My bestie knew me better than I knew myself.
Another deep breath in and I started to shift, my bones cracking. Oh no! The pain was breaking my concentration. My eyelids flew open as I stared down at my changing body.
Please don’t have a vagina, please don’t have a vag—
Fuck!
I’d shifted into myself!
Looking over, I confirmed that Nathan still looked like me, but my concentration was weakening with my panic.
“Plan B!” Cass called and leapt into the air, landing in front of me. Red magic sparkled around his body as he illusioned his body to appear to be me.
“Cass, no!” I screamed, as pain like I’d never felt before ripped into my body, and a black inky blob hovered over me.
This wasnotgood.
“The spell,” Willemena whispered.
Tianna must have just entered the room, because a strangled cry ripped from her throat at seeing Cass now illusioned in my form.
“Cass, I’ll never forgive you!” I grunted, while I also worked to keep Nathan looking like me, continued to try to change my form to the right one, and tried not to black out from the pain. If I lost consciousness, I didn’t need anyone to tell me I’d never wake again.
The black blob zoomed toward Cass and I panicked, throwing my left arm out without thinking. A purplish pink crackling ball of magical fire erupted from my palm and slammed into my bestie, blasting his illusion. Cass was back to being a pink, pot-bellied demon imp, shiny iridescent Speedos and all … and not a second too soon.
The moment the black blob registered my pink furry bestie, it reeled backward and seemed to look between Nathan and me, considering.
It was like an intelligent force of darkness, which scared the ever living daylights out of me.
“Use my power and shift into anything!” Brock roared. “Whatever, as long as it’s not you.”
That’s right. It didn’t really have to be Nathan. It just needed to not be me, and probably not my fox either since the blob knew that form too. Without much thought, I shifted into the only person that I’d never forget. I knew every wrinkle, every gray hair, every gesture by heart—the cluster of freckles above her collarbone that looked like the Pleiades star formation.
Taking deep breaths, I urged my body to mold into the woman who raised me. My entire body tingled and burned, but every time I started to feel depleted, Brock pushed more power into me. Finally, I looked down and saw the old, delicate hands that would make me coffee and grind herbs and brush my hair, and a sob racked through me.
Cass fell to his little knees before me. “Gran.”
My gaze flicked to the black blob as it eked dangerously close to me and took one last look at Gran before zooming toward Nathan’s body, disguised as me, and dove into it like some kind of creepy alien possession.Zzzzoop.It sped into what looked like the center of my chest and vanished from sight.
Seeingthe blackness appear to enter me—well, Nathan—was highly disturbing—like top five craziest things I’d ever seen, and I’d seen someshitas a supe bounty hunter. His body shook a little with the force of it before going still.
Willemena grabbed a large raw chunk of black tourmaline and another of smoky quartz from the table and walked over to Nathan, where she knelt down slowly, for once showing her age. She placed the heavy crystals on his chest with uncharacteristic gentleness, and I appreciated her respect for the dead and for his sacrifice.
“The debt has been paid. The spell is dissolved,” she said to all of us. Brock crouched next to me, while Cass was at my other side. Tianna, Reo, Haru, and Molly circled the scene.
We stared at the lifeless body until I entirely released the transformation magic and the body flickered like a hologram and transitioned back into Nathan. One moment it looked exactly like me, the next the werewolf shifter was back.
“You did it, Evie,” Willemena declared.
Then she looked at me, emotion straining her face. Reaching out, she brushed my cheek. “It’s good to see my old friend again, but you can change back now, Evie. It’s safe.”
I let go of the image and, as soon as I did, Brock’s alpha power rushed from me in a wave, leaving me depleted and exhausted. Once again in my normal pregnant Evie body, I sat up and looked through the open door. The storm had stopped. The torrent of thunder and lightning was gone, replaced by a colorful morning sunrise.
Brock slipped into my room and returned with a blanket, which he draped over my shoulders as he helped me stand.
I stumbled forward, rounding on Cass, my finger already pointing toward his face. “I love you, you little shit. Don’t you ever try to sacrifice yourself for me again!”
His wings fluttered and he took flight to meet me at eye level. Tears welled in his eyes. “Well, then don’t ever kill a vampire with a killing curse attached to him again!” he fired back.
