True Shifter

by Rains, Christine

  “She’s in the astral.” Saskia shook her head. What idea did Kin get in her head to go to the astral alone?

  “Well, get her out of there,” Ametta demanded.

  “It’s not that easy.” Bear explained in a cool tone. “You could harm someone by forcibly taking them out. It’s best if we go in and get her.”

  Saskia scrunched her face as she gritted her teeth. Back into the astral. The kikimora said not to go back there. It was Azarius’ domain. But damn if she was going to leave her sister there.

  “All right. I’ll go get her.” Saskia huffed and sat down next to Kinley. “You guys watch over—”

  “I’m going too.” Ametta’s glare dared Saskia to say no.

  “And me as well.” Bear stretched out his long legs and lay back.

  “I guess we’re all taking a trip to the astral plane.” Lucky sat beside Ametta.

  What were they all? Insane? Saskia shook her head. “No. None of you are going. It’s too risky. I’ll go in and out quickly. And someone needs to watch over us.”

  “We’re safe from true shifters in this space.” Bear stated.

  “And what if he has someone new working for him? Humans and shifters can come in here. All of us lying out on the floor. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!” Saskia mimicked a gun with her fingers and pointed it at each of them. “We’re dead. Simple as that.”

  She was met by silence for half a minute. Lucky and Ametta exchanged looks.

  Bear spoke first. His voice was Sedge’s, but there was something much older about it. “We must go to the astral. All of us. I hear the totems. I feel them. Azarius is there as well as your sister.”

  Saskia’s hands curled and clutched tightly. How easily Azarius had played with her the last time she met him in the astral. She wasn’t any better now than she was then. All she knew was that she couldn’t beat him there. What they needed to do was search for his physical body. A gunshot to the head would kill him just the same as it would them.

  “Goddammit.” She kicked her feet out and lay back between Kinley and Bear. Squirming on the ground, she found no way to get comfortable. Even if she had the most amazing bed in the world to curl up in at the moment, she wouldn’t be able to relax.

  Ametta and Lucky came to lie on the other side of Bear. Everyone took the hand of the person next to them. Saskia ignored the warmth of Bear’s hand as it closed around hers. Instead, she took Kinley’s cool hand in her other one and gave it a squeeze. They would find her sister and bring her back. Kinley would be okay. She had to be.

  “Close your eyes. We are safe here. Breathe deep and release the tension in your muscles.” Bear sounded like an action hero turned meditation guru.

  Saskia squeezed Kinley’s hand even more and closed her eyes.

  Azarius had taught Saskia how to meditate, but it never worked to relieve her tension. They fast learned the best way to do so was through rigorous physical training. So many occasions Az had pushed her beyond what she believed her limits to be and made her stronger. Making her what he hoped would be his loyal soldier. The traitorous bastard.

  Her stomach rolled, and she drew in a sharp breath. Kinley’s hand was gone from hers. She bolted up as she opened her eyes.

  Still in the cave. Bear stood up next to her, and Lucky offered a hand to help Ametta up. But no Kinley. Her sister was near, though. She could feel the tug of the tokens. Not just from Lucky’s and Ametta’s, but more than one outside.

  “Kin!” Saskia started to rush to the mouth of the cave, but Bear caught her arm.

  “Be wary,” he warned.

  She yanked her arm free. Of course she was aware of the dangers. It didn’t matter, though. Kinley was out there, and she would find her.

  Saskia hurried to the entrance and peered out. There were no tracks in the snow, but she didn’t need them. The pull of the totems pointed her in the right direction. She gestured to the right with her head, and the others nodded.

  No one said a word, but it didn’t matter if they were quiet or not. If Azarius was there, he’d sense them coming just like she could feel he was there.

  No hesitation this time. She’d see Az dead.

  After winding through the trees for a couple hundred feet, they came to a clearing. Snow covered rocks framed most of the area as if it had been created for this purpose alone. A thin trail of blood marred the pristine layer of white leading to her sister.

  Kinley lay in the middle of the clearing with her hands restrained above her head. With knives. Pinned to the ground like a pale butterfly.

