by Lucia Ashta
I brought both hands to his ribcage and pushed with all my strength like I was some defensive back, and managed to push him backwards a couple of inches. I grunted and pushed some more. “How the hell am I supposed to accomplish anything against two dudes who’re twice my size? I can’t even budge you, Ky!”
“Your size is a disadvantage in this fight,” Damon said, standing to move closer to us. “Which means you have to find your advantage and use that. Don’t fight them the way they want you to, fight them the way that benefits you the most.”
Thanks for nothing, Yoda. What the hell did that mean? I had no advantages against the two massive shifters.
Sadie walked over to stand at Damon’s side, barely coming up to his shoulder. “What he means is that you have to find a way to make it work for you, no matter what comes up against you. If you can’t beat them in size and brute strength, then find some way you can beat them. In other words, fight like an alley cat.”
If this was all the advice they were coming over to dispense, then they could march right back over to the wall. But while everyone was distracted...
I dove at Ky and Boone like I was diving into a damn swimming pool, hands outstretched above my head, and linked an arm around each of their calves. As I slid across the mat along my stomach, the momentum brought them down to the floor with me. Ky smashed to the floor, but was already gathering his legs beneath him to stand back up. I plopped the entirety of my weight on Boone, sitting on his chest, pinning his arms beneath my knees. When he bent his feet beneath him and prepared to buck and roll me off him, I slid farther down his chest so that I sat on his hips, and leaned forward, pressing my hands against his shoulders to hold him down, my knees still digging into his arms.
I flicked a frantic glance behind me, trying to pinpoint Ky’s location lest he attack me from behind, when I noticed Leander, his eyes wide and blazing. What...?
I looked down at Boone. His hazel eyes were bright and alert, zeroed in on me. His face was flush with an intensity I’d never seen on him before.
Oh.
I was straddling his hips, and Boone was a very sexy, very hot-blooded wolf man.
Shit. No wonder Leander was looking at me like that.
Before the moment could devolve any further, I slid off him and got to my feet, backing up from Ky, making sure no one was behind me. Nothing like straddling your brother’s best friend in front of him and the guy you’re sweet on to get the blood pumping.
The door opened and closed behind me, and I spun toward it. Wendi slipped in, and for once I was grateful for the distraction she offered. She smiled, and I returned the gesture, though as usual it felt fake.
“I think that’s enough grappling for now,” Ky said, an extra edge to his voice. “Time to shift. You’ll fight one of us at a time, squirt, starting with me.”
I knew better than to wait. When the edges of Ky’s body began to blur, I’d already closed my eyes and was picturing my lion. Was it ideal to close my eyes when an attack was imminent? Of course not. But I hadn’t figured out how to send my shifter magic to my animal without picturing her first. I couldn’t do it with my eyes open, taking in other images. It was a significant disadvantage, which meant I had to hurry. Ky’s shift would be complete in seconds.
I envisioned my mountain lion, strong and powerful. I imagined her lean, muscled body and stared into those bright amber-copper eyes. I stared into her gaze so intensely … that I suddenly felt myself within her, a part of her.
I hadn’t intended to merge with her yet, but I was already one with my lion. I pulsed the energy I’d managed to build in my core toward me as the lion just in case, and opened my eyes.
The outlines of Ky’s human body flickered a few times … and then he stood in full magnificence, a majestic mountain lion.
I stared into those eyes so much like my own as they glowed faintly. He growled, and I returned the favor. Boone, Leander, Damon, and Sadie backed off the mats, giving us a wide berth.
When Ky lowered his head into his shoulders and went completely still, I took off at full speed, straight for him. We met in the middle, reared onto our hind legs, and clashed heavy paws. We batted at each other, neither coming on top, a chorus of snaps and snarls marking time.
Though we were relatively evenly matched, Ky was slightly larger than me. He was also a bit stronger. Eventually, he’d gain ground on me, and I wasn’t having it. He’d beaten me too many times, and as he liked to remind me, Rage wouldn’t hold back, and his lion was as potent as my brother’s.
