Mukesh laughed. One of those evil laughsthat didn’t reach the eyes and sent chills up my spine. “Once I have my son asmy protégé and you are dead, I won’t–” His words were cut off as he spun aroundjust in time to collide with Nahuel’s lean jaguar. Nahuel arced through the airto land on the Skin Walker’s back. They crashed into each other and in a second,Mukesh had shifted into a spotted leopard. It was beautiful and terrifying thathe could shift to any animal at will and within seconds.
I used the distraction to spin around,and stopped dead when I saw my bear. Gavin was leaning up against the tree,panting, his chest cuts were deep and dripping blood.
“Gavin. You open the matebond right thisinstant or I’ll leave you. I’ll walk away and never come back!” I shouted,knowing it was a lie, grasping at straws to do anything for him to let me in. Iwas on the verge of a panic attack and I could barely control my breathing.
His bear looked up at me and growled asif it were going to attack me. Eyes glowing yellow, darkening to black at the edges.Oh God, what had Mukesh done? I bent down slowly and reached into my bootpulling out the small dagger I kept there. I flicked it open and pressed the bladeagainst my wrist. “Okay, fine. I’ll kill myself then. If you won’t let me in, Iwill just die right along with you.”
That was also a lie but I didn’t think hisbear could see reason right now. It was all instinct and I knew that no matterhow far gone he was, on some level he still recognized me as his mate. He had to.The bear’s eyes went to a honey brown and I felt something tug at my chest.
‘Let me help you.’I pressed Gavin, pushing my white magicinto him with my thoughts.
The sound of massive cats strugglingbehind me made it hard to give them my back but I had to believe Nahuel couldhold off Mukesh while I tended to my mate. I pulled at the bond a little and a tuggingin my chest grew stronger until finally it popped. The matebond burst open andI was brought to my knees as dark energy dripped from Gavin into me. I had tothink quickly before it took over my ability to think clearly. There was atransmutation spell I had learned from Gretchen recently. Transmuted anythingdark and icky to pure white light. But the black sludgy energy that wasencompassing my body made it hard to think straight. Oh, Gavin. Why did he tryto do all of this alone? I knew why of course. He was protecting me. Always.
I used the blade to nick my finger andheard Gavin’s bear give a low growl. Horrible thoughts were going through mymind as the black magic wrapped its tentacles around me. I squeezed my fingerhard offering two drops of blood to Earth Mother and then I said theincantation. “From night to day …” I paused, forgetting the words, looking downin horror as the black mist crept around me in spirals, encompassing my form.Gavin stepped closer to me, nudging my leg with his snout.
‘Anya.’His voice in my head chased away some of the darkness andcleared my brain so that the words could come to me.
With a shaky voice, I squeezed anotherdrop of blood letting it fall to the earth. “From night to day, chase thedarkness away. From night to day, chase the darkness away.” On the third andfinal line, my voice was stronger as white mist saturated my body and Iscreamed. “From night to day, chase the darkness away!” With a resounding crackacross the sky, Gavin’s bear keeled over with a groan and my body was releasedfrom the darkness that held it. The black wispy tentacles transmuted to whitelight right before my eyes.
I had about three seconds to be proud ofmy accomplishment when something heavy pounced on my back and took me to theground. Mukesh was furious. Tearing at my back with his claws, I cried out asmy wolf began the shift. I couldn’t have stopped her if I tried. I kept my chintucked down as my father taught me to protect my jugular. Mukesh was trying toflip me over but I managed to keep counter, adjusting my weight so that he wasonly given my back. I was curled into a ball, mid-shift, protecting my face andneck as Mukesh’s beast tore into the flesh of my back, when I heard the mostferocious bear roar. Gavin was back and he was furious. I could feel throughour bond how ashamed he was to have dragged me into this but I also felt hisgratitude. Then it all turned red, as white-hot rage poured through him. The groundshook as Gavin ran at us. I was fully shifted into my wolf form now and as Isensed Mukesh’s weight lifting up off of me to meet Gavin’s oncoming threat, Irolled quickly to the left out from under him. Once free, I turned to face themjust as I saw Gavin collide into Mukesh. The Skin Walker instantly turned intoa mirror image bear form like Gavin’s. And they tumbled on the ground tearingat each other with the blood-thirsty jaws of their bears. Horror ran through mefor a moment as I watched them and I couldn’t realize who was who. I stilledand focused on the matebond. There, I could tell. Gavin was on the bottom,coloring slightly lighter and blood matting his chest fur. I could jump onMukesh’s back but it would be better if I could gang up on him with Nahuel. Mysmall wolf was no match for his large bear. Nahuel!
I spun around and searched for theshaman, scanning the forest floor until my eyes landed on his black jaguar. Hewas trying to stand but was so injured, I could see he couldn’t walk. He wasbleeding badly and one of his paws looked broken.
Oh, Nahuel.
I trotted over to him, letting my wolfnuzzle his face. Licking a wound on his neck. There was too much blood. Weneeded a healer.
‘The power of three,’Nahuel told me and pinned his eyes onthe fight before us. With untold strength, he stood. Wobbly at first but thensteadier.
‘It’s time,’he told me and I tried to keep my wolffrom whining. If he went into a fight like this, he wouldn’t survive.
Gavin’s bear roared in pain and that’swhen Nahuel burst forward, no limp in sight. Against every instinct I had as awolf, I charged into the fight with my teeth bared. Nahuel seemed to have noproblem figuring out which bear was Gavin and which was Mukesh because helaunched onto the back of one and I followed. The moment I landed on the bear Icould smell the oil and death that was Mukesh. Finding a good chunk of fleshnear his right shoulder I bit down,hard.
