by D. N. Hoxa
“It’s a hoodie, made Downstairs. It’s fireproof. Even hellfire can’t burn it.”
My jaw all but hit the floor. A hoodie from Hell? Are you fucking kidding me?
I took off what was left of my hoodie and had the new one on within seconds. The sleeves were long enough, the zipper slid up smoothly, and the hem fell just below my ass, covering all my knives.
Holy shit, it was perfect!
“Wow. The fucker finally did one thing right.” I touched the hoodie and it felt soft against my palms. Then, I lit my hands on fire. I watched as my flames danced up my knuckles and to my wrists, enveloping the sleeves completely.
No smell. No sound of cotton burning. No sign of ashes anywhere.
I put the fire out, and sure enough, the hoodie remained exactly like it had been, so I touched it. Cold. The fabric was cold.
Call me crazy, but I laughed. This was the best thing I never even knew I needed. I’d probably want to claw my eyes out for this later, but if my father had been here right now, I’d have been tempted to give him a fucking hug. Willingly.
“Glad you like it,” Lexar said, smiling like we were just the best of friends. Which made me realize how I’d behaved around him tonight.
I cleared my throat. “Yeah, it’s great.”
“You should sit down and finish that drink.” He waved at the tiny couch.
“No, I’m fine.” I couldn’t stay seated, and I wanted to go back to Chelsea. But I also knew that I needed to say thank you to Lexar.
Oh, Lord Almighty, give me strength.
“You’re not fine.”
“Yes, I am.” There wasn’t a scratch on me.
“You just admitted that I was right in there minutes ago. You are not fine,” he said with a grin that took me completely off guard, even though I’d been looking right at him. It was so…open. So genuine. I didn’t think I’d ever seen a smile like that on him. For the moment, Lexar was not trying to piss me off or make me miserable or spite me or make me hate him.
And you know the worst part? I caught myself sneakily liking it.
I took a step back. “Thank you for getting the demon blood. I really appreciate it.” I literally choked the words out, but they were all out there now and he heard them.
“You don’t need to thank me, Sassy Pants,” he said, the grin now gone.
“Sure, I do. You didn’t owe me shit.” But now I owed him. Bliss.
“I know what she means to you. Don’t even mention it,” he said. Yeah, something was definitely wrong with Lexar. Why wasn’t he being his usual asshole-y self? I squinted my eyes at him. “Sit down. Drink up. Then you can go to your friend.”
I did as he asked, but I still wasn’t completely convinced that he was okay, so I kept my eyes on him, just in case he tried something funny.
“I’m guessing you didn’t find anything at the Alliance?” he asked, hands on his hips as he looked down at me.
“Not exactly,” I said, reminding myself that he got Chelsea the demon blood in record time. I needed to share with him now. “The nocturnal witch stole from them—not only books, but crystals, too. We met with a curly-haired chick. She wouldn’t tell us anything at first, but once I told her about the evil spirit, she freaked out good. She showed me this.” Reluctantly, I took my phone from my jeans pocket and showed him the picture of the glowing symbol in the dirt. “She said she found this in the yard of a human’s house when she was hunting the witch a week ago. Any idea what it means?”
He sat down next to me with my phone in his hand and zoomed in on the picture. He was uncomfortably close to me because the couch was so small. Our shoulders were practically touching, and I didn’t like it. Casually, I leaned to the side, pretending to try to see through the hallway and into the bedroom. Chelsea was still quiet, and Feather Girl was sitting at the corner of the bed, back turned to me.
“It depends on the context, really. Bellsy doesn’t work like human languages do. This could mean anything when paired with other letters,” Lexar said in wonder. “But nobody knows these except the Fallen. And us.”
Exactly what I’d thought. “It’s burning with magic. It’s not fire.” Only two of the Fallen had hellfire—my father and Beelzebub. And Lucifer, of course. But it would have been an easy guess. Magic, on the other hand, was something every Fallen angel and every one of their offspring could do.
