Shift Into Me (Werewolf Shifter Romance) (The Alpha's Kiss) Page 10

  “Damon, calm down,” I said. I stuck my hand out front of me and walked toward him, only realizing about five feet away that I was approaching him like I would a dog I wasn’t sure about touching. “Everything is fine. These people are trying to help you. I think someone is in your head.”

  Yeah, that doesn’t sound stupid. Get up in an angry werewolf’s face and tell him he’s possessed. What’s the worst that could happen?

  For a second, I thought he was going to let me touch him, but as soon as I laid my fingers on his burning hot forearm, Damon recoiled like an injured animal. All over the floor around his feet were shredded up books, fliers from about four different fraternal organizations, and a pile of spaghetti supper raffle tickets.

  I shook myself. Physically cornered as Damon was, I felt exactly the same way. Behind me were a pack of werewolves who first of all didn’t trust their Alpha, and second of all, had him raving and roaring at them.

  And I was right in the middle of it all.

  “Ah, good.” A familiar face appeared beside me. “I was hoping you’d be here.”

  Damon fell quiet for a moment, scratching at his face but otherwise subdued. I looked at him one last time, and tried to use my will to force him back to reality, back to me, back to being the Damon I loved. But willpower wasn’t going to do anything at all this time though, even if I was able to hear through plate glass windows.

  Hunter spoke beside me, but it felt like his voice was distant. “Lily, meet the local shaman, Wilton. Lily, you okay?”

  I snapped out of my pity trance. Damon let out another roar and lashed out at someone who drew near. The tall, thin, stooped old man put a trembling hand on my shoulder and immediately squeezed. “I know him,” I said in a hollow voice.

  The old man grabbed my shoulder just like had before. “You know what is in you now?”

  “Me?” I said, surprised. “Nothing, I don’t think. At least—”

  He shot his tongue out, pulling part of his drooping mustache inside his mouth and chewed. That was the first time I noticed that all through his thick, silver-shocked beard, the old man had metal baubles, little trinkets, even what looked like a feather, braided.

  “He’s the one who found the first couple of bodies last week, and then he found another last night,” Hunter said.

  “I like your beard,” I heard myself say. “So you’re a shaman? We met before. At the ice cream parlor, right?”

  “The shaman,” Wilton corrected me in a breathy, strangely reverent voice and ignored my question. “But that doesn’t matter. This is… you are… truly strange.”

  He ran his hands over my face.

  “Er, thanks?” I shot a glance at Hunter, who shrugged slightly. “I’ve been called a lot of things, but never had anyone call me strange since the blue grew out of my hair.”

  Damon scratched against the wall, drawing my attention for a moment. I hushed him, trying to soothe his rage with my calmest voice. For a moment, at least, his demeanor changed, like he was actually seeing me through the clouds of whatever was in his head.

  “Good, yes, keep doing that,” Wilton said. “You can make him think things. You’re the only one who can quiet our Alpha.”

  “I… what?”

  He giggled in a way I imagined was reserved for witch doctors in movies. “You’re in his mind. When he calmed, it was you making him do so. All my poultices and incantations did nothing to calm Damon’s ferocity, but somehow, you did it with a single thought. What is in this mind?”

  Wilton put both of his hands on my head, massaging my forehead with his thumbs like he was searching for a lump on my skull. From my temples to the bridge of my nose, he prodded me with deep, almost uncomfortable circles that seemed to push into my brain.

  “I… I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said. My voice shook as it came out of my opened lips. “I’m just a normal girl; he’s the one who is special.” I tilted my head toward Damon. “He’s the Alpha, I’m just his mate.”

  A smile crept across the old man’s face, his thin lips pulled tight over skeletal cheeks. “Not in this world, you’re not.”

  “What do you mean? I am just a normal girl.” I was almost getting defensive about my plainness.

  When next I opened my mouth, I stopped immediately and let my jaws just hang open. My vision started shimmering right in front of my face, like heat off a road.

  The closest thing to what I saw was the way Damon’s skin kind of wobbled and waved when he healed. That was what passed in front of my eyes. Green haze slid across the world. For a second, I thought I was going to pass out.

