Page 90 of Shadows of the Soul

“Cora,” he said, rounding the desk and entering my space again.

I tipped my head back but didn’t move. I was done running from him. “Pack and leave the stables. Don’t torture us both with your proximity.”

Harry flew through the closed door into the room. “Pineapples,” he shouted. “Miss Roberts, we have pineapples.”

It took a second for my mind to catch up as I frowned.

“Pineapples?” I directed at Harry.

Hudson spun around in Harry’s general direction. “Your resident ghost?” he enquired. Why was he still here? Hudson, not Harry.

Harry nodded. “The guests.” God help me, if this was something about a fruit salad, I couldn’t be held responsible for my actions.

“What’s wrong with the guests?”

A howl ripped through the air, and furniture smashed above us. I darted a look at Hudson. “What the hell?” We tore up the stairs, following Harry’s rapidly moving form.

Destruction and chaos reigned supreme in my home. Rebecca slammed a fist into the head of a large fox. “What is happening?” I asked.

“They’re wildies,” Rebecca stated as she downed a wolf with a strategic flick of her wrist. He crumpled to the floor and was out cold in three seconds flat.

My eyes widened as I took in the tens of shifters fighting each other in their animal form. Somehow Stephen Proctor had gotten to them all. A bobcat rounded the kitchen doorway and prowled toward us. Her tail twitched in the air as her eyes narrowed.

“Maggie?” I whispered. No, no, no. He couldn’t have my girl. I wouldn’t allow it. She snarled as Rebecca jumped in front of me and pushed me against the wall. Maggie prowled closer, her head low, and a look of malice was settled onto her features. This was bad, so, so bad. Two bear cubs came barreling through the crowd, snarling and baring their teeth at us.

“Don’t kill Maggie,” I said.

“Of course not. But if you have any ideas, they would be gratefully received,” Rebecca said. “I knock them out and they keep getting back up.”

She moved like a ninja as she batted Maggie off, her dress tore, and claw marks slashed across her forearm.

“I’m thinking,” I muttered. A low animalistic rumble that made my teeth hurt and my bones ache echoed in the house. Harry froze and paled—impressive for a dead vampire.

“Pineapples,” Harry whispered.

I swallowed the lump of fear stuck in my throat. “Hudson?” I whipped my head around and found golden eyes staring at me from a prehistoric beast.

“Where is he?” Rebecca asked, her attention absorbed by the constant flow of challenging shifters coming down the hallway.

“We have a problem,” I stated.

“Understatement of the year.”

“A bigger problem.”

Rebecca punched a white wolf on the nose with a sickening crunch. Shifters were tough, but not made of steel, like vampires. It fell to the floor and pawed at its bloody snout. She swung her head back and caught sight of the terrible sabretooth tiger eyeballing us. He wasn’t fighting like the rest. He was watching me, waiting for the moment I became vulnerable. I glanced at the front door, which was wide open. An army of shifters turned wildies covered my lawn. So this was Lucifer’s plan? He didn’t want the hassle of raising a demon army, so he created his own using the hundreds of shifters that lived in the area. Worse, he’d sent in shifters to my guest house like a Trojan army and I’d failed to connect the dots and see it coming. Well, if we couldn’t get out, we’d have to go up.

I put a hand on Rebecca’s shoulder and began edging us toward the empty stairs that led up. “My rooms,” I said. The wards there didn’t rely on my absent elemental magic, they were set with something more powerful and primordial. It was the safest place right now, but it also meant showcasing my secrets to Rebecca. It was a risk I was willing to take.

We backed up the stairs. The snarling shifters followed, led by Hudson. “What’s the plan?” Rebecca asked as we hit the first floor hallway. Hudson’s eyes didn’t move from me. Every step I made, he made. I was being stalked.

“Do you have a plan?” Rebecca gritted out as she herded me backward and kept herself between me and the gang of crazy shifters.

We started backing up the final steps. “My rooms are warded. Anyone who wants to hurt me can’t get through.”

“I thought the wards were down.”

Now is not the time to be a perfect perceptive vampire princess. “These ones work differently.”

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