Beauty's Beast(2)

Sebastian took hold of his twins, gripping the outer shoulder of each. “No more hiding. Your mother goes to her people in the east. I go north to rally the Skinwalkers to fight. Blake goes to my friend Nicholas Chien, a wolf and great tracker. His wife, Jessie, is a Spirit Child.” He stared at Blake. “They knew this day would come. His wife will help you bring the Niyanoka to join us. Blake, do you remember all I have told you?”

Samantha’s suspicions were confirmed at the nod of her brother’s head. She felt hollow inside. She wasn’t trustworthy. She’d sneaked away to work her healing arts and endangered them all. Blake had a purpose. They all did. All but her.

Her father continued his instructions. “Convince your mother’s people to join us by any means.”

Blake stood, his body straight and tall, but his dark eyes filled with uncertainty. “I’ll try my best, sir.”

Their father squeezed Blake’s shoulder and then released him. “Succeed. You must.” Her father turned to her. “You go to my friend Bess Suncatcher, a raven. Her mate is a Spirit Child, a Soul Whisperer.”

Her mother’s words echoed in her mind. You know who she calls family.

A Soul Whisperer? Her eyes rounded and a buzzing began in her ears. Her mother had taught her that this was the most cursed of all Niyanoka, unclean for speaking to the dead. Her blood slowed like water turning to ice, but she did not object. How could she when she had brought this Armageddon to them?

“Bess has some dangerous ideas, but none know the Toe Taggers better than she. Find her. Learn what you can. Tell her it has begun and ask her to join me. But be watchful for Toe Taggers. If you see one, run. If you cannot run, kill it before it kills you.”

Her eyes rounded and her stomach dropped.

“Do you understand, Sammy?”

She shook her head. What did he ask her to do?

But he was already looking to his wife. Samantha’s lip trembled as she held back tears. Her parents had never left them and never felt they could not protect them, until now. Blake and her mother would rally the Niyanoka and her father would bring the Skinwalkers. To what? For what? Samantha began to shake.

Her mother grabbed hold of her husband in a last embrace. Tears choked Samantha so she could not speak. Their auras flared, suddenly visible even in the fading daylight. She knew her parents were true soul mates, with the bond of shared emotions and thoughts. She longed for such a connection.

“What if we’re wrong?” Michaela whispered.

Sebastian stroked her glossy hair. “It only works if we split into four. He can’t follow four, not all at once. Some of us might...”

His words faded. Samantha’s breath caught as she realized what he meant to say. Some of us might escape. Whom would Nagi follow? Which one of them would die? She hoped it was her. She could not bear being responsible for their deaths. Was that her purpose, to lead Nagi from those she loved? Calm crept into her heart like cold crystals of ice, but she was no longer afraid. She would be last to leave. She’d see to that.

Her mother cradled Samantha and kissed her hair. It felt like a final farewell. Samantha lifted her gaze to stare down at her mother, who was average height but not tall enough to meet the eyes of her daughter, now six feet three inches tall. The two embraced and then drew apart.

With her eyes still pinned on Samantha, her mother spoke to her husband. “Call the Whirlwinds and pray they can carry us to safety.”

Sebastian lifted his arms to the heavens, chanting a prayer Samantha knew by heart. Dark, menacing clouds swept in from the north. A storm blew, lifting the rocks and sand to pelt them. All four turned their backs to the wind.

The Thunderbirds had long ago taken the Skinwalkers into their hearts. These Thunderbeings had the power to harness electrical energy on earth and stir the winds into storms. For reasons none could recall, the Supernaturals would carry the Skinwalkers in their claws if they deemed the matter grave. Apparently, at some point, the Spirit Children had decided the Supernaturals were a private jet service and were now on the no-fly list. But no Skinwalker ever called a Thunderbeing unless his or her life depended upon it, for all recognized that such an arrangement was not to be abused.

“Look,” cried Blake, pointing to the sky.

Samantha craned her neck and thought she saw the great beating wings of a huge eagle sweeping down upon them.

