by Bonnie Vanak
The scream died on her lips as she shifted into a large, black bat. Beating her wings, she instinctively flew away from the light, toward the darkness beckoning her in another tunnel.
“Not that way,” Adrian called out. “Darcy, go left!”
The small part of her that controlled the animal’s instinct managed to turn herself around and head up into the niche.
Her eyesight was dim, but she had excellent radar, and the power of the crystal shone like a beacon. It lay on dirt at the top of the niche. About the size of a silver dollar, it pulsed with raw power.
Darcy managed to seize the gem in her mouth. Immediately magick flowed into her. She flew back down toward Adrian.
Wow, what a rush of power. Energized, she dropped the crystal into Adrian’s outstretched palm and then shifted back. No pain, no strain this time.
Darcy conjured clothing back on her nude body and stared at the jewel.
“That’s an extraordinary crystal. Where did Peggy get it?”
“It was a gift from the Crystal Wizard in return for Peggy doing a favor for him more than one hundred years ago.” Adrian held up the gem.
His gloved palm tightened around the gem. “Only this crystal can help save her. Her powers are draining slowly, and she’s in constant pain.”
“Well, let’s get it back to her.”
They turned to head for the entrance, when Adrian put a hand on her arm. “Listen.”
The ghostly drip of water still echoed through the mine. But this was different, sharper.
Sloshing. As if someone waded through water.
Her gaze whipped over to the dragon’s blood trickling down the rock wall. Suddenly it caught fire, and then it froze.
The ground shook beneath them, nearly sending them toppling. Fog began drifting through the mine, droplets of silver mist that carried a foul stench.
A chill rushed through her. The mine was a comfortable temperature compared to the icy blast of winter outside. This coldness had nothing to do with the weather.
Darcy winced. She’d encountered enough evil creatures that her nerves recognized the presence. Her body had been conditioned for it. “Adrian, what is that?”
Adrian’s haunted gaze met hers. “It’s Lars. He’s been resurrected.”
9
Ten years ago when Adrian had formed his own pack, he’d taught them all several skills to survive. Never did he want any member helpless and forced to do another’s bidding.
As he coached them in the skills they needed to fight and defend themselves, Adrian had told them, “Self-preservation means survival of yourselves at all costs. And if it means breaking Skin laws at times of extreme danger, then do it.”
Now he made good on a promise uttered ten years ago when he’d left Lars alone, bleeding and mostly dead in the mineshaft. The former pack leader would never again harm someone Adrian loved.
“You’re not getting her, you bastard,” he muttered, flexing his fingers, watching his claws emerge. “You’ll have to get through me first.”
Ten years ago, he’d screwed up by not burning Lars’s body, ensuring he would never rise. Too much in a hurry, too worried about his terrified pack and the vulnerable elders and young, he’d dumped Lars down a deep shaft, reasoning that would suffice.
Not anymore.
The crystal in Darcy’s hands glowed pure white with power, as if recognizing the evil creeping toward them.
Power. Such power. It could save them.
No. It was Peggy’s jewel, and without it, the elder would suffer. He would fight Lars with all he had. Go down fighting if he must.
Darcy rushed forward, as Adrian groaned. He’d forgotten her propensity for engaging evil, her sheer courage. Her utter heroism when faced with danger.
Adrian tried to grab her but missed. She darted past.
“Lars!” he roared. “It’s me you want—Adrian!”
Skidding to a halt a bare twenty feet before Lars, Darcy withdrew the knife hanging from her belt. She held it out and danced around him.
“Come and get it,” she taunted.
The thing staggering toward them scarcely resembled his former alpha. Wisps of gray-black hair covered the thin skull, and the eyes were pits of black. Rotting clothing hung on his spare frame. His clavicle jutted out. More bones than flesh.
But somehow touching the jewel had triggered its power, and magick had sifted through the mine, serving to empower Lars.
Fear clogged his throat as Lars turned to Darcy. Darcy was a good fighter, but weakened by the shifting into a bat, she didn’t stand a chance against a powerful male who outweighed her by more than a hundred pounds. A male who’d descended into hell and then emerged, tainted with evil and power.
