by Bianca D’Arc
Good. Tina nodded to herself. Now that the shifters were protected a bit, it was time to take out the trash. Tina called more of her magic to her, forming her next volley. This one would go straight at the woman aiming for Lance. No way that bitch was going to hurt him. Not on Tina’s watch.
Tina walked farther out into the yard, through the bubble of her own magic and the fighters who were all frozen in place. They were aware of what was happening and could move their eyes…slowly…to follow the action, but they couldn’t really move. Not while her magic lasted. She saw dismay on the faces of the men who’d attacked them as she made a beeline through the frozen fight scene, headed for the witch on the other side.
“If you thought it would be easy to take us down, think again,” Tina said, holding her own special brand of icy energy aloft in both hands as she stepped out of the dome on the other side, a few yards from the other mage.
“You think you’re going to stop me, little girl?” the other woman taunted.
Tina jerk her chin toward the bubble of frozen energy behind her. “I think I already have. I just missed one.”
Ooh. That one had pissed the other woman off. Tina braced for the attack she was sure would be coming after her taunt, but she was prepared. The energy in her palms was ready. She could protect herself with one hand and lob the other ball of ice at her prey. It was a trick she’d used before.
And, just like clockwork, the blood energy shot forth from the other woman’s hands. Tina blocked as best she could, but the other woman was strong. She must’ve been on the blood path for a very long time. Her aura was completely corrupt, and the feel of her magic was oily. Unclean. Tina tried hard not to retch.
After the bolt of blood energy was over, Tina launched her own power at the other woman, but it didn’t even make a dent. Tina knew, then, this was going to be a long battle. She only hoped she was mage enough to win.
Lance flew above, looking down on his yard as the woman he wanted like no other faced the interloper. The phoenix shrieked its outrage as he saw the dirty magic through the phoenix’s eyes. It looked different now than it had when Lance had been in human form. He could see magic in a whole new way now. He could easily tell good from bad. Light from dark. And the woman with the black hair reeked of evil.
The phoenix flapped its wings, watching as the volley after volley of energy went between the invader and Tina. Tina had protected Lance’s flock, but she was fighting a very even battle with the dark woman. Lance had to do something, but he wasn’t sure what.
Being a phoenix had to be good for something other than flying around, chasing after the sun. He had to have some kind of power of his own, right? Some way to defend his home and his people…and his mate.
Chapter Nine
The black-haired woman was tough—Tina would give her that. She didn’t play fair, and her power had the unmistakable taint of blood magic. It was wearing down Tina’s reserves, but she thought, on balance, they were pretty evenly matched. The outcome of this showdown was too close to call. Something had to give some way or Tina was very much concerned that she wouldn’t be the one to prevail in this battle.
She kept lobbing her offensive energies at her opponent, each blast weakening her. But the other woman was becoming weaker, too. Freezing the battle between the shifters and this woman’s henchmen had been a bit of good luck. Without the violence and bloodshed to feed from, the other mage had only what she’d brought with her to the fight. If Tina’s ice shield failed, then all was lost. She had to do something to end this quickly, before her dome of frozen protection started to thaw.
Tina went down on one knee as another blast from the woman took her by surprise and knocked her off balance. She fired her own blast back at the woman from her semi-kneeling position and was glad to see the other mage knocked back a few paces. They were both scoring hits now, in this fast-paced energy battle.
As she dealt with yet another barrage from the blood path mage, Tina thought she heard the phoenix shriek. She wanted to tell Lance to fly far away from this disaster of a battle, but she couldn’t spare the energy. She was doing all she could just to withstand the concentrated blast of evil power directed at her.
Then, it lifted. All of a sudden, the attack ceased, and it was the other woman who was screaming, her fists raised to the sky defiantly, even as pure flame enveloped her from the phoenix. Magical flame that didn’t burn anything it touched except for the evil taint that was all around the other mage.
The phoenix flapped its wings, and fire shot forth, bathing the entire yard in an eerie orange glow. Everywhere the phoenix’s power touched evil, it burned, leaving the rest of the yard—and all of Lance’s people—untouched. The phoenix fire didn’t interfere with Tina’s ice shield either. It seemed to lick at it, and went right through it in spots, but left it basically intact, seeking out only the spots where the blood path energies had touched, to cleanse the taint away.
The black-eyed woman screamed as she went up in flames. She tried to fight back, but the phoenix fire was too potent. Too overwhelming. Too awesome in its might.
Within minutes, the evil mage was no more, and every trace of her contamination had been burned away. Tina sobbed in relief as she sank to the ground for a moment of respite. It was over. The woman had been reduced to nothing. Even now, her ashes were being swept away into nothing by the magical wind created the phoenix’s mighty wings. He landed in front of Tina. A man-sized bird of feathers and flame. A paradox that should probably not exist in this modern world of men and machines.
In bird form, Lance came over to her, leaning down and touching her with his flaming feathers in a gesture of concern. His touch didn’t burn. Wonder of wonders… It healed.
