Melted By The Bear: A Paranormal Shifter Romance (11 page)

“Stupid, stupid girl. You’ve probably killed my son, and now you want to play hero. I hope you die out there. I hope they rip you to shreds.”

If a person could shoot knives from their eyes, Hazel was doing it. I honestly expected her to come charging at me any second, to slap me or spit in my face. But, after making her wish for my death clear, she just scowled at me a moment or two, breathing heavily, before turning heel and dashing away.

Foolish and stupid or not, I was still determined to go through with my plan, and I knew there wasn’t a second to waste. With my sheet billowing out behind me, I took off down the hallway to my room. Once there, I yanked open a dresser drawer, pulled out some clothes, and threw them on, heart pounding loudly enough for me to hear it above the sound of the siren still blaring outside. To my extreme irritation, I’d just buttoned a pair of jeans when I realized I hadn’t used the bathroom yet that morning and my bladder was about to explode.

“Dammit.”

After a fast trip in there, I pulled my long hair up into a ponytail, jammed some tennis shoes on my feet, and grabbed a set of keys and my phone from my dresser before racing out of my bedroom and across the house to the kitchen, where I pulled a butcher knife from a wooden block. Then, running again, but with the knife held out to my side in case I happened to trip, I made my way out to the enormous living room, where I grabbed a long fireplace poker with sharp, pointed tip. The perfect instrument for gouging an eye out.

Holding both my weapons out to my sides, probably a fearless, powerful pose, even though I was really doing it just because I was scared of falling and stabbing myself, I sprinted through the house to the front door. And there, I really became scared, but not of my own weapons. Picturing the shadow bears ripping me to shreds as Hazel hoped, I let my feet slow, then stop completely. I recalled how terrifying AntiCormack looked in his shadow bear form when I’d encountered him in the woods, and I remembered how it had felt to think that I was taking my last breaths. I never wanted to feel that way again; I never wanted to even look at a shadow bear again.

I
had
to, though, and I knew it. Seemingly of its own accord, one of my feet had turned a degree or two, in the direction of the shorter of two hallways adjacent to the staircase. At the end of this shorter hallway was an alcove with an entrance door to the basement. The basement, where there was a panic room with a steel door, as Cormack had said. I’d be safe there, at least for a while. But, gritting my teeth, I forced my foot to turn from that direction. Then, after clenching the fireplace poker between my knees, I forced my hand to unlock the door and open it. Then, I forced my feet to move me across the threshold.

If it hadn’t been for the siren still wailing from somewhere in town, and a sense of hysteria rising in my chest, it actually would have been a lovely morning. The sun’s first rays were painting the sky in shades of orange and pink; the orange, red, and yellow leaves of the many trees in the yard were gently fluttering in a breeze, some of them floating to the lawn, and the siren was just far enough away that I could hear a little birdsong coming from dense shrubbery bordering the wraparound porch.

Not wanting to allow myself to change my mind or have some sort of panic-induced freak-out that would send me running back indoors, I slammed the door behind me, pulled my keys from my pocket, and quickly locked the deadbolt before tossing the keys into the shrubbery. Now there was no turning back. Not unless I wanted to crawl under the shrubbery on my hands and knees to find my keys, which, to be honest, I kind of did. I wanted to snatch them up and run back inside and down to the basement, but I refused to let myself give in to the impulse. I just had to continue to make my feet move, hoping that AntiCormack had instructed his shadow bears not to kill me, and hoping that if that wasn’t the case, I’d be able to protect myself and do some damage with my weapons.

Holding the poker and the knife well out to my sides, but clutching the handles tightly, I began striding down the long driveway that led from the mansion to the short paved lane that connected with the main road through town. My plan was to stick close to the trees once I reached the lane, maybe even walking behind them, thoroughly covered; then, once I reached the “town” part of the village, I’d weave my way through the little shops and businesses, walking behind them if I could, until I found a suitable ambush spot, probably an alley. I’d then lie in wait until I saw a shadow bear to attack. In the meantime, during my walk down the long driveway, I’d be keeping an eye on the tall hill to the west of the valley to see what was going on, because plenty already was.

Hundreds and hundreds of black shapes, just tiny dots to me as far away as I was, were charging up the steep hill, beginning to group together to form one large dot. From this large dot, surely made up of Cormack and his bears, I could hear a low rumble that sounded something like thunder, even above the siren. I could almost feel it, too, as a faint vibration that passed beneath my feet. Cormack and his men were roaring, charging up the hill full-steam, ready to meet an enemy they couldn’t even see yet.

