by Cecy Robson
Taran motioned ahead with her glowing arm to where the trees thinned. When she caught herself, she tried to tuck her arm under her shirt again. “Shit,” she muttered.
We walked up the incline, staying quiet, and stepped onto a field of what I still believed was waist-high white grass. The long thick stalks swayed majestically around the perimeter of the building, despite the subtle breeze.
Shayna lifted her machete, ready to clear a path. I snatched her wrist before she could bring it down. “What’s the matter? The grass is too thick to walk through, Ceel.”
I tried to keep my voice steady as I realized what was in front of us. FYI, I failed miserably. “That’s not grass.”
Taran swore and jumped back with Emme, who bit back a scream. Long white arms with sharp black fingernails sprouted through the ground, waving to us, and beckoning us closer.
Taran withdrew further. “Oh shit. Shit, shit, shit.”
Shayna swallowed hard. “Well, at least they’re not tentacles,” she offered.
I just looked at her. Even when faced with freakish arms protruding through the jungle floor, Shayna’s glass remained half full. I didn’t have it in me. Neither did Taran.
“This is all sorts of fucked up,” she said.
“Yup,” I added.
“Maybe we should go?” Emme suggested. “The vampires are semi-reasonable beings. They would understand if we left, given the circumstances. Don’t you think?”
“No,” the rest of us answered.
Agnes would toss us into the ocean of arms, no questions asked.
I glanced to the closest hand that waved my way and pointed toward the building. “I think Shah’s inside.”
“And what if he’s not?” Emme’s voice cracked. “Celia, death by creepy hands isn’t the way I want to go.”
She jumped when another arm sprouted from the ground and smacked her in the ass.
I didn’t appreciate the gesture. “You be nice,” I reprimanded.
Emme pointed to herself from where she hid beside Taran. “Me?”
“No. Shah.”
My sisters gaped at me. “Do you see him or scent him, Ceel?” Shayna asked.
“No. But I recognize his personality.” My eyes homed in on the building. “He’s in there. I’m sure of it.”
The sea of hands applauded all at once. Maybe Shah meant to be funny, but it only raised the Freak-O-Meter that much higher.
“Aw, hell,” Taran muttered. “If we live through this, I swear I’m going to need some serious therapy.”
Yeah. What she said.
Another hand punched through the ground and tugged at my shorts, pointing in the direction of the old building. “You want me to come for you, don’t you?”
The hand didn’t have a face, but it seemed to consider me before pointing again.
Taran clasped my wrist. “You’re not seriously going to do this—listen to an arm, are you?”
I sighed. “I don’t think we have a choice. For whatever reason, Shah wants me in there.”
“How do you know he doesn’t want to kill you?”
I shrugged. “He’s not mean.” I thought about Dilip and his lip-syncing belly. “Well, at least not to me. I think he didn’t like Dilip. He felt used.”
Again, the hands applauded.
“Will you stop that!” Taran yelled at them.
That only made them clap louder.
“Be nice, Shah,” I said again.
The applause subsided, but I couldn’t help thinking the arms and hands were laughing at us. A hand reached out to me. My tigress chuffed. She was freaked out, too. But I took it, allowing it to pull me forward and on to the next. The hands were surprisingly warm and gentle.
“How is it, dude?”
I glanced over my shoulder at Shayna. I hadn’t realized how far I’d walked until then. “Odd, even for us, but okay. Like I said, I don’t think he means any harm.” I smiled at the hand that patted my hand next. “Do you, Shah?”
Shayna stepped forward. “Mind if I go through?” she asked. “Celia’s my sister. I have to watch out for her.” She yipped when the arms hauled her forward.
Taran and Emme stayed put. “Come on, peeps,” Shayna called to them. “They’re not so bad.” She laughed nervously. “Not so bad at all.”
Taran glared at the hands and pointed at them. “Let’s get one thing straight. You will not grope me, you will not fondle me, you will not touch me. Got it?”
