Chapter 41
His head ringing, Briggs jumped to his feet, his gaze tearing across the trees looking for Cece.
His bear roared with rage when the blast of red light sent her flying into a tree.
Before he could go to her, another cold blast of blue washed over him, and he was sent somersaulting across the snow before crashing up against a tree.
He staggered to his feet as a voice said, “My niece’s magic is stronger than we thought.”
Briggs turned, letting his fangs drop and baring them at the dark-haired man in a navy cloak whose body glowed with bright blue light.
“Her protection spell is surprisingly effective, shifter. You should be dead,” the warlock said.
“You’re about to be, warlock,” Briggs growled.
The warlock laughed. “My name is Alistair, and I doubt that very much.”
Briggs glanced at Cece, panic flashing through him when the witch standing before her threw a ball of fire into Cece’s face. “Cecelia! No!”
Cece waved her hands, and green light snuffed out the flames surrounding her. She jumped to her feet, her face unburned and her body glowing bright green.
Another blast of blue light sent Briggs tumbling into the trees, and he snarled with rage as he stood.
“Still alive. Huh. Truly impressive magic for a half-breed,” Alistair said. “I mean that, sincerely. I had no idea she had it in her.”
“I’m going to kill you now,” Briggs snarled.
“Her protection spell might save you from magic, but there are so many other ways to kill you,” Alistair said.
He muttered an incantation, and behind him, a stream of water rose from the river and turned to a long, sharp icicle. Grinning, Alistair waved his hands, and the icicle flew with deadly accuracy toward Briggs, burying itself in his midsection.
Pain lanced through his abdomen, and his bear roared again, demanding to be free. Alistair’s grin faltered when Briggs yanked the icicle out of his stomach, ignoring the blood that flowed down his body, and bared his fangs again. “You’ll have to do better than that, warlock.”
Alistair curled his lip at him. “If you insist.”
As he spoke his incantation, more water rose from the river, turning into deadly spears of ice.
Briggs called for his bear, and the beast surged forward, his bones cracking and fur sprouting from his skin as he shifted.
Roaring, he charged toward the warlock as the ice pelted his thick fur.
One lodged in his ribs, sending bright pain through him, and he pawed it away, as more ice stabbed into him.
An icicle the size of a baseball bat speared him in the back leg, and his leg went out from under him, sending him tumbling into the snow. Alistair laughed, the blue light surrounding him intensifying as he raised his hands, and a sky full of spears of ice appeared above him.
“Goodbye, shifter,” Alistair said and thrust his hands at Briggs, sending the shards of ice whistling toward Briggs at deadly speed.
“Goddammit!” Alistair screamed when two large pine trees, their trunks creaking and groaning, bent sideways in front of Briggs, their thick branches stopping the barrage of ice from piercing Briggs’s body.
Unable to take the strain, the trunks snapped in half with the sound of a gunshot, and the ground shook when the trees fell to the ground, sending a cloud of pine needles and snow into the air.
Briggs looked to his right. Cece had one hand pointed toward the blond witch, her mouth moving as she chanted an incantation, and her other hand pointed toward him.
The splitting of her magic had weakened it, and his bear howled with rage when the witch threw another fireball that knocked Cece off her feet.
She popped back up immediately, pointing both hands at the blond witch, and Briggs could have fucking cheered when a thick branch from a pine tree smacked into the blond witch and hurtled her into a tree.
He turned to the warlock, growling deep in his chest as he stalked toward him. A hint of fear flashed across Alistair’s face before he said, “Enough. You’re boring me.”
He spoke another incantation, and a huge wave of water from the river washed over Briggs.
It lifted him, twisting and turning him in dizzying circles until his head spun, and he had no fucking idea which way was up.
He caught a glimpse of the river below him and sucked in a deep breath as he was thrown into it.
Muffled silence enveloped him, and the cold water helped clear the dizziness.
He swam for the surface with powerful strokes of his thick paws, snarling in surprise when his head slammed into hard ice.
He scraped his claws across the ice as the current carried him down the river, panic seeping into his veins when he realized the warlock had frozen over the entire river.
He swam against the current until he could wedge his body into the nest of branches under the water, so the current couldn’t carry him away. He slammed his paws repeatedly against the ice as the seconds ticked by. Bubbles escaped his nose as the air leaked from his burning lungs.
He gave up trying to break the ice, conserving his breath and strength as much as he could. Another minute passed, and his lungs screaming, his bear whined in sorrow.
It’s okay, buddy, he soothed. It’s okay. I love you.
His bear retreated with another quiet whine, and Briggs shifted to his human form.
The icy water flowed over his skin, blood from his stab wounds twirling and twisting in the water, as black roses bloomed in his vision and a harsh thudding sounded above him.
He squinted at the polar bear standing on the ice, slamming his paws into the ice over and over.
Cece’s face rose in his mind as his body slipped from the branches. He grasped for the thickest branch with one hand, willing his frozen fingers to grip the slippery branch. His mate needed him. He couldn’t leave her.
A terrific crack above him sent huge chunks of ice floating past him in the water.
He stared blankly at the familiar hand that plunged into the water and grabbed him by the forearm.
He was yanked forward, his head smacking against the edge of the ice, and the branches scraping his legs as he was dragged out through a ragged hole in the ice.
He lay on the ice, staring up at his father, his lungs refusing to work as Alex yanked him into a sitting position. “Breathe, Briggs!”
He wanted to, he really did, but he couldn’t get his fucking lungs to cooperate. He stared desperately at his dad, who leaned forward and pressed his warm forehead against Briggs’s cold one.
“Take a breath, son. Just one breath,” he said, his voice calm and steady.
