He paused, plucking at a clump of gray fur caught on a jagged branch, then picked up the pace. As the gap between me and Aaron widened, I gritted my teeth and jogged a few steps. Six weeks of hard training had improved my fitness level but I was no match for the guys.
They were machines. Sexy, muscly machines with everlasting batteries.
The rain lashed at my leather coat. I panted, a stitch searing my ribs. Maybe I should up my endurance training. The stitch dug deeper into my side. Yep, I definitely needed to spend more time on the treadmill. Me and the treadmill, we were like best friends who sometimes hated each other.
Actually, no. We just hated each other. No friendship involved.
Ahead, the rain blurring his form, Ezra raised his closed fist—the signal to stop. I jolted to a halt, Kai right behind me. Ezra retreated, forcing Aaron back with him, then crouched in the foliage. Aaron and Kai dropped down too, and I belatedly scooched in, missing Ezra’s first few words.
“… fifty feet ahead in the trees,” he was saying in a low voice. “I can’t tell anything else from this distance. Let’s do a V ambush. Kai, Aaron, circle wide so he doesn’t hear you. When you’re in position—”
“Is it just the one?” Aaron interrupted.
“That I can detect, but that doesn’t mean—”
“We only need one shifter.” Aaron pushed to his feet. “Let’s take him down.”
“Wait—”
The pyromage strode down the game trail, heading straight for the unseen target.
Ezra swore under his breath, then pointed sharply to the right. “Move fast for the ambush, Kai. If he bolts, we’ll never catch him.”
Kai cut to the right, ghosting through the trees.
“With me, Tori,” Ezra said as he stepped into the bush.
Close on his heels, I tried to move as silently as him. Lucky for me, the drumming rain concealed whatever noise I made. He led me wide of the trail, and through the trees, I could just make out Aaron, prowling swiftly forward. Ezra cut around a cluster of saplings, then slowed, dropping into a half-crouch. I mimicked him.
Reaching over his shoulder, he pulled his pole-arm off his back. The two-foot-long rod, dark metal with silver caps, could be split into twin short swords, then reattached to form a double-ended staff. A strange pulse of anxiety ran down my spine at the sight of the weapon. This wasn’t the same one I’d used to kill a man; a demon had shattered that blade’s twin. This was Ezra’s spare.
Above the storm’s racket, a new sound reached my ears. Rustling. Snapping. A crack. Scraping. A drawn-out moan. Could wolves moan?
Ezra halted. As I squinted around his shoulder, something moved in the foliage. A pale shape scrabbled at the base of a tree, but it didn’t look like fur. It looked like …
The figure straightened—a man. A naked man. Stark-ass naked. I could see said ass. Skin as white as snow, smeared with mud. Stripes marked his body—wounds that didn’t bleed, red flesh peeking through his split skin.
The man pawed at the tree bark, whimpering. Snapping off a branch, he crouched on his haunches—providing an even worse view of his flat butt cheeks—and the scraping sound started again.
“Ezra,” I whispered urgently. “Who—”
“A shifter. Human form.” He let out a harsh breath. “We should be closer, but—”
Firelight flared. Aaron stepped out of the brush fifteen feet from the man, flames dancing on his upturned palm, his unsheathed sword in his other hand. “Shifter—”
The man whirled around. Milky eyes fixed on Aaron. Blood ran down his chin and when he pulled his lips back, his teeth were stained red by his bleeding, torn gums. He clutched his stick as though it were a precious delicacy.
“Mine,” the man moaned. “Mine!”
“What’s yours?” Aaron asked cautiously.
The man staggered forward, then listed to one side. “I need more. Must have … more. Give me more.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Aaron’s hand tightened on his sword. “Lie on the ground, face down, or we’ll have no choice but to kill you.”
“More,” the man whispered, his chest rising and falling rapidly. “I need … need …” He bit down on the branch, teeth ripping desperately at the bark.
“Lie down,” Aaron ordered again. “You have ten seconds to comply.”
“I need more.” The man pressed a hand to his head. A feverish flush stained his pale cheeks. “More … need … do you have it? Give it to me!”