“Who would leave something like this out in the open, just like that?” he wondered.
“Maybe the Fallen tried to find her first, before putting you and me up to this?” Even I didn’t believe my own words.
Lexar shook his head. “No, I would have heard about it. They would have told me.” I didn’t doubt that. My father was awfully fond of Lexar, just like everybody else.
“Maybe it was the evil spirit? Now that I think about it, he was glowing, too, just like that letter.” Though the evil spirit had been blue.
“Possible. Dybbuks are ancient. It wouldn’t surprise me if they knew Bellsy,” he said with a nod. “But why would he leave something like this behind when they don’t want to be found?”
“For a spell? Or a ritual? Maybe just to mess around? Because that bitch sent those shifters to kill Chelsea.” Yeah, I was calling her bitch now, too, just like Feather Girl did. Rage burned me once more, and my phoenix, who’d been relatively quiet for the last few minutes, suddenly tried to take flight right out of my chest.
The assault made me nauseous, and I had to put a hand in front of my mouth to keep from throwing up. Even the bracelet around my wrist was heating up a bit from the pressure.
“You okay?” Lexar asked, but I just held up a finger. I needed a second. Focusing all my will on the phoenix, I pushed her back and mentally locked her in a really dark place somewhere in the depths of my mind. Tightly, with a chain twice as long as the one Feather Girl had stolen for Chelsea.
“I’m fine,” I said when I could breathe without it hurting again.
“You’re not fine. You need to rest,” he said, and the concerned look in his dark eyes made me feel like throwing up again.
This was what had happened the first time around. He’d looked at me like he cared about what happened to me, like he was on my side, when the truth was, he’d just used me to score points with his dad and the other Fallen.
I needed to remind myself of that before I fell in the same trap again. You know how the saying goes: fool me once…
“I’ll get rest when she’s dead. Right now, I’m okay,” I said, turning to look at Chelsea again. She hadn’t moved from her spot at all, and not only because there were chains all around her.
“Don’t bullshit me. You’re not okay. I’ve never seen you like this before, Sassy Pants. So, I’m going to get you something to eat and—”
That was as far as I was willing to let him go.
“Cut the shit, Nevermore. I owe you for getting that blood for Chelsea, but that doesn’t suddenly make us friends. When you need something from me, I’ll help you out, but I haven’t forgotten last year,” I reminded him.
It was like I’d slapped him across the face. The shade that fell over his eyes suddenly turned darker. His brows narrowed, and then he smiled—the same smile I recognized, one filled with mischief and malice. There. That was the real Lexar, the one who obviously tried to get me all nice and vulnerable before his strike, but now that he saw I wasn’t falling for it, he would continue being his normal asshole-y self.
“You already know what I need from you,” he said, his whisper so dangerously low, I risked reaching an orgasm only to the sound of it. Asshole.
I sighed. “You’re welcome to tag along, but once we kill that bitch, we go our separate ways again.” And hopefully don’t see each other for another couple decades, at least. “How about that?”
He didn’t hesitate. “Deal.”
Great. All I had to do now was find the bitch and I’d be killing two birds with one stone. Good thing I was feeling a lot more motivated than before because by this time
the next day, I’d have left all of this fucking mess behind.
13
The scream tore right through me.
No, wait. That would be the claws. And it felt like they tore right through me, when in reality, they only slashed my thigh about an inch deep. Ouch.
But the pain didn’t bother me. Something about watching your best friend growing fur on the side of her face and having claws instead of nails tipping half her fingers must have taken my attention off it.
“Hold her!” I called to Lexar and Feather Girl, who were gripping the chain tightly, trying to pull Chelsea back.
Yeah, the shifting had started.
We all knew it would after the wound on her shoulder started healing—really fast. I could literally see her flesh stretching and covering her bone, and it had taken all of five minutes for Chelsea to start screaming again.
