by Alexia Purdy
“Orpah,” Phillip interrupted, stepping in front of Phoebe. “You don’t want to do this. Change back, and we can all discuss this like civilized people. It’s just a huge misunderstanding.”
“Get back, Phillip,” Phoebe snapped. “I don’t care what she said, you’re not a shifter. You can’t be.”
He turned and gave Phoebe a stern look. “She was telling the truth. I hid it from you all this time so you’d have no reason to hate me. I scrubbed that supernatural smell off of me every morning and night so no one here could tell.”
“What?” Phoebe’s confusion took her eyes off of Orpah. I had to give Phillip credit for stepping up, but I wasn’t sure we’d be able to reason with a Gorgon. She was determined to annihilate us, especially Phoebe. Still, I hoped she’d come to her senses, or I wouldn’t have any choice but to grab the ax stuck in the tree stump a few feet away and try to take off her head.
“Stay out of this, Phillip,” Orpah said. “Phoebe’s bird shit.” She glared at us. At least, it felt like it. I wasn’t about to look at her eyes, but my skin prickled under the weight of her stare. “You and your wolverine boy toy can shove it. I always hated the furry kind of shifters. You all reek of sweat, crap and musk. Disgusting creatures. Even you, Phillip, with your squirrely body. You still stink like a shifter.”
Every word came out with a sharp hiss, raising my awareness that she was losing her cool. I slowly inched to the side, hoping to not have to use my bare hands to do the deed. I had killed that way before, but never another shifter. Humans were frail things, but shifters could be easily underestimated, even the small ones like Orpah and Phoebe. Some of us may look weak, but our strength doesn’t come from muscle alone. It was all part of our supernatural powers.
“I don’t want to cause any trouble,” Phillip said, holding out his hands. “Let’s just all calm down and discuss this in human form.”
Orpah shook her head. I glanced at her cheeks and noticed tears sliding down her dark gray skin. She was hurting, that much I got, but I hoped her human side won the internal struggle before I had to kill her. I didn’t want to kill her. Phoebe sure as hell didn’t want to kill anyone. I hoped we didn’t have to.
“Orpah, please.” Phoebe stepped forward. “Don’t do this. Please.”
Orpah’s laugh rattled me to the bone. It wasn’t human anymore, but something unnatural, even for a shifter. She was too far gone to return from the depths of her madness. That was clear to me now.
“You’re too late.” Orpah stepped forward, casting her eyes at Phoebe.
Phillip moved again protecting Phoebe. “Don’t do this, Orpah. Stay away from Phoebe!”
He stepped forward as Orpah barreled toward him. Before she could reach him, Phoebe stepped between them, cutting off Orpah and taking the force of the blade the Gorgon had produced. It sliced into her belly even before I was aware of it.
“No!” My scream felt far away, but I managed to gather my wits and grabbed the ax before running toward Orpah, ready to chop her head off as Phoebe fell into Phillip’s arms.
But before I could slice through the stem of her neck, Orpah vanished into a thick cloud of black smoke. When it cleared, all that was left was a small pile of ash where she’d stood. She was gone.
Phoebe had sacrificed herself for Phillip. Her wound gushed bright red blood as Phillip eased her to the ground. That unselfish act had killed the cursed monster that was Orpah and stilled my heart in the process.
Malachi
The one good thing about getting stabbed, there was always the tiny chance the blade would miss anything vital, and you’d get out of it alive. Knowing our luck, I doubted this was the case.
It wasn’t until Phoebe got to the hospital that I found out her wound was smaller than it had originally seemed but still required several stitches. She ended up needing a transfusion of blood to make up for what she’d lost on the way. No severe internal injuries were spotted in the CT scan, but she was required to stay for a couple days under the observation of a shifter doctor named Steven Douglas. How he knew she was a shifter, well I’ll just have to tell her about it later.
I wasn’t as alone in this town as I’d originally thought. There were so many people I knew in Woodland Creek, it was a wonder to discover how much the town wanted to embrace me, not shun me like I thought they did. Their attempts at bothering me to death to join in and ticketing me for not getting involved was their way of trying to reach out to me. The community of shifters was tight, and they regretted letting one of their own slip through the cracks alone. This had me looking at things anew. Loneliness was an old friend of mine.
Not anymore. The amount of support Phoebe and I had was obvious by how much everyone treated us just like part of a large family. Maybe the black sheep of the family, but still part of it nonetheless.
“How do you feel?” I set a vase of roses on the last spot left on the ledge by the window, now full of flowers from Phoebe’s co-workers and previous patients who’d stopped by to see how she was.
“Everyone’s been trying to cheer me up. They’ve got me in stitches.” Phoebe smiled, trying not to laugh at her own pathetic joke. She grasped the pillow she kept on her belly to brace it as she chuckled. Every movement hurt, but she was getting better as time went on.
“You’re hilarious, Lucy.” I winked, taking a stab at her with a mention of a character from the I Love Lucy show currently playing on the muted TV.
“I try.” She returned my smile, happy I was back from getting us some real food outside of the hospital. She mentioned she never could stomach the bland hospital cuisine.
“Phillip sent these,” I said, indicating the roses. “He’s kind of still weirded out with everything, but I think he’ll pull through.”
“Good. I’m happy he’s okay.”
