That evening, Arturo sat alone in his room in the dark on the floor. His back was against the wall and his feet were stretched out in front of him.

He should leave. He knew he should leave. It was his only chance. He’d disoriented the demon when he’d been kidnapped so suddenly. And then even further when the other shifters had severed his connection with the demon. But he wasn’t lost anymore. The demon knew where he was. Just like he knew where the rest of the group was. Arturo could feel his eye on them. He knew that it wasn’t long before he struck at the group. And when he did, he would take one of their souls. And he would reclaim Arturo as his slave.

Unless… Arturo was gone. Lost again. In the wind. If Arturo left, he could just keep running. And he’d never have to do the demon’s bidding again. One of their souls would be lost, sure. But at least he wouldn’t ever be the demon’s plaything again.

He willed himself to get up. To go. To save himself.

But the hours marched on and he didn’t leave. He stayed.

He’d shown the humans his ragged, torn soul and they hadn’t recoiled from him. They hadn’t been disgusted. They’d been saddened. It had been the last play in his book to keep them away from him. To show them exactly what kind of monster he really was.

It hadn’t worked.

He’d left that moment feeling a strange kinship with those three bear shifters. The bear shifters that he’d created. The same way that the demon had created him. He’d turned those men into shifters, cemented their brotherhood with one another. And today, whether they realized it or not, they’d extended that same brotherhood to him. They’d let him into their emotions the same as he’d done to them.

That either made them wildly foolish or wildly loving. Or both.

He supposed it didn’t matter what they were.

The door to his bedroom flung open and there Thea stood, her hands on her hips. “Jeez,” she said as she looked around his dark room with a slightly curled lip. “Who died?”

She strode in and thrust a hand down toward him. “Come on. It’s taco night.”

“What?”

“There’s margaritas, too. Let’s go.” She impatiently wagged her hand around, willing him to take it.

He slapped his palm to hers and let her drag him up. “Why are you being nice to me?”

She shrugged and led him into the hallway. “The boys said that now that they’ve seen what the demon did to you, it’s probably not your fault that you’re such a dickhead.”

“Oh, did they now?” he said, attempting a dry tone and failing.

“Sure did. And apparently I’m the only one who still hates you so that’s why they sent me to get you.” She turned to Arturo in the dim hallway and crossed her arms over her chest. “To make friends.” Thea said that last word like it smelled bad.

Arturo looked at her for a moment. After a second he placed a finger under her chin, tipping her head from one side to the other. She ripped her head back and narrowed those ice blue eyes at him. He sighed, supposing it was time to tell her. “I’ve been here before, you know.”

“To Montana?” Her face was carefully blank.

He nodded. “Yes. But also here here.” He pointed at the floor, as if to indicate that exact plot of land.

“My grandfather’s land?” Her face was still blank, except for just a hint of surprise that she couldn’t quite withhold. “That’s impossible. You haven’t been a human for four hundred years. This land wasn’t even settled that long ago.”

“It was many years after the demon had taken me. Two hundred or so.” He stroked one hand over the jaw of his beautiful face. It was architected with the same flawlessness as Thea’s was. “I had brothers, you know. Before the demon took me. I had four brothers. I watched from a distance while they aged and had children. And then I watched their children. And so on. I watched my family spread from the old country to here. To the new world. I watched while America was born. I watched as my descendants, call them greedy or adventurous or solitary, I don’t know, but I watched as they pushed the boundaries of the known world and made their way west.”

Thea’s face was dead white at this point, her slim, strong fingers pressed over her mouth. Jack appeared in the mouth of the hallway. He was at his woman’s side in less than a second.

“What—”

“Shhh.” Thea clutched Jack’s shirt in one hand and waved her other through the air to shush him, her gaze pinned to Arturo.

“How many years has this land been in your family?” Arturo asked her.

“Generations.” She squinted her eyes at him. “You’re lying.”

“You can believe that if you wish.” He cleared his throat. “I just thought you should know.”

“Know what?” Jack looked back and forth between them.

“Arturo is claiming to be my relative.”

