Changer's Blood (Balancer's Soul cycle) (29 page)

“I see you! I’m coming down.”

Connor
quickly formulated a plan
,
now that he
had
the
time.
“No. Get Kara and Jillian away. I have a score to settle
,
Princess.”
he
felt her reading
the
plan and
in the pit of his gut
could feel that her worrying eased.

S
he
literally
picked up both women and ran them over to the
outskirts of the clearing.
Jack and Mark watched them
speed away
as Sarah got them out of
harm’s
way.
Their heads followed Sarah’s movements
and then they realized
Connor
was about to retaliate
soon
.

Connor
used T
erra to make several small tunnels around
him
to give
some much needed
ventilation. They exited in different loc
ations around the clearing and he
made them open slowly so that they wouldn’t be no
ticed. Luckily they weren’t
discovered
as he
saw Jack stay still and alert as he watched for any signs to surface. Taking a de
ep breath of fresh air Connor
initiated
the
plan.

He
drew water from the stream below
and sheathed his
entire body with the cool water
.
I
t
fit like a
living
glove.
He
got that idea from Sarah when she made the water sleeves.
Connor
tunneled back up to the surface slowly and stopped five feet from making a breach
just under Jack
’
s feet
. Connor
then
waited for Mark to circle closer. When he did
the
trap
was sprung
.

First
,
Connor
instantly
ripped
opened the tunnel the rest of the way and forced energy down to
his feet. As Jack fell down a
hole again he lost his concentration over his element and the fire whip disappeared.
Connor
made sure the hole wa
s sufficient to hold him. When he
rocketed into the light
Connor
continued using sonar
because the light would temporally blind
him otherwise
. When Jack landed in
the bottom of
the
trap
Connor
used Terra
to seal
the top of his new
earth
jail
cell and made sure it was air tight.
Not even Jack would risk creating fire in that situation.

One down, one to go.

Connor
not only captured
Jack, but also
caught
Mark off guard.
Flying straight up at Mark
,
he tucked his wing and tried to
maneuver
out of
the
way. Connor
altered
his
speeding
course and caught him. As Mark
struggled in the air, he lost.
Connor
agilely
maneuver
ed
on
to
his back, wrapped his
thick
arms around his wings and
forced them to stop flapping. Connor
was holding both
him
self and
Mark’s
weight as
he
ordered the water that
encased
him
to saturate
Mark’s
wings. Mark fought valiantly and tried to change his back hair again to spikes until
Connor
said “Enough Mark, I won!”
then his
sonar quit.

Color
ed sight
returned.

Mark
stopped struggling and turned his head around to see
his captor with his silver eyes as Connor
held
the both of
them
in the air. He asked
“How did you win?”

“Look at your wings
,
Bud.” He turned his head side to side
,
looking at each of his black wings.
He became stunned for a moment
before
barking
a
laugh. “Yep, yo
u’ve won alright. I can’t fly with
wet wings.
I lost this fight.
”

Connor
slowly descended until Mark touched the ground first. When
Connor’s
foot hit the ground
a searing pain sh
ot up
his
leg.
He
missed catching
his
balance
and
tripped backwards
,
land
ing heavily on his
bottom.

Be
fore Mark could offer to help him
up Sarah ran over and wr
apped her arms tightly around his
neck
as she cried. Petting her head he
said in her mind
“It’s alright
,
Princess.
I won, didn’t I?
”

She pu
lled her head back to look at him
with tears still streaming down the side
s of her cheeks
.
“Where are you hurt?”

He
sighed and said aloud
“Just
around
my ankle
.” She pulled back even further to examine the
injury.
Connor
looked up at M
ark as he tucked
in
his wings a
nd
he stood. “I have never heard of a wolf with wings before.”

His muzzle pulled back into a razor sharp smile. “Only I have that specific trait to match a wolf’s body with a
hawk’s wings. I call this form
Fwen
.
Very few Changers are capable of
altering to
two different transformations simultaneously.”

“Fwen? It is an odd name for sure.” He knelt down by
Connor’s
side as he too looked at
the
burned
ankle.

It was a second degree burn.

Then
all heard a faint
“Get me out of here!”

Connor
grabbed Sarah’s shoulder
.
“Can you please let your father out?”

Her eyes narrowed and he
saw a streak of malice flash in her eyes
and they even
darkened
. H
er eyes start glowing as she stood up and walked away from
him
and Mark. She stopped and
Connor
saw the earth open at her command. Her eyes were still glowing as she said in an icy
voice that sent a chill down everyone’s
spine “How dare you use such intense flames on my mate
,
Father.”

He instead asked evenly “Will you give me a little help out of here?”
Connor
knew he was at least twenty
feet down the cavity.

Her eyes stopped glowing as she said in the same
icy tone
“Get yourself out.” She turned a
nd walked back to Connor
and her vo
ice softened as she looked
upon
him
. “Are y
ou done practicing for today?” He
had no room to say anything
from the intensity of her expression
,
but
did
manag
e
to
nod
for her
.

Kara and Jillian finally came up, but
Kara
yelled
at Mark
.
“What the hell is wrong with you two
,
ganging up on my brother like that
!
?
” Connor
saw Jillian walk
ing
over to the hole
he
made for her mate.

Mark
made
the wise choice and walk
ed around to put
Connor
between the
two
of them
. “Kara
,
it’s not what you think.” He waived his claws in front of him
in defense
.
If there is one thing he feared it was her wrath. She has one evil mean streak that anyone would pause against.

Since he’s
helped
out
countless times before
,
Connor
gave him a hand
. “Kara, they were showing me how I should react if I was faced with two opponents with powers
and had no warning
.
It was a practical scenario that we might face one day.
”

She eye
d
them both
suspiciously. “Is that the truth
,
Brother?” S
he put a hand on her hip
,
still looking angry
.
She wasn’t playing
around
like usual.
“I clearly remember what he whispered in
to
Mr. Branderson’s ear.”

Connor turned to look at his
overly attentive mate.
Sh
e was still worried over the
mild injury.
“Read his mind and tell her the truth.”

He
saw Sarah look at Mark with angry eyes and a minute later they softened
, but just barely
. “That was Mark
’
s
true
intention
, Kara
. Now…” She got up and walked over to the hole just as Jillian pulled Jack from the pit
with her water lasso
. Jillian stepped back as she saw her daughter approaching.
Sarah was forcing her mind into her father
’
s because his brow furrowed
in pain
from her intrusion
. She said loud enough for all to hear “Father
,
don’t ever
try and fight my mate when he i
sn’t ready.”
S
he stood and made a solid and uncontested rule from now on. “No more sneak attacks. If someone is sparring two on one
,
the three combatants will all be prepared. No exceptions.” She turned away and walked back to
Connor’s side
. “Let’s go sit in the shade where I can work on that burn.”

Mark helped him up and when he
stood
erect
Connor
made
him
self fly slowly over to the shady spot she pointed at
because
he
couldn’t walk on
his
ankle
for a short time
.

When Connor
cut the flow of power
he
landed on
his
good ankle and sat down on the grassy spot. Sarah vanished for a few minutes and
he
could hear her running through the forest as
she searched
for something
.

She came back with an aloe plant. She took out her dagger and sliced off the barbs and gently coated the burn in its
cooling,
sticky sap.
It
felt refreshing and soothing
.
She wiped the dagger
off
on her pants
and slid it
back
in
to
its sheathe.
He
smiled and said
“Thanks
,
Princess.”

She continued checking on
him
and made sure
he
didn’t use too much energy from
the
counterattack. When she
eventually
finished
,
she sat by
his
side and watched
Kara
as she
started her archery practice.