Forged by Greed (11 page)

Jasmira closed her eyes, and her breathing slowed.

***

“J, run! Run! Run!” Jatred
yelled, pushing her out of the way. Instinctively she shifted into her leopard
form, leaped forward and ran, her head low between her shoulder blades. Hoping
that Jatred was racing right behind her, she turned her head to get a better
look.

In her peripheral vision
she saw Jatred change into the wolf and heard his angry growl mix with a roar
of some beast. She stopped running and spun around. An ugly creature slowly
circled the black wolf.

“Must be a Winter Garhanan,”
she thought. Terrified, she watched the huge beast creeping closer to Jatred. Its
small beady eyes were fixed on the wolf, its thick arms ending in sharp black
claws. The scant white fur on the Garhanan’s body was long and wispy, barely
covering gray thick skin. An odor emanating from the monster reminded Jasmira
of rotten meat.

The Garhanan roared,
throwing its arms to the sides, fingers splayed, and pushing its colossal chest
and head forward, as if in challenge. The wolf snarled, his upper lip pulled
back, revealing long canines. He crouched low to the ground. His fur stood on
end on his neck and upper back. Jasmira knew Jatred was about to charge; he was
just calculating the Garhanan’s strengths and weaknesses.

She didn’t wait for the
wolf to attack.

“Jasmira, get back!” she heard
Jatred’s voice in her mind. She ignored him and dove straight for the
white-furred monster. It heard her paws pounding on the ground and turned its
head to look at her. As if waiting for that moment, the wolf lunged at the
Garhanan. His sharp teeth easily sank through the monster’s skin and bulging
muscle, all the way to the bone.

“J, watch out!” Jasmira
screamed with her mind, sprinting toward them.

The monster bellowed in
pain. It flung its arm, hitting the wolf with a bone-crunching sound. Jatred
flew off the beast, ripping a chunk of flesh from its shoulder. His head hit a
thick tree. A yelp escaped the wolf, and he dropped to the ground, motionless.

Jasmira jumped onto the
Garhanan. Her teeth bore into its neck. She tossed her head to the side,
tearing a huge hole directly above the beast’s collar bone. Hot blood pumped
from the monster’s torn artery in short, powerful jets. It stained the
Garhanan’s white fur and Jasmira’s black coat. Still roaring, the beast fell
with a thud. She let go of its neck and leaped off, toward the wolf. He lay on
his side, panting, his eyes unfocused. The leopard prodded him with her muzzle
and whimpered. Jatred’s torso moved up and down with each wheezy breath, and
then stopped. His eyes stared ahead, unmoving, dead.

Jasmira whined, pacing back
and forth along and nudging him with her nose.

“No, no, no, no!” she
screamed with her mind, waves of horror and disbelief washing over her. “You
can’t be gone. You have to get up, please!”

From the corner of her eye,
she saw six more Garhanans running in her direction. Their angry growls filled
the air. She wasn’t afraid. She only felt rage and a desire to avenge Jatred.
With a snarl, the leopard dashed to meet the monsters. Her upper lip was pulled
back from her sharp, blood-stained, teeth. She felt hot air hitting at her
muzzle and rushing past her body. Running with the speed only known to the
Shifters, Jasmira was fast closing the distance between her and the Garhanans.
She didn’t slow down, and neither did they. The ground shook from the beasts’
heavy steps, their snarls full of hatred.

Without hesitation, the
leopard jumped at the biggest of the Garhanans. Her teeth closed on the
monster’s face.

“Jasmira.” Penelope whispered loudly close to Jasmira’s ear and
shook her arm. “Wake up, wake up.”

Jasmira sat up, panting. Warm sun caressed her skin. She looked
around, confused. Sweat dripped from her face and neck. Penelope leaned over
from her chaise longue. Jasmira was shaking and felt like crying. She stared at
her friend’s face, slowly calming down.

“You had a bad dream?”

“Uhm… yeah.” Jasmira blinked and rubbed her eyes with her fists. She
shuddered and reached for her water tumbler, but it was empty.

“Here.” Penelope pulled a bottle of Perrier from the ice-filled
bucket.

Jasmira twisted off the metal cap and took a long swig.

“What was your dream about?”

Jasmira’s face was set in a mask of dismay. She shook her head and said
slowly, “It was awful. Jatred and I fought a Garhanan. We killed it, but it
smacked Jatred really hard. And I think J. died.”

“A Garhanan? Aren’t those the Winter Goddess’s creatures of
torment?” Penelope asked.

“Yeah, I’ve only seen some old drawings of them. But in my dream
they looked so vivid, so scary. I wonder if they can even leave the Winter
Realm… but Jatred and I
weren’t
in
the Winter Realm. It was really hot and green, like in the Summer Realm or the
Human World.”

“I’ve never been to the Summer Realm,” Penelope said wistfully.
“
How about our Goddess’s nasty beasts?
Are they as scary as the Garhanans?”

“I think so. I read about those Summer Mahrasets.” Jasmira nodded. “Grannie
is the President of our Historical Society so she has access to those very old
books about our Race.”

