by Riley Storm
“Which would bring him into harm’s way, which is exactly what I’m trying to avoid,” she growled, irritated that she couldn’t keep herself in line with the plan. Why did Klaue have to keep popping back up into her brain? If it wasn’t his hard muscles, it was his laugh, or his smile. It was always something.
If you go back, Klaue risks being seen with you, being targeted because of you. They might hurt him. Because of you.
She didn’t like the idea of him being hurt. It bothered her a lot more than she anticipated, helping Jessica to firmly put the idea of going back there in the rear view mirror. She was done with House Ursa and ready to head out on her own.
The distant drone of a car engine reached her ears. A few moments later, she was able to pinpoint the location as coming from behind her. Jessica smiled, turned around and started walking backward toward the gate, thumb stuck out to the side. Hopefully, whoever it was, they would help her out with a ride.
The black SUV slowed down as it approached, then went past her before coming to a halt. The windows were tinted, but she could see a large figure at the wheel.
“Yes!” she said with a little fist pump, hurrying toward the passenger door.
Before she could get there though, she heard the driver’s door open and close, and a second later, Klaue came walking around the front of the vehicle.
“What do you want?” she asked, realizing her odds of getting a lift had just vanished. Sighing in frustration, she started walking again, forcing him to walk as well if he wanted to talk.
“I want to help.”
Jessica blinked. “What? You want to help? How are you going to do that?”
Klaue’s longer steps brought him to her side with ease. He was walking a little closer to her than she wanted, but Jessica was already at the side of the road. If she moved over any more, she’d be walking on the uneven grass.
“I don’t know yet,” he confessed, answering her question. “But I’m going to help, I know that much.”
“That’s very descriptive,” she said drily, still looking straight ahead, not slowing. “But do you have a plan?”
“No,” he admitted. “Not a complete one.”
“How complete is it?”
“I have the first step?” he said sheepishly.
Jessica sighed. ‘Okay, well, let’s hear that at least.”
“Step one is convincing you to come back,” he said immediately, without hesitating or needing to think.
“Can’t do that,” she told him as the road curved slightly to the left, forcing her to turn into him to keep from walking off the paved surface.
“Why the heck not?” he ground out.
Good. The sooner he grew frustrated, the sooner he would turn back. To safety.
“I told you already. I’m not putting you, or your friends, in danger for any longer. Besides, this way it’ll be easier for you as well. They want me gone.”
The manicured lawns on either side of the road gave way as they left them behind and entered the covered canopy of the forest that encircled the property like a moat. For a second, Jessica wondered if they kept the equivalent of land alligators in the forest.
Land alligators? Really?
“That’s not really fair,” Klaue said after the silence had grown nice and thick. “They would be more inclined to trust you if you should just tell us more about you.”
Jessica finally spun to face him. “You need to stop prying at my secrets, Klaue,” she snapped. “Haven’t I made that clear already?”
She looked up at him with as much force behind her glare as she could muster. It was tough, because she didn’t enjoy being mad at him, no matter how valid the reasoning in her mind. He was just trying to help.
“I’m not talking about your secret,” he said softly, showing no sign that he was affected in the slightest by her outburst or impolite looks.
“Huh? What are you talking about then?” she asked, continuing to walk, but intrigued now.
“Little details.”
“Like?”
“I don’t know. Your last name. What brought you to Plymouth Falls? Things like that. Things that will help the others feel more comfortable trusting you.
Jessica wanted to tell him to piss off. To either drive her to the gates or leave her alone, one or the other. It’s what she should have done, the smart move. But she couldn’t. He was too earnest, too damned cute in his persistence. It was infuriating!
What harm can come by telling him some of your backstory? He already knows your sister is mated to someone in Canis, after all. It’s why they all suspect you of being a spy.
“I got laid off,” she admitted finally. “The factory I worked for is closing, and they were paying people to start leaving. I took the early severance package after a bit of negotiating. Then I decided to take some time off before looking for the next job. I’ve got a bit of a nest-egg saved up, so I would be fine, I decided.”
Klaue was hanging off her every word as she continued to walk into the forest, not yet decided about whether or not she was going to return to the House. That would bear more thought first.
“I came out here. I’ve been to Plymouth Falls before, but not in several years. I missed my sister. We were really close as kids and growing up, but once we started living in different cities, that faded.”
She didn’t mention her own feelings, that she felt Lorran was trying to cut her off from her old life, to rid himself of the Hanes family entirely.
“My last name is Hanes, by the way,” she added, remembering his other question. “Not that it will help you in any way, but there you have it. Any other questions?” She’d meant it to come out cheery, but her current mood twisted the knob on her voice to extreme sarcasm instead.
Klaue glanced at her before she could respond, his eyebrows raised at the caustic tone.
“Sorry,” she said, hunching over slightly. “I meant that to sound normal. Seriously, any other little questions?”
It felt somewhat cathartic to talk to him about her life, she realized, as long as they danced around the events of the past few days.
“Who is your sister mated to? Can you tell me that?”
