Kaydin entered the portal lights and ran through the doorway. Immediately he was immersed in darkness, guided only by the lights twinkling far off in the darkness. He hadn’t been inside the portal since his transformation, but he remembered his fear and confusion, he knew what Rena must be feeling.
He hurried forward, taking one turn after another, passing demon after demon, some who shied away, some who taunted and laughed. He caught a faint whiff of Rena’s sweet scent and followed it, turning down one tunnel after another, chasing that scent, chasing her.
He knew she must be scared and confused. The demons would be taunting her, trying to drive her to madness. If she lost touch with reality then she’d never find her way back. She’d never be able to make the transformation to guardian.
He turned down another corridor and saw her crouched against the wall, her head buried in her knees. He hurried to her, and pushed his nose against her hair and whimpered. She looked up at him, her eyes the same golden amber he’d seen when they were making love.
It was then he knew the truth of why she could see the lights, why the demon wanted her so badly. She wasn’t a witch. She was a shapeshifter. She was one of the few left who had a dormant gene passed down through the generations. It would have stayed that way had she never come near the portal or made the descent into the pit. Once they entered the gateway, they became what they were meant to be—guardians of the earth.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and cried into his fur. He whimpered and licked her cheek. This was why he was so drawn to her, why he couldn’t let her die. She was meant to be with him. He was meant to help her.
And to do that, he needed to change. He needed to return to his human form and hope they could find their way out together. Hope she’d let him help her do what needed to be done. He took a deep breath and focused on his human form, the beat of his heart, the tenderness he felt for this woman clinging to him. And then he shifted once more, back into his body. And as he did, his senses became muted. He felt the demons circling, heard their taunts, their laughter and he knew he had to get her out of there. Now.
He lifted Rena into his arms.
“She wasn’t there,” she said into his ear. “My mother was gone.”
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, and held her close as she wept into his shoulder.
“I should have listened to you.”
“It doesn’t matter. We’re going to get out. We’re going to find her.”
“No. I’m going to find her, Kaydin.”
He looked down at her surprised by the steel in her voice.
“I’m going to find her, and then I’m going to kill her.”
And he’d let her. But first, they had to make it out of the pit. The voices were overpowering now, whispering, pulling, pushing. He was going in circles and couldn’t find his way. Finally, out of breath, he stopped and leaned against a wall and was stunned to discover it was the same wall he’d found Rena against earlier. All this time, and they were back where they’d started.
“Rena, we’re not going to be able to find out way out of here. Not as we are.”
She looked up at him. “What do you mean?”
“We’ve been wandering in circles. We’re in the pit, which is nothing but a huge maze. It entices you one way, pushes you in another until you end up back where you started without knowing how you got there.”
“We can do this, Kaydin. We have to.”
“You need to embrace your path. You need to transform.”
“What are you talking about?” Her eyes widened in the gloom.
“The reason you’re here. The reason you hear the voices. It’s because you’re like me. You’re a shapeshifter. You had to enter the pit to make the change. We all did, at one time or another. It’s your rite of passage. It’s how you’ll find your true path.”
She shook her head. “No. You’re wrong. I’m not like you. I’m nothing like you. You’re not even human!”
“You are. And you know it.”
She pushed away from him as angry tears filled her eyes. “If you hadn’t brought me here, if you hadn’t commissioned me to paint those lights, I never would have come back here. I could have gone on living at Vindecare with my friends. Life could have been good. Life could have been normal.”
“You always would have heard the voice of the demon calling you.”
“So? I could have ignored it. Like always. You did this to me. You brought me here!”
He tried to grab her, to put his arms around her and pull her tight, but she beat him, her small fists flailing against his chest.
“You did this to me. I won’t become like you. I won’t.”
“You have to. If you don’t, we will never get out of here. Don’t you understand, it’s what you’re meant to do. It’s your journey. I can help you. I can guide you. But in the end, it’s you who will have to make it back out of the pit. Only you can find the way.”
“But I can’t. I don’t know how.” She collapsed against his chest, her shoulders heaving with her grief. And his heart broke for her. For all she was about to lose, and for the incredible burden she was about to gain. He only hoped that she would find her way and that maybe, if the gods allowed, they could find happiness together.
“Think Rena. Think back to all the times you just knew. When you felt guided by something beyond yourself. Look inside and listen to the voice, not ‘her’ voice, but yours. You are the only one who can lead us out of here.”
And then he changed, doing what he had to do. He transformed in front of her, turning into what she had always feared, yet what was buried deep within her. He turned into her beast.
Rena watched in morbid fascination as Kaydin left her. She knew she should be afraid, but she couldn’t anymore. There was no fear left in her. Only anger and sadness. Everything she knew, everyone she loved was gone. Nothing mattered any longer. Not even her humanity.
And as Kaydin dropped to the ground at her feet, she yelled at him. “Go away. Go on. Get out of here. You don’t belong here. I don’t want you with me.”
He just looked at her and whimpered, then laid his head on her feet.
“Damn you,” she muttered.
She knew they had been going in circles, knew they would never find their way out. But he didn’t need to stay in here with her. He could go back and do what he’d always done. Guard a doorway.