He lunged as green light, streaked with red, flared over him. He crumpled forward onto his hands and knees, body heaving, and fur sprouted from his mud-smeared skin. The open wounds pulsed, belching red miasma. The man’s scream transformed into an animal howl.
Yowling voices erupted all around us.
Uh-oh.
As the transforming werewolf hoisted itself to its feet—or rather, paws—Ezra and I rocketed toward Aaron. Shadows materialized from the rain. One, two, three, four, five wolves, plus the one who, moments ago, had been a naked crazy dude.
The wolves slunk toward Aaron. He swung Sharpie in front of him, the rain-speckled blade sparkling in the dim light. Six on one, with only ten feet between him and the wolves. Ezra and I were too far.
The wolves charged.
Kai burst out of the trees. “Aaron, jump!”
Aaron leaped off the ground and Kai rotated his unsheathed katana with a sharp twist. Lightning exploded out of the wolves—a blast bursting from each body and shooting into the earth. Crackling power swept across the soaked mud in a rapid wave that rushed beneath Aaron. I felt the current pass, a heady buzz along my nerves.
The wolves crumpled in howling convulsions, but they wouldn’t be down for long.
“My turn!” Aaron snarled.
Kai jerked toward him. “Wait—”
Aaron launched ahead, fire coating his blade. Swearing, Kai rushed after him. Ezra twisted his pole-arm apart, unsheathing foot-long blades—then whirled in mid-step.
His blades cut across the chest of a wolf, its furred body springing from a shadowy gap beneath a spruce tree.
He flung the massive beast away, then lunged in with his blades. I backpedaled, my hand flying to my waist. I grabbed an alchemy bomb, but I couldn’t throw it with Ezra tangled in combat with the werewolf. Shiiiit. What should I do?
Ezra slammed the butt of a sword down on the wolf’s head. “Tori, behind you!”
Eh? I turned.
Two wolves prowled toward me, heads low and teeth bared. I wound up and hurled my alchemy bomb like a pro pitcher. The glass sphere arced through the air—and burst against a tree two feet to the wolves’ left. The yellow sleeping potion rained down on the mud. Damn it!
I spun and bolted around a spruce. As the snarling wolves charged after me, I grabbed another alchemy bomb and flung it wildly over my shoulder. It crunched and pink potion splashed across the wolf’s face.
Yeah! Perfect hit—except the wolf hadn’t collapsed. It hadn’t even stumbled … but its angry growl had gone mute. Shit, had I grabbed a silencing potion by accident?
I jammed my hand into a belt pouch and when I pulled it out, brass knuckles hugged my fingers. Planting my feet, I spun around and swung my fist with the full weight of my body behind it.
“Ori amplifico!” I bellowed.
My knuckles hit the wolf’s thick head. Its whole body left the ground as it flew six feet before crashing into a tree.
And that was it for my bag of tricks.
The silenced wolf leaped at me. Yelping, I ducked behind a thick tree trunk, then grabbed the lowest branch. Swinging onto it, I kicked backward. My foot landed squarely in the wolf’s mouth. Its fangs hooked into my boot’s rubber sole and it almost yanked me off the branch. I clung on for dear life.
“Tori!” Ezra shouted. “Where are you?”
“Here!” I squealed breathlessly, wrenching on my foot. “I’m good. Help the others!”
I swung my other foot and kicked the bottom
of its jaw. It jolted but didn’t let go. Maybe I wasn’t so good. Gulping, I released the branch.
I fell on the wolf’s head, my boot tearing free. Another potion was in my hand, and I shoved the sphere into the wolf’s mouth. Its jaws snapped shut, shattering the glass. Yellow potion oozed between its teeth, then it slumped over, sleeping like a corpse. Hell yeah! Score one for Tori.
Launching triumphantly to my feet, I looked around—and scrambled backward with a shriek as the wolf I’d punched halfway across the forest lunged at me. Had the brass knuckles recharged? Only one way to find out.
I swung my fist. “Ori amplifico!”
The metal artifact slammed into its head in the same spot as my first hit. The wolf didn’t go flying—but it stumbled, then slowly folded in on itself, panting weakly. Well, that worked too.