Renewed by his presence and relieved that they were safe, Tina got to her feet and stepped into the bird-man’s embrace. Lance had shifted about halfway, and the outline of the giant bird of fire stayed around him like a living aura, even as his beloved face reappeared. Tina hugged him, feeling the feathers fade away under her hands as Lance came back to her all the way, to his fully human form.
“Are you okay?” His deep voice sounded near her ear, concern in his tone.
She leaned back to look up into his eyes. Eyes that were still swirling with fiery magical energy.
“You were magnificent,” she told him, so proud of him she couldn’t contain it. “You saved us all.”
“No, sweetheart, you did that. You put the dome over the fighting. You shielded my people, though it must’ve cost you a lot of power to do it. Thank you.” He leaned in and kissed her, a too-quick joining of lips and hearts that they didn’t really have time for but needed nonetheless.
Knowing she should release the shifters, she turned to look at her dome and was shocked to see that all the opponents had been vaporized along with their leader. There would be no one evil left to tell the tale of what had happened here today.
“How did you do that?” She gestured toward the dome, which still stood, and the frozen shifters trapped within its protection.
“I’m not really sure. It looked like the flames just went for anything that looked bad to my sight while I was up there.” He pointed upward with one finger, clearly not altogether comfortable talking about his new abilities yet.
“Bad?” she echoed. “You mean you can see evil?”
Lance shrugged. “I’m not entirely sure. I see things a lot differently when I’m in that other shape,” he admitted. “It’s going to take a while to figure it all out. I just followed the instincts that kicked in when I got a good look at what was happening below.”
She patted his chest. “Thank the Mother of All for your instincts.”
Gathering her power back to her, she released the shifters from their frozen state, dismissing the dome of protection. She figured she’d have to face the music now for freezing them like that. Shifters of their strength and caliber probably didn’t like having their fight stolen from them. She held up her hands, palms outward in a gesture of p
eace.
“I’m really sorry, guys,” she told them quickly as they all turned to regard her and Lance. “That woman was a blood path mage. The fighting was only making her stronger. It’s probably why she’d brought those guys with her armed only with simple weapons. They could have just as easily been carrying guns and taken us all out quickly, but she wanted you to suffer and bleed so she could feed off it. Freezing you was the only way I could stop her overpowering us all.”
Stone stepped forward and regarded her a moment. Tina held her breath, wondering if the Alpha werewolf was about to condemn her for what she’d done. Instead, he held out one hand to her. She put her hand in his, not quite sure what was going on.
“Thank you for sparing my people unnecessary injury. We like a good brawl as much as the next guy, but feeding our power to a blood path mage is not something we would do by choice. You made the right call,” Stone told her.
She was shocked as he leaned over and kissed the back of her hand, like some kind of courtly gallant. Lance came up beside her and put his arm around her shoulders, staking a claim. Stone looked up, let go of her hand and then backed off, grinning from ear to ear. He nodded to Lance.
“Nice one, boss,” Stone said, the rest of the shifters coming up behind him to gather around. “That phoenix fire tickles.”
Tina gasped, but Stone’s irreverent comment cracked everyone up, including Lance. It was just the icebreaker they needed to relieve the tension.
“You’re lucky you’re one of the good guys, Stone, or I think it would have done more than just tickle,” Tina observed as the laughter died down a bit.
“Yeah, there is that. So, I guess we should figure out how these bastards got here and start erasing any evidence of their visit,” Stone said, looking around innocently, as if feeding the next move to his boss wasn’t something he did every day.
“Okay,” Lance replied. “I… Uh… I guess you can tell I’m not very experienced with this stealth stuff. Can you do that without causing issues down the road?”
“We’re really good at hiding our tracks,” Stone assured him. “We’ve had to watch our tails our entire lives. We’re expert at it.”
“All right, then. Do what you think is best,” Lance told his right-hand man.
Stone gave a few signals to some of his guys, and they all took off in different directions. A few shifted into wolf form, putting their noses to the ground like bloodhounds and then streaking off into the desert around the yard.
“Hey,” Lexi called from the car-sized doorway that had been smashed in by the evil mage’s power. “Most of the buffet is still intact if anyone’s still hungry.”
Tina heard the laughter and realized this group was going to be okay. They weren’t mad at her for intervening. Far from it. And they seemed to know what to do to keep Lance—and all of them—safe from repercussions. Now, the only thing that had to be addressed was ongoing security, but that could wait a few minutes while Stone and his guys did their thing. Tina figured they’d be at the heart of any security planning, since they each had a lifetime of experience in keeping themselves and their people safe.
Lance had gone over to the smashed door and had already begun tearing out the parts that would need to be replaced. A few of the guys who had stayed behind came up to help, and within moments, they had cleaned up the debris inside the room and taken the broken furniture and chairs out to the dumpster. Ace, the leader of the bear shifters from the paint shop, was working with Lance on the door, and two more guys were already sourcing lumber and plywood to close up the hole while they waited for a replacement door.
Tina watched it all, marveling at the way Lance and his people worked together. Lexi had brought two chairs out and then followed those up with some drinks and a couple of sandwiches that hadn’t been harmed by the fight. She and Tina sat side by side in the shade of a small awning at the side of the building, watching the guys work.
