Page 155 of Blue Moon Mistress

Chase looks at me, brows twisted in confusion. “Wait… a tumor?”

“Kind of. Terra, as in ‘Earth’.” I watch it writhe and reform. “It’s mud and rocks and twigs.”

Its arm snaps into place. “Or Trees when it’s this big…”

It leans to the side, as if its body is too heavy on top to be supported, but it’s not a sway that causes it.

A pivot and a twist of its body and the terratoma flings a small boulder straight at us…

We each bolt to the side, and it sails between us… landing on Chase’s car, crushing it.

Now that we’re apart, it turns for me. Not Chase.

I’d think it was because I’m the bigger threat, but that’s not it. They’re targeted creatures. And they’re made to do the most damage.

Killing Chase would be easier. Getting that over with quickly and then dealing with me… All things have a pattern.

And it doesn’t care about Chase.

“Get out of here.” I yell at him over the crunching and slopping. “It’ll let you go. And you can’t fight it.”

“No way.” He skirts to the side. “Where are the wolves? Aren’t they supposed to protect you from something like this?”

“I sent them to watch after the other guys. They’re coming,” I can feel it. “But they have to move within the physical plane, they can’t just appear.”

“There’s no way to get them here faster?”

I could lie to him. But I promised myself I wouldn’t. Not when it comes to their wolves. “I could get yours here in a few seconds. But I’d have to change you to make that happen. So it’s not an option.”

There are women in the coven who could have eviscerated this thing in a few minutes. It would be chunks of dirt on the parking lot, its spells destroyed. But I’ve never liked combative magic. And I might be able to wield a spell strong enough to destroy it, but I don’t know the words from memory.

“We have to break it into smaller pieces, and we have to keep it on the pavement.” If it gets back to the dirt or onto the grass closer to the highway, it will tear more power from the ground. “If we get it small enough, I can bind it to one of the stones inside of it.”

This time, I pull the wind from the air and concentrate the bursts like scalpel cuts, tearing off an arm, the jagged bits.

A mangled tree flies away from it.

“How can I help?”

I open my mouth to tell him, but… I don’t know. All I can do is shrug.

His jaw hardens. “Change me.”

“Chase…”

“Do it, Scarlette. I’m useless like this. And we don’t know how long it’ll be before the others get here… You have to change me.”

Because when they’re wolves they’re nearly impervious. And there’s nothing inside the terratoma that has silver.

“I’m sorry.” The words have barely left my mouth when I snap, and Chase contorts, changing in a handful of seconds instead of minutes because of the spell’s hold.

If the sudden change hurt him, he doesn’t show it.

His paws have barely hit the ground before he coils and lunges.

Teeth meet branches and he tears at the creature any way he can. Tearing out the branches that give it structure, the terratoma starts to sag, pulling itself tighter as it loses the mass it can no longer support.

It swings at Chase, protecting itself, even if he wasn’t a part of the creature’s original purpose.

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