Jessica almost said no, but realized that if he truly wanted to he could find out, due to Lorran’s position as a Title Holder. “Lorran,” she said slowly. “He’s some sort of bigwig I guess, I don’t really know, I never bothered to care.”
“Lorran?” Klaue said, coming to a halt. “Like, Captain of House Canis, Lorran? That Lorran?”
“I guess?” she said, feeling kind of silly. Maybe she should have made a bigger deal of finding out what it was her sister’s mate did for his House. “Is he a big deal?”
“In a way,” Klaue said, choking over his words.
“Oh. Well I mean, I only ever knew him as Lorran. Even after my sister was mated to him, we never really talked about what he did. I knew he was some sort of high-up but, well, I didn’t like him and…Klaue? Are you even paying attention to me?”
The shifter had gone quiet, but even more unnerving than that, his body had gone still. He was looking out past her, into the forest ahead.
“Klaue?” she asked again, receiving nothing but a hand across her mouth.
“Shh,” he said quietly.
Jessica snatched his hand away. “What is it?” she asked in a faint whisper, following his gaze but seeing nothing.
“Trouble,” he said just as softly, looking around for a few moments. “Run for the car. The keys are in it. Take it and head back to the house.”
“What? Klaue I don’t under—”
“Now. Go!” he hissed.
“But why?” she asked, stepping backward and obeying his commands.
In response, a blast of red energy came screaming out of the forest straight toward her.
13
Klaue cursed as he tackled Jessica out of the way.
Red magic, or elemental magic, was the most commonly used form. It revolved around earth, wind, water, fire
, and was found across the globe in all manner of creatures, though only humans had learned how to harness it for their own uses.
He couldn’t use magic himself, but one thing the soldiers of his House trained for, was how to defend themselves from a magic user, in case they were ever set upon by one. The old war between shifters and mages might be over, but it would take a lot longer than a century for the habits to fade away.
Even as Klaue rolled to a halt, shielding Jessica from the worst of their tumble, he was snatching up objects from the grass and nearby forest. He rose to his feet and fired a chunk of asphalt. The black lump whizzed through the air on a direct return route from where the energy attack had come.
He didn’t expect it to hit anything or anyone, and he wasn’t disappointed when it sailed into the forest before bouncing across the ground. The mage was skilled, and he knew to move after every attack.
Another attack came, more red energy, this time from another angle. Jessica was still on the ground, staring up at him with horror written across her beautiful features. Seeing his possible mate like that ignited flames of protective desires within him. Klaue started ripping up the edge of the asphalt, fingers like steel as they dug into the tough material and snapped it with ease.
A veritable barrage of the chunks whizzed into the forest, whipping through the air like a buzzsaw as he moved back and forth in a half-circle.
Mages didn’t need to read spells from a book to cast their energy, but they did need to focus for a second or two before unleashing it. Taking a three-inch section of asphalt to the body would more than serve to distract the attacker long enough to delay their next attack. If Klaue could find his target.
“Get out of here!” he shouted, risking a moment to glance down at Jessica. “I’ll cover you. Go!”
He ripped up another section of asphalt and threw it as fast as he could snap it apart.
She got to her feet and took two steps before the pair of them were hit by a sonic wave erupting out of the forest to his left, an area Klaue hadn’t pelted with his makeshift missiles yet.
The green cone tumbled him through the air until it used up its energy. It faded and he bounced and rolled across the driveway, scraping his elbows and forearms fiercely. He came to a halt, took quick stock of his injuries and, realizing he was essentially unharmed, got to his feet, enraged.
Looking back at Jessica, he saw that she’d actually escaped the worst of the blast, only being spun to the ground near where she’d been standing. She was coughing and hunched over on all fours, but otherwise seemed unharmed, thank the gods.
Klaue reached deep inside him for the energy that would start his transformation into his alter ego, and forced it first into his head, ducking to the side as the hidden mage struck again. A cackling bolt of green energy whipped past his face, burying itself deep into the huge trunk of one of the mighty oaks that dotted the property, centuries old and massive in size.
Throwing his head back, Klaue bellowed loudly, his half-human, half-bear head creating the eerie sound that echoed out into the forest and back toward the house as well. Grinning, he turned his fearsome visage to the area of forest in which he suspected the mage of hiding.
Deep in the forest, the calls of the guards who patrolled the perimeter echoed his roar, a symphony of anger as the House came to understand they were under attack.
“You’re screwed now,” he chuckled as the calls died away, the voice twisted and deep, the half-bear half-human vocal chords making his threat extra intimidating.
He charged toward the mage’s hiding spot, passing a stunned-looking Jessica. Klaue didn’t look at her. Right now, he needed to focus on putting the mage on the defensive. That way, his energy would be directed at Klaue, not her. He didn’t have to defeat him, just distract him until help arrived.
Defeating him would be highly improbable anyway. This mage, assuming it was the same one, was good. Green magic was a tier above elemental. It could be shaped into a multitude of purposes, any of which would seriously injure, if not kill him. To defeat him would require either the Assassin, a trained mage-hunter, or the Magi of House Ursa himself.