  “Normal?” he said again. “Then why do you have the witch vision? Your eyes have begun to glow. So has your mind, yes?”

  In stunned disbelief, I looked at my transparent reflection in the one that marked the lodge wall. Just like Wilton said, my eyes were unearthly, almost neon. For a moment I stared at myself, not quite sure what to think, what to believe. Then Damon groaned.

  “Go into his mind,” Wilton said. “Calm our Alpha.”

  “I,” I swallowed hard and trailed off.

  Something that felt like electric surges crept down my arms and back up my neck. “I don’t know how, I don’t even know what’s happening to me.”

  “Soon you will,” he said. “But you must calm him before he destroys himself.”

  On cue, Damon stood back up. His eyes were full of hate, full of rage.

  “But how do I do it?” I was shaking so hard that when I looked down at my hands, my fingers looked like they were vibrating. “I don’t know what’s happening, I don’t know, I’ve never felt like this before, I don’t…”

  “You’ve had the visions? The dreams? Where you travel?”

  My mind shot back five days to what I thought was a dream. When my mind took a trip into the stratosphere. Then I thought back to the first time Damon came to me in a dream that seemed like forever ago. “You mean, those weren’t… dreams?”

  Wilton simply smiled. “You only need to believe. You are special, Lily. I can feel your power throbbing through the bounds of your aura.”

  That was certainly a strange way to put things, but I understood what he meant.

  Believing. That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? Damon and I believing in each other and me… believe in myself.

  Damon lashed out again, thrashing his twisted claws against the wall. His eyes fell on me and I saw exactly what the shaman was talking about. Somehow, I felt that there were two beings inside him. He was fighting, but he was losing.

  I pulled away from the old man’s massaging hands, and looked at Damon. There was no fear in his eyes, not like I’d seen before. He was wild, out of control. Somewhere deep in that skull of his, I heard laughter, I was sure of it.

  “Who is in there?” I said as I drew close. He snarled, he lashed out, and razor-sharp claws came within inches of my throat. “Damon?”

  He let out a low, rumbling growl. I kept going forward anyway. I knew he wouldn’t hurt me. He’d never let whatever was controlling him hurt me.

  “Back!” he shouted. “Stay back… I…”

  As soon as my hands were on his face, he fell silent.

  My eyes rolled back in my head, and a split-second later, my consciousness exploded, burst out of my skull, and drove straight inside his mind.

  “What do you see?” Wilton was shouting, or at least I thought he was. “Tell me what you see so you don’t fall into him and lose yourself!”

  “I…” it was just colors, nothing else. A sea of colors, twisting and flickering. “Colors and sounds, nothing else. None of it makes sense. I feel hot,” I was vaguely aware of pain in my hands, burning where I touched Damon. “Very hot.”

  “Good, keep going. Look for what you cannot see.”

  “I’m hearing laughter? Or water dripping? I can’t tell, it’s so clouded, so… wait, I’m seeing something. I’m seeing… it’s her,” my voice trickled out of me. The whole world seemed to compress on my b
ody, crushing the air in my lungs so hard they burned.

  “Drowning,” I said, gasping. “I feel like I’m drowning. Like water is…”

  “Stay with him,” Wilton urged.

  I felt a hand on my shoulder, a stable hand; an anchor holding me to the ground. “I’m here, Lily,” Hunter said, his voice an ancient, echoing whisper. “I’m right here. Stay with him, do what the shaman says.”

  “Who is it?” Wilton asked. “Who is it you see?”

  Flame blasted the palm of my hands. I almost let go, but latched on tighter. “The woman… from the courthouse… the…”

  Her will was too strong. “She’s pushing me out, I’m losing him,” I said.

  “Hold on just a second longer,” Wilton said. “Where has she come from? What does she want?”

  I didn’t need to probe Damon’s brain to answer that question. But still I held.

  “Lily? Where is she from? Who is she and what does she want with Damon?”

  I knew, but couldn’t explain. I saw, but couldn’t speak.