Instead of looking shocked, Jack just looked thoughtful. His gaze continued to track between the two other people in the hall. “I guess I’d buy that.”

“Really.” Thea raised an eyebrow at him.

“Sure,” Jack shrugged. “Dark hair. Weirdly good-looking. Stubborn as hell. Just a little snarky. I can see it, is all I’m saying.”

Thea, still not cracking in the slightest, turned back to Arturo. “Why are you telling me this now?”

“It’s not step one in some sinister plan, if that’s what you’re really asking me.”

They eyed one another, neither breaking.

Finally Arturo shrugged. “I just wanted to tell you because—”

He cut himself off, his eyes narrowing as he peered down the hallway.

“Did you feel that?” he asked them.

“Feel what?” Jack asked. He didn’t know what Arturo was talking about but he sure as hell could feel the tension rolling in waves off Arturo’s body. Ever since he’d let his wall down to the bear shifters, he hadn’t quite put it back in the same, secure way. He was letting them in more than ever. And right now, Arturo was tense and suspicious. “What is it?”

Arturo left the two of them behind and prowled down the hall. He peered into the living room where the group was sitting around, waiting for dinner. Jack and Thea appeared at Arturo’s side, but he held up two hands to hold them back in the hallway. “He’s here.”
“Who’s here?” Thea whispered back.

But Jack knew. He could smell it. There was a cold, icy smell coming from the living room.

“The demon.”

 

***

 

Caroline was hungry. She hoped the others would be ready to eat soon. But even as her stomach rumbled, half of her didn’t want to move ever. She was sitting in a bright living room on a late summer’s night surrounded by her friends. Best of all, she sat on the plush living room rug, her back leaned against the legs of a man she loved.

Truly loved.

Who loved her back.

Coming home with Tre after their conversation on the mountain had been the closest to pure joy Caroline had ever been. She was proud of herself for her honesty. Proud of Tre for his bravery. And though she couldn’t even begin to imagine what their life together might look like, she felt confident that the two of them were going to be able to figure it out together.

The voices of her friends rose and fell and Caroline closed her eyes and leaned her temple against Tre’s knee. She’d never felt so relaxed in her life.

Her eyes fluttered open gently when she felt Tre absently sweep her hair off her neck. But then his fingers found their way to her scalp in a gentle massage and Caroline’s eyes closed again. She loved the way he touched her. Firm but reverent. Simultaneously bossy and bashful. He was a mass of contradictions and she loved it. The redheaded, tattooed hunk of gorgeousness who spent his life trying not to be invisible. The kindest, sweetest man with enough love to power North America, but he was unsure of how to give it. A total computer geek with the sexual prowess of a porn star. She sighed happily. She loved the mystery that he was. She loved that she would have the honor of being close enough to him to figure him out.

Ouch! Caroline flinched just slightly as the pads of his fingers angled and his fingernails dragged over her scalp. But then the gentle massage continued and she relaxed. He shifted his legs behind her and she frowned as his kneecap jutted right into her spine. She tried to shift back to a more comfortable position, but his hand tightened on her hair.

Caroline twisted back to look up at him and Tre’s hand loosened immediately. He looked down at her with an impassive expression on his face that he immediately smoothed into a smile.

“You’re not wearing your glasses,” she said, confusion tightening her brow.

Tre’s beautiful green-brown eyes blinked down at her and for a moment, Caroline wondered if maybe he hadn’t heard her.

“I took them off,” he said a second later. “Will you come outside with me for a minute?” he asked her.

She paused.

“To look at the stars,” he added.

“Oh. Okay.” Caroline rose up and studied Tre. She watched as he made his way to the doorway of the kitchen, the screen door slamming behind him. She walked up to the screen door and looked out at her love standing on the porch. Something skittered up her spine.

Caroline pushed open the screen door so there was nothing but two feet of air between them. She held out Tre’s glasses, which she’d picked up from the side table a moment ago.

“You won’t be able to see the stars without your glasses,” she reminded him.

He paused. “Right.”

But when he reached for them, he slipped them into his pocket instead of onto his face. He held his hand out for Caroline.

“Caroline!” Arturo screamed from behind her. “Get back!”