Briggs sucked in a gasping, whooping breath of air, his seized lungs working overtime to pull oxygen into his body as he coughed and gasped, leaning against the solid warmth of his father.
“Good boy,” his father said, rubbing his back. “That’s my boy. You’re all right.”
“Cece,” Briggs gasped. “My mate needs me.”
He clutched at his father, and Alex heaved him to his feet. Pain shot up his leg, and he studied the deep stab wound in his upper thigh, as Alex growled deep in his chest, sniffing at the air.
“Now there’s fucking two of you,” Alistair said as he stalked toward them. “I guess that’s what happens when you go to fucking Alaska. Chest deep in polar bears.”
He stood in the snow beside the river, his cloak fluttering in the wind as he raised his hands, and the blue light intensified. “I suspect your friend here doesn’t have a protection spell on him. Is that right, shifter?”
“Get behind me, Dad,” Briggs said, pushing weakly at his father’s body.
His father ignored him, positioning himself in front of Briggs before shifting to his polar bear. He stood on his hind feet and snarled at Alistair.
The warlock laughed. “He’s your father? Fucking brilliant. I’m going to enjoy this.”
Before he could cast the spell, a thick tree branch slammed into him, sending him sliding across the frozen river.
Relief swept through Briggs as his father shifted to his human form and threw his arm around Briggs’s waist. He searched for Cece, the relief dying sharply when he saw how dim her light was as she turned back to the blond witch.
“I need to get to her,” he said.
“I don’t think you can help her, son,” his dad said. “Not with the magic they’re doing.”
“You’re wrong,” he said. “I’m the only one who can -”
“Down!” his father shouted before pushing Briggs to the snowy ground. Blue light lit up the air above them, and they both sat up to see Alistair, blood trickling from his mouth and nose, striding across the frozen river toward them.
“Fuck me,” his father said as his body swelled. “Stay behind me, Briggs.”
Before he could shift, a blast of red light came from behind them and struck Alistair in the chest. It knocked him off his feet, and he slid across the ice before scrambling to his feet.
Cece’s grandfather walked past Briggs and Alex without looking at them as Alistair crossed the frozen river and climbed the bank to glare at his father. “What are you doing here, Dad?”
“What am I doing here?” Werner said in disbelief. “Alistair, what the hell are you doing? She’s your niece. Cecelia is your blood.”
“She’s a goddamn half-breed and the reason Andrew is dead!” Alistair shouted.
“No, she isn’t,” Werner said. “Your brother died in a car accident. She had nothing to do with it.”
“You fucking fool,” Alistair said. “You honestly think that’s how he died, don’t you?”
Werner stiffened. “Alistair, your mother wouldn’t -”
“She would, and she did. We did, Dad. We didn’t mean to, I swear it was an accident, but Andrew wouldn’t listen to reason. He loved that half-breed’s mother. When Mom realized she was pregnant, she demanded that he leave her, and Andrew laughed at her. He laughed and said she was crazy.”
“Oh, Alistair,” Werner said.
“It was that bitch’s mother’s fault,” Alistair said. “She seduced Andrew and used dark magic to convince him he was in love with her. She wanted to take him away from us, Dad. We didn’t have a choice. He said he would never leave the mother of his child. Killing her was the only way.”
“You killed your brother!” Werner shouted. “You killed Andrew!”
“It was an accident!” Alistair screamed. “None of this would have happened if that bitch hadn’t gotten pregnant. Andrew is dead because of your precious fucking granddaughter.”
“Alistair, you have to stop,” Werner said, his voice full of sorrow.
“You’re either with us or against us, Dad,” Alistair said. “Help us kill her. Take your revenge for Andrew’s death.”
“I can’t do that,” Werner said.
Pain flooded Alistair’s face before it hardened, and he gave his father a cold-eyed stare. “Then you leave me no choice.”
A blast of blue light hit Werner in the chest, and he flew backward, smashing into the large rock by the river. He bounced to his feet, his hands glowing red as a fireball formed between them. “Don’t do this, son.”
Alistair laughed, the sound full of bitter insanity. “Walk away, Dad. Let Mom and me finish this.”
His voice soft and full of pain, Werner said, “You know I can’t let you kill her.”
Without another word, he threw the fireball at Alistair. Alistair dodged it and, his lips moving fast, raised a sheet of ice from the river and threw it at his father. Werner blasted it with flame, and the ice melted with a sizzling hiss, sending water raining into the snow between them.
Alistair snarled at him before sending a beam of blue light directly at Werner. Werner met it with a beam of red light, and as the two warlocks battled, Briggs staggered to his feet.
“Cece,” he said. “Dad, I need to get to my mate.”
“You can’t help her, Briggs,” Alex said.
He gripped his father’s arm, panic flooding through him when he saw Cece sitting on the ground, her lips moving and the green glow that surrounded her growing fainter by the second as the blond witch stood over her, the fiery red light from her hands growing closer and closer to breaking the barrier spell around his mate.
“I don’t have time to explain, but I can help. But only if I can get close enough to Cece to touch her,” he said. “Please trust me, Dad.”
His dad studied him before nodding. “All right. I’ll distract the witch and give you time to get to your mate.”
“You can’t,” Briggs said. “She’s using dark magic, and if she hits you with a spell, it’ll kill you.”
His father grinned at him. “I guess your clever human mate didn’t tell you that she did a protection spell on both your mother and me.”
Briggs stared at him in surprise. “What?”
His father clapped him on the back. “Let’s save your mate, my boy.”
He shifted to his polar bear form and ran toward Cece and her grandmother. Briggs tested his weight on his leg, and while it was still bleeding and sore as fuck, his healing had kicked in enough that it held his weight.
He stared at Cece, his heart swelling at how fucking brave his mate was, and called for his bear.