by Lynda Aicher
“Damian,” she breathed, bringing her hands to his cheeks. His skin was cold, but his energy flowed stronger, more consistently under her palms.
“Touching,” a voice purred through the stillness, throaty, soft and unmistakably sinister. “If it weren’t so pathetic.”
Amber whipped her head up, swallowing the gasp that formed in her throat. Her gaze zeroed in on the tall, dark-haired woman who leaned against the metal rails on the far side of the fence. The woman pulled her own gaze up from the leisurely perusal she was giving her blood-red nails to peg Amber with a glare that tightened the mass of knots in Amber’s stomach into an intertwined jumble of dread.
Amber straightened and pushed to her feet. The woman mirrored her movements, shoving away from the fence to face Amber. The hip-length, black leather jacket the woman wore hung open over a black T-shirt that pulled tightly across her breasts and emphasized the slim lines of her waist. Her long legs were encased in black jeans and thigh-high leather boots, the three-inch spiked heels adding more height to her already imposing six-foot frame.
In contrast to the hard lines of the woman’s body, her features were full, lush and strikingly beautiful. Recognition hit Amber even as the energy churned with sickly unease. This was the woman who had appeared back at the fight to take the injured enemy away.
Her bird screeched and lifted its sharp, deadly talons, ready to fight.
“Who are you?” Amber demanded, putting strength in her words to cover the weakness in her locked knees.
The woman tossed the mass of long, dark curls over her shoulder as a cold smile slid over her lips. The emptiness that filled her dark eyes was far more chilling than the quickly cooling elements.
The pause vibrated through the air, the woman drawing out the tension. Amber held her silence and met the unspoken challenge, refusing to cower.
The women let out a sharp, tilting laugh before she finally answered the question. “I am Kassandra, the first wife of the Shifter leader, Tubal. And I am your death.”
Chapter Fourteen
Like hell she is. The denial flared instantly and furiously within Amber, awakening every lagging, fatigued nerve and stoking the flame deep within.
“Really?” Amber countered. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that today. And look, here I stand.”
The woman, Kassandra, started a slow, stalking pace around the perimeter of the fence. She pursed her lips and cast a sidelong look at Amber. “Luck, I’m sure. But all luck must end.”
Amber turned, keeping her body aligned with the enemy. Her boots nudged Damian, reminding her of the precariousness of her position. But she would not fail him. The resolve settled deep in her bones and filled her with a blinding call to protect.
“You’re looking a little trapped, my dear,” Kassandra taunted as she continued her stroll, trailing her fingers over the bars and letting the tips of her long nails click against the metal. “Where’s your luck now?”
Amber let the bait fall untouched. Instead she focused on the energy, pulling it into her, absorbing its strength.
“What? No reply?” The evil woman stopped, rested a hand on her hip and tilted her head in casual contemplation. Amber wasn’t fooled.
“Well then,” Kassandra purred.
With a flick of her wrist, a fireball appeared and sailed through the slats of the fence, bullseyeing on Amber. Just as quickly, it smacked into the invisible barrier of the energy that protected the circle within the building. The heat flared and washed over Amber as the fireball disintegrated in a burst of snapping sparks.
“You bitch! You need to die,” Kassandra shrieked, all pretense of casualness dropped.
Amber released the air trapped in her lungs, careful to keep her relief hidden. She said a thousand mental thank yous to whoever had created the circle she was now safely encased within. Damian had seen to her protection before his injuries had taken him under.
She smiled, years of taunting and torment honing her verbal battle skills. “I really feel like living today.” Just in case, she eased her hand into the coat pocket and clasped the hilt of the dagger. “But thank you for the visit.”
Sarcastic kindness was always more effective than brute words.
“You won’t be so cocky when I’m done with you.” Kassandra sneered, a dark veil of evil cloaking her. The coldness slithered toward Amber, snaking through the energy barrier to pull at her once again.
“Nor you,” Amber managed to respond. Her voice had gone husky, her body suddenly liquid as the bitter cold energy circled around her. The crisp currents felt so refreshing, enticing after the heat. A part of her wanted to go to it. Wanted to accept all the darkness offered.
“Yes, that’s it,” cooed Kassandra. “Doesn’t it feel nice? Welcoming? We can help you, lost one. Teach you. Show you the way.”
Her words were an enticement, pulling Amber in along with the cold and dark. It was the wish for everything to be clear.
Amber felt her feet shuffle forward almost against her will before her boots thumped into Damian. He was still unconscious on the ground, a barrier between Amber and the Shifter enemy.
Amber lurched back, yanking her mind and body away from the dark pull of evil. “No.”
The Shifter snarled, a threatening sound that matched the malevolence that emanated from her. A series of fireballs left her hands and flew through the air in rapid succession, every one bursting against the unseen wall in hollow echoes of failure as they broke apart and vanished into nothingness.
The warmth returned to Amber, blanketing her in its protective security. It took every ounce of fortitude Amber had to stiffly stand there without flinching or ducking. To watch the fireballs burst, flash and die just six feet before her.
Trust.
