CHAPTER NINE
The black-haired woman was tough—Tina would give her that. She didn’t play fair, and her power had the unmistakable taint of blood magic. It was wearing down Tina’s reserves, but she thought, on balance, they were pretty evenly matched. The outcome of this showdown was too close to call. Something had to give some way or Tina was very much concerned that she wouldn’t be the one to prevail in this battle.
She kept lobbing her offensive energies at her opponent, each blast weakening her. But the other woman was becoming weaker, too. Freezing the battle between the shifters and this woman’s henchmen had been a bit of good luck. Without the violence and bloodshed to feed from, the other mage had only what she’d brought with her to the fight. If Tina’s ice shield failed, then all was lost. She had to do something to end this quickly, before her dome of frozen protection started to thaw.
Tina went down on one knee as another blast from the woman took her by surprise and knocked her off balance. She fired her own blast back at the woman from her semi-kneeling position and was glad to see the other mage knocked back a few paces. They were both scoring hits now, in this fast-paced energy battle.
As she dealt with yet another barrage from the blood path mage, Tina thought she heard the phoenix shriek. She wanted to tell Lance to fly far away from this disaster of a battle, but she couldn’t spare the energy. She was doing all she could just to withstand the concentrated blast of evil power directed at her.
Then, it lifted. All of a sudden, the attack ceased, and it was the other woman who was screaming, her fists raised to the sky defiantly, even as pure flame enveloped her from the phoenix. Magical flame that didn’t burn anything it touched except for the evil taint that was all around the other mage.
The phoenix flapped its wings, and fire shot forth, bathing the entire yard in an eerie orange glow. Everywhere the phoenix’s power touched evil, it burned, leaving the rest of the yard—and all of Lance’s people—untouched. The phoenix fire didn’t interfere with Tina’s ice shield either. It seemed to lick at it, and went right through it in spots, but left it basically intact, seeking out only the spots where the blood path energies had touched, to cleanse the taint away.
The black-eyed woman screamed as she went up in flames. She tried to fight back, but the phoenix fire was too potent. Too overwhelming. Too awesome in its might.
Within minutes, the evil mage was no more, and every trace of her contamination had been burned away. Tina sobbed in relief as she sank to the ground for a moment of respite. It was over. The woman had been reduced to nothing. Even now, her ashes were being swept away into nothing by the magical wind created the phoenix’s mighty wings. He landed in front of Tina. A man-sized bird of feathers and flame. A paradox that should probably not exist in this modern world of men and machines.
In bird form, Lance came over to her, leaning down and touching her with his flaming feathers in a gesture of concern. His touch didn’t burn. Wonder of wonders… It healed.
Renewed by his presence and relieved that they were safe, Tina got to her feet and stepped into the bird-man’s embrace. Lance had shifted about halfway, and the outline of the giant bird of fire stayed around him like a living aura, even as his beloved face reappeared. Tina hugged him, feeling the feathers fade away under her hands as Lance came back to her all the way, to his fully human form.
“Are you okay?” His deep voice sounded near her ear, concern in his tone.
She leaned back to look up into his eyes. Eyes that were still swirling with fiery magical energy.
“You were magnificent,” she told him, so proud of him she couldn’t contain it. “You saved us all.”
“No, sweetheart, you did that. You put the dome over the fighting. You shielded my people, though it must’ve cost you a lot of power to do it. Thank you.” He leaned in and kissed her, a too-quick joining of lips and hearts that they didn’t really have time for but needed nonetheless.
Knowing she should release the shifters, she turned to look at her dome and was shocked to see that all the opponents had been vaporized along with their leader. There would be no one evil left to tell the tale of what had happened here today.
“How did you do that?” She gestured toward the dome, which still stood, and the frozen shifters trapped within its protection.
“I’m not really sure. It looked like the flames just went for anything that looked bad to my sight while I was up there.” He pointed upward with one finger, clearly not altogether comfortable talking about his new abilities yet.
“Bad?” she echoed. “You mean you can see evil?”