But it was too late. Tre grabbed Caroline’s arm and dragged her out into the night. She lost her footing and ended up mostly falling down the porch stairs.

She heard herself shout and felt herself claw at her beloved’s hand, but it was almost as if she was watching the whole thing happen to someone else. What was going on? Why was Tre doing this? But no, this couldn’t be Tre. It couldn’t be!

She planted her feet in the dirt and heard running feet behind her. Tre was twisting to glare at her, baring teeth. A strange scent came off his breath. Like ice that had been in the freezer for too long. He released her and Caroline fell back.

She curled into herself like a snail as Tre flung himself backward, shifting immediately into a bear and sending his clothes into ribbons on the ground.

“No!” Caroline screamed as the bear stood over her. Because she understood. She finally understood. There was no way this was Tre. There was nothing kind or sweet or gentle about the creature that stood over top of her, growling and baring teeth at the group of people on the porch of the house. This creature had ten-inch strings of slobber coming from its mouth. Its eyes were rheumy and hateful. There was blood on its paws.

“Caroline, run!” Celia screamed from the porch, making the bear roar with displeasure.

She tried to bolt, scrambling away on all fours but she screamed as the bear pinned her back down to the ground. Somehow, through all of her terror, she realized that Tre must be in there somewhere. This hateful creature had evil seeping from its very pores, but still, it gently pressed her to the ground. She’d know that touch anywhere. Tre was still in there somewhere.

“Tre!” she screamed. “Come back!”

A dark shape flashed in her peripheral vision and then another. Caroline knew, without even double-checking, that it was the other bears. She twisted her head, pinned to the ground as she was, and saw three hulking grizzlies surrounding her and the bear over top of her. Even Arturo had shifted.

She tensed her body to run but the paw of the bear over top of her pressed a bit of weight down and she froze, terrified of being crushed.

But then there was a whoosh, an earthquaking thump, and a heartstopping roar. Caroline scrambled up immediately as the paw at her back disappeared. She was halfway to the porch steps when she felt Thea’s hands grab at her, dragging her to safety. Caroline, dizzy with panic, shook her head to clear her vision. What she saw nearly split her heart in two.

“Tre!” she screamed again.

The bear who was both Tre and not Tre was full-on battling with the other three bears.

 

***

 

Tre was having a terrible dream. He wondered why he’d be having this nightmare right then. Because he’d dozed off in the best situation possible. He’d been warm and a little hungry, looking forward to dinner. His friends had chatted around him and the woman he loved reclined against his legs. He could feel the warm silk of her hair brushing at his knee.

There’d been a calm then. A soul-deep certainty that he’d done the right thing in confessing his love for Caroline. She was right that it wasn’t fair to make her carry both of them through the relationship. He had to step up and have a little self-confidence. He had to trust himself that he could figure out how to be a partner. How to love her long term. If he couldn’t do it with Caroline, he couldn’t do it with anyone. She was the easiest person to love of all time. And he would do anything for her.

It was on that thought that he’d drifted off. He imagined taking her on a Caribbean vacation. The two of them in the hot sun on a white sand beach. The ocean a thin line of turquoise. But as he began to dream, the sun became uncomfortably hot and bright. He tried to shade his eyes with his hands, but they were pinned to his sides. He tried to turn and look at Caroline on the beach beside him but he couldn’t move his head either. All he could do was stare into the white-hot light that threatened to burn him alive. He couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t move. All he could do was…

Tre’s eyes came open and he was still sitting in the living room, of course. Caroline leaned against his legs still. But everything was blurry. His glasses were giving him a headache. He pulled them off and tossed them aside. Caroline’s weight against his legs immediately began to annoy him. No. It enraged him. He shifted against her, wanting her to move. But he caught a glimpse of her long, thin neck through her swath of hair and he wanted to see it more. Human women were very beautiful. It was a shame that he was going to have to kill this one.

