Demon Girl (31 page)

He padded over and pushed his hand into my
hand, purring up a storm.

“You know this hunter?” Conall asked a hint
of surprise and pride in his tone.

“We met in the forest yesterday morning,
when Breandan first found me.”

The words pulled me up short. Had it really
only been two days since I’d met Breandan and Conall? Had it really
been so short a time in which my life had been turned upside down
and inside out?

The cat nipped at my leg, then buried his
teeth in the material of my jeans and tugged.

“Will you lead us to Byron, hunter?” Conall
asked politely.

The cat bobbed his head in agreement and
plodded forward, back into the plain. He stopped, turned his head
back and looked at me.

“It is an invitation,” Breandan explained
and pushed me forward lightly.

“For what?” I said and joined the cat. I
pulled at the fur on his spine playfully. He was so soft to
touch.

The cat bunched his front and hind legs
together and leaped forward, taking off at speed that made my mouth
drop.

“To run,” Breandan said and winked, a moment
before he and Conall took off too.

After a beat, I laughed and started behind
them. I passed them quickly, and found myself following just behind
the cat’s tail. I tried to catch him up, but always his tail winked
in and out of sight. My feet pounded the grass and I found myself
going faster. The earth was soft and springy. Unlike the forest,
where you often had to jump and doge, here the land was flat and
flowed up and down in gentle hills. My wings fluttered and I
extended them slightly and found my pace increasing. My tail
whiplashed out to steady my balance when I thought I would tumble
over, and then I was by the cat’s side, keeping up. I smiled and
with a last push took the lead, laughing as I did so.

Breandan shouted something sounding
terrified, and I glanced behind.

Something brown and heavy crashed into me
from the side, and I went down. Rolling over the floor until I
stopped and felt something sharp drag at my hip. I smelt blood. I
stopped and gasped.

A slender lioness growled fiercely before
me. She too, was starting to stand, her huge yellow eyes locked on
me. I scrambled up and back up a pace. She crouched, ready to
pounce but then the panther skidded to a stop between us and spun
to face the lioness. He screamed at her, a series of loud and
commanding bleats. Then he paced forward and bit her on the neck,
pushing her down onto the floor. She didn’t resist him and the
change in her posture was instant. She lowered her head and whined.
Her ears were pressed against her skull in submission and her tail
pointing down.

The panther shook her roughly, I saw his jaw
flex around her neck and for a moment I feared he would kill her.
Then let go.

He plodded over to me and head butted me in
the leg, hard.

I got a distinct feeling of anger radiating
from him.

“Sorry,” I said and knelt down to look him
in the face. “It wasn’t her fault, and I’m sorry.”

“Good,” Conall said. I hadn’t heard him
arrive. It was then I noticed he had Breandan pinned to the floor.
He let my scowling life-mate up then bowed humbly. “Forgive
me.”

Anger flashed across Breandan’s face, before
he composed himself. “There is nothing to forgive. You were right.
It would have gone badly if I had interfered.”

I flushed. What I had done was plain stupid.
Of course the shifters would have more than one sentry posted. Lost
in the joy of running I had forgotten we were drawing nearer to the
heart of the Pride. The lioness would have smelt me coming and
instantly reacted to what could be a hostile invader.

Our little group stood still for a moment,
before the panther took the lead again. The lioness slinked to his
side, head still bowed in submission.

Breandan held out his hand.

“I guess you want to keep a hold on me now,”
I said and yanked on the end of my hair in irritation.

A small smiled played on his lips. “Just for
a little while.”

Grumbling to myself I didn’t hesitate to
entwine my fingers with him. His skin glowed brighter and he
smiled. I felt my muscles unclench and a troublesome anxiety that
had gathered between my shoulder blades release. I relaxed and
sighed. Breandan seemed to be experiencing similar sensations,
since he closed his eyes and rolled his shoulders.

“That is better,” he said, satisfied and
tugged me along after him.

The were-cats traveled in front of us, and
soon the lioness pulled ahead but the panther stayed close. Soon, I
saw small house like shape up ahead, smoke and I caught a faint
waft of cooking meat, sweat and warm animal. We drew closer to the
heart of the shifter Pride and I sensed may more beings around us.
Their auras were quieted violent and unstable, as if they saw us as
a threat, and I found it upsetting. We passed through unhindered
since we had the panther with us, and I wondered what would have
happened if we had tried to come here un chaperoned.

The panther came to a stop and dipped his
head low, made a rumbling sound at the back of his throat, and his
tail hit the floor a few times. Breandan shifted so he stood in
front of me, shielding my body.

I craned my head to peek around him.

I had thought Lochlann, Breandan’s brother
was big. This guy was massive. He towered over me, and looked as
solid as a tree. There was nothing delicate or soft about his abs
and pectorals that looked like they’d been chiseled into existence.
He was missing one eye, and a large scar ran down from the top of
his forehead to the tip of his cheek.

The power and dominance radiating from him
named him as the Pride Alfa.

“Alec, Change,” he growled.

The panther lay down on its side and started
to writhe in the dirt, and patchy grass.

I watched, morbidly fascinated by the
change. Soon, I wished I hadn’t.

There was no smoke, or gentle, graceful
movements. No instant shift from animal to human. It was horrible
and ugly. At one point, the panther was a deformed mass of
quivering, convulsing flesh. It’s jet black fur seemed to shrink
back into its skin, which smoothed out to become human like. The
mess that had once been a panther groaned; half human, half
animal.

I shuddered and cringed into Breandan who
wrapped his arms around me. I pressed my eyes shut and buried my
head into his solid chest. I could smell blood, sweat and something
floral, but pungent to the point my nose burned. The heat coming
from where the shifter Changed was immense; like a fire raged
nearby. There was a thick, glooping sound, a crack and snap of
bone. The lush tearing of muscle.

I put my fingers in my ears and plugged my
nose by holding my breath.

A minute passed and I thought my lungs would
burst. Breandan pulled one of my hands down and nudged my chin up
with the other.

“It is done, love,” he said, and ran his
finger down the bridge of my nose.

I peeked an eye open, and was rewarded with
the sight of a muscular and naked boy. Body slick with blood and
sweat he crawled his way toward me. He reached me and nudged his
head into my hand. Flustered, I patted him twice, cringing as I did
so then stepped back. He blinked up at me, and I recognized the
colour of his irises, even if they were a different shape.

“Sorry,” he said, raspy. “It takes a while
for my brain to think, human and not cat.

“Rae,” I blurted. “Hai.”

He smiled and stood, up. He wobbled for a
moment, but once he’d steadied his legs, he held out his hand.
“Alec,” he said.

I stared at the hand, then him.

A DEMON DAY will be out SUMMER 2011.

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