Page 91 of Shifters Unifying

We mixed up the moves, beat for beat. Move, move, and countermove, learning to read our sparring partners. Fighting reminded me of sex. A gesture here, a darting gaze, the nearly imperceptible signs of an attack or defense.

Ahmie glanced to the side, and I bit back a gasp at her misstep, bring my staff around to knock her legs out from under her. She slammed into the dirt, landing on her back, and I brought the end of my stick down in the center of her chest without making contact.

“Dead, you are,” I said.

“So, I am.” Her smile relayed no irritation. “A good morning of training.”

I lowered my weapon and offered her my hand, pulling her to her feet with a quick yank. ”Enough! Rest your weapons.”

The group stopped and shoved their staffs into the ground beside them. All except for Evie. She landed awhack!to Levi’s upper arm. The sound echoed in the clearing. Salali laughed from her spot, seated on the sidelines.

“She said stop,” he bellowed. “Besides, you weren’t actually supposed to hit me.”

“I hit you after she called an end to the sparring, so there were no more rules,” Evie quipped. “Maybe I wanted to hear you yell a little after all that grunting and sweating.”

Ahmie rolled her eyes and leaned close to me as though she meant to share a secret. Instead, she kept her voice loud. “Methinks my sister is inviting mouthy Levi to her drey. What better place to hear him yell?”

“I am not,” Evie cried.

Levi’s eyes widened, and he studied Evie as he rubbed his upper arm. “Well, now, that might be different.” He turned to Benjamin. “It did sound a little like a pick-up line, didn’t it?”

Evie pressed her lips into a tight line and slammed the end of her stick into the ground, burying it several inches.

Without warning the others, I drew a large portion of shifter magic and let the energy fill me. The others chittered quietly, excited by the rush. A burst of wind tore through and cooled the moisture on my skin.

“Do you trust me?” I asked softly.

“Yes, multimorph,” she murmured. “You have my permission.”

I placed my hand on Ahmie’s shoulder, taking a lesson from my last failure and visualizing long strands of magic going into her.

Her mouth fell open in a silent ‘o.’ Her eyes glowed bright.

“Can you feel that?” I asked.

She nodded, her face awash in euphoria. “I’ve never felt it like that before. Is that how much magic courses through you every time? It’s a flood.”

“Not all of it,” I said. “A portion.”

She blinked. “That’s what happened before.”

I gave a slow nod. “I grew distracted and didn’t keep it under control. Without control, too much leapt from me into them. I didn’t know my cells held so much more…”

“So much more than the rest of us,” she breathed.

I gave her a sheepish look. “Instinct often leads me to the well but doesn’t always explain how to best share a drink.”

Carefully, I controlled her morph from human to squirrel and back again. The absence of crunching bones seemed to surprise the others. Then I withdrew the energy and released my magic. “That’s how it should have gone. Shall we try two?”

Evie stepped forward. “I’m ready.”

Ahmie and Evie shifted together, nose and tails twitching.

When Evie returned to her human form, she said, “I never knew shifting could be so peaceful. It’s always so… so…”

“Violent.” Sweat beaded on my upper lip, and my chest heaved from the strain of maintaining control.

“I wonder why that is,” she said.