Page 15 of Heart of a Dire Wolf
His body obeyed. He tried to force the change back to human, but it was like pounding his head against a rock. Tiger anger and fear wrapped around rising human despair.
“Walk toward the road behind you. That’s gotta be I-15. And don’t give me none of your shit, or I’ll zap you into next week.”
Like a marching automaton, his paws took him inexorably back toward the highway. Nic couldn’t let Landry see Skyla, or they’d catch her, too.
Nic focused on slowing his legs, using the rise of the embankment to help him sit on his haunches, then lie down.
He welcomed Landry’s cursing and the overwhelming pain that ensued, because it meant he’d won. He couldn’t betray his mate if they killed him.
* * *
Skyla was just screwing up her courage to tell Nic her secret when she’d felt the sharp burn of active talisman magic. Distress poured off him as he jerked like he’d been shocked and put his hands over his ears. She slowed the car, looking for a shoulder wide enough to pull over. The next thing she knew, Nic snapped the seatbelt and threw himself out of the passenger door and vanished.
She skidded the car to a halt on the rain-dampened dust. She unfastened her seatbelt and started to get out, but hesitated. What was she going to do—tackle a man twice her size? How about an eight-hundred-pound Siberian tiger?
She leaned across and pulled the passenger door shut. She was a flaming idiot. Of course greedy wizards had ways to find their merchandise. Not just for escapees, but for cases where buyers didn’t pay. She should’ve checked both herself and Nic for dormant magical talismans.
“Mauk, what are your defenses?” She knew a few good spells, but she only had the energy for one or two.
“Ignore. Displacement. Kinetic shield. Ogre repellant.” The last was likely due to Ivy’s bad breakup with her previous boyfriend, rather than an overabundance of ogres in Santa Barbara.
“Deploy the ‘ignore’ spell.” Her next words hurt. “If Nic’s talisman is still operating, don’t let him in.”
“Unable to comply. He is an authorized operator.”
“Un-authorize him, then.” She put fingers to her throbbing temples. “Think, Skyla!”
If Nic had a tracker, so did she. Thanks to Lerro, they didn’t yet know she was gone, or they’d have activated hers, too. It’d have to be something small that stayed with her, regardless of her shape. “Mauk, can you scan me for inert talisman magic?”
“Yes. Two sources located.” The rotating image of a generic human appeared on the console display, with two red dots, one in the lower skull, one in the right hip.
“Can you drain them without triggering their spells?”
“Evaluating.” Seconds she couldn’t afford dragged. “Yes.”
“Do it.” Twin cattle prods exploded along her nerves. “Yeow!”
“Ten spells successfully converted. My energy store is once again at full capacity.”
“Lucky you.” She gingerly touched the tender spot on the back of her neck and smelled singed hair, then looked at the scorch mark where the pocket of her new jeans used to be. Burns hurt like hell, even with speedy shifter healing. “Where is Nic?”
“Fifty-three feet southwest. Three talismans activated. He is in tiger form, moving slowly toward us.”
She wished she’d thought to ask Mauk what kind of spells she was up against before he broke them. Worst-case scenario, the talismans carried a living golem spell that let the asshole wizards control Nic’s mind and body, and probably a self-destruct. She couldn’t let them see the car or her.
“Mauk, I’m going to alter your displacement spell.” She pressed the four red gems across the top of the display, as she’d remembered Ivy doing.
“Passphrase required for alteration.”
“I don’t know it.” She growled in frustration as her true wolf’s temper spiked. “Fucking hell, Mauk, I don’t have time for this shit!”
“Passphrase confirmed.”
* * *
It took stiff-legged, disoriented Nic-the-tiger three tries to get up the rain-slicked embankment that led to the road. Landry couldn’t figure out how to remote-control four uncooperative legs. On the third try, a high-pitched female voice joined Landry’s and gave such detailed instructions that Nic had no choice but to comply. He couldn’t remember why it was important to defy the voices in his head, and his man side was too far away to ask. Still, it pleased Nic-the-tiger to not do as he was told.
The new puppet master made him look up and down both sections of asphalt. The only vehicle on his side of the road was a big farm-style truck parked on the shoulder, about fifteen body lengths away. The only sound in the night was the light rain. Wood slats blocked his view into the truck’s cab.