  My consciousness recoiled, and all at once, Damon was himself again.

  He shook his head back and forth, then opened his beautiful green eyes – his were supposed to be green – and stared straight at me. “Lily?”

  The breath in my chest was hard, heavy, and sweat ran down my face. “I’m here,” I said. I wrapped my arms around his neck and held him for a moment. “I’m here, you’re here, everything’s fine.”

  He stood up, using me for a little support, and looked around the room at all the staring faces. No one else could, but I felt his soul shudder. A ripple moved through him, and then calmed.

  “Did you recognize the force?” Wilton said in a hushed voice. “Do you know what has happened to the Alpha?”

  I nodded. “I’ve seen her before. I’ve seen her with Carrell, the—”

  “The rogue wolf,” Wilton said. “I should have known. Ah, I should have seen it.”

  “What are you talking about?” Damon asked. His voice was rattled, but I felt his strength.

  “He is levat… a rogue Skarachee. He left the pack to pursue dark arts. Such is not against the traditions, but I’ve long suspected his intentions.”

  He looked at me with calm eyes. “You’re young, your power unhinged and uncontrolled. He is very old and very wily. Don’t blame yourself. I’ll be surprised if even I can track him. He’ll certainly go into hiding now. If he’s connected to this demon, if she is his servant, he’ll know she was found.”

  Wilton chewed on the other corner of his mustache, which sent all the stuff in his beard to jingling. “He’ll certainly go into hiding while he takes control of our Alpha.”

  “Is there any way to get to him?” I asked. “To stop him before he starts—”

  “A war,” the old man said, nodding. “Of course, it all makes sense.”

  I grabbed his shoulder. “But how can we stop him? We can, right?”

  “Well,” the old man said, “I don’t know for sure. I’ve heard tales of things like this, but the reality of a warlock and his demon, this is quite beyond me. Though if the stories are true, the two of them are connected; if we can kill his demon, or banish her, then the master will perish, too.”

  I nodded. “Damon.” I turned to face him. His eyes were back to sparkling, his face full of color. “Do you mind being bait?”

  He cocked an eyebrow. “Bait? For… what?”

  “For a demon.” My voice was so calm and rational that the absurdity was almost too much. “If this Carrell guy is trying to control you by using this demon, that means he has something he wants from you, right? Maybe these murders were all a ruse to get you here so he could have her possess you?”

  “Did you just say ‘ruse’?”

  “Shut up,” I said, cracking a grin. “I found this.”

  Damon’s eyes opened wide when he read the paper I stole from the courthouse. “This isn’t the first time?”

  “Oh my, you’ve stumbled upon something incredible.” Wilton patted both of us on the shoulder. “This is remarkable. He did. I remember this. I remember the ancient elder being here, what, sixty years ago? It was such an occasion that everyone was abuzz.”

  “Right,” I cut him off. “But Poko was too strong. Much too strong, so he had to wait. And now, he thinks he can pull one over on a less experience Alpha.”

  Damon gritted his teeth. He was pissed again, but it was a different kind of pissed. “Poko might have been able to do it on his own,” he said. “But this guy doesn’t realize I’ve got friends. Lily.” Damon turned to face me. “I don’t know what you’re planning, but I trust you. Whatever you think will work, I believe in you.”

  I swallowed, hard. For some reason, hearing him say that stuff in the middle of his pack shook me to the core. “Are you sure?”

  Damon wrapped his arms around my waist. “I’m the Alpha,” he said. “When I say things, I always mean them.”

  Eleven

  My stomach lurched.

  Just thinking of Damon as a piece of bait got my guts roiling. But, it had to be done. I was determined to keep my back straight and my mind sharp, for Damon if nothing else.

  “I know you don’t want to do this, but let’s get it over with,” he said. “The sooner we get this done, the sooner we’re back in Arizona, alone, just the two of us.”

  “Promise?” I asked. I felt like a dumb little kid, lost and alone, and holding my hand out for someone to guide me.

  Of course, the guide I wanted was about to get chained up to a chair and used as demon bait.