The hands leaned away from her, giving her space. Shah seemed to welcome us, but then something changed. I felt Shah reaching out to me with his power. It gathered around me like an invisible mist. He seemed sad, lonely. It made me sad, too.
“Do you feel that?” Shayna whispered. “I think the hands are crying.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think it’s the hands. I think it’s Shah.” I met her eyes. “Shayna, I think he knows his time on earth is almost over.”
My eyes stung, and Shayna’s reddened. I was overcome with emotion—for Shah, for Aric and me, for everyone around me who hurt. For as powerful as Shah was, he wasn’t invulnerable to death, and apparently pain.
Celia?
I stopped, and the hands ceased to pull me forward. Aric was calling out to me, using our bond.
I’m sorry, he said. God, I’m so sorry.
“I’m sorry, too,” I said, my voice overwhelmed with emotion.
Come back.
“I will.” I took in those hands. “But I have to get Shah first.”
The connection faded. I wasn’t sure how much Aric had heard, since for the most part our contact was limited, and only triggered by strong emotion. But now wasn’t the time to talk. As much as I loved him, I had a job to do. I couldn’t let the bad guys get Shah and drain what was left of him.
Emme had started to make her way in, but it was a hysterical Taran that cemented me in place and prevented me from moving forward.
“I’m here for Celia. I don’t want shit from you.” She sniffed. “As a matter of fact, I don’t want anything from anyone.” The arms parted, allowing her through. “It’s been hard, you know? Having the guy of your dreams treat you like you’re some kind of freak—I mean what the hell’s wrong with him? I’m not perfect. But I never was. I was a fool to think he’d always love me….”
The air cracked and a handkerchief materialized in the hand closest to her. It offered the handkerchief to Taran, who took it and dabbed her eyes.
Okay. Some things in my world were just too twisted to be real.
I’d only taken a few more steps forward when roars alerted me that we were no longer alone. Someone screamed, and what I mistook for a large stone pitched toward me, rolling to a stop near Shayna’s feet.
Our vamp pilot’s head had been severed. “Run!” he screamed.
I veered around. Already knowing it was too late to flee.
Panthers emerged one by one until a line formed around the perimeter of the hands. Most were as big as my tigress form, some bigger and well over four hundred pounds. Shayna lifted her machete. “There’s too many,” she whispered.
My claws protruded. “I know.”
“Tribe weres?” she asked.
“I don’t think so. I don’t know what they are….Shayna, look at their eyes.”
Emme’s breath hitched. She noticed the green tarry substance swirling around their irises.
The lead panther froze upon seeing the limbs sprouting from the field, but then growled and swiped at the hand that tried to stroke it, slicing the veins. Shrieks echoed around us as nearby birds took flight. The hand spasmed and spewed blood like a fountain, soaking the earth and limbs surrounding it. Emme screamed, and the panthers rushed forward.
Using their claws and fangs, the panthers cut through the limbs, showing no mercy as they zeroed in on us. Taran grunted as one tackled her. I saw her blue and white flames catch when she called forth her fire and saw Shayna swing just as I charged the one gunning for me.
My claws punctured th
e sternum, cracking it open before I ripped out the heart. I kicked the dead creature off me and dove on the one leaping toward Shayna. I rammed it hard, and wrenched it down by its neck like a calf at the rodeo.
Problem was this calf had pointy fangs. It took all my weight and strength to snap its spine. I stood as more panthers dashed forward. Whatever these things were, they were strong, powered by magic, and too many to fight.
But Shah was there and offered a field of helping hands.
They reached up from the ground, yanking and pulling the panthers down, using their sharp nails to tear the panthers’ fur from the skin and shred their muscles. The panthers howled in agony but none would retreat. Whoever was fueling them wanted us dead, and Shah for the grand prize.
Emme grunted as she flung the creatures back into the jungle, crushing their backs against the thick trunks of the tall trees. She didn’t see two more panthers rushing her, but those arms did.
They pulled her out of reach then snagged the panthers by their legs. The panthers struggled, their gazes crazed and their large bodies wrestling to break free. Some arms fell limp, bones snapping, but most held tight, dragging the big cats down until they disappeared into the earth.
