Beauty's Beast(14)

Alon stopped. Fear, cold as the blade of a knife, stabbed deep into him. How could he have left her?

The Delta Pack was too young to understand that Samantha was not an animal, not prey.

Alon turned back. He had to reach her before they did.

* * *

Samantha scrambled after Alon as he evaporated before her. She stifled a scream as his body became clear as water and then turned to smoke. An instant later he billowed upward like a storm cloud, leaving her earthbound and craning her neck to watch him disappear into the new green leaves above her. His clothing fluttered down to earth as if blown from a laundry line high in the treetops.

So this was his second form. Of course he had outdistanced her yesterday. He could fly like a storm cloud, a fierce dark storm cloud.

He was Naginoka, Ghost Child, a real living, breathing Toe Tagger. She realized she knew nothing about him except what he had allowed her to see.

If he was born of Nagi, how could Alon be so attractive? And then she realized what had to be the truth. Alon had told her that he had three forms. She knew what they were—smoke, handsome and hideous.

She’d seen the first two. If she was right, his natural form was as much a part of him as her bear form was a part of her. Had he run to keep her from seeing him as he was born?

She should know better than to kiss her enemy, yet just the memory excited her. Was it his immense power, the danger that hung about him like a mantle, or the loneliness she could taste on his tongue? Samantha had never met anything that was stronger than she, except her dad, of course. And there were precious few creatures that could outrun a grizzly. Alon had done it without breaking a sweat.

She pressed a hand to her heart as it pounded painfully against her ribs. Fast, as if she had been running instead of standing in his arms.

Her initial spark of excitement had ignited like dry tinder, burning her up inside. She had kissed Alon, the son of her most bitter enemy.

Samantha’s neck ached from staring past the mighty pines and through the limbs to the blue skies beyond. Where had he gone?

She glanced to the ground at his clothing, a gray sweater that smelled of pine and damp black jeans, scattered about.

He couldn’t carry them with him. That meant that yesterday he had run her down and still had time to change into something else before intercepting her. She found that disconcerting and irritating. Did he have little stashes of garments tucked in the trees, hidden in caches like a squirrel hides seeds? She gathered his belongings, folded them and then hugged them to her chest. She inhaled his scent of autumn leaves and freshly turned soil. Alon smelled of the earth.

She tried to understand what was happening. She would have guessed something had frightened him, but she knew that was impossible. He could remove the soul from a living body and he could fly. What did he have to fear?

And then his words came back to her.

These woods are not like the ones you have known. It is not safe for you.

Samantha sat down hard, clutching his folded pile of clothing as if it were a pillow.

Her fingers tingled and it took a moment to realize that something was coming, something fast. She faced this new threat. It came from upwind as if it had no reason to shield its approach. She inhaled the strange sweet scent that reminded her of Alon, but was not exactly his.

They came at her in a pack, using the ground cover to circle her like wolves, giving her only flashes of vision. The silver of fur, the gleam of a deadly ridge of quills. Samantha roared. Still in human form, the sound was more a shout.

Pale flesh flashed through the undergrowth, so fast it was only a blur. One came at her from behind and she whirled, seeing the little ghostly gray Halfling, scrambling on all fours like a chimpanzee, teeth snapping, trying for her Achilles tendon. She swung a foot but the thing was too fast, reversing direction and scampering away as one landed on her back. Sharp teeth scored her shoulder before she could throw her new attacker aside.

She needed to change but knew she would be powerless for just a moment during her transformation. That instant might be all they needed to end her life. These Toe Taggers were pale as corpses and fast as ferrets, she thought, throwing another from her arm.

Samantha’s shoulder burned. A glance told her that she bled from several gashes. She pressed a hand to her shoulder and concentrated, sending healing energy to the wound. It would do to stanch some of the blood until she had time for a proper healing ceremony.

Something swooped from above her. She leaped back to see the petroleum-black smoke materializing, taking shape. Alon now stood naked with his back to her, facing the little Halflings who emerged from the underbrush to circle them, standing erect, long hairy arms relaxed so the vicious claws grazed the ground. Samantha gasped. There were so many. Six, and even though they stood only three feet high, their numbers made her throat close as if someone squeezed her windpipe. Too many to defeat, she knew.

She inched closer to Alon, hating herself for having to depend on him to protect her. But she saw no gap in the attacking circle, no spot where she might break free, and she already knew how fast they could move. Would Alon fight with her or just hand her over?

“This one is mine,” he said to the horde, who all stared up at them with the biopic focus of all predators.

His? No. She was not. Not now or ever. She would never give herself to the enemy of her people.

She recalled their kiss and her ears went hot.

“Mine,” he said again.

Samantha turned to stare at Alon, joining the rest as stunned silence filled the clearing where she thought to meet her end.

“She is under my protection.”

The tallest pointed at Samantha and made a guttural, tortured sound.

“No,” roared Alon. He took a threatening step forward, the muscles of his back bunching. The challenger retreated to join the others. “She is not enemy! She is my woman.”

The largest snarled and made a gurgling sound, then nodded. The others nodded, as well. The leader made a series of sounds, its long tongue lolling and then twisting, darting from behind the rows of sharp teeth in a tortured gesture. What was it doing? To Samantha, the movement looked both obscene and mocking.

Samantha glanced to Alon for understanding.

“Yes, like mother. Skinwalker. But not enemy. She is our guest.”

Speech. Was the thing trying to speak? Samantha listened harder and this time she thought she heard the word guest amid the snapping and snarling.

“A guest is a welcome visitor, an honored visitor. Not food.”

They bobbed their heads.

“Mother wants you all to come with me. This territory is no longer safe for you.”

The pack shook their heads and disappeared into the underbrush. She listened to their retreat. Her shoulder began to throb like a persistent toothache. Blood ran from the wound. She pressed a hand over the injury, sending healing energy to slow the bleeding. She needed a circle to properly heal the gashes.

Alon still had his attention on the retreating Delta Pack. “Damn it.” At last he turned to her. “I can’t get them to come, and I can’t leave them to bring you to her.”

She didn’t like either of those options.

“Are they... Are they...?” she asked, feeling sure she knew since they were like the ones who attacked her dad, only smaller.

“My kin,” he confirmed. “The youngest. That’s the Delta Pack, each set of twins born of other human mothers and Nagi. We are always born in twins.”

Where was his twin?

He broke eye contact, staring away in the direction they had gone as if he could not meet her gaze. His translucent skin flushed. He glanced at the clothing, some folded beside the tree.

He slipped into his jeans then dragged on his gray sweater. It took him several minutes to locate his loafers. Once he had removed all that rippling male flesh from her sight, she found her thoughts were easier to gather.

“Those are the creatures that attacked my family. Only they were bigger.” She pointed in the direction the Deltas had gone.

“Nagi’s recruits. That’s why my family has been so busy. It’s a race to find more of my kind before Nagi does. They won’t come to Skinwalkers or Spirit Children. That’s why my parents brought most of the Alpha Pack with them. If they locate any newborns, the Alphas will be there.”

“I didn’t understand. It’s important.”

She said so only because she knew her family would have to face any Ghostling that they didn’t find first. He shouldn’t care what she thought, but her understanding mattered to him.

“That’s why Aldara and I need to bring the Beta, Gamma and Delta packs north. If we leave them they will be recruited or killed.”

Samantha rolled her shoulder and grimaced, then pressed a hand to it. An icy tingle slithered down his spine.

“What are you doing?” He had not meant for his words to sound so harsh.

She startled and stared with those lovely cinnamon brown eyes of hers.

“Let me see,” he ordered.

“It’s nothing.”