April jumped down off her horse and dropped to the ground next to the first man. His clothed body was covered with blood, and someone—or something—had gouged huge rents in his shirt and pants. She felt his neck with no hope at all but the faintest flutter of a pulse whispered against her fingertips. "He's alive!"

Pine was already checking the second man, who was in much the same shape. "So is Perry, but he doesn't have much time. There's too much blood here. If we don't get them medical help, they'll both die." He made a quick call to the clinic on the property and demanded immediate transport and a medic.

"Doesn’t the shift help them heal?" She didn't know enough about shifters, and she wanted to bang her stupid head against a rock. Instead of flirting with Pine, she should have been studying his people. Doing something useful.

"Yes, but I can't force them to shift when they're this close to dead. The stress of the shift would finish the job." Suddenly he jumped up and swore, scanning the area. "They might be near, but the damnable thing is I can't smell what did this. There's a scent, but it's like nothing I've ever encountered. It's as if a boulder and a lit match both rolled over them and all around the grass here."

April froze, her blood turning to ice in her veins. "Demons," she hissed, almost afraid to say the word. "Pine, that's the scent of demon."

She could read the doubt on his face and said a few choice words herself, but in ancient Atlantean. "Damn it, I'm telling you, this is the work of demons."

"April, there haven't been demons in Scotland in hundreds of years, maybe even longer. I don't--"

She cut him off. They had no time for doubt. "Fine. You keep a lookout. I have a small bit of healing magic; I'll do what I can."

She forced the anger and fear out of her mind, closed her eyes, and called to the goddess to listen to her plea and give her strength to help these men. When she opened her eyes again, Pine was staring at the blue light streaming from her spread fingers and down into and around the wounded man. When the gashes on his skin sealed themselves enough for him to be safely moved, she moved carefully, staggering a little, over to the second man and repeated her prayer. By the time he, too, was healed enough to move, she felt as if she'd been the one injured. Healing took so much out of those who only had a small touch of the magic.

She tried to stand, but the effort was too much. Pine caught her as she fell and swung her up into his arms. She allowed herself to lean against his strength for a moment, but then pushed against his chest. "Let me down. I need to check on them."

He started to argue, but they heard the sound of vehicles approaching, so he gently placed her down on the grass between the two men.

"I'll run over and wave them down," he told her. "I'll be within shouting range, so call out if you need me."

"My bow. Now."

He started to argue, but one look at her face must have told him not to waste his time or breath. He handed her the bow and then took off at a dead run toward the sound of the Jeeps.

"He'll see," April told the wounded men, who couldn't hear her but would soon be able to tell their stories. Then Pine would owe her a serious apology, if she were still alive to hear it.

Demons. She shuddered.

She checked the men's pulses again. They seemed a bit stronger, but she was no medical professional or healer. "When the demons show up, he'll be sorry," she told them.

"People usually are," a cold voice said from behind her.

DENAL! She shouted, on the Atlantean mental communication pathway.

Then pain, bright and brilliant, pulsed through her head and the world went black.

Five minutes later, when Pine raced back to the clearing with the medics and some of his shifters hot on his heels, April was gone. Her bow lay on the ground, broken in half.

The scent of stone and sulfur hung in the air.

Pine threw back his head and howled a cry of such despair and rage that his shifters immediately dropped to the ground around him, and the wounded men shifted to wolf shape.

"Find her," he growled. "You take them to the clinic. I'll go find her. Move!"

He howled again, and before the echoes of the sound had faded, the Dire Wolf who was also Pine stood in his place. Six feet tall at shoulder and hip, Pine's wolf was nearly five hundred pounds of pure, predatory, power.

I'm coming for you, April. And I'll kill anything that gets in my way.