But, it occurred to him, maybe he didn’t have to kill her. Maybe he could keep her as his plaything. Into eternity. Because now that he was inside Tre’s body, he could easily feel the pumping desire and heat and affection for the woman that lived there. In fact, it was so strong that it was beginning to affect him as well. He hated this woman, but he also desired her. He wanted to kill her, but he also felt a strange need to protect her. The demon enjoyed the complicated tug-of-war of feelings. It had been a long time since he’d felt anything quite so nuanced.

Humans really were fascinating creatures.

He knew then that he could get the man to give up his soul for her. Just as he had for Arturo. The demon, now comfortable inside Tre’s body, metaphorically cracked his knuckles. He’d been thinking that he would use Tre to kill Caroline. But now, in a much more titillating turn of events, he’d decided to capture Caroline and kill Tre as he left the man’s body. That way, he could, as the humans said, have his cake and eat it too. He’d gorge on the man’s soul and play with the woman’s.

Perfect.

Caroline turned and looked at Tre and the demon realized that he must have been doing something un-Tre-like, because she strained against the grip of his hand and gave him a confused look.

He knew he wouldn’t be able to fool her for long. Especially not with that traitor Arturo sniffing around in the other room. There were only a few moments before they were onto him.             

The demon convinced Caroline to follow him outside and just like that, Arturo and the others were onto him. The next few seconds were a whirlwind of motion as the demon forced Tre’s body to shift. The demon’s form and Tre’s form melted together. It created a demon bear that the demon actually rather liked. So much terrestrial power and brute strength at his disposal!

The woman tried to scramble away and he couldn’t have that. The demon tried to slam her down but felt the strange sensation of something within him slowing the path of his paw. He ended up touching the woman gently instead.

It was the man! The demon was outraged that a mere mortal would attempt to control him. But he could feel the fool straining, attempting to grapple for control.

***

 

This was not a dream. This was a nightmare. Tre came awake just in time to see his own paw barreling toward Caroline. He yanked back on his own muscles just enough to not hurt her. But then he was inwardly slammed back into dizziness. He could barely control his own thoughts, let alone his body. He didn’t take the time to ask himself how he’d gotten here or why. He knew, in his heart, that this was the work of the demon. He also knew, with an intense clarity, that he needed to overpower the demon in any way that he could.

Tre howled in pain, and so did the demon as Jean Luc, in bear form, barreled into their side, rolling the demon bear off of Caroline and onto the gravel driveway.

Tre grimaced in pain but saw, with immense relief, that Caroline was skittering away. Horrifyingly, though, he felt that relief burn into rage that wasn’t his. The demon was back, grappling for control and Tre felt a strange irate energy explode inside him as his eyes focused on Jean Luc. He wanted to destroy. To fight. To take his soul.

No! That was the demon, not him. Tre would never hurt his friend.

And it was with that thought firmly in his heart that Tre forced himself not to fight back when Jean Luc came at him again, plastering him to the ground. Tre felt pain explode on his back as he skidded against the gravel, his fur tearing away in some places, his skin opening. The demon raged within him and the pain intensified it.

Tre’s bear wheeled on Jean Luc and, fueled by the power of the demon, backhanded Jean Luc’s bear ten feet back. Tre saw, in horror, the unnatural hinge of Jean Luc’s jaw, and he knew without a doubt that he’d just broken his friend’s face.

“No!” Tre screamed in his own mind.

“Tre!” A voice screamed behind him and he knew it was Caroline, screaming for him to come back to himself. “Fight it, Tre!”

Tre fell forward onto all four paws and slammed his eyes closed. He could feel the demon everywhere, but he had no idea how to fight something that was within him.

“Of course you can’t,” an evil voice whispered, as if in his ear. “You can’t fight what you are, you fool. You’ve never been any good. You’re worthless. The best thing you could do is give yourself over to me. You’ll never be able to fight me. You’re not good enough to win.”

Tre felt the truth of those words to his bones. It was as if everything he’d ever feared about himself was being horribly confirmed in that moment. Adrenaline screamed through his bloodstream and every bad feeling that existed was piling up in his chest. He was worthless. Unlovable. Bad at love. Nothing good ever stayed with him. Even if he survived this, his life would be defined by loneliness.

Everything went blurry within him. He couldn’t feel his paws anymore. He was fading away, giving everything over to the demon.