“You’re not the only one. Plus, Gary, Rocky and Lucy stopped by earlier to give us some gift cards to Drake’s Diner, in case you feel like eating some stuffed ravioli tonight.” I held out the cards, dangling them just beyond her reach. “They’re grateful they don’t have to remain frozen in stone for all eternity.”
She laughed again but winced from the pain.
“Oh, sorry. Didn’t mean to make you laugh. Does it still hurt a lot?” I asked, grabbing a chair and scooting closer to hold her hand. I loved to see her laugh, but it pained me to watch her suffer from it. I had to tone it down while she was recovering, but I was so elated she was alive and well.
“No, just achy,” she answered. “Did they figure out if the ashes were Orpah’s remains?” Phoebe asked. She toyed with the edges of the pillow clasped to her stomach, fraying the end of it as she nervously waited for my answer. She’d waited two days, and the forensics lab had expedited the analysis of the ashes. They were being compared to samples of Orpah’s hair from a brush found at her house. Luckily, they weren’t looking for shifter DNA. No one could test that except for the shifter doctors and wizards.
“Not yet. It’ll take a couple weeks, but since people aren’t being petrified anymore, and the ones that were are now moving about again, I’d say we have a pretty good chance that the ashes are most definitely hers.”
“I still don’t understand something,” she said. “I thought I had to die in order to stop the Gorgon.”
“I talked to the Whitmans about that. It turns out a sacrifice is needed. Not necessarily death. You stepped in front of Orpah when she tried to kill Phillip, and apparently that did the trick.”
She frowned but nodded.
“You’ll also be interested to hear that they’re calling the statue appearances Halloween and Day of the Dead pranks, and Orpah’s disappearance death by ‘spontaneous combustion.’ Crazy, right? My cousin, the sheriff, always was able to convince the public of things that they wouldn’t otherwise believe. I’m sure everyone will be over her death any minute now.”
Phoebe smiled nervously, still unconvinced, but she had all the time in the world now to accept it. Orpah’s death, the knowledge that Ph
illip was a squirrel shifter, her own supernatural powers… it’d take a lot to process it all. At least things had slowed down. It's been a whirlwind ride for us both.
“Yeah. That’s good though I still feel bad that she’s dead.”
“I don’t.”
She gave me a pointed look.
“Okay,” I said, “it’s too bad she had to go. Just saying she wasn’t that pleasant.”
She still wasn’t smiling.
“Um… I love you, Phoebe.”
Now she beamed, shaking her head and holding out her arms. When I complied by leaning forward, she turned and put her lips near my ear. “I love you, too, my wolverine,” she whispered and followed it with a sensual kiss.
It was my turn to feel the heat rise to my face. I let her kiss my earlobe and work its way to my mouth. Her lips were plump and impossibly yummy. I never wanted to stop.
“Don’t forget, you owe me for saving you in the forest the other night.”
She continued to kiss me, sucking on my lower lip and nipping softly before responding. “I owe you for way more than just that. I promise I’ll make up for it. All of it. Over and over.” She giggled softly, sending shivers down my neck and deep into my center.
“I’ll hold you to it. You better believe it.” I grinned, taking in her lovely scent.
“I hope you do hold me to it. Over and over again.”
The End
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my novella from Woodland Creek!
All reviews are appreciated.
If you would like to read more from the Woodland Creek series, please click on the link below:
Woodland Creek Website
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my novella from Woodland Creek!
Acknowledgments
I want to thank so many people who’ve been there for me after all this time! For all those always willing to read at last minute, always willing to send me corrections, thoughts and of course, lending me some shoulders to cry on. Love you all! You know who you are and if you wonder if it could be you, it is! Thanks for the good times!
About the Author
Alexia Purdy
Alexia currently lives in Las Vegas, Nevada–Sin City! She loves to spend every free moment writing or playing with her four rambunctious kids. Writing has always been her dream, and she has been writing ever since she can remember. She loves writing paranormal fantasy and poetry and devours books daily. Alexia also enjoys watching movies, dancing, singing loudly in the car and eating Italian food.
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Click here for more books by Alexia Purdy:
The ArcKnight Chronicles:
Ardent
MarkTier
Enmity
Reign of Blood Series
Reign of Blood
Disarming (Reign of Blood #2)
Elijah (The Miel Chronicles):
A Reign of Blood Companion Story
Amplified (Reign of Blood #3)
A Dark Faerie Tale Series
The Withering Palace (A Dark Faerie Tale #0.1)
Evangeline (A Dark Faerie Tale #0.5)
Ever Shade (A Dark Faerie Tale #1)
Ever Fire (A Dark Faerie Tale #2)
Ever Winter (A Dark Faerie Tale #3)
The Cursed (A Dark Faerie Tale #3.5)
Ever Wrath (A Dark Faerie Tale #4)
Without Armor (A Dark Faerie Tale #4.5)
History of Fire (A Dark Faerie Tale #5)
Ever Dead (A Dark Faerie Tale #6)
Other Stories
The Fall of Sky
Keep Breathing
Breathe Me
Volatile Confessions
Solidify (Woodland Creek)
Short Stories
The Faery Hunt
Never Say Such Things
Spinning Scars
Poetic Collections
Whispers of Dreams
Five Fathoms
Anthologies
Beyond the Never
Soul Games
Faery Worlds
Faery Realms
Faery Tales
Lacing Shadows
The XOXO Collection
Destiny’s Dark Fantasy
Shifted
Off Limits: A Taboo Anthology
Mouth: A Steamy Anthology
Happily Ever Alpha
