by P. Jameson
Adira twisted around to find Nastia, eyes focused on the ground, head shaking from side to side. They’d cleared the area of rocks, but apparently she’d found something her curse deemed worthy of numerating.
“Five, six, seven…”
Felines began pouring into the clearing, slinking like phantoms, leaping gracefully from high tree branches to land on the ground with barely a noise. Mostly mountain cats but there were a few more exotic shifter types. Still, no tigers.
“Ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen. Oh, so many. Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen…”
The ring Ouachita had made around the Sorcera was surrounded by werecats now. They were nearly doubled in numbers, and no doubt the Alley Cats had them beat on brutality too.
A low, strange whistle brought Adira’s attention to the trees directly to her left. A towering man stepped out from the shadows the fading light created against the cliff side. His dark hair slicked straight back from this forehead revealing classically handsome features. A straight, regal nose and full lips, cradled in a jaw that looked cut from stone.
If this was the wicked Felix, great leader of the shadow clan, she’d expected him to appear a bit more rugged. But then, hadn’t their trainers taught them ofttimes evil came in pretty packages. Sparkly paper and beautiful bows, only to cut your finger when you tried to open it.
Candy coated razors.
Poison apple.
A pretty demon with an angel face.
The whistling didn’t stop as he strolled forward, unworried. It had no tune to it. Just a combination of notes that sounded off when put together. It landed on Adira’s ears with the smoothness of sandpaper, grating her nerves raw.
And still there wasn’t a single heavenly light to be seen. No moon, no stars. Only wind and sickly green clouds.
“Brother,” Felix drawled, giving some relief from the whistling. He stared at Gash with shrewd eyes. “What is this? I thought we’d come to an understanding.”
His gaze took in the entire ring, assessing the gathering. To him and the other shifters, it would simply look like Ouachita had circled ranks to guard Gash and Bailey. He wouldn’t see that they were protecting something even more powerful. And if they could hold him off until the clouds gave way, it just might be his downfall.
“I see you brought the entire clan,” Gash said, eyeing the prowling cats.
Felix smiled but it wasn’t friendly. It was more like a shark that knows he’s found a school to feast on.
“Good thing I did, yeah? You sly cat, you told me Ouachita was only a clan of Nine.”
Gash scowled. “I like to keep you on your toes.”
“Ah, you do, don’t you? Always have.”
He jerked his shoulders back twice, like he was shaking something from his back. A conscience maybe? Adira could only hope.
“Is this your mate, Gash?” he asked, gesturing to Bailey. Crudely, he tilted his head to the side, letting his gaze roll the length of her body, measuring her up before giving her a chin shrug. “Not bad, brother. Not bad at all. A little more than a man like you needs in the hips. Don’t need all that padding unless you really intend to lay into her…”
Gash rumbled out a warning growl.
“…but I definitely didn’t expect you to manage a female so pretty.” Felix’s face turned cruel. “Not with that mark on your face.”
Gash snarled a furious sound, pressing Bailey back behind him.
Felix smirked. “But hey, some women like a man that never offers a challenge. They’ll curl up with those ugly ones because they don’t have to fight other females for ‘em. It all works out, I guess.”
A hiss blistered through the clearing, and then a high pitched roar. Bailey. She hadn’t turned but her eyes flickered dangerously.
“Or… I don’t know… maybe we could share her. Like we did our toys when we were little. That way she knows what it’s like to have a real man behind her instead of a weak piece of shit like you.”
“Don’t you dare talk about my mate like that!” She stepped around Gash, stomping forward as if she intended to claw Felix’s eyes from his skull.
“Bailey!” Gash warned, reaching for her but missing.
She marched forward, and he ran after her, but it was too late. Even with Magic’s panther bounding forward and snarling for her to stop, she reached Felix before Gash could catch her. A resounding smack across the other shifter’s face echoed through the circle, and when Bailey drew her hand back, blood oozed from three claw marks.
“There,” she said, huffing with anger. “Now you have a mark to match. But it doesn’t matter because what makes you ugly is what’s inside. And my mate is gold inside. Gold. Even with everything you’ve put him through.”
