Cursed To Death

“Here,” Hunter said with a quick sweep into the mist, coming up with a handful of jeans.

“Thanks, but how do you do that?” Sasha accepted the discarded jeans, fishing in the pockets for her cell phone.

“Your scent was in the clothes,” he said with a half smile. “I’d be able to follow that from here to Colorado and back, no problem.”

She smiled but didn’t respond. They were not going to start that kind of conversation when there was so much else that they needed to focus on, and they had to keep their heads on straight.

“Okay,” she said. “Remember the plan. If you feel shaky, go into a shadow to purge it. If you see me get shaky, order me into a shadow or drag me into one kicking and screaming-and I’ll do the same for you.”

“Done. My only concern is encountering one of my men who may have been compromised… They may not go as easily or willingly, and if they spike fight adrenaline in me, I might not be of the mind-set to drag them into a shadow alive.”

“I know.” Sasha raked her fingers through her hair. It was a sobering reality. “I’ve thought about that. You might have to let me take them in… I’m female; hate to say it, but beta males will follow me to the end of the earth, if they think there’s a chance.”

“Which, under dark magick, will make me flip.” Hunter closed his eyes and rubbed the tension away from his neck.

“Then let’s function with a code word-so that you know what I’m doing… like a mental trigger.” She stared at him. “We have to have a way to break the spell trance long enough to give the other party pause and recovery time.”

He nodded. “ ‘Safe haven.’ You say that and I’ll know.”

“All right,” she said quietly, stashing her dead cell phone in her back jeans’ pocket. “Let’s just hope that we both remember when we have to.”

“Stop! Who goes there?”

Ethan looked up at the castle gates and then around at the forest floor, confused. “It is Ethan McGregor of Mead-han Lodai

Fae archers lowered their weapons and smiled.

“Ah, good laddie!” a captain called out. “Lower the drawbridge! Ye may enter!”

But Ethan and Margaret didn’t move. Bear Shadow and Crow Shadow exchanged nervous glances.

“Where is your glamour, man?” Ethan shouted. He gave his son to his wife to hold and then opened his arms and began to frantically motion about. “The entire fortress is exposed, is out in the open! You can see the golden pathway right from the forest floor and the trees are neon coming through the normal human foliage!”

“What, are you daft, man?” the captain said laughing.

Margaret neared her husband and dropped her voice to an urgent whisper. “If I didn’t know better, I’d swear that man had been in his cups.”

“You’re saying this guy is high?” Crow Shadow muttered, shaking his head.

“Watch your mouth, wolf,” an archer said, weaving. “D’not cast aspersions-nothing wrong with a wee pinch of Faerie dust to make a long post go faster.”

“How much dust have you ’ad, man?” Margaret called out, pressing her toddler’s head against her shoulder. “The dust is tainted!” She spun on her husband, her voice tight, gaze panicked. “Ethan, if the Fae’s Royal Highland Fusiliers have been compromised, by nightfall there’s no protection!”

“Aye, the bo

“She’s a nurse, a healer, and me wife!” Ethan shouted. “And it doesn’t change the fact that your fortress walls are exposed to human view-which means your castle can be easily found. In fact, without the glamour, Vampires or rogue Werewolves can find and decimate the village! Where is Sir Rodney?”

They came out of the shadows and onto the stage at The Fair Lady. But it only took a few seconds to process the threat that greeted them. Three huge Werewolf lieutenants rushed them in human form, eyes blazing wolf, canines ripping through their gum lines.

Sasha ducked, pivoted, and flipped off the stage. Hunter went into a low roll as two attackers sailed over him. One crashed into the bar and the other hit the wall, as a third snarled and circled Sasha, sending Hunter into a death stalk behind him.

“No, wait,” she shouted. “Seung Kwon, we can help Shogun. We didn’t come to attack him!”

Sasha’s words gave Hunter pause as he looked to the far side of the stage.

“Shogun!”

Seung Kwon left the floor, hit the stage, and barreled toward Hunter. In an evasive shake-and-bake move, Hunter flipped out of the way of a claw swipe and landed on his feet beside Sasha while three slow-moving, snarling Werewolf lieutenants circled their leader-his brother.

“You think we are foolish and that our eyes are blind?” Seung Kwon shouted. “Your bitch baits my cousin, the co-leader of the Wolf Federations, into an early transformation, which you both know will leave him vulnerable-and then you both return to finish him off so you can lead alone!”

“No!” Hunter shouted. “I came to help him. He’ll die like this!”

“We have medicine-Hunter has had this happen to him before!” Sasha stared in horror at Shogun’s shuddering frame. “Let us help, and if it doesn’t work, then try to kill us.”

Shogun lay on the floor in so much agony that all he could do was moan. His legs were twisted in mid-transformation, cramped in the position of backward-bent hindquarter limbs. His thumb was distended to where his dewclaw would have been, partly up his forearm, and his jaw was distended into a wolf’s snout, but his forehead, back, and torso were still human.

“Kill them,” Dak-Ho yelled, glancing at his brothers. “These are tricks to take full control of the Southeast Asia Werewolf Federation. Shogun’s dead sister Lei Ho was right!”

“Wait,” Chin-Hwa urged. “The she-Shadow claims she has medicine. They did not kill Shogun before when he had the sickness. If they were going to do it, that would have been the opportune time.”

Seung Kwon walked away, circled Shogun, and pointed at him with tears in his eyes. “You fix this! He transformed only to dominance-battle for you! How could this be possible? The moon hasn’t risen yet. No Werewolf can turn before the moon takes her due-only Shadows can do that. What has your mate’s bite infected him with? That contagion still lingers! It can be the only true explanation!”

“It’s not Hunter’s bite. It’s the dark magick in this region.” Sasha tentatively jumped up on stage. “You have to get him out of here… This is where the epicenter of the spell happened, we think.”

“You lured him here!” Seung Kwon yelled, his voice breaking. “He couldn’t follow you into the shadows and you knew it! He tried to change back to save face and then… You fix this, bitch!”

Hunter was on the stage within seconds, snarling. “Beta, if you address her out of turn once more…”

“Safe haven!” Sasha shouted, spi

Hunter lolled his neck and focused on Shogun. “When my system was rejecting the demon-infected virus, my transformations were hard like his. Brutal. They have antitoxin at Tulane… a small stash from just after the war here. It was an emergency supply my grandfather insisted be left here, just in case.”

“It was based on the same meds they used to shoot PCU human soldiers up with-the ones that got bitten.” Sasha began to pace, talking with her hands. “But they’ve perfected it with Shadow Wolf blood in the serum. The demon-infected Werewolf blood isn’t in it any longer. It’s the only chance to get Shogun out of this aborted transformation.”