by Bianca D’Arc
“Thank you, sweetheart. I know that was asking a lot, but I needed to hear it. Now, let’s go trap some bad guys.”
With conspiratorial smiles, they set off, hand in hand.
In the end, it was easier than Matilda had expected to lure the bad guys into the trap laid by the Wraiths. She walked out of the woods near the cabin, made a show of seeing the interlopers, then hightailed it back into the dense forest, shrugging off the light-colored tee shirt and doing her best to blend into the shadows.
Six goons followed her and were taken care of by the Wraiths. She knew the military shifters were positioned all around her, but even she was surprised when they dropped down from the trees or popped up from the bushes to take out their targets without a single shot being fired, despite how heavily armed the goons were. No sound was made, either. The men just simply disappeared into the darkness beneath the trees. She didn’t know if they were dead or merely knocked out. Either way, they were out of the action.
That was the good news. The bad news was that the six they had taken down weren’t even half the force that had come against them. The vehicles had been large SUVs, loaded with people. They’d taken out most of one truckload, but there were still double digits of enemy left near the cabin.
“We may need to run the bait and switch, again,” Arlo said, coming up beside her so silently that she wasn’t aware of the man until he spoke. She was beginning to understand how the Wraiths had earned their ghostly nickname.
“You think it’ll work a second time?” Georgio asked from her other side.
Arlo tilted his head, considering. “More dangerous, certainly, but it could work. It’ll at least draw them out into showing us what they’ve got. Right now, I can’t believe they’re all like the first half-dozen. Those guys were amateurs.”
Chapter Eleven
Georgio didn’t like the idea of running the same move again. Having Matilda show herself—dangle herself in front of the enemy like a chum slick in front of a shark school—wasn’t a great idea, but they didn’t really have another option. She was gung ho to do it, and he didn’t have the heart to talk her out of it. Not when she was finally showing her true lioness courage.
But he’d be close, this time. In fact…
“I’m going with you,” Georgio declared. Arlo nodded, even as Matilda turned to look at him, her face scrunched up in a frown. Then, she seemed to relax a bit as his words penetrated.
“Are you sure that’s wise?” she asked, rather than saying no outright. “Wouldn’t it be better to keep your presence hidden?”
“When their guys don’t come back after a few minutes, they’re going to start noticing. Better to have me take some of that blame than have them looking for ghosts,” Georgio declared.
“Or Wraiths,” Arlo seconded, grinning slightly. “It’s a good plan. Safer for all of us, all the way around.”
Matilda seemed to consider it then nodded. “Okay, then. Let’s get this show on the road.”
The second reveal was met with near-instant gunfire. Georgio hit the deck, Matilda right at his side. He’d positioned himself outermost, so that anything that came at them from the clearing where the house was located would have to get through him first. He was lucky that the remaining thugs seemed to have terrible aim. Either that, or the gunfire was just a distraction.
Then, he felt it. “Magic is gathering,” he breathed, already shrugging out of his clothing. “Not the good kind. Shift and stay with me, honey,” he told Matilda. What he really wanted to tell her was to run, but he knew she wouldn’t. Shouldn’t, actually, if she wanted to come out of this entire ordeal whole of mind and heart.
So be it. He would protect her. He was plenty big enough in his bear form to hide her behind him. If she would allow herself to stay hidden. Something told him that was going to be a sticking point between them, but he was up to the challenge. As far as Matilda was concerned, he was up for any challenge she would ever issue. His heart was hers, as was his mind and soul. He would follow her into the depths of hell and back, if that’s what she wanted. She just didn’t know it yet. Or, perhaps, it was more accurate to say that she hadn’t acknowledged the truth of the bond between them, yet.
But she would. He would stake his life—in fact, he was staking his life—on it. She would be his mate. Forevermore.
They just had to live through this first.