Felix stared at her, calmly wiping his cheek and sucking the blood from his finger before giving her an empty smile. “I know,” he said low. “That’s why this is going to hurt him so much, and feel so damn good to me.”
Bailey’s face scrunched in a frown as Gash reached to pull her away. But with no further warning, Felix moved like lightning, yanking her to his chest. One hand tangled in her hair to jerk her head up and the other wrapped around her throat, his claws digging in to hold her still.
Gash, panicked, reached for her, but stopped when he noticed his brother’s claws drawing blood. His hands went to his head, eyes wide and desperate.
Adira felt hers go wet.
“No,” Mirena whispered, glancing desperately to the sky. “Come on… come on…”
If they could just catch one free light to pull from, it might not be enough, but they’d try. They’d try so hard.
Cats hissed and snarled from every direction. The tension was blistering. One thing to set them off is all it would take, and then this would be a blood bath.
“Felix,” Gash breathed, his hands in front of him in surrender. “Please,” he ground out. “Please don’t hurt her. I’ll go with you. You can take it out of my skin. Whatever you want from me, you can have it. Just please… please don’t hurt her.”
Felix’s expression lost all sense of formality, twisting into a thing of rage. “Oh, I can make it quick. She wouldn’t feel a thing. I could slice through her jugular with one flick of my wrist. But there’s nothing fun about that, and you certainly wouldn’t learn your lesson. And when it all boils down, that’s what needs to happen here.”
Gash shook his head, eyes pinned to a furious Bailey while he tried to negotiate with Felix. “A lesson? Okay, alright. I get it. I can’t escape you. I’ve learned it. Please. Let her go.”
“Not good enough,” Felix whispered, his eyes going glassy. Some far away memory made him pause before he continued. “Pops told me to teach you your lessons. That you needed to learn, the way I did. But you never learn, brother. You never fucking learn.” His voice had risen to a screech, and he seemed to catch himself, his next words sounding oh so quiet in comparison. “So I’ll have to make it hurt real bad. Worse than ever before. This is the way you will finally learn.”
Gash shook his head. “No, Felix. Damn it, I’m begging here. I’ll do anything.”
Felix lowered his nose to Bailey’s neck while she snarled at his nearness. He breathed slow and deep, his nostrils pulling in with his inhale.
“Oh, yes, Brother. This is going to hurt so bad.” He leveled his gaze on Gash. “Did you know your mate is with young?”
“Oh,” Nastia murmured. “Oh no. No, no, no, no. This cannot be. This cannot take place. This cannot happen. It will not. Can not. Will not. Can not. Will not…”
The shock on Gash’s face was so obvious, the entire clan could see this was the first he was hearing of it.
“I’ll take that as a no,” Felix murmured. “Probably too fresh. But I can scent it in her blood. She carries your young.”
“Bailey?” Gash’s broken voice was all cracks and craters.
“Didn’t know.” She could barely get the words out through the chokehold Felix had on her, and her expression was all pinched with regret and determination
, angry tears streaking her face. “Thought it… was nerves.”
Adira could sense the power shifting in the air. Felix had made a grave mistake revealing Bailey’s condition. Now he had a mama cat, a daddy cat, and an entire crew of aunts and uncles willing to tear into him. Adira didn’t have a mother, but she’d been versed in the ways of Mother Nature, and she knew well how fiercely one could defend the innocent.
Even unto death.
And as if her thoughts were prophetic, things came to head quickly.
Bailey shifted. In a puff of air, she became sinewy strength covered in orange and black fur. Claws slashed out at Felix and he jumped back to escape her heavy paw.
Gash shifted, and the rest of the Ouachita clan. The emerging bears made Felix’s eyes bulge in horror as they lumbered forward, swiping at the rangy Alley Cats and sending them skittering with very little effort.
Adira watched Bailey as she hissed and pawed at Felix, but somehow, he managed to keep his hand around her neck. All she had to do was shred his hand. Surely he’d loosen her then. But instead she continued swiping for his head while Gash circled for an open angle to pounce.
