“Someone told you something.”
This time our nod was slow, our gaze penetrating.
“Sabina?”
We did nothing, holding the position and the stare.
Whispering, Bruiser said, “Was...” His voice went rough and silent. He took a slow breath, as if to calm any reaction he might have. “Was it Leo?”
I/we nodded.
Wrassler cursed. The room filled with the scents of shock, excitement, horror.
“Leo told you, in words, in English, to come here and find this?”
I/we nodded. The fact that Leo hadn’t killed and eaten us was an indication that Leo was not a revenant. He was, more or less, sane.
Without turning his eyes from me, Bruiser said to Wrassler. “We do not speak of this. Not until we know more. I need a woodworker, an antiques repairer. Can you locate someone and get them here immediately? Send a car.”
“Yes, Consort,” Wrassler said. He was holding his cell phone and left the room, moving fast.
“Jane, can you shift to human?”
Beast and I considered one another. It was close to dawn; maybe after dawn. Except for a very,veryfew times, shifting from Beast to human in daylight had always been impossible. But I didn’t know if Beast had been holding out on me all along, using the difficulty to maintain control, or if the sunlight actually was a problem.Beast?I thought.
She blinked. Sat. Held my mind in her predator’s claws. I was poaching on her hunting grounds to ask this.
Is hard. Will need much meat and grain for Jane. Jane willhurt.
Is it going to hurt because the daytime process is so difficult or because youmakeit difficult?
Beast didn’t answer, which I figured was an answer all on its own.
I looked at Bruiser and forced our head down and back up. I/we padded from the office and back along the hallways to Leo’s old room. Bruiser didn’t follow, but a guard met us there and opened the door, standing back as if we were a wild animal who might attack for no reason. He closed the door behind us.
Inside, alone, Beast stepped onto the bed and scratched all the covers and pillows together, making a nest, her claws pricking and pulling the fabric. She lay down in the nest and scrunched around.Jane will hurt,she thought. She extended the claws on her dominant paw and hooked them into her pelt at her chest. It was the exact place mywesa claws had torn Beast’s puma flesh when I accidently performed black magic and stole her body and her soul so very long ago.
She ripped her own flesh. Skinwalker energies shot out, gray mist and black motes.
The pain was electric. Spiraling. Piercing. Burning, icy, slicing. I was being flayed alive. My bones popped and my spine snapped back. I screamed.
CHAPTER 13
It’s Better Than Being Shot At
I woke in human form. There was blood all over the sheets. I was shivering, panting, and my muscles felt as if I had been Tased.
Bruiser eased down onto the bed and gathered me and all the bloody linens in his arms. “I’m sorry,” he murmured. “I didn’t know it would be this bad. I’m so sorry.”
“Beast did it,” I said. It came out a croak. “She shifted, and I think she made it hurt. Dang cat.” I breathed for a while and tried to force my muscles to relax. When that didn’t work and the muscle twitches became spasms, Bruiser carried me, sheets and all, to the shower and put me on the small, tiled seat. He stripped fast and sat on the floor, pulling me into his arms. He turned on the water as hot as we could stand it. I shivered, my teeth chattered, and I cussed Beast up one side and down the next as hard as I could. Bruiser chuckled silently at my cussing, mostly because the stuttering, chattering cussing came out all wrong.
Half an hour later, my muscles were much looser, and Bruiser and I were busy doing other things. I feltmuchbetter after that. When we were both dry and dressed andtrying to make our hair and his beard look less like we had been doing what we had been doing, I asked, “Did you get a woodworker to open Leo’s desk?”
“Yes, just before I came here. He charged an outrageous price, but he found a small locket sealed inside a well-glued wooden niche.”
“And?”
“Within it are two miniatures. Tiny paintings: Ka N’vsita on one side and Adan Bouvier on the other. I have no idea what it can do, but it reeks of magic. I have had it messengered to our house.”