I briefly wondered if my help in town would even be needed. As fierce and powerful as Cormack and his several hundred shifters sounded and looked, and considering that they greatly outnumbered the attacking bears, I wondered if they’d take out AntiCormack and all his shadow bears almost immediately, preventing any of them from even getting near the heart of town.

I knew better, though, or at least I was pretty sure I did. I’d started to believe in the prophecy a bit too much to think that changing its outcome would be as simple as a one-minute fight. Besides, I’d seen and heard enough about AntiCormack to know that he was sneaky and wily and out for his brother’s land and blood. He wouldn’t stop until Blackthorn City and the entire nation of Michiana was under his command, or he was dead, of that I was certain. I was also fairly certain that he’d probably told his men to try to circumvent Cormack in order to enter town and cause havoc, which made me think that there may be
something
I could do to try to atone for my part in setting the prophecy in motion, and do it in a way that I might be able to have the element of surprise. I knew I wouldn’t have
that
if I tried to join Cormack and his men charging up the hill. I knew
that
would just lead to me probably being protected by a ring of bears, or dragged back to the mansion.

As if the prophecy-tempting act of Cormack and me sleeping together hadn’t been selfish enough, I wasn’t blind to the fact that if I got into serious trouble in town and needed to be rescued, that rescue might take Cormack or some of his men away from the fight where they were needed to help others. I also wasn’t blind to the fact that if I got into serious trouble and needed to be rescued, that rescue might not even be possible. Cormack and his men might be busy, or they might not be able to hear me shout. In fact, now that I was thinking about it, and now that I’d seen where the fight would likely be taking place, I was almost positive they wouldn’t be able to hear me shout. I wouldn’t be able to reach Cormack by cell phone, either, because even though I had mine in my pocket, he didn’t have his on him while in bear form. He wouldn’t have it back until he shifted back into human form, clothes and phone shifting with him.

But the thing was that with my plan to do an ambush, and an ambush of a lone, straggling shadow bear, I didn’t plan on getting into serious trouble. I didn’t plan on needing rescue. And if I did, I knew that would just be tough for me. It would almost serve me right for what I’d done. I obviously didn’t want to die, was just as terrified of that prospect as when I’d encountered AntiCormack in the woods, but nothing was going to stop me from trying to make what I’d done right. It really had almost felt like an inevitability that I had to at least try. I could never live with myself knowing that I’d brought about everyone’s “ruin” by flaunting a prophecy, and then had done nothing to try to fix things.

When I was about halfway down the long driveway, I saw something like a dark, shadowy mist crest the top of the tall hill to the west, then start descending to meet Cormack and his men, who were still charging up the hill. I didn’t need binoculars to see what exactly this mist was made up of. I knew it was surely AntiCormack and his men, grouped tightly together, appearing as a dark cloud from a distance. This dark cloud began picking up speed, closing the distance between Cormack and his shifters, and I started to say a silent prayer for their safety.

I didn’t finish it, though. Because just then, the sound of someone shouting my name jolted my focus away from the hill and toward the house.

With her statuesque, well-rounded figure appearing deceptively small a hundred-some feet away, Cook stood on the porch at the front of the cabin-mansion, hands cupped around her mouth. “Please come back! Aria!”

I swore under my breath, stifling a groan. I couldn’t help but feel like I’d just been caught sneaking out of the house by my mom. But, like the single time when this had actually happened during my teenage years, I couldn’t be that mad. I’d known that my mom had just been worried for my safety, and I knew the same was true about Cook at present. Still, unlike I’d done at seventeen, I had no intention of heading back to the house this time.

Taking a few steps back up the driveway, I set my weapons down and then took a cue from Cook by cupping my hands around my mouth. “I’m fine! I know what I’m doing! Just go back inside and get down to the basement!”

“What?”

Again, I swore under my breath, fighting a rising tide of irritation. “Just get back inside! Go down to the basement! I have a plan, and I know what I’m doing!”

“Say that again! I can’t quite hear you!”

Though she’d never said anything about it, I’d noticed that she
could
be slightly hard of hearing sometimes, and unfortunately, this seemed to be one of those times, because I could hear
her
just fine, even above the rising and falling peal of the siren. And this, despite the fact that at times, I wondered if six years in a band hadn’t left
me
with slight hearing loss.

Or, I reasoned, she might simply be trying to get me back up to the house by making me walk closer to her to be heard. But if that was the case, I had no intention of falling for it.

Feet rooted firmly in place, I cupped my hands to my mouth and just yelled harder this time. “Everything is under control! I am executing a plan! Go down to the basement!”

“Just get inside! We need to get down to the basement!”

“No!”

“Just get in here!”

“I said no! I will not!”

