The Last Warrior (Shifters Unbound #13) - Jennifer Ashley Page 0,42
the darkness, her mate after her. Rhianne was alone in the night.
She quickly unfastened the leather pants and let them fall, then pulled off the undergarment beneath them. She tossed the clothes aside, amazed at herself for not tidying them, and stretched out her arms, welcoming the breeze.
Her hair felt heavy in the braid as it brushed her back. Rhianne loosened its bond until her hair flowed without impediment over her bare body. Sensual and warm, it brushed her skin.
A better feeling would be Ben touching her.
Rhianne wrapped her arms around herself, wanting to relive the heat of Ben’s body against hers, his kiss on her mouth, his hand lovingly cupping her breast.
For a moment, she remembered the feeling exactly. In the next, her thoughts were scattered on another peal of the wind chimes, this one louder and more insistent.
Rhianne opened her arms without realizing she did so, and she had the strongest urge to climb onto the veranda railing and perch there. Perch?
Before she could stop herself, she was doing it, balancing on top of the narrow railing as though such a thing was natural. She felt the house’s magic through her feet, liquid fire that reached all the way to the ley line buried far beneath the earth.
A sudden pain wracked her. Rhianne’s limbs twisted with it, and she cried out.
The pain vanished as suddenly as it had come. New strength took its place, along with a wild awareness that she could do anything at all she wished.
Another cry escaped her lips, this one high-pitched and inhuman. The sound pierced the darkness, floating across the night.
Rhianne leapt from the railing. The sane part of her brain, which had become small and insignificant, tried to stop herself in terror.
The newly awakened part of her mind laughed. The tingle in her body burned with sudden fury, and from every pore in her skin sprang a swath of feathers.
Feathers?
It was the last conscious word that formed. Rhianne spread her massive wings and caught the wind as she floated toward the ground, then she rose into the night, sailing for the moonlight.
Chapter Ten
Holy fucking shit!
Ben sprinted from his hiding place just inside the back door. He hit the veranda railing as the giant eagle soared upward, its screech cutting the night.
What the fucking fuck?
Ben stumbled down the veranda steps, dashing along the path that led to the outbuildings and the pool. The eagle cut into a swath of moonlight, then out again, vanishing into the darkness.
“Rhianne!” Ben’s shout was lost in the wind. He cupped his hands around his mouth and bellowed her name again.
Silence. From far, far away, he heard the triumphant howl of a wolf and the snarl of a wild cat.
Since when could Rhianne turn into an eagle? A golden one, it looked like from the flash he’d seen. Lady Aisling hadn’t mentioned this. Not that she’d mentioned her daughter much to him at all.
“Rhianne. Damn it.”
Get the hell back here! he wanted to yell. Right, like a Tuil Erdannan who could turn into a bird of prey was going to listen to him.
Ben pivoted this way and that, peering through the trees that now enclosed him. He could make himself look like a tree creature, one of the several forms he could take, but little good that would do him now. Except, he thought hysterically, he might give her a branch to land on.
Shit.
A rush of wings blew a downdraft across his face. The eagle skimmed just above his head and then surged upward again.
“Not funny,” Ben called. “Come down here. I need to talk to you.”
If the eagle understood, she ignored him. Ben reached the edge of the trees and watched the huge bird waft higher, then soar, wings spread, grace in the night. Beautiful.
He heard the wolf howl again, this time in surprise. Another snarl from the wild cat. Then pounding paws on damp ground sounded as Jaycee and Dimitri raced toward him.
The eagle circled above them, its jubilant shriek cutting the air. Its circles tightened until, with an unnerving suddenness, the bird plummeted to the ground, wings spreading at the last instant to let it land with a gentle thump.
Jaycee darted forward, claws poised to strike, but Ben stepped between her and the eagle. “It’s Rhianne.”
Jaycee’s paws skidded as she forced herself to halt. She rose into her half-beast state, leopard fur hugging her limbs, her eyes harshly golden. “What the hell?”
Dimitri changed, more slowly, into his fully human form. “Are you sure?”