Feral (The Irisbourn Chronicles Book 1) (19 page)

I heard a series of loud crashes,
before she returned with a large, full body mirror in her arms.
 
“Quickly, look at yourself.”

The only things I could recognize
in my reflection were my pons around my neck and my piercing purple eyes, and
even those didn’t really feel like mine.
 
A large black cat peered back at me, its body seemingly larger than mine
was as a human.
 
My clothes hung in
tatters around my body, pinching me tightly in strange places where the threads
hadn’t broken.
 
I picked at them in
discomfort with a claw.

“The clothes are quite a bother,”
Arisella observed.
 
“Let me help.”
 
She cut what was left of them off my body
with a knife before I could object.
 
“Oh,
don’t pout.
 
We’ll get you new ones.
 
The Spellbourn weave undergarments that
change with you.”
 
She pulled her T-Shirt
over her head and stripped off her jeans, revealing what looked like matching
black boxer briefs and a strapless sports bra, not to mention her subtle six
pack.

I couldn’t tell her to stop taking
her clothes off, so I just tried to look shocked.
 
Could panthers look shocked?

“That way you’re not completely
naked when you change back.
 
It’s an
enchantment of some sort.
 
All Beastbourn
have them.
 
Very convenient.
 
I’ll likely need to spare some for you.
 
Don’t give me that face.
 
It’s not like I
want
to share underwear with you.”

So she could interpret my facial
expressions.
 
This was good.

“Adrian,” she called to her
brother.
 
“I know you said no
hand-to-hand combat, but I don’t think either of us expected her to get the
change so quickly.
 
She’s running out of
time, and she needs to learn.
 
Do I have
permission to fight her in an equal form?”

Adrian narrowed his eyes at his
sister.
 
“I don’t think Amber would
appreciate that very much.”

“I won’t hurt her.
 
I’ll just teach her how to fight.
 
What use is the change if she doesn’t know
how to attack?”
 
Arisella was kind of
right.
 
My panther form was essentially a
waste until I learned how to use it.

Adrian seemed to mull it over.
 
“Amber, if you don’t want to fight, growl or
pounce on Aris or do something to express your unwillingness.”

I remained still.
 
I was willing.

“See, she wants to do it,” Arisella
urged.

“Fine, but keep your claws
retracted and don’t bite hard enough to break skin,” Adrian told his sister
harshly.

I wasn’t sure she heard him.
 
She had transformed into the silvery fox-cat
before he had even finished his sentence, and she seemed to revel in her new
form.
 
Stretching, she let out a guttural
cry in exultation.
 
It was almost as if
she actually
preferred
being a
grimalkin.

Staying true to her nature, she
pounced on me before I was even prepared, knocking me over onto my back so that
she was on top of me.
 
She flattened her
unnaturally large ears against her head and bit the open air in front of my
face, baring her teeth ferociously.
 
I
hissed back and pushed my paws against her chest, forcing her off me so that I
could get back up.

She began circling me, and I,
realizing what she was doing, started to pace in the circle as well, so I would
remain a constant distance from her at all times.

Toward the back wall, I perceived
some shuffling.
 
Even though I realized
that it was probably just a squirrel, I still turned my head to see what it
was, only to give Arisella an opening to rise onto her haunches and launch
herself at me.
 
I managed to react
quickly enough to match her movements, colliding with her in midair.
 
Fed up with her stupid surprise attacks, I
fastened my teeth onto her neck hard enough for her to let out a little yelp
before returning to the ground.
 
I felt
kind of bad, but she did deserve it.

More rustling emerged from the far
wall of the garden, and this time Arisella and I both looked.
 
Even Adrian had stopped reading the book that
had somehow materialized in front of him to search for the source of the noise.

The ivy on the wall was quivering,
producing soft scraping noises as the leaves brushed up against one
another.
 
Arisella’s hair rose on her
back as the ivy rustled more and the shuffling turned into clear grunts.

Adrian stood up and cautiously
approached the wall.
 
“Someone’s trying
to get over,” he said in a low voice.
 
“Something humanoid.”

The wall was about ten feet high,
and whoever was trying to scale it sounded like he or she was having a pretty
hard time.
 
Could it be one of the
Bloodbourn who were looking for Adrian and Arisella?
 
Had one finally found us?

Arisella’s claws slid out of her
forepaws, and a warning rumble rose from her chest.
 
She looked as if she were preparing herself
for a fight.
 
I realized that, as a
panther, I might actually be of some use in physical combat, and I tried to
copy her behavior exactly.

The ivy at the very top of the wall
began shaking back and forth violently.
 
Whatever it was, it was almost at the top.

Adrian froze and shifted into a
fighting stance.
 
If it was a Bloodbourn,
we were all ready.

A messy brown tuft of hair appeared
over the wall first, followed by a twinkling pair of green eyes.
 
But they vanished as quickly as they
appeared, because as soon as Adrian saw them, he had already produced one of
his blades and thrown it toward the intruder.
 
It flew over the top of the wall where the face would have been, had it
not ducked.

“WHAT THE HELL,” a familiar voice
cried from the other side.

I tried to shout at Adrian to stop,
but only a series of growls emerged. Confused by the strange noises I was
making, Adrian looked back at me, and I tried to plead him with my eyes to
stop.

We all watched Dylan stupidly pop
his head back over the wall, as if he had learned nothing the first time.

“Shit,” Adrian cussed when he
recognized who it was.

“Hey, uh, Adrian,” Dylan said awkwardly
as he hoisted himself up over the wall and began climbing down the thick vines
of ivy on the other side.
 
