I leapt up in an instant, reaching for my other dagger. The monster flicked shimmering black eyes onto me and roared deafeningly. The bloodfire was wholly in control, however, and I didn’t flinch. I was about to fling the dagger at the creature with everything I had when a shape flew out of the trees behind me and launched itself at it. It was a were-panther, sleek and gleaming in the moonlight. It slammed into the beast’s body, the force of its collision making it stagger backwards slightly, setting off another surge through the ground. The panther’s jaws snapped and snatched away at a clump of the beast’s flesh but it hung onto its side.
From the left spread of trees, three transformed shifters pounded out and went for its leg. Three others came from the right and attached themselves to its huge tree trunk of an arm. It stamped its feet, roared again and shook them off, sending them into the dunes with a chorus of pained whines. The ground shook again. The panther sprang from the thing’s side to its shoulder, claws digging into it to cling on whilst it roared again and flailed around trying to pull the cat off. I saw my chance and threw again, aiming for its hand. And this time, I didn’t miss, as the sharp pointed embedded itself in the creature’s palm. It howled in agony and clutched at the dagger, trying to pull it out, momentarily ignoring the panther.
Another wave of shifters attacked in concertina. The monster kicked out at one werefox, catching it on its hind legs, almost immediately snapping the bone with a sickening crunch. Tom, in wolf form, attacked the monster back, his fangs latching onto its ankle. I sidestepped, trying to gain a better point with which to aid the panther, which stayed clinging onto the massive shoulders, occasionally swiping a giant paw at the side of its head.
My blood wasn’t happy. Much more of this and the panther would knock it out before I got the chance to do anything. Anton’s bear joined Tom and clawed at the tendons on its back leg. The monster picked up its foot and shook them off in one quick sudden movement. Again, as soon as its padded foot returned to the ground, another earthquake hit, sending shifters flying everywhere. The panther took another chance to claw the beast’s head, but this time it mistimed and was knocked off in the rolling aftershock. I saw my chance as it bent to grab the panther and took a running leap onto its outstretched back.
I ran up to its neck, legs powering up the slope of its inclined posture, momentum carrying me, with my hands pulling on clumps of fur to reach the top. Hanging on to a horn with one hand and reaching into my trusty backpack with my other hand for my spare knife, I knew what to do.
Goddammit, Mackenzie, shift now!
Knock it off its feet, Corrigan I sent back calmly.
I sensed, rather than saw, the panther pause for a heartbeat then pull back with all the shifters to the dunes. It seemed as if there was a moment of absolute stillness and quiet before, almost immediately, as one group of fur-balled killing machines, they rushed the monster’s legs. The force of their attack flipped it off its feet for just a split second, allowing me to drive the point of my blade into its carotid artery and feel warm blood spilling out over my hands. The creature staggered again, this time falling onto its knees as I sprang back out of the way. With a heavy groan it keeled slowly down to the ground, hands flailing towards its neck in vain. Then, finally, it was silent.
Chapter Eleven
I wiped my hands of the creature’s blood on the damp grass and surveyed the damage. My bloodfire was gradually subsiding into a pit of devastation as a part of me realised that this was definitely not what had killed John – its tracks were labored in sharp definition across the sand and heavier ground. And yet, it seemed that it was just too much coincidence that it had taken this moment, a scant two days after his death, to appear in the very same spot where he’d drawn his last breath. There had to be some kind of connection.
I stood up and noted a very naked and very annoyed Corrigan right in front of me. He grabbed me by the shoulders and shook.
“What the hell did you think you were doing?” he growled.
I tried to pull away but his grip was too tight. “I thought that it might have been what killed John. I wanted to kill it back.” I managed at least to sound calm, even if I didn’t feel it.
“That part I understand,” he snapped, “but what fool part of you thought that you could take it on by yourself?”
“Is your pride dented, my lord? Who’s the kitten now then?” I said, unable to prevent myself from taunting him softly. Hah, who was frightened of the big scary Lord Alpha? Not me, no sirree.
“I compelled you.” His liquid green gold eyes bored intensely into mine.
I shrugged complacently. “So in the heat of the moment it didn’t take. You’re not my alpha, remember.”
His grip tightened even more and I winced in pain. “I am the Lord Alpha. I am everyone’s alpha.”
“Hey, you’re new at this game, remember? It’s not my fault if you’ve not fully come into all your lordly power yet.”
The answering glare was absolutely terrifying. I rather belatedly considered that I should not be antagonising this shifter in any way after all. In fact, I had the sudden unshakeable belief that he was about to literally tear my head off. My temper would get me killed long before any of the Brethren ever realised the truth about me. And I had to remember that it was more than just my life on the line. There was the rest of my pack to consider too. Bugger.
I cast my eyes down submissively but I didn’t tremble. Well, not much, at least anyway. I still wasn’t scared of him, I was just pretending to be scared. Honest to goodness. “I’m sorry, my Lord. My disappointment at realising this was not my alpha’s murderer along with the adrenaline from the fight has caused me to speak out of turn. I bow to your ultimate authority, in accordance with the Way.” Way Directive 73: Any shifter who challenges their alpha’s authority is bound to accept whatever punishment is deemed necessary. I could take it.
