Page 158 of Wicked Magik

But we couldn’t, not with Vesper gone. My stomach was filled and now my strength had returned ten fold.

Veylor

Yanking on fresh clothes, I felt Oryx's breath hot on my neck as he hovered close behind me. Chaos reigned throughout the manor. Faes darted frantically through hallways, some battling flames with buckets of water while others hauled charred remnants of chairs and tables toward the exits.

Oryx panted heavily as we sprinted toward the lab, his breath ragged with exertion. Through our connection, I sensed the fear. He hated fire, heat ghosting across his skin though no fire touched him.

For once I am glad he didn’t remember the memories of how he died and that he had not gone so far as to unlock the box inside my mind that hid them.

“What can I carry?” He interrupted.

I pulled several bags off the lab room table. They contained only rune dust, a few vials of random potions, blood… to be honest with myself, I didn’t know what I was taking. I just took what I could find and shoved it into my cloak.

“You carry your strength,” I panted and pulled my hair above my head. “That is all we need. Sylvaine is powerful, and he had the element of surprise on us, but look.” I nodded to the window where the moon was now setting. “His power is weakening drastically. Now is the time to strike.”

A long, haunting yowl pierced the chaos. We both spun toward the doorway where George sat watching us, his tail sweeping methodically.

Oryx growled and stomped his foot at him. “Be gone, feline. Go find some rats!”

George hissed, and his hair stood up on end. He came into the lab and jumped onto the exam table, and Oryx jumped back. “What’s wrong with it?”

George’s eyes were no longer dark but bright amethyst. When Oryx tried to touch George with his tail, George swiped at him. Long white claws extended before the strike.

I grabbed Oryx’s tail and pulled it back. “Get away from it, it isn’t a feline!”

Oryx snarled and puffed up its chest. “I’ll destroy the demon! How dare you come near us, dare to hurt the hands that feed you!”

George didn’t do anything back, instead sat down and his tail flicked back and forth and bowed its head.

The cat's fur receded like a tide, revealing luminous alabaster skin beneath. Its form stretched and reshaped hind paws elongating into feet, front paws unfurling into graceful hands, spine extending into a slender human torso. Cascades of silver-white hair materialized, flowing down to veil the newly formed naked figure.

As this is happening, I grabbed on to Oryx and we backed away, watching the scene unfold.

While there are shifters in this realm, they don’t shift like this. It is a painful, gruesome thing to watch and those shifters are more canine than feline.

My throat tightened as we watched the final, seamless transformation. “By the shadows,” I whispered and held onto Oryx’s arm.

“Do I kill it?” He muttered to me.

I shook my head. “No. Not yet, at least.”

As the final lock of hair fell into place, the bowed head rose and the familiar amethyst eyes that were on George earlier were now staring at the both of us.

Oryx stiffened. “He’s naked.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “That isn’t all. I think we just found Vesper’s father.”

Oryx ears twirled. “The cat is her father? Isn’t that illegal? Even for humans? Maybe that is why she is so flexible.”

"For shadow's sake," I said, running my hand down my face. "He wasn’t in his feline form. Someone transformed him." I gestured toward the pale figure who watched us with glittering amethyst eyes, one corner of his mouth quirked upward.

The former feline George cleared his throat. “Am I allowed a towel or are you just going to stare?”

Chapter 51

Veylor

The stranger stood a head taller than me, his lean frame wrapped in nothing but a hastily tied sheet that clung low around his narrow hips. His eyebrows were a pale blue, the same shade as his fingertips.