by Cecy Robson
No sooner did I sit up than my arm popped back into place. While it did hurt, there was a warm, invigorating sensation at the site that gave me an added boost. Had I been fighting, the extra energy would have empowered me to keep going.
So I kept going, all the way out the window.
My swift punch knocked out the screen so I could climb out. It was a chilly late October afternoon, but the strong breeze enlivened my beast. My claws protruded from my fingertips and toes, helping me climb the side of our house and onto the roof. I stretched at the top. The shingles felt cold against my bare feet. I jogged in place, enjoying the bouncing sensation against my soles. While it felt fantastic to move, I had a lot of pent-up energy that willed me to act, to seek out evil, to go after anything that sought to taint this magnificent world.
“Celia Wird! What are you doing up there?”
I got my wish.
Mrs. Mancuso, my elderly neighbor from the Planet Yardstick Up Your Ass, was outside planting mums along her front walkway. She threw down her garden tools and stood, scowling. When we first moved in, I actually felt sorry for her. She lived alone and had neck skin dangling to her knees. It soon became apparent that she was alone because she was simply too miserable to be around.
Mrs. Mancuso narrowed her beady rat eyes. “I always knew you were smoking crack. I’m calling the police. You’re going to jail, Celia Wird. You and your drug-dealing sisters!”
I didn’t kill her, though my tigress tried to convince me it would be one less evil entity besmirching the world. Instead I did what any decent being with werewolf blood coursing in her veins would have done. I dropped my shorts and mooned her. “Smoke this,” I said, slapping my ass.
Full-out cackling from the front lawn had me pulling up my shorts and peering over the roof’s edge. Taran was rolling on the damp grass in hysterics. Her arms were clutching her sides and she was kicking her stiletto-clad feet in the air. Danny and Emme simply stared, their expressions frozen in shock.
Emme dropped the keys she was holding on the grass. “Oh my goodness,” she whispered.
The front door was thrown open. Koda and Shayna ran out. “Shit!” Koda yelled. “Aric, she’s on the roof!”
“What?” Aric said from inside the house. He sprinted outside with his cellphone clutched in his hand, eyes wide. “Never mind, Heidi,” he said into the phone. “We found her.”
Bren rushed out, dragging a set of thick shackles. He tucked the chains behind his back and grinned. “Hey, Ceel. Come on down, I want to talk to you.” To Koda he muttered, “Get the cage.”
“Celia, don’t panic,” Aric said. “I’m coming up.”
“I’m not panicking,” I answered, unsure as to why everyone was acting funny. The restlessness I felt was quickly increasing. I had so much energy that my body couldn’t keep still. I jogged in place at full speed while pumping my arms erratically. Aric paused briefly to watch me before soaring onto the porch roof and scaling the side of the house. Next door, Shayna was rather unsuccessfully attempting to calm Mrs. Mancuso.
“Get away from me, you whore,” Mrs. Mancuso snapped when Shayna approached her with her palms out. For someone over eighty, Mrs. Mancuso was extremely agile. The old hag leapt through her yard like a newborn fawn and reached for her garden hose. Like Vin Diesel, albeit with way looser skin, she pointed her weapon and fired, spraying the crap out of Shayna.
It was then Taran stopped laughing.
“Son of a bitch, woman. What the hell’s wrong with you—?”
Mrs. Mancuso was a woman possessed. She must have been waiting and plotting for years to use her gardening tools and supplies against us. She doused Taran with water while simultaneously pelting her with flower bulbs. Danny and Koda stepped in. Danny was taken out almost immediately by a handful of potting soil to the eyes. Koda went after her next. I didn’t see what happened because Aric grabbed me in a tight bear hug and pulled me away from the ledge.
“Bren, open the cage!” he yelled.
“Baby, what are you doing?” I asked. Before he could answer, my body began to convulse.
Shah, a voice demanded.
Shah, it said louder.
Shah! it screamed.
Aric tightened his hold. Instead of comforting me, it made me loopy and I shook more forcibly. My vision whirled in a blur and my breathing rate went into overdrive. I was trapped, like a cornered beast. And my inner tigress didn’t like it one bit.