  Fury swept through Saskia. She ignored Kinley shaking her head, her soft plea for them to leave. No way was she going to abandon her sister to this monster.

  She didn’t miss the irony of the situation. Once they had planned on using Kinley as bait to draw Azarius out. Now he used her to draw them into the astral.

  Azarius stood at the opposite end of the clearing. No smiles or hellos. Just cold black eyes boring into them.

  Removing another blade from his belt, Azarius crouched down by Kinley’s head. “This will be simple. You want her to live. I want your tokens. Hand them over, and I’ll release her.”

  “Bastard!” Saskia spat, legs bent and hands fisted. Ripping off his head seemed too easy a death now.

  “We can’t hand them over. They’re attached to us.” Ametta’s voice shook.

  “You can.” Azarius cocked his head as he fingered the tip of his knife. “I’m actually surprised everyone is still in possession of theirs and Bear hasn’t snatched them from you. Always taking.”

  Ouch. No matter how Bear got under Saskia’s skin, it was a sore spot for him. Or at least it had been for Sedge. And not because he thought he was more worthy, but because he wanted to carry the burden himself.

  “The totems chose their bearers,” Bear rumbled.

  “And I see none have chosen you.” Azarius smiled with that, small and tight. “How that must ruffle your fur. Tell them how to remove them, Bear.”

  Bear lifted the owl necklace up and over his head. He held it out in one hand. “Take this and me in place of Kinley.”

  Was there still a glimmer of Sedge in there? Saskia’s mouth twitched, ready to shout out a no. She didn’t want Kinley to be harmed, but Bear wouldn’t survive being in Azarius’ clutches. “Take me.”

  “No.” Bear twisted his head and growled at her.

  Saskia ignored him, even as her stomach did a little flip, and took a step forward. “Take me. There’s nothing more in the world Bear wants than me, and you know this.”

  “Saskia!” Bear grabbed her by the wrist and tugged her back. “This is my duty.”

  Her heart hammered in her chest as she spoke through clenched teeth. “I am Azarius’ prisoner. That is not your duty. Do your duty.”

  She pressed her lips together to keep from saying more. Even though she wasn’t the one pinned to the ground, Azarius had tied her to him years ago. She would be forever trapped by what he made her and by his false deeds.

  “Argue all you like, but you are all my prisoners as long as I have Kinley here.” Azarius tapped the tip of the blade to Kinley’s nose. She didn’t look at him, didn’t make a peep. “We are missing one bearer, though. Where is the lynx?”

  “Far away from here.” Bear snarled.

  “No, I think—” Azarius spun to lash out with his knife as a silent lynx leapt out of the bushes behind him. They tumbled to the ground and rolled in a tangle in the snow. And ended with Azarius’ weapon buried in the cat’s belly.

  No one waited for a command. Saskia raced forward to Azarius. She trusted Ametta and Lucky to free Kinley. Bear matched her every step.

  The lynx under Azarius disappeared. Shit! Did that mean Ransom was dead? It was like a moose had kicked Saskia in the gut, and she stumbled, falling to one knee. Bear skidded to a stop and hefted her up.

  Azarius stood and jumped back. Rage hardened his fine features as he glared at Kinley who Lucky and Ametta dragged back. “Not real.”
>
  It took a second for it to sink in. Not real. That hadn’t been Ransom.

  Right. Saskia would have felt his approach. Ransom had a token too. But if it hadn’t been him…?

  “You’ve been training.” Azarius raised his brows. “With the vampire. Interesting. But I’ve been training too. For centuries before you were born.”

  He flung out his arms, and the sky darkened. Not with clouds or the coming of night, but with birds.

  Hundreds of ravens swarmed. Azarius shifted and vanished into the mass as it descended upon them.

  “Find cover!” Saskia screamed. No, better yet. “Wake up!”

  She dove to the ground, and the flurry of sharp talons and beaks she expected didn’t cover her. A heavy body did. Bear.

  Saskia covered her head with her hands. “Wake us up! Get us the fuck out of here!”

  “No.” Bear’s rumble was near her ear. “This isn’t real. If one knows how to manipulate it, they can create anything here, but they’re illusions. Like Kinley did with the lynx. The birds can’t hurt you if you don’t believe they can.”

