A Hippogriff for Christmas - Zoe Chant Page 0,63

No way, Beau thought as he stared, dazed. She’s a phoenix.

A phoenix.

The rarest of the rare.

Rarer even than wyverns and unicorns, who were considered extremely rare.

Beau had never even met one before, let alone seen one in its shifted form, but he knew a little about them.

That would explain why I couldn’t sense the danger, he thought grimly. Aside from being ancient, phoenixes had low-level telepathic abilities, and Rosalind had obviously been using hers to dampen his ordinarily sharp senses. At least now that he knew about it, he could be on alert for it – though right now, Rosalind’s telepathy was not the first thing on his mind.

He watched as Rosalind – the bird of fire she had become – rose into the air on her flaming wings, her eyes fixed on Scott as he trembled below her.

“Oh – fuck – shit!”

Scott was clearly panicking. His face was a picture of fear as he raised the hand holding the gun –

“NO!” Beau bellowed, as, too late, Scott noticed one of Rosalind’s taloned feet rise up, raking his arm and throwing off his aim.

The sound of the gun going off was like a gong being struck right next to Beau’s ear.

In an instant, he saw where Scott’s hand was pointing – saw the direction the bullet would travel in. He saw who it would hit.

Annie.

No. No. No.

At once, his hippogriff rose up within him, wings spread, beak opened in a roar of terror and fury.

The energy he had been beginning to pool within himself to shift into his hippogriff form was immediately, unconsciously repurposed. It cascaded through him like a dam over flowing, and Beau realized immediately that his hippogriff’s instincts had kicked in as soon as it had realized its mate was in danger.

My ability –

There had been no conscious thought involved at all. All Beau knew was this was his chance – his one and only chance – to save Annie.

In the next moment, everything around him seemed to slow down to the speed of trickling molasses.

The bullet still moved through the air. The flames of Rosalind’s wings still flickered and danced around her.

But Beau was moving faster than both of them.

He could already feel the strain tearing at his muscles from the moment the powerful energy had exploded through him. Clearly, it was this that made a hippogriff’s power so dangerous for them to use: nobody, shifter or not, could contain so much power.

From the corner of his eye, he could see the bullet flying toward Annie, moving far more slowly than it would have been in real time, of course, but still fast enough that he knew he would have to push himself to his very limits to beat it. Agony tore through him, all his muscles screaming within him, his heart feeling as if it were about to burst within him.

But right now, Beau didn’t care even slightly. The pain in his body receded into the background of his mind as he reached out for Annie.

My mate. My mate.

The word sounded within him with every pounding beat of his heart. It kept him going, even through the pain.

Beau looked at her face – at the strands of curly blonde hair that fluttered across her throat and fell across her forehead. Into her beautiful green eyes, open wide with fear. At the pink of her full, slightly parted lips.

I would have liked to kiss her, just one last time.

He beat the bullet to Annie, but only by a moment.

There’s no time. No time.

Even pushing himself to the limit like this, Beau knew he’d barely have a moment to save her.

There’s really only one thing I can do.

He’d known it even as he’d been racing across the floor to her. He’d known it when he’d thought about how he would have liked to be able to kiss her just one last time.

I’m sorry, Annie, he thought, as he grabbed her shoulders, her skin warm against the palms of his hands, and spun her around, putting himself between her and the path of the bullet.

The last thing he felt was the bullet tearing into the back of his shoulder, his hippogriff screeching out in pain – and then nothing.

Chapter 14

Annie felt almost as if she was rushing to the surface of a lake, after having been submerged in the water for a second too long.

She gasped in a heaving breath, her lungs burning, her head swimming.

What – what happened –

The next thing she was aware of was the