Bob called a halt when he saw broken timbers up ahead. The breaks were fresh. As if the old beams had fallen recently—perhaps in one of the earthquakes they had been experiencing. Was this more divine intervention? Bob could only shake his head in wonder. If he was right, the timbers had served as a barricade against the danger he had seen marked on the map.

He signaled for the rest of the team to wait while he went ahead and checked out the large, newly-opened passageway. About twenty feet in he saw it. A dark so deep even his superior night vision couldn’t penetrate it. He dropped a pebble into it and heard the rock bounce off the walls for a long, long way downward until the sound just faded out. The shaft was deeper than he could easily gauge. A mantrap if he’d ever seen one.

Bob backtracked and cleared the timbers from the entrance, scooting them to the sides of the dirt walls. He and the guys with him would recognize the timbers on the ground, but it was likely nobody else would think anything of them. Judging by the newness of the breaks in the old wood, the fall was fresh. The enemy troops probably hadn’t been able to get past the barrier and if there had been magical warding on the area, it was gone now.

It was easy to get turned around inside a cave system. Bob was betting on that—and the fact that the path had changed without enemy knowledge—to consider this a viable strategy if they ended up encountering a large force. Bob told the team what he had found and each of them looked suitably grim, but also intrigued by the new possible weapon in their arsenal. They would use anything they could to come out on the winning side of the battle ahead.

They continued down the main passageway, and Bob thankfully didn’t see any more magical glyphs. What they did see was signs of occupation. Footprints on the dusty ground. Many of them. Skid marks where things had been dragged recently. And sounds started coming to them. The sounds of men talking in low voices and moving around quietly. The sound of metal. The sharp scents of oil and gunpowder.

Joe sent him a questioning look and Bob knew the lieutenant was asking whether there were any magical telltales. Bob shook his head in the negative and moved back from the point position. He had to leave the military decisions to the lieutenant and the men he had worked with for years. They were too good a unit to interfere with.

Bob fell back while the military guys sorted themselves out and found himself next to John the werewolf Alpha. The ground had been rumbling under them for a while now, but there hadn’t been any more big earthquakes. It was as if the mountain was complaining, but not yet up to full tantrum strength yet. He only hoped they were out of the tunnels before it got to that point.

“You may not act like it, but you are a wise man,” John surprised him by saying. “I like the way you lead, but also listen. If we survive this, I think my Pack would benefit from a closer association with your Clan. And there are things your Clan could gain from my Pack as well. Eyes on the border, for one.”

Bob considered his words very carefully. Alliances like this weren’t really decided on his level, though he usually did a lot of the background investigation. Ultimately though, it was Grif who made the deals. He was the Clan Alpha.

But Bob had seen the Pack in action and so far, he liked what he’d seen.

“If we get out of this alive, you’ll have my support, Alpha.”

John nodded, understanding the step they had just taken toward a more formal alliance. There wasn’t time for anything else as the soldiers began to move. Joe signaled to them and Bob and John moved forward to go wherever the lieutenant would lead.

“My guys are taking the cavern. The three of us are going to see what Jezza’s been up to.”

They crept along the passageway, past the soldiers who had pre-positioned themselves at the mouth of the large cavern. Bob could hear enemy soldiers inside the larger space, but there weren’t any stationed at the entrance. As he drew closer and saw the crumbled rock and bloodstains, he thought he understood why. Somebody had been standing there during the last tremor and gotten clobbered. The rest of them were standing clear for now, which was lucky for the assault team.

The three of them edged past the opening, keeping to the shadows. The cavern had low lighting, but it wasn’t enough to reach out into the passageway and expose their presence.

Once past that hurdle, the path was relatively clear to the main entrance and the staging area that had been carved out of the mountain right there, at the entrance to the old mine. Bob went first, looking for signs of magic. He halted the moment he peeked around the last bend. The entire staging area chamber was lit by a hazy reddish glow. This wasn’t the bright, fiery red of the glyphs, but a dark, almost brownish red. The color of old blood. Sickly. Putrid. Evil.

He took a cautious peek around the side of a crate that had been left just in front of the natural bend in the wall and realized the source of the glow wasn’t a glyph. It was a man. A mage.

Holy shit.

If ever evil walked on two legs, that was it.

Bob ducked back behind the curve in the wall to catch his breath. He’d seen a lot in that little moment of tableau.