“She’s going for a kill shot,” Nastia murmured. “Once to the head would do it, as big as her paws are. Can not. Will not. Can not. Will not…”
“Sisters,” Mirena squeaked. “What shall we do? What can be done?”
“Can not. Will not. Can not. Will not…” Nastia wasn’t herself. This was too much for her right now.
Adira watched the horrific scene unfold, feeling more helpless than she did even before she’d come into her powers. They would fail the Ouachita clan, and in turn, the light, the goodness they’d spent their lives protecting. They’d fail each other if she didn’t come up with a solution quick.
Double tiger… double tiger…
Realization grabbed Adira, and she couldn’t believe she hadn’t seen it earlier. There wasn’t one tiger. There were two. The power of a second life growing inside Bailey.
Her gaze went to Gash and skidded to a halt. His snarl drew his face up like a man ready to burn his enemies to the ground. Enemies he’d been hiding from. Hidden dragon.
Adira looked to the sky. Bubbling trouble, brewing storm.
The ancient spell they’d used to conjure Destiny and the rainbow was more than just a spell. It was prophetic.
Draw from the animals, their love is pure.
She turned to her sisters. “I know what to do.”
But the realization came a moment too late. Just a second sooner and disaster might not have been their fate. The future is already begun.
Nastia’s gaze was focused on one of the bears. It was impossible to tell them apart, and they both fought the cats with such brute strength. But one captured Nastia’s attention, and just when Adira looked up, a panther pounced on his shoulders as he fought off two others. Using his massive razor teeth, the cat took a hunk out of the bear’s flank as his claws shredded a line of red in the brindle fur. The clearing erupted in a deafening roar, and the cat threw his jaws wide, preparing to go for the throat.
“No more!” Nastia screamed. “I know a way.” She threw her hand forward, extending her fingers like claws. With a flick of her wrist, the panther’s head twisted sideways with a sickening crack and he went limp, falling backward off the bear.
Adira shook her head but no words would come. Not like this, not like this!
Life was valued above all. Even a life dedicated to evil. It was why the Sorcera had never gone vigilante on the Magei. Life could never be taken, even for the sake of defeating the wicked.
“No!” Mirena cried, but her warning was cut off when a dark magic from above began swirling over Nastia. Around and around it spun until it began to form a funnel, stretching down, down, down.
The shifters fought on, unaware of the storm growing above them. Unaware even that Nastia had killed one to draw the darkness to her.
“Five hundred and eight. Five hundred and eight,” Nastia murmured strangely, her voice picking up to be heard over the roar of the swirling cloud above her. “We must circle now, and cast the spell. Quick, before I’m overtaken. Draw from my darkness but filter it through your light. Your two to my one, this will work. Once the spell is cast and Ouachita is safe, you lock me away so I can’t hurt anyone. And then you—five hundred and eight, five hundred and eight—find my anchor. If anything can bring me back from darkness, it will be my anchor. If you cannot find it…”
“We will,” Adira screamed over the wailing wind. “I swear it, we will, sister.”
Mirena nodded her agreement, concern stretching her face into a grimace as she eyed the storm above them.
Forming a circle, the three pressed their palms together, letting their energies combine. But it didn’t feel comforting like it usually did. Nastia’s inky power bled over their light just like the dark night sky bled over the stars. There was plenty of power for the #binding spell. And like the sky, more dark than light.
Be the light in the night, the right in the fright.
Always more dark than light. It was just as Adira thought, more power belonged to the darkness. No wonder so many Sorcera couldn’t resist it without an anchor. Power was a seductive beast.
But maybe it wasn’t so bad if you used evil for good intents.
Heed this: give as much as you take, lest the darkness be your fate.
As the three began chanting the incantation, Adira hoped they would somehow be able to resist the pull of the darkness.
Let us not be lost, she prayed to the mystics, hoping they could still hear her though her light had gone murky. Let us not be lost.