Mukesh tried to shake us off butcouldn’t. Suddenly his form shifted and my wolf was falling down off of his bigbear and onto the ground beside Gavin. I looked up to see Mukesh was a birdnow, flying away. Retreating like the coward he was. No!
With a poof of air, Gavin shifted into abird as well, faster than my eye could track. Must have been the Walker magic. Mymate had Walker magic. I tried not to dwell on that thought as Gavin took tothe sky trailing after the black dot that was Mukesh.
‘Shift and get your knife,’Nahuel told me. Then I heard thecracking of bones as he started his own shift.
I obeyed, letting the change come over mebut it hurt like all hell because my back was still badly injured. Once I washuman again, I ran across the clearing trying not to pass out at the wave ofblackness that was dancing at the edges of my vision. I must have lost a lot ofblood when Mukesh clawed my back. I pulled the hunting knife from the base ofthe tree where Nahuel had thrown it and did a quick blessing on the blade. Spellingit to hit true. Nahuel came out of the clearing holding his hunting dagger and wasfully magically clothed. He tossed me sweat pants and a t-shirt and I caughtthem midair. My nakedness was the least of my worries right now but I quicklythrew the clothes on anyway, sucking in a breath when the shirt hit my back.
‘I got him,’Gavin’s voice came through the bond andI nearly wept in relief that he was okay.
“They’re coming!” I told Nahuel,adjusting my grip on my knife.
Nahuel looked white as a sheet, bloodsoaking through his clothes at his unclosed wounds. “Legend says that onlyanother Walker can kill Mukesh, but the power of three can weaken him. It willbe up to Gavin to finish him off.”
I frowned, not liking the sound of thatat all. I’ll bet that’s what Mama told Gavin, that he was destined to killMukesh. Wish she would have told him he would need help. A caw from the skiesbrought my attention upward as Gavin’s red hawk pushed down on Mukesh bringinghim to the earth. I could see Gavin’s claws dug into the chest of the SkinWalker’s blackbird. When Mukesh was five feet from the ground and it was clearhe wasn’t going to be able to fly away, he dropped in the form of a huge lion.Black mist swirled around his paws and I didn’t want to know what that magicwas capable of. After feeling it earlier as it came off of Gavin, I was sure itcould kill.
Gavin dropped to the ground behind himand just as Mukesh turned his head to look in Gavin’s direction, Nahuel threwthe spear. It sailed across the space and lodged into the Walker’s throat,knocking Mukesh backward, gurgling. The black mist began to swirl and spin likea pack of angry bees but I didn’t step back. I called up my own white magic andlet it saturate my skin in a protective cloak and then I ran. With a leap, Iarced up high and came down right on the lion’s massive body, draped awkwardlyacross his ribs as he lay on his side. The black magic came after me then, butmy protection held. Before he could buck me off, I jammed the hunting knifeinto his chest, right where his heart should be. If he had a heart. Mukeshroared and the sound was deafening in this close proximity. Black oil like tarbegan to ooze from the wound in his neck and heart and I felt a dash of hope. Hewas killable. I needed to remember that.
With one pop, Mukesh shifted to a smallcoyote. The spear and hunting knife fell to the ground with a thud now thatthey no longer had a large body to be stuck in. I had dropped to the ground aswell and the black mist was still trying to attack me as Mukesh’s coyote dartedlightning quick after Nahuel. I could hear Gavin’s bear paws pounding behind meas I tried to stand. With the black magic pulling at my skin, it felt liketrying to move through thick, wet sand. Nahuel took a fighter’s stance, legsslightly bent, arms up. But before Mukesh could get to him, Gavin took one pawand swiped it, pulling the coyote’s legs right out from under him and tossinghim ten feet to the left. Mukesh roared and it took me a second to realize hewas a bear again. In all of my life of living with shifters, I had never seensomeone change so fast. As fast as he could think, he could shift.
Mukesh stood and faced Gavin, black, oil-likeblood still dripping from his neck and chest where we had injured him. Gavinstood up on his thick hind legs, making himself tall, and roared. Every birdflew from its perch at the sound and chills ran up my arms. It was a challengeroar, the same you would give an alpha in a fight for dominance. A fight to thedeath. Just as I thought the two bears were sure to collide and fight, Mukeshtransformed to his human shape. He stood naked, pale skin covered in leakingblack oil, his eyes were completely black and his hair was matted with slick,oily blood. His arms were tucked behind his back and his head was bowed as ifhe was in prayer. Gavin didn’t move. I didn’t move. No one breathed. Mukesh wasdirectly in front of Gavin about fifteen feet away. With Nahuel to Gavin’sright and me to his left. We were ready.
Suddenly Mukesh moved in a blur. His armsthat had been resting behind his back flung out and I saw a haze of sharpsilver flash past me, headed straight for Gavin. I couldn’t even scream or moveto warn him, it all happened so fast it took me a second to realize they were knives.Sickles or something curved. I wasn’t close enough but Nahuel was. He lungedforward with the speed and grace of a cat and jumped in front of Gavin as thesickles sunk into each side of his neck, taking his head clean off.
“Noooooo!” I screamed, stumbling forward,tripping over my legs as I ran to my fallen friend. Gavin roared again and leaptover Nahuel’s headless body, charging Mukesh, as I stood there frozen staringat Nahuel’s head on the ground. I wanted to vomit, I wanted to cry, I wanted tofly away from here and never come back, but there was something else I wanted.I wanted it more than anything in the world. I wanted Mukesh dead, cut into tenpieces and burned. My mentor had died. He saved Gavin and died in his place.Why hadn’t he stopped time? But the answer came to me. He couldn’t. The whitehair, the wrinkles, he had been slowly weakening, slowly fighting Mukesh whilewe got my parents to safety.
