by Tara West
“How long do we have?” she asked.
“Your uncle gave us eight hours to close the portal and halt this virus,” he said, “and that was about four hours ago.”
Well, fuck.
“UNCLE JOE,” EILEA BARKED into the phone.
“Why in hell haven’t you answered your calls?”
She flinched at his sharpness. “Are you going to nuke the Amaroki?” she demanded. She wasn’t reassured when her question was met with silence. “Uncle!”
He let out a bunch of expletives. “We’ve had reports that the sick are petrifying. That they are turning into werewolves.”
“I haven’t seen anyone turn into a werewolf,” she answered honestly.
“Have you seen petrified bodies?”
“No.” Another honest answer. Sort of. Though she’d heard about Albert Strongpaw, she hadn’t seen him.
“Don’t lie to me, Eilea.”
“I’m not lying.” Technically, she wasn’t, but if she told him she’d heard about Albert’s condition, they’d speed up the bomb.
“I’ll be there in an hour. Pack your things. You’re leaving.”
Pack what, and how did he expect her to leave when a demonic ghost would probably kill her at the first opportunity?
“But Un—”
He cut her off by ending the call.
How could he do this to her? How could he involve her with this strange species, let her surrender her heart to a pack of shifters, then take it all away? Didn’t she mean anything to him? Didn’t the Amaroki? He’d given up his family and dedicated most of his life to serving them. Was he just going to discard them without proof they were a threat?
SWALLOWED BY THE WHITE mist, Geri lost his sense of smell and direction. Fog made it impossible for him to see beyond his nose. He only knew where to go by listening to Katarina’s lilting voice, imploring him to follow her and promising eternal happiness in her arms.
His feet felt like they were dredged in quicksand as he followed what he knew to be his eternal doom. But he had to do it. There was no other way to save the Alaskan Amaroki and his family.
He stopped, startled, when the image of a behemoth black protector materialized beside him. He recognized the ancient god, Amarok, from the scrolls.
What are you doing? Amarok demanded.
Though his mouth didn’t move, Geri heard the protector in his thoughts.
Geri wondered if Katarina could see and hear the god as well. “Saving the Amaroki.”
She called, “Geriii, why do you stop, my love? Come to me.”
He had his answer. She couldn’t see the god.
Amarok’s heavy jowls punctuated a frown. This is not the way.
“Geriii....”
Ignoring his late wife, he gazed at the apparition. “But the witch is dead.”
The witch is not dead. Amarok’s thick brow drew low over his eyes. She has yet to be revealed.
Geri gaped at the Ancient, barely hearing anything beyond the wild beating of his heart. “I don’t understand. We’ve looked everywhere.”
Do not sacrifice your soul for Katarina. She will lead you into the abyss, and you’ll never see your family again.
“What do I do?”
Amarok’s brilliant white eyes shifted to gold and then a blinding orange. Run!
He ran and saw a pinprick of swirling light ahead. He reached for it, calling on Amarok’s help to escape his unearthly prison.
“Geri, come back to me!”
He pushed himself harder, straining for the exit. He had to make it out.
“Geriii, do not betray me.”
He stopped, his heart pounding so hard he feared it would burst when Katarina’s snarling spirit materialized in front of him.
“You cannot leave me, Geri.”
“No, Katarina.” He turned up his chin, determined not to let her see the dread and fear in his soul. “You must go without me.”
“I can’t go in there alone.”
“You have to, Katarina. You’re dead. I’m not.”
“Don’t you want to be with me?” She floated close, teasing him with tendrils of smoke that smelled like her cloying perfume. “Don’t you miss me?”
Geri swallowed back a lump of regret. Instinct told him to lie, but he couldn’t. “You were unfaithful. You lied to us.”
Her large luminous eyes became narrow, dark slits. “I smell her on you! Is that why you won’t follow me? You’d rather fuck that human bitch?”
Again, Geri should’ve lied. But there had been so much he’d wanted to say to her before her death. He gritted his teeth, looking into the endless black chasms in her hollow eyes. “You drove me to her.”