“They really are a good team,” Tina observed to Lexi.
They’d sat mostly in silence, eating steadily. Tina wasn’t sure if Lexi realized that, after such an expenditure of magical energy, eating a big meal was one good way to replenish energy. Tina thought it was the same for shifters, which was part of the reason they ate so much and never seemed to get fat.
“Most of them have worked for Lance for a while,” Lexi replied. “I came on board last year, but Stone and the bears were here from the beginning. As Lance’s business grew, Stone brought more of his wolves into the fold. When I moved to the area and was job hunting, I was sort of drawn to Lance’s ad for a receptionist. It was an instinctual thing.” Lexi tilted her head as if remembering. “I’m really glad I listened to those instincts because this is probably the best job I’ve ever had, and once Stone and Ace accepted me, I felt like part of the family, even though I’m the only cat here.”
Tina looked at the other woman. “I’m glad you found your place,” she said quietly, wishing there were some way Tina could fit in among these close-knit shifters.
“I think you’ve found yours, too, haven’t you?” Lexi asked with a sly smile, looking pointedly over at Lance and then back.
Tina decided to lay it on the line a bit with Lexi. Sort of test the waters and see what at least one of the friendlier shifters might think.
“I hope so,” Tina replied, keeping her voice down. “I’m not sure, though. Do you think my presence would disrupt the family vibe you’ve got going on here?”
“Girl,” Lexi scoffed. “You don’t recognize how well you’ve already been accepted? Stone kissing your hand before? That was a signal. You’re okay in his book, and he was stating it publicly for all of us to see. I doubt Ace will give you any trouble. Despite how scary he looks, he’s really just a big ol’ teddy bear. The rest of the bears follow his lead. And Lance…” Lexi looked at her boss then back at Tina, her eyebrow raised. “If you can’t see the way he looks at you, then you’re blind. Or maybe just in denial.”
“Or scared,” Tina added in a whisper.
Lexi reached out and put her hand on Tina’s forearm in a caring way. “Don’t be scared, Tina. He needs a strong woman by his side, and from what I just saw, you’re the right match for him. He’s fire,” Lexi nodded toward Lance, “and you’re ice. If you’re not meant for each other, I don’t know who is.”
Lance worked alongside his guys to clean the place up. It felt good to use his hands for something constructive. He was having a little trouble with the idea that he’d just killed a bunch of people. Okay, they were evil people, but still.
The newly awakened bird side of his mind didn’t have any problems at all with the concept, but Lance had been raised human. He’d always been human. Until recently. It was all just a lot to take in.
His guys seemed to understand. They worked with him to fix the shop, not speaking much. Just working steadily. Doing what needed to be done. At some point, Lance became aware that Lexi had taken Tina under her wing, so to speak, and was taking care of her. Lance should be doing that, but he didn’t know how he could touch Tina now that he had so much blood on his hands. It was going to take a little time to come to terms with what he’d done…and what he’d become.
“I think that about does it for now,” Ace said, standing back from the boarded-up doorway, surveying it with his hands on his hips. “You want to upgrade to a newer style of door when we replace it?”
“Yeah, I guess so. Pretend like we decided to spruce up the place instead of admitting that we got attacked by an evil witch and her followers.” Lance heard the strangeness in his own voice, knowing he wasn’t handling the aftermath of his actions well. “And how I blew them all away into dust.”
A large hand came down on his shoulder. Ace was at his side, looking at him with solemn eyes.
“You weren’t raised knowing what you are,” Ace began, his voice low, just between them. “That’s got to be a disadvantage to you, right now, but let me clue you in on one thing. Killing is something your animal side does instin
ctually to survive. At least, that’s what my bear does. I’m not sure that a mythological beast like a phoenix needs to kill to eat. Maybe your beast serves a higher purpose. Maybe your function is to stop evil when you see it.” Ace gave Lance’s shoulder a hard squeeze then let go.
Ace was normally a quiet man. In fact, Lance had never heard this many words in a row from the big guy. But what he was saying made a lot of sense.
“I definitely saw things differently while I was up there. Can you see the difference between good and evil when you’re in your other form?” Lance asked tentatively.
“I see in what I call bear-vision. I see in color, but not quite the same as I do in my human form. Things are sharper close up. Things in the distance aren’t as clear, but I see them with sort of an energy halo around them. Like a heat signature or something around all living things. Maybe I’m seeing their aura—if such things exist, but I wouldn’t say I can tell if they’re good or evil. That’s something I can sometimes scent, but not see. As an example, those who attacked us today, and especially the woman who led them, reeked of blood magic. As a bear, I’m a little more magical than the others. If you ask one of the wolves, they’ll probably say they smelled the blood, but perhaps not the magic. And they see more like dogs—but don’t tell them I said that.” Ace gave Lance a grin. “You’re saying you can actually see evil?”
“Oh, yeah.” Lance remembered the way it had all looked from above. He hadn’t realized what he was seeing at first, but when his phoenix instincts took over, he’d known without doubt what needed to be done. He told Ace as much.
