“Will this do?” Quake waved them in with a flourish.
“It will do fine. Thank you,” Vayne entered the room. Asa followed.
As Quake started to close the door to give them privacy, Vayne called out, “Quake, will you stay for this?”
He frowned, stepped in the room, and closed the door. “Wouldn’t it be better to have Magnus or Omar, instead?”
She shook her head. “Not at all. I’ll have to ask Asa to remove the armband. That will release his wolf, and if it tries to force him to hurt himself, I’ll need some muscle.”
“That’s why I suggested those two instead. They have a vested interest in Asa.”
Asa’s looked from one to the other. They were discussing him as though he weren’t in the room, but since he had no knowledge of what the sorceress planned to do, he figured it was best he keep his mouth shut. For now.
“Precisely why I don’t want them here.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Magnus would kill the wolf to protect Asa. Omar would spare the wolf, which might cost Asa his life.”
“I see the dilemma. I’ll stay.”
“Thank you.” She turned to Asa. “Have a seat, get comfortable. Let me have the armband. Quake, stand behind Asa’s chair.” She smiled, but her eyes carried consternation. “I haven’t done this in ages. I don’t anticipate anything will go wrong.”
“What exactly will you do?” Asa was concerned. He had no experience with sorcery. In fact, like most shifters, he didn’t trust witches.
“It’s called corporealis intrabit. It means I’m entering your body, but not physically. I’ll be able to see your binding with your wolf. Verify that it’s intact.”
“And if it isn’t?” Quake asked. “Can you mend it?”
“I can try. I can’t prescribe the fix until I see the problem.” She raised a delicately arched auburn brow. “Will you let me proceed, or do we have to sit here answering questions?”
Quake dipped his head slightly. “Proceed.”
Vayne reached for Asa’s hands then closed her eyes. Unsure what to do, Asa closed his. She finger-walked up his arm then pulled the band lower, lower, and finally off.
A blast of cool air, reminding him of Alaska on a windy day, struck Asa. He realized the sensation wasn’t outside. It wasn’t on his skin. It was in his skin. A shudder rushed over him. A pair of red eyes glared, staring at him with menace. The wolf was back.
Another sensation crept in. A spring day’s balmy breeze washed over him. Green. It was green. A green smoke rose from his feet and traveled upward. He squeezed his eyelids tighter. He was in his own mind. How was this possible? Next to him, his wolf, dire and massive, was poised in a threatening stance.
Across from Asa and his wolf, the green smoke became a mist then gathered into a form. The stunning figure of Vayne appeared, only this version of her was in a long, emerald cloak, not in her jeans and leather jacket.
In Asa’s mind, Vayne walked between him and his wolf in a perimeter, a slow-paced circle. A phenomenon that felt like someone was pulling on him struck Asa. He noticed Vayne’s hands were making plucking gestures.
What was she—
His wolf snarled, turning that red glare on the sorceress. She made motions with her hands, as though to calm the beast. Instead, the wolf’s snarls grew louder and louder.
Suddenly, the beast roared and leapt, fangs exposed, jaws open wide. The wolf wrapped his powerful canines around Vayne’s neck. The sorceress toppled. Asa jumped on the wolf’s back, but the beast was relentless in his murderous attempt.
Asa shouted in his mind, but no sound came from his lips.
Abruptly, it came to an end.
His eyes flew open. Quake had placed Freyja’s Redemption on his arm once more. At their feet, Vayne lay, her throat ripped open, gushing blood, her eyes unfocused and glazing.
Quake cradled her. “Get Magnus. Now. Only he can save her.”
Asa sprinted for the door, flung it open, and, in a blur, he was down the corridor and opening the door to the room the others awaited. His gaze found Magnus. “Now. She needs your help. She’s—”
Magnus streaked out of the room so swiftly he displaced the air but couldn’t be seen. Asa followed him out.
“In there.” He pointed.
The vampire rushed in. “Gods. What has happened?”
“Fix this,” Quake commanded. “Fix her.”
From the doorway, Asa watched, trying to remain out of the way but hoping his wolf hadn’t killed her.
Pushing his sleeve up, Magnus put fangs to his wrist and ripped the flesh open. Blood poured forth as he raised his hand over her throat and let his crimson life force flow toward the wound.
“Do not turn me to save me,” Vayne told the vampire.
Magnus nodded but was silent, concern evident on his features.
“I mean it, Magnus,” she snapped, though her voice was weak.
He hissed. “Drink. It will help you heal faster.”
“Not if it will turn me.”
“I won’t turn you. It’s not so simple. Now, drink, damn you. I won’t lose you.”
She clamped her lips on his wrist, swallowing greedily.
Feeling warmth next to him at the doorway, Asa glanced sideways.
Range stood beside him. “You wouldn’t think an Ancient would be easily killed,” he whispered.
Quake glanced at them over Vayne’s prone figure. “She was not in her body. And her foe was no mere mortal or supernatural being. You and your brothers are three-quarter Ancient. Have you never noticed how much more powerful than the average shifter you might be?”
Asa had noticed, but he hadn’t thought anything of it. He figured it was simply all their training and maybe merely good genetics. Same as how some men were stronger than others. He didn’t answer Quake, though. He felt certain the Ancient’s response was more out of irritation that one of his friends was wounded than it was a need to explain anything to a couple of wolf shifters.
“Did she get any answers?” Range asked him quietly.
“I don’t think so. Well, hell, I don’t know. One minute, she’s in my head with me and my wolf, the next, he leaps on her, then I’m awake—or aware—and she’s bleeding out, her throat shredded.”
“Now what?” Range asked.
Asa shrugged, his eyes glued on the sorceress who was supposed to make it all better but who’d nearly died. Were his brothers' wolves going to be so pissed at him they would attack him? Would he have to leave his family, his pack, because of the dissension he and his wolf would cause?
All of a sudden, he felt like he was being smothered. As though he was on a cliff’s edge, holding on with his fingertips while the ledge was crumbling, and he couldn’t get purchase. He was going to collapse, to fall to the bottom of a ravine, and be lost forever.
“Hell if I know.” He slipped away and headed toward the winding passageway which would lead him to an exit.
He’d just passed the room where Emme and the others waited. He paused near the door, wanting to say something to her, feeling like she was the only one he owed an explanation to. He was contemplating going back to get her when footsteps came behind him. He whirled.
Emme.
He grabbed her hand and pulled her into an empty room, then closed the door.