A guy who had to be Jezza was tied to a chair. Bloody. Bruised. His blood flowing into a little river that had been carved into the earth beneath his feet. A channel in the form of a circle went around the chair, Jezza’s blood flowing freely into it as he was slowly drained from a hundred different shallow cuts all over his body. The chair acted as a conduit, allowing the blood to gather on the straight lines of its legs and back, flowing from there into the channel on the floor that glowed red with magical power.

The mage stood in front of the chair, doing something that seemed to pull a golden light out of Jezza’s tortured body. Was the mage stealing Jezza’s magical energy as well as his blood? Bob wasn’t sure, but it definitely looked that way. Bob had listened to the priestess of his Clan enough to know such things could happen.

All he knew was that it had to be stopped. The evil mage couldn’t have any more of Jezza’s blood…or power. If he did…

Bob spoke one word that he knew would start an inescapable, but necessary cascade.

“Go.”

Bob stood and walked into the staging area, facing the mage and drawing his attention. Behind him, he was counting on Joe to give the order for his guys to attack the cavern full of soldiers. Once engaged with the mage, Bob couldn’t afford any distractions.

“Who the fuck are you?” the mage asked, annoyance in his tone. “Get the fuck out of here!” The mountain trembled, grumbling loudly.

“Can’t,” Bob said, moving closer. He didn’t know what he could do against a mage, but he had to get the man to stop draining Jezza. The mountain continued to protest, shaking violently this time. The ground seemed to roll under their feet.

“Who the fuck do you think you are?”

The mage had a definite eastern accent—maybe New York or New Jersey—and seemed incapable of forming a sentence without the word fuck in it. Bob filed that information away for later. It might help trace the origins of the bastard—after Bob ripped him to shreds.

To that end, Bob took off his T-shirt as he walked toward the man across the large open expanse. The mountain quaked, the volcano rumbling in the distance as the mage funneled pure golden energy from Jezza, into himself, and then that warped, brown-red magic went into the ground at his feet—into the mountain. Making it angrier by the second.

Bob somehow knew what had to be done. The magic flow had to be stopped. Not only to save Jezza, but to quiet the mountain. The mage was using Jezza’s power to augment his own, morphing the golden light of Jezza’s magic into the rusty red color of the mage’s before sending it into the mountain, waking the slumbering, volcanic giant.

 

*

 

Back in the cavern, Serena heard the rock scream to life as the quakes started again. She covered her ears and her head, noting that Waldo had morphed back to his human shape to protect her. When the world didn’t stop shaking but the cavern seemed mostly intact, she looked up, sensing something. Something was…

A blast at the back of the cavern signaled the arrival of intense heat. And light. Golden red light and baking, blistering heat. Lava.

Sweet Mother of All.

“We’ve got to get out of here or we’ll be baked alive,” she shouted over the rumbling of rock.

The lava was flowing sluggishly, pushing upward from beneath them, toward what she had thought was another of the many vent shafts in the immense cavern. Only it wasn’t a ventilation shaft. It was the lava tube that would lead to the very top of the mountain.

If the pressure from below built up enough, hot lava would fill this cavern on its way toward the sky.

Another crack and boom and suddenly a slab of rock separated them, near the entrance to the cavern, from the lava. Cool, solid rock stuck upward between them and the dangerously hot molten rock, shielding them from the worst of the heat. As if the mountain was trying to protect them, even as it was driven toward blowing its top.

Waldo was dressed in his soldier gear once more, the wolf having retreated to allow the soldier to take point for the moment. She was glad. She needed his advice right now, not his wagging tail.

“The rest of the group has made contact with the enemy,” he reported, tapping his ear.

She knew he still wore the little device in his ear canal that apparently stayed there whether he was in wolf form or human. It allowed him to hear what the rest of his team were up to, via the short range radio it contained.

“The second cavern held about a dozen soldiers. They’re being dealt with,” he reported. “Your mate, the Alpha and the lieutenant are engaging a mage at the mine entrance.”

“I don’t think we can stay here.” Serena looked at the glow of the lava reflecting off the cave walls. It was almost too hot to breathe.

Waldo seemed to consider. “Agreed. My ankle is bad though. I can’t move too fast.”

“That’s okay. We’ll go slow.” She moved to his side, putting herself under his left arm, leaving his right arm free to hold and shoot his rifle, if necessary.

They made their way down the passageway. It was cooler here than in the cavern, but the temperature throughout the mine had changed dramatically over the past few minutes. The noise level was incredible. She heard the low rumble of lava moving behind solid walls and prayed the rock walls would hold until she and Waldo had passed.

