Chapter Three #2
They’d barely spent a full night in the woods when it happened. He’d awoken in the cabin in the middle of the night to find himself magically tethered to the floor in a circle of chalk, surrounded by candles. And standing over him, her book of spells in her hand, was none other than Carmen.
She’d wasted no time explaining her plan to him, and the pieces had fallen into place.
It all started to make sense why she’d been so excited to be with a dragon shifter, why she’d been pulling away in the past few weeks.
Her plan was simple: absorb Henry’s shifting abilities with a spell she’d tweaked for this very purpose.
She would become a tribrid—witch, vampire, dragon shifter.
But executing the plan had been a different ball game entirely.
And it had gone wrong.
The spell had almost worked. In fact, if Henry hadn’t been struggling so hard, he might’ve lost his abilities.
Just before it was complete, the spell failed.
The next thing he knew, the entire cabin had gone ablaze.
The next few moments had been almost a blur: he’d seen Nora get hit by a falling beam, seen the flames surround her, seen her barely make it out of the cabin, injured and bleeding, and into the night.
That was the last he’d ever seen or heard of her.
Or of any hybrid, for that matter.
At least, until now.
His jaw clenching slightly, he regarded the witch—no, hybrid—seated across from him.
Those beautiful eyes of hers were still fixed on him, her lips slightly puckered.
Henry felt an automatic wave of distrust. He’d been somewhat relieved earlier to know that he wouldn’t be in his tent alone, but now he couldn’t help but wonder whether he hadn’t made a mistake saving this woman’s life. Just what had he gotten himself into?
“Why didn’t you mention being a hybrid earlier?” he asked as calmly as he could.
She gave a half-shrug. “Well, would you have helped me if you knew what I was?”
The obvious answer was no, but Henry didn’t bother saying anything.
He took a few deep breaths, trying to shake off the memory of the hybrid who’d almost killed him fourteen years ago.
If he closed his eyes now, he could still hear himself screaming as Carmen tried to rip his very essence from his body.
“People hate hybrids, Henry,” she told him. “Both humans and other supernaturals do. You hate us because you don’t understand us, because you don’t think we should exist. It’s the same way humans feel about supernaturals in general. It’s better no one knows what we are—much safer. Ring a bell?”
It certainly did. Nora had a point. Still...
“That’s rough,” he admitted. “But I don’t hate you for what you are.”
I just don’t trust you, he neglected to add. Especially after one of your kind tried to hurt me.
He forced the memory of Carmen out of his mind, trying to calm himself. He couldn’t lose his cool now. Especially not here, in front of Nora.
Relax, Henry, he told himself. It’s not like she’s going to try to steal your shifter abilities. She just wants your protection from someone else.
Not exactly reassuring. Best to shift his focus to something else, anything but the fact that he was sitting only a few feet away from a hybrid.
“Doesn’t seem to me like your business is booming,” Nora remarked, breaking the silence.
Henry nodded, grateful for the change in subject. He glanced outside the tent at the people walking past. “Yeah, it’s even worse than I anticipated.”
In the past hour since he’d set up the tent, the animal sanctuary had made barely thirty bucks. That was a long way from five grand. At this rate, he’d be lucky if he managed to secure five hundred dollars in profit by the day’s end.
“You sure you can’t do a money spell, or something?” he asked. “Or magically compel these people to buy something?”
“Even if I could, I don’t think I would,” she replied, shooting him a disapproving look. “Magic isn’t always about using shortcuts to get what you want. It’s also about helping you do things the right way.”
“Right.”
“I’ll help you. Just not the way you want me to.”
She reached for a nearby box, pulling out one of the T-shirts stacked inside and holding it up before her. A frown creased her forehead.
“I see the problem,” she muttered.
“What is it?”
“You have zero branding skills.” Nora shook her head, turning the T-shirt to face him. “What the hell is this?”
The shirt was a bright green, the words GREEN ANIMAL RESCUE SANCTUARY printed across it in bold, dark-green lettering.
“What’s wrong with it?”
“It’s an ugly T-shirt, Henry. No one wants to buy an ugly T-shirt.”
“But it—”
“I worked at a fast-food restaurant for three years. I’m pretty sure I know what I’m talking about. Here, let me fix it for you...”
She closed her eyes, muttering a spell. As Henry watched, the words on the T-shirt shrank a little. The top turned yellow, remaining green only at the hem and neck, and images appeared just above the lettering: a cartoonish dog, cat and rabbit, all huddled together.
She set the T-shirt down and muttered another spell. This time, Henry felt a gust of wind blow through the tent. He narrowed his eyes, unable to help feeling a bit of distrust as he watched her.
“There,” she said, pulling out a couple of other T-shirts from the pile and tossing them at him. “Check these out.”
He examined the first T-shirt. It was bright pink now, with a cartoonish rabbit hopping over the small lettering on the top. The second had a Triceratops streaking across its front.
“We don’t rescue dinosaurs,” Henry said, frowning. “They don’t even exist.”
“It’s part of advertising.” She shook her head at him like he’d said something dumb. “Kids love cartoons, rabbits, even dinosaurs. And just who do you think the real target customers are at most of these fairs? Adults with demanding jobs and bills to pay?”
She made a good point. Henry looked around and immediately realized the T-shirts weren’t the only things she’d changed.
The tent was a brighter shade of green, and he thought he could make out more cartoonish animal shapes printed across it.
He picked up a nearby flyer. Sure enough, even that had changed, its colors brighter, a few words bigger.
She’d done all that without so much as breaking a sweat. Looking at her, Henry had no doubt she was a powerful witch. What could possibly have her so uneasy, then? Just how dangerous was this hunter she was running from?
Just his luck, he was now a party to her problems.
“Thank you,” he said finally.
“Consider it my payment for your protection.”
She smiled at him, and Henry felt a warm tug in his gut. She really was beautiful, even with the unease in her eyes. Those golden eyes of hers alone were a mesmerizing sight.
It dawned on him that he was staring. She gazed back into his eyes, and he felt his pulse quicken a little.
“I...” he began. “I guess—”
Before he could complete his statement, the sound of heavy approaching footsteps reached his ears, and a large figure filled the tent’s opening.
“Found you!” growled a voice.