Chapter 40
The night is still and warm. With my arms wrapped around his neck and my legs around his waist, I nestle against him as he holds me with reverence to his chest. Daisy curls across his shoulders, watching me intently.
She chirps her concern and, every so often, nudges my arm and face. I find it hard to look at her.
I have never seen a night sky like this.
I tip my head back to investigate the blackness of the night sky, and, of course, there are millions of beautiful bright stars.
Pinpricks of burning flame, circling overhead in a spiralling vortex.
The stars, it is like they are almost following us.
Perhaps they are? They are my stars, after all.
Even with me in his arms, his footsteps are silent. The hellhound moves like a ghost, like he is floating. His feet barely touch the ground.
With my eyes on the sky and the smooth, but fast movement of my hellhound, it isn’t long before we reach the lake. He has chosen the spot well, where we had our picnic, close to the dock and our rowboat. Owen settles down onto the grass. My legs slide on either side of his hips.
My hellhound carefully arranges me. My body is so floppy, I have zero control over my limbs.
My thoughts wildly scatter. Ah, fear, my old friend, so glad I can’t make a fool of myself, as my body is now too messed up to deal with you. My heart is sluggish and doesn’t even pretend to care as my mind freaks out.
In the last few minutes, I’m finding it harder and harder to breathe. Each new breath is more laboured than the last. I am not in any pain. It’s just the spreading numbness that is disconcerting.
If there is ever a time to keep my cool, it’s now. If I don’t keep calm, I’m going to spend my remaining time freaking out instead of finding a solution.
When I was a little girl, I had appendicitis and had to have surgery to remove the defective organ. I remember when the nurses used the anaesthetic potion. I could feel it burning and spreading through my veins. I could taste the spell underneath my tongue. Flooding my mouth with its bitter tang.
It is kind of similar to that, wrapping like a monster around my lungs, rushing its poison through my blood. A coldness.
Owen cradles the back of my head and Daisy quietly creeps as close as she can, her golden wings touching the both of us.
“Tuesday,” Owen says, breaking the raspy silence.
“Just hold me. Please, if it doesn’t work—”
“It’ll work,” the hellhound growls.
“I love you,” I gasp out. Gosh, talking without being able to breathe is hard. “I am sorry we didn’t have enough time." I wheeze. "I know… it’s a lot to ask but please will you take care of Daisy? She is my heart.”
“Please, Flash—”
“Thank you for not leaving me when you could, for staying…”
“You don’t have to thank me, and this isn’t the end,” he whispers gruffly. His grey eyes shine with tears. “I believe in you. You can do this.” He is so strong, my hellhound.
“Okay.” I flop against his chest and listen to the steady beat of his heart. With his heart showing me the way, I close my eyes and let go.
I fall.
I fall into the magic and the life force of the realm embraces me. My soul peels away from my dying body. I perceive my essence as it shifts between dimensions to a crossroads linking all the worlds.
It is so dark here. Like how I imagine a sensory deprivation chamber would feel.
The silence is so vast, it is never-ending and no matter how hard I strain my ears, I cannot hear a thing.
No matter how much I strain my eyes to pierce the blackness, I can’t see even the smallest pinprick of light. Nothing exists.
Have I made a mistake?
I was supposed to go to the heart of the realm, not here.
Not this lifeless place. Then there is a whooshing sound, and I brace the body that no longer exists, but instead, my battered soul flutters, as vast power flows over my incorporeal form and…
that is when the pain comes. Every previous hurt finds me, and I am torn apart.
Judgement.
My life flashes before me and everything I have done wrong is plucked out and put on display. Analysed. Set out before me is a loathsome, macabre exhibit of my past wrongs.
I see moments of small hurts that I caused, moments of long forgotten unkindness. There aren’t many, thank the stars. But the careless words bite, and the careless actions sting. It’s a wall of shame and it makes me ashamed.
I’m being judged, and I am found… lacking.
