Page 52 of The Healer and the Wolf: Part Two

“You look so familiar,” he said, and to my horror, one of his hands came up to caress my ponytail. “But you can’t be her. That’s impossible.”

Her?What was the man on? I had gotten the distinct impression that most magical folk had some pretty severeresistances to most inebriation, so whatever had him thinking he knew me had to be some really powerful shit.

But he didn’t seem high as he slowly caressed my face. If someone had told me such a thing might happen, I would have told them I’d slap him silly or try to slit his throat with a thorn. But now? I felt a bit paralyzed. The entire situation was so unexpected that my brain couldn’t quite figure out what to do about it.

“I watched you burn. I know I did, my little plant pet. So stubborn. All you had to do was?—”

He didn’t get the chance to finish his sentence, because a howl came from incredibly close by, and a shadow moved in the corner of my eye. That was the only warning I had before Leo leaped onto Frederick, snapping his jaws closed around the warlock’s arm that had been touching me.

As soon as he landed, he began to shake his head in that way predators did to rip off full limbs. Although I was still more confused than anything else, I banished the strange shock that had come over me and latched on to every single plant that would listen around me. They all surged as one, the vines sporting massive thorns that could impale a man.

I had to admit, I agreed with their idea.

I sent them racing forward, and they reached Frederick right as he grabbed one of Leo’s ears, his hand crackling with a deadly, green energy. I couldn’t let whatever he was brewing go right into my mate’s head, so without so much as a beat of hesitance, I ran him through.

Although I was several feet away, I could still feel the force of the plants as they pushed through Frederick’s chest and lifted him up, up,upoff the ground. He let out a gurgling scream. It was truly horrific in a way I would have thought I’d gotten over since the auction, but I clearly hadn’t.

I didn’t ease the pressure. I wasn’t stupid enough to think that impaling him once would take down a warlock who had spent his life taking advantage of every other type of magic user and shifter in existence for his own gain.

Thankfully, I wasn’t alone. Leo jumped up, scaling the pillar of thorny vines until he was at the warlock’s feet. Sparing what little power and control I had left, I made a platform of leaves and vines so Leo could be face to face with one of the men who had tried to destroy his pack. And although I didn’t want to watch, I kept my gaze steady as my mate let out a truly pained and feral howl before opening his jaw wide enough to encompass Frederick’s head from the top of his skull to the bottom of his chin.

And then he bit down.

It was horrible. It was bloody. My stomach flipped at least a dozen times, and bile rose in my throat, but I pushed it down. Frederick was dead, and I could feel all the plants I wasn’t controlling in the room go still, as if they were confused and waiting for direction.

“No! You can’t! You can’t do this!”

Right. The battle wasn’t over yet. Tearing my gaze away from Frederick, I let his body drop to the floor as I looked for his brother. Sure enough, the last surviving son was beginning to rise up through the floor, his face pale and full of horror.

If he was anyone else, I might have felt bad for him, but all I could think of was whether his victims wore that same expression before he ripped their lives, their ability to consent, and their very minds away.

Raising my hands over my head, I sent all the plants toward him, the green wave quickly snatching him up. But like Frederick, he didn’t make it easy. He sent out blasts of magic, trying to knock them away. I gritted my teeth, my feet beginning to slide off the floor as I was dragged along with it. I still didn’tunderstand the symbiotic relationship I had with plants, but I knew I was losing this particular tug-of-war.

“Leo!” I cried, but he was already on it. Him and pretty much every shifter still capable of battle. The tide had most definitely shifted as they all raced up to the warlock. The eagle shifters flew directly to him, slashing and biting at his face before wheeling off and turning around to do it again. The coyotes raced up the leaves that were unfurling for them, while many of the wolves used the furniture to leap up and bite at the man’s dangling feet. For once, we were dealing with a brother who couldn’t summon shield bubbles to surround himself.

However, he was still very capable of summoning lightning.

It began to crack down in earnest, setting fires in half the places it struck. The shifters had to go from attack to defense, and I worried that Millicent would get the good sense to go for me. I didn’t have the reaction time the others did, and with all my concentration on keeping him held, I didn’t think I could magically protect myself either. If only I was powerful enough to yank him down to the ground, or if any of us could physically reach up to him to do so. He wasn’t planning to stay and fight. His intent was to escape. And if he did, there was a chance he could start the cycle all over again somewhere else.

If only…

Chiga slowly clopped into my line of sight, his dark eyes determinedly raised towards the warlock. He definitely looked worse for wear, with several bald patches along his hide and a wound down the side of his neck that was bleeding sluggishly, but that didn’t stop him from gracefully lifting his head and slowly enclosing his long, arboreal teeth around the warlock’s ankle and yanking him downward.

I felt the give in the plants as Chiga’s immense strength immediately brought the enemy closer with one yank. Millicentscreamed bloody murder and extended his hand downward as if he were going to blast the moose shifter.

But that bastard of a warlock didn’t realize how completely outnumbered he was, because as soon as he focused on Chiga, I was able to squeeze the plants tighter, and all the shifters surged at him again. I was pretty sure he realized it a hair after I did, because as his hand crackled with malevolent, crimson energy, the two eagle shifters still left in the room went for his eyes.

He changed his aim to the birds, who pinwheeled up out of the very hole in the roof he was trying to escape through. But that distraction was his final mistake, as both Leo and Ricky managed to get to his arms while America finally scrambled up high enough to be even with his face. Three sets of teeth all tore into Millicent at once, and in a rain of blood, it was over.

I finally let go of the strange magic I still didn’t understand, but my heart continued to thunder in my chest.

I couldn’t believe it.

It was finally over.

There would be no more shifters enthralled. No more kidnappings. No more senseless murder. For the first time in God knew how long, the people I’d grown to love would have peace.

“Leo,” I breathed, swaying slightly, and my lover bounded over to me, shifting into his human form a few paces away. I embraced the rush of steam and let it swallow me, opening up my arms. Sure enough, Leo’s strong limbs wrapped around me, practically crushing me to his chest with a hug.

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