I put all my strength into shoving Ky, and the momentum rocked him back a few inches. He scooted the distance on his hind legs as I opened my mouth and roared, letting loose all my pent-up frustration, and trust me, it was a crap-ton.
He landed on all four feet, only to bounce back onto his hind legs. He was about to lunge at me.
I let him, rearing up to meet him. But this time, when he connected with my paws, I rolled backward onto my back. As he dropped at the unexpected lack of resistance, I slid slightly down the mat so his paws would land on either side of my head, and just as he was bringing down his wide, open jaws—probably to wrap around my throat in victory—I lashed out with my hind legs, catching him in the fleshy part of the abdomen between his hips. I pushed out, flinging him over my head.
He hadn’t seen it coming, the shock evident in his wide lion eyes and enraged snarl.
My brother landed on his side, slamming into his shoulder—hard. But before he could retaliate, I claimed my feet, sides heaving from the exertion.
Damon started clapping just as Sadie hooted and ran toward the center of the room. “Damn, girl!” She leapt a couple of feet into the air. “Now that’s what I’m talking about. Smarts are more important than size—well, most of the time anyway.” She winked.
I glanced from Ky to Boone, and when neither appeared ready to attack me, I settled onto the floor, head leaning on my front paws, eyes wide open. When Ky’s lion started blurring, vibrating, and then flickering, I released a sigh of relief. The session was over for tonight.
Now if only I could shift back to human form as easily as Ky had...
I closed my eyes again and pictured myself as if I were looking into the full-length mirror in the bedroom I shared with Wren. I stared into my eyes, and just as had happened when I shifted into my lion, the distance between my awareness and my eyes shortened to nothing. Before I realized what had happened, I found myself inside my human body, every part in the right place. As I’d done before, I pulsed my magic into the image of myself as a girl, settled into her, then opened my eyes.
I was face-down on the mat, returned to my long limbs and long hair. I nudged my chin more comfortably into the tops of my hands, figuring I might as well stay there for a while. I was beat.
“That was good, squirt,” Ky said. “You’re learning to think outside the box.”
“And your shifts are getting faster too,” Boone added. I tilted my head up to take in the werewolf towering over me. His expression was as relaxed and congenial as ever. Good. No weird feelings there.
When Ky and Leander moved to either side of Boone, and Sadie and Damon hovered above me, Wendi in the background, I dragged myself to my feet. Even though I trusted every one of them, the part of me that continually remained a lion now didn’t appreciate being in such a vulnerable position.
I felt dead on my feet, but I refused to let it show. Half the battle was in appearances, or so Ky had told me. Shifters respected strength, so I had to appear strong whenever possible.
“Are you hurt?” Ky asked.
“No, just beat. How ‘bout you? Boone?”
“We’re good,” Boone said.
“Great. Can I go to bed now?” I rubbed at the tension in one of my shoulders.
Ky smiled. “I think today you’ve earned it. We’ll meet after dinner again tomorrow.”
“How long do we have to keep meeting for practice like this?” I managed not to whine, but just barely.
“As long as it takes to get you strong enough to fight Rage, Fury, and whomever they might show up with. Remember—”
“I remember. They’re hunting me—us—I know. How could I possibly forget?” I trailed my gaze from Sadie to Wendi, across Damon and back. The reminders of the dangers were everywhere.
The group of us started toward the doors, but when we reached them, Leander held me back. “Can I talk with you for a sec?”
Ky, Boone, and Sadie stopped walking to look back at us. “Go on ahead,” Leander said. “We’ll only be a moment.”
Ky hesitated longer than the rest of them, but eventually he followed Boone out of earshot, where he stopped, turned in our direction, crossed his arms over his chest, and waited.
I met the prince’s eyes and immediately was lost to the torrent of emotion swirling within them. He flicked a nervous glance at my brother, then took my hands anyway.
