I woke to the sound of snarling, like a huge engine had come to life. My vision was blurry, but I made out a wave of dark figures, low to the ground and streaming toward where I'd last seen the High Priestess.
The sun had crested the horizon, bathing the world in a hazy light. Not much time had passed since I'd been knocked into oblivion. The Council Guard was still there even.
I sat up, ignoring the nausea that rocked my stomach. My vision cleared and a long line of shifters came into focus. Forget packs, there were so many shifters, of all kinds, they were more like a swarm of ants. Bloodthirsty ones...all racing toward the High Priestess. Saliva dripped from their jaws, and the dark slits of their eyes held a gleaming menace.
Oh, hey. Finally, someone besides me had realized she was an evil bitch. But why shifters?
A howl answered my question. A...umm...something I didn't understand bounded into view. It wasn't quite human or shifter, but some strange mix of the two.
The legs were still human, but the upper body was all wolf up except for the face which stayed human. Half shifts weren't really a thing, but then I remembered the First Shifter had more than one form. My brain parsed all the parts and pieces, and recognition dawned. Yep, definitely Thorne. A horror movie Thorne, but Thorne all the same.
All the shifters looked to him for a command and he howled again, pointed a claw at the High Priestess. The swarm immediately surged forward. The First Shifter obviously had some pull with the local packs.
I wondered how many witches would come if I called. Probably none.
Thorne joined the fray, launching himself at the nearest Council Guard and bowling him over with his weight. There was a wet sucking sound, and he thrust his hand in the air revealing a clump of bloody...what? I couldn't tell.
I looked closer at the guard. Throat. Thorne had torn the guard's throat out. Damn. Maybe we weren't going to be the losers after all.
But then he'd never wanted me to have my soul. He might win, but would I?
Still, the game had changed. A fierce hope bloomed in my chest. I wanted in on the fight now. Gasping with pain, I lurched to my feet. None of the Council Guard really noticed me. They were too busy fending off the slavering shifters. I staggered toward the High Priestess.
She'd swallowed my soul and I wanted it back. I didn't exactly know how to get it back, but I was cool with beating her into the ground and seeing if that worked. She'd stabbed my mom in the back, and been a general pain in my ass.
I was done. She was so over.
The shifters noticed me and cleared my path. Every time a guard even so much as looked like he might be a problem, a shifter took him out. Fountains of arterial blood burst out of bodies everywhere I looked. The Council Guard's super suits didn't do much against a shifter mob. I would have to remember that.
My injuries made me slow, but I finally made it to the High Priestess who'd been backed against a large oak. Lions flanked her to the right, werewolves to the left and the panthers prowled dead center. Somewhere in the crowd, a chicken clucked. Shifters animals tended to be alpha predators, but every so often the genes went wonky and you got a chicken, or turtle, or in one case, a slug. Hence the taboo on mixing, but that detail wasn't important at the moment.
I fell into the High Priestess, my legs giving out. I turned my fall into a hard shove, pinning her against the tree. "Give me my soul."
She shrank back against the tree and looked past me, scanning for an out. I smashed a fist into her cheek. Goddess knew I'd better make sure she didn't have time to launch any of her magic.
She shrieked and pushed me away. My balance was so off kilter, I stumbled back a few steps, and then lunged right back in, ready to pummel her.
The high priestess started a magical incantation. I skipped the punch I'd been about to throw and slapped a hand over her mouth. "There's no easy way out. We out number you. Just give me what you stole and you can go."
Really I should kill her. I knew I should, but I'd never killed anyone. It wasn't something I wanted to add to my resume, no matter how evil she was. Maybe I would kill her later. That could work, right? Like a death layaway?
One hand over her mouth, I wrapped the other around her throat and squeezed. I'd never choked anyone out before, but judging from the way the High Priestess' eyes bugged out, I was pretty okay at it. I just needed this soul stealing witch to pass out, and take her out of the game long enough for me to figure out what the hell my next step was.
Just as her eyes drifted shut, large hands grabbed me from behind and ripped me away.
"Let me go." I flailed and went nowhere.
Actually, not nowhere, I flew, but not by my choice. I was thrown like a ball, arcing up in the air and then coming down on top of a gutted Council Guard. Guts squished under my ass and I rolled away as fast as I could.
Goddess. My life suddenly had far too much blood in it. When had I made all the wrong choices and ended up in the middle of an all out war between shifters and witches? Oh, right. I hadn't. I'd just been born with the wrong sliver of soul. Some might say it was the worst sliver of soul even.
I fingered my charm bracelet, but it was still empty. No help there. I'd have to make do, but for what? Did I really want the rest of my soul given the amount of bloodshed that came with it? I pondered that question as I staggered to my feet.
Was this really worth fighting for?
Dying for?
The High Priestess started her incantation again. I winced as power throbbed in the air. Maybe she should win. Being a powerful witch, let alone the First Witch, was a different planet and I wasn't so sure I belonged.
But if I didn't fight, there was going to be one hell of an evil witch in the world. She had no problem killing people. And she didn't like me. At least I knew I would use my powers for good. I didn't want to rule the world, just have a place in it that wasn't born of pity or 'oh well, I guess she'll do.'
I called on my magic, which came sluggish as a snail while I waded through the chaos back toward her, but she was so far away. Whoever had thrown me, should play professional baseball. Shifters continued to stream at her, but couldn't get close anymore. An unseen force rebuffed them.
Magic swelled, filling the air like a storm, stealing oxygen and humming over my skin. I pushed my legs to go faster and tried to rush my own magic. Whatever she was chanting wasn't going to help me.
She raised her hand, pointing straight at my heart. Uh oh. I pushed myself to move faster, but my legs were like lead anchors determined to see me dead. My breath came short again and the edges of the world frayed into a blur.
But I saw clearly the bolt of blue light that shot from her fingers, crackling and popping like lightning. She was going to tase me with flipping magic. Shit.
I dropped to the ground and rolled. The magic sizzled into the ground next to me, close enough to heat my face. The smell of singed hair hit my nose and I rolled again, patting my hair as I went just in case it was on fire. My fingers brushed my forehead and I discovered my eyebrows were gone. Worse, my bangs were crusty stubble
"You soul-sucking bitch, I'm going to..." I tried to throw my own bolt of power, but it sizzled into the ground. Great. So much for that. I rolled onto my hands and knees and tried to get up, but couldn't.
My legs didn't have anything left, they'd become numb and unresponsive.My hands tingled too, on their way to feeling nothing as well. My voice died, and I face planted into the ground, no strength left to do anything else.
Here's an epic understatement: Being shot was not going well.
"Somebody help me up." I held out a hand and waited for a passing shifter to give me a paw, but no one showed up. Fickle furdicks.
I wriggled my way forward, determined to get to the High Priestess and fight. More magic snapped in the air and hissed when it hit the dirt. It moved slow enough that it wasn't too hard to dodge.
But then the high priestess changed tactics. She gave up the taser magic and shifted into a new incantation. Power beat against me like a battering ram, tangible hits intent on breaking me. I'd never felt magic like this before. The First Witch had some serious juice.
White light seared the air like a new star. I ducked back and shielded my eyes. What fresh pain in my ass was this? Magic was charms and spells, not freaking fireworks. This was all kinds of not possible.
The light blinked out of existence. I lowered my hands and squinted hard at the creeping dawn, hoping to see something other than the truth. The High Priestess was gone, and so was my soul.
The worst part? All the motherducking magic I'd tried to cast came back. It had bonded with the remnants of the High Priestess' magic and now demanded its due. For a second time in less than a week, I tazed myself with magic. The world went black before I could feel the full brunt of my failure.