Matilda was right next to Georgio as he began to shift. They were well hidden behind some bushes, under the trees. She wondered what the bad guys would think of seeing two people disappear and a bear suddenly show up in the exact spot the people had gone down. She wondered how much worse it would be if they saw a bear and a lion pop up in a Pacific Northwest forest—together.
Maybe they’d think a zoo somewhere had lost a big cat. Or, maybe, they’d know exactly what they were dealing with. Maybe these people knew all about shifters and were part of the group that had originally imprisoned her and her little brother, along with all those other poor souls, in that cursed menagerie.
If so, she wanted them dead. No equivocation. Her lion demanded their blood. And their lives.
To knowingly trap an animal for confinement to a zoo was bad enough, but to set out to abduct a shifter… That was absolutely unforgivable and demanded their deaths. At least according to her lion’s sensibilities.
Matilda peered through the bushes as she shrugged out of her dark clothing. She noticed that Georgio had made a small pile of his own clothes and gear and shoved it under the bottom branches, out of sight. She did the same as he shifted shape.
A shimmer of magic and earth energy, and then, Georgio the handsome man turned into a massive grizzly bear, right next to her. His bear form was amazing. She couldn’t resist reaching out to touch his fur, and when her fingers touched his soft fur, she felt sparks of magic arcing between them. So amazing. She’d never felt that kind of thing before, and she’d been around other shifters, not just lions. Though, admittedly, Georgio was her first bear. Still, she got the idea that something special had just happened.
She saw movement through the bushes and realized she couldn’t take time to think about it now. No, now was the time to act. She shifted her own shape quickly, passing through the battle form, directly into her lioness.
She was smaller than the bear, but that was to be expected. In their human forms, she was smaller than Georgio, too. He was such a big man, most people were smaller than him.
In fact, his bulky bear form mostly hid her lioness from view. She could hang out here, behind him, and not be seen, which was probably a good idea for the time being, just in case these hunters didn’t expect to see a lion. The bear could be explained by the territory. There were wild grizzlies all over these woods. Georgio could fit in as one of his wild cousins, though he was larger than any wild bear she’d ever heard about. Still, he was in his natural territory.
Her lion, however, didn’t belong in the pine forests of the Pacific Northwest. Not by a long shot.
Georgio got her attention by jerking his head to the right. He wanted her to go that way? Deeper into the trees? Okay. She set out slowly, Georgio keeping pace with her.
“Send out the lion, and nobody else has to get hurt!” The woman’s shout brought Georgio and Matilda to a screeching halt.
What now? Was that the same woman Frank had been on the phone with? It certainly sounded like the same woman to Matilda’s ears. Was she the ringleader? Was this their chance to get her out in the open? If so, they had to take it.
Matilda moved to her left but came up against Georgio blocking her path. She held his gaze, willing him to understand, but he didn’t budge. She raised a paw and swiped at the air between them, her annoyance showing, but he didn’t move.
“Give me the lion, and I’ll go away and leave the mountain man’s cabin alone,” the woman called again, her voice drawing nearer.
Matilda poked her head into the nearest bush so she could take a look at what was going on in the clearing. There she was
. A woman in an expensive suit. She didn’t fit in this scenario. She looked dressed for the boardroom, not a woodland cabin. And the men flanking her were toughs sporting semi-automatic weapons.
They gave off the aura of organized crime to her senses, but then, what were they doing looking for a lion shifter in the middle of the woods? Matilda had no doubt, now, that they were, indeed, involved in her recent captivity. The bastards. She growled low, and Georgio rubbed against her flank, offering comfort, which she gladly accepted.
He was so big and strong. It was tempting to lean on him and let him take care of everything. But that wasn’t her way. She was—or had been—an Alpha female of the proud Kinkaid line. She wouldn’t let anyone else fight her battles, though she saw the value in having allies and there was no shame in letting Georgio help her sort out this mess. In fact, she felt more comfortable hunting in a group. It was the way of her lioness and it was a good way.
Matilda shifted rapidly into her battle form so she could speak in a low, rough voice, edged with the growl of her lion. Still, Georgio would understand.