I ran toward the guys, who were easy to find with all the howling—the wolves, not the guys. Shoving through a bush, I burst into a clearing full of flashing electricity and surging flames. Aaron and Kai battled five wolves—no, four. Three were already down. And because I could do basic math, I realized that meant another furry soldier had arrived while I’d been busy.
“Guys!” I wailed. Okay, maybe I was more shaken up than I wanted to admit.
“Tori!” Aaron shouted over his shoulder as he swung his flaming sword and almost took the leg off a wolf. “Where have you been?”
“Taking out wolves,” I yelled back. “I got two.”
“Two?” he blurted, almost forgetting he was fending off a trio of snarling beasts. “By yourself?”
“Yeah.” Was I proud? Hell yes.
He scowled as though offended—then darted sideways, scarcely evading a wolf’s snapping jaws. Slashing his hand through the air, he unleashed a band of blue flame. The wolf retreated, milky eyes staring, drool dripping from its jaws.
“Where’s Ezra?” I called, hanging well back from their battle.
Kai flung a small knife into a wolf, then blasted it with lightning. The beast shuddered but didn’t fall. “Isn’t he with you?”
I looked around sharply, but I couldn’t see the aeromage. He’d been battling a wolf last I’d seen, but he was strong. He could handle a single shifter no problem. Couldn’t he?
Panic stirred in my chest—then a cold shiver ran over me. The rain stung when it hit my bare skin, and the wind roared. Wait, that wasn’t rain. Hail plummeted to the ground, the icy pellets bouncing off trees. The sky dimmed, darkness creeping over the forest.
The four wolves disengaged from Aaron and Kai, their hackles rising and heads swinging side to side, milky eyes searching.
The shadows beneath the trees had gone as dark as night—then crimson radiance ignited in the blackness. Glowing rings, swirling with spiky runes, appeared in the air above each of the four wolves. The magic crackled, the air heavy and toxic.
Scarlet bolts exploded from the circles. They slammed straight down, piercing the wolves and striking the earth in an explosion of mud.
The darkness swirled, broken only by two pinpricks of glowing crimson. Then daylight swept over us, the cold lifted, and Ezra stepped out of the trees, his pale eye glowing faintly. He blinked quickly and the shimmer of red across his left arm flickered out.
“Holy shit,” Aaron rasped. “What the hell, man?”
Ezra glanced at the dead wolves, surrounded by hail pellets that were swiftly melting in the rain. “Were we not supposed to kill them?”
“Yeah, but you didn’t need to go demonic,” Aaron said sharply. “We had it under control.”
Kai lowered his sword. “Was that a new attack?”
Ezra shrugged. “Eterran was feeling generous.”
Eterran? Did he mean his demon? The one embedded in his body? And what the hell did “feeling generous” mean?
Busy gawking at Ezra, I almost missed the subtle flash of disbelief in Kai’s face. I wasn’t the only one thrown off by Ezra’s response, though whether Kai was shocked that the demon had a name or about the “generous” bit, I didn’t know. I’d seen Ezra’s demon come out to play once before, when Ezra had lost consciousness while tapping its power, and I had no desire to be that terrified ever again. Luckily, those circumstances weren’t likely to repeat.
“Let’s grab a body,” Kai said, “and get back to the house.”
“Yeah.” Aaron scowled at the shifter corpses. “Which one’s the smallest? Carrying it is gonna suck.”
“The ones I fought weren’t this big,” I offered. “Also, I don’t think they’re dead.”
The guys followed me back into the trees and we located my two victims. I stood proudly over the unconscious shifters, waiting for praise. Aaron peered at the wolves, then let out a snort.
“Not helpful, Tori.” He stalked away.
I blinked in confusion. Kai and Ezra glared furiously at Aaron’s back.
“What did I do wrong?” I asked in a small voice.
“Nothing,” Ezra said quickly. “You were amazing. You took out two shifters all by yourself.”
“But why did Aaron say …”
Kai cleared his throat. “These two shifters don’t appear to be altered. So we need a different one to take back.”
“Wait, what?” I reexamined the shifters. No creepy wounds, no milky eyes, no unnaturally beefed-up muscles. “Damn it, you’re right.”
