Bloodfire (Blood Destiny 1) - Helen Harper Page 0,22
the wind. He immediately recovered, spinning the wooden pole adeptly in his hands and then lunging forward with an underarm attack that caught my clenched knuckles. I hissed slightly in surprised pain and retaliated.
We continued for some time, with no sounds to be heard other than our breath, the knocking of wood as the staffs connected and the rumble of the sea. I was beginning to feel my muscles tingle with pleasure at the exercise and a faint sheen of sweat graced both our foreheads, when he suddenly grinned and threw away his staff, pulling off his t-shirt and sweats. I took a step back and watched, ready.
He bowed his head and tensed, beginning his shift. It amazed me every time how an 80 kilogram man could become such a huge animal. Where did the extra weight come from? Shifters didn’t transform into normal looking animals – even the smaller weres, the rodents and such-like, became larger than their human forms. And again, most definitely not for the first time, I wished I had my own shift.
Tom’s bones creaked and his skull elongated outwards. His muscles rippled and the hair follicles around his chest and legs extended till he was shaking out his coat on all fours, with fangs bared and yellow eyes gleaming. Tom was a wolf. Generic, I know, but he had both speed and strength and wasn’t afraid to hold back.
He leapt at me without any further warning and I rolled to the side on the soft sand just in time, springing back onto my feet and turning to face him again. His haunches tensed and he tried to feint left but the tension in his body had given him away. This time I used the staff to snag him under his belly and twist him onto his back. He whined slightly before staggering back to his feet. I paused for a second, just to check, but his tail gave a brief wag. Good, I wasn’t ready to go home just yet; the fire in my blood was only just starting to flicker.
He manoeuvred around so that I ended up with my back to the ocean. Clever boy, now he had the high ground. He rose up on his hind legs and snapped at my face so I was forced to take a step back. Then, without warning, he barrelled into my midsection and knocked me off my feet, landing on top of me on the sand. I could swear I saw a glint in his eye.
“Tom, if this is when you decide to shift back to a naked man, I will not be happy,” I mockingly warned. He was a friend, but most definitely without those kind of benefits.
He licked my cheek and went for my throat. His canines scraped the skin on my neck before I managed to twist and pull out my knife whilst using the staff to knock him to the sand and pin him down. I smiled.
Tom blinked slowly, a sign of defeat, so I let him go. He shook himself out and shifted back to speak. “One day, I’m going to beat you at this, Mack.”
“I have no doubt,” I murmured turning my head slightly to give his some privacy to get dressed. “You need to watch your left side before you shift though. You keep leaving yourself open and you need to work on your body tension. I know what move you’re going to pull five minutes before you do it.”
“Are you using mind tricks again?”
“I don’t need to, your body does all the talking.”
“I’ll practise in the gym when we get back.” He had an almost deranged glint in his eye.
“Tom, about the Brethren.”
“Don’t. I know you’re going to try to talk me out of it, but don’t you see I have to try? John is gone, there’s no reason to stay.”
“It’s because John is gone that you have to stay,” I snapped. “We need shifters who can guard against whatever got him.”
“Mack, if you couldn’t track it and John couldn’t survive it, I don’t think I’ll do much good.”
“And what good do you think you’ll do you in London, then? You’re my friend, I need you here,” I said softly.
He jerked. “I asked you not to try to change my mind. Not everything in this world can be done to suit you, Mack. I want to go and if they’ll take me then I’m leaving.” He walked off away up the dunes.