Shifters of the Wellsprings: The Complete Paranormal Collection

by Leela Ash

  It didn’t take him long to catch up to Lily. No creature on Earth moved as swiftly as his Kind! And, oddly, the Wolf dawdled her way north on back roads, clearly in no hurry to finish her errands.

  When she spotted him, she pulled off the side of the road and gazed upward. Casey hovered over her, patient. No doubt, she intended to rail at him. To try to drive him off with insults or pleas. Well, she would find him implacable. Her words would fall on deaf ears.

  In fact, no words came. Scowling, Lily studied him. Then she grinned. A big, Wolfish grin. The smile of a playful imp with a nasty idea of fun.

  Hopping back on her bike, she drove north. Faster this time. Casey had to push himself to keep up. Her plan quickly became clear: she made a beeline for the town of Cortez. A place full of mortals – who would panic the moment they saw him, a ‘monster’ out of legends. Among the Shifting Kinds, Bears and Wolves had it easy. A human who saw them Shifted was frightened, nothing more. But Shift in from of them – or Shift into something ‘impossible’ like a Dragon or a dog-sized Rat – and all hell broke loose. People panicked, screamed, fled. Their minds, so used to a ‘normal’, sensible world, buckled. They hallucinated, desperately trying to force the world to ‘make sense’ again.

  If he flew into a large town, no telling how much harm he’d do.

  Or, rather, how much damage another Dragon would do. If one of the ‘First’ Flight trailed her, then yes, Lily could dump them by sticking to populated areas. But the Flight of the Snows had not forgotten themselves. They remembered that Dragons were meant to be the Princes of the Air.

  Softly, with deep, rumbling words, he called out to Brother Wind.

  Brother, hear me! Heed the plea of the one you hold aloft. Wrap me in the fringes of your cloak. Hide me from the eyes of enemies and foolish ones.

  Around him, motes of light danced through the air. He still saw perfectly, yet the next time Lily glanced up, she smiled in triumph at the ‘empty’ sky above her.

  Casey smiled too, with a mouth full of fangs.

  Two can play games, Princess!

  At the edge of Cortez, she pulled up to a ratty food cart and ordered a burger and fries. As she devoured the greasy fare, he circled overhead. Riding the thermals like a giant hawk. Despite everything, he found himself admiring her. The delicate beauty of her sharp, elfin face. The sleek lines of her long legs and taut bottom, covered by a form-fitting leather that left nothing to the imagination.

  Natural though they were, such thoughts disturbed him.

  This is my ward, the woman I am sworn to guard. She is the daughter of an ally of the Flight. To lust after her is wrong. It is Incorrect Behavior, which angers the spirits of the land. I can no more touch her than I could touch my cousin.

  If he had a cousin. Which he didn’t. Mates had vanished when the magic of the Wellsprings drained out of this world. When that happened, most Dragons threw themselves into hook-ups and doomed marriages, unions where the wife was destined to age and die as her husband, eternally young, watched on in misery.

  Not his Flight. Miles Kennedy, his Alpha, forbade false unions. When natural, masculine needs grew too great to bear, he and his brothers could seek release with prostitutes or women who would not mind if their lovers vanished in the morning, never to be seen again. But love? Marriage? No. It was forbidden, doomed. No marriage could withstand the weight of the years.

  Though the Fools Who Had Forgotten Themselves swore they’d Claimed Mates. True Mates. And Wellsprings were returning to life, all across the world. Which meant…

  Which means nothing. I don’t love Lily King. I couldn’t Claim her, even if I wanted. All I’m doing is staring at her ass – and that is profoundly disrespectful.

  Movement drew his eye to the earth. Lily had finished her lunch and returned to her bike. Casey drifted after her, pleased with his stealth and cunning.

  He expected her to wander into Cortez. Do some shopping or get a tune-up for her motorcycle. Instead, she headed over to Route 491. Traffic was heavy today and as she watched for an opening, he circled again.

  When the break came, his clever plan fell to pieces.

  Lily raised her gloved fist and waved a middle finger at the ‘empty’ sky above her. She might not know where he was – but she guessed he was there. With a howl like a wild boar, her motorcycle leaped onto the highway and charged off.

