More power and they would’ve dropped like rocks. It was hard to focus on normal things, like standing, when someone was attacking your very soul. This offensive move I had down.
In discovery mode now, I bumped up against Thane’s steel cage, guarding his most precious commodity. I stroked the hard surface before giving a firm poke, looking for cracks or weaknesses. I didn’t feel any. How the hell was I supposed to get in there?
“Nope.” He jumped up and down, shaking out his hands. “Nope. I do not like that, Sam I am.”
“Hold steady,” Bria said.
“She’s tap-dancing on my threshold,” Thane replied through gritted teeth.
“Hold,” Bria commanded.
“Why doesn’t Zorn do this?” Donovan asked with tight eyes. “He has the best constitution for fucked up shit.”
“He doesn’t trust himself not to react,” Thane grunted out. “Ain’t that a bitch? Here I am, with a magic known for reacting, and he doesn’t trust himself.”
“What magic is that?” I asked, giving that steel cage an exploratory jab. The guys had always been strangely tightlipped about their magic, and I’d never been overly curious. It now occurred to me that that might’ve been a mistake.
“Bullshit,” Bria said, ignoring me. She straightened up painfully and put her hand to the middle of her chest. “Zorn just doesn’t want everyone to know he isn’t made of metal. He doesn’t want to admit that Alexis could reduce him to his knees and make him say uncle.”
She’d know. I’d say they were the unlikeliest couple imaginable, but Kieran and I probably held that dubious honor.
Tuning them out, I thought back to those different threads of power. I wrapped the blue—spirit—around Thane’s hard casing, before giving the orange cord a yank. A thick wave of the Line’s power screamed through me.
Before I could back off, Thane jumped and made a sound like “heh.” A blur of movement preceded him surging toward me.
My heart pushed up into my throat and I staggered backward, caught off guard.
“Hold, dammit!” Bria lunged forward at an angle to intercept. “Get a hold of yourself, Thane.”
I blinked rapidly, not sure if this was a drill, or if he was really losing it. The other two guys hadn’t reacted, though, which meant it couldn’t be that bad.
I batted down the fear and surprise and focused. Going off gut instinct, I wrapped the orange power around the blue, covering the hard box containing Thane’s soul. I squeezed, feeling for any give. There wasn’t any. I squeezed harder. Still nothing. Like an egg in the palm of a hand, the vessel’s design withstood the pressure. This wasn’t the way to his soul.
Thane pushed Bria to the side, closing the distance between him and me at extreme speed. He swung an arm, fist closed, aiming for my face.
“Holy shit birds.” I flung myself backward, lashing out with my magic.
Bria pivoted and kicked, clipping Thane’s moving ankles. His feet swept out from under him. He fell, eyes widening. He had barely hit the ground before Bria was on top of him, her knife poised to strike.
“Jesus, she’s vicious,” Donovan said with a gleeful smile.
“Uncle,” Jack said, clutching his chest. “To all of this. Uncle! I want to go home.”
I took another jab at Thane’s steel cage, trying to poke a hole into it. Like squeezing it, nothing happened.
“Hurra!” Thane’s word took no real shape.
He bucked up, a surge of strength and power that sent Bria flying, arms windmilling, knife catching and throwing the sun.
“She getting to ya, bud?” Donovan said, a full smile covering his handsome face. “Just need to hear that uncle.”
“Don’t taunt him,” Bria yelled.
“Why?” Donovan asked. “He’s been through worse than this.”
“She is”—Bria hopped up like she was on a spring—“messing around”—she grabbed the back of Thane’s shirt—“in his shit!”
The fabric ripped but held, Thane now dragging the knife-wielding Bria behind him as he attempted to get to me.
My body stilled and adrenaline pumped into my bloodstream. Without thinking, I slashed my magic through him. But I hadn’t increased the power.
Thane staggered but didn’t go down. He huffed through his nose, like a bull, and a shiver went through his body. The smile dripped off of Donovan’s face. A curse slipped from Jack’s lips.
Thane was about to reveal his magic, and I was no longer sure I wanted to know what it was.
2
Alexis
“He’s not a minotaur, right?” I asked with a tremor in my voice. “You’d tell me if something that dangerous and off-balance were participating in my training…right?”
“Drop him, Alexis,” Bria shouted, stabbing with her knife. The blade dug into Thane’s side.
He didn’t so much as twitch.
His heavy footfalls crashed onto the ground. His breath came out in hard pants. His rage-filled eyes shone with malice.
“Drop him now before he turns!” she yelled.
Cold dripped down my spine as another shiver traveled Thane’s length. Donovan stepped forward, and I felt his power pulse.
Like a panicked woman trying to fit car keys into the ignition as a masked madman revved a chainsaw nearby, I reached for more magic. The Line pulsed, promising power aplenty, but I had to keep some semblance of focus to use it properly.
Thane’s body grew, straining at his white T-shirt and cotton sweats. Muscles bulged along his frame, so big they were inhuman.
“Turns into what?” I demanded with a high-pitched screech.
Donovan shoved his hands forward. Thane jolted to the side, his face reddening.
“Don’t do that, it’ll just piss him off,” Bria hollered.
Donovan lifted his hands this time, and Thane rose up into the air.
“Donovan is a freaking Telekinetic?” I asked, jogging to the side of the house. I was no hero—if Thane was about to freak out, I was happy to get out of Dodge.
Donovan ripped his hands down, and Thane crashed into the ground. Jack jogged up on the other side, ready to help.
“Alexis, dammit, slice through him,” Bria said with her bloody knife in hand and legs bent.
A strange growl, like that of a rage-filled beast, rose up out of Thane’s chest. His eyes, beating into me, gleamed crimson.
“What the hell is he, a cross between a shifter and a vampire?” Fear tightened my throat as I hunkered down at the corner of the house.
“Calm down, buddy,” Jack said in a smooth voice, his hands out. “She’ll fuck with your head, but she won’t kill ya. You gotta have faith.”
“The boss trusts her, bro,” Donovan said, and he lifted his hands into the air. Thane rose ten feet off of the ground, his ridiculously large muscles flexed, ready for action.
“Quit knocking him around,” Jack berated. “Let him get his head straight. He can still come back from this.”
Another low growl started in Thane’s chest, shivering up through his body and gaining strength and volume as it did so.
“Fuck,” Bria said softly, drifting closer to Jack. “Alexis, you’d sure be a lot of help right now. You know, if you used your fucking magic. Don’t worry about hurting him. He might be past that now. Just worry about taking him down.”