Her mother screamed and pointed. Samantha turned to see the gray billowing smoke of evil, disembodied ghosts surging toward them from the south. Samantha and Blake transformed instantly into their bear forms, standing before their mother as she gasped with one hand over her heart.

“We are found,” she cried, her words all but lost in the raging winds.

Samantha stared in horror at the approaching horde: Nagi, his evil ghosts and something hideous. She knew what these must be, felt certainty swallowing her up. They were, for she had heard of them, the living offspring he had sired. Toe Taggers! Nagi’s children were pale and brutish, living monsters, all teeth, claws and quills. She covered her face and turned away.

Sebastian howled, releasing the beast within. He could not fight ghosts unless they took corporeal form and, not being a Seer, he could not even spot them. But he could make out the Toe Taggers and Nagi drawing nearer. He stood between his family and attack as he called to the heavens. The dark clouds rolled in, blotting out the stars. The shriek of the wind screamed in Samantha’s ears, but she could make him out, there in the south, advancing like death.

Samantha moved to stand beside her father, but he pushed her back with one giant paw, sending her tumbling along the ground. From this vantage she clearly saw him—Nagi.

The Ruler of Ghosts rose up before them, billowing as black as the smoke from a burning oil rig. He was dark and deadly with yellow cat’s eyes, just as her mother had described. He reached for them, claws extending from his undulating body. Samantha forgot how to fight. She forgot every single thing her father had taught her about how to survive. This was her fault. All of it, because she had wanted to try her powers instead of doing as she was told.

Something snatched her up, tearing her from her mother’s arms, dragging her from her twin brother, sweeping Samantha into the sky.

She howled her dismay, wanting to be left behind to give her family a chance to escape.

Below her, she saw the Toe Taggers attack her father, falling upon him like a pack of wild dogs.

She screamed as the ice pelted her, as the great claws gripped her, as the mighty wings beat the skies into a whirlwind.





Chapter 2



Nagi reached the Skinwalker as his Ghost Children carried the grizzly backward to the ground.

He felt certain his offspring could best the Spirit Children born of Niyan, and they grew ten times more quickly. The Skinwalkers, born of Tob Tob, would be more challenging. Here was their first test.

The old male had stayed behind to defend, and Nagi’s own children were too stupid and too vicious to resist the temptation to fight. So instead of pursuing the Seer, as ordered, they were distracted by the only one of the four he did not want to kill, which was likely the old bear’s intention.

Nagi had no ability to track the Seer unless she revealed herself. His Ghostlings were squandering this golden opportunity.

“The Seer!” he hissed, motioning to the sky.

His children continued their useless attack.

Why had the Seer, who had not sent one evil ghost to his Circle in all these years, suddenly done something so reckless?

Then an unexpected answer struck him. Could it have been one of her children?

Was it possible that she had offspring old enough to use their powers?

That meant they would be old enough to reproduce. Three Seers was bad, but he did not relish the prospect of contending with another generation. Not when he had so methodically exterminated the Ghost Clan. Well, all but one, and that one had been female, curse the luck.

He glanced at his snarling, snapping children and repressed a shudder. If not for the Seer, he would have no need of a living army.

For now he would settle with the grizzly. Past time to take his immortal soul.

Nagi hovered over the great bear, who writhed and strained against the deadly grip of Nagi’s children. It took all six of them to hold him. He was strong, this one, but not immortal. Nagi could feel his soul, firmly attached to this body and to this world. Well, not for long.

“Where have you sent them?” he hissed.

The bear bellowed and the clouds above them turned black. The wind rose and Nagi watched in horror as his children were swept aside with the blowing rain. The Thunderbirds reached their talons down and snatched the bear from their midst as easily as Nagi might pluck a soul from a living body.

“No!” he shrieked, rising to follow the retreating storm, only to be tossed back to the ground by the thumping hooves of the Thunderhorses. He had never suffered such an indignity. The audacity of a Supernatural touching a true Spirit enraged him. But still he lay impotent in the mud as above him the bear disappeared into the same vortex that had taken the Seer and her offspring.