When he was
halfway down, he slipped and fell on his butt.
 
No one moved to help him.
 
We were
all frozen with shock.

“I, uh, brought burgers,” he
offered hesitantly.
 
He still hadn’t
turned away from the wall since he had fallen.
 
He seemed to be staring at something on the bricks, buried in the ivy.

“Is that a machete?” he asked with
suspicion.
 
He shifted his attention
toward Adrian, but his eyes fell on the tree beside him.
 
“Oh my God, are those knives?
 
What are you doing out here?”
 
It looked like Dylan was finally beginning to
realize what a huge mistake he had made, and he was freaking out.

“Dylan, I’m going to need you to
calm down.”
 
Adrian held out his hands in
front of him, as if to show Dylan that he wouldn’t hurt him.

“Why do you have all these kni-”
His eyes scanned the garden and stopped on Arisella and me.
 
Dylan’s eyes widened, and he moved closer to
the wall.

“Those are –
What is that?
” He pointed a quaking finger at Arisella.

“This can all be explained.” Adrian
moved toward Dylan, but Dylan just backed up against the wall.

“Where is Amber?” Dylan whispered,
then looked at all the knives, then looked at the big cats that were Arisella
and I.

“She’s fine,” Adrian assured him.

“WHERE IS AMBER?” Dylan
shouted.
 
I suspected he was afraid that
Adrian had personally chopped me up and fed me to Arisella.

Beside me I heard a tired
sigh.
 
“Forget it, Adrian.
 
It’s over.
 
He knows.”
 
Arisella had silently
slipped back into human form when I wasn’t looking.
 
Dylan seemed phased by her sudden presence,
not to mention her bare skin.

“WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!” Dylan was
in hysterics.

“Be quiet!” Arisella glared at him.
The last thing they needed was someone calling the cops on them for noise.

Dylan’s eyes darted around the yard
rapidly, searching for me.
 
He looked
terrified and helpless, like a cornered bunny.

Without thinking, I moved toward
him.
 
He panicked and grabbed one of the
many knives on the ground.
 
I froze, more
afraid that he would hurt himself than he would hurt me.

Just when he looked like he was
about to throw it, Adrian barked, “Don’t!”

“Then tell me where the hell Amber
is.”
 
Sweat dripped down Dylan’s brow.

“You’re about to throw your knife
at her,” Arisella stated in frustration.

“Do you think I’m stupid?” Dylan
spat.
 
“THAT IS A LEOPARD.”

“While I have always thought you
were stupid,” Arisella began, “she’s the
panther
.
 
She physically changed into a panther.”

“That is such shit.”
 
Out of impatience, he threw the knife at me
and missed.
 
I didn’t even have to dodge
it.
 
He had terrible aim.
 
Cursing, he grabbed for another knife.
 
“Even if that
were
Amber, you think I still wouldn’t be mad as hell that you had
changed her into a
leopard
?!”

Adrian stepped up.
 
“We haven’t done anything to her.
 
She is capable of changing into a panther
herself.”

“Well, then, change her back!”

“She can’t, idiot,” Arisella
sighed, as if it were perfectly obvious.
 
“If she knew how to change back, she would have done it by now.
 
She’ll change back eventually.
 
Just a couple more minutes-”

“YOU WILL NOT TRICK ME INTO
THINKING A LEOPARD IS MY BEST FRIEND,” Dylan roared.

I moved closer to him, pleading him
to realize that it was me with my eyes.
 
My distinctive violet eyes.
 
Noticing them, he froze.
 
My heart
leapt in hope.
 
He was recognizing me.

But then his eyes went down to my
neck, to where my mother’s pons hung at my throat.
 
His focus shifted to something behind me,
something on the ground.
 
My shredded
clothes.

“Oh my God,” Dylan whispered. “Oh
my God.
 
What have you done?
 
Her clothes…
 
Her
mother’s necklace.”

He was losing it.
 
All because of me.
 
I had to do something.

Human.
 
Human.
 
Human.
 
Human.
 
I desperately repeated the word in my mind.
 
I quivered under the stress of how badly I
needed to be human again.
 
I could
envision my human body in my mind, remember how it felt to flex my fingers,
toes, arms.

“What’s going on?” I heard Dylan
say.
 
I couldn’t look at him.
 
My eyes were closed.

“Arisella,” someone hissed.

I tried to recall how my human body
felt – remember what it meant to be human.
 
It was like turning the surface of my mind inside out, molding it into a
distant memory.

I felt myself collapse, then
something light fall over me.
 
It was
painful, but it was quick.

When I opened my eyes, I found
myself facedown on the cool grass.
 
I
twitched my hands and feet to make sure everything worked.
 
I felt feverish, sore, and exhausted, like I
had been lifting weights for the entire day – but undeniably human.
 
I was also undeniably naked, save for a silk
sheet someone had thrown completely over me just in time.
 
My heart went out to that person.

I sat up slowly, emerging from
under the sheet while taking care to wrap it around me.
 
The first thing I saw was Dylan’s transfixed
expression.
 
I tested a nervous smile,
but he didn’t blink.

“Dylan,” I said.
 
The words came out slightly slurred.
 
I felt so very, very tired.

“Amber.”
 
Dylan sounded unsure of himself.
 
“It’s really you?”

“Really,” I responded.
 
“You weren’t supposed to be here.”
 
I could hear the fatigue seeping into my
voice.

“None of this makes sense,” Dylan
whispered. “Why all of this?” he gestured around him.
 
“Why them?” He glanced at Adrian and
Arisella.