Page 67 (1/1)
Light and shadorenched and twisted The earth rearranged itself beneath me I aimed, blew outhit her The rounds passed clean through her Through the light that was Soul Her teeth caht my arm and snapped down, just as she solidified and dropped onto my belly My breath, led half scream The smell of my blood was hot on the air There was no pain yet Just the sound and vibration of teeth on ravity She shookroll Realized I was still in the gray place of the change With Soul In her natural forain I focused on it More cat than gator now Striped black and yellow Tiger, Beast thought I/we snarled Soul snarled back Withflesh and tendons on the one she had mauled But I isted in et theain and bit down ontoar small prey Likebones The pain that had been hiding exploded insideinBeast? I’h rew louder My body went limp
• • •
Face wrenched in agony Changing Shifting Beast screa down Fur and blood and er Sed good blood Tiger growled and gurgled Tiger could not breathe
Beast played dead Then attacked Beast is best hunter
Tiger whined Blew bubbles of blood Tiger lay still Beast let her go and leaped to three legs, whirled and reached for tiger Tiger was gone Sniffed, searching for tiger Saw light and ht like gray place, but brighter With wings and scales Growling and snarling Roaring and chuffing Singing like birds Soul cried, "Where is the hatchling?"
And she was gone
Pain raced up broken leg Beating like blood and heart I/we gathered up Jane boots and clothes Carried them to ess-u-vee Leaped to front, to top of chest, above beating heart, warm from life of ess-u-vee, alive but not alive Curled into ball on top of Jane clothes Put jaw on boots Closed eyes and thought of Jane
• • •
I woke up on the warm hood of the SUV, disoriented and nauseated Hair unbraided and draped all oversure that Soul and Satan’s Three were gone No growling, no light show No vehicle behind unfire, and vauely familiar that skittered around in ic trick before I could identify it
I rolled off the hood and dressed quickly in my blood-damp, shredded clothes, except for the panties and bra that were a total ruin This hy I didn’t invest in expensive undies
No one drove by as I dressed; no sirens sounded in the distance I was glad I was in the boonies with no nearby, nosy neighbors Going commando--which was not at all co uns and ain, I slid into the car, the tires ground into the concrete and spit shale, as I gunned the , What the heck just happened?
I was halfway across the river before s One: Driving with no as a lot like riding Bitsa Two: I wasn’t hungry I had been beaten and cold-cocked by a vaer, been wounded, shifted back, all in aalways used energy, energy that I took fro, like I’d had a good meal and a beer And like the beer worked on ly relaxed Which I clearly shouldn’t have been And using the ter a lot And I had no idea why Three: Soul was a shapeshifter Which on and a freaking tiger and maybe other fory rehed hed ht on my belly had been an indication Unless she could convert energy to y she could draw on as needed to change shape and ic like I had never ih the last fewit fro sound, and ti about it was familiar in a mathematical kinda way Like A equals B, and B equals C, so A equals C Like that I was doing h school teachers would be so proud I pulled up ed arood "And I can do alphabet ? The taste of Soul’s blood Which hy I wasn’t hungry, I thought Whatever kinda dragon-cat-shifter/l’arcenciel Soul was, her blood was full of power "I gotta figure out what she is Someday," I said to the road in front of ood because I know for sure who’s trying to boood, except that Soul tried to kill me" I frowned at the street because it wanted to waver to the left "And Satan’s Three are after ray place of the change Which is bad Very bad So it’s not all good
"Oh crap I’ood Okay Soul’s blood is full of power and happy juice Like the arcenciel goop froed scale"
Car lights flashed into the SUV through the broken s My T-shirt was clawed and ripped and stiff with blood Cool night wind touched h the rents Since I was over the river and off the bridge, I slowed, parked, and yanked the shirt off, tossing it into the passenger floor, without looking I twisted h it to keep it in place, then pushed the stakes down because they hit the roof and hurtwas in back and I crawled through the SUV to get it