by Jade Alters
“Call Jared,” Max says calmly, focusing on the road.
I hold my phone in my hand, looking over my shoulder at Walter’s car that is quickly gaining speed. I can’t imagine what the plan is here, and I feel as if I’m frozen, not quite able to get my body to do what it should probably be doing, I’m just sitting there, quietly looking over my shoulder at Walter. I can’t see his face inside his car. He’s just a little bit too far away.
I can’t stop thinking about what he said.
I just want you.
He’s going to catch up with us, and then the guys will fight him again. And then what? Will he be trying to get to me forever? I’m sure the guys have protections on their house, but sooner or later, Walter will catch up to me. I’m not going to let my wizard boyfriends babysit me until the end of time because I made an enemy of this one asshole wizard. And what happens when I want to go to school? Anyway, he saw me come out of work. He’ll figure out how easily he can find me there, if he hasn’t already.
“Hope!” Max snaps. “Call the guys. I’m driving. Tell them Walter’s on us.”
“He just wants me,” I say quietly.
“Well, he can’t fucking have you,” Max growls. “Call Jared.”
I take a deep breath and dial Jared’s number, but it all feels wrong. I don’t want Walter chasing me, but I don’t want him chasing them either. Max is flooring it, turning corners deeper into Foggy River and trying to lose Walter, but he keeps catching up to us again. I feel a spell hit the car and it jolts. When I finally have Jared on speaker, I hand the phone to Max, not paying attention to the conversation.
I just want you.
“They’re close,” Max says. “They were at the hardware store in town. They’re going to meet up with us in six blocks.”
“What do you mean meet up with us?” I say, frowning.
“The, uh—” Max swallows and glances in the rearview, grimacing at the view of Walter chasing us. “Their car. We’ll join up.”
“You want to pull over and get out of the car while Walter is on our tail?” I say, snorting. “Are you all insane?”
“No, we’re going to fight him,” he says, as if it should be obvious. “It’s four on one. I like our odds.”
“He’s really powerful,” I murmur. I’m getting a headache. I can’t stand the thought of them always fighting my battles for me. I feel like I’ve already been too weak and stupid this whole time already. I’m a panther shifter after all. I should be fighting my own battles.
“We beat him before.”
“Yeah, but—”
“Hope!” Max looks mildly frustrated as he speeds down the street. “Just let us handle this.”
I glance back and then ahead. Walter is pretty close, but not right on top of us. And there’s a turn ahead.
I take a deep breath and reach for the door handle, summing up my courage. If I don’t time this right, I could get really injured, considering the speed Max is going. Regardless though, I’m probably going to get hurt anyway.
“Okay,” I whisper to myself.
Max says, “What’s that?”
But I don’t answer him. I just give him one last glance in case it’s the last time I ever see him, and then I throw open the door and jump out of the speeding car onto the street while simultaneously shifting into my panther form.
I hear Max’s shout of alarm, but it sounds so far away.
I’m actually shocked by how smoothly I manage the jump. It happens so fast, and yet my panther handles the shift so well. I plunge toward the pavement rushing up to meet me, but just before my fragile human hands hit the road with a terrible force, they become the strong and sure paws of my panther. My body is all muscle. The jump to the pavement is absorbed, and Max is too startled to adjust so quickly. I hit the ground and run, turning back once to see Walter heading for me. I let him chase me and take the turn up ahead, slowing him down just enough.
Of course, he could run me over like this. But I know that’s not what he wants. After all I’ve done to him by now, he wants to really hurt me. The turn goes into the woods, which was what I was counting on. I figure that will slow the guys down from catch up a little bit. The muddy, bumpy road also slows Walter down and helps my speed so much that he finally stops and gets out of the car. He chases me on foot, throwing spells that hit the trees and the dirt, sparking and sending up the pungent scent of sulfur.
He can’t catch up to me now unless one of his spells gets lucky.
But for once, I want him to catch me.
I want to end this finally.
