Bloodfire (Blood Destiny) (20 page)

I ran up to its neck, legs powering up the
slope of its inclined posture, momentum carrying me, with my hands pulling on
clumps of fur to reach the top.
 
Hanging
on to a horn with one hand and reaching into my trusty backpack with my other
hand for my spare knife, I knew what to do.

Goddammit,
Mackenzie, shift now!

Knock
it off its feet,
Corrigan
 
I
sent back calmly.

I sensed, rather than
saw,
the panther pause for a heartbeat then pull back with all the shifters to the
dunes.
 
It seemed as if there was a
moment of absolute stillness and quiet before, almost immediately, as one group
of fur-balled killing machines, they rushed the monster’s legs.
 
The force of their attack flipped it off
its feet for just a split second, allowing me to drive the point of my blade
into its carotid artery and feel warm blood spilling out over my hands.
 
The creature staggered again, this time
falling onto its knees as I sprang back out of the way.
 
With a heavy groan it keeled slowly down
to the ground, hands flailing towards its neck in vain. Then, finally, it was
silent.

Chapter Eleven

I wiped my hands of the creature’s blood
on the damp grass and surveyed the damage.
 
My bloodfire was gradually subsiding into a pit of devastation as a part
of me realised that this was definitely not what had killed John – its
tracks were labored in sharp definition across the sand and heavier
ground.
 
And yet, it seemed that it was
just too much coincidence that it had taken this moment, a scant two days after
his death, to appear in the very same spot where he’d drawn his last breath.
 
There had to be some kind of connection.

I stood up and noted a very naked and very
annoyed Corrigan right in front of me.
 
He grabbed me by the shoulders and shook.

“What the hell did you think you were
doing?” he growled.

I tried to pull away but his grip was too
tight.
 
“I thought that it might
have been what killed John.
 
I
wanted to kill it back.” I managed at least to sound calm, even if I didn’t
feel it.

“That part I understand,” he snapped, “but
what fool part of you thought that you could take it on by yourself?”

“Is your pride dented, my lord?
 
Who’s the kitten now then?” I said, unable
to prevent myself from taunting him softly.
 
Hah, who was frightened of the big scary
Lord Alpha?
 
Not me, no sirree.

“I compelled you.”
 
His liquid green gold eyes bored
intensely into mine.

I shrugged complacently.
  
“So in the heat of the moment it
didn’t take.
 
You’re not my alpha,
remember.”

His grip tightened even more and I winced
in pain.
 
“I am the Lord Alpha.
 
I am everyone’s alpha.”

“Hey, you’re new at this game, remember?
 
It’s not my fault if you’ve not fully
come into all your lordly power yet.”

The answering glare was absolutely
terrifying.
 
I rather belatedly
considered that I should not be antagonising this shifter in any way after all.
 
In fact, I had the sudden unshakeable
belief that he was about to literally tear my head off.
 
My temper would get me killed long
before any of the Brethren ever realised the truth about me.
 
And I had to remember that it was more
than just my life on the line.
 
There was the rest of my pack to consider too.
 
Bugger.

I cast my eyes down submissively but I
didn’t tremble.
 
Well, not much, at
least anyway.
 
 
I still wasn’t scared of
him,
I was just pretending to be scared.
 
Honest to goodness.
 
“I’m sorry, my Lord.
 
My disappointment at realising this was
not my alpha’s murderer along with the adrenaline from the fight has caused me
to speak out of turn.
 
I bow to your
ultimate authority, in accordance with the Way.”
 
Way Directive 73: Any shifter who
challenges their alpha’s authority is bound to accept whatever punishment is
deemed necessary.
 
I could take it.

I hadn’t thought it was possible, but his
grip tightened even further for just a brief second before he abruptly released
me and turned away.
 
“Your
punishment shall be meted out in due course, shifter.
 
Your role in taking down the beast is
noted in your favour.”

I peeked a glance up.
 
He was stalking off towards the
monster’s body and I was apparently dismissed - for the time being at
least.
 
I raised my head and saw
that all of the shifters around me, in various states of nudity, were looking
aghast at my foolish bravado.
 
I
guiltily noted that Tom’s eyes were the most horrorstruck, whilst Anton’s
proclaimed that he’d always known I’d do or say something stupid like this
before long.
 
Lucy looked like she’d
swallowed a small furry creature of her own.

Shit, I was such an idiot sometimes.
 
All I had to do was keep quiet and stay
out of the Brethren’s way.
 
You
wouldn’t think it would take all that much effort.
 
My gaze fell on the massive prone body
of the beast we’d just killed.
 
I
should probably focus on it and see what I could find out about it rather than
trying to engage any more shifters in small talk.

Ignoring the continued stares of the
others, I headed up to the beast’s head and crouched down.
 
It was definitely an ugly looking
thing.
 
Its black eyes were fixed
sightlessly to the horizon, as if it was waiting for whatever had summoned it
to this plane to come and help.
 
A
few of the shifters came over as well and stood over it, looking down.
 
As I tilted my head, something
glittering on the side of its cavernous nostril caught my eye.
 
It was a little silver stud pierced into
the side.
 
I appreciated its glitter
for a moment before I reached over and hooked my fingers inside the nostril
itself, finding the butterfly keeping it in place and pulling it out.

One or two of the shifters beside me
looked faintly ill.
 
Whatever.
 
I liked shiny things and this would find
a place in my little wooden chest with all my other memorabilia.

