“Let’s do this,” Asa told the man he was descended from. He wondered if he’d get to know more about him and his mother and his own past. Would they give him and his brothers their memories back? Would—
“Close your eyes,” Adina instructed.
Yeah, that’s not worrisome at all. Yet, he did as he was told.
The room was quiet for a second until a chanting began. Unfamiliar words intoned in mystical, ethereal notes. The words were repeated on a loop. He peeked, opening one eye a crack.
Adina’s eyes had rolled back. She was unsteady on her feet.
Omar wrapped an arm around her to keep her falling then gave Asa a warning glance.
He shut his eyes again immediately and let the chanting carry him. The power in the room was palpable, felt like a mist.
“The band, Omar, please take it off,” Adina said softly.
Omar’s hand was warm on Asa’s arm as he took the band and removed it. Asa waited for the onslaught, and it didn’t disappoint. It started as a low growl, a churning in his soul, signaling his wolf’s return. This is going to get ugly. I hope—
“Shift, Asa,” Adina commanded. “I need you to yield to your wolf right now.”
He’s going to fucking kill her the second I do that. I shouldn’t—
“Now, Asa. Shift.” Omar’s tone was steely. “Do it immediately,” he said in that accent of his.
Asa had been shifting as long as he could remember, and, considering that his memories of his youth had been stolen from him, that meant it had happened all his life. He knew the pain of a shift. An agony so much more than mere discomfort. He was prepared for the anguish of morphing into his wolf.
He had not planned for this, however. This turned out to be worse than the worst shift he’d ever experienced. His body was shredded from the inside out. His skin erupted into a burn fiercer than walking on the surface of the sun, of that he was sure. His bones shattered, his tendons ripped. He exploded and imploded in a burst that left him reeling, gasping, and breathless.
His eyes were still closed. He wanted to open them, oh, how he did. But would that destroy the spell? Would it screw up the process? Would it yield failure?
A strange sensation hit him. He was standing on two legs. He’d never done that when he was in his wolf. He’d never been able to. So, what was going on? What kind of a shift was this?
Still deliberating whether or not he should open his eyes, Asa waited, listening, but the chanting had stopped, everyone was silent.
An eruption of growls and snarls filled the air.
Reflex kicked in. Asa’s eyes flew open. There was no way he could have kept them closed during that frenzy of sounds.
Two wolves stood before him. One was a hair smaller than the other and had red eyes. The other, taller, heavier, with yellow-gold eyes.
Asa instantly realized the red-eyed one was his wolf. He peered down at his body. He was human. What the hell?
Red Eyes growled at Yellow Eyes, lowered his body into a crouch, poised to lunge at the larger wolf.
Oh, shit.
Seconds later, Red Eyes was on Yellow Eyes and seeking purchase in the bigger wolf’s neck with his canines.
Movement out of the corner of his eye had Asa glancing left.
Emme had stripped off her jacket. She stood there in a tank and jeans, her badass crossbow on her arm, while her other hand was whipping a bolt from a quiver on her back. Her eyes had gone from violet to black.
A Valkyrie in battle mode. Damn.
She loaded the bolt onto the bow then pulled a pistol from a shoulder holster.
“What the hell are you doing?” Asa asked her, stepping closer.
“I’m protecting you. Or Adina. I don’t know.”
Meanwhile, the wolves were going at it, and they were close to evenly matched, but Omar’s yellow-eyed beast seemed to get more hits in. Red Eyes slid out from beneath Yellow Eyes and lunged toward Adina.
“I told you—” Adina screamed at Omar’s wolf. “I told you you’d get me killed!”
Asa sprung in front of her, put both arms up, and guided her backward while he faced his own wolf.
The wolf glared red at him, snarled, saliva dripping down.
Adina shouted a series of unintelligible—foreign?—words then raised her arms. She cast a spell in front of her, a shield that pushed Asa away. She resumed bellowing at Omar’s wolf. “I can’t keep this up indefinitely. Do something before that wolf kills me!”
Red Eyes had turned around and was once more engaged with Omar’s wolf. Blood splattered, teeth gnashed, claws swiped.
Asa watched, unsure what his role was to be, not knowing if he was to intervene or not. When his wolf fell to the floor, now slippery with blood, Omar’s wolf lowered his head, canines aimed for his opponent’s neck. Asa wasn’t sure what impulse took over, but suddenly, he found himself leaping forward, instinctively shouldering the yellow-eyed Ancient wolf aside and laying on his own wolf’s body to protect him.
Red Eyes was unmoving, and as far as Asa could tell, not breathing.
The door was flung open.
Magnus strode in, completely vamped out, fangs fully descended, eyes red, as red as Asa’s wolf’s.
Four witches in black robes followed him in.
“You dare?” Magnus’s voice was accompanied by a hiss. “You dare!” He took in the scene before him, but his anger was concentrated on the yellow-eyed dire wolf. “He is my son.”
An excruciating creaking sound filled the room, Omar’s wolf’s head began to narrow, to shorten, his shoulders broadened, his arms thickened. Sinew stretched and snapped. Muscles thickened, bones rearranged.
Omar was human once more. He dropped to one knee and picked something up off the floor, tucked it into his pocket, then stood proud before the leaner, taller vampire. “And he is my grandson. This was done for his own good.”
Asa couldn’t concentrate on what they were saying. His full attention was on the wolf. Its chest was still. He turned his face toward Emme. “I think he’s dead,” he whispered, his heart breaking. He couldn’t live without his wolf. Even if his wolf had spent the last few years trying to kill him, the idea of losing him was unfathomable. “I got you,” he told the wolf, though really, he didn’t feel he had him at all. Asa was lost.
The few newly arrived witches clustered around Adina, all with raised hands, weaving them in and around one another’s arms.
Chanting filled the room.
“What are they doing?” Emma asked Omar.
He didn’t answer. Instead, he moved closer to Magnus.
“Use my energy,” Magnus told the witches. “And his, too.” He pointed at Omar.
Emma leaned into to Asa, put her hand on his back, her other hand on the wolf’s fur. “Let me do CPR on him. I don’t think he’s breathing.”
Suddenly, she was jerked back from Asa.
He put a hand out for her, but she was beyond his reach.
And getting farther and farther, going down a tunnel, drawing to a pinpoint of light.
Chapter Twenty
“Let me go.” Emme shouldered her pistol and shoved at Omar but couldn’t budge the Ancient.
He held her fast, keeping her from helping Asa. From touching the wolf.
“You can’t help him,” Omar cautioned. “They’re rebinding their souls. The witches are putting him and his wolf back together. If you’re touching them, you will cause a fissure in the spell.”