“Tre!” A firm voice sounded in his head. “You aren’t really buying into this, are you?”

Dimly, Tre registered the voice as Arturo’s. He fought to bring his awareness back into focus.

“Come on, Tre. I already tried this trick on you,” Arturo continued speaking in his head. “You can’t tell me you’re going to let the demon do the same thing.”

Tre grimaced in pain at trying to hold the demon away. “Help me,” he gritted out toward Arturo.

He could practically hear Arturo sigh. “You are not what anyone says you are. Least of all me or a fucking demon. Okay?”

The demon, sensing Arturo’s intrusion, overpowered Tre and lunged toward Arturo. The two bears, both hideous and terrifying and augmented by evil, clashed at one another. Tre was point-blank up against Arturo’s snapping jaws. He saw hatred there and knew it wasn’t for him, it was for the demon. This demon that was trying to make him fight. Who would have made him capture Caroline. Who wanted to leave him for dead, to strip him of his soul.

Tre gritted his great teeth and flung himself back from Arturo.

“Don’t hurt him!” Jack yelled in their heads.

“We have to,” Arturo replied grimly.

Arturo’s bear slammed Tre and the demon into the ground, knocking his head hard enough to see stars.

“Tre!” Arturo screamed into Tre’s mind to catch his attention. And then there was a strange pushing in his brain, as if Arturo were cramming something in there. Tre heard the demon scream in anger, but he was too busy concentrating on what Arturo was showing him. It was his own memories. Somehow, Arturo was showing him Tre’s own memories. And they were all of Caroline. Meeting her for the first time. Signing her divorce papers. Riding with her in the car. Grocery shopping. Laughing. Kissing. Sleeping. Looking at one another. Talking. Their conversation earlier that day.

“You’re going to let him tell you who you are?” Arturo raged at Tre, his bear jaws inches from Tre’s face. “You’re going to let him take it all away?”

“No!” Tre shoved Arturo off of him bodily. He was up and pulsing. For a moment, the demon got control and rushed the porch, toward the women, but Tre knew what to do.

Because Arturo was right. The demon didn’t get to take this from him.

Tre shifted quickly into his human form, fast enough that the demon got confused for a moment. He ran the other way, away from the porch. On the fly, he shifted into his bear form. And then back. Jack and Arturo came bounding after him and there was Martine, slicing the sky in two in her hawk form. She flew in tight circles around Tre and the demon. Tre saw a strange, golden electricity arrowing out from her wings, circling him.

Tre shifted back into human form and rolled across the ground. He felt the demon’s grip on him slip. Tre knew then that the demon couldn’t hold on if he kept up like this.

The golden whirlpool of Martine’s electricity swirled around him and Tre thought of the night he’d first slept with Caroline. He thought of the swirling want and warmth that had enveloped him. He knew then, instinctually, what to do.

He shifted to bear form, felt the demon’s rage, his anger, his hunger. And then Tre sprinted forward, toward Martine’s wall of light. He shifted into human form on one giant jump through the air, flinging himself through the golden electricity.

He knew, as he hit the ground, scraping the hell out of his naked body, that he was gone. The demon was gone. Tre was alone inside his body.

He thought of Caroline, and passed out cold.

 

 

***

 

“It wasn’t me, okay?” Tre said for the tenth time to Celia who scowled at him from across the van. She had her arms crossed and a dirty look on her face.

It was two days after the demon’s attack and the group had already said goodbye to Thea’s farm. The maps had given them another destination and they dutifully drove across country yet again.

“Yeah, yeah.” Celia faced front, a scowl on her face.

“Baby,” Jean Luc chuckled tightly, the huge bruise on his face looking dark and ugly. Their warm water trick had mostly healed him, but they’d had to get on the road before he could get pretty again. “You know it wasn’t Tre. It was the demon who did this to me.”

“Well, of course I know that in my heart. But it sure as hell looked like Tre’s bear backhanding you across the yard.”

“It wasn’t across the yard,” Jean Luc bristled, offended at the idea that he hadn’t held his own in a fight against the demon.