She was still burning, but she wasn’t holding still anymore. On the contrary. She’d somehow managed to get the chains off her right arm, and I tried to hold it back so she didn’t hurt herself, but it was impossible. Fucking hell, she had so much strength. She was trying to stand up, and the wall through which we’d put the chain had actually cracked. Lexar and Feather Girl were holding it now before it tore the entire building down while I remained close to Chelsea. Possibly not one of my brightest ideas, but I couldn’t leave her alone now. No way in hell. So what if she cut me open with her brand new claws? I’d heal, and she would, too.
Soon, we’d laugh about it over some nice cocktails—that she was going to pay for, obviously.
But right now, healing and cocktails had to wait. I just needed to contain her for…nobody knew how long, really. It could take minutes or hours. In extreme cases, it could take days for the body to adjust to the shifting, and that’s for normal born shifters. Needless to say, anything could happen here, but so long as she lived through it, I’d take it.
“Stop it!” Chelsea screamed at the top of her lungs, her voice deeper, already transformed into someone else’s.
“Control it,” I told her, holding onto her side, trying to wrap my arm around hers before she slashed me again. “You can do this, Chelsea. Just control it!”
But she couldn’t. Nobody could control the first shift, according to the books. Even I couldn’t do it without the bracelet, and I’m not even a traditional shifter.
Eventually, her screams turned to growls and more grey fur sprouted everywhere around her. Her hair had changed color, too, and it was shrinking in length, like her skin was sucking up every strand, while sprouting more all over. I tried my best to hold her still, and Lexar and Feather Girl tried to pull her back by the chains, but it was difficult to do so without breaking her bones. She was in enough pain already.
“It hurts so bad,” Chelsea cried, her voice still as strange, even deeper now, more like a growl. Her yellow claws tried to cut through my forearm while I held onto her. I felt the sting on my skin, but the hoodie didn’t tear. Any other time, I’d have done a happy dance at the discovery, but now, all I could do was hold on.
“It’s going to be over soon. You’re going to be okay,” I told Chelsea, but this time, I at least meant it. The shifting had started. She hadn’t died. And the chances of her dying now had drastically decreased because the animal in her was a lot stronger than her human part. It endured a lot more and healed with an incredible speed—and just like every being out there, it wanted to live.
I never for a second thought that she would die, not now. But when her fur kept growing, and her face began to change, it occurred to me that she wasn’t looking like a werewolf at all. Her face was becoming longer, her jaw breaking and rearranging itself, her nose growing smaller, darker, and her eyes weren’t wolf eyes.
And wolves had long muzzles, and their fur was definitely not spotted. Wait a minute…
I leaned my head back as far as I could, taking in the warm brown of Chelsea’s eyes, the black stripe that ran from their inner corners and all around her mouth, the pitch-black spots on her light grey fur…
What a stupid mistake. Before I knew it, Chelsea, or whatever she was becoming, was on her feet. All her fingers were now tipped with yellow claws, the clothes on her body torn, fur sprouting from everywhere.
“Hold her!” Feather Girl shouted a second before Chelsea tried to run for the door. She was still standing on two legs, but the structure of her arms had changed. She was no longer screaming, only growling and hissing, and when she pushed me to the side, there was no chance for me to hold onto her.
I fell against the wall, completely breathless, and watched as she shook the chains from her body. Once both her hands were free, she proceeded to claw at her own face. Blood exploded, painting my black hoodie red, and I could see Lexar making a move toward her.
“No!” I shouted and moved closer to Chelsea, who was still trying to tear her own face off. I had this. She was my friend. I would make sure she survived this without killing herself first.
Grabbing her fur-covered, weird-looking arms, I pulled them down. Much harder than it sounds. The strength in her was incredible, but I only needed a second to wrap my arms around her shoulders and hold her tightly.
The screams that left my lips rivaled her own as she clawed at my back. I had no idea if the hoodie was tearing up, but my skin was, and it hurt like a motherfucker.
Nothing that wouldn’t heal.
I whispered words of encouragement to Chelsea as I held her as tightly as I could, until she eventually fell back on the bed, with me on top of her.
