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Siofra pressed her back against the bars.
The steroid shifter with her cage door open laughed, enjoying her terror. He said, “Come here, dinner.”
She begged for the energy that had stopped the jackal from raping her to come forward.
Nothing, not even a tingle hummed in her body.
Shouting erupted behind her. She looked over her shoulder to see Scarlett in the grip of her guard. Her friend must have tried to run to Siofra’s aid.
Tripoli noticed and shouted, “Toss her in the cage with the other one.”
Scarlett’s face froze in panic, but she recovered as her guard latched onto her arm, dragging her to the cage. Scarlett could shift. Why didn’t she?
The sound of wild animals in a frenzy poured from the hole. Were Rory and Baatar still alive? Either of them?
She couldn’t help anyone from here.
Facing the shifter leaning into the opening with his hand extended to grab her, Siofra shoved her legs to the side, anything to stay out of his reach.
“Move, fucker,” Scarlett’s guard ordered as he dragged her up to the cage.
Monster guy yanked his arm out of the cage and whipped around. He growled a demonic sound. “Mine. Back off.”
Siofra took in Scarlett’s face, where the eyes of an animal glowed. She was close to changing, but holding back. Why?
Now that Siofra thought about it, if Scarlett shifted she’d either face all the guards, who would also shift, or Tripoli might throw her into the hole.
Rubbing her hands together, Siofra pleaded with the universe to help her.
The female ghost returned.
Siofra shouted, “Not now.”
Everyone looked at her for a second, then the men returned to arguing.
The ghost glared at Siofra. Great. She didn’t have enough to do without feeling guilty for yelling at some uninvited spirit?
Energy tingled in Siofra’s hands. She stared at them. Not the mother lode she’d had before, but more than nothing.
The guard holding Scarlett said, “Fuck it. I’m not fighting your hairy ass.”
Siofra hoped this did not turn into the worst idea of her short life. She launched herself at the monster shifter while he was distracted.
Time slowed as if the world had a malfunctioning axis.
A lion roared.
Tripoli and his men cheered the fight.
At the same moment Siofra went airborne, Scarlett shoved her guard at the monster shifter. Siofra hit her target, taking him down with the other guard.
Scarlett followed her guard down, punching his throat over and over. He gagged twice and his body went limp.
The monster shifter had begun changing. He struck at Scarlett with a clawed paw, raking the sharp tips down her arm.
“Shit!” Scarlett grabbed her arm. Her head warped.
Siofra wrapped her hands around the monster’s neck, which was too big for her fingers to meet. She forced what energy she had into him.
The huge paw of the partially shifted monster froze in midair. His eyes bulged and he made strangled sounds.
Holding her injured arm, Scarlett sat back on her knees. She spoke in a low hiss. “Run, Siofra. You’re the most vulnerable of us.”
“I have to save Rory and Baatar,” Siofra answered, just as quietly, but her words were terse and unyielding.
Scarlett gave her a hard look. “Both of them will want you to be safe. We came in here to rescue you. Don’t ruin a great rescue by sacrificing yourself like an idiot.”
“You do realize I just took down this shifter?”
Scarlett paused and stared at both shifters. “What’d you do?”
“I don’t know. I have a power of some sort. It kills and heals. I wish I could say I ruled it, but it rules me. Give me a chance to help the guys.”
Lifting up to look through the cage first, Scarlett squeezed her arm, which had stopped bleeding profusely. She said, “They’re all watching the battle, but someone will smell my blood before I can get it fully healed.” Coming back to face Siofra, she said, “I’ll distract them, then it’s all you. I hope like hell you have a plan and you don’t die or I’ll have an army of apex predators after me.”
Not wasting a second to ask who Scarlett referenced, Siofra stood. Adrenaline and power rushed through her. Her heart held a boxing match in her chest.
She had no real plan, but she nodded and said, “Thank you. Be safe.”
Standing, Scarlett yanked her shirt off as she kicked her feet free of the shoes. She said, “I won’t make it back any time soon to help.”
“I understand, but don’t get caught.”
“Not once I shift.” She shimmied out of the tight shorts and the change that had been threatening to take hold happened fast. Scarlett shifted into a magnificent cougar, huge and sleek, except for the scar across its back.
Moving around to stand between the fighting pit and the Hummer, her cougar gave a deep-throated growl of challenge.
Siofra waited to see how the distraction would play out.
Tripoli shouted at his men, “Fuck! Get her!”
The guard standing near the gate to the hole rushed up the ramp to Tripoli, handed off a key, then joined the other guards already changing.
Scarlett’s cougar took off, getting a head start at a dead run.
Once the shifters raced from the area, Siofra had to act. She went around the back of the truck holding her cage and ran as hard as she could toward Tripoli.
She caught his arms and felt energy push into him as he wrenched around. She snatched her hands back, because he started shaking, then stilled.
The key fell from his hand. She snatched it up and ran to the ramp, falling down in her need to reach the lock. Jumping up, she looked inside the barred enclosure in horror.
Blood covered Rory’s jaguar. Too much to even see the wounds. He fought a huge lion.
Baatar had slashes across his body, but he slammed a fist into the jaws of the tiger.
She had to get Rory and Baatar out of there or they would die.
Shaking like a leaf in a storm, she jabbed the key in the lock, but got yanked back and tossed around to hit the upper part of the ramp. Pain burned across her skin and blood ran down her arm where she’d been cut by claws.
Tripoli stood over her with fangs in his distorted jaws. His eyes glowed with madness.
He would kill her.
She shoved to her feet and he came at her.
Dodging his claws as they reached for her face, she grabbed his arms and screamed as energy surged through her.
She had the advantage of standing uphill from him on the ramp. He stumbled back and back. She went with him, clutching his arms, too terrified to let go.
His back hit the gate.
He shuddered over and over, but she’d let go last time and now faced his wrath.
His eyes bulged. One eye exploded from the socket. Blood poured from his mouth.
Everything blurred for Siofra until she couldn’t see anything.
She must have blacked out.
The sound of roaring and Baatar shouting woke her. She blinked and stared into the dead eye of Tripoli. Scrambling back from the gruesome image, her vision cleared and she snapped back to reality.
She had to shove Tripoli out of the way and open the gate.
Pushing to her shaky legs, she dragged Tripoli’s heavy body aside and reached for where she’d left the key. “No, no, no!”
The key, lock and surrounding metal had melted into one lump of sludge. Her power had destroyed their only way out.
She would lose Baatar and Rory.
A screeching sound in the sky echoed seconds before the silhouette of a massive bird flew above the canopy. Claws shredded an opening a truck could drive through, then a huge eagle dove straight down.
It would crash into titanium bars.
At the last moment, the eagle flared its wings, spun around in a circle and landed at the edge of the hole. She doubted a natural bird could have made that maneuver.
As it shifted, Rory’s boss with the eagle eyes took its place, fully dressed in a suit.
Siofra had never seen a shifter with the ability to manifest clothes like that. Rory’s boss must have some kind of crazy power or maybe even magic. She yelled at him, “The lock and key are ruined. I can’t open it. Rory’s jaguar is bleeding out. Do something.”
“Not even I can break titanium.”