“It was pretty much across the yard,” Arturo said from the back of the car. Jack and Thea slept in the seat beside him.

Tre tried to hide his smile at Jean Luc’s annoyed glare through the rearview mirror.

Tre wasn’t trying to rile anyone up any further. After he’d come to in a bathtub of warm water, Caroline wrapped around him, he’d made it his business to deeply apologize to every single member of their group.

Everyone had understood. Even Celia. But it was going to take a while for them all to forget how it had felt to see their friend turn on them like that.

Caroline had forgiven him the fastest, of course. She’d said that she’d known almost right away that it wasn’t him. She knew how much he hated being without his glasses. And then by the blank way he’d looked at her.

“It wasn’t until then that I realized how much love you always look at me with,” she’d told him, snuggling him in bed the morning following the attack. They’d been breathing hard and were still sweaty from loving on one another so hard. They’d come together passionately, desperately, but it had given way to a sort of languid, grateful slide against one another. He’d kissed her for an hour before he started to feel some of his anxiety ebb away. She trusted him. He could feel it. She didn’t blame him. He could feel that, too. She definitely loved him. He could totally feel that.

She’d gone on to explain that after Tre had passed out, the whirlpool of Martine’s energy had spun faster and faster, trapping something large and dark inside its web. None of them had seen what the demon actually looked like because Martine’s energy went as bright as the sun and seemed to sort of eclipse everything else.

When the light had faded, the demon was gone.

Arturo explained later that the light was damaging to the demon, but that he’d gotten away before Martine could really finish him off.

Arturo guessed that the demon would be down for the count for a while. Giving them a bit of time to get the hell out of Montana.

Tre tucked a sleeping Caroline into his shoulder as he watched the Badlands zip past them. He could feel the demon on their heels, but he also felt a deep sort of calm. He’d faced off with the demon and won. He’d battled and come out on the other side. He’d survived and come out stronger.

When he’d survived his mother’s death, Tre had come out weaker, missing a sense of his own self-worth. But this fight? This fight had proved to him who he really was.

Tre looked into the back seat where Arturo was also watching the countryside pass by. Arturo turned and looked at Tre and the two men held one another’s eyes for a moment. Communication passed between them and Arturo nodded his head before he turned back to the window.

They were alike, in so many ways. But Tre hadn’t allowed himself to lose what Arturo had. He’d fought and come out on the other side with himself and with the woman he loved.

The day gave way into evening and when the sky was a graying lavender out the window, Caroline stirred in Tre’s arms.

She blinked up at the man she loved.

“Thinking good thoughts?” she whispered to his stern, serious profile. Even in the dim light, he burned like a torch. A beacon of light and warmth.

“Mostly,” he answered honestly, whispering back to her. Her eyes tracked every expression on his face and she was suddenly overwhelmed with the desire to tell him everything. To be truthful and open and to ask for what she wanted, and know that she deserved it.

“I want a small house,” she told him. “A messy one. And I don’t want to cook anymore. Ever. I hate it. And I want a dog.”

Tre laughed. “All that sounds pretty do-able, love.” He turned thoughtful. “Maybe we’ll move down south. You really liked Jean Luc’s area in Florida, right? Would you wanna live there?”

Her heart swelled so hard and so fast that she felt it was a miracle she didn’t lift right out of the car.

She nodded her head vigorously enough to make him laugh again. “And I wanna get married,” she told him, flat out.

Tre’s eyes dilated and his breath got a little shallow. He banged his head back on the headrest. “You’re supposed to wait for me to ask, okay?”

“Why?” she demanded. That had never made any sense to her in the first place.

“Because I want to make it perfect. And I’m only gonna get to do it once in my life, love. If we get married, that’s it. None of this divorce nonsense.”

“None,” she agreed somberly.

“Then be patient, love. It’ll happen.”

She scowled. “I’m not good at being patient.”

He kissed the scowl off her face, a laugh on his lips.

“Then you’re in luck. Because neither am I.”

She smiled into his shoulder, understanding what he was saying. That they were on this path. That he wasn’t leaving it. He wasn’t leaving her. They were moving forward, wherever this road would take them, together.

 

 

The End