“Melody,” he coaxed, holding the travel cup out to her. “You need a little boost. We need you.”
“What happened to all these people?” one of the men asked.
“They were poisoned by her former coven in an experiment,” Nick replied, looking as grey and shaken as Melody.
“Nick, I’ve got her, the guys have food for you outside,” Oz said, stepping forward.
“You’re another of her familiars?” asked the grumpy one.
“As of an hour ago, yes. You’ll have to forgive me, the first twenty-four to forty-eight hours after bonding, our beasts get a little overprotective. We need nearness with our witch, crave it, even in our sleep we’ll move towards them. We’ll be jumpy and irritable until it all settles down.”
“So what’s the dragon’s problem?” he continued.
Oz snorted. “He bonded her yesterday.”
The man jerked back in surprise. “How many does she have now?”
“Five,” Oz told them proudly. “A lion, two wolves, a fox and a dragon.”
“I’m right here,” Melody snapped. “You could just ask me.”
“How do all these new bonds make you feel, Melody?” one of them asked her.
“It’s hard to explain. If you’ve never held a bond, then there’s no comparison. And I’ve never held one long, so it’s still a steep learning curve for me. I can only compare the others to Dean, who was my first familiar.”
They nodded, listening.
“For the first couple of days, it’s like an itch that you can’t scratch. You know when your back is itchy, and you can’t reach it, but you get a stick or a ruler or a pen or something, and you scratch it, only to discover that now another part of your back is itchy? Well, it’s like that. Except your whole body.”
The men jerked backwards. “You’re itchy?”
“No,” Melody replied with a sigh. “With two of them, it’s more like my skin is irritated. Like sunburn.
“So, how does Dean feel?” Oz asked, curious and worried.
“Like he’s always been there. Like he’s an extension of me and I of him. He’s like an extra limb, but more. I guess, like a twin. I can hear his thoughts, well, his emotions that come across as knowledge I guess is the best description. I know what he’s feeling, but why he’s feeling it too, if that makes sense? It’s not always clear, but I usually get a good idea.”
The witches weren’t the only ones intrigued.
“So, they can influence your emotions?” asked one, eyeing Oz speculatively.
Oz grinned at him, allowing his canines to lengthen. If the fucker thought he could use him as a method of tempering Melody or forcing her to do something, he could think again.
“To an extent, but I could do the same to them. We have to be open to it,” Melody told him, honestly.
“Gentlemen,” Oz interrupted, before they got too far down the rabbit hole. “I know you’re curious about Melody, even I’m enjoying learning this, but she’s tired, and she should be eating her soup.”
He glared pointedly at her cup, her hand hovering in the air in front of her.
The witches scowled, but stepped back, allowing her to eat. Melody shot him a look and he shrugged. He wasn’t lying, and he knew she knew it. He did enjoy it, but she really did need to eat.
New bond.
Protective.
No-brainer.
He’d look after her, whether she wanted him to or not.
37. Melody
The rest of the afternoon was even more horrific for Melody.
They’d moved on from those who were too weak to survive, to those who weren’t. She was now condemning shifters who were strong enough to survive without their bonds. Only, they were at risk of losing the struggle with whatever her aunt had done to them.
This new class of shifter had their bonds broken, but they were made to remain in their cots. She didn’t miss the fear in their eyes, or their pleading. She remembered them all. These were more recent disappearances. In the last five years. She made mention of it to the councillor, who nodded. He didn’t try to kill or apprehend them, he simply left them where they were.
The last group of shifters were those who had either surrendered or who had sustained only minor injuries which the healers had since fixed. Several of them were students who had been missing from the academy since the last attack.
Most of them were actually free of the darkness that she had felt inside the others, and the ones who weren’t, Melody had such small amounts that she thought their healing would shed it before it took hold. She made sure to pass on that opinion as well.
The relief on their faces sickened her, because it reminded her of the death sentence she’d given others earlier.
Oz had been right, the soup had given her just enough vitality to keep ruining people’s lives. She didn’t know what the future held for these captured shifters, but she couldn’t imagine it would be anything good. Witching law was not gentle with shifters considered as criminals.
Maybe it was better to let the others die than to face the kind of punishments that would drive any shifter insane. Isolation cells were a popular choice, depriving their beasts of their need for pack and family bonds. Few shifters survived that intact.
Was it wrong that she wanted to hide? That she didn’t want to know the fate she had consigned them to?
“They won’t torture them, Mel,” Oz told her, when she expressed her concerns quietly. “That kind of thing went out hundreds of years ago, although I suspect your aunt still did that, huh?”
Melody nodded. She’d just assumed that it was how it was done everywhere. She’d been so naive.
“There are prisons and rehabilitation centers and the packs usually take care of their own.”
Something occurred to her. “I have never understood how the packs could have their own lands, when they can’t control their shifts.”
Oz smiled at her. Most people didn’t think to question it either. “Every pack land has at least one witch who has