Adrian shifted into a wolf as Lars pounced on Darcy.
A long howl echoed through the mineshaft. Then they shifted into wolves.
Darcy’s gray wolf snarled at a black wolf, but it wasn’t a wolf. Not Lars. This was the conjuring of some nightmare. Red eyes, fangs dripping with acid, it was misshapen and hunched over, patchy fur covering its body, as if someone had tried to make a wolf and failed.
Adrian snarled as he ran forward. He sprang at the hideous creature, sinking sharp fangs into its hindquarters. Lars howled and turned toward Adrian, who released him and stepped back, ready to attack again.
Lars raced forward and sank his fangs into Darcy’s shoulder. She howled in anguish.
Darcy shifted back to her human form and clothed herself. Her lips opened in a silent scream. A violent shiver wracked her as she watched him, tumultuous emotion reflected in her beautiful, mobile mouth.
The only answer was the crystal. He was pureblood. Alpha. It would empower him.
But giving it to Darcy would empower her more. She was far stronger with her Changeling powers.
Seldom did he make snap decisions. He did so now. Adrian shifted back to Skin, clothed himself through magick. “Darcy,” he shouted, running to her. Adrian tossed her the crystal. “Use its powers to destroy him!”
Darcy caught it one-handed. Anguish crossed her face as she stared at Lars, drool dripping from his fangs, his red eyes gleaming. With a howl, the wolf shifted back into his human form. Rags hung off his bony frame.
Misery shadowed his features. “Darcy, please, don’t do this, honey. Please.”
Honey? Adrian blinked. Darcy merely stood there, staring at Lars. Not moving
Adrian rushed forward.
Lars swiped at him as Adrian charged, his nails tearing into Adrian’s clothing, into his flesh. Burning pain seared him. Doubling over, he gasped. Blood streamed out of his middle.
Ignoring the pain, he swiped at Lars again, using the sword he’d brought with him.
Adrian swung. He hit Lars hard, sending him toppling to the ground, nearly cutting him in half. But the Lupine managed to rise, dust billowing from his ruined body.
“You can’t kill me, Williams,” Lars taunted. “I’ve been dead for a decade.”
Then the other male attacked, this time, slicing a bloody furrow down Adrian’s middle with his razor sharp nails. Agonizing pain burned through him.
“Run for the entrance, Darcy,” Adrian gasped, clutching his stomach. “Go. That’s an order.”
Collapsing to the ground, he waited for death to claim him.
* * *
Adrian was dying, and she’d stood there like an idiot, letting Lars do it.
Lars had been close to her. He’d bounced her on his knee when she was but a babe, taught her to hunt and fish. But now he’d embraced evil. Ten years ago, she had clung to a desperate hope that she’d been wrong, that he had not been truly bad, rotted from the inside.
Now she knew he was beyond saving.
You can’t change him. But you can save Adrian.
Darcy held the crystal close, absorbing its healing powers. It took the last ounce of her magick and her strength, but she poured all her powers into her body, forcing them to surface. Darcy shapeshifted into the only thing sh
e knew capable of destroying Lars for good.
A Burmese python.
Snake venom was useless against Lars. But biting him wasn’t her intention. Darcy slithered over to the former alpha, who gloated as he stood over the prone Adrian.
Then Lars glanced up. Saw her. He reached out with his nails, swiped at her midsection. Pain burst inside her, but just as quickly, thanks to the crystal’s healing power, it vanished, and the wound healed.
Now terror and panic crossed Lars’s face as he backed away. Snakes were cold-blooded, but the warmth provided by absorbing the crystal’s powers loaned her speed.
She reached him as he tripped over a rock, lying on the ground. Darcy went to make her move.
He held out his hands. “Help me, Darcy. Please. Help me while you can. I can’t control this. Control the Dark Lord’s power over me. He’s possessed me. Kill me for good. Only you can do it.”
