Bloodfire (Blood Destiny 1) - Helen Harper Page 0,47

own on my jeans. He squinted at me more closely in the gloom. “Feck me, you’re….”

“Wearing a nineties vintage leather jacket, I know,” I smoothly interrupted before he said anything that would get me into trouble.

He tripped over a root that was curling its way across the path. “Ummm…yes, of course. I was just admiring the, er, tailoring.”

“Then we both are of the same mind,” I stated, rather pointedly.

He cast a slightly nervous gaze at the back of the shifter ahead of him before shrugging and smiling. “I suppose we are, dude.”

Dude? Jeez.

“So, how is this going to work, Alex?”

“You mean, um…”

“I mean the scrying, dude. How does the whole mojo mumbo go down?”

“Oh, uh, I draw on my power from the air’s energy. It’s a molecular thing. If a heebie-jeebie had anything to do with the guy’s death, then I’ll be able to spot it, scan it and trace it.”

“Scan it? So you’ll know what it was?”

“If there’s enough of a trail, sure. I can raise up an image of the perp and project it.”

“Are you ever wrong?”

“Never,” he answered steadily. “As I said, if it wasn’t human,” he looked at me again as he said this, “and there’s enough of its essence left behind, then I’ll capture it. Its image, I mean,” he added hastily, “I don’t do actual capturing – I’ll leave that to you beasty dudes. Or gals. Or whatever.”

“Scared?”

“Sensible, dude, sensible.”

He certainly seemed sure of his magic abilities, at least. I supposed that the proof was in the pudding and that I shouldn’t judge him by appearances. He was at least doing me the favour of not judging me by my humanity, and was not trying to pretend he was in any way a physical match for a shifter. I appreciated the honesty and felt slightly humbled by my earlier attitude towards him.

“What do you think of our little shifter girl here then, Mr Mage?”

Anton. Shit.

“God, do you country types ever stop shooting the breeze?” The Brethren behind us interjected.

Anton turned and snarled at her. Well, it was good to know that we agreed on something. He turned back to me, eyes falling to my side where he’d bit me earlier on in the evaluation fight.

“How are the wounds?” There was an odd lascivious gleam in his eyes. “Bleeding much?”

I scowled at him and Alex opened his mouth to say something when all of a sudden there was the sound of hundreds of birds flying up into the sky followed by a low rumbling thunder. The ground began to shake. From side to side, like an….

“Earthquake!” Someone shouted.

My brain dully registered the impossibility of natural earth tremors on Cornwall before launching into full self protective mode as the ground continued to sharply jerk from side to side, flinging Alex to the ground. The trees creaked alarmingly around us and there were sounds of others nearby becoming uprooted and crashing to the ground. I fell forward onto my hands and knees, and then quickly covered my head with my arms, the most vulnerable part of me should a great oak decide to plant itself on top of my body.

Up ahead one of the Brethren spontaneously shifted in blur of ripped cloth and fur. I could hear growling and snapping from more behind me.

Be calm, floated Corrigan’s Voice over everyone, using compulsion to erase the panic. At once the growling stopped but the rumbling and the shaking continued for what seemed like an age. I huddled into a ball, praying that the others back at the keep were alright. Eventually it seemed to stop.

Stay where you are. There may be aftershocks to come.

Alex staggered to his feet. I knew he wouldn’t have heard Corrigan’s warning and I yanked at his jeans to pull him down again. He shook me off and gasped, “That’s not an earthquake.”

“What do you…?” I realised suddenly that if it wasn’t an earthquake, and he had used his powers to work that out, then it must be some sort of creature. It must be what had killed John. I stopped thinking, stood up with lightning speed, and ran. The adrenaline pumped through me, overcoming the pain in my side, and pelting me forward. I was going to get my revenge. I felt a hand stretch out and try to grab me, and barely registered Corrigan reaching out, but I sidestepped and sprinted faster. The fire took over, all consuming. His Voice tried to compel me to halt but nothing was going to stop