I grunted and growled, the energy inside me boiling over. “Let me go, Aric,” I pleaded. “I need to run, I need to run.”
“Celia—”
“I need to run!” I screamed.
Aric released me and I immediately jumped off the roof. I briefly saw Mrs. Mancuso wave two angry middle fingers at me before I tore down toward the lake. Aric sprinted after me, with Danny hauling ass behind him.
“Celia, stop. Let Dan touch your skin!” Aric yelled from behind me. “We need to figure out what’s wrong.”
I couldn’t stop. Every cell in my body was imploring me to go faster, but I did manage to slow down enough for Danny to catch up to me. He grabbed my wrist as we continued to run. Other than a slight popping noise in my ear, I didn’t feel a thing. “Celia’s okay,” Dan said, gasping. “She just received too much of Shayna’s blood.”
“You think?” Aric growled.
“The effects feel like they’re deteriorating as she runs,” he said, releasing me. “Just let her go, she’ll burn it off.”
I sped off then, and damn, did it feel good to increase my speed. Aric picked up his pace and joined me. “I’m okay, Aric. Check on the others. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“I’m not leaving you,” he said. “The others can take on Mancuso alone.” He thought about it. “Maybe.”
Well, let’s hope.
We cut through the path leading to the road. We crossed it quickly and hurried onto the beach just when it started to rain. My bare feet hit the cool sand, moving fast. Shayna’s blood was amazing. I couldn’t remember feeling so alive.
I thought I’d run a few miles and then turn around, but I kept going long after we passed the five-mile mark. My physical endurance seemed unstoppable. We reached the seven-mile mark at full speed and yet my legs had no desire to slow down.
Aric dutifully ran next to me despite the thunder, lightning, and hailstorm that had begun. It wasn’t until we ran another mile, however, that Aric and I began talking. “I mooned Mrs. Mancuso.”
Aric’s head whipped around to me before he let out a laugh. He coughed some as well. I assumed it was hard for him to pant and guffaw at the same time. “Taran’s essence in your system probably had something to do with it,” he said, gasping.
I groaned. “Why couldn’t I have just acted like Emme? You know, blushed a few times and called it a day.”
“Because Taran’s blood is more dominant,” he answered, continuing to laugh. “My guess is that Shayna’s wolf side responded more to Taran’s aggression.”
We ran another three miles before I finally relaxed enough to turn back in the direction of the house. By the time we were almost to the path that led back to our neighborhood I’d slowed my full-out run to a fast walk.
Aric reached for my hand the moment we stepped onto the path. I gasped when that wonderful heat between us returned full force. He stared at our entwined fingers, and we slowed to a stop. He breathed a sigh of relief and smiled, a sense of peace appearing to envelop his entire aura. “It’s back,” he said.
My grip tightened. “I know.”
Twilight was quickly approaching. Our porch light flickered on as we reached the front walkway.
Shayna and Koda glanced up from where they lay sprawled on the couch. “You okay, Ceel?”
“I’m fine,” I said, this time meaning it.
Aric gathered the hair that dangled to my knees and pressed a kiss to my forehead. “She just needed to burn off some energy.”
Koda laughed. “No shit, she did.”
“Where is everyone?” I asked.
“Emme took off with Bren after he talked Mrs. Mancuso out of suing you for public indecency.”
More than anything, Emme’s decision to leave with Bren caught my attention. “Did Emme and Bren say where they were headed?” Please don’t say to bed. Oh, please, please, please.
“Not really. She said something about helping him out in his apartment.” Shayna cocked her head. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Oh. Sorry.” I cleared my throat, but it did little to clear the disturbing images racing through my head. I loved Bren. I truly did. But Emme had been lonely since Liam left her and his death practically destroyed her. My little sister was vulnerable. I only hoped Bren realized as much….
“What about Danny and Taran?” I asked, struggling to come back to the moment.
“Danny left. He needed to get back to the lab.” She made a face. “Gemini stopped by to make sure we were okay. He and T got into a bad fight and she left. I tried calling to check on her, but she’s not answering her phone.”
