by Lucia Ashta
The next moment, my back arched against my seat back, my body moving without my command as it struggled to contain the blast of energy surging through me. I gasped, no longer exaggerating, sucking in air to get me through this.
I felt as if I’d stuck every one of my appendages into an electric socket at the same time. More power than I knew how to process rocketed through me. Clenching my jaw and every muscle in my body, I fought to resist, to survive.
My cone of vision shrank to next to nothing as I focused all my energy simply on getting through this. I heard my friends calling for me, along with the pained screams of a man, and then more frantic shouted orders. If I was right about what was happening, then Fury was likely the one screaming as he endured his own pain, and Rage grew desperate to save him.
However, I possessed little more than a sense of what was going on around me. A rush of movement in various directions swirled around my seat, but it was nothing compared to the swirl of madness consuming me within.
And yet, I did my best not to resist beyond my body’s impulses to push away pain.
The electric surge roaring through me was familiar. It was what I’d been longing for since the last time I’d seen Fury, when the dark sorcerer Jevan had siphoned my shifter magic into him.
The burst of power tearing through me didn’t seek to destroy me. It sought to replenish me, to fill me, to join with me once more. My mountain lion had no sense of restraint. She was all wild beast. She acted on impulse and need.
My mountain lion had recognized me as soon as Fury drew in close proximity, and she was fighting, tooth and nail, to claim her rightful place within me. I wished I could help her along, but instead I poured all my efforts into remaining conscious, into remaining open to receive her.
A tortured cry rented the air, cutting through my own protests, and a greater shock even than before slammed into me, knocking the ragged breath I’d been in the middle of drawing straight out of me.
Mouth hanging open, I fought to pull in air while my shifter magic streamed into me, pressing me against the back of my chair with force.
Wren and Jas yelled at me, their desperation evident even though I didn’t register their exact words. Rage bellowed, and Fury whimpered.
I fought to live.
Even with my mouth open, I didn’t manage to overcome all that was going on inside me to suck in the breath I needed to continue. My vision narrowed to nothing. A dark, heavy mantle settled over me, and my chest ceased its racking spasms as it struggled for a single breath.
I closed my eyes all the way and didn’t resist when my head lolled forward against my chest with a thudding sense of finality.
Wren screamed, her cry shrill and broken. It was enough to reach through the haze I was in for one final attempt. Almost lazily, as if I’d already accepted the attempt as a lost cause, I tried to breathe.
I managed it, and sucked in a tendril of air that was too little to properly fuel me, but enough to keep me from death. As it filled me, I gasped and returned to alertness.
Eyes wide once more, I scanned the room around me. I pulled in another breath, and then I was able to suck in several more full, replenishing breaths. Chaos enveloped me. Chairs were overturned on the dirt floor of the barn. Radley and Laredo hovered above Fury, who lay limp on the ground. The sorcerers appeared to fling a variety of spells at him, but the fallen shifter didn’t react to any of them, his body absorbing the barrage of magic without reaction.
Rage paced in an uneven circle around him. His footfalls were hard, anger and desperation warring across his features. “Do something!” he yelled at the sorcerers.
“We’re trying,” Radley snapped without taking his eyes from Fury, pressing glowing hands against the shifter’s chest.
“Well, then fucking try harder. I will kill you if anything happens to my brother!”
Radley and Laredo winced but continued working. Laredo knelt on the other side of Fury, pulsing wave after wave of light into the man.
Radley pulled back, trying a different approach. His lips moved a mile a minute while he chanted a spell, building a shimmering wave of ocean blue between his palms. “Move,” he barked at Laredo, before slamming the wave of magic into Fury’s chest.
Fury didn’t react at all. Not even a twitch followed a swell of magic so great that I had no doubt it should have summoned the fallen shifter from Death’s door.
“Save. Him,” Rage seethed, his soft words more dangerous than his previous shouts.
Laredo nodded frantically, running his hands along the length of Fury’s body. “H-he’s lost his shifter magic.”