And then she heard the sound of gunfire. Ahead of them, she heard men calling out and a few screams. Staccato blasts and the ping of bullets ricocheting off solid rock.

“Firefight ahead,” Waldo said grimly. “Better hold up a minute and see if it dies down.”

He guided her to a more or less defensible position near a secondary mineshaft that had broken timbers lining its walls. She could see a dull glow of red from somewhere below a small ledge. Lava was flowing down there somewhere and she suddenly realized that wasn’t a ledge.

“This is the bottomless pit Bob saw marked on the map,” she told Waldo. The other man didn’t look too surprised, but a calculating light entered his gaze as they settled in to wait.

 

*

 

There were two guards near the mine entrance that turned around when they heard the mage speak, but so far, they weren’t doing much to stop Bob’s advance. They seemed confused. Like they weren’t sure if he might be one of their guys. They didn’t seem to seriously think anyone could have snuck up from behind—from within the mine itself. That hesitation cost them.

Gunfire erupted from the direction of the troop cavern and Joe popped up from behind a crate to plug two holes in the guard nearest him. The other guy fell shortly thereafter, getting off only one wild shot that ricocheted around the cavern for a bit before falling harmlessly to the dirt floor. All the while, Bob moved closer to the mage.

That was when the real fun began. The mage seemed to realize Bob was a threat a split second later and launched a fireball at him.

Bob sprang forward, calling on all his feline agility and strength. The fireball missed, falling in the spot where he’d been a moment before. But the mage was fast. He had another blast of magical power aimed at Bob before he could blink. And this one hit.

Or rather…it hit the cross hanging around Bob’s neck. The magical cross that allowed him to see magic. Apparently it also shielded him from magic as well.

Not only did the cross stop the bolt of energy, it reflected it back toward the mage, making him stumble.

“What the fuck?” the mage raged, seemingly surprised and royally pissed off at the sudden turn of events.

Bob didn’t let anything slow him down. He covered the big empty space on steady feet, even as the mountain continued to vibrate with suppressed anger. He was bare chested and planning a quick shift to his cougar form as soon as he saw an opening he could exploit. His pants and boots wouldn’t hinder him too much. The boots would simply fall off when his feet turned into paws, and the pants would either follow suit or be easily wriggled out of shortly after his shift. He just had to time it exactly right.

“Let Jezza go,” Bob said, buying time.

At the sound of his name, the jaguar roused, his head lolling toward Bob and his eyes opening a fraction. That he was still aware, even after everything that had been done to him both magically and mundanely, was really something. The guy must have reserves of strength Bob could only guess at.

“Why the fuck should I listen to you? You’re only hired muscle. Go back and play with yourself like the rest of the assholes back there.” The mage was stupider than he looked. It still hadn’t occurred to him that Bob wasn’t one of the soldiers from the cavern.

“You’re an idiot,” Bob said finally, halting a few yards from the mage. “Can’t you understand what’s going on? You’re under attack. Those assholes, as you call them, aren’t going to come to your aid. They’re under fire from the guys I came in with. The guys who want you and your kind dead. The guys who fight on the side of the Light.”

The moment he said it, the cross did something it had never done before. It began to glow. A shining, white-gold brilliance that was as pure as anything Bob had ever seen. The mage shielded his eyes and cringed backward as if the light burned. And maybe it did.

Bob could feel the goodness in the light. It was from the Light. Purity. Good. The Mother of All by whatever name you called Her. Bob had no fear of Her Light. He embraced the moment, allowing the Light to bathe him in its strength.

He took heart from it and knew he could defeat his enemies, as long as the Light was on his side.

 

*

 

Serena felt something change. Something in the air brought the tang of ozone, like after a lightning strike. The fresh scent of rain-soaked earth. All those images came to her as the noise of the firefight in the cavern died down a bit.

And then there were stealthy footsteps coming their way. She sensed Waldo tense on the other side of the wide mouth of the passageway. They had decided to each take one side so that anyone entering would face one or the other of them.

As it turned out, the man who entered was unshaven and unkempt. She smelled him coming before she saw him, but he was closer to Waldo’s side of the passageway.

She recognized him. It was the Border Patrol agent. Parker. Definitely an enemy, slinking away from the cavern where the rest of Joe’s platoon was fighting with the enemy soldiers.