The arms closest to Shayna held the panthers for her so she could slice off their heads. It didn’t take long for the angry arms and the rest of us to be covered with blood and black fur. I ran in the direction where Taran had vanished, punching through skulls with my fists, trying to reach her.
The smell of burning fur alerted me that she was safe. So did the flaming black ball she sent soaring into the jungle. She raised her stiff white middle finger. The rest of the hands followed suit, flipping off evil in unison.
Shayna jogged to Taran, breathing hard. She clasped a hand and tried to wrench her up, only to fall forward.
“Wrong freaking arm!” Taran snapped at her.
“Oh. My bad!” Shayna said.
In Shayna’s defense, it was hard to tell Taran’s and Shah’s arms apart.
I carefully stepped over the arms that hadn’t made it and the pieces of panther that remained, struggling to catch my breath and trying in vain not to gag. Good Lord, all I smelled was death. “Everyone okay?”
Emme’s blond hair was pink from all the blood coating it. She wiped her mouth, but her hands were just as stained and only made it worse. “I think so. What were those things?”
“Whatever they were they were sent to kill us and take Shah. Come on, we have to get him and us somewhere safe.”
My sisters jogged behind me to the building. “Hey? What about me?” our vampire pilot’s head called to us.
“Shut up,” Taran snapped at him. “We’ll be back in a minute.”
I stopped at the door. There wasn’t a lock or a handle. I didn’t bother pushing or pulling the door. It simply opened, allowing us through.
I poked my head in. “Shah?” I asked like an imbecile.
The building was about the size of a barn. The only light trickling in was from the rust-eaten holes in the tin roof. The floor was nothing more than dirt with bugs crawling along it in search of food. The blood soaking my skin attracted them and I had to kick a few away.
At the center was a large mass the size of a small SUV perched on its bumper. A plastic tarp covered it entirely, but it did little to diminish the white light emitting from its base.
I glanced at my sisters. Shayna shrugged. “Might as well pull it, Ceel. Voilà and all that good stuff, you know?”
I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I didn’t fear it. I yanked off the tarp and the room exploded with light, blinding me. Spots danced in my vision before I finally made out what was in front of me.
Shah hummed, but he seemed more like a shimmering diamond than a crystal. If I had any doubts that it was him, the small “x” etched into one of the facets cleared that right up.
Taran looked from the door to Shah, and then back to the door. “Shit. How the hell are we going to get him out of here?”
For some reason, I laughed. “I don’t know. Emme, can you lift him?”
She wasn’t able to answer me. Shah exploded, the force throwing me backward and blinding me in a wash of white.
Chapter 14
The white noise of the airplane filled my ears. I blinked my eyes open to stare at the cabin’s ceiling. I yawned and stretched. Wow. That was one heck of a nap.
Emme and Shayna poked their faces into my line of vision. Taran and Agnes were next. Fear and worry riddled my sisters’ features. Agnes adjusted her tiny librarian glasses, appearing more annoyed than anything.
I grinned. Damn. I felt good. My smile only seemed to freak them out more. “Oh shit,” Taran said. She looked at Agnes. “Now what?”
Agnes shrugged. “I don’t know.”
Taran narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean, you don’t freaking know?” She pointed at me. “Fix her.”
Agnes met her stare. “What’s your problem? Do you think I’m happy about this? The master and the grandmaster wanted Shah. All you had to do was get it.” She waved her hands irritably in my direction. “Instead, now we have all this.”
“She got you Shah!” Taran yelled at her.
“And now it seems Shah has her,” Agnes snapped back. She glanced at me and shrugged before walking away. “Hopefully we can wrench it out of her without killing her.”
“You bitch!” Taran said, launching herself at Agnes. Shayna and Emme held her back as she continued to struggle.
I didn’t understand why everyone was so upset. I felt fan-freaking-tastic. I smiled again at my sisters, but that only widened their eyes further. “Dude, she’s like, sparkly.”