I played with my hair, hating what was happening between them. “She probably needs some time alone. I think the least we can do is give her space.”
“I know,” Shayna said, her voice quiet. She rose and motioned to my hair. “What are you going to do with all that hair, Rapunzel?”
“Donate it,” I answered at the same time Aric said, “Keep it.”
He tugged on it, smiling. “All right, but it could have been fun.”
Shayna grinned and quickly braided my hair. She had Aric hold the end while she skipped into the kitchen and used her gift to transform a wooden spoon into a sharp pair of scissors. In one motion she cut the braid. She played with my ends, smiling. “If you want, I’ll even them out, maybe add a few layers?”
“Tomorrow, okay?” I glanced at Aric as he continued to speak quietly to Koda.
“Do me a favor, Koda,” he said. “Go to the Den and ask Makawee to check on Shah.”
Koda frowned. “Why?”
Aric rubbed his chest. “I don’t think he’s safe there. I think he’s better off here, with us. If she’s agreeable, ask her to give him to you, but don’t touch him directly.”
Koda leaned back on his heels. “You’re sure about this? After all the shit that went down last night?”
“It’s clear Shah wants to be with Celia, and I’m not certain the Den is the best place for him.”
Koda nodded slowly. “I don’t agree, Aric. But if this is what you think is best, I’ll leave right now.”
Shayna shoved my braid into a giant sandwich bag and skipped to Koda’s side. “I’ll go with you, puppy. Maybe we can pick up some dinner on the way up.”
Any wariness that remained in Koda seemed to vanish when Shayna wrapped her thin arms around his big bulging one. He bent to meet her lips. “Okay, baby.”
Aric kicked off his shoes and led me upstairs when they left. He shut the door and stripped out of his shirt, taking a moment to push his long hair away from those tantalizing brown eyes. “Do you want to take a shower?” he asked.
His chest continued to rise and fall in steady motions and drops of perspiration or rain glistened against the hard muscles of his chiseled torso.
“Later,” I answered before I pounced.
It seemed I still had some energy left after all.
Chapter 21
I rolled onto my side sometime later, blinking with my tigress eyes to make out the images in our dark room. Aric had left our bed. My hands pressed the sheet over my breasts as I sat up. I frowned. The house seemed unusually quiet. Yes, my family was out, but it was more than that. Something was different in our bedroom, as if all life had vanished.
I slipped out of bed and pulled on a pair of panties. “Aric?” I called, although something within me insisted he wasn’t there. I sat on the edge of the bed and waited for—I don’t know— sound maybe?
Heavy breaths behind our closed bathroom doors had me sighing in relief. I smiled. Aric was there, I wasn’t alone. “I thought you’d left,” I said.
His breathing stopped, cut off as if with the flip of a switch. Something in the quiet riled my beast and sent her on high alert. Her agitation poked at me, making me uneasy. I tried to settle her as best I could, reminding her that Aric was with us, when Shah suddenly materialized on my dresser.
My eyes widened. He shouldn’t have been here. I shook my head at him, trying to get him to leave. My tigress warned against announcing his presence. I listened and mouthed to Shah that it wasn’t safe for him here.
From one breath to the next, he was gone. I pushed the hair out of my eyes and returned to bed, keeping my attention on the closed double doors. Once more, only silence greeted me. “Aric? Are you all right, love?”
Aric pushed open the doors. Moonlight trickled in from the skylight behind him, shadowing his face. I didn’t give it much thought and edged away, making room for him beside me. “I’m starving. Let’s order takeout, okay?”
I turned and reached for my cellphone while I waited for him to answer, then scrolled through my list of contacts. “The bar and grill down the road should still be open. Do you want something from there?”
Aric crawled under the covers without speaking. There was something different about him, but I didn’t initially know what. His large hand came to rest on my hip. “Not now,” he murmured in an unusually deep voice.
I thought he wanted to make love, but instead of his gentle teases and strokes that usually preceded our intimacy, he slapped his hand over my scars and yanked me to him. I startled, clasping his wrist when he moved his hand aggressively south.
