Mostly, what she felt was a distant sensation of pain. It was part of the reason her brow was furrowed. She could sense Sam and feel Sam, but there was no sight of the magishifter anywhere.
A flash of rainbow light drew her eyes to the surface of the water about ten yards out. The water swelled, there was a bump beneath its surface, and then the bump was rising, shifting into the form of a human female. The female was hunched and drenched, and Raven could tell already that she was hurt.
The guardian was running before she fully realized it. The closer she got to the figure emerging from the lake, the more she had a strange sensation – like she’d been here before. On the coast of some giant body of water, helping the wounded precious beast from its murky depths, taking the maiden and protecting her from the magic-fearing world. It was a King Arthur kind of sensation, one mired in the glory of time. It was the ghosts of the others who’d come before her. The other guardians, lost in the sepia slideshow of the past.
“Sam!” she cried out as her booted legs crashed down onto the surface of the water and she awkwardly but quickly made her way to her friend’s side.
Samantha looked up, her expression uncertain, her face far too pale. Her eyes looked sunken, and they were a strange, iridescent color. “Oh my god,” she whispered, and then realized she’d done so and immediately regretted it. The last thing someone in physical distress needed to hear was how bad they looked.
Sam either didn’t notice, though, or didn’t care. Her teeth were clenched tightly together, and her hand was wrapped around her upper arm, squeezing tight when she said, “The bullet’s still in me. There’s no exit wound.” Her voice was raspy and soft, and Raven could tell that she was slipping into some numb, distant place where pain couldn’t reach her. It was that place people went to just before they died.
“We’re getting you to a hospital right now,” Raven told her.
But the magishifter must have had some strength left yet, because she pulled away and shook her head. “No doctors. They’ll test my blood, Raven. They’ll….” She swayed, and Raven steadied her. “What… how did you get here?” Her words were slurred now, and her brow furrowed with new confusion.
“Don’t worry, I know some people,” Raven said truthfully. It was one of the guardian’s many responsibilities to set up a network of emergency contacts for something just like this. For the magishifter. The magishifter was that rare and that important. After all, if the magi didn’t exist, neither did the guardians.
“Come on, stay awake and don’t make me carry you,” she urged. In truth, she could have easily carried her. She was the guardian, and as such, much more than a simple avian shifter. She was very strong. But, keep her moving, keep her conscious. She had no idea how bad the gunshot was or how much blood she’d lost. Consciousness was important at this stage.
Raven moved them both out of the water, then took a small amulet from her leather jacket pocket and clicked it open. “I need a transport here, please,” she said hastily. The inside surfaces of the locket were constructed of a smooth white substance such as marble or opal, with symbols carved into them, tiny but clear. One of the symbols lit up after Raven’s request, and she pulled Sam into her arms.
Sam grunted and made a small sound in the back of her throat, and Raven knew she was squeezing the wound in her friend’s shoulder. But she had this almost irrational fear that Sam would be torn from her arms during the transport, so she held on tight, going with her gut.
The medallion pulsed in her tight grip, and the water and air around them began to warp – and then, just as the ground was disappearing beneath them, a loud bang rippled through the wavy tunnel of the transport. The portal bucked, and Raven and Sam both went down.
Raven tried hard to hold on to her charge, but the pain must have gotten to Sam because she cried out and stumbled, and Raven’s grip slipped. She scrambled, pulling at Sam’s clothes, trying with all her might to get another hold on the magishifter. “Raven!” Sam called out, looking over her shoulder as the walls of the transport began to shift into reds.
Sam managed to get to her knees, and she reached for Raven, who took her forearm in a fierce grip, no longer caring about residual pain. Sam didn’t seem to care either, and this sudden turn of events had pulled her a little out of the fading throws of her wound. They yanked each other into a stiff, tight hug and Raven glanced down at the medallion in her hand.
The symbol for transport was glowing red. It had never done that before. She glanced at the darkening walls of the portal next, dread pouring into her bloodstream. Their reddening reminded her of blood and of fire. The air in the portal grew warm and thick, and it smelled like metal.
Raven swallowed hard and used her thumb to touch a different symbol on the medallion, one whose power she had never dreamed she would have to call upon. “One of mine is now yours,” she whispered, feeling the significance of it down to her soul.
One year of her life for an extra boost of power now. She would now die one year sooner than she would have before. But… she would not exist at all if it weren’t for Sam. She owed her this much, at least.
The medallion began to heat up in her palm. The symbol for transport faded from red to yellow, brightening to a nearly blinding glow as the portal around the two women began to shake. The second symbol Raven had touched – that for life – took on an equally bright glow, and Raven closed her eyes. She could feel the blood from Sam’s shoulder seeping into her shirt.
It’s just the water from the lake, she quietly insisted. But it was warm, and she knew time was short.
Please work. Please take us to safety. A year of her life should earn her at least that, should it not?
The portal under her knees ceased shaking. Somewhere in the distance, she felt a sharp spike of disappointment. It was followed by an equally sharp spike of anger. But it was someone else’s anger. She was sensing someone else’s frustration. Which meant – the portal was working again, and they were escaping.