I am not good enough for the mystical heaven. Not bad enough for the mystical fires of hell. Some higher power communicates to me in feelings rather than simple words. I still have so much left to do. Two choices: purge the shifter magic or embrace it.
The choices come with knowledge, a knowing of future issues, and a knowing of future pain. I am stubborn, so of course, I choose the hardest, but most rewarding path.
I am remade.
Remade into something different, something that I was always meant to be. More than just a host, more than a simple witch.
The knowledge of my choice and what I learned fades from my mind, leaving no trace. And then, with rough dismissal, I’m thrown back into my body.
So much bloody pain.
A colourful array of magic bombards me; it oozes through my veins.
Strangely, the taste of fruit fills my mouth, then the fresh almost tasteless coolness of cucumber, and the bitter taste of volcanic rock.
Daisy? When flavours in my mouth fade, green magic joins that of the realms, washing away the pain and some of the darkness that is still clinging to me.
Familiar magic. Daisy’s magic mixes with mine and the realm’s.
It combines to batter the remaining numbness away.
Everything stops, it grinds to a halt when I hear a voice. “Come on, breathe. Damn you. Don’t you dare die on us.”
What is that?
There is pressure on my chest. “Please don’t leave us. I love you.” The ring on my finger burns a fiery path up my arm.
My body jolts.
The magic explodes inside of me and finally, the shifter magic is now mine.
I gasp.
“I’ve got her back. She’s breathing,” says a raspy voice.
Jodie. My sneaky sister must have snuck out and followed us here, knowing I would need her help.
My eyes flutter open. “Never do that again!” She slaps my arm weakly and then bursts into tears.
“Three minutes. You stopped breathing for three minutes.” She sniffles.
“Sorry…” I croak out.
“The ring on your finger started glowing, and it was as if the entire realm held its breath. The bite on your wrist healed and the red marks faded almost straight away, but they didn’t go away fully until Daisy touched you.
Tuesday, your little dragonette glowed like a freaky green star and then…
that was about the time you stopped breathing… ”
My sister continues to ramble. My hellhound is right next to me, stroking my face and hair. I cannot focus on his expression yet, as my eyes are kinda fuzzy. “…I did chest compressions, and I was about to use a spell to shock your heart.”
I move my fingers; at least I am no longer feeling numb. I take a deep breath, ooh, and I can breathe without issue. Sweet oxygen fills my lungs. I am alive; I did it.
So why do I still feel a little spider webby? I frown.
The sticky new magic zips through me, vibrating the very cells that hold me together. The cells that make me, me. I sit up with Jodie and Owen’s help and lift an unsteady hand to my face. The vibrations in my body are getting worse, and my right hand is tingling.
Time seems to slow, and goosebumps raise on my skin. My vision becomes clearer, and I watch in morbid fascination as tiny pieces of skin detach from my hand and float off. I blink. What the heck is that? Does anyone else see that!
The shape of my fingers is the first to disappear. It doesn’t hurt and the cells don’t go far, they hover above me in some sort of magic swarm.
Time speeds up, and it’s not just my hand, it is my entire arm and then… it’s as if I am made of sand. Everything crumbles.
And then there is nothing.
Blackness.
With a strange pop echoing in my ears, everything is normal again. Well, that was weird, and a little bit anticlimactic. Did lack of oxygen do something to my brain? Has everything that has happened made me mad?
I move my hand back in front of my face to check out the bite on my wrist, and… Oh boy, that’s not a hand. Uh-no. That is a fluffy, violet paw.
I yeep. Jodie squeaks.
Beside me, I can hear Owen’s shocked laughter and I kid you not, my left ear swivels toward the sound. It is the weirdest sensation I have ever felt. I am not even going to say anything about my tail. When I look at him, the stupid thing wags!
I clamber to my feet, all four of them. My ears fatten to the side of my head as I wobble.
“You are purple! Your fur is purple. I can’t believe you are a bloody wolf. Oh my god. Wait until mum finds out!” Jodie splutters.
That last comment has my cells zipping and vibrating with panic. Mum is going to kill me. Then I am standing naked and shivering.