“Yes! Come here right now!”

“No!”

Now I
really
felt like I was having a teenage fight with my mom. Maybe even a toddler tantrum.

Seemingly exasperated, Cook had dropped her hands from her mouth, but she now picked them back up and shouted again. “Would you just come up here? I can’t even hear you!”

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, fighting a toddler-style meltdown, or at least a good stomp of my foot.

“Aria, please! The mansion will be the shadow bears’ first target if they’re able to get past Commander Blackthorn! Just get up here!”

I took another deep breath, filling my lungs deeply for the loudest shouting I’d probably ever done in my life. “No! I am
not
coming back up to the house! I am
not
!
You
get down to the basement! This second! And I’m sorry I’m shouting, and I’m sorry I’m sounding so harsh, but I
need
to do this! I have to try to help turn back the tide of what I started! So, I’m leaving now! Goodbye!”

I knelt and grabbed my weapons, intending to whip around and continue down the driveway without another glance at Cook, but as I rose, I couldn’t help but see her out of the corner of my eye. Longish gray bob swinging, she was making her way down the golden oak porch steps in a navy blue robe with a pale pink, ankle-length nightgown peeking out from beneath. Frowning, she appeared to be muttering to herself, seemingly just as irritated and exasperated as I was.

Now I couldn’t even make an attempt at stifling a groan; I just groaned. Not that Cook could probably hear me. I didn’t want her following me into danger, but I wasn’t about to head back to the house, either. I didn’t even intend to get close enough to where she could possibly drag me in. Even though she was around sixty, being a larger woman and much taller than me, I knew she could probably do it.

“Cook, just go back! Please! Just go back!”

Now storming down the driveway toward me, it didn’t look at all like she was going to.

“Cook, dammit all....”

I hadn’t even bothered shouting that time. It was obvious further shouting was pointless. I’d more like sighed-slash-whimpered my words, miles beyond frustrated. Cook seemed done shouting, too, and besides, we were now almost within plain loud talking distance. Still striding toward me, face fixed in a motherly sort of scowl, as if ready to scold me good, she was probably only twenty or twenty-five feet away from me now. Just twenty or twenty-five feet away when I saw a shadowy form creep out from behind a large sycamore not ten feet to her left.

CHAPTER 11

“Get away from her!” Brandishing my butcher knife and fireplace poker, I took a few rapid steps toward Cook and the shadow bear, who’d frozen at the sound of my voice. “I mean it! You get the hell away from her!”

Cook had done the opposite of freezing at the sound of my voice; she’d jumped a mile. But
now
she was frozen, her body anyway. Ever so slowly, she was turning her face to her left, mouth open and expression a mask of terror. When she saw the shadow bear, she jumped again, yelping out some words that sounded like
oh, no
.

I glanced from her to the bear and realized that I recognized him. Unless all shadow bears looked identical, which I thought unlikely, I was once again face-to-face with AntiCormack. The eyes of this bear were the same pale gray as his when I’d seen him in shifter form before. Same jet-black fur, and same size, which was fairly large. Same almost human-looking sneer. It had to be him. And the way that he was looking at me, eyes glinting in the bright morning sun, told me that it definitely was.

Forcing myself to be brave despite a sudden trembling that was nearly making my teeth chatter, I took another several steps forward, though this time slowly, still brandishing my weapons. “I’m not kidding! You get away!”

If he lunged at Cook, I was prepared to rush him and stab him, or smash his head in with the steel fireplace poker. Maybe even both, one right after the other.
If
I could be fast enough, that is.

I didn’t need to be, though, at least not right then. Within a blink, AntiCormack shifted into human form and stood maybe a dozen feet away from me, dressed in boots, battered jeans, and a dark t-shirt, the same as Cormack’s usual uniform. I couldn’t deny that he was handsome, too, though really, nowhere near approaching Cormack’s level of handsomeness. Besides, even though I knew in my brain that he was handsome, I couldn’t really
see
him that way. He was a murderer of innocent men, women, and children, as well as a person who obviously delighted in terrorizing people just for sport, which made him only disgust me. I could only see him as some sort of subhuman. Not that it even mattered how I saw him. All that mattered to me at present was that he didn’t hurt Cook.

He didn’t make any moves to do that right then. He just stood right where he’d shifted, smirking at me. “I see we’re out playing hero today. How exciting. How dramatic.” He grinned at me, actually moving one of his eyelids in the hint of a wink. “Now, is this because you’re feeling a little guilty about your role in the unfolding of the prophecy, or is it because sharing a bed with my brother, which I’m sure you’ve done by now, because I can actually smell my brother’s stench on you, was such a disappointing letdown that you decided to attempt ‘suicide by shadow bear.’”