She dared to open her eyes as the glow of the medallion lessoned, the portal swung back into full gear, and the blood red leeched from the transport’s swirling walls. The iridescence of rainbow colors returned, casting them into surreal dreaminess. Raven could have cried out in relief.
A few seconds later, the transport came to an end and the portal’s exit spread open. She lifted Sam against her body and made her way to the edge. A small stand-alone emergency room appeared in the early pre-dawn dim of an outskirts suburb. They’d traveled west quite a way. In the backdrop behind the facility was a strip mall, darkened by those quiet, still hours before managers make their exhausted ways to work. The lot spaces beside the emergency room sported a single automobile. The smell of coffee, freshly brewed, welcomed the girls as Raven helped a barely conscious magishifter out of the portal and onto the tarmac of the all-but-empty parking lot.
A single light from inside the building indicated the emergency room was open. Raven thanked her lucky stars she’d called ahead as she walked Sam to the door and went inside.
Chapter Twelve
His anger was too much for his current body to hold, and he had to let it go. Somewhere far away, a man began choking on his dinner, a teenager said something scathingly cruel to her mother, and a dog suddenly attacked with no provocation.
Astaroth closed his eyes and smiled, taking a slow, deep breath. That’s better, he thought. So she’d slipped away. He’d forgotten that the magishifter came with a guardian. A resourceful little minx the guardian was, too.
And he’d weakened himself going after Colton. That man was going to be trouble. Astaroth hadn’t realized he was anything more than an average shifter. The doppelshifter’s mind control abilities had managed to hide that much from him, even as it allowed his surface thoughts to be read.
He had his proverbial hands full now if he wanted to get to the woman before she became queen and her power multiplied several-fold. Once a woman took her place at the Table of the Thirteen, they were impossib
le to possess. There was a kind of protection inherited by the position, one not afforded the men. It truly was as if they stepped onto a giant chessboard and became pieces in a cosmic game.
The queen was the one with all the power. And a game was lost without her. Perhaps that was why fate had made the Thirteen virtually untouchable.
The Entity touched his chin as he pictured a massive plane of black-and-white squares stretching into the vastness of eternity. Then he pictured that plane occupied by countless colorful kings and queens. No pawns. No knights. No rooks or bishops.
Just power couples as far as the eye could see.
It would take one hell of a bump against that celestial table to knock those pieces over. He smiled as he imagined the board shaking. That smile became a befanged grin of epic proportions as one after another, the chess pieces fell.
*****
Sam waited until the doctor left the room and she and Raven were alone before turning two very angry eyes on her best friend. Raven had been expecting this, and she held up her hands defensively. “I had no choice. You were literally dying.”
“You misunderstand my glare,” said Sam softly. Her tone was calm, but icy. In fact, Raven was pretty sure she’d never heard it coming from her before. “This glare is burning a hole through you not because you brought me to an emergency room, my dearest, bestest friend – but because all these long, long years… you didn’t tell me you were my guardian.”
The last word was spoken with the vehemence that had built up behind it and pushed it through Sam’s clenched teeth. Whatever pain killers they had flowing into her vein through the IV in her arm failed to curb the word’s sharpness.
Raven felt the blood drain from her face. Her insides were squirming. She’d lied to Samantha for twenty years. “Oooookay,” she said slowly, “I admit I wasn’t exactly honest –”
“No.” Sam’s next word stopped Raven’s cold. “You weren’t.”
Silence followed as Samantha looked away and stared at the wall. Raven could imagine what was going through her head: Sam had a guardian. All this time, her best friend had actually been the magishifter’s guardian. The implications were dizzying. What did that mean? Had Raven only befriended her because it was her job? Did Raven’s parents know? Were they guardians too? Had they been spying on her until both Raven and Sam were old enough to meet? What the hell?
Oh yeah. She knew.
“You know,” Sam said softly, the calm in her tone back again, “I always hate those TV shows or movies where people keep secrets from one another. Like… The Flash.” She shook her head, and Raven could see it was disorienting, because she stopped right away. “There’s always some idiot on there who thinks it’s a good idea to tell lies and keep secrets. Because as we all know, not having pertinent knowledge really helps when it comes to fighting bad guys.”
Raven didn’t say anything right away, but as soon as she opened her mouth to interject, Sam cut her off. “Oh and then there’s Troll Hunters,” she went on, purposefully not giving Raven a chance to talk. “I waited an entire season for the mom to finally learn her son was the Troll Hunter, and what do they do at the end of the season? Pull a Superman’s kiss kind of bullshit routine and wipe her memory. Why? What the hell purpose did that serve but to teach youth everywhere that lying is ‘honorable?’” She made quote signs with her fingers, but the movement must have felt off-kiltering because she stopped that right away too and dropped her arms back to the hospital bed.
Sam closed her eyes and sank further back into the pillows behind her. “Don’t even get me started on the whole Snuffleupagus bullshit,” she continued, not quite done with her rant. But her voice was losing its oomph. The pain killers were obviously kicking in for real now. “That was so mean, and it just taught kids that parensh would never lishen to them….” Her tongue was doing weird things in her mouth, slurring her speech. “I’m taking a nap now,” she suddenly said very, very quietly.