I dropped my phone. “Aric, stop. You’re hurting me.” He wrenched free from my grasp and grabbed my breast, squeezing it hard. Fear and shock warred within me, blinding me to what was happening. I struggled to shrug him off, but his hold on me tightened, and his motions grew more demanding, forcing me to submit.
He rammed his hips against me. “Aric, stop—stop!” My breath lodged in my throat. At once I realized his scent was completely gone and so was any trace of warmth. A cold chill swept down my body, making my stomach lurch.
This isn’t Aric.
I fought against his hold. His teeth clamped down on my neck, piercing my skin with all the aggressiveness of a hungry beast upon his prey. Warm fluid trickled down my neck. “Shut up!” he growled when I screamed.
Even through a mouthful of blood, I knew the voice was not his.
My legs kicked out savagely at his shins. His bone snapped beneath my heel. He grunted, but instead of releasing me he wrapped his injured leg around both of mine and clasped his hand over my mouth. I could barely breathe, the force of his hand bruising my lips.
I couldn’t get enough air through my nose. My breaths had quickened to racehorse speed, and my heart threatened to explode from the rush of terror. I tried to change and break away, but my tigress was gone.
He held me with just one arm while his other hand released my mouth only to grab at my breasts brutally. I let out a choked sob. “Aric, no!”
He flipped me onto my back, landing so his knees pinned my arms. I was screaming and crying, knowing I was about to be raped. I knew this, and that thought hurt more than the pain against my arms and the swelling bruises to my breasts. My cries grew hysterical. I fought and kicked, bucking hard, and still I couldn’t get free.
He released a horrid growl and pulled back his fist. Everything slowed, allowing me to meet the wretched cruelty in his eyes. He looked like Aric, but there was nothing of the real him left. And although I knew this, I reached out, hoping to find a trace of my wolf locked within this shell.
“You told me you’d never hurt me,” I choked. “You told me you loved me.”
He stilled with his fist in the air, closing his eyes and his mouth tight. There was a deep rumbling in his chest, like lava building within a volcano. Whatever this thing was, it was about to erupt. I needed to escape, yet I remained too helpless to mo
ve.
His head jerked hard to one side then the other, forcing his neck to the point of breaking. A growl mixed with a curse escaped his lips while a turmoil of emotions flooded his face—sadness, guilt, gut-wrenching fear, but most of all primal fury.
When I was sure he’d kill me, his face whipped back to meet mine. Sweat dripped down to his chin, and just as abruptly as he’d attacked, he withdrew, stumbling from the bed and backing into the corner.
I scrambled to the floor panting so hard I thought I’d pass out. “A-Aric?”
He swiveled his head from side to side in an awkward gesture that told me he still hadn’t regained control. “Run, Celia,” he rasped. “Run.” He searched the room as if something else was there, until he faced me once more. “You need to go—do you hear me? You need to go, now!”
Tears trickled down my face. Without turning my eyes from his I reached for the robe at the foot of the bed. I slapped at the silky fabric several times, before my trembling hands could finally lift it. I continued to shake as I pulled it on, terrified to be naked. “No. I won’t leave you.”
Aric reeled fast enough to make me jump. His hand gripped our leather chair, crushing the frame with the strength of his grip. “Go,” he urged. “Go!”
The tendons and muscles stretched along Aric’s broad back, straining and threatening to sever his spine. He was in agony. Something was tearing him in half.
I covered my mouth with my hand, knowing I should leave; yet I couldn’t force my feet to run. He needs us, my tigress insisted. He needs you.
My entire body shook violently as I inched my way to him. Every rational thought should have sent me bolting from the house. But I couldn’t leave him, and neither could my tigress. My fingers quivered as I reached to touch him, but just as my skin skimmed over his, Aric catapulted through the window.
Glass exploded in his wake and there was a loud thud as he hit the ground below. A sharp burning sensation filled my lungs as I took my first full breath. For a moment, my body simply swayed in place and my vision seemed to double. Somewhere deep within me, my tigress roared, snapping me out of this cloud of confusion.