But she hadn’t fallen—Lexar and Feather Girl had grabbed her arms and they’d pulled her down. I hadn’t even noticed that her claws weren’t on my back anymore. The more she moved, the more grey and black fur covered the sheets of the bed, like she was shedding.
I wrapped my legs around hers, too, to keep her from moving, and finally, the three of us could hold her. At some point, her growls turned to screams, and her skin looked like normal human skin again.
When an eternity passed, Chelsea stopped moving with a weak moan. We still didn’t let go of her, not until we were completely convinced that she was passed out.
“Sassy,” Feather Girl said, tapping my arm. “Get up.”
I raised my head to look at Chelsea’s face and almost passed out, too. Bright red scars crisscrossed her beautiful face, all her brow rings were gone. The worst part was her lips. They looked completely torn, but they were also healing. I could see the left side of her jaw and all her teeth completely one second, and they were gone the next. I didn’t know how to unlock my intertwined fingers beneath her, but the others helped. Slowly, they pulled me off her.
My legs wobbled like they were made of jelly, but I didn’t fall. I looked down at my friend as Lexar wrapped the chain around her body again, and my eyes filled with tears. So much pain. I felt it as if it was my own. You could see it in every line of her face, even now that she was unconscious.
Somebody grabbed me and sat me down next to Chelsea’s feet, but I couldn’t tell who it was. Darkness in front of my eyes, but that wasn’t what terrified me. It was the phoenix. She could sense my weakness and she wanted to make use of it. She wanted to break out of me now that she knew I wasn’t strong enough to stop her. After the fight with the evil spirit, and now with Chelsea…there was only so much my mortal body could endure. My name was being called, but I could barely hear the sound over the phoenix’s cries. She was coming at me furiously, claws against my chest, beak tapping on the center of my mind, forcing it to break and give in. My bracelet had heated up like it was on fire, too.
I needed to pass out. I hadn’t allowed myself to give up like that for a long time now, but I’d never been this physically weak when fighting my phoenix before. The bracelet would keep her from breaking out, but she would keep trying until she drove me nuts. The bracelet didn’t protect my mind, but if it was shut down, the phoenix couldn’t access it. For now, I welcomed the darkness. Hopefully, when I woke up, I’d have a better grip on
the fucking firebird that wanted my body.
I did have a better grip on the firebird that wanted my body when I woke up. I just couldn’t get a grip on the whole…situation.
Chelsea, my best friend, possibly the most stubborn person on the planet, once human, and the only person I would give my life for without a second thought, was changed. Shifted.
She was a Cheetah Girl for real now. Because she shifted into a cheetah—a grey one, with black spots.
Out of all shifter species…
There were bears. There were tigers, lions, wolves, wolverines, foxes, dogs, even leopards, but out of them all, cheetahs were the rarest because they didn’t live in big packs. They lived alone, with their mates and close family, and that’s why they were weak, vulnerable to attacks by other paranormals.
And now Chelsea was one of them. Just like that.
What. The. Fuck.
“She’s going to be fine,” Lexar said when he came back to his living room, where I was sitting on the tiny couch with Feather Girl. Chelsea had calmed down. She was no longer screaming or moving. Every wound on her body had healed for the past hour, and according to Lexar, the worst was already over. The next time she had the urge to shift, it would hurt her a lot less, and she’d be able to maintain control, if only for a little bit. After that, it would get easier with every shift. I had my fingers crossed that it would all work out the way he said it would.
“A cheetah,” Feather Girl said in wonder. “Are you like psychic or something?”
For once, I wanted to kill her dead, right on the spot.
“What do you mean?” asked Lexar, and Feather Girl explained it to him all too eagerly. Just a few hours ago she hadn’t wanted to even look him in the eye, but I guess things change.
“Sassy called Chelsea Cheetah Girl the first year after they met because Chelsea wore a cheetah print shirt one time. I was just wondering…” Her voice trailed off.