I snapped my attention on Rage’s face, the sudden movement unleashing a wave of dizziness that passed in time to register the despair transforming his tight features. The rigidity of his shoulders dropped and fear gripped him. His mouth turned downward as it fought a tremble.
“If he’s lost his shifter magic, then he should still survive,” Rage said. “His life force should remain.”
“Yes, it should,” Laredo said, making it obvious that though it should be the case, there was no guarantee it would be.
Rage opened his mouth, then closed it again. When he finally spoke, his words were a plea. “Do whatever it takes to save him. If you need to take my magic, do it.”
Radley and Laredo whipped around at that.
“I mean it,” Rage said. “Just make it happen. Please. I’ll double what I was paying you if you bring him out of this. And I’ll triple it if you can save him without draining me.”
Radley nodded enthusiastically and immediately turned back to resume his work. Laredo took a few extra moments to peer at the man who probably hadn’t said please in a decade. When Laredo finally nodded his tacit agreement that he’d give it his all, I decided there appeared to be more heart left in this sorcerer than in Radley. Out of the two of them, Laredo was the more likely ally, assuming either of them would be willing to help us.
“Rina,” Wren whisper-screamed with enough emphasis to suggest she’d been calling my name for some time before I noticed.
“Hmm,” I said, blinking rapidly as I focused on her.
“Are you okay?” Wren asked with urgency.
But when I delayed in replying, Jas said, “Don’t bother with figuring that out. Is it true? Do you have your lion back?”
Did I? I had to take a few moments to decide. Eventually I nodded, ignoring the wail of anguish from near the barn doors.
My mountain lion, my queen as the female mountain lion was called, was back within me, coiled deep inside me, where she waited for the opportunity to strike. She wanted to attack and defeat those that threatened us so we could finally be safe, so that there’d be no risk of us separating again.
With her returned to her rightful place, the pain of her merging was fully gone, and her magical healing was working to repair the damage Radley had caused in searing my internal organs. With the help of my queen, I’d survive. More than that, I’d thrive.
“Your lion is back, then?” Jas pressed. “For sure?”
Again, I nodded.
“Then what the hell are you waiting for, woman? Get us the fuck out of here before they turn their attention back on us.”
With a quick glance at the men, I confirmed that Rage, Radley, and Laredo were still occupied trying to save Fury’s life.
I can do this, I told myself, only because I had to do this. My insides felt like a mess of lukewarm scrambled eggs, and my mind was no better, but this wasn’t the time to focus on excuses. I’d have to pull off a miracle to get us out of here.
Before I could freak out about whether or not I could call on my mage magic when there wasn’t a single ounce of calm within me, I just went for it. I snapped my eyelids shut, erasing Wren’s big, alarmed doe eyes, and the way Jas continually glanced from us to the others and back again.
I pictured the shiny metallic collars on my friends’ necks, clamped tightly around their flesh, and before I even sensed the power of my witch be
hind the action, I envisioned the collars snapping open at the hinge, bursting apart, their magic dissolving into the air around us.
A flicker of power illuminated through my mind’s eye, though it wasn’t enough to convince me that my intentions had come to fruition. Regardless, I moved on. The moment Rage realized we were trying to get away, he’d come for us, if only because he probably figured he could take from me again to give to his brother.
Right away, I reached for my queen. She waited for me, and her response was automatic. She flexed her strong muscles, ready for action, ready to respond to my call.
I sensed her taking over my body before I asked her to do it. She was more a part of me now than she’d been before, and she understood what was needed.
A new surge of energy wove through me, overwhelming my healing organs and exhausted pain receptors. My energetic body overcame my physical body until I was a mountain lion, sliding out from the magical bindings that could no longer tie me to a chair.
With the sharp eyes of an animal, I directed my attention to my enemies first, and then my friends. Things were much the same with the men, but my friends were free of their inhibiting collars, and Jas, the fastest shifter in our class, was now her oversized skunk, crouching next to her chair. Wren, however, remained seated, still bound, indecision flitting across her face.
