Left for Undead

by L. A. Banks

  “And you and I both know that’s not how we shift when healthy.”

  Shogun’s furtive gaze searched Hunter’s eyes for a moment before he turned back again to witness what none of them could look away from any longer. Amy’s once-ivory skin was becoming mottled and stretched as her spine elongated with her wails. Limbs distended and her skeleton painfully rearranged itself, cracking and splintering, intensifying her shrieks.

  “Merciful Jesus, let me shoot her now, Shogun!” Sasha yelled, walking closer with her gun cocked.

  “No!” Shogun shouted. “I have undergone a hard transition and I am not a demon! Sasha, remember you vouched for me once when I looked like this!” He spun around to look at Hunter. “You, Brother, went against my own men when they were ready to give up on me. Until we have evidence of an attempted attack or the blood test results back from Doc Holland, then we wait.”

  Sasha pulled back her weapon and wiped her forehead on the back of her wrist as Amy’s jaw cracked and rearranged itself. She stared at the pain-riddled creature on the ground that had human skin and a leopard’s body until her vision blurred with tears.

  “This is inhumane to leave her like this,” Sasha whispered, and then dabbed at her eyes. “She’s in so much pain.”

  Suddenly Amy’s convulsive transformation stopped. She lay eerily still and not breathing, with her eyes open—gorgeous, glassy cat eyes that were a deep golden hue refracting the moonlight. Sasha covered her mouth as Shogun wrested himself away from Hunter with a sob and knelt beside Amy, not touching her but allowing his trembling fingers to hover just inches above her skin. Then just as quickly as she’d stopped breathing she suddenly gasped in a huge inhale and her mottled skin gave way to a pristine white coat dappled with beautiful snow-leopard rosettes.

  In a soundless cat growl that caught the moonlight against her massive fangs, Amy sprang up, took one look at Shogun as though to taunt him to a chase, and took off.

  “Stay in your human!” Hunter shouted as his brother leaped up from the ground and began running after Amy.

  Sasha and Hunter were right behind Shogun, clearing bramble and fallen logs, rocks, and swamp debris. Trees became a blur. Thick night air whipped Sasha’s face. The graceful feline they chased was a majestic sight to behold. Soon it became clear that Amy wasn’t fleeing; she was hunting. The scent of a small herd stung Sasha’s nose. Adrenaline coursed through her system. Her wolf was near. She could feel Hunter’s and Shogun’s wolves straining to break free to hunt under the moon. Five o’clock shadow covered their jawlines. Sweat slicked their arms and created deep Vs in their T-shirts as sinew worked beneath fabric and skin. Their wolves wanted out in the worst way. So did Sasha’s. But now was not the time.

  Pack instinct kicked in the moment they saw the herd. Deer scattered; one doe looked up a second or two later than the others. She was marked by fate.

  Shogun broke off from his pursuit of Amy to flush the prey toward her. Sasha and Hunter cornered the flank and sent the frenzied creature back to Amy when the doe bolted left. Although Amy missed the initial tackle it soon became clear that she was enjoying the chase as much as she wanted to bring down her first kill. She’d let the doe evade her, only to catch the deer a hundred yards later in one of the most elegant takedowns Sasha had ever witnessed.

  Wolves had power, but the big cats had style. Sasha slowed, panting, watching as Amy’s body elongated from a masterful bound to tackle a creature three times her size and weight to the ground, then delivered a bone-crushing bite to the doe’s windpipe.

  Sasha, Hunter, and Shogun skidded to a halt as the snow leopard they’d chased looked up from her kill victorious and possessive. Amy gave them a bloody feline growl while hunkered down over the still-twitching doe.

  “She’s absolutely breathtaking,” Shogun murmured.

  Amy stood and dragged the doe deeper into the underbrush and then with one powerful jump took her high up into a tree with her. Glowering down at them, she positioned her kill and began eating.

  “You might want to give her some space until she’s done,” Sasha said softly. “Cultural differences. We’re wolves. We hunt in packs and eat in packs. Lions are the only big cats I know of that work as a team and share their kill. Leopards are solitary. Get any closer and she might take extreme offense and think you’re trying to steal her dinner from her.”

