Page 57 of Witchbane
I tried to let go again, but Liam held firm and shook his head. “Finish.”
It was hard to breathe. The wards were bright all the way from his hands up to his shoulders where they would spiral down across his torso in elaborate lines. The etchings almost seemed to smoke. Was he on fire?
Liam remained very still, gaze intent on my face. “Finish.”
“The longer you wait, the more it will hurt,” Kiran said.
“Fill the lines,” Nick added, “Completing the bond will cool the fire.”
“Fuck,” I growled at them, but focused hard on the lines. I admit to rushing it a little, worrying that going slow was dragging out the pain. No one had told me this was going to hurt Liam. I didn’t feel any pain. Heat, yes, but it was almost good to let it go, like there had been too much for me, and the easing lava of it filled his bonds. When the two edges met it was a glowing network of bonds much like Nick’s had been. Liam’s grip on my hands was hard, painful, and the set of his jaw said he still hurt, though he was fighting not to show me how much.
“I submit,” Liam said. “I willingly become a vessel for your magic.” He leaned forward, tugging me until his face was close to mine and he could reach my lips. “Accept the bond,” he whispered.
“How?” I wondered even as his lips touched mine, and the magic exploded. One minute it was a glowing wave of metaphysical bonds burning a path around my mate, the next it was a tidal wave of fire, blinding me with brightness.
Chapter 15
Ilanded on four feet in a forest, running. Why was I always fucking running?
It was a lot like that dream of the ghouls, only there was no rain. The forest around me was filled with eyes. The trees looked demonic, and the sound of movement echoed all around, like timber breaking. Something big was coming my way.
Running was instinct. The fox knew escape was key. We were a predator, but small; speed and cunning were the two most important skills to keep us alive. It was odd to be racing though, heart pounding with terror, and not know what I was running from.
And something was wrong with my back left leg. My run became more of a front leaning hop, as it wouldn’t support my weight. I felt like I was dragging it along behind me, though I didn’t spare the few seconds to more than glance back. It throbbed with a dull pulse of pain, worsening with the movement. But I had to keep going.
Where had Liam gone? Was he safe? Was this a dream or had I transported myself somewhere again?
The path reminded me a little of the escape from Felix’s wolves. Darting under brush and around trees. Death hot on my heels. The forest more on the ghoulish end of the scale, but soon I ran into a wall of sorts. Not brick or one of those water runoff gullies, but a thicket of trees woven together. Trunks grown together in a wall arching up into the sky. Impenetrable.
It went on in either direction as far as I could see. I turned and headed in one direction for a bit, hoping for a break or a chance to escape; finding nothing but that endless barrier.
My lungs burned, strained with the effort of the run. Like I’d been running days rather than minutes. The ache in my leg had gone from throbbing to numb. The drag of it slowed my gait.
Claws tearing through wood echoed through the dense woods. Close, way too close. An eerie cry rose up like a call. Not wolf, not fox, not anything I recognized. For some reason I had to fight the desire to answer. Like a siren call it echoed, close, begging for me to respond.
Something massive leapt forward, with talons as big as my head, swiping inches from my face, barely missing me. It looked like a kitsune. As large as Kiran with multiple tails, at least a half dozen, fluffy and dark. That odd smoke-like fire was billowing around it. Like rain clouds gathering. But it was splotched in red and dark gray, an odd combination as normally Kiran was white with bits of red. My own coloring had been red that I could recall, with a recent touch of white to add some contrast. This thing was at least a dozen times my current size. Bigger than a werewolf in shifted form, with powerful shoulders, brute upper body musculature, and a flowing type of mane that I couldn’t tell whether it was hair, or smoke.
It stalked toward me while I barely clung to awareness, feeling like a dark abyss was about to open beneath my feet. Running was no longer an option. It could leap and catch me with little effort. For a few seconds I thought my heart would erupt, exploding from my chest in fear.
Was it odd to find it mesmerizing? Beautiful? Yet haunting and terrifying?
I trembled, unable to control the panic, and pressed my nose to the ground. It would mean death. Freezing in the face of terror. I got a nudge. Not with claws, but a nose that was warm and a little wet. Then it licked my head.
Was it tasting me? To see if I was worth eating?
It licked my face, nudging my ears before I felt the edge of teeth on the back of my neck. I shuddered, waiting for the final blow.
The teeth didn’t clamp down, or break skin. They nipped at my neck. More a teasing like wolves sometimes did. The tiny nibbling of the very front of their teeth. Like Liam had on the occasions we’d played together, his wolf to my fox.
I opened one eye, looking up, and expecting the snarling face of a monster. But it was beautiful. Breathtaking, much like the rare glimpse of my own kitsune had been. As I studied him, stark differences popped up.
Kiran was more cat-like in the face when in his kitsune form. Sort of a giant panther of white, painted with red diamonds. A kitsune out of storybooks, or at least what I remembered from what I’d read. His face had a more narrow, rounded nose, like that of a cat, though I’d never gotten close enough to really study it.
My own was more vulpine, the fox showing through with the intensity of rusty red fur and the triangular snout. This kitsune was more wolfen through the face, jaw shorter than mine, but more pronounced than Kiran’s. The tufts of hair around his face and jaw formed a thicker coat than either Kiran or I had, and his fur had a dark edge of gray. Red decorated his face and a few patches on his back, in circles or spots rather than set diamonds.
He stared at me, his gaze intense, his eyes a clear blue and oddly familiar.
I sucked in a hard breath as he sat down beside me, body huge and warm. He curved around me as though trying to keep me warm, and curled his paws, with those giant talons, beneath his chest. His claws were more wolf-like too, and not completely retractable. He rested his face near mine. Like a dog wanting attention, but waiting for it, hoping. Focused on me, watching, but still. Letting me decide.
