Without hesitating, she launched her attack. She had no formal fighting skill or training. Maybe it was instinct and maybe it was luck, but she locked her jaw around the neck of the nearest demon. As a witch, she could not touch the creatures that existed between two worlds. Now that she had the power of fire, she could melt the boundaries.
Fragile bones broke between her teeth. She pressed a large paw to the demon’s back and tore the head from the body. With the flick of her neck, she flung the head into the flames. The words of a spell sounded in her head, allowing the fire to breach dimensions to incinerate the small sphere.
The three remaining demons squealed in fear. They screamed for Soren to kill Torrey. Stealing her power was no longer the objective. She was a threat and she needed to die.
Soren, lost in the fever of his compulsion, changed. Just as Torrey predicted, he was a stunning wolf. Unlike Shade’s dark fur, Soren’s was a swirl of colors. Browns and golds mixed with black in a subtle mingling of shades made brilliant by the fire’s light.
He leapt for Torrey, whose trajectory had taken her to the second demon. Shade, a black mass rocketing from the shadows, caught his brother in midair. The two fell to the ground, a ball of snarls, claws, and teeth.
Torrey didn’t spare them a thought. She knew Shade intended to fight to the death. If she could kill the demons, Soren would be free. They would all be free.
The second demon fought. He slashed at her eyes with his long, curving claws. Those pointed ears turned out to be bone, not cartilage. The two other demons joined the fray, using their natural weapons expertly.
A sharp jab sliced into her right rear thigh. Torrey wheeled around, grabbed the culprit in her mouth, and threw it into the fire. The magic words rushed through her mind without consciously being called forth. Fire burst from the specially built pit, showering sparks in all directions.
The last two demons tried to flee. Snarling, Torrey gave chase. Moving away from the fire took away her best disposal method. She didn’t know how else to make sure they were truly destroyed.
The crowd parted. Villagers shifted shape as they jumped out of the way. Torrey appeared as a mad wolf. She tore at the air and chased nothing.
She was attacked from all sides. The witch who had managed to steal the power of a wolf would not be suffered to live. Because she was from human stock, she was smaller than even the most juvenile wolves. Mass was mass. A large person formed a large wolf. A small person, relatively speaking, formed a small wolf.
Powerful jaws clamped around her front and rear legs. Teeth sank into her haunches. A frustrated howl sounded from deep inside. The pain was something she could bear. Failing in this mission wasn’t.
She wheeled, snapping at the wolves that held her. When she was free from one set of jaws, another arrived to take its place. Just when it seemed she was fighting a losing battle, the tide turned. Wolves she successfully disengaged did not return to the fight. Torrey’s flagging hope grew.
Then the last set of jaws was gone. The wolves she defeated surrounded her, watching with wary eyes. Hatred and distrust were palpable forces. They wanted her dead. They wanted her gone. Yet, they didn’t attack.
In the distance, vicious snarling and growls indicated Soren and Shade still fought. Nobody seemed concerned. Nobody seemed to want to watch or interfere.
Pacing the interior perimeter of the circle around Torrey, Tiffany and two of her lieutenants kept the peace. The third lieutenant kept everyone away from Shade and Soren.
Messages communicated directly into Torrey’s head. They were understandings, not words.
They did not understand why Torrey attacked them. Soren presented the more logical target. Torrey won the battle fairly, and she would not be challenged again. However, she was not welcome as a wolf or as a member of the village.
Flashes of brown caught the corner of Torrey’s eye. The demons had purposely led her into the crowd, knowing Torrey’s actions would be interpreted as a challenge. Before she moved, she did her best to communicate back to the crowd.
Images of the demons and Soren flashed through her mind. Lastly, she sent the image of the demons standing, watching from the other side of the crowd. Hoping they got the message, she crouched on her powerful haunches, ignored the pain of the slashes and gashes from the villagers, and leapt.
The crowd parted, letting her go. The demons realized her intention too late. It appeared they only had the ability to communicate with Soren, just as he was the only one who could hear them. Otherwise, they would have known what she was doing.
One paw landed on the chest of each demon, pinning them both to the ground. The power of the moon and the earth and the falling rain surged through her. She called on the fire burning in each of her cells, the fire that allowed her to become a wolf.
Smoke poured from where she made contact with the fairylike creatures. Torrey channeled more power. Fire burst from her paws. The demons exploded in twin showers of sparks that singed her fur and burnt her nose and lips.
Wheeling, she projected the image toward the altar where Shade and Soren fought still. Shade was no longer weak from his illness. They were evenly matched, twins in so many ways. No true fight between them could be short or easy.
