Page 59 of Bear Protector
“No need to get all kinky, shifter. Focus on the task at—” Coco stopped talking and her head spun almost one hundred and eighty degrees to look up. “It’s working. They’re helping Kiera against the destroyers.”
“Amazing. How is she doing it?”
“I’m not sure, but her telekinesis is so powerful now, I can see her mind trained on hundreds of them now. As she focuses on each one, they just stop swimming, and after a few seconds, they blow up and die.”
“She is killing them? Just like that?”
“Well it’s not actually Kiera, Xander. It’s the witches who have possessed her. Kiera is locked in there, somewhere, but the eight Chosen are the ones using her mind control abilities to do their thing.” She flapped her wings again, and turned her head to face him again. “Exactly what are you waiting for?”
“What?”
“Let out your bears already! You need to get in the fortress and start saving the prisoners! Once she’s done with the destroyers, Minassus is next on her hit list. Well, not her list, the Chosen, but you know what I mean.”
Still looking up at the turret, Xander quickly scanned the outlines of each body he could make out. “Where is Minassus? I don’t see him up there.”
“In his private study. If he’s smart, he’ll be curled up in a ball, hoping the eight Chosen show him mercy. His guards are running scared too. You won’t have any resistance inside. Go now! I’ll be waiting up there with Kiera.”
“Let’s go, men,” he ordered, giving his reins a sharp shake to get his mare going.
The horse took off in a lively run, and his men followed behind. They galloped to the fortress gates and dismounted, removing their clothing to quickly shift and release their Kodiak bears. Just as Coco assured him, the guards were already scattering, running scared, in fear for their lives now that their leader was hiding out. Xander assigned two Kodiak bears from his team to find Minassus. He and the other five bounded up the several flights of stairs as quickly as they could to help the prisoners leave the fortress.
By the time they made it up to the battlement walkway, all the guards had fled. Kiera seemed to be hovering about fifteen feet above the turret, which was already close to twenty feet above the battlement walkway. Coco had made it to the top of the fortress, and was perched on the turret wall a few feet away. The prisoners were all crouched down, watching the spectacle with awe. Xander saw his mother. Thank God. She was alive.
He was about to change back to his human form to greet his mother when Kiera’s body lowered slowly to the turret floor. The light around her slowly faded, and when it was gone completely, she collapsed to the ice cold floor. Coco flopped down beside Kiera right afterward, with her bird wings sprawled out and talons pointing to the sky. Panicked, Xander snarled out a bear growl and padded across the walkway, climbing the steps to the turret. Stepping up to Kiera slowly, he lowered his muzzle to her face, sniffing her skin. She was unconscious, and the small breaths of air leaving her mouth and nose were so light, he could not see the cold air the way he normally would.
Grunting, Xander licked across her face and nudged her shoulder with his paw. Slowly, her eyes opened. With a weak smile, she raised a hand to his snout.
“I am okay now,” she said to him, sitting up. She looked around. Coco was still unconscious beside her. “Coco?” She touched the bird, but its body lied there, lifeless. “Coco!” she cried out.
Xander moved a hind leg to change directions so he could take a look at the shifter witch. He lowered his nose to take a sniff, unsure whether there was anything he could do for her.
One talon slowly budged, closing slightly. Then she turned her beak toward Xander and opened her eyes. “Don’t even try to touch me with that snotlocker, Bear,” Coco muttered, still weak. “And Kodiak breath ain’t minty fresh, so keep that tongue away from me too.”
Kiera leaned forward and picked up her familiar, giggling softly as she warmed her up against her chest. “I am so glad you’re both okay,” she said, looking up at Xander.
Coco pulled her head back and looked up at Kiera. “Did you see how the Chosen witches massacred the approaching destroyers?”
“I did.”
“The only thing is…I could be wrong, but I almost thought I saw a few get past you in your mind’s eye. I’m probably wrong.”
Still in bear form, and not quite ready to leave her side, Xander watched as Kiera closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, they were full of concern.
“No, Coco. You’re right. I can feel them. A few dozen or more are still swimming in from the west. The coming winter storms will also bring hundreds more…maybe thousands. I can work on my mental skills, but I am not sure how quickly I can hone them on my own.” She turned to look at him. “We need to warn Liam and Reena.”
Coco shook her head. “We haven’t sent word to them, so as far as they know, all the destroyers are still on their way. I can go.”
“No, dear. You cannot. You are too weak.”
Xander huffed out a long growl. His bear was not ready to relinquish control to his human form, but if he had to, he would turn to let them know that he and five of the seven shifters would swim west and join Liam, Reena and the Nauru. Two shifters could stay behind to keep watch over Minassus, if he was still alive and had not yet left the fortress.
“Did you understand that?” Coco asked Kiera.
“What? His bear sounds? No. Sorry, I can’t.”
“I did,” Coco said proudly, turning to Xander. “See, Bear? The evil shifter bird witch has some use after all. By the way, Minassus is alive, but he is back to being a shriveled up old man with no real power, now that the eight Chosen have ascended.” Coco looked up at Kiera again. “Xander said he has to go now. He will leave two shifters behind in town just in case Minassus gets out of hand. The rest of them will head west to meet Liam. You know? To be big, white knights and look brave, flexing their Kodiak bear muscles and doing their badass thing while they fight off the destroyers. They’ll swim and get there long before noon tomorrow. And he wants us to make sure his mother is all right.”
Kiera nodded, smiling. “We will. Be careful,” she told him, running her hand over the fur at the top of his head.