  Shogun turned and looked at Sasha. “Yes. wise. I had forgotten.” His voice held an awed, far-off quality as his line of vision drifted back to Amy. “But I now see why my uncle left the pack and walked away from his governance to live his life in exile in Tibet. Who could blame him for being seduced by the grandeur of the snow leopard?”

  “Stay in your human,” Hunter repeated in a low rumble. “Amy is too far away from hers now to know who you are and will not react well to your wolf.”

  There was nothing to do but wait and listen. A full hour passed while Amy gorged herself. The sound of flesh ripping, sinew tearing, and cartilage and bones cracking reminded Sasha just how powerful her future sister-in-law actually was. It also kept Sasha aware of just how strong Lady Jung Suk had been—strong enough to leave some of her DNA in Amy Chen’s body after a temporary possession. The question was, however, was it demon-infected DNA or something they all could live with? And how much control would Amy be able to exercise over her big cat? Would Amy be able to think through her transformations in the future and would they always be so brutal?

  Sasha said a little prayer as she watched Amy eat. She was indeed a majestic creature, just as she was a wonderful gem of a human being. Yet the dichotomy between Amy the pretty young woman and Amy the snow leopard devouring a doe in the moonlight was startling. It was obvious that Hunter was just as conflicted and was struggling with the possibility of having to make a very hard decision.

  But there was something about Amy and the devotion that Shogun had for her that made Sasha violate every bit of soldier logic within her. Had it been anyone but Amy, Sasha would have pulled the trigger the second she saw Amy begin a hard transformation.

  That was just it, though. Sasha couldn’t. She didn’t. She wouldn’t. And that worried her.

  Amy’s movement in the tree branches above made everyone on the ground leave their private thoughts to see what their reluctant charge would do. Stretching, Amy came in close to the trunk, studied her options, and leaped down to the ground, slowly stalking Shogun. Before anyone could react she had slipped into her human form so smoothly that Sasha drew in a quiet gasp.

  Bloody, sated, naked, Amy spoke to Shogun in a soft voice that had a sultry undercurrent within it.

  “I just needed to eat. I was hungry.” Amy’s eyes still shimmered in the moonlight as she slowly approached him.

  “I will never let that happen again,” he murmured. “I will always feed you, just as I will always hunt for you.”

  Standing an arm’s length away, Amy reached out, but to hold up her hand. “I know now that you would even die for me, but I could never allow such a terrible thing.”

  “Friend, not foe!”

  Sasha pivoted quickly with the others to look up at Fae archers who had dropped down into the trees surrounding them. Before anyone could speak, a horrific chain of events unfolded in slow motion before their eyes. A diligent Fae soldier caught sight of Amy covered in blood and standing within arm’s-length distance of their wolf ally, Shogun. When she turned to look at the archers, moonlight caught in her eyes and glinted off her retracting fangs. A bloodied half-eaten doe was draped over a huge tree limb oozing gore.

  At the same time Sasha, Hunter, and Shogun drew in a breath to shout, “No!” the archer released his silver-tipped arrow. Shogun yanked Amy behind him and the arrow thrust him backward, pinning Shogun to a tree through his shoulder. Amy was momentarily trapped between Shogun’s body and the huge tree. Pandemonium broke out as Sasha and Hunter shouted for the archers to hold their fire.

  Archers dropped down from tree limbs and surrounded them. Shogun’s yells of a
gony echoed throughout the night. In one powerful move he snapped the protruding arrow off at its base, releasing another cry of agony as he lurched his body forward to free himself and Amy from the tree.

  Blood ran from Shogun’s shoulder like a river. The wound sizzled and popped in angry hisses from the invasion of silver within his Werewolf body. Amy caught him as he slumped forward, pressing her palm against the gushing wound in a futile attempt to staunch the heavy bleeding.

  Hunter caught Shogun under his good arm and shouted for Amy to back up, while Sasha stood in front of Amy to shield her body from the archers.

  “We thought she was attacking,” the shooter said, glancing around at his fellow archers. “I d’not know she was friend—she seemed to be foe. My deepest regrets, on my mother’s soul. This was the last outcome anyone wanted.”

  The lead archer tossed Sasha a hunter’s cloak, and she quickly caught it and then surrounded Amy with it.