Parker was human and couldn’t see well in the dark. He had a little flashlight lighting the path in front of him, but it wasn’t really adequate. The beam was weak and not large. Parker was the next best thing to blind in the dark tunnel. The predator in her wanted to lick its chops in satisfaction. This one might be an easy kill.

But it was Waldo’s kill to make. While Serena’s bobcat was comfortable thinking in terms of killing just about anything, Serena’s human side really wasn’t up to killing a human being. She knew the man was evil and that helped her rationalize the need to neutralize him, but she wasn’t sure she would be able to do it herself. Not like this. Maybe in the heat of battle or in self-defense, but not in this pre-meditated way. Thankfully, she wouldn’t have to act this time. Waldo was already sneaking up on their prey. Serena would be there to back him up if things went bad, but she doubted an experienced warrior like Waldo would need her help at all.

The soldier sprang at the last possible moment, taking Agent Parker by the scruff of the neck and hoisting him over his head, throwing him into the pit with unerring accuracy. Serena didn’t have to help after all. Injured as he was, Waldo had still managed the feat of strength all on his own and it was something she never would forget. The man was a force to be reckoned with.

Agent Parker flew into the bottomless pit, screaming on his way down. The sound of it was something she would never forget either, but thankfully, the screams faded fast and ended in a final screech of agony as he hit the river of lava far below. Serena shuddered, but at least the evil man had been given a quick, almost merciful, end.

She heard Waldo speaking in low tones to his colleagues via the little radio in his ear. The battle in the cavern was over, it sounded like, and they were going to send someone back to help him move a little quicker toward the mine entrance where they were regrouping.

“All the enemy forces we knew about have been accounted for, but keep your eyes open,” Waldo told her in low, urgent tones. “There could be more of them.”

She kept his warning in mind as they met up with Chico, who supported Waldo on the other side while they made their way slowly toward the main group. The rest of the men had split up—half had gone ahead to the mine entrance while the other half waited by the cavern for Waldo and Serena to catch up. They set off quickly once Chico, Waldo and Serena arrived, to regroup with the rest of their unit.

The men all but carried Waldo now that the majority of the enemy forces had been dealt with. Chico had told her what their lieutenant had reported back to them. The only enemy left was a mage and Bob was taking him on by himself. Serena wanted to run at that point, but the rest of the guys had nixed the idea. They took her safety very seriously and though they hastened their steps, they wouldn’t allow her to run ahead.

Serena arrived at the mine entrance in time to see a ball of visible, evil red fire engulf Bob. Clearly, they were magical flames. She would have cried out, but John took her hand and pulled her back toward the dubious cover of some crates.

“Watch,” John counseled. “The priest’s talisman protects your mate.”

And sure enough, the cross around Bob’s neck seemed to block and reflect the magical fire, sending it back on its creator. Serena was astounded. She had never seen anything like it before in her life.

The mage seemed enraged and as he took a stumbling step back, toward the mine entrance, Serena caught sight of Jezza, strapped to a bloody chair. He looked half dead and his head lolled to one side. His eyes were cracked open and she met his gaze, knowing somehow that he was looking directly at her. A small smile played over his swollen and bloody features. Her heart went out to him.

Jezza had been so strong. So willing to put himself on the line to help her escape her bad situation. He had taken a lot of risks to help her, and it looked like it had all finally caught up to him. He was in really bad shape, but she vowed then and there, it was time for her to begin repaying the debt she owed him.

She shook off John’s hold, realizing the Alpha decided to let her go. She would’ve had a fight on her hands otherwise, being a lot smaller and less muscular than the big werewolf. But he seemed to understand. He let her go and she felt a calm descend over her being.

She stood from behind the crate and moved into the light. She realized finally that the light was coming from the cross around Bob’s neck and she knew it was there to help them. It was protective and healing. It was goodness itself.

She got her first good look at the man who had been lobbing the fireballs and her breath caught in recognition. She had seen him before. Many times, in fact. She even knew his name—Victor Ramos. He was one of the drug cartel leaders. The one who had made the bobcat Clan leadership dance to his tune.

Well, no more.

“Imagine that,” she said, drawing Victor’s attention away from Bob. “Ramos is a mage. Who knew?” Serena was secure in the belief that as long as the light stood between her and the mage, his evil could not reach her.

“You’re that bobcat bitch that wouldn’t bend,” Victor said. “Where the fuck did you come from? Where the fuck did all these dickheads come from?”