“What?” I asked.
Emme sat beside me. She reached out to touch me but then thought better of it and pulled her hand back. “Celia,” she said carefully. “What Shayna is trying to say is that, you’re different.”
“Aren’t we all?” I giggled, but my ears filled with the sound of tinkling bells.
Emme opened and closed her mouth several times, trying to work through her reasoning. “Celia, Shah attached himself to you somehow,” she finally said. “We don’t know how to get him out.”
“Hmm” was my response.
Emme gave up then and allowed Shayna to move closer. “Ceel. You don’t get it. You’re like, totally different,” Shayna said. “Um. We’re not sure what happened, but Shah like, burst into light and shot into you. Next thing we knew he was gone, and you were like, totally naked and shiny.”
“Shiny?” She nodded. I laughed. “Like glass?” She nodded again, albeit more stiffly.
“You’ve been asleep for almost a day,” she said. “We got you back to the vamps and they immediately flew you out of Malaysia. The wolves tried to reach us, but we left before they did. Somehow, though, they managed to secure a faster plane. They just landed in Tahoe and are waiting for us. Misha’s there, too. We should touch down in another hour.”
“Misha’s there? Oh, how’d he like Europe?”
No one seemed to like my question and blinked back at me like I’d gone nuts. But I wasn’t nuts. I felt F-I-N-E, fine. Oh so fine. I tried to lift my arms. That’s when I realized my entire body was restrained in leather straps.
I didn’t like the feel, and I especially didn’t like the blanket covering me. So I extended my claws and ripped myself free. My sisters backed away as I stretched and poofed out my silky hair. I paused and stared at my perfectly round and perky breasts shimmering back at me.
Shimmering? That was new. I glanced up at my sisters and pointed at my girls. “Is this what you meant by shiny?” I asked them.
“Son of a bitch,” Taran muttered.
Emme backed away and motioned me toward the bathroom door that had a full-length mirror secured to the back. She opened the door carefully, revealing the mirror. “This may come as a bit of a shock,” she said.
I shrugged and strutted forward, feeling sexy. God, it was good to be alive. I spun, loving how the air felt agains
t my naked body, only to freeze when I caught my reflection.
My entire body had lost any trace of color. The sparkles from the crush of diamonds encasing my form were the only things keeping me from being completely translucent. I ran my hands over my arms, breasts, and hair. Silky softness greeted me, but I was no longer the same. My hair, my eyes, my body, everything glimmered.
“Oh my God,” I gasped.
Shayna approached me with her hands out. “Ceel, you’re going to be all right—”
“I’m gor-geous!” I squealed and spun to stare at my round, smackable ass.
Everyone quieted, leaving me to flounce in front of the mirror. My porn-star big hair flew around me in perfect delectable waves. “Aric loves when my hair gets all messy during sex,” I admitted. “Did I ever tell you that?” I asked when all they did was gape at me.
Taran slowly shook her head. “I can honestly say you’ve never mentioned that before.”
Emme covered her mouth. “What’s wrong with her?”
Agnes leaned against the door frame, her shoulders shaking with her laughter. “I think she’s drunk off Shah’s power.” She whipped out her phone and aimed the camera at me. “Edith is going to die when I show her.”
Taran stormed over and smacked the phone out of her hand, her blue eyes igniting with rage. “If my sister ends up on YouTube, I swear to Christ I’ll set your ass on fire.”
“Damn, you’re bitchy,” Agnes shot back.
“Sweetheart, you haven’t seen how bitchy or murderous I can be.” She pointed at me. “Does Misha know what you and your goddamn plan did to her?”
Agnes lifted her chin. “No. Celia and Shah’s clashing magic have interfered with our communication system. The only message we received is of the master’s and the mongrels’ arrival.” She shrugged. “We’ll be landing in forty minutes. They’ll know soon enough.”
She pushed off from the door frame and returned to the main cabin.
I spent the rest of the ride bouncing around the plane, so full of energy. My sisters spent it pacing and debating how they were going to tell Aric.