I hadn’t thought it was possible, but his grip tightened even further for just a brief second before he abruptly released me and turned away. “Your punishment shall be meted out in due course, shifter. Your role in taking down the beast is noted in your favour.”
I peeked a glance up. He was stalking off towards the monster’s body and I was apparently dismissed - for the time being at least. I raised my head and saw that all of the shifters around me, in various states of nudity, were looking aghast at my foolish bravado. I guiltily noted that Tom’s eyes were the most horrorstruck, whilst Anton’s proclaimed that he’d always known I’d do or say something stupid like this before long. Lucy looked like she’d swallowed a small furry creature of her own.
Shit, I was such an idiot sometimes. All I had to do was keep quiet and stay out of the Brethren’s way. You wouldn’t think it would take all that much effort. My gaze fell on the massive prone body of the beast we’d just killed. I should probably focus on it and see what I could find out about it rather than trying to engage any more shifters in small talk.
Ignoring the continued stares of the others, I headed up to the beast’s head and crouched down. It was definitely an ugly looking thing. Its black eyes were fixed sightlessly to the horizon, as if it was waiting for whatever had summoned it to this plane to come and help. A few of the shifters came over as well and stood over it, looking down. As I tilted my head, something glittering on the side of its cavernous nostril caught my eye. It was a little silver stud pierced into the side. I appreciated its glitter for a moment before I reached over and hooked my fingers inside the nostril itself, finding the butterfly keeping it in place and pulling it out.
One or two of the shifters beside me looked faintly ill. Whatever. I liked shiny things and this would find a place in my little wooden chest with all my other memorabilia.
Alex came up. “Whatcha got there?”
I showed him, wordlessly. I wasn’t sure I could trust myself to speak yet without incriminating myself further.
He looked at it and grimaced. “Lovely,” then focused on the beast itself. “Sweeet! A terrametu
s beast! How did you get it in the air?”
Staines appeared in front of us. “We knocked it off its feet for a second at her,” he nodded to me, “behest. Then she killed it. It did not fly.”
Alex seemed rather impressed. “It didn’t need to. That moment away from the ground would have done it. Terrameti get their strength from the ground, as soon as they lose contact with the earth they become as weak as kittens. Nice work, Mack Attack!”
There was a glint of skeptical approval in Staines’ eyes. He turned to Alex and raised his eyebrows. “Where were you during the attack, Mr Floride?”
There wasn’t a trace of embarrassment anywhere to be seen on Alex’s face. “Dude, I told ya on the phone. I don’t fight. I’m a…”
“Lover, not a fighter?” It popped out before I could stop myself. I was really going to have to stop doing that.
Fortunately the mage didn’t try to kill me or grab me as Corrigan had done, he just laughed instead and licked his lips suggestively, “Something like that.”
Corrigan himself had apparently recovered enough from the trauma of having someone speak back to him because he strode arrogantly back over to us.
Alex touched his forelock in mock obeisance at the Lord Alpha and grinned at him easily. “That’s not the first time I’ve seen pack members’ rage mean that an alpha’s compulsion doesn’t work properly. You guys are taking this death pretty seriously.”
I blinked in surprise and tried not to appear too pathetically grateful at the mage offering me a get-out clause. Corrigan grunted slighted and ignored me completely, focusing on Alex. “Do your thing, then.”
He jerked back slightly. “What now? But I thought…”
“We haven’t got all day, or night. The thing that killed the Cornish alpha left no traces.” He jerked his head at the terrametus. “That did. So you need to scry and tell us what you can see.”
“Alpha dude, I’ll do better than that, I’ll show you.”
I was surprised that Corrigan didn’t try to rip Alex’s head off his shoulders too for calling him dude. Instead he just folded his arms and rocked back on his heels. Disturbingly he was still naked from his shift back to human. So was everyone else but somehow Corrigan’s nudity demanded more attention. At least I’d spent enough time around the pack to avoid moving my eyes to anywhere other than his face. It wasn’t easy though.
I decided that looking at Alex was probably a safer option. The mage had closed his eyes and I noticed with fascination that blue sparks were forming at the clenched fists he had down by his sides. There was a faint hum in the air then he opened up his palms.
Blue light sprang forward, snaking through the air. It streamed past the body of the terrametus as if it wasn’t even there and instead curved through in stretched coils to the top of the dunes. That was where the seven coals were. The light coalesced there and formed a shape. I screwed up my eyes, trying to work out what it was.
“Can you tell what it is yet?” asked Alex in a mock Aussie accent.
“Try harder, mage,” Corrigan ordered in a low rumble of a voice.
Up until that point I had been very impressed with the mage’s offerings. Clearly this was just kids’ stuff and there was a lot more to come.