  Casey threw himself after her. Great wings beat furiously, tearing through the hot air with every ounce of their strength.

  But the bike pulled away, zipping around an SUV at an insane speed that made him want to scream in horror. Dammit! His ward was going to get herself killed trying to escape him!

  Once the road ahead cleared, Lily opened the bike up and, with a cackle of delight, she sailed off into the distance.

  Leaving him flapping impotently behind her.

  Dragons might be the fastest Kind – but Harley-Davidson was faster. He knew an impossible race when he saw it, and so he banked and swept back toward Cortez.

  Fifteen minutes and one rental car later, Casey was back on the road. Weaving through traffic, horn blaring, frantically trying to catch up to his runaway Princess.

  By the time he found her, Lily was cruising along at a nice, steady 85 mph.

  On an unstable, unprotected piece of metal that might tip over at any moment.

  Bile rose in his throat. Yes, his ward seemed determined to kill herself. One slip and there’d be nothing left of her but a red streak on the highway.

  He didn’t know where she was going. Someplace far away – maybe Flagstaff or even Phoenix. But there was one thing Casey Briggs was sure of: whenever Lily King reached her destination, he was going to pound that motorcycle into scrap metal. She could ride home with him or walk. He didn’t care which.

  The one blessing was that the Wolf didn’t expect a car pursuit. He dropped to her speed a ways back and followed, scowling and furious.

  Time passed. Route 491 turned into 160 and the odds of Flagstaff increased. The desert flowed by on both sides of the road, lulling him. A monotonous lullaby of gravel and stone.

  When he spotted the first car, he thought nothing of it. An unremarkable black SUV with tinted glass, it slowly crept up on him. Eighty-five apparently wasn’t fast enough for some people. Though, honestly, it was only ten miles over the speed limit out here.

  It wasn’t until the thing was right on his tail that the first alarms went off in his head. As it pulled out to pass him, he saw another black SUV behind it. And then another, and another. Four cars. All black, anonymous, and impossible to see into. One by one, they pulled over in perfect unison, like four metal dancers.

  Government workers?

  Or something more ominous? Maybe the Fangs that supposedly hunted his ward?

  His gut screamed at him to attack. A twist of the wheel would send one, maybe two, careening off the road.

  But what if they were innocent? A bunch of military or government workers, trying to get someplace, fast? That fear stayed his hand. Could he really kill these people on a whim? A hunch?

  He couldn’t. Instead, he flashed his headlights.

  Lily caught that in her rearview mirror. Even this far back he saw the Wolf tense as she studied those approaching cars. She eased off the throttle and cruised, slowing quickly.

  The little pack of SUVs broke up. Two sped ahead, blowing past Lily. A third pulled back into the right lane just beyond Casey while the fourth paced him in his blind spot.

  The SUV ahead of him braked, unwilling to pass the slowing Wolf. A dim rage boiled to life in Casey’s heart as he realized he’d made a mistake. Anyone in a hurry would have sped off into the distance.

  These guys weren’t trying to get anywhere. They were hunting.

  All hesitation vanished. One fist punched the horn, blaring out a warning to Lily. With his other hand, he jerked the car to the left, cutting off his pacer.

  At that sudden move, his enemies sprung their trap.

  The lead SUV slamme
d its brakes, screeching to a halt. Beside it, its partner did the same.

  Blocking off both lanes of the highway ahead of Lily.

  Time seemed to slow, weighed down by his horror. The Wolf braked and swerved, but her momentum still sent her flying into the rear of a car.

  With almost supernatural grace, she wrenched her bike sideways, swinging her leg over the seat as she did. It slammed into the back of the SUV, taking the brunt of the impact. The Wolf toppled off. Stunned, but with two uncrushed legs.

  For the moment. But the third car sped up, intent on ramming her.

  The Fangs of Apophis weren’t trying to kidnap her, he realized.

  They wanted her dead.

  Something he would not allow.

  Casey floored the gas and his sedan leaped forward. He yanked the wheel viciously to the right, plowing into the SUV’s rear with enough force to jog its rear tire off the road.