Alex came up.
 
“Whatcha got there?”

I showed him, wordlessly.
 
I wasn’t sure I could trust myself to
speak yet without incriminating myself further.

He looked at it and grimaced.
 
“Lovely,” then focused on the beast
itself.
 
“Sweeet!
 
A terrametus beast!
 
How did you get it in the air?”

Staines appeared in front of us.
 
“We knocked it off its feet for a second
at her,” he nodded to me, “behest.
 
Then she killed it.
 
It did
not fly.”

Alex seemed rather impressed.
 
“It didn’t need to. That moment away
from the ground would have done it.
 
Terrameti get their strength from the ground, as soon as they lose
contact with the earth they become as weak as kittens.
 
Nice work, Mack Attack!”

There was a glint of skeptical approval in
Staines’ eyes.
 
He turned to Alex
and raised his eyebrows.
 
“Where
were you during the attack, Mr Floride?”

There wasn’t a trace of embarrassment
anywhere to be seen on Alex’s face.
 
“Dude, I told ya on the phone.
 
I don’t fight.
 
I’m a…”

“Lover, not a fighter?”
 
It popped out before I could stop
myself.
 
I was really going to have
to stop doing that.

Fortunately the mage didn’t try to kill me
or grab me as Corrigan had done, he just laughed instead and licked his lips
suggestively, “Something like that.”

Corrigan himself had apparently recovered
enough from the trauma of having someone speak back to him because he strode
arrogantly back over to us.
 

Alex touched his forelock in mock
obeisance at the Lord Alpha and grinned at him easily.
 
“That’s not the first time I’ve seen
pack members’ rage mean that an alpha’s compulsion doesn’t work properly.
 
You guys are taking this death pretty
seriously.”
 

I blinked in surprise and tried not to
appear too pathetically grateful at the mage offering me a get-out clause.
 
Corrigan grunted slighted and ignored me
completely, focusing on Alex.
 
“Do
your thing, then.”

He jerked back slightly.
 
“What now?
 
But I thought…”

“We haven’t got all day, or night.
 
The thing that killed the Cornish alpha
left no traces.”
 
He jerked his head
at the terrametus.
 
“That did.
 
So you need to scry and tell us what you
can see.”

“Alpha dude, I’ll do better than that,
I’ll show you.”

I was surprised that Corrigan didn’t try
to rip Alex’s head off his shoulders too for calling him dude.
 
Instead he just folded his arms and
rocked back on his heels.
 
Disturbingly he was still naked from his shift back to human.
 
So was everyone else but somehow
Corrigan’s nudity demanded more attention.
 
At least I’d spent enough time around the pack to avoid moving my eyes
to anywhere other than his face.
 
It
wasn’t easy though.

I decided that looking at Alex was
probably a safer option.
 
The mage
had closed his eyes and I noticed with fascination that blue sparks were
forming at the clenched fists he had down by his sides.
 
There was a faint hum in the air then he
opened up his palms.

Blue light sprang forward, snaking through
the air.
 
It streamed past the body
of the terrametus as if it wasn’t even there and instead curved through in
stretched coils to the top of the dunes.
 
That was where the seven coals were.
 
The light coalesced there and formed a
shape.
 
I screwed up my eyes, trying
to work out what it was.

“Can you tell what it is yet?”
 
asked
Alex in a
mock Aussie accent.

“Try harder, mage,” Corrigan ordered in a
low rumble of a voice.
 

Up until that point I had been very
impressed with the mage’s offerings.
 
Clearly this was just kids’ stuff and there was a lot more to come.

The light swirled around some more.
 
It looked oddly human shaped: there were
two arms, two legs, and it wasn’t that big either.
 
At least not when compared it to the
corpse next to us at least.
 
The
features tightened somewhat and I realised that I was looking at a woman.
 
She had long hair that spread out behind
her in the non-existent wind and a smooth unlined face.
 
Her
blue lit
arms lifted gently and moved almost musically in the air, as if she was
conducting an orchestra.
 
She was
facing towards us, and towards the spot where John’s body had lain.
  
My eyes drifted down her body,
noting a flowing gown, much like the one I’d expected to see Alex in
actually.
 
Then I realised that her
feet weren’t touching the ground.

“Is she meant to be floating?
 
I mean
,
is that
a side-effect of the scrying?”
 
I
asked.

Alex’s eyes were screwed shut in
concentration and it was Corrigan who answered.
 
“No.
 
What you see is what was here.
 
Neither would the dunes would not have
shifted that much in the last forty-eight hours.
 
She is hovering above the ground.”

“Fuck me,” I breathed.

Corrigan looked at me for a second and seemed
about to say something before he clearly thought better of it and switched his
attention back to the mage.
 
“Is
that it, Mr Floride? Is there a trail?”

The blue light shifted slightly from the
woman’s shape but did little else.
 
“No trail,” Alex said, with some effort.

“Then we’re done,” said Corrigan.
 
“The money will be transferred to your
account within the hour.
 
Can you
take care of this?”
 
He asked,
motioning towards the earthquake monster.
 
Alex nodded and, with that, Corrigan snapped his fingers and shifted
back seamlessly to a panther.
 
The
other Brethren, and Anton I noted, also shifted, then twisted back to the
direction of the keep and bounded off.
 
Just before the tree line, Corrigan’s head turned and his panther eyes,
as green gold as his human ones, glanced back towards me for one second, before
snapping back to the front and disappearing into the night.