Page 69 of Shifters Unifying

I darted into the bedroom, pressed myself flat against the wall, and slid toward the open window for a peek. Thirteen forms surrounded our cabin, all glowing except for their blackened, rotting arms and legs. The animals inside me snapped and snarled and growled. I couldn’t see them all, somehow, I knew there were thirteen.Dammit!

Acheron’s shifter-mages must have been following one or both of us. That meant they were watching Six-Mile and had to have an encampment nearby. If only we could figure out where.

Logan burst into the room. “We have to get out of here.”

“There’s no way without getting caught. We’re surrounded.”It can’t end here.

“Do you have a better idea?” he barked.

“Link with me,” I rasped. “It’s the only way.”

Logan extended his hand, and I grasped it, drawing on a double rush of shifter energy and magic through the bondbetween us. Energy flooded him, lighting his eyes with a bright blue fire, before it leached through to me.

Pain poured through him, me, and back again. Would it always be such torture to link with him? The bond made sex better than anything else, but it made this bad. My knees threatened to buckle, and Logan stumbled into the wall.Fuuuuckkk…

More. I have to have more to take them out all at once.Tears leaked from my eyes, and a whimpering sob racked me.I’m sorry.

Do it.He threw back his head and howled. His skin bulged and split. All the bulbs in the cabin flickered to life.

“Come on,” I yelped, catching his arm and dragging him toward the front porch. “We have to hurry. I can’t hang on for long.”Neither can you.

The door slammed open, and I stepped out onto the porch with my head held high. Logan staggered after me and leaned against the front of the exterior wall.

I’ll win this—we’ll win this—because we must.

I’ll allow nothing else. I am the multimorph.

I leapt down into the clearing in front of the little cabin. The moon shone on the figures of the would-be murderers. Acheron might need me alive, but he wouldn’t hesitate to flay the muscles from my mate’s bones, little by little.

I won’t let that happen, Logan.

Don’t think of me, my love.

That’s like asking me not to breathe.

Thirteen burning stones left their palms, sailed over the tiny house, and slammed into the ground around us. One slammed into Logan’s chest, and it burst, sending supernatural fire over his skin. He sagged against the building, and I hissed as the sensation filtered to me.

The stench of rot and decay assailed my nose, and I wretched, spilling vomit down my front. But I didn’t have time to care.

Quickly, I erected several layers of sound warding between us and the mages, hoping against hope that it would be enough to block the energy. Thirteen more flew, striking my magic. Then again. Each impact threatened to break through my warding.

“Don’t worry about me,” Logan wheezed. “Do what you have to, my love.”

Electric charge snapped through the atmosphere overhead. Thunder rumbled far away. Suddenly, I understood what I could do. Raising my hands toward the sky, I drew on the primal energy in the earth, determined to become a lightning rod for the incredible amount of energy I needed. The moon went dark.

Behind me, Logan cried out.

A burst of light blinded me, and lava burned through my bones.

Logan roared, and the sensation of energy bursting through me, to him, and shooting to me once more, amplified by the bond. But it was enough.

Ten…

Eleven…

Twelve…

Thirteen lightning strikes slammed down from above, incinerating each of the mages around the cabin. A thousand tortured screams pierced the air, and they dropped to the ground, smoldering. Almost immediately, the figures crumbled, breaking down into piles of ash.