  Nature did the rest. The soft dirt at the edge of the road gave way and the driver yanked his wheel, too hard. The SUV flipped, rolling off into the scrub. Bits of metal flew off as it bounced.

  He had one moment to gloat – and then the last SUV rammed him. Bigger and heavier, it pitched his sedan into that treacherous sand too. Now he was flying through the air, the car spinning onto its side, sailing toward a crash that would kill any man.

  But Casey wasn’t just a man. He was a Dragon.

  At the first impact, he set his Shifter soul free. Even as the sedan sailed through the air, twisting with deadly force, light filled it. Scales flashed across his skin, hard as a Kevlar vest. Claws lost their grip on the wheel and his body swelled, filling the car with its bulk. But as his body fought to escape that metal prison, the sedan slammed into the ground.

  Torn by forces from inside and out, it exploded. Doors and roof flew off. As the car rolled wildly off into the sage, it left behind one thing: an enormous black Dragon.

  Who was seriously ticked off.

  On the road, doors flew open, spilling out a dozen men with automatic weapons. The groggy Wolf took one look at them and – thank the Spirits! – did the only sensible thing: she leaped into the drainage ditch and went belly to the ground as bullets whined through the air around her.

  Around his ward! Around the woman he had sworn to protect!

  A roar of pure fury erupted from his fanged maw. One sweep of his wings sent him soaring up. A dozen shocked faces followed him, and the villains turned their weapons upward. Bullets sprayed across his scales. Irritating, like a swarm of nipping insects.

  Casey dropped from the sky, crushing the roof of the lead SUV. Then his head whipped to the side and breathed, sending a blast of fire searing into the second vehicle. Flames as hot as napalm slammed through its open doors, filling the inside with fiery death.

  And just like that, the attack crumbled. Every surviving Fang bolted for the last car standing. Three made it inside – and the third yanked the door shut, abandoning the rest of his team. Another fiery breath silenced their shrieks of fear and the scorched SUV tore off, flames dribbling down its side.

  Foes defeated, Casey rose on his hind legs and peered about. Where was Lily? Where was the only thing that truly mattered here?

  Belly low to the ground, a brown Wolf peeked out of the ditch. Dragon and Wolf stared at each other for a moment, and then Casey Shifted, dropping back into human form.

  Lily tiptoed out of hiding. He caught a glimpse of something around her neck. A braid of some sort, with a silver medallion. Then she, too, Shifted.

  Hands on her hips, she surveyed the carnage around them. “Okay. I’m impressed.”

  Gratifying, but beside the point. “Are you all right?”

  “Few cuts and scrapes. Maybe another cracked rib to add to the total but eh, I’ll live.”

  Relief warred with annoyance. In the end, annoyance won. “This is why you need protection!”

  Immediately, her lips curled back in a feral snarl. “I don’t ‘need’ anything.”

  “Oh really? Without my warning, you’d be splattered across the back of that SUV!”

  With a roll of her eyes, she stalked toward the front of the crushed vehicle. “I would have noticed them before they attacked.”

  “And then what?” he sneered. “How would you have dispatched four cars full of gunmen?”

  She crouched to peer into the remains of the car he’d landed on. “Oh, yuck. No one alive in that pancake.”

  “Well?” He wasn’t letting her off the hook that easily.

  The burning SUV she wrote off with a single glance. “Nope. Nobody there either. Did you leave anybody alive to interrogate? I’d like to know why they’re so hot to kill me.”

  She began to stroll past, toward the last SUV, which had come to rest, upside down, out in the scrub. But Casey blocked her path, fists planted on his hips. “Admit it. You need my protection.”

  “No, I don’t.”

  “There’s no way you could have defeated that many enemies!”

  For once, neither anger nor challenge twisted Lily’s face. Only a quiet, proud, defiance. “Maybe not. If I couldn’t flee, I might have died. But I still don’t ‘need’ anything. I accept my odds, my life, and my death.”

  “You’re insane!”

  “I’m a Wolf!” Her chin rose.

  Spirits, there was no reasoning with this creature! Casey shook his head in disgust. “I’m starting to think those two are the same thing.”

  At his insult, she tossed her head back and laughed. “See? You’re learning!”

