Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Jennifer lunges for me, her eyes blazing with a fury I’ve never seen before, and it’s all I can do to stumble out of the way just as she swipes at me like a feral animal. “Edith!” I yell, glancing around for the witch shifter. She’s standing at the far end of the room, eyes wide and watching, but she’s not doing anything.

Why isn’t she doing anything?!

“Edith!” I shout her name again just as Jennifer leans back and expels a jet of flames from her mouth. I dart out of the way and gape at her for a moment, completely poleaxed. So she’s the dragon, I think. But that means…

Oh. Oh shit.

I whirl around, my hands flying to cover my ears as I search the room frantically for Caleb. The realisation has only just dawned on me, but I’m too late; he opens his mouth and lets out an ungodly screech; the soundwaves sending vibrations through the air that are nearly enough to knock me off my feet. He’s transformed already, covered in shimmering green scales. On some level, I’m aware of Jennifer transforming as well, the room palpably heating up from the power of the fire she’s unleashing, but it all seems so far away all of a sudden.

Caleb’s eyes are locked on me, his mouth twisted in what could maybe be a smirk, and blocking my ears might as well be useless. The sound pierces the space around me, digging into the core of my being and twisting up there like a burr, hopelessly tangled in me. I struggle against it for a moment, but it’s no use; he has me wrapped around his finger, and I can feel myself slipping away second by second. The fight drains out of me in an instant, and suddenly I find myself unable to pry my eyes away from him. In that instant, he’s the most handsome, alluring, captivating man I’ve ever seen, and although some part of me knows I’ve just fallen victim to his siren’s song, that part is trapped behind an impenetrable magical wall.

“Come here, Millie,” he commands. “Drop your arms, please.” His voice sounding like honey to my bewitched ears, and I’m helpless to fight it, my hands falling limply to my sides and my legs moving as if of their own accord. I’ve never been on the receiving end of a siren’s magic before; it’s brutal, like being trapped in a glass cage even as your body is manipulated by someone else, and I thrash against its confines like my life depends on it.

For all I’ve learned to harness my siren abilities, I never once thought to practise resisting them.

“Boots!” Hunter yells, sounding like he’s halfway through his own transformation, but a roar from Jennifer silences him, and there’s a thud, followed by the sound of shattering glass. My stomach drops -- did she knock him out the window? -- but then I hear him groan as a melee breaks out between him and the dragon. He’s hurt, I think in a panic.

My muscles are on fire, my brain on overdrive as I scramble to access my magic, to fire something back at him, but it’s like a barrier has gone up between myself and that by now familiar pool of power. It’s as inaccessible to me as Edith is.

Edith…

It takes everything I have just to drag my eyes away from Caleb for a moment, glancing to the left to see what’s become of her. She’s still just standing there, watching it all unfold with Jennifer’s dragon form casting a dark shadow over her. For all her abilities, she’s seemingly useless right now, like a deer in the headlights. Could she have fallen victim to Caleb’s song, too? But that wouldn’t make sense, I realise as my eyes are forcibly brought back to the siren shifter. His commands were directed at me. And if he had control of her, why would Jennifer even need to bother with her?

That’s as far as my thoughts take me before Caleb is speaking again in that ungodly, inhuman voice. “Millie, I’m waiting.”

I shuffle forward, hating how easily he bends me to his will.

“There’s a good girl,” he croons, the sound making me shudder. “Now, I want you to go to the window.”

I do an about-face like a marionette on strings, walking stiffly to the bank of glass windows overlooking the London street; it’s far below us, multiple stories down, and I realise with a sinking feeling that my theory about Hunter wasn’t so far off. There’s no way I’ll survive that fall in human form.

“Open it,” Caleb commands. I’m trapped in my own body as my trembling arms reach out and pull the window open. “That’s right,” he says. “Now, I want you to jump.”

I feel sick. Every movement feels like climbing a mountain. “Please…” I croak.

“Don’t argue with me, Millie,” Caleb tells me. “The sooner you do as I say, the sooner this can be over.”

I slowly approach the window, a zombie in a girl’s body. The street glares up at me from below as I bring first one foot to the edge, and then the other…

And then the front door bursts open, nearly flying off its hinges from the force of the vibrations pulsing through the air. “Boots, don’t!” I recognise Landon’s voice in an instant, my heart leaping to my chest. He’s using his siren’s song on me, too, but instead of dread, the sound of his fills me with a rush of warm relief. The command stops me in my tracks.

Edith is still frozen in place, Hunter is fighting Jennifer with everything he has, and it’s down to me, Landon, and Caleb. How he got here, I have no idea, but there’s no time to wonder about that now. “Jump, damn it!” commands Caleb, and I can feel the force of his words.