  The few that had managed to squeeze their heads between Bear’s arms to get to Saskia didn’t seem to know that. Pecking at her like woodpeckers and tearing off bits of skin. And the noise. It was worse than the screeching of metal when one car crashed into another.

  “They’re not real.” Bear repeated. “But you are, and Azarius is. Beat him at his own game. Shift into a raven, fly up there, and kill him.”

  “I can’t shift here.” But Azarius had.

  “Kill him.” Bear raised himself off her and shifted into his mighty polar bear form. Bellowing, he plunged forward as if swimming through the mass of birds.

  “No!” Saskia reached for him and immediately had to bury her face into the snow to keep a raven from scratching out her eyes. Bear had shifted too. So it was possible.

  But she had tried to shift when she fought in the astral against Azarius before. She couldn’t. Her bear had been right there. It still was, but unable to burst free.

  Someone screamed. Kinley? Ametta?

  This wasn’t real. One of the fucking birds dug into the center of her back. Saskia cried out.

  She couldn’t release her bear. She couldn’t help her sisters, Bear, or Lucky.

  Lucky’s domovoi. He was in both planes, and his powers extended to each of them. She had his gift. Why hadn’t she thought of it before?

  Don’t think bear. Think bird. Black. Cunning.

  Think of wanting to fly away. Free in the sky. Diving from the clouds. Revenge.

  It wasn’t like shifting as she had known it. Shifting into her bear had always felt like flipping off a blanket. Smooth and natural. This was like rolling oneself into a ball and popping out in a new shape.

  The second Saskia sprouted feathers and a beak, the birds acted as if they didn’t see her. They piled on the ground where she had been lying. A lump that looked as if her human body might still be under them.

  It was possible to shift here! Azarius gave her the ticket to victory and didn’t even know it.

  Flapping her wings, she flew above the flock. Not a graceful flight. To one side by a pair of big pine trees, Bear stood over her sisters and Lucky and roared at the sky.

  One of the ravens circled him before fluttering toward the ground and shifted into a massive bear. A cave bear. Saskia could see it now. The extra-long canines and claws, the heavier brow. But not so saggy it covered Azarius’ eyes.

  Saskia drove down with talons extended. The bears pushed at one another and raked their arms and chests. Knowing she was going to miss, she zipped to one side and around as if she might be aiming for Bear’s head. Let Az think she was one of his illusions.

  She buzzed Bear’s ear and went up again. Hopefully that was signal enough for him to hold Azarius in place.

  Snarling and snapping at one another, the bears locked forearms. Diving again, she went right for Azarius’ left eye. He moved at the last second, and she scratched his snout instead.

  The cave bear roared, reached up, and snagged Saskia with a suddenly human hand.

  Azarius leapt back away from Bear. He held Saskia’s head and beak firmly in one hand and used his other arm to press her body against his, squishing her legs and wings. “Give me what I want, Bear, or I will snap her neck.”

  Oh, shit! Shift back, shift back. How come she wasn’t shifting?

  The vicious congress of ravens vanished, and Bear shifted into his human form. Behind him, Kinley, Ametta, and Lucky rose from the spot where they had huddled together at the base of a tree. Only Ametta’s and Lucky’s clothes were shredded, and blood trickled from several wounds.

  Saskia squirmed and attempted to scream. Why couldn’t she shift?

  “You will never have what you want.” Bear stepped forward as Azarius moved back.

  “And when I kill Saskia, neither will you.” Azarius dug his fingers into her frail body painfully.

  Bear marched on. “My duty must come first.”

  Crap. Shift, shift, shift. Into anything he couldn’t hold!

  Azarius twisted her head.

  Having never been interested in birds, Saskia had no idea that ravens could twist their heads backwards. Before Azarius could break hers though, she reminded herself of the rules of this plane and found another shape fast to free herself of his grasp.

  She shifted into a porcupine.

  Azarius let out a yelp as she fell with a plop to the ground. He then kicked her, and she sailed across the snowy clearing like a football.

  Grunting as she landed, she righted herself and shifted back to her human form. She pushed back her sisters as they hurried to her side. “Take them out of here, Kin.”