Needing no further encouragement, she coiled her body around his neck. Squeezing, harder, harder.
For a dull moment, his gaze met hers. And then he mouthed, “Thank you.”
Bones and flesh exploded under the pressure. His head detached from his body. Not good enough. She wound around his body and crushed it.
Darcy uncurled her body and slithered away, her beady gaze staring at the remains. Still, he could be resurrected. Only fire would destroy him for good.
Shifting back into her human form, she didn’t dare waste energy on conjuring clothing. Instead, she summoned all her magick once more, counting on the powers of the crystal. It would take all her magick, but she had to save Adrian.
He could not die.
For a sheer minute, she thought about all she’d lose. Her powers as a Changeling Shifter. Her ability to roam the earth, saving Others. And then she looked down at the alpha, gasping in horrific pain.
Pouring the light into her palm, she placed her hands on the terrible, gaping wound on Adrian’s abdomen. Darcy forced all the healing light into Adrian, giving him the powers of the crystal.
Blood slowed to a trickle then stopped. The edges of the wound sealed together. He sat up, gasping, rubbing his stomach.
“How are you?” She touched his stomach, marveling at the healed flesh.
“Better. Powerful.” He ran to his backpack, found a shirt and wrapped her in it. Shivering, she pointed to Lars.
“You need to destroy that before the Dark Lord resurrects him again.”
Adrian now held the powers of the crystal inside him. Naked, too weak to stand, she collapsed into a sitting position, her body trembling from the cold and shock.
Adrian flicked his hands, and white light sailed through the air, landing in a glowing mesh on Lars’s body. The mesh sank onto his frame and then burned through it until nothing remained but dust.
Lars was gone for good. Grief speared her, along with a foreboding chill.
Adrian found fresh clothing in his pack, helped her to dress. Then, his arm securely around her, they left the mine.
No snow blew outside. But a wizard clad in black, with long, black hair, the strands tipped in silver, waited for them. Tristan, the Silver Wizard.
“Now you show up?” Darcy asked. “We could have used help in there.”
“I could not interfere. All is as it was meant to be.”
“Meant to be, wizard?” Adrian glowered at him. “She could have died!”
“I’ve lost my powers. All of them.” She stretched out her fingers.
“Not all of them,” the wizard told her.
Tristan gave them both a level look. “When Darcy has sufficiently regained her strength by tomorrow, I want both of you to go directly to Aiden Mitchell’s pack in Montana. Give me your phone, Adrian.”
He took the phone, punched in a number and handed it back to him. “Aiden will be expecting you.”
“W-why?” she blurted out.
His expression softened. “Because, little one, you are severely depleted of magick, but you can still save yourself. If you do not align yourself with one particular group of shifters in the next seventy-two hours, you will lose any ability to shapeshift.”
Terrific.
“There’s a can of gasoline inside the shack, Adrian. We will need it,” Tristan told him.
She lowered her voice as Adrian went into the shack. “Even if I return to the Dark Kingdom to drink the Tuan Mac Carrill potion?”
Tristan’s voice was gentle. “Even so. You cannot return there, Darcy. You would instantly become prey for stronger shifters. You have no defenses. Is that how you wish to die? Alone, defenseless?”
“My parents,” she began and fell silent.
Tristan knew, much as she did, that her parents had disowned her long ago. They would not help.
“You are too valuable in this world to lose, Darcy. We need more like you—courageous and loyal, willing to confront evil.”
“But what good am I as a Lupine? I don’t know enough about the lifestyle.” She felt like weeping. Being a bird came easily to her. She loved the thrill of soaring through the air, seeing the world pass below her.
Tristan smiled. “More than you know now or you are willing to admit. You will learn.”
It wasn’t fair. Darcy had hundreds of questions she needed answered, but Adrian emerged from the shack with the can of gasoline. There wasn’t time.
“Pour it on the ground before the entrance,” Tristan instructed.
After doing what he said, Adrian tossed aside the can. “Now what?”
The wizard pointed at the puddles of gasoline. Silver light leapt from his finger to the liquid, and gas ignited. Orange flames licked at the timbers.