She let out an ear-splitting howl.
Run! Amarok thought to him from a distance.
Ignoring the chill that swept down his spine and twisted his innards, he jumped through Katarina’s spirit and kept going.
A serpent’s hiss filled his ears, and he yelped as flame licked at his heels. Bursting through the swirling vortex, he sprinted for the road, feeling a mixture of dread and relief when he saw Annie and the truck were no longer there. He’d have to escape on foot.
He leaped back when a tree limb twice his height fell, nearly crushing him. Another limb fell, and another. He looked over his shoulder and saw a smoky serpent with Katarina’s face slithering though the branches. Her sibilant laughter echoed through the forest.
The crack from above was so loud, it filled his skull. In a panic, he tried to duck out of the way but moved too slowly. A heavy weight fell across his back, driving him to the ground. Something ground into his back with the blinding pain of a thousand stinging serpents.
“Now you will have to join me.” Her maniacal laughter made him cringe. “And when your brothers come for you, I will take them, too.”
Chapter Sixteen
EILEA WAS CHECKING Boris’s temperature when Annie stumbled into the lodge with three children in tow. She looked like she’d been dragged through the flames of hell. Her clothes were torn, and green gunk stuck to her hair and face.
Eilea stood on shaky legs and looked over Annie’s shoulder. “Where’s Geri?”
Amara said at almost the same moment, “What happened?”
When the baby in her arms vomited down her shirt, Annie didn’t even flinch. She handed the child to another shifter and stripped down to a tank top and her dirty jeans. She left the children with two women shifters who’d yet to succumb to the virus. Annie had bad news about Geri. Eilea could tell by the way Annie’s lower lip quivered.
Eilea sank onto Boris’s cot when Annie walked over to them. The first thing she noticed was a powerful smell of sulfur and sickness.
Amara fanned her face. “Dang, Annie.”
She shrugged. “I’m used to it. Werewolves ate the Cloudwalkers. These children are the only survivors.”
“Werewolves?” Amara clutched her throat. “Then our worst fears have come true.”
Annie solemnly nodded. “Geri and I killed them.”
Eilea scanned the entrance once more, hoping Geri would make his appearance any moment.
“Where is he?” Amara asked.
Annie burst into tears. “He didn’t make it.”
Eilea could’ve sworn the world stopped turning at that moment.
“What do you mean?” Amara pleaded. “What happened to him?”
Annie wiped her eyes. “Katarina took him. She said she’d close the portal if he went with her.”
Eilea shot to her feet. “No!”
“If the portal was closed, wouldn’t I have my healing powers back?” Amara frowned at her hands. “I feel nothing.”
Annie scowled. “She lied to him. I told him not to go.”
“Then what did she do with him?” Amara asked.
Eilea’s world spun, then rocked as images of Katarina torturing or killing Geri flashed in her mind. Eilea felt sick. Not Geri. Not any of her mates! Wrapping her arms around herself, she hung her head between her leg
s, trying and failing to steady her breaths. Geri had left her on bad terms. They hadn’t had a chance to make up, and now he was gone.
“Eilea, he asked me to tell you he was sorry.”
“What for?”
Annie shrugged, flashing an apologetic smile. “He just said he was sorry.”
When Amara sat beside her, they fell into each other’s arms, crying on each other’s shoulders. Amara would’ve been Eilea’s daughter by marriage if Eilea had been able to complete the bond with her mates. Now they were lost to her, and she feared nothing would save them.
A succession of thunderous booms made her head snap up.
Drasko Thunderfoot, whose last name suited him perfectly, was stomping down the stairs as a towering protector. “Dr. Johnson, your uncle is on his way to get you.”
She straightened. “I know, and I’m not leaving.” No way was she leaving the sick Amaroki by themselves. No way was she leaving her mates.
“Yes you are,” he boomed. “Amara and Annie, you and the babies are going with him.”
“No!” Amara jumped to her feet. “I’m not leaving my mates.”
He let out a low, menacing growl. “You are getting in his truck if I have to force you.”