“Don’t you dare, Boots! Do you hear me?” Landon sounds panicked. Within me, the two opposing commands battle each other, pulling me in different directions. I’m stuck, desperate to go to Landon, but Caleb’s song is so strong…

At that moment, a blast of pale blue magic erupts from Edith’s fingers and collides with Caleb, hitting him squarely in the chest. She’s finally gotten a hold of herself, it seems. That’s enough to break Caleb’s concentration, and I take a few staggering steps backward, nearly falling into Landon’s arms. “Where did you come from?” I ask him wonderingly, staring up into his obsidian eyes.

“Don’t worry about that,” Landon tells me soothingly, brushing a strand of hair out of my face. The relief in his voice is obvious. “I’ll always save you.”

I glance up. Edith has shapeshifted and is holding Caleb off with some kind of spell. Hunter, on the other hand…

“Hunter!” I yell, struggling to my feet. He’s in his vampire form, which has surely saved his life -- the enhanced durability is the only thing keeping him from being eviscerated as Jennifer shakes him furiously in her massive jaws, like a dog with a toy. Without thinking, I reach for my dragon magic, shifting more easily than I ever have in my life. The room seems to shrink as I grow, power rippling through me as I flap my wings and hurtle across the space toward the other dragon attacking one of the men I love. My body collides with hers full-tilt, and the impact causes her to drop Hunter as I rake at her with my claws. She retaliates with a burst of fire, but I manage to bowl her over, pinning her beneath me as I tear at her neck furiously with my teeth. Jennifer lets out a roar of outrage as we grapple on the floor, all other sounds receding in the wake of my blind fury.

It’s only Landon’s voice that’s able to bring me back to the present. “Boots, come on!” he shouts from the other side of the room. “We have to go!”

I glance up from the other dragon to see Caleb unconscious on the ground. Edith, Landon, and Hunter are already at the door. I give Jennifer one last swat with my claws for good measure, and then leap off her, transforming back into my human form in the process. Together, we make a break for the exit, afraid to even look back.

“So let me get this straight,”Shade says, pacing in front of the sofa. We’re back at Mollie’s place, a little banged up but no worse for wear. I’m curled up against Landon’s side, and his hand is idly running through my hair in a comforting gesture. If he hadn’t shown up, I would be a puddle on the pavement right now. “You went to visit these guys, they attacked you, and then Landon came in the nick of time?”

“That’s right,” the siren shifter says lightly.

“What made you even decide to follow us?” I ask him.

Landon shrugs, his hand coming to rest on the small of my back. “I had a bad feeling, I guess you could say. I was supposed to be out grabbing a coffee, but I figured I would at least tag along to make sure things didn’t go badly. Looks like I was right.”

“You were,” I tell him softly. “Thank you.”

He gives me a crooked smile that makes my heart skip a beat. “‘Course, Boots.” His expression hardens as he turns to Edith. “Why weren’t you helping?” he asks. “When I came in, you were just… standing there.”

The witch shifter grimaces, avoiding our eyes. “I’m sorry,” she says quietly. “I was just… stunned, I guess. Jennifer and Caleb were always my friends. They were supposed to be on the shifters’ side, not the humans.” She shakes her head disbelievingly. “The Academy must have gotten to them. It’s the only explanation.”

Silas scrutinises her from his place by the mantelpiece. “You’re saying you had no idea they’d switched sides?” he asks, his eyes narrowing.

“Of course I didn’t,” Edith snaps. “D o you think I would’ve brought you guys there otherwise?”

“I don’t know,” Silas admits, his broad shoulders hunching.

“Something about this doesn’t feel right,” Shade says, still walking back and forth restlessly. “If the humans got to them, how many more shifters around London have also been converted?”

“We can’t think like that,” Edith insists, glancing at Mollie for backup. The human woman nods.

“She’s right,” Hazel agrees. “We can’t give up just because of one near-miss.”

“Easy for you to say,” Hunter mutters. I turn to him. He’s studiously avoiding my gaze, the pain sharp in his blue eyes.

“What do you mean?” I ask him gently.

He throws his hands up. “What do you think?” he demands sharply. “Caleb had you on that ledge, Boots. You almost died, and I couldn’t do a damn thing to stop it.”

“Hey,” I tell him, “you were busy with Jennifer. No one knew he was the siren.”

Hunter just shakes his head. “It should’ve been me.”

“Don’t say that,” I tell him, my voice wavering a little. “Don’t you dare say that.”

The vampire shifter remains silent for a moment, then gets up and walks out of the room.

“I say we stay the course,” says Xander, giving Hazel’s hand a squeeze. “Tomorrow we can try another group. With more of us as backup.”

“What about the humans?” asks Silas. “We’re not exactly inconspicuous.”

“What choice do we have?” Ruby counters. “The whole city could be out to get us, for all we know.”

The conviction behind her words weighs heavy on me, makes me balk. Part of me wants to scream, and the other part wants to bury my head in my hands, because I know she’s right.

We’ve been backed into a corner without even realising it.