Natural Dual-Mage

Emery dove out of the way. Reagan spun, her magic covering her in that complex symphony of ice and fire, blocking out my magic, and the mages in the way screamed and threw up their hands. Magical fire blasted them and continued onward, their bodies dropping like something had thrown them to the ground. The fire spread out the farther away it got, catching the reaching branches and setting fire to the trees.

Emery stood up slowly with wide eyes, watching the destruction for a moment before turning back to me with his mouth hanging open. Reagan had a huge grin on her face. She shook her head before waving her hand, and all the offshoots of my fire diminished to blackened char.

“I was just looking for cover. I didn’t expect you to actually do it. Wow. You are the best kind of shocking, Penelope Bristol,” she said. “The absolute best kind of shocking. What fun.”

“She’s nuts,” I muttered, running after her. “She is fudge berries nuts.”

A shape moved through the trees with us, a large black wolf guarding our flank, with leaner gray wolves following behind. It must’ve been Devon and his pack, pushed out of the larger group of shifters to babysit us.

“It’s a wonder Roger didn’t choose someone more experienced,” I said, feeling magic ahead. Colorful threads waved through the trees.

The black wolf snarled before shooting forward with a burst of speed. He launched through the air, smacking a mage’s chest with his front paws and latching on to the mage’s throat.

“The experienced pack members probably know Reagan and found somewhere else to be.” Emery’s magic swished past me, darting through the trees to intersect the road. A mage cried out in surprise, then pain.

“This road goes on forever.” Instead of sticking with it around the bend, I cut left to follow Emery’s magic. “Shortcut.”

The wolves sped up, getting ahead of us. Two branched out to the sides, their lopes graceful and effortless. Each brought down a running mage.

“They’re starting to panic,” I said, following Devon to the road. He peeled off as we got there, back to guarding our flank.

“That’s good news for us.”

Emerging onto the road, I saw two things. One was that the magical workers were scarce down here, having clearly seen all the fire and crazy through the trees and found different paths (not necessarily toward the battle). And two, we were nearing the end of the line of cars, the larger road out of this area not too far beyond that.

“Almost there.” I shot my vermin zapper at a mage standing next to a car in indecision.

Emery sent a wide blast of heat at a line of cars. It sliced through two mages whipping up a couple of humdingers. They sank down, spells unrealized.

“That’s going to bother me,” I heard Emery mutter. “How the hell—”

He was trying to make magical fire and couldn’t. Point to me.

Reagan ran from around the bend, a deep score on her upper arm and blood dribbling down her skin. Her leather pants were torn, but the skin wasn’t broken underneath.

“You okay?” I asked, catching movement in one of the cars near the end of the row.

Without warning, the whole thing erupted into fire before a huge, invisible pressure swatted down on top of it, crushing it to the ground. Reagan’s magic surged, huge and strong and awe-inspiring. The car lifted into the air before being tossed, end over end, into the trees. Tree trunks snapped and wood squealed.

“My arm fucking hurts,” she said through clenched teeth, continuing on.

“I don’t think that’s what Darius meant when he told you to keep a low profile,” Emery said, chuckling.

“You guys got a were-donkey?” Reagan yelled into the trees.

The black wolf—Devon; I needed to remember they were actually people—trotted closer.

“Because we need to get the old people down here in a hurry. We gotta go.”

27

Less than a half-hour later, Emery stood beside one of the Guild mages’ extended cab trucks, waiting for the rest of the shifters to load up so they could move everyone out of the area. Penny stood at the SUV behind the truck, motioning for people to get in, and berating them when they took too long. Behind her, Ms. Bristol was doing the same thing, only a lot louder.

“What’s taking them so long?” Reagan called from the SUV in front of him, a shiny Ford stuffed with furry bodies.

They were loading nearly a hundred shifters into all of the larger SUVs and trucks at the end of the line on the long road doubling as the driveway. The smaller cars had been driven or pushed into the trees and out of the way.

“They’re trying to decide who will shift back into human form and who will stay in animal form.” Only the more powerful could make multiple changes in a short period of time, each change taking a lot of power and energy. It really hindered quick getaways.

Emery checked the space under the camper shell before motioning another wolf in. “It’ll be tight, but better than staying behind.”

Roger stalked up the line of cars, in human form and nude. It only took a look from him and the shifters in animal form were speeding up, cramming in wherever they could fit. As he drew near, his intense power pounded at Emery in waves, setting him on edge.

“We’re about done.” He stepped around Emery and closed the hatch. He glanced at a wolf who’d been left out. The wolf knew better than to object—it went somewhere else to find a spot. “I’ll take the SUV. Penny can go with you. We’re headed to Durant, right?”

“Yeah. Just follow us.”

Penny looked expectantly at Roger, having clearly thought she’d be driving. She flinched when he stopped close, then ripped her gaze to the sky and muttered, “It’s like an eyesight landmine with shifters.”

Emery chuckled and swung into the driver’s seat before sticking his hand out the window and motioning for Reagan to get into the SUV.

“Who’s leading?” she called.

“You are,” Roger yelled as Penny hurried to Emery’s passenger side.

“You’d think they could’ve thought ahead and brought some sweats or something.” Penny glanced behind her at the three burly guys sitting nude in the extended cab, and the two marginally smaller women sitting on their laps. Beyond them, the bed of the truck was full of wolves and various other animals. “No offense.”

“It would be nice to at least have a towel,” one of the women in the back said, moving so her junk wasn’t on the junk of the guy under her.

“I’m good without a towel,” the guy under her said with a grin.

“And you’re clearly good with a lot of fuzz. Ever hear of man-scaping, hairy balls?” the woman shot back.

The others laughed as Emery backed down to the larger road after the others. Once there, he waited for Reagan to get all the way out before slamming on the gas and following her. Nails scraped the truck bed and bodies bumped against the sides.

“We’re going to save a damn vampire,” one of the guys in the back seat said quietly. “Things you never thought you’d do…”

“You don’t live in Seattle,” the woman who was less concerned about hairy balls said. “It’s been hell up here trying to pussyfoot around the Guild. If we have to pair up with vampires to take them down, then we’ll pair up with vampires to take them down.”

“Did you know James Cannes?” the guy on the far right asked.

Spicy shifter magic seeped into the cab, and Emery could feel a throb within it. He could see the spark that gave them the ability to change, like looking into an open chest cavity and spying a beating heart. He could also see how to disable it, much like Penny had disabled Rex’s.

It was an incredible amount of power to have over the shifter species. Too much. In the wrong hands, it would be devastating. If not for Penny, who would never lose her way when it came to morality, he’d be eager to push the power to someone else. He didn’t trust himself with the responsibility.

“Yeah,” the woman said, her voice subdued. She directed her gaze out of the window.

“What happened to him?” Penny asked, turning in her seat to look behind her. She flinched and turned back around. “Lots of skin.”