Chapter Thirty-Nine – Ryder

 

Stephanie’s words were like flipping a switch inside my brain as I sailed through the air. Love?

Time seemed to hang for a moment, to keep me suspended above the poor woman I was bound for. The poor woman I’d been quite prepared to gut with my hind claws just moments before those words had left Stephanie’s mouth.

She loved me, too?

But how could she love me? A man like me? A shifter like me?

“It’s true,” whispered a woman’s smoky voice in my big ear, the powerful smell of cigarettes filling my nose. “She does. Just like you love her.”

And, just like that, I could move once more. I retracted my claws, spread my legs and paws, and prepared for landing.

Beneath me, Marguerite didn’t even scream in surprise. She just looked up at me with casual disbelief as I landed on top of her, my forepaws to either side of her head.

My whole body shook and trembled as I fought against the momentum carrying me forward, managing to stay in one place.

“Wow,” she breathed. “You cats do always land on your feet, don’t you?”

I growled as I whipped around to face Esther. The fur on the back of my thick neck stood on end as more power filled the air.

There she stood in the middle of it all, right smack dab in the middle of the ring Marguerite had occupied only moments earlier, the ticket to the concert brandished over her head, smoke curling from its tip as the power emanated like a halo from her hand. Her mouth contorted into awful shapes as the word left her mouth, twisting and writhing like worms as her face began to age. The magic coming from her was tangible now, and the lines and angles of everything on the stage seemed off as it warped my vision like heat waves coming from a blacktop in August.

The ticket! She was using it as a connection to everyone else, to use them as fuel for her spell. This needed to end now! The growl grew, vibrating in my chest as I crouched down, preparing to launch myself at her.

Before I could leap, a chorus of cat screams and yowls erupted from the grounds just in front of the stage.

Terrified for Stephanie’s safety, I spun towards the sound.

A half-dozen of the cat-mutants leaped onto the stage, darting forward as Stephanie stumbled back and away from them, shouting my name, her arms pinwheeling, her blonde hair wild and tousled around her head as her feet tangled up and sent her tumbling. They took a step towards her, almost as one, and went to pounce.

With Esther at my back, still casting her spell, I sprinted at the giant cats, closing the gap in seconds, bowling into them like they were nothing more than a set of pins.

Yowling, they scattered around me, slipping and sliding across the carpet as they went flying. Within seconds, they were back on their feet and coming from all directions.

I tried to dodge, to maneuver myself to safety, but if I did that, I knew I’d just leave Stephanie open and vulnerable.

Their claws flashed out, biting into my side, tearing at my flesh, skinning patches of fur from my body.

Heat ripped through the adrenaline filling my veins, and my skin felt warm as the blood began to gush. At the center, I spun around, snapped my jaws, flashed my claws. I just needed for Stephanie to get free, to get back down to the truck, to get out of here. She’d be safe, as long as she left!

A stray claw from one of the cats sliced open my brow, sending blood trickling down into my eye, even as I tried to defend myself without hurting them too badly.

I growled low as I batted one of them out of the way with a heavy paw, claws still retracted. These were people still, I reminded myself as the cat went tumbling away. Maybe we could still break the spell, return them to their original form?

But they kept coming, and coming, and coming. As soon as I knocked one down, another would bounce back to its feet and reenter the fray. And still, the magic continued to rise, continued to crackle all around me. Now, not only would the citizens of Camelot be done for, but so would any of the members of the audience in the surrounding area.

Stephanie turned, went to run to the edge of the stage, to leap down into the pasture below. Just as her toes reached the edge of the stage, she stopped in her tracks and looked back over her shoulder.

I tried to shout a warning, to tell her to keep going, to leave me behind to cover her retreat, but it only came out in a panther roar. The cat-things fell again on me, their claws biting into my side, my wounds still not closing.

She didn’t even glance at me as she ran past.

My heart froze in my chest, terror gripping it with an icy claw.

She was going straight for Esther.