“I’m going out there, but I want you to be ready. We’re taking them down, and I want her under my claws.” She let go of the battle form half-shift and went back to full lion.
“Woman or lion, I’ll take her either way,” the enemy female said in sing-song voice as she walked around the clearing, speaking toward the woods. “Send the shifter out here, and this all goes away. Protect her, and you all die, and the cabin and forest goes up in a fireball.”
The woman held her hand out, palm up. An ember of red fire glowed in her open palm.
That sealed it, then. She was not only fully aware of shifters, but she was also a mage. An evil one, at that. No way could she be working to imprison shifters and have any spark of decency to her. No, this was a servant of evil, and she needed to die. Simple as that.
Matilda growled and prowled around behind the bushes, looking for a good vantage point. She would launch her attack on the woman when the time was right. She just had to be patient and await the right opening…
Georgio’s blood began to boil when he realized the woman facing them was not only well aware that Matilda was a lion shifter, but she was also a mage. She might very well be the one behind the entire menagerie. If so, he wanted her to pay for what she had done to every shifter she’d imprisoned.
“They’re flanking,” Georgio heard over the earpiece specifically designed to stay in his ear no matter what form he took. He could hear the messages from the Wraiths, though he couldn’t communicate with them unless he took his human form. The in-between battle form also allowed him to walk upright and speak somewhat, but he was harder to understand, and the battle form was something only the most powerful shifters could hold for more than a few seconds.
Georgio had always been able to hold it in the past, but he hadn’t been called on to do so since his injury. He’d tried once or twice, with mixed results, but the real test was whether or not a shifter could do it when it really counted. In the heat of a real conflict.
The battle form was bigger, scarier, and more powerful in every way. His natural resistance to magic was good in his bear form, but it intensified in the half-shift of the battle form. His senses were sharper, his focus more detailed. It was the perfect fighting form, but he wasn’t sure he could hold it, now. Not the way he used to, before his injury.
Matilda was prowling low, keeping her head in the bushes. He could easily interpret her motion as a stalk of the sorceress. He just knew his lioness was going to try to pounce on that evil woman, but none of them knew exactly how powerful the sorceress was. She could conjure a flicker of flame in her hand and had boasted of throwing fireballs, but she hadn’t done anything of the sort, yet. Maybe it was just a ruse. She might talk a good game and have little actual power. Or she might be all she claimed…and more.
No way to tell until she actually engaged.
“What if we don’t want to give her to you? You’re the people who kept shifters in a zoo, aren’t you?” Arlo’s voice rang through the clearing, though he remained hidden in the trees.
Thanks be to the Mother of All! Arlo, bless the man, had reached the same conclusion as Georgio. They needed more intel on the sorceress before they engaged, and getting her talking might be just the ticket.
The woman laughed. “I merely procured the creatures. I didn’t keep the pens. I’m the hunter, not the keeper. And, since the mess in Oregon, I’m hunting for a new client in the Middle East. They’ve got the money, and I can supply what they want.”
“What if I said I wanted the keeper of the Oregon pens in exchange for the lion?” Arlo played with his prey skillfully, and Georgio had to applaud his efforts.
The woman laughed, and it wasn’t a pleasant sound. “That won’t work. I’m more afraid of him than I am of you. The Master doesn’t like to be thwarted. You’d be scared, too, if you knew how angry he was at the escape of so many of his little pets.”
Georgio’s stomach churned with disgust and anger, but Arlo seemed to be made of sterner stuff. He kept the dialogue going with the evil woman, even as he repositioned his troops in the woods. When he spoke, again, his voice came from a different direction, keeping the woman and her minions on their toes.
“Venifucus, then. As we suspected,” Arlo fairly spat the words. Georgio noticed the woman didn’t deny being part of the ancient, evil organization dedicated to bringing the Destroyer of Worlds back from exile in the farthest realms. “If you or any of your pals live through this, you can bring a message back to your so-called Master from us…and the Lords.”