But she didn’t want them to kill each other. Neither of them could live having done that to his brother.
As one, the black wolf and the tan wolf fell away from one another. The space between them increased. Shade backed up until he was next to Torrey. With a brief jerk of his head, he indicated she should follow him.
They set off, running through the woods. The town wasn’t a safe place for either of them. Tiffany may have forced the werewolves of Lyton to fight fair, but even she couldn’t hold them off forever.
No matter what she had done to free Soren of his demons, the fact remained that, in the eyes of the townspeople, she was a witch with a shape-shifter’s power, and therefore unnatural.
Epilogue
Snow stung against the bottom of Torrey’s feet. It amazed her how the cold white powder didn’t faze her paws, but it killed her feet.
“Come on,” Shade called. The bottom half of his body was submerged in the water. Muscles rippled across his shoulder and down his stomach as he raised his arm to urge her closer. Steam lifted from the surface, but not in response to Shade’s sexiness. “The water is warm, Torrey.”
Their new house was nearly completed. In another month, they would be able to move out of the crude cabin that had been on the land Shade purchased, site unseen, from a real estate agent in Utah. There were no drawers anywhere in the house. Torrey had insisted on an open-shelf design and walk-in closets for storage. It didn’t solve the problem completely, but it alleviated the worst of Shade’s compulsion.
So far, Torrey hadn’t shown signs of one yet.
Shade had been out for a run when he discovered the hot spring. He had sprinted back to the house to drag Torrey there. The Rocky Mountains were new terrain for them both.
A brisk March wind blew across Torrey’s naked backside. She kept planning to make backpacks they could easily carry in their lupine forms. It was exasperating to find places where they could enjoy a nice picnic, spots only accessible when they were wolves, only to find they lacked a way to transport clothes and picnic supplies.
With one hand on her rounded stomach, she carefully picked her way through the rocky shore to the deeper water where Shade waited.
He watched her, pride and possessiveness lighting his blue eyes. “Are the babies okay?”
“Yeah,” she said. It had become habit to keep a hand there, to feel for movement. She could hear three heartbeats, thanks to the enhanced senses that came with her transformation. All three of her children were active. She often pictured a hamster wheel churning inside her with the three of them running wild around it instead of in it.
Indigestion was becoming a problem.
The water relieved much of the weight burden, and her back relaxed in relief. Changing forms was
also helpful. Some nights, she shifted into her wolf form just so that she could be more comfortable. Those nights, Shade shifted form, too, and curled his body around hers.
By the time she reached him, the water was up to her breasts. Though she was now a werewolf, she was still only five-ten. Shade’s arms slid around her waist, lifting her against him as he waded into deeper water.
“Did you have a nice talk with Riley?”
Torrey smiled. Her sister had relocated as well. Torrey and Shade needed to get far away from Lyton. Tiffany had visited early the morning after the near-sacrifice as they packed up their belongings to inform them both she could only guarantee their safety if they never showed their faces on that side of the country again. Soren had disappeared, leaving Lyton in chaos. Tiffany assumed the role of leader of the pack.
Riley wanted to get far away from Soren. Besides trying to murder her sister, he had kidnapped her, lied to her, and prevented her from being at her mother’s funeral. Deep down, she had found him attractive. Part of her had actually liked him, which is why his charm had been so spectacularly effective. She nursed a broken heart for many reasons.
“She sounds happier than she has in a long time.”
Torrey didn’t have to say more. His wolf hearing would pick up subtleties in speech that simple human hearing couldn’t detect. She loved everything about being a wolf.
“Good,” he said, feathering a kiss across her lips. “What about you?”
Torrey wrapped her legs around Shade’s waist. Her stomach bumped into his. “I don’t know. This isn’t working out like I thought it would.”
He laughed. “Lie back. Float in the water. I’ve always wanted to make love to a mermaid.”
“I think that would be kinda hard,” she said, lowering her body back to do what he suggested. “That fishy tail might get in the way of a good time.”
One hand worked magic between her legs. “We can’t let that happen.”
Torrey gasped as he slid into her. “No, we can’t.”
THE END
www.michelezurlo.com
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michele spends her free time thinking up new plots and devising ways to get out of doing housework.
Also by Michele Zurlo
Siren Classic: Letting Go
Ménage and More: Hanging On
Siren Classic: Irrepressible Force
Available at
BOOKSTRAND.COM
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Zurlo, Michele - Torment [Daughters of Circe 1] (Siren Publishing Classic) Page 19
