Something rippled over him, and the circle came down.
Lightning tore through the night, catching the aufhocker in the belly. It whimpered, the first sound Mack had heard it make all night. He shivered at the animal sound of pain.
Jude threw another bolt, and this time the creature didn’t move.
Mack lowered his head. The relief that it was over didn’t rush through him the way it should. They’d survived, but all he felt was exhaustion and sadness that the aufhocker had died. Wild animals were always trouble when they got too close to humans. This was no different.
Many people would hunt and kill him if they knew what he was, even though he didn’t kill cows or stalk people.
Jude put a hand on his shoulder. His fingers caught in the blood-sticky fur, but he didn’t pull away. “What do you need?”
Food. Rest. A way to forget.
It took a moment for him to gather the energy he needed to shift back to human. The pain as the injuries healed with the shift had him gritting his teeth and sucking in short, sharp breaths. Where his skin had been torn open, it burned. When he was human again, he was smeared in blood but no longer bleeding. He remained kneeling, letting the dizziness pass. He was lucky he hadn’t passed out while shifting.
Jude swore. “Do you have a first-aid kit?”
“I’m fine.” The wounds might have healed, but the scars would remain for longer. He rubbed at the blood to prove they weren’t open wounds.
Jude’s eyes widened. “I didn’t know you could heal like that. The way the aufhocker did.”
As much as he didn’t like to share shifter secrets, it was clear Jude had worked it out. “It’s a kind a shifter and followed shifter behavior. Conserve strength by being in the natural form. Shift to heal.” Being a bear took strength. It was why, when he went to sleep as a bear, he woke up human. The body was just conserving energy. “If a shifter doesn’t eat to replace the energy they’ve burned, they won’t be able to shift and heal. The shifting made it hard to kill.” Aside from that ability, the aufhocker was just another ugly hellhound. “It’s also why all suspected shifters were tortured in the middle ages. It was the only way to prove what they were and kill them.”
“It wanted to kill us.”
“I know.” But was hard to remember that the aufhocker would’ve killed them without a second thought now it was dead. He’d hunted, but only for food. He’d never had to fight for his life or the life of someone else.
Jude helped him up. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
Mack’s muscles protested the movement, and he winced. “As good as I’m going to be.”
Jude embraced him and squeezed a little too hard. Mack leaned against him, unwilling to move when for the moment all he wanted was to be held and told it was going to be all right.
A faint sound drew his attention. A heartbeat so soft he’d almost missed it. The aufhocker wasn’t dead. He walked over to the fallen aufhocker, Jude at his heels. Lying on the ground, it wasn’t terrifying. The animal was small and ugly, almost pitiful. And it was alive. It’s flank barely moved with each breath, and its heart beat faintly as it died.
“It’s…” Jude couldn’t even finish saying what they had both realized. “How is that possible?”
Mack shook his head. He didn’t know, but he couldn’t leave it to die in pain. He looked at his hands, not willing, and not able to do another full shift.
He could do this. He had to.
His hands grew the claws of the bear, and he kneeled, finishing the aufhocker off.
Then he threw up.
Jude drove with shaky hands. He was tired. Holding the circle was draining, but not as draining as what Mack had done. Mack was pale and exhausted, and even though he’d cleaned off most of the blood with the hand wipes, there’d been too much. And he was still freaked out about what might have happened if Mack had died. The threat of death if his familiar died was no longer a vague what-if. It could actually happen.
He needed to do a better job of protecting Mack, and his own life. He needed to trap an aufhocker without trapping them in the same circle. He needed to learn magic that he’d never thought of doing before. And he didn’t have long to do it.
Jude had packed up the camp, messily, while Mack had eaten the rest of the food they’d brought with them. Then they’d made their way back to the car with very few words. Neither of them had wanted to stay just in case the other one had turned up. They were in no state to fight, and while hiding in a circle was the emergency plan, it wasn’t something Jude wanted to do either.
The aufhocker was an animal, doing what it did, hunting the two people who’d disturbed their home. Killing cows was the aufhocker making breakfast the way cats killed birds and dogs went through bins.
There had to be a better way of dealing with an aufhocker than killing it or surrendering the town. Jude pulled into the drive-through of first takeaway joint they passed and ordered one of everything off the breakfast menu plus two coffees, one black and one with sugar and creamer. If the teen at the service window was surprised, she was smart enough not to show it when she handed over three paper bags worth of food.
Mack ate two of the breakfast burgers and drank the cup of coffee before he spoke. “I don’t think we should do that