Chapter Twelve
Gash’s cat circled Felix just waiting for the moment he shifted. The second Bailey was out of his grasp, Gash was going to shred him to tiny pieces.
Destroy him. Destroy threat to mine and young.
He twitched, his hackles raising along his spine. His Bailey had a young growing inside her. One he’d put there with love. He hadn’t meant to, but that didn’t mean he didn’t want it with every fiber of his being.
Mason’s words about Magic came back to him…
How much harder do you think he will fight, if it means keeping his mate and young safe?
Gash could answer that question now with certainty. In fact, it focused every random thought and worry into a single, pinpoint of clarity.
He’d fight until every foe was defeated. It would never be like his nightmare. He’d tear them all down, one by one, until his family was safe. And if it cost him every drop of blood, every breath of oxygen… it wouldn’t be too much. Because nothing was too much when it came to protecting his mate and young.
Felix continued to duck Bailey’s hits while still guarding his back against Gash’s impending attack. But he couldn’t maintain his position for long. Not with the storm whipping the wind into a frenzy, and the cats falling away at Ouachita’s attack.
The entire clan was fighting for Bailey. Fighting hard to keep his mate and young safe, and it reaffirmed that Gash was in just the right place. He owed them a life. Owed them everything.
Felix’s gaze darted around the clearing, measuring his time, a wicked gleam in his eye. He’d have to shift soon. He couldn’t battle two angry cats without his own doing the fighting. Gash would take him now, but the claws in Bailey’s neck were Felix’s leverage. Couldn’t risk an injury like that. Their bond couldn’t heal something that mortal, and even if it could, it would endanger their baby. He wouldn’t chance it.
All he could do was wait… wait…
The violent roar of a bear ripped through the clearing, bringing a millisecond stop to the fighting before it all picked back up. Thames. A panther had pounced on him, and was ripping his back to ribbons. Theron lumbered forward, rearing up on his hind legs to help his brother, when suddenly, the cat went limp, falling to the ground in a lifeless heap of sable fur.
A bark of thunder was the only warning before the clouds above began swirling over
the marker indicating the spot where the witches stood.
Something was happening. His cat could sense the power in the air that could only be caused by magic. It was so close to nighttime that the sun was already gone. But the witches said they needed stars and he couldn’t see a single one.
His cat crouched low, bunching his hind legs tight, readying to attack. All he needed was a split second distraction, and if his hunch was right the witches were about to give him that.
Wait… wait…
Screams ripped along the wind, starting nearest the marker, animal at first and then changing to human, as the curse began to spread. Werecats all around twisted and contorted, fighting the change that was forced upon them with a gruesome result. Bones rattled and joint came unhinged. Eyes went bloody from strain as they fought hard to maintain their form, to no avail.
Felix whipped his head around, confused. With a swipe of his claws to Bailey’s face, he shifted in one quick blink, bringing his jaguar forward with an angry howl. And as soon as she was clear of him, Gash sprung, landing on his brother and rolling with him to the ground, ripping and tearing whatever flesh he could find.
Destroy him. Nothing threatens mate. Not even blood.
But it was a short fight because in a matter of minutes, Felix transformed to human again and Gash’s claws were slicing skin instead of fur. Not that it would keep him from tearing his brother up as he deserved.
“Gash! Wait. Stop!” The voice belonged to Doc, and was sharp enough to make him stop killing Felix. Doc was naked, crouching over Bailey’s tiger. “She needs you. Now.”
Gash released Felix and he scrambled away, leaving a trail of red.
Bailey lay on the ground, bleeding heavily from her neck and face where Felix had clawed her. Her tiger rumbled a pain-filled snarl as Gash loped over, lowering himself to the ground to lick her wounds and push his bond at her.
Heal, mate. You’re safe now.
The clearing was growing quiet, and was more human now than animal.
Bailey whimpered, flinching as Gash continued to clean her wounds. Ducking a nip of her teeth when the healing increased her pain, he growled a warning, giving the mating bond everything he had. And when in the next heartbeat, a purr rippled from her throat, Gash knew she was going to be okay.