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Gina peered at the moon. Right now? Absolutely none.
“No.” Teo attempted to get to his feet, but they were bound as tightly as his hands. One shove of the Nahual’s bare heel against his chest and Teo landed on his rump, then banged his head against the ground as the momentum carried him backward.
“Untie him,” Gina ordered, and when the Nahual hesitated, she snapped, “You said you’d spare him, so untie him, and let him go.”
“And if I don’t?”
“As soon as I’m furry, I’ll kick your ass.”
Jase laughed the Nahual’s horrible laugh. “You can try,” he said, but he untied Teo.
Teo lunged, and the sorcerer backhanded him. One quick flick of the wrist that didn’t even appear to have much heat behind it and Teo was lifted off his feet, then thrown into a rock. His head cracked against the stone, and he landed in a heap at the base.
Gina cried out, starting toward him. The Nahual stepped in her way. “Time’s up. I brought the moon, but I can’t hold it there forever.”
“You said you wouldn’t hurt him.” Gina tried to scoot around.
The Nahual grabbed her elbow. “I said I wouldn’t kill him.” His eyes began to glow. “I never said anything about you.”
“Wh-what?”
“The first thing you’ll need to do after you change is…” His smile was terrible, all teeth becoming fangs, changing a face she knew and loved into something almost unrecognizable. “Kill.”
“I won’t,” she insisted. “Not him.”
Now the Nahual really laughed. “You think you’ll care? He’s meat. Running meat if he wakes up.” The brow that had begun to recede creased. “I probably shouldn’t have knocked him out. It’s better when they run.”
“I love him,” Gina said. She’d meant for the words to come out strong and sure; instead her voice wavered.
“Love means nothing to a monster.”
The thing that lived in Jase’s body threw back his head and howled.
“Teo!” Gina screamed. “Wake up!”
The Nahual released her. Kind of hard to hold on to someone’s arm when your hands are paws.
He dropped to the ground on all fours as dark hair sprouted from every pore. Fingers and toes became claws; his nose and mouth melded into snout. The crinkling and crackling, the popping of bones sharp as firecrackers in the still, silver air.
Gina was unable to do anything but watch. Why run? This beast would catch her, and she wasn’t going to leave Teo alone and unconscious.
No matter what the Nahual said, she had to hold on to the belief that her love would survive the coming change. That belief, that love, might be all she had left of herself.
Man had nearly become beast, except for the tail, which unfurled last, like a treacherous snake from the glistening black wolf that had once resembled Jase McCord.
Gina shrieked as the creature’s fangs sank into her thigh. It shouldn’t hurt that much. She’d been bitten by horses. They had a helluva lot bigger teeth. However, the werewolf’s seemed red-poker hot; she imagined poison rushing through her veins already.
He withdrew, resting on his haunches to watch, mouth open, tongue lolling, as if grinning. Gina wanted to kick the beast in the head, but she couldn’t lift a finger, let alone her leg. Everything was so heavy.
She fell to the ground like a sack of bones. The sky above was a kaleidoscope of stars, so much brighter than they should be. The moon called; she craved its sheen. The silvery light soothed her burning skin.
Her teeth itched. She managed to drag her hand up to touch them. They were definitely longer, sharper; as she lowered her arm, she caught sight of her nails. They were longer and sharper, too.
Suddenly this world disappeared, and she was running through a forest of trees not common anywhere near here, thick and cool, with a carpet of moss beneath her paws. She chased something big and tasty, something that smelled like …
Ted.
Gina jerked free of the … What the hell had that been?