“You know, sometimes I think this is just a bunch of crap. Most of
us never even go to the Summer Realm—”

“It’s true. It’s all there, ”Jasmira interrupted. She watched their friends
playing in the pool or sitting around it. “I need to text Jatred to see if he’s
okay.”

CHAPTER 12

Human World. September 7,
morning.

Erik closed his locker and swung a backpack onto his shoulder. He
wore a bright-red t-shirt, tightly hugging his muscular chest. A head of a gray,
snarling wolf was screen-printed on the front of the shirt. A tall Samoan girl
took a book from the locker next to Erik’s. Thin bracelets of thorns were
tattooed around each of her wrists.

“Hi,
Maéva
.” Erik
smiled, revealing white straight teeth. “What’s up?”

She looked at him, and then rolled her eyes. “I hate Social Studies.
I wish I could skip it.”

He laughed, leaning on the door of his locker, arms crossed over his
chest. “Yeah, good luck with that. I’m sure you can go unnoticed.”

“You know how to make a girl feel special.” She scoffed. “Nice
shirt.”

“Thanks. I ended up in the Principal’s office this morning because
of this shirt. I’m gonna miss part of Social Studies.” Erik chuckled.

“Oh?”

“He wants me to go home and change,” he said with his mind, glancing
around. “Mr.
Eberhardt
said this kind of clothing promotes
animosity
between the Races.” Erik pointed to the wolf on his shirt, grinning.
  

“At least the humans have no clue what’s going on,”
Maéva
answered in the same
mind-communicating manner, shrugging.

“We’re all careful around humans. But it’s kinda cool that Mr.
Eberhardt even wants humans mixed with our Races at school.”

Maéva
gave
a short, humorless laugh. “Seriously, he doesn’t
want
them for kicks, Erik. It’s just another way of hiding the
Shifter communities from the world. If none of the human kids were accepted
here, it could get suspicious.”

“Plus the income, I bet. Since there aren’t so many of us, he needs
other students in here. Can you imagine our tuition without the human students?
Besides, everyone on the staff is a Shifter, so he’s got things under control.”

“I don’t have a problem with humans. They
do
keep that tuition low. Anyway, I guess Mr. Eberhardt is damn
serious about keeping our differences out of his school, so no cool t-shirts.”
She grinned, pointing with her chin to the wolf image on Erik’s shirt.

A group of Summer Shifters passed Erik and
Maéva
. Some of them ignored the Winter kids, talking and laughing;
some shot them unfriendly glances. Erik regarded them coolly.

“I saw Jatred with the Summer Princess. What’s up with that?”
Maéva
asked.

Erik turned his face away from the Winter kids and looked at her. “Nothing.
They just hang out. She’s cool.” He shrugged.

“Yeah? Not everyone thinks that. They aren’t dating or anything?”
Maéva
shook her head and her dense
dreadlocks lazily moved down her back.

“Once you get to know Jasmira, you can see she’s not bad.” Erik
reached into his backpack. “PowerBar?”

Maéva
eyed
him suspiciously but didn’t comment. She took the protein bar and rushed away. “Thanks.
See you in class. Better hurry, second period’s about to start.”

Erik put the ear-buds in his ears and walked along the row of
lockers that stretched all the way to the crossing hallway. He stuffed his
hands in his shorts pockets, glancing around. Students hurried past him, going
in both directions. Some climbed the tall winding staircase to the classrooms
on the second and third floors. Erik’s eyes moved over the twisted wooden
balusters. The balusters supported a thick handrail that bent sharply upward,
coming in a swooping curve to the next floor. A slender, pretty girl stood on
the second floor landing. She rested her hands on the railing. Long red hair
fell almost to her waist. She looked straight at Erik, a smile playing on her
lips.

“Hey,” she said with her mind.

“Hi, there. It’s Penelope, right?” Erik nodded.

“You got it.”

“I’m Erik.”

“I know,” she said, turning around and striding away.

He shook his head, smiling to himself, and then walked toward the
massive double front doors. The doors were two stories high, set between two
flat columns protruding from the walls on both, interior and exterior, sides. A
semi-circular carved arch encased the top of the doors.

Erik opened the door and stepped outside. He shaded his eyes with
his hand and, squinting, looked at the cloudless sky. The door closed with a
dull thud behind him as he started down the wide stone stairs. Strings of green
ivy clung to the solid-stone balustrade on both sides of the steps. The stone
was aged, its natural color richly variegated. Two huge urns flanked the
staircase. Their color scheme matched the balusters.

“Where are you going, bro?” Erik heard Jatred’s voice in his head. He
looked up and saw his friend sitting by the window
in
one of the second floor classrooms.

“Home. I’ll be right back,” he answered with his mind and jumped
over six steps, down to the concrete path.

“Lucky you. I’m stuck in STEM. Let’s shoot some hoops in the
afternoon.”

“Complaining much? I thought it was your favorite subject.” Erik
grinned.
 

Jatred chuckled. “Yep, it is. See ya.”

“Let’s work on that robot, dude. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

***

Human World. September 7, early
afternoon.

Jatred sat on the top of the spiral staircase with his elbows
resting on his knees. Summer, Winter, and human kids walked up and down the
stairs, passing him. He looked up at the ceiling.
His eyes
traced the acanthus
leaf castings clustered in the corners and along the sides.