I jump into the trees and he loses me, stopping there, out of breath, and sending out spells wildly. One even fells a tree, and I cower behind a shrub hearing it shake the ground when it lands. He could ruin this whole forest if he gets mad enough.
But maybe he’s off his game? He’s powerful, sure. But he might be so mad that he’s not thinking clearly or guessing what I’ll do next. That could work in my favor.
Walter is on foot, deep in the woods, throwing spells around. I can see him through the leaves of a shrub. He looks tired.
“I know you’re here, bitch!” Walter screams. “You trying to sacrifice yourself for your boyfriends?” I watch him shrug his shoulders and throw his hands out, and I hear the crackle of a breaking trunk as another tree close by begins to fall. It’s right in my path and I run, too fast to be precious, to get out of town. Walter whips around, scowling in my direction and throws a spell that sets a fern on fire.
The forest is wet right now, at least. But that can’t be good.
“COME OUT HERE!” Walter shrieks.
I have to attack now. Give it a shot at least. Because I know the guys have that bond thing with me, they’re going to sense where I am and that will lead them to me and Walter. It wouldn’t have done any good to tell them not to fight for me. They’re strong protectors, and I love them for it. But I need to at least try to do this one thing for myself. I run around to get in front of him, and I think he sees me for a second, but I’m not sure.
I rear back, feeling all the strength within me. From here, I should be able to tackle him. He might hit me with a spell while I’m in mid-pounce, but I’ll have to risk it and hope my claws do enough damage to make up for it.
With every bit of strength in me, I leap with my claws out, headed straight for Walter. I let out a growl, letting out all my rage at this guy. My panther makes every emotion stronger, and I feel such a sense of possessiveness for my life, for my loves, and for everything I have to protect. This stupid little man won’t take any of it from me. I’ll die first.
It happens fast and slow at the same time. I’m nearly on top of him when the spell hits me. But whatever it is, does not work instantaneously. I don’t know why. It’s possible I’m somewhat protected in my panther form, and it’s also possible I’m shielded to some degree by my bond to the guys and the strength of our connection. But I don’t feel anything hitting me, I only see the spark. And then I’m tackling him to the ground. The weight of my body as a panther hits Walter like an anvil, and he goes down easily. Then I’m swiping at him with my razor-sharp claws.
I show no mercy. I see blood, and I taste it too. With no better plan, I bite whatever is close to me; arms, legs, flank, neck. I bite through tissue, and I taste bone and muscle. I hear him screaming just as the spell begins to take effect. It’s nothing really, only paralysis. I strongly suspect he was trying to knock me out and turn me human again to do who knows what with me. I'm guessing he would have both attacked me and screwed up my face again. It doesn’t matter now.
All I can see is blood as the paralysis takes over my body and everything slows. The world is a blur around me. In the moment, I do think I’m dying, and I mourn for the future that was so close that I could taste it. I feel my brain getting sluggish and dizzy. I feel like I’m feverish as my body collapses on top Walter’s.
And I as drop into unconsciousness, I realize the fire is still burning.
Freddi
e
“Why are we waiting here!” Dylan is pissed. He’s sitting on the hood of Jared’s car, just glaring.
We’re just stuck here by the side of the road, waiting for Max to bring the fight to us.
We’ve only been waiting for about two minutes, and it already seems like forever.
“Just hold on,” Jared says. His eyes are fixed on the road, and he looks about as intense as I’ve ever seen him. Me, I’m pacing up and down the street, feeling as enraged as I’ve ever been in my life. And I rarely even get angry.
This guy is dead. This guy is seriously dead. I don’t love taking a life, but all four of us have done it in the defense of an innocent person. And this guy needs to go, and he needs to go now.
Today was supposed to be such a pleasant day. Max texted us and told us he’d talked to Hope about the plan to rent out her house and move in with us and go to magic school. She’d sounded positive about it, and we’d been so happy. We were working on a case that Jared is going to have to drive out to Orlando to handle, and we were looking forward to the rest of us getting more time with Hope even though we’d miss Jared. It’s probably going to be a lengthy case. We were going to make a special dinner and a cake to celebrate our new life together, and then give Hope as many orgasms as she could possibly handle before Jared had to go in the morning. And now…
“This is bullshit,” I say, hissing the word.