When she noticed me looking at her, she grimaced. “I don’t know what to do.” Her words rushed out in a panic. “Should I shift? I’ll be free of the bindings, but stuck as a tree.”
And trees couldn’t run away. My lion was itching to run faster than she’d ever run before, to put this place firmly behind us.
I looked to Jas, who shrugged in her skunk body. Yeah, it was a tough call.
Finally, I nodded, figuring that would be the encouragement my meek friend would need to follow her own instincts toward the best path. She nodded back, and right away her edges started blurring, her human form giving way to that of her willow.
When Wren transformed into a full-on tree that stretched toward the tall ceiling of the barn, her trunk and limbs creaked as she broke clear through the roof.
Rage, Radley, and Laredo whipped their heads around to take in the disturbance. Jas and I snarled and stalked toward them while Rage bellowed his outrage.
“Save my brother,” he snapped at the sorcerers. “I’ll protect you.”
As Rage’s body began to crackle and snap, I understood a shift was imminent. I also understood that though he was the head of the Shifter Alliance, his shifter magic was different from mine. Only those with the most potent shifter magic were able to shift without enduring the physical effects of the change. Every shifter I’d witnessed at the Magical Creatures Academy was able to shift without the snapping of bone, cartilage, and flesh. Even Dave Bailey had enough magic in him to instigate a shift by blurring—even when he botched the rest of his shift.
Though Rage’s mountain lion would be every bit as powerful as mine once the transformation was complete, he was entirely vulnerable to me in the process. His shift would leave him exposed for at least half a minute, and the seconds were ticking by.
Without deliberating any longer, and without looking to Jas to determine what she might be thinking of doing, I did what I had to do.
When Rage fell over onto his hands and knees, and his body distorted as his mountain lion took over, I lunged for his throat, aiming to kill.
22
With Rage, things were simple. He put his own needs above those of others, and he wouldn’t hesitate to take me out if I didn’t put him down first. To him, I was the enemy, and it didn’t matter one lick that I hadn’t chosen the role.
His transformation into a mountain lion was nearly complete, but my jaw clamped down on delicate tissue and didn’t budge, no matter how he tried to throw me. When he snarled and jerked his neck in an attempt to dislodge me, he only caused my teeth to tear further into his flesh, ripping his throat open to the point of no return. Not even his superior shifter healing would repair this, not when blood was spurting from his neck at this rate. When he realized his resistance was only making his situation worse, he stopped moving entirely. By then the damage was done.
He sank heavily, without grace, to the dirt floor as he must have realized he wasn’t going to walk away from this one. He’d stolen my power for his brother, and now he’d kidnapped me so he could have more. Thanks to his greed he would die here, in this place of torture of his own making. Fury would probably die too.
Yet I felt the weight of ending his life like a boulder atop my chest. He dragged himself across the ground, leaving a trail of thick, sticky blood behind him, and stopped to lie next to his brother.
I stepped back, wanting to distance myself from their suffering. Really, Rage was the only one still suffering; Fury was somewhere else already, his eyes glazed over and vacant, the rhythmic rising and falling of his chest the only indication he still lived.
When a hand landed gently on my back, I startled and spun, teeth bared and ready to do more damage.
But it was only Wren, back in human form, arms outstretched, waiting for me to fall into them. And though our safety wasn’t guaranteed yet, I couldn’t resist the comfort she offered. For no longer than a few seconds, I leaned into her as she crouched down and hugged me.
So softly that nothing but an animal would be able to hear, Wren murmured, “Don’t look now, but Jas found weapons.” Which meant Jas must also have shifted back to her human form.
I emerged from Wren’s hold, training my gaze on the two sorcerers hovering over the fallen brothers. Rage was no longer a threat to us, nor was Fury, but the dark sorcerers could still hurt us. I wouldn’t draw their attention to Jas.
