“I am the monster you fed. You made me your enemy when I needed an ally. Now you and everyone else here must reap what you sow.” Even my words carried power; they boomed out of me and shook the walls.
I left the room with all the officers still pinned to the back of it, not bothering to release them. Let someone else’s magic bring them down.
Death had not tempered my supernatural sense of smell, and in the Politia’s busy headquarters, that wasn’t exactly a blessing. The scent of human filth—blood, sweat, vomit, feces, urine—was embedded into the very building itself. It mixed poorly with the wet, mildewy smell of the stone castle. Overlaying it all was the tang of magic.
This last one I’d never been able to detect when I was simply Gabrielle the hybrid. None of my previous abilities had allowed me to sense magic.
Now, however, the scent of it coated my mouth, tasting somewhat bitter, somewhat sweet. Eventually—hopefully—I’d be able to understand the nuances of this new ability. For now I just had to endure it, along with everything else.
The training rooms were located belowground—conveniently close to the Politia’s cellblock. As I got closer to them, I heard fists smack leather. Grunts accompanied the sound, and when I scented the air, I caught a whiff of Caleb’s sweat.
Here he was, not twenty-four hours after he shot me point blank in the heart, working out like the whole thing never happened. How could he continue on as though my death didn’t affect him?
That cut deep.
The florescent overhead lights flickered with my anguish and my anger.
The room fell silent, punctuated only by the sound of heavy breathing. “Who’s there?” Caleb called. “Maggie?”
I wasn’t trying to be quiet, but in human form, Caleb couldn’t sense my approach. After a few moments, he resumed his workout. The smell of blood increased the closer I got. Shapeshifter blood.
Someone had propped open the door to the training room, and I slipped inside. The room was full of all the fixings of a regular gym. Weight racks, machines, workout benches, mats, and free weights.
On the far end, Caleb slammed his fists into a punching bag. He hadn’t bothered wrapping his hands or wearing gloves, and his knuckles were bloody. The sight and the smell triggered some primal part of me. My fangs dropped.
Had I been mostly human yesterday? Now I felt far from it. I saw Caleb’s blood, and I thought, food.
I took the rest of him in. I’d been wrong. My death had affected him. I could see it in the sickly pallor of his skin and the smell of bile that lingered on him.
When he caught sight of me, he stumbled away from the punching bag.
“Gabrielle?” Shock and hope and despair all rolled into that single word.
I thought maybe the smell and sight of his anguish would soothe my anger. It worsened it.
The lights went out.
A vampire wouldn’t be able to see in total darkness, but I was the queen of the Underworld. I could see even in the darkest corners of this world and the next.
The scent of Caleb’s magic flooded the air. He thought he could shift. He thought wrong.
I grabbed him just as he changed into a tiger. Grabbing the beast’s muzzle, I slammed his head into the ground, and his body went limp. I assumed that perhaps unconscious he’d return to natural form, but nope. Still a tiger.
I gripped the feline by the scruff and dragged him out of the gym. As I passed by a bin of fresh towels, I grabbed one. From here I could hear the mayhem at the front of the building. Someone had discovered the officers.
I hauled Caleb to the prison block of the castle. Called “neutralization tanks” for the deep enchantments woven into them, each cell stripped certain supernaturals of their powers. Not all beings could be stripped of their powers; for some it was too innate. Imprisoning them was the same as death.
I wasn’t surprised to find this place empty. The Politia had proven time and again that they preferred to kill rather than contain the guilty.
As I headed down the prison block’s walkway, the overhead lights began to flicker. Off. On. Off. On-off-on.
I threw a giant, furry Caleb and the towel into one of the enchanted cells and slammed the door shut. As soon as the lock clicked, the magic began taking effect.
Caleb’s eyes snapped open as his back arched. Fur forcibly sank back into skin, and claws dulled to fingernails. His entire body shrank, tan skin replacing orange and black stripes.
When the transition completed itself, he groaned and rubbed his head. His previously bloody knuckles were now scabbed over. Caleb had once mentioned that changing form could accelerate healing. Now I’d seen it for myself.