Page 64 of Blood and Magic
The thought made me laugh, and I covered my mouth to hide my childishness. Guin nudged me with her shoulder.
“Stop that,” she said. “After the change, the people closest to you will be in your head. Mill, me, probably Kodiak and Fenris, too.”
“In my head?” I furrowed my brow. “Like…telepathically?”
She nodded. “It’s how we communicate in shifter form.”
I wanted to ask more questions, but I caught sight of the moon trickling in through the trees overhead. Its shining luminosity stunned me into silence, so full in its splendor, so radiant and gorgeous. Had any moon ever been so beautiful before?
Groans and shouts of pain echoed from around me, and I’d started to wonder what was happening when a sharp pang yanked at my stomach, toppling me over.
“Fuck,” I groaned, wilting at the knees. I dug my hands into the earth as fury erupted in my veins, spreading through my entire body. I was on fire. Every nerve ending burned with agony, and I clenched my eyes shut against it. Bile rose in the back of my throat. I was certain I would throw up, but I opened my mouth and the only thing that came out were my teeth.
I spat them on the ground, blood and saliva coating my tongue, and when I looked down, I saw my skin peeling back over my forearms, thick dark slices zigzagging across my wrists, up to my biceps, and dark obsidian fur poked out of the wounds. My fingernails pushed out of the ends of my fingers, replaced by tiny black claws. My spine cracked, and I arched into the pain, whimpering as something strong gripped my insides and yanked.
Like Guin said, it was pure anguish, and it seemed to go on and on. I grabbed my face, whining when my cheeks and jaw slid from the bone, my skull splintering, fracturing, taking on a new form. The pressure in my head built until my eyes popped out of the sockets with a disturbing crunch that made me believe I would never see again. But my vision did not darken. It was replaced with a stronger sight beyond anything I’d ever experienced as a human. My torso twisted and my knees bent the wrong way, and just when I was certain I would die, that this torture would be the end of me, a greater power took over.
It reshaped and reformed into a brilliant exhilaration, like that first leap off a cliff when the world gave way and there was nothing but the thrill in my blood and a great understanding that the ground would catch me. The urge to shake took over, and I landed on my paws, trembling until the last little bits of my flesh fell off my fur.
Fur!
It was the color of pitch, matching my human hair, and I inhaled through my nose…no, my snout, tasting the night. A thick musky cloud floated over the grass, remnants of the pack’s blood around me, and when I tried to stand, I stumbled forward onto my face, collapsing on unsteady paws.
A weight behind me flopped onto the ground between my back legs. I looked over my shoulder at a thick, fluffy tail, wagging as I tried again to push upright.
“You’re a fox,” came the soft voice inside my head. My sister’s voice. I glanced up to see her standing only a few yards away, her copper fur slick with blood and sweat. “Like me.”
“This is incredible,” I said as I panted. I tried again to stand, my body weak, my limbs barely able to hold me. They shook under my new form, muscles I had never used before, screaming with exertion. I stood there momentarily, terrified to try to walk again, but a cold wet nose nudged at my head, distracting me.
“You’re okay,” Mill said. He took the form of a massive chestnut wolf with dark crimson eyes, standing nearly as tall as his human half on all fours. I blinked, certain I would wake up from this dream any second, but when he was still standing there with his mouth open, tongue between his fangs, warm breath blowing on me in soft pants, I accepted this new reality. “Try again.”
I pushed upright and took a tentative step, and when I didn’t immediately fall over, I took another. Instinct guided me, like I was always meant to be in this form.
“There she is,” he said. “Come on. We hunt this way.”
Hunt?
No one had said anything about hunting, but my stomach grumbled, and the aroma of blood had awakened something beastly inside me. The part of me that was still human balked at the idea, seemingly repulsed by the notion of tracking and killing an animal. But the beast, the one that spoke for the feral side, came to life, excited by the idea.
Yes, it purred. Yes, hunt.
Guin trotted ahead, her fluffy ginger and white tail bouncing as she walked, and I followed her with Mill at my flank. We met up with Kodiak and Fenris, heading deeper into the woods, and I took a moment to glance around at the other shifters. Most were hulking wolves, bigger and more muscular than any wild animal. A few mountain lions roared in between, stretching and flexing their enormous claws. I saw deer and smaller animals like rabbits and eagles. I had no idea the pack was this varied, and I wondered how they got along so well living in such confined quarters.
CHAPTER 20
Vermillion
Maeve trotted next to me as Caelum approached my other side, nudging his massive shoulder against mine. I nipped at him in a playful greeting as he rubbed his head under my chin.
“Good to see you,” he said. “I heard you helped another Vanderbilt through their transition.”
I growled. Gossip spread through the homestead faster than a wildfire, so I wasn’t surprised. Considering how I looked when I came home from the ranch, everyone probably knew by now. I glanced at Maeve to see if she’d overheard him, but she focused on her surroundings, seeming to take it all in.
Caelum ran his muzzle over my neck and ears.
“You smell different, too,” he said.
I ignored the unasked question in his tone and continued walking, watching as Fenris approached Maeve and lowered down onto his forearms, inviting her to play. She yipped and bounded toward him, causing him to take off ahead of her. He certainly could best her in a foot race, especially since he was a massive wolf, but he took a leisurely pace so she could keep up.
