inspect the cuts Lucy's daggers had left. She gently prodded the skin around the wounds. I sucked in some air. They were really tender.
"How bad is it?" I asked.
"The wounds have already closed up, but you may be sore for a couple of days."
"What did she cut me with, anyway? They were like magic Ginsu knives or something."
"Not sure. I've never seen anything like them before. But they seem like they may be your Kryptonite."
I thought about that. It made a kind of sense, that there would be something to balance the power I had access to. So far, in my day-long career as the Ollphiest, those daggers were the only thing that had actually hurt me. I wondered where Lucy had picked them up? Was there, like, a battle mage Walmart where nasty things like that were sold over the counter? I sure hoped not.
Elyse kneeled down to clear away the last of the dirt from whatever was buried under the tree.
"She also hit you with some serious magic."
"Oh. Yeah, that . . . well, I'm pretty sure magic is more of an annoyance to me more than anything."
Elyse paused her digging, shook her head, and smiled at me. "Amazing."
"So what've you got down there?" I pointed at the hole.
"Emergency supplies, clothes, some money. We have several stashes like this around here and up north. It helps for situations just like this."
"You mean, being on the run from Tommy and his merry band of shifters is a regular thing?"
Elyse rolled her eyes. Having cleared away enough dirt, she heaved out a large, plastic, waterproof case and popped it open. It held several pairs of sweats, yoga leggings, and t-shirts. Elyse pulled out a pair of leggings and a t-shirt for herself. She also pulled out a rather large medical/hygiene kit. I was thankful when she handed me some antiseptic body wipes. I gave myself the once over, removing most of the dried blood from my body.
"Dig in. There should be something that will fit you. May be a bit snug but it's better than running around naked and scaring the neighbors," said Elyse. "And no, by situation, I don't mean being on the run, I mean out in the open with no clothes. It doesn't happen often, but it's the shifter version of a flat tire, except there's no roadside service we can call."
I found a pair of black sweat pants that didn't cut off my circulation when I put them on, I added a blue t-shirt and poked around in the case.
"No shoes?" I asked.
"No, too many
sizes to deal with. We'll pick some up as soon as we can."
Elyse dug around under the clothes and pulled out a Ziploc bag containing money, a credit card, and surprise, surprise . . .
"Is that a burner cell phone?" I asked.
"Yep. When you've been alive as long as my parents have, you always plan ahead."
"How Jack Bauer of us," I joked. Then, more seriously, I asked, "Your parents will be cool right? I mean they're not going to get put in magic jail are they?"
Elyse snorted. "No. They'll be fine." She dropped the case back in the hole and started shoveling the dirt in dirt in. I bent down to help.
"So, why did your dad seem so, I don't know, worried? It seems like we can prove that Kyle sent the blood mages. Heck, he pretty much admitted it. So that means Tommy overreacted with his goon squad. We were only protecting ourselves. The Society will see it that way, right?
Elyse let out a deep sigh and stopped shoveling dirt. "I don't know. The Society, they're really old school. You saw how Lucy responded - act now and ask questions later. People like my parents have been trying to get the Society to change their ways, but traditions get ingrained, especially over centuries."
"So, we're in trouble?"
"Let's just say it will take some time to clear up."
I absently pushed dirt into the hole, "Why did Tommy freak so bad there at the end? I mean, I know I jacked his kid up, but with shifter healing I figure . . ."
Elyse rested her hand on mine, stopping my dirt shoveling. "You took Kyle's arm off, Orson. No amount of shifter magic can heal that."
I rocked back, shocked. "What?" I didn't like the guy, but taking his arm . . . oh jeez.
"Hey." Elyse tapped my chin. "Look at me. Kyle wasn't pretend fighting; he would have killed my dad. You did the right thing."
Had I done the right thing? The day had spun out of control so fast. I had killed a person up in Arrowhead, sure she had been an evil blood mage trying to kill the Kellys and me, but she was still dead because of me. And now Kyle was down an arm for the rest of his life. I closed my eyes. It was all too much. I needed to just stop. I wished I could just go home, curl up in my bed, and sleep for a couple of days.
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