Serena laughed, understanding finally that Victor wasn’t the all-powerful boogeyman she’d imagined. He was a pitiful creature, too stupid to realize when he’d been defeated.

“We were sent by the Lady. She sends Her regards.” The mountain rumbled, as if in agreement.

Victor seemed to get angrier.

“You shouldn’t have tried to steal Koma Kulshan’s power.” John’s voice came from Bob’s other side. She peered over and realized the werewolf Alpha was standing with them, against the mage.

“The mountain isn’t alive, you primitive animal,” Victor sneered. “You’re weak, you fucking werewolf asshole.”

His language hadn’t improved since she last saw him. She’d never spoken directly to Victor before, but she had witnessed him talking—cussing every other word—with her adoptive father any number of times.

“And you are mistaken. The mountain lives.” The earth rumbled and shook slightly as if to emphasize John’s words. “And you are the weakling.”

Victor tried to let loose a bolt of concentrated power at them, but the cross reflected it back and in a split second, Bob had transformed into his cougar, and pounced. He took the drug dealer mage to the ground and ripped his throat out with one angry screech.

Serena was trembling with relief, but found her feet and ran to Jezza’s side. He halted her before she could cross the bloody circle, his voice scratchy and raw.

“Don’t touch me, sweetheart. There’s something that has to be done before the spell will be completely broken.”

She waited impatiently but it was John who answered her unspoken question. “We have to feed the mage’s body to the fires of Koma Kulshan. Only then will his magic disperse completely and let our friend go.

The cougar looked up, but kept his unsheathed claws on the still body of the mage. He was dead, but the magic was still strong—probably linked to the volcano somehow. The earth still trembled.

“Blood and magic tie us both to the mountain now,” Jezza clarified. Throw him to the flames and let the mountain have him. It might stop it from erupting, and release me. Or it could take me with him. Either way, it will end this. Thank you for coming to get me.” Jezza’s smile was sad.

“I’ll see that it’s done,” John said, nodding solemnly to Jezza before turning to walk toward the mage and the cougar that guarded his body. The cougar transformed into Bob and she smiled at him before turning back to Jezza.

“I’ll stay with you. John and my mate will send the body into the volcano’s fire.” She turned back to talk to Bob. “The bottomless pit is filling with lava. Take the body there and throw him in.”

Bob was covered in blood, but the cross still shone silver against his bronzed skin. It had protected him and she prayed it would continue to do so. Bob smiled at her and she read something in his gaze that hadn’t been there before this mission. In addition to the caring and love, there was also pride. Pride in her.

He was beginning to see her as an equal and she was starting to feel the same way. It was a novel idea to the bobcat that had been beaten so far down that she didn’t think she’d ever feel comfortable in her own skin again. Not only had Bob helped her reclaim her self, but he’d encouraged her to grow into a woman who could face down a mage at her mate’s side. A woman who would be his equal and his helper. A woman he—and she—could be proud of.

 

*

 

Bob and John bore witness as the mage Serena had called Victor was consumed by lava. He burst into flames and then was gone. What was even more interesting to Bob was the release of golden-hued magic that snaked its way back up the bottomless pit and made its way through the passageways of the mine. Bob followed its progress as he loped back toward the mine entrance, John at his side.

Sure enough, the magical energy went back to its source. It filled Jezza, lifting him from the chair and breaking the circle of blood that was dried in a flash of heat from the mountain and then turned to dust—absorbed into the dirt of the floor. All that remained of that evil ring was a slight furrow in the ground.

The bindings that had lashed Jezza to the chair were also turned to ash—as was the chair itself. It left only Jezza, standing on shaky legs for a harsh moment when the golden light infused his body, giving him the momentary strength to stand.

And then it faded and he slumped toward the floor. John moved to catch him even as Serena reached out to help steady him. Bob came up behind her, supporting her. His woman was proving to be a force of nature. A creature to be reckoned with. An amazing lady with hidden depths.

He looked forward to discovering every hidden facet of her personality over the years to come. He couldn’t have asked for a more perfect mate and he was so damn proud of her for sticking this out and regaining the strength she should have had all along.

“You’re amazing, Serena,” he couldn’t help saying.

She turned and smiled at him briefly. He knew he was a mess. He probably still had Victor’s blood all over himself, but there wasn’t time to clean up. Not yet.

Joe ran over to them, a frown etched into the grooves on his face.

“Something’s going on farther up the mountain,” he reported, even as the earth began to shake again.

This wasn’t over.