“No kidding!” Dylan says. “We should have gone to find them!”
“Something’s wrong,” Jared whispers. But he doesn’t say anything else.
“Jared, why don’t we reach out with the bond spell?” Dylan says. “Wouldn’t that help?”
“They should be on their way here though,” Jared mutters. But he doesn’t sound certain, and he’s squinting at the road as if looking for something. “They should be, but—something is wrong.”
“How do you know?” I stride up to him and he just shakes his head.
“I don’t know. It’s just a bad feeling.”
Several minutes pass. Too many to think that things are going the way they were supposed to. Max should be here by now.
“Call Hope’s phone,” Jared says to Dylan, clenching his fists. “Call now!”
“We should’ve tried to sense her,” Dylan mutters, taking out his phone. “We should have used the bond—"
“We need all four of us to do that anyway,” Jared snaps. “At least so far. Where are they?”
We both watch Dylan try to call two, and then three times, but he only shakes his head. “I’m gonna try Max.” Again nothing. “I don’t know. What do you think—"
We hear the familiar roar of Max’s car. He’s got a Dodge Charger. It’s one of those growling muscle cars. It comes screaming down the street, and the squeal of his tires hurts my ears as he comes to a stop.
Hope is not in the car, and there is no sign of Walter behind Max.
We all just sort of stare at Max as he rolls down a window to stick his head out. “Get in! Get in! Get in!”
We’re shaken out of trances and move quickly, jumping into Max’s car and leaving Jared’s by the side of the road to pick up later. I’m getting a very bad feeling. If Walter somehow got a hold of Hope, I don’t even want to think about what he might do to her. He was already going to kill a panther originally. Shifters can be powerful. He might want to use her for some nefarious spell or God knows what else.
I climb into the backseat, and my head is pounding. I can’t stop thinking of the future we’re supposed to have with Hope. I thought I knew what it was to fight for somebody you love, but this is something else. This is a kind of possessiveness I’ve never felt before. I could swear Hope’s panther-ness is actually rubbing off on us.
We’ve all been working on her turret room lately when we’re not working or hanging around with Hope. It’s meant to be a surprise. There’s another bedroom too that’s a little bigger and is only being used as a storage space now. None of us can gather up the will power to clean our junk out. We’ve repainted the turret room and refinished the floor. We put up new curtains in Hope’s favorite color (cornflower blue), and we bought her a very comfy chair we thought she might like. We bought a new bed and new bedding and a bookshelf. We even picked out books!
Hope living with us is barely on the table, but we wanted to be ready to surprise her in case she said yes. The thought of having her right there, just down the hall, makes me dizzy with happiness.
And now, some asshole wizard is threatening to take all that away from us.
“What happened?” Jared says darkly as Max makes a turn so tight and fast, I’m sure it will leave a rainbow of tire marks on the road.
“She jumped out of the fucking car!” Max shouts.
We all just stare at him. That was not what any of us expected. I think we all expected to hear that Walter got the better of Max or stopped the car with a spell and then grabbed Hope before he could do anything. We might have expected to hear that Hope turned into a Pikachu before hearing that Hope jumped from the car.
“Was she hit by a spell?” Jared says, his mouth twisting up. “She must have been. Why would she jump from the car? That doesn’t make any sense. She must be enchanted or cursed—"
“She must be hurt,” Dylan says, looking red with anger. “What happened? Max, why didn’t you stop or—"
“No, I mean—” He swallows, shaking his head, gripping the steering wheel with white knuckles. “Walter was chasing us, right? A spell did it hit the car, but it only made it jolt for a second—maybe it wasn’t a direct hit. And then suddenly, Hope throws open her goddamn door and as she jumps she shifts! Jumped right out into the goddamn woods! And then she took a turn and Walter chased her, and I lost them! I swear to God guys, I lost some time, I was so shocked. I wasn’t even sure what was happening at first. For a second I thought I was hallucinating. I tried to go after them.” He’s got tears in his eyes even as he tears down the street in his luxury car. “I swear, I tried. I didn’t see where they went. I thought I should come get you guys, and then we’d find her.”