Lance shrugged. “I’m not entirely sure. I see things a lot differently when I’m in that other shape,” he admitted. “It’s going to take a while to figure it all out. I just followed the instincts that kicked in when I got a good look at what was happening below.”
She patted his chest. “Thank the Mother of All for your instincts.”
Gathering her power back to her, she released the shifters from their frozen state, dismissing the dome of protection. She figured she’d have to face the music now for freezing them like that. Shifters of their strength and caliber probably didn’t like having their fight stolen from them. She held up her hands, palms outward in a gesture of peace.
“I’m really sorry, guys,” she told them quickly as they all turned to regard her and Lance. “That woman was a blood path mage. The fighting was only making her stronger. It’s probably why she’d brought those guys with her armed only with simple weapons. They could have just as easily been carrying guns and taken us all out quickly, but she wanted you to suffer and bleed so she could feed off it. Freezing you was the only way I could stop her overpowering us all.”
Stone stepped forward and regarded her a moment. Tina held her breath, wondering if the Alpha werewolf was about to condemn her for what she’d done. Instead, he held out one hand to her. She put her hand in his, not quite sure what was going on.
“Thank you for sparing my people unnecessary injury. We like a good brawl as much as the next guy, but feeding our power to a blood path mage is not something we would do by choice. You made the right call,” Stone told her.
She was shocked as he leaned over and kissed the back of her hand, like some kind of courtly gallant. Lance came up beside her and put his arm around her shoulders, staking a claim. Stone looked up, let go of her hand and then backed off, grinning from ear to ear. He nodded to Lance.
“Nice one, boss,” Stone said, the rest of the shifters coming up behind him to gather around. “That phoenix fire tickles.”
Tina gasped, but Stone’s irreverent comment cracked everyone up, including Lance. It was just the icebreaker they needed to relieve the tension.
“You’re lucky you’re one of the good guys, Stone, or I think it would have done more than just tickle,” Tina observed as the laughter died down a bit.
“Yeah, there is that. So, I guess we should figure out how these bastards got here and start erasing any evidence of their visit,” Stone said, looking around innocently, as if feeding the next move to his boss wasn’t something he did every day.
“Okay,” Lance replied. “I… Uh… I guess you can tell I’m not very experienced with this stealth stuff. Can you do that without causing issues down the road?”
“We’re really good at hiding our tracks,” Stone assured him. “We’ve had to watch our tails our entire lives. We’re expert at it.”
“All right, then. Do what you think is best,” Lance told his right-hand man.
Stone gave a few signals to some of his guys, and they all took off in different directions. A few shifted into wolf form, putting their noses to the ground like bloodhounds and then streaking off into the desert around the yard.
“Hey,” Lexi called from the car-sized doorway that had been smashed in by the evil mage’s power. “Most of the buffet is still intact if anyone’s still hungry.”
Tina heard the laughter and realized this group was going to be okay. They weren’t mad at her for intervening. Far from it. And they seemed to know what to do to keep Lance—and all of them—safe from repercussions. Now, the only thing that had to be addressed was ongoing security, but that could wait a few minutes while Stone and his guys did their thing. Tina figured they’d be at the heart of any security planning, since they each had a lifetime of experience in keeping themselves and their people safe.
Lance had gone over to the smashed door and had already begun tearing out the parts that would need to be replaced. A few of the guys who had stayed behind came up to help, and within moments, they had cleaned up the debris inside the room and taken the broken furniture and chairs out to the dumpster. Ace, the leader of the bear shifters from the paint shop, was working with Lance on the door, and two more guys were already sourcing lumber and plywood to close up the hole while they waited for a replacement door.
Tina watched it all, marveling at the way Lance and his people worked together. Lexi had brought two chairs out and then followed those up with some drinks and a couple of sandwiches that hadn’t been harmed by the fight. She and Tina sat side by side in the shade of a small awning at the side of the building, watching the guys work.
“They really are a good team,” Tina observed to Lexi.