Ezra wrapped his arm around my drooping shoulders. “Don’t be upset. Taking out two shifters on your own is impressive.”
“But I thought I was whooping mutant shifters,” I pouted.
“The important thing,” Kai said, shifting closer to my other side, “is the four of us eliminated the entire pack. Let’s call in backup to—”
“Wait.” I frowned at the two wolves I’d defeated, then looked toward the other bodies, out of sight. “Did we eliminate the entire pack?”
I slipped free from Ezra’s arm and hastened through the trees. Wet footsteps slapping in the mud told me Ezra and Kai were following. Halting at the battle zone’s edge, I scanned the corpses. Shades of mottled gray, two brown, one dirty white.
“Tori?”
Ezra and Kai stood a few feet away, watching me warily. I scanned the shifters one more time, then shook my head.
“We missed one.” The memory of snarling fangs, inches from my face, flashed through me. “The black wolf isn’t here.”
Chapter Thirteen
We delivered a gory shifter corpse to the academy’s alchemy lab with all the fanfare of an early Christmas. Okay, no, we didn’t, but Kelvin Compton acted like we’d given him a rare gift, his eyes lighting up and hands twitching toward the oozing body. Brian hung back, his face white and mouth clamped shut.
Leaving the transmutation specialist to do his job, we headed to the infirmary. Sin was awake and propped on several pillows. Not even her bright hair could make her seem lively, but she listened attentively as we filled her in on our adventure.
“Good job!” she congratulated me. “You kicked butt!”
I preened just a little. “It was touch and go for a bit, but I got it done.”
Aaron rolled his eyes. “You took out two regular shifters.”
He might as well have added “big deal” on the end, because my feeling of triumph, which had only just recovered, waned again. I swallowed back a retort. Last thing Sin needed was to listen to Aaron and me snip at each other.
“Any theories about that first shifter’s behavior?” Sin asked quickly, sensing the tension. Her gaze darted between me and Aaron. “What did he want more of?”
“Another person to chew on?” I guessed dubiously.
Aaron started to say something but Kai elbowed him so hard the air audibly rushed out of his lungs. Aaron stepped away, glowering at his friend.
“Whatever was going on,” I added, “Super Kelvin is working on it.”
Her face brightened a little at the mention of her alchemy hero. “I hope he figures it out soon.”
I smiled to hide my worry. It was almost noon on We
dnesday, and the full moon was Friday night. That wasn’t much time, even for a famous master alchemist.
“Oh, did you hear?” Sin pushed up on her pillows. “Valerie invited my whole family to spend Christmas here. My parents are abroad right now.” Guilt crinkled her forehead. “It’s their first trip in ten years. They wanted to rush back but they couldn’t get an earlier flight. They’ll arrive early Saturday morning. Anna is coming too, so we’ll all be together.”
“That’s wonderful!” I exclaimed, hoping desperately that Sin would get to enjoy Christmas with her family as an apprentice alchemist and not a mutant shifter.
We chatted for a minute more, then my stomach growled so loudly that everyone heard it. Sin waved us off to find some lunch. We trudged out of the infirmary, still in combat gear—damp, muddy, and cold. Except for Aaron, probably. The pyromage rarely got cold.
“Tori.” Ezra smiled as we stepped into a quiet hallway, the classroom doors closed. “We have something to take care of. Why don’t you head back to the house? We’ll meet you in a bit.”
“Huh?” I blinked at him, wondering if I was being paranoid or if his smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Kai said. “We’ll catch up, okay?”
Aaron looked between them, as confused as me. “I want to change, if it’s all the same to you.”
Ezra waved to me. “We’ll see you soon.”
He and Kai closed ranks around Aaron and herded him up the corridor. He complained the whole way, his tone getting nastier as they moved out of earshot. I stood alone, watching them disappear around a corner. What the hell was that all about? After pondering for a moment, I started forward, but not toward the Sinclair manor.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I am not a good person.
I reached the corner and peeked around it in time to glimpse the guys rounding another bend. I shadowed them to the farthest wing of the academy, where the durable concrete training arenas were located. They headed through a door, and I tiptoed after them.
The Alchemist and an Amaretto: The Guild Codex: Spellbound / Five Page 11