  “She isn’t feral. not yet anyway. She was just reaching out to him in tenderness.” Sasha walked a path back and forth. “There’s no time to explain it all. We’ve gotta get this man in to your magick advisors stat to see if they have an antidote to silver burn before he goes into shock.”

  “Done,” the lead archer said, motioning for several archers to run ahead and send word to prepare the sidhe for incoming wounded.

  Another bloodcurdling wail from Shogun made everyone around him cringe.

  “Let’s move, people!” Hunter shouted as Shogun began to convulse.

  Sasha body-blocked Amy and went to Shogun’s wounded side. Half-dragging, half-lifting Shogun on the side of his body that she held, Sasha spoke to Amy in bursts: “You can’t touch him again. Look at your hands.”

  “I didn’t mean to infect him. I just caught him, wanted to stop the bleeding!”

  “We know,” Sasha panted, and then almost fell when the full weight of Shogun’s body suddenly dropped on one side.

  Hunter caught him and lifted him over his shoulder, but the sight of Shogun passing out was clearly too much for Amy to bear. She ran at the somber Fae archers, screaming at them in frustration.

  “I will never forgive you for this if he dies!”

  Sasha grabbed Amy by both arms and spun her around to face her. “It was a horrible, horrible accident. But killing someone won’t bring Shogun back. Right now, we need all of your focus and prayers on making sure Shogun doesn’t die. That means all of your cooperation to not create another problem for the sidhe to have to address while they’re trying to heal him. Shogun getting help right now is more important than your righteous indignation.”

  “I swear it was an accident, milady,” the leader of the Fae archers said gently. “Shogun is a friend. A warrior whom we’ve fought with and respect. No one ever meant for something like this to ’appen.”

  Amy swallowed hard and turned her face away, seeking Sasha’s shoulder. Sasha petted Amy’s hair but looked at the guilt-laden expressions on the archers’ faces. “We know.”

  CHAPTER 12

  They hadn’t been in battle, weren’t directly engaged in a war, and yet here they were again trudging to Sir Rodney’s castle with the bloody and the wounded. Sasha was so disgusted she could spit. Shogun was passed out and being carried by Hunter and a Fae archer; the arrow wouldn’t kill him, but Amy’s panicked attempts to stop the bleeding might. Yet, who could have blamed the poor woman?

  All of it had happened within the blink of an eye, when taut nerves and full-moon rapid reflexes had kicked in. Shogun got shot, broke the arrow off. Aghast, Amy covered the gushing wound with hands already bloodied from her previous kill. Now Sasha’s future brother and sister-in-law had to spend the night in a sidhe dungeon waiting on blood tests and surgeons. Plus Sasha and Hunter needed to get hosed down, too. Both of them were splattered with Shogun’s blood, and the short carry to the gates of the sidhe had left them drenched in it.

  Sir Rodney met them at the gates with Garth and Queen Cerridwen. “Are you injured beyond Shogun?” Sir Rodney called out, rushing in closer.

  “No,” Hunter shouted back, “but my grandfather must hurry! This man is in pain and going into shock. He knows the medicine of the wolf packs to deal with silver burn.”

  “We’ve got a silver-shock antidote here,” Garth said, running alongside Shogun’s body as his men accepted it from Hunter. “Once we became allies, we retooled our infirmary.”

  “Good looking out,” Hunter said, falling back. “But his fiancée also needs a bath. and quarantine in comfortable environs, even if it must be behind silver bars for a few hours.”

  “Just until Silver Hawk gets here with Doc’s results,” Sasha said in a reassuring tone. “It’s a precaution for him now more than ever.”

  Sasha waited until Amy nodded and then rushed away to catch up with Shogun while Garth’s men transferred him to a livery. Before Sasha crossed into the magick density there was something basic that had to be done. She had to communicate with her team.

  Placing the cell call to her squad and the NAS, Sasha punched in the connection with bloodied fingers. The moment the call connected, she relayed everything to Doc in one long run-on sentence.

  “We’re on it,” Doc replied quickly. “We’re sending Silver Hawk back your way with not only his medicine bag but some serum.”

  “How bad is it, Doc?” Hunter said, speaking into the phone over Sasha’s shoulder.