  Bear shifted and pawed at the ground before rising up. Azarius scooped up his knives from where they’d been discarded, strangely not turning into his damned cave bear.

  “No, we aren’t leaving you.” Kinley clutched her wounded hands to her chest.

  Wait. If Kinley knew enough to believe nothing really was real here, how did her hands get hurt?

  Azarius threw the first blade, and it buried itself into Bear’s belly. When Bear fell forward, Azarius darted in and thrust the second up under Bear’s chin. Just like he had done with her father.

  No.

  This wasn’t real.

  Bear slumped to one side with a groan, still in animal form. His limbs spasmed before going limp.

  A jagged cry escaped Saskia’s throat.

  Azarius retrieved the knife from Bear’s chin and turned toward Saskia and her family. Blood splattered his face. Bear’s blood. “I had never thought to bring anything into the astral with me as I always had control of what I needed here. Not until your vampire showed me the value of it. And while my blades aren’t as impressive as his sword, they will do the job just the same.”

  That pain Saskia felt when her mother died, when her father was murdered, it magnified with Bear’s death. It ripped a gaping hole within her. Her body quivered, and she shrugged off a hand as it touched her shoulder.

  Bear had told her to kill Azarius. He went to do his duty as she demanded, but she didn’t manage hers.

  “But this new power, Saskia. How fascinating.” Azarius wiped his blades on his black pants. “I know you’re not a true shifter, and the totems don’t grant any such abilities. I doubt it was Bear. So who?”

  She heaved in each breath. Her chest hurt. Her throat burned.

  Azarius shrugged. “I suppose it doesn’t matter in the end. You can’t best me in a fight, but maybe you’ll be more of a challenge now.”

  A string of curses left Saskia’s mouth. It surely didn’t feel as good as ramming one of his own knives up under his chin. There was nothing else left for her to do. Her sisters would figure out what to do with the totems. Kinley could talk to them or whatever.

  Saskia stalked toward him. Fury whipped away her grief and tainted her vision, but she was wary enough to know he might throw his weapons. She needed
to be fast and agile. She padded in a circle around him on four paws.

  “A cougar?” Azarius moved with her, never leaving his back or sides facing her. “Not terribly impressive.”

  She pounced and missed by over a foot as he sidestepped her. It didn’t matter if he was impressed—well, it did irk her a little—for all she needed to get was one of those blades. Then she’d kill him with her own hand.

  Another leap, a skid, a swipe, and a missed chomp. Azarius hadn’t even shifted to combat her. Was she that pathetic?

  Saskia retreated to twenty feet away, closer to her sisters and Lucky. Being a cougar wasn’t going to cut it. Something faster, smaller. A hare?

  “Saskia,” Lucky’s harsh whisper made her ears flick. “We’ll surround him. All of us.”

  Hell no. Maybe he was the fox, but he wasn’t a wolf. He knew nothing of hunting in a pack. But he was right. She’d hunted with Sedge, and she’d hunted with Azarius. Yet this time, she’d be the alpha. All she needed was them to act on defense.

  She shifted back into her human form. “Don’t put yourselves in danger. You need to leave.” She gave Lucky a little shove and a quick wink. Hopefully he caught it. She motioned to her sisters. “Get out of here. You can’t fight. You can’t shift here.” With her back to Azarius, she mouthed, Surround him.

  Saskia then charged Azarius, turned into a hare just in front of him, and darted through his legs before springing back to bite his fingers.

  Azarius flung her off before she could get him to drop the knife. “Still not fast enough.” He shook his head. “And sending your sisters and the Kodiak to surround me? You do know you’ll only end up failing to protect them.”

  She winced at his words. Not only because it could very well happen as he said, but because of the way he said it. He didn’t have an evil villain laugh or even a threatening tone. He said it with all the patience he’d used with her over the years. And that was a titanic iceberg of cool patience.

  There was one thing Saskia knew Az would do though: he’d underestimate Lucky and her sisters.

  Kinley still hugged her hands to her as she crept around behind Azarius. Ametta and Lucky took up side positions. None of them ventured too close to him. All more than six feet away.