“Rina, I need to talk with you.”
“We are talking.” But immediately I felt like a jerk and wished I could take back my snarky response. Something was clearly on the elf’s mind—or maybe it was his heart that had him so evidently twisted in knots.
“In private, where Ky isn’t trying to read my lips.”
I chuckled. My brother did kind of look like that was what he was trying to do.
I wanted to say no. There didn’t seem much more to say between us that would make any difference. But Leander seemed so earnest that the words were out of my mouth before I could take them back. “Okay. We can meet. But how about tomorrow? I’m really tired, and I’d rather be alert when we talk.” Not to mention not sweaty.
He smiled, and the way his entire face lit up at my acceptance had my heart speeding up. Down, traitorous heart, down.
“Tomorrow, then,” he said. “After your history class and before dinner, that should give us enough time.”
Time for what, I wondered while trying not to get hopeful. I’d worked hard to quash my expectations where he was concerned, and I didn’t plan to undo my efforts.
“I’ll meet you outside your classroom,” he said. “I’ll be looking forward to it.”
I nodded, not sure what to say. “I’ll see you tomorrow then.”
“Perfect.” And Leander seemed happier than I’d seen him in several weeks, since our last talk, in fact.
But as we moved to join the rest of our crew, I should have known better—never leave till tomorrow what you can do today. Wasn’t that the saying? Well, I was about to learn that there was some serious merit to the phrase.
15
I startled awake, my heart pounding, and listened in the darkness to discern what had woken me. But beyond the soft, rhythmic breathing of Wren, in her bed on the other side of our shared bedroom, the night was quiet. I turned my head atop my pillow, trying to make out the outlines of the space, but the shutters were closed tightly; not even a flicker of moonlight filtered into the room. It felt late, like it was the middle of the night, but the alarm clock rested next to Wren, too far away for me to reach it to confirm the hour—she said I snoozed too many times in the morning.
The night was still, yet a tangible unease told me something was wrong. But what?
I turned my head in the other direction and discovered a thin trail of warm drool on the side of my face. Gross. I wiped at my face with the back of my hand … and a stifled laugh whispered through the silence, grating against my nerves like fingernails along a chalkboard.
I froze, my hand still against my face, my pulse beating frantically.
There was definitely someone in the room with us. And though the laughter had been quickly smothered, I had a feeling I knew whom it belonged to, and if I was right, it was bad news. Everything about the vampires seemed like bad news lately. They went out of their way to run into me after dark just to glare and hiss at me.
I slowly moved my hand from my face and slid upward in my bed gradually until I was leaning against the headboard behind me. A chance still remained that the person who’d invaded our room—Blood Red if I was right, whose name was actually Paige—hadn’t realized I’d made her. The chance was perhaps infinitesimally small, but I’d take whatever chance I could get. I was at a disadvantage tucked within the blankets of my bed, and Wren was wholly vulnerable no more than a few feet away from me.
Vampires were apex predators of the night, when their vision was superior to all but shifters in animal form. All of their senses were heightened in the nighttime, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that Paige was staring straight at me. The sensation of being watched crawled across my skin.
I sat and waited, scrambling to come up with a plan that would get me out of this mess and not drag Wren any deeper into it. I didn’t know exactly what Paige wanted with me by sneaking into our room like this, but I could guess. At a minimum, she intended to inflict discomfort or pain. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that her intentions were far more nefarious. I imagined the consequences for sneaking into another student’s room in the night to cause them some sort of harm would be punished severely. Sir Lancelot would certainly be outraged. For Paige to risk the severity of punishment, she had to be here for an important reason. There was no way that reason boded well for me.
The seconds sped past, but I didn’t come up with any coherent plan beyond hopping out of bed and racing past the intruder toward the common room. That would get Paige away from Wren, and hopefully I could rouse Sadie and possibly Wendi, both of whom slept with the doors to their individual rooms open. While I called out for my Enforcer protectors, I’d shift into my mountain lion—hopefully. I’d gotten better at shifting, but it still didn’t work a hundred percent of the time, more like eighty-five percent. My odds weren’t great, but nothing good was going to come from me waiting for Paige to make the first move.