  It was an… enchanting sound. Laughter lit her face and set her green eyes on fire with a wild, fierce joy. A joy he knew well. It was the ecstasy of flying through a thunder cloud. The delirious glee that flooded your body in the middle of battle, when any mistake could bring your death.

  He’d never seen that joy in a woman’s face, and he felt a heat rise within him.

  Stop. This is Incorrect Behavior. Remember that. To touch your ward is to dishonor her.

  Unaware of the desires she stirred within him, Lily scrambled across the drainage ditch. “Come on. Let’s see if there are survivors out there.”

  The debris strewn across the desert didn’t give him much hope. “And then?”

  “Then I finish my errand.”

  Did he have to fight for every scrap of information? “Which is?”

  “I want to talk to some Witch Hares in Sedona.”

  He was about to ask her reason – then suddenly realized he knew it. “Is it about your necklace? Clothes and jewelry Shift with us. I’ve never seen anything that didn’t vanish.”

  A slight limp slowed her down. Casey caught up and walked beside her. “Yeah, it was a present from my mother. For years it was just a normal necklace. Then, about six months ago, it stopped Shifting with me. And it started doing some other weird crap.” She waved her hand vaguely but didn’t offer more details. “I’ve gotten curious enough that I want to talk to the Hares.”

  An idea he approved of. It might well explain why the Fangs hunted her.

  For now, though, he kept his suspicions to himself.

  Chapter 4.

  The thoroughly sucky day stayed true to the end. Only the SUV driver survived – and he shot himself as they walked up. Hours later, that still haunted Lily. He was a Bear, a big man with a sad, round face. Why would he kill himself rather than be questioned? Did the Fangs of Apophis truly hold Shifters’ families hostage? Any Bear, no matter how fallen, would die for his family.

  Her Harley still ran – if you could call 30 mph ‘running’. She limped to the next town while Casey flew, invisible, overhead. Nice trick, that. They ended up renting a car. Which meant four hours of uncomfortable, boring silence with Mr. All Work No Play.

  Then, in the perfect crappy ending to a miserable day, the Sedona Hares had no idea what her necklace was. Oh, they offered to keep it, and study it, and lock it away… if she wanted.

  Hell no. It was hers. The only thing her mother left her other than her
looks.

  A full day wasted and nothing to show for it. Just before midnight, Casey booked them into the Mystical Desert motel. Two adjoining rooms full of fake Native pastel paintings and New Age drawings.

  “I hate Sedona.” She glowered at a poster of dolphins ‘swimming’ through the Milky Way surrounded by UFOs. “Why couldn’t we push on to Flagstaff? At least it’s not full of moonbats.”

  “You’ll survive. A little fluff never killed anyone.”

  “You don’t know that…,” she muttered.

  “Get some sleep. We’ll head home early tomorrow.”

  He was setting schedules now? Planning her days? What was next? A leash and collar? She ought to call him on that nonsense, but he walked off before she could.

  Just as well. She sighed as she peeled off her jacket. Until they got the Fangs off her case, she was stuck with him. After this attack there was no way she could persuade her dad to dismiss the Dragon.

  The worst part? She couldn’t even call Casey ‘useless.’ Today proved that. It had taken all her skill and strength to just stay alive. The fighting, all of it, fell to her unwelcome bodyguard.

  Nope. Though it hurt to admit it, on her own she would have died.

  Still didn’t mean she was going to thank him, though. Pants and jacket tossed aside, she dragged her bruised body into bed and tried to ignore the sickly-sweet herbal scent that clung to its sheets.

  In her dream, Lily stood atop a mountain. The desert stretched out beneath her while above a storm raged. Forks of lightning split the sky, though not a drop of rain fell. The air tickled her nose, rich with the scents of the south. Piñon and sage, crisp and clear.

  Wind swirled around her, ruffling her short curls. It played over the thin satin gown sweeping down from her shoulders. She lifted her arm, delighted by the feel of the scarlet cloth whispering across her bare skin. It was a completely impractical dress, of course. The desert dust would turn it into a grungy mess in two minutes. It flitted and fluttered everywhere, catching every breeze. No way you could ride a bike in this thing.

  And yet…