The woman looked more interested, now, her head cocked to the side. “And just who are you?” she asked, “that you think you can speak for the Lords?”
“You first, lady.” Arlo’s tone was scathing.
“Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter, since you’ll all be dead soon, anyway.” She tossed the little fireball in her hand toward Arlo’s voice, lighting a small fire in the brush. “You have the honor of dying by the hand of Brenda Belasco, COO of Belasco Enterprises and personal assistant to Master Heinrich of the Venifucus Order of the Black Thorn.” She lobbed another small fireball toward the bushes on this side of the old cabin, starting another small fire. “Your turn,” she said, almost playfully as she formed a third fireball in her hand, this one much larger than the last two.
“We are…” Arlo said, speaking from a new position.
“Wraiths!” A dozen different voices finished the introduction from all points around the clearing, their shouts seeming to shock those within the clearing by the house for a short moment.
Then, all hell broke loose. Gunfire erupted from the men at Brenda’s side, and screams were heard in the woods as the Wraiths took down the thugs who had tried to flank their positions. The Wraiths moved like the ghosts they were named for, taking down anyone not on their side with calm efficiency and deadly accuracy.
Brenda’s confidence seemed to slip as she lobbed fireballs willy-nilly into the forest and all around the clearing. She nearly incinerated the cabin with one massive blast then took out the second shed and a good chunk of forest with another. Her eyes were wild, her panic clear.
And that’s the moment Matilda chose to pounce.
Georgio saw her break cover and bounded after her, only a step behind. Matilda was fast, but he was bigger and had a longer reach. When Brenda turned suddenly and saw the lioness coming for her, she threw the magic bolt in her hand directly at Matilda.
Time slowed as Georgio took his battle form and jumped in front of Matilda, taking the hit from the fireball straight to his chest. The lioness screamed but kept going as Georgio landed on his feet, only yards from the woman and her goons. The men were firing into the trees, their human reflexes not fast enough to catch up with the new danger, but that wouldn’t last.
Georgio went for the two men while Matilda sprang for the sorceress. He tore the weapon out of one man’s hand even as he kicked out, with his
bad leg, at the other man’s gun. It went flying into the trees, much to Georgio’s satisfaction. His leg might be weak, but he could still kick the snot out of a human with it. That was something, at least.
He engaged one man after the other, wasting little time on ripping them apart. All the while, he kept one eye on Matilda. She was beautiful in her animal form, the rage of the lioness for all that had been done to her lending her a lethal power that Brenda could not meet.
Matilda’s jaw closed around the sorceress’s neck, and an audible snap attested to Brenda’s clean, fast death.
It was over. The sounds of battle had faded from the forest, and Georgio had dispatched Brenda’s two goons. The sorceress, herself, was now dead as her fires lost their magical fuel and started to burn out.
Slowly, out of the smoky forest, the Wraiths walked out, one by one, to encircle the clearing and bear witness. Matilda shook her kill just once to be sure Brenda was dead then backed away, panting. Georgio, still in battle form, went to her.
“You did well,” he growled out through his half-shifted snout. “Now, the real work begins.”
Arlo came over, bringing their bundles of clothing and gear with him. He placed the clothes on the ground near Georgio and turned to survey the scene.
“Georgio’s right. This was good work, and we even got a little bit of intel out of her before the end.” He motioned two of his men to start going through the pockets of the fallen. “We’ll get more off the bodies before we dispose of them.” Nodding in satisfaction, he gave signals to the other Wraiths, who melted back into the forest.
Georgio shifted to his human form, letting go of the half-shift with a sense of pride. He’d been able to do it. Like in the old days, before his injury. When he needed the uncompromising strength of the battle form, it had been there for him. Thanks be to the Mother of All.
He felt like he’d regained a part of him that had been vitally important. He’d gotten a second chance, all thanks to the beautiful lioness who stood as if a bit shell shocked by events. He’d take care of her, as she’d helped him. He vowed it.