Hot Blooded

rushed through me, my body needing the natural protection of my Lycan form. I took it greedily,

fortifying myself as best I could as I continued to tumble down the embankment. Once I leveled out, I

threw my arms to the sides and clawed the earth to slow my final decent. The tumble felt like it lasted an eternity. I hadn’t realized we had climbed that high.

I slid to a stop among a heap of rocks and debris, only a few feet from the river. Fuck. I spit dust and pebbles out of my mouth. My face was bloody and my hair was matted around my shoulders and I

was covered with gravel. “Jesus,” I muttered. “Great idea, Tyler. Let’s bring the mountain down on top of us. It’s the perfect way to get rid of the Scorpers.”

As soon as the words left my mouth, I heard a rattling noise.

It was close.

I lifted my head slowly. Was it too much to ask that they’d all be crushed to death? I spotted four of them creeping over the mess of boulders, only ten feet from my face. They appeared to be completely unharmed. My wolf snapped her jaws at me to get up and get moving. No argument there.

I jumped to my feet and took a tentative step backward. My body was bruised and dried blood caked my arms. I was regenerating, but it would take a minute.

The water splashed behind me.

I whipped my head around and there were so many Naiads disturbing the surface it looked like a breeding ground for angry eels. Their seaweed tresses danced back and forth in a jumble of mossy green. I’d already done the Naiad thing; there would be no repeat performance.

Naiads behind, Scorpers in front.

Channeling my wolf, I showed my teeth and snarled toward the stream. “Do not fuck with me. Do you hear me!” I yelled to the rippling water. “You will not like what you find.”

“Hold on,” Danny said from somewhere close. My gazed landed to my left on a group of small river birch nestled right next to the stream. Danny rolled out of a pile of rocks. He sat up and brushed himself off. “That was quite a ride, wasn’t it? Wasn’t expecting that—”

“Danny, look out!” I yelled right as a green blur darted from the water.

I leapt into the air.

The Naiad had shot out of the water quickly, but I tracked it as I moved. In my Lycan form, I was just as fast. Its long arms reached for Danny, its body already shriveling out of its environment. I

screamed as we collided. Danny rolled out of the way. The Naiad’s horrid face met mine, its eyes putrid in their moldy sliminess. The thing barely weighed anything. My canines were down, my claws slid into the soft, squishy flesh of its shoulders, poking though the other side.

I had to stifle a wave of nausea as we hit the ground. It struggled beneath me, its gaping mouth snapping its rows of sharp teeth open and closed, its tongue like a giant green worm wiggling back and forth.

I snarled through my raspy throat. “If you tell your people to back off, I will let you go. We don’t mean to harm you, but I will do what is necessary.”

The thing continued to thrash beneath me. I had no idea if it understood me. We were right next to the water and waves started churning in earnest on the surface, the angry Naiads wanting their comrade back. I gazed down into its face, watching as its eyes shriveled in its sockets. This one was an adult for sure. It was twice the size as the one I’d fought in the water. Pieces of its flesh were deteriorating at an alarming rate. They were flaking off and falling to the ground. “I don’t want to kill you,” I snarled. “Give me a sign you will not attack and I will toss you back in the water! Do you hear me?”

The thing stilled.

I knew I had only moments to decide. I shifted myself off of it to see if it would fight, but it didn’t move. It was too weak. Its hideous arms resembled shriveled raisin skin. I bent down without thinking, scooped it up, and carried it to the edge of the shoreline. It was long and gangly, but it weighed nothing. “We want no war with you,” I growled, my vocal cords straining. I tossed the shriveled Naiad back into the water. I had no idea if it would live or die. Once it hit the surface it was pulled under immediately and the water calmed.

But in less than a few seconds, heads popped up again, almost like a choreographed ballet.

I backed up.

The water swished like a wave pool, and at the exact same moment hundreds of gaping mouths opened up to face the starlit sky.

Shit, this doesn’t look good. My wolf agreed with a howl.

I took a few more steps backward as one solid chord of sound pierced the air. A single shrill note,

beautiful in its intensity. Like a high note in a choral number, perfectly pitched. It went on for three beats and ended abruptly as every single head slipped below the surface at once.

Not even a ripple remained.

There was no evidence there had just been an army of supernatural beings beneath the surface.

What was that? Did they leave? My wolf growled, as unsure as I was about what had just happened.

“Thanks,” Danny panted, coming up to me, his body still healing from the damage from the fall.

“In my shape that thing might have been able to take me and gobble me up.”

“You would’ve had it handled,” I said. “They’re like jelly out of the water. Come on. We have to get out of here.” I slowly morphed my body back into my human form as I took a step forward. “We have to start climbing.”

“Jessica,” Danny yelled. “Watch out!” His hands reached me an instant too late.

The Scorper had wound itself around my foot, all its barbs digging in, easily piercing deeply into my ankle. The sting burned like molten lava, blinding me with its intensity. Scorching-hot coals raced up my leg, infesting my body with its poison spell in an instant.

I fell to the ground.

Then the thing was miraculously off my leg. Someone was lifting me. There was yelling and screaming.

“It’s going to be okay. Do you hear me?”

Tyler?

Danny’s calm murmurs floated over me, but were replaced by a horrid screeching inside my brain.

My whole head ached, quickly filling with a thick, orange haze. It enveloped my wolf. She was fighting, working hard to clear it, but it wasn’t easing. The haze just kept getting thicker.

I was transferred into a new pair of arms. “You must stay strong.” Naomi’s voice echoed in my ears like thunder, her mouth right next to my ear. I latched on to it like a lifeline. “I am taking you up the mountain. You have had Selene inside you already, Ma Reine. Use it to your advantage. She will have left antibodies in her spells, and if these spiders are her creations, you can fight them using her essence. The same essence that ran through your veins a short time ago. Find it. ”

My human side had trouble processing her words, but my wolf started to howl, clawing at the ground in my mind, trying to uncover something we had buried deeply. I saw the glimmer of red as she kept digging, her paws moving quickly, the orange so thick I almost couldn’t see her. Then like a fountain, red sprang forth again, its tendrils sprouting in the air like a vicious web. My wolf jumped back, letting it flow outward.

My back arched, my spine bowed backward. The intensity of the reaction was forcing me to change. I embraced it.

Anything to stop the howling pain.

The red veins of Selene’s essence hit the orange poison, and where they met, it burned clear,

making a pssst sound as each tendril seared a little more. My muscles danced under my skin.

“That’s it,” Naomi murmured. “Fight this. You must fight. Use your power.”

My body arched again, my full change coming on fast. My legs bucked, shifting, my clothes tore,

and my jaw lengthened. I tried to calm myself to make it easier, but that was impossible. I knew if I

couldn’t clear my body of her vile spell, I wouldn’t wake up.

This was it.

“That’s it, Ma Reine. Let it come,” Naomi spoke softly.