Adrian gave him a questioning look. “That’s it? That’s cleansing the mine of evil?”
The wizard shrugged. “I like a good fire in winter, don’t you?”
Darcy laughed, and Adrian did a face palm. She needed this laugh, needed levity when everything in her world seemed to crash around her.
Tristan’s dark gaze twinkled as he looked at her. He’d done this for her benefit, she realized. The wizard flicked a finger, and the fire vanished. Such power. She marveled at it.
“Stand back,” Tristan ordered.
Then the wizard stretched out his hands and murmured a spell. Power filled the air, so much power that it pushed at her skin, threatened to suffocate her. She’d seen a wizard’s power before. But this was different.
Silver bolts of pure energy streamed from Tristan’s hands, streaking into the dark mineshaft. The entire mine lit up like fireworks on a dark night. And then they heard a rumble of a cave-in as the mountain began to collapse upon itself.
A puff of silver smoke blew out of the mine, and then the entrance collapsed.
It was completely sealed off.
“The dead will walk no more inside, and the evil ones in the afterlife cannot use it as a portal to gain entrance into this world.” Tristan blew on his index finger as if it were a smoking gun then buffed his nails on his chest.
And then he waved a hand, and they found themselves back in the cabin, a fire glowing on the hearth in the living room.
“This transport is free. I’ll put the snowmobile back into the shed as well,” Tristan told them. “Your job is to get stronger, Darcy, and you will help her, Adrian.”
The wizard waved a hand and disappeared.
Shivering, she sighed as he rubbed her arms while murmuring to her. “You’re going to be all right, Darcy.”
Adrian swung her into his arms and marched into the bedroom. He removed her clothing, and then tucked her under the covers. Unable to stop shivering, Darcy curled into a ball. She’d lost her powers, and the day turned out to be pretty damn terrible.
And then Adrian stripped. Naked, he climbed into bed with her, tucking his powerful body around her like a living blanket. The toasty heat of his body sank into her skin. Darcy smiled as she drifted off to sleep.
Well, perhaps not quite so bad.
* * *
She slept almost the enti
re afternoon. When she woke, feeling sluggish but otherwise fine, the sun had started to descend behind the jagged mountaintops.
She was alone in the big bed. Snowflakes blew against the window, but in the bedroom, she felt warm and safe and dry.
Adrian entered the room. “Good. You’re awake.”
“What are you doing?”
“Dinner’s ready.” Adrian sat on the bed, brushing back of lock of her hair. “Beef stew in the crock pot.”
The idea of such a lethal alpha as a cook amused her. “Killer of demons in the morning, chef by night. Is there anything you can’t do?”
“Cure you.” His mouth turned down. “I would give my right arm to give your powers back, sweetheart. I am sorry you lost them.”
Darcy shrugged. He did not know it wasn’t Lars who had drained them but rather her own failure to replenish them after her last assignment.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
Her stomach trembled inside, but otherwise, she felt fine. Darcy flung back the covers and began to dress. “I’m hungry.”
Hopefully he wouldn’t inquire about the exchange she and Lars had in the mine. Start asking questions.
Wonder why Lars had called her such an affectionate term.
They ate dinner and then washed up. In the kitchen, she set about making hot chocolate for dessert, dumping the cocoa into the milk when it began to steam. Adrian paced the kitchen like a caged animal.
“You certain you’re all right?” he asked.
“A little shaky but fine.” Darcy stirred the milk and sighed. “I’m only sorry you had to use it on me. I wish…I could have healed you without using it.”
“It is what it is,” he said softly. “No regrets.”
Satisfied the cocoa was finished, she turned off the gas and poured it into two large mugs emblazoned with big, yellow smiley faces. “Let’s sit in the living room by the fire.”
He took a mug from her and followed her to the sofa set before the fire. After setting down his cup, he kept pacing.
“Will you sit down? You’re making me nervous.”
“I cannot. There’s something you must know, Darcy. Something few others did.”