The light swirled around some more. It looked oddly human shaped: there were two arms, two legs, and it wasn’t that big either. At least not when compared it to the corpse next to us at least. The features tightened somewhat and I realised that I was looking at a woman. She had long hair that spread out behind her in the non-existent wind and a smooth unlined face. Her blue lit arms lifted gently and moved almost musically in the air, as if she was conducting an orchestra. She was facing towards us, and towards the spot where John’s body had lain. My eyes drifted down her body, noting a flowing gown, much like the one I’d expected to see Alex in actually. Then I realised that her feet weren’t touching the ground.
“Is she meant to be floating? I mean, is that a side-effect of the scrying?” I asked.
Alex’s eyes were screwed shut in concentration and it was Corrigan who answered. “No. What you see is what was here. Neither would the dunes would not have shifted that much in the last forty-eight hours. She is hovering above the ground.”
“Fuck me,” I breathed.
Corrigan looked at me for a second and seemed about to say something before he clearly thought better of it and switched his attention back to the mage. “Is that it, Mr Floride? Is there a trail?”
The blue light shifted slightly from the woman’s shape but did little else. “No trail,” Alex said, with some effort.
“Then we’re done,” said Corrigan. “The money will be transferred to your account within the hour. Can you take care of this?” He asked, motioning towards the earthquake monster. Alex nodded and, with that, Corrigan snapped his fingers and shifted back seamlessly to a panther. The other Brethren, and Anton I noted, also shifted, then twisted back to the direction of the keep and bounded off. Just before the tree line, Corrigan’s head turned and his panther eyes, as green gold as his human ones, glanced back towards me for one second, before snapping back to the front and disappearing into the night.
Tom stood there and looked at me hopelessly. The desire in him to join them and be part of the Brethren, even if only just for the brief trip back to the keep, was so overwhelmingly transparent that I waved at him in irritability. “Go.”
Gratitude flashed in his eyes and he was gone, leaving just Alex and I alone in front of the dunes, with the terrametus and a few fading blue smoky tendrils.
Chapter Twelve
Before too long the only sound left was the gentle to and fro of the waves lapping on the beach behind us. Alex pulled a small round object from the pocket of his jeans and began to murmur something. I watched in fascination. The tiny sphere grew and lifted itself into the air then moved to hover the corpse of the terrametus. All of a sudden, light exploded from it, showering the body and causing me to shield my eyes. A heartbeat later all that was left was a faint shadow outlined on the sand.
Alex reached out and the sphere flew back to his hand, returned to its original size and landed in his opened palm. He stuffed in back into his pocket and looked at me.
“Now the beast dudes are gone, perhaps you can tell me what a human is doing here. And why you smell so – different.”
I was still momentarily mesmerised by his display of power but I shook myself out of it and gazed at him assessingly, wondering how far I could trust him. He could reveal my true nature to the Brethren at any point. But there was just something about him that made me feel comfortable and I figured that if he’d been going to tell away all my secrets, he’d have already done so already by now. And he had managed to explain away why I’d ignored Corrigan’s compulsion. I felt the sudden overwhelming desire to unburden myself. I rarely brought the subject up with the pack because it made them feel uncomfortable to be reminded of what I was. Even Tom tried to change the subject whenever I’d spoken about it. Added to which, I was starting to both like and admire the gangly mage. In for a penny in for a pound, I supposed.
“I don’t know who my father was,” I said softly. “And my memories of my mother are rather hazy. I have flashes – I know she was petite and dark haired, unlike me, with a kind voice and a good heart. I remember little things, like driving through the snow and wishing I could make a snowman. She stopped the car in a layby and we got out and did just that – built a tiny one by the side of the road, even though we had no gloves and it had to have been below zero. She made things fun.”
I paused, remembering. Alex stayed silent. “I know that we were always on the move and we never stayed in one place for very long. She discouraged me from making friends and it was if we were always running from something. At least I certainly never knew where we running to, so I suppose that we were trying to escape from something. Or someone.
And then one day we ended up here. It seemed like she knew where she was going and that she knew who the pack were.
But she must have been human because that’s what I am so I don’t know how she knew of them. She walked straight into the keep without knocking and was stopped by John in the hall. He asked her what was going on and all she did was push me at him. Then she turned and walked out. Before she left the threshold of the keep, she turned and said, ‘No-one must ever know. You are all bound to keep her secret.’ And she left. She never came back. I’d sit by the window of the library for hours and days, and then weeks, watching for the car to come and for her to jump back out and take me away with her, but she never did.
The words that she’d said must have had power to them because no-one in the pack has ever been able to talk of me to another. They tried – John later told me that he had called up the Brethren for help with what to do with this human child they’d suddenly found themselves lumbered with and found he couldn’t speak. He’d said it was like having a weight clawing his tongue to the bottom of his mouth, and that the pain inside his head when he even thought of revealing to an outsider who I was had been excruciating. After trying to break the geas himself, and failing repeatedly, he compelled the others to never attempt it themselves either.
I laughed, sharply. “They weren’t happy to have me. John was always kind but sometimes back in those early days he had a look in his eyes as if he’d like to just drown me in the nearest well. There were others who were less kind.
Bloodfire (Blood Destiny) Page 12