In the span of a day, she’d learned to trust the energy. And she believed it would keep her and Damian safe. Still, it was a bit like not flinching when a rock flew at the windshield of your car.
Ducking was not an option.
Amber forced her smile to shine full-force, brittle as it might be behind the façade of confidence. Just as long as the enemy didn’t know that.
“You think this is funny?” Kassandra fumed once she’d given up on the fireball bombardment. “You won’t for long.”
From the corner of her eye, Amber saw the black cloud forming, which she now knew meant reinforcements had arrived. How many? She wasn’t taking her focus off Kassandra to find out.
“You can’t break the barrier,” Amber said, hoping to hell that was true.
“But we can wait.” Kassandra pivoted around and threw her arm out, gesturing toward the residential area they were in. “At some point, the cops will come, the day will dawn and you will be forced out by simple human means. Then you won’t be so safe.” The smile that lit her face was anything but friendly.
Damn. Sweat threaded down Amber’s spine, but she kept the smile plastered on and gave a casual shrug. “Who said I plan on being here that long?”
“You have no way out.” Kassandra pointed to two spots behind Amber. “As you can see, you’re surrounded.”
Ding. There were two others behind her. “Thanks for letting me know. I’ll bank that for future reference.”
“Bitch.” Kassandra sneered. “I can’t wait to wipe that fucking smile off your face. You can’t beat us. You’re a pathetic, powerless, sitting duck. Why Tubal wants such a weak excuse of a Shifter is beyond me. If it was up to me, you would’ve been killed at birth like all runts should be.”
Shifter? What the hell was she talking about? Amber squashed her curiosity, once again ignoring the bait. “Well if that’s true, then you can’t really kill me. Can you?” Amber said as she ran a hand through her hair to let the long strands weave through her fingers. “If your husband wants me, maybe he’s just tired of you.”
The haze of fury that covered Kassandra’s face was underscored by the flush that turned her flawless skin to a molten red.
Pulling courage fr
om the depths of her verbal sparring repertoire, Amber flicked her eyebrow up and cocked a mocking smile. “Jealousy does not look good on you.” Confidence was so easy to project when safely encased behind bulletproof glass. Or a fireball-proof energy shield, as the case may be.
Her words hit their mark with larger results than Amber could’ve ever imagined. And given all that she had experienced that day, her expectations were pretty wide open.
A gale force gust of air rushed at the round little building that was currently protecting her. The wind rattled through the metal fence bars, cutting harshly between the rails as it slammed into the invisible barrier and was redirected around the perimeter of the structure. The trees swayed and creaked in violent protest against the unnatural power.
Then, in a quick, smooth movement of interlinked motion, Kassandra changed forms. Her beautiful, womanly shape changed before Amber’s dumfounded eyes.
To a dragon.
A big, green and gold, reptilian, scaled dragon.
Amber blinked, licked her lips and resisted the proverbial shake of the head to clear her sight. She swallowed and clutched the dagger even tighter in her fist as if a little knife would protect her against a big flipping dragon.
A wall of flames fired out of the dragon’s mouth and shot toward her. The heat seared her face and engulfed her body, but the flames were held at bay by the energy barrier. Thank God.
The dragon before her reminded her of the ones she’d seen at the Chinese New Year celebration. It was about ten feet in length, wingless, with a body reminiscent of a snake. Of course, the New York dragons were men in costumes.
This dragon was very, very real.
And very, very angry.
Behind her, Amber heard two more angry growls right before the heat hit her on both sides. This time, she couldn’t stop herself from looking. Pivoting to her side, she saw exactly what she’d anticipated.
Two more dragons.
How? Maybe she should have gotten a clue by their very name, Shifters, but she had barely wrapped her mind around the fact that there were beings in the world that could control the elements and energy of the earth. Shape-shifting dragons were in a completely different realm of belief. One that defied all logic and suspended rational thought.
Yet there were three dragons definitely prowling outside the fence.
Where were the cops when you needed them?
For that matter, where was anyone? There was obviously some kind of power being used that she didn’t understand. One that prevented others from hearing and seeing what she saw. She would gladly relinquish her privileged status to anyone who wanted it.
The dragons released simultaneous breaths of fire that scorched her from three sides and raised the heat in the circle to oven-ready. The heated air singed her lungs when she gasped, trying to breathe through the terror. Her face felt flushed, burned, as the interior space of the circle increased with each flash of dragon fire. She needed to do something. Correction—she needed to get them out of there before they became dragon dinner.
With considerable effort, Amber blanked her mind to all that threatened to crumble her. She mentally pulled the shutters down on all of the impossible. On dragons and fireballs. On teleporting and energy manipulation. On prophecies and destiny. Instead, she focused on survival. That was all she could do at the moment. The only thing that was truly important.
Keeping her focus on the dragon Kassandra, Amber stepped over Damian so her feet straddled his hips. The dragon tossed its head and bared its teeth in a threatening sneer. Hot puffs of smoke lifted from its nostrils in snorting grunts. The long tail swooped back and forth in a display of agitation, the spiked end swinging with deadly practice, ready to pummel its mark.
