She screamed out a war cry and lunged for me, her hands wrapping around my wolf legs. She then tossed me back out into the main part of the bathroom, and I yelped as I crashed against the wall. My side ached for a few moments as I shook off the hit. Water was pouring from the busted sink behind me, coating my fur.
I got to my feet. My shift was complete now, which meant I could tear this bitch limb from limb. This was why I wanted the wolf. She wasanimalistic in a way I could never be. She would not stop.
My wolf bared her teeth and the fae did the same. These fae kept coming to Earth, expecting I was an easy kill. Yes, I had guards. Yes, I was under constant protection, but none of that was because I was weak. I would prove that right here and now.
With blinding speed she launched at me, just as I sprang up to meet her halfway. I called the mecca to me, building up a shield so that when she reached for me her hands were blasted backward. She’d done the same thing with mecca, shielded herself, but in her case it was weaker than mine, which meant I was able to reach her.
My jaws opened and I sank my teeth into the delicate flesh of her neck. Her blood hit my mouth and I wanted to recoil. It was like oil, a chemical taste. Mix that with the coppery floral smell coming off her and I wanted to vomit. But I held firm and shook her neck like a ragdoll, tearing through skin, bone, and muscle. Her razor-sharp nails slid down my back and I wasn’t able to maintain any shielding; she cut through my fur, peeling back layers of skin. My instinct was to detach from her neck, but I forced myself to hang on. I had no true idea how to kill a fae, besides what the magic borns had written on theboard, but I figured it was similar to how to kill a shifter. Our regenerative power was in our blood, so I was going to drain this fae.
My back was on fire with searing pain, but I kept ripping at her neck, trying to pull out the mecca energy I could feel inside of her – pull it into me. Draining her of power and blood seemed like a good fight plan. She’d surely need one or the other to survive.
She fought with everything she had; my back had to be torn to shreds by now, but at least the mecca energy inside of me was only growing.
That gave me the strength to fight the pain and hold on. It seemed to take forever, but eventually she slumped. Needing to make sure she wasn’t trying to trick me, I held on until I could no longer hear her heart beating.
All of the fae who had attacked us so far, held vastly different levels of power. The ones who had struck at the vortex on the night of the Red Queen’s death had been the weakest. The dark fae who killed Derek was still the strongest so far. Both he and this female before me tasted of old, powerful magic. Hence the reason I was lying in pieces on the floor right now.
The pounding on the door was louder now, rattling the hinges. “Arianna!” Kade was bellowing, very bear-like. An action I was prettysure had been going on for some time, but I’d been too occupied to notice.
Focusing back on the fae, I remained diligent. Her heart might have not been beating, but it took a few more minutes for the magic to fade from the fae. I felt the last of it drain, and in that same instant the door blasted off its hinges.
I tried to shift away from the fae; I kept slipping in her nearly black blood, which was already coating my muzzle and body. It was thick, like oil, and I wondered if I’d ever get it out of my fur. Kade and Violet took in the whole scene, from the mangled horn-headed fae to my shredded wolf back. The bear king was partially shifted, in his massive form, clawed hands and bushy beard.
“Damn, you go, girl,” Violet stated, and I gave her a weak but wolfish grin. I was pretty sure my best friend was incapable of being serious.
I could sense Finn charging his way through the crowded restaurant.
I’m safe, I told him, as I sucked up the pain and began to shift back to human form. This was the quickest way to heal my injuries and get back to fighting form. Of course I didn’t think about who was in the room until I was standing stark naked in front of Kade.Uh oh.
Shifting in front of other wolves was no big deal. We had grown up doing it since we werebabies, but shifting in front of the bear king after slamming on the brakes to our flirting was stupid. It was almost as if my wolf wanted him to see me like this. Kade’s eyes caressed my body for a second, barely long enough that I could even be sure it happened. There was a flicker of heat there, but then it was gone as he let his body change back from his partial bear to his fully human form.
Violet stepped up to me, snapping her fingers as she walked. She now held a long white robe, which she tossed to me and I slipped into quickly. Finn’s power brushed against me as he barreled into the room, moving to my side. Sinking my hands deep into his fur, I let his calming presence wash over me.
My eyes burned and my throat was tight, but I definitely couldn’t fall apart now. We had to deal with this situation and make sure there were no other attacks on my people.
“Violet, get this body back to the castle and put it on ice. Calista!” I yelled. She poked her head in the bathroom door.
“Please pay for the repairs to have the bathroom fixed and find out if there were any other attacks in the boroughs,” I said, my tone hard. She nodded, her tablet out, fingers flying across it.
Kade took a step away from me, his face unreadable. “I should get back to my people. Make sure there wasn’t an attack there as well,” he said.
There was so much wrong right now, not just with the fae attacking us, but also between Kade and me. Unfortunately, I had no time to deal with that. Neither of us did, so I simply nodded.
“Be safe,” I managed to choke out.
“You too, Ari.” His reply was soft, and then he was gone.
The moment his bright energy drifted from the room, my body caved in a little. I realized then, in a flash of clarity, that it wasn’t possible for me to be just friends with Kade. There was so much more between us. Baladar’s story had only made it worse. In the beginning, bear and wolf were one. A team. Stronger together. Somewhere along the line we had broken apart something that was whole.
If I were any normal wolf shifter I’d say screw the rules, I was taking what I wanted. But I was the queen, and selfish actions by me could bring down both of our races. Kade and I had to stop all of this, all the training; it was just asking for trouble. After fixing the mecca on the night of the summer festival, that would be the end of Kade in my life. Our people came first. The past was going to stay exactly where it was, in the past.
9
Summer fun. Summer love
THE NEXT TWOweeks passed in a blur of organizing, training, and endless searching through the Red Queen’s personal stores. I couldn’t help my magic born with the fae magic library. Only a handful of the books were written in English. If I really concentrated I could understand the language of magic, of the Tuatha de Danann, but it was too hard to do it in larger texts. I was thankful to have Violet in charge of this research. I trusted her implicitly, and she was the next best thing to me being able to oversee it myself.
Of course, so far they hadn’t turned up anything of importance, although as more andmore fae magic and history was uncovered, more and more it seemed that Sir Baladar was correct. Shifters were not evolved from humans, we were the offspring of fae. Wrapping my head around it was still difficult. Especially since they kept trying to kill me and my people.