Eilea jumped up, pointing an accusatory finger at Drasko. “You can’t force me to go.”
His eyes lit with fury, and he lunged for her.
She dodged, missing the swoop of his big maw. Then she scrambled to her feet and ran. Where she was going, she had no idea, but she couldn’t let them take her.
She tore off down the hallway that led to her room. Chest heaving, she slammed the door behind her, relief sweeping through her when she didn’t hear Drasko’s heavy footsteps in the hall.
A familiar silver goblet was on the table beside the bed. Could it be? No. She’d lost her chance.
She approached the drink, fearing it was just an illusion. When she looked at the swirling red liquid, her heart skipped a beat.
“The witch isn’t dead. You can save them,” a familiar voice said as if speaking in a dream.
Without hesitation she snatched the goblet and swallowed the wine in huge gulps, barely registering the coppery taste of blood mixed with a sweet, heavy syrup.
After she’d finished the last drop, she set the goblet down and belched, blinking at the old patchwork curtains hanging over the window.
A feeling of weightlessness came over her. She stumbled to the bed when the room spun. The room became a vortex, and she was the axis on which it spun. She draped an arm over her eyes, crying out as a wave of sickness overcame her chest so tight, she thought she was going into cardiac arrest. I’m going to die, and I haven’t even lived yet!
“Please make it stop.”
Your god is no more, Eilea, a voice whispered in her head. You are Amaroki now.
EILEA WOKE TO THE UNMISTAKABLE sound of pants being unzipped.
The fuzzy figure before her slowly came into view. Where was she and what had happened? She licked her lips, tasting a mix of blood and wine.
The blurry figure leaned over and squeezed her breasts.
“Ouch!” she yelped. “What the hell?”
She knocked the hands away and blinked until Agent Parelli’s snarling face came into view. “Jimmy? What the fuck are you doing?”
He dropped his pants, something no larger than a thumb poking through the slit in his boxers. “Settling a score.”
What the fuck? Was she about to be raped by the world’s smallest penis?
She scrambled to her knees with surprising alacrity and strength. “Get away from me.”
“Or what?” He chuckled. “Your mates are dying or dead. They can’t help you.”
He leaped on top of her so fast, she hardly had time to react. When he smothered her scream with a sweaty hand, her bones turned to liquid, then reformed. She bit his hand, snarling and shaking until she felt a snap, followed by the crunch of bone.
His agonized scream filled the room, the sound so grating, she released him. He fell back, clutching a bloody hand to his chest. When he scrambled off the bed and reached for the holster on the table, she sprang into action, biting his other hand until bones crunched. He tried to grab her in a headlock. She scratched his face and chest until he cried for mercy. The smell and taste of his blood filled her senses. In fact she could smell everything, even the foul odor of his crusty underwear. Gross! The stench of hundreds of sick shifters hit her. What was she doing here when they needed her?
“What the hell is going on?” Annie was in the doorway, gazing at them in surprise.
Eilea sat back on her haunches. What does it look like? she wanted to say. I’m kicking rapist ass. But when she opened her mouth to speak, all that came out was a howl. She looked down at black furry legs. Holy shit! She was a goddamn wolf.
Jimmy stumbled to his feet, and she jumped between him and his gun.
“Okay, okay,” he cried. “You win.” One limp and bleeding hand pressed to his chest, the other trying to hold up his pants, he stumbled to the door.
Annie growled at him when he tried to pass. He ducked, jammed his shoulder into the doorframe, and slipped past her.
Eilea looked in a cracked mirror hanging above the iron headboard. She was a large wolf with a long snout, fur the color of midnight and eyes a blinding silver.
You have Amarok’s coloring. A great honor, a familiar voice said in her head.
Thank you, goddess, she answered.
“Dr. Johnson, is that you?” Annie walked over and stroked her ears.
Eilea whimpered, unsure how to shift back.
As if reading her mind, Annie said, “Envision yourself as a human.”
In seconds she was a naked human, blinking at Annie.
“It was you!” Annie shrieked.