Amber looked down and inched her feet in until her boots tucked snugly against Damian’s lower ribs. The connection was essential. On her chest, the stone came to life. The mystical pendant that now held her as solidly as a pair of handcuffs. The slow heat pooled in her chest and raised her already boiling temperature higher. But it was comforting in a way that calmed her soul and opened her mind to listen.
To feel.
Outside the circle, the dragons paced and growled. Periodically, heat would flush over her as one of them released another breath of flames that kept the interior space near boiling. But Amber pushed that aside.
She slid her hand from her pocket and lifted her arms until they extended perpendicular from her body, her wrists tilted back leaving her palms parallel to the two columns at her sides that aligned to the east and west navigational points. How she knew this, she stopped questioning. The answers simply hummed within her.
The energy guided her.
There was power in the directions. In the alignment of the points that pulled from the earth’s energy field. The forces that held the earth in place and kept it rotating in a defined rhythm.
This was the power she was seeking.
The energy slammed into her chest and shattered against the stone. Her head flew back at the force, but she kept her feet planted, her back straight. It felt like a lightning bolt to her chest. The excess power sizzled over her skin and rang in her ears.
The stone became the apex of the power, pulling it in from each direction until it centered within her chest. The energy was the drug she’d always craved, but hadn’t known it. It connected with her nerves and raced through her blood, lifting her higher in a rush of adrenaline. It coursed down her legs and funneled into Damian. His hands clenched around her ankles, the pressure of each finger pushing against the leather boots to imprint on her skin. Amber forced her head to tip forward so she could look into Damian’s eyes. They were opened and staring at her in undisguised awe.
“You are stunning.”
Amber sensed the words more than heard them as they lifted from Damian’s lips. Her chest tightened at his unexpected praise. She felt stunning. Powerful. Something she’d never expected to feel.
Her heart cracked a little more at his simple acceptance of her.
Another punishing blast of heat upped the urgency and forced Amber to focus. The power had built to a combustible force within her chest, pushing against the walls, demanding release.
She tilted her head back to look at the open sky above. The roofless building provided a clear view of the suddenly cloudless sky. Amber clasped her hands directly above her head. The vertical point drove a spike down the heart of the tower like the centering point on a compass.
The power surged, thrust and rammed down through her with a force that shook the foundation of the stone tower and almost dropped her to her knees. But she held strong, the energy funneling through her from the very crux that made the earth rotate in space.
In the next instant the prickling started on her skin, the pinpoints of sensation followed by the turning of her stomach. In the distance, she registered the thunder of angry roars.
Holding, she let the power build. Let the strength pour from her as she focused on escaping. On leaving the tower. On safety.
At the last second, right before the power peaked, Amber dropped to her knees and hugged Damian to her chest. Space and time melded together as they ascended into nothingness.
Chapter Fifteen
The landing was gentle, smooth in its execution. Amber wasn’t fooled. She sprang to her feet and crouched in defense over Damian the second her senses registered that her body was once again solid. She closed her hand around the hilt of the dagger, yanking it from the depths of the coat pocket to extend it before her. A minimal shield against an unknown enemy.
Damian stirred and pushed himself to a sitting position before he slowly rose to his feet. She quickly gave him a once-over before her focus turned back to the room. At least he was standing on his own.
“Where are we?” Her words echoed in the sparse room even though she had taken care to speak them softly. She turned in a circle to verify that they were alone before she straightened to her full height and let the knife drop back into the coat pocket.
>
“I don’t know,” Damian answered, his voice deep and throaty as he surveyed their surroundings. “I’ve never seen this place before.”
Amber took in the dark red carpeting and the deep rose wood that covered the walls, leaving a vague sense of being trapped inside a wine barrel. The circular formation of the room picked off her newfound respect for the seemingly unobtrusive geometric shape.
“Can you port us out of here?”
Damian closed his eyes, and she waited a beat before he gave a quick shake of his head. “No. The casted circle won’t allow it.” He opened his eyes and looked at her. “But it doesn’t give off a malevolent vibe.”
Amber arched her brow in question.
“As you become more attuned to the energy, you can pick up its vibrations,” he explained. “All energy has a feel based on how it is used with every connotation having its own rhythm.”
“Like the energy has feelings?”
“Kind of. It picks up and retains the intent of the user. Just like an engine retains the heat after it’s been turned off, the energy holds the signature of purpose.”
“And the energy of the circle we’re in is good?” She let the hope show in her voice.
He stroked a hand over his jaw in thought. “It’s more like ambivalent.”
“Well, that’s better than evil,” Amber said before exhaling a deep breath. She moved away from Damian and took a closer look at the room, every instinct still on high alert.
The circular room was void of windows, but large enough to keep it from feeling like a cell. The space was broken only by a single bed that sat low to the ground on a black, wooden frame and a small side table that sat next to it. The low light in the room was coming from the lamp on the table and the crack beneath one of the two doors in the room. The deep purple duvet was pulled neat and crisp over the bed and accented with an arrangement of black and cream pillows decorated with variations of Chinese themes.