Something shuffled in the forest ahead of him and Klaue finally got a good glimpse of his quarry as the mage stood up to face him, revealing himself. It was the same man, thick black eyebrows and angry red cuts on his face. There was no doubt in Klaue’s mind.
The mage then did something unexpected, especially with Klaue, who outmassed him by a hundred pounds and over half a foot, barreling down on him. He smiled. Victoriously.
Klaue had a split second to stare in shock as blue energy coursed up from the mage’s forearms and curled around his fists. Then the mage slammed his fists together and the attack shot out.
Throwing himself to the ground, Klaue gaped as the blast surged overtop him. Blue magic!
One of the things the Novarupta Accords had laid out when the Mage Council and Shifter Court had signed it to end the war that had stretched for fifteen hundred years, was that blue magic, death magic, was to be outlawed. Forbidden. Any mage who practiced it would be hunted and killed. Even lots of green magic was forbidden, deemed too powerful. Klaue had heard of mages in his lifetime being executed for using green magic in illegal ways.
But never blue.
Everything the wave touched wilted and died instantly. Including the massive oak that had already been impaled with the spear of green energy.
From his back, Klaue watched in horror as first the bark, then the outer wood itself wilted and turned to ash, the heartwood at its core the last to go before the mighty tree groaned and started to topple, the blackness spreading up its trunk as it leaned to the side.
“Klaue!”
His head snapped around, ignoring the danger of the nearby mage as he heard the terror in Jessica’s voice. She lay on the ground too, but her eyes were focused upward, on the tree that leaned even further. He gasped. She was right in its path!
Roaring in distress, he surged to his feet and raced to her side. The mighty oak’s groan grew louder, and wood started to snap as the weakened trunk gave way, gravity overcoming any last strength it had.
Klaue forced his body to change as he ran. The process wasn’t pleasant when he wasn’t under stress, but keeping moving at full speed while his body reshaped itself into a massive bear was excruciating. White spots danced across his vision, momentarily obscuring Jessica from his sight, but he didn’t stop moving. He was almost there.
“Klaue!” she screamed in terror.
He roared and dove for her, smothering her with his bulk a split second before the tree slammed down on top of him.
14
I’m dead.
The heavy, oppressive darkness weighed down on her. Was she going to hell? Jessica didn’t recall doing anything deserving of that punishment, but she certainly couldn’t see any light.
Then the weight on top of her moved. It wasn’t much, but she felt it rise and then fall slowly. It was warm. And furry.
Klaue!
Jessica came racing back to her senses, remembering seeing him coming out of the corner of her vision as the tree came down on top of her. Klaue had put himself between her and imminent death.
Now she was in danger of being smothered, but despite the heavy weight, she managed to push it to the side just enough to see light, pulling herself to safety with each breath of the massive bear.
Gasping for air, she finally crawled free, leaning her back against his bulk while she recovered.
“Klaue?” she asked once she had enough breath to speak. “Come on Klaue, get up. Move. Please.”
She poked at his side, giving him a shove with both hands, but he didn’t respond. The tree itself lay on top of him, a massive crack splitting the trunk in two a foot or so below his head. Jessica feared he may have taken a hard blow to the skull. Shifters healed quicker and better than humans, but she didn’t know how they handled head wounds.
“Come on, Klaue, get up. I can’t do this on my own,”
she whispered, rubbing his side, hoping against hope that he would come around.
The bear lay still, the only sign it was still alive the rise and fall of its flanks.
Movement through the crack in the tree caught her attention. Jessica went still as she saw the mage emerge from the woods. He was staring at the damage he’d caused, and though the slit was small, Jessica swore that his face lit up in delight. She watched as more energy swirled around his fists, this time red.
The mage moved with blinding speed and flung one fist straight at her. The magic dart screamed through the split in the wood and nearly burned her face off as she yanked herself out of the field of fire. Apparently, the mage could see her too.
“What the fuck!” she yelped, trying to figure out what to do.
Another blast of red energy came through, this one more of a blob. Parts of it stuck to the tree as it came, bursting into fire. The mage wasn’t giving up, that much was obvious. That meant Jessica needed to hold him off until help arrived. They were deep in the heart of Ursa property. She’d heard the roars that answered Klaue’s call for help. There were others coming, she just had to survive until they got there.
Looking around in desperation, she tried to come up with a plan. Think, woman. Think! What would Klaue do? He had no magic. How had he held off the mage? Her eyes lit up when they saw the piece of asphalt he’d been working at. It had fallen at some point during the fight and broken into a dozen or more pieces.
“This had better work,” she hissed to herself, running over to the pile and scooping it up just as the mage vaulted up onto the trunk and then over it, landing in a low crouch.
He raised a fist toward her and fired another blob of red mage-fire. Jessica had been in mid-throw and now had to evade. The missile went high in the air, and she lost track of it as she kept spinning out of the way, losing her balance and spilling onto her rear.
The mage chuckled and stepped forward, raising his fists again to attack her for what would be the final time. Just as he did that, something came sailing down from up high and clunked the mage on the top of his head.