They’d sat mostly in silence, eating steadily. Tina wasn’t sure if Lexi realized that, after such an expenditure of magical energy, eating a big meal was one good way to replenish energy. Tina thought it was the same for shifters, which was part of the reason they ate so much and never seemed to get fat.
“Most of them have worked for Lance for a while,” Lexi replied. “I came on board last year, but Stone and the bears were here from the beginning. As Lance’s business grew, Stone brought more of his wolves into the fold. When I moved to the area and was job hunting, I was sort of drawn to Lance’s ad for a receptionist. It was an instinctual thing.” Lexi tilted her head as if remembering. “I’m really glad I listened to those instincts because this is probably the best job I’ve ever had, and once Stone and Ace accepted me, I felt like part of the family, even though I’m the only cat here.”
Tina looked at the other woman. “I’m glad you found your place,” she said quietly, wishing there were some way Tina could fit in among these close-knit shifters.
“I think you’ve found yours, too, haven’t you?” Lexi asked with a sly smile, looking pointedly over at Lance and then back.
Tina decided to lay it on the line a bit with Lexi. Sort of test the waters and see what at least one of the friendlier shifters might think.
“I hope so,” Tina replied, keeping her voice down. “I’m not sure, though. Do you think my presence would disrupt the family vibe you’ve got going on here?”
“Girl,” Lexi scoffed. “You don’t recognize how well you’ve already been accepted? Stone kissing your hand before? That was a signal. You’re okay in his book, and he was stating it publicly for all of us to see. I doubt Ace will give you any trouble. Despite how scary he looks, he’s really just a big ol’ teddy bear. The rest of the bears follow his lead. And Lance…” Lexi looked at her boss then back at Tina, her eyebrow raised. “If you can’t see the way he looks at you, then you’re blind. Or maybe just in denial.”
“Or scared,” Tina added in a whisper.
Lexi reached out and put her hand on Tina’s forearm in a caring way. “Don’t be scared, Tina. He needs a strong woman by his side, and from what I just saw, you’re the right match for him. He’s fire,” Lexi nodded toward Lance, “and you’re ice. If you’re not meant for each other, I don’t know who is.”
Lance worked alongside his guys to clean the place up. It felt good to use his hands for something constructive. He was having a little trouble with the idea that he’d just killed a bunch of people. Okay, they were evil people, but still.
The newly awakened bird side of his mind didn’t have any problems at all with the concept, but Lance had been raised human. He’d always been human. Until recently. It was all just a lot to take in.
His guys seemed to understand. They worked with him to fix the shop, not speaking much. Just working steadily. Doing what needed to be done. At some point, Lance became aware that Lexi had taken Tina under her wing, so to speak, and was taking care of her. Lance should be doing that, but he didn’t know how he could touch Tina now that he had so much blood on his hands. It was going to take a little time to come to terms with what he’d done…and what he’d become.
“I think that about does it for now,” Ace said, standing back from the boarded-up doorway, surveying it with his hands on his hips. “You want to upgrade to a newer style of door when we replace it?”
“Yeah, I guess so. Pretend like we decided to spruce up the place instead of admitting that we got attacked by an evil witch and her followers.” Lance heard the strangeness in his own voice, knowing he wasn’t handling the aftermath of his actions well. “And how I blew them all away into dust.”
A large hand came down on his shoulder. Ace was at his side, looking at him with solemn eyes.
“You weren’t raised knowing what you are,” Ace began, his voice low, just between them. “That’s got to be a disadvantage to you, right now, but let me clue you in on one thing. Killing is something your animal side does instinctually to survive. At least, that’s what my bear does. I’m not sure that a mythological beast like a phoenix needs to kill to eat. Maybe your beast serves a higher purpose. Maybe your function is to stop evil when you see it.” Ace gave Lance’s shoulder a hard squeeze then let go.
Ace was normally a quiet man. In fact, Lance had never heard this many words in a row from the big guy. But what he was saying made a lot of sense.