Padding so softly across the ground that Radley didn’t notice my approach, I brought my snout directly beneath his ear and released a low and deadly snarl, the kind that any man who valued his life would fear. Radley snapped his head around to stare at me, his eyes widening as he scanned the length of my mountain lion. Crouched down next to the shifter brothers as he was, my head was above his. My speed and strength guaranteed I’d get the drop on him even if he tried to fire off a rapid spell.
I growled again, hoping he’d get my message. His priorities being what they were, he got it right away.
Without taking his eyes from me, he spoke to Laredo: “If they’re dying, we’re not getting paid. I’m outta here. I suggest you get the hell out of here too. These girls won’t hurt us if we leave right now.”
I suspected he was correct and we wouldn’t hurt him while he retreated, but after what he’d done to me, and what he’d seemed prepared to do in the name of money, I wasn’t so sure he deserved to walk out of here scot-free. I growled viciously, and Radley snapped to his feet, backpedaling toward the entrance to the barn. When he tripped and flung his arms out in a panic to recover, a dark chuckle erupted behind me.
The sorcerers, Wren, and I turned to take in Jas, who looked like a crazed Dirty Harry, if Clint Eastwood were a five-foot, slight woman with steel blazing in her ice-colored, kohl-rimmed eyes. In one hand she carried a shiny, sharp sword that seemed out of place in the dilapidated barn, and in the other a mace that looked like it’d crushed more than a few skulls in its heyday.
My petite friend snarled at Radley and Laredo as if she were still in her animal form, setting her dangling nose ring to swinging. “No one’s leaving here unless we say so.”
Radley didn’t even hesitate. He swiveled on his heel and tore out of the barn as fast as his legs could carry him. Jas barked a derisive laugh, suggesting she’d figured that’s what he’d do all along. “Good riddance,” she grumbled, and I couldn’t disagree. Thanks to his pompous nature, I had all the information I needed for the Enforcers to track him down. I doubted he’d get away in any real sense, and now we didn’t have to deal with him.
Which left Laredo.
Wren joined me as I stalked toward the other sorcerer, who stood slowly. He put his hands up and I growled until he
snapped them back down. With a sorcerer, hands up was not the submissive gesture it was for most.
“Relax,” he urged, gaze snapping between me, Jas, and Wren in a fluid circuit. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
Jas laughed. “What, because dead guys don’t pay up?”
I growled, wishing I could speak, but I was more of a threat as a lion than a witch. I stalked a few steps closer to Laredo, pinning him between me and the two languishing brothers. Neither Rage nor Fury moved anymore, and based on the pool of blood spreading beneath Rage and seeping into Fury’s clothing, I didn’t figure the leader of the Shifter Alliance would be moving ever again.
“That’s not why I’m here,” Laredo finally said, his cheek twitching at his predicament.
I chuffed as Jas laughed again and said, “We heard you guys talking about payment. What do you think we are, stupid?”
He went to put his hands up again and I stalked closer as Jas pointed her sword at him, walking languorously in his direction. In a hurry, he slapped his hands back against his thighs.
“Okay, yes, I was being paid, but I was being paid way less than the other guy. Rage was going to release a debt my family owes him. If I gave him my service for this, he’d release my dad from the debt Rage has been holding over him for ten years.”
He sounded sincere enough, but if Laredo thought that was excuse enough for going along with insane-o Rage, then he had another thing coming. As a unit, Jas, Wren, and I stalked closer.
Laredo twitched and went to raise his hands, but this time he only moved them a few inches. He clenched and unclenched his fingers, and the three of us trained our attention on his face. Jas pressed the tip of her sword against the flesh of his throat.
The instant he started muttering words under his breath…
“Don’t,” she said. “No spell is worth getting your head lopped off.”
But of course, the spells a sorcerer of Laredo’s caliber might have at his disposal very well could be worth the risk, depending on what he could pull off and how fast he could manage it. It appeared, however, that he valued his head as much as Jas hoped.