Amelia Atwater-Rhodes - Promises to Keep

“Would you share your theories with me?” Xeke prompted from off-screen.

“Well.” The researcher fidgeted a moment, and then seemed to recall that she was on camera. “Serpiente myth describes a time when they possessed incredible magic, which was wielded by the priests and priestesses of a group called the Dasi. Oral tradition tells of a creature named Leben who tried to take over the Dasi by impersonating their god. The Dasi’s leader seduced Leben, and to win her favor Leben gave them all their second shapes.” She paused, and with a shrug explained, “Unfortunately, this ‘gift’ triggered a series of natural disasters that nearly wiped out the civilization. Hundreds, maybe thousands , of the new shapeshifters died in the upheaval, a horrific number when you consider that we’re talking about a pre-dynastic Egyptian village, not a modern city.”

“You say ‘natural disasters.’ Were they natural, or magical?”

“Well.” That word seemed to be her method of pausing to gather her thoughts. “We know now that Leben is one of Leona’s creations. He is directly responsible for the genesis of every shapeshifter living today. My theory is that the serpiente gods Anhamirak and Ahnmik were actually elementals, just like Leona. Like all their kind, they gain power through their mortal bonds. When Leben claimed their worshippers for Leona, Anhamirak and Ahnmik fought back. Either Leona deliberately started killing the new serpiente to weaken their elementals or the serpiente’s deaths were a natural consequence of elementals fighting. An earth elemental gets angry, and you get an earthquake—that kind of thing.”

“Why would Leona challenge another elemental in the first place?” Xeke asked.

“These days, Leona is unrivaled in power, with thousands of bonds. Back then? As far as we know, she had three vampires, and a small band of witches with nowhere near the power that the serpiente attribute to their ancestors. Leona may have worked through Leben to eliminate the competition.”

Ancient immortal soap operas , Jay thought, imagining a reality television show in which a bunch of elementals were trapped on an island together. Chuckling, he stopped the video and went looking for the rest of his belongings.

He found his jacket, tie, and vest hung carefully on a coat-rack by the front door, with his shoes beneath them. Xeke had apparently decided he shouldn’t sleep in his full monkey suit and noose.

Noose . The image of Brina dangling with a broken neck, unable to move until one of her slaves cut her down, rose into his mind once more. Jay had seen plenty of violence in his past, but he had never experienced such a black gulf of emotional pain as had driven Brina to try to destroy herself. Delving so deeply into her mind had forced him to feel it the way she did. To feel himself swinging there.

He shivered as he stepped out the front door.

He was in a small apartment complex, set well back from the road and backed up against the forest. Tasteful white lights on the trees out front reminded Jay that this was Christmas Day, or would be once the sun rose.

His car was nearby, and a quick check of the GPS made it clear he was across town from Kendra’s gala. Few vampires were powerful enough to bring other living creatures with them when they did their teleportation trick, and even for those who could, it was a rough trip for both parties. The lack of bedroom made it clear that this wasn’t Xeke’s only or primary home; he had probably dropped Jay here because it was the shortest drive.

Jay was a little stiff from sleeping restlessly on a couch, but a short walk would fix that. He liked trees.

But there was something … odd … about this forest.

He hesitated at the edge of the woods. It wasn’t the fact that he was in dress shoes and tuxedo pants, anticipating trudging through the snow. It was …

Something .

Yet something else pulled him forward, and Jay Marinitch wasn’t one to resist the call of unnamed, unidentified forces suggesting he wander into a dark and unfamiliar forest.

The woods were beautiful, illuminated by the moonlight trickling through naked branches to bounce off the snow beneath. What surprised Jay was the lack of animal tracks. The snow had fallen two days before. Why weren’t there signs of foxes, rabbits, and deer?

When he finally did sense life, he pursued it.

What he found, curled in the snow, was a woman with skin and hair the color of the night sky, and white streaks like moonlight in her hair. She wasn’t sleeping, but neither was she awake. She was just lying in the snow, in a long gown covered in frost.

Her breathing was barely more perceptible than her hypothermic thoughts. When Jay knelt and set his fingers to her throat, he felt that her pulse was steady. He touched her arm, and a whisper of magic replied. A shapeshifter of some sort? That would be good. Shapeshifters were very sturdy.

He put a hand over her heart and slowly trickled warmth into her body, wondering who she was and what might have brought her to be here like this.

Most breeds of shapeshifter had certain defining features. The Mistari-tigers were of African-Asian descent. Serpiente tended toward dark hair with fair skin. The lions were black in human form, but this woman wasn’t just black in the way that humans were; she was actually black , like coal. Lynx would have been able to guess her breed by her smell, but Jay couldn’t.

She stirred slightly, moaning.

Jay tried to reach for her mind, but it fluttered away, as elusive as a faerie.

As he continued to pour warm power into her, he sensed her body remembering injuries both recent and from long ago. There was a sense of resignation in her flesh, and a memory less substantial than scars that remembered cut and burned flesh, broken bones, blood flowing.

And an even deeper agony.

Suddenly, that agony lashed out at Jay.

He staggered backward and thudded into the snowdrift behind him. His connection to the shapeshifter had been completely severed.

Wind whipped through the forest, making the trees shiver and groan in sympathy. The air rippled like heat rising from pavement. A force whispered to him, She must come home .

The force that spoke was … maybe not malevolent, but maybe so. He knew only that it was powerful, and it had stopped him from helping the woman.

She can’t go home if she dies here , he thought.

He lifted her gently in his arms. If he couldn’t keep her warm with his magic, he had to find another way. He wished he hadn’t locked Xeke’s door behind him. He arranged her in the backseat of his car, wrapped in an emergency blanket. He wanted to call SingleEarth’s healers for advice, but his cell phone was still dead. The best he could do was turn on his GPS and ask it to take him to the closest SingleEarth Haven, which was #2.

Perfect; his cousin Caryn Smoke worked at the clinic attached to #2. Caryn was twenty, just a year older than Jay, and hadn’t yet finished her formal medical training, but she was already one of the best magical healers he knew. He had recently received an engagement announcement from her, though he couldn’t remember who she was marrying, or when. Hopefully it hadn’t been a Christmas wedding. He wasn’t sure what would become of the shapeshifter if Caryn wasn’t there to help.

HE REACHED SINGLEEARTH shortly after dawn, while the winter sky still had that gray-and-purple tone, as if it weren’t sure if it wanted to stay dark, get bright, or catch on fire.

After pulling up to the main entrance, Jay left his car running while he went inside to get help. The shapeshifter’s body temperature had returned to normal during the trip, but he still hadn’t been able to wake her, which meant this was a case for doctors and witches trained in healing, instead of a hunter with a rudimentary knowledge of magical and mundane first aid.