I started peeling the comforter from my legs, one slow inch at a time, when I heard another rustle from the opposite side of the room from where I’d thought Paige was. Shit. Either my own senses were distorting information or Paige had brought friends. I had to move, and I had to move now.
I tore the blanket the rest of the way from my body, flinging it to the bottom of the bed, and jumped to the floor. My bare feet hit the hardwood floor running and I slid into the common room, mouth already open to call for Sadie.
But Sadie’s door, which was always open when we were sleeping, was firmly shut, and Wendi’s door was closed too. Definitely not a good sign. “Sadie!” I yelled, and a moment later a hand slapped against my face harder than necessary, an arm snaking around my neck and latching onto my shoulder, tugging me backward, pressing against my windpipe and cutting off my ability to scream.
“Don’t bother,” Paige whispered harshly against my ear in that nasally voice that was uniquely hers. “She won’t hear you. We made sure of it.”
My heart skipped a beat. “You killed her?”
The two seconds it took Paige to answer felt like a thousand. Sadie and her crazy ways had grown on me. Finally, the vamp laughed again, sending shivers across my mostly bare skin. I slept in nothing more than panties and a thin camisole that bared my waist.
“No, we didn’t kill her, she’s only sleeping,” she said, “though I wish we had. Watching you die will have to be enough reward.”
I tried to figure out how many of them “we” might be while pondering why she would hate me so much. I couldn’t think of a single vamp I liked, especially among the students, but I didn’t want any of them to die. Well, maybe now I did. Paige had raced to the very top of my shit list. I wouldn’t mind if she was wiped from the face of the earth.
A rustle and a shuffle on opposing sides of the common room told me there were at least three intruders here. Since they were probably part of Paige’s crew, and she didn’t go anywhere without the three submissive vamps that trailed her every move, there might be a total of four intruders. If Sadie couldn’t help me, and I couldn’t call out for Wendi, who was probably out of commission for the same reason Sadie was, it was all
on me.
Paige tightened her hold around my throat, gagging me. “No one’s coming to save you, princess. Come with us without a fight, and maybe the shifters will take it easier on you.” She chuckled happily. “No, there’s probably no chance of that. Rage wants you too badly.” The others chortled with her, but I still couldn’t decide whether there were two or three more of them.
The best way out of this was to shift. At least as a lion I could rip through them and cause some serious damage. I closed my eyes to the overpowering darkness and envisioned myself as my lion. She was staring back at me, hurrying me along, ready to pounce and deliver some punishment already.
But just as I was closing the gap between us, reaching the magic that pooled in my center toward her, Paige’s hold vanished from around my throat—and a metallic collar snapped around my neck in its place.
The vision of my lion disappeared as if it had been no more than a figment of my imagination.
I whipped my hands up to the collar and pulled and tugged, but I already knew there was no budging it, not with brute force. It was a magical object, it had to be, which meant there was no escaping it through ordinary means.
While Paige laughed behind me like some cartoon villain, I stomped on her toes. When her head whipped down to look at her foot, I grabbed onto that thick, beautiful curly hair of hers and pulled down, slamming her face into my knee hard enough to break her nose. I felt the bone and cartilage crunch; warm blood gushed onto my leg.
“You fucking bitch,” she hissed as she straightened, her words slightly slurred.
I took that as an invitation to slam my fist into her face. I couldn’t see to make sure to hit her straight in the nose again, but my fist made contact with her cheek before deflecting off, and this time she howled in pain.
I couldn’t make out the others, but now I could call for help—once I made it out of the dorm. I wouldn’t call for other students to help, that’d only put them in harm’s way. I sprinted toward the door that led out to the hallway and had it halfway open when my legs gave out beneath me.
