Page 52 of Midlife Shifter Unexpected

I didn’t think there was any way we were going to survive.

“What happens if one bites us?” Anita shouted over the keening.

“They are being raised by black magic. They are being raised from the dead, so you would die and then be raised.” Hilda explained.

These skeletons were zombie makers. If we didn’t stop them, they would turn all the humans of Cougar Creek into zombies.

“If these things make it past the wards that protect the cemetery, all of Cougar Creek will be destroyed,” Mae said.

“Not just Cougar Creek,” Trina said. “It is an infestation of black magic that will turn Cougar Creek and all of the people there into zombies.”

“Don’t you think it’s time we called the Demigods?” Mae asked.

“No!” Everyone said in unison.

“This is especially not the time to call them. They will have this place in lockdown so fast. We know we can solve this problem.” Trina stressed.

The massive bone creatures were held together by some sort of twisted form of black magic. Teeth sprang out from their skulls, sharp like fangs. They made me want to retch, but instead I had to fight them. I had to snap and claw at them and do everything in my power to keep them from biting me and the ones I cared about. The coven was fighting hard, but we were surrounded and there was no end in sight to the bones.

Suddenly I heard a high-pitched whistle. I looked around. There was nobody else reacting to it but I could definitely hear it. I looked at Branson, but he didn’t seem to notice it. It was coming from the other side of the glen, on the other side of the bone creatures that were attacking us. I looked at the creature in front of me and it heard it too. It was a sound that only the bone creatures and I could hear. They paused for a moment in confusion and I saw through the trees, at a distance, Matheus. He was in satyr form, his horns out and his hooves sharp. He was playing a pipe.

They responded to the sound of his pipe. It was the only thing that made sense. It didn’t seem like there was anyone else’s magic here. As much as Matheus was trying with the pipe, I could tell he wasn’t about to become the Pied Piper and lead the sinewy bloody bone monsters away from us.

I watched one of the creatures turn toward him, though not in a way that suggested it was going to follow him, either out of the cemetery or back to its grave. The creature was livid and angry and going in for an attack. Mateus was trying to distract another group of bone creatures and didn’t see the one coming after him. I let out a loud, vicious bark repeatedly and went charging through a bunch of the boney beasts. I shattered some of them and made my way to the other side.

To Matheus' side.

When I turned to look back, it appeared hopeless. Matheus and I were outside of the circle of bones. Even though more of the creatures were coming toward us, his pipe was keeping them at bay. I knelt down, trying to nudge him to get on me. If he could get on my back, I could push through and get the pipes back into the center of the circle. That way, we could save the coven.

The pipes would keep the skeleton monster at bay for a while, at least long enough for them to get away. Perhaps Branson and I could carry them out to the safety of The Estate. Hopefully keeping the wards would at least keep these diabolical monsters inside the cemetery where they belonged, even if we couldn’t keep them in their graves.

As I bowed down, Matheus seemed to understand and he jumped on my back. I took a running charge at the circle and leapt through it, breaking bones that shattered sharply against my shoulders. Matheus stayed on and the second we were inside the circle; he played the pipe louder and louder.

I let out a squealing howl as I felt poison go into my bloodstream.

“She’s been bitten,” Trina shouted.

In seconds the rest of the coven was around me as I sat there howling. The pain was intense. Anita knelt to put her hand on the wound.

“I’ll take the poison out,” Anita said. I watched the green sludge of poison rise up into the air and out of my skin.

But even as each molecule was dragged out of my skin, it created so much pain I couldn’t stop howling. Finally, out of breath, I lay still and listened to the silence of the night.

The clacking was gone. The keening was gone.

“What happened?” Drake asked. “Why did they stop?”

“Maybe because they bit one of us?” Trina mused.

“No, I don’t think that,” Hilda said. I think it’s her,” she said, pointing at me. I looked around at each of them.

“The howling?” Mae asked.

“Exactly,” Hilda said.

The skeletons all stood at the edge of the clearing, swaying slightly, their bones lightly clicking against each other, but the agitated clack clack that had happened before was gone.

“Bianca, howl again,” Mae said.

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