Though similar in tone, his voice wasn’t as deep as Cormack’s, but there was something else different about it, too, that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Maybe it was just a clear edge of malice, despite the jokey-type things he was saying, which were definitely not amusing me. In fact, my blood was beginning to boil, lava joining the adrenaline that was already coursing through my veins, helping me maintain the strength needed to hold my weapons aloft.

I didn’t respond to what AntiCormack had said, but I did speak to him. “Leave this property. Right now.”

He grinned again, though the movement of his mouth was accompanied by a snort. “Leave, or else what? You’ll poke me with your little marshmallow roaster?”

“It’s a fireplace poker.”

I was ninety-nine percent sure. I supposed it
was
a little thinner and pointier than the others had been, though.

“And I’ll stab your eye out with it.”

Gray eyes glittering in the fiery light of sunrise, AntiCormack feigned terror, pulling his hands up to cover his cheeks. “Ooh. Oh, my. I am truly
so
scared.”

I was truly getting
so
pissed off.

“You want to test me, asshole? You want to
see
if I can stab your eye out with this thing?”

Immediately, as if he’d been just waiting for an invitation to test me, AntiCormack, began creeping closer to Cook, who seemed to have been frozen solid, mouth closed and eyes wide as dinner plates.

Arm shaking with the strain my muscles were under, though I barely even felt it, I lifted the fireplace poker aloft. “Stop. Not one more step, AntiCormack.”

I almost wanted him to take another step. I
wanted
to attack him. I wanted to bury the poker deep within his eye socket.

But, to my surprise, he stopped in the theatrical tiptoeing he’d been doing, a very bizarre movement for a man who was sturdily-built and well-muscled. I couldn’t tell if he’d stopped because I’d told him to, or because more thunder-like roaring and growling could be heard coming from the direction of the tall hill to the west. Apparently, the fight, which now looked to be mostly going near the base of the hill, was intensifying. With my focus on Cook and AntiCormack, I’d honestly forgotten it was even going on.

Not seeming concerned about my weaponry in the least, AntiCormack turned away from me for just a second to glance at the hundreds of tiny, distant, dark figures engaged in the fight. Then he smiled at me, revealing teeth just as white and straight as Cormack’s. “Nothing like the roar of a prophecy playing out, is there? Hopefully, maybe Cormack’s already dead by now. If he is, though, I won’t be burying the two of you together as a mated couple, and that’s because I won’t be killing you today. I want to keep you alive a while longer just to make sure the ball is definitely rolling on the prophecy, and I may even keep you alive a while after that. Something kind of hot about you, even beyond your body and face.
This
old bitch, though...” AntiCormack glanced at Cook before looking at me again, smiling. “Well, I’m here. Why not?”

Several things happened within a second or two. AntiCormack shifted into bear form and began charging at Cook, growling. She screamed, falling back on her rear. I yelled, hurling the poker at AntiCormack, since we were still separated by about ten feet. At the same time, something strange happened. And strange was putting it very mildly.
Utterly incomprehensible
might have been more like it.

As my poker-javelin missed AntiCormack because he was too fast, some kind of silvery, lavender-purple, crackling electric light came out of my still-extended hand, right out of the center of my palm. And this, whatever it was, didn’t miss AntiCormack. In fact, it almost seemed to seek him out. As if light could
seek
, as if it had a mind of its own. Yet, that was exactly what it had done. It had flowed from my hand not straight out, like a laser, but in a zigzag sort of way, like a lightning bolt. And all these zigs and zags had made the light hit AntiCormack, even though he’d been charging toward Cook almost fast as lightning himself at the time.

Right away, AntiCormack went down, hitting the ground not two feet from Cook. With his gray eyes nearly as wide as hers, he just remained prone on the lawn, motionless, as if stunned. But then, after a moment or two, he slowly turned his head to look at me, snarling.

I didn’t have a clue what had happened to make purple electric light shoot out of my palm, but I didn’t hesitate in trying to make it do so again.

Heart hammering in my ears, at least ten beats for every siren wail, I mimicked the action of hurling a javelin at AntiCormack, yelling, just as I’d done before. But nothing happened. And AntiCormack slowly began getting to his feet, giving his head a quick shake, as if coming out of a daze.

With my already-rapid heartbeat accelerating further still, I tried the javelin-throwing motion again. “Purple light! Go!”

I hadn’t even meant to say the words that I had. Even in my state of quickly-rising panic, I realized they sounded absolutely idiotic. They’d just come out. But not even the faintest shimmer of purple light from my hand had.