  “I won’t know for a coupla hours.” Doc let out a harried breath. “Step outside that magick citadel and call me back—I’ll have word then, all right?”

  “You and the team lay low,” she said. “Be careful. I love you.”

  Sasha looked up at Sir Rodney. “Sometimes this is just faster than a Fae missive, no offense.”

  “None taken.”

  She hated this and could tell Hunter did, too. Seeing both Amy and Shogun behind bars in separate cells wore on every fiber of Sasha’s being. But to the Fae’s credit, they’d transformed each cell into a modified bedchamber, replete with a privacy screen. At least Shogun wasn’t in agony anymore—at least not from the wound in his shoulder, which had been patched up and was beginning to heal. But there was no measuring the personal agony he was experiencing as he sat, freshly bathed, over a nearly raw steak and sullenly ate so that his body could regenerate. He and Amy couldn’t even touch fingers through the bars because the bars were silver coated and they were Weres.

  Clean clothes and a bath hadn’t made Sasha feel clean or much better. The entire business of separating Amy and Shogun sucked.

  “We’ll be back,” Sasha said as gently as possible. “The moment Silver Hawk comes and Doc gives us word, this confinement will be over.”

  Shogun nodded but didn’t look up as she went to Amy’s cell and clasped the bars.

  “It’s all so unfair,” Amy said in a fragile voice, and then wiped at two big tears that rolled down her freshly soaped cheeks. “Why can’t we Weres touch silver? Why can’t I come to the bars and clasp them like you. or go in and out of the shadows so that I can be with my fiancé? Why does the moon make us lose all self-control, but you are a wolf, too, like my Shogun, and are able to keep your human much closer? I don’t understand what they think will happen! Why are we caged? The Fae shot him and he was no threat. Why would they do that?”

  “Because they were aiming for you, and I would take a hundred arrows that one should never mark you.”

  Amy bit her lip and pressed her hands against the wall that separated them and for a few moments Shogun just closed his eyes and breathed in her scent.

  “You bathed in lavender,” he murmured.

  “Yes. they said it was calming.” Amy’s voice became a soft purr. “But knowing you will be all right is what helped.”

  “In a few hours it will be midnight. and the pull you feel now is only a fraction of the power within that gets released at the apex of the eve. If we are infected, there will be no control.” Shogun looked up from his plate and stared at Hunter. “I will answ
er your other questions for you, sweet Amy. Visit with me in voice, since we cannot touch. It will give us something to focus on, something to keep us close to our human side while we endure this torture. My brother and his mate cannot even fathom how we feel.. They are Shadow Wolves; we are Werewolves. There is a difference.”

  Shogun left Hunter’s gaze and began to slowly cut his steak. It was the most dignified dismissal Sasha had ever witnessed. The alpha clan leader of the Southeast Asian Werewolf Federation had spoken. Sasha pulled away from the bars feeling the sting of Shogun’s words. She could tell by Hunter’s lowered gaze that he did, too. But what else was there to do?

  They turned and left the dungeons, escorted back to the main castle’s war room by three burly palace guards. Nine more hung back, keeping their gazes lowered. Guilt stained their faces as they moved to lock the outer dungeon doors and then take up their watch posts.

  But the question that haunted Sasha was how could they find out who called the Erinyes? Was that what was stalking the wolf leadership? The bizarre thing was, however, something had cruised them and simply spied on them without harming them. That wasn’t like any demon attack she’d ever heard of. Most times when a demon happened upon you it was going in for the possession or the kill. Whatever this was seemed like it was just curious or gathering data. No matter what its purpose, the whole thing was unnerving.

  With no immediate leads at their disposal, the only person to cross-examine would be the queen. Sasha released a soft sigh as she and Hunter entered the war room. The last thing she felt like dealing with was another pissed-off lover.

  “How is he?” Sir Rodney said, pouring a stein of ale all around. He stood as Sasha approached the table, and took a seat with Hunter after she did. “This is all such a nasty business.”

  “My brother is probably going to be all right physically,” Hunter said, and then rubbed the nape of his neck. “If he is not infected and the girl is not infected, he will be a happy man. If not, I might as well go down there and put a silver bullet between his eyes. He will never be the same again if Amy Chen has to be put down.”