The drive door opened to a massive tattooed brute of a man. I had seen him around. I believe he was a type of bear shifter, a thug since he had been kicked out of his group. He stood nearly two feet above me, vast and muscular with jeans and a torn shirt. He nodded toward me before opening the back door. The other man was old, ancient, and barely seemed to walk, holding the arm of the bear shifter. His skin was a pale yellow parchment, wrinkles everywhere with dark eyes and his hair long gone. His eyes met mine; he began to head toward us with a wicked toothy smile. He smelled of death, blood, and decay. I wanted to back away from this decrepit thing, this monstrous human. He reeked of blood magic, something holding him together. He was old, ancient, and dangerous, even the bear he had hired to protect him appeared to handle him with care. They approached; I held my ground, not wanting to go closer.
“Little girl caught a mage, what are you to have done that?” he whispered out as a foul odor basted in peppermint whiffed outward.
“Cat, I didn’t see the other cat you asked about. Just the mage.” I wasn’t going to lie; the bear could smell me as I could smell him now that we were closer. The bear’s scent couldn’t compete with the horror of the old man.
“Good, there is the money in the trunk. Keys to unlock this troublemaker?” he asked. I felt the spell in the air, it poured from the man’s pores, it reeked. The magic was foul, old, and it smelled as if something was rotting. I had never smelled magic this wrong. I picked up the keys for the handcuffs to toss to him, even if there were none involved. The old man caught them with alarming speed. “Take her.”
I jumped back to start shifting as the bear reached for me and missed, his paws widening and lengthening. He was fast, the clothing ripped with his fur bleeding off him in shades of browns. He roared in pain as his size continued to grow. The blood mage spoke a handful of words, magic and blood poured off him and toward Caleb. Caleb had already ripped off his helmet and gotten off the bike, casting the first shield as the bright bloody magic hit the protection, sizzling through the magic. Caleb began to become a moving target, something harder to hit and deal with. This had gone to shit quick. I shifted into the jaguar to leap onto the roof of the SUV. The bear swung around to hit the vehicle below me with another roar. Magic flared back and forth as the mages started turning on one another. The old man began to appear younger, healthier than the façade of an elder. He was not helpless at all. I jumped off the SUV to hit the older mage, bouncing off his shield but I started to rip at it as I passed him in a run. The bear began the chase, but he was slower than me and kept hitting things in his way. I heard Caleb yell something about him attacking the bear. I dodged the huge paw coming toward me to turn back toward the blood mage.
Leaping a distance, the bear roared, hit by a spell. I landed and started sliding off the shield around me. I dug my claws in, hissing at the mage below me as I began to shred through the elder's protection. He turned to look up at me, anger flickering in his bloodshot eyes. He began to wave his hand to cast at me. I tore a long streak through the shield and bounced off, only scraped by the spell against my tail. It burned, acidic in its pain. I had to continue darting out of the way now that he was watching me. A massive fire exploded on the remains of his shield spell. He had to turn back to Caleb, who had taken the spell wall down to start casting another attack at him. The bear lumbered forward to charge at Caleb. I couldn’t get to him in time, Caleb would have to handle the bear as I slunk to the back of the mage to attack the back of his knees, clawing through ligaments and muscles. He screamed in pain as blood exploded from the claw’s marks over his shredded knees. I heard the bear roaring again, but I kept moving. Another spell hit my side; acid burned through my fur onto my skin. I staggered under the pain and flare of blood leaking from my side. Hissing, I bounced, trying to avoid hurting myself worse. Turning, I could see the elder mage screaming on the ground, his blood soaking the soil, bubbling into the grass and pavement below. He was toxic to everything, even nature itself.
I let my instincts take over, following the cat to hunt the wounded prey. Stalking toward the wounded man, I went for the skull to crush it under my large fangs. I wrapped around the horribly scented man to crunch down, splitting the head wide open and spitting out the horrid blood from my mouth. It
