“My old school had someone who knew how to bind them.We were all necros of one type or another, and the Shaman, as we called him, was versed in native magic.He used chindis to harass the teachers in their sleep and send them nightmares.It took them a while to figure out who was doing it.”
“And you didn’t tell them.”
Jen just looked at him, her steady blue gaze saying it all, but Sophie wasn’t so restrained.“Sure, and have him taken off to real jail for the rest of his life?They tormented us in there; why shouldn’t they feel a little of the pain they caused for once?”
“They do not torment anyone,” Hargroves said, “or if they do, and you can name them, disciplinary action will be taken—”
“Not torment?”Sophie’s eyes flashed gold.“Nottorment?Do you know what it’s like to have to repress—”
“Sophie,” I said.
“—who you are and what you can do your whole life?To never be able to use your gifts or even learn about them?To be hidden away like something shameful—”
“Better than the fate that used to befall you,” Hargroves said mildly, and I had to bite my tongue on a snarl.
“Oh, I should thank you then, for not butchering us?For not killing us in ourcradles?”Sophie’s voice, already high, hit the stratosphere, and the two war mages, already het up from fighting something out of a nightmare, reached for their weapons.And I had hadenough.
“Out!”I snarled.
It took the two a moment to realize I meant them.And then one of them sneered at me.“Bite me.”
“Don’t,” Cyrus said, grabbing my wrist to try to calm my beast before she went for the challenger’s throat.“He doesn’t know what he’s saying.He didn’t mean it—”
“The hell, I didn’t,” the man said, before Hargroves barked at him to shut up.
“What is it?”he asked Cyrus, as the two of us struggled.
“What is it?Your man just challenged Lia to a duel on her home turf—”
“He did no such thing!”
“Stop thinking like a human!”Sophie snapped.“You want to use Weres?Then you damned well better understand Weres!And his ignorant ass did exactly that!”
“Get them out,” Cyrus said to his wolves.“Get them all out.”
And this time, his voicehadchanged, enough that nobody, not even the Corpsmen, gave him any argument.Of course, that was likely because their boss was already striding through the door, heading off to the labs in the belly of HQ to find out if Jen knew what she was talking about, and how something had gotten its claws in him without his top-tier detection spell noticing.The war mages followed, looking confused and belligerent and hedged by a mountain of fur as half of Cyrus’s boys peeled off to escort them out, and then chastened when the boss snapped at them to hurryup.
Yeah, before I rip them to shreds, the human part of my mind thought, right before my wolf lunged for the door.
But Cyrus had been expecting it, and he took me down before the rest of the wolves piled on top and sat on me.I fought them, even as fear clawed at my belly, fear that the same thing would happen in this fight that had in the other.But nothing did.
Except for me ending up squashed under a mountain of muscle, while half a dozen voices growled reassurances at me even as they held me down.
“Damn, she’s strong,” a voice I couldn’t recognize because it was all the way into wolf-speak said.
“She’s Lupa.What do you expect?”That was Jace, sounding proud and worried and a little freaked out, all at once.
“Get out,” Cyrus growled after a while.“All of you,” and they went.
“I need to talk to Lia!”Sophie repeated.
“Think you talked enough,” Lee told her, and dragged her off again, with the back of her t-shirt in his mouth like a misbehaving cub.
I just stayed sprawled on the torn-up carpet, wondering if I was ever going to get the home of my dreams.Something tastefully decorated in desert shades, with crimson and lavender accents, like a sunset.I liked sunsets.
Cyrus lay down beside me, still in human form, which was a good trick with that many other wolves changing around him.That’s why he’s Alpha, I thought, feeling his hand find my arm.I immediately felt better; the touch was comforting to both me and my wolf, which was still pacing around my head, mad as hell.
But a few moments breathing with Cyrus had her curling up and starting to lick a paw.It was a resentful licking, but still.Best I was going to get right now.