Eyes narrowed, AntiCormack began lumbering over to me, and I gave it one more shot, moving my arm like I was throwing a javelin.

“Purple streak! Now! Now!”

I screamed as if I was suddenly going to utter the right combination of words that would make it happen again, as if I’d even said any words before it had happened. But now that I was saying ridiculous-sounding things, I couldn’t seem to stop, despite the fact that my throat somehow felt as if it were closing, like I couldn’t quite get enough air through it. I was sweating buckets, too, even though the October morning was crisp to the point of almost being cold.

AntiCormack was maybe five feet away from me now, and I tried one last time, dropping my butcher knife and javelin-ing with both hands.

“Zap! Purple zap!”

It wasn’t going to happen again, and I realized it, beginning to walk backward and away from AntiCormack. I also realized that I probably shouldn’t have dropped the knife. Maybe he wouldn’t kill me, but I had the feeling I was about to be hurt. Maybe accidentally killed. Maybe dragged off to AntiCormack’s village, Stonywood, where he could slowly torture me and teach me a lesson about zapping him even a single time.

I wasn’t going to turn and run, though, even though I
was
walking backward. For one, I knew it’d be pointless to try to outrun him. For another thing, turning to flee just seemed cowardly, and despite my fear, despite feeling as if my heart was now beating so fast it might explode, I didn’t want AntiCormack to see me as a coward. If he was going to hurt me, he was going to have to hurt me to my face.

Resisting the urge to turn my walking backward into running backward, I suddenly realized that at least during the attack that was likely soon about to happen, Cook could be saved. She could run to the house.

Unable to pull my gaze from AntiCormack, who was still lumbering toward me, alternately snarling and snapping his mighty jaws, I could really only see Cook out of the very corner of my eye, but I knew she was still on the ground, probably still stunned; so, I shouted, hoping she could hear me above the still-pealing siren.

“Cook, go! Get to the house!”

“I can’t!”

Wondering exactly why she couldn’t, I glanced up at her for just a fraction of a second, but that fraction was enough to see what was happening. Dark shapes, maybe a dozen of them, were lumbering out from the tall sycamores bordering each side of the driveway. Several of them were already forming a circle around her, blocking any path of escape.

That’s when it all really hit me. My being thawed had started the prophecy in motion, and if there had ever been hope of preventing its fulfillment, Cormack and I had completely blown it. No wonder Hazel hated me and nearly the entire town had seen me as a bringer of doom. They’d been smart. They’d known what was up. Now everyone was going to be brought to “ruin,” which I suspected meant that nearly everyone would die, including Cormack, which caused an ache in my chest, even in the midst of my panic. This ache got even worse when I thought of Jane, who’d trusted me and believed in me, and sweet little Natalie, with her red braids. Abby at the bookstore, with her dreams of having a baby. Cook on the lawn, who’d been so kind to me. All the friendly, boisterous kids who’d come to Halloween decorating day at the bookstore. They all might be killed. I knew the best
I
could personally hope for would be to live as some sort of sex slave to AntiCormack, which might make death preferable.

In an instant, my anger was back, pushing away my fear. My anger actually felt like some force moving through me, making me fling my hands out even before I really knew what I was doing, or why.

“Leave her alone!”

In addition to my anger, now the silvery-purple light was back. And not just back, but blazing. Crackling with audible electricity, it shot from both my palms in bright twin streams, zigzagging like lightning and connecting with the two shadow bears closest to Cook, making them immediately fall to the ground.

Not a tenth of a second later, AntiCormack was flying through the air, coming right at me, with a thunderous growl so loud it hurt my ears. I hadn’t even known that bears could leap. Then again, I hadn’t known I could shoot incapacitating light from my hands.

I didn’t waste any time shooting a jet of it at AntiCormack, and not a moment too soon. When he dropped from the air to the ground, he was so close I could see shimmery purple sparks reflected on the tips of his bared, razor-sharp teeth.

After that, I began purple zapping as quickly and easily as if it were something I’d done nearly every day of my life, like tying shoes. All I had to do was just thrust a palm in the direction of a shadow bear, just like the non-verbal sign for
stop
, and a jet of silvery purple light would flow seemingly from some hidden source in my palm. The direction of my
stop
movement didn’t even have to be very precise. Just the “general direction” was fine. The light seemed to have a way of connecting with the bear I wanted to take down, no matter what.

At first, it had the effect of making them fall to the ground for just a few seconds, but then they started staying down for ten to twenty seconds, some of them even longer than that. And when they were down, they seemed paralyzed, though not unconscious, with eyes still open but staring at nothing, as if my zapping was putting them in some sort of a stunned daze.