And not very well.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have let her mother go in all those years ago. And he would have killed her tonight when he had the chance. But he didn’t. And now it was left to her. She would kill the demon who stole her life. That was her purpose now. Her only reason for getting out. For dragging him out.
She reached down deep inside herself and found the path he was talking about. She found the hard, dark fist of anger clenched around her heart, and she felt it squeeze.
And as she did, she lifted her head back and roared.
And then she was running, loping on all fours. It didn’t matter that it was dark, because suddenly she could smell the forest, she could hear the water rushing in the nearby river. She could easily find her way out of the darkness and toward the demon that had brought her there.
She could smell the demon, too. Smell her evil. Hear her whispers. It fueled her fury, and she ran faster, not even sure if Kaydin was still behind her. She just kept running, until she saw the lights ahead, and then she extended her front legs and jumped, breaching the perimeter, bursting through the heavy darkness and into the night of the forest.
She ran into the dark, following the scent of the demon, determined to end this once and for all. She didn’t know how far she’d run or for how long, but now she felt Kaydin on her heels behind her. She stopped in front of a small cabin. The woman was inside.
The woman who would be her mother.
But before she could step closer, she heard the growl of the panther. The hair rose on the back of her neck. Then Kaydin was flying through the air. And as the two beasts c
lawed and tore at one another, Rena moved closer to the cabin. She concentrated on her body—her legs, her arms and easily transformed into her human self once more.
She walked up to the cabin and knocked on the door.
“Rena,” her mother said, and smiled as she opened the door. “It’s good to see you.”
“Is it?” Rena asked. She walked inside, grabbed a throw blanket off an easy chair and wrapped it around her, covering herself.
“Of course. I only needed you to go in long enough for me to get out. I didn’t need you to stay in there. In fact, now that you’re out, we can be together. The way it should have been. Could have been, if it wasn’t for that damned wolf.”
“He came after me.”
“He must be very attached to you.”
Rena stared at the woman who would be her mother, but she knew her mother was no longer there. Now it was so easy to smell the demon within.
“You killed my mother. You stole her from me,” she accused. “Then you whispered to me for years, wanting me to call you. To say your name.”
Surprised, the demon took a step back.
Rena stepped forward. “Ubasti,” she whispered.
Her mother’s face paled and her eyes widened as she shook her head.
“Ubasti,” Rena said again then yanked the golden locket off her mother’s neck. “I’m calling your name. I’m commanding you to enter me. Come to me, Ubasti. Come to me now.”
In a flash of light the demon flowed from the form of her mother and filled Rena’s body. Her mother dropped to the floor, and without the life force of the demon inside her, quickly decayed and turned to a pile of dust.
Rena walked out the door and as she did she pulled the strength of Kratos into her, the fire from Hephaestus, and the protection from Hades inside her. Then with a roar of sweet satisfaction she transformed into the wolf—into the guardian of the earth.
Ubasti screamed inside her.
“I am not like my mother, Ubasti. I am not a witch. And now that I’ve been inside the pit, I can never be host to a demon. Because I kill demons. It’s what I’m meant to do.”
Ubasti screamed again before disintegrating and pouring out of Rena in a powerful column of smoke and ash.
The next morning Rena woke in the tall grass with the sun shining in her eyes and the morning dew kissing her cheeks. She lifted her hands in front of her, stared up at her fingers and wiggled them. Had it all been a dream? Had she been lying here since yesterday afternoon?
She turned her head and saw Kaydin lying naked next to her. He had three long bloody gashes along his side. Claw marks. And then she knew it was all true.
She traced her fingers along the cuts knowing that by tomorrow, they’d be healed just as hers were now.
He opened his beautiful green eyes. “Are you okay?” he asked.
She nodded. “Better than okay.”
He smiled then ran his fingers down her arm, gently caressing, sending shivers of heat along her skin. He kissed her, gently at first then harder and faster as his hunger rose. His taste filled her, heating her blood as he pulled her to him. Skin against skin, tongue against tongue.
She heard the thunder of his heartbeat as his blood pulsed within him and smelled the musty scent of their desire thickening in the air. She arched her back, pushing her breast into his cupped hand, letting loose a whimpering moan as he tweaked her hardened nipple.
She felt his need for her, hot and hard, pushing against her inner thigh. And she wanted him. Wanted him buried deep inside her. She rolled herself beneath him, thrusting up her hips and wrapping her legs around him, cradling his erection within her moist heat.
“Now Kaydin.”
With one quick thrust he sheathed himself within her, moving fast, moving hard, until she couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe, could only feel the sensations shimmering through her. She clung to him, riding their primal movements, oblivious to everything but this man and his love. And when she finally reached her release, she leaned her head back and screamed, again and again, until the screams echoing back at her sounded almost like a howl.
After a few minutes of lying in the grass, trying to catch her breath and still her beating heart, Kaydin rose off her. He stood looking down and smiled.
She smiled back, not needing to say anything, to put words to how she felt. He held out a hand. “Let’s go home.”
She put her hand in his. He helped her up and they walked together through the woods toward the house with the painting of the wolf above the fireplace. Toward where she was meant to be. She knew it, just like she knew Kaydin was who she was meant to be with. She knew it with certainty.
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ISBN: 978-1-4268-7020-0
Wolf Magick
Copyright © 2010 by Cynthia D. Cooke
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