  “I promise. We’ll see Poko, and Grandpa Joe, and everything will go back to how it’s supposed to be. Perfect.”

  Damon yanked a sheet of burlap out of a knapsack. He laid it across his chest, covering his exposed skin, and kicked the chain up onto his lap. With a heavy heart, I wrapped his legs, and then draped one over his chest, waiting for a wince, or the smell of burning.

  Nothing happened, so I did another. I hated it, hated every second of what I was doing. I hated the plan we hatched and everything else. Damon closed his eyes and squeezed them. I knew he was fighting the demon, even if he wouldn’t admit it. I swore that when he opened his eyes again they had gone a little fuzzy, a little glazed over, but he was still himself.

  “Why can’t we just leave?” I asked him as I latched a padlock. “Why can’t we just go home?”

  He shook his head, eyes fixed on the floor. “I’d love to. That sounds better than anything I can think of right now, but this is my life, Lily. This is our life.”

  “It just… sorry,” I said, chewing my lip. It wasn’t fair, what I was doing. It wasn’t right for me to complain. Not right then. I knew what I was getting into when I conned my way into this trip.

  “Make them tighter. It has to be convincing.” Damon gritted his teeth, ignoring me.

  Neither Wilton nor Hunter could put the chains on him without burning themselves, so it fell to me. There was a burlap sheet between him and the silver, and the idea was that when I had him bound, we’d pull the sheet out from underneath.

  Wilton thought that if he was in pain, the demon in his mind would sense that he was weak and try to strike. His logical path was long and twisted, but the gist of it was that first of all, demons are untrustworthy, and second that she was probably trying to figure out how to get a leg up on Carrell.

  The end result, according to Wilton, is that Carrell would show up, pull the demon into the physical world, and then… somehow… we banish the demon, which was supposed to get rid of Carrell, too.

  He mused that Damon was more Danness’s tool than Carrel’s. She wanted to use Damon’s strength to control her master which… would make her the master. Thinking about it got my head spinning almost as much as probing brains did.

  “Are you sure this is going to work?” I asked Damon, who winced as the edge of one of the chains slid around the side of his covering and seared him. “I’m terrified that we’re doing this, and you’re g
onna get stuck and then—”

  “Lily,” he said. “Look at me. Look into my eyes. This is me talking, I’m right here. Stop that for a second and come here.”

  His voice was so soft, so comforting, that even when he was about to be put through utter agony, he was able to make me feel stronger. For a second, I let myself get lost in those burning green eyes with their silver-gray flecks.

  “Sit here,” he commanded. “I want to feel your weight against me before you go.”

  Facing him, I slid my legs around either side of his waist and got as close as I could. His heat burned through the fabric. He opened his lips for a kiss, but I paused an inch away to let his breath slide down my neck. As I drank him in, I realized I was doing it because I worried I’d never have the chance again.

  “What if something happens?” I said, not really wanting to give voice to my concerns. “If this all goes bad, or we’re wrong, or…”

  Damon shook his head. “Listen to me,” he said. “Actually, first kiss me.”

  His words were just as forceful as if he’d grabbed me and pushed me against a wall, grinding his body into mine. I opened my lips around his, tasting, sucking, and then letting him fill me with his swirling tongue. My knees went weak, my mind got fuzzy and for the briefest second, everything was the way it was supposed to be.

  Then I felt the cold silver that held his arms to the chair, and reality came right back.

  “Mmm,” he moaned. “God I missed you.”

  “Oh shut up,” I said, blushing feverishly even though we were alone. “The last time we did this was like eight hours ago.”

  Still, I smiled. “How do you get me like this? I’m absolutely terrified that whatever trick I can do with my head is about to fail and land us in a world of shit. I’m so scared. All I want to do is run away and join the circus or sell vacuums or whatever people do when they run. You and me, that’s all I care about. And here you are, somehow making me smile and blush.”

  “Would you take ‘werewolf magic’ for an answer?”

  I leaned close and kissed him again, pressing my lips to his and staying right with him. I pulled away and put my cheek to his, relishing the vague sharpness of Damon’s afternoon stubble.