Did that just happen?
A warm top is slipped over my head, and the body heat clinging to the fabric engulfs me.
While the scent of cinnamon and vanilla wafts around me, the smell makes me dizzy.
My sense of smell is… wow. It is like I had a cold with a stuffy nose my entire life, and now I can finally breathe.
Owen stands there, his gorgeous dark skin and rippling muscles on display.
“Hi,” I whisper.
“Hi,” he says gruffly. I force my eyes to leave his bumpy abs and his beautiful sparkling grey eyes capture mine. He has been crying. Oh, Owen.
“I am sorry I frightened you. Did that just happen? Did I—” My words abruptly stop.
I stare at my hands as if I have never seen them before.
My thumb picks at the ring still on my finger, not even changing shape will dislodge that sucker.
Change shape. My bare feet wiggle into the grass and I blurt out a weird-sounding manic laugh.
“Shift? Yes.”
“Oh. Crap-on-a-cracker,” I mutter.
Daisy does a running jump, and she hits me in the chest so hard I grunt—I’m so glad shifting has fixed my remaining aches and pains—then I am hugging her and kissing her scaly, adorable face. “Who is a clever girl with fancy green magic?”
“You’re alive. I can’t believe you’re bloody alive! And you turned into a wolf!” Jodie says as she tackle-hugs my side. Daisy snarls. I hold my hand out to the side, and Owen’s massive, warm hand engulfs mine. I squeeze and he squeezes me right back.
Jodie pulls away with a pat on my arm. “I think I need a shot of the same potion I gave Diane. It’s going to take a full year for me to calm down.
” She rubs her face. “Blinking heck, I feel like I have aged ten years.” She spots our clasped hands and smiles softly.
“Okay, well, I am so done. I have had enough excitement for the night. I will leave you guys to it. I’ll go get some sleep.
” Daisy yawns so big I can almost see her tonsils.
Jodie giggles. “She is so cute. If you want, I can take her with me. Do you want to stay with Auntie Jodie for tonight?” she coos.
I shrug. Daisy lets Jodie take her out of my arms. Head in the air, she holds herself as stiff as a board, and more amusing, she keeps her wings and tail stuck out at awkward angles.
“I will allow you to touch me, but I don’t have to like it.
” Mournfully, her eyes roll in our direction.
She wrinkles her snout and makes an unhappy sound at the back of her throat.
Once Jodie hugs her, that is the extent of her objection.
She yawns again and relaxes, bestowing her temporary permission.
Aw, my little dragonette is completely tuckered out. “Thanks, sis. See you in the morning.” We watch as Jodie and Daisy trudge back towards the hotel. I don’t want to Step them until I have tested my magic.
Owen pulls me into his arms and hugs me. I bury my face into the silken skin of his chest as he rests his chin on the top of my head. “You are a beautiful wolf.”
“I am a bitten shifter who can shift, the first woman known to survive a bite,” I whisper. “The first of my kind. It’s going to be a nightmare when people find out. They are going to lose their shit.”
“They will wonder if The Sanctuary Hotel solves our dwindling numbers, if what happened to you will be the shifter’s salvation.”
I groan.
“It will not. This will likely bring evil into our lives. Owen, the crazies will come.”
“Let them. Between us, we can take out the rubbish. The predators are more than welcome. You are not a simple shifter, and neither am I, and I am not going anywhere.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to tap out?”
He grins. “Hell no.”
“So, are we going to do this? Run the hotel? What about your job?”
“You are my priority. So yeah, we are going to run the hotel.”
A safe place for all the misfits and the rebels. I like the sound of that.
“Hey, Flash, will you do me the honour of coming for a run?” What? I pull away slightly and blink at him.
“A-as… as wolves?” I stutter.
Owen’s grey eyes dance, and he smiles brightly. “Race you!” And within two breaths, his clothing flutters to the floor and a big, black wolf is bounding across the grass. He stops and turns his head; his tongue lolls out in a wolfy grin and he playfully yips.
I shift, and on wobbly violet paws, I join him.