“It’s like a blue moon and a blood moon at the same time. It hasn’t happened since 1866, and we all know sirens are heavily influenced by two things. Water and—”
“The moon,” I completed. What Molly said made sense. Trying to catch a siren on a full moon was akin to attempting to wrestle a werewolf during one. They were significantly more powerful at the peak of the lunar cycle.
Brock cleared his throat. “When I was trying to deal peacefully with Calista, she said she needed me to find the gate before the Hunters’ moon.”
Molly gasped. “That’s in two months. In October.”
My wide eyes flew to Molly. “You are a walking supernatural encyclopedia.”
Molly grinned. “Does that mean I get a badge now?”
Cass and I shared a look. “No,” we answered in unison.
Everyone had to go through the typical bounty hunter hazing. It was a rite of passage. Withholding cool shit like badges and guns was part of it, but I knew right then I’d made the right choice in taking Molly on as my apprentice. She was quick-witted and book smart, something lacking in most meat-headed hunters.
Stretching out my back, I prepared to shift. Would I really sprout another tail? Gain another power? I grew queasy just thinking about it.
Sabine stepped onto the porch then, looking sleepy but still carrying her black leather doctor’s bag. “Evie, would you like to shift insi—”
Pulling Brock’s long t-shirt off, I let it fall to the floor.
“Okay, then,” Sabine added.
I was a shifter now, so nudity was going to happen a lot. When I slid off my panties, I caught Brock grinning.
With a smirk, I called forth my furry beast. Having shifted a couple of times already, I expected the pain to lessen. But if it did, it was only marginally. The breaking bones weren’t what hurt the most. It was the stretching of my skin, the tearing of muscles. The burning sensation made me want to escape my own body.
A whimper escaped me as my flesh broke down, twisted, stretched, and put itself back together. Brock dropped to the ground to meet me at eye level. He could sense the extent of my pain through the pack bond. “Breathe through it,” he encouraged. “Think of nothing but your breath.”
I did as he said and breathed in and out, until my skin didn’t feel like it was on fire anymore.
Then Sabine gasped. “Three tails!”
Molly waved her hand. “Oh yeah, that’s totally normal. She’s going to get one each time she shifts until she has a total of nine.”
Whoops, we’d forgotten to clue in the doc.
“Any new powers?” Molly dropped to the ground next to Brock. I caught a whiff of her coconut shampoo and it tickled my nose. I backed up a step to get away from the overwhelming scent and I sneezed.
“Oh my God, you’re so adorable,” Molly cooed. “I want to hug you.”
I growled a little for comedy, and Cass laughed, but Molly stumbled back a pace.
Brock’s large, strong hand slid down my back as if petting a dog, and damn it felt good. I had to resist the urge to roll over and offer him my belly. As he moved his hand past my face again for another rub, I identified multiple scents at once. Lotion, strawberries from breakfast, me.
‘I think I can super scent or something,’I told Cass.
“She’s got super scent,” Cass told everyone.
Brock and Sabine shared a look, and the doc jotted down the fact in her notebook.
The wind picked up, delivering a scent that had all the fur on my body standing up. Sulfur, oil, and something inherently evil brushed past me, reminding me of the giant demon from last night. I raced down the porch steps, and burst onto the field in front of Brock’s house.
“Evie!” Brock yelled before I heard the cracking of bones behind me.
‘Wait for me, woman!’he shouted inside my head.
I skidded to a halt when I noticed everyone scrambling to catch up with me. Brock was tearing his clothes off, and already half shifted into his wolf form.