“I definitely saw things differently while I was up there. Can you see the difference between good and evil when you’re in your other form?” Lance asked tentatively.
“I see in what I call bear-vision. I see in color, but not quite the same as I do in my human form. Things are sharper close up. Things in the distance aren’t as clear, but I see them with sort of an energy halo around them. Like a heat signature or something around all living things. Maybe I’m seeing their aura—if such things exist, but I wouldn’t say I can tell if they’re good or evil. That’s something I can sometimes scent, but not see. As an example, those who attacked us today, and especially the woman who led them, reeked of blood magic. As a bear, I’m a little more magical than the others. If you ask one of the wolves, they’ll probably say they smelled the blood, but perhaps not the magic. And they see more like dogs—but don’t tell them I said that.” Ace gave Lance a grin. “You’re saying you can actually see evil?”
“Oh, yeah.” Lance remembered the way it had all looked from above. He hadn’t realized what he was seeing at first, but when his phoenix instincts took over, he’d known without doubt what needed to be done. He told Ace as much.
“That’s pretty cool,” Ace allowed. “Just follow those instincts, and you should be all right.”
“Even when they turn me into a mass murderer?” Lance asked bitterly, unable to hold back his feelings of guilt and shame.
“Son, what you did today wasn’t murder. It was justice,” Ace said fiercely, a hint of a growl in his voice.
“Who gave me the authority to pass out that kind of justice?” Lance wondered, feeling lost.
“Who gave you the gift of the phoenix inside you?” Ace shot back but didn’t wait for Lance to answer. “The Mother of All knows what She’s doing, my friend. You are what you are for a reason, and today, you were the tool the Goddess used to bring Her Light to the wicked. You are Her instrument. Trust that. Trust in Her.”
Those words set Lance back on his heels. He hadn’t considered the religious aspect of all this. He’d always thought he was human, with human ideas of right and wrong. The deity Ace was talking about seemed to take a much more active and ongoing role in people’s lives than any deity Lance had ever heard about in the human world.
Lance might have asked for more enlightenment, but the phone rang in the office, and Lexi rushed past him to head inside. A moment later, Tina was at his side, looking at him with a fond expression that touched his heart.
“You doing okay?” she asked.
Lance was peripherally aware of Ace moving away as Tina stepped closer, but all Lance cared about in that moment was the touch of his mate. Of Tina stepping into his open arms.
“I should be asking you that question,” he replied, hugging her close and tucking her head into his shoulder. She fit against him so perfectly there was no doubt left in his mind that they were meant to be together. Always.
“I’m fine,” she assured him, her hands running over his back in a comforting way.
“Tina, will you…?” he trailed off, unsure how to phrase what was in his heart. The phoenix inside him knew what it wanted, and it wanted Tina.
She drew back to look into his eyes. “Will I what?”
He plucked up his courage. “Will you marry me?” he rushed the words together, but at least he got them out. Then, he tried to do better. “I want you with me always. I want your life to merge with mine. The new part of me that was always there but silent before knows it needs you. You are my balance. My strength. My reason for coming back to Earth every time I turn into that fiery bird. I don’t know how to describe it, exactly. It’s more than love. More than devotion. It’s like you’re the other half of my soul. I know the other shifters are content to just call each other mates, but until now, I always thought I was just a regular human guy, and I want you to be my wife.”
Tina’s eyes filled with tears. Happy ones, he hoped, though he was holding his breath, waiting for her response.
“Yes,” she breathed through the tears. When she smiled, it about melted his heart. “I feel the same.” She jumped up, and he caught her, hugging her close. “I love you, Lance,” she whispered near his ear. “And now that I have you, I’m never letting you go.”
He kissed her, then, and it was some time before the cheering in the background registered. When he drew back, he realized the guys in the yard were clapping and hooting and hollering, all wearing big, goofy grins on their faces.
Lance wasn’t sure how it had happened, but he seemed to have gathered a large, noisy, fun and fierce family around him. Now, he had a mate and his wild side was out in the open and working with him, the future looked bright, indeed… And filled with love.