Raven took her hand gently and gave it a squeeze, wanting her friend to hear her before she lost consciousness. “I know,” she said. “And I’m sorry.”
When she knew Sam was out cold, she released her hand and stepped back from the bed. But when she turned around, it was to find the doctor standing in the doorway. The woman had crossed her arms over her chest and her expression was stern. “You never told her that you were the guardian?”
Raven exhaled sharply. “I know, I know,” she said. The doctor also happened to be her great aunt, the world’s former guardian. “I really don’t want to hear it right now.” In truth, she didn’t want to hear it ever, and she didn’t really need to either. She already felt bad. She already knew she’d been wrong. She wasn’t even certain why she’d made it a secret in the first place. It was just that once you started down a lying path, it fed itself and kept going. For twenty years.
She walked to the door and brushed past her aunt.
“For what it’s worth, I know why you didn’t tell her.”
Raven stopped and glanced back at the doctor. Janet Ely had been the guardian for thirty-three years – until her own charge, the former magishifter, had been killed by a Hunter. The magi was reborn when it was killed, and a new guardian was assigned.
Janet smiled a small smile. “You were afraid she would push you away. That she would assume you were only there for her because you had to be.”
Raven didn’t say anything, but her aunt’s words swam around in her mind.
“Believe me, I understand where you’re coming from,” Dr. Ely continued. “But I’m going to share a secret of my own with you right now.” She uncrossed her arms and glanced back at her sleeping patient. “The fact that I never told my own magi who and what I was is the reason she died that morning. If she’d known she could call me, that it was my job to help her, and that I was capable of helping her….”
She didn’t have to finish the statement. Raven knew where it was leading.
She swallowed hard, ran a hand through her hair, and turned to leave. But a hand on her shoulder stopped her.
“Raven, has Samantha ever moved somewhere warm? Like Louisiana or say, Florida?”
Raven turned and frowned. “I don’t….” She stopped and thought for a moment. Now that her aunt mentioned it, the truth was, Sam always moved to places with temperate climates – temperate toward the cool, not the hot. “Actually, no. Come to think of it.”
“And have you ever seen her in a tank top, by any chance? Or a swimsuit?”
Now Raven was thoroughly confused. Especially because once again, the answer was no. Not in twenty years, had she seen her best friend in anything skimpy or revealing. She shook her head. “I haven’t. Why? What’s wrong?”
Her aunt shrugged and smiled slightly, but this time it was humorless. “Nothing’s really wrong. Just notable. She has scars on her shoulders.”
“Scars? That’s impossible. She should heal completely from any wound she sustains.” Sam was a shifter. Shifters always healed all the way, and quicker than humans did. Unless a limb was chopped off – that was another story.
“Impossible though it may be, they’re there. And there’s something else,” the doctor went on. She took a deep breath. “I’m violating doctor patient confidentiality with vigor by telling you this, so you need to understand that the only reason I’m doing so is because it’s pertinent to the magishifter. I’m pretty sure she gave the scars to herself.”
Raven blinked. She glanced at the bed and its sleeping occupant, then back up at her aunt. “You mean, she’s a cutter?”
The doctor shook her head. “I mean she was. Most people get over it in time, as she has. The reason this might be pertinent now is because it would appear that if the magi doesn’t want to heal – she doesn’t heal.”
Raven glanced back at her friend and considered that. It was something to keep in mind. Keep the magi happy, she thought. And then she nodded sadly, more to herself than anyone. Because she was pretty sure the one thing that would make Sam the happies
t was the one thing she was most afraid of.
Raven sighed and left the room.
Chapter Thirteen
Jack had been watching and listening outside of the stand-alone emergency room for an indeterminate time when he finally found himself exhaling. He hadn’t known he’d been holding his breath, a breath he couldn’t release until Sam’s wound was bound and she was well and truly safe.
His senses had always been more finely tuned than those of other shifters or even werewolves. He could hear a whisper in a crowd – or as Walker had once put it, a tear fall in a rainstorm.
Speaking of the Shifter King, it was when Jack heard the magishifter’s guardian and her doctor leave Sam’s room to head deeper into the building that there was a flash behind Jack in the alleyway. He spun, drawing what strength he could summon and preparing to fight once more, but the portal that appeared spit out none other than Darius Walker.
How in the world had the man known Jack was there?
“How the hell –”
“Alberich did a scry,” said Walker before Jack could finish. “Jack, we need to talk.”
Jack straightened and narrowed his gaze. “So talk.” He could sense something different in Walker, something resolute. He had a feeling he knew what it was.
“I’m finished doing your job, Colt. I’ve been covering for you for twenty years and every sign in the universe right now is blinking great big neon messages that it’s time for that to change.”
None of this was news to Jack. Walker had known what the creature was that had escaped in an act of grandeur from the candy shop. He’d known it was the Thunder Dragon, but more importantly, he’d known who the creature was. He’d known it was Sam. That was why he had called Jack in on this mess, and Jack was well aware of that.