“You did the right thing,” Jared says sternly, reaching over to squeeze his shoulder. “Look...I think if she was...dead—” He shuts his eyes, pursing his lips, as if he can’t even bear to think of it. I don’t think any of us can. “If she were dead or really hurt, we would know, right? We would feel it. So, let’s just go back to where you think they ran into the woods, and we’ll find her through the bond, okay? All four of us are here. Hopefully, the asshole doesn’t know how to block that or anything.”
“Our bond is too strong to block,” Dylan says forcefully, and we exchange a smile. I think he’s right about that.
“We’re nearly there,” Max mutters. He’s driving like a maniac, but none of us are going to tell him to slow down or be careful as he weaves in and out of the traffic before turning onto a deserted road near the woods.
We smell the fire before we see it. Like most forest fires, it smells kind of good, like a campfire. But soon enough, we see the thin column of black smoke rising from the woods where Max is headed.
We look at each other, and Jared says, “Link up right now.” He nods at Max and says, “Can you do this while you’re driving?” He nods and clasps Jared’s hand while driving with the other.
We all reach out to Hope, grasping that bond and sense of connection between us. It’s worked so easily before, but now we can’t find her. She’s out there, somewhere. It’s like having some piece of information on the tip of your tongue but not being able to remember it.
“Dammit,” Jared hisses.
Max makes the turn back into the woods and stops so short, I almost bump my head on the ceiling. We all get out and try it again, holding hands, and concentrating as hard as we can.
Nothing.
My first thought is that Hope is dead, and it sends an ice cold chill down my spine. Could the connection between us have actually been severed without us knowing it? And yet just now, I swear I could sense her
out there, just out of our reach.
“It’s a spell or something,” Jared says. “Let’s just go searching. We’ll head toward the fire first.”
We spread out a little but keeping each other in sight and our phones at the ready. It’s not hard to head straight toward the fire. No emergency has been called yet, it seems. I hear no sirens, and I see no flashing lights.
The blaze seems to come up on us suddenly, however. There is a wall of fire. The forest is wet from the rain, and there isn’t too much old growth so it’s spreading slowly, but it’s still a horrifying sight, especially without knowing where Hope is yet. Jared shouts for Dylan to call 911, and he jogs away with his phone. The rest of us cover our mouths with our shirts, running around the wall of flame. There is a certainty, I think, that Hope is close by.
I run wildly, once tripping badly on a rock and hitting my knee hard on a boulder. I clench my teeth and get to my feet and stagger through the woods around the flame, keeping my eyes peeled for Hope.
When I see the giant cat collapsed on top of Walter and the mess of blood around them both, my heart leaps, and just as quickly, seems to collapse in my chest.
They’re both dead, I think at first.
Max runs up beside me and wastes no time, rushing over to check Hope’s pulse and then Walter’s.
“She’s alive!” He says. “She’s breathing! Walter is dead.”
Max and I shove Hope off of Walter’s body in one big push. She’s covered in blood but we quickly discover it’s not hers.
She ripped Walter to shreds. The horror of it is surprising, and I find myself unable to hold back a little smile. It’s been easy to forget how strong Hope is. None of us are shifters. Our power has been learned and hardwon. But Hope is born to it. Seeing the aftermath of her panther at its strongest and most enraged is an eyeopener.
But I must admit, it makes me love her more.
The fire is encroaching on them, it’s nearly about to singe Hope’s tail. It takes all three of us to move her, and even then, we have to spell each other with some enhancement. It’s too bad that whatever knocked her out didn’t also make her shift back. We exert every bit of strength trying to move our very heavy cat through the woods and away from the fire.