“Yeah,” Eilea grumbled. “And that son of a bitch just tried to rape me.”
“Want me to finish him off?”
Eilea shook her head. “I doubt he’ll be a threat with two broken wrists.”
“No offense, Dr. Johnson, but how in the fuck?”
Eilea laughed joyously. “Let me get dressed, and I’ll tell you all about it.”
She remembered the goddess telling her the witch wasn’t dead, and she could save them. She wasn’t sure how, but with her suddenly heightened senses, she was determined to root out the witch.
AFTER EILEA TOLD ANNIE what happened, they found Amara in Hakon’s cot, crying against her sleeping mate’s shoulder. She clung to his neck when Annie tried to pull her away.
Annie shook her cousin’s shoulder. “Get up.”
Amara clung more tightly to her alpha. “I’m not leaving him.”
Eilea’s heart plummeted at the sight, which only made her more determined to find the witch. She couldn’t let these people die. Her people now.
“Dr. Johnson just spoke to the goddess. The witch isn’t dead. We can still close this portal.”
Amara looked at Eilea with red-rimmed eyes and scrunched her nose. “You smell different.”
“I know. The goddess turned me into a shifter.” She waved impatiently when Amara gaped at her. “No time to explain. Is it common for Amaroki to turn into eagles?”
“What?” Amara released her mate and sat up. “I’ve never seen any shifters turn into birds. Why?”
She squared her shoulders. “I saw Nakomi turn into an eagle.” She wasn’t sure how that indicated she was a witch, but it was her only lead.
Annie and Amara shared looks, then Annie grimaced. “That’s impossible.”
“Unless she’s the witch,” Eilea said.
“She can’t be,” Annie said, taking the fussing Hrod from his pen. “Her mates are petrifying. She would have already revealed herself.”
“Why hasn’t she gotten sick?” Eilea asked, frustrated.
Amara sat up, taking the squirming toddler from Annie. “I think she said she’s already had demon burn.”
Annie scratched the back of her head. “Did she say it?”
/> “Maybe I assumed it, since she’s not sick, but now that you mention it, they don’t have haunted forests in Africa.” Amara stood, balancing the child on her hip.
“Are you sure?” Annie asked, pulling Alexi from his pen.
“Yes, I’m sure. My grandmother told me. There are a few in Europe and North America, but nowhere else.”
“So why is she immune to the virus?” she asked.
“A protection spell,” Amara said in amazement. “My mates’ great aunt was the last of the Amaroki witches. She could cast spells to protect our tribe from viruses.”
“Why would she protect herself and not the rest of us?” Annie looked affronted, voice rising as her cheeks reddened. “Or her mates?”
“It doesn’t make sense,” she admitted. Nakomi was a raging bitch, but she appeared to care for her mates. Why wouldn’t she save them if she could?
Balancing the baby on her hip, Annie marched down the stairs with purpose in her stride.
Eilea and Amara followed, rushing to keep up with her.
Annie burst into the private room where Nakomi was taking care of her mates.
Eilea whimpered at a horrid stench so thick it fogged her eyes. Great Ancients, it smelled worse than a rotting cadaver.
Nakomi mumbled beside Albert’s bed, but at their entrance, she jumped to her feet, shielding her sick mate with extended claws. “What do you want?”
“What were you chanting?” Annie demanded.
Nakomi’s eyes flashed gold. “A prayer.”
“Or a spell?” Annie accused.
“Our people are dying.” Amara stood beside Annie. “Your mates are petrifying. Why haven’t you told us you’re the witch?
“Will you let us all die because of your foolish pride?” Annie bit out. Alexi cried a little in her embrace, struggling in her arms.
“Back away, bitch, before I rip out your throat.” Nakomi jutted a claw toward Annie. “I am no witch.”
“Then how is it you are not sick?” Amara demanded. “And don’t tell me you’ve had demon burn. There are no haunted forests in Africa.”
Nakomi backed up defensively. “My secrets are